Author Archive: David Bednarski

30 – Monarch Mayhem

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #29, Amazinaut…

… MONARCH MAYHEM!

In the chaos of Queen Qobra’s attack on Washington and the ensuing Danaian invasion the public’s attention was focused on survival.  Korvus Kain’s attention, on the other hand, was focused on amassing power.

Immune to Danaian control, most likely due to his undead nature, he began stalking groups of people hiding from Danaian patrols of Many-Who-Are-One beasts and Neotitans.  Once an urban legend, Kain became a boogey man attached to stories of an unstoppable Danaian assassin.  Kain accumulated more life force than he ever had before, becoming more powerful than he ever imagined.

Seeking more power he drained his personal army of Murder Men and turned his attention on extranormals.  Specifically those injured and interred by the Danaian invasion forces.  He broke into their holding facility and found the cells containing the sedated superhumans and drained them one at a time.  Kain’s mass increased and he found that he could levitate by expelling some of his pent up power.  Kain’s break in and murder spree did not go unnoticed.  A squadron of Neotitans was called in to deal with the facility intruder.

The amped up Kain stood toe-to-toe with the metal colossi, toppling them in his escape beneath the waves of the ocean adjacent to the prison.  Finding refuge on a small, uninhabited Atlantic island, Kain bided his time, powers dwindling, until a freighter full of supplies destined for Europe in the wake of the defeat of the Danaians.  In Europe, Kain began his killing spree anew, trying to recapture the power he once possessed.

In Paris he caught word of a secret DGSE facility housing captured extranormals and extraterrestrials.  Making his way to the remote warehouse under the cover of darkness, Kain killed the ten men guarding the facility and entered hoping to quench his thirst.  In the first room he came to he found a single woman asleep in a locked room.  As Kain moved in for the kill, he was stopped in his tracks.

Reine de Chance rose from her feigned sleep armed with otherworldly technology.  Angered at a recent string of murders Kain committed that upset her business plans, Reine de Chance had a device cobbled together by a Donarrian, under much duress, to defeat the undead monster prowling her city.  When warned by the Donarrian, in the last moments of his life, that the device would as likely kill her as it would Kain, Reine de Chance replied “what is life without risks?”

While the device did kill Kain and not Reine de Chance, it did not leave her unmarked.  The powerful curse that once plagued Korvus Kain had found a new home.  The queen of chance’s empire includes stocks of synthetic Danaian virus, one used to empower Queen Qobra’s Soldiers of the Serpent, which ensure that this monarch has a steady stream of extranormal victims.

The evil that Reine de Chance once wrought will only pale in comparison to the destruction that is sure to follow Monarch Mayhem!

29 – The Amazinaut

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #28, Imperial Kaleidoscopic Conqueror…

… THE AMAZINAUT!

The quartet of remaining heroes on the moon (The Man of the Moon, Red Giant, the Awesomist and Atomic-Ra) watched in horror as the planetary satellite they were standing on was being devoured by the Forbiddenaut’s released black hole beast.  All attacks on the growing monster were shrugged off or went unnoticed.  They continued their ineffective attacks while the beast ate the moon until the Awesomist tried his trademarked Awesome Vision.  The beast stopped.

No one moved as the tentacled terror writhed and turned its attention on the Awesomist, eyes still glowing from his energized blast.  The beast wanted the mysterious energy emitting from the telegenic hero.  Turning in terror the Awesomist pushed of the ground with his Awesome Strength sailing away from the beast in the moon’s lower gravity.  His escape was short lived as the black hole beast sped over the lunar landscape reaching out for the fleeing hero.  With surprising speed, a tentacle grabbed the Awesomist’s foot and dragged him into its enormous mass.

There was a pause and then a small flash of light from within the beast.  The light pulsed again and again, brighter and brighter.  The bursts of energy grew in intensity until the beast, to the tips of its innumerable tentacles was bursting with light.  Then, with a powerful wind the beast imploded.

The beast folded in on itself at an astonishing rate until it was pulled into the abdomen of the energy bursting Awesomist, the new home of the beast.  Where the Forbiddenaut, through means unknown, imprisoned the beast, the Awesomist provided the beast with some desired substance from his apparently limitless energy source.

This symbiotic pairing of the Awesomist and the black hole beast created a new entity, the AMAZINAUT!  The Amazinaut is in complete control over his powers and, seemingly, the beast that hides within allowing him to consume all forms of matter and energy.  After a brief trip back to Earth to aid the Secret Soldiers in cleaning up the last of the Danaians and their Neotitans, the Amazinaut returned to the moon in the company of the Man of the Moon as he was deemed to dangerous to remain on the world.

With the immediate threat of the Danaians circumvented, the world began to rebuild.  The public support of all things extra-normal replaced with distrust and paranoia caused all superhuman activities to go covert.  The Secret Soldiers initiative continues to keep watch over the world, with the aid of the Man of the Moon, for threats extraterrestrial in origin and those more homegrown.  Threats like…

GO TO Character #30!

28 – Imperial Kaleidoscopic Conqueror

(Click to enlarge!)

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #27, Atomic Ra…

… the IMPERIAL KALEIDOSCOPIC CONQUEROR!

The Man of the Moon, accompanied by the Forbiddenaut, Red Giant, the Awesomist and Atomic-Ra, arrived on the moon as the Danaian Overlord Plexipus’s Imperial Kaleidoscopic Conqueror, carrying himself and several million Danaians bound for the colonization of Earth, destroyed much of the lunar outpost, operated by men of the moon for millennia, as the gargantuan craft landed.

