Kord Palasz

The topic of mutants had always been hushed and avoided in the Palasz household, even though they were known from the news and acquaintances.  Despite the fact that mutants were generally an unavoidable and important aspect of life in the modern world, the young Kord recognized that the subject was taboo. In particular he learned that the word was not to be brought up around his father.  Julian quickly grew incensed at the mere mention of mutants, as if they were a constant and painful reminder to him of … something.  Like an electric shock to Kord there would be screaming and frightful expressions on his father's enraged face when mutant-kind became a topic.  In careful quieter times, Kord was able to glean from his mother that there may have been a relative on his father's side that was a particularly harmful mutant.  How distant, he never knew, because he was encouraged to drop the subject.

Unknown to Kord, his mother already suspected he may be a mutant – that it was in his blood lines.  She also considered it a prudent thing to use her free access to his medical records to alter all indications that he may have mutant traits… for his protection of course. 

Like many mutants, his powers began to manifest when he was around 12 years old. Kord’s shut-in mind desired to escape to a happier more fantastical world.  He was inspired by mutants, powers and heroics he had heard about.  One day in his room he tried to levitate a pencil on his desk using his imaginary telekinesis.  He sat a few feet away on the foot of his bed, extended his hand, and simply tried to reach out and touch his target on the blotter.  To his amazement and shock it worked! But not like he thought it would. Golden white light enveloped and then flashed outward from his hand, knocking the pencil and a nearby stapler across the room into the wall.  He ran to his mother, told her… showed her.  

The look of horror on her face terrified him in turn as she forbade him to do it ever again.  Hide it!  Especially from father… He must never, never know.  That evening she pleaded with – ordered him - to simply go to bed before his father got home. She told him to pretend he was sick.  Still shocked and frightened by the event and by his mother's reaction, he easily complied, but was left alone under his covers all night with a myriad of confusing and frightening implications he didn't understand tormenting his young mind.  The too-common image of his father's screaming visage and his mother's pale terror haunted him for years to come.

Kordelas grew up feeling quite alone – but with this came an air of independence and a practical self-reliance that he leaned upon for strength.  To counteract his feelings of shame for being a mutant blight in his family's household, he felt the constant need to atone.  This took the form of unconsciously over-compensating with his schoolwork, sports and chores, and he soon began to take on the role of the handyman about the house.  He had a knack for applying his brain to figure out how things were built and his hands to complete projects effectively.  He would lend himself out to the other apartments in the building and other residences in the neighborhood.  Kord did enjoy a sense of fulfillment resulting from helping others.

Secretly, he used his powers to assist him when he sure he was alone, thereby exercising that part of himself. It was a strange cycle that had surprisingly productive results.  He would use his abilities on regular mundane tasks, then immediately feel guilty about it.  This in turn made Kord feel he had to enact some penance – by working on another constructive project, where he would use his powers as an aid.

Kord's own feelings of pride at his accomplishments were reflected in his father, who began to share his plans for his only son.  Julian had already joined the ranks of the Purifiers, and wanted Kord to follow in his footsteps.  Throughout high school and over the summers, Kord would begin military prep programs sponsored by the Purifier movement.  He would learn protocol, weaponry, tactics, military combat, fitness and practical self-defense techniques.  Kord was particularly interested in the hand-to-hand fighting, where he explored the concept of ch’i – the mystical energy that martial artists envisioned would flow through their bodies and lend power to their striking techniques.  He was surprised to learn that beyond helping him focus his mutant powers, he could actually feel ‘extra’ ch’i in his environment and could combine it with his own personal energy to an extent.  His understanding of this aspect of the world and his powers was a pivotal step in his maturation as a mutant and his true acceptance of his nature.

Kord hoped that following his father's agenda would lead to a greater understanding and closeness with the man and maybe even eventually an approval of his mutant 'condition'. So he persevered in the program through his teens.  But Kord eventually came to realize that it was a doomed endeavor and a total farce with which he was deluding himself.

First, Kord obviously knew about the activities of the powerful mutant groups in the world through the media and was bright enough to distinguish the more honorable motives of some organizations from the more violent ones.  He began to identify with the X-Men’s cause and romanticized that one day he might have place among them.

Next, his father’s angry attitude towards mutants never lessened.  In fact it became more and more demonstrative and viscous, changing from a constant dislike to all-out hatred.  Every exclamation and curse aimed at mutants shoved a wedge in Kord’s heart more deeply.

