Name:

Whiskers.

Codename:

The Hellhound.

Age:

Several months. He's still a puppy, but he's growing quickly.

Gender:

Male.

Place of Birth:

Hell, or this universe's equivalent. Not sure if we're outright confirming the existence of Heaven and Hell (and by extension God and the Devil) in this universe, so for simplicity's sake I'll say Hell as shorthand for the most demonic realm that exists.

Affiliations:

Former guardian-in-training of Hell. Currently, none.

Occupation:

None, but could easily gain employment as an attack dog, tracking dog, or bodyguard.

Appearance

Whiskers' name is somewhat akin to naming that 6'5 skinhead you saw at the bar "Tiny". If you're able to focus and notice his whiskers, there's a strong chance you're on some form of diazepam. Whiskers, while small currently, will very obviously grow into a small furry tank by the time he's done growing-and he's increasing in size at a rate far beyond that of a normal puppy. Whiskers is about 9 inches tall currently, weighing perhaps thirty or forty pounds. He's built with lean muscle and will only grow thicker and hardier with time, but currently looks like a well-fed dog in good shape. His current size cuts down on the intimidation factor, but one can imagine Whiskers will be fairly intimidating in a couple of months (or weeks, if he keeps up at this rate): the dog's fur is jet black. Perhaps that's an understatement-it seems an unnatural dark, an absolute, lightless black. Of note is the crimson splotch around his right eye and teeth, and covering his stomach and underside. The fur seems, if one watches closely, to change color subtly, dancing and moving like the embers of a fire. The dog's claws are pronounced, and seemingly unable to be trimmed-while they stay short naturally for health purposes, there doesn't seem to be much that's hard enough to snip them off. Whiskers' tail moves rapidly back forth when he's excited, and slowly-controlled and tentative-when he's stalking prey or anticipating something. The dog's fangs are still growing, but already considerable in size. The curvature and size of the jaw, coupled with the large, razor-edged fangs, clearly hint at the dog's aggressive capabilities and nature. Likely, it was bred for this purpose, which would explain the muscle mass and hunter's mentality the beast possesses, even in youth.

The dog tends to shift between two phases when moving: a more relaxed, at ease phase, and a more tense, combat-ready phase. In the former, it behaves much as a regular dog: Whiskers barks, snaps at passing squirrels, and bounds playfully after wayward tennis balls. In the latter, his posture unmistakably changes to ready himself for a fight. The dog lowers himself, bears its already impressive teeth, and tenses up. Its tail sways back and forth slowly, steadily, and, most noticeably, the dog is wreathed in a corona of flame. Fire will flicker up and down its legs, dart in and out of its predator's teeth, and actively begin to ignite (seemingly without causing permanent harm) Whiskers' fur. Its eyes, which are normally a light blue, darken rapidly until they are a hollow black, refusing to betray where the dog is looking. When expecting a fight, chasing prey, or defending its master, Whiskers moves with the steady confidence of a tracker in pursuit of its prey before bursting into a quick sprint, his paws offering superior traction. The dog's considerable size lets it make jumps other breeds are incapable of, as well as outrun its distant, mortal kin. The more it draws upon its supernatural strength, the more hellish and ferocious its outer appearance becomes: the "mask" is shed and it begins to ignite, filling the air around it with a thick miasma of sulfur...

Powers:

Being a hellhound, Whiskers' primarily benefits from possessing a physiology superior in every way to dogs or wolves. His sight, smell, hearing-all tremendously improved. As a benefit of the hellfire that burns within him, he's effectively immune to infections, as his body runs at a temperature far beyond most fevers reach. Similarly, poisons and chemicals may be denatured. His fangs and claws are incredibly sharp-and while they may not be able to cause the nasty infections most dog bites can, they are damned hot. His jaw muscles and bite is similarly more powerful than a normal dog's. If he bites down on someone, it will cause third degree burns in and around the wound, which is obviously debilitating. Whiskers also possesses intelligence far superior to that of a dog, and while he isn't quite sentient, he's certainly beyond any four-legged creature. Whiskers has greater durability, endurance, and resiliency, and can endure a tremendous amount merely by virtue of his bloodline. He's an excellent predator and tracker, able to hone his senses on a scent either physical or magical and track it nearly without fail. Additionally, whenever Whiskers feels threatened or is attempting to threaten someone, his body will erupt in an aura of hellfire. This makes being close to Whiskers obviously difficult, and augments his impressive close quarters fighting abilities. The extreme heat hinders visibility-the intense light and rippling mirages make looking at him for extended periods of time painful and attempting to target him with a scope difficult. This also produces a rather thick stench of sulfur, which can work either for or against him, but typically against him. Whiskers' roar is also very loud. I know that sounds underwhelming but its at the level, decibel-wise, that could cause permanent damage without ear protection.

