Nik Josep Robledo AKA "El Patron" was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California;  once a notorious gang leader, he is now leading most of that same gang as a member of a benevolent band of young heroes calling themselves "Hardcorps".

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Both of Nik's gang-related parents were gunned down in a drive-by shooting from a rival gang when Nik was only seven years old. His parents were killed right in front of him. His uncle, Amel, took Nik in, with his uncle becoming the new leader of Nik's dad's gang, "Los Puños" (The Fists).  Nik's uncle (along with his new gang) was a drug dealer and a loan shark for the neighborhood. Nik was forced to do 'drops' at age 8 for his uncle and got gang initiated by shooting (not killing) a rival gang leader by age 10.  Nik, under his uncle's influence, became a mean yet calculating lieutenant in Los Puños; a lieutenant who earned respect from everyone he encountered - in the gang...and out.

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On several occasions, Nik, using the street name 'Niki Jo Muerto', engaged in some serious gun fights and fist fights with other gangs. He won each of them, but never killed anyone (came close a few times though). Rather than crow about his victories, he always took the hand of the defeated gang leader and promised to end the bloodshed between them if the defeated gang leader simply accepted they'd been beaten that day/night. If the rival gang leader did as Nik asked, he'd embrace them all as brothers and tend to their wounded and call a 'cease fire' until such time as the 'next' offense occurred between them.  This was a highly unusual way of gang warfare in the 2010s, and as such, garnered a lot of attention, including the gang violence unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

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The LAPD has been surveilling Nik and Uncle Amel's gang since before Nik's dad was gunned down. The LAPD thwarted several drug deals and a couple of loan shark operations of the Los Puños gang, however, no serious charges ever got stuck onto the gang. As it was, the other gangs seemed less violent and seemed to be working more 'together' on things thanks to Los Puños way of things, making the LAPD's job ten times harder than ever (since no gang members were ratting on each other anymore). 

 

Rather than escalate the violence and untenable standings between the police and the gangs, one LAPD Lieutenant decided to put together a task force that would act as an unofficial liaison between Los Puños and the other gangs. As such, the other gangs agreed to this and in time their mutual cooperation was able to have the LAPD bring in several infamous murderers and rapists that were already 'integrated' into the gangs' midst (prior to the period of positive peacefullness thanks to Los Puños).  This way, the gangs were 'fleecing' themselves of the worst of their own ranks; anarchists, murderers and psychos. This allowed the gang leaders a chance to actually lead rather than engage in eternal internal conflict and the LAPD to take the worst elements off the street.  Of course, it didn't take long before, that all fell apart.

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Sadly, Uncle Amel became more paranoid as a result of his increased personal drug use. He felt like Nik was the more respected gang leader in the gang and the uncle was 'not cutting it' was losing cred. Uncle Amel's demands on his gang members started getting too emboldened and eventually, murderous. Before things could be calmed, drive-by shootings started up, cops started getting shot, drug deals became deadly and the other gang leaders wanted started warring with each other...and Los Puños. Nik had to put a stop to this. He had to get his uncle to 'change'. Nik begged the LAPD's Gang Taskforce Lieutenant to 'hold off' for a couple of days, allowing him to try and get the peace back in order before things got worse.  The Lieutenant agreed, but had an secret ace up his sleeve he decided to secretly play  - a young teen named Michael Parks AKA Saint Michael.

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Uncle Amel, in a heated argument with Nik, shot at Nik with a derringer pistol 'nicking' Nik's arm with one of the bullets. The second bullet, however, went through Uncle Amel's office wall and into one of the standby 13-year old drug-running kids Nik's uncle was using. As the kid laid dying on the floor, other gang members gathered around the kid, not doing anything as the kid pitifully cried for his mother, convulsing and bleeding out in front of everyone. Nik went nearly catatonic not being able to help the kid. Even though Nik tried all he could to stop the bleeding, the kid died in Nik's arms. Amidst Nik's grief, Uncle Amel made a snide, 'dumb kid' comment and walked away from the now dead body.

 

Nik lost it.

 

It was like watching his own parents die again in front of him.

 

Nik erupted and tackled his uncle, fighting a bloody, rage-fueled battle across the office and adjoining rooms. During the fight, Nik's uncle tried charging at Nik, only for Nik to sidestep, allowing his uncle to go over the 5-story balcony and plummet down onto the street below, dead.

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Enough eye witnesses provided proof that Nik didn't kill his own uncle and as such, Nik never got indicted in his uncle's murder. This did, however, leave the gang leadership position open; a position that the gang immediately voted for Nik to now lead. As such, Nik became the new leader of Los Puños and was immediately given the new gang leader name "El Patron".

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As the Los Puños gang leader, El Patron led them like as if he was born for the role. He was tough, hard hitting, hard working, disciplined and a bit of a 'visionary' according to his fellow gang members.

 

No one could beat El Patron in a fight.

 

No one could outthink El Patron.

 

No one could lead better than El Patron.

 

As such, El Patron became quite the local street hero. For the first time in years, inter-gang fights dropped off to practically nothing. The gangs instead focused on their own 'illegal' operations, to which El Patron changed his gang's focus from drugs to protection services. As such, the gang made more money (ok, over 100x more money) than they'd ever made before.  The gang even started helping out the community by 'grabbing up' people that owed them money and making them clean up local parks, parking lots, houses, empty lots and even plant community gardens and cleaning up trash and debris from the streets until such time that either those that couldn't pay up, paid, or worked off their payments by 'volunteering' more local work.  It was an amazing tool Nik used, and as such Nik earned even more respect from other gang members and they changed some of their ways to operate like Los Puños.

