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In the [PROTOTYPE] series, there are two characters that are of separate existences from one another; there is the original Alex Mercer, or Dr. Alexander J. Mercer, who is the creator of an extremely dangerous bioweapon of a retrovirus… And there is the Alex Mercer that the player is familiar with and plays with in the game, who has initially thought he was the original Alex Mercer but has later discovered that he is that same retrovirus called the Blacklight Virus (or an “un-typed” variant of the DX-1118. The Redlight Virus is DX-1118 A, the same variant that infected Hope, Idaho) that is merely controlling the rebuilt corpse of his deceased creator all along. By the end of the [PROTOTYPE] game, it was revealed that they are two completely different individuals, and that the Alex Mercer we play as is the Blacklight Virus all along that the original Dr. Alexander J. Mercer created that took over Alexander’s corpse when Alexander smashed the vial containing the Blacklight Virus (which is the Blacklight Alex inside that vial) right as Alexander was shot to death.
For convenience’s sake, the original human Alexander J. Mercer will simply be called “Alexander” while the Blacklight Alex Mercer will simply be called “Alex” throughout the entire course of this CRT.
Alexander was such an important figure to organisations such as Gentek and Blackwatch that his work was considered as fundamental in the research and creation of the Blacklight Virus, and was so significant that he was considered as a unique asset in the field of science. He was so intelligent that his own work led him to being ahead of his nearest competitor in the same scientific fields by entire years. Years!
“Alex’s insight and ability to manipulate these virus made him a unique asset; his work was years ahead of his nearest competitor.”
Under Blackwatch’s 24/7 surveillance, they have given Alexander access to Elizabeth Greene and her biological samples filled with the Redlight Virus, which Alexander has used to create the Blacklight Virus.
Now, the Redlight Virus isn’t some random normal virus or even your typical zombie-creating virus that you see from various fictional franchises for that matter; The Redlight Virus within Elizabeth Greene altered her body to the point that it has her body being capable of producing hundreds of unique strains daily, having her body evolve at a rapid pace and war-dialing at the genetic level to become something else, yet Alexander was able to create the Blacklight Virus out of Greene’s Redlight Virus in spite of that. With access to Greene, Alexander alone was able to “piece it together” and finally understood the Redlight Virus despite it having the most complicated viral structure he had ever seen, and was able to succeed despite the Redlight Virus constantly changing and evolving that would likely change its viral structure as well; in fact, Alexander was so successful that, using Elizabeth Greene’s biological samples, he created the Blacklight Virus and made the Blacklight Virus more dangerous than the Redlight Virus by a factor of ten(what a prick) and was later the very same Blacklight Virus that has such potential that it can obviously grant superhuman abilities that are capable of borderline defying the laws of physics and biology in real life (cough running up buildings regardless of the acceleration needed in a manner that defies gravity or being able to absorb the biomass of many humans without growing bigger at all and can somehow shift his density so that he can glide in the air even though his mass was implied to be the same as before, among many others cough).
"We didn't know what we were working on. I mean, I pieced it together, finally. But by then, I was hooked.
It was beautiful. It kept changing. It was the single most complicated viral structure I had ever seen. All in all, I made good time. It only took me three years to make it more dangerous by a factor of ten.
Morality wasn't my job. Modifying chimeric viruses was. I wasn't in field applications, I was in engineering."
– Alexander
When Alexander’s made those statements, he said “we” for not knowing what they “were working on”, which implies that his entire team didn’t know what to do with the Redlight Virus samples given to them from access to Elizabeth Greene. However, Alexander said “I” for piecing it together and for him making “good time”, not “we”, which heavily implies that he singlehandedly figured out Redlight Virus’ viral structure by himself, and he said “me” and not “us” for making Blacklight Virus more dangerous than Redlight Virus by a factor of ten, which heavily implies that all of that was work was essentially done by him singlehandedly again and that the rest of his research team weren’t involved in the major parts of the research and development of the Blacklight Virus.
Due to Alexander’s ingenuity and intellect, 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, which was demonstrated when the Blacklight Virus infected between hundreds to thousands of people mere moments after the vial containing the Blacklight Virus got released. Keep in mind, Alexander was such a genius that, despite Blackwatch having access to Greene in order to give them the best chance at cracking the Blacklight Virus’ defenses, the scientists working for Blackwatch outright stated that don’t have much understanding on the Blacklight Virus’ effects on the human body and that they have no clue about what it is capable of – the scientists basically did the equivalent of throwing up their hands and being like “we don’t understand it” in regards to the Blacklight Virus – and even Raymond McMullen, who was considered to be the preeminent expert in the Blacklight Virus after Alexander’s death (as that statement of McMullen being the “preeminent expert” was made when Alex was around, as shown by their classification of Alex through the “Codename ZEUS”, which implies that his knowledge isn’t as great as Alexander’s, who is the creator of the Blacklight Virus and thus is the only one that fully knows how it operates), doesn’t fully understand the Blacklight Virus as demonstrated by the developers note of the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide about how he is driven by an urge to understand the Blacklight Virus and that the virus was considered as a “mystery” to him, and that McMullen understands above all that there are things he does not understand (which was heavily implied that he doesn’t fully understand the Blacklight Virus) and has only made scientific observations based on what he has seen on the camera, along with McMullen’s own statement in the game about his to “need to know what makes it tick”.
In fact, the only reason the scientists was able to create the Parasite to have Alex’s own body destroy itself was only due to Karen Parker’s help (who is a pretty intelligent individual herself with a Doctorate Genetics qualifications and was also working for Gentek and assigned to a special project for Blackwatch that involves working on the Blacklight Virus for the Blacklight project, the same project Alexander was working on and is thus also a part of his team, and she was also in a romantic relationship with Alexander; this means that, as both a fellow team member and a romantic partner of Alexander, she would likely know about the Blacklight Virus more than most members of their team via extended interactions with Alexander, and even then she wouldn’t know more about Blacklight than Alexander himself as she isn’t the creator like Alexander is), where she betrayed and deceived Alex by tricking him into gathering the substance producing the virus needed for her to have the material needed for the creation of the Parasite to be possible for the scientists in Blackwatch – and even then, it was essentially just copying and pasting since one of the scientists stated their concerns that the Parasite could simply end up becoming the worse version of Alex himself, and one of the other scientists also expressed their concerns that could get out of Alex and simply become an another Blacklight entity that Blackwatch has manufactured, which was confirmed when the Parasite ending up being the Supreme Hunter with the same abilities as Alex, thus it was all just fighting fire with fire.
In addition, this intellect of Alexander doesn’t just extend to genetics and other scientific fields, it also applies to his everyday life as well. It was heavily implied that Alexander figured out what Blackwatch was planning and knew what he should do to go against them as “they won’t risk it”, and that he has “got them in-check”, implying that Alexander was intelligent enough to be able to discover Blackwatch’s secrets using his connection to his sister and has also similarly showcased his intelligence by successfully deducing that Elizabeth Greene was a test-subject to Blackwatch rather than a mere random naturally infected individual that was newly caught by Blackwatch while his fellow peers failed to make that deduction or believe Alexander’s own deduction, and catching on to Blackwatch hunting down for taking the vial of the Blacklight Virus and wanting to get away – which was confirmed by McMullen’s words where he knew all the secrets of Blackwatch and Gentek as shown here. In addition, Dr. McMullen, the boss of Alexander that Alexander reports to in regards to the research of project Blacklight, outright stated that Alexander was always so smart and that he was a lateral thinker that thinks plans within plans, which is a confirmation that heavily implies that Alexander’s intellect also applies to his everyday life and not just with dabbling around with Biology and Virology as well.
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Of course, Alexander was still cornered and gunned down by Blackwatch. However, Alexander’s death to Blackwatch should not be considered a downplay of his intelligence at all, as the reasons for why him dying to Blackwatch’s agents shouldn’t be an anti-feat for his Intelligence will be explained below.
As an organization, Blackwatch possesses great political power. One of the examples of their vast political power is the ability to command and order the U.S Marines, a military force of the U.S government, to do however they wish to the extent that the U.S Marines are disposable pawns to them and act as the scapegoats for the public; Blackwatch also possesses enough political authority that Blackwatch’s soldiers have the authority to be able to order police officers to do what they want as well, along with being able to declare Martial Law without needing authorization from any government officials and is also capable of interrupting calls between civilians without any legal backlashes. In addition, Blackwatch possess enough political power that Blackwatch soldiers are able to commit war crimes however they like as long as they achieve their tasks of clearing out Infected, even being able to ignore civilian rights by being able to ventilate (shoot down) and mistreat any citizens they’ve decided to take into under their custody however they like while suffering absolutely no legal repercussions for it while under martial law – this is confirmed when Blackwatch soldiers are able to commit war crimes however they like such as being able to get away with causing great collateral damage by burning down entire buildings with innocent civilians inside the buildings, and commit murder by gunning down defenseless women while literally laughing about it at the same time and suffer no legal consequences for it – this is confirmed when one of Blackwatch’s air forces can shoot down a civilian airplane filled with innocents in it, and joke about it without suffering any legal consequences.
To add on this, Blackwatch as an organization has the power and authority to be able to utilise public cameras to observe Alex’s capabilities in action, remotely access phone calls between their targets to monitor their conversations in multiple occasions and trace targets through their electronic devices to the point of being able to identify the targets’ exact locations; and to top it all off, it is said that the higher-ups controlling Blackwatch’s operations are said to be so powerful that they possess greater political power than the office of the president. You heard that right, Blackwatch as a whole organisation is more powerful than the U.S president! This means that Blackwatch not only has all the wealth and resources as a corrupt megacorporation, but also all of the connections and political power needed for them to get away scot-free from having their personnel committing all of such illegal practices and actions, and them being more powerful than the U.S President within the Prototype-verse explains how they are capable of pulling strings to such vast extents and how they never suffered any legal repercussions – this fact is cemented by the fact that Blackwatch is able to make the decision of outright destroy all of New York in order to get rid of all of the infection in New York City via their attempt to detonate a nuclear bomb with the implication that they can get away scot-free with no legal consequences even if there are innocent survivors still alive… And Alex’s words to Randall about how Blackwatch erased Hope, Idaho confirms that Blackwatch has got away with nuking entire populations to stop the previous outbreak before and suffering no legal repercussions for it based on the fact that they are still existing as an organisation even with them committing mass genocide.
As smart and intelligent as Alexander is, he is just one ordinary human with absolutely no resources, weapons or anything else on him except for a vial containing the Blacklight Virus, whereas he was hunted down by a corrupt megacorporation that overall possesses greater power than the U.S President and has sent many personnel after him… Under such circumstances, there isn’t much he could do.
And despite all that, the reason Alexander was cornered and killed by Blackwatch was because they were too quick for him – so the reason Alexander wasn’t cornered and killed because he was outwitted/outsmarted or such, the reason was because Blackwatch was simply too quick to act against him and that Alexander was simply too late in his attempt to escape the city.
“Alex took out insurance – he smuggled a vial of BLACKLIGHT virus, and mailed a laptop with classified information to his sister. But BLACKWATCH was too quick for him. While attempting to escape the city by train, Alex was caught in Penn Station. After Alex purposely released the virus, he was shot and collapsed on the viral sample, becoming infected as he died.”
So overall, Alexander losing to Blackwatch isn’t much of an anti-feat, and all of these feats of intelligence I’ve mentioned for Alexander should allow him to outright deserve a Genius rating, at the very least(sadly, I couldn’t find other solid enough feats to warrant an Extraordinary Genius rating, so this is the best I can do).
“Genius: Individuals with an exceptional capacity for knowledge and intelligence, usually in one area of varying depth. This level of intellect is the level of real-world geniuses, polymaths, and genuinely extremely prominent intellectuals, and, in the absence of better feats, should be the default intelligence category for fictional characters with exceptional or superhuman intelligence.”
All of the Intelligence feats I’ve listed is definitely portrayed within the [PROTOTYPE] series as being exceptional, with both for how Alexander was able to create the Blacklight Virus that other scientists could neither at all understand nor could understand the Blacklight Virus better than him and being able to apply that level of intellect to his everyday life, so I feel the feats of intelligence listed above should be enough to qualify for a Genius rating due to the absence of greater feats that could give Alexander a higher rating.
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But wait, all of the Intelligence feats I’ve listed above are for Alexander, who is not at all the same existence as Alex, so you might be wondering how Alexander’s Intelligence should even be scaled to Alex when they aren’t even the same individual?
Well, there are explanations for that which will be mentioned below.
You see, Alex was described as “collecting minds like a child collects moths” for his Absorption, where he “has access to everything anyone he consumes has seen, done or heard” to the extent of even being able to imitate their mannerisms (basically imitating their behaviour and manner of doing something), and was cemented by the fact that everyone he’s killed are all in him and that they are him; this explains that everything that the victims has ever experienced or has experience in doing and their entire psychological identity, Alex will attain all of that and make use of such as if he were them (and his statement that they “are him” supports that). In fact, it was explicitly stated that his “intellect grows as he Consumes people, memories, and skills” (note: “Consume” is a term synonymous with the term “Absorb” or “Assimilate” within the context of the Prototype-verse), which heavily implies that his Absorption contributes to increasing his own intelligence as he assimilates individuals and their memories/skills, thus implying that he also gains their intelligence by extension.
