Roy McCoy

Name	Roy McCoy
Race	Human
Type	Mutant Hunter
Faction	The Night Stalkers, BDA
Premiere	Desideratum: Blood Bonds
Relative(s)	Molly McCoy, Absinthe Van Gothen, Muriel Van Gothen

Roy McCoy

"Trust me; my trigger finger is itchy as hell and quick as lightning."

Biography

Pre-Desideratum: Blood Bonds

Born in Amarillo, Texas, Roy McCoy was raised on a ranch. He grew up around cattle, learned to ride horses, learned how to rope, and learned how to shoot. As he grew up, he entered many rodeos and excelled at his abilities. He never did well in school, and did not care about things like grades- all Roy wanted to do was raise cattle the way his father and grandfather did. Over the years, he worked as a ranch hand and rodeo cowboy until he saved enough money up to buy his own land. He found some for dirt cheap in Utah’s Uintah Basin. The land bordered the infamous Skinwalker Ranch, but being raised as a god fearing American, Roy did not believe in any superstitions. He named his ranch “Tumbleweed Mesa” and loved having his own place. But, it did not take long for him to understand that something hunted on his land.

First a steer disappeared. He looked all over his acreage and could find no sign of it. Then one of his horses vanished. At this point, he assumed it was a thief. However, he began to hear strange growls and howling coming from the ridges and trees at night. Roy is nothing if not a stubborn man, and he refused to quit on his dream. For an entire decade he stood his ground and tried to weather the strange occurrences. Finally, things came to a head when one night, he lost five head of cattle. These were massacred by no animal he had ever heard of, and their corpses were piled on his doorstep. Enraged, he staked out his land the next night, planning to kill whoever or whatever was doing this.

As he squatted in the bushes, he suddenly saw a beautiful woman running across his field. Blinking, the cowboy rubbed his eyes and looked again, but she was, indeed, there. Suddenly, the woman leaped some twenty feet into the air, spun while airborne, and landed while drawing a gun. He noticed her facing the trees and followed her line of sight. There, he saw a black-furred skinwalker leap from the bushes and it tore across the field toward the woman. Not sure if this was a dream or real, he refused to let the woman be torn to shreds and put the beast in his sights. She did not budge, and the creature ran so quickly that Roy could barely keep aim. She fired at it, but it kept rushing forward. The woman shot it again, but it did not even slow down. Scared for her, Roy finally took his own shot and hit his mark, but it ignored the wound and leapt at the woman. He jumped from the bushes as the woman fought the monster in hand-to-hand combat, trying to reach her and help. Suddenly another skinwalker, this one with brown fur, also leapt onto the field. For a second Roy thought he would be eaten, but the creature regarded him and ran past before leaping on the black one. Roy drew his hunting knife and soon the other skinwalker died.

Roy watched, fascinated as the creature turned into a young Ute. The other turned into a man in his forties, like Roy. This was the shaman, Sani Lightfoot. The woman was cursing and yelling, covered in gore, but Roy thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She was Muriel Van Gothen, and it was not long before she was Muriel McCoy. The two were in love and shared a similar lifestyle. She was a hard worker just like he was, and he found himself in heaven. Not thinking that he could be any happier, he was proven wrong when Muriel became pregnant. Their baby girl, Abigail, who would later be known as Absinthe Van Gothen, was his pride and joy. Around this time, at the behest of Lord Ivor, Nightbred had been seeking and slaying anyone of the Van Gothen bloodline.

Muriel, an avid vampire hunter, killed dozens of vampires over time. This led to a bounty on her head, effectively putting Abby in danger. Years passed and by Abigail’s fourth birthday, the pair had mournfully come to the decision to place her up for adoption, too scared that the vampires would eventually kill her. Little did he know that he would see her again when Absinthe Van Gothen came to the Sanctuary. Heartbroken, the parents both drank much more than they ever had- the alcohol, a crutch to help them with their sorrows. However, they eventually had another daughter, Molly.

When she was little more than a toddler, one night, a booming woman’s voice echoed through their tiny farmhouse. In a sinister, English accent, she claimed that she was Eleanora Blackwood, a witch, and that she had come to destroy Muriel. Cackling and enjoying herself, she began destroying the homestead, while the McCoys remained within their home. Inside their house, they had a hidden door. This went under the house to a tunnel that led to the barn. As Molly cried, Muriel told Roy to escape with her and run away. Roy refused even as pieces of their house were torn to bits. Eleanora gave a final warning falsely claiming that if Muriel would face her, then she would spare her husband and child. Roy then understood that they would all die, so kissing his wife one last time, he grabbed Molly and fled. Muriel stepped outside and strode to the witch, ready to fight. Before Eleanora even attacked the hunter, she smirked and imploded the house- and assumed that she had just killed Roy and Molly. Yelling expletives, Muriel leapt at Eleanora and fought her as her family rode away on their horse, Bessie. Muriel died in the battle, but because of her sacrifice, her husband and daughter remained hidden from Ivor’s wrath.

He was forced to raise Molly on the road for the next fourteen years. He taught her the art of wilderness survival and father and daughter could live in the middle of nowhere for indefinite amounts of time. Trying to stay off the grid, and away from any prying Nightbred eyes, he did his best to keep Molly safe. He taught Molly how to shoot, even on horseback, and she became as skilled as her mother had been. As stubborn as her mother, Roy constantly argued with taking her on monster hunts. The whole time, Roy festered in regret over Abigail being put up for adoption, felt upset that Molly did not get to have a normal childhood, and he grew angrier over Muriel’s death. Roy finally vowed to kill Ivor and tracked him down himself, intending to kill the vampire. This led him to Portland, Oregon where he met the Night Stalkers and later, his estranged daughter, Absinthe Van Gothen. Molly wanted to go on hunts and had now turned eighteen, but still, even as an adult, Roy forbade it. He had been cleaning out the Portland sewers after the destruction of the local MedUSA lab. The mutants from the lab escaped into the Big Pipe Project, and almost every section had been cleaned out by Roy, but Molly finally had enough and she decided that she would prove herself.

Desideratum: Blood Bonds

In Desideratum: Blood Bonds, Roy is part of the Night Stalkers. While there is no determined lead, Roy and Sani Lightfoot seem to make the majority of the group's decisions. During the novel, Molly entered the sewers from the Big Pipe Project in an area lit by red lights. Not far into the section, she felt her boot stick and looked down to find a thick spider web. She looked around to find massive webbing strewn everywhere. Then, her Van Gothen blood kicked in and she sensed movement nearby. Suddenly, swarms of giant spiders skittered towards her from the darkness. She lifted her guns and began firing. With her marksmanship and the blessed blood in her veins, she laid the creatures down in droves. Easily killing more than a hundred massive mutant spiders, she suddenly stopped. There, from the webs, strode women. She put them into her sights, but felt it would be murder. Instead, she went back to killing the giant spiders as the women, infected by the xenopoxian spider strain, surrounded her. They webbed her up. About that same time, Absinthe wandered into the same area, slaying the mutants. She slew even their brood mother and then stumbled into Molly. The girl had been bitten and was in the process of mutating.

Roy had been worried sick back at Sanctuary and he and Abby went to the Big Pipe Project to find Molly. Absinthe shot the spider on Molly and was forced to knock her out when Molly tried to bite her. She was taken back to Sanctuary where the scientist, Siri Solen, took to studying her condition. Roy had not felt so powerless since Muriel died, and he became emotional. All that he wanted was Molly to return to normal. Siri set out for the Hawthorne Asylum to get a clean strain of Xenopox from the evil Doctor Demented. Absinthe was forced to retrieve Siri and on their return, Molly was healed. With Molly cured, Roy felt immense relief. However, the whole episode taught him that he needed to accept that he could not control everything and he decided it was time to come clean to his daughters. He explained their past and the three of them became a family. Roy was proud when, before the Night Stalkers embarked on the Shanghai Tunnels to slay Ivor, Absinthe gave a speech.

Right afterwards, legions of Nightbred attacked the Sanctuary. Guns in hand, the old cowboy killed as many vampires as he could muster. Watching his daughters in battle filled him with pride, but with age comes wisdom, and Roy understood that this attack was only a diversion, so he urged Abby to go to the tunnels and stop the forces of evil. After Absinthe and Evelyn Addams left, agents from the Bureau of Demonic Analysis arrived and aided the hunters in their defense. Afterwards, Roy and the other Night Stalkers were placed inside the building’s foundry and given a choice to aid the government or be considered a terrorist group and face prison. When Absinthe and Brone arrived victorious, Roy agreed that to aid the BDA was better than the alternative.

Appearance

Roy is a middle aged cowboy. He has graying hair, and a kind demeanor.

Abilities

• Expert Marksman
• Expert Mutant Hunter
• Custom Guns: Ricochet & Caliber

Notes and Trivia

In several bad ends of D:BB, Roy is either a victim or capable of being turned.