“Vengeance brothers”

Background

Royal Williams

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Charles William

Powers & Abilities

The brothers have become experienced over the years. They build up the simple skills they originally possessed into extraordinary competence.

In addition to various intelligence skills they are both now also very adept combatant easily capable of handling groups of opponents by themselves unscathed. They are very strong-willed, persistent and excellent team players as a duo.

Over the years, the Williams brothers had bankrolled their base, gear and vehicles by stealing from their enemies.

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History

As youngsters the brothers of Charles and Royal, born in 1946 and 1950, respectively, lived in Astro City’s Bakersville district with their parents. They idolized the Silver Agent and always listened to news about superheroes as if it were idealized fiction.

Their first encounter with a real superhero probably came when they met the Black Shield, aka. K.O. Carson. He was one of the earliest Black vigilantes, operating in the Bakersville neighbourhood of Astro City. The Black Shield told them that they were good boys, something that stuck in both their minds.

In the beginning injustice strikes

One day, in 1956, when the brothers were around 6 and 10 years old, respectively, the wall of the family’s apartment came crashing down. A Pyramid agent came through, gunned down the parents, and went on his way after setting everything on fire.

The shocked brothers hid behind some furniture, but they saw the face of their parents’ murderer. The Silver Agent appeared then came in, chasing the fleeing Pyramid agent. The brothers were devastated and couldn’t comprehend that the Agent had neglected to save their parents.

Escaping the ruined apartment the deeply traumatized and disillusioned brothers thereafter took care of themselves. It seems likely that they lived on the streets for a while. Charles looking after his little brother Royal.

Grown up now

Over the years they chose different paths for themselves, and in 1972 Charles had become a police officer while Royal had become a small-time crook. Astro City was a pretty messed up place back then, a chaos that Royal regularly took advantage of.

He had a run-in with Jack-in-the-Box and just barely managed to get away from the scene. Some time later the vigilante called the Blue Knight emerged in Astro City, but Royal refused to believe all the rumors. Yet the grapevine insisted that the Knight killed even small-time crooks.

While always arguing, the brothers regularly met, talked and were part of each others lives. When Charles met and planned to marry a Darnice, a gold-digger, Royal warned him of it. But his warning wasn’t listened to.

The Silver Agent was later arrested for murder, which made the brothers happy.

Blue Knight

Then, one night in 1973 in the Gainesville district where Royal was doing a job for the Scarpelli mob, the Blue Knight struck. Fleeing in terror, only Royal got away alive. He went to his older brother for help. The two realized that Royal had a red gun sight in his neck, as sort of a tracking beacon.

Desperate, Royal found that tinfoil would block the beacon and make it fade a bit. Getting him underground blocked it further. So, Royal had to stay in hiding to avoid death outside.

However, the brothers began fighting again. As a result Charles left him alone, soon forcing Royal to go out looking for supplies. This nearly got him killed by the Knight who was still after him.

Following the news from his bunker, he eventually learned that the Blue Knight had been possessed by some ancient vengeance spirit trying to be reborn. The threat was put down by the heroes of Astro City, leaving the Blue Knight presumed dead.

The mystery of the Silver Agent, part 1

As Royal emerged from hiding he also received the news that the Silver Agent had disappeared from his cell, only to mysteriously appear there again in full hero costume six minutes later.

Madame Majestrix, a powerful alien appeared over Astro City with threats of destruction. The heroes of Astro City appeared, but were outmatched, a situation witnessed by the brothers. Suddenly, the Blue Knight appeared again and immediately went for Royal.

Charles caught up with the two of them just as the Knight was about to gun down Royal on a roof. He placed himself between the Knight and his brother, pleaded for his brother’s life. The Knight actually listened, went away and never appeared again.

The mystery of the Silver Agent, part 2

Meanwhile, the Silver Agent appeared out of nowhere in the air and held a discussion with Madame Majestrix. A peaceful solution was obtained as her son, Rex, appeared with the First Family. The Majestrix’s army then vanished.

Royal Williams as a small-time crook.

The general populace was amazed at the actions of the Silver Agent, who many previously had thought rightfully jailed. The Agent just reassured them that everything would eventually be all right and vanished at that.

Sadly, two minutes before that the Agent had been executed for the trumped-up murder charges, making everyone understand that the Silver Agent was time travelling. The brothers, still bitter with each other, broke all contact (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 1, issues 1-4).

Around Astro City, villains and vigilantes

In 1976, times were still hard. The brothers continued with their respective careers. Royal was now working for Joey “The Platypus” Platapopoulous. Charles, on the other hand, had married Darnice. But he came face to face with corruption as all his colleagues took bribes.

One night, as Royal sat drinking at Dandy’s, the vigilante known as the Street Angel appeared in disguise. He began beating everyone up about information over the so-called Mortellaro kidnapping. Royal, escaping, saw another escapee slain by the Angel’s partner, the Black Velvet.

The next day, Royal was called in to join a gang war that the Platypus was arranging (or so he believed). As a consequence, he was forced to start wearing a gun. Charles was pressured by his partner, Lannie, to start taking bribes too (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 2, issue 1).

In January, 1977, mob violence escalated. A giant being known only as the Incarnate starting hovering over Astro City. Many players had gotten involved in the gang wars, including the Platypus, Tommy Gun, the Braintrust, Bamboo, and the vigilantes Energy Brown, Hellhound, Street Angel, Black Velvet and the Jade Dragons.

Charles kept close watch on this situation. He was being pressured by internal affairs and his corrupt colleagues to pick a side. As he turned down the bribes anew, his partner told his wife about it who immediately left him.

A lead toward Pyramid

Meanwhile, the lieutenant of the Platypus, Deke MacManus, was arranging secret deals with other criminal elements. Platypus himself commended Royal on effective work just as Deke brought in a delivery from Chicago by the powerful criminal Pyramid organization.

The Pyramid representative presented Jitterjack — the Divided Man — who immediately killed one of Platypus’s men. At that time, the Incarnate finally broke up and from within sprang enigmatic heroes the Apollo 11. Royal finally realized who the Pyramid representative was: their parents’ murderer (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 2, issue 2).

The Platypus’s manipulative plans were ruined as Jitterjack killed all opponents he faced, not only those selected by the Platypus gang. Royal, feeling the heat, requested to Deke to move to another city. But Deke made him stay at least two more weeks.

Charles and colleagues almost caught the vigilantes Street Angel and the Black Velvet. But soon after Charles was finally gunned down by his own colleagues and left for dead (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 2, issue 3).

The Deacon’s reign begins

Part of the city broke out in frenzy as the energies of the Black Velvet, who had been punctured by Jitterjack, infected everyone with madness. The Irregulars and others attempted to bring order to the situation. Suddenly, the time-traveling Silver Agent appeared, flying. He killed the Black Velvet upon her own request to stop the pain and end the madness.

At the same time, Deke, having been the main manipulator behind everything, personally executed the Platypus. With that he changed his name to the Deacon, which some men were already calling him. The Deacon took control over 80 % of the city’s criminal underworld.

In the chaos, Royal just happened upon his dying brother Charles in the streets. All radio communications were down and so Royal opened up a large weapons cache nearby.He started firing in the air to gain attention from the authorities. The police arrived, got Charles to intensive care in time, and arrested Royal.

The Silver Agent, again idolized by the people, gave the message of telling Honor Guard to meet him at 10:33 AM on May 3, 1982. He then vanished again while repeating that it would get better. As Charles lay in critical condition, Royal visited, whispering that he knew who killed their parents.

Soon thereafter, Charles heartbeat got normalized (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 2, issue 4).

Turning pro

In 1982, Royal had been in prison for four years before his brother got him out early. Charles had quit the police force. He was now working for the E.A.G.L.E. organization, where he could track down their parents’ killer. He now knew that the man was named Jason Aubrey.

Royal was released on condition to become a mole within the Pyramid organization. Soon, he was training at a Pyramid training camp to become a Jackal trooper. He carefully avoided both the drugs and brainwashing, and regularly reported in to E.A.G.L.E. via communications with Charles.

Some time later E.A.G.L.E. troops attacked the camp and arrested everyone. Charles, also in on the attack, saw to it that Royal got away clean (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 3, issue 1).

Undercover operation

Disheartened, after taking some time out, Royal went into hiding until Charles, still working for E.A.G.L.E. found him and tried to talk him into joining Pyramid again as a mole. As Royal was thinking about it personnel from Pyramid found him and offered him to immediately rejoin, which Royal reluctantly did (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 3, issue 2).

As a veteran he got into a good position to gather information again. Thus, he found that the organization was spying on the First Family, Honor Guard and Apollo 11. Furthermore, Jason Aubrey was up for a promotion in the organization.

