Name: Cyril J. Balkan Codename: Roman Candle Nicknames: CJ, Punker Date of Birth: February 14th, 1994 (Unknown if this is his actual birthday or not.) Age: 17 Place of Residence: Formally Morningstar Group Home, Providence, Rhode Island Father: Unknown Mother: Unknown Siblings: None Occupation: Slacker, Hitchiker

Physical Description

Height: 5' 9"
Weight:120
Hair: Dark Brown with White highlights
Eyes: Hazel
Distinguishing Features: Has a thin scar across the bridge of his nose, has a small scar on his forehead near the hairline on the right side

Hobbies: CJ enjoys music a great deal. His favorite performers are KMFDM, Akira the Don, and Sage Francis. He likes to keep his hands moving, so over the years, he's learned to roll quarters over his knuckles. He almost constantly is doing this.


Powers

Mutant Power: Can throw spheres or "energy bombs" of bright concussive energy from his hands.

Extents (ability): With his powers, CJ can generate and physically throw spheres of bright blue, purple, or red light. The spheres themselves can range in size from a baseball to a basketball, considering how much time and concentration he uses in generating one. The sphere itself has actual weight, so it does not fly forever. When the sphere leaves CJ's hand and collides with any object, it explodes on impact. The explosion in question is concussive, giving off no heat, but light and sound. The radius of the explosion, can range from 6 feet to 24 feet.


What do you think of your mutant ability:


Personality

Psychological Background: CJ is the product of an orphanage and several foster families. Needless to say, he's bitter and prefers solidtude. He's untrusting, he's destructive and he's reckless. He loves to needle people and see how long it takes for someone to crack under the pressure. He has an obsessive/compulsive disorder that prevents him from being still unless he absolutely must.


Personality Quirks: He likes snakes, spiders, and cheap horror flicks. Rolls quarters, pens, pencils over his knuckles almost constantly. Has to always be doing something with his hands. Prefers day old cold Chinese food to eggs and toast for breakfast. Is deathly afraid of water and refuses to take baths, but will shower regularly. Talks in his sleep and sleepwalks.


History

General History: CJ grew up in Morningstar Group Home in Providence, Rhode Island since his birth. Since he is not yet old enough to receive his birth certificate, he does not know who his mother or father is, but has learned that they've passed on. He was taken on by various couples, but was often returned for various reasons: strange problems in the house, family couldn't handle the baby, etc.

So many families took their toll on the young man, who was becoming increasingly arrogant, mean-spirited and reckless. The final family to return him kept him for a month when CJ was 15. His foster father wound up badly blinded and injured after an explosion took place one day inside the house. After the incident, CJ would remain gone from the home and would more often than not be returned to his foster home by the local authorities.

CJ was no longer taken in by families and was almost constantly in trouble with the management of the orphanage. It wasn't until a brush with incarceration, that CJ was handed over to Charles Xavier by a mutant-sympathetic police chief and eventually the Northern Lights Academy.

CJ was born Cyril Jhonen Balken. That's literally all he knows about who his parents are. For the first part of his life, this bothered him more than anything, not knowing who his parents were or what happened to them. To push his confusion about his life and his pain away, he buried himself in other activities. He'd sneak into the orphanage rec room late at night and listen to whatever music was playing on the local rock stations.

Most all of the other orphans only ever talked about finding new families, so CJ kept himself busy by simply avoiding the other kids. He was finally taken in by an elderly couple at 8 years old. They lived in Providence and were very kind to CJ, but it all went awry when CJ's foster father, Gordon Korth decided to try to get CJ to swim. Upon being released into the water by his elderly father, he panicked and sank almost to the bottom of Providence Bay. His foster father barely got down to him in time and when the boy was revived, CJ accused him of wanting him to drown. CJ became incredibly bitter towards the old couple, causing unexplained incidences around the house whenever no-one was watching him. The young boy was returned when the couple decided the could no longer control their son and needless to say, it was all downhill from there.

From the age of 8 to 15, CJ was bounced from family to orphanage and back to family again. He was nearly impossible to control or keep in school. He was constantly in detention and got in fights weekly at school. He was finally ejected from public school and was eventually returned to the orphanage for the last time after he had a brutal fight with his foster father, who was a recovering alcoholic. The father confronted CJ about his destructive behavior and lack of interest in his new family in school. The argument eventually came to blows being traded after CJ berated his foster father for drinking.

The fight ended abruptly when CJ moved to strike his foster father with an open hand and his mutant power was triggered, a blinding blue-white "energy bomb" flying from CJ's hand to his foster father's face. It struck him between the eyes and knocked him almost across the room. The resulting blast left his corneas hopelessly scarred and his body badly injured. CJ fled the house in fear and anger and went on a spree of petty thefts and disturbing the peace. He was caught by the local authorities and returned to his foster home. Upon arriving, he was informed by his foster mother that he was no longer wanted there and he gathered his things and was escorted by police back to Morningstar Group Home.

He finally decided to run away from the orphanage at 17 years old. He took what he could out of the orphanage's cafeteria and his own closet as he went. He was missing for two days from the group home and soon after, heard news reports about a missing youth with a history of petty crimes: himself. He avoided crowded places as much as possible, but when he knew he had to eat, he would dive in dumpsters, sometimes even breaking into all-you-can-eat buffet kitchens and eating what he could before the resulting alarms brought the police.

The final time hunger dragged him into the public eye was one week after he'd run away from his home of 17 years. He broke into a grocery store after hours and was surrounded by police soon after. The police thought him to be armed as they heard and spotted several minor explosions in the store whenever officers would try to apprehend the young man. Many deputies believed he was shooting off fireworks at them, specifically Roman Candles. Finally, the Chief of Police was called in to assist and subdued the youth himself, but not before seeing that the young man was apparently a mutant. Luckily, he was the only person that had seen this and phoned Charles Xavier as CJ sat in a prison cell.

The Chief turned out to be a mutant-sympathist who sometimes directed "special", yet misguided youths towards the Xavier school. Xavier saw it best to put CJ away from his old haunts as soon as possible, so he advised the Chief to sent CJ to his Alaskan Academy as soon as possible.

On the plane ride up north, CJ didn't tug once at his handcuffs. He just waited for the next family they were going to throw him into.


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