Ever heard of the expression “who watches the watchers”? Well, I thought it’d be wise to have a group that does exactly that.
Under the authority and supervision of the United Nations, the Department for Observation of Global Meta Activities (D.O.G.M.A.) monitors the operations of governmental sanctioned superheros across the globe and dispatches their own group “Battle Watch” in case of need to actively intervene in conflict areas or crisis between countries that were triggered or exacerbated by the use of super beings. “Battle Watch” consists of two teams, each composed of delegates of the G8 (Team Alpha) and the G5 (Team Beta) countries.
BATTLE WATCH – TEAM ALPHA
The team members from left to right and front to back:
GLADIATOR (Il Gladiatore) from Italy:
Giuseppe Accietti was a famous football player who lost both legs in a car accident and got offered by the Italian government to participate in a secret military project that could not only replace his legs, but also reinforce the rest of his body to superhuman way. Using bionic prosthetics and cybernetic implants in conjunction with a mechanical costume that provides him with increased strength, the capability of flight and enough protection to resist heavy-calibered arms fire, as well as various highttech tools and weapons, he became the Italian national superhero “Il Gladiatore”.
BEGUN (бегун = “runner”) from Russia:
Andrej Iwanowitsch Tomskij was born with the ability to move at extreme speeds. His entire body has adapted to the rigors of high-speed running making him completely resistant to the immense friction generated by high speed movement, and his cardiovascular and respiratory systems are many times more efficient than those of a normal human being. He can run at speeds up to Mach 10 from a standing position but the longer he runs the more momentum he gains and the faster he becomes.
PATRIOT X from the USA:
Ryan Murphy was born on July 4th, 1947 in the Bronx, New York. His father Sean was an Irish-American and worked after his retirement from the army as a factory worker in a steel mill. His mother Rachel, however, was a German Jew who survived the Holocaust only through the rescue from the Auschwitz concentration camp by her future husband.
Ryan was an excellent student and outstanding athlete and his parents, who lived like many families in this time always just on the edge of poverty, set their hope on him receiving receiving a scholarship so that he could study and hadn’t to face poverty like they did. However, since he belonged to one of the lowest strata of society, Ryan got this chance never and frustrated he become a layabout who quickly learned the rules of the street and developed a considerable talent to “organize” things and sell it expensive on the black market.
So he slipped farther and with 16 already had a lot to answer for. At this age he was – as a “hooligan” – also a member of one of those Motorradgrup groups that sprang up like mushrooms in the 60s. Two years later – in 1965 – it finally came to an incident that changed Ryan Murphy’s life fundamentally. In a road race with souped-up Harleys Ryan and his opponent overlooked a young woman and her son who were crossing the road in the distance.
When Ryan finally noticed the two walkers it was already too late and it came to an accident in which the boy was killed, while Ryan remained completely unharmed. However, he suffered a severe shock, and even years later he heard the desperate cry of the mother to her son in his dreams: “BUCKYYYY!!!!”
Ryan was eventually convicted of manslaughter in court, but due to his his young age the judge gave him the choice whether to go to jail for six years or to enlist to the army for at least for 4 years. He chose the army and found unconsciously a place in life that seemed to be tailor-made for him. After his basic training, Ryan reported immediately to the Marines, where he impressed his instructors due to his athletic achievements and resilience and thus relatively fast rise in the military hierarchy.
When the Tet Offensive of the North Vietnamese army started on January 30th, 1968 he was one of the first to voluntarily enlisted for deployment in Vietnam, where he soon distinguished himself for his emotionless and strategic approach, as well as his ruthlessness in killing (including civilians). At the same time he became a loner who often disappeared for days in the jungle where he fought whole companies of the enemy on his own.
During one of these activities, he even some day saved a troop of American soldiers who had been surrounded by the Viet Cong, by attacking and neutralizing one opponent after another like an animal from the shadows. For this feat, in which he himself was severely injured, he was awarded the “Purple Heart” and promoted to captain.
