William Birkin

William Birkin was a top class virologist for the Umbrella Corporation that discovered the G-Virus and the person responsible for the Raccoon City Outbreak. He was the main antagonist of Resident Evil 2.

Early Life
William Birkin joined Umbrella as a researcher at the age of 15 and was assigned to a management training facility under Dr. James Marcus. While there he became rival and close acquaintance of fellow researcher, Albert Wesker. The two became Marcus’s best apprentices and began researching on the T-Virus, that continued after the shut down of the training facility and their transfer to the Arklay Mountain facility. Birkin was proud to be the youngest researcher to ever work for Umbrella, until Alexia Ashford arrived on the scene. Though only 10 years old, Alexia became head of the Antarctic Research facility and ignited great jealously from Birkin since his coworkers praised her constantly. He focused on his research and, after no results for a long time, finally created the Hunter B.O.W. Birkin focused completely on his research from that point onward until Alexia was announced to be “dead” in 1983. In 1988, he and Wesker helped to assassinate their former mentor, James Marcus, and were promoted to head of the T-Project. Birkin himself was given credit for the T-Virus’s creation. By that point, he had married his assistant, Annette, and had had a daughter, Sherry.

Discovering the G-Virus
Later, Birkin and Wesker began experimenting with the NE-a parasite, prototype of the Nemesis T-Types. One of their female guinea pigs, Lisa Trevor, was the only subject who fully accepted the parasite into her system, while the others died shortly after it had been implanted. Birkin noticed this and examined her body structure to discover that she had had a Progenitor virus variation injected into her body many years before, which had absorbed the mutagenic organisms implanted within her, resulting in a new virus that Birkin called the G-Virus. After receiving approval to begin further research into the G-Virus from Ozwell E. Spencer, Umbrella’s CEO, Birkin and his wife were transferred to an Underground Research Facility in Raccoon City that had been established specifically for the project. Birkin also bribed the head of the Raccoon City Police, Chief Irons, to cover up the project. Wesker however, did not approve of the G-Virus, saying that random and uncontrollable mutations were unsuitable for B.O.W.s.

Arklay Mountains Incident
After Birkin and Wesker began researching into the Outbreak of the T-Virus in the Arklay Mountains area, they were shocked to find out that it had been caused by their former mentor, James Marcus, returned form the grave. Knowing that if the truth got out, his career would be in jeopardy, Birkin activated the self-destruct on the Training facility, destroying all of the evidence of his involvement in the conspiracy to get rid of Marcus.

Becoming his own creation
thumb|300px|leftBirkin finally completed his G-Virus in September, 1998, and planned to use his research to become a member of Umbrella’s Executive Board. However, due to disagreements with his superiors, Birkin decided to keep his research for himself and sell it to the government. He requested that the military retrieve him, but a unit of Umbrella’s Security Service, the Alpha Team, got to him first. Birkin was left to die with gunshot wounds from an overexcited soldier and his virus research stolen. With his dying breath, he injected himself with the G-Virus, becoming the monster known only as G. After mutating, G went after the USS team that stole his research, slaughtering all except the leader, HUNK, and two other members. During the carnage, vials containing the T-Virus were smashed, releasing them onto rats, which caused the outbreak throughout Raccoon City. Birkin returned to his lab where he rendered the staff unconscious and infected some of them. However one of the staff members, Monica, stole a G-Virus sample and planned to escape to the surface with it. Unfortunately for her, Birkin tracked her down and implanted her with one of his G-Spawn embryos. Since Monica’s DNA was not compatible with Birkin’s, she was killed when the embryo tore out of her body. Later, he began wandering around the Raccoon City Police Department and encountered some of the city’s surviving citizens, amongst them, his daughter, Sherry. Birkin implanted one of his embryos into Brian Irons, who was not compatible and killed when the embryo burst from his body. He was successful in planting an embryo in Sherry and even called out to her several times, which she mistook for her father being attack by the “monster” (actually Birkin) who had been following her. As he attacked Claire Redfield, Leon S, Kennedy, Ada Wong, and Sherry again and again, G continued to mutate until he faced off against Leon and Claire in his final form, finally meeting his end when the train they were on blew up.

