EL ENFOQUE SISTEMICO Y LOS SISTEMAS AGRARIOS

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o get a Scions of Caine membership card, all you need is to have been born with a collection of useful powers and abilities which...ta-daaa!...set you apart from normal men. In fact, if you’ve got that going for you, they may already consider you a fellow brother or sister whether you like it or not.

The basic tenet of the Scions is that the world would be a better place if naturally-born paranormals, or mutants, were in control. And they generally act as though they already are. There is an arrogance here, though it is born of their day-to-day ability to be superior to normal humanity in most every way, and is there-fore a little difficult to avoid. One could even argue that they have a reasonable and logical point. Unfortunately, normal humanity has a way of being terribly unfair and has a poor sense of under-standing about this sort of thing.

The Scions are not so much interested in running the day-to-day affairs of humanity through direct rule, but would simply raise themselves above the ability for the comings and goings of mankind to restrict or limit them. In many ways, this goal was achieved by the simple act of so many of them banding together to create a nearly unstoppable force. They will do what they will, game set and match.

Always on the prowl for new members, the Scions have a code which strongly proscribes tolerance towards all fellow mutants. They’re an understanding bunch, they know that there are deep, psychological motivations which can cause a born-para-normal to join a rival villainous organization or (even worse!) actu-ally become a super-hero. All mutants are considered members of the Great Family, errant and obnoxious though some may be. The assumption is that somewhere along the line even those who are most opposed to them will eventually see the light.

The point is that if you’re a mutant, ultimately deriving your powers from the Great Gate Keys which empower the Earth, then the Scions are pretty much always nice. Even if they’re beating you up because they really need the money in that bank, they pummel you with love. And your cut of the take is just waiting to be collected.

For the lab-accidents, the magic-boys, the tech-freaks, the marvins, and whatever else is out there, the Scions have little patience. They consider such to be usurpers and will sometimes enter conflict with those elements just out of sheer cussedness.

The aims of the Scions are not only to improve their own power and position, but to keep other groups and organizations down.

They’re mostly the spoil-sports of the paranormal world. Normal humanity is a different story. Generally considered as just part of the scenery, when necessary they are dealt with quickly, efficient-ly and preferabefficient-ly non-violentefficient-ly. Nobody’s getting bonus points for beating up on the little kid with no powers.

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rupted by the senseless and annoying clamoring for results for nearly ten years.

Franck suffered a major setback in 1974 when a secret report from UNTIL was intentionally leaked, suggesting certain unscrupulous activities of the doctor in his position as head of research at Stronghold. Most of it was untrue, though he had, on certain occasions, performed improper tests on a few subjects.

Still, a thorough probe would undoubtedly pierce the layers of his double identity and that would not be prudent. An early warning from VIPER intelligence gave him time to terminate certain projects and destroy the most important of his files before fleeing into VIPER’s protective coils. It was five years before he took his subtle vengeance on UNTIL.

The power shift between Firewing and King Cobra in 1979 meant little to Franck. Cobra was more down to earth than his prede-cessor, preferring real, tangible goals. VIPER was quickly driven into a flurry of activity but again, it was directed outside the confines of Franck’s laboratories and investi-gations. However, Cobra did require positive results from his sci-entific branches and had little patience for delays. He was prone to violence and could be quite ruth-less with subordinates. But by then Dragon Branch, with its many mutant operatives, had become a power unto itself and was beyond the bullying which Cobra direct-ed at other, less fortunate departments. By the early eighties and with the defection of his own creator, Dr. Francis Camille, King Cobra became routinely enraged at most all VIPER scientists.

During the latter months of 1987, Franck’s experiments had reached critical points and he was entirely absorbed by them. He was so caught up in his delicate and exacting work that he was, in the main, oblivious to the trials of King Cobra and his destruc-tion in December. But within a month he was cursing himself for his inattention and carelessness. Still, who could have imagined the unbelievable streak of poor luck and stupidity which led to Cobra’s death and the destruction of VIPER Island? Given time, Franck should have been able to become the new Supreme Leader, what with his position commanding Dragon Branch, but he had been caught unawares. The unexplainable insanity which seemed to have struck Cobra and colored all of his actions in the last month had been unforeseen and he was not prepared in any way to take advantage.

The plan, as they say, was proceeding brilliantly.

Franck played both ends smoothly for years. He seemed always on the verge of a startling breakthrough, but rarely pro-duced anything of lasting value. Particularly with the government, he delighted in directing very promising lines of research which would take years to unravel only to discover that they were mere blind alleys. The field of para-genetics is still considered new and early mistakes are understood by the scientific community as unavoidable. To this day, Franck is listed as one of the top genius-es in genetics, with seven published papers accepted as founda-tions of paranormal theory. Four of them are based on supposi-tions which he knew to be untrue when he wrote them.

