#2 – Dr. James Eckyl VI – Mastermind, Biochemist

Name: James Eckyl VI – Biochemist, industrialist, philanthropist, eco-conservationist

Alias: Dr. Jeckyl, James the Sixth, Six
Age: 45
Height: 6.5 feet tall
Current weight: 275 pounds,
Hair: None
Eyes: Brown
Distinguishing marks/features: Van Dyke beard, scrupulously clean, mysophobic (pathological fear of contamination and germs)

Known Relatives:
Great-grandfather: James I – deceased: 1850 – 1890,
Great-grandmother: Katherine – deceased: 1844 – 1904

Grandfather: James II – deceased: 1870-1940
Grandmother: Flora Davis – deceased: 1860-1932 (unknown blood disease)

Father: James III – believed deceased 1920 – 1970 (accidental death, auto)
Mother: Nicolete Sheldon – believed deceased 1900 – 1970 (accidental death, auto)

Brother: James IV – born 1950 – Chairman of the board
Brother: James V – born 1954 – Senior Technical Advisor, Chief Scientist

First Appearance:
Dr. James Eckyl appears in my series of short stories, Hyde: Portrait of a Modern Monster. He appears for the first time in Chapter 10: The Doctor is In.

History: 
Born James Eckyl the Sixth, he was the heir to the multi-billion dollar biotech fortune of his family dynasty. Indoctrinated into the scientific legacy of his family, he became a Ph.D by the time he was sixteen. By the time he was twenty-five, he had earned multiple degrees and awards and was one of the chief researchers for his grandfather’s company, Chemodyne. His urge to control and dominate in every arena eventually put him in conflict with his brothers who also had equal zeal and enthusiasm for all things scientific and business-related.

For a time, James the Sixth, spent a significant amount of time trying to uncover the cause of death and genetic dysfunctions of his grandmother who died young and passed unto all of the family a series genetic weakness which killed members of the family mysteriously. She bore fifteen children. Only five survived to adulthood.

When James III was believed to be deceased in 1970, James the IV, rose to the CEO and heralded the company into a new era of growth and development with the two younger brothers providing scientific breakthroughs every five to seven years. Chemodyne and its subsidiary companies became one of the world’s leading pharmacuetical and gene-engineering firms.

An accident, causes James the IV to retire in the late nineties. While it was never proven, it was suspected that James the Sixth was somehow responsible. It did not prevent his rise to power in the early 2000’s and with his older brother as the chairman of the board of directors and his younger brother as Chief Scientist, Chemodyne continues its worldwide scientific dominance led by James the Sixth.

While obsessive-compulsive behaviors run in the family line, James has redirected it toward his passion of cellular development, management and performance.

Present Day: Dr. James Eckyl the Sixth, currently runs the Chemodyne as a revered despot. His management techniques are questionable, his results are not. So he is tolerated, his eccentricities indulged as he continues to lead the corporation toward greater profit. His recent projects have been very secretive and have been using unknown resources in the developments.

Six has started his own skunkworks facility in Hub City where he runs Chemodyne remotely. This research facility has begun a line of research relating to alternatives to DNA and is believed to be working with alien DNA samples gathered from a downed spacecraft and currently in the possession of the government. One of the lead scientists from this group has gone missing in Hub City and was presumed dead last year.

He has recently taken on a new head of security, former police Lieutenant Vince Carlucci.

Powers and Abilities: Dr. James Eckyl is a skilled martial artist, having learned at a very young age to prevent his older brothers from taking advantage of him. His father promoted physical disciplines as an avenue to mental superiority, so all of the Eckyl brothers have mastered multiple martial arts. He has attained a high degree of mastery and has for several years, lived abroad combining his martial arts and superhuman strength into a unique fighting style. He engages in intensive regular exercise and despite his middle age, and even without augmentation, he is a formidable opponent.

Weapons: He uses a sword cane and sheath combination, using the sheath as both a defense and a weapon, and the sword, made from carbon-fullerene laced steel is nearly unbreakable even with his superhuman strength. Backed by his strength he can cut though most unreinforced materials with ease. He is also known to envenom said weapon with a variety of chemical cocktails.

Augmentation Array: In his guise as Dr. Jeckyl, Six wears an augmentation array, a skintight body armor, which augments his strength, resistance to injury and overall physical resilience by a factor of twenty. When the augmentation array is activated, Dr. Jeckyl’s face becomes distorted and horrific in appearance. The effect ends when the array is powered down. When running at full capacity, he is capable of lifting nearly twenty tons with great effort. The array is part of a super-soldier program currently under development by Six’s Skunkworks. The array is linked to a series of treatments Six has sold to the government under several limited patents. Each offers some enhancement to human beings with terrible side-effects. He has kept the unifying technology that allows him the complete expression of his abilities for his personal use. There was a stabilizing element that was under development and was lost when the scientist went missing. Without the stabilizing element, use of the array causes severe debilitating stress on Six’s body. Six is in the process of finding a new group of scientist’s to continue the work.

He is also seeking the monster Hyde, to determine the source of his superhuman capability and to see if he would be able to reverse engineer the process for his own nefarious purposes. He suspects Hyde has something to do with the missing scientist, Everett, but cannot yet prove anything. With the government’s paramilitary covert agency monitoring Hyde and Hub City, Dr. Jeckyl has laid claim to the city, its riches, its criminal syndicates and its secrets.

Psychological Profile: James Eckyl is a brilliant scientist and sociopath. Seemingly without morals or scruples, he dares when most men wouldn’t and because of his genius and madness is often successful. Of his three living brothers, he is arguable the most intelligent, but the intellect and madness runs in the family and where Six may have the lion’s share of the family’s ruthlessness, his brothers remain jackals close on his heels seeking any weakness. His mysophobic (pathological fear of contamination and germs) keeps him alone for the most part but in the company of others he will wear the finest of gloves. He reserves hand to hand combat for the most respected of foes. Against anyone else he will, of course use his sword cane to deadly effect.

Created by Thaddeus Howze

About the Art: The character was created by Thaddeus Howze using the City of Heroes, Character Generator.

Tags: Thaddeus Howze

Category: 2011, Horror, Scifi, Superhero