#srisingintro

THE BASICS:

Name: Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, PhD.

Age: 34.

MBTI Type: INFJ.

Occupation: Super-villain; bio-terrorist; botanist.

Height: 5'9"

Public identity?: Yes.

Affiliations: None; formerly ISA.

Human, mutant, metahuman, alien, inhuman, or other?: Metahuman.

Powers/special abilities, if any: Trained botanist; secretion of floral toxins and mind-controlling pheromones; immunity to toxins and pathogens; ability to heal and transfer toxin immunities to others; ability to control the growth and actions of plants; superhuman healing factor, including the ability to grow back entire limbs.

+ Intelligent, determined, sensitive

- Suspicious, callous, hateful

EVENTS UP TO NOW:

**TW: sexual manipulation, power imbalance, non-consensual bodily modification.

This is how it began: with deception, and heartbreak, and pain.

Pam Isley was a shy, reserved girl who grew up in a quiet suburb in Gotham—far away from all the hustle and bustle and danger of the city. She was studious and often overlooked, focusing more on the comfort of staying in her shell than focusing on her social life. Pam enjoyed science and her books, but the one thing she was truly passionate about was the environment. From articles to documentaries to aggressive activism, Pam worked hard to bring attention to the way humans were destroying the very world they inhabited, killing it slowly then quickly like an unbeatable disease. But more often than not, it seemed to her that no one cared.

Almost no one. By the time Pam began graduate school, (by the time the hero ban was put in place,) she had developed quite the crush on Dr. Jason Woodrue. He was brilliant and kind and listened to her when she would rant passionately about the state of the world. He shared Pam’s opinions and encouraged her further, even inviting her to help him with his own research. (Even inviting her into his bed.) Pam was besotted; she happily agreed to work with Jason, promising she wouldn’t tell a soul about his top-secret research.

Even though some of the things he was doing confused and frightened her, Pam kept that promise. She kept it all up until he strapped her down to a metal slab and began injecting her with various toxins of his own design.

(The rest was a blur; she wasn’t sure if her screams were what led to Jason’s lab of horrors being discovered, but she remembers her body aching and her blood burning. And crying, and crying, and crying.)

Recovery took a long time. But even though Pam’s body healed, her mind didn’t. At first she was frightened; her moods would swing wildly in a way they never had, and she would fall into screaming rages only to snap back to sweet and calm moments later. Sometimes she could only cry. Sometimes all she could think of was finding Jason and making him hurt. It wasn’t long before Pam began noticing changes in herself: as the mood swings slowed to a stop, something else had begun.

Plants would bloom from her nearness. Men would turn their heads as she walked down the street no matter what she wore. Her mind grew sharper and her beliefs grew absolute. She grew taller and stronger and more and more beautiful through no action of her own. Synthetic fabrics began to grate against her skin. People began to do what she told them. The plants began to speak to her.

The plants wanted to kill for her.

She tested herself as the years passed, carefully at first and then with more daring: she learned that no chemicals could affect her any longer, from aspirin to pepper spray to tear gas, and that a smile from her could get the weak-willed to do what she wanted. That a kiss from her could make anyone do what she wanted. Including die. Any people sent to subdue her fell before her, and the ones who didn’t bend to her will were destroyed by the various, horrifying plants she had learned to create.

And as Pam’s powers grew, her vision of the future sharpened and her fear evaporated.

And so Dr. Pamela Isley became Poison Ivy, shedding the withered petals of her old identity and blooming into something wholly new.

—

While she hadn’t cared when the “hero ban” happened, Pam did care when the tide began to turn against mutants and metahumans. Luckily for her, she had options. Options such as being granted clemency by the ISA as long as she agreed to play nice. And play nice she did—for a while. Until she learned that she wasn’t the only botanist blooming their way out of human flesh in their midst.

FUN FACTS

Alison is actually considered a queer icon. She came up through the club scene, something a little bit more unusual these days, and was performing in clubs before she could even drink in them. As such, she is often lauded as a gay icon, even though she wasn’t out for the majority of her career. She is a big advocate for social causes and it isn’t unusual to see her using her abilities to project pride colours at her shows. 

She’s a bit of a musical savant. It, of course, isn’t news that she can sing but her enhanced hearing comes with the side effect of perfect pitch and she can play acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano and cello. 

Ali wears the same locket for all her performances - this is a microphone shaped charm, albeit the locket is left empty at the moment. This necklace belonged to Ali’s mother and, when she divorced Alison's father and left the family, she left it behind in the hopes that Ali would take it up one day. 

She has a wicked sharp mind for timing and rhythm and has an impeccable sense of punctuality - whether it comes from years of performing or is just innate - but Ali is never late unless she is actively choosing to be so in order to make an impression.

HISTORY 

[Content Note: Ali’s bio contains mention of grooming, manipulation and drug abuse] 

If you look Alison Blaire up on Wikipedia, you would find that the early life section of her biography is notably sparse. This is deliberate, of course. She claims it is to preserve the mystique of Dazzler as a persona - where is the flair in telling the truth about a boring upbringing in New York? No, if it’s blank, people can invent all sorts of ideas from the few things she says in interviews or on social media. 

In actuality, Alison Blaire was born in the Long Island suburb of Gardendale to Carter and Katherine Blaire - a sweet young couple in the so-called prime of their lives. Carter was a law student, working his way diligently through law school with a dedication that he would have done well to apply to his family too. Katherine was a dreamer - open minded and starry eyed and longing for fame as a singer. It shouldn’t have worked between them. 

It didn’t.

When Alison was only a toddler, barely 3 years old, Katherine walked out, claiming that Carter was slowly suffocating her spirit. She left him to raise Alison with the help of his mother and so, that was that. Carter, for all his flaws, had loved Katherine deeply and her leaving had a profound effect on him - to the point of deciding it would be less painful for Alison if she never knew anything about her mother, beyond the few hazy memories she had managed to form on her own. Despite this attempt at erasing Katherine from their lives, Carter was distraught to realise that Alison was taking after her mother - free spirited and chatting enthusiastically about how she was going to become a pop star one day.

Perhaps it was just idle adolescent dreaming. Carter still wouldn’t stand for it. 

He came down hard on her for the very notion, trying to stamp it out of her before the idea could truly take root but unfortunately for him, Alison had inherited his own stubborn streak and clung to the idea all the more. 

It was, however, much easier to go along with Carter’s wishes until she could strike out on her own officially and so, she agreed to focus on her academics with the condition that she was allowed to take music lessons on the side - a bargain that her grandmother whole-heartedly supported. Carter agreed and so, Alison went on to be a formidable academic in her own right, easily coasting through her classes. 

