Earth-Cat, Version 9: The Super-Secret Soldier Serum Club

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Since FC 3 just came out everyone and their secret agent grandparents is probably going to be hacking up a new version.

Mine intends to incorporate elements from the Super Powered Legends line, seeing as I just kickstarted their book to the tune of $25. Because that doesn't come out till April some details are going to be up in the air for a while.


Index

Timeline

Changes
Changes to Existing FC Characters
Changes to Existing Super Powered Legends Characters
Time of the Centurion

Heroes
Eris & Mark: The New Adventures of Centurion
The Super-Secret Soldier Serum Club

Villains
The REvolutionaries

Powers and Society
Agent WILD and Therians

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9

Timeline

Names marked with a ^ are from the Super Powered Legends line.


A really, really, really long time ago
* The Ancient Pan arise, have a civilization that spans multiple dimensions, and then vanish. The artifacts they leave behind blur science and magic so thoroughly that some think the Pan created one or the other. No one has any idea what they look like.

A less-long time ago, but still kind of really long
* The loeng arise: a chimeric species that may have either been created by the Pan or arose from a cast-off Pan “genetic soup”. The loeng create a magical empire for themselves across many worlds.

C. 252 million BCE
* A “super-loeng” causes massive devastation on multiple worlds throughout the multiverse in an effort to both destroy the loeng and cause fear of them and their power to spread among the other sapients. Dubbing itself the Drakkhan -- “ruler of negative emotions” -- it sets out to inspire as much fear and despair as it can. Those remaining loeng who follow it become known as dragons.

C. 2 million BCE
* The Drakkhan attempts to engineer the evolving Serpent People of Earth into an inherently pitiless, amoral species. Its plan is foiled when it is targeted for destruction by Aum-Rah the Godslayer, who is secretly being aided by the time-traveling conqueror Atum-Ra^. Though Drakkhan is able to banish Aum-Rah across space and time it is severely weakened, requiring it create the fortress-planet of Desolasun and recruit what will become the first of its Terrorizors.

C. 500,000 BCE
* A lone serpent person is born without any sorcerous potential. Named Ser -- “no one” -- he is often forced to live among the slave races. Recognizing that the Serpent People are sinking into unthinking remorselessness he sets out to wander the primitive Earth to find a solution. Eventually Ser will discover that he does not age.

C. 10,000 BCE
* Unable to prevent the destruction of Atlantis and Lemuria, Ser sets out along the Cosmic Coil to find purpose and meaning, though he sometimes returns to Earth.

C. 7500-4500 BCE
* Ser's name becomes the origin of the word "hero". It is around this time that he acquires the title "the Ancient".

C. 2600 BCE
* Taurus arises as the god of the Minoan civilization.

C. 1,200 BCE
* Taurus is overthrown by King Minos with the help of the encrouching Olympians. Minos spreads propaganda that “his bull” is a curse from the Greek gods, who must be appeased by having “it” caged. He commissions Daedalus to design the Labyrinth, then has him imprisoned with his son. The two escape, but Icarus dies in the attempt. Hoping to get his brilliance on their side, the Greek gods “make it up to” Daedalus by gifting him with immortality, but he sees through their feigned empathy and refuses to work for them.

* Taurus secretly engineers the Trojan War, which convinces several pantheons that their mortal involvement is too costly. Many voluntarily withdraw from Earth in an agreement known as the Pact.

C. 600 BCE
* Facing encroachment and possible destruction of their way of life by Greek colonists, the Amazons are aided in escaping Earth by Ser the Ancient.

100 CE
* Simon Magus strengthens the Pact into a binding magical ward, partially in an effort to protect the budding Christian faith. A low-ranking Olympian uses the resulting confusion to stage a coup in Hades and become its new lord, replacing his more-chill predecessor.

Late 19th century
* Terrorizor Lilitu revives a Transylvanian noble as a vampire in order to take control of the gate to Monster World. She dubs him “Dracula” after her master, and because she knows it will annoy the Romanians to have a monster named after one of their national heroes.

