Anole

Anole is a Marvel Comics character who first appeared in issue #2 of New Mutants vol 2 (August 2003). The fictional character history below is specific to the setting of the New X-Men game.

Backstory
Despite being born with reptilian features, Victor Borkowski initially led a normal life in his home town of Fairbury, Illinois. At first, the close-knit community accepted the boy for who he was - what harm could a little child do, after all? But as he grew older, larger and stronger, doubt and suspicion began to spread. And it wasn't just a local phenomenon; anti-mutant sentiment was growing across the country. Fearing for his safety, his parents sent him to the Xavier Institute before matters got out of hand.

Victor excelled both socially and academically at Xavier's. He soon became good friends with Julian Keller, and Santo Vaccarro in particular. When the original squad system was implemented, Victor was assigned to Northstar's "Alpha Squadron", and was given the codename "Anole". Intelligent, popular, and known to be dependable (with just enough of a competitive streak), Anole was a natrual fit for the position of squad leader.

During his time in training, Anole developed an especially close bond with his mentor. Though comfortable with his status as a mutant, Anole struggled with his sexual identity. Northstar, an openly gay mutant himself, helped Victor gradually come to terms with his homosexuality.

As such, when Northstar was killed in battle, it came as no surprise that Anole took it harder than most. He was When a series of Purifier attacks on the Xavier Institute killed many of his friends and classmates, Anole never truly recovered. He lingered at Xavier's for only a few more months before abandoning his studies, striking off on his own.

Timeskip and the Last Stand
Though he maintained his distance from the Xavier Institute and never permanently returned, Anole did occasionally rejoin the X-Men for important missions on a strictly temporary basis. He also managed to maintain his friendship with Rockslide, whose caustic and unflappable sense of humour always seemed to lighten Victor's dour mood.

When he heard that the Xavier Institute was once again taking in students and had even reinstated the squad system, Anole made his objections clear. He outright refused the invitation to take up residence at the school in order to advise a squad of his own, likening the concept to the use of child soldiers in war time. In his mind, humans and mutants were clearly not meant to cohabitate. He fled his home town in fear of prejudice and persecution, and yet it followed him to Xavier's in full force. Charles Xavier's dream of peace and understanding had died with him, and any further attempts to bring it about, Anole believed, would only end in ruin as it already had so many times over.

But even with all this said, when Cyclops began to gather X-Men for one final push against the Purifier threat, Anole answered the call. Prepared to fight, and die if need be, he agreed to follow Cyclops' orders to first escort those mutants to young to fight to a safe location in Wakanda. What he did not know was that the teleportation portal that Forge had prepared for this purpose would not only take them half way across the world, but also 2 full weeks into the future.

By the time they arrived in Wakanda, The Last Stand of the X-Men was history, and Anole was left to care for dozens of young students on his own. As with everything he did in life, Cyclops had put great thought into choosing Anole for this unenviable assignment; the way he saw it, if the Last Stand were to turn out to be a failure, then Anole would have been right about all of his accusations. And so, who better to care for those mutants who remained in a world without the X-Men?

With lives still depending on him, Anole could not afford the luxury of mourning. He kept the group of young mutants together long as the Wakandans would allow them to stay - long enough to be sure that they were in no immediate threat from the fallout of the Last Stand. The United States was pushing the Superhuman Registration Act through in a hurry, and word was that similar legislation was being discussed around the world, but there were ways around that.

Anole encouraged those who could pass as human to live in the world in hiding, by whatever means necessary; for those whose mutations made this impossible, he even went so far as to suggest voluntarily taking the Hope serum and abandoning their lives as mutants. And some did. Still, many in his charge refused to leave.

With no other options left to him, Anole formed Unity: a small team of young mutants, the last survivors of the Xavier Institute, living in self-imposed exile - but living all the same. With more help from the Wakandans, they built a small base of operations in a concealed location among the mountains on the Mohanndan border.

Even after eight years, Anole has never properly grieved for the loss of so many old friends, teachers, and fellow X-Men, nor has he forgiven those who led them to their deaths.

Powers and Abilities
Anole is an Alpha-level mutant. His reptilian morphology supplies him with a wide array of superhuman abilities. His skin is naturally green and is both thicker and more durable than that of a human's; some areas, such as his shoulders, his back, and the top of his head are covered with thicker, spined scales. In addition to providing protection, his skin is capable of rapidly changing colour to match any surroundings, provided Anole stands still.

Anole's long, elastic tongue is prehensile, and capable of grasping and retrieving objects that would ordinarily be out of reach. His fingers end in sharp claws that help him climb walls and cling to surfaces at any orientation.

Anole's also possesses a healing factor that varies in efficiency depending on the severitiy of his injuries. When one of his arms was severed in combat, it grew back instantly - only larger, more heavily armored, and considerably stronger. It is believed that any other limbs he may lose will likewise regenerate in a stronger, more reptilian form, but Anole has been rather understandably reluctant to experiment with this theory.