When she was in eighth grade however, she was one of the student performers at their annual dance, something she was very proud of. It was not to be that simple unfortunately and Alison manifested her mutant abilities here, inadvertently temporarily blinding everyone there except for herself. It was chalked up to a technical malfunction and they cited the fact that she had been on stage for the reason that she was spared. Alison knew that wasn’t true - that it had been her fault - but the concept terrified her and so, she kept her abilities secret. This alienated her from her father but, reluctantly, she still agreed to go to university and study law. 

Here, she was able to explore herself without the influence of her father and found that she didn’t care about law - she cared about music. She began to work club scenes, performing as often as she could while keeping her grades pretty good and making a name for herself. Some of the older club queens adopted her, pulling her into a circle populated mostly by LGBTQ+ people and people of colour and Alison thrived, taking everything they had to say on board. This was how she came to craft her own costumes and adopt a stage name - the Dazzler. Fitting, her friends said, considering the incredible light shows she managed to put on - even with shitty club set-ups.

At graduation, Carter came with options of law schools to attend. Alison told him that she would not be going to law school. Instead, she would pursue a career as a singer - without his blessing or financial support.  

Despite the changing attitude towards mutants and metas, Alison elected to keep her powers a secret. She didn’t want to be a token meta act - she wanted to make it in the scene from her own talent first and foremost. Her light shows were hailed as a technological marvel for a solo act and she covered it with easy white lies about her amazing tech team and their unique work. Emma Frost and Charles Xavier both saw straight through such a thing. Both the Hellfire Club and the X-Men were sent to recruit her. 

When the Hellfire Knights attempted to take her by force, Alison joined forces with the X-Men to dispatch them - an act that led to Charles offering her a position in the X-Men. Alison ultimately refused, still not wanting to reveal her abilities to the wider public. 

Reinvigorated to make her career even more of a success, Alison pursued a residency spot at one of New York’s most interesting nightlife spots, an up and coming club that had already hosted several stars. The audition process was gruelling but ultimately, Alison secured the position and played several sell-out gigs there. That was until Enchantress, the Asgardian sorceress, showed up - incensed by the fact that Alison had beaten her in the audition process. The Enchantress summoned her minions and Alison was thrown into the fray of a battle, one that she emerged from victorious - having sealed Enchantress’s awful energies back single-handedly - but with a career on the verge of being ruined. 

With her career on a shaky peg, Alison started to make questionable decisions in the hopes of holding onto some of her former fame. She accepted a proposal from producer Roman Nebokoh to workshop a movie based on her life story, something that became even more complicated when Ali discovered that the woman she had been using as her vocal coach for years was, in actuality, her mother - with a changed name and a truly terrible story leading up to this moment. Reunited with her mother and getting to know her half-sister, Lois, Ali was vulnerable and didn’t notice every red flag that Roman displayed. After saving Lois’ life, Ali was heartbroken when Lois decided she didn’t want to come back to New York with Alison, choosing a life away from the woman who had uprooted everything in order to save her life. 

Ali agreed to the movie, too unsettled to think things through properly, even when financial backing happened to come from one of the other men in Hollywood who had been attempting to court her, Eric Beale. It was a terrible idea. Both Roman and Eric conspired against Alison, getting her hooked on drugs and watching as she spiralled out of control. Eventually, the ultimatum was put to her - the movie would be released and catapult her back to fame but only if she signed a contract making her their sole creative property. She rejected the proposal and tore up the contract, leaving with her life in pieces.

And so, she decided to step back from the spotlight - making her way to Xavier’s, one of the only places she knew she could go under the radar. She moved out to Australia with them, still keeping a relatively low profile and ultimately, became a source of entertainment and verve for the team. She would tour local bars and sing sets and remind the others what they were living for. It was healing for her too. 

After looking into the Siege Perilous, Alison saw many different versions of how her life could have turned out and yet, they all ended in her death. Ultimately, she, along with the rest of their team, banished herself through the Siege Perilous. 

Alison awoke on Malibu Beach, unaware of who she was. She was eventually taken in by an old friend from the club scene and they helped her through the maelstrom she had awoken to - a copy of Dazzler: The Movie had surfaced and Eric Beale was on the warpath, intending to kill Alison. She took him down and managed to get rid of the final copy of the movie. With that done and her memories restored, Alison got to work rebuilding her career, launching a comeback to rival any other. 

She quietly worked alongside any team she could find whenever she was in town - with brief stints on Excalibur, but with the majority of her focus back on her career, launching a new album that became a sensation. Dazzler was a household name again. 

And then the Sokovia Accords were announced and Alison realised that she had been a coward not to throw the full weight of her platform behind her own people. Reinvigorated by this, Alison made a public announcement. She was a mutant, and proud, and she did not endorse these Accords. The announcement was mostly met with praise and Alison started a public campaign about metakind and the Accords, highlighting several activists who had done far more than she had.

BIO

John Constantine is one of the most powerful magi currently alive. He was born lucky that way, with limitless potential and ability. All that power has led him to very little in the way of reward, instead it has marked his life with great tragedies. 

He studied under the best, lost some of his closest friends, and made enemies of others. He took magic more seriously than anything else and it cost him love multiple times. But he never stopped. He dedicated his life to studying more, collecting dangerous artifacts, setting spirits to rest, and doing anything he could to wipe the sins of his past by making a better future for someone else. It just seemed that every time he thought he was on the right track, he caused something horrible. Probably because his magic was channeled through demon blood. After the horror witnessing a child die because of a spell he cast improperly, John went into a tailspin. He underwent unethical treatment at a mental facility for the criminally insane, communed with the Dark Realm and had the demon blood torn from his body, had his magic cut down to nearly nothing by it, and had no friends left to turn to for help. So he put his head down, did what he did best, and tried to help people who had the misfortune of being affected by demons and ghosts.

Along the way, John found himself cursed by a demon to never return to London. Setting foot on the soil would cause his body to rapidly decay. Starting with sickness and then quickly turning to rot. Not to mention the issue of demon blood. It made the cost of black magic cheaper, something of a friends and family discount applied. But a horrible creature, part of the source of magic itself, ripped it out of his body at an exchange gone wrong. Maybe, if his life was a little slower paced and a little less haunted, he might even have noticed the news of Sokovia, but honestly, John didn’t even know it was happening. He was recovering in the House of Mystery in the realm of dreams from his encounter with the Dark Dimension, the loss of his demon blood, and lingering scars from his horrible time in Ravenscar.

He didn’t notice until the ISA was already marching their way across America to stop their den of vigilantes, and then he of course had to suddenly sober up and remember he was in New York because of the whole curse issue, and tuck tail to take the House somewhere else. He was quite content in hiding, popping out for cigarettes and the odd haunting problem until Zatanna reached out to him.

IS YOUR CHARACTER’S IDENTITY SECRET OR PUBLIC? Public  POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES: Flight, Superhuman Abilities, Electrokinesis (ish)  WEAKNESSES: Several of her powers/weapons are linked to controlling her emotions, and Cassie is…not great at this. She’s weaker against projectile weapons like arrows and bullets than she is against blunt force.

IC PORTION; DETAILS —

DID THEY SIGN THE ACCORDS? WHY OR WHY NOT? No. Again, Diana heavily influenced her decision, but after Cassie saw how the ISA treated metas, she knew it was the right decision. However, she does occasionally spiral in self-doubt and wonders if she’s too dangerous to go unmonitored 

CHARACTER BIO —

Cassie grew up like a lot of kids in Gateway City: idolizing Wonder Woman and getting into trouble to pass the time. She never really knew where it came from, but there had always been an itch underneath her skin that seemed impossible to satiate, no matter how many fights she got into. Cassie bounced around from school to school, never staying long enough to make friends. The only constant in her life was her mother and her Museum. She could only play on her Gameboy for so long while waiting for her mom to finish her work at the Gateway City Museum of Antiquities. What was a restless girl to do when she was surrounded by ancient artifacts and weapons but ignore all the ‘do not touch’ signs? It helped when Diana showed up. Superhuman patience appeared to be one of Wonder Woman’s many powers because she put up with Cassie’s endless chatter and demands for attention. All Cassie wanted was to be like Diana, to be like Donna, to be a hero. She practiced with swords she wasn’t supposed to touch and watched tape after tape of Wonder Girl’s appearances in the news. So, when Zeus asked her what she wanted in exchange for helping Wonder Woman take down Doomsday and Decay, she didn’t have to think about her answer. A hero. She wanted to be a hero.

Zeus granted her wish. He gave her superpowers, similar to Diana’s, and after convincing her very reluctant mother, she trained with Artemis to become worthy of her gift. Cassie eventually earned the Wonder Girl mantle with Donna’s blessing and retired costume. Sometimes, she had to pinch herself to believe it. As Wonder Girl, Cassie joined Young Justice and grew close to Cissie, Anita, and Tim. She finally had friends her own age, and she was living her ultimate dream–but like most things in Cassie’s life, it didn’t last long. After Donna was killed, Cassie was devastated and the team was disbanded. It was her first time experiencing true loss. Her father, so she was told, died before she was born. The grief had been mostly second-hand, a dull longing for someone she made up in her head. Donna’s death was sharp and jagged in all the worst ways. The pain awakened something inside of her, something that she liked to pretend didn’t exist.

Eventually, Cassie couldn’t ignore it. She joined Teen Titans and later learned that her father was Zeus. She had been lied to by the people she trusted the most; she could feel the rage that had always been simmering beneath the surface erupt. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), Ares gave Cassie her own mythical lasso, but instead of truth, her lasso expelled lightning fueled by wrath. Her superhuman abilities, on the other hand, were weakening with no apparent reason. Being Wonder Girl was all Cassie had ever wanted, so when Ares told her that Zeus was the reason her powers were disappearing, she made a deal with the devil. In exchange for Ares’s powers, Cassie would become his champion. After the proverbial ink dried, her powers became completely entwined with her anger. It was overwhelming, all-consuming, and she felt like she might burn to death from the inside out. After Kon died, she almost did.

Cassie’s powers became unmanageable. It was easy, almost natural, to give into the rage. Ares was the God of War, after all, and she was supposed to be his champion. She realized that she was becoming the very thing she sought to destroy, but it was too late. Her nephew Lycus, the son of Ares, took advantage of her instability and attacked her in order to claim the title of Ares’s avatar and her powers. He was able to take the powers that Ares gave her, but through a nearly fatal battle Cassie discovered that she no longer needed to use powers from other gods. She had divine power flowing through her blood. She defeated Lycus with a level of super-strength that she had never possessed before.

CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS: Bobby Drake aka, Iceman FACECLAIM: Ronen Rubinstein AFFILIATIONS: Nomads/X-Men AGE (physical age as well, if different): 35 SPECIES (human, metahuman, alien, etc): Mutant IS YOUR CHARACTER’S IDENTITY SECRET OR PUBLIC? Public DOES YOUR CHARACTER LIVE IN THE MOUSEHOLE? IF SO, WHAT ARE THEIR DUTIES? Combat trainer and mission team leader for those in colder climates. DESCRIBE SIX TRAITS (3 positive, 3 negative) YOUR CHARACTER HAS AND HOW THESE AFFECT THEM:

Transparent. You would think someone who has powers like him would come across cold right? No, Bobby is very honest and open, he leads with his emotions which can some times also be his downfall but Bobby can’t help it, he has a big heart.

Brave. Bobby is very brave and is often seen standing up for the little person. Because he’s so willing to go wandering into dangerous situations without thought, it can put him in danger some times, but that’s okay, he always finds some way to get out of said danger even though the x-men team has had to pull him out of them plenty of times over the years. He doesn’t back down.P

Protective. He adores his family, Jean and Scott are like brother and sister to him, Hank is one of his best friends and he may have a small crush on Warren but doesn’t talk about that. Since he joined the X-Men next to Scott, it’s been a big learning curve due to how he was treated by his peers when his mutation manifested. He’d do anything for his friends even if it means he puts himself in direct line of the danger instead.

POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES:

Thermokinesis

Thermal Vision

Cryokinesis

Hydrokinesis

Molecular Moisture Inversion

Molecular Moisture Conversion

Bobby has yet to unlock his secondary mutation which will consist of:

Organic-Ice Form

Ice Clone Generation

Cryokinetic Perception

Cellular Replacement

He’s also an accountant and speaks fluent Russian and Spanish.

WEAKNESSES:

Becomes mentally exhausted with overuse of his ice powers. Has a fear of tapping into his full potential.

IC PORTION; DETAILS —

WHAT BROUGHT YOUR CHARACTER TO SOKOVIA?

Bobby joined the X-Men in Genosha but as they began to establish the miro-nation, it became clear that there was no need for his skills set even as an accountant, so he said his goodbyes early on and left without a fuss from Xavier (which frankly, hurt, not that he’d ever admit that out loud). So, he turned his attention to the nomads and has been with them ever since. He’s the one that heads up missions in colder areas as he can withstand them and he keeps everyone in tip top shape by being a trainer around the mousehole. With the addition of the Danger Room that’s coming, he can set up some situations through that eventually.