1918
* For inscrutable reasons the Drakkhan destroys an Earth on which the Roman Empire had been reforged and conquered the world. He lets a lone life-pod escape as a warning to others.

1938, June
* Mark Leeds adopts the supranym “Centurion” after a paper names him “Centuriman, the Man from 100 Years in the Future”. Perhaps ironically he never intended the name to have Roman connotations.

1965
* Enraged that the lone survivor of its act of destruction, Centurion, had become a beacon for hope, the Drakkhan attempts to invade Earth. The stinging defeat convinces it to wait for a better time.

1992, February 15
* The Drakkhan invades Earth-Prime at its lowest point. Only the sacrifice of Centurion weakens the monster enough to cause him to flee. Having not been weakened in such a manner since his battle with Aum-Rah, the Drakkhan falls into a decades-long regenerative sleep, while its Terrorizors alternate between fighting a civil war and attempting elaborate plans to destroy Earth in hopes of currying its favor.

2001
* The Bush II Administration pushes to create a new super-agency after friction with AEGIS. Unfortunately a series of terrorist attacks on September 11 give them the leverage they need to pass the PATRIOT Act and form the ‘Committee for Advanced Strategy, Tactics, and Law Enforcement’ (CASTLE)^.

2003
* The Green Man, assisted by the eco-terrorists known as the REvolutionaries, uses Doctor Metropolis to turn Freedom City into a primordial rainforest and many of its inhabitants into animals. Though the process is reversed, some people are left as human/animal hybrids.

* Bush II uses AEGIS’s failure during the “urban jungle incident" as justification for folding it in to the new CASTLE^ organization, over the objections of both Horatio Powers and Nathan Storm^.

2006
* REvolutionary Professor Mole uses data from the 2003 transformation of Freedom City, as well as samples of Agarthan Lunarion Blue^, to create the mutative WILD bio-agent. It’s first successful test is in New York, during a World Business Leaders conference, creating the second population of what will eventually become known as therians.

2011
* April: Centuria crashes on Earth-Prime, claiming that the Drakkhan has awakened and attacking her home Earth. Unfortunately by the time Earth-Prime was able to create a portal back, Centuria's Earth had been wiped clean of nearly all life. While accepted in the Earth-Prime community, some individuals, such as Callie Summers, remain secretly suspicious.

* November: WILD is released at an Emerald City school.

2012
* Both the Silver Storm and the Battle of New York convince the Obama Administration that one agency can’t handle all forms of super-threats. AEGIS is restored.

* One of Aum-Rah's eyes is discovered in a cave in Australia. UNISON sets up a base around it and makes contact with the Omni AI.

2013
* Centuria has an accidental super-battle with the demi-goddess Jupiter during which she displays uncharacteristic combat prowess. Jupiter suggests that it's Amazonian-style combat training.

* Ruggiero Vacca plays a bootleg copy of Monster Ranger and is transported to Monster World.

2015
* On a dimension-traveling adventure Centuria meets Sentry Girl, a granddaughter of a Centurion clone and an Amazon warrior princess, who looks too close to Centuria for comfort. The Omni AI confirms that Centuria's DNA was originally that of a second-generation Centurion descendent.

2016
* Time of the Centurion: Centuria meets Gil Leeds at college. Dr Mayhem kidnaps Gil to use his powers against the Time Keepers. Centuria foils Dr Mayhem's plans. Atum-Ra^ activates Centuria's brainwashing to take the Time Keepers' power for himself. The Omni AI and Dr Tomorrow use the Parachronic Duplicator to save Centurion from death, negating the existence of the Time Keepers.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9

Changes to Existing FC Characters

Centuria: Centuria's true origin is as the daughter of Gladius, Centurion's son from Dr Mayhem's lost timeline. Found floating in the Dimension of the Lost by Atum-Ra she was altered to be a perfect, though unwitting, hound for tracking down the Time Keepers. Following the Time of the Centurion she's acquired new family in the form of the Century Family.

Doc Holiday (the current one): The entity that's possessing Mark is a minion of the Drakkhan, the same way the Jack-A-Knives is a minon of Hades. This doesn't really change the character, it just ties him in to a larger context.

