- 2,391
- 317
Apparently, my CRT for part 1 is too big because it exceeded the character count, so I'm forced to split this and submit it as part 2. This particular CRT can be evaluated after part 1 is finished.
I’ve noticed the current description and explanations of the Adaptation and Reactive Evolution abilities for the [PROTOTYPE] characters, particularly Alex Mercer’s, is more bare bones than I thought… So, I personally think there should be more explanations to it.
You see, it was established that the Blacklight Virus was considered to be “the most deadly virus in history” (which is a confirmation that puts it above the Redlight Virus) within the [PROTOTYPE] universe, and was so superior to all other viruses that it made even the Idaho strain (In the context of the Prototype-verse, the “Idaho strain” refers to the strain of virus responsible for the viral outbreak that occurred in Hope, Idaho… With that strain being basically the Redlight Virus) look like common cold in its superiority, and that its superiority was explicitly described by the original Alexander J. Mercer about the Blacklight Virus being superior to the Redlight Virus by a factor of ten… That is still definitely true in regards to the Blacklight Virus being superior as its creator made it to be.
However, if it’s true that the Blacklight Virus really is superior to the Redlight Virus in every way that matters, then how is it that regular Hunters with compatible DNA to the Parasite (which are beings created by Elizabeth Greene’s Redlight Virus) was able to immediately starting the process of adapting and building antibodies against the Blacklight Parasite while Alex got affected by the Redlight Parasite so hard that he had to rely on Ragland’s help (using the samples of the other Blacklight Viruses present in the Penn Station corpses) in creating the Blacklight Parasite so that he can get cured from absorbing a regular Hunter with compatible DNA after it adapted to the Parasite? Wouldn’t that be contradictory to the Blacklight Virus being superior to the Redlight Virus, since an entity of the Redlight Virus such as a regular Hunter (albeit one with the correct genetic type or compatible DNA to the Parasite) was able to do something that the literal sapient Blacklight Virus that is Alex himself couldn’t (which is to adapt to something Alex couldn’t)?
Well, after a bit of thinking, there’s actually a simple explanation to that: And that is that, even though the Blacklight Virus is indeed created to be superior, the Redlight Virus was actually ahead of the Blacklight Virus in current Adaptation or Reactive Evolution capabilities.
You see, it only took the original Alexander J. Mercer three years to make the Blacklight Virus being superior to the Redlight Virus such as by being more dangerous by a factor of ten… But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the status quo of the Blacklight Virus wasn’t later changed by the Redlight Virus, especially since the Redlight Virus has its own Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities; an example being that the Redlight Virus within Elizabeth Greene’s body was capable of producing hundreds of unique strains daily, and that it was having her body evolve at a rapid pace and war-dialing at the genetic level to become something else and that its viral structure kept changing as a result – and the “producing hundreds of unique strands daily” heavily implies that even one day was enough to make the capabilities of the Redlight Virus (thus Elizabeth Greene’s) being increased to a significant extent; so, for her to wait thirty-nine to forty years (which is presumably what made her to be as physically superhuman as she is now)… It had the Redlight Virus evolve to such an extent where the Redlight Virus outbreak that Elizabeth Greene unleashed in the events of the first game is not following the pathology of the Redlight Virus in the Hope, Idaho outbreak, that its noted by the scientists and Blackwatch that its behaviour seems to be changing and that the Redlight Virus is acting in a manner not consistent with previous outbreaks.
During those three years that the original Alexander J. Mercer made the Blacklight Virus to be superior to the Redlight Virus, he could’ve only made it superior to the particular version of the Redlight Virus three years before he first tampered with that Redlight Virus (from Elizabeth Greene’s sample) and created the Blacklight Virus from it – in addition, the Redlight Virus still at least had Elizabeth Greene as its host (where Elizabeth Greene was thought to be a mere carrier of the Redlight Virus) to help with her body having absorbed it and changed it to help further its evolution (since Greene’s unique biology was what made the Redlight Virus reached such new heights to begin with, which pleased Blackwatch enough to create a research program involving her in the first place), while the Blacklight Virus was nothing more than some a bunch of virions inside a vial until the original Alexander J. Mercer smashed that same vial and found its creator’s corpse to help manifest and gain sentience – so, without any genetic templates it could use as basis (to change it like how Elizabeth Greene’s genetics changed the Redlight Virus with her unique biology), it likely does not have much opportunities to further its evolution until it found its creator’s corpse.
However, even assuming the original Alexander J. Mercer still made use of his access to Greene to keep on updating the Blacklight Virus into remaining being superior to the Redlight Virus (up until he stole the sample of the Blacklight Virus and smashed it before dying anyways) to circumvent that disadvantage of lack of genetic templates for the Blacklight Virus (until it infected and mimicked its creator’s corpse), it still doesn’t change the fact that the Redlight Virus still has the head start advantage in its evolution… Especially because Alexander was most likely absent from the times he became paranoid and started involving his sister to help do investigations on Blackwatch to find out what was going on (and thus likely not have much time to work on the Blacklight Virus more).
You see, the entire timeline from when Alex the Blacklight Virus first awoke to the nuclear explosion scene happened in 18 days – so, at Day 0 (which is implied by “18 days earlier”) of Infection was when he first awoke and gained sentience, while Day 3 of Infection was when Elizabeth Greene was first free and started the Redlight Virus outbreak (Important note: There is no other days specified outside of “18 days earlier” or Day 0, Day 3 and Day 18. I’ve checked through the cutscenes, there just aren’t any other days specified – Prototype wikia seems to merely assumes the other days outside of these aforementioned days). And Alexander J. Mercer first arrived to involve Dana to help him with investigating Blackwatch a month before, so it would likely be a month where Alexander focused heavily on investigating Blackwatch out of paranoia and likely did not have much time to work on the Blacklight Virus (since he is the head of his research team and is the one that singlehandedly figured out how the Redlight Virus works before improving it, while his team is likely just there to ride the coattails of his work).
Based on that, the Blacklight Virus only first found its creator’s corpse to properly establish its Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities with and had nothing but a bunch of humans (Gentek scientists and Blackwatch soldiers) to absorb to further its evolution with on Day 0, while the Redlight Virus still had Elizabeth Greene and the fact that even one day is enough for her to produce hundreds of new viral strains with until she was released on Day 3, and the original Alexander J. Mercer likely did not have much time to work on the Blacklight Virus since he was focusing investigating Blackwatch… Which would mean that the Redlight Virus likely has at least 1 month worths of head start on the Blacklight Virus in capabilities due to its Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities (which is very significant as even one day is enough for a significant change with Reactive Evolution) – it also explains why, even though the Blacklight Virus was created to be superior to the Redlight Virus with the genetic information of the Redlight Virus and Elizabeth Greene’s genetic structure, Elizabeth Greene was still able to completely overpower Early-Game Alex with a mere backhand in her baseline form; because she still has at least a month’s worth of head start over Alex in capabilities and overall physical attributes granted to her by the Redlight Virus’ Reactive Evolution capabilities.
However, even with that 1-month worths of head start in capabilities from the Reactive Evolution, it didn’t take too long for Alex to catch up and surpass her (especially with his Absorption helping him grow stronger at a more rapid pace, with a bit of a mix of his own Reactive Evolution as well).
After that scene when Elizabeth essentially nearly one-shotted him with a mere backhand at Day 3 of Infection, after gradually absorbing multiple regular Hunters (including one of the Hunters with compatible DNA to the Parasite), Leader Hunters, Blackwatch soldiers and many others, Alex not only immensely grew in strength… But he evolved to the point that his Prototype 1 End-Game self not only defeated Elizabeth Greene, but he defeated her while she was in her Mother form – evidently, he definitely grew much stronger, considering he defeated Elizabeth Greene in her MOTHER form (which should be notably stronger than her baseline form) while her baseline form was able to nearly one-shot his Early-Game self (and physically overpowered his Mid-Game self).
Not only that, but after absorbing many powerful Infected such as Hunters (with and without compatible DNA to the Parasite), Leader Hunters, Blackwatch soldiers and many others (which should likely increase his own Reactive Evolution capabilities as well, as the Reactive Evolution of the Redlight Infected comes from the Redlight Virus within them granting them such genetic abilities… Which Alex should have definitely absorbed just as he has absorbed their bodies), even the Blacklight Virus’ own Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities became superior to the Redlight Virus’ capabilities now.
Firstly, the Blacklight Virus’ superior Reactive Evolution capabilities was shown when, upon absorbing the Hunter with compatible DNA to the Parasite (thus absorbing both its genetic abilities, such as its Reactive Evolution capabilities, and its antibodies), Alex was able to gain new abilities – that being his Blade power and his Armour form; now, it mentions that the “Concoction has had some unintended results” (“concoction” refers to the Blacklight version of the Parasite)… And yet, after successfully adapting to the Parasite, that regular Hunter did not gain or utilise any of the aforementioned new abilities such as the Blade power or Armour form.
The fact that the regular Hunter with compatible DNA to the Parasite did not gain such abilities proves that the Redlight Virus’ own Reactive Evolution is unable to grant it such abilities, while the Blacklight Virus’ own Reactive Evolution was able to actually grant Alex such abilities… And since it said the “Concoction has had some unintended results”, this means that the Blacklight Parasite was the catalyst for such “unintended results”, and that absorbing that Hunter (with its adaptations to the Blacklight Parasite) was what allowed the Blacklight Virus (which Alex embodies) to adapt to the point that it granted Alex those two new abilities… Which implies a type of superiority to the Redlight Virus in regards to Reactive Evolution capabilities, because the Blacklight Virus’ Reactive Evolution was able to do something that the Redlight Virus’ Reactive Evolution couldn’t.
Secondly, the Blacklight Virus’ superior Reactive Evolution capabilities was also showcased when, after the first exposure to Bloodtox, Alex was able to start developing immunity to Bloodtox and later on was able to withstand an entire gas tank filled with Bloodtox exploding and unleashing all that Bloodtox into Alex Mercer (unlike the gamplay where Bloodtox just reduces your health and eventually kill you) in his plan to "fake his own demise" so that he can confront McMullen once McMullen has his guard down, which implies that Alex Mercer has eventually become immune to Bloodtox due to the Reactive Evolution abilities of the Blacklight Virus.
In contrast, when Elizabeth Greene was hit with Bloodtox while she is in her Mother form, she tunnelled herself underground and hid away while massing underground, and could be driven up to the surface if Bloodtox was pumped underground (implying that Bloodtox was able to severely harm her to have her flee from it to such a degree) – this was later shown when, in the mission to deploy Bloodtox to the Times Square in order to pump it underground, Bloodtox was successfully pumped underground and it resulted in Elizabeth Greene in her Mother form fleeing to the surface to escape the Bloodtox pumped underground.
Now, that definitely implies that the Blacklight Virus eventually caught up and even surpassed the Redlight Virus in Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities even with the latter’s 1 month head start, as Elizabeth Greene fled away from Bloodtox even while she is in her most powerful form (her Mother form) twice, whereas Alex only got negatively affected by Bloodtox once in the first exposure and later withstood an entire gas tank filled with Bloodtox being unleashed at him with little to no ill effect present in only two missions after that mission where Alex got negatively affected by that Bloodtox while in a Blackwatch soldier disguise (the first mission being defeating Elizabeth Greene, and the second mission being that mission to “fake his own demise” by withstanding an entire gas tank filled with Bloodtox) – the fact that Elizabeth Greene had to flee from Bloodtox twice, while Alex only fled when Bloodtox blown his cover once from his first direct exposure but was able to withstand a gas tank filled with Bloodtox shortly after within two missions for his second direct exposure, showcases that the Blacklight Virus was able to surpass the Redlight Virus in Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities after Alex has absorbed enough powerful Infected, scientists and Blackwatch soldiers.
And lastly, this superior Reactive Evolution was heavily implied by the Supreme Hunter’s feats with Adaptation and Reactive Evolution.
You see, the Supreme Hunter was the Blacklight Parasite that was refashioned into a special type of Hunter that is a duplicate of Alex upon being injected into Elizabeth Greene, and well… There is actually a significant difference in power and capabilities between his Mid-Game self (which is when it was first unleashed) and his End-Game self (which is its “Supreme Hybrid” key and is when it was fighting Alex at the end of the game before the nuclear explosion cutscene), which is evident in the tiering in the Supreme Hunter’s profiles based on his keys.
As for how the Supreme Hunter achieved such an increase in capabilities in his “Supreme Hybrid” key compared to his “Supreme Hunter” key, well… Let’s just say that the Supreme Hunter’s Reactive Evolution was also involved in the process, and is the main factor for how he grew to be that powerful to reach his “Supreme Hybrid” key.
Basically, in the Mid-Game, the Supreme Hunter was stated to be much more powerful than Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex… But even with him being much more powerful, the Supreme Hunter still falls short against Elizabeth Greene – in fact, it was stated in the Developer notes of the Prima Guide that the Supreme Hunter (in his Mid-Game or “Supreme Hunter” key) fears Elizabeth Greene and has obeyed her out of fear of what she might do if he does not obey… Which basically heavily implies that Greene herself most likely must have been much stronger than him for the Supreme Hunter to obey her out of fear (which fits with the fact that Greene herself has physically overpowered Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex quite easily. So, if the Supreme Hunter is much more powerful than Mid-Game Alex, and Elizabeth Greene is much stronger than the Supreme Hunter… Then it fits that she would be able to easily overpower Mid-Game Alex in the cutscene as well, as she is much stronger than an another Blacklight Infected that is much more powerful than Mid-Game Alex in that particular time)… But then, there is his End-Game self (or him in his “Supreme Hybrid” key).
In the End-Game, the Supreme Hunter in his “Supreme Hybrid” key is much more powerful than Prototype 1 End-Game Alex (the same version of Alex who defeated Elizabeth Greene in her Mother form, and effortlessly overpowered her in her baseline state), and is so strong that his Mid-Game self (him in his “Supreme Hunter” key) is described to be “less-evolved” in comparison to his End-Game self (him in his “Supreme Hybrid” key).
But wait, how did the Supreme Hunter get so strong that he was able to become “much more powerful” than Prototype 1 End-Game Alex if all the Supreme Hunter has absorbed was Robert Cross based on his disguise as Robert Cross (with no explicit evidence or even statements that the Supreme Hunter has absorbed anyone else)?
Well, after a bit of thinking, there is a simple explanation to that: It’s all due to the Supreme Hunter’s Reactive Evolution abilities as a result of it being created from the Blacklight Virus (the same Blacklight Virus within the Penn Station corpses that Ragland used to create the second Parasite) – this is heavily implied when the Prima Guide mentions that the Supreme Hunter is “less-evolved”, and NOT something like “weaker” or “less powerful”… So, to use the term “evolved”, implies that some type of Reactive Evolution effect is likely involved.
As mentioned in the two points above, the Blacklight Virus was superior to the Redlight Virus in every way that matters (including in Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities) after it has absorbed regular Hunters (including one of them with compatible DNA to the Parasite), Leader Hunters, scientists, Blackwatch soldiers and many others… And the Supreme Hunter was created as a duplicate of Alex (or more specifically, a duplicate of Alex while he is in his Prototype 1 Mid-Game key).
So, with the Supreme Hunter being a duplicate of Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex, and with only Robert Cross being the only explicitly mentioned victim of his Absorption (with no other number of victims specified for the Supreme Hunter’s Absorption), the Supreme Hunter would have mainly have gotten as strong as it did with Reactive Evolution alone (since, as a duplicate of Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex, it would at least scaled to all of the Adaptation and Reactive Evolution feats of the Blacklight Virus as well). We can even infer the timeframe for the amount of time the Supreme Hunter took to get stronger (going from his “Supreme Hunter” key to his “Supreme Hybrid” key), based on the timeframe of the Infection given to us (although with only limited information on the exact days because [PROTOTYPE] can be quite vague with the timeline of the events of the game).
Elizabeth Greene was released at Day 3 of Infection, while End-Game Supreme Hunter (or Supreme Hunter in his “Supreme Hybrid” key) is present on Day 18 of Infection while being disguised as the Robert Cross speaking to Alex on Day 18 all along – since [PROTOTYPE] is a bit vague on the other exact days for the timeline of events after Elizabeth Greene got unleashed, we can assume the Supreme Hunter was released some time after Day 3 of Infection and took up to Day 18 to evolve to his ”Supreme Hybrid” key as an absolute lowball.
Even for the Redlight Virus, even one day is enough to be a significant difference in capabilities and power as it can produce hundreds of unique strains daily, while the Blacklight Virus from Mid-Game Prototype 1 Alex should be superior even to the Redlight Virus based on the two aforementioned points above… So, as an absolute lowball, it took no more than 15 days (Day 18 subtracted by Day 3) for the Mid-Game Supreme Hunter in his “Supreme Hunter” key to completely surpass Elizabeth Greene even in her Mother form by gradually evolving to his “Supreme Hybrid” key (where he is much more powerful than the Prototype 1 End-Game Alex that defeated and surpassed Elizabeth Greene in her Mother form)… And since Alex appears to not have absorbed anything more than Blackwatch soldiers or scientists after he has defeated and absorbed Greene (as his missions appears to be focused more on targeting Blackwatch and other human higher-ups afterwards), it is likely Alex has not been strengthened much from absorbing mostly humans… Whereas the Supreme Hunter has likely went around being disguised as Robert Cross and exposed himself to many situations such as figuring out where McMullen went, figuring out where the Bloodtox facility is and how Alex was able to develop immunity to Bloodtox (possibly by the Supreme Hunter’s own first-hand experience!?) that could’ve stimulated his Reactive Evolution capabilities to eventually exceed Prototype 1 Alex (who likely has not been absorbing many powerful Infected after he has defeated Elizabeth Greene, and probably has not exposed himself to many situations that stimulated his Reactive Evolution capabilities beyond being exposed to Bloodtox) in physical strength… So, in 15 days (little more than 2 weeks), the Supreme Hunter completely surpassed Elizabeth Greene in capabilities (even with the 1 months’ worth of head start in Reactive Evolution capabilities the Redlight Virus has).
