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xxxxxRaphael Lennox had the good fortune of being born in Manchester, New York, as he would one day be needing the help of a certain neighbor. However, in his earliest years, he was just an unruly boy given to meandering off on his own adventures. He was like a contrary element to the suburbanite, white picket fenced environment into which he'd been born, always flighty and defiant of the rules.
xxxxxShortly before the age of thirteen, Raphael began to change in ways which made his chaotic exterior a much more internal force. His thoughts became fluid, with his point of focus shifting from one thing to the next in an endless and unpredictable series. He had a gift for seeing things from so many angles, yet no means to ever have stability. All of this was a herald for his waking X-Gene, which would manifest itself in the most subtle of ways in comparison to what it would become. He discovered that he was able to expel small puffs of wind from his limbs and mouth, as if the tempest within him were teaching him the means to its escape.
xxxxxFortunately, that certain neighbor had detected Raphael's emergence and arrived before the tempest had its way. Professor Charles Xavier came bearing an offer of a full scholarship at Xavier's School for Raphael, complete with room and board, and his parents were all too pleased to accept. The youth's erratic conduct had defied explanation and become too much for them to handle, which was entirely understandable. However, matters of the mind rarely defy explanation for Xavier. Headmaster and student spent much time together trying to sort out the turbulence in Raphael's thoughts.
xxxxxWith time given to the demands of effort and patience, the Professor and Raphael did arrive at a solution. The elder of the two realized that his new student's existence was intertwined with remarkable closeness to air and wind, right down to the molecular level. It had changed him, body and mind. Rather than attempting to subdue what was now the young man's natural state, Xavier delved further and discovered an orderly pattern within Raphael's fluid thoughts. Yes, they were constantly shifting, but they examined each point of focus from countless angles. With the presence of order came the promise of control, and they successfully mastered an 'off switch' with which to give Raphael's mind peace. He could flick that switch right back to enlightened disorder if he so chose, but Raphael had an entirely new world of normalcy to explore.
xxxxxFrom the ages of thirteen through seventeen, Raphael lived at Xavier's School and was a popular, successful student. So much of that boundless energy within him was given to his studies, and the rest to getting into typically harmless trouble. His was a generally successful academic life, and he'd taken a particular interest in the martial arts from among his many courses. No good thing is meant to last forever, but when Raphael's determined efforts saw him exhaust the school's curriculum and graduate a year early, he was determined that he would one day return to the people and place he so loved. It was with this in mind that Raphael played to his gifts and migrated for the next four years to the University of Bridgeport, where the nation's only accredited BA in Martial Arts Studies was offered.
xxxxxIt had proven to be a blessing that, in reality, Professor Xavier had ordered the true extent of Raphael's mutation to be held back during his instruction. This allowed him to live an ordinary, undetected life while at University, with only the earliest of his mutations at his command. He did well at Bridgeport and certainly took to the field he'd chosen as his life's pursuit. It was also interesting to be out there in the world, alone for the first time, back into the trend of adventuring with the same spontaneity as his boyhood years. Raphael discovered himself at college as do so many students, but that ended, and he wanted more than anything thereafter to return to the nest.
xxxxxWhen Raphael presented himself to Professor Xavier and requested to be considered as the school's martial arts instructor, he was met with a man pleased by the progress he'd made, as a person and in terms of living with his mutation as it stood. Charles elected to give him an opportunity at his first teaching position, welcoming him home and formulating further plans for him all in the same motion. Aerokinetics were a rarity, particularly ones changed down to their molecules as Raphael had been, and the young man potentially had much more to offer the world in the way of good deeds. Even though Raphael looked and sometimes acted no older than the students he would protect and teach, Xavier sought him as an X-Man and lifted the ban on teaching him to fully master his mutation.
xxxxxRaphael's training took his gifts to new heights. He became light and swift as a feather, and he eventually took this to the extent that he learned to fly. The culmination of it all was becoming the air and wind itself, abandoning flesh and blood as necessary to delve into his molecular nature. Compared with the gifts he'd mastered when he was a student, he was a versatile force with much promise as an X-Man. That said, he'd developed a phobia of being physically constrained when he manifested flight, and it demanded many adjustments to his life. Loose clothes, a larger room, and even a special ultra-light uniform for his clandestine duties. Nevertheless, Xavier saw more gains than losses in the effort. Raphael brought energy and enthusiastic morale to the team in even the darkest of storms, and if the worst shuld happen, he could turn off the 'switch' they'd invented to regulate his thoughts and allow him to see entirely new strategies in seemingly hopeless situations.
xxxxxIt has been one year now since Raphael returned to Xavier's School, becoming a teacher and an X-Man, successful to date on both fronts. His popularity continues, for he's not only an open ear and mind for his students and colleagues, but also a sometimes surprisingly good source for kernels of wisdom. An echo of that many-faceted mind, perhaps. He looks so young (and fit for magazine covers, granted) that he might often be mistaken for one of his students, which amuses him greatly. Whenever possible, Raphael uses that mental connection to make his lessons interesting, and there are times - more often than would be preferable - when he'll overlook or even involve himself in their mischief. One can tame the wind, but only to a certain extent.
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