Hades: On Earth-Cat the Greek gods are more like the Aesir of Marvel: sufficiently-advanced, maybe even magical, aliens. Only some of the myths about them are true: discrepancies can generally be chalked up thusly. However in the case of Hades the discrepancy is because the current holder of that name isn't the one who inspired Greek myth: after Simon Magus formalized the Pact there was turmoil in the Olympian realms. An Olympian nobody used this to stage a coup. Originally all three positions, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, were targeted, but only the conspirator in Hades managed to pull it off. When the Olympians finally got things back in order the new Hades was so well-entrenched -- and the Olympians so sick of the whole ordeal -- that Zeus else just sent a sternly-worded letter telling the new guy to keep out of the Elysian Fields and to not mess around in the mortal world.

I'd probably also play him as the James Woods Disney version: if you're going to Jesus Hijack an ancient figure, at least make them fun to ham and snark.

Baron Kriminel (Baron Samedi): Despite the name the name that screams "made-up character" he is an actual loa and he sounds crazy-enough to do the whole "humans are horses to be ridden" thing. Though I'm still not sure how comfortable I should be using a piece of a living religion this way, Kriminel at least isn't taking a chill (if crude) death "god" and giving him the Villain Ball because "death" is in there somewhere. We already have Hades for that. Kriminel is a death "god" -- an aspect of Samedi, if I've read things right -- but at least he sounds like he deserves villain status. Plus I like on-the-nose names.

Taurus: In the Earth-Cat continuity Taurus isn't some innocent (if man-eating) man-bull hybrid designed as a giant "F@& You!" and Hero Test: he was one of the gods of the Minoans, usurped by one of his own priest-kings (Minos) and from there the legend mostly goes as told. He wasn't an especially nice god, though -- he started the "get some conquered kingdoms to send sacrifices" bit -- so you don't have to feel bad for him. In this case the Labyrinth is him getting a form of his old power back. He works with the current, evil Hades because they both hate the Olympians, not because Hades supplies his immortality. (Which doesn't mean they like each other.)

Atlantians (FC version) [I fully intend to change that name at some point]: In my head-canon Atlantis was a multi-racial place, especially the royal family. Even accounting for maybe some skin-pailing from living under water Atlantians should have some pigmentation in their skin. Also they probably mostly have dark hair. (There's some chance that if Thallor had brown hair Theseus could have blonde, but black's so common Theseus probably only has brown hair. Nereid would then have a 50-50 chance of black or brown hair.)

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9

Changes to Existing Super Powered Legends Characters

The Justifiers (Sentinels): The canon name is too generic for my tastes, probably because it sounds passive. "Avengers" is derived from a verb, so I think their filed-off version needs the same thing. Obviously I just looked up some synonyms, but "Justifiers" has a fun advantage in that I can use the catch-phrase "For great justice!" It's cheesy and the team is probably embarrassed by it, but I like cheese.

Red Scorpion (Red Spider): Another simple name change. I just feel like if you can't invoke the double-meaning of Black Widow a scorpion's a more appropriate hunter arthropod than a spider.

The Brazen Bull (Talos): Since Freedom City already has a Talos this SPL character isn't needed (despite being a way more-mythologically-accurate tie-in than the Destroyer). Instead the mindless, destructive automaton of Earth-Cat is a bull-headed bronze warrior known as the Brazen Bull. The Brazen Bull has an extra power: it can shapeshift into a quadruped shape for faster running. It's actually a leftover from when Taurus ruled the Minoans.

Atlantis (SPL version): This one can be named Atlantis: Poseidon named it that after the place in his favorite smiting story.

[LoneWolf23]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9

I like the in-built justification for Furries in a setting. So consider me Subscribed!

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9

I like the in-built justification for Furries in a setting.

