Recruitment system in DC

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Somewhere in Kansas, in a rather small town called Smallville, a little boy was born. It was a miracle for the small family, as the couple who had already resigned themselves to the fact that they wouldn't have any children of their own and had taken in an adopted son, suddenly got lucky. Their own son was born.

The child they had wanted for so long. He grew up in the love of his parents and a caring, albeit a little odd, older brother. Despite the birth of their own child, the couple did not stop loving their adopted son. His mother still cared for him and took care of all his needs, and his father brought him up, sometimes being stingy with praise.

The little boy had seemed unusual to everyone since he was a baby, but the couple had dealt with raising unusual children before. Their second son was clearly unusual in a different way, though.

Unlike the older son, the youngest child in the family had always shown a strange curiosity about everything. It would seem that what was strange about curiosity, especially on the part of a child? But this curiosity was not inherent in a child, but rather in an adult.

The boy had studied everything he could since childhood, but he had no ambitions. He studied the school programme before all his peers, and could have passed the exams several grades earlier. But the boy didn't want that, he picked up from his older brother a craving for ordinary life. He liked working with his father on the farm, and he dreamed of becoming as strong as his brother, whom he loved with all his heart, even when his parents revealed to him that they were not related.

The boy's parents, on the other hand, didn't seem very supportive of the boy's longing for an ordinary life, seeing his intelligence and differences from other children. They wanted a better life for him and tried to prove that he could do better in the big city.

But the little ten-year-old boy with a naive smile and an adult look rejected all the entreaties of his parents. He was not going to change his decision, because he had already planned his life ahead. But in the measured life of an ordinary family broke into a change, which no one expected.

As the boy himself remembered, all these oddities began when his brother entered high school. He started hiding something from his family, coming home late and getting involved in some strange company. Sometimes he came home with obvious signs of fights, which, however, were only in the form of torn clothes.

In fact, at first the boy was not worried about such a situation, because he knew perfectly well the biology and structure of the human body. He realised that it was the influence of age and in time everything would pass, so he was not too worried. And seeing the traces of fights on his brother, he was even proud of him, because he looked like a winner, since there were no injuries on him.

In fact, along with the obvious intellectual superiority in the boy appeared another feeling, and it was not even arrogance. On the contrary, the boy was surprisingly humble, because inside he realised that there were many people in the world superior to him in everything, and so he simply did not allow himself to be proud.

However, his main disadvantage was... cruelty. The kind of cruelty that was not peculiar even to adults. Having a high intellect, the boy came to the point that human morality is nothing more than a tool to restrain the bulk of the population from breaking the laws created by those in power.

At least, that was the opinion the boy had constructed about morality. And it would have had enough effect on him... if not for his lack of ambition. In fact, with such a particular outlook, it was very strange to lack any ambition. But apparently that was how his older brother's influence affected him.However, soon there was one element that changed his life more than dramatically. At the age of fourteen, when the boy's older brother was about to leave for the big city and build a career, she appeared in the life of their small family.

A native cousin of his favourite older brother, who appeared from an unknown place. And the older brother had left her with his family because he couldn't give her enough time.

At first the boy didn't trust her, considering her an extra in his family, but every day he grew more and more fond of her. A strange girl, thinking in different terms, and with a completely different morality took a liking to the unusual boy.

And eventually this led to their becoming each other's closest friends, beginning to spend all their free time together.

Over time, they increasingly adopted each other's personality traits. The girl became much more sociable and serious, while the boy became more mischievous and a little vindictive. His vindictiveness was especially strong when someone was messing with his girlfriend.

The boy dreamed of spending his life together with his best friend on such a native farm. A measured life where it would be just him and her.

And obviously, such dreams led to the fact that his feelings began to outgrow his friendship. And, despite his brilliant intellect, the boy seemed to deny it, inwardly understanding everything perfectly well, but, like every man, too much afraid of change.

After all, changes often entail not very positive consequences, so the boy kept his feelings to himself, in plain sight remaining the same reliable friend and support.

But the girl was also not stupid, and noticed the changes in the boy, because she knew him even better than herself. And she also developed feelings for him.

