| Alexander Willem |
 |
| Portrayed By: | Taylor Kitsch |
| Status: | Active |
| Age: | 23 (95) |
| Occupation: | Personal Trainer, Initiative lapdog, occasional Krav Maga Instructor |
| Family: | Gary |
| Significant Other(s): | None so far |
| Freak Factor: | Cyborg |
Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. This knowledge is provided for Out of Character reading pleasure only, and is not to be used In Character without justified knowledge of the events (such as being present, or having staff permission).
Background
A voice-recorded journal entry
"June 22, 2009. 02.45 am. I thought it might be time to sum up the events of my life which have led me to the City of Sin. It all started back in 2001 when I woke up in a bed, hooked up to several machines and with a headache from hell. I had no recollection of where or who I was, my mind was blank. I wasn't awake for long before a man named Gary Oswald came in to the room. I had never seen him before, but something in his features made me trust him. He told me that I had been in an accident, and that he had saved me because I was the chosen one. But in order to save me, he had to make some changes; that I wasn't quite as human as I was before the accident. At first I thought he was yanking my chains, but.. Let me just say that the proof was very convincing. He told me my name and where I was from, showing me a picture of a woman who supposedly was my grandmother, judging by the age of the picture. As for the chosen part, well, there's a half God, Xercos, out there who is quite eager to see me dead." There's a short pause as the deep voice goes quiet. "We moved to Los Angeles shortly after I woke up, and that's when my adventure started. He had already told me about demons, vampires, magicians and the supernatural world before we left for L.A. He even showed me his true form; jet black, like a hole, and explained that he was from another world which he had to escape in order to live. Xercos, my arch nemesis, took over Gary's home world and ruled it with such cruelty and tyranny; he made the most evil demon out there look like a sweet Teddy bear. Before Gary escaped, he got a hold of half a parchment called Sper Oraculum - the prophecy of hope. It stated that a man - chosen by their Gods and born of another world - would stop Xercos. He managed to find out which world and came here. Then he set out to find the chosen one, which lead him straight to me and right on time to save my ass. Cars really aren't the safest things in this world." The deep voice chuckles, and then continues,
"He upgraded me, one might say. He gave me new shiny cybernetic organs, nanites that helped me heal quite quickly and cybernetic implants to all my larger muscle groups in order to make me stronger. But.. I was telling you about L.A. When we got there, I started patrolling the streets at night, searching for vampires, demons and other evil things. I was a natural when it came to fighting, and Gary explained that it was because my muscle memory still remembered the martial arts I had been training for years before my accident. It was refreshing knowing that I was good at something since I couldn't remember my previous life. Being the Chosen One really was a full time job. Not only did I have to practice my fighting each and every day, there was always something coming after me. At first, it was just the regular badness with vampires wanting revenge and covens and such, but soon followers of Xercos started showing up, always trying to kill me in different ways, always saying how killing me would be the thing that would make Xercos forgive them and let them back in his graze. Crazy mother f**kers, that's for sure." There's the jacking sound of a tape being paused, then the voice returns "A man named Roy Dickinson approached me after a Vale Tudo tournament I'd won back in 2001, offering me to train with him. He was one of the greatest Krav Maga instructors in the world, and it was an honor to train with him. And let me tell you, that man is wicked hard when it comes to discipline and training. More than once he handed it to me when ever he thought I was slacking, at least in the beginning. Two years after I started training with him I surpassed him in skill, speed and strength. The last two had probably more to do with the continuous upgrades to my cyborg core that Gary did. But Roy didn't know about that at the time. So the first four years in Los Angeles looked like this: working as a personal trainer for 8 hours each day, training with Roy for 5 hours and patrolling during the nights. Good thing I didn't need sleep, because I really took advantage of those free hours each day."
