Cornelius Pernell

Cornelius Pernell, currently known by the name Avogadro, is a recurring character in the Aether storyline told through the Zombies mode of the Call of Duty titles developed by Treyarch. As Avogadro, Pernell serves as a major enemy in both Black Ops II's TranZit and Black Ops IIII's Alpha Omega maps.
As the Aether story features a number of different timelines and dimensions, there exist multiple versions of Cornelius Pernell throughout the chronology. Unlike the playable characters however, only two incarnations of Pernell appear. In the Revelations map of Black Ops III, an alternate timeline counterpart of Cornelius Pernell - who is a woman in this universe named Cornelia Pernell - appears in a radio transmission.
== Biography ==
During World War II, Cornelius Pernell served as a member of the United State's Office of Strategic Services, where he worked as a handler of several operatives including Doctor Peter McCain. During his time as part of the OSS, Pernell ordered McCain to infiltrate Group 935 in order to extract information relating to the German's experimentation. After McCain was transferred from somewhere in Munich to Group 935's Asylum Facility in Berlin, Pernell sent in a group of marines led by "Tank" Dempsey to rescue him, who believed Group 935 to be losing control over their test subjects.
However, this operation ended in failure as a zombie outbreak interrupted the expedition. McCain managed to escape, three of the marines were killed in action, and Corporal Dempsey was captured by Group 935 to be experimented on with Element 115.Verrückt, Call of Duty: World at War - Map Pack 1 (2009) In September 1945 Pernell contacted McCain to rendezvous with him at the Rising Sun Facility run by Group 935 and Division 9, though died when he parachuted into the building after his parachute tangled on a rafter and strangled him to death.Shi no Numa, Call of Duty: World at War - Map Pack 2 (2009)
After World War II, Pernell went on to become Station Chief of the CIA's research centre at Groom Lake, Nevada. In 1961, Pernell led the CIA operatives he commanded to recreate the German's experiments into teleportation, with the intent of linking together Groom Lake in Nevada and Griffin Station on the moon. One year later Pernell also began to lead the development of a replication of the M.P.D. present in Griffin Station in the Nevada desert.
During his attempts to create a functioning teleportation link between Groom Lake and Griffin Station, Pernell came to learn of the existence of Samantha Maxis from Group 935 scientist Doctor Schuster. Believing Samantha to be a greater threat than any other militant force, Pernell went to his superiors in hopes of receiving the necessary funding to start Project Broken Arrow in order to secure more Element 115 and prevent future zombie outbreaks.
On August 3rd, 1963, Pernell's teleportation experiments led to him meeting a group of four people, who claimed to have come from the moon and saw the destruction of the Earth. Though hesitant to believe the stories told by Nikolai Belinski and Takeo Masaki, he was inclined to do so because they kept the company of Corporal "Tank" Dempsey, who he believed to have perished after the failed operation to retrieve Peter McCain from Group 935. In addition to those three was a comatose Edward Richtofen, whom he also had knowledge of. After having the group of four go through several medical examinations and learning of how much they had been exposed to Element 115 for extended periods of time, he had them locked up in Hanger 4 in order to continue using them to test how 115 affects people. Unfortunately, this group of four - Ultimis - would go on to be rescued by their alternate universe counterparts - Primis.Classified, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 - Standalone DLC (2018)
Sometime after this, Pernell ceased his teleportation developments at Groom Lake, and travelled to the Broken Arrow facility in Nevada to continue research on the M.P.D. During this time Broken Arrow came to create a replica of this pyramid, dubbed the A.P.D. (American Pyramid Device). In addition, they created a sentient AI named Rushmore to oversee the developments on this compound. With the help of Rushmore, they also came to create robotic assistants dubbed A.D.A.M.s.Alpha Omega, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 - Map Pack 3 (2019)
During these developments a number of strange incidents began to occur around the compound. After learning about Peter McCain's death in the Rising Sun Facility, Pernell had a team go out and retrieve his body for experimentation - notably, they attempted to transfer his consciousness into the body of an A.D.A.M. robot, which they succeeded to do. Broken Arrow was also tasked by the CIA to interrogate Yuri Zavoyski, a member of the Soviet Ascension Project who had been captured after being found in the Pentagon following a zombie outbreak there, who further spoke about Samantha Maxis and the things she told him regarding the past and future; Zavoyski would go on to be electrocuted during one of Broken Arrow's interrogations. Pernell and Broken Arrow also accidentally managed to create a powerful shard of 115 theorized to exist by Group 935's Ludvig Maxis, dubbed the Elemental Shard.
Though he would go on to split the Elemental Shard in two, this crystal would go on to change Pernell's fate. By combining the 115 energy stored within the A.P.D. with the power of the Elemental Shard, Pernell shed his mortal form to become a being made of pure electrical energy. This event caused chaos in Broken Arrow, and the group's Nevada facility was shut down for roughly fifty years, and Rushmore turned off; it is heavily implied that the A.D.A.M. robots remained active and kept the facility in presentable shape, as grass was present in the area five decades later despite being in he middle of an arid desert.
As Pernell became an electrical creature, he took on the name of Avogadro. Broken Arrow managed to seal him within the A.P.D., though the combined efforts of Ultimis and Primis, who would eventually visit the site, would cause him to be released. With the assistance of a reactivated Rushmore, Avogadro's power was weakened and he was once again trapped within the A.P.D. before being teleported to a Broken Arrow site in Washington State.
In 2025, Avogadro would once again be woken up and released from his prison in Hanford, Washington. Though his powers were significantly weakened due to his imprisonment and Primis and Ultimis separating him from the Elemental Shard, the Avogadro still served as a very formidable foe who could not be defeated by normal bullets. Eventually the four survivors who he attacked - Samuel Stuhlinger, Russman, Marlton Johnson, and Abigail "Misty" Briarton - managed to defeat Pernell's electrical form for a second time, and he disappeared for good.
It should be noted that all of these events may not take place in the same dimension, especially due to Primis breaking the established cycle in which all of the previous events took place following the death of Edward Richtofen in Alcatraz.Blood of the Dead, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018)
=== Cornelia Pernell ===
Cornelia Pernell is Cornelius Pernell's counterpart from another universe. Little is known about Cornelia other than she exists, as her sole appearance in Call of Duty: Black Ops III has her recite the same transmission that her original timeline counterpart sent to Peter McCain prior to October 21, 1945.
== Game Appearances ==
=== Viva la Rose Warriors ===
Cornelius Pernell, as Avogadro, appears as an optional boss in Viva la Rose Warriors. As his body is made of electricity, all of his attacks make use of this element. Additionally, like in Black Ops II, Avogadro is not exceptionally weak to any other elements, and he does resist other electrical attacks as well.
== Trivia ==
* Cornelius Pernell is the only character known to be another gender in an alternate timeline, due to the existence of Cornelia Pernell.
== References ==
Category:Males
Category:Call of Duty Characters
Category:Call of Duty (series)
Category:Non-fanon
Category:Non-fanon characters
Category:Enemies
Category:Bosses