Steve Coops

The Leveller and Epione


CLEA DATA FILE

Identities:

  • Nathan Clarke – The Leveller
  • Ellen Clarke* – Epione
    *Name adopted by her as she has no memory of her real name

CLEA Classification:

  • Specialist Combatant – Nathan
  • Alpha – Ellen

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Nathan is an expert with many type of firearm ranging from pistols to assault rifles. He is also well versed in using bladed weapons such as knives and has received training in unarmed combat.
  • Ellen’s Alpha ability allows her to heal almost any wound by placing her hand(s) on it. The actual process drains her and the bigger the wound the greater the time it takes her to recover. The same abiltiy allows her to cure other ailments such as illnesses and drug induced problems.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Nathan prefers to work alone which makes him vulnerable when facing more than one opponent. He also has a tendency to engage when the odds are not in his favour.
  • Ellen is not a skilled fighter so if under attack, Nathan will try to protect her resulting in tactical errors. By the same token if she is captured by Nathan’s enemies she can be used as leverage
  • The pair lacks access to large amounts of resources.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Homicide
  • Assault and battery
  • Aggravated assault
  • Prefers to beat up his victims so that they “learn their lesson.”

Notes/History

For the early part of his life Nathan worked for the Europa Police Department and then started to get frustrated at how certain criminals managed to get away with breaking the law. Finally when a man walked free from court after committing several vile acts against women due to clever lawyers, Nathan reached the end of his tether. Meeting the man outside the court Nathan pulled his side arm and shot him stating that “justice had been served”. The man somehow survived the attack but Nathan was now a criminal himself.

Escaping in the confusion and wanted for attempted murder, Nathan for time became vigilante and once he built up a reputation he then began finding more lucrative work as a mercenary. Though he never believed the law was entirely flawed he considered that it could be manipulated by those in power that could pull the right strings and so he decided he would help balance the equation.
With this in mind as a mercenary, Nathan refused to take on jobs that were simple contract killings where the target had done nothing wrong as he was it but if a target was one of the many society bottom feeders then Nathan did not have a problem. As a master tactician Nathan was able to make swift clean kills and get away before law enforcement was anywhere near and this helped him gain a reputation.

In time he started to train others up and they joined him on his crusade to rid the world of rot. However as his crew got bigger it became apparent that not all his people carried the exact same ideals as him, a fact he discovered when he was asked to help respectable nightclub owner Doug Claremont who had been having problems with the South Europa Drugs cartel.

By using Roger Claremont’s debts as means to get to older brother Doug, the SEC wanted to use the nightclubs as a means to distribute their merchandise and had refused. The Cartel therefore raped and murdered Doug’s wife and daughter as a further means for persuasion. However when Doug contacted Nathan he admitted in a fit of rage he had killed his own brother because Roger did not seem the least bit bothered about what had happened to his family.

In hindsight Nathan should have taken note of Doug’s mental state in killing his own brother but considered that people do strange things when they are enraged and concluded that perhaps Doug had suffered enough already. He therefore agreed to help and had Doug arrange for the SEC bosses to meet him at the “Eagle’s Den” night club. The three SEC leaders arrived on time accompanied by a number of armed bodyguards and Nathan and his crew lay in wait.
After the SEC refused Doug’s offer of paying off all his brother’s debts the signal was given and Nathan and his men burst into the night club and took out the bodyguards. Control of the situation then passed over to Doug who found that the SEC bosses were being very compliant and wanted to renegotiate.

Doug responded by killing two of them. He then asked the third to write down all of the details of the SEC’s operations and then he would be allowed to leave. As the situation began to unfold before his very eyes Nathan began to get a bad feeling. He knew the only reason Doug would have use of such knowledge was if he intended to take over the SEC’s operation. After obviously fighting for so long to keep drugs out of the clubs Nathan could not believe that Doug was going to turn against everything.
As soon as the last surviving SEC boss had finished writing Doug pulled out his gun and stated he was renegotiating the deal and then shot him at point blank range. Nathan now knew that there was only one way to stop Doug making a further terrible mistake and that was to hand over the details he had learned about the SEC and give them to EPD. Doug’s mind though had been twisted by what had happened to his family and the only thing he had left was business. Though he had once avoided allowing any drugs in his clubs he considered that it was inevitable they would find their way in and he may as well be the one running the show. He then offered Nathan the opportunity to provide the security. Even as a mercenary though Nathan had always fought back against organised crime and he was not prepared to help serve a drugs baron.
As Nathan knew of his plans Doug could not let him leave and so offered the job of security manager to the members of Nathan’s crew if they could eliminate him. At first Nathan thought his men would stand by him but the other of a hundred thousand credits was enough to persuade them otherwise and they drew their weapons. Nathan saw what was happening and made a run for it as they opened fire. The only reason he survived the barrage was because he was wearing body armour and having trained them he knew their tactics. Once on the street he dived out of sight and into a drainage channel and then waited for the danger to pass.  This single incident gave rise to the Claremont drugs cartel and Nathan blamed himself for inadvertently helping to create it.
Having escaped with his life, he stayed off the streets of Europa for a while until he was convinced that Doug had stopped looking for him, and then he resumed his mercenary career. Inevitably though no matter how careful he was the EPD would eventually find him and so on each occasion that happened he merely jumped city to avoid capture. Over the years he was active in New Tokyo, the UAN and Pacifica, and became known as a one man anticrime wave. The work was tough and he felt he needed help so he took on a protégé in the form of Sofia Lindberg (Calibre) but he was betrayed for a second time in his life and so decided to work alone.

Eventually he ended up back in Europa. Though tempted to interfere in the Doug’s operation Nathan resisted the urge because now once more without a partner he felt it was just too risky. That situation change when a young woman Suchin Charoenpura found him in a seedy bar one night.
She had heard that Nathan was an “enemy” of the Claremont Cartel and having escaped their clutches wanted to know if he would help her take revenge. She of course never revealed she had been “owned” by the Cartel and Nathan thought she was some crazy woman that the cartel had maligned at one time or another, such as mistress of one of the club bosses.

Suchin though would not be put off by his rejection and took Nathan outside and showed him her Alpha abilities which helped go some way to persuade him that the odds could turn in their favour. However her Alpha abilities did give him some pause for thought because by his criminal connections he knew of Black Shadow and considered she would be a “hot” target.  After further thought though Nathan concluded that the international crime syndicate must not have known about her or else they would have arranged to have her killed before her Alpha abilities surfaced. Nathan therefore assumed that Suchin was not known by Black Shadow which was why she had been left alone.

Never once did Nathan consider that she knew nothing of Black Shadow. It was natural for him to think all Alpha Superiors knew of the crime syndicate since few had been left alive and those that did had to keep a low profile. For her to want to go after the Claremont Cartel and expose herself took a lot of bravery in his opinion and he admired that.

With her in tow Nathan considered he had a good chance of finally getting back at Doug, so decided to help her. He knew he was taking a big risk in trusting her but on this occasion he thought it was third time lucky. It soon became apparent to him that Suchin was not exactly the best fighter in the world. In fact she could not even use a small side arm. Before they got to work in taking on the Cartel he insisted that he at least train her because from a tactical point, he felt that alpha abilities would not be enough. Suchin proved to be a quick learner and soon became adept at using firearms but and it did not take her too long to master bladed weapons as well.

Having taught her how to fight Nathan next helped Suchin learn how best to use her Alpha abilities. Though he had never taught an Alpha before he did know from what he had read some of the downsides of accessing such power. In her case he noticed that whenever she used her abilities she grew tired at an accelerated rate. He therefore worked on a strategy to increase her endurance by having her rever from her highly dense form to her normal form when not under attack.

One problem for her though was that as her skin changed colour it was noticeable visual clue to any enemy when she was “vulnerable”. To counter this Nathan gave her a body suit and helmet that covered her flesh. However Suchin complained that the suit was too limiting on her shoulder areas and prevented her using her weapons effectively. Nathan therefore had no option to separate the arms from the shoulders easing movement but exposing her upper arms. He did not like the compromise but felt that in the middle of a fight an opponent probably would fail to notice when her upper arms changed colour.

Having trained Suchin to the best of his knowledge the plan to take down the cartel was simple, disrupt the night clubs hindering the cartel’s ability to launder money and then take out the supply chain to the dealers. Nathan speculated that once all this happened and the Cartel was seen by rivals as weak they would finish off the job for them.

It took eighteen months of hard work before the plan finally succeeded and then once the Claremont Drugs Empire was finally torn apart by gang warfare Nathan finally learned about Suchin’s past. When she revealed how her parents who were both Alpha superiors had been murdered when she was a child Nathan realised it was the work of Black Shadow. For the first time he then realised she had not even heard of the crime syndicate.
Though he knew the likely outcome of revealing the information Nathan felt obliged to tell her all about Black Shadow and having told her the name of her parent’s murderers she predictably wanted revenge, and she wanted his help. This was a major problem for Nathan. To him it was miracle that Black Shadow had never come after them when they had been taking down the Claremont Cartel and he suggested that she cut her losses and ignore the crime syndicate as the organisation was simply too well connected to destroy unlike the Claremont Cartel.

Suchin remained adamant and Nathan told her it was a path he could not follow her down. Even though he thought she was going to get herself killed Nathan could not part company without first giving her all the information he had on Black Shadow in the hopes that at least it might somehow keep her alive. With Suchin gone Nathan once more resumed his career as a mercenary. Having not heard about her for some time perhaps his one of his more pleasant memories came when team Zodiac announced itself to the world following Black Shadow’s demise, and he recognised Suchin standing with the rest of them.

From that moment in time, as well as taking jobs as a mercenary, Nathan found himself joining the new generation of heroes that had risen up to defeat the equally new generation of criminals that had appeared following the collapse of Black Shadow. For his habit of kicking in doors and criminals and making it clear that he is levelling the field that separates scum from the good guys, the press decided to give Nathan a “name”. They called him the “Leveller” and he liked the alias so he decided to use it. He even incorporated the name in his battle cry so before giving some criminal a bad day he started shouting “Prepare to be levelled.” Admittedly he thought it was a bit silly but it gave him a buzz anyway!

Occasionally he has allied himself with other heroes but he does not stick around too long since he does not “play nice” with others. Though also aware that both Black Shadow and the Claremont Cartel are back he has never bothered going after either one as he preferred to tackle criminals lower down the pecking order.

Finding of Epione

Ironically in trying to avoid big crime bosses, Nathan actually ended up making an enemy of one in Pacifica. He’d decided to put a stop to operations belonging to several street gangs and had not realised they were all under the protection of Ragnarok. What Nathan did to upset the crime boss the most was to take a valuable asset.

Nathan had stormed an apartment being used by a gang and whilst he was there had found a young woman, in her late teens or early twenties chained to a radiator. Unable to leave her like that he broke the chains and set her free. He thought he would never see her again but when he made his escape discovered she had stowed away in his van.

He just wanted to dump her at the nearest convenient location but she begged him to protect her. Though not normally used to responding favourably to pleas, she looked so frightened that he found himself unable to abandon her. Nathan instead figured when things calmed down then he could persuade her she was better off without him. He knew the work he was involved in meant anyone linked to him was potentially either a target or could be used as leverage.

Though he allowed her to remain with him she would reveal very little about herself. Nathan figured it was just a coping mechanism but when she finally opened up, she revealed she didn’t actually know who she was, not even her name. The earliest memories she had were rather sketchy, and involved meeting a man called the Broker who had somehow “altered” her turning her into an Alpha Superior for the crime boss Ragnarok. Able to heal wound simply by touching, Ragnarok shipped her around his crime gangs to fix injured parties. This meant that they did not have to go to the hospital and the authorities would not be alerted. This was why she had been chained up, as she was so valuable to Ragnarok’s criminal empire.

This was not good news for Nathan as he knew that Ragnarok would do anything to get her back. The easiest option was to simply hand her over but he was unable to do that, so the next best option was to keep moving. Whilst he had wanted to leave her, Nathan found himself bonding with her and started to take on the role as a surrogate father. She was useful in being able to patch up his wounds but when he started to act like she was his daughter then the dynamic shifted. He was no longer a solo operation and that meant he had to be very careful with what “work” he chose to do.

To keep her safe, he made sure that she limited her involvement in his activities to that of a support role and made sure she was out of sight. However over time he started getting bored with simply calling her “kid”. She had called herself “Epione” after the Greek goddess of “soothing pain” but that was not a “real” name and so made efforts to find out who she was. He hoped in getting answers it might shed some clues on the recurring nightmares she had been getting which all featured a strange creature experimenting on her.

Despite calling in favours from contacts he had made with “friends” in some law enforcement agencies the results were the same – she did not exist. He therefore decided to call her “Ellen” a name that belonged to his mother.

Eventually the pair would get some answers to her past after assisting the Phoenix Alliance. Nathan requested a favour in return. With Brainbox’s help they were able to probe deep into Ellen’s memories and discovered that the nightmares she had been having were in fact memory fragments. Though she knew she had been “altered” by the Broker, he worked for someone else, an alien called “Zorn” and it was he who had done the alterations. He’d also wiped her memories which meant she would never know who she was previously. Though a hard thing to accept, Ellen knew that all she could do was move forwards. Nathan was her family now and that was all that mattered.

Lifeforce


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Tatsuo Mori

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha Ability – Tatsuo has the means to establish a psychic link to anyone close by (including groups of people) and through that link he “feeds” on positive emotions. This in return gives him above average strength and speed but also, significantly he has the means to rejuvenate his stamina and heal quicker.
  • Tatsuo is also trained in several disciplines of martial arts.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • He avoids drawing on the energy of people if it puts them at risk and so has forfeited battles when he could have saved himself but did not want to chance abusing his Alpha ability.
  • If he is surrounded by a crowd of people with negative emotions his Alpha ability does not function and if he tries to use it the negative energies have an adverse affect on him.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

The first real memory Tatsuo had as a toddler was then he was adopted from an orphanage in New Tokyo by Yu Jianjun (Oracle). At the time he did not know the elderly man was a renowned martial arts master and he did not learn for years that his adopted father had only visited the orphanage by chance. Jianjun had been passing by one day and had felt drawn to the building. Having missed the closeness of having a family he felt perhaps that is why he felt the need to become a father once more. With the means to look inside a person’s mind and “see” the truth, Jianjun realised the boy was an Alpha inferior and more importantly he “saw” the ability that he would gain if he ever became an Alpha Superior. That gave him pause for thought since Tatsuo’s gift was similar to that of his daughter and he was well aware of what had happened when she turned bad. Then he considered that perhaps his experience might make him ideally qualified to prevent the past being repeated.

Tatsuo would be first child he had adopted in nearly a century and unlike in the past Jianjun’s only purpose for wanting a son was to distract him from his near immortal existence whilst at the same time be there should Tatsuo become an Alpha Superior. In the past Jianjun had adopted other children for the purpose of training them to become warriors. The reason he did this was because he needed to guard against the threat his children Liu Fang (daughter/Judgement) and Zhang Jie (son/Lock Box) posed should they manage to escape their incarceration. As their father he had never felt able to kill them despite it being the logical solution to the problem so instead after imprisoning them he trained warriors to do what he could not if they got free. Such warriors had been made aware of the truth and hid in plain sight, ready to go into action as soon as they received word from their master.

Over the centuries he trained many generations of warriors but the threat never materialised so by the time a new age of Alpha humans started Jianjun made the decision to abandon training warriors when it became apparent that some Alpha Superiors had elected to become costumed crime fighters. For the first time he felt these new “heroes” would be able to deal with his children without him needing to take an active role. However without a purpose Jianjun quickly found himself growing bored so ironically he started training people again. This time he chose to do it for something other than defeating his children. He trained people for sport which is how he got a name as a world famous martial arts master. Others he trained when he felt he could offer them the means to fulfil their goals such as wannabe heroes and that was particularly rewarding when he heard on the news how one of his “students” had foiled a crime.

All the while he was doing this Tatsuo was growing up. The two grew close to each other and Tatsuo took an interest in his adoptive father’s “work” so it was only natural that Jianjun decided to teach him how to fight. The daily sessions strengthened their bond so whilst originally Jianjun had chosen not to tell Tatsuo about his brother and sister, he felt it was not right to hide secrets from his “son.” Therefore when he felt Tatsuo was old enough to understand Jianjun revealed everything about his past and at the same time told him that he was an Alpha inferior.

Surprisingly for someone just fourteen years of age Tatsuo took the revelation remarkably well and agreed to keep what he knew a secret from the outside world. Having made awate that most Alpha Inferiors never became Alpha Superiors, Tatsuo put the idea out of his mind but two years later he received a reminder when he began to experience the signs of changing to an Alpha Superior. Since he knew what was happening he was not afraid and unlike most Alpha Superiors he did not need to “discover” what gift he had received. Jianjun already knew.

Almost as soon as Tatsuo’s abilties had been triggered for the first time, Jianjun was there for him and explained to Tatsuo that he had been given the means to channel the “Chi” energy of others. He had seen a similar ability in Liu Fang but she stole the same energy to restore her youth at the same time as rapidly aging her victims. Scientists of course did not believe in “Chi” and would always debate about the mechanisms of Tatsuo’s ability but all would agree that he had some sort of psychic ability that absorbs the positive emotions of others which has the effect of improving his strength, speed and stamina as well as increasing his means to heal.

Having lost Liu Fang to her “madness” centuries earlier Jianjun was aware that Tatsuo had the potential to cause great harm. Rather than allow that to happen he offered to train Tatsuo in learning how to master his new found gift and used the opportunity to give his adopted son a sense of responsibility. Aware of how Jianjun felt in regards to Liu Fang, Tatsuo trained hard and was determined he would never use his great gift to hurt anyone.
That however was easier said than done for Jianjun set up a fight to test Tatsuo and during the fight he uses his Alpha abilities to pull energy from the audience. Tatuso defeated his opponent but three of the audience had collapsed after they felt “their strength drain from them.” They would recover from what had happened but Jianjun had made his point and Tatsuo had learned his lesson, he could inadvertently hurt people if he maintained the link between him and them for too long.

Once Jianjun decided that Tatsuo had been trained he expected his son to stay with him. However the old man had not counted on the fact he had done his work a little too well. Tatsuo wanted now to use his gift to travel the world and help people by righting wrongs and fighting the evil that lurked on every dark city corner. He therefore left New Tokyo and began travelling the world.

Eventually he found trouble and so began using his fighting skills and his Alpha ability which got him recognised as a costumed adventurer and when the press realised that he drew on energies from crowds of onlookers they dubbed him “Lifeforce”. Believing he had to travel his path alone meant he did not ally himself with other heroes despite being offered a place with the Phoenix Alliance. He soon ended up tackling trouble that was beyond him and that led to several hospitalisations. The fourth time this happened he was in Europa and Jianjun got to hear of it.
The old man flew out from New Tokyo and went to his adopted son’s bedside. Jianjun then gave him another life lesson pointing out then when surrounded by enemies it was better to have friends that to simply have nothing. Taking his advice Tatsuo took up the Phoenix Alliance’s offer and became a reserve member.

He was working for the Alliance when he heard that Liu Fang and Zhang Jie had escaped their prison. He contacted Jianjun and told him he was coming back to New Tokyo. Jianjun though made it clear that he had no idea where exactly the pair were so there was little point in returning home. The old man also suggested that working with the Phoenix Alliance might actually be one sound way of defeating the pair if their paths crossed.

Ironically it was during a period away from the Alliance that Tatsuo would get to meet one of his siblings and equally ironic it was on one of the occasions he had gone to visit Jianjun. Liu Fang had chosen to pay a visit and was upset that her father had “replaced” them with Tatsuo. She was not interested in explanations and flew into an attack. However as she started to steal Tatsuo’s energy to regenerate herself he began absorbing hers. The clash of powers literally blew them apart and it was the first time she experienced defeat and ended up retreating. Tatsuo in return learned he was immune to her whilst Jianjun realised that perhaps his adopted son might be the key to stopping her reign of terror permanently.