And lastly, he was constantly exposed to the rhetoric of the Purifiers as his prep program became more religious in nature and progressively more extreme.  It was all he could do from becoming ill in their presence; secretly knowing HE was the target of their communal hatred.  These teens were being groomed and brain-washed!  He became very adept at controlling his expressions and emotions among them.  On reflection later, he realized that this was actually a great aid in the control of his own psi-powers.

When it came time for Kordelas to graduate High School, his mind was made up.  There was no way he was going to follow his father’s plan for him, but instead he eschewed the Purifiers and concentrated on the part of his life that granted him some sort of fulfillment.  He joined the nearby Carpenter’s Apprentice School.  This caused a huge schism between Kord and Julian, but Marlena was able to intercede and put out any immediate fires.

Kord trained for a few years at the Carpenter’s school, where the subject matter came easily for him. However in the country around him, the transplantation of mutants to Mutant Control Institutes came a bit too close to home for Kord’s liking.  Neighbors and friends were suddenly gone – to him the results of the “Safety Act” were nothing short of abduction.  Paranoia started taking root.  He’d have to be careful about using his powers and started strategizing ways he can leverage them to help him depart into more mutant-friendly parts of the country.

A number of factors caused Kord to finally decide that his fate lay elsewhere.  Constant pressure to join the Purifiers ate at the young mutant’s patience along with the unabashed disappointment from his father when he refused.  The advent of Project Trident and the deployment of the Bio-Sentinels terrified him and sealed the deal.  Life for him in Joliet would never be normal or safe.

Kord left his home in dramatic fashion.  On his 21st birthday on March 11, 2018 he decided to tell his parents about his mutation and that he was moving out.  He made sure to include his mother in the audience in order to absolve her from having to acknowledge that she already knew of his mutation. Julian shouted a litany of curses in his outrage and betrayal, stormed out and came back with a rifle aimed at his son.  Before the man could speak, Kord reflexively lashed out by projecting a narrow psi-limb down the barrel of his father’s gun.  Then just as instantly, he expanded it enough to tear the weapon apart.  Unfortunately, this caused a detonation of the ammunition and his father was knocked back through the doorway… his mother out of her seat and to the floor.

Kord didn’t remain to witness any further backlash.  He ran to his room, grabbed the supplies he had kept prepared and then hurried to the roof of the apartment building.

Using a technique he had only tried once before, he shot his psi-limbs out from the bottom of his feet as strongly as he could, and launched himself into the air.  As gravity greedily claimed his body at the top of his arc, he thrust his arms out to his sides and created long, flat fan shaped protrusions of psionic energy that allowed him to glide straight away from home.  At this point, he didn’t care if this method of flight worked or not.  Either it would, or he would plummet to his death.  Both options were acceptable.

He was able to maintain his flight, and headed South without looking back.  This was one month before the emergence of Apocalypse and fortunately for Kordelas, also before the Purifiers claimed their independence.

Over the next few years, he fell in with various mutant and human bands, judiciously using his powers or skills to make life just a little bit better for people in those places torn apart by the ensuing wars.  When asked his name, he simply called himself “Lancer”.  If he found that he didn’t agree with any particular community’s agenda, whether it was a desire for inaction, anti-mutant sentiment, or violent power grabbing by potent mutants, he would depart.  All the while he hopped his way South for he had learned that the X-Men had some sort of presence in New Orleans, and he still held on to their ideals.

Personality: Kordelas is very practical-minded, but can also let his thoughts wander into daydreams.  Outwardly he seems reclusive and a bit of a loner, but shows he needs to be part of a group in his persistent desire to help others.  He’s more the type to enjoy quietly hanging out with friends rather than going to a hopping party.  When connects with someone, he values the friendship, but he doesn’t make these connection often.  He is aloof on the outside, as if nothing bothers him, but internally he’s a worrier and deep thinker who takes words and actions to heart.  Kord is not overly fond of himself and has visceral internal reactions concerning wrongdoings against mutantkind; however, he is also sympathetic to humankind and is hopeful and optimistic for a greater balance and temperance.  He has lived firsthand through the worst human attitudes toward mutants, and often he feels he was wrong to stay as long as he did in Joliet.  Sometimes he has a reflexive defensiveness, prejudice, fear and distrust of new mutants that he has to willfully suppress. 

Special Notes: Play By – Ben Lloyd-Hughes