Project Protagonist

"The Protagonist of the story is the one who dictates the ending of the story."

## **Overview**

Project Protagonist is a top-secret black ops program of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States. It recruited only U.S. Service members or law officials to turn them into nearly superhuman assassins and was formed in direct response to the Congressional Act which banned the U.S. from partaking in any assassinations, as sometimes assassination is considered necessary to keep the United States safe. As sleeper agents they lead normal lives (piano teachers, businessmen, etc) until "activated". At this point they can be quickly deployed on missions after which they presumably go back to their daily lives until called upon again. Access to Protagonist archives and files requires a Level 5 Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearance or higher. The program is fairly new, with the KPD and US government wanting a way to send in agents but to completely take away the risk of them begin captured or them revealing information. Essentially they had to sacrifice the lives of over thousands of people in order create an elite and nonexistent army to carry out covert missions and gain information. Unlike the more flashy ways of the Lion Corp or Wolf Battalion, they stick to the shadows. Remaining hidden to the common man. The program is meant to use sleeper agents that hide in plain sight on a daily. Members and people that are “sleep” and when “awoken” they are preprogrammed to carry out a set task whether it be infiltration, assassination, or recon. It used a behavior-modification program to break down the assassins' morality and make them effective nearly unstoppable living weapons. Protagonist is so top-secret that various Deputy Directors of the CIA have no idea that it even exists. The base is located in Kasiahana City and looks simply like a dilapidated house but is in reality a fortress, having bullet resistant glass and multiple security systems. It is built for discretion and to be hidden beneath the eye of the public. They could have as many as 10...to 100 men in one area and you'd never know it.

## **The Protagonist Serum**

The roots of the Protagonist Serum stem from one of the most prominent super solider serums known to man: the Z Serum. The "Z-Human" Project is the name given to the super soldier development project that is privately funded by Danchou Zetsubou and approved by the Kasaihana Police Department. The basic theory of the project is a serious of painful injections of procedures in the form of a fluid called tetroxclimine and a gas call zetopamenthanix, two elements discovered by Danchou's private team of scientists, and introduce them into the blood stream and cerebral cortex. They are allowed to incubate within the bloodstream, requiring low exposure to waves of gamma radiation to activate the two elements within the bloodstream. Research from the team of scientist have showed that 3% of the 136 test subjects survived the procedures. Each time, the process was perfected more and more, the scientists mainly testing on primates in an underground research facility. The ground breaking moment came when the scientists successfully tested the process, now modified a total of 57 times, upon ten primates. Each one showed increased strength, speed, and mental processing.

The Protagonist agents had two of their chromosomes altered, giving them better recovery from physical injuries, increased physical performance, pain suppression, and enhanced intelligence with additional unknown benefits. Protagonist operatives are highly trained in numerous killing techniques and the use of improvised weapons. They possess nearly superhuman levels of proficiency with firearms and other weapons. Their skills include sharpshooting, explosives, vehicle operation, and (advanced) hand-to-hand combat. All Protagonist agents have excellent observational skills, heightened target awareness, lightning reflexes, peak-human physical condition, escape-evasion abilities, and mental process which also gives them the ability to think quickly and calmly in stressful situations.

In terms of the Protagonist Serum, it enhances the cells of the user but makes them a walking biodegradable time bomb. The moment their mission is done, they die on completion. The last surviving member of Protagonist is Cho Kiriyu and the program is headed by Steven Colt.

## **Physical Enhancements**

The user's bodily functions are enhanced to the pinnacle of human conditioning; therefore, the user's strength, speed, stamina, senses, agility, reflexes, accuracy, longevity, durability, intelligence, healing time, flexibility and combat skills are greatly heightened, but without any superhuman degree.

Peak-humans are superior over normal members of their species and Olympic-Level athletes. They're strong enough to punch an individual through the air or a wooden/thin metal door, break thin steel bars with their bare hands, fast enough to catch-up or outrun moving vehicles, they can exert themselves to peak capacity; therefore, eliminating build-up fatigue chemicals, producing top-endurance and lung capacity; agile enough to climb the tallest of buildings, leap to high feats into the air and distant yards; reflexive enough to quickly dodge incoming attacks and react better to fast motions, accurate enough to achieve multiple small and further distant targets, capable of living longer than the average-person, durable enough to withstand normal and superhuman physical/projectile attacks, intelligent enough to understand complex problems better than average humans, they can heal themselves in short-periods of time, flexible enough to co-ordinate their limbs perfectly and their combat skills are advanced enough to defeat large groups of enemies.

Due to the stringent and experimental training program, Protagonist operatives were recorded to have experienced a number of physical problems due to the physical and mental enhancement. These include suffering from chronic headaches, which seem to never go away, consistent fatigue due to the stresses of their job and sensitivity to bright lights. One of the most prominent symptoms of the serum is that it essentially creates an entirely other “persona” within the subject, effectively keeping the killer and the civilian two separate beings. However their fatal flaw is that after the mission is complete, the subject literally dies upon completion. Their body experiencing cellular degradation thus causing them to be unidentifiable by DNA means. After the morality break down, presumably, the assassins/agents received advanced training in all kinds of spy tradecraft.

## ***The "Amadeus" Conspiracy***

The Amadeus conspiracy refers to the last and only surviving member of Project Protagonist; Cho Kiriyu. He is the only subject to actualy survive the proceedure preformed upon him. Apperently his body adapted to the strain of serum that engulfed his being, but it is said to have prevented him from going past his Half Wolf form. He can never go into a Lycan or Dire Wolf form. However while this was meant to be a hinderence and a form of control, this supposedly gave way to something...new within the subject. A compensation of sorts, that has yet to be discovered.