Steve Coops

Clean up Crew

 

CLEA DATA FILE

Primary Role:

  • Search and Rescue

Mission Types:

  • Rescue
  • Recovery
  • Clean up operations

Team Identities:

  • Eidolon – Althea Ocampo
  • Medic – Hana Ninomiya
  • Carjack – Anita Lankenau
  • Slowmo – Brent Parkinson
  • Bore – Piers Houghton
  • Douse – Shemar Hyatt

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – Eidolon has the means to project an astral version of herself (or others by touch). In this form she can more through solid mass but not interact with it. Useful for finding victims and keeping them calm.
  • Alpha ability – Medic has the means to lock on to the mind of another person and stabilise  injuries and create healing as well as  provide pain relief.
  • Alpha ability – Carjack can “enlarge” solid objects, useful for shoring up debris or lifting it altogether.
  • Alpha ability – Slowmo can generate an energy field where anything within it operates on a different time frame. This allows the team to work in an unstable environment or even a collapse taking place.
  • Alpha ability – Bore can generate an energy wave from his hands and arms that can cut through rock, metal and most other solid objects. Working with Carjack allows tunnels to be made.
  • Alpha ability – Douse’s body can release a chemical which acts as a flame retardant

Tactical Weakness(s):

  • As they specialise in rescue activities they are not equipped to deal with hostile situations and need support if under fire.
  • Medic’s healing ability draws energy from her own body. Whilst healing a patient her health starts to deteriorate
  • Slowmo’s ability ends up accelerating time back to normal when he drops his powers. As such the whatever time he has slowed “catches” up to normal time.

Notes/History

The Clean Up crew are a special team of Alpha humans that offered their services to CLEA for use in disasters and rescue situations. Though their abilities can be quite powerful, none of the team had any desires to become a hero. In fact their various backgrounds had links to rescue services in their countries of origin.

The six members of the group met on line and ending up discussing the idea that working together they could be extremely useful in emergency situations. Unlike other teams that form and have a powerful backer none of the six had access to vast reserves of cash. However they did realise the CLEA had all the resources in place, including transport and so presented the idea to the South Asian CLEA chief Huojin Sun. He liked the proposal but could not initiate their idea by himself.

The nature of their work meant they had to be fairly autonomous and be able to go to any disaster in any part of the world. Huojin therefore needed the agreement of the other CLEA Chiefs so that a global resource network could be put in place to get them where they needed to go. From these talks came the Emergency Express Protocol, a rapid response system that could get the team easily to any location.

Though technically the Clean Up crew use CLEA resources, they do not fight crime making them one of the more unique units.

CLSave

Save

Dec 10

Airsault and Battler

 

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Airsault – Kyoko Hirose
  • Battler – Johan Madsen

CLEA Classification:

  • Tech Enhanced

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Powered armour increases strength and protects from many types of weapons.
  • Airsault’s armour is lighter and has lower protection rating but has a “boost” unit in her boots to enable her to jump great distances.
  • Battler’s armour feature kinetic reflection technology. If struck by an enemy part of that energy is reflected back at the attacker. This means the harder you hit him the more blowback you get.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • To defeat Battler, enemies need to use enough force to overload the kinetic armour.
  • Airsault is more vulnerable in a leap since she can be thrown of course resulting in a heavy or unforeseen impact.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Mercenary Work
  • Biggest weakness for the pairing is down to the fact, where the reality they came from they were better equipped than their opponents and were used to putting down rebellious people. This has made them somewhat arrogant as in our world their power was supreme. In our world they no longer have the support of an organisation or the state and their new enemies tend to fight back.

Notes/History

CLEA knows very little about this pair of armoured mercenaries other than they are another set of arrivals resulting from the Breach Day event. From the few brief encounters people have had with the pair, CLEA has been able to learn their identities albeit in our reality they mean little.

From the reality they came from the pair worked as their world’s equivalent of White Guardians but in this world CLEA was run by a totalitarian government and basically maintained martial law. Free will was unknown and most people fell foul of the “justice” system.

Since they cannot return to their world it would seem that they have chosen to sell their skills to the highest bidder.

Dec 10

Panzer and Reflex

 

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Panzer – Kurt Schreiber
  • Reflex – Yunseo Boobon

CLEA Classification:

  • Tech Augmented

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Kurt and Yunseo have military training
  • Yunseo has advanced alien powered armour and swords. The armour protects her from small-medium calibre rounds and is self repairing.
  • Kurt has high more “traditional” earth based body armour of custom design to suit his fighting style.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Does not have much support from the hero community due to shady past

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Mercenary work (Kurt)
  • Wanted after escaping  CLEA custody whilst serving his sentence  (Kurt)
  • Assault and criminal damage (Yunseo – whilst under the influence of Qex)

Notes/History

Kurt Schreiber was career military. He was an honourable,by the book soldier and achieved the rank of Major before he lost his entire unit investigating a suspected alien incursion. At the the time he was attached to a European task force, called the Extra Terrestrial Investigation Force or ETIF. This consisted of several units from different countries militaries and were dispatched to investigate possible alien activity and neutralise it if it proved hostile.

His unit was sent out after a radar had picked up possible activity. The military had been aware of alien visitations for many years and in many cases caution was employed as it was viewed best not to start a war with a powerful adversary. However if a unit did encounter hostile activity then they had permission to respond with deadly force.

What the Major and his people found that day was activity from Qex. Her ship was hiding deep in a German forest. She had been forced to relocate her lab after it had come under attack in Australia so when soldiers arrived via helicopter she assumed they would be hostile. Without warning the helicopter gun ships came under fire from Vreen drones and they were brought down very quickly. Before calling in reinforcements and getting them shot down the major decided to take any survivors who were still fit and able and perform a recon mission to find out the level of opposition.

The mission proved to be a mistake for on foot the Vreen drones with advanced weapons made light work of the recon party. The major survived but everyone else was killed, except Yunseo Boobon who the drones took away. Though he hated to leave someone behind, Kurt knew if he did not make it back to the wounded soldier then he would not be able to report what he had seen and that might lead a rescue team into an ambush with the alien forces.

The rescue helicopters came and took Kurt and the wounded. Upon debriefing Kurt told his superiors what he had seen and that they had taken a female soldier hostage. His superiors decided that rather than try and rescue a single soldier they would bomb the entire area.

The air strike proved a success and the alien craft appeared destroyed, but in reality Qex had moved it again. Kurt did not realised this until three years later, when some footage made it to the media of costumed adventurers fighting Vreen drones and in amongst it all was a new weapon, a swordswoman with advanced armour that was fighting for Qex. Kurt was only interested since it involved the same alien that had wiped out his team. However when a “hero” got a lucky shot and knocked the helmet off the swordswoman he had reason to be much more interested for it was Yunseo.

Having never been able to put the past behind him, Kurt had been forced to retire from military service as he was obsessed with going after the Vreen. The doctors said he had PTSD, but he called it guilt. Guilt for getting his men killed and guilt for leaving Yunseo behind. Though he believed her dead, killed in the air strike the news footage had proved otherwise.

He needed to find a way of locating the Vreen and so he took to mercenary work. Being a soldier was the only thing he knew and as he needed cash to travel, being a merc was a natural choice. After numerous missions he  had money but was no closer to finding his alien nemesis. Then he ended up taking part in a high risk job and getting arrested by CLEA.

Imprisoned for his mercenary work he never expected to get out until he was visited by an agent. The man claimed to be from CLEA (but in reality Citadel) said that he had heard of his military past and the encounter with the Vreen and wanted to know everything. Kurt queried whether Qex had been located but the agent would not tell him anything so Kurt remained quiet. In reality Citadel had no idea where the alien was. The deadlock was broken when the “agent” was able to use his contacts to find out the likely whereabouts of the rogue extraterrestrial and stated that “CLEA” had found Qex’s lab. Far from giving the agent information, and highly suspicious as something “smelled off” Kurt decided to make a deal, namely that he would reveal what he knew in return for being given the opportunity to lead a squad of men to investigate.

There followed much negotiation but in the end Kurt was told he could be part of the team but once the mission was over he had to serve a new special military unit. This he accepted.

After being given some of the equipment he requested Kurt was assigned to a team of mercenaries. Though everything went as normal on the final high speed drive to the ships location, Kurt detonated charges to flip all the vehicles. He then fled the area before they recovered.

Kurt found the ship and  as expected he encountered Vreen drones. This time he was better prepared . Whole teams of heroes had failed to make it inside the ship but that was not his goal. He wanted to draw the swords woman out.

Eventually he got his wish and she was both strong and powerful. Against her swords he knew he stood little chance especially as bullets bounced of her armour. Kurt was gambling on the fact that he thought Yunseo had been brainwashed and so at every opportunity he tried speaking to her hoping the reach the real person and not the fascade that Qex had created. For quite some time they fought and eventually he seemed to get through. It was only a brief moment but she seemed to stop, like she was confused. That was all he needed. He closed in fast and  thrust a knockout dart in the area where the helmet met the neck area and the armour was weak. Yunseo fell down.

With so many drones around, Kurt decided it was time to go and threw the unconscious Yunseo over his shoulder and made his escape in the opposite direction to the approaching Spearhead team. By the time they arrived, he was gone.

After quite some time on foot, Kurt found an abandoned shack. Inside it he found rope and tied Yunseo up. As expected when she was awake she was back under Qex’s control but without her armour she presented no threat.

For two days he played mental games with Yunseo, trying to wear the false personality down. A couple of times it came close to tricking him, before finally the real Yunseo had come back. It Kurt had felt guilty about his past mistakes then Yunseo as far worse for she remembered everything she had done in the service of Qex.

Since neither could change the past and both had done things that painted them in a villainous light, the only way to proceed was forwards. As Qex had given her a “weapon” Yunseo felt that she should use that weapon against its creator and any other alien that they came across. Though the man sent from Citadel had intended to recruit Kurt in the first place, ironically though things had not gone to plan he had in fact ended up fulfilling their intentions.

For quite some time they tracked and tried to put a stop to Qex but that proved more frustrating. All this took money so the pair resorted to setting themselves as mercenaries  to pay for their  equipment and information. This was when CLEA had no choice but to consider them criminals.

Dec 09

Star Patrol

 

CLEA DATA FILE

Key Assets:

Notes/History

Star Patrol is the collective name of the crew who operate the spaceship “Antares”, a warship originally designed for the planetary defence of Earth, albeit not our Earth but one from another reality, the ship itself having “appeared” following the Breach Day event.

Following its appearance ESA mounted a mission to investigate the mysterious object and the crew of the Hawking, found the ship in a decaying orbit. The crew of the expedition were under orders to either destroy the ship or try and boost it to a stable orbit.

Once on board the team found its systems had been disabled and upon restoring them, the ship reactivated its advanced jump drive and transported them and the ship outside of our galaxy. Unable to reactivate the same drive the crew were able to return to Earth using another FTL drive, but the journey took them three years.

Upon arrival various governments argued between themselves who would take control of such a powerful weapon. The crew of the Hawking though believed that after the things they had witnessed on their journey, the ship should not fall under the control of any one government.

