Eric Opendi (Cataclysmic Gerosha)

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Character bio
This article has a few inaccuracies, and requires a rewrite in parts.

Eric Stanley Opendi / Extirpon is a superpowered anti-hero in the Gerosha multiverse of Dozerfleet Comics. He features in his own origin story, as well as a sequel in which he learns how to unlock a positive side to his nature that he didn't know he had. He is the boyfriend and eventual husband of Pamela Marcones-Opendi, and father of Wilfredo Opendi, as of the events in Extirpon 2. He returns in season 4 of Sodality, as one of the "Legends" that need to be rescued in order to defeat Judge Terry Beliah and the Phaletori. In that same season, he gets recruited to the Sodality of Gerosha as an unofficial member. SCALLOP decides not to intervene in most of his missions, though they take an interest in studying him.

Extirpon is one of many who return for the game Sodality: Battle for Metheel, where he proves to be essential in King Morzhuk's final defeat. He returns again for the Vindication arc, and retires some time after the events in Swappernetters.

Powers
Extirpon is an "Emotion Battery" Marlquaanite, whose power is that he can alter reality and materialize new things ex nihlo whenever he is outraged by the pride and hubris of his enemies. This allows him to become a vigilante anti-hero all around the world. Easily viewed as a terrorist by US authorities, he has to remain constantly on the move. He is treated this way even when he saves the country from serious threats and prevents wars, due to his methods. His base power allows him to gain new powers as his situation demands them, but he must always recharge his "emotion batteries" after every intense use.

His most basic power aside from leeching off the sins of others for fuel is to turn intangible, making bullets ineffective. He can also turn invisible, turn impenetrable, or temporarily increase his own strength. When his powers are fully charged, he can use them as a strength booster to lift a ship as heavy as the Titanic &mdash; and drop it on his enemies. He prefers to lift heavy things like that telekinetically, however, as opposed to actually lifting them.

Another basic power of his is his ability to generate - and cover his victims in - a solution of alcohol and strontinum compounds. He combines these with potassium chloride to produce a purple flame that engulfs his enemies. He is also fond of creating plant life that he can use as weapons, similarly to Botan the Plant-Man. Other standard protocol tricks of his include forcing victims to cough up venomous creatures, then using said creatures to attack and kill the victim. These include snakes, tarantulas, spiders, and scorpions. At one point, he actually reached inside a victim's chest, planted a bomb in the ribcage, then made the victim explode ribcage-outward in a fiery blaze. He is fond of using giant morning stars and anvils on enemies also.

Equipment
In addition to what he generates and finds in his environment, Extirpon has three modes in his negative battery form. His monster mode transforms him into a creature with rock-like skin, and purple molten cracks in-between folds. One of his other modes is to become invisible. However, his default human mode employs a black mask similar to the Dread Pirate Roberts mask seen in The Princess Bride. He dresses in black primarily to blend in with the darkness at night. However, he also uses his dark clothing to appear somewhat intimidating. He employs psychological warfare similarly to Batman and to other "dark heroes."

Weaknesses
Extirpon has to keep his batteries charged at all times, in order to have power to draw from when he wants to lay siege on his enemies. It is theoretically possible to be "drained dry," where he'll have to charge for quite some time to be effective in his attacks. Robots are a particular menace for him, since they have no pride or other vices of the soul from which he can draw energy. It is fortunate for him that he can draw energy from almost any human source, which allows him to recover quickly after being drained.

Being a Marlquaanite means he is vulnerable to being trapped in a Marlquaanite prison containment field, which becomes his single greatest weakness and danger. Suspended animation is also a threat to others, like the Gray Champion and Marlquaan-intimate Phexos such as the Emwaults Emeraldon and Sapphire King. However, Extirpon's being so powerfully bound to it also makes him the most vulnerable to this type of capture. Being quick about his wits and able to teleport keeps him from being captured as easily as less-aware Marlquaanites.

He also has to avoid other Emotion Batteries, who can feed on his anger or loneliness until they match his strength. This is what makes Nematode and Spoliat particularly threatening nemeses for him.

Early life
Eric began his life in Covington, Kentucky; born in 1979. His whole life, he has witnessed the injustice, cruelty, and general jackassery of his fellow man. He'd seen unspeakably cruel criminals pull off stunts arrogantly, knowing full well that the law would never get to them in time.

