Steve Coops

Overbite


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Neil Boardman

CLEA Classification:

  • Human/Animal Hybrid

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • He has the means to transform between a human and a humanoid cat form (although he currently only wears the latter form)
  • In his animal form he is extremely strong has heightened senses of smell, sight and hearing.
  • Animal instincts give him the thrill of the hunt and he proficient in tracking down his targets as soon as he acquires his/or her scent.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Can be driven by his animal urges which leads to tactical errors.
  • Enemies with Chimera
  • Enemies with FFF

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Mercenary
  • Bounty Hunter
  • Kidnapping
  • Assault/Aggravated Assualt
  • Robbery

Notes/History

Overbite was originally a small time gang leader known as Neil Boardman. Along with his gang, The Red Bloods, he operated in and around several districts of Pacifica, mainly performing acts of racketeering, thefts and robberies. He liked the sense of power he gained over people and doubtless would have quickly advanced to worse criminal activities if it was not for his girlfriend, Latoya Gutteridge.

Out of the members of his gang she was the only one that managed to reign in his violent nature. She had come to the gang with no prospect of finding a real job and being in the bottom percent of society that were generally stepped on by everyone else she had a lot of anger towards the world, anger she could vent by committing petty crimes. She had grown close to the Neil as she admired his fight against the establishment but as time passed her eyes started to widen. She eventually realised that his gang was targeting people who were exactly like her and so she did her best to try and keep his violent nature controlled.

However when the gang started performing muggings on people who barely had money to get by and Neil refused to listen to her, she realised the battle had been lost. She gave him the ultimatum of stopping the muggings or she would leave the gang but since Neil craved power he decided to drop her. Before she left he did return her favour and gave her an ultimatum. If she left him he would target the people in her neighbourhood.
Latoya thought he was bluffing so left only to realise within days that Neil intended to make good on his promise. Feeling responsible for the current crime wave in her area she decided to take drastic measures. Aware that the Red Bloods were operating outside their territory when attacking her neighbourhood she did the only thing possible, she contacted the rival gang whose patch was being violated.

The Grey Shark Brotherhood were not too pleased of having their territory invaded and took swift and decisive action against the Red Bloods. Those that survived the incident the rejected Neil’s leadership and booted him out of the gang he had created. Angry at what he saw as disrespect from his second in command, Neil knew that if he stood any chance of taking control of the Red Bloods he needed to regain his reputation.

Getting that back was not easy but Neil was highly intelligent. He heard plenty of rumours in the criminal underground that unusually extended far beyond the ears of a “simple” gang leader. This is how he got to hear about the international criminal group Chimera and how their leader Thomas Buchanan was having problems with the FFF. He was offering rewards for anyone that could get him the FFF. Since Neil was aware that the FFF were in Pacifica at that time, he reckoned he still had enough pull with other criminals to get information of where the hybrids were.

Keeping the information to himself, Neil arranged a meeting with Buchanan and stated he would be able to take care of the FFF but he needed a favour in return. Since he was alone he stood little chance of defeating the group, unless he was similarly changed into a hybrid as well.

With the FFF causing him too much grief, Thomas agreed to the suggestion. The process took a few weeks and once done Neil was able to transform into a hybrid that resembled a humanoid sabre-tooth cat. Since Neil knew the whereabouts of the FFF but was keeping it a secret the professor was unable to erase his memories as he did with the other hybrid and this proved to be a mistake for once Neil had got used to his new form he changed the deal.

Before he would capture the FFF he felt he needed a companion to work with him on his quest. Aware that Latoya had given The Grey Shark Brotherhood the intelligence on the Red Bloods he decided that it would be fitting if she was “turned” into a hybrid like him. He was still under the opinion that her betrayal had been accidental and she really loved him. He was even convinced she had left the gang because she was confused and with that in mind, he and several other animal hybrids of Chimera hunted her down and kidnapped Latoya.

Waking up strapped to a laboratory table was quite a shock for her and when Neil told her of his plans and showed Latoya what he could now do by transforming into his animal form, she begged him to let her go. Neil though simply thought she was scared and acting irrationally and insisted that once the professor had done his work she would feel differently. She screamed and protested but it was no use. Buchanan even had pause for thought but Boardman made it quite clear, he wanted a “mate” and without that he would not get the FFF.

With little option but to comply Buchanan set to work in transforming Latoya into another hybrid. He offered to remove her memories but Boardman insisted that he wanted her mind left alone. As per Neil’s request, Buchanan turned Latoya into another cat hybrid but used only one set of animal DNA so she became a humanoid equivalent of a snow leopard. Having seen the power Neil possessed through mixing several different cat DNA’s the professor felt it unwise to create two powerful hybrids that were not under his direct control.

Once the work was done Latoya refused to speak to Neil. Under his own delusional mind he figured she would come around but until she came to her senses felt it best she was locked up. By now Buchanan was growing impatient so he wanted Neil to fulfil his part of the deal. Having been around Chimera Neil though made some new plans. He considered that rather than his eventual goal of taking back the Red Bloods he could create a whole new gang by becoming the leader of Chimera’s animal hybrids. Recognising that the others would not follow him with Guardian around he challenged the reptilian hybrid and though he did in fact best Guardian in battle by dubious methods far from replacing him as their leader the other hybrids turned on Neil.

Buchanan’s patience finally ran out. Having so far failed to eliminate the FFF and tried a coup in Chimera he offered Neil one last chance threatening him with the fact that just as easily as he had “made” him it was equally as easy to destroy him. Since the other Chimera hybrid refused to follow him that also meant he would have to take on the FFF alone. Latoya though had seemed to come around to Neil’s thinking and offered to go with him to Pacifica. What he did not realise was she had finally figured out that the more she protested the less chance she had of escaping so had chosen to act as his ally.

Once in the city Neil began finding the trail of the FFF. Though they had long gone from the locations he had been given, he figured that his animal form would enable him to sniff them out, literally. Using darkness to hide their animal guises the pair set out to look for the FFF. It was on the second night that once lured into a false sense of security she made her move.

Fast as she was no match for Neil’s raw power. Finally he understood. She would never stand by his side and her talk of hating him had not been an act. She really did hate him. After all that he had done for her he felt she had betrayed him again and mercilessly began to attack her.

She tried to fight back but had nowhere near the same experience in fighting in her animal form as he had. Latoya would have likely died if the Night Rangers had not happened across the fight and interfered. With no option but to retreat, Neil fled the area leaving Latoya with the Night Rangers. As she lay there prone she changed back into her human guise.

This was a little bit of a surprise and the Night Rangers figured that rather than take her to a hospital the best people to look after the hybrid was a group of hybrids they knew only too well, the FFF. It was therefore ironic for Latoya to find herself in the company of the FFF when finding them had been Neil’s goal all along.

Having failed to find the FFF and lost Latoya, Neil figured that Chimera would soon come looking for him. He therefore decided to carry out his end game and take back his gang, the Red Bloods that way when Chimera came they would have a fight on their hands. With the power that his animal form gave him, victory was assured. Chimera though did not come looking for revenge on the failed deal for Buchanan had decided that Neil was more trouble than he was worth.

The more he stayed with the Red Bloods the more Neil felt his life was somewhat tedious. The cat DNA in his blood gave him the urge to hunt and mugging people was not giving him the satisfaction he craved. He therefore chose to hand over control of the gang to someone he trusted could manage it on his behalf and take up other work by becoming muscle for hire using the codename Overbite. In time he liked his animal side so much that he decided to wear it permanently.

The Phoenix Alliance

Left to Right: Digitise, Striker, Miss Fusion, G-Wiz, Foresight, Longfellow, Firewall, Longbow

Left to Right: Digitise, Striker, Miss Fusion, G-Wiz, Foresight, Longfellow, Firewall, Longbow

The Phoenix Alliance is one of the most formidable teams of costumed adventurers. Originally based in Pacifica the group moved to Europa after identifying that the mega city, and Europe in general had a lack of home based crime fighting teams.

Unlike other teams which tend to have a fixed “membership” the Phoenix Alliance is open for anyone to join and they can leave at any time. It was created as a means to allow the normally lone heroes to fight for a common cause and have the benefit of mutual protection.

Apart from what is considered the core group of eight members, which it maintains for stability the team frequently gains new members temporary members which may stay for the duration of a mission or for months at a time. Frequently new members are found when the Alliance is approached by a “hero” who has happened across a situation that is too big for them to deal with. Normally if those “temporary” members gel with the rest of the group they will be given the opportunity to become reserve members of the Phoenix Alliance.

Reservists are quite important for the team as they allow for “specialists” teams to be formed for specific villains they are attempting to bring to justice. Being able to continually shift their strengths in this manner has seen the work of the Phoenix Alliance spread worldwide gaining them a reputation that have surpassed Team Zodiac in public opinion.

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

(Core Team)

  • Gary Wynter- G-Wiz (leader)
  • Robert Chatwood – Longfellow
  • Calvin Walker – Firewall
  • Peter Meyer – Striker (Founder)
  • Jillian Leigh – Foresight (Co-leader)
  • Donna Slater – Digitise
  • Hannah Gibson – Longbow
  • Katya Pavlovna – Miss Fusion
  • Selina Allard – Amphritite

Amphrititie and Digitise

(Reservists)

  • Catalyst
  • Substitute
  • Lady Luck
  • Discus*
  • Stardisc*
  • Boost
  • Vox
  • Lifeforce
  • Endurance
  • Centurion**
  • Tech Knight**
  • Backfire
  • Trapper
  • Rebound

* Due to the similarity in abilities one of this pair is normally permanently active on the team but not both at the same time.
** Due to the similarity in abilities one of this pair is normally permanently active on the team but not both at the same time.

CLEA Classification (Core Team):

  • Tech Augmented Human – Wynter
  • Alpha Superior (except Wynter and Pavlovna)
  • Alpha+ Superior – Pavlovna
  • Genetically modified human –

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Wynter (G-Wiz) is an inventor who has created a number of micro gadgets hidden in his clothing that creates the illusion of magical abilities. He uses various “techno staffs” as his primary weapon.
  • Alpha ability – (Longfellow) Chatwood can stretch many of his “primary” limbs (neck, legs, arms and torso). As the stretching is always linear in accordance with his bone structure he is not totally malleable unlike “Flex”.
  • Alpha ability – (Firewall) Walker possesses a permanently active ability which cause his molecules to be in a state of excitement so he can pass through solid objects. When he adds extra energy he can create intense waves/blasts of heat and if pushed further explosion result. His special suit is needed to neutralise his “excited” energy state and thus allow him to take on a solid human form.
  • Alpha ability – (Striker) Meyer can block/disable other psychic abilities by using a mind weapon he refers to as a “psychic sword”. Hitting an ordinary person with this “intangible” weapon can totally disrupt their nervous system and shut them down without causing them physical harm or long term ill effects. He also has telepathic abilities and can read the thoughts of others but not directly manipulate them.
  • Alpha ability – (Foresight) Leigh’s ability gives her a form of intuition that allows her to see “patterns” in almost every situation which involve human minds and successfully predict the continuation. She uses this primarily to foresee an enemy combatant’s moves and defeat them.
  • Alpha ability – (Digitise) Slater can convert her body to a data stream and “transmit” herself over conductive surfaces. Also allows her to disable electrical systems.
  • Alpha ability – (Longbow) Gibson has Infrared, UV and X-ray vision. This allows her to “see” a hidden enemy.
    Gibson is highly skilled with a carbon longbow. She prefers this over other weapons due to its stealthy capabilities as it has no sound or flash.
  • Alpha ability- (Miss Fusion) Pavlona is described as a living star. She can emit radiation across the EM spectrum, absorb mass from the surrounding environment, create intense gravitational waves emit blinding light and heat blasts. Since she can generate her own gravity she can levitate and fly. Lastly in extreme situations she can expel energy by rapidly shedding mass and going nova. She is considered by many to be one of the most powerful Alphas.
  • Super Strength and Resilience – Allards genetic adaptation to survive on the ocean floor means her body at sea level and higher is extremely tough, enough to deflect bullets and this also gives her a massive increase in strength.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Walker has to wear a special suit to bring his molecules together so he can function like a normal human without ghosting through everything. The suit allow him to control is intangibility to a fine degree but without it he cannot cause any physical harm (he can however still explode etc.)
  • Pavlova emits hazardous radiation almost permanently even when not purposely using her Alpha ability. At close range she can burn ordinary people unintentionally so she has to wear a suit when in public which helps keep her “natural” emissions within safe limits by reflecting radiation inwards. The suit functions like a filter so all the other effects of her Alpha ability operate unhindered. She can only leave the suit when she enters a special bunker room at the Alliance HQ.
  • Allard cannot survive without her suit at anything about 100 feet below sea level.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

Considered to be the brainchild of Peter Meyer, better known as Striker the Phoenix Alliance originally started out as the Guardian Alliance. Since deciding to put his Alpha abilities to use as a costumed crime fighter in Pacifica, Peter first began operating as a lone hero. As he believed his personality did not allow him to “play well” with others the choice suited him, that was until he began encountering criminals which could defend against his Alpha ability.
During those incidents Peter felt he could have used some additional help which is why he had concluded that others had got past similar problems by forming teams or partnerships. Peter though considered such alliances where too rigid. From what he had witnessed each team and partnership always had a weakness that could be exploited so whilst a team could be formed to deal with a specific threat there was always a chance that a different threat could defeat them, much the same problem as he had experienced as a lone hero.

After a great deal of thought he arrived at a logical conclusion that the only way to deal with every threat was to have a team that could deal with every threat. He knew that was of course was unworkable so his solution was to create a team whose membership was not fixed but was fluid. For this to work effectively the team would still need a certain number of core members but depending on the nature of the threat others would be drafted in, rather like specialists called in to deal with engineering problems. By swapping the various team members around Peter envisioned that is done correctly his team would theoretically have no weaknesses. Thus the Guardian Alliance was formed.

Bringing his idea to fruition though took a long time as the just finding the core members was problematic. He theorised that heroes from other teams would not be likely to join as it would mean breaking one team to create another so Peter was left with trying to recruit from the loners. Since like him they preferred to work alone, Peter had to do an awful lot of convincing but eighteen months of hard work finally rewarded Peter with what he believed would be the ideal core members of the team.

As well as himself these included Abyss, Mist, Digitise, Zero, Pitbull and Thunderchild, with Lady Luck and Discus adding themselves as “reserve” specialists. Whether it was over confidence or arrogance in the fact that he had created what he thought was the most powerful heroic team ever, Peter decided that the Guardian Alliance’s first mission was to go after the extremely powerful Alpha known as Monarch.

Having never worked as a team before this proved to be a mistake. The plan was simple. Since he was the only one with psychic abilities Striker (Peter) wanted the others to flush her out of hiding and then distract Monarch at which point he intended to disable her.

What he did not take into account was that the others had never agreed to him being their leader and choose to act unilaterally. On the night of the mission the team managed to contain Monarch in an abandoned industrial complex but before Striker could disable her, Abyss got impatient and decided to go after her alone. Without the support of a psychic Monarch easily took hold of Abyss’s mind and then used him as bait to draw out the rest of the Guardian Alliance. One by one Monarch took control of the other team members and then used these thralls to bring the remainder of the Alliance to her where she planned to seize control of their minds. Striker only realised what was happening when it was too late. By then Monarch had “control” of everyone except him and Digitise. The latter though had been caught by the members of his team that had been turned and looked to be destined for the same fate. Acutely aware he could not stop Monarch now she had the others under her control Peter was left with only one option, save Digitise.

Intercepting Zero and Pitbull as they dragged an unconscious Digitise back to Monarch, Striker disabled both with his psychic sword and then threw her prone body over his shoulder and made a hasty retreat. With Striker and Digitise gone, Monarch decided to finish off programming the minds of her latest thralls and sent them out in the world to destroy anyone that was a threat to her. They became Chaos and in a true sense of irony with his new programming Abyss became even more powerful than Monarch and eventually forced her to become his servant.

Defeated and having lost everything he had created Peter made contact with Lady Luck and Discus (Paul Smith) and informed them of what had happened and then announced he would be disbanding the Guardian Alliance. What he did not expect was the other two and Digitise to argue against the decision. Though she had been hurt in the battle Digitise felt that they could still make a difference. Peter though wanted no more to do with the Guardian Alliance and left the shattered remains with the other three.
The trio then set about rebuilding the team from scratch and within six months were operational again. Without Peter at the helm Discus became the new team leader and to emphasise the fact that even if they were defeated the team would rise again from the remains the name was changed from the Guardian Alliance to the Phoenix Alliance. For a few years Discus, Lady Luck and Digitise kept the team together and even managed to enrol new members. However Smith had heard his sister had broken out of prison and was on the run. He figured he had to be the one to bring her in and so elected to hand control over to Christina and temporarily left the Alliance.

With Paul gone the lack of money and resources really began to bite even with the help from new members. It was then that they received a contact from the other side of the world, England, by Gary Wynter. He was just setting out on his journey as a costumed adventurer and had heard about the Phoenix Alliance. He suggested that he and the team relocate to Europa which was bigger than Pacifica and had a lack of “amateur crime fighters”, and in return they would receive all the money and resources they needed.

Though moving was not an ideal solution the trio soon reached the conclusion that without Gary they were dead in the water and so agreed to go to Europa if it meant keeping the Alliance going.The purpose of the visit was to see what Mr Wynter had to offer.

There were not disappointed. Having made his fortune from designing advanced tech, he had more money than he knew what to do with, and just as much free time. His companies tended to run themselves, which is why the inventor had chosen to become the costumed adventurer “G-Wiz” which meant the “Gadget Wizard” since his suits created the effects of magic through miniaturised tech.

After their initial meeting, Gary took the trio to an area outside Europa where there was a large mansion and acres of land. He proposed buying the House and the grounds and turning it into a HQ. Though the buildings were in a state of disrepair, Gary was a visionary and had a number of ideas. He proposed simply restoring the main house and using its many rooms  to cater for Alliance members, believing that if they had to live together or even have reservists over to stay then they deserved some level of stress free comfort. Away the the house he had already drawn up plans to build a large underground complex,  to be equipped with support facilities such as labs, fabrication areas and storage.

The trio were impressed with Wynter’s ideas and decided to go along with everything. It did take some time before all the work was completed and finally up and running. By then new members had seen the core group grow in size until it finally consisted of  Lady Luck, Discus, Longfellow, Digitise, G-Whiz, Longbow with Discus and Lady Luck being chosen as leaders.

In time Discus would opt to become a reserve member and take leave to deal with family “problems” and this paved the way for Striker to return. Having come to terms with his guilt he felt able to contribute to the team especially since it was far from Pacifica and the bad memories, but would never resume the mantle of leadership.

With Discus gone G-Wiz was offered the role of deputy leader and became permanent leader a short time after Lady Luck stood down. Later on Foresight joined the team to build up the core membership and was soon followed by Miss Fusion and Firewall.

The last two needed special facilities adding to the underground complex to cope with their unique abilities. Since both could not remove their suits without causing themselves or others harm, they had to live in special containment units which meant they could not stay in the main house during down times.

Though underground, Wynter tried to make the units as homely as possible rather than having them look like a sterile environment. He felt that their limited means of physical contact with other people was difficult for them to cope with, without making them any more miserable.

Foresight would then eventually take a leadership role and since then the overall leadership has alternated between her and G-Wiz. This became particularly necessary after Gary Wynter helped establish the Knight’s Forge which meant he has had to divide his time to cater for both groups.

The last permanent resident to the Alliance HQ, Selina Allard. She had been found wandering the streets of Pacifica in a seemingly drunken rage. After been caught by the Alliance her incoherant speech made it difficult to understand exactly what was happening. The only clue G-Wiz had was she wore an unusual outfit with a thick glass helmet which seemed to be pressured, or rather had been pressured but looked to have been broken for some time.

He eventually worked out that the woman had come from deep within the ocean and had been genetically altered to survive at depth, hence she had increased bone density and muscles. Thought she appeared to be a slender young woman, on land at sea level the modifications made her extremely strong. At the same time with a broken pressure suit her body could not process air normally which was why she had seemed drunk.

Putting her in decompression chamber returned her to normal and she was finally able to give some straight answers. she explained that she was called Selina Allard and that her parents were both scientists. They beleived that the human race was on the verge of another disaster and had figured the best way to survive was by living at the bottom of the ocean.

To this end they had altered her DNA whilst Selina was just a foetus and that meant her entire life had been spent on the ocean floor. The facility she had been living in had catered for her every need and she had been happy. So she could explore her parents had built her the special suit. Then one day they had received a radio message and left and she had not seen them since.

Selina had always believed they would come back but when the equipment started failing and could no longer provide her with food she had come to the surface looking for help not realising her suit had been damaged. Unable to locate her parents who had already managed to stay off the grid for nearly three decades, Wynter could only offer her a place to stay. Having already gained experience with Fire Wall and Miss Fusion it was not that difficult to build special quarters for Selina. When she was ready she took her place in the Phoenix Alliance, choosing the code name “Amphritite”.

Of all the current members only Digitise has remained continually since the team’s creation.

 

Platinum

Left to Right: Event Horizon, Duplicate, White Mage, Wind Shear

Left to Right: Event Horizon, Duplicate, White Mage, Wind Shear

Team Platinum is the first and only all White Guardian unit CLEA established. They are generally called upon to deal with other Alphas.

CLEA DATA FILE

Primary Role:

  • Alpha Superior Strike

Mission Types:

  • Support (for CLEA agents/assets)
  • Containment and capture (organised crime/Alpha criminals)
  • Pre-emptive strike  (against criminal targets)
  • Counter attack (against Alpha Criminals)

Team Identities:

  • Duplicate – Danica Novak
  • Event Horizon – Ralph Banks
  • White Mage – Iolia Martin
  • Wind Shear – Keenan Griffith

CLEA Classification:

  • White Guardian (entire team)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – Novak, can produce an autonomous copies of herself including equipment and thus fight opponents from multiple directions. Injury to herself or her copy can be healed by merging but an injury to both leaves her in need of medical treatment.
  • Alpha ability – Banks, body becomes living portal that he can used to transport people and objects. Whilst his physical body always becomes an anchor for the subspace transit “tunnel” he can move the other end at will. When using his Alpha ability, outsiders see the effect as instant teleportation but technically he is moving objects into and out of subspace. Since he can control the speed of an object travelling through is portal he can eject them with considerable force. Unlike Abyss Ralph cannot contain any person or object inside his own body.
  • Alpha ability – Martin, can shut down the ability of any Alpha by touch alone. Her ability is similar to Neutraliser only whilst his gift works as an area effect hers is more localised. Also when an Alpha who moves out of range of Neutraliser they can regain their abilities, one touch from Iolia can disable an Alpha for days or weeks at a time.
  • Alpha ability – Griffith, can control and create localised wind conditions.

Tactical Weakness(s):

  • None of them have Alpha abilities that allow them to fly or give them greater strength than normal so are vulnerable to enemies with those attributes.

Notes/History

When Alphas first began appearing CLEA had many ideas on how they might use such individuals to accomplish their goals. Then when certain Alphas began to perform criminal activites, CLEA saw the potential to use Alphas to redress the balance of power as well as special agents. They began a recruitment drive but the responce from Alphas was not great. Some did not trust the organisation whilst others did want to fight criminals but not be bound by rules. If things were not bad enough for the recruiters then everythign went worse when Black Shadow began systematically eliminating all Alphas. Those that escaped and were aware they were Alphas went into hiding. About the only upside of not being able to obtain Alphas was the fact the Alpha criminals had also vanished.

Black Shadow was eventually crippled and Alphas began appearing again. For the first time CLEA was able to add them to their ranks but they were never available in any great numbers and being such a rare commodity CLEA top brass decided such assets should be protected so they were generally not given tasks that would put them in danger.

Team Platinum, a contradiction to this rule came about after an escape from a Fortress facility by a rogue CLEA agent. The public soon learned the rogue was an Alpha and there was a huge amount of negative publicity. Some even called for expelling of all Alphas from the organisation as “dangerous inidividuals could not be trusted.” Cheif Shaw though felt otherwise. He had noted how fellow Chief Naylor had great success working with Alphas (Team Zodiac) and was not prepared to accept the media’s knee jerk reactions. To repair the damage and possibly recruit Alphas to CLEA he proposed an additional “metal” team, one comprised of all Alphas. Though it meant putting valuable assets on the front line, Shaw felt the ends justified the means. The other Chiefs felt this too and so he was given the go ahead.

Team Platinum, (or simply Platinum) was formed from personnel within CLEA. Each member was carefully vetted for their “combat” skills to ensure they could cope when encountering powerful enemies. Since the team was going to be in the public eye they were given their own distinctive uniform in order to stand out. The ploy worked for once Platinum began to achieve successes the team began appearing in the media alongside “amateur heroes”. Having restored public faith in both White Guardians and CLEA the team continued with their duties albeit the publicity eventually dropped off.
Interestingly CLEA planned on using the same uniforms on other White Guardians working in the field (or variations of it) but this never became the norm as several operatives found the clothing gave them very little protection and rather than forcing them to wear the uniforms CLEA gave White Guardians the option of wearing standard protective gear or the “triangle chest outfit”. The members of Platinum, proud of what they had accomplished, elected to continue using their distinctive white uniforms despite the protective short comings whilst other White Guardians who use the design switched to camouflaged variants.

Powercell


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Gwyneth Owen

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  •  Alpha ability –  allows her to generate massive amounts of electricity. These can be released as a small series of discharges or one massive burst.
  • Alpha ability – can acts as conduit by extracting power from anywhere close by as opposed to her body “naturally” generate it which prevents her getting fatigued.
  • Alpha ability – when extracting electricity she can disable equipment she is stealing power from.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Since failure of the law was responsible for turning her criminal into the first place, any appearance of a uniform immediately causes her to act aggressively and unpredictably.
  • When acting as a conduit she becomes unaware she when she is overusing her Alpha ability and has been known to collapse/fall unconscious. She is more aware of the problem when generating electricity since her body will simply stop charging instinctively.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Muscle for hire
  • Robbery
  • Electronic sabotage

Notes/History

Instead of choosing a life of crime Gwyneth Evans was pushed into it. An admin officer for a retail company, when her alpha abilities activated for the first time she caused minor damage in one of the company’s offices. The sudden unexpected production of a bolt of electricity from her hand though did not go unnoticed but surprisingly her boss, Ben Goodman seemed very understanding even when it appeared her “gift” was involuntary. Every time her stress levels increased she would cause a spark to jump a few feet.

Feeling her gift was rather useless for the role of a hero but at the same time a danger to others in the workplace, Gwyneth was even more surprised when her boss suggested she remain. He decided that perhaps she went somewhere where she could not hurt others then it did not matter and so sent her to one of the company warehouses. He even gave her a promotion. In hindsight Gwyneth should have realised something was going on but was so preoccupied with her “spark” problem she did not think properly.

What she did not know was the company was in severe debt and up until the point she discovered she had Alpha abilities  her boss has been planning on committing insurance fraud. He figured if one of the warehouses burned down then the payout would clear his creditors and get the company back on its feet again. However he was well aware that insurance fraud was tricky to pull off when it came to arson as the investigators had foiled attempt by other companies in the past. Then when Gwyneth displayed her unusual talents he considered if the warehouse was attacked by an Alpha Criminal then there would be no need for an investigation. To this end he had covert CCTV recorded her many “accidents” before sending her to the warehouse.

Once installed as its manager he made sure there were plenty of shipment of flammable material and contacted her daily to increase her stress levels. Gwyneth then became a walking time bomb and the pressure was kept up until one day the desired effect was reached and she discharged a spark which created a fire.

Once this happened Goodman contacted the police and told them an Alpha Criminal had blackmailed him and set fire to a warehouse as leverage. With his collected footage he talked a very good story an being a well respected business man they had no reason to suspect he was lying. With a mountain of circumstantial evidence against her Gwyneth was arrested and being an Alpha Superior charged with blackmail she received a twenty year sentence.

On the way to a specialist Alpha prison Gwyneth reviewed her situation and realised she had been stitched up good and proper by Goodman. Aware he had many contacts some of which were in the justice system Gwyneth felt any chance of an appeal would be a waste of time and the more she thought the angrier she got. As this happened she felt something building up inside her. Unlike any other time when she had inadvertently caused a spark this time there was something different. In an instant she drained all the power in the transport and critically the power supplying her Alpha suppression collar (which had not been modified for this type of ability) and then she cut loose launching huge bolts of electricity in all different directions.

After making her escape and knowing that she would never clear her name Gwyneth had one thing on her mind and that was to get even. Rather than simply killing Goodman she wanted him to suffer and as his company was now doing well she was going to take it apart piece by piece.

This was how Gwyneth became known as Powercell and whilst she is obsessed with destroying Goodman those actions do not keep her fed and clothed so she has taken to providing her “skills” to other criminals that will pay her fees.

Quartz, Chrysalis and Stonewall

Left to Right: Stonewall, Quartz and Chrysalis

Left to Right: Stonewall, Quartz and Chrysalis

Having been part of ARGO’s illegal experiments that forever changed their lives, this trio formed with one intention – to get revenge on those that had hurt them. However the trio would eventually get past their need for vengeance and take up crime fighting in general.

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Quinn McGrath – Quartz
  • Chrysalis – Michelle Bertrand
  • Anna Milewski – Stonewall

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior (McGrath)
  • Alpha Superior (Bertrand)
  • Alpha Superior (Milewski)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – McGrath can transform himself into a large 6-8ft tall humanoid beast with thick hide and mineral coating on his back that is highly resistant to physical attack. In this form he possesses super human strength.
  • Alpha ability – Bertrand has the ability to “grow” stone shapes. She can use this to encase her enemies in a “shell”. Alternately she can grow objects on her own body to use as for attack and defence, such as creating a disk like shield and mineral spikes (akin to stalactites). Lastly she can eject crystal shards at speed from her hands to produce projectile weapons.
  • Alpha ability – Milewski has the means to transform into a “living” statue. When she changes she can choose any height from her “natural” size up to a massive 30 ft tall. What she lacks in speed she makes up in raw power.

cqs-changed

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Both McGrath and Milewski have “unstable” abilities. As well as choosing when to transform a sudden influx of adrenalin can trigger an automatic change. In the case of McGrath he remains stuck in his “monster” form for random lengths of time when an “accidental” change has been initiated.
  • The larger the height Milewski chooses the more strain it places on her body and the quicker her Alpha ability will “fail”.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Assault
  • Assault and battery

Notes/History

Though this group would eventually become a trio for several years it was only a partnership between Chrysalis and Quartz. Though initially from completely different social circles they united in order to tackle a common cause that had caused them so much pain and grief, ARGO.

Before the met, Michelle was a nine-to-five secretary, whilst Quinn was the son of a Senator and one of the few CLEA White Guardians. He used the alias “Stone Knight” for he had the means to convert his skin to a stone like armour by “growing” crystals onto the top surface of his skin.

Having set up a new base of operations in Atlantica, ARGO was trying a new series of experiments into the “Alpha Effect”. In previous experiment s ARGO had simply tried finding the genetic differences between Alphas and ordinary humans in order to learn what made the former immune to diseases but since neither ARGO or anyone else had made any progress in that area Dr Ellie Watson suggested that perhaps they should take smaller steps and first of all and learn what the difference was between Alpha Superiors and Alpha Inferiors. Comparison genetic data gained by comparing the two, she hoped would then put them on a path working backwards and lead to the end goal that would give them the genetic coding that separated Alpha Inferiors from ordinary people.

Since every person had different DNA the experiment entailed required the same test subject to be tested both as an Alpha Inferior and an Alpha Superior. Whilst the rogue doctor knew she could perhaps obtain a suitable Alpha Inferior there was a problem in getting that person to “change” to a superior since the metamorphosis occurred at random in real life (an in many cases did not occur at all) and then required an external trigger to complete the transition. Simply waiting and hoping for the best was not going to work but Ellie had an idea that she might be able to “jumpstart” the transition by finding an Alpha Inferior and Alpha Superior with similar genetic makeup and then take samples from the Superior and graft them onto the Inferior. She believed doing the surgery might just cause the Inferior to change status and thus they would have their data.

Finding an Alpha Inferior that fitted the profile was easy because often such people were not aware what they were Alpha humans and so to themselves and everyone around them these people were considered “ordinary”, whereas Alpha Superiors were often aware they were special and either hid themselves or were protected by others.

Over a period of weeks bio scanning drones spread out across Atlantica looking for a suitable target and they found it in Michelle Bertrand. She met with all of ARGO’s needs in that as well as being an Alpha Inferior, she was new in Atlantica, having come from New Tokyo on a business transfer and so would not be missed easily (when she was abducted for the experiment).
The match they had found for her was going to prove tricky to snatch without being noticed. Most Alpha Superiors had the means to keep their abilities secret and in the case of Quinn McGrath he had a higher profile with CLEA being a White Guardian. Taking him was seen as creating as much attention as running into a CLEA base and threatening agents. Even worse for ARGO, was that like most CLEA personnel he was aware of the rogue science group as they had been looking for them for some time. Despite the high risks, the three core members decided that Quinn was perfect for their experiment and so reasoned they might get away with taking him providing they used extra precautions.

After discovering when Quinn was on leave, ARGO decided to kidnap him then and keep him sedated during the time he was with them, and then only return him when he was scheduled to return to duty, instead of the more normal usual approach which was to keep the test subjects for a couple of days at a time, return them and then kidnap them again. By the time Quinn realised he had lost over a week of time and worked out who was responsible ARGO planned to have closed down their operation and be long gone.

Due to Quinn’s CLEA profile, he and Michelle were scheduled to be the last “pairing” they would use before leaving, and before them they had successfully taken and returned four other pairs. As with the others, the abduction operation went smoothly with the drones darting their respective targets and bringing them to the secret lab unconscious.

Almost as soon as they arrived the ARGO scientists wasted no time in getting to work by performing a whole barrage of tests on their comatose bodies. Unfortunately as with the other four pairs they had used ARGO found no fathomable distinction between Alpha Inferiors and Alpha Superiors. They had hoped for better results since Michelle and Quinn were so genetically similar (compared to the other pairs) so rather than chance losing valuable data, with time running out they took extra skins and bone samples from both of them to use at a later date.

Just before the drones were due to return both of their test subjects to their homes, Watson made one mistake and her quest for research and decided to perform one last experiment. On each pairing she had performed a unique test and in the case of Michelle and Quinn she tried to jumpstart Michelle’s Alpha abilities by injecting a sample of Quinn’s DNA right into her brain. Previously she had simply grafted tissue onto the Alpha Inferior’s skin but this drastic action by Ellie was a cross between impatience and continuing disappointment.

As with the previous four experiments Ellie thought she had failed but in fact she had succeeded, but just like as Teknor had done when they jump started the Zodiac Gemini twins, Ellie introduced an unforeseen instability. Almost as the needle was removed from Michelle’s brain her body went into spasm and she began coming out of her induced sleep and no matter how much anaesthetic Ellie and the other scientists (Ethan and Kenneth) pumped into her body they could not stop her waking up.

Awaking in an alien environment with surrounded by people she did not know was the biggest shock of her life and when the Ellie and Ethan moved in and tried to restrain her it only added to her panic. She fought bravely and was surprised when the people trying to capture her left after seemingly giving up the fight easily.

In reality the scientists realised that the game was up and the longer Michelle was left to raise the alarm there was a higher risk of the police of CLEA being alerted. The ARGO scientists therefore decided it was time to leave and so ordered a security drone to barricade the two test subjects in the lab until they had made their escape.

Locked in the room, as the alarms began to sound in all the chaos Michelle turned and saw Quinn. Realising she was in deep trouble and needed to get out she was not the sort of person who could leave a “helpless” person to their fate especially if he, like her had also been kidnapped. Naturally the first thing Michelle did was try to wake Quinn. Then the instability that Ellie had created came into effect. As Michelle made physical contact with Quinn, her Alpha abilities activated for the first time. Since she had some of Quinn’s DNA in her body, her Alpha abilities used Quinn’s abilities as a template giving her similar powers to him.

Though she could not grow “armour” she could absorb minerals through her body and use the material to rapidly “grow” crystal shards which she would later learn to shape into cocoons, shields and projectiles. At this moment in time though she was unaware she was even an Alpha. With her body though still in a state of flux whilst she stood there trying to wake Quinn, the instability of her new “gift” created a form of bio-feedback. This had the effect of stabilising her Alpha Abilities but at the cost of radically altering the way Quinn’s worked.

His body suddenly went into spasm and he woke up, just as back up security drones had begun to file into the room. Though he was not entirely sure how he come to be in a lab, as a White Guardian and thus operative of CLEA he suspected ARGO from the usage of drones. Quinn’s initial conclusion was therefore he was being used in some sort of experiment. He then noticed an unknown woman standing over him in a frantic state and guessed she had also been subject to the attentions of ARGO. Taking charge of the situation he told Michelle to get behind him and activated his Alpha abilities.

Instead of his skin simply turning to stone he became engulfed in pain and suddenly took the form of a large lumbering humanoid beast, not unlike something out of a fantasy novel. The crystal armour was still present but only on his back and shoulders and was no longer smooth. Quinn came to the logical conclusion that, he had been “altered”.

With an imminent threat to his and the woman’s life Quinn knew there was no time to test out his new form. Since it seemed to give him similar protection to his old form, he instinctively chose to do his duty as an agent of CLEA and get them both to safety. Luckily his new guise gave him increased strength like he’d never felt before as well as resilience to the incoming fire. Using these to his advantage he managed to batter the drones until they were little more than spare parts and then cleared an escape route. Time was of the essence for Quinn knew that once the ARGO scientists had made their own way out the laboratory they would blow it up to bury any evidence.

Upon exiting the lab, Quinn and Michelle found themselves in the Atlantica sewer system, indicating that ARGO had set up their lab underground. The dust cloud that rushed past them a moment later signified the lab had been destroyed.

He maintained his new form until he got Michelle to the surface, and once there he tried to change back to a “human” in order to make contact with his superior. It was only now that he realised that somehow the rogue scientists had made him stuck in the hideous body of a monster.

His superior immediately sent an investigative task force and he was debriefed albeit in his new form. Agents then travelled down to the sewer to look into Quinn’s story and whilst they found the lab there was nothing left. Michelle was also debriefed but could not provide detectives with any useful information nor a reason why ARGO had been interested in her.

Then when the meeting was over as she was starting to head for home, she went over to see him. He was grateful that she had saved him but deeply upset that ARGO had messed with his gift. Quinn was also upset that CLEA was not mounting a full scale operation to track down ARGO, and as they spoke for the first time, by mistake Michelle accidentally used her Alpha abilities for the first time. Shocked at what was going on Quinn realised he was not the only one that had been altered, so before they parted company he gave Michelle his contact detail in case she needed any help.

For several days CLEA doctors worked on Quinn’s problem but without success. They suggested he go home and take some leave but he would not leave CLEA’s Atlantica HQ because he was embarrassed about how he now looked. Agents who saw him did not help because they gave him a wide birth. Ten days into his “leave” (where he did not actually go anywhere) Quinn awoke one morning and found he had returned to “normal.” He then tried triggering his Alpha ability and it worked. He even managed to change back perfectly okay. The doctors looked into him and suggested his body could have suffered shock when he was with ARGO. They concluded he was now fully recovered but three days later and he went to the gym and whilst on a treadmill he suddenly changed form only now he could not change back again.

Once more the doctors looked at him and could not understand what was going on but eventually through a lot of experimentation, Quinn would learn that he could activate his Alpha ability normally and access his new form and revert back at will. However elevated levels of adrenalin would cause the same effect only when that happened he would not be able to revert back to a human form for a random period of time that could be days or weeks. Without full control over his Alpha abilities it not only meant his ordinary life style was over but also his means to function as a White Guardian was also affected.

As the weeks passed Quinn found his unpredictable abilities a hindrance and had grown enraged that his superiors had not shown an interest in hunting down the people responsible for his current “condition.” During one fit of anger at his superiors Quinn shocked them by quitting and told them he was becoming an Independent Hero, that way he could find ARGO on his terms. Then he received the call from Michelle who was having problems understanding her own gifts, so Quinn offered to meet her.

As well as offering to help her he outline his plan to go after ARGO and then asked for her help. Though not normally a vengeful person, ARGO had given her some anger issues of her own so she agreed to assist him. The first thing that Quinn did was bring her means of using her Alpha abilities up to White Guardian standard. Then as she learned to understand her gifts Michelle discovered she could grow crystalline “eggs” out of the ground to encase objects (or people) and as well as this she found she could also shoot crystal shards from her hands or grow a protective disc shape shield instead.

By the time they were ready to take the fight to ARGO, Quinn assumed the identity Quartz and Michelle became Chrysalis. The pair went on the warpath literally. Like a force of nature they found several ARGO labs and laid them to waste. Then during one late night encounter they met their match when they were surrounded by thirty drones.

ARGO had sent practically all its mechanical troops to destroy the pair and they did not care whom was watching. CLEA had been monitoring Quinn for some time and his old boss was finding it hard to find excuses not to arrest him. Rather than send a team to put a stop to the unfolding battle, his old boss for word to Zodiac who would not be under quite the same obligations to arrest Quinn. Instead they would be more interesting in saving civilian lives and containing the collateral damage.

Fighting side by side with Zodiac, Chrysalis and Quartz vanquished the drones and set back ARGO’s abduction capabilities by several years. Once the battle was over McCabe talked to the pair and learned of their ongoing mission. He suggested that they abandon the quest for revenge and put their talents to better use, even explaining how the Gemini twins had also been subjected to illegal experiments and abduction but had gotten over that to use their gifts for more than just vengeance.

They failed to understand his message though and the revelation that other laboratories had performed illegal experiments only added fuel to the fire as far as Quartz and Chrysalis were concerned. Rather than give up on their quest they informed McCabe that such underhand scientists had better beware that they would pay for toying with the lives of others. Ignoring McCabe’s protests Crystal and Quartz fled, for as they well hell bent on operating outside the law, CLEA would no longer be able to ignore them and they would be regarded as criminals. McCabe considered stopping them but decided to give the pair the chance to try and come to their senses.

A year after their encounter with Zodiac the pair would find themselves approached by two individuals. The first of these was Shane Wright (Mind Storm). He was considering creating a small group to target those people that targeted Alpha’s in general. Though he certainly had revenge as part of his plan, Quartz and Chrysalis declined the offer as they were solely interested in bringing down ARGO.

The second person to track down Quinn and Michelle was Anna Milewski. She had the means to transform into a massive living ‘statue’. As this had the potential to cause accidental collateral damage the Protectorate had decided she needed to be neutralised. Law enforcement agencies as well as some military agencies thought the same thing but whilst they had rules Orion, sent by the Protectorate did not.

Staying one step ahead of Orion was difficult as she knew she could not use her Alpha ability, for the same reason they wanted her captured in the first place. The major problem for her was an adrenalin rush would cause the transformation so keeping calm whilst being chased around took an enormous amount of willpower.

The reason she had been looking for Chrysalis and Quartz was the fact she had been artificially “triggered” the same as Michelle by ARGO using one of Quinn’s DNA samples they had stored. This she revealed to the pair when she tracked them down. Anna also told them she had stolen some of ARGO’s files which is how she had learned that they had used Quinn’s DNA on her. Though she was relatively smart it had taken a while for her to find Quinn and Michelle due to them changing aliases on a regular basis leaving Anna with only the pictures on the file to go on.

Having explained her story she had only one reason for finding them and that was to join them on their quest as she wanted ARGO stopped before they could use Quinn’s DNA to make any other “monsters”. As well as being linked via Quartz all three had seen their lives ruined by the rogue scientists so Michelle and Quinn would not deny Anna’s request. However she did explain that before accepting her into the partnership, the Protectorate had targeted her so they might have more than just ARGO to worry about.

Surviving for so long on her own touched a chord with Quinn and Michelle, so much so that Quinn told her she would no longer need to run. They then formed a pact and agreed to defeat ARGO and stand up to their enemies together. Anna was no longer on her own.

The first time the Protectorate caught up to Anna after that day, the retrieval team now found she was well protected and when the fight started attract the attention of bystanders the retrieval team were forced to withdrawal for tactical reasons as they did not want public exposure. The last thing a secret organisation needed was to get “noticed”. The Protectorate were therefore forced to reconsider their stance in regards to Anna.

The trio would also cross paths with Zodiac on a second occasion. This time they were tracking ARGO who had appeared back in Atlantica. ARGO was not interested in them but Trident and having missed capturing one member of that team (Gecko) she had gone for help at the White Tower. ARGO responded by sending an invasion of drones to the tower, and Quartz, Chrysalis and Stonewall joined in. The trio had been looking into the ARGO activities and whilst pounding the Atlantica Streets had seen the drones converging on the tower.

Though the attack was partially successful, McCabe and the other Zodiac members recognised the trio as allies as did Gecko (who represented Trident) so for the first time they were no longer alone. Though Trident and Zodiac stated they would not support the trio’s more extreme methods they recognised the trio’s efforts to help both groups and so promised to provide “other” help when needed.

As time went by the trio invariably found themselves coming across situations where they witnessed criminals in action and found it increasingly hard to simply stand by. When the had started pursuing ARGO they had not wanted the “distractions” of taking on other criminals but in the end they had progressed to a point where they realised that in allowing other people becoming victims they were no better than ARGO in the sence they felt the lives of others were less “important”.

Though ARGO was their number one “enemy” the trio began handing out justice to anyone that happened to cross their path. The general public then elevated them to “heroes.” McCabe from team Zodiac took note of their actions and arranged for the trio to meet the Knights Forge where they were then given specialist clothing to cope with their unique abilities. This was greatly needed by Quinn and Anna. Quinn’s razor sharp outgrowths had a habit of ripping through clothing like a knife through butter so he received and outfit where the material would “self heal”. Anna by comparison trashed her outfit every time she became Stonewall so she received was given special clothing that could stretch to accommodate her enlarged size. Cade Lewis based this clothing on the outfit he had been “forced” to create for Alpha Strike’s “Bulldozer”.

Currently the trio are active in North America although the have been seen further afield.

Team Attack moves
Whilst there are several groups of heroes (and villains) that work together, not many develop a combined team attack. This trio though are well documented in using double and even triple attacks to produce devastating results.

  • Rock ‘n’ Roll – A combined move worked by Chrysalis and Quartz whereby Chrysalis grows a pair of crystal boxing gloves on Quartz hands giving him a lot bigger hitting power.
  • Bowling Ball – Quick attack whereby Stonewall hurls Quartz like a ball at their opponents.
  • Cactus Ball – As  above only Chrysalis adds a layer of crystal spikes to Quartz’s body before he is thrown.
  • Rock Wedge – Containing move that cna be used defensively and offensively. Consists of Quartz, leading Stonewall who lifts Chrysalis off the ground so she can rain down crystal shards from ‘high’ ground whilst Quartz guards against any ground attacks.

Save

The Raiders

Left-Right: Bullet, Reaper, Skyspy, Lozen, Tank, Strongarm, Frenzy, Berserker

Left-Right: Bullet, Reaper, Skyspy, Lozen, Tank, Strongarm, Frenzy, Berserker

The Raiders are a team group of cybernetic/augmented human mercenaries under the control of Janice Langham aka Lozen.  They represent one of the largest threats to CLEA, at one time directly and now indirectly by working for the enemies of CLEA.

CLEA DATA FILE

Group Identities:

  • Janice Langham – Lozen – (Leader of the group)
  • (male – name unknown) – Berserker
  • (female – name unknown) – Frenzy
  • (male – name unknown) – Tank
  • (female – name unknown) -Skyspy
  • (male – name unknown) Bullet
  • (female – name unknown) – Reaper – Female Infiltrator specialist,
  • (male – name unknown) – Strongarm
  • Sledge Hammer (Robot)
  • Smasher (Robot)
  • Ram (Robot)

CLEA Classification:

  • Cyborg (all except Sledge Hammer, Smasher and Ram)
  • Robot (Sledge Hammer, Smasher and Ram)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Langham has injected the cyborg members of her team with an unknown bioagent. The effects of this enable their organic components to heal at an accelerated rate.
  • Most of the Raiders, being cyborgs can withstand a lot of damage from conventional weapons.
  • Lozen has replaced over 75% of her body with artificial components. She controls the entire team from behind the battlefield although if challenged directly she will engage and not many can survive her power.
  • Berserker and Frenzy are infiltration specialists, the only artificial external alterations being the replacement of an eye so they can “see” Heat, IR and UV.
  • Tank features both arms and legs replaced with artificial ones. He is the teams assault specialist and uses his arms as weapons to clear away enemy troops and vehicles in his path.
  • Skyspy is equipped with wings and is the team’s aerial recon specialist. From her flying vantage point she can observe and update the other Raiders on enemy movements. She is also known to engage aerial targets.
  • Bullet has both lower legs replaced. He is capable of incredible ground speed. His job is often to scout ahead and using his speed soften the enemy before they known what has hit them and then once that has done the others will attack.
  • Reaper, like tank has all of her major limbs replaced. She has lower strength to her partner Tank but has increased speed.
  • Strongarm has his lower arms replaced. He has lower strength and power than Tank or Cutter but being mainly human gives him and more agile body. He is a hand to hand attack specialist
  • Sledge Hammer, Smasher and Drone are three experimental biped robot combatants that Lozen stole to replace “lost” members of her team.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • All the cyborgs have to maintain their organic components to function. Aiming for exposed flesh can cause them to act defensively and shield exposed areas of their bodies with armoured parts. However since they do not “feel” pain in the true sense and can heal faster this tactic has to be used with caution especially as the nanobots allow the more “human” raiders to move quicker.
  • Langham is the key to Raider attacks. Disabling her prevents the others functioning correctly.
  • All members of the team (cyborgs and robots) are vulnerable to EM weapons.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Homicide/Attempted homicide
  • Destruction of property
  • Terrorism
  • Aggravated assault
  • Mercenaries
  • Muscle for Hire
  • Robbery

Notes/History

All too aware that running a country as a dictator would gain him many enemies, Azem Dushku had to maintain a strong military presence to keep control and guard against threats posed by insiders as well as outsiders. Though his senior military leaders seemed to support him Azem was paranoid that their loyalties might change at any given time especially since his ten years in control had seen a growing underground resistance move opposing his leadership.

As his paranoia grew he became convinced that what he needed was a weapon to strike fear into his enemies and ensure his own troops would not step out of line. In his mind the perfect weapon was the perfect soldier and he became particularly interested in the work of Dr Pierre Mercier a cybernetics specialist.

Mercier had worked with people who had lost limbs and proposed the idea that permanently grafting replacements was the way forwards. Connecting electronics to the human nervous system though was “problematic”. The two problems he faced was a lack of volunteers to take part in his procedures and a lack of money. He had tried to get grants from official sources but without success.

Azem soon learned of Mercier’s proposed ideas and liked the idea of human augmentation. A person with the strength and power of a machine and the speed and decision making capability of a human fitted in with his goal of creating a “super soldier”. Mercier though turned him down. Not only could he not stomach the idea of working for a dictator he did not like the idea that Azem was considering deliberately amputating limbs to “create” test subjects.

Azem though would not take no for an answer so arranged for Mercier to be kidnapped. Smuggled across the borders and into Polvania, Mercier was thrown in prison until “he came to his senses”. Mercier though was not so easily swayed so Azem spent months torturing the reluctant doctor and with the careful addition of powerful drugs, eventually Mercier broke and once that happened it was easy to condition him to the point he would do anything for his “master”.

With Azem’s resources at his disposal Mercier set to work building the first cyborg soldier for the dictator. A mercenary prisoner who had been captured working for the resistance was to be the first unwilling test subject. Try as he might though the doctor was not able to come up with a type of design for android limbs that was suitable. His attempts resulted in parts that were light enough but unsuitable for combat due to strength issues or parts that were strong but too heavy.

Azem though would not accept no for an answer and so “acquired” a prototype cyborg design. Where he got it from Mercier had no idea but the mechanical components were affixed to an organic source that was definitely not human in origin. Clearly it was an alien, and whilst most scientists would have been intrigued at what they were seeing, Mercier was so conditioned he hardly gave it a though and those working with him feared the dictator more than the unknown. What Mercier would never learn was he was the first person to examine a Myzx, a member of a mechanical alien race. This particular one had crashed on Earth centuries earlier and been buried in the desert sand which had kept it very well preserved.

Reverse engineering the alien tech allowed took Mercier down research avenues he would never have even contemplated. Using his studies he found solutions to build the similar sorts of mechanics and electronics from an Earth based origin. There was after all never going to be a continuous supply of alien cyborgs to adapt. However aware that Azem was impatient, rather than wait for the first set of parts to be built, Mercier chose to attach the existing alien parts to the human test subject.  This gave him a head start and allowed Mercier was to complete his his human cyborg creation in record time.

He chose to call his creation the somewhat obvious name of “First”. The biggest hurdle he had to jump over was suppressing the human immune system which kept trying to reject the mechanical alien limbs. Unlike injured people where artificial limbs are removable, a cyborg has mechanical components permanently grafted in place and attached to the human nervous system. Since Azem had lots of money and resources at his disposal, Mercier eventually discovered science had the answer with a chemical compound which he named “Cybrosia” taken from the words “Cyber” and “Ambrosia” since he figured he was a mechanical “god” and this was the “food” to be used by his creations.

As well as allowing permanent grafting of mechanical parts, Cybrosia had the added bonus of rapid healing. However once injected into a host body it needed to be controlled by a strong power source. This was not a problem with a cyborg which had limbs powered by electricity but if injected into a “normal” human Cybrosia would overload the nervous system very quickly and kill within days.

Compared to later “models” First was crude and unrefined, a case of functionality over aesthetics. However the biggest issue was that the cyborg retained all the memories of the original human host. Far from wanting to serve as a soldier for Azem, First wanted to kill him. If Mercier had not put safeguards in place then there was every likelihood First would have attacked him and anyone else involved in his conversion. When Azem heard of First’s resistance he thought the solution would be as simple as it had been with his creators so he had his “doctors” subject the cyborg to the same mind bending drugs that had been so effective on Mercier. Being a hybrid human/machine, First was highly resistant to the process. Progress was slow but eventually the host’s core memories were “deleted.” However despite the doctors best effort the personality and morale drives remained intact. Whatever reason the mercenary had decided to fight for the rebels in the first place, still remained deep down in the subconscious mind. Though he no longer knew who he was, First retained a dislike for Azem and his regime. This left the doctors with the unenviable task of informing Azem that they might never be able to totally brainwash the cyborg and get him to fight for the dictator. The idea that his cyborg army might never come to fruition was not good news and either out of desperation or simply impatience Azem decided to use outside help. By chance he learned from his lover that a scientist called Janice Langham might have the solution.

Janice Langham was a pioneer in psychology and a leader in her field. At around the time Azem took an interest in her she had come up with a radical idea that she was on the verge of creating a means to alter a persons brain patterns and memories. Her goal was the creation of a device that could be used to rehabilitate dangerous individuals without drugs by removing violent tendencies or alternately be used to solve different types of mental illness. Such a device Azem reasoned might be able to “program” loyalty into the soldiers Mercier was going to create.

Like Mercier, Azem presumed Langham would not help him willingly so he had his people make contact with Janice and inform her he was holding her daughter, Grace, captive. In reality though Grace was in fact his lover. Desperate for help, Langham contacted CLEA. Though CLEA did not have an agreement with Polvania they did send agents in undercover and when they found no proof to back up the claims of kidnapping they refused to get involved and reported back stating that Grace seemed to be a willing guest of Mr Dusku and therefore they would not risk a diplomatic incident causing instability in the area when it was obviously a family matter.

Langham could not accept what she was told and went to Polvania where Azem showed her proof that he was indeed keeping her estranged daughter prisoner. Realising CLEA were going to do nothing and acting out fear of losing Grace she agreed to work for Azem. Mercier figured the logical choice for the beginning of her work was to “fix” First and in preparation for her arrival the prototype was shut down and placed in suspended animation.

Before Langham arrived at the facility though, the rebels learned that Azem was building a weapon to use against them and broke into the building. They stole First’s pod but without Mercier’s control codes they could not revive the cyborg meaning that all they could do was secure their prize and keep it alive until they broke the encryption. (Ironically The Knights Forge would later “steal” First from the rebels at a later date.)

The loss of First was a major setback for Azem but since Mercier still retained the data used to create First it did not mean starting from scratch. Rather than recreating First, Mercier had some new and improved ideas. Several years and many failed experiments later Mercier had perfected his means to build cyborgs. Whilst he was busy doing this Langham and Azem’s scientists were equally busy building her “mind altering machine”.

When complete the device had one slight drawback and that was though it had the means to wipe out selected memories and introduce new ones, since the human body healed itself whatever changes were made artificially she knew they would remain permanent. Azem found this unacceptable until Mercier, after seeing Langham’s work, suggested the use of brain implants which would ensure the “programming” would remain permanent by constantly counteracting the bodies attempt to restore the original memories. More experiments and dead victims followed until he arrived a workable solution.

Azem was now ready to build his army. Since only parts of the brain were altered existing skills could still be retained which Azem saw as an advantage as he would not need to train anyone. Therefore he had his people scour the globe looking for the best of the best that could serve in his new army and that included taking some CLEA specialists.

Another five years past and the work was done. After this time Langham insisted she be reunited with her daughter but this was only permitted after she had showed Azem how her machine worked. She agreed, after which point Azem took Janice to see her daughter and revealed for the first time that Grace had been his lover for the past eight years. The supposed kidnapping of Grace exposed as nothing more than a ruse to ensure her mother’s cooperation shocked Janice to the core.  Worse was to follow for Grace explained how she hated her mother and had enjoyed seeing her life’s work being corrupted. Despite the words coming out of Grace’s mouth Janice though did not believe it was her own daughter’s idea and convinced herself that Azem was behind it all. Either way she did not have much chance to think rationally for Azem had his guards take her to the labs where the machine was used on her and Mercier “converted” her to become another soldier.

This was his mistake for Langham had always feared that Azem might use her own machine against her and so had hidden safeguards in the operating software which ensured her mind remained as it was. Faking the fact that she had been programmed she bided her time and as the cyber soldiers began their work in dealing with Azem’s enemies she began plotting her revenge.

Spurred by the success of his “cyber soldiers” after Azem had dealt with his enemies in his own country, his greed for more power led him to make plans to invade neighbouring territories. Unable to allow this to happen Langham put her plan into action despite fearing the time was not quite right. The first stage of the plan involved attacking Mercier after which she wiped his mind altogether ensuring if the plan failed Azem’s conquest would be set back years. As a bargaining chip she made sure she had the formula to manufacture Cybrosia before doing this, and then destroyed all records relating to it.

Then accessing the brain implants in the soldiers directly she gave them new orders. Azem’s guards only realised what was happening when it was too late. The cyber soldiers which she called them attacked the Royal Palace and decimated anything and everything in sight. Letting her anger flow out Langham led the assault. She was like a queen bee and they were her drones and they would do anything for her. They knew not how to resist her control.  By now her own body had been heavily augmented and that made her practically unstoppable as well. When she found Azem she decapitated him on sight using her mechanical arms to remove his head clean from his body. By this time she was in such a rage that when Grace tried to save him Janice killed her on the spot, batting her daughter away and smashing her into a wall.

The battle over, Janice was inconsolable and she lost her sanity. Filled with hate and blaming her loss on CLEA for never intervening when she first approached them she waged war on the organisation. Whenever the opportunity presented itself she would steal tech to improve her soldiers which is how CLEA came to give the group of mercenaries the name “Raiders”.

For two years the Raiders performed numerous terrorist attacks on CLEA with total success. However though she was intelligent Langham was not the most tactical thinker and CLEA top brass, tired of waiting for the next attack, decided to set up a trap for Langham and her crew. Dropping information in the right channels Langham learned of a new CLEA weapons research lab being set up in China. The base was supposed to house the latest tech so it seemed an irresistible target for not only could she deliver a serious blow to CLEA she would be able to upgrade her soldiers with stolen tech.

The base seemed strangely deserted and once the guards had been dealt with the team made its way inside to discover the facility was a trap. In the exchange of fire that followed three of her male combatants Grunt, Bull and Skirmish were killed by an experimental EM weapons. The same weapon disabled  Fixer (later became known as Wildcat) and damaged Jammer, Hailstorm and Sniper

Langham had no option but to retreat and over the coming months the latter three managed to break from her control due to the damaged implants. Having been dealt a serious blow and unable to create any more cyborgs, she never attacked a CLEA facility again. Instead she switched tactics and hired her team out to CLEA’s enemies. She also managed to “replace” some of the missing members of her team after stealing three experimental combat drones.

The Raiders Team

The Raiders known today are very different than Mercier’s original designs. Time and learning has allowed Langham to make many improvements. Now calling herself Lozen, her group hierarchy still shares a similarity to organised insects whereby she is the queen and each member of the group has a definitive purpose.  Though in the past soldiers with all artificial limbs were powerful weapons she soon learned they could be cumbersome and picked off with heavy weaponry whereas conversely those with only a few organic components replace could be nimble and fast. Ironically she has not applied that same rule to herself for she has now replaced over 75% of her original body.

Over the years she created a mixture of near human and total cyborg creations allowing her Raiders to become a formidable balanced unit. By stealing tech, she continually improves on her “children”, so whilst in the beginning her group resembled something akin to construction vehicles of different designs and forms, they now look like the very soldiers that Mercier had once dreamed of creating.

Her one problem over the years has been the manufacture of Cybrosia. Despite having the formula the chemical composition is beyond her ability to create it by any means andat one time this was a major concern and would bring the Raiders close to being stopped altogether.

Cybrosia has to be kept at certain levels in each Raider to ensure that the mechanical systems are not rejected and under ordinary circumstances does not need topping up but if the hosts body is damaged, Cybrosia levels drop as the damage is repaired. After a series of failed missions her team was barely functional due to her lack of making replacement Cybrosia. That was until Lozen was able to makie a deal with Enigma solutions. In return for obtaining certain materials, the criminal group would supply her with all the Cybrosia she needed.

Due to the fact all the Raiders have had their brains tampered with most are only known by code names. CLEA files have some suggestions to the identities of Raiders but the physical alterations prevent them from knowing for certain who each Raider really is apart from Janice Langham. The only Raiders not under her control are often those whose brain implant has been damaged and the host personality (but not usually memories) have returned. Having been artificially modified in some way means those victims can never be returned to being ordinary humans which is why they often chose to oppose her.

The one exception to this is Raiders that have slipped onto our world from parallel universes. As well as looking radically different and having artificial limbs that are even more human like they do not appear to require Cybrosia.

Former Team Members
  • Grunt – Male, demolition expert KIA during attack on CLEA Chinese base.
  • Bull – Male heavy assault specialst KIA during attack on CLEA Chinese base.
  • Skirmish – Male ranged weapons expert KIA during attack on CLEA Chinese base.
  • Fixer – Female combat engineer, disabled during the attack on the CLEA base and taken captive. No longer under Lozen’s control and with some of her original personality returning she was freed from CLEA incarceration due to the intervention Commander Alex Powell and now serves on his task force as “Wildcat” who has trained her in combat skills.
  • Hailstorm – Male airborne interceptor and ground attack. Now uses “Hawk” pseudonym after escaping Lozen’s control and formed a small group with Sniper and Jammer. At one time regarded as a criminal he seems to have tried his best to reform and make amends which is probably why Agent Alpha chose to recruit him to the Armour Corps.
  • Sniper – Female, sniper/precision attack specialist. Now uses the “Sureshot” pseudonym after escaping Lozen’s control. Like Hailstorm she appears to have been reformed and so was invited by Agent Alpha to join his “team”
  • Jammer – Female electronic war specialist. The most advanced Raider prior to Langham’s conversion and later modified to become the ultimate electronic weapon. Can jam/hack electronics and communication systems and eject intense bursts of electricity. Joined Hailstorm and Sniper after escaping Lozen and later followed them to Agent Alpha. Now known as “Lightning.”

Save

Rebound


CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Bilyana “Bill” Tjungurrayi

CLEA Classification:

  • Alpha Superior

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Alpha ability – Bill’s mind and body are in such perfect synchronisation he can repeat actions perfectly which an ordinary person would find impossible. Every minor variance from all his senses is detected and the complex data is then extrapolated by his mind at speeds rivalling the fastest computer before the corresponding signals are sent to his muscles.
    This enables him to throw projectiles over considerable distance and hit a target with windspeed and direction already factored in. Putting it simply, whatever Bill wants to hit, he “sees” the trajectory needed to reach the target and then without consciously thinking he can throw an object to strike the target.
  • Uses hi-tech boomerangs designed by the Knight’s Forge as his weapons of choice.
  • Excellent tracking skills.
  • Well versed in unarmed combat and has developed a unique style where he uses a pair of boomerangs like clubs at close range.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Prefers to work alone.
  • Might get “confused” when presented with too many targets at once.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

Compared to other Alpha’s Bilyana “Bill” Tjungurrayi does not have any outward signs of manifesting super powers nor can he read minds. However his particular gift put him in league with other “mental” Alphas in that they have above average intelligence or inhuman intuition. In Bilyana’s case his mind and body are in such perfect alignment he can pull of amazing feats that most people would find difficult if not impossible. An example of this is the fact that before throwing a boomerang his mind sees the exact trajectory it will fly. His senses detect any slight variances in wind speed and direction and his mind compensates accordingly. Then his body can automatically adjust power to ensure a target is reached.
Where he grew up in central Australia nobody had ever really had much contact with Alphas so his parents assumed Bilyana simply had excellent hand-eye coordination. His throwing skills made him something of a local legend and though the family lived far from the hustle and bustle of crowded cities, the outside world would eventually encroach with disastrous consequences.

The family land that had belonged to them for many generations had the “misfortune” to be rich in mineral deposits and a business corporation based in New Tokyo wanted the land desperately. The family though were not interested in money so the mining company played hard ball. Legal proceedings and the appropriate people paid off meant the family was close to losing the land until a journalist in New Tokyo made contact.

She wanted to expose the family’s plight and show how the mining company which marketed itself as respecting people and the environment was nothing but a lie. Such a scandal would certainly have a drastic effect if word leaked out. Since she could not make the initial journey to central Australia due to work commitments, Bilyana as the most able family member chose to visit her. This would be a major challenge in his life for he had never been in a big city before let alone a megacity. However as he set off on his journey neither he or the journalist realised that they were trying to upset the wrong people for the mining company was an enterprise run by Black Shadow.

Black Shadow felt under pressure to do something or risk something of their plans getting some unwanted attention. They therefore called in the Shadow Squad to evict the family (thus giving no direct link between the company and the family). This they did in spectacular style by massacring everyone. Bilyana though escaped the carnage for at the time he was travelling east for a liaison with the journalist. Upon arriving in New Tokyo work eventually reached him and the journalist about the tragedy. Not sure what was going on the journalist feared for their lives and made plans to get away. However since the Shadow Squad had not eliminated Bilyana and the journalist was next on the target they were dispatched again, this time to silence the troublesome pair altogether.

When they struck she was killed but he escaped due to his Alpha ability helping him to avoid being hit. Using the boomerang he had brought along (to show the journalist and example of Aboriginal crafts) Bilyana fought back but one against four trained mercenaries meant it was not a matter of if but when he was going to be killed.

Luckily Luna arrived on the scene and got involved but her interference only made the Shadow Squad’s plans awkward. She fought bravely trying to get Bilyana to cover but the situation looked hopeless until the Ring of Steel arrived. They had heard of the massacre of Bilyana’s family and thought it was the work of the Raiders. Knowing the cyborg’s only did such crimes if they were paid led the group to concluding that Bilyana was next on the hit list after they learned he had travelled to New Tokyo.

Though they did not find whom were expecting the appearance of Ring of Steel did turn the tables against Shadow Squad. Rather than allowing any more collateral damage and risking anyone else getting hurt in the cross-fire Ring of Steel chose to evacuate Bilyana and Luna instead.

The pair where then brought back to the base Ring of Steel shared with the Knight’s Forge. Here Bilyana had time to deal with his loss whilst Ring of Steel tried to learn why the Shadow Squad had killed his family. It soon became obvious that Black Shadow had sanctioned the attack and until so long as he was alive and could “speak” he would always be a target.
Nowhere was safe for him but he refused to hide for the rest of his life. This was when Luna suggested he might be an Alpha, which was quickly confirmed. She suggested he might use his skills to fight those that had caused him the pain and loss but revenge was not his way. He did however accept her offer of a place to stay so once thing had quietened down in New Tokyo the pair were brought back to the city.

Whilst he stayed with her and worked out where his future path lay, he could not help notice her night time crime fighting “hobby”. As time progressed he realised the skills he had learned in the bush could be useful. That’s when he saw his future path. Though he would not allow darkness to cloud his actions and would not actively seek revenge against those that had caused him so much pain, Bilyana felt he could at least help prevent others becoming victims of wrong doing. He began accompanying her on her escapades using his tracking skills to guide her to where she needed to deal with troublemakers and on more than one occasion he actively involved himself using his boomerang to save her from a situation that got out of hand.

Word of a boomerang wielding hero soon got around on the streets of New Tokyo and in time trouble soon began to come looking for him for the usual sources that hated heroes ruining their street “trading”. The Knight’s Forge also realised what Bilyana was up to since they had monitored him since he had returned to New Tokyo. To increase his odds of survival they sent him an outfit of body armour and several specialist boomerangs that have various capabilities (such as the flash boomerang which emits bright light when travelling or the sonic boomerang which emits a high pitched sound upon impact to disable its target). From then on he became known as Rebound.

Alongside Luna the pair were relatively successful in keeping “their” area of New Tokyo trouble free and they remained together for a while before Bilyana felt the need to discover what had become of his family’s land. On his journey west he used his skills as “Rebound” to put a stop to any injustice he happened across which made his travel take far longer than he had anticipated. Then when he arrived in the area he had known as a child he discovered it to be unrecognisable. Unclaimed the mining company had taken over and that only confirmed to him that part of his life was gone so for the second time in his life he headed east, back to New Tokyo and like the first part of his journey he helped people where he could.

By the time he made it back to New Tokyo three years had passed and he had gained confidence as a lone here. No longer daunted by the big city and not wanting to impose on Luna he opted to continue his crime fighting journey through life alone. However he as not alone nor would he ever be for he soon found new friends as he encountered other heroes. Sometimes he leant a hand when their goals did not interfere with his own morals, and on more than one occasion he teamed up with Luna but the partnership was never made permanent for he felt the need to constantly move around. Perhaps his biggest honour was being made a reserve member of the Phoenix Alliance.
Having never chosen to pursue Black Shadow the crime syndicate decided to leave him alone…for now!

Red Ronin

CLEA DATA FILE

Identity:

  • Conor Brennan (current pilot)

CLEA Classification:

  • Robot

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Since Red Ronin is mirroring it pilots movements Conor is in no direct danger of getting hurt (although he does “feel” via feedback sent to his suit so is aware when Red Ronin is being hit).
  • Red Ronin is capable of far move acrobatic moves than the average human – these are programmed as subroutines that Conor can activate since he cannot mirror the actual moves. Control during these “special” attacks is taken over by Red Ronin and then handed back to Conor upon completion of the manoeuvre.
  • Red Ronin has more strength and speed than humans so can jump greater distances and lift around six tons.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Vulnerable to electric/EM based weaponry.
  • If the data uplink/downlink connection is broken Red Ronin switched to “return home” mode. During this phase he is not only vulnerable but an an enemy can also track the robot back to it’s base.
  • Need sregular recharges which limits the time in action.
  • Conor’s feedback suit can be overloaded by too much data sent. This technically is the only way he can get hurt.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • N/A

Notes/History

The Red Ronin is a highly specialised combat capable robot that mimics the movements of its human operator Conar Brennan who wears a special suit lined with sensors. The robot was a development of “Outreach” designed by Kyo Nomura, who came up with the radical new idea of using robots to perform tasks in dangerous environments. Kyo was aware that whilst automatons could be programmed to do any number of tasks they lacked “judgement” which humans excelled at. Usually such work benefited from human dexterity which was not really possible with remotely operated machines using human operators who performed every task on a keyboard whilst monitoring visual information sent via cameras.

To that end he set about building a robot that could follow the movements of a special suit. Once the wearer donned the suit they would see through the “eyes” of the robot and however they moved the robot would follow. To give the operator the artificial feeling, micro servos would provide physical feedback sent back from the robot. If everything worked correctly Kyo intended to give the human operator the experience of “being there.”
Rather than rush into creating a full prototype of untested ideas, Kyo decided to start smaller and create what essentially a “wearable robot”, an armoured exo skeleton. Though this would still put the wearer in danger and was not a true robot, Kyo hoped to solve some of the complex issues of creating a working sensor grid. To this he developed an “inner suit” which would provide the operator with real sensual data enabling them to experience the world as if they were wearing not surrounded by a metal exo skeleton.

Though operators complained that the suit was cumbersome overall Kyo’s design was a success. He made further refinements to address the complaints and upgraded it for military use but the military was not interested in his mobile armour. As far as they were concerned the expense did not justify the means. The Meteor armour was therefore placed into storage (ironically to find its way into civilian use year later) and having learned to build a working sensor array Kyo returned to his original goal of making a remotely operated automaton.

Unfortunately for all his brilliance Kyo could not get the interface and software working that linked the operator to the machine. With progress stalled the project looked doomed until he heard about disgraced designer Mark Ryce (who would later become the Mechaniac). Though Ryce had a bad name, Kyo had heard the rumours that he had been set up by his old partner and since Ryce was prevented from establishing his own company, Kyo decided to give him a job in his. From the outset he hoped Ryce would be able to identify something he had missed and thus get the prototype robot named “Outreach” working. Just as Kyo hoped, Ryce found a number of bugs and oversights which once fixed made the whole system workable.

Though a technological breakthrough “Outreach” was expensive and for the second time in his brilliant career Kyo had a viable product but no market. Annoyingly for Kyo, whilst plenty of interest had been shown when he first came up with the idea, when it came to parting with money the people with the money decided that it was still cheaper to put actual people in dangerous locations.
Just like with Meteor before, Kyo had no option but to move on and since his company was hovering above bankruptcy he was forced to concentrate on cheaper projects and contracts that had guaranteed buyers. He believed with Mark by his side they could accomplish great things in the robotics field but their working relationship fell apart when Mark could not get his obsession for revenge against his old partner out of his mind.

That left Kyo with no option to dismiss Mark from the company. Kyo then continued rebuilding his company and business reputation by developing and building cheaper robots for use in laboratories and industrial applications. Never one to give up an idea in between orders he set about building a better version of “Outreach” which he thought he would be able to sell to the military. This he knew was a risk since Meteor had failed to sell and that was cheaper. However with a healthy profit in the bank he decided that this would be third time lucky.

As this second prototype neared completion, Kyo could not help but notice the Drone Lords (the Mechaniac’s soldiers) in action. He was already aware that Mark had become the Mechaniac and had decided not to get involved with the authorities trying to capture the villain. However when he became aware that the Drone Lords were using an upgraded version of his interface, Kyo felt some responsibility. Nobody was going to use one of his inventions to terrorise ordinary people.

Since the second prototype was not quite ready, Kyo removed Outreach from storage, and the next time the Drone Lords appeared, Kyo donned the suit and went into action, hoping to use the data to make final adjustments to his other prototype he had named Red Ronin. Outreach survived the encounter and Kyo got valuable data. Rather than sell Red Ronin to the military Kyo changed his strategy and decided to use the machine to disrupt the Mechaniac’s plans, enough to buy enough time for him to invent some sort of device that would put a stop to all of Mark’s creations.
Not willing to chance Red Ronin before it was “perfect” when the Drone Lords next appeared he used Outreach again, and that was Kyo’s undoing. The Drone Lords managed to capture the robot and took it back to the Mechaniac who was then able to extract data as to Kyo’s location. It was then only a matter of time before they came and eliminated him.

Always aware that there was a chance that this would happen, Kyo was intelligent enough to take precautions in case he was ever killed. He made sure that the Red Ronin was stored away from the main business premises and at a storage location only he knew. That save Red Ronin from getting destroyed when the Drone Lords followed up on their murderous mission and completely devastated Kyo’s workshop and factory. Ensuring Red Ronin would survive though would not be enough so Kyo had taken the time to select a ‘pilot’ in case things turned bad which they had inevitably done.

The man he had chosen was Conor Brennan someone Kyo had encountered years before he had ever met Mark Ryce. Conor, from Ireland was a military man who travelled the world with a black ops unit that performed assignments for a couple of military units working out of Europa.
The pair met after Conor had finished an assignment and along with his unit had stopped of a New Tokyo on the way home. Finding a cheap club the comrades had intended on having an all-night drinking session when it was unexpectedly cut short by an explosion that tore through the building.
Thrown by the blast Conor got separated from his friends and having been knocked out, in the smoke and the confusion they could not locate him and had no choice but to get to safety before they became victims of the chocking atmosphere. Kyo who was also in the nightclub with friends when the fire started saw the helpless man lying face down and rather than just escaping he chose instead to pull the injured stranger to safety.

After recovering from his injuries Conor tracked down the man that had saved his life and the two became good friends. Over time due to work and assignments their friendship became lost in the annals of time, but Conor never forgot the promise he made to Kyo and that was in return for saving his life “if ever he needed a favour he would be there for him.” The last thing Conor ever expected was to receive a message from Kyo via a detective agency that had tracked him down.

The message, written by Kyo, explained that if Conor was reading it then he was dead and that it was probably at the hands of the Mechaniac. The message continued with Kyo wanting Conor to put a stop to the villain and stating that he would be given the tools for the job. At the bottom of the letter there was an address and the last thing the detectives did was hand him a set of keys, which Conor presumed was connected with whatever was at the address.
Since the address was just outside New Tokyo, two days later Conor found himself on a plane out of Europe heading for whatever mystery awaited. Once at the address he found what appeared to be an old warehouse but on the inside it was pristine and clean. In the centre there seemed to be a large circular chamber or room which was accessed by another key. There he found the Red Ronin and a host of video messages explaining how the suit functioned and how he could repair the robot.

Listening to the messages he understood that Kyo had been consumed with guilt in giving the Mechaniac the tools to create the Drone Lords and he wanted Conor to “correct” his mistake by stopping the villain. Kyo’s recorded message stated that he reckoned that since he could not be there to stop the Mechaniac by creating tech then the only other way to stop him was by fighting. Kyo stated he believed Conor’s military training along with the Red Ronin might be enough to distract the Mechaniac’s plans long enough for somebody else to invent technology to shut the villain down permanently.

Having spent most of his life fighting for somebody else’s cause, Conor felt it was his duty to fulfil Kyo’s final wish. After all he still owed him that favour. In strange way he was glad of the “assignment” because now that he was retired from military service and without family he found his life was without direction. At least now he had gained a purpose that he had been sadly lacking.

Just as Kyo had asked, Conor set about disrupting the Mechaniac where ever possible. Red Ronin soon came to the intention of the Knight’s Forge. After realising that the machine could be a valuable ally in the fight against criminals and terrorists, the Forge tried to open a dialogue. Since they were unable to find where and who was operating Red Ronin, they made contact with Red Ronin itself and offered its “owner” access to resources stating in return for the chance to study the machine they hope that data learned could be used to supply “heroes” with tech to remain one step ahead of their enemies.
At first Conor flatly refused to acknowledge the request since responding would effectively eliminate his anonymity which so far had kept him safe. In time though, despite Kyo’s tutorial videos Conor began having problems maintaining the robot. He was a soldier not an engineer so if he was to continue he knew he needed help. Conor therefore came forwards to the Knights Forge and accepted their offer and they in return supplied a small number of trusted staff to keep Red Ronin in keep condition.

The Renaissance Mob

This crime gang is so named due to its leader’s habit of investing his ill-gotten gains on the finer things in life. For evert pretty ceramic of antique picture there is a victim somewhere else.

CLEA ORGANISATION DATA FILE

Organisation Classification:

  • Organised Crime Operation

Organisation Leader(s):

Organisation Activities:

  • Extortion
  • Bribery
  • Sex Trafficking/Sex slavery
  • Money Laundering
  • Smuggling, Distribution and sale of controlled substances

Organisation Weakness(s):

  • Brooks is overly focused on keeping territorial power. He will thus expend great amounts of resources when in reality he cannot “win” a particular turf war.
  • Obsessed with the Road Warriors and Wheels of Fury
  • Carnage – Brooks “created” them and they turned against him.

Known Assets:

Notes/History

For many years the Renaissance Mob, a long standing crime family had fought for power in America. When Big Ron inherited the family business and realised the competition in the Pacifica region was too competitive great he took the bold step of moving it. Prime income for the business was arms, drugs and sex trafficking the four megacities around the world were the most attractive areas to operate from.

However Atlantica was already oversubscribed with gangs and Europa was fast going the same way, so Ron looked across the ocean and decided to move his business to New Tokyo where the competition was somewhat limited, apart from the notorious Green Dragon gang.

Always a careful planner, Ron began small, establishing several genuine businesses in and around the Megacity. From there he went the more “usual” route of establishing bars and gambling dens and around that time the Green Dragons paid him a visit. They informed him he had to pay protection money to operate such establishments and Big Ron responded by killing the messenger.

That soon led to an all-out turf war. Green Dragons had years of experience in “running” New Tokyo, whilst Ron had contacts in the right places as well as enforcers loyal to him. The ensuing conflict was bitter and ended in a stalemate when both sides agreed to a truce.

As part of their agreement Big Ron handed over control of the shore front areas and in return the Green Dragons gave Ron was permitted to use some territory they controlled outside of the city. Though the deal looked distinctly in the Green Dragon’s favour, they were clearly very business minded. They knew Big Ron had problems shipping in drugs so the suggestion was he set up his own “crop growing operation”

After touring several regions, Big Ron decided he liked the look of the area around a small town known as Irwin’s Crossing. This was  remote enough to be free from the prying eyes of city police and close enough not to make a transportation difficult so was an ideal location as the land was relatively fertile. However it was also quite desirable to the Green Dragons. Despite their agreement the Green Dragons refused  Big Ron the usage of ‘their ‘ land and suggested he use other land they had chosen for him.

Big Ron, agreed but he played the long game. Though the Green Dragons said he could not harvest drug crops in the area they had no objections to him setting up his headquarters in the town. In fact they welcomed it, mainly because they could keep a close eye on him.

Big Ron set about purchasing a ranch to serve as his base of operations. This attracted the attention of the local police sheriff. The sheriff hated the fact that the Green Dragons controlled the town, his town and saw Big Ron as the means to remove them. Being corrupt the sheriff and the police soon started working for Big Ron by helping him build the sex trafficking part of the business.

Having local knowledge it was easy for the police to identify strangers in town, passing through, and in the case of lone women they would detain them on trumped up charges and before the individual had a clue of what was happening they would be the ‘property’ of the Renaissance Mob. The police took a cut of the money and everyone was happy, even the Green Dragons as they were unaware of the side operation Big Ron had going in ‘their’ town.

Outside of the area, Big Ron did as asked by the Green Dragons and planted crops well away from their ‘prime’ growing regions. The crops were then harvested, processed with labour coerced into working for the cartel. The finished ‘product’ was then sold in New Tokyo.

Eventually several powerful business magnates in New Tokyo grew tired of the ‘damage’ Big Ron’s drugs were doing to the city. Having links to the assassin group known as ‘The Twelve’ they demanded action. An assassin was dispatched to kill the head of the snake. Big Ron first knew of the hit when he was warned by a traitor within the Twelve and after he turned the tables on his would be killer he was able to neutralise the threat.

The assassin ‘Rose’ was then kept as a play thing for his people who could do anything to her apart from kill her. Big Ron wanted to make an example of her and send a message to the Twelve. However one of his own, Dave Lynn betrayed him and set the woman free. Big Ron was furious and wanted Dave killed but his brother, Adam, was his right hand man. Since loyalty in cartels was difficult to find, in order to keep Adam on his side, Big Ron relented and let Dave live in Irwin’s Crossing.

Just as Big Ron had planned, eventually the Green Dragon’s stretched their resources too thin due to having a vast territory and no enough man power. This led Big Ron to form a new deal and he leased the land outside Irwin’s Crossing from the Green Dragons. They may have lost control of the area but could still take a cut of Big Ron’s business so the deal was regarded as a fair compromise.

Taking over the land, Big Ron began forcing the farmers to work for him. He owned the land so he had the option to make them homeless. Since he also controlled the police there was nothing they could do.  Kicking farmers off the land though was not a  viable tactic since he needed workers to plant and harvest his crops. His ploy was something he had done in the city, use his enforcers to spread fear and intimidation and Big Ron did that be sending them to the homesteads and throw their weight around. This seemed to work very well, and his hold on the area became even greater when the Green Dragon’s allowed him to take over the town, in exchange for some of the territory he still owned in New Tokyo.

Things though eventually started to go bad for Big Ron when a masked vigilante appeared in Irwin’s Crossing and started to take out his men. That gave the local people hope, and Big Ron feared if he lost control of the town then there was every chance his “farming” enterprise could blow up in his face. He therefore chose to punish the town’s folk with random acts of violence and burning properties. The odd person that was seen to be resisting him would inexplicably disappear. For a brief while his ploys worked until the mercenary known as Emerald  appeared in the town.

She had once visited the town and when the corrupt police officials discovered she was single tourist and alone they had arrested her and handed her over to Ron who was looking for girls to “entertain” his guests. She though had managed to escape after a year of incarceration and after that had trained to become a mercenary. Once trained she had come back to Big Ron’s land to seek revenge.

Ron’s people recognised her straight away but instead of the frail little woman she once was Elsa was a formidable warrior and dispatched several enforcers sending a clear message to their boss. Angry, Big Ron sent his number one enforcer, Atlas, to the town to deal with the new threat. Atlas recognised Elsa and he also recognised the woman she was with, Rose, because she was the same one that had once tried to assassinate Big Ron.

Putting two and two together Atlas surmised Rose was the “masked vigilante” because the locals all seemed to know her, which indicated she had been in the town for some time. Atlas knew he could not deal with the pair alone but then received worse news when he realised the two women were staying at a local mechanic’s garage which belonged to his brother. Suddenly everything made sense, since Dave had been kicked out of the organisation after letting Rose escape. The two argued but Atlas was unable to kill his brother. With the two women’s secret finally out they announced themselves as the Road Warriors and made it clear the intended to eliminate the vermin from the town (see Road Warriors).

Atlas reported what he had learned to Big Ron and promised to take care of the business his way.  A month later Spectre and Mackie  appeared in the town after hearing there had been “problems” in some outback communities. Atlas saw his opportunity to get rid the both trouble causers and invited Mackie to his (but in reality Big Ron’s) farming retreat. Having realised Spectre was not a “real” person he was able to get close to Mackie and convinced her that the ‘real’ trouble causers were the Road Warriors.

The next day Spectre and Mackie left, but instead of destroying Elsa and Rose something unforeseen happened, the new arrivals discovered the truth and allied themselves with the Road Warriors. In only a short space of time every person belonging to the mob was chased out of the town.

Big Ron was furious at Atlas for allowing it to happen and wanted to send in a team with lots of guns but Atlas suggested it would amount to nothing other than adding further to the demise of the cartel. The one bit of luck on Ron’s side was the fact the town’s folk chose not to talk to any law enforcement agencies outside of the area. If that happened and the corrupt local police were discovered then he would have nothing. Instead the locals preferred to avoid trouble and carry on with life.

Big Ron, though could not allow the town to remain uncontrolled and became obsessed with the Road Warriors. This led him to try and eliminate Spectre with an EM cannon but that only produced “Spirit” and with a new Road Warrior the chances of taking back the town became a distant dream.

Still Big Ron would not back down as the thoughts of failure niggled at the back of his mind. He felt that having the Road Warriors running loose on his patch made him look weak. Eighteen months later he made another attempt to rid himself of the “problem”. Calling in every favour he broke a team of mercenaries out of jail and then had his people capture Spirit. Using her with the EM generator, his people were able to recreate how Spirit had been created and “convert” the mercenaries to vehicular lifeforms and Carnage was born.

Informing his new team that he would restore them to their human bodies if they complied to his orders, Carnage succeeded in ousting the Road Warriors from Irwin’s Crossing for the first time in over two years. However when Carnage realised that Big Ron had no idea how to restore them to their original bodies. They attempted to kill him and destroy his people before they left the outback and decided to work for themselves.

With his criminal empire weakened Big Ron had no choice but to abandon Irwin’s Crossing and soon after that his “farming” enterprise became noticed by the drugs enforcement agencies. The corrupt police were put on trial. Big Ron though escaped justice. He was clever enough to leave evidence that stated one of his men had told the farmers to plant crops. This was backed up by the name on the leases. The new police sheriff suspected the man was being made a  scapegoat but the man refused to defend himself.

Most suspected the man had accepted jail time for a hefty reward and without evidence the law could not prosecute Ron, so he slipped through their fingers again. Since then CLEA believes Big Ron has returned to New Tokyo and just runs his criminal activities through bars and gambling houses. Since the Green Dragons  mysteriously vanished without a trace the  criminal aspect of the city seemed to be entirely under his domain. Currently it is not known if the Twelve still have a contract on him.

Save

Ring of Steel


CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

  • Raymond Collins – Agent Alpha
  • Victoria Price – CLARA
  • (Real name unknown) – Lightning (female)
  • (Real name unknown) – Hawk- (male)
  • (Real name unknown) – Sureshot (female)
  • Jayden Miller – Galahad (male)

CLEA Classification:

  • Cyborgs (All team members)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • As the entire team are cyborgs they share many common traits in that they are faster, stronger and more resilient than ordinary humans and can think and act quicker too.
  • Agent Alpha – As well as being a cyborg he was a CLEA agent. Consequently he has been trained as a field operative and is well versed in using many CLEA weapons.
  • CLARA was created by the Mechaniac and is well versed in the way he works. She is considered to be his biggest weakness since she knows much of his intel.
    Not one to use deadly weaponry CLARA aquired a pair of stun clubs which she uses in close quarters combat.
  • Lightning (ex Raider) was created to become a walking weapon to not only hack into but also to damage electrical systems. She can discharge massive amounts of electricity, enough to stun an entire group of people.
  • Hawk, (ex Raider) was given a jet pack by Lozen to act as an aerial warrior. He has learned to augment the usage of pack with ground based attacks so he can constantly change his direction of attack and thus keep an opponent off guard.
  • Sure Shot (ex Raider) was originally created to become a precision combatant. Specialises in long range weapons attacks, although her armour makes her equally powerful at close quarters. Expert marksman and can handle a sniper rifle one armed if needed. Due to her cybernetic eyes she can dead aim targets at over a mile away without the need to use a telescopic sight. She also has a helmet that can when worn can enhance her vision further.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • As with all cyborgs, each member of the team must both maintain organic systems and electrical/mechanical systems. Failure of either system would result in death.
  • Lightning has to spend several hours per day having excess electrical energy drained from her systems. If she does not do this she can overload and literally tear herself apart.
  • The three ex Raiders tend to function as a family unit. Attacking one of them can result in the others acting instinctively rather than tactically in a battle situation.
  • The Raider members are vulnerable without a source of the Raider substance “Cybrosia” to maintain their biological systems

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Wilful destruction of property/industrial sabotage (Lightning, Hawk and Sureshot as Raiders)
  • Aggravated Assault/Attempted homicide (Lightning, Hawk and Sureshot as Raiders)

Notes/History

Main Team History:

The origin for the Ring of Steel lies within the creation of Agent Alpha. Originally Alpha was a highly qualified CLEA senior agent, Raymond Collins. He was also a close friend of Stephanie Naylor and when the Raiders chose to attack CLEA Atlantica’s offices he led the defence of the building until heavy support could be brought in to chase of the attackers.

Alone against the Raiders, the office staff and junior agents stood little chance against the cyborg mercenaries but Collins insisted that the could not let the Raiders steal the data because if they succeeded then the information is sold could identify every single agent.

To try and buy them time before help arrived, Collins went after the Raider leader Lozen and despite his combat skills, bravery and tactical awareness he was no match for her raw power. She defeated him quickly and to take out some of her anger against an agency she hated, Lozen decided to teach CLEA a lesson. Aware of Collins friendship with Naylor, rather than kill him, Lozen had her people remove his arms and legs and then seal the wounds. She believed that in breaking Collins in that manner not only would he endure a living hell but Naylor would face the same fate due to guilt over her friend.

Somehow Collins survived and as Lozen had planned, Naylor was devastated. However Lozen was wrong about one thing, Collins spirit was not broken. He wanted to do anything to get him back in the fight to end the harm and devastation the Raiders and others like them caused. In his current condition though he could do nothing.

Desperate to help her friend and with few options, Naylor approached the Knights Forge for a solution to Collins’s injuries. The only solution to get him back in the field was by using tech they had “acquired” which could be reworked and used to convert him into a cyborg. Naylor refused to see her friend turn into a machine even if some of him was original but ultimately the decision lay with Collins himself.

Numerous procedures later and Collins was as near human as the Knight’s Forge could make him. He was now as strong as any Raider but had the advantage of not needing a source of Cybrosia, the substance needed to maintain the biological systems of Raiders. Returning to service with CLEA he took the name Agent Alpha.

Some of the other agents were suspicious of him and gave him a wide berth since he reminded them of the Raiders and the wounds were still raw from the Atlantica incident. This despite the fact that Collins was also a victim. Eventually he found it easier to work alone than deal with the fear and prejudice. Seeing how Wildcat had fitted in with Spearhead made him wonder why he was not so easily accepted but he could only conclude she had been “chosen” by Powell and it was a tight knit team whereas he had returned and expected the entire organisation to accept him.

Feeling that his own presence had a negative effect on those around him and damaged morale, Collins elected in the end to leave CLEA as an operative and become a specialist free agent. This allowed him fight crime his own way. Putting an end to his lifelong friendship with Stephanie Naylor was hard for him but slightly easy for her since all she saw was the machine.

In time whilst he found friends and allies in the hero community he felt they, like the people at CLEA, treated him “differently” although, admittedly  not as bad. This started to become a problem when it came to deal with bigger and more powerful enemies. Unable to find support easily meant he often had to let the “bad guys” escape. He once more desired to be part of a team where the workload could be shared but finding acceptance as the first cyborg hero became a major stumbling block. The Knight’s Forge would however change that.

Since his systems and tech was relatively untested, Collins had been requested to return to the Forge at regular intervals for upgrades (and quite often repairs). The people at the Knight’s Forge did at least seem to accept him but they could not go with him in the field. Their friendship did help though ease other tensions and give him some sort of a comradeship. What he needed most though was his “own” kind and since CLEA were not going to make another cyborg, Collins considered that idea to be folly, until the ex-Raider “Hawk” turned up at the Forge, literally, and he was not alone for he had brought friends in the form of Sure Shot and Lighting.

Collectively but at separate times they had all had their brain implants damaged in battle and their original host personalities had started to resurface.  The damage allowed them to escape Lozen’s control. In time they had found each other after getting away from Lozen and the other Raiders. Alone they were vulnerable but Hawk found Sure Shot first after a couple of years in hiding and a few months after that the pair found Lightning.

Hawk had been “given” a pair of wings by Lozen so was able to travel quite far which is how he managed to keep one step ahead of the other Raiders. Sure Shot by comparison was less mobile. She had been “created” for combat, specifically weapons handling. Unlike other Raiders who had limbs replaced starting at the extremities and working inwards, Sure Shot had both arms replaced yet retained her human hands. Lozen had considered that the human touch and dexterity was required for precision targeting with “ordinary” weapons. To improve accuracy both of her eyes had been replaced. Lighting was an “experimental” Raider.

All three, like Collins had chosen to fight those that would hurt the innocent. Deep down they each felt they were atoning for what they had done whilst under Lozen’s influence despite the fact they had no choice in the matter. Of the three, only Lightning had regained some of her memories but there were all in the form of brief flashes and she, like Hawk and Sure Shot did not know who she once was. Since it was obvious to the other two that she was younger than either of them, they had taken on a strange sort of parental role in regards to her.

Fighting crime was easy for them and helped quell their anger at what Lozen had done to them but as time went by, without the Raider leader they began to suffer a whole host of breakdowns caused by their exploit. Damage to their systems meant they had to learn to repair themselves and though tricky at first they managed to survive even if they were down to some basic functions in certain joints. The one thing they could not fix was that they were all running low on Cybrosia, it having been used up in repairing damage to the biological components.

The trio had tried resisting reaching out to others but had no choice when Lightning began to suffer severe overloads in her systems. These got so bad that her organic systems felt so much pain she literally shut down. Hawk decided he had to do something after learning of the Knight’s Forge he set out to find them.

His investigation took nearly a year, during which Lightning’s condition worsened. Sure Shot was by now trying to conserve her Cybrosia levels and so had retreated with Lightning and kept as inactive a possible. Trying to save his family meant Hawk was only more determined than ever he managed to find the only people he believed could help them. Luck eventually came his way when he intercepted a communication between the Knight’s Sword team and the Knights Forge. Tracking them he located the secret base. Showing up at the front door though did not make for the best idea for getting help, even more so after he destroyed the front door.

Once inside though he was partially disable by tech weapons specifically adapted to deal with cyborgs. Interviewed about his motives Hawk just stated he wanted help for his fellow Raiders, Lightning and Sure Shot. He expected the answer to be “no” but was surprised when they agreed, providing he allow the scientist to study him.

Since Hawk had nothing to lose he agreed and it was only then that the scientists realised just how bad a condition he was in. The Forge knew more about Hawk and the others than he was aware of. Consequently they knew of the trio’s heroic exploits which was the reason why they had chosen to help him. Unfamiliar with his mechanical systems, the Forge patched him up as best they could, they also took blood samples in order to try and synthesize a compound similar to Cybrosia. The latter would take time so they allowed him to leave in order to bring back Sure Shot and Lightning.

Once back at the Forge, Sure Shot received a similar treatment to Hawk in that she was fixed up properly. Using DNA samples the scientists were able to identify who Hawk and Sure Shot were before they were “converted” by Lozen. Knowing that though mattered little since their memories could never be fully restored.

Lightning was a different problem. Lozen had designed her as an experimental energy weapon and her systems were extremely advanced compared to the other two. She therefore required a lot longer period of study. Scientists would learn that Lozen had installed generators inside Lightning’s body that charged capacitors to create her powerful energy blasts. When “working” for Lozen, she used discharged those capacitors on a regular basis but since escaping the frequency of usage had fallen drastically.

The scientists concluded that those capacitors were now at maximum level and the generators were trying to shunt excess energy throughout her other systems, leading to overloads and shutdowns. Though this flaw could be thought of as an oversight on Lozen’s part the scientists ruled that out. Instead they concluded that Lozen had done it deliberately to ensure loyalty, figuring if Lightning ever escaped her control then she would literally self destruct. That scenario was now rapidly approaching and Hawk was told if she continued with the build up and nothing was done then within a couple of months her organic body would be consumed.

The scientists though did have a simple solution and that was to slowly drain the excess charge, the only drawback being it would subject her to intense pain. Such was the energy levels built up, using her energy discharge “weapon” function to alleviate the problem would result in her being ripped apart. There was no guarantee that the proposed idea would work and Hawk was unsure and thought that there had to be a better way. Time was not on Lightning’s side so she agreed to try the procedure even though it meant going through absolute agony each session.

Having to return to the Knight’s Forge on a regular basis eventually saw meetings between Agent Alpha encountered the ex-Raiders. In them he saw himself and that’s when he had the idea of building a team. Before he could present that proposal, Knight’s Sword brought in another cyborg for study, CLARA. After allowing herself to be studied, she in return wanted the mental code blocks that prevented some of her free will. She told them that the code prevented her going after her creator, the Mechaniac, but what she left out was the fact the code prevented her killing herself which she desired more since she hated what she had been changed into.

For the scientists to remove the coding they needed both Agent Alpha (Some of Alpha’s systems had been based on Mechaniac tech) and Hawks help. Working with the scientists Agent Alpha and Hawk managed to recode CLARA. By then having seen other like her, CLARA losing the motivation to end her existence and chose to use her free will for a higher calling by putting a stop to people like the Mechaniac. She then like the others had to return to the Forge for “maintenance”.

Over time Agent Alpha came up with an idea that all of them should form a group, to deal with threats like the Raiders. However trying to approach the others with his idea was problematic since they were all rarely at the Forge at the same time.

Eventually the day came when everyone was at the facility at the same time and Agent Alpha was able to propose the idea of working together. They agreed to his idea without much persuasion which surprised him. Rather than using a reference to the fact they were cyborgs they chose “Ring of Steel” as their team name.

Following the group’s formation CLEA would eventually learn of the existence of the prototype Raider “First” in Polvania. Rather than risk someone activating the Raider and using it for evil CLEA contacted the Knight’s Forge and they snatched the Raider. At first they were going to leave it in a deactivated state but decided to power it up with the help of Agent Alpha, CLARA and Hawk. Having no memories of his past but still retaining his original personality First opted to join the Ring of Steel to at least give his life purpose. Eventually his real name was discovered through detective work but First, now known as Galahad decided that his old life was gone and he could not go back to it.

Regular visits to the Forge are necessary for the entire team to maintain there artificial systems. Sure Shot and CLARA (see below) would be upgraded due to battle damage. In the case of Sure Shot her arms would be replaced by similar designs given to Collins. Her bulky artificial eye units were also replaced with new designs that fitted in the eye socket rather than being placed over the top. That led to vast aesthetic improvements at the cost of some of functionality so she was given a helmet that could provide her with heat, UV and IR vision, although she does not always choose to wear it.

CLARA Additional History:

Due to circumstances that surrounded her “creation”, information regarding C.L.A.R.A. is limited at best. The host person that became the cyborg entity, Victoria Price has very little recollection of her past other than the occasional flash back. Using her own personal accounts handed to the agency via the Knight’s Forge and research obtained by other law enforcement agencies, CLEA has been able to expand on her origins.

As far as CLEA is concerned, C.L.A.R.A.’s current history actually starts with the supposed death of Victoria Price. She was an officer in a British Special Op’s unit which was sent in to capture one of the worlds most wanted criminals, the Mechaniac. The commanders in charge of the operation believed a surprise attack with a small strike force would be better suited than a full scale assault on his base which would draw attention to themselves and thus alert the villain. (Ironically CLEA would try the same method with equally disastrous results).

Under the cover of darkness the team entered the compound outside of the base and immediately discovered problems because the Mechaniac already had drones waiting in hidden locations. Clearly he had anticipated an attack and positioned his “troops” in such a way that aerial reconnaissance would not discover them. The team were completely surrounded and once their escape route was blocked they had no option to retreat and fought bravely against futile odds. Every single member of the unit was cut down in a hail of gunfire.

Victoria though somehow survived but she was in an extremely poor condition. Having lost both legs and her arms reduced to shreds. Desperate to survive she tried to crawl to safety and discovered the Mechaniac himself barring her way. To this day she did not know why he elected not to kill her and presumed she perhaps reminded him of someone he once knew.

Either way the next time she “awoke” she found herself encased in an artificial body unaware that she had once been a “real” human being. The Mechaniac introduced himself and then informed her that she was a prototype creation of his that had been built with artificially grown organic systems as a means of investigating research into cybernetic systems. Since he had repaired parts of her brain with components, she had no memory of her old life and therefore had no reason to doubt she anything other than what he told her she was. He told her that her name was C.L.A.R.A or Cyborg lifeform alteration research automaton.

For weeks he studied her and ran tests. She in return did everything she asked although she considered it odd he never allowed her to remove the helmet and mask covering her head. If ever she queried it, she was told that doing so might damage her core systems by exposing organic components to air and shut her down so naturally she obeyed. In time though the story of her creation did not seem to ring true because when her “mechanical” body was shut down for the benefit of her organic parts to rest she began having “visions”. In time she grew curious so one night when she was supposed to have “shut down” she remained awake. she headed to the Mechaniac’s lab and using the tools, removed the mask.

She was aware that there was a human face under the helmet and this was no surprise as she had been told parts of her body had been “grown” from human flesh. However now she could see her face clearly in a reflection it triggered a release of memories surrounding the ill-fated raid. She began to remember who she was, but not much from the period of her life before the raid which was still hazy.

Now realising the lie she had been told, Victoria began taking apart her chest plate in a bid to learn how much of her old body remained. It was then she discovered the full extent of what had been done to her body for all that remained of Victoria Price was an upper torso, neck and head.

Alerted to her scream the Mechaniac found Victoria in the lab. He made no apologies for what he had done. Unable to live with what she had become, Victoria tried to kill herself by ramming a metal cutter into her chest but was unable to do that. Her artificial limbs refused to comply. The Mechaniac then told her that in repairing her brain he had been able to program commands into her like any of his other automatons. Anguish turned to anger and she tried to attack him but as soon as she approached the Mechaniac her body shut down again. That was when she learned of one of his other commands.

When she awoke next she found the breastplate had been replaced. The Mechaniac then met with her and explained he had done what he had to do to save her. He needed a companion and decided she would suffice. He then warned her that she could never attack him, harm herself or deliberately disobey his orders. He also warned her that should she try to leave his facility her body would also shut down.

With little alternative to comply she became his “house guest”. She even pretended to like him in an effort to gain his confidence all in an effort to find some way to break the programming inside her head. Months passed before the Mechaniac made his mistake and revealed he knew the whereabouts of all his creations via a transponder. Victoria figured she had been fitted with a similar device in order to prevent her leaving. A few nights of investigating her own “body” eventually led her to find exactly what she was looking for. She disabled the tracker and then tried to get outside the perimeter and after a few hesitant steps she found herself to be still mobile. Rather than wait for a more opportune moment she made a run for it.

Once free she once more tried to end her life but her artificial body refused to comply so she finally accepted she was stuck in her current form. For the next few months she managed to remain hidden from her “creator”, eventually making it to civilisation. That was difficult as she could not ignore the protocols that were designed to keep her alive. Not eating or recharging would be suicide and that was not “allowed” so she was compelled to recharge her batteries and find food for her organic “systems” and trying to do that whilst hiding was not the easiest thing to do when she was covered in shiny metal! She had contemplated simply committing a crime and trying to get shot but feared that scientists might get hold of her and force her to have a far worse existence than she already had.

No longer able to enjoy life as a person she simply wanted to die but that was not to be so life was just a matter of wasting time between shut downs. However that changed when one night she saw Chrysalis and Quartz in action from the safety of her “sewer hideout”. Their actions against street thugs gave her an idea to use her new body to fight injustice if only as a means to pass the tedious boredom. Once she chose to do this the world then discovered a new hero in the form of C.L.A.R.A.

In time, being a new “technology” on the streets brought her to the attention of the Knight’s Forge. Since she had proved herself to be a “hero” the Forge skipped passed their usual kidnap and release approach and met her in the open. Steve Griffin then asked her if she would allow the team to study her systems. He explained that the Knights Forge were aware she had been “created” by the Mechaniac and believed by understanding how she worked they could develop tech to counteract the threat posed by the villain. Desperate to put an end to her life, she agreed to help but on the proviso that they find a way to neutralise the extra programming in her brain that prevented her breaking orders from her creator, but she did not tell Steve her goal was to die.

Steve agreed to her stipulation and she was taken to the Knights Forge secret facility. Several more visits would follow after which a combination of program hacks via Agent Alpha and Hawk was eventually able to eliminate the remaining control protocols of the Mechaniac. Now free to end her life, having seen how Agent Alpha and Hawk coped with their lives Victoria decided against termination. She was going to continue her fight against injustice and that now included  the Mechaniac.

In time, since she felt a common connection to the “other” cyborgs, Victoria decided to join the loose group Agent Alpha had set up which specialised in the skills provided by their hybrid forms and she found herself working alongside the three ex-Raiders, Hawk, Sureshot and Lightning.

Over time, due to battle damage, some of her artificial limbs began failing. The Knight’s Forge kept repairing her broken parts but eventually the multiple repairs led to more frequent visits. The solution was that she needed all of her robotic systems replaced if she was to survive but the Mechaniac was hardly going to supply the Forge with spares. Alicia Knight therefore proposed a total rebuild based on the tech she had created with her artificial crime fighter “Tech Knight”. There was however one major problem. Tech Knight was an artificial entity. Victoria was cyborg Alicia knew that in moving her surviving organic components to a new body there was a high risk she could actually “die”.

Victoria took the risk and survived the procedure. Her newer body was lighter and was made from advanced composite materials so not only was she now stronger, she was faster and more resilient to damage.

Galahad Additional History:

Galahad was the name chosen by “First” the prototype creation of Dr Pierre Mercier. The scientist had long considered the idea of augmenting humans with machine parts. He was considering the process could be the solution for accident victims. However he was unable to get funding from normal channels to try out his radical work.

One person with a lot of money and interest in Mercier’s work was the dictator of the Eastern European country Polvania, Azem Dushku. Azem thought that Mercier could use his idea to build a cyborg army for him in which to bolster his strength against his own people and the growing resistance against his own rule. Mercier though was not interested in working for the dictator so Azem had him kidnapped after which Mercier was subjected to torture that lasted months and included the use of drugs to bend his mind.

Eventually Mercier was broken and after being conditioned by Azem’s people became only too willing to serve the dictator. Setting to work Mercier drew up plans for his cyborg idea. He needed a human test subject and one was duly “supplied” in the form of a mercenary that had been working for the resistance and had been taken prisoner. Having had his humanity expunged, Mercier was not interested in the facts and did not even bother to find out the test subject’s name. What mattered to him was the results.

In a relatively short period of time Mercier had completed his prototype which he showed off to Azem. Named “First” all that remained of the human host was the hands head and torso the latter of which was encased in metal armour. Having been warped by Azem’s brainwashing Mercier had been so driven in pleasing the dictator he had overlooked one problem, First’s human host retained all his memories and was certainly not going to willingly serve the people that had turned him into a machine. If it was not for safeguards put in place in the programming First would have perhaps killed Mercier or Azem upon first sight. However all that happened was his mechanical body shut down.

Though this was something of a failure, Mercier promised to solve the problem but thought it would take time. Azem though presented a possible solution and had his own doctors attempt the same brainwashing technique that had been so successful on Mercier. Progress was slow for the hybrid human/machine was far more resilient to the drugs and after several months all the doctors had managed was to remove First’s human memories. They could not however remove First’s human drives and reasoning. Though First had no idea who or what he was he somehow knew that Azem and those that served him were wrong and needed to be stopped.

This was another setback and when the doctors suggested they never be able to make First loyal, Azem grew impatient. He looked for outside help and found it in Janice Langham (who like Mercier would be forced to co-operate and later become the creator/leader of the Raiders). Before Langham arrived Mercier placed First in suspended animation since the cyborg had tried on more than one occasion to be aggressive to the scientist. It was therefore easier to shut him down and wait for Langham’s solution to become available to solve the problem.

Whilst in “storage” the rebels opposing Azem’s rule heard the dictator was building a “super soldier”. To prevent that from happening they mounted a daring raid and were successful in stealing First’s pod. Upon getting back to their base the rebels considered the idea of getting the cyborg to work for them. However without Mercier’s access codes they could not wake First from his hibernation mode. Unable to use First to their advantage the rebels considered simply destroying the cyborg but their leader decided that they should keep the unit secure until they found a way of breaking Mercier’s encryption.

Years would pass inside the pod for First during which Azem with Mercier and Langham’s help would succeed in building a small cyborg army. Whilst Mercier had been brainwashed, Langham had only co-operated because she was told Azem had her daughter. Only when Azem revealed that her daughter had co-operated willingly out of hatred for her mother did Langham realised she had been duped.
At this point Azem had his guards escort Langham away and subject the scientist to her own mind reprogramming machine. Langham though suspected that this might happen and so had made sure she could not be altered. She therefore faked the fact she had been changed to become a loyal servant. In keeping this a secret Langham had to allow Mercier to turn her into a cyborg.

Biding her time Langham waited to get her revenge and when that came she became the one to kill Azem and his regime after first taking care of Mercier. During the battle in the palace Langham in her rage accidentally killed her own daughter and this caused her to lose her sanity. She took the other cyborgs and formed the violent mercenary unit known as the Raiders which she used to attack her supposed enemies.

With Langham gone the rebel forces seized their opportunity to take power. The country then went into a period of continual instability as rival factions then began fighting each other. Always aware that such conflicts could spill over into neighbouring countries, CLEA elected to place agents undercover to monitor the ongoing situation. It was one of these agents that learned of the existence of First.

Having seen the Raiders cause so much trouble in the civilised world CLEA thought that the last thing the world needed would be one of Polvania’s factions to activate another “Raider” and set it loose on the world. Thought some Raiders had broken free of Langham’s control and fought for justice there was no guarantee that First could do the same. CLEA top brass therefore thought the best solution would be to remove the problem altogether. The problem for CLEA though was Polvania did not recognise the organisation during Azem’s time and those in power since took the same view. To take a direct action and get caught would at best lead to a political incident and at worst get agents killed for acting as “spies”.

To get around the politics CLEA therefore turned to the Knight’s Forge. Since the organisation stole tech from villains to prevent such people having an advantage over those that fought for justice the Knight’s Forge seemed ideal for the job. Aware that they were being used by CLEA but recognising the danger First presented, the Forge did as asked and were successful in stealing the prototype cyborg.

Though CLEA was keen the unit should remain shut down when the close associates of the Forge, Ring of Steel learned about First they considered leaving the cyborg in suspended animation was wrong. Most of the group had in some way been transformed against their will and forced to act against their own desires in the past and they believed First needed to at least be given a chance of freedom.

Breaking past Mercier’s encryption took time but the combined talents of CLARA, Agent Alpha and Hawk succeeded. Once First awoke apart from being confused he did not present the danger that he was supposed to be. He still had no memories but a strong desire to do what was right. The others explained what had happened during his long sleep and he learned for the first time that Azem had been killed and so any hope of revenge was long gone. First also learned of the Raiders and the work the Ring of Steel did and became intrigued. Unable to return to his old life due to the fact he had been “changed” and more importantly had no recollection of what his old life was, First felt that the only way to give himself a purpose was by helping those that had given his freedom. Around this time DNA tests performed on First’s body enabled the team to discover that he was once a mercenary and his real name was Jayden Miller. Having a name but no memory though was of no help to him.

However before formerly joining the Ring of Steel he decided he did not want to keep using the name “First”. Being, arguably the precursor of the Raiders and the least “organic” of all the cyborgs, First had heard his body armour being liked to that of a medieval knight. Working on this idea he decided to call himself Galahad because that at least sounded a lot better to him and everyone else than “First”.

Galahad 2.0?

Though primitive technology wise compared to other Raiders, Galahad would potentially become one of the most advanced Raiders after a curious set of events saw him change places with his own counterpart from another reality. The “other” Galahad came from a reality where a technology war was occurring on that Earth.  Humans had perfected nanobots thanks to alien technology.

A few rebel Raiders though “evolved” to the extent that they overcame their control. Galahad from this world had learned to modify his own nanobots and had a symbiotic relationship with them. He realised if this technology reached enemy hands then humanity was doomed. Unable to kill himself he decided to take the technology to somewhere where it could never be found and so created the first artificial rift opening between two realities. However there was one catch to his plan. In order to escape his reality someone or something else had to take his place. Galahad thus pulled in his counterpart from our Earth, in the short time they met the Galahad that had been “First” finally found his purpose and agreed to go to the other reality.

The new Galahad though now took a long time to earn trust and had to maintain the ruse with people that did not know him that he was still the original, Whilst technically he appears to wear Raider armour he actually does not need it since his body can rebuild any damage. The disguise though prevents others from looking too closely.

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