Abilities/Forms
Because of the G-Virus in his body, Birkin has the ability to mutate whenever he takes fatal damage, becoming more powerful and deformed with each mutation. He has also demonstrated the ability to implant G Embryos in other people. If the person’s DNA is compatible with Birkin’s DNA they will combine with it, but if not, the embryo will tear out of their bodies when it has developed enough. They will then evolve into more mutated monstrosities.

Form 1
In this form, Birkin bears the most resemblance to his former self, but possesses a far more muscular upper torso due to a large increase in his musculer mass. One of the most noticable mutations of this form is the disproportionate right arm with a large, tumor-like eyeball near the shoulder. Since this form lacks any natural weapons, Birkin wields a piece of pipe that he tore from a guardrail with his superhuman strength. He can also throw it or swing it multiple times in succession. Strangely, when Annette remembers how he killed the USS soldiers, Birkin is seen possessing talons that he slices them apart with. However these claws may have simply atrophied away from lack of use, due to the unpredictability of the G-Virus.

Form 2
In this form, Birkin’s head has been pushed into the chest, the right hand has sprouted large, bone talons, two new arms have begining to develop underneath the originals and a new rudimentary skull has begun to develop in place of the original. In this form, G possesses all the same abilities as the previous one but now has the added advantage of its sharp talons. In this form, it attacks by slashing and stabbing at his opponents with his new claws. Interestingly, this form of G managed to recognize Annette, to some extent at least. When it found her, it hesitated and looked at her for a few moments, but attacked her when she drew a gun on it, recognizing her as a threat.

Form 3
Definitely the least misshapen out of all of Birkin’s mutations, G has shed all of its integument skin to reveal a more muscular body. Countless spike like projections emerge from the chest while William Birkin’s visage has all but faded into the torso. The left arm has also gained talons, though these ones are more like nails rather than the ones made of bone on the right. G has also grown to be about 8 feet tall and its primary arms have grown beyond that of a normal human, moving back to become more secondary appendages. The second set of arms from the previous form have become fully functional and developed talons. The rudimentary head has fully developed its new skull and now sports a lipless grin and razor sharp teeth, which makes it look like a skinless version of the head of Nemesis. Finally another tumor like eye has developed on G’s left thigh. In this form, G has most of the same combat characteristics of its previous form, except that it is far more acrobatic, able to use powerful jumping slashes and even a bizarre roundhouse kick where it follows up with a slash from two of its arms. Many consider G to look like a demon in this form.

Form 4
In this mutation, G has become a hexapedal-based mutant, utilizing its four primary limbs to move around. The skull and maxilla have extended to accommodate the newly formed mandible, which is little more then a gaping circular cavity surrounded by spikes, fusing into the spikes that used to cover its torso. Despite having a rather bulky appearance, G is quite agile and quick in this form and can sprint and leap all around the area easily. The spikes around its mouth can be used to easily impale its prey, given the agility and speed of this mutation. The eyes on its shoulders could be simply rudimentary or they could be its actual eyes, suggesting that the ones in its skull are simply for show, like a butterfly or a moth. G can also climb walls and spit acidic slime out of its mouth, as well as swipe at enemies with its forearms or gnaw on them with its fangs. In this mutation, it walks with an odd gait, similar to a wolf or a dog.

Form 5
Without a doubt, the most grotesque out of all of G’s mutations, after experiencing massive physical damage, the creature has mutated into a shapeless abomination of flesh, spikes, limbs, and tentacles. It gets around by attaching its largest tentacles to a stationary object and squirms forward with its lesser ones. Since William Birkin was dead at this point, it is unknown if G would have continued to mutate into other forms. This is unlikely however, since it has already become a shapeless blob and has nothing left to mutate into. This mutation however is not produced from evolution like the other forms, instead from responding to the heavy damage the creature had taken. After mutating into this form, G attacks by swinging its massive tentacles at its prey and hurling wreckage. It also has two highly bizarre attacks, spitting up recently consumed zombies to attack its enemies and ejecting its own mouth to strike at them.

It also has some level of intelligence, since it realizes the train car its on is about to explode and screams “SHERRY!” However this creature was unable to escape and destroyed by the explosion. Even the G-virus was unable to counter the damage finally putting an end to G.

Resident Evil Films
Willim Birkin makes a very breif cameo in one of the Resident Evil movies.

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