DID THEY SIGN THE ACCORDS? WHY OR WHY NOT?

No, he didn’t sign the Accords, he was already half way to Genosha at the time. Plus, he’s a mutant and is tired of constantly being opposed for who he is. He believes if any mutant signed it, then they must be out of their minds.

PROVIDE 3-5 HEADCANONS RELATED TO YOUR CHARACTER:

Bobby has had a string of girlfriends over the years because he was deep in denial about being gay, why add this on top of being a mutant too. His world already hated him for one thing, why add another. But slowly over the years, Bobby has come to accept his sexuality and has been out for a few years even though he’s still a bit afraid.

He’s a bit of a prankster and will often lower temperatures in rooms because he finds people’s reactions funny. He should be grown up by now, but it keeps him amused.

WANTED CHARACTER CONNECTIONS:

The O5: Jean Gray, Scott Summers, Warren Worthington III and Hank McCoy, these four are his best friends. They grew up together, fought together through thick and thin, Bobby will do anything for them.

Lorna Dane: Despite having dated her in the past, they are now good friends.

Johnny Storm: Literally the best person for Bobby to team up with. They are good friends with similar goals and sense of humour. It wasn’t always like this though and they often butted heads.

POTENTIAL CHARACTER ARCS:

The only thing I have in mind at the moment is him unlocking his secondary mutation which is where he can shift his entire body into ice. He’s going to be stuck like this for a while until he learns how to control it. Get your mops ready, Mousehole.

Bobby has always been a follower, even as an X-Man but him leading up teams here is a big change for him which he’s fully taken on board. I’d like to see him make some hard decisions regarding this.

CHARACTER BIO —

Born to William and Madeline Drake in Floral Park, Bobby’s mutation manifested early on when he couldn’t stop shivering and feeling cold all the time despite his parents taking him to doctors, none of them could figure out why he was feeling cold all the time. It was only when Bobby was forced to protect himself (and his then-girlfriend) when his powers were revealed by encasing the school bully in ice. That was a rough time because the town then organised a mob to go after him, believing that he was dangerous. It wasn’t for Scott Summers, then Bobby would’ve been dead there and then. That’s when he left his home behind and started on this weird adventure as one of the original X-Men.

Over the years, Bobby learned how to control his powers and was even given the name of Iceman eventually. What Bobby wasn’t aware of at the time, but is now, that they were all child soldiers and that is something that doesn’t sit right with him any more so his relationship with Xavier is strained. He took him in and gave him a home when he had to leave his own, he’ll always be grateful for that, but doesn’t mean that he likes it.

Bobby was never going to agree to sign anything like the Accords, so quickly turned down the chance to and turned his attention on following the others to Genosha to help establish the mirco nation alongside his peers. He managed to stick around for a grand total of six weeks before he started to feel redundant. Every single one of his friends had an important position within this nation so Bobby left and hasn’t looked back on Genosha since, even letting Charles go to voice mail every time he calls.

CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS: Mary Jane Watson

FACECLAIM: Ana de Armas

AFFILIATIONS: Unaffiliated at the moment

AGE (physical age as well, if different): 34

SPECIES (human, metahuman, alien, etc): Human

IS YOUR CHARACTER’S IDENTITY SECRET OR PUBLIC? Mary Jane Watson is a household name and safe to say, *very* well known. 

IF SECRET, OR YOUR CHARACTER IS A CIVILIAN, DO THEY HAVE A CIVILIAN OCCUPATION? Mary Jane has recently secured a job working for the UN, serving under Lex Luthor, after gaining attention for her newest project: a docu-series focusing on humanitarian efforts, which brought her to Sokovia in the first place. 

DESCRIBE SIX TRAITS (3 positive, 3 negative) YOUR CHARACTER HAS AND HOW THESE AFFECT THEM: + Passionate: Anyone that meets Mary Jane knows that she has passion, as it’s clear within the first five minutes of talking to her. She’s passionate about everything: coffee preferences, movies vs. books debates, and in particular, Broadway shows. It goes deeper than that, though, and that becomes clear in knowing her better. Mary Jane practically bleeds for things that she believes in. She gives 110% into everything she does, and it shows.

+ Adaptable: Mary Jane grew up in an ever-changing environment, and it turned her into a person that can roll with the punches. She’s able to adapt to situations quickly, and is able to think on her feet. She can stay relatively unphased with change and adapt accordingly.

+ Charismatic: Mary Jane is a people person. She spent so much of her childhood and adolescence moving around that she had to learn how to socialize quickly, and it made Mary Jane into a social butterfly. She knows how to talk to people, knows how to make small talk and easily does the back-and-forth with just about anyone. 

- Hot-headed: There is no way around it: Mary Jane Watson has a temper. She goes from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye, and sometimes struggles coming back down to 0. It’s not easy to light the flame under her and set her alight, and it’s something she’s been working on since childhood. Even on the rare occasions where she does manage to keep a lid of the explosions, her facial expressions give it all away.

- Commitment-phobic / flighty: Mary Jane doesn’t like to stick to one thing or one place for long, and sometimes has trouble sticking to things. While she gives 100% in passion, sometimes it’s a solid 60% in commitment. She dropped out of college, almost dropped out of high school a few times before that, and never signs more than a six months lease. Most of her romantic relationships have ended poorly because Mary Jane never knows what Mary Jane wants, and she starts to feel claustrophobic when things get tough. This is more on a personal level. Professionally, she sticks to her guns a little more.

- Selfish: Mary Jane is always looking out for Mary Jane. She’s trying to do better, but her bottom instinct is always to do what’s best for herself. 

POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES: Mary Jane is very human, and possesses no super-human abilities. However, she’s famous with an extraordinary social media following! (if only that were a super power)

 MJ is charismatic and highly organized, and has a leadership quality to her. She enjoys organization and administrative-type tasks, and is a go-getter to get shit done.

WEAKNESSES: Again, MJ is definitely human. I would say her strongest weaknesses are her fear of commitment and her tendencies to be selfish, as this only gets in her own way of what she wants. Mary Jane is also a chronic over-thinker, and can think herself into a box at times.

IC PORTION; DETAILS —

WHAT BROUGHT YOUR CHARACTER TO SOKOVIA? Work. Mary Jane Watson is a household name at this point, though she’s taken a break from acting after the last movie in her latest saga has been released. Mary Jane has shifted her focus from Mary Jane Watson Superstar to Mary Jane Watson Social Justice Warrior. What does that look like, exactly? She’s been making videos about the state of the world, a docu-series that started on YouTube and has since been swooped up by Netflix. This has brought her to Sokovia, and more specifically, to the UN: she caught the UN’s attention, and she’s found herself working under Lex Luthor directly.

