Stevenson woke up with a jolt at the sound of the alarms. All he heard was that somebody locked his door. Stevenson hid under his bed and waited for the alarm to be turned off. He could hear the adults running around and things breaking. He waited for his parents to sneak in and tell him what to do and what was happening. But that never happened. He never saw his parents again.Stevenson was the only son of Stephan and Jean Skor. Between the two of them they were one fourth of the deep science team at the National Bioengineering Lab in the Mojave Desert. This team of scientists and engineers studied insects and arachnids that lived in extreme conditions. Their goal was to develop new materials and protective gear for surviving the eventual threat of global warming. In the team, Stephan and Jean were the only married couple. That made Stevenson the only child that grew up in this isolated and yet fascinating world of research and bugs.
The lab was too far away to go to school, so Stevenson was home- schooled by his parents with a little help from their colleagues. It was always welcome down time for the team members to drop by and teach Stevenson about math, science, history, and literature. It is no surprise the school lessons usually ended up tying everything back to insects, deserts, survival and scientific research. Stevenson read Tom Sawyer and learned all about native habitat and sources of protein that one might find along the Mississippi River. When reading Macbeth, the team adopted a new meme: “Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. Those were happy years for an eager young mind. This all changed that one night.
The door was finally opened and it was Greg, a fellow bio-engineer, that told Stevenson his parents were missing. A group of men dressed in white broke into the camp and kidnapped Stephan and Jean. They had been working on a special fabric special ability to withstand extreme heat, fire, extreme cold, repel impact and fix itself. The team scrambled to get the research back together.
Nobody understood the kidnapping. Their absence delayed progress but did not stop it. The team each had a piece of the puzzle. Why take only them? What had they discovered? Nobody knew, but Stevenson was driven to find out.
Out of consideration to Stevenson, the research institution allowed Stevenson to stay. Greg became Stevenson’s legal guardian. At the lab and in his studies he found comfort. Being at the lab reminded Stevenson of his parents, it fueled his quiet and unrelenting determination to one day he would find a clue as to his parents where about or learn what his parents might have discovered to that was so valuable.
As expected Stevenson went on to college to study material sciences and biochemistry. Nobody could have foreseen however that Stevenson to go into business and make it big. His first product to hit the market were clothes that became reflective or dark, thin or thick depending on the environment. His new fabric, bioflexive, became a rage for those who wanted to exercise year round or travel light: “One outfit for any weather.” Once his brand of sports clothes made it big, Stevenson became a fashion celebrity and workaholic. He did not return to the lab in the desert until many years later, when he heard that Greg had been murdered. He was there the very next day, though nobody saw him.
Stevenson had been working on many more not yet commercial developments. Fabric that made you blend into the background, fabric that with the flexing of certain muscles would become stiff and cut like a blade or turn into bullet repellent fabric, fabric that had layers that fixed themselves, fabric that would become a wireless monitor and lenses that could provide a 360 degree panoramic view. These were some of the innovations that were only worn by the Black Scorpion.
He did not want to be seen at the lab. He trusted no one. He had to see for himself. As Black Scorpion he was invisible to the naked eye and to infrared cameras. His super shoes were integrated into his pants and changed to meet the challenges of each surface. In stealth mode he could walk around as if on waterproof, cushioned socks or climb walls with the changing nature of his fabric. He extended his palm over areas he wanted to scan and record for analysis in the lab, like the series of books and notes on Greg’s private desk. Greg had been looking into the compound eyesight of insects.