Thanks: it's a combo of the "famous mutative substance" (e.g. Wildcard virus) and a part of me that wanted to play just a bit with the concept of No Ontological Inertia, in this case the idea that if an animal/nature-themed villain turned everyone into animals that they might not change back all the way.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9

The REvolutionaries

The REvolutionaries began, as many revolutionary groups do, with a bunch of middle-class college students thinking they knew better than anyone else. Theodoro "Jackal" Manfredonia, Octavia "Croc" Hansen, and Narciso "Hawk" Pinheiro met online as discovered they all attended Rockefeller University and had all been kicked out of the exact same environmental clubs. Deciding that accommodation by the "capitalist system" had "Weakened the gene-pool" of environmentalism they banded together to commit several eco-terrorist robberies of gene-engineering research and mutate themselves into anthropomorphic forms of their monikers. Their original plan was to frame the members of the clubs for some eco-terrorist robberies (also made to maintain their mutagen supplies), but finding their new forms freeing and addicting they instead planned to gas an upcoming college game into an anthropomorphic menagerie. Fortunately the second Raven was able to discover their plans and capture the trio.

This setback (perhaps coupled with the animal hormones they'd taken) convinced the therian Trio, as the news had dubbed them, that the real enemy wasn't the rampant consumer disregard for nature but the fearful society holding humans back from evolving themselves. Encouraged in no small part by a prison psychologist named "Molierre" (really Professor Mole is disguise). When the Therian Trio (as the news dubbed them) broke out of jail they found permanent versions of their transformation drug waiting for them, and became a minor nuisance on the super-scene.

Until the Urban Jungle. Under advice from Professor Mole the Therian Trio joined up with the Green Man to turn Freedom City into an evolutionary playground. Now on the government's wanted list they become eco-terrorist stars, and REvolutionary cells began springing up all over the world, to be supplied Agent WILD by Professor Mole.

Notable Members:

The Therian Trio: On their own Jackal, Croc, and Hawk are merely animal-powered jobbers who go in-and-out of prison. Their defining feature is that they work well together: it's impossible to turn them against each other as they've come to rely so heavily on each other over the years that they form a near hive-mind. Their greatest weakness is focus: if they don't have someone like Professor Mole keeping them on-mission they're very likely to change whatever plans they initially had or simply go around breaking stuff. However when focused they are respectable mutagenicists.

Professor Mole: Professor Mole's origin seems impossible to fathom, as the diminutive doctor is a true sociopathic scientist capable of convincingly faking a lie. He could be anything from an elderly recipient of a WWII super soldier serum to one of the "moles" planted by moleman dictator Long Venin. What is known is that he's not as quite brilliant as he seems....unless you consider theft brilliant: all of Professor Mole's greatest creations have been shown to be little more than cobbled-together pieces of other super-scientists' works. Agent WILD may be the only time he's come close to originality, and even then it can easily be shown to crib off numerous other famous mutagens. (Have you ever seen the The Batman cartoon version of Hguo Strange? Imagine that, but as an anthropomorphic mole.)

Lycan, (Sell-Professed) King of the Werewolves: Imagine a were-chihuahua. Or a were-Scrappy-Doo. That's Lycan: he's a bantamweight fighter in a society of low-level superheroes. Except he wins: like a furry Hitler, Lycan has managed to luck and bully his way into a position of (very minor) power. And like Hitler he dreams of a world dominated by the "master breed", with himself naturally on top. He has just enough Charisma (and more-than-enough willingness to kill) to keep a few other werewolves in his pack. The REvolutionaries are useful pawns.

Goanna and Megalodon: Both of these animal supervillains see membership, however honorary, as a good way to network their individual plans to transform the world.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9

Agent WILD and Therians

Of course the one reasons most people know anything about the REvolutionaries is their creation of Agent WILD (named after Agent Orange, the letters don't stand for anything; again, Professor Mole's brilliance is limited): a gas capable of "wildizing" anything it comes into contact with. Urban materials grow living parts: plants, molds, and/or fungi. Occasionally this leads to structural damage. Non-human animals become "savager": they may grow larger, with rougher features, exaggerated attributes, and/or extra bony or horny growths and plates (this has sometimes been referred to as "dirization", after the "dire" versions of normal animals found in the popular Dungeons & Dragons (tm) pen&paper roleplaying game). Humans are the real kicker: rather than transformed into some form of "cave man" or "man-ape" they are reshaped into animalistic forms. Generally the transformation leave human victims with enough of a "tell" to distinguish them from non-human animals, even including leaving their body in a hunched-over ape-like posture. Unfortunately the transformation includes the brain, and transformed humans display fear and aggression consistent with a confused animal. So far Agent WILD has not been used on any extra-terrestrial individuals.

