Chi Ling Kwan

Chi Ling Kwan is a character in the Legion of Lawndale Heroes shared-world series created by Roentgen. A Cadet First Class at the United States Academy of Extranormal Studies at Evansville, Indiana, Chi Ling is a psi-active cadet in the Mental Enhancement Program (although she also spends much time with the Enhanced Lifeform and Medical Sciences Program).

Background:

Chi Ling is a young woman of Taiwanese-American descent was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois. She is the daughter of a mother (who works as a teacher in the local school district; she also has low-level mystic abilities and was open with using them in her home, but taught the children to be quiet about it) and a father who works as a nurse practitioner for a private practice (that actually deals with metahumans in a clandestine fashion to preserve their privacy and safety). Chi Ling is the oldest of five children; she has three sisters and a brother. An excellent student and voracious reader even as a child, Chi Ling was also always interested in the outdoors as well, and even as a cadet, has maintained her connections with the Girl Scouts of America and has been very active in the organization. (This has meant that since her arrival at USAES, she is a connection for her friends and fellow cadets for Girl Scout cookies. It was also where she developed her love of archery.)

Her mutant psi-abilities manifested when she reached the age of eight (in her mother’s side of the family, there is a history of powers in the female members of the family, and of manifesting well before puberty, even though they are mutants). With her parents’ help, quickly learned what her powers were; one of the first uses of her powers was to construct her own tree-house in the family backyard, and to create a permanent micro-environment within that maintains the interior as if it were a cool summer day. (It was found later that the tree-house is now an effective storm shelter, and proof against any form of natural disaster.) Her parents contacted associates who suggested applying for USAES and Chi Ling entered at age twelve; her parents wanted to keep her home as long as possible to enjoy a normal lifestyle as long as possible. Despite the normal issues that all children deal with, Chi Ling became a successful and well-liked cadet (although teased a bit for her maternal style of dealing with her fellow cadets). In her first year in the Elite Academy, she was assigned to Norris Nance, (a Cadet Fifth Year and a fellow psi-active who was assigned to Training Cadre 6000), as his metahuman peer mentor. Unfortunately, Chi Ling had been called to Washington, D.C. due to the current Administration’s anti-immigrant policies. She was to be questioned by high-level members of the Administration, who were going to use her in their efforts; due to shoddy investigative measures, simple, inexcusable mistakes and racist beliefs, Chi Ling’s family were accidentally targeted as ‘illegal immigrants taking advantage of the country’. The matter was eventually cleared up but Chi Ling was kept in ‘protective custody’ for a week; when she was finally released, she was allowed to contact USAES and found that Norris had died in an accident during his Summer of Light testing seminar.

She has chosen to become a Red Force Specialist with a concentration in Phase One operations ( ‘Red Rabbit’ ), but in an unusual move for a psi-active of her power and skills, she chose to train in the National Service Active Services track, and is planning to join FEMA as a member of the Urban Search and Rescue Teams. (However, she has heard rumors - spread since Revelation Day and the work of the Legionnaires in Puerto Rico - of an internationally-staffed rapid-response organization of metahumans that will act in cases of emergency situation and disaster relief anywhere on Earth they may occur. She is very interested in seeing if the rumors are true, and of possibly joining if they are.)

In academics, she is in the ELMS enhanced health and medical sciences program (where she has earned a Level Two Healer certification). She will graduate with a degree in Health and Medical Sciences, and a commission as a First Lieutenant in the Illinois Air National Guard. (Many interested parties, both military and civilian, are very interested in stealing her away from FEMA even before graduation - especially after learning about her work in Puerto Rico as a member of Operation Silver Shield.)

Powers:

Chi Ling is an extraordinarily powerful psi-active cadet; with a high Class Four power ranking on the Claremont/Byrne metahuman power scale, she would (in any normal period) be at the apex of power potentials within the USAES Corps of Cadets.

Chi Ling’s powers are directly tied to her mental state and willpower. Her powers are also particularly effective/resistant against anything of mystical origin or effect. Unlike most psi-actives at her levels of power, Chi Ling’s powers have no visible effect when she uses them. (However, when using a Psychon-class devices Mark 30 psi-augmenter, she does display the traditional electric-blue energy signature in her irises when using her powers at high levels of force/effect.

Empathy: Chi Ling has the ability to sense and discern the emotions, physical state and current environment of any individual she locates/comes into contact with. She can project and receive empathic messages, as well as manipulate any existing emotional states present within living beings (animal, human or even alien). She can make contact with others and manipulate emotions within a radius of three miles away. Her power can connect with and affect even deity-level beings (although she has been careful to never use her power to attempt to manipulate such beings). Her power is so precise that she can even detect emotional states and messages in areas with even residual psionic resonance traces, as well as through any forms of extrasensory perception or temporal, extra-dimensional and reality manipulation/alteration.