Duplicity with VIPER took greater care; DeVrie, Menton, and Dr. Camille were not easily fooled. Professor Bryant had been removed as a factor by the accident which resulted in Grond, so he was not a concern. Agent Gailen was so consumed by the desire to advance that he was more than

happy to turn over as many responsi-bilities as possible to Franck. Gailen considered Dragon Branch to be a white elephant, of fading interest to DeVrie and little opportunity for a tal-ented young agent with high aspira-tions. In the present day, Gailen has recently returned from his third lengthy vacation at the maximum security lock-up at Marion, Illinois.

For Franck, his own goals were better served by the unsavory meth-ods of VIPER and so he seemed mainly loyal to them. He managed to gather several powerful mutants to the VIPER fold and expanded their knowledge of paranormal powers significantly. He was clearly betraying Guard by funneling useful information to his serpentine supe-riors and had even engineered the escape of several of their operatives from Stronghold facilities from time

to time. Under the very noses of Guard scientists, he also man-aged to increase the powers of the imprisoned Black Diamond during 1971, compelling her to escape and join VIPER.

Nobody in the green mask was complaining.

It was sheer luck for Franck that when DeVrie was finally captured and jailed in 1969, Firewing, Camille’s abomination, became VIPER’s new Supreme Leader. Firewing was less interest-ed in research and development than his printerest-edecessor, preferring complex games of covert and overt actions which mystified his opponents. Franck ultimately concluded that Camille’s tampering had left the man insane but was regularly amused by his activities and well pleased that his own work was, in the main,

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ers work for the Scions, scientists and scholars with long term relationships with Dr. Franck.

Thanks to the resources stolen from VIPER and the unimag-inable tools and equipment which Franck had been hoarding all his life, the great, secret underwater complex of the Scions of Caine was soon constructed. It is the central location for all Scions activity, huge enough to house and train many more times the cur-rent membership. It is a small city beneath the sea built upon ancient, lost ruins discovered by Franck during his stay in VIPER’s undersea installation, circa 1977-80. As well as this, all members of the Scions have their own homes, some grander than others, which in any case are appropriate in style for the imagined supe-riors of the world.

In other words... nobody’s slumming it. If you have to spend all your time hiding in a secret headquarters, no matter how opulent it may be, you know... what’s the point of having all these super pow-ers? These houses can all function as gathering places or bases; no brother or sister would deny comfort or shelter to a fellow mutant.

For the most part, the Scions stayed fairly low profile for about three years. During that time, some of their membership were active, but these seemed to the general public to be either VIPER actions (based on previous affiliations), or the crimes of new, solo villains such as seemed to be popping up out of the woodwork by then. However, in January of 1992, the Scions began a nearly two-year campaign which would put them in con-flict with the Champions and, alternately, the Promethians. And whereas they failed in their preferred goal to steal a Kraanian Attack-Cruiser from either team, they did manage to gain access to the Champions’ ship long enough to cull the specific informa-tion they desired.

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Thinking calmly as he always did, this left but one explana-tion. And the anger he felt as he realized how much he’d under-estimated Menton all these years disturbed even him! How long had King Cobra been under his control? Had Cobra ever truly ruled VIPER? Menton was a mutant whose tremendous powers of the mind Franck had excellent reason to respect, but now he had rea-son to fear them. Following Cobra’s demise there was a period of waiting, and never was there an agent of VIPER more poised to strike with bared fangs than Menton during that time. The door seemed open and inviting for Franck to mount VIPER’s rule, if he so chose. This meant to Franck that the door was in fact closed, locked, and firmly bolted. He had no desire to wage war against the powerful psionic; in fact he was ultimately pleased with Menton’s ambition and obvious capacity for deep planning and patience.

Well over a year later when Franck had completed his cur-rent projects, he led the mutants of Dragon Branch in rebellion against VIPER, claiming restlessness at the inactivity of the lead-erless organization. Forces rose up to stop him but Menton did not help them and they failed. Menton wished to cull the factions which were of no use to him from VIPER. He knew that whatever Franck’s true goals were (and the doctor’s mind had always been mysteriously closed to him), they were fast reaching a point which would be in conflict with his own.

Franck and his mutants made off with tremendous plunder from VIPER, giving them the resources to set up their own opera-tions. Thus was born the Scions of Caine. There were at this time eleven well-trained mutants in the cause: Black Diamond, Shrinker, Esper, Comtron, Merge, Vibron, Quarry, Gremlin, Darkbolt, Bulwark, and Radion. Of all of VIPER’s mutant agents, only Freon chose to remain, staying true to his long-time loyalties with that organization and his friendship with Oculon. Franck was disappointed but not entirely surprised; and extended an open invitation to the Master of Cold should he ever change his mind.

