CLEA DATA FILE
Identities:
- Nathan Clarke – The Leveller
- Ellen Clarke* – Epione
*Name adopted by her as she has no memory of her real name
CLEA Classification:
- Specialist Combatant – Nathan
- Alpha – Ellen
Special Skills and/or Abilities:
- Nathan is an expert with many type of firearm ranging from pistols to assault rifles. He is also well versed in using bladed weapons such as knives and has received training in unarmed combat.
- Ellen’s Alpha ability allows her to heal almost any wound by placing her hand(s) on it. The actual process drains her and the bigger the wound the greater the time it takes her to recover. The same abiltiy allows her to cure other ailments such as illnesses and drug induced problems.
Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):
- Nathan prefers to work alone which makes him vulnerable when facing more than one opponent. He also has a tendency to engage when the odds are not in his favour.
- Ellen is not a skilled fighter so if under attack, Nathan will try to protect her resulting in tactical errors. By the same token if she is captured by Nathan’s enemies she can be used as leverage
- The pair lacks access to large amounts of resources.
Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:
- Homicide
- Assault and battery
- Aggravated assault
- Prefers to beat up his victims so that they “learn their lesson.”
Notes/History
For the early part of his life Nathan worked for the Europa Police Department and then started to get frustrated at how certain criminals managed to get away with breaking the law. Finally when a man walked free from court after committing several vile acts against women due to clever lawyers, Nathan reached the end of his tether. Meeting the man outside the court Nathan pulled his side arm and shot him stating that “justice had been served”. The man somehow survived the attack but Nathan was now a criminal himself.
Escaping in the confusion and wanted for attempted murder, Nathan for time became vigilante and once he built up a reputation he then began finding more lucrative work as a mercenary. Though he never believed the law was entirely flawed he considered that it could be manipulated by those in power that could pull the right strings and so he decided he would help balance the equation.
With this in mind as a mercenary, Nathan refused to take on jobs that were simple contract killings where the target had done nothing wrong as he was it but if a target was one of the many society bottom feeders then Nathan did not have a problem. As a master tactician Nathan was able to make swift clean kills and get away before law enforcement was anywhere near and this helped him gain a reputation.
In time he started to train others up and they joined him on his crusade to rid the world of rot. However as his crew got bigger it became apparent that not all his people carried the exact same ideals as him, a fact he discovered when he was asked to help respectable nightclub owner Doug Claremont who had been having problems with the South Europa Drugs cartel.
By using Roger Claremont’s debts as means to get to older brother Doug, the SEC wanted to use the nightclubs as a means to distribute their merchandise and had refused. The Cartel therefore raped and murdered Doug’s wife and daughter as a further means for persuasion. However when Doug contacted Nathan he admitted in a fit of rage he had killed his own brother because Roger did not seem the least bit bothered about what had happened to his family.
In hindsight Nathan should have taken note of Doug’s mental state in killing his own brother but considered that people do strange things when they are enraged and concluded that perhaps Doug had suffered enough already. He therefore agreed to help and had Doug arrange for the SEC bosses to meet him at the “Eagle’s Den” night club. The three SEC leaders arrived on time accompanied by a number of armed bodyguards and Nathan and his crew lay in wait.
After the SEC refused Doug’s offer of paying off all his brother’s debts the signal was given and Nathan and his men burst into the night club and took out the bodyguards. Control of the situation then passed over to Doug who found that the SEC bosses were being very compliant and wanted to renegotiate.
Doug responded by killing two of them. He then asked the third to write down all of the details of the SEC’s operations and then he would be allowed to leave. As the situation began to unfold before his very eyes Nathan began to get a bad feeling. He knew the only reason Doug would have use of such knowledge was if he intended to take over the SEC’s operation. After obviously fighting for so long to keep drugs out of the clubs Nathan could not believe that Doug was going to turn against everything.
As soon as the last surviving SEC boss had finished writing Doug pulled out his gun and stated he was renegotiating the deal and then shot him at point blank range. Nathan now knew that there was only one way to stop Doug making a further terrible mistake and that was to hand over the details he had learned about the SEC and give them to EPD. Doug’s mind though had been twisted by what had happened to his family and the only thing he had left was business. Though he had once avoided allowing any drugs in his clubs he considered that it was inevitable they would find their way in and he may as well be the one running the show. He then offered Nathan the opportunity to provide the security. Even as a mercenary though Nathan had always fought back against organised crime and he was not prepared to help serve a drugs baron.
As Nathan knew of his plans Doug could not let him leave and so offered the job of security manager to the members of Nathan’s crew if they could eliminate him. At first Nathan thought his men would stand by him but the other of a hundred thousand credits was enough to persuade them otherwise and they drew their weapons. Nathan saw what was happening and made a run for it as they opened fire. The only reason he survived the barrage was because he was wearing body armour and having trained them he knew their tactics. Once on the street he dived out of sight and into a drainage channel and then waited for the danger to pass. This single incident gave rise to the Claremont drugs cartel and Nathan blamed himself for inadvertently helping to create it.
Having escaped with his life, he stayed off the streets of Europa for a while until he was convinced that Doug had stopped looking for him, and then he resumed his mercenary career. Inevitably though no matter how careful he was the EPD would eventually find him and so on each occasion that happened he merely jumped city to avoid capture. Over the years he was active in New Tokyo, the UAN and Pacifica, and became known as a one man anticrime wave. The work was tough and he felt he needed help so he took on a protégé in the form of Sofia Lindberg (Calibre) but he was betrayed for a second time in his life and so decided to work alone.
Eventually he ended up back in Europa. Though tempted to interfere in the Doug’s operation Nathan resisted the urge because now once more without a partner he felt it was just too risky. That situation change when a young woman Suchin Charoenpura found him in a seedy bar one night.
She had heard that Nathan was an “enemy” of the Claremont Cartel and having escaped their clutches wanted to know if he would help her take revenge. She of course never revealed she had been “owned” by the Cartel and Nathan thought she was some crazy woman that the cartel had maligned at one time or another, such as mistress of one of the club bosses.
Suchin though would not be put off by his rejection and took Nathan outside and showed him her Alpha abilities which helped go some way to persuade him that the odds could turn in their favour. However her Alpha abilities did give him some pause for thought because by his criminal connections he knew of Black Shadow and considered she would be a “hot” target. After further thought though Nathan concluded that the international crime syndicate must not have known about her or else they would have arranged to have her killed before her Alpha abilities surfaced. Nathan therefore assumed that Suchin was not known by Black Shadow which was why she had been left alone.
Never once did Nathan consider that she knew nothing of Black Shadow. It was natural for him to think all Alpha Superiors knew of the crime syndicate since few had been left alive and those that did had to keep a low profile. For her to want to go after the Claremont Cartel and expose herself took a lot of bravery in his opinion and he admired that.
With her in tow Nathan considered he had a good chance of finally getting back at Doug, so decided to help her. He knew he was taking a big risk in trusting her but on this occasion he thought it was third time lucky. It soon became apparent to him that Suchin was not exactly the best fighter in the world. In fact she could not even use a small side arm. Before they got to work in taking on the Cartel he insisted that he at least train her because from a tactical point, he felt that alpha abilities would not be enough. Suchin proved to be a quick learner and soon became adept at using firearms but and it did not take her too long to master bladed weapons as well.
Having taught her how to fight Nathan next helped Suchin learn how best to use her Alpha abilities. Though he had never taught an Alpha before he did know from what he had read some of the downsides of accessing such power. In her case he noticed that whenever she used her abilities she grew tired at an accelerated rate. He therefore worked on a strategy to increase her endurance by having her rever from her highly dense form to her normal form when not under attack.
One problem for her though was that as her skin changed colour it was noticeable visual clue to any enemy when she was “vulnerable”. To counter this Nathan gave her a body suit and helmet that covered her flesh. However Suchin complained that the suit was too limiting on her shoulder areas and prevented her using her weapons effectively. Nathan therefore had no option to separate the arms from the shoulders easing movement but exposing her upper arms. He did not like the compromise but felt that in the middle of a fight an opponent probably would fail to notice when her upper arms changed colour.
Having trained Suchin to the best of his knowledge the plan to take down the cartel was simple, disrupt the night clubs hindering the cartel’s ability to launder money and then take out the supply chain to the dealers. Nathan speculated that once all this happened and the Cartel was seen by rivals as weak they would finish off the job for them.
It took eighteen months of hard work before the plan finally succeeded and then once the Claremont Drugs Empire was finally torn apart by gang warfare Nathan finally learned about Suchin’s past. When she revealed how her parents who were both Alpha superiors had been murdered when she was a child Nathan realised it was the work of Black Shadow. For the first time he then realised she had not even heard of the crime syndicate.
Though he knew the likely outcome of revealing the information Nathan felt obliged to tell her all about Black Shadow and having told her the name of her parent’s murderers she predictably wanted revenge, and she wanted his help. This was a major problem for Nathan. To him it was miracle that Black Shadow had never come after them when they had been taking down the Claremont Cartel and he suggested that she cut her losses and ignore the crime syndicate as the organisation was simply too well connected to destroy unlike the Claremont Cartel.
Suchin remained adamant and Nathan told her it was a path he could not follow her down. Even though he thought she was going to get herself killed Nathan could not part company without first giving her all the information he had on Black Shadow in the hopes that at least it might somehow keep her alive. With Suchin gone Nathan once more resumed his career as a mercenary. Having not heard about her for some time perhaps his one of his more pleasant memories came when team Zodiac announced itself to the world following Black Shadow’s demise, and he recognised Suchin standing with the rest of them.
From that moment in time, as well as taking jobs as a mercenary, Nathan found himself joining the new generation of heroes that had risen up to defeat the equally new generation of criminals that had appeared following the collapse of Black Shadow. For his habit of kicking in doors and criminals and making it clear that he is levelling the field that separates scum from the good guys, the press decided to give Nathan a “name”. They called him the “Leveller” and he liked the alias so he decided to use it. He even incorporated the name in his battle cry so before giving some criminal a bad day he started shouting “Prepare to be levelled.” Admittedly he thought it was a bit silly but it gave him a buzz anyway!
Occasionally he has allied himself with other heroes but he does not stick around too long since he does not “play nice” with others. Though also aware that both Black Shadow and the Claremont Cartel are back he has never bothered going after either one as he preferred to tackle criminals lower down the pecking order.
Finding of Epione
Ironically in trying to avoid big crime bosses, Nathan actually ended up making an enemy of one in Pacifica. He’d decided to put a stop to operations belonging to several street gangs and had not realised they were all under the protection of Ragnarok. What Nathan did to upset the crime boss the most was to take a valuable asset.
Nathan had stormed an apartment being used by a gang and whilst he was there had found a young woman, in her late teens or early twenties chained to a radiator. Unable to leave her like that he broke the chains and set her free. He thought he would never see her again but when he made his escape discovered she had stowed away in his van.
He just wanted to dump her at the nearest convenient location but she begged him to protect her. Though not normally used to responding favourably to pleas, she looked so frightened that he found himself unable to abandon her. Nathan instead figured when things calmed down then he could persuade her she was better off without him. He knew the work he was involved in meant anyone linked to him was potentially either a target or could be used as leverage.
Though he allowed her to remain with him she would reveal very little about herself. Nathan figured it was just a coping mechanism but when she finally opened up, she revealed she didn’t actually know who she was, not even her name. The earliest memories she had were rather sketchy, and involved meeting a man called the Broker who had somehow “altered” her turning her into an Alpha Superior for the crime boss Ragnarok. Able to heal wound simply by touching, Ragnarok shipped her around his crime gangs to fix injured parties. This meant that they did not have to go to the hospital and the authorities would not be alerted. This was why she had been chained up, as she was so valuable to Ragnarok’s criminal empire.
This was not good news for Nathan as he knew that Ragnarok would do anything to get her back. The easiest option was to simply hand her over but he was unable to do that, so the next best option was to keep moving. Whilst he had wanted to leave her, Nathan found himself bonding with her and started to take on the role as a surrogate father. She was useful in being able to patch up his wounds but when he started to act like she was his daughter then the dynamic shifted. He was no longer a solo operation and that meant he had to be very careful with what “work” he chose to do.
To keep her safe, he made sure that she limited her involvement in his activities to that of a support role and made sure she was out of sight. However over time he started getting bored with simply calling her “kid”. She had called herself “Epione” after the Greek goddess of “soothing pain” but that was not a “real” name and so made efforts to find out who she was. He hoped in getting answers it might shed some clues on the recurring nightmares she had been getting which all featured a strange creature experimenting on her.
Despite calling in favours from contacts he had made with “friends” in some law enforcement agencies the results were the same – she did not exist. He therefore decided to call her “Ellen” a name that belonged to his mother.
Eventually the pair would get some answers to her past after assisting the Phoenix Alliance. Nathan requested a favour in return. With Brainbox’s help they were able to probe deep into Ellen’s memories and discovered that the nightmares she had been having were in fact memory fragments. Though she knew she had been “altered” by the Broker, he worked for someone else, an alien called “Zorn” and it was he who had done the alterations. He’d also wiped her memories which meant she would never know who she was previously. Though a hard thing to accept, Ellen knew that all she could do was move forwards. Nathan was her family now and that was all that mattered.
