Duncan Nielson [KAOS]

Power Index: Alter the atomic structure of things/people and himself (i.e. solid, liquid, gas).  Requires concentration to shift; if his concentration is broken/disrupted, he can’t.

Family: Delaney Nielson [ex-wife] | Nikki Nielson [second wife] | Jesse Nielson [son; twin], Jenna Nielson [daughter; twin], Camila Nielson [daughter]

Background: Duncan was the typical popular kid in high school, a star quarterback dating the captain of the cheerleading team, Delaney.  They were nearly inseparable inside and outside of school, and it was inevitable that they would get married, which they did a few months after their graduation.  The two quickly realized that they jumped into getting married too soon, and that they weren’t prepared to raise a family so fast when they found out Delaney was pregnant with twins, which set their lives on a fastrack.  The Nielsons were still very much in love by the time the twins were nine, but finances were putting a strain on the whole family due to The Recession and both of them having pay cuts.  They were living in an apartment with no prospects of going anywhere, Delaney working at a department store instead of going into cosmetology, Duncan out of shape and working two jobs in security.  Still, they were glad to have each other and the kids.

Things came to a head when they went to their high school reunion and Duncan ran into an old—shady—high school friend, Trevor Hoskins, who gave him some information on jobs he could help him with if he needed the money.  Duncan blew Trevor off at first, taking the man’s contact information only to get him to leave him alone, but wound up calling him later that night when he and Delaney were called by the babysitter and informed that Jesse suffered a ruptured appendix and had to be hospitalized.  The jobs turned out to be robberies of warehouses around the area that went well for several months and helped the Nielson family get back on their collective feet.  Eventually, Trevor had Duncan use his security credentials at one of the places he worked at to get him and the others in to pull a job.  It wasn’t until the alarms went off a few minutes into the heist that Duncan and the others realized they’d been set up, Trevor fleeing with the goods and the building going on lockdown.  In a panicked attempt to escape when the police unlocked the building, Duncan got into a fistfight with one of the officers before getting arrested.  He’s sentenced to five years for the accumulated crimes.  When he’s able to talk with Delaney, she’s frustrated and embarrassed.  She would have preferred they work things out together instead of him going behind her back.  

By the time he gets out Delaney is ready to move on; she’s disconcerted by what her husband did and how that affected her and the twins; she doesn’t see them patching things up and divorces him two weeks later.  Duncan is understandably depressed after Delaney leaves, getting into loud arguments with Jesse who is quick to blame him for their mother leaving.  Jenna, on the other hand, is more understanding, but hides away when the shouting matches start.  Once Duncan lands a job, he’s stuck with night shifts.  He also has to deal with Jenna dating too when she gets involved with Johnny Fenton, a rich kid from her high school who needs an attitude adjustment since the boy has a problem with authority figures.  It isn’t until a couple months later that an old flame from high school, Cat Sherman, shows up at one of the bars Duncan finds himself at after work. She acts like it’s purely coincidence, but she’s actually there to recruit him to a superhuman crime ring.  She’s enigmatic about the details of the job she tells him, but says it pays well and he’s welcome to use his “special abilities” for it; she was one of the few people who knew about his powers in high school. Duncan is skeptical seeing how the last odd job went, but agrees after Cat assures him there’s no way he can get caught.  The job goes off better than planned, and each individual gets their big cut. The combination of the adrenaline rush and success is enough to dredge Duncan out of his slump.  A year into working with the group has been beneficial for him in more ways than he thought it’d be, such as getting back into shape and breaking unhealthy coping habits, getting into a fast-paced romance with Cat, and starting to reconnect with the twins.  

