FALLOUT BOY,

25.09.25: hahahha working on rewriting this a little to make his mum a radium girl. in keeping with The Times

TRIGGER WARNING: ( implied ) allusions to cancer.

TLDR. radioactive country bumpkin poisons an entire population, condemns a town, and turns himself into the authorities—who promptly opt to weaponize him for their own gain.

SPECIAL BULLETIN FROM THE PRESS-RADIO NEWS. CHESLEY, IOWA: a rural community has declared a state of emergency in response to a pandemic of unidentified origin that is sweeping through the populace. numerous fatalities have been reported.

in 1924, chesley had a population of 296. by 1930, census data indicated that the population was 284—and then, suddenly though not at once, 279 … 275 … 272. by 1931, only 268 residents were left, though by now none of them lived in the remnants of chesley. and one of them didn’t seem to live anywhere at all. 

but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

jacksie nimble, jacksie quick, jacksie boy is a back-field hick! 

jonathan alberhasky was a mousy little thing. born in a barn, they used to say. and that was more or less true. the boys called him hasky; the girls called him jack. adults called him jonathan-you-get-back-here-right-this-instant, or alberhasky-boy-you’re-done-for-now! he was quick with his times tables, average in his grammar, and bored with his geography. by all accounts, he was an exceedingly normal boy … until he wasn’t.

it all began with a mysterious case of tooth necrosis. dorris alberhasky noticed a spot on a molar and thought nothing of it. she drank water instead of coffee. washed her mouth with pyrozone. smiled at the sun in the hopes that it might bleach the stain. but the tooth became soft, and brown, and hateful. it began to spread its taint to its neighbours on either side, and eventually there was nothing left to do except pull the tooth out.

and then another. and another. and another.

jack started spending lots of time in front of the bathroom mirror, huddled on a stool next to his mother. he would stick his fingers in his mouth and pull his lips back to ensure his teeth were all still there and white and grinning. beside him, dorris would cry softly and use a handkerchief to blot at the blood around her mouth. 

it began with the rotting teeth, but it didn’t end there. it began with his mother, but it didn’t end there, either.

first it was the other children; then ms. wilson the teacher; then the store clerk who let jack buy the ten-cent candies for five. 

skin, bone, and tooth necrosis. nausea. vomiting. hair loss. when dorris alberhasky finally died, the doctor wouldn’t even examine the body. he crossed himself thrice over and put her straight into the ground. around her grave, the flowers wilted and took to the wind.

the more people died and were buried, the grayer the cemetery grounds became, as though the earth itself had taken ill, too.

SPECIAL BULLETIN FROM THE PRESS-RADIO NEWS. CHESLEY, IOWA: the suspected pandemic in chesley is no pandemic at all, claim government officials. the outbreak of illness is suspected to be linked to the town itself. is it something in the water? something in the air? fears abound, but answers do not. as scientists continue to try and isolate the cause, residents are being evacuated to kent county.

jack continued to spend a lot of time in front of mirrors, huddled beside the ghost of his mother: she was still weeping and blotting her mouth, though ghosts had no use for their teeth. and jack wept with her, or for her. 

it was a different mirror now. no longer the one from his bathroom. chesley had been evacuated. citizens displaced into neighbouring towns until The—capital-t—government could isolate the cause. jack didn’t like this mirror as much. its reflection was empty without his mother there. and his aunt, who had graciously accepted the boy into her home, had no stool for him to stand on to get a better look. so he had to climb on the counter and balance on his dirty knees.

he saw it then for the first time. a spot of green in his eyes. he rubbed and blinked and blinked and rubbed. washed his face with cold water and then hot. prodded at the delicate membrane with his finger until his vision swam. but the speck would not go away—and as the days went on, became bigger. it ate up his eyes the way the stain on his mother’s teeth had eaten up her body. 

jack suspected he was sick. worse than that—he suspected that his sickness was the reason why everybody else was sick, too. his aunt helen started taking ill and his uncle peter complained of an ache in his bones. the dog was shedding more than usual, too, and looked at jack accusingly whenever he walked by.

or maybe he wasn’t sick at all. maybe it was just everyone else. everyone who came in contact with him.

now, jack knew all about superheroes. of course he did! he knew about men in capes and women in masks, who used their fantastical abilities to save cats from trees and help little old women to the grocery store.

he also knew that people with powers were either superheroes or super villains—and that superheroes didn’t kill people. not even accidentally.