In they end CLEA broke the deadlock. They had experience with galactic matters thanks to the likes of Galaxy Force and Vanguard. Though not wanting to get involved with world politics since the agency was neutral they presented a compromise that suited both the Hawking crew and the world governments.

Since the ship was heavily under staffed, CLEA decided to send up a team of specialist to assist the existing crew.As an agency CLEA employed many people other than ones that were seen in the public eye. These included data and tech analysts, researchers and the agency even had a science wing. All these were needed to deal with an ever expanding variety of threats.

Sufficed to say, when it came to asking for volunteers, the chance to work in space was over subscribed and it took some time to whittle down the numbers. Thinking that that cool heads might be needed those people that had joined the agency from military backgrounds were discarded first. CLEA chiefs feared that such people might feel less inclined to work under the existing civilian crew.

As part of the “package” proposed the lucky applicants fell under the leadership of agents Mishra and Dadachanji, who were all but promoted to field commanders, albeit the Agency did not use such titles. The agency also supplied four new interceptor type craft to replace the one that were missing or had never been supplied to the Antares before it fell into the breach between universes.

The Agents helped co-ordinate defences with other space faring allies they knew of and organise the other CLEA personnel, but there was not very much for the crew to do since the Eopua were protecting the planet from most threats. Though the Eopua had never actually opened any form of dialogue with the people of Earth, CLEA knew about their presence as did most intergalactic visitors that risked travelling to Earth.

Since some races often got past the Eopua defences, CLEA wondered if it might be better to learn more about those threats more proactively as well as learning about other races. The agency figured that if in the grand design of things the Eopua wanted humans to replace them, then it was time for people to learn more especially if there was a threat such as the Myzx out there.

Though there was a human in Galaxy Force and a group of humans belong to Vanguard they had their own agenda and nothing specifically linked to Earth so having a ship working from Earth and exploring on behalf of CLEA seemed a good way of gaining valuable data. CLEA, though had to seek the permission of its main backers the UN. Up until then they had accepted CLEA controlling a ship to defend Earth, but CLEA now wanted to send that “defence” on an exploration mission. This proved to be a sticking point for months but eventually permission was given to create “Star Patrol”, Earth’s first “official” space exploration team.

As the crew of the Hawking had spent three years exploring the galaxy on their return journey, they naturally chose to remain, along with the CLEA personnel. Beverly Mendoza, the original mission commander on the ill fated Hawking mission was officially given the position as ship’s Captain a job she had already been doing albeit it was not recognised. The other Hawking team  members were then given the roles as command staff, due to their experience with the ship and its systems. Though not a military unit, CLEA was aware of the need to a distinct chain of command and was prepared to compromise so whilst the bridge officers were not CLEA everyone else was and fell under the leadership of the two agents.

However whilst the Hawking crew had experience of interacting with aliens and the ships systems, they had generally tried to avoid contact with extra terrestrials and had been rather lucky not to find trouble in their return journey.Though some suggested rethinking the usage of CLEA personnel from military backgrounds, it was deemed too risky. CLEA top brass feared that a misunderstanding with a trigger happy soldier and an alien could result in a threat of galactic proportions. Instead CLEA tackled the problem with a novel approach and chose to “employ” alien specialists, and the best people for that job were actual aliens. The agency therefore sent out requests to its various contacts in the vigilante community for alien allies to join the mission.

They were surprised at the response.

Elijah Fitton contacted his Zellarian friends. Though they had chosen to explore the galaxy in a bid to put a stop to the threat of slavers, they saw a greater potential of working with others and so they signed on despite the fact that humans would be in charge of missions.

The pair of Jamiscst refugees also chose to join the mission. Though they were “free” they always felt “alien” whilst being surrounded by humans. With the possibility of being with other races that were not human they felt they would be less alone.

Tigron and Oceline, the pair of Felanek that had visited Earth and were known to CLEA, Vanguard and Galaxy Force, also signed up. Having been removed from their closed society they could not go back home. They have a deep hatred for Quarrud Xiqrons, one of the races that the Star Patrol mission was going to look into which is what attracted them to joining.

The Luzerran hunters encountered by Vanguard also joined the group after learning that Star Patrol was investigating the Myzx. Still thinking they owe the humans of Vanguard a life debt the pair felt this was the best way to repay it, albeit they act more like loose cannons. Their initial presence with the Jamiscst also caused a lot of friction in the beginning since the former had suffered at the hands of the Luzerran people and they could not trust the later arrivals thinking they would be no different

Pulsar and Quasar were the last “humans” to join the mission before it left Earth. “Modified” and raised by rogue Eopua, after being returned to Earth they had tried their hand at being vigilante heroes but felt they were surplus to requirements and lacked purpose and hopes they could find meaning elsewhere.

During their ongoing mission they would later gain an extra terrestrial doctor in the form of Flervil and rescue a human slave, Dana Knowles who choose to become the Antares Engineer.

Dec 09

Seasons


 

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Spring – Cian Murdock
  • Summer – Kuntala Chopra
  • Autumn – Glenroy Marley
  • Winter – Freyja Bjarnadotter

CLEA Classification:

  • Avatars

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Spring – Cian as the Avatar of spring can create new growth by shooting his crossbow. Wherever the bolts land he can spread greenery. He is the only one of the Season Avatars that sports armour of some description. At the apex of his power cycles he can also bring to life a recently deceased human/plant/animal simply by touching them with his hands. His totem is the crossbow
  • Summer – Kuntala as the Avatar of Summer can generate both heat and light. If provoked that light can blind and the heat can burn. Her totem is a necklace
  • Autumn – Glenroy as the Avatar of Autumn can cause living things to wilt and die. By banging his staff on the ground he can withdraw the energy that helps sustain life. He is also capable of summoning winds and gales.
  • Winter – Freyja as the Avatar of Winter has the means to generate ice and snow. She can also control existing weather. Her totem is an old lantern

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • The Avatars have time based powers. e.g. Summer is at her strongest when she is in a place where the season of summer is taking place.
  • The Avatars can neutralise each others power. Spring Opposes Autumn and Summer Opposes Winter. Therefore it is rare for all four ever to meet for they would effectively make themselves powerless.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

The Season Avatars can be traced back to one of the Totems used by the “Olympian Gods”. It recent times it was learned that the “gods” were mere mortals, given mystical totems from the Light Realm to fight of demonic threats. IAfter their users though abused that power ten of the totems were cast between realms by the Angel Joshu but two of the “gods” had already exhiled themselves having grown tired of the infighting. The pair used the names “Poseidon” and “Demeter”. The totems remained in the mortal realms as Joshua was unable to find them.

The source of the Totems used by the Season Avatars are beleived to have originated from the “Sickle of Demeter”. Because its magic was based on the natural world over time it absorbed more and more energy which transformed it from an Active Totem to an Avatar Totem. There is little knowledge, only speculation that at some time the Sickle was discovered. (In what “form” it was found is unknown since Avatars have the means to change their guise over time). Whenever and wherever is was found it was perhaps realised by those that studied magic that its power was of some concern. Over one person to control the seasons could have been viewed as potential for disaster and since Avatars cannot be destroyed the threat was minimised by “splitting” its power into four new Avatar Totems, One for each season.

Like every other Avatar they bond with their host, giving him or her an extended lifespan. As well as sometimes feeding on the lifeforce of the host in order to survive the host’s goals over time align with those of the avatar they are bonded to.

In the case of the seasonal avatars the hosts tend to act rather like a force of nature. Therefore “Spring” will generally start spreading life following the end of winter. Winter will bring frosts to lands that need cold and snow. Summer will bring scorching heat and light and Autumn ends the cycle started by spring and causes living things to die back.

Because each of the Avatar hosts is still human he or she can choose to use the power for other uses. Though less active than other “heroes” the Seasons have chosen to assist mankind in certain aspects. Often they will join forces when they themselves are under threat from powerful magical entities that desire to kill the host in order to steal the power..

Of the four current hosts for the Avatars, Summer is the “youngest” having been active for 50 years. Spring is next at 70 years whilst the Winter host has been active for nearly 120 years and finally the current Autumn host was identified as being 150 years old. Much to his chagrin, Cian Murdock who became the host for Spring is often sometimes referred to as being a leprechaun thanks to his Irish origin and green clothing. He also tend to be the most active for his life giving crossbow has the means to “give life” and can actually turn a vampire human simply because a vampire is “dead” so in making it alive he reverses the curse.

Dec 09

Red Shift

 

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Red Shift 1 – Erin Wardle
  • Red Shift 2 – Miles Wardle
  • Hellfire – Sylvester Norris
  • Sirocco – Elaine Bassett

CLEA Classification:

  • Tech Augmented (Erin and Miles)
  • Human/Alien hybrid (Norris and Bassett)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alien Hybrid – Norris and Bassett had alien DNA grafted to their bodies. As well as increased attributes and rapid healing they can breathe methane
  • Tech Augmented – Erin and Miles are equipped with advance armour which is equipped with wrist blasters and a targetting system controlled via the suit helmets

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • The alien tech worn by the Wardles is not easily repaired if damaged
  • Norris and Bassett have major difficulty breathing ordinary air.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

The very existence of Red Shift as a group is all down to one person, Tony Rogers.

He worked (or still works – no intel) as a scientist for Citadel. After helping merge alien DNA with human DNA in the test subjects Sylvester Norris and Elaine Bassett he began to start doubting the groups ethics. Orginally he came to the group, sold on the ideals that they were trying to provide a means for humans to deal with possible extra terrestrial threats. Over time though he noticed a shift towards developing biological weapons, and reverse engineering technology.

Whilst he was told that such work was vital to give ordinary people a means to deal with alien invaders, he was suspicious as the group seemed to spend a good deal of time in selling the end result of their experiments. To reassure him and others like him that it was for the greater good it was explained to Tony that Citadel had to sell the occasional weapon as it was the only way to pay to continue their vital work. The one thing they could not explain was that if their work was so important why they had to use people in their experiments who had not volunteered.

After his most successful experiment which saw Elaine and Sylvester turned into a pair of super humans, Tony decided that he needed to get out. Before any plans were in place he heard rumours of another scientist that had thought the same and had vanished. It did not take a maths genius for Tony to work out that Citadel could not let anyone go who might talk to the authorities. That meant he had no choice.

However, every day he passed the cells where Elaine and Sylvestor were being held, he felt part of him die each time. He was well aware that they had not volunteered for the procedure and yet in the name of his scientific exploits he had gone ahead with the DNA graft. Though he had certainly made them stronger he had left both with a problem of breathing ordinary air. The original alien was a methane breather and somehow that had altered their lungs.

To add to his misery every time he observed them in their cells he noticed them watch back. Occasionally either one or both of them  would thump on the glass and hurl abuse at him until guards arrived and shocked them with stun sticks. Eventually the abuse he saw got too much for his conscience and he decided to find a way of getting them free. It took six weeks of meticulous planning to stage a fake break out and though he got the pair out of Citadel’s clutches they did not thank him. In truth he did not expect either.