However, the case of Alexander towards Alex is a bit of a unique case. You see, Alex as that didn’t quite actually absorb Alexander’s body like he did to the rest of his victims right after Alex was released from the vial that Alexander shattered, with Alexander becoming infected as he died and with Alex taking control over Alexander’s corpse after – as a result, Alex initially didn’t quite fully have Alexander’s memories the moment Alex woke up at the morgue, being in a sort of “amnesiac” state.
But wait a minute, if Alex didn’t have Alexander’s memories and he didn’t actually absorb Alexander like Alex did to the rest of his victims, then how does his intelligence even scale to Alexander’s?
Well, you see, what happened to Alexander’s corpse after Alex took over it is a unique case, but it is a unique case that would still have his intelligence fully scale to Alexander’s. The reason is that when Alexander died, the Blacklight Virus didn’t just kill him and infect his bullet-riddled corpse, the Blacklight Virus copied Alexander’s body down to the genetic and became him; Alex became Alexander – this means that, in a way, they are essentially one and the same psychologically; it’s just that Alex and Alexander have completely different mindsets and perhaps even personality, but their skill sets and intelligence should ultimately still be identical, with Alex gaining all of Alexander’s intelligence, and this was proven several times in the course of the [PROTOTYPE] series.
You see, when Captain Cross contacted Alex, he mentioned that Alex is not human and that he’s the Blacklight Virus itself, which heavily implies that Cross knew that Alex is that same Blacklight Virus that Alexander created and unleashed from shattering that vial – it was heavily implied that General Randall also knew that, as he stated that “Mercer isn’t a he, it’s an IT”.
Remember, Dr. McMullen was explicitly stated to be the “preeminent expert” of the Blacklight Virus after Alexander’s death, this means that he should know more about the Blacklight Virus than both Captain Cross and General Randall (who are both military soldiers, not a scientist like McMullen is) ever would and has more of a clue of what the Blacklight Virus was doing to Alexander’s body… Yet McMullen outright stated referred to Alexander (the one who died at Penn Station) and Alex (the one standing in front of McMullen right now) as one and the same.
This is not a mistake if one were to look into it deeper. As mentioned previously, the Blacklight Virus didn’t just infect Alexander’s body, it copied his body genetically and became Alexander, which means Alex is Alexander now – this has been implied several times throughout the game, where Alex has been getting memories in the form of flashbacks when certain event involving key elements of Alexander’s life are mentioned or shown to Alex such as here and here… Memories of which only Alexander has – it was even explicitly stated by McMullen that Alexander’s memories are restored to Alex, which means that Alex is continuously gaining Alexander’s memories until by the end of the [PROTOTYPE] game where he no longer suffers from any flashback relapses.
“Alex Mercer. This city suffered for his mistakes, for what he did at Penn Station. And whoever he was – that’s a part of me.”
In fact, by the end of the [PROTOTYPE] game, Alex outright mentioned that the identity of Alexander is a part of him, and still goes by the name of “Alex Mercer” even then – both of these implies that Alex should have Alexander’s intelligence and would also have all of Alexander’s memories and knowledge, especially by the end of the [PROTOTYPE] game.
This was even demonstrated in thebadly-written [PROTOTYPE 2] comics that is sadly canon where Alex outright considered himself as synonymous as the same Alexander that released the Blacklight Virus in New York City, and even went as far as considering the events in Alexander’s own life as Alex’s own life by stating that he “never had time for relationships. Too busy with school, with work” (also, ignore that weird contradictory information about how Alexander “never had time for relationships”. Let’s just assume that Alex felt so hurt by Karen’s betrayal that he pretends that she never existed and leave it at that. XD), which are life events that obviously belongs to Alexander as Alex himself literally has no childhood or school life to speak of at all – this shows that Alex considers himself as one and the same as Alexander, and stating events of Alexander’s life and considering it as Alex’s own life, which evidently shows that Alex has all of Alexander’s memories by the end of the [PROTOTYPE] game. And so, every intelligence feat Alexander ever scales to, Alex would also scale to as well, on top of the minds of thousands he has absorbed.
However, even without Alexander’s memories, the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide stated that Alex (note: the term “The Prototype” has never been used in any of the [PROTOTYPE] games, it’s a term that has only ever been used in the Prima Guide and has not been carried over to the games) is not a brute and that he’s capable of exceptional feats of intellect – this feat of intelligence has been shown a couple of times throughout the [PROTOTYPE] game, but the prime example was Alex being able to defeat the Supreme Hunter, a being that is described as a duplicate of him (thus possesses similar abilities to him) that is much more powerful than him (even in the end-game, right after Alex has gotten much stronger from absorbing Elizabeth Greene after defeating her in her MOTHER form), more than once – a feat which implies to be that of both skill and intelligence being the factor that allowed Alex to defeat the Supreme Hunter, as it obviously can’t be merely raw power as the Supreme Hunter is the one with the raw power advantage over Alex in the mid-game and end-game respectively.
“Genius: Individuals with an exceptional capacity for knowledge and intelligence, usually in one area of varying depth. This level of intellect is the level of real-world geniuses, polymaths, and genuinely extremely prominent intellectuals, and, in the absence of better feats, should be the default intelligence category for fictional characters with exceptional or superhuman intelligence.”
When I’ve searched the definition of “exceptional” in Google, it shows these two definitions:
“unusual; not typical.”
“unusually good; outstanding.”
And thus, even without fully having Alexander’s memories, Alex should still have Genius intelligence based on the criteria described for the Genius rating. In addition, as it was explicated stated in the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide that Alex’s own intellect increases as he absorbs more targets and gains their mind, this means he should get a “higher” rating for his Intelligence section as well. I also believe that adding in a “higher” rating should be used to separate the Blacklight characters’ Intelligence increased by Absorption from their own baseline intelligence.
Overall, Alex’s intelligence in his Prototype 1 Early/Mid Game key should be this:
Genius (Is not a brute, and is capable of exceptional feats of intellect; one of the examples that is a testament of his skill and exceptional intelligence is shown through him being able to defeat the Supreme Hunter more than once, despite the Supreme Hunter being a duplicate of him that is consistently much more powerful than him, among other examples. Should also have some of the knowledge and memories of the original Dr. Alexander J. Mercer, but not all of them yet, so he is not yet as intelligent), higher with Absorption (His intellect grows as he consumes people, memories and skills, and so he should have all the intelligence of his victims by extension as he’s able to collect the minds of his victims like a child collects moths, and that he’s able to make use of the minds of everyone he has ever consumed to the extent they are him and vice versa. Due to possessing the knowledge and memories of the dozens of people he consumed, he should be far more intelligent than he normally is, such as being extremely well versed in military procedures, protocols, and tactics and combat combined with his own baseline intelligence. He is knowledgeable in a variety of different fields of science as well from consuming dozens of scientists. He is fully capable of utilizing nearly any military asset including tanks and helicopters after consuming hundreds of soldiers and can even shoot someone's vitals while moving at full speed and jumping over thirty feet into the air at the same time)
While his Prototype 1 End Game keys and later should be this:
At least Genius (Should be more intelligent than he was previously as he possesses all the memories of the original Dr. Alexander J. Mercer and should have all of his intelligence to the extent that he considers himself as the same as Dr. Alexander, with Dr. Alexander being so intelligent that he is considered as a unique asset to an organisation more powerful than the U.S President called Blackwatch on top of him achieving University and National level award and being the head of his team of scientists at GENTEK. Dr Alexander’s intelligence is such that his work is years ahead of his nearest competitor and was considered as fundamental in the creation of the Blacklight Virus, a virus so complex that other scientists have no clue what it is capable of and that even a preeminent expert of the Blacklight Virus after Dr. Alexander’s death isn’t able to fully understand the Blacklight Virus; Dr. Alexander’s intellect is such that he is able to single-handedly understand the Redlight Virus whereas his peers within his team failed to, with the Redlight Virus being a constantly changing virus with the most complicated structure his team has ever seen that can have its host produce hundreds of unique strains daily and is both evolving at a rapid pace and war-dialling at a genetic level to become something else each time, to the extent that he can create the Blacklight Virus from it that is more dangerous by a factor of ten and is superior to it to the extent that the Blacklight Virus makes the Redlight Virus look like common cold. Dr. Alexander’s intelligence is such that he is also a lateral thinker that thinks plans within plans and has showcased his exceptional intelligence that extends beyond just his knowledge in bio-chemistry and genetics by figuring out all of Blackwatch’s secrets despite Blackwatch’s great political influence over the U.S and their persistence in concealing information, showcasing that he is just as intelligent in his everyday life as he is at science, and has only been cornered and killed by Blackwatch due to Blackwatch’s immense political influence and their vast resources that made them too quick in tracking him down in response to Dr. Alexander’s attempt to escape with the vial of the Blacklight Virus), higher with Absorption (Possesses the knowledge and memories of at least a thousand people he has consumed, which should make him be much more intelligent than he normally is due to a variety of different skill sets he should have accumulated from them that is combined with his own baseline intelligence. He can connect himself with the Core Hivemind to allow him to access the memories of every person affected by the Blacklight Virus on top of his extensive knowledge of biology from the original Dr. Alexander J. Mercer as an exceptional biochemist).
Note: Any keys of James Heller that isn’t the Mercer-absorbed key shouldn’t scale to Alex’s intelligence at all. In fact, in [PROTOTYPE 2], Heller was portrayed as being a brute and was stated as such (unlike Alex) – and despite it appearing as a comedic relief, Heller having difficulties operating a computer and having to rely on the help on Father Luis Guerra (a church priest, who likely isn’t as tech-savvy as the scientists at Blackwatch) to even figure out what to do for the computer, despite the fact that he should have absorbed several scientists that should have been quite acquainted with using computers in a 21st century modern society and gained their technological knowledge by that point(by the way, he didn’t even know how to log off right after pressing some buttons with the help of Luis Guerra), which cements Heller as being a “brute” and so his intelligence should not at all be even remotely close to being Genius.
Nevertheless, Heller still has defeated the Evolved and Mercer himself by the end of [PROTOTYPE 2], so he isn’t particularly dumb I guess, so Heller at best gets a rating of “Average, higher with Absorption” for all of his keys that isn’t his Mercer-absorbed key, like this:
Average (Is said to be a brute by one of the Evolved, and has confirmed such by being angrily confused at figuring out how to use a computer and requires the aid of a mere church priest to even succeed in operating a computer despite having consumed multiple scientists before, thus he is an individual that is not known for being particularly intelligent; nevertheless, he is an elite war veteran as a human that was capable of killing a Brawler with just his combat knife before it has the chance to maul him when he was being pinned by it despite its physical superiority and has later shown to be tactical enough to defeat a variety of enemies in his way with the Blacklight Virus in him despite being considered as a brute), higher with Absorption (Possesses the knowledge and memories of dozens of people he consumed, which makes him far more intelligent than he normally is. He is knowledgeable in other fields of science as well from consuming dozens of scientists. He is fully capable of utilizing nearly any military asset including tanks and helicopters after consuming hundreds of soldiers and can even shoot someone's vitals while moving at full speed and jumping over thirty feet into the air at the same time)
Whereas Heller’s Mercer-absorbed key gets this for his intelligence section:
Average, Genius with Alex Mercer’s mind (Possesses all of Mercer’s knowledge and intelligence), higher with Absorption (Possesses the knowledge and memories of the thousands of people Alex Mercer has consumed on top of what he himself has consumed, which should make him be much more intelligent than he normally is due to a variety of different skill sets he should have accumulated from them)
Without adding that technique, users reading the profiles of those characters could get confused at the term “consume”/”consumed” and might even think that it just means that it means “eat” or “eaten” in the conventional sense.
Simply put, “Consume” is basically a in-universe term within the Prototype-verse that basically means “Absorb” or “Assimilate”, and it can even be explained here in the wiki (I might be wrong, but there has never been any explanation about the mechanics of the “Consume” ability or even any explicit description describing its capabilities, as the best I’ve seen was “Consume [insert target’s name here]” or similar). And for the aforementioned Blacklight characters, their Absorption is heavily correlated with their Shapeshifting (more specifically, their “Disguise” ability, where they change to any of their targets they have absorbed. Note: The changing to “last human target” is just a restriction from Gameplay Mechanics, as we’ve seen him in a shapeshifting disguise from his “Jack” disguise to this and then switched back to his “Jack” disguise after he killed those gangster and absorbed their boss, despite the fact that he absorbed at least absorbed two new targets after his “Jack” disguise and has shown to change to the bald gangster disguise after his “Jack” disguise… Which clearly demonstrates that he’s not limited to the last absorbed target to disguise himself with, thus demonstrating he can switch to any of his absorbed targets to use as his disguise) as every one of their absorbed targets’ bodies are mimicked to the point that they have become perfect copies of their victims respectively.
However, despite what the Prototype Wiki implies, the Consume (Absorption) ability of the aforementioned Blacklight characters isn’t restricted to just biomass. I will explain what I mean by that below.
