Although quiet by nature, Burnout can speak volumes with his explosive plasma blasts.
Origin
Bobby Lane is the son of John Lynch, who was a superpowered special ops member of Team 7. For decades the I.O. organization had been carrying out genetic experiments designed to create super soldiers for the government. Team 7 were among the 12th generation of this experiment (Gen 12), and among the first successes – previous attempts had ended in death for the subjects. When many of the members of Gen 12 became fathers, I.O. became interested in their children: Gen 13. According to the Gen 12 series, Lynch’s wife left John Lynch when their son, Robert, was very small.
The exact circumstances of his mother’s death are unknown, but Bobby was put up for adoption under a fake name. (It was later revealed that several Team 7 members who had gone into hiding themselves knew about this and arranged this to protect Robert from I.O.) During his childhood Bobby often changed foster families, because he was unable to fit in with them, though he became good friends with his foster sister Han Tsung during his stay with her family.
Project: Genesis
When Bobby became a teenager, I.O. decided to restart Project: Genesis which had done the Gen 12 experiments. They performed genetic screenings across the country and recruited all children and teenagers who were gen-positive, usually indicating that they were the children of a Gen 12-member. Bobby was recruited to be part of the Gen¹³ project, unaware of this history. While in Project: Genesis, he began to connect with Grunge, Caitlin Fairchild, and Roxy. And it was there that he first had his latent powers unlocked. But when he and his friends discovered what the end goal of the project was, and that the plan was to control any successes by numbing their wills using drugs, they planned an escape. The four of them were joined on their escape by two others: Sarah Rainmaker and Threshold. Unknown to the rest of them Threshold was loyal to I.O., and only went along because it was his mission to try and awaken the latent powers of Freefall and Grunge (who hadn’t manifested any yet) and create a killer instinct in the group that the government desired in its superpowered operatives. He succeeded, and then betrayed the group. All of them except Fairchild were recaptured. She came back for them, and having made a second, successful escape they allied with John Lynch, who had become a high-ranking member of I.O.
Storylines
Lynch took the team to San Diego to hide from I.O. Although Bobby began to develop romantic feelings for teammate Sarah Rainmaker, she did not return those feelings.
Lynch and Bobby discover they are father and son. After some initial awkwardness, the two have come to accept this new dynamic in their relationship.
Bobby developed powerful psionic abilities, allowing him to read and control the minds of others. He lost these powers following a psychic attack by Alan Walker, another telepathic Gen-Active.
Bobby (along with Caitlin) visited his father John Lynch in the hospital during Lynch’s coma. Bobby states that he’ll never be able to get to know his father now.
Bobby became romantically involved with Leslie, a Gen-active codenamed Trauma Queen. Their romance was short-lived as Bobby and the rest of Gen 13 were blown up in a Gen-powered explosion.
Gen 13 was displaced to an alternate universe. Months later they returned to their own Earth.
Powers and Abilities
- Pyrokinesis: Burnout is able to generate high-energy plasma that bursts into flame when exposed to oxygen.
- Fire Blasts: He can direct his flames into searing thermal energy blasts
- Fire Shield: surround himself with an aura of protective flames to deflect physical attacks.
- Flight: He can superheat the air around him to create powerful thermal updrafts that lift him into the air (allowing him to fly).
- Heat Generation: Burnout has the ability to radiate heat from his body.
- Telepathy: At one time, he possessed telepathic powers that allowed him to read minds, communicate mentally with others, and control minds.