Iron Fighter

*"There's only one person I got to look out for in this world now and thats me."* - Eliano commenting to The Sentinel on his allegiances whilst in Cairo

Eliano Messana nicknamed "Eli" and later donning the mercenary name "Iron Fighter" was a male human that was born and raised in the city of Milan in Italy to parents that ran their own local shop to their own neighbourhood, during his youth Eliano was picked on by kids in his neighbourhood as his parents were being extorted by gangsters in a protection racket and upon witnessing and being involved in either incident his resolve would harden at a younger age. After finishing school Eliano realised that his situation around him was never going to change and that his parents didn't have the strength to handle the problems that were in front of them and so he would make the decision to join the army where he would eventually join COMTA being a mountain trooper in Alpine Brigade Julia, from being a mountain soldier he was trained to fight on tougher and more awkward terrain than most other soldiers however it would be in an operation within the middle east where Eliano was sent to help villagers whose settlement had been planned on being taken over by terrorists because of its mountainous strategic position. Upon entering the village it was revealed that it had already been taken over and Eliano and his fellow soldiers were ambushed forcing him to hide inside of a house with a boy who was with the terrorists pulling a gun on him, believing there to be no other choice he would use his own gun to shoot the child then proceeding to hide out in the village for several days. The experience would haunt Eliano and shook his beliefs in serving his country or to serve for the betterment of others leading him to return home being discharged from the army due to his own trauma, upon returning home to his parents he would notice that the problems were still the same and had never changed. Using his own military training Eliano would fight the thugs that returned to his parents' shop brutally killing all of them for the years of extortion and "protection" that they had forced onto his parents, whilst they were now dead and the threat was over his parents were shocked as to what he had done and no longer recognised the man that he was. Searching the bodies of the thugs he would find a handgun that one of them had not used in the fight which he proceeded to aim at his mother who was calling the police in that exact moment, as he told her to put the phone down neither one of his parents listened and thus he would once again decide to do something he hadn't done before and would kill both of his parents then leaving the scene. From then on Eliano would work as a mercenary and hired muscle for various criminal groups across northern Italy and even some parts of France where his military skill and endurance would give him the name the Iron Fighter, as his notoriety rose in the underworld bigger organisations began to notice him which included Sparrow who hired him to act as an enforcer and protector to the President of Switzerland in the UN conspiracy however after the plan had failed Eliano would continue to work as an on and off mercenary for the security organisation.

## Biography

### Soldier

#### Joining COMTA

Eliano Messana was born in the city of Milan within the country of Italy to parents who ran a small local business for their neighbourhood provided him with a fairly average upbringing however he would end up being the bullied kid at his own school whilst his parents were being extorted for protection by a local gang most likely at this time affiliated with the Mafia, these large influences within Eliano's life would force him to mature mentally and rapidly at a younger age than most other kids having the mindset of wanting to leave his home and neighbourhood to escape all of his problems which by the time he was old enough he would enlist into joining the Italian military. At some point after his training Eliano would be recruited into COMTA becoming a mountaineer soldier specialising in fighting in more awkward fighting scenarios, this training would allow Eliano to learn different effective strategies and combat technique including gun combat which would eventually prove useful to him in the future. One of his missions would have him and his brigade that he served in venture deep into the country side of Pakistan where they had received information about terrorists planning on taking control of a small village in order to use its tactical position being on a hillside, alongside the other soldiers Eliano would be sent to his village to reinforce and defend it from the potential threat that was looming however upon arrival there would be something wrong. As the soldiers began walking through the village they would be ambushed by the terrorists who they were supposed to be waiting for leading to them suffering fatal casualties and Eliano fleeing into a nearby building, whilst in the building he would come across a boy whom at first seemed to be a simple villager who was also hiding. This however would not be the case as the boy pulled out his own pistol on Eliano who was shocked and kept his hands up not wanting to shoot a kid however the boy would begin calling for help effectively revealing Eliano's location to the other hostiles outside forcing him to charge the child who hip shot him, with both of them falling to the ground the boy reached for his gun as Eliano pulled out his own sidearm hesitating for a second but then pulling the trigger on the child. This kill would shake his mind and thoughts all over the place causing him to lose his nerve and hide within the village for several more days until he could make his escape and return to friendly territory, upon his return home to his parents he would be discharged from the army due to his trauma which had managed to get the better of him on a lot of occasions where he would be met with the open arms of his parents. After few days of recuperating at his parents once again Eliano would witness the same gang once again extorting his parents for protection money and them simply handing it over with no resistance, seeing that the problems in his home had never changed he would now utilise his own military training to fight off the thugs brutally killing all of them in a trauma induced fight in front of his parents who looked at Eliano with shock and horror. His mother would tell him to run away and never to come back as she began to call the police which only angered Eliano more who had found a handgun on one of the thugs he had killed threatening to kill both of his parents if they called the police, Eliano's mother however would not be persuaded as she did not believe that her son would ever pull the trigger on them however as she continued he would proceed to shoot both of his parents once again adding on to his already traumatised mind.

