Agent Apex

Origins
Born in Philadelphia in 1917, Carter Riggs was never the most academic child, preferring to spend his days outdoors, running through the streets and being active rather than sitting inside with his nose in a book. He was frequently in trouble at school, although his teachers never quite believed him when he told them he was fighting to stick up for other children who were being picked on.

He had a small group of close friends throughout childhood, who were often considered the oddballs and outcasts of his school. But Carter saw past their quirks to recognise their strong characters, and knew that these were the people he wanted to put his faith in.

Carter remained staunch in his philosophy for living as he grew up. While many saw his strong moral compass as a positive trait, there were plenty of others who mistook it for stubbornness, an unwillingness to compromise. It was this perceived obstinacy that prevented Carter from holding down much in the way of gainful employment, instead choosing to take odd jobs around his home neighbourhood, helping those who were too old, weak or infirm to help themselves. They could never pay much, but Carter never really minded all that much.

World War II
When the second World War broke out and the United States became involved in the conflict, Carter was one of the first in his district to enlist. He was immediately accepted and started basic training in 1942, proving to be an adept combatant and competent strategist, and was soon snapped up to be deployed in France.

During a vital combat mission to take control of a key enemy stronghold, a surprise attack wiped out most of Carter's squad and resulted in his commanding officer being captured. Refusing to give up and leave a comrade behind, Carter charged in and successfully mounted a one-man assault on the stronghold, capturing a strategic outpost and rescuing his CO at the same time.

His commanding officer recommended Carter for a commendation, which brought him to the attention of a group of high-ranking officials within the United States Government.

Messiah Program
While their European allies were engaged in a vicious World War, the United States of America saw that their friends and enemies were experimenting with human enhancements in their military strategy. Not wanting to be left powerless and impotent in the face of such combatants, the US government quickly established their own enhanced combatants program codenamed Messiah.

With far greater finances and resources than their allies and enemies, this program was far more successful than its European counterparts, and a chemical inhalant was developed which could imbue a soldier with enhanced strength, speed, agility, reflexes and durability, allowing them to surpass peak human physical condition and enter the realm of the superhuman. The Messiah Compound was designed to provide only a temporary boost lasting 24 hours, and if successful then research would be carried out to make the changes permanent.

Owing to his combat proficiency and heroic actions in France, Carter was chosen as the first recipient of the results of these experiments. He was brought back to the United States and subjected to rigorous medical testing, before being provided with an initial dose of the compound. However, an unexpected energy surge caused the equipment to malfunction, and Carter received a far larger dose of the compound than intended.

As the machinery was deactivated and Carter was taken to a recovery room, it was discovered that the compound had worked successfully, imbuing the soldier with greatly enhanced strength and physical abilities. However, they soon identified that the effects lasted longer than 24 hours, and ultimately it was discovered that the energy surge combined with the increased dosage had bonded the chemical compound with Carter's DNA, and granted him permanent superhuman abilities.

Agent Apex
Riggs was codenamed Agent Apex and was initially deployed to the field in January 1943. His enhanced physical abilities combined with his existing skill in military tactics and strategy meant that he became instrumental in defeating the Nazis and their close allies. Apex's squad, assembled from soldiers across the armies of the Allies including the British enhanced combatants Britannia II and Monarch scored many key victories against the enemy and became a powerful weapon in the Allied arsenal.

But the Allies were not the only ones who had been participating in the superhuman arms race, and Agent Apex soon came up against the Nazi enhanced combatant codenamed Ubermensch. Unlike his Allied counterparts, Ubermensch was a blunt instrument, a hulking and deformed beast of a man with vast superhuman strength and anger they could point at the enemy and watch as he tore through them.

Agent Apex and Ubermensch clashed many times over the course of the War, but ultimately the Nazi soldier was defeated by the enhanced Allies during the siege of Sturmgard in the closing days of the conflict. Ubermensch carved a swathe through the attacking armies, but was ultimately killed by a well-placed grenade courtesy of Agent Apex.

Peace
As peace was declared after World War II, Agent Apex used his skills and training to assist in ongoing military strategic planning, taking up a series of posts within the United States military and related government programs. He even tried to settle down, but found that he was uncomfortable in domestic situations and preferred to be around other people who understood him.

