Mark Sheppard

File:Mark.jpg

Mark Sheppard met the folks at Snow Valley Memorial Center for Mutant Affairs when an investigation into the disappearances of young mutants led them to his nightclub, Silver. After helping them to rescue the kids, he signed on and now works as SV’s receptionist, bringing a rather goofy and flamboyant humor to X-Force.

Details

Character Journal: x_pressive

Real Name: Mark Sheppard

Codename: DJ

Aliases: N/A

First Appearance: August 23, 2006

Date of Birth: August 18, 1985

Place of Birth: St. Louis, Missouri

Citizenship: American

Relatives: Marshall Sheppard (father), Maria Sheppard (mother)

Education: High school diploma

Relationship Status: single

Occupation: DJ at Silver, receptionist at Snow Valley Memorial Center for Mutant Affairs

Team Affiliation: X-Force

Biography

Childhood

Mark Sheppard was born and raised near St. Louis, Missouri to your generic middle class family. His father, Marshall Sheppard, is a music librarian at Washington University and his mother, Maria, is an elementary school music teacher. So while Mark's young life wasn't particularly eventful, he was always surrounded by all sorts of music. When he grew older, he experimented with electronic music manipulation, becoming a self-taught amateur disc jockey.

He manifested at fifteen when he was at an underage club with some friends from school. Nothing fancy or dangerous; he was dancing and suddenly started to glow. When he realized that the light was coming from him, he fled. The second he stepped out of the club, the glow faded. Events like this happened often from then on. It was weeks before Mark finally put together the pieces: he had the ability to “metabolize” music into energy.

The few friends he told were cool but agreed to keep his secret, especially after the Brotherhood’s attack at Liberty Island and Magneto’s subsequent arrest. All was well and good until his senior prom. He and his friends had had a little to drink beforehand, and between that and the excitement of the event and impending graduation, Mark lost control and set the deejay’s setup on fire. He was smart enough not to stick around, and ran away before the even drunker kids could get to him.

While his home certainly wasn’t one of those FoH-run towns, this violent display of his mutation not too long after The Great Headache didn’t serve to heighten his popularity. Mark was harassed on the streets, and he received numerous threats regarding attending graduation. Afraid for his own safety (not to mention that of his parents), he packed what he could into his book bag, grabbed some cash, and ran away.

The streets of St. Louis weren’t kind to him, and he soon found himself with only ten dollars, his CD player and only one disk (The White Stripes’ “Elephant”), and the clothes on his back. He nearly lost that when he was approached by a group of thugs who demanded he turn over what he had. They were nearby a club and Mark could hear enough of the music outside that he blasted his attackers. But when the music stopped, he was left without ammo, and ran. They followed. He was snatched into an alley and found himself suddenly half a mile away.

The person who grabbed him, a young woman named Kim, told Mark that she saw what happened and, as a mutant concerned for the welfare of other mutants, teleported him to safety. When she offered to take him somewhere new, he jokingly mentioned that he always wanted to go to New York City, and five seconds later was standing in the middle of Greenwich Village.

Mark, though excited to be in a new place with the opportunity to rebuild what he’d abandoned, was nonetheless worried about his future. So Kim took him to a club not much further downtown popular with mutants and mutant-fanciers, and introduced him to the bartender. They needed a new DJ, so the bartender and Kim introduced Mark to the club’s owner, and by the end of the night, Mark had a job and a place to live.

Body Snatchers

In the summer of 2006, Mark began to notice than a number of his regulars and some of the new patrons were not showing up like usual. At the same time, X-Force’s continued investigation of the organ harvesting ring where they rescued Sarah from led them to Silver, too.

Amanda and Wanda decided to go undercover, where they noticed how the DJ spends an awful lot of time wandering around, talking to people and buying them drinks. Over the course of his own personal investigation, Mark noticed these two new patrons, and seeing as how Wanda is much older than the mean, suspected that they must be involved. They confronted each other and discovered that they were both looking into the same thing, so Mark demanded to be allowed to assist them with this investigation. It’s his club, his patrons, and as he saw it, his responsibility.

A psi-scan from Betsy revealed a man who had spoken to each of the people who’d disappeared, so X-Force and Mark set up a sting to catch him. With Sarah as bait to lure him out, they followed him to a warehouse at Chelsea Piers. While Sarah, Betsy, Remy, and Wanda went out to round up the kidnappers, Mark and Amanda snuck in to rescue the hostages. Though some of the kidnappers managed to get away by detonating a booby trap to distract the team, some were apprehended and the kids were saved.

A week or so later, Remy approached Mark and offered him a spot on the team, realizing his talents and potential. He eagerly accepted, and now serves as SV’s receptionist, too.

X-Force

Mark's confidence and ego suffered a blow in November during the events of Dogs of War. Like many of his teammates, he was crushed when Josh decided to sacrifice himself to the Warwolves. After only some minor self-destructive behavior, he managed to grieve properly and move on, and dedicated himself even more to X-Force's mission.

Towards the end of 2006, he moved into the brownstone and organized a HeliX fundraiser at Silver for New Year's. 2007 has been light on the adventure, with the most notable event being a deranged fan accosting him and Medusa whil shoe-shopping.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5’8”

Weight: 135 lbs.

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black

Other Features:

Powers

Mark possesses the mutant ability to metabolize sound into energy. In principle, this is very similar to Dazzler’s powers; his cells possess structures that absorb sound vibrations and use them to energize energy-carrying molecules, which can be released upon command. And like Dazzler, overloading on sound would be tremendously painful.

Unlike Dazzler, though, Mark doesn’t just release visible light. He can convert sound into any form of energy that lies within the electromagnetic spectrum. However, his powers don’t work on command; he must be listening to music to do anything. The sound frequencies, bass beats, rhythms, harmonies, etc. elicit metabolism. So if he’s not listening to music or if he can’t hear it (e.g., he’s deafened), then he’s powerless.

Different types of music elicit different effects. The tonal structure and homophony of European classical music permits Mark to create force fields of varying strengths. He can create light by listening to the drum beats and electronic nature of dance and disco music. The guitars and drums of hard rock permit him to fire of beams of concussive force. And the disjointed, discordant notes of electronica let him discharge electricity. At the moment, these are the only manifestations he can perform. After his initial manifestation, he doesn’t automatically learn new techniques. Since rock and dance are his favorite genres and his parents often played classical at home, he has a deep psychological connection to these types and therefore easily manifested them. It will take training to learn how to use other genres of music and how to specify them.

Specific sub-genres further specialize his powers. For example, with disco, he can glow, and Eurodance lets him release brief but blinding flashes like a strobe light.

Equipment

Mark always carries around his 60 gigabyte iPod, and has set up playlists with music to elicit different manifestations.

Trivia

Mark’s mother is of Italian descent, so Mark speaks some Italian.

His favorite musician is Madonna.

Mark put up a Post-It note on his computer monitor at work to remind himself that some lines of conversation on the journal system are inappropriate for the students.