Fortunately the transformation is reversible......mostly. Reversal does not happen on its own: it requires the application of a special chemical developed by Daedalus and ASTRO labs. The changes to urban materials will generally go away completely, though any damage sustained remains. Non-human animals often return to their pre-wildized forms, though it may take a few days after application. Human mental facilities and body posture return a minute after application. However full human form is currently impossible: despite the best efforts of super-scientists around the world, the anthropomorphic "part-way" state is considered the body's new "default" the same way the unpowered human form is for many empowered individuals. In fact the new anthropomorphic body seems to resist attempts to return it to human: some trials of an "enhanced reversal agent" were able to briefly restore full human form, but the individuals reverted to anthropomorphic upon various unpredictable stimuli.


Physical Effects
A distinct resemblance to a non-human animal is retained, generally in the head shape, skin covering, and existence of a tail. Feet may or may not retain a digigrade mode if the non-human animal has one. Mammalian is most common, followed by reptilian, and then avian. Amphibians are extremely rare. There are no documented cases of picean or invertebrate therians.

The vast majority, around 97%, are simply humans in a different skin, barring some gross features such as claws or armor. Only 2.9% receive any sort of "animal enhancement", generally a minor boost to physical movement or senses, thought low-tier super-versions of such things are also included here. 0.1% of cases have reported gaining mid-to-high-tier super-powers, and not always animal-related ones. It is generally assumed such individuals are Miscreation*-descended: part of WILD's composition is derived from lunarian blue.

Societal Effects
The reaction to the transformed and being transformed are as diverse as humanity: all the usual suspects of acceptance to hatred and suicide can be counted. Therians, as the transformed prefer to be called, don't make up quite enough of the population to have specific hate groups directed against them, but they obviously face prejudice under umbrella hatreds such as "non-humans". Therianism is hereditary, and so far it appears to be a dominant trait (though "species" appears to be random). It is not contagious: theiran blood is indistinguishable from human without a DNA test.

There are, unfortunately, "fur-chasers": individuals who either feel that their natural state is as a therian or simply view "therianization" as a fad. Both often forget or are ignorant that WILD does not reverse on its own: people have been injured and killed attempting to restrain chasers in their wild state.


* SPL's version of Inhumans.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9

Time of the Centurion

For years Centuria's origin was assumed to be as the daughter of a Centurion who's universe wasn't invaded by the Drakkhan till 2011. Science could confirm that she had half of Centurion's DNA and had last come from an Earth that had recently been destroyed. But various individuals such as the Summers were suspicious: the Drakkhan was reportedly still in a regenerative sleep on Desolasun, and there was no reason for him to have attacked one Earth at a much later date even if he was awake. Centuria was accepted, but questions remained.

Signs that Centuria might not be as she appeared first surfaced during an accidental super-fight with the demi-goddess Jupiter. During said battle Centuria displayed sudden and very distinctive combat techniques. Once things had calmed down and questions were asked Jupiter opined that Centuria must have received Amazonian combat training. Yet Centuria clearly recalled that it was common knowledge on her home Earth that the Amazons had left millennia ago, just as they had on Earth-Prime.

Things became further confused when, during a timeline-traveling adventure, Centuria encountered Sentry Girl: an almost exact replica of Centuria who's grandfather was a clone of Centurion and whose grandmother and mother were both Amazons. Tests had initially shown that Centuria was indeed the daughter, or, at least, a first-generation child of, Centurion, but a second opinion from the Omni AI revealed that Centuria's DNA had been altered to achieve that perfect match. In fact signs were that Centuria's original DNA was sufficiently different enough from Centurion that she was likely also a second-generation descendent.

