Capeworld Comics

“Oh John, it’s so good to see you again. I swear, the world just keeps getting stranger and stranger. It scares me sometimes. I turn on the television and I see people talking about alien planets and telepathic dimensions and I just can’t understand a bit of it. It’s so good to see you again. You hardly change at all, John.”

 

–Marshal King

 

“Sometimes…sometimes I want to rip the mask off and show him my real face. I want to tell him that I’m not his son, that I was never his son. I want to tell him to let me go…C-Can we stop right now Dr. Colt? I-I don’t want to talk about this anymore…”

 

–Songbird

 

Name:

 

John King

 

Note that John’s name is on the secret identity list, so don’t go blabbing it in public. Always call him by his supername.

 

Supername:

 

Songbird

 

John would like to go by the legacy of his father Freedom Banner, but circumstances being what they are, he sticks to simply copying the look. John’s supername Songbird comes from two things–his love of flying which caused him to join Flight Club, and the twwweeeeettt noise his powers make. Bending space can cause air to expand or contract suddenly and violently. This can create ultrasonic booms, but John is skilled enough with his powers that he can dilute the force so that instead of ultrasonic booms, he makes ultrasonic tweets.

 

Average Grade:

 

A+

 

John throws himself into his studies as an escape from his home life.

 

Emergency Response Class:

 

3

 

John wants to be a superhero, and he works tirelessly to make it happen. He’s one of the most promising young superheroes at Martin’s and is one of the few ERC 3 kids to try his hand at ERC 4 simulations. We can’t give him an ERC 4 certification, as a school we simply aren’t empowered to do that, but he’s probably going to get it within seconds of graduating.

 

Personalized Curriculum:

 

Telekinetic Development, Flight Club, Identity Balancing, Emergency Response With A Focus in Superman Combat

 

Naturally, John doesn’t possess any superpowers. He’s a simple Primus model artificial. His telekinetic might stems from intense study and gradual upgrades that culminated with a spatial engine wired to his brainheart that allows him to control the very fabric of space with his mind. He continues to study and improve his spatial telekinesis gradually taking on more power and more responsibility.

 

John is heavily involved with Flight Club. His life is a stressful and dramatic one, and Flight Club gives John the chance to unwind and relax among the clouds. He loves flying because its something he can do entirely for himself. He can just dart off into the air and find a world where he’s alone among miles of clouds.

 

Identity Balancing is a critical class for any student that wants to follow the superhuman tradition of secret identities. For a student who relies on a secret identity to care for a loved one Identity Balancing is even more important.

 

Emergency Response with a Focus in Superhuman Combat is the classic superhero-in-training class, so no surprise John is in it. John seeks to be a superhero for several reasons. One is that the superhero lifestyle is liberatingly different from his home life. His home life is one of stagnation, of having the same conversations with the same man. But as a superhero, he’s constantly pushing himself and bettering himself. He’s always better than the John of yesterday. As a superhero, he makes things change, and always for the better. That’s very appealing to a boy who doesn’t dare talk too much about the present with his father lest he confuse him.

 

Another reason is that his father was a superhero a long time ago, and in being a superhero himself he is able to connect with that buried part of his father. He is able to connect with things he doesn’t often see in the sleepy eyes that greet him at home–courage, confidence, and progression.

 

Contact Education:

 

McMartin Rehabilitation Center, AKA The Sandcastle

 

While the modern penal system of the United States is focused on rehabilitation with open-air “villages” managed by interconnected systems of forcefields, “traditional style” prisons still exist for the most dangerous and powerful criminals. One such prison is the McMartin Rehabilitation Center off the shore of Joyous Harbor. The McMartin Rehabilitation Center is staffed by Thule, most of whom are members of the Fishermen. They use their natural telekinesis to manipulate the sandy walls of the center to open and close cells. Supercriminals that rely on manipulating their environment have nothing to work with besides flowing sand that resists them at every turn, whish is why McMartin is called the Sandcastle.

 

John’s telekinesis allows him to to fit in with the Thule as a guard. He enjoys the job and views it was being very similar to the job he has at home. John cares for an irrational man at home, and at McMartin cares for irrational men. His father has his schedule and his routines, and so do the inmates. John is responsible for maintaining his father’s environment and keeping him away from anything that could confuse or upset him (photite holograms, for instance, since he associates them with communication systems during the war) and John is responsible for maintaining the inmates’ environment and keeping them away from anything that could upset others (contraband, knives, bombs, laser guns…).

