Nick/Introduction

In the sweltering summer of 1880, a boy was born in a tiny farmhouse in rural Missouri. Nicholas Buchanan was always a big lad, and life on his sleepy little dairy farm made him tough and strong. But like so many farm boys in the world, he dreamed of adventure and excitement. He yearned to go out and see the world, and do great things. He wanted to be a hero, like in all the old stories his Grandpa Josiah would tell him at bedtime. But in his humdrum little hometown, Nick knew he would never find what he truly craved.

In 1915, German U-Boats sunk the Lusitania. Nick, by now a grown man and a farmer himself, felt something inside him snap. He couldn't let this injustice go unanswered. He took out his life's savings, sold his farm, and headed out to join the Army. He was going Over There, to join up with the Allies in the Great War, and finally become the hero he'd always dreamed of being.

It was at the Battle of the Marne that Nick's life would change forever. On that fateful day, he and his chums went over the top and stormed the German position. A hail of machine gun fire tore him to shreds. But as Nick lay dying, he felt something in him stir. Something powerful, something that no evil could vanquish. It drove him to get back to his feet and continue his charge. Bullets could not stop him. Nor barbed wire, nor mustard gas, not even a mortar shell. His comrades watched in awe as he siezed a tank by its treads with his bare hands and flipped it on its side. In the end, the Allies would win the battle, no small thanks to Nick's daring. The medics couldn't explain it. There was no way a man could have suffered the injuries Nick had and survived. Yet survive he did.

Luck was on Nick's side though. His incredible story reached one of the British medics at the field hospital where he'd been taken. Dr. Quentin Gallagher, known in some circles as The Miracle Medic, was no ordinary physician--he was a rebel Scientist. Only twelve years prior, he had been one of the ringleaders that had helped stage the revolt of the Electrodyne Engineers against the Technocratic Union. He and his colleagues had forged a new identity for their group--the Sons of Ether--and had found sanctuary with their age-old enemies, the Council of Nine Mystick Traditions.

Nick would talk with Dr. Gallagher long into the night. Over the course of that conversation, Quentin confirmed his suspicions--Nick had undergone Enlightenment and Awakened his Genius. When the armistice was signed and the war ended, he invited Nick to return to his estate in Scotland. Recovered from his wounds and ready to embark on a new adventure, Nick eagerly accepted. In Barnburrey Row, Nick would meet the rest of Quentin's cabal, the Æon Society. He would undergo Dr. Gallagher's Prometheus Protocols, a series of super-soldier treatments designed to unleash the ultimate potential of the human form.

In time, Nick would join the Society as a fully-fledged fellow, serving as their token Yankee and the muscle of their group. He was proud to serve as a champion of Science, a herald of Utopia and the Better Tomorrow they all strove to build. The 1920s was a thrilling time to be alive, as the Æon Society traveled around the world on countless adventures. The best of Nick's exploits were published in both Paradigma and the growing realms of pulp fiction as 'The Amazing Adventures of Nick Daring, the Unstoppable Man!' At long last, Nick had achieved his dream. At long last, he was the Hero he'd always dreamed of being.

In 1925, Nick would have his final adventure: Upon The Precipice of Eternity. The Society had discovered an African ruin that was ancient even before the first mud bricks of Sumer were laid. It had been built by the enigmatic Zantu, a race of ancients who were the direct descendants of the remnants of Atlantis. Their advanced technologies had culminated in the creation of their Time Engines--vast mechanisms that could control the flow of Time. But they were not the only ones--Nick's entire Rogue's Gallery of Villians had converged upon the ruin as well. If even one of them siezed the Time Engines, they could turn time itself into a weapon for world domination. Ever the selfless Hero, Nick ordered the rest of the Society to fall back, before detonating the Engine core. In a blinding flash and a massive explosion, the Zantu ruins were erased from the face of the earth. No trace remained of them, nor of Nick Daring. The Sons of Ether mourned their fallen hero, and history moved on.

But for a confused and terrified Nick, inexplicably awakening in Houston in the year 1994, a new Adventure is set to begin...