Cary Loudermilk

**Cary Loudermilk** is a mutant scientist and co-founder of Summerland. His mutation enables him to share bodies with another mutant known as Kerry Loudermilk.

## Biography

### Early life

Cary is the unexpected son of Ray and Irma Whitecloud. Upon learning that she was pregnant, Irma and Ray were expecting a native girl. However, Irma's birth to Cary, who was a Caucasian male, suggested that Irma had been unfaithful, resulting in Ray's departure. Little did they know that Cary was not the result of infidelity, but a mutation. He merely shared a body with Kerry Loudermilk, the little native girl they were expecting to give birth to. However, the knowledge of Cary and Kerry's ability to share a body didn't surface until eight years later, when Cary woke up one morning to find her playing with his train set. At first Cary believed that Kerry was his imaginary friend who would come and go but eventually they realized they were two people in one body.

During the 1940s, he joined Oliver Bird in the creation of Summerland, a mutant safe haven and training facility. From there, they began their search for fellow mutants like themselves. It was during their quest that they encountered a mutant by the name of Walter, who only sought chaos and destruction. Walter would later join Division 3, a government organization who is Summerland's enemy.

After Oliver's entrapment in the astral plane, Cary and Melanie Bird, Oliver's wife, took charge of running Summerland. Cary took over the researching the science behind mutant powers while Melanie became the new leader.

### Assessing David

Following the release of a notably massive surge of energy from Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital, Kerry, Melanie, and Ptonomy raced over to the site of the explosion, hoping to retrieve the mutant responsible before Division 3 could. They returned to the vehicle with who they believed at the time to be David Haller. However, they soon discovered that they were actually in possession of Sydney Barrett, a mutant capable of body swapping. Fortunately, the group managed to track David down to a Division 3 facility, and after rescuing him, they brought him back to Summerland, where he collapsed in Cary's arms. Hoping to determine the source of David's memories and assess his condition, Cary performed an MRI scan, while at the same time conversing with Kerry, who David was not aware of at the time.

Before starting, Cary stated that David had an extremely large amygdala, and that he should think about someone he loves. During the scan, David's brain lit up due to neural activity, which neither of them could explain. He then realized that David seeing his sister, Amy, wasn't a memory. Before exiting the room in a hurry, he tells David not to move. Upon returning Cary found his MRI machine was no longer in his lab but broken and smoking on the grass outside.

Later, Cary placed electrodes on David's head while Kerry injected him with a dye in order to model his brainwaves and take some hormone readings. Cary asked David to not break everything, to which David cannot promise that. Cary then asked David to think of something stressful. After a while Cary asks David through the intercom if everything is okay however David does not respond but the speech center of his brain is active. In actuality David believes he's responding but Amahl Farouk is playing a mind trick on him. Amahl taunts David that Division 3 could be "gang banging" his sister while he's in therapy. The Shadow King's taunts upset David and trigger his powers. David then causes the glass to crack, and a malfunction to occur before teleporting/astrally projecting both himself and Sydney to the cell where Amy is being held. David and Sydney then reappear in the lake.

Cary and Ptonomy then sit in on a conversation Melanie has with David. David demands that they get his sister however Melanie tells them they cannot do that yet. Melanie also tells David about Walter's involvement with the creation of Summerland.

### David Trapped in the Astral Plane

When David's became trapped in the Astral Plane, Cary ran several tests on his body to try and determine what occurred. He confirmed David was not brain dead as his mind was active.

After Melanie sees the diving suit that contains her husband's body in her office she tells Cary. Cary warns Melanie that the vision may not be Oliver waking up as they have been wrong before however they'll check anyways. Melanie then asks Cary if he misses Kerry, which he does. Cary also expresses his concerns of what will happen to Kerry after he dies as she only ages outside of his body. Cary and Melanie then check on Oliver's body and find it still in the diving suit. While in the cryogenicly frozen room the alarm goes off declaring an intruder in the room has been detected. Cary disarms the alarm and says its nothing however it's symbolic of David arriving in the same astral plane that Oliver is trapped in.

When Kerry, Ptonomy, and Syd are ambushed by Division 3 while looking for clues into David's past; Kerry is badly hurt. Cary was watching Kerry fight through her eyes and then felt her pain when she was defeated. Later, Walter shoots Kerry in the shoulder before escaping causing both her and Cary to fall to the round in pain. When Kerry was brought back to Summerland Cary sat by her side. They were unable to reemerge then for Cary would have gone into shock. After Kerry awoke, Cary reabsorbed her taking on her wounds.

### Discovering the Parasite

While rewatching the recordings of David's previous session Kerry encouraged him to relax and heal however Cary was determined to find out what was happening to David. On the recordings Cary sees flashes of what David was imaging at the time as well as what he heard (children laughing, dog barking,etc). Cary then asks Kerry to watch his back. As the images and noises from the recording become more intense, David's brain from the scanning become red.

