Rebound

Rebound is a mutant supervillain originally employed as a mercenary by Slush. He has recently renounced crime and accepted a job at Gilded Scarab Industries.

## Biography

Cody Ingram was a normal teenager until his home city of Chicago was assaulted by brutish aliens during the Blackout. The terror of those days was enough to activate many mutants' latent genes, and Cody was one of them. Although he and his family survived the Blackout, they were terrified of his new, dangerous state and the wanton destruction he seemed helpless to stop. Cody was unceremoniously thrown out of his home by a family that had come to see him as a monster.

Mentally and emotionally shattered by this event, Cody drifted in the streets but was unable to even care for himself properly. The nature of his powers made even the most mundane activities extremely difficult, and he slipped deeper into despair. For better or worse, however, he was identified and contacted by Slush, who was in the process of recruiting the most powerful (and most vulnerable) individuals from the 'new wave' of mutants to act as his mercenaries. Cody was an easy target, and Slush played on his emotions easily to win the boy's loyalty. Slush dubbed him "Rebound," insisting that he give up his old name and the life it represented, to which Cody reluctantly agreed.

Slush helped train the boy to control his powers, though only enough so that Rebound wouldn't injure himself. Slush had quickly deduced how the youth's abilities could be used to devastating effect in combat, and made sure to get him used to the idea of hurting others. When the time came for their first mission (delivering a viral agent to Chicago's water supply), Rebound proved his worth in an all-out brawl with the Contenders. Although he was still quite clumsy, he gave the heroes quite a challenge with his powerful bursts of kinetic energy and his unique resistance to most form of attack. Rebound was the last villain standing when the heroes finally put an end to the fight.

Rebound would surface again when Slush enacted his scheme to force the Contenders to fight in a brutal gladiatorial bout. By this time Rebound had further refined his powers, but he was beginning to lose faith in the mission of the New Canaan mutants. He'd realized that Slush had been using him as muscle, but saw no other options for himself. When the dust settled, however, Hardback offered to ignore the boy's part in Slush's activities and give him a normal job working at Gilded Scarab if he gave up his life of crime. Rebound immediately agreed, and is looking forward to a fresh start in a life without violence.

## Personality

Rebound is only eighteen, and he has endured some very traumatic events in the last year. He fears both the anti-mutant prejudice of others and the possibility of potentially hurting someone if his powers get out of control; as a result, he tends to be quiet and withdrawn, and avoids interacting with people when not necessary. Despite the things done to him by normals, he did not buy into Slush's 'mutant supremacy' rhetoric, and mostly wants to forget his brief dalliance with supervillainy.

Rebound is a normal kid at heart and has no interest in superheroics. He just wants to live a normal life and would gladly give up being a mutant entirely if it were possible.

## Powers

Rebound has the ability to absorb energy, concentrate it, and redirect it. This gives him a very broad resistance to damage: nearly all attacks stop dead upon touching his skin, granting him their energy rather than inflicting damage. He can then release this energy to perform feats of super strength or project massive bursts of concentrated force. By carefully channeling this force, he can achieve a variety of attacks: his favorite is to simply clap his hands, unleashing the energy in an aoe burst all around him, but he can also focus it along a narrow plane to hit distant foes with a 'sharp' wave of power. He can use this energy to propel himself as well, giving him a clumsy super-jumping capability.

Although his power is relatively simple, Rebound seems to have a truly prodigious level of power. Despite intense, extended combat, his powers have never been seen to exhaust themselves or reach any kind of absorption limit; he may be one of the most powerful mutants currently active, despite his lack of battle experience and disinterest in fighting.

## Weaknesses

Rebound needs to absorb energy to unleash it, and wise foes avoid giving him "fuel" for his powers. He is not particularly mobile, and if simply avoided he has difficulty bringing the fight to his foes. He cannot hold onto energy for long, and if he doesn't let it out on his own, it will quickly burst out of him in a violently uncontrolled manner.

Cold environments seem to drain Rebound's energy, though he can still absorb some power from cold-based kinetic attacks (such as flying ice shards).Rebound is also somewhat resistant to psychic attacks, but he cannot absorb any energy from Mental Blasts or other purely telepathic forms of attack, and these can wear him down without giving him a chance to power up and fight back.

Lastly, Rebound's powers make normal life very difficult. The simple force of holding an object imparts energy to his fingers, which then reflects back into the object, and so most things he touches suffer some damage with each use. He can't own a phone because it will shatter with a touch; food flies to pieces in his hand; his clothes tend to shred just from the reflected force of lightly pressing against his skin. He even has trouble simply walking, as the energy exchanged between his foot and the surface of the ground is enough to throw him off balance with each step (while simultaneously blasting his shoes to bits).