The Age of Wonders Universe

[Voltron64]

You know, I have an idea on who could be an Aion in this setting.

This guy.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110701063009/bleachfanfiction/images/2/27/Kyubey_.jpg

Oh, the things that might happen to him here.

[Charles Phipps]

I wonder what would happen if Archangel simply decided to go and tell the truth about everything to Plague?

It probably blow his little brain to pieces.

The Aions, as a general rule, come in two varieties: guys impersonating mythological figures and really ALIEN things like the Archangel.

(Slenderman and Zalgo types are otherwise)

[Phrozen]

Plague is a real piece of work. Though the horrifying plans usually led to Billy dying. The mask itself is pretty indestructible as well. Though it has been cracked with enough force applied to it.

[Charles Phipps]

Plague is a real piece of work. Though the horrifying plans usually led to Billy dying. The mask itself is pretty indestructible as well. Though it has been cracked with enough force applied to it.

It'd be karmic if Momentum did the final smashing.

Yeah, Plague's also looking for a War/Conquest, Famine, and Death.

Assuming Archangel hasn't already created them.

It'd be cool for a "Villain Mine" situation with the Ascendant versus Archangel's cult.

[Phrozen]

I can see it now.

"I am Plauge, the herald of the end times, horseman of the apocalypse, the death that rides. Prepare to die sinner."

"You dare threaten gods? You are nothing mortal. On your knees worm."

Yep, they would get along swimmingly.

[Charles Phipps]

The Anarchists

A secret organization which exists primarily on the Web but has also expanded to using telepathic "mail boxes." The Anarchists are an organization which attempts to foster textbook anarchy as opposed to the popular conception of. They believe in slaying tyrants and working for the overthrow of existing civilization for the purposes of creating a better one from the ashes.

The Anarchists foster free-flow of information, expose corruption, disrupt cover-ups, and call to task the corrupt no matter how highly placed they may be. They have spies everywhere and engage in all manner of illegal espionage. They justify these Big Brother-esque antics as a necessary evil. Surprisingly, they may have a point since they've prevented two genocide attempts against Nexi.

The Anarchists were founded by The Anarchitect, a world-class computer hacker blessed ability to see into the future. Whatever the case, the Anarchitect made a huge splash by releasing vast amounts of classified data across the globe before becoming involved in a number of revolutions.

The Anarchitect

Pictures of the man (or woman) have been taken but are useless since he's somehow gained the ability to make otherwise clear pictures obscure. The Anarchitect seems to possess some form of telepathic power or an associate does since no one can quite describe his features.

The exception are trusted superheroes. Mister King, Mister Arcane, and oddly Adonis maintain complete memories of the man. Whatever the case, he was still in disguise when he met them and none of them have been so inclined to share their knowledge with the authorities.

Contrary to the usual image of Anarchists as violent terrorists, the Anarchitect seems more inclined to humiliate his opponents than kill them. For example, he was crucial in the destruction of Adonis' reputation. The Anarchitect has been involved in assassination plots, however, showing he's not above getting his hands dirty.

The fact he goes to elaborate lengths to make sure these often happen in ridiculously convoluted ways as if to demonstrate his prescience also bespeaks to the fact the man with a sense of theater. For example; the assassination of a corporate polluter involved in the deaths of over a hundred people involved him being killed by a runaway speedboat...on dry land.

The Anarchitect's bemused sense of theater also applies to how he communicates with his followers. He sends puzzles out into the net as a whole with clues often left for them to decipher on their own. These often get them involved in things that are only understandable in retrospect whether it's to prevent terrorist attacks or to discover newly empowered Nexi.

Pendulum believe he's mostly harmless but ARROW and UNITED consider him a world-class threat. As a result, he is hunted continuously by agents of every major law-enforcement and espionage agency in the world. None of these have come close to catching him.

[Phrozen]

Revenant

Masato Itou would very much like to not be a superhero. He would like a nice boring anonymous life. He hates dodging bullets and killing, even if those who he kills really deserve it. He actually loathes himself and has quite the death wish. The Divine Leader saw that his life wouldn't be so. Now, he is driven for revenge and can think of nothing else for more than a few moments, quite literally.