Once free the pair to use their newfound abilities to wage a guerilla war on Citadel but despite their best efforts they did not really do much damage. Tony in the mean time decided to try the same from the inside, making amends for all that he had been a part of.

Several years passed and during this time he helped mess up a number of experiment. He also kept tabs on Sylvester and Elaine. That was easy as Citadel security kept monitoring their whereabouts as a means to limit the damage they could do.

The next time he would be forced to take more drastic action was when he was brought in to supervise an experiment with two teenage siblings. The were runaways on the streets of Atlantica and had fallen for the idea of safe and secure surroundings as well as regular meals in exchange to taking part in some “special” experiments.

Having younger bodies meant they were ideal to try out some alien armoured suit that had been “delivered”. The suits needed to interface directly with the host and since older minds were normally “set”, younger minds were already of use. As the experiments went on though, both Erin and Miles started to suspect they had walked into a monsters lair. Tony knew that there was only one of two outcomes for them if the experiment was a success. One of them was the teens would work as Citadel operatives and the other was that they would be eliminated if their loyalty was in question. One thing he did realise was that a lot of initial setting up reverse engineering had already been done and that he was not working on a new project but continuing an existing one.

The vocal complaints expressed by the pair was enough to convince Tony that Erin and Miles did not have too long a life span left and so once again he found himself plotting a way to get someone out from Citadel. In this case he factored in stealing the suits and getting them to escape in them. After a few secret meetings he explained to the pair the dire situation they were in and told them of his plan.

On the day it came to put the plan in motion Erin and Miles followed everything exactly as they had been told. Despite this security got alerted earlier than expected forcing them to fight their way out. The armour came in very handy for that. Just as they were getting clear of the facility, Tony unexpectedly arrived and set off explosives to buy them more time. They never saw him again and assumed he was either caught in the explosion or by security.

Once clear the pair headed for where Tony had told them to seek out Elaine and Sylvester. At first the adult pair thought it was Citadel out to attack them but the misunderstanding was cleared up fairly quickly before anyone got seriously hurt. Erin and Miles told the other two that Tony had requested they look after them. Whilst annoyed that Tony, a person they still bore a grudge against had dared to get them to babysit a pair of teenagers they knew that by themselves, armour or no armour they would not be a match for Citadel’s might.

Though at first neither of them knew what to make of each other, over time they started to bond and formed a very unusual “family”. Whilst they still make an effort to disrupt Citadel whenever the opportunity arises, they have also expanded their vigilantism to tackle criminals who prey on the weak and helpless.

Dec 09

Street Sisters

 

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Uppercut – Marissa Henson
  • Tress – Kuniko Arai
  • Royal Flush – Nicole Webb

Associations

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – Kuniko has the ability to animal her hair and use it as extra limbs
  • Alpha ability – Nicole can create a highly localised energy blast from her hands which she can use the throw small objects at high speed. Playing card are her favourite choice.
  • Alpha ability – Marissa has a means to amplify kinetic energy. The more force she puts into a punch or a kick the stronger the amplified force. The impact force remains ahead of her actual limbs so she does not get hurt when hitting a solid surface.
  • Cybernetic Spine – Kuniko is equipped with a cybernetic neck and spine to take the load off her actual spine which had started to deteriorate from the stresses of using her Alpha ability

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Usual limitations associated with Alpha abilities
  • They can only do vigilante work in the spare time
  • Stronger together so vulnerable when alone.
  • EM pulse can disable Kuniko’s spine.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Petty theft (Kuniko)

Notes/History

Though perhaps not the most refined of vigilante groups the Street Sisters can certainly hold their own, mainly because of their unconventional methods.

The group started off with Nicole Webb who after gaining her Alpha abilities decided that she should use them for the good of others. Despite her skills she regularly ended up finding more trouble than she could handle and soon grew tired of the visits to hospital when she was only trying to do the right thing.

Eventually after growing frustrated, Nicole went online and tried to find others who might work with her as her “side kicks”. This proved equally frustrating for most of the people she chatted with were generally wannabes with no actual skills or talent. She figured if she teamed up with any of those then she would end up getting hurt by her own side rather than the criminals.

After months of trying to wade through the cranks and the weirdos online, he persistence paid off and she found Marissa Henson. Unlike all the other people she had made contact with, Marissa seemed so lacking in confidence and self doubt that she was completely the opposite. This seemed strange to Nicole as Marissa was an amateur boxer, the last person she felt would be nervous.

However Marissa made a confession and that was after her Alpha abilities activated she was unaware of the change and nearly killed her opponent in the ring. Since then she had been so afraid of her gift she had never boxed again and chosen to sever all social ties in case she had “another accident”. The online conversation with Nicole was the first time she had talked to anyone about her “gift”.

Though Marissa was very nervous, Nicole felt that she was someone that she could work with and managed to get her to meet with her in a bar. The pair talked and Nicole sprang her idea of a vigilante team, and then revealed she was the person known to the press as “Royal Flush”. Marissa though wanted none of it so Nicole persuaded her to let her be trained. Again Marissa did not want to become force into being a vigilante but the idea that she could control her gift did appeal to her.

The pair met several times over a few weeks. An abandoned warehouse served as a training facility since it meant Marissa was not worried about hurting anyone by accident. Working together Nicole managed to help Marissa overcome her fears but after all that, she still did not want to become a vigilante. They therefore parted company.

Fate would intervene on Marissa’s part when she saw an old lady being mugged in a back alley one night. The muggers spied Marissa and warned her off. Normally she would have fled without thinking but she reasoned that she had a special gift and could do something about the scum who felt they could pick on someone weaker than themselves and it made her quite angry. For the first time she no longer felt nervous about her gift and decided it was time to step up and be counted. Able to control her Alpha abilities she was able to give the two muggers a beating that they would never forget but she was able to prevent giving them life changing injuries.

