Swarm

PHASE 1

Fritz von Meyer - deceased
Portrayed by
Known Aliases:	Swarm
Affiliations:	Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker
Socked By:	Dex
Introduction:	Operation: Melittology

#iampureiamtheswarmandyourbloodshallpayforwolfgang's#

A former agent/experiment of Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, Swarm could be barely considered human. He was killed by Carmilla Black during the London ambush by X-Force.

Details

Name: Fritz von Meyer

Aliases: Swarm

Affiliation: Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker

First appearance: December 4, 2007

Family: None.

Biography

Fritz von Meyer was one of the earliest recorded mutants of the 20th century. Manifesting at age 8, young von Meyer was able to communicate with swarm minded insects; flies, locusts, and especially bees. He was considered mentally retarded until a local doctor and amateur apiarist noticed that von Meyer's seeming autism was actually a communicative state with the local insect population.

The child and his doctor were taken by the newly installed Nazi government, and placed in a research facility under the control of Dr Wolfgang Strucker. While the doctor worked with Fritz, eventually teaching him how to control his communication with the bees without losing himself to the strange trance like state, Strucker's team experimented with the boy's control over the insects. After several years, they had reached the point that he could control a whole swarm for a short time.

By the time the war broke out, Fritz had spent two years in the facility, and was an ardent Nazi supporter. They found limited uses for his powers during the next few years, mostly using bees to spy in a limited capacity. With the tide of war turned against them, Meyer was the main supporter urging to try dangerous experimental techniques to try and boost his powers and use them against the Allies.

Strucker's final plan for Meyer was both simple and grotesque. Meyer's flesh was slowly stripped away, using a mutated strain of Trigona Crassipes or 'Vulture Bees'. His skull was opened in numerous locations, and a bloat of specially twisted 'idiot' queens with a drone cluster were inserted into the openings. The clusters formed organ-like growths, providing oxygen in a clear fluid to Meyer's brain. His body, now reduced to a skeleton wrapped in nerve tissue, was covered with a flexible layer of beeswax and propolis.

Devoid of any communication or information outside of the swarms of bees using his powers, von Meyer's abilities refined and grew at a stunning rate. Unfortunately, all of his abilities were locked into maintaining his form, and he proved not to be the solution the German war machine was looking for. Near the end of the war, Strucker hid von Meyer in a specially constructed vault in Southern Germany.

Three decades later, the now Baron von Strucker sought out Meyer's vault to bring him from his hibernation. To his surprise, not only was von Meyer still alive, but animated and seemingly in control of his powers. Near where he had lain, a giant hive had been constructed. Over the period of his confinement, von Meyer had slowly removed his own brain and nerve tissue and incorporated it into the massive hive structure, which functioned as a hivemind itself. With the larger, more powerful brain, he was able to take full control over his expanded powers.

Still a dedicated Nazi, von Meyer secretly worked with Baron von Strucker from them on, mostly performing small tasks related to his powers, or assisting in various experiments. von Meyer turned out to be a master chemist, finding his insectiod senses extraordinarily efficient in chemical research.

When von Strucker was killed, von Meyer lost his only true non-insect friend and patron. Retaining what he could of the Baron's organization, he's continued in his work, but has also vowed revenge on the people who killed the Baron. In identifying with the perfection of the hive-like fascist 'purity of race' ideals of Nazism to his own bee nature, von Meyer continues to espouse the beliefs, continuing Strucker's own interest in racial genocide. His first attempt to wreck revenge on X-Force failed, but only barely, and von Meyer escaped. His second attempt was less successful, with Amanda Sefton, Carmilla Black and Marie-Ange Colbert setting up an ambush for HYDRA in London. Swarm proved vulnerable to Cammie's toxic blood; a combination of being exposed to it after Marie-Ange shot her in the butt and stinging Cammie directly meant Swarm's bee 'body' died in such numbers he was unable to maintain his form and he collapsed. Amanda finished him off by dropping the building on him.

Powers/Abilities

Fritz Von Meyer's body is literally composed of tens of thousands of bees, centred around his nerve-wrapped skeleton. The electrostatic field generated by the bees allows the skeleton to move like a normal figure. However, despite the typical form, his body is extremely protean, as it moves in elements of the swarm. He sees through the eyes and senses of the swarm, making him impossible to surprise. He can approximate human speech by controlling the 'buzz' of the bees composing his body, producing a clear, if somewhat wavery, voice.

Swarm's powers are all based on the swarm, although coordinated to unheard of levels. He can direct parts of his swarm body to attack like a normal group of bees, or to distract and confuse the enemy. Unlike normal bees, those under his direction will try to sting vital areas. He can concentrate the bees to a hand, bristling it with stringers and releasing a huge dose of bee venom to the person he strikes. The level of venom is high enough to virtually instantly destroy the body's ability to coagulate, leaving the person envenomed hemorrhaging to death.

He can also generate both wax and propolis, using the latter to either seal doors or windows while escaping, or sealing up the mouth, nose and eyes of an opponent. He generates wax at a slow rate, but can make a variant of ceramic like hardness, sealing up whole rooms. Finally, he can emit alarm pheromones on an opponent, immediately making them a target for any insects in a 5k radius, as they will insanely attack the target person until it wears off or is naturalized with alcohol.

Plots

Operation: Melittology

Operation: Red Letter Day

Meta

Socked by: Dex

PB: N/A

Swarm is based on the Marvel comics villain of the same name.