THE HELLIONS:

In MU-616, the Hellions were introduced as bad guys. In the XXY universe, however, their status is much more ambiguous. Not everyone who starts as a Hellion will stay there, either.

MARIA ROSARIA ALBERTA DE LA ROCHA (HEARTBREAKER): Born to the de la Rocha family of Spain, Maria was pride and joy to her mother, Maria, but a disappointment to her father, Alphonse. A boy was needed to finish the family line. However, for reasons that remain unclear to this day, another child was never birthed (it's possible that Señora de la Rocha miscarried and/or was unable to conceive after this one time). Maria was a beautiful child, and since she was the only child, she was doted upon by her mother. Her father too was eventually enchanted by the lovely girl, and despite his disdain for her being female, showered her with affection and gifts; gifts he could not truly afford since the de la Rocha family had fallen upon hard times, and had only a shadow of their former wealth. They were still technically Spanish Nobility, but they were little more than paupers. Middle class at best. While Señora de la Rocha had no problem with this, her husband considered it the family shame, and kept up appearances as best he could. Señor de la Rocha took a mistress who was an heirsess, and began draining away her money, getting her to sign over her assets to him, etc. As a side effect of this, he taught his daughter that she must do whatever it takes to assure that she remained on top -- as is only right for one in whose veins flows the blood of de la Rocha.

The fact that her marriage was in such a condition was a source of distress to Maria the elder. But she endured for the sake of the family's financial stability and her husband's happiness. Unfortunately, her father soon decided that his wife was an unnecessary drag upon his life -- and chose to marry one of his wealthy mistresses. He and his mistress plotted to kill Señora de la Rocha, and did so, successfully. It was the emotional output from her mother's death agonies which triggered the initial onset of Maria's empathic abilities. Her beloved mother was dying -- and Maria was nearly dragged along for the experience. The only thing that prevented her dying as well was her mother's desperate wish for her daughter to be safe and happy -- and a less intense desire for her husband to suffer for his treachery. Maria's grasp of her abilities was instinctive, and she employed them at once. Ruthlessly plumbing the hearts of the servants, she uncovered her father's participation in the death of her mother. Grieving, furious and despondent, she induced such remorse and grief in her father and his mistress that they both suicided, leaving her their money.

Maria's powers were quickly strained to their limits as a result of keeping the entire staff servants calm in the face of so many deaths, so close together -- so many crimes of passion. When Emmett Frost caught wind of oddities occurring in Spain, he adopted his Emma identity and came to see what was going on. He found Maria, on the verge of putting herself into a coma from overuse of her powers, and took the 'reins' from her with a psionic gesture. Maria, however, was incensed that another woman was more powerful than she, and an empathic/psionic duel ensued. Emmett, easily more experienced of the two, won -- hands down, and induced a psionic imperative in Maria's head to *never* use her empathic powers against Emmett (or Emma). Maria is now attending school with Frost's other students, but *deeply* resents Emma (and any woman she perceives as possibly more powerful than herself). She tries to seduce Emmett on a regular basis, since she cannot directly influence him with her empathic abilities. Indeed, she also tries to seduce Kit on a regular basis, as well as any other male student that strikes her fancy, inside the Academy -- or out. Adaptor: Indigo

KEITH (KIT) PRYDE: Born and raised in Chicago by two parents who tried to give their son every advantage in life. He was very close to his Grandmother -- a Holocaust survivor. In fact, Keith was closer to her than to his own parents, especially when they began having marital problems. When Keith began having headaches, his mother immediately wanted to send him to the doctor. His father, on the other hand, did what most fathers tend toward with regard to their sons "acting like sissies" -- told him to buck up, and get over it.

Xavier and Frost both became aware of the boy at the same time. However, Carolyn was slower to act because Kit was a boy, and Emmett Frost, resplendant in white business suit, got there first. Less scrupulous than Carolyn, he used his telepathic abilities to ensure their agreement that their son would attend his Academy in Massachusetts.