Energy Path: Chi Ling has the ability to instantly transform her physical form into pure psionic energy and travel at ultra-high speeds; when she is aware of the exact location she wants to travel to, the process is effectively indistinguishable from teleportation. Because of the speeds she can achieve, Chi Ling only uses this ability to travel to places she has been before, or to memorized spatial coordinates; any form of power-nullification (including powers and active/passive psi-blocking technologies) can cause Chi Ling to instantly return to human form (even if in flight, but safety functions in her power will keep her from materializing inside solid materials, regardless of power nullification). Chi Ling can take up to fifty tons in weight with her, but (due to her limitations) will only take passengers or additional cargo with her if she is ‘flashing’ to places she has been to before OR to places she can link to through the memories of persons traveling with her, or if she can link to individuals through her informational psi-abilities (empathy, extra-dimensional detection, postcognition or telepathy).

Enhanced Physical Attributes: Chi Ling possesses natural fighting skills equal to persons who have received formal combat training. Her agility is equal to that of individuals with championship-level training (but not Olympic-level), while she has the natural endurance of a athlete who engages in intensive, regular exercise (she can hold her breath for up to six minutes). She can lift to 2000 pounds, and up to 400 pounds with no effort.

Enhanced Physical Resistances: During the stresses of her Summer of Light training and testing cycles, Chi Ling discovered the awakening of a ‘secondary mutation’ within herself. She now possesses an extreme level of physical resistance to several effects, as follows:
 * she is invulnerable to the primary and secondary effects of flames and heat (for example, she can breathe normally while inside an area with extreme amounts of smoke, steam or ash)
 * she is invulnerable to lasers, masers and heat-based weapons, and cannot be affected by extremely powerful light sources (such as looking directly into the sun, or at a nuclear detonation)
 * she possesses a strong resistance to chemical effects usually deemed hazardous to most humans (such as most extremely corrosive such as extremely potent molecular acids and volatile chemical weapons)
 * she is also invulnerable to the effects of electricity and hard radiation.
 * her skin is more durable than that of the average person.This allows her moderate resistance to edged weapons, small arms fire (she can resist the effects of firearms up to 7.62 mm rifles), and light physical attacks from even well-conditioned athletes.

Extradimensional Detection: Chi Ling has the ability to not only sense inter-dimensional barriers, but see through them into other dimensions. In addition, this ability allows her to use any of her applicable powers to contact or even travel to and from these dimensions (while also acting as a ‘quantum anchor’ to always allow her access to her dimension of origin). She has learned how to use this ability to allow her to psionically or even physically enter alternate dimensions (however, she has learned to limit herself to ‘pocket dimensions’ such as those created by dreaming beings).

Hallucinations: Chi Ling has the ability to generate illusions to all beings or technologies (regardless of origin, method of powers or species) with the capacity of even rudimentary thought patterns or psionic potentials. She can affect everything within a one-half mile radius (or a single subject up to six miles away, if she can contact him/her/it with her telepathy), and her power is so strong that even if the viewers know that her images are not real, they will still subconsciously believe in the reality of the images. (Persons of extraordinarily strong intellect and/or willpower may be less affected by the images, but only if they actively use their minds to continually doubt the reality of the images.) Chi Ling must actively concentrate to use this ability, and any images that she creates immediately disappear when she stops or is distracted in any way. Persons with telepathic, mystic or illusion-based powers are exceptionally susceptible to Chi Ling’s power; even if they possess powers that specifically protect them from mental attack, they will still be able to see Chi Ling’s projections but know them for what they are. One use that Chi Ling has for her power is to pass along messages or things for the recipient to say, as if they had a teleprompter that no one else is aware of; she can also broadcast anything that she can send telepathically (images, text, etc.) for the person to use as a monitor screen. (She has used this for the theater groups, in order to provide all actors ‘invisible scripts’ for them to use during performances, and to provide cadet choirs music sheets for caroling sessions in the community.)

Mental Invisibility: Chi Ling possesses a form of mental protection that protect her from unwanted mental and emotional communications, tracking and attack, regardless of the source, by effectively rendering her undetectable to psionic and emotional contact unless she wishes it. To devices that scan for psionic activity, Chi Ling registers as a normal human (unless she lowers the effect to be scanned).