The mystery finally came to a head when Katie Leeds began attending FCU: she ran into a man named Gil Leeds, who she recognized as bearing too close a resemblance to Mark Leeds to be a coincidence. However all her attempts to follow up on Gil's ancestry ran into walls: Gil was remarkably good at disappearing right when Katie Leeds wanted to talk to him, and he appeared to have no public records other than his enrollment in FCU. It was as if Gil only partially existed.

Then one day Dr Mayhem appeared during a class Katie and Gil were taking and unceremoniously carted off the young man. Centuria tried to pursue, and Dr Mayhem disappeared into a time portal, but not before saying "So, the brat has grown up." Eventually the Atom Family were able to contact Dr Tomorrow, who speculated that Dr Mayhem might be trying to use Gil as a sort of "temporal lightening rod" that would restore Gladius to the timestream. Centuria, Dr Tomorrow, and several other heroes tracked Mayhem to the home of the Time Keepers. There they found that Dr Mayhem had already assimilated Gil's Impossible DNA to give him the power to destroy the Time Keepers for depriving him of his revenge. However Centuria was immune to Dr Mayhem's Impossibility powers due to her own nature as Gladius's daughter!

But once Dr Mayhem was defeated Atum-Ra* appeared, activating Centuria's brainwashing. He'd found her in the Dimension of Lost Things, and tweaked every detail of her identity so that time would have no choice but to correct itself around her and lead to this moment. Atum-Ra had Centuria destroy the Time Keeper's Impossible technology bodies, being the only being besides them who could do so, so that he could assimilate their power sources and become "the supreme master of time!"

Fleeing back to the present, which was already beginning to crumble, the Omni AI speculated that the only way to heal time was to cause the Time Keepers to have never existed. Centuria made the leap of logic that if Centurion descendents were Impossible technology's weakness perhaps it was because their very existence negated its. The Centurion's death ultimated lead to the Time Keepers! Using this idea, Dr Tomorrow and the Omni AI, along assistance from Professor Atom and Daedalus, created the Parachornic Duplicator: a device that would shunt a lifeless duplicate of Centurion into place the moment of his death, leaving the real Centurion alive elsewhere. So long as Centurion lived the Time Keepers ceased to ever exist, and Atum-Ra was stripped of his mastery of time. This new state of affairs also lead to the continued existence of Gil Leeds, as well as the newly-continued (it's time: deal with it) existence of the Century Family.


* Super Powered Legends' version of Kang the Conqueror.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9: Time of the Centurion, The New Adventures of Centurion

Eris & Mark: The New Adventures of Centurion

(Author's Note: These characters and set-up are based on someone else's characters from a freeform Freedom City game from way back in the mid-late 2000s. So they're not mine; I unfortunately can't remember the name of the poster who created them. I just like the whole idea too much not to add it here.)

Following the event of Time of the Centurions the Centurion actually survived the Drakkhan Invasion in many timelines, though usually in ways that made most of the universe think he was dead. On Earth-Prime this took the form of the Centurion being shunted into another dimension.

In this dimension he found himself in the Age of Heroes was characterized by a war between mystic forces: magic was out, and gods had chosen sides in WWII and the Cold War. Also all the gender dynamics were reversed. Unfortunately the peace following the fall of the USSR bored Ares, and she (again, reversed dynamics) empowered the Amazons (on this Earth the Amazons never left) to go forth to conquer and cause terror in her name. Cenutrion found himself dropped into the middle of a Spartan police state, with himself the sole super-powered hope.

For several years Centurion clashed with the Spartan Amazons, especially their leader Mars (real name: Eris). However Centurion came to respect Eris, as she was more honorable and lot less bloodthirsty or colossal jock/gamer-jerkwad than her boss. In time this grew into flirting.

Unfortunately Eris's dimension was too tempting a target for Lord Orcus*. He sought to break the mystic Earth down like a smoothy and suck up all its magic, and pretty much everyone who lived there stood in his way. The Centurion and Eris put up a valiant fight, being the last defenders standing, but Lord Orcus simply ripped a hole in the fabric of space and time and sent them hurtling into a random dimension.

Which was randomly Earth-Prime. There both Mark and Eris found themselves depowered, unable to pursue the same lives of superherodom and villainy. With nothing else to distract them they could finally pursue a relationship together. They married and had a son, Gil, in 1999. They currently live in Ashton.