Carolyn doesn't attempt a snatch though, so Kit remains under Frost's aegis. The boy develops his ability to phase, but is willful and does not always follow Frost's edicts. Like Wendy with Carolyn's group, Kit remains unhappy until he eventually leaves on his own. Adaptor: Indigo

BARBARA 'BOBBI' DA COSTA (SUNSPOT): The only child of Emmanuel and Nina Da Costa, she ended up being a big disappointment to her father who desperately had wanted a son. As a result, she is a much more driven character, and less split than Roberto Da Costa. Whereas Roberto was dancing on the edge of good and evil because of his relationships to both his radically different mother and father, Bobbi has spent most of her young life trying to show her father that she is -not- worthless just because she is a girl. She has little or no relationship with her mother, and idolizes her father, being single-minded, driven and focused in her attempts to make Emmanuel proud of her, whereas Roberto was always tormented between different sides of him, and uncertain of where he wanted to go with his life in his teens. Bobbi knows exactly what she wants, and that is to gain power, influence, control, money, all the things that Daddy values, to prove that she -can- be worth something even as a girl. Pretty much villain material, and most likely will be trained by the Hellfire Club, possibly even lead a team of young trainees there as opposed to Roberto who let Sam and Dani lead the New Mutants. Furthermore, because she is a lot more driven than Roberto, she displays a lot more visible evidence of her intelligence. Whereas Roberto did not in his teens show off with his talent for leadership and his intellectual side, Bobbi does, because she wants to show Daddy what a good, tough little girl she is. Like Roberto was an extremely old-fashioned character in male-female relationships, so is Bobbi, being extremely feminine and using her feminine wiles as a means to any end, much like Emma Frost. Because of being a girl, she was unable to get into soccer, but instead is a champion-level gymnast and acrobat. Also due to her obsessive drive to prove herself, she betters her powers much faster than Roberto did and comes quickly across powers that Roberto only discovered years after his initial manifestation. Adaptor: Samy Merchi.

DANIEL BRIGHTSTAR (VISION): Last name changed from 'Moonstar' to 'Brightstar' because, well, the parents had other kinds of thoughts when they saw a boy instead of a girl. Codename also changed, not because of the gender-swapping, but because I assumed (from a VERY limited knowledge on Amerind cultures) that 'vision' is a more familiar word to Amerinds than 'mirage' which is a word I personally associate more with the Sahara than US deserts (which I don't think there are too many in Colorado). (Alara's note: Actually Colorado is probably dry enough in many places to generate mirages, but Vision is still a more powerful name for an Amerind, having shamanistic overtones.)

Dan is one of the people least affected by the gender swap. Dani's parents trained her to be a Cheyenne warrior even though she was female, and so did Dan's parents. Dan/Dani's parents, however, are less in tune with Cheyenne traditions than Black Eagle, whom Dani had spent time with after fleeing civilization due to manifesting with Pat Roberts. Because Dani is male, he did not have the accident with Pat Roberts, and did not flee civilization, thus not being quite as close with Black Eagle as Dani was. Similarly, he is more acquainted with the anglo culture, not having had to flee from it, and as a result is less racist. Dan stayed on the Lonestar ranch, helping to tend it, until being recruited to the Hellions by Frost shortly after his powers manifested. Adaptor: Samy Merchi.

JULIUS AQUILLA (MAGMA): Because he wasn't female like Amara was, he didn't have to fear being sacrificed by the Black Priest, and therefore never lived among the Amazons. Instead, Julius is less of a warrior and more of a politician than Amara. A skilled negotiator and diplomat among males, Julius nonetheless has strong chauvinistic tendencies, and considers females suitable for taking care of domestic matters and bearing children. He is more violent and brutal than Amara was, which is saying a lot, but conversely, has less fighting skills to back these tendencies up. He has not been hardened by years of jungle life like Amara was, and demands comforts suitable for him and his needs to be attended to, rather than taking measures himself to ensure these. Adaptor: Samy Merchi.

ILYA RASPUTIN (DARKCHILDE): The youngest Rasputin sibling, Ilya is also the only male one. After becoming aware of the older sisters' mutancy, Frost arranged to 'buy' Ilya from his parents, giving them funds to keep their collective operating during hard years in return for being allowed to take Ilya to receive education in the United States, at the Massachusetts Academy. Unfortunately, Ilya's fate was not to be a happy one. Unbeknownst to him, a medallion Frost gave him affected his psyche, stimulating him cerebral cortex and trying to activate prematurely him mutant powers, because Frost wanted quick profit out of him, to see whether he would have usable powers or not. One night, he simply vanished from his quarters, his teleportation powers manifesting, and transporting him to the realm of Limbo. Therein, Ilya was met by the sorcerer Belasco, who took him to his apprentice. There were no X-Men in this timeline's Limbo, and Ilya found no help in an aging Ororo or a Cat, to help him hold onto his good side. Belasco corrupted Ilya completely and totally, and after the apprenticeship was complete, Ilya in his teens, Belasco sent him back to Earth, to pave the way for the coming of the Elder Gods. Ilya teleported back to his room, to the same instant when he had vanished from Earth, and the next morning Frost discovered a teenage Ilya instead of the seven-year-old child.

