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MOXrick — Alex Mercer (Reaper High)
Published: 2013-06-27 16:15:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 4150; Favourites: 22; Downloads: 1
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Description
Position: Teacher (Defense/Training)ＡＬＥＸＡＮＤＥＲ ＪＵＬＩＵＳ ＭＥＲＣＥＲ
Code name: ＺＥＵＳ
DOB: July 16, 1979
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Family:
Parents and Grandparents
✦ Edmund Mercer (Grandfather, Missing)✦ Alexandria Mercer (Grand Aunt, Missing)
✦ Julius Mercer (Father, Missing)
✦ Bertha Rouge-Mercer (Mother, DECEASED)
Siblings
✦ Dana A. Mercer (Sister)
Children
✦ Gideon A. Mercer (Son, DOB: March 4th. DECEASED)
✦ Erebus L. Mercer (Adopted Son, DOB: June 10th)
Appearance
Height: (M) 6’ | 6’2” (armor) : (F) 5’3” | 5’7” (armor)
Weight: (M) 190lbs : (F) 140lbs
Hair: Dark, almost black
Eyes: Bright Ice Blue
Faceclaim: Sean Faris and Olivia Wilde
While the virus can take anyone’s form by harvesting their DNA, it’s typical appearance is the identity of the deceased Gentek scientist; Alex Mercer, due to the Blacklight Virus replicating his body down to the genetic level. His skin happens to be very pale, almost sickly as result of being the Virus. What doesn’t quite appear as sickly is his eyes, a bright ice blue that has a rather piercing gaze. His body is well toned, giving a distinct muscular look to it but not to overcompensate. Alex’s head has unruly dark hair, almost very messy but yet somewhat feels as if it’s been regularly cleaned. Despite Alex’s actual age, he appears to be younger… Around in his twenties.
The “clothes” worn by Mercer aren’t actually clothes, but biomass mimicking the outfit Alex Mercer wore to Penn Station the night of his death. On his upper body he wears three layers of clothes: a button-up white shirt kept partially buttoned, a plain gray hoodie, and a black leather jacket with a red tribal design on the back. On his lower body he wears plain blue jeans and black shoes.
Personality
Personality Traits: Cold, paranoid, mild sociopath, common lack of regard for others, strangely flirtatious, rather caring to those who are an exception to his initial attitude, non blatantly righteous and noble, parental figure, difficult to control libido.
As a possible result of his difficult childhood, Alex is rather cold and paranoid. He’s also a mild sociopath, but still quite enough to care little about the lives of others with some exceptions. Most notably, prior to his human death at Penn Station, he released the deadly Blacklight virus simply to spite those who denied him information. His motivations and plans were utterly personal, and he rarely takes human cost into account, being able to murder scores of humans without remorse or hesitation.
However, Alex is not completely heartless; he deeply trusts and cares for his younger sister Dana, having been the only real paternal figure for her, and had what can be assumed to be a loving relationship with Karen Parker. From how long he’s been the Virus, he’s become more valiant. His heart is noble and righteous but not so blatantly. Mercer developed parental instinct and a high libido that’s been difficult for him to control, and he has been denying those factors. While he deeply cares for Dana, he feels that he should work on being a more responsible brother.
Once reanimated by the Blacklight virus, every particle of Alex’s form, including his clothing and equipment, becomes comprised entirely of viral biomass. This substance can be manipulated at will. He can absorb the organic matter of other living creatures, converting it into more biomass. This process sustains and regenerates Alex’s health and is referred to as ‘consuming’.
In addition, Alex can consume individuals, absorbing their knowledge, skills, and even their physical form, which he can call upon at will. He can manipulate his physical form to create weapons to attack his enemies, generate armor to defend himself, and take on the appearance of another person to disguise himself.
It has been possible that he may be able to consume multiple Evolved at the same time in order to power his abilities, but it has not really happened. There was a time where he had to consume some of his soldiers if they completely fell out of line.
