Mardin

**Mardin** is a student of Wellston Private High School who resides at the Boy's Dormitories. He is a loyal follower of Zeke.

## Appearance

Mardin's hair is green and combed back. His eyes are blue and glow the same color when his ability is activated.

He wears different variations of the Wellston Boy's Uniform. In his first appearance, he wore only the pants, jacket, and white dress shirt with the collar popped up. When he was with Zeke, the collar was down and he also wore the tie. In his latest appearance, he had no tie but the collar was still down.

## Personality

Mardin is one of Wellston's most obnoxious bullies. On top of physically attacking weaker students, he'll often subject them to verbal barbs and put-downs. His loud jeering tends to be disruptive, so teachers and stronger students will not hesitate to use superior force to shut him up.

Mardin likes to follow more powerful students with personalities similar to his own and enjoys obeying the orders they give him to the point where he'll address them with titles like King despite the presence of students who are even stronger. He actually seems to have greater respect for students like Zeke than more powerful students like the royals, due to their similar attitudes. He's also not above kicking former Royals when they're down, as he did with Seraphina after her ability-loss.

Mardin also shows that he is more concerned about himself than his friends. After he is grabbed by a powerful student, instead of Zeke, who was right in front of the student, Mardin questions why he didn't just attack Zeke since he was right in front of him.

Mardin slowly became aware of changes in the hierarchy's command structure. It got to the point where he began question Zeke's methods of bullying, thinking they'll get in trouble.

## History

Mardin was assigned to be partners with Hower for a literary analysis project.

## Season 1

### Beginning

Mardin dozed off in the middle of a boring Trigonometry class, which eventually lulled him to sleep. He was awake again when John asked to use the bathroom, which was a dangerous venture for a cripple. Mardin heckled him about it before the trigonometry teacher threw a piece a chalk at him, causing his nose to bleed. The annoyed teacher asked a timid Mardin if he would like to come to the front and prove one of the fundamental laws of mathematics.

### Secrets

One day after school, he was accompanying Zeke when they both spotted John ahead of them. They decide that their new resident of the Boy's Dorm's needed to be "welcomed", so Mardin rushed up from behind to attempt a sneak attack. John's reflexes were too fast for him though, and the ambush was countered with a suplex throw that left Mardin slightly dazed. Still smarting from his failed attack, Mardin acknowledges Zeke as the dorm's strongest resident and "ruler." John privately noted that he completely forgot Isen and Blyke also resided there.

   Mardin watched as John completely disrespected Zeke's authority around the dorms. When John managed to break free of Zeke's tight grip, Mardin rushed after him and restrained him for Zeke to deal with. He watched John's beating with a grin on his face, but got nervous when John's angry outburst made Zeke irritable. After knocking John out, Zeke ordered Mardin to follow him out of there. Mardin obeyed.

### Joker

Mardin was walking down the hallway when he spotted John and Seraphina walking in the opposite direction. He couldn't help but mock the now-powerless Seraphina over her latest trip to the infirmary. The former Ace, still shaken by recent experiences, looks away and keeps walking. Mardin began to jeer even louder, calling Seraphina a coward who could do nothing but take his abuse. Suddenly, Mardin was surprised by Energy Ropes wrapping around his ankles and tripping him. The fall injured his nose, and he turned around to see who sent him toppling. It turned out to be Cecile, who told him off for annoying everyone with his shouting. He meekly obeyed her orders to pipe down.

## Season 2

### Safe House

Along with fellow bully Julien, Mardin was present amongst the Wellston crowd to aid Zeke in proving that the cripple John was not the identity of the Shadow King. The smug trio confronted John in the courtyard, and excited everyone present with the prospect of John's humiliating defeat. Zeke's confidence plummeted when John mentioned something about a lunch bag, though the significance of John's words likely confused Mardin. Regardless, Zeke's posse activated their abilities and rushed in to attack John, which was the point when their day took a nosedive.

     However, Mardin would be in for a rude awakening when John copied Zeke's Phase Shift and grabbed the bully by the throat. Despite attempts to divert John's wrath at Zeke, John smashed Mardin's face into the concrete and kicked the unconscious bully into a wall for good measure. It took a trip to the hospital for him to recover from the damage. Mardin was eventually discharged. He might have enjoyed some of the benefits of Zeke doing a 180° and successfully cozying up to the new King. But it was not meant to last.

### Discord

After John was suspended, Mardin and the rest of Zeke's posse found themselves unable to push around the low-tiers. Many of their usual victims had joined The Safe House the high-tiers founded. The club heads always came running whenever club members squealed. John returned, but Zeke couldn't reignite his vendetta against the club.

With John's eventual abdication, Zeke and his boys had no means of protection whatsoever. Thus, picking on low-tiers became a very risky venture. But Zeke was in too bad a mood to be cautious all the time, and had Mardin accompany him to give Dylan and his friend a pounding. Though the area was deserted at the time, Mardin worriedly told his boss that they shouldn't be doing this since the Safe House leaders might come after them. Zeke didn't care, and preached that no matter what the higher-up students might say, a low-tier is a low-tier. But John (who actually joined Safe House) appeared quite suddenly and told them to stop. Zeke failed to change his mind, and had to leave. The nervous Mardin scurried after him.

### Escalation

Things only got stranger since then. John went on a weekend trip with his new Safe House buddies. Mardin and Zeke saw that he was still hanging out with them when they returned. Zeke tried to talk John into picking on Dylan, for old time's sake. John forbade it, and so Mardin went on living the new norm.

## Powers & Abilities

Mardin possesses an unnamed augmentation ability that grants him increased speed and strength.

## Trivia

* Even though he has powers, John was easily able to defeat him without an ability.
	+ It can be assumed that he is a lower-mid tier, since he was project partners with Hower, who is a 2.1.
* Mardin (ماردين) comes from the Syrian word for *fortress.*

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 36
2. ↑ Chapter 1
3. ↑ Chapter 82
4. ↑ Chapter 83
5. ↑ Chapter 134
6. ↑ Chapter 187
7. ↑ Chapter 200
8. ↑ Chapter 235
9. ↑ Chapter 242
10. ↑ Chapter 268