infected in koocheng by one of carla’s j’avo, it doesn’t take long for simmons to undergo mutation. strangely, he has more mutations than the standard biohazard antagonist -the centaur form, the dinosaur form, the “recovery” humanoid form, the mega-fly form - and if we count the unused concept art, he also has another insectoid form to move to the quad tower (as well as the ability to duplicate himself), though these aren’t canon, it’s interesting he seems to be in a constant state of mutation.
though both carla and derek’s mutations revolve around identity - his differs from carla’s (whose final fight involves her identity and physical form dissolving and becoming more and more unstable), simmons’ mutation is made entirely out of parts of him. each form is bad from his body, from visible spines, hands, teeth, eyes - and reforms back into it’s human. it’s easiest to see when he “dies”, his body reforms piece by piece, skull coming back together before splitting apart again. simmons remains simmons during all of his mutations, unlike carla who becomes a huge mass of nondescript colourless flesh (other than the “ada” humanoid figures). in the biohazard 6 official complete guide, it’s stated:
It has been reported that he can mutate freely into multiple forms while retaining his sense of self, and his own skin and internal organs harden and transform into powerful weapons.
when considering the c-virus is made from t-veronica and the g-virus - as well as the enhanced virus given to piers presumably containing traces of t-abyss and t+g due to the traits shown - it’s extremely hard to pinpoint what is in the strain simmons was infected with. looking at all viruses, from t-howard to kodoku to phobos and so on, i can’t find anything even remotely similar. at first, it could be presumed traces of the g-virus are in there, most notable in giant eyes in his dinosaur form, though this does not reappear in any of the other - and given how his body reconfigures itself in these forms it does not appear be randomly developed eyeballs like g. whilst simmons undergoes more and more severe transformations (whilst getting bigger, appear to be less complex - from mammal, to reptile to insect), he is completely able to reform to human - unlike birkin - and there does not seem to be the asexual reproduction aspect of it either. whilst in the insect form, he does absorb in zombies into his own mass (and the concept for him turning them into duplicates of himself was abandoned), this is not the same thing. the insect-like traits could come from veronica, but they aren’t particularly strong enough to be considered the tell-tale traits of the virus.
otherwise it appears to be a completely unique virus (again, in comparison to the one piers has which exhibits the electrical powers of t+g etc).
instead, i’m going with the idea that simmons was given the most pure form of the c-virus (using jake’s blood to remove the imperfections of g and veronica, ultimately making it a whole new virus) in as it’s ability to constantly recover is something that carla would want for her own mutation but presumably, simmons would have fallen under the same hive-mind that c-virus infected have, particularly the j’avo. a reversal of the roles they had held previously, with simmons now being the subservient one. another idea could be that she wanted him to bond with the virus and keep his consciousness and sense of self so he was painfully aware of what was happening - she outright says this, though it seems odd given how well he seems to handle the virus. it’s assumed she did not expect just how well he would take to it.
this form is a quadrupedal creature capable of using his organic matter (bone) as projectiles, and after sustaining damage, mutates further into more of a centaur-like creature with a humanoid “torso”. this form is the fastest one, able to outrun a train, and far more agile in it’s movements than the later one. i believe the mindset of the host does effect some aspects of the mutations that occur, and given this is when simmons is at his most confident, it makes sense that this is a powerful and aggressive form that is capable of acting and thinking rationally. he even spares the time to constantly insult and berate helena/leon/ada, and is very aware of what is going on rather than being driven by some kind of animal instinct or impulse - although later on the rooftops cannot tell the difference between ada and carla anymore.
in between his main forms, his body reconfigures into his human form - albeit incredibly scarred, with exposed muscle and flesh, his voice changing. it’s interesting to not unlike many other villains, simmons has the ability to shift from b.o.w to humanoid at will and does so repeatedly throughout many of the fights. up on the roof of the quad tower, this humanoid form changes somewhat - referred to as a “scorpion”, in this form simmons is almost entirely humanoid save for the mass of bone and muscle from his back, forming a scorpion-like tail that he can attack with. whilst powerful, he is much more vulnerable to damage and much weaker than his prior mutation. similar to his final form, he is able to absorb material in order to heal himself.
unlike his first form, simmons begins to act much more on instinct in this form - he relies on brute strength and force. this form has more vulnerabilities than the former, given the eyeball weak point and the muscle on his back - but has armoured plates similar to the napads covering them. even with the lack of rational thinking, his form forms these plates to protect himself in response to being attacked by leon and helea in his first form - the desire for self-preservation making him larger, stronger and more armoured.
after consuming the surrounding zombies, simmons mutates into that of an insect-like form (originally in concept art based on a camel spider, which was much cooler imo and really shows the anatomical nature of simmons’ mutations better). despite being a “lower” form of life, it is much larger than the previous forms and gains the ability to spite toxic material at leon and helena - something that may be inherited from the t-veronica genes, as well as the insect form in general. the body is protected by an exoskeleton - but each time he takes damage, he continues to absorb in zombies to keep him going. in this form in particular, he seems to be based entirely on instinct, thus absorbing in the lightning rod over and over again rather than noticing what happened and...not doing it.
as he “dies”, his body reforms - and attempts to mutate once again as he’s impaled, but due to the lack of blood fails to do so (and it’s a comical amount of blood...).
given the...ridiculous amount of blood that comes out of simmons (as well as being struck by lightning over and over not killing him, but being impaled by something small does apparently) , i’ve decided to rewrite that last part. it’s likely, even if it took a long time, that simmons would have eventually mutated and his body reformed - especially given the sheer catastrophic deaths and amount of zombies that would be in china meaning eventually, they would find their way to him and he could absorb them into himself - although it would likely be a much weaker and smaller form to allow him to get somewhere where he would be able to fuel his mutation enough to revert to his humanoid recovery form.
for post-six roleplay purposes, simmons is still infected. he is able to maintain his humanoid form, though has suffered extensive scarring across all of his body, and in order to survive must consume much more food to provide the energy and mass in order to hold himself together. it’s extremely unlikely he could go back to being human, but it’s something that could perhaps be possible with the anti-c vaccine made from jake (although we don’t know how it works as it’s barely mentioned, and likely could kill anyone who has already mutated, especially someone like simmons whose mutation is keeping him alive).
should he lose control or willingly mutate further, i would like to include the ideas from the art director:
I thought it would be interesting if his arm turned into a dinosaur when he attacked, he ran on four legs, and did other things that he did during his previous mutations.
this really highlights the chaotic nature of the c-virus. even someone like simmons who has shown he has an incredible amount of control and sense of self during his mutations, would continue to mutate over and over. whilst the j’avo can be killed, they don’t seem to share any particular weaknesses (they combust and turn into chrysalids, and much like veronica don’t really seem to be effected by fire; haos and simmons are both damaged by electricity but it does little more than the melee attacks, etc).