After the old woman got her belongings back she thanked Marissa before disappearing into the night. Marissa now experienced a strange feeling of satisfaction. She had done good and knew she had done good. Now she wanted more and so she contacted Nicole.

Together they began nightly patrols around some of the “troublesome” neighbourhoods of New Tokyo. No longer being alone meant that Nicole rarely entered into a situation that was bigger than she could handle, for she had a partner.

In time the pair would end up meeting Kuniko Arai, a streetwise younger woman with a severe amount of overconfidence. Kuniko had an unusual ability in that she could animate her hair and use it like an extra limb. However whereas Nicole and Marissa were using their gifts for good, Kuniko had chosen to impress others and joined a local gang in order to show off.

They faced off and though Kuniko put up a good fight she could not take on two vigilantes at once. Nicole and Marissa though did not want to get Kuniko in trouble with the law so they decided to let her go after trying to make her realise the gang did not want her as a person, only what she could do with her gift.

It took her quite some time before Kuniko learned her lesson in being used by others. As soon as she refused to use her gift to help the gang, they threw her out. Nicole and Marissa came across her whilst on one of their regular patrols. Kuniko was just wandering the streets, alone and looking dejected. Though she had committed petty crime Marissa and Nicole could not help feel a little sorry for the younger woman. It was then that Nicole made a rash decision to invite her into “their” gang seeing as her old gang had thrown her out.

Though turning a partnership into a trio had some expected complications since Kuniko has a bad habit of acting before thinking which creates more trouble than it solves, they actually did manage to work together. The trio though would come into hardship when Kuniko started to experience severe pain. This was attributed to the fact that though her hair could do incredible things, her neck and back were “normal” and the stress on the joins was too much for her body to handle.

Unsure what to do Nicole reached out to the hero community and the Knight’s Forge responded. Having learned of their crime fighting they were only too happy to help. They “fixed” Kuniko by attaching a cybernetic spine to her existing one greatly increasing her neck and back’s load bearing capability. As well as this they supplied them with outfits more suited to vigilante work than the old clothing they were wearing. Lastly they gave Marissa a special wrist band that functioned the same as power dampening collars given to Alpha Superior prisoners. This meant she could return to her boxing without running the risk of her powers kicking in and hurting anyone accidentally. When she wore the band in the ring it was only her alone in charge, not her Alpha abilities.

It was her interest in boxing that eventually brought the team into contact with Dion Gardner (using the alias Roman McKinley). Dion was actually a distant cousin although the age difference made him more of an uncle. The pair had only met on a few occassions. His “career” as a mercenary made life difficult and the family would not talk about Dion openly. They regarded his work as something shameful.

After setting up a boxing gymn as a means to give his life purpose after choosing to abandon the life as a mercenary he learned that Marissa was a talented amatuer and had considered getting her to join. Though he was using a new identity, and there was a chance she would not recognise him, he decided it was best if he kept his distance due to the family feud.

Always expecting trouble he was well versed in what went on in the criminal world and the players involved. It therefore did not take him long to figure out that Marissa and Uppercut were one and the same. With the Street Sisters rapidly gaining a reputation, Dion figured out that soon or later they might take on something bigger than they could handle andthat concerned him.

He therefore broke his own rule about reaching out and invited Marissa to train at his gymn, as McKinley hoping she might bring her “friends” along, that way he could keep an eye on all of them. She was surprised to hear from McKinley as he had quite a reputation in amateur moxing circles and so accepted the offer without hesitation. When she showed up the “tryout” she did not recognise him nor did she realise that it did not matter how good or bad she did, she was going to be accepted anyway. It would however be a long time before she would learn that Roman McKinley was her cousing and he was an Alpha as well.

This only happened when the Street Sisters decided to take on a violent gang known as the Southeners. They did not play by the rules and when weapons appeared during a confrontation the trio scattered and regrouped at the gymn which they had been unoffically using as a base of operations. The gang tracked them but before thet reached the destination the hero known as “Black Hole” (Dion’s alter ego as a vigilante) interfered, barring the path to the Street Sisters.

Using his alpha abilities Black Hole attacked and after repelling bullets and gave key gang members a beat down leading to the gang fleeing out of fear. The Street Sisters had heard of Black Hole, a hero with violent tendencies and were not sure if he would treat them as friend or foe. Rather than hiding in the gymn they backed away from him, only for Dion to remove his goggles and the trio see the face of Roman McKinley.

If that was a surprise then Marissa would get a second one when “Roman” revealed he was in fact her cousing Dion. Then eveything that had happened since joining the gymn started to make sense for he had seemed overly protective as her boxing coach.

With the truth revealed, Dion formely allowed the Street Sisters to use the gymn as their official meeting place and cleared a room for them. He also took it upon himself to teach them combat skills but other than that he chose to not interfere with their hero “duties” unless they asked for it.

Dec 08

Mothman and Swarm

 

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Mothman – Rainer Wessely
  • Swarm – Leah Stocker

CLEA Classification:

  • Tech Augmented

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Mothman – skintight armoured suit with cape that allows gliding. Mask is equipped with visual enhancements enabling him to see in the dark, or IR signatures. Handguns can fire darts of Electric Shocks
  • Swarm – has light armoured suit with 4 wings capable of enabling flight. Blasters can be worn over the hands and wrists. Helmet has the means to “talk” to wasps and bees enabling her to bring in “allies” to battles.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Neither suit can provide protection above small calibre.
  • If cape or wings are “holed” they lose their flying/gliding capability

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

Rainer and Leah are a good example of two people converging on the same goal from different directions, the one thing that links them being their hatred of Citadel.

