Revision as of 18:29, 10 June 2014

Nulion
Player: Nulion@nulion5545
[[Image:|300px|]]
Biographical Data
Real Name:	Kenneth Age
Known Aliases:	Nulion, Nully, Nul, Ken, Kenny
Gender:	Male
Species:	Human-Reptilian Hybrid
Ethnicity:	Namerican
Place of Birth:	New Allegheny, Namerican Territories, Old Earth
Base of Operations:	Millennium City, Michigan
Relatives:	Father: Anton Age Mother: Norah Age Grandfather (Paternal): Isaiah Marlin Age Grandmother (Paternal): Sarai Age
Characteristics
Age:	37
Height:	5'11
Weight:	130
Eyes:	Unnatural Green
Hair:	N/A
Complexion:	Green scales with yellow stripes growing to replace formerly-gray skin
Physical Build:	Thin
Physical Features:	Pointed ears, a scar behind his right ear. Most of his features are mutated partially into a reptilian configuration
Status
Fame:	██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ Local
Alignment:	LG LN LE NG TN NE CG CN CE
Identity:	Public Knowledge
Years Active:	3+
Citizenship:	Known Extradimensional (No Constitutional Rights)
Occupation:	Freelance Sharpshooter
Education:	College Graduate
Marital Status:	Not Married, but has a mate
Known Powers and Abilities
Nanotechnology, Symbiotic Implants, Intent Drive
Equipment and Paraphernalia
"Broken" LB-004 Lightbender, Automatic Weapon/Armor Retrieval Engine (AWARE), Heavily-Modified SPIRITECH "Revolution Rifle" Mk XII, DUSTBRIGADE Commander Armorsuit Mk V, Anti-Arcane DUSTBRIGADE Variant Armorsuit, ORBITAL-FABRICANT Hardshell Tactical Armorsuit Mk I, Specially-Modified HK Mk23 SOCOM Tranquilizer Pistol, Goldenglow syrettes, and a single chess pawn carved out of ebony wood

Physical Attributes
	Strength			Weapon
	Durability			Armor
	Speed			Reflexes
	Resistance			Stamina
	Dexterity			Agility
	Combat			Regeneration

Non-Physical Attributes
	Energy			Psionics
	Telepathy			Willpower
	Sorcery			Technology
	Intelligence			Knowledge
	Charisma			Bravery
MaekadaBox created by @Maekada

History

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.

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.

Finding His Feet

Mr. Age's first home was with a metahuman known as the "Flamer", real name Andrew, a fire-oriented metahuman housed in the City Center district. After a short amount of time a second roommate shared housing with Andrew and Kenneth, a human transformed part-way into a winged lion known as "Hawk" (Real name: Kyle). Interestingly enough, Kenneth claims to have also known the Primal Earth iteration of Hawk, claiming that his personality was different there, but his appearance was exactly the same. While Andrew performed heroic services for the people of Millennium City and Hawk worked as a courier, Kenneth eventually found a job as a freelance mercenary for the fringe merc group known as Advocatus Diaboli, putting his supernaturally-precise sharpshooting skills to use in a multitude of blacklisted, covert ops in and around the Millennium City area. The files regarding Mr. Age's activities during his time with Advocatus Diaboli are not public record, and what little record there is has been redacted to the point of irrelevance. Still, Mr. Age insists that during his time with Advocatus Diaboli, he refused to take on any job that would result in the loss of human or metahuman life.

His time with Advocatus Diaboli would be short-lived, however. Due to health problems incurred as a result of his reptilian physiology, and complications arising from his cold-blooded metabolism keeping him from his duties during the harsh Michigan winter, his employment contract with Advocatus Diaboli was terminated.

It was around this time, however, that Kenneth made contact with another extradimensional outcast he had first met while in Primal Earth, Mathieu Carver, aka "Shadow". Despite the curious physical differences Shadow displayed from his Primal Earth incarnation (he was younger, somehow), the two formed an almost immediate bond, now that they were both stranded away from their home realities. With Kenneth's newfound wealth as a result of his job with Advocatus Diaboli allowing him to finally live on his own, he took the orphaned Shadow in as an adopted brother, and went about filling out the needed paperwork to make it official. While it is not common to allow extradimensionals custody rights, in this case, it was two extradimensionals attempting to take care of themselves. The city government quickly agreed to allow Kenneth custody of Shadow, since the less time and civic resources spent on the extradimensional population, the better.

