Richmond Clay

Richmond Clay is a human male Vorpal user and the former leader of the Agents of A.C.E. Born in England, he served with the FPT during its downfall in 2014 and was later recruited by Kieron Hawk to join the Agents of A.C.E. In 2017, he inherited the organisation and became its leader, which he was for 14 years, until the merger displaced him outside of reality. He later returned to reality, where he reunited with his girlfriend, Alice, and met his infant son, Clive.

Richmond was training as an FPT special operations agent in 2012, where he went on a trainee mission with Keiron Hawk. There, the pair befriended one another. Richmond later saved Kieron Hawk’s life at the fall of the Warbird, making him a candidate for Agent Green in Kieron’s mind. Richmond later proved his resourcefulness when he, with the help of fellow former FPT agent Oojah Bjorn, were able to thwart the plans in the evil Missile March terrorist group. After this, he was formally recruited by Kieron.

Richmond was essential to defeating the resurrected former Agent Green from Hawksby’s dimension, which was the first major mission he faced. Shortly after this, he fought disgraced Vorpal Master Maljalok, and was able to temporarily resist his control over him.

After having faced Maljalok and during the campaign against the Third Concord, Richmond became suspicious of colleague Agent Red, who frequently would skip out on social events and sometimes important meetings. Eventually, he confronted Agent Red, who revealed himself to be the villainous Divine, from Hawksby’s home dimension. He then paralysed Richmond, causing him to be no longer able to operate his legs.

Richmond was mostly absent when facing the Devine during his short lived presidency, however he was tasked with balancing the Portal in Hawksby’s absence, which he succeeded in. After this, he helped fight other foes in a Mechanised Suit, including the evil David Blanc from his home dimension. Eventually, he received a device that would allow him to be able to walk again, albeit with some difficulties.

Shortly after this, longtime friend Clive Clayton was corrupted by a parallel version of Kieron. Richmond sacrificed himself to trap both Clive and himself in the dimension that the evil Kieron came from. In this dimension, Clive had fully returned to his normal self. Eventually, the pair were able to make contact with the other Agents. During his time in this dimension, Richmond befriended the Vorpal Frog and fought the evil empress, a doppelgänger of Alex. Eventually, a strain in Vorpal usage caused this dimension to collapse, however the Vorpal Frog was able to break the entrapment and send Richmond and Clive home before they were caught in the destructive blast from the caving in-dimension.

When Richmond had returned home, he and Clive helped the agents defeat inter-dimensional invaders, before Kieron retired as leader. This left the agency in his hands. It was also during this time in which Richmond and colleague Alice Leight realised that they had feelings for each other, and entered into a relationship.

Richmond revamped the agents with the help of MI6’s Lisa Stone, putting a greater focus on squadrons. His new Agents faced a resurrected Darkening Mind and were successful in defeating it. A short while after this, he was severely injured by the street gang the Mob Dogs, which caused Vorpal Monkey to give some of his powers to heal Clay. This also fully healed his paralysis, but in turn gave Clay Vorpal abilities, which he used to defeat the Mob Dogs.

He later faced other threats, like Gentleman Beast’s Leauge of Former Adversaries, with the help from an elderly Jackson Hawksby. He also later defeated the Murder of Crows and their resurrected Chairman of the Third Concord.

In 2020, during the United Kingdom General Election, Richmond found himself at odds with candidate and businessman Mr Eams, who heavily criticised the Agents of Ace and wanted to replace them with his security drones, the Electronaughts. During his campaigning, Eams used a clone of Richmond and had him assassinate a clone of himself, in order to frame Richmond. Richmond then went on the run with Miku Katana, his then-discarded Clone and later Eams’ nephew, Johnathan Roylance. Richmond later discovered Eams’ plot, and went into the Unknown with Katana to find out the full extent of the businessman’s plans. He later exited the unknown before he discovered Roylance was an electronaught himself. Despite this, he was still an ally. Eams’ puppet leader, Jock Ark, won the election and the electronaughts were officially implemented. The primary electronaugt, however, believed all of humanity was evil, so he began rounding up innocents for execution. The agents fought the electronaughts, and later discovered that the power source was in Richmond’s clone, forcing Richmond to destroy it. This shut down all the drones and the Agents were re-implemented.

11 years after, Alice has become pregnant. Having served for many years, Richmond faced the Devine, who was secretly living as a virus inside Royance. After revealing himself, the Devine killed Richmonds friend, Clive Clayton. He had a plan which involved merging Richmonds dimension and his home dimension, for him to form a new one to rule. At the battle of the Unknown, Richmond destroyed the Devine and created a successful merger, although this lead to his imprisonment.

One time opponent Tumult captured Richmond and tempted him in a bubble universe. He resisted these temptations and was able to vanquish Tumult, before opening a portal to try to get back home. He arrived one year after the merger and reunited with Alice, where he met his infant son, Clive.

Physical Appearance
Richmond is Caucasian, with brown, wavy hair. In 2018, he received a scar up his lip thanks to Mistress Katana.

Personality
Richmond is cool, calm and collected. He has an undying loyalty to his cause, and cares deeply for his loved ones around him.

Season Six
607 - The Rookie

Season Eight
813 - In Memoriam

Trivia

 * Richmond is the only character to appear in every episode of Agents of A.C.E (2014-21).


 * Richmond was originally supposed to die in the Season Five finale. This decision was changed due to the character being such a fundamental part of the show.
 * Additionaly, Richmond was originally going to join the Vorpal Guild after the merger, however showrunner John Ryder felt as if giving Richmond a son felt like a more natural and peaceful conclusion to his character.
 * Richmond is the third main JTV character to become a father, the first being Smith Smithington and the second being Kieron Hawk.


 * Due to his merging of the two dimensions, John Ryder described him as the third most powerful JTV character, behind Vorpal Monkey in his prime and The Darkening Mind.


 * Richmond is the second character to be scared on his face onscreen. Smith Smithington is the first.
 * He is the first character to be paralysed on-screen.