Rainer originally worked for Citadel. He believed that their goals to learn about aliens an their tech in order to protect the planet was a noble cause. However when Citadel started to sell reverse engineered technology to outsiders the doubts started to creep in. The last straw for him came when he discovered that teenagers were being used as guinea pigs in experiments with alien biology and tech enhancements.

Knowing that if the higher ups in Citadel were prepared to treat human life as a commodity, he doubted that they would simply let a valuable scientist like him simply walk out of the door. He therefore knew that he needed to make his escape rather less conventionally. He did this by taking various bits of alien tech he could get his hands on. When asked by his superiors what he was doing he merely claimed he was doing his job, which was to get the tech working. Though it took him a long time he was able to build himself the Mothman suit .

For several weeks he tried the suit out and attacked various Citadel operatives until finally he faked some security footage to make it look like the Mothman had kidnapped him. That now left him free to escape and work as the Mothman in order to hurt Citadel and get them to stop their experiments on people. It was during his vigilante work that he met Leah.

Leah  was the sister of a Pacifica Police Department officer, Alice Stocker. After Leah had got her job at a journalist, Alice always used to joke that they could do with someone at the PPD because Leah could track a story back to its source. This skill would prove to be the key to solving the mystery of her sisters murder.

Whilst on a case Alice was killed in a seemingly random attack. The gunman was known to the police and it appeared to simply be a hate crime since when Alice and her partner tried to arrest him he just pulled out a gun and shot Alice. The other detective shot and killed him in return. With no other witnesses and Alice’s partner being the one to supply the evidence, after the investigation into the shootings the case was closed.

Leah though felt there was more to it than a gunman being shot in self defence. The shooting incident for instance conveniently happened in an area where there were no surveillance cameras. One thing  Leah did know was that Alice had a habit of keeping  copies of her case notes away from the police department so she took a trip to her sister’s lockup . Here Leah found masses of information, that pointed to the fact that Alice was doing a little side investigation of her own and that it looked like there was a case of corruption in the PPD.

Whilst sifting through the information Leah could almost hear her sister telling her to do what she did best and track the evidence back to its source. Wanting to get justice for Alice, meant Leah started to do just that despite the fact that the risks were high. Eventually she learned that certain high tech evidence that was being sent from, Alice’s police station had been going missing while en route to the secure lock up facility. These were the types of weapons and tech used in illegal arms deals. Alice had managed to find two sets of paperwork, one given to the van driver on leaving with the consignment and another identical set to be signed upon arrival, albeit the second set had items removed meaning they would never be logged in. From what Leah managed to work out was that Alice was trying to learn where the missing items had instead ended up, only before finding out she had been killed.

Leah continued her private investigation and located a secure warehouse. She broke in an found an entire arsenal of weapons that should have been in secure police storage. As she wandered round the lethal Aladdin’s cave she heard voices. Then a familiar one called out. It was her sister’s partner. He thanked her for exposing the fact Alice had kept evidence as that meant he could close out the loose ends.

Around this time the bullets started flying. Leah knew she was in trouble. She also knew that even if she surrendered she would not be let out alive. Then as bullet struck a strange sort of outfit and bounced off. It seemed like the high tech gear that a “superhero” might wear. With nothing to lose she started to put it on. The thing had wings on the back which she was not sure of the purpose but as soon as she put the helmet on the entire thing came alive. Though she had no skills the outfit served its purpose for it allowed her to escape.

She now knew that Alice’s partner was corrupt but not who he was working for. She was also aware was that he would not stop until she was dead. That meant nowhere was safe. Even worse was when she went to Alice’s lockup she found out that it had been torched. There was only one solution and that was to master the suit she had stolen and use it to fight back.

Using the suit she now turned vigilante to try and expose the corruption. Certainly, after she mastered the outfit, criminal low lifes would talk to her as they seemed quite scared of her. Eventually she learned that the suit she was wearing was a creation from Citadel. PPD got hold of it when a weapons sale was interrupted by undercover officers and the whole consignment was taken into evidence. This was when Citadel had corrupted key police personnel and paid them to get all their items back. Had Leah arrived a week later when the final “delivery” had been smuggled out of the police lockup then the warehouse would have been empty and Citadel would have collected the lot. Alice though had caused them to pause the operation.

Knowing what was going on and proving it though were two different things. Citadel having discovered their prized “suit” was on the lose decided to also try to eradicate the loose ends. This was when Leah crossed paths with Rainer.

Working together they exposed the corruption in the PPD and effectively neutralised Citadel’s means to retrieve their equipment. Leah of course knew she should return the suit but chose to keep it. After all nobody was likely to come forwards and say they wanted their illegal tech back.

Having worked with Rainer the pair decided to operate as a lose vigilante team. Rainer, with his experience of Citadel tech modified her suit and created the blasters. He reckoned that Citadel would know how to disable its own creations and so he felt it wise to alter it so they could not do that.

