Blaze



“Yeah, I can see it now, the British guy is really sexy but no one gets ‘im and the red-head is uber annoying, but ‘e still loves her anyway.” 

- Adrian Harrison

History
Michael Harrison, little known author, met his future wife at a book signing near his home in London. While Melissa was not a fan of Michael’s work, she struck up a conversation with him after the event, and as she would later tell people, it was love at first sight. Melissa was a visiting college student from Pennsylvania, but after knowing Michael for a few days, decided to extend her holiday for another week. Soon the week turned into weeks and before she knew it, she had to leave for America. They continued their long distance relationship but to Melissa it wasn’t the same. In the end she left her family in Pennsylvania and went to live with Michael in London. It was here she discovered she was pregnant with his child, and they made arrangements to be married, so the child could have Michael’s name.

Adrian was born eight months later, without complications, in a Hackney hospital nearby to his father’s apartment. Michael was left home to look after the baby while he wrote, while Melissa took up a job at the University Library nearby. They weren’t rich, but they scraped by on successful sales of Michael’s book, and more importantly, they were a happy family.

Unfortunately, the Harrison’s marriage started to crack around Adrian’s sixth birthday. They tried not to fight in front of the boy, but it was a tense atmosphere, one even a child could pick up on, and soon after Melissa announced she was leaving for her home country and taking the young boy with her. Michael knew better than to fight her for the rights to keep the boy, and knew in his heart Adrian would be better off with his mother’s common sense. It was eventually agreed between them that Adrian could spend the summer with his father.

Adrian missed his home. The children at his new school in America made fun of his accent and he wasn’t used to the American culture, which at six years old, was pretty alien to him. Never the less, he tried his best, for his mother’s sake, and longed for the months he’d be back in England.

Eventually, he learned to like his new home, and school became at least bearable once he tried to tone down his accent more, but e knew he’d be stuck with the “weird English kid” title throughout school, so embraced it, keeping to himself for most of the time he was there and loosing himself in books.

It was when he was fifteen that things began to get interesting. While walking back from school, his skin began to prickle. Assuming it was because of the bright sunlight, he ignored it, but soon the sensation was all over his body. He ran back home, where he stood in the front room and watched as light began to radiate from his skin. When his mother returned from work, he had stopped glowing, but had slumped into the chair, drained of strength.

Assuming it was a freak occurrence, and his mother not full believing it was possible, he was kept off school and they tried to recreate the scenario the next day. The same thing happened, with his skin still glowing as he stood in the sunlight.

Adrian was kept off school; Melissa knew her son must be a mutant as there was no other medical explanation for what was happening to him. To save him from the stigma and the mutant hate that was present even in the small community they lived in, his grandmother Joan, a retired teacher, homeschooled him, telling everyone that he was ill to avoid nosey neighbours.

It was hard for Adrian to get used to being locked up in his own home, he had no control over this new power and he couldn’t even go outside on overcast days, in case a neighbour saw him and asked questions. Also, with the recent events of the MRA, anyone of them could report him if he suddenly started to shine. He hadn’t registered; his mother was set against it as was his father when news reached him, but Adrian knew it was only a matter of time before they found him.

After a year of living as a virtual prisoner in his own home, it was cabin fever that drove him to breaking point. He knew his mother would never let go of him, and he didn’t want her to get in trouble for harbouring him any longer, so on one sunny day, he stepped outside and waited for the inevitable. His grandmother dragged him back in, but the damage had been done, a neighbour had seen him, and that night he was rounded up and taken to District X.

There he stayed at a boarding house, first using money sent to him by his mother, then from his wage at a music shop to buy essentials. It wasn’t a good life, but he was at least glad he was with his own kind. After being cooped up for a year, the sudden freedom came as a shock, and he went off the rails a bit, getting tattooed, smoking, drinking, stealing… Generally living up to the freedom he couldn’t have at home, not only being with his own kind and not having to hide, but being away from his protective family.

It wasn’t long before he stumbled across the new Institution. He was hesitant to join, he liked his new wild life, but he knew his mother worried for him, and it would ease her mind if he was somewhere he could learn to control his powers. So, he enrolled with the X-students, in a desperate hope that one day, when this was all over, he could go see his family again and not have to stay hidden for their own safety.

Personality
Adrian has a very optimistic outlook on life, always trying to find the silver lining in a problem or situation. While to some this may come off as chirpiness, Adrian uses it as an essential tool to get him through the day. He is not very prone to depression, only if he is extremely tired or having an extremely bad mood does this optimism waver.

For better, or for worse, Adrian is very truthful. This, unfortunately, leads to situations such as “does my bum look big in this” to end horribly. However, he will always give his honest opinion; he doesn’t see the point in lying just to satisfy an ego.

While a friendly individual, Adrian is often wary of new faces, and it often takes people a while to gain his trust. But, once he’s comfortable with the person, he’s usually very jokey and would walk to the ends of the earth for them if they’d ask. If he doesn’t get on with someone, he just won’t talk to them and avoid them, he’s not the type to pick fights unless they’re picking on his friends or family.

Likes

 * Heavy Metal – ♪death to all but metaaaal♫
 * Reading books – escapism at its best
 * Tattoos – especially on women
 * Cigarettes
 * Sunglasses – more an essential than fashion wear
 * Overcast days – then he can go out without looking like a reject from Twilight

Dislikes

 * Smoking bans
 * Women who say they’re ugly when they plainly are not
 * Headaches
 * Confined spaces
 * People who act ’holier than thou’

Skills
A skilled writer, Adrian likes to think he inherited this skill from his father, a notable author.During his teenage years, Adrian self taught himself to play the guitar, he’s no guitar legend, but he can more or less play his favourite songs, without messing up. It was during this time he discovered the internet, and all the fancy things that go with it. While he may not be able to hack a firewall, he has enough computer literacy to illegally download stuff, find guitar tabs, and do general computey things.

While living in District X, he had to learn how to cook if he wanted to eat, he couldn’t afford takeaway everything, so he can cook a decent meal, without cremating it.

Powers
Photokinesis: Adrian has the ability to control, generate and absorb photons, or rather, light particles. This means, he can draw in photons from bright atmospheres, store them in his body, and release them. They can be emitted as strong flashes of light from his hands, a steady glow from his body, or even balls of light.

This can work in the opposite direction, allowing him to “drain” an area of enough photons to create darkness. For the moment, this can only be done on a small scale, as his powers are not developed to extend over a range of 6 meters.

Being able to manipulate photons, means Adrian can refract light, granting him invisibility, however, this can only be done in places with a sufficient amount of light, in other circumstances; he would be able to manipulate the darkness to hide himself.

Weaknesses
While Adrian may be able to absorb photons, he cannot store them in his body for a long period of time, anything longer than half an hour and he will start to get a severe migraine. In order to combat this, his body has developed its own mechanism, where if he has absorbed too much his body will his body will emit light automatically in a glow around his body until equilibrium has been achieved.

At the moment his ability to absorb photons is uncontrollable, as he hasn’t had the proper training to help him deal with how to release the light, so his glow is more or less constant, unless he is in a place devoid of light. This glow can last from five minutes to an hour, depending on the brightness of the light, and the amount of time he spent in it.

Also, he is not immune to his own power, if he uses a beam of light, chanced are it will hurt his eyes. Because of this, he has to carry around sunglasses most of the time, in case his powers activate.