When he’s back at the top of his game, Sage tasks Duncan with a “wet” job.  This first kill doesn’t bother Duncan much at all, since Sage made it so that it was Trevor, who was encroaching on Sage’s territory and stealing from him.  It’s when he’s sent to conduct another kill that Duncan realizes this isn’t what he wants to do.  The target wasn’t even someone all that bad–the son of a crime lord that Sage wanted taken care of before he became too much of a threat; as it turned out, the young man was trying to get out of the family business.  It rattles Duncan so much that even Jenna begins to suspect that her father is holding back something.  Shortly after, Duncan goes to “tender his resignation” to Sage as Kaos.  Sage is one step ahead of him, revealing he knows the identity not only of Kaos, but of his kids, where they go to school, and where the family lives.  If Duncan threatens to step out of line, then he’ll have his people bump off a twin to make a point.  Hands tied, Duncan grudgingly agrees to stay on, taking his next assignment and storming out.  When the coast is clear, Jenna, having shrunk down to tag along, reverts to her regular size and confronts her father in the restroom at Sage’s nightclub front.  Jenna is visibly upset as Duncan tries to calm her down.  The main conundrum is that he can’t get out now that Sage knows their identities.  He tells her that he's going to figure a way to fix things, not to panic, but that things might get worse before they get better. And not to tell her brother. Things are getting better between Duncan and Jesse, but that could change depending on the tiniest circumstance, and the boy would NOT take this news well.

Duncan makes contact with some Jade’s Hall agents, cutting a deal that he’ll help them bring in some powerful superhumans at a certain place and time.  During the next big hit with the Enforcers, Duncan turns on them, aiding the Jade's Hall team and Titans with rounding up the supervillains.  He finds himself fighting alongside the twins too, going out of his way to protect them when some of the Enforcers try to level some lethal attacks at them before his former teammates are taken down.  He gives Cat a chance to slip away amid the chaos, which she does, but not before she makes it known that their relationship is over by angrily cracking one of his ribs in a scuffle. He gives himself up in the end, asks to negotiate with Arcanus and requests that his kids be put in The Institute’s custody. This upsets Director Jade since she would have liked to have housed the twins, but she DID agree to grant Duncan this request.  Duncan is given a few minutes to say his goodbyes to his kids, finally seeing Jesse lose his cool and try to stifle back tears as he admits he missed his father so much that it hurt the first time, and that he doesn’t know if he can do this again.  Duncan reassures Jesse that he’s strong and given what he’s seen the boy is capable of, he’ll bounce back, and they won’t be separated as long  Duncan isn’t given special treatment of any sort while at Jade’s Hall and has to see some of his former teammates on a daily basis, the more vengeful ones threatening to kill him given the chance; he sometimes snaps back violently when they push him too far, earning him time in solitary.

Nikki, one of the members of the Titans/The Simmons Institute, volunteers to take the twins to see Duncan when he's allowed visits at Jade's Hall, and gets to enjoy having an awkward conversation with him when he clumsily apologizes for the many situations when he fought her and the Titans in the past.  The two seem to hit it off during the visits.  While in rehabilitation, The Simmons Institute is able to work things so that Duncan can be transferred to their grounds, sort of like being under house arrest for a time.  Duncan finds that it's easier for him to talk with Nikki since she knows where he's coming from, both having been driven by revenge and the fallout of that.  They try to keep their relationship quiet at first and finally formally inform Jenna and Jesse of what’s going on so that they're not left in the dark. The twins, having gotten to know Nikki, are okay with it, and actually eager to see how things progress. They don't have to wait long since Nikki becomes Nikki Nielson a year and a half later, making her their new stepmom.

Personality:

• Has an immensely long fuse, but when it blows, people better run (or duck).  Threatening his family is a sure-fire way to get beat up or killed; he tries not to kill anymore, but can and will resort to lethal measures when his family’s or teammates’ lives are on the line.
• Doesn’t like to see loved ones worry so he often resorts to lying to them so that they can retain their peace of mind, then gets upset when they do the same thing to him
• Will lash out verbally when stressed then regret what he says later
• Comes off as a meathead but he’s pretty clever and is often underestimated because of that
• Lives by “speak softly and carry a big stick”
• Loves to see his kids succeed and do what they love; typical overenthusiastic/embarrassing parent at Jesse’s games and Jenna’s recitals
• Enjoys watching football and passing the ball with Jesse
• Can’t bring himself to scold Jenna (and eventually Camila) because they’ve both got sweet personalities and his girls would never do anything wrong.  Ever.
• Tries to give people a second chance since he was offered one after making so many mistakes in his life, it wouldn’t be fair to label them as failures like others did with him
• Has SO MUCH regret and negative self-talk he has to learn to get out of
• Secretly likes watching telenovelas (Nikki got him hooked) but he’d never admit it

Goals: Keep his family together, make up for his past mistakes and not fall into bad habits that would lead him down a villain path again.