D87. Max “Windrunner” Crandall – Max Mercury (Native American) – Racial Draft Dynasty Draft (S6)

The reimagined #RacialDraft backstory for Max Mercury – via Domnorian (https://domnorian.tumblr.com/post/670027730502500352/max-mercury-re-design/amp) is as follows:

Max was born in a Blackfoot clan in 1816, in Montana. When he was 12 years old, tension started to rise between his clan and the soldiers of a military fort nearby. They agreed on a truce and Max was taken from his clan as a hostage to be sure the natives would stay put.

He was treated like a slave by most of the soldiers in the fort for years. One day, when Max was 18 years old, the new fort commander, less pacifist than the former commander, ordered a full-scale massacre of the clan. Max tried to prevent that from happening but the few men from the fort that cared about him locked him so he wouldn’t intervene and get himself killed.

When he was let go, he found his village burned to the ground and his people all dead except one. His father, the shaman of the clan, with his dying breaths, told Max that many tribesmen were returning from the hunt, and that they would be ambushed if not warned quickly. With a blueish substance, the shaman drew a lightning bolt on Max’s chest, gave a prayer to the god of the storm and the wind, and died. Max ran faster and faster and faster still. As swift as the wind, he took the soldiers’ weapons and caught the Blackfoot arrows in midair, ending the massacre.

He devoted the next few years of his life to protecting the natives and the settlers from one another as Ahwehota, or as he was better known, Windrunner. However, one night during a thunderstorm, Max felt drawn to the lightning from deep within his heart. He ran as he had never run before, breaking all barriers, and he began to be drawn into the Speed Force, the energy field that gives speedsters their power. He finally had met his glorious destiny, but fear stopped him, sending him ricocheting through time to 1891.

By 1947, Max had established his current name, Max Mercury. He was sometimes called “The Whirlwind of the West” and was both respected and feared.

Again and again, he tried to get to the Speed Force and failed. He continued his superhero career as Lightning, Blue Streak, and Quicksilver between each jump in time.