Ilya is completely corrupted and evil as opposed to Illyana, who is torn between her two sides. This is both a good and a bad thing. He is more determined, knowing his goal in life. He also is weaker than Illyana, who has to constantly fight a battle within her soul between her two halves, and who had to constantly fight in Limbo to retain her good side. Ilya is nowhere near the fighter that Illyana is.

Ilya *was* raped repeatedly in Limbo, as Illyana was, but whereas in Illyana it made her afraid of sexuality, in Ilya it created a deep hatred instead. Any suggestion towards sex, while in Illyana would have created a nervous, probably joking refusal, in Ilya might well result in killing the suggester. He is also very scornful of love, sex and relationships when others are involved in them, and will spare no sarcastic remarks. He knows no love or affection, only death and destruction. Ilya is not very loyal towards the Hellions, his primary goal being to serve Belasco and the Elder Gods, but for the time being, he remains with them, to find out more about Earth and to find out options on how to best serve his masters on this world. Should he ever find out that Frost was responsible for triggering his powers prematurely, he would likely try to kill Frost and leave the team. Adaptor: Samy Merchi.

DONNA RAMSEY (CYPHER): An exceptionally bright and somewhat bookish young woman, Donna hails from an upper middle class family in Westchester. Her mutant power of instantly being able to understand any form of language, be it written, spoken, electronic, alien, or human(including body language), is a passive power; but it does not make her weak. In fact, the tendency of the enemy to underestimate her because of her quiet power and her unassuming physical appearance often makes her the most dangerous to them. She can figure out their plans and a way to bring them down before they even recognize her as a threat. Because of her upbringing, she is not used to struggle or strife; but she has a good heart and is enthusiastic about helping the world become a better place. She is torn between a love of her powers because they are something she enjoys and she believes they are important; and a certainty that her teammates with more agressive and showy powers look down on hers. She is outgoing; but most of that stems from low self-esteem and a desire to fit in, something she doesn't feel she will ever truly accomplish. She is also fiercely loyal to her friends and won't hesitate to do everything in her power to protect them, even if it means putting herself in harm's way. Will most likely be a Hellion for a time, and be best buds (or more) with Kit Pryde. Adaptor: Sequoia Swennes.

THADDEUS "TAD" SMITH (DETONATOR): An abused runaway boy who got very lucky-- his heroism in rescuing fellow runaways with his mutant power impressed an extradimensional omnipotent being, who made him strong and handsome. But everything Tad had built for himself with the gifts the Beyonder gave him was torn apart by Heartbreaker's emotional manipulations. Tad might have killed himself except for the intervention of Kit Pryde, who persuaded him to join the Massachusetts Academy for a chance to get revenge on Heartbreaker. Adaptor: No current dibser (writeup by Indigo)

PASCAL COLBERT (SKETCH): A very shy and timid French boy, Pascal was born to rich, but unfortunately abusive parents. He bore the brunt of many a violent outburst from his parents, becoming very quiet and reclusive, hiding in the imaginary world of his sketches, drawings. Year by year, the drawings became more and more grotesque monsters, reflecting his inner pain, and when he hit puberty, tragedy ensued. His mutant powers of animating two-dimensional images manifested when he was being beaten by his parents, and brought to life one of his most horrific monsters which served as a 'protector', and following Pascal's subconscious desires, slaughtered his parents. The projection then disappeared, and when the police showed up, they found no traces with which to link the crime to Pascal-- a boy they found kneeling on the living room floor, staring blankly into the space in front of him, catatonic. Pascal was sent to an asylum, and his parents' murder was never resolved. It was from this asylum that Emmett Frost found him, and brought him to the US in order to attempt to cure the boy so he could use Pascal's awesome powers to further his own ends. Adaptor: Samy Merchi.

