Stronghold

Stephen William "Steve" Nalley, code name Stronghold, is Elaine Nalley's younger brother, born June 19, 1991. He gained his mutant powers during Winter 2007 and entered Whateley in the middle of the term. He's an Exemplar and TK superman, and may have other powers. His sister is paying his tuition, and she's not happy about it.

He really wanted Monolith as his code name, but it wasn't going to happen: there's already a villain called "Monolith," one of the Savage Six. Who killed the previous holder of the name. Ick.

“They’re here escorting America’s next great superhero!” boomed a voice from behind Elaine that made her skin crawl. She turned slowly, praying every second that God, or Fate or someone would deny what her mind was already picturing. Behind her stood a squat young man, shorter than Elaine by enough inches that there were always arguments about who was taller and when. Now he was wearing a black set of Under Armor spandex body temperature control stocking that might be the base layer to a professional athlete’s uniform. Over it however was an odd hodgepodge of red and green skate boarding pads, a blue baseball catcher’s chest pad and what appeared to her father’s old Army LBE belt and suspenders. From that hung a collection of pouches that were both desert [dessert] and jungle camouflaged. This interesting wardrobe was completed with a pair of combat boots, and a strap of black material with a pair of eye holes cut into it that had been pressed into service as a mask.

The young man had a boyish, heart shaped face with a wild mop of crimson hair over sparkling green eyes that shown out of a peaches and cream complexion with a spatter of freckles over the nose and cheeks. Despite the innocent face, his body filled out the body stocking in a way that no one with a face that innocent should. Each muscle group was defined and bulged like Jack Kirby had carved his take on David in obsidian. “Monolith has come to Whateley!” her younger brother boomed.

Appearances

He arrives at Whateley, and promptly makes an ass of himself.

He has a major snit fit over discovering that Whateley really is a High School, and not the Mutant High of his dreams. His roommate, Mechano Man, tries to let him down gently.

He spies Solange threatening the Three Little Witches, and intervenes. One interesting couple of minutes later he's on his way to the Headmistress' office, accompanied by Mega-Girl.

He tries to make time with Ayla, and has to be told that Phase is a boy. Wait, its a Rashomon moment! He's interested in Marty! Ayla is soo embarrassed; here, have some information, for free!

And it's clear we have biased narrators. Elaine, well, this is her younger brother who's been a pest his whole life, like she's not filtering him through that. Ayla, has hot buttons which filter things as well. Of course, Stephen isn't unbiased either. Everything filtered through different PoVs, ain't we got fun? Where's a tape recorder when you really need one? Film at 11!

Flower for the fair! A living flower, too. Marty likes that.

Classes

Winter 2007

• English!
• Math!
• Basic Power Management
• Special Topics in History: Modern America and the Mutant Genesis Fourth Period

Associations

• Family
  • Gene Nalley (Father)
  • Jody Nalley (Mother)
  • Elaine Ethel Nalley (Know-It-All Older Sister)
• Twain Cottage
  • Steve Tupolo (Roommate)
• Future Superheroes of America
• Three Little Witches (He's their Hero!)
  • Abracadabra (Had a crush on him: 2007-01-16. Unknown if it lasted any longer)
• Tansy Walcutt (Hate at First Sight)
• Martine Penn (Girlfriend, if he has anything to say about it)
• Ayla Goodkind (Memorable, OK?)