Unlike VIPER, the Scions have no need of a world-wide orga-nization with bases dotting the globe. All of their active members possess paranormal powers and they do not employ specially trained agents. Only a handful of men and women without

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cially for the paranormals who fell and the lives and families which they represented. Most distressing was the loss of the young heroes of the Arcadian Academy, the cream of a new gen-eration. He cursed Lopez’s name and memory and fell back into his research to begin the revisions in thought which had been forced upon him.

At the crossing of the new Millennium, the Scions now num-ber twenty-three active memnum-bers, other than Dr. Franck. Due to the example of the Arcadian Academy and the sudden shifting of the influence of the Gate Keys, they are now actively recruiting younger operatives. Avatar was their first such success, even before the war, followed by Target and then Icicle. The ranks will soon grow even larger.

For the man who has for over forty years gone by the name of Dr.

Richfield Franck, the new age rep-resents a danger and sense of uncertainty far beyond what he could have imagined. There is less arrogance in him then there had been as he has been forced to stare again into the unknown, a world of three great Keys to power rather than two. But he believes he still understands this planet and its people and its field of energy bet-ter than anyone else. And over the passing months he has come to delight and revel in the thrill of fresh discovery. The Scions of Caine are his by right and his by responsibility, and he will lead them to see their true destiny.

Yet, he may well run into trouble. While Franck sees his plan as a truly great thing, his group is composed of highly self-direct-ed individuals. Not everyone sees eye to eye with each other, and almost everyone has their own way of doing things. This can only cause problems down the line.

And while the people involved may well cause problems (you just can’t collect a group of powerful beings like the Scions with-out the inevitable personality conflicts), that pales compared to the potential threat of Markoth. That wily magician has his own agenda, and one that might well conflict with Franck and the rest of the Scions. When the Markoth situation comes to a head, it could well blow the Scions apart.

If that happens, Franck won’t be happy.

The next several years were spent in consolidating greater power and information gathering across the globe, and recruiting and training new members. The older mutants were mainly left to their own devices, expected to cultivate power, position and pres-tige in their own preferred corners of the world. There was a peri-od towards the end of 1996 when a series of operations were directed at the W.W. II super-hero, Crusader, following his sudden return from oblivion. This was a series of random, seemingly unre-lated attacks, but all involved reported directly to Franck after their specific incidents.

The attentions of the Scions of Caine and Dr. Franck were thoroughly consumed from 1998 onward when he became aware of the re-awakening of a man he once knew as Rodrigo Lopez. This sudden development presented Franck with a situation unlike any he had experienced since his youth; in other words, a situation for which he had no expectation or understanding. Of course he had to investigate, and he took six of his

mightiest with him: Black Diamond, Esper, Merge, Radion, Darkbolt, and Bulwark. At first the one-time stu-dent and master engaged in pleasant and revealing conversation, much of it confusing to Franck’s companions.

But then Esper sensed a subtle drain-ing effect which Lopez was inflictdrain-ing on the Scions’ leader. A terrific and fierce battle was quickly joined. By its end, Franck and four of his mutants were barely able to escape;

Merge and Bulwark had been slain.

Thus went the first struggle against The Proprietor.

Franck was enraged and for several days was beyond rational thought. When he had finally calmed himself, he turned to tomes and tablets which he had not examined for many years. He scrutinized them closely, challenging what had been

his understanding of reality against this sudden development. He knew he had little time to form a knowledge of this creature whose dark designs would shatter his entire lifetime’s work.

In the coming war he determined that he would lose no more of his precious paranormals in direct conflict with the enemy, a course he knew to be folly for any but Dr. Destroyer. But the Scions did fight in the struggle, assisting in various skirmishes across the globe to break the Proprietor’s alliances and stem his power’s awesome growth. Meanwhile Franck, in an older guise, aided the Marksman in gaining Dr. Destroyer’s assistance in the struggle by presenting him with the Batla Horn. The need for this device was something which Destroyer immediately understood.

The terrible toll of death concluding the War was as much a cause for sorrow to Dr. Franck than any other. He grieved

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the Scions. It also contains the training facilities most often used by the newer members of the Scions as well as the medical facil-ities.

Building Two holds the great Gate-Lock and all the laborato-ries for the scientifically minded of the Scions themselves to fur-ther their particular pursuits. Here also are the training facilities most often used by the more experienced mutants, to further their abilities and to simulate forthcoming missions. The equipment used here is more complex, involving a wider array of holo-tech-nology and virtual reality simulations. The danger is often very real; training is meant to be taken quite seriously. The main communications-array is present here as well as most of the installation w e a p o n s - c o m m a n d . Important meetings and conferences are held in this structure. In all of the struc-tures, the most important facilities are in the under-ground levels which can be sealed behind an energy field and three feet of solid Kraanian steel.

Building Three serves as living quarters and

Building Three serves as living quarters and

In document DIANA PATRICIA ANGEL PARDO (página 35-44)