James Heller

"My name is Sergeant James Heller, and I will destroy Alex Mercer."

- James Heller

James Heller is the anti-hero main protagonist of Prototype 2. He was infected with Blacklight virus by Alex Mercer, but still retain his humanity thanks to his resilient DNA. His unique DNA also responsible to keep both himself alive and his mind intact when every cell in his body rapidly modified by the virus, unlike other individual whom supposedly dies after infected (includes Alex whose died when infected and having his body possessed by the virus). This also effectively making him far heroic compared to Alex despite being antihero in terms of their nature, as his DNA allow him to control virus inside him, which the virus itself bestow him Prototype powers.

Early life
James Heller was a Sergeant for the Marine Corps. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter. However, he is forced to leave them for a war at overseas.

Becoming a virus monster
When he returned to New York, Heller finds out his family had been declared dead due to the unleashing of the Blacklight Virus. Because of that, he joined the Marines in fighting against the infection. What they didn't know of is that he fights only to die by the monsters.

While fighting against the monsters, Heller got mortally wounded, and he finally gets his wish of dying. However, Alex Mercer, the protagonist of the first game, has been watching him taking down the virus monsters, yet he survives. He then infects him with the virus.

Since then, Heller has now become a monster that can never die easily, albeit retain his humanity due to the virus unable to took over his DNA. Along with that, he discovers Alex is responsible for releasing the virus, thus started the murder of his family. As a result, he plans on seeking revenge on Alex for all this.

Contact with GENTEK

 * "I don't need another Mercer running around."
 * ―Colonel Rooks[src]

After his encounter with Mercer, Heller was taken into custody by Blackwatch, where Dr. Koenig attempted to learn how Heller had survived despite his body being flooded with the virus. As Heller struggled to gain consciousness, Col. Rooks and Lt. Riley ordered Heller's destruction through immolation. Koenig tried to delay the order by insisting on a few tests to collect data. Heller awoke surrounded by infected Walkers. When he displayed signs of abilities similar to Mercer, Col.Rooks once again ordered him burned. However, Heller survived the fire and escaped the facility.[5]

After freeing himself from the lab, Heller was once again confronted by Mercer. He explained that he had chosen to infect Heller because he wanted James' help fighting Blackwatch. He forced Heller to consume one of the Blackwatch soldiers that knew about the viral outbreak in Hope, Idaho and Blackwatch's part in the virus' development, claiming that he was not responsible for the current outbreak, that it was Gentek and Blackwatch conducting bio-weapon tests. Reluctantly, Heller agreed to foil Blackwatch's operations throughout New York.

Restoring Faith
Sometime after escaping from Gentek's facility Heller was confronted by Blackwatch soldiers in the Yellow Zone. During this skirmish, Heller discovered his ability to use other humans as a disguise to escape. Due to his familiarity with the zone, Heller was able to track down Luis Guerra, a priest who was familiar with the Heller family. After finding him, James explained what he had been through the previous night and requested Guerra's assistance in fighting Blackwatch. Unfortunately, Father Guerra had lost all hope of resisting Blackwatch's hold in the zone.

To restore the priest's faith, Heller foiled one of Blacktwatch's operations to study a Brawler's behavior and considerably reduced Blackwatch's hold in the Yellow Zone. Guerra's will to fight was rejuvenated by Heller's actions and he agreed to help him.

Scientist Hunt
Guerra then aided Heller in his hunt for Colonel Rooks by helping him hack into Blacknet, which allowed Heller to eventually track down Rooks. However, Heller decided not to kill the Blackwatch leader because he realized that he could get information from Rooks and use it to disrupt Blackwatch operations.

After consuming many Gentek scientists, Heller eventually located Dr Koenig, who convinced him that he wanted to help and directed Heller to Project Orion, a Blackwatch super soldier program. Heller successfully stopped Project Orion but, after consuming the lead scientist, discovered that Koenig was trying to get him killed.

Koenig contacted Blackwatch to evacuate him, but Heller killed the soldiers guarding the base where he was hiding. During the evacuation, Koenig boarded one of the gunships and ordered the pilot to attack Heller instead of evacuating. However, Heller destroyed the gunship and tried to consume Koenig, only for the scientist to display superhuman abilities and announce himself as one of Mercer's Evolved. Koenig told Heller that he served Alex Mercer as an inside source at Gentek to get information. He then began to mock Heller, claiming that he wanted to prove to Mercer that he should be his second in command, and to do that, he had to kill Heller. Koenig then attacked Heller but the latter was able to overpower and consumed Koenig, gaining the knowledge that Mercer had spies in both Gentek and Blackwatch.

An irritated Alex Mercer then confronted Heller and confirmed that he had people within Blackwatch and Gentek. He explained that he and Heller were to lead the attack on Blackwatch and Gentek in order to wipe them out. Heller noted that Mercer made no mention of the virus' destruction, to which Mercer dismissively replied that it would be destroyed as well. Despite his assurances, Heller realized that Mercer had lied to him and went to find Father Guerra in the Green Zone.

