Super Soldiers

From the birth of warfare, it has been the dream of the state to create the superior soldier, a cut above what talent or training can provide to a man. Numerous programs were tried in many parts of the world down through the ages but the first true ‘super soldier’ formula was created in 1885. The results were hushed up and buried, and this set the tone for similar experimentation over the next hundred years. Quickly it was learned that superior aggression or resistance to the idea of killing was not desirable a trait to re-create for soldiers that also had to come home after the war. There were numerous horror stories from that period and the roots of many later supervillain experiments lay in the period from 1890-1900.

Sandstone

Sandstone

PL 6

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

-1

+1

+1

+0

-1

+1

8

12

12

10

8

12

Toughness

Fortitude

Reflex

Will

+6/+4*

+6

+4

+2

* Flat-footed

Skills Acrobatics 3 (+4), Bluff 9 (+10), Computers 4 (+4), Diplomacy 3 (+4), Drive 2 (+3), Escape Artist 4 (+5), Knolwedge (Pop Culture) 3 (+3), Notice 4 (+3), Search 3 (+3), Stealth 5 (+6)

Feats Defensive Roll 2, Improved Grab, Redirect, Instant Up, Quick Change 1

Powers: Alternate Form: Particulate (Sand) 6 (Insubstantial 1, Immunity 5 (Critical Hits, Suffocation, Disease, Poison), Elongation 5, Strike 6, Blast 6, Super-Senses 3 (Tremorsense); Protection 3, Burrowing 6 (Limited: Only Sand/Loose Earth)

Combat: Attack +5, Damage (Strike +6); Defense 16 (13 Flat-Footed), Initiative +1, Knockback -3

Drawbacks

Abilities 2 + Skills 10 (40 ranks) + Feats 6 + Powers 39 + Combat 22 + Saves 11 = Total 90

Flashback

Flashback

PL 8

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

+1

+6

+2

+0

+1

+2

13

22

14

11

12

14

Toughness

Fortitude

Reflex

Will

+8/+3*

+6

+12

+6

* Flat-footed

Skills Computers 2 (+2), Craft (Art) 2 (+2), Craft (Mechanical) 6 (+6), Diplomacy 2 (+4), Knowledge (Pop Culture) 2 (+2), Notice 2 (+3), Search 2 (+2)

Feats Defensive Roll 5, Evasion 2, Improved Disarm, Move-by Action, Stunning Attack, Luck 1, Equipment 1

Powers Super-Speed 10 (Power Feats: Rapid Attack, Wall Run, Water Run); Alternate Powers: Strike 8, Deflect 10 (All Ranged, Action: Reaction)); Immunity 5 (Fatigue Effects); Protection 1 (Costume Jacket)

Combat: Attack +8, Damage (Unarmed +1; Mach-1 Punch +8), Defense 18 (14 Flat-Footed), Initiative +46, Knockback -4

Drawbacks

Abilities 25 + Skills 5 (20 ranks) + Feats 12 + Powers 60 + Combat 32 + Saves 15 = Total 0

The New Frontier

The Bay Area in 2008 has a population of 31.3 million people, making it the largest population center in the United States. There are four main urban centers: San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Redwood City. Each is a large modern skyscraper-studded city with populations in the millions.

San Francisco is a haven for free-thinkers, artists and authors. It boasts the largest metahuman population on Earth, an estimated 25,000 people with an expressed metahuman ability of Delta-class or above. It has the largest Asian population in the US (27% of residents). One man in five above the age of 15 is gay. It has the only phone book in the US with the profession ‘Wizard’ listed. Due to the physical nature of the peninsula, San Francisco has the densest population of any city in the US.

Oakland is an urban hellhole of crime and corruption. It’s been voted ‘Most Corrupt Police Force in the US’ every year since 1968 and boasts the highest violent crime rate in the US. Oakland has suffered crippling economic downturns and is a sea of urban poor. Save for the showcase waterfront mall area, the average income of an Oakland resident is $10,000 per year with a 35% unemplyment rate. Massive decaying housing project towers serve as gang headquarters in the war for the streets. Ironically, just south of Oakland’s borders in Freemont is an economic boomtown in terms of jobs and living standards due to the massive automotive plants and subsidiary industries.

Redwood City is all glitz and glamour. This is where the displaced film industry settled and all major studios maintain a significant presence here. The huge marina areas host both cargo container ships and million-dollar yachts. The finest hotels and entertainment venues are here, though San Francisco still has the best restaurants. The theater and ballet companies that have settled here are why the northern part of the area is called ‘Little Broadway’.

San Jose is a gleaming ‘city of the future’ that boasts one of the highest standards of living in the US. Every major and minor technical company has some level of representation here. It has the first automated guidance roadway system in the US, which came online in 2001 and serves the inner city area, with extensions out to the primary shopping districts, airport, and Disneyland.

Fortress

Fortress, aka, Nicholas Fort, was a member of the Silver Seven until he betrayed and murdered his teammates in order to fuel Douglas Pierce’s political ambitions and his own lust for power - as Pierce moved into political circles, Fort took over more and more of the overtly criminal organizations Pierce had set up to destroy of muzzle his rivals.

Fortress joined the Silver Seven in 1983 at the age of 20 and quickly became one of it’s most popular members. Appealing and photogenic, the young hero was often the ‘face’ of the team to the media and the press. Poised, cool under pressure, and with a glib tongue, Fortress kept the Silver Seven in the limelight for years. His skill on the battlefield was also impressive. Fort was born a mutant and at 14 his powers began to manifest. He gained a mild degree of super-strength but his greatest power was his invulnerability: he is the highest-rated non-cosmic entity in that category. He is on record as having lived through a direct fusion explosion, being thrown through the heart of a star, and having shrugged off N-Pulse’s disintegration beams.

When news broke of Fortress’s betrayal, many denied it even though he confessed to the crime; such was his popularity with the people of Oakland. Even when his dealings with Pierce were later revealed in full, many claimed it was a smear campaign against him.

Nicholas Fort is beleived to currently reside on the private island of Ikros in the Agean Sea, home of the Fort family and heart of their shipping empire, sheltered by his family despite demands by ATLAS that he be turned over to them for criminal prosecution. The Greek government’s strained relations with ATLAS at present probably contributes a great deal to the lack of official national cooperation. Fort is currently wanted in the US and Canada for 147 counts of criminal conspiracy and violation of various RICO statutes, and wanted for questioning in at least 6 murders (his four teammates in 1988, Monica Sales in 2000 and Oakland city official Howard Parks in 2003).

Gangs and Crime

20 years without an embedded superhero group have seen crime rise and become entrenched in the area. Going counter-clockwise around the Bay Area: San Francisco is mainly split between the Chinese and the Russians. The Tongs and Organizatsiya groups have roughly equal footing, each sharing about 40% of the ‘underworld’ economy: the rest is taken up by the top three supervillian groups.

As you move south towards Redwood City, Latin gangs take over the less dense urban areas and suburbs. Redwood City itself, and Hollywood, are solidly in control of the Russian Mafia but their influence ends when the main urbanization runs out. The entire south bay is given over to a mosaic of Latin gangs, and the debased Santaria cults (San Jose itself is a very low crime zone as far as gangs go. It’s underworld is controlled by The Machinist).

Going back up towards Oakland, the black gangs take over; tense turf wars break out every few weeks between black and latino gangs, each seeking a part of the shrinking pie. Oakland proper is ruled by a cabal of black gangs, topped by the Black Iron Diciples and the Caliphate.

The northern cities and Sacremento are given over to specifically the Mexican Mafia ( as oppossed to the Nuestra Familia that surrounds Redwood City and parts south), though the Russians are making serious inroads on their traditional sources.

The traditional La Cosa Nostra Mafia is not seen very much on the West Coast, though they have some strong interests in Hollywood. The only successful traditional Mafia family is the Cotroni Family who originally came down from Toronto. They have made a place for themselves in the cocaine market and seem comfortable running that business despite the Mexicans.

 

Mother Russia

The most powerful known metahuman on the planet is probably Natasha Dementieva, known as Mother Russia. She has the normal paragon suite of abilities: flight, super-strength, invulnerability, speed and endurance. She says she gets her power from ‘the Russian people’, but she doesn’t display the normal characteristics of other metas who have similar power sources.

Dementieva first appeared May 1, 1954, and was introduced as the protector of the Soviet Union in the wake of Stalin’s death. She clashed with many American and European superheroes during the Cold War era, though there are scattered reports of her forming friendships of respect with some. Originally she worked exclusively for the Soviet government, but around 1982 she began to operate independently. Though she has not apparently aged a day since her appearance, her level of activity has decreased in recent years to an almost random level; she has not offered an explanation for this. She can usually be seen at the scene of major natural disasters or working with ATLAS heroes dealing with nation-wide emergencies.

Squire

Some of the early mystery men of the 20’s and 30’s occasionally had assistants that were younger than they but none were consistent or noted. It took the unusual action of putting a minor into combat to bring the term ’sidekick’ into the American vocabulary.

Squire, the assistant to The Silver Knight, was the first teenager to put on a costume and fight crime, beating out the first appearance of Kid Superior by two full years. In one interview the hero now known as Sentinel said that he regarded Squire’s appearance as an inspiration to him to use his gifts for the betterment of mankind.

William L. Shirer’s monumental work Godlike, his 1965 follow-up to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which details the entrance of true metahumans onto the world stage, contains a lengthy interview with the Silver Knight and Squire done soon after the end of the war. Later in the book he examines the proliferation of young assistants to the metas of the time without the bias and cruel animosity seen in 1954’s Seduction of the Innocent (an FBI-sponsored propaganda peice aimed at swaying popular opinion against the prominent metas of the time, especially The Astronaut and Starboy, and The Eagle and Wing).

Metahuman historian Ron Goulart explored the popularity of the sidekick in his 1967 book Boy Wondering, which devoted a good quarter of the book to Squire’s exploits in WW2, his later popularity on the American pop scene, his rise as one of the first ‘teen idols’, and his gradual withdrawal from the superhero community as he aged.

TV and movie portrayals of Squire have been surprisingly sparse given his popularity in the 1950s. The movie serial ‘Silver Knight vs The Robot Menace’ featured John Duncan as Squire; productions values were terribly cheap though even it was not as bad as Christopher Atkin’s portrayal in 1980’s ‘War Hero’, widely regarded as the role that ended the young actor’s career. Much better was Kevin Zeger’s portrayal in 1999’s ‘The Greatest Generation’.

 

The Domino Club

The Domino Club **** near Golden Gate Park is the first and oldest ‘neutral ground’ nightclub for the costumed set. Owned by the mysterious woman known as Envoy, the Domino Club offers private dining facilities, buffet nights, three dance floors, a bar said to contain every single intoxicating substance in the Orion Arm, and the infamous ‘Sidekick’s Lounge’ where the young up-and-comers come to party. Two floors of suites above the main floors offer safety, peace and quiet. It’s not common knowledge, but the club also offers infirmary facilities, as well as several other services. Envoy only has one firm rule: conflicts outside the club don’t exist inside the club. The club’s services as a negotiating base and safe haven have so far meant that her wishes have been respected.

Alcatraz

Alcatraz is the oldest and largest ‘Super-Max’ prison in the US, meaning that it has the capability to hold metahuman prisoners with exotic powers.  There are two sections to the prison: the aboveground facilities, which include all the office and infrastructure support spaces, power generation, docks and gunship landing facilities. It operates as a joint US-UN paramilitary facility, held both by SIGMA and ATLAS. Metacriminals that are not deemed a flight risk are housed in a special section; they participate in work-release programs and otherwise enjoy the benefits of a ‘normal’ high-security facility. The infirmary is well-equipped to deal with metahuman medical needs.

The below-ground facilities are known as Lockdown and are maintained by ATLAS personnel, since many of the incarcerated are of multiple national origins, housed here at the request of their home nations (many of which do not have similar facilities). To say that this is a political hot potato would be a severe understatement. These facilities house the most dangerous criminals on Earth in power-nullification cells or in unique restraints.