"It was during the fall of 2003 when Roy asked me if I could do some favors for him. It was things like cleaning out a house of demons or anything else that needed someone a bit more than the regular human. He never told me who I was helping, and I never asked. I was just happy to help. Gary was always working on perfecting me, but also working on locating the second part of the prophecy, because the part he had was incomplete. Besides me there was a second person needed to defeat Xercos, but without the second part we had no way of knowing how to find this other person. If that person were killed, there would be no way of saving the world from damnation the day Xercos walks amongst us. So, he was working night and day really and it was a very good thing he's super intelligent. It was his intelligence that landed him a job at InterCorp, a research facility which spent large sums on researching cybernetics. I know, very fitting for Gary." The voice laughs shortly, before growing somber again "During - what we though were - a routine mission for Roy, I was knocked out and woke up in a prison dungeon. It was a dark and damp place, though I wasn't alone in the cell. When I first got there, I had three cell mates. None of them human. For days I saw nothing but the four walls of my prison. Every now and then one of the others was taken away for hours, and when they returned, they'd obviously been tortured. It didn't matter how much I yelled and screamed, no one ever answered me. Then one day they came for me. I was brought to another dark room - the only lights I ever saw where from the licking flames of the torches - with a iron chair in the middle to which they strapped me. The things they did," the voice pauses for a short moment, then sighs. "I will never forget all the ways of torture they did. It wasn't all physical though, some of the torture sessions were strictly mental, but those were worse. Many times they forced me to watch while children were slaughtered, hear their screams and cries."
"This continued for months; I kept a calendar of my own on the wall, carving in each new day with a piece of bone. They fed us three times a day, which was my only way of keeping track of how the days ticked on. The others I shared the cell with when I first got there was gone, and new occupants arrived in a steady stream. Some were of the kind I didn't get along with well, and it always ended with fights. Luckily, I always somehow made it through as the survivor. After ten years, I'd given up any hope of anyone coming for me, but I had no intentions of killing myself. There were times of course when I hoped the torture would kill me, but I never once thought about ending it myself. I hadn't spoken to another human during the entire ten years, but I kept reciting my favorite quotes from movies and sang my favorite songs. However, slowly they slipped out of my mind. One day when they came and got me for my daily torture session, I noticed that they led me somewhere else. The cloaked figures stopped in front of a wooden door and motioned me to enter. They even took off my shackles. Inside was a room resembling an office of some sorts and behind a wooden table sat a green, spiky looking demon with crimson eyes. He smiled at me, at least that's what it looked like, and motioned for me to sit at a chair on my side of the table. I sat down and looked around, there was a wooden bookcase full of old books but that was all. The demon asked me in strangely accented English if I was enjoying my stay with them and I laughed at him, asking him if he was serious. Well he was, and he told me that if I wanted a more accommodating stay he was willing to grant me that if I became a gladiator. Yes, a gladiator. I was given three days to think it over, and those three days were the worst of my life. The torture they had put me through the previous ten years put together were nothing compared to what they did to me during the three days. By the end of my torture session on the third day, I was brought back to the 'office'. I was barely even conscious from blood loss and the many broke bones in my body that were healing. The pain was excruciating, but I had managed not to scream once. Or at least I couldn't recall screaming, who knows really? Anyways, the same demon gave me the same offer, telling me that the torture would be over and I would live far better than I was now, all I had to do was accept it. So, in my moment of weakness, I did."
"And he wasn't lying; my accommodation did greatly improve. I was brought to a cell where I was alone, and there was even a resemblance to a bed on the floor. It was mainly just skins that were patched together and filled with hay of some kind, but after spending ten years on a stone floor, this was luxury. I was given a clean set of clothes which looked like something out of early dark ages, but they were at least whole and - for now - clean. The demon had accompanied the guards and I as they dragged me to my new home and he told me that I would be given two days to rest up and gather my strength, then they would come for me twice a day and throw me in the pit. I honestly didn't listen much to him, all I was interested in was the bed, and as soon as they left, I collapsed in it." A short pause where the voice sighs "I have no idea how long I was out, but by the time I came to, there was food and water in my cell. This too was a luxury compared to earlier. The water was clean and the food wasn't spoiled like it had been in the other cell. There it wasn't unusual that the meat already had maggots in it. So I ate and I drank, relishing in the more human way of living. I began counting time again, as well as I could, and about a day after I woke up, they came for me."
