by C. C. Ekeke
Age of Villains (novel, forthcoming)
APPENDIX
HEROES, VILLAINS, TEAMS AND PEOPLE
Aaron Hirsch: Greyson’s father was a wizened, harsh man who openly disliked his son. This all stemmed from Aaron taking his son up to the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights. This happened to be on the same day the nuclear bomb hit Alaska. Aaron and his son Greyson were caught in the blast radius. While they survived, Greyson showed no ill effects. However, Aaron grew quite sick from radiation poisoning, which wrecked his health for the rest of his life. That, combined with his son’s idolizing of Titan, soured any affection for the boy. Aaron grew to despise superheroes and regard them with contempt and distrust. From then on, no matter how much Greyson tried to please his father, Aaron viewed his son with pure contempt and blamed him for his health issues. After a violent fight with Greyson following Titan’s death, Aaron was read the riot act by his wife and daughter to fix his relationship with Greyson or else.
Aaron eventually made an effort to mend ties with his son. And for a time, father and son were growing close again. However, the moment Aaron found out that his son was a superhuman and one of the rogue superheroes from Heroes Anonymous, he turned on Greyson and beat him with his cane. But this proved to be Aaron’s fatal mistake. Greyson snapped and then crushed Aaron to a pulp with his gravitational powers.
Abilene “Abby” Dunleavy: Abby Dunleavy is a student at Paso Robles High, born in Texas but has lived in San Miguel since age seven with her parents, older sister, and two younger brothers. At one point, she was close friends with Jordana Buchanan. But after she had an affair with Jordana’s then-boyfriend DeDamien Harris, the two had a falling out. Brie then helped orchestrate a vicious social media attack on Abby, which resulted in her gaining a sordid reputation around school for promiscuity. The slut-shaming that Abby endured was severely damaging to her mental health, to where her parents almost pulled her out of Paso High. And from then on, Abby didn’t do much to dispel the rumors about her around school.
Abby didn’t really notice that Hugo even existed until after his massive growth spurt at the start of his sophomore year. She befriends Hugo in Generation Next and makes her romantic interest in him known. Her younger brother Dallas is best friends with Hugo’s younger brother AJ. Abby and her siblings are all named after cities in Texas.
Accelerator: The Accelerator is a villainous speedster who works as an enforcer for the Ukrainian Brotherhood. He hides his face behind a mask and is constantly vibrating to protect his identity. He crosses paths with Hugo when the latter was out on patrol in his makeshift costume. When the two engaged in battle, even though Accelerator is much faster, Hugo ended up outsmarting the speedsters and took him down quite brutally.
Ace Steele: Ace Steele was a legendary hero who was active during the 1970s aka the Golden Age of superheroes. He and Paragon were army buddies during the Vietnam War, both whose powers manifested during the Global Whiteout. Ace Steele, as his name implies, could transform his skin into organic flesh. This granted him a high degree of superstrength and invulnerability. After the war, Steele operated out of Detroit fighting crime. He and Paragon then joined forces to create Triumvirate, the first official superhero team. Steele eventually retired in the mid-eighties and passed at the end of the 1990s from cancer.
Aegis: Bogota Iosefa Malalou, also known as Hugo or “Bogie” to friends and family, started off as a regular kid with no powers. According to his parents, he was conceived in Bogota, Colombia, hence where his legal first name comes from. He was born in Honolulu, living there for a year before his family took off around the world to support his father’s photography career. They spent time in Samoa, Greece and New Zealand. But when Hugo’s mother became pregnant with their second child, the couple decided to settle down in the US. Hugo’s family spent two years in the Bay area before moving to San Miguel.
The reason Hugo got his name was because his younger brother AJ could not properly say his name as a toddler, calling him “You-gota.” That, plus kids at school making fun of him, Bogota started going by “Hugo.”
