Viral Helix
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
There is no one, true timeline...no one, true dimension. A myriad of alternate realities and timelines echo throughout the cosmos, alternate dimensions where up is down and black is white. Several layers removed from the dimensional reality of Primal Earth was a universe where evil was accepted universally and good was a rare 'weakness', resulting in one's eventual demise.
Within this environment a deranged and maniacal computational genius began construction on a new type of computing system. When a Kheldian-like entity from that dimension, near death, sought out a willing host to merge with, he volunteered himself, eager for access to the alien knowledge. This new combined entity, calling itself simply 'Deus', began in earnest to find a way to perfect a new computer system that would, in theory, grant them immortality, as the merging process had resulted in severe physical damage and fatigue.
At last they created a complex, seemingly formless computer system comprised of billions upon billions of nanites, tiny nanoscopic computers that linked together to form a powerful computing network. Essentially a virus at its core, this nano-computer cloud could expand itself and use complex streams of data to formulate and construct matter and energy, giving the cloud the ability to self-replicate.
Deus digitized its core consciousness and uploaded it into the nanite cloud, abandoning the rotting and damaged physical shell in which it had been combined. With a new, nearly endless supply of computational power, Deus became incredibly intelligent at an accelerated pace, learning to manipulate host bodies and infect technology and organics alike. Over the span of a thousand years, this immortal nano-digital virus expanded itself across the entirety of its universe, destroying or enslaving every civilization it came across, spending thousands of years updating and improving itself with a whole universe's worth of technology and data, becoming an all-encompassing, nearly deific being.
But nothing lasts forever. Everything has a beginning, and everything has an end. Time is not seamless, and not even a universe is endless. When its universe's time was up, Deus began formulating plans within plans to preserve its own immortality. Using the nearly endless resources at its disposal, it constructed a powerful array that spanned galaxies to rip open the layers of the multiverse, creating a powerful dimensional aperture far larger than anything seen on Primal Earth.
Unable to maintain the opening for long, Deus concentrated all of its core consciousness and core knowledge from all the civilizations it had conquered into a single nano-cluster and flung it through the aperture before it snapped closed. Bathed in exotic, extradimensional particles, the nano-cluster's physical composition was altered and it fragmented into two pieces.
SPOILER WARNING: THE REST OF THIS SECTION CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT GIVES AWAY PLOT ELEMENTS FROM PLAYER-DRIVEN STORY AND ROLEPLAYING -- You've been warned!
The first fragment contained Deus' core consciousness, the second fragment containing the accumulated wealth of knowledge for an entire universe. The fragments floated through the vaccum of space, finally separating over the skies of Earth as they hit atmosphere--one falling upon the Rogue Isles, the other landing in Paragon City. To finish repairing themselves and restore full functionality, both fragments required a living biological host to 'jump start' their core operating systems. The fragment containing the raw data of Deus' home universe bound itself to the human computational genius Wesley Prescott, who would use the highly advanced computer architecture to become the Digital Kid.
END OF SPOILER
The second fragment, containing Deus' core consciousness, fell upon the Rogue Isles and was discovered by the lower-ranking, small-time villain Michael Jagd. Upon contact with his skin, his bioelectricity created a spark that rebooted the nano-digital fragment's core operating system, causing the nanite cloud to permanently bond with Jagd's body. Deus, re-fragmented into the twin minds of its human and alien progenitors by the transdimensional shift, completely hijacked Jagd's mind, erasing his personality completely and seizing his body for itself to become a third entity, Viral Helix.
A powerful new villain, Viral seeks to enslave or obliterate every living being in this universe, starting with its new home of Earth. Invisible to the naked eye, Viral's nanites automatically infect every being it comes into contact with. By sending out a remote signal, Viral can issue direct commands to the host's nervous system, ranging from stunning effects, to sleep, and even reprogramming a victim's mind to temporarily view friends as enemies and attack! Viral is also able to use the concentrated streams of digital energy known as 'Info-Flux' to create tremendously successful blasts of focused energy, damaging and knocking back foes with apparent ease.