The Consume ability allows the aforementioned Blacklight characters to be able to not just absorb organic matter such as the biomass of their targets, but also inorganic matter as well; this includes being able to absorb and mimic clothing, Radio transceivers, LED masks and Hazmat suits; and in Alex’s first ever Absorption, nothing was left behind… Clothing, gas masks, radio transceivers, gun holsters, even the victim’s blood wasn’t left behind (unlike most of Alex’s later Absorption cases where he decided to punch them into a bloody pulp with their blood being left behind for when he absorbs them for some reason)… And we clearly see even those aforementioned inorganic equipment being converted to biomass – in addition, their shapeshifting is able to mimic them to the extent that even their structural properties and functions are replicated, that includes the electronic functions of the Radio transceivers, the glowing lightning of the LED masks and the gas filters connected to the cannisters (the “Stay in masked form to avoid breathing deadly fumes” implies that even the filters are also replicated); this is also further supported when one of the Developer notes of the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide mentions that Alex “wasn’t a person, but rather the virus itself taking the shape of a man” and that “materials like skin and clothing were all a part of the facade” with an example being that his arm is akin to “the virus shifting from a human arm shape to that of a claw or blade” such as for his Offensive Powers, which heavily implies that everything from the clothing and the equipment on the clothing that the aforementioned characters used for their Disguise isn’t the actual clothing or equipment, but rather just the viruses in their body that’s merely “imitating” such – this means that things such as Radio transceivers, LED masks, gas filters of Hazmat suits that they’ve used for their disguises aren’t the actual thing anymore and that these things are all viruses within their bodies that’s merely taking the shape of such inorganic equipment (and yet still to the extent that the functionality of the copied equipment remains the same as original’s, which is probably an example of some of the Blacklight Virus’ Matter Manipulation).
Now, sometimes these examples might not be enough for some users, and that they could argue that these aforementioned inorganic equipment (e.g. Radio transceivers, LED masks, gas mask filters connected to the cannisters, etc.) aren’t actually broken down and “absorbed”, and that these same clothing and equipment on the clothing are somehow still kept inside the aforementioned Blacklight characters’ bodies to be used later for their Disguises, especially because there’s a lack of more evidence that suggests that these clothing and the inorganic equipment on them are actually “absorbed” and what we saw within the on-screen cutscenes are just visual effects that doesn’t actually mean anything.
In a way, they might be right in the sense that there previously wasn’t any evidence found by any of us from this website that explicitly suggests that these inorganic materials, such as those above-mentioned equipment… Until now.
But before I can get to that, let me introduce a certain individual in real life responsible for the creation of the [PROTOTYPE] game as a world: Dennis Detwiller.
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In the Prototype Wiki, it was mentioned that Dennis Detwiller is responsible for the Story creation/script writing/character development of [PROTOTYPE], the Backstory creation, the Mission Scripting, the Gameflow/continuity, and the Web of Intrigue (the videos viewing the memories of individuals that Alex has absorbed the minds of). In Wikipedia, he was listed as one of the “Writers” of [PRTOTOYPE] (with Eric Holmes being the “designer”).
Now, there’s also this link, but I can’t find any video based on this interview and I’m not completely certain of its authenticity as it’s not actually a video interview, but here it is anyways.
“Well, first and foremost, Eric Holmes and I created the sucker from the ground up. The characters, the story, the powers, the missions, the Web of Intrigue, everything. Eric was the mechanics guy, the lead designer. I was the structure guy, the story, the characters, the missions. We meshed the two together built on a single principle from Eric which — if there was a video game bible — should be Genesis 1:1; if you give someone a balloon in a game they won’t tie a ribbon around it and take it home, they’ll pop it. Every goddamn time. So many games are concerned with controlling the player, physically, morally, that they lose sight of the point of video games: escape.”
However, based on the bolded details of that interview, it matches Dennis’ responsibility as listed within the Prototype Wiki, and matches the details of Dennis being most likely one of the writers of the [PROTOTYPE] game. This means that, as the one who is responsible for thinking up “the story, characters, missions”, his word about the [PROTOTYPE] game should be one of the most significant, if not the most significant among the [PROTOTYPE] developers and staff members as a form of evidence within the game; with Eric Holmes’ words being secondary only to Dennis as the “lead game designer” in regards to the story/plot, lore and the characters while Dennis’ words are only secondary to Eric Holmes’ words if it’s in regards to the mechanics of the gameplay – although, considering we generally prioritise the story/lore feats while gameplay feats are secondary to the story/lore feats (but can apparently be used as an evidence of video game characters’ feats as long as they don’t contradict the characters’ story/lore feats or their pre-established abilities), this means that Dennis’ words in regards to the characters are going to have more weight more often than not.
Basically, this would mean that Dennis Detwiller’s words about the [PROTOTYPE] game should ultimately be treated as a Word of God as a result, especially in regards to the story/plot, the backstories, missions, and the characters (which I guess also includes the characters’ abilities).
There’s also this link here – while still not a video interview, I saw it being listed as one of the sources within the Wikipedia page of Dennis Detwiller, so I assume that it should be relatively reliable enough as a source.
“We have a rather unique opportunity with a main character who can consume and become any character in the game. Alex Mercer collects minds like a detective gathers clues. In the game, this is represented by the Web of Intrigue, an interactive chain of clues which are actually minds of select important individuals, spread throughout the game world.
All of Alex's main abilities - how he fuels his powers, genetic advancement and health replenishment – are focused around consumption. Alex can consume humans, absorbing their mass, genetics and minds; allowing him to become a perfect duplicate of the target and, more importantly, allowing him full access to their memories. So, he consumes Web of Intrigue targets and gains a memory relevant to your history - these memories are displayed as videos that illustrate some fact dealing with Alex's past. The videos are available to you in an interactive web of nodes that you can search through in real-time. The more nodes you collect, the clearer the conspiracy that lies of the heart of Prototype becomes.”
“There are two major applications to Alex's shapeshifting that have huge ramifications on gameplay. One, he can assume a perfect disguise by becoming the person he consumes, and two, he can instantly reshape his body into biological weaponry. In gameplay, these seamlessly blend. For example, Alex can consume and become a perfect duplicate of a military captain.”
These are optional evidences, but they nevertheless cement the feat where Alex isn’t just gaining his victims’ skills and memories when he absorbs them, but he also gains their minds as well. And the repeated statements about Alex “becoming” his absorbed targets also implies that he should be able to imitate their psychologies as well when combined with the tidbit about him absorbing their minds, and him shapeshifting into them being “perfect” also suggests that.
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Anyways, as I’ve mentioned above, there previously wasn’t any sufficient enough evidence that any of us from this website have found that suggests that the inorganic materials and equipment mentioned above are actually “absorbed” and that some might argue that they could still actually be inside the aforementioned Blacklight characters’ bodies… Well, that is until now that is.
You see, this link here is not only further evidence, but it’s also an explicit and quite a solid one from Word of God.
Q: “What happens to all of the clothes/wallet contents of the people Alex Mercer consumes? Does he just spit it all out at once like a giant owl pellet? Thank you for your time and your work.”
A: “Haha. I would assume the virus can assimilate ANYTHING including metal (hammerfist time). I would guess it excretes stuff as well, from time to time.”
This is solid evidence right here. Not only is that statement Word of God, but it explicitly says that “the virus can assimilate ANYTHING including metal” in response to the “clothes/wallet contents” question, which means the aforementioned Blacklight characters do indeed absorb all of the clothing and equipment on the clothing of their victims; not only that, but due to the way the answer is phrased for the Word of God, the emphasis on “ANYTHING” before the word “including” implies that the Consume ability (the Absorption) of the aforementioned characters would be able to work on more than just metal, and that metal is simply just one of the things they are able to absorb. While it might be a bit of a stretch to say that the “ANYTHING” word could also actually include anything due to possible hyperbole or No-Limits Fallacy, the fact that it was demonstrated that not even blood (which is composed of over 90% of water, thus absorbing a liquid state of matter) is left behind if Alex were to absorb his victims via his touch method(and not through the method of pummeling them to a bloody pulp), that he can absorb metals (thus he can absorb a solid state of inorganic matter), that the Blacklight Virus tainting Whitelight (a liquid chemical) to the extent that Mercer can manipulate all traces of it in existence right down to the molecular level, shows that the aforementioned Blacklight characters should capable of absorbing both organic and inorganic matter.
And since this answer was made in response to the “clothes/wallet contents” that Alex Mercer “consumes”, this means this Word of God answer would also indirectly imply that the aforementioned inorganic equipment (e.g. Radio transceivers, LED masks, gas mask filters connected to the cannisters, etc.) are indeed broken down and “absorbed”, as the Blacklight Virus within the aforementioned Blacklight characters’ bodies are implied to assimilate them like how the victims’ organic bodies are assimilated(I don’t know what Dennis means when he said that “it excretes stuff as well, from time to time” or what “stuff” is referring to, since “excrete” by definition is “expel waste”, I guess he probably means that Alex is capable of pooping without needing bowel movement based on the fact he said that it’s occasional via “from time to time”? Who knows).
And so, the addition to the “Consume” ability within the “Notable Attacks/Techniques” of the aforementioned Blacklight characters should be something like this:
Consume: The process which those with Shapeshifting capabilities granted by the Blacklight Virus are able to absorb their targets, assimilating the targets’ biomass, genetics and minds to their own; allowing them to collect their living targets minds like a child collects moths and gain access to everything their targets have ever seen, done and heard, along with their intelligence growing as they consume more people, memories and skills, and that every living being they have absorbed makes them stronger. Despite how it seems, this ability is not limited to organic matter, being capable of assimilating inorganic matter and mimicking all their properties and functions with the same efficacy as they do with organic matter; being able to absorb and mimic clothing, Radio transceivers, LED masks, Hazmat suits and many more by converting these inorganic matter into biomass and replicate these same inorganic materials to the extent that the Blacklight Virus within their bodies can assimilate ANYTHING, including metal, and that the properties and functionality of the mimicked inorganic equipment are the same as the original’s. This ability can also be used to absorb one’s targets upon the user’s biomass touching their targets, without the need to either weaken or batter their targets and could even absorb multiple targets at once simultaneously; however, this ability has only ever been demonstrated by Alex Mercer without any implication that this feat can be replicated by other Shapeshifting carriers of the Blacklight Virus, thus this doesn’t necessarily apply to other Shapeshifters infected with the Blacklight Virus and that they may need to weaken or severely batter their targets before the targets can be absorbed.
In addition, add these a point to the Note section as dot point to Alex Mercer’s profile:
As a result of his ability to control all traces of his infected target in existence right down to the molecular level, Alex should be capable of manipulating all traces of his infected targets’ molecules at vast distances. As Alex is the only one of the Shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus that has achieved this feat, other Shapeshifters infected with the Blacklight Virus shouldn’t necessarily scale to this ability with the exception of James Heller only after absorbing Alex Mercer; similar applies for the capability of absorbing targets upon the user’s biomass touching their targets, without the need to either weaken or heavily batter their targets and even absorb multiple targets simultaneously, as Alex is the only one that have demonstrated this feat.
The controlling of all traces of infected target is especially true as the conversation between these Evolved (the characters granted Shapeshifting capabilities by Alex infecting them with the Blacklight Virus, with them being Evolved rather than a mindless Infected Citizen being only due to Alex’s own decision, although James Heller’s abilities is more similar to Alex’s than the Evolved’s) relies entirely on Alex Mercer’s action to control of all traces of Whitelight in existence right down to the molecular level in order to get other victims infected by the tainted Whitelight, not their own abilities or anything (since none of them suggested they should “control” the traces of Whitelight themselves), which implies that Biological Manipulation and other similar abilities involving manipulation of the virus and infected targets at a tremendous range is a feat that’s exclusive only to Alex Mercer (and James Heller only after absorbing Alex Mercer, not before that); this ability is perhaps one of the many reasons why the Evolved fear Alex Mercer as much as they revere him.
Alex should also get a far higher for his Range section as well, due to the implication of controlling “all traces” of the target “in existence” suggesting that it’s possible for Alex to be able to control them as long as they exist (probably giving an even higher range than what James Heller’s Tendril Barrage Devastator gained from absorbing Alex Mercer did as that Devastator seems to be restricted only to the city). However, since there’s no mathematically quantifiable range for that and it would be possibly No-Limits Fallacy to assume any numbered range for that, something like this should be put in Alex’s profile instead:
Possibly tens of kilometres with tendrils (The biomass gained from consuming Alex Mercer allowed James Heller to be able to create tendrils that can reach across all of Manhattan and wipe out all infected beings in New York City), far higher with via control of the Blacklight Infected (Is capable of controlling all traces of his infected target in existence right down to the molecular level, implying he can manipulate his infected target as long as they exist, although the exact range limit is unknown)
In the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide, Musclemass is considered only just a 2x multiplier for both Attack Potency and Lifting Strength without any upgrades, with it being fully-upgraded (Musclemass having both “Musclemass Boost” and “Musclemass Throw” upgrades) only granting an unquantifiably above 2x multiplier as the description “Greatly increase” is not mathematically quantifiable – and so, the fully-upgraded Musclemass ability ended up not being a 3x multiplier for both Attack Potency and Lifting Strength, and is only unquantifiably above 2x multiplier due to the lack of explicit statement of the exact multiplier the fully-upgraded Musclemass grants.
However, that now changes I’ve discovered something from looking into the Prima Guide deeper. Within the Prima Guide, it not only mentions that all “Combat Combos” and “Combat Upgrades” can be performed with Musclemass, but that all of the attacks mentioned in the Prima Guide would be double or triple the damage.
“Look over all of the attacks in the rest of this chapter, and think of how impressive they would be with DOUBLE or TRIPLE the damage.”
