Alex Mercer

*This article uses material from the “Alex Mercer” article on the Prototype Wiki at FANDOM is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.*

**Dr. Alexander "Alex" J. Mercer**, also known as **The Prototype** or by his codename **Zeus**, is the main protagonist from the *Prototype* games.

Alex is a man who wakes up in the GENTEK morgue with bizarre and horrifying powers and no knowledge of events prior to that point, aside from his name and that he was once a scientist. Confused, enraged, and determined to reclaim his past, he sets out to do so by hunting down his old colleagues.

In the AWA fics, Alex is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

While the virus itself can take anybody's form through consumption, in its typical form it looks identical to the deceased Gentek scientist Alex Mercer due to the Blacklight Virus recreating Mercer's body down to the genetic level.

Mercer has very pale skin, probably a result of being the Blacklight Virus since his skin appeared tanner in his picture with Karen Parker. His eyes are light blue and constantly have a sickly gray tinting around them.

While rarely seen without his hood, he has curly brown hair that he supposedly kept slicked back, although it's not known exactly what his hair looked like post-reanimation since he never dropped his hood.

The "clothes" worn by Mercer aren't actually clothes, but Biomass, mimicking the outfit Alex Mercer wore to Penn Station on the night of his death. On his upper body, he wears three layers of clothes: a button-up white shirt with a protruding collar kept partially buttoned, a plain gray hoodie, and a black leather jacket with a red interior, two horizontal white lines on each sleeve, and a red tribal design on the back. On his lower body, he wears plain blue jeans and black shoes. It should be noted that Mercer's clothing is physically a part of his anatomy and therefore he is unable to take them off without shapeshifting. Interesting though, that only the biomass mimics the clothing, which is organic matter, but Mercer will also consume the non-organic matter (for example metal and plastics) and he can use electronic equipment such as a walkie-talkie while disguised.

In *Prototype 2*, when Mercer uses any of his Offensive Powers, his veins glow bright orange unlike the full black coloring in the first game. During his final battle with Heller, after he absorbed Sabrina Galloway and the other Evolved, Mercer's slender appearance changed into a muscular-sized build and he grew somewhat taller, his claws are always out throughout his fight with Heller, and both of his irises glow crimson red, as a result of his enhanced power.

## **Personality**

Perhaps as a result of his difficult childhood, Alex is a callous, spiteful, and cold-blooded individual, both paranoid and borderline sociopathic. Most notably, prior to his human death at Penn Station, he released the deadly Blacklight virus simply to spite those who denied him information. His motivations and plans are utterly personal and he rarely takes human cost into account, being able to murder scores of humans without remorse or hesitation.

However, Alex is not completely cruel and heartless; he deeply trusts and cares for his younger sister Dana, having been the only real paternal figure for her, and had what can be assumed to be a loving relationship with Karen Parker.

Before his death, Alex was a contrast of what Prototype showed. He was positive, and full of life and often played games with his sister Dana, showing a close bond between the two. However, when Dana betrays Alex at the end of the game, she says "the Alex I knew died a long time ago". Alex was hurt, but then said "I'm beyond life and death".

Unfortunately, after repeated betrayals and mishaps during his time away from NYZ after the initial outbreak, Mercer's worldview became increasingly cynical and nihilistic. He decided that stopping the outbreak was a mistake and started a new one himself to usher in a new race; he claimed he was making a better world by doing so. In his new role as the leader of the Infected, Alex pursued his goal of spreading the virus in a far more active and aggressive manner than Elizabeth Greene ever did, even inserting spies within both Blackwatch and Gentek and using their resources and scientists to do so.