The Hebbleskin Gang and their ilk had poisoned the waters further. Even with Phexos, the Phaelites could not keep up. The world was simply too evil. The pride of evildoers was excessive, their stubbornness absolute, their hearts incorrigible.

Evil had no fear, and a few of them feared no consequences. But all Eric could do was trudge along his meaningless life, waiting patiently for a chance to come to see justice served; looking for mind-numbing distractions to quench the anger that had built up inside him for years.

Doing everything he could to live as debt-free as possible, he actually avoided going to college. He worked mostly small jobs, moving at the age of 26 to an apartment in St. Louis. His father, Terry Opendi, died of cancer. His mother joined in an underground resistance to the Hebbleskin Gang, and disappeared in 2007 while investigating leads into a hairstylist in northern Michigan who may have been a Hebbleskin spy. Having no other family, Eric found himself growing increasingly cut off from society. He began trying to blend in with his new world, even developing a love interest in the form of the blond Vanna Kerling. Given her on-again and off-again excuses for not always keeping dates with him, he was suspicious of her motives.

The Marlquaan storm
In September of 2012, Dereck Johnson of Marl-Q Industries tried to wield the Marlquaan for himself. His efforts to do so created not only his monstrous alter-ego Eqquibus; but his rival the Gray Champion as well. The Marlquaan storm that resulted didn't just bond the Marlquaan to those two. It spread around the world, creating Marlquaanites the globe over. Eric was fed up with his neighbor at the apartment building, who was always abusing his girlfriend physically. The evening following Eqquibus' accidental explosion, the Marlquaan made its way to Eric's apartment in St. Louis.

Eric awoke, feeling energized in a way he'd never felt before. He could also reach out his hand, and sense himself getting stronger as the neighbor tortured his girlfriend outside the door. The more a jerk the Fred Rillins was to Mary Halibet, the stronger Eric felt; until he could phase through the door undetected, and turn invisible.

When Fred finally tried to push Mary down the stairs to her death, she paused in midair. Fred had no idea what to make of it. Next he knew, the giant fan downstairs was without a front guard for its blades. An invisible force lifted him up in the air, and forced his arms forward. Downward he flew, his arms destined for the high-speed fan that would mutilate them. The blades became harder in substance and faster in rotation, until they began to behave more like a lawn mower blade than a fan. Fred heard a voice he didn't recognize echo through the hallway:

"THAT'S THE LAST TIME YOU'LL EVER PUSH ANYONE EVER AGAIN !!!"

Eric fled the apartment after Fred's forearms had been thoroughly sliced off. He didn't want anyone to know who'd done it. He was initially horrified, realizing what kind of monster had been inside him the entire time. However, he soon found himself saving the life of a woman who was tied up in the forest nearby. Her sadistic abductor was about to fell a tree, and make it fall on her. Not only did Eric (while invisible) get her out of the way of the falling tree, but he then made a new tree sprout up around the laughing maniac. The tree immediately engulfed and ate him, at Eric's command. Eric's victim continued laughing, defiant all the way to his end.

Beginning of career as Extirpon
Main article: Extirpon (story)

Eric begins to go into denial that the events of that evening were real, withdrawing even more from socialization. However, Vanna calls him up and convinces him to come over to her place. He confesses to her that something happened that evening, and that he overheard it all. He claims he chose to flee like a coward rather than call the cops, using a half-truth to cover for himself. He admits that he somewhat enjoyed hearing that someone did that to Fred, given his views on how Fred treated Mary. While he is holding his head down in self-pity, Vanna looks away and notices that her hand is glowing as Eric talks about his anger. Vanna realizes after Eric leaves that she can clean her own house by simply wishing it, with what appears to be a "battery" that is charged by absorbing Eric's anger. Deciding she is a parasite, she starts going over her notes to find a parasite name that fits her: Nematode. Meanwhile, a continued crime wave continues to irritate and tempt Eric, until he realizes that adopting a new identity is all he can do. He manages to break up a major terror attack on a bridge, discovering its connections to a drug ring operating in town. He goes straight to the drug house, which turns out to be an apartment. After killing every minion there, he singles out the ringleader for torture. He learns that the ringleader killed a girl who was important to Eric much earlier in his life: his middle school crush Callie Morris. He begins reading ringleader Jared Rinehar's memories, then disposes of him in a very similar manner to how Jared disposed of Callie. He soon tracks down a supposedly "untouchable" connection of Jared's. He learns of that connection's whereabouts, allows the connection to boast of being untouchable, and then hears the connection say: "Not only will I get away; but all evidence has already been...well, extirpated!"

