PSIONEX

 

PSIONEX

Members: Impulse, Mathemanic, Pretty Persuasions, Coronary, and Asylum I (l to r)

First Appearance: The New Warriors (Vol. 1) #4, October 1990

History/Powers: Psionex is a team of unstable superhuman misfits formed by Genetech, a bio-engineering firm specializing in researching superhuman genetics. The company was founded by 1930's child prodigy, Harmon Furmintz, via grants from the Taylor Foundation. When the first incarnation of the young super-hero team, the New Warriors, made their public debut, Genetech hired the Mad Thinker to research the Warriors. His data was then used to experiment on five volunteer test subjects, each chosen on the basis of their morphological differences and varied socioeconomic backgrounds. All five volunteers had their brains enhanced through biochemical, bio-mechanical, and surgical means, becoming superhuman at the deterioration of their mental health. Collectively known as Psionex, they were intended by Genetech to be "the way of the future" of superhumans.

Dwight Hubbard was a street gang-affiliated youth when he volunteered. As Impulse, he developed increased physical capabilities. His agility and reaction time were increased to superhuman levels, he could sprint at superhuman speeds, and it seems that his strength may have been boosted as well. He used a row of tranquilizer-tipped spikes on each forearm as weapons in combat.

Thomas Sorenson was a genius-level intellect attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As Mathemanic, he developed an ability known as "arithmetic telepathy", which manifested itself in a wide variety of ways with no clear link between all of them. Already a genius mathematician, he stated he could manipulate numerical values such as time, distance, and force, but that may be hyperbole. He was capable of self-levitation (though not the propulsion necessary for true flight), and could cause other objects to levitate as well or break apart. These effects may have been a form of gravity manipulation, as he was also able to make people perceive as if they were many times heavier than their actually were. He could psionically manipulate people through their sensory processes, causing them to experience increased or decreased passages of time -- either slowly them to a snail's pace or convincing them their were many decades older than they were -- or causing people to zone out into a catatonic state by mentally connecting them to interplanetary distances of space.

Heidi P. Franklin was an exotic dancer prior to joining Genetech. As Pretty Persuasions, she can psionically stimulate the pleasure centers in a person's brain. She is able to manipulate the human libido through a form of empathic influence, causing other people to become extremely sexually aroused, effectively seducing them so that they were willing to put aside whatever duties or responsibilities they had at the moment to give in to their carnal desires. It isn't clear if she could manipulate someone's behavior in other ways as well. She could also manifest this psychosexual energy she controlled as tangible psychoplasmic shapes, such as whips, blades, or other weapons.

James Sharp was a medical student before volunteering. He was mutated by the gene-splicing into a being composed of smooth crystal with the psionic power to manipulate metabolic processes in others. Dubbed "Coronary", he could induce heart attacks or heart failure, send someone's nervous systems into spasms, cause stomach cramps, etc. While battling Namorita, however, he accidentally caused her to drop him from a great height, and shattered upon impact. His body reformed on its own, only now his appearance resembles shards of jagged glass than smooth crystal. This event opened up his mind to using his powers on himself, and Coronary was now capable of turning intangible or morphing himself, either by stretching his limbs to great lengths or increasing his size and mass to magnify his strength.

Asylum I was a mental hospital patient who became an apparently non-corporeal entity inhabiting a collection of Darkforce mist. This allowed her to float about on her own and rendered her completely untouchable by solid matter except for her headpiece -- this piece of costuming was apparently helping her maitaining her mist-form, and thus was her only vulnerable spot. Striking the headpiece could temporarily disperse Asylum I's mist until she could regather her Darkforce. For offensive purposes, Asylum I could focus her Darkforce into concussive blasts extending from her mist, or wrap someone in the mist itself to subject them to their personal fears and traumatic memories.