Of course......
The Leeds' family didn't actually exist prior to 2016: they're a manifestation of the timeline correcting itself to allow Mark and Gil Leeds to exist with proper history. It's unknown if Eris's dimension ever really existed, or is more-or-less a fabricated memory (you could ask Lord Orcus, but only crazy people talk to him). Investigations always reveal enough documents and photographs and old friends to confirm an existence in the past, but there will always be a little something.....off. Furthering the strange is that Mark has (accidentally) run across people who knew him in his civilian identity, including a hero or two, and other than remarking on his name being similar have completely failed to identify him as the same person. Only Centuria and Dr Tomorrow know the new Leeds family exists; a few of Centuria/Katie's hero friends know she hangs out with the Leeds a lot, but that's all. Everyone involved prefers to keep it that way (because Spider-Man Effect).


The Century Family
The Leeds house sounds like a sitcom: a superhero married a supervillain, they had a kid who's stuck squarely in the middle of their opposing-complementing philosophies, and are constantly being visited by their improbable relative and the dad's old war buddy. Introduce a wacky neighbor or two and you have a prime-time slot that's perfect for Disney or Nickelodeon.

Eris Leeds: Eris is kind of like crossing a stereotypical macho man with an evil Xena. And then having her bake cupcakes. No longer being empowered by Ares doesn't seem to have impacted Eris's combat skills......nor her ability to pull weapons seemingly out of nowhere. Surprisingly Eris spent most of the last 20 years as a homemaker. Originally it was stubborn insistence at clinging to Earth-Prime's (outdated) gender roles. Then it was because it seemed to be the only line of work where her eccentricities and odd interests actually seemed to work out with minimal fuss. Only recently, with Gil spending time being independent at college, has Eris considered finding more to do with her day. The results are.....jobs that Eris found...>_> <_<..."stifling". She's the most enthusiastic about Centuria/Katie's visits, viewing the distant Leeds as the daughter she'd wished she'd had.

Mark Leeds: Mark is actually almost as lost as Eris: he was a superhero for so long that he's spent 20 years accidentally running off every time he hears a siren or sees a villain report. Coupled with his occasional forgetfulness that he's no longer super-strong or super-fast (he has managed to retain a slapstick level of toughness) and more than a few people in the neighborhood and at the high school where he works whisper about "Madman Mark" behind his back. You wouldn't thin visits by his "old army buddy Thomas Morgan" would help, but Dr Tomorrow is actually one of Mark's best sources on how to adjust to the "now". In turn he's invaluable to Centuria, as 60 years of heroing don't get outdated that easily.

Gil Leeds: For the longest time Gil had been caught between his Big Gold Boyscout (retired) father and his world-conquering (reformed, technically) mother. Growing up between Good and (sort-of-)Evil has pushed Gil into the Neutral column: he has no plans to take over the world or anything, but he's also not sure he wants to risk his life for it. His "second cousin" Katie is trying to sway him to Good, but so far Gil is a true Reluctant Hero, only taking the call when the threat is pretty immediate and something he cares about is in danger. (Power-wise Gil is an early Centurion -- leaping instead of flight -- with his mother's extreme combat training.)

Centuridog: The Leeds dog is just a dog. Or is he.........


* Super Powered Legends' version of Dormamu.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Re: Earth-Cat, Version 9: The Super-Secret Soldier Serum Club

The Super-Secret Soldier Serum Club

The super-soldier serum of WWII is the holy grail many factions who wish to be able to create super-humans on-demand. And like the holy grail is so much WWII folklore: in truth there were several formulas, and none of them ever worked predictably.


Pendragon*
The earliest provable serum success is Pendragon: Mega Nesmith, who's father had worked on the formula for the British, then the Axis after their kidnapping. Megan's father dosed her while their fled the Nazis, then died trying to lead them away, taking all the knowledge he hadn't imparted onto one Abraham Erskine. What no one else knew was that Professor Nesmith was something of a chemical Newton: he was fascinated by alchemy, and just prior to his breakthrough had translated a green stone tablet he believed was the famed Emerald Tablet of Hermetic lore. The insights from the tablet are the key to Nesmith's formula -- though there were instructions on the text he couldn't understand -- and the fact that the tablet is unknown is why no one else has ever been able to duplicate his work.


