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Background and Origin

Origin and His Story

The Early Years

Kenneth Age was born May 20th, 29,450 AD, to parents Anton and Norah Age. His childhood life was nothing extraordinary, aside from the incredibly advanced civilization he originally called home. His mother worked as an archaeologist studying the nearby ruins of "Old Allegheny", presumably the far-future remains of modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father worked as a maintenance engineer to their hometown's nearby orbital elevator; a theorized superstructure that actually existed in Mr. Age's time, one that allowed the transfer of passengers and cargo directly into space via an enormous, 200 mile-long cable.

Added to his early life were his grandparents Isiah and Sarai, both immigrants to Earth from a distant mining colony world. This heritage fascinated Ken, and drove him to eventually leave Earth, to find a 'more exciting life' as an employee of the hyper-corporation responsible for mining activities on his grandparents' former homeworld. Using credentials stolen from Anton, Kenneth stealthily made his way aboard a transport to the New Allegheny orbital platform (NALEO Station), and from there to the moon, where he boarded a six-month flight from the Sol System to this mining colony world, reportedly lying at the fringes of human-occupied space at the time.

According to Mr. Age, the codename "Nulion" derives from this flight. The stasis chamber he was held in for the six-month flight time sat across from a series of piping units labeled "NULL ION CHAMBER". This image had been burned into the man's mind, and so he took a variation of it as his callsign, which he uses to this day.

A World of Blue Gold, Where Death Is Meaningless

Upon arrival on the mining colony world, Kenneth was put to work by his new employer as a shepherd of the underground. He was left to fend for himself at the very bottom-most reaches of corporate living, working in decrepit sewers where mutants and deadly, alien creatures threatened shipments of a precious, crystalline blue ore called "notum". This 'blue gold' could only be found on this world, and shipments of this ore served as the lifeblood of human civilization at the time. This ore was the key to nanotechnology that could work outside the body, and served as a kind of "fuel-conduit" to that end.

It was in these sewers that Kenneth learned how to use a sniper rifle; it was absolutely necessary to his survival. Even then, this world was notoriously hazardous to human life, and necessitated the "insurance and reclaim" technology, that rendered death meaningless to those living on that world. Upon death, the very air of this world, thick with particulate notum, could be used as a "spiritual conduit", to guide the "soul" from the point of death, into a recreated copy of the deceased's body. This process allowed the seamless transition from a state of death, back to life, without a loss or a copy of consciousness. This functional immortality has had a profound impact upon Kenneth's mental state, and can explain how such a timid man developed such prowess in combat.

Ken did not stay working at this job for long. After just half a year of working down in the sewers, he moved on to better things. He defected from the corporation, and moved to the planet's northern hemisphere, where he found work with the anti-corporate rebels that lived there. It was, after all, Ken's goal to make some sort of difference and make his family proud, upon his planned return home within the next several years.

An Unexpected Transformation

Ken eventually found work with a war council, offering his services as member of the clerical staff there. With the skills he had obtained while working underground for the corporation, coupled with subdermal augmentations and stealth-tech devices that he used to hide and perfect his sharpshooting skills beyond human levels, he became the perfect candidate for subterfuge and information-gathering duties within the war council, as well.

His life continued on this path, until a distress call sounded from a remote settlement located near a corporate-owned biotech facility. Responding to the public distress call, Ken, along with many of his comrades, attempted to subdue an enormous monstrosity that had been on a rampage. Ultimately the gigantic mutant was killed, but not without causing severe damage to Kenneth's leg, and infecting him with a manmade 'nanovirus' that is currently known by the CDC as "Lacertavirus". Refer to the "Lacertavirus" section of the dossier for more information.

This virus went undetected within Kenneth's system for weeks, causing him nothing more severe than a flu, before it began to manifest in symptoms consistent with genetic manipulation and trans-species mutation. From this point, Kenneth spent the next several years in a race against the clock to develop some form of antiviral drug, treatment, or cure to his condition, but to no permanent avail. The best that could be done, even with their technological prowess, was to come up with an antiviral drug known as "Goldenglow". This drug can disable the virus in early-stage Lacertavirus victims, but it only acts as a temporary inhibitor in a stage-three victim such as Ken. Kenneth carries at least three dosages of this drug in syringes lashed to his right arm at all times, as a safety precaution.

Departing Reality Itself

Kenneth's life continued for years afterward. His mutations progressed to the point where he no longer identified as a human being, and suffered severe social problems as a result. To the best of Mr. Age's knowledge, no other such beings existed alongside him, therefore he was alone in his predicament; a manimal caught alone in a sea of humanity.

The most important event to unfold in Kenneth's home reality took place in 29,484 AD, when Kenneth was tasked by the war council to infiltrate and collect intel on a highly experimental power-generation facility, far from civilization. The infiltration proved to be a complete disaster, as an attack on the facility by a third party resulted in an explosion powerful enough to have torn apart the fabric of Kenneth's reality, depositing him, battered and hurt, into another time and dimension.

A New Reality

Kenneth awoke in the desolated ruins of a major city borough in Rhode Island, circa 2011 AD. He was lit on fire, his armor systems had failed, his equipment broken, with little to no clue of where he was, what had happened, or if he had actually died in that explosion. He quickly found himself to be in another reality altogether, trapped some 27,000 years in the past. This new reality, known as "Primal Earth", became his home for the next year.

As he came to grips with losing more or less everything he had ever known (including his functional immortality), and dealing with the sudden existence of magic and supernatural creatures that flourished in the reality of Primal Earth, Kenneth's mutations continued to worsen. He struggled that entire year with attempting to satiate his burgeoning tendency to lose himself to feral, reptilian urges that threatened to reduce him to a creature unfit to live among human civilization. Fortunately, Kenneth was helped by several friends from his former reality, who had crossed the rift between times and realities in the aftermath of the explosion, to find him. Included among these select few travelers was Katelin Phare, a nanotechnician who, at the time, had become Kenneth's love interest. Katelin had been described by Mr. Age as a 'fierce, frightening, yet utterly brilliant woman, able to invent or fight her way out of any problem imaginable'.

Katelin's most pressing problem at the time was figuring out how to preserve Kenneth's humanity, even as he further transformed into a reptile, both physically and mentally. Her plan for preserving Mr. Age as we know him today involved a two-pronged assault upon his urges, and his mutating genetic code. Katelin had managed to chemically 'wind down the mutations', resulting in a brief period of time where Kenneth could have actually been considered "cured" of his viral transformation. The second method of helping to preserve Ken was via the usage of an impulse-controlling "symbiotic implant", that would be transferred from Katelin's abdomen, into Ken's. This implant would aid in the suppression of instinctual urges that, by that point, had already damaged Kenneth's personal relationship with many of his friends beyond repair.

It is very prudent to make note that one of these friends would go on to become very important to Kenneth's life in the current reality; that of Mathieu Carver, alias "Shadow". Shadow, a former resident of Primal Earth himself, is a young lion cub who at one point during his childhood had been forcibly transformed into a lion. Considering Kenneth's prior inability to identify with those in a situation similar to his own, it is only natural that these two formed a strong bond that would later strengthen.

As the social climate around Kenneth and Katelin continued to disintegrate, the two made the decision to attempt finding another reality where, perhaps, they would be able to more effectively fit in. Katelin used her talents to construct a machine that could function as a trans-dimensional portal, and sent Kenneth in first, as a scout. That portal wound up leading to this reality. Due to unforeseen circumstances though, it was the last time the two would ever see one another. Something terrible would happen to the reality of Primal Earth, and it would take Kenneth a long time from that point to even realize it.

Continuing Life in a New World

Millennium City

Kenneth made contact with this reality in the fall of 2012, and was followed this time by no one. He was now two alternate realities and 27,000 years removed from his home, and the stresses of transdimensional travel had begun to weigh heavily upon him. He had no money, no shelter, no way to make contact with Katelin again to let her know that he was okay. For nearly four months, Kenneth lived off of scraps left behind by muggers in the back alleys of Millennium City's Westside district, holding up thugs and criminals, only to steal from them what they had taken from innocent people, so that he could survive. His first residence in Millennium City was that of the one-star "Quali-T Motel" in the Westside district, his bed and board paid for by money scrounged up by his aforementioned thieving of other criminals. He was eventually found by the Westside division of the MCPD, and forced to undergo screening and registration, if he wished to continue living in the city. While it was noted in Kenneth's file that his services to apprehend known thugs were appreciated, his lifestyle of then living off of their thievery was not. He was forced to find suitable housing, as well as an actual paying job, as another condition to continued living in the Millennium City metropolitan area. It was during this time that samples of Lacertavirus were first drawn from his blood and sent to the CDC for scanning and processing, and Kenneth's status as known extradimensional was made official.

The Liberators and Beyond

It has years since Kenneth has found his way to our reality, and made Millennium City his home. In all that time, a great many things have happened to him; both good and bad. He had met a fierce dragoness, Kuro Hiryu, who became his steadfast friend and mate. He was reunited with Shadow and even came across Shadow's current-reality counterpart, Umbra. The three live together in one of the many high-rise apartments in the greater Millennium City area.

Kenneth found his niche, as he usually did, by taking up the role of sharpshooter and even briefly held the XO rank of a noted and well-respected PRIMUS-affiliated supergroup, The Liberators. The group is more than just a band of heroes, more than just a job as far as Kenneth is concerned. Led by Tony "Swift" Griffins, The Liberators has become the replacement for his family, and most of its members, Tony included, have become Kenneth's dearest of friends.

There are still a multitude of challenges to be faced, hurdles to be overcome. Kenneth's lacertavirus has managed to come back with a vengeance after exposure to the radiation leaking from a defunct nuclear reactor, his mutations advancing deeper into Stage 3. It is thanks to the Liberators' chief medical officer, Rion Blackfrost (a toyger housecat uplifted into a supernaturally-gifted doctor and scientist) that Kenneth has managed to retain his humanity thus far, thanks in large part to the next-generation Goldenglow replacement, the inhalant "Argentium Agent".

Kenneth's journey continues, The Liberators at his side...Where will it go next?

Gear and Equipment

SPIRITECH "Revolution Rifle" MkXIII

The Revolution Rifle, Kenneth's weapon of choice, is an incredibly sophisticated piece of futuristic weaponry that seems almost alien in design, originating from around 27,000 years into the future of a parallel reality. The actual design of the blue-black rifle is smooth, curved in places but angular in others, suggesting a highly-refined sense of ergonomic design. The rifle is capable of trifurcating into three distinct pieces; Barrel, Core, and Stock.

Barrel - The rifle's barrel can be detached quickly, widening the spread of fire for close-range combat scenarios. Without the barrel, the rifle can function admirably as a shotgun, spraying magnetically-disassembled .50 rounds in a molten cloud at a range of up to 15 feet. With the barrel attached, a dramatic increase in accuracy is observed, and the rifle becomes capable of driving a single .50 BMG round up to six miles before losing most of its penetrative capability.

Core - The core of the rifle is completely usable on its own as a close-range pistol-type weapon, containing all necessary components for the discharging of standard .50 BMG and tranquilizer rounds. Due to the lack of the stock and barrel, not only is the accuracy of the weapon greatly diminished, but due to the much smaller secondary magazine, so is the maximum ammo capacity.

Stock - The stock of the rifle contains all components necessary for stability and enhanced long range rifle functionality, including the scope and primary magazine. Attached to this component of the rifle is a scope, but Kenneth rarely seems to directly peer through it, despite its obscene 5000x magnification capability. This can likely be attributed to the rifle's nano-feedback relay, capable of projecting a scope view directly to Kenneth's retina. The nano-feedback relay will be detailed below.

Nano-Feedback Relay: The nano-feedback relay consists of an array of barely-perceptible sensors coating the entirety of the rifle. These sensors interface with the nanomachines flowing through Kenneth's blood and embedded in his skin, allowing for the free exchange of information between Kenneth's body and the Revolution Rifle. The information the rifle monitors within Kenneth's body includes the following; heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, eye position, skeletal muscle position, lactic acid levels in skeletal musculature, breathing rate, oxygen levels, symbiotic implant activity in the heart, lungs, eyes, legs, arms, and fingers. The rifle also monitors Kenneth's thought activity, allowing him to control the rifle's targeting systems and rate of fire, or fire a round by thought alone. Kenneth's body, in turn, accepts the following readout information of the rifle through the nano-relay; wind speed, wind direction, Coriolis effect, distance, angular momentum, X-Y-Z spatial reasoning, target lock-on, chamber temperature, humidity, chamber weight, ammunition count, scope zoom, scope adjustment, and scope view. It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list.

Because of the nano-feedback relay, even at extraordinary distances of 3 or more miles, Kenneth cannot miss a shot. His symbiotic implants, coupled with the onboard computer within the rifle body, calculates and coordinates Kenneth's movements to give him a deadlock onto a target, regardless of what distance the target happens to be at. The rifle at times will take direct command of Kenneth's musculature, following his mental input to mark targets, or parts of a target. The symbiotic implants will hold Kenneth's rifle perfectly still, allowing for raw mathematics to take over, and for the bullet to follow through to its target.

The nano-feedback relay has a secondary function, however; the mnemonic drive.

Mnemnonic Drive: This component of the nano-feedback relay is the primary reason, above all others, that Kenneth refuses to use any other rifle. As the rifle is capable of sharing all perceptible sensory information between itself and his body, Ken is also capable of storing this information within the rifle in a manner accessible only by him. The rifle and his body connect to form an engine of memory, a literal depository of Kenneth's biological and neurological data. In short, the rifle has become an actual part of Ken's body. The rifle is Ken, as much as his arms or legs are. It can be taken even further however, as the rifle acts as a sort of hard drive, storing information obtained via Kenneth's optical symbiotics (video/photographic), and via Kenneth's other symbiotics in what he calls a "somatic continuum". It is this comprehensive record of all biological and neurological processes within Kenneth's body that would be fascinating enough on its own, if it were not for the fact that via this system, one can trace through all of the steps Kenneth has taken on his cross-species journey from man to reptile.

It is too bad, however, that outside of Ken himself, there is not a known computational system in existence that can actually read this data. Yet.

Back to the rifle itself, however. Next up for discussion is the rifle's firing mechanism, its' so-called "magnadrive".

Magnadrive: The actual firing mechanism of the rifle is akin to a miniaturized railgun in that a series of magnets (or magnetoid objects) within the rifle's body (known as the 'magnadrive') super-accelerate a piece of metal (a bullet) to muzzle velocities well exceeding the ballistic capability of modern-day ammunition. Whereas a normal .50 BMG sniper bullet will travel at roughly 4,000 feet per second (2,727 MPH), a .50 caliber BMG round fired through the Revolution Rifle will more than double that velocity, traveling at about 9,500 feet per second (6,477 MPH). Any noise made from this sniper rifle will not be from the explosive gunpowder cap typically found on modern ammunition (since Kenneth actually removes these caps manually prior to any sort of combat, to cut down on weight and allow for more rounds per magazine), but rather from the bullet itself creating a micro-sonic boom as it exits the chamber. It is also worth noting that because of the lack of explosive force when firing the weapon, there is almost no recoil.

The magnadrive is also capable of energetically disassembling a single round into what are effectively partially-molten pieces of buckshot. These pieces of magnetically-generated buckshot can then be ejected from the rifle's barrel in a firey cloud (ideally with the barrel detached), transforming the rifle into a terrifyingly effective shotgun able to shower a target in melted, hyperaccelerated tungsten-iron shrapnel. How the magnadrive is capable of doing this without actually melting itself (since the tungsten rounds fired by the rifle have the highest melting point of any currently-known metal) is completely unknown.

Ammunition Acceptor: The manner in which the rifle accepts ammunition is also worth delving into, as no current weapon in any standing army uses a similar system. Where most weapons rely upon a magazine or clip to feed ammunition into the firing chamber, the Revolution Rifle instead "inhales" ammunition into an internal magazine, by way of what Kenneth has dubbed "Acceptor Magazines", pressed briefly against an acceptor-port that can be seen prominently in the center of the rifle's core. These packets of ammunition can fit roughly twice the ordnance of a NATO standard issue .50 BMG magazine, due to the prior removal of each round's firing cap; the Revolution Rifle does not require these in order to propel a round downrange. Each round is inhaled into the rifle's inner magazines (one beneath the acceptor port, and a larger, primary magazine within the rifle's stock) via a series of hyper-precise magnetic instructions, before being lined up for insertion into the magnadrive, where the round is then fired.

Other Modifications: Kenneth's time spent in the 21st century has necessitated that other adjustments and modifications be made to his rifle as well, in order to enable its usage in a time and reality in which his former access to resources such as ammunition and maintenance tools are cut off. One of the first adjustments made to the rifle came in the form of a larger bore and chamber size to accommodate for .50 caliber BMG rounds, rather than energized slugs made of a carbonum-molybdenum alloy that were so plentiful in his homeworld.

The firmware responsible for calculating targeting information needs to know the exact dimensions of whatever round it is attempting to fire, so that it can adjust its parameters accordingly. This means that Ken has had to perform extensive work on the rifle's internal systems, to add in details about current-day ammunition that wouldn't have existed in his homeworld.

Some other modifications have become necessary due to the sheer increase in threat level of the reality Ken found himself caught in. The addition of multiple fire modes to the formerly single-shot weapon were one way Ken could adapt to the rising challenges placed before him. The burst-fire (3-shot) and full-automatic firing modes required a change in the way the magnadrive handled the discharging of rounds. The longer the magnadrive is active, the less power that can be used to fire each bullet. While the FULL POWER of the weapon can be unleashed with its original single-shot firing mode, the power required to send ordinance down-range is divided by the number of bullets being fired. Three bullets within a short period of time, for instance, means that only one-third of the total energy capacity is dedicated to firing each bullet. Full-automatic on the other hand will attempt to overcharge the magnadrive very briefly, to give extra power to each round. This overcharging process is not damaging to the magnadrive fortunately, as any extra energy accumulated by the drive is immediately spent on the process of firing a round.

The final modification made to the Revolution Rifle lies in the addition of a secondary ammunition type; tranquilizer darts. This special type of ammunition has necessitated further tweaks and calibrations in order to allow a tranquilizer dart, inherently a syringe filled with fluid, to survive the extreme forces at work within the Revolution Rifle's magnadrive and firing chamber. A specially-crafted tranquilizer acceptor magazine has also been fashioned to hold these darts; this magazine is capable of holding ten tranquilizer darts at a time. For further information on the exact types of tranquilizer darts Kenneth carries as part of his arsenal, see the section on the Mk 23 SOCOM pistol below.

Revolution Rifle Ammunition

.50 Browning Machine Gun (.50 BMG, or 12.7×99mm NATO) Tungsten - This standard ammunition, originally designed for usage by NATO countries and first put in service in 1921, has seen a number of revisions over the years, and has thus evolved further and further into the 'perfect' sniper ammunition. While the round is not quite an 'anti-materiel' round useful for puncturing holes in tank armor, it is still capable of penetrating 19 mm of steel armor at a distance of 1500 yards. Considering the doubling of force the Revolution Rifle can utilize in the firing of these rounds, Kenneth has not needed to worry about extra penetrative measures such as a sabot in order to get these rounds to act as armor-piercing. Kenneth chose these rounds due to their relative availability, their price, and their easily-modifiable design. In addition, these rounds come standard with an inner iron core, which allows the magnadrive to act upon what otherwise is a nonmagnetic metal (tungsten). These are the only rounds capable of magnetic disassembly, due to their relatively simplistic design.

Cryo - These .50 BMG rounds are coated in a specially-cured "thermal paste" that activates when exceeding speeds of 2,700 MPH. The forces exerted upon the bullet activate the paste, and are capable of chilling the bullet to around -150 degrees Fahrenheit. These rounds are especially useful in situations against foes utilizing some form of fire-based offensive or defensive ability.

Pyro - Similar to the Cryo ammunition, these bullets are coated in a thermal paste capable of igniting a bullet as it reaches speeds of 2,700 MPH or greater. These rounds are most useful, naturally, against foes displaying some form of ice manipulation.

Ferrous (Cold Steel) - Specially-made .50 BMG rounds crafted out of cold-processed iron ore can, at least according to folklore, be capable of inflicting damage upon incorporeal entities including ghosts and spirits. These rounds are also, if the folklore is correct, capable of dealing extreme damage to fae-type targets, witches, and other malevolent supernatural entities. Ken had never believed in such creatures before his arrival in the Primal Earth dimension, but to say the least, circumstances have changed his opinion.

Silver - These extremely expensive .50 BMG rounds are used ONLY in dire situations involving resilient supernatural creatures that cannot be slowed, or hurt, via any other known method. These rounds are not created by Ken, but are instead purchased individually from a local arcane shop within Millennium City. Each round is engraved with a pattern of runes and religious symbols meant to maximize the round's efficiency against a variety of targets, be they werewolves or angels. After the runes are etched, the bullet is then immersed in holy water for a period of three hours. To date, Ken has not fired a single one of these rounds, and hopes the need does not arise. Worth noting is that these rounds are NOT 100% silver. Within each bullet is a magnetically-active ferrous (iron) core, allowing the magnadrive to act upon these rounds, since silver itself is not a magnetic metal.

Fragmentary - These .50 BMG rounds are outfitted with a small remote-triggered explosive capable of detonating upon signal reception by the Revolution Rifle itself. The explosion is small, but capable of dividing the bullet into a more traditional (non-molten) cloud of shrapnel, useful for destroying light cover such as doors or drywall. The bullet can be directed to trigger its explosive payload immediately upon ejection from the Revolution Rifle barrel, creating a "shotgun-like" effect. Kenneth does not often use this ammunition, due to the Revolution Rifle's ability to magnetically disassemble even a standard bullet into semi-molten buckshot, to recreate the effect of these rounds. He keeps these primarily as a contingency measure.

Arcane - The newest ammunition in Kenneth's arsenal exists solely as a response to the ineffectiveness of physical ammunition when used against a mystic, supernatural, otherworldly, or otherwise physically non-compliant target. Onto every one of these rounds is etched a complex series of runes meant to energize the bullet into one of several magically-charged states. The bullets themselves are activated via one of three Latin key-phrases. "Ardeat ad cinis" (Burn to ashes) activates a flame effect. "In frigore inferni" (Freeze in hell) imbues each round with a frost effect. "Vi superum" (Energy of the gods) channels a neutral magical force through each round, capable of puncturing holes through standard magical defenses. The single utterance of one of these phrases will convert all rounds Kenneth carries on his person.

EXACTO "Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance" .50 Caliber Rounds - These cutting-edge .50 caliber BMG rounds fresh out of DARPA are without a doubt the most expensive, difficult-to-obtain ammunition Ken carries in his arsenal. These sniper rounds appear ordinary at first sight, but are in fact directly linked with the Revolution Rifle, using Kenneth's cell phone as a communication medium. The rifle and the individual rounds share targeting information; this gives the bullet itself a painted target, which the bullet will then attempt to find and hit. The actual bullet itself is coated with a series of micro-rudders capable of steering the bullet mid-flight, according to targeting information generated by the rifle and transmitted by Ken's phone. While Kenneth does not actually NEED these bullets, since his rifle is completely capable of manipulating the flight path of an ordinary bullet on its own, the EXACTO ammunition is useful for hitting targets behind cover, or in more extreme environments.

