Left to Right: Leo, Pisces, Aries, Sagittarius, Aquarius, Taurus - Scorpio, Virgo, Libra, Cancer, Gemini I (Maria), Virgo, Gemini II (Laura), Capricorn Team Zodiac was the first and largest group of assembled heroes based in Atlantica city. Apart from Agent Rossi all the members are Alpha Superiors and originally formed up as a means of mutual protection against Black Shadow whom had been systematically exterminating Alphas which they saw as a threat to their criminal empire. After they helped bring down Black Shadow, Team Zodiac then found itself with new enemies for since the world had been made safe for all Alphas, Alpha Villains were once more free to go about their business. From the very beginning Team Zodiac has used the White Tower as its headquarters. Originally the head offices of McCabe Consodilated Industries (MCI) since Andrew McCabe (Leo) agreed to bankroll the team he donated the building for the team use and helped remodel the interior so that all team members could live and work in a pleasant environment. As the general public know where the team are stationed it has caused numerous problems either from press intrusion or by direct attack from any Alpha Villains or other criminals that want to eliminate the group. With so many team members all in Atlantica, when other heroes started appearing it was decided to split the main team into two smaller ones to give them worldwide coverage. The "second team" thus moved to New Tokyo. Mike Williams was then left to govern the Atlantica team, whilst Andrew McCabe took charge of the New Tokyo operation. Just like in Atlantica the MCI's offices in there would also serve as a base of operations. CLEA DATA FILE Team Identities: (Team 1) John Lyons - Pisces Michael "Mike" Williams - Aries (Team Leader) Vincent Sean Archer - Sagittarius (Pegasus Pilot) Laura West - Gemini I Maria West - Gemini II Natalie Terelle - Capricorn Charlotte Manceaux - Libra (Team 2) Andrew McCabe - Leo (Team Leader) Azumi Takara - Cancer Yoshito Sekita - Aquarius Dr Parveen Bhatia - Scorpio Suchin Charoenpura - Virgo Kwame Gyasi - Taurus (Pegasus Pilot) (CLEA Liason) Agent Antonio Rossi CLEA Classification: Alpha Superior (All team members except Antonio Rossi) Special Skills and/or Abilities: Alpha ability - (Pisces) Lyons can make himself and/or other objects invisible by touching them. Lyons is also a highly skilled computer hacker Alpha ability - (Aries) Williams has the ability to move at greatly accelerated speeds. Alpha ability - (Sagittarius)Archer can create energy fields and use them to produce forcefields or direct the energy to fly. Archer is also qualified to pilot the Pegasus jet. Alpha ability - (Gemini) Laura and Maria West have "unstable" Alpha abilities which enablse them to mimic the Alpha ability of any other Alpha Superiors they come in contact with. They are also telepathically linked to each other. Alpha ability - (Capricorn) Terelle has the means to manipulate localised gravity fields. She can vary this from just affecting her or affect an entire room. Using this she can walk up walls/ ceiling etc. as easily as anyone else would walk on a pavement. Terelle is a VR programmer and her programs are used to train the team when "off duty" Alpha ability - (Libra) Manceaux, can control and manipulate electrical and magnetic fields for offensive capabilities or to levitate. Alpha ability - (Leo) McCabe, has the means to generate fire from his hands. Alpha ability - (Canver) Takara can teleport herself and others distances of up to a couple of miles. Alpha ability - (Aquarius) Sekita, has the ability to to move objects up to the size of a small car with his mind. Alpha ability - (Scorpio) Bhatia's ability allows her to make her body and other objects intangible and thus able to move through solid objects. She can make another person intangible providing she is touching them. Bhatia is also a fully qualified doctor. Alpha ability - (Virgo) Charoenpura, has the means to alter her molecular density making her practically invulnerable to physical attack. During her changes her body takes on a metallic appearance. Alpha ability - (Taurus) Gyasi is gifted with super strength and can move masses far in excess of 100 tonnes. Gyasi is also qualified to fly the Pegasus jet. Limitation(s)/Weakness(s): All team members (except Rossi) "suffer" the usual Alpha problems in that the more they use their abilities the greater the toll on their bodies which is kept up prevents them using the special skills/properties. Bhatia will not deliberately cause harm to another so is considered a non combatant but she will defend herself and others if threatened. Manceaux lost both legs in a car accident. When not using her Alpha abilities she has to get around via a wheel chair or on artificial legs. Since Manceaux and Williams are married threatening one might result in the other acting irrationally. Archer is known to have a short temper and this can be exploited by an enemy. Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits: Computer fraud (Lyons - pardoned) Aggravated Assault/Assault and battery (Charoenpura) Suspected of being linked to organised crime (Sekita - charges dropped on Chief Naylor's orders) Notes/History Team Zodiac's story began with John Lyons, a onetime cybercriminal and conman was recruited by a CLEA investigation unit operating in Atlantica. CLEA top brass had found the number of mysterious deaths being suffered worldwide by Alpha humans was too coincidental to ignore. Though the intelligence was weak the chiefs were convinced a group called “Black Shadow” was behind the deaths and they were also sure that various law enforcement agencies had been infiltrated by the crime syndicate which is why no evidence had ever been found. As the suspected murders went back over a twenty year period and CLEA did not have the resources or the budget to perform a worldwide investigation a task force was set up in Atlantica. The APD had discovered a lot of corruption in its police department a few years earlier but whomever was behind the corruption was never found. This had made the CLEA chiefs suspicious so Atlantica looked as good a place as any to start. Agent Sarah Johnson was assigned to the task force to gain back ground intelligence and her orders were to initially locate any Alphas in the Atlantica region, that way CLEA could get ahead of the murders and hopefully catch some of those responsible when they tried to commit their crimes. Since many Alphas without any special abilities (Inferior) were unaware they were even Alphas it meant a lot of background information was needed in the form of medical records to identify potential victims (from the distinctive birthmark). Once discovered CLEA intended to set up surveillance on the “targets” in order to catch those responsible. Since Sarah had the option to hire anyone with specialist skills she chose to hire John Lyons, believing that he could save on unnecessary footwork. By hacking medical records