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lessandmorethanhuman Basics
Canon: Prototype (videogame)
Canon-point: End of Prototype 1, Prototype 2 will have no relevance in this journal.
Name: Alex Mercer
Also known as: Zeus, the Prototype, Dr. Alexander J. Mercer (rarely used)
Age: Looks 29
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 190 (when completely human).
Appearance: Base form is caucasian male, slightly stocky-build, with silvery-blue eyes. Likely dark-brown slightly curly-hair, but unconfirmed. He's always seen in blue jeans, black shoes, a white button up shirt with the throat undone, a gray hoodie (hood up, always), and a black leather jacket with white stripes on the arms and a red tribal dragon design on the back.
Personality: Calculating and cold, Predatory, sarcastic, driven. Not an easy man to get to know, but if something piques his interest, he'll pursue it.
If you earn his loyalty, you better not betray it... He can have a softer-side, as he's fiercely protective of his sister Dana, but good luck getting him to show it at all. Despite being a borderline-sociopath, he's been developing a conscience; recognizing certain things as wrong vs. right, and has a strong sense of guilt--this is likely due to his circumstances...
History
History:Alex Mercer spent the first 9 yrs of his life in poverty, shuttled from foster-care to foster-care, until his mother was released from prison when he was 10. He was better off before being placed back with his mother, and acted as the only parental figure for his sister, Dana. His intelligence and aptitude for science lead him to take solace only in his work. He couldn't care what people thought of him, didn't trust anyone, and had no friends--he was borderline sociopathic. Graduating with a doctorate in genetics from Columbia University, he soon found a position as Head Researcher on the Blacklight Project for the corporation, Gentek. Working with viral samples provided by the government, Alex and his team soon engineered a very potent and particularly virulent virus that was codenamed "Blacklight". He was years ahead of his competitors and an asset to the corporation.
However, he was viewed as a liability by Blackwatch, an elite black-ops group designed to combat exotic threats. Officially, Blackwatch does not exist--and has jurisdiction and priority over the US Army and marines when they are called in. They do have a professional branch, Gentek, associated with them. In time, Gentek became scrutinized with an investigation proposed--and Blackwatch, fearing a leak, proceeded to cover it up and shut it down. Alex, being paranoid, began his own secret investigation that eventually led to him deciding to flee for safety. He escaped to Penn Station, where he was cornered by Blackwatch agents. He'd brought insurance with him, in the form of a sample vial of the Blacklight virus--and when cornered, smashed it on the ground in frustrated spite before he was promptly shot and killed. Unfortunately, he'd caused everyone in the station to start becoming infected which became the beginnings of a biological apocalypse in Manhattan. As he died, Alex collapsed on to the viral sample, infecting him as he died.
Next thing he knows, Alex is waking up in the morgue as he was taken back to Gentek straight from Penn Station and his 'death'. He has no memory of what happened, and no clear memories of his previous life. The two men about to cut into him for autopsy fled, and Alex is confused by why they were terrified of him. Running after them, he realizes quickly that Blackwatch is not his friend when he sees them shoot the scientists as they attempt to escape. He's quickly noticed, and then confused as he's shot--but his body regenerates the wounds instantaneously. Fleeing, he surprises the soldiers and himself when he clears a several-feet high fence around the facility in a single bound.
From there, he found himself trapped in Manhattan, with strange new abilities, and a determined desire to track down those responsible for his situation, and uncover the truth about what happened to him. He's wanted by the Blackwatch group as well as the US Military, determined to eradicate the virus and the growing number of infected civilians. Soon learning the location of his sister, he goes to reunite with her. He's hoping she has answers, and arrives to find her about to be taken by Blackwatch. Dana is terrified, witnessing Alex impale the soldier holding her with his fist, but he convinces her to help him anyways.
