Swift
Real Name: Faith Anderson
Concept: Speedster
Hair/Eye Color: Blonde/Blue
Height/Mass: 5’9â€/160 lbs.
Nationality: American
Place of Birth: Mendocino, CA, USA
Date of Birth: October 3, 1974
Background Story: Faith Anderson was born in Mendocino, a city in the northern section of California, on the Pacific coast. Her parents joked that she was running before she was walking and she never stopped. The also swore that they could never keep up with her. All Faith knew was that she loved to run.
When she was six, she saw the Olympics for the first time and she knew she was going to compete there. She began running seriously. Every day. She let nothing stop her, short of illness making running physically impossible. Making the Olympics shaped her life in many ways. Her friends couldn’t understand the drive in her and gradually became little more than acquaintances she’d talk to at school. As she got older, she didn’t date. She had offers, but she was focussed on getting into the Olympics and couldn’t be distracted.
All her hard work paid off. She made the Olympic team in 1992 and earned a trip to Barcelona, Spain. It paid off even more when she won the gold in three events: the 800 meter, 1500 meter and 3000 meter runs. She didn’t win by huge margins, winning the three events by a combined 2.4 seconds. She became an instant media darling in the USA due to the combination of her three medals and her stereotypically California good looks. She made many personal appearances and was a regular guest on talk shows for several months after the Olympics.
She found that her desire to run and compete hadn’t been sated by her victories, so she continued to train. She was determined to better her performance in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Unfortunately for her, she succeeded beyond her, or anyone else’s, wildest dreams. As the gun went off to start the 800 meter race, she launched herself from the starting blocks. Things seemed to move in slow motion around her as she ran the 800 meters in less than a second, totally shattering the world record. Testing after the race indicated she had super powers, specifically, super-speed. Faith was disqualified, the gold medal going to Svetlana Masterkova instead. The press immediately dubbed her “Swift†and fell in love with the name.
An immediate outcry went up to strip her of her medals won in the ’92 Olympics. Faith went into hiding while the investigation was carried out. It was determined, after looking at her medical records, that she had not possessed super-speed when she won her medals. She was allowed to keep them.
After exhaustive testing, doctors were unable to determine what caused her powers to manifest, but it was clear to the young woman that she’d never be able to compete in track events again. She spent several months in deep soul searching and depression, cursing the powers that caused her to have to give up her dream. It was during this time that she discovered that she needed to eat quite a bit more than she used to in order to keep herself going.
One day, she was going to the grocery store to pick up some more food, wearing her now customary baggy clothes, sunglasses and wide brimmed hat in order to disguise her identity, when she was almost hit by a car speeding by. A car being pursued by the police. She looked to her right and saw an old woman in the path of the fleeing vehicle. Without stopping to think about it, she took off after the car, easily catching up to and passing it. Even after several months of having super-speed, she marveled at how everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, if it seemed to be moving at all. She scooped the old woman up and deposited her safely out of harm’s way.
A daring plan came to mind. She caught back up to the car, feeling like she was leisurely jogging. She pulled the door open and yanked the driver out from behind the wheel. She slowed down just enough to drop him without killing him, then kicked it back up to full speed in order to move people out of the way of the erratically moving car. She found herself smiling as people would register that they were somewhere else just as she was setting them back down. She made it back to the car just in time to pull out the two remaining occupants before the car impacted with a light post.
For the first time in months, she felt good about herself. For the first time since her powers had manifested, she felt good about her newfound speed. She gave her statement to the police, then went home feeling good about herself and with a lot to think about.
It didn’t take long for the press to get hold of the story, since there were a number of reporters in town because of the Olympics scandal. Once again, Swift made the papers. Ironically, her heroic feat was reported at the same time as her exoneration for her medals in the ’92 Olympics.
The story drew the attention of the Global Guardians. Achilles realized that someone with the dedication to be an Olympic athlete could be an asset to the team, so he went to Mendocino to talk to Faith. He showed up as Faith was doing some serious thinking about what to do with her life and her powers. He talked with her at length about duty and obligation. He could have saved his breath. She’d all but decided to use her powers to help people even before he showed up. His arrival cemented her decision.
She’s been with the Guardians ever since.
Quote: “Don’t worry. I can get there in time.â€
Personality: Faith is a serious young woman with a great deal of determination and dedication. She’s generally impatient with the pace of things as a side effect of her powers. Conversely, she’s very patient when she needs to be or when it’s something she really wants. She doesn’t back down from hard work to achieve her goals. In fact, if hard work isn’t involved, she’s suspicious with the ease at which the goal was attained. She’s a very confident woman, having earned her self-confidence the old fashioned way by having her hard work lead to success. Her greatest love is still running. She misses running competitively and will generally engage in good-natured races with other speedsters.
Appearance: Faith is an attractive blue eyed blonde with a deceptively slender build. She’s lightly tanned due to her love of the beach. Her long hair is almost always pulled back in a ponytail. When not in costume, she generally wears clothes that are comfortable to run in. Her footwear of choice is running shoes. As Swift, she wears a sleek bodysuit of royal blue with light blue boots, gloves and belt. She doesn’t wear a mask, opting for a pair of goggles. The only other adornment on her costume is a US flag on her left breast, over her heart.
Powers: In the world of speedsters, Swift’s powers put her in the top 5% of her peers. The power of her near supersonic punches can drop most foes with ease. She has been known to effortlessly disarm an armed mob or disassemble a fighter jet to its component parts while the dazed pilot looked on. She has also been seen, on occasion, to act as a human cannonball, destroying everything in her path. Swift's incredible running speed causes her to compress liquid molecules with her feet, allowing her to run across water as if it was a concrete path.
