History
Origin
Zachary Smith was a leading scientist in the field of microbiology. Smith was head-hunted by the Taylor Foundation when it spear-headed a new means of researching new medicines, which paid their employees well and offered their products at low-market prices. He quickly became headline news with his ground-breaking research that appeared to cure cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He used flesh-eating bacteria that focussed solely on cancerous cells. However, his methods were only successful when conducted when Smith was around. All attempts to reproduce his work away from his research labs had been fatal failures.
It transpired that Smith’s son had influenced his work. Zachary Smith Junior worked as a laboratory assistant for his father. He happened to a mutant with the ability to communicate with germs, bacteria and other microbiological life forms. With the most innocent of intentions, he persuaded the flesh-eating bacteria to perform as according to his fathers desires.
The subsequent investigations into Zachary Smith Senior’s work destroyed his career. When Zachary Smith Junior’s influence was revealed, his father disowned him and fled society. Night Thrasher, as head of the Taylor Foundation, lead the search for Zachary Smith Senior, and found his remains in a cave on a Scottish island. Unable to accept his son’s influence on his work, Smith had used the flesh-eating bacteria on himself. His rotted & bacterial-consumed remains were found weeks later. Before the search party had even left the little island, Night Thrasher had begun arranging the adoption process to become Zachary Smith Junior’s new legal guardian.
New Warriors
The disastrous effects of young Zachary Smith’s powers on his father’s career also had a terrible impact on the Taylor Foundation. The bad publicity had caused stock to fall, and Night Thrasher’s expenditure grew beyond his income. As a means to keep the Taylor Foundation out of bankruptcy, Night Thrasher created a new team of New Warriors who would be the stars of a reality television programme. His first recruit was Microbe; Zachary Smith Junior who would use his mutant power to communicate with bacteria to fight crime.
It had been difficult to sell the New Warriors show to a network. They took time to adjust & warm to the team’s other members; Speedball, Nova & Namorita. However, they refused to accept Microbe. They had been disappointed by his lack of participation in the first two prepared episodes and claiming that he wasn’t dynamic enough they wanted him replaced by a funky female character. However, Night Thrasher’s contract had specifically stated that if Microbe wasn’t included, then he had the right to cease all production on the New Warriors show.
Microbe
It took a while for Microbe to adjust to being a New Warrior. They travelled across the country, visiting small towns in America who had problems from super villains, but were unable to gain the attention of the usual hero teams like the Avengers or Fantastic Four. The other four members of the team had lots of experience of fighting crime & working together. However, Microbe had been an over-weight laboratory assistant with a gentle demeanour and a relatively passive power.
Successful Missions
On their first mission, Microbe was about to be attacked by escaped felon Tiger Shark. No-one expected him to fight back, but Microbe surprised everyone when Tiger Shark chided him about his powers. In the midst of a fight, Microbe conversed with Tiger Shark’s bacteria. They informed him about personal details that no-one but Tiger Shark knew about, including a rash that wasn’t a rash and the implication that Tiger Shark had been violated in the Vault’s showers. Shocked by what Microbe was saying Tiger Shark stopped fighting long enough for the other New Warriors to sucker punch him.
Although Microbe had little impact on the New Warriors’ battle against a private zoological collection of intelligent animals, he later bested the rest of the team who were unable to fix a flat tire. Speedball needed a spare tire, while Namorita, Nova & Night Thrasher all failed to find a local mechanic who was willing to help them (they were accused of being outlandish ravers). Microbe investigated the dead porcupine which had caused the winnebago’s flat tire, and discovered from the bacteria that the animal had been dead for some time. He then persuaded the bacteria to eat away at the torn rubber on the tire. The digestive process created two beneficial effects. The heat caused the rubber to melt therefore sealing itself, while the feasting microbe’s excreted a gas that inflated the tire at the same time.
Bacterial Bombs & Debrii
It was Microbe’s bacterial friends who tipped the New Warriors off the strange phenomenon in the Minnesota town of Nüponder. When the Warriors’ Winnebago arrived in town, Microbe had been experimenting with developing an offensive use of his powers; he created a bacteria bomb which he could hurl at the enemy so his bacterial friends could start eating the flesh of his enemies. However, the bomb’s casing broke while Microbe showing the Warriors his new invention, causing the Winnebago to fill with the stench of old garbage. However, the residents of Nüponder couldn’t detect the smell.
In Nüponder, the Warriors were asked to investigate the mysterious disappearances of domestic pets. The New Warriors were led to believe that their foe was Terrax who had down-scaled his villainy from cosmic dominance to pet-napping. However, when Microbe used his bacterial bomb the germs refused to eat away at Terrax claiming that he wasn’t biological. This led to Microbe informing the New Warriors that their enemy wasn’t really Terrax, but a robot disguised like him. However, before the Warriors had a chance to fight back, their fight was interrupted with the entrance of the lastesr New Warrior, Debrii.