MATTEO CALLASANTOS (FURY): The second oldest of the four Callasantos children, Matteo grew up under the shadow of his older brother Luca. The one for whom things always went perfectly. Good degrees in school. A pretty girlfriend. The whole nine yards. Matteo always had problems with everything, from the alphabet to zoology. The changes between 616-Maria and XXY-Matteo are largely concentrated around Matteo's being less of a homebody, and less of a caretaker. As with Maria, Matteo's two younger siblings died before he reached his teens, but he was never proven, nor even suspected by anyone other than Luca, to have had anything to do with the deaths. We start getting to more radical divergence during puberty, when Matteo's fur and feline characteristics begin emerging -- Maria was groped by her mother's boyfriend, Harry Bellinger. Being male, Matteo did not have this problem. He did, however, end up killing Bellinger, but not because of groping, but because Bellinger hit him.

And here we get to the most radical divergence yet -- Matteo never killed his mother. Since Matteo was less of a caretaker, he had no pigeons, like Maria had had, that his mother could have killed in retaliation for Bellinger. There was nothing holding Matteo home, and he ran away right after having killed Bellinger. His path diverged from the remnants of his family -- Luca and his mother -- whereas in 616 Maria had killed her mother as well, and then she and Lucia had run away together. Because of this, Matteo is much more of a loner than Maria ever was. Whereas Maria drifted from family to family to family, from the Morlocks to X-Force to the MLF -- Matteo will never join the Morlocks in the first place, but instead become a Hunter in the Darkness, a dark neo-gothic Fury who stalks the homeless in the cold streets of New York. An unknown urban bogeyman that will come and get your children if you let them pass by a dark alley alone. His predominant differences from Maria Callasantos are as follows: he is a loner, and whereas it is not impossible for him to end up on a team, he is less likely to do so than Maria; he forms emotional bonds less than Maria does -- and even she wasn't very prone to do so -- so that makes him a very cold and effective hunter-killer; he has much more underlying self-hatred than Maria, due to his rejection of families and feeling that he does not belong anywhere. Adaptor: Samy Merchi.

OTHER UNKNOWNS:

PAULA WISDOM - AGENT OF STRIKE. If nothing else, I want a big part in creating Wisdom, whom I have very firm ideas about. If anything, she should be more bitter and cynical than he ever was, and should drink and smoke harder. And I think Paula is a very strong name. I toyed with Sophie, for pun value ("wisdom"), but pun value is never a good thing. Adaptor: Andrew Wheeler

PSYLOCK: ELIOT BRADDOCK - Paula's STRIKE partner and sometime lover. A strong, sly, seductive heroic counterpoint to Mystique. Adaptor: Andrew Wheeler

JASON LEE (codename TBA. Does anyone know the Chinese word for 'fire'?) Son of a Tong leader in LA. His mother kept this from him, though, and was pressuring her father to get out of it. Which he was. The boy grew up to want for nothing, and both parents did love him deeply. He was an athletic boy, and smart (although he didn't particularly apply himself in school) . He preferred to mall crawl with his boyz (and Cynjen, the one girl he considered "one of the guys") and troll for girls.

When his parents were killed in a car accident, the nature of his father's business was revealed to Jason . When his powers were revealed after a mall crawl gone bad, the Tongs began to seek him actively, but he definitely wanted no part of it now -- since the Tongs had killed his parents. Until one of the mutant factions solicits him (or he hitches up with them), he is still in LA, with his own little posse, avoiding the Tongs barely. Adaptor: Murmur the Fallen (writeup by Indigo)

JOAN STARSMORE: Lead vocals, lead guitar of a little known English pub band. More research being done to finish this background. Adaptor: Alestar. (writeup by Indigo)

SIMONE LEBEAU (GAMBIT): A foundling who was adopted into the New Orleans Thieves Guild, and estranged from them when she was forced to kill her best friend's brother, an Assassin, in self-defense and the defense of her brother. First name may change. Adaptor: Alestar. (writeup by Indigo)

ANGELA UNUSCIONE: Never became a wrestler, never made the few meagre pennies Unus did to get to America, and ended up as a waitress back home in Italy. Adaptor: Andrew Wheeler

DAMASCUS: A male version of Ellis' Black Queen of the London HFC, and AOA's Damask - not to be involved in the HFC though. Adaptor: Andrew Wheeler

TORA: An aging mutant who once could claim to be the Torch's sidekick back in the glory days of WWII as part of the Invaders, and latterly the All-Winners Squadron (how's that for obscure mutants, eh?). I think a "golden age" mutant would be quite interesting for the mix. Adaptor: Andrew Wheeler

