Savager

Savager is a prominent antagonist in 2059: The Superhero Revolution and a minor antagonist in Cataclysm.

## History

### Early Life

Sheldon Kruger was born into a military family. Both his mother and father served in the armed forces, and instilled the ideals and virtues of a soldier into him over thr course of his childhood.
Naturally, Sheldon wished to join the US military when he grew up, and so when he came of age, that was what he did.
Sheldon showed great promise as a soldier. He had among the highest number of confirmed kills by any soldier in the army, rivaling even Jack Reacher.
Sheldon eventually joined an elite mervenary group who carried out more high progile special ops missions. And even here, he outshined many if his colleagues. It was clear to the government that he should serve a greater purpose. And so Sheldon was approached with the option to volunteer himself for some experimental procedures to augment him and turn him into an exlerimental supersoldier.
Sheldon accepted the offer, and after a series of surgeries, sensory deprivation, hypnosis and fitness regimens, Sheldon reached his peak human capabilities.
From here, Sheldon was employed in the government's most sensitive special ops missions, primarily solo missions as Sheldon was all they needed to get the job done.

### 2059: The Superhero Revolution

In the year 2059, Sheldon was assigned to hunt down Mark Mcneil and turn him in to the CIA, dead or alive. The purpose of this was to procure a genetic sample from Mark, and synthesize it into a new Super Soldier serum based off of the old Black Hood formula to turn Sheldon into the ultimate soldier.
Sheldon had had many close encounters with Mark (and Berserker), and each tine he came very close to capturing him. But then, on his final attempt, Berserker smashed Sheldon and gravely injured him.

As sheldon lay dying in the CIA's infiramry, he internally seethed with rage. He was humiliated by his failure, and was determined to exact his revenge on Mark and prove his superiority to him.

When a sample of Mark's DNA had finally been recovered, it was combined with the Black Hood formula to create the Savager Serum.
The Savager Serum was injected into Sheldon, and healed all his injuries instantly. But it did more than just that. The serum began altering his body, and Sheldon mutated into a hulking beast dubbed "Savager".

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Savager was outfitted with a special containment suit, similar in technology to Black Hood's, to supress his full power and regulate his mutations, which were shown to have been highly unstable and volatile.
Savager's first mission was to crash Mark and Sadie's wedding. He and other beings sentbafter them fought against the wedding guests, until Savager finally killed Mark by impaling him with his wrist claws. He had finally claimed victory.

With his mission completed, Savager no longer saw a need to serve under the CIA. He defected from them and embarked on a rampage, intending to conquer the city. However, there was someone who just so happened to have those goals - Black Hood.
Savager challenged Black Hood to a battle to determine who would have control of the city. In the fight, Black Hood damaged Savager to the point of partially destroying his containkent suit, making it so that Savager's mutations could not be contained now.

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In his mutated form, Savager was able to overpower Black Hood, forcing him to detinate his arc reactor to defeat him.

The arc reactor explosion severely injured Savager, causing him to drastically mutate into an even larger and more menacing form.

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After Black Hood's defeat, Savager re-emerged to challenge Mark (who had been ressurected) to one final battle. In the fight, Mark mutated into Berserker as the two behemoth titans clashed. Berserker was finally able to defeat and kill Savager by splitting his body clean in half with *Skullbreaker*.

### 2059: The Invasion

Following his death, Savager's remains were taken into the custody of WESD, who derived a sample of the serum from the remains by reverse-engineering it.
The Savager serum was instrumental in creating the Beetle, and reviving Plague Knight. Both of these beings had mutations and Berserker forms of their own, just like with Savager, though with variations to it in each individual.

### The Last Resistance

Aboard The Xir'algath's Mothership, Savager was resurrected after being brought forward through time by a Xalnergy portal along with The Gamemaster, who fought against the resistance beside Plague Knight and Nimrack. However, the villains were defeated and captured by The Council of Life, who imprisoned them all in Whitegate Fortress.

### Escape From Whitegate

While confined in Whitegate Whitegate Fortress, Savager had never felt so degraded before in his life as he did now. He felt like an animal, chained to the ground in his cell and wearing a restrictive collar around his neck. He was especially aggressive to the other inmates, who frequently taunted him. Eventually, when a prison break was mounted, Savager broke free and escaped with the rest of the villains, before joining into the servitude of Queen Kreel.