rather than having to talk to doctors, he could save a lot of time. Being an ex-con meant she had leverage to obtain John’s help since she could hand over everything they had on his current “activities” to the APD. Sarah Johnson would later be discovered to work for Black Shadow and the one thing she did not take into account was the fact that an ex-con would notice anything suspicious. John happened to notice that Sarah never left her laptop around which he thought odd because every other computer was networked to CLEA. Then when he started his investigation into Alphas he discovered that he bore all the tell-tale signs. Since he did not trust Sarah he did not tell her and as he had been told that the chances of an Alpha Inferior becoming a superior were nearly a thousand to one he figured it would be easy to hide his “secret.” The odds though would actually end up in his favour because he became unwell months into the investigation and the signs all pointed to him changing status. No doubt had he not been privy to the information regarding what to expect he would have no idea what was happening. For the first time he was tempted to admit to Sarah he was an Alpha but before he did that he wanted to take a peak on her computer so one night he stayed late at work after everyone had gone home and then tried to break into her office. Whilst performing the act she returned and the shock caused his Alpha abilities to trigger for the first time. Luckily for John his Alpha ability enabled him to become invisible so Sarah walked right past him without noticing. She then picked up her handbag and left. With the building empty John completed his “mission” and then stole he computer. Once he got home it was easy for him to get past the security but what he found was to shock him in ways he never anticipated for one of the files contained a list of names the team had supplied of potential Alphas. Using his own programs he recovered older version of the file and noticed at one time it had been longer only the now missing names related to people who were dead. He now knew that Sarah was not who or what everyone thought she was. Instinct had shown him that from the beginning and whilst he was more interested in saving his own skin he felt compelled to undo some of the damage he had obviously helped to create. This was particularly personal because one of the names left on the list belonged to an ex APD police captain, Mike Williams. Though at one time Williams was his nemesis he did not want the man dead so figuring that Mike might be able to understand what he had uncovered he paid the ex-captain a visit. Whether it was luck of fate, John arrived just ahead of an assassination squad and saved his life. The attack also triggered Mike’s Alpha Abilities. Though the ex-captain had no idea what the “list” was he figured he knew one person that might, a senator whom he believed was corrupt and the same person responsible for ruining his police career by making him look dirty forcing an early his retirement from the force. After getting Lyons to a friend’s house to stay, Mike waited to the next evening to have an impromptu meeting at Senator Frank Morgan’s residence. Suspecting that Morgan was working for some sort of criminal network the exception discovered that his theory was partially true for Morgan was a double agent working to bring a very powerful crime syndicate down from the inside. In the conversation that followed Morgan revealed all, including the name of the syndicate, Black Shadow and the fact they considered all Alphas were threats. Those that were superiors and fought for the law would be a serious problem to the syndicate and those that became criminals were unwanted competition. Rather than waited for either to become a possibility the syndicate had chosen to identify Alpha Inferiors and take them out before they became a problem. As the existence of Black Shadow was not known to anyone but handful of people high up in CLEA, Williams was told he had to keep what he had learned to himself. Morgan explained that because the assassins had failed and he had become an Alpha Superior his very existence would distract the syndicate which was useful to get the pieces in place to destroy Black Shadow because they would not spot anything suspicious so easily. When Williams revealed the intention to “save” everyone on the list the Senator liked the idea as he knew it would cause the biggest possible distraction a factor that he could work to his own personal advantage. Being a double agent the Senator could do no more but knew that William’s would need money and resources to attain his goal and after studying the list found the name Andrew McCabe. That person had everything Williams needed so Morgan set up a meeting for the ex-captain. From then on what happened would be down to Williams. However Morgan did make it clear that Williams owed him one. As president of MCI, McCabe was a multi-billionaire and not the sort a person easily persuaded to believe he might be destined to have “Super Human” capabilities. This despite the fact he bore signs of going “through the change” something Lyon has explained to Williams and something he had personal experience with recently. When the meeting looked like it was going to collapse Williams gambled and attacked the CEO causing McCabe’s Alpha abilities to activate. With undeniable proof now Williams got McCabe’s attention. He also put forward a plan to “rescue” the people on the list and needed McCabe’s financial help and resources. At this point Williams formed an idea in his mind to put the people they rescued into a team and use them to fight the likes of Black Shadow and other criminals as had the Alpha Heroes done years previously. In that moment of time Williams became the architect of team Zodiac. Though McCabe offered money and equipment the CEO did not want to play an active role in the team as he decided that playing hero was not for him. However Black Shadow was now aware of the missing list and were rapidly assigning assassins to take out all the targets. Once group of assassins made the mistake of attacking the White Tower, MCI’s head office. McCabe was so full of rage that he changed mind and wanted in all the way, including active duties. Together they worked through the list saving everyone they could. Working with CLEA the group brought down Black Shadow freeing all Alphas around the world from their reign of terror. n time, Black Shadow would re-emerge but it would never achieve its original worldwide status. By this time McCabe and Williams had begun to notice that with other heroes around their large team seemed liked overkill in Atlantica. The decision was made to split the group in two and base themselves in Atlantica and New Tokyo. Rossi then would spend his time alternating between both groups. McCabe would also go on to set up the Knights Forge along with other partners in order to keep the team and other heroes equipped adequately.