SGT. DANA NORTH (MAVERICK): I would like the writers of Creed and Logan to drop me a quick line on how the whole CIA team thingie fits in. Simply put, the female spy. Worked with Wolverine and Creed for a bit, spent time in merc work before returning to government wetwork and the like. I am ignoring the whole comic mess. This takes place before it anyways. Tough, capable, makes really bad jokes often. Usual absorbtion of kinetic energy with a few twists. Adaptor: Dex

CATHERINE KANE (WEAPON X): A Canadian member of the Weapon X program, she gets sucked in like Domino, basic money and self-interest. Kane is obnoxious, young and more then a bit insecure. However, she is a top notch agent, and is valued on the team. Bionics and her power( I belive it is a low level healing factor or something. Have to re-check issues). Adaptor: Dex

NADIA BOGDANOV (OMEGA RED): Russia's super soldier program with a twist. Nadia was a mutant who was trained by the state as an elite assassin. Later, she was the only one of twelve canidates to survive the program. It is her that they are attempting to revive which brings the story to be. Death pheromones, carborium coils, yadda yadda. Not a nice person. Adaptor: Dex

HIROKO YASHIDA (SUNFIRE): Typical Japanese female in many respects, works for the government as a duty, and is very focused. Adaptor: Dex

NAMORA, PRINCESS OF ATLANTIS: Because Namor was technically considered a mutant, he swaps into Namora. Namora was a proud warrior and diplomat who served alongside Captain America and the Human Torch in the Invaders, assisting in their fight against the Nazis. But while her comrades in battle came to accept her despite her sex, the Allied leaders did not. She was too outspoken, too revolutionary, too dangerous in their opinion. So instead of allowing her to return home to Atlantis, OSS (the proto-CIA) brainwashed her into being a happy, hyper-feminine housewife type. Polaris found her in that condition, recognized her as one of the Allied diplomats helping to repatriate and assist people from the displaced person camp Polaris had met her husband in, and freed her of the brainwashing. Namora, infuriated at how she had been treated by the surface world, and believing that the apparent destruction of Atlantis in her absence was the fault of the US, decided to declare war on the United States government. She and Polaris had an uneasy alliance for several months, Polaris somewhat secretively assisting Namora in her war against humanity in the months before Polaris began her own war, and Namora trying (and mostly failing) to get Polaris to accept her advice on training the Mutant Menace, dealing with Wanda, etc. Eventually they parted ways as allies and friends... at least until Polaris, completely in the throes of insanity, manipulated Namora into starting a war that Namora didn't truly want.

Namora is intelligent and outspoken, a bit less prideful and more diplomatic than her MU counterpart but still arrogant and convinced of her own superiority. She has great respect for skilled and honorable warriors, but if they stand in her way she will unhesitatingly fight. Because Polaris is the first person she hooks up with after recovering from being brainwashed, her road to being accepted as a friend and ally by the superheroes of the XXY universe will almost certainly be a rockier one than Namor's was, but Captain America will still consider her a friend and want to make peace with her. Adaptor: Raafel Sant'Anna Meyer.

MARY RICHARDS: The daughter of Reed and Sue Richards. The blocks her father attempted to put on her reality warping powers... didn't quite take. Adaptor: Murmur the Fallen.

PRISM: When she came out of a cocoon at the age of 15, looking like an angular woman of glass, fragile and untouchable, Prism did *not* become angry at the world, as did her male counterpart, and seek to lash out at the world for all she'd lost, and learn to kill. Instead, she wrote depressive poetry, which she submitted to literary magazines. She caught the attention of Sam Thomasino, scion of a wealthy Italian family with a problem of his own: he was gay, and convinced his deeply Catholic parents would disown him if they learned. The two young adults corresponded, struck up a friendship, and when they met in person Sam was impressed by Prism's beauty-- not as a woman, but as a work of art. This led him to an idea.