After his full recovery, Ryan Murphy was recruited for his strategic knowledge and tactical skills by the United States Army Security Agency (ASA) in May 1968 to keep an eye on the enemy troops as a spy, while a ceasefire was negotiated at the first peace talks in Paris. As with his previous missions, he did this by disappearing for months in the jungle.
In the beginning he periodically touched base with his superiors, when he reported at predetermined points of time over radio. But one day the contact broke off and he was eventually considered dead. But now and then rumors were heard of a mysterious person who came American troops to aid or exposed the enemy to surprising and inexplicable attacks.
When the North Vietnamese President Thien came to power through rigged elections in October 1971 and the war broke out in full force again, the Americans deployed the chemical weapon “Agent Orange” for the first time, whereupon the fate of Ryan Murphy, who at that time already had lived completely alone and cut off from civilization in the jungles of Vietnam for years, once again took an unexpected turn …
One day in late 1974 Ryan came across a secret chemical laboratory of the Viet Cong in the Song Be province – which was most affected by the use of “Agent Orange” – where the renegade American scientist Dr. Hayden Creed worked on an experimental drug, with which he wanted to activate the dormant Xenogen in Vietnamese soldiers.
Just when Ryan had eliminated the bodyguards of Dr. Hayden Creed and taken him prisoner, the Viet Cong camp was attacked by the U.S. Air Force and chemically bombed. He could bring the scientist to safety just before the explosion, but collapsed shortly afterwards with severe burns. Cut off from any help and surrounded by the enemy, Dr. Hayden Creed offered him a dose from the last completed trial of his drug with the promise of rescue from certain death by his injury in exchange for his own freedom. But Ryan refused this offer and lost consciousness shortly thereafter.
When he woke up again, Ryan found himself in a Viet Cong prison camp where he should see Dr. Creed for the last time in several decades. The scientist now dosed Ryan against his will with the serum he developed whereupon Ryan’s condition actually was stabilized. A short time later, Ryan was still half dead handed over to the Americans as part of a prisoner exchange to seal the ceasefire agreement and the end of the war. After that he was send for convalescence to a veterans home in New York, where he seemed to be recovering amazingly fast …
As a highly decorated soldier and war hero, he finally beome one of the youngest trainer in the Marines on Parris Island in 1976. Until 1988 he performed his service there without incident, and the only unusual thing about him was possibly his youthful appearance since he looked no older than 27, despite his 41 years of age at that time. However, this was attributed to his athletic abilities and his healthy life. But then came the third and final incident that changed Ryan’s life permanently.
A mentally unstable cadet, who could not withstand the pressures of hard drill in the Marines, grabbed an M-16 and a lot of ammunition and ran amok on the grounds of the military base, where he killed 13 people. Ryan tried to stop the young man, but that fired a full broadside into him. Although Ryan was hit at least 20 times, to his amazement the bullets were suddenly ejected from his body, while the entry wounds already started to close again. Overwhelmed by the pain of this process, he ran on to a tank, struck at it and tore off the open hatch. This he then threw like a discus on the gunman, who was beheaded by it.
When he had finally calmed down, he astonished saw the completely wrecked tank and what he had done. After intensive tests by scientific experts of the army they eventually realized that Ryan’s entire genetic structure was changed by the serum he was given 14 years earlier, whereby it remained unclear what role the chemical warfare agent “Agent Orange” had played in this process.
Thanks to rogue scientist Dr. Hayden Creed’s Xenogen amplifying serum Ryan Murphy was equipped with extremely enhanced physical abilites and an accelerated self-healing, which makes ​​him almost invulnerable – even if the injuries he suffers, very well cause pain and leave behind scars. At the same time it seems to be considerably slowing down his aging, which would help to explain his apparent youth. He can also partly conscious release enormous amounts of adrenalin, which temporarily increase his already enormous physical strength, agility, and resistibility to ten times, but also affect his rational thinking.
Of course, this discovery was kept secret by the military and Ryan – as a good soldier – offered to put his new powers in the service of the Army. He was then assigned to a secret government research laboratory called “Project Phoenix”, that emerged in the early 60s from Dr. Creed’s discovery of the Xenogen and since worked on its decoding. Through the study of Ryan Murphy’s physiology they finally had a breakthrough and succeeded to create the first undisclosed super soldiers a few years later. Ryan had by that time already adopted the codename “Patriot X” and took over the leadership of this new force.
