Student

Kevin H. Shaughnessy

REAL NAME: Kevin H. Shaughnessy

CODE NAME: Kraken

HEIGHT: 5' 8"

WEIGHT: 150 lbs (extra weight comes from presence of pseudopods rather then from excess fat or other weight-related problems)

HAIR COLOR: No hair whatsoever. any where. ;)

EYE COLOR: Pale green eyes, at the extreme range of what would be found in a normal human eye; unlike his skin his eyes cannot change color

APPEARANCE: Mottled green (which changes color); six tentacle-like, extra limbs emerging from the dorsal region; webbed hands and rather frog-like feet; gill slits between ribs; pointed teeth (not as much as a shark or T Rex but definitely more than a normal human's); athletic build (think early Spider-Man but not as buff); due to high copper content (about 7-8% more than normal human) his blood is a dark red, almost purple in color.


POWERS: General cephalopod powers - Can breath air and water whether fresh, salt or moderately treated with chemicals like swimming pool water or chlorinated drinking water. Has six pseudopods with microsuckers so skin seems smooth to the touch as well as to sight; skin is not slimy nor inherently slick, temperature is a little warmer than normal human but not blatantly. Pseudopods together with webbing on hands and somewhat frog-like feet make him a fast swimmer. Immune to cold at even well below freezing temperatures. Can survive in very deep waters despite the immense water pressure. Can change the color of his skin for camouflage or disguise; the color change can also happen as a result of his emotional state and sometimes does so when Kevin neglects to consciously override it. Can see in reduced light-level conditions (but not complete darkness) and can see into the ultraviolet range. High healing factor such that an injury which would take a normal human being a week to heal from would take him an hour or two to heal from; in theory he could also grow back lost limbs or body parts (eye, tooth, eardrum, etc.) but that hasn't been put to the test yet. Since the injured area heals back to its original state without any scarring it effectively means that undergoing surgery to look more 'normal' is not an option for him. NOTE! He does _not_ squirt ink. 8^)

Electrical powers - All electrical powers come from a pair of Electricity Producing Organs (EPOs) that run parallel to his spine. They give Kevin a variety of electricity-based powers: the ability to generate a Zap, a sort-of GPS, an electrical sensing field and the ability to detect living creatures from their own electrical activities as well as electrical activity in general.
The Zap can be generated across his entire body although it's strongest along his pseudopods; it also has no range unless he's in water or uses some sort of conductive material like a steel pole or copper cable. At full strength it can kill a normal human being in 4-5 seconds.

The GPS is based on sensing the Earth's electromagnetic fields the way a homing pigeon does; Kevin has learned how to memorize a place's coordinates to use it as a reference point for navigation as well as to find his way back to it.

The sensing field works the way an electric eel's does in that it generates a low-level electrical field and when an object enters the field it disrupts the field letting Kevin know there's something there. He's experienced enough to be able to deduce size and speed but unless there's some distinguishing feature he cannot tell the difference between two similarly sized people / objects for example, Dairon vs Barry, Joie vs Bliss, a rock vs a beach ball, etc. Being a cyborg, Forge has a distinctive electrical signature; because of his adamantium skeleton Wolverine also is unique; Angel's and Dragon's wings are distinctive; Colossus in his metal form is extremely unique due to the metal content as well as size.

As far as telling the difference between living objects, non-electrically active objects and electrically active objects, Kevin can sense the amount and general type of electrical activity that an object is producing and deduce whether it's alive or not or whether it's a machine based on their electrical output. Living creatures tend to have a much more random electrical output that machines.

NOTE! All electrical senses are affected by background electrical activity! The more electrical activity is going on in the background the more difficult it is to detect the finer details. So while in Backwoods Alaska Kevin could sense how many birds were in a tree, in the Mansion he could sense where the branches were on the tree while climbing it and in NYC the best he could do would be to avoid walking into a moderate - large tree and keep from falling into a moderate - large hole in the ground. If there's a lot of background electrical activity, like next to an electrical generator or in a bad thunderstorm, his electrical sensing abilities would be so overwhelmed that they'd be useless.

Other powers - Can lift nearly a ton. Lightly armored skin; can deflect most knives wielded by a normal human being, can bounce light caliber bullets even at fairly close range although Teflon coated bullets will penetrate. High tolerance to heat, can remain physically active without significant problems up to about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

BACKGROUND: Birth certificate shows date of birth as 01/01/84, place of birth as Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, NY NY, birth mother as Cecilia Roody and father as Jack Roody; those familiar with NY know Our Lady of Mercy as a charity hospital where it's not uncommon for some parents / single mothers to just walk away and leave the newborn behind. Adoption papers list Dr. Walter Bertram Shaughnessy as legal guardian and grandfather; during adoption proceedings Kevin's name also legally changed from Kevin Holmcross Roody to Kevin Holmcross Shaughnessy.

Because of his appearance Kevin was raised under nearly lab-rat conditions in the Golsovia River area of Alaska. He did not have the opportunity to socialize with anyone other than Dr. Shaughnessy and what he learned was from a restricted list of books, movies, cable shows etc. To further protect him Dr. Shaughnessy taught him from an early age that most normal human beings would try to kill or hurt him on sight because of his looks. A couple of encounters with normal humans proved the Dr. right, fortunately Kevin was able to escape those encounters unhurt. As a result of his upbringing Kevin was highly xenophobic but during his time in the school he's found enough acceptance and support that his xenophobia has been greatly reduced.


HIGHEST LEVEL OF FORMAL EDUCATION COMPLETED: Kevin is current in most fields of study for his age; his weakest points are literature and arts (one and a half grades below what he should be), his strongest points are biochemistry and marine biology (third year college). Other strong sciences are physics, geology, chemistry and math. Tends to be literal-minded so he has problems understanding some forms of literature and poetry but that is slowly improving.


HOBBIES: Sometimes paints with watercolors using an odd technique that falls somewhere between impressionism and pointillism; this is possibly based on the physical aspects of how Kevin's vision works but that hasn't been tested. Now that he is free to make some choices of his own he's become a big Jackie Chan fan (but not quite to the point of being a drooling fanboy). Also currently learning Cantonese (Shay/Dragon), acrobatics (partly school requirement, partly from his interest in Jackie Chan), Tai Chi Chu'an (due to Jackie Chan interest), skateboarding (Dave/Blink), movie and video making (Ben/MorFX), Chinese cooking (Shay/Dragon), riding and maintaining motorcycles (Kai/Cix), All Things British (Dairon/Synthesis and, to a lesser extent, Julie/Blackout), falling in love (Joie/Epiphany), etc. etc. etc.


MISCELLANEOUS NOTES: Despite his appearance Kevin is quite well-adjusted. He does not consider himself a monster although he's very aware that most normal humans would. And even though his powers can be quite fearsome, if not downright lethal, his personality is more like a Golden Retriever than a Doberman or Rottweiler. He'd rather make friends than pound the stuffing out of people. In fact, he knows _exactly_ how dangerous his powers are (he's had his powers all his life) and as a result he tends to shy away from combat unless there's no choice. To date he's only used his Zap full strength on living creatures once (self-defense) and his full strength once (normal human beings in modified Mandroid powered armor). He did not enjoy either time.

Kevin is not a mutant, something that Professor Xavier was made aware of when Dr. Shaughnessy asked for Kevin to be admitted to the school. Kevin has already privately told some of the Mansion residents that he's an Inhuman, not a mutant; so far he hasn't gotten up the nerve to tell that to everybody in the school. He's also very interested in finding his family but so far has had no luck on that count.