The two flee to Dana's safe-house, where she has a laptop and notes he'd sent her weeks prior, asking her to investigate Gentek. She didn't know what had happened to him, but she did tell him everything he told her prior to his vanishing. She insisted the two of them work to uncover the conspiracy, as her words occasionally triggered flashbacks in Alex. Heading to his apartment, he went searching for clues--but Blackwatch was waiting, and triggered a bomb laid in wait. Alex survived the explosion and subsequent plummet down to the streets without a scratch.
The flashbacks were painful to him, and he returns to Dana who shows him files of a woman, Elizabeth Greene, who seems to be the center of it all. Heading to Gentek, Alex finds her waiting for him, saying "The time for waiting is over..." before she frees herself, knocking him across the room into a wall, and then disintegrating another wall. She sent mutant-beast like hunters after him when he escaped, and she herself took charge of the infection.
Dana continues to assist him in searching out clues and targets. Alex also locates his ex, Karen Parker, who promises to try and cure him. She sends him to collect samples of the virus, but when he arrives inside a hive and is ambushed by Captain Robert Cross, he realizes she's betrayed him. Cross used both his own soldiers and infected to battle Alex, and while Alex wins--Cross mentions "Penn Station" and triggers a flashback; while Alex is dealing with that flashback, Cross injects him with a parasitic biological weapon designed to deal with the Blacklight virus.
Alex flees, but he is unable to use any of his abilities aside from superhuman strength and speed, and escapes Blackwatch to head back to Dana. She directs him to Dr. Bradley Ragland, who the director of Gentek (Dr. Raymond McMullen) is keeping an eye on. Formerly working for Gentek, Ragland had quit when he was unwilling to work on the Blackwatch initiated projects. Dr. Ragland can likely lead them to McMullen.
With the help of Dr. Ragland, Alex finds a cure for the parasite that infected him, restoring his powers and abilities, and gaining two new ones. He's also placed as a #1 Terrorist threat due to treasonous activities against the United States. Alex then returns to Dana, who is then kidnapped by a new kind of Hunter-infected. Alex persues, but is unable to rescue her. Returning to Dr. Ragland, Alex locates and kills the leader-hunter that took Dana, and penetrates the core Hive where she is being held. There, he confronts Elizabeth Greene.
During the struggle, Greene seems to best him, but Alex injects her with the syringe containing the parasite extracted from him. This hurts her, and breeds a new hunter entirely, as she retreats. Alex manages to defeat this new supreme hunter, and rescue Dana--but as he's fleeing, he doesn't notice the clawed hand rising from a pile of biomass. He takes her to Dr. Ragland, as she is in a coma, and Ragland promises to watch over her.
The conspiracy unfolds further, and a mysterious contact helps him start to uncover the truth about the virus, Mercer, and Elizabeth Greene. Greene was the only survivor of a test-outbreak at Hope, Idaho, in 1969. The virus (Redlight) found a perfect host in her, and she and her newborn son were taken as military assets and held in isolation. The government was inspired to work with Gentek, and Greene was held at Gentek and studied by scientists, leading to the Blacklight Project and hopefully to lead to a new biological weapons program. This was the project Dr. Alex Mercer had been working on and subsequently died for. The man who's been uncovering this is actually the Blacklight Virus, having copied Alex Mercer when he died, down to the genetic level.
The military soon reveals a new weapon against the virus; a biological agent known as Bloodtox, which is designed to kill the virus and its hosts. The chemical is deployed across the city, driving the infection underground where it begins amassing and concentrating beneath the surface. The unknown contact directs Alex to aid the military in pumping the bloodtox into the ground, hoping it'll drive the infection out into the open once more where it could be fought directly. Greene, now as a new form of viral organism, comes to the surface to fight Alex. He kills "Mother", and consumes Elizabeth Greene.
