Mercedes Gallen

Mercedes Salem Gallen (codename Warwolf) is a character made for both canon and non-canon stories in Expanded Universe dealing with life in the post-interrealm world, a result after the events of Downfall and the Battle of Brookmont. She is regarded as one of the very first giants made through the use of magi-technology and bio-infusion, thanks in part to a secret project Interrealm had, but abandoned many years go. The character is inspired by the character Arsena by DocWolph and with the open participation of Dnapalmhead of his macro story/comic universe.
==Biography==
===Little Runt in the Army===
Mercedes was born and raised as part of the Willowbrook pack in the region of Dakota. She is what Lycan society calls a "static" werewolf, ones who have the ability to shift between forms but choose to ether stay or are stuck permanently as is in their bestial form. Mercedes learns much about the natural world and very useful hunting and fighting skills including solo survival training from her parents. Along with time with the pack, she also has time making relationships with the humans in the nearby towns of Halsey and Tabernacle since the pack has jurisdiction power over them.
Most of her human and fellow pack-mates often call her "Little Runt" because of her meek 6'2" size which is small by Lycan standards. They often tease her and take advantage of her small stature during hunts and fights but she always uses it to her advantage to beat them... sometimes. When she turned 18, it makes her eligible to take up the five-year commitment under the Solterran NST, much to the pack's objections since they are exempt from that requirement.
Mercedes does try to prove that her own abilities can be useful and after much "endurance", she is finally let go to take the National Service Term, as an officer of the military.
===Days in the Army===
The days since the joined the army were as expected: Harsh, tough and merciless, it became the brutal hell week anyone would experience. Insane tests, long hikes through brutal terrain and survival in both chemical and electrical attack tests. Even one-on-one fights with the Staff Sargent Tak Brenez, to which he never lost a match with. Few have washed out and many have "survived" to make it into the next level of training and Mercedes is worn beyond any means to continue. Then during a live fire exercise in front of officials, One of the soldiers are testing a new rapid-fire heavy rifle when suddenly it went out of control, firing rounds all over the base. While many fled for their lives, Mercedes can not let the rifle going and endangering lives and against the orders of her superiors. Mercedes rushes in for an opening and breaks the gun apart with her own strength.
Later that day, Mercedes was reprimanded for endangering her life and possibly many others and are contemplating having her ejected and readied for court martial over her reckless actions. However one of the people who was there at the incident ordered those charges be stricken from the record and to have her met with Dr. Neti first thing in the morning.
===Mercedes and Dr. Neti===
The following morning, Mercedes packed up her bags and is awaited by two soldiers, still fearing her punishment which she thought is unfair beyond words. As they take her away from base, she then arrived far into the mountains into another base where she meets Dr. Neti. Which in turn told Mercedes of what she did was actually brave and was amazed by her strength as well. Mercedes explained that the gun is like a giant moose she and her pack-mates a long time ago and how they handled it. The doctor is impressed and also of her strength as well for someone of her stature.
Those qualities are very much in need of what he has to offer Mercedes, a chance to make her better, stronger and faster than before. It did made the young werewolf curious but also concerned as well. Neti assured her that it's nothing to worry about but he also told her of the current situation. Ever since Interrealm has fallen, new threats emerged, nations that shouldn't have this tech are spreading out. The old guard is gone but their resources still remain. The Multiverse has grown more dangerous and her training in the Army isn't inadequate for someone like her. That is why he chose her to be the perfect candidate for Project Atlas.
===Project Atlas and the Birth of Warwolf===
Sitting in a separate room with Dr. Neti, he explains to Mercedes the details of what project atlas is. It was a special magi-tech/bio-infusion method intended to make powerful super soldiers. Difference is that these new warriors would be immune to the physical forces, rules and laws of any universe they come to, all from declassified Interrealm files prior to its downfall. It was about to be terminated until they found something in a suitable "donor" from another universe that would make it possible to create growth-type soldiers. From the government's view it was flawed as earlier footage showed test animals went through a variety of horrific transformations, shrinkages and even explosions. But today, they have improved the process to prevent such things from happening.
Though that bit of confidence didn't sway Mercedes much, she needed time to think, especially of what she is getting herself into, also fearing that her refusal would just throw her back right into the court-martial. As she sleeps, she remembers, what has transpired years ago and how much the world has changed after Interrealm collapsed along with what Solterrans called the "Old Government". Solterra and most of the Thirteen Realms are now plagued with new problems no nation thought they would have faced, with Ka-tao insurgents, hard-liners who want the technology banished and the Order of the Five Eyes being the primary threat. Solterra is left with these problems and need someone tough to handle it. That is what the werewolf believe she is chosen for.
The following morning, Mercedes makes her decision to go forward and become their test subject. After what she told Neti of why she is going forward with this, he understands foremost that she would not go back into the lion's den of court-martial because she did the right thing but it was old-government thinking that got made them see it differently and the other is his assurance that she is right, the mutliverse has gotten more dangerous and it needs tougher souls to handle it.
In another part of the base, Mercedes is suited in a special infusion suit which will (in theory) infuse every cell in her body with the donor material along with solon atoms a primordial byproduct of voidspace that would render her immune to any quantum force. After that she will be hoisted into a massive vat where the material is and then infused. After being centered in the vat, switches and turbines are active and her body withers and strains as the fluid violently absorbs into her body until every last drop is taken. She then laid to rest outside of of the vat and can only watch the results. Mercedes looks at her arm and watches it violently expand and rip out of the suit, with muscles spreading all over, she panics as she begins to grew bigger and stronger.
