From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Early Life 1.2 Adult Life 1.3 Birth of a Villain 1.4 Arrested 1.5 The Final Order

Background

Early Life

Kurt Vonnegut Schoffield was born, nameless, to two perfectly normal suburban parents. Unfortunately, Kurt wasn't normal. In a city like modern Paragon, this might not have been a problem. Kurt was, however, born in a commune to members of the white supremacist cult Aryan Sunshine. Suffice it to say that when he came out of his mother's womb with azure skin, horn buds, orange eyes, and a wisp or two of dark blue hair... Well, his birth wasn't well received, to put it nicely. His parents were ashamed of his existence.

Raised as a slave perceived as being barely more than an animal, Kurt learned early on that life is unfair. He escaped into a fantasy realm in his own mind where he wasn't nameless, referred to only as "the slave," but a powerful king, ruling the world. The world would prosper under his guidance, little boys wouldn't be placed into servitude simply for not looking like everyone else. Everyone would love him, their beloved King Va'adwahr. He called himself Va'adwahr (VAH aud-wahr) in his mind, a name he created himself.

When he was seven, police raided the community he was raised in and all the children were ferried to foster care in the region. Kurt ended up in the big city, Chicago. Metahumans weren't unheard of in Chicago, and a prestigious psychiatrist and his counselor wife decided to adopt as they found that all natural and artificial methods of reproduction proved unfruitful. Doctor James Schoffield and his wife Mary knew they wanted to adopt Kurt, even though he was older than they had initially wanted. His story was just too sad and they feared no one else would take him. They felt perhaps fate had landed them, with their expertise, in the lap of the poor child.

They named the child Kurt Vonnegut Schoffield and after a couple years of repairative work with the child, felt he was ready for public school. Kurt took to education like a fish to water, absorbing information like his mind was a sponge. When Kurt was ten, James's brother and sister-in-law were killed in a car wreck and their fourteen-year-old daughter Christi came to live with James. Kurt and Christi got along fairly well, though they had little in common interest-wise.

Life was going well, Kurt was doing well in middle school, despite the kids bugging him about his appearance. Most of them had never seen a person whose skin blue before. When his skin (which was covered in barely discernable, tiny smooth scales) started growing large scales in some areas, and his horns began growing, dark blue, from their buds, he started to become more of a target.

One day as he was walking to school, Kurt was assaulted, much as he had been various times over the past few weeks, by a group of kids who probably meant him no true harm. Life doesn't always turn out as we expect. The scene began as many bullying activities with the kids pushing Kurt around, calling him names and such. They pushed Kurt too far this time, and Kurt pushed one of them back. Not expecting the normally passive freak to push back, the kid stumbled out into the street, right into the path of a moving car. Fortunately, the car wasn't going very fast and the kid was merely thrown into the street and suffered scrapes, bruises, and a mild concussion.

Kurt ran over to make sure the kid was alright. When his hand came into contact with the bully's bloodied face, he instinctively released a chemical from glands he didn't even know he had. The secretion dulled the kids pain and, while it wasn't obvious at the time, began an acceleration of the healing process in the skin. The bully was taken to the hospital, checked out fine, was sent home for a couple days rest, and Kurt was cleared of responsibility for the incident.

Kurt, however, did tell his father about what happened with the secretion from his hand. James explained to Kurt that, as he knew, he was different from other kids. The differences were likely more than simply appearances. He explained to Kurt that while other boys were beginning to change into men, Kurt's changes could be more severe. Kurt agreed to be taken to one of James's friends from college whose degree was anatomical sciences. Doctor Voigt did a physical and performed some tests on Kurt and found out that Kurt did have some glands in the skin of his hands that released a compound that helped speed tissue regeneration. Also, glands were found in Kurt's mouth, but these had apparantly not yet fully developed. Though he did have hair on his head and in a couple other key areas, Kurt was growing larger scales on his arms and legs. Other than that, Kurt was maturing much like any other boy his age.

The secretion from his hands and the glands in his mouth became somewhat of a secret obsession with Kurt. He spent hours in the bathroom, door locked, measuring the development of the glands in his mouth and testing out the secretion from his hands. Christi was often frustrated with the bathroom they shared always being occupied, and assumed other, less scientific reasons for the door always being locked.

In high school, Kurt had started on the road to becoming a nice young man, however inhuman his appearance may have indicated. Very interested in science, especially organic chemistry, Kurt was also very involved in athletics. Most of the other kids had accepted him by this time and didn't generally bother him, aside from the standard joking around teenagers are prone to do. (He quickly earned the unwanted moniker Blue Balls do to an obvious combination of his skin tone and male anatomy observed in the showers. Even by graduation, he hadn't been able to quell the usage of the nickname.) Not wanting for much due to his parents' successful careers, Kurt was probably a bit spoiled.