### Cataclysm

Now under the leadership of Kreel, Savager was partnered together with Plague Knight, The Gamemaster, Gamemark and Shadowbreaker. Together, they pooled together resources to aid the Xir'algath's cause and helped Kreel to prepair for the Xir'algath's greatest conquest.

As the Majestic League and members of The Council of Life made their way towards Kreel's palace, Savager and others on the team were all given their own domains and realms to oversee, as part of a giant labyrinth that the heroes had to navigate before reaching Kreel. The section of the Labyrinth overseen by Savager was an enormous industrial complex.

At the end of the maze, Savager was confronted by the heroes, and in the battle he mutated into his ultimate, most horrifying form.

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In the battle, Savager beat Mark down to a pulp, incapacitating him. And then he beat Bruce Morgan down to within inches of his life. The only thing that saved him was the evolution of his Armageddon Armor, and Mark's mutation into Berserker. Berserker and Savager duked it out, exchanging earthquake blows until Savager was finally killed by Berserker splitting him down through the brain, and kicking the gorey remains down into a pit.

## Powers

### Savager Serum

Unlike Mark and others, who were capable of switching back and forth between their human and Berserker forms and then reverting back, Savager was permanently in his Berserker form. But this was not a complaint, as he felt a sense of great power in this body. Another difference is that, while many beings black out and lose intelligence in their berserker forms, Savager's human mind and intelligence remain intact, though it increasiny devolves with every new mutation.

Savager has an arsenal of many incredible feats and powers, among them being:

**Berserker Physiology:** Savager is devoid of all rational restraints in battle and is completely immersed in combat, making him a dangerous warrior for both friend and foe. He often ignores fatal physical damage as if it never affected him, and continues fighting with a frightening level of stamina while also being unpredictable and erratic in combat, making it hard to counter him. The rareness of this power makes-up in his opponent being super strong, as it boosts Berserker's adrenaline and stamina to the point that he is sometimes able to wear out his opponent through sheer tenacity and ferocity alone, that is if he hasn't yet already smashed said-opponent into a pulp.

**Bloodlust:**

Savager has unnaturally strong rage that is never ending and ever-growing, enabling him to be immune to nearly all forms of pacification. Through his rage, Savager can face great physical pain and psychological trauma and will refuse to surrender, literally using his anger to fight through the pain, possibly up to the point of cheating death and pushing himself past his own physical limitations. His rage is often utilized as a major source of power for his strength, stamina and agility in combat.

**Wrist Claws:**

Savager can project/retract two razor-sharp claws of an unknown metallic substance from the back of each of his wrists. The claws are so incredibly sharp and durable, that they can tear through and penetrate almost any substance, even Angelic Steel.

**Level-5 Regeneration:**

The rate and capability of Savager's cellular regeneration and is so powerful, he is close to true biological immortality. His brain cells and nerves can be completely repaired, to the point of keeping the mind intact. Decapitation can be reduced in effectiveness, as Berserker could simply reattach his head and seal the cut. However, due to the side-effects of the Savager Serum, this regeneratuve ability can be thrown out of wack when trying to repair more sever injuries, causing erratic mutations instead.

**Progressive Mutation:**
This trait is more of a weakness and a hindrance than an actual ability, manifested from a side-effect caused by the interaction between the Black Hood Formula and the Berserker Virus in the Savager Serum, as well as the interaction between the Savager Serum and Sheldon's DNA.

After injecting himself with Savager Serum to survive and recover from his critical injuries, Savager initially retained his human form; however, he rapidly began to mutate and develop inhuman abilities. The mutations in his transformations gave him a very grotesque muscle mass and bony claws, which, in turn, gave him superhuman strength able to easily crush anyone. His increased muscle mass also gave him superhuman endurance that grew with each transformation he underwent.

However, Savager's true power is his resilience; because of the Savager Serum in his body, he developed fierce regenerative abilities which made him biologically almost immortal and very difficult to defeat. Even though most of his body is eliminated, the serum forced Savager to undergo more mutations in response, gaining stronger abilities and a more monstrous appearance. However, this regenerative ability had its limits; after taking catastrophic damage, Savager was forced to mutate into a shapeless writhing blob of organic mass to persist. And it was when this weakness was exploited that Savager was ultimately defeated and killed for good.

654e2fa4ff61c29981b00e198ef81fc2e21f86cb.PNG-1.pngPixel art of Savager in his containment suit, drawn by Bramsley.8c698c98e6183e9ad36d120d0d4609c4d435627f.PNG.pngPixel art of Savager's mutated form, drawn by Bramsley