Syvex

Syvex is a character in The Phenomenal Fracas.

Weapons/Abilities:
Other than some of his physical abilities, Syvex's skills mostly make use of the dark energy that is produced by his body, his physical attacks being limited to his claws and teeth. Additionally, he is able to climb walls up to 90 degrees, but he is unable to move across ceilings. Despite his lack of eyes, Syvex can sense his environment within a certain range using the dark energy. His "vision" is rather weak in bright environments, having a sensory radius of 10 feet in sunlight, but over 100 feet in total darkness. Another ability is to channel dark energy for various projectile attacks. However, Syvex's most potent skill is his ability to open portals between shadows and other dark places, though still restricted to his sensory range. These portals can only exist in the dark, and instantly dissipate if they are exposed to enough light. If Syvex happens to be partially through a portal when it is destroyed, then he will, naturally, be bisected. However, he is able to survive this, and can rejoin with the rest of his body, or regenerate the lost part after a certain amount of time. This makes him rather tough to kill, but if he is damaged beyond regeneration, he will die.

Description:
Syvex is a large, snake-like creature, with a length of about 10 feet and a width of one foot. His scales are a dark gray color, glowing with a dark aura, purple-gray in color. He has two arms a foot behind his head, and two more another foot back. Syvex has spiked ridges running down his forearms up to his clawed hands, which each have three fingers and a thumb. His head lacks eyes, and its only visible feature is his large mouth, almost perpetually locked in a smile which reveals his jagged teeth. The inside of his mouth is a dark purple color, with a long tongue which comes to a point, unlike that of a snake. Spiked ridges run down his back as well, starting at the back of his head and ending at the tail. Personality-wise, Syvex is generally cunning and sometimes untrustworthy, but he is not genuinely uncaring. He will protect others he sees as allied with him, as long as doing so would not endanger his own life. Additionally, he usually ignores commands and coordinated efforts when working in a team, preferring to do what he believes will accomplish his goals by his own methods.

Biography:
The year was 2073. The world had been ravaged by the warring between nations, who endlessly fought over the few remaining resources on the planet. Weapons development was endlessly escalating, an arms race greater than any in history. There would be no end to the conflict until one side had been completely obliterated, and all there would be to show would be a lifeless husk of the world that once existed. Traditional weaponry was becoming obsolete: each side could continually match the other in destrucive force. An endless stalemate, resulting only in further razing of the land.

The Stratonian Alliance commissioned Interstice Laboratories to create a line of biological weapons; super-soldiers that could decimate their enemies and bring an end to the war. The laboratories set upon a series of experiments to genetically enhance humans, all of which ended in failure, the test subjects often dying horribly. After two years of these experiments, it was finally decided that humans would be insufficient for their projects. All logs of a large period of time afterward were locked out to all except those with level 10 clearance, and therefore it is unknown as to what happened in that year or so.

Logs resume after the blackout period. Interstice Laboratories began work on a new line of super-soldiers in 2076, code-named the "Shadow Serpents". The completion of the prototype, subject 384, dubbed "Syvex", coincided with the return of normal log entries. The SS line was created specifically for combat in the night, when humans would be much more vulnerable. With an army of Serpents, it was thought that they could effortlessly wipe out their enemies. However, when they put Syvex into combat situations, things didn't exactly go according to plan. Syvex had the combat abilities he had been designed for, but he ignored orders, doing whatever he pleased on his own volition. Sometimes he was helpful to the Alliance; sometimes he was a great hindrance.

After a month of field testing, Interstice Laboratories recalled Syvex and placed him into stasis due to his "flaws". They went on to improve his design; every subsequent Shadow Serpent had no free will and followed orders unflinchingly. Over the next decade, they overran the opposing armies, killing the nations' leaders and ultimately ending the conflict. The Stratonian Alliance had secured the last resources on the charred remains of the planet. The entire global population had dropped below one million during the war, and the sun was blotted out by an eternal cloud of dust.

Ten more years passed, with Syvex forgotten in a seldom-entered back corner of the facility. In the year 2097, however, a wayward biological experiment destroyed the laboratory's power core, deactivating the stasis tube. After power was restored, several scientists entered the stasis room to discover, much to their horror, that the tube was empty. He was never found.