It wasn't long before he noticed that the glands in his mouth were swelling. He would often accidentally bite on them, though it rarely hurt unless he bit down too hard. One time while he bit on them, a bitter liquid was pushed out. A similar green color to the secretion from his hands, he wondered if it served a similar purpose. It wasn't until graduation was well behind him and much of his time in college that he found out what this compound did.

During a football game, for no apparent reason, he fell to his knees, unable to breathe. He was taken to the infirmary, still struggling for breath despite no apparent reason for his breathlessness. His face turning a dark violet color, he looked desperately at the doctor, who didn't know what to do. Kurt closed his eyes, suffocating, when a large portal opened in the center of the room. The portal emitted a dark energy and a faint red light. Apparently, the portal also leaked an invisible gas as well, one Kurt was able to breathe. James, having immediately moved to the infirmary after Kurt's collapse, was able to use his contacts in the scientific community to bring in someone who could provide answers.

Kurt's lungs could no longer process oxygen, a side effect of his mutation. He now needed a gas not found naturally on Earth. Fortunately, it could be synthesized from elements naturally found in the air. After only a week in a room vented with the gas, Crey Industries came to James and Kurt with a respirator that could process the air like the machines ventilating Kurt's room, yet was small enough that Kurt could wear it with minimal interference to everyday life.

Adult Life

In college, Kurt was a studious young man. He didn't eschew campus life, but he made time for his studies in organic chemistry. Certain extra-curricular studies in his own secretions determined that the stuff from his hands not only accelerated healing, it actually provided the healing flesh with a resistance to other chemicals. The stuff in his mouth actually provided a somewhat reversed effect. The compound weakened the flesh and made it less resistant to damage of various types. Unfortunately in the first case and fortunately for the latter, he was himself immune to the effects of either.

It wasn't long before young Kurt was Doctor Kurt Schoffield, working for Crey Industries in organic chemistry. Despite his mutant physiology, Crey left him alone in his scientific duties in their labs. Until one day it was revealed they were studying him in secret, preparing labs and research equipment, waiting for the day they were ready.

He was going about his business, going from one routine task to a new task in a lab he'd never been allowed in before. He thought he was being promoted. He was, however, being demoted from research scientist to experiment subject. His well-known powers of chemical secretion were suppressed by a subsonic emitter set on a certain frequency on the chance he had learned to use them offensively. He was helpless. Until a group of superheroes barged into the lab on their search for an unrelated scientist.

The heroes destroyed the subsonic generators and helped Kurt while they were there. His knowledge of the facility proved useful to the heroes, as did his ability to heal their wounds occasionally. Kurt coudl very well have turned out to be a hero himself after the event. Fate had other plans. His name was on certain research files pertaining to biological weapons he had no idea he was helping to create. Of course, Crey lawyers assured that Crey had no legal responsibility for the projects. It all fell on the division head and the scientists working for him, including Kurt.

Birth of a Villain

The system failed him. Kurt was assigned a sentence to the Ziggursky Penitentiary. Kurt fled. He wasn't going to jail for something he didn't know he did. Assuming he even did what he was accused of. After the revelation that he was to be experimented on and studied, his trust in Crey was reduced to zero. For all he knew, it was simply a contingency plan of Crey's should it be found out something illegal was going on.

Kurt spent a good while on the streets of Paragon City, evading the law while he tried to figure out what to do. One night he awoke to the sounds of gunfire as Hellions and Skulls waged a small battle on the streets. After the noise died down, Kurt went out to see if anyone was still alive. One of the Hellions was dying, but still alive. He tried to save the kid with his hand secretion, to no avail. The kid's wounds were too severe. He'd seen lab animals die countless times. Watching this young man die, however, was different. While emotions chaotically flew around in his head, he bit down hard enough on his mouth sacs to release the majority of the chemical into his mouth. Impulse made him spit the bitter-tasting chemical out of his mouth almost immediately. He'd gotten used to the taste in small quantities, but that much all at once made him gag.

The chemical splattered over the bare chest of the Hellion, combining with the secretion already applied to the gunshot wounds. The body immediately absorbed the chemicals through the skin and the body groaned. Kurt blinked at the Hellion, still dead, yet moaning incomprehensibly. As Kurt stared in disbelief, a tugging in the back of his mind gained his attention. He could "feel" the corpse. He got to his feet and looked up and down the street to see if anyone was watching. He piled the bodies of the Skulls and Hellions into a stolen car and sped off to find a place to test some things.

