It was sometime in the next two years that David attracted the attention of wealthy philanthropist and entrepreneur William Grimm, who used his considerable influence to arrange custody of the four year-old David. Over the next five years, David lived in a supportive, luxurious environment, needing for nothing. William Grimm seemed to have the resources and the compassion to raise a mutant child: William arranged tutors for the young David to develop both his mind and his powers. But there was a secret reason for Grimm's attention. In addition to his noteworthy public persona, William Grimm was secretly a registered superhero, a speedster called Jack Be Nimble, the leader of a small supergroup called FABLE (Forces Aligned to Battle the Legions of Evil). And David was being groomed to become Candlestick, his sidekick.
When David was nine, he was told the truth, and by his own choice he joined William Grimm on the streets of Paragon City, not as foster-father and son but as Jack Be Nimble and Candlestick. David would spend three years with FABLE, fighting alongside Jack Be Nimble, The Mock Turtle, Jenny Wren, Cheshire Cat, Peter Piper, Mome Wrath and the other members of the group. However, all would come to an abrupt end during the Second Rikti Invasion, when both Jack Be Nimble and Cheshire Cat were killed while defending Founder's Falls.
What followed were legal battles and criminal investigations that gutted Grimm's financial holdings, left FABLE in tatters and saw David stripped of everything but the secure trust fund William Grimm had put in place. While unscrupulous financiers and board members got rich from liquidating Grimm's estate, David found himself once again in the care of the state of Rhode Island. Luckily, because David was at that point already a registered hero, Hero Corps and GIFT stepped in on his behalf and arranged for David to come to Saint Joseph School.
However, things did not stay quiet for long. Soon after enrolling, David was on a field trip with a number of other students when they were accidentally trapped in a bizarre timespace anomaly called Nowhen. Along with a dozen other SJS students, David was removed from the normal timestream for one week, during which they all aged three years. When they were found by the Menders, they were returned to normal time, but the process took an additional 72 hours, which to David and the others felt like an additional year.
His experience with Nowhen has altered David's abilities. Though he can still create and control fire, David now has the power to slip in and out of normal time, and to wrap pockets of phased time around allies and enemies. This grants him and his allies incredible speed and recuperative abilities, while slowing and weakening his foes.
Fiction Links:
- By Their Bootstraps, Part One
David and Caitlin discuss dating and the possible end of the universe.
Cast: David Andrias, Caitlin Reighner - By Their Bootstraps, Part Two
David has some temporal errands to do to make sure prom night goes as it should. Again.
Cast: David Andrias, Caitlin Reighner
Cameos by: Blitzen, Nova, Ty - He Said, She Said
A blank spot in Caitlin's recollection of a wild party leads to a frantic misunderstanding.
Cast: David Andrias, Caitlin Reighner
Cameos by: Blitzen, Jeffrey & James Chandler