SPIRITECH Revolution Rifle Mk XXIII – LIBERTIAN VARIANT

In early 2015, Ken and The Liberators were confronted with their most daunting, frightening foes to date; themselves. The team were invited to a parallel reality some 42 years into the future, to behold the progress their alternate selves had made; a world molded into utopia by the iron fist of Tony "Swift" Griffins, who in that reality had saw fit to name himself Director of the sovereign nation of Libertia, which had grown to replace most of the former United States, Mexico, and Canada.

As The Liberators came to realize just what their counterparts had done to the world, they stood horrified. Through a series of complex events, The Liberators had teamed up with the anti-Libertian resistance fighters hidden in pockets throughout the despotic nation, and fought to reclaim Libertia for the people.

Almost every one of The Liberators could find in that reality a dark reflection of themselves, twisted by future events and hardships into creatures indistinguishable from tyrants. Kenneth was no exception.

In the reality dominated by Libertia, Kenneth found that his 80 year old self had become a vicious, terrifying monster used as a tool to strike fear into the hearts of average Libertian citizens; a bogeyman children were told would snatch them from their beds while they slept, and devour them whole.

Ravager.

This creature that had formerly been Kenneth had become so drastically mutated over the years that he barely resembled his former human self at all. He had become a wrecked, mournful, savage being that could only maintain human clarity when given a course of advanced retroviral drugs by his caretaker, the Lacertavirus-infected Rion Blackfrost, or "Sabre" as he called himself in this timeline.

Ravager, having become more animal than man over the past 42 years, had steadily used his rifle less and less as a highly-refined tool capable of pinpoint precision sniping, and more as a savage bludeoning weapon.

After all was said and done, Kenneth recovered this rifle from Ravager's personal quarters deep within Libertia's capital city, and took it for himself. Ken looks upon the weapon with unease and sorrow; a memento of a timeline that should never have existed. A symbol of everything he hoped he would never become.

The Rifle Itself

The Libertian Variant of the Revolution Rifle appears visually different from the standard Revolution Rifle; made of a (formerly) sleek white metal that cannot be identified as anything natural or manmade. The rifle's acceptor port and heat vents toward the barrel glow with a slight, unnatural red color. Although it was certainly not the intent of the original manufacturer, whoever (or whatever) it may have been, this rifle actually feels somewhat malevolent in its design.

The scope on this new rifle is of a different shape. Despite the drastic difference in scope, the component actually seems to be original to the rifle. It is likely a point of difference between the realities where each rifle came from; among many other differences, it seems that the original scope on Kenneth's rifle was part of what changed between our reality and the one Ravager lived in. The differences are only cosmetic, however; the rifle still maintains its rather incredible 5000x maximum magification level of zoom, adjustable all the way back to 25x. How the optics are capable of doing this without using a casing larger than a city bus is unknown.

Perhaps the greatest difference between this rifle and Kenneth's own Revolution Rifle is that of an attachment beneath the rifle, elongating (and actually replacing) the secondary magazine. A small light and meter along this battery-looking component appear to be recent modifications. Kenneth calls this "System CALEB", for a very special reason.

System CALEB

System CALEB is short for the Coiled, Amplified Lightning-Electromotive Battery. It is a miniaturized hypergenerator capable of storing an incredible 500,000,000 joules of energy, all connected directly into the magnadrive firing chamber. It was created by studying the lupine metahuman Caleb "Varulfr" Mitchell, whose ability to generate and channel enormous amounts of red-tinted electricity had caught the eye of the Libertian Minister of Science, Sabre. (Formerly Rion Blackfrost) Through his research, he was able to replicate a scaled-back version of Caleb's electrical generating ability, forming it into System CALEB, and installing it into the Revolution Rifle as a boost to Ravager's offensive capabilities.

When a specialized (copper-coated) bullet from this rifle is fired with System CALEB activated, the full 500,000,000 joules are channeled directly into the core of the bullet, and released all at the same time as the bullet is fired. The result, combined with a hypercharging of the magnadrive, actually produces a clap of thunder as a red-tinted bolt of lightning erupts from the barrel of the rifle, using the bullet itself as a lightning rod. To an observer, the bullet will appear to 'ride' the bolt of lightning, all the way to its target. The bullet, subjected to extreme temperatures by the incredible influx of electricity combined with its sheer velocity (equal to that of the standard Revolution Rifle) actually start to melt the outer layers of the bullet mid-flight. Virtually any object hit by this combination of bullet and lightning bolt will either ignite, vaporize, or simply explode.

It takes roughly ten seconds for System CALEB to recharge, ready to discharge another round, which amounts to a charge rate of 50,000,000 joules per second; absolutely astounding...and frightening. An attempt would be made to dissect or look into the inner workings of System CALEB, but frankly, considering the current physical state of the Libertia Variant rifle, any tampering would be very ill-advised.

The Rifle's Condition

The condition of the Libertia Variant rifle is, in a word, poor; at least visually so. The rifle appears worn, battered, mistreated and badly handled. The dents throughout the metal appear to be from the weapon's use as a cudgel by Ravager, as his mind slipped into the depths of feralhood.

Despite the poor shape of the rifle, the entire unit still operates as if nothing were wrong; the damage actually seems to have "angered" the rifle, as ridiculous as that might sound. Considering that the rifle is essentially a reflection of its bearer thanks to the still-extant nano-feedback relay and mnemonic drive, there may actually be something to the rifle having a defiantly "angry" feel about it.

Mnemnonic Drive

In talks with Ken over what he percieves to be most distinctive about this rifle, he is adamant that the rifle's mnemnonic drive is by a large margin the most challenging and divergent; it more than anything else makes the Libertian Variant rifle a completely different beast than the original, no pun intended.

Bearing in mind that the rifle's mnemnonic drive is capable of recording in its somatic continuum the goings' on of Kenneth's own body, the rifle becomes a reflection of its bearer. The fact that this rifle had been wielded by Ravager for over 40 years as his mind and body devolved into that of an angry, feral monster had left this rifle a near-complete record of everything that Ravager had been through from our own present, to the dystopian future of Libertia 42 years from now. Ken, being the only person capable of sensing what the rifle 'knows', is able to tap into Ravager's somatic continuum simply through contact with the rifle's body. He may be reticent on the subject, but it is clear that this connection between himself and Ravager has taken a toll of some sort. It is clearly difficult for him to wield the rifle as a result.

When pressed on the issue, Ken notes that the Ravager-imbued somatic continuum on this rifle is something he can observe, but not be overwhelmed by. Regardless, it is frightening to think that everything Ken had ever feared he might become is embodied within the frame of this damaged, angry-looking sniper rifle.

Other Notes

The damage, coupled with the modifications made to this rifle have created a weapon that is far less flexible in what situations it can handle. It is, for instance, absolutely not in any way suitable as a riot weapon, nor can it be tricurfated into its constituent pieces. This means no shotgun capability, and no pistol mode.

The weapon also appears incapable of accepting as many types of ammunition as the standard Revolution Rifle, having been programmed only with the parameters involved in special copper-coated .50 BMG ammunition, which can be stored on a special ammunition pouch that has been grafted to the stock.

The rifle contains all other functionality that Kenneth's original Revolution Rifle holds; the nano-feedback relay is completely intact, as are the pathways that connect each piece of the rifle to the other, and back to Kenneth's own internal nano-network.

If anything else is learned about this weapon, it will be noted here.

Specially-Modified HK Mk 23 SOCOM Tranquilizer Pistol

Originally designed in the 1990s and first employed in 1996 for the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the Heckler & Koch Mk 23 SOCOM pistol is a high-grade, rugged, waterproof pistol normally suited for firing .45 caliber ACP rounds. It can normally be found with a tactical flashlight/laser targeting attachment, and high-grade firing suppressor screwed onto the barrel. Ken had little use for the flashlight attachment, but kept both it and the suppressor.

Not intending to use the pistol for anything more than tranquilizing low-level threats (since even the Revolution Rifle's core can be considered overkill in many situations), Ken set about personally modifying the pistol to suit his needs. Modifications to the pistol include grip adjustments to allow for unobstructed usage with his claws, along with chamber, firing mechanism, barrel, and clip adjustments that allow the pistol to fire medically-sterile riot grade tranquilizer darts. The tranquilizer darts themselves are filled with a Fentanyl-Benzodiazepine mixture that has been specially formulated to not only be capable of downing large targets with a minimum number of darts, but to relieve any and all pain associated with being stuck with what is essentially hypodermic needle being shot at high speeds into the skin.

The content of the darts were chosen specifically for its properties that allow for the safe usage against not only large targets, but smaller ones, with a minimum of side effects afterward.

The actual body units of the darts come in a variety of "flavors", each used for specific circumstances. Ballistic tranquilizer rounds are intended to be used against targets with thick skin, chitinous exoskeletal plating, or light armor. Thermal tranquilizer rounds are intended to be used against targets that display or utilize some form of control over ice, either in an attempt to destroy the darts mid-flight, or to block against them with a coating of ice-armor. The darts are coated with a thermal glaze that ignites upon firing, that can then (hopefully) bypass any sort of ice-related defenses. Electrical tranquilizer rounds come equipped with a small, quick-discharge battery located at the top of the syringe, meant to electrify the metal body of the dart. These darts are reserved for especially resilient targets. Anything more powerful will need to be dealt with by Kenneth's Revolution Rifle, which was never intended for use as a riot weapon.

Unlike the Revolution Rifle, Kenneth's Mk 23 SOCOM pistol is a modern-day weapon. While Kenneth can make perfectly serviceable usage of the weapon in concert with his symbiotic implants, the more advanced features (such as the nano-feedback link and Intent Drive) that exist as a part of the Revolution Rifle do not exist on the Mk 23. This means that it is entirely possible for Kenneth to miss the shot when using this, or any other modern firearm.

Electrostaff Mk1

After carefully following Kenneth's training reports and gauging a multitude of factors involving reaction times and weak points, the chief medical officer of The Liberators, Rion Blackfrost, had figured that there was simply too much opportunity for opponents to close into Kenneth, and take advantage of his inability to fight at close range. Ken was not one to argue; melee and close range had long been a weakness of his, but to see the actual numbers prompted both to immediate action.

After several weeks toiling away in The Liberators' R&D laboratory, Rion Blackfrost had managed to come up with what he dubbed the Electrostaff; a modular bo-staff capable of extending from its collapsed length of one foot to a length of six feet, with a flick of the wrist.

This staff, as its name implies, can be electrified using residual electrical current withdrawn from the nanomachines saturating the surface of Kenneth's skin; otherwise, the staff will have no current whatsoever running through it.

As an additional benefit to the staff's modular design, the staff can be split in half, via a stronglock joint, into a pair of electrified escrima sticks.

"Broken" LB-004 Lightbender

The LB-004 Lightbender, when it was purchased from a gear vending machine in his homeworld, worked as follows:

Switch the lightbender on, and the molecules composing the wearer's body are then slightly scattered, to the extent that allows light to be bent away from the wearer. The effect under most spectra of light, visible to humans or not, is that the user of the lightbender becomes incredibly difficult to detect, appearing as a "glass figure". This effect can be maintained for approximately one hour, before the lightbender automatically shuts off as a safety precaution against battery drain and molecular damage to the wearer.

Due to the effects of transdimensional travel on the delicate inner workings of the lightbender, Kenneth's lightbender has become corrupted beyond repair. Despite no longer being perfectly safe to wear and use, it has gained several very curious and useful properties that are currently beyond explanation by any researcher Kenneth has yet asked.

Currently, the lightbender works as follows:

Switch the lightbender on, and the molecules composing the wearer's body are scattered even further apart than they should be allowed to. This hyper-accelerates the inner workings of the lightbender, shortening the battery and molecular damage counter from one hour, to five seconds. Curiously, an effect takes over during these five seconds of operability that allows for an extreme boost to the wearer's speed, giving the lightbender the functional appearance of a teleportation device, rather than a cloaking device. Even more curiously, this appears to allow for vertical movement, temporarily negating the laws of gravity for the wearer. After the safety mechanism forces the lightbender to shut off, the scattered molecules of the wearer's body SLAM back together, causing an intense, full-body spasm of pain that lasts several seconds. As the molecules readjust to their reorganization, the anti-gravitational effects of the lightbender continue to manifest in a more subtle way, lessening the effect that gravity has on the body. Perhaps this is because the molecular reorganization dissociates the wearer from the effects of the Higgs Boson, meaning for a few seconds after the lightbender shuts off, the wearer not only weighs less, but has less mass than before the lightbender was switched on.

Automatic Weapon/Armor Retrieval Engine (AWARE)

The automatic weapon/armor retrieval engine, or "AWARE", is a unit designed by Katelin Phare while still in the Primal Earth reality meant for versatile reaction to dangerous or combat-oriented situations. Considering how quickly a conflict situation can arise, it was necessary to enable Kenneth to quickly get into and out of his combat gear, without the burden of carrying it on his person at all times. Thus, the AWARE system was put into place; at a moment's notice, Kenneth can access geo-tagged equipment such as armors or weaponry, and pull said gear directly onto his person, from virtually any point on Earth.

The AWARE system works in concert with Kenneth's nanomachine network to accept commands for equipment requests. These requests are then filled out, and the tagged equipment is then quantum-funneled from point A (Kenneth's equipment cache) to point B (Kenneth himself). The actual mechanics of how this system works are not very well-understood, but it is generally accepted that Ms. Phare had a much more evolved understanding of quantum entanglement and particle physics than modern-day physicists do.

The ease by which this AWARE system works is quite fascinating, however. Kenneth simply waves an arm, the nanomachines working in concert with his "Intent Drive" able to discern without audio or visual cues exactly what equipment he is requesting. The equipment then fizzles into being, perfectly matched to his anatomical and geological position. How exactly this works without the equipment coming into spatial conflict with Ken's actual body is as yet also unknown, but it is theorized that the nanomachine network in Kenneth's skin is able to provide a clear framework on where his flesh is or is not, at any given moment.

To send a piece of equipment back into storage, Ken simply uses the "Intent Drive" system to signal that a piece of equipment is to be de-equipped, and the process is then reversed.

Intent Drive

Despite being a fully biological entity, Kenneth has at his disposal a cloud of benevolent nanomachines residing within his body. These nanomachines, harmless on their own, coexist with his cellular structure, and even with the much more malevolent presence of Lacertavirus (more on that later). These nanomachines are controlled via a direct link to the brain in what Ken has dubbed "Intent Drive". The Intent Drive system is a general-purpose utility that allows Kenneth to directly input commands to electronics that are on his person, be they a cell phone, a retinal HUD, the AWARE system, or his Revolution Rifle.

The system works by gauging Kenneth's "intent", thereby acting as a medium between his desires and the user interface of any given piece of technology he comes in contact with. Considering the disparity between a biological thought process and the software processes of using a cell phone for instance, it is absolutely remarkable how adaptable this system has proven to be.

Consider the cell phone example made above. Let us suppose that Kenneth wishes to send a text message to his mate, Kuro. First, all that needs done is that he press a bare finger (exposing the nanomachine-laden skin of his fingertips) to the cell phone's I/O port. In his mind, he imagines sending a text message to "Kuro Hiryu". The nanites in his body then interpret his will in a way his cell phone can functionally understand, much as plugging in a charging cable to the phone's I/O port will signal to the phone that it needs to recharge its battery. Kenneth's Intent Drive bridges the gap between sentient will and binary command in a way that would surely revolutionize the way we interact with technology, to the point where user interfaces themselves become outmoded and obsolete.

This is why Kenneth hardly ever speaks of the Intent Drive; just imagine how much this technology would be worth to Microsoft, Apple, or Google?

The uses of Intent Drive go even deeper, however. As long as an interface port of some kind is available, say for an electronic lock on a bank vault, Kenneth can simply press a bare finger to the I/O port, and intend for the door to open. The Intent Drive will then sort out what it would take for Kenneth's will to be done and then issue the appropriate commands to the lock system, which the system will then be forced to follow. The door will then open, and all Ken ever had to do was wish for it.

GyroCAM

The GyroCAM is a disposable, maneuverable, remotely-operated observation platform shaped like a small sphere with a size slightly larger than the average golf ball. These cameras are constructed out of scavenged smartphone pieces by Kenneth himself, using junked phones left behind in smartphone recycling bins in big box electronics stores. Kenneth strips these phones of all useful pieces including the processor, cellular antenna, cameras, gyroscope and accelerometer, and the battery. After wiring these pieces together in a compact form and sandwiching the pieces between two small motors, the entire unit is then housed inside a two-piece, rubberized plastic shell that acts as the device's outer body and treading. Once assembled, the GyroCAM is controlled by a customized cellular signal routed through Kenneth's cell phone, which is then interpreted by the Intent Drive. The camera feed from the GyroCAM will display both on Kenneth's own cell phone screen, and his ocular symbiotics, allowing him to see what the GyroCAM sees.

DUSTBRIGADE Commander Armorsuit Mk. V

On the mining world that Kenneth had moved to earlier in his life, a rogue faction of terrorists prowled the nigh-endless deserts, calling themselves the "Dust Brigade". Their one mission seemed to be to destabilize the fragile political climate there, and transform a cold war into a heated conflict capable of shaking the foundations of the planet to dust. At the time, Kenneth found these terrorists to be the antithesis of everything he believed in. While he fought hard to bring the politically-fractured world to some form of peace, creating the difference he so badly sought to make, these terrifying men utilized bizarrely high-tech, expensive equipment in their effort to tear the world apart. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" was their trademark war cry.

One day, while trekking across the arid desert plains in search of a missing person, Kenneth came across the crumpled, dead body of a Dust Brigade commander, little left of the man but leather and bone...and this suit of dazzlingly high-tech armor. Ken stripped the armor from the body, cleaned it, rebuilt it, and crafted it into a symbol of anti-terrorist sentiment.

The Dust Brigade commander armor was designed specifically for arid desert combat, and its design reflected this in its openness (flowing fabric, open hood, etc). The armor originally consisted of a hood, facemask (as protection against dust storms), chestplate, sleeves, gloves, pants, boots, and a light armorskirt that served mostly as decoration. The armor itself was crafted from a notum-enriched carbonum-plasteel weave, fused in places with a carbonum plating. Both of these materials, carbonum (a carbon-metal super-synthetic alloy) and plasteel (a plastiform super-synthetic metal, also a portmanteau of plastic and steel), will not be invented until sometime during the 28,500s AD. The armor's lightweight construction belies its incredible strength and resistance to all known forms of physical weaponry. The armor-fabrics involved in its construction also hid billions of nano-pathways, meant for the quick and unobstructed usage of nanoprograms (akin to technologically-enabled magic spells) during combat.

Kenneth continued to use this suit of armor for years, adding onto it, adapting it to his transforming body as needed (e.g. his new tail). The thermo-control capillary system hidden between the layers of anti-ballistic textiles proved to be one of the most useful systems, as Kenneth adapted it into a temperature control system capable not just of cooling the body down (as was necessary in the sweltering desert), but heating it up. This was then used to maintain homeostatic control of his body as it transitioned from endo to exothermic. As his ability to autonomously keep his body warm diminished, his reliance upon the Dust Brigade armorsuit grew.

It should be noted that originally, the suit did not come with the ballistic-textile orange manteau (cape) that Kenneth has paired along with the armorsuit. This was added at a later date, as Kenneth found it useful to have a form of flexible armor that not only protected his tail by draping over it, but could be used to keep others close to him safe as well, should the situation arise.

One of the final alterations to the suit, added sometime in 2012 by Primal Earth engineers in conjunction with Kenneth himself are a series of anti-gravitational plates fitted into the armorsuit's gloves and boot-soles, allowing for limited, low-speed flight.

Also, due to damage sustained during the transition between Kenneth's original reality/time and that of Primal Earth, the armorskirt normally paired with the suit had become damaged beyond repair, and was retired.

Currently, this armorsuit has been fully retired, due to extreme environmental damage suffered during Kenneth's experiences with the Shueidao Island incident in early 2014.

Anti-Arcane DUSTBRIGADE Mk I Armorsuit

Despite being created from a series of materials far beyond the pale of contemporary technologies, the Dust Brigade Commander Mk V suit featured a glaring, critical weakness that would render it virtually unusable in present conditions; the suit had been designed for use in a world that, according to Ken, was utterly devoid of any sort of arcane influence. Though the original manufacturers were incredible armorsmiths, able to imbue fabrics with the anti-ballistic properties of kendrium or titanium, they were unable to anticipate the physically-defiant energies of even the simplest forms of magic.

As Ken realized that mana-charged attacks could simply bypass his armor systems and put him in greater risk of injury or death, he began to search for another, more suitable armor system for practical use.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle in crafting a NEW suit of armor up to Ken's specifications came in the need to replicate both the carbonum (a carbon-based super-synthetic metal) and plasteel (a plastiform metal, named a portmanteau of plastic and steel) that made up the Dust Brigade Commander suit, both of which would not be invented until sometime in the 28,500s AD. The truly fascinating thing about both of these super-synth materials, aside from their advanced nature, is that both of these materials had been strung out into a metal-plastic fabric, in a process known as textilization. Recreating these materials on their own would be a challenge in and of itself, but textilizing them into a weave is simply not possible with current-day technologies.

In full realization of this predicament, Ken fell back upon the help of a friend of his, a werewolf mystic by the name of "Sajit". Considering that magic can enable even the unlikeliest and most physically-impossible of phenomena, it should then be reasonable that cloning a super-synthetic material like carbonum-plasteel weave would be relatively simple. Fortunately for Ken, this proved to be exactly the case.

As the material underwent the cloning processes, Sajit then added a third component to the textilized armor-weave, in the form of anti-arcane runes. These runes manifested themselves visually as a bright orange accent pattern over the otherwise-blackened carbonum-plasteel weave, creating a strikingly different take on the original Dust Brigade Commander armorsuit. The original systems hidden beneath the suit, such as the nano-pathway conduit and thermal control systems were also preserved, passed down magically from the original.

The result is a physically-hardened armorsuit capable of withstanding large-caliber ballistic rounds in the physical sense, with the added comfort of protection against most known forms of magic.

Unfortunately, during a prolonged fight against Ken's mate Kuro, who had transformed into an out-of-control 'greater black dragon' form, this armorsuit was melted into a near-unusable state by Kuro's newfound acid-spitting ability. The suit has been decommissioned, although Ken is trying to find someone capable of repairing it.

ORBITAL FABRICANT Tactical Hardshell Armorsuit Mk 1

Armor suits are extremely difficult to come by for Ken, especially with his nigh-unreasonable demand for extreme levels of ballistic and magical protection coupled with lightweight construction and flexibility. When both of his Dust Brigade-make suits were damaged beyond repair, and his previous armor smith Sajit (the werewolf mystic) had gone missing, Ken felt he had very few options left to remain a vital and functional member of any crime-fighting unit, especially one as in demand as The Liberators.

The solution to Ken's problem would come not from anywhere on Earth, but from Ken's moon-dwelling friend, Major Nohman. Having access to a wide variety of eclectic and far-flung technologies, The Major seemed to be the person to speak to in regards to technologies advanced enough for Kenneth's liking. In order to craft something similar to his own hardbodied armorsuit, The Major required several swatches of material cut directly from the old suits, in order to analyze and replicate their physical makeup and composition.

