Ted

Ted was a treehugging hippie who joined the Guardian's crew until his infection by one of the meat trees. A mutation occurs when he is cross-infected by a telepathic fungus which allows him to adapt to the infection, making him conscious of his own cellular structure. Ted assimilates living creatures, eventually becoming a planet-sized organism which has to be stopped by the Guardian.

Becoming a Crew Member
Ted was the Guardian's guide through the vast forests of a 30th century pseudoearth. The commune was experiencing harassment from wildlife, which the Guardian deduces are connected by the alien chemical ecosystem to the trees. Ted's understanding of the trees allow them to eventually reach a peaceful solution. Ted ends up joining the Guardian's crew and became rivals with Rorgan, who favored violent approaches. At first the Guardian is annoyed by Ted's aloof personality, but comes to respect his conviction and his endless optimism.

Infection
When the meat trees appear in the bogs of the Sklegge, Ted believes he can be of use. He does not fully understand the nature of the organisms, and when the Guardian attempts to burn one Ted steps in his way. This triggers a sensor on a subterranean root which causes a reflex in the tree to hit Ted with a thorn. Even with the power of the Genesis Engine at his disposal, the Guardian does not understand the machine well enough to cure Ted. The process he attempts to undertake turns Ted into a mottled monstrosity, and only prolongs his lifespan. Ted refuses to step back into the Engine, saying he can accept becoming one with nature. The mutation has made him conscious of his own cellular structure. Using a sample of his blood, the Guardian is able to make the first cure which inoculates the Sklegge who have been infected within 24 hours.

Ted has to accept his impending death, which gets less and less easy when the Guardian describes the ugly nature through which victims succumb. Ted becomes angry that the Guardian has made this process slower and more painful, even though he knows deep down that the Guardian was trying to save him.

On a drifting space ship, crew members have become infected by a fungus which has the ability to exchange information across space, seemingly telepathically, despite lacking sentience. The Guardian is fascinated by these organisms, and discovers that an unchecked infection results in a vegetative state. Ted, believing himself to be dying anyway, neglects proper safety precautions and contracts the fungus. The Guardian and Yvonne seal themselves in the bridge and prepare to purge the ship. However, they suddenly receive a message from Ted, still alive. Somehow, his preexisting condition allowed him to assimilate the fungus and access the telepathic net. Ted is overwhelmed at first, and shocked. He sees from another set of eyes, one of the crew members who succumbed to the fungus. Ted realizes he is inside his head. All of the crew members who were reduced to a vegetative state are now occupied by Ted's mind. Ted pleads the Guardian to help him, but the Guardian is horrified. He has never seen anything like this.

A Lonely Road
Despite his new condition, the Guardian promises it doesn't change who he is. Everyday the Guardian studies the Genesis Engine. He is so close to figuring out how to reverse what happened. Ted's original body is captured alongside the Guardian by Cyberts who open the Ravager's Voyar cylinder and release hordes of malfunctioning IAUs. Ted is separated, and rescued by Lossoriawath, who keeps his identity secret as he had been watching the Guardian. Lossoriawath warns Ted about John, and tries to turn him against the Guardian. Ted has faith until the Guardian deploys bombs against the IAUs which destroy a protected forest. The killing of these IAUs precipitate the IAU/Cybert war. Ted is disappointed, and decides he needs some time by himself.

Ted lives by himself in a rural area. He accidentally infects a few more people and learns more about his power. He infects someone, and they become him. He is able to change them on a cellular level, and himself, should he wish. He is frequently visited by Lossoriawath, who just likes to check in. He tried driving him away the first few times after he realizes who he was, but Lossoriawath was easily capable of defending himself with his Immortality Gauntlet. So Ted tolerated his visits. It was nice to have someone to talk to besides himself.

