DC Villains #36: Building the Perfect Beast

[jkcarrier]

DC Villains
Episode 36:
"Building the Perfect Beast"

Roll Call:
Bucky
Captain Republican
Chemical Lad
Mr. Roboto


Manhunter had learned that Darkseid was trying to upgrade the capabilities of his Parademon troops via genetic engineering. However, with so many of his Earth facilities destroyed, he was having to "outsource" the work to those who were mercenary and unscrupulous enough to work for the Lord of Apokalips.

First, he needed a source of superior DNA -- not superhuman, but peak human. Manhunter deduced that the easiest place to harvest such genes would be at Valhalla Cemetery, a secret facility near Gotham City where many of the heroes of yesteryear were buried (There was much joking about the cemetery having a "revolving door" instead of a front gate).

Sure enough, when the Society arrived at the cemetery, they saw the spooky figure of the sorcerer Wotan examining the graves. At first, they wondered how he planned to exhume the bodies, since he wasn't carrying any tools. But with a mystical gesture, he caused a number of late heroes of the 1940s to reanimate and crawl up out of their graves, under his control:

Wotan
[Arsenal, Experience Levels]

Air Wave
[Electrical Field, Magnetic Manipulation, Speed, Wall-Crawling]

Judomaster
[Natural Weaponry, with a Paralysis Ray Contact Attack]

Red Bee
[Armor, Companion (Bee Swarm, Multitudes x4), Special Weapon ("Stinger" Pistol)]

Tarantula
[Grapnel, Invulnerability (Kinetic), Natural Weaponry, Wall-Crawling]

The Red Bee's pets swarmed the battlefield, constantly injecting bee venom into the Society members. They focused their attacks on the Red Bee himself, hoping his bees would disperse once their master was down. Alas, the effect was the opposite: When Mr. Roboto struck the blow that took Red Bee out, his angry minions all turned on him, and continued to harass him throughout the rest of the battle (admittedly, to little effect, though there was still enough human about him to feel the stings).

Judomaster's superior martial arts skills allowed him to stand toe-to-toe with his super-powered opponents...but not for long. Air Wave's 1940s-era electronic and magnetic weapons did score some damage (particularly against Mr. Roboto), but he ultimately fell as well.

Wotan proved the most formidable opponent, with his vast array of magical spells. His mystic shields [Force Field] kept him untouched while he slowly drained Captain Republican of his life-force [Devitalization Ray] and dominated his will [Mind Control]. However, at that point, the remaining Society villains combined forces to pound through Wotan's defenses, and without his shields, he was a bit of a sitting duck.

Tarantula had been an ongoing annoyance throughout, using his web-gun to repeatedly truss up the Society members [Grapnel], causing them to have to constantly stop and tear their way free. However, they ignored him in favor of those doing more direct damage. Once Tarantula was the last man standing, they laid into him with a vengeance.

[Loot Drops: Air Wave's Antennae (Electrical Field), Wotan's Spellbook (Arsenal)]

Another item Darkseid would need is a sufficiently well-equipped lab to splice the DNA and perform the mass cloning of new Parademons. With both Project Cadmus [see Episode #26] and the Evil Factory [see Episode #35] destroyed, such a facility would be hard to come by. However, it was rumored the LexCorp had an "off the books" site where Luthor conducted his most outrageous and dangerous experiments. The Society managed to locate it, and found that many of those "experiments" were still in residence:

Atomic Skull
[Force Field, Mental Blast]

Bizarro
[Armor, Flight, Ice Blast]

Galactic Golem
[Size Change (8'), Disintegration Ray, Invulnerability (Kinetic)]

Neutron
[Absorption (Energy), Armor, Heightened Attack, Laser]

Parasite
[Devitalization Ray (Area Effect), Siphon (Super Abilities)]

The power-sapping Parasite scored early on, draining away most of Chemical Lad's acid spray [Chemical Blast] and Cap's superhuman resilience [Durability]. But the Society quickly learned to snipe at him from a safe distance, and he eventually fell.

As always, the team was leery of anyone with psychic powers (which they were notoriously vulnerable to), so the Atomic Skull was targeted next. Much like Wotan before him, his protective bubble [Force Field] proved insufficient to repel four very determined supervillains indefinitely.

Bizarro was dealing heavy damage with his clumsy but powerful fists, as well as repeatedly freezing targets with what he called his "heat vision" [Ice Blast]. But strategy was not his strong suit, and he was flailing around randomly while the Society dog-piled on him and finally wore him out.

Once Captain Republican realized that Neutron was drawing power from his electrified fists [Electrical Field Contact Attack], Cap simply turned it off and bare-knuckled him into submission. Likewise, when it became clear that the Galactic Golem was largely immune to physical blows [Invulnerability: Kinetic], Cap and Bucky stepped back and let Chemical Lad and Mr. Roboto finish him off.

[Loot Drops: Atomic Skull's Helmet (Mental Blast), Bizarro's Medallion (Armor)]

And lastly, Darkseid would need a top-flight geneticist to oversee the whole project. But again, previous events had left such experts thin on the ground, and the ones remaining would scarcely work willingly for Apokalips. But one reclusive genius, living in a castle in the Balkan mountains, might fit the bill: Dr. Anton Arcane.

Reaching the doctor's doorstep, they found that he had already been working on a grisly re-animation project of his own: resurrecting the World War II-era squad known as the Creature Commandos:

Arcane
[Death Touch, Experience Levels, Regeneration]

Lucky Taylor
[Experience Levels, Invulnerability (Kinetic), Size Change (9'), Willpower (Pain Resistance), Mute]

Myrra Rhodes
[Chemical Blast (Range reduced to Touch), Experience Levels, Special Weapon (Pistol)]

Vincent Velcoro
[Armor, Natural Weaponry, Transformation (Vampire Bat)]

Warren Griffith
[Invulnerability (Biochemical, Entropy), Natural Weaponry]

Arcane's cybernetic spider-legs, reinforced with dark magic [Death Touch] did frightening amounts of damage, catching the attention of the Society and causing them all to tear into his necrotic flesh faster than he could regenerate.

The corrosive bite of Myrra's head-snakes was a nasty surprise (and caused Chemical Lad to accuse her of stealing his gimmick), but despite her combat skill [Experience Levels], she was the first to fall.

Velcoro's bite was likewise a nasty one, as Bucky quickly found out. With Captain Republican's help, however, he was able to put down the pseudo-vampire. Griffith had better luck with Chemical Lad, his fur shedding the acid attacks like water [Invulnerability: Biochemical]. With his best attack mode neutralized, Chemical Lad was eventually taken out, before the rest of the team finally felled Griffith.

The massive, indomitable Taylor managed to hold his own against the rest of the team, shrugging off their conventional attacks [Invulnerability: Kinetic]. But, using weapons scavenged from previous battles, they finally managed to take the big brute out.

[Loot Drops: Arcane's Flies (Regeneration), Velcoro's Fangs (Heightened Attack)]

Once again, Darkseid's plans were thwarted. The Secret Society could practically feel his seething impatience all the way from Apokalips. How much longer would he be content to wait and scheme, before throwing caution to the wind and launching his ultimate assault?

[The player characters earned 3 character points each, giving them a total of 208.]