Having lost his father to a tragic suicide a year before Age of Heroes, Hugo was still struggling to make sense of life without his dad. Hugo had ostracized himself from most of his old friends except best friend Simon Han and the girl he was in love with, Briseis El-Saden. And while Brie rejected his innocent yet romantic advances in public, she was happy to bask in his affection away from public eyes. Things all changed the night of Titan’s death, when Hugo was beaten savagely by his archrival Baz Martinez with his crew. It was only by the grace of Baz’s teammate and former friend Brent that Hugo survived and was taken to safety. However, Hugo was at his lowest and made a rash decision to down two bottles of NyQuil. Thankfully, he had a potent dream about Titan, who forced Hugo back into the land of the living. This experience triggered not only a growth and muscle spurt in Hugo but for him to manifest powers eerily similar to Titan’s. After helping Geist and Quinn Bauer expose Titan’s real killer, Hugo resumed his superhero career under the tutelage of Lady Liberty.
Very few people outside the superhero community know his secret, a circle that includes his mother, younger brother, best friend Simon, and Lady Liberty’s daughter Zelda. Hugo possesses superhuman strength, superhuman speed, a high degree of durability, enhanced senses, psychometry, and a sonic scream. He has the ability of flight but has no idea how to control it at the moment. Currently, Hugo’s powers have barely scratched the surface of their potential, which means he could eventually become as powerful as Titan once he reaches adulthood.
AJ Malalou: Angelo Malalou Jr. is the younger son of Angelo and Savelina Malalou. He is three years younger than his older brother, Hugo Malalou. He’s a caring young man who has put on a brave front after his father’s death. AJ enjoys a close relationship with Hugo as well as their neighbor’s daughter Zelda Ortiz. As he gets older, he desires to be called Junior in honor of his father. AJ is very athletic, more than Hugo before the latter’s powers manifested, and plays soccer at his middle school.
Alexandra Edmonds: Edmonds is the Head of the SLO County Sheriff’s Department. She was brought in to help clean up the very corrupt San Miguel police department years ago and has mostly been successful. Under her leadership, the sheriff’s department and San Miguel PD have learned to have a tenuous working relationship with Geist. More often than not, the police look the other way when he employs his “Two Strikes” rule, but refuse to confirm his existence to the press or public. Edmonds has used her office to slow-walk any investigations into Geist and run interference with outside authorities out to catch the vigilante. Her direct relationship with Geist has been speculated on by many but is unclear.
Alonzo Buchanan: Alonzo is a business man born and raised in the Bronx. He married his college sweetheart Cecelia Romero. Together they have three children, Jordana plus their twin boys Roland and Rory. Alonzo is also Quinn Bauer’s maternal uncle.
The Alpha Pack – This is a superhero team of werewolves, each a representative of several Southwest packs. They keep the peace in that region of America against various threats. What many people don’t know is that these are not animorph/shape-shifter supers, but actual supernatural werewolves.
Amarantha’s Ruling Families: For fifteen years, thanks to a bungled US operation, the non-humans of Amarantha employed US-based tech to enslave the superhuman population of the island. From then on, a number of wealthier families rose to prominence during that time, ruling over major Amaranthine cities with a feudal twist, including House Carneiro of Dourado, House Perez of Bellazul, House Fourmon of Côte Royale, House Garcia of Noordaal, and Lord Bowen of Merenwjick.
AmeriForce: The concept of AmeriForce was created after NAFTA kept turning a blind eye to the plight of supers in Amarantha until news leaked about the slave trade. The AmeriForce team comprised of three superheroes from Canada, the US, and Mexico who would be sent to dismantle Amarantha’s Royal regime and train super rebels to rebel. It was a
coalition of nine supers sent to Amarantha by NAFTA. They planned to install an exiled super as the new Us and Canada-friendly leader.
The plan went south and more than half of AmeriForce got slaughtered. The remainder of the team hid and participated in sneak attacks over the course of three to four years. The conditions and losses have hardened the remaining team, as did being disavowed by their home countries. They want vengeance on the Royals, and have a plan to make it happen.
Angelo Malalou: Angelo Malalou was the father of Hugo and AJ, the husband of Savelina Malalou. He was born on the Isle of Samoa but migrated to America around age ten. Angelo was an artist who loved to paint and take photos. For a while after he graduated college, his career took him all around the world. Sometime during this time, he met and fell in love with Savelina Tagaloa, who would eventually become his wife. Before they did settle down, the two split up for almost a year because they each wanted different lifestyles. However, they rekindled their romance and lived abroad for almost five years, moving from Colombia to Samoa to Greece before settling down win San Miguel with their young son Hugo Malalou. The years weren’t easy on Angelo when it came to work and staying in one place, leading to a serious depression. Due to his mental health issues, Angelo tragically took his own life a year before the events in Age of Heroes.