It is obvious to Ted that Lossoriawath is using the Temporal Matrix, as visits come only weeks apart and Lossoriawath brings his children with him sometimes. Alien, sure, but unmistakably part human. Ted wonders if that is what he looks like. One day, Lossoriawath shows up with his clothes in rags, wounded, and scorched. He grabs Ted and demands to know who Kate is, and what her backstory is. Ted's other bodies come and pulls Lossoriawath off him. Ted demands he leave. Lossoriawath suddenly sobers up when he realizes just how many bodies Ted has become. The Ancient leaves, ever the coward. When the Prince next visits, he has no memory of this visit. Ted is cautious, mistrustful of the Prince, but also aware that due to time travel not all of his visits are necessarily in chronological order. He tells Lossoriawath that he was asking about Kate, which intrigues and amuses Lossoriawath. He says he'll look into it elsewhere, and Ted knows he won't find the answers he needs, or else he'll find the wrong ones.

Most of Ted's bodies practice meditation, something Ted was once able to do easily. He now practices doing it while also performing another task with his other bodies. He idly performs mechanic work just as an exercise, and is surprised to find himself approached by John Beckett, who Lossoriawath warned him was an Apocalypse Lord. Ted tries to intimidate him into leaving, but John simply teleports his other bodies into the future. John explains the situation better, and Ted complies with his questioning, allowing John to track Lossoriawath to his place of hiding.

Unbeknownst to any of the Guardian's crew, some of Ted's bodies follow them to Lossoriawath's den. The wounded Ravager flees from the cave and is caught by surprise by Ted's bodies, who subdue him and drag him off to an unknown but doubtless terrible fate. Yvonne chases the Ravager and arrives just in time to see him dragged off. She recognizes Ted's original body and they talk. Ted reveals how strange it is that he breathes through so many sets of lungs, none of which are in sync, all breathing different airs in different temperatures and different tastes. Different sights and sensations. It's enough to drive a man mad, but I am more than a man now, Ted says. He departs and Yvonne warns the Guardian what he has become.

A Living World
The Guardian hunts for Ted in time, finding him after decades on the planet. Over this time, whether by design or by accident the Guardian is unsure, Ted has become every living creature on the world. First the stone age people, then their livestock and pets and soon the wildlife and then the biomass multiplied and conglomerated, fusing on the cellular level into unrecognizable forms. Ted became so large that he covered entire landmasses, existing as a pink flesh with tentacles rising from it. The Guardian is horrified.

Ted sends a message, threatening Tom who lives on Earth. Nok's team picks him up. However, things go wrong when Aaron discovers Nok has become Ted. When Ted threatens Tom, Aaron slips into one of his fits and beats Nok to death with his trumanium leg. The body is burned and ejected into space. The Guardian keeps a sample and attaches it to the Genesis Engine. Ted slips when Tom uses one of his phrases, causing the Guardian and his crew to realize Tom was Ted this whole time, and he had been infecting members of Nok's team.

The last four forms of Ted corner the Guardian, Aaron and Yvonne on the bridge. The Guardian claims to have won, which irritates Ted. He reveals the sample he took from Nok, and explains how he has used the Genesis Engine to create a strain of the fungus with an inhibitor on the telepathic ability. He has infected Aaron and Yvonne with this strain, effectively vaccinating them against Ted's infection. He also infected himself with the unaltered strain, which germinates in his brain. Ted is horrified as the Guardian explains that when he first took other bodies, he took the vegetative people on the station. Everyone since then was simple stone age people on the planet below. He pushed out their minds because he had the power of five minds against one, then six against one, on and on accumulating power, like leaves falling on each other. But it's only a quantity of brainpower that Ted possesses, he is a pile of leaves. He is a pile of leaves and the Guardian is a single brick.

The Guardian traps one of Ted's forms in a cage and severs his connection to the telepathic hive with the altered fungus. He then takes over the hive mind, overwhelming Ted's more sizable but weaker mind. At this point, the Ravager arrives on the bridge, having regenerated inside the cube when nobody was paying attention and acquiring Nok's bomblet rifle. The Ravager bursts into the room and opens fire, killing all of Ted's forms and Aaron. Yvonne, bleeding heavily from a wound to the side, pulls Aaron to the side as he chokes on his own blood from a throat wound. The Ravager steps over their bodies, Yvonne breathing softly and weakly as she bleeds out. The Ravager executes the wounded Guardian, and fires at Ted in the box, slowly shooting through the bulletproof material. The Guardian taking over the organism on the planet below scares off the Ravager, and the Guardian frees Ted.