 

And, if we’re being completely honest here, both his father and the inmates do not have John’s best interests at heart, and he takes care of them regardless.

 

Is it any surprise John gravitated towards prison work when he’s programmed to take care of someone that hurts him, even if unintentionally?

 

Hyperstasis:

 

Spatial Manipulation Via Installed Engine.

 

As a Primus model artificial, John King was created for his father Marshal King, the superhero Freedom Banner, who lost his family to the Axis assassin Red Water. After hearing that his wife and youngest son were dead, Marshal’s mind snapped. He became near-catatonic. His therapists recommended the creation of an artificial. He did not hear that his eldest son John had died as well. He would believe that John was alive if he could only see him.

 

And he did see him, and he did believe.

 

John King spent decades caring for his father at Cartertown, a quiet community near Joyous Harbor named for the Worlds War hero Bruce Carter, the Fighting Yank. Cartertown cared for those that could not care for themselves after the war in an idyllic small town setting. Many superhumans like Marshal King were harmed in ways physically and mentally that required professional care. John King feels blessed that he can provide his father both professional care and familial love.

 

Marshal King is only dimly aware of the passage of time. He knows the war ended. He knows that John is a young man now. Sometimes, he asks John if he’s ever going to find a nice girl and stop spending so much time with an old soldier like himself. John does seem to be growing up fast. But he knows it’s okay. It is, after all, only a few years after the war.

 

Sometimes, he has a nagging feeling that something is out of place. But he can never figure out what. He figures that it’s just part of getting older. He’s glad he’s not too old. He doesn’t even have wrinkles yet (because of rejuvenation treatments). It is, after all, only a few years after the war.

 

John loves his father, and not just because he was programmed with empathy. He respects his father for the sacrifices he’s made and the suffering he’s endured.

 

But he cannot be John King forever.

 

He has thoughts and feelings all his own just as strong as any human. He has dreams and longings.

 

And he cannot continue to talk about the same things to the same man in the same house trapped in the same year.

 

He cannot be John King forever.

 

Thus, John took up the classic burden of the superhuman with a secret identity, which anthropologist Dr. Stone called ‘the challenge of duty” in his 1933 book Princes of Dawn. Sometimes, he is John King visiting with his father and fishing with him out of the lake behind his old house. But other times, he is Songbird, star student at Martin’s learning all he can to protect others as helpless as his father.

 

His father doesn’t know. John is afraid it would confuse him terribly to know.

 

John threw himself into his studies, and after a few years he demonstrated enough competence in his telekinetic mastery class to be trusted with a spatial engine installed in his chest and wired to his tachyon brainheart.

 

With a thought, he can bend space. Energy blasts and laser beams curve around him and those he protects. He can open and close worldtunnels. world splinters, and cospatial warps . He can make people punch themselves. He can be in two places at once. His powers are as diverse as they are mighty, and he intends to add to their strength as he continues his studies at Martin’s. He has no intention of stopping until he can teach the telekinetic mastery class.

 

Behavior:

 

Exemplary

 

As a student, John’s behavior is top-notch. His tireless dedication to improving and mastering his powers makes him a model of the ideal Martin’s student. But he’s not without his concerns. John’s not the most social student. He finds it embarrassing to open up to his peers about his private life and father. He also suffers from depression. He loves his father, but can’t help but feel burdened by him. Sometimes, the thought creeps into the back of his mind that things would be better off if he just died. He is deeply ashamed of his feelings and feels it makes him a bad son to have them. It’s very hard for him to talk about his relationship with his father even with his most trusted teachers.

 

He’s very interested in dating, and his teachers fear it might lead to a drop in his grades as he trades study nights for date nights. His father always wanted him to bring home a girl, and now that he’s spending more time away from him, he feels that he owes it to his father to make his wish come true.

 

Appearance:

 

When away from his father, John tries to look as different from the late John King as possible. He swaps his flesh colored skin for blue, his blue eyes for red ones, and his red hair for white. He looks very unlike a human, and that’s the entire point.

 

He honors his father by wearing the symbol of Freedom Banner–a Phrygian hat patterned off the American flag. The patriotic colors match the inhuman colors of his body, though a few students have mistaken his theme for “fantasy elf.”