Maksim is a farm child from eastern Europe, but apart from his rather telling first name, there is little that gives that away. He was given the surname of his French father, who emigrated to a small Romanian town to settle down with a sweetheart he met in his days truck driving across Europe. But his parents knew about his quirk since a young age - the screams of a toddler like pushed Maksim's father further and further away. He spent so long away from home, and he was barely picked up as a baby. An accident of his birth, where his mother refused to go to a hospital for her fear of the city and the kinds of people that lived there, resulted in a stunted and paralysed left arm.

In fact, Maksim's parents were rather proud of their ancestry, and this often got them unwanted attention from a rather zealous neighbourhood. Things rapidly went downhill for the family, when his father's company nosedived due to the political instability caused by the rise of quirks. He returned home to a Maskim that had little qualities of his abrasive, confident father; a fact that made both of them uncomfortable, even if they didn't talk much about it.

His father and mother began drifting apart, one wanting reform and the other an uncompromising solidarity in regards to the quirk that Maksim was never told about. They clashed and began to despise each other, with Maxim being caught in the middle. He became ammunition for each side, often involved in arguments and disputes. Usually, when he ran away, he was always dragged back. He stopped trying to run away altogether. His only friend was another child, Natasha, who lived in a convenience store along the main road through the town. He felt a love for her that he had reserved for nothing else; she gave him hope. He acquired the skill of choir singing, especially with a high-pitched voice and passive character, he fell in line with the other boys in the Church.

At school, a particular bully was getting the better of him. Alin, one of the few boys in Maksim's school to acquire a quirk, had the peculiar ability to sense fear in a person's heart and freezing them if it was present. It only worked on the other kids, and what started as a joke became far more sinister. His posse used to pick on the smaller kids, including himself, freezing them and taking advantage of their defenselessness. Once again, Maksim's body wouldn't move. On one day, such alike the norm but somehow different, another boy intervened. He defended Maksim when nobody else would. Alin's quirk failed to work, but they attacked him anyway. Maksim wanted to help him but instead became the next victim. They were more vicious this time. They had something to prove. In the flurry of attacks, he bit down on his tongue by accident. Inside, the blood spewed out, and he tasted his own blood for the first time he could remember.

It was completely tasteless. Like water, but less nutritious. He felt brave. Mehmet's quirk no longer worked on him. He was no longer afraid.

When Maksim shouted, he felt like his voice shattered the world. A great gust of wind knocked back the boys, scaring them from picking on Maksim ever again. But the school was terrified by the idea of a child having such a violent quirk, while Alin's had been tolerated as unprovable, and he was excluded. Natasha moved away from the chaos that followed. He was alone.

His mother, the winner of his custody, was originally appalled by the idea of her son doing anything with his quirk, and Maksim realised he was treated the same way as his father. He felt alienated in his own house, deciding that he didn't need to be a hero. He wasn't brave, he wasn't intelligent, and didn't respect himself enough to improve his ways. He walked without moving for the rest of his childhood. One moment changed it all, on his way home from school. A small-time villain ran into him and didn't want any witnesses. The criminal was quirkless, but he still had a knife. Once again, Maksim froze. Then a man saved his life.

Like a dragon from the sky, he soared down and apprehended him. The criminal still had another knife under his jacket; Maksim knew this, but couldn't open his mouth. The street was set alight. The boy stood there, too afraid to help or run away, the world burning around him. His brother saved the day, looking down on Maksim like a stranger. It should have been a moment of reunion, but Maksim was less than happy to see someone do so well with his quirk, while he had done nothing with his.

After that day, Maksim felt what pain was like. The pain of doing nothing. But his brother showed him what he could become. He was going to protect everyone that needed protecting, quirkless or not, with whatever power he had. Disobeying his mother, avenging his brother, he set off to become a hero.

His brother revealed to him that he was a bastard of his father, a reason for their split, and had quickly become a vigilante to deal with the rise of crime occurring around the world. Alex Poer travelled to Romania to find his long-lost half-brother, eager to introduce him to the world of quirks and heroes. He had connections to other heroes around the world, and for once in his life Maksim had a truly good role model who wanted the best for him. His older brother, Alex Poer, had never been to U.A. but knew the people that could get him there. With his own income, and the backing of Alex's mother, a Japanese journalist, they moved. Maksim got a grasp of how his powers worked, and while his brother's work as a vigilante was not lawful, he was nonetheless admired by Maksim. The future was about to begin. Maksim was timid, but nonetheless excited.