Alex Mercer

""My name is Alex Mercer. I'm the reason for all this. They call me a killer, a monster, a terrorist... I'm all of these things.""

- Alex Mercer

Alex Mercer is the anti-hero protagonist of the 2009 video game, Prototype. He later returns in the 2012 videogame Prototype 2 as the main antagonist.

As a human
Born as Alexander J. Mercer, Alex experienced a brutal childhood spent in abject poverty; his first nine years were spent in foster care. When he turned 10, he was finally returned to his mother, who had spent the last nine years in prison, but for Alex it was better to be in foster care. He was the only parental figure for his sister, Dana.

However, his intellect and aptitude in science provided him an opportunity to leave behind his troubled past. He trusted no one, had no friends, couldn't care less about what others thought of him, and found solace only in his work. By the time he was hired by Gentek, Alex was a borderline sociopath. He knew this, and didn't care.

After earning a doctorate in genetics at Columbia University, Mercer was hired by Gentek and became the head of the Blacklight project at Gentek. Alex's team was tasked with engineering weaponized viruses from samples given to them by the government. The samples that were provided exhibited curious behavior, including mimicry and retention of genetic information from infected hosts. With Alex’s help, the team soon engineered a particularly virulent and potent virus codenamed "Blacklight". Alex’s skill in altering genes made him a valuable asset to Gentek; his work was years ahead of his nearest competitor.

Despite his successes, Alex Mercer was considered a potential liability by Blackwatch, an elite army created to combat exotic threats. Over time, Gentek became scrutinized by Congress and investigations were proposed. Fearing an information leak, Blackwatch decided to cover it all up. Alex, due to his paranoid nature, began to launch his own secret investigation on Gentek. With the assistance of his sister Dana, an investigative reporter, Alex realized that Gentek employees associated with the Blacklight project were being silenced by Blackwatch; usually with a bullet between the eyes in a dark alley.

When he learned that a general purge was about to be unleashed upon the Gentek scientists, Alex fled, fearing for his life. In the event he was caught, Alex had brought "Insurance"—he had smuggled a vial of the Blacklight virus out of quarantine and taken it with him. He also mailed a laptop with classified documents to Dana. But Blackwatch was too quick for him. While attempting to escape the city by train, Alex was cornered in Penn Station by Blackwatch agents. In a fit of frustration and rage, he threw the vial to the floor, smashing it and unleashing a biological apocalypse. He was promptly shot by Blackwatch operatives. The virus began to spread to everyone in the station.

As he fell, he collapsed onto the viral sample, becoming infected as he died. His body was taken back to Gentek in a body bag. Little did they know, as he was transported, the virus was reconstructing Mercer's body, cell by cell; his biomass feeding the virus as it replicated the still-living matter it had infected.

Prototype
His body is shown being bought to Gentek for dissection. the virus, having merged with his body, became an independent being based on Alex, codenamed Zeus. Zeus woke up, having no memory of how did he end up there, and tries to escape. Just then, Blackwatch corners him and shot him, but he survives.

Alex gets into contact with his younger sister, Dana Mercer, into helping him discover the truth. She even directed him to Karen Parker, his ex-girlfriend, to create a cure for the virus. However, the latter is possibly forced to work for Blackwatch as the genetic material he got for her is used to make a weapon against him. This is removed from him with help from Dr. Bradley Ragland.

Just then, Dana gets kidnapped by a Leader Hunter under orders of Elizabeth Greene. Alex has managed to locate her, and gets into a fight, but ended up creating the Supreme Hunter when he injected her with the same weapon. He saves Dana, nevertheless.

Next, Alex gets into contact with a mysterious informer, who knows everything about him. The contact lead him into a confrontation with Director Raymond McMullen, his ex-boss at Gentek, to get information. The latter reveals of how Alex Mercer is responsible for the plague by unleashing the virus in New York before having died at Penn Station.

Alex finally meets the contact, Captain Robert Cross, the specialist he fought early on. He reveals information on getting Colonel Taggert as a ticket to get into the Reagan to stop General Peter Randall from destroying Manhattan with a nuclear missile. When they got there, Alex absorbs Randall, and gets attacked by Cross, who is revealed to be the Supreme Hunter in disguise.

Alex defeats the monster, and puts the missile into the river. He fails to escape as the explosion takes him, too. However, his remains absorbed a crow, regenerating himself.

Prototype 2
Alex has witnessed a soldier named James Heller taking down the infected. What he didn't know is that he does that only to get revenge on Mercer for killing his family.

When Heller cofronts Alex, the latter infected him with the Blacklight Virus, giving him the powers he would have. This leads him to have a vendetta for Alex as he knows he is responsible for the death of his wife and daughter.

After Heller escapes the Gentek building, he is confronted by Mercer, who tells him that Blackwatch and Gentek are the ones responsible for the Second Outbreak, not him. After consuming a Blackwatch guard to verify this, Heller agrees to help Mercer with his plans.

After killing Dr. Anton Koenig, Heller is confronted by Mercer again, who tells him that there are more of "them" here, and explains to Heller that he is creating an army of "Evolved" to destroy Blackwatch and Gentek from the inside, along with the virus, and Koenig was one of them. Displeased, Alex tells him he should of killed him for that, but he will not, as Heller is far too valuable. After Mercer leaves, Heller finds out that Mercer intentionally creates the Second Outbreak, meaning he was the one who killed his wife and daughter, and begins sabotaging his plans along with another Evolved, Sabrina Galloway.

After Heller learns that Mercer has sabotaged the cure for the Blacklight Virus, Whitelight, turning them into Evolved, Heller heads to the Whitelight facility to dispose of the remaining barrels, but he is once again confronted by Mercer, who tells him that he is displeased that he was killikng his Evolved and ruining his plans, after which he tells Heller that he has no use for him anymore as he cannot tolerate his behavior to ruin him. He then trys to kill Heller, in a failed attempt. He then attacks the secret hiding place of Heller's contact, Father Luis Guerra, and kills him. Heller then meets Mercer's sister, Dana Mercer, who begins to help him on his quest to kill Alex.

After Heller learns that his daughter, Amaya, is still alive, he loses interest in Mercer and trys to save her. But when Heller arrived, Galloway, after being upset that Heller refused her offer to leave the city together, took his daughter to Mercer. Alex than took Dana and Amaya and locked them in a bank safe.

Death

 * "Huh. Welcome to the top of the food chain."
 * ―Alex's last word's to Heller before being consumed.


 * Heller defeats Mercer

Heller finally faced Alex after the latter consumed his Evolved, including Galloway, to become stronger and faster. Alex used his blade, claws, whipfist and hammerfists against Heller. Alex was able to regenerate from the wounds caused by Heller, even mocking him. But after several hits, Alex attacked Heller once more, but Heller used his claw to slice off Alex's right arm. This injury was not enough and Alex formed the whipfist from his body to hit Heller.

Using the blade, Heller than sliced off the regenerated right arm whipfist from Alex. Weakened, Alex formed the hammerfists to smash Heller, but the latter used his Hammerfists to rip off both of Alex's arms. Defeated, Alex said to Heller, that he was now on the top of the food chain. After his last words, Alex was killed and consumed by Heller. Heller, having become extremely powerful from the consumption, uses a gigantic mass of tendrils to destroy all the infected citizens in the area, promptly saving Manhattan from the "Mercer" virus.

==PERSONALITY == Perhaps as a result of his difficult childhood, Alex is a cold individual, both paranoid and sociopathic. Most notably, prior to his human death at Penn Station, he released the deadly Blacklight virus simply to spite those who denied him information. His motivations and plans are utterly personal, and he rarely takes human cost into account, being able to murder scores of humans without remorse or hesitation.

However, Alex is not completely heartless; he deeply trusts and cares for his younger sister Dana, having been the only real paternal figure for her, and had what can be assumed to be a loving relationship with Karen Parker.

Unfortunately, after repeated betrayals and mishaps during his time away from NYZ after the initial outbreak, Alex decided that stopping the outbreak was a mistake and started a new one himself to usher in a new race; he claimed he was making a better world by doing so. Despite his megalomaniacal ambitions, he appeared to retain some form of affection for Dana; when he discovered that she was plotting against him alongside James Heller, he chose to seal her in a bank vault rather than simply killing her.