Left to Right: Soul Taker, Invert, Necro and Piper Just as their name suggests the Extortionist's primary criminal activity is to obtain money and wealth via blackmailing their victims. Unlike other criminal groups the quartet only work for themselves and do not loan their "services" to anyone else. CLEA DATA FILE Group Identities: Soul Taker - Kevin Stanton Invert - Maisie Nicholson Necro - Damien Kline Piper - Andrea Lamont CLEA Classification: Alpha Superior (entire Group) Special Skills and/or Abilities: Alpha ability - Kline, has the means to instantly "kill" living skin cells by touch and reverse it at will. He can thus subject a victim to great pain. Being left in a condition of rotting flesh can eventually lead to complications and even death if he does not intervene. Alpha ability - Nicholson, as the means to flip a victims morale compass turning good people bad and vice versa causing confusion and chaos. Only she can revert a person's morale "status". Alpha ability - Lamont has the means to control animals and get them to do her bidding. The less intelligent the species the more control she has and in the case of many she can take control of entire colonies such as ant, rats etc. Alpha ability - Stanton can remove a person's consciousness or soul and place it in an inanimate object leaving his victim's physical body in a comatose vegetative state. As a group they are very powerful which helps in fending of those that want to put a stop to their activities. Limitation(s)/Weakness(s): Members of the group have strong egos and often come into conflict with each other. Have a habit of taking on people in power (sometimes criminals) who have vast resources and will fight back meaning the group has gained lots of enemies and so has to keep on the move. Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits: The group's modus operandi is to select a victim and threaten them directly or indirectly via threatening their friends/family or company(s). Failure to comply always results in the threat being carried out. Extortion Kidnapping and false imprisonment Notes/History The Extortionists are a group of four Alpha criminals that came together for mutual support. The “name” was coined by CLEA agents since it describes the MO of each member but the actual group has never revealed if it indeed has a name. Separately each member of the group had already gained records with CLEA and other agencies and though while each one of them is quite powerful and capable of causing widespread chaos they instead target wealthy individuals. Using their abilities they threated either the victim, their families or their businesses. Unusually they do not usually offer themselves out to contract work like other Alpha criminals but instead seem content to satisfy their own lust for greed. The first member of the group to get “noticed” by CLEA was Damien Kline, aka “Necro”. A small time crook, he had gained many enemies from more powerful criminals who regarded him as something of a joke and was often forced to hand over any ill-gotten gains to bigger fish. Things changed when his Alpha abilities activated and he discovered he had the unique if not strange ability to “kill” cells on a living person, and reverse it at will. He suspected he was an Alpha Inferior whilst growing up but had never formally had his suspicions verified. Having become an Alpha Superior he was not sure what sought of use his new gift could do to him, until he accidentally unleashed it during a failed robbery. His victim begged him to fix the problem and that’s when he got the idea to blackmail people. Starting with the people that had treated him as a joke he made a name for himself in criminal circles by targeting those higher up the food chain. Causing their skin to begin rotting, if his victims did not want to die they could either pay up or suffer the consequences. The real beauty with Damien’s ability was the fact he knew his victims could not arrange for his death for he was the only one able to “fix” the problem. Gaining money and power shot him up the criminal hierarchy in a very short space of time and since he targeted other criminals the law tended to ignore Damien’s actions since he was inadvertently helping them. However in his desire to gain more wealth Damien began to look outside the criminal fraternity and that’s when he started on wealthy business people. Along the way he noted rivals in his line of work. One of these was Maisie Nicholson (Invert) who had the means to flip a person’s morale compass. She used her gifts to target the businesses of various people by causing chaos with their employees. Just one touch could turn a loyal hardworking individual into a complete slacker who would cause trouble. Damien was not happy with her operating in his line of work but when he tried to threaten her she flipped him instead before he got the chance to affect her flesh. However shifting Damien’s morale compass turned him from a criminal psyche to a hero psyche and that was an even bigger problem for Maisie so she flipped him back. After that encounter the pair agreed to keep their distance. Moving around the world from Pacifica to New Tokyo, Damien happened across Andrea Lamont. An Alpha that could control animals, she had never progressed in using her talents beyond the “hoodlum” level. Damien saw “potential” in her and offered her a chance to get rich quick by using her skills to intimidate victims that were susceptible to animal related fears. Andrea’s Alpha ability had a particular nicety in the fact they could warn a victim what was coming and if they did not pay up she could communicate with animals and insects and send them over to scare the victim. As neither of she or Damien was present during the animal attacks or invasions they could remain ahead of the law. Working for Damien, Andrea took the codename “Piper” in reference to the Pied Piper of Hamlyn. When the pair had found New Tokyo getting too hot for their liking they moved onto Europa. By this time they had started to gain enemies and became targets for people who wanted revenge. Some sent in contract killers which the pair often managed to evade but Alpha heroes were whole different problem. Damien still felt that since he was unique in terms of his unusual ability he could easily turn a hero into a victim if they got close. Taking money of heroes through extortion was certainly satisfying until over confidence led to his downfall when the pair encountered Tim Sheppard aka “The Mirror Man”. Able to mimic a person’s fighting skills through observation was one of Tim’s abilities but he also had the means to reflect any Alpha ability back at the user when they were in close proximity. Consequently when Andrea tried to send a pack of dogs at Sheppard he simply took control of them and send them back. Angry at having their plan foiled, Damien without thinking took charge and grabbed hold of Tim’s arm and activated his Alpha ability. Within seconds Damien found himself engulfed in pain as his own flesh began to start rotting. Damien demanded Tim to reverse what he had done but since Tim only reflected the user’s ability and was not the source then there was nothing he could do. What Damien had neglected to realise was to fix his body, he should have grabbed the Mirror Man again and proceeded to reverse his own “rotting” ability. With the law heading towards their position Damien and Andrea elected to leave rather than be captured. In time Damien worked out how to fix his problem but by the time he caught up with the Mirror Man again and coerced him into helping, his own body had gone past the point of no return in regards to repairing the damage. Consequently since that day Damien has been left with a body that resembles his own unique ability. The Mirror Man was not the only hero to go after the pair and when the time came that it was impossible to operate without interference that was when Damien had the idea of forming a loose alliance for mutual protection. Despite having agreed to give a wide berth to Maisie Nicholson, he approached her again. She too had been having problems with “do-gooders” and so agreed to his proposal. Maisie also brought along a powerful ally she had made in the form of Kevin Stanton. Stanton aka the Soul Taker had the ability to more a person’s conscience and place it in an object leaving the victim’s body in a vegetative state. Maisie had happened across Stanton in a similar manner to how she had encountered Damien originally. They were in competition for the same business but Stanton had gained enemies a lot faster and rather than looking to gain another in Maisie had suggested they operate together. Combining the pairings gave the quartet a powerful alliance which now makes them a tough challenge for any wannabe heroes.