The man, Marshall Lawrence, soon finds himself standing up in the train car, covered in burrs. Honey begins oozing out of the burrs, and a swarm of angry bees flies into the car at seemingly impossible speed as they shatter a glass window to get in. Eric reveals himself, frees all the women aboard that were being sex-trafficked, and then replies to Marshall: "You're about to be...extirpated!" All the records that Marshall bragged would be either sealed or destroyed instead end up in the hands of various law enforcement, allowing a case to be pieced together. Eric orders the bees to kill Marshall, and they begin crawling inside him and ripping him apart from the inside out.

Eric disappears just as security arrives. Learning how his power feeds on negative emotion, Eric begins wondering if it is even worthwhile to return to his old life. He finally elects not to, liquidating his assets and deciding to wander the Earth endlessly as the ultra-super-powered vigilante known only as "Extirpon." He is initially successful at taking out a variety of villains, often in really extreme ways. His initial major battle is in trying to defeat Nematode, who proves a smarter adversary than he thought possible.

Unlocking the Positive Battery
Main article: Extirpon 2

Extirpon begins to mourn one down side to his power: the inability to heal anyone out of sheer goodwill. His inability to grasp with the fact that he is solely destructive begins to drive him crazy. However, he ends up facing new challenges that require him to unlock his "Positive Battery." He begins to learn that the Positive Battery transforms him into a constructive protector, far from the angry monster he normally turns into.

He first feels that it exists when talking to a minister in Vermont, who shares convictions that he'd rather go to jail than see the courts of Vermont steal a child away from a loving family for no justifiable reason, declaring that child a "rightful" slave of a child predator. Eric agrees with the minister's sentiments, but decides to embrace a sense of comradery rather than seeking vengeance on the corrupt Vermont judiciary.

The realization of a positive battery makes Eric crave the opportunity to unlock it. After destroying a nuclear missile and saving the west coast results in sheer ingratitude from Washington, Eric goes to hide for a time in the Philippines. He meets Pamela Anna Marcones, who keeps trying to have a relationship with him after he saves her from some gangsters.

A new supervillain threat chases him to his hideout, testing his limits and threatening his new-found loved ones by scrambling and temporarily disabling the negative battery. Pam's brother rejects Eric, complicating matters further. However, unlocking the positive battery allows Eric to become Positive Extirpon. This new form not only restores his gouged-out right eye, but allows him to save and heal numerous victims of new threat Spoliat.

He uses the good feeling resulting from that to repair the negative battery, which he then reactivates and uses with a vengeance on the villain. He leaves the Philippines to resume being Extirpon, leaving open the possibility to Pam that he might return for her - without offering her a guarantee. He later does return, only to be surprised when Pam informs him that she is pregnant with his child. He attempts to settle down in the Philippines, sorting through his legal options until he and Pam can officially wed.

Extirpon 3
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Hiding in Tajikistan
Main article: Purge-Flare: Stickin' It to Pencil

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Sodality
Main article: Sodality (series)

Extirpon returns for the fourth season of Sodality, as the one "Legend" that is the most important new addition to the Sodality of Gerosha for simple reason being his virtually unlimited power set when fully charged. Whereas the other Sodality members have to put forth a significant effort to fight against Beliah's thugs and against the Phaletori's army of True Centhuens, Extirpon is able to cut through those pawns like butter. He is the first major Marlquaanite to be targeted for capture by Beliah and successfully be contained in a Marlquaanite prison container. He is also the last "Legend" to be freed. It is Extirpon who finally faces Beliah directly, ending the war within Toklisana and guaranteeing that most of the Sodality's members are free to go their separate ways to fight their personal battles.

The combined efforts of the Gray Champion, Mapacha, and Botan the Plant-Man that help Extirpon and his family get free when he is captured in a Marlquaanite prison. Being away from his batteries for too long results in him being extremely weak. However, he is able to charge enough to help his new friends escape the underground facility where they are being kept prisoner by leeching off of Botan's bitter nature. Other members of the Sodality find Navyrope and his allies. To help the Sodality out even further, Ron and Stephanie Barrin reboot Pilltar and Strawberry with new hardware and software, to make it easier to take out Marlquaanite prison containment fields.