First love is a wonderful feeling that everyone has experienced. And as it usually happens, it doesn't end in the most pleasant way. However, things went well enough for these two... at first.

The girl was the first to confess her feelings to the confused boy, who, however, accepted her, happily pouring out everything he was hiding in his soul.

It would seem that this was the beginning of a truly happy life for the future family. But this story would be too boring if everything were so simple.

In the measured life of two teenagers in love, who have already gone to high school, intervened the older brother of the guy. Interfered and just turned everything upside down.

Now his girlfriend started reminding him of the very times when his older brother had just gone to high school. She started hiding things from him and disappearing a lot.

He didn't want to pry too much into her life or pester her with jealousy, but the inner feeling just wouldn't let him rest. The restlessness was just tearing him up from the inside out.

And the boy began to let it out in some pretty nasty things. He went to boxing, seemingly just to keep in shape and be able to defend himself and his girlfriend. His family only supported such endeavours and had nothing against it.

However, everything did not end as rosy as it began. The boy learnt too quickly everything that only the trainer could offer him. And immediately began to dominate in his club. All sparring sessions turned into regular beatings, even against a few people.

The boy was very talented at it and was able to beat even his coach pretty quickly. And everything would have been fine if rumours about his excessive brutality in sparring hadn't reached the family.

That day there was a real scandal. The boy's father gave him a whole lecture, during which he talked about how spoilt the boy had grown up and how dissatisfied the family was with him.

Then even his older brother came to their farm and had a conversation with him. But the boy ignored it all. He was a teenager and hormones were very much in his blood, as well as suspicions with questions.

He just poured out all the questions that had been nagging and bothering him at his brother, but received only silence in response. It was just a sign of the most common distrust. And of whom? The brother with whom you grew up almost all your life, and from whom you never hid anything.

And the boy realised that it was not only his brother who distrusted him, but also the girl he loved. And in that moment the boy realised that he clearly didn't know his family as well as he thought he did.

Already that day began a rift that would grow into something more. Something that would make both the boy and the girl suffer.

That's when everything changed. Already almost grown up, the boy and the girl he loved began to spend even less time together, becoming more and more distant from each other.

And the problem wasn't their feelings or confusion. The problem was trust. Neither of them understood how it was possible to love and yet not trust.

But the girl still couldn't tell her boyfriend what she had been hiding for so long. And not even because she thought the secret was too big. No, of course not.

She was just... afraid. A childish fear had settled inside her soul that her boyfriend would think she was a monster, push her away and just throw her away. She feared that more than anything, even though she knew it would never happen.

She knew that the guy would support her in any situation and would only laugh at the fact that she was afraid to tell him all this. But the seed of doubt had already settled in her soul, and she just couldn't weed it out.

And it was these doubts that led to the complete destruction of this seemingly indestructible relationship.

And everything began with a small green pebble, which the boy found near the house and made a necklace out of it. It seemed very beautiful to him, and he even wanted to give it to his girlfriend, but some inner feeling told him that he should wear this charm.

However, the first meeting with his girlfriend showed him that this attitude was not right. Her face, usually smiling and happy when she met him, immediately became somehow frightened and filled with reluctance when she saw his new necklace.

She had a major falling out with him, and for no reason at all. After all, she could have simply asked him to remove the stone from her neck, since she disliked it so much.

However, the boy already felt the crack in their relationship, and did not want to increase it, so he just put the stone in his stash and seemingly forgot.

However, every time there were troubles or disappointments in his life, he returned to it again and felt very pleasant.

This small pebble gave his soul a calmness, and as if it washed it from within. The boy liked it, but he still did not wear it, remembering his girlfriend's dislike of him.

But the more time the boy spent alone with this small pebble, the more he felt dependent on it. Eventually he began to feel dependent, and even noticed it himself. However, he did not want to get rid of it, because he did not see any negative consequences.

And soon he even began to collect more and more small beautiful stones. The green colour that came from them in the dark even fascinated him a little.

But at some point this passion for harmless pebbles was noticed by his girlfriend, and she became strangely agitated. She almost gave him a scandal because of a small pebble she saw in his hand.

