Off Grid

Prologue: Humble Beginnings

Off Grid stood on the rooftop of the office building that sat directly adjacent to Argent City History Museum. Wind tugged gently at the hood of his tattered cloak, and adrenaline coursed through his veins. The museum was, unbeknownst to the guards on duty within, his target for the night. Particularly, the newly added exhibit that was showcasing a number of rare and valuable Egyptian artifacts.

The villain was not looking for trouble that night. After all, he already had buyers lined up, and it would have been a shame if a reckless misstep alerted a guard, or tripped a security system that sent everyone's favorite superhero rushing to the scene.

Now, it is important to note that Seth Anderson didn't start out as a bad guy. He'd first fallen in with an older, unsavory crowd when he entered high school. Struggling to fit in, and eager to be a part of something, he'd been embarrassingly easy to take advantage of.

If the group wanted to smoke, he'd be coughing up his lungs for their entertainment in the next minute. If they wanted to shoplift, he was more than glad to help out by hiding items on his person. Seth loved the attention that it all earned him. The praise and the laughter. It was his first taste of what it was like to do the wrong thing.

But it certainly wasn't his last.

Seth's powers first manifested when he was 17 years old. He wasn't sure where they'd come from, or what had triggered their awakening. Nonetheless, he was, just as any teenager would have been, beyond ecstatic when he'd discovered them.

He knew enough to keep his new abilities hidden, but that didn't mean that he refrained from exercising them. At first, he'd only used his power for small, petty things. Raiding vending machines. Zapping unsuspecting victims while he laughed maniacally from behind park bushes. More innocent, childish forms of wreaking havoc on his city.

Age 19 was when everything changed. A stormy night and a car accident could do that so horribly and suddenly.

Though barely an adult himself, he did what he thought anyone would, and took in his brother, who had only been 9 years old at the time. Unable to to make enough money and continue his schooling at the same time, Seth dropped out of his first year of college in favor of working full time to support them both. He knew it wouldn't be easy raising a child, but he couldn't stand idly by and watch his younger brother be wrenched away from him. Not after losing his parents.

And they did manage to scrape by for a couple of years. Two short, quiet years in which his newfound responsibilities kept him temporarily out of trouble. Such tranquility, he knew, could not last.

His brother's diagnosis was the tipping point. The extra expense was too much to balance with his already thinly-stretched paycheck. Seth truly had tried to live honestly, to set the example his parents had always asked him to.

But trying wasn't always enough. In fact, in Seth's experience, it very rarely was.

When he first put on the mask and became Off Grid, it was, in his mind, an act of necessity. It was the only way out of the hard spot he had found himself in.

That first robbery was a local convenience store, not two blocks from home. He knew that physically it would be easy for someone with his abilities to pull off something far grander, but he needed to be sure. Sure that he really had it in him to walk the path of a criminal. Swiping a lighter or a bag of candy while the clerk wasn't watching was one thing, but to threaten and demand money from a register or safe was something else entirely.

His lack of experience showed more than he wanted to admit. He'd been clumsy and bumbling, unsure of what to do or say, but he'd still made off with what he needed. Who would deny a masked man with with superpowers?