The most-undamaged materials collected from the old suits of armor just happened to be found in the carbonum-plasteel plating this time, in direct contrast with the chiefly armor-textile makeup of the old suits. This plating was replicated in a multitude of incredibly thin layers (50nm per 'sheet') of carbonum-plasteel, with every 10th layer being an anti-arcane, runic layer composed of disenchantment materials cloned directly from Sajit's design on the anti-arcane Dust Brigade suit. After thousands and thousands of layers had been processed and placed atop one another, each component of this armor was placed into a press capable of generating up to 400 gigapascals of pressure, slightly more pressure than exists inside of Earth's core.

The press galvanized the super-synthetic materials into a glossy, hardshelled plating capable of not only resisting most known forms of ballistic weaponry, but outright deadening them. A bullet striking this hyper-compressed carbonum-plasteel plating is immediately robbed of its kinetic energy, falling to the ground as a harmless piece of flattened metal. While the underbody of this new suit is still composed of the familiar armor-textiles of the old suits, the exterior of the suit would become completely coated with these plates, giving the whole suit an incredibly sleek, postmodern look that is unique to Ken. The suit has also retained its anti-arcane functionality in full, but with a noticeable increase in efficacy due to the many layers of runic protection piled into the suit's obsidian-black and orange-accented plating.

Other systems including the nano-pathway network (allowing for Kenneth's body to directly assess the condition of each piece of the armorsuit) and the anti-gravity plates in the boots and gloves were maintained in full. The thermal-control system in particular was given a much-needed upgrade, due to the suit's now-closed nature. Whereas the last two suits were exclusively designed for the dissipation of heat (thus the open-hooded, open-cloaked design) in arid desert conditions, this suit was designed with full thermal moderation in mind, forming a closed environment within the suit that can then be directly moderated to a range of temperatures, anywhere from 50 to 125 F, depending on Kenneth's homeostatic needs.

In the pursuit of a suitable means to control the suit's inner temperature, a specialized "rubberized carbonum" tail-sleeve was also produced, designed specifically to house Kenneth's tail. Prior to the development of this tail-sleeve, Ken relied on a heated manteau (cape) that would drape over his tail, and also serve as protection against any kind of damage. The cape was very much an imperfect solution to a problem that neither Ken, nor the designers of the original suit, anticipated the need for.

The headpiece of the suit was also given a much-needed redesign, and followed the closed design of the rest of the hardshell suit, now enclosing Ken's face entirely within. Inside the helmet are an array of nano-active sensors and displays that can filter through different spectra of light, from ultraviolet to gamma. These sensors can also peer through fog and darkness, although Ken's ocular symbiotics are able to do much of this on their own, anyway. The display also pipes in information about Kenneth's suit from contact points spread across the suit's interior lining, capable of displaying internal temperature readings, inner oxygen levels, plating and textile integrity levels, and a multitude of other minutia that could prove important in any number of combat or exploratory scenarios.

Finally, owing to Major Nohman's spacefaring nature and the suit's closed and thermal-locked design, coupled with the oxygen scrubber-compiler unit blended into the back of the chestplate, the Tactical Hardshell suit of armor is the first of Kenneth's suits capable of anaerobic exploration. In short, it is fully capable of spending extended periods of time in the vacuum of space.

Antiviral Syrettes and Inhalant Systems

Ken's viral mutation has forced him to undergo an intense amount of medical oversight, which requires that he be properly medicated at all times with antiviral drugs. These antiviral drugs have taken many shapes and forms over the years, with the current treatment being the "ARGENTUM AGENT" inhalant drug produced by Rion Blackfrost. Ken also carries on his person at least three other dosages of his old GOLDENGLOW formula at all times, in case of dire emergencies. These two drugs have a long history, which will be documented here.

The drugs that Ken uses in his day to day life went through a number of iterations before finally arriving at the point that they have today. Originally, the drug began as a clear, experimental formula known as "SOTERIA" (named after the ancient Greek goddess of safety and deliverance from harm) meant to disable the "framework" of a wide variety of engineered nanoviruses. The ones who had constructed the nanovirus used this clear fluid as a failsafe against accidents that may take place within day-to-day laboratory operations. The catch is, however, that the nanoviruses collect after various instances of infection and become lodged within the body. The viruses may be in an "off" state due to SOTERIA, but the viruses cannot be removed without a procedure akin to a full-scale vivisection/cleansing that has a 99.9999% mortality rate. (It is suspected, horrifyingly, that this collection of nanoviruses in employees at this facility was used as a bargaining chip in NDA agreements, ensuring that all employees remain silent; or else the viruses will be turned back on.)

The SOTERIA drug was first given to Kenneth during a complex series of events in the weeks directly following his infection by Lacertavirus. The drug was given as a reward, as Kenneth did the legwork (while incredibly ill due to the initial effects of the virus) to kill the Lab Director ultimately responsible for the creation of Lacertavirus, also responsible for the shooting/nanovirus infection of a prominent world leader at the time. His contact wanted the proof of the director's treason in exchange for a syringe loaded with SOTERIA.

The primary issue with SOTERIA was that it did not prevent the reactivation of a nanovirus colony due to exposure to high-frequency, high-wavelength radioactivity. This has so far happened TWICE to Kenneth; once in his home reality, and once on Shueidao Island.

Using SOTERIA as a base to create an ever more complex series of drugs meant to specifically combat Lacertavirus resulted in several new drugs that were ultimately considered failures. "GOLDENROD" was one of these drugs, a compound designed to kill off infected tissues in an effort to curtail the process of Lacertavirus. This drug nearly killed Ken via massive organ failure as a result from a single dosage.

Ultimately, upon closer inspection of how Lacertavirus actually goes about transforming its host from one species to the other, a component of the nanovirus dubbed GM-Lacertavirus (Genetic Manipulator) had been isolated from the colony. GOLDENGLOW was developed specifically to combat this individual component of Lacertavirus, and has become the most successful drug yet used in the attempt at keeping Kenneth a human being for as long as possible.

Fortunately, the GOLDENGLOW drug has proven useful when injected into Stage 1 Lacertavirus victims, as well. Owing to its nature as a SOTERIA-based drug, the chemical can be injected into bite victims to deactivate their newfound infections, as long as the drug is injected within one week of exposure to Lacertavirus.

The newest generation of GOLDENGLOW, thanks to the efforts of Rion Blackfrost in deciphering research gleaned from The Liberators' trip into the Libertia reality, is called "ARGENTUM AGENT"; it is delivered via an inhalor system, which requires a single puff three times per week in order to maintain maximum efficiency.

Symbiotic Implants

Symbiosis is defined as "a mutually-beneficial relationship involving close physical contact between two organisms that are not the same species". This adequately describes the frighteningly hyper-futuristic collection of "implants" scattered throughout Kenneth's body. They are not quite implants, so much as they are elegantly-crafted, amorphously-shaped creatures living in harmony within Kenneth's mutating body. These organisms appear to exist for no reason other than to become conduits for biological enhancement. The Revolution Rifle, for instance, can directly command the symbiotic implants entwined around Kenneth's skeletal arm muscles, to maintain a perfect state of motionlessness while acquiring targets and aiming. Without these symbiotic implants, Kenneth simply wouldn't physically be able to hold his muscles still enough to hit targets at the extreme lengths he currently can.

These symbiotic implants can be found all over Kenneth's body.

Within Ken's heart is a symbiotic implant that maintains and assists in blood flow during intense physical activity. Within the lungs, a symbiotic implant aids the alveoli by supercharging Kenneth's ability to collect oxygen. Both of Kenneth's optic nerves are permeated by a thin, symbiotic film that serves as a direct visual link to cameras, screens, etc that can be viewed through his Intent Drive, forming a built-in HUD. Yet another symbiotic implant monitors and carefully entwines Kenneth's vocal cords, able to function as a throat microphone, enabling subvocalized communications through comm equipment or cell phones connected via Intent Drive. Kenneth's leg muscles and leg bones have been coated with one of these symbiotic implants as well, aiding in reaction times and giving him a mild boost to physical endurance. Even his hands and fingers have been laced with these beneficial organisms, further aiding in Kenneth's ability to remain utterly still while aiming his rifle.

The only thing these creatures seem to request of their host is a steady supply of nourishment, which is siphoned away in tiny amounts from the nutrient-rich content of Kenneth's blood.

Also worthy of note is that, due to these creatures' amorphous shapes, they are able to "heal" themselves even after their host has been injured. If a bullet were to puncture Kenneth's lower forearm, where bundles of symbiotic implants coat the skeletal musculature present there, the symbiotic implants will simply seal off whatever hole the bullet created within itself, and start to assist in the healing of Ken's musculature.

Chess Pawn

A simple chess pawn, crafted out of a dark, ebony wood. It looks rough, as though it has seen a lot. Why would Kenneth be carrying such a thing?

Lacertavirus

{luh-kair-tuh vy-russ}

Classification: Manmade, Intelligent Nanovirus Colony

Biohazardous Threat Level: BSL-3 (P-3) {CDC Verification: Nov. 2012}

Known Vector(s): Kenneth Age (38)

The following is a whitesheet description, provided by the CDC in conjunction with various other private medical institutions with medical records on Kenneth Age, of the "Lacertavirus" that is currently running through his system.

Morphology

The physical structure of the Lacertavirus is an utterly minuscule 2 nm shell of molecular metal armed with an incredible variety of mechanisms that clearly denote a man-made origin, rather than a natural one. The actual shape of the nanovirus varies, as there are several types of the nanovirus, rather than just one. Despite there being multiple types, they all work together as a cohesive whole. The types shall be listed as follows:

Genetic Manipulator (GM)

GM-Lacertavirus are the form of Lacertavirus most responsible for the genetic changes the victim suffers as a result of the disease. Gestational period for this form of the nanovirus can take up to several weeks after I-Lacertavirus (Infector variant) takes hold. This variant parses through the victim's genetic code, and alters it according to a programmed internal "blueprint". What dictates this internal blueprint, along with how to access it, is unknown. What is known, is that this “blueprint” follows a reptilian pattern, and consequently will transform the host into a reptilian form.

Defense (D)

D-Lacertavirus are responsible for protecting the rest of the nanovirus variants from all forms of tampering, including the mitigation of electromagnetic interference (EMP). They replicate rapidly, and then according to instructions generated by C-Lavertavirus (Communicator variant), are 'stationed' throughout the body. Attempts to disable or destroy the virus are met with reactions from D-Lacertavirus that range from pain to organ failure.

Communicator (C)

C-Lavertavirus is the network binding the other disparate variants of nanovirus together as a whole. This is a strongly-shielded variant, resistant to all known forms of tampering, utilizing some unknown means of communication to keep other variants of Lacertavirus in check. While other variants of the nanovirus are autonomous in nature and programmed to work together in local clusters, it is the C-Lacertavirus that can relay information from one part of the infected body to another. How it does this is as yet unknown.

Homeostatic (H)

H-Lacertavirus is responsible for the homeostasis element of the victim's mutating biology. This variant of the nanovirus is responsible for keeping the victim's body functioning as optimally as possible as it transitions from one species to the next. This includes functions such as regulation of body heat (transition from endo to ectothermic), regulation of energy intake, and waste disposal regulation, among many other functions. In addition, the H-Lacertavirus is responsible for determining whether or not the body as a whole is physically ready and capable for the host's further transformation from man into reptile.

Infector (I)

I-Lacertavirus is the progenitor of all the other strains of Lacertavirus, and is capable of transitioning itself into all other variants described above. This specialized nanovirus is the "front line soldier" of the Lacertavirus Colony, and as such takes on many of the traits of the D-Lacertavirus (Defense), including its hardening against electromagnetic interference (EMP). This varient of the virus is chiefly stored in any sort of transmissible body fluid (blood, seminal fluid, tears, saliva). The highest concentration of this principle variant is found in specialized glands that form as a side-growth of the salivary glands. From there, I-Lacertavirus is continually formed into a thick, bile-like mixture known as "venom". This is how the nanovirus is transmitted. This venom production does not cease; the continual production of this venom is one of several primary motivators for the victim to spread his/her condition to others. Once introduced into a victim's body, the I-Lacertavirus "sets up shop" in a process taking roughly seven to ten days, depending on various uncertain factors. It is during this time that the other variants of Lacertavirus are created, and that the nanovirus takes permanent root within the body.

