MAJOR DEEJ UNIVERSE

Ryan Schweitzer grew up believing his parents cared more about their work at the New York State Civil Defense facility than they did about him. They were constantly called away for overtime, emergency response, and long hours at New York City operations centers. Whenever they were absent, Ryan was usually left in the care of a gruff older neighbor he resented deeply, a man he dismissed as nothing more than an overbearing nuisance.

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As Ryan entered his teenage years, that resentment began to shape him. He fell in with a reckless crowd at school and developed an increasingly hostile attitude toward authority, responsibility, and even his own home life. His parents urged him to straighten out and do the right thing, while the old neighbor lectured him about discipline, service, and community obligation. To Ryan, it all sounded like more unwanted pressure.

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At the same time, he grew bitter over life in a city constantly under siege by superhuman conflict. One alert after another forced students into bomb shelters while heroes and villains fought overhead. The routine became unbearable to him. During one such emergency, Ryan and a longtime friend chose to skip the shelter entirely and slip away instead. It was a selfish, impulsive decision that would define the rest of his life.

 

When Ryan’s teacher realized he was missing, word was sent immediately to the Civil Defense facility. What Ryan never knew was that both of his parents were secretly superheroes, each operating under the mantle of Civil Defense. Defying orders to remain on wider civilian protection duty, they abandoned their assigned zone and went looking for Ryan. They found him and his friend near an active battle site, caught in the line of fire between a hero, a super-villain, and more than twenty armed super-soldiers mowing down anything that moved. Ryan’s friend had already been killed. Ryan himself was moments from dying.

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His parents descended into the firefight, neutralized the gunmen, and saved their son. In the stunned silence afterward, the two armored heroes removed their helmets and revealed themselves to Ryan. For a fleeting moment, the shock of the battle gave way to joy and understanding. Ryan finally saw the truth of who his parents were.

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Then that moment was destroyed.

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A surviving super-soldier, having just killed the hero he had been fighting, came upon the scene. Seeing two costumed defenders distracted and unmasked in front of a terrified teenager, he took immediate advantage. He shot both of Ryan’s parents in the back of the head.

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They died instantly.

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Ryan was drenched in their blood and thrown into profound psychological shock as the killer escaped. Hospitalized and emotionally shattered, he became consumed with guilt, convinced that his own selfishness had caused their deaths.

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In the days that followed, Ryan learned the truth about his parents in full. Heroes, emergency responders, and city officials came to him with story after story of the lives his parents had saved over the years. They had protected civilians tirelessly, often at enormous personal cost, and had become revered figures within the Civil Defense authority and beyond. Their funeral became a massive public event attended by tens of thousands. Firefighters, police, National Guard units, Civil Defense personnel, and numerous superheroes came to honor them. Even the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds performed a missing-man flyover during the internationally televised service.

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For Ryan, the grief was unbearable, but so too was the revelation. All his life he had seen neglect; now he saw sacrifice. All he had focused on was what he believed he had been denied, while never understanding how much his parents had quietly given to others.

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Through all of it, the old neighbor remained at his side.

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That man, Terrance Decatur, finally revealed his own secret: he had been the original Civil Defense, serving during the Cold War era before passing the mantle to Ryan’s father. After Ryan’s father took up the role, Ryan’s mother later joined him, and together they became the latest guardians behind the identity. Decatur had watched over Ryan because he had promised his parents he would.

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He also revealed something even more personal: Ryan’s parents had hoped the Civil Defense mantle would one day pass to Ryan himself, but only when he was ready.

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Overwhelmed by grief and revelation, Ryan declared that the legacy would not die. He insisted it was now his responsibility, his duty, and his burden to carry. He swore to Decatur that he would uphold the mission, honor the dead, and continue the work begun by those who came before him. Though deeply reluctant and fearful of burying another member of the Schweitzer family, Decatur ultimately accepted Ryan’s resolve.

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He brought Ryan into the hidden world his parents had left behind: a secret room inside the Manhattan Civil Defense facility containing armor, equipment, communications systems, and the small support team that had quietly aided his parents for years. Those same people pledged themselves to Ryan’s cause.

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Since then, Ryan has taken up the mantle of Civil Defense and made it his own. Under Decatur’s stern guidance, he trains constantly in the use of the armor, flight systems, combat methods, and the moral responsibility that comes with the role. He remains young, impulsive, arrogant, and often driven by anger, but the pain of his past has also forged in him a fierce devotion to protecting others from suffering what he endured.

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Over time, Ryan expanded beyond New York City, learning to operate on national and international missions. His growing experience eventually brought him into G.U.A.R.D. and into the ranks of one of its premier super-teams, the Aeroguardians.

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Driven by guilt, sharpened by loss, and tempered through duty, Ryan Schweitzer now carries one of the most personal heroic legacies imaginable. He is no longer simply the son of Civil Defense.

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He is Civil Defense.

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More recently, Ryan discovered that the legacy extends farther than he ever imagined. He encountered another Civil Defense operative in Spain, as well as one claiming to serve as Civil Defense for the European Union. Decatur admitted that there were others across the world, though even he did not know how many existed or how widely the armor designs and mission philosophy had spread. Ryan now understands that Civil Defense is more than a single mantle.

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It may be an international legacy.

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