Keep in mind that the damage purely comes from the strength increase, the core mechanic of the Musclemass’ ability, with no other factors that actually contribute to the damage increase; this means it isn’t some arbitrary “Character X can do double the damage with attack Y!” with no further explanation or implication for why the damage increase occurs, as it was heavily implied the damage increase comes from “Increases strength” mechanic.
As seen from the quote above, the “DOUBLE” (the 2x multiplier) correlates with the “Increases strength twofold”, so it can be safely inferred that the double damage comes from the 2x strength increase. This leaves the “TRIPLE” (the 3x multiplier) damage.
Now, as shown above, the aforementioned Musclemass upgrades “Greatly increases” the damage for Musclemass’ strikes, and both the damage and range for Musclemass’ throws, but we didn’t know the extent of the increases the upgrades bring previously because we haven’t yet found any explicit mathematically quantifiable statement that states that increases before… Until now. As the “DOUBLE” damage increase correlates to the Musclemass baseline ability’s strength increase (which is 2x multiplier without any upgrades), and can be inferred that “TRIPLE” damage increase correlates to the upgrades for the Musclemass ability, especially in the description right after it mentioned the double or triple damage that implies that both Attack Potency/Striking Strength and Lifting Strength is increased.
“Look over all of the attacks in the rest of this chapter, and think of how impressive they would be with DOUBLE or TRIPLE the damage. The CANNONBALL (for rolling into MILITARY VEHICLES and destroying them) and THROWING (for picking up objects and striking LARGE FOES or VEHICLES with them) are the most important abilities that are augmented with this POWER”
Thus, it can be safely assumed that the “TRIPLE” damage refers to the Musclemass with upgrades, and so the fully-upgraded Musclemass should be a 3x multiplier, granting 3x baseline AP and LS.
In addition, the Prima Guide also lists all the “Combat Upgrades” attacks that the Musclemass’ augmentation would apply to, with the Devastators listed here and here.
Now, it explicitly mentions that “all of the attacks in the rest of this chapter” are augmented to the point that they “would be with DOUBLE or TRIPLE the damage.”… Which means that these aforementioned attacks listed in the “Combat Upgrades” would have that same 2x multiplier (for baseline Musclemass) or 3x multiplier (for fully-upgraded Musclemass) being applied to them, including the Devastators.
Even though Devastators are consistently portrayed as the strongest attacks within the [PROTOTYPE] series, with the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide explicitly stating that a Devastator is the “most impressive and hard-hitting move” (putting it above even the Blade. Note: Blade is stated to have the “most powerful strikes available” compared to a Devastator is stated to have the “most impressive and hard-hitting move”; a “move” is an “act” or an “action” based on my brief Googling of the definition, which means a “strike” can be a “move” but not vice versa, so a Devastator should be stronger simply because it includes more things than just “strikes”), this should mean that baseline Devastators are already stronger than all the Offensive Powers and Musclemass as an attack ability, and so Devastators should be even stronger with the scans from Prima Guide showcasing that Musclemass also augments Devastators with the same multiplier.
So for Alex Mercer’s profile, his Attack Potency section should be written more like this:
“even higher with Musclemass multiplier (Can double his strength with Musclemass, with the strength increases of fully-upgraded Musclemass “greatly increasing” its damage to the point of having all attacks inflict up to triple the damage. Can dual-wield one of the Offensive Powers with Musclemass, which should increase their output even further), Blade (Directly stated to have the strongest strikes available) and Devastators (Are super attacks that causes massive damage to either surroundings or targets, with a Devastator being the most impressive and hard-hitting move, thus should be stronger than the Offensive Powers, Blade and Musclemass by itself. Can be augmented even further with Musclemass, which causes Devastators to have greater output than they would've normally by having them inflict double the damage of normal Devastators, or inflict up to triple the damage of normal Devastators with fully-upgraded Musclemass)”
(Note: the text in italic are my edits, so these are my suggested changes)
There’s the Blacklight Virus, which is capable of mimicking and storing genetic information from infected organisms and more, and is capable of duplicating copies of its infected host’s genetic structure, and results in Alex being a repository of genetic ability, where he can mix the best of any creature into a single, super-effective form.
“He is a repository of genetic ability, capable of instantly mixing the best of any creature into a single, super-effective form.”
This statement here mentions “the best” of “any creature”, right after mentioning “repository” (with that word implying that he can store more than one) of “genetic ability” – this means that, in the “genetic abilities” standpoint, the Blacklight Virus would not only attain a creature’s genetic abilities, but also the “best version” of that same creature’s genetic abilities, which implies the genetic abilities that the Blacklight Virus allows its user to gain genetic abilities that’s a better version of the original’s.
It also mentions “mimicking” and “duplicating”, not explicitly “transferring” or “stealing”/”taking”. This means that the genetic information, and the host’s genetic structure with the genetic information, is copied and not stolen/transferred. And so, these statements above should grant the aforementioned Blacklight characters Power Mimicry.
This implies that that the aforementioned Blacklight characters, such as Alex Mercer himself, doesn’t exactly need to “absorb” their targets to attain their abilities, they can just have the Blacklight Virus theoretically infect their targets and attain genetic information (with their entire genetic structure included) of their targets through the Blacklight Virus, and regain the Blacklight Viruses from the targets’ bodies that way. However, since the only time we only ever see Alex Mercer and James Heller gain new abilities with Absorption, it’s probably optimal to list Power Mimicry next to Absorption like this:
“Power Mimicry and Absorption (Absorbs the powers, abilities, memories, skills, experiences and minds of any living thing he consumes, with any part of his biomass. This also allows him to negate his target's regeneration capabilities. Every living being that he absorbs makes him stronger. The Blacklight Virus is capable of mimicking and storing genetic information from infected organisms and more, and can duplicate copies of its infected host’s genetic structure, and is able to copy and combine genetic traits to the extent that it results in him being a repository of genetic ability, where he can mix the best version of any creature into a single, super-effective form)”
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The aforementioned Blacklight characters also have a level of shapeshifting to the extent that even other shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus can be deceived by each other’s disguises or being unable to spot that the other has superhuman capabilities, as shown here and here. And so the Shapeshifting should be further expanded as shown here:
Shapeshifting (He is able to transform into anyone he's consumed, He can also modify his body's proportions and form them into weapons at will. Every portion of his body is under his conscious control, to the extent that he is able to become a repository of genetic ability, where he can mix the best version of any creature into a single, super-effective form and even reconfigure his molecular structure to become something else with his control of his body, and so he is able to control every molecule of his body. Should have Shapeshifting capabilities similar to the Supreme Hunter, a duplicate of him that has the capacity to consume and become anything living. His level of shapeshifting should be comparable to other shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus, such as the Supreme Hunter’s disguise being able to deceive him and with James Heller not being able to spot that one of the Evolved has superhuman capabilities, thus allowing him to become a perfect copy of one of his previously absorbed targets that even other shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus aren’t able to discern without prior knowledge)
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Also a further expansion for the Homing Attack ability, as the Prima Guide mentioned that one of Blade’s technique allows for Alex to be able to home in on a target, a technique called “Blade Air Slice”, which should be expanded as shown here:.
Homing Attack (Tendril Barrage Devastators automatically seek out targets to impale. Blade Air Slice allows him to home in on a target)
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The Disease Manipulation listed in Alex Mercer’s profile also needs a further expansion based on the scans I’ve listed above, something like this:
Disease Manipulation (His body is comprised of the Blacklight Virus, with materials such as his skin and clothing being all a part of the facade, which results in Alex’s body being a bomb filled with this weaponized pathogen that’s waiting to go off, and so it can result in others becoming infected if exposed to them. Can infect his targets with the virus. The Blacklight Virus should be superior to the Redlight Virus, which was able to infect living beings and inanimate objects alike)
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Telepathy should also be further expanded upon for both the profiles of Elizabeth Greene and Alex Mercer), so it should be something like this for Alex Mercer:
Telepathy (Should be comparable to Elizabeth Greene, who is able to have those infected with the virus being able to hear her thoughts due to her broadcasting her thoughts like a radio station and that all of those infected are connected to her in a Hive Mind even if the victims haven’t been fully converted into Infected creatures yet; a Hive Mind which Alex is able to connect to, access and control)
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Adaptation and Reactive Evolution seems to be adequately detailed enough, there’s just one section of the quote missing. A tiny bit of expansion should be listed as shown below:
Adaptation and Reactive Evolution (Capable of producing hundreds of different unique strains of the virus on a daily basis and that the virus led to his body evolving at a rapid pace and war-dialing at the genetic level into becoming something else each time, can transform his body on-the-fly, increases his resistance to harmful situations with prolonged exposure, developed immunity to Bloodtox and the Parasite, developed unique powers to help fight Blackwatch and the Infected)
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Now, due to this scan of how Alex “wasn’t a person, but rather the virus itself taking the shape of a man” and that “materials like skin and clothing were all a part of the facade” with an example being that his arm is akin to “the virus shifting from a human arm shape to that of a claw or blade” such as for his Offensive Powers, should grant him some kind of physiology that should be mentioned in Alex Mercer’s Powers and Abilities section.
At first, I thought of Alex Mercer having Inorganic Physiology, but the brief Googling I did suggests that isn’t an entirely accurate ability to be listed in his profile; especially since, while viruses are considered as neither living or dead, scientific studies says that they are still made of organic molecules… So I reckon this should be added in Alex Mercer’s profile in his Powers and Abilities section instead:
Viral Physiology (He is not human, he is the Blacklight Virus itself; His body is comprised of the Blacklight Virus, where he is “the virus itself taking the shape of a man” and that “materials like skin and clothing were all a part of the facade” with an example being that his arm is akin to “the virus shifting from a human arm shape to that of a claw or blade” such as for his Offensive Powers, and so biological human limitations shouldn’t necessarily be applicable to him)
There’s no hyperlink to the “Viral Physiology” because it’s not actually an ability listed in this website, but I reckon it should be fine to list that Physiology as an ability in Alex’s profile; an ability which is exclusive to Alex only, as not even other shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus such as the Evolved and James Heller are stated to be the Blacklight Virus itself like Alex is.
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Skilled Hand-to Hand Combatant should be expanded a bit as shown here:
Skilled Hand-to Hand Combatant (Has absorbed the minds of many people, including military soldiers such as Blackwatch soldiers and Marines that should have combat training, and so he should have many knowledge and expertise of a variety of fighting styles and more. Has defeated the Supreme Hunter twice, despite the Supreme Hunter being consistently much more powerful than him, through an exercise in patience and skill)
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Due to this quote here, Alex Mercer should also have Madness Manipulation (Type 1) listed in his profile, like this:
Madness Manipulation (Type 1. Those infected by the Redlight Virus or the Blacklight Virus are driven mad by the virus, becoming nothing more than infected carriers with the single-minded purpose of spreading the infection as much as they can unless he were to decide otherwise; as shown by those infected by the Blacklight Virus)
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And finally, the Adrenaline Surge ability. This ability is listed within the official [PROTOYPE] Prima Guide as shown here, and is an ability that can be performed within the game. When the “health” is lowered to “almost death”, it gives “a moment of invulnerability”.
Now, in this website, Invulnerability only applies for “characters whose invulnerability is clearly more than simply being exceptionally durable for the setting’s verse to qualify.”
However, in this case, in the context of video game characters, it should qualify as the invulnerability isn’t described in a way that brings awe or make it seem very impressive like with [PROTOTYPE 2] for a Goliath’s “near-impenetrable organic armour” – especially when in the official [PROTOYPE] Prima Guide, it mentions that it can be used for a “couple of seconds” for a “last-ditch Devastator Attack” – in addition, within the gameplay, it was shown that the moment the “health meter” turns blue, the same attacks that have “lowered his health” before was no longer able to lower his health any further for a few seconds due to Adrenaline Surge. And since the Adrenaline Surge is listed as an ability that explicitly describes the description of an ability, it is less of a byproduct of the Game Mechanics and more like it’s supposed to be the ability’s effect itself, so the “moment of invulnerability” is supposed to be an actual effect of the ability and not some unknown arbitrary mechanic of the game.
So, the Adrenaline Surge ability should be added to the Notable Attacks/Techniques section of Alex Mercer’s profile like this:
Adrenaline Surge: The ultimate survivability safety net ability. When Alex’s biomass reserves, or “health”, is almost gone, he gains a moment of invulnerability for a couple of seconds with only enough time to perform a Devastator attack.
However, since the “Health Meter” thing and similar is likely just Game Mechanics, a dot point in the Note section should be added in Alex Mercer’s profile as well to clarify that, something like this:
For Adrenaline Surge, the “Health Meter”, “Health” and “almost death” quotes are most likely just Game Mechanics, as Alex has showcased feats capable of surviving and regenerating from circumstances far beyond what could kill him within the gameplay, such as dying to bullets within the gameplay despite the fact that he has canonically survived the fireball of a nuclear explosion and is comparable to other Blacklight creatures capable of regenerating from a puddle. And so “Health Meter”, “Health” and “almost death” are most likely mere Game Mechanics and that, in a more realistic story perspective, it is more accurate that they refer to his reserves of excessive biomass than an in-game mechanic such as “Health”.
However, keep in mind that this Invulnerability is circumstantial and very brief, as it only triggers in the “Low Health” (or in a more realistic story perspective, the “Low Excess Biomass reserves”), so this ability should be listed as “Limited” in Alex Mercer’s Powers and Abilities, something like this:
Limited Invulnerability (When his reserves of excess biomass are almost depleted from receiving damage, his Adrenaline Surge activates which gives him a moment of invulnerability for a couple of seconds with only enough time to perform a Devastator attack)
The Consume ability should be added in the Notable Attacks/Techniques section of the profiles of all of the shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus, which would be the Alex Mercer, the Evolved, James Heller and the Supreme Hunter in this case, with the feats of the abilities mentioned.
