NOX

Real name: Nathaniel Oliver Xerxes
Occupation: Vagabond
Identity: Unknown really given that he has a hundred forms
Legal status: Citizen of the US, no criminal record, but wanted for questioning in San Francisco in connection to the murders of Bethany Julia Xerxes, Tom Montrose, and Michelle Montrose
Other aliases: Nox, Nate, Divine, Ty, etc. Extend list forever and add AH! A DEMON!!! to the end of it.
Place of birth: San Francisco, California, United States of America
Marital status: Single and not looking (but he sure has fun in the process of it)
Known relatives: Bethany Julia Xerxes (Deceased Mother)
Group affiliation: None as of yet
Base of operations: Wherever he is at the moment?
First appearance: March 3, 2001
History:

(Highly condensed version. See Other Notes for webpage and full version)

To his knowledge, Nox was born the bastard son of Bethany Julia Xerxes, a Catholic home-maker, and Shadow, a man whom was only referred to in his mother's diary (and by her description could have possibly been a mutant). Whether Bethany actually fell in love with Shadow or whether it was simply some form of mutant power that caused her to feel as such, the result was the same. She conceived Nathaniel (Nox) while her husband was on a business trip. And thus did Nox's life begin in as unconventional way as is probably possible in middle suburbia near San Francisco.

Though Shadow was an extremely large man with skin of a deep black, the child was born with blonde hair, green eyes, and creamy white skin like his mother. Thus, Bethany kept the whole thing a secret from her husband even though she was foolish enough to write about it in a journal. When her husband found this journal near Nox's fifth birthday, he immediately left them. Oddly enough, his loss didn't seem to affect the odd young Nox. Perhaps this was due to a distant father. Perhaps he was coddled by his mother too much. Or perhaps he simply was an odd child. From his earliest years, for instance, he avoided going into the sun whenever possible. It wasn't until he was able to speak that he was able to inform his mother that the sun actually itched and burned his skin when it hit him.

Having this odd knowledge and the guilt of her transgression, she went to the local priest for advice and confession. The priest made inquiries within the Church and was informed by the Arch Dioces to offer the woman and her child fifty thousand dollars if she would allow the medical study of her son by Church-affiliated medical staff for the possible treatment of what they believed to be a new genetic disease that caused an allergetic reaction to sunlight. Since Nox and his mother had been living essentially hand to mouth since her husband left them, the money was a dream come true. With the donation from the church in the bank and some help getting Nox into a private Catholic school, it seemed that their lives were on the upshot.

And so his life continued like this for a number of years. The tests gradually died off as they couldn't find any possible cure or even cause of his strange aversion to the sun. Nox grew to a young, horny teenager as all children do, but little did he know that he would quite soon meet the woman he would fall utterly and truly in love with.

Her name was Michelle Montrose and she was, quite literally, the girl next door. When they first met at the impressionable age of thirteen, they became instantly attached to each other, and this attachment continued for a full three years and eventually blossomed into true love. Unfortunately, as most people know, the good stuff never lasts.

Nox, at this age, was becoming quite embroiled in the club scene of his native city of San Francisco. A scene that was quite rife with people who wouldn't hesitate to take a life for the simplest of things. And so it began with Nox making the foolish mistake of sharing his opinions of a local punk band's ability with a bit too much vociferous rancor. Though he didn't know this at the time, the band consisted of five members of one of the largest gangs in the city and they were about as hard core as they come.

Four events. Four horrible, soul-scaring events were what combined to release the abilities held within Nox for so many years. The first event was when Nox found his dog nailed to his front door and vivisected. After this, he began asking questions about the ones who did it. Questions that no one answered for him except a good friend, Paco. Soon after answering, Paco was found in the bay.

Thus did the young Nate try to finally do the wise thing. He, Michelle, and the parents of the two kids all decided they needed to take a vacation to Michelle's Father's cabin where they could wait this stuff out and make decisions. Faced with the choice of two two-seater cars, an old jackrabbit and a new sports car, the four decided to split up on the drive. The two kids were, in an act of amazing trust, given leave to drive the sports car up, while the parents took the jackrabbit.

Lucky for Nox, or unlucky dependent upon how you see things, this was a wise decision. The jackrabbit had been rigged with explosives, and halfway down the road it exploded, killing both parents and destroying the front end of the sports car Nox and Michelle were in. They ran for all they were worth, but the entire thing had been a set up by the freaks whose ire Nox had picked up. They tracked the young lovers to the warehouse that they stopped at for a breather and thus did the fourth and final blow to Nate's soul occur.

The five ganger/rockers came to the warehouse and proceeded to beat the hell out of Nathaniel and then rape his girlfriend and true love before his eyes. Finally the leader of them killed her with gruesome fervor and turned to finish off Nathaniel as well. As he fired the bullet at Nox's head, all the pain, anger, and hatred flowed forth and triggered the boy's mutation.

To begin with, his body instinctively shifted slightly to the side so that the bullet missed his head, beyond this odd, one-time event, his true form manifested. And when it was over, he stood before them, taller and more muscular than the sixteen year old he was, with glowing red eyes, blue-black skin, pearlesque fangs, ebon claws, and a set of demonic-looking wings that had broken the chains that bound him.

The sight of the new Nox sent all but the leader running away screaming "Diablos." The leader was left behind shivering in impotent fear as Nox came forth to dig his claws into the man's wrist. Despite the fact that the ganger's reply to Nox's question of "why?" was something equivalent to "just because", Nox found himself unable to kill the man. On an instinctual level, no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't bring himself to do it. But that didn't mean he couldn't leave the man remembering this night for all eternity in the form of the scars he came away from it with.

After the events that had occurred, Nox knew he had to leave the city. The pain was simply too great and he wished to discover what he was, whether it was demon or alien or whatever. And so he has been wandering the states for four years, honing his shapeshifting abilities as much as he can in order to better move through society as an invisible, given that he couldn't show his true face to anyone without serious repercussions. Finally he's come to New York after hearing some odd things about the Symposium. Perhaps here he will finally find what he is looking for, whatever that may be.