Name: Edmund Harris
Alias: Pathogen, Quarantine, Mutie Flu, Various hosts' names
Age: at least 200
Date of Birth: Sometime in the late 1700s
Hometown: England
Height: Smaller than a bacterium but larger than a virus.
Weight: N/A
Hair Color: None
Eye Color: Yellow
Nationality/Race: NA
Occupation: Villain
Personality Profile: Patient and calculating, and a little old fashioned. Edmund has interesting ethics regarding mutants and how they use their powers. Unlike most other villainous mutants, his motives are far from Mutants good, Humans bad. Nor does he believe in us against them. Edmund's past has taught him a harsh life lesson, a lesson he wants mutants who use their powers for unlawful self gain to learn.
Physical Description: His outward human appearance depends entirely on his current host. Edmund himself on the other hand is a different story. Even though he cannot be seen by the naked eye does not mean he is invisible or formless. Though very small, he does still have a physical humanoid body. His skin is clear, showing off his internal systems, almost everything in him is visible; muscles, bones, and organs. His spinal column is partially exposed, giving the appearance of ridges running down his back. Edmund's body is completely hairless and littered with many scars.
Character Picture (Optional):
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Mutation/Powers:
Primary: Disease Creation: Edmund's mutation is a bizarre one, he can create and spread a potentially deadly sickness. Said virus effects only mutants and those with superhuman abilities. Effected individuals experience hallucinations, exhaustion, and a high fever. The fever is where things get strange, the individual finds themselves on a mindscape, usually a peaceful place where their own mind has taken them to alleviate the suffering their body is experiencing. Here Edmund may visit them in one of his many avatar forms. They are told they have a choice; Let the disease kill them, give the disease what it wants (their powers,) or offer the illness something in their ability's stead. (There are other choices, these are merely the ones that he lets his victims know about.) The former two are self-exclamatory, but the latter needs some defining.
The afflicted does not choose how this works, the effects are random. An ice controller may find his well-being heavily affected by the temperature, or a phaser may find not slipping through objects now requires the concentration that he once needed in order to walk through items, and so on. In extreme cases though the alteration/enhancement can take a different turn. They can be as much effected by subconscious will as the power itself. An example of this variation would be; a non winged flyer sprouting wings. He cannot be affected by this ability, but believed he could at one point, nearly ruining his life. This power took an extraordinarily odd turn when Edmund believed himself to have come down with his own sickness. Pay back from a telepath whose children were killed by his disease (more info in background) though the telepath himself survived with his powers intact. Edmund never did have his own illness, but believed it to the point where it effected his own mutation. He would not give up his powers and under the belief that he had to, his mind twisted his form to preserve them. His natural body is now tiny, but not quite as small as the disease he spreads.
Secondary: Mindlink: Edmund maintains a link of some sort with the infected victims. He can talk and even interact with them on a sort of mental plane. Yes he can be killed while on the mindscape, but it's simply the avatar form that dies. If he is killed there, his hold on that individual is lost and the disease runs its course without further damage to the victim (powers, life, and health are all spared, it's as though they simply had a normal fever.) This is one of the alternatives to the three he lets be known. Once the disease is caught and survived (with or without powers intact) the individual cannot contract it again. This power remains in affect for survivors. Edmund can still contact them if he so wishes.
Tertiary: Ageless Form: Simply put, Edmund gains energy and longevity from those who have fallen to his disease. His own lifespan and powers are extended and enhanced with each victim's loss. This does not mean that he cannot be killed, just that his "old age" is many, many years away. He does not gain the mutant abilities of the fallen either, just his power and strength are enhanced, and if not for his size, Edmund's body would appear to be in peak physical condition. It's hard to tell just how old Edmund is, not only since you cannot really see him, but because of the effects of this power. A downside of this ability is one wrong mutant and Edmund can completely mess up his physiology, it is not only his victims who are effected by his power manipulations. Edmund is entirely capable of sharing his reserves with his host and mental network. The power gained from past victims is not proportionate to his size, so it is a significantly sized reserve.
Quaternary: Parasitic/Pathogenic Form: What started off as the simple ability to create and spread a potent virus effecting only mutants and maybe even other super powered beings, ended in tragedy for himself. With his body now microscopic, Edmund requires a means in order to interact with the world around him, he needs a host body. The body does not need to be that of a mutant and can be human. If his host were to be a mutant they may very well fall victim to his disease. While he can inhabit a human body and spread his disease through it, a human can not contract his virus. Edmund takes over and possesses a body via a mass collection of filaments that emerge from his spine and interconnect to his host's nervous system. Depending on how many he connects is how precise his control is. At the very least he shares the hosts' senses. At the very most, Edmund possess full, if interruptible control. He first learned to do this on rats and then moved his way up to humans.
The control is not perfect and his hosts have been known to fight back control for short periods. These periods usually consist of fits of panic, attempts to let others know of Edmund's presence, and attempts to cause Edmund harm. His hosts typically do not last him long. Since his paranoia and lack of sleep would cause him to punish his hosts. In addition to possessing them, he is also living off of the host like a true parasite, using them to keep himself well nourished and to fuel his ability to produce his virus. There are kinder, much less damaging methods of taking control and sharing another's body, ones Edmund is starting to learn with his new custom made body.
Whilst sharing another's body, if the two can manage a level of trust and cooperation, like with Edmund's mindlink he can offer the host a boost of abilities. Their own mutant powers x2 and their normal physical abilities x3. He can only boost one aspect at a time.
Drawbacks/Weaknesses:
- Edmund is microscopic and needs a host body to live off of. He can not survive long without one, the host is needed for sustenance as well as interaction. While he can trick a human's and most mutant's immune systems, those with more enhanced healing will cause him trouble and injury.
- Due to his current size producing his virus takes a lot out of him, so constant nourishment is needed from the host during these periods.
- He is prone to occasional fits of insanity, rage, and self-pity and during these periods tends to be a little irrational. Spells that are occurring with less frequency
- Edmund himself suffers backlash from his victim's results sometimes overwhelming him and manifesting as physical changes; his eyes, his lack of hair, his skin, etc.
- The virus is at its strongest fresh from Edmund, the further from him the infection goes the weaker the disease is.
- Edmund only holds the very slightest of control over his disease once he unleashes it, it mostly does what it wants to. Though if in a certain proximity (the same body) as himself he can control it to serve him.
- Not all mutants can contract his disease, healers and powers that make one's body not very hospitable cannot catch Edmund's virus.
Background: ctrl + f and type in "TLDR" for the short version
Long Version:
It is unknown just when Edmund was born, but he has been around for a very long time. It was long enough so that mutants weren't as widely known about as they are today but, were still not unheard of. From the beginning he was a weak and sickly child, always catching one thing or another. He first discovered his abilities at the age of six, when his older sister, Elizabeth came down with a very harsh fever. With his record of contracting every little sickness he was barred from seeing her. Edmund grew distraught as time passed on and Elizabeth would not get better but, fortunately she would not get any worse either, but, still no treatment seemed to hold any effect.
Stranger yet, the weaker his sister became, the stronger Edmund would get. Fearful he would lose her and not caring that he might catch this strange illness, Edmund sneaked into her room. The moment he had stepped into her room, everything became clear. He had power. He could feel her sickness; he could even see it clearly in his mind and what it wanted from her. She had power too.
Even though Elizabeth was unresponsive to everyone, Edmund found he could still communicate with her. He moved to Elizabeth's side to brush some hair from her face, and on contact it happened. They weren't in Elizabeth's room anymore. No, they were in this wonderful field with flowers and sunshine. Even better, Elizabeth did not show any signs of the illness that she had just moments prior. This Elizabeth was even unaware that she was sick. When questioned she admitted to her brother that she had powers; her vision and hearing were much sharper and more acute than they should be. She could tell that the illness was attacking her for them, she didn't want to let them go and Edmund had no control over his powers. The illusionary realm they were in faded as their worried mother forcibly pulled Edmund away from his sister. He was then confined to his own room, but that didn't stop him from visiting her in the mysterious mind world.
Their powers may have been vastly different, but even so, Elizabeth was able to teach Edmund some control over his. The disease she suffered from did come from him, but with Edmund having no idea how to use them they didn't advance beyond the simple, yet persistent fever. He couldn't entirely remove the disease, but this being his first encounter with his powers; it would not run its course without Edmund giving it that final push. Elizabeth still wasn't getting any better and Edmund feared that the disease would kill his sister. The young mutant wondered why just wouldn't she just give up her powers to it and get better. Edmund tried to direct the disease to her powers, only then to discover that aspect was not entirely up to him in how the sickness progressed, the disease's victim also had a say and Elizabeth had discovered a third way out of it.
Elizabeth emerged from her fevered sickness not only with her powers, but also with them enhanced. A little too enhanced; her eyes and ears had become incredibly sensitive, even more so than they had been prior to her getting sick. A mostly silent and dimly lit room was almost too much for her to handle. She had to learn control over them all over again. Soon enough their parents were aware that Edmund and Elizabeth had powers, and seeing Edmund as a threat, he was sent away to a place for people like him where they would not have to deal with the monster.
Edmund's new home was basically a boarding school with a number of mutants in it. This was where Edmund's change into a villain began. While in his new home, Edmund soon learned more about his ability, for one thing it would only affect people with powers, the normal kids there were apparently immune. For another thing, when someone would fall ill he felt his strength increase and came to enjoy the feeling to the point where he would even torment and provoke his victims in the mind world. He became addicted to the feeling of power and the strength that their losses gave him. It didn't help that the ability itself was so subtle his teachers and caretakers even doubted that Edmund truly possessed powers. Even believing that there was no connection between Edmund and the illness at all, thinking that the mutant children were simply not as clean or hygienic as the normal, human ones.
The first people to die because of his disease didn't happen for a few years (it seemed that not everyone to come down with it would give up their powers or trade for them so readily.) The deaths were seen as flukes at first, still no one really believed Edmund had a power, as his mutation wasn't nearly as visible as others' were (as there was a rise in physical mutations from survivors who had kept their powers within the school. So physical differences, which at the time Edmund had none had slowly become synonymous with mutant.) Instead of feeling horrified that he had caused deaths, Edmund was fascinated and had enjoyed the feeling he received, even reveled in it. The deaths had filled him in a way that the survivors never had. Luckily for him the deaths were blamed on a regular if brutal fever, until the father of two dead students arrived. He was a telepath and knew right away that something was off.
By this point Edmund's mind and even his body had become twisted, as his maturity had brought along more the more physical aspects of his powers. He had eventually left the school in pursuit of stronger mutants, his fellow students and children were no longer appealing to him. Edmund grew more arrogant and cocky in his choices, deliberately searching out more and more power. A tiger-morph here, a weather controller there he did not care, they we just prey to him.
Not all of Edmund's later encounters would end in death for his victims, but significant amounts were beginning to fall to it as he increased the dosage of his virus. Edmund had learned through trial and error that he benefited more from those who died than the other results. Unknown to him yet, but he had also gained a stalker of his own. Edmund had been faced with people coming after him before. In the intervening years he had become increasingly well known amongst mutant communities. Some were after him in hopes to increase or be rid of their powers. Others wanted to get rid of him, which was easier said than done if you were a mutant. He had ways of defending himself and if things got too rough, his powers would protect him and had even saved him from assault many a time. Even the occasional mutant out for revenge against him could be stopped, true he knew he could not re-infect someone, but he still maintained links of varying strengths with those he did and so had ample warning of their presence.
One mutant found a way around that strength. This mutant had not contracted Edmund's illness through Edmund himself. Apparently the disease was contagious, and without knowledge of his own deliberate infestation, Edmund was clueless that he'd be unable to infect this person. As stated earlier, a mutant could only catch it once. The day that the telepath, Alistair had come down to the school because of his loss, he contracted the sickness. Alistair survived it with his powers intact and incredibly amplified, but he had become grossly disfigured. Edmund's appearance was greatly changed as well, his facial features were little more than slits and his skin had taken on an almost translucent cast, the veins clearly visible beneath it. But these changes just made identifying him all the easier. Their fight was rough, Edmund, even with a boost in his strength from his victim reserves was starting to fail against his adversary. And worse, Edmund was visibly shocked when he discovered that his illness would not affect his stalker. Still worse, being of telepathic ability, Alistair had some kind of a hold on his mindworld. The final straw in the eyes of his opponent was Edmund's lack of remorse, yes those first deaths he caused had been entirely accidental, and the virus creator had indeed felt something akin to remorse, purely because they had been children, but such was not true for the subsequent ones. Edmund enjoyed it.
Edmund had to be stopped, and killing him seemed to be the only answer, but maybe there was another way. This mental mutant's powers had evolved to the point where he could strongly affect another's mind. He wanted to make Edmund suffer. The telepath made Edmund believe he had come down with his own illness. Alistair, thinking it to be a good and fitting punishment, tricking Edmund into killing or depowering himself. He did not count on Edmund having such a strong attachment to his powers. Like many other mutants before Edmund who, when faced with the ultimatum, was confused, and especially so, he believed that he was safe from his own powers, and rightfully terrified. Edmund took off running, heading for somewhere he would be safe to fight off his imagined infection.
Edmund made it to what he believed to be his sister's home just in time for the fever to render him unconscious. The telepath's revenge had worked, but in a more horrible way than he had intended. The telepath had wanted to strip Edmund of his abilities but, Edmund's panic was too much and the result triggered a new mutation within him. It was just as if Edmund had truly had come down with his own disease, the fevered mutant's powers became twisted and corrupt. Edmund began to shrink, his clothes and even his skin sloughing right off. Vomit, sweat, more skin, Edmund's mass just kept decreasing but, at least he was somewhere safe. Or so he thought.
