Biography
When the sentient bacterium known as Sublime was first created, one of his first acts was to battle his twin sister Arkea. While Sublime evolved on Earth, Arkea evolved on a different planet and gained the ability to control machinery, as opposed to her brother’s ability to possess people.
Over a billion years later, Arkea returned to Earth by riding a series of meteors, seeking revenge on her brother. She apparently manage to guide one of these meteors into a populated area in Budapest. One of the victims was a child named Shogo, who was left orphaned and adopted by the X-Man Jubilee. Unbeknownst to Jubilee, Arkea was using Shogo’s body as a method of transportation.
After Jubilee arrived at the Jean Grey School, Arkea left Shogo’s body, jumping between several devices before taking over the body of Karima Shapandar, who was being kept in stasis by Beast following a serious injury. In Karima’s body, Arkea managed to put the school under full lockdown. The efforts of Rogue and Kitty Pryde weakened Arkea, but she escaped by fleeing across the Atlantic. Several of the X-Men, accompanied by Sublime, pursued her using the Blackbird.
Arkea returned to the site of her arrival, where the X-Men learned why she chose it: the Szent Margit Institute, a hospital specializing in bionics, was located nearby. Possessing the bodies of the patients, Arkea fought the X-Men again. However, it was not the X-Men who brought down Arkea, but Karima herself. Her own consciousness had reawakened, and she had Psylocke ram a psychic sword through her head. Karima apparently survived the ordeal dazed but uninjured.
Creation
Arkea was created by writer Brian Wood.
History
Powers And Abilities
Like her brother Sublime, Arkea is a living pathogen operating in synch with it’s unicellular sentience. Similarly she has the ability to infect other life forms as well as influence their actions and mannerism, giving her complete control over infected hosts. Unlike Sublime however; Arkea’s approach focuses more around the symbiosis of technology rather than biology. Making her more a living and fully conscious Technorganic Virus than a hyper intelligent bacteria. Able to infect technology as easily as humanoids,
As a biomechanical entity, Arkea can wirelessly interact with and commandeer any automated or mechanical system she focuses on. Having little to no problems interfacing the most sophisticated of cybernetic systems. Including futuristic nanotechnology born of the Omega Prime Sentinel programming. The range of her seems to be limitless as she was easily able to usurp control over a Roxxon helicopter from miles out in the middle of an empty desert, before that Arkea managed to reactivate and guide an army of sentinels sitting at the bottom of the Indian Ocean to the Jean Grey School of Higher learning from a world away.
Arkea does have the capacity to infect and possess humans but this is usually circumvented by any known form of bionic implants the human host may possess. After having taken Ana Cortez’s mysteriously revitalized assistant Reiko as her new host body. Now not only can the microbial techno-organism host fully functioning high forms of sapient life. She can even upgrade their powers & abilities to insurmountable degree’s.
Firstly by magnifying and perfecting three members within the new Sisterhood of Mutants headed by Deathstrike, Typhoid Mary and Amora the Enchantress. The latter of which had an Odin powered hex cast upon her which effectively neutered her magical arcanum, rendering her near mortal in comparison to her prior self. Whats more, as a potent cyberpath Arkea can glean every ounce of information available to her from accessing and processing limitless information uploaded to her hive consciousness through the internet.
An effect of which being how she was able to ascertain information about the X-Men and their enemies when she tasked her subordinates with finding their more prominent enemies to join they’re enclave.