The years leading up to the civil war was an interesting time to be alive, to put it lightly… especially for one who was on the cusp of 18 years old with a definite idea of who he wanted to be and who he was wanting to fight for. Kendall had already gotten his feet wet in sporadic battles here and there, so when things came to a head, he was all too willing to do his part. Armed with his arsenal of props and triggers for his illusions, he went full in, though he had little actual combat experience. Deciding he was better off with sabotage, he infiltrated enemy lines, only to end up trapped on a cargo plane that ended up flying to the west coast, surrounded by enemy soldiers and stranded far from everything and everyone he knew. By that point, it was too late to make it back, and he ended up moving further and further away, doing what he could to disrupt the forces fighting against the Evolved side. The last anyone would have heard of him, he was going to infiltrate a field base of operations of the Mitchell administration, and he never came back.
His experiences with the war were a sobering time for him, and he quickly came to realize that playtime was over. His geeky, innocent toys were no longer suitable, and through necessity, they led to expanding his repertoire to more mature methods. He never fired a real weapon himself, but making people shoot what THEY thought was the enemy, well… all too simple. It wouldn't have ended well had it just been him all by himself during that time, however. What could he do, really? All he had was his illusions and a talent for drawing. Through sheer luck he ended up meeting someone who was a self-proclaimed 'hacktivist' with a pro-Evolved agenda. This person, whose name Kendall never learned, decided to teach him a few things, namely how to hack accounts and cover his trail online, before they parted ways. Thus armed, it was easy enough to find people on the shadier side of things, and from one such individual he learned how to forge IDs.
Using his newfound skills, Kendall set up a bank account during the chaos, keeping his traces all but invisible and not taking more than absolutely needed so as not to draw attention. There were plenty of people whose donations to the 'war effort' against the Evolved had their funds reappropriated. Provided with a steady income, he spent his time in a lot of hotel rooms where he could, though it wasn't uncommon for him to have to rough it in places. Gone were the days where he would be able to loaf around playing video games, but he did decide to splurge on a top end laptop.
To some, the war was blessedly short, to others, it seemed to last a lifetime. Kendall was out in Arizona somewhere when the nuclear warheads devastated the west coast, so he got to see first hand the effect it had on all people; instead of devoting his time with sabotage, he turned towards aiding those who needed it. Rather than being identified, however, he took on many different personas, each activated by the IDs he acquired or made over the years, real and fake. Given some rather… shady lessons he had learned in his youth, he supplemented his illusions with real disguises, and through necessity learned to act to better fool others. When pressed for a name, he either gave a fake one, or simply went by 'Ephemeris'. When confrontation occurred in his current location, he did his best to defuse it, and when all else failed, he ran, helping those who also wanted to get away. Rather than hotels, he usually bartered drawings for food and places to stay; his talent for portraits and the like were often appreciated, and he was good at visualizing faces and objects from verbal descriptions, and 'Ephemeris' also became the name he penned on them by way of signature.
Around 2017 he ended up getting approached by the Guardians, whose goals somewhat matched up with his desire to help people, although some of their methods didn't mesh very well with his more Ferrymen-mindset. His role was best suited for escaping situations rather than confrontation, and he spent the next couple years with them until he came to the conclusion that it wasn't the right way of life for him, so he turned his thoughts to himself. He had long lost contact with everyone he knew from home, with no way of knowing their fates, or even where they would have gone. The world was an entirely different place now, and all he knew of then was New York. His path back was no simple matter either, due to the fact that nowhere was truly safe anymore. He was also afraid of what he would find there, but decided to head back anyway. Time to go home.
….easier said than done. Set adrift in the midwest following his departure from the Guardians, Kendall didn't even know where to begin. And where was home? Did it even exist? The difference between the dead zone and civilization was almost a culture shock to him, and brought on more wariness, not less. Here, he could get caught. He decided to start scoping out his path ahead of time, doing what he could to stay off the grid and out of the attention of… anyone. Years of habit drove him to avoid anything that would identify him. Through his slow and painstaking process, it was another year of traveling and staying under the radar, back to staying where he could, preferably a hotel. Out of necessity, due to the nature of this new world he found himself in, he polished up his skills to avoid detection, doing small jobs here and there that may not have been strictly legal, but covering his tracks became second nature. Eventually, his path finally took him back to what he had hoped were familiar places, but again, the world he knew was no more. What would he be able to find?