ＰＨＹＳＩＣＡＬ ＰＲＯＷＥＳＳ
Alex’s powers grant him superhuman physical abilities well beyond that of a normal Human.
✦ Superhuman Strength: His incredible strength allows him to lift cars, trucks, the destroyed remains of tanks, APCs, and helicopters and throw them great distances. He is far stronger than any normal human or most basic Infected, able to kill a regular human with a single, glancing blow and manhandle the infectious residents of Manhattan. Alex is capable of punching holes through almost anything if necessary, including a two foot steel door.
✦ Superhuman Speed: Alex’s speed is likewise enhanced. He can achieve running speeds surpassing vehicles. He can currently run up to 65 mph.
✦ Superhuman Agility: He can perform amazing parkour feats such as flips and rolls and maneuvers over and around vehicles and debris with little trouble. His leg strength allows him to leap nearly ten stories into the air. Alex can run up sheer vertical surfaces and cling to walls for an indefinite period of time. Alex is also capable of gliding, by making his biomass lighter in the air and ejecting small amounts of mass for further propulsion.
✦ Superhuman Endurance: Mercer’s endurance far exceeds that of a human’s by leaps and bounds. His body no longer possesses weak bones or vital organs, rendering him immune to otherwise debilitating injury. This biological change allows him to survive falls from any height completely unharmed. Bullets of any caliber will pass through his body, causing very little damage that heals instantly. He can withstand direct hits from rockets, hellfire missiles and tank shells, which cause only moderate damage. The superhumanly strong blows of the various type of Hunters and super soldiers cause the most damage of any type of attack. His superhuman stamina allows him to be physically active at all times without tire.
✦ Healing Factor: Alex’s body has vast powers of self-regeneration. So long as he is properly nourished, Alex can restore his health and heal any wounds within moments. He can heal a small amount of his health even without consuming any creature. Examples include regenerating bullet wounds instantly after being shot, regenerating a massive hole in his face after being shot point-blank by General Randall, and reconstructing his entire physical form from non-descript piles of biomass and the biomass of a crow within minutes of being blown apart by a nuclear explosion. Alex also seems to have a robust immune system. Though unable to counter a parasite which had been introduced into his body without outside help, he gained a growing immunity to bloodtox with repeat exposure.
✦ 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.
ＯＦＦＥＮＳＩＶＥ ＰＯＷＥＲＳ
Alex can form his biomass into a variety of weapons, mostly slicing or crushing tools. In combat, he either uses biomass to augment his strength or create various blades and clubs.
Blade: A powerful and deadly cutting and thrusting weapon, perfect for slicing and swiping through even the toughest infantry and infected. This attack Power allows access to the second most powerful strikes available.
Claws: Alex’s more common and prominent anti-personnel ability. Biomass is shifted into 4-digited, talon-like appendages that can be used to shred flesh and bone… even cut people in half with a single sweep in some cases.
Whipfist: Rather useful to ranged attacks and whipping through crowds of enemies in one go, this happens to be thin and flexible with a blade edge and very capable to taking down things that happen to be far away from Alex. (though the distance limit happens to be almost ten yards.)
Hammerfists: Anti-vehicle power that allows him to destroy certain vehicles, machines, hives, and walls.
Tendrils: These things allow Alex to grapple enemies and preform rather unique devastators.
Devastators: Powerful area attacks that utilize the critical mass, in order to inflict damage upon multiple targets. Most of the devastators are evolution of a few offensive powers.
Hidden Blade: Due to his recent joining of the Assassins, Alex created another ability on his own to pretty much accommodate for the faction he became apart of. Using his ability to create a blade under his arms similarly to an Assassin, but doesn’t force him out of his disguise… It’s still under training process but it has become useful for him.
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Alex can use two defensive powers, guarding him against enemy attacks and weapons. Alex has two forms of defense, the Armor, and the Shield.