Attempting to confront Dr. McMullen, who was the head of Research and Founder of Gentek, Alex became engaged in a grueling battle with the marines and Blackwatch. Finally confronting the man, he is denied the answers McMullen holds when McMullen shoots himself in the head before Alex can consume him. Soon thereafter, the mysterious contact reveals himself to be none-other than Captain Cross and reveals plans that Gen. Randall (the Blackwatch leader) has to nuke Manhattan to stop the infection. Alex is directed to General Taggart, whom Cross has been ordered to capture, and is attempting to flee the city. General Taggart is Alex and Cross's ticket on to the USS Reagan, where Gen. Randall is now stationed and preparing their final assault.
Finding and consuming Taggart, the pair confront Randall, but Alex is soon betrayed as the Supreme Hunter had survived. Consuming Cross at some point, it has been using Alex, and now intended to consume him in turn, then wait for things to quiet down before restarting the infection. Alex manages to defeat the Supreme Hunter and with only minutes before the bomb goes off--takes a helicopter and drops it into the Atlantic. The bomb detonates at sea, but Alex has been unable to escape the blast radius. Somehow, he survives--as non-descript piles of biomass and wreckage on the city shore. Consuming a crow, he is able to reform himself into human form shortly thereafter.
Looking out over the water, Alex thinks to himself "I looked for the truth, found it. Didn't like it, wish to hell I could forget it. Alex Mercer.... This city suffered for his mistakes... for what he did at Penn station and whoever he was, that's a part of me, 'cause when I close my eyes, I see the memories of a thousand dead men, screaming as I take their lives. Moments I'll relive forever. What have I become? Something less than human, but also something more." before walking off into the city. Later scenes imply Manhattan is in a recovering state, the virus almost completely destroyed.
Abilities
Basic Abilities: Alex Mercer isn't human; he is the Blacklight virus that excels in mimicry and retention of information from its host. Every particle of him, including his clothing and equipment, is composed of viral Biomass, and manipulated at will. He can further absorb organic matter of other living creatures, converting it to more biomass--this is known as Consuming. This can regenerate his health, and upon consuming an individual, grant him access to their knowledge and skills (such as piloting an APC with hundreds of moving parts) as well as their physical form. He an also shift his body into various weapons, including an armored form that makes him something of a human tank.
His basic physical prowess includes: Shapeshifting, Superhuman Strength, Superhuman Speed, Superhuman agility, Superhuman endurance, a healing factor, and Superhuman senses. Being composed entirely of viral biomass, he has no weak-spots like vital organs or bones anymore.
Superhuman Strength: Alex is capable of great feats of strength like lifting an armored personnel carrier or the remains of a tank, and throwing it great distances, or carrying it while running and jumping. A glancing blow from him can kill most humans and normal infected. He's capable of punching through most anything (like a 2 foot steel door).
Superhuman Speed: Alex can gain running speeds that overtake most vehicles. He's also been shown to be able to run up the sides of buildings easily and at odd angles.
Superhuman Agility: Alex is capable, with flips, rolls, dodges, of moving over and around almost any obstacle in his path--from cars, to buildings, to light-posts. He can leap several stories high, and can cling to walls or run up vertical surfaces easily, often for hours. He's also capable of short periods of gliding, by making his biomass lighter in the air; ejecting small amounts of it will also give him more propulsion.
Superhuman Endurance: He can survive falls and impacts from great heights, with no scratches and bullets go right through his body. He can withstand direct hits from rockets, hellfire missiles and tank shells, which cause only moderate damage. Other superhumanly strong attacks (like Hunters or D-code soldiers) cause him the most damage. Because of this stamina, he can be active at any time without tire.
Healing/Regeneration: Alex regenerates easily, and properly nourished--can heal in a matter of seconds or minutes from small wounds, without a need to consume anything. He can even regenerate his entire physical form: examples includes being shot point blank in the face, or being blasted to small amounts of bio-mass piles and the biomass of a crow. His immune system is such that repeated exposure to things (like bloodtox) gives him growing immunity. He was unable to counter a parasitic cancer introduced into his system without outside help.
