| Jeffery Rodney Degger was born
in Chicago, Illinois in March of 1972. He grew up in the outskirts
of the city, jumping from one apartment to the next. His father and
mother, while seeming like the perfect couple at the start of their marriage
had a falling out after Jeff was born. His mother worked to try and
bring in extra money while his father spent most of his time drinking it
away.
By the time Jeff had turned three his mother had had enough and threw his father out, not surprisingly, the man put up little to no fight and never came back. Jeff’s mother returned to school receiving a bachelor’s in business marketing to better support her child and herself. By 1988 his mother was finally able to by a home in a newly developed neighborhood on the south side called Lake View where Jeff once again had to change schools and start over again in a new life. Jeff was a friendly, easy going kind of person who had no problems with school and often wowed and worried teachers by his incredibly sharp intellect yet lack of effort to achieve it. He picked up most of his sarcasm from his mother along with most of her more useful qualities, such as a strong will of determination and honor. Jeff is not easily persuaded to do things he does not want to do often frustrating people who only want to help or be a friend. Although he will listen to other people’s advice he will not always act on it. Being as hardheaded as he is Jeff will act on his own gut instincts ignoring danger or concern from others to complete his goal. Academics always came easy for him, but it was his charm and a study session in the library that first introduced Jill Anderson into his life. Almost a total opposite to Jeff in all areas of perspective the two hit off first just enjoying their simple quarrels of opinions, but later dating and more. The couple would have made most singles stick their fingers down their throats except for two interesting individuals, Zack Fix and Ryan Megan. The two were practically the only friends Jeff had at his new high school, but in his opinion they were all that he needed. Both Jeff and Jill found the bizarre of the two both interesting and occasionally disturbing, but they were loyal and beat of all, fun to be around. Jeff considered his life to be fairly simple. During the day he attended school and in the afternoon and evening worked at a locally owned grocery store called Food Bucket. The simplicity and bliss that was his life was all changed when he received a simple eye shaped pendant for his eighteenth birthday in 1990. Jill had seen the eye in a flea market at a stand that was selling medieval trinkets, knives and pendants. Since Jeff was a science fiction/fantasy fan and a lover of history it seemed like the perfect gift for her love. |
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The following night
after work, Jeff was driving down the freeway when the tire blew on his
SUV causing him to lose control and careen off the road crashing to a dry
creek bed below. His car exploded, but instead of killing him he
was thrown from the wreckage his human form destroyed and reborn as a dragon
gargoyle, by the magical power that was dormant within the eye from over
ten thousand years ago.
The original eye was created by the Fairy Folk as a way for a gargoyle, then only known as a winged, to avoid stone sleep. Two dragons took the eye, a black one named Klaru and a red one named Fet to the city in the sky, Skema, a dragon city. The master-of-the-smith, a pearl gray female dragon was able to forge a new eye for the original fairy made casing without causing a reaction that ended in an explosion. The proportion of magic within both pieces was so precise that they masked each others existence making the pendant seem worthless, because no magic could be sensed within it. After the death of the first eye wearer the subtle glow that had always existed within the small blue gem died and the eye was considered dead as well. To the contrary, it was just waiting for someone to wake it up again. Jeff spent the next few days trying to figure out what he was and why it had happened, while also trying to avoid authorities and manage his new form with wings and a tail. One fateful night while learning how to use his wings Jeff dove to save two garbage men from a drunk driver. The one man was knocked out while the other was wide awake and felt forever indebted for the daring rescue. Since that day Martin Classe has kept Jeff’s secret and assisted him any chance he could. It was not until after Jill’s death from an overdose that Jeff was briefed by the mysterious fairy going by the name Prometheus on what he was and was capable of. At the same time a man with red hair and red features by the name of Fet Randolf confronted Jeff. It was later that night that Jeff learned first hand the power and fury of a dragon’s hatred when he destroyed his mother’s house killing her in it. After ten years of fighting and attacks on the company that Fet Randolf works for Jeff followed the headquarters move from Chicago to New York, by the CEO, Karos Redhorn, another dragon in disguise. Karos though was no ordinary dragon. Before the war with the fairies he was a Heiri, the dragon societies’ highest social order. They were the leaders of their people, the most intelligent and the most powerful in the training of their magical abilities. Because Karos took Fet under his wing thousands of years ago the old dragon saw him as an adopted son and refused to stand aside and let Jeff kill him. In New York Jeff continued his fight, but instead of just direct attacks on the New Dawn company that have been ineffective for a decade Jeff tried a new tactic, exposing them. He fought along side the Manhattan clan of gargoyles to protect the city from the evil that had brought him to them and the problems that already existed. With new allies in both the human and the gargoyle world Jeff continued his struggle for vengeance and to protect the people around him. |