Halley Brankett

"My mother told me that too. That she and I are people, like anyone else. It's just that...when we were born, God gave us some powers that are a little different."

- Halley

Halley is a character from the game Shadow Hearts, he is a street-urchin in London with psychic powers. Halley got separated from his mother when he was very young and has taken care of himself and other orphans on the streets of London ever-since. He has created a group called the London Rats made up of the other orphans of London that would rather fend for themselves than be sent to one of the nightmarish orphanages in the city.

Background:
Halley was born to a single mother in London. Halley's mother was a witch who taught Halley how to use magical powers at a young age. Halley's other only ever used her power to cure people that were hurt or banish evil spirits but use of her powers eventually brought down the attention of the Friar Knights of the Inquisition. Halley's mother viewed the Inquisitors as less than a threat at first and was considerably more powerful than them and escaped them many times. One day through the Inquisitors captured Halley and threatened to kill him if his mother did not come with them; His mother agreed and went quietly with the witch-hunters leaving Halley safe but orphaned and guilt-ridden.

Halley had to fend for himself and found a dilapidated but secure abandon building in London, he cleaned it out and secured then inside of it and set up a secret entrance into the building and dubbed the makeshift home his hide-out. When Halley noticed that many of the children around town disappeared into the doors of the Orphanage and were never heard from again he started to reachout to other orphans around town and offered them a place in his hide-out rather than facing whatever fate awaited them behind the doors of the ominous orphanage. Halley was able to take in several orphans and the crew dubbed themselves the London Rats. Halley taught the London Rats how to pickpocket what they needed and used their pilfered funds to buy their amenities.

Shadow Hearts:

When Yuri, Alice and Zhuzhen arrive in London to pick up on a lead from Margarete one of the London Rats named Joshua steals Margarete's wallet. Yuri laughs at her at first for letting herself get pinched by a street urchin until Margarete makes it clear