Felipe Machado [Shockwave]

[Holtzmann]

Player Nickname: Holtzmann

Name: Felipe da Costa Machado
Codenames: Shockwave, the Agent, Metalhead
Age: 20
Date of Birth: April 2nd, 1992

Height: 6'4"
Weight: 264lbs
Hair Color: black
Eye Color: rust-red
Place of Origin: Southeastern Brazil
Nationality/Race: formerly Brazilian, naturalized U.S. citizen, mulatto
Classification: Mutant

Status: Salem resident
Occupation: Bodyguard and errand runner

Personality Profile: a relatively simple mind with simple tastes. Felipe has gone through many harrowing situations since arriving in the US, and the lessons he has learned show in his demeanor. He tends to be calm and easygoing even while on duty, always trying to stay away from trouble. His work has forced him to develop remarkable attention to detail and situational awareness (bordering on paranoia, some would say), which are only enhanced by his kinetic sense. Maybe as a result of that kinetic sense expanding his view, he sees "the big picture" very easily, sometimes seeing past seemingly chaotic situations to find patterns beyond.

His interests include motorcycles, cars, heavy metal and rock'n'roll music, building and fixing things, mechanical and electrical engineering and a variety of other trivial subjects. He is by most standards a genius in the field of classical physics, able to calculate complex trajectories and create very accurate mental blueprints of complex mechanisms in his head. He also hates being on the wrong side of the law, even if he is fully aware that he often has no choice on the matter.

Felipe can be very stubborn when he puts an idea in his mind, specially since he is very slow to forgive and does not forget. When angered, he sometimes becomes hard-headed to the point of ignoring or attempting to overpower obstacles that would be more easily sidestepped. Compounding that problem is the fact that his threshold for pain has been completely broken: he is aware of the pain, but is not hindered by it anymore, very often resulting in far greater injuries than if he had just collapsed instead.

Physical Description: Felipe is built like a lineman. Long legs for running, broad, muscular shoulders and arms for lifting weight. He has naturally tan skin, crisscrossed with small scars from a multitude of different sources. His hair is black and slightly wavy, going down to his shoulders. It is usually kept in a tight ponytail, but left loose in cold days. His left earlobe has a cut where he used to wear an earring.

In the past, Felipe used to wear a collection of baggy second-hand clothes and obscure band T-shirts, in keeping with his nickname Metalhead. These days are long gone. His outfits are now almost invariably formal: white dress shirts, formal black trousers with suspenders, tailored suits, well-polished black boots. He is often seen wearing rectangular shades and earpieces with built-in microphones, fitting the stereotypical image of the bodyguard if not for his complete refusal to wear ties. When relaxed or doing heavy physical work, he will take off his suit and roll up his shirtsleeves.


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Powerset: Kinetics

Ability One: Kinetic Field - Felipe is able to use the energy field that surrounds him to trap small amounts of matter out of the air, compressing and charging it up with kinetic energy. Such compression cannot be sustained for long, however, as the atoms spontaneously fuse, break the kinetic field and explode, resulting in the release of incredible amounts of energy in the form of a powerful shockwave and a fireball, as well as minuscule amounts of alpha radiation. It's in effect a tiny, fallout-less thermonuclear explosion, as powerful as a grenade and scalable up to catastrophic levels.

He has practiced extensively with the explosive blasts. He is skilled at creating them in a split second, although he needs a second or two charging up before particularly large detonations. His kinetic field makes him naturally immune to damage from his own explosions (but not others, as he can't just guess their timing), though he may still be knocked about by them if he wishes to.


Ability Two: High-Impact Adaptations - as a side-effect to the stresses placed upon his body by constant detonations, Felipe's bones and muscles have become tougher and much denser than a normal human's. Even his skin is hard to puncture. Combined with a nearly perfect cardiorespiratory system, this altered physiology gives him extra strength and much enhanced staying power for his size, both in terms of stamina and resistance to physical damage. He also heals up very quickly when well-fed and able to rest long enough, and is completely immune to drugs or substances that act upon his brain (including alcohol, recreational drugs and painkillers).