Powered by a “civilization engine”, akin to, but more advanced than, that used by William Walker’s consciousness to control Mantropolis, the Conqueror presented an insurmountable threat.  While the collected might of the small contingency of Earthly heroes was impressive, the mechanized Conqueror was the size of a small nation.  The group of champions could barely scratch the craft’s dense metal hull.  Acting as an extension of Overlord Plexipus’s will, and that of a crew of engineers, pilots and strategist, the Kaleidoscopic Conqueror lumbered past the quintet setting its sights on Earth.

When all hope seemed lost, the Forbiddenaut began to spasm and expand with energy.  From within the man-sized suit an impossibly large being, writhing with energy crackling tentacles emerged, the black hole beast had been unleashed!

Starting at the base of one of the Imperial Kaleidoscopic Conquerors rear legs the beast began to feed.  The heroes stared in awe at the spectacle, while the Danaian invaders aboard the massive ship watched in horror, as the black hole beast slowly consumed the vessel.

Explosions aside, the Danaian warship was destroyed and Earth was spared.  Or so it seemed.  The black hole beast was not yet sated.

The heroes grabbed the shed body of Robert Spassky, which had housed the beast for years, and attempted to recapture the growing monstrosity.  The effort was in vain as the black hole beast consumed Spassky’s remains and began to consume the moon itself.

The fast thinking of the Awesomist, of all people, saved the moon but created…

GO TO Character #29!

27 – Atomic-Ra

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #26, Mechaman…

… ATOMIC-RA!

Relatively unfamiliar stateside, the mysterious hero known as Atomic-Ra made a name for himself in Europe, Africa and throughout the Middle East.  He became active in the mid-1990s gaining fame for saving the Sphinx and several pyramids in Egypt from Donarrian weapon seekers scouring the Saharan sands.  He was offered and accepted a post with the newly global Constellation agency.

Atomic-Ra boasts solar powers in the form of energy claws capable of slicing through nearly anything, including the armored plating of Danaian Neotitans, and devastating solar blasts.  The blasts leave him weakened as he recharges in our sunlight.  It appears that Atomic-Ra’s full body armor also serves as a solar collector constantly recharging the hero.  His powers let him take to the skies to watch over the areas in his charge, as dictated by his superiors in the Constellations.

Atomic-Ra’s armored mythological appearance hides his true nature as an extraterrestrial of the Heliopteryx race, who exist as sentient, bird-shaped fields of raw solar energy.  He was sent to Earth, after word from an outpost on the edge of our solar system that Danaians had visited the planet, by the mighty Horu-Sol, undying fire emperor of the Heliopteryx peoples.  Atom-Ra, as he is known in his own language, was commanded to observe the fledgling human population for signs of Danaian subterfuge.

Atom-Ra’s trans-spatial warp craft was hit by a Danaian light-minuteman sniper sending it hurtling to the Earth.  Atom-Ra was thrown and made landfall in the middle of the Sahara while his ship exploded, scattering its remains across the Atlantic and into the U.S.  One of the ship’s micro-sun capacitors burrowed into the ground in the wilds of the Great Smoky Mountains only to emerge with meteoric force in an Iowan field where it was found by Alden Barron, the Red Giant!

His presence immediately sensed by the Many-Who-Are-One mounts of the Danaian combat controllers, Atomic-Ra was immediately captured by a contingency of African Neotitans and imprisoned.  In captivity, the solar-powered hero learned of the impending arrival of Overlord Plexipus, the appointed ruler of Earth, and a population of Danaians to colonize Earth as part of their intergalactic empire.

Upon rescue by the Man of the Moon, Atomic-Ra revealed the plans of the invaders.  Looking into the night sky with inhuman sight, the Man of the Moon grimaced and, with a contingency of Secret Soldiers, took to the air and rocketed to the moon.  The group of heroes arrived just in time to meet the lunar landing of…

GO TO Character #28!

26 – Mechaman

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #25, Neotitans…

… the MECHAMAN!

Born of cutting-edge robotics and acquired extraterrestrial technology, including the Danaian disc of universal knowledge that empowered General Rocky Johnson, Mechaman is the most advanced artificial intelligence on the planet.  A nuclear-powered battle field wonder, Mechaman’s brain patterns were modeled after top tier-military strategists, leading scientist in multiple disciplines and medical professionals of numerous specialties.  Mechaman’s AI system also incorporates many levels of “compassion software” that give the automated soldier a personality, though a gruff and focused one.  The innumerable plates of his body can shift to create a number of weapons, many of which are alien in nature, and reveal a multitude of compartments filled with battle field gear.

The Mechaman project was spearheaded by military leaders in the wake of the Constellation program becoming international under the direction of the United Nations out of fear of the superhumans being turned on the U.S.  This black ops venture remained a secret weapon of last resort due to its effectiveness in taking down rogue extranormals in clandestine operations.  The Danaian Neotitans were the perfect target for this newly unveiled warrior.

Fighting alongside the Secret Soldiers from their mobile base in Mantropolis, Mechaman was crucial in the first successful takedown of one of the transformed superhuman Neotitans in St. Louis beneath the crumbling Gateway Arch.  Finding a chink in the armor of these metal monsters allowed the Secret Soldier to begin effectively fighting back against their insectile oppressors giving hope to the subjugated masses.

The Combat Controllers realized the flaw in their designs and turned their attention on the destruction of the mechanical man responsible for the toppling of their titans.

