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History

Zach was an emerging young mutant in West Covina, California. Unable to control his abilities, he injured innocent people and damaged property. After being chased by a mob, Zach had to be rescued by Kitty Pryde and Iceman, who convinced him to return with them to New York City and join Xavier Institute's student body.[2]

School life quickly became more stifling than life on the run for Zachary, who soon ran away from the school to join Daken, who dazzled Zach, spoiling him with flippant displays of wealth and convincing him to come with him to Madripoor.[3] Though Iceman was sent to rescue Zach and bring him back to the Institute, Zach refused to return with him, weakening his former teacher's powers to the point of negation before making his getaway on a helicopter.

Daken put Zach through extreme combat and survival training, including periods of outdoor living and picking fights with random toughs around Madripoor. Zach initially raised complaints about the seeming pointless exercises, but was later impressed by Daken's manipulation when the 'real' meanings behind lessons were subsequently revealed to him.[4] Although the training he received under Daken's tutelage was implied to have been intensive, Zach's fascination with Daken only seemed to grow.

Once Daken deemed Zach's progress to be sufficient, the two returned to the X-Mansion. Daken set up a distraction using fake Purifiers to attack the school, drawing away the rest of the X-Men, leaving Iceman alone with his boyfriend Judah, while Zach lead the students into the Danger Room and tampered with the control settings using his powers. When the five of them were alone, Daken initiated his ultimate plan, using Zach's ability to control and differentiate the energies of the Death Seed inside him.[1]

While Iceman and Daken were fighting each other, Zach took MGH to boost his natural abilities, wanting to make Daken proud of him, but rather than making him more effective this caused him to get high and distracted. He started wandering around and was soon noticed by the arriving Michaela and Idie. He ran for the basement while Michaela gave chase. The two fought briefly, causing Zach to lose control over the Death Seed's energies, which were slowly effecting him too. The two continued to fight until Michaela eventually came out on top, after which Daken narrowly retreated from his battle with Iceman.[5]

Some time later, Zach again ran away from the institute and was either committed or he checked himself into a mental hospital in Hell's Kitchen, expressing that he had hurt the people he cared about and no longer believed in his ability to control his powers. At the hospital, Dr. Charles attempted to use Zach's powers to treat Mary Walker. However, during the procedure Mary's 'Typhoid Mary' split personality surfaced and took control of Zach with her telepathic abilities, putting him into a catatonic state and then using him to amplify her own powers as she proceeded to gain control over the minds of the other patients and staff within the hospital.[6]

As Mary's influence began to expand beyond the hospital, the city's superheroes took notice, but Zach's amplification powers have made Mary's telepathy so strong that she is able to take on Spider-Man, Iron Fist, and the X-Men, trapping them within fantasies and nightmares, forcing them to fight each other, until Jean Gray managed to strike a psychic blow against her, briefly breaking her control over Zach. He began to regain consciousness, but Mary reached him while he was still confused, reasserting mental control over him and sexually assaulting him.[7] Eventually, Typhoid Mary used Zach to amplify her telepathic and pyrokinetic powers so far that she hurt herself, causing her original personality to reassert control with Zach's help. Mary, with her original personality now in full control, blended into the crowd during the confusion following the battle, and Zach lied to the heroes about her already being gone in order to help her escape.[8]

Attributes

Powers

Power Modulation: Zachary can control the energy output of anything within a certain radius of himself, be it electronic devices or other mutant's powers.[2] Initially he could only amplify the effective output of whomever or whatever was within his vicinity, but with proper guidance he eventually learned to steadily dilute power output as well.[3]

  • Amplification: Zach can vastly augment any mechanical appliance to the point of overload or bolster special abilities others possess beyond their control.[2]
  • Dilution: Under Daken's tutelage, Zach learned he could also whittle down effectiveness, for example, inducing Bobby's powers to short-circuit to the point where he couldn't even maintain his iced form.[3]
  • Transferal: With further practice and aid from some MGH, Amp found he could act as a power conduit for various power sources. Alternating different energies using himself as a breaker/crucible between himself and the power he's focusing on.[1]
  • Interfacing: Zach eventually found he could reach out and interact with any form of energy signature he focused on, be it the energies of an Apocalypse seed or the control source of the X-Men's Danger Room.[5]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • Mutant Growth Hormone: Zach used some MGH in order to bolster his abilities enough to get a rein on Daken's Death Seed energies.[9]

See Also

Links and References

References

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