"I was shackled once again and brought to a place that greatly resembled the coliseum in ancient Rome, or at least the way it probably looked during those times. The put me in a cage and threw new clothes at me without a word. I changed in to them and had to laugh; I truly did look like a gladiator. Not long after that, they raised the cage up through a hatchet and I must admit that the scene that unfolded before me was breathtaking. All around me were cloaked onlookers, roaring in excitement. Behind me was a high balcony on which five demons in crimson red cloaks were seated. My cage wasn't the only one, there were about ten others as well, each containing gladiators. I was the only human one as far as I could see. One of the crimson cloaked demons raised their hand and everyone fell silent immediately. It uttered something with guttural sounds and the audience cheered. Or at least that's what I think they did. We were all let out of our cages before they were lowered down the hatchets again, and every single one of us looked around with weary eyes. The audience held their hidden faces towards the crimson cloaks, waiting for something. Then the leader dropped his arm and again the roars erupted; only this time, the attention were all on us. It was a long fight, but in the end only me and another demon with electric blue skin and fierce red eyes were the only ones left standing. He was about to attack me when we were stopped by the crimson cloaked demon, and two cages were rose from the hidden hatchets. We were motioned to step inside, and so we did. Once lowered back down, my regular clothes were tossed back at me and I changed before they shackled me again and led me back to my cell. There waited another meal and more water, and I ate and drank. And so it continued for another thirty-two years, approximately. My accommodations approved the more fights I came out alive from, and at the end of that time, I was in a room with a real bed and a window. There were always darkness in this world though, but a window did a lot."
"I remember that in the beginning I reflected upon those I killed; where they evil or were they like me? Some seemed barely more than children from their too long limbs and scared faces. But I killed those too, learning quickly not to hesitate, and soon I stopped reflecting upon them. They became faceless demons in the end, and I forgot about them as soon as I was brought out of the pit. In every cell I had, I always drew a face on the wall and I named it Gary. I talked to 'Gary' every day, giving him a blow-to-blow account for each fight. I guess even in a demon world, talking to yourself isn't a good thing, because one day when I was brought back to my cell after the final fight, there was a man shackled to a bed just like mine. He was very thin, resembling my very dim memory of the real Gary, though obviously not the same. The moment he saw me, his eyes bulged and he sat up, and he waited for the guards to leave. As soon as the door was closed, he whispered with an eager voice 'you're the chosen one, the one we've been waiting for and hoping for'. I just looked at him in confusion before recalling the prophecy I was part of. I shook my head and told him that I had been here for over forty years, that there was no hope anymore and that our world was already lost. He looked at me funny, shaking his head and said that I must have been mistaken about the time, because he had been looking for me in my world and been told that I had gone missing almost a year previous. Then he had been captured and brought here. He told me that he had been looking for Gary, to give him the second part of the prophecy, but he never got that far. I asked him if he still had it, and he nodded. However, he hadn't been able to translate it because it was written in a dead language. That was why he'd been searching for Gary, because he knew that Gary would be able to translate it."
"It was quite refreshing to have someone to talk to again, and it was a relief to know that only a year had passed in the real world. Maybe they hadn't stopped looking for me, and maybe there was still hope to be rescued. So I waited, holding on to that small piece of hope and every night I lay in bed and looked at the second part of the prophecy. I couldn't read it of course, but it worked almost like a safety blanket for keeping my spirit high. The rescue came about eight years after that. I was on my way to the first fight of the day - by now they weren't even shackling me and I wore a brown cloak of my own - when someone took out the two guards with silencers. I was surprised; to say the least, to see Roy move around the corner all dressed for combat. He motioned me to follow him and that time was short, but I had to quickly run back to my cell and get the prophecy. It was a close call, but we met little resistance since my escape wasn't noticed until we rounded a corner to where two of Roy's men were guarding a portal. We stepped inside and disappeared just as the guard came around the corner, and before I knew it, I landed on all four on a concrete floor. The room spun around me for a short moment, then a pair of hands grabbed me and helped me up, calling my name. Looking up - or rather down to be honest - in to Gary's face was unbelievable. He hadn't aged a day, but then again, only a year had passed for them, and I picked him up and hugged him tight, laughing the entire time. I told him how good it was to see him, and how long time had passed in the world I had been kept, and once all the hellos were done with, I gave him the second part of the prophecy. He went on to translating it at once and me and Roy had to chuckle. Roy told me that a Byblos demon from the same world as Gary had come to him with information as to the whereabouts of me, and who had taken me. A Xercos minion had been behind it, and before Roy could take the demon to see Gary, he had disappeared. I concluded that this must have been the same demon as the one that had been placed in my cell, and I had to thank the Gods that he had found Roy in time. Sometimes I wonder what happened to him after my escape, but there's no use in letting it burden me."