The fully-upgraded Musclemass ability should be granted a 3x multiplier to both AP and LS, compared to a baseline Musclemass ability that only grants the 2x multiplier, in Alex Mercer’s profile using the scans and reasoning I’ve mentioned above.
There are several abilities that should be either further expanded on or added to Alex Mercer’s profile through the reasonings I’ve mentioned above.
For convenience’s sake, the original human Alexander J. Mercer will simply be called “Alexander” while the Blacklight Alex Mercer will simply be called “Alex” throughout the entire course of this CRT.
Intelligence Upgrade:
First up, the Intelligence of certain characters in [PROTOTYPE].Dr. Alexander:
Here, we have Alexander. Now, Alexander is a pretty intelligent guy, with formal qualifications that demonstrates his knowledge in the field of genetics as shown here and is also the head of his research team as shown here. However, Alexander is more than just some person who has certifications from a university, he’s a character who was portrayed to be an individual of exceptional or even genius intellect.Alexander was such an important figure to organisations such as Gentek and Blackwatch that his work was considered as fundamental in the research and creation of the Blacklight Virus, and was so significant that he was considered as a unique asset in the field of science. He was so intelligent that his own work led him to being ahead of his nearest competitor in the same scientific fields by entire years. Years!
“Alex’s insight and ability to manipulate these virus made him a unique asset; his work was years ahead of his nearest competitor.”
Under Blackwatch’s 24/7 surveillance, they have given Alexander access to Elizabeth Greene and her biological samples filled with the Redlight Virus, which Alexander has used to create the Blacklight Virus.
Now, the Redlight Virus isn’t some random normal virus or even your typical zombie-creating virus that you see from various fictional franchises for that matter; The Redlight Virus within Elizabeth Greene altered her body to the point that it has her body being capable of producing hundreds of unique strains daily, having her body evolve at a rapid pace and war-dialing at the genetic level to become something else, yet Alexander was able to create the Blacklight Virus out of Greene’s Redlight Virus in spite of that. With access to Greene, Alexander alone was able to “piece it together” and finally understood the Redlight Virus despite it having the most complicated viral structure he had ever seen, and was able to succeed despite the Redlight Virus constantly changing and evolving that would likely change its viral structure as well; in fact, Alexander was so successful that, using Elizabeth Greene’s biological samples, he created the Blacklight Virus and made the Blacklight Virus more dangerous than the Redlight Virus by a factor of ten
"We didn't know what we were working on. I mean, I pieced it together, finally. But by then, I was hooked.
It was beautiful. It kept changing. It was the single most complicated viral structure I had ever seen. All in all, I made good time. It only took me three years to make it more dangerous by a factor of ten.
Morality wasn't my job. Modifying chimeric viruses was. I wasn't in field applications, I was in engineering."
– Alexander
When Alexander’s made those statements, he said “we” for not knowing what they “were working on”, which implies that his entire team didn’t know what to do with the Redlight Virus samples given to them from access to Elizabeth Greene. However, Alexander said “I” for piecing it together and for him making “good time”, not “we”, which heavily implies that he singlehandedly figured out Redlight Virus’ viral structure by himself, and he said “me” and not “us” for making Blacklight Virus more dangerous than Redlight Virus by a factor of ten, which heavily implies that all of that was work was essentially done by him singlehandedly again and that the rest of his research team weren’t involved in the major parts of the research and development of the Blacklight Virus.
Due to Alexander’s ingenuity and intellect, 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, which was demonstrated when the Blacklight Virus infected between hundreds to thousands of people mere moments after the vial containing the Blacklight Virus got released. Keep in mind, Alexander was such a genius that, despite Blackwatch having access to Greene in order to give them the best chance at cracking the Blacklight Virus’ defenses, the scientists working for Blackwatch outright stated that don’t have much understanding on the Blacklight Virus’ effects on the human body and that they have no clue about what it is capable of – the scientists basically did the equivalent of throwing up their hands and being like “we don’t understand it” in regards to the Blacklight Virus – and even Raymond McMullen, who was considered to be the preeminent expert in the Blacklight Virus after Alexander’s death (as that statement of McMullen being the “preeminent expert” was made when Alex was around, as shown by their classification of Alex through the “Codename ZEUS”, which implies that his knowledge isn’t as great as Alexander’s, who is the creator of the Blacklight Virus and thus is the only one that fully knows how it operates), doesn’t fully understand the Blacklight Virus as demonstrated by the developers note of the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide about how he is driven by an urge to understand the Blacklight Virus and that the virus was considered as a “mystery” to him, and that McMullen understands above all that there are things he does not understand (which was heavily implied that he doesn’t fully understand the Blacklight Virus) and has only made scientific observations based on what he has seen on the camera, along with McMullen’s own statement in the game about his to “need to know what makes it tick”.
In fact, the only reason the scientists was able to create the Parasite to have Alex’s own body destroy itself was only due to Karen Parker’s help (who is a pretty intelligent individual herself with a Doctorate Genetics qualifications and was also working for Gentek and assigned to a special project for Blackwatch that involves working on the Blacklight Virus for the Blacklight project, the same project Alexander was working on and is thus also a part of his team, and she was also in a romantic relationship with Alexander; this means that, as both a fellow team member and a romantic partner of Alexander, she would likely know about the Blacklight Virus more than most members of their team via extended interactions with Alexander, and even then she wouldn’t know more about Blacklight than Alexander himself as she isn’t the creator like Alexander is), where she betrayed and deceived Alex by tricking him into gathering the substance producing the virus needed for her to have the material needed for the creation of the Parasite to be possible for the scientists in Blackwatch – and even then, it was essentially just copying and pasting since one of the scientists stated their concerns that the Parasite could simply end up becoming the worse version of Alex himself, and one of the other scientists also expressed their concerns that could get out of Alex and simply become an another Blacklight entity that Blackwatch has manufactured, which was confirmed when the Parasite ending up being the Supreme Hunter with the same abilities as Alex, thus it was all just fighting fire with fire.
In addition, this intellect of Alexander doesn’t just extend to genetics and other scientific fields, it also applies to his everyday life as well. It was heavily implied that Alexander figured out what Blackwatch was planning and knew what he should do to go against them as “they won’t risk it”, and that he has “got them in-check”, implying that Alexander was intelligent enough to be able to discover Blackwatch’s secrets using his connection to his sister and has also similarly showcased his intelligence by successfully deducing that Elizabeth Greene was a test-subject to Blackwatch rather than a mere random naturally infected individual that was newly caught by Blackwatch while his fellow peers failed to make that deduction or believe Alexander’s own deduction, and catching on to Blackwatch hunting down for taking the vial of the Blacklight Virus and wanting to get away – which was confirmed by McMullen’s words where he knew all the secrets of Blackwatch and Gentek as shown here. In addition, Dr. McMullen, the boss of Alexander that Alexander reports to in regards to the research of project Blacklight, outright stated that Alexander was always so smart and that he was a lateral thinker that thinks plans within plans, which is a confirmation that heavily implies that Alexander’s intellect also applies to his everyday life and not just with dabbling around with Biology and Virology as well.
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Of course, Alexander was still cornered and gunned down by Blackwatch. However, Alexander’s death to Blackwatch should not be considered a downplay of his intelligence at all, as the reasons for why him dying to Blackwatch’s agents shouldn’t be an anti-feat for his Intelligence will be explained below.
As an organization, Blackwatch possesses great political power. One of the examples of their vast political power is the ability to command and order the U.S Marines, a military force of the U.S government, to do however they wish to the extent that the U.S Marines are disposable pawns to them and act as the scapegoats for the public; Blackwatch also possesses enough political authority that Blackwatch’s soldiers have the authority to be able to order police officers to do what they want as well, along with being able to declare Martial Law without needing authorization from any government officials and is also capable of interrupting calls between civilians without any legal backlashes. In addition, Blackwatch possess enough political power that Blackwatch soldiers are able to commit war crimes however they like as long as they achieve their tasks of clearing out Infected, even being able to ignore civilian rights by being able to ventilate (shoot down) and mistreat any citizens they’ve decided to take into under their custody however they like while suffering absolutely no legal repercussions for it while under martial law – this is confirmed when Blackwatch soldiers are able to commit war crimes however they like such as being able to get away with causing great collateral damage by burning down entire buildings with innocent civilians inside the buildings, and commit murder by gunning down defenseless women while literally laughing about it at the same time and suffer no legal consequences for it – this is confirmed when one of Blackwatch’s air forces can shoot down a civilian airplane filled with innocents in it, and joke about it without suffering any legal consequences.
To add on this, Blackwatch as an organization has the power and authority to be able to utilise public cameras to observe Alex’s capabilities in action, remotely access phone calls between their targets to monitor their conversations in multiple occasions and trace targets through their electronic devices to the point of being able to identify the targets’ exact locations; and to top it all off, it is said that the higher-ups controlling Blackwatch’s operations are said to be so powerful that they possess greater political power than the office of the president. You heard that right, Blackwatch as a whole organisation is more powerful than the U.S president! This means that Blackwatch not only has all the wealth and resources as a corrupt megacorporation, but also all of the connections and political power needed for them to get away scot-free from having their personnel committing all of such illegal practices and actions, and them being more powerful than the U.S President within the Prototype-verse explains how they are capable of pulling strings to such vast extents and how they never suffered any legal repercussions – this fact is cemented by the fact that Blackwatch is able to make the decision of outright destroy all of New York in order to get rid of all of the infection in New York City via their attempt to detonate a nuclear bomb with the implication that they can get away scot-free with no legal consequences even if there are innocent survivors still alive… And Alex’s words to Randall about how Blackwatch erased Hope, Idaho confirms that Blackwatch has got away with nuking entire populations to stop the previous outbreak before and suffering no legal repercussions for it based on the fact that they are still existing as an organisation even with them committing mass genocide.
As smart and intelligent as Alexander is, he is just one ordinary human with absolutely no resources, weapons or anything else on him except for a vial containing the Blacklight Virus, whereas he was hunted down by a corrupt megacorporation that overall possesses greater power than the U.S President and has sent many personnel after him… Under such circumstances, there isn’t much he could do.
And despite all that, the reason Alexander was cornered and killed by Blackwatch was because they were too quick for him – so the reason Alexander wasn’t cornered and killed because he was outwitted/outsmarted or such, the reason was because Blackwatch was simply too quick to act against him and that Alexander was simply too late in his attempt to escape the city.
“Alex took out insurance – he smuggled a vial of BLACKLIGHT virus, and mailed a laptop with classified information to his sister. But BLACKWATCH was too quick for him. While attempting to escape the city by train, Alex was caught in Penn Station. After Alex purposely released the virus, he was shot and collapsed on the viral sample, becoming infected as he died.”
So overall, Alexander losing to Blackwatch isn’t much of an anti-feat, and all of these feats of intelligence I’ve mentioned for Alexander should allow him to outright deserve a Genius rating, at the very least
“Genius: Individuals with an exceptional capacity for knowledge and intelligence, usually in one area of varying depth. This level of intellect is the level of real-world geniuses, polymaths, and genuinely extremely prominent intellectuals, and, in the absence of better feats, should be the default intelligence category for fictional characters with exceptional or superhuman intelligence.”
All of the Intelligence feats I’ve listed is definitely portrayed within the [PROTOTYPE] series as being exceptional, with both for how Alexander was able to create the Blacklight Virus that other scientists could neither at all understand nor could understand the Blacklight Virus better than him and being able to apply that level of intellect to his everyday life, so I feel the feats of intelligence listed above should be enough to qualify for a Genius rating due to the absence of greater feats that could give Alexander a higher rating.
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Blacklight Alex Mercer:
But wait, all of the Intelligence feats I’ve listed above are for Alexander, who is not at all the same existence as Alex, so you might be wondering how Alexander’s Intelligence should even be scaled to Alex when they aren’t even the same individual?
Well, there are explanations for that which will be mentioned below.
You see, Alex was described as “collecting minds like a child collects moths” for his Absorption, where he “has access to everything anyone he consumes has seen, done or heard” to the extent of even being able to imitate their mannerisms (basically imitating their behaviour and manner of doing something), and was cemented by the fact that everyone he’s killed are all in him and that they are him; this explains that everything that the victims has ever experienced or has experience in doing and their entire psychological identity, Alex will attain all of that and make use of such as if he were them (and his statement that they “are him” supports that). In fact, it was explicitly stated that his “intellect grows as he Consumes people, memories, and skills” (note: “Consume” is a term synonymous with the term “Absorb” or “Assimilate” within the context of the Prototype-verse), which heavily implies that his Absorption contributes to increasing his own intelligence as he assimilates individuals and their memories/skills, thus implying that he also gains their intelligence by extension.
However, the case of Alexander towards Alex is a bit of a unique case. You see, Alex as that didn’t quite actually absorb Alexander’s body like he did to the rest of his victims right after Alex was released from the vial that Alexander shattered, with Alexander becoming infected as he died and with Alex taking control over Alexander’s corpse after – as a result, Alex initially didn’t quite fully have Alexander’s memories the moment Alex woke up at the morgue, being in a sort of “amnesiac” state.