NOTE: While it is true that the Blacklight shapeshifters can became very strong with just their Reactive Evolution capabilities, their Absorption should still provide them quicker and more effective growth in capabilities than just Reactive Evolution alone – the prime example of this is that James Heller, who went from being completely overpowered by Prototype 2 Alex Mercer to being able to trade blows with Prototype 2 End Game Alex Mercer after absorbing 8 Evolved (with Alex Mercer likely having not absorbed anyone at all by the beginning of the events of the Prototype 2 game, since the Prototype 2 plot have him decide to create an army of Evolved for some reason) at the end of the second game after James Heller have absorbed many powerful Blacklight Infected. So, in terms of which provides quicker growth in physical stats and overall abilities, it would be Absorption > Reactive Evolution for the [PROTOTYPE] universe.
Thus, based on all this, the Blacklight Virus should notably be superior to the Redlight Virus in Adaptation and Reactive Evolution by the time Alex reached his Prototype 1 Mid-Game key. So, this should be listed in his profile:
Adaptation and Reactive Evolution (After being cured of the Parasite from absorbing the Hunter, the Blacklight Virus should be superior to the Redlight Virus, which is capable of producing hundreds of different unique strains of the virus on a daily basis and that the Redlight Virus led to the body evolving at a rapid pace and war-dialing at the genetic level into becoming something else each time. Was developing immunity to Bloodtox, to the extent that he can withstand an entire gas tank filled with Bloodtox being unleashed at him with no ill effect, and has most likely became immune to Bloodtox by the end of the first game. Has developed new abilities such as Blade and Armor in response to the “concoction” that is the Parasite as “unintended results”. Should be comparable to the Supreme Hunter, who was able to grow stronger to the point that his previous self is “less-evolved” compared to his Supreme Hybrid self despite only being shown to absorb Robert Cross, and completely surpassed Elizabeth Greene in prowess at Day 18 of Infection when he was first unleashed after Day 3 of Infection. Can transform his body on-the-fly and increases his resistance to harmful situations with prolonged exposure)
For others that scale to Alex Mercer (which should be the Supreme Hunter, James Heller and the Evolved), this should be:
Adaptation and Reactive Evolution (Should be comparable to Alex Mercer due to possessing the same shapeshifting capabilities granted by the Blacklight Virus as he does)
You see, for certain [PROTOTYPE] characters such as Alex Mercer, he should have a weakness listed in his character profiles as well – however, his is more of psychological or character personality (or CIS) weakness rather than any actual limitations on the abilities (or any actual aversion to certain things) beyond what is already listed in his profiles.
For Alex Mercer himself, specifically Prototype 2 Alex Mercer (because himself from the second game might as well be a completely different character from the first game), he should have his own psychological or CIS related weaknesses (beyond being just a two-dimensional generic cartoon-like villain he became in the second game that is).
In fact, [PROTOTYPE] is one of the franchises with the uncommon case of having completely different writers for the its respective duology games, with completely different interpretations of a particular character present in the duology games – for example, the writer for the first [PROTOTYPE] game stated that he “doesn’t care very much” about Prototype 2 and that he said “they [the people that worked on creating Prototype 2] kind of ruined Alex” – meanwhile, Dan Jolley, the writer for the second game, disagreed that Mercer’s change to evil was too abrupt, naive or out of character because he is of the opinion that he “always thought Mercer was a sociopath” (which heavily implies that Dan Jolley thinks that Alex Mercer becoming evil is completely in-character)… Yeah, because of the fact that these two writers each have completely different interpretations and intent behind Alex Mercer’s character, Alex Mercer’s personality, motives and overall character should be treated completely differently for the two games (so Prototype 2 Alex Mercer should be treated as if he is a completely different character from Prototype 1 Alex Mercer) – and since they have such completely different perspectives of the character, it is possible they might have completely different perspective for other aspects of the [PROTOTYPE] universe, the Word of God statements should only be applicable to the game they have worked on; so the Word of God statements from the writer of the Prototype 1 game should only be applicable for Prototype 1, while Word of God statements from the writer of the Prototype 2 game should only be applicable for Prototype 2 (and in the absolute worst case scenario for if they somehow happen to directly contradict one another, such as contradicting established events or abilities… Well, we would have to be forced to use whichever Word of God statement that the games and comics themselves support more in terms of context).
You see, if you read the quotes from the final boss battle within the second game in an in-depth manner, Alex Mercer doesn't care if he could be beaten by someone infected by the Blacklight Virus and would actually encourage it. He actually wants a Shapeshifter of the Blacklight Virus to be able to defeat him if they have the potential and resolve for it. You can see from Alex Mercer's quotes that he sounds disappointed towards you as James Heller if you did bad at fighting Mercer (watch the video towards the end if you want to see the rest of the quotes. Also, notice how if you try to fight Mercer with the same weapon/Offensive powers as Heller, Mercer straight up overpowers Heller and expresses his annoyance such as "change it up", that he "expected better" from Heller, that Heller should "Evolve, move on, try something else", that Heller should "do it for Maya"). Alex Mercer even knows that James Heller has similar potential to Maya, saying that Heller could be the "grandfather of the New World". And when you die to Alex Mercer as James Heller, Mercer's tone seem very disappointed... As if Heller didn't live up to Mercer's expectation to defeat Mercer - In fact, Mercer's quote of "Impressive. I taught you well" (although it appears to be sarcastic, the fact he said it implied his intentions) pretty much confirmed that his intention was to teach Heller all long, to have Heller defeat him... This is further emphasised by Mercer's quote of "Welcome to the top of the food chain".
You see, the quote "Welcome to the top of the food chain" implies a lot about Alex Mercer's philosophy - even in the developer notes of the first game, it was stated that Alex Mercer "views the world through the eyes of a predator" (which implies that, in his perspective, he views life in "prey and predator" and "food chain" analogies. This perspective was present even in the first game but probably to not to any extreme extent based on the first game’s writer intended, but the second game has him take it to a much further extreme end that the second game’s writer seem to have intended). Both of these imply that Alex Mercer believes in the "survival of the fittest" (or "might makes right") mindset of sorts, but in a more primal manner befitting of predators, even in the first game - the key differences in mindset between himself in the first game and himself in the second game is that he still felt an emotional attachment to humans of sorts (or at least the ones he's close to anyways) and was fighting to protect those he cared about at the time, such as Dana, and in the [PROTOTYPE] comic, he was shown to be empathetic enough to warn random strangers of the danger they're in while he's fighting Blackwatch by saying they should run away, and did the same to a duo of civilians in the car... But in Prototype 2, as implied by the [PROTOTYPE 2] comics, Alex Mercer lost all attachments to humanity he has due to becoming unlucky enough in encountering too many unlikable and horrible people, thus he ultimately lost empathy for humans and decided to infect them all in his ambition to create "a better world" in the second game.
In fact, before Mercer decided to infect Heller, Mercer was the strongest being among the Blacklight creatures – Mercer knew he was the strongest, and was heavily implied to flex such even to the Evolved under his command, which could indicate that he is flexing such “Survival of the fittest” and “Might makes Right” philosophies at them. There are many examples of him flexing his status as the strongest, and these examples are:
1) Mercer being disappointed by Archer (an another Evolved) and her failure, and threatening her into compliance when she expressed her concerns about her risks of being exposed, which heavily implies that the Evolved fear him about as much as they revere him (where he is flexing his strength at them by intimidating them into submission so that they would do whatever he wants).
2) Mercer's own mimicked blood is seen by the Evolved as more valuable than one of the Evolved's own life, which heavily implies that any direct part of Mercer’s own body is seen as more valuable than any of the Evolved’s own life.
3) Mercer's own mimicked blood is treated by the Evolved with reverence – again, this evidently implies that anything that is directly “Mercer’s own” is to be treated reverently… Flexing his own status as being “more valuable” due to being stronger than them.
4) Mercer being said to not tolerate disobedience – which basically means that Mercer’s own words are implied to be more important than any of the Evolved’s own decisions or goals… Thus, flexing his status as being more important than them such as being stronger than them.
5) The other Evolved being stated to do what Mercer wants without question – again, heavily implying that Mercer’s own words are treated as being more important than any of their opinions or goals, so he is flexing this implied “Survival of the fittest” or “Might makes Right” philosophy (Sabrina Galloway says she is willing to betray Mercer from the implication that she doesn’t want to do what Mercer wants without question, but I don’t think she is willing to do so. She later betrayed James Heller and said "if you're not with me, you're against me", but it is likely she was also just toying around with James Heller's head all along and was in Mercer's side the whole time, and was using Heller’s refusal to be at her side as an excuse for her betrayal; she even said “Forget Mercer” before saying some nonsense about her and Heller being a “good team”, which heavily implies that she wanted Heller to give up his vengeance against Mercer and was using suggestive wordplay to do so… So for her to say that, she would most likely have been in Mercer’s side all along and attempted to get Heller to subtly stop pursuing revenge against Mercer with her feminine wiles).
6) Mercer being implied to be capable of forgiveness if the perpetrator were to prostrate themselves and plead to him – the fact that any of the subordinates (such as the Evolved) had to resort to do that to earn Mercer’s “forgiveness”… That basically suggests that his forgiveness matters more than any of the Evolved’s own pride or dignity, and so heavily implying that he operates under the aforementioned “Might makes Right”, “Survival of the fittest” or similar philosophies.
