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xxxxxDante Pearse is an exceptional human being. He didn't get to know his mother; he was told that she died giving birth to him. He was raised by his father, who was a Police Chief in Newark, New Jersey. He trained diligently with his father in martial arts, whenever the two of them had time. Unless his father was at work, or Dante at school, the two would spend every waking moment together. It was obvious early on that Martial Arts consumed Dante’s life, as his dedication to training often led to him slacking in other areas of life, such as his grades in school, and more often than not, his social life. His only friend growing up was his father and a few of the police officers that his father had a strong relationship. However, once he hit high school, he began to gain also a profound enjoyment from expression-based arts, such as music and theatre. These became his second outlet, as well as the only classes he truly excelled in. Though he still trained every day, he made time where appropriate to perform in a few theatre productions during the year, as well as found time to learn how to play the guitar. Naturally, he also joined his high school’s wrestling team, which placed him within a social circle of the school. Though he didn't get to see his father much during this time, he still remained closer to him than any of his other friends.
In his junior year of high school, he experienced a very strange awakening. He learned that he could tap into his body's natural flow of chi, and bend it to his will. Since this mutation awakened, he had trained it just like any art before it, and had been using it to excel in his training with his father, as well as on the wrestling team, bringing home the gold in the state championships. It was here that Pearse realized his greatest dream was to open a Dojo, where he could train and one day instruct his own variant of martial arts.
However, life has not been without hardship; as his power grew throughout the year, it became increasingly difficult to suppress it. Suspicions were quickly aroused, with most of his friends and fellow students assumed he was using steroids. This ridiculed him from his peers, and the mere suspicion of performance enhancers got him kicked off of the wrestling team. This news angered Dante, to the point where he lost his composure, and a fight broke out between him and one of the fellow students. During the scuffle, his power manifested something new; a light blue blast of concussive energy, which emanated from his hands when he thrust them forward in a push. The blast knocked the other boy off his feet, and knocked him out cold…Suddenly, the word changed from “steroids” to “mutant…” and in what seemed like an instant, all hell broke loose. He was interrogated by seemingly everyone in the town, and soon lost every relationship he ever built in his life. The only person that stood by him was his father, who had known from the start that something was special…but, as any good father would, he accepted his son as special, not as broken. But when he died of a heart attack in Dante's senior year of high school, Pearse knew that he had to get away and start again. After inheriting everything his father had, he sold it all away (save a few bags of clothing, his guitar, and his father's Harley) and set out across the country.
In the next few years, he traveled around the country living on the small fortune he made from his father’s effects, but eventually made his way back when he was 24, finding his true home in Manhattan. He spent a number of months living bohemian in a studio apartment while waiting tables to keep the cash flow going. Days off were spent training on his own, as well as lurking the alleys and helping the less fortunate where he could. Until one summer day, he was visited by a man who called himself Scott Summers. Although he could not attend the Mutant Academy due to his age, he was granted a teaching position at the school as a theatre instructor, with an open invitation to stay at the academy once his apartment lease expires…
Only a few months after his fateful meeting with the X-Man known as Cyclops, his entire world changed once more; Dante had allowed a mutant terrorist to escape his grasp, and failed to adequately protect a mother and her child. Wrought with guilt, and a strong desire to find the now orphaned child an adequate home, Dante once more left the East Coast, spending the next year travelling the country in search of the child’s extended family. Their search led Dante to the California Bay Area where, after setting the girl up with her grandparents, he resided for the next two years.
Perhaps it was nostalgia that drove him back to New York. Maybe it was just the need for another change of scenery. But nonetheless, he found himself back in the Big Apple, unsure of his future with Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, or any of the ‘friends’ he’d made upon his previous tenure. Only time will tell...
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xxxxxChi/Lifeforce Energy Manipulation, which includes:
Enhanced Condition: Even without tapping into his Chi, Dante is slightly faster, stronger, and overall physically superior to others his age and size, due to a result of his power awakening at such a young age, and training his own body to adapt to it. At his peak, he is comparable to, if not beyond, a professionally trained, Olympic-level athlete. He has incredibly tough skin and muscle, allowing him some (very slight) natural protection from harm.
Chi Manipulation- Dante can tap into his body's natural flow of life energy, and control it to his will, allowing him even further strength, speed, durability, awareness, and reflexes. Through concentration, and for a limited time, his chi can raise his peak physical condition up to four times beyond his normal limits. Dante's other Energy ability is a direct result of this power.
Energy Blasts/Beams/Bolts/Ect: Dante can release a wide variety of close-to-long ranged energy-attacks. While mostly concussive in nature, they also can singe people, leaving light burns on the point of impact at higher intensity. However, using his abilities in this manner requires a great deal of concentration, and the action of doing so fatigues him considerably. He can manipulate his chi defensively as well, creating barriers of energy or auras of flame around his body. He is able to direct his chi inward, allowing him to heal slightly faster than a normal human; he has been able to heal completely from a major broken bone in about four and a half weeks, as well as a deep laceration in just under a week.
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