UNION JACK from the UK:
Part of Europes own secret Supersoldier-Program in the 90s, the former elite soldier in the Special Air Service (SAS) Alister Kenway gained the ability to amplify his own proprioceptive morphines (endorphines), which regulate his somatic functions and suppress his sensation of pain to the extreme. Through this process, which is sustained by his own confidence, he is able to increase all of his physical capabilities beyond the normal human potential over a longer period. Thus, the more confident he is, the greater his powers are and vice versa. To avoid the normally expected total failure of bodily functions due to excessive strains he can absorb the hormones of other persons which are released from them by deep emotions and stress, and thus balance his own energy budget.
JOHNNY CANUCK (II) from Canada:
When John Caneaux died on April 14, 1978 nobody knew that he once was Canada’s first super hero “Johnny Canuck”.
After the Second World War, in which had fought gloriously from 1942 onwards and even three times had the opportunity to knock out Hitler personally with a sock on his jaw, Johnny Canuck fell into oblivion and lived through some tough years. John Caneaux had to muddle through in the 50s and the 60s with all sorts of odd jobs realising that if he was remembered at all than mostly because of his patriotic name than anything else.
Fortunately, Johnny managed to turn his life for the better when he met Trixie Rogers, the former heroine Wing, in 1966 at a heroes reunion picnic. With her help he got a job as a machinist at the GM Number 2 plant, making $22 an hour. Johnny and Trixie eventually married in May, 1967 and started a family.
His son James was 10 years old, when Johnny died of a heart attack in his 1977 Buick Le Sabre station wagon parked outside the Canadian Tire at Grantham Plaza, but it was James’s own son John who recently followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and called his exploits in mind by his own actions as the superhero Johnny Canuck II.
The young electronics engineer John Caneaux II had invented a power-enhancing technological mesh and wove it into a costume that increases all of the wearers bodily functions to the peak of human potential and even briefly beyond on maximum level, although this can cause a fatal overload of the persons body when it’s used too long. But as a fail-safe the suit will cause a short circuit in itself before this happens.
Thanks to his power suit Johnny Canuck (II) can lift up to 501 kg (1,200 lbs), run a mile (1.6 km) in 73 seconds (49 mph/78 kph), exert himself at peak capacity for a hour without any rest, and is able to leap 50 yards out in a single bound and 20 ft into the air without a running start.
His reaction speed is 20 kph, which makes it possible for him to dodge gunfire even in point blank range and he is durable enough to the point that he can fall on a car from 60 meters (200 feet) with no discomfort.
However, the charge of his suit is limited to 24 hours, leaving Johnny without any powers whatsoever when it runs out of energy.
ZEITGEIST from Germany:
Maximilian Steinmeyer is a ghost – both figuratively and literally. Although everyone knows his civilian name, there is almost nothing known about him, neither his past nor the origin of his powers. Nevertheless, he is one of Germany’s most popular heroes and was even taken in service by the government itself to represent his country in international super-beings matters. He has the power to shift his entire body or just parts of it into an intangible form and become invisible.
In his intangible state he can pass through solid matter and objects, allow oncoming projectiles or energy blasts to pass through him harmlessly, and is also able to make other objects or subjects invisible and intangible via touch. This also works on long distances by projecting energy from his hands to on object which then will become either intangible or disintegrate altogether. He also has teleportation powers with which he can transport objects and people over long distances and in a limited way even trough time, but the application of this ability weakens him considerably for a short time.
MIRAGE from France:
As the best fighter pilot of the Armée de l’air (French Air Force) François Caillot was selected by the Army as the pilot of a new sophisticated battle armor, which is armed with many weapons including machine guns that are loaded with conventional as welle as rubber ‘mercy’ rounds and rocket launchers which can also launch gas grenades or tear gas. The amor is capable of high speeds (mach3), equipped with several on-board cameras and projectors that gave it a 360 degree field of view and the ability to create holographic illusions and camouflage, and also has blasters which can generate photon bursts for illumination or to temporarily blind enemies among others.