Dec 08

Nighthawk and Scorpion Blue

  •  

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Nighthawk – Cindy Laughton
  • Scorpion Blue – Saanvi Malakar

CLEA Classification:

  • Tech Enhanced

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Armoured Suit (both) capable of dealing with small calibre and energy weapons
  • Biomechanical wings (Cindy) – give her the ability of flight
  • Cybenetic forearms (Cindy) – give her superhuman strength.
  • Biomechanical “Sting” (Saanvi) – capable of striking and delivering either a disabling shock or knockout injections
  • Clawed Gloves – (Saanvi) Capable of devastating slashes close up

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Can be disabled at close range with EM based weapons

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Working for a criminal group – Enigma Solutions

Notes/History

Cindy and Saanvi were both extremely talented inventors/engineers, who were duped into working for Dr Blacksmith aka Melissa Henshall. They knew of Melissa from her reputation for creating fantastic technologies and being two women who never managed to hit the big time, they were delighted when they both got jobs with Enigma Solutions. They knew the company belonged to Melissa, and they were aware it was having a few legal problems but what the did not know when begin working for her was that Enigma Solutions no longer existed as a legal trading company having been shut down by CLEA.

By now Melissa had chosen to compete with the Knight’s Forge and supply weapons and tech to anyone that would by it, namely the criminal community. However in the early days of the reinvented company, Melissa chose to maintain a front that everything was legit, that way she could hire the best people, such as Cindy and Saanvi.

Blackmailed by Blacksmith

For nearly a year, the pair and several others were unaware that their work was being sold to criminals. Whenever they asked too many questions Melissa just made the excuse it was a secret military project. The truth though was revealed when they saw the item being used by a criminal on the news. Those who had worked on the equipment demanded an explanation and Melissa told them the truth. They were not sure what to be more shocked over, the fact that a criminal was using their designs or the fact that their “boss” had basically told them they were working for an illegal operation. It was now, that Melissa hit everyone with a sting in her tail. If they went to the police, she would ensure the police would learn that they were the ones creating illegal arms.

Knowing that they would be locked up for a very long time, most of the engineers felt they hand no choice but to carry on. However Cindy and Saanvi had different ideas. Whilst co-operating with Melissa’s projects the covertly stole items and with them created a pair of armoured suits. Due to the fact that they could not steal two of everything, though the suits appeared similar they have nothing exactly in common.

Sufficed to say when they got the suits operation they gave Melissa a surprise. By now she was operating as Dr Blacksmith. She heard the alarms in one of her labs and came to investigate. Seeing the winged suit and the scorpion suit and their occupants she suggested they came to some sort of arrangement. Saanvi and Cindy had the same thought. They trashed the place.

After they fled, Melissa made their information known to the police and CLEA, although the latter was suspicious of how valuable intel just happened to “appear”. Though they were fugitives the pair fought to clear their names and they chose to do this by destroying any active Enigma Solutions tech they had created. In taking down numerous criminals CLEA decided to meet with the pair “off the record” rather than continue to hunt them down.

It was here that they were able to explain their side of the story. Though it was not a court of law, CLEA accepted the explanation and chose to stand down the priority. However with Melissa’s evidence they could not do any more unless they handed themselves in. Cindy and Saanvi though stated that they could not do that as they do not believe they will get a fair hearing, until Dr Blacksmith is caught and tried.

Nighthawk’s injury

This created further problems when the pair crossed paths with The Claremont Cartel. During a running battle with the cartel’s muscle, Cindy received life altering injuries courtesy of Killer Saw who managed to damage her forearms severely. The resulting energy discharge from her suit was enough to knock over Killer Saw and create an EM pulse which briefly shut down three blocks.

The energy flare actually ended up saving her life for it attracted the attention of the Repository Satellite that was being manned by Mono. Focussing cameras on the area she could see the aftermath of the battle.  Suspecting that Nighthawk might not survive she alerted the others at the Harmony Island resort.

TTR was despatched and brought the pair to the resort and Dr Psy did his best to save Cindy’s arms but they were beyond saving and had to be removed at the elbows. Whilst this might have deterred her from heroic duties, it only made Cindy more determined to fight against criminals. Using her engineering genius she actually designed a pair of replacement forearms which were them fabricated by the Knight’s Forge.

The pair are currently still wanted by many law enforcement agencies who are only aware of their “criminal” past. Most heroes know the truth but despite this they choose to work in the shadows to eradicate the “problems” they inadvertently helped to create whilst working for Enigma Solutions.

Jupiter and Venus


CLEA DATA FILE

Agent’s Job Speciality:

  • Infiltration/Intelligence Gathering

Identity:

  • Jupiter – Fraser McMillan
  • Venus – Nancy Ludlow

CLEA Classification:

  • Alien Hybrid

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Can interface with computers and take control
  • Rapid healing
  • Increased Strength
  • Create own forcefield

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Their human bodies are not designed to cope with the increased energy levels – they have to be cooled down to -20 degrees for at least 12 hours a week.

Notes/History

Though this pair are an extremely powerful tool in CLEA’s arsenal the truth is we do not know very much about them. This is on account that the pair do not know a lot about themselves.

Rescued during a Citadel raid, the pair were found in science lab. CLEA scientists have deduced that each of them has been embedded with an alien symbiotic lifeform which is the source of their special gifts. Though the alien is the same on both, it appears that external casing on Jupiter would indicate he was the result of an earlier experiment, which was later perfected on Venus since the organism is inside her.

From unaltered DNA, CLEA were able to identify the individuals. Fraser went missing in Europa five years before the raid on the facility whilst Nancy vanished from the streets of Pacific. Unlike the normal victims of Citadel neither of them were runaways of homeless. Finding the truth of what exactly happened to them has been impossible since it appears that when the organism was attached to them, their “human” long term memories were deleted or locked out. This meant whilst they kept all their skills such as speech etc. they had no idea who they were or their own family.

After CLEA had finished their tests the pair were free to return home albeit they needed to return for special “cooling sessions”. However as they had been radically altered and remembered nothing of their old lives they both felt it would be far more cruel to return to their families. They also chose to remain with the agency hoping in time they would recover their memories and have the means to bring justice to the other victims of Citadel.