Profile: Banshee

Additional Information

Liam Cassidy (ancestor, deceased); Patrick Rourke (father-in-law, deceased); Maeve Rourke Cassidy (wife, deceased); Morrigan (Theresa Rourke Cassidy)(daughter); Black Tom Cassidy(cousin); Victoria Donnely (cousin); Sean Madrox ("grandson", re-absorbed by Madrox).

• Sonic Generation: Sean's powers were variations on the sonic effects produced by his voice. His sonic scream could cause up to Unearthly damage to non-living matter, shattering all but the mightiest substances. Sean's sonic scream could be used in one of two ways against live opponents, either to cause up to Monstrous damage to a single target, or to cause up to Incredible damage to all characters either in the area where he is screaming or along his flight route if he is flying. For both attacks all victims must make an Endurance FEAT roll vs Good intensity Stunning or fall unconscious for 1-10 rounds. Sean is unaffected by his own power.
  • Hypnotism: Banshee could use his sonics to hypnotize a captive at an Amazing level of effectiveness (Range 1 area). 
  • Sonar: He could navigate in darkness by using his sonic scream as a form of sonar at Amazing ability.
  • Illusion detection: the vibrations bounce off solids but are not impeded by illusions and holographs at Monstrous ability. 
  • Electronic disruption: He could also waver his voice and disrupt scanners without destroying them with Amazing skill.
  • Sonic Shield: Banshee can tighten sound waves around himself or others near him, making a barrier against outside attack: Incredible for a personal shield, Remarkable for coverage over 1 area.
  • Biophysical Disruption or sleep: Banshee has the ability to effect someone's equilibrium or cause unconscious as if striking for an Incredible stunning attack.
  • Flight: Banshee could fly using his sonic scream (Air Speed Monstrous). He guided his flight by means of two glider-like membranes built into his costume. The level of sonics he used to fly was not damaging, but he could also use his attack scream at the same time. Sean cannot hear anything above his sonic scream and his Intuition drops to Poor when flying.
• Sound Immunity: Banshee has Shift-X resistance to sonic and sound based attacks.

Special Tricks: Banshee's favorite attack mode was to fly over the opposition releasing his damaging sonic scream at them as he flew. In this form he could not only attack opponents, but could also keep moving at such a speed as to have an Attack & Dodge at +1CS to Agility.

If Sean is rendered mute, his powers won't work.

Law-Enforcement: Sean is a former police officer and detective: He has Excellent Reason in the field of Law-Enforcement including rules, regulations and applications of international, U.S and laws pertaining to the British Isles. Furthermore he has Remarkable Intuition when it comes to discerning clues, motives and criminal reasoning in investigative matters. He has Excellent Agility when using firearms.

Electronics: Sean has Excellent Reason in the field of electronics, their design, building of, and application

Mechanical Repair: Sean has Excellent Reason to repair mechanical devices of all shapes and sizes.

Piloting: Sean is a long time pilot and receives +1C/S on all control rolls behind the controls of a plane or helicopter, he has Excellent Reason to do repairs.

Martial arts type A and B: Sean can stun or slam foes regardless of their respective strength or endurance and has Remarkable fighting in hand to hand combat.

Multi-Lingual: Sean speaks, writes and reads English, Irish, Russian and Japanese fluently.

Trivia: Sean has Excellent reason in the areas of American Western movies and American country music.

Sean is a free soul who gets irate only when he thinks about his villainous cousin Black Tom, or when someone close to him is threatened. He is a hopeless ladies’ man who has carried a torch for Moira MacTaggart for years. He has a fondness for American westerns.

X-Men Uniform:

The Uniforms are constructed out of unstable molecule fabric of Remarkable Material. The suits come with a standard comlink that has a 250 mile range and a GPS tracking device built into it. The suits are insulated providing Good Protection vs. Heat and Cold as well as being designed to hide the wearer from mutant scanning equipment, with the exception of the Cerebro. Consider this to be Amazing protection vs. Electronic Mutant Detection. The Suits are also lined with a material designed by both Forge and Hank McCoy that provides body armor, Excellent vs. Physical and Energy. The armor is extremely light and is no thicker or heavier then a standard tee-shirt.

All of the X-Men have contacts with their teammates, past X-Men, the New Mutants and other X-Related groups, Professor Xavier, Lilandra, and the Starjammers.