### Sparrow

#### The Iron Fighter

Since leaving home Eliano would work for various criminal organisations starting as simply hired muscle becoming high ranking enforcers for different groups until he decided to become an independent contractor effectively becoming a mercenary, it would be from here that he earned his new nickname as the Iron Fighter for his ruthlessness and brutality in completing the jobs he was given but to Eliano this was all clarity to him as he now believed that he only needed to look out for himself. As his reputation grew he would begin moving up from regular criminal jobs to working as hired security for much larger public organisations across the world including the security group Sparrow who tested his skill by having him perform multiple jobs for them before allowing him to know more in depth about what their group really was, upon performing the jobs that he was paid for Eliano would be promised a permanent contract with the organisation alongside being brought in to their trust where they would reveal to him that the President of Switzerland was also a shareholder and member of Sparrow and this would be who Eliano was contracted to protect. Whilst he protected the president Eliano was also ordered to protect a weapons cache in Yemen as Sparrow has began suspecting that Milton Nichols was investigating them, during his time in protecting the site he would be ambushed by Blitzfire and The Sentinel who were sent by Milton to destroy the cache however had not anticipated Eliano being there leading to a fight. For a period of time due to his own years of training he was able to hold off both combatants however it was still two against one which would lead to Blitzfire capitalising on one mistake Eliano would make and this would allow The Sentinel to incapacitate him and capture him, as he was being interrogated Eliano would reveal to Milton that he worked for the President of Switzerland as his employer instead of giving away Sparrow in the hopes of throwing them off the scent. Still being detained Eliano would allow Milton and his two operatives to leave the building from where he was being interrogated before he made his escape so that his escape would go much easier, after his escape Eliano would inform his Sparrow contractors of the situation who ordered him to go to Switzerland and continue to protect the president as he was likely to be the next target. Once he arrived in Switzerland he would continue protecting the president however from a distance as Sparrow was informed by him that he blamed the president to which he was also ordered to defend the president if he could but if not he was to execute him so he couldn't reveal anything about their organisation, the UN meeting would go wrong with the president having captured the two operatives but then other agents who also served Milton would arrive to rescue them and capture him, Eliano amidst the chaos would engage once again in a fight with The Sentinel however he would be bested being punched off of the building they were on landing in the lake that ran through the city of Bern.

#### SHRIEK Crisis

After the fight in Switzerland he would return to his employers who weren't pleased however had a contingency plan already set in motion and from here Eliano would be introduced to a scientist called Josef Gruber aka Electrode who was working on making an AI codenamed Shriek however due to the code for the AI not fully being finished Eliano and Caliber a Sparrow assassin and operative would be assigned under Gruber to help him with his operations, as a reward for his help aside from money Eliano would be offered the same experimental drug that Gruber used to enhance his muscles and his body more durable however this time the drug had been modified providing better results for him than it did Gruber. He would accept this alongside a new suit that was aligned with alloys that made the suit feel weightless however was able to take a high powered hit without Eliano feeling it but this would only provide temporary protection as the suit could only take so many hits, Eliano's job for the Shriek project would be to protect and oversee the operations in Cairo for Sparrow mainly protecting Gruber's lab so that he could continue to work on the robot's mainframe to insert the code allowing Shriek to have a robotic body to move around in. A few weeks since his posting at the lab Eliano and the other guards protecting the location would be ambushed by Orothos and The Sentinel who were attempting to find out more about Shriek from Gruber's lab and so once again Eliano would engage in a fight against the two operatives however this time better prepared, during the fight Jade would question Eliano about his allegiance to Sparrow from which he would reveal that he always had worked for them and claimed "there's only one person I got to look out for in this world now and thats me.". In their fight Eliano's new suit would prove useful as it was able to withstand some of The Sentinel's harder hits proving the suit's durability was exactly as Sparrow claimed however whilst they fought Orothos would manage to slip by making her way into Gruber's lab and steal the remaining files that were left, due to the distraction Eliano would not be able to see this and after she was done Norah would use her own power to help fend off Eliano giving the two enough time to make their escape from Cairo and return to the US.

Whilst the Battle of Chicago was happening Eliano would return to his Sparrow employers who had him help them move their assets to some secret locations as they were in fear that should Gruber be captured their affiliation would cause them to be branded as criminals and terrorists, this would force Eliano to go and hide within Georgia with the help of the Russian government who had contacted Sparrow wanting to use Eliano's blood to extract it and make refined versions of the drug that both he and Gruber used on Russia's own soldiers.

## Powers and Abilities

### Abilities

* **Enhanced Strength**: As he continued to work for Sparrow they would proceed to improve both Eliano's arsenal and physical enhancements such as a modified version of the same drug that was given to Gruber however this version was more refined giving the proper results that it was intended to do, this drug would improve his physical strength which included faster reflexes harder hitting punches to devastate his opponent which was shown in his fight with The Sentinel being able to defend from her large mechanical arms.
* **Military/Mercenary Training**: From joining COMTA in the Italian military and from freelance mercenary work alongside the training that Sparrow gave Eliano his combat repertoire has become extensive allowing him to fight opponents of varying heights and different fighting styles which given his enhanced strength lead to him winning most of his fights or his opponents having to have help from someone else to catch him off guard, a prime example of this was when The Sentinel had help from Orothos who utilised her light powers to give the two time to escape from him.
* **Metallic Suit**: Shortly before Shriek was being worked on Sparrow would gift Eliano with a new suit to counteract his opponents who had their own suits such as The Sentinel and Blitzfire who bested him by using their suits' abilities to incapacitate him, this new suit would be one containing various metals and other alloys integrated within its base frame allowing the suit to be extremely durable meaning that Eliano would be able to take a huge hit and would barely feel it, alongside the durability the suit would be installed to be weightless allowing the user to move at great pace without being weighed down.