I was trying to think of a better way to handle the fact that Connor is much more powerful than his "cousins" from the breeding program, rather than just say it's due to some unknown in Campagna's DNA. If I do use the mother's DNA as the source of why Connor is much more powerful, the geneticist could be the one who verifies that her DNA augments the DNA that Satan bred into the kids he used. In other words, she could be a carrier of the genes for those abilities, though not herself able to benefit from them. But when you combine them with De Rosa's enhanced DNA (from his breeding program), you get Connor, the most powerful human of all time. But, you ask, how did she get those genes? Simple. One of her ancestors was among the few who ever escaped from the South American compound. Since her ancestor took off, she's descended from a breeding line that Satan lost access to. After many generations, she's a wild variable unintentionally injected into the breeding program by Satan himself, when he raped her. How's that for karma?
Although Connor is the most powerful human, he's not as powerful as he'll be when he eventually gets into the final battle. There are a number of ways I could handle that. For example, perhaps St. Michael brings him ancient wine derived from fruit from the Garden of Eden. I like that, but Connor may also go back to the Sea of Galilee for some skinny dipping at the urging of everyone's favorite kooks, Moses and Elijah. If you recall, an angel in book one confirmed that the waters had been blessed by Christ, perhaps when he performed his miracles there (e.g., Peter's huge catch of fish), and that the waters are supernatural. That's why modern Christians go to the area to be baptized in its waters. The waters or the wine, or both, enhance his powers to a degree he doesn't realize until he gets into battle. I'm thinking of having Michael withhold true knowledge about what the wine can do; he'll tell Connor a made-up legend of the wine's powers to improve virility, or some similar nonsense. Connor will discover his power boost when he enters battle.
When you combine Connor's DNA-driven abilities with the wine and Galilean water, he goes off the scale, power-wise. For example, he'll be able to swing his sword across the throat of a demon, decapitating him. But, there's nothing too special about that. Where the fun starts is when the heads of the next three demons near the decapitated one also go flying off, all the result of Connor's first slash. Since one sword can't reach four heads at once (unless they surround him), the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th demons are decapitated by a directed concussive force or shockwave resulting from the power of Connor's slash. It happens so fast, the force/wave behaves as if an extension of the sword itself. Physics-wise, it's total crap, but I don't care. It's a cool effect that I intend to use a number of times during the battle.
Better yet, Connor has his cousins join him for a swim in Galilee, and Michael shares some of the same wine with them. Naturally, they won't reach Connor's level of power (only he'll have the ability to mow down multiple enemies with just a slash, punch, or kick), but it would be easy for a small fighting force to hold its own against a much larger army of demons. One issue will be the stench of so many demon corpses in close proximity.
Last item, then I'm going to bed: Naming contest. I need a great name for Connor to call his genetically enhanced cousins, which includes both young men and women. He could call them simply "cousins", but I'm hoping for something more interesting, relevant to the story.
G'night.
