Full Name: Lucas Bishop
Age: 29
Occupation: Chief of the District X Neighborhood Watch, former body guard and bouncer
Mutant Abilities: Ability to absorb energy of varying degree into his body, redirect it, and release it in directed energy bursts

History: The life of Lucas Bishop has been constant cycle of questionable judgment and unexpected consequences. Some of these consequences were set into motion from before he was even born in the rougher neighborhoods of Atlanta, Georgia. His mother was a former prostitute who married a police officer. This put him and his younger sister, Sherry “Shard” Bishop, in difficult surroundings. While their parents did their best to protect them, trouble often had a way of finding them in a neighborhood where police and their families were not highly regarded.

As a result of this heightened hostility, Lucas had to learn how to defend himself at a young age. His mother and father dedicated a great deal of time teaching him how to fight. This instilled in Lucas a tough, confrontational mentality and one that would be sorely needed. Shortly after he began school, he was confronted by several other children whose fathers had been arrested. They attempted to take their frustrations out on Lucas, but Lucas stood his ground. He fought back as the others tried to hurt him and his sister. However, he ended up taking it too far. He seriously injured two of the children, breaking their arms and leaving one with a concussion. Lucas was seriously reprimanded as a result, which began what would become a recurring cycle for much of his youth.

As grew into his teenage years, Lucas’s confrontational nature continued to guide him. He stopped defending himself from others and began picking fights, much to the outrage of his parents. Very little was needed to upset him. In the high school he attended, it became a running joke that even the slightest comment about cops would earn a violent confrontation with Lucas. It landed him in detention on numerous occasions. He nearly had to repeat his classes due to the negative impact on his grades. His father tried to channel his son’s aggression by having him join the school football team. This ended up leading to an incident that would have a profound effect on Lucas Bishop’s life.

For a time, football seemed to be Lucas’s path to success. He excelled as a star linebacker in his sophomore and junior years. He even drew interest from major college programs. However, his aggressive nature continued to cause trouble. He was known for picking fights both on and off the field, almost getting kicked off the team on a number of occasions. One of these fights took place during a key playoff game and involved a member of the school’s pyrotechnic crew that ran the fireworks show. After some bitter words and punches were exchanged, the crew organized a trick against Lucas.

During the opening ceremonies when players were being introduced, the grew intentionally misfired one of the fireworks displays meant for the end of the game. A mortar shot out from a carefully positioned launch tube and hit Bishop point blank. However, instead of injuring him, it triggered his latent mutant ability that allowed him to absorb certain forms of energy and redirect them. Much of Luca’s response was reflex. As soon as the mortar hit him, he absorbed the energy and his body started glowing. It shocked the whole stadium at first, but shock turned to horror when he redirected the energy at the fireworks crew. This lead him to seriously incur several people on the crew and set off more fireworks that damaged the nearby stands. While the game was still played, Lucas was officially outed as a mutant. As a result, he could not play football and was subsequently arrested.

After spending a few nights in jail, Lucas was released after it was determined he acted involuntary. However, he was later expelled from school out of concern for his mutant abilities. It also led to even greater harassment of his family, resulting in an attempted drive by and several bricks through the window of their home. This caused so much tension for their family that Bishop’s mother moved out with his sister and into a relatives home in Alabama. Lucas stayed with his father, but not for long. As soon as he earned his GED, he moved out and sought to put his new talents to greater use.

Due to his mutant status, he could not join the military or become a police officer like his father. So instead, he trained to become a body guard and combat instructor. His powers along with his confrontational nature earned him a number of well-paying roles. For a time he was a bouncer at clubs in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Dallas. However, he was unable to manage anything steady. He often picked fights due to others trying to challenge him after finding out he was a mutant. It eventually got to a point where he had to start guarding gang members and crime figures. This put him in much harsher circumstances where his poor judgment once again caught up with him.

While acting as a body guard to the son of a well-known crime figure in New Jersey, he became caught up in an attempted sting operation that involved planting a wire on the son. When Lucas found out about it, he assaulted an undercover police officer that he thought was from a rival crime family. When he tried to defend himself using a special taser, Bishop absorbed the energy and used it to destroy a officer’s unmarked police cruiser. It resulted in the injury of several officers and the escape of the crime family. This earned Lucas a prison sentence of four years.

For much of his mid-twenties, Lucas was confined to a special mutant holding cell on Riker’s Island. Despite his father’s best efforts to help his son, he remained confined. While in prison, he was frequently the target of hazing for his mutant status. During one incident, a number of inmates cornered him and forcibly tattooed a large M over his right eye. It permanently marked him as a mutant and threatened to lead to even more violent confrontations that would extend his sentance.

Then everything changed the day Lucas received word that his father had been killed while on duty. Ironically, it was later determined that one of the criminal gangs he used to work for was involved in the incident. It struck Lucas in a profound way. He became less confrontational and began to re-examine his life. He would eventually get another chance to make better decisions.

Character Breakdown: Lucas Bishop is a man for whom confrontation is a primary means of getting things done. Even before he was a mutant, he was constantly defending himself in a hostile environment. This environment is an integral part of this trait. His whole family was a target because they lived in a neighborhood where police and their families were not highly regarded. It forced Lucas to always be on his guard, causing him to adopt a mentality that everybody was out to get him. While his parents taught him how to fight back purely in a defensive manner, he took it beyond the defensive and became a frequent aggressor.

This aggressive mentality is the other major component that drives Bishop’s character. He’s actively seeks a confrontation rather than just responding to them. In some ways it’s an extension of having to be on his guard for most of his life. He lived in an environment where he was always a target, first as the son of a police officer and second as a mutant. The only way he could feel safe and secure was to make clear to others that he knew how to fight back. It instilled in him a mentality that led him to avoid victimization to a level that was almost pathological. Were he a normal human, he might have ended up seriously wounded or dead due to this nature. However, his mutant powers helped him survive while serving to reinforce this aggressive mentality in a self-reinforcing cycle.