On the street, speculation about Mister King's identity abounds. Some school of thought holds that he is a man. Others believe that Mister King is, in fact, a woman. Yet other rumors suggest that Mister King is the code name for the collection of Paradigm City's arch-villains. Whatever belief one subscribes to one thing is certain: Mister King exists.
The Advent began in the year 1998, when the then unknown Mister King sent emissaries to the ruling elite class of super criminals working in Paradigm City. He offered each of the bosses his own vast store of resources, retirement plans, medical benefits, and legal assistance with the provisio that each of the bosses put their own resources at the disposal of everyone and contribute ten percent of their annual earnings to Mister King himself. Smaller crime organizations, such as the Obertus family, agreed right away and soon other individuals and groups were signing on. When the six arch-villains of Paradigm City saw that The Advent was becoming a truly powerful organization that could, and likely would, overthrow them they too threw in their lot. Appreciating this, Mister King named each of the six arch-villains as Governors of their respective districts and gave them the authority to rule.
The six Advent Governors rule all criminal enterprises within their respective districts. They answer only to each other and, most importantly, to Mister King. Each Governor knows that should they step out of line, they will face the combined might of both Mister King and the other five Governors and the threat of this keeps each of them in line and working in a smooth partnership. The Advent Governors are Mastermind in Millennium City, Shadowlord in Wideview, Hand of Glory in Darkness Falls, ----- in Steel Beach, -----in The Greenway, -----in The Slums, and ----- in The Bucket.
The Advent is known to operate like a professional business, with separate divisions and departments. Publically, The Advent operates out of many businesses which make 98% of its employees completely unaware they are working for the empire.
The science branch of the Advent focuses on researching new technologies, alien devices, metahumans, super-powers, and genetics. It operates many front companies that provide services such as computers, medical companies, and high-tech services. The branch is lead by the fearsome Ultraviolet and her personal super-team, the Geodesics. It is also the home of the high tech science team known as the Program. This specialized team of Professor Mastodon, Pit Viper, and Deathmask focus exclusively on high tech heroes, seeking to obtain the technology through hostile corporate takeovers, legal action, or downright murder.
The evil Olympic Industries also falls under the umbrella of the Advent science branch. The entire branch is under the control of Mastermind in Millennium City and his Wicked Generation empire.
The financial branch is operated by the Circle Trinity of Greenway. This branch, plain and simply, handles all the financial transactions of the entire Advent. As well as handling the empire's financial matters, it also handles all legal and medical transactions the Advent controls. Publicly, many law firms, hospitals, and banks are under the thumb of the Advent's financial branch.
The general of the financial branch, whom answers to Greenway's Arch-Villain, is the mysterious Accountant. The Accountant is himself a massive repository of financial information, a man with a brain like a computer. Law enforcement groups and superheroes drool at the thought of arresting The Accountant because if they could do that, they are certain the Advent's financial acumen would collapse; which would lead eventually to the collapse of the entire empire.
The arcane branch is ruled by The Hand of Glory in Darkness Falls. As its name suggests, the arcane branch studies and collects all forms of magical lore, items, and artifacts. It also monitors magic based superheroes and superhero groups, assessing their threat level and then taking steps to eliminate the threat if necessary.
The arcane branch is most known for Hand of Glory's Arcanus Malefactorum empire; and also employs magic based villains and villain groups.
The security branch is operated by ---- in Steel Beach. This branch monitors all superheroic activity within Paradigm City, and takes steps to counter such activity when it poses a threat to the Advent's interests. While it regularly employs many criminals and criminal groups, it is most known for it's primary strike force, The Destroyers.
The Destroyers is an internationally known and wanted terrorist group. Lead by the alien creature called Nemesis, the membership is made up of the phenomenal martial artist Pinnacle, the young Thirteen whom can create and control psychic tentacles, the physicist and former US Marine called Powderkeg whom can generate terrific nuclear blasts from his hands when he strikes a solid object, and the eerie Phantasm whom is capable of transforming himself into a living shadow which can take possession of other people.
Wicked Generation
In Millennium City, the greatest Advent threat to public safety is Wicked Generation. The Generation is the result of the efforts of the brilliant criminal called Mastermind. The Generation has it's origins in early 2011, when Mastermind murdered the psychotic Lost Laughter and absorbed her chaotic gang known as Creepshow. Once Mastermind accomplished this feat, making himself the most powerful criminal in Millennium City, he took it upon himself to then absorb the resources and foot soldiers of other street gangs in the city, such as the Red Triangle Gang and the Asphalt Dragons. With these organizations under his control, Mastermind launched a full scale gang war in Millennium City and within the space of two months had become the boss of the city, which brought him to Mister King's attention.
Once Mastermind had absolute control of Millennium City, he took a cue from Mister King and divided each of the cities into territories, which he then gave to Millennium City's most fearsome and notorious crime lords. Each of the Lords of The City are allowed to operate relatively autonomously, but are always ready to snap to attention when Mastermind or Mister King calls.
The Lord of Citywalk: Mastermind
Not only is Jason Wynnegard a strategic and financial genius, he is also indisputably the worlds most powerful psionic illusionist. Even such powerhouses as Paragon have fallen prey to Wynnegard's ability to cause others to experience only what he wishes them to. Mastermind rarely engages superheroes himself; choosing instead to let other Generation bosses or his own personal army of thugs handle the situation.
Smug and secure in his power, only the arch-criminal Rictus remains a thorn in Mastermind's side. Mastermind has tried, and failed, numerous times to eliminate his enemy. Rictus and Mastermind maintain and constant war for control of Millennium City and so far each is a perfect match for the other. Which of the two will ultimately be crowned the absolute ruler of Millennium City remains to be seen.
The Lord of The Row: Scarecrow
Johnathan Crane spent his entire formative years under the anvil of being bullied owing to his androgynous appearance and mannerisms. The constant and intense fear he felt throughout his childhood made him become fascinated with fear and its effects on the human brain. This lead him to obtain his first PH.D in psychiatry, and then later a second PH. D in chemistry.
Crane's unathorized experiments with human subjects caused him to lose his licenses to practice and also landed him a seven year stint in Federal prison. While in prison he perfected his array of mind-altering drugs and gasses. His appearance and mannerisms once again made him the target of persecution, but this time he fought back by paralyzing his tormentors with terror. His appearance and use of a horrific burlap mask during his 'treatments' with his fellow prisoners earned him the nickname Scarecrow.
When he was released from prison, Crane adopted the persona of Scarecrow full time. Donning a terrifying costume to match his namesake, Scarecrow quickly established himself as the crime lord of Millennium City's Row, where he quickly built a small army of former Creepshow gang members as well as his own personal bodyguards. These three metahumans, called the Nightmare Squad, are fantatically loyal to Scarecrow. The Squad is lead by Nightmare, a former professional wrestler and includes Panic, a metahuman with the ability to emit a variety of sonic screams, and Terror; a former mercenary equipped with stolen power armor.
Today, Scarecrow sits on a throne of horror and despair, always ready to subject heroes to their worst nightmares.
The Lord of North Hills: Demonseed
The story of Alexander Hammel is a story of tragedy. At one time, Hammel was a well loved district attorney whom fought crime with a passion. He was outspoken, determined, and absolutely not corruptible. It was certain that he was headed either for a seat on the state Supreme Court or the Governor's chair. That's when CULT came calling.
A weird and very small wanna-be occult terrorist group, CULT and all if it's six members absconded with Hammel and subjected him to torture for days as the heroes of Paradigm City frantically searched for him. Finally, as the heroes were closing in, the members of CULT performed a ritual on Hammel designed to use his body as a temporal gateway which would allow a demon to come through to Prime Earth. The ritual was only partially successful.
When the heroes finally found Hammel, they were horrified. The right side of his body was the handsome cavalier man they knew, but the left side of his body was a scaled, twisted, demonic entity. The members of CULT were dead.
Forever estranged from the life and family he knew, Hammel went into hiding. Nobody is really sure what made him turn to crime, but when he resurfaced he was only Demonseed, the terror of North Hills. Armed with a specialize shotgun fueled by magic, a horde of loyal followers, and his two female assistants Leather and Lace, Demonseed brought North Hills to it's knees.
Demonseed remains a tragic and incomprehensible criminal. His human half and his demon half constantly struggle for dominance, resulting in extreme bizarre behavior. He can at one second be plugging both barrels of his shotgun into a hero's mouth, and in the very next second rip the weapon away and tell the hero to run for his life. He saves lives as often as he takes them, and no hero to date knows exactly what to make of him.
The Lord of Galaxy View Terrace: Jurassic
Though it is well known that the superhero team called the Champions keeps GVT a safe and decent place to live, Jurassic is their constant reminder that evil can never be entirely stamped out.
Before becoming the monster known now as Jurrasik, Tommy Gunner was a lieutenant in the Asphalt Dragons, back when Rictus ran the show. Gunner quickly gained a fearsome reputation as a cold blooded killer and a man ruthless enough to challenge even superheroes. His fame was his undoing.
Rictus, seeing the potential in the young man and at the same time incensed that one of his men was getting more respect in the Dragons than himself, instructed Gunner to take a group of Dragons to a charity ball and shoot the place up. Alas, the charity ball was full of heroes, including Paragon. Gunner was quickly rounded up, put on trial, and sentenced to five consecutive life sentences.
As he stewed in prison, Gunner became acquainted with the prison surgeon, whom was in reality the criminal geneticist called Paracelsus. Paracelsus promised Gunner he could get the gang member's sentence reduced if Gunner was willing to volunteer for some experiments. Gunner agreed, and the horror called Jurassic was created.
Gunner easily escaped prison and returned to GVT, intent on paying Rictus back for the betrayal. He soon discovered, however, that Rictus had been displaced by Mastermind. Gunner's old 'crew' flocked to him and Mastermind, seeing the potential of this angry giant orange-red lizard man, quickly set Gunner up as GVT's Wicked Generation crime lord.
Many newer heroes see Jurassic and believe that the monster is a dumb as he is large. Too many have learned too late their error. Jurassic is massive, durable, deadly...and brilliant.
(To be continued)
