Complexity: 3

Summary & Strategy: 

TBD

Bio

Even from an early age, it was clear that Shivani Mishra possessed a remarkable intellect. Blessed by genetics and upbringing, her mother was an exceptional doctor of pharmacology, and her father was a nuclear engineer. Both proudly encouraged Shivani's insatiable curiosity, assured of a promising future in academia herself.

Then, when Shivani was nine, her mother passed: consumed by what was declared to be a particularly severe case of autoimmune encephalitis. While Shivani scarcely had an inkling of the technical terms, she'd watched as her mother experienced a rapid cognitive decline, before she ultimately passed, destroyed by her own biology.

In her mother's stead, Shivani's father became sole caregiver for her and her sister, working to keep the family bond strong and provide for his daughter's futures.

Shivani was thirteen when her father began to decay. From clinical diagnosis, he had developed an adult-onset telomere biology disorder, with a severe degradation effect: each cellular division shortened his lifespan, worsened immunodeficiency, eroded bone marrow. Treatment, what little there was, was beyond the reach of what her family could afford. A horrible failing of human genetics and a cruel hand dealt by fate.

Shivani began to study molecular biology before she could legally drive, and graduated from high school years ahead of her peers. She'd quickly proven to be a brilliant and promising academic, garnering acclaim for being the youngest graduate in her institute's history at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), where she published a breakthrough paper on epigenetic acceleration at 19. She graduated at the top of her class, with a B.S. in Molecular Biology and a B.S. in Biochemistry.

Dr. Mishra then continued her studies through the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where she attained her first Ph.D in Genetic Engineering alongside an M.D./Ph.D., with a specialization in immunology. It was during a call from her sister to congratulate her that the most dreaded possibility had proven to be a reality: her father's telomere disorder was autosomal dominant, and her sister had begun to demonstrate symptoms. It was entirely possible that Shivani carried it too.

Necessity was ever the mother of invention: Shivani developed three theoretical approaches to genetic stabilization. None received funding. Shivani continued to pursue post-doctoral studies abroad in the United States, researching Synthetic Pathogen Design, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology. Even then, it seemed at every turn that her efforts were stymied. Her sister's conditions steadily worsened, a pendulum descending upon them both.

It was not long after this that Dr. Mishra was courted into the private sector by Shepherd & Strauss Pharmaceuticals. Alerted to Shivani's circumstances, they expressed a tacit interest in her proposals and offered to provide significant funding and support - and a discreet research environment affording broader discretion in methodology and oversight. She accepted without hesitation.

With the backing of Shepherd & Strauss, Dr. Mishra was presented with entirely new avenues of development, including access to biological samples unmatched by publicly known terrestrial creatures. Dr. Mishra worked relentlessly, consumed by her pursuits to counteract the failings of the human body.

Having driven herself to the brink, Dr. Mishra arrived at her goal. At last, she was able to devise an experimental telomerase reactivation treatment that showed great promise - reliant on an mRNA adapted through genetic samples unavailable to other avenues of research. However, to perform clinical trials would be a lengthy process. At the recommendation of her colleague, Dr. Azryn Vale, Shepherd & Strauss relocated Dr. Mishra to their most advanced facility reserved for studies most would misconstrue or condemn: the Garden of Babylon.

This facility was focused on the recovery and study of unknown pathogens and organisms, including those categorized as 'bioweapons' or of an extraterrestrial origin - but it also housed bleeding edge technologies capable of facilitating a state of 'stasis' in living organisms. For Dr. Mishra, it offered an opportunity to pause the clock on her sister's deterioration.

Costs associated with her sister's preservation would be astronomical, but Dr. Mishra's benefactors would absorb them... in exchange for extending her expertise and involvement to the other studies of the facility. To most, this is when Dr. Mishra disappeared from the world. Later inquiries would find records missing or expunged, traces and trails dead-ends.