"It took Gary two days to translate the rest of the prophecy, but as soon as he had it, he came to me and told me that there was a key. Somehow this key would open a portal to a dimension referred to as the dimension of the damned, in to which the chosen one would lead Xercos. I saw that there was something he was not willing to tell me, but after much convincing on my part, he told me everything. Apparently the portal lies dormant inside me, and once it has been activated, it works as a one way ticked to this place which will hold Xercos' imprisoned for ever. The catch is that I'll be trapped there too. There is no way of ever getting out of there, so to save the world; I have to suffer for eternity. That's not such a high prize to pay for saving everyone, is it? There was one part he didn't managed to translate though, due to damage to the parchment, and that was exactly who the key is and how he or she will activate the portal in me. While Gary worked on recovering the lost information, I went back to training with Roy and patrolling the streets. Gary replaced my cybernetic organs, my entire spine and the muscle additions, and he made sure the chip in my head still worked. I got my old job back as a personal trainer, though only half-time, so I started volunteering at a youth center in down town L.A. It was a rather fulfilling job; I taught the kids basic self defence and acted as a listening ear when ever they needed to talk. In 2006, about a year after I returned to this world, a new counselor started working at the center. His name was David and he was beautiful. I fell head over heels, though kept a lid on the emotions partially because he was after all a co-worker and partially because I was already dating an unknown actress. But I gravitated towards him every day at work and we became friends. For a long while, that was all there was, but after a few months it seemed as though he was interested back. I had broken up with the actress a while earlier, and grew a pair and asked David out. Everything happened so fast after that; I told him about my nightly activities, that I was a cyborg, about the prophecy. Anything he wanted to know, I told him. He even moved in with me after three weeks."
"Gary wasn't happy about it, and he kept telling me to be careful, that there was something off about David. Of course I didn't listen, and in the end the old fool tapped our apartment. For a long while, there was nothing, but then he caught David on tape, contacting Xercos - yep, my arch nemesis - and apparently David was a Cambion Demon (the offspring of a incubus and a human woman). He showed me the tape after correcting some error he'd found in my chip. At first I refused to believe him, but he ordered me to go confront David and there was no way I could refuse the command. When I finally found David, I told him what Gary had shown me and at first, David was the same sweet guy, telling me not to believe Gary and telling me that Gary was evil and needed to die. I was appalled by the idea of killing Gary, and I told David that I would never do such a thing. He tried again, using his sweetest most alluring voice, but I pushed him away and asked him if he'd gone insane. That's when he changed. Not literally, but the sweetness was gone and a cold, calculating man was standing in front of me. He told me that it was all true, and that he was going to kill me. It was the hardest fight I've ever been in; fighting until death with the one you love. Again I came out as the winner, just as the sun rose. The first ray of light hit David's lifeless body and turned it in to stone before it cracked and the dust spread with the wind."
"I went to Gary after that, demanding to know what he did to the chip in my head. He explained that he had made it so that no one could ever mess with my mind, though with one exception; his command. He had installed an Imperative as well which forced me to obey his commands, just in case someone did manage to get inside the mental protection of the chip. At first I was furious with him, but after I had a chance to let it all sink in and think about it, I understood why he had done it. After all, without me, this world will surely be damned and he couldn't risk that. Not when there was a half God that couldn't be killed threatening them all. Life went on; Gary searched high and low for anyone who might know the entire prophecy, and I kept working with Roy and his military men. Gary had set the Imperative to Roy as well, and I was now sort of a part of a group called the Initiative. I was their lapdog really, doing the same as before I was kidnapped to that other dimension. Gary had quit InterCorp and was now working for the Initiative as well, though he was on the research department while I was strictly muscle. My adversaries were still after me, especially Xercos' own henchmen, but I always managed to fight them off either by myself or with help from friends made along the way. In 2007 Gary finally managed to track down someone who might know the entire prophecy, and we left for a world called Garragah. Garragah was.. well.. have you ever seen Star Wars? You know that planet the little green dude Yoda lived on, well, that's Garragah. It wasn't easy finding this ancient sorcerer, but after weeks of searching, we finally found his lair. At first he wasn't willing to talk at all, in fact, he tried to kill us, but once he got a good glimpse of me, he stopped. I couldn't understand a word he was saying, but Gary did, and the two talked with fervently to each other for a long while. I was seriously bored by the time they finished, and luckily, Gary wasted no time in telling me the parts of the prophecy we didn't know. First of all; I would find the key, and when I did, we would both be connected in some mystical way and instantly recognize each other for what we were. Secondly; in order for the key to activate the portal, I had to drink the key's blood. The second part made me extremely uneasy, but Gary told me that the key would willingly give its blood, just as willingly as I was to suffer eternal damnation to save the world. As much as I hated the thought, I knew I would do it in order to do what I was chosen to do. Because the sacrifice of one life for the entire world is acceptable."