Mystical Power Domination: Chi Ling has the psionic ability to seize control of any form of mystical energy, as well as any being, environment or device that uses or controls mystical effects. She can affect any and all beings and devices in a 300-meter radius, or directly affect a half-mile radius within a mystical environment. Chi Ling’s power allows her to compel anything susceptible to her power to stop or start use of any power or effect, or use those powers as she wants them to; she can also use her power to sever the use or control by mystical beings or effects upon other beings, environments or effects (in effect, she can free persons, places and items from curses, hauntings (that are mystically-based), possession/domination, and the negative effects of any form of endowments, enchantments and gifting of powers and wishes. Chi Ling can use her power on herself as well as others.

Psychic Healing: Chi Ling has the ability to heal any living being of any condition, disease, or injury/trauma that does not result as a part of the aging process (this includes reattachment of severed limbs, massive fluid loss to the body, and regeneration of body parts/areas that have been damaged or removed from the body). In addition, Chi Ling’s power allows her to revive a being (human or otherwise) who has been dead for up to ten minutes (if the body is intact or can be restored to such condition). Because of the precise nature of her power and her medical training, Chi Ling can detect physical problems within a being’s body before they are aware of it, and perform psychic surgery within them without opening their body. Chi Ling can use her powers to heal any type of living being (humans, canines, avians, sea-going creatures, etc.).

Pyrokinesis: Chi Ling has the psionic ability to generate and control flame and heat. This includes being able to generate flame-constructs that do not generate heat like normal flame but possess solidity, which Chi Ling can control at will. In addition, Chi Ling’s physical senses are not affected when she is in proximity of the effects of fire and heat (primary or secondary); for example, she can see normally through even intense amounts of smoke generated by burning materials. (One of the very first things that Chi Ling learned how to do was affect existing flames in order to cause total cessation of heat generation, so as not to damage beings, property or the environment; she can affect a radius of up to three miles from her position, or an radius of up to just over one-half mile from up to fifteen feet away. Her effect lasts until the flames die out from lack of fuel, they are naturally extinguished, or she discontinues the effect. She can also extinguish all flames in a two mile radius from her position, or in a one--mile area up to ten miles away; she can keep any flames from igniting in that area for up to five hours. The effect lasts for the full time-period, unless Chi Ling deliberately ends the effect.) Chi Ling has learned how to generate focused beams of heat that act like lasers and cut through light tank armor with ease.

Telekinesis: Chi Ling has the ability to lift up to fifty tons with the power of her mind. She can lift up to 800 pounds without effort. The nature of Chi Ling’s telekinesis allows her to perform exceedingly fine manipulations with her power (for example, she can easily remove bubbles of carbonation from a soft drink without disturbing the fluid itself, or disassemble a small passenger aircraft (complete with a full tank of fuel), move the parts to another area and reassemble the plane into perfect working order inside a small area such as in a major conference room, or on the stage of a theater hall at a major university. (No. Chi Ling has never done such a thing. It could never be proven that she was in any way involved.) However, she possesses the psychological handicap of most telekinetic talents in that she envisions her power as an extension of her own body, and as such, she cannot lift her own body and use her TK powers to fly.) She can use her power to cushion her fall from any height.

Telepathy: Chi Ling has the ability to contact minds, transmit and receive messages, and communicate with others from up to 1000 miles away (without enhancement technologies or powers). She can perform the actions above with no effort up to three miles away. Chi Ling, like many telepaths, has an incredibly fast mental communication speed; she can communicate 400 times faster than normal speech.

Talents:

Medicine: Chi Ling will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Health and Medical Sciences, and plans to progress in her medical studies to become a Physician Assistant. Even without her powers, she has the equivalent skills of a paramedic.

Piloting: Chi Ling has her flight ratings in several types of small aircraft, and is a good pilot. She chose to learn hot to fly small planes, as they are traditionally the ones used by ‘brush pilots’ and other individuals flying into small, remote airports and landing areas to provide medical assistance, resupply or evacuate individuals.

Archery: Chi Ling has been involved with archery since she was a young child. She is knowledgeable in the history of the sport, and skilled in the use of several different types of bows. She is a perennial attendee of SCA events, and is well-versed in the construction methods used in the historical eras associated with the SCA. Chi Ling is skilled enough with the bow to easily bring down big animals, or use the weapon for self-defense purposes.

Wilderness Survival: Chi Ling has been a lifelong member of the Girl Scouts of America, and has excellent outdoors skills gained from her experiences in the organization. She can easily survive for several days in the wilderness with minimal issues due to her training (even without her powers or her Academy training).

Singing: Chi Ling is an excellent singer, and is involved with the USAES Cadet Choir. She always participates in the annual unofficial talent shows, and has been in several of the annual USAES Cadet Theater productions.