Kick

Kick (Brenden Powel) was a founding member of The Strikers and Heroes Unite.

## History

Brenden Powel was born in Morriston, New Jersey to Robyn Hackley. The circumstances around his birth were scandalous, as he was the son of Robyn and a married man from Staten Island. During the first two years of his life, Brenden's father would visit rarely, his married life preventing him from taking an active place in Robyn and her young son's. When Brenden reached the age of two, Jeffrey Powel finalized his divorced from his wife Elizabeth and moved in with his other family.

   Brenden's early interest in sports, particularly those of wrestling and baseball, was incredibly pleasing to his father. Despite the time that had been lost, they quickly bonded. When the family resettled in Wayne, Brenden became active in the various recreational sports offered. With ease he became a star in almost everything he participated in. He was, however, slightly lonely and like most children, wished for a younger sibling. When he finally voiced this desire, Brenden for the first time met the stern fist of his father. He refused to approach the subject from that moment on. (Jeffrey was still longing for his two children that he'd lost custody of.)

   At age nine, Brenden's wishes were finally answered when his half-brother and half-sister arrived with his father (their mother had been killed in a car accident). Robyn proved able to handle the sudden stress of having two new children to care for. Lindsey, his younger sister by a year, came to accept her new family with open arms and formed a close friendship with Brenden. Bryan, on the other hand, viewed both Brenden and Robyn with a strong disgust (bordering on hatred). Though Brenden didn't realize the details, Bryan blamed them both for causing the destruction of his parents marriage (and subsequently his mother's death.) Eventually, Bryan would withdraw almost completely from the household, further destroying any chance for a relationship to form with his younger brother.

### The Hamilton Institute

Brenden continued to excel in athletic events, while at the same time maintaining a high grade point average thanks to tutoring from scholarly Lindsey. He would continue to live a relatively normal lifestyle up until his junior year in high school. Robyn was diagnosed with terminal cancer and her death would come with a terrible quickness. To further add to his family's turmoil, Jeffrey discovered the the secret Bryan had been harboring for over two years:  With his powers now manifested, the young man had been training with Cass Hamilton to gain some control.  Unable to cope with the possibility of both Brenden and Lindsey being "freakish Gene-X" as well, he took his life in a fit of depression. The three children found themselves in the care of Hamilton and enrolled in the Hamilton Boarding School.

   At a young age, Brenden had begun to suffer from dreams / nightmares at night. Hamilton informed the youth that these had in fact been psychic visions, a result of his own Gene-X ability. Under the man's tutelage, Brenden began to siphon his other psionic abilities for combat. He was also thrown into extensive martial arts training, to make up for what Hamilton dubbed "low level abilities." While he and Bryan finally patched up their relationship, Brenden found himself unable to connect with most of the students. His only friend, besides family, ended up becoming Kelsey Lynne (his senior by a year). While the two never officially became romantically involved, there was heavy flirtation.

### The Strikers

Brenden, along with Hamilton's six other students, became a founding member of the Strikers. He adopted the codename Kick, mostly because it irritated Hamilton (a man that he hardly held in high regard). As Kick, he would stay with the team for about four years, watching as they suffered through various tragedies. Eventually, when he found a replacement in new members Monster and Cinder, Brenden decided to leave. He set off to travel the world.

His journey would be cut short by the deadly Virus. Brenden would be the second victim to the deadly disease (after D'Skipper). His afterlife would be cut short, however, as only a few weeks later he was resurrected by a gene-X named Kenny (a rather insane mook who'd adopted the name TimeLord). Brenden assisted the group in ultimately defeating their opponent and then, along with Tension and Arrow Storm, decided to sacrifice himself to close up the time anomalies (and allow Blossom to be reborn). However, instead of being wiped out... Brenden was kept alive by the reality avatar Demona.

He played a small part in the "Demon Gallery / Rogue Quest" events and then was deposited back on Earth. He returned to the Strikers mansion to find the group disbanded, only Jagged, Sparkz and Astra remaining. He would remain with Josh's team of Strikers through their battle against Moon Labs and then disappeared once more.  He took to traveling the world for a few years, remaining out of the struggles of the Strikers and playing the part of hero on the small scale.  Then the government launched their "Final Solution": a program that was designed to deal with the "rogue weaponry" known as Gene-X.

 Kick, along with Bloodshed, Project: Noah, and Siren, helped rescue Sparkz and his brother, Bryan, from government agents.  The group was preparing to participate in the assault on Washington DC when Brenden was mysteriously teleported away.  He became involved in a struggle to help close a tear in reality along with numerous other versions of Strikers (and Tantrum from our own time period).  (\*\*This all took place in the "Strikers: Forever" Minisim that is destined to one day happen ;)\*\*)

### Spectacular Strikers

When Brenden was finally returned to our own planet, he choose to take up residence in the Striker's mansion once more.  At first he acted as a replacement for then on-leave Harry Constantine and Fall-Out, but his status was upgraded to full member when the Strikers went into action to save the planet against an intergalactic tribunal.  After the events of DQ: Prophecy, Kick (along with various other Strikers) were stranded on the far side of the universe.

When the group finally managed to return home, Brenden began to be plagued by visions of the death of teammate Kaara Crowley.  This prophecy was almost fulfilled when he and Kaara (along with surviving members of the first and second generation of Strikers) were dragged into a revenge plot by Christian Hamilton, son of the team's one time mentor.   When the Strikers eventually proved successful (with the help of the resurrected Vincent Hamilton), Brenden began to see a new future threat: Binary.  Conjure formed a squad to deal with the threat and a group of Strikers embarked from the mansion.

### Heroes Unite

It was after the team was successfully able to stop Binary's newest plot that Kick and Tantrum found themselves separated from the rest of the Strikers.  Responding to a threat in Brazilia (a Sentinel that had gained sentience thanks to Binary himself), the two missed a teleportation effect by the creature Ragnorak.