Now Prism and Sam are married. She's a performance artist, using the name Prism (I don't know what her real name actually is), putting on lightshows while she reads poetry. The poetry is mediocre but the lightshows are awesome, and the novelty keeps people coming. Sam pays for it, and helps his father in the restaurant business (they made their money off a chain of Italian restaurants.) The Thomasinos, who would have disowned their son had he been gay, have little trouble with a mutant daughter-in-law, although saddened that they will never have children. Actually, though the Thomasinos don't know it, Prism cannot in fact have sex-- she's both fragile and hard, with a body of living crystal, and it would be dangerous for her and unpleasant for the man. So she's Sam's beard. He has his boyfriends on the side, but his wife is his best friend, and he gives her all the physical contact her fragile body can bear-- she can feel gentle stroking, though she's pressure-insensitive and wouldn't feel a hug unless it was strong enough to hurt.

Prism has no idea her light powers can kill. She uses her abilities to diffract light into beautiful displays, not concentrate into lasers. She's as happy in her friendship with Sam as she thinks she's going to get-- fortunately for her she doesn't actually feel physical desire, either, and having a close, dear friend and the validation in the eyes of the world of a marriage is all she truly needs in life. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

JOAN ALLERDYCE: Joan wanted to be a journalist, a war correspondent, traveling to exciting lands and doing wild things. She was not taken terribly seriously, though, since she was female, and tended to be assigned to tamer duties. Frustrated, she took up writing potboiler romances to blow off steam. These sold, to her surprise. Meanwhile she met another journalist and fell in love, and with one thing and another soon the dream of Joan Allerdyce, War Correspondent was lost in a welter of dirty diapers and 3 am feedings, but Joan has no regrets.

She lives in Sydney, Australia, and volunteers with the local fire department, and she's something of a local hero. No spandex, but since Joan Allerdyce has been using her powers in concert with the fire department, fire damage and deaths are waaay down in the city. Every so often corporations who saved a lot of money because of her actions ostentatiously give her a reward. And she takes it. Hey, she's got kids to feed, and while the romance novels pay pretty well since she can churn 'em out quick, she wants to write *real* books, and that'll take time away from the romances and probably pay less till she hits it big.

If anyone suggested that she put on spandex and fight crime, or fight for mutant rights, or anything, she'd laugh in their face. She's happily married, she's got a kid, she's making a decent living and people look up to her. They think she's a hero, without any spandex or silly codename. What more does she need? Adaptor: Alara Rogers

EDGAR ("ANNALEE"): the old homeless man with mental problems and uncontrollable projective empathic powers. ("Annalee" -> "Annabelle Lee" -> Edgar Allan Poe -> "Edgar", see?) Annalee didn't have all that much backstory, so it should be comparatively easy to adapt. I'm thinking maybe Edgar could be a rather burnt-out veteran (Vietnam? Korea?) with perhaps a bit of a drinking problem (and the uncontrollable projective empathy, of course). Edgar is one of the people who get shanghaied to the Coconut Grove. (I'm thinking this'd actually be rather more major an event... reasons in the following posts.) Adaptor: Danny Sichel

LUCKY and ARIEL: As in the mainstream universe, Lucky (the character who in MU is called Chance) and Ariel were recruiting mutants to be research subjects on Ariel's home planet^H^H^H^H to be "students" of the mutant thief Fadeaway (the XXY version of the Vanisher). Lucky and Ariel are romantically involved, although Lucky is justifiably uncertain as to whether he's doing this of his own free will or whether Ariel is psychically influencing him. Adaptor: Danny Sichel

SHARON PENELOPE SHAW (ARIEL): Since Sharon Shaw will likely not get her code name until long after Coconut Grove, the fact that there are two characters named Ariel will probably never be a problem. The only child of Sibyl Shaw, Sharon has all her life been raised very properly with constant demands to mould her into quite the young lady. She was constantly coddled in cotton, not allowed anywhere without bodyguards and her life was generally very controlled by Sibyl, who intended to shape Sharon into an image of herself, so Sharon could one day take over running the Hellfire Club. Because of all this restraint, Sharon finally exploded in her teens and manifested her mutant powers in a fit of rage at her controlling mother. She ran away from home, and no one could stop the immaterial ghost girl who didn't want to be grabbed by anyone again -- she wanted to be controlled by no one but herself, and her powers made certain of that. She was on the run for several months, before Sibyl's mercenaries found and captured her, bringing her back to her mother. Since then, she has been in very harsh cares, almost held captive in her own home and constantly watched. And the resentment for her mother just keeps on growing, manifesting in making her quite the renegade, trouble-seeking, angry young girl. Adaptor: Samy Merchi.

XI'AN COY MANH (DRAGONESS): The daughter of a South Vietnamese Army colonel, Shan and her brother Tran were both born mutants with the ability to control other peoples' minds. Their mutant abilities manifested in their early teens when Tran saw a Viet Cong soldier threaten Shan, and instinctively took control of the soldier's mind in order to save his twin sister. Shan then attempted the same feat, successfully, and to her brother's horror, had the soldier blow his own brains out. The uses of Shan and Tran's powers did not go unseen by their uncle, General Nguyen Ngoc Coy, whom Shan told of these awesome powers. Coy decided that he had to have these two children, and evacuated them when South Vietnam fell under Communist rule, leaving the rest of the Coy Manh family behind. Shan and Nguyen convinced Tran, who wanted to go back to find his family, that they had perished. After this, General Coy started forging a drug cartel in the orient with the assistance of the two Coy Manh siblings. Tran was revolted by what he was being asked to do, but the respect for one's elders is very deeply ingrained in the Vietnamese culture, and so he obeyed -- until a point. When Shan and Tran were in their late teens, he finally broke down and betrayed his uncle, and tried to escape the life of crime. He was unsuccessful, he was captured, and Shan used their sibling link to completely absorb Tran's body into hers, causing Tran to cease to exist. Currently Shan is General Coy's top enforcer, codenamed 'Dragoness', and whether there is a possibility of Tran ever being able to re-emerge from Shan's body, is unknown at the moment. Adaptor: Samy Merchi.

DR. MELISSA GRANT: Melissa was a fairly average child from an average middle class American family until she reached her teens. She was arguing with her father about whether or not she could go to a party when they locked eyes and he was suddenly under her control. She made him take her to and from the party, then forget that she'd controlled him after they got back home. For a while afterward she played with her new-found gift, getting back at people who were mean to her and seeing what she could do with it. She was always careful not to get caught using her powers because she didn't want to chance getting punished. An unfortunate side-effect of getting her powers was that her skin and hair turned green, which she disguised at first with make-up, dye, and concealing clothing. Later, with practice and effort, she learned how to use her power to disguise her odd coloring.

Melissa started studying Psychology to see if it could help explain her powers, and slowly realized how useful a tool some of the subtler uses of her power could be for a psychologist. And if she was a good psychologist, she'd be able to make lots of money... This thought gave her the determination to go through the years of schooling needed to get a Doctorate in Psychology, after which she managed to set up a successful practice and ended up aquiring some wealthy clients. She's well satisfied with her life.

Melissa is rather self-centered and unconcerned about the plight of others as long as she's doing fine. She does want her clients to be happy with what she does for them, but that's more so they'll keeping paying her than out of any real concern for their well-being. She is more adept at subtle nudging and creating hypnotic dream-states than her counterpart is, but she rarely overtly controls people unless she's picking up cute guys in singles bars for sex. She's very paranoid about being revealed as a mutant because she fears that her clients would all leave if they knew what she was. Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

CLARENCE FERGUSON: Biography: When he was born with lavender skin and with near-white eyes (though he has 20-20 vision), young Clarence was one of those mutants whose mutantcy is obvious from birth. Given that infanticide is frown upon (and the fact that they genuinely loved him), Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson decided instead that instead of having him being cruelly mistreated by the other children, they would home teach him. Though they did let him go out (they not wanting him to turn into a psychopath). He grew up into a very shy and sensitive young boy. So when he was accosted by a member of the Friends of Humanity during his daily constitutional, he tried to run away, but when he couldn't, his mutant power kicked in, though it was unconscious on his part. He teleported a bit of the racist rat bastard's chest. Not just teleported, but into the lap of one Over-boss O'Neil. Now having a chunk of bloody chest on his lap was not something that would faze Mr. O'Neil much. After all, he is an Over-boss. But since his office was inside a tangent pocket universe surrounded by twelfth dimensional shielding, he really didn't think that anyone could slice through the barriers. Intrigued, he traced the teleportational signature to Clarence. He eventually was able to recruit Clarence to L,L & L, and started him on a training program that would eventually lead to him becoming an expediter. Trained within an artificial planet that traveled at relativistic speeds, Clarence finished the program in twelve minutes ('objective' time) and was, after quite a few covert missions and a couple years experience, assigned to be the liaison between Loren and L, L & L.