Symptoms and Stages

Early symptoms of Lacertavirus are intentionally misleading; a direct result of human engineering meant to trick the host into complacency. This is simply an illusion of a lesser illness as it becomes much more complicated. From the influenza-like outset, Lacertavirus then progresses in stages. These stages will be described as follows:

Stage I

Lacertavirus directly and completely mimics the symptoms of influenza, including chills, headache, sore throat, fever, coughing, aches and pains, and so on. Instead of actually being influenza, this instead is the physical effect of the I-Lacertavirus (infector variant) infiltrating the various parts of the body, deploying the other variants of Lacertavirus. This stage lasts between seven and ten days.

Stage II

A victim in this stage will begin to exhibit signs of internal AND external physical mutation, including the formation of mental processes that help facilitate the changes, and the eventual will to spread Lacertavirus to others. It is during this stage that the victim becomes a vector. This stage lasts anywhere from ten days to a month. A drive geared toward hunting, enhanced sexual urges, and in general a feralizing of the higher brain functions occur during this stage. Minor changes to the exterior of the body become evident, such as the victim's eye color and pupil shape, scale growth, loss of hair, and the beginnings of a transition from omnivoric to carnivoric dietary needs.

Stage III

In the period from one month to several years after infection with Lacertavirus, more drastic changes begin to take hold both in and outside of the victim's body. This stage includes randomly-occurring (but mostly small) changes to bone structure such as tail growth, or the sprouting of talons from the once-human phalanges on both feet and hands. It should be noted that the more severe changes are, as Mr. Age reports, quite painful to go through. Other major changes include the development of spine-like growths on various parts of the body, as well as the recession of the male genitalia into a cloaca-like orifice. The mental changes become more severe and pronounced, to the point of resembling dissociative identity disorder in many ways. This develops into a well-researched disorder known as "Feral Personality Disorder", or FPD. In the case of Mr. Age in particular, the "hominid" and "reptilian" parts of his mind can be seen as separate personalities; a unique variant of FPD. This split may have been formed as a reaction to Stage III Lacertavirus, as Kenneth looked to maintain his human life despite the virus forcefully 'infecting' his higher brain functions with those of the lower, 'reptilian' brain. A breaching of this "mental wall" he has constructed leads to gaps in memory, accompanied by blackouts, during which the animal side takes control. It is not clear, however, if this variant of FPD can be observed in all Lacertavirus victims, or if it is simply an individualized reaction to a mind that is slowly becoming that of an animal's.

Stage IV

With a steady course of antiviral drugs such as Goldenglow or Argentium Agent, a human being subjected to Lacertavirus infection can expect to fall into this stage after 10 - 15 years from initial infection. This stage is marked by more physical changes that further distance the victim from humanity; changes in bone structure, muscle mass, and muscle density in particular. The changes by this point are able to influence and dramatically reshape the skeleton of the victim, rendering the victim unable to hide their changes in public. A Stage IV victim's legs in particular undergo a likely painful transition from plantigrade to digitigrade, enabling quadrapedal movement that, when coupled with the mutations involving the body's musculature, likely result in huge boosts to speed, agility, and strength. The muscular system of a Stage IV victim, judging purely by hearsay on the one victim we currently know of ('Future Space Navy', or FSN Ken), has gained considerable bulk and enables superhuman feats of strength and agility. What is currently unknown and can only be speculated upon, is the progression of mental degredation in a Stage IV victim. It would be possible to presume that Stage IV victims suffer acutely worsened FPD, but the one example of a Stage IV victim we currently know of does not seem to have problems with his feral nature at all.

Stage V

Stage V can be considered perhaps the final stage of Lacertavirus infection; our best estimates time this stage at roughly 20 - 30 years after initial infection. There is only one known victim of Stage V infection; Ravager. From what we have seen of footage and medical data recovered from the Libertia reality, a Stage V victim has essentially lost the fight against Lacertavirus, and has either almost or completely succumbed to the effects of FPD, likely out of a combination of sheer mental exhaustion and insurmountable changes to brain chemistry. The entire body is coated with thickened, plate-like scales capable of deflecting small arms fire. The victim's claws have become capable of tearing holes through steel plating. On the victim's back, a number of thickened, solid spikes have formed that curve toward the victim's head, likely for protection of the spine and neck. The victim's body has further strengthened even beyond levels seen in Stage IV, with muscle redistributed to heavily favor quadrupedal movement. This leaves the body unable to fully assume an upright posture, with four-limbed movement simply easier to maintain. It is likely during this stage at which snout growth finally occurs, the beginnings of which can be seen on Ravager. The pain of such a mutation is likely mitigated by the utter collapse of the Stage V victim's mind into a nightmarish FPD scenario; the human mind is essentially smothered beneath an onslaught of animalistic impulses and urges, and cannot be recovered except temporarily through a course of psychoactive drugs. It is because of this that Ravager, our only Stage V victim, has essentially been reduced to an attack dog, or a pet; a truly chilling fate. What is not clearly understood, mercifully enough, is whether or not this type of Stage V infection is inevitable; it is clear that in the one Stage IV victim we know of, the Lacertavirus infection is actually improving and stabilizing, and very unlikely to end in the downward spiral epitomized by the singular Stage V victim we know of. It is very well possible that Stage V Lacertavirus infection of this degree is something that can be avoided, but it is currently unknown how. Thankfully, it seems that there is hope.

Transmission

Transmission of Lacertavirus is, mercifully, not airborne. Air tends to overload the nanovirus with information, killing it. (Note: This is not an effective method of 'killing' the virus, as aeration within the body can lead to other, fatal, side effects) Transmission of the nanovirus is then accomplished through direct fluid transfer. Bites, internal contact with sexual fluids, direct injection of tears or blood into the bloodstream, etc are the only method of infection. There is no risk of the nanovirus itself mutating into an airborne form, as the virus works like a well-oiled machine; stabilized to do exactly what it was designed to do.

Treatment

Lacertavirus is treatable only with a course of an antiviral drug dubbed "GOLDENGLOW" by Mr. Age. This drug, a luminescent chemical of unfamiliar origin, seems to target the GM-Lacertavirus in particular, preventing the Genetic Manipulator from actively targeting existing genetic information. This should, in theory, prevent the GM-Lacertavirus from further transforming the victim, but in practice only slows the process.

In Stage 1 victims, GOLDENGLOW acts as an I-Lacertavirus (infector variant) "off" switch; it is the only stage during which the GOLDENGLOW is effective as such. For Stage 2 and beyond, the GOLDENGLOW only acts as a temporary inhibitor. Even when the GOLDENGLOW deactivates I-Lacertavirus in Stage 1 victims, the virus is not removed. Full removal of the virus appears to be impractical, as the virus would need to be manually flushed from all points in the victim's body; a procedure that would most likely lead to death. Even after such a procedure, it is likely that the I-Lacertavirus will remain embedded in difficult-to-target bodily structures such as bone marrow and inner brain matter.

Parallel Kens

In an infinite universe, there exist infinite versions of Kenneth Age. Some of them have actually made contact with one another...and here is a small list of those who are currently known.

Future Space Navy (FSN) Ken

This iteration of Mr. Age is from yet another parallel reality in which something horrible had caused the collapse of The Liberators and much of the world we know, forcing Ken and his friend Swift to flee, making way to a timeline in which magic and the supernatural are nonexistant, and technology reigns supreme. Not much else is known about the reality that the two had fled to, due to the extremely secretive nature of their visits to our own reality. Their concerns about cross-contamination and interference with this timeline have meant that most detailed information, including photographs, have been confiscated and disposed of. What we do know is that this version of Mr. Age is a member of a futuristic spacefaring navy of some kind, and that he has undergone mutations that solidly place him within Stage IV Lacertavirus infection.

The curious thing is that through a means unknown to us, this iteration of Mr. Age, despite being approximately 10 years older and clearly caught in the throes of Stage IV Lacertavirus infection, shows very few negative signs or symptoms of the virus taking any hold of his mind. It is perhaps owed to the fact that his environment has largely been a positive one, or that technology in his time is well-enough advanced that proper treatment of Lacertavirus had become a feasible reality, but this is merely speculation.

FSN Ken's body has gained a considerable amount of muscle mass, similar to Ravager (see below), but with far fewer of the chitinous spikes. Whether or not those spikes will grow in as he grows older is unknown. This Kenneth's tail has also expressed the chitinous spikes seen on Ravager, although these are manicured and kept from becoming too sharp. On his forearms can be seen a series of flexible, bone-like structures that likely render it difficult for this version of Ken to put on clothing; a similar structure can be seen jutting from his digitigrade heels, as well.

Mentally, this iteration of Mr. Age seems even more stable than the one in our own reality. Stern, hardened and much more capable, this Ken appears to be mostly free of Lacertavirus's influence. Perhaps he has simply, in the time between now and then, become better at hiding what he really is inside.

We may not ever know for sure.

Ravager

By the year 2057, in a parallel reality with little resemblance to the geopolitical landscape of today (Libertia), an 80-year-old Kenneth had suffered an extreme number of physical and mental mutations that have finally managed to render him more animal than man. These mutations have essentially taken the meek and friendly man we are studying today, and twisted him into a horrifying beast almost incapable of living amongst human civilization. This is the only example of a Stage 5 victim ever seen, and therefore everything we know about this kind of Lacertavirus infection comes from information pulled from out of Ken's experiences in the Libertia reality.

The skin of a Stage V victim, Ravager in particular, has hardened into a shell of thick, durable scales able to deflect most types of small arms ammunition. From his back have sprouted a number of thick, chitinous and rock-solid spikes most likely meant for self-defense. His posture has become hunched and close to quadrapedal as a result of the drastic mutations in his legs, which have become digitigrade and barely suitable for two-legged locomotion. Ravager's tail has also sprouted a collection of chitinous spikes, similar to the ones that had grown from his back. A set of small growths, sharp and hardened, have also sprouted from Ravager's heels (which themselves are much father up the leg due to his digitigrade bone structure). Ravager's face has further mutated as well, showing little of the human being he once was. His teeth have become jagged and presumably worn from a purely carnivorous diet (which likely involves gnawing bone), and his facial bone structure has begun to show signs of snout growth. A series of beard-like spines has grown around his jawline as well, although it is unclear what purpose these would serve. Atop all of this, Ravager's entire body has seen a roughly 80% increase in muscle mass, affording this creature a huge advantage over the average human being in terms of strength and agility.

Mentally, Ravager has become a mere shell of his former self. As it is, he has become a savage beast utterly subservient to instinct and desire. Human emotion and reasoning do not come into the picture unless chemically provoked. This temporary clarity is accomplished in roughly one-hour long bursts via an advanced drug developed by Rion Blackfrost's alter ego in the Libertia timeline, Sabre. From information taken out of Sabre's archives, Ravager also suffers from persistent memory blackouts spanning the entirety of his time spent in a feral state. It can be surmised that the feral side will eventually overwhelm and smother the human side, leaving nothing more than a beast in its wake.

This creature was unfortunately killed during the Libertia insurrection.

Personality

Personality

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Ken's personality is one of the most intriguing things about the man; it has been this part of him, in addition to his outward physical appearance, that has been most affected by the changes Lacertavirus has wrought. Outwardly and to the public, Kenneth's demeanor could best be described as charismatic and friendly, to the point where making a friend is second nature. This has become an important survival tactic, considering Ken's dissociation with his original time and reality. As he will often say to those he cares most for, "Friends like you are what keep me sane"; this is no exaggeration. If he were literally to not have these people surrounding him, his behavior would begin to deteriorate, as the incentives for maintaining his humanity lie within those he considers friends and family.

