Captain Arcane
History
The Mystery Man
Very little is known about the man called Captain Arcane. Even whether he is a man at all is not know for certain. He claims to be a human male from the planet Earth but refuses to give any details. Nor does he explain how a human being ended up in interstellar space alone. He joined the Red Guard many years before Lord Xanadu became the Red King and distinguished himself as a covert operative and intelligence gatherer. No one alive has seen his real face, he always appears in a mask or helmet as Captain Arcane. However he is said to be a master of disguise and it's possible many have seen him and simply not known it. He is equipped with a scrambler field that renders any scanning devices or imagers inoperative. He also appears as a non-entity to psionicists, how he achieves this effect is not known. But all of these features have led to him being a superlative clandestine agent. When Lord Xanadu joined the Red Guard and it became common knowledge that he was from Earth, Captain Arcane sought him out and befriended him. He showed Xan and Tephra the ins and outs of the organization and aided them on many missions. It was Captain Arcane who organized the popular support for Xan to take control of the Red Guard and became his chief spy afterwards. Despite the Captains unwillingness to divulge his past, he and Lord Xanadu became fast friends and he is loyal to him to this day.
After Xans apparent death on Wwend, Captain Arcane stayed behind with Doctor Disaster's Death Squad (all former Earthmen) to bury him and so was present to witness his rebirth. Captain Arcane stayed on Wwend for a short while after this event but Lord Xanadu then asked him to return to the Red Guard to help with their recovery and to help choose a new leader, since he had decided to stay on Wwend and accept new responsibilities there. Doctor Disaster and his death squad decided to return to Earth at the point and so Captain Arcane retured to the Red Guard alone. There he was met by many who thought he should become the new Red King but he refused, saying that he preferred to work in the shadows. The losses the Red Guard suffered on Wwend meant that they had to scale back their operations considerably. In fact, the Red Guard declined to engage in any operations for several months while they rested and recuperated at their base in deep space, and no one was eager to assume command. Captain Arcane continued to serve in an advisory capacity and decided it might be in everyone's best interest if an outside party were brought in to take command. He came up with a rather unorthodox plan. He believed only one being could hold this ragtag group together, and that was someone they had fought against on numerous occasions, The Anubinite. A competitor in the intergalactic mercenary business, The Anubinite was a Lukovian cyborg, like Lord Xanadu and Lady Tephra, and was the only other one known to exist. He had been one of the few beings capable of going toe to toe with Xan, and the only one strong enough and charismatic enough to lead the Red Guard.
The Anubinite readily agreed, he had always commanded an inferior force and was eager to have the Red Guard at his disposal. While not quite having the same sense of honor and integrity as the former Red King, he still commanded respect and got the Guard back on it's feet. Unlike Xan, who had fostered a sense of community and belonging for the troops of the Red Guard, The Anubinite was all business and would take any contract, no matter what the job entailed. The jobs became brutal and despicable, as those kinds of people always had the most money. And when it became clear that the Captain disagreed with these policies, and had enough support to constanly challenge The Anubinite's authority, tensions began to rise between the two. Ultimately, the high pay and less moral constriction on beings created for no other purpose than to kill, brought the majority of the Red Guard to the Anubinite's way of thinking. By this time the Captain realized that the Guard he had known was gone. Finally, when Captain Arcane learned that Lord Xanadu had returned to Earth for an important mission, he decided to follow.
Back to Earth?
Being the secretive person he has always been, he set up his own base of operations in the Canadian north and began building a network of contacts for information and control. By the time he contacted Lord Xanadu, he already knew what needed to be done and had found the trail leading to Karactacus. However, by this time Karactacus had amassed a considerable force of necrotic soldiers and so Lord Xanadu felt it was important to have an equal force and asked Captain Arcane to be his liaison to a burgeoning unaffiliated paramillitary group known as Strike Team Zulu.