7) The Evolved obeying Mercer's words/orders to “wait”, with possibly both reverence and some fear mixed in it – again, this also confirms the implication that Mercer’s orders/words are more important to the Evolved than anything else… So for them to be this obedient, it implies that Mercer was also subtly flexing his status at them as being the strongest yet again, as his words (and any direct parts of Mercer’s own mimicked body) is more important than any of the Evolved’s life.
All this kind of heavily implies that Mercer is toying around even with them like how a cat toys around with a mouse, especially with Mercer being stated to “view the world through the eyes of a predator”.
Basically, due to Alex Mercer's philosophy, especially in the second game (who has an even more different mindset than he is in the first game, with his philosophy becoming more extreme than before), he believes those that are "at the top of the food chain" gets the right to decide the fate of the world... And well, with his goal of infecting humanity and spreading the Blacklight Virus, even if James Heller defeated Alex Mercer... James Heller is ultimately still infected with the Blacklight Virus, so Blacklight still lives on even if Alex Mercer was defeated.
In fact, unlike the rest of the Evolved, he appears to have treated James Heller differently from them… As if he treated Heller as closer to being an equal rather than a subordinate that he can use (or misuse) however he wishes - this was later heavily implied when Mercer stated that he is “no longer bound by ‘life’ or ‘death’” because he “moved beyond that”… But Mercer also stated that “Heller has as well. He just doesn’t realize it yet”.
By saying that “Heller has as well. He just doesn’t realize it yet”, Mercer was basically acknowledging Heller’s strength, that he is “more immortal” than the other Evolved (with the “no longer bound by ‘life’ and ‘death’” quote), and that he perceives Heller as more of his equal than the other Evolved by describing Heller in the same category as himself (with both of them being “beyond ‘life’ and ‘death’”)… And that actually plays a significant role to how Mercer would treat Heller as far as combat goes.
As for how Heller was able to reach a point that Mercer decided to treat him as closer to being his equal… Well, that has to do with potential and drive, something the other Evolved seems to lack (especially for the latter). Heller has both, with the former being stated by the “until now” right after Mercer was stated to be the strongest (implying that Heller could reach Mercer’s level as far as potential goes), and with the latter by Heller affirming his resolve to defeat Mercer after finding out that Mercer was the one that started the Blacklight outbreak at Penn Station in the second game.
As for when Mercer decided to treat Heller as something akin to being his equal… It likely started when Heller has resisted Mercer’s attempt to kill him and has absorbed Mercer’s hand in the process. Before that, Mercer treating Heller like a subordinate that he could do with has he pleases like one of the Evolved, and thus Mercer did not hesitate to attempt to kill Heller like he does for someone who is not-an-equal that has “disappointed” him… But after Heller has resisted Mercer’s attempt to kill him, Mercer appeared to have treated him differently afterwards (most likely as someone closer to being an equal to Mercer).
And despite Mercer stating that he is “gonna make you suffer”… He has actually never gotten around to doing that… At all (or at least, not directly).
The worst Mercer did to make Heller “suffer” was killing Father Guerra (the priest)… But Guerra isn’t even a loved one of Heller’s, he’s just some ally Heller made and is probably not even a close friend of Heller’s. In fact, Heller didn’t even seem to even shed a tear for him, and had only kneeled down and silently mourned Guerra’s death… Before Heller moved on after Dana contacted him about Heller’s daughter, barely gave Guerra’s dead body a second glance, and then left his corpse there to rot. Bruh, not even a burial. XD
And Mercer also says he is planning to do unsavoury things to Amaya Heller so that he would have James Heller "see everything he does to her first-hand", yet he didn't go through with it later; possibly does it to mess with James Heller's head (since Mercer of all people should know about the ability to absorb others for memories, considering he’s the one that does such consistently and gave others such as the Evolved and Heller the ability to do so).
In fact, Mercer not going through with harming Amaya in any way was shown when all he did to Amaya was put her in a vault alongside Dana, and then just… Leave her there until Heller found them later. That certainly isn’t having Heller “see everything he does to her first-hand” at all, when he’s not even getting Heller to see anything, with Amaya even appearing to be unharmed (and Mercer’s refusal to have her be harmed as well).
The way I see it, Mercer wasn’t trying to make Heller “suffer”, he appears to be toying around with Heller and was even “encouraging” Heller to defeat Mercer in certain ways the moment after he noticed Heller is capable of becoming something that Mercer views as being his equal (or close to it at least) – this encouragement was stated when he said “do it for Maya” and “Impressive. I taught you well”. There’s also the fact that Mercer did NOT even use the Armor or Musclemass ability, or even use any of his Devastators against Heller (the best Mercer did was used Groundspike attacks in a very predictable and easy to avoid way, and I don’t think that’s a Devastator).
There’s also the fact that James Heller is unable to use the same type of Offensive Powers as Alex Mercer, or else Mercer just counteracts him – there’s also the fact that, having Heller use Hammerfist while Mercer is using it not only has Mercer blocking Heller’s Hammerfists, but also pushing Heller’s Hammerfist back and completely overpowering Heller with a single punch of his own Hammerfists – so Prototype 2 End-Game Mercer (after absorbing 8 Evolved) wasn’t just stronger than Heller in Lifting Strength, but also physically stronger than Heller in Striking Strength and Attack Potency as well… Mercer basically had the AP and LS advantage against Heller, and yet Mercer was attempting to have Heller find ways to defeat himself by giving advices to Heller such as “You can’t win this way”.
Based on all this, Alex Mercer should have this listed in his Weaknesses section:
"Weaknesses: Reminding him of his human life will cause him to relapse into a flashback, paralyzing him (Overcame this at the end of the first game). If he is too low on biomass he will be incapable of maintaining his Evolved form. Can be easily enraged, but has begun avoiding it. The less biomass in his body, the slower his regeneration will be. Comparable to Supreme Hunter in terms of physiology, who can regenerate his entire body from a puddle of blood in mere instants, but when he is drastically damaged and loses his biomass he has difficulty regenerating a hand. Alex only regenerated "instantly" from a massive damage after devouring biomass. During the events of the second game, he would likely not use the full extent of his abilities against another Blacklight shapeshifter that has sufficient potential and determination to replace him at the "top of the food chain" due to his possible Social Darwinism mindset as he "views the world through the eyes of a predator", such as by not utilising the full range of his abilities against James Heller and even giving Heller advices on how to defeat him"
Also, this weakness of “not use the full extent of his abilities against another Blacklight shapeshifter that has sufficient potential and determination to replace him” only applies to Blacklight beings that possesses shapeshifting capabilities and possesses the qualities he finds suitable to replace him… So it would not apply to other Blacklight shapeshifters that don’t possess such qualities, other Blacklight creatues and any non-Infected; in fact, it especially applies to non-Infected such as humans, as he hates humans to the point of seeing them as “vermin” as of the second game.
Thus, with these points above, Alex Mercer should have this listed in his profile for his Attack Potency and Lifting Strength sections for his Prototype 2 End Game key:
Attack Potency: "At least Multi-City Block level+ (Has consumed eight Evolved, who should at least be comparable to his Prototype 1 self, and has gotten stronger from his transformation after consuming them. Matched and overpowered End-Game James Heller when using the same Offensive Powers as him), higher with Whipfist, Claws and Hammerfist, Small Town level with Musclemass multiplier and Blade, even higher with Devastators"
Lifting Strength: "At least Class M (Has once again gotten vastly stronger through absorbing the other Evolved. Matched and overpowered End-Game James Heller when using the same Offensive Powers as him), higher with Musclemass"
Due to this CIS-related weakness above, this should also be listed in the Attack Potency and Lifting Strength section for End-Game James Heller’s profile:
Attack Potency: " At least Multi-City Block level+ (Comparable to Prototype 2 Alex Mercer, who has consumed 8 Evolved; however, Alex Mercer was likely not using the full extent of his abilities)"
Lifting Strength: "Class M (Stronger than before; matched Alex Mercer in strength, although still got overpowered by him if using the same Offensive Powers)"
One of the Evolved Infected was able to briefly hold Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex in place, albeit also requiring other Evolved Infected to temporarily restrain him before they got thrown away with “tremendous force”.
That’s a “Superhuman, possibly Class M” Lifting Strength feat. Superhuman at minimum as the Infected citizens and Evolved Infected should already be far stronger than an ordinary human, such as an Infected Citizen being able to split a soldier with body armor in half with a punch – possibly Class M because Alex was briefly held in place, although only possibly because it took many other Evolved Infected practically dogpiling on Alex to temporarily restrain him, and it didn’t last since he blasted them off later.
As Robert Cross has has succumbed to the infection of the virus, with his own training being what has prevented him from losing higher functions like the other victims and has allowed him to seek the Hive Mind, he should at least scale to Evolved Infected and Infected Citizens since he got infected by the same virus that infected them (but his cognitive abilities wasn’t affected, and he didn’t transform, because… He resisted it by sheer training apparently).
So, Robert Cross should have this listed in his Lifting Strength section:
"Lifting Strength: Superhuman (Due to being infected by the virus, he should have far greater physical abilities than any ordinary humans, such as when an Infected Citizen being able to split a soldier with body armor in half with a punch, although the exact extent is unknown), possibly Class M (Should be comparable to an Evolved Infected, which is a failed or imperfect versions of the virus that was able to briefly hold Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex in place, albeit also requiring the aid of other Evolved Infected to temporarily restrain him further before they got thrown away)"
Further expansion to Adaptation and Reactive Evolution:
I’ve noticed the current description and explanations of the Adaptation and Reactive Evolution abilities for the [PROTOTYPE] characters, particularly Alex Mercer’s, is more bare bones than I thought… So, I personally think there should be more explanations to it.
