Bryan was not born into money, neither did he ever starve. His father, Eli, was a fireman, and the son and grandson of firemen dating all the way back to the early days of African American brigades in New York. Prior to that, Bryan’s ancestors were among those lucky enough to survive the conveyance of escaped slaves to the North and the wait for true freedom. Bryan’s mother, Abigail, worked as a laundress, but she died when Bryan was only two years old. Eli raised Bryan and his two older siblings, William (three years older) and Gavin (five years older), alone in their brownstone in Queens, which had been in the family for generations. Eli was well aware of the risk that came with his occupation, and so, unlike his father before him who simply hoarded, carefully played the stock market in order to put away money to ensure his family’s survival.
When Bryan was twelve, he went with his brothers to co-ed summer camp in North Carolina. During an excursion into the woods to smoke with William and another boy who had smuggled in marijuana, Bryan got into a fight with the other boy over a girl which accelerated to unbridled violence. Bryan bit the other boy on the arm in the tussle, injecting a non-lethal amount of his now venomous saliva. The fight soon ended, and, once he and Bryan had hauled the boy back to main camp and he was stable, William threatened to turn the boy in to the camp’s administration if he told the truth instead of the lie William quickly concocted: a snake had bitten the other boy, and Bryan had attempted to suck the venom out, which explained the teeth marks. All the same, Bryan and his brothers wrote their father and asked to come home early. Their words communicated such serious urgency without detailing what had happened that Eli couldn’t deny their request. Gavin resented both of his younger brothers, because their father would not leave him behind at camp. Gavin’s ill-will became more concentrated on Bryan as his mutation continued to manifest and he received more and more attention from their father.
Once they had been retrieved, William and Bryan told their father what had happened. Upon returning from camp, Bryan started stayed inside for most of the summer, doing his best to hide the emotional tumult he was undergoing from his family. But Bryan’s attempts did not go unnoticed by his father. Thinking his youngest son was damaged (mentally as well as physically) in some way by the incident at camp, Eli Buckley consulted his insurance agent regarding what sort of help he may be able to get his youngest son within their current coverage. Little did Eli know that such communication would be picked up by a sort of “higher power.” Even the vague description of the camp incident and its effect on Bryan’s mental state was enough to catch the attention of The Company, and it was only a few days later that a pair of Company agents picked up the twelve-year-old and brought him in for the “regular” testing. Determining that Bryan’s abilities were too unsafe both to humans and the secrecy of evolved humans everywhere, the Company staged the eye-witness reports of a kidnapping wherein Bryan was the victim. As far as his family was ever concerned, their youngest member was one of thousands of children never recovered and presumed deceased.
But Bryan was less cooperative than The Company would have hoped, even when fed the story that he had been plucked from a fire that burned down his family home, trapping his father and brothers inside. The growing boy fought back against those agents who were working to acclimate him, refusing to believe his family was gone without being allowed to see the ruins of the Brownstone. The decision was made, and Bryan was visited by the Haitian. By wiping the Buckley’s from Bryan’s memory, the young man was left with little of his life before The Company took him in, thus making him an impressionable and malleable member of their “team.” It did not take The Company’s scientists long to develop a drug that suppressed Bryan’s venomous saliva, making it easier for him to live amongst others. Taken daily, Bryan’s saliva was rendered harmless. However, in order to make him an effective weapon, Bryan could forego a dose and be potent within ten minutes.
Growing up in The Company, Bryan received an education his father would never have dreamed of. But unlike other Company agents, Bryan’s lessons prepared him more for physical combat than social interaction. When Bryan turned sixteen, he underwent a surgery that filed his canines to points, signifying his induction as a Company Agent and making it easier for him to inject targets with his venomous saliva. Initially Bryan was only used as an assassin, the delivery of his deadly poison quick, quiet, and clean without sacrificing the judicial element of pain.
When the bomb went off in New York City, Bryan was thankfully out on assignment, far away from the blast. His family wasn’t so lucky, and Eli, Gavin, and William, along with the latter’s young family, were all amongst those whom were lost on November 8th, 2006. Bryan was relocated to The Company’s New York office two years ago, but he still makes the occasional trip when his type of service is needed by his family-like employer. Housed by The Company, Bryan has no need for a “cover,” but rather keeps mum in regards to his work.