Skills:

As mentioned earlier-tracking. If given a scent (or wisp of magical power) he's able to track it easily and extensively, ignoring other scents and focusing on that one. This can make evading the Hellhound difficult-if he gets a good lock on you, it will take a considerable amount of time and distance to shake him from your trail. He's an impressive combatant, even against superhumans. Whiskers is also able to follow commands that are quite complex, and at times displays intelligence comparable to a young child's or a monkey on Adderall. He is quite skilled at intimidating others, particularly those who recognize where he hails from and what exactly he is-after all, if one of the Devil's lap dogs is loose, then...

Equipment/Resources:

None, save a spiked collar around his neck. 

Weaknesses:

While intelligent, he is still a dog. He lacks thumbs and is unable to speak, which are both pretty significant weaknesses in a situation outside of his area of expertise. Whiskers can occasionally overheat if he pushes himself too hard, and entering holy ground will disable his fiery capabilities. This is not to say that Whiskers himself is demonic-rather, the power he wields is. Whiskers is also fiercely protective, and may risk self-harm as a result. He, while sharp, can still fall prey to the same weaknesses that most dogs do. His instincts can be manipulated and played off of, provided you're willing to run that risk.

Psychological Profile:

Whiskers, while perhaps unable to grasp the finer points of calculus, or tell you why, exactly, Finnegan's Wake is the most incomprehensible thing ever written, he is certainly aware of his instincts and what he is able to understand-and they are at constant war with each other. In his natural environment, he would be faced with tremendous discipline and an unwavering sense of duty: order and restraint would be beaten into his psyche at every possible opportunity, and there would be far more in the way of work than there would be in the way of relaxation.His powers and instinct would be thereby curtailed-however, on our lovely plane of existence, Whiskers faces a somewhat unprecedented (for his kind) dilemma. His natural instincts and training are of little use to him here, as Earth is not constrained by the rules of the afterlife. Veterinarians don't often have to treat dogs for severe cognitive dissonance, but one may look into doing such for Whiskers. There is a part of him which is adapting to this world, being a normal dog, and a part which remembers its origins and seeks to carry out justice. A part which looks to angels and seraphs as a sort of distant cousin, a fellow vassal of a greater power, and a part of him which looks at the world around it and realizes there are no angels here. No gods, no masters. This, of course, is all at the instinctual level-even most humans are unable to grasp the complexities of the divine, and Whiskers has a leg up on having a rough innate grasp of it. Whiskers has both protective instincts and damning ones, a desire to return home and a desire to stay. The result is a dog that has training and capabilities eerily similar to a police attack dog (or more accurately, one of the hounds you might be fed to in the mob) whilst the yearning to be a seeing eye dog, casually hoping its master across the street. Whiskers has a vague sense of his duty, and seems drawn towards the supernatural, but without a firm hand to guide him, is somewhat unsure of where that duty will take him. As he matures both physically and mentally, it's likely he'll gain a better sense of self and understanding of what his role on Earth is. For now, his biggest struggles are simply mastering the awkward puppy stage of life and attempting to curb the semidivine strength that's looking to get him up to full speed. Whiskers has-perhaps fear isn't the right word, it's a touch more nuanced than that-a healthy apprehension for the holy, and can identify it as readily as he can black magic. He tends to regards harbingers of the Church with a healthy professional respect, instinctually-part of him doesn't understand why he does that at all. The grip that his hellish instincts has upon him is trembling, whereas his more mortal inclinations and desires seem to be growing stronger the more time he spends on Earth.

Biography:

Owing to a transdimensional error of some sort-I'm not going to delve into it primarily because 1) it's a MacGuffin and 2) I don't know where you're going with heaven/hell in all this so I won't try myself, Whiskers found himself ripped from his home in Hell after a month or two of life and neatly placed onto our plane of existence. His time here has been pretty short: a matter of hours, perhaps a day at best. The orphaned dog wandered around for a while, entirely clueless as to what had occurred (it just knew that something was very, very wrong-even as intelligent as Whiskers his, he's still quite young, and not at his prime mentally yet) and how to manage it. By a stroke of luck (or, perhaps, if his being put on Earth wasn't accidental, it was more than luck), Whiskers found himself near the Cook County Jail, noticed by a sentry with a soft spot for animals. Having another guard cover his post for a moment, he went across the street to the puppy and noticed something peculiar-the dog shuddered occasionally, with fire dancing up and down its legs and face as it did so. Realizing (wisely) that turning this dog over to an animal shelter would lead to a burned down shelter, he grabbed a steel bucket, put the hellpuppy down in it and carried him to a secure, fireproof area within the prison compound, planning on calling up some of the League's experts later in the day to figure out what was going on with the dog. Unfortunately, he was interrupted by the riot and subsequent breakout attempt, and had far greater matters to attend to than what pedigree caused a dog to spontaneously combust. Whiskers is currently within the prison, sitting patiently in the bucket, waiting...

Other: