A highly resourceful and brilliant American bio-geneticist, Dr. Howard K. Kestkill III was pressed into scientific service for a secretive Undersea Warfare Weapons (UWW) division of the CIA to create and engineer cloned underwater warrior creatures (under the program codename: Abyss) to use against the great threat of the Atlantic Kingdom and its megalomaniac of a leader, King Dolphin.  Even though the best of intentions were the focus of the UWW, its diminished morality and unchecked program parameters led to the creation of one of the Pacific Ocean's most dangerous super-villains - Abyss.

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Dr. Kestkill was brought in to lead the science team of the UWW (secretly located in an old abandoned military aircraft hangar on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, at the site of what is now a massive NOAA facility) to come up with a counter to the Atlantic Kingdom's cloned army of warriors.  The CIA UWW Director, Mason Masterson, lost a dozen agents in an Atlantic Kingdom spy mission; one such agent was his only brother.  Obsessed with creating a counter to the Atlantic Kingdom, and irritated by the U.S. and world government's politics over the situation, Masterson worked Dr. Kestkill and his team relentlessly, making them work nearly around-the-clock, seven days a week. Although Kestkill's team was overworked, they unlocked hundreds of previously undiscovered capabilities in the field of cloning and transmutagenic science.

 

The team created a machine dubbed as the "Transmutation Matrix Unit" (TMU). When properly calibrated and aligned, the TMU could take any biological creature, human or otherwise, and transfer the being's innate abilities as temporary or permanent new powers in another being or creature. Such abilities related to enhanced strength, stamina or the ability to filter oxygen from the seawater and breath in the ocean depths, develop eye membranes, generate electricity, create spines (sharp spines at that!) and many other incredible capabilities, all pending on what the TMU could transfer and mix between DNA strands. Although these discoveries were amazing, very few knew about them; most of those 'few' were assigned to Ford Island.

 

The TMU had been used in several trial experiments using a hybrid synthesis of human and various undersea creature DNA. Using the TMU, the scientists and Dr. Kestkill were able to create the first Transmutated Undersea Recombinant Experimental Species (TURXS). These creatures were far more different than King Dolphin's "Ningrens"; these 'TURXS' were bioengineered to be aggressive, leading to the TURXS violent actions and reactions, also making them require an 'alpha' figure to dominate and lead them. Dr. Kestgill, being a bit of a pacifist in nature, was NOT an 'alpha' and as such the TURXS repeatedly attempted to kill, attack and/or escape from him. Due to the early, less refined biogenetic matrices of the TURXS, most 1st and 2nd generation TURXS died within hours if not days of being created. Several remained alive for study to aid in fine-tuning the next generation. The TURXS eventually were engineered to be more servile and easy to manipulate and train, however, the creatures hated being confined in lab tubes; they wanted to be able to swim in the open ocean, not caged or trapped (much like the Ningren and most aquatic species basic instincts). Nonetheless, the TURXS were a 'stepping stone' to furthering the TMU's use on humans to temporarily 'transform' combat troops to perform undersea combat roles and missions.  With the Atlantic Kingdom stepping up their rhetoric against the nations in and around the Atlantic Ocean during this same period of time, the pressure to complete Project Abyss was considered imperative.  Mr. Masterson made Dr. Kestkill and his team work harder than ever before...literally, to a breaking point.

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One night, after another 30-hour 'no sleep' work session in the labs, Dr. Kestkill's team collapsing on the brink of exhaustion, Dr. Kestkill told Masterson he was resigning and any of his team that wanted to leave with him could. Kestkill told Masterson that once he was back in Washington D.C., he was going to report Masterson and his chain of command for creating a prison for his scientists, including the deplorable conditions and strain they were all put under and the unethical operations that Project Abyss was creating and performing. When Masterson told Kestkill that nothing would come from talking to his superiors in D.C.; that's when Kestkill stated he'd instead go to the media and the United Nations and let them all known what uncivil operations were occurring with the UWW's Project Abyss.

 

Masterson snapped.

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Masterson threw the doctor all about the lab, screaming and ranting that the doctor nor his team would ever leave the lab until 'he' (Masterson) allowed it. Masterson continued to drone on about a 'greater power' than the 'United States Government' or the 'United Nations' needing this work, while all the while continuing to toss Dr. Kestkill around the lab, ranting "He'll kill me!", "He'll kill you!", and "You have no idea of his power!!" as threats.  Dr. Kestkill, bloodied and bruised by the physical altercation thusfar, demanded to know 'Who would kill us?' and that, regardless of Masterson's actions, Kestkill himself was going to make sure everyone around the world knew what was happening there. 

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Now fully unhinged, wide-eyed with madness, Masterson threw Kestkill across a lab console and into a TMU tube. The tube's hatch slammed shut with Kestkill inside, electronically locking and starting an automatic transmutation matrix buildup cycle.  Masterson attempted to release Kestkill from the tube, fumbling with the TMU's control panel, computer buttons, instrument knobs and mechanical devices, sadly setting off more alarms and messing up whatever 'safe' settings were programmed into the TMU. The TMU roared to life with Dr. Kestkill's painful screams emanating from the matrix for the next two minutes. Security arrived (finally) asking what happened. Attempting to shift blame, Masterson stated that Kestkill went mad and attacked him before Kestkill locked himself in the TMU...obviously to commit suicide.

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Of course, the lie Masterson told the security personnel was the farthest from the truth (and the proof was actually caught on security videos), but that didn't matter once the hatch to Kestkill's TMU finally reopened.

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What came out of the machine was no longer Kestkill, but a massive, eight-foot tall, super-strong blue-skinned monster of a man. The being that was once Dr. Kestkill looked up and saw Masterson and the several security guards. The large blue creature lunged at Masterson, tearing off Masterson's right arm from his torso, followed by both of Masterson's legs. Security opened fire on the creature that once was Dr. Kestkill, but instead, the bullets bounced right off of its blue skin with one bullet ricocheting enough to kill one of the several security guards. In fear of their lives, the security guards scattered for the exit, only to be cut down by the large blue creature, squashing and smashing each security guard in turn. After the blue creature finished killing the security guards, several more security guards came running down the corridor, machine guns blazing. The blue creature that was once Dr. Kestkill broke open several TMUs that contained live 1st generation TURXS - the extremely violent ones. As the 1st generation TURXS attempted to slither off, the abysmal blue monster that once was Kestkill ordered (in a deep, guteral voice) that the1st Generation TURXS attack the soldiers and kill them. The 1st generation TURXS paused and then violently did as ordered. Within seconds, the 1st generation TURXS killed three waves of security guards, losing only one TURXS in the process.

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At this point, there was no more security in the secret facility. The 'new' Kestkill then tossed Masterson's near-dead body through the facility's ceiling, through the roof and out into Pearl Harbor. That's when Kenstkill started to realize that something really wrong happened to him.

 

Dr. Kestkill was completely changed. 8-feet tall, bristling with large muscles on a massive humanoid frame, glowing blue eyes, a deep gravely voice...and no longer passive. He felt empowered; violent; In charge. For once in his life, he was now the 'alpha'. He still retained his baseline knowledge and skills (which shouldn't have been possible with the TMUs, but thanks to Masterson's button-pushing manipulations, he'd bypassed the removal of the host's memories and thoughts). Kestkill wanted more. He wanted vengeance. He wanted power. He wanted...to breathe!  He quickly realized he was able to breathe in the air, but only for a short time. He had to get back into the water or drown. As such, he ran outside and jumped into the water, breathing in the oxygenated waters of Pearl Harbor. He then realized...no one was chasing him; no one was trying to kill him. Secret facility, all guards dead. All that was left were several submariners running the project's classified nuclear submarine on the nearby pier. That's when the new Dr. Kestkill realized a new idea; an idea that would allow him to be the world's new 'alpha'.

 

The transmutated Dr. Kestkill went back inside the secret facility, bringing a barrel of water with him to 'breathe' with while he was inside the facility, and looked long and hard at the lab and its several additional TMUs.  With a devilish smirk, the large blue being rolled the equipment out to the submarine at the pier, where he quickly 'enticed' the sub crew to aid him or die; they chose to aid him. The changed Dr. Kestkill, the sub crew and the 1st (and now newly released 2nd generation) TURXS then loaded the sub with all the necessary lab equipment and took the sub out to sea, diving underwater before the Navy was any wiser.

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A search for Kestkill and the sub (and its crew) went on for the next month, but nothing was found.  Within a day of the incident in the lab, all references to Project Abyss were quickly and secretly removed, leaving the old rusty seaplane hangar just as it was before; a barren relic from the mid-20th century (In 2010, the hangar and site were turned into a new, massive NOAA facility (or is it 'really' a NOAA facility?  THAT, is a story for another day...).

