Body-Swapper

The Body-Swapper (known as The Parasite and Ice Beast) is a one-time character, a monster and the main titular villain of the eleventh episode of the same name, featured in the second season of the animated series, Martin Mystery.

Background[]

Personality[]

Despite its savage appearance and behavior, the parasitic life form was highly intelligent. It knew how to preserve itself for millions of years by taking on a strong host like the woolly mammoth at just the right moment. It also knew how to isolate the crew of the outpost by destroying their communication equipment and all their vehicles.

Another testament of this creature's intelligence was how it stayed hidden inside the Alaskan Husky dog and later Diana to fool the crew into letting it into the base. Once it was inside, they only realized it too late. It seemed perfectly aware of its own limitations, knowing it needed the crew alive to become stronger and warm-blooded hosts to survive. Its top priority appeared to be self-preservation.

Physical Appearance[]

The Body-Swapper's physical and true appearance was shown as a large, eyeless, massive and slimy black, super-dark teal beast (When Diana, Martin and Marvin are hosts, they have yellow glowing eyes.) with white fangs on it's mouth and large arm-like tendrils.

Role in the series[]

History[]

The origin of the monster is never made clear. While it is millions of years old, nobody knows if it was native to Earth, or of alien or supernatural origin. During the prehistoric era, it took over a woolly mammoth. However, it was frozen by the coming of the Ice Age and remained buried under the ice millions of years ago.

The Body-Swapper[]

In the 21st century, the woolly mammoth's remains were unearthed in the Canadian Arctic by a Center outpost. The creature quickly began a rampage, taking on various hosts and sabotaging the outpost's radio tower and all their vehicles to isolate the crew. It took over the body of an Alaskan Husky dog and spotted Martin, Diana and Java as they arrived. They quickly befriended the animal, not knowing it was being inhabited by the parasite.

When they headed towards the excavation site, the creature took over and transferred itself into Diana without her realizing. They let her in, and the parasite took control of her body and attacked the crew. It then cornered and possessed Martin, then Marvin, until it was finally strong enough to survive without a host. As it prepared to finish the crew as it no longer needed them, Martin and Marvin quickly used a vacuum device to trap it.

The monster started to break free, however. Martin deduced it needed warm-blooded hosts like the woolly mammoth or humans because it was weak against the cold. They threw the container outside into the blizzard and the creature broke free. It was quickly frozen by the Arctic cold and crumbled into pieces. Its remains were taken by the Center for further study.

Powers and Abilities[]

The Body-Swapper was an intelligent monster of unknown origin but possessed a particular set of unique powers which it knew how to use to its greatest advantage. Over the course of the episode, it displayed the following abilities:

• Endurance: It was capable of surviving millions of years frozen deep under the Arctic ice inside a prehistoric mammoth's host body. It was also strong against electricity, M.O.M.'s device only slowing it down for a few seconds before it recovered. Its greatest weakness was extreme cold. It could literally not survive for more than a few seconds in a freezing environment.
• Possession: Its main power allowed the monster to take over the body of another life form with just a single touch. It could only possess one living organism at a time. It could stay hidden inside its host without them knowing of its presence. Once it asserted control, it could fully control their speech, actions and voice.
• Shapeshifting: Once it exerted full control over its host, it altered their appearance. They gained yellow eyes, grew bigger, their skin turned black and gained a slimy texture and they had spikes protruding here and there.
• Superhuman Strength: Regardless of its current host, the parasite possessed a superhuman level of physical strength. It could easily tear up computers, lift people of the ground or subdue them and even punch a hole through a thick metal wall.
• Strength Accumulation: The organism worked in a very unique way. It gained more strength every time it took on a new host, until it was powerful enough to survive independently and no longer needed a host body to survive.
• Amorphous Physiology: Its true form was a large black mass with a slimy texture. It could reduce its own size to fit itself into a new host. It was quadrupedal and had a large mouth with razor sharp teeth. It also had several glowing yellow eyes.
• Tendrils: The parasite's main method of attacking was by creating large tendrils of its own mass to ensnare targets. It could expand them to an incredible range, the limit of which is unknown. They were strong enough to easily immobilize a victim.

Episode Appearance[]

• "The Body-Swapper" (only appearance)

Trivia[]

• The monster is a parody of the alien from the 1982 R-rated horror movie and John Carpenter's film, The Thing and Venom from Marvel's Spider-Man.
• Java was the only person that the Body-Swapper did not take over as it took over Marvin and the female agent, Chloe he was with prior and then it took over Diana, Marvin again and finally Martin.