Khazghron

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Khazghron is a herculean exemplar. Towering over others at an astonishing eight feet nine inches, and with shoulders nearly six feet across, Khazghron is a literal monster, with 4% body-fat and muscle mass far beyond that of any non-meta human; even beyond that of many other strength-oriented meta-beings. Proud and sometimes modest, Khazghron makes up for a slight trace of vanity with his philanthropic attitude towards everyone and everything, using his tremendous strength to aid others in whatever way he can. Having lived his early life as a Villain, Khazghron strives to redeem himself for his corrupt acts, and help Paragon City rebuild in the face of criminal infestation and other villainous threats. He has strong ties to Hero Corps and Vanguard, often performing jobs or services for them aside from generally protecting his new home, though his friendship with Longbow is somewhat less due to his criminal background. When not performing Super Hero duties, Khazghron works as a For-Hire Bodyguard, always accepting contracts. His own time he usually spends bodybuilding and physically training in a gym established within his home district of Talos Island. His exact origins are somewhat unknown and a little mysterious; a genetic mutation from birth was scientifically analyzed and discovered not to be a genetic mutation as such, but rather a genetic evolution. Thus Khazghron has been registered with Hero Corps as a Hero of Natural origins, raising suspicions that he might have never been human in the first place, but rather a different species altogether.

Khazghron was born thirty-one years ago in one of the districts of Cap Au Diable, most likely the Haven district, though this is unconfirmed. When he was born, it was clear that he suffered from some form of genetic mutation; his humanoid infant phenotype underwent a somatotrophic change almost immediately after birth, as he showed signs of accentuated systemic muscular and vascular development; particularly, his very head began to transform into a lizard-like—almost dragon-like—shape. This mutation did not seem to conflict with any humanoid genes present within his DNA however, suggesting that this process was natural, and that Khazghron was not actually human. Never having known either of his parents, Khazghron was deemed an orphan, and led a difficult upbringing in one of the many slums of the city. He was most likely taken care of by a group of mutants who had no doubt banded together in order to ensure their mutual survival in the tough environment.

As Khazghron grew older, he began to take on responsibilities. This contributed to his character, and can still be seen in him today: he shows strong determination towards completing goals that he sets for himself, no matter how difficult, and does not seem to accept failure as an option. In his youth, such failure could have cost him his life. As he reached ten years old, his muscular form began to grow in mass. A mutant scientist who happened to know Khazghron at the time, documented these changes. An old report suggests that Khazghron's native species, whatever it may be, was able to produce a number of myoblasts significantly greater than the human species, and that the production of these cells led to a dramatic increase in Khazghron's muscular development. Being at such a young age, the scientist speculated that within another seven years, should his growing rate have remained steady, Khazghron would easily turn into a herculean exemplar. Recognizing the potential to be found in such natural strength, the scientist suggested that their fellow mutants take care of Khazghron, and train him well in trade skills where his strength could be applied.

Unfortunately, it seems the mutants realized at some point Khazghron was not in fact one of their own, and their kinship with Khazghron began to disintegrate. During this period of time, Khazghron was beginning to think for himself, and he began to wonder whether he might not pursue his own life outside of the small band of mutants. He left the group, and began living a lonely life on the streets of Cap Au Diable, traveling from one side to the other looking for work and inspiration. He managed to earn a little money mainly within the Devils Coat Tails district, where he found jobs involving hard labor open to him. However, working in Cap Au Diable was no fair trade, and Khazghron made significantly less than he would have, by rule of fairness and decency, earned. Despite his gift of being extremely physically capable, he began to suffer from malnutrition, and his body's need for massive amounts of energy to continue supplying his muscular growth with necessary nutrients was left unfulfilled.

One night, Khazghron witnessed a robbery being committed by a group of Gold Brickers. They were quick and efficient, and escaped with their booty seemingly with ease. Khazghron began to consider his needs, which outweighed whatever morals he had developed for himself during his youth.

Khazghron was twenty when he decided that crime offered a better salary than work. Within the Rogue Isles, it was all corrupt anyway, he eventually came to realize. With that rational, he performed his first act of petty crime: robbery. Even up until he reached twenty years of age, his body grew at a phenomenal rate. His head now indeed resembled that of a monstrous dragon; his skin was red and of leathery quality, and his body was huge, muscular, and imposing. As the days had passed with fewer and fewer meals, he had begun to loose some of his vitality, but his gargantuan scale was still enough to set hapless citizens of the Isles trembling in fear and panic.

His first few robberies were successful, and yielded a good amount of money which he immediately used to purchase food and nutrients to support his physical capabilities. He knew that his strength, prodigious as it was, would serve him well in this city of villains. He sought to capitalize on it, and capitalize on it he did, when a subsection of The Family contacted him in regards to various jobs that needed doing. Being a vast criminal mobster operation, The Family usually operated with a great deal of trust; important jobs wouldn't be given to unknowns, due to the risk of property being stolen, information being betrayed, and any number of other detrimental effects occurring. However, for certain tasks evolving enforcement or repayment, outside help was occasionally called upon. A few such Family members saw Khazghron performing one of his numerous heists during this time, and struck up a small contract with him; rob a few select targets, and he could keep the loot, so long as he said he told the owners of the targeted establishments that he represented the Family.

