AKA: Van Sanger, Crazy Doc Sanger, Doc, Sanger, Lucas Kalkin, Vanya
CODENAME: Doc
POWERS: Extreme Body and Mental capacity. See below.
BORN: August 2, 19?? ** Born in an alternate universe.
GENDER: Male, Very Male
GENDER PREFERENCE: bisexual, energetically so...
SOURCE OF POWER(S): As a teenager Van was subjected to a series of "intelligence enhancing" drugs, therapies and treatments. They worked. Side effects started when he was in his early 20s, and were heavily affected by a man named John Byers -- who was both responsible for the treatment in the first place (which Van didn't know) and altering their effects with drugs and torture techniques (which he obviously did). After 17 years of this abuse, Van snapped, built himself a "generator" and got the heck outta dodge. His mind capacity is about 5x that of a normal human, and he can consciously control his internal organs, hair growth, melanin production, metabolism, etc, due to the extreme things he was forced to do while under John's attentions.
PLACE OF BIRTH: Devavanya Hungary, moved at age 6 to Independance MO, then to Los Angeles at 14, then at around age 46 he came to this universe.
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6'3" but often seems much taller / around 210 of solid muscle, long build -- as above.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: as above -- Tan-olive skin which can be darkened by thought (takes a day or so), long shiny raven-black hair (he will NOT cut it to get a job) with widows peak often loose but professionally tied back, Very Blue Eyes, somewhat gaunt when not feeling up to par emotionally (Originally based on Peter Cushing but hey, if played in a movie -- see picture of Iain Glenn below...), he can alter his scent and produce more or less "flavored" secretions (sweat, whatever) with some lead time. He has a dazzling smile, big, even teeth, thin lips, and a very strong nose. His finger and toe nails are blackened permanently from exposure to a strange virtual-reality gel which was being tested while he was still working with John.
**PHYSICAL POWERS**: Van's abilities physically put him at the edge of human. He is not *the* strongest human, as he's not a body builder, nor is he *the* most talented fighter or whatever. He *might* be the fastest normal human on this world, short of unnatural abilities. His reflexes are paired with his personality quirks of being quite jumpy when he's cornered -- he's likely to attack if he even thinks he's going to be caged. His internal structure is "clean" -- that is to say he cannot be given diseases. His body chemistry creates antibodies which are amazingly effective. He knows he could possibly cure cancer or aids, but he also knows that he'd have to explain himself to those who would manufacture those cures... And that he won't do. His senses are easily stronger than 9 out of every 10 people, rated as follows: Taste/Smell - about normal; Hearing about 2x normal; Sight about 3x normal; and Touch at least 4x normal due to the excess of nerves grown after his brain stopped being affected by the treatments. Because of this last bit, he likes to wear as little as possible, which isn't all bad...
PERSONALITY: Very polar. Often switches from suicidal to homicidal, when depressed is more likely to hurt himself than anyone else but god forbid anyone get in his way. Otherwise, if not cornered, Van is a bit ... vain. Check -- VERY vain. He's a typical peacock, and the way he dresses when casual shows off his best assets... He is scary, though, and to look at him if he's angry you'd just as easily die of fright than by his expert hand. He has a queer sense of humor, and is somewhat leery of strangers unless they're obviously in a position of authority -- in which case he will be completely distrustful. He has a weakness for blonds of either gender, though his wife was very Latino. He will flirt with someone until they tell him to stop -- in fact he'll do anything until someone tells him to stop, "hey, you're stepping on my head! stop!" "Hey, you're dancing with my girlfriend!" "Hey, you've gotten that drill all the way through the roof of my mouth, stop!"...
**MENTAL POWERS**: Van's intelligence is perhaps rated around 580 IQ, though he does not necessarily think of himself as some gawdawful genius. He started out normal, and would really give almost anything to go back and be normal again. He knows this is impossible. He thinks faster, his brain is about 13% more densely packed and consists of far more nerurons than other normal humans. Since he did not start out this way, he tends not to think of well and truly unusual things -- he'd rather use his smarts to learn another language or beat someone in poker. Fortunately for everyone, he doesn't want to take over the world. He'd rather just have an orgy with it.
SKILLS: Two sets. Normal skills -- languages, engineering and such all come naturally to him, well, "naturally" after his intelligence treatments. He is quite good with devices and tools, though he does not always innovate from scratch, he's more likely to take something and modify it once he knows what rules it operates under. He did however create his dimension machine, and destroyed it when he got here. He is skilled in electronics, and has a huge repetoir of medical/surgical knowledge, partially due to his interest in virtual-reality machinery (he designed systems which directly sensed and affected the nerves in the skin, so his knowledge is mostly concentrated in neurosciences) and partially due to his own ability to sense his organs and musculature. Second set of skills learned while being John's personal slave -- a lot of fighting. Dirty fighting. Using pretty much anything at hand as a weapon, Van prefers long sticks and swords, but loves fighting bare-handed. He does not know "forms" of martial arts, however he can emulate pretty much anything necessary to get his opponent to the ground as quickly as possible. He is quite strong, though not superhumanly so, but it's hard for him to find sparring partners. Practices fun Tantric positions, but then again he just wants to teach. Go figure. He is also remarkably talented at getting information from people who don't want to give it away. He likes pain, because of what John did to him, though he hates that fact. He likes giving it just as much.
HOBBIES: His childhood dream was to become an Olympic track star, and he was quite good at distance and sprinting. Now, though, he hasn't had the chance to cut loose and really run in a long time. But he'd probably be a lot faster than any Olympic star, since the side effects have tuned him to his body. Other hobbies include, well, sex. That missing 14 years? Spent hidden away doing interrogation work for a mob-family, kept secret from the world.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? He's been a psycho, but no one here has to know that. There WAS a version of him in this universe -- one who did not survive the tortures which John put him through. There is a John under any guise in any universe, he'd considered hunting them all down at one point, but that could get tiresome. Instead, he tries to keep track of where this universe's John is (he currently resides in New Orleans and is a pharmacutical company genius...).
HA REASON: As above, Van escaped a horrid life to just "be normal". If he can help others with abilities and actually teach them things, that's even better. He has no plans on creating another universe hopping device, though he knows he could. Apparently, that sort of thing is typical here in this world... If he's accepted as faculty, he'll be throwing some odd parties...
Team - ??
As the history of this character develops in the Hero Academy world, I'll post it here.
When I saw this piece, in color on the cover, I said to myself... THAT is Sanger at his most amazing... Naked, angry and covered in someone else's blood. Believe me, you gotta see this piece in color to believe it. Tan skin, blue eyes, black hair, the nails... And the blood... wow.