Max Castaneda

Maximiliano Francisco Castaneda

Code-Name: Frost

Nickname: He insists that you just call him Max

Position: X-Men (Reserve)

Ethnicity: First-generation Mexican-American

Sex: Male

Age: 21

Appearance:

    Hair: Black

    Eyes: Dark Brown

    Skin: Max’s skin is naturally tanned, but isn’t nearly as dark as some. It is also constantly covered in a light layer of snow and ice when he doesn’t wear his bracelet.

    Weight: 175 lbs

    Height: 5’10”

Other: Max is in shape, to say the least. Through years of training and practice, his body has had to endure more than most his age and the results show just that. After all, chucking giant blocks of ice is gonna build some muscle over time. As Max prefers the cold breeze and frigid temperatures rarely affect him, he can often be seen walking around in little to no clothing - preferring to wear a pair of shorts and walk around barefoot when he can.

Date Of Birth: May 5th, 1999

Place Of Birth: Phoenix, Arizona

Education: “Home-schooled” by some very nice scientists.

Mother: Unknown

Father: Unknown

Other Relatives: Unknown

Powers: Max naturally produces and can control ice. When he steps into a room, the temperature tends to drop anywhere from 10 to 50 degrees. He’s been taught to hone this skill to the point where he can purposely cover an entire room in ice, produce ice from his hands and shape it however he pleases. He can shoot ice as projectiles or simply have it cover whatever surface he chooses. He also has perfect acclimation to cold environments, able to walk perfectly on ice and doesn’t get cold like others do. He’s also learned to cover his body in ice and use it like armor as well as slide around like his ‘predecessor’ Iceman. But his body does not turn into ice like it did

with Bobby. He just covers himself in it.

Power Limitations: Max’s powers have an area effect when not wearing a bracelet that was made specifically to inhibit his abilities. He is almost always cold to the touch, and when he loses focus anything he touches will almost immediately turn to ice. If he gets too hot or dehydrated - like in really warm and dry conditions, he can very likely pass out if he doesn’t do something about it. Also, if he wears the inhibitor bracelet, his powers are almost non-existent and tend to build up. After a while, he’ll eventually have an outburst and cause a “cold snap” where he’ll turn everything around him to ice in one huge burst. During a cold snap, its generally not enough to do any permanent damage to the people around him but they may very well get covered in a thin layer of frost. The damage tends to range from uncomfortable to painful, very rarely lethal. Max can usually tell when this is coming and tries to get out into open spaces because of that. If he were stuck in an enclosed space for days on end, wearing the bracelet though, its possible that he could seriously hurt some people. Bad times for all.

While Max shares some similarities to Iceman in how he uses his powers, his ice is not organic and he cannot become ice like Bobby used to. Max's ice armor, for instance, it can't be too thick or he'll lose all mobility and get stuck. While he can make the ice as thick as he'd want, eventually he'd just be one big block and he'd probably buckle under the weight. It’s usually just enough to help soften the blow of blunt force trauma and fall damage. Its thick, but a sharp enough knife could get through if he stood still for long enough.

Hobbies and Interests: Max is a thrill seeker in every sense of the word. From building his own skate ramps out of ice to jump off of to picking fights with wannabe thugs, he’ll do whatever gets his adrenaline pumping. He isn’t one to sit still or flop onto the couch and watch TV with one exception. He loves the hell out of old school kung fu movies, even if his formal training in hand to hand combat is fairly limited. He can hold his own in a fight, but only because he fights dirty.

