High Guardians

The High Guardians were a superhero group formed in 2008, in response to the 2005 Martian Invasion. Their leader was Rem Lazar, and their membership did not change much following their initial lineup. They were disbanded in 2017.

## Membership

* Rem Lazar: Founder and leader
	+ Abilities: Leadership, lightning control.

* Bibleman: Founding member
	+ Abilities: Holy magic, holy swords, holy hand grenades.
* The Ninja: Founding member
	+ Abilities: Stealth, ninjutsu.
* The Hurricane: Founding member
	+ Abilities: Wrestling.
* Mr. Vigilante
	+ Abilities: Willingness to use lethal force.

## History

In 2005, Infi-Knight led a major military attack on Earth, resulting in the deaths of thousands and major damage to Earth's infrastructure. This led Rem Lazar to return from a fifteen year coma in order to begin fighting random Martians across the planet. This led to him confronting B-Bop A-Luna in an attempt to arrest the Martian, but Rem was defeated immediately. Rem then retreated and recovered his wounds for over a year before reaching out to as many superheroes as he knew. They then met at the Space Needle in Seattle, forming the High Guardians.

The group then attempted to seek out the Butt-Ugly Martians, but found no leads. During this time, they chose instead to fight random criminals until they could find the location of these Martians. Their activities went largely unnoticed until 2010, when the Guardians attacked a pickpocket in New York City, who coincidentally happened to have the power to cause explosions. As a result, the group entered a half-hour long battle with the supervillain, resulting in massive property damage and five civilian deaths. In the end, however, the Guardians managed to subdue the man without killing him, and the mayor gave them the key to the city.

In 2012, the High Guardians considered aiding the International Peacekeeping Force in their goal to liberate Los Angeles, but voted to remain neutral as this would be considered a political act by some. Instead, they traveled to Utah and destroyed a local Amish Mafia that was terrorizing nearby Mormon villages. This lasted several months, as the Amish mobsters were untraceable by standard electronic means.

In 2013, the High Guardians arrived in Chicago in order to find the leader of the local Yakuza clan, John Hasashi. They attempted to ask the police questions, but then realized the local police force was on Yakuza payroll. The group was arrested for being vigilantes, and put in jail indefinitely. Fortunately, they were rescued by a well-dressed man with a Beretta M9 who proceeded to kill all the corrupt police officers in the jail. The man. Mr. Vigilante, then joined the High Guardians as an official member.

For a week, the High Guardians took down dozens of Yakuza soldiers using careful nonlethal means, after which Mr. Vigilante would usually execute them by shooting them in the head. This caused a little friction between the founders and the new member, but they chose to continue anyway. Unfortunately, they ultimately learned that John Hasashi had just been elected as mayor of the city, meaning they could not arrest him as he would simply pardon himself. As a result, Mr. Vigilante stole an F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber, and dropped a cluster bomb on the mayor's building, killing Hasashi and his top lieutenants. The local Yakuza then fell apart.

Though they had freed Chicago from Yakuza control, the U.S. government labelled the group as terrorists, forcing them to go underground and continue their activities as illegal vigilantes. In 2014, they attempted to find the Butt-Ugly Martians in order to assassinate the group, but an unknown Jerboa used his resources to prevent them from doing so.

### Decline

In 2015, the High Guardians visited Los Angeles after finding out Martian terrorists were in the area. They intended to arrest the group, and in doing so earn a presidential pardon, but were noticed too soon by the terrorists while the superheroes were eating at an In-N-Out restaurant. This resulted in the Martians using heavy weapons on the heroes, causing massive collateral damage. The heroes survived, causing the Martians to flee into the city. Immediately, the High Guardians gave chase.

Within an hour, the two groups were engaged in a massive battle in the city center. Rem Lazar used electric powers, stunning the Martians non-lethally; Bibleman and Ninja engaged in swordfights with Martian knights struggling to defeat them without killing them; the Hurricane used wrestling moves on Martians, throwing them into nearby tables to take them down. The battle was going well, ableit with fairly high collateral damage including the destruction of a nearby orphanage, until IPF peacekeepers arrived to arrest both the Martians and High Guardians.

Rem Lazar agreed to surrender in hopes of proving the group's innocence in a trial, causing Mr. Vigilante to panic and kill every single one of the Martians with his M9. This cause the peacekeepers to open fire on the group, and they promptly retreated. Afterwards, Rem Lazar and Mr. Vigilante engaged in a series of arguments over the results of the battle.

### Civil War

In 2017, Rem Lazar visited Washington D.C. alongside Bibleman, where they negotiated with Homeland Security in order to get their status as wanted criminals ended. Ultimately, the President agreed to pardon them if they agreed to reveal their identities to the public and operate as government superheroes. Rem Lazar, having no secret identity, and Bibleman, who did not have a career to speak of, agreed to this deal.

Later, Rem and Bibleman met with the group at their hideout: a Starbucks in in Charleston, West Virginia. The news upset the group, causing various reactions: the Hurricane became worried that the deal would get him fired from his career as a professional wrestler, Ninja worried that he would lose the right to be a Ninja if the world knew who he was, and Mr. Vigilante was an anarchist and refused the offer.

The group considered discussing a compromise like sane people, but after thinking it over instead agreed to fight each other to near-death in order to settle matters. Immediately, the heroes began attacking each other viciously, resulting in a rolling battle through the streets of Charleston. No civilians were hurt, but property damage was extreme as the heroes used their abilities to disable one another.

Rem unleashed lightning on the Hurricane, who attempted to block the bolts with a fold-out steel chair. Biblemand and Ninja engaged in a vicious sword fight, with the two occasionally throwing holy hand grenades and shurikens at each other. Meanwhile, Mr. Vigilante used the chaos to begin building a Javelin missile launcher out of debris from the battle, which he then prepared to fire on Rem. Panicked, Rem shot lightning at the launcher, which accidentally caused the missile inside to explode and kill Mr. Vigilante.

Immediately, the group stopped fighting to mourn their teammate. Wracked by grief, the four heroes chose to surrender to law enforcement as a means of atonement. Following this, they were found guilty of vandalism and resisting arrest, though no charges of murder were filed as all lethal acts were blamed on Mr. Vigilante. The group was due for release in 2025.