| Ashok Desai was a street-urchin hustling tourists in the streets of Calcutta until Lloyd Chippings, a science teacher from the exclusive Morton’s Public School in England discovered him. He was taken by Ashok’s intelligence and arranged a scholarship to Morton’s for him. In under a year Ashok had surpassed all his classmates, and he entered Oxford University at 16. His specialty was biology, and by the time he graduated with a doctorate he gained fame in the experimental field of molecular biology. He returned to India to continue his work for the next ten years, and marry a young woman he had fallen in love with. His wife died in childbirth, and he blamed the child Arani for her death. He left his daughter in the care of servants and returned to his work with a vengeance. Several years later Ashok began working with Niles Caulder, and a friendship began between the two geniuses. Within weeks Ashok believed he had perfected the formula he had spent so many years working on. Unwilling to risk another life in testing it, he used himself as a guinea pig. The serum altered his genetic structure, transforming his body into a living gateway to a dimension inhabited by demonic creatures. Caudler created a containment suit that could keep the creatures at bay, but the serum kept altering Ashok’s body, twisting and crippling it. In time his mind would be eaten away by the serum as well. A handful of faithful servants helped Ashok disappear from the world. Ashok now believed himself to be an incarnation of the Indian god Kalki, who was prophesised to bring about the destruction of Earth. |
