CODENAME: Guerrilla Opossum
BACKGROUND:
Did you know that opossums have incredibly acute senses of smell? They rank with elephants, bears, and rats among the animals with the strongest olfaction abilities in the animal kingdom…
Born an orphan in an impoverished neighborhood, Duilio Salcedo was told that he could pay for his education and secure a stable future for himself by pursuing a military career. Seeing no other alternatives, Salcedo signed himself up to one of the major American private military corporations. While Salcedo possessed remarkable skill and discipline and earned the respect of his unit and his superiors, he quickly came to resent his involvement in various “peacekeeping” activities overseas. An incident where Salcedo survived a seemingly fatal wound sustained during a firefight earned him the moniker of “Opossum”.
Eventually, Opossum’s service record made him a prime candidate as a test subject in a radical gene therapy treatment program, and he was “volunteered” to the program by his superiors. To the researchers’ surprise, Opossum responded to the treatments positively (meaning they didn’t kill him immediately): his reflexes, immune system, and sensory acuity were markedly augmented by the procedure. Specifically, his sense of smell became nearly five times as sensitive as the average human’s, which allowed him to detect and distinguish between more unique scents at greater distances than he could before, enabling him to locate and pursue targets once he acquired their scent.
Of course, while the procedure worked, the researchers wanted to see just how far they could push the limits of the human olfactory system. Subsequent treatments heightened Opossum’s sense of smell to a level that preliminary measurements had not anticipated. Unfortunately, this ultimately caused Opossum to become incredibly nauseous when exposed to strong fragrances, and the researchers had no way of reversing the treatments to mitigate this. Oops. To compensate, Opossum was given a Low-Profile Atmospheric Filter (LPAF) that allowed him to breathe in standard environments without choking (the LPAF unit is also equipped with a button that briefly vents unfiltered air through when pressed, should Opossum need extra “sensitivity” to locate a target).
As Opossum gradually grew more disillusioned with his career, and the world at large, he was drawn into a charming, manipulative strategist’s promises of creating a better world through “surgical destruction”. The so-called “Guerrilla Opossum” now spearheads many of those operations personally.
BATTLE:
Did you know that opossums are known for their robust immune systems? In fact, many large opossums are immune to snake’s venom. This evolutionary adaptation enables opossums to prey upon snakes…
While Guerilla Opossum is trained to use a wide variety of small arms, he typically prefers to carry a rapid-fire submachine gun. A one-on-one fight against Opossum would certainly be in Opossum’s favor: thanks to his gene therapy treatments, tranquilizers are ineffective against him, and he can quickly dodge out of lines of fire when he’s on his guard. Cautious opponents may try to sneak around to flank him, but his heightened senses allow him to determine where they’re hiding and chase after them. Hmm… Perhaps cigarette smoke would overwhelm him and give his opponent an opening?