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Name: Julian Lorenz/The Radiant--alias "Seraphim"
Age: 17/unknown
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 140
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue (golden when powers are active)
Ethnicity: Mixed Latino & Caucasian
Occupation: Thief/Reluctant vigilante

Powers:

Pyromancy Julian can cover his body with flames with no harm to himself whatsoever; anything he touches is also set on fire. Because the flames are magical, they will destroy normally non-flammable objects. They are especially effective against evil creatures--vampires, undead, necromancers, etc. He can vanish in a burst of light and fire, and reappear elsewhere in another burst within visual distance. With a fair amount of concentration, he can also summon multiple wings of flame along his back. These wings set other objects on fire when touched and allow him to fly at great speed. The flames are either a brilliant golden-white or a dark blood-red; the difference in color is purely aesthetic and does not affect Julian's powers.

Healing When cut or injured, Julian's blood is not red but instead a deep, radiant gold. His blood will cure any ailment and heal any wound when drunk or applied to a wound, as long as the injury was not immediately fatal. This ability does not apply to himself.

Origin of Powers:

Julian's powers are neither genetic nor technological. In fact, they're not even really his. Julian's body hosts two beings--himself and a strange entity from the Golden Lands that calls itself "the Radiant." The Radiant was a powerful guardian spirit; it was forced from the Golden Lands by a necromancer that destroyed its temple near an opening between the Golden Lands and Earth. Because it cannot survive in its purely spiritual form on Earth, the Radiant bound itself to Julian, diminishing its powers greatly but granting itself a chance at survival and carrying out its moral agenda.

Skills/Talents:

Street smarts, guile, and a natural slipperiness when confronted with the law kept Julian alive and out of jail for most of his youth. In and out of foster care with no true guardian, Julian spent a good deal of time on the streets of Empire fending for himself. He is an accomplished pickpocket and thief and a pretty good liar. He prefers to evade trouble instead of dealing with it, and is very fast on his feet mentally and physically.

Linked fate Julian and the Radiant share life energy and an extremely powerful magical and psychic link. They are capable of communicating telepathically. The Radiant can tap into magical energy and use the link to heal and strengthen Julian, and he (within limits) can use his own strength to do the same for it. As long as both of them are alive, they are quite difficult to kill.

Magic sense As a creature from the Golden Lands, the Radiant is sensitive to surges of magical energy and changes in the barriers between Earth and the Golden Lands within a radius of about 1 mile.

Weakness

Sharing one's body with an otherworldly creature is no easy task. Julian needs almost twice the amount of nourishment as a normal adult to keep healthy. Without food and water, he and the Radiant weaken considerably faster than a normal human being. The shared life force and the bond between the two also has major drawbacks. Whatever happens to one of them happens to the other; strength, weakness, health, sickness, etc. If one of the two of them were to die, the resultant magical and psychic backlash would most likely be enough to kill the other one, as well as whomever happened to be in close proximity to them. On the off chance that Julian died and the Radiant somehow survived, it would have to immediately find a new host or share his fate. If someone found a way to separate the two, Julian would immediately lose all of his powers, and probably suffer other unforeseen debilitating side effects.

Because Julian's abilities are not his own, he doesn't have complete control over his powers. Most of the time, his powers work exactly the way they're supposed to. However, in places where the walls between the Golden Lands and Earth are very thin or nonexistent, he can accidentally unleash a surge of uncontrollable magical energy that is extremely destructive and very dangerous for his health. He and the Radiant have been working to increase Julian's control over his borrowed powers, and strive to avoid areas where magical surges could be a problem. A related problem is the effect his powers have on technology; because of their magical origin, Julian's powers cause technological devices in close proximity go haywire and most often break.

The mental drawbacks of a split consciousness are also considerable. Though Julian is in complete control over his own body, he and the Radiant constantly sense and share one another's thoughts, emotions, memories, feelings, etc. He really has no privacy, not even inside his own head, which can be extraordinarily frustrating. He constantly takes aspirin and other painkillers just to cope with the headaches from having so much going on inside his mind all the time. On one occasion when the Radiant lost control of its emotions, it accidentally took over Julian's body and nearly killed him.

