The Protagonist

The protagonist walking.

Not much is known about the protagonist and player character of Cruelty Squad. In the opening cutscene it is mentioned that he has been in a rough spot since his discharge from the SEC Death Unit. He is then offered a job in the Cruelty Squad, but is informed that he will have to adjust to a more "Corporate Mindset." His position in Cruelty Squad is designed to resemble that of a gig economy assassin in many ways, including the meager pay for each kill, the lack of significant interpersonal contact, and the apparent ease with which he can find work.

Throughout the game, the Protagonist is tasked by his conglomerate higher-ups to kill a variety of people, including anti-corporate politicians, cultists, corrupt law enforcement, rogue employees, mutant abominations, and CEOs of rival corporations.

Traits

"There's not much a fucked up detached loser like you can do after all."

Based on his character model, the Protagonist wears a bright pink bodysuit and green sunglasses and appears to be dark-skinned. He has a bright purple buzzcut. He is 30 years old.

Besides this slight bit of characterization in the opening cutscene, who he is isn't addressed. He essentially never speaks or shows any emotion in response to anything. He's profoundly depressed and taking a "special" cocktail of combat-enhancement drugs. According to the opening cutscene, the Protagonist may have some form of mental illness and/or some psychological problem (likely depression and/or PTSD), since the Handler orders him to log 15 minutes a day on a conditioning app to prevent "freakouts". Instead of passing away immediately when his health falls to 0, a chip in his brain activates a self-destruction mechanism, which causes his body to explode after a short period of time.

He is a brutal killing machine and the Handler implies that he is unable to do anything else due to psychological condition and detachment. However, the item description of the Fiberglass Fishing Rod suggests that fishing may be his true calling. The Tattered Rain Hat is described as feeling "nostalgic" even though he has never seen it before. The Pondman fish reminds him of "a friend long gone." The Third Ending text mentions a scene from his childhood involving a coastal town. He kills dozens of targets throughout the course of the game, many of whom are completely innocent, and almost certainly causes the deaths of hundreds of civilians in the process, all for the benefit of his insanely evil conglomerate higher-ups. He's presumably capable of speech given that other characters in the world converse with him but he's never shown speaking outside of grunting or making a distinct "Mmmm" sound when he eats food (or corpses) for health.

Background and Personality

Not much is known about the Protagonist's past, though it is revealed that he was native to a seaside town and had a natural talent for fishing, likely having "a friend long gone [by the events of Cruelty Squad]" that either taught him or fished alongside him. However, in his youth he had decided to forge his own destiny, and went into a life of warfare. At some point, the Protagonist meets the Handler, and the two keep in touch.

His most recent career before the start of the game is an SEC Death Unit agent, which was liquidated and forced him into unemployment.

During a stint of depression naps and stonefaced showers, MT Foxtrot is offered a job by the Handler to join the Cruelty Squad, a liquidation bluechip company that has all the wetwork a burnt out trooper like the Protagonist to thrive in.

Despite his limited characterization, MT is portrayed as a dry conversationalist, engaging in some of his targets in small talk before killing them. He will entertain Chunko enthusiasts, interrogate CEOs, listen to speeches, and savor the venomous words of a rival. According to a civilian in Paradise, he needs to shower more. He is a distant, cold person, as it is implied he is not familiar with any of his neighbors aside from his landlord out of obligation (until the events of Apartment Atrocity). He seems to enjoy Peeperoni Pizza from Pizza House, Super Crunchers brand snacks, Hungry Human soda, and has no qualms cannibalizing people in his Power in Misery form. He is willing to sacrifice his friends for godhood, and eventually finds himself enveloped in the CEO Mindset that even Elsa Holmes would not achieve. Also, according to civilians in Idiot Party, he does not listen to music.

Relationships

"YOUR FRIENDS ARE IN HELL YET YOU SMILE."

The Protagonist seems to have an amicable relationship with his coworkers. Henrik "Freakout" Johnson is impressed with his progress, saying he'll surely be rich soon. Jurgen Cool and Michael Nielsen thank him for killing their previous employers, allowing them to find more fulfilling employment with Cruelty Squad. Despite this, the Protagonist seems to have no compunction with killing them after they start to appear as enemies. The second ending text quoted above shows his feelings (or lack thereof) for the deaths of the named NPCs in Cruelty Squad Headquarters.

His employers care very little for him. If he dies three times in the same level, the protagonist's employers induct him into an "experimental biological enhancement program" so other agents can use the genetic recombinator. In Apartment Atrocity, his apartment is raided by the police and Cruelty Squad assassins, presumably the very same people patting him on the back in Cruelty Squad HQ. In the next mission briefing, the Handler clarifies that he was misidentified as a target and the Protagonist simply returns to work with no compensation.

The Handler, who knew the Protagonist before the events of the game, invites him to the company and provides mission briefings. While insulting him in the opening and some briefings, the Handler becomes less hostile as the game continues. Their odd friendship does culminate in both of them saying "Fuck CONTROL" and fighting Elsa Holmes and Abraxas.

Endings

In the first two endings, it is strongly hinted that the Protagonist ends up becoming a deity and recreating the cosmos from scratch. Some changes that occur are the sea turning red at ending 1, and Abraxas' gaze after ending 2.

After reaching the Cradle of Life and obtaining apotheosis, he destroys the "worldlife" in the third conclusion, which returns the natural balance of life and death.

Appearances in Other Media

Brigador

The portrait of "MT Foxtrot" as they appear in Brigador.

In the game Brigador, the protagonist of Cruelty Squad was added as a playable character in the "Blood Anniversary Update". In the game he is listed as "MT Foxtrot", though this has been unconfirmed as his real name. In Brigador his description is as follows:

MT Foxtrot unnerves me. Man or machine, over a long enough timeline everything hits terminal fatigue: mental, or metal. This guy's hit both. A shot-out barrel, a double fed cartridge stuck in the rifle of a dead conscript. Just look at his eyes—no time left on the clock. Sure, there's the offworld death squad work on the CV and that exotic tac rig he wears to back it up. He walks, he might talk, he obeys orders better than all of these cut-rate lotto ticket contracts the SNC loves handing out so much, but I'm telling you: there's no driver at the wheel. Send him back to his original handler, the one even uglier than me. When this guy detonates, nobody is going to want to be around to witness it. For all the burnt fuses we are handing out cartridges and cash to, that says everything. -MB

Gausswerks, a developer of Brigador, has posted in the Cruelty Squad discord that they "ran all this material past Ville prior to putting any of it in our game" and "went with mt foxtrot to just put our own spin on it. obviously cruelty squad stands by itself, this is just our tribute".

Nicknames

In the absence of a canon name, the unidentified protagonist was given multiple nicknames. These include:

• M.T. Foxtrot / Fuck, a play on 'empty fuck', a title the Handler uses to describe the Protagonist at some point during dialogue;
• John Cruelty(squad), a format popularised by the 'John Darksouls' meme;
• Freak Shit, a name used by the Handler during the pre-mission briefing for Apartment Atrocity;
• Jeremy Coomer, a joke name given by Ville Kallio in the Consumer Softproducts Discord on May 16 2023. Kallio clarified this on Twitter.