He didn't understand her hatred for a simple pebble before, but now he decided to find out from her what was wrong. In the end, this seemingly simple pebble led to an argument that divided them.

Graduation, the day that every high school student in America looks forward to. But they missed it together, because of a simple quarrel that led to tragedy for the guy.

In fact, the next day, having calmed down a bit and switched off his emotions, he himself realised that they had quarrelled, in fact, because of some small thing, personally for him. Since his girlfriend disliked those pebbles so much, why not get rid of them. After all, could some simple stones be the thing that would break them up?

As it turned out, they could. For in the morning there was not the girl he loved so much waiting for him, but a lonely letter his distraught mother had given him.

And it was from it that he learnt that the girl had simply run away, leaving him here, alone. She had simply written that they couldn't be together and had gone to the city to attend university.

She couldn't even tell him this in person, she just left him a couple of cold words written in black ink like the longing in his soul.

After that, the guy locked himself in his room for a couple of days, rereading this letter and trying to understand why exactly he was dumped. What was the real reason for this?

It was at that moment that the boy decided to change his plan for life, which he had built as a child. He went to a place where he could definitely get rid of his stress. And in the way that worked best for him.

The boy packed his things and simply left for New York, where he decided to enter West Point, one of the best military academies in the United States. There he would definitely be able to get rid of unnecessary thoughts. In his opportunity to enter he did not even doubt. After all, he'd always had confidence in his abilities.

And he didn't just get in, he was one of the best. He was good at everything. Shooting, close combat, command and tactics with strategy. He seemed like the perfect soldier there.

But he didn't like it, the overly hothouse conditions prevented him from expressing his frustration. He wanted more tension, more danger.

And so he did something he would never have done in a normal mental state. But during his two years at the academy, he had never been able to get rid of that feeling of desolation that had settled in his soul. Because of it, he couldn't even return home, staying at the academy for every holiday.

Perhaps the guy's psyche would have been able to return to normal, and he would not have acted rashly, if not for one revelation.

One of the guy's classmates introduced him to superheroes as a fact. He was a huge fan of them and told everyone about them. And even a guy who wasn't interested in the subject in any way was able to introduce him to them.And the guy got a good look at all these so-called "superheroes". They all seemed to be just people who wanted recognition and fame, who couldn't even do what they existed for. Why catch villains hundreds of times, imprison them, and then just expect them to escape and repeat the cycle again. Isn't their life meaningless? Can't they avoid hundreds of deaths just by getting one of their opponents?

But along with his disillusionment with superheroes, the guy also remembers his lost love again. And along with that, he was once again filled with negative feelings. After all, his older brother and girlfriend was one of these very "superheroes".

Is that what she had traded him for? Had she abandoned him to seek meaningless fame? The boy couldn't understand it, nor could he accept it.

The boy insisted on graduating from the academy by correspondence and joined the U.S. Army, and not just joined, but went directly to the hot spot.

He did anything to get away from the feeling that tormented his soul. And all the while, the only thing that helped him do that was the fights and the very green pebble that he still kept after his girlfriend left.

The longer he handled it, the stronger he felt. He even felt like he was getting physically stronger, as if the stone could strengthen him. And knowing that people could fly in the sky and lift tonnes with one hand, he even thought that it might not be his fantasy.

And it was. Now he took that pebble with him into every fight, and it literally saved his life. In those moments when he seemed to be on the verge of death, the pebble gave him strength and allowed him to avoid it. But each time it seemed to lose its lustre, becoming paler and paler.

With its help, he climbed up the career ladder rather quickly, and even received a few medals. But it was all meaningless to him. Even life itself seemed more and more grey and empty to him. And only the memories of the happy past gave him strength.

Now he just went into battle, without looking back, and also left. Life no longer had any value to him. Even other people's lives he valued more, so he could well try to carry even a few of his wounded comrades out of the battlefield at great risk.

It could have gone on like that for a very long time, if one day, while recovering for a new mission, he simply didn't close his eyes... and disappeared.

That was the day Edmont Kent, a not-so-ordinary guy originally from Smallville, died, and a new Edmont Kent was born, clearly planning to change his new life.

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