Steve Coops

Mind’s Eye


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Maya Stavrou

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – Maya has the means to visualise the world using her mind. Using this skill she can see in complete darkness and since her mind only “sees” the truth, Maya can immediately tell if somebody is lying.
    Whilst with CLEA, Maya received both unarmed and firearms training.
  • Armoured suit is resistant to almost all corrosive substances.
  • Her visor does provide some sort of normal “sight” although the damage to her optical nerves was so severe what she “sees” with her eyes is limited.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Having been obsessed with taking down Meltdown, Maya’s ability to think and act rationally when dealing with anything Alpha Strike related.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

When an Alpha Inferior changes to become an Alpha Superior it is well documented that the abilities they “receive” are completely unpredictable. Scientists though over decades of study have noticed that on rare occasions some of the randomness can be taken out of the equation. An example of this is twins that seem to gain the same abilities whilst siblings often gain similar abilities and another anomaly has been spotted that seems to indicate an Alpha Inferior can sometimes receive abilities that seem to counter an existing condition or disability. Maya Stavrou is one such example.

Maya had been with CLEA for around five years as a Junior agent and her work and dedication had seen her promoted in that time to become a senior level agent. She always impressed her superiors who thought she could go a long way but fate intervened. Responding to an emergency call one day Maya and her partner arrived at a scene of utter chaos. The persons responsible where Alpha Strike that had been hired to steal a device from a secure facility. Though she should have waited for back up (in the form of White Guardians or any other Alpha Heroes capable of dealing with such a serious threat) Maya could not stand by and see innocent civilians being hurt.

Choosing the nearest target she drew her weapon and threatened the woman and order her to stand down. This would be Maya’s mistake for the woman was Meltdown. The villainess dropped her arms as “ordered” but at the same time used her alpha abilities to spray Maya in the face with her acid attack. Unable to get close to her due to the ongoing threat her partner was forced to wait until “proper” help arrived and caused Alpha Strike to flee the scene. By this time Maya was screaming and running around blinded as the acid burnt her face and eyes.

After EMTS’s rushed her to hospital the prognosis for Maya did not look good. The pain was so bad that doctors were forced to sedate her whilst they did their best to clean out the acid but the damage had been done. Waking up the next day she felt the bandage over her eyes. The surgeons explained they had done their best but did not believe she would ever get her eyesight back as the damage was extensive to her eyes and the optical nerve. Maya though could not bare to to consider that and simply hoped they were wrong but all she “saw” when the bandages were removed several weeks later was white, which was light from the window. Friends that visited her were nothing more than dark shapes and that was the best the doctors thought her eyesight would ever be.

Experimental treatments existed but her CLEA medical insurance did not cover risky operations. She was therefore put on sick leave indefinitely as it worked out cheaper for the insurance company in the long run. Blinded and alone things looked bleak for Maya until the day her Alpha abilities activated which gave her the means to “see” by psychic means, literally with her mind’s eye. Whilst this was not true vision as colours were all distorted (similar to a negative image) she could get around easily and as her mind only saw the truth she could tell instantly when someone was lying to her.

Having gained an amazing gift Maya gained a new lease of life she decided to return to work. She knew CLEA was always in the need for White Guardians and since the agency had tested her upon joining and knew she had been an Alpha Inferior there was not need to check her claim that she could “see” things with her mind. In her new role as a White Guardian she tried to settle down and for a while proved a valuable asset, that was until Alpha Strike reappeared on the scene. Wanting desperately for some payback Maya tried to get her superiors to chase down what amounted to little more than rumours regarding Alpha Strike. She constantly found herself at odds with everyone as her emotions got the better of her and in the end she was put on a diciplinary. Rather than punishing her, Maya’s superiors decided that she could not handle the stress of returning to work and decided to pension her off.

Without her job to distract her she had even more time to think about revenge so she drew up plans to make Meltdown pay for what she had done. Having learned from her past mistake Maya decided that she could not go after Meltdown without first taking precautions. During her time in CLEA she had heard rumours of a character called “The Armourer”(Cade Lewis). If the rumours were true he was supposed to be a man that created bespoke armour for heroes but the one thing she did not know was his “price”. Whilst she did not have much Maya figured if it meant emptying all her accounts and putting her assets up as collateral then it would be worth it if she could capture Meltdown and make her pay. The only snag was finding “The Armourer” as he did not exactly advertise his services openly.

It took six months and a lot of detective work before she made a link between Cade Lewis and “The Armourer” and was able to pay him a visit. At first he denied he was the armourer but she was persistant and finally after Cade had done some background checks on Maya he decided to listen to her. What she did not know was that Cade only created armour for those people he considered would use it for selfless purposes not for person gain. Aware she was out for revenge he denied her request, no matter how much money she offered.

Upset Maya decided to look closely into the Armourer’s work trying to find some leverage. The rumours she picked up on the street led her to make a disturbing discovery – Cade had built the armour used by Alpha Strike. Returning to Cade two months later, she demanded that he helped her, after all he had helped her nemesis. He did not deny what she accused him off and admitted she was correct. He had indeed helped Alpha Strike after Black Shadow had conned his brother (Donald Lewis) and duped him at the same time and since they had made him look like a fool he now took many precautions to avoid repeating past mistakes. Consequently he felt in giving her equipment he might make the problem worse because he could not be sure in her quest for revenge she would not hurt any innocent bystanders that got in the way.

The pair argued and he pushed her to her limits but even at the height of her anger she never attacked him. This was proof to Cade that Maya did possess some self control and perhaps he was wrong in assessing her. As he was feeling guilty that Meltdown a person he had supplied armour to had been responsible for Maya’s loss of sight he finally backed down. Maya was surprised he did not want her money but that was on the premise she swore she would not use his creation to commit crime. This she agreed to and a month later she received a call that the work was done.

During this time he had seen C.L.A.R.A. on the news and that gave him an idea how to go about making armour for Maya. As with most of the Armourers designs the suit fit Maya perfectly. Eternally grateful she reiterated her promise to him and swore she would never turn to a life of crime. She then set off on her hunt to bring down Meltdown but as the months passed as she started to involve herself in stopping other crimes she happened across. Her activities caught the attention of the press and she soon gained interest as a costumed adventurer. Once this happened it caused Maya to stop and take a look at herself. Though Meltdown had put her on her current path Maya was feeling that there was now more to life than simply chasing after one person especially as the gift of her Alpha Abilities allowed her to do so much more.

Though never forgetting what Meltdown had down to her, Maya decided to drop her quest for revenge and become a full time vigilante. Though she could never regain true sight her Alpha abilities remain  allow her to work in complete darkness. She also discovered that she can also detect when people are trying to hide the truth from her.

For this reason she was eventually persuaded to join CLEA as a White guardian. In time she would cross paths with the Armourer again who was now running the Knight’s Forge. He supplied her with a visor that would artificially restore more of her vision. Implants were placed directly on the optical nerves which received data from the visor. Though it provided a version of normal sight it was not perfect. It could though allow her to “see” in the IR and UV spectrum so working with her Alpha abilities it made her a formidable weapon.

Save

Mirror Man


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Tim Sheppard

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha Ability – Can duplicate any physical movement he can see. Since he it looking at the individual his response is always a mirror image. Such is the effect he often unnerves and opponent by fighting them with their own special fighting skills.
  • Alpha ability – He can also “reflect” certain types of Alpha ability (usually energy related) back on their wielder.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Alpha abilities such as mind control cannot be mirrored.
  • Reflected Alpha abilities are performed almost instinctively and he has very little time to control of the outcome so can cause more harm than good if for example he “reflects” a fireball at close range he has next to no thinking time so the projectile could end up going in any direction.
  • The presence of multiple Alpha Superiors cause his ability to go into spasm and leave him debilitated.
  • Copying an opponents physical movements take conscious thought which can be difficult in the middle of a battle when fatigued.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

At a young age Tim’s parents became suspicious as to why their son never got ill and so they had him tested and then confirmed that he was an Alpha Inferior. This was something of a surprise since as far as both parents were aware that when they traced their family lines backwards from Australia none of their ancestors had ever lived close to the comet impact sites, the “source” of Alphas.
Since Alpha Inferiors changing status to Alpha Superiors were rare, Tim parents chose to raise him as an “ordinary” boy. They hoped Tim would be destined for greater things later on in life and if he did gain some extraordinary gift then he would use it for the right purposes.
Tim’s father and grandfather had both served in the military and it was natural for the assumption to be made that he would carry on the family “tradition” especially since he might have some untapped potential. However when it came to choices of career in his teenage years Tim had other ideas. He was not particularly rebellious towards his parents but felt drawn to the arts, music and theatre.
Running around wearing a uniform and waving guns was not wear his heart lay so consequently he went to college and began to feed his passion eventually gaining qualifications that led him to a job in acting.

Then when he turned twenty five, his world turned upside down when he began experience sensitivity to light. Tim knew he was changing to an Alpha Superior and he could hear his father’s voice inside his head urging him to use his gifts to benefit others. However even before the change was complete, Tim had decided he simply wanted a “normal” life.

Try as he might once his Alpha abilities kicked in all hope of an ordinary life was lost simply because he kept inadvertently forgetting he had “special skills.” Able to duplicate the movement of others simply by watching them (albeit from his POV so they were in a mirror image) he kept upsetting others who thought he was simply having fun at their expense.

That eventually led to him finding it increasingly difficult to work at the theatre and so he had little option but to quit and find work where he could be alone. Not tempted to use his skills as a crime fighter, like many other reluctant heroes fate would intervene during a trip to New Tokyo.

Chaos arrived in the city and planted several explosive devices. As police and other agencies including CLEA tried to take care of the problem, panic ensued. “Air Raid” were called in to assist in the search. As the streets were cleared Tim ended up turning up a wrong ally and coming face to face with Chaos member Mathew Newman. Since none of the criminals were ever afraid of attacking the general public, the risk of having one find the location of one of the bombs was enough to cause Newman to attack.

He sprayed Tim with ice and that was when Tim learned for the first time he had a secondary Alpha ability because not only could he mirror a person’s movements but he could also “reflect” an Alpha’s abilities. Consequently Newman became engulfed in an icy blast. Unsure what had happened he called out and Tim ended up having to face Pitbull. Skilled as she was at fighting, not only did Tim manage to duplicate her fighting skills but also matched her Alpha ability, thus it was like she was fighting herself. Having lost the element of surprise both Chaos member withdrew and left Tim to his thoughts.

Since he was very much alone, Tim felt he had avoided getting drawn into the life of an amateur crime fighter. However over the coming weeks he began to have second thoughts. Still unsure what to do, he went home and told his parents about everything that had happened. Chaos had certainly caught the news headlines but nobody knew why the group had abandoned their plans but Tim’s parents now knew why.
He explained that part of him wanted to use his gift to help others but another part of him wanted a normal life. Both his parents though said he had to make that choice but his father did state that how proud he was that he had singlehandedly put a stop to Chaos.

Several more weeks passed and still Tim did not know what to do until he saw a mugging taking place late one night. Realising if he did nothing then the victim could get hurt, Tim felt unable to ignore what was happening and intervened. Try as they might the muggers could not defeat Tim easily but since one of them had a knife, when Tim copied the man’s moves he had no weapon to strike back with and consequently ended up with slash wounds to his hands and torso. The commotion attracted others so the muggers left empty handed.

Almost as soon as his wounds healed Tim had finally reached a decision and chose to become an amateur crime fighter, using the alias “Mirror Man.” In time his actions were noticed by the “hero community”. The Phoenix Alliance performed a background check to see if Tim was suitable recruitment material and they learned that he had suffered many injuries due to the fact he had no protection when weapons came into play. This information was passed on to the Knight’s Forge and they approached Tim and offered him a suit that could protect him as “payment” for the self-less he had performed in the service of ordinary people.

After that the Phoenix Alliance approached Tim and asked him to join them. However he refused, not because he had problem with being in a group but because when he was surrounded by many people with Alpha abilities as would happen on a team his own abilities ended up going into spasm as they tried to reflect multiple Alpha abilities simultaneously. Tim found it easier to either work alone or work with none Alpha heroes so declined the offer. In time though he did end up making a loose alliance with heroes such as the New Tokyo Misfits since they being “normal” do not cause him problems.

Mr Mass


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Burak Demir

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – allows Burak Demir to increase the mass of any object within visual range. This he can use to stop an opponent by weighing their apparel to an extent they cannot move or even to levels where a person can be crushed by their own clothing.
    His preferred use of his abilities is to use it partially collapse structures in order to gain entry and on occasion he has brought down entire buildings in order to facilitate and escape.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Burak lacks the creativity to organise his own crimes, so consequently he allies himself with others.
  • Opponents will often force Burak into conflicts with his own allies.
  • Lacks tactical thinking.
  • The effect of the increased mass only lasts whilst Burak is maintaining a telepathic link.
  • Like most Alphas he cannot use his ability indefinitely so is vulnerable once fatigued.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Wilful damage of property
  • Infiltration
  • Muscle for hire.
  • Industrial sabotage

Notes/History

A villain for hire Burak Demir is well known to the criminal community where he plys his trade as a demolition expert. Consequently he most often gets hired to work with others to participate in bigger crimes. Able to increase the mass of any object he can bring down whole buildings or crush someone with their own weight. Very much classes as a sociopath Demir has a complete disregard to human life. So long as he gets paid for his services he is not bothered whom gets in his way.

Whilst on occasions he has been employed to perform solo jobs, due to the nature of his Alpha abilities being far from discreet he is considered far more trouble than he is worth. However when employed on a team involved Demir is seen in an entirely different light and over the years CLEA has credited him with being involved in kidnapping, hijacking, jailbreaking, sabotage and wilful destruction of property. Consequently he is considered a dangerous individual.

Save

Ms Magic


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Megan Griffiths

CLEA Classification:

  • Skilled human/Tech Augmented/mystical abilities

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Megan has incredible skills as a stage hypnotist and can practically get anyone to do anything she wants. However strong minds can resist her control. In the past she resorted to the use to artificial subjugation by using a combination of airbourne drugs and other sensory triggers (such as flashing lights) to accomplish the same effect.
  • Megan now posses mystical mean to hypnotise others but her methodology is unknown.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • G-Whiz created tech that can cancel out her technology thus rendering her unable to hypnotise his team directly.
  • Strong willed people are able to resist her “skilled” hypnotism (although the usage of drugs/tech can usuallly succumb any will power).
  • Poor fighter – needs to use innocent bystanders as “soldiers”
  • Mystical mind control can be countered with other magic.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Theft
  • Money Laundering
  • Frame-ups

Notes/History

To most people, Ms Magic is a world renowned entertainer. Wherever she goes she is a box office sell out. As well as performing illusions, she also has a particular talent of performing hypnosis as part of her act.
Very few people though are aware that the person behind Ms Magic, Megan Griffiths is suspected of being nothing short of a criminal mastermind. Whilst growing up in Europa she showed no signs of ever being into wrong doing. In fact she shunned those that did, choosing instead to study hard.
One thing that did emerge in her school and college years was her natural talent for entertaining others. She took part in stage plays and school productions and when she went to college she studied drama. In her spare time she found herself taking a fascination in magical illusions which would eventually see her drop formal drama and instead become a stage magician after leaving college.
Before she became a big name, tragedy struck when her parents were knocked down after a coach went out of control and ran onto the sidewalk, killing them and several others. Megan was devastated at her tragedy and close friends reported she was “changed”. Worse still, following the police investigation which found the coach company responsible for failing to maintain its fleet and falsifying records the company resorted to a dirty tricks campaign in order to avoid paying the victims as little as possible compensation. When that did not work the company was declared bankrupt and the victims got nothing.
The directors would then later set up another company and carry on as before. The law could do nothing and Megan was horrified. She noted that one of the directors had been on friendly terms with Europa’s mayor and believed that there was some backroom politics going on. She told friends at the time that “since the city was protecting those that killed her parents she would one day make the city pay for the injustice, one way or another.” Of course her friends simply considered she was just letting her anger speak out, and when she became famous Megan seemed to have put aside her past.

CLEA became interested in Megan after local law enforcement reported that everywhere there was a Ms Magic show there would be an unexpected increase in crime and robberies. Since CLEA has access to date from police forces around the world they were able to see a pattern.
Agents went back to where the problems started, Europa and eventually learned of her veiled threat from years earlier. Stealing from shops and businesses would certainly be one way of getting her own back on the city but it seemed that once she had finished with Atlantica, she had gained a taste for crime. Analysts thought this unusually since Megan made quite enough money from her shows but financial records would reveal she was never happy behind the scenes and spent money to restore the part of her life she felt missing. Therefore as much as she made she always needed more.

Naturally after the incidents that occurred after her show, the police would interview her as part of the ongoing investigations since the thefts were all committed by people that had been in her audience. They could however not charge her with anything since she was never found in possession of the stolen goods and she had no direct link to the suspects. What made CLEA suspicious of hypnosis being involved is the fact that the “thieves” on each occasion have no recollection of why they wanted to steal an item, nor do they know where they have stashed their loot. Most are well respected and have not so much stolen a chocolate bar in their lives so suddenly robbing a jewellers does not make sense.
Knowing she is behind a crime is not the same as proving it which is why neither CLEA nor any other agency has managed to arrest and charge her formerly. The only way to do that would be to witness her or a member of her crew collecting the stolen stash following a robbery. However she seems much too clever to fall for that trap.

About the one occasion anyone has ever got close to formerly detaining Megan, it was the Phoenix Alliance that made the move after noticing the same pattern CLEA intelligence had noticed.
The attempt ended in failure because a riot erupted after the show had finished. Local authorities had enough to deal with especially as a number of heroes were also involved and seemed to have gone rogue.
G-Whiz would later make a formal report to CLEA, stating that when they tried to detain Megan she was not bothered until they suggested taking her to a telepath to learn the truth behind her crimes. It was at that point the stage lights flashed in a strange pattern and the crowd became violent with each other. Some of the Phoenix Alliance members also went crazy at the same time so G-Whiz could only conclude that as well as using “traditional” hypnosis methods, Megan also employs technology (e.g. flashing lights) and/or possibly an airborne agent to turn her victims into willing accomplices.
With no proof that she had done anything wrong and claiming the flashing lights were little more than a faulty electrical connection, law enforcement had to let her go since the only evidence left was G-Whiz’s word against hers and since his team were involved in the riot the chances of making anything stick in court were next to none existent.

After such a total fiasco G-Whiz, made available special contact lenses and other equipment to counter the latter. He not only supplied this to his team but also made it available to CLEA in general via the Knight’s Forge.

This seemed to force Megan into the shadows for over half a year. When she next appeared she had now gained a means to mind control others via mystical means. Best data suggests that as she had no mystical skills originally she could have obtained a totem to assist her. This means with her natural skills, technology and mystical abilities when used in combination there are not many ways to avoid falling under her control.

Neutraliser and Trailblazer


CLEA DATA FILE

Partnership Identities:

  • Trailblazer – Jacqueline Moreau
  • Neutraliser – Edward Ross

CLEA Classification:

  • Specialist Combatant (Moreau)
  • Alpha Superior (Ross)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Moreau – excels at bush craft particularly tracking which helps her to find her “targets”. Also has above average hand to hand combat skills. Previously used to use the nickname “Jack Knife” . This was given to her by her comrades during her time in Special Ops working for the French Military and arose from the usage of her preferred weapon, a large hunting blade. Since she now tries to take her “victims” alive she dropped the name in favour of the CLEA appointed codename “Trailblazer”. Despite the fact her main weapons oare non lethal she still carries a large blade for use in emergencies.
  • Alpha Ability (Ross) – Has the means to suppress the abilities of other Alphas when in close proximity to them. He is also expert in many types of firearms and though not formally trained he can hold his own in hand-to-hand combat.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Will abandon a job if it becomes trickier than they have been led to believe.
  • Only hunt when paid.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Bounty hunter
  • Kidnapping
  • Assault

Notes/History

At one time this pairing actually appeared on CLEA’s database for all the right reasons. Jacqueline had originally carved out a career as a Special Ops soldier operating for the French military. Her work involved infiltration and catching dangerous criminals and it was during one of those assignments she met Edward Ross.

Intelligence had located a most dangerous criminal known as Lise Renard but before the authorities could arrest her, she had gone to ground. Jaqueline and her team was brought in to try and pick up the trail of the target. Using her superior tracking skills, Jaqueline was not only able to locate the area in which Renard had vanished but actually find her hideout. Intelligence though was missing one vital piece of information, the target was an Alpha Superior. Consequently when her team stormed the building they found themselves being cut down by exploding objects. Renard’s particular gift was the means to charge ordinary objects with energy and cause them to explode.

By the time Jacqueline worked out what was happening most of her team were either dead or injured and she was not been hunted the criminal. Since the framework of the building shielded transmissions calling for help meant she had to get outside but Lise had booby trapped everyone except the front entrance. This was obviously a trap so Jacqueline spent two hours playing a game of cat and mouse in an attempt to draw Lise away from the area.

When she finally appeared to go for the bait, Jacqueline broke cover and ran for the exit only to find her plan had failed because Lise blocked off the exit and began charging up objects. No doubt Jacqueline would have been killed had it not been for the intervention of Edward Ross.

He classed himself as a retrieval expert, particularly people, although everyone else regarded him as a mercenary. Lise had been paid to do a job and chose instead to run off with the money so the same employer had paid him to capture Lise. Though an expert in weapons handling, Ross had one secret weapon he often kept quiet about and that he was an Alpha Superior and his special gift enabled him to neutralise the gifts of any Alpha superior in close proximity.

When he entered the doorway, Lise suddenly found herself unable to charge any objects and then all he did was hit her with a stun grenade and take his prize. Jacqueline though also wanted Lise, so Edward gave her the choice and that was to waste time fight with him over Lise or spend that time saving as many of her dying team as she could. Unable to abandon her comrades, Jacqueline had no choice but to let him go.

For failing to capture Lise and getting half her team killed she was reprimanded by her superiors. Since it was dodgy intel that had led to the tragic circumstances, Jacqueline felt she was being made a scape goat and so within months of her disciplinary hearing she chose to quit her job.

She took up work as a private security specialist and though she never expected to see Edward again, fate would intervene. He was pursuing another target and bumped into her, literally, in the street. A chance encounter of that nature obviously surprised him and the distraction allowed his target to get away.  It was then that he spotted her uniform which he thought was odd as he figured she was career military but when she explained the fallout after failing to capture Lise, he understood although he did not think it was fair.

Since both of them had places to be, Edward suggested the meet sometime later over a drink. Although she hardly knew him, since technically he had “saved” her life she thought it would be rude to say no. Consequently two days later she found herself opposite him at a pub near the outskirts of Europa. Over a drink they recounted past stories and after explaining some of her military career Edward suggested she come and work for him. He was feeling a little guilty about his actions leading to her current change in career. She thanked him but ultimately refused so he asked why. Jacqueline then explained that she could not become a mercenary since a lot of work was not always within the law. He thought suggested that when she had lived with the rules she had been cheated so perhaps it was time she made her own rules.

Still unsure, Jacqueline agreed to a try out since she needed the money. Together they apprehended the person he had been following several days earlier. One job led to another and before she realised, she had become his partner. By this time work had taken them to America and it was over in Atlantica that they ended up having one too many brushes with the law but rather than jailing them they were given an alternative, become bounty hunters and chase down criminals that had jumped bail.  Since the APD was aware of Ross’s particular talents, the assignments they received usually involved people being Alphas.
CLEA too learned of the pairing and began employing them as special assets. Eventually they were given so much work that the APD freed them from their obligations and the pair began to work for CLEA full time. As the mission completions began to build up, the pair eventually became a victim of their own success. Those in charge of the CLEA budgets considered the pair were simply getting easy assignments and unilaterally chose to lower their payments to reflect this. The pair argued that they were not getting easy jobs but were just good at their work but nobody listened. Though Jacqueline had got used to playing by the rules even she had enough of being screwed so she surprised Edwards by suggesting they go and take their skills elsewhere.

After going rogue, when CLEA eventually learned where pair was and what they doing, Agents discovered they had gone back to Edward’s original line of work, retrieving people for the highest bidder. Furthermore it was learned that before taking on a job the pair have only two rules, the first being they receive half the payment up front and the second is they do not want to know why the client wants the targeted individual. In return they do not ask questions but this is more of a point that they do not want to know the eventual fate of their “victims.” Such is their reputation the pair are suspected to have taken work for the Protectorate.

Though obviously they specialise in catching Alphas, the pair have been known to go after “ordinary” people as well, depending on if the rewards are worth it.

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Save

New Tokyo Misfits

Left-Right: Stinger, Cross-Bo, Warpath and Lone Wolf

Left-Right: Stunner, Cross-Bo, Warpath and Lone Wolf

The New Tokyo Misfits are a group of “ordinary” people who came together in a common cause to fight back against the criminal scum that made the lives of others a misery. In every sense of the word they are vigilantes and like nothing more than giving “bad” people the same feeling of powerless and pain they do to their victims.

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • David Brown – Stunner
  • Patrick Anderson – Lone Wolf
  • Miyu Okamoto – Cross-Bo
  • Sienna White – Warpath

CLEA Classification:

  • Specialist Combatants (all team members)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Brown (Stunner), personal trainer and self taught in several disciplines of martial arts. Weapon of choice, nunchucks
  • Anderson (Lone Wolf), untrained fighter but highly effective brawler whose aggression intimidates his opponents especially when he brings his club into play.
  • Okamoto (Cross-Bo), Oracle trained martial arts fighter. Most competent of the group and is adept at using the bo staff.
  • White (Warpath), highly efficient fighter in mixed martial arts and is skilled in using a pair of Tonfa

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Most of the team learned to fight following emotional events that changed their lives. Certain enemies aware of their background can exploit individual team member’s past “problems” to distract them.
  • The team tends to fight “emotionally” and so will often engage enemies when the odds are against them. This has backfired on a number of occasions.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

Before meeting all had been affected by crime in New Tokyo.
David Brown (aka Stunner) had come with his family to New Tokyo after his parents emigrated from America due to his father’s work. At first the family lived in an affluent area of New Tokyo until the company his father worked for went bust forcing the family to relocate to one of the run down districts.
Here the family learned of the down sides of the city and with street crime and drugs being ever prevalent David watched as his brother became addicted to drugs and eventually succumbed to an overdose which tore the family apart.
Following the divorce David lived with his mother and despite the hardships managed to make a minor success out of his life. Having always had an interest in martial arts as a hobby his passion allowed him to make it in the world as a personal trainer before managing to buy the very same gym where he had trained as a youth. Though the business would never make him rich since it was located in a poor area of New Tokyo, money was not so much an issue as David wanted to show the local people that they could still live positive lives.

This is how he met Sienna White. She lived locally to the gym and had wanted to learn self-defence after being assaulted by a street gang. They wanted money and after the took that from her they left her with a parting gift, two large scars from a knife across her chest. Since the incident she had become a nervous individual and lacked confidence so a friend suggested she learn self defence. Under David’s tutelage she found hidden skills in martial arts and grew in confidence until she was no longer the shy woman she had once been. She pushed herself further vowing never again she would be a victim of crime.

Patrick Anderson was a one time family man that worked in the NTPD. His whole life turned upside down when his wife and child were killed after becoming collateral damage in a drive by shooting. For an ordinary person the news would have been devastating but the fact he was a police man and it had happened to him when he had been at work was more than he could bare. The incident added insult to injury and he took sick leave and saw a councillor but he quickly stopped seeing her and turned to drink. His mental health meant the NTPD could no longer use his services so he was retired on “medical” grounds. From then on he simply spent his days watching TV and looking for his next fix of booze.

Lastly Miyu Okamoto had been a fairly normal person but her life changed when she took a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong neighbourhood. Like Sienna she became a victim of crime only instead of being mugged she was raped by a vicious street gang. Like most victims of heinous crimes Miyu felt her attackers had stolen part of her soul and she ended up in a deep depression. Living away from her family meant she had nobody to help her out and because she felt “dirty” she did not want to talk to anyone about what had happened.

By chance her path crossed with Jianjun Yu. The pair accidentally touched in the street and the instant that happened her saw inside her. Such was her internal pain he could almost feel it himself. He also felt a strong desire for revenge but looking at her, Jianjun could tell she would be no match for the average street thug. Seeing a young life ruined at an early age seemed a terrible waste to him but the only way Miyu could live again was when she could face her attackers without fear (not unlike what had happened to Sienna). Of course he was aware he could simply have found her attackers and taught them a lesson but that was not wise since she needed to do the journey on her own. He therefore took pity on Miyu and offered her the means to retrieve that what had been taken from her, by training her in martial arts.
During training Jianjun noticed Miyu seemed a natural with the Bo staff so he set about helping her master that skill and once trained he sent her back out into the world to face down her demons. He told her to use his training to deal a blow to the evil that hid in the shadows. Having been given a purpose Miyu took the code name Cross-Bo and began patrolling the streets looking for trouble and when trouble found her she made sure it ran off with a tail between its legs. All the while she did not have the satisfaction of finding the gang that had raped her but that day would come.

Having become a one woman army against the street criminals in New Tokyo, Miyu certainly got noticed and after spending some time pressurising various criminals she eventually learned where she might find the gang that had taken so much from her. However when she tracked them down she would discover the “tip” given to her had been a trap. The gang were aware she was coming for them so had taken the opportunity to take her out before she could do the same.

Despite the fact she was heavily outnumbered twenty to one, Miyu did not shy away from the show down but training or not the numbers game quickly began working against her. This was when Sienna came across the fight in the street. She had left the gym just before it closed and her walk home took her into the alley where the confrontation was taking place. Though she wanted to simply ignore what was happening she felt compelled to intervene, especially when she saw the man that had scared her. Taking the pair of Tonfa out of her gym bag she threw the holdall away and waded into the fight. Though she was aware the numbers were against her, the idea of cracking a few heads seemed rather satisfying. Side by side she fought with Miyu. Though neither had met they both seemed aware they were fighting for the same thing.
Patrick lived in an apartment above the alleyway and heard all the commotion going on. He got used to hearing the sounds of criminal activities and usually chose to ignore them. Normally such events ended quickly but when he could hear voices of two women he was drawn to the window. Looking out he was the ongoing fight and when he realised it was a load of lads fighting a pair of girls it jarred his mind. All he could think about was his wife and daughter being victims and instead of turning away and going back to his seat, he found himself unable to do that due to an intense rage building up. Four years of grief burst forth and he needed somewhere to direct that rage so he headed for the door, grabbing a baseball bat on the way.
By the time he arrived at street level David Brown had also joined into the fray. He had locked up the gym and as he passed the end of the alleyway he spotted Sienna. Rather than let her fend for herself he chose to act.
With Patrick also involved in the battle, despite the numbers advantage the gang soon realised the trained fighters were way out of their league. Patrick though was not trained but perhaps the most brutal. Since he had long lost the desire to live he did really care about how much he got hurt but his victims certainly did not have the same lack of respect for their own well being.

In a matter of minutes the gang scattered and the four decided to go their separate ways. However Sienna, David and Patrick had been left with something to think about and that was they could make a difference to the lives of others by defying the criminal scum that preyed on the innocent people of the neighbourhood. Working together David and Sienna began patrolling the local area in disguise after the gym had closed and meting out street justice where they saw fit. Patrick too had found a way to deal with the grief that he had been carrying around and instead chose to carry a baseball bat late at night and turn the tables on a few criminals.
As time went by the four of them would invariable cross paths and after they established a dialogue between them the four decided to consolidate their efforts and thus the New Tokyo Misfits was born (although their reputation has led to some gangs calling them the Backstreet Bludgeoners).

Save

Newton


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  •  Allison Hayes

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – Allison has the means to emit a field which allows her to absorb the kinetic energy of moving objects. When doing this the respective object loses momentum and her body charges up with kinetic force she has “stolen”.
    She can then use this force by combining it with her own body movements allowing her to hit harder, jump higher etc.
    She can also discharge the momentum energy through her hands and feet allowing her to levitate and fly.
    Lastly, using physical touch she can transfer energy to a third party causing them to be catapulted into the air.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Once her energy is depleted she is no stronger than any other women of her height and build and she is prone to feeling fatigued making her highly vulnerable.
  • She absorbs the kinetic energy via her hand and feet. The process creates localised heating which if not kept in check can lead to injury and possible death. Her suit helps dissipate the heat build up but she still needs to be careful.
  • Unlike other Alphas who absorb kinetic energy such as Bulletproof and Impact, Allison does not have any form of invulnerability and can be physically injured as easily as an ordinary person.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

Allison Hayes is yet another in a catalogue of cases where an Alpha has been experimented on against her will. All she can remember was on the night she was taken a group of heavily armed masked men stormed her Pacifica apartment threw something over her head and being carried to the roof of her building complex where she was bundled into a waiting helicopter whereupon she was injected with a drug that put her to sleep.
When she next awoke she found herself in a sparse room with no windows and a locked door. She never saw anyone and food was simply deposited through a hatch in the wall. On a regular basis the room would fill with gas and when she next awoke she would often find herself in a lot of pain. Though she did not know what had been done to her she presumed it was some sort of medical procedure for she would find various puncture wounds or fresh scars.
Having known from an early age she was an Alpha Inferior she could only guess that was the reason she was being held and experimented on. As a journalist she had heard rumours on the streets of illegal organisation’s abducting Alphas to use a text subjects and presumed that she was a victim of ARGO. (CLEA would later confirm that ARGO had not been involved, but her hypothesis for her being held captive was correct.)

How long she had been held captive she did not known but one day she awoke inside a large and generally featureless room except for one wall where there was an array of equipment. She could clearly feel something attached to the back of her neck but when she tried removing it all she felt was immense pain. A disembodied voice then warned her that she had been fitted with an implant to ensure compliance. She was then told to go to the other side of the room and perform a number of tests. At first she refused but was only met with pain so she did as she was told. The tests did not make much sense to her at first. Some were mental and others were physical. From the voice on the PA system it was obvious that things were not going to plan and so after the tests were completed she found the room filling with gas and she was going to sleep.

Over the course of the next few weeks the same routine happened several times until one days when she next came to instead of finding herself back in the small room she felt movement and realised she was in the back of a car. This surprised her as she had assumed the “large” and “small” rooms had been in the same facility but this did not seem to be the case. Having been effectively blind folded when she had been taken from her apartment she felt it was unusual that she had not been blindfolded now.

Not to arise any suspicion she carefully looked around, keeping her head low as if she was still unconscious. She was close to the door but guessed it would not open from the inside and on the other side of the back seat was a burly man, obviously a guard. Interestingly outside the scenery was that of crowded streets and she now understood why she had perhaps not been blindfolded. A person asleep in a car would not arouse suspicion but a blindfolded captive might.

Thoughts ran through her mind. She wondered if she could attract the attention of anyone but that seemed a long shot. Her mind though figured that this was still an ideal opportunity to escape. She considered hitting the guard and attacking the driver. The chances of success would be remote but the more she thought about escaping the more adrenalin flowed through her body.
Then a strange thing happened. As she thought of ways she might escape the car she concentrated on the cars movement. For a moment the car rapidly began to decelerate but the driver had not applied the brakes. At the same time as the car began to decelerate she felt a massive surge in her body and found herself being catapulted head first out the windshield. If that did not hurt then the impact certainly did and she was very lucky her captives did not run over her as the car caught up to her position.

With a crowd of onlookers gathering, instead of being grabbed the car immediately drove off and at that point she passed out due to her injuries. When she awoke again, for a change she did not find herself in a familiar small featureless room but instead a somewhat larger hospital room.
Having run her name through the database the Pacifica Police Department discovered she had been missing for nearly five months and they had a great many questions. However there was not a lot she could tell them because until she had woken up in the car her captors had been very careful never to allow themselves to be seen. One oddity though that she could not explain was why eye witnesses had seen her fly through the windscreen and lad over fifty feet away from the car. The vehicle had not been going at very high speed and the deceleration could not have been that violent to cause her to cover that distance.
The asked her if she was an Alpha Superior but she replied know. However CLEA took an interest in the PPD report and they were next to visit her in hospital. During his interviews the Agent managed to piece together what had happened to Allison. He reckoned she had been identified as an Alpha Inferior (that much she did know) and whomever had taken her had obviously been researching an experimenting on Alphas. Furthermore he guessed that whomever had been performing the research had tried to activate her Alpha abilities. The large room and the tests were a clue to that. Though the Agent reckoned they had managed to jump start her Alpha ability they were unable to trigger them for the first time which he guessed had actually happened in the car causing her to “fly” through the windscreen. Though this gave some sort of closure and now gave Allison more questions than answers the Agent warned her that since he Alpha abilities had been initiated artificially they might be unstable which would be dangerous to her. The Agent suggested perhaps when she recovered she might want to join CLEA’s White Guardian program and perhaps they could train her to use her gift. This was all too much in too short a time to comprehend so the Agent simply gave him his card and left.

By the time she was well enough to leave hospital CLEA had passed on its findings. Though they were sure she had been experimented on whomever had been behind her abduction was not known to them which was both unusual and disturbing since it meant that there was somebody new experimenting on Alphas. She was also given another offer to join CLEA’s White Guardian ranks but again declined. Allison simply wanted her old life back.
A few weeks later though she received an interesting invite all the way from Europe along with a paid air fare to visit the country home of Gary Wynter. Though very unusual the fact the ticket was genuine piqued her journalistic interest so she took the offer. Once there the truth was revealed when Gary revealed he was the costumed adventurer G-Wiz and she was in fact at the HQ of the Phoenix Alliance. Gary explained to Allison that when she turned down CLEA’s offer, Chief Naylor had got to hear of it and rather than see her talents wasted had figured the Phoenix Alliance could persuade her to use her gifts instead. Naylor of course wanted another White Guardian but figured if Allison became a costumed adventurer then at least she would be helping fight crime another way.
Allison was upset at the subterfuge in coming to the country home and wanted to leave but Gary put on the charm and persuaded her to stay long enough to meet the others and at least long enough to figure out if she had any long term problems with her artificially induced Alpha Abilities. Reluctantly she chose to stay. She really felt like a fish out of water when the other member of the Phoenix Alliance started talking about past exploits. They considered her one of them but all she ever had done was smashed through a car windscreen and that had hurt her. She was far from a crime fighter so she could not understand what they saw in her.
That was when Gary suggested that if she stayed a while longer they could get to the bottom of exactly what her Alpha abilities were. Part of Allison wanted to get the next plane home, tire of the charade but again the part of her that wanted answers took over.
It would take several weeks of work but eventually Allison discovered she could emit a field which absorbed kinetic energy of anything around her and gave that energy to her. The bigger the object and the faster it was moving the more energy she amassed. This was why the car had suddenly decelerated since she had bled its energy and also why she had accelerated through the windscreen.
With the mystery solved Gary and the others worked to fine tune her control of her Alpha ability and after a little bit of practice she found she could store that energy insider her body instead letting it loose immediately. Allison also learned she could transfer her energy to another person and literally cause them to get catapulted. When she first discovered that Long Fellow was not too happy as he became her first hapless victim. Upon further experimentation, Allison learned that with enough practice she could strike harder, jump further and if she absorbed enough energy she could fly by jettisoning energy from her hands and feet. However her gift was not without downsides for unlike other who could manipulate kinetic energy, she was not invulnerable so hitting someone with additional energy would succeed in not only injuring her target but herself. Gary also unearthed another problem down to the fact that her Alpha abilities had been activated artificially which always caused problems. In Allison’s case she had inadvertently been made more powerful but her body lacked and internal “safe guards”.
When she absorbed energy a side effect of the process was the generation of heat and since she absorbed it through her hands and feet rather than her whole body the localised heating was providentially dangerous to her if not lethal. With that in mind he suggested she start a strict training regime so she could learn to control the flow of energy she absorbed and thus prevent herself getting injured.

Before she knew it a month had passed and she felt the need to go home. Though not fully accepting of the idea of becoming crime fighter or even joining the Phoenix Alliance, Gary gave her a parting gift courtesy of the Knight’s Forge, a body suit and helmet which would give her some resistance to injury should she ever reconsider. The suit also had ceramic panels built in which were designed to channel heat away from her hands and feet. Gary reckoned that theoretically she should be able to absorb a lot more kinetic energy without concerns over the heat but since the suit had never been tested he could not be entirely sure.He also left her with a passing argument and that was whilst people like the Phoenix Alliance, Zodiac and all the other amateur heroes existed it made life harder for the types of people that had abducted her to operate.

Upon returning to Pacifica she settled back in her old life once more but what she had learned about the Phoenix Alliance stuck in her mind. Every time she reported on a crime she got to thinking what if she had been there. Then one day somebody in the office heard about a mugging and passed a comment “if only somebody got the balls to stop that then it would never have happened.” The words burned into her and she realised she had the means to do just that so from that moment in time she started to don the green suit at night and go hunting criminals. At first she considered using the code name “Newton” since Newton’s third law states ‘or every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’. She figured since she bled of momentum and manipulated it to produce another momentum force that the code name worked.

The Night Rangers

Left-Right: Architect, Banish, Diffuse, Mind Storm, Puppet Mistress and Castle

Left-Right: Architect, Banish, Diffuse, Mind Storm, Puppet Mistress and Castle

The Night Rangers are team of Alpha Heroes that originally formed to deal with threats specifically against Alphas as a minority race of people. Whilst they were born out of hatred and classed very much as “anti heroes”, over time with the addition of new members and new ideas they have progressed and now fight all crime.
CLEA actually placed them on the watch list and do not consider them a viable special asset because whilst other “vigilantes” try to abide by the laws, traditionally the Night Rangers have ignored laws, believing it is necessary to compromise because their enemies do not think twice about bending the rules.

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Shane Wright – Mind Storm
  • Robyn Taylor – Puppet Mistress
  • Phillip Andreas – Banish
  • Debbie Greenberg – Diffuse
  • Prayut Wattana – Castle
  • Alicia Knight – Architect
  • Sky

CLEA Classification:

  • Robot (Sky)
  • Alpha Human (All other group members)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – (Mind Storm) Wright is a powerful psychic that can invade the minds of others and force them to do things against their will.
  • Alpha ability – (Puppet Mistress) Taylor is an extremely powerful Alpha that can bring inanimate objects to life. The process involves some abstract imaginative thinking as she has to imagine how the object should move so that she can infuse it with “intelligence” so that the object can follow her orders. The actual objects physical properties do not change so something flimsy will remain flimsy and have limited movements. She has found novel ways around this problem and her favourite trick is to encase enemies in all over bodysuits and then animate the suits. The clothing thus has an internal skeleton and the victim cannot fight the movement of the clothing. On the occasions she has chosen not to animate clothing she uses her abilities on large or powerful objects such as vehicles or statues.
  • Alpha ability – (Banish) Andreas, has the means to create portals than can transport him and others to any location. Usually it has to be a location he has physically visited although he can create a “blind” portal but this involves a great amount of risk as the exit terminus could appear in a solid object, below ground, up in the air etc.
  • Alpha ability – (Diffuse) Greenberg has the means to convert most of her body to plasma energy. This energy can be wielded as a heat/electric weapon or used to levitate. At maximum output she can literally blast holes through thick concrete.
  • Alpha ability – (Castle) Wattana is an alpha whose body can automatically adapt to most forms of attack. Adaptations only remain temporary and vary from skin becoming resilient to being able to breathe in a hazardous environment.
  • Alpha ability – (Architect) Knight has an unusual “intuitive” mental related alpha ability. She can solve most problems by inventing items of equipment, almost without thinking. Just as a computer programmer can see a final solution by staring at a bunch of 1s and 0s, Alicia sees mechanics in the same way. Whilst able to design almost any technological object simply by thinking about her intuitive abilities allow her to look at other technology and create near duplicates albeit not exact copies. Her ability also allows her to crack codes and translate complex languages on the fly.
  • Sky is a small drone robot that provides the team with aerial surveillance. It can also act as a sentry/guard dog and communicates with Alicia directly via a small communications chip mounted underneath the skin behind her left ear.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Each object Taylor brings to life only remains “alive” for around eight hours after which she has to “recharge” it.
  • Wattana’s abiltiy cannot cope with two simultaneous but opposing threats such as fire and ice which can make him vulnerable.
  • The Zeus Protectorate are highly motivated to “reacquire” the team and have considerable resources.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Robbery/Theft (Andreas)
  • Kidnapping (Andreas)
  • Infiltration and sabotage (Andreas)
  • Assault and aggravated assault (various members)

Notes/History

Shane Wright was originally active in the first “era” or Alpha heroes. Once his gift had become active he had chosen to become a costumed adventurer due to his incredible psychic abilities. He fought crime under the guise of “Think Tank”. Such a person was not missed by Black Shadow, who considered him a threat along with all other Alpha Heroes so Alpha Strike was dispatched to eliminate him. Despite beating his senseless and throwing him off a building they did not succeed in killing him as the Alpha Hero “Speed King” (Jack Meyer – father of Peter Meyer/Striker) intervened and caught his falling body. However Shane’s injuries were so severe he ended up in a coma for nearly four years. Several time’s he even “died” but the doctors were able to save him although they doubted there would be anything left of the original Shane Wright even if he did wake up.

However against all odds, Shane pulled through and upon coming out the coma the doctors discovered that the head injuries he had sustained in the attempt on his life had changed his personality. He was more aggressive than he had been and suffered bouts of severe depression. In trying to recover and deal with this he ended up losing his girlfriend, his first love, who had stuck with him during the time he had been in hospital. She could not cope with his violent mood swings and her leaving nearly destroyed him.

Eventually he found a way to deal with his mental issues via focusing on a goal and that goal was revenge. However by this time the Alpha Heroes had gone into hiding and so had Alpha Strike. Realising that sinister forces were at work in the background and if the other heroes had gone or been killed then it was a threat too big for him to handle he settled down for as normal a life as he could handle. The need for revenge though remained embedded in his mind so when nearly two decades has passed and Team Zodiac “appeared” along with his hated enemy Alpha Strike the old anger resurfaced.

With Black Shadow gone Shane knew he knew he had the best advantage to settle the score with Alpha Strike since they no longer had any resources to back them up and they were currently lacking focus and liable to make mistakes. If he was going to get them then this was an ideal opportunity but common sense prevailed. Focussed or not alone he did not stand a chance, a fact proven the last time they had “met” and one against eight had not worked in his favour. Not wanting to allow Alpha Strike to have the opportunity to regain their confidence meant he that is he was going to find allies.

He first tried to recruit others into his cause from the new ranks of heroes now appearing but for what he had in mind none of them wanted to be a part of it. Realising the only people whom would go along with his extreme ideas would be others with a similar desire for revenge, meant his options were limited, so much so it took considerable longer to create his team, and the people he ended up working with came from backgrounds he had never anticipated when he began his journey.

In fact his quest to form a group of people that would join him took three years during which Alpha Strike recovered from the loss of Black Shadow and became very much stronger. Though he still wanted to get even with them, he knew that goal was impossible. However on his quest to find others to join him, Shane had learned that there were other sinister organisations that abused, hunted or otherwise treated Alphas like vermin and he felt that victims of those people might be just like him. Instead of creating a group which would simply even the score with Alpha Strike, he changed his motives. He was now going to create a group that would fight back against all those that thought they could so what they liked with Alphas.

The first of these “evil organisations” he had learned about was ARGO and in discovering them he learned of two of its victims, Quartz and Chrysalis. After managing to track them down he tried to get them to join him on his life’s mission to hunt those that hunted Alphas. The pair though were completely focused on ARGO, in much the same as he had been on Alpha Strike and were not interested in chasing down anyone but their hated enemy. The pair though did reveal they were not the first victims and would not be ARGO’s last and made Shane realise that if he could another one of ARGO’s “experiments” then that person might be receptive to his cause.

His plan took months of work and without much success. Either ARGO did not leave its victims alive of its victims were never aware they had been abused (which was in fact the true reason). Whether due to the fact he was following leads on ARGO or simply luck, Shane learned that the Independent Hero “Puppet Mistress” had vanished and suspected the rogue science group was responsible. Calling in every favour he had and intimidating everyone else he was able to obtain the location of their base. Using his new guise of “Mind Storm”, he raided the facility and rescued Robyn Taylor aka Puppet Mistress. After allowing her time to recover he proposed his idea of forming a team to go after people that abused Alphas. Unlike Quartz and Chrysalis, she was more receptive and accepted his offer.

Shane though knew that alone they were not exactly the most powerful team out there. He still needed others and having dealt a blow to ARGO by stealing Robyn from them he was able to turn his attention to other research he had put on one side.

One organisation that had cropped up more than once was the “The Protectorate”. Shane was aware they imprisoned Alphas and held them captive to prevent such people harming innocents, either by accident or deliberately. Shane figured if he could liberate some of their captives then he might get an “instant” team. However upon further investigation he learned the prison facility was impenetrable and he had no choice but to abandon the idea. Once more he returned to his research.

Things changed regarding the Protectorate when the Alpha Criminal known as Banish found them. He had caused trouble with a quite a few hero groups in the past and Shane had no reason to trust him until Banish explained that he had grown tired of life on the run, having to keep watching his back against CLEA, hero groups and of course rival criminals. Also since ARGO had captured him and forced him to do their bidding he wanted the opportunity of some payback. Banish also figured if he was seen trying to reform then perhaps the hero groups at least might leave him alone.

Though unsure about allowing a criminal into their group Robyn reasoned they could use his talents. Shane eventually agreed to it because he saw a chance of using Banish to get into Protectorate’s Prime facility. Knowing if they raided a facility it could only be done once as the organisation had unlimited resources and would thus be able to prevent a second attempt, Shane planned one raid in which he hoped to liberate as many captives as possible.

Using a boat to get close to the island, Shane thought they could surprise the guards. However the Protectorate were too well organised and once they got into the facility its became evident that they had limited time before they were stopped. Shane and the others established a beachhead whilst Banish entered the secure units cells and began forming portals to allow the occupants to escape. With each portal created Banish grew weaker and it took longer for him to recover resulting in the group being forced to retreat deeper into the facility to avoid getting taken out by the shock pellets that the gaurds were shooting at them.

Eventually the group ended up being corralled in the area where there were prisoners in cryogenic sleep. The trio barricaded the door and Banish warned Shane that he reckoned he had one more opportunity to use his Alpha abilties before he was spent. Shane was not happy with the idea of leaving behind a group of frozen captives but dragging the cryounits through a portal was not going to be possible. Banish suggested that perhaps they could rescue some and not all and with that he opened up a large portal in the floor. Gravity finished the job and the trio fell through the floor and then emerged at an exit apertures somewhere near the boat along with three cryo units that had fell with them.

With guards mobilising on the island the trio and the other people they had helped to escape got the pods on the boat and they raced away from the shore. The guards though were not going to give in so easily and gave chase in fast attack vessels so Banish did they unthinkable and opened a portal in front of the boat whereupon it and a large amount of ocean water emerged in an abandoned warehouse he had once used as a hideout. The strain of making a portal of that size when he had already reached burnout levels with his abilities nearly killed him and he collapsed into a coma which lasted for nearly a week afterwards. Consequently he was not awake when Shane started bringing the three “prisoners” out of cryosleep.

Though disappointed he had not rescued more Shane was pleased he had not left empty handed and once the pods were finally opened he learned he had snatched Alicia Knight, Prayut Wattana and Debbie Greenburg (later known as Architect, Castle and Diffuse respectively). As with Robyn, all three were angry at what had been done to them wanted to join Shane on his cause.

The other “escapees” who had enjoyed some freedom on the island, though grateful were not so inclined to join Shane. They simply wanted to resume their old lives or go into hiding to avoid the Protectorate coming after them again (although some would later change their minds, albeit they did not choose to join Shane’s group).

With a team at his disposal Shane began his war on those that dared to treat Alphas as vermin. Six angry Alphas meant their methods were far from what most people regarded as heroic and their penchant for violence led to CLEA regarding them as terrorists. Anyone that got in their way regretted ever crossing their path but eventually the brutality faded, although their habits of ignoring laws would never stop. When the team were finally seen to start going after “normal” criminals CLEA decided to downgrade their status as a threat to world security.

During their early years together the team gained two new members in the form of highly advanced robots. These were Alicia’s creations and the first of these robots was Centurion, a powerful spear wielding warrior that rudimentary resembled a roman Centurion. The second she created some time after seeing C.L.A.R.A. during a mission. Bearing a passing resemblance to metal clad hero, the main difference between Alicia’s creation and CLARA was the new member of the Night Rangers was a true robot as opposed to a cyborg. Unfortunately the female robot had a problem in that its systems were so complex and advanced compared to Centurion that her battery life was somewhat limited. Alicia therefore decided to keep with her historic warrior theme and build a robotic horse (which she later named “Mercury”) which could house an external generator for “Tech Knight” (which she named the female robot). When riding Mercury, Tech Knight could recharge and thus the problem of lack of power was not an issue. Though she did not have a huge ego she could not help choosing the name Tech Knight knowing part of her creation had her surname incorporated in its designation.

To both humanoid robots she gave them personalities based on different combinations of brain patterns copied from other team members, Centurion from the male members and Tech Knight from the female members. The two automatons then served with the group for a short until they decided to assert their individuality and decided to fight crime on a wider scale as opposed to concentrating on crime against Alphas (this being in the time before the team decided to hunt ordinary criminals). Having become sentient the rest of the Night Rangers could not stop the pair from leaving as to deny them the right to choose their destiny would undermine the foundation they had had built the team on, namely fighting those that abused the rights of others.

Having parted on good terms the pair would return periodically to Alicia in order that she might provide them with upgrades or “fix” a problem but they were no longer classed as permanent members. With Centurion and Tech Knight gone, Alicia built third robot this time a small drone she called “Sky”. It too was given sentience but chose to remain with its creator.

Being able to design very technical apparatus without actually thinking eventually became an interest to the Knight’s Forge and they sought to recruit her. Alicia though would not abandon the people she regarded as friends and leave them a person short. Shane though convinced her that they could manage for short periods without her if she wanted to work for the Forge. She therefore accepted a part time role at the Knight’s Forge and now spends her time flitting between them and the Night Rangers.

Save

Oracle


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Yu Jianjun

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – incredibly slow aging, estimated lifespan 1000-1500 years
  • Alpha ability – increased healing.
  • Alpha ability – psychic ability to “look” inside someone’s mind and see the truth. This same ability allows him to “discover” the exact nature an Alpha ability a person will gain if they transition from Inferior to Superior status. Note: Though he can see another person’s potential as an Alpha he cannot predict whether they will ever achieve Superior status.
  • Jianjun is a master in several different disciplines of martial arts.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • He cannot bring himself to harm his own children which makes him vulnerable to Liu Fang and Zhang Jie.
  • Refuses to fight with weapons.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

For many years CLEA had heard rumours surrounding Jianjun Yu. A migrant from China that had settled in New Tokyo four decades ago, as far as CLEA was concerned he simply trained people to fight in martial arts. Everything else surrounding him was hearsay and therefore was not relevant to any criminal investigation, until in recent times he reached out to CLEA when two Alpha villains appeared Lock Box and Judgement.

What he told them in the first interviews were original regarded as the ravings of a senile old man. He stated for instance he was well over a thousand years old and that the two criminals were in fact his children. He also claimed he and they were Alphas but not from the meteorite impact of 1972 but one from around the year 972, a smaller less devastating event that had occurred during an impact strike in mainland China which had destroyed his village.
Jianjun claimed the meteorite had “changed” him and though he was not immortal he aged at an incredibly slow rate. He also claimed to have the means to “see” inside people. They could not lie to him and he could also look inside any Alpha, superior or Inferior and simply “know” what gift they had, even if they had yet to transition from Inferior to Superior.

Amongst the other elements of his story Jianjun claimed his children had also acquired similar gifts that enabled them to survive the passage of time and they alone were the only Alpha Survivors of his time. Being in an isolated region of China there had never been the same movement of people as there were currently hence the Alpha’s had died out in just over two generations.

He then told CLEA he had been using his longevity to try and make a difference in his homeland albeit he frequently changed his name so nobody would realise he never aged. However over the years he noticed that his children could not handle their extended lifetimes and their minds had gone into mental decline. His daughter Liu Fang now known as “Judgement” believed fate had decided she would see who was worthy to inhabit the Earth. Having the means to look into a person’s soul, if she did not see perfection she could steal their Lifeforce. His son Zhang Jie now known as Lock Box had a similar idea and decided that survival of people should be down to whom was the strongest. He set about testing prominent citizens of China by abducting them and giving them a series of life or death tests, his most popular one being placing them in a hazardous “dungeon” and if the person made it out they were obviously fit to lead the next generation.
Jianjun explained when he had realised what his children were doing he had incarcerated them in a monastery. Being their father he could not bring himself to kill them so he had over the centuries trained “good” warriors for the day his children found a way to escape and hopefully they could do what he could not.

However in the last century with the reappearance of Alphas he believed he no longer needed to continue his “work” as he though they would be able to perform the same duties as his “warriors.” He has therefore abandoned training people to fight his children but when boredom crept in he had, ironically, returned to training people but this time to achieve their goals and not his. He even claimed to have trained some costumed adventurers as well as famous sports people.

Jianjun then explained that recently he had received word that his children were loose and rather than hoping to rely solely on vigilantes to deal with them he had chosen to reveal his secret and inform CLEA of the threat, believing it was one agency that might succeed in dealing with truth since he believed they would in the end be key to stopping them.

Naturally the CLEA officer taking the statement thought the whole story was a fantastic work of fiction and so the notes were filed away and completely ignored until the activities of Lock Box and Judgement began to get noticeable. That was when the story seemed to bare some truth but by this time Jianjun had retreated to the shadows since his children see his actions as a threat and unlike their father they have no qualms about killing him.

Since then appearances of Jianjun appear to be sporadic. As far as anyone knows he still trains people in martial arts but the only time he is seen in public is when he’s in the company of his adopted son Tatsuo Mori (Lifeforce) or he is seen fighting side by side with recognised heroes who are opposing Zhang Jie or Liu Fang.

Orion

Left to Right: Iverson, Kagone, Roberts and Wagner

Left to Right: Iverson, Kagone, Roberts and Wagner

Orion is a code name given to the primary strike and recovery team of hunters who work for the Protectorate. Their targets victims are incarcerated at a private prison at the Protectorate’s Prime Site. Many captives here are guilty of no crimes but the “Protectorate” has decided they are to risky to live with “normal” people.

Since the Protectorate are extremely powerful business people with virtually unlimited resources means Orion had access to the technology needed to deal with almost any Alpha they come across.

CLEA DATA FILE

Asset of:

Group Indentitites:

  • Stefan Iversen (Leader)
  • Max Wagner
  • Natsumi Kagome
  • Cameryn Roberts

CLEA Classification:

  • Specialist Combatants/Tech Augmented humans (entire team)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • The bodysuits worn by the team give them protection up to high calibre rounds.
  • Weapons used by the team are generally non-lethal and consist of specially modified guns to deliver drugs/shock charges etc on impact.
  • Wagner is the teams weapons expert and on missions makes the tactical choices in terms of ammo and weapons.
  • Kagome is specially trained as a scout and her job is to get in close to a target and report back. Frequently she engages the target first.
  • Roberts is trained in electronic countermeasures. She disables alarms and other tech “problems” so the team can have an easy run at the target. She is also responsible for “containing” captured prisoners, using her tech to prevent and Alpha using his or her abilities.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • They have to retrieve the targets alive. This gives their enemies opportunities to use far greater force providing they can best Orion tactically.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Kidnapping and false imprisonment.

Notes/History

Orion was formed soon after the Prison facility at the Prime Site was opened. At that time the Protectorate began seeking out mercenaries that would be sympathetic to their cause and eventually research led to them finding the four people that would become Orion. Early “captures” by the team proved to have mixed results as some targets escaped but this was only a learning experience for the team and the Protectorate. By gathering data the Protectorate were able to develop technology specifically for capturing almost any Alpha and with their resources the time from idea to end product was greatly accelerated so within a couple of years, Orion was over ninety percent successful.

Law enforcement agencies soon learned of Orion and whilst they thought it convenient they were taking criminals off their hands it was equally convenient for them to ignore the innocent people being taken. CLEA and a few other agencies from America and Europa could not stand idly by but there was a problem, the Zeus facility was on a private island that no agency had any jurisdiction to operate. The only chance to put a stop to the Protectorate was by capturing Orion when it was on territory which was their jurisdiction. However Orion’s advanced tech has ensured that has not been the case. The only thing that could not be kept hidden for too long was the identities of each team member although knowing who they are has done little to help in their capture