During WWII, all mystics in Germany were either hunted or killed by the SS or made to serve Hitler. Nearly all German mystics didn't survive.  The Ecker family was lucky to escape to the mountains between Germany and Czechoslovakia.  There, they found an old abandoned house where they took on the assumed name of the previous dead owners, the Hauptmanns.  Since all neighbors to the area were either dead or gone, no one knew the difference of who they were.

​

After WWII ended, the populace began to increase, however, they were now in the Eastern Bloc nation of East Germany, controlled by Soviet Russia.  Luckily for them, they were never questioned or interrogated about who they were.  As such, the "Hauptmann/Ecker" family lived off the land with their own gardens, chickens, goats and horses.  In 1950, Edo Ecker (Hauptmann) was born.  In 1973, Edo married a local girl, Greta.  Edo's parents passed away in 1985, however, Greta had her one and only son, Oskar, in 1990, the same year the Berlin Wall fell and East Germany was no more.

​

By 2000, young Oskar was part of the reunified Germany.  His father, Edo, had taught Greta and Oskar how to be mystics.  They both learned a variety of magics, primarily spirit magic, however, Edo also exposed them to the dangers of death magic so they understood its hazards first hand.  Regardless of their training, their intent was to simply live and not bother anyone.

​

One day, just shy of his 17th birthday, Oskar was exploring their aging home for birthday presents, but instead discovered a locked chest with his grandparents name on it hidden under the attic floorboards.  Curious, Oskar broke the lock to the chest.  Inside, he saw nearly four dozen mystical runes, each wrapped in a swatch of cloth that Oskar had learned previously from his father was called "Mistrankloth" - a form of magic-masking material that would prevent others attuned to sensing magical energies to not sense anything wrapped in it.

​

Oskar unwrapped each rune, curiously studying each of them. A set of runes had the Latin words for "Dark Condor" written into the Mistrankloth, while another set was labeled "Black Zephyr"; the four remaining ones were labeled, but the writing was so old, it has washed out and were unreadable.  Unfortunately, Oskar's curiosity led him to leave a few of the runes 'uncovered' of the Mistrankloth when he was startled by a noise outside.

​

His father returning was returning to the house from the barn.

 

Oskar hastily tossed the runes back into the chest, furthering unsettling the methodically Mistrankloth-wrapped runes even further. Oskar's actions that day set forth an eventual emergence of evil that civilization hadn't been exposed to in centuries.

​

Two weeks later, in the dead of night, a shudder shook the house down to its foundation.  Edo and his wife Greta whisked Oskar to a field adjacent to the barn where it was believed safe.  Both Edo and Greta went back into the house to find what caused the commotion.  Oskar watched as his parents' flashlights alighted to the place where the rune-filled chest was found by Oskar.  As his parents came close to the casket, the house exploded with monstrous levels of spirit and death magics.  Everything within 1/4 mile radius was leveled.  Oskar's parents were killed instantaneously.  Oskar, miraculously, survived, however a large collection of dark energy absorbed into Oskar.

 

Oskar changed.

 

Oskar's youthful innocence was soon replaced with an indignation and maliciousness he'd never previously displayed.  His skin darkened by the exposure, He felt a malevolence take him over like never before. The dark energy was directly affection his body...and his soul.

 

In Oskar's changed state, he slowly advanced on the leveled house, seeing his deceased parents strewn about the epicenter of the blast.  He also found a handful of the runes he'd spied in his grandparent's chest.  He picked them up, and in so doing, he 'felt' that each rune was supercharged with either spirit or death magics.  He felt compelled to find all of the runes.

​

In a maddening manner, he shot across the destroyed grounds hunting for the altered runes.  In the midst of this, neighbors came to the house to see the utter destruction.  As they advanced on the rune-hunting, obsessed 'creature' to see what it was, the being that was once Oskar, spooked by their presence, shot at them blasts of death magic, killing most of them.  This 'creature' was no longer Oskar and as such, Oskar had no control of it, other than to watch and remember what was happening through his mind's eye.  The remaining neighbors ran screaming back down the road and to the local police.  The creature chased after them, blasting at them, killing more yet.  In the end, aside from his two dead parents and dozens of farm animals, he'd personally killed them of his neighbors. Happily.

​

The runes acted like batteries to the creature's death magic energies.  After finding all four dozen of the runes, the police and fire department showed up at Oskar's leveled house.  Drained from its death magic blasts and ensuing chase, the creature felt it needed to retreat...and recharge.  The police by this time had surrounded the creature, firing upon it, and eventually shooting it in the leg.  It blasted the officer to death, and then screeched a horrid sound, as black and grey wings ripped out of the back of the creature, allowing it to fly off into the moonlit night.  The remaining officers shot at it as it flew away and actually his it twice more, but it escaped the range of their weapons and eventually crash-landed in another home's vegetable garden several miles away, spent and exhausted.

​

When Oskar awoke, he was in a hospital bed in Dresden, Germany.

 

Oskar was once again normal.

 

He no longer had his blackened skin. He had no 'iron-like'' wings.

 

Was it all a dream?

​

After talking to the doctor, Oskar realized what had happened to him was far from a dream; it was instead, a living nightmare.

 

The police reported that a large bird-like creature had destroyed Oskar's home, killing neighbors, farm animals and his parents.  They found Oskar in a vegetable garden miles away with cuts and bruises, and unconscious. The police questioned him day and night, but since Oskar didn't have any bullet wounds (or any testimony of relevance), they considered him a 'victim' of the creature instead.  Oskar knew had had to get our of the hospital and try and figure out what the hell was happening.  As he was trying to get out of the hospital, a doctor and a nurse barred him from leaving, trying to force him back to his hospital room.  When Oskar became agitated, he blacked out.

