Trigger these powers for my original organization

I'm working on a project which explores a cape organization that concerns itself with much bigger issues than the comparatively petty politics most other groups engage in. This group, Black Phoenix, sees the hero/villain dichotomy as mindless spectacle to conceal the more important economic realities which prioritize certain interests at the cost of the poor and working class. Organizationally, they take much inspiration from the indian (cold capes) in how they operate.

Most of these characters are pre-existing ones for me, but I would like to see if they make sense in the world of parahumans. I have basic backstories that can carry over into this world, as well as their powers also generally adapted to fit, but I am having trouble figuring out trigger events that would both give them their powers and lead them down this path. So with no further adieu, allow me to introduce you to the Black Phoenix.

Charles Garvey (Black Phoenix) (yes it's both his cape name and the name of the organization)- a former PRT agent who triggered on the job and was assigned to a black-ops task force, since neither his power nor personality meshed well with heroism. He defected due to political reasons, concerns regarding corruption, and a desire to help his community more directly.

He is a master/stranger with the ability to emit black and pink "psychic flames" that can "burn away aspects of the mind." He can erase certain emotions, short term memories, mental faculties, and generally weaken one's intellectual constitution with his flames, temporarily. While one is in a state like this, he can implant subliminal messages within their psyche, which will cause them to act a certain way in response to specific stimuli, Valefor style. The mental damage that his flames do are temporary, and victims can build up a temporary resistance after repeated exposure to them for a long time.

John Black (Holistic) is an ex-hero who defected due to similar concerns as Charles, but moreso focused on corruption than politics, and later joined Charles's organization since he felt it would be the best means of tackling the protectorate and PRT's corruption.

He is a striker/thinker with a similar power to Chevalier, only the power itself is more of a focus than the things created by the power. Hollistic can fuse objects with drastically different properties together so long as they have a few properties in common (size, shape, mass, etc) and uses this to weaken physical structures that he comes into contact with. He is manton limited and cannot fuse human body parts, but he can fuse clothing with other objects, either to pin targets down or to weaken defenses by fusing in weaker material. The thinker aspect of his power is also similar to Chevalier, as he can see properties of objects very clearly, as well as having a sense of how things "fit together" like a detective. This gives him a heightened sense of vibrations going through inanimate objects, so he can also detect things like vehicles from far away by focusing on the ground.

Drake Numeron (Draconian) is a teenage defector from a parahuman family/cult similar to the fallen or heartbroken, who acted as emissaries of Cauldron. After running away, he found himself amongst the Black Phoenix, who he felt he could trust to keep him away from his family's clutches more than the protectorate, PRT, or other organizations, though his affiliation with them was mostly due to luck. It would have been just as easy for him to end up with, say for instance, Faultline's crew.

He is a striker/blaster/master (still not sure how entirely to classify this power) with the ability to create a dragon-humanoid psychic projection which appears beside him, on the condition that he is holding a weapon of some kind (either a gun or knife in his case.) Using his knife will cause the projection to use an accompanying attack with its claws, and a shot from a gun will result in a blast of fire from the dragon's mouth (both of which are stronger and faster than Draco and his weapons)

My general idea for Draco's family is that the patriarch drank Siberian and Genesis's cauldron vial, and so his offspring gained powers which created projections, but they're a problem for another day. I really hope I'm not wrong about cauldron shards being able to form buds, else I'll have to rethink some things.

James Prescient (Specter) is a former teenage drug dealer who triggered due to a deal gone wrong, and was swept up by Black Phoenix before anyone else could get to him.

He is a breaker/master with the ability to create a purple aura around him that grants him selective intangibility. Specter can select specific objects around him before creating the aura, and then phase through them. This does not work on an elemental basis, so rather than Specter selecting "metal" and then his aura can phase through any metallic object, he would see a specific metallic object (a gun) and then code his aura to phase through that gun and it's bullets. He has to see something in order to code it into his aura. There is a several-second long delay between activation and deactivation, so Specter can't just add new objects to his phase-count willy-nilly. Furthermore, Specter will always make it so he cant phase through the floor, so he can also be countered by beating him with the ground he's standing on. As it pertains to Parahuman abilities, he usually has to see the ability in action first before he can code it into his aura, mainly when the ability in question involves emitting a brand new supernatural concept, like with blaster or breaker powers. The master aspect of Specter's aura allows him to branch it off into a shadowy claw that can slash at others, including objects the aura is coded to phase through. The tradeoff is that doing this will cause part of his body to be exposed. The slash itself is much like Jack's projected blade, lacking friction, but it has a much more limited range.