And finally, there are the fundamental personality differences between the two. From what Julian has gleaned, the Radiant is a wise and ancient spirit. Like many creatures from the Golden Lands, it is a study in opposites. The Radiant has two sides to its personality: it is honorable, noble, and fundamentally good, but highly vengeful toward cruelty and evil in the world, wanting to go out and purge it at any chance. Julian, while not a bad person by any stretch, is neither a hero nor an idealist. He tends to look out for number one first, and thinks nothing of using less than morally upright methods to get what he needs. During the last two years of more or less forced coexistence, they have learned to get along better.

Background:

When he'd been a kid, police sirens meant trouble. They meant getting locked up in the clinker for snatching a loaf of bread, or beaten up for pulling a few wads of cash from some rich b*****d's fat purse, or getting kicked into the streets because the neighbors ratted on the good Samaritans who'd taken him in illegally. But today, for the first time in his life, they were welcome. Julian let out a deep, heartfelt sigh of relief as the wailing sirens and flashing lights came around the corner, and the headlights of the cop cars zeroed in on the soma boss he'd tied to the alley dumpster.

Relief? It is much too early for that, young one.

Julian flinched, turning around instinctively from his rooftop vantage point. What's the matter? Did someone see us?

He felt the mental equivalent of a sigh, punctuated by a sudden mixture of impatience and urgency that was definitely not his own. You misunderstand me. We have done well so far. But there are yet more men like him, and they must be stopped--all of them.

He gritted his teeth--not this same old argument. He thought they'd settled this. He wasn't a hero, and that was that. But he didn't feel much like dealing with the Radiant at the moment. Too many things depended on timing. Instead, he watched until he was certain that the police were comfortably occupied shoving the boss into the car, just like they'd planned. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The slow, familiar lick of golden-white fire across his skin came faster and more furious as he fashioned them into wings of flame.

Hurry, Julian.

I'd like to see you trying to jump off a twelve story building, Julian snapped back, his eyes still closed. He knew he didn't have much time to act--he was incredibly visible against the night sky of Empire City. He took one last breath, spread his arms out, and jumped.

Holy s**t, he thought as the wings picked up the wind and sent him hurtling toward the cop cars. This is awesome. He turned his body around and extended his legs, aiming straight for the soma boss's chest. The impact from his dive sent the man crashing into the two other cops, screaming in agony as his clothing erupted into hungry, purging fire.

"What the--" The cops had barely drawn their guns before Julian whirled around, his wings extending and clipping their armor. The Kevlar also burst into flame, and Julian muffed the fire crackling around his hands just long enough to grab the money from their hands--money that the soma boss had slipped them the second they cuffed him.

He felt the Radiant's righteous anger flaring, but he stuck to the plan. Trusting the flames to teach them a lesson, he took off into the night, igniting the cop cars as he flew up like a blazing bullet. He quelled the flames a foot above the fire escape of one of Empire's skyscrapers and tumbled harmlessly onto the roof, breathing hard.

The Radiant was at least understanding enough to wait a moment before interrogating him, though Julian could feel its confusion and concern. You could have finished them, Julian. You could have stopped them from hurting people. Rid your home of their corruption forever. I do not understand--why do you insist on sparing these evildoers?

Julian didn't immediately respond, opting instead to sit and catch his breath. He looked down at the slightly smoky cash clenched in his palm--hundreds of dollars at the very least. That would feed even him and the Radiant for a good, long time.

"Jesus, we've been over this for the past two years," he said aloud, still panting slightly. "I'm not a murderer. I leave that to the real freaks."

The Radiant was silent, though it couldn't hide its puzzled disapproval from him. Julian got to his feet and scurried down the fire escape ladder to the pavement. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror of the dark windows and started slightly--he was a lot thinner than the last time he'd seen himself properly, his clothes hanging around his wiry frame, and his eyes still faintly glowing golden-white.

Julian made a face--whatever. It didn't make a difference what he looked like. He was still headed to exactly the same place--Ground Zero, where all the worthless dregs of the city got spat up and festered.

You may believe as you wish, Julian. But your life does have a purpose. You are here for a purpose. As am I.

Julian sighed to himself as he walked. Two years of this idealistic bullshit, and the Radiant still hadn't given up. As far as Julian was concerned, the only thing that mattered was keeping food in his stomach, a roof over his head, and the gangs of Ground Zero off his doorstep. He'd finally caved last month, agreeing to go out and fight crime just like those superpowered freaks in the news so the Radiant would stop nagging him to do something.

Would that you were motivated by a desire to do good, replied the Radiant with something akin to weariness or resignation. But when they reached the bombed-out apartment building whose lower levels served as Julian's house, he felt a sudden rush of approval from the Golden Lands spirit.

You did well tonight. Very well. Your youth belies great strength and skill.

Julian stopped, halfway through climbing over the gate to the building. Praise? From the Radiant? He couldn't help but suddenly feel a little warmer inside. "Thanks, man," he said, a genuine smile spreading across his thin face as he dropped onto the other side of the fence and walked toward the building. Tonight had been a good night...something rare indeed in Ground Zero.

Name: Charlotte Duncan
Age: 21
Height: 5'4"
Weight: I wouldn't ask.
Hair: Platinum Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Occupation: Empire City Station News (ECSN) Intern

Powers: None at present

Origin of Powers: N/A

Skills/Talents: She's young, beautiful, and ambitious. What more could anyone need? She's a gifted writer and has a photographic memory.
Weakness: She has a strong dependancy on her best friend Jordan. His imput has affected almost all of her major decisions and is therefore an important part of her life. She also has a terrible time of blending in.

Background: If one were to look up superficial in the dictionary they'd find, well... the definition. But, they may at once use such a term to label a lady by the name of Charlotte Duncan. On paper, Charlotte is the stereotypical beauty queen. She has the looks, the money, and all the connections anyone could need to succeed. But underneath breaths another person entirely.

Born in the midst of a bitter divorce, Charlotte learned early on that money couldn't mend every wound. As she grew, she tolerated the second marriages of both her parents and thereafter her mother's third and fourth. Her family circle, once small, now included a vast number of inviduals that were half-siblings, aunts and uncles that she never cared to keep track of. The constant verbal violence of both households drove her to become bitter. She floated into high school on her high horse and ruled the student body (and sometimes staff) with an iron fist. Charlotte lived in the power. She had such a hold over everyone that she'd even been nominated for prom queen (a title reserved for only senior girls) each of her four years because of the sheer fact that she was terrifyingly evil. She, of course, won her final year without fail.

But, eventually every villian finds their demise. The fall of her senior year, a new student walked the halls. One whom knew nothing of Charlotte or her work. He wore the same faded blue jeans every day, rock band t-shirts, and there was a strange rumor that he never showered.. but within him lay the key to slaying the almighty blonde beast. The administration had taken a different turn, and the senior projects were assigned to pairs. Charlotte had expected to rely on one of her many flunkies to shoulder the work load while she evened her tan, but when the paper handed to her held a name of another senior she did not recognized, she paniced. She raised her hand to object, but there he was... standing in all his glory in front of her desk. The t-shirt he was of a band she'd never heard of, and it looked like it'd been washed and worn a 100 times. He was greasy, slouching, and the look in his eyes was unfamiliar.... was, was it REJECTION!?

Her parents ignored her cries, and their firm believe in education kept them from stepping in and saving her from this "Befriend a Geek Week" project, and in the 17 years they'd been seperated they stood united against her. Jordan, which her partner was named, seemed just as unimpressed with her company as she was his. They spent most of their time shouting over divided interests, his hygiene, or her tyranny. The hatred between them was evident to everyone, and Jordan gained underground popularity for being the first to challenge Charlotte.

Despite that, they spent an increasing amount of time together. Their year was almost up, and they were no closer to completing their graduation requirement. Charlotte and Jordan were still rivals, and neither of them were posed to change that. It was one night while they studied that they overheard an arguement between his parents that drove the both of them to understand the other without saying a word. Their differences immediately disappeared and since the two have never fought.

Through the months that followed, he taught her humility and she taught him strength. The two became the best of friends, and those around her began to slowly accept her new persona. Her tarnished image was replaced with a new one, and she was accepted by her peers soley based on her personality. Finally, she was able to shed the mask. Despite her change of lifestyle, Charlotte is still undeniably sassy.. which of course adds to her over all appeal.

In a stroke of genius, Jordan and Charlotte combined his knack for camera work and editing with her likability and looks in a mock news program. The video became such a hit that the two of them were invited on after graduation as interns. Though Jordan politely declined, Charlotte found her calling. She'd use her connections at the news station to spring board herself into the writing career that hadn't fully established itself in her imagination.

Charlotte currently works within the station as more of a coffee girl than a intern. She spends much of her time filling lunch orders and balancing cups than she does anything else. She and Jordan have remained close, and speak several times a week while he attends film school some half a country away.

Full size/Non cropped


Name: Mikishi Marilyn Beihl (Miki)
Age: 19
Height: 5’3”
Weight: 105
Hair: Long black hair that hangs between her hips and knees.
Eyes: Blue
Ethnicity: Asian American
Occupation: Food Service/Student

Powers:

Empathic Malady Transfer

Mikishi has the ability to transfer someone’s wound or ailment to herself. It could be animal or human. With a single kiss, she could take anything from broken bones to cancer. She can even take away someone’s schizophrenia or cure chemical imbalances in the brain. She only has limited understanding of her powers. Though she can cure the current condition of someone with a genetic disorder, she can’t actually cure the flaw in the genetics so it could come back. Viruses aren’t a problem for her, but she can’t removes parasites either, though she can return the body to the healthy state it was in before the intrusion. The person is fully healed as if they regenerated, no scar tissue. From that point, Miki immediately takes on the wounds the other person had. It is possible for her to transfer wounds from herself, or wounds she has had to someone else, but she doesn’t know how, nor has she even thought of such a thing. She doesn’t have to be in contact with a person to do it, though her current level of control makes contact a necessity. In the future it is possible that she could learn how to heal those by being able to see them or having a strong enough empathic bond with them.

Limited Accelerated Regeneration

Her body regenerates at a much faster pace than a normal human’s. Where it might take them months to heal, it only takes her a week or so. Minor cuts and bruises can take minutes to hours. Her ability to heal is limited however; anything that is immediately fatal could kill her if it were only her regeneration. In an instance where she would instantly die, her body takes her life energy to instantly regenerate it to the point where her normal accelerated regeneration can handle it. It ages her each time this happens. Already, she appears to be around 25. So far, she hasn’t found anything non-genetic that she couldn’t take care of.


Origin of Powers: Mikishi was born a meta-human. For as long as she can remember, people have felt as though she had a calming, healing nature. She can remember playing in the children’s ward at the hospital and many of them had miraculous recoveries. The first time she remembers actually using her power was when she was eight. Her father had a terrible cold. She tucked him into bed and gave him a kiss to make it all better, like he’d done for her when she was little. In the morning, he no longer had a cold. She however had caught it, but was over it before she went to bed the next night.

Skills/Talents: Miki is very talented at functioning despite pain. Its not that she can’t feel it or anything, she’s just learned to work despite feeling intense amounts of pain. She’s quite diplomatic and ladylike. Because she lost her mother at such a young age she practically grew up at the hospital her father worked at. She has about the same working knowledge as a nurse. She seems to radiate calmness about her and often times her father has sent her in to comfort someone who just found out they were terminally ill.
Because of her power or some other unknown reason, she’s able to metabolize poisons and drugs much quicker than most individuals. She doesn’t really know about this part of her power though, because she’s yet to need it. She did heal a junky once. Its left her feeling dizzy for a couple of moments, but other than that there were no ill effects.

