Code Name: Shrapnel

Home: Claremont, California

Age: 20

Weight: 175#

Height: 5' 10"

Mutant Factor Abilities: Kinetic Absorption.

  The ability to absorb physical damage (kinetic energy) , store it and project it as raw concussive energy. The Mutant Factor Ability gives him the following powers:

• Rapid Flight , by projecting concussive energy through his legs to create lift and propulsion

• Project beams of concussive force

• Immunity from physical damage

 Institute Biographical Profile: 

Michael Dorsey was born into a loving family, with three older siblings significantly older than him Michael always felt as if he had five parents. He enjoyed the attention and thrived on how his family looked after him even  when his early activation of his mutant ability began to appear at the age of eight.  He started complaining of headaches, body aches and chronic pain. As the days past the pain seemed to get worse and worse until he was incapable of leaving his bed. The slightest physical contact seemed to make the pain only worse. Finally, he had to be hospitalized. Panic stricken his family did not question the credentials of a Doctor who came from the Institute. After spending a short time with Michael, the 'specialist' determined that Michael was a mutant, and his mutation was the cause of his medical problems. He discreetly approached his parents and explained to them in private what was occurring. Fearful for there son's life they agreed to allow the Doctor to take there son away to the institute for a brief while so they can try to get his powers under control.

The Doctor was as good as his word. Three weeks later Michael was on the road to recovery. They had learned that his mutation was constantly absorbing all kinetic energy his body comes into contact with. As his body strained to control and absorb it, the energies where causing him physical pain. With great concentration, Michael was able to focus the energy and control it enough to release the excess energy his body was storeing which relieved most of the pain. Unfortunately even the act of releasing the energy caused him pain, but since there was no way for Michael to avoid kinetic energy and still enteract with the world around him, he was doomed to live a life of constant pain as his body seemed to turn against him. The instructors at the institute started Michael on a training program in several schools of Martial Arts and Meditation so he might better control his mutant powers. The discipline of martial training and meditation allowed him to better fight off the affects of the pain his powers caused him with out the use of drugs. Six months later they sent Michael back to his parents. He was too young and too attached to his family for further training. He possessed enough control to keep his powers from harming himself and others.

Upon his return to his family, Michael discovered that his family had changed. No longer the baby of the family and the object of there attention. He could see the fear in there eyes. His family grew distant from him and although they did nothing to push him away, their  fear hurt him deeply. Having to learn to live with the constant pain his powers brought him and the fear of his family, Michael became depressed. He stopped caring about his appearance and became emotionally blank.The only thing he cared about was his training, fighting his powers where he was unable to fight the prejudice and fear of his family.

As Michael grew up, he began to notice that he was different than other men, he felt a definite attraction to the same sex. At first he denied it, intentionally dating as many girls as he could figuring that if he forced himself he could atleast be normal in that one way, He started taking great pride in his personal appearance again, He worked harder, at his martial arts and channeling his powers, but it all caught up with him when he realized that his whole life had been a series of meaningless relationships, with his siblings, with his parents and the girls he forced himself to date. The overbearing sense of loneliness nearly killed him as he lost control and in an attempt at suicide released all the kinetic energy he had stored in his body in one massive concussive blast nearly leveling his parents house. Michael was not so fortunate, the pain from such a sudden release knocked him into a coma. When he awoke, he was in a Mutant  Internment Camp ran by 'BYSTANDERS'. Still recovering from his suicide attempt and not knowing the fate of his family Michael is in a state of perpetual emotional shock enforced by drugs his captors administer to him to keep him docile and manageable. It is only recently that he has not been allowed the opportunity to release the excess stored energies in his body that his pain levels are starting to bring him back to reality.

Institute Biological Profile: 

Michael Dorsey is an accomplished Martial Artist studied in Akido, Karate and Kick-boxing however, his hand to hand combat skills are more technical than they are inspired. He lacks a natural affinity that takes a student to the master level. What he does show an affinity for is his meditative skills, Yoga, meditation, self-hypnosis, Michael is a master at self-control, his stamina and physical conditioning have been tempered by years of living with a mutation that brings him tremendous amounts of pain. Michael has found a way to use the pain itself to focus and center himself giving him a unique appreciation for pain that on some levels borders on sadomasochism. His tolerance for pain is disturbing to others around him and dangerous to himself. It allows him to focus his powers to levels beyond human endurance when he is properly motivated as with his previous suicide attempt. When he focuses that much power or tries to contain inordinate amounts of energy for prolonged periods of time he runs the risk of damaging his nervous system.

Institute Psychological Profile:

Michael is an emotional time bomb. He has serious issues of abandonment brought upon by his families fear of his powers, he feels alienated from everyone he ever loved and is afraid to get close to anyone because they might just get close enough to hurt him again. His homosexuality has of yet been unexplored. He knows who and what he is, and has come to accept after his recent suicide attempt but his fear of getting close to anyone keeps him distant from any type of relationship. Michael does not go out of the way to alienate himself socially but he will never commit to a meaningful relationship unless he can first overcome his fears of being hurt.

Institute Mutant Factor Profile: Michael's power is unstable and in constant flux. He constantly balances the price of not using his power, vs the price of using it against the pain it will cause himself and others. He is placed in a true catch 22 situation, the powers are dangerous to him if he uses them or not, there is no avoiding the pain only making the best compromise the situation calls for.

He has been able to channel the concussive energies to create the following effects:

• project beams of concussive energy

• Rapid flight

• Immunity to physical damage 

He can channel energies and low and medium levels of power with relative ease and with out fear of causing himself unbearable amounts of pain. His ability to ignore personal pain is not a mutant ability, It was developed by years of exposure to high levels of pain coupled with intense training in Meditation and various mental disciplines in chronic pain management.