Characteristic

Cost

END

Cost

3

Cost

10

Cost

2

0

1

1

2

4

4

3

3

5

20

15

25

10

15

5

10

15

10

10

10

S.A.G.E. Report: Zayed al-Oraibi was once considered one of the playboy set of Bahrain, moving through powerful circles and avoiding responsibility and boredom.  He was the son of an Iranian tycoon and an American actress, and grew up on a secluded island in the Bahrain archipelago.  His playboy antics came to an abrupt end, however, when he was involved in a battle between the Arabic superhero team Five Pillars and the terrorist group Fatwa.  Zayed was at a party hosted by one of Fatwa's financial backers when Iron Amir arrived and began dismantling the palace, which set off a chain of events culminating in the detonation of an experimental nuclear device.  The unstable shockwave rushed through the party killing most of the guests and the hosts, but Zayed found himself a peculiar survivor.

His body was burnt away, but he was still standing... or rather, floating.

The transformation marked a change in his life.  His friends were killed and those who survived by not attending on the night shunned him.  His parents turned away from him and made themselves busy in his presence.  Only Five Pillars seemed to stand by him, and Pearl paid particular notice of him, taking time to tutor him in his new powers and the potential life he would now lead.

Under Pearl's tutelage, Zayed decided to move on from his earlier, spoiled life and focus on improving the lives of Arabs in his region.  While not fully ready to join Five Pillars, Zayed considers them role models and hopes to one day take a place by their side.

Zayed raised one eyebrow as he scanned the report through the seventy meters of various walls, office equipment and security features found in the S.A.G.E. institution.  His eyes were able to penetrate almost any barrier but as he read the report he wondered how much of his life was common property.

Not that the experts had actually got it all right.

For one, he wasn't nearly as reckless and party-oriented as he had been.  He remembered nights which stretched to weeks, one martini after another, one girl after another.  Now days he couldn't go anywhere without being noticed: visually as well as through any half-decent energy detector.  He was literally blinding the sensor systems at S.A.G.E. but they hadn't worked out exactly what to do with him.  X-Ray was, after all, a hero.

Five Pillars were role models, but X-Ray wasn't interested in pursuing a life with them.  He couldn't live a crusade, day after day.  He needed downtime.  A chance to watch things happen, enjoy the unfolding of events rather than trying to stop the world ending every second hour.  So he found himself living in Bahrain, at his parents home while they moved from one residence to another - never together, always apart.  He offered assistance to those in need across the Middle East, but took pains to keep out of the political mess.  At one stage he even got an invitation to join the reserves of the world's elite superhero team, the Sentinels.  But he turned them down.  He had power, that was certain, but he didn't have the drive to be a hero at that level.

S.A.G.E. had an interest in him from a scientific perspective.  His body was made up of an unusual radiation, consisting of x-rays among other waves, although the experts were unsure of how it was even possible that he could exist.  The explosion at the palace which caused his transformation was caused by experimental technology, none of which survived.

And so he was an enigma.  A lot of people wanted a piece of him, but he had no real compunction to offer much in the way of assistance to these scientists.  He could do amazing things and he would continue to do them.  He would help where needed, but not become too big for his boots (as a friend once cautioned).

X-Ray is composed of a semi-solid energy form which has not yet been fully explored, although he has shown the ability to move through solid objects, project lethal radiation, move between points almost instantaneously and see through objects with remarkable accuracy and speed.  His body is able to survive in all environments and heals at a faster rate than human.

Since his transformation, Zayed is a being composed of a semi-solid radiation cloud.  His body is a fluorescent magenta, with his hair a light pink and his eyes a glowing white.  He is able to dissipate his form so that he appears to fade away at the edges, although he has yet to learn how to fade from view entirely.  Zayed is unable to wear clothing and since he has no real corporeal body he no longer feels the need to.