Alistair had followed the ailing mutant, still managing that hold on Edmund's frenzied mind, the telepath's desire for revenge, driving him to see Edmund's punishment all the way through. Torture is the only way to describe it. Though Edmund's size was decreasing quickly, he had a long way ahead of him. During Edmund's more lucid moments, Alistair was there taunting him, hurting him. Whether in person or the mind realm Alistair delighted in teaching Edmund Fear. Squeezed in Alistair's fist and later between two fingers until he cried, spat on, flung about with telekinesis. The mental jabs were even worse, Edmund could not tell what was reality and what was on the minscape. Constant reminders of what he had lost the fact that he could be crushed by a single finger, he could be killed and eaten by a mouse. He was what he spread, filth, a disease, and completely helpless, then, soon afterward, though not Alistair's intention, broken.
That was when Alistair stopped. Edmund had stopped rising to his bait, even stopped his screaming. The minute mutant remained laying where Alistair had left him. Waiting to be finished off, he was still alive but unresponsive. Nausea filled Alistair following a peek inside Edmund's mind. The other mutant was nearly too small for him to get a clear reading from, without resorting to forcing the connection open. Alistair understood the feeling of power now, what Edmund sought on the release of his disease. He'd leave Edmund alone now. The now tiny mutant was still shrinking. Alistair did what he could to get Edmund's mind towards healing and took him to his sister's house, the place he kept crying out for. Wishing to at least give him sanity and comfort in what must be his last moments.
But, the damage was done, the seed was planted. With his sister's help he managed to not only recover from the ordeal and survive, but thrive at his new size long enough to discover new abilities that would aid him in his new world, his parasitic abilities. First discovered when a rat drank the saucer of water Edmund had been resting in, his skin, needing to remain moist in his altered state. Once within the rat's body, the filaments emerged from Edmund's spine and everything came naturally to him. Soon after an epiphany followed; Alistair may have taught him fear and tortured him, but the telepath had also opened his eyes. Edmund now knew that he had been using his powers the wrong way the whole time. He'd been using them solely for personal gain and had been punished accordingly. But, in that punishment he had obtained his true form and realized his ultimate power. Edmund would now use his powers differently, as they were meant to be used, and teach others the same.
and for those TLDR people:
Lazy Version:
Edmund's powers manifested at a very early age. He accidentally infected his sister with the disease-like power. She survived with her own abilities, though they were heavily altered and enhanced. Edmund was sent away somewhere where his family would not have to deal with him soon afterward. He grew up there, discreetly using his abilities and gaining power and strength until he was old enough to leave on his own without drawing too much attention. He grew even hungrier for power through his disease ability and the wrong people died. Seeking revenge for his lost children, a telepath used his own amplified powers to trick Edmund into believing he had caught his own disease. The horrific result was Edmund's body shrinking to a microscopic level. He managed to live long enough at his new size to discover his parasitic abilities and survive in his new world, how exactly is not known, but it is suspected that his sister holds some involvement.
Update
Edmund was able to commission the biokinetic known as Proteus to construct him a new body. One that would truly belong to him and not fight back for control. Being able to sleep without worry that his very "home" would murder him the first chance it got, Edmund's paranoia has taken a sharp decline. Over time, he has readjusted to behaving and being treated as a normal person which has done wonders for the villain's wounded sanity. Enough that he was able to reintegrate himself into society and even procure a job at a mutant establishment. There he has a direct link to the goings-on of the mutant world.
Quirks/Extras:
- Edmund enjoys puzzles and riddles, shown in the sadistic "make a choice" behavior he deals out to his victims. He could just have it run its course on its own, but he delights in watching them choose.
- He still maintains a very brittle link with his sister (the first person his powers effected) and coincidentally his sister's enhanced abilities are incredibly acute vision and hearing, even without their weak link, she can see and hear him.
- Despite what most people may think, Edmund didn't just choose anyone for a host. He generally preferred people guilty of a crime but who managed to weasel or buy their way out of a conviction.
- Edmund's disease takes about two days to incubate, its duration depends on both Edmund's and the infected's actions, but scarcely lasts longer than a week. Three days is the norm.
- Time spent in a body that won't kill him the first chance it gets has taught Edmund the gentler sides of having a host body, starting to nudge him away from parasite and onto symbiont.
- There is a one-hundred million dollar bounty on his head.
- Pathogen was tracked down by Cobalt's team and forced from his host body. He tried to make an escape by taking over a mouse which was pumped full of anti-viral drugs and burned.
- Pathogen's bounty remains unclaimed.
- While it is contagious, it is much less potent in this form. If caught in this manner Edmund has little if not zero control over its progression at all. While Edmund only lets three ways around his disease be known, there are actually six:
- Give into the disease and die.
- Give up your powers in your life’s stead.
- Make a trade off – often leaves powers grotesquely altered.
- Kill Edmund in the mindworld.
- Roll with it, endure, and outlast the fever.
- Deny your powers; the disease cannot take hold of someone without abilities.