Armor: Consists of black plates of hardened biomass; formed all around the body. While in this form, Alex Mercer was equivalent to a humanoid tank. This ability increases damage resistance overall, at the cost of movement and the ability to parkour. Lately he has made it so that the armor is lighter, but he still cannot preform alot of acrobatic feats because of it’s limitation.
Shield: This little defensive power is very useful, it soaks up damage automatically until it shatters and regenerates automatically. Mercer has been able to generate shields to both arms for a wider protection and it can deflect stronger attacks… however, because of this it limits his movement.
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Biobomb: Developed alittle later after he created the evolved, this ability is an organic explosive that’s implanted under the skin of a selected host. Once the bomb goes off after a period of time, it’s effect is almost similar to the tendril barrage devastator. They will pull anyone or anything they touch towards the host and evidently “explode” causing masses of red tendrils to attach to anything nearby. The Biobomb always kills it’s host and anyone who happens to be unluckily close to it… for those who are far away it just does heavy damage to them. It can act as a ‘grenade’ or be done stealthily.
Disguise Power: Alex has the ability to assume the physical form of any human he’s consumed; In this manner, Alex can infiltrate the military as one of them, duck out of sight and emerge as someone else to evade pursuit, and in general avoid drawing attention by disguising himself as someone else.
Consume: The process by which Mercer can absorb the biomass and DNA or essence of other entities, copying and assimilating it into their own in order to gain the entity’s genetic memories and physical presence. There happens to be several types of Consuming.
✦ Grab and Consume: Alex can first grab a target and literally consume them. How one is consume differs on each type of weapon power.
✦ Stealth Consume: Teamed up with disguise power, Mercer can stealthily consume a target without being seen.. Even become the target he killed to lower suspicion.
Thermal vision: allows him to locate heat signatures through thin walls and when vision is impaired through smoke.
Infected vision: can detect large concentrations of the virus and tap into the hive mind itself. Infected appear as red/yellow while human hosts, potential hosts/meals, evolved and runners appear as white.
Command: Mercer had been able to control certain groups of infected, such as: Hunters, Brawlers, Hydras, Juggernauts, Goliaths, and fliers. It does drain his energy every time he calls for a group to do his bidding, however.
"One virus, three weeks, millions dead… and I was there. My name was Alex Mercer, and my work is almost done."―ＡＬＥＸ ＭＥＲＣＥＲ
ＯＲＩＧＩＮＳ
(1979-1996)
Born as Alexander J. Mercer, Alex experienced a brutal childhood spent in abject poverty; his first nine years were spent in foster care. When he turned 10, he was finally returned to his mother, Bertha, who had spent the last nine years in prison, but for Alex it was better to be in foster care. He was the only parental figure for his sister, Dana.
(1997-2004)
However, his intellect and aptitude in science provided him an opportunity to leave behind his troubled past. He trusted no one, had no friends, couldn’t care less about what others thought of him, and found solace only in his work. By the time he was hired by Gentek, Alex was a borderline sociopath. He knew this, and didn’t care.
After earning a doctorate in genetics at Columbia University, Mercer was hired by Gentek and became the head of the Blacklight project at Gentek. Alex’s team was tasked with engineering weaponized viruses from samples given to them by the government. The samples that were provided exhibited curious behavior, including mimicry and retention of genetic information from infected hosts. With Alex’s help, the team soon engineered a particularly virulent and potent virus codenamed “Blacklight”. Alex’s skill in altering genes made him a valuable asset to Gentek; his work was years ahead of his nearest competitor.
(2009)
Despite his successes, Alex Mercer was considered a potential liability by Blackwatch, an elite army created to combat exotic threats. Over time, Gentek became scrutinized by Congress and investigations were proposed. Fearing an information leak, Blackwatch decided to cover it all up. Alex, due to his paranoid nature, began to launch his own secret investigation on Gentek. With the assistance of his sister Dana, an investigative reporter, Alex realized that Gentek employees associated with the Blacklight project were being silenced by Blackwatch; usually with a bullet between the eyes in a dark alley.
When he learned that a general purge was about to be unleashed upon the Gentek scientists, Alex fled, fearing for his life. In the event he was caught, Alex had brought insurance—he had smuggled a vial of the Blacklight virus out of quarantine and taken it with him. He also mailed a laptop with classified documents to Dana. But Blackwatch was too quick for him. While attempting to escape the city by train, Alex was cornered in Penn Station by Blackwatch agents. In a fit of frustration and rage, he threw the vial to the floor, smashing it and unleashing a biological apocalypse. He was promptly shot by Blackwatch operatives. The virus began to spread to everyone in the station.
As he fell, he collapsed onto the viral sample, becoming infected as he died. His body was taken back to Gentek in a body bag. Little did they know, as he was transported, the virus was reconstructing Mercer’s body, cell by cell; his biomass feeding the virus as it replicated the still-living matter it had infected.
ＳＵＢＪＥＣＴ ＺＥＵＳ
Alex woke up in a morgue on a slab just as two scientists were about to cut open his torso with a scalpel for an autopsy. The two men panicked and fled, terrified of Mercer. Alex didn’t understand why they were so frightened and had no recollection of his previous life. He ran after the scientists in an attempt to escape.
Though Alex was now an amnesiac, he was sufficiently aware to realize that the Blackwatch soldiers were certainly not friends when he saw them kill the two scientists as they tried to escape the facility. The soldiers noticed him, but his body regenerated the damage caused by their fire instantly. Surprising both the soldiers and himself, Mercer cleared the several stories high fence around the facility in a single leap.
After escaping, he found himself trapped in Manhattan, being pursued by the military. He soon discovered that he had the ability to consume others and take on their appearance and memories, along with their special skills.
With no recollection of his own past, Alex decided to track down those responsible for his situation and consume them in order to uncover the truth behind what has been done to him, caught between the Blackwatch Special Forces and an ever growing population of civilians infected by the virus he released.
On consuming Lt. Charles Perri he learned the whereabouts of his sister. Mercer hoped that his sister, Dana, would have some information regarding what happened to him, so he attempted to make contact with her. However, when he arrived at her apartment, he saw soldiers stationed around the building. He consumed a Blackwatch commander and, taking on his appearance, easily infiltrated their perimeter. When Alex entered he saw Dana being held by a Blackwatch soldier. Dana headbutted the Blackwatch soldier just as Alex impaled him with his fist. Dana was terrified having witnessed this, but Alex convinced her to help him.
Dana told Alex that she knew there was something wrong going on at Gentek. She did not know what had happened to Alex either, but was able to tell him what he had told her prior to his memory loss. She told Alex that he had her researching the Gentek organization for weeks. When she went looking for him to relay her findings, he had already disappeared. The conversation incited a flashback, in which Alex remembered seeing the ID card of Dr. McMullen. Dana then lead Alex to a new safe house, the home of Dana’s friends, who were out of town for the year. Dana already had all of the files she could get on Gentek stored in the apartment
Dana wasn’t able to tell Alex what it all meant, but insisted that the two of them work together to uncover whatever conspiracies were at work. Dana told Alex that since Blackwatch was waiting for her at her apartment, they must also be waiting at his. Alex arrived at his apartment and uncovered further hints of his past life. He saw a photo of himself and Dana with a graduate certificate from the University of New York. He also saw a photo of himself with a blonde woman. When he touched the photo he experienced a flashback in which he saw himself with the woman, his ex-girlfriend Karen Parker. When the flashback was over, it was apparent that the onset of these flashbacks was painful to him. As he was recovering, Blackwatch detonated a bomb that had been planted in the apartment, meant to kill him. He astonishingly survived without a scratch, despite having been thrown out of a window and down to the streets several stories below. Alex hunted down and consumed the man who gave the order to detonate the bomb.
ＴＨＥ ＴＲＵＴＨ
Alex returns to the safe house where Dana shows him his laptop, stored on which are photographs of a girl.
