Adapt

Antonio Cardosa, better known as Adapt, is a member of Alpha Squad with the power to evolve to counter almost anything thrown at him. His powers allow him to be extremely flexible, and make him very difficult to incapacitate. While his abilities have allowed him many victories over criminals and other villains, they have taken their toll as well. Despite all attempts to keep himself together, Adapt still deals with various mental health issues stemming from how much trauma he experienced while growing up. During these times he becomes erratic and unpredictable. In recent years, he has begun working hard to fight off these problems so he doesn’t lose control.

## History

### Early Life

Adapt was born into an abusive home. When he was ten, he ran away, only to be found nearly dead by some kindhearted hunters who took him to safety. There, doctors discovered that Adapt had been exposed to extreme radiation, among other things. The damage caused severe physical changes which left him unable to live amongst normal humans without constant medical supervision until, one day, he was miraculously better. His metagene had activated much earlier than most do. His powers were, and still for the most part are, reactive in nature so he didn't pose much danger to other children and he bounced through foster care for a number of years before going to Atlas Academy.

### Team Sage

There he met friends, educators and classmates who seemed to care for him. But Antonio knew it was a matter of time before they abandoned him, just like the hunters who found him, the doctors and nurses who had cared for him before he got better and the various foster families he was never really a part of. So he ran away again and again. But each time he did Creature, Psionic Girl and Blackwing would come looking for him. Eventually he realised that no matter where he went, what he said, how hard he tried to push them away he had friends- friends who saw how much he was hurting, and how much he needed them. Friends who would come for him and bring him home. Adapt realised that for the first time in his life, he had a home among his friends.

Adapt was devastated when it seemed the members of his team were going in different life directions, with many of his friends going to study in universities scattered across the United States and the world. Adapt felt like his friends were finally abandoning him, like he'd always known they would eventually.

### Alpha Squad

He was pulled from his funk by his friend Xander, who was planning to study at the university in his hometown but couldn't face returning to his family's empty home alone. The two lived together during those years occasionally teaming up with the other members of their respective old teams before they all decided to reunite as the newly christened Alpha Squad.

Adapt and Lodestone had never been particularly close during their years in Atlas or on Alpha Squad due to Lodestone's more confrontational manner so Adapt was not too bothered by his departure but the loss of Psionic Girl less than a year later caused Adapt to spiral mentally and he removed himself from the team voluntarily to focus on his mental health.

When the Alpha Foundation was invited by Sanderson to a charity event, Adapt chose to stay home. The event had been intended to draw the team away from Alpha Tower where Smoke and Needler were infiltrating to remove crucial evidence in the case against Sanderson. The Principal had foreseen the event being a ploy and had sent Loxley, Kid Spectacular and Fahrenheit to counter it. Adapt was stirred from his sleep by the battle between the two groups.

## Powers, Abilities & Equipment

Adapt can almost instantly develop metahuman powers and capabilities dynamically when under threat. For example his skin developing tough spikes to break blades, developing gills underwater or his arms becoming wings while falling.

## Trivia

* All the members of Alpha Squad were originally based on X-men- his powers map directly from Darwin (mostly from the first class movie) but in terms of his story he was based more on Wolverine