Background: If you were to ask the scientists who ran the top secret laboratory that Max spent the majority of his life in (and had the security clearance), they would tell you that Subject 274-F was born through artificial insemination of an artificial womb and raised in the lab with the rest of the lab subjects there. They would inform you of the painstaking efforts they took to identify the subjects with the tell-tale mutagene and how - through rigorous and yet painless testing, they managed to unlock the potential mutation within Test Subject 274-F; designated Project Frost due to the nature of the subject’s mutation. They would continue to elaborate on the successful testing in training the test subject on how to control said powers and fully unlock the mutagene to its greatest known potential.Max, however, would like to point you to the nicely lathered-on layer of bullshit over their little stories. Maximiliano doesn’t remember much of his life before the labs. He remembers the sound of his mother’s voice, the feeling of his father’s strong arms wrapped around him as he was lulled to sleep. He remembers birthday parties and christmases all in a vague blur. But the memories are there, as fuzzy as they may be and Max isn’t gonna let them go. Ever. What Max does remember clearly, after having his memory wiped by the nice men and women in the white coats is the sensation of extreme pain. Over and over again as the doctors hit the seven year old boy with more needles than one would think possible. They did everything they could to evoke from him a mutation, from drug therapy to electric treatments, no stone was left unturned for six months. Every morning he would wake up, get dragged out of his padded room and taken down to the operating room where they would test him again and again and again, no matter how much he cried out in pain. Then he’d get to have lunch and dinner with the rest of the ‘subjects’, then back to experimentation before giving him a heavy sedative before sending him to his room for the night.

After months of no result, the lead scientist agitated, they decided him a failed experiment. Order were given for a termination. In the middle of the night, the men in black came for him, to take him away. Scared to death, Max fought back as they jostled him awake, trying to drag away the young seven year old. And in a flash of bright white and freezing cold, the entire room was turned to ice - including everyone in it. Everyone but Max. In an accidental turn of events, Max had awoken his own gifts and thought that maybe - just maybe, they’d let

him go now.

He couldn’t be more wrong.

With his newfound powers unlocked, the experimentation doubled, every day was filled with testing the young boy to his limits. What kind of ice could he create? How could he shape it? How far could he fire a projectile ice structure? What vulnerabilities would a man of ice have? Any question one could have about a mutant’s powers, they asked of Max. And when they found those limits, they pushed them through extreme training, putting Max in extreme situations. Ones that he scarcely thought he would survive.

The punishment continued for over a decade. Each day was a new challenge. A new life threatening situation he had to fight his way out of. But unbeknownst to his overlords - Max kind of liked it. The thrill of coming out alive after facing down two Sentinels set to kill. The rush of being in a room over 120 degrees Fahrenheit and being forced to build an ice structure to get yourself out. Each test was a challenge and Max wouldn’t give up.

But others weren’t so lucky. Some of the other experiment subjects burnt out. Died in the process of one test or another. Or they simply cracked.

When Max first met Mercer, the older mutant was...whole, for lack of a better word. He was kind to Max when most others didn’t want to sit next to the kid who turned your cereal into ice cream without even trying, but the technopath didn’t seem to think much of it and they became quick friends. Over the years, they’d watch each other backs. If someone tried to bully Mercer, Max would show them what it meant to try and hurt one of his friends. With due diligence. Meanwhile, Mercer would see to it that the cameras would turn a blind eye on Max from time to time when he went digging around to find out more about these vague memories he’d had. That was when he went from Subject Frost to Maximiliano Francesco Castaneda. His file was almost entirely redacted. But there were a few pieces of info and they were enough for Max. He was born in Phoenix. He had a real name. He had a birthday. And he had been kidnapped at the age of 7 years old.

The next time his birthday rolled around Mercer surprised Max with a gift - a bracelet made to help counteract his abilities and allow him to seem “normal”. It didn’t, however, come without its risks. The first amongst them was the fact that this restricted his access to his powers altogether. And while easy to slip the bracelet on and off, it

took some time to “warm up” inbetween having it on or off. The second was that if he wore it for too long, his powers would build up like a plugged up drain and he’d snap - his powers uncontrollably forcing their way out of him, bracelet or no.

As the years passed, Mercer became increasingly distant. Once a kind and compassionate man, the technopath seemed to get lost in thought more and more often, losing himself in the gadget that presided at the base of his neck. Some days it was just that he seemed vacant. Others, it was like he was an entirely different person. Like the experiments they had performed on Mercer had replaced who he was entirely. It became clear to Max that he had to do something to get Mercer free of this place. They needed to escape and get that damn thing off of Mercer’s neck.

Taking advantage of the times that Mercer was still lucid and more himself, the pair planned an escape. They had gotten it all down to at. Guard shifts, their usual routes and how to avoid them, passcodes to locked doors. It was all set in place and - one fateful night, Max froze off the lock on his door and set the plan into motion.

