Agent X

(Alex Hayden / Nijo Minamiyori)

Comics Marvel Universe

Power Level: Street-level

Game system: DC Heroes Role-Playing Game

Role: Character (possible antagonist for both heroes and villains)

Context

Agent X is a Marvel Comics character who chiefly appeared during the 2000s. He’s quite close to Deadpool in terms of powers, attitude, skills, humour, etc.

Background

Real Name: Nijo Minamiyori.
Other Aliases: Alex Hayden.
Marital Status: Single.
Known Relatives: Minamiyori (brother, deceased).
Group Affiliation: Agency X.
Base Of Operations: Alpine Park theme park, New York.
Height: 6’0” Weight: 215 lbs.
Eyes: Brown Hair: None (originally black with white stripe).

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Powers and Abilities

Agent X has a powerful healing factor (inherited from Deadpool), which allows him to quickly recover from even fatal wounds, regenerating entire limbs within hours.

He is a highly talented unarmed combatant, trained in the use of numerous weapons, and is a particularly gifted marksman (which he inherited from the Black Swan).

He has also acquired the Black Swan’s fine tastes, and a smattering of memories from Nijo, the Black Swan and Deadpool. This patchwork memory provides him with a level of protection from psychic intrusion.

History

Believing Deadpool had killed his brother, assassin Nijo helped the German assassin, Black Swan, infect Deadpool with a mental virus. Black Swan then stabbed Nijo, admitting responsibility for his brother’s death.

Five minutes after Nijo died, a bomb Deadpool brought to the fight exploded. But the Black Swan’s mental powers allowed him to copy Deadpool’s healing powers. Unable to control the mental link, the Swan linked the minds of himself, Deadpool, and the dead Nijo, sharing their abilities and personalities and reviving Nijo.

Agent X

The revived Nijo turned up in New York, his body heavily scarred and his mind confused to the point of amnesia. He was drawn to Deadpool’s former secretary, Sandi Brandenberg, who became convinced he was Deadpool due to his powers and demeanour.

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Adopting the name Alex Hayden (after a pair of composers he liked, Alexander Grieg and Josef Haydn), he decided to become the best mercenary alive.

Sandi recruited Taskmaster and Outlaw to train him. However Taskmaster’s training mainly involved using Alex as a target as he developed a dislike for the amnesiac (probably due to his feelings for Sandi). Taskmaster’s beatings lasted until Agent X turned on him, proving immune to his photographic reflexes.

Deciding he was ready for business, Alex began Agency X. Outlaw and Taskmaster occasionally joined him on missions – the latter reluctantly. Hayden became romantically involved with Outlaw. His first mission ended with him being paid with an abandoned theme park, which became his headquarters.

The Four Winds crime organisation believed Agent X to be Deadpool – whom they blamed for killing their previous heads. They sent a small army of super-mercenaries after him, attacking Agency X in the amusement park.

Agent X and his allies survived. Using a combination of blackmail and killing the organisation’s current head enforcer, Saguri, on behalf of the Four Winds’ leader, Higashi, they cleared things up with the organisation. They also convinced Higashi that Alex wasn’t Deadpool.

Free of that threat, Alex was less than happy when Outlaw announced she was returning home to care for her dying father, and Taskmaster declined a full-time position with the Agency.

Deadpool Rising

Alex worked alone for a while, but after accidentally sleeping with Sandi, decided to close the Agency to avoid endangering her. Before he could tell her, Black Swan turned up with blank-minded (more than usual, that is) Deadpool, and revealed Alex’s origin.

Alex learned he had a deep hatred of Deadpool, shooting him in the head as soon as he saw him. Black Swan proposed a three-way mind meld to restore them. He inevitably betrayed them, absorbing both of their powers to increase his own. They faced a tough fight, but managed to overwhelm Black Swan with multiple distractions and blow him up.

Alex reversed the absorption, feeding Black Swan his own memories of dying. They then shot Black Swan as much as they could, just to make sure. After having taxidermy performed on his body, they took it with them on vacation.

