Wes Gates

"I am everlasting."

- Wes to Ajax

Wesley Adrian "Wes" Gates (ウェスリー・アドリアン・「ウェス」・ゲイツ) is the main character of Stryker. He is a retired vigilante, the grandson of Robert Gates, a close friend of the late Bucky Raymond and Victor Cross, husband of Ashley Morris, father of Will Gates, and mentor of Jonathan Johnson.

After one year as a cop, he saw the UCPD as corrupt and quit. Leaving Ultimate City, Wes trained for four years in Evershade Forest, and became an agent for Dark Harvest for some time. Returning to Ultimate City, Wes reunited with his friends and became the vigilante Stryker. Wes battled crime with his loyal friends from the police department, Bucky, Victor, and the new commissioner Peter Wayne, cleaning up the city from criminals such as Yuri Petrovsky, Anton Maroni, and Mickey Murphy.

After the death of Bucky Raymond during Axel Jaxson's siege, Wes vowed not to kill until necessary and was pushed to his limit by deranged lunatic Heath Lenwood/Cursor. Retiring and marrying Ashley, Wes passed down vigilante duties to Victor Cross, Jay Wells, and Mary Alice.

However, Wes was briefly forced out of retirement when Shadow unleashed his army of anarchists on the city, and when the Brotherhood took over West City.

Early Life
While not much is known about Wes' early life, a few details about his past were slowly revealed. At some point, Wes became best friends with Ashley Morris after her twin brother Ricky left, and were once trapped in a cave for hours. She later moved away after seven years. One day, a corrupt police officer mugged and nearly killed his grandfather, making Wes weary towards the police force.

Several years later, Wes himself was almost killed in a shooting, but was saved by an non-corrupt police officer, who sacrificed himself in a stand-off against the shooter to save Wes, which lead him to become a cop himself to make the city a better place, becoming best friends with Bucky Raymond, Victor Cross, and Commissioner Wayne.

Over the course of one year, Wes bore witness to his city becoming corrupt and mob bosses like Anton rising with power. Realizing that he was going to have to make things right his own way and quit his job, leaving the city to head for the Evershade Forest. There, he attempted to train his body and mind, while forcing himself to survive the harsh conditions and elements of the forest. Unfortunately for him, one day, Wes ran into a group of operatives working for a secret organization and was forced to fight them when he accidentally made his presence aware, as he was spying on them.

Though Wes had some knowledge in martial arts, he was outnumbered and badly beaten. He was then hunted down and eventually fell down a small cliff, and as he hit the water, he was shot. Though not fatally injured, Wes faked his death. Once the operatives cleared out, he swam to shore. Feeling defeated and filled with regret, the young man proceeded to try and escape the forest in fear of being chased down again and killed; by nightfall, Wes took shelter in an abandoned plane.

Before he could do a thing, a man jumped down, threatening to kill him. Wes told him that he was just an ordinary man lost in the woods, and the man seemed to drop his suspicions, introducing himself as Stain McClain.

Fight Against Crime
After turning in several notorious criminals to Bucky and Victor, Wes decided to go after Anton, the leader of the criminal underworld, and with the help of his friend "Erik" Petrovski, West tracked him down to New York City and went after him, however, Anton had already prepared for his arrival. A badly beaten West is left for dead in an alleyway, until high school graduate Billy Cooper came across his body. Shocked at what he had a found, Billy began to run, but instead decided to help him and took him to his house, where he persuaded his cousin Ashley to heal him. Wes then returned to Ultimate City, completely unaware that those two had a greater connection to his past.