Scott Summers

## Background

### 1979 - 1995: Scott Summers

Scott Summers is the oldest son of Major Christopher Summers, a test pilot in the U.S. Air Force & his wife Katherine Ann Dayne. A few years after he was born, his parents welcomed a second son named Alex. Born & raised in Anchorage, Alaska, his family regularly took vacation to Hawaii to escape the cold of their hometown.

While flying flying home from a family vacation in their father's vintage private plane, a scout ship from the alien Shi'ar Empire suddenly materialized & set the plane ablaze. Before Scott even realized the plane was on fire, his mother pushed him & Alex out the plane door with the only available parachute. The parachute caught fire, so Scott used his mutant optic blasts for the first time to slow their descent. The last thing they would see was their parents being blown up in the plane before they hit the ground.

When he impacted with the ground, Scott suffered a head injury that damaged a part of his brain. The two boys were hospitalized & both suffered traumatic amnesia regarding the incident. While Scott was unconscious, Alex was taken to an adoption center while he remained in the hospital. When he awoke & discovered his brother's absence, Scott became emotionally vulnerable then destroyed the roof of the hospital with his optic blast.

When Scott woke up again, two men by the names of Charles Xavier & Erik Lehnsherr were at the foot of his bed. Promising him that they would help him find his brother & control his powers, Scott left with them after Charles was able to "persuade" the hospital staff.

### 1995 - 1997: Cyclops

In addition to be a student, Scott was also enlisted by Professor Xavier as a founding member of the X-Men, a team of young mutants who trained to use their powers in Professor Xavier's dream for human/mutant equality.

At school, the X-Men were tutored by either Xavier, Lehnsherr or Moira MacTaggert. Then when work was not being done, they were trained in the use of their powers in the Danger Room. Xavier also provided Scott with a visor made of ruby quartz to help him control his powers in the field. Taking on the codename Cyclops, Scott became the deputy leader of the X-Men. Though a skilled tactician, Scott's social skills were lacking. He had fallen in love with his teammate Jean Grey but his reserved demeanor prevented him from expressing his actual feelings for her.

For a long while, Scott refused to admit to anyone or himself that he had feelings for Jean as he was afraid that his optic blasts would hurt her. He was also aware that his wealthy & good-looking teammate, Warren Worthington III (aka Angel) was also romantically interested in Jean & felt that he had a much better chance. Unknown to Scott, Jean felt the same way about him but her similar reserved personality presented her from making a move. The two finally confessed their feelings & began dating after Jean's parents attempted to send her away for college.

### 1997 - 2001: Cyclops

When Scott graduated the next year, he stayed with the X-Men as its field leader, feeling that he would never be able to lead a normal life because of the uncontrollable nature of his powers. With new additions to the team, they weren’t working as tight a unit as the original team despite the hard training that Cyclops put them through. Then Thunderbird was killed on one of their missions against Count Nefaria & his death haunted Cyclops, who promised to never lose another teammate.

The X-Men became frequent partners with the Fantastic Four, another superhero that operated in new York though they more so focused on the city. The two teams went out into space on a joint mission. During the flight home, their space shuttle was caught in a solar radiation storm. The cockpit lacked the shielding needed to protect the pilot from the lethal radiation so Jean made the executive decision to take over for the pilot. She absorbed his flight knowledge & forced everyone to the back. While guiding the shuttle to Earth, the X-Men were protected by the shielded part of the shuttle but the solar radiation finally proved to be too great & Jean began to succumb to the radiation's lethal effects. After the team crashed in Jamaica, Scott stayed by Jean's side in the infirmary until she healed.

Unknown to Scott, the woman he loved had bonded with a cosmic being known as the Phoenix. He began to privately question his relationship with Jean, feeling that she was not the same Jean he had loved. But after Jean was able to block Scott's optic blast to give him the chance to see her clearly, they shared an intimate night together with Scott rediscovering his love for her. Unfortunately, Jean underwent another transformation into the Dark Phoenix & soared through the universe, where she devoured an entire star. When she returned to Earth, she threatened to kill everyone but Cyclops still tried to reach out to her. Professor Xavier was able to keep Jean under control & helped her will herself back to normal when they were all teleported away by the Shi'ar.

The Shi'ar Empire had witnessed the Jean/Dark Phoenix consuming the star & the X-Men were forced to battle with the Imperial Guard over her fate. The battle triggered Phoenix's transformation back into Dark Phoenix again. Understanding that she would never be able to fully control the dark hunger inside, Jean sacrificed herself on the moon to save everyone else. Believing the love of his life to be dead, Scott left the X-Men.