AOPGS: AOPGS is the name of Betty Ortiz’s clothing boutique shop in San Miguel. The street-level floor (Level 1) sells Santa Barbara and SLO County fashion like Baywood Park and Scissor Clothing. Level 2 is where she and her team design costumes for fellow superheroes. She designed uniforms for Aegis, Papa Voodoo, and Titan. Her shop is one of the top three superhero costume designers in America. Level 3 is the location of Lady Liberty’s secret HQ.
Armordillo: Armordillo is a low-level henchman blessed with superstrength and covered in a near-indestructible metal shell like an armadillo. He has crossed paths with Lady Liberty, Titan, and a number of other superheroes. His big move is to curl up into a ball and bounce/roll around to strike an opponent, covered entirely in his armor and rolling at insane speeds. Armordillo is a nearly unstoppable force.
The Bashem Brothers: The Bashems (Crashdown and Smasher) are two very tall and very strong supervillains who rob local shops in St. Louis. Both have identical powersets, superstrength, heightened durability, and can combine into a massive eight-foot gestalt three times stronger than both brothers.
Battalion: A long-running superhero drama loosely based on the Vanguard. But after the cast jumped into action to rescue victims of an accident near one of their season premier events, they became a real-life superhero team. Battalion, the team and show production, are based out of Los Angeles.
Ben Halbrook: Halbrook is a veteran reporter and host of the popular N3 show Beyond the Cape.
Benjamin Crane: Crane is a name that evoked fear and awe among the superhero community and the news media. For decades, Crane was the Vanguard’s fixer, publicist, and media expert. Rarely did the oppressed get access to any of the Vanguard unless they went through him. He crafted the image of the Vanguard since 1990 as America’s superhero team and the ones who allowed this country to sleep at night. Crane was the architect behind the firing of Tsunami in 2005 for posing for Playboy, despite her popularity. This earned him plenty of enemies and an unwelcome amount of attention from the general public. With the controversy around Titan’s death, Crane has seen his influence among the superhero community and the press decline along with the team’s popularity.
Beyond the Cape: Beyond the Cape is a news program on N3 hosted by Ben Halbrook that goes in-depth into the latest news in the superhero world. The show also has guest panelists who offer their opinions and reactions on the latest superhero news.
Blackjack: Jefferson Adams is one-half of the vigilante duo Blackjack and Domino. Adams was a former Navy SEAL and war hero from the Iraq War, which is where he met his wife Domino. For an undisclosed reason, they became street-level vigilantes operating in San Francisco. Their initial objective, based on bad intel was to take down Geist for a crime he didn’t commit. But after clearing up the miscommunication, Blackjack and Domino decided to stay and join Geist’s war on crime. Blackjack is the muscle of the group, using a more brawling and kickboxing style of combat.
Bloody Mary: Bloody Mary is a superhero who operates in New Orleans, often teaming with Papa Voodoo. Unbenknownst to the general public, she is actually a vampire.
Blur: Luke Shinoda aka Blur is a teen speedster and leader of the corporate-sponsored superhero team Extreme Teens. Blur is known for his flashy outfits and brash attitude. He prides himself on being the self-proclaimed World’s Fastest Man, most of his self-worth invested on being the fastest superhero speedster. Blur made that claim after challenging and defeating veteran hero Whiz Kid in two separate speed races, which led the older speedster to retire. He and Missy both started on the Extreme Teens in their early adolescence and quickly became a teen It couple that graced countless magazine covers and attended various talk shows/award shows. Eventually, Missy’s erratic behavior and drug use took its toll and Blur dumped her. Within a year or so, Blur was put in a showmance with K-Pop singer L.U.N.A. to help boost her US presence as she was signed to OWE’s Asian Music Division. However, he is currently having an affair with Seraph from the Vanguard, who is engaged to Sentinel. His spiky hair constantly looks perfectly windblown from running and his aerodynamic body-suit is covered in endorsement logos.