Alex recognizes the girl. Dana tells him that the file has only two names in it: Alex Mercer and Elizabeth Greene, the girl in the photo. The file also says that she is being isolated in the Gentek building. When Alex went to free Greene, she cryptically told him that “The time for waiting is over” and threw him across the room. Greene then disintegrated a wall by touch and sent Hunters after him as he escaped. She then took charge of the infected. He also located his ex-girlfriend, Karen Parker.
Dana continued to assist Mercer in locating his targets, while Karen promised him a cure for his disease. She first claimed that he needed to find her different samples of the virus destroying Manhattan, but once he arrived inside a nearby Hive, Alex was ambushed by Blackwatch specialist Captain Robert Cross who used both the infected and his own soldiers as cannon fodder while he tried to take Alex down. Mercer ended up defeating him, but Cross turned the tables by distracting Alex by mentioning ‘Penn Station’ and triggering a painful flashback. He injected Alex with a biological weapon while he was distracted.
Due to the parasite Cross had injected him with, Alex couldn’t use his special powers aside from his superhuman strength and speed. He still managed to escape from Blackwatch.
Alex returned to Dana who showed him that Blackwatch was keeping an eye on a doctor for McMullen, Dr. Bradley Ragland. Dana then told Alex that if he finds him, Ragland can help them get to McMullen. Before Alex left, she showed him what she found about Hope, Idaho and Greene but Alex said Hope was an experiment. She asked how he could know that, forcing Alex to admit that he had killed a great number of people and their minds and memories were now within him. Dana was shocked by what her brother has become.
However, with the help of Dr. Ragland, Mercer was cured, restoring his abilities and gaining him the armor and blade powers as a result. During all of this, Mercer was placed as the number one terrorist threat in the entire United States due to treasonous activities against the United States and her allies.
During one of Alex and Dana’s meetings, Dana was kidnapped by a Leader Hunter, a larger and stronger version of the normal hunters. Alex pursued this Leader Hunter across the city, but was ultimately unable to rescue Dana. With the help of Dr. Ragland, Alex located and consumed the same Leader Hunter that kidnapped Dana, learning of her location in the core hive in the center of the city. Alex was eventually able to penetrate the hive, where he confronted Elizabeth Greene.
Elizabeth Greene told Alex that Dana was “with us now”. During a struggle, Greene seemingly bests Alex, but he was able to inject Greene with a syringe containing the parasite as it had been extracted from him. Greene’s body rejected the parasite immediately and she vomited up a large amount of biomass, from which the Supreme Hunter was born. Alex defeated the Supreme Hunter and saved Dana. As he left, a sinister clawed hand began to regenerate and rise from the remain of the hunter, showing the Supreme Hunter was far from done.
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As the conspiracy unfolds, with the assistance of an unidentified contact, the origins of Mercer, the virus and Elizabeth Greene were uncovered.
In 1969, the government had tested a virus codenamed Redlight in Hope, Idaho. This virus was designed as a biological warfare agent, targeting those of a predetermined race. The virus unexpectedly mutated into something far deadlier, infecting the whole population of Hope. Elizabeth Greene was the sole survivor of the incident; her body welcomed the virus rather than dying from it and it had rewritten her genetic code, along with that of her son, who was taken from her by Blackwatch and codenamed Pariah. This inspired the government to continue research into the virus, cooperating with the Gentek corporation. Scientists at Gentek locked Greene in a cell which had been used to research Blacklight, the new virus present in Greene. They continued to study the different strains of the virus that formed throughout her system as a means of accelerating the biological weapons program.
Before long, the military began to deploy a new biological agent, Bloodtox, engineered to kill the virus and its hosts.
When the chemical was deployed across the city, the infection went underground to escape it, and subsequently amassed beneath the surface. The anonymous contact told Mercer to aid the military in pumping the Bloodtox directly into the ground. They hoped that it would drive the virus to the surface, allowing Blackwatch to fight it directly. Elizabeth Greene, now embedded in Mother a new viral organism, came to the surface and engaged Mercer in combat. Alex killed Mother and consumed Greene.
