Steve Coops

The Beast Warriors

CLEA DATA FILE

Group Identities:

Previous Group Members:

  • Lockjaw

CLEA Classification:

  • Bioengineer (Bryant and Moore)
  • human/animal hybrids (all other members of the group)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

  • Both Bryant and Moore are highly skilled geneticists.
  • Bryant has the means to breathe underwater
  • The remaining member of the group were created as human/animal hybrids and do not change form. Though they are humanoid in appearance they tend to be controlled by their animal instincts.
  • Tusker is a male human/elephant hybrid. He has a hide resilient to small calibre weapons and is nearly four times as strong as a human adult male.
  • Sludge is male human/snail hybrid. Though he cannot “change” he body shape since he does not have a proper internal skeleton he can squeeze through seemingly impossible gaps. He can also breathe underwater
  • Snapper is a female crocodile/human hybrid. She had an extremely tough hide and strength approaching that of twice an average adult male. She is the best “hunter” of the group on land.
  • Gore is a male bovine/human hybrid. He has massive strength second only to Tusker and his body can survive massive impact. This he uses when charging an opponent where he can bring his horns into full use.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

  • Other than Bryant and Moore the other member of the group  possess the intelligence of humans but they are governed by their animal instincts. This means they tend not to react to situations like humans and produce tactical errors unlike other human/animal hybrids where the human mind has the greater “control.”
  • Snapper is considered a weak element in the group. Being a “predator” she has the tendency to leave the safety of the others and go off on solo sorties.
  • On the whole the “family” group wants to be left alone and will not openly attack en mass unless provoked.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

  • Theft
  • Robbery
  • Assault
  • Assault and battery

Notes/History

As a keen geneticist Dr Dominic Bryant had been amongst the scientific elite. Like many scientists he too had built a career based on one belief. In his case he believed that the cure for solving many hereditary diseases could be found in nature. Many animals were resistant to certain diseases and it was a matter of isolating those genes and adding them to the human genome.
Since his goal was to stop a hereditary disease before it could move to the next generation his eventual plan was to perform the splicing at the beginning the very start of the human life cycle.
For some time he worked alongside another scientist, Thomas Buchanan who agreed with much of Bryant’s theory but he was looking at curing none hereditary diseases. Buchanan also considered Bryant’s method of implantation was wrong and that it could be performed on a fully grown adult.
For all their creative differences the pair managed to work together on their respective ideas before the working situation became untenable at which point the parted company. Ironically both Bryant and Buchanan would eventually get their ideas to work but both would be regarded as creating monsters or freaks of nature.

With Buchanan gone and along with his money Bryant put his great work on hold and began heading smaller research jobs in the same field. During those years he was often present at the various scientific seminars which is how he came to know Dr Alexis Russell, before she began her environmental drive (eventually leading her to becoming Beastial).
Finding themselves on the same projects and having similar interests led to the pair develop a romantic relationship. Their relationship ended when Russell noticed that whenever new young female lab assistants arrived he was always around them, placing his arms over them and flirting. She likened him to an Octopus but he always won her around until the time came when she caught him in bed with Gabby Moore. That incident ended their relationship for obvious reasons and Alexis parted company with Dominic permanently.

Several years passed and during this time Bryant made his fortune, enough to set up his own medical research company, and decided to settle down with Moore. Since she had an intellect as good as his it seemed only right to make her a partner and she was by his side when he decided to revisit his project to cure hereditary diseases.

Stage one of the project involved splicing the DNA of a variety animals with human embryos to see if they could be combined and then grown to maturity. The animals chosen would have been from a wide variety as the test was purely to see on which types of animal the splicing would work if any.

If the results of stage one were good then stage two would have seen specific animals with the specific “immune” qualities used. These animals would have been selected for two reasons, they came from the same genus as those that survived stage one and the animal would be naturally resilient to a human disease.

Stage three would then be a refining process, repeating stage two using gradually less animal material until only specific DNA strands were combined. The result would then not create a human/animal baby hybrid but a human baby with extra DNA strands.

Stage four was of course the human trials on egg embryos from parents that possess “disease” genes.

Stage one of course required human embryos but as Bryant figured out he was not likely to be given eggs from any medical sources for his experiment, he was forced to use human embryos taken from Dr Moore and fertilised by himself.

Using a crocodile, shark, snail, rhinoceros, bull, wolf and elephant for the animal samples the creatures were grown. Though the experiment was going to be aborted as soon as eggs developed enough to see if the process was sound the speed at which the foetuses developed was astonishing and piqued the scientific curiosity of both Dr Bryant and Dr Moore.

The pair therefore allowed the hybrid creatures to grow until they became fully formed humanoid animals. Bryant realised the creatures all exhibited intelligence similar to that of a human, however all but two of the creatures had problems actually understanding human communication methods. All of them though displayed an almost instinctive imprinting behaviour. They viewed Bryant and Moore as their parents and though not exactly the children she had dreamed of Gabby felt a strange bond in return.

Bryant though was worried on what might happen if others discovered what they had created. Though he knew he should terminate his experiment as originally planned his conscience prevented him from doing that. Other scientist though he thought would not take that same view and would probably dissect the creatures to better understand them.

Adopting a safe approach it was decided the creatures should be taken to weekend retreat he had in the mountains close to the research facility where they could live out their days. Days passed into weeks and then weeks turned to months during which the “children” as they started calling them began to learn to communicate with Gabby via sign language. This is turn led them to understanding human speech although some of the children could not use human speech to talk back since their vocal cords were not able to form the required sound patterns.

Though they considered themselves to be safe, a problem would arise when Lockjaw fell ill. Unsure what to do Bryant took some blood samples and came out of “hiding” in order to return to his lab. Other workers though surprised at his long hiatus and unexplained disappearance did not question their superior and simply did as asked.

The blood samples revealed both shark and human DNA combined and Bryant had to admit what he had created because his scientists could not do anything until they knew what sort of animal they were dealing with.

He got them to swear to secrecy and though he never knew who it was “talked” word got out. Before the authorities came and arrested him, Bryant fled to his hideout but someone else had learned of his human-shark hybrid. That person was Alexis Russell, now known to the world as Beastial.

As a champion of nature she had heard of a hybrid and considered it an abomination of nature. She got was even angrier when she learned the creator of such a creature was none other than her old lover Dominic Bryant and decided to pay him a visit.

Unfortunately for Bryant, Alexis knew all about his weekend cabin as they had been there together so finding him in a remote location was not a problem. When she showed up, clad in her outfit, Moore and Russell recognised the woman both as Alexis and as Alpha Criminal referred to as Beastial. The pair refused to let Russell into the cabin so she told them that unless they brought out the creature the pair would suffer for their crimes against nature. Bryant hoped their friendship from years ago would make her back down but Russell would not be swayed.

Gabby and Dominic refused to let her enter so Beastial approached Bryant and transformed him into a human/octopus form, resulting in him becoming a human with Octopus legs.  She chose this as when Bryant refereed to their shared past she remembered he had arms everywhere when it came to new lab assistants. Being an aquatic creature she planned on sending him into the forest to die a slow death before he reverted back to human form.

However in his creature guise on this occasion he still had control of his mind, something that never happened before, probably due to exposure from the hybrid DNA of his “children”.

Confused as to what was wrong gave Moore an opening. The two women then argued and she demanded that Russell change her partner back. At one point during the argument Moore accused Russell of taking things personally because the relationship had ended badly between her and Bryant. Furthermore, Gabby in a fit of rage suggested that Russell was jealous as she had been replaced by someone more beautiful and intelligent, and then added she was not intimidated by her opponent’s “godlike” abilities.
These last comments angered Russell even more and taking what Moore had said remembered the Greek Myth whereby Medusa compared her beauty to being better than that of Athena. Taking this in mind and using a bit of imagination Russell activated her Alpha abilities and turned Moore into something akin to a Gorgon, a human with a snake body. Such an advanced transformation took a lot out of her but she felt the ends justified the means.

Alexis was then amused at what she had done to her rival but just as she could not control Bryant she could not control Moore. The conversion process though did disorientate her two opponents so it was not difficult for Russell to get passed them and enter the cabin.
Her goal then was to destroy the creature she had come to kill in the first place and after entering the cabin where she did not find one hybrid but a whole group and when the animals saw what had happened to their “mother” and “father” they instinctively attacked Beastial. Try as she might Alexis’s abilities had no effect on the hybrids and that meant relying on ordinary weapons to defend herself. The children chased Alexis out of the cabin and through the forest.

By the time Bryant and Moore had got some control over their new forms and gave chase the children had pursued Beastial into a small village. The secret was out now and the locals panicked. They grabbed anything to hand to drive the monsters away which allowed Alexis to slip away. Dominic arrived to see the mass panic and found the crowd reacted to him in the same way. He did his best to try and shepherd his children back into the forest. Aware that they could easily kill one of the villagers he did not want them to become violent because it would mean every armed service would be called in to hunt them down like the monsters they were perceived to be.

In his efforts to avoid bloodshed and protect the villagers he found himself caught between the two groups and was struck with a sharp object and became permanently marked with a vertical scar down his right eye.

Once clear of the village, Dominic met up with Moore and the family managed to lose the angry mob. It was then that they realised Lockjaw was missing. Like a true shark he had Beastial’s scent and had been able to follow her. Just as his would be killer was picked up by Vine waiting in a helicopter the shark hybrid got some measure of revenge and bit her torso, the puncture marks of which would leave a permanent scar.

Criminal Life and a family split

Bitter in defeat Beastial anonymously contacted numerous news agencies and told them about the monstrous creatures thus ensuring that Moore and Gross would be hounded forever. As a “family” they were forced to flee the cabin and with everyone looking for them from law enforcement agencies, the military, scientists hunters and CLEA the group headed for Pacifica’s sewer systems.

Another parting gift Beastial had left Bryant and Moore was connected with the hybrid DNA in their bodies. Unlike her usual victims that changed back to human form the pair discovered they could only take on human form temporarily. Angry at what had been done to them it was not long before they decided to fight back against the world. Stealing to survive the family decided to assist a number of crime groups in return for them giving safe sanctuary.

In time the rhino and wolf hybrids came to realise what they were doing was wrong. Though the world feared what they were, the pair felt they as a family would always be treated as “monsters” if they acted as such by associating themselves with crime gangs and harming innocent bystanders.

The “family” rejected their ideas and after numerous arguments the pair were forced to leave. Dominic and Gabby thought they were teaching them tough love, proving that ordinary people, the same ones they wanted to avoid hurting, would not think twice about doing the opposite.

Whilst the pair did find this to be true to a certain extent, instead of returning to the family and asking for forgiveness they did the opposite and became known to the general public as “Charger and Moonlight”. By helping people they believed in time the acts of kindness would overcome discrimination due to their looks. Their actions have inevitably seen them come into direct conflict with their own family but by this time there was no love lost between both parties.

Trying to Cure Moore and Bryant

For a long time both Moore and Bryant had the means to assume a human guise albeit not for any great period. However over the passage of time their means to take on a “normal” form became harder and their times humans became increasingly shorter. Eventually Moore lost her ability to take on a human guise.

All the while Bryant tried to fix his and Moore’s condition. He had heard about a lab that was experimenting with DNA resequencing. The group broke into the lab and rather than risk Moore’s life with a high risk experiment he decided to try and restore his own human appearance first. At first the experiment seemed to work but then the machine overloaded and left him unable to change form like Moore.  Now left in a worse state than before and unable to transform to a human guise, Bryant abandoned all future attempts to fix their condition.

Tragedy and an encounter with Twilight

About a year after Bryant’s failure  the group had another setback when Lockjaw was killed during a botched raid. Despite the loss though they would not give up their criminal activities. Fate though would lead them down a different path when they took on work for the Witch Alliance. They had been desperate to put a stop to Twilight ruining their plans and so decided on using the Beast Warriors as a means to find her since they could not track her through magic.

Since Bryant and Moore were scientists they did not believe in magic. They though the Witch Alliance were simply a group of deluded women but as the money was good they took the job. Taking Twilight by surprise, they knocked her out before she could use her magic. After handing her over to the other witches and overhearing them stating they were going to kill Twilight made them have second thoughts. The group had not be a party to murder before and were not prepared to start with the woman they had captured. Bryant demanded they hand her back to them but the witches refused and attacked.

For the first time the Beast Warriors got to witness magic in action but in focusing on the group the witches failed to realise Twilight was recovering. She was confused why the people who had kidnapped her had chosen to change their minds but when she realised who they were fighting she guessed the Witch Alliance had paid them. Whatever the reason for their change of heart, Twilight know the group were no match for the witches and so joined the battle.

When it looked like they were losing the advantage, the Witch Alliance decided to flee. Twilight was then left to deal with the Beast Warriors. Though they had helped her, they had been the ones to put her in danger in the first place. She knew she ought to punish them but rather than jump to conclusions she decided to use a spell which enabled her to “see” their history in a fashion not unlike a video recording. Seeing how Beastial and Vine had set them on a course of criminal behaviour she decided instead of punishing them she would allow them to change their ways first. If they chose to continue down their chosen path then she would deal with them and Twilight gave them a time scale of six months.

Since most people feared them, changing their ways was not an easy task to do but given a second chance and seeing Twlight’s full power in action they knew what would happen if they did not change. Using their skills to their advantage, instead of being “seen” like ordinary heroic types they, ironically, adopted the method Moonlight and Charger had taken and chose to operate in the shadows.

Six months on, Twilight caught up with them. Impressed at the progress the group had made she decided to give them each of a gift. To Bryant and Moore she gave them a magical artefact, not unlike a Totem that could allow them to find their human guises, and to the other members of the group she unlocked their minds so that they could act more human, and gain the gift of speech, tools Twilight imagined might be of use if they were to transition to heroes.

Though most of those they had harmed would never forgive them, over time they would earn respect as heroes albeit out of public view.

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