The Guardian buds a human body identical to his own, and he and Ted enter the Genesis Engine, now able to cure them. He loads all of his biomass into the spaceship, and along with the cube fly into the sun, destroying all remnants of the affliction. Both he and Ted are human once again.

A Man Once Again
Ted is present at the funeral for Aaron, Yvonne and the Guardian's original body on Earth. Afterwards, he apologizes to the Guardian. Ted explains that all his life he's felt small. Communing with nature made him feel like he was part of something bigger, and even when he was more than one man, even when he covered entire landmasses, he was so very small on the inside. But being considered a threat by the Guardian? That's the biggest you can be. Ted admits he lost himself to the affliction, and promises that he can prove that's not who he is. In light of recent events, the Guardian is very angry. Very angry. But not at Ted. He confines Ted to a wilderness reservation for the rest of his life, and they both know it is only half a punishment.

Ted works hard at his job and becomes a most respected member of the community. After a year of service, he is visited again by the Guardian. The Guardian says he has found the Ravager and is ready to face him. Ted senses the Guardian's cold rage and asks what he will do. The Guardian tells him he intends to incapacitate the Ravager like Schogo-Nof was so long ago. Ted nods slowly, but doesn't believe the Ravager will survive the coming conflict. He also knows he does not have it in him to dissuade the Guardian from this course, despite his strong pacifism.

So Ted fails to even attempt to dissuade the Guardian. The Guardian goes to the Ravager and is killed by him. The Ravager enters the Temporal Matrix, planning to go and kill Ted, but he never reaches his destination. The S'cha-ckl'ueu Arc opens and the Triangle Holocaust is unleashed, destroying the multiverse and creating the Disrupted Timeline.

Disrupted Timeline Continuity
Ted appears in the Guardian Civil War having allied with Danyg and Fenrin in favor of protecting the natural lands. He meets Tyros for a peace talk, and Tyros admits he feels betrayed. Ted apologizes. He genuinely wants to resolve this conflict, but also does not acknowledge the importance of spacecraft being built here. During the fight in the spigot room, Ted is knocked to the floor. John prepares to shoot and wound him, but the opening of the spigot causes a change in the texture of Ted's skin, which makes John hesitate. This allows Kalve to intervene and save Ted's life. Ted takes over half of Team Green in short time, and finds himself attacked by Kate, who uses her power of teleportation to attack multiple bodies at once.

Toward the end of the War, Ted joins Kalve and Noven in a raid on the raft prison. Ted provides multiple bodies which are a huge aid in boarding the prison. On the beach Kalve defeats Kate and he and Ted steal a ship. Aaron and Foray follow close behind. Some of Ted's bodies begin freeing prisoners, and others begin to disable the Gobulin reactor. Up above, Noven and the rest see the first ships of the Annihilation Wave approaching. Noven tells a Ted above decks, who tells Kalve from a body belowdecks.

During the Annihilation Wave, the Defenders are forced to work together, mending the wounds from the Civil War. Defenders Reina, Noven, Fenrin, Tanarkin, Ted, Foray, Rosa and Aaron are dispatched to bring down the Leviathan, an Inferus hive mind that was once Guardian Chane. After the Leviathan's defeat, Ted ascertains the location of the Tall Man.