The information that Terrax was a high-tech robot led the New Warriors to investigate Nüponder’s largest employer & industrial hub, the Nücar factory. Microbe was ordered to stay back at the Winnebago with Debrii as they were both till inexperienced in battle. However, Microbe’s gentle nature meant that he was easily led by Debrii’s new orders. She marched them both towards the Nücar factory where they were attacked almost immediately. Microbe was knocked out of the fight straight away, but he confirmed that there were non-biological entities in the factory, which gave Debrii more debris to use with her powers. With Microbe able to detect the other Warriors’ bacteria from afar, they trailed their way through the factor and disabled the Mad Thinker’s Intellectual Robots, saving their more experienced New Warriors team-mates.
Uncorruptable
The town of Smyrna in Delaware proved to be Microbe’s greatest challenge to date. There, the Corruptor had been legally elected as mayor. The whole population of the town displayed negative and aggressive personality traits, but such large-scale corruption was previously believed to be beyond the Corruptor. The New Warriors found him in his private home working out, with strange tubes leading from his over-sized boiler-suit. The suit collected the Corruptor’s sweat and pheromones, while the tubes fed them into his private greenhouse. In there, an exotic array of flowers slowly blew corrupting pollen into the air which quickly caused the New Warriors to descend into an angry madness.
While the other New Warriors were fighting amongst themselves, Microbe’s health rapidly decreased. Microbe himself was immune to the Corruptor. His gentle nature meant that he didn’t have a dark side to his personality. However, his bacteria were just as corruptible as everyone else. Microbe’s bacteria grew angry with him, and turned against him, giving him a severe fever, making him sweat and drastically weakening his muscles.
However, while Microbe’s pleas for help went unheard, the Corruptor was ranting with glee. He had wanted to find a home where everyone was as miserable as he was. Due to the nature of his powers he was unable to find any friends or loved ones, and therefore created his exotic plants to make a population that was as corrupted as he was before he had touched them.
During the rants, Microbe slowly pulled himself closer & closer to the Corruptor. With the last of his strength, Microbe opened his arms, and wrapped them around the Corruptor. It was a mighty ear-hug, but with Microbe’s weight falling on top of the Corruptor, they both fell and crashed through the conservatory’s window. Fresh air filled the building, and the New Warriors slowly regained their senses.
Unfortunately, the test screenings for the New Warriors’ reality television show hadn’t been successful. The network decided to use the show as ‘a mid-season replacement with an order of six-episodes’. In other words, they had been cancelled. The rest of the team sat in the snow as they struggled to come to terms with the news and the terrible things they had said to each other during the fight. Meanwhile, Microbe recovered in private while his bacteria recovered and made amends with him.
Stamford, Connecticut
Microbe’s mutant powers survived the events of M-Day, and despite the news that their series was being used as a ‘mid-season replacement with an order os six-episodes’ the New Warriors managed to convince the network to give them a second chance. In a similar way to how they approached Tiger-Shark & Armadillo in Fairbury, Illinois, the New Warriors lured four Ryker’s island fugitives out of hiding. Cobalt Man, Coldheart, Nitro & Speedfreek were holed up in a suburban home, but Coldheart was caught taking out the trash.
Microbe was nervous. He had already begun to sweat and didn’t want to attack the villains in their on home. However, Speedball dismissed Microbe’s worries by reminding him of how they’d travelled around the Mid-West for over 6 months and that this was their big chance to be noticed. Coldheart spotted the New Warriors and warned her fellow felons.
A fight quickly ensued. Namorita appeared to have defeated Nitro easily, by pushing him into the side of a school bus. However, Nitro’s power allowed him to detonate himself like an explosive device, but without damage to himself. The resulting explosion instantly killed 612 citizens of Stamford, including 60 children in the nearby primary school, and most of the New Warriors. While Speedball’s kinetic field absorbed a lot of the impact and sent him flying across the state, Night Thrasher, Namorita and Microbe were instantly killed.
The tragedy at Stamford became the spark that caused the Civil War. The general public called for the registration of super-powered heroes, and those who tried to act as heroes without being registered were hunted like criminals. A new group of New Warriors grew to prominence on the streets of New York City. The authorities were concerned that the old New Warriors had come back from the dead and therefore asked for their bodies to be exhumed. However, Microbe had not yet been buried, and therefore his severely charred remains were once again inspected to ensure that he really had died in Stamford.
Powers
Nosokinesis (Germ/Virus/Bacteria Manipulation).
Sick Sense (Perception of the presence of germs/bacteria/microbes) .