Psycho Pirates
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Once an ordinary – if colourful – high-tech mercenary group, the Psycho Pirates are now a deadly force of psychokinetic soldiers in service to the nefarious supervillain, Mind Master II
History
The group known today as the Psycho Pirates began life as a high-tech mercenary group under the name of Scheitler-Wulff Solutions. Formed in 1991 by a group of European guns for hire, its founding members believed that they could do better as a group rather than as individuals. Combining their assets, the group arranged a contract with ARGET for high-tech weapons and equipment, making them one of the best equipped mercenary forces in the world.
For several years, the group rode high on their successes. Their combination of skills, experience and advanced weaponry made them deadly and capable foes who could take on jobs that conventional mercenaries couldn’t. They often found themselves employed by those desperate to gain super-powered support, but either unwilling or unable to secure the assets of actual superhumans. In its first seven years, the group was responsible for the deaths of a half-dozen assorted superhumans, mostly in the third world.
However, as the nineties wore on, the organisation suffered a series of setbacks. An operation in West Africa went bad due to the unexpected presence of super-powered mercenaries, costing the organisation a number of its most capable and experienced members. To make matters worse, one of its founding members quit the group, taking with him much of their assets. Deprived of finances, ARGENT chose to withdraw their support.
As a result, the remnants of Scheitler-Wulff Solutions wound up in east Africa, eking out a living in Somalia, working for the local warlords and, eventually, turning to piracy to support themselves. It was into this situation that Mind Master first encountered them, seeking loyal and well-motivated minions to serve him in his campaign of world conquest. The mercenaries readily agreed to serve him, knowing full well that their options, at this point, were rather limited.
However, despite their skills and experience, Mind Master felt that they needed more. The first was a theme; he was somewhat taken with their “pirate” approach, and felt that the group could take this further (Pirates having been a secret obsession of Miles when he was growing up). Thus, under his lead, they adopted classical pirate attire and mannerisms. Even then, he felt that they needed more; their high-tech weapons were long gone, so he felt that they needed an edge if he was to confront superheroes.
As such, he decided to use them as test-beds for his newest device, a mind stimulator that would enhanced their mental capabilities, Giving them limited psionic powers – not as capable as his own, but still potentially dangerous. After a few failed experiments resulting insanity and some exploding heads, the device was perfected; the surviving mercenaries-turned-pirates were now equipped with an array of deadly mental powers.
Re-naming them the “Psycho-Pirates”, Mind Master felt that they were ready to face whatever superheroes dared to stand in his path to world conquest. Returning to Millennium City, he sent his minions forth to do his bidding and fulfil his agenda.
Initially, the Psycho Pirates proved to be successful; their training and mental powers made them formidable foes, capable of overwhelming most conventional opponents and posing a risk to even Superheroes. At first, they provided excellent support for Mind Master and his schemes.
However, several battles with members of the Lolcat Brgud saw a reversal of their fortunes, with the pirates being defeated on several occasions. While initially they were able to keep ahead of the numbers defeated and disabled, soon the drain on their resources became noticeable, especially after a large number of them were killed and consumed by the ancient terror known as Ghost Veil.
Attempts to further augment their abilities with Draysha gas proved to be unsuccessful, as the Pirates continued to be defeated. Regardless, they remained loyal to Mind Master, knowing full well that their fortunes would be reversed when he enacted his master plan (that many of them had been psychically brainwashed by Mind Master probably also factored into this loyalty). It was this that saw them make a defiant last stand in Mind Master’s volcano lair, only to be defeated by the Lolcat Brgud. With a few exceptions, its members were captured and imprisoned in Stronghold along with their former master.
Membership
While the original core membership of the Psycho Pirates was made up of the survivors of Scheitler-Wulff Solutions, Mind master has been more than happy to recruit new members into the organization. New recruits undergo psionic screening and behavioural modification at Mind Master’s hands to ensure loyalty, before being subjected to his mind enhancement technologies. The survivors of these programs are then assigned to Mind Master’s various bases and schemes.
All of the members of the organization have some degree of psionic powers; their rank is based off what abilities they gained, as well as the strength of those abilities. Those with more directly offensive powers serve as frontline combatants, while others serve as scouts, technicians and information gatherers.
While the mind enhancement technology does give its subjects superhuman abilities, the long-term effects of the technology is unknown.