Finally, a Family

Despite losing his job, Kenneth could now consider he and Shadow to be an actual family. The two were inseparable from one another, and stuck by each other no matter what came their way. Even after Kenneth had been fired from his position with Advocatus Diaboli, the duo did their best to make do. It wasn't long after Ken had been fired that Jason "Killshot" Harper, of Harper Security Solutions took interest in bringing Ken in as a valued member of his organization, utilizing Ken's nigh-unparalleled talent for making the mark with his sniper rifle. Under the umbrella of Harper Security Solutions, Kenneth trained and bettered himself.

During this period of Ken's life, he met a woman who would become his new love interest, Margaret Mahama Lewis, aka "Kuro Hiryu". Kuro, as she insisted she be called, shared in Ken and Shadow's history the fact that at one point she was an ordinary human being, mutated through VIPER influence into a human-dragon hybrid. Despite Kenneth's dwindling hope at the time that Katelin would someday come to Millennium City to be with him again, Ken needed a person like Kuro in his life. She became his strength, the person who could hold him together as his situation became ever stranger, and ever more difficult to keep in control. Kuro, a woman of immense strength even before her transformation into a dragoness-human hybrid, was exactly the thing Ken had been hoping for ever since he became stranded on his own.

Together, the trio of Kenneth, Shadow, and Kuro made what could be called a true family. Things really were looking up for Ken, for a time.

The Liberators

If you were to ask Mr. Age what one of the best things to happen to him was, oddly enough, his answer would be when Jason Harper, his employer, went missing. While Jason was a dear friend to Ken and would eventually be found alive and well, his abduction without a trace, and the fruitless search to find him, meant Ken had no choice but to search for work elsewhere. That was when he came into the fold of the super-group "The Liberators". Ken felt at last like he became a natural fit to a group, like he had truly belonged somewhere. It was the very thing he had been searching for, for nearly a decade, spread across three separate realities and 27,000 years of time. Of course, the process of 'fitting in' did not happen overnight.

Rather, it took one extraordinarily difficult week, and an incredible amount of pain, to bring him closer to his new group than he ever thought he could be. This was when the leader of the Liberators, Tony "Swift" Griffins, went missing along with several of his comrades, traced to a remote island off the coast of southeastern China known as Shueidao Island. Ken's first assignment as a new member of The Liberators was to accompany his new teammates to this island, to bring Tony back home.

Naturally, things went catastrophically wrong. Their well-stocked cargo plane flew directly into a persistent electromagnetic field that coated the island, downing them just off the shore. Ken now had no choice; he had to work together with his new teammates to survive that tropical island hell, to rescue Tony, and to get home to his family. It was one of the most intense bonding experiences the young man had ever felt, living and surviving together as a team as the island did everything it could to kill them. He got to know his teammates, and they came to know him, over that abysmal week. The island itself was ensconced in an electromagnetic field driven by a leaking nuclear generator hidden deep within the core of the island, a derelict research base formerly home to a supervillain in the 1960's. This man, during his time, had conducted experiments upon the island's manimal population that went far beyond any sane code of ethics; he was little more than an insane butcher, and the island's native manimal inhabitants descended from what this man had wrought. As the radiation-resistant Kenneth (his ancestors had developed resistant genetics as a result of an ancient nuclear war in his time/reality) and his companion Hellion delved into the entrail-smeared, rusted remains of the facility to shut the electromagnetic field down, another threat had been brewing with the island natives. Since being downed himself and trapped on the island, Tony had befriended a tribe of manimals on the island; a tribe that were on the brink of civil war. The younger generation took the arrival of these newcomers as a sign that they should leave the island via boat, whereas the conservative elders railed against this notion; they wanted to stay put, and live in peace on the island. While Ken and Hellion shut down the reactor, an all-out civil war broke out amongst the natives. The ensuing battle was a complete slaughter, as one faction brought derelict, rusted tanks and armaments salvaged from the facility against the other faction, who were armed with little but arrows and spears. The Liberators did what they could to stop the fighting, but in the end, the elders had gotten what they wanted, and their youth were literally crushed into obedience by the iron tanks they had brought against them.

If anything good came out of the horrible time spent on Shueidao Island, it was that Ken and his comrades grew closer together. Upon returning home, Ken couldn't have been happier to see Shadow, and Kuro. Even so, Ken's return to his family was only a happy one for a short time.

Little did Kenneth realize, however, that his exposure to the radiation leaking out from that reactor on Shueidao had reactivated his long-dormant Lacertavirus. His humanity was once again placed on a timer.

A Lion Apart

Something terrible was happening to Shadow, Ken's leonine brother. Shadow would suffer random nosebleeds, massive headaches, and ultimately, a coma. His body was on the verge of failure, and the explanation was something that would finally answer a burning question within the man; what had happened to Katelin?