You see, it was established that the Blacklight Virus was considered to be “the most deadly virus in history” (which is a confirmation that puts it above the Redlight Virus) within the [PROTOTYPE] universe, and was so superior to all other viruses that it made even the Idaho strain (In the context of the Prototype-verse, the “Idaho strain” refers to the strain of virus responsible for the viral outbreak that occurred in Hope, Idaho… With that strain being basically the Redlight Virus) look like common cold in its superiority, and that its superiority was explicitly described by the original Alexander J. Mercer about the Blacklight Virus being superior to the Redlight Virus by a factor of ten… That is still definitely true in regards to the Blacklight Virus being superior as its creator made it to be.
However, if it’s true that the Blacklight Virus really is superior to the Redlight Virus in every way that matters, then how is it that regular Hunters with compatible DNA to the Parasite (which are beings created by Elizabeth Greene’s Redlight Virus) was able to immediately starting the process of adapting and building antibodies against the Blacklight Parasite while Alex got affected by the Redlight Parasite so hard that he had to rely on Ragland’s help (using the samples of the other Blacklight Viruses present in the Penn Station corpses) in creating the Blacklight Parasite so that he can get cured from absorbing a regular Hunter with compatible DNA after it adapted to the Parasite? Wouldn’t that be contradictory to the Blacklight Virus being superior to the Redlight Virus, since an entity of the Redlight Virus such as a regular Hunter (albeit one with the correct genetic type or compatible DNA to the Parasite) was able to do something that the literal sapient Blacklight Virus that is Alex himself couldn’t (which is to adapt to something Alex couldn’t)?
Well, after a bit of thinking, there’s actually a simple explanation to that: And that is that, even though the Blacklight Virus is indeed created to be superior, the Redlight Virus was actually ahead of the Blacklight Virus in current Adaptation or Reactive Evolution capabilities.
You see, it only took the original Alexander J. Mercer three years to make the Blacklight Virus being superior to the Redlight Virus such as by being more dangerous by a factor of ten… But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the status quo of the Blacklight Virus wasn’t later changed by the Redlight Virus, especially since the Redlight Virus has its own Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities; an example being that the Redlight Virus within Elizabeth Greene’s body was capable of producing hundreds of unique strains daily, and that it was having her body evolve at a rapid pace and war-dialing at the genetic level to become something else and that its viral structure kept changing as a result – and the “producing hundreds of unique strands daily” heavily implies that even one day was enough to make the capabilities of the Redlight Virus (thus Elizabeth Greene’s) being increased to a significant extent; so, for her to wait thirty-nine to forty years (which is presumably what made her to be as physically superhuman as she is now)… It had the Redlight Virus evolve to such an extent where the Redlight Virus outbreak that Elizabeth Greene unleashed in the events of the first game is not following the pathology of the Redlight Virus in the Hope, Idaho outbreak, that its noted by the scientists and Blackwatch that its behaviour seems to be changing and that the Redlight Virus is acting in a manner not consistent with previous outbreaks.
During those three years that the original Alexander J. Mercer made the Blacklight Virus to be superior to the Redlight Virus, he could’ve only made it superior to the particular version of the Redlight Virus three years before he first tampered with that Redlight Virus (from Elizabeth Greene’s sample) and created the Blacklight Virus from it – in addition, the Redlight Virus still at least had Elizabeth Greene as its host (where Elizabeth Greene was thought to be a mere carrier of the Redlight Virus) to help with her body having absorbed it and changed it to help further its evolution (since Greene’s unique biology was what made the Redlight Virus reached such new heights to begin with, which pleased Blackwatch enough to create a research program involving her in the first place), while the Blacklight Virus was nothing more than some a bunch of virions inside a vial until the original Alexander J. Mercer smashed that same vial and found its creator’s corpse to help manifest and gain sentience – so, without any genetic templates it could use as basis (to change it like how Elizabeth Greene’s genetics changed the Redlight Virus with her unique biology), it likely does not have much opportunities to further its evolution until it found its creator’s corpse.
However, even assuming the original Alexander J. Mercer still made use of his access to Greene to keep on updating the Blacklight Virus into remaining being superior to the Redlight Virus (up until he stole the sample of the Blacklight Virus and smashed it before dying anyways) to circumvent that disadvantage of lack of genetic templates for the Blacklight Virus (until it infected and mimicked its creator’s corpse), it still doesn’t change the fact that the Redlight Virus still has the head start advantage in its evolution… Especially because Alexander was most likely absent from the times he became paranoid and started involving his sister to help do investigations on Blackwatch to find out what was going on (and thus likely not have much time to work on the Blacklight Virus more).
You see, the entire timeline from when Alex the Blacklight Virus first awoke to the nuclear explosion scene happened in 18 days – so, at Day 0 (which is implied by “18 days earlier”) of Infection was when he first awoke and gained sentience, while Day 3 of Infection was when Elizabeth Greene was first free and started the Redlight Virus outbreak (Important note: There is no other days specified outside of “18 days earlier” or Day 0, Day 3 and Day 18. I’ve checked through the cutscenes, there just aren’t any other days specified – Prototype wikia seems to merely assumes the other days outside of these aforementioned days). And Alexander J. Mercer first arrived to involve Dana to help him with investigating Blackwatch a month before, so it would likely be a month where Alexander focused heavily on investigating Blackwatch out of paranoia and likely did not have much time to work on the Blacklight Virus (since he is the head of his research team and is the one that singlehandedly figured out how the Redlight Virus works before improving it, while his team is likely just there to ride the coattails of his work).
Based on that, the Blacklight Virus only first found its creator’s corpse to properly establish its Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities with and had nothing but a bunch of humans (Gentek scientists and Blackwatch soldiers) to absorb to further its evolution with on Day 0, while the Redlight Virus still had Elizabeth Greene and the fact that even one day is enough for her to produce hundreds of new viral strains with until she was released on Day 3, and the original Alexander J. Mercer likely did not have much time to work on the Blacklight Virus since he was focusing investigating Blackwatch… Which would mean that the Redlight Virus likely has at least 1 month worths of head start on the Blacklight Virus in capabilities due to its Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities (which is very significant as even one day is enough for a significant change with Reactive Evolution) – it also explains why, even though the Blacklight Virus was created to be superior to the Redlight Virus with the genetic information of the Redlight Virus and Elizabeth Greene’s genetic structure, Elizabeth Greene was still able to completely overpower Early-Game Alex with a mere backhand in her baseline form; because she still has at least a month’s worth of head start over Alex in capabilities and overall physical attributes granted to her by the Redlight Virus’ Reactive Evolution capabilities.
However, even with that 1-month worths of head start in capabilities from the Reactive Evolution, it didn’t take too long for Alex to catch up and surpass her (especially with his Absorption helping him grow stronger at a more rapid pace, with a bit of a mix of his own Reactive Evolution as well).
After that scene when Elizabeth essentially nearly one-shotted him with a mere backhand at Day 3 of Infection, after gradually absorbing multiple regular Hunters (including one of the Hunters with compatible DNA to the Parasite), Leader Hunters, Blackwatch soldiers and many others, Alex not only immensely grew in strength… But he evolved to the point that his Prototype 1 End-Game self not only defeated Elizabeth Greene, but he defeated her while she was in her Mother form – evidently, he definitely grew much stronger, considering he defeated Elizabeth Greene in her MOTHER form (which should be notably stronger than her baseline form) while her baseline form was able to nearly one-shot his Early-Game self (and physically overpowered his Mid-Game self).
Not only that, but after absorbing many powerful Infected such as Hunters (with and without compatible DNA to the Parasite), Leader Hunters, Blackwatch soldiers and many others (which should likely increase his own Reactive Evolution capabilities as well, as the Reactive Evolution of the Redlight Infected comes from the Redlight Virus within them granting them such genetic abilities… Which Alex should have definitely absorbed just as he has absorbed their bodies), even the Blacklight Virus’ own Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities became superior to the Redlight Virus’ capabilities now.
Firstly, the Blacklight Virus’ superior Reactive Evolution capabilities was shown when, upon absorbing the Hunter with compatible DNA to the Parasite (thus absorbing both its genetic abilities, such as its Reactive Evolution capabilities, and its antibodies), Alex was able to gain new abilities – that being his Blade power and his Armour form; now, it mentions that the “Concoction has had some unintended results” (“concoction” refers to the Blacklight version of the Parasite)… And yet, after successfully adapting to the Parasite, that regular Hunter did not gain or utilise any of the aforementioned new abilities such as the Blade power or Armour form.
The fact that the regular Hunter with compatible DNA to the Parasite did not gain such abilities proves that the Redlight Virus’ own Reactive Evolution is unable to grant it such abilities, while the Blacklight Virus’ own Reactive Evolution was able to actually grant Alex such abilities… And since it said the “Concoction has had some unintended results”, this means that the Blacklight Parasite was the catalyst for such “unintended results”, and that absorbing that Hunter (with its adaptations to the Blacklight Parasite) was what allowed the Blacklight Virus (which Alex embodies) to adapt to the point that it granted Alex those two new abilities… Which implies a type of superiority to the Redlight Virus in regards to Reactive Evolution capabilities, because the Blacklight Virus’ Reactive Evolution was able to do something that the Redlight Virus’ Reactive Evolution couldn’t.
