Scylla

Scylla is a very abrasive person. They enjoy antagonizing people because they know not many people can or will fight them. No one ever misgenders them more than once, because people who do end up with broken ribs. Even when not picking fights on purpose, they're straightforward to the point of bluntness. They will call people out if they think they're being stupid.

They act selfish, but when it comes down to it, they will do things for other people at their own expense. If anyone points this out, however, they'll deny it. They're very nice to kids, and are especially protective of Wit.

Setting

Just a disclaimer: this whole section is unnecessarily long, but I got excited typing this all out. Feel free to skip this, if you want.

In this story, the government has found a way to give special superhuman abilities to children. They do this by genetically modifying them at a young age with altered animal genes. They started a federal organization: the Metagenome Agency (also known as the Hero Program or the Super Service). The agency takes the best and the brightest applicants from around the country, gives them powers, and trains them to be heroes. It's entirely voluntary to apply and join, but once you're genetically modified, you can't leave, and your parents can't get you back. Parents are willing to let their kids apply for a variety of reasons, but the most common ones are optimism (they'll change the world!), prestige (their kids will be famous and so will they), and money (the government gives families a pretty sizable "allowance" for essentially giving up their kids). They are allowed holiday visits, though.

Kids apply at around age 7, and go through lots of testing (mental, physical, etc). Around 200 kids are chosen to begin school/training at age 8. They pick more children than they technically need to foster competitiveness and also just in case something happens to one of them. At age 11, 25 kids per location are chosen to actually get powers. The extra ones are sent home, and legal rights return to the parents. The chosen kids get powers in January and spent about a year recovering (genetic rewiring is a long and painful process, although they're so drugged up none of them remember it). From then on, they go through training for how to use their powers until they're an adult. Then, they're assigned to a hero agency around the country and given assignments with a lot of supervison.

Backstory

Scylla was chosen for the program at age 8, when their parents saw how smart their kid was and put in an application for them. They were an enthusiastic, hardworking kid who had big ambitions. They met Dette, another trainee, on the first day and immediately became best friends. They were so excited when they both were chosen to get powers and be real heroes at 11. They said goodbye to her, both kids excited to see what powers the other got.

They got genes from a Peacock Mantis Shrimp. The main abilities were the incredibly superfast punch and being able to see extra colors beyond visible light, but cosmetically they also got the colorful antennae and pink eyes. It freaked them out a bit, but they wanted to be a hero. The next time they visited home, everything went wrong, though. Scylla's parents had not realized they couldn't just take their kid back, and they'd mostly put them in the program because they wanted a superpowered kid. They tried to take Scylla back, and the government did not let them. This did not end well for their parents, who ended up dying in the ensuing fight. Scylla flipped out. Turns out, a scared 11 year old with superpowers can do a lot of damage, and they killed several of the government agents before running away.

They stowed away on a train and threw themself off it when they thought they were going to get caught, dragging their way to a nearby farm in the middle of nowhere and passing out in the barn. When they woke up, they were in a warm bed in a house. Obviously they freaked out, but the man who lived there, Eli, said he wasn't going to turn them in and if they were scared, they could stay as long as they wanted. Scylla decided to stay there forever.

Eli was a very no nonsense guy, and handled Scylla's angry, traumatized teenage years really well. When they realized they were nonbinary, Eli bought them a baby names book as a gift so they could pick a new one. He also made them take online school. They were incredibly smart, so he just signed up for online community college classes under his name, and Scylla completed them on the crappy desktop. It was a good life.

Unfortunately, the Metagenome Agency found them eventually when Scylla was 17, and several government agents ended up killing Eli for "kidnapping". Scylla wouldn't let them take them in and fought them. They killed a lot of them and left the last injured, then ran again. The jean jacket they're always wearing used to be Eli's, and they almost never take it off now.

Somehow, Epsilon (a gang that claims to want to take down the hero agency) heard about them. When Scylla was about 20, the gang tracked them down and contacted them, so they joined. They didn't trust Epsilon's motives, but it was their best shot at revenge.

Current Events

After joining Epsilon, Scylla met Carmine, another genetically modified person (he has wings). Their personalities clash a lot, so they hated each other at first. During a mission, Scylla and Carmine were interupted by two heroes- a man named Attor (snake genetics) and Dette. Scylla was pretty blindsided by seeing Dette again, but could tell that Dette was 100% committed to the program she'd been in her whole life. Childhood friends to enemies!

Epsilon heard of a kid nearby who had been selected to join the program- Whittaker Anderson, an almost 8 year old. His parents were throwing him a gala party to celebrate him being chosen. Epsilon tasked Carmine and Scylla with kidnapping Whittaker to keep him out of the program. Dette and Attor tried to stop them, but Carmine flirted with Attor and Scylla antagonized Dette enough that they got away. Whittaker, who they nicknamed Wit for his smart mouth, actually liked Scylla and Carmine more than his parents (who cared more about their social standing than him).

Dette and Attor, from the hero program, kept trying to get Wit back and stop Scylla and Carmine. They failed very consistently, Scylla and Carmine always staying one step ahead. Eventually, Epsilon tried to give Wit powers as well with stolen equipment, but Carmine and Scylla refused to let them. They actually called the heroes to help them fight Epsilon and save Wit from them. The heroes helped, but Carmine and Scylla got away with Wit again and holed up in Carmine's house.

Scylla and Dette started to have a little bit of a thing going on. They have feelings for each other, but they're on opposite sides, so there's a lot of complications with that obviously. Scylla tried to convince Dette that the hero program is evil, Dette doesn't belive it and tries to get Scylla to come back. After Attor switched sides (had a gay crisis and realized he liked Carmine after all the flirting), Dette was convinced everyone else manipulated her the whole time, and is now firmly against them, trying to hunt them all down and bring them to "justice" at whatever cost.

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