When James Hawkins, aka Icehawk, met Pam Portis, he had no idea what he was getting in to. Not only with Pam but eventually with something he’d never really had himself, her family. When his relationship with Pam began he discovered she and her father had become estranged some years before over Pam’s abortion. It was tearing her up this loss of family and, in typical James Hawkins style, he set about making things right. What he found was a family in even more turmoil than his own had ever been, a family divided not by generational misunderstandings but by pure genetics.
Though both Pam’s parents appear to be normal, they are in fact low level mutants. Her father was gifted with a significant increase in strength and somewhat tougher skin than usual while her mother’s sole apparent ‘power’ was the ability to detect mutants. Genetically all of the siblings should have been ‘mutant’ but it wasn’t quite so. Of the nine children, three had been born without any trace of the mutant gene and each had been given names that began with ‘P’. Pam was a normal. The six children mutant children were given names that began with the letter ‘K’.
In the years Pam had been separated from her family her mother, Rachael, had died giving birth to the youngest sibling and Kraig, nearly destroyed by his beloved wife’s death, had remarried. It was not a match made in Heaven. His new wife, Jennifer Rochelle, had recently presented Kraig with a beautiful baby girl she insisted on calling Judith, a clear departure from the family tradition of giving the children names beginning with either a ‘P’ or a ‘K’.
Meanwhile, Pam’s oldest sister, Kate, and her younger brother, Karl had discovered their particular mutant abilities went beyond ‘minor’. Kate had gone to college in New York City and after a friend was brutally raped, she took the name Night Angel and hunted the rapist down. After delivering a fairly savage beating of her own to the man, she turned him over to the NYPD and though her efforts to capture the man were lauded by the people, the press labeled her a ‘vicious vigilante’. She continues to battle crime but has never had a reason to repeat the actions of her first mission. The press has relented and though they still call her a vigilante, they have toned down the adjectives.
Karl made no effort to become follow his sister into crime fighting; instead he turned his powers to the other side of the Law. With his powers functional only at night, Karl became a creature of the dark and took the name Star Bolt. Donning a black bodysuit and covering his face, he used his powers to carve out a niche in the criminal world but he took it upon himself to do one thing for the family. He followed Pam to Los Angeles and watched over her. When she found herself in Seattle, he was there, never showing himself, always guarding her.
Of the other Portis siblings, the eldest boys, Keith and Kent have married twin sisters and are raising a family. Though both have powers that would put them into the ‘competent’ category, they have chosen to remain as working class family men. Though Keith is as happy as he appears, Kent is another story. His ability to alter his shape into any person, male or female, adult or child has altered Kent’s perspective sexually. Though he has not mentioned this to anyone, even his brother, it has thrown his life into turmoil.
The next in line, Patrick, is a normal and perhaps because of it, he has had a hard time trying to live up to what he perceives as the family legacy. A sensitive, artistic young man, he has never been able to accept his total lack of the powers presented by his siblings. He has grown despondent and suicidal requiring a constant watch by his family. At the opposite side of the coin is Ken who would gladly surrender his particular power to his brother. Ken began to hear ‘voices’ when he was in his early teens and by the time he finished high school he could hear the minds of every person in sight. He has struggled to learn control but with no one to turn to, he is slowly becoming overwhelmed by the chaos in his head.
Next comes the two youngest of Kraig and Rachael’s brood, Kathy and Paul. These two are inseparable with Kathy acting as mother hen to her smaller brother. Though she has not developed her powers, she is already fully aware that she will, and that Paul won’t. Having seen what has happened to the other two ‘P’s’, Kathy is overprotective of Paul and spoils him rotten. Paul, still too young to understand, revels in Kathy’s attention and has yet to develop into the brat the situation could birth.
Finally there is Judith, whom everyone save her mother calls ‘Kitty’. Though the family had no way of knowing whether Judith was a ‘K’ or a ‘P’ by an unspoken vote, it was decided she would be Kitty. It was not until Rachael returned that any knew for sure.
All the kids, all the troubles, would have daunted a less confident man, but James Hawkins love Pam Portis more than life and after spending a considerable amount of money, reunited father and daughter. It was everything he had hoped for. The only stick in the mud was Jennifer, Kraig’s new wife.
The family does not know the details of what James did or how he convinced Ghost Archer to do what he did but none really care. At James and Pam’s wedding in Hawaii, a special guest appear from out of time, literally. Rachael had returned and without a word to the family, Jennifer disappeared leaving husband and daughter. Pam’s family was once again together, including Karl if only for the day.