Real Name: Neal Shaara
Affiliation: (X-Treme) X-Men Previous Affiliations: X-MenRelatives: Parents (unnamed), Sanjit (brother, deceased)
Powers: The ability to turn his body into solar plasma, and/or to generate heat and plasma from almost any part of his body. Neal Shaara comes from an affluent family in Bangladesh. His father is the local chief of police. Last year, when his brother Sanjit, a journalist, disappeared, Neal took it upon himself to find him. Neal was shadowed by his father's best detective Karima, and the two began a realtionship after Karima revealed herself to save him. They were eventually captured by
Bastion, who planned to turn them into
Prime Sentinels, as he had already done to Sanjit. The shock of the procedure activated Neal's latent powers. Sanjit fought his programming long enough to disable the other Sentinels, but was fatally wounded. Karima also told Neal to leave her, as she had already been transformed into an Omega-class unit, and could not hold off her transformation for long. Lost and alone, and scared to death of his powers, Neal contacted
Moira MacTaggert, an old friend of his family's and soon came to
Muir Island, where he met and joined the X-Men early in the six months between the High Evolutionary's cancellation of all mutant powers and the first attack of the
Neo. He is a university graduate, who is having trouble dealing with the prejudices about mutants, and so believes whole-heartedly in
Xavier's dream of racial integration. He is also having difficulty controlling his powers, and hesitates in battle, making him a liability to the team at times. Recently, his teammate
Psylocke began flirting with him, leading to her break-up with
Archangel. Shortly thereafter, Neal joined other members of the X-Men on a secret mission to find the lost Books of Truth, prophecies written by the precog
Destiny. He and Psylocke continued to explore both their relationship and their powers together. As a result, Neal is now able to form simple plasma shapes, as well as "grenades" that detonate on command.