Superhuman senses: Alex's vision and hearing is enhanced, allowing him to see beyond the visible spectrum and hear across great distances even with physical insulation. Sub-abilities of this include Thermal-vision, allowing him to detect heat-sources, and Infected-vision, which allows him to see other infected, and tap into the viral hive-mind of Elizabeth Greene's offspring.
Skills-Infected
Shape-shifted Skills: These include the Disguise, Musclemass, Claws, Blade, Whipfist, Hammerfist, Shield, and Armor abilities.
Disguise:
Alex is a capable of shape-shifting completely into any human he's consumed, as that assimilates their DNA into his own. It's a complete copy, voice and all--and while it's more difficult to shape-shift into people he has never consumed, he can probably do that too. This only works for human targets. If he using this for infiltration, any actions he takes that might compromise his disguise make it harder for him to stay hidden.
Musclemass:
Musclemass is a basic strength augmentation ability, as Alex shifts more bio-mass and power to his arms, leading to them growing slightly larger and more pronounced along his forearms. Even though it boosts his strength further, to immense proportions, it doesn't change any of his basic abilities. It's most effective when used against living targets. The musclemass does slightly increase his speed, with no negative impact on his agility.
Claws:
The claws are formed by shifting biomass along Alex's arms to result in four-bladed 'talons' at the end of his arm, small spikes of biomass resulting along the rest of his arm. They're used effectively in close combat, are razor-sharp, and the fastest of his weapons. His speed and agility are not affected, and he has shown some limited degree of dexterity and manipulation with the claws themselves.
Blade:
The blade takes the place of Alex's arm, bio-mass shifting such that a large, razor-sharp, scything blade takes over the limb. It's a fast and strong thrusting and cutting weapon, while being the strongest of Alex's basic attacks. It has a short radius, but makes up for that by being able to damage vehicles as well as slice through living matter easily.
Whipfist:
A thin, flexible, blade-edged arm that can be used to attack at extreme range, or whip through entire crowds of enemies. Alex's arm transforms to be composed of thin and flexible biomass that is capable of being hurled great ranges. On the end, it has 4 small claws, almost like shorter versions of his talons from the claws-ability.
Hammerfist:
Shifting a large amount of bio-mass to his hands to make them Hammer-like, Alex can easily pound vehicles into submission, including tanks, with this ability. The Hammerfists are the slowest of his abilities, and somewhat hinder his speed and agility in minor degrees. They can be pounded on the ground to create small craters, and thus generate shockwaves.
Shield:
The Shield will absorb damage on impact, preserving Health completely—until it breaks. Once broken, the Shield must regenerate before it will once again repel damage. A large amount of biomass is shifted to Alex's left arm and molding it into a nigh-impenetrable black-biomass shield. If standing still, it appears as a mass on his shoulder, while being shown active when running/sprinting/jumping. It can be used as a make-shift battering ram, Alex mowing down things in his path while running. Once it breaks, he'll take a small amount of damage, but the shield regenerates near-instantly.
Armor:
Alex forms full-body-armor by having layers of hardened-black-bio-mass encase his form. His speed and agility are mildly compromised in this form, due to him now being a walking tank. It severely reduces most damage he takes, and can be used in conjunction with his other abilities.
Skills--Other
Other Skills: Alex has at the very least a genius-level IQ, earning himself a doctorate in Genetics and pioneering work on a military biological weapon where his work was years ahead of his nearest competitor. During the outbreak in Manhattan, to uncover and unravel the conspiracy, Alex consumed military commanders and soldiers, and others connected with Gentek.
He is capable of wielding various military weapons including assault rifles and grenade launchers, and of piloting M1 Abrams tanks, Thermobaric tanks, M2 Bradley Armored Personnel Carriers, an AH-64D Apache Longbow Gunship (helicopter), and a UH-60 Blackhawk Transport helicopter. He likely CAN learn to pilot and/or drive vehicles without consuming people, but the fastest way for him to gain expertise is by consuming targets.