Powers: Clarence is a teleporter of a high grade. Though not able to travel through time or travel intergalactic distances, within his range he can go anywhere no matter the obstacles or barriers with molecular accuracy. He can 'solidify' his wormholes into long javelin like structures so that they can be used to teleport 'bits' of whatever it touches, though he can also do so without the javelins at closer ranges. His sixth sense (that of knowing where he is and where is body parts are) is better than almost anyone's.

Appearance: Clarence has lavender skin, and long auburn hair. He wears wraparound black "glasses" that acts as a powerful semi-sentient computer system with the lenses as a Heads Up Display, which he almost never takes off. He wears a black skintight suit that regulates and monitors his bodily functions that also has limited force-field capability and boosts the power of his computer glasses when needed, as well as acting as the pandimensional, intergalactic, negative-Doppler communications array. Oh, and the accelerated healing system, to boot. But he wears 'normal' clothes over that. So Clarence looks like a mad, bad, bishounen lad of around twenty (give or take a few years).

Personality: As a child, he was pretty isolated and when around people incredibly shy. Now, as an expediter, he has gotten over that but is still relatively quiet. He has a rather strong moral code, but not something that isn't flexible enough for him to do the things he does as an expediter. He "speaks softly and carries a big stick", to quote Roosevelt. Competent is what he is. Braggart he is not. Adaptor: Murmur the Fallen.

WEAVER: Trained as a shaman (or the female equivalent thereof), she rebels and somehow ends up in college. It is 1965 and America is knee deep in Vietnam. She reads up on Marxism and decides it's a pipe dream (a pipe filled with something). She then reads up on radical feminism and decides that it's ok. She then reads up on mysticism and decides that while a lot of it is bull, some of it makes a certain amount of sense. She then reads up on socialism, anarchism, nihilism, lesbianism, and various other -isms. But when she finds out about Vietnam, she really gets pissed off. So she joins a radical anti-war movement that decides to strike back at the government. She built various 'safe' bombs, and was responsible for single handedly destroying the government's Advanced Weaponry division. When she had a falling out with her fellow revolutionaries, she moved to the Outback of Australia and tried to ignore the world. While there, she struck an odd friendship with a mute (or just very recaltriant) aborigine and her haughty Algerian ward. She made herself a solar powered house and other neat stuff and lived on organically grown vegetables and milk (though how she got cow's milk is anyone's guess). She's bitter (but only occasionally when she broods), burnt out, has the occasional drug flash back. She tries to make sure that the Pigs never find her by hacking into the federal computer systems and leading them away from her if they ever even seem to be close to finding her. She generally wears khakis and a button up shirt. Her hair is long, her face is weathered a bit (but still pretty), and she is quite crotchety for her age. No artificial limbs, it should be noted. Adaptor: Murmur the Fallen.

TRISTAM CHANEY: Coming from a lower class English family from Saffron Walden, he dreamt of one day becoming a rock star. Moving to London at the age of sixteen, he quickly fell into a life of drugs (a little hash), sex (he had a few girlfriends), and very little success, mostly playing in pits in the ground and singing Sex Pistols' songs. However, a lucky chain of events got him a record deal (it involved a bar, two prostitutes, a record executive, a camera, a squelchy night and a dingy motel room), and money. It wasn't until he was very popular world wide that he discovered his mutant power of teleporting across vast distances. After a series of adventures (and picking up a universal communicator) he decided to use the skills he learned when he first came to London and became an intergalactic thief. He has many homes, his Dyson Sphere, which he uses to store his loot, and his various apartments in London, New York, and Malibu. He joins the X-family, if only on a loose, have name on rolodex type of deal when the New Mutants, after seeing him in concert, sneak backstage to find him 'porting' out and 'accidentally' following him. Adaptor: Murmur the Fallen

LUISA MILAN: A cyberpath from the country of San Marco, whose father's life was saved and powers awakened by the policies instituted when Polaris conquered the country. As a result, she's Polaris' number one fan. She tracks down Polaris when she's an adult and offers her services, although Polaris is no longer an active villain by this time and looks askance at Milan's suggestion that it would be a good thing to go back to trying to conquer the world. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

VASHTI BASHUR (SAVANT): Another cyberpath, though not quite the same way; while Milan has a telepathic affinity with machines and can read minds with computerized assistance, Vashti "hears" all forms of electronic communication. Was experimented on by Sinister, until eventually she won a degree of freedom and independence. She's now an information broker. Adaptor: Tammy Moore