Ian Angus MacGregor was born on July 24, 1969. His mother Erica, and his father Robert had been unable to have a child of their own for several years. Erica was the descendent of ancient Scottish druids, and was familiar with their lore. In desperation, Erica went in secret to one of the ancient places of power deep in the Trossachs. There, she performed the ancient rituals of power and fertility. However, the ancient powers had long been dormant, and Erica's request carried with it a terrible price. Erica soon found herself pregnant. She knew immediately that the child she carried was different, but she hid this from Robert, afraid he might take her to a doctor. After 21 weeks of pregnancy, Erica took violently ill. She refused to see a doctor, despite Robert's pleading. It was then that Erica revealed the secret of what she had done. She made Robert swear that he would care for the child, and allow no one to harm it. With sorrow in his heart, agreed to do so. Robert did everything he could to care for his wife an unborn child. He called upon years of veterinarian experience and first aid knowledge, hoping against hope that his beloved wife would pull through. However, Erica's condition only deteriorated further, until after almost three weeks, she passed on.Yet, with Erica MacGregor's passing a miracle of sorts occurred. With her last breaths, she delivered her child, the child who would become Ian Angus MacGregor. Instead of the underdeveloped baby that he expected, Robert found a baby that looked as if it was full term. Its hands were strong as a full-grown man?s, and its skin was bright green. He named the child Ian Angus MacGregor.Ian grew far faster than a normal baby, reaching a height of 4 feet by the age of 1. His skin turned from a soft green shaded skin into something more akin to tree bark. He was powerful beyond human capacity. Robert moved deep into the Trossachs to avoid his son injuring other children. He spent his days fulfilling his duties as a Ranger for the Trossachs National Park, and his evenings training young Ian how to deal with his immense strength. Luckily, Ian possessed a gentle soul, and he quickly learned to moderate his strength so as not to injury his father or the animals that frequented their small dwelling. These early years were a joy for Robert, as he could sense the gentle soul of Erica in his strange-looking son. Robert grew so confident in his son's good character that he decided that he could attend local school.Ian's childhood grew much more difficult when he began attending school. He was constantly teased about his strange looks, but his wood-hard body, and immense strength kept anyone from actually harming him. Luckily, one of Ian's teachers took pity on the young boy, and decided to try to help. The teacher turned to J.R.R. Tolkein's tale "The Lord of the Rings" as an avenue to help the strange tree-like child. The teacher, Ms. Macgonigal, read the tale to the children of the school during reading time. When she read the parts of "The Two Towers" she made special care to point out how much Ian resembled the Ents of Tolkein's tale. From that day forward, the other children held him in much higher regard, and Ian's life took a turn for the better. This also earned him his nickname "Ent".Ian found that as he approached puberty that his body continued to grow, and that his strength and resistance to damage grew with it. He also began to notice that his appearance now so closely mimicked a tree that he could actually fool people who didn?t know him by simply standing still. His arms had become covered with small leafy branches, and the top of his head was crowned with even more leafy branches. He also found that he could cause his arms to stretch away from his body, although they became thinner when he did so. Further, he could also "feel" the plants around him. At first, this just allowed him to increase his senses away from his body, allowing him to sense objects even in darkness. Later he discovered that he could actually manipulate the plants, causing them to move as if they were his own arms.Ian quickly found that his affinity with plants allowed him to understand things about them that no one else could. He also found that he loved learning at school, and he voraciously read as much as he could. As he neared the end of his High School days, he had already become an incredibly dedicated history buff and botanist. He was co-inventor of over 50 hybrid plant species with his father, earning recognition in the local botanical societies. It was on a trip with his father to a plant show that Ian truly became aware of the power at his disposal. As Ian sat in the back of his father's pickup truck, he watched with horror as an oncoming car swerved into their lane. The accident smashed the car and truck, and sent Ian flying into the woods. He smashed into a barbwire fence, cleanly severing his arm. However, Ian ignored the pain and rushed back to the site of the accident. Both vehicles had just begun to burn as Ian arrived. Overcoming his natural fear of fire, Ian rushed up to the vehicles, and with his single remaining arm, he ripped both vehicles apart, pulling both his father, and the other driver from the wreckage. Shielding both of them as he moved away from the cars, Ian took the full force of the exploding vehicles. He staggered a little further down the road, and then collapsed into unconsciousness.When he awoke, Ian was in a hospital. His father was standing next to his bed, bandaged and bruised, but otherwise unharmed. Ian's father told him that he had saved his life, and that of the other driver. Robert reached out a hand and grabbed Ian's arm. It took Ian a moment to realize that he could feel his father's touch in an arm that shouldn't have been there. Looking down, he saw that the arm he had sworn had been cut from his body was still there. The look of surprise registered on Robert's face. "Son we did not reattach it, you grew a new one."Two days later Mr. David Perkins arrived at the hospital that Ent was recovering at. Mr. Perkins brought with him the offer of a job in Denver for Ian. Mr. Perkins explained that super-powered criminals were overrunning the city of Denver, and that the city had retained him to assist in the development of a city based superhero team, the Denver Defenders. The salary was not exceptional, but nonetheless Mr. Perkins offered a compelling case for Ian to join the super-hero team. When Ian seemed unconvinced, Mr. Perkins even offered him a research grant at a local Denver university so that he could continue his study of plants. What Mr. Perkins didn?t know was that although Ian was keenly interested in the offer, he felt too deep an obligation to his father to accept the position. Needless to say, Ian's father could not understand why his son was so reluctant to take the American up on his offer.From that day forward, Ian stuck close to his father, fearing deep inside that if he didn't, he might loose his only remaining family. He took correspondence courses on history, botany, and a wide variety of other courses through the Internet. He was even invited to speak at Edinburgh about his latest discoveries with plants on more than one occasion. Still, Ian spent most of his time accompanying his father on his Ranger duties, and stalking the Trossachs watching for poachers or vandals. It didn't take long for the Trossachs National Park to have the lowest crime rate of any park in Scotland. Ian also became a master of the bagpipe, playing them often as he stalked the wilderness of the Trossachs, and yearly at his mother's grave.As it ended up, the Denver Defenders were more than happy to hear from the strange woodsman known to the general populace of Scotland as the Ent. His application was immediately approved, along with the previously promised research grant. Ian was originally very concerned about the distance his new job took him from his Father, but he quickly found that the Denver Defneders provided him with more friends than he had ever had before. It was in the first few weeks of serving with the Denver Defenders that he finally realized that his teammates, and indeed much of Denver's population, saw him as a person instead of something more like a mythical creature. Ian Angus MacGregor had found a second home. |
