| Alan was an electronics engineer with a respectable firm.
He was well regarded as a friendly, helpful man, always willing to burn
the midnight oil to get a project in on time. One day, he had a project
due in the afternoon, and so he arrived at work early to finish it.
Taking some coffee from the pot that had been prepared, he drank it, and
about five minutes later he felt a blinding headache. Then, he heard
people falling down and moaning around his section. Thinking quickly,
he called for ambulances to carry them all to the hospital, where they
were tested and found to be poisoned. Appparently, a disgruntled
catering service employee had poisoned several coffee bags in the hopes
of creating havoc.
Alan, seemingly unaffected by the poison, went back to work on his design.
His working progressed to such a degree that he wound up doing a total
redesign in the space of a morning, and when his boss reviewed the design,
he was shocked at the innovations it represented. He spoke of promotions
and raises and made all sorts of excited noise over Alan.
Alan took the rest of the day off and went for a drive in the country,
where he usually liked to run to get away from the hustle and bustle of
the city. Without thinking about it, he managed to run faster than
Mach 1, causing debris from the path to be blown off the trail, as well
as tearing some limbs from trees. Taking notice of his incredible
speed, he smiled to himself as he drove back to the city.
He earned a promotion and wound up as a partner in the firm within the
space of a few weeks, but he wasn't satisfied, so he went to a Devries
recruiting office in New York City and signed up. Given his particular
mix of abilities, he was made a combat engineer, and he got to train alongside
elites such as Totentanz and Lance 'Stone Badass' Stryker. It was
a proud moment when he was masked and given his nova name 'Speed Freak';
he'd thought of it some time before, and the mask designer thought it was
apt. He served on combat missions for nearly a year, when he decided
to take a break and return to New York City. |