This leads to the other side of Ken, the side he desperately attempts to keep hidden. The physical processes involved in the transition from hominid to reptile have actually reworked Ken's brain chemistry, leading to behavior that can be seemingly uncharacteristic of the usually affable and agreeable man. Intense emotions such as anger, jealousy, fear, and even happiness can create cognitive "slips" within Kenneth's mind, showing him for the animal that he is, from the inside out, becoming. When angered for instance, Kenneth's control over the language centers of his brain deteriorate, his voice and actions falling back to those of a fiercely angry reptile's. He will lash out, threaten, or in rare cases even ATTACK those who provoke him, usually with intent to bite and infect an assailant.

The "infection drive" installed in Kenneth's mind by Lacertavirus has become another of the many hurdles he must overcome on a day-to-day basis. The mere scent of a human being (since humans are the ones susceptible to infection) causes endorphin levels to rise within Ken's brain, bringing him an intriguing sense of giddiness or happiness. The virus has actually managed to take Ken's normally kind-spirited nature and turn it against him, promoting the message that infecting another human being is equivalent to doing them a kindness; that infection is a fix to mundane human nature, and that he wants to "help" his fellow man by spreading his "gift". Occasionally, this endorphin-fueled feeling of misplaced goodwill gets the better of him, and without even realizing what he's saying, he will offer to "make a person better", invariably with a venom-laced, infectious bite. This is an urge and a pleasure that Ken, in his most lucid moments is absolutely ashamed of having. Fortunately, the (temporary, since they will always grow back) removal of his venom-production glands deep within his throat help greatly to overcome these urges. The less physical pressure there is within these glands, the less Ken feels the need to infect others.

Another very curious aspect of Kenneth's personality is the asymmetry between his combat skill, and a lack of the "hardening" seen in most veteran soldiers. According to Ken, this can be explained by his previous "functional immortality" experienced while on the desert world in his original time and reality. A lack of consequence for death meant that one could feel free to experiment with combat strategy and risk-taking without the fear of actually dying. It is this fear that normally hardens current-day soldiers into careful engines of precision, but Ken had never faced this necessity before coming here. As a result, when approaching a combat situation, Ken has become a muddled mixture of both carefulness and carelessness. He oscillates between the two seemingly at random, thrusting himself into a dangerous situation one moment, and finding himself reminded of how mortal he currently is the next.

One last key aspect of Kenneth's personality is, unfortunately, his post-traumatic stress disorder. The sheer number of things that have happened to this man have not gone without their impact. It is for this reason that Ken finds himself divided between the love and hatred of silence and alone time. On the one hand, quiet and reflective time is capable of lending focus toward such tasks as sharpshooting, training, or working on calibrations or weapon modifications. On the other hand, quiet time gives Ken time to think upon all of the horrors he has witnessed in his time since leaving Old Earth, all of the injuries he has suffered, friends he has lost, family he has left behind, and of the terrifying thought that lords over it all, that he might one day become nothing more than some monstrous reptilian beast unable to remember anything it ever held dear.

As stated above, the only reason Ken is able to hold himself together is his friends and family. They mean everything to him...and without them, he truly would be nothing.

Personal Relationships

Margaret Mahama Lewis, AKA "Kuro Hiryu"

Margaret "Maggie" Lewis was at one time an ordinary human woman who had, thanks to a deceptive college recruitment initiative and subsequent genetic tampering by VIPER, become a human-dragoness hybrid. Thanks to the kindness of a Japanese-American VIPER guard that had shown her mercy and friendship when she needed it most, she was given the alias "Kuro Hiryu", and released into the world to find her own path. She is a proud, fierce, firey woman who has taken her transformation in stride, becoming quite unashamed of her altered, powerful body. Within the past year, Ken even found himself calling Kuro his mate, and the two have clung together through the worst of what Millennium City and even the Qliphothic realm had to throw at them. In recent months, Kuro's draconic transformation had revealed itself to not yet be finished; her body had begun to further transition itself into that of an enormous, ferocious black dragon. The transformation was at first utterly unstable, causing Kuro to attack and hurt even those she cared most for, like Ken himself. In a herculean effort to take the reins of control to her altering body, Kuro set out on a quest to master herself, using her steely resolve and the help of an ancient coven of dragons she'd discovered in the far east, to learn how to keep her new-found draconic nature in check. There is no person on this Earth or the next who will fight to defend Kenneth more than Kuro, and he couldn't be happier to have someone like her become his strength.

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Friends/Allies

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Mathieu "Shadow" Carver

A shadowy, black-furred lion cub from the Primal Earth reality, Shadow has for much of his stay in Millennium City been Ken's foundation. The two consider one another brothers, even though Shadow is currently around 18 years old, and Ken 38, old enough to be considered Shadow's father. It should be noted that despite his younger age, Shadow is an incredibly capable youth. He is able to use his command over shadows to not only dive into and meld with them, but to travel through them, speak through them, and bend them to his will. Often, he will use his abilities to cause mischief, much to the chagrin of Ken. Despite this, they maintain a brotherly relationship that is occasionally stretched thin by Shadow's often-mischievous behavior. More than anyone, Ken understands why Shadow is the way he is; the two share a history of having formerly been human, and having been through an incredible number of trials and tests to stand where they currently do. Whether Shadow is good or bad, Ken will always stand beside his brother, and in the end be there for him.

Nathaniel "Umbra" Carver

An alternate universe iteration of Shadow, Umbra is the incarnation of Shadow that had always lived in this reality. Whereas Shadow had in his youth become incredibly distrusting of schools and other learning institutions, Umbra has instead become knowledge-hungry, and eagerly attends classes at Ravenswood Academy to boost his skills in the arcane. More than his alt-universe brother Shadow, Umbra has studied and become adept at using ice and other forms of cold energy to aid in whatever trouble comes his way. Because of these skills Ken can at least rest easy, knowing his brothers are capable of defending themselves from many of the ever-present threats in and around Millennium City.

Tony "Swift" Griffins

Taken in at a young age by world-renowned mechanical and genetic engineer Dr. Saito Okita, Tony Griffins, AKA "Swift", was forcefully mutated into a human-fox hybrid as part of a complex scheme to create a next-generation weapons platform built upon the strength and augmented abilities afforded to manimals. He is a strong-willed and tactically-minded leader on the surface, being the commanding officer of the registered supergroup "The Liberators", of which Ken is a part. Beneath the hardened exterior of a proper leader, Tony is a kind-hearted and well-meaning friend who has proven himself time and again to be the sort of person Ken needs in his life, not just for stability and strength, but for tenderness and humor.

Kyle, AKA "Hawk 161"

One of Kenneth's earliest friends within Millennium City, Kyle is yet another of the many among Ken's closest friends who had at one point been a human being. Taken in by geneticists at a young age, Kyle was forcefully mutated into a winged lion over a period of several years while locked in a nutrient-enriched tube, thanks to a pharmaceutical company called "Millennia". Since then, Kyle has been a faithful friend to Ken, ever since the two had a chance meeting in Millennium City's Caprice nightclub one night in early 2013. Interestingly enough, Ken had already known a parallel-universe iteration of Kyle, and it was this knowledge that drew Ken toward Kyle in the first place. Ken might have already 'known' Kyle...but he had to learn to know his old friend a second time, in another reality. Also worthy of note is that at one point, along with the superbeing known as "The Flamer", Ken and Kyle were at one point roommates. Kyle's current mate Sela, AKA "Sekhmet", is also another of Ken's good friends.

Jason Harper

Jason is the leader of a PRIMUS-sponsored special ops team Kenneth used to work for, "Harper Security Solutions". A capable and kind man, Jason is the kind of person Ken felt happy to have worked for. It was under Jason that Ken learned more about the capabilities and limitations of current-day munitions and weaponry, as well as how to combine his many innate, technologically-enabled talents to greater effect against the many threats he would continue to face while living in Millennium City. Ken and Jason remain friends, despite an unfortunate parting in early 2014, due to Jason's sudden, inexplicable disappearance. Though he was once again found alive and well, Kenneth had since moved on to greener pastures, joining the super group "The Liberators"

Kyouko

Of all the things to come out of Ken's time within Advocatus Diaboli, his friendship with Kyouko is the one he cherishes the most. Kyouko is a friendly ghost-woman capable of a wide range of difficult-to-explain feats that have, despite Ken's discomfort in the supernatural, been of great use to him. Most recently, Kyouko was the one responsible for the splitting of Shadow and Umbra's souls; it was via her talents that Ken's leonine brothers' lives were saved, and this is only one instance of her talent coming to great use. Ken knows he owes Kyouko deeply for all she's done for him, and to this day he searches for some way to repay all she has given.

Pack Rat

A genetically engineered rat-man, Kenneth and Packie (As Ken affectionately calls him) met one another in the Caprice nightclub one evening in late 2013. It didn't take long for the rat and lizardman to bond with one another, especially as Ken offered an attentive ear and a shoulder to cry on for the tormented rodent who, until that point, had been convinced no sane person would ever want him in any meaningful way. Despite this, Ken insisted that the rat-man would one day find someone he could be with, and to his great surprise he actually did; the enigmatic and cheerful chimera, Sahara. Currently, the two are happily married, and although Ken himself would deny it, Packie attributes much of his current happiness to his friend Ken.

Andrew, AKA "Flamer"

An openly-gay fire elemental metahuman, Andrew was the very first of the kindred souls to help Ken find his feet during his earliest days in Millennium City. Andrew works as a professional superhero, finding the work of helping the citizens of Millennium City to be his calling. When not helping the citizenry, he managed to find it in his heart to allow Kenneth, and then Ken's friend Kyle (Hawk 161) to take up residence within his own home. The three lived as roommates for several months, before Ken found work with the mercenary group Advocatus Diaboli. With a heavy heart, Ken said goodbye to his roommates and moved into his own home, but he will never forget the kindness Andrew showed him.

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Enemies

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No Enemies? At All?

Unlike many superheroes and metahumans dwelling within Millennium City, Kenneth has yet to truly encounter a single person or entity he could truly call HIS enemy. Ken does his utmost to stay out of the limelight and away from the attention of those who might seek to prowl upon him or those he cares for, and so often will take up arms against villainy in the name of protecting those he cares for...but he has no true enemies dedicated to his own ruin within Millennium City.

This much is known though; if you mess with Ken's friends or family, be wary.

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Likes and Dislikes

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Likes

• Technology, and tinkering with it to his heart's content
• Cartoons (Spongebob, Adventure Time, and Regular Show are his favorites)
• The company of good friends and family
• Feeling that he fits in with a group, and with society at large
• Other manimals, especially if they're transformed humans as he was
• Heat lamps, sunny days, deserts, warm and dry conditions in general
• Making the shot from especially extreme distances
• Being himself, feral nature and all
• Hunting
• Raw meat
• Candied crickets
• Talking about his home world, time, and reality
• His job
• What he has become (sometimes)

Dislikes

• Magic and the arcane; he distrusts magic, and sees it as ALWAYS requiring an unacceptable cost
• Winter, cold conditions, snow, and ice
• Damp conditions; He is a desert reptile, and moist conditions can create health problems
• Seeing anyone he cares for hurt in any way
• Getting sick from eating any sort of dairy product
• Being unable to eat chocolate
• Losing control of himself, and having no memory of what he'd done
• Being manipulated
• Bigotry in all forms, especially when directed toward his appearance or new-found species
• Hypocrites
• Failing his friends, or anyone who relies upon him
• Malevolent genetic manipulation, and the doctors/scientists/researchers involved
• Modern-day medical technology
• Mangling words with too many R's or S's in them (he has a severe hiss-growl inflection to his voice)
• What he has become (sometimes)

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Facts and Trivia

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Ken is exothermic, or "cold-blooded".

Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean that Ken's body itself is in any way cold, but it rather means that Kenneth is incapable of autonomously regulating his own body temperature. Temperatures that are too hot tend to overheat and sicken him, while temperatures that are too cold tend to shut him down and put him to sleep. Colder temperatures are his biggest enemy, especially with how harsh Michigan winters tend to be. Each excursion into the city during the winter could prove fatal to Ken, if he is not careful. This means that Ken is particularly susceptible to both fire and ice elemental attacks, though he is more capable of handling heat than he is of cold. Because of this weakness, every one of his armor suits is hardened against any kind of external thermal-based threat.

Ken is not actually certain WHAT he is becoming.

Often people will ask Ken what exactly he is, and Ken will, much to his frustration, be unable to answer this to any satisfactory degree. Often people will refer to him as a "snake", when this is in fact only about 4% of what he is becoming. The other 96% are occupied by everything from various species of monitor lizards, some of which are not even found on Earth, to genetically-engineered "dragon" DNA. He is not in any way an actual dragon as his mate Kuro is, but the similarities are present. Other species involved in Kenneth's DNA include the komodo dragon (which in particular is what his tongue is most shaped after), the desert monitor, collared lizard (where he gets his yellow coloration), and the chuckwalla lizard. Whatever it is that Ken will look like when his mutations are finished, is completely unknown.

Ken is severely lactose-intolerant.

Due to his biology shifting toward that of a carnivore's, Ken is no longer able to ingest any sort of lactose-based product, be it milk or cheese. Occasionally, Ken will eat some sort of dairy product in a form of 'rebellion' against his changed physiology, but this always results in acute stomach pain, vomiting, and general illness.

You are not seeing the "real" Ken, most of the time.

Ken has become extremely adept at hiding his true self from the public eye, and even from close friends and family. While he is not 'lying' to those he cares for by showing his more personable, human self in public, he is trying to hold back an enormous number of urges he feels are toxic and dangerous to openly display. This includes such behaviors as territorialism over food, over his mate, and over Shadow and Umbra. His "true" self is messy, frank, unhinged and uninhibited. Kenneth in his most lucidly feral moments would think nothing of openly gnawing at a deer carcass, or of walking about unclothed, partially-caked in blood from a fresh kill. His reasoning in this state is easily swayed toward the desires and urges of a wild animal, given that this animal knows it can "invite" other humans to be just as "free" as he finds himself to be (invariably with an infectious bite). Ken's feral state is not at all stupid; it uses what Ken knows to get what it wants. Ken, being as mentally exhausted as he is trying to hold up his own humanity in public most of the time, simply goes along with it.

Ken is trapped in perpetual culture shock.

Try asking Ken who the first President of the United States is, or who fought who in World War II; Ken will not be able to tell you. Topics thought of as common knowledge are obscure ancient history as far as Ken is concerned. This is why Ken finds many of his nights sat in front of a computer, browsing Wikipedia, searching up topics as diverse as Mormonism, the history of the hot dog, and what kind of government England has. Every day Ken finds something new that he feels he should have known, but despite this, Ken does not have a photographic memory, and will often get things wrong.

Simple things can really amuse him!

One of Ken's very favorite things in his home, or in anybody's home, is that every dining room table he comes across is made of actual wood. This is due to the fact that in his time, deforestation had been banned, and synthetic materials were all anybody could realistically afford. He is frequently fascinated by how amazing modern-day cooking is, since he is used to food that is auto-cooked, rather than homemade. One of the most incredible sights of all, to Ken, is the sight of a full moon. In his time the moon had been terraformed, and appeared as almost Earth-like in the night sky, complete with forests and oceans. Here in the 21st century though, the moon is dead and barren; a stark reminder of just how much things have changed between where he'd come from, and where he lives now.

Ken physically cannot get drunk.

Ken is the kind of person that is always going to win a drinking game; it really isn't fair. His body simply processes alcohol too quickly for it to be able to reside with his body and cause inebriation. The reasoning behind this is due mainly to a combination of natural and selective evolution on the part of the human race in Kenneth's time. The human race of the distant future has not only become hardened against radiation (due to a nuclear holocaust in his world's distant past), but has branched into several different, specialized breeds. Similar to how dogs share a common ancestor in the wolf, humanity in Ken's time has become more diverse. Quite a few of these 'breeds' of humanity were specifically designed in centuries past by selective colonization programs on worlds or for scenarios inhospitable to standard homo sapiens. A part of this process involved making the human race as a whole more biologically efficient at processing poisons and other chemicals, alcohol included. Inebriation is still possible, when an additive is introduced to modern liquors. This additive does not exist in the current day, however. As for the 'human breeds' thing? While Ken considers himself to have once been fully a member of the human race, his lineage derives from the thin, gray-skinned, pointy-eared "homo opifex", bred specifically for tunnel running on mining colony worlds.

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TV Tropes

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Physical

• Sssssnaketalk - The komodo dragon-esque mutations to Kenneth's tongue have warped his ability to speak correctly, resulting in a hiss-growl tone to his voice that he cannot control. It gives him trouble on occasion, especially when pronouncing words such as "sphinx" or "necessary". Despite sounding somewhat like a snake, Ken himself is NOT a snake.
• Metamorphisis - Ken's body is undergoing an arduously slow, painful, seemingly never-ending transformation from human to reptile. This is a one-way trip, and there is no cure.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent - A constant struggle Ken faces when attempting to fit in with human society is the perception that reptiles are, somehow, foul and filthy creatures. Ken resents this, and does his utmost to defy this common theme. Still, despite his best efforts, Ken is often called "snake", "filthy reptile", or lumped together with other negative stereotypes and malicious groups that happen to share similar traits, such as the Lemurians.
• Painful Transformation - It might not happen often, but when it does, the changes Ken undergoes are PAINFUL to him, and can sometimes take days at a time to complete. His tail, for instance, took a full week to grow in, during which time he was rendered bedridden.
• Viral Transformation - The nanovirus within Ken, Lacertavirus, exists for one sole purpose; to transform its host into a reptilian creature like what Ken himself is becoming. It can be spread via bites and other kinds of fluid transfer.
• Healing Factor - While Ken's body is not able to heal wounds at a supernaturally-quick rate, his reptilian body is capable of naturally regrowing limbs.

Behavioral

• The Mind is a Plaything of the Body - Ken's mind is at the mercy of his transformed body; his reptilian condition has infected his higher levels of thinking and reasoning, and as a result he often finds himself compelled to act in ways that human society might frown upon.
• My Instincts Are Showing - See above. Really, Ken can't help himself...
• Nice Guy - Ken is a very nice person, really. He tries to treat everyone he meets with respect, and as a result is very quick to earn people's trust and friendship.
• What Have I Become? - A frequent thought running through Ken's head following his 'feral moments', Ken will frequently wonder this very question.
• I Know You're In There Somewhere - People encountering Ken while he is locked into his feral state will frequently adopt this trope, trying to appeal to the more civilized side of Ken. More often than not, it works. This notion of an inner conflict is also present within Ken's mind, as he struggles to regain control.
• Friendly Sniper - Despite being a lone wolf of a sniper, counting deadly and impossibly precise aim amongst his skills, Ken is a very friendly, very personable man. He's one of the friendliest people you'll meet, when he isn't succumbing to his more base urges, anyway.

Skills and Equipment

• Improbable Aiming Skills - Ken is capable of firing a sniper rifle without looking through the scope, using a single arm, without a spotter, and hitting a moving target at distances of three or more miles. If it weren't for the technology laced into Ken's body however, he would most likely suffer from terrible aim.
• Sniper Rifle - Ken's weapon of choice.
• Firing One-Handed - Ken is able to fire his sniper rifle using just one arm. Aside from looking suitably badass, this serves the secondary and useful function of keeping his other arm free from muscle-lock, due to the effects of his symbiotic implants.
• No Scope - Because of the nanomachine relay directly connecting Kenneth's body to his sniper rifle, he does not need to physically look through the rifle's scope to aim; the rifle sight is instead fed directly to his retina, via ocular symbiotics.
• Depleted Phlebotinum Shells - Ken directly modifies the ammunition he uses with his sniper rifle, so he is capable of tackling often-impervious, supernatural foes.
• Comm Links - Kenneth's nanomachine network features a series of vibro-sensitive nanites in his throat. These combine with an external transmitter to form a functional commlink, capable of letting Ken subvocalize into a comm network. Using this, he can communicate via commlink without being openly heard.
• Brain/Computer Interface - Kenneth's "Intent Drive" would fall under this category.
• Invisibility Cloak - A part of Kenneth's standard gear is an invisibility cloak he calls a "Lightbender". Currently, it is broken.
• Magnetic Weapons - Ken's Revolution Rifle would fall under this category, due to its usage of a magnadrive to fire ammunition.
• Nanomachines - Ken's entire body is laced with nanomachines, and he can use them for a wide variety of things.

Misc.

• The Multiverse - Ken is not only from another reality, but has been to more than just one other reality. This heavily suggests the existence of a Multiverse.
• Trapped In The Past - In addition to being from another reality, Ken is also trapped in the distant past. Despite this, he does find himself for the most part comfortable with his predicament.
• Eternal English - Despite being from roughly 27,000 years into the future, Ken still speaks fluent modern English. This is explainable due to the reverence for old-world culture and language people of the future have.
• Magic From Technology - Along the lines of the famous quote from Isaac Asimov about technology becoming indistinguishable from magic, this trope can adequately explain the level of technology Kenneth is familiar with, and has within his own body. The true power of Kenneth's technology is locked away, however, due to the absence of a proper fuel in the current day.
• Does Not Like Magic - Ken has a general distrust in and unease around magic, in all of its many forms. He does not trust it, and sees it as always requiring an unacceptable cost.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink - This is how Ken feels about the world he is currently stuck in. As Ken will himself sometimes say, "My life has become a circus."

In late 2017, plagued by lawsuit troubles, the Coalition dissolved. A deal was made for PRIMUS to take the heat and clear members of civil suits so that individuals would not be affected... but the price was that the organization was to disband. The Coalition was dissolved, the facilities shut down, and the organization became defunct. The Orb of Eternity was disposed of, and the Citadel was destroyed in a controlled demolition. The Phoenix Complex itself was also similarly decommissioned and rebuilt into a new headquarters for Vlocke Aerospace Industries and Frost Futuretech. The Liberators parted ways, but remaining friends and wishing each other luck in their future endeavors. The Phoenix went up in ash... though because PRIMUS only ordered the current members to dissolve and never reform, and not outsider non-members, the Phoenix may one day rise again from the ashes when the ban on the team name "Liberators' expires in ten years. LIBERATORS 2011-2017
Assets Liberators Tower (decommissioned) | The Citadel (decommissioned)
Members at time of dissolution Swift | Skarius Snowtalon | Nulion | Ouros | Viro Hellion MK.II | Atlas Sarnosian | Trembling Mind | Lionel Blacke TALAN | Velocies | Wintermist | Vherio | Hyena Duuz | Charlie Lang | Kuro Hiryu | Red Tesla | Livina Uaisbro
Administrators: Swift | Velocies | Lionel Blacke | Skarius Snowtalon | Roland Vlocke Brian Thomas | Helena Wolfe
Associates and Allies: Creed |Davkas Droverson | Tai Cheng | King Nocturne | James Walker | Shadow | Umbra
In Reserve / Status Unknown: Fang | Firefox | Nik Buster | Varulfr | Blast-Beetle
Deceased / Former Members: Rocket Wolf | CharmCaster | Techna Ology | Kados | Rhiannon Frost | Ephrael Wilson