The Lex Talonis

The Lex Talionis is a paramilitary organization dedicated to upholding rational, unbiased justice using their Gene-X abilities, which, in their view, place them beyond the normal bounds of human law. They clashed with The Strikers during the Gene-X Wars in Russia and it's aftermath.

## History

Background: The Lex Talionis is a paramilitary organization dedicated to upholding rational, unbiased justice using their Gene-X abilities, which, in their view, place them beyond the normal bounds of human law. The Arbiter uses her impressive financial resources to scan the media for signs of injustice, particularly involving meta-humans, and then contacts the Captain. Together they decide upon a plan of action to resolve justice. This can range from a jailbreak, to a redistribution of wealth, to an assassination. They use peaceful means when possible, employing human agents and specialists in law, computer hacking, politics, etc, but when force is required some or all of the Officers will be called on to free, defend, capture, or even kill.

For the Arbiter, life has not been difficult. Growing up in a small French community, she discovered her powers at the age of thirteen. While her peers were rebelling and throwing tantrums, Martine stayed composed at all times. When her teenaged crushes began to turn into infatuations, she would simply tell herself how silly she was being and it would end. When her parents would ground her, she wouldn’t get angry, she would simply find the best possible way to get out of the situation. As she grew older, this self-discipline allowed her to spend an enormous amount of time on her schoolwork, and her subsequent university education in Britain, without the stress and emotional fatigue such effort normally brings about. By the time she’d reached twenty-four years of age, Martine had used her unfailing rationality to position herself as one of the half-dozen richest women in the world. She devoted herself then to full time study, entrenching herself in a vast library of knowledge.

About five years ago she pulled herself from her books. She had studied every piece of philosophy and religion she could find, analyzed them objectively, and decided upon an ideal of justice she would follow. The only thing that was missing was a way to make the rest of the world follow it, too. With this vision in mind, she sought like-minded individuals to create a task force that would uphold justice the world over.

The first subject she came across was the Captain. Raymond Jones was a police captain frustrated by corruption in his squad and in the upper ranks of the force. He had long kept his powers a secret, working within the law to bring justice to the streets, but the restrictions placed on him by a flawed system were pushing him to the edge. When the Arbiter contacted him, he found an ideal of justice to replace the corrupt trappings of the law.

Derek McArthur had a troubled childhood in a small town in Oklahoma, born prematurely, bullied by his peers because he was small and weak, and at one point nearly beaten to death by a group of drunken teenagers who accused him of being gay because of his interest in gymnastics. When his powers manifested, he saw his chance to stand up for others like him who were too weak to stand up for themselves. However, his dawning psionic abilities alone were not enough to protect him from an angry mob who tried to kill him until Martine and Raymond intervened.

Officer Red, Angelica Bryce, had a brother wrongfully convicted of murder. Though there was no evidence to support the conviction, a conspiracy amongst the friends of the real killer combined with small-town hysteria over her ex-convict brother, ensured the death penalty. Attending his execution, her powers manifested as she watched him die. Hurling super-hot liquid at the walls of the gas chamber, she freed him, only to discover she was too late. Enraged, she sought out the true murderer, who was now also responsible for her brother’s death, and killed him. During her subsequent run from the law, she was discovered by the Arbiter.

Officer Blue, Benjamin Park, was the son of a Hollywood stunt man, and his powers began to manifest as he trained to help his father in the family business. At first his Gene-X was not really noticeable, but it soon became clear that he was something special. He watched the other stunt men, fight choreographers, etc. and he began to see the inefficiencies in how they moved, the wasted energy in their fighting. One day, on set, he allowed his natural abilities to get the best of him and accidentally killed another choreographer. Instinctively he ran, fleeing those who tried to stop him, and going on the lam. Not knowing what else to do, he put on a mask and tried to atone for his mistake by prowling the streets of Los Angeles, fighting crime. When the Arbiter found him, he assumed she would turn him over to the police. After some thought, he didn’t run, trusting her to judge him fairly. She did, and offered him a position.

