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'''Background:'''
Chi Ling is a young woman of Taiwanese-American descent who was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois. She is the daughter of aHer mother (who works asis a teacher in the local school district; she(who also haspossesses low-level mystic abilities and, was open with using them in hertheir home, but taught the children to be quiet about it) and aher father who works as a nurse practitioner for a private medical group practice (in the city that actually deals with metahumansmetahuman patients (in a clandestine fashion to preserve their privacy and safety; one such service provided is filling prescriptions for '[[flush]]'). 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, Chi Ling quickly learned what her powers were; oneand ofgained thebasic firstcontrol usesover ofthem. herHer powersparents wascontacted toassociates construct(through her ownfather's tree-houseemployment) inwho thesuggested familyapplying backyard,for and to create a permanent micro-environment within that maintains the interiorUSAES as if it were a coolpossible summer dayoption. (It wasAfter found later thatgaining the tree-house is now an effective storm shelter, and proof against any formsponsorship of naturalthe disaster.)junior HerSenator parentsfor contactedher associatesstate, who suggested applying for USAES and Chi Ling entered USAES at age twelve; her parents wanted to keep her home as long as possible, in order 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). She was assigned to [[Training Cadre 2999]] - a cadre composed of all ''psi-active'' cadets - along with [[Leda Calavicci]] (who would also become her roommate and best friend), [[Amorette Molyneux]], and [[Yaniv Ernet]] (who she would later go on to have an extended, yet loosely-defined romantic relationship with during their time in the ''USAES Elite Academy''.
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.
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