Plague
Nathan Gretch (a.k.a. Agent Arsenic/Plague)
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Nathan has always been sickly, but as he's gotten older and his powers have grown, they've taken a significant toll on his body. Harbouring all those diseases inside himself has left his eyes sunken and red, with yellow sclera, his skin a pallid grey, his hair greasy and matted. That said, it never seems to affect him terribly, and he moves with all the grace and energy of a healthy person. The only real sign of being ill outside of the visual is that his voice has taken on a breathless and raspy quality that is quite distinctive.
Special abilities
Plague has the psychic ability to control diseases and disease vectors, making him an extremely dangerous superhuman and an excellent assassin. He is able to generate and direct pathogenic microorganisms and has been shown to have some ability to manifest diseases in another through touch. A creature infected with one of his diseases is also vulnerable to his disease generation powers at range.
Furthermore, he is able to control creatures commonly considered vectors of disease, his personal favourites being rats and mosquitoes. Generally, the smaller and more disease-ridden the organism, the easier he is able to control it. This allows him to exert his influence over a few dozen rats at a time, or hundreds of insects. When faced directly, Plague prefers to use subtle means of approaching a target, but when pressed, uses his swarms for close combat while using his disease powers to slowly incapacitate and finally kill his opponents.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
While most Schurk Industries agents that grew up within the various facilities find themselves killing in service of their employer out of knowing no other life, Nathan Gretch was able to find a perverse pleasure in his work. He relished the challenge and satisfaction of a job well-performed and he often considered it a sign of his innate superiority over his fellow agents. This often made him unpopular with the others, a fact that left him often isolated and he soon developed a deep resentment for the other agents.
When the company was disbanded, Gretch held out until the bitter end, having to be taken down by Lithium herself, and was one of the many Schurk agents deemed too dangerous to be recruited into The Century Group, due to his record and lack of remorse. He was due to be tried for his crimes and sentenced, but found a way to escape before his trial, going on the run for the most part of a decade.
Gretch kept a low profile for a long time, keeping tabs on his old colleagues and biding his time, but once he realised that another former agent has now been inducted into the B-Team under the direct guidance of The Vigil, he was enraged. He was outraged that some agents were given a second chance, while he was cast aside. Surely a killer is a killer. With that in mind he took on the moniker of Plague and began to hunt down century agents who were once his colleagues, leaving a trail of skeletons in his wake.
Unfortunately for Gretch, the now-Centurion of the Century group; Lithium, was soon able to see the connection between the crimes and began to warn the other agents including Warp, who took it upon himself to bring Pagan in on the case, and the hunt was on.
After a frantic investigation involving tainted blood transfusion packs, the Centurion being poisoned and a factory taken over, Warp and the other available members of the B-team confronted Plague at one of his safe-houses, fighting him tooth-and-nail until they were finally able to subdue him, carting him off to the Century group's villain lock-up. He wasn't quite finished with his tirade however, telling Warp that he still had one surprise in store for him.
That night, while in the Century group lock-up, he's visited by Warp, mourning the loss of his faithful feline companion; Sliver, and teetering on the edge of oblivion. He opens the cell door to where Plague is being held and pins him up against the wall. Gretch mocks the superhero, saying that they're no different, and that once you're a killer, you'll always be a killer. And then Warp lets him go. He leaves the facility, knowing that he's known a love that Gretch never will and that in leaving him there, he's deprived the villain of his final victory.
Employment
Nathan found himself employed at a young age by Schurk Industries, soon becoming one of their most prolific assassins. His ability to kill without a weapon and to clean up the scene via rapid biodegradation made his crimes next-to-impossible to investigate. Once the company was dissolved however, he found himself on the run as The Century Group had no place for an unrepentant murderer among its ranks.
Alignment
Neutral Evil
Species
Conditions
Age
42
Date of Birth
5th of November, 1982
Children
Pronouns
He/Him
Sex
Male
Gender
Man
Presentation
Masculine
Eyes
Red, with yellowed sclera
Hair
Black, mid length, and greasy.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pallid, sickly.
Height
5'8"
Weight
70kg
Aligned Organization
Comments