As E.A.G.L.E. received this information a shady character (looking like Marvel’s Henry Peter Gyrich) informed Charles that they wanted to bring Pyramid down, but keep up the spying network.

Get Aubrey

Pyramid did kidnap a few of the members of the Apollo 11. But the remaining members came crashing down on the base, forcing Royal into defensive action. By that point Charles also had a cover as Pyramid agent, so they could joined forces to finish off Aubrey during the fracas.

The Apollo 11 were completely depowered, apparently permanently, by the so-called Ka-Cannon that Pyramid possessed.

At the same time the Silver Agent arrived from the time stream for yet another adventure. The brothers finally found Aubrey in his quarters. They were about to execute him when the entire complex came under attack by the Incarnate. The Silver Agent arrived in time to stop that (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 3, issue 3).

The First Family, Honor Guard, the Omega Rangers and the Silver Agent worked together to bring down the Incarnate. Pyramid was caught in the middle. Aubrey got away, as the Williams brothers were taken down by members of the Omega Rangers. The brothers had of course been mistaken for real Pyramid members.

The Innocent Gun

As both lay defeated Aubrey returned with a weapon to kill off his pursuers, but was himself blasted down by the surrounding battle. One of the members of the Omega Rangers, Point Man, irresponsibly used a mystical weapon called the Innocent Gun (can you say: Ultimate Nullifier?), that he had found, on the Incarnate immediately defeating him

However, this also caused a fracture in space-time. The Silver Agent gave drawings from the future to Augustus Furst of the First Family, then vanished. The blueprints showed how to build a device to stop the fracture from sucking in the entire world.

The brothers both later woke up in a hospital upon which they left to start the track and hunt of Aubrey anew (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 3, issue 4).

Vengeance is ours !

In 1984, Royal had finally tracked Aubrey. After Marrakech, Haiti, Oslo, and New York their prey moved to a Pyramid base in Burma. Aubrey again managed to sneak away while Royal fought his henchmen. Meanwhile, Charles was in Astro City. He was consulting Damien Teller aka Nostradamien, the bad dreamer who could predict the future, for further leads.

The information he obtained was fragmentary, and they were interrupted by Gloo, an insane clone of Jack-in-the-Box. The brothers managed to use what intel they had with the databanks in their hidden headquarters in Astro City to track Aubrey to San Diego International Airport, which Aubrey blew up to cover his tracks.

Continuing on to Las Vegas, towards which Aubrey was last seen headed, and where Mirage and Hellhound were fighting armies of Dynamoids. The two studied the city’s power grid for deviations, found it, and went there to find a Pyramid base.

The Ganss gambit

The Silver Agent arrived from the time stream to help with the situation. Inside the base Aubrey met with a Dr. Norton Ganss, an evil scientist (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 4, issue 1).

Aubrey, getting desperate, “convinced” Dr. Ganss to give him powers through an experimental procedure. The brothers were delayed by the superhuman fight nearby, but soon moved on and beat the security systems handily.

Arriving at the labs, they found Aubrey, turned into a superhuman with numerous dark powers, but still connected to the systems. The brothers promptly destroyed the power generators, interrupting Aubrey’s empowerment procedure. This also shut down the Dynamoids army in the city, causing everything to come crashing down (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 4, issue 2).

The gambit works

Aubrey was overcome by the instability of his newfound powers, and the brothers attempted to gun him down. However, Aubrey instead absorbed their blasts. As the Silver Agent and Mirage arrived on the scene too, Aubrey decided to fly away to fight another day.

Refusing to face the Silver Agent, Royal threw a flashbang grenade and the brothers left the scene promptly. While they could have chosen to help the city of Las Vegas to recover from the disaster they instead chose to go after Aubrey who they saw flying away in a distance. But they missed him again, and ended up returning to Astro City.

There they saw an insane spirit vigilante, who had appeared out of the space-time fracture earlier, fight the Street Angel and others. Royal actually also met the Black Badge again. He was thus reminded of that the two of them were good guys.

Sovereignty infringement

Soon thereafter, Charles called in from headquarters having found Aubrey again. Aubrey had stolen a fragment of the Sekhmet Stone in Tucson and used it to pull himself together, giving him control over his powers and turning himself into Lord Sovereign (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 4, issue 3).

In a final showdown, the brothers fought Aubrey, now Lord Sovereign, in Astro City. Despite their protective measures to counter Aubrey, Sovereign and his Pyramid army outmatched them. This forced the brothers to fight along with the time-travelling Silver Agent.

Meanwhile, outside, the spirit vigilante killed the Street Angel and sought out Aubrey, who it claimed had stolen dark energy from him.

Aubrey fought well, and threw the spirit far away. He was winning as he drained dark energy from the brothers – though that actually cleansed them of much hatred. Yet Sovereign was defeated by the brothers’ teamwork, as they shattered the Sekhmet Stone then gunned him down.

Now! Get him now!

The weakened Aubrey, loosing control over his powers, tried to fly away before the spirit vigilante could return. Meanwhile, Royal opted to save the life of the beleaguered Silver Agent. The brothers finally made their peace with the Agent, thus ending a long cycle of revenge and hatred.

At that point Aubrey disappeared into another dimension, seemingly forever. He went in alongside the insane hunting spirit vigilante that had been tormenting Astro City.

Ironically, Aubrey’s last act saved the brothers from the slippery slope they had been on. Without him absorbing their angry drive they would have continued finding new targets, killing killers.

No longer required

Much later, never having crossed the point of no return, the brothers ended up as retired civilians in Baja California. Charles married and got two children. Royal stayed single and traveled. The two would regularly enjoy their fishing boat Willa. This is also where they told their whole story to a journalist.

A book was published. The names of the brothers were changed to Charles and Royal Williams in the story, their real names never having been revealed (Astro City, The Dark Age Book 4, issue 4).

Description

Early on, Royal appeared in a pimp’s jacket or cheap clothing common to Astro City’s low-life. Charles was often seen either in his police uniform or in jeans and a t-shirt in his free time. Charles always had a more buff physique than Royal.

While Charles often has a tense frown, Royal is often seen with a sly smile on his face. In the end, they wore combat uniforms — likely modified from Pyramid uniforms — full of gadgets, weapons and protective measures. They often entered the scene on some fantastic vehicle or another to surprise their enemies.

Between adventures, they would be found in uniforms in their hidden headquarters or in civilian clothing on the streets doing research and tracking work to catch their nemesis.

Personality

Astro City street life

Royal Williams used to roam the streets of Astro City as a small-time crook. He took any easy paying job he could find. He always analyzed every job in advance for risk, playing it safe and smart. He always tried to stay out of attention in the background.

He never carried weapons. When the action got too hot he would just creep away into hiding as soon as possible to fight another day. Royal always saw the wrong choices his older brother Charles did, but Charles never would listen to him.

Charles Williams used to be a beat cop with the intent of being a real good guy. But this immediately put him at odds with his corrupt colleagues. He refused to take sides with anyone and wouldn’t talk with internal affairs either.

He dreamed of living a good, normal life. But that was not for him, as he chose the wrong gold-digging woman and his police colleagues fearing for their own safety tried to kill him.

Charles always tried to protect his younger brother, Royal, despite the brother being a criminal and him working for the law.

Childhood trauma

While they had a falling out that lasted for years, they both had traumatic memories connected to their parents’ murder. This is what brought them together again. Their entire world view was shattered that day, and since then they never ever depended on anyone but themselves. That’s also how they ended up in so different paths of life.

Furthermore, they truly hate the killer, Pyramid agent Jason Aubrey. They chased him to the world’s end to bring him to justice.

Third, they have strongly mixed emotions regarding the Silver Agent, who failed to save their parents on the day their lives changed forever. In a manner, they both blame the Silver Agent for having a bleak view of mankind and almost hate the man. Yet the Agent is actually innocent of any wrongdoings.

They cannot put in words the many things they feel about that day or about those men. This is why they will just shout out a word of recognition (like “You—!!) and leave the Agent post-haste if meeting him.

The traumas are so deeply rooted in both brothers that whenever they unexpectedly hear of or see either Jason Aubrey or the Silver Agent they immediately freeze up in relived memories (in DC Heroes RPG terms, Traumatic Flashbacks).

If already in pursuit of Aubrey, however, the trauma of seeing Aubrey will not shock them. It will only inflame their drive to continue with the hunt until the very end. Closure and justice must be had.

Royal was the first to manage to learn to keep his cool somewhat well even against the Silver Agent and Jason Aubrey. This brought results instead of paralysis.

The vigilante mindset, part 1

The will for justice consumed them completely for a long while. They had no lives outside of their pursuit as vigilantes. They have met many superhumans in Astro City over the years and aren’t really affected by them anymore.

Over the years, they grew truly resistant to stress of all types, and became steeled veterans. One can see how their thinking and priorities evolved over time as shown by the Quotes, which are given in chronological order.

The brothers themselves are borderline superheroes after many years of training and hunting. Yet they won’t acknowledge this, having an innate resentment and disappointment for anything superhuman.

During the many years of pursuit the brothers slowly changed into almost superhuman vigilantes. While sly Royal felt the trend towards darkness he took great care not to cross the path into mindless villainy and ruthlessness, as he had done during his days as a small-time crook, always keeping his cool still.

The vigilante mindset, part 2

Formerly law-abiding Charles, on the other hand, became darker, more intense and job-focused than ever. The brothers sometimes even gunned down enemies in their pursuits as a necessary evil, still careful never to cross lines of no return.

As such, the brothers from the two sides of the law actually grew together into the same direction and became a superbly effective combined force.

Royal was the first to recognize that they were slowly turning into inhuman, cold, remorseless masks that would kill anyone and anything to get to its target. As Aubrey was finally defeated with the help of the Silver Agent, they both made peace with their pasts and completely retired from the world of superhumans.

Quotes — Royal Williams

(Disillusioned) “Steel core. He hits people in the mouth with a halo with a steel core.”

“What are you doing here, Charles ? Your freakin’ cover job ?! Or do you maybe want to get the bastard who killed our parents ?!”

“Energy-signature from a Pyramid Quad-configured long-range Iono-craft. That’s what he was toolin’ around in.”

“Like hell you will, kitten.”

[Upon seeing the brother’s reflection] “And there was something – something about both our faces. I couldn’t really place it. It bugged me. But not for long. There was always something else to think about.”

“It’s funny… we used to be nobody, just like he said. Under the radar for anyone like him. Under the radar for most people, I guess. A beat cop, a low-level crook who liked it that way. By then, Charles was an ex-cop, an ex-E.A.G.L.E. agent. I wasn’t an ex-crook exactly, since we were still breaking the law. But it wasn’t the same. So what were we, then ? Part of the action, it was starting to feel like. Players. The kind of guys we used to be under the radar of. We had slick headquarters. The gadgets, the weapons, the vehicles. We were a couple of masks and an emblem away from being… what ? The Vengeance Brothers ? The Gundowners ? We weren’t there yet.”

Quotes — Charles Williams

“It was all too much. My wife ditching me. My partner trying to pull me into the sewer with him and his buddies. Internal Affairs trying to get at my partner through me. I didn’t care about anything anymore.”

“Those protective fields Ganss built to handle the dark energy he used on you ? We took his data, built them into our suits. You can’t touch us.”

“There he is ! Get him, get him ! Get that hatchet-faced murderer !”

(To the Silver Agent) “Deputizing us ? Deputizing us ? I’d tell you to cram your deputizing right up your chainmail jockeys, but takin’ out Aubrey’s what we’re here for anyway. So deputize this, shiny — you handle the zombie guards. I’m deputizing you ! Authority of me !”

Other Universes History

Homage traditions

As Astro City pays homage to numerous superhero comics and traditions it is not easy to single out suitable parallels set in either the Marvel or DC Universes. The story of the brothers is not the origin story of superheroes, but the story of two who almost became vigilantes, but then returned to civilian life.

However, the Silver Agent is clearly a Captain America parallel, and the Captain could very well play the role as originally told in the books. This is no wonder as The Dark Age storyline was originally written by Busiek as a sequel to Marvels.

The Marvel Universe

As such, in a Marvel-like campaign, the Pyramid organization then, which the archenemy Jason Aubrey worked for, bears some resemblances to Marvel’s Hydra and, particularly, A.I.M. organizations. The parents of the brothers may have been killed by Aubrey, who worked for A.I.M. as he was pursued by Captain America.

The brothers would have met Captain America several times over the years, probably faced the Atomic Skull too, teamed up with some eclectic groups (Charles, of course, would have gone from being a police officer to becoming a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., while Royal joined A.I.M.) and eventually brought their foe to justice.

The DC Universe

In the DC Universe, there are many options for use. The closest organization equivalent to Pyramid might be the SKULL organization, or perhaps even the Church of Brother Blood or LEXCorp. It feels natural, for no particular reason, that the brothers would have worked in parallel towards some goal with the new Secret Six group of villains.

The Silver Agent may be exchanged by a member of the Justice Society like Alan Scott or Jay Garrick. Aubrey then would be connected to either SKULL, the Church of Brother Blood or LEXCