History
When Lyle Doorne was born, his grotesque physical mutation was already in place, and he was shunned by his parents and forced to live in the attic due to this. His power to influence minds manifested, and he amused himself by controlling the mice in the attic to do tricks, but soon discovered that they would quickly die when he did this. He unconsciously began using his powers on his mother, and she began to love him, but before long she was left a withered husk. His father called him a "virus" and attempted to kill him, and it was then that his other power, the ability to completely dominate the actions of others via the tendrils on his back, manifested, and he took control of his father.
Lyle discovered in his father's mind that he was a government agent, and "rode" his father's body to the base where he was stationed. Lyle volunteered to participate in a government project to brainwash mutants into servitude, which was seen as the "humane" alternative to Bolivar Trask's Sentinel program, and took the name his father gave him, Virus. Under his watch, the program kidnapped many mutants, including the super-strong Canadian Forrest Goldendawn, whom he took as his personal host[1]
A ragtag team of mutants, led by Wolverine and including Forrest's brother, Ben, assaulted the base and freed the captive mutants, with Wolverine cutting Forrest free from Lyle's tendrils. Lyle, however, had intended this, as his control over Forrest's mind persisted, allowing him to direct Forrest to call the Sentinels on Wolverine's team. Lyle himself arrived on the scene and controlled Creed to attack Logan. However, Creed was freed from Lyle's control by his illusion-casting girlfriend, Holo, allowing Creed the opportunity to run Lyle through with a splinter of wood from the destroyed safehouse. His life slipping away, Lyle took control of Creed again and forced him to eviscerate Holo. Lyle died chuckling to himself, his actions setting Creed down the road to his villainous career as Sabretooth.[2]