X-Force: X-Force Only Comm

I spent all day yesterday and part of this morning up to my elbows in information on Mr. Ben DeRoy. I don't think any of us had doubts about the magnitude of his power but I wanted to see if we could fill in the rest of the story.

There is a pattern, to be sure. I located some old articles from the town when DeRoy was younger -- nothing ever on the front page but lots of home grown things. Like his luck, for instance. In voting for, well, anything. From school prom king and queen to the presidents. He was one of the luckiest people in the town mainly because everything he put his mind to, it came true in one form or another.

I also put in a call to Dr. MacTaggart to get a professional take on his powers. She's guessing, having never studied him, that he was repressing the very idea of his powers so deep that he probably never even knew he was a mutant. 1959 is not like 2008, after all, and he probably had never even heard of someone with powers. She doubted very much that he could have consciously controlled them at that point in his life.

For years, his power was 'leaking' out in small ways -- which, according to the good doctor, would explain why a mutant of his power level was never detected. Not only did he simply not believe he was a mutant (and considering his power, that might have been all it took to mask him) but he was not actively using it. That is all guess work, though.

The sickness...well, we all saw the results of his illness.

I think I have found everything I could locate on him. I am going to get breakfast, however late it is.