Basil Vlahos

Basil Vlahos is an original fictional character who first appeared in New Mutants: Last Class.

Background
Basil Vlahos was born and raised in Athens, Greece. He developed his mutant powers at the age of 10, and initially, his parents weren't sure what to do with him. Though the boy seemed to have fine control over his new abilities, it was control over his mischievous tendencies that were the bigger concern, especially now that he could slip into small spaces and disrupt electronics with ease. Fearing that it was only a matter of time before Basil hurt himself or others, his family enrolled him at the Xavier Institute in hopes that they were better equipped to handle him.

Basil joined the school's Lower Class where he soon earned a reputation as a prankster and class clown. His pranks were never truly cruel, but were instead designed to surprise and sow confusion - though those on the receiving end didn't always see things his way. Owing to this, and to his feeble grasp of the English language, Basil was largely shunned by his classmates. Moreover, he payed little attention in class and his grades suffered dearly for it. The only aspect of school in which held any interest for him was his Teleportation and Phasing elective, mentored by his idol, the X-Man known as Nightcrawler.

Timeskip and the Last Stand
Basil was barely 14 years old at the time of the climactic battle between the X-Men and the Purifiers that would come to be known as The Last Stand of the X-Men. Though teleported to the safety of Wakanda with his classmates, Basil would never be the same. After a brief visit to his family in Athens, Basil returned and chose to remain in Wakanda, becoming a founding member of Unity.

The apparent deaths of the X-Men - his teachers and mentors - had a tremendous impact on the boy. To the surprise of his former classmates he grew uncharacteristically focused, serious, and obedient, putting aside his childish pranks and turning his attention instead to catching up on his studies. In particular he specialized in computing and technology, and is now in charge of many of the high-tech systems that Unity employs at its main headquarters. He was given the codename "Discharge", a nickname he had coined for himself back in his Lower Class days, though he seldom uses it and prefers to simply use his real name.

Powers and Abilities
Basil is a Gamma-level mutant. Initially it was proposed by senior members of the X-Men that Basil possessed two distinct mutant powers, one of which may have been the result of a rare secondary mutation, but further research on the part of Dr. Henry McCoy confirmed a link between the two.

Basil possesses control over his body at a cellular level, enabling him to rapidly break his cells down into a liquid cytoplasmic form and later rebulid himself at will, though the latter process is somewhat more difficult for him. An unexpected extension of this power is the ability to generate strong electrical currents by manipulating chemical concentrations in his cells, similar to the bioelectrogenesis of electric eels and rays. His discharges are sufficient to stun or potentially even kill an adult human, and are measurably stronger in his cytoplasmic form.

Similarly, Basil can also detect subtle shifts in electromagnetic fields in a limited area around him, an ability which comes in very handy when dealing with electronic devices of all kinds.

Basil has had some training in hand-to-hand combat, though he is a more capable combattant in his cytoplasmic form. He is also an experienced technician and has worked with everything from toasters to advanced Wakandan technology.