Weakness: When Miki was little she contracted an autoimmune disease. It took hold before her regenerative powers had fully established themselves. It crippled her immune system and caused a lot of damage to several of her organs. Since her father is a first class doctor, he was able to cure her, but her immune system was never the same. She gets sick much more easily than most people. Her kidneys and reproductive organs give her a lot of trouble. For some reason her power can’t undo the damage that was caused, though it does keep it from progressing further.
When curing someone who should have died, she often faints because of the intense pain and sudden energy and life drain. This leaves her quite vulnerable to whatever might want to harm her. At the moment, she doesn’t have enough knowledge of her powers to control which wounds to take on if a person has multiple and so she must take on all of them, limiting the number of people she can heal. She is currently working on this though. It also takes her several days to recover the loss of energy. Even if she were able to stay conscious, she wouldn’t be able to get up and leave the scene.
She feels a powerful need to heal many people who need it. Its slowly aging her over time and her life will one day be cut short, having sacrificed it to help others. This need is strong enough that sometimes she misses appointments or important interviews.
She’s constantly tired because her ability is so draining. It makes her a bit more weak willed then a normal individual. Her tiny stature makes her physically weaker than her peers.

Background: If one were to look into Miki’s files they would find out that she was an outstanding citizen, bred by outstanding people. Her father is a renown doctor, ill people from all over the world seek him out. Her mother was beautiful and everyone who knew her has a kind thing to say about her. Her only fault was that she was just a little too weak to bear the life she carried.
The file would list on her merits: Charity, well bred, loveliness, intelligence. She spends time with the sickly at the hospital. She volunteers at an old folks home a homeless shelter and a preschool for underprivileged children. All that and she manages to work a part time job to pay to help save up for college. She’s a regular wonder woman.
If one were asking about Miki, people would reply with nothing but praises. She’s sweet and kind. A good listener with thought out advice. She’s there when you need her and someone you can rely on. More than once she’s sat with someone through a long night of bitter tears even though, to be honest, they didn’t really know each other.
What you wouldn’t learn by asking around is that she is absolutely miserable with the way things are. A life time of caring for other people, of being physically wounded by them is wearing down on her. She believes her healing is a gift granted by God, but she can’t yet reason out why he would want her to suffer so to make his other children’s lives better. She can only guess that its some sort of trial she’s supposed to overcome, that for some reason, later on in her life, the skills she’s learning now will on some way help her.
But the fact remains that she is miserable. Nearly hopeless…the only thing that keeps her going is the work. Going from one thing to the next and not trying to think about the fact that there’s no room in the world for her to have her own wants, her own needs and her own feelings. In recent times, she’s begun to feel a little bitter about it…the sentiment so far only representing itself in very private, dark thoughts.
Though Mikishi never saw much of her father, she never really saw him as negligent…or at least, when the thought presented itself she banished it immediately. He’d always been kind to her. He’d always made sure she had everything she needed to survive…At least physically. She was sadly lacking the emotional nourishment most children get and it has made her a bit detached.
Her Aunt Niyuri is the dragon of the family, keeping everything in line. Niyuri felt that is was her personal job to take care of Mikishi after her mother Mihari died. It was her cold, sterile strength that pushed Mikishi through childhood. She wants her niece to be a good match one day, like her mother, to bring honor to their name.
Mikishi knows her powers aren’t a normal occurrence, but she doesn’t really think of herself as a meta human either. So far she’s only seen their powers used for destruction. She certainly hasn’t had any close personal contact with one to prove her views incorrect. Even if she did, she’s not sure that she would ever choose one side over the other. Life is what it is. Humans and meta-humans are born alike and all too often die alike. They certainly bleed the same from what she’s heard. She hopes for peace, prays for it every night. She’s pretty much a pacifist by nature, though. Only coming to blows under extreme circumstances where others might get hurt.
For now, she spends her time going from one activity to the next or a few rare moments getting lost in one of the beautiful gardens around the city. One day she’ll leave the city and her family and find a life of her own somewhere, but for now it remains no more than a blurry dream she can’t see coming to a reality. All she can do for the moment is watch her body grow older, being horrified at the thought that her peak years may have already passed and her child bearing years may yet be completely wasted after a few more major heals.