Morgan Jurgens is new to the Lex Talionis, replacing the previous Officer Black who was killed in battle under three months ago. Unlike the rest of the team, he has no true compelling reason to be there but a desire to do the right thing. He was a medical student living off of his parents’ money, and a part time volunteer to the red cross, but when his powers manifested he left home to try and find something productive to do with them. Sadly, he had very little in the way of vision, but when the Lex Talionis was pursuing an escaped superhuman convict across his city, he followed and aided in the capture. Since he joined the group, he has had some conflict with the others, who see him as an unwelcome addition, but the Arbiter insists his power is needed.

Motivation: The goal of the team as a whole is to bring impartial justice to the world, one injustice at a time if necessary.

The Arbiter is motivated by the conviction that mankind is untrustworthy and inherently corruptible. Her powers make her immune to such things, and as such she should be the final arbiter of justice, the Philosopher Queen, if you will, and Gene-X shall be the means by which she imposes her view of right and wrong.

The Captain wants to see corruption wiped from the earth. Unlike many of his fellows, he doesn’t see Gene-X as inherently superior in their function as peacekeepers and judges, he worked by too many good cops for that, but they are useful tools. He is a revolutionary, yet a conservative, who believes in the American values he was brought up with, but not in the system which supposedly promotes them.

Officer White overcompensates for a lifetime of being small and weak by trying to achieve as much prominence as a Gene-X as he can. Seeing people being maltreated for being different or small enrages him, and the more power he can get to prevent this the better. He achieved the highest officer status in the Lex Talionis after the death of the former Officer Black.

Officer Red remembers her brother’s death too well, and never wants to fail innocents like that again, while Officer Blue seeks to atone for the accidental death of an innocent man by putting his fate in the hands of a higher judge.

Officer Black is merely intent on doing the right thing. He doesn’t entirely care for the version of justice they uphold, and has come into conflict with the Captain several times. However, he feels he’s doing more right than wrong, and so remains with the team until he can think of a better idea.

## Members

--The Captain

--Officer White

--Officer Red

--Officer Blue

--Officer Black

Real Names: Martine Dumont, Raymond Jones, Derek McArthur, Angelica Bryce, Benjamin Park, and Morgan Jurgens, respectively.

Appearance: The Arbiter, Martine Dumont, is a smallish woman with long brown hair and blue eyes. She’s about forty-five years old, and is very pleasant in her manner. She wears normal clothes, usually skirts and sweaters.

The Captain, Raymond Jones, is a tall man with graying black hair and brown eyes. In his late thirties, he is muscular and roughly cut. His skin is unusually dull, almost chalky, though it’s a dark, mahogany brown. His uniform is a muted grey suit of loose, puncture-resistant fabric marked by his five dark grey stripes of office on each shoulder.

Officer White, Derek McArthur is only twenty, and looks younger. His hair is blonde, his eyes green, and his build slight. He spoils his natural good looks with a constant sneer. His uniform is similar to the Captain’s, but his gloves, boots, belt, and four stripes of office are white.

Officer Red, Angelica Bryce, is twenty-seven, with brown hair cut to her shoulders and golden yellow eyes. Five foot eight, and one hundred fifty pounds, Angelica has a strange golden tinge to her skin when it catches the light. Her uniform is like the Captain’s, but her gloves, boots, belt and three stripes of office are red.

Officer Blue, Benjamin Park, is a short, wiry man of about thirty. His hair is very short, light brown, and thinning slightly, and his eyes are grey. He looks remarkably unimposing, even when in his full uniform, which is similar to those above, but with blue trim and only two stripes of office.

Officer Black, Morgan Jurgens, Is twenty-five, tall, and lean. His hair is red, and is long enough to hang in his eyes, which are green. He tends to look scruffy and unkempt, even in uniform. His uniform is, again, like those above, but with black trim and only one stripe of office.

Abilities: Officer Black possesses the ability to accelerate or decelerate molecules around him to varying degrees. This can take the form of blasts of hyper-speed air (or whatever is surrounding him presently), flight, a shield of solidified air surrounding him, or as the ability to melt or freeze things with a touch. This mimics the effects of extreme heat or cold, but because he is affecting the individual molecules directly, the affected substances do not radiate or absorb heat unless he allows them to.

