The Fearsome

A loosely grouped quartet of villains who each failed to become a crime lord in the city banded together from 1979 onward to work together. Doc Abattoir originally led the team he created with Sir Razor, Ms. Malice, and Silverback and often fought The Eyes of Night. After the Blackstone Riots of 1983, only Silverback remains of the original Fearsome, and he’s recruited other teammates over the years, his only constant ally being Subject Nine.
The most effective incarnation of the Fearsome was the third—Silverback, Subject Nine, and Verman—which quietly dominated the West End underworld from 1984 to 1988 after ousting several other criminal gangs there. The members of the Fearsome, all DNAscendants, have good reason to dislike Grant Conglomerates, and some of their schemes have involved thefts aimed at GrantCo and other corporations in Freedom City.

Structure

Silverback

Through the DNAscent process, Nicholas Landon’s formerly slight body was permanently transformed into a gorilla-like form with silvery metallic fur and enhanced strength. His intellect has grown over the years and he has led several incarnations of the Fearsome since the death of Doc Abattoir, his mentor and the quartet’s original leader. Silverback’s immunity to mental powers makes him amenable to using mentalists like Subject Nine as his allies quite often. He is unaware The Labyrinth keeps nano-tracers on him and has audio and videotape recordings of everything he sees, hears, and does.

Subject Nine

One of the tragic results of the early DNAscent Process, the former Agent White went mad during the drug treatment, but hid his psychoses until the final phase. Charles Parker gained mental powers that further unhinged his mind. All his rage is focused on his former lover Evening, whom he blame for his current condition and for abandoning him, and he despises her partner, the Eye of Justice, for taking his place in Evening’s heart. Subject Nine isn’t even aware of his own name any more, and refers to himself in the third person. His telekinetic and mind-control powers make him a useful tool and ally of Silverback.

Verman

A test subject of the early DNAscent process, Herman Willard was a street person transformed into a half-man, half-rat with great speed, strength, and agility, along with tenacious survival instincts. He initially survived by hiding out in the city sewers and subway tunnels, emerging only at night to steal food. Silverback and Subject Nine found him and helped bring out some of his buried personality and memories, leading him to join the Fearsome. Verman is a vicious and barely-human killer who has become accustomed to his mutations and enjoys his status as a “predator.”
Verman is, in many regards, the most dangerous of the Fearsome; while Silverback is more intelligent and cunning, and Subject Nine is most definitely crazier, neither of them can match Verman for sheer viciousness and bloodlust, particularly when the rat-man is backed into a corner. If you’re looking for a villain to demonstrate some of the blood-spattered inhumanity of the Iron Age to your players, Verman is a good choice.

History

Doc Abattoir

Born into a family of prominent Freedom City physicians, Samuel Johnson IV was destined from birth for the operating room, even if he didn’t see it that way. Whenever a young Samuel showed an interest in something other than medicine, the elder Dr. Johnson ruthlessly squashed the boy’s enthusiasm. By the time he was a teenager, Samuel knew two things: he would be a doctor and he’d kill his father.
Samuel did both the night he graduated from FCU medical school. Although the obvious suspect, a lack of evidence, and pressure from his family, meant Samuel got away with it. But instead of providing catharsis, Samuel’s patricide opened him up to possession by Jack-a-Knives. Filled with the Murder Spirit, Dr. Johnson shocked everyone when he spurned a residency at FMC and chose McNider Memorial instead. Of course he wasn’t being altruistic; McNider received the lion’s share of homeless and poor, precisely the kind of people not too many questions would be asked about.
Although initially murdering infrequently and cautiously, the incessant demands of the Murder Spirit eventually brought about the inevitable: in 1977, after killing four prostitutes in The Fens, Dr. Johnson was brought to bay by the Eyes of Night. But before the heroes could bring their quarry to heel, Dr. Johnson did the impossible: he forced the Murder Spirit from his body and into that of one of the hospital’s janitors. Dr. Johnson had escaped again.
The day after this narrow escape, Dr. Johnson abruptly resigned his position and disappeared. He returned several months later, his identity hidden behind a surgical mask and the moniker Doc Abattoir, and in full control of the powers awakened by Jack-a-Knives. The good Doc had designs of becoming Freedom City’s greatest criminal mastermind, founding the first incarnation of the Fearsome for this end. But the fact the group never truly meshed, combined with the Doc’s inability to control his desire for pleasure killings, spelled their doom.
Caught by the Eyes of Night while scratching his "itch," Doc Abattoir was incarcerated at Blackstone Federal Penitentiary, and died in the Blackstone Riot he helped mastermind. But even in death the Doc managed one more stab at his greatest foes – the day after the Riot, an envelope containing the true identities of the Eyes of the Night was anonymously delivered to the Daily Herald.
During his years of activity, Doc Abattoir became one of Freedom City’s most notorious villains, racking up an impressive body count whose true extent is debated to this day. He might have risen to even greater heights of villainy had he kept his insatiable appetite for innocent blood under control.