RISING SUN (Kyokujitsu – æ—æ—¥) from Japan:
Born shortly after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 Toshi Akamura was mutated by radioactive isotopes in his mother’s womb who consequently died of radiation poisoning after giving birth to him. Confronted with discrimination as a Hibakusha due to lack of knowledge about the effects of radiation sickness, of which many people believed that it was hereditary or even contagious, Toshi grew up in an orphanage until the age of 16 when he suddenly started to develop strange powers, which attracted the attention of senior scientists.
It was determined that Toshi has the ability to absorb and expel high levels of radiation for a number of purposes and effects such as firing blasts of solid radiation in the form of powerful concussive blasts or emitting radiation in the form of intense heat that, at maximum temperature, is said to be hot enough to incinerate a city block. His abilities allow him to melt and mutate human flesh with a touch and they also slow down his aging considerably.
Funded by the Japanese government who wanted to make him its superhuman flagship, Toshi underwent extensive training in several Japanese martial arts and became a highly skilled grandmaster of Jujutsu/Aikijujutsu, Karate Do, Bujutsu, Tantojutsu (knife-fighting), Ninjutsu, and Kenjutsu – the art of wielding a katana which he can charge (like any other object) with nuclear energy, allowing them to cut through almost any substance.
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BATTLE WATCH – TEAM BETA
The team members from left to right:
TIRADENTES (= “tooth puller”) from Brazil:
Jorge Salvador da Silva was a financially well-off middle-aged dentist from São João del Rei, who one day was abducted to the jungles of Brazil by a group of professional kidnappers to demand ransom from his family. But unfortunately Joaquim had no family and so the criminals held him caught in a shed for months while they were looking for a way to still get their hands on his money.
Emaciated and ravaged by illness, he finally managed to squeeze through the bars of his prison and escape his captors, as he ran deeper into the jungle. There he found shelter in a cave that housed a lost secret temple of unknown origin. While his captors sought out after him, Joaquim continued to expand into the interior of the mostly underground system and eventually reached a large hall with a kind of altar in its center. While the rest of the temple was overgrown with vines and roots, the area around the altar was completely untouched in a radius of several feet.
As he approached the altar, he discovered a strange metal ball that slightly shimmered like a smoothly polished black pearl. When he touched the ball with his curious fingers, a bright light flashed up and his mind was flooded with a huge amount of cryptic images. Just a few seconds after the flood of images subsided, his body began to change in agonizing pain. The transormation caused his musculature, bone structure, internal organ composition, soft tissue structure, and skin to greatly increase in toughness and density. When the process was finally completed, he had transformed into a 8’7″ (2.62 m) tall and 1150 lbs (520 kg) heavy creature of pure muscles with a hideous face and pure raw strength.
With his new-found, almost limitless strength, stamina, and invulnerability Jorge easily captured his torturers roaming the area of the cave and crushed their heads with his bare hands. But returning to civilisation he caused a mass hysteria due to his monstrous appearance among the people he encountered on his way and was soon attacked by the brazilian army who eventually managed to subdue him with paralysing gas after a long and bloody battle. When the government finally realized that Jorge was still an very intelligent (although morally less restrained) human being, they offered him their support to become a superhero. He then adopted the name “Tiradentes” to honour the Brazilian national hero Joaquim José da Silva Xavier who came from the same town as him.
KNOCK-OFF (FÄn BÇŽn – 翻版 = “duplicate/reprint”) from China:
Zhang Wei (å¼ ä¼Ÿ) keeps his origin a secret under orders of the chinese politburo but it is presumed that he obtained his powers through scientific methods by the chinese government. Wei is able to copy the knowledge, talents, skills, energies, physical abilities, and powers (whether superhuman or not) of every individual within a certain range of him, although in a lesser quality, and can immediately use the copied powers with the same skill level as the original owner.
He has shown the capacity to stack several powers together at the same time, albeit his body can be overloaded by absorbing too many at once. The copying effect is temporary and he loses his duplicated abilities once out of range of the owner, but since he’s not limited to absorbing superhuman abilities he can also duplicate the skills, personality traits, and intelligence of normal humans. Thus, when in the vicinity of an athlete, he can gain his strength, agility, and sharp reflexes, and when in the presence of a scholar, he can expand his own knowledge with that of his target.
