The Director
Contents
History
Early life
Alexander von Battenberg is heir to the title Count Hartenau through his father, Asen of Hartenau who immigrated Chicago in 1915 to avoid the ravages of WW I. Alexander was 5 years old. His father had managed to bring some assets to the States but Asen’s lack of vocation meant that their fortune dwindled rapidly and he was forced to move to Detroit to seek work in the auto industry. Coming from a royal family, Asen was accustomed to having little role in the upbringing of his children, but the lack of the customary staff left a void in Alexander’s life and he was often left to his own devices. Alexander suffered from a hypersensitivity to sunlight and was forced to stay indoors during the day and was only allowed to go out at night. This condition, plus his search for a real father figure, led to his association with organized crime figures that operated in and around his neighborhood. In 1925, with Prohibition in full swing, Alexander became involved in rum running, gambling and protection rackets. Alexander eventually became the boss of a small gang of Bulgarian immigrants that looked on him as a lost sovereign as his grandfather had been Prince of Bulgaria and later ousted. Alexander did his best to avoid lethal violence and armed conflict finding it distasteful, but increasingly came into conflict with the Purple Gang and eventually allied with Fred “Killer” Burke and continued to harry the Purple Gang for him after he moved operations to Chicago. Through his connection with Burke, Alexander’s gang grew and prospered and helped bring down the Purple Gang and moved in on their territory under the auspices of the Italian Mafia. In 1935 Alexander’s sister Tsevetana was killed in a hit intended for him and this ended his reluctance to engage in violence as he personally hunted down the last of the Purple Gang and murdered them. During WW II he solidified his position and he became known simply as “the Count”. At this time he hid himself from authorities and maintained his loyal Bulgarian followers as his personal guard and lieutenants. He also helped maintain civil order and quelled labor disputes to keep America’s arms manufacturing steady and reliable and in doing so, gained a certain latitude from local officials who tended to turn a blind eye to the majority of his activities in honor of his war time efforts. After the war “The Count” brought back his moratorium on overt or needless violence and a balance was struck in his portion of the city which he maintained for decades.
The Boss
With a name like “The Count” and his refusal to appear anywhere during daylight hours, quickly led to stories that he was in fact a vampire lord, rumors he did nothing to quell as it created a suitable mystique, but he stopped short of masquerading as one in order to save his royal dignity. Despite his advancing age, Alexander maintained a tight rein on his organization, but also saw his empire begin to wane as Hyper-technological groups and “Super Villains” began to take the stage and whittle away at his territory. It was during this era that he came into conflict with Argent and Viper and they have earned his everlasting enmity. After the destruction of 1992, Alexander helped rebuild his section of Detroit into the new Millennium City and became convinced that he had to again broaden his influence to bring the faltering city under control. In 1995, unwilling to face death or give in to the encroaching superpowers, The Count contacted Teleios and arranged to undergo a process to grant him a rejuvenation and super powered strength and abilities. Teleios agreed, finding Alexander’s genetic light sensitivity an interesting angle, he created a procedure that turned out to be a fantastic success, in some respects.
Alexander was rejuvenated by the process but his genetic flaw had a peculiar effect on the process. Now during daylight hours, powered by solar energy, Alexander has incredible strength and resiliency as well as the ability to fly, see through objects, project beams of energy from his eyes and to freeze things with a hyper concentrated blast of cold air from his lungs and appears as a robust man in his early forties. But as the sun sets his body reverts to that of an old man, albeit the body of a man around 75 instead nearly a hundred as he is now. Now armed with great power, Alexander was ready to take on his competitors on an even footing, however, rather than becoming a “Super Villain” Alexander hit on the idea of using his underworld contacts to apprise him of his enemies operations and then striking at them under the guise of a hero, thereby alleviating the risk of an open gang war. As a hero he continued to use the name “The Count” as a personal joke expecting that anyone familiar with both identities would consider it a coincidence. His career as a hero, crushing resistance to his expanding empire began to gain him praise and accolades from the public and the city, a side effect he had not considered and his personal pride began to get the better of his criminal nature.
The Hero
Perhaps it was finally living a life in the brightness of daylight or the realization that his life had in fact been spent protecting his followers and trying to impose order on chaos that Alexander began to revel in his second life as a hero and having more and more contempt for his life as a criminal. Slowly, and quietly, he began to gradually steer his various businesses and rackets into legitimate avenues and divested himself of the worst of his own men by raiding his operations as “the Count” and sending them to jail. The only thing he maintained was his ties to illegal gambling, judging it to be the most innocuous of his pursuits, which allowed him to keep his finger on the pulse of the underworld and giving him targets to strike at as a hero. As Alexander’s popularity as a super hero grew, he was featured in an article of the Millennium Times titled, “The Count, Ubiquitous super hero, or the savior of the inner city?” Unfortunately there was a typographical error in the printing and the comma between Count and Ubiquitous was left out so that it appeared his name was “Count Ubiquitous” and from that time on the general public has always referred to him as such, though he himself still calls himself “The Count”.
Eventually, Alexander arranged for the last of his organization to be transferred to his most trusted lieutenant upon the event of his death and then staged a “hit” on himself and finally laid to rest his past to embrace his future. Since then during the day “The Count” has been the scourge of organized crime in Millennium City, especially targeting the New Purple Gang as well as Argent and Viper. At night, he spends his time at the shady rest retirement home known to his fellows as Mr. Hartenau.
Powers & Abilities
Children of the Sun
Following the experiment by Teleios, Alexanders body became a solar engine that when sufficiently charged, causes his body to increase it's density and to generate various forms of radiation. This gives him a resistance to harm roughly equal to an armor piercing high powered rifle bullet and super strength allowing to lift (press) 80 tons. He can exude and aura of reticulated force that increases his damage resistance. Alexander is able to project radiation from his eyes in the form of X-rays to see through objects less dense than lead, microwaves to produce points of extreme heat, and simple light if he so chooses.
Equipment
Alexander had a special suit made by the reclusive inventor Heron that helps gather, contain, and focus his solar energy. The inner layer can project light against his skin to keep The Count charged up for about an hour after he has lost the sun.