DID THEY SIGN THE ACCORDS? WHY OR WHY NOT? Not applicable.

PROVIDE 3-5 HEADCANONS RELATED TO YOUR CHARACTER: MJ is a chain smoker. She’s tried to quit, though those have only ever been passive attempts at best. She’s tried the gum, the patches, but none of it is really the same. MJ blogs, mostly on her YouTube channel. She’s recently gotten herself a TikTok She’s verified on her social media platforms, and has a pretty big following. MJ lives in high heels and generally dresses nicely. She has a very firm belief that first impressions matter most but *all* impressions matter. She always wants to look like hell on wheels, even if it’s impractical at times. She’s obsessed with trivia games and trivia-type TV shows. Wheel of Fortune is absolutely her favorite. She’s a chronic insomniac and these are her favorite type of shows to keep on while she’s half asleep on the couch. Mary Jane is obsessed with crystals, and has a crystal for every possible use you can imagine. Got a headache? Have a crystal. Can’t sleep? Have a crystal. Bad dreams? Here, have a crystal.

CHARACTER BIO —

Mary Jane was the second born child to Madeline and Phillip Watson, the first being her older sister Gayle. Her father was a professor, though changed jobs often, resulting in multiple moves throughout Mary Jane's childhood. Her father wanted to be a writer, not a professor, though his books never succeeded. This led to anger that was often taken out on his family, usually while drunk. Mary Jane bounced around a lot as a result, her mother moving the kids around to try to protect them from their father and often with Mary Jane’s Aunt Anna in Queens. 

The frequent moves caused Mary Jane to have a rather extroverted and fun-loving personality, a way to try to get noticed and make friends quickly. She knew she would never be in one place for long, so she tried to remain care-free. She never allowed herself to get too close, because she knew it would only be so long before she would be moving again. It was easier to have a lot of people she barely knew that were fun to be around than to have a few close friends she would have to say goodbye to.

She was fifteen when her mother got sick, and things went downhill quickly. Mary Jane watched her mother wither away before her eyes, and vowed in that moment to never take life for granted and grab it by the horns. After her mother passed, Mary Jane refused to move back in with her alcoholic father. Part of her blamed him for robbing Mary Jane and her sister of quality years with their mother, and memories of the abuse were still fresh. Instead, she went back to the home where she’d always been the happiest - Mary Jane moved in with her Aunt Anna in Queens, officially and permanently.

Her life of the party attitude and fun/over-the-top personality quickly gained her friends in school, though Mary Jane still had trouble letting people in. she knew she wouldn’t be moving again this time, but it was somehow easier for her to have her walls up. People liked her, she liked them, and she told herself that was enough. It wasn’t, really, though it was all she knew how to do. Letting anyone in was scary, and it was easier to *not* and keep herself safe. Mary Jane was the life of the party, the popularity queen, but she really was a lot lonelier than she gave on.

Mary Jane was accepted into NYU’s musical theatre program at Tisch after high school ended. She had the lights of Broadway sparkling in her eyes, and starred in many of their productions. However, she learned that in the real world, auditions were hard to secure and she found obtaining roles was even more difficult. She’d been praised so heavily in high school and during her time at Tisch that this was a harsh slap to the face, though she didn’t give up. She worked at Ellen’s Starlight Diner while in school, ended up dropping out of college in her second year to focus full-time on her acting career, though really she just found herself working more shifts at the diner. She got a few big breaks, real Broadway shows, though initial reviews were not what she’d dreamed of. She still pushed her nose to the grind, refused to give up on what she’d dreamed of since she was a little girl, and in the end it would pay off: she was cast in a few more shows, a few more tours, and before she knew it she had a *real* legit agent and was getting cast in bigger roles on Broadway and being pulled in for TV show pilots. In a blink (really, a few years time), her name and face was plastered all over the city she called home when she’d landed her first movie franchise, and that was when Mary Jane Watson took off. Her career skyrocketed, agents and producers practically breaking in her door to get her to look at a script. It was everything she’d ever wanted, everything she’d ever dreamed of, but even then she wanted more. Not more in term of fame, but more in what she could *do.* Being the face of charity organizations was one thing, but actually being involved was another. Throwing her money at things was one way to help, but that felt shallow to the surface and Mary Jane wanted more. She began to *get* involved, started blogging on serious issues and traveling. A docu-series began on YouTube before being picked up and funded by Netflix, and Mary Jane donated all of her salary (and then some) to the causes she was helping bring attention to. It felt right, felt *good* and before long she’d caught the UN’s attention. She’d been contacted a few times, had used their strings and resources when available. Mary Jane had temporarily relocated to Sokovia on the last leg of her series, and before long she was being offered a job at their new, shiny location in Sokovia. 

Be the change you see in the world. She didn’t agree with the ISA or with the UN in so many ways, but there was no better way to help push for change than be involved in it herself and use her platform and voice for good. A position at the UN would only help her do just that, even if she wasn’t exactly thrilled to be working under Lex Luthor and bringing another celebrity name to the UN in Sokovia.

CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS: America Chavez / Ms America

FACECLAIM: Herizen Guardiola

AFFILIATIONS: Young Avengers, herself, maybe the Nomads

AGE: 20

SPECIES: Metahuman

MOUSEHOLE DUTIES: Sapper

PERSONALITY TRAITS:

- Bold vs. Reckless: America takes the big swings. In battles, in life, around other people. She is the one who will step up and make the bold choice in favour of actually doing something rather than simply hoping that the world will fix things for her. That’s not how it works and everyone knows it. If you’re scared to make a decision, America will step up and do it for you. Except she’ll make the decisions even when people don’t ask. She’ll make them on the fly and quick on the draw and sometimes that works. Sometimes, she doesn’t think about the consequences of her actions and it leaves her in a situation worse than the one she just left. 

- Confident vs Brash: Similarly, her confidence has been hard won and fought for throughout her life. She was a shy, nervous child, but forced to grow up too soon and, in doing so, it forced her to learn confidence quickly. Her powers leave no time or space for self-doubt and she’s long since learnt to work through those feelings efficiently. However, this means that she forgets not everyone has had that experience. She can be unwittingly brash and hard on people when they display insecurity and it’s worth it for her to take a breath between her instinctive response and actually saying anything. The confidence she wears is hard won and necessary but she’s learning softness too. 

- Loving vs Expectant: America feels everything so very deeply. She masks a lot of this behind the cool, swaggering bravado of the vigilante who kicks teeth in and punches holes in the multiverse but she is an intensely emotional person. She loves with all her heart and does so very, very fiercely. It’s an honour to have America’s love bestowed upon you. It also comes with expectations sometimes. She holds herself to great standards when it comes to the people she loves. She holds them to those same standards too, even if they are unaware. It can be unfair and sets them up to disappoint her but she can’t help it.

