Ifrit

HistoryDaniel was born in 1978 in a small town in southern Ireland. His father was a banker, and his mother a shipping clerk. He has three younger brothers, David, Jacob, and Owen, and like many children he wanted to be a police officer when he grew up. He developed a protective instinct, as his parents both worked and he often took care of his younger siblings. The oldest of them, David, was sickly and weak, and was often picked on by older boys. As it turned out, David was a GeneX. He had a need to absorb energy to feed on, and he wasn't getting his fill. As he grew up, lights would flicker off when he entered a room or candles would go out. By the time Daniel was 14, and David 11, the younger boy had developed a reputation as a freak or a demon... A reputation that lead to violence one afternoon after sunday school. A gorup of older teenagers surrounded David, forcing Daniel from the church, chanting "stone the demon boy." Daniel ran for help, finding a police officer. The policeman, though, ignored Daniel's pleading and crying, saying that they could "burn the unholy bastard" for all he cared. Enraged, disillusioned, Daniel ran abck to help his brother himself any way he could. As he approached the church, though, he could hear his brother's cries for mercy and the sound of rocks clattering across the floor. In his anger, his powers manifested, and suddenly glowing crimson flame was incinerating the church doors. The teenagers, seeing him, screamed and ran from the building, but in his rage Daniel couldn't control his powers. The church burned downa round him. While Daniel himself was unharmed, David was nearly crushed and suffocated by debris. Daniel changed that day. He lost faith in human institutions of justice, religious or governmental, and his guilt over his brother's injuries convinced him that the most improtant thing in life is protecting yourself and your family. The only justice there is is the justice you make. When Cass Hamilton, some months later, offered to help cure his brother and give him a place on a team where he could help the helpless, he jumped at it. Thus, he joined the Strikers. Some time later, his brother was abducted along with the rest of the Strikers by Doctor Death. Though Daniel mounted a succesuflr escue with many other Strikers reserves, David was lost in the conflict. The incident made him question his personal responsibilities, and his place on the team. When he met, and eventually married, Elizabeth Maria Alario, Stingray, his question was answered, and they left the team together. Though he returned briefly after Bryan Powel's similarly brief death, he was not again a permanent member of the team until the Russian Gene-X revolt.

Abilities Daniel has an enhanced metabolism which enables him to gain far more energy than normal from his food, and run this energy through his nervous system to every cell in his body, producing a variety of effects. The basic summary of his abilities is the creation, absorption, and expulsion of light and heat, generally in the form of fire. Daniel's most basic power is the ability to polarize the energy in his body, attracting and absorbing light and heat into his reserves. Between this and his ability to garner energy from his food, he is immune to most temperature extremes, except when on the verge of starvation. Similarly, his metabolism burns material so compeltely that he is immune to all but the quickest-acting poisons, though this does mean that he needs to eat far more food than the average person, or risk malnutrition. His powers can be supplemented, though, by consuming particularly flammable substances, such as alcohol. Due to its travel through his nervous system, Daniel's expulsion of energy can take several forms, depending on his emotional state at the time. Under normal, calm and content circumstances, he can create a "virtual flame" (i.e. a flame-like manifestation of light and heat that does not actually consume matter) in colors of red, orange, or yellow and temperatures sufficient to melt tempered steel, and project it from his body as an ambience or in directed waves, allowing him to propel himself like a living jet engine. When angered, however, his flame becomes redder and far less controllable. When happy, the flames become unnaturally cool, merely a warm, colorful radiance. When sad, they burn white hot and turn an icey blue, but refuse to move more than an inch from his body. When in pain, they turn jet black and suck all heat from anything they touch. When afraid, they turn a bright yellow and form a protective halo close around him. Daniel has little control over these states, though in some cases they can neutralize each other. (For example, the uncontrollable rage cooled by a certain amount of cold pain.)

Personality Daniel is a very passionate person; when he feels something, he takes it to an almost obsessive extreme. He has a very strong sense of justice, but has been jaded in his past by his experiences with his brother and as a Striker. He rejects society's ideas of justice, because they're corrupt and flawed. On some level, he believes you have to look out for you and yours because no one else will, and so he is very protective of his close family and friends. On a larger scale, though, he knows that not everyone has the power he does to set things right and protect themselves, which is why he is drawn back to being a hero. Still, he doesn't necessarilly like it very much, and the constant injustice he sees makes him very upset.