Pushing forward into a new world...

It is the year xxxx.  It is the xxth night of the x(x)th month.  Overly generic cliches run amok in th streets of rotham city.  Everything went horribly wrong after the Fifty-twelfth president took office.  At least, that's what they say.  I can't remember anything from before the bombs.

They say it was horrifying.  A true Hell on earth.  Maybe it was, I don't know.  All I remember is a flash of light, and then I was born.  From the wreckage the survivors began to crawl forward on their hands and knees toward an impossible future.  Some ran and grabbed what they could by any means necessary.  Some tried to hold on to the old ideals of truth, and justice.  Some were turned, by some horrible turn of events, into freaks.

Like me.

I knew that those who tried to hold on to the "rules" wouldn't last long in this chaos.  I had to be the one to protect them.  I had to break the rules myself to do that.  I worked quickly, grabbing the prime real estate that was left amidst the rubble.  A shabby run down motel that seemed to have been left unscathed for no other purpose than to mock us.  It was my mansion; it would be my home.

On the outside, I was a King among peasants.  Untouchable, unattainable, I worked night after night in my castle.  I quickly and quietly spread rumors about myself.  In the shadows, I whispered stories about the hundreds the "millionaire" had on his payroll to protect him.    I kept my feelers on the pulse of this new world.  Whenever the ideas began to be formed to take from the richest man in town, I would turn the focus to a new, disposable target.

I had to get my hands dirty, but the results were absolutely necessary.  I needed my sanctuary; my base of operations.  From here I would protect the lowly and downtrodden, even if it meant acting the villain as a cover.    I formed my costume first.  Rags and scraps were sown together with makeshift pieces of armor.  The plating covered my back mostly.  I would have to evade any attacks to the front.  Armed with a grappling hook and a lead pipe, I took to the night.

I controlled the outbursts of crime, protected the innocent, and left before any could even thank me.  Rumors began about my superhuman nature, and they were all true.  Well, not the one about me having a hunchback and a 9 foot...nevermind.

Whatever had caused me to lose everything in the nuclear war, had given me so much more.  I was so much faster than a normal human.  I could outrun most cars at my fastest.  I no longer felt the effects of aging and nothing less than a straight shot to the head or heart could take me down.  I was the invincible.  I was immortal.  Too this day I fight, because I'm the only one that can.  I will be here long after the last traces of humanity are gone.

I am...the American Roach.