History: Jones was born in a poor part of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Drafted when he finished high school (he is a "Vietnam era vet," but never went to 'Nam), he wound up a tank driver in Germany. When he came home he married Rona Lee Washington, his high school sweetheart, and went to work as a bulldozer operator. He and Rona Lee had a son, Malcolm, and a daughter, Elizabeth.
In 1979 he was working on a highway project near McAlister, Oklahoma, when his dozer ruptured the containment for an old radioactive waste storage site. He caught a dosage that should have been fatal, but his wild card kicked in and saved his life. The virus pushed his metabolism into high gear, reorganizing his body for a whole new level of performance and assimilating the heavy metal salts with which he'd been contaminated. He got stronger and heavier at an incredible rate.
Overzealous public health doctors kept him a virtual prisoner, conducting experiments on him until he got sick of it and walked through a wall. He had to go underground for awhile, until the ACLU, SCARE, and Dr. Tachyon joined forces to have him declared a free man.
He returned home, but his relationship with his wife deteriorated as his powers continued to manifest themselves. She'd been brought up a devout Baptist and believed that Jones might be demonic. Jones himself had trouble dealing with what he was becoming. Finally, he dislocated his daughter's arm while playing with her. Convinced he could no longer handle his own strength, he moved to New York where at least aces and jokers (which is what he really considers himself) are accepted. He took the insurance money he'd received after his accident and opened a garage; he lives above it.
Jones' body is continually restructuring, augmenting, and improving itself. His metabolism operates at an incredibly high energy level. His normal temperature is 106 degrees, and he eats four times what a normal human does. Bone-seekers are replacing the calcium in his bones, incorporating heavy metals and strengthening his skeletal structure. He requires heavy metal salts in more-than-trace quantities, and must acquire them illegally, which is where much of his money goes (he usually makes his illegal purchases from the Shadow Fist Society). The rate of strength and weight gain have both slowed. He adds about ten pounds a year now.
At this time, thanks to his augmented skeleton and superefficient musculature, he's one of the strongest men in the world. His skin has grown thicker and tougher; it can stop small-arms fire and mitigate heat or blast damage. He has faster reaction time than the human norm. He never gets sick and any damage he takes heals quickly. He seldom gets tired and needs no more than three hours of sleep a night. Because of this he reads voraciously on many subjects. He has a quick, inquisitive intelligence, and his mind is a storehouse of all kinds of esoteric information.
Jones is a responsible, hard-working man who wants mainly to be left alone. Since his friends, neighbors and employees (Lefty and Mohamed) all call him by his nickname, he endures it with good humor, but he doesn't think of himself as an ace. He's a bluff, blue-collar fellow, who likes his beer and his sports page. He displays a gruff, bearish good humor. He dreads his own temper, fearing what he might do if he ever lost control. He hates and fears doctors and scientists because they treated him like an experimental animal. He misses his children terribly. He sends a lot of money to his family, but never hears from them.
Powers/Abilities: The Harlem Hammer has been granted massive physical strength, and virtual immunity to physical harm thanks to the Wild Card virus. It has also altered his metabolism, replacing his skeletal structure with heavy metal compounds and allowing him to regenerate from any physical damage that occurs to him. He barely has to sleep, is virtually tireless and is somewhat faster than normal people.
Comments: Created by Victor Milan. History above taken from the GURPS Wild Cards game.