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Steve never dreamed of being a hero when he was young.
Partly because it didn't fascinate him as much as it did the other kids, but mainly because his dad found the idea to be boorish.
Hero work was for idealists; a form of manual labor. But that didn't stop Harrington Inc. from manufacturing support items and profiting from the hero industry. After all, Richard Harrington loved a profit.
But Steve’s decision to be a hero was made for him when his quirk abruptly manifested during his middle school baseball game. What should have been a simple swing sent the ball flying out of the park, unraveling as it flew. Of course, it was caught on video, and soon, news outlets played the clip on repeat.
That's when his father saw an opportunity.
What better way to expand Harrington Inc. into hero management than by molding his own son to be a top hero?
And that's how All-American came to be.
Before Steve knew it, he was being shipped to the top hero school in the country, already with a hero name, costume, and scheduled appearances. After all, Richard Harrington always had money to spend on status.
He was sent to every top junior hero event, every competition, every exhibition, all without being asked.
It's not that Steve didn't enjoy hero work. Once he got into it, he developed a fondness for it, growing through his internships and carving out a space for himself in the hero world. But Richard was never satisfied, always wanting Steve to achieve more.
Thankfully, once he graduated, he was under Richard’s thumb less and less. Sure, he stuck to the gimmicky baseball schtick - his signature item was a bat that channeled his quirk, and his costume was a classic 1950s baseball uniform - but it was worth it. He was recognizable, and kids were always eager to meet him.
And over the years, he climbed up the American hero ranks. Cracking the Top 20 should have been a celebration, a milestone achievement. But when Richard’s barely approving nod at the news caused a rush of anxiety instead of a feeling of pride, Steve knew he needed a change.
That's when he took up his best friend Robin's job offer. When she wasn't called in for hostage negotiation - her language quirk lent itself to that - she taught at their alma mater.
She'd been bugging him to join their staff for ages, and Steve finally accepts.
He loves his job as a teacher, and his initial batch of first years captures his heart — specifically a small cohort of hero hopefuls who keep calling their future agency The Party.
His first year goes off without a hitch, and he’s pleased to find that he has his same homeroom for his second year.
But as the weeks go on, Steve starts to hear more and more about one of the new Heroics teachers, a solo vigilante type who just goes by his first name - Eddie.
He sees him around the staff areas, and from what Robin tells him, he took the job after Principal Hopper brokered a deal with the hero commission following an incident.
But that's not what's bothering Steve.
No, what has him riled is the way his kids suddenly worship a hero who seems to flaunt all the values of heroing he’s embraced and instilled in his students.
And all that's made worse by the way Steve can't stop staring at Eddie.
*
Eddie had always dreamed of being a hero after the first time he saw one on the news. He didn't like the way his dad scoffed at his announcement over dinner, but his mother indulged him. She sewed him a costume based on his doodles and let him tell her about all his future adventures.
That was until she got sick. And while Eddie's imagination allowed him to save her, reality didn't match up.
When he put on his costume months after her death, his dad screamed at him.
After all, how could the son of a dealer and car thief ever be a hero? The Munsons couldn't afford hero school. It was once in a blue moon that some kid from public school even made it into a noteworthy hero school. Why would Eddie think he was that special?
That night, the reality of Eddie's life hit him. He put away his mom's costume along with his dreams.
His quirk emerged a month after he moved in with Uncle Wayne.
He was sitting in his room, singing along to his Metallica cassette, when suddenly he became aware of the location of everything in the trailer. Every movement made him dizzy, and his headache grew so intense that he passed out.
Wayne found him curled up on the floor, and after a trip to the free clinic, Eddie heard the term echolocation for the first time.
Eddie was thankful he'd given up his hopes of becoming a hero because what a lame quirk to be saddled with.
Or at least that's what he thought until one night he was randomly clicking his tongue, his usual nighttime entertainment to spy on the trailer park, and saw someone trying to break into the Gilbert trailer. Eddie walked outside and shone a light on the would-be robber, and they went running. And that's all it took for Eddie to start using his power for surveillance and evasion.
Throughout his teenage years, he honed his skills, adding some rough combat skills to the mix, and without formal training, signed up for the license exam. It took him a few tries, but in the end, he got it.
It was during his final exam attempt that he encountered All-American for the first time. Sure, Eddie had seen him on the news, because who hadn't?
But seeing him up close with his perfect costume and support items caused a resentment he didn’t know he harbored to begin bubbling. Without realizing it, all his dad's rants about the have and have-nots really got to him.
And years later, when he runs into All-American, aka Steve, during his first month at the nation's top hero academy, he can’t help but give him the cold shoulder.
But that doesn’t stop Eddie from stealing glances when he can.