Training Team: Lightning

When the news talks about the danger of the Marked, they’re talking about you. Your team has the power to change and destroy the world, if you can only contain it. But what will that power do to you?

In Team Lightning, you’ll tell a story about immense power, but power you cannot always control, power that comes with a cost. Some of you possess that power: your story is about how it affects you and whether you restrain it. Some of you care about others with power: your story is about whether you support them through the dark times or turn against them.

You’re a mix of juniors and seniors, grouped together because of the struggle you share and given to the care of the one teacher who can reliably keep your powers under control as they try to teach you to use them safely.

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13: A. Staicu // Rewind

Age: Senior Student, Origin: The Legacies, Brussels, Training Team: Lightning /

Power: Time Rewind

Everyone else dreams of being as powerful as their parents; for you, that is your worst nightmare. In your family’s homeland, Romania, your father, Dumitru Staicu or Silverwing, was a national hero. That was until he betrayed the Marked Alliance and sided up with super-villain Deathray. He was arrested following investigation by EPIC investigators, led by the Ocello parents. Now Staicu, Sr. resides in a EUROPOL affiliated maximum security prison on the Swiss alps and you have to live with the stigma of his name. You still visit him, though; after all, you are all he’s got left. Before this, amongst your peers you had high status, then you got ousted. You found out who your true friends were.

You prayed that the Mark would skip a generation. Without powers, you would not have to worry whether you too would turn to evil, like your father. Without powers, you would not have to stick in a community where everyone knows who you are and judges you for it. In your final year at Mistry Academy, you want to find your place and be accepted as one of the good guys. But are you truly a good guy?

13: A. Staicu // Rewind Read More »

14: R. Müller // Backlash

Age: Senior Student, Origin: Marked in Space, Training Team: Lightning /

Power: Induce Emotions

Genius has always run in your family: you can trace a lineage of exceptional individuals all the way from the Age of Enlightenment to your parents who invented the teleporter that took you and them to space. You’ve been surrounded by marvels of technology for as long as you can remember and you want nothing more than to contribute your own advancement to galactic knowledge. But since your power developed, it’s become harder and harder for you to remain detached and focus on logic and reasoning like a true person of science ought to. Your power riles up your emotions and those of people around you. Eventually, though you didn’t want to leave your life at the heart of interstellar discovery, you agreed to return to Earth and your parents’ friend Dr Mistry to learn to control what you can do.

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15: R. Wojcik // Zap

Age: Senior Student, Origin: Operation V, Unknown Location, Training Team: Lightning /

Power: Microwave Manipulation

Wojcik had a family once, but they feel so very far away now. The soldiers at Operation V said that it was Wojcik’s duty to be there, and Wojcik believed them and tried to be a loyal Polish patriot because his comrades must be right, no? Wojcik’s power sometimes leaks out, and since an accident that lead to the death of a guard, they have to wear metallic clothing to keep it contained. Wojcik was always forced to train until their muscles are shaking, but they never understood why they were singled out for special treatment. When Marino set the lab on fire, Wojcik was secretly glad and silently let loose their power to help weaken the walls. And then they ran away – so much for their supposed duty and patriotism.

Note: Wojcik’s memories are not real. They were created in the lab and the memories were implanted.

Content warnings: Implanted false memories, false history, lab bred, accidental murder, isolation in a metallic suit

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16: L. Acosta

Age: Junior Student, Origin: The Renegades, New Jersey, Training Team: Lightning /

Power: Reshape Molecular Bonds

From the moment Acosta first got Marked, their parents were scared of them. Thinking back, Acosta fears their parents were right. Acosta’s powers are scary. When Acosta focusses, they feel the bonds that join everything together. Their science teacher would call it molecules, but it feels something more fundamental, more different. All Acosta knows is that they can reshape things when they use their powers.

They are scared of what they can do. They have tried to warp and remake objects, but it easily goes wrong: once, while practising in their bedroom, they watched their arm starting to disintegrate and had to spend the rest of the night remaking it. Then there was the time that Acosta tried to protect those who protested against the Mayor, but couldn’t stop the police arresting the protesters. For the moment, Acosta keeps their powers tightly in check, but wonders what would happen if they let loose with their full potential.

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17: D. Khan

Age: Junior Student, Origin: Frazer College, India, Training Team: Lightning /

Power: Absorb and Re-emit Energy

Khan was a mathematical prodigy – born into a poor community in the city, fortunate to find a teacher who believed in their talent. Or maybe not so fortunate: they were awarded a scholarship to Frazer College, and taken away from everyone who they knew and who cared about them, into a new world of privilege, with fresh and unknown monsters hiding in plain sight. Khan has been easily led – passively doing what they were told, wanting only to escape into the world of thought, where everything makes sense and behaves as it should. The bullying they experienced was as incomprehensible as it was unfair: all Khan ever wanted to do was to be helpful and inconspicuous. They were horrified that the first exercise of their powers caused the destruction of the school. But if all they can do is reflect and feed back what others around them are feeling, can they really be held responsible for the effects?

Content warning: Bullying

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18: N. Christiansen

Age: Junior Student, Origin: Salik's Boxing Club, Greenland, Training Team: Lightning /

Power: Boost Powers

The only place Christiansen felt like they truly excelled was the boxing club. They were fiercely proud of their accomplishments. Salik said they might be able to compete in tournaments one day, but then he died, and once again Christiansen is a nobody. They long to reconnect with their old friends, but they struggle with reaching out. Forced to learn how to fend for themselves from a young age, they greatly value independence and are endlessly frustrated by the nature of their powers. They feel useless, unable to do anything but boost others. Can they learn again the pride that they had at the boxing club?

Content warning: Suicide

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51: B. Mahelona // Songbird

Age: Staff, Origin: The New Heroes, Training Team: Lightning /

Subject: Power Control
Power: Power Dampening

Mahelona was born on Oahu, Hawai’i to a small, loving family, and if you believe their father, Mahelona was born singing. Mahelona’s Mark first appeared during a school recital, where they sang in front of a packed house. Mahelona’s power travels through their voice, shutting down the abilities of other Marked, but when not kept under control it can do so much more. The audience convulsed and fell into unconsciousness as Mahelona’s song echoed throughout the auditorium.

Mistry Academy came to Mahelona’s aid. Though they would never be able to sing again without unleashing their power, the Academy helped Mahelona find the strength to harness their abilities. They quickly made friends with the other students at the Academy, and happily volunteered for every “field trip” mission.

When Mahelona and the others were drafted into the battle with Beacon, they were happy for the chance to prove that they could help others. Instead, it all went horribly wrong; Mahelona froze in the moment and now Dr. Mistry is dead. In the wake of that death, Mahelona has returned to the Academy as a teacher to try and pass on the lessons that Dr. Mistry taught them, and to maybe atone for the fact that they couldn’t prevent her death.

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