As it turns out, Shadow's physical differences from when Ken met him in Primal Earth were because the Shadow Ken currently knew was the product of a trans-dimensional fusion of alternate selves. The Primal Earth Shadow's "soul" was currently occupying the body of the current-reality version of Shadow, and the two were starting to conflict with one another. If something wasn't done to split the two, and soon, both would die. It was determined, ultimately, that the souls could be split apart, but that another body needed to be secured to place the soul of Primal Earth's Shadow into. Otherwise, Kenneth's brother would be trapped eternally as a wandering, bodyless phantom. It was an unacceptable, cruel fate for someone Ken had come to love so much.

It was through the effort of a mysterious moon-dwelling man, Major Nohman, affectionately dubbed "The Major" by Ken, that this incredible situation became resolved. The Major had managed to locate, through sheer skill and technological prowess, a single, disembodied paw floating amongst the void between realities, where Primal Earth once existed. The grim sight of an entire reality, the reality where he and Kate had once lived, reduced to little more than a debris-strewn void...it all made sudden, terrible sense to him.

Primal Earth, upon Ken's departure, had entirely collapsed due to some unknown calamity. Katelin, and everyone else he knew there, was dead. Shadow's spirit had been forcefully ejected from the calamity perhaps by the sheer forces involved in a collapsing universe, and merged with his alternate-reality self here in Millennium City. The only evidence this had ever happened was that somehow, his old self's disembodied paw floated alone amid the ruin of an entire dimension.

As Ken reeled from the realization at what had transpired, his friends worked to divide Shadow's melded soul, and to recreate his former body from that single paw. The result, incredibly, were TWO Shadows. One from Primal Earth, reconstructed from a frozen paw...and the other, who had always lived in Millennium City. This "new" Shadow went on to become Nathaniel Carver, AKA "Umbra".

Ken loved both of those lions every bit as much as when he only had one of them.

Framed

Up until this point, Kenneth's Lacertavirus had not caused him as much trouble as he'd expected, despite his request some months before the Shadow/Umbra incident that his impulse control implant be removed. With the implant in, Ken had begun to feel 'stale', his impulses controlled to the point where he no longer felt 'alive' the way he had been before, when he had simply been allowed to be himself, reptile instincts and all. Around the time that Kenneth's implant was removed by Major Nohman and locked securely inside a vault on his moon base, a rogue robot had managed to steal a sample of Kenneth's blood while he drank with friends at Club Caprice. Despite Kenneth and company's best efforts to follow this robot and take back what it stole, the robot managed to get away.

This is how Novo-Lacertavirus came to be.

Once the original Lacertavirus-laced blood made its way onto the black market courtesy of that robot, it was tampered with using current-day technology by black market researchers. The resultant 'variant' strain of Novo-Lacertavirus differed from its original incarnation in that it had been forced to transform its host, mind and body into a manimal much faster and with much less care than the original Lacertavirus was designed to. This resulted in transformations that took less than a single week, rather than the several week/several month timespan of standard Lacertavirus. Not only that, but the genetic 'blueprint' component of Lacertavirus, formerly occupied strictly by reptilian genetic code, had been altered so that this blueprint could be imported via contact with any non-human species. An infected victim could, after contact with the family dog, begin transforming into a dog, for instance.

Unfortunately for Kenneth, the two strains of Lacertavirus were chemically and visually identical to one another. Enough so, that when an outbreak of Novo-Lacertavirus was reported to the CDC to be centered on Club Caprice, Kenneth was apprehended as the prime suspect by UNTIL, with joint collaboration by the local MCPD.

Kenneth was taken in by the authorities, and due to his status as Known Extradimensional (no sixth amendment rights, or any other constitutional rights for that matter), he was immediately fast-tracked into solitary confinement within Stronghold Penitentiary, located in Nevada.

Due to extremely stringent contraband restrictions in place at Stronghold, Kenneth was unable to be injected with his Goldenglow medication as often as was required, and so he had begun to mutate further. During the one and a half months that Kenneth remained behind bars, his scale-skin had become somewhat thicker, with an added pattern of bright yellow stripes. The spines atop his head that had replaced his hair became thicker, more bestial. To his horror, he had also finally lost his human nose; it had receded into his face, marking the very beginnings of what may some day become a snout.

It was during Kenneth's stay in prison that his draconic mate, Kuro, had found herself unable to control her still-transforming mind and body. Just before Kenneth's imprisonment, Kuro had developed a secondary transformation that pushed her much further into the form of a TRUE dragoness, one that was nigh-uncontrollable. Sensing the need to control her beastly transformation, Kuro took to the Far East, and underwent training with the dragons she met there, to learn how to master herself. She had departed just days before Kenneth was taken into custody by police, and upon her return, found her mate locked in a cell, with little hope of freedom.