Extirpon scans Beliah's mind in secret, and learns that Camille is missing overseas. He then heads to all the facilities he can find with prisoners, and frees as many as he can that haven't been killed. The Gray Champion helps him fight his way through security. Extirpon uses all the tales of horror he is able to record from the minds of defeated security guards to assemble a horror video of the atrocities committed by Beliah's private army and ideological followers. Since his submissions are still not admissible in court due to Beliah declaring as much, Extirpon responds by sending as many copies to the public as possible. Public support for Beliah withers to almost nothing, and the government begins investigating Beliah.

Beliah unleashes numerous True Centhuens and True Milthuens to terrorize the crowd. However, the Sodality shows up. Ciem, Emeraldon, Sapphire King, Botan, Meerkat, Mukade, Navyrope, Mapacha, Pilltar, Strawberry, and the Gray Champion all team up to help Lex Philippine extinguish the melee that breaks out in town. Extirpon, however, catches hold of Beliah; who tries to escape when everyone else is fighting or fleeing in terror. Beliah tries to call Extirpon "racist," but Extirpon flashes images of all the Black, Asian, and Hispanic Phexos and Marlquaanites that have suffered injustice under his policies, finishing with images of Camille. Camille herself then comes out of hiding, and tells her dad that he's "liberal trash," and to drop dead.

Extirpon drops a sunken ocean liner on top of Beliah, after pinning him to the ground and scorching him with purple flame. Beliah goes down the whole way, cursing the heroes and mocking their convictions. Which only feeds Extirpon's power. When the Phaletori and True Centhuens and Milthuens start looking like they'll gain an upperhand over the heroes, Extirpon arrives and finishes them off with sheer overkill.

Battle for Metheel
Main article: Sodality: Battle for Metheel

As with Sodality before it, Battle for Metheel has Extirpon arriving at the last minute to settle the score. His battery limitations would have made it difficult for him to take the whole planet without getting exhausted; but he still proves the most powerful member of his team. Morzhuk initially tries to use a beam to trap him in a Marlquaanite prison field. He has to lay low to avoid capture, rendering him helpless and trapped in the house. His fiancee Pam and son Wilfredo flee with Dolly "the Earwig" Malestrom to the streets, where Dolly eventually finds the beam handlers and defeats them. She and Pam then destroy the beam, allowing Eric to easily defeat the remaining invaders in his town. However, they all realize there is more going on. With Morzhuk disabling regular communications at Sodality HQ and even harming SCALLOP, Desulon from Phaeleel fills in for the team by letting them use his technology to temporarily get back online.

Extirpon remains at HQ for a majority of the game, only arriving on Phaeleel toward the end - when Morzhuk proves too powerful for the other heroes. His battle against Morzhuk on Metheel proves long and bloody. But in the end, he comes out triumphant. He is finally allowed to return home to be with his family. Instead of a novel, this story was first envisioned as a pitch for a video game. As such, all characters mentioned above have Gerosha Gaming Universe counterparts, to allow for slight narrative deviations.

Retirement
After five more years as being Extirpon and dating Pam, he finally decides to pass on the role to a boy he sees as a suitable heir. In that time, he managed to defeat a few extra villains. One of those villains happened to be Pam Beddington, the sworn enemy of Hannah Marrington. Hea Pang and Hester's locket secure the transfer of power from Eric Opendi to Eddie Pintal. Using the new identity accrued for himself via the Sodality's help, Eric marries Pam Marcones and secures a passageway so she can live with him in Toklisana. Her brother Alvion Marcones sends assassins after Eric and Pam, consumed with hatred for Eric. But the new Extirpon, Eddie Pintal, easily disposes of the would-be assassins.

Personality


Eric tends to be moody, and often depressed. He frequently questions his self-worth in public, and is not always very trusting. He tries to be loving and show outreach to his friends. While grateful for a proper response, he is shocked sometimes when he is shown grace and respect. He is accustomed to living in a world where others want things from him, but not a world where he himself is wanted. More than just his struggle to find and embrace a life where he is respected, he is also troubled by the injustices he sees around him. Crime gets worse, villains get arrogant, and the system set up to stop them gets increasingly corrupt.

The fact that others around him seem all so comfortable with living in environments amidst deadly levels of corruption bothers him most of all. Receiving the Extirpon power becomes a sense of "release" for him, allowing him to rewrite the script of fate in his world to something more suited to his liking. He realizes how dangerous it can be to have such power. While a calloused murderer will likely drive him to kill, he grows uncomfortable in time with his role of simply killing every villain he faces. He begins inventing creative non-lethal ways to punish his victims. Even so, he keeps the threat of death around to let his targets know he means business.

When he is initially only able to access the negative battery, it troubles him. There are times he wants to protect what is good, instead of merely punishing what is evil. He feels that unless he can do both, then there is little separating him from the monsters he extirpates. His relationship with Pam Marcones suggests a desire to move on with his life and find love and redemption, conflicted with his realization of the responsibilities and temptations that come with being Extirpon. He is often lonely, moody, and untrusting of others. He feels a special connection to his first victim, the one whose forearms he sliced off.

When dealing with his victims, his emotions range anywhere from anger boiling just beneath the surface, to full-blown rage, to sadistic glee at how stupidly they make it all too easy for him. He even acknowledges at times that he is an emotionally unbalanced individual. However, that confession proves a lot less effective than he would prefer at deterring his targets from suicidal behavior.

At the scenes of his kills, he will often leave a note explaining the situation behind what happened. He one evening tracked down a serial killer notorious for breaking into homes and sawing up babies. He killed the man by animating several toy baby dolls and having them chase the man down and hack him up with chainsaws. The baby doll toy heads then inserted themselves in the place of his missing head, missing hands, and missing feet. The note left at the scene stated: "Babies saw the man who saw babies."

Time spent around Pam slowly changes him, allowing him to develop a sweet and tender side to his nature that strengthens the Positive Battery. Realization of becoming a father changes him even more, as the humility of responsibility bestowed on him causes him to re-prioritize his entire life. His decision in the end that his love for Pam and his son Wilfredo outweighs his desire to fight criminals leads to him ultimately choosing the young Eddie Pintal to be his heir to the Extirpon legacy.

Inspiration
There was a phase that the Dozerfleet founder went through in 2008 and 2009, in which he would watch a lot of reruns of CSI and CSI: Miami. He often found reason to wish that some sort of entity with incredible power could rewrite several episodes, easily making for a compelling if not dark superhero drama. Criminals on those shows who seemed to frequently outsmart law enforcement, or else seemed untouchable and arrogant, were looked at as prime targets for the anti-hero to put in their place. Research was done in December of 2008 for a proper word for this new character, which would be immediately added to the greater Gerosha mythos along with Ciem and the Gray Champion. It was decided that more heroes (and anti-heroes) needed to occupy the roster,; and the need for some to exist outside of Ciem mythos was evident.

Names for the new character included "Exterminator," "Obliterator," etc. The word "extirpate" caught attention as being particularly rarely used in everyday speech, and as an interesting entry on Thesaurus.com. From there, "Extirpon" was chosen as the character's name. Efforts existed throughout 2009 on the wiki to define further what the character would be, and plan out his mythos. The first information to be made available about him was made available in January of 2009, around the same time that Navyrope was created and during the 2009 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. In 2012, his alter-ego was formally defined as having the name Eric Stanley Opendi.

Extirpon's appearance and abilities were inspired primarily by Image Comics' Spawn, although Ghost Rider also played a role in defining him. It was decided that rather than having the character directly deal with the Devil like his inspirations had, he'd merely be a very emotionally unbalanced and extremely powerful Marlquaanite. The way he would taunt victims, dress, and speak were further inspired by Zachary Quinto's portrayal of Sylar on Heroes. Cybomec in Stationery Voyagers would also be retroactively given Sylar-like personality traits. Oddly enough, he was not inspired by DC's Spectre; in spite having a similar M.O.

Extirpon makes cameos in a small handful of other works. It was decided that, outside of video games, Extirpon would be a difficult character to keep interesting beyond two stories. He was determined to a necessary entry for Sodality when that show's premise was being devise in November of 2012, as one of the final "Legends" for the Sodality of Gerosha to recover and add to their roster. He would single-handedly double the league's power, and allow them to finally defeat their remaining enemies in a final coup de grace in season 4.