Captain America and The (US) Patriot**
Once the US entered the war they quickly pressured the British into handing over Nesmith's work. Of course they had little success until Erskine defected. However his reports of German attempts to finish the formula and the horrifying results convinced them they needed to be more discriminatory in their candidates. Unfortunately Erskine and the US project leaders had different ideas of what criteria the candidate should fulfill: Erskine believed the serum enhanced psychology as well as physiology, so chose scrawny-but-determined Steve Rogers; the US brass wanted as manly a man as they could get (partly to show up the Brits for having a woman as their champion), so they chose Jack Simmons.

Eventually a compromise was reached: Rogers would go first, then Jack. Privately the brass figured Rogers was an expendable test-subject: if he died they could kick Erskine to the curb (obviously there was some anti-semitism going around); if he lived it showed that the serum worked. Well, Rogers lived and Erskine died (from an acute attack of Nazi assassin), so it was green-light on Simmons. From no small pettiness, Rogers was put on propaganda duty and was going to be forgotten about.

The second test go-around was also a success. Then Jack Simmons got sick. Really sick. Tests showed his body was having a negative reaction, just like with the Germans. Desperate to salvage their work and money the US dug out their Secret Project Files and found the journal of the Minuteman and about his use of manaka root. A concentrated extract was developed and given to Simmons, curing the negative reaction. But subsequent field exercises showed that the effects of the serum would begin to fade without periodic injections of manaka. To keep everything hush-hush the Patriot was given a secret identity (hence the mask), and to keep him within easy re-supply of manaka he was kept state-side. This had the added effect of the US deciding to throw support behind Rogers/Captain America.


The Super-Secret Soldiers
Both Pendragon and Captain America were MIA during the war leaving the (US) Patriot the only known active super-soldier. However when called before HUAC Jack Simmons was forced to unmask, and with the manaka getting harder and harder to find -- no one has ever figured out how to cultivate it -- the (US) Patriot was retired. (This is why AEGIS director Simmons wasn't a superhero, merely above-average.)

Of course no one in their....right....mind throws away a way to make super-soldiers if it works a couple times: the US kept working on the serum, eventually settling on the pre-mixing of a stabilization agent into the compound. It worked: the subjects didn't get sick. They also didn't get super. After several more test subjects....many more.....one got powers. He also got....disfigured. His body was fine, but he wasn't propaganda material. Still the Cold War was going on, and covert super-agents were perfectly fine. Several more successes were achieved, and the resulting squad was dubbed the "Super-Secret Soldiers". And when one fell another was brought in to take their place. All kept very secret because everyone had resolved not to do this after the whole Nazi super-war mess.


Freedom Eagle II
The "Triple-S" was ended with the Cold War, but with the attacks of September 11 and the various subsequent crises, interest was revived in super-powered agents. Publicly. For purely defensive reasons, of course.

This time the project turned to genetic engineering to try and "prepare" the subjects' bodies and either stop the disfigurement or at least have some control over it. Their first volunteer was Airforce Lieutenant Chiara ("It's pronounced 'Sheye-ara'.") "Hawkgirl" Hall. Obviously they tried for some raptor genes. It worked: Lieutenant Hall grew large, feathered bird wings. And the top half of her head became this feathered semi-bird thing. And it enhanced her temper.

In the end the government said "Screw it" and decided to work with what they had. They gave Lt. Hall a mace from their artifact storage (supposedly it repels magic) and dubbed her Freedom Eagle II, presenting her before members of the press. And the whole thing ground to a halt right then as the inevitable public outcry started.


* From Super Powered Legends; British Captain America expy.

** Just like "America" gets used to refer to the US despite it not being the only country on the American continents, "Patriot" used to refer to the one US individual. But recently there has been a push by various globally-minded individuals to refer to Jack Simmons' Patriot as specifically the "US Patriot" to allow other countries to supranym their own "Patriots".