Shamus McNeil, a native Irishman working as an explosives engineer for Emerald Gas & Oil, was assigned as a member of a geological survey around the Dublin coastline and shores to find new sources of oil, natural gas or even the practicality of tidal energy. The survey team, led by Liam McDonald, a geologist, used echo-sounding sonar machine all along the coast, hoping to find new near-land locations to drill/mine from.  The team's efforts led to the discovery of a vast cavernous chamber beneath a particular unowned tract of land along the shoreline in Dublin. 

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After about a month of planning and debate with the oil company executives, the team, led by Liam, was given the green light to investigate the cavern and also see if it was a good location for tidal energy machinery.  The effort to enter the cavern was tricky; a shoreline cave led deep to the entry point of the cavernous area, however, echo sounding identified what looked like a thick rock mass between the tunnel and the closed-off portion of the cavern.  Shamus, as the team's explosives expert, had his explosives team put together a plan to open up a narrow wall on the sea-side of the cave system, however, it was located right at the tidal surge basin; an area that could only be accessed at low tide. Rather than attempt to rig a water barrier (cofferdam) (which the company deemed as to 'expensive' to do),  it was determined that the only way the cavern could be surveyed properly was to blow a hole in the narrow rock wall at the tidal basin at low tide, perform the survey, and then exit before the tide would come back in...which would most likely trap them in the cavernous chamber until the next low tide. Shamus was not 100% liking this plan, however, so long as only two of them went in, him and Liam, the risk assessment numbers worked to the better solutions in the 'cost effective' pursuit. As such, the Emerald Gas & Oil company arranged the permits and were authorized by the local authorities to perform their explosive survey action.

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At 2:00 AM on a Friday morning, Liam's crew set-up the explosives to open the gap between the sea wall and the chamber.  Just as the munitions team was finishing their work, a disembodied deep voice echoed a warning in Gaelic to Liam's team: Leave now or all who dare to enter 'Shavara' shall be cursed forevermore.  Two of the workers ran back out, however Liam and Shamus stayed and blasted open the barrier.  When the smoke cleared, Liam and Shamus were able to crawl through an opening that entered the cavernous chamber, which was brightly illuminated by large emerald-colored crystals growing out of every wall, floor and ceiling point in the chamber. Figuring they found a cavern of precious emeralds, Shamus entered the chamber first, greedily gathering up handfuls of crystals, shoving them into his pockets and jacket. Strangely, the crystals seems to have a kinetic resonance to them that acted much like reverse-polarized magnetism; the more movement the crystals experienced, the more the crystals' kinetic energy grew, creating a bit of a gyroscopic action to the crystals - and anything it was attached to, such as Shamus.  As a result, Shamus kept falling over as he grabbed more crystals. Eventually, Shamus began careening across the sharp emerald-colored crystal floor, cutting himself on the thousands of jutting sharp crystal edges.  After a few minutes of this, Shamus, now bleeding profusely from the multiple cuts and slashes, had been kinetically slammed over 100 yards into the center of the chamber and was near death.  Liam knew he only had sparse minutes left before the ocean would rush back into this void and flood the chamber.  He had to think quickly if he was to save the engineer and get out alive.

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Liam took one of the crystals and experimented with it, identifying what actions would occur depending on how he held the crystal and when he built up its kinetic energy.  As a result, Liam figured how to use the crystals to "leap" across to the center of the cavern to get to Shamus.  Using wild gestures with the crystals in his hand, Liam was able to jettison himself in a kinetic leap to within a foot of Shamus' bloodied body.  Liam grabbed Shamus up and this time used four crystals to propel him back to the chamber entrance.  That's when the ocean water started pouring in.

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With mere minutes left, Liam, while carrying the engineer, used the crystals to propel himself outward through the flooding cave entrance.  At one point he looked back at the chamber and saw that the water flowing across the crystals caused the crystals to explode with energy; a chain reaction ensued, causing all the crystals in the chamber to explode with the force near to a nuclear bomb.  Nonetheless to say, the chamber's explosive pressure wave shot Liam and Shamus nearly a 1/2 mile out into the sea. The chamber of exploding crystals caved in on itself, causing nearly 2 1/2 miles of shoreline damage, leaving a sink hole over a mile and 1/2 wide.  Since there were no buildings in the area of value (old dilapidated farm houses and barns), no one else was hurt.

 

Amidst all of this Liam and Shamus lived. 

 

Liam still retained his 4 crystals, and in a premeditated move, took the other crystals from Shamus' coat, totaling over 15 crystals.

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In the aftermath of this, a massive investigation occurred, resulting in Emerald Oil & Gas firing Liam and Shamus. Shamus was practically in a coma for 99% of the duration of the investigation.  Liam told no one about the kinetic emerald-like crystals and instead said that they must have hit a methane pocket in a quartz-lined cavern (which was meant to explain Shamus' cuts). Since no other crystals were found amidst the damage and debris, Emerald Oil & Gas closed the investigation with the firings, under Shamus' protests that they'd encountered 'magical green crystals' with incredible powers (to which Emerald Oil & Gas was 'nice' enough to send Shamus in to the psyche ward for 'permanent observation'). Liam tried to go see Shamus and discuss with him what was happening, however, both Emerald Oil & Gas and Shamus placed Liam on the "do not allow to visit' list.

 

While Shamus was in his coma, he was operated on to remove four kinetic emerald fragments found lodged in Shamus' skull from the explosion/cavern incident. Those crystals were removed from Shamus before they sent him to the psychiatric hospital. After the Emerald Oil & Gas Company was asked to comment on the fragments found in Shamus, a greedy and immoral Emerald Oil & Gas executive released Shamus from the psychiatric hospital and had him build prototype kinetic generators in a secure lab at the Emerald Oil & Gas HQ building to find out more of what they were and what they could do...such as blowup a 2 1/2 mile stretch of coastline to Hell.  Sadly, Shamus used sonic resonance vice Osmium metal (which Liam secretly used months before when he was researching the crystal properties) so as to contain the kinetic energy of the crystals. Instead, the resonance created an explosive accident of a high frequency sonic discharge that not only damaged Shamus hearing, but shattered his already damaged right eye and destroyed whatever was left of Shamus' mind...and half of the Emerald Oil & Gas HQ building. The executive and two other engineers died during the incident.

 

Although Shamus survived, he had to undergo weeks of surgery and two months of rehabilitation to be operational again. Sadly, his mind was starting to unravel, however, he kept himself in check (for the most part) while at the hospital until he was finally discharged. Now using high powered hearing aides to hear, Shamus took his secretly gathered lab equipment and crystal remnants and some of his research and decided he needed to tell the world himself about his crystals so he could be exonerated and made famous. In his mind, Shamus thought he needed 'money' and 'attention' to get everyone to 'see' him beyond his damaged face and body and for the world to tell him how wonderful he was with this discovery of what could be done with these crystals. Of course, his mind, in its fractured state, didn't take long before he thought of another idea of how to immortalize himself - be a hero.

 

While working with the scraps of crystal to build a containment gauntlet or two (and hiding from the authorities), Shamus saw a superhero cartoon show on TV and decided he need to be a 'superhero that needs to demonstrate to the world what the crystals true potential was'.  He made a costume, reforged the (now) blackened crystals into the new set of steel gauntlets, and decided to demonstrate the crystals powers by going to a vault at a bank. go to his bank to perform a 'withdrawal'...in costume, just to show everyone what he and his engineered use of the crystals could do.  When Shamus arrived at the bank, a security team tried to take Shamus down (thinking him to be a super-villain robber).  Sadly, the security team was killed by Shamus and the dark kinetic energy of the new gauntlets.  Shamus went to the vault, tore it open and took money from the vault...and escaped, calling himself the "Emerald Ire" as he exited. An investigation into the robbery showed that over 3 million Euros had been stolen.

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When the TV news showed the 'robbery'. Shamus' geologist ex-team leader, Liam, immediately recognized the crystals...and Shamus.  Liam knew he had to find him and stop him before others got hurt.  After Shamus pulled off another robbery at another bank (again, in a display showing how 'great' his gauntlets and crystals were), Liam, who himself had barely practiced using his own engineered Osmium steel gauntlets and crystal-generated shield matrix, donned a costume given to him by his girlfriend, and went to stop Shamus before something worse happened.

 

Liam, while again watching the news, saw "Emerald Ire" (Shamus) attacking Dublin's parliament, ranting to them about HIS magical green crystals he'd discovered and how Emerald Oil & Gas and Liam McDonald conspired to prevent him from the fame of being a superhero and earn a fortune for his new crystal-powered gauntlets. Liam called the Parliament security and told them they needed to follow his lead and get 'Emerald Ire' away from the city, out to the coastal area where the massive explosion had happened recently; Liam told them to tell "Emerald Ire" there are more crystals down in the cavern and to meet him there to show the world 'their' discovery.

 

When security passed along the message, Shamus laughed, cried and then went ballistic over hearing 'their discovery'; as far as Shamus was concerned it was HIS discovery.  Mindlessly, Shamus kindly asked for keys to a government vehicle to which they quickly handed him...and for which Shamus then decidedly drove to the Dublin coastline.

 

News vans followed (at a safe distance) as did the police all the way to the coastline site, where Liam, dressed in his costume, stood alone between Shamus and the cavern.

 

Shamus figured out the costumed man before him was Liam, mostly since the crystals emanating from Liam's costume were the same green emerald like in the cavern.  Shamus first asked Liam if he thought he was some type of "emerald shield' between him and the cavern, to which Liam responded that Shamus needed to stop his violence and criminal actions and turn himself in.

 

Shamus immediately attacked Liam, yelling at Liam that he (Shamus) was an engineering god and 'hero to the Irish people'.

 

For the next three minutes, both Liam and Shamus fought like wild pack dogs. Incredible kinetic energy hits, blocks, poundings and more were witnessed by the world on a live news feed.  During the fight, Shamus crystals began to glow a chaotic pattern of purple and green, getting brighter and brighter.  Liam figured the crystals were on the verge of overloading and exploding.  Liam ordered the police to clear the area and that Emerald Ire's crystals were about to explode.  The police cleared out the observers and the news crews, but even Liam knew the crystals were seconds away from exploding. 

 

Using the crystals in his boots, Liam used the same kinetic jump technique he'd used in the cavern and jumped straight to Shamus. Liam smashed his gauntlets' crystals onto the locking latches of Shamus' gauntlets, causing both of their pairs of gauntlets to fall from their hands and onto the ground. Liam punched Shamus unconscious and kinetically jumped himself and Shamus to safety...just as Shamus' gauntlets exploded. The explosion made a 50-foot deep crater and an 80-foot radius zone of destruction across the surface.

 

Liam dragged Shamus to a police car and told them to arrest him and make sure he has absolutely no crystals on him (and to lock them away if a safe, no jostling, unlit area if they did find any). Liam, knowing that he'd be held responsible for 'anything' after what he'd just done, decided to book a flight to the Untied States, wherein he shortly thereafter joined the Irish-American superhero team in Boston, Massachusetts called "Emerald Society".

 

Eventually, Shamus AKA Emerald Ire, escaped from prison.  His cellmate told the authorities that 'Emerald Ire' was going to his secret stash to get more crystals and use them to not only prove to the world that the crystals were STILL his discovery, but that he was a true hero to Ireland.  The media of course spread the word about Emerald Ire, creating a mystique about him; a mystique that actually helped Shamus obtain a new opportunity of employment.

 

An Irish terrorist known as "Taoiseach" eventually encountered Shamus. The two of them quickly identified how they could help each other out, especially for Emerald Ire to become a true hero to the Irish people by joining Taoiseach's new pro-Irish independence army called "Eire Arm".  Shamus was immediately impressed with Taoiseach and the Eire Arm and joined them on the spot.  Using their resources, Shamus was able to make far more stable gauntlets and equipment for his crystals, making his weapons, for the first time, more stable that ever before.

 

Today, Emerald Ire continues to be on the Eire Arm team.  He mind is still chaotic, however his engineering skills are as solid as ever. He can go from one moment of whimsical fantasy thinking that all the world adores him to a manic mood of how he's going to kill Liam AKA Emerald Shield (as he's known as now). He doesn't make friends well and if he gets upset enough, he can kill without remorse.  His desire is to continue to 'fine tune' his equipment and gauntlets and find new ways of manipulating the blackened version of his crystals in an attempt to 'prove to the world' his genius.

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