Swamp Fox Created Villains
Once, James Warren was an American General, having fought many battles himself and led troops to victory through many more. He had always believed in destiny and that he had a purpose higher than any normal man. The aging man had been watching Star Wars, Episode III at the time of the Awakening, the scene where Anakin was turned to the Dark Side.
At this moment, The General gained the ability to absorb and channel electricity. He decided, based on the coincidence, that this meant he was destined to become a sith lord. So he began embracing his darkest emotions and throwing peace to the wayside. He began his sith training by reading publications and online wikis regarding the force, rationalizing that he must rediscover the power that belonged to a time long ago, in a galaxy far far away. He discovered that he'd become completely immune to harm from electric shock. He began electrifying himself with tazers, hugging a lightning rod during a storm, charging his body by sticking forks in electrical outlets, and misused an interrogation chamber to shock himself with an electric eel.
Since then he has purchased several electric eels, and begun sleeping in a two-foot high tank with them, separated only by a fence beneath the water's surface. He has the ability to create electromagnetic fields, blast lightning bolts from his palms, or stream continuous arcs of lightning. He reached fhe point where all nearby electricity automatically streams toward his body.
Resigning from the military, James publically announced his new position as a lord of the sith. He was laughed at and humiliated. Turning his pain into passion, he searched Sci-Fi conventions to find an apprentice. He found one in Aaron Wilson, a seventeen year old orphan from San Diego. Aaron ran away and was trained in the dark arts, though he was completely powerless.
Deciding he would create an entire new order of sith, the former general Wilson renamed himself 'Darksaber', and he began a campaign to gather anyone who would follow him, molding them into soldiers. Dressing them in stormtrooper costumes, he led a war on the gangs of San Diego, bringing as many of them as he could under his personal Empire, converting them into stormtrooper soldiers. The League dismantled the majority of his operations, but in order to preserve what he could, he joined the Outfit.
Charlotte 'Charlie' Maine had been the daughter of one of New Amsterdam's most powerful crime families' enforcers. She witnessed a good deal of brutal violence and torture, growing extraordinarily numb to it rather than traumatized. She grew up and stuck around as part of the family, dating one of the mob's hitmen when she gained an ability that would make her indisposable to the family business.
Her boyfriend had been one of the hitmen, and when he'd go to make a hit, she was always his getaway driver. At the very moment of the Awakening, she was driving his car when suddenly she began to see through it's headlights. It's engine was her heart, and it's tires were her feet. Her consciousness had shifted in the car. When she panicked and wrecked, her consciousness crossed over to the car she'd hit. She could swap her consciousness between any motorized vehicle (cars, buses, planes, boats, trains, mopeds, power chairs, or even motor scooters) that she came in contact with, projecting her voice through their speaker systems if they have one. The way to return her to her own body was to fall asleep (usually at a complete stop), once she woke up, she'd be back in her own body.
Seeing her usefulness, she became utilized as a hitwoman and a getaway driver. The mob keeps her in hiding and protects her body with a good deal of muscle. She is their most expensive operative and they milk her by sending her to do jobs across the country. Once, she was arrested, as the mob made no effort to hide her guilt, but she broke herself out by driving a juggernaut through the walls of her jail cell. She has been on the loose since.
Once an accountant by day, and Dungeons and Dragons player by night, Eugene Kessler had been rather insignificant and felt powerless in the world. When the awakening came, he was gifted with the ability to holographically imagine the outcome of any given action, doing so by watching dozens of different possible scenarios unfold and choosing to imitate the best. This allows him to make very accurate guesses, should he take into account factors such as the participants, setting, time, weather, or details about significant objects. He is still perfectly capable of being caught by surprise, but it is difficult to surprise him because he enjoys planning and doing research.
Abusing his foresight, he entered cash-prize chess competions before deciding it was simply too easy. He found a new hobby. Getting a few of his role playing buddies together, they began to LARP as supervillains in the heart of Detroit. Eugene's players had been manipulated into robbing and assaulting actual citizens before turning in their valuables, having seen it as a strange treasure hunt type of quest. All of the valuables came into Eugene's possession before his 'friends' were arrested. He managed to avoid any sentence, however.
Having tested his ability, he upped the ante by directing an actual bank robbery and pulling it off with no injuries or deaths. None of his crew were caught. The entirety of the bank's money was secured, yet all security protocols had been nulled by careful planning. Eugene dubbed himself The Dungeon Master before investing in having a team of henchmen assembled. He hired an Archer, a Knight, an actual Mage, and an Elf with a knack for sabotage. Attempts have been made several times to capture him and his gang, but none have been successful.
Judas Elliot had been an intelluctually gifted individual who turned to life as a crackhead and a con man in Miami. In order to fund his addiction, he worked as a high-profile street performer. At the time of the Awakening, he'd been demonstrating an illusion involving pretending to dip his face in a pot of liquid CO2. When he went momentarily blind, there was an accident and he accidentally did breathe in the CO2.
Rushed to the hospital, he was given immediate medical attention amongst a sea of people involved in spontaneous accidents. He was given surgery and put on a machine, an iron lung when it was discovered that he was breathing out liquid CO2. In order to prevent him from completely dsstroying the facility, they isolated him in the hospital's basement before they connected a gas mask to his face, days later, and several respirators all over his body.