Mechaman fought valiantly, but the onslaught of Neotitans and Many-Who-Are-One beasts that cornered the automaton were too great a force to handle and the mechanical hero fired his last rounds of ammunition covering his Secret Soldier comrades before he was crushed.  He had the last say in the battle, however, as his nuclear heart was ruptured and the ensuing explosion came with a heavy price for the Danaian attackers.

Mechaman’s death was not without reward, as the Danaian focused their wrath on the mechanical marvel the Man of the Moon and his companion, the Forbiddenaut were able to free, from Danaian imprisonment, the legendary…

GO TO Character #27!

25 – Neotitans

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #24, Combat Controllers…

… NEOTITANS!

Around the world, all of the genuflecting, virus-infected extranormals entranced by the Combat Controllers’ control devices all levitated into the air as one rotating to face away from their alien directors, eyes pulsating with golden energy.  The relatively small time villain Maximilian Mote was lifted into the air and twisted into unusual contortions as his size altering powers were drawn from his body and turned onto the collected superhumans in the thrall of the Controllers.

Letting out a collecting scream of pain, that haunts all who heard it to this day, these superhumans once again transformed.  Drawing energy and materials from their surrounds to their beings, these heroes and villains all began to grow.  When the process was completed and the already battle-damaged capital city was even further emaciated, the extranormals who once served and preyed on humanity were transformed into metallic behemoths collectively known as NEOTITANS!

This transformation went largely unopposed.  A blast from Blue Bazooka’s namesake weapon knocked her Secret Soldier teammate, the Azure Aviator, from the sky. It remains unclear whether this blue beam or the meteor fragments beneath his skin prevented the airborne avenger’s subjugation as a Danaian puppet soldier.  The now President Day watched helplessly as his wife was transformed into an inhuman metallic colossus almost in mockery of his own appearance, as his Elixir-born golden shell seemingly protected him from the controller’s calling.  This bestowed protection was shared by the equally metallic Ms. Mercury.  From the shadows of an undisclosed location, Korvus Kain watched these proceeding unmoved and untransformed.

Serving as the invading Danaians as a forward force, the Neotitans, under the direction of their Controllers, began to prepare Earth for occupation by its new masters.  These indestructible juggernauts leveled cities and militaries the world over imposing martial law and crushing all who opposed the Danaian warlords.

America, like the rest of the world, was in shambles, ruled by extraterrestrial invaders and their homegrown human weapons.  The remaining, free superhumans continue to fight a resistance to their alien oppressors, hoping to stop the approaching full scale occupation of their planet.  To aid in their fight, the Enforcer’s Secret Soldier initiative produced…

GO TO Character #26!

24 – Combat Controllers

(Click to enlarge!)

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #23, Queen Qobra…

… DANAIAN COMBAT CONTROLLERS!

Mounted on beasts of the species to which the infamous The-Many-Who-Are-One belonged, Danaians in battle armor left their vessels and entered the war torn city of Washington with strange devices held high, pulsating with golden lights.  It was later revealed that the original Many-Who-Are-One monster was sent to Earth as a test to see how far along the Danaian-born virus has changed humanity.  These warriors spread out among the frozen masses, thousands of eyes following the pulsating lights held aloft.

The Man of the Moon hovered impassive over the scene as memories flooded back to him.  He remembered keeping his lonely vigil over the Earth, looking away from his home world out towards the universe.  It happened fast, there was a flash out in the void, like a distant supernova, and then the lunar guardian was not alone.  A pair of heavily armored lepidopteran soldiers stood before him flanking a large metallic container with something big thrashing about inside, a black hole beast.  While one Danaian invader shot the Man of the Moon, the other released their captive predator.  The Man of the Moon fought the beast with all his might to a standstill, leaving the beast buried beneath the surface of the moon and him unconscious at the bottom of crater of his own making.  This battle cleared the way for contingency of Danaian “first contact scouts” to visit Earth.

When all alien soldiers were positioned throughout the city, and other cities around the globe, they all began to chant, in unison, in their insectile native tongue.  All extranormal individuals, heroic and villainous, empowered by the alien virus, real and synthetic, released on first Danaian visitation, found themselves enthralled and moving toward these mounted Danaians, the Combat Controllers!

The gathered extranormals dropped to their knees as one before the alien warriors, all eyes glowing and pulsing with their control rods.  Government agents and Secret Soldiers alike braced for the inevitable attack from the Danaians.  They were unprepared for the simultaneous transformation of all virus infected individuals into…

GO TO Character #25!

23 – Queen Qobra

 THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #22, The Awesomist…

… QUEEN QOBRA!

Trent Day’s inauguration as President of the United States of America just after the turn of the millenia would go down in history as one of the most tumultuous eras in the history of the world.  The popularity of extranormals was at an all time high.  As the founder of the now global Constellations and trusted intermediary to all things super-powered, Day won his election bid in a landside victory.  Spending all his time in his gilded form as the Gold Gladiator as it slowed his aging, allowing him to live out his life with his seemingly immortal wife, Wardove, Day’s swearing in as Commander in Chief was a momentous and picturesque occasion.  The celebration was short lived, however.

As Day uttered the final words, cementing his place in U.S. history, chaos reigned from the sky onto the Capitol steps.  While the attending Secret Service agents, Constellation heroes and hidden Secret Soldiers were ready for any number of terrorist strikes, they were not prepared for the sheer number of enemy combatants that fell from the sky led by ex-Constellation Serpens, now operating under the guise of QUEEN QOBRA!

Nadia Septemus, under the codename Serpens, was a standout operative in the U.N. Constellation program whose cunning in combat was legendary in the organization.  Due to operational parameters and standards, a mission in the jungles of Central America resulted in the destruction of a small village and its population.  Angered that her organization was responsible for these unnecessary casualties, Serpens left the Constellations and went underground.  She founded the Soldiers of the Serpent as first a mercenary group and then as an underground movement to wrest control of the world from those, in her eyes, responsible for the turmoil it is constantly suffering.

Discreetly funded by the notorious Reine de Chance, Soldiers of the Serpent are armed with cutting edge armaments and empowered by a synthetic derivative of the extraterrestrial virus that gives many of the world’s heroes their extraordinary abilities.  The virus grants the soldiers invulnerability and super strength.

Finally ready to make their presence publicly known, Queen Qobra chose the Gold Gladiator’s momentous inauguration as her stage.  The hundreds of serpentine soldiers descended on the crowds were met by the numerous government agents and extranormal operatives in the crowd.  The newly sworn in President and First Lady led the charge meeting the Queen in a battle that engulfed the capital city.

While battle raged outside and national monuments crumbled under superhuman might, a light began to blink in a small room adjacent to the Oval Office.  In the dimly lit space a crimson light pulsated and a low hum emitted from a golden beacon given to, of all people, Trent Day by a trio of extraterrestrial visitors in a remote Michigan forest a quarter of a century ago.  The Danaians were returning.  The thundering conflict in Washington, D.C. was stilled by the appearance of numerous ships slowly falling to Earth from the void beyond.  Heroes and villains alike watched wide-eyed as the ships landed, their portal doors opened revealing…

GO TO Character #24!

22 – The Awesomist

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #21, Red Giant & the Solar Sword…

… The AWESOMIST!

Bobby Baker was not a bright man.  He also generally lacked ambition, living out his days moving from one janitorial job to another.  He did, however, desire fame.  Bobby idolized the extra-normal heroes he saw on the nightly news before his programs came on, those programs largely consisting of reality television.  Baker sent videos and filled out entry forms to any and all shows for the chance to be on TV and, as he says when asked, “rake in the benefits.”

Bobby was mopping the floors of a hall way in a government laboratory facility, a job he acquired with the help of a distant relative, when the Secret Soldiers stormed the building in pursuit of a contingency of Donarrians.  The Donarrians, known for their quest for weapons, had discovered that this particular government building housed an experimental subluminal starship engine that had been confiscated from the Donarrians during their encounter with the Red Giant.

Bobby took cover in a storage closet, but kept the door ajar to watch the battle.  As Bobby’s luck would have it, the janitorial closet he selected shared a wall with the engineering lab where the sought after engine was stored.  An errant shot from Blue Bazooka’s armament hit the engine, rupturing the housing containing whatever extraterrestrial energy source that powered the thruster.  The ensuing explosion engulfed the broom closet and poor Bobby Baker.

Bobby was transformed by the mysterious power set free from the engine.  His physique took on heroic proportions and came with incredible strength, endurance, accelerated healing.  These new properties of his body became evident when he emerged from the closet in time to save a downed Blue Bazooka from an approaching Donarrian.  In addition to his superheroic physical make-over, Bobby discovered he could emit blasts of energy from his eyes with devastating results, an ability never before seen in an extra-normal.  These eye beams took down the remaining Donarrians and ended the battle at the laboratory.

After testing, Baker turned down the Enforcer’s offer to join his Secret Soldiers.  Instead the transformed Bobby Baker headed for Hollywood where he now stars in his own show under his new superhero name, the Awesomist!  On the show he fights crime, with input from the viewing audience, and performs stunts that only his awesome body can withstand for the enjoyment of the masses.  His trademarked Awesome Strength, Awesome Vision and Awesome Invulnerability have landed him lucrative advertising contracts, merchandizing and acting gigs as a favorite among America’s impressionable youth.  Catch all new episodes of The Awesomist Saturday nights at 10 pm EST, Its AWESOME!

America’s love the extra-normal was at an all time high, or low depending on who you asked.  This halcyon time, however, took a turn to the dark with the appearance of…

GO TO Character #23!

21 – Red Giant & the Solar Sword

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #20, Blue Bazooka…

… the RED GIANT!

Alden Barron was working as a farm hand on an Iowan farm plowing a field when the saucers streaked across the sky.  The trio of disks came to stand still after an impossibly quick stop and hovered over a grouping of silos adjacent to the ethanol plant run by the farm.  Blue circular ports on the under side of the vehicles began to glow and blue skinned humanoids armored in gleaming silver metal armed with silver rifles crackling with energy.  Barron looked on in shock as the invaders turned their weapons on everything in their paths, letting loose bolts of lightning smiting anyone caught in their line of sight.  Amidst this show of power the ground shook knocking Alden to the ground, still a safe distance from the chaos.

True to their United Nation’s sanctioned word, a contingency of Constellation agents arrived at the scene and joined the alien attackers in battle.  Another quake shook the ground toppling a silo full of grain.  Constellation agents were distracted from the fighting to save a group of trapped farmers and engineers.  The weapons of the intruders once again began to fire and wreak havoc.  This time, however, their electrifying volleys were joined by massive beams of intense light from their hovering saucers that gouged massive trenches in the ground.  Again the ground shook.  It shook for a long time with increasing intensity ending with a large fiery boulder erupting from the ground landing near a thrown Alden Barron.

Barron looked over and saw the broken remains of the Earth-born missile.  Among the shattered remains of rock was a golden gear-like wheel.  The aliens saw it too.  All three flying disks moved toward the wheel and Alden.  They were thrown backwards off course by an unseen force.  On the ground, armed alien infantry was likewise knocked back, many falling into freshly wrought trenches.  This time the cause of their misfortune was obvious as the Man of the Moon descended from the air with his staff held high with the Forbiddenaut not far behind.  The lunar hero pointed at Alden and told him to protect the Solar Sword, indicating the golden gear.  Alden moved into position just as a rifle wielding invader charged from the opposite side.  Alden reached the wheel first, but slipped and fell onto it.

The golden wheel was still excruciatingly hot from its journey through Earth’s interior but Alden did not notice.  Alden Barron was consumed in blinding light as crimson fire exploded from his body.  Alden began to grow in size becoming a hulking thirty feet tall giant with burning hot skin.  The golden sun-like gear had also changed, shifting and releasing a blazing massive blade burning with the same energies that coursed through Alden’s transformed body.  The Man of the Moon looked on impassively and directed the confused Barron to aid in fighting the enemy.

Leaving smoldering foot prints behind, the RED GIANT made short work of the three flying alien craft, cleaving them in twain with his flaming sword.  The ground troops tried to escape the wrath of this new foe only to be captured by Constellation heroes.

The Man of the Moon identified the captured blue-skinned warriors as Donarrians who search the universe for artifacts to use in their eternal wars.  Alden has been linked to the Solar Sword, which he carries strapped to his back, and can become the fiery Red Giant at will.  Alden has a new life as a member of the Enforcer’s new Secret Soldiers.

Not all new extra-normal humans have such patriotic blood running through their veins.  Take, for instance, the case of…

GO TO Character #22!

20 – Blue Bazooka

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #19, Major Ursa & the Constellations…

… the BLUE BAZOOKA!

Mary Beedle enlisted in the U.S. army shortly before the Gulf War.  She served with distinction and was selected for duty in secret superhuman operations directed by General Rocky Johnson, operations that neither side of the conflict will ever to admit to occurring.  Inspired and envious of the powers of those she supported, Pvt. Beedle wanted to be a hero.  During a raid on a reported extraterrestrial armament facility in the rocky wastelands of Iraq, Mary became pinned down by fire and out of ammunition.  Looking around for a weapon, she came across what looked like a mirror-polished chrome bazooka.  Her armed assailants closing in, she grasped the weapon, rose and fired.

The weapon whirred, clicked and then let loose an explosive blast of sapphire concussive energy took out her attackers, the side of bunker and most of the western face of a nearby mountain. The strange silver housing absorbed what must have been incredible amounts of force, leaving Pvt. Beedle standing unmoved from where she fired with a mixed look of shock and glee.

The weapon was taken to General Johnson and, after failed testing due to what men in white lab coats called a “genomic identification lock”, given back to Pvt. Beedle.  Beedle was given additional training and armaments, some terrestrial some not, and the unimaginative codename BLUE BAZOOKA as the first member of General Rocky “Enforcer” Johnson’s Secret Soldiers.  The Man of the Moon later identified Blue Bazooka’s weapon as a modified thruster engine for a sub-light speed orbital craft favored by intergalactic arms smugglers.  This was not the last extraterrestrial artifact to end up in the hands of man.  In the mid 1990s, for example, a meteor erupted out of the Earth, ultimately creating…

GO TO Character #21!

19 – Major Ursa & the Constellations

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THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #18, The-Many-Who-Are-One…

… Constellations under field leader MAJOR URSA!

The appearance of individuals born with extranormal abilities in the wake of the Danaian visitation, and the accompanying alien virus, left the U.S. government with a burgeoning population of superhumans in need of training and direction.  The Gold Gladiator, Senator Trent Day, as the Secretary of Extranormal Affairs founded the Constellations program to help these special youths.  Taught by adult superhumans, who themselves were new the powers game, and military personnel, those enrolled in the program grew into a capable fighting force.  Graduates of the program are issued codenames based on stellar constellations and stars and are official members of the Constellations team of operatives.

The first graduating class of thirteen heroes had been relegated to search-and-rescue missions and dealing with criminal elements that were troubling law enforcement agencies.  Use of America’s heroic generation abroad was stalled due to the quagmire that international relations had become in the wake of the new superpowers arms race.  Gold Gladiator’s call to arms against The-Many-Who-Are-One was the Constellations first appearance on the international stage.

Under the leadership of Major Ursa, the Constellations were successful in the take down of the extraterrestrial horror and in saving of all captured United Nations members, though some were worse for wear, made the world take notice of the power in the hands of not only America’s youth, but empowered children world wide.  The Constellations moved from America’s future to the official protectors of Earth under the sponsorship of the U.N.  The team was expanded with foreign member and became fully global using the old Secret Soldiers base, the Strato-Sphere, as their mobile headquarters.

Tasked with monitoring and protecting Earth from further extraterrestrial invasion and watching the movements of other, less friendly Earth-bound extranormal individuals, the Constellations have become a point of interest around the world.  The Man of the Moon observes them with distant concern from his lunar lair, while the U.S. government, none too pleased with the loss of their superhuman army, watches with growing concern.  America’s anxiety has been addressed with the re-establishment of the Secret Soldier iniaitive beginning with…

GO TO Character #20!

18 – The-Many-Who-Are-One

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THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #17, Mantropolis…

… THE-MANY-WHO-ARE-ONE!

The world was largely unsurprised when the existence of extraterrestrial life became common knowledge.  Reality seemed tenuous at best as American cities could apparently transplant themselves for aesthetic reasons.  If questioned before the visitor made Earthfall, most people would have expected an alien encounter to be very “Hollywood” in nature; a sleek ship descending from the heavens opening to reveal a peaceful alien race looking to befriend Earth and exchange knowledge.  Those people were wrong.

The people of Earth were introduced to life from beyond with a destructive meteoric strike that leveled a five block radius and damaged the United Nations building in New York City.  The large asteroid hovered with a blue glow in center of the impact zone, held aloft by luminescent crystals familiar to the Azure Aviator.  The asteroid shuddered and cracked open.  Amidst a deluge of translucent green goo, a massive horrific figure emerged with one body and many heads.

The-Many-Who-Are-One, as it called itself in grunted English, began a reign of unprecedented terror beginning with holding those in the U.N. hostage.  Through telepathic means the invader took control of the delegates in a bid for global domination, or destruction, its goals were never that clear.  The Five Points of Freedom assembled but were no match for the six acid streaming maws wielded by the elephantine fiend.

Realizing they were unequal to the challenge, the Gold Gladiator called in for support.  He activated the Department of Extranormal Affairs’…

GO TO Character #19!

17 – Mantropolis

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THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #16, The Forbiddenaut…

… MANTROPOLIS, the Living City!

The bizarre events surround some of Earth’s super humans like forests uprooting themselves and attacking, magnified microscopic monstrosities and entire lakes disappearing set the bar for surreal circumstances pretty high.  Everyone was still caught off guard, however, when Static City, Washington went on a walkabout.

Civil engineer and city planner William Walker had grand ideas for his hometown of Static City.  Ambitious ideas severely limited by his department’s budgetary allotment and, to be honest, physics.  Walker was called to the site of some routine work on the sewer system below the streets at the heart of the city where workers uncovered a strange metal wall with “funny markings.”  Walker assumed that a portion of the tunnel had been tagged by some gang or another.  Upon seeing the wall and the intricately cut markings, Walker rescinded his initial thoughts and put his hand to the only colored marking.

The workers present would later recall how Walker seemingly merged with the wall without making the slightest sound, like it was meant to happen.  Walker and the wall were one.  The sewage tunnel began to shake and the previously smooth structure of the wall distorted into a caricatured effigy of Walker that bellowed “THE CITY IS MINE!”

Chaos ensued as Walker’s consciousness took control of Static City, from the ground up.  Walker rearranged the buildings and architectural elements to mirror his greatest fantasies.  City law enforcement could do nothing to stop the god-like Walker.  The government dispatched Gold Gladiator and War-Dove to deal with the tumultuous town.  While searching for the source of the urban upheaval, the heroes ran afoul of a mob of Murder Men who were taking advantage of the chaos for their own nefarious activities.

Walker did not want the people of his city injured.  He just wanted the cancerous Murder Men gone from his new body.  Walker refocused and aided the married heroes, ousting the criminals from his system.  The gangsters weren’t going to go quietly and they revealed their secret weapon, a small thermonuclear device.  In his rage to rid the Murder Men, Walker lifted the city onto moveable limbs.

The timely arrival of the Man of the Moon saved the city-man and his population.  After expelling the device and its unfortunate Murder Man bearer, the lunar protector explained that Walker found what was known as a “civilization engine” and was used by trans-universal settlers hundreds of thousands years ago to power their city-ships in their search for new worlds.

In the end, the Walker/city fused being was allowed to exist, under the watchful eye of the government and anyone who wanted to live there was allowed to in the newly dubbed MANTROPOLIS!

This ancient extraterrestrial artifact was only the world’s first, publicly known interaction with the larger universe.  While the civilization engine-powered Mantropolis was, ultimately, a rather benign encounter with alien intelligence, a much more violent introduction to the life beyond our solar system came in the form of…

GO TO Character #18!

16 – The Forbiddenaut

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #15, The Man of the Moon…

… the FORBIDDENAUT!

Professor Robert “Spaz” Spassky was a geologist, astronaut and crew member a mission to the moon with the goal of setting up an American observation base to track Earth’s burgeoning superhuman population from an inaccessible location.  He was present when they made the shocking discovery of the Man of the Moon’s unconscious body on the lunar surface.  When loading the strange man onto their escape craft, Prof. Spassky’s eye caught a glint of metal in the bottom of the crater where the man was found.  Bounding down the slope into the crater, Spassky unearthed a long metal rod with the symbols of Earth and the moon at the termini.

Spassky shouted to his teammates to show what he found.  His teammates looked on in horror as the ground by Spassky’s feet erupted with the appearance of enormous tentacles crackling with unearthly energy.  Spassky’s attempts to fend off his unseen attacker with the staff in his hand resulted in a massive discharge of energies that threw Spassky up into the air only to be caught by another tentacle and dragged beneath the surface.

The professor was entombed in soil and darkness that was sporadically interrupted with hypnotic lights and blinding pain.  Spassky’s body was grabbed by an unseen force and pulled back to the surface.  As he was losing consciousness, Spassky saw that his savior was the grey man that they had found.

Professor Spassky, or what passed for him, regained consciousness back on Earth in a quarantined laboratory.  Attempts to remove his space suit failed and even resulted in a nurse sustaining a mild electrical shock.  Spassky’s suited body awkwardly got off the gurney it was laying on and, after some stilted walking, rose a few inches off the ground and levitated to the door of his room.  In a voice like Spassky’s, coupled with electrical feedback, he demanded to see the Man of the Moon.  The soldiers guarding the astronaut provided little resistance to the changed man who threw them aside like ragdolls with a pair of energized tentacles that exploded from his face plate.

With no assistance and through ineffectual opposition, Spassky made his way to the recently awakened Man of the Moon located several miles away and became docile.  The Man of the Moon studied the transformed Spassky and concluded his interaction with his staff and, what he called, the black hole beast on the moon created a sort of hybrid being.  Dubbed the FORBIDDENAUT by a public relations firm, Spassky accompanies the Man of the Moon most places displaying great loyalty to the man.  Whether this loyalty driven by a sense of obligation for saving Spassky or if the beast within is bidding its time to attack remains in question.  Only the future holds the answer.

The Man of the Moon and the Forbiddenaut are unusual additions to the pantheon of powered individuals operating on the Earth.  However, their strangeness pales in comparison to…

GO TO Character #17!

15 – The Man of the Moon

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #14, Maximilian Mote…

… the MAN of the MOON!

The appearance of a super powered generation capable of miraculous feats increased the levels of distrust already present between nations.  In the United States, this paranoia fueled a number of space programs to establish satellite-based monitoring of global superhuman movement.  The destruction of one satellite over the U.S.S.R. at the hands of the Soviet Super Star pushed the scope of America’s off world activities to once again visit the moon with the goal of establishing a monitoring system out of the reach of current super human abilities.  What the astronauts found on the moon when they stepped off their landing vehicle was unexpected to say the least.

Partially buried in a crater was the prone form of a pale gray skinned man dressed in 18^th century clothing.  After a moment of silent disbelief and upon orders from home, the astronauts loaded their anachronistic find onto their escape vehicle for departure back to Earth.

A silvery sheen at the edge of burial crater caught the eye of one of the astronauts as they boarded the craft.  Upon inspection he began to free a tall silvery staff.  The staff shone and as the astronaut turned triumphantly to show what he uncovered to his peers a massive tentacle emerged from the lunar soil and dragged him under the surface as the staff sparked with ethereal energy.  The shocked astronauts aboard the escape vehicle were pushed aside as the body they found stood and dove after their disappearing compatriot unaided by any breathing apparatus.  Moments later the strange man burst forth from the ground, staff in one hand and a critically injured astronaut in the other.  With a mouthed “Good day, gentlemen,” the stranger collapsed.

Back on Earth, the strange gray man regained consciousness and related his story in a perfect 18^th century English accent.  The man called himself the Man of the Moon and indicated that he was once a sailor by the name of Joseph Williams working for a small American business whose ship was destroyed at sea when returning to the recently founded country from a trading venture in France.  Adrift in the Atlantic on flotsam he was rescued in the middle of a night, lit by the full moon in a cloudless sky, by the previous Man of the Moon who had been protecting Earth from threats from beyond from his look out post on the dark side of the moon.  In return for his rescue, Williams was trained as the next defender of our planet, as the previous guardian was growing tired after manning the solitary position for nearly a millennium.  Williams did his job and protected our planet from many extraterrestrial menaces but has no recollection as to how he ended up in the condition in which he was found or what attacked the astronaut on the surface of the moon.

Through force of will alone summoned his staff to his side even though it was housed miles away at another facility and offered his services to his homeland.  The Man of the Moon has become a media darling and sought after interviewee by talk shows and historians alike.  The Man of the Moon has decided to spend time on Earth reacquainting himself with his home world, all the while keeping an eye on the skies.

The Man of the Moon is by far the most powerful extra-normal being on Earth capable of bending gravity to his will.  He can personally channel his power into feats of strength and flight and, with the aid of staff, extend his powers outward and control gravity around him on scales that can affect global tides, though this exertion greatly drains him.  Williams’ physiology has been greatly altered.  His pale gray skin is invulnerably to all known forms of harm and has stopped his aging giving him the appearance of 30-year old even though he is over 260 years old!  The Man of the Moon can exist unaided in environments of extreme pressure and in the vacuum of space for indefinite amounts of time as he no longer needs to eat, breathe or sleep.

The Man of the Moon was not the only addition to America’s super human stable.  The fateful lunar mission also spawned…

GO TO Character #16!

14 – Maximilian Mote

(Click for larger image!)

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #13, Reine de Chance…

… MAXIMILIAN MOTE!

Maximilian, as he prefers to be called, was nearly a straight A student in high school and college, his GPA only hampered by his abysmal physical education performances.  His fanatical love for microbiology ostracized him from the rest of his peers, even those in his field of study.  When he finally pulled his head up from his microscope to look at the world around him he discovered that he was alone in every sense of the word.

Deciding that his intellect was envied by those around him, Maximilian Mote swore revenge for his exclusion from society.  Dr. Mote received a package one morning containing samples of water that was contaminated with an unknown material.  In his research, Maximilian cultivated a little known virus, the same virus that arrived on Earth with the Danaians.  Spooked by his lab assistant, Victoria Timothy, Maximilian dropped the viral culture, spilling it on himself.  In the commotion, Dr. Mote grabbed a lab bench for support putting his hand on the box of water samples.

With a surge of golden energy emanating from Maximilian’s hand the box exploded as a creature grew from within to gigantic size.  What was, moments before, a microscopic tardigrade had become an otherworldly, monstrous water bear that attacked and ate Ms. Timothy, with whom Dr. Mote harbored feelings.  In his rage, Dr. Mote’s hands began to glow and the magnified microscopic moiety returned to its normal, undetectable size.

Maximilian Mote is able to expand microscopic organic material to enormous proportions at will.  While he has tenuous control over these organisms they are largely feral and wreak massive amounts of damage.  In a league with the Wooden Wizard in terms of reality bending absurdity, Mote’s rampages have caused giant viruses and bacteriophages to invade towns and hordes of water bears to tear through a city.

Blaming the world for his loss, Dr. Mote began his reign of terror which has often brought him into conflict with super human beings.  He has an imagined arch nemesis in the Enforcer, who he sees as a jock unworthy of the technology at his disposal.  In addition he has become fixated with Ms. Mercury, who he sees as both a scientific wonder and a woman capable of understanding his intelligence.

Mote’s antics, and that of other powered megalomaniacs, were put on hold with all things extranormal with the appearance of…

GO TO Character #15!

13 – Reine de Chance

 THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #12, The Adventureteers…

… REINE DE CHANCE!

Renée Roue always wanted fame and fortune.  Trained in the criminal arts by her father, Renée was able to fend for herself when she ran away from home into the streets of Paris when she was an adolescent.  Described as a little “off” by those who knew her in the early days, Renée became renowned for her daredevil nature and willingness to attempt even the most foolhardy felonious feat.

As she grew up, Renée became more mentally unhinged and more willing to accept more extreme assignments.  It turned out that Renée had a knack for kidnapping and random acts of violence, though those were often self motivated and not commissioned.  Over time she built a criminal empire, where people feared for their safety and did not try to cross her, especially after seeing the fates of those who attempted betrayal.

The self proclaimed “Queen of Chance” gained notoriety after televising a game of Russian roulette played by a small group of wealthy hostages.  And herself, in full Marie Antoinette costume.  Easily bored, Renée found a new challenge in the rising superhuman population.  She staged elaborate games of chance, with property and lives often at stake, for various heroes and villains to participate.  Pursued by the Five Points of Freedom, the Adventureteers and many others, Reine de Chance remains free largely due to her insanity and the actions she is willing to perform and sacrifices she’s willing to make.

While, the Queen of Chance operates on a global scale of chaos, American heroes have their own villains to contend with such as the mayhem caused by…

GO TO Character #14!

12 – The Adventureteers

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

… continued from Character #11, The Anonymous Avenger…

… the ADVENTURETEERS!

People around the globe had been, and still were being, transformed by the alien atmosphere-born virus identified by the Five Points of Freedom’s own Ms. Mercury.  While these changes were obvious in some, they remained dormant in many others, only becoming evident in their progeny.  There were a growing number of individuals born into Generation X who were more than human.

As these children aged, their extra-normal nature became evident, sometimes in kids as young as five or six years old.  Though from various ethnic, social and geographical locations, these children all developed the same set of abilities.  The children’s eyes shown with golden glows and were capable of seeing complete darkness.  The kids could levitate and fly through unseen propulsion.  They were strong, lifting several tons even at a young age, and tough, able to survive bullets, bombs and even drowning unharmed.

The public and world governments were concerned.  Some countries screened their children and gathered the empowered for study and detainment.  A group of children thus empowered, however, are not so easy to imprison.  The U.S. took a less draconian approach, though some in the government would have preferred otherwise.  Under the direction of the newly appointed Secretary of Extranormal Affairs, Senator Trent Day, the Gold Gladiator and founding member of the Five Points of Freedom, all children with powers, inborn or otherwise, were brought into the Constellations program where they would be mentored and tutored in the use of their powers by other heroes.

One group of powered youth, known in the media as the Adventureteers, gained fame when they saved billionaire philanthropist Aurum Silvers and his wife when his private plane was hit by an errant meteorite.  Silvers and his wife were moved by the children’s altruistic act, though the kids were in no actual danger due to their super human natures, and decided to fund a youth hero team that would operate outside of the government’s control, allowing them to work in areas without political motives.  Unfortunately, there were often political ramifications to their actions.

The Adventureteers were led by Blastblolt (centered) and included (clockwise from center) Princess Heartshine, Pterodactyl, Skullcrusher and Gold Star.  It should be noted that the children named themselves.

The global scope of the Adventureteers brought them and a variety of other super powered individuals into conflict with the psychotic…

GO TO Character #13!

11 – The Anonymous Avenger

THE STORY STARTS HERE!

 … continued from Character #10, The Wooden Wizard…

… the ANONYMOUS AVENGER!

Reginald Wright was once a standup police officer, with a clean image and the respect of the public.  That all changed when he discovered that his partner was not only a dirty cop, but a Murder Man working for the notorious Korvus Kain.  When Wright resisted recruitment attempts and stopped the Murder Man sent to assassinate him, he found that Kain could reach beyond simple murder when his career was killed with false accusations and planted evidence.  Now a security guard at a gymnasium, Wright has begun taking classes at the local community college, working toward a degree in electrical engineering.

Like many, Wright was an admirer of the Five Points of Freedom and their civic works.  He noticed a decrease in crime in the neighborhood that he lived when the team became publicly known.  Who wants to get caught by someone who can fly?  He also noticed the increase in criminal activity when the Five Points became more focused on grander, more surreal threats, like the Wooden Wizard.

After a particularly violent encounter with some Murder Men, Wright decided to take matters into his own hands.  Inspired by the Five Points and other heroic types, Wright fashioned a costume out of pieced he scavenged from the locker room used by a semi-professional wrestling league that performed at the gym he guarded after hours.  Protecting his self with a bulletproof vest and armed with a pair of “shocking gauntlets” that he built himself, each capable to incapacitate an enraged elephant, Wright took to the streets as the Anonymous Avenger to fight crime under the radar of most super powered heroes.

The Anonymous Avenger started a trend of vigilantism where civic minded, capable people taking on the criminal elements ignored by the heroes they idolized.  While all these heroes, super powered and not, were on the look out for their villainous counterparts, they should have been watching out for the children.  Particularly, children like…

GO TO Character #12!