Name: Keeley Jane Reynolds
Age: 16
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 90 lb.
Hair: Red
Eyes: Red
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Occupation: Student, researcher

Powers:

The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a closed system (the measure of the number of possible microscopic states within a system given its macroscopic properties) can only remain constant or increase over time. Crudely put, things probabilistically tend from order to disorder. Objects break, machines are never 100% efficient, organisms decay and die, heat flows from hot to cold, and none of these processes ever spontaneously go in reverse.

Keeley's powers allow her, with concentration, to temporarily negate the second law of thermodynamics in a limited area of space and cause extremely improbable things to happen. As long as all the other laws of physics are still obeyed, Keeley can do extraordinary things simply by creating order out of disorder. Circumventing the second law allows her to take random heat energy from the atmosphere and convert it into any other form, spontaneously repair broken things, maintain perpetual motion machines of 100% efficiency, reverse the flows of any fluid, reverse the flow of heat...even, within limits, bring organisms back to life.

Origin of Powers:

As far as she or her parents can tell, Keeley is a mutant. However, given that her parents are particle physicists who conducted all sorts of complex and exotic experiments with high-energy particles and waves, it's hard to say what exactly caused the mutation. Her powers began surfacing around age one. Her skill grew along with her knowledge of physics and math, and she is now capable of manipulating both classical and quantum systems.

Skills/Talents:

A child prodigy raised by two world-class physicists, Keeley is a mathematical and scientific genius. She's a whiz with computers and technology, and already holds several patents to her name. She's coauthored several papers with her parents as well. Having finished her undergraduate work at the college where her parents teach, she is now into doctoral studies.

Apart from her primary interest in physics and math, Keeley also loves music, especially string instruments. Harp is a particular favorite of hers, an instrument she's been playing since she was four.

Weakness

Keeley has Asperger's syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that sometimes afflicts highly intelligent people. She has trouble with monitoring the social situation around her and behaving normally in a social context, making her come off as eccentric at best and completely unresponsive at worst. She is mostly disinterested in people and unaware of more subtle social cues. Because of this, she has trouble connecting with others and making friends. It doesn't bother her per se, since her science interests her much more, but it does leave her rather isolated socially. She's also sheltered and a little spoiled from being an only child.

A botched visit to the emergency room when Keeley was an infant left her completely paralyzed from the waist down. Rather than bothering with more surgery, Keeley's father simply designed a hovering chair to get his daughter from point A to point B. Keeley maintains the chair and its perpetual motion machine on her own now and has added to it over the years. It comes complete with a collapsible surround sound stereo system, supercomputer console, hologram system, and a limited holographic AI that Keeley programmed herself called "Schrodinger." She has developed a habit of talking to Schrodinger as though it was a real person, another one of her many eccentricities.

Keeley's powers require either physical contact or mental concentration on her part. She can currently only negate the second law of thermodynamics in a limited space, no larger than a standard sized laboratory. Physical contact with objects requires little to no concentration to activate her powers for that object. When she lacks physical contact or has to exercise her powers on a space like a room, Keeley can only negate the second law while she concentrates and if she understands the underlying physical properties. She also has to obey all the other laws of physics: conservation of energy, momentum, etc. when she uses her powers to do anything.

Background:

Keeley's parents had always wanted a child, and doted on their daughter when she was born. Rather than being horrified by her mutant abilities, they were delighted, since her abilities meant that experiments that could never have been done before could now be performed. Keeley was home-schooled from a very young age, practically raised in university with her parents. She quickly proved herself to be a rare prodigy, utterly dedicated to science and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Keeley's upbringing emphasized the importance of intelligence and clear thinking. Despite being a mutant herself, she empathizes little with the mutant cause, believing that many mutants use their powers irresponsibly without examining the underlying causes or tapping into their full potential. She identifies more with the scientific community than with other post-humans, and is too wrapped up in her own interests and studies to care much about anything else that's going on. She's put her doctoral studies on hold for the moment to accept a lucrative grant and a research position with one of Tri-Global Enterprises' elite physics laboratories.