A month ago, I mentioned a character named Serum.  Basics are a character who can manipulate his blood into weapons, armor, wings, etc.  He was to be the final hero of the Project Phoenix series after a disaster.  Now, I had no idea how to work the story and a main reason was because I couldn’t figure out a good origin.

Enter the band Skillet.

I decided to listen to ‘Monster’ and ‘Hero’ back-to-back before doing my biking this morning and something clicked.  Serum is a monster and a hero, so I should give him a monster’s origin.  There’s another character with the ability to turn anything into a monster by touching it with her left hand.  Not a happy character, but she was the key to Serum’s birth at one point.  Revisiting that idea, I had her a captive of the main bad guy and being used to create a monster army.

Now, at some point, Monster Hand touches her own blood with her left hand.  This drop of blood mutates and merges with the character who is currently slated to become Serum.  A young boy whose father was a demon and mother was a hi-tech hero.  This is the character’s origin, which means I can give him an escape and then a story about finding the rebels and leading them.  This puts him back in trilogy territory if I play it right.

This is also a reason I’ve been delayed in getting to my book.  The gloomy atmosphere, sleepiness, and sinus headache isn’t helping.