Alex Mercer (P:ND)

Alex Mercer is the former top Gentek scientist who created the Black light virus and unleashed it on the city of New York out of spite when denied information.

Early life
Born as Alexander J. Mercer, Mercer experienced a brutal childhood spent in abject poverty; his first nine years were spent in foster care. When he turned 10, he was finally returned to his mother, who had spent the last nine years in prison, but for Mercer it was better to be in foster care. He was the only parental figure for his sister, Dana. As kids, he and Dana would play together and watch scary movies. It is presumed that Alex's father died shortly after he was born.

It can also be assumed that Alex took a great interest in fighting and martial arts, due to the combat technique he is able to perform as the Prototype. Due to the harshness of his early life, Alex is full of rage and a proven fighter even before becoming infected.

However, his intellect and aptitude in science provided him an opportunity to leave behind his troubled past. He trusted no one, had no friends, couldn't care less about what others thought of him, and found solace only in his work. By the time he was hired by Gentek, Mercer was a borderline sociopath. He knew this, and didn't care.

Working at Gentek
After earning a doctorate degree in genetics at Columbia University, Mercer was hired by Gentek and became the head of the Blacklight project at Gentek. Alex's team was tasked with engineering weaponized viruses from samples given to them by the government. The samples that were provided exhibited curious behavior, including mimicry and retention of genetic information from infected hosts. With Mercer’s help, the team soon engineered a particularly virulent and potent virus codenamed "Blacklight". Mercer’s skill in altering genes made him a valuable asset to Gentek; his work was years ahead of his nearest competitor.

Despite his successes, Alex Mercer was considered a potential liability by Blackwatch, an elite army created to combat exotic threats. Over time, Gentek became scrutinized by Congress and investigations were proposed. Fearing an information leak, Blackwatch decided to cover it all up. Mercer, due to his paranoid nature, began to launch his own secret investigation on Gentek. With the assistance of his sister Dana, an investigative reporter, Mercer realized that Gentek employees associated with the Blacklight project were being silenced by Blackwatch; usually with a bullet between the eyes in a dark alley.

When he learned that a general purge was about to be unleashed upon the Gentek scientists, Mercer fled, fearing for his life. In the event he was caught, Mercer had brought insurance—he had smuggled a vial of the Blacklight virus out of quarantine and taken it with him. He also mailed a laptop with classified documents to Dana. But Blackwatch was too quick for him. While attempting to escape the city by train, Mercer was cornered in Penn Station by Blackwatch agents. In a fit of frustration and rage, he threw the vial to the floor, smashing it and unleashing a biological apocalypse. He was promptly shot by Blackwatch operatives. The virus began to spread to everyone in the station.

As he fell, he collapsed onto the viral sample, becoming infected as he died. His body was taken back to Gentek in a body bag. Little did they know, as he was transported, the virus was reconstructing Mercer's body, cell by cell; his biomass feeding the virus as it replicated the still-living matter it had infected.

The first viral outbreak
During his death the virus wormed its way into his body and reformed in his image as it could not make another one from scratch. After he was taken to a morgue at Gentek he found out that he lost his memory and took off after being shot at by soldiers. Once he destroys the pursuing choppers and kills a soldier he finds Dana about to be arrested and kills the soldier who held her he takes her to the sewers.

Done with that moment the two siblings head to safe house and Alex heads to his apartment where the military destroys it but Alex himself is unscathed by it only angered. The monster then is attacked by the Marines who he is not trying to kill as they are not his target but the men are being too idiotic enough to provoke him into killing them without mercy. After that deed was done he moved onto the man in charge of the attack and consumed him gaining his memories in the process and his body as a disguise. After evolving and testing out his new powers he headed up to the Gentek headquarters where he once worked as a man. There he found Elizabeth Greene who was a lab rat for them and she walked out. After escaping he went to a military base where hunters sent after him by Greene confronted him. Consuming one gained him claws but they were not enough for him to do some serious damage to their thick hides.

