H.E.R.O.

H.E.R.O Lobby

H.E.R.O or Human Evolution Research Organization is a politically unaccountable branch of the central government created and sanctioned by Vernon Loxley. They were initially founded and lead by the original members of M-Division, Tarnic Miliken, and Bramon Xanthe. They have facilities in every Sector, for a total of 61.

## Background

When monsters were first encountered in the Pre-Unification War days there was little to no information about what they were and why they were on this planet. However through the agents of M-Corp who survived monster infections and the research of Bramon Xanthe, the M-Division was able to build a team of superhumans and begin studying monsters in a concerted fashion. After The Unification War, Tarnic Miliken and Vernon Loxley worked together to create a secret government department that could leverage government resources to research monsters and superhumans. This agency was called H.E.R.O. The agency would be led by a managing council made up of the original members of M-Division, Tarnic Miliken, and Bramon Xanthe. As Tarnic aged and died, his seat passed on to his son Dexter.

## History

H.E.R.O was just one of the factions that researched monsters and superhumans in a systematic fashion over the years though they were the most well funded and powerful. Xanthe's genius coupled with Henrick and Bernhardt's ability to understand the monster language gave them a significant edge over most other parties. Unfortunately, the agency's focus was quite myopic; the research's main focus was to weaponize Monster abilities and manufacture superhumans. Xanthe actively sabotaged groups trying to research more pacifist avenues. For example, he contracted Markus Alderman to steal a valuable monster corpse from a group that was trying to reverse monsterification and then had the group destroyed - calling their research "Regressive". Eventually H.E.R.O undertook a highly unethical social eugenics project: genetically modifying vast swathes of the human population to make them more compatible with monster infection. The side effects are known to have caused sterility in huge numbers of people but this was seen as an acceptable price to quickly increase the superhuman population in the world to combat the growing monster threat.

All the while H.E.R.O was - behind the scenes - maintaining the social status quo by quietly eliminating monsters whenever and where they appeared. Through Henrick Bendrix and Zack Zaman's powers, they were able to cover up any large scale incidents and generally keep knowledge of superhumans and monsters out of the public view. They also sometimes interfered in political matters to ensure that there was no disruption to the central government and the funding and social engineering projects it enabled. For example, a civil war in Sector 25 was mysteriously ended when strange "earthquakes" destroyed rebel positions, enabling government forces to rapidly retake the sector.

## Current Activities

### Background Activities

H.E.R.O. is a background entity for much of the first half of the story. They are first introduced into the story as the mysterious organization that Alexis Allaband and Clark Cabellero say they belong to when they confront Ella Vulpe after the Frathouse Massacre. There are other occasional glimpses of H.E.R.O activities throughout the subsequent story arcs. We see Bramon Xanthe and Dexter Miliken discussing the proliferation of M22: Minyak's throughout the sector and their plans to deal with it, discussing the MC's heroic activities, and discussing the injuries to Kronos Squad and how Zack Zaman's replacement Lochan Deus is faring.

Bramon Xanthe is also unofficially involved in the Mafia Arc. He was responsible for Klaus Aldain's superhuman ascension and provided general support to the Aldain criminal organization in exchange for using their resources in various operations; like obtaining the body of The Fairy from the Montero family. He also used them to test his forced evolution serum and tasked Nico to retrieve the bodies of Klaus, Danica, and Oscar after their (presumed in the case of Danica) deaths.

### H.E.R.O Arc

H.E.R.O's true involvement in the story begins after the MC is publicly outed for being a Superhuman. While they were already aware of the MC's true identity, they had intended to approach and recruit him quietly. Now - to get ahead of the central government- they forcibly kidnapped the MC, Alice, Deryl, and Michael and made a recruitment offer. H.E.R.O. used the MC's public celebrity/infamy to announce their existence to the general public and cushion the impact of the knowledge of monsters and superhumans spreading. Dexter also used a display of power by Bernhardt Gunvald to ensure H.E.R.O continued support and independence from the central government.

H.E.R.O quickly began pushing for laws that would make tracking and recruiting superhumans easier and laws that would give their agents rights to detain and question civilians. This has created significant societal tension that the MC can help calm or inflate. When S.I.N announces their existence, H.E.R.O quickly moves to identify their backers and power base but are unable to quite destroy them since S.I.N's true head is the very wealthy and politically connected Langdon Wilson. H.E.R.O. instead spearheads an assault on Ella Vulpe within Hex's dimension to try and cripple S.I.N operations. The attack is successful; Ella and thousands of her allied monsters are killed.

After the battle, H.E.R.O continues their operations against S.I.N but is trying to keep a lower profile because of the tremendous human casualties taken on their side during the Battle of Diamonds. The organization is also suffering both a morale and public relations crisis. The public relations issue comes from multiple sides:

1. A Young H.E.R.O agent is caught after murdering his girlfriend in a domestic argument. He claims self defense but given the huge power disparity between a Level 1 superhuman and a regular human the situation seems odd.
2. Information that Superhumans can be manufactured is released and confirmed to the public, resulting in widespread outcry that powers should be shared to everyone. Dexter confirms the information but indicates the current fatality rate is too high (62%+) and that H.E.R.O would consider giving everyone powers only if it reduces significantly but that - in exchange - H.E.R.O would "own" them.
3. A spate of monster related twin kidnappings across the sectors that H.E.R.O is unable to stop
4. Massive civil unrest in sectors caused by families of soldiers slain in the Battle of Diamonds protesting H.E.R.O's mismanagement of the attack.
5. If the MC is a hero to the public: Another H.E.R.O agent uses his powers to burn a crowd of protestors who antagonize him over H.E.R.O's policies.
6. If the MC is a villain to the public: Another H.E.R.O agent is killed by a mob of rioting civilians

Internal morale issues are also a drag on H.E.R.O's performance. Since the vast majority of new recruits to the organization were civilians before their ascensions, they have very little combat experience or even interest in combat. H.E.R.O requires all Superhumans with combat capable powers to fight against monsters. This forced combat conscription damaged morale among new recruits and has contributed to a number of defections to S.I.N. H.E.R.O is currently thinking of using mind control or other coercion methods to maintain cohesion amongst the newer lower ranked members and designing proposals to be brought before the controlling council.

### Twins Arc

H.E.R.O continues their anti-S.I.N operations by targeting Langdon Wilson's HQ for infiltration. In an operation led by Nyx Elis, the MC infiltrates Wilson Industries HQ. The infiltration uncovers S.I.N's incredibly advanced Superhuman manufacturing capabilities, weapons and drug research, and some inner circle members. Using this information, H.E.R.O begins to arrest and interrogate identified S.I.N agents. Still stymied by Hex's protection of S.I.N's main infrastructure, H.E.R.O green lights an infiltration plan where the MC - disguised as new S.I.N initiate Nathan Foxglove - would infiltrate the S.I.N induction ceremony in Hex's dimension. Nicolette Heart would then break into the dimension and rescue the MC once his intelligence gathering was complete. All this would be coordinated by the newly returned to duty captain Zack Zaman. The infiltration brings a lot of new information to light:

1. The monster behind the twin kidnappings is a unique S-Rank M66 named Eisheth.
2. The monsters are led by a coterie of S-Class pure lineage monsters called The Chosen. This monsters are the ones who coordinate with Langdon, Tanos, and the other top echelon at S.I.N
3. Monsters are only following the directives of The Chosen, they have no loyalty to S.I.N as a whole.
4. Cole and Zara are capable of working together to "make monsters friendly". Its this process that made Hex an ally to them.
5. S.I.N is manufacturing both power and regeneration serums derived from monsters to boost their own agents.
6. Langdon Wilson has pointed weapon satellites at the Moon, probably in preparation for the Black Moon
7. Langdon Wilson requires some kind of medication
8. S.I.N has allied itself with many powerful institutions including:
	* Hana Oshima, CEO of World Media Incorporated. The largest media company on the planet.
	* Doctor Neil Felzen, director of Sector 2's biggest hospital (father of Kenneth Felzen)
	* General Francis Armstrong, a five-star general overseeing the United World's largest military force.
	* The Secretary of Defense, Mason Wilson. Langdon's brother
	* Monster worshiping cults

Armed with this new information, H.E.R.O decides that the first course of action is to capture Eisheth during one of her regular twin hunting forays. They plan an attack; using Amber and Liz Foxglove as bait to lure Eisheth to a remote location before Team Cthulhu attacks and takes down the monster. The MC and Deryl are tasked with evacuating the twins from the ambush site but they are in turn ambushed by Shen Haoran and the moon twins.

## Organizational Structure

### Controlling Council

H.E.R.O's plans of action are charted by the controlling council made up of seven members: Bernhardt Gunvald, Malik Drexel, Nyx Elis, Lucius Valentine, Zack Zaman, Bramon Xanthe, and Dexter Miliken. Decisions seem to be made by simple majority vote and every council member has a single vote. While ostensibly all council members are equal, the day to day realities of their different expertise means that - depending on the issue - a member's opinion can have significant weight on the council. Matters related to monster activities or research tend to almost always be decided by Xanthe's vote and political matters are usually entrusted to Dexter with little questioning.

### Combat Squads

There are currently five combat squads at H.E.R.O. They are made up of the organization's strongest fighters and are responsible for leading and spearheading military actions on H.E.R.O's behalf. Their actions are directly set by the council but they otherwise have considerable autonomy within the organization. Most regular agents are below a combat squad member in the general chain of command. The five squads in descending order of combat power are:

* Cthulu Squad
* Lucifer Squad
* Reaper Squad
* Oberon Squad
* Kronos Squad

Cthulhu Squad

Lucifer Squad

Reaper Squad

Oberon Squad
 Melody

Kronos Squad
 Unknown

### Research Division

This division rolls up to the controlling council via Bramon Xanthe. It is where most non-combat focused Superhumans work within H.E.R.O. This division also has a lot of regular humans; mostly scientists and researchers working with Xanthe. This division is responsible for the creation and maintenance of superhuman derived technology. There appear to be multiple subdivisions under this division:

1. Cipher Operations - specializing in code breaking and hacking

### Special Agents

Superhumans with particularly useful/unique powers can be part of this division. They are given the designation "Specialist' and are involved in special duties and missions in addition to whatever other duties they have with their regular division. Agents in this division are given special privileges and higher pay in exchange for extra duties. Some members of this division include: Nicolette Heart, Lochan Deus, Sharon and the MC

### Regular Agents

All Superhumans in H.E.R.O begin as regular agents. Their standing in the general command chain goes up as their level and strength grows. Higher level agents can expect higher pay, greater autonomy, and more privileges but also more dangerous assignments. Particularly talented agents may be considered to join the Combat Squads. The ranks go: Agent 3rd Class, Agent 2nd Class, Agent 1st Class, Lieutenant, and Captain.

### Human Military Divisions

These are the regular soldiers that supplement H.E.R.O.'s military strength. They usually support agents in their field duties. Likely the largest division by number.

### Administrative Division

This is a mostly all human division responsible for the maintenance and administration of the organization.

### Penal/Criminal Division

These are Superhumans who are implanted with a bomb that is set to detonate if they disobey orders. They are forcibly conscripted and have no privileges or rights. Mostly made up of captured S.I.N members or other superhumans who refused the government order to register and join H.E.R.O

## H.E.R.O. Members

Due to the vast amount of members in HERO we decided to create a category page for all of them which can be found down below:

HERO Members