Real name: Jonothon Evan Starsmore
Occupation: Packer
Identity: Mutant abilities not known to others, but his
appearance tend to attract unwarranted attention anyway.
Legal status: Illegal Immigrant - Citizen of the United
Kingdom, he travelled to the United States without a Green Card.
Other aliases: Jono, Jon
Place of birth: London, England
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Parents
Group affiliation: None
Base of operations: Basement room, somewhere in Queens
First appearance: December, 2000
History:
Born and raised in London by a middle class family, Jonothon Starsmore was a well educated, handsome and well adjusted young man until his mutant powers manifested themselves in the most horrific way. His life before his accident was almost perfect - he has been comfortably well off with a good family, and a beautiful girlfriend - Gayle. He was also an accomplished musician, with possibilities of becoming a commercial success, before one high an incident in a night club prompted his mutant powers to literally explode from his body, demolishing the four storey building, killing many and crippling Gayle. Jonothon awoke some time later laid out in a hospital morgue with most of his chest, neck and lower face missing.
Hideously deformed his internals had been replaced by a bio-nuclear psionic biokinetic force, which has the appearance of a raging fire where his body used to be.
Staggering home his appearance was met with horror and disgust, as well as no little repulsion and hatred. His family sheltered him for a few months, during which time he took to hiding his injuries beneath swathes of bandages. He made no attempt to contact his friends, or Gayle, his guilt over their injuries so intense that he became intensely bitter, angry and isolated. He was also terrified that his powers could damage him again, or worse, others, and made up to mind to travel to the USA, where it seemed much more was known about the mutant phenomenon. He travelled to the States, but has found himself both homeless and isolated further.
(a section of this history is missing because it has occured in RP. Bug the player to write something. The story picks up again in 2003, after a friend of Jono's died)
After the death of Kelly and the subsequent disbanding of the Pack, the membership of the group dwindled. Arcadia left on her travels, leaving Jono and Zandra as the only permanent residents of the Pack's firehouse home. Although they continued to offer a sanctuary for the city's mutants, they didn't have the same access to resources as Kelnet and direct access to Frost Enterprises supplied. However, the Pack's involvement with the city's homeless and disenfranchised mutants did not go unnoticed. The organisation that would become known as Excelsior was in its early stages and the Pack were approached as being a similar "pro-mutant" group operating within the city.
The Pack's subsequent involvement, particularly that of Jono and Zandra, ensured that Excelsior had access to the intimate Pack's knowledge of the situation of "street level" mutants. In addition to their involvement, they suggested a number of other groups be approached - those they knew to be sympathetic towards the mutant cause. Amongst them being Charles Xavier.
As Excelsior began to take off, Zandra and Jono were amongst the first to float the "Synergy" idea to Excelsior, whereby the mutants in their care or working for them could hire out their services to companies. An extension of the Pack's original idea, it was taken on board by Excelsior who started to run their own version of the idea.
Over a few months, as Excelsior began to grow into a "public" organisation, Jono became part of the core group of volunteers, using his experience of the stresses of street level mutants to help with the hostel side of the organisation. He tended to steer clear of any higher, political involvement, preferring to spend his time dealing with mutants having trouble adjusting to their powers, like he himself did, and working as a ground level volunteer. After the stresses and tribulations of the Pack trying to run that kind of organisation while under attack both of public opinion and physical, it came as something of a relief to him to be able to rely on the support of a larger organisation that seemed to exist purely for altruistic reasons.
As Excelsior grew, the Pack became more and more absorbed into the larger organisation. Eventually the Pack's firehouse came to be used as an offshoot of the larger headquarters, used as accommodation to house those mutants Excelsior found themselves assisting. Along with that, financial links were joined as the groups pooled their resources and in effect, the Pack became part of Excelsior.