He ran down the halls to his friend’s room and got him out with another frozen lock and the two set about getting the hell out of the lab. With a mix of stealth, quick thinking, and a few well-placed blows to the back of a guard’s heads and they were at the secure elevator that led up and out of the facility.

What they hadn’t accounted for was the dozen guards and the lead scientist waiting at the top of the elevator. Refusing to get taken back down, Max immediately began shooting sheets of ice at the guards and managed to take down more than a handful when suddenly - inexplicably, Mercer stood absolutely still in the middle of the

fight.

He didn’t respond to Max calling out his name. His pupils dilated and he just stood there. Like a puppet. Max could see the lead scientist, laptop in hand, and the connection was made almost immediately. As the guards recollected themselves, Max did the only thing he could think of doing. He built a block of ice around one fist and swung at Mercer’s gadget. Before any questions could be asked, Max threw himself at the guards and yelled for Mercer to run. He knew there’d be cards outside. That Mercer could get away. But he’d have to stay behind. And so he did.

Max fought for what felt like hours, drained completely of energy when he finally dropped to his knees. Mercer had gotten away. Of that he was certain. When he awoke again, he was in a locked room that sat somewhere above a nice 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Sweating, dizzy and on the verge of passing out, he spent two weeks in that room, getting just enough food and water to survive.

They had hoped to break his spirit. To get him to give up information he didn’t know - where Mercer had went to, but they got nothing out of him and eventually put him back in with the rest of the population. That would prove to be their undoing. Over the next few months, Max used his story of his daring near escape as well as a general capacity for public speaking to garner a crowd. Which turned into a following. Which quickly became a mob.

One month later there was a revolt the likes of which the scientists had never seen. Genetically modified and natural born mutants alike struck out at their respective handlers and attacked without restraint. It was a prison break and, at the end of the day, Max and his people broke free.

Not everyone escaped, of course, and not every patient even participated, but when all was said and done, Max led a dozen mutants out of the science lab that day and to the nearest city. Over the next week or so, the group split off, went their separate ways and Max was glad for it. He felt the need to keep moving. To find others that

needed his help. And he couldn’t do that with a group so large. After years of being under constant supervision, he was alone for the first time and he’d never felt more free.

Max started small - stopping groups of thugs picking on mutants who couldn’t defend themselves, would-be muggers trying to grab a woman’s purse. And in the cold of the winter in New York, no one thought any wiser unless he used his powers, which he did his best to be subtle about.

As one activity led to another, he traveled from city to city - town to town, and he ended up in Boston, where he’d heard about a bunch of mutants being packed up and sold off to some slavers. Almost all of which were being done so against their will. Max found out through “persuading” one of the slavers where the drop would take place and attacked with full-force, not afraid to show who he truly was in that moment.

He fought off half a dozen slavers and, in the process, saved dozens of mutants from being sold and shipped off to god-knows-where. In the process, Max saved one particular mutant - Tate, whose boyfriend had lied to him and told them they were going on a trip just to sell him into slavery. Max felt sorry for the shy and unassuming boy who had nowhere to go and decided to bring him along with him.

The pair quickly became close friends and began travelling together. Tate’s force field manipulation abilities saved Max’s hide more than once and Max helped Tate train his abilities, refining them and keeping them in check.

After a run-in with local law enforcement in Chicago, the pair decided it time that they lay low for a while and have settled in to Black Hawk, renting a small two-bedroom apartment. Max works in a meat-packing warehouse in town - which is perfect for a man that constantly runs at freezer temperatures anyway and they are keeping

their heads down. For now.

Personality: Max has the kind of infectious personality that others around him can't help but laugh and smile along with him. He's a natural leader, but its rarely ever used to bring people into something good - almost only trouble. Despite the rough life he's been through and the hardships that followed, he has managed to keep a positive outlook on life. Ever the adventure seeker, he's the first to volunteer to do something dangerous or stupid. But beneath the adrenaline junkie is someone who struggles to do what's right. He doesn't always recognize right from wrong, but he hates seeing others get hurt and often throws himself in danger's path because of it. For better or worse.

Special Notes: Max is fluent in Spanish and has been for as long as he can remember.

Play-by Model: Alex Meraz