POWERS:

- Self-Propelled Flight: America has the ability of self-propelled flight at superhuman speeds.

- Superhuman Strength: America has demonstrated incredible strength. She appears to easily tear large metal doors off their hinges, and nearly bested the Asgardian god Loki in a fight. Loki has commented that she could "throw tanks to the moon", though this is likely an exaggeration.

- Power Stomp: America can focus her internal power into her feet and legs in order to deliver an energized shock-wave with a single step.

- Invulnerability: America is bullet-proof, flame retardant, has superhuman durability, and can survive even in the vacuum of space unaided. 

- Star Portal Creation: America has the rare ability to smash open star-shaped portals that enable her to traverse the Multiverse, she can use them offensively as a spatial slicer, as well as access the Starling Highway.

- Interdimensional Travel: America can use her gateways to travel between realities at will.

- Energy Infusion: Individuals of the Parallel that Chavez calls home are capable of harnessing their inherent power from within, using it to vastly augment their physical fighting ability by leaps and bounds.

WEAKNESSES:

- Psychic Defenses: America’s powers are so intensely physical that she would be susceptible to psychic and psionic attacks.

- Personality: America can be reactive and emotional which can result in aggressive outbursts 

- Edges Syndrome: A genetic disease linked to the XX chromosomes which causes cellular degeneration. America’s childhood cure still holds but the threat is real and present.

HEADCANONS:

- The Demiurge is so important to her. It forms a central tenet of her faith - or at least the faith she was raised with - and it is a power that gave her and her mothers a utopia to exist within. It both disappoints her and delights her that Billy is its vessel. She expected something grand and someone untouchable. It’s humbling and reassuring that it is just some twink she can bully with all the love in her heart. 

- She loves to learn history - especially Earth history - of her people. She comes from another dimension but she forges real cultural connections on Earth and the history of revolution in her culture is important to her - it forms a basis for how and why she conducts herself as a vigilante. 

- She definitely got too into Pokemon for a hot second and is an extremely skilled rock/fighting type trainer. That’s all. 

- She loves to have connections with people and she will make an effort to create those connections. All this to say, America throws a hell of an event. Sleepover, party, dinner? You got it. She’ll make it happen with all the grim determination of someone in the fight for her life. 

- Growing up in a place without any form of patriarchy or ruling masculinity means that America does not take kindly to being told what she can and cannot do. She has never had her strength or competency questioned on the basis of her gender and she will not hear it from anyone. 

- Okay. Bear with me here. In Doctor Who, when Rose becomes Bad Wolf, she says “I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be” and the Doctor replies; “that’s what I see. All the time. And doesn’t it drive you mad?” This is America’s experience. She can’t see the multiverse. Not in so many words. But she knows it and she can feel it - all that potential just simmering away all the time. It’s exhilarating and exhausting and it puts her on edge all the time.

CHARACTER BIO —

It all started with a wish. Amalia Chavez was born and raised in Washington Heights; coming to be a scientist and a scholar and a doctor. It was a fulfilling life, one that allowed her freedom and space and everything she had ever wanted. Except the fact that Amalia longed to be somewhere where she could fall in love with a woman freely and without recompense or fear of retaliation. She wished for it. Over and over. Every night before bed, every morning when she arose, every time she was in the lab. Eventually, the universe heard her. Triggered by Amala’s experiments and by her own latent mutant gene, the universe sparked to life and so the Utopian Parallel came into focus for Amalia. All she had ever wished for; the chance to love and be loved as a queer woman without fear. Amalia met Elena in the Utopian Parallel and so it came to be that America Chavez was born; the daughter of Earth and the Utopian Parallel all at once. 

Living in the Utopian Parallel was exactly what it said on the tin; a utopia through and through. She came to learn her own strength and her wisdom and her joy early and all was to be perfect and loving for the rest of her life. 

Or until she was six. 

When America was six years old, the Utopian Parallel began to collapse - black holes threatening to pull it out of the pocket it had been created in and out into the wider Multiverse. Elena and Amalia sacrificed themselves to stop it. They were scattered across the Multiverse in that moment and, as it always does, America’s next chapter began with a wish. She wished to find them again and the Utopian Parallel answered. Armed with the ability to literally punch holes in the multiverse, she emerged on our Earth, washing up in Jones Beach - close to where Amalia was born. She was taken in by the Santana family and raised to adulthood by them, even as she began to operate as a vigilante on the side. This came to upset her adoptive family as it was attracting attention. For anyone else, perhaps this wouldn’t be a problem. Living in Washington Heights, however, it did nothing but inflame the neighbourhood’s already contentious relationship with the NYPD. 

Eventually, America renounced the Santana name and struck out on her own once more. Over the next few years, she proceeded to do what work she could - even allying once or twice with the brand new Young Avengers team, although she was prone to helping out and then disappearing before anyone could get hold of her name or identity. 

She was operating as a vigilante in New York still when the Accords were first brought in. She refused to sign. Firmly and categorically, she would not sign away her right to exist for the sake of people’s comfort. America took off into the multiverse. She had abandoned her mothers for too long and there was nothing left on this earth for her now. 

traits.

LOYAL: Tommy’s not really used to having people who would go to bat for him, to be honest. Sure, there’s been a few years of being on a team, but that doesn’t override a lifetime of the opposite—which means that if Tommy thinks he can trust someone, then they’ve got a ride or die for life. He may act detached and, in his own goofy way, standoffish, but Tommy’s the kind of guy who would bury a body for someone that he isn’t even that close to. Snitches get stitches, you know? It’s the kind of prison loyalty you get used to after years spent in and out of juvie. 

SELF-SUFFICIENT: If nothing else, Tommy is pretty independent! For better and for worse, a lifetime of having to take care of himself means that he is more than capable of providing for himself (and others, should the situation arise). As much as he jokes about how badly he wants to marry rich and never work a day again, Tommy is pretty streetwise and can get himself out of a bind… usually without causing too much trouble. Sure, that means his credit score is shot to hell because he took out a credit card to pay a lawyer after he got arrested once and didn’t have the funds to pay it back, but what does he look like he is, middle class? The point is, he’s fed and sheltered and he’s good at keeping himself in check in a bind. If he were to get separated from the rest of the gang in some kind of catastrophic event, he could take care of everyone. And himself. 

