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David Drake was a research scientist at Concordance Research. Drake teamed with fellow scientist Martin Stein, who was secretly one half of the hero Firestorm, to develop a new bathysphere prototype. Drake designed the housing of the vessel while Stein developed the small nuclear reactor that was to be the craft's power source. |
Concordance bought the rights to a boat called the Neptune Explorer, captained by a man named Anton Hammer, in order to use it to test the bathysphere, dubbed the Manta. Stein and Drake travelled to the South Pacific aboard the Neptune, but a tropical storm moved into the area in which they were to lower the Manta. Hammer insisted on carrying on the tests even though conditions were unfavourable. Drake acted as the pilot for the Manta while Stein remained aboard. When lowering the Manta, the Neptune Explorer began to shift and Hammer panicked, fearing the larger boat would capsize. Despite the protests of Stein, Hammer cut the Manta loose. Stein slipped away and transformed into Firestorm. |
Firestorm managed to stabilize the sphere and keep it from sinking, but a deranged Hammer shot Drake as he exited the sphere. While Firestorm subdued Hammer and his crew, the severely wounded Drake fell backwards into the submersible. The Manta capsized, and its reactor breached catastrophically. The interaction of the ocean water and the experimental nuclear pile caused an explosion that destroyed the vehicle and triggered Drake's metagene. His skin turned blue and his hair red. He gained the ability to generate and control storms, wind and lightning. |