Zebadiah Schinder is not his real name – Huntington made it up based on his cognomen "Zee" for use with his new ID card.
Zee’s real name is Ziegfried Rixmann. He is an experiment to duplicate what happened to John Bishop. His father Varick worked for StratCo, as did the strange man in his basement, a doctor named Holden Wiener. Zee was the 26th attempt (hence "Z") at infusing mystic energy directly into an unborn child, and the first to show results.
Varick had a falling out with the company over their plans for his son, and fled with his family. After some years in hiding, Dr. Wiener arrived, having been fired from the company for alcoholism, and saying that he was on the run. He had no money, and needed a place to stay. Varick agreed to shelter his old friend, and Wiener also got permission to study Zee’s condition.
As Zee grew in strength, Wiener got more agressive in his studies and experimentation, often causing the child pain. He always referred to Ziegfried as "Z" since he thought of him as an experiment. Sometimes the candy he gave Zee was laced with chemicals designed to induce reactions of various sorts.
After a time, Wiener heard there was a bounty on the Rixmann family and decided to turn in his comrades to StratCo in an attempt to regain his standing with the company.
Zee, on a school field trip to study the sun, was hit by a solar flare – Ti Lung sensed his mystic infusion and reached out for him. The rest of the children were killed, but he survived, thanks to Ti Lung’s touch strengthening him. However, he was grievously wounded. Also, in order to link with him, Ti Lung needed to consume the mystic energy suffusing his body.
A small science vessel from Mercury sent to study the unexpected flare found the wreckage of the ship and recovered Zee’s terribly burned body. Doctors on Mercury worked on him for over a month before he awoke. Confused and with a sense of foreboding, Zee escaped from the hospital and has been on the run ever since.
His Omniscient Whispers power is due to his link with the Oversoul through Ti-Lung, but also his connection to the Destiny Force due to his prior infusion of mystic energy.
What happened to his parents? What happened to Dr. Wiener?