Mike Matthews

**Mike Matthews** is a student at Thomsen High and a current member of the Young Bloods. While part of the team, being the son of two superheroes has greatly influenced his perception on the role of heroes in society.

## Biography

Mike Matthews was born into a family of super heroes. His parents, Sandra and Gabriel Matthews secretly lived as the famous paragon superheroes Shinning Light and Stalwart Steel resulting in Mike having a unique childhood. Before he was even born, his parents hoped he would prove to be powered and were overjoyed when they became apparent at the age of 3. While too young to fully realise his situation, Mike grew to despise powers. To him, all his they did was give him his extra classes and work to do, while also causing his parents to constantly be away. It wasn’t until he was 9 did he finally come to understand just how precarious his life was. By some twist of events, a superpowered criminal discovered the Matthew's secret identity and kidnapped Mike as his parent’s fought off another disaster. What followed for Mike was days of confusion and panic before being forced to watch firsthand the confrontation between villain and hero as his parents fought to rescue their son. While many might have seen it as a clash between the mighty and powerful, the young Mike only saw it as his parents being hurt for a reason he couldn't understand. In that one day, Mike started to build the foundation of his views on heroes and develop his whole understanding of society.

While the battle raged on, new feelings of dread and fear started to take over, he had grown up learning how powerful he was meant to be and yet here he was, being less than useless. And as panic started to spread another figure approached unnoticed. A man Mike had met several times but rarely noticed, his grim, rude, powerless uncle Kross. In the next moment, Mike’s guards fell to a barrage of flashes as he made his way across the lair and towards his nephew.

Waking up several hours later and aboard an SDC ship, Mike discovered that his parents had won the battle and defeated the villain. Kross however, had refused to return him until they had confirmed that no one else knew their true identity. While there had been a long string of harsh words exchanged, they ultimately agreed to his demands for their child’s safety. From then on, Mike lived with his uncle for the next 4 years, to him, Kross seemed to be the exact opposite of his parents. Cold, harsh, rude and always brutally honest, while most people his age might have found him mean, Mike was intrigued. Even at a young age he was able to understand that while everyone else was stuck fighting, the one with the least power was the one that made it through the danger first. When he finally asked him about how he did it, Kross looked Mike in the eyes before shrugging and chalking it up to luck.

As time went on, Mike’s powers began to fully develop resulting in the occasional accidental explosion and a nearly indestructible apple. Concerned for the boy and his own safety but still unwilling to return Mike, partly out of the crisis but mostly from a drawn out feud with his brother, Kross took him to his workplace. There, Kross handed over Mike to a group of his colleagues in order to help him understand and control his powers. Partway through the program, Mike was reunited with his parents and while at first they wanted to take him as far away from Kross as possible, they once again caved to his logic and permitted their son to train with his uncle. For the next few years Mike continued to practice there after school, and while his parents’ identity was kept secret, Kross working for the SDC was a commonly known and ignored fact. To all intents and purposes, Mike's practice was given to him by a simple government employee with connection as deep as his drinking problem.

   During his training, Mike’s powers were able to flourish. The more he understood what he was doing, the more in control he felt and the more he could achieve. At the same time he constantly barraged his new caretaker with questions. At first the old man did his best to avoid the child’s gleaming eyes, believing it would pass with time. But as the weeks passed and the unrelenting questions continued, he finally caved and began responding. For a while he tried to sugar coat his answers, but he eventually slipped into normality and by the end, would happily rant about the many grey areas of the world to his young old nephew. Soon enough Kross even began to train Mike in self defense. Being unpowered had forced Kross to learn the importance of throwing a good punch early on, though only through his own experiences did he develop his own brutal style of combat and being himself, failed to see the problems involved with teaching it to a child. By the time Mike was 15 a strong bond had formed between him and his uncle (despite the latter’s comments).

Since then, Mike has moved away from Kross and back with parents as he studies in high school showing particular interest in physics as he continues to better understand his own capabilities.

## Powers and abilities

Like most other members of the Young Bloods, Mike has access to superhuman powers thanks to the Dragon Crystals.

### Powers

* **Matter Manipulation**: Mike is able to interact and control matter on an atomic level. For now, this is limited to influencing the bonds between molecules. In essence, Mike can either strengthen or shatter them. By strengthening them he is able to reinforce materials, turning things like garbage cans into makeshift shields. Vice versa, by shattering them he can either steadily wear down material or cause relatively intense explosions. His strengthening ability is not permanent and after a few minutes any effect will begin to wear off unless remade. Although the power is limited to line of sight and up to 10 meters, but when he makes physical contact he is able to create a delay before the effect takes effect.
* **Trained for duty**: While Mike isn’t a spartan or some great warrior he has been trained to fight, mostly by his uncle. Unlike his parents, he fights dirty and viciously relying on cheap tricks and brutality to quickly overpower his opponents. Usually by using his surroundings or more preferably, weapons.

### Limitations

* **Golden Heart**. Mike has sworn to never use his power on living matter. This determination is so strong he has unconsciously blocked the power from working on any living creature.
* **Double Edged Blast**. Mike is not explosion proof. Using his power offensively at short range places him in harms way. Explosions are only fun from a distance.
* **Timed.** His strengthening ability is not permanent and after a few minutes any effect will begin to wear off unless remade.
* **Not very ionizing.** As well as line of sight, Mike's powers need an unrestricted path to reach its target and cause any effect.
* **Unfocused**. To make his powers work, Mike needs to ‘visualise’ putting energy into molecules. To do this most effectively he needs a clear mind, time and energy. As of now he also cannot create explosions much larger than a small hand grenade but has been able to reduce a tank to scrap over the course of 3 hours under lab conditions.
* **Just try hardening a liquid.** Simple enough, Mike can't 'strengthen' liquids or gases. If it were frozen, yeah sure. But he can't turn a puddle into a shield.
* **Nothing stems from Nothing.** While the exact ratio and process is unkown, Mike literally puts energy into molecules to start reactions, this energy however has to come from somewhere. Specifically, Mike. The more he uses his power the more his body fatigues. The problem is that due to the power's unique nature, Mike's body doesn't have much sensory information regarding his power's impact on him. Without pain to ward him off, physical weakness could quickly lead to muscle degradation, loss of conscious, comatose and even heart attacks

### Weaknesses

* **Selfless idiot:** Has a habit of losing focus when others are in danger, paired with his power's habit of exhausting him this has lead to him pushing himself further than his body can handle.
* **Tough Nuts to Crack**: Different bonds have different natural strength. Things like metals for example, tend to be more difficult to break and rather than explosions, Mike's power tends to cap out at, slowly breaking them down.
* **Lost the war of attrition:** Mike fights in way that focuses on speed and aggression. As a result, as well as his power, his whole style of fighting revolves around ending or escaping fights quickly. If he's ever caught in a more drawn out fight though he'll quickly find himself at a rapidly growing disadvantage.
* **Flow of energy**: For Mike to use his powers he needs two things, line of sight and a path for energy. In a fight this leaves him vulnerable to anyone capable of creating visual cover from illusions to smoke screens. Adding to this, containing him is a simple matter of keeping him in an enclosed space. While he could see out of his enclosure, he wouldn't be able to influence his surroundings without first burning himself (yes, his one true weakness is being thrown in a heat resistant hamster ball or a pool)

## Trivia

* His uncle, Kross, is a top leader in Pandora's Lock