Roaring out of the shadows, a new hero tears through, and under, the streets of New York City – but what dark tragedy transformed a former firefighter into a super hero?
A native-born New Yorker, Diego Zhao worked through high school first as a grocery delivery guy and then as a bicycle messenger. These jobs took him all over the city and he quickly learned every street, alley and concourse. At age fifteen he helped guide a hook and ladder truck around gridlock to reach a building that was on fire. This was his first brush with the FDNY. The thrill of the rescue, the rush of adrenaline from the action, and the sense satisfaction from actually being able to help someone and be useful combined and filled Diego with a sense of purpose. He vowed that day to join them when he was old enough.
Diego quickly became something of a legend even among the legends of the New York City firemen. For as long as he could remember, he possessed the amazing ability to always be able to orient himself in any situation, no matter how confusing, desperate or dangerous. If there was a fire anywhere in the city he knew the fastest route to it from the engine house. In thick, choking smoke and utter darkness, he could make his way through a building to find those trapped inside. And, once he found them, he instinctively knew the fastest way to the nearest exit to carry them from danger. Where others panicked, Diego always found his way. Sprinting into the unknown, Diego quickly earned the nick-name "Rush".
A note on Diego's Powers: Yes, Diego is Meta-Human – although he does not know it. Diego's powers are best described as Heightened Awareness. Diego has no awareness and does not need to initiate his powers. They function in the background at all times. They are entirely natural for him and function like "super gut instincts" stretching beyond the five senses and into his sense of direction, the good or bad "vibe" he can get off a person and so on. You do not want to play poker with this guy!
Diego's career with the FDNY came to an end one night in a blazing high rise in Brooklyn. At the end of a date Diego walked his fianceé, Maggie Flynn, home only to find her family's apartment building on fire. Diego – even though he was off duty and out of his Ladder Co.'s district, and even though he had been drinking, having a good time with his girl – charged into the building. Unbeknownst to Diego, the alcohol had affected his heightened senses to a critical degree. While he was trying to carry out Maggie's daughter (Deigo's soon-to-be step-daughter) Samantha, he lost his direction and the floor beneath him gave way, plunging Diego and Sam through the burning building down to the basement parking garage where they crash landed on top of his car (parked there earlier in the evening). Lying burned and battered amidst shards of safety glass on the crushed hood, Diego held Sam while she died.
Samantha Flynn may have been injured in a fire and may now lay peacefully in a grave, but Diego knows that this car is her deathbed and he can never, ever leave it.
Diego's actions had powerful and long-lasting ramifications. He was severely burned over half of his body (particularly his back and arms – where he tried to shield Sam from the fire and the fall) and had to endure months of skin grafts. His resulting injuries – and his illegal behavior – made him ineligible for employment in the fire department.
To add insult to injury, his fianceé and her family blamed him for Samantha's death. He was not supposed to run into that fire. He had no protective gear and, as they see it, he interfered where he didn't belong. Other more prepared, and less drunken, Fire & Rescue men were on scene, with ladders and fire blankets and so on. They could have saved Sam – or at least, they might have had Diego not rushed in. Maggie broke off their engagement immediately and refuses to even speak to Diego. More painful than the burns and the skin grafts is the guilt Diego feels and is unable to release because on some deeper level he knows that Maggie is right. It's his fault.
Now, to atone for his past sins, Diego – known on the street as "Rush" – hunts those who are lost. Diego gets his clients through his reputation for success spread by word-of-mouth a loose network of informants and well-wishers. When all else fails in the normal channels for finding a missing person, Diego's name is spoken in hushed tones and his unlisted phone number is confidentially passed along.
His ability to travel where and how others cannot is a major factor in Diego's success at finding the un-findable. With an unerring sense of direction, Diego can choose the shortest route between two points anywhere in the entire New York metro area. Because of his innate, heightened perception, weather, traffic, darkness or fog cannot affect this instinctive talent for orientation, "knowing" whom to trust, when to act and so on. With Sam's specially rigged casters he can pilot the subway system at top speed while – on his amazing instinct – avoiding the hundreds of trains hurtling up and down the tracks (all unaware of his existence). This ability also allows him to intuit and anticipate the getaway path his quarry might take in a chase. When others observe Diego in action, they think he's superhuman, lucky or crazy… or all three. The same talent that made him a superior fire and rescue worker now serves him as he scours the streets for the lost.
In addition to his special abilities and his tragic history, Diego's key element of uniqueness is his playing field: his operations center is below the streets in an abandoned siding of the "F" subway line. From here he can use the hundreds of miles of New York Transit train tracks (and abandoned tunnels and sewer lines) as his own personal speedway. Unseen and unexpected, he can pop up anywhere in the city at maximum velocity. He travels above and below the streets in the now tricked-out '07 Solstice GXP searching among nine million faces for innocent (and some not so innocent) victims of fate who've fallen through the cracks. The two-seater suits his mission and his personality. Diego is a loner who only needs room for one passenger: the person he's seeking.
Diego Zhao is a modern-day knight, racing through the mean streets of New York City on his dark steed. If you're lost and the clock is ticking, pray he finds you first.