If it had not been for the subsequent actions of Ken's friends and family, he may have never had the trial he so justly deserved. Fortunately for Kenneth, a trial was forced upon the Millennium City district court, and thanks to video evidence from Club Caprice and a strong series of character testimonials, Kenneth was found innocent and cleared of all charges. Though he was once again a free man, the court mandated that his activities be monitored via an ankle collar, and that his condition be monitored via doctor check-ups for a period of at least one year.

Still, Ken couldn't be happier just to be with the people that mattered most to him.

A Few More Couldn't Hurt

It wasn't long after Kenneth's release from prison that matters once again became difficult. Thanks to the actions of a shady potion vendor, most of the Liberators, including Tony "Swift" Griffins, had been regressed back into children. Kenneth, one of the few members left unaffected by this turn of events, became one of the de facto caretakers of his teammates, watching over them as would a stressed-out parent. Interestingly enough, this only strengthened his bond with his team, especially his leader, Tony. Although the two had been friends even before this incident, caring for his leader as a child had pushed Ken to become attached to him in a way Ken cannot quite put into words. As far as Ken is currently concerned, Tony had become another member of his family, and the Liberators themselves an extension of this.

Toward the end of the ordeal involving his teammates' regression into children, Kenneth had become desperate in the search for the man who had done this. He began asking questions of those on the street, if they had seen anyone matching the potion man's description. Perhaps if Ken were able to find him, he might have some sort of 'cure' for what ailed his friends. While questioning folks on the street, Kenneth met an imposing sphinx woman named Icho. It was this conversation with Icho that eventually prompted Icho's adopted son "Garth", a centaur, to want to meet Ken. The two became fast friends, even as it became apparent how toxic and controlling a woman Icho truly was. She lorded over her centaurian son with apparent disdain, even outright contempt, and forbade him from almost any kind of contact with the outside world. It was this sad situation that struck a chord within Ken, and in a heartfelt conversation with Kuro, Ken convinced her to assist in freeing the overly-sheltered centaur from his tyrannical mother. With nowhere else to go, Garth stayed with Ken and his family, and set out to make something of himself by studying medicine.

Looking Ahead

Who knows where else Ken will go? The future is wide open, and rife with possibility. Who knows, maybe you will some day be a part of Ken's story.

Equipment and Gear

SPIRITECH "Revolution Rifle" MkXII

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. There is a scope mounted atop the rifle, but Kenneth rarely seems to directly peer through it, despite its obscene 5000x magnification capability. This is most likely due to the rifle's nano-feedback relay, capable of projecting a scope-view directly to Kenneth's retina.

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 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 velocities well exceeding the ballistic capability of modern-day ammunition. Whereas a normal .303 caliber sniper bullet will travel at roughly 2,800 feet per second (1,909 MPH), a .303 caliber round fired through the Revolution Rifle will easily triple that velocity, traveling at roughly 9,000 feet per second (6,136 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 clip), 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.

Kenneth's time spent in the 21st century has necessitated that some adjustments and modifications be made to his rifle, 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 .308 caliber 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 clip has also been fashioned to hold these darts; this clip 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 below.

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 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, 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 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.

"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.

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, melded in places with carbonum plating. Its 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 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.

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 retired, due to extreme environmental damage suffered during Kenneth's experiences with the Shueidao Island incident in early 2014.

Anti-Mystic DUSTBRIGADE Variant Armorsuit

Kenneth's original reality was one laden with technologies far beyond anything yet seen in this time or reality, and yet there is one major factor that comes into play here that Kenneth could never have prepared for; the existence of magic, and the arcane. Technology brought across from Kenneth's time and reality can not physically withstand any sort of magical damage, simply due to the fact that, according to Kenneth, magic did not exist there. (Whether or not this is true is up for debate; we have only his word to go on)

Realizing that foes encountered in this new reality would bring him into contact with forces the original designers of the Dust Brigade armorsuit had never expected to encounter, Kenneth requested a commission (from a werewolf mystic named "Sajit") for a clone of his Mk. V Dust Brigade suit, that would then be imbued with a variety of anti-mystic runes. These runes were placed amid the magically-recreated ballistic-textiles with the express purpose of combating foes beyond the pale of technological capability, such as mages and other supernatural threats.