In late 2004 the disappearance of various mutants caused the Brotherhood and X-men to be involved in trying to find the culprits behind it. Zandra and Khai's involvement with the Brotherhood meant that Jono accompanied them on the mission that saw many altered by the experience. Jono does not recall exactly what happened that day in detail, although his memories up to the event have not been affected. He knows only that Zandra was presumably injured in the fight with Daoloth's disciples and that he has not had any contact with Khai since the events. He doesn't know what happened to her during that mission, but believes she was either killed or disappeared during the battle.
Since then Jono's frustration and guilt over the events he doesn't truly remember has been characteristic. The Brotherhood's involvement did little to improve his opinion of them and he has had little contact directly with Xavier's, instead focusing on Excelsior, where he feels he stands a chance of making a difference without things falling apart quite so completely as they did with The Pack.
Height: 6'3"
Weight: Unknown, assumed to be lighter than average due to
lack of internal organs.
Eyes: Brown Hair: Auburn
Unusual physical characteristics: Although Jonothon is average
as far as build goes, his body has been damaged by the bio-nuclear psionic
biokinetic force that seethes inside him. He is missing his lower jaw, and
most of his neck and chest. To keep his psionic force, and injuries hidden
he wraps the upper part of his body in black bandages which give him the
appearance of a victim of terrible burns.
Strength level: Average human strength, although one of the
side effects of Jono's transformation is to the radical alteration of his
central nervous system. Put simply he doesn't seem to have one any more,
and is therefore practically immune to pain. Jono is also immune to any
diseases that affect typical human physiology.
Known superhuman powers: Jono has a mild telepathy with which
he communicates with others - communication has become rather difficult
since his accident, and so he has been forced to resort to this rather
unconventional way of 'speaking' which is an offshoot of his powers.
Anyone hearing him gets the impression of a rather disembodied voice
echoing in their head. While Jono is unable to control or attack others
telepathically he can, to a certain degree, read thoughts. Jono is able
to read feelings to a greater extent than the average human. He can tell
whether someone is happy or sad, lost or lonely, rejoiceful or content,
but subtle emotions are usual lost in a haze of thought.
Jono has a minimal control his the psionic bio-nuclear reactor that makes up most of his body. He can form intense blasts of force and heat, which can have a variety of effects. In a fight Jono is actually pretty powerful and can use his psionic blasts to literally burn his attacker, or just to blast them away. His psionic blasts have all the power of a nuclear blast - they're hot. He can generate intense heats that can even fuse soil into glass. Like any kind of nuclear power, if Jono releases his blasts suddenly and with force in one particular direction it is like being in the path of a fairly major explosion. Get in the way of a psionic blast and it would be like being hit by a truck - physically they pack a pretty major punch. His control over his blasts varies, but either way, Jono's finesse is fairly lacking. He has the force of a tank but no subtlety.
The original explosion that blasted off Jono's face and chest was
powerful enough to practically destroy a 4 storey building. He is
therefore almost too frightened to use his powers lest they be a danger
to himself or others. While the bio-nuclear force has damaged his body
enormously it has the added bonus of being an internal power source - he
never needs to eat or drink anything again, all the energy he needs to
sustain him is provided. He doesn't need to breathe or even sleep if he
doesn't want to, although he does just out of habit. Eating and drinking,
however, are occupations for someone with a mouth, and so a pleasure that
has been lost to him forever.
Other abilities: Jono can play the guitar to a high standard
of expertise, and can rock with the best of them. He's pretty much all
but given that up since his powers manifested themselves, however. Also,
while Jono is no expert he can tinker about with car and motorcycle
engines a bit, possibly an offshoot of a somewhat misspent youth.
Weapons and paraphernalia: None, all his defences come from
his powers and physical abilities.
Other notes: Jono has spent the last few months settling
into a dead end night shift that covers the rent on a ramshackle basement
room in Queens. Since he neither eats nor drinks, or in fact breathes,
he isn't regularly seen during the day - he is well aware of his horrific
appearance and keeps his head down. He also is an illegal worker - another
good reason not to be too obvious.