GOLDEN EAGLE (el águila real) from Mexico:
Ricardo Gonzalez was one of the very rare cases where the Xenogen has already been activated in the womb, and so he was born with huge wings which enabled him to fly even as a little toddler. Hidden by his mother for fear of the reaction of others, he grew up in the solitude of the Sierra Madre Occidental in western Mexico, where he roamed the sky without ever beeing seen by anyone.
That was until one day fifteen years later, when members of a local drug cartel became aware of him and followed him all the way home, where they took his mother hostage in order to force the young boy into their service as a drug mule. At this moment, his face started to distort into that of a bird of prey, and his fingers transformed into massive, sharp talons and the criminals were paralyzed with fear by this transformation and did not know what hit them when the boy attacked them and slashed their throats with one single fluid stroke.
When the heat of the battle fell away from him and his face normalized, Ricardo saw the horrified gaze of his mother and realised what he had just done. Filled with panic, he flew away and hid in the mountains for weeks, until he was finally tracked down by police officers, who investigated the incident. Placed in solitary confinement, Ricardo was eventually approached by Mexican officials who told him that his actions was deemed as self-defence and was free to go. At the same time, they offered him a place in a government research facility, where he could learn to control his raptor-like abilities and where he would receive a comprehensive education as well as an extensive military training. Some years later he became the Mexican national superhero known as “águila real” – the Golden Eagle.
Ricardo Gonzalez was born with a drastically altered physiology that is naturally adapted to flying. His bones are hollow like a birds which decreases his weight far below usual and his body possesses greater proportionate muscle mass than ordinary. His eyes can withstand high-speed winds and his respiratory system has a special membrane that enables him to extract oxygen from the air at high velocities or altitudes. Ricardos speed of flight averages around 90 miles per hour (144 kph) and even without the help of a tail wind he is capaple to fly at 180 miles per hour (290 kph) for up to an hour before he gets exhausted. He can easily reach a height of 10,000 feet (3 km) but prefers to fliy beneath the height of the clouds at 6,500 feet (2 km).
BOOMSLANG from South Africa:
Christoff Theron has the Xenogen-mutant ability to produce kinetic energy which he can “shoot” from his fingers like bullets or use to charge any object with it thus accelerating an object’s molecules to the point of melting or explosion. He can produce both small amounts of energy to charge smaller objects to explode on impact and larger energies which can destroy a tank when he releases it from his grip.
The only real limitation to this ability is the time he requires to charge an object which is dependent, like the power of the explosion itself, on the mass of the object he is charging. For example, a stone can be charged in just a second and explodes with the force of a grenade while charging a big truck takes a few minutes but also can level an entire city block. The effect of his kinetic energy charge on a living organism is comparable to a snike bite and can range from just annoying to absolutely lethal.
TYGER (Baagh – बाघ = “tiger”) from India:
Rakesh Chaaruchandra is the tragic result of unorthodox genetic experiments by his father Shankar, who tried to splice human DNA with those of animals in order to create a new superior species. After several painfully failed trials Shankar finally succeeded to give his 12 year old son the ability to transform into a half-human, half-cat creature, gaining the feline features of a tiger, including its razorsharp claws and fangs. The first transformation of Rakesh, however, was so excruciating that he was out of his mind and completely reduced to the basest instincts afterwards. In a frantic rage he attacked the man responsible for so many of his torments, and tore his father literally to pieces.
Taken in by his much gentler uncle Harinder, who taught him how to deal with his new powers, Rakesh now grew up worshipped as a divine creature by his fellow villagers and thus became over time so accustomed to his feline form that he seldom changed back to his human form. He would later use his powers to help others by fighting crime and when the Indian government approached him to become a state-sanctioned superhero at their service he felt obligated to accept due to his great sense of honor. As a werecat he has the enhanced strength, agility, speed, and senses of a big cat as well as a minor healing factor and night vision.
