Liam was brought up in a poor Irish section of Chicago by his devout Catholic Irish-American immigrant parents. Liam was the oldest of six children; his father, not having had much education had to take whatever he could in order to support the family and eventually fell in with a group of small time thieves. The gang were caught, charged and sent to prison, with Liams father getting five years.
Liam was thirteen years old at the time of his father being sent to prison. He was forced to leave school and set about trying to support his family. The easiest way for him to get money was by illegal means, and so he joined a street gang called the Steels who carried out mainly breaking and entering. However, the gang used whatever means they could to carry out their jobs, including violence. Liam eventually fell out with the gang when on a job they beat up a security guard in an attempt to get a security entrance code from him. In the ensuing argument the gang became hostile, and chased Liam to the roof of the building. In the struggle Liam fell off the roof.
Under normal circumstances this would be the end of the story, but at this moment of intense stress Liams powers first exhibited themselves, and he managed to land on the ground without any injuries. The Steels were at this time interrogating the guard, who eventually gave them the code. The gang tied him up and left with what they had come for.
Over the next few days Liam staked out the Steels gang headquarters, eventually finding out who they fenced their stolen goods to. Upon finding out that they had another job set up, he in his new persona as Masquerade, stopped the raid and told the police about their fence.
After his run in with organised structured crime, Liam became a loner. His jobs were well planned and carried out against those who could actually afford to lose what he took.
Liams father got parole and was out of prison in two years. His father then went straight, setting up a locksmithing firm, with Liam helping.
In his spare time Liam attempted through hard work to catch up with what he had missed at school, in the next year managing to leave high school as a graduate.
He joined his fathers firm and got married in the next year to a brown haired, brown eyed girl named Margaret who lived in the local area.
At this point Liam looked at the world around him, not liking what he saw. Big business ruled, the poor supported the rich, and there seemed to be no-one who championed the poor. He came to the conclusion that within the Chicago area he could help.
Over the next few years Masquerade made a name for himself in the Greater Chicago area, breaking into the homes of rich industrialists, bank officers and other pillars of the establishment. Any money that he got from these ventures mostly went to worthy causes, with a small amount taken to cover expenses. At each job, Masquerade left his calling card, a silver lockpick in a prominent position so it would be noticed. The Chicago police are quite interested in finding out who carried out this mini crime wave.
Margaret and Liam now have three sons, Thomas aged 9, Keiran aged 7 and Liam Jr. aged 5 (all of whom have super-powers, it turns out).
Several months ago while Liam was in Chicago he had a run-in, whilst on a job, with a super-powered woman who he later identified as Chatte Noire. She was breaking into the Chicago Museum of Art and had injured several guards. Masquerade, seeing how powerful she was, stayed back and followed her to her hideout. He then phoned the police and PRIMUS who appeared, covered the building, and got back the stolen art. But Chatte Noire escaped. She later captured a policeman, interrogated him, and found out that Masquerade had been instrumental in stopping her. Since then she has been looking for him.
Liam then found out that a firm called Grainger and Lilliwhite were polluting Lake Michigan. He staked out the place, and the next day he noticed a person acting suspiciously. He arranged to have a word with this person, who turned out to be the superhuman known as the Eagle. They reached an agreement and managed to incriminate Grainger and Lilliwhite. They also had a run-in with a powerful superhuman calling himself Monad.
The Eagle offered Liam (now aged 27) a job working for his private investigation agency, Chance Investigations. Liam moved his family to New York and has been attempting to stay within the law, trying to keep his tendency to obtain other peoples property to himself. If, however, a job appears that could help poor people he would probably be interested...
Masquerade in Champions terms.