Sean Cassidy was born and raised in Ireland as the heir to Cassidy Keep, his family's ancestral castle. Like many, his mutant powers manifested in his adolescence, but Sean hid them from everyone. He gained a Science degree from Trinity College, Dublin and became, first a detective, then an inspector for Interpol, an international police force.

During this period of his life he married Maeve O'Rourke, over whom he and his cousin, Tom (the only person who knew that Sean was a mutant), had been rivals. While Sean was away on a secret long-term mission, Maeve discovered that she was pregnant. She had her child, a daughter named Theresa, before her husband returned home. After the birth of Theresa, Maeve decided to visit some relations in Northern Ireland and was killed by a terrorist bomb. Theresa's body was not found and it was assumed that she was also dead. However, Tom Cassidy had rescued the child and planned to raise her himself in the hope that she would develop mutant powers that he could use to his own benefit.

At the end of his mission, Sean discovered that his wife was dead, but was not told that he had also had a daughter who had been (supposedly) killed along with her mother. Overcome by grief, he left Interpol and worked for the NYPD in America for awhile. However, his grief continued to affect him and he left the police force, becoming a freelance operative. He gradually became involved in crime (although he was never arrested) leading to his association with Factor Three.

Sean Cassidy The Changeling, a mutant belonging to Factor Three, invited Sean to join the group. When Sean refused, Factor Three kidnapped and enslaved him. They gave him a new code name, Banshee, and forced him to participate in their criminal activities. This led to a clash with the X-Men in New York. The X-Men captured Sean and Professor Xavier was able to disarm the headband Factor Three had used to enslave him. In return, Sean told the X-Men everything he knew about Factor Three. However, Sean was captured by Factor Three again, and set free again. He helped the X-Men to destroy the groups' plans for world domination. He also helped the X-Men to defeat the Mutant Master, who was exposed as an alien.

Leaving his temporary allies, Sean wandered for a few years, having run-ins with the second Secret Empire and the Sentinels. When the original X-team disappeared, Professor X invited Sean to join a new generation of X-Men to search for the first. Sean accepted and stayed with the X-Men for quite some time. Through the team he met Dr Moira MacTaggert, who he fell in love with. The pair were involved in a relationship until her death.

After a battle with Moses Magnum in Japan, Sean damaged his vocal chords and seemingly lost the use of his sonic scream. Returning to Muir Island, he and the X-Men fought Proteus, Moira's son. This battle made Sean realise that he wanted to stay with Moira permanently instead of visiting her occasionally as he had been doing. He left the X-Men, although he continued to aid them when necessary, and stayed on Muir Island. During his stay on the island, the X-Men fought Black Tom Cassidy, and his accomplice, Theresa Rourke. After their defeat at the hands of the X-Men, Tom told Theresa that Sean Cassidy was really her father and she left Tom to meet him.

Theresa, codenamed Siryn, had developed powers similar to those of her father. After their first meeting, Sean gained custody of her, but their relationship was quite distant. Theresa joined, and eventually became the leader of, X-Force and continued to see Sean intermittently. It is only recently that the pair have developed a deeper relationship.

Sean left Muir Island to become the co-head of Xavier's next generation of mutants - Generation X. He, along with Emma "White Queen" Frost, was responsible for teaching the teenage group how to deal with their powers. While with the team, Sean battled various enemies and developed something of a relationship with Emma. Their burgeoning romance vanished, however, when the White Queen agreed to trade one of the students (Penance) to Emplate in exchange for the safe returns of the other students. This amazed and appalled Sean, causing him to return to something of his old mistrust for the former leader of the Hellions.

After the death of Moira and the disbanding of Generation X, Sean founded X-Corps, a militant group dedicated to the protection of mutants, especially those in Europe. The group captured Sean Cassidy mutants on the wrong side of the law and used mind-control to make them work for X-Corps. It was involved in many demonstrations and riots where it often used force, although never fatally. Sean's methods and ideas became more and more extreme, causing concern from both the X-Men and his former students, several of whom worked with him. In an attack planned to liberate one of his prisoners, Sean's throat was slit by Mystique, who left him to bleed to death. He did not die, however, and was rescued by the X-Men. He has since recovered the use of his powers.