He then attempted to confront McMullen, the Head of Research and founder of Gentek. After a grueling battle with Marines and Blackwatch between him and his target, Alex confronted Mcmullen and moved to consume him to find out what Mcmullen knew. McMullen committed suicide before Mercer had the chance. It became apparent that Randall planned to nuke Manhattan to destroy the virus. The mysterious contact, revealed to be Captain Cross, then guided Mercer to consumeColonel Taggart, who was attempting to flee the city. Cross had been ordered to capture Taggart and had Mercer impersonate him in order to get onto the USS Ronald Reagan where the bomb was being held.
Cross betrayed Mercer once on the ship, and was revealed to be the Supreme Hunter having consumed Cross at some point and taken his form. It battled Mercer on the deck of the Reagan and was subsequently decapitated by Mercer. Mercer boarded a helicopter and dropped the nuclear bomb into the Atlantic Ocean, allowing it to detonate at sea but leaving himself well within the blast radius. His remains washed up on the city shore as lumps of red tissue, but he was able to take human after consuming a crow that attempted to devour him.
Alex walked off thinking to himself “What have I become? Something less than human, but also something more…” Later, Manhattan is seen in a recovering state, with the virus almost completely destroyed.
ＯＮＥ ＹＥＡＲ ＬＡＴＥＲ
(2011-2012)
After stopping the nuclear threat, Alex went on a soul-searching trip around the world, to pretty much explore and be on a well deserved vacation. Unfortunately, during his vacation, he tried to create an offspring similarly to how Elizebeth Greene did it to develop a perfect Runner (And to raise a kid on his own with his own genetics).
During his travels, Alex killed a villainous African warlord and traveled to Moscow, freed a small town from a drug cartel, and done numerous heroic acts. A major setback to his heroic endeavors was his first-born child that became unstable to the point that Mercer had to consume him in a fit of mercy and thus the heavy heartbreak caused him to lose his sanity and believe that Human Life was no longer sacred and it was “time to create a new order”.
Fourteen months after the original outbreak, Alex returned to New York City, now renamed New York Zero, and, in an ironic twist, started a second Blacklight outbreak within Penn Station. Taking up residence within the city’s Red Zone, Alex proceeded to create several Evolved to infiltrate both Blackwatch and Gentek in order to destroy both, having one of them contaminate a newfound cure for the virus with his blood so as to transform even more people into infected.
ＣＵＲＲＥＮＴ ＥＶＥＮＴＳ
(2012-present)
Mercer soon regained sanity and realized the wrong he has done and vowed to fix the damage. He reset the Evolved Divisions to properly organize them into proper categories, having a couple groups handle in making the cure to the Blacklight Virus while the rest of the groups handled in clean up.
During his time doing the righteous thing, he tried to fill the void in his heart by adopting an orphaned child named Erebus and turning him into an evolved. Erebus is kept safe in the Dead Zone, usually watched over by another evolved created to specifically watch over him while Alex worked to save the city once again. After saving it once more, he decided to take a job as a Defense instructor to help gifted youngsters control and master their abilities.
Trivial Headcanons
✦ It is speculated by Blackwatch operatives that Alex is the first and only male Runner in the history of the evolution of the Blacklight and Redlight viruses, and has been recorded as such. Blackwatch had not been aware of the evolved or of the existence of any of Mercer’s Children (adopted and Blood related) and Subject PARIAH is still under study.
✦ During the creation of the Evolved, he discovered a way to alter the chromosomes he still had to genetically change his gender at will between male, female, or a mixture of both or neither when he wanted to. It also made it easier for him to slip by visual detection, and allowed him to use his new gender forms to seduce his enemies for information or when he needed to feed.
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Comments: 1
Wait how am I just now seeing this!!!? This is epic and he's a teacher too.))
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