Issue #1
Matt Romey was an average teenager. He had several friends that loved him and a loving family as well. He lived in River City, on the east coast of America. Matt was a sophomore in high school when his father, James Romey died. His father was an honorable police officer who was killed at the hand of a supervillain named Brick. Brick had superhuman strength and his skin was close to impenetrable. Brick and his crew had been planning a bank robbery for over a week. They were going to hit Liberty Bank which was close to Agnes River.
“What have you gathered from your last visit to Liberty Bank,” said Brick.
“The manager is the one who has access to the vault. She comes to the bank at twelve in the afternoon,” said a crew member.
“Alright then. So here is the plan. We go to Liberty Bank after the manager arrives. We make sure everybody gets down on the ground and we make them toss us their phones, that way we get no cops. We get the manager to open the vault, take as much money as we can, and we leave the bank. Jake will be waiting for us at Agnes River with a boat. We will ride the boat up the river, leave the city, and lay low in Glendale,” said Brick.
That day when Brick and his crew went to rob Liberty Bank, one of the bank tellers hit a button under the counter that alerted the police. Matt’s father was one of the police officers that was sent to Liberty Bank. James Romey and the other officers rushed into the bank. They shot at Brick and his crew. Brick’s crew shot at the officers with their assault rifles and James Romey was the last man standing. Brick slapped the gun out of James Romey’s hand. He then picked him up with one hand by his neck, and then crushed it. James Romey’s lifeless body fell to the ground.
The death of James Romey was hard on Matt. He fell into depression and withdrew from his friends and family. He would not come out of his room for days unless he was at school. It was in one of those days that he spent in his room where he grew angry. He wanted to bring justice to his father’s murder. He did not have enough skills to bring down Brick by himself. The only skills that would be useful were his parkour skills. He had been practicing parkour since he was eleven and at the time after his father died he was fifteen. Within those four years of parkour training he had become really good at climbing buildings and jumping from one building to another. He could use those skills to his advantage to chase down Brick if he had to. What he did not have was any fighting skills.
One day when Matt was at school, he began flirting with a girl he developed a crush on. Her name was Angie Walker. Matt had a crush on her since the early days of that school year. He flirted with her, but he did not know that Angie was already dating a guy named Jason Lewis. Angie flirted with him back and then one day in art class, Angie and Matt were sent to get supplies from the closet to pass out to the rest of the class. It was in that closet in their art class where Matt and Angie shared their first kiss.
Jason found out about this and was furious. Jason had anger management issues and was known for starting fights. The day that he found out about the kiss, he approached Matt.
“So you think you can just take my girl!” yelled out Jason.
“I didn’t know Angie was dating you. I didn’t know she had a boyfriend at all,” explained Matt.
Jason did not listen to what Matt was saying. Instead, Jason swung at Matt. Matt was knocked back a bit and then put his hands up to defend himself. He swung his fist at Jason but Jason dodged it. Jason then struck Matt in the nose and then swung his fist at Matt’s belly repeatedly. Matt fell down to the floor defeated. The two were suspended for a week even though Jason started the fight and Matt was just trying to defend himself.
After that fight Matt knew he needed to pick up some fighting skills. He needed to pickup some fighting skills to defend himself and to also take down Brick in the longrun. At first, Matt tried out boxing for a few months. He became pretty good at it and won most of his fights. His mother, Lisa Romey, would attend his fights and cheered him on. Matt realized that he was going to need training in different fighting styles. He figured that his boxing skills would not cut it if he was going to take down Brick. Matt decided that if he needed to get skills from multiple fighting styles, then he was going to start practicing MMA. Only in MMA would he get training from multiple fighting styles at once.
Matt trained for two years. Within those two years he made a name for himself in the MMA community. Matt was then a senior in high school. He felt as if he was ready to get his revenge by bringing Brick to justice. If he was going to do that, he needed to practice with other criminals first. He needed to go out there and become a vigilante.
“I need to make a suit and a mask,” Matt thought to himself.
Matt needed to protect his identity. Being a vigilante was illegal. A citizen could not take the law into their own hands. It was up to the police to fight crime. However, Matt could not leave it up to the police. It had been two long years and Brick had not been brought to justice. Matt knew what he had to do. He had a mission. He had to take down Brick himself. For his suit, Matt purchased several black long sleeve shirts that were elastic. He also purchased black elastic pants, black shoes with enough grip so that he could climb buildings, and several black ski masks. Matt also bought a cheap phone that had no tracker in it. He bought it under a fake name so that he could call the police whenever he defeated a criminal and let them know of their whereabouts without the police finding out who made the call.
For the time being, Matt could only fight crime in his neighborhood. He had no way of transport if the crime was deeper into the city. He purchased a police scanner and kept it in his room. One day, the police scanner went off.
“We have a 132 on the gas station at 2nd Street and 147th Avenue,” said the police dispatcher.
Matt had been studying the different codes police officers used. He knew that “132” meant that there was an armed robbery.
Matt put on his suit and then climbed out his apartment window. He used the rainwater pipe on the wall of his apartment building to climb to the roof. From there he jumped to the roof of the next building. He continued to jump from one building to the other. Matt was close to the gas station. He used another rainwater pipe to slide down to the ground. He went inside the gas station that was robbed.
“The man who robbed you, do you know where he went?” asked Matt to the gas station clerk.
“He went that way,” said the clerk as he pointed west of 2nd Street.
Matt left the gas station and headed west on 2nd Street. He found the man who robbed the gas station in an alley. He was there counting the money he had just stolen.
“You think you could just take things from honest working people,” yelled out Matt.
The thief lifted his gun and aimed it at Matt.
“I suggest you mind your own business buddy, and what are you anyways? Some kind of superhero?” said the thief.
Matt moved in closer.
“Don’t try anything funny. I will shoot you down!” yelled out the thief.
Matt moved in closer and the thief fired his gun at Matt. Matt leaped out of the way dodging each bullet by jumping and rolling. When Matt got close enough to the thief, he kicked the gun out of the thief’s hand. Then he swung his left fist across his face, and then his right fist, and then his left fist, and right again. He grabbed the thief by his shirt and struck him in the nose four times. The thief dropped onto the floor and Matt got on top of him. He took of the thief’s mask. He was a white man in his thirties with blonde hair and a blond goatee. He was bleeding from his nose. Matt struck the thief repeatedly in the face while he was on the ground. The thief laid there, knocked out.
Matt grabbed the money the thief had stolen. It was in a white plastic bag that said “Thank You” three times from the top of the bag to the bottom. Matt called the police with his burner phone and let them know where the thief was located. He went back to the gas station to return the money.
“Oh my God! Thank you so much! How could I repay you?” said the clerk.
“You don’t have to repay me. I’m just looking out for the community, that’s all,” said Matt.
Matt headed back to his home through the rooftops of the buildings in his neighborhood. He could not risk being seen by the police. When Matt entered his room through his window, he looked at himself in the mirror with his suit on. That night he vowed that he was going to bring justice to Brick and his crew. He was going to avenge his father’s death.
