Calvin Rankin

	Anything you can do, I can do better. Or, well, at least as well, and I look better doing it.
	— Himself

Calvin gained his power to copy the abilities of others as a child, due to an accident involving one of his father Ronald's inventions. He gained fame as a young teen for being a prodigy in numerous fields (athletics, mathematics, acting, chess, archery, etc.) but was soon outed as a superhuman and banned from competition. He now attends Sky High.

Personality

Calvin can be charming and personable, extremely so, when he puts his mind to it... which is usually when he wants something from you. The rest of the time he's arrogant, entitled, and swimming in unacknowledged privilege. He considers himself superior to pretty much everybody, and doesn't really care about people who aren't in some specific way important (read: useful) to him. He thinks of himself as heroic, but is honestly more likely to be a supervillain than a superhero.

Background

Calvin was raised by his single father, Dr. Ronald Rankin. Ronald meant well, but was a lousy dad: forgetful, neglectful, and bitter. Calvin grew up largely left to his own devices, which left him both independent and arrogant. When he was seven years old he was exploring in his father's lab and broke an experimental setup that gave him superhuman abilities. He didn't realize this at first, but over the years he found he was good at things without having to study or practice. He was an A student, a star athlete, a prodigy in many different fields. He became famous on TV and the internet. When he was 14 he sued for independence from his father and set off to be a star. At 16 he discovered he could copy the superpowers of people he met. At 17 this fact became public, and many of the public viewings, TV appearances, etc. that he relied on started drying up... a teen prodigy was one thing, but yet another superpowered teenager was much less interesting. That's when he was contacted by Xavier and urged to attend Sky High. He agreed, hoping to learn how to retain copied abilities permanently.

SIGNATURE ABILITY

Ultimate Mimicry

Ordinarily, Calvin's mimicry ability cannot exceed Enhanced capability and is limited in practical terms by what his target actually knows how to do. In truly life-or-death situations, such as when facing an overwhelmingly powerful foe, he is theoretically capable of exceeding those limits and _completely_ mimicking the capabilities of that foe, even theoretical capabilities they themselves aren't aware that they have. Generally speaking, he will possess these abilities until the immediate life-threatening crisis is over -- like, until the end of the fight he's in. In some cases he may prove unable to channel so much power and will "burn out" even sooner than that. This will be mostly left up to GM whim.

SKILLS

Charm - Competent Level

Calvin does not have very many skills, as he generally relies on his ability to copy the skills of others as he needs them. He does, however, have a confident, charismatic manner that makes it easy for him to make friends and manipulate people.

ABILITIES

Personal: Evaluate Target - Enhanced Level

Calvin can determine by a few seconds' concentration that a person has unusual skills or abilities, and in vague terms determine what they are. If he focuses for a few minutes he can evaluate their abilities much more precisely.

Personal: Mimicry - Enhanced Level

Calvin can copy the skills and abilities, both ordinary and superhuman, of anyone in range. His range depends on how well he knows the target... a few meters for complete strangers, up to a mile or so for well-known targets. He can choose which target(s) to copy, but not which abilities he gets... it's all or nothing. He can copy generic knowledge but not specific... for example, he can copy your knowledge of how to navigate your home town, but he won't have your memories of doing so. He can copy Supreme powers but only manifest them up to Enhanced levels. Especially complicated abilities may be difficult or impossible for him to use effectively. He can copy abilities from multiple targets at once, but copying more than 4 Enhanced targets or the equivalent will overload him.

WEAKNESSES

Easily Flattered

Calvin has a very high opinion of himself and can readily be manipulated by anyone who seems to share it.

Overconfident

Calvin just assumes that he can handle any threat, defeat any opponent, rise to any challenge. Often this prevents him from actually making plans -- for example, he might fail to account for the likelihood that his target(s) will move out of his range just when he is relying on their power, and fall flat on his face.

Reliant on Targets

If there's nobody around to copy from, Calvin has nothing but his own skills and abilities. Which, frankly, don't amount to much, as he has never really applied himself to developing any... it's so much easier to borrow other people's!

The following logs feature Calvin Rankin:

• 2020.05.26 - How To Do Things

Faction Memberships

Character Connections

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