Save

Lock Box


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Yu Zhang Jie

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – ageing drastically reduced
  • Alpha ability – quick healing
  • Skilled Fighter
  • Swordsman

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Has created plenty of enemies who survived his test.
  • When faced with overwhelming odds prefers to flee since massive damage has the potential to kill him before he heals..
  • Takes time to create his dungeon set ups – leaves “paper trails.”
  • Thinks Liu Fang’s attempts to “improve” the human race is flawed which can be used as a distraction.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Kidnapping
  • Homicide
  • Under the delusion his longevity is a sign that he has been charged with improving the human race by eradicating those that encourage weakness/are weak.He does by luring victims to a special “dungeon” set aside for his test. If they survive his test then he considers them “strong” and worthy of their position in society and if they fail then he has done mankind a service. Sometimes his test simply involves one subject but sometimes he will perform tests that pit two or more against each other thus playing to his ideal that only the strongest will prevail.

Notes/History

Under normal circumstances Zhang Jie would have been dead well over 900 years ago but being an Alpha an inheriting his fathers “gift” of aging very slowly meant he had survived the passage of time. The loss of his mother at an early age and driven insane by a continuous existence has led Zhang Jie to believe his near immortality is a gift from fate and he has been charged with ensuring the human race’s survival by making sure only the strongest survive. For centuries he was incarcerated but after escaping in the modern world he has become known by CLEA as Lock Box. This is down to his habit of playing “games” of survival by abducting people and placing them in elaborate dungeons with lethal puzzles. If a person escapes then they are obviously worthy of their role in society and if they die then Zhang Jie has done his job. He also likes “arranging” games of jeopardy whereby he places two people in situations where one will survive at the expense of another, so proving who is the stronger. Due to their prominence in society public heroes are his frequent targets and since those that manage to escape usually want pay back he has taken to wearing a powered armoured suit which provides a means of protection and escape (via jet thrusters).

Much of what is known about Zhang Jie was voluntarily surrendered by his father Yu Jianjun. (aka The Oracle). Initially Jianjun was not believed which allowed Zhang Jie to get organised and thus become a far bigger problem.
Jianjun explained that Zhang Jie’s life started nearly a millennia before CLEA had ever existed. He explained that the meteor impact which had “created” the present day Alphas had not been the first incident of its kind but rather the second for a smaller celestial body had landed in a remote region of China a thousand years earlier.
Just like in the present day, in time people began exhibiting strange abilities but unlike in the current time period there was not the same movement of people so Alpha humans never really spread beyond the village and valley they inhabited.
The Alpha ability Jianjun received was extremely slow ageing and a form of unique insight where by nobody could hide the truth from him and he had the means to “see” an Alpha’s potential before they even made the transition to an Alpha Superior.
As with the current day, an Alpha parent could pass on the Alpha effect to their children and this happened with Jianjun and his wife when their children Liu Fang and Zhang Jie were born.
Zhang Jie their son seemed to gain something akin to his father’s ability in that he aged very slowly because he could rapidly repair any injury. Liu Fang also gained a similar form of immortality in that she could literally steal the aging process of another person which enabled her to heal aging her victims rapidly. Upon touching them she could also see inside the soul much like Jianjun.
Both children though did not know their capabilities until a local warlord attacked their village. At the time Zhang Jie was twenty nine and Liu Fang was twenty seven. The warlord had heard of a remote village filled with “magical” people. Fearing such people could undermine his power he sent soldiers in to eliminate those who he believed might challenge his status. The appearance of soldiers and their culling of the village triggered Zhang Ji and Liu Fang’s Alpha abilities. The family tried to escape with their parents but Jianjun’s wife, their mother was killed. Liu Fang also received a mortal blow from a sword but instinctively she grabbed hold of the soldier, at which point he rapidly changed from a young man to an old one and Liu Fang’s injury healed. At the same time she could feel the soldiers fear and panic and see into his thoughts.
Zhang Ji had a similar experience only his was much more straight forwards. Taking his ability to heal as a sign that he was destined for something special he fought back. Unable to get killed by bladed weapons certainly instilled fear into the warlord’s party. This along with the fact the other village Alpha’s were beating back the raiders led them into a retreat.

Having lost his soldiers the warlord sent an envoy to parley with the villagers. He would leave them alone and protect them providing they would not usurp his position. Since the villagers had never had an interest in fighting in the first place an agreement was reached. However the deal was not acceptable to Zhang Jie. Full of grief for the loss of his mother, he wanted revenge. Jianjun tried to talk him out of the idea stating the path he was on would lead to no good end but it was no use.
Zhang Jie would not listen and so headed out of the village. Several days later he found his target but before he killed the warlord he wanted to know why his mother had been murdered along with a good proportion of the village.
The warlord was quite honest in explaining how he was forced to deal with threats to avoid being taken advantage of by rivals. He explained that only the strongest survived and this was the natural rule of survival for everything. Zhang Jie agreed and challenged him to a duel based on those words. Rather than lose face the warlord agreed to the terms without knowing that the challenger could not in fact be killed.

After the warlord was dead Zhang Jie was now the new leader and had an army at his disposal. For many years he controlled the region without any trouble. He acted justly and for a while rules wisely. However the passage of time made him grow bored. He grew tired of an endless precession of people wanting his help and that’s when the words of the warlord returned to his mind. He began to figure in constantly “helping” people he was defying nature by helping the weak flourish. Whenever anyone wanted his help, he would set them a challenge first. If they succeeded then he would help them. This progressed to the idea of pitting rivals against each other when two people wanted the same thing from him.
Eventually he concluded that the gift given him was to be used to cull the worthless from society. Since he could not die he considered that must be his purpose for existing.

After Zhang Jie had gone all that remained of the family was Jianjun and Liu Fang. They remained in the village and after hearing of how Zhang Jie was now the new warlord, Jianjun was desperate that his other child would not take a dark path. Years past and the population in the village declined. Having seen the devastation his gifts were bringing to the world the entire village decided that their gifts should be lost in the annals of time and so they chose not to have any more children. Consequently within a couple of generations the village and its people were nothing more than a memory apart from two surviving residents Jianjun and Liu Fang.

Without anyone else around Jianjun felt his daughter would not have anything to tempt her, and she would grow old and die but live a normal life. He however underestimated Liu Fang’s compulsion to survive and she would sneak away for weeks at a time only to return with a youthful appearance.
Each time she regenerated her body in that manner not only did she regain her youth but significantly she also gained some of the memories and motivations of her victims. While an average person might gather feelings of anger, malice and aggression over time, in Liu Fang’s case hers was multiplied many times over.

Jianjun was aware of what she was doing since her appearance made it obvious and whilst he tried his best to get her to stop stealing the lives of others, any hopes of doing that were lost when on one of her “trips” away from home she learned that her brother had come up with an idea of ensuring mankind’s future.
Though he was ensuring the survival of the fittest through competition she believed she could do the same only better, by looking inside people and deciding if they were worthy enough to survive. She informed her father that she would do as he had asked and not steal the lives of others providing the individual was worthy in the first place. Those that were not worthy she would sacrifice.

When she told him this Jianjun realised that Liu Fang’s mind had been corrupted through exposure to too many negative influences via contact with their minds. With his son running amok all over China kidnapping victims and putting them on trials against each other, he knew he had to stop his children, only he could not bring himself to find a means to kill them.

Instead he tricked the pair into going to a monastery where he had the monks imprison them hoping they could educate the pair and show them a way to live in peace and the potential for good they had. However both children were convinced what they were doing was for the good of people in general.
Days became, weeks, weeks became months and months became years. Centuries would pass with the pair incarcerated and refusing to change their ways. In Liu Fang’s case she would take every opportunity to steal the lives from the monks holding her prisoner which is how she survived for centuries without ageing.

Jianjun meanwhile set about using his slow ageing to train successions of warriors of the ages in preparation for the time his children would eventually escape their prison. Whilst he felt unable to kill them he knew what needed to be done if events took a drastic change.
The only time this came close was during the second meteorite strike but the ancient monastery survived. Jianjun continued training warriors right into the era when new Alphas began appearing. The Grey Man was of particular interest to him because he thought that particular Alpha had similarities to Liu Fang and that maybe he could use him to neutralise her.
Modern times became something of a problem for unlike in the past, groups of sword wielding warriors could operate without raising an eyebrow in modern society they would have to remain a secret. As training warriors became harder he had to change tactics and simply find allies rather than training his own army.
He therefore began freely training some Alpha heroes in the belief that when the time came they would use their skills to help him. Whatever his eventual goal was the plans were upset when an earthquake struck the monastery and his children escaped into the modern world.
Though it took some time for them to adjust to the technology and the way things worked once they were acclimatised they quickly returned to the old ways and like before since their methods were different they did not stay with each other but set out into the world alone.

With two of the most dangerous people, free to do as they wanted, Jianjun stepped up his campaign to find allies. This was when he hit upon the idea of contacting CLEA, since they had the proven skills to deal with troublesome Alphas. However they did not believe him when he initially told them the story so Jianjun was left to find other allies. This was despite the fact they were already aware of the actions of his children since they had attracted enough attention for them to be given code names by the agency.
When word of the statement made by Jianjun eventually reached Chief Johnathon Hunter’s desk he immediately requested they locate Jianjun, now known as “Oracle” in order to learn more. By that time though he had slipped into the shadows after CLEA had not rallied to his cause. Ironically though Jianjun felt he needed CLEA’s help to deal with his children the agency needed his intel in order to understand how to deal with them and Hunter believed if Jianjun was as old as he had stated and the Alpha phenomenon had occurred before then the “old man” could have been a valuable source of information.
With such a missed opportunity training methods were changed in regards to handling “unusual” statements.

Of Jianjun’s children, Liu Fang is known to the agency as “Judgement” and has been spotted in a variety of locations around the world, each time leaving a path of dead bodies in her wake as she tests prominent individuals to see if they are worthy. She is considered danger for if backed into a corner she does not seem to hesitate in stealing the life of another in order to continue her quest. Psychologists analysing her actions think that she truly believes her actions are just but since her morals have been warped by the minds of others she is no longer able to differentiate between right and wrong and the part of her Alpha ability that absorbs the life force of others is so strong she has a desire to use it in much the same way as drug addicts feel the need to find their next fix.

Zhang Jie is known to the agency as Lock Box. When the first reported incidents involving this Alpha surfaced he was known for wearing an armoured suit capable of generating force fields. By then as well as the general publics which he was “testng” via cruel and viscous games which he believed helped weed out the weak, he had moved onto testing what the public perceive as heroes. This resulted in him generating unexpected problems. Whilst many of his victims wanted payback, even the strongest could never defeat his armour. However Alphas and other such people were able to get past that protection.

Rethinking his methods led to Lock Box to search the globe for a new type of armour, mystical in nature. This offered the same protection as before but had less chance of being neutralised. He also polished off his sword fighting skills as a means to defend himself and to “disable” new candidates for his trials. Despite this, it would seem a victim with magical abilities has fought back for he now displays facial scars which must be of magical origin for his Alpha ability seems unable to heal them.

Save

Luna


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Koharu Maeda

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – Exposure to light gives Kohura increased speed and strength as well as being able to levitate, which allows her to glide as opposed to fly. Her ability works best with weak light sources of natural light only moonlight being ideal.
    She can charge her body like a battery for entering dark areas.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • If she tried to use her Alpha abilities in the presence of any very bright light sources including daylight her body is instantly overloaded and all she feels is intense pain.
  • Whilst she can make full use of dimply lit places at night, pitch darkness renders her Alpha ability useless.
  • Her Alpha abilities require solar light. It does not work with artificial light

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

From an early age Koharu Maeda was brought up by her Grandmother Hana in New Tokyo after both parents had been killed in “unusual” circumstances. At the time Hana worked for CLEA and with a double family tragedy was able to get a few favours. That was how Hana learned that her daughter and son-in-law had potentially been victims of Black Shadow.

Knowing the Black Shadow only murdered Alpha’s Hana suspected that either her daughter or son-in-law was one. To satisfy her mind she had a CLEA doctor test Koharu and then was told Koharu was an Alpha inferior. Since CLEA was aware of Black Shadow they suggested that they both might be a target but Hana wanted her granddaughter to have as natural upbringing as possible under the circumstances so refused the offer.

Not wishing to burden Koharu with the knowledge that she was an Alpha with the future potential to become something greater, Hana withheld what she knew until Hana’s eighteenth birthday. By that time Black Shadow had suffered a major blow by Team Zodiac and effectively all Alpha’s were safe from assassination. This was of great comfort for Hana since she knew Koharu would be safe.

Though it was quite a shock to learn why her parents had died and that she was an Alpha, Koharu loved her grandmother dearly and so chose not to let the revelation come between them and they enjoyed another two years before a sudden illness took Hana from her.

Always confident and outgoing Koharu had no problems coping with life on her own. Having already been made aware that she was an Alpha when her abilities activated around a year and half later she was neither concerned nor frightened. Unlike others who had a hard time realising what abilities they had gained in Koharu’s case she learned pretty quickly by researching into other Alpha’s and a small time of experimentation.

Doing this she learned that at night she had the ability to levitate although it was more like gliding than actual flying since she could only travel upwards if she used forwards momentum via her feet to gain speed. Luckily for her she also gained a slight speed and strength increase. During daytime however trying to use her abilities only brought her intense pain. The key to her abilities was light, but too much light such as daylight had an adverse effect on her. She would feel her bod literally start to burn up.

Staying in area lit by moonlight though seemed tricky until she discovered that though too much light was bad, sustained moonlight could be retained like a battery. This would allow her to more into dark areas but not for any great length of time.

Knowing what she could do left her with only one decision to make, should she use her gifts to help others or keep them a secret. In Koharu’s case there was no choice since her grandmother had always instilled the idea that anyone with power should help those weaker. Koharu suspected that Hana had been preparing her for the day this decision arrived. With the death of her parents by Black Shadow, Koharu liked the idea of taking the fight to criminals and so began operating in New Tokyo under the alias of Luna.

Always keeping an ear open for rumours Koharu would eventually learn of a new Black Shadow that had been formed although every criminal and thug she stopped appeared to have no links to the new organisation. She therefore assumed she would never encounter the new crime syndicate despite having a burning desire for revenge.
It was therefore quite ironic that one night whilst on patrol that she came across a native Australian (Bilyana Tjungurrayi) being attacked by the Shadow Squad. Koharu knew all about the Shadow Squad and their links to Black Shadow so she was not going to hold back when it came to protecting an innocent form them.

Taking on four opponents at once though was perhaps a mistake. However the ‘victim’ seemed strangely adept at planting his boomerangs at weak points. She had seen accuracy before but never accuracy repeated. Even with both of their skills they were outnumbers and so she was lucky that the Ring of Steel showed up and saved her and Bilyana.
Once taken back to the Knight’s Forge, Koharu learned that his family had been massacred by Black Shadow and that only renewed her hatred of the crime syndicate.
The Knight’s Forge warned Bilyana that he would be a target but he refused to go into hiding. It was then that Koharu guessed that his “unnatural” ability to throw perfect shots with object might be an Alpha ability and the Knight’s Forge tested and confirmed her hypothesis.

Koharu then suggested that with an Alpha ability that Bilyana might want to take the fight back to the people that were responsible for the massacre. Bilyana though explained to her that his way did not involve revenge. Rather than pushing him to hunt Black Shadow which was really her fight, Koharu proposed that since he did not want to go into hiding then he could stay at her place whilst he came to terms with his loss and got his life back in order.

Whilst he stayed with her and worked out where his future path lay, Koharu maintained her nightly patrols and it intrigued him. Eventually he approached her and suggested that the skills he learned in the bush might be useful to her crime fighting. Though he explicitly stated he would not seek revenge Bilyana did think he could make a difference to the lives of others being affected by crime.
Kohura was not so sure since she imagined that crime fighting was a solo pursuit for her and she did not want the responsibility and putting another person in danger nor did she ever want to place her life in the hands of another. However Bilyana seemed to be insistent on the matter and so Kohura agreed to a trial period.
At first she found his tracking skills most useful to guide her in the right direction and then as time progressed he began to take a more active role, fighting at a distance with his ranged attacks courtesy of his trusted boomerang.

Together they began a crime fighting partnership and made their little area of New Tokyo a no-go zone for crime but after a couple of years Bilyana expressed a desire to head ‘home’ to learn what had happened to his family’s land.

That was the last she saw of him for three years and once back in the city he met up with her and expressed a desire to return to crime fighting, only he had to make his own path. Though this meant a formal end to their partnership, Koharu understood.

She then returned to fighting alone but has occasionally teamed up with Bilyana now using the alias Rebound. Her experience with him gave her the confidence to work with others and so around New Tokyo she is relatively well known in the hero community. As soon as sun goes down she goes active and criminals knew they have to be careful when operating in Luna’s territory.

Save

The MacKenna Twins/Power of Two

mackenna-twins

Lee MacKenna (left) and Callum MacKenna (right)

The MacKenna twins as Alpha Superiors are most unusual in that they are the only known Alphas able to combine their physical bodies into a gestalt form. Unfortunately for the authorities they make use of this additional power to capitalise on their life of crime.

CLEA DATA FILE

Partnership Identities:

  • Callum MacKenna
  • Lee MacKenn

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior (C. MacKenna)
  • Alpha Superior (L. MacKenna)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha Ability (Callum) – can teleport to each Lee’s position.
  • Alpha Ability (Lee) – can teleport to each Callum’s position.
  • Alpha Ability (Together) – can merge together to become the giant four armed entity knows as “Power of Two.”
  • Power of Two – Has twice the speed, stamina, resilience and strength of an average adult male. Also has four arms and is around two-three foot taller than an average human male.
    power-of-two
  • Power of Two – Though not a skilful fighter, more of a brawler for the extra strength and arms make Power of Two extremely difficult to fight at close range.
  • Tactical thinking (Separately and combined)- As skilled fighters will combine and separate at random to keep opponents off guard.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Multiple teleports/combining fatigues them resulting in them unable to access their Alpha abilities.
  • Both are overly cocky leading to tactical errors.
  • If the pair are separated but close to each other teleporting to safety does little in practical terms and they can be easily captured.
  • Attacking from range nullifies most of Power of Two’s advantages

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Burglary
  • Theft
  • Muscle for hire
  • Assault and battery

Notes/History

For most of their lives the MacKenna twins were never far from trouble. Once they gained infamy with the Atlantica Police Department, officers would joke they were reserving a cell for the twins because at any given time one or the other or even both of them would find themselves behind bars for a whole variety of misdemeanours varying from theft to assault.

The source of their rebellious nature could not even be attributed to a tough upbringing for the twins had parents that adored them. Many believed it was perhaps because their parents doted on them a let them get away with too much was the reason why they became so out of control. Whatever the reason, when the seeds of crime were sown into the minds of pair during their teenage years there was nothing anyone could do or say to them to make take a different path through life.

Consequently when they discovered they were Alpha Superiors it was no surprise to anyone that they chose to use their special gifts for committing more crimes. Normally Alphas with the same parents normally acquire similar gifts but twins are even more special in that they often acquire the same abilities. In the case of Callum and Lee they thought they had the gift of teleportation albeit it was somewhat limited in that they could only teleport to each other’s location.
Using this ability the pair became quite adept at robbery because they had a perfect getaway system. Before committing a robbery one of them would hide in a safe location whilst the other would commit the crime after which that twin would teleport to his brother. For months the pair baffled police by vanishing into thin air after committing a crime. An Alpha ability was suspected but never proven so the APD did not bother making a report to CLEA.

Happy with their unusual gift the pair would eventually learn they had a secondary ability and this realisation came about during another robbery.  On this occasion Lee had elected to rob the shop so it was Callum’s “job” to wait at a safe location. Since they had no idea what “range” they could teleport to they had always chosen to stay within a two block radius. The last thing either of them wanted was to suddenly find they were stranded with a load of stolen goods.
Callum therefore found a “safe location” a couple of streets away outside what he thought was an abandoned storage facility. As they had done many times before, all he had to do was sit and wait until his brother “appeared” and then they would share the proceeds of their crime. Having become so used to relying on their Alpha abilities both twins had a distinct lack of fear so Callum had not bothered to scout the area properly to make sure it was as deserted as he thought it was.
In fact the storage unit was only tatty due to a downturn in business but it was still in use and it still had a security guard. The instant the guard saw Callum “lurking” outside he became suspicious. Since the business had been robbed on more than one occasion he decided to take no chances and called the local police station.

When the patrol car eventually turned up the police officers took one look and recognised Callum. Though he was not guilty of any crime (as far as they knew) they thought they would like a word with the young man.
Thinking the police was there about Lee’s robbery attempt Callum panicked and teleported himself to his brother. However the robbery had gone perfectly and what Callum was unaware of was that when he teleported to Lee, his brother was making his escape by teleporting to Callum.
The pair met, literally halfway between their start locations but instead of colliding in mid-air their bodies merged into a four armed large male human. Callum having initiated teleporting first seem to take charge of his new body. Lee could see, hear and talk to Callum via his thoughts but had no control and was very much a passenger.

Not sure what happened Callum tried walking and stubbed his toe on a trash can. It hurt like hell so he kicked the can and it flew through the air like a missile. This indicated to him he had increased strength so he tried pulling at a lamp post and tore it down. All the destruction and the fact quite a few people had seen a “four armed man materialise” in mid-air brought a large contingent of police to them (some of whom were already in the area looking for Callum). Though the entity they saw looked a bit like Callum they could not be sure. Either way the “man-monster” was causing too much trouble and had to be contained for the safety of the public but when the police officers approached, Callum beat them back. With four arms the officers could do nothing at close range.
The police captain therefore gave permission to use lethal force but the bullets simply bounced of the “creature.”
Eventually bored with being shot at, Callum decided to make a run for it and found he was twice as fast due to the great strides he could take. All throughout the incident he could hear Lee talking in his mind so once clear of the pursuing police officers they tried to teleport again and found themselves into their own “smaller” bodies.

After a lot of experimentation the twins learned if they “combined” then whomever initiated the teleport first would be the one in charge and the other would be a passenger. Significantly in their combined form the singular humanoid was twice as fast, twice as strong, had twice the stamina, twice the resilience and of course had twice as many arms. They called their combined “body”, “Power of Two”.

Since CLEA were considered experts in Alphas they eventually learned of the twins and their remarkable talents. Agents that had tried to apprehend them have noticed that often the pair will still fight side by side and use the teleport abilities to get each other to safety when challenged but when backed into a corner they will combine for extra fire power. In fight situations it has been noted that the pair like to combine and separate in rapid succession as this allows them to attack from different directions and keep their enemies off balance.

The Mechaniac

Though the Mechaniac is typically a one man operation, the fact he has an army of robots and the Drone Lords to protect him has seen CLEA classify him in in the organised crime groups. An international arms dealer he has no trouble putting on public displays of his weapons using innocent bystanders as his targets.

CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Mark Ryce

CLEA Classification:

  • Tech Augmentation/Illegal Arms Supplier/Robotics Inventor
  • Crime Boss  – Ryce Technologies

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Ryce has a huge intellect that he uses to build some of the best robot automatons the world has ever seen which he sells to the highest bidder, normally third world dictators and criminal organisations.
  • As well engineering, his skills in human manipulation are also well known after he created the “Drone Lords” team, robots piloted by CLEA agents who had been brainwashed.
  • Pilots a Dragon mecha named the “Red Beast” when he wants to intervene  personally.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Normally he stays well away from the destruction he causes. However when provoked he will come into the open, usually piloting his “Red Beast” robot.
  • On very rare occasions he has opted to field test mecha that need a human at the controls – these situations are when he is most vulnerable.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Illegal arms creation/sales
  • Kidnapping
  • Homicide
  • Likes to field test his robots on unsuspecting population centres where civilians become random targets.
  • Usually stays at a safe monitoring distance whilst the test takes place.
  • When provoked will go on a rampage, targetting a city at random.
  • Wilful destruction of propert

Notes/History

Mark Ryce better known as the Mechaniac is one of the world’s most ruthless and notorious criminals. Like most people Mark never set out to become the “person” to people fear today. Things began to change during his early adulthood. A brilliant design engineer in robots, Mark had formed his own company but with very little money had to find a business partner in the form of Ray Sterling. Together the pair formed “RoboLogic”. Using Mark’s innovations the company was able to produce the next generation of factory robots.

All the time the company built these robots, Mark was looking ahead for the next big thing and he became fascinated by the idea of creating a fully working biped design that could go into hazardous locations and perform work without putting human lives at risk.

Ray suggested they put the new robots into production but Mark was a perfectionist. He would not risk putting a machine designed to save lives into the mass market until every single kink had been ironed out. Ray though was not patient and feared that the competition may catch up to them and he was not going to lose out on a potential goldmine. This caused the pair to have many heated arguments and that eventually resulted in a rift between them. Rumours in the business world stated that Mark was set to split the partnership and take his designs elsewhere to a more conscientious backer before he could do that disaster struck.

A fire at the factory effectively put an end to “RoboLogic.” Mark had been present when the fire erupted and saw one of his workers get trapped. In a heroic effort to save her he got caught by flying debris which severed his right arm at the shoulder and by the time rescue workers pulled him out the woman he had tried to save was found dead.

Whilst he was recovering in hospital the fire was investigated and the conclusion was is was deliberate. Paperwork indicated that Ray had taken control of the company and it looked like Mark had set the fire in spite. Mark’s lawyers argued the case stating that the paperwork was faked and highlighted the fact that he had attempted to save the life of a woman and even lost his own arm. Despite that fact the evidence began to stack up and he was found guilty of manslaughter in the European Courts.

By the time he got out he learned that he had no company and to add insult to injury Ray was manufacturing a whole host range of designs that did not belong to him. Unperturbed Mark set about trying to rebuild his reputation and produced some newer designs. He formed Ryce Tenchnologies but as soon as he began shipping orders Ray’s lawyers blocked him, stating Mark’s work was copyright infringement and he had to comply with an order of cease and desist.

Trying to get around the legalities, Mark moved Ryce Technologies from Europe to America, Mark eventually Ray’s legal team got wind of what he was doing and forced him to stop production. This was repeated until he got the same response from every civilised country. Having been failed by the legal system once and then a second time the final insult to Mark was when CLEA took a contract to buy some of Ray’s designs – work that had been stolen.

Though his own company was blocked at every turn and he could not sell any of his own creations, the lawyers could not stop him working for anyone else. Most businesses would not take him due to his “toxic” legal issues since they did not want to be anywhere near him in case he dragged their company down.

One person saw beyond all that and offered Mark a job and a chance to start over again. His name was Kyo Nomura and like Mark he was well recognised in the field of robotics. At the time he hired Mark he was working on a project that had become bogged down in minor problems. Having been able to resolve the issues he thought that Mark was the ideal person to take a fresh look and finally get the prototype operational.

Kyo’s goal was to build a robot that could exactly mimic a human’s movements perfectly by way of a special suit, not unlike motion capture. Whatever the human did the robot copied and the suit in return should provide real time feedback. Kyo knew that robots were ideal for working in hazardous environments but since they lacked the human ability to “judge” situations they were not perfect. His idea was therefore to have the best of both worlds by giving an operator the means to work in a hazardous environment and see, hear, and feel everything but be in no danger. No matter how hard he tried he could not get the software and interface to function correctly resulting in “rogue” movements of the movement and feedback issues, sometimes painful to the suit’s wearer.

Working together, Mark discovered some bugs that Kyo overlooked and they got the prototype operational. At the while he was working for Kyo, Mark remained obsessed in getting even with his old nemesis Ray. This eventually began to affect his relationship with Kyo until it reached such a point that, Kyo had no choice but to dismiss Mark from the company.

With no employment prospects available and no chance to set up a new company Mark decided to go to countries that did not recognise the courts that had banned him, namely those controlled by dictators and such like. They welcomed him with open arms and soon Mark was back to building his robots. Filled with hatred at Ray’s unjustified success, once he’d fulfilled his obligations to the overlords and dictators he created a group of military automatons and set about destroying Ray’s business empire. He had some successes in wrecking factories and when he felt he had got noticed he issued the world an ultimatum. Stop using Ray’s machines or else.

Of course nobody treated the threat seriously despite proof he would attack any factory on a whim or user of his stolen designs. Mark therefore began a one man war against anyone that supported Ray. This soon got him noticed by organised crime groups who offered to pay good money for his work.

Since CLEA was still using Ray’s machines they were a target by now but in truth, Mark’s drive for revenge and hatred had seen him go completely insane and he no longer cared. As the people supported the justice system which had failed him they were as guilty for stealing his designs as Ray had been. They could all die for all her cared and when he crossed the line and began performing live weapons tests in civilian population areas Mark Ryce was no longer and the Mechaniac was born.

Whilst technically his company “Ryce Technologies” did not exist CLEA used the name in its investigations to monitor all the shell companies and offshore accounts he was using to move money and resources by. In time CLEA would uncover the injustice but by then Mark’s mental state was beyond repair and he could not be reasoned with. He believed if he surrendered then he would never face a fair trial, since no justice had ever been with him and released a statement informing any law enforcement agency that he would kill them if they tried capturing him.

With everyone everywhere hunting for him the Mechaniac soon became adept at setting up temporary bases and moving them as a means to avoid getting caught. To stay one step ahead of them he allied himself with any powerful criminal organisation that needed him, thus he gained a ready supply of resources.

Despite being able to create an army of robots his weapons still required people to build them at one stage or another. To avoid anyone else profiting from his work he outsourced almost all of his work but each one only built part of a design. By using this method and hiding the paper trail Ryce was even able to dupe legitimate companies into building parts for him. The final assembly was also done at wherever his latest base of operations had been established, and the only workers involved were cheap labour that were desperate for money. They were all made well aware that they would forfeit their lives if they ever talked to law enforcement agencies.

Though nobody would talk, intelligence gathering techniques allowed some agencies to find him but they never quite managed to cut the head off the snake. On one occasion he was nearly caught by British Special Forces but his machines managed to evade the surprise attack and killed all but one team member, Victoria Mitchell.

He contemplated on finishing her off, but some shred of humanity left in his mind made him take pity of her, and since he was feeling lonely he decided to keep her around for company. However in the attack most of her body had been torn to pieces so they only way he could save her was by trying his hand at turning her into a cyborg by replacing most of her damaged body with new artificial components.

He succeeded in his work and named her Cyborg Life Alteration Research Automaton or Clara.
For a while CLARA worked alongside the Mechaniac since she had no memory of who or even what she was due to the “repairs” Mark had done on her brain. Rather than make her suspicious he even told her she was a cyborg but suggested her organic parts had been grown specifically for the experiment.However in time she became curious why he would not let her take of her helmet until one night she snuck into his lab and removed it. The instant she saw her entire face she remembered the night of the raid and her real name but not much else of her early life. Desperate to discover what had happened to her she managed to remove the chest plate and found what was left of her physical body was an upper torso, head and neck.

Mark had heard the commotion and arrived just in time to see CLARA trying to kill herself but due to the “programming” he had put in her head she was unable to do that so she tried to attack him, at which point her body automatically shut down. That was another part of the program and with her body “sleeping” Mark was able to put the chest plate on. He then installed a tracking device to shut hoer down if she tried to leave him, but when she awake she seemed to have accepted a fate. Only months later did he learn that it was all a ruse and she managed to escape. Later on he would learn CLARA had managed to get the programming removed so her vowed he would never bother creating a cyborg again.

However he did gain some more captives several years later when CLEA discovered his base in South America. Just like the British attempt, the CLEA strike team failed and there were lives lost. Again he considered killing the survivors but rethought the idea and kept them prisoner.
Whilst his automatons were good at what they did they always needed programming. He felt that for his own safety he needed better soldiers and looked at revisiting something from his past, the interface he had helped Kyo complete. By now he wanted something less limting than having a wearer require a suit and such was his experience he was able to redesign the unit transforming it into a neural link able to send signals from the human mind, thus enabling a person to control a machine by thought alone, with no physical interaction needed.

His plan now was to use his captives as remote “pilots” for a group of robotic bodyguards he was buidling. Aware that the CLEA operatives would not willingly work for him he spent months torturing and brainwashing the prisoners until he was able to convince them to work for him. Having been turned the four ex-CLEA agents agreed and the Drone Lords (as CLEA named them) would become important assets for the Mechaniac, by stealing for him and acting as his bodyguards and becoming hired mercenaries.

On only their “second” appearance the Drone Lords came up against a small but swift robot that was capable of dealing damage due to its ability to out manoeuvre the larger machines. Mark recognised the design as the prototype Kyo robot and guessed Kyo was controlling it via the suit. The combat skills of the robot were not all that great, probably because Kyo was not a fighter. It was now that Mark realised that Kyo could be the one person with the knowledge and skills to derail his plans. Mark considered Kyo to be a threat that needed dealing with sooner rather since Kyo had made it clear he would oppose him. Fearing one day Kyo might build a device that could disable his creations, Mark decided to take drastic action.

The next time the prototype robot interfered the Drone Lords were under orders to capture it. Mark then stripped it down and used it to find Kyo’s location, whereupon the Drone Lords “took care” of its creator. The ‘problem’ though did not go away for a few months later another machine appeared that bore certain design similarities to the prototype unit appeared. This one however seemed to possess far greater combat skills. That meant somewhere there was another suit in use and whoever was controlling it was far better tactically minded and would prove to be constant thorn in the Mechaniac’s side.

With Kyo dead, the one person who could stop him from a technical aspect, the Mechaniac grew in confidence to the point where CLEA noticed that as well as deploying the Drone Lords Mark would occassionally put in his own “public” appearances, especially if he felt personally agrieved at something or someone. During those times he would always “pilot” one of his own designs, to strike fear into his enemies. Typically uses “Red Beast” a giant robotic dragon but on other occasions he has operated various biped units. This tactical error on his part has seen him captured numerous times only to escape later on with the help of the Drone Lords.

Merlin


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Dr Marcus Hellen

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – Gives Marcus the ability to create illusions that can target an individual or a group of people. Beleived to be a pyschic override of his target’s sences, his illusions take the form of a 3d environment so if the person moves his or her eyeline the “creation” will track accordingly. Unlike certain psychic Alphas who have to keep their minds focussed on their target, once Marcus “creates” an illusion it remains in his target’s mind until he chooses to remove it. Much like a film set, Marcus can see his own illusion via a “shadow” that remains in his own mind after he sends the visual creation. His “version” though acts like an overlay so he can “see” what is real and what is not at the same time.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Since his illusions only affect the way a persons mind percieves visual data anyone closing their eyes cannot see the false creation.
  • His illusions are merely that. i.e. If a target realises there is a wall present where there previously was not then they can simply walk through it. Normally such willful actions can break the illusion altogether.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Suspected of medical negligence (cleared on court appeal)

Notes/History

Like most Alpha Inferiors Marcus was oblivious to his potential. Having qualified from med school he joined a private practice and gained such a stellar reputation that he was able to branch out on his own and so opened his small but quite respectable practice. Though as a doctor he had often wondered why he never became ill himself he thought it was down to his clean living and healthy life style keeping him in perfect condition. He however missed his first chance to find out that he was different from other human when one of his patients sought his help about a suspected eye condition. His patient had suddenly become sensitive to light.

As Marcus could not find any reason for the condition he gave the patient a thorough work over and physical examination during which he noticed that his patient had a similar birth mark to himself, diamond shaped blotches on his back. This was of course a sign that a person was an Alpha Inferior but one Marcus ignored because he had no reason to think it was anything other than a birth mark. He even commented to the patient that he had a similar mark and jokingly asked if they were related!

Unable to find anything wrong with the patient to explain his condition, Marcus took a number of pictures and sample to be sent away for further analysis and recommended that until the results came through the patient wore dark glasses. However when Marcus sent the results away he sealed his patients fate for the information was picked up by Black Shadow spies and Shadow Force sprung into action.

A week later Marcus opened the paper and was shocked to learn that his patient had been found dead after apparently committing suicide with prescribed drugs. As soon as he read that Marcus became suspicious that something was not quite right  because he had not prescribed the drugs found at the scene. When he reported this to the police he was astonished to find that they were investigating him as they wanted to known that he had prescribed drugs to a patient suffering from severe mental depression.

This second revelation was even worse than the first because he had never diagnosed the patient with the condition. However the police showed Marcus the computer records that showed that he had not only diagnosed his patient with mental depression but also that he had prescribed the drugs the patient had used to supposedly kill himself. It was now that Marcus began to think that somebody was framing him for murder. In reality Black Shadow had simply found
a patsy to divert any nosey law enforcement agencies (including CLEA) away from themselves.

Though under the circumstances he was not likely to face any criminal charges Marcus knew he was at risk of being found guilty of medical negligence and could be struck off and knew he had to clear his name. He begged the detective in charge of the case to check that his records had not been hacked but it seemed to Marcus that the officer had already made up his mind who was to blame. In the end Marcus saved his career by producing alternative evidence in the form of hand written notes that contradicted the fake records. That at least place doubt on the computer files and Marcus was able to keep his practice when the medical council ruled in his favour.

However without the Atlatica Police Department officially clearing his name bad publicity meant it took years for him to get his business back and he felt he often wondered how many other innocent people had been ignored and treated the same way by slap dash police practices and felt he would not be able to trust the police in dealing with a problem ever again. He also wondered whom had set him up and suspected it was someone in power but had no explanation why they had done it to him.

Years later Marcus then began to experience the light sensitivity that his patient had. As before he could find no explanation, he ended up sending his note to a colleague and the delay allowed his Alpha Abilities to activate. Able to create anything in his imagination and make it appear real, but with no substance like a hologram Marcus thought he has a medical enigma and considered allowing the medical profession to “study” his fantastic gift.

Only then did he recall the tales of time past when Alpha Heroes protected the people around the world and how they had been systematically hunted down. At this point he now suspected that in the years previous his patient had not been killed to frame him but perhaps had been killed because he had the potential to gain fantastic gifts. Suspecting that someone was killing people like him Marcus considered signing up for the White Guardian to receive protection from CLEA as it was apparent to him that he was an Alpha Superior.

However he knew that White Guardians worked for CLEA and he had serious trust issues with law enforcement people since the APD had nearly wrecked his medical career. Reading the papers Marcus noted that there were a few stories of people with fantastic powers that acted like the Heroes in the past. As he had a very special gift and great power Marcus considered that he could do the same and so despite being labelled as a vigilante he became an amateur crime fighter.

By day he was a doctor but once work was over for several hours at night he became the costumed adventurer, Merlin. He chose the codename because like magicians and wizards he could make illusions seem real. Even better for him was that he could cloak himself in an illusion and hide his true identity.
Fighting crime though was not an easy task and in the dark alleys around Atlantica where the police were afraid to go crime seemed rife and despite his gift Marcus found in certain situations he had to withdraw because he was simply outnumbered. Being what many would consider one of first of a “new” generation of heroes he was very much alone in his “work” until Team Zodiac destroyed Black Shadow and Alphas began appearing from every nook and cranny

The first time he happened across another Alpha Superior was when he enountered Yin Bao Chou and she was using her gifts on the wrong side of justice.
She had the ability to borrow other peoples bodies and take control of them but during a robbery she revealed that she was not the true owner of the boy she was using. Having heard the alarms Merlin arrived expecting to fight criminals. Across the street from the store he came across the comatose body of a young woman and thought she had been a victim. With no time to waste he entered the store and found a man holding the store owner at gunpoint and trying to open a safe.

The owner kept talking to the man like he knew him and when Merlin jumped the robber the owner screamed that his “employee” was not acting at all like himself. A brief fight during which the robber made a number of angry exchanges some of which seemed odd for a man to come out with, Merlin landed a knockout blow. Whilst waiting for police to arrive “Merlin” asked why the store owner felt his employee had acted odd and was told that his employee had asked for the combination to the safe, which he already knew the answer to!

This did seemed odd to Marcus and he considered that the employee had either been hypnotised or brainwashed. Then he remembered the girl outside across the street and ran back to see if she was alright. As Marcus examined her he could hardly find a pulse but then quite inexplicably her pulse grew stronger and she opened her eyes and seemed to recognise him.

She immediately tried to make a run for it but was too weak and as she fell down she uttered a comment that he had heard only moments before come from the mouth of the robber. Now he suspected that she had somehow taken control of the employee’s mind. Creating an illusion Marcus completely disorientated her by making the street appear to turn. What she thought was an opening was in fact a wall and she ran headlong into it.

As she lay on the floor in panic she tried entering Marcus’s mind but he felt he presence and using every ounce of willpower ejected her. Again she searched for another body in which she could inhabit and perhaps attack Marcus but by now he had worked out her gift and working on a hunch threatened if she left her body he would disable it giving her nowhere to return to.

By now he could hear police sirens in the distance but to stop her escaping he created an illusion of complete darkness so she was blinded. Returning to the store owner he found the “robber” dazed and confused as to what was going on and gave a quick explanation to the store owner of what had transgressed and informed him that his employee was not the guilty party and that he as Merlin would take care of the problem.

Knowing that police might arrest him as a vigilante Marcus exited before they turned into the street and then he went over to the blinded woman and before he released he from his illusion he demanded to know her name. Though he knew he should had her over to the authorities, Marcus had other ideas and thought she might be of more use to his cause as a crime fighter. Believing her to be only an opportunist criminal as the way she had gone about the robbery hinted at her being an “amateur” Marcus gave her an ultimatum to change her ways in a month and be a help to society or else he would turn her over to the APD. The latter part was not an idea he really wanted to carry out so he hoped she would not call his bluff.

She agreed and using his Alpha abilities Marcus promptly vanished. During the next month he made several “random inspections” of Yin Bao Chou to see if she had changed her ways. Having given him a genuine name and not an alias meant she had been easy to track down, and when he found her he was pleased if not a little surprised around her choice of helping the community.

Instead of using her Alpha abiltiy to fight crime like he assumed she would she had simply chosen to perform charity work. Being a doctor allowed him to pay a visit to where she was helping out without raising her suspicions. After the month was up Marcus met her again as Merlon and proposed that having proved herself they could work together in fighting crime.

Yin seemed hesitant of the idea as she said that as her abilities involved taking over someone else’s body then that was surely a crime in its own right. She was of course correct but Marcus considered that if she took over a criminal’s body then the equation was balanced out as once she was in charge the person could not commit a crime. Furthermore he suggested that she could use her gifts to infiltrate gangs and find out what they were up to. It was now that Yin reminded him that as soon as she left her body it shut down and the longer she was away the closer it came to death.

For a doctor of Marcus’s calibre he solved that by assembling medical apparatus together to act like a life support machine to keep her body alive when she was “inhabiting” someone else. Together they solved many crimes much and it was all the more sweeter for Marcus when he could embarass the APD at the same time. Two years later and the time arrived that Marcus had been expecting, the day when Yin Boa Chou, now called “Hijack” chose to go off on her own. Having made her into crime fighter Marcus knew it would be wrong for him to stop her no matter how much he liked her as his sidekick. He though knew that without his equipment she was extremely limited in what she could do on her own so he set about solving that problem.

As a crime fighter Marcus had become accustomed to learning all the rumours and tales that spread around the city streets. Significantly he remembered the stories of a man called the “Armourer” (Cade Lewis) who could create fantastic sophisticated suits of body armour but would only do so to clients he felt were worthy. Marcus considered that the “Armourer” might just be able to solve his problem for him.
After eventually finding the man and securing a meeting, Cade took the unusual step of accepting Marcus at his word. Normally Cade liked to test his clients first in case they were of criminal intent but he had heard of “Merlin” and trusted his judgement and so agreed to help. Together they designed suit that Hijack could wear that would keep her body ticking over when she was not in it, thus allowing her to go off one her own.

Consequently when the day came for Merlin and Hijack to part company he presented her with the suit and explained what it did. Eternally grateful for the gift she promised to uphold the law as he had taught her to do, and that was all he had wanted from her. Alone again but with another crime fighter on the streets of Atlantica his fight continued for there were now a growing number of Alpha criminals that needed to be dealt with.

He still kept an interest on his protégé, Hijack and learned she had teamed up with two others to form the team known as “Trident” and even had the opportunity to “work” with them. He even worked with other hero groups but never stuc karound for too long since he was always dogged by trust issues going back to the time he was framed.

Meteor


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Dwaine Washington

CLEA Classification:

  • Tech Augmented Human

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • The armour gives Dwaine a massive advantage in strength compared to a normal human. He can jump higher hit harder and literally knock the opposition out of the way like skittles. He is also well protected from most weapons up to heavy ordnance

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • If the suit loses power he becomes trapped.
  • Vulnerable to EM pulses
  • Bulkiness gives him a lack of finesse when trying to fight agile opponents

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

Meteor is a powered exo skeleton armour designed and built by the late Kyo Nomura who also created the Red Ronin remote control automaton. Meteor was created as an interim project to create a sensory input suit for what would become “Outreach” the precursor of Red Ronin.

Unlike the latter two robots which would operate remotely and thus keep their human users from harm, the nature of Meteor being essentially a “wearable robot” meant that its operator was still at risk. However Kyo only wanted to create the unit in order to test the viability of his sensor suit. To this end, though the wearer of Meteor was surrounded by an artificial outer “skin” the inner sensor suit provided the pilot with real sensual data enabling them to experience the world as if they were wearing ordinary clothing.

Those that test piloted the suit complained that it was cumbersome and physically demanding but overall Kyo’s design was a success. Since it was never meant to be used other than a stepping stone towards his end goal of a fully remote automaton, Kyo was not too disappointed about the criticisms about Meteor. He had no real use for it as the design was simply a means to an end.

However he did have bills to pay and this was around the time the Raiders were making themselves known to the world and causing all sorts of problems for local and international authorities everywhere. Kyo therefore decided to refine his design and make it suitable for military use. He envisioned a solution to the Raider problem in the form of mobile armour.

To reduce the physical demands on the wearer he added power servos which were then tied in with the inner sensor suit. This reduced the physical load to such an extent most wearers were not even aware they were wearing such a bulky exoskeleton. Since the unit was going to be used by the military Kyo beefed up the outer shell considerably. The extra weight and thickness of the armour meant that when it worked with the servos the wearer was not only well protected but could do feats that matched industrial equipment.

Even without the use of external weapons and ordnance the wearer could cause considerable damage by punching through walls or acting as a battering ram. Putting it simply Meteor was not just a weapons platform but a weapon in its own right, or that’s how Kyo’s people tried to market it. However the military forces around the world were not interested in the hype and when it came down to costs they had plenty of cheaper “solutions”. With no buyers Kyos decided to put the armour into storage and move on. As far as anyone was concerned the project was scrapped and Kyo hit evidence about its existence. He wanted the world to think the design was dead because he feared if the wrong people got their hands on his tech they could do a great deal of harm.

Though he hid the record a few of his staff who helped build the unit were aware of the truth and kept it a secret. Dwaine Washington was one such person and though he left Kyo’s employment long before his untimely death, he always viewed Kyo as the first person to give him his lucky break.

After leaving Kyo he took some of his ideas and managed to patent several innovative electronics designs which made him very rich in a remarkably short period of time. Being good with circuits but not an engineer like Kyo meant he had largely forgotten about the Meteor until the news reports came in of the death of the man he admired. It shocked Dwaine greatly because it seemed such a waste and what irritated him the most was the person who was behind the murder was the Mechaniac a person Kyo had taken pity on and tried to help when nobody else was interested. Dwaine viewed the Mechaniac’s actions as an insult and wished there was something he could do, to perhaps teach the man that there are some crimes which justify revenge.

However there was nothing he could do so Dwaine had to take solace in the thought that one day the Mechaniac would receive his just desserts. Then came the day news cameras caught Red Ronin in action. Having worked on the Outreach project, the precursor to Red Ronin he recognised the design. He had no idea who was controlling the unit since as far as he was concerned creditors working for Kyo distant relatives seized all of the company assets following his death.

That was when Dwaine though about Meteor. He figured that if Red Ronin had “escaped” the creditors then the earlier design might also be out there and whilst he could never built such armour from scratch he could certainly pilot it and take the fight back to the Mechaniac. To this end Dwaine began using his fortune to buy up any assets of Kyo’s when they came up for auction.

He’d spent thousands on obtaining a whole host of “useless” items and equipment until finally fate had a change of heart when a storage unit that once belonged to Kyo’s company was getting auctioned off. Located on the edge of New Tokyo the run down storage depot looked like a total dump and Dwaine was unimpressed and felt he had wasted his time. However since he was there he decided to join the bidding anyway because at first glance most of the unit seemed to be paperwork storage and scrap metal as well as other assorted jumble. He figured he could go through the paperwork and having worked for Kyo might know what to look for that would get him closer to finding where Meteor had been hidden. It was of course a gamble but he did manage to win the auction without a huge dent to his bank account.

Having “purchased” the junk nobody else had wanted Dwaine had the opportunity to take a proper look at his prize and far from finding a much needed “clue”, he discovered something better. Under a tarpaulin at the back of the unit was a large crate, inside of which was what he had been hunting for, the Meteor.

To keep his discovery a secret Dwaine hired a business unit and took the contents of the storage unit there. Not having a family meant he had plenty of time to work without being disturbed. The years had not been kind to it and since he knew more about electronics than mechanics, his progress was slow. Twelve months passed before he finally got Meteor to show some signs of life and once he got it up and running Dwaine decide it was time to test it. Obviously chasing after the Mechaniac was stupid until he got to grips with understanding how Meteor worked so Dwaine decided to start small and cause trouble with the low life predators that preyed on the unsuspecting innocents under the cover of darkness. Before setting out on the streets Dwaine first of all decided to add some embellishments to the armour to make it seem even more imposing. There was only one person he wanted to actually hurt so he preferred the idea of scaring others out of the way, even if they perhaps deserved a thrashing.

Very quickly Dwaine discovered that more people wanted to fight back when he interfered with their crimes, which rather surprised him. He even ended up squaring off against powerful adversaries and such fights never went unnoticed which was how the world came to hear about the vigilante in New Tokyo called “Meteor.”
Over time Dwaine has managed to make allies with other heroes but still prefers to work alone despite several offers from various “teams”. He has even squared off against the Mechaniac or his cohorts on more than one occasion but bringing Kyo’s murderer to justice still evades him.

Save

Midas


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Sara Gerard

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability  – allows her to generate a form of organic metal that flows out of pores in her body. Upon leaving her skin as droplets the metal instantly solidifies. This is then ejected through nozzles attached to “wrist cannons” in her suit which enables her to douse victims. When totally enclosed a person is  placed in a form of suspended animation. She can also choose to only douse part of a victims body so they remain thoroughly aware of what is happening to them.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • A single touch from Sara causes the “metal” to revert to liquid form. In an opponent can get close she is at a serious disadvantage – fighting back in unarmed combat will negate her Alpha ability for obvious reasons.
  • The “metal” can be broken down by chemicals or degrades over time so the only way she can encase anyone for a long time is by dousing them again at regular intervals.
  • Hatred for her sister makes her lose all tactical thinking when Olivia is a factor.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Robbery
  • Muscle for hire
  • Infiltration
  • Kidnapping and false imprisonment

Notes/History

Sara and her younger sister were raised in New Tokyo. Their parents had moved from America when they were just toddlers due to their mother’s work commitments. Since their mother, Mary worked in the field of human biology it did not escape her attention that both girls were Alpha inferiors.

From an early age both of them were told about their possible potential although Mary suspected nothing would happen since an Alpha Inferior making the transition to Superior was rare.

Whilst Olivia was always getting into trouble starting in her teenage years, Sara was the polar opposite and tried to be the best she could be. Olivia’s activities eventually caused a family rift and she was forced to leave the home not long after she turned nineteen. Despite all the negativity Sara still felt close to Olivia and chose ignorance over losing ties with her younger sister.

As Sara succeeded in her career in finance, she found Olivia’s “bad behaviour” extremely had to ignore especially when she progressed to becoming a full blown criminal wanted by the law. Sara guessed that their regular conversations were probably being monitored by one agency or another but even that did not break her family loyalty, nor the harassment from various authorities that brought her in to question the whereabouts of her sibling.

With the shadow of Olivia hanging over her it was incredibly hard for her to progress up the career ladder but with hard work and determination she made it up, reaching the point of becoming assistant director at the company she was working for.

Then all hell broke loose for she began the change to Alpha Superior. Aware of what to expect the “illness” leading up to the transition did little to concern her. When her Alpha abilities activated the first time that was a shock for she was on the phone getting stressed with a client and suddenly noticed she was “bleeding” metal.

After that incident she took her first holiday in three years in order to learn her unusual abilities. That was when she discovered she could create a stream of metal lie substance from her body which would harden when it came into contact with another object and if she touched the metal again it would revert to liquid form and then disintegrate (but only after it had previously hardened).

During the “experimentation” holiday she also tested her ability on insects and discovered that after learned that once she touched the metal coating they began moving, none worse for their ordeal. After that she progressed to small mammals and the same outcome happened. Though she hated the very idea of harming a living creature Sara wanted to know what might happen if she accidentally triggered her ability in the presence of another human. All the while she was getting to grips of her unusual talent she remained in contact with Olivia.

Her sister seemed to be more excited than Sara in regards to what she could do but Sara explained on more than one occasion that she wanted to know how to control her ability so that she could keep it hidden. Having worked so hard to where she was Sara did not have any designs on becoming “one of those Alpha heroes.”

By the time the “holiday” was over Sara returned to work and nobody was aware of her secret. For the next year she kept knowledge of her gift from everyone except Olivia, hoping to live her life “normal.”

Then she had a major shock when a courier arrived with a video message on a solid state drive. Playing it Sara saw a masked man explaining Olivia had been taken after upsetting the wrong people and the only way she was going to see her sister alive again was by paying a ransom. Additional footage showed Olivia caged up and Sara feared for her life.

Taking the drive to the police met with a negative response. Some even suggested that Olivia was perhaps getting what she deserved. Sara therefore began to raise the ransom money. After she exhausted her own funds she asked for help of friends and even the company she worked for but there was still not enough.
Extreme times called for extreme measures and with time running out Sara found herself committing several robberies, using her Alpha ability to pull them off.

The ransom was paid but instead of her sister she received another message from the masked man. He told Sara he was impressed by her Alpha ability and had need of it so unless she did as he asked Olivia would be harmed. Again there was footage of her sister being harmed and evidence of the date so Sara knew she was still alive.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Sara complied with the demands and began committing a string of crimes across New Tokyo. She was aware that the police or some other agency would capture her because her Alpha ability was limited. The kidnapper also seemed aware of the problem because a year later he sent her a special custom made suit that had internal probes which cut into her skin and fed wrist mounted blasters. This allowed her to turn her Alpha ability into weaponised delivery system by allowing her to spray targets like a garden hose.

More jobs came and CLEA became involved as her notoriety grew. Sara hated what she was doing but was so scared about what might happen to Olivia that she performed every duty that was asked of her.
Two years on Sara knew the law enforcement agencies had eventually worked out her double life and were moving in on her. Being captured would certainly see Olivia dead so she went on the run and a few weeks after that the masked man requested he meet Sara at an abandoned warehouse.

When she went inside she was not sure what to expect least of all to see her sister standing their unharmed. For a few brief moments she though the masked man had finally released her and then Olivia explained the whole kidnapping incident had been a ruse. Sara wanted an explanation so Olivia told her that she wanted Sara to understand the power being an Alpha Superior could give, and that she had shown her how to embrace her destiny. Olivia called it freedom but Sara called it betrayal. Finally Olivia tried to persuade Sara to join with her and they both could work side-by-side and live the easy life. Sara though could not control her anger and immediately went on the attack.

Sara was understandably angry. She had lost everything of the life she had built for herself all by a selfish sister who only had her own interests at heart. The fight between them was brutal but Olivia had far more fighting experience so she managed to stay out of the way of Sara’s “cannons” and closed in where they simply began punching each other at close range where Sara could not use her metal without touching it inadvertently and disintegrating any that fell on Olivia. Ironically Olivia was the one who had to hold back for she wanted Sara by her side and did not want to fight her.

If it was not for Olivia fleeing Sara was sure she would have killed her. Now with her life in ruins and wanted by law enforcement agencies the only thing she has left to keep going is revenge. To this end she adopted the criminal lifestyle deliberately taking jobs that would have gone to Olivia in a bid to ruin the “lifestyle” and reputation her sister had fought so hard to achieve.

Mind Game


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Dr Karl Howard

CLEA Classification:

  • Psychopath/Sociopath

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • He enjoys playing psychological games through emotional manipulation and/or torture. His primary goal is to expose the “false” good in people by making them do something terrible against their will. Often he will force people to compete with each other for their freedom. Even if a victim survives they will forever be mentally scarred.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Avoids direct physical confrontation and is not a good fighter.
  • His plans fail the instant his activities and location are exposed.
  • Will flee rather than be captured, often sparing his victims.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Kidnapping and False imprisonment
  • Torture
  • Homicide/Attempted homicide (albeit indirectly as he forces his victims to do the deeds)

Notes/History

Up until he was 45 years old, Karl Howard had led a brilliant but ordinary life. Taking a career in healing he specialised in helping people with mind related problems and attained doctorates in psychology and psychiatry. Considered an expert in his field he was often called in to help police when it came to profiling tricky suspects. His peers expected him to one day become a professor and take up teaching at a university but before had the opportunity to play out tragedy struck.

Out for a day trip with his wife and two daughters, without any warning one of the tires on his car blew out and sent the car down an embankment. He was thrown clear but the other three passengers were trapped. Karl immediately ran up the slope, despite having broken his ankle and tried to flag down help.
The road was quite busy and very quickly quite a few cars did actually stop. The situation went from bad to worse for fuel leaking out caught fire. He ran down the slope and tried to free his family but the damage prevented him gaining access. Looking up the slope he called out at the onlookers to come and help him but they were too scared to approach the burning wreck and Karl was forced to listen to the screams of the others as they burned. The emergency services did eventually arrive but it was too late for his family.

After such a devastating loss Karl withdrew into himself. He constantly questioned himself as to whether he could have done more and when he had concluded it was impossible for him to have freed them on their own the psychologist part of him wanted to understand how ordinary decent people could have simply stood by when his family were trapped and being burned to death.

At the inquest into the accident the report concluded that it was doubtful Karl’s family could have been rescued and if anyone else had tried to get involved they would have suffered serious in not fatal injury. The coroner concluded that it was accidental death. Karl, in his grief though did not want to listen to reason for he had convinced himself that the onlookers were partly responsible to the tragedy by their total inaction.

Friends and colleagues tried to help him and convince him he was wrong but the more they told him that there was nothing anyone could have done the more convinced he became that they were simply defending the rot in society. Over time his mind fractured and he went insane and adopted a new personality which the press would later dub “Mind Game.” Karl now wanted revenge on the types of people he felt responsible for the death of his family and he planned on showing thje world that when it came to extreme circumstances anybody would choose to protect themselves by conveniently ignoring the suffering of another and he would only stop his “tests” when one of his victims proved him wrong.

Mind Game first appeared on Pacifica’s police radar when he kidnapped two students. The two victims were apparently good friends and he pitted them against each other in a series of tests aimed at seeing who would turn on the other in order to survive by torturing them repeatedly promising that as soon as one of them stabbed the other and allowed them to die they would be freed. Police however managed to locate where Mind Game was holding them and got them released before anyone was killed.

Mind Game though had gone and so escaped justice.

Since then he has repeatedly appeared performing psychological games with victims he has kidnapped all seemingly to prove his hypothesis that anyone can be turned and forced to act against their morale standards under extreme circumstances.

Under his new persona he has taken to wearing outfits which are obviously designed to instil fear into his victims. Karl considers himself almost a religious figure highlighting the evil that is present in everyone. He is considered extremely dangerous and whenever police close in on him he simply vanishes and starts his experiments elsewhere. Due to Karl’s insanity it is doubtful whether he will ever stop and since he has kept escaping justice CLEA was given his file in the hope he can be stopped once and for all.