But wait a minute, if Alex didn’t have Alexander’s memories and he didn’t actually absorb Alexander like Alex did to the rest of his victims, then how does his intelligence even scale to Alexander’s?
Well, you see, what happened to Alexander’s corpse after Alex took over it is a unique case, but it is a unique case that would still have his intelligence fully scale to Alexander’s. The reason is that when Alexander died, the Blacklight Virus didn’t just kill him and infect his bullet-riddled corpse, the Blacklight Virus copied Alexander’s body down to the genetic and became him; Alex became Alexander – this means that, in a way, they are essentially one and the same psychologically; it’s just that Alex and Alexander have completely different mindsets and perhaps even personality, but their skill sets and intelligence should ultimately still be identical, with Alex gaining all of Alexander’s intelligence, and this was proven several times in the course of the [PROTOTYPE] series.
You see, when Captain Cross contacted Alex, he mentioned that Alex is not human and that he’s the Blacklight Virus itself, which heavily implies that Cross knew that Alex is that same Blacklight Virus that Alexander created and unleashed from shattering that vial – it was heavily implied that General Randall also knew that, as he stated that “Mercer isn’t a he, it’s an IT”.
Remember, Dr. McMullen was explicitly stated to be the “preeminent expert” of the Blacklight Virus after Alexander’s death, this means that he should know more about the Blacklight Virus than both Captain Cross and General Randall (who are both military soldiers, not a scientist like McMullen is) ever would and has more of a clue of what the Blacklight Virus was doing to Alexander’s body… Yet McMullen outright stated referred to Alexander (the one who died at Penn Station) and Alex (the one standing in front of McMullen right now) as one and the same.
This is not a mistake if one were to look into it deeper. As mentioned previously, the Blacklight Virus didn’t just infect Alexander’s body, it copied his body genetically and became Alexander, which means Alex is Alexander now – this has been implied several times throughout the game, where Alex has been getting memories in the form of flashbacks when certain event involving key elements of Alexander’s life are mentioned or shown to Alex such as here and here… Memories of which only Alexander has – it was even explicitly stated by McMullen that Alexander’s memories are restored to Alex, which means that Alex is continuously gaining Alexander’s memories until by the end of the [PROTOTYPE] game where he no longer suffers from any flashback relapses.
“Alex Mercer. This city suffered for his mistakes, for what he did at Penn Station. And whoever he was – that’s a part of me.”
In fact, by the end of the [PROTOTYPE] game, Alex outright mentioned that the identity of Alexander is a part of him, and still goes by the name of “Alex Mercer” even then – both of these implies that Alex should have Alexander’s intelligence and would also have all of Alexander’s memories and knowledge, especially by the end of the [PROTOTYPE] game.
This was even demonstrated in the
However, even without Alexander’s memories, the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide stated that Alex (note: the term “The Prototype” has never been used in any of the [PROTOTYPE] games, it’s a term that has only ever been used in the Prima Guide and has not been carried over to the games) is not a brute and that he’s capable of exceptional feats of intellect – this feat of intelligence has been shown a couple of times throughout the [PROTOTYPE] game, but the prime example was Alex being able to defeat the Supreme Hunter, a being that is described as a duplicate of him (thus possesses similar abilities to him) that is much more powerful than him (even in the end-game, right after Alex has gotten much stronger from absorbing Elizabeth Greene after defeating her in her MOTHER form), more than once – a feat which implies to be that of both skill and intelligence being the factor that allowed Alex to defeat the Supreme Hunter, as it obviously can’t be merely raw power as the Supreme Hunter is the one with the raw power advantage over Alex in the mid-game and end-game respectively.
“Genius: Individuals with an exceptional capacity for knowledge and intelligence, usually in one area of varying depth. This level of intellect is the level of real-world geniuses, polymaths, and genuinely extremely prominent intellectuals, and, in the absence of better feats, should be the default intelligence category for fictional characters with exceptional or superhuman intelligence.”
When I’ve searched the definition of “exceptional” in Google, it shows these two definitions:
“unusual; not typical.”
“unusually good; outstanding.”
And thus, even without fully having Alexander’s memories, Alex should still have Genius intelligence based on the criteria described for the Genius rating. In addition, as it was explicated stated in the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide that Alex’s own intellect increases as he absorbs more targets and gains their mind, this means he should get a “higher” rating for his Intelligence section as well. I also believe that adding in a “higher” rating should be used to separate the Blacklight characters’ Intelligence increased by Absorption from their own baseline intelligence.
Overall, Alex’s intelligence in his Prototype 1 Early/Mid Game key should be this:
Genius (Is not a brute, and is capable of exceptional feats of intellect; one of the examples that is a testament of his skill and exceptional intelligence is shown through him being able to defeat the Supreme Hunter more than once, despite the Supreme Hunter being a duplicate of him that is consistently much more powerful than him, among other examples. Should also have some of the knowledge and memories of the original Dr. Alexander J. Mercer, but not all of them yet, so he is not yet as intelligent), higher with Absorption (His intellect grows as he consumes people, memories and skills, and so he should have all the intelligence of his victims by extension as he’s able to collect the minds of his victims like a child collects moths, and that he’s able to make use of the minds of everyone he has ever consumed to the extent they are him and vice versa. Due to possessing the knowledge and memories of the dozens of people he consumed, he should be far more intelligent than he normally is, such as being extremely well versed in military procedures, protocols, and tactics and combat combined with his own baseline intelligence. He is knowledgeable in a variety of different fields of science as well from consuming dozens of scientists. He is fully capable of utilizing nearly any military asset including tanks and helicopters after consuming hundreds of soldiers and can even shoot someone's vitals while moving at full speed and jumping over thirty feet into the air at the same time)
While his Prototype 1 End Game keys and later should be this:
At least Genius (Should be more intelligent than he was previously as he possesses all the memories of the original Dr. Alexander J. Mercer and should have all of his intelligence to the extent that he considers himself as the same as Dr. Alexander, with Dr. Alexander being so intelligent that he is considered as a unique asset to an organisation more powerful than the U.S President called Blackwatch on top of him achieving University and National level award and being the head of his team of scientists at GENTEK. Dr Alexander’s intelligence is such that his work is years ahead of his nearest competitor and was considered as fundamental in the creation of the Blacklight Virus, a virus so complex that other scientists have no clue what it is capable of and that even a preeminent expert of the Blacklight Virus after Dr. Alexander’s death isn’t able to fully understand the Blacklight Virus; Dr. Alexander’s intellect is such that he is able to single-handedly understand the Redlight Virus whereas his peers within his team failed to, with the Redlight Virus being a constantly changing virus with the most complicated structure his team has ever seen that can have its host produce hundreds of unique strains daily and is both evolving at a rapid pace and war-dialling at a genetic level to become something else each time, to the extent that he can create the Blacklight Virus from it that is more dangerous by a factor of ten and is superior to it to the extent that the Blacklight Virus makes the Redlight Virus look like common cold. Dr. Alexander’s intelligence is such that he is also a lateral thinker that thinks plans within plans and has showcased his exceptional intelligence that extends beyond just his knowledge in bio-chemistry and genetics by figuring out all of Blackwatch’s secrets despite Blackwatch’s great political influence over the U.S and their persistence in concealing information, showcasing that he is just as intelligent in his everyday life as he is at science, and has only been cornered and killed by Blackwatch due to Blackwatch’s immense political influence and their vast resources that made them too quick in tracking him down in response to Dr. Alexander’s attempt to escape with the vial of the Blacklight Virus), higher with Absorption (Possesses the knowledge and memories of at least a thousand people he has consumed, which should make him be much more intelligent than he normally is due to a variety of different skill sets he should have accumulated from them that is combined with his own baseline intelligence. He can connect himself with the Core Hivemind to allow him to access the memories of every person affected by the Blacklight Virus on top of his extensive knowledge of biology from the original Dr. Alexander J. Mercer as an exceptional biochemist).
Note: Any keys of James Heller that isn’t the Mercer-absorbed key shouldn’t scale to Alex’s intelligence at all. In fact, in [PROTOTYPE 2], Heller was portrayed as being a brute and was stated as such (unlike Alex) – and despite it appearing as a comedic relief, Heller having difficulties operating a computer and having to rely on the help on Father Luis Guerra (a church priest, who likely isn’t as tech-savvy as the scientists at Blackwatch) to even figure out what to do for the computer, despite the fact that he should have absorbed several scientists that should have been quite acquainted with using computers in a 21st century modern society and gained their technological knowledge by that point
Nevertheless, Heller still has defeated the Evolved and Mercer himself by the end of [PROTOTYPE 2], so he isn’t particularly dumb I guess, so Heller at best gets a rating of “Average, higher with Absorption” for all of his keys that isn’t his Mercer-absorbed key, like this:
Average (Is said to be a brute by one of the Evolved, and has confirmed such by being angrily confused at figuring out how to use a computer and requires the aid of a mere church priest to even succeed in operating a computer despite having consumed multiple scientists before, thus he is an individual that is not known for being particularly intelligent; nevertheless, he is an elite war veteran as a human that was capable of killing a Brawler with just his combat knife before it has the chance to maul him when he was being pinned by it despite its physical superiority and has later shown to be tactical enough to defeat a variety of enemies in his way with the Blacklight Virus in him despite being considered as a brute), higher with Absorption (Possesses the knowledge and memories of dozens of people he consumed, which makes him far more intelligent than he normally is. He is knowledgeable in other fields of science as well from consuming dozens of scientists. He is fully capable of utilizing nearly any military asset including tanks and helicopters after consuming hundreds of soldiers and can even shoot someone's vitals while moving at full speed and jumping over thirty feet into the air at the same time)
Whereas Heller’s Mercer-absorbed key gets this for his intelligence section:
Average, Genius with Alex Mercer’s mind (Possesses all of Mercer’s knowledge and intelligence), higher with Absorption (Possesses the knowledge and memories of the thousands of people Alex Mercer has consumed on top of what he himself has consumed, which should make him be much more intelligent than he normally is due to a variety of different skill sets he should have accumulated from them)
Consume (Absorption) ability addition and expansion:
Secondly, the “Consume” ability, which is missing in the Notable Attacks/Techniques section of the character profiles of the Evolved, Alex Mercer, James Heller and Supreme Hunter.Without adding that technique, users reading the profiles of those characters could get confused at the term “consume”/”consumed” and might even think that it just means that it means “eat” or “eaten” in the conventional sense.
Simply put, “Consume” is basically a in-universe term within the Prototype-verse that basically means “Absorb” or “Assimilate”, and it can even be explained here in the wiki (I might be wrong, but there has never been any explanation about the mechanics of the “Consume” ability or even any explicit description describing its capabilities, as the best I’ve seen was “Consume [insert target’s name here]” or similar). And for the aforementioned Blacklight characters, their Absorption is heavily correlated with their Shapeshifting (more specifically, their “Disguise” ability, where they change to any of their targets they have absorbed. Note: The changing to “last human target” is just a restriction from Gameplay Mechanics, as we’ve seen him in a shapeshifting disguise from his “Jack” disguise to this and then switched back to his “Jack” disguise after he killed those gangster and absorbed their boss, despite the fact that he absorbed at least absorbed two new targets after his “Jack” disguise and has shown to change to the bald gangster disguise after his “Jack” disguise… Which clearly demonstrates that he’s not limited to the last absorbed target to disguise himself with, thus demonstrating he can switch to any of his absorbed targets to use as his disguise) as every one of their absorbed targets’ bodies are mimicked to the point that they have become perfect copies of their victims respectively.
However, despite what the Prototype Wiki implies, the Consume (Absorption) ability of the aforementioned Blacklight characters isn’t restricted to just biomass. I will explain what I mean by that below.
The Consume ability allows the aforementioned Blacklight characters to be able to not just absorb organic matter such as the biomass of their targets, but also inorganic matter as well; this includes being able to absorb and mimic clothing, Radio transceivers, LED masks and Hazmat suits; and in Alex’s first ever Absorption, nothing was left behind… Clothing, gas masks, radio transceivers, gun holsters, even the victim’s blood wasn’t left behind (unlike most of Alex’s later Absorption cases where he decided to punch them into a bloody pulp with their blood being left behind for when he absorbs them for some reason)… And we clearly see even those aforementioned inorganic equipment being converted to biomass – in addition, their shapeshifting is able to mimic them to the extent that even their structural properties and functions are replicated, that includes the electronic functions of the Radio transceivers, the glowing lightning of the LED masks and the gas filters connected to the cannisters (the “Stay in masked form to avoid breathing deadly fumes” implies that even the filters are also replicated); this is also further supported when one of the Developer notes of the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide mentions that Alex “wasn’t a person, but rather the virus itself taking the shape of a man” and that “materials like skin and clothing were all a part of the facade” with an example being that his arm is akin to “the virus shifting from a human arm shape to that of a claw or blade” such as for his Offensive Powers, which heavily implies that everything from the clothing and the equipment on the clothing that the aforementioned characters used for their Disguise isn’t the actual clothing or equipment, but rather just the viruses in their body that’s merely “imitating” such – this means that things such as Radio transceivers, LED masks, gas filters of Hazmat suits that they’ve used for their disguises aren’t the actual thing anymore and that these things are all viruses within their bodies that’s merely taking the shape of such inorganic equipment (and yet still to the extent that the functionality of the copied equipment remains the same as original’s, which is probably an example of some of the Blacklight Virus’ Matter Manipulation).
