BiographyThere is much mystery about the person known as both Kila and Ja. However, what is speculated is that KJ was born in a southern village in Zambesi, Africa. He lived with a small family consisting of himself, his mother, and his grandmother. His mother, Mari, was the village guardian, having apparently retired from heroics to raise him. KJ’s father was Benjamin Turner AKA the Bronze Tiger, according to Vixen, whose current status is unknown. For his very early years, they lived a pretty average and peaceful life.
However, it only lasted until their village was raided by men from a neighboring tribe. A threat to the world had been prominent enough at the time to warrant his mother’s help. The inhabitants of the village refused to just hand over the little that they’ve had. In effect, the groups came into conflict when the raiders raised their weapons and fired on the village. These men seemed to have more advanced tactics and weaponry, and without his mother there, they stood little chance.
In the carnage, KJ was kidnapped by the men who later turned out to be a task force sent by the Red Lion, President of Buredunia. Apparently, they were really in search of those with the metagene, looking to get a leg up on the skirmishes around their borders. So, for the majority of his life, he was trained as a child soldier for the Red Lion.
In the meantime, his mother had been under the impression that the unthinkable had happened. That is, up until one of the Red Lion’s chief guard betrayed his activity to the Justice League’s African branch.
A brief run through: The League was victorious, albeit unable to truly convict the Red Lion given his position in the country. KJ, as well as the other accumulated meta-kids were freed. He had something of an emotional reunion with his mother, though he was clearly much different from when he was taken. The boy had seen and done things she never envisioned for him.
It was begrudging, but she eventually allowed him in the ranks of the Young Justice Initiative. She couldn’t protect or hide him forever, clearly, so at the very least his skills and abilities could be used for good.
During his time with this Young Justice, he’s faced many personal highs and lows. The first of which came on the trip to Atlantis, when the adolescent giant squid was killed in front of Ja. It stoked reemergence of the red beast hiding within that Vixen tried to keep at bay. The problem though was that a beast locked in a cage only becomes more enraged.
Slowly, as the missions went on, the beast slowly made his presence more known. KJ became more aggressive, subtly. His punches began to lose restraint, as when Kassy was hurt by the Deluge, or when Kila challenged Viktor to a duel. However, these instances were only flashes of his rage.
It became more blatant though as of late, when suddenly something triggered the beast to wrest control from both Kila and Ja. During these triggered moments, the Red Beast would attack foes brutally, leaving his counterparts to deal with the aftermath. It caused much inner turmoil within the team as to how to deal with him, especially when that rage seemed to direct to friendlies as well.
It led to his being placed on probation from operating on missions. The hope was that a break from any potential violent scenarios would allow them all a better understanding of how to move forward. Kila initially would agree with this sentiment. However he wasn’t sure when he found the evidence of Buredunia somehow slipping a tracking device onto him.
In a rushed measure of calculation and panic to save his friends from capture, he broke protocol to warn them. Moreover to make things worse, he did not give any notice to the team leads Red Tornado or Black Canary. The culmination of these bad decisions only led to his worst fear: Being put in a position that would force him to leave the team and go back beneath the Red Lion’s thumb. However, while on the way there, he was presented with information that rocked him to his core.
This ultimately led to Kilamanjaro going MIA. The Justice League discovered that he escaped his captors, but hadn’t made contact with the League, his team, or even his mother. With his comm link destroyed and no means of tracing him, the team was left to move forward without him.
What they couldn’t know at the time was that what KJ had learned caused emotional whiplash. It was such that even the beast was at a loss for what to do when finally met with the freedom given. So he wandered for several weeks. He knew he was hurting…but he also knew that there was only one place to find comfort. So in time, he managed to find his way back to the home-base where Ja’s family was.
There, for the first time in his life, the “beast” was given a name of his own: Ro.
NotesThe Limitation to his augment based abilities is that it is entirely reliant on his emotional state and confidence. If a situation looks too intimidating, Ja’s power is going to weaken. If he has belief that he can topple the challenge, or if he has courage, his power will buff. Moreover, he can only copy the abilities of animals he has been in the physical presence of. With that too, as of currently, he can only use two of his animal based abilities at a time. It also known that a specific high frequency sound can violently trigger Ro to take control and blindly attack the person(s) associated with creating it.
When it comes to his interactions with animals, he has to be careful which he attempts his mental compulsion on. This is because of the fact that too much interaction with them could result in his own instincts taking over. Should that happen, he'd be in a state where he's more bestial than cognizant for a certain amount of time.
This bestial rage state was formerly referred to as “The Red Beast”. However, this third persona of his has evolved beyond his rage and now is referred to as “Ro”. He possesses the same abilities as Ja, except the typical limitations are expunged. This is at the cost of lacking Kila or even Ja’s tactical ability in combat, driven by his primitive instincts.
Kila and Ja previously had no knowledge of each other, despite having the same body and many of the same memories. Now, with the aid of the team, they are understanding their DID condition much better. It is unknown how much Ro understands the situation, but at times it seems that he knows more than he appears. With therapy and collective support from his friends, the overall mental states of the three are improving.
Kila was trained by a
chief enforcer in Ja Zaki’s elite guard who took on a motherly role for him and was the one who betrayed Ja Zaki. She died in the battle for his freedom. In tribute to her, his costume was influenced by her uniform and is even carrying her gauntlets. The Gauntlets are made from the special variant of promethium only produced in Buredunia named True Promethium. It contains the energy absorbing and channeling abilities of the Volatile variant, while having the durability and non-toxic nature of the Depleted variant. There are very few materials made from this material globally.
There is still much contention as to whether the Buredunian President is actually his father or not. Despite some verbal references and other implications by President Bland, no evidence to prove such has been confirmed.
*The Metamorph suit that he wears takes on the pattern of varying animals in certain sections. Currently pictured is a leopard’s spots. Black is default color of these sections when no animal inspired ability is in use.
KJ also has purposefully placed scar-lines that protrude from his skin. Each represents a fellow teammate from his past on the field from his missions with the Red Lion’s guard. There are 10 on his chest, 4 on his back, and 6 going down each arm. Among the memories that Kila and Ja share, these are the most vivid.