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In 2018, Nik was challenged for leadership by a young new upstart; an upstart that was actually the LAPD police chief's son (who'd gone quite bad...and mad with his extensive drug use).  El Patron won the fight, but the upstart had enough influence on several of Nik's own gang members to get them to leave Los Puños and join his own new gang, the 'Quad-Ds' (no idea what the 'D's stood for).  With that, El Patron started loosing street cred and within weeks, the gangs were all back to the old ways.  Those that remained in El Patron's gang were die-hard members and wouldn't leave him for nothing, however, those same gang members also urged El Patron to either 'step down' or help them find a new path to making money before all-out gang war ensued. Before El Patron could make the decision, several newly rivalling gangs decided it was time to take down the big dog - El Patron and his Los Puños.  A massive multi-gang battle took place on Los Puños' turf; that battle was changed the future of East L.A.'s gangs.

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During the battle, Los Puños was getting beat bad with a 5-to-1 ratio against them.

 

In the middle of the battle, a black armor-wearing teenager fought his way into the center of the fighting between the gang leaders and ordered them all to stop. Everyone reluctantly did, but only because the teenager calling out for this action seemed to have some type of an energy shield glowing on his arm...and seemed to be wearing some type of street-level superhero costume.Everyone immediately recognized this young man as 'Saint Michael', a local humanitarian who helped build a food and homeless shelter nearby and had a way of getting others to help one another out to help make the community better.  He was also noted to be a hell of a fighter and was known to be very formidable when attacked/engaged.  As such, the gang leaders listened to what Saint Michael had to say. El Patron agreed to what Saint Michael said and urged the other gang leaders to follow suite; sadly, most of the gang leaders turned on Saint Michael, stabbing him and then attacking El Patron. Saint Michael and El Patron, mindless of their injuries, fought the gangs like warriors born. A dozen minutes later, Saint Michael, El Patron and half of Los Puños stood victorious over several defeated gangs and their leaders.

 

When El Patron attempted to do what he'd always done, offer peace in victory, some of the gang leaders outright refused and swore vengeance on Saint Michael and El Patron and his gang; the few that didn't refuse, joined El Patron. Interestingly enough, dozens of gang members from the gangs that refused the peace, left their own defeated gangs and joined El Patron's gang, Los Puños, out of respect. To add to that more, other gangs that didn't even get involved in the battle offered 'respect' to Los Puños, El Patron and Saint Michael, stating they had no direct 'issue' with them and as such, would remain peaceful and respectful of one another.

 

El Patron, never seeing another person with such bravery to invoke peace in the middle of a battle and then follow up with unparalleled fighting and fellowship, became a quick friend of Saint Michael.  In time, El Patron's gang basically became a 'subsidy' of Saint Michael's newly formed, young superhero group called 'Hardcorps'. This basically resulted in El Patron becoming a #2 in the gang's leadership, but everyone was more than happy over the arrangement, including El Patron, that Saint Michael be the "Jefe" (Boss) while Nik be the Field Commander (El Patron).  In the field, El Patron gladly lead his gang, however, rather than doing anything illegal, they shifted gears to doing things 'legally' and making money that way instead. They profited from such things as EBay of old things found on abandoned lots, apartments and stores, they organized vehicle repair services, home demolition (for flipping houses), providing services for 'scared straight' programs and leading local events like farmer's markets, community back lot movie nights, and best of all, overseas marketing and distribution of East L.A. community arts and crafts (all at decent non-black market rates, too!). As such, the gang still drank, smoked weed and carried on like a gang, but they instead made a difference in the community...and made some good money in the process; legal money...as well as a lot of respect from the citizens of East L.A.

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Today, Nik as El Patron, still leads the Los Puños gang, but answers to Saint Michael, who normally allows El Patron full control of the gang members, so long as things are done 'legally' and 'relatively ethically' (mostly in regards to not stealing or murdering). 

 

El Patron is a very stern-looking, large and buff Latino man who usually has little to say. When he does speak, everyone listens. Most of the time, he hardly ever raises his voice; when he does, he invokes a serious level of fear usually because he became far more aggressive, in-your-face, and pointedly challenges whomever dares defy him. He is known for injecting humor into a stressful situation to help defuse the tension, but he doesn't play the fool or show weakness. He loves to fight, however, he loves 'making a difference' more.  He believes Los Puños can change the way the world looks at gangs and hopes that his and the gang's examples in the good they do rubs off on other gangs...which it slowly has.

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On a side note, Nik's Uncle Amel's son and Nik's cousin, Manuel Robledo, is currently a new young teenage member in Nik's gang, Los Puños. Although he has 'issue' with Nik 'killing' his father, at this time, it seems Manuel is on board with the gang's benevolent functions, even going so far as volunteering to personally deliver food to those in the community that can't make it to the shelter.  He seems to be an upstanding kid, however, it seems others his age from rival gangs are putting a lot of pressure on him to take out his cousin Nik and avenge his father's death. Manuel has yet to tell his cousin Nik about those currently pressuring him.

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