Cary then contacts Melanie, Ptonomy, Syd, and Rudy, who all previously went to save David from Division 3 only to find it in ruins, and informs them of his discovery. The parasite is actually an older mutant named Amahl Farouk who's consciousness separated from his body and attached itself to David when he was a child. This parasite then fed off of David's powers, it would have torn him apart normally if not for the fact that David in his own right is an extremely powerful mutant. Every time David or one of the other Summerland mutants sees the parasite or realized it was there it made them forget.

Melanie, Ptonomy, Syd, and Rudy then go to David's childhood house to try and find him and Amy while Cary works on creating a device that would isolate Amahl. When he finished the device, he got ready to bring it to the others. Kerry wanted to exit him and assist in the fight but Cary didn't want her to saying " maybe there won't even be a fight." However she defies him and exits his body saying "Don't kid yourself, old man. There's always a fight."

Cary then meets the group at David's childhood home only to find that there is no sound. He then mimes to the group that if they could place the halo like device on David's head they would be able to speak with David. Melanie likes this plan however she wants Kerry to help as well. Cary refuses to allow this fearing for her safety however Kerry does appear with a baseball bat with nails in it despite his protests. The group then finds David right as Walter (disguised as Rudy) bursts into the room and fires at David and Syd.

### Alternate Clockworks

To save everyone, David stops time and puts all the people in his house into an alternate reality where they are all Clockwork's Patients and Amahl is their therapist. Kerry and Cary are seen often walking shoulder to shoulder and doing everything together. They play ping pong together, they launch cherries into each other's mouths using spoons, they play chess while saying medicine that could be injected, and finishing each other's sentences.

In there therapy session, Dr. Busker aka the Shadow King says that their relationship is unhealthy. However they reply that they're basically the same person and who's it hurting if they're extremely close to one another. In Clockworks Walter develops an obsession with Kerry, stalking her whenever Cary isn't around.

Syd often comes up to Cary and Kerry and states her theories about how the hospital isn't real or that there's David's bedroom door that appears in a hallway sometimes. Cary and Kerry both believe her to be delusional or at the very least confusing one door with another.

At night Cary dreams of Oliver's giant ice cube in the astral plane and ends up in the astral plane where he meets Oliver who is dressed in his diving suit and brings him back to the ice cube. Once in the safety of the icy fortress Oliver removes his diving suit, Cary recognizes him however Oliver does not recognize Cary. Oliver reassures Cary that the parasitic mutant that has attached to David's psyche and is feeding off of his power cannot find them in the ice cube. Oliver then goes on to say that when David and the parasite were trapped in the astral plane with him , Oliver was able to read it's mind. He reveals the mutant is Amahl Farouk otherwise known as the Shadow King. Cary then concludes that the reason David's memories were distorted was due to Farouk as he even disguised himself as a beagle in David's memory.

After comparing information Cary and Oliver agree that they must save the others from the alternate Clockworks as well as their bodies which are frozen in time with Walter (disguised as Rudy) shooting at Syd and David. To make matters worse the Shadow King had locked David in a "tiny corner of his mind" where if they don't rescue him soon he will be entirely gone and Shadow King will become David. Cary points out t hat he created a device, a halo, that should isolate the Shadow King in David's mind and end the hospital dream, however they still need to deal with the bullets. Oliver then lends Cary his diving suit to free the others from the hospital and gives him several pairs of special glasses that will show the wearer what is real.

Cary then takes the diving suit and rescues Sydney. Inside a chamber in the astral plane where Amahl cannot see or hear them Cary speaks with Sydney about how the Clockworks fantasy isn't real. Syd, however, already had figured all of this out and tells Cary to save their bodies while she goes back into the Clockworks dream and saves their minds. Cary gives her the glasses that Oliver made to help tell what is and isn't real.

Cary then goes to the real world in his diving suit. Melanie, who previously entered the real world as an astral projection, believes him to be Oliver only to be disappointed that it is infact Cary. The real Oliver joins them shortly. Oliver introduces himself to Melanie not realizing that she is his wife. While Cary places the halo onto David's head while Oliver creates a metaphysical shield to protect David and Sydney. However Farouk realizes what they're doing and stops Oliver before he can finish the shield by tossing his astral body against a wall and causing him to disappear. Farouk does not stop Cary from placing the halo on David's head and ends the Clockwork dream.

### Division 3's Attack

While walking back to Summerland, Cary helps carry Rudy's body. Cary tries to talk to Kerry but is distracted when David tries to remove the halo. When they returned to Summerland Cary ties to reemerge with Kerry however gives him the cold shoulder. David then attempts to remove the halo assuming that the halo has stopped Faurok once and for all. However, Cary tells him to not remove it as Faurok is merely isolated and that they need to go to his lab in order to remove the Shadow King once and for all.

When they returned to Summerland the group has lunch. During lunch Cary offers to remerge with Kerry as he knows that she dislikes mealtime. Kerry is mad at Cary because he did not come back to save her from the Clockworks dream.

