First Union Bank (Chicago Nova)
| First Union Bank (Chicago Nova) | |
|---|---|
| Uso | Business |
| Ciudad | Newcago |
| Región | Fractured States |
| Mundo | Tierra (Reckoners) |
First Union Bank is the building in Newcago in which the supposedly invulnerable Epic known as Steelheart was injured before killing hundreds of people, including David Charleston's father.[1]
Location
The bank building, located on Adams Street, is massive.[1] It has two large revolving doors alongside wide, beautiful glass doors at the main entrance.[1][2] The bank's bustling main chamber has a tiled floor decorated with mosaic, white pillars, marble accents, and large doors leading to other parts of the building.[1] The room is so large that most of the bank's day-to-day activities occur there; there are cubicles for loan officers and counters for tellers.[1][2]
History
When David was eight years old, his father Blain brought him to the bank and had him wait while he tried to get a mortgage loan. While Blain talked to the loan officer, David noticed an Epic named Deathpoint walk into the bank. Deathpoint began indiscriminately killing people in order to terrorize them, and the Charlestons tried to figure out how to escape. Steelheart appeared, but instead of saving the people, he called himself the emperor of the city and tried to recruit Deathpoint to his side. Blain, who was one of the Faithful, approached Steelheart and told him that he was supposed to be their savior. The military suddenly burst in, firing on Steelheart, but their weapons were ineffective and caused major damage to the bank, blowing open the vault.[1]
Deathpoint appeared to be launching a sneak attack on Steelheart, and Blain shot and killed him; the bullet also grazed Steelheart, drawing blood despite his Epic power of invulnerability. Steelheart was confused and briefly glanced at the vault, but he quickly became enraged; he killed Blain and fired energy blasts throughout the chamber. He then turned most of the bank building into steel and killed anyone in sight. David managed to survive by hiding in the vault. Steelheart later returned with Faultline, who used her powers to sink the entire bank building into the ground, killing all of the remaining survivors and rescue personnel except David, who had run away from the scene. Later that night, Steelheart performed the Great Transfersion.[1]
Later Research and Recovery
The events at the bank were seared into David's memory.[3] After he joined the Reckoners, he continued to try and uncover any details about the day of his father's death, including additional information about the bank's vault that might have clues to Steelheart's Epic weakness. He tried to research the contents of the vault, but Tia told him that any physical records would have been destroyed with the bank since it was the main office. Electronic records may have been available through the bank's hosting company, Dorry Jones LLC, but their servers were burned down years ago in the Ardra riots.[3] Cody managed to find the name of the bank's insurance company, Johnson Liberty Agency, which the team believed would have a paper trail regarding claims on items destroyed in the vault.[3]
Tia researched the insurance claims, but discovered evidence of a cover-up by Steelheart.[2] While thinking through this dead end, she realized that parts of the bank could be intact underground because Steelheart turned much of it into steel before Faultline buried it, and the dirt above it was also later turned into steel.[2] Additionally, Steelheart would not have been concerned about someone finding the ruins of the bank, since it was buried beneath solid steel and the Diggers were prohibited from operating in the area. However, the Reckoners also had the ability to dig through steel using the tensors.[2]
The Reckoners found the bank and it was indeed well-preserved.[2] David found Blain's corpse and theorized that it was something about Blain that triggered Steelheart's weakness, but he did not yet know what that might be. Nevertheless, the team began breaking into the vault's safe-deposit boxes hoping to find clues, as the metal composition of the boxes had protected their contents from Steelheart's powers.[2] They retrieved a number of items from the bank hoping that they had some relevance to Steelheart's weakness, including the gun that injured Steelheart and killed Blain.[4] Some of the items from the bank were brought to the surface and later put into Steelheart's proximity to see if they had any effect on him.[5]