He found a warehouse that appeared to be occupied by a small group of Hellions. By this time, the corpse he had reanimated had aged as if it were in the ground for a while, looking rather emaciated. His connection to it, though, became stronger as he concentrated ans was able to make it move, rather sluggishly, across the floor and into the group of Hellions. It bashed at them with its arms, but was soon torn to pieces by the gangers. So he reanimated another and sent it in as well.

Except this time, he spit some toxin from his mouth at the Hellion his zombie pawn was beating on and threw in a pocket of healing salve from his hands to the zombie when it was getting hurt. The combination proved successful and soon the Hellions were lying unconscious on the ground and the zombie standing still, awaiting orders from its master. Kurt had further use of it, so he mentally disconnected from the zombie and it fell to the ground, practically exploding as it was consumed by the same type of energy that came out of the portal that day when he lost his ability to breathe Terran air.

He secured the unconscious Hellions, revived them, and kept them prisoner. Until one of them sent a ball of flame his way. Fortunately, he was able to duck out of the way. He was, however, mostly defenseless. All he could do was spit his toxin at the Hellion, obviously one of their leaders with the power he was tossing around. Kurt looked over where he had put the dead bodies. He had not yet gotten any cold storage for them, but they were quite a distance across the warehouse. Apparently that was no problem, though. As he clenched his teeth and cursed the distance, a portal to the dark world opened beneath the corpse and another opened right in front of him. Just after the body dropped in the first, it rose from the second. Then the two portals closed.

Kurt applied the two chemicals to the body and commanded it to rise when he felt the now-familiar presence in the back of his head. He commanded the zombie in to beat on the Hellion, healing as well he could the damage from the fire. Once the Hellion was again subdued, Kurt stared at him for a moment. That first time, it was hard, killing a sentient being. He felt he had no choice.

Kurt spent many nights performing experiments on the teleportation and chemicals. Killing the Hellion firecaster led to using the remaining Hellions as human guinea pigs. He had come a long way in learning how to apply his abilities in the heat of combat. Even going so far as learning how to pull bodies out of the dark dimension just after sending what he dubbed his "Elixer of Undeath" in to reanimate them in one compact action.

Arrested

Then came the hero. Dark-skinned, demon-tailed, glowing-eyed... At first Kurt thought him a demon... Wearing a backwards baseball cap and baggy clothes. Clearly not a demon, Kurt brought in a zombie and sent it after the guy. Kurt saw tendrils of a familiar energy erupt from the figure's skin as he beat the zombie up and turned his glowing violet eyes to Kurt. "You're the one they call Va'adwahr," the young male's voice stated more than questioned. But Kurt was already raising another zombie. "Who do I have the pleasure of vanquishing today?" he asked the figure as the zombie shambled forward. Surely it was some kid playing hero, he didn't sound older than a teenager. Maybe early twenties if he was a late bloomer.

The figure didn't care too much with the pleasantries of hero/villain banter, and frankly it suited Kurt just fine. After felling the second zombie, the kid came after Kurt. All Kurt could do was spit at the guy while he tried to pull up another zombie. He was still recuperating from the last summoning though and had to resort to fists, something he was way outskilled at. The last thing he heard before falling unconscious was, "Did you find him, Netherboy?"

Kurt woke up in the processing center of the Ziggursky Penitentiary, his past catching up with him. The false accusations of Crey held in trial, but he had gathered quite a few true charges on his own that it didn't really matter. Even with his abilities suppressed like everyone else's, no one bothered Va'adwahr in the Ziggurat. He had a natural air of menace; a certain look in his eye, a way he held himself. Two years he spent loathing the facility he was kept. Two years he spent further developing his childhood fantasy world image of himself as a king. Two years he waiting for a chance to make this dream a reality.

After two years of waiting, the Ziggurat was attacked by Arachnos. Many prisoners were released from their cells, but only a fraction of them climbed above the rest to prove themselves to be Lord Recluse's "Destined Ones." Va'adwahr was one of them, however little he cared to work for someone else. However, he had to bide his time. He'd waited this long, he wasn't above using those who were using him. However twisted it had become from that innocent childhood dream, it was there, waiting to be fulfilled. He had a dream to fulfill, and a means now to fulfill it.

It wasn't long before he was out amongst the Rogue Isles, using his abilities for Arachnos, against Arachnos, for himself and others. Ultimately, he's gaining strength for the day when he will rise above the world and hold it under his fist. Or die in the process.

The Final Order

Va'adwahr met a villainess calling herself Lady Violet. While she seemed a little disconnected from reality in a sense that she seemed far more interested in her plants than anything else, he found her to be an intelligent woman. She had many resources at her disposal, including a biochemistry lab.

Violet and Va'adwahr became friends and partners in her biochemical weapons development business. Va'adwahr joined The Final Order primarily as an assistant to Violet at first, but soon paved his own way in the group.

The Final Order
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