"When we returned to our world, we were met by the devastation in the wakes of some ancient demon Goddess or something. The city was in chaos and we both rushed to stand beside the Initiative in their effort to clean up. It was messy, and it took weeks, but eventually the world went back to order. Finally me and Gary could devote most of our time in to finding out where this key might be. We traveled around the world, visiting shamans, sorcerers, wizards and priests. It was until we reached a convent in southern France that we got lucky. A monk there was known to receive visions from above of things to come, and we went to see him. We arrived late at night and were shown to a room with two beds where we were to sleep before seeing the monk. However, just before dawn, the monk rushed in to our room and told us that we had to return to Los Angeles, that hell was about to be released on earth. The last thing he told us before falling to the floor lifeless was that I was to wait for the key in the city of Sin. Without hesitation, we rushed back to Los Angeles, arriving right on time for the biggest fight of my life so far. The fight itself was centered to this old closed hotel called the Hyperion. I lost many comrades that night, among them was Roy, but in the end we stopped them. Roy actually died saving my life, to which I'll be forever grateful. Me and Gary stayed for the funerals, then we left for the city of Sin; Las Vegas. Here Gary turned over the Imperative to the group leader and the scientist before going back to Los Angeles and the Los Angeles branch of the Initiative. So this is where I've been for almost a year; looking for the key and cherishing every moment of life I have left, knowing that my days are numbered. I work as a personal trainer during the days, patrol the streets during the night, and do what ever the Initiative orders me to do. I just hope I find the key before it's too late. This is Alexander Willem, signing out."
What Lex doesn't know
There are many things that Alexander does not know about his previous life. He thinks he was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts to the loving couple Mitch and Sarah Willem. He was told that they died in a car accident and that he moved to live with an aunt in Los Angeles. After an accident of his own, he came in to the care of Gary Oswald who upgraded him in order to save him. The truth is; Alexander was born in Phoenix, Arizona as Jim Denver, June 24 1964. His mother had died giving birth and his father was an abusive alcoholic. After spending many years in foster care, Alexander was placed with an uncle in Los Angeles in 1979. The photograph of Alexander's supposed grandmother is actually a picture of his mother, which his uncle gave him upon arriving to Los Angeles. When his uncle died, Alexander moved back to Phoenix and took a P.E teaching position at Arcadia High School. Back in Phoenix Alexander got involved with Vale Tudo and excelled quickly through the tournaments. One night he was approached by a man who claimed to be able to provide tougher fights with greater profits. Alexander accepted his offer and became involved in cage fights. Only, these cage fights where the supernatural kind where they put a human and a demon in a cage so the rich could bet on the outcome. Here too was Alexander quite successful, but one night it all turned very ugly and Alexander barely came out alive. His spine was severed and many of his organs had been destroyed. That was when Gary Oswald approached him, offering him a chance at being able to walk again. Alexander took it at once, and that was when the adventure truly started for him. At first he was given, beside cybernetic implants to his spine and some new organs, a compound that made him stronger and sped up the healing. The side effect was that he got addicted and developed anger management issues. After almost a decade, during the early 1990's, Alexander met a girl and they fell in love. They fought side by side, but as Alexander's problems with controlling his temper got worse, their relationship became shakier. It went as far as Alexander accidentally killing her during a fit of rage, and he tried to kill himself. Gary managed to save him and put a chip in his head, which erased all his previous memories. It took Gary a couple of years, but eventually he managed to find a way to make Alexander heal and be just as strong without the demonic compound. He pumped Alexander's blood stream full of nanites and added cybernetic muscle implants to every major muscle group in Alexander's body. So now with all his human organs (except his skin) replaced with cybernetic implants, as well as his entire spine, Alexander would age extremely slowly. Any minor damage through age would be fixed by the nanites. Finally, Alexander was ready to wake up.
