The Astro-Naut
The word you are looking for, friends, is "Astronaut."
HistoryDuring the Great Depression, organized crime families in Romeyn Falls dug themselves in, diversifying their operations. In 1936, the Ingels Street mob tried muscling in on Roy's work, demanding protection money, and he refused. They sent round the Convincer, a one-man wrecking crew, to convince him, but Roy took care of him, dropping him off with the police to tell them about his bosses. Councilman Joseph Greenwald visited Virgil Air Systems afterwards to see if Roy was interested in taking up crime-fighting, if perhaps the city could support him. Joe helped Roy with his business, permits, and such, and in return Roy helped him campaign. Perhaps it was Joe who got Roy into costume, perhaps not, but he started showing up in a stylized astronaut outfit. As Roy made good on his arrangement with the city, taking down criminals, his reputation grew - there were newsreels, magazines and toys, and they even started making a movie about him. His development of the Ethero-Drive, which allowed him to slip through folds of empty space, was a big breakthrough for him, allowing him to venture out into the universe, where he fought villains, had adventures, and encountered alien civilizations. Inspired by the technologies he saw out there, when he came back to Earth he'd work on inventions that would do the same thing, or do entirely new things born of new knowledge. Along the way, he met Xalzana, the one woman he might have left Earth behind for, but though they met numerous times, and something he thought was love developed, there was a fear in her, not of him, but of something she wouldn't say. On the night he intended to propose to her, there was an attack, separating them, and though he searched more than a dozen worlds for her afterwards, he never saw her again. Circa 1942, Roy came across a nearby star system under attack from the Mrevani, a ruthless race bent on conquest. He discovered that when the Mrevani had first been visited by interstellar explorers, they'd killed them and taken their technology, turning their warlike ways out towards the universe at large, attacking everyone they met. They'd got the technology before they were ready to handle it, and Roy feared that if he gave humanity that technology, then they'd end up going down a similar route. Shaken, he withdrew from human society, becoming a recluse. Soon agencies with the American government made visits, requesting access to his inventions and know-how to aid in the war effort. He refused. The refusal shook people's faith in him. Though he still did his own part for the war effort, at one point getting captured by the enemy and escaping, the American public shunned him, favoring heroes who, from their perspective, seemed more patriotic, heroes they inspired more confidence. Thus he soon faded from public view. In late spring of 1946, the Mrevani came to Earth, their first target, Romeyn Falls. The Astro-Naut, accompanied by a fleet of self-designed drone ships, immediately appeared to defend his home city. Deftly avoiding the Mrevani's attacks, he piloted his ship into their flying base and blew it up, but took serious injuries in the process. Using a teleporter to return to his corporation headquarters, the Gernsback Building. With Joe's assistance, they destroyed his remaining works, keeping them from the control of devious corporations and mischievous criminals. He then took one more journey through his teleportation device. The assumed destion, the sanctuary of his orbiting asteroid base. Perhaps to use some form of advanced technology to heal himself, or perhaps to die in isolation. What ultimately became of him is a mystery. The town renamed itself in honor of his bravery, becoming Astro City in 1947. The rocket beacon on AstroBank Tower was reconfigured as a signalling device, alerting heroes of impending dangers. Virgil Air Systems would eventually rename itself to Virgil Aeronautics, then Virgil Aero, before being absorbed by N. R. Gistics. Equipment
ObservationsRoy had one of those minds that comes up once-in-a-generation, developing inventions far in advance of current Earth technologies. As Joe put it, Roy made breakthroughs practically by force of will, simply by knowing they were possible. He doesn't seem to have realized that he was anything exceptional, his basic assumptions were that anyone could do. They just had to put their minds to it. Speculations, Theories
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