UNDERSTANDING: Some of these hero types kinda… have a moral superiority complex. And Tommy finds that exhausting! He is Not The One. Sure, he has a unique perspective on the matter, but Tommy knows more than anyone that having done bad things doesn’t mean that you’re inherently bad, and he’s quick to give others the benefit of the doubt. While he may not be immediately trusting—he doesn’t believe people right away, and it takes him a long time to truly open up to folks—he is the kind of person who believes that intentions matter and that people aren’t defined by their pasts. Everybody’s got some baggage; what’s the point in getting hung up on it?

FLIGHTY: Is Tommy deeply loyal? Yes. Is Tommy deeply unreliable? Also yes. Sure, he would do anything for his friends, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll show up on time—Tommy’s still not accustomed to having to really answer to someone, and because he’s so fast, he has a tendency to wander off… and then get distracted and stay wandered off. His brain works faster than most people’s, so he might follow the trail of a thought (literally) before whoever he’s talking to has finished a sentence, which has gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion. 

VOLATILE: Unfortunately, Tommy’s temper has always been the source of all his problems. Angry outbursts are common in those who aren’t used to being heard, and Tommy’s entire childhood has been marked by neglect and worse; while he often has a goofy, fun-loving exterior that can get as good as he gives with teasing, a misplaced word or a teasing insult that cuts a little too deep can send him swinging straight into rage. It’s a minor issue when it’s a spat between friends; it’s a bigger issue when he’s vaporizing his school or dealing with his massive issues with authority.

RECKLESS: Remember that ‘unreliable, thinks faster than everyone else and will run off’ thing? Yeah, it becomes MORE troublesome! Tommy thinks fast, but that doesn’t mean he’s great at thinking before he acts—his body’s just too fast, and he’s going to start moving before someone can stop him. It doesn’t help that he has a compulsive need to keep moving lest his debilitating insecurity catch up to him (sure, most people can’t outrun their mental illness, but what about the fastest guy alive?), and he’d rather run headfirst into danger without a strategy and figure it out later than stop long enough to start lingering on self-doubt. 

abilities.

SUPERSPEED: the name of the game. Tommy’s maximum speed is unknown, but he can easily run faster than the speed of sound, over water, etc.; he takes a lot of pride in having been able to run from the US to Genosha and searched the island faster than Billy was able to teleport there, sucker. His physiology is also adapted to allow him to run at such speeds without suffering from the friction or reduced oxygen, as well as somewhat reduced impact effects. He also has superhuman stamina to allow him to keep moving at incredible speed for several hours.

ENHANCED STRENGTH: With great speed comes great leg strength. Speed can lift about 1 ton’s weight with his lower body strength, and even his upper body is strong enough to bear about 800 pounds – mostly under duress. It’s not, like, his preferred state to be in, holding 800 pounds.

ENHANCED PERCEPTION: Look, when you’re moving way, way faster than everything around you, it kinda feels like the rest of the world is in slow motion. Tommy’s mind processes regular information at speeds aligned with his physical speed, allowing him to be aware of his surroundings while moving (the rest of the world literally does appear to be in slow motion) – and to react just as quickly, giving him lightning fast reflexes. This also means that he can, for example, read entire books in a very short timespan and remember what he’s read. 

MOLECULAR ACCELERATION: The major difference between Tommy’s abilities and Pietro’s is that Tommy can create hyperkinetic vibrations that accelerate the molecules in matter and can make them, uh, explode. It also means he can accelerate his own molecules enough to pass through solid surfaces! But mostly the “blowing stuff up” part. (Pietro can sort of also do this, but Tommy can do it from a distance, therefore he is cooler and also better, thanks!) 

WEAKNESSES. He is still, you know, broadly human; while his body can withstand extreme friction and he can dull the effects of sudden impacts, he is still painfully mortal and woundable in all the usual ways: a punch, a knife, a gun, an energy blast, a broken heart. He is also frankly unaccustomed to people being as quick as he is, and so can be caught off guard by anyone whose speed comes anywhere close to his. …And he’s an impulsive, reckless dumbass, his fatal flaw.

headcanons.

Mostly? Tommy’s here for the free food. Just kidding; Tommy was technically summoned to play the role of emotional support child to Wanda, a thing he has a lot of mixed feelings about—if only because every time he roasted Billy for being like, “you just don’t understand her like I do” about Wanda, it turned out he was kind of right, while Tommy was happy to shrug off the similarities and weird coincidences. But it is true that in a world that no longer has room for superpowered beings who want to live their lives in peace, “apathy” and “staying out of it” are no longer really options. He’s also lonely, but like hell he’d ever admit that one.

 Absolutely did not sign the Accords!!! Tommy has ENOUGH issues with the government crawling up his ass to go willingly sign away his rights like that. REGISTER? No, thanks. That gets in the way of his ability to “get away with doing stuff,” thank you very much. Frankly, Tommy is hesitant to register for anything that would get him put into any kind of database, period, especially as a mutant with a criminal history—but everything that went down with the Accords certainly did not inspire confidence. 

Another great reason to be willing to relocate to Sokovia? Tommy is effectively homeless. He wasn’t welcome back home after he broke out of SuperPrison—and frankly, didn’t want to go back there—so for some time he made an attempt at normalcy by moving in with Billy and Billy’s extremely normal family. It… didn’t really work out. They are extremely nice, and Tommy still makes a point to stop in for dinner and stay for a few days because he has some manners and he’s not about to wholly disrespect the amount of care and compassion that Mrs. K showed him. But a curfew, a sort-of-mom who expected him to be home for family dinner every single day at seven p.m., sharp… none of that really worked for him. He wanted it to! He really did. He wanted to be able to fit into their lives. But at the end of the day, Tommy just felt suffocated—and the lingering sense that sooner or later, he would fuck up the whole thing, earn their ire, and wear out his welcome, so he bailed before that could become a problem. In the meantime, he’s been squatting in a house in New Jersey with an old ex-villain who basically has dementia. Why, who’s your roommate?

Speaking of an old ex-villain who basically has dementia! Tommy has become a great homecare nurse. This is a pretty unexpected turn of events for someone who is pretty selfish and was once called a sociopath by the person he thought knew him best, and for someone who loathes doctors and labs and medicine of any kind. Taking care of Master P gave Tommy purpose in life when the Young Avengers couldn’t really keep operating, and he feels pretty guilty about abandoning him, actually. That means Tommy will still sprint across the whole of Europe and the Atlantic Ocean to check in on the guy and make sure he isn’t stuck on the ground because he fell over and couldn’t get up and to make sure he’s eating and all. Pandemonium’s not completely incapable of taking care of himself or anything, but he forgets.

After the Young Avengers broke him out of juvie, Tommy never bothered to return to high school. It’s that ol’ “fitting in with normalcy” thing again, and a desire to keep himself off the ‘grid’ as much as possible. He did, however, receive his GED, but he hasn’t bothered with trying to go to college—too expensive, first of all. Second of all, not really worth his time. 