so what did that make him?

wherever he went, people became sick. and if he stayed too long, they died. so he ran. he resolved to return to ground zero: chesley. jack filled his pockets with almonds and dumped out his uncle’s whiskey flask to fill with water. it wouldn’t do anyone any good if he died on the way. they’d bury him with decorum and his body would kill the priest before the casket hit the ground.

he got lost a few times. kept to the fields and the backroads, where he was sure no one would come across him. no one but the animals, of course. groundhogs retched when he passed above their holes. snakes curled in on themselves when he stepped on their tails. crows took off when he came too close, crying murder murder murder!

and then, eventually, he made it. after a few shorts days and long nights, he was standing at the outskirts of chesley, where scientists milled around wearing funny suits and goggles that made them look like flies. tents were set up, and inside the tents were test tubes and various machines that hummed and whirred. 

he was scared that they would kill him. but he was even more scared that if they didn’t, then he’d eventually kill them. so he ate the last of his almonds, drank the last of his water, and turned himself in to the very first person he saw.

SPECIAL BULLETIN FROM THE PRESS-RADIO NEWS. CHESLEY, IOWA: a small town in iowa has been declared a biohazard zone. new discoveries have led investigators to conclude that the so-called “chesley epidemic” was actually the result of acute radiation poisoning. the death toll now sits at 16, and is expected to rise over the coming months and years. all land within 100m of chesley is blocked from public access for the indeterminate future.

WIP / TO BE CONTINUED.

blah blah blah. raised in the custody of the NSA from the age 7, where he learned how to control his powers and suppress his radiation output. sure, they could kill him! but the memory of world war 1 is still fresh in peoples’ minds, and this kid is a walking nuke. he’s potentially an invaluable asset to the war racket.

when he had enough control over his abilities, he was allowed to attend school in The City (idk where don’t ask). game-changing event tbh. he goes from living in scientific isolation to being extremely popular among the student body. the NSA begins marketing him to the public as soon as possible. he becomes a super hero when he’s still in high school, initially under the name handsome jack (which was a monumentally weirdo choice from the adults in charge)

tbh, i tend to just superimpose the bare bones of jack's canon story into a modern setting. general crossover interactions are tagged as 'undefined', followed by the relevant arc (i or ii—featured in the dossier).

below are some vague verse outlines 🙂‍↕️ always subject to revision or further development.

THE BOYS / GEN V.

blah blah blah. after effectively irradiating his entire hometown (it wasn't puberty, it was gamma radiation!!!), jack spends his formative years in the red river institute. upon aging out, he transitions to godolkin university—no application required. seriously! vought's been keeping a close eye on their manufactured fallout boy. he is, after all, their best bet at a delicious military contract. ( what army doesn't want a rechargeable nuke at its disposal? ) by the time gen v season 1 begins, he's in his third year of study at the lamplighter school of crimefighting.

despite being an upperclassman with (in)famously powerful abilities, he's systemically kept out of the rankings—and ineligible for any and all hero drafts. why? because jack just isn't intended to be a vought hero! he's intended to be a vought weapon: a corporate nuke; a privatized atom bomb; a multi-billion dollar government contract waiting to be signed. "SUPES IN NATIONAL DEFENSE", goes the official party slogan. studying is pretense. everyone knows he's only there to bide his time until he's inevitably called to the frontlines of america's next war effort.

note. in this verse, jack doesn't bother with the brown contact lenses. he's constantly in green glow-stick cryptid mode 🥀. he also, regrettably, goes primarily by handsome jack, and only rebrands to gamma jack once vought starts publicly petitioning for superhero inclusion in matters of national defense.

re: powers. consider the fact that, like soldier boy's radiation bursts, jack is capable of burning compound v out of the bloodstream and rendering supes powerless. consider, also, that he's officially banned from using his powers against other supes because of this</3

MARVEL / X-MEN. 

NOTE. this verse is based on vibes and vibes alone. i’ve seen most of the x-men / x-men extended universe movies. i’ve spent my fair share of time scrolling through wikis. i haven’t read the comics. seriously i am just a guy.

after his powers manifest during puberty, jack is sent to xavier’s academy to learn how to control his powers

eventually becomes a member of the x-men, whereupon he adopts the moniker of gamma jack

due to the destructive nature of his abilities and his attitude toward humanity, he is cited in the government’s proposal for the “mutant registration act”

forced into early retirement due to negative publicity associated with said act

wrestles with his contempt for humans + beliefs in mutant superiority. prime candidate for magneto’s brotherhood of mutants but chooses NOT to turn against humanity xx

DC.

