Shadows

John Smith was born into a family of heat based empowered parents. His mother was a soldier, while his father was a nurse. Being born into a family like that, he had high expectations for him since he was born. Both of his parent could control and manipulate thermal energy, but in opposing ways. His mother would add energy, while his father would take it away. This only added to the main aspect of empowered people have because they have heightened physical capabilities, they had a tendency to have a lesser IQ than normal humans. This was because a portion of their brain and overall function was based upon basic survival, rather than brain capacity. But John was not of that category, as he had a tested IQ of around 124. While it was certainly high, his older brother David had a registered IQ of 134. He was classified a genius from a young age, and was much more skilled with his thermal abilities than his father. While he was three years older than David, in many ways he felt like he wasn't even apart of the family. While he still believed he had the best connection with his older brother, he still wasn't around much. Because of his early talent, he was sent of a prestigious school at a very young age. His other older sibling was his sister Tanya, who had been hot headed and low tempered from the first day he remembered her. Even as children, she was always aggressive and hostile twords others. What made it worse was that their mom promoted that mentality, mainly because she was frankly the same. While she wasn't very smart, she was incredibly powerful with her thermal abilities. And then there was John. A kid who was a decent degree better than average, but that was it. From the time he was 12 to the time he got to 15, that's all his family ever saw him as- Average. With a family of geniuses and battle masters, it was incredibly hard to be normal. But unlike his family, what he didn't lack was perspective. Being brought up in such a family, he learned very early to ground his reality. He knew what he saw at home was incredibly unusual, and his family ever more so. They seemingly had very few friends because of it, which was something he never lacked in. While he never really fit into a majority category, his friend group was very closely knit. While his friend group seemed small and obscure compared to the others in his school, it was very apparent not to mess with them. His best friend was Jason, who was truly an electrical genius. While he grew up an orphan, his abilities quickly got him placed into the school. While he made sure to never make it into the top ten during most tests or power based courses, John knew he was much stronger than he seemed. His true abilities were with technology and engineering. Since he grew up near an old junk yard, he learned how to put things together from an early age. He built his first computer from scrap parts at the age of 8, and made a sudo supercomputer by the age of 10. The things he can do now only astound John, as he can't really even comprehend the level of complexity it takes to make advanced machines. Not to mention the guy has blonde hair and green eyes, and he isn't finished with puberty yet. His friend Janelle was probably the strongest empowered in their grade, and in his opinion the best looking. She was close to 5'9, and had very light brown hair. She had hazel eyes, and light brown skin. While her powers were to control and manipulate living things, in combat she could rapidly manipulate plants cells. But her domination over the battlefield pails in comparison to her healing capacity. At the age of 9, she had stimulated the stem cells in a man's arm, which eventually fully grew back. Then their was his friend Chris, who was a true berserker in the battlefield. Otherwise, he was incredibly mild mannered and very polite. He's the true definition of never make the quiet man mad. He had thick black hair and deep brown eyes, which played very well in the summer his skin would almost turn black. His friend Oliva was very skilled at controlling metals and carbon, which made her connect with Jason very quickly. Her hair and face were nothing spectacular or very noticeable, just a fairly contoured face with brown hair and brown eyes. But she was similar to Chris, in the way that you never piss her off. He could still remember a time where she ripped the braces out of another kids mouth and used it to strangle another. While she was suspended for the incident, we all knew she dint care. They were all oddities in their own right, and then you had John. The man with no powers but enough skill to kill thirty men. At face value, most people would see him as a failure. A kid with no powers from such a prestigious family, many called him a waste of time and space. But what they forgot was what he was raised against, and what he had to learn to overcome. In the back of their property, his mother had created a proper fighting arena. Large 5 foot by 5 foot slabs of concrete were combined to make a 75 by 75 foot arena. He had to learn to outsmart his sister, and try his best not to get killed by his brother. While his brother took their sessions like a master teaching a student, his sister took it as real combat. In every fight she was ever in, she never held back. There were many times where his brother had stopped their fight because of his burns, which quickly turned to anger. The last time he fought his sister was about three months ago, where she had already beaten him and then threatened to spar his younger siblings next. While neither of his older sibling cared for the younger ones, it had always been John's responsibility to care for them. In many ways, he actuay cared for them more than their own mother. He was pretty sure both of his parent lacked empathy, and even their marriage was even done to have strong children. He knew there was truly no love between his parents, simply just a mutual interest. Looking back, being raised as normal was probably a blessing for him, as he quickly learned many things from others. At that point, John lifted up a broken tile and smashed it into his sister. While it was still broken, it probably weighted pretty close to 1000 pounds. Mind you, he was still 15 at the time. And this was just one of his many skills, as he excelled in all areas of combat. He was very skilled at hand to hand combat, blades, guns, and even battle tactics. What he lacked in raw power he made up for in skill, and even made it into the top 50 for his class last year. This was a feat never seen before, as no one had ever reached the top 100 eith no powers. Even after formal tests, he was still shown to not have any formal control, which means he didn't have proper control over any form of energy of mass. Out of anyone in his friend group, it was him who everyone feared the most. Not because of who he was now, but what he could become. Because if a man with no powers got into the top 50, what would happen if he did develop them? But thag meant very little to him, as he already had what he needed- Friends, semblance of family, and decent future. Even if he wasn't a genius like Jason or his brother, or a master of the battlefield like his sister, he still was decent at everything. That's why even his friends and family nicknamed him 'Jack'.