Now, sometimes these examples might not be enough for some users, and that they could argue that these aforementioned inorganic equipment (e.g. Radio transceivers, LED masks, gas mask filters connected to the cannisters, etc.) aren’t actually broken down and “absorbed”, and that these same clothing and equipment on the clothing are somehow still kept inside the aforementioned Blacklight characters’ bodies to be used later for their Disguises, especially because there’s a lack of more evidence that suggests that these clothing and the inorganic equipment on them are actually “absorbed” and what we saw within the on-screen cutscenes are just visual effects that doesn’t actually mean anything.
In a way, they might be right in the sense that there previously wasn’t any evidence found by any of us from this website that explicitly suggests that these inorganic materials, such as those above-mentioned equipment… Until now.
But before I can get to that, let me introduce a certain individual in real life responsible for the creation of the [PROTOTYPE] game as a world: Dennis Detwiller.
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Brief background check of Prototype writer:
In the Prototype Wiki, it was mentioned that Dennis Detwiller is responsible for the Story creation/script writing/character development of [PROTOTYPE], the Backstory creation, the Mission Scripting, the Gameflow/continuity, and the Web of Intrigue (the videos viewing the memories of individuals that Alex has absorbed the minds of). In Wikipedia, he was listed as one of the “Writers” of [PRTOTOYPE] (with Eric Holmes being the “designer”).
Now, there’s also this link, but I can’t find any video based on this interview and I’m not completely certain of its authenticity as it’s not actually a video interview, but here it is anyways.
“Well, first and foremost, Eric Holmes and I created the sucker from the ground up. The characters, the story, the powers, the missions, the Web of Intrigue, everything. Eric was the mechanics guy, the lead designer. I was the structure guy, the story, the characters, the missions. We meshed the two together built on a single principle from Eric which — if there was a video game bible — should be Genesis 1:1; if you give someone a balloon in a game they won’t tie a ribbon around it and take it home, they’ll pop it. Every goddamn time. So many games are concerned with controlling the player, physically, morally, that they lose sight of the point of video games: escape.”
However, based on the bolded details of that interview, it matches Dennis’ responsibility as listed within the Prototype Wiki, and matches the details of Dennis being most likely one of the writers of the [PROTOTYPE] game. This means that, as the one who is responsible for thinking up “the story, characters, missions”, his word about the [PROTOTYPE] game should be one of the most significant, if not the most significant among the [PROTOTYPE] developers and staff members as a form of evidence within the game; with Eric Holmes’ words being secondary only to Dennis as the “lead game designer” in regards to the story/plot, lore and the characters while Dennis’ words are only secondary to Eric Holmes’ words if it’s in regards to the mechanics of the gameplay – although, considering we generally prioritise the story/lore feats while gameplay feats are secondary to the story/lore feats (but can apparently be used as an evidence of video game characters’ feats as long as they don’t contradict the characters’ story/lore feats or their pre-established abilities), this means that Dennis’ words in regards to the characters are going to have more weight more often than not.
Basically, this would mean that Dennis Detwiller’s words about the [PROTOTYPE] game should ultimately be treated as a Word of God as a result, especially in regards to the story/plot, the backstories, missions, and the characters (which I guess also includes the characters’ abilities).
There’s also this link here – while still not a video interview, I saw it being listed as one of the sources within the Wikipedia page of Dennis Detwiller, so I assume that it should be relatively reliable enough as a source.
“We have a rather unique opportunity with a main character who can consume and become any character in the game. Alex Mercer collects minds like a detective gathers clues. In the game, this is represented by the Web of Intrigue, an interactive chain of clues which are actually minds of select important individuals, spread throughout the game world.
All of Alex's main abilities - how he fuels his powers, genetic advancement and health replenishment – are focused around consumption. Alex can consume humans, absorbing their mass, genetics and minds; allowing him to become a perfect duplicate of the target and, more importantly, allowing him full access to their memories. So, he consumes Web of Intrigue targets and gains a memory relevant to your history - these memories are displayed as videos that illustrate some fact dealing with Alex's past. The videos are available to you in an interactive web of nodes that you can search through in real-time. The more nodes you collect, the clearer the conspiracy that lies of the heart of Prototype becomes.”
“There are two major applications to Alex's shapeshifting that have huge ramifications on gameplay. One, he can assume a perfect disguise by becoming the person he consumes, and two, he can instantly reshape his body into biological weaponry. In gameplay, these seamlessly blend. For example, Alex can consume and become a perfect duplicate of a military captain.”
These are optional evidences, but they nevertheless cement the feat where Alex isn’t just gaining his victims’ skills and memories when he absorbs them, but he also gains their minds as well. And the repeated statements about Alex “becoming” his absorbed targets also implies that he should be able to imitate their psychologies as well when combined with the tidbit about him absorbing their minds, and him shapeshifting into them being “perfect” also suggests that.
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Consume scans and reasoning:
Anyways, as I’ve mentioned above, there previously wasn’t any sufficient enough evidence that any of us from this website have found that suggests that the inorganic materials and equipment mentioned above are actually “absorbed” and that some might argue that they could still actually be inside the aforementioned Blacklight characters’ bodies… Well, that is until now that is.
You see, this link here is not only further evidence, but it’s also an explicit and quite a solid one from Word of God.
Q: “What happens to all of the clothes/wallet contents of the people Alex Mercer consumes? Does he just spit it all out at once like a giant owl pellet? Thank you for your time and your work.”
A: “Haha. I would assume the virus can assimilate ANYTHING including metal (hammerfist time). I would guess it excretes stuff as well, from time to time.”
This is solid evidence right here. Not only is that statement Word of God, but it explicitly says that “the virus can assimilate ANYTHING including metal” in response to the “clothes/wallet contents” question, which means the aforementioned Blacklight characters do indeed absorb all of the clothing and equipment on the clothing of their victims; not only that, but due to the way the answer is phrased for the Word of God, the emphasis on “ANYTHING” before the word “including” implies that the Consume ability (the Absorption) of the aforementioned characters would be able to work on more than just metal, and that metal is simply just one of the things they are able to absorb. While it might be a bit of a stretch to say that the “ANYTHING” word could also actually include anything due to possible hyperbole or No-Limits Fallacy, the fact that it was demonstrated that not even blood (which is composed of over 90% of water, thus absorbing a liquid state of matter) is left behind if Alex were to absorb his victims via his touch method
And since this answer was made in response to the “clothes/wallet contents” that Alex Mercer “consumes”, this means this Word of God answer would also indirectly imply that the aforementioned inorganic equipment (e.g. Radio transceivers, LED masks, gas mask filters connected to the cannisters, etc.) are indeed broken down and “absorbed”, as the Blacklight Virus within the aforementioned Blacklight characters’ bodies are implied to assimilate them like how the victims’ organic bodies are assimilated
And so, the addition to the “Consume” ability within the “Notable Attacks/Techniques” of the aforementioned Blacklight characters should be something like this:
Consume: The process which those with Shapeshifting capabilities granted by the Blacklight Virus are able to absorb their targets, assimilating the targets’ biomass, genetics and minds to their own; allowing them to collect their living targets minds like a child collects moths and gain access to everything their targets have ever seen, done and heard, along with their intelligence growing as they consume more people, memories and skills, and that every living being they have absorbed makes them stronger. Despite how it seems, this ability is not limited to organic matter, being capable of assimilating inorganic matter and mimicking all their properties and functions with the same efficacy as they do with organic matter; being able to absorb and mimic clothing, Radio transceivers, LED masks, Hazmat suits and many more by converting these inorganic matter into biomass and replicate these same inorganic materials to the extent that the Blacklight Virus within their bodies can assimilate ANYTHING, including metal, and that the properties and functionality of the mimicked inorganic equipment are the same as the original’s. This ability can also be used to absorb one’s targets upon the user’s biomass touching their targets, without the need to either weaken or batter their targets and could even absorb multiple targets at once simultaneously; however, this ability has only ever been demonstrated by Alex Mercer without any implication that this feat can be replicated by other Shapeshifting carriers of the Blacklight Virus, thus this doesn’t necessarily apply to other Shapeshifters infected with the Blacklight Virus and that they may need to weaken or severely batter their targets before the targets can be absorbed.
In addition, add these a point to the Note section as dot point to Alex Mercer’s profile:
As a result of his ability to control all traces of his infected target in existence right down to the molecular level, Alex should be capable of manipulating all traces of his infected targets’ molecules at vast distances. As Alex is the only one of the Shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus that has achieved this feat, other Shapeshifters infected with the Blacklight Virus shouldn’t necessarily scale to this ability with the exception of James Heller only after absorbing Alex Mercer; similar applies for the capability of absorbing targets upon the user’s biomass touching their targets, without the need to either weaken or heavily batter their targets and even absorb multiple targets simultaneously, as Alex is the only one that have demonstrated this feat.
The controlling of all traces of infected target is especially true as the conversation between these Evolved (the characters granted Shapeshifting capabilities by Alex infecting them with the Blacklight Virus, with them being Evolved rather than a mindless Infected Citizen being only due to Alex’s own decision, although James Heller’s abilities is more similar to Alex’s than the Evolved’s) relies entirely on Alex Mercer’s action to control of all traces of Whitelight in existence right down to the molecular level in order to get other victims infected by the tainted Whitelight, not their own abilities or anything (since none of them suggested they should “control” the traces of Whitelight themselves), which implies that Biological Manipulation and other similar abilities involving manipulation of the virus and infected targets at a tremendous range is a feat that’s exclusive only to Alex Mercer (and James Heller only after absorbing Alex Mercer, not before that); this ability is perhaps one of the many reasons why the Evolved fear Alex Mercer as much as they revere him.
Alex should also get a far higher for his Range section as well, due to the implication of controlling “all traces” of the target “in existence” suggesting that it’s possible for Alex to be able to control them as long as they exist (probably giving an even higher range than what James Heller’s Tendril Barrage Devastator gained from absorbing Alex Mercer did as that Devastator seems to be restricted only to the city). However, since there’s no mathematically quantifiable range for that and it would be possibly No-Limits Fallacy to assume any numbered range for that, something like this should be put in Alex’s profile instead:
Possibly tens of kilometres with tendrils (The biomass gained from consuming Alex Mercer allowed James Heller to be able to create tendrils that can reach across all of Manhattan and wipe out all infected beings in New York City), far higher with via control of the Blacklight Infected (Is capable of controlling all traces of his infected target in existence right down to the molecular level, implying he can manipulate his infected target as long as they exist, although the exact range limit is unknown)
Fully-upgraded Musclemass addition:
Next up, we have the [PROTOTYPE] Musclemass ability.In the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide, Musclemass is considered only just a 2x multiplier for both Attack Potency and Lifting Strength without any upgrades, with it being fully-upgraded (Musclemass having both “Musclemass Boost” and “Musclemass Throw” upgrades) only granting an unquantifiably above 2x multiplier as the description “Greatly increase” is not mathematically quantifiable – and so, the fully-upgraded Musclemass ability ended up not being a 3x multiplier for both Attack Potency and Lifting Strength, and is only unquantifiably above 2x multiplier due to the lack of explicit statement of the exact multiplier the fully-upgraded Musclemass grants.
However, that now changes I’ve discovered something from looking into the Prima Guide deeper. Within the Prima Guide, it not only mentions that all “Combat Combos” and “Combat Upgrades” can be performed with Musclemass, but that all of the attacks mentioned in the Prima Guide would be double or triple the damage.
“Look over all of the attacks in the rest of this chapter, and think of how impressive they would be with DOUBLE or TRIPLE the damage.”
Keep in mind that the damage purely comes from the strength increase, the core mechanic of the Musclemass’ ability, with no other factors that actually contribute to the damage increase; this means it isn’t some arbitrary “Character X can do double the damage with attack Y!” with no further explanation or implication for why the damage increase occurs, as it was heavily implied the damage increase comes from “Increases strength” mechanic.
As seen from the quote above, the “DOUBLE” (the 2x multiplier) correlates with the “Increases strength twofold”, so it can be safely inferred that the double damage comes from the 2x strength increase. This leaves the “TRIPLE” (the 3x multiplier) damage.
Now, as shown above, the aforementioned Musclemass upgrades “Greatly increases” the damage for Musclemass’ strikes, and both the damage and range for Musclemass’ throws, but we didn’t know the extent of the increases the upgrades bring previously because we haven’t yet found any explicit mathematically quantifiable statement that states that increases before… Until now. As the “DOUBLE” damage increase correlates to the Musclemass baseline ability’s strength increase (which is 2x multiplier without any upgrades), and can be inferred that “TRIPLE” damage increase correlates to the upgrades for the Musclemass ability, especially in the description right after it mentioned the double or triple damage that implies that both Attack Potency/Striking Strength and Lifting Strength is increased.
“Look over all of the attacks in the rest of this chapter, and think of how impressive they would be with DOUBLE or TRIPLE the damage. The CANNONBALL (for rolling into MILITARY VEHICLES and destroying them) and THROWING (for picking up objects and striking LARGE FOES or VEHICLES with them) are the most important abilities that are augmented with this POWER”
Thus, it can be safely assumed that the “TRIPLE” damage refers to the Musclemass with upgrades, and so the fully-upgraded Musclemass should be a 3x multiplier, granting 3x baseline AP and LS.
In addition, the Prima Guide also lists all the “Combat Upgrades” attacks that the Musclemass’ augmentation would apply to, with the Devastators listed here and here.
Now, it explicitly mentions that “all of the attacks in the rest of this chapter” are augmented to the point that they “would be with DOUBLE or TRIPLE the damage.”… Which means that these aforementioned attacks listed in the “Combat Upgrades” would have that same 2x multiplier (for baseline Musclemass) or 3x multiplier (for fully-upgraded Musclemass) being applied to them, including the Devastators.
Even though Devastators are consistently portrayed as the strongest attacks within the [PROTOTYPE] series, with the official [PROTOTYPE] Prima Guide explicitly stating that a Devastator is the “most impressive and hard-hitting move” (putting it above even the Blade. Note: Blade is stated to have the “most powerful strikes available” compared to a Devastator is stated to have the “most impressive and hard-hitting move”; a “move” is an “act” or an “action” based on my brief Googling of the definition, which means a “strike” can be a “move” but not vice versa, so a Devastator should be stronger simply because it includes more things than just “strikes”), this should mean that baseline Devastators are already stronger than all the Offensive Powers and Musclemass as an attack ability, and so Devastators should be even stronger with the scans from Prima Guide showcasing that Musclemass also augments Devastators with the same multiplier.
So for Alex Mercer’s profile, his Attack Potency section should be written more like this:
“even higher with Musclemass multiplier (Can double his strength with Musclemass, with the strength increases of fully-upgraded Musclemass “greatly increasing” its damage to the point of having all attacks inflict up to triple the damage. Can dual-wield one of the Offensive Powers with Musclemass, which should increase their output even further), Blade (Directly stated to have the strongest strikes available) and Devastators (Are super attacks that causes massive damage to either surroundings or targets, with a Devastator being the most impressive and hard-hitting move, thus should be stronger than the Offensive Powers, Blade and Musclemass by itself. Can be augmented even further with Musclemass, which causes Devastators to have greater output than they would've normally by having them inflict double the damage of normal Devastators, or inflict up to triple the damage of normal Devastators with fully-upgraded Musclemass)”
(Note: the text in italic are my edits, so these are my suggested changes)
Additions/Expansions of abilities:
Lastly, we have some abilities that either needs to be expanded on more or should be added within the aforementioned Blacklight characters’ profiles if they aren’t there.There’s the Blacklight Virus, which is capable of mimicking and storing genetic information from infected organisms and more, and is capable of duplicating copies of its infected host’s genetic structure, and results in Alex being a repository of genetic ability, where he can mix the best of any creature into a single, super-effective form.
“He is a repository of genetic ability, capable of instantly mixing the best of any creature into a single, super-effective form.”
This statement here mentions “the best” of “any creature”, right after mentioning “repository” (with that word implying that he can store more than one) of “genetic ability” – this means that, in the “genetic abilities” standpoint, the Blacklight Virus would not only attain a creature’s genetic abilities, but also the “best version” of that same creature’s genetic abilities, which implies the genetic abilities that the Blacklight Virus allows its user to gain genetic abilities that’s a better version of the original’s.
It also mentions “mimicking” and “duplicating”, not explicitly “transferring” or “stealing”/”taking”. This means that the genetic information, and the host’s genetic structure with the genetic information, is copied and not stolen/transferred. And so, these statements above should grant the aforementioned Blacklight characters Power Mimicry.
This implies that that the aforementioned Blacklight characters, such as Alex Mercer himself, doesn’t exactly need to “absorb” their targets to attain their abilities, they can just have the Blacklight Virus theoretically infect their targets and attain genetic information (with their entire genetic structure included) of their targets through the Blacklight Virus, and regain the Blacklight Viruses from the targets’ bodies that way. However, since the only time we only ever see Alex Mercer and James Heller gain new abilities with Absorption, it’s probably optimal to list Power Mimicry next to Absorption like this:
“Power Mimicry and Absorption (Absorbs the powers, abilities, memories, skills, experiences and minds of any living thing he consumes, with any part of his biomass. This also allows him to negate his target's regeneration capabilities. Every living being that he absorbs makes him stronger. The Blacklight Virus is capable of mimicking and storing genetic information from infected organisms and more, and can duplicate copies of its infected host’s genetic structure, and is able to copy and combine genetic traits to the extent that it results in him being a repository of genetic ability, where he can mix the best version of any creature into a single, super-effective form)”
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The aforementioned Blacklight characters also have a level of shapeshifting to the extent that even other shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus can be deceived by each other’s disguises or being unable to spot that the other has superhuman capabilities, as shown here and here. And so the Shapeshifting should be further expanded as shown here:
Shapeshifting (He is able to transform into anyone he's consumed, He can also modify his body's proportions and form them into weapons at will. Every portion of his body is under his conscious control, to the extent that he is able to become a repository of genetic ability, where he can mix the best version of any creature into a single, super-effective form and even reconfigure his molecular structure to become something else with his control of his body, and so he is able to control every molecule of his body. Should have Shapeshifting capabilities similar to the Supreme Hunter, a duplicate of him that has the capacity to consume and become anything living. His level of shapeshifting should be comparable to other shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus, such as the Supreme Hunter’s disguise being able to deceive him and with James Heller not being able to spot that one of the Evolved has superhuman capabilities, thus allowing him to become a perfect copy of one of his previously absorbed targets that even other shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus aren’t able to discern without prior knowledge)
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Also a further expansion for the Homing Attack ability, as the Prima Guide mentioned that one of Blade’s technique allows for Alex to be able to home in on a target, a technique called “Blade Air Slice”, which should be expanded as shown here:.
Homing Attack (Tendril Barrage Devastators automatically seek out targets to impale. Blade Air Slice allows him to home in on a target)
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The Disease Manipulation listed in Alex Mercer’s profile also needs a further expansion based on the scans I’ve listed above, something like this:
Disease Manipulation (His body is comprised of the Blacklight Virus, with materials such as his skin and clothing being all a part of the facade, which results in Alex’s body being a bomb filled with this weaponized pathogen that’s waiting to go off, and so it can result in others becoming infected if exposed to them. Can infect his targets with the virus. The Blacklight Virus should be superior to the Redlight Virus, which was able to infect living beings and inanimate objects alike)
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Telepathy should also be further expanded upon for both the profiles of Elizabeth Greene and Alex Mercer), so it should be something like this for Alex Mercer:
Telepathy (Should be comparable to Elizabeth Greene, who is able to have those infected with the virus being able to hear her thoughts due to her broadcasting her thoughts like a radio station and that all of those infected are connected to her in a Hive Mind even if the victims haven’t been fully converted into Infected creatures yet; a Hive Mind which Alex is able to connect to, access and control)
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Adaptation and Reactive Evolution seems to be adequately detailed enough, there’s just one section of the quote missing. A tiny bit of expansion should be listed as shown below:
Adaptation and Reactive Evolution (Capable of producing hundreds of different unique strains of the virus on a daily basis and that the virus led to his body evolving at a rapid pace and war-dialing at the genetic level into becoming something else each time, can transform his body on-the-fly, increases his resistance to harmful situations with prolonged exposure, developed immunity to Bloodtox and the Parasite, developed unique powers to help fight Blackwatch and the Infected)
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Now, due to this scan of how Alex “wasn’t a person, but rather the virus itself taking the shape of a man” and that “materials like skin and clothing were all a part of the facade” with an example being that his arm is akin to “the virus shifting from a human arm shape to that of a claw or blade” such as for his Offensive Powers, should grant him some kind of physiology that should be mentioned in Alex Mercer’s Powers and Abilities section.
At first, I thought of Alex Mercer having Inorganic Physiology, but the brief Googling I did suggests that isn’t an entirely accurate ability to be listed in his profile; especially since, while viruses are considered as neither living or dead, scientific studies says that they are still made of organic molecules… So I reckon this should be added in Alex Mercer’s profile in his Powers and Abilities section instead:
Viral Physiology (He is not human, he is the Blacklight Virus itself; His body is comprised of the Blacklight Virus, where he is “the virus itself taking the shape of a man” and that “materials like skin and clothing were all a part of the facade” with an example being that his arm is akin to “the virus shifting from a human arm shape to that of a claw or blade” such as for his Offensive Powers, and so biological human limitations shouldn’t necessarily be applicable to him)
There’s no hyperlink to the “Viral Physiology” because it’s not actually an ability listed in this website, but I reckon it should be fine to list that Physiology as an ability in Alex’s profile; an ability which is exclusive to Alex only, as not even other shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus such as the Evolved and James Heller are stated to be the Blacklight Virus itself like Alex is.
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Skilled Hand-to Hand Combatant should be expanded a bit as shown here:
Skilled Hand-to Hand Combatant (Has absorbed the minds of many people, including military soldiers such as Blackwatch soldiers and Marines that should have combat training, and so he should have many knowledge and expertise of a variety of fighting styles and more. Has defeated the Supreme Hunter twice, despite the Supreme Hunter being consistently much more powerful than him, through an exercise in patience and skill)
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Due to this quote here, Alex Mercer should also have Madness Manipulation (Type 1) listed in his profile, like this:
Madness Manipulation (Type 1. Those infected by the Redlight Virus or the Blacklight Virus are driven mad by the virus, becoming nothing more than infected carriers with the single-minded purpose of spreading the infection as much as they can unless he were to decide otherwise; as shown by those infected by the Blacklight Virus)
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And finally, the Adrenaline Surge ability. This ability is listed within the official [PROTOYPE] Prima Guide as shown here, and is an ability that can be performed within the game. When the “health” is lowered to “almost death”, it gives “a moment of invulnerability”.
Now, in this website, Invulnerability only applies for “characters whose invulnerability is clearly more than simply being exceptionally durable for the setting’s verse to qualify.”
However, in this case, in the context of video game characters, it should qualify as the invulnerability isn’t described in a way that brings awe or make it seem very impressive like with [PROTOTYPE 2] for a Goliath’s “near-impenetrable organic armour” – especially when in the official [PROTOYPE] Prima Guide, it mentions that it can be used for a “couple of seconds” for a “last-ditch Devastator Attack” – in addition, within the gameplay, it was shown that the moment the “health meter” turns blue, the same attacks that have “lowered his health” before was no longer able to lower his health any further for a few seconds due to Adrenaline Surge. And since the Adrenaline Surge is listed as an ability that explicitly describes the description of an ability, it is less of a byproduct of the Game Mechanics and more like it’s supposed to be the ability’s effect itself, so the “moment of invulnerability” is supposed to be an actual effect of the ability and not some unknown arbitrary mechanic of the game.
So, the Adrenaline Surge ability should be added to the Notable Attacks/Techniques section of Alex Mercer’s profile like this:
Adrenaline Surge: The ultimate survivability safety net ability. When Alex’s biomass reserves, or “health”, is almost gone, he gains a moment of invulnerability for a couple of seconds with only enough time to perform a Devastator attack.
However, since the “Health Meter” thing and similar is likely just Game Mechanics, a dot point in the Note section should be added in Alex Mercer’s profile as well to clarify that, something like this:
For Adrenaline Surge, the “Health Meter”, “Health” and “almost death” quotes are most likely just Game Mechanics, as Alex has showcased feats capable of surviving and regenerating from circumstances far beyond what could kill him within the gameplay, such as dying to bullets within the gameplay despite the fact that he has canonically survived the fireball of a nuclear explosion and is comparable to other Blacklight creatures capable of regenerating from a puddle. And so “Health Meter”, “Health” and “almost death” are most likely mere Game Mechanics and that, in a more realistic story perspective, it is more accurate that they refer to his reserves of excessive biomass than an in-game mechanic such as “Health”.
However, keep in mind that this Invulnerability is circumstantial and very brief, as it only triggers in the “Low Health” (or in a more realistic story perspective, the “Low Excess Biomass reserves”), so this ability should be listed as “Limited” in Alex Mercer’s Powers and Abilities, something like this:
Limited Invulnerability (When his reserves of excess biomass are almost depleted from receiving damage, his Adrenaline Surge activates which gives him a moment of invulnerability for a couple of seconds with only enough time to perform a Devastator attack)
Conclusion:
In conclusion, with the support of the scans and evidence I’ve provided above, Alex Mercer should have a Genius rating in his Intelligence section for his Prototype 1 Early/Mid-Game key as his intelligence was portrayed to be exceptional and has some of Alexander’s memories but not all of them yet, and a At Least Genius rating in his Intelligence section in his Prototype 1 End-Game key as he has all of the mind, memories and skills of the original Dr. Alexander J. Mercer, and James Heller should have an Average rating in his Intelligence section as he is not portrayed to be a particularly intelligent individual – and all of the shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus should get a “higher” rating in their Intelligence sections of their profiles as their Absorption has explicit scans of having their own intellect being increased from the Absorption of living beings.The Consume ability should be added in the Notable Attacks/Techniques section of the profiles of all of the shapeshifters of the Blacklight Virus, which would be the Alex Mercer, the Evolved, James Heller and the Supreme Hunter in this case, with the feats of the abilities mentioned.
The fully-upgraded Musclemass ability should be granted a 3x multiplier to both AP and LS, compared to a baseline Musclemass ability that only grants the 2x multiplier, in Alex Mercer’s profile using the scans and reasoning I’ve mentioned above.
There are several abilities that should be either further expanded on or added to Alex Mercer’s profile through the reasonings I’ve mentioned above.
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