Brent Longwell: Brent “Lefty” Longwell is a student athlete who attends Paso Robles High and is a guard for the Paso High Bearcats. At one point, he was tight with Baz Martinez and his circle. While Brent was not cruel like Baz and his other friends, he was a follower who took part in Baz’s pranks and beatdowns just to stay accepted by them. But after Baz’s vicious attack on Hugo a few days after the end of their freshman year, Brent cut off all ties with those boys. He was then ostracized by his own basketball team and other jock friends of Baz after this, but Brent stuck to his guns and endured this. Once sophomore year began, he quickly became friends with Hugo and deepened his friendship with Rafael Turner. Brent also happens to be close friends with Brie and J-Tom, while nursing a huge one-sided infatuation with Jordana.
Briseis “Brie” El-Saden: Briseis is a student athlete attending Paso Robles High who is in the same year as Hugo Malalou. Brie is beautiful, a top varsity tennis player, and quite popular around school. She surrounds herself with a squad of other popular and pretty girls who call themselves the Sensational Six. In that group, her closest friends are Jen Thomas and Jordana Buchanan. Hugo Malalou has been in love with Brie since sixth grade, but Brie was never quite sure about her feelings for him. In public, she’s embarrassed by his romantic overtures and often chastised him to avoid getting teased. In private, Brie loved Hugo’s affection and encouraged it. She was a constant in Hugo’s life in the year following his father’s suicide and she grew close to the whole Malalou family. So much so that Hugo’s mother encouraged Brie to call her by her first name instead of “Mrs. Malalou.”
Brie can be charming, kind and very loyal toward people she cares about, the latter attribute obvious by how she protects her brother Rameses’s sexuality from their conservative Muslim parents. But behind her beautiful face is a world of insecurity that brings out Brie's worst traits. This includes her narcissism, blatant disdain for those she considers losers, her pettiness when slighted, and mean streak whenever she feels wronged. At school with her squad, Brie’s primary concerns are her reputation and looks, where she derives most of her self-worth. Even worse, Brie tolerates, and mostly encourages Spencer’s, Lia’s and Natalie’s cruel behavior toward others so that they serve as her personal handmaidens and attack dogs. This also allows Brie to keep her hands clean of any wrongdoing when retaliating against her enemies.
Dr. Byron Campbell: Byron Campbell is a renowned historian who studied superheroes and superhumans for decades. His best-selling book, The Golden Age: The Dawn of Real-life Superheroes, came out in 1988 after the
Vanguard became active. The book has since been revised and rereleased. The Golden Age has become required reading for anyone studying superheroes as well as anyone aspiring to become a superhero. Campbell has released other books which have become bestsellers but no one have reached the heights of his debut novel.
Carolina Shen: Solomon Shen’s teenaged sister is an immensely powerful psionic superhuman, so powerful that the Royals in Amarantha weaponized her as a way to keep the larger superhuman population in line. During the Amaranthine Civil War, Carolina was freed by Greyson Hirsch. After the war ended, she reunited with her long-lost brother Solomon. Now Carolina lives in the lap of luxury since her brother became the president of Amarantha.
Clinton Marsden: Clint is Geist’s hacker who assists greatly on the vigilante’s missions. Providing intel on targets and rogues, hacking security systems and disabling cameras at the right time, Clint is a vital member of Team Geist. He’s skinny and tattooed, and speaks fluent sarcasm. He has a very bright outlook on life despite the darkness and grim world he works in. Geist met Clint by chance when the latter hacked Lady Liberty’s HQ. Geist used his skills to back-trace the source before it bounced somewhere else and put the fear of God into the hacker. But Geist saw something in the young man and decided to employ him instead. Their partnership has been ongoing for over four years.
Cody Banks: Cody is a student athlete at Paso Robles, playing as a forward on the Bearcats varsity team and close friends with Baz Martinez, DeDamien Harris, and TJ Kim. He was formerly friends with Brent Longwell. Like DeDamien and TJ, he enjoyed tormenting students he considered dweebs and losers, Hugo and Simon especially. Part of him felt guilty at how badly Baz beat up Hugo Malalou, but Cody was too scared to admit this and buried the guilt. He and Baz hazed Brent after the latter ended his friendship with them.
Colin Garner: Colin is a video producer and videographer who used to work at SLOCO Daily until Jono McGowan threw him under the bus to cover for a mistake of his. Colin worked with Quinn on her “Sidewalk Confessionals” and the two became good friends. Now Colin freelances as a video producer and is truly enjoying his newfound freedom as well as the higher earnings.