## **Abilities**

Once reanimated by the Blacklight virus, every particle of Mercer's form, including his clothing and equipment, becomes comprised entirely of viral biomass. This substance can be manipulated at will. He can absorb the organic matter of other living creatures, converting it into more biomass. This process sustains and regenerates Mercer's health and is referred to as 'consuming'. In addition, Mercer can consume individuals, absorbing their knowledge, skills, and even their physical form, which he can call upon at will. He can manipulate his physical form to create weapons to attack his enemies, generate armor to defend himself, and take on the appearance of another person to disguise himself. During his battle against James Heller, he displayed the ability to consume multiple of his Evolved soldiers at the same time in order to power up his abilities.

### **PHYSICAL PROWESS**

Alex's shapeshifting powers grant him superhuman physical abilities well beyond that of a normal Human.

* **Shapeshifting:** Mercer's Blacklight infection has granted him the ability to both shapeshift and fashion his body into weapons. An example this would be his Blade resembling a giant sharp blade and his viral flesh possessing a yellow/reddish hue. His Whipfist has small razor-like blades across its spine-like form. Alex's evolved Hammerfists allow him to perform area attacks. He possesses consumption/assimilation abilities inherent in all infected creatures that allow him to take on the form and memories of any creature he consumes.
* **Superhuman Strength:** His incredible strength allows him to lift and destroy cars, trucks, tank turrets, APCs, and helicopters and throw them great distances, as well as leave craters in the ground with punches. He is far stronger than any normal human or most basic Infected, able to pulverize both with a single, glancing blow. Mercer is capable of punching holes through almost anything if necessary, including reinforced steel doors.[3] Some of his most powerful attacks can destroy hive infested buildings, which cannot be damaged by conventional tank missiles.
* **Superhuman Speed:** Mercer's speed is likewise enhanced. He can achieve running speeds surpassing any vehicles including Helicopters, he can also run up walls.
* **Superhuman Agility:** He can perform amazing parkour feats such as flips and rolls and maneuvers over and around vehicles and debris with little trouble. His leg strength allows him to leap nearly ten stories into the air. Mercer is also capable of gliding, by ejecting small amounts of mass for further propulsion.
* **Superhuman Endurance:** Mercer's endurance far exceeds that of a human's by leaps and bounds. His body no longer possesses weak bones or vital organs, rendering him immune to otherwise debilitating injury. This biological change allows him to survive falls from any height completely unharmed. Bullets of any caliber will pass through his body, causing very little damage that heals instantly. He can withstand direct hits from rockets, hellfire missiles and tank shells, which cause only moderate damage. The superhumanly strong blows of the various type of Hunters and super soldiers cause the most damage of any type of attack. His superhuman stamina allows him to be physically active at all times without tire.
* **Healing Factor:** Mercer's body has vast powers of self-regeneration. So long as he is properly nourished, Mercer can restore his health and heal any wounds within moments. He can heal a small amount of his health even without consuming any creature. Examples include regenerating bullet wounds instantly after being shot, regenerating a massive hole in his face after being shot point-blank by General Randall, and reconstructing his entire physical form from non-descript piles of biomass and the biomass of a crow within minutes of being blown apart by a nuclear explosion. Mercer also seems to have a robust immune system. Though unable to counter a parasite which had been introduced into his body without outside help, he gained a growing immunity to Bloodtox with repeat exposure.
* **Superhuman Senses:** Mercer's vision and hearing are enhanced, allowing him to see beyond the visible spectrum and hear across great distances even with physical insulation. He has thermal vision which allows him to locate heat signatures, and infected vision which can detect large concentrations of the virus and tap into the hive mind itself.
* **Durability:** Mercer's body is greatly increased that he can survive extreme blunt trauma, he can survive through collapsing buildings fall on him and walk out of the rubble as it was nothing. Mercer can take a shot from a rocket launcher and can only be pushed back a bit by the force without blowing to pieces like a normal human.
	+ **Adaptability:** The Blacklight Virus is capable of adapting itself to certain elements after a continuous exposure to said element. For example, in the comic book, after being inhibited and slowed down by more than 10Gs of gravitational force he then walked away from it as if the force never even existed.