The result is that he can blast freezing cold Carbon dioxide any of the three tubes on his gas mask, a respiratory vent at the center of his chest, or on his back. It wasn't meant to enable him to use his respirators as weapons, the intended function was that the carbon dioxide leak out of all the vents, not pressurize and release. Judas had actually altered it himself for the offensive functionality.
Since then, he's been roaming the streets of Miami, stealing crack cocaine from any dealers he can find as well as freezing any police who attempt to apprehend him. Despite his criminal and felonious status, he is willing to intervene on the behalf of innocent bystanders if he sees a battle between other criminals that puts the general public at risk. With cocaine as a motivation, it isn't hard for most people to hire him to do their dirty work. His convoluted moral code makes him difficult to work with long-term, though.
The Cult of Alexander
At the Awakening, a small group of old men got together and talked about the way of the modern world. They likened the power of metahumans to that of the gods of old, but less inspiring. Most Iranian metahumans had decided to use their power for selfish gain or protecting only their own families, or even keeping any abilities entirely secret. So, they decided to change the world.
Using the stories that had been told to them as children, the old men gathered a group of followers and convinced them that they were following the path set forth by the gods. Encouraging the people to engage in rituals and animal sacrifices, they began to build a Cultish following to the ancient Persian Pantheon. Finally, the gods spoke to the old men personally through their dreams, gave them a moral ultimatum and very specific instruction on what to do.
They paid their members with silver and gold, telling them to all fight amongst eachother until only the strongest of them remained. The fighting only ended when there were thirty combatants living out of what had been hundreds. For their obedience, the founders of the Cult had been awarded prolonged lives and money beyond reason. With the remaining thirty followers, instructions were as follows.
Have them slaughter a young ram, drink it's blood, recite an oath, pledging themselves to spreading chaos in the name of the gods, and deploying the followers wherever they could spread the most fear and wreak the most havok. Decidedly, this meant sending several of them to hunt down the supposedly 'heroic' Iranian servicemen and going into the country's most densely populated areas. Eventually their progress at spreading terror was halted when Azar Bezadi, an Iranian intelligence operative, mimicked their ritual and began to hunt down the followers of the Cult. He eliminated many of them, even drinking their blood once they'd fallen, and he captured those he did not kill, placing six of the followers into Iranian prisons.
Instructed by the gods to migrate to America, where the social structure was more used to being afraid of middle-easterners anyway, they were to create fear and chaos just the same, but hopefully assisted by the community of 'villains' to avoid destruction at the hands of Bezadi or anyone like him. As of late the Cult has had a strong presence in New York, but also a hand in Chicago, building relations with that community as well. The founders don't dare recruit any more members without the saying so of the gods, despite their uneasiness about the current state of affairs.
Amon: Aged 14, Amon is the youngest of the Cult's followers. He has a fondness for theatrics, much like Shahnaz, but he acts more like a 'supervillain' than a zealot. He actually looks at Azar as a role model. He is currently in the custody of the Iranian government.
Aleksei: Aged 27, Aleksei is from Russia and spwas formerly a prize fighter. He has a large, muscular frame with pale white skin and short black hair that he keeps slicked back. He was apprehended on live television, shortly after Azar followed the cult to America, when he was defeated, so he was shown rare mercy because of the reports that would assuredly stem from his death. He is incarcerated in Cook County Jail.
Darius: Aged 37, Darius is the most wealthy member of the Cult. He robbed his way to fortune by traveling to Las Vegas, where he fed on many of organized crime's low ranking members, creating a new identity as a sleezy gambler. He is hiding from Azar and has a squad of heavily trained and experienced body guards.
Javed: Aged 46, Javed is the most levelheaded of The Cult's leaders. He makes the plans that the underlings follow for a battle. He is a tactical thinker and is able-bodied, though he does get sore fairly easy. He is slow to speak, cautious in his decision making. He believes that the Cult is a terrible atrocity, but he also believes that it benefits himself personally more than any other course in life would.
Eskander: Aged 53, Eskander is one of the Cult's founders and leaders. He, more so than the others, gives messages to the gods, and generally acts as the intermediary between the gods and his fellow founders. He believes at his core that what they've done with the Cult is wrong, but he certainly isn't going to be destroyed trying to stop it's progress.
Heather: Aged 23, Heather is an actress is New York who actually had been a tourist when she'd been inducted into The Cult. She has only fed on men who have tried to violate her or when she is feeling excruciatingly weak. She likes cats.
Kianoush: Aged 34, Kianoush is the fiercest of all the Cult's followers. He is mighty and skilled in the use of a sword. He has an intimidatingly muscular body and can push himself to withstand agony for the sake of victory. He is currently in Chicago.
Leyla: Aged 25, Leyla is the most insidious of The Cult's followers. She is seductive, yet in no way friendly. She holds herself in high esteem and is also by others. She prefers to do her feeding in private and is very confident in her ability to overpower others. She is currently in Chicago.
Mahin: Aged 49, Mahin acts as the general head of The Cult, making decisions for the followers and generally swaying his fellow founders, at times making their choices for them. He believes that the way of the dark gods was the way they were destined to follow, so he unhesitantly admits that they are evil, but he refuses to be anything else.
Shahnaz: Aged 24, Shahnaz has a knack for drama. He makes a gigantic show out of drinking blood and often does so in the middle of crowds, leaping from one throat to another. He, despite his terrifying savage displays, has virtually no experience in fighting.