Fire Immunity
Fire Weapons
Fire Structures
Pyrokinetic
Temperature Manipulation
Ambidexterity
Nightmares
Phobia: Needles
Sheltered
This is not public information. If you think you would know about this background before you learn about it IC, please contact Kentucky.
Kentucky James Kendrick was born in the wee hours of April 3rd, 2004. His mother was a full blooded Native American woman who had died while giving birth to him. His father was a white man that he never knew, a man who had been a one-night stand for her. With no living parents to raise him, he was put into the care of an orphanage. There is where he stayed until he was five years old, and he was sent to both kindergarden and half of grade one.
In January of 2010, the head of a laboratory looking to run genetic and other experimentation on children came to the orphanage. Since there had been only a couple of families that had considered him, he was recommended to the folks from the laboratory. Not being the sort to turn aside such recommendations, they adopted the boy. He was taken back to the laboratory, and there he was essentially kept prisoner. He had a fairly large room that was his to live in and sleep in. He was let to settle in for the rest of that day and the next night. Then his clothes were taken from him and he was given a set of drab cotton pyjamas. That was when he was led to another room. This room was filled with medical equipment. And this is when it all began. The pain and the experiments and the tests, the attempts to make him… more. To make him different, to change him.
The experiments would continue for years. There was time taken across the years for him to be taught in what was believed to be important. Reading, writing, mathematics, and various other subjects. He was determined to be ambidextrous during the early writing teachings, as he switched to write with his other hand from having pinched one of his fingers in the coil of a binder. Once he was a bit older, they started to train his body as well. They brought in teachers of weapons, and the trained him to use a gunstock club (a traditional Native American weapon, made of cold steel and with a blade sticking out of the back of it), and they trained him to use knives for throwing as well as closer range combat.
It took years of the painful experiments before there was… something. A spark. He became angry with one of his teachers and burned her. He was punished, initially. But after the security video was reviewed, they saw that the fire had not been made of any item that he had but rather it had been created. Then there were more tests, more experiments… more teachings, though these were now more focused around developing that skill with fire that he'd displayed rather than around academics, though there was some first aid that was taught to him at around this point. His ability with fire developed, and he was able to create things from the fire — a spark, then flames, then weapons, then greater structures, as well as an immunity to the flames. An additional ability manifested then, and he could manipulate the temperature of things — his flames, and other things as well. He could make them colder, and he could make them hotter, yet he chose not to show such abilities to those who sought to hurt him more with their experiments.
From all of the experiments, he had come to fear needles. He had also come to suffer from nightmares on a near nightly basis from what had been done to him. His sheltered upbringing tended to leave him quiet and unsocialized, not really understanding the social norms of being around people.
One day, after his sixteenth birthday which passed with no notice at all, much like his other birthdays had here in the laboratory, Kentucky decided that he would no longer suffer their whims at his own expense. He had powers, and he could do things with them. He waited until night. He used his blanket to bundle his weapons into, and then he created a superheated fire across a section of the metal door of his room. He stepped through the door, barefooted, then ran down the hallway to the next door. He used a similar trick to get through it and, even though he didn't know the layout of the building, he found a fire escape map on a wall not far from his room and figured out the way to go. Once he was free of the lab, he ran. He ran, and he didn't look back.
When he was tired, Kentucky stopped running. He'd reached a small town and, not knowing any better, he curled up on the porch of the first house that he came to. It was an older woman who lived there, and she startled him when she went to check her mail. He reacted by creating a shield of fire between himself and her. She was able to get him to calm down, then bring him inside. She fed him, had him clean himself up in the way of a proper shower, and then she gave him a proper outfit of clothes, including socks and shoes. Then she bought him a bus ticket that would take him to Coral Springs, promising him that he would not only be accepted but welcome there since it was for others 'like him'. And so, he arrived without knowing what to expect or what would be expected of him in turn.
Academics: Kentucky was taught the equivalent of what he would have learned from grade one through grade nine of school while he was at the laboratory. This covered subjects such as reading, writing, geography, mathematics, and sciences.
Drawing: He was given a small amount of time to himself in which he could complete assignments and such for his classes, and when he finished, if there was time left, he doodled and sought to teach himself to draw various things.
Fire Immunity, Fire Weapons, Pyrokinesis, Fire Structures: Throughout the course of many experiments done to him over the course of the years that the private lab had him as their lab rat, so to speak, these various abilities manifested within him. He was tested in many different ways, forced to exert himself in different manners in order to figure out what he could do or what had awakened in him. It was discovered that his physical self is immune to being damaged by fire. He can be immersed in it and not be harmed, having been rendered fireproof. He can create a variety of melee weapons out of fire (swords, knives, war clubs, etc) in order to wield them in combat. He can use fire to create various structures either geometrical or otherwise, creating sparks to light candles or hurling fireballs and other such ilk to various degrees. He can move fires either of his own creation or that were traditionally created though this applies only to the flame and not to whatever is burning. He can transit through fire if he knows specifically where another fire is burning — if the destination fire is not burning then the transit will not happen, and no one can be taken with him for this. Nothing to the degree of creating volcanoes and he cannot light on fire something that is not normally able to burn.
Gymnastics: In an effort to encourage his flexibility, Kentucky was taught some gymnastics. He didn't have an opportunity to learn a lot of it since the teaching was only within the past two years prior to his escape. This has no power related impact.
Singing: Between the ages of 9 through 13, Kentucky was taught to sing by one of the laboratory technicians. It was thought that giving him a musical sort of outlet would help him with his fear of the medical procedures and needles. It helped to a point, but the fear of needles remains strong in him. This has no power related impacts.
Temperature Manipulation (Temp Manipulati on +sheet): He developed the ability to be able to increase or decrease the temperature of things, mainly of the fires that he creates or manipulates. This includes himself or others, should he wish to. He cannot decrease a temperature below freezing.
Kryptonite: Temperatures below freezing cause his abilities to be much more difficult or challenging to use. It takes more energy, more effort on his part and the effects are significantly smaller. Once a certain ambient temperature is reached then he simply can't focus or concentrate enough of his own energy on his abilities since he's too intent on keeping himself warm and alive (self-preservation).