### **OFFENSIVE POWERS**

Mercer can form his biomass into a variety of weapons, mostly slicing or crushing tools. In combat, he either uses biomass to create various blades and clubs.

### **DEFENSIVE POWERS**

Mercer can use two defensive powers, guarding him against enemy attacks and weapons. Mercer has two forms of defense, the Armor, and the Shield.

### **DISGUISE POWER**

Mercer has the ability to assume the physical form of any human he's consumed, though, for gameplay purposes, the player is limited to the last human they consumed. In this manner, Mercer can infiltrate the military as one of them, duck out of sight and emerge as someone else to evade pursuit, and in general, avoid drawing attention by disguising himself as someone else.

## **Trivia**

* In the beta version of *Prototype*, Mercer was depicted with a black bubble jacket and white hoodie. He was later changed so as to differ from Altaïr from *Assassin's Creed*.
* It is mentioned in a bio for Mercer, located on the official *Prototype* website, that he has blue eyes and brown hair, although in game his eyes appear bluish-silver, and his hair is in fact black. His bio also states that he is 5' 10" (1.79 m) tall, weighs 190 lbs (86 kg) in his human form, and is twenty-nine years old.
* His official bio also states his "personality traits" which are: distant, predatory, super-intelligent, terrifying, vengeful, blank, and searching.
* In one Web of Intrigue node, it is speculated by Blackwatch operatives that Mercer is the first and only male Runner in the history of the evolution of Blacklight virus.
* When you activate a power and stand idle for a few seconds, Mercer will perform an action that resembles his current power. (Ex. When Musclemass is active, he will beat his fists together.)
* Mercer's jacket colors are the colors of the two major factions in the game, Blackwatch and the Infected.
* "Well. We intended Alex to be...well one of the most powerful characters in video game if you believe it. We made him powerful enough to lift cars, tanks, destroy buildings and even kicking helicopters off the air. Fast enough to outrun even the fastest vehicles. I think it's safe to say that we did a pretty good job in doing so (chuckles)"-Tim Bennison, the executive producer of *Prototype*, describing Mercer as one of the most powerful video game characters ever created.
* Dennis Detwiller, the senior designer and writer of *Prototype*, said there is "no cute fuzzy bunny in Alex Mercer's future". This quote could be read as a hint at Mercer's eventual death at the hands of James Heller, although Detwiller himself left Radical Entertainment in 2009 and was not involved in the making of *Prototype 2*.
* Many fans of the series have speculated that Mercer could possibly be still alive or that the Mercer that Heller consumed was actually a perfect clone of himself. Whether or not any of these rumors are true, it is still unclear if Mercer survived his fight with James Heller.
	+ When the player views one of his memories in *Prototype 2* after Heller's battle with him, in the memory, Mercer states that he is, "no longer bound by life and death," which further implies that it *might*be possible for him to have survived the fight with James Heller (though this has been neither confirmed nor denied).
	+ Considering that Mercer regenerated from a literal puddle of radioactive biomass, his severed limbs possibly could regenerate if touched by organics.
* NECA released an action figurine of Mercer with his Blade power active.
* Mercer utilizes all of his offensive powers at some point in *Prototype 2* except for the Musclemass power, defensive powers, and his Devastators.
* As a reward for completing all 5 weeks of Radnet content, players will receive an Alex Mercer skin so you can appear to look like Mercer while playing *Prototype 2*.
* An upcoming movie, *The Prototype*, which is not related to the game, has the main character wear an attire similar to Mercer's.
* It is possible that Mercer's ultimate goal was to consume all biomass. Pre-final battle with Heller, he states that he wants humanity to be joined in "one body." If this is the case, he wouldn't have seen consuming the Evolved as a bad thing. To him, it was just redistributing biomass in a more efficient way.
* Mercer's Blade changed appearance at his final battle with Heller.
* Mercer and Heller are called "It" for they have the ability to shapeshift into male or female.
* Mercer's jacket is available at game Crime Revolt.