Secondly, the Blacklight Virus’ superior Reactive Evolution capabilities was also showcased when, after the first exposure to Bloodtox, Alex was able to start developing immunity to Bloodtox and later on was able to withstand an entire gas tank filled with Bloodtox exploding and unleashing all that Bloodtox into Alex Mercer (unlike the gamplay where Bloodtox just reduces your health and eventually kill you) in his plan to "fake his own demise" so that he can confront McMullen once McMullen has his guard down, which implies that Alex Mercer has eventually become immune to Bloodtox due to the Reactive Evolution abilities of the Blacklight Virus.
In contrast, when Elizabeth Greene was hit with Bloodtox while she is in her Mother form, she tunnelled herself underground and hid away while massing underground, and could be driven up to the surface if Bloodtox was pumped underground (implying that Bloodtox was able to severely harm her to have her flee from it to such a degree) – this was later shown when, in the mission to deploy Bloodtox to the Times Square in order to pump it underground, Bloodtox was successfully pumped underground and it resulted in Elizabeth Greene in her Mother form fleeing to the surface to escape the Bloodtox pumped underground.
Now, that definitely implies that the Blacklight Virus eventually caught up and even surpassed the Redlight Virus in Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities even with the latter’s 1 month head start, as Elizabeth Greene fled away from Bloodtox even while she is in her most powerful form (her Mother form) twice, whereas Alex only got negatively affected by Bloodtox once in the first exposure and later withstood an entire gas tank filled with Bloodtox being unleashed at him with little to no ill effect present in only two missions after that mission where Alex got negatively affected by that Bloodtox while in a Blackwatch soldier disguise (the first mission being defeating Elizabeth Greene, and the second mission being that mission to “fake his own demise” by withstanding an entire gas tank filled with Bloodtox) – the fact that Elizabeth Greene had to flee from Bloodtox twice, while Alex only fled when Bloodtox blown his cover once from his first direct exposure but was able to withstand a gas tank filled with Bloodtox shortly after within two missions for his second direct exposure, showcases that the Blacklight Virus was able to surpass the Redlight Virus in Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities after Alex has absorbed enough powerful Infected, scientists and Blackwatch soldiers.
And lastly, this superior Reactive Evolution was heavily implied by the Supreme Hunter’s feats with Adaptation and Reactive Evolution.
You see, the Supreme Hunter was the Blacklight Parasite that was refashioned into a special type of Hunter that is a duplicate of Alex upon being injected into Elizabeth Greene, and well… There is actually a significant difference in power and capabilities between his Mid-Game self (which is when it was first unleashed) and his End-Game self (which is its “Supreme Hybrid” key and is when it was fighting Alex at the end of the game before the nuclear explosion cutscene), which is evident in the tiering in the Supreme Hunter’s profiles based on his keys.
As for how the Supreme Hunter achieved such an increase in capabilities in his “Supreme Hybrid” key compared to his “Supreme Hunter” key, well… Let’s just say that the Supreme Hunter’s Reactive Evolution was also involved in the process, and is the main factor for how he grew to be that powerful to reach his “Supreme Hybrid” key.
Basically, in the Mid-Game, the Supreme Hunter was stated to be much more powerful than Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex… But even with him being much more powerful, the Supreme Hunter still falls short against Elizabeth Greene – in fact, it was stated in the Developer notes of the Prima Guide that the Supreme Hunter (in his Mid-Game or “Supreme Hunter” key) fears Elizabeth Greene and has obeyed her out of fear of what she might do if he does not obey… Which basically heavily implies that Greene herself most likely must have been much stronger than him for the Supreme Hunter to obey her out of fear (which fits with the fact that Greene herself has physically overpowered Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex quite easily. So, if the Supreme Hunter is much more powerful than Mid-Game Alex, and Elizabeth Greene is much stronger than the Supreme Hunter… Then it fits that she would be able to easily overpower Mid-Game Alex in the cutscene as well, as she is much stronger than an another Blacklight Infected that is much more powerful than Mid-Game Alex in that particular time)… But then, there is his End-Game self (or him in his “Supreme Hybrid” key).
In the End-Game, the Supreme Hunter in his “Supreme Hybrid” key is much more powerful than Prototype 1 End-Game Alex (the same version of Alex who defeated Elizabeth Greene in her Mother form, and effortlessly overpowered her in her baseline state), and is so strong that his Mid-Game self (him in his “Supreme Hunter” key) is described to be “less-evolved” in comparison to his End-Game self (him in his “Supreme Hybrid” key).
But wait, how did the Supreme Hunter get so strong that he was able to become “much more powerful” than Prototype 1 End-Game Alex if all the Supreme Hunter has absorbed was Robert Cross based on his disguise as Robert Cross (with no explicit evidence or even statements that the Supreme Hunter has absorbed anyone else)?
Well, after a bit of thinking, there is a simple explanation to that: It’s all due to the Supreme Hunter’s Reactive Evolution abilities as a result of it being created from the Blacklight Virus (the same Blacklight Virus within the Penn Station corpses that Ragland used to create the second Parasite) – this is heavily implied when the Prima Guide mentions that the Supreme Hunter is “less-evolved”, and NOT something like “weaker” or “less powerful”… So, to use the term “evolved”, implies that some type of Reactive Evolution effect is likely involved.
As mentioned in the two points above, the Blacklight Virus was superior to the Redlight Virus in every way that matters (including in Adaptation and Reactive Evolution capabilities) after it has absorbed regular Hunters (including one of them with compatible DNA to the Parasite), Leader Hunters, scientists, Blackwatch soldiers and many others… And the Supreme Hunter was created as a duplicate of Alex (or more specifically, a duplicate of Alex while he is in his Prototype 1 Mid-Game key).
So, with the Supreme Hunter being a duplicate of Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex, and with only Robert Cross being the only explicitly mentioned victim of his Absorption (with no other number of victims specified for the Supreme Hunter’s Absorption), the Supreme Hunter would have mainly have gotten as strong as it did with Reactive Evolution alone (since, as a duplicate of Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex, it would at least scaled to all of the Adaptation and Reactive Evolution feats of the Blacklight Virus as well). We can even infer the timeframe for the amount of time the Supreme Hunter took to get stronger (going from his “Supreme Hunter” key to his “Supreme Hybrid” key), based on the timeframe of the Infection given to us (although with only limited information on the exact days because [PROTOTYPE] can be quite vague with the timeline of the events of the game).
Elizabeth Greene was released at Day 3 of Infection, while End-Game Supreme Hunter (or Supreme Hunter in his “Supreme Hybrid” key) is present on Day 18 of Infection while being disguised as the Robert Cross speaking to Alex on Day 18 all along – since [PROTOTYPE] is a bit vague on the other exact days for the timeline of events after Elizabeth Greene got unleashed, we can assume the Supreme Hunter was released some time after Day 3 of Infection and took up to Day 18 to evolve to his ”Supreme Hybrid” key as an absolute lowball.
Even for the Redlight Virus, even one day is enough to be a significant difference in capabilities and power as it can produce hundreds of unique strains daily, while the Blacklight Virus from Mid-Game Prototype 1 Alex should be superior even to the Redlight Virus based on the two aforementioned points above… So, as an absolute lowball, it took no more than 15 days (Day 18 subtracted by Day 3) for the Mid-Game Supreme Hunter in his “Supreme Hunter” key to completely surpass Elizabeth Greene even in her Mother form by gradually evolving to his “Supreme Hybrid” key (where he is much more powerful than the Prototype 1 End-Game Alex that defeated and surpassed Elizabeth Greene in her Mother form)… And since Alex appears to not have absorbed anything more than Blackwatch soldiers or scientists after he has defeated and absorbed Greene (as his missions appears to be focused more on targeting Blackwatch and other human higher-ups afterwards), it is likely Alex has not been strengthened much from absorbing mostly humans… Whereas the Supreme Hunter has likely went around being disguised as Robert Cross and exposed himself to many situations such as figuring out where McMullen went, figuring out where the Bloodtox facility is and how Alex was able to develop immunity to Bloodtox (possibly by the Supreme Hunter’s own first-hand experience!?) that could’ve stimulated his Reactive Evolution capabilities to eventually exceed Prototype 1 Alex (who likely has not been absorbing many powerful Infected after he has defeated Elizabeth Greene, and probably has not exposed himself to many situations that stimulated his Reactive Evolution capabilities beyond being exposed to Bloodtox) in physical strength… So, in 15 days (little more than 2 weeks), the Supreme Hunter completely surpassed Elizabeth Greene in capabilities (even with the 1 months’ worth of head start in Reactive Evolution capabilities the Redlight Virus has).
NOTE: While it is true that the Blacklight shapeshifters can became very strong with just their Reactive Evolution capabilities, their Absorption should still provide them quicker and more effective growth in capabilities than just Reactive Evolution alone – the prime example of this is that James Heller, who went from being completely overpowered by Prototype 2 Alex Mercer to being able to trade blows with Prototype 2 End Game Alex Mercer after absorbing 8 Evolved (with Alex Mercer likely having not absorbed anyone at all by the beginning of the events of the Prototype 2 game, since the Prototype 2 plot have him decide to create an army of Evolved for some reason) at the end of the second game after James Heller have absorbed many powerful Blacklight Infected. So, in terms of which provides quicker growth in physical stats and overall abilities, it would be Absorption > Reactive Evolution for the [PROTOTYPE] universe.