### 2001 - 2004: Cyclops

Scott tried to move but could not get past his love for Jean. He shared a romance with Colleen Wing but it didn't work out. He then began dating Lee Forrester & ended up joining her crew of a fishing boat to distract himself from his grief. Upon his return, Scott broke up with Lee & rejoined the X-Men.

Scott soon learned that his grandparents were alive & living in Alaska. He took his brother Alex & went to visit the couple, who owned a shipping company called North Star Airways. At the Summers family reunion, Scott was shocked to meet Madelyne Pryor, the company's pilot who was identical in appearance to Jean Grey. Scott became obsessed with her similarity to Jean & learned that she was the sole survivor of a plane crash that happened on the exact same day that Jean died on the moon.

He began to believe that Madelyne was a reincarnation of Jean/Phoenix. He soon fell in love with her & she bore him a son named Nathan Christopher Charles Summers (Christopher from Scott's father & Charles from his father-figure Xavier). They were married the following summer, with Scott decided to give his family a normal life & retired from the X-Men to live in Anchorage, Alaska. The move didn't last long as Scott soon missed his old life & the family moved to Salem Center to be closer to the X-Men.

As Scott essentially resumed his membership with the X-Men, his marriage became strained over his priorities & long absences. She knew that he continued to miss Jean & felt she could never amount to his first love. One night, Scott suddenly left his family & claimed that a top priority mission needed his attention so he would gone for at least a week. The truth was that Jean had been discovered alive. While trying to live his fairytale romance with Jean, things came crashing down as Jean learned that Scott was married & had a son.

Feeling bad about abandoning his family, Scott returned home to find neither one of them at their house. He began panicking, calling Madelyne multiple times but the number was disconnected. Madelyne eventually showed up to the mansion, having been shot by assassins & taken to the hospital as a Jane Doe. After telling Scott that they took their son, they began doing everything they could to find baby Nathan. Using cryptic clues provided by Destiny, Scott, Jean & Madelyne returned to the orphanage Scott grew up in & found an entire laboratory in the basement with many children, including baby Nathan. Mr. Sinister then arrives, explaining that Madelyne is in fact a clone of Jean. Blaming Scott & Jean for the misery in her life, Madelyne attempts to sacrifice Nate & the other babies to spite Scott. However, she ends up mortally injuring herself. Jean is then forced to reintegrate the portion of herself that was given to Madelyne & gains her memories as well. Learning Sinister was behind all his pain in life (running the orphanage, role in Madelyne's creation, etc.) Scott seemingly killed Sinister with an optic blast. Returning back to the Institute, Scott & Jean renewed their relationship & began raising Nathan as a family.

## Personality

Scott is brave, selfless & a first-rate leader. He has very low self-esteem, holding a low opinion of himself & obsessing over his shortcomings & failures. He usually describes himself as an introvert, mostly keeping to himself. As a leader, he is very strict & no-nonsense, demanding seriousness, dedication & skill, usually earning him the dislike of more rebellious team members.

After beginning his relationship with Emma Frost, his personality softened somewhat. His confidence & self-esteem improved, despite having to face more hardships than ever. This is generally attributed to counseling he received from Frost & his happiness with their relationship. Even after their break up, he still retained the progress he made with her.

## Romantic Relationships

* Colleen Wing: Dated (2001)
* Lee Forrester: Dated (2001)
* Madelyne Pryor: Girlfriend (2001 - 2002); Wife (2002 - 2004)
* Emma Frost: Girlfriend (2005 - 2007)
* Jean Grey: Girlfriend (1997 - 2001), (2004 - 2005); On & Off (2007 - 2010); Fiancée (2010 - )