Ms. Malice

The third of seven children of working-class immigrant parents, Magaly was raised in a poor but caring home. Still, once she entered her teenage years, Magaly began to drift, falling into the local drug scene and supporting her growing habit through shoplifting, stealing, and turning the occasional trick. But unlike her fellow addicts, who broke down or eventually overdosed, Magaly thrived on her addictions, getting stronger, faster, and tougher with seemingly every dose. But even as her body was assimilating the drugs, it was building up a tolerance. Soon Magaly was taking hits that would kill an ordinary person many times over just to feel something.
To meet her need for ever larger doses, Magaly stepped up her criminal activities, including prostitution. Her “freelancing” brought her to the attention of Count Cool, one of the local pimps. The Count cornered Magaly one night and gave her an ultimatum: work for him or else. Magaly responded by breaking Cool’s neck and beating him to death in front of his girls with his own platform shoes. Magaly’s murder of Count Cool brought her to the attention of Doc Abattoir, who offered her membership in the Fearsome and promised her more of everything she wanted.
Ms. Malice’s time with the Fearsome would be limited as by this time her mental decline, started by years of drug abuse before achieving immunity, was rapidly accelerating. As her behavior became increasingly erratic, the other members of the Fearsome began to view Malice as a liability and cut their ties. By the time of her lonely final battle with the Eyes of Night, Malice was nothing more than a raving psychopath, who left the heroes no choice but to kill her.
During the time she was at her best (or worst), Ms. Malice was a nasty piece of work. Although not overly intelligent or ambitious, her great survival instincts and street smarts made her more than a match for the heroes of the day. In combat she worked herself into a killing frenzy then recklessly threw herself into battle to savage opponents with her razor gloves, reveling in the resulting gore.

Sir Razor

“Barry” was one of many homeless picked up by Labyrinth sweep teams during the early days of the DNAscent process. In Barry’s case, Labyrinth scientists induced mutations that excessively stimulated Barry’s overall bone growth, causing his bones to thicken, forming subdermal armor and large bone spurs that perforated his skin. Surprisingly, Barry survived. His physical transformation stabilized, Barry entered the mental conditioning phase, where his identity was erased and replaced with that of a Victorian era English nobleman, complete with Oxford accent and command of the Queen’s English. Further showing their sense of humor, Barry’s handlers renamed him Sir Razor, in homage to his transformation.
Unfortunately, Sir Razor presented a problem. With no easy way to disguise his appearance, Sir Razor’s options as a Labyrinth agent were severely limited. Although he would go on a few missions, ultimately Taurus himself decided Sir Razor represented too little return on the investment, and ordered his asset liquidated. Somehow Sir Razor survived the attempt and, six years after being taken from the streets, he was back.
Sir Razor was soon recruited by Doc Abattoir for the original Fearsome, serving as enforcer and assassin until meeting a rather ignominious end when his mutation suddenly went unstable. The resulting massive bone growth crushed his lungs even as it flayed him alive.
While active, Sir Razor was a formidable and unsettling foe. Tough and able to rip opponents to shreds in short order, he was also a gentleman who did his best to dispatch opponents quickly and humanely, apologizing all the while (“Nothing personal, my good man” and “Strictly business, you know”). He was also quite fastidious, hating the sight of blood and flesh on his bone spurs, and always cleaning them at the earliest opportunity.

Founding Date

1979

Type

Illicit, Gang