Registry of the Evolved Database
File #23 May 2009 10:36
|
 Christian Bale |
Some people know what they want to be from the moment they are born.
Some people find that what they want, and what fate has in store for them are mutually exclusive things.
Born in the fall of 1974 to Joshua and Emily Spalding, the life afforded to Michael was one of affluence and promise. Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Spalding was a respected member of the United States Marine Corps, a military-brat himself in his youth, he knew the hardships of a military upbringing, but was not discouraged from forcing this life on his own son. Joshua was a decorated veteran who fought in both the Korean War and Vietnam, a man who knew the necessity of sacrifice. It waslife lessons such as these, and an overall glorification of the Marines that Joshua brought to his son's early upbringing.
For the early years of his life, Michael would be moved around the country from state to state as his father found himself moving from military base to military base. This constant uprooting made it difficult for a young Michael to truly find comfortable surroundings, to make lasting friendships and attachments. It's a deficit that he never is able to shake.
In 1981 Michael's brother Cameron was born, a birth that drew much desired attention away from the now youngest child of the family. For several years, Michael would struggle to remain the favored in his father's eyes, as his "baby boy" became the next dearest thing to him. The resentment of Michael to Cameron would last the remainder of their lives.
By 1992 the Spalding family had come to settle in Virginia, with Michael following under his father's strict instruction to prepare for enrollment at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and Cameron getting ready to enter high school. By the fall of 1992, Michael's enrollment was guaranteed, and with his departure from the family home, it left his younger brother Cameron to his father's attention. However Michael and Cameron were as different as night and day, and the younger Spalding brother had no interest in following in the footsteps of his father as over the formative years of his life his interests turned away from the military life as a way of rebelling against a brother who was resentful to him, and a father who was domineering and controlling. Michael would hear little of his brother's difficulties with the family during his time at Annapolis.
For four years in Annapolis, Michael's connection with his family was limited to seasonal visits and holidays, and much of the family's difficulties with Cameron were kept as quiet as possible. However the brothers did communicate their mutual disappointment for each other, with Cameron finding no sense in Michael's headstrong desire to be his father's son, and Michael's disappointment in Cameron refusing to honor the wishes of a man who had given them both everything, and his radical anti-war views.
This rift between the brothers would continue to grow over the course of the four years of Michael's stay at Annapolis, up until his graduation in 1996, which would come just in time to find then First Sergeant Michael Spalding of the United States Marine Corps shipped off to Cambodia. n an effort to ensure the security of American citizens in Cambodia during a period of domestic conflict there, a Task Force of about 550 US military personnel were deployed at Utapao Air Base in Thailand for possible evacuations.
The deployment was largely without conflict, though Michael was not able to return home until early 1997. During this time, Michael saw his father more than any other member of his family. It was only now that he learned of the rift that had grown between Joshua and Cameron during his time away, and a good-intentioned conversation with his young brother turned confrontational when Cameron refused to see his brothers' narrow focus of the world, further driving a wedge between the siblings.
Over the course of the next few years, Michael would serve his country fighting in a war he did not fully understand, much as his father did. But his sense of duty and sense of loyalty to his country kept him going, kept him moving when little else would. During a firefight in Kabul on October 16th 2008 Michael was struck in the shoulder by a stray round, soon finding himself cut off from the other members of his unit.
Engaged in street-level combat, Michael was amazed to find through what he believed was purely adrenaline that he felt little the sting of further flesh wounds and gunshots, believing them deflected by his body armor. By the time he reconnoitered with his unit and made his way back to base, Michael came to realize his uniform was riddled with bullets, ones that by all accounts should have perforated him like Swiss cheese.
Following this encounter and the very obvious suspicion raised at his survival, Michael began to question his own nature. He would have little time to question this, however, as only days later Michael was requested to return home on the realization that his brother Cameron had been murdered in new York City by a serial killer infamous in the media, the Reaper.
Cameron's death was devastating, not only for the horrific nature of his passing, but also for the realization that one of the Evolved was responsible. Michael's father — bigoted towards the Evolved and unrelenting in his passionate distrust of their kind blamed Cameron's death on his son's own radically pro-evolved political views and a growing distance with his family. The news that Cameron Spalding was suspected to be a member of the terrorist organization PARIAH only worsened matters.
Spending the next several months home in Virginia to help his father recover from Cameron's death, Michael was surprised to discover that the USMC had requested that he voluntarially subject himself to screening for the Suresh Linkage Complex in early 2009 as a result of an inquest into Michael's miraculous survival in Kabul.
When the test came back positive, Joshua was horrified. Both of his children now stood as genetic aberrations in his eyes. However Michael tried to spin the test results, his father refused to accept them. It was this divide driven between Michael and his father that caused the normally stalwart soldier to question his choices in life and move away from the career his father had chosen for him. Knowing nothing than a soldier's life, Michael's choice to file for Temporary Disability Retirement due to the mental stress of discovering his Evolved nature was one of the toughest decisions he was ever forced to make.
Registered and categorized as a Tier-1 Evolved with "Reactive Adaptation," the skill sets and unique ability Michael possessed would have got him far in his military career, and it is that very same fact that keeps the United States Government's eyes squarely focused on Michael Spalding.
Following his honorable discharge, Michael left for the one place both away from his father and closer to his brother's legacy — New York City. It is a place that has shaped the new face of the world, and a place that Michael Spalding hopes can help him find a new face.
Unaware that Uncle Sam has other plans in store for him.
Michael Spaulding is a determined and headstrong man at his core. While he is suffering from a significant lack of confidence and focus in his life presently, due to the revelation of his Evolved ability and his father's hardline anti-evolved status — even in spite of the death of his only other son. In a crisis, Michael's stability and affirmation of his desire to protect both the people of his country and those he cares about is his strongest driving force.
A man of high moral fiber, Michael has difficulty in making decisions that are tactically sound but morally questionable, often resulting in his need to take furthered risks in order to accomplish goals without comprimising his ethical standards.
Despite this, Michael is a staunch believer in mandatory Registration of the Evolved, and has not been exposed to any other opinions on the matter outside of his own brother's, whom he dismisses due to his connection to a violent terrorist organization.
Michael's body reactively and rapidly develops resistances to physical trauma he is exposed to after initial exposure. His first known manifestation o fthis ability was surviving a hail of automatic gunfire after being struck in the shoulder by a round in Kabul. The ability functions by toughening Michael's physical resistance to outside stress or duress. If his flesh is punctured, his body will adapt to become tougher over repeated exposures. The first shot of a gun will injure him normally, a second subsequent shot will harm him as if he were wearing a bulletproof vest, while third and later shots will harmlessly deflect off of him.
This damage is not by source but by nature, most kinetic damage is resolved the same, provided that it is dermal trauma. If one of Michael's bones are broken, his bones will become more resiliant to breakage the more stress they are put under. This also goes for deep tissue damage, nerve damage and other cellular breakdowns.
Prolonged exposure to any effect that breaks down his physical form — even from fire, electricity or other sources, will eventually be met with a limited duration immunity.
Michael's reactive adaptation also covers environmental hazards. If his body temperature drops too low for too long, his physiology will adapt to generate more heat, or less heat as needed during the initial phases of hypothermia or sunstroke, which he will swiftly recover from.
If placed underwater, Michael's lungs would adapt to the aquatic environment after beginning to suffocate, and he would retain this adaptation until attempting to breathe air again, at which point he would begin to suffocate again and his body would adapt once more.
The duration of Michael's adaptation is brief. After fifteen minutes of non-exposure, Michael's adapted resistances fade away and his process must be started all over again. Likewise, without a supernatural way to heal injuries, the initial damage dealt to Michael is not recovered from, making his ability useful but not able to make him truly invulnerable, espescially in situations where an opponent is allowed to surprise him.
Appendices
Skills Index
A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Michael has a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences and studied History, Science, Literature and Psychology with avid fascination during his four years at Annapolis. Michael has a sharp, keen head for detail and it aided him in his studies.
Undergoing four years of training at Annapolis and active duty since the mid 1990s, Michael Spaulding is a seasoned military veteran with a formidable command of tactical know-how and combat scenarios. His experience in Afghanistan and Iraq has honed his training in guerrila warfare and urban combat.
Michael underwent training for the new MCMAP program offered by the USMC at its inception in 2001. The Marine Corps initiated the internally-designed martial arts program, called Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP). Due to an expectation that urban and police-type peacekeeping missions would become more common in the 21st century, placing Marines in even closer contact with unarmed civilians, MCMAP was implemented to provide Marines with a larger and more versatile set of less-than-lethal options for controlling hostile, but unarmed individuals. It is also a stated aim of the program to instill and maintain the "Warrior Ethos" within Marines. The Marine Corps Martial Arts program is an eclectic mix of different styles of martial arts melded together. MCMAP consists of boxing movements, joint locking techniques, opponent weight transfer (Jujitsu), ground grappling (mostly wrestling), bayonet, knife and baton fighting, non-compliance joint manipulations, and airway and blood restriction chokes. Michael is an avid practitioner of this mixed martial art style.
In 1998 Michael received training and certification for the piloting of rotary-wing aircraft (helicopters), but has only flown a handful of actual flights and is still somewhat uncomfortable behind the stick.
Gallery
 |
 |
 |