Tommy does have a superspeed mutation, yes, but it’s a little more complicated than that—hence his ability to vibrate molecules around him at range. As a product of Wanda’s soul, Tommy contains traces of magic within him, too, and it is the source of his abilities; Tommy’s superspeed is its own kind of reality warping, not dissimilar to time magic—he can move quickly by changing the world around him, so to speak. But practically, it’s superspeed.

In that vein, slowing down can be… a challenge. When you start doing everything faster than the speed of light, it can be difficult—at tims, agonizing even—to operate at a slower pace than everything else; imagine going from the internet speeds we have now back to dial-up. This became a huge factor in why Tommy struggled to maintain real human connections: people just couldn’t keep up with him, and he didn’t want to have to slow down for them. Joining the Young Avengers helped that a little as for the first time he met people who kind of understood him, but his attention span is shot to all hell, and he still struggles with a distinct lack of, uh, patience. 

biography.

It all started with a curse. Frank and Mary Shepherd never really wanted a kid; Mary Shepherd can distinctly recall the moment she saw that little pink plus on a pregnancy test (and the second test, and the third, and the fourth) and burst into tears, damning whatever God was listening for giving her this problem that would make her body unrecognizable, belonging to someone else; for another mouth to feed; for forcing her into a marriage she didn’t really want. The whole fling with Frank had been hot-and-cold, intense passion and even more intense fighting. She’d hid the pregnancy at first, until her then-boyfriend inevitably found out and promised to be the best goddamn dad the world had ever seen. They may not have had much, but they would have love, and wasn’t that everything in the world?

No, it turns out, it was not. The fighting stopped… for a while. Frank and Mary got married, a combination bridal and baby shower that left them with a small house stocked with all the signs of domesticity: a mobile with little animals to hang over the crib, a Kitchen Aid mixer (the ultimate symbol of luxurious suburbia. Mary never imagined she’d have one; now that she did, she hardly knew what to do with it). But the tenuous peace they’d brokered didn’t last long, and Frank started drinking again, and Mary never wanted to have this stupid baby, didn’t he remember that, didn’t he remember how he’d talked her into having this baby and if it was his idea he was going to need to take some of the responsibility instead of going out after his shifts, stupid deadbeat?

Anyway, that basically set the stage for Tommy Shepherd’s life. 

His parents split when he was young, and Mary Shepherd made the choice to reclaim her life, leaving behind the man and the kid. Frank left Tommy more or less to his own devices; he wanted a buddy more than he wanted a kid.  It didn’t help that Tommy was a hyperactive, rambunctious kid as it was, never mind being one starved for attention; even at a young age, it was clear that while sometimes Frank liked him, at other times, his dad found him annoying as fuck, and Tommy struggled to be able to gauge which way the pendulum would swing. When whatever shenanigans Tommy got himself into stopped entertaining him, Frank stopped paying attention.What qualified as “entertaining” got rarer and rarer as Tommy got older, which meant he would start making grander and grander attempts for attention… and in a whirl of anger and every other poorly regulated emotion in the book, Tommy’s outbursts and tantrums took a turn for the violent. Prone to stirring up trouble and picking fights at school, Tommy was regularly in detention or suspended, and before he hit puberty, he already had a knack for finding himself on the wrong side of the law and inside juvenile detention halls.

Most of those stints were short stays for minor incidents—just enough to get a rowdy brown kid off the street, you know? But Frank’s girlfriend always had a funny feeling about that kid, his angry eyes, his unfeeling expression, the way he never flinched at gore, his stupid white hair. She was pretty convinced he must’ve been a mutant or something.

Turns out, she was right. (Or something. Tommy’s not clear on the details.)

When Tommy’s abilities manifested—the same day as that whole Novi Grad Sokovia thing, whatever the hell; he didn’t keep up with world events enough to know how they got there, but he did know where they ended up because you couldn’t escape that particular aspect of the news cycle—all he knew was that he could finally taste the air of freedom. Freedom from the crap of his daily life; freedom from teachers who loathed and distrusted him, who treated him like he was nothing but a lost cause and a trouble maker; from his dad who never wanted him around anyway—for once, Tommy’s life could be really, truly his own.

Anyway, that’s how he ended up vaporizing his school. It was mostly an accident. (Mostly.) No one had been inside—late at night, zipping circles around the track field in a blur too fast for the human eye, all Tommy had been wishing for was the promise that he wouldn’t have to go back to that cursed shithole. And suddenly, the shithole was no more.

He could have run away, of course. He was way faster than any cop car, and the cameras were gone. But when you’ve suddenly blown up your school and reduced it to nothing but ash and scorch marks on the pavement, what the hell do you do besides stand there in awe and start laughing in disbelief? So naturally… he was caught. Before Tommy could really register what was going on, special ops police had encircled the premises and nullified his powers, hauling him off to a unique hell specifically for those bad kids unlucky enough to have superpowers.

For someone who already felt caged within the confines of his crappy life, you can imagine how that went—Tommy did not exactly love superjuvie from the start. When the heads of the prison realized the extent of his mutations, they saw only an opportunity. Ah, war: the mother of invention. From there Tommy became the subject of secret, probably illegal experiments, as a team of scientists hoped to bottle his speed and his kinetic vibrations into something mass producible, or else to find a way to turn him into the United States’ greatest living weapon. They had invented the super-soldier, after all, and that was with a regular human. What else could they make? 

The result was that Tommy had phenomenal control over his abilities in a short amount of time, and the instant the power nullification was turned off of his cell, he did what any sane person stuck in a prison would do: he blew the door right off. On the other side were a bunch of wannabe superheroes his age, in desperate need of help—somebody’s boyfriend had been kidnapped. Somebody, it turned out, who bore an odd resemblance to him; they may not have been identical, but there was an uncanny connection. (Tommy claimed not to notice. No one else was polite enough to do the same, apparently.)

So what was Tommy going to do, say no and keep himself incarcerated forever? The rest, as they say, is history: they saved the boyfriend, Tommy joined the team and adopted the name Speed, they went on their share of adventures. Tommy never returned to his dad’s house; his dad never asked about him. For a brief time, he lived with the Kaplans for lack of any place better to go, but after a few days of having to put up with Billy and Teddy sucking face and Rebecca Kaplan trying to lovingly psychologize him, it was time to go. He found some stability working odd jobs where he could get a month’s work done in a few days’ time and pay rent to a landlord who didn’t ask questions, but as having superpowers became more and more dangerous, so did Tommy’s plans for income.