Using his resources, the monster fired some bazookas at fuel tanks and it blew up the base with him being the only survivor. He then later went back to Dana who told him about his ex-girlfriend Karen Parker who needed to get somewhere else to do her research and told Alex to get some samples from a hive and hunter sin the infected water towers. After that deed was finished up, Mercer went back to Dana who helped him out with other targets. Mercer came across Karen who needed more viral samples from the inside of a hive but it was revealed to be a trap set up by Blackwatch and Karen was part of it as to kill him when she saw and found out that the man was dead and replaced by a monster wearing his skin. Mercer did battle with Captain Robert Cross and won but Cross told him about Penn Station making Mercer vulnerable for the antivirus cure that the government cooked up. Mercer ran off while Cross turned his back on him and Mercer escaped from Blackwatch as his shape-shifting weapons powers were destroyed by the cure injected into him.

After that, he visited Dana and told her about the people in his head that he consumed scaring her so he decided to leave in order to give her some space. He went out to Doctor Ragland, who Dana told him about, to get the help of taking out the parasite on his back. He needed to draw out a Blackwatch commander and the task was done by taking out the tank patrols right next to a hive with some rockets and vicious hand to hand combat moves to keep hunters off him while he was doing his mission. After consuming the commander, he next had to take Ragland to a lab in a warehouse defending him multiple infected. He then had to inject the created antivirus into a hunter by shooting a water tower with a strong enough infection signal. After fighting and consuming the hunter, he got back his powers with an extra set being the armor and the blade.

He went back to Dana and apologized to her but it was by a leader hunter sent by Greene to get her away from Alex but the virus was stubborn and passionate to a fault as he chased the creature down but lost it as Blackwatch opened up an airstrike on him. He confronts Ragland who tells him to lure a leader hunter to the abandoned warehouse where the cure was made. After that he consumed the leader hunter by snapping its two spines and gained infected vision. He used this to consumed people infected with the virus while looking normal and consumed the leader hunter that took Dana. He found that she was held in a hive with much stronger biomass and learns that Blackwatch had a thermobaric tank and defends it from hunters. Once the pilot dies he uses it himself to take out the stronger hives and blows the mother one a hole to get inside it. He shortly scuffles with Greene injecting the cure but she rejects it and creates a creature called the Supreme Hunter. The two monsters battle it out with Mercer winning and locating Dana, taking her to Ragland to take care of her.

He later got a mysterious contact telling him about the history of Blacklight and the new Bloodtox weapon that Blackwatch is deploying. He flies a helicopter to escort the ground troops and infiltrated a facility with his cover being blown as he coughs in contact with Bloodtox. Mercer battles the soldiers while also destroying the Bloodtox canister. It's after this mission he discovers he's not even human, but a viral shapeshifter of biomass. The contact give him a job to protect a Bloodtox canister that is being transported to Times Square after he took out other canisters while growing immune to the effects.

He protected the canister so it could pump the bloodtox underground where Greene was hiding, and he took on the Hunters and Hydras trying to destroy it to save her. He fought them hard and the pumping was successful but at the cost of many Blackwatch soldiers. When Elizabeth emerged to confront Mercer, she was in a form unlike any other, a MOTHER form. Once he killed her, he finds out that Colonel Taggart is willing to nuke Manhattan to destroy the virus. He then proceeds to find McMullen and the man kills himself before Mercer can consume him to gain his memories. Alex finds out he was the virus all this time and the man he wanted to kill was actually himself. He finds Taggart and consumes him with the help of Robert Cross and the two board the USS Reagan with Mercer disguised as Taggart. Randall shoots Taggart only to be revealed to be Mercer and he sends visions of what he learned from Greene when he consumed her.

Robert then chokes Mercer and throws him to the decking lift transforming into the Supreme Hunter itself that consumed Cross. The two monsters battle it out and Mercer emerges victorious in the fight before taking the bomb away from Manhattan. It blows him to bits but a crow comes close enough for him to consume it and regenerate. Once he's fully healed up, he goes back to work on taking out the infected and military.