Thus, based on all this, the Blacklight Virus should notably be superior to the Redlight Virus in Adaptation and Reactive Evolution by the time Alex reached his Prototype 1 Mid-Game key. So, this should be listed in his profile:
Adaptation and Reactive Evolution (After being cured of the Parasite from absorbing the Hunter, the Blacklight Virus should be superior to the Redlight Virus, which is capable of producing hundreds of different unique strains of the virus on a daily basis and that the Redlight Virus led to the body evolving at a rapid pace and war-dialing at the genetic level into becoming something else each time. Was developing immunity to Bloodtox, to the extent that he can withstand an entire gas tank filled with Bloodtox being unleashed at him with no ill effect, and has most likely became immune to Bloodtox by the end of the first game. Has developed new abilities such as Blade and Armor in response to the “concoction” that is the Parasite as “unintended results”. Should be comparable to the Supreme Hunter, who was able to grow stronger to the point that his previous self is “less-evolved” compared to his Supreme Hybrid self despite only being shown to absorb Robert Cross, and completely surpassed Elizabeth Greene in prowess at Day 18 of Infection when he was first unleashed after Day 3 of Infection. Can transform his body on-the-fly and increases his resistance to harmful situations with prolonged exposure)
For others that scale to Alex Mercer (which should be the Supreme Hunter, James Heller and the Evolved), this should be:
Adaptation and Reactive Evolution (Should be comparable to Alex Mercer due to possessing the same shapeshifting capabilities granted by the Blacklight Virus as he does)
Character weaknesses:
You see, for certain [PROTOTYPE] characters such as Alex Mercer, he should have a weakness listed in his character profiles as well – however, his is more of psychological or character personality (or CIS) weakness rather than any actual limitations on the abilities (or any actual aversion to certain things) beyond what is already listed in his profiles.
For Alex Mercer himself, specifically Prototype 2 Alex Mercer (because himself from the second game might as well be a completely different character from the first game), he should have his own psychological or CIS related weaknesses (beyond being just a two-dimensional generic cartoon-like villain he became in the second game that is).
In fact, [PROTOTYPE] is one of the franchises with the uncommon case of having completely different writers for the its respective duology games, with completely different interpretations of a particular character present in the duology games – for example, the writer for the first [PROTOTYPE] game stated that he “doesn’t care very much” about Prototype 2 and that he said “they [the people that worked on creating Prototype 2] kind of ruined Alex” – meanwhile, Dan Jolley, the writer for the second game, disagreed that Mercer’s change to evil was too abrupt, naive or out of character because he is of the opinion that he “always thought Mercer was a sociopath” (which heavily implies that Dan Jolley thinks that Alex Mercer becoming evil is completely in-character)… Yeah, because of the fact that these two writers each have completely different interpretations and intent behind Alex Mercer’s character, Alex Mercer’s personality, motives and overall character should be treated completely differently for the two games (so Prototype 2 Alex Mercer should be treated as if he is a completely different character from Prototype 1 Alex Mercer) – and since they have such completely different perspectives of the character, it is possible they might have completely different perspective for other aspects of the [PROTOTYPE] universe, the Word of God statements should only be applicable to the game they have worked on; so the Word of God statements from the writer of the Prototype 1 game should only be applicable for Prototype 1, while Word of God statements from the writer of the Prototype 2 game should only be applicable for Prototype 2 (and in the absolute worst case scenario for if they somehow happen to directly contradict one another, such as contradicting established events or abilities… Well, we would have to be forced to use whichever Word of God statement that the games and comics themselves support more in terms of context).
You see, if you read the quotes from the final boss battle within the second game in an in-depth manner, Alex Mercer doesn't care if he could be beaten by someone infected by the Blacklight Virus and would actually encourage it. He actually wants a Shapeshifter of the Blacklight Virus to be able to defeat him if they have the potential and resolve for it. You can see from Alex Mercer's quotes that he sounds disappointed towards you as James Heller if you did bad at fighting Mercer (watch the video towards the end if you want to see the rest of the quotes. Also, notice how if you try to fight Mercer with the same weapon/Offensive powers as Heller, Mercer straight up overpowers Heller and expresses his annoyance such as "change it up", that he "expected better" from Heller, that Heller should "Evolve, move on, try something else", that Heller should "do it for Maya"). Alex Mercer even knows that James Heller has similar potential to Maya, saying that Heller could be the "grandfather of the New World". And when you die to Alex Mercer as James Heller, Mercer's tone seem very disappointed... As if Heller didn't live up to Mercer's expectation to defeat Mercer - In fact, Mercer's quote of "Impressive. I taught you well" (although it appears to be sarcastic, the fact he said it implied his intentions) pretty much confirmed that his intention was to teach Heller all long, to have Heller defeat him... This is further emphasised by Mercer's quote of "Welcome to the top of the food chain".
You see, the quote "Welcome to the top of the food chain" implies a lot about Alex Mercer's philosophy - even in the developer notes of the first game, it was stated that Alex Mercer "views the world through the eyes of a predator" (which implies that, in his perspective, he views life in "prey and predator" and "food chain" analogies. This perspective was present even in the first game but probably to not to any extreme extent based on the first game’s writer intended, but the second game has him take it to a much further extreme end that the second game’s writer seem to have intended). Both of these imply that Alex Mercer believes in the "survival of the fittest" (or "might makes right") mindset of sorts, but in a more primal manner befitting of predators, even in the first game - the key differences in mindset between himself in the first game and himself in the second game is that he still felt an emotional attachment to humans of sorts (or at least the ones he's close to anyways) and was fighting to protect those he cared about at the time, such as Dana, and in the [PROTOTYPE] comic, he was shown to be empathetic enough to warn random strangers of the danger they're in while he's fighting Blackwatch by saying they should run away, and did the same to a duo of civilians in the car... But in Prototype 2, as implied by the [PROTOTYPE 2] comics, Alex Mercer lost all attachments to humanity he has due to becoming unlucky enough in encountering too many unlikable and horrible people, thus he ultimately lost empathy for humans and decided to infect them all in his ambition to create "a better world" in the second game.
In fact, before Mercer decided to infect Heller, Mercer was the strongest being among the Blacklight creatures – Mercer knew he was the strongest, and was heavily implied to flex such even to the Evolved under his command, which could indicate that he is flexing such “Survival of the fittest” and “Might makes Right” philosophies at them. There are many examples of him flexing his status as the strongest, and these examples are:
1) Mercer being disappointed by Archer (an another Evolved) and her failure, and threatening her into compliance when she expressed her concerns about her risks of being exposed, which heavily implies that the Evolved fear him about as much as they revere him (where he is flexing his strength at them by intimidating them into submission so that they would do whatever he wants).
2) Mercer's own mimicked blood is seen by the Evolved as more valuable than one of the Evolved's own life, which heavily implies that any direct part of Mercer’s own body is seen as more valuable than any of the Evolved’s own life.
3) Mercer's own mimicked blood is treated by the Evolved with reverence – again, this evidently implies that anything that is directly “Mercer’s own” is to be treated reverently… Flexing his own status as being “more valuable” due to being stronger than them.
4) Mercer being said to not tolerate disobedience – which basically means that Mercer’s own words are implied to be more important than any of the Evolved’s own decisions or goals… Thus, flexing his status as being more important than them such as being stronger than them.
5) The other Evolved being stated to do what Mercer wants without question – again, heavily implying that Mercer’s own words are treated as being more important than any of their opinions or goals, so he is flexing this implied “Survival of the fittest” or “Might makes Right” philosophy (Sabrina Galloway says she is willing to betray Mercer from the implication that she doesn’t want to do what Mercer wants without question, but I don’t think she is willing to do so. She later betrayed James Heller and said "if you're not with me, you're against me", but it is likely she was also just toying around with James Heller's head all along and was in Mercer's side the whole time, and was using Heller’s refusal to be at her side as an excuse for her betrayal; she even said “Forget Mercer” before saying some nonsense about her and Heller being a “good team”, which heavily implies that she wanted Heller to give up his vengeance against Mercer and was using suggestive wordplay to do so… So for her to say that, she would most likely have been in Mercer’s side all along and attempted to get Heller to subtly stop pursuing revenge against Mercer with her feminine wiles).
6) Mercer being implied to be capable of forgiveness if the perpetrator were to prostrate themselves and plead to him – the fact that any of the subordinates (such as the Evolved) had to resort to do that to earn Mercer’s “forgiveness”… That basically suggests that his forgiveness matters more than any of the Evolved’s own pride or dignity, and so heavily implying that he operates under the aforementioned “Might makes Right”, “Survival of the fittest” or similar philosophies.
7) The Evolved obeying Mercer's words/orders to “wait”, with possibly both reverence and some fear mixed in it – again, this also confirms the implication that Mercer’s orders/words are more important to the Evolved than anything else… So for them to be this obedient, it implies that Mercer was also subtly flexing his status at them as being the strongest yet again, as his words (and any direct parts of Mercer’s own mimicked body) is more important than any of the Evolved’s life.
All this kind of heavily implies that Mercer is toying around even with them like how a cat toys around with a mouse, especially with Mercer being stated to “view the world through the eyes of a predator”.
Basically, due to Alex Mercer's philosophy, especially in the second game (who has an even more different mindset than he is in the first game, with his philosophy becoming more extreme than before), he believes those that are "at the top of the food chain" gets the right to decide the fate of the world... And well, with his goal of infecting humanity and spreading the Blacklight Virus, even if James Heller defeated Alex Mercer... James Heller is ultimately still infected with the Blacklight Virus, so Blacklight still lives on even if Alex Mercer was defeated.
In fact, unlike the rest of the Evolved, he appears to have treated James Heller differently from them… As if he treated Heller as closer to being an equal rather than a subordinate that he can use (or misuse) however he wishes - this was later heavily implied when Mercer stated that he is “no longer bound by ‘life’ or ‘death’” because he “moved beyond that”… But Mercer also stated that “Heller has as well. He just doesn’t realize it yet”.
By saying that “Heller has as well. He just doesn’t realize it yet”, Mercer was basically acknowledging Heller’s strength, that he is “more immortal” than the other Evolved (with the “no longer bound by ‘life’ and ‘death’” quote), and that he perceives Heller as more of his equal than the other Evolved by describing Heller in the same category as himself (with both of them being “beyond ‘life’ and ‘death’”)… And that actually plays a significant role to how Mercer would treat Heller as far as combat goes.
As for how Heller was able to reach a point that Mercer decided to treat him as closer to being his equal… Well, that has to do with potential and drive, something the other Evolved seems to lack (especially for the latter). Heller has both, with the former being stated by the “until now” right after Mercer was stated to be the strongest (implying that Heller could reach Mercer’s level as far as potential goes), and with the latter by Heller affirming his resolve to defeat Mercer after finding out that Mercer was the one that started the Blacklight outbreak at Penn Station in the second game.
As for when Mercer decided to treat Heller as something akin to being his equal… It likely started when Heller has resisted Mercer’s attempt to kill him and has absorbed Mercer’s hand in the process. Before that, Mercer treating Heller like a subordinate that he could do with has he pleases like one of the Evolved, and thus Mercer did not hesitate to attempt to kill Heller like he does for someone who is not-an-equal that has “disappointed” him… But after Heller has resisted Mercer’s attempt to kill him, Mercer appeared to have treated him differently afterwards (most likely as someone closer to being an equal to Mercer).
And despite Mercer stating that he is “gonna make you suffer”… He has actually never gotten around to doing that… At all (or at least, not directly).
The worst Mercer did to make Heller “suffer” was killing Father Guerra (the priest)… But Guerra isn’t even a loved one of Heller’s, he’s just some ally Heller made and is probably not even a close friend of Heller’s. In fact, Heller didn’t even seem to even shed a tear for him, and had only kneeled down and silently mourned Guerra’s death… Before Heller moved on after Dana contacted him about Heller’s daughter, barely gave Guerra’s dead body a second glance, and then left his corpse there to rot. Bruh, not even a burial. XD
And Mercer also says he is planning to do unsavoury things to Amaya Heller so that he would have James Heller "see everything he does to her first-hand", yet he didn't go through with it later; possibly does it to mess with James Heller's head (since Mercer of all people should know about the ability to absorb others for memories, considering he’s the one that does such consistently and gave others such as the Evolved and Heller the ability to do so).
In fact, Mercer not going through with harming Amaya in any way was shown when all he did to Amaya was put her in a vault alongside Dana, and then just… Leave her there until Heller found them later. That certainly isn’t having Heller “see everything he does to her first-hand” at all, when he’s not even getting Heller to see anything, with Amaya even appearing to be unharmed (and Mercer’s refusal to have her be harmed as well).
The way I see it, Mercer wasn’t trying to make Heller “suffer”, he appears to be toying around with Heller and was even “encouraging” Heller to defeat Mercer in certain ways the moment after he noticed Heller is capable of becoming something that Mercer views as being his equal (or close to it at least) – this encouragement was stated when he said “do it for Maya” and “Impressive. I taught you well”. There’s also the fact that Mercer did NOT even use the Armor or Musclemass ability, or even use any of his Devastators against Heller (the best Mercer did was used Groundspike attacks in a very predictable and easy to avoid way, and I don’t think that’s a Devastator).
There’s also the fact that James Heller is unable to use the same type of Offensive Powers as Alex Mercer, or else Mercer just counteracts him – there’s also the fact that, having Heller use Hammerfist while Mercer is using it not only has Mercer blocking Heller’s Hammerfists, but also pushing Heller’s Hammerfist back and completely overpowering Heller with a single punch of his own Hammerfists – so Prototype 2 End-Game Mercer (after absorbing 8 Evolved) wasn’t just stronger than Heller in Lifting Strength, but also physically stronger than Heller in Striking Strength and Attack Potency as well… Mercer basically had the AP and LS advantage against Heller, and yet Mercer was attempting to have Heller find ways to defeat himself by giving advices to Heller such as “You can’t win this way”.
Based on all this, Alex Mercer should have this listed in his Weaknesses section:
"Weaknesses: Reminding him of his human life will cause him to relapse into a flashback, paralyzing him (Overcame this at the end of the first game). If he is too low on biomass he will be incapable of maintaining his Evolved form. Can be easily enraged, but has begun avoiding it. The less biomass in his body, the slower his regeneration will be. Comparable to Supreme Hunter in terms of physiology, who can regenerate his entire body from a puddle of blood in mere instants, but when he is drastically damaged and loses his biomass he has difficulty regenerating a hand. Alex only regenerated "instantly" from a massive damage after devouring biomass. During the events of the second game, he would likely not use the full extent of his abilities against another Blacklight shapeshifter that has sufficient potential and determination to replace him at the "top of the food chain" due to his possible Social Darwinism mindset as he "views the world through the eyes of a predator", such as by not utilising the full range of his abilities against James Heller and even giving Heller advices on how to defeat him"
Also, this weakness of “not use the full extent of his abilities against another Blacklight shapeshifter that has sufficient potential and determination to replace him” only applies to Blacklight beings that possesses shapeshifting capabilities and possesses the qualities he finds suitable to replace him… So it would not apply to other Blacklight shapeshifters that don’t possess such qualities, other Blacklight creatues and any non-Infected; in fact, it especially applies to non-Infected such as humans, as he hates humans to the point of seeing them as “vermin” as of the second game.
Thus, with these points above, Alex Mercer should have this listed in his profile for his Attack Potency and Lifting Strength sections for his Prototype 2 End Game key:
Attack Potency: "At least Multi-City Block level+ (Has consumed eight Evolved, who should at least be comparable to his Prototype 1 self, and has gotten stronger from his transformation after consuming them. Matched and overpowered End-Game James Heller when using the same Offensive Powers as him), higher with Whipfist, Claws and Hammerfist, Small Town level with Musclemass multiplier and Blade, even higher with Devastators"
Lifting Strength: "At least Class M (Has once again gotten vastly stronger through absorbing the other Evolved. Matched and overpowered End-Game James Heller when using the same Offensive Powers as him), higher with Musclemass"
Due to this CIS-related weakness above, this should also be listed in the Attack Potency and Lifting Strength section for End-Game James Heller’s profile:
Attack Potency: " At least Multi-City Block level+ (Comparable to Prototype 2 Alex Mercer, who has consumed 8 Evolved; however, Alex Mercer was likely not using the full extent of his abilities)"
Lifting Strength: "Class M (Stronger than before; matched Alex Mercer in strength, although still got overpowered by him if using the same Offensive Powers)"
Robert Cross’ possibly Lifting Strength upgrade:
One of the Evolved Infected was able to briefly hold Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex in place, albeit also requiring other Evolved Infected to temporarily restrain him before they got thrown away with “tremendous force”.
That’s a “Superhuman, possibly Class M” Lifting Strength feat. Superhuman at minimum as the Infected citizens and Evolved Infected should already be far stronger than an ordinary human, such as an Infected Citizen being able to split a soldier with body armor in half with a punch – possibly Class M because Alex was briefly held in place, although only possibly because it took many other Evolved Infected practically dogpiling on Alex to temporarily restrain him, and it didn’t last since he blasted them off later.
As Robert Cross has has succumbed to the infection of the virus, with his own training being what has prevented him from losing higher functions like the other victims and has allowed him to seek the Hive Mind, he should at least scale to Evolved Infected and Infected Citizens since he got infected by the same virus that infected them (but his cognitive abilities wasn’t affected, and he didn’t transform, because… He resisted it by sheer training apparently).
So, Robert Cross should have this listed in his Lifting Strength section:
"Lifting Strength: Superhuman (Due to being infected by the virus, he should have far greater physical abilities than any ordinary humans, such as when an Infected Citizen being able to split a soldier with body armor in half with a punch, although the exact extent is unknown), possibly Class M (Should be comparable to an Evolved Infected, which is a failed or imperfect versions of the virus that was able to briefly hold Prototype 1 Mid-Game Alex in place, albeit also requiring the aid of other Evolved Infected to temporarily restrain him further before they got thrown away)"
Last edited:
