The Flame Family

In early 2003, Cheri Ross and Dakota Gage uncovered a parahuman trafficking ring in Russia, with the aid of Russian hero Silver Shadow. Alongside the other prisoners, they found six orphaned children with a strange sun-shaped pattern on various parts of their bodies. When put together, they seemed to form some sort of map, although it was incomplete. The couple brought them back to El Paso for treatment and rehabilitation.

They founded The Flame Family alongside Cheri's father, Papa Flame, who acts as the primary teacher for the children. The best way to describe the organisation is a mixture of a school and an orphanage, where orphaned powereds can go and prepare for life in the real world. Although not explicitly designed to produce "heroes", like the ZPA is, The Flame Family, or officially The Ross Academy, has produced several well-known heroes.

The Zarathustra Parahuman Academy, although unaffiliated, offers scholarships to those who graduate from the programme. It's up to the Parahuman in question, however, whether they want to become a hero or not. Papa Flame considers the ZPA's influence "an unfortunate necessity", though chooses not to explain further than that.