Syd and Cary then go to find David and remove Farouk from his head. They find David talking with Amy. While walking to Sydney and Cary the halo shifts and David sees a vision of the Angry Boy. Now worried he agrees that they should remove Farouk quickly. David, Cary, Syd, and Ptonomy make their way to Cary's lab by walking outside. However Clark (who is covered in burns) along with dozens of agents appear and hold all of the mutants at gun point, demanding to speak with David while the other mutants could be killed. David agrees that they need to speak and telekineticly takes the agent's guns and throws them into a large pile. Clark is then placed in holding and guarded by Kerry.

Back in Cary's lab, David begs Melanie to let him speak with Clark while Cary attempts to strengthen the halo. Melanie and Ptonomy both think its a bad idea to let David speak with Clark. Cary believes that before they decide anything they need to remove Farouk's presence. If the halo fails Farouk would destroy David's mind and take over his body for good.

Cary brings Clark a glass of water. Kerry insists that Cary places the water on the table instead of handing it to Clark directly. Clark quietly watches as Cary attempts to mend his relationship with Kerry before asking if they had a fight. Cary explains, to both Kerry and Clark, that Kerry believes he left her in the alternate Clockworks when it wasn't his decision. Kerry cuts him off and demands Cary leaves, to which he does. Clark makes the snarky comment that Cary seemed nice.

Melanie allows David to see Clark and they move them both to an area where Cary can continue working on the Halo. However during the middle of the discussion David collapses and they move him back to the lab where Oliver and Cary have devised a system to remove Farouk.

### The Shadow King's Escape

Syd asks how the procedure will work to which Cary responds that they identified a second set of brainwaves inside David's head. The device will then target everything that is Faourk and suck it out of David's head using a magnetic field.

They begin the procedure and as it progresses Cary asks Oliver, who is in the generator room, to adjust the power. The procedure works until Amahl starts fighting back, killing David in the process. Sydney then runs into the room kissing David and releasing Amahl and transferring him to her body. Amahl then jumps to Kerry's body as Cary rushes in to stop Farouk. Farouk, in Kerry's body, then kicks Cary and knocks him unconscious.

After David pushed Farouk from Kerry's body, and inadvertently into Oliver's, the Summerland mutants begin to regain consciousness. Kerry rushes into see if Cary is okay. He wakes up and jokingly says that Kerry ruptured his spleen and they hug seemingly reconciled.

As the team regains consciousness, Cary then points out that the Shadow King needs a host to survive and that he should be in someone. The group then realizes that when David pushed Farouk out of Kerry, he inadvertently sent Farouk into Oliver who is now gone.

## Powers and abilities

### Powers

* **Multiple Bodies**: Cary shares a body with Kerry Loudermilk.
* **Sensory Sharing**: Cary and Kerry share a connection that allows them feel what the other is experiencing. When Kerry fought multiple opponents and was ultimately overpowered, Cary could feel the pain Kerry was experiencing.
* **Damage Transfer**: When Kerry's body was wounded, after she stabilized, she entered Cary's body. At this point, her injuries transferred to him. When she reappeared, she had no injuries.

### Abilities

* **Expert Scientist**: Cary is responsible for operating and developing technology at Summerland.

## Relationships

* Kerry Loudermilk - alternate self
* Melanie Bird - friend/ally
* Ptonomy Wallace - friend/ally
* David Haller - friend/ally
* Division 3 - ally
* Walter - enemy
* Amahl Farouk - ally
* Sydney Barrett - friend//ally
* Clark - ally
* Amy Haller - ally
* Oliver Bird - friend/ally

## Notes

* In one of the episodes as Cary Loudermilk (Bill Irwin) meets the man in the diving suit, he greets him in several languages. This is a reference to the book "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne, where Professor Pierre Aronnax also greets Captain Nemo in several languages not knowing what language he can speak.
* Loudermilk is an unusual name and there are few real world uses. While we have no official confirmation, one notable example and a possible source of inspiration for the character is John D. Loudermilk, a white American singer and songwriter who wrote the 1968 song "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)", and falsely claimed to be part Cherokee.

## Appearances

### Season 1

* "Chapter 2"
* "Chapter 3"
* "Chapter 4"
* "Chapter 5"
* "Chapter 6"
* "Chapter 7"
* "Chapter 8"

### Season 2

* "Chapter 9"
* "Chapter 10"
* "Chapter 11"
* "Chapter 12"
* "Chapter 14" (archive footage)
* "Chapter 15"
* "Chapter 16"
* "Chapter 17"
* "Chapter 18"
* "Chapter 19"

### Season 3

* "Chapter 20"
* "Chapter 21"
* "Chapter 23"
* "Chapter 24"
* "Chapter 25"
* "Chapter 26"
* "Chapter 27"

## References

1. ↑ Episode: Chapter 2
2. ↑ IMBd - Legion - Trivia