- Steve was a young, promising officer of the Freedom City Police Force Division 'Superhuman Tactics and Regulations'.
He displayed the typical overconfidence of his kin, taking pride in the ability of STARK to take on all but the most dangerous
Supervillain without outside help and without powers beyond what mortal ingenuity could provide. From the very beginning, Steve
also displayed a strong distrust against 'Supers' that only grew in time, as his particular Unit did indeed work almost exclusively
without assistance - thus making the Supervillains his only personalencounters with inhuman Powers.
- During a Bankrobbery commited by a low profile, yet not completely unknown Supervillain, STARK took to the field a Device provided
by one of Freedom Cities foremost arms Inventors, a device that was supposed to a field that had the purpose of phase-Shifting high velocity objects, thus protecting the police and the hostages in the bank from the bullets of the villains goons. Although warned that the device was yet untested, the risk for the hostages was assessed higher then the risk of a malfunction. Still, order was to use it only in dire straits.
- Since the device could have been a blessed revolution in crimefighting, it was of course doomed to be an utter failure. STARK - one is tempted to say as expected - came to the scene to witness a fast escalation of the situation. When the ensuing firefight evolved into a storm of bullets (worsened by the ruthless use of telekinetic powers of the villain), Steve was the one that finally hit the switch on the device that was supposed to save the day.
Well, it did...
somehow...
- Steve doesn't remember too much from the moment he hit the switch and energy from the malfunctioning device arked through his spasming body.
From what he saw on the surveilance footage of the bank that had leaked to the media and from what his boss told him, the energy seemed to have phase shifted him, while also somehow pulling every single fired bullet towards him - resulting in a lot of frightened yet lucky hostages - the bullets dissolving in contact with his body.
- When Steve awoke in the hospital, he felt that something was off. During the next days of his new powers rampaging through him, randomly surfacing and vanishing again, his dread fears became reality - he had become one of them (his assessment of Supers made this quite a shock). He fell hard.
Quitting his job, ignoring the (seemingly unsympathetic) advice of Captain Maddicks, the only one at STARK that knew about his change, he started drifting through the city for months. Aimlessly, without a job, without friends, on the very verge of becoming part of the unsavory lowlife of Freedom City - or worse.
Grudgingly he learned to control his powers - if only to keep himself from involuntarily harming someone. Just before he completely transformed into a nameless vagrant, something pulled him back.
- It's always the little thigs - in this case a little boy shopping with his mother in West End and a loony bastard trying to rob a store in broad daylight.
A witnessing cop pulled his gun, the robber opened fire - hilarity ensued - with the boy and his mother at the right place to provide a wonderful target practice. The Mother runs and tries to pull the boy to safety but gets shot (thankfully only piercing her shoulder, but bad enough to bring her down.
Her shocked boy freezes where he stands, the next bullet sure to get him, were it not for ever fearless Steve Ward throwing himself into harms way.
While he was completely willing to die in that moment, he learned that he was still completely impervious to bullets - and he felt for the first time, that he was not bound to abuse his powers for villany. First time since waking up, he had hope. Starting by accepting the thankful storeowners offer for a job (thankful that he seems to have missed how exactly he saved the child) ...and then getting to whatever seems fitting for the start of the adventure.
