Holly "Scabs" Wells

Holly was ten years old when her parents died. They were both pro heroes and often worked together, making a powerful team while still being quite effective when apart. A collapsing building spelled the end of an otherwise promising career, as the two sacrificed themselves to get a pair of siblings out of the building just before it all came down.

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After their death, Holly was supposed to move in with her father's sister, a bitter, quirkless woman who lived alone. As a child, she was mostly left alone in her aunt's house, with little to do and less to keep her company. It didn't take her long to start exploring the troubled neighborhood outside, getting into a number of scuffles and getting her ass handed to her more than once. It was during one of these fights that her quirk manifested, late for her age, but all the more uncontrolled for it.

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To her horror, Holly found that her anxious scratching, which had appeared after losing her parents, had awakened her blood into something she could control. As she started to lose that fateful fight, tendrils of something dark and red snaked out from under her long sleeves, twisting and hardening into blade-like spines. The boys she fought with fled with only a few scratches, terrified by the sight of her, but Holly couldn't get the blood to go back under her skin, back into her veins. She bled freely, barely able to keep it from splattering the pavement beneath her.

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Unsurprisingly, she soon collapsed. It's hard to say how she managed to survive, but when she woke, it was under a ratty blanket inside a weathered cardboard box. Outside it sat a boy a few years older than her, watching what appeared to be an alley with a heavy dose of suspicion. He looked tired, and worn beyond his years, with dark eyes and deep creases lining his face. Worse still were the pale scars littering his tanned skin, seeming to cover every inch that showed under his dirty t-shirt and torn jeans.

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She later found out his name was Lucas, but he called himself Scars. She understood why without having to ask. When he asked for her name, her only reply was "Scabs."

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Scabs never went home after that day. With Scars' help, she learned to use her quirk, testing and perfecting it while studying the various ways to keep herself from becoming anemic. It didn't take her long to realize she had to stay focused just to keep the blood from breaking out of the scabs that always lined her arms, products of her constant anxious scratching, and this realization steadied her. She stopped picking fights. She started to work with Scars, protecting younger kids who lived on the streets and stealing food and money from those who deserved a little pickpocketing. Scars was always there to back her up, and later, the older boy 'adopted' another orphan, a boy who never seemed to stop laughing. All of his friends called him Snigger, but he eventually admitted his name was actually Oliver. Scabs liked him better as Snigger. It fit.

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Years passed like this. Scars eventually managed to get himself through school, always a struggle, and became a teacher at a high-end hero school. A few years later, Scabs and Snigger were able to join the student body, both hoping they wouldn't end up with their 'big brother' as a teacher.

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It remains to be seen whether or not the two will be successful heroes, but they have hope. They have to have hope.