Ted is dragged into the Guardian World War, and refuses to speak of it afterwards. Like many super-humans, he becomes withdrawn after the War. When it is discovered that the Denizen has a similar ability to Ted, Alexis Levinson sincerely believes that Ted could be the key to beating the Inferus once and for all. Ted joins the old Defenders in one last act of heroism, joining in the fight at the stone temple against Quond's snakes and Viper and Flint. Viper advances on a narrow bridge like a juggernaut. He casts down Fur, Fijin and Rosa, killing Talon and impaling Deflem, who then stabs Viper in the throat. They each topple off the bridge. When Viper emerges from the death-state he finds he is surrounded by Ted's forms. Viper grins, having mostly healed from his earlier fight. He pulls a sword out of Deflem, and asking which will die first. In response, Ted hits Viper with one of his thorns which assimilates him.

Ted later helps Reina, Aaron, Fenrin and Foray defeat the twins Erik and Brody, who finally turned on the group for protecting Takara (with some encouragement from Flint and Viper). Ted helps communicate between Frost and Thorn. Several of Ted's forms, including his new Viperform, help carry the wounded Rosa, Fur and Fijin out. Carrying them, he follows Thorn and Shrapnel to the top of the pyramid where they board the exit helicopter. Shrapnel dies when he drops a grenade fighting against Inferus forms and the chopper leaves him.

Elsewhere, Ted, Frost, Ger, Doctor, Alston Bolt, Ben, Eidolon and Father Damien are cornered by Inferus. Eidolon carries them down into a cavern and Bolt pours out his energy into the pool of water at the bottom, electrocuting all the forms that followed them down. Ben and Eidolon collapse from exhaustion while fighting Inferus forms while Ted, Frost, Ger, Doctor and Father Damien escape. After escaping, they are stranded in infested territory. When he spots Inferus forms approaching them, Ted turns to Frost and simply says his name, getting his attention. Frost understand immediately and shoots Ted in the head, killing him to prevent his being captured by the Inferus.

Ted is struggling with the Viperform, as it resists him, constantly trying to heal itself. His Viperform and Rosa attempt to conceal their powers, as Yeludur outlawed super-humans. Thorns group flies out to a hangar to await extraction. However, while there they meet several other groups of travelers who are suddenly attacked by Taryn. Ted's Viperform stands alongside Akuma, Thorn, Fijin, Fur, Rosa, Boa, Mace Fordo, Gelne, the Crusader, Ademar, Mraxs and Lomm against the fearsome android. During the battle, the Viperform is cleaved in half. In the aftermath, Akuma mentions he found the lower half of someone's body, but does not mention finding the other half.

Ted was not counted among those who crossed through Tulyon into Formin.

In the Moonlight Game
When the spigot is turned and their powers are restored, Ted assimilates Adam and several others. He pulls apart from himself, which is fortunate, because his multitude encounters the Midnight Creature and falls victim to it. Meanwhile, the individual survives and escapes the game.

Ted returns to the reservation, although he later jokes that he has served his sentence. When he receives unexpected gifts from the Guardian, he is at first delighted until he learns that this was what was in the Guardian's will. Ted reads what the Guardian wrote for him and breaks into tears.

A New Guardian and Leading Resistance
When Tyros arrives at Nhag'Lef's reservation, he finds Ted present. In his defense, Ted says the Guardian more or less agreed he had served his sentence by what was written in his final words to Ted. However, Ted fully intends to return to the reservation after this issue is dealt with. What they believed to be only an incursion by migrating Gondj-Rhyde'i turns out to be something much more serious when they discover a mining corporation illegally extracting trumanium from the planet.

Ted becomes a leader of the secret resistance, and he and Rosa organize a raid on a supply depot. Ted and Nhag'Lef both warn Tyros about the arrival of the strange new Thrakr on the planet. They work for the new boss, Bog McGillan, who has something more sinister in mind than just mining trumanium. After Tyros kills Krulem and the mine collapses, Ted helps them recuperate. He says he intends to honor the Guardian's sentence, but for his community service he will remain here for some time to make sure things go smoothly.

Ted is present when breaking the siege on the city where Tyros refused to surrender a weapon of mass destruction. He is also mentioned by an elderly Aldrich during a time distortion, who says that a man named Ted has taught him peace.

