From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

Abilities Equipment Personality History Associates Notes

Transcript excerpts, "Origin of the Androgyne" (Frank Gordon, WSPDR; 2006): "...despite warnings that the child would face social difficulties, Rudy and Gilda decided against surgical differentiation." "...by all accounts a loving and supportive home environment; Ani was a treasure to the Hesses." "...teasing and mockery throughout the junior high years took a subtle toll on Ani's stability, despite eir parents' positive influence." "...disturbing and mysterious death of five students, all known tormentors of young Hess...identical deformities attributed to mutagenic radiation exposure..." "...a marked change in Ani's personality...aura of confidence and self-possession...immune to taunts and derision..." "...elected Homecoming Regent. Members of eir class who suspected eir involvement in the murders five years prior staged a humiliating display during the coronation..." "...exposed, tarred, feathered..." "...made the climax of 'Carrie' look like a minor tantrum."

Contents 1 Mutant Powers 1.1 Threads of Fate 1.2 Transgenic Corruption 2 Other Abilities 2.1 Fitness 2.2 Guerilla Tactics 2.3 Teleportation 2.4 Desperation 2.5 Archery 2.6 Disguise 3 Weaknesses & Limitations 3.1 Thread-Blindness

Mutant Powers

How the Androgyne's powers function is only crudely understood, the details of their operation concealed within the strange "shadow strands" of eir DNA, segments in which the dimensional signature is misaligned from the rest of eir genome^[1]. This baffling condition is also believed to be responsible for eir physical uniqueness -- Ani Hess^[2] was born without a reproductive system and even repeated karyotyping has failed to determine eir genetic gender.

Threads of Fate

The threads of Fate, as Ani terms them, are undulating, ropy coils of shimmering shadow which Ani perceives as emerging from eir own heart and binding em to others; they are most prominent when they connect to a person Ani loves...or hates. E calls them the threads of Fate because through their observation e can find those e is fated to encounter, in battle or otherwise. It is Ani's ability to manipulate the threads as if they were made of physical substance that forms the basis for a variety of powers more subtle than the radioactive terror that is eir signature.

From within the threads, e can extract the darkness between dimensions to mire and obfuscate eir foes; with a gentle push of emself or another along their length e can knit closed the most recent wounds e and eir allies have suffered -- e can even bring emself or others back from the very brink of oblivion by tearing fragments from the threads of enemies to restore one recently severed. E can even cast selected reflections of what e sees within the threads to the person at the end to paralyze them with inescapable visions of what could soon be their fate.

Ani's own understanding of eir power has grown significantly in the years since e was taken from the Zig, and discussions with the dimensional wanderer, The Dark Watcher, in the Rikti War Zone, helped em develop a clear and nearly accurate understanding of what exactly the threads of Fate are. The threads are composed of glimpses into the formation of other dimensions as probabilities become certainties in this one. Each thread is a chain of reflections of every possible interaction that might have come to pass between em and those to whom they connect. Despite thinking of them as threads of Fate, they do not reveal what will come to pass, but rather what may, and it is upon Ani to effect the particular resolution e desires.

Transgenic Corruption

The Androgyne's cells are capable of producing tremendous amounts of radiation. The process is not constant, and indeed at first manifested only as a biological response to extreme physical and emotional trauma. Over the years Ani has developed a much finer control over this power -- e can unleash waves of radiation from eir entire body at once or hurl focused blasts through eir hands, casting the sickness e produces along the threads to sear and corrupt with the precision of Fate. Ani's control has developed to the point that e can actually consciously affect certain qualities of the radiation e generates, allowing em to hurl less powerful blasts that do not penetrate far enough past the skin to ravage the vital organs of eir target.

This radiation has a predictably destructive ionizing effect on most matter, but interacts in a unique way with the organic. Rather than causing random genetic damage in addition to burns, Ani's blasts provoke an immediate and specific mutagenic effect in living humanoid tissue. DNA irradiated by the Androgyne is corrupted in a uniform transgenic manner every time, nucleotides repatterning in an attempt to exactly mimic Ani's own. The process is immediately necrotizing -- cellular collapse ensues as the DNA attempts and fails to mimic the impossible "shadow strands" of Ani's genome, and the affected flesh is left a crude, deadened duplication of the corresponding area on Ani's body until the damage can be repaired.