For a few weeks he did just that. Breaking and entering, taking what valuables he could, and recalling by memory a few select names he had been told to use; various members of the Family whom the robbed victims would recognize and fear. It was good pay for Khazghron, as he was able to rob some of the more wealthy establishments within Cap Au Diable, now that he had the Family somewhat distantly backing him. As he continued this job however, he began to gain new resources and new contacts; one such contact was a similar Brute-level enforcer for The Family, who encouraged him to enter what he called a Super Strongman competition.

Very similar to strongman competitions amongst non-meta humans, the Super Strongman competition was designed around meta-beings who possessed beyond normal human strength, and who could compete on a completely new level of challenges. Bench-pressing cars, pushing and pulling old disarmed tanks and other heavy vehicles, even in some of the more legitimate (and well-funded) competitions using dumbbells weighing five hundred to a thousand pounds or more. Khazghron found an alternate outlet for his strength; one that would better him physically and mentally, rather than intimidating and stealing. Still abiding to the contract he had arranged with the Family, Khazghron began spending time with other meta-beings within the Super Strongman circuit, and over time began to progress through its ranks. Eventually he managed to win first place in his class (Natural Meta-Strength), and out of sheer kindness and respect distributed the somewhat meager prize money amongst his fellow competitors. The act of kindness was out of place within the Isles of course, and afterwords he became somewhat known as the “Silly Saurian Strongman” for giving away the prize money rather than running off with it. Still, Khazghron felt he had enough income from his daily job, and he never regretted doing it. The time came when his contract with The Family came to an end, and Khazghron left, somewhat honorably in their eyes. From there, he snagged a few low-level enforcement jobs with the other criminal syndicates within Cap Au Diable, but his next big advance was when he was contacted by an Arachnos Arbiter to go to Grandville for an “important assignment.”

The assignment was simple, and Khazghron followed it to the letter: raid a Longbow safe-house. Located in Nerva Archipelago, Longbow had figured it was a safe haven, being so close to their main base of operations within the Rogue Isles. It turned out not to be, when Khazghron and a well-organized Arachnos operations team infiltrated the safe-house’s perimeter, and managed to gain entry, taking the Longbow forces inside by complete surprise. Less than an hour later, and the small underground complex was all but destroyed. It was during this mission, however, that Khazghron discovered another stage to his genetic evolution. As the safe-house was set ablaze, he noticed that he had some sway over the flames nearest him. With concentrated effort, he discovered he could manipulate it within a short radius about him; even harness its very existence, and cause flames to leap up from nothing. Even more important, he realized that these flames not only didn't harm him, but they also cauterized the wounds he had sustained in the fighting. Knowledge thus gained, he left with a renewed sense of direction in his ongoing quest to discover just who, and what he was.

His work with Arachnos continued, as did his closeness to the organization. Soon he found himself being called upon for less mundane tasks, such as call-in adviser to Wolf Spider units, where he would scout, provide information on targets, explain tactical advantages, and aid Wolf Spiders in unarmed combat training, in the style of a contractor-for-hire. However, in no way did he report to Lord Recluse; it was the Arbiters to whom he answered, and eventually he was granted recognition as an Official to Arachnos. That moment was the pinnacle of his success within the Rogue Isles. Soon afterward, he would become a Rogue.

Arachnos needed to stage an incident. Within the Isles were various organizations operating with the approval of Longbow, and who were steadily convincing certain sectors within the Rogue Isles of Lord Recluse's efforts at totalitarian rule. Arachnos, in its effort to reassert its position within the Isles, and regain some support amongst its poor inhabitants, marked several targets to be destroyed. Once obliterated, Arachnos would sweep in and claim revenge on the perpetrators. Such targets included a hospital, some refuges for the homeless and 'imperfect' of the Isles' population, and a small school. It was the school Khazghron was send to, along with a small group of Arachnos soldiers, disguised as thugs. The school was nothing more than a few renovated rooms within a dilapidated building in Cap Au Diable, and offered nothing more than basic educational principles to the young citizens within that city district. Yet it symbolized the growing education and understanding of ruling principles that Lord Recluse did not want spread throughout the Isles, promoting comprehension of rights and liberties that he knew might further challenge his dominance. The Arbiters agreed, and Khazghron was hired to play the decoy villain; the renegade Brute who, in a fit of rage, destroyed the school, and left its property in ruins. What the Arbiters decided to conceal from Khazghron however, was that within the small classrooms, there would be young children, humans and mutants alike. Khazghron, with all his super strength, and with his harnessed fiery abilities aiding him, had no trouble at all smashing his way into the building, Arachnos thugs close behind him. Yet when his ears were met with the screams of terrified youngsters, and he saw with his own eyes the terrified expressions within their faces, the morality he had set aside so long ago came rushing back into his conscience. He realized with greater clarity, the horrors he had inflicted on innocents, struggling to live within the lawless and vicious society within the Rogue Isles. And he saw the life he might have had; if instead of turning to crime in his earlier years, he had turned to enlightenment, if he had turned to knowledge. He reflected on the moment when he had given away his prize in the Super Strongman competition; the act of philanthropy that was so unusual within the Isles, but which gave him true satisfaction—and in an instant, he regretted every villainous act he had ever performed.

In fiery rage, he turned on the Arachnos soldiers. With every ounce of his strength he fought with a fury he knew not he had. When quite literally the smoke cleared, he found himself helplessly expressing his anguish at what he had nearly done to the residents of the school. To his everlasting astonishment, they forgave him. More so, they offered him a simple suggestion: that if he sought to redeem himself fully, he should try to make it to Paragon City, and learn the lives of heroes that fought daily for the peace and liberty to be found there. With nothing to take with him other than the lessons he had learned, Khazghron used what infamy he had left as well as his old connections with The Family to flee the isles, and to abandon the path of villainy.

Khazghron arrived at Talos Island within the security barriers of Paragon City, unsure where he should begin. Feeling quite uncertain about both himself and his future, he used a reverse process of thinking in order to analyze his goals: if, as a villain, he had used his strength to fight forces for good, such as police, security guards, Longbow, and Heroes themselves, then in order to become a Hero he would logically use his strength to fight forces of evil, such as thugs, crime syndicates, Arachnos, and Villains.

To this end he decided the best place to start would be Talos Island's Police Precinct Headquarters, where merely by entering he caused a brief moment of pandemonium. Despite having been in the Rogue Isles all his life (or for what part of his life he was consciously aware of), it seemed the Paragon Police Department had already done up a file on him, noting the various criminal organizations he was known to work for, as well as one or two less covert missions he had performed on behalf of Arachnos. Having faith that due process existed within Paragon City unlike in the Rogue Isles, Khazghron told nothing but the truth to the department's senior staff, and to his surprise, found his presence well received. A Villain-turned-Hero, the police chief on duty said, was indefinitely better than Hero-turned-Villain. After a day of deliberation (in which Khazghron slept with surprising comfort in a jail cell for the first time), he was transferred to the Hero Corps branch in Atlas Park's City Hall.

Khazghron spent several weeks meeting with Hero Corps staff, and discussing his future within Paragon City. Eventually it was decided he should be granted a legal permit to reside within the city, as well as a Temporary Security Clearance, officially making him a recognized 'Hero' of Paragon City. It was an important moment for Khazghron; again a moment of transition in which his morality exposed itself rather openly. He was proud to be called a Hero; much more proud than he had been during the time in which he was known as a Villain. He felt he had true purpose in this seemingly new City of Heroes, and he wanted to start helping immediately.

Of course, he didn't fight crime immediately. There was a lay-period of a month or so in which documents were reviewed, his record examined, and the nature of his deeds within the Rogue Isles exposed. While a jury panel found Khazghron to have been quite villainous indeed in his recent past, the greater part of the panel found him redeemed enough to spend at least a short while proving his worth as a Hero within the city. During this trial period, Khazghron was given jobs mainly dealing with construction work; helping rebuild damaged or destroyed buildings within the city, as a way of showing his inner desire to do good and——to himself——as a way of atoning for the destruction and vandalism he had caused within the Isles (little though it may have been when in comparison with the results of greater forces of evil).

Eventually however, he was cleared of his Temporary Hero-Visa, and issued full Security Clearance. Later that very day, he traveled back to Talos Island, and cheerfully brought to the Police Station nearly twenty subdued Freakshow and Warriors within half an hour.

At present Khazghron spends most of his time within Paragon City Limits, fighting crime and helping younger, less experienced Heroes do the same. He has become quite the mentor, and is always offering his strength and services for noble or charitable causes, and always acting with honor and valor in the face of villainous opposition. Lately he has been introduced to two organizations in particular: The Midnight Squad and Vanguard. His work for Vanguard is of particular self-interest however, and he dedicates time regularly towards helping protect Paragon City from the extraterrestrial threat that encompasses it. Accepted as a Member of Vanguard, Khazghron enjoys certain privileges within the defending organization, and is usually quite willing to aid heroes in combating Rikti-specific threats.

Khazghron has a small apartment in Talos Island, and frequents a gym there, started by a fellow bestial super-hero who wanted a localized place for physical training and bodybuilding, for meta-beings and non-meta humans alike within the Talos Island district. He is often to be found on patrol in Talos Island, Founders' Falls, and Peregrine Island, and is likely to be seen at the Steel Canyon University from time to time. During certain periods of particular unrest, Khazghron is known to travel to the Rogue Isles in an attempt to help quell the more violent forces that brew within its lawless boundaries. Though his efforts at helping others is nonetheless present within the Rogue Isles, he is a little more wary about helping villains, and will readily object to any mission that seeks to harm innocent civilians. He is likely to be seen in Cap Au Diable, and occasionally, incognito, Grandville.

Khazghron maintains a strong connection with Hero Corps, and when not performing his Super Hero duties, works as personal Bodyguard for hire.