Hello, my name is Barrett Swan, and this is the story of how I became the first superhero on earth.
Please allow me to set the scene for you. The year at my starting point was December of 2023, when I first enlisted in the Army, like my oldest friend Victoria Yelavich. I had just turned 21, and felt like it was time for me to find my own path.
After about five years, a few tours in the Middle East, and my first re-enlistment, I gained the rank of S1C. For all you civilians, that's Sergeant First Class.
At this point, the United States Army had made it commonplace to genetically enhance all those who held any form of leadership, if consent was given. I was placed in charge of my own squad, and wished to lead them to the best of my ability.
My IQ was high from an early phase in life, and knowing as much, I figured it wouldn't be necessary to improve my mental performance too much. However, my physical strength was a different story. Before joining the army, I never saw too much need to work out, so I ended up relatively weak in comparison to other recruits at basic training. Due to this fact, I made the choice to enhance the rate at which my muscles could grow in strength.
After a few missions in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, my squad was called in to protect an important political figure. A senator from the state of Utah was visiting the Middle East, and the reason for such was never disclosed to us. A few days after her arrival, a group of local terrorists attacked the facility we were guarding. My men were able to protect the senator with only one friendly casualty. This was, unfortunately, my closest friend in the entire army, Samuel Drake.
After my friend's death, I harbored a hatred so intense towards those monsters, I couldn't contain myself. I tracked these people down to a decently sized building. The only thing on my mind at this point was revenge.
I manually shut off the power, and taped some flares to my body, to give off the effect that I was set ablaze. This froze every one of them in fear, and after only two hours, every member of that organization was dead, killed my my own two hands.
This attack, however, was not sanctioned by the United States Government, and ended with my dishonorable discharge from the Army. Before I returned home, I swore to myself that I would never allow anybody to disturb the peaceful lives of innocents, like those terrorists who killed my friend.
With no place to go, one of my oldest friends offered me a job. His name was Matthew Truman, Matt for short, and he founded one of the most well known technology companies to date, Corporate Industries.
(There is an in-universe explanation for the name, but in reality, I was just lazy.)
Matt placed me in charge of a "brainstorm team" in the company's Research and Development devision. After the course of one year, I had made many contributions to the company, and to the field of science as a whole. As a reward, I received my own material to use however I wanted.
With this material, I made my first iteration of my hero suit. I would later call this the FM Mk. I. This marks a the start of my journey into heroism, forging the path for future generations to follow. The current year is 2030.