The study of Ani's DNA and that of eir victims, following eir original apprehension in 2005, led to the development of processes to counter the effects of the Androgyne's unique power. During teleportation through Portal Corporation's MedCom system, deviated dimensional signatures can be realigned to the dimension of origin to buy Ani's victim enough time for the hospital staff and equipment to repair the structural damage caused by eir radiation's ionizing properties.

Other Abilities

The Androgyne relies nearly exclusively upon eir mutant abilities in combat, but e has also developed a small range of other useful skills which contribute to eir effectiveness.

Fitness

The atrophy eir body went through during the year and a half e was kept sedated in the Zig necessitated that Ani adhere to a strict Arachnos fitness regimen to both repair the damage and prepare Ani for the dangerous and dastardly deeds they would ask of em. Ani continues to adhere to much of this program on eir own time now in order to maintain peak physical performance.

Guerilla Tactics

Ani spent the entirety of the First Rikti War scrounging to survive in the abandoned factories and slums of the Kings Row neighborhood where e grew up. During this time, e and others trapped in the Row (or who refused to leave it) did their best to drive out the occasional incursions of Rikti invaders. The lessons e learned during the first war have stayed with em to this day and made em a more precise and ruthless fighter, able to wrest some measure of victory or, at the very least, payback out of even the worst situations.

Teleportation

As Ani can use the threads to influence others, e can also pull upon them as if they were made of physical substance, demanding the presence of eir allies at eir side with a single insistent tug. E has also figured out how to propel emself along the threads in a manner not unlike swinging on vines, slipping between the seams of reality to bring emself to eir destiny in a matter of instants. It can take a short while for Ani to completely realign with this dimension after teleporting; for a short time after transport e may be slightly out of phase with reality, difficult to perceive though e is still able to act and affect eir surroundings.^[3] This has proven an invaluable aid in getting the drop on large groups of enemies.

Desperation

Ani is loathe to be beaten. E has been to the brink of death before and, while e is happy to paralyze others with glimpses of their ultimate fate, it is not a place to which e wants to return. When things get ugly...Ani gets nasty. E will unload everything e can on eir most daunting foes, determined that if e is fated to fall to them, they will at least bear the scars of eir rage.

Archery

After spending weeks trapped in a cave under Heartbreak Ridge with eir arm pinned beneath rocks in March of 2009, the Androgyne's right arm was encased in a cybernetic cast for the next month while nanotherapy repaired the damage. After the cast came off, Ani took up archery on a doctor's recommendation as a way of restoring strength to the injured arm. While eir focus was primarily exercise, Ani did eventually develop a measure of skill with the bow, supplemented with a projected HUD device to aid eir aim created by Cyberette. After August of that year, e put eir abilities to use in combat as Kings Arrow as an offensive tactic to replace the signature radiation that would have removed any doubt as to eir identity if unleashed.

Ani has since returned Arrow's bow, that of the Kingswoman, to its rightful inheritor, but will still occasionally practice using bows from the Citadel's armory.

Disguise

The Androgyne has always been comfortable adopting whatever wear suits eir mood, be it considered men's or women's attire. While the Androgyne is notoriously proud and comfortable in eir own skin, when the occasion calls for it e has been known to exploit eir indistinctness as a basis for the construction of whatever identity e may need for a specific undercover task. By playing up eir femininity or masculinity with a bit of strategically chosen clothing, and altering the pitch of eir voice slightly in either direction, Ani can be whatever the target of eir deception wishes or expects em to be. E will also employ high-quality cosmetics, wigs, false facial hair, or sculpted padding to complete a look if needed, as in the case of Kings Arrow's borrowed "secret identity" of Nathan Crowne, but prefers whenever possible to work with only slight adjustments to eir natural appearance and rely on others' desires to complete the effect.