Constructive Criticism
Constructive Criticism
Constructive Criticism, also known as "How's my driving?" can be left in the comments. Please be polite, is all I ask.
Head-Canon
Head Canon
--Alex is gaining more humanity, and a conscience, based on the people he's consumed. Even though most of them weren't good people, he still remembers and hears them die. This means he is still a solid anti-hero, but he at least has...some standards. He does recognize some things as right and wrong.
Examples:--Do not put innocents between yourself and him, it just makes him more angry and determined that you are scum.
--He likely has at least the basic domestic skills of how to cook, and clean, and take care of himself, given that he was Dana's parental figure, for most of his life. This has probably been expanded, due to (again) people he's consumed. Some of these skills he's gained by proxy include playing chess, speaking fluent Spanish, German, and Farsi, playing Violin and Piano, military-grade cryptanalysis, field-medic training, radio-operations....
--Alex's priority is wiping out the infection in the NYZ, given where he is pulled from in his canon. After that, he will likely be trying to figure out just how and where he fits in. I however, do not consider Prototype-2 Canon--and will have a separate entry detailing my view on why here. As always, feel free to PM me with questions as well.
General Permissions and Warnings
General Permissions and Warnings
OOC--Backtagging good, thread-hopping good (unless entry is locked),
Other: Feel free to PM me via the journal with any questions. I may play an angry antihero, but I'm a sweetie in RL and don't bite. Promise.
IC
Language Warning: Alex has a mouth. He's also had marine and black-ops training--so he has a mouth. There may be cussing, and I will not necessarily always remember to cut or censor it. You've been warned.
Hugging this character: ....are you insane? Not very touchy-feely, at all.
Kissing this character: See Above.
Flirting with this character: See Above, and potential suspicion/paranoia...
Fighting with this character: Feel free. He's an angry, bitter being, and tends to be a
Injuring this character (include limits and severity):Um....good luck? Feel free to discuss, but it'll be difficult with him in most circumstances.
Killing this character: See above.
Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: Feel free, but ask first. His mind is not a happy-fun-place to be.
Fourth-Walling
Aka-"What about my character can others know?"
Telepathy/Mind-Reading and the like, is mentioned above. Alex is not purely human, and within his mind and memories are also the memories, skills, and minds of the people he consumed (effectively killing them). This will likely not have a good effect on anyone trying to read him--so feel free to discuss with me and we can figure out effects.
Doctor-characters--When Alex shapeshifts, it's kind of obvious to everyone that he's not purely human. Doctor and medical types, if you scan him--his genetics are interesting. The short version is "He's a virus"....the longer version follows.
He's a walking, living, breathing, sentient advanced bio-weapon virus that, in the words of the wiki, "is an evolutionary chimeric mutation-causing infectious agent that can reproduce only inside the living cells of other organisms." It's lethal to 99.99% of those who are infected by it, and has a high-rate of contagion.
Note 1: Alex himself can CHOOSE to infect someone or not, given he is a sentient-version of this virus that copied Alex Mercer completely. Alex chooses not, so long as he remains an anti-hero and trying to be a 'good' guy. If he ever goes villain? Well---then it's a viable option.
Note 2: If further analysis of the viral strain is needed, PM me, and we'll talk.
Note 3: Alex doesn't take kindly (to be polite) to people messing around with his biology or genetics. He's had too many bad experiences with it. If you don't want to get his cooperation...then feel free to PM me and we'll talk about the resulting drama.
Canon-Mates: Canon-mates, of course, can likely know what they'd know in Canon. If they're from Prototype 2, let's chat--because I don't consider that game to be part of my canon, and I'm happy to figure out how we'll play with these differences. (I admit, seeing Alex working, legitimately as good guy, with Heller, would be AWESOME.)
As always, if there are any questions about what might be allowed or reasonable, PM me. I do my best to be easy to talk to.