One of his central roles in the aftermath of the War was to create a strategy for superhuman defence, utilising the wide range of enhanced individuals who now roamed the Earth with the goal of protecting the planet. Many experts gathered to discuss this strategy, but it was ultimately dismissed as officials were concerned about the possible clash of personalities were such a strategy to be implemented. They argued that while generals and politicians may disagree, their disagreements were unlikely to level a city block, and the use of enhanced humans would be managed sparingly and according to individual circumstances.

The Founder Invasion
In 1947, catastrophe struck the Earth. On July 5, the skies above Roswell, New Mexico were suddenly filled with strange crafts, and moments later the same thing happened above a number of major cities around the world. Before humanity could even ask the question of whether these visitors were friend or foe, they launched a series of devastating attacks on key strategic locations around the world, destroying a number of important facilities and crippling many of the planet's defences.

Agent Apex was called into action, and he enacted a top secret strategy codenamed Superior. While the government had been against the idea of bringing superhumans together, Apex had seen the value of doing so and had spent the past twelve months travelling across the globe and making alliances. As he activated the strategy, superhumans from around the world mobilised to face down the alien invaders.

Enhanced humans fought back across many fronts, and it was soon discovered that the invaders were known as The Founders, a race of colonists who travelled between planets, destroying their inhabitants and remaking worlds in their own image. They had been monitoring the Earth for many years before launching their attack, and were undefeated using their deadly strategy.

The resistance fought valiantly but the invading forces seemed too strong. But the tides turned when a senior government official named Andrew Gibson came to Agent Apex and revealed his greatest secret: that he was an undercover agent of the Founders named Aldraax Girban who had been sent to infiltrate the human race and assist in their destruction. But his proximity to the human race had changed him, and he now wished to fight back against his own kind to protect the people he had come to admire. Although others were suspicious, Agent Apex saw past his quirks and chose to trust him, enlisting him to become a part of the Superior strategy and assigning him the codename Beacon.

Beacon's presence in the group and his innate knowledge of the Founders helped turn the tide, and in a key moment he was able to transport Agent Apex and a select few other combatants onto the Founder mothership, where they confronted the Founder Overlord. After a fierce battle, they were able to kill the Overlord and cause the Founders to retreat.

A great many lives had been lost and entire cities had been wiped off the map, but the Earth was victorious and vowed to become stronger for the experience.

The Superior Squad
In the aftermath of the Founder Invasion, the human race changed for the better, establishing a one-world government known as the Unified Nations as well as a global peacekeeping taskforce named Unified Nations Intelligence Operations or UNION for short.

But while the governments were arranging this, Agent Apex had a very different goal in mind. Their actions during the invasion had shown him that, contrary to what the government officials had thought, enhanced individuals were capable of working together for the good of humanity, and so he formed the Superior Squad to include a number of the heroes who worked closely with him during the invasion.

Their ranks included Beacon, acting as a second-in-command and expert on all alien matters; the powerful sorceress known as Cinder who was an expert on all things magical; mystically-empowered vigilante The Eclipse; engineer and aerial reconnaissance expert Skywatch, an ace pilot equipped with an experimental prototype jetpack; and young scientist Doctor Photon who consulted on all matters involving super-science. Together they were an unstoppable force and a truly inspiring team, ultimately forming the prototype for all future superhuman teams.

The members of the Superior Squad were incredibly close friends, as they were all lost souls who found comfort in finding other people like them. The closest of the group, however, were Agent Apex and Cinder, whose real name was Suranna Sinclair, and they quickly formed an intense relationship that resulted in the pair marrying in 1954. They ensured that their relationship never stood in the way of the team, and vice versa, and were often thought of as the perfect couple, his stoic and reliable nature balancing out her more passionate, unpredictable personality.

The Siege of Kymeria
Throughout many of their missions, the team came to be aware of a nation known as Kymeria in Eastern Europe, a hostile foreign power that had refused to become part of the Unified Nations in 1948. Several attacks on UN facilities and personnel were carried out by agents of Kymeria, and by the early 1960s it was decided that further investigations needed to be carried out on the country.

However, the Squad soon discovered that the entire nation was barricaded by a series of vast impenetrable force shields, literally sealing it off from the rest of the world. Rumours swirled about the activities going on behind the barriers, from advanced weapons research to occult activity, but there was no legitimate reason for outside powers to interfere in the country's concerns.

In 1964 a Kymerian hit squad carried out a devastating attack on the neighbouring country of Stelmaria, utilising a poison gas which killed thousands of innocent Stelmarian citizens. This was the act of aggression that the Unified Nations needed to intervene, and Agent Apex was sent into the country on a covert mission along with Skywatch. They successfully infiltrated the country and discovered that it was being ruled with an iron fist by an insane despot calling herself Countess Chaos, who was utilising a combination of technology and magic to brainwash the people of her country into becoming her own private army. She wished to turn the outside world into a warzone and rule over the resulting wasteland from her throne.

While reporting back to the Unified Nations, Agent Apex and Skywatch were cut off and ultimately realised that they had walked into a trap. Surrounded by dozens of Kymerian agents, they were unable to fight back as the men were truly innocent victims of the Countess' brainwashing. Agent Apex was forced to watch as the Countess emerged from the shadows and murdered Skywatch in cold blood before taking him prisoner.

Apex was subjected to countless hours of torture, and yet refused to give up any information. However, the Countess soon revealed that she had no interest in any information, and simply wished to cause the Agent intense pain. The final step of her plan was then enacted, as the Countess launched a live television broadcast to screens across the globe, flaunting the injured and weakened Agent Apex to the world at large.

As reports began to come in of the Superior Squad and UNION forces mobilising at the border of Kymeria, Countess Chaos laughed, and executed Agent Apex on live television.

Her grand plans of world domination ended there, however, as an enraged Cinder unleashed the full force of her fiery vengeance on the country, immolating the entire population of Kymeria and transporting the scorched remains to the hell dimension known as Tartarus.

Legacy
After his death, Agent Apex was given a hero's burial and the Unified Nations declared a national day of mourning. Cinder fell into a coma after the massive expenditure of power that she had used to rain vengeance down upon the people who took her husband from her, and having lost three of their key members, Beacon and Doctor Photon decided to officially disband the Superior Squad.

A statue of Agent Apex was erected in his hometown of Philadelphia, and as a mark of respect to the fallen hero an official moratorium was put on any future heroes using the codename Agent Apex, so he would remain the only one.

Personality
Carter Riggs has always been a rock, so certain of his own moral compass that he has never felt the need to change on behalf of the world around him. He knows that those in power should use their influence to help, not hinder, and that just because somebody has less, doesn't mean they are less. He is a defender of the defenceless, self-sacrificing when necessary and never compromising his ideals.

What he and many around him think of as strength and moral character, others see as stubbornness, and in fairness they may be right. To some, he comes across as block-headed in his refusal to back down even when the odds are stacked against him, but this is defensible because whatever he's trying to do, you can be damn sure it's the right thing to do.

He has an inherent distrust of those in power, as he is a strong believer in the idea that power corrupts, but he can warm to people once he has had a chance to gauge their moral character. Generally he prefers to associate with the downtrodden, the oddballs and outcasts, and in all honesty that is part of the reason he formed the Superior Squad, to surround himself with people he felt comfortable with.

Superhuman Abilities
Following his exposure to the Messiah Compound, Carter gained physical attributes far beyond the peak of human condition. These include: Alongside these superhuman abilities, Carter is also an expert combatant, proficient in a range of armed and unarmed close combat techniques; a competent marksman; and a genius military tactician.
 * Superhuman Strength - Carter is capable of bench pressing 600kg and can punch holes in solid concrete with his bare hands.
 * Superhuman Speed - Although not as fast as some enhanced humans, he is still able to run a mile in approximately three minutes, breaking the human world record.
 * Superhuman Agility and Reflexes - Carter is able to perform a range of impressive acrobatic feats and respond reflexively to outside threats far quicker than the average human.
 * Superhuman Durability - The compound also increased Carter's durability, making him impervious to small bladed weapons and able to recover quickly from physical injuries. He is also able to hold his breath for up to nine straight minutes, allowing him to swim considerable distances and even survive briefly in an environment with zero oxygen.

Weapons and Equipment
Agent Apex is an expert in using a variety of different close-combat and ranged weaponry, however his primary weapon is his Kinetic Gauntlets, a pair of metal gloves which absorb the kinetic energy of his hand-to-hand attacks and stores it. He can then release this energy in a variety of ways, including projecting ranged concussive blasts and adding extra force to his physical attacks.

He also has access to a considerable armory which he has built up over the years, and generally chooses his weaponry based on the parameters of the mission ahead of him.