THE PRAISE OF ANTIHEROES: A SIGN OF SOCIETY IN DESPAIR? ENTER: GAMMA JACK—a superhero at the head of an adoring fanclub, whose dubious morals and lethal abilities have landed him on a government watchlist. a walking, talking atom bomb with an ego big enough to match his status. professional womanizer and recreational rage-baiter.

HISTORY. DEVELOPMENT. VERSES. PINTEREST.

NOTE. ok i’ll say it: media literacy is dead when it comes to gamma jack. i’ve seen a lot of bad-faith interpretations of this character in fanon. i’ve also seen incredible woobification. this is not a fanon-compliant interpretation in either direction. i’m not portraying jack as a would-be h*melander, nor as superhero baby boy jesus christ himself. this is going to be a nuanced take based on my own interpretation of what little lore is available. gamma jack is a troubled hero who was put on a pedestal and conditioned into godhood; exploited by his government so that he, in turn, would not exploit them; and whose morality exists on the spectrum of good and bad—not innocent and evil. also hi you know me. i like taking the piss out of blond white dudes and holding their flaws under a microscope xx

NAME. JONATHAN ALBERHASKY. NICKNAMES. JACK, HASKY. rarely, if ever, john. ALIAS. GAMMA JACK. formerly known as handsome jack. AGE. early-to-late 20s (arc i); 30+ (arc ii); dead by 39. STATUS. deceased. killed in combat by the omnidroid v.6.

note. what name or nickname your muse calls him by is situationally dependent. in a civilian context, strangers call him jonathan and friends call him jack or hasky. in a professional context, he is typically referred to as gamma jack—though many people still remember him as handsome jack, and some use it as a derogatory nickname.

OCCUPATION. superhero (arc i); bounces around middle- to upper-management positions in various fields, never keeping any one job for long (arc ii).

SEXUALITY. closeted bisexual. famous womanizer; secret maneater. RELATIONSHIP STATUS. officially? single. unofficially? chronic situationship haver. committed to commitment issues. CHILDREN. none; sterile due to radiation exposure.

[ NSA RECORDING OF GAMMA JACK, c.1946. ] yeah, i fought my fair share of villains, and they all have their own unique challenges. you know, they got their monkeys, and their giant laser robots, and their super aquatic ninjas. but i tell ya, once in a while, the real kicker is i get these dames, man. these dame villains. [ ... ]

ACCENT. none. puts on a curious northeastern / boston elite accent while masquerading as gamma jack. ( think jfk. ) HAIR. naturally a dirty, mousy blond. dyed golden blond for the entire duration of his superhero career. loose waves. mid-length. well-maintained as gamma jack; disheveled in his civilian life. FACIAL HAIR. clean shaven (arc i); stubble (arc ii). EYES. unnatural, highly-saturated green. emit a faint glow around the irises. in his civilian life, he wears specialized brown contacts to preserve his secret identity. HEIGHT & BUILD. 5'11" / 180cm. obsessively maintains a lean, fit physique. visible muscle definition.

ART REF.

[ ... ] they got the curves, and the hair, and the big eyes, and boy! those ones, uh, they're really hard to kill. especially the ones where they come up and they're looking at you, and you're looking at them, and you feel that simpatico, you know? like, uh, she's diggin' you and you're diggin' her diggin' you—and, boy, you gotta take a jog around the block real quick and sorta get your concentration back. compose yourself, 'cuz you know, you can't get distracted by these sort of thoughts when you're going up against a super villain. [ ... ]

DEFINING TRAITS. EGOTISTICAL. PRAGMATIC. CUNNING. DISCIPLINED. CHARISMATIC. INTELLIGENT. FLIRTATIOUS. CONFIDENT. MALICIOUS. PLAYFUL. VAIN.

MENTAL. high intellect and narcissistic tendencies.

known for his stage-presence, crowd work, and PR skills.

uses flirtation as a manipulation tactic.

loves a bit of fun (especially at the height of his career, during which he is young and prone to immaturity).

tends toward provocation. he's going to say whatever he needs to say to get a rise out of someone.

in a world where superheroes are regarded as gods, jack has come to believe that meta-humans are superior to their human counterparts. this is a catastrophic character flaw that will bite him in the ass later xx

MORALITY. grey. a quintessential antihero whose ego and cynicism erode his morality. he believes in saving people, yes—but because supers are intrinsically "better than" humans and thus have an obligation to defend their weaker peers. it's a textbook case of saviourism. he also does not hesitate to kill, as he believes it to be an unavoidable byproduct of the job: an inevitable outcome that he neither laments nor enjoys.

[ ... ] that's one of the hard parts of the job, you know? when you come across, uh, a dame's who's really something to look at, and you just gotta let her have it—she's got to go—cuz she’s a villain. yeah, those are the bad days. [ END RECORDING. ]

STORYLINE

ARC I. man, myth, and legend. in the glory days of heroism, supers are venerated as gods on earth. statues are erected in their image; films produced to immortalize their stories; and events held to praise their achievements. gamma jack is a favourite even amongst the favoured, worshipped by a legion of fans who are enamoured with his easy charisma and good looks. behind the public facade, however, jack is not the golden boy he presents to be. he is infamous for his womanizing, questionable ethics, and willingness to kill—or rather, his inability not to. in a post-war world that has come to fear the atom bomb, jack is considered as both a potential threat in need of monitoring and a governmental boon ripe for exploiting. young, vain, and deified to the point of self-delusion, jack is a super who fails at every turn to live up to the ideals of moral perfectionism that have been forced upon him by both private and public institutions.

ARC II. deprive him of his worship and even a god will die. following the super-ban enacted by the united states government, jack is forced into early retirement. in order to isolate him and dissuade any attempts of joint rebellion, he is relocated far away from his former friends and colleagues. jack does not adapt well to civilian life, and lives under the omniscient eye of the NSA. he acts out and gets himself fired from every job he is assigned to, forcing the NSA to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to relocate him and clean up his messes. still, he does not use his powers to harm others—and he does not don the mantle of america's newest super villain, as the government has always feared he one day might. ironically, it is only under the oppressive thumb of this post-super society that he is able to prove that he really is just that: super and not villain.

DEATH. as part of syndrome's systematic culling of superhumans, jack is lured onto nomanisan island—and let's be honest: it doesn't take much. a beautiful woman and an appeal to his starving ego and he's on a plane, ready and willing to relive even a sliver of his glory days. jack is able to destroy the omnidroid v.5 before being killed by its successor, v.6, which was engineered to counter his specific powers. rip gamma jack you got syndromed

ABILITIES.

jack is a walking nuke. a bomb in a cape. a weapon of mass-destruction dressed up in spandex. his powers are radiation based and fatal by nature. he is a deadly opponent and infamously known to kill those he goes up against—if not during immediate combat, then days, months, or years later, depending on the dose of radiation dealt and the sickness it reaps.

RADIATION BURST. the ability to create controlled bursts of radiation, the effects ranging from burns to complete disintegration within microseconds. detonation can also flatten trees, buildings, and other structures.

SUSTAINED RADIATION EMISSION. when jack is not actively suppressing his radiation output, his cells undergo nuclear decay and release gamma emissions that cause significant biological damage to anything within his immediate radius.

RADIOKINETIC FLIGHT. the ability to levitate and fly. while doing so, jack emits waves of gamma radiation that cause nausea and illness in those within close proximity.

TECHNOLOGY DEGRADATION. exposure to intense radiation causes detrimental failure in high-tech equipment, impairing its effectiveness and/or rendering it obsolete.

PRIVILEGE. no, i'm not kidding. i'm so serious. not an ability as such, but a power nonetheless. only a generically attractive white guy could pull the shit jack pulls and get away with it. his privilege is protection.

WEAKNESSES.

correction: jack is a walking glass canon. high offensive power, low defensive capability. powerful and fragile.

RANGE. beyond a radius of 100m, the strength of his power diminishes sharply.

DURABILITY, OR LACK THEREOF. even when in peak physical condition, jack is not any more robust or resilient than an average man. he is stronger than any human, but not as strong as an athletically-inclined super.

ENDURANCE & COOLDOWN.    jack is not able to detonate multiple high-intensity explosions in rapid succession. his radiation bursts, while incredibly powerful, require a lot of exertion. consequently, he needs time to recover his stamina—during which time he is particularly vulnerable to oncoming attacks. 

EGO. yeah. what it says on the tin.