The Truth
In the Green Zone, Heller met with Father Guerra who showed him a devastating piece of evidence, footage of Alex Mercer entering Pennsylvannia Station, the site of the first outbreak, and releasing the virus a second time. Heller was enraged as he realized that Mercer was responsible for the entire infection, including the deaths of his wife and daughter. However, he realized that he had a lead on Mercer's plans. Using Koenig's memories, he discovered that Sabrina Galloway, the CFO of Gentek, was one of Mercer's Evolved and set off to find her.

Whitelight
When Heller first confronted Galloway, she bartered for her life with the locations of Mercer's other Evolved subordinates. Sabrina told Heller that, despite her ability to detect other Evolved, an Evolved named Roland and Heller himself could evade her ability. She assisted Heller on a mission to find Roland, informing him that the Evolved was disguised as a Gentek VIP in need of extraction, and tracking him to a lair after his initial escape, where Heller successfully consumed him. Guerra discovered that Gentek was planning to release an apparent cure to the Virus and sent Heller to investigate as it seemed too good to be true. Heller discovered that the leaders of the project were all Evolved and hunted them down one by one. After consuming Dr. Archer, he realized that the Whitelight cure had been contaminated with Mercer's Blood culture in order to spread the Blacklight virus once it had been released, a reversal of its supposed purpose. After seeing the effects of Whitelight on several Blackwatch soldiers, turning into Evolved, Heller was determined to foil the plot. Blackwatch, seeing the effects of Whitelight themselves, called off its release.

Guerra then located the Whitelight facility and Heller headed there in order to prevent if from being released. Mercer confronted him and attempted to kill him. Surprisingly, his attempt to consume Heller only resulted in the destruction of Mercer's hand due to Heller's uniquely resilient DNA. Mercer fled the scene, distracting Heller by sending a Goliath to destroy the Whitelight containers and release it. After Heller stopped the Goliath, he received a call from Guerra, who told him that the infected were attacking him. Heller rushed to Guerra but was too late to save him.

Something to Live For
A grieving Heller then heard Guerra's contact Dana Mercer attempting to contact Guerra on his phone, but when she saw Heller she realized that Guerra was dead and told him to come to the Red Zone, revealing herself to be Dana Mercer. She told him she had information about his daughter. Heller was shocked that his daughter might still be alive and went to the Red Zone as soon as he could.

When he met Dana, Heller immediately wanted to find Amaya, but Dana managed to convince him to save the city from her brother and Blackwatch while she handled the search for his daughter.

After disrupting the plans of both sides, Heller went to track down his daughter but he eventually lost his lead and reached a dead end. Rooks, having realized that Heller had been impersonating Riley and only wanted his daughter back, then contacted Heller and showed him that he had Heller's daughter held captive. Ignoring Dana's warnings, Heller attacked the Gentek building head on. Once inside, he confronted Rooks and two Blackwatch soldiers. Surprising Heller, Rooks shot both Blackwatch soldiers and told Heller to take his daughter and leave the city as a "favor". However, Sabrina Galloway reached Amaya before Heller could get into the room and kidnapped her, delivering a challenge from Mercer as she departed.

Facing Mercer
Alex Mercer and James Heller faced off on top of a destroyed building in the Red Zone. Alex's Evolved, including Galloway, accompanied him. Heller demanded that Alex return his daughter, but Alex refused and spoke of his plans replace humanity with "one mind and one body" and to turn Amaya into the "Mother of the New World". Heller finally faced Alex after the latter consumed his Evolved, including Sabrina Galloway, to become more powerful. After a brutal fight, Heller began to get the upper hand. Mercer used all of his offensive powers against Heller, only for Heller to sever or rip off his arms each time. At first Mercer regenerated from the wounds and taunted Heller, but he began to weaken after several repeated amputations. Eventually Mercer was too weak to continue fighting. He showed no anger or concern for his imminent demise, smirking and welcoming Heller to the top of the food chain just before Heller consumed him. Having become dramatically more powerful as a result of consuming Mercer, Heller unleashed a massive barrage of tendrils that allowed him to consume many if not all of the infected beings in the Red Zone, effectively ending the second outbreak of the Blacklight virus.

Using Mercer's memory, Heller was able to locate and rescue Maya and Dana from the bank vault Mercer had locked them in. Her father's infection made Maya frightened of him, much to James' dismay. The three then looked over New York from a rooftop. James began to walk away from Dana and Maya, feeling that he no longer had a place in Maya's life. However, Amaya stopped him, apparently having gotten over her fear of his infection, and they embraced.

Trivia

 * James, along with Alex Mercer, are referred by fans as Prototypes. This is due to lack of an official moniker to describe beings with their unique abilities as an effect of the DX-1118 C viral strain(Blacklight virus).