Mardin is a student of Wellston Private High School who resides at the Boy's Dormitories. He is a "devoted" follower of Zeke.
Appearance[]
Mardin's hair is green and combed back. His eyes are blue and glow the same color when his ability is activated.
He wears different variations of the Wellston Boy's Uniform. In his first appearance, he wore only the pants, jacket, and white dress shirt with the collar popped up. When he was with Zeke, the collar was down and he also wore the tie. In his latest appearance, he had no tie but the collar was still down.
Personality[]
Mardin was one of Wellston's most obnoxious bullies. On top of physically attacking weaker students, he'll often subject them to verbal barbs and put-downs. His loud jeering tended to be disruptive, so teachers and stronger students did not hesitate to use superior force to shut him up.
Mardin likes to follow more powerful students with personalities similar to his own and enjoys obeying the orders they give him to the point where he'll address them with titles like King despite the existence of students who are even stronger. He actually respects students like Zeke than the more powerful royals, due to their similar attitudes. He's also not above kicking former Royals when they're down, as he did with Seraphina after her ability-loss.
Despite his preference in leaders, Mardin is not truly loyal to them. When his superiors get in over their heads, he would rather abandon them to face the consequences of their actions than risk his neck supporting them. Of course, being a frequent vocal supporter of such brutes, he's liable to get his fair share of punishment before he thinks to flee.
Mardin slowly became aware of changes in the hierarchy's command structure. It got to the point where he began to try talking Zeke out of terrorizing other students, fearing they'll get in trouble. But this epiphany didn't erase the bully in him. He'll still engage in bit of old-style hierarchy fun if he thinks he can get away with it.
History[]
Mardin was assigned to be partners with Hower for a literary analysis project.[1]
Season 1[]
Beginning[]
Oh no!!! The floor might get blood on it
Mardin dozed off in the middle of a boring Trigonometry class, which eventually lulled him to sleep. He was awake again when John asked to use the bathroom, which was a dangerous venture for a cripple. Mardin heckled him about it before the trigonometry teacher threw a piece a chalk at him, causing his nose to bleed. The annoyed teacher asked a timid Mardin if he would like to come to the front and prove one of the fundamental laws of mathematics.[2]
Secrets[]
Mardin attempts to hit John
One day after school, he was accompanying Zeke when they both spotted John ahead of them. They decide that their new resident of the Boy's Dorm's needed to be "welcomed", so Mardin rushed up from behind to attempt a sneak attack. John's reflexes were too fast for him though, and the ambush was countered with a suplex throw that left Mardin slightly dazed.[3] Still smarting from his failed attack, Mardin acknowledges Zeke as the dorm's strongest resident and "ruler," conveniently forgetting about two others who beat out 4.2 on the SGS.
Mardin grabs John
Mardin watched as John completely disrespected Zeke's authority around the dorms. When John managed to break free of Zeke's tight grip, Mardin rushed after him and restrained him for Zeke to deal with. He watched John's beating with a grin on his face, but got nervous when John's angry outburst made Zeke irritable. After knocking John out, Zeke ordered Mardin to follow him out of there. Mardin obeyed.[4]
Joker[]
Team Rocket Grunt would like to battle.
Mardin was walking down the hallway when he spotted John and Seraphina walking in the opposite direction. He couldn't help but mock the now-powerless Seraphina over her latest trip to the infirmary. The former Ace, still shaken by recent experiences, looks away and keeps walking. Mardin began to jeer even louder, calling Seraphina a coward who could do nothing but take his abuse. Suddenly, Mardin was surprised by ropes suddenly wrapping around his ankles and tripping him. The fall injured his nose, and he turned around to see who sent him toppling. It turned out to be Cecile, who told him off for annoying everyone with his shouting. He meekly obeyed her orders to pipe down.[5]
Season 2[]
Safe House[]
Team Rocker has challenged you!
Along with fellow bully Julien, Mardin went with Zeke to the courtyard in order to prove to an assembly of their peers that John was not the the Shadow King the papers claimed he was. Zeke's confidence plummeted when John mentioned something about a lunch bag, and Zeke's nervous reaction confused Mardin. John brazenly walked towards them, calling them gutless for not showing all onlookers who's boss. Mardin pleaded for Zeke to not let such an offense stand, and was excited when they finally got to gang up on the helpless cripple. His glee was short-lived, and transitioned into the rudest of awakenings.
Team Rocket Grunt has been defeated
Mardin found himself held up by the throat by his intended victim. He realized that John had copied Zeke's Phase Shift, definitively proving he was Joker. Despite his attempts to divert John's wrath towards Zeke, Mardin got his face smashed into the concrete. John then kicked the unconscious bully into a wall for good measure.[6] It took a trip to the hospital for him to recover from the damage.[7] Mardin was eventually discharged. He might have enjoyed some of the benefits of Zeke doing a 180° and successfully cozying up to the new King. But it was not meant to last.
Discord[]
After John was suspended, Mardin and the rest of Zeke's posse found themselves unable to push around the low-tiers as they once did. Many of their usual victims had joined The Safe House the high-tiers founded. The club heads always came running whenever club members squealed. After a month had passed, John returned a changed King. Zeke couldn't reignite his vendetta against the club.[8]
With John's eventual abdication, Mardin and the rest of Zeke's boys had no means of protection whatsoever. Thus, picking on low-tiers became a very risky venture. But Zeke was in too bad a mood to be cautious all the time, and had Mardin accompany him to give Dylan and his friend a pounding. Though the area was deserted at the time, Mardin worriedly told his boss that they shouldn't be doing this since the Safe House leaders might come after them. Zeke didn't care, and preached that no matter what the higher-up students might say, a low-tier is a low-tier. But John (who actually joined Safe House) appeared quite suddenly and told them to stop. Zeke failed to change his mind, and had to leave. The nervous Mardin scurried after him.[9]
Escalation[]
Things only got stranger since then. John went on a weekend trip with his new Safe House buddies. Mardin and Zeke saw that he was still hanging out with them when they returned. Zeke tried to talk John into picking on Dylan, for old time's sake. Mardin's hopes of doing so were crushed when John forbade it. The gruesome twosome went on their way, still chaffing under the new norm.[10]
Arc 32[]
Zeke was later recruited as a junior officer at the Wellston Bureau of Authority, and had taken to throwing his weight around school with limited success. Very limited. When he tried to uncover who was behind the illegal distribution of Untitled throughout the school, Mardin was all too happy to tag along as backup. During an interrogation, Mardin's enthusiasm died down the minute he saw the angry glowing eyes of the approaching John. He warned Zeke, who tried to handle the situation by pulling rank as a member of the Authorities. Surely, even John wouldn't crazy enough to obstruct police work. And even if he were, there were no active abilities to draw strength from. They had nothing to worry about, right? WRONG. John somehow punched Zeke hard enough to send him flying backwards.
Before his boss had even hit the ground, Mardin disappeared.[11]
Powers & Abilities[]
Mardin possesses an unnamed augmentation ability that grants him increased speed and strength.
Trivia[]
- Even though he has powers, John was easily able to defeat him without an ability.
- It can be assumed that he is a lower-mid tier, since he was project partners with Hower, who is a 2.1.
- Mardin (ماردين) comes from the Syrian word for fortress. The meaning has no significance to the character, who got the name at random.[12]