Masato's nightmare began when he was 17 and his family was on vacation in Malaysia. The Divine Leader in all his delusion decided that if he was going to be a first rate supervillain he was going to need a personal nemesis. He chose a random family to execute except for one. Thinking that they would earn him the undying hatred of the person he left alive. The Divine Leader proceeded to kill Masato's father, mother, and kid sister. Then told Masato to hate him forever and to seek revenge while he had the mind whammy on him. Masato called then new revenge centered part of his personality Revenant because Masato died that day and in his place was a great murderous rage.

Masato under the mental domination of The Divine Leader proceeded to go through two years of hellish training. He learned practical martial arts, how to shoot many times of guns, small unit and individual tactics, improvised explosives, how to spot a gang member, and many other useful military applications. After two years Masato decided he was ready to take apart The Organization piece by bloody piece.

Masato wears a bone white ballistic mask, a heavy ballastic vest with the kanji for death painted in the same bone white color. He is always armed but varies his weapons for each mission. He is actually wanted by Pendulum since he has killed members of the Organization that haven't been identified as such. The Organization is also hunting him as he leaves a path of bodies worldwide using the cash he takes from the Organization members he kills. Revenant is not known to have nay Nexus powers but due to his survival other the course of several months of intense one man rampage of revenge he might just have some.

[Charles Phipps]

That's an awesome and terrifying idea, Phrozen.

[Phrozen]

That's an awesome and terrifying idea, Phrozen.

The sad thing is that The Divine Leader actually forgot he did this because Revenant waited two years before coming after him.

[Voltron64]

Let's face it, the Divine Leader is gonna go out like a punk bitch, isn't he?

And after his humiliating end, the Organizaion will splinter and/or taken over by the Octagon, who will then also go out like punk bitches.

[Phrozen]

I like the Anarchitect idea a lot. It encapsulates the problem with the Many Worlds theorem. He wants to get to a certain path but due to the quantum reality every time he makes a choice more diverging paths open up. The saying that you can't see the forest for the trees is quite true for the Anarchitect. It also helps that he sometimes 'gets lost' on what path he is currently in.

I think the Anarchitect wanted Adonis to be Superman but what he turned out to be The Maestro instead.

[Charles Phipps]

I like the Anarchitect idea a lot. It encapsulates the problem with the Many Worlds theorem. He wants to get to a certain path but due to the quantum reality every time he makes a choice more diverging paths open up. The saying that you can't see the forest for the trees is quite true for the Anarchitect. It also helps that he sometimes 'gets lost' on what path he is currently in.

I think the Anarchitect wanted Adonis to be Superman but what he turned out to be he turned out to be The Maestro instead.

Very much how I see him.

I was originally going to dispel much of the mystery behind his past and origins but then I realized there was little point. One thing I missed, though is explaining the reason he uses puzzles and clues now is because he wants to test the moral fortitude and will of the people he's helping as a safeguard against anything like Adonis happening again. Unlike Doctor Manhattan, he CAN change the world but he isn't sure it benefits anything until he does it and he's stuck on the latest path.

I.e. he might accidentally find the world doomed to oblivion by a 6 year old girl growing up to be Hitler 2.0 but isn't sure how to magically make it not so. Killing her, after all, doesn't necessarily make the situation better.

[Charles Phipps]

Let's face it, the Divine Leader is gonna go out like a punk bitch, isn't he?

And after his humiliating end, the Organizaion will splinter and/or taken over by the Octagon, who will then also go out like punk bitches.

One obvious thing that's becoming clear to people like the Order is that in a world as genre savvy as Earth-0, he majority of supervillains are really pathetic.

[Phrozen]

MONSTER Sqaud

Pendulum's for the most part wants to contain or recruit Nexus powered individuals, but there are times when neutralization is required either due to exceedingly dangerous powers or the individual has been unable to controlled in any way. To preform these missions Pendulum established the MONSTER squad which stands for Metahuman Overall Neutralization Strike & Tactics Emergency Regiment. Pendulum recruited from member nations military and police organizations.

Pendulum mainly recruits from special forces from around the world. The SAS, SBS, Navy SEALs, and French Commando Frogmen are heavily represented. Other recruits come from police forces like GSG 9, US Coast Guard and Singapore's Gurkha Contingent. Once recruited by Pendulum the recruit is run through aptitude tests testing mental strain and the ability to determine threats and reduce deaths. The MONSTER squads pride themselves as being a scalpel rather than a hammer.

After the aptitude tests, the recruits are given training in new technology, special tactics, and containment procedures. Though the MONSTER squads do use helicopters they do not have heavy armor or artillery. The MONSTER Squads technology though are cutting edge, they are the first unit equipped with equipment reverse engineered or acquired from nexus related engineering or purchase. The MONSTER Squad has a variety of missions including termination, capture, and rescue. They are also responsible for responding to extra-dimensional incursion and if there is extra dimensional incursion their mission profile would expand.

There are several MONSTER squads based around the world. They tend to be near hot spots of Nexus activity. Currently, there are five. Taskforce Jade Jaguar monitors Mexico and has so far been the busiest of the MONSTER squads in their drive to uproot the Ascendants, keep tabs on The Order, and are close enough to respond to issues in Southern California and Texas. Taskforce Quantumnauts is based out of Geneva and handles all extra-dimensional exploration and also guard the portals used to traverse dimensions and the remains of the LHC.

[Phrozen]

Taskforce Quantumnauts

"We boldly go to unknown shores and beyond" - Taskforce Quantumnauts motto.

Literally Pendulum's smoothest operators. Taskforce Quantumnauts is completely different from the four other Pendulum MONSTER squads. On permanent assignment to MANTIS, the Quantumnauts or Quants for short are the explorers of different Nexus realities. The recruits for the Quants are a much more eclectic mix since the civilian component is much higher. In addition to special forces, the Quants have geologists, physicists, biologists, and other scientific specialists in their ranks. The Quantumnauts are the 1% of the 1% of Pendulums agents. The mission of the Quantumnauts is pure exploration, once contact is made, the dimension is handed over to MANTIS diplomatic corps, mostly O'Reilly & Devereux though a small contingent of Quants will go with them if they feel extra security is needed.

Despite the number of scientists in the group, they are no less effective in combat. Adapting the US Armies Green Beret training but swapping out the language and cultural education for hard sciences. Every member has had military training of some sort even if the first scientists had to be put through a boot camp. In fact, there are so many doctorates in the Quants that they could form their own college. Pendulum is now setting up a recruiting program to recruit young doctorate students in certain fields. To supplement these ranks regular special forces soldiers whose specialties lay in recon and operating for extended periods in hostile territory. The final contingent of Quants are Nexus powered individuals that are capable in surviving climates and forces that a normal human would not be able to survive in. These Nexus powered individuals also provided extra muscle in dimensions that have been determined to be extremely hostile.

Nevertheless, the Quants are the most dangerous post that Pendulum offers. The possibility of encountering hostile natives, dimensions with harmful environments, or both is quite high. In addition there is the change of being stranded in another dimension as Anson "Star Chief" Carter was. Captain Carter was one of the few lucky ones that were actually recovered as he was able to integrate himself into the resistance to the Satrap Empire. Captain Carter was recovered after six months Earth 0 time but four years Satrap Empire time. Most are not so lucky.

So far the Taskforce has lost 12 members either them becoming stranded or killed in action. Its a reality that makes the mental conditioning of the Quantumnauts of special importance. The Quantumnauts have a special psychologist attached to their team and the rotation is of the exploration teams is quite constant with each member spending two weeks on the team and then three weeks off. The Quantumnauts have a wall to the fallen right outside the Nexus Gates located in the remains of the LHC since that is where the walls between worlds are the thinnest.