This armorsuit is very similar in build and construction to the Mk. V Dust Brigade Commander armorsuit, but in a striking jet black with bright orange accent pieces, to highlight the beautiful runes Sajit had woven into the suit's ballistic-textiles.

Currently, this suit has been decommissioned, due to extreme acid-related damage sustained during a drawn out battle with the dangerously out of control "greater dragon" form his mate Kuro had taken, shortly before Kenneth was locked up inside Stronghold Penitentiary.

ORBITAL FABRICANT Hardshell Tactical Armorsuit Mk 1

After Kenneth's Anti-Mystic suit had been reduced to a smoking, acid-decayed ruin by Kuro Hiryu's newfound acid-spit ability, Kenneth was in desperate need of some kind of new suit of armor. Considering that the materials Ken uses in his armorsuits would not be invented for many thousands of years, Ken felt he was in a bind. The material "Kendrium", may have been a suitable replacement if not for its heavier weight, and other typically-used fabrication materials fell short of what Ken felt he needed in an armorsuit.

Then, along came Kenneth's friend, Major Nohman. He offered to craft a new, "Orbital Fabricant" suit for Ken, using a small sample of hardshell carbonum plating and rune-fabric excised from the Anti-Mystic armorsuit. Utilizing some unknown form of armorsmithing, Major Nohman managed to duplicate the necessary materials to create a "hardshell" armorsuit, advanced and lightweight enough that it outclassed most other known forms of contemporary body armor.

A sleek black armor with accents in bright orange recalled the image of the Anti-Mystic suit, but its hardbodied construction and inclusion of a carbonum-rubber, thermally active tail sleeve felt even more comfortable to Ken than his previous suits had.

This is Ken's currently-employed armorsuit and, circumstances allowing, will be his armorsuit of choice for the forseeable future.

Goldenglow Syrettes

These syrettes, full of a luminescent antiviral inhibitor dubbed "GOLDENGLOW", are the culmination of years of study on the workings of the Lacertavirus running through Kenneth's system, and are the only known means of slowing the process of the virus in a stage 3 victim such as Ken himself. Because of this, Ken will never be seen without at least three separate dosages of the drug on his person at any given time. Although he attempts to keep the actual injection of his inhibitors out of the public eye, Kenneth must currently inject himself with at least one syrette of Goldenglow every three days, or else suffer the effects of further mutation on his already heavily-affected body.

The drug itself went through a number of iterations before finally arriving at the point that it is 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.

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.

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 (37)

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 1

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 2

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 3

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 changes to bone structure such as tail and snout 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. In the case of Mr. Age in particular, the "hominid" and "reptilian" parts of his mind can be seen as separate personalities. This split may have been formed as a reaction to Stage 3 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.

Stage 4

UNKNOWN - As Kenneth Age is the only known subject infected with Lacertavirus, and he is currently in the throes of Stage 3, we can only speculate as to the ultimate course the virus will take.

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.

Personality

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 over 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.

Friends & Family

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 11 years old, and Ken 37, old enough to be considered Shadow's father. It should be noted that despite his 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.

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.

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.

Garth

A genuine, 10-foot-tall centaur Ken met by chance, Garth has become another of Ken's fast friends. When Ken first by chance talked to Garth's foster mother, a great sphinx named Icho, Garth became curious of this "Ken" person his mother claimed to have met on the street. Garth decided he had to go out, against his mother's wishes, and meet this interesting-sounding man. As it turns out, both Garth and Ken share difficulties in controlling their respective urges, which led to the two very quickly bonding. It was when Ken learned of Icho's contemptuous treatment of Garth that he decided something must be done; Ken talked to his mate Kuro, and the two decided to take action and free Garth from the clutches of his poisonously overbearing foster mother. If this were not enough, Garth had later discovered that Icho was responsible for the death of his entire herd, while he was still a child in the Grecian wilderness. Icho had taken pity upon the then-orphaned centaur, and decided to raise him as her own, a decision she in later years came to regret. Taking all of this as even more reason to stand on his own, Garth has, with Ken's guidance, started to train to become a nurse. It was something he had always wanted to do, and now thanks to Ken and his family, he is finally able to try.

Muninn

A "goofy gryphon" as Ken often calls him, Muninn is an incredibly friendly and cute black gryphon with blue eyes and a striped blue scarf wrapped around his birdy neck. Another one of Icho's adopted "children", Muninn was the 'favorite son' of Icho, and treated with far more respect and love than Garth had ever been. Despite this, Garth and Muninn love one another, and treat each other as family. Recently, Ken has taken it upon himself to attempt teaching the parrot-like Muninn to speak for himself, rather than simply honk like a goose, which he frequently enjoys doing.