Keeping the Agency going, Alex found himself going up against Deadpool again, resulting in them killing each other. Deadpool recovered first, making off with Alex’s pancreas.

Enraged, he hunted Deadpool down to Switzerland where he was trying to revive Cable. Giving up on his contract, Alex got his pancreas back from Deadpool, and they parted on relatively amicable terms.

Agent XXXL

After a less-than-successful attempt to steal an experimental morphogenic actuator from Hydra, Alex was taken prisoner and used as a guinea pig for the device. It gave him advanced degenerative arthritis and the “American gene” – an insatiable appetite which saw him become morbidly obese in a short period.

As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, Sandi and Outlaw convinced Deadpool to rescue him. Add to that was the indignity of having to ask Deadpool to run the Agency while he tried getting back into shape, and it’s unsurprising he’s yet to shed the weight.

His depression over his condition did abate when symbiote-infected dinosaurs ran riot in New York. Unhappy at the rest of Agency X being out dealing with the problem while he was stuck in the office, he armed up and leapt into the fight. From a balcony. Squashing a dinosaur on impact.

He couldn’t move very fast once on the ground, but he managed to contribute.

Personality

Agent X enjoys shooting things, corn dogs and corn dog related condiments, and gigantism in women. His patchwork memory is reflected in his personality, his attention deficit disorder often leaving him bored at long explanations, happy to just be shooting things.

He can focus if necessary, but it requires keeping him away from shiny objects. And boobs.

He’s blasé about murder, mutilation, and torture. Anyone stupid enough to attack him is likely to suffer one or more of these as the whim takes him (or sometimes by accident if he isn’t paying attention, which is often).

He doesn’t target civilians. But anyone who willingly joins his game, or happens to be a bad guy who crosses his path, will likely fall foul of the casual violence and massive collateral damage he tends to leave in his wake.

He retained elements of Nijo’s sense of honour, Black Swan’s refined tastes and intolerance for rudeness, and Deadpool’s sense of “humour”. It’s mainly Deadpool’s proportional maturity and sophistication of a 13-year old that shines through the mix.

Alex and Deadpool retain a mutual dislike, but it’s become more of a knee-jerk reaction than any real hatred. They don’t really mean anything by shooting each other, and they can work together. Alex has no interest in his history as Nijo, avoiding it whenever possible.

Quotes

Sandi: “You’re crying blood.”
Alex: “I am ? Pretty neat trick, since I haven’t been able to detect my own pulse for 10 minutes now.”

“I should warn you that I’m weak and feeble right now, so back off or I can’t guarantee I won’t puke !”

(Attacking thieves’ car while surfing a hot dog cart at speed) “Outdoor convenience food vending… to the extreeeeeeeeeeeeeme ! Are you not entertained ?” (Drops his guns going over a bump) “Uh-oh. This would never happen if I had one o’ them sporty Italian biscotti carts.”

“It’s disturbing to my man-essence !”

Deadpool: “Stupid life-stealing homage butthead !”
Alex: “Whiny puss-baby cancer-face loser ! Toe-sucking Spider-Man-outfit-stealing dork !”
Deadpool: “Matrix-lookin’ mama’s boy froglicker ! Circus geek !”
Alex: “Game show host !”
Deadpool: “Trekker !”
Alex: “Dude, that was low.”

“I was having this *amazing* dream. There was a this cake and it was filled with boobs !”

Alex “I hate you !”
Deadpool: “Hah, gotcha beat, ’cause I hate me, too ! This is gonna hurt you more than it is me…”
Alex: “No it’s not. It’s gonna hurt you way more ’cause you’re a United Nations-lovin’, Martha Stewart cozy-knitting girlie-man !”
(Both hit car after falling a few stories)
Deadpool: “See… didn’t hurt a bit…”
Alex: “Me… neither… Ooh, look, there’s Kofi Annan—”
Deadpool: “Where ?”
Alex: (elbows Deadpool) “I knew it !”

“Okay, having my pancreas returned in an uncrispy condition is more important to me than fulfilling my contractual obligations.”