Ability Three: Kinetic Sense - Felipe's main energy field is supplemented by a second, much weaker field that extends far away from his body. Completely harmless and usually passive, this field can be tapped into so Felipe can detect objects within up to a hundred yards of himself. He can distinguish shapes, density and phase (solid, liquid, gas) but cannot see fine detail. His ability to sense things at a distance becomes less accurate at longer distances, but he can identify familiar people and things by their shape, density and movement patterns. The kinetic field is not blocked by most ordinary forms of matter, and it allows him to "feel" objects through obstacles or energy fields, including behind him or out of line of sight. The kinetic sense is always active at a basic level, giving him a very good notion of his surroundings and how to navigate them.


Drawbacks & Weaknesses: Felipe is unable to create explosions less powerful than half a pound of dynamite, making it very dangerous to be near him when using his power. Due to the particular way his explosions are formed, attempting to generate a blast in a location immersed in water or other liquids results in an vastly more powerful detonation that invariably overwhelms his kinetic field and sends him careening off at high speed.

Felipe also has no special defense psychic attacks beyond his own mental conditioning. His explosions may only be centered within an inch of his body. Consistent use of his powers leaves him hungry, tired and sore, with more powerful explosions causing large bruises and occasionally severe burns on his skin. Felipe (and anyone nearby) is also effectively deaf for a couple seconds after a blast goes off.

Projected Power Growth & Development: Felipe's mutations are set. All he can do is to try to increase the power of his blasts or become tougher and stronger.


Skills: Felipe is skilled at mechanics, electronics, mathematics, physics and musical theory (including drumming and bass and guitar playing). He's a fairly decent cook and has learned the basics of quite a few crafts in his spare time, as well as a bit of survivalism.


Background: Born in an industrial city within the São Paulo metropolis, Felipe Tiago da Costa Machado had a fairly average childhood. The son of a working couple in a tough neighborhood, he quickly learned fend by himself. Cultivating his strong physique as the basis for a tough-guy image, he kept bullies and other undesirables away from him and his friends through their entire school career. From very early on he's always picked his friends carefully, staying very loyal to them.

It was in high school that he developed the musical tastes that earned him the moniker Metalhead, and it was also there that his powers started to flare up. At first his explosions were nothing beyond concussive shockwaves, without any flames or other visually obvious effects. While trying learn how to control and hide his mutation, he learned about the Cobalt Academy, which offered him a scholarship in physics. He moved to the US with a student visa but in less than three months he had dropped out of college and found a job as part of the maintenance team at Cobalt.

In an ambush in the outskirts of Salem, Felipe was captured by a group of anti-mutant activists. The next seven months are still a confusing blur to him. By the time he returned to his senses, he was an outlaw with an extensive criminal history behind him. Making a run for the Canadian border, he then headed east until he reached the ocean and down south until he found Salem again. After a very brief stay in Cobalt, he moved on to try to sort his life out and find out what had happened to him.

A valiant effort as it might have been, it was doomed to fail. Deeper into trouble than he had ever imagined, Felipe found sanctuary in service of a wealthy pro-mutant businessman from Boston. Starting as a lowly mechanic maintaining and repairing his benefactor's expensive cars, he moved quickly up the ranks until he became a bodyguard and an exemplar right-hand man. His benefactor cleared his criminal record and even provided him with citizenship in record time.

Heavily indebted to his boss, even if financially well-off due to his generous wages, Felipe now spends most days either protecting the mysterious businessman from threats by anti-mutant groups and other extremists, or sending and taking important documents and messages all over the general Boston area. In his free time, he tends to stay around and near Salem, where he has a small flat downtown.

Criminal Record: none. There were previously multiple accounts of private and public property damage, assault, arson, kidnapping, manslaughter and murder, all within 6 months, which were somehow cleared by his benefactor.


Quirks, Extras, Random Character Facts:
- His Brazilian citizenship was revoked at some point in the past. As far as he knows, he is dead to his government. Luckily, he does not seem to care much.
- His favorite music genre is still heavy metal, now peppered with classical rock'n'roll and classical music.
- He drinks an unhealthy amount of Coca-Cola and energy drinks, although he does not specially like drinking coffee and does not get and effects out of the caffeine.
- He cannot fire a pistol to save his life, but has recently become a decent shot with rifles and longer weapons. He still cannot play first person shooters very well.
- His understanding of American traditions and sports has improved tremendously in the past two years, even though he still finds many of them strange.
- He finds psychic powers deeply unsettling.