Maverick Services

Maverick Services were a specialised private bail bonds, security, rescue and repossession agency founded by Volt and Fantom in New York City in the early July of 2003 and were later joined by Hawaiian girl-genius Gyzmo and Welsh cybrid Mynx. The same members were also part of a tech-metal band known simply as The Mavericks.

#### **The Service**

As well as taking on recovery missions for stolen valuables and money, the Mavericks claimed to preform animal rescues for free, but would also help humans for as much as anyone could spare and hunt bail bonds for a higher price. The group attempted to tackle many issues of criminality, internal terrorism and local mobsters in the process, claiming to be far more affective than any police or private-eye. They were, however prone to attack from anti-neo and anti-superhero hate-groups, a lot from internal terrorist cell Ehrenwache Osten (Honour Watch East) and attracted negative press from some members of the police.

Although they did not classify themselves as 'superheroes' in the traditional sense, with Fantom in particular finding the word ridiculous, were praised for their heroics on multiple occasions and over the years support for them gradually increased, especially when they worked to weed out corruption in local police and find ties with Honour Watch; the area became safer for a while, particularly in terms of racism, gun crime and robbery that dropped dramatically.

They were, in part, initially funded by the local city government grant as a private organisation, but once their first successful mission was pulled off were essentially self-sustaining and regulating so long as they provided the correct paperwork, but many police saw the group as legalised vigilantes and there were multiple attempts at shutting down the service, however local opposition in favour of keeping the Mavericks always seem to prevail, especially when the LoD reared their heads

#### **The Band**

The majority of their funding actually came from their music, playing as a band called The Mavericks, the group were open and forthcoming about everything they did, many of their songs were political, about police corruption and attempted to boost local morale.

The Mavericks released their first album in the summer of 2005 and it sold almost 145,000 copies for $9.99, although it never made it into the main metal charts has recently become something of a collectors item amongst fans of The Mavericks and Volt who now works as part of VALER.

### **History**

Founded by Volt and Fantom in mid April of 2003, the duo's first building was 1686 Davidson Avenue in West Bronx that was converted from an private taxicab company come illegal betting shop run by James' great uncle, that was itself once a house, but early setting up by the group was delayed after foundation work had to be done to the building; They ended up having to stay in a seedy motel named the OK Coral, where the got their first mission to find a diamond stolen from the home of collector Michael Wilson by a biker gang. The diamond, however was supposedly a blood-diamond that was itself stolen by Wilson during his old job as an overseas land developer in Botswana; The biker gang, known as the Savage Rats were only after it to sell when they discovered that Wilson's house was planned and built by him on what was once their old trailer park, which be brought and sold to redevelop before he retired, leaving the previous residence homeless, and the police didn't seem able to help. But a job was a job and the duo took the case. When one of the bikers was tracked to the very motel they were staying in, they used it as an opportunity; but the man had backup and was heavily armed. A gunfight ensued in the motel. However he didn't have the diamond with him, and after light electrocution, divulged that the diamond was in the possession of his sister, who was held up in a Rat camp near the Bronx-Pelham Landfill.

On their way to the landfill they were intercepted by Lucy Carideo aka Brash, who was herself looking for the diamond as evidence in a bigger case against Wilson and that he also developed the neighbourhood he lived in illegally, paying off and bribing contractors to demolish the trailer park; this also helped out a local gangster Justin Bonadio, whose territory was pushed back by the Savage Rats (and who worked under Lorenzo until he attempted to subvert Lorenzo and was later murdered by his henchmen). Wilson may have also been aware of and helping Bonadio directly. Wilson, apparently had Brash's parents murdered when they wouldn't bend to his bribes and she became a vigilante when she realised the justice system and police turned a blind eye.

TBC

### **The Legion of Disciples**

The LoD were an opposition group started by Zeroth and Kaos in late 2003 to attempt to take advantage of the power vacuum left by local criminal elements that had been removed by the Mavericks to try and start Zeroth's vision of a 'new era' of humanity.

by early 2005 Zeroth began to learn a great deal about the inner-workings of the mob in a bigger scale, and used his magic in subtle ways to influence them. Initially this included using other superpowered members to help criminals and gain profit and power. But things got nasty when the LoD turned on all those he influenced, and handed them over to the FBI. The result was that the US government now saw the LoD as trying to help them all along. Using this path, Zeroth began to influence some of the governments top officials in an attempt to shut down the Mavericks once and for all, with his ultimate goal of controlling the US government's security operations.

The Mavericks pleaded with the government and warned to not trust Zeroth, and they were right, during this process Zeroth had used his connections to create 20 amplification diamonds to his magical specifications using one of Theo's small labs.

When Gyzmo traced his activity she and Fantom followed and Mika managed to record a meeting between Zeroth and other members of the LoD in a hotel penthouse, alluding to his plan of using these diamonds to amplify his power across the whole city: The absorption of the negative emotion in the city would not only leave the residents placid, but cause his Caliga crystal's to reach untold levels of power; however before Gyzmo could send the information she and Fantom were attacked by ex-mobsters under his control.

While defending themselves Gyzmo managed to escape and sent the info to the CIA, but Zeroth turned Fantom on her and the two fought, when Volt showed up he managed to shock him free of Zeroth's influence.

This was the last straw for Zeroth, and a fierce battle ensued.