Matteo grew up in Brooklyn, NY to Italian immigrant parents. He had a natural skill in athletics which helped with his social life in school, although his general affable and thoughtful nature made him generally liked and approachable. He also found a love and talent for handyman work of all kinds and soon found himself in vocational school straight out of high school and shortly after developed a plumbing business of sorts while not being much of a businessman himself. The business license was made under his first name, and his expenses, profits, losses, etc. were basically non-existent as he would never actually make an invoice or ask for payment. "We'll-a figure it out," was his unofficial mission statement. On paper he was a self-made business owner, but in reality, he was a friend to the community. And the community took care of him in turn. Much of the time his rent was payed through work-trade because he was consistently helping the rest of the tenants in his building with all kinds of service issues. He helped friends and local businesses at a whim and they provide him with free meals or supplies. And he was happy.

One thing though... Ever since he was very young, as long as he could remember, he had a reoccurring dream of a castle full of monsters. He would fight his way through traps and mazes and find that after defeating the leader of the monsters, a note which simply read "You're princess is in another castle. It was only a dream but the frequency with which he had it made him develop an unconscious longing, a need for something bigger than himself. This is likely why he is generally so helpful and happy to do so.

Flash forward, a week or two before Matteo's first contract, he was walking down the street in Brooklyn when he heard screaming coming from down the block. He raced down the sidewalk, jumping onto scaffolding, bouncing off of awnings and landed in front of a horrifyingly dangerous scene. A truck carrying toxic waste had jackknifed, toppled on its side, knocked over a power line, and was spilling its radioactive contents into the street. At the same time a nearby centuries-old fire hydrant ruptured from the ground-shaking calamity, instantly creating a river that traversed the road and formed a moat around a playground full of children at a neighboring school. Toxic truck contents spilled into the hydrant stream and the downed power lines electrified the water. Matteo, without thinking, ran full speed like a pole vaulter without a pole, hopped, skipped and launched himself across the full width of the toxified-electric river. As he sailed through the air, he pulled out his monkey wrench and brought it down hard onto the transformer of the power lines, smashing it and severing its electric connection. Then, like a quick drawin cowboy, he used the extra length of his plumbers wrench to reach a manhole cover and loose it free from the street, diverting the toxic waste flow safely underground. And then, as if he were doing a 100% speed run of Save the Children the Video Game, he side flipped over to the fire hydrant and very quickly relieved the geyser-like pressure and sealed it. Onlookers instantly knew they had just seen some kind of super heroic act. He quickly became famous around the city and other parts of the world.

Though, he would say repeatedly that anyone else in his position would do whatever they could to save those kids, he is quietly happy with himself and relieved that he was there.