## Powers & Abilities

* **Mutant Physiology**
	+ ***Optic Blast*:** Cyclops possesses the mutant ability to project a powerful beam of concussive, ruby-colored force from his eyes. His powers come from ambient energies (such as solar radiation, photons & cosmic rays) absorbed & metabolized by his body into concussive blasts that are released from his eyes. Cyclops' mind has a particular psionic field that is attuned to the forces that maintain the apertures that have taken the place of his eyes. Because his mind's psionic field envelops his body, it automatically shunts the other-dimensional particles back into their point of origin when they collide with his body. Thus, his body is protected from the effects of the particles & even the thin membrane of his eyelids is sufficient to block the emission of energy. The synthetic ruby quartz crystal used to fashion the lenses of Cyclops' eyeglasses & visor is resonant to his minds' psionic field & is similarly protected. The width of Cyclops' eye-blasts seems to be focused by his mind's psionic field with the same autonomic function that regulated his original eyes' ability to focus. As Cyclops focuses, the size of the aperture changes & thus act as a valve to control the flow of particles & beam's relative power. The extra dimensional supply of energy for Cyclops' eye-blast is practically infinite. Thus, so long as Cyclops' psionic field is active (which is constant), there is the potential to emit energy. The only limit to the eye-blast is the mental fatigue of focusing constantly. The maximum force of Cyclops' optic blasts are unknown, but a commonly given description is that he can "punch holes through mountains."
	+ ***Trajectory Bending*:**  Cyclops potentially has the capacity to will his optic blasts to twist & curve in any given direction without need of a solid surface to bounce his eye beams off of.
	+ ***Spatial Awareness*:** Cyclops possesses an uncanny sense of trigonometry, in this sense used to describe his observation of objects around himself & the angles found between surfaces of these objects. He has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to cause his optic blasts to ricochet or reflect off those objects in a trajectory to his liking. This is commonly called a "banked shot" when applied to this talent. He has been observed causing beams to reflect from over a dozen surfaces in the course of one blast & still hit his intended target accurately. It is his sense of superhumanly enhanced spatial awareness that allows him to perform these feats as well.
	+ ***Energy Resistance*:** Cyclops is resistant to the effects of his own powers. This is linked to him being capable of withstanding his brother's ability with no ill effects, a result of their close genetics & a quirk of mutant genetics that is common among siblings.
* **Hand to Hand Combat/Martial Artist:** He also has extensive training in martial arts and unarmed combat, holding black belts in judo & aikido.
* **Leadership:** Cyclops has spent most of his superhero career as the field leader of the X-Men & has developed exceptional leadership skills. It is notable that regardless of their general attitude towards him, all of the X-Men tend to obey his orders in battle because they know that he is usually right.
* **Pilot:** Cyclops is an expert pilot of fixed-wing aircraft, a skill he shares with his father. It has also been implied that his trigonometric sense improves his abilities in the air.
* **Tactical Analysis:** As field leader of the X-Men, Scott has formed many successful plans for the team.
* **Telepathic Resistance:** Years of being in intimate situations with telepaths have allowed Cyclops to hone his mind to the point where he can resist telepathic intrusion and withhold certain information from high level telepaths.
* **Cyclops' Visor:** The mask he wears to prevent random discharge is lined with powdered ruby quartz crystal. It incorporates two longitudinally mounted flat lenses which can lever inward providing a constantly variable exit slot. The inverted clam-shell mechanism is operated by a twin system of miniature electrical motors. As a safety factor their is a constant positive closing pressure provided by springs. The mask itself is made of high-impact plastic. There is an overriding finger-operated control mechanism on either side of the mask & normal operation is through a flat micro-switch installed in the thumb of either glove.

### Weaknesses

* **Genetic Flaw:** Cyclops is not immune to Vulcan's powers but is immune to Havok's.
* **Power Regulation Disability:** Due to psychological trauma & physical injury at a young age, Cyclops is unable to control his optic blasts. In connection, his eyes have become more reliant on the ruby quartz he uses rather than affecting change to the injury. Emma Frost has claimed the psychological trauma of losing his parents is primarily responsible for his inability to control his powers. Professor Xavier has also claimed that his eyes have become reliant on the ruby quartz sunglasses & visor, therefore making it hard for Cyclops to control the blasts on his own.
* **Surplus Energy:** Cyclops has mentioned that he needs to fire blasts frequently because he gathers surplus energy within him if not. He apparently needs an outlet for that energy.

### Ratings

* **Acumen:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Might:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Quickness:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Mysticism:** 1 - Nonexistent
* **Gadgetry:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Projection:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **Tactics:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **Battle:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **TOTAL:** 120 - Power Level 3 / General Threat

## Trivia

* Scott frequently listens to the radio & even worked as a DJ for some time.
* Iceman initially disliked Scott due to his inability to socialize with his fellow X-Men. He viewed Scott as a grouch who thought that smiling or having fun was sinful.
* He rarely smiled during his early years with the X-Men.
* He is very close to Jean's mother Elaine Grey, who acts as a motherly figure toward him.
* Each Summers Brothers has a signature energy color: Scott is red, Alex is blue & Gabe is yellow.
* Following a childhood head trauma, Cyclops is unable to shut off his optic blasts at will & must therefore wear a visor with ruby quartz lenses that block the beams. However, Emma Frost believes the psychological trauma of losing his parents & being separated from his brother are primarily responsible for his inability to control his powers.
* He is a mentor of the Corsairs Squad. The current members are Aero, Dryad, Specter, Ink, Trance & Oya.

## Notes

* The original character of Cyclops belongs to the Marvel Universe.