Austin Dane

Zachary Austin Dane — she goes by Austin — was the first child born of Leslie Dane and the witch Mayakku. The pregnancy wasn’t planned, and neither woman was expecting to be a parent. But when Leslie discovered she was pregnant, she was more than thrilled. Mayakku was less so. She didn’t want to be a mother, but she loved Leslie, so she stuck around. When Austin was born, the baby didn’t wail like most newborns. There were tears, but just a strangled mewling sound where a newborn’s wail should have been. The doctors did many tests and determined that Austin’s vocal chords weren’t developed. They seemed to think the child would be mute her entire life, but suggested speech therapy starting at a very young age in the hopes of developing her vocal chords more.

As Austin grew, she was put in speech therapy. She was also taught sign language so that she could communicate with the world around her. Leslie learned ASL with he daughter, but Mayakku wasn’t interested in learning. The lack of interest in their daughter put a schism between the two women. Austin was privy to a lot of fights between her parents about her and Mayakku’s refusal to be a parent to their daughter. The fighting only escalated as Austin grew. Eventually Leslie and Mayakku broke up, but not before Amber was conceived and brought into the world. Unlike her sister, Amber was perfect at birth. But Mayakku wasn’t there to witness the birth. Leslie went through the delivery alone, and brought her newborn home to a house with only her then six year old daughter.

Around the time Amber was born, Austin was starting to show signs of being a powerful electrical mutant. She quite often blew fuses in the house when she got mad or frustrated. And she exploded more than one light bulb when she was angry. That’s when Leslie decided that Austin needed to to go a school that was capable of teaching her how to control her abilities. The answer to that need was The Academy. A school for mutant children to safely learn to harness their abilities without drawing the scrutiny of the government or medical fields. It was a boarding school, so Austin was there eight months out of the year. She only came home for summer break and winter break. When she first arrived at The Academy, Austin could talk some, but not very much and not for very long. Her speech therapy continued at the school. A lot of the other children teased her for her inability to speak well, but there were still children who accepted Austin and learned how to sign with her. By the time she got to the junior high levels of schooling, her speech therapy was brought to an end because she was finally able to speak clearly and strongly for a prolonged period of time. Although long speeches still exhausted her.

There was no denying that Austin was going to be a beautiful woman as she started to develop in her teenage years. Her body was almost sinfully perfect. It drew the attention of her peers, even those who had made fun of her in previous years. Austin used her body to get what she wanted from her female peers — whether that was simply sex, payment for tutoring, or any number of other things. She never let the boys touch her, though. She wasn’t interested in them, and saw no use for males in the world. At school, Austin developed her electrical abilities just as much as she developed her sexual preferences. Although the school wouldn’t allow her to practice with lightning. They deemed it too dangerous and forbid her from developing that particular aspect of her mutant powers. That didn’t stop Austin from developing those abilities at home, though. Quite often at home, when it was storming outside, Austin was out in the rain drawing lightning down into her body. Lightning from storms always scorched her insides and caused great pain, but she knew that if she continued to practice with it, it would do less damage as she got more skilled.

After graduating from The Academy, Austin went off to MIT to get a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She had a goal of getting her Masters before she turned 25 years old, so she doubled down on all of her classes and stayed at school through the summers to achieve her goals. She graduated with her Masters at 23 years old. When she went home after graduation, it was with the intent of tracking down Mayakku and attempting to build a relationship with the mother she barley knew. Amber had never met their other mother, and wanted to build a relationship with her, as well. The pair discovered that Mayakku was in a place called The Compound. A sanctuary for women to live freely without men. They were disappointed to find out that Mayakku had passed on just a couple days before their arrival. The death of their mother left unresolved emotions for Austin, feelings that she would never get to work through because her mother wasn’t around to answer her questions. Austin and Amber might have left The Compound if they hadn’t run into Keylie Robinson — one of Austin’s classmates at The Academy. Key offered Austin and Amber integral roles in the Academy that was being built in the Compound. An Academy that would be for female children only. While the school was being built and developed, Key’s wife — Alice — fast tracked Austin and Amber into roles a Babysitters in the Compound. It would support them and give them something to do with themselves while they awaited their next roles in the new Academy.

New developments with Amber have given Austin a new sense of belonging. A new sense of being exactly where she was meant to be. She doesn’t know what being a Babysitter will be like, or if she’ll even like it, but she’s willing to give it a shot just so that her and Amber can stay in the Compound. It’s a place where they’re accepted for who they are and the relationship they have with each other. The future is full of possibilities, and Austin is looking forward to seeing exactly what that means for her.