​

The next thing Oskar remembered was waking up hundreds of feet in the air from a tree limb.  He'd lost over a day's time since he awoke.  When he finally climbed down the tree, naked as a Jaybird, he found some clothes on a nearby home's clothesline, and went to find what had happened in the last 24 hours to him.

​

After a bit of deductive reasoning, he discovered he was now in Czechoslovakia, outside of Prague.

​

Passing an electronic store with a TV in the window, he saw a breaking story of an assault in a hospital of a dark, bird-like man in Dresden, Germany.

 

The dark, bird-like man was him.

​

Oskar now understood the spirit and death magics of the runes' explosion changed him and possibly awakened a darker soul or creature that had been caged in the runes. Realizing the deadly danger he'd placed the world in, he knew he had to learn to stop or control the change, while at the same time, stay hidden from people; people that could get killed if they were around when and if he did change.

​

Over the next few years, Oskar lived off the streets as a vagrant, going from town to town, trying his best to stay away from people at night.  He knew his childish actions had caused his parents death and neighbors deaths and the unleashing of this dark-heartened creature.

​

Oskar's control over "Ironwing" as the media now called it, began to improve each month.  Oskar, eventually, was able to control the change, however, the darker, murderous creature, once changed, was completely uncontrollable.  The only times he wasn't able to control the change was under extreme stress or when severely injured.

​

In 2010, while at a homeless shelter in northern Germany, a battle started in the streets a block from the shelter.  There, police and the German military were fighting the villainous Condor Commander and his Condor Legion.  Bullets flying, energy blasts exploding all around them, Oskar was buried under a section of the shelter's wall that had blown in from the firefight.  He lost control and changed into Ironwing.

​

Ironwing went on a maddened killing spree, attacking everything in its path.  The police and military assumed it had joined forces with the Condor Legion (by simple name association) and concentrated their weapons' fire on Ironwing.  Condor Legion, realizing the ferocity of Ironwing, hid in the woods, watching all that transpired.  At one point, IronwIng was hit with a grenade, grounding and wounding it.  Struggling to get up, the military swooped in to kill Ironwing, but not before Condor Legion leaped from the woods, taking down the remaining military men and women.  Ironwing saw this, and as it passed out into unconsciousness, it said in Latin "Thank You".  Ironwing then changed back into Oskar, who fell to the ground unconscious.  Condor Commander, not sure what else to do, scooped up Ironwing and brought him back to their base.

​

At the Condor Legion's base, The Aerie, Oskar awoke in a dungeon cell with Condor Commander outside the cell, watching him.  After Condor Commander explained what happened to 'Ironwing', Oskar thanked him for saving him/it, and told Condor Commander he had nothing to fear from him in this form.

​

Over the next few days, Oskar and Condor Commander became close friends.  Oskar told Condor Commander everything about his life, and what he'd turned into.  Condor Commander released Oskar from his cell and instead, became enraptured with his tale and plight; more to the point, Condor Commander wanted the power of Ironwing in the legion, fighting for him.

​

Condor Commander asked if Oskar had any magical knowledge or training on how to control the creature.  Oskar, who'd never given serious thought about a magical solution, remembered a spell that his father said was only handed down verbally over the centuries on how to make a powerful ward against death magic.  It took at least 1/2 a day per ward and some rare elements to concoct.  Between Condor Legion's other magical members, they agreed to help get the materials needed. 

​

After a few weeks, Oskar and the Legion were able to make enough wards for each Condor Legion member.  The wards would prevent the Ironwing from attacking them; the Ironwing creature may not like it, but it wouldn't be able to assault them in any way, shape or form.

 

To test this, Condor Commander personally locked himself in a cell with Oskar.  Armed with his weapons and a ward, he had Oskar force the change.  When Ironwing appeared, it initially tried to attack Condor Commander, but physically couldn't.  The ward worked.  Much to Condor Commander's surprise, Ironwing began to speak with him...in Latin.  One of the Condor Commander's troops knew how to use the Ya!Go! Translator app and translated for Condor Commander and Ironwing.  Ironwing did not like the ward, but understood it was in the presence of a powerful being; only powerful beings could ever stop Ironwing's thirst for killing.  After a few hours of conversation, Ironwing understood that Condor Commander wanted it to be his soldier; to be the killing machine when he needed it, but not to kill his people.  Ironwing stated no promises; if its blood lust demanded death, then it was to be so, regardless of who it was, but it also knew that if a person had the power to repel it, it would know better than to attack it again...that time.

​

In an uneasy and untenable agreement, Ironwing agreed to aid his legion, but should Condor Commander or his follower's 'powers' over it fail, even for one second, that legionnaire would be fair game for the grave.

​

After Ironwing changed back to Oskar, Oskar swore his allegiance to Condor Commander for being able to 'control' the creature.  Oskar, however, told Condor Commander that he placed the responsibility of Ironwing's action squarely on Condor Commander's shoulders; should Oskar discover that Ironwing murdered any innocents (those he deemed NOT fighting the Condor Legion), especially children, he'd leave the legion for good.

​

Since then, Condor Commander has worked hard to keep Oskar fed only the information he needed to hear. Condor Commander has, at times, involved his fellow teammates such as Madame Stasi to use her mind powers to 'alter' Oskar's knowledge of Ironwing's actions, thus keeping Oskar AND Ironwing under their control.

​