Many feared that she would explode, but Neti didn't came to far to lose her and against protocol, raced into the vat chamber to help Mercedes control her growth, in by that time has grown to the size of the massive room. Neti calmly instructs Mercedes to be calm and think smaller or anything that would put her mind at ease, Soon enough her muscles and body did stop growing and soon began to shrink back down all the way until she is back to her normal size after a brief re-expansion to a build of a heavy bodybuilder. She hugged Neti in relief and will help her through in controlling this new power.
For months, Mercedes began her training in controlling her growth and exploring how much her muscles can take on against heavy forces, extreme environments and artillery that alien armies would use against her. Over time she mastered how to control the growth of selective parts of her body, make herself bigger without extra muscles and concentrate more on strength than size. But often she wants to test how far big can she get and until latter missions, her maximum was a mere three-hundred feet and five thousand tons for mass. Mercedes now believes she is ready for anything the military could use her for and Neti believes so too. But to make it fitting for someone like her in the ongoing "war", Mercedes is given a special codename: Warwolf.
Her first missions were various where her size and strength would be last-resort tactics when dealing in special assignments. But when it does come to that, Mercedes uses it to takeout insurgent leaders, stopping renegade summons by evil sorcerers, and waves of invading armies on other planets. In the first three years of her service, Warwolf rose to the rank of captain of this special force and things have been looking up to her since. However, it would be a matter of time before project Atlas would be active again, but for far sinister reasons.
=== The Fall of Atlas ===
As with most successes, this falls prey to the ambitions and twisted wises of power-hungry officials who would want to further the project for their own greedy means. No one has kind of ambition than the successor of Project Atlas: General Pietro. Pietro learns much about the success of the last attempt and duplicates it to make more powerful soldiers loyal to him instead of the greater good. Under his orders, not only he gathered seventeen very skilled soldiers of various species, readied in suits and submerged in the nutrient vat ready to get his line of super soldiers.
Neti caught up to Pietro's plan and tries to stop it, knowing what he is doing is far beyond the safe parameters of what made Warwolf in the first place. After a ensuing fight, Pietro shoots Neti and fires up the machine. Just as he predicted, the infusion process begins, Neti struggling to live, activates the bas self-destruct devices in order to prevent any of the new soldiers from ever leaving. Unable to stop the countdown, everyone evacuates the base, everyone except for Mercedes who races back inside. There she witnesses the new line of soldiers undergo radically painful transformations. Others dissolve into nothing, others with their muscles grow faster than their bodies can keep up and violently explode. One female volunteer swelled up so much, she bursts out of her suit and crushes the remaining subjects against the vat wall. Too late to save any of them or stop the machine, Mercedes saves Neti and leaves Pietro as he gets washed away in the nutrients and crushed by the wall of growing mass.
With a great leap, Mercedes grows to survive the falling debris and massive explosion that followed that destroys the base and hopefully any trace of the runaway experiment. Shrinking back down with Neti in her arms, she urges him to hold on but ultimately dies. Mercedes loses the only friend she had through her change and the project itself now lost forever.
=== One Year Later ===
The Solterran armed forces has no knowledge of the project, Pietro's actions or Neti apart of it being just another failed super soldier program and have perished due to unforeseen events. In her regular size, Mercedes did face a tribunal for disobeying orders at the time of evacuation of the base. She testifies of what had transpired that made her decision plausible. The tribunal's decision is to cover it up permanently and Mercedes to swear to never discuss the nature of project Atlas or to use her abilities in any way, shape or form or to face the death penalty. Mercedes is shocked to learn that they would go this far, but the tribunal made their decision final. After that, she is discharged from service and her life as the size-shifting werewolf died before it had begun...
...Or so it would seem after she walked out of the courtroom. she is met by a man, named Dr. Phelan Carter who wants to have a sit down with her and discuss a special opportunity in joining Solterra's new inter-dimensional agency. Mercedes quickly refuses knowing what the military will do but he cuts in, talking about Project Atlas and the fact that Neti was once his former students many years ago and without his tutelage would not have perfected the project. He is there because he feels that he owes it to one of his best students that his work does not go in vain and for Mercedes to have more than to live under the threat of death. That's why he assures her that his "people" tell the military that they don't have power over her and her potential and made sure the tribunal gets the message.
Mercedes, could not believe all this, Phelan doesn't make that offer with an "or else". He makes it that she can take the offer or just leave with a normal life, he owes her that much. As he walks away, Mercedes ask Dr. Carter of this organization and he replies with S.A.I.F.: Solterran Armed Interuniversal Force. Letting her know that though she is off the hook, it would be a shame to let her new talents to got waste over Old government mentalities, if she is strong and willing enough, he can be reached. The werewolf did take time to think it over and eventually contacts Phelan and joins S.A.I.F. under the same codename; with greater responsibilities and time to serve her nation. She is the first and only successful remnant of a fallen organization still living on to do one thing: Protect and defend the multiverse, as Warwolf.
==Other Info==
*Mercedes' physiology comes with a special feature called a "genomic lock" which means if she gets captured by a rogue what would want to extract anything, it would be impossible to duplicate the infusion properties of Atlas.
*Warwolf wears a special suit that is made mostly of hyper-compressed Kevlar, high-tensile carbon fibers and low level Attenuatium. All inter-weaved with Nonnative Strange Matter to adjust to her shifting abilities without tearing.
*Her primary weapon of choice is a custom-made cannon-gun she calls "The Howler". A 3.5 ton gun made out of a old battleship turret,
*Serves independently on high-risk missions but can work with teams sometimes as their leader and other times as a second in command. Being a level-1 captain in S.A.I.F. leaves her some flexibility in rank and responsibilities.
== Gallery ==
Category:Interrealm Universe
Category:Dramatis Personae
Category:Interrealm Operatives (All Universes)