Officer Blue has an intuitive ability for physical skills that surpasses that of any human alive. This ability, though its effects are primarily physical, is entirely a mental skill. He is fully aware of the precise capabilities of his own body, and can guesstimate those of others very accurately at a mere glance. The shape of someone’s muscles, the way they walk, their bone structure, all speak volumes to him. Further, he has a great talent for three dimensional geometry and basic physics, particular in the matters of force and mass. These natural abilities, and his great study and training, allow him to fight as well as any man alive, but without the rigors of training in a specific style, or a reliance on reflexive muscle memory, making him almost impossible to catch off guard, mislead, or predict in combat. Further, his powers make him a master of using his environment to his advantage, and almost anything can be a deadly weapon in his hands.

Officer Red has a genetic mutation that has replaced certain body tissues, including much of her nervous system and the melanin in her skin, with a type of organic gold, granting her several superhuman abilities. First, the golden pigments in her skin act as energy receptors, enabling her to absorb any form of electro-magnetic energy without harm to herself. Second, this energy speeds through her super-conductive nervous system, making her mind and reflexes several times faster than human. This speed cannot be “turned off”, making her immune to most forms of telepathic attack; her thoughts are too fast for any telepath to keep up with. Finally, she can produce a kind of golden goo from her skin, and use her stored energy to propel it in streams or globules. This goo is remarkably viscous and self-cohesive, making it nearly impossible to pry from an object or person. It can be charged to some degree with a form of energy of her choice, from heat, to light, to electricity to magnetism. It is possible for her to coat something in radioactive goo, but this poses a severe threat to both her teammates and innocent bystanders, so it is almost never used.

Officer White is a powerful psionic with a single power that has multiple applications. White can overlap his consciousness and that of an intended target. At its weakest, this allows a degree of telepathic connection between White and the individual or individuals in question. This can also be specialized, allowing White to temporarily use his target’s knowledge as if it were his own, or share his own with the target. He can induce vertigo in a victim by sharing his eyesight or other senses with them, confuse them with his emotions and their own simultaneously, or implant thoughts in their minds that are his, not theirs. While he cannot control minds, or even attack telepathically, such uses of this power could easily drive a target temporarily insane. Further, psionic attacks against him are useless, as any telepath or mind controller attempting such a feat would suddenly find himself or herself attacking his or her own mind. Another favored tactic is in pulling this trick on physical opponents, who would no doubt be shocked to see themselves suddenly hurtling at themselves. Opponents can be made effectively blind and deaf by replacing their awareness of their surroundings with his. Officer White can, with concentration, use his powers on multiple victims at once, but any disruption of his concentration ends all effects immediately. He can use his powers on multiple willing subjects simultaneously without significant effort. In combat, White is exceptionally quick and agile, but not to a superhuman degree.

The Captain is an experienced and skilled hand-to-hand combatant. While the other members of Lex Talionis eschew human weapons, feeling their innate Gene-X abilities are all they require, the Captain keeps at his side the police-issue pistol he wore before joining the team. His physique has been modified by his Gene-X abilities to be far superior to that of a normal human. While his anatomy is conceptually no different from a human’s, his bones are iron, his skin made of a clay-like stone, and his muscles are like tree roots. The difference is hardly noticeable to the naked eye, but he is over six hundred pounds, and capable of lifting nearly sixty tons over his head. He is durable enough to take a large caliber bullet with only a wince, and his superhuman physiology heals almost any wound within a week. His strength and endurance allow him to run up to eighty miles per hour for hours at a time, but his normal reflexes limit the effectiveness of this speed in combat. Further, the Captain is an extremely competent field leader, and gifted in all intellectual matters. His decisions and reports are a major factor in the Arbiter’s decisions.

The Arbiter possesses above average intelligence coupled with one superhuman power: absolute knowledge of and control over her emotions. The Arbiter uses this power to make utterly rational decisions based on the knowledge she has at any time, not allowing fear, sympathy, or any such nonsense to cloud her judgment. She is in absolute control of herself at all times.