Elvis
Raised in a collective on the mainland Elvis was never what you’d call a strong supporter of the cause of international communism. He wasn’t lazy . . . . exactly, but he was a more interested in sports than planting community gardens or union organizing. At a young age his goal was to compete in the Olympics. In what sport? What sport you got? When his parents explained to him that participating in international athletic events was a betrayal of their ideological and political views parents and son looked at each other and realized they had gone about as far together as they were likely to.
Elvis ran away, first to Vietnam and eventually to Madripoor, connecting with relatives whose concerns were a little more localized than the cause of global Marxism. If his parents tried to find him they didn’t try very hard. Running the streets of Madripoor and getting into fights, Elvis likely would have ended up in a gang (or dead) if he hadn’t been captured in the orbit of his iron-willed grandmother. Under her auspices Elvis was directed towards physical pursuits more beneficial to the neighborhood and the community.
In his heart of hears Elvis considers himself the defender of the neighborhood, but he’d never say it out loud knowing what his grandmother would say about such foolishness. In reality he does far more good as a self-taught handyman/contractor/carpenter/plumber/electrician than he does by punching out gangsters. Since he doesn’t care much about money or things Elvis rarely bothers to ask for payment when he fixes something for someone or helps them. At most he asks them for a favor that he uses to help someone else to needs something fixed. Ironically making him a pretty good communist in function if not philosophy. The community will be much worse of when he finally gets himself killed. Which should be any day now.
Elvis has no superhuman abilities but is a skilled hand to hand combatant. He’s dabbled in various martial arts here and there but he’s more of a back-alley brawler than anything. Unburdened by fear, unbothered by pain, and unfamiliar with good sense, when Elvis gets in a fight he never stops swinging, relentlessly attacking his opponents regardless of the damage he takes in the process.
People started calling him Elvis because of his unwarranted love for the movie Blue Hawaii but no one remembers that since he grew the sideburns.
Elvis HATES pimps. His grandma’s street is the only one in the border zone of Madripoor where you will never find anyone hustling for johns.
Duke Eaglevane
The terrorist known publically as Duke Eaglevane is presumed by many in the intelligence community to be Duke Sigismund Adelsperger of Prussia, born in 1857. However there are some that claim he’s been active since at least 1185 as a member (or possibly founder) of a secret order of the Holy Roman Empire dedicated to using money and influence for the covert manipulate global events.
Although many acts of global terrorism are suspected to be the actions of Duke Eaglevane and his followers, due to the covert nature of the organization it’s difficult to assess their true activities with any degree of certainty. The Duke almost ways operates through proxies or under a false flag of extremist groups. Despite this secrecy, it is agreed in the international community that the following incidents can reliably be attributed to Duke Eaglevane.
- Supplying arms and tactical support for rebels in the East Africa Protectorate
- The assassination of Émile Loubet
- The 1912 Olympic bombing
- The discrediting of US Senator and presidential candidate Jacob Black
- Sinking of the 8 Royal Navy Leander-class frigates in 1960
One of the Duke’s few open operations was the invasion of the Kachin. This act was undertaken with the approval of the majority of the world governments based on Kachin’s corrupt regime that profited off the international drug trade. It is believed that as part of this military action the Duke stole Kachin’s gold reserves while the ultimate goal of the action was seizing control of one of the major drug sources not already in the Duke’s hands.
Analysts believe that the Duke’s standard procedure is to destabilize developing nations with economic manipulation, and then fund domestic rebels that naturally arise from the unrest in depressed areas. The Duke hires out one of several mercenary outfits under his control to that country’s leadership and slowly usurps control, as well as forcing the subject nation to sell off its national assets to companies controlled by the Duke.
Aside from unnatural longevity the Duke’s metahuman capabilities, if any, are unknown. His organization has access to a level of technology that exceeds many known global standards including cybernetics and a “computer network” that allows communication and electronic data sharing. It is assumed, but unconfirmed, that the Duke is beyond a genius level intellect in the field of electrical engineering and is responsible for the development of these technologies personally.
Lucien Basilières aka Genderuwo aka Big Blue
Born in Saskatoon 1930, Lucien Basilières spent his youth in Montreal. Volunteering for the Army Special Force at 17, he was shipped to boot camp in Denver before being deployed to the fighting in Borneo in 1948. He would go on to fight with the 1st Commonwealth Division in 1950-1952 on the mainland. After returning to Canada, Lucien’s records indicate that he was assigned to an ill-defined unit that at various times appeared to be an attachment of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, a branch of RCMP Security Service, or an independent agency. It is suspected that Lucien was involved in anti-terrorist and espionage operations, many of which were extralegal or illegal.
Lucien was ousted from the Canadian military after the issuance of Canadian Forces Administrative Order (CFAO) 19-20, Sexual Deviation – Investigation, Medical Investigation and Disposal, which required members of the military suspected of being homosexual to be investigated and then subsequently released from service. The officer that headed this investigation was murdered, a crime for which Lucien was questioned but never charged. The case remains unsolved.
It is believed that for the next two years, Lucien used his skills on behalf of Aboriginal-based organized crime groups with connections to the Rizzuto crime family. The fact that he hastily left Canada in 1970 with false papers indicates a falling out with these criminal groups.
Lucien joined a group of “military advisors” made up of English, Welsh, and Dutch mercenaries expelled from or fleeing prosecution in southern Africa. He was working in this capacity in Pakistan during the alien contact labeled Deep Space 99. Most alien visitors to earth are the result of crash landings or other accidents, making enforcing the Covarrubias Convention, which requires the immediate extermination of all alien lifeforms on earth, relatively easy.
The DS 99 incident was one of the rare cases of intentional alien landing – seven ships carrying highly trained teams of alien explorers with a mission to study earth. Russian alien extermination teams were able to destroy five of the smaller ships and kill dozens of the explorers, but hundreds more were able to scuttle their remaining damaged craft and escape. Making their pursuit and extermination difficult is the fact that the DS99 aliens, dubbed HIET (humanoid intelligent extra-terrestrial) 277 are indistinguishable from humans in visible light (they are noticeably different in the UV band).
Lucien was captured by a splinter cell of HIET aliens and subjected to experimentation. Although HIET 277 are known to be human in appearance, Lucien claims that his main tormentor had a prominent lizard-like face and long scaled fingers. Whether this is an additional species associated with HIET 277 or merely the hallucinations of a man under intense pain and stress remains unknown.
Lucien claims that he saw other humans being experimented on, or merely tortured, many of whom died. Lucien does not remember escaping the facility or being set free, his next memory being waking up with his new form in the custody of authorities in Karachi. Authorities who had very little interest in dealing with a massive blue lizardman.
Left a stateless outcast, Lucien made his way to Madripoor where he makes a poor living as muscle for hire to various criminal enterprises.
The physical mutations of the alien experiments by HIET 277 on Lucien are obvious. He is now close to eight feet tall and weighs more than fifteen hundred pounds, not only because of the physical bulk but also due to hard calcified dermal deposits and superdense bone and muscle structure. His skin has been replaced with blue scales similar in appearance to the Martinique anole, although in function they are similar to the armored scales of crocodilians.
In addition to this enormous body size, Lucian’s ratio of arm-to-leg length is significantly higher than a similar sized human form would dictate. His strength, reflexes, and speed are all outside of human norms. He has not been formally tested but his observed abilities appear to be on the low end of the Briggs-Hollymere scale for NBHs. Due to his mass, scales, and dermal deposits, Lucian is highly resistant to physical trauma. Lucien’s vision encompasses a broader spectrum than baseline humans, extending into infrared.
His most noteworthy demonstrated ability is regenerative power, allowing him to heal rapidly to the point of restoring lost limbs and quickly recovering from injuries that would otherwise be fatal. Based on observations, it is speculated that Lucien can eventually recover from any damage that does not result in instant death (decapitation, massive heart trauma, some spinal injuries, etc).
Martialla
Kirill Chernyshevsky was a black hundredist who fought against Bolshevik forces in the Russian Civil war in the 1920s and continued operating with militarized associations of anti-communist insurrectionists in Siberia through the early 1930s. Operating mainly in Primorsky Krai, Kirill had close ties with a smuggling group associated with anti-Japanese Dongnipgun rebels. It was through these contacts that he was smuggled into Yunshan in 1937 and from there made his way to Calgary.
In Calgary, Kirill married Eugénie Caouette in 1939, the daughter of a prominent figure in the local criminal scene. Kirill and Eugénie had two daughters, Martialla and Irena Chernyshevsky, before their murder in 1957, which remains unsolved.
Martialla, the elder sister, was able to get judicial dispensation for active military duty at the age of 16, joining the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service. This allowed her to become the legal guardian of her sister Irena. Martialla worked at the naval training center in Galt, Ontario until 1963 when Irena completed secondary school.
Leaving the service Martiallia worked for transnational shipping company Horizon Lines while Irena attended Carleton University. Martialla was on board the Horizon Spin in 1966 when it was attacked and captured by a splinter group of Alamo 400K terrorist who suspected that the ship was secretly illegally carrying liberated foreign fighters from a POW camp in South America. She was held hostage for 7 months before being rescued in a joint Canadian-Pecos military operation.
Martialla worked various janitorial and service jobs in Ottawa until her sister graduated university in 1967. Irena moved to the Coalition States and Martialla rejoined the Canadian Navy. In 1972 she volunteered for a an experimental weapons program run by Department K, most likely because of the substantial cash incentive being offered for volunteers which she gave to her newly married sister for the purchase a house in Saint Louis. During her service Martialla had been tested several times for the necessary gene for creating “super-soldiers” by the Omega method, which had always been negative.
The Department K experiment was designed to see if people without the “super” gene could be enhanced by a chemical method. The only segment of the tests that had any success was that attached to the combat diver program, of which Martialla was taking part. Although it would be revealed to be a qualified success at best. 12 candidates were successfully granted the ability to breathe underwater and swim at speeds well outside of human norms. However over the next six months, 11 of these subjects developed “significant psychiatric symptoms including aggression and violence, mania, psychosis and suicide”, severe enough that all 11 were confined to a mental facility or killed during escape attempts or other clashes.
The only test subject that did not develop serious side effects was Martialla. In addition to remaining free of mental health difficulties Martialla’s granted abilities exceeded those of the other volunteers, exhibiting NBH physical capabilities in all physical areas on the Briggs-Hollymere scale, albeit only while submerged in water. Department K and the Navy subjected her to intense testing as they attempted to understand and replicate this aberration.
Due to this confinement, isolation, and constant examination Martialla became increasingly reclusive and bitter towards the Navy and the Canadian government. Being treated as a test subject and an “asset” resulted in Martialla feeling that she had become a freak and she started directing anger and frustration at her handlers in Department K.
When Irena got word to Martialla that her niece had been kidnapped she escaped during a training exercise and is AWOL with no intention of returning. She is suspected of damaging several vessels and is known to have attacked and sunk at least one whaling ship operating out of Vladivostok. Over the past several months hundreds of people have reporting seeing a real life “mermaid”, including a family that claim she towed their damaged and leaking boat over 20 miles to shore during a storm.
The Errant Endeavors of Ela the Expert 