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The being that was once Kestkill took the sub to a remote location under an ice sheet in the Arctic Ocean.  There, with all the noises of breaking and creaking ice to mask his sub's sounds, he created his own 'pocket' up inside the ice through which to position the sub, still keeping it, primarily, unseen.  After camouflaging the sub, The 'new, violently blue Kestkill started integrating the TMUs and the lab equipment with the sub's engineering and nuclear reactor. Using a dozen or so of the remaining hybrid human/fish DNA samples, he used the TMU as a cloning machine, making more samples. Thousands more. When it came time to use the samples against the synthetic human bodies (which he'd only garnered several of prior to leaving Hawaii), he decided to use the submarine's crew as his 'test subjects'. They became the first of the new, 3rd generation TURXS, all of which were unique, powerful and definitely under the new Kestkill's control.

 

Shortly thereafter, he had his TURXS go out and find human 'victims' and had them brought back to the sub where each captured human would in turn become a TURXS, becoming a new soldier in the Kestgill's TURXS army.

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By New Years Day in 2000, Kestgill, now calling himself 'Abyss', had over 500 TURX troops, all up to 7th generation versions now. Days later, the Soltan Star Empire invaded Earth. Within days, the Soltans discovered Abyss' sub and destroyed it with an energy cannon blast from one of their orbiting spaceships. A majority of the TMU equipment was damaged and nearly all of the TURXs were killed in the blast.  Abyss, mad beyond description, raged against the Soltans all throughout the northern Pacific Ocean, killing the Soltans in droves. By July 2000, Abyss had pretty much killed over 2,000 Soltan troops and caused them to abandon their posts in the northern Pacific Ocean region. Abyss eventually went back to the destroyed sub with his remaining 52 TURXS and salvaged what he could. Abyss found an old abandoned underwater Red Guard superhero base off of the Kamchatka peninsula that he was able to turn into his new hidden base and lab. It took him 10 years to build up the base and restart his TURXS program again; 10 years that allowed him to also fester his anger at humanity and collate a plan to take over the world, starting with everything in and around the Pacific Ocean.

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By 2012, Abyss was ready. He attacked Russia and Japan, intent on draining their military might and drawing in others to 'help' them against Abyss; a plan he'd planned for.  What he didn't plan for were the world's superheroes, whom arrived and within hours, decimating all of Abyss' forces and thoroughly defeating Abyss himself.

 

Disbelieving that he once fought back thousands of Soltans only to be beaten by young super-powered 'children' in his eyes, Abyss became further enraged, attempting even more brazen attacks, this time against the superheroes. Sadly for Abyss, the same thing continued to occur: defeat after defeat.  Abyss got his licks in, but could never vanquish (in his eyes) the ignorantly simplistic superheroes.  That changed when he finally met the Polynesian pantheon's freed elder god of the underworld, Milu.

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Milu and Abyss worked out a 'warlord alliance' to unite their strength and abilities to conquer the Hawaiian Islands, and ensuingly the Pacific Ocean region. Amazingly, Milu and Abyss' combined efforts, in conjunction with a dozen or so other regional villains/oceanic warlords and TMU-created beings, actually did take over the Hawaiian Isles...but only for a short time.  Eventually, Milu and Abyss' forces were beaten back to the Hawaiian isle of Niihau, where Abyss has since made as his new base of operations.

 

Abyss' personal forces, after the defeat in the Hawaiian Islands War, once again, were devastatingly defeated. To that end, Abyss has taken it upon himself to rebuild his own forces rather than reunite with Milu and the other warlords, all of whom are now considered to be part of a warlord syndicate calling themselves the 'Kaha Koa' with, once again, Milu in charge and Abyss relegated to the #2 position in the team.

 

Today, Abyss continues to grow his army of TURX warriors, creating new varieties of creatures and beings with audacious abilities, powers and viciousness. Abyss has also come to realize the weight of his continued defeats, devising new plans, schemes and plots to further gain him the power and control he believes he deserves; power that would make him the new leader of the Kaha Koa, through which he well knows that should the combined forces of the Kaha Koa unite with Abyss' forces...the world might truly be subjugated unto a new king...King Abyss, that is!! 

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