Another Day, Another Guardian
When the meat trees encroach on the reservation, Ted calls for the current Guardian's help. Aldrich burns down an invading tree despite Ted's angry protests. Ted proposed a number of solutions which Aldrich dismissed as ridiculous. He said use the Genesis Engine to neutralize them, which Aldrich explains they were taken. If they were taken not destroyed, Ted counters, they could find them if they appealed to the Celestial Gatekeeper. Aldrich dismisses this as fantasy and totally ridiculous. They make an inoculation similar to the Guardian's which prevents the invasive bodies from linking up, allowing the body's immune system to destroy them provided they get it within a certain amount of time. The cure saves Kalve's life, and the meat trees are driven back.

Ted attends the funeral of Aldrich, and is part of the committee to chose the next. Skorio wants to know who the secret army answers to, and Kalve's name comes up. Ted quickly counters by nominating John Beckett. Both men decline. Ted neither supports or protests Danyg's election, thinking he knows too little about the man.

A Good Host
Ted receives word from Kalve, who everyone else believed to be dead. Kalve arrives in a ship along with the old swordsman Aariesh, good doctor Harlan and a group of liberated slaves called Etaws, small and furry creatures who Ted is delighted to welcome into his reservation.

A quick look around from Kalve shows how Ted has unofficially taken over the place. So many improvements have been made that other helpers and their families have begun living here, and a now middle-aged Ted escorts the Etaws around their new home. Kalve recalls the stories about Ted, and wonders if any of this would have been possible if Guardian hadn't sent him here. It makes him think a lot about proper ways to punish and wonders if the Guardian knew this would happen.

Ted is initially distrustful of Aariesh, but learns to appreciate his presence and conversation. Aariesh practices with the sword daily, but does not believe in violence. He provides many good talks with Ted. Aariesh lives just outside the camp, and children go to him to learn swordplay and philosophy. Ted is used to the displays now and decides to have a competition for fun. The standout from the matches is a youth named Deflem, who catches the eye of a teacher named Darren, who recruits him into his school.

After Aariesh and his students join Danyg in a battle against the Devastator and his students on Station 06, Aariesh angry that he led so many of his boys to their deaths. Ted and Harlan venture into the woods to find Aariesh in his meditation and convince him that his lads still need him. Some of Darren's students who didn't know what they were being used for want to be trained by him. Aariesh at first refuses, but Ted convinces him to return as a teacher, with more an emphasis on goodness than skill. This turns out to save all of their lives, when some men come here on Domino's order to kill Ted and others, Aariesh and his students are able to defeat them.

After his death on Trichaya and subsequent torture by the Primordial, Danyg wanted to surrender the role of Guardianship. Danyg feels broken, and after the attacks on the forest mansion and the reservation, Ted and Reina comfort him and help him find the strength to keep going as the Guardian. Reina confides in Ted that she fears Danyg still desires to die because he misses Beth. Ted talks to Danyg about this, and soon Reina confronts him herself, tears streaming down her face. Danyg also has tears in his eyes, and promises he will not chase death anymore when he realizes that his life is worth something to the people that love him. Ted and Nhag'Lef rebuild the reservation, and hold a funeral ceremony for Noven, who died alone from his wounds on the Guardian's ship. If it hadn't been for the heroic cyborg, they would have been slaughtered in their sleep.

During the Tabbaroth invasion, Danyg was shot down and marooned on Scilis 6 for a period of weeks. During this time, Tabbaroth ships arrive at the reservation world. Ted flew up to the warship and attempted to communicate. However, the Tabbaroth shot him out of the sky and proceeded to attack the camp, resulting in the deaths of everyone who lived there. Ted's ultimate fate is ambiguous, as he survived the crash and was not shown among the dead when Skorio and Terran scouted the wreckage. Tabbaroth had no need of captives, yet it may be possible that he was taken prisoner and joined Skorio, Fenrin and others with the Tabbaroth after The Other undid the invasion and the Third Inferus Outbreak.