Weaknesses & Limitations

The Androgyne's confidence in eir abilities is nearly absolute -- in eir career as a villain and hero, e has yet to encounter the life-threatening situation e can't overcome through some clever manipulation of the threads of Fate. This confidence often verges on reckless arrogance, eir seeming immortality leading to a willingness to hurl emself to the front of the lines in battle in search of that which can actually stop em, occasionally to the detriment of eir allies. This is less the case since e has begun to work in the field with the Reciprocators -- the support they have shown em makes em far more attentive to their well-being, though e can still become over-focused when fighting the Rikti.

Though well-conditioned and not at all frail, Ani is as susceptible to physical injury as any other human being. Eir only real defense lies in being more quick-witted and ruthless than eir opponents. Ani's right arm is substantially weaker than the left since a severe injury suffered during a cave-in in March of 2009; e underwent over a month of extensive nanotherapy to restore eir arm to a functional state.

Ani's ability to repair injuries through manipulation of the threads of fate heals without scarring, but it does not replace existing scars, flesh that has healed naturally over time. It is also limited in that it can only correct extremely recent wounds, and is dependent upon having living entities nearby in order for Ani to adjust eir own position among the threads to "reset" emself or others to an uninjured state.

While the Androgyne experiences only a momentary lapse in eir ability to perceive the threads after arriving on a parallel Earth, as possibilities for eir interaction with that world's denizens begin to establish themselves, less stable transdimensional environments wreak havoc on eir perception. Ani rarely steps foot in the Shadow Shard or Pocket D, as the ensuing experience generally leaves em disoriented and nauseous; as e phrases it, in these environs the threads of fate seem to go "slippery", eluding eir grasp and control. Lately, e's discovered the usefulness of anti-nausea medicine, usually distributed through a patch worn behind eir ear, in subduing the intensity of these symptoms. While it doesn't make the threads any less slippery, it is usually enough to let Ani join eir friends for a drink now and then.

Ani's threads of Fate may, at very rare occasions, be perceived and used against em by those to whom e is extremely closely bound. This was established during the Lewis High Massacre when Randall Berg survived what should have been a lethal dose of Ani's radiation long enough to use his own connection to Ani to distract em and put three bullets in eir chest.

Thread-Blindness

The Androgyne has proven susceptible to a very unique method of attack innovated by an Arachnos Fortunata, Seer Brenda Carnegie. Carnegie studied with the Androgyne as eir Project: Destiny liaison in 2008, while assigned to monitor em as eir duties with the Vanguard consumed more of eir time. During this time e helped her to unlock her psychic potential by allowing her access to eir mind, linking their psyches together so that she could see as e saw, and perceive the threads for herself to help her precognitive sense focus. In July of 2009, Seer Carnegie rendered the Androgyne blind to the threads of Fate by intruding into eir mind and using her past experience to construct mental blocks, locking Ani away from eir power.

The full effect lasted only a few weeks, until the Androgyne, desperate to reclaim eir powers as the threat of the Reciprocators losing their registration loomed -- a circumstance that would lead to the revocation of the Androgyne's clemency agreement and an immediate reversion to fugitive status -- turned to Pariah Flux for aid. Ani allowed her to open portals to the Netherworld in eir mind, triggering a torrent of nightmarish visions and flooding eir mind with realizations of eir most horrifying fears. The resulting assault made it unbearable for Carnegie to keep her consciousness embedded within the Androgyne's own, and she withdrew, though not without leaving behind some obstacles the Androgyne has yet to overcome.

The Androgyne once again perceives the greater mass of mostly insignificant threads that represent eir connections to myriad people e's yet to meet, allowing em access to most of the defensive and offensive applications e has developed in manipulating the threads. Ani remained blind to the threads it is most vital to em to perceive: those of eir friends, allies and loved ones, until mid-2010, when the Reciprocator and psychic Dreamshark helped to undo some of the damage Carnegie left behind. Ani can once again see all the threads of Fate, but must pursue further treatment before e is able to manipulate them as e can the others again.

It also remains to be seen if Flux's "treatment" has had a greater impact on Ani's mental stability than e has thus far let on.