Strike Team Zulu was lead by a man known as Halon. And while he had begun with the best of intentions, Captain Arcane could see that Halon was beginning to slip. His hatred for his enemies and his growing power was beginning to twist him into something other than a hero. Captain Arcane could see what was happening and decided that this time, he would not stand by and watch as another group of good men were led astray. He asked to join the Strike Team Zulu Signal Corps and became a special operative. He also allowed the STZ R&D department to study his technologically advanced combat suit he had brought with him from space and it became the basis for the standard medium battle suit for all STZ operatives. His weapons however he has kept to himself in order to maintain his edge.
Nemesis
Not long after joining the STZ, Captain Arcane learned that the Marquise, the primary antagonist of the STZ, had an intelligence agent of her own who had been the reason why the Marquise had been able to make such sudden and unexpected attacks on supposedly secure facilities. He also learned that her latest mission was to gather information about the new Antarctic base the STZ had built to house its android/armor production facility. The code name for this operative was "Joan Jett", apparently a woman. The Captain was unable to acquire much more information about her, which intrigued him, other than she was a potentially superhuman threat. He staked out the most logical areas of observation around the new Antarctic base and was able to catch her trying to penetrate the bases perimeter. He was immediately struck by her beauty, she wore no mask and had marvelous long black hair cascading down her shoulders and despite the cold, was rather sparsely clothed. They did battle across the frozen landscape for hours, the Captain wanted to capture her alive but she avoided his snares at every turn. Finally she reached her rendezvous point where an escape craft waited and Captain Arcane was forced to simply gun her down just as she reached it. His rifle has quite a devastating effect on bare flesh and her left arm and head were blown off her body. The ship took off with her body and head, leaving the arm behind. When the Captain found it, he was surprised to see that the stump of the shoulder was completely smoothed over with skin and that the arm itself was still alive. He took the arm back with him for study and it has been determined that "Joan Jett" has a hyper-healing ability that makes her nearly impossible to kill. Shortly after this, while on a mission to Vibora Bay, Joan appeared again, alive and well, trying to assassinate the Captain. Her left arm had been replaced with a cybernetic prosthesis but her head was back on her body as if it had never been lost. During the course of the ensuing battle, she let it be known that she would not rest till she had possession of her arm again. The Captain has considered giving it back to her but keeps it primarily to distract her from her spying duties and to keep her off her game.
Powers and Equipment
Captain Arcane has refused to allow his physical abilities to be measured and has refused medical treatment even when obviously injured. However he has been observed performing feats that would be considered superhuman. His reflexes and endurance appear to be considerably greater than the average human and he has been observed lifting objects in excess of 1000 pounds. While it is known that his combat suit does augment strength and agility, it is not known whether this is the only source of his abilities. He also has recovered from all injuries with out medical treatment. Again it is not know whether this is an inherent ability or if he has private automated medical facilities.
There has been some speculation that Captain Arcane is in some way telepathic as he is able to learn to understand many languages in very short amounts of time, even non-vocal alien languages. He also has proven able to acquire knowledge that doesn't appear accessible in any other way. The Captain has never admitted to this ability, nor was Lord Xanadu, a formidable telepath, ever able to make mental contact with him.
Captain Arcane uses a variety of technologically advanced weapons and gear, primarily of alien design and manufacture. His combat suit is designed for the maximum combination of stealth and durability. It can withstand the impact of a high powered rifle bullet with minimal effect on its wearer. The suit also has an efficient energy shield capable of refracting various kinds of energy projections. It has a modular equipment deployment design allowing for a wide range of devices and weapons to be equipped for mission specific purposes.
His primary offensive weapon is a rifle that fires pulses of anti-protons that annihilate an equal number if protons on contact, essentially a disintegration beam. His side arm is a pistol that fires large pulses of quantum energy that implode on contact, causing a sonic blast as the atmosphere rushes in to fill the gap. He also employs a variety of small grenades and gas pellets. On missions requiring the utmost stealth, the captain will often employ an energy sword.
The small scout craft he piloted to earth remains in orbit and may be called for small tactical strikes when the Captain is faced with an overwhelming force. It also serves as a communications and imaging satellite.
Affiliations
Member of Strike Team Zulu
Former member of the Red Guard
Associate of Lord Xanadu