For the rest of the world, everything was thrust into a global panic with the arrival of an invasion from beings beyond the void. Public knowledge of organizations such as that which backed the Otherworldly Threat Tactical Response became widespread, and their role alongside the aid of burgeoning 'superheroes' presented a paradigm shift unlike any other. 'Metahumans' had become more openly prevalent, and at the Garden of Babylon study of recovered remains from the conflict offered a wealth of new possibilities.

Dr. Mishra and Dr. Vale were not blind the potential ramifications of their work in tending the Garden - Dr. Mishra was far from stupid - but she had internalized it as a necessary evil if it led to the fruition of her restorative theorems. However, with increased awareness of 'metahumans' and monsters came increased attention in media coverage of 'superheroes' and their battles. Inevitably, Dr. Mishra and Dr. Vale saw clear evidence of their research having been applied to monstrous mutations in the wild.

Dr. Vale urged preparations for whistleblowing considered long overdue - but Dr. Mishra's sister was still interred in that very facility, reliant on their benefactors. She arrived at a conclusion: in order to extricate herself and her sister, she would need to prove the viability of her research, to no longer be reliant on stasis. There was no surer genetic mapping than her own: she would experiment on herself. If successful, she'd have confidence sufficient to take her sister with her and leave the Garden of Babylon behind.

What neither doctor knew was that Shepherd & Strauss Pharmaceuticals was a subsidiary shell of the clandestine organization known as the Umbral Estate. The surveillance and security measures in place for the Garden of Babylon Research Facility were far more extensive and subtle than one would expect, even under careful discretion. As was a favored approach to making opportunity out of loose ends, it was decided targeted sabotage would be the ideal approach to turning defectors into resources.

Dr. Cecilia Strix was nominated to make arrangements. First, she dosed Dr. Mishra's serums with psychoactive mutagens while they were preparing in the lab equipment. Then, she would arrange for a security compromise while Dr. Vale was examining Subject-589 - a parasitic organism she was confident would consume the doctor as a host. For a last dash of irony, she would ensure that both were together when the compromise occurred, with the hopes that Dr. Vale would subsequently 'finish the job' with Dr. Mishra.

Things did not quite go according to plan. Dr. Vale, the resultant Subject-X, proved far more dangerous than anticipated, leading to a catastrophic containment breach. Dr. Mishra survived the encounter from the dosage of her compound's regenerative properties - but the contaminants altered her biology and brain chemistry unpredictably. It was absolute Bedlam.

O.T.T.R. had already been on the trail of the Garden of Babylon Research Facility - and the uproar of activity was enough to confirm its location and allow for the dispatch of O.T.T.R. Operatives.

In the aftermath, Dr. Mishra's research efforts for her sister were compromised - so too was her own physical and mental state. With the Garden of Babylon no longer operable, her sister's stasis would be unsustainable. Upon review of her research, however, Dr. Stone, O.T.T.R.'s head of research, made the recommendation of acquiring Dr. Mishra as an asset to expand upon the organization's development of advanced medical treatments for field personnel. O.T.T.R. would retrieve and relocate the stasis facility hardware and account for its upkeep in exchange for Dr. Mishra's ongoing support. She agreed without hesitation.

Dr. Mishra adopted the agent name 'Bedlam' - and recognized that she had been affected far more extensively than she originally realized. Due to the nature of the physiological changes she had endured, O.T.T.R. designated her with the 'metahuman' asset status and has established numerous protocols in regards to Dr. Mishra and her research. It was now necessary for her to perform routine upkeep on the unusual chemistry of her body, subject to bouts of mania and overzealous zeal. Candid discussion among O.T.T.R. Operatives muttered about Dr. Mishra and Ms. Hyde, though the parallels were superficial.

In the end, above all else, Bedlam desires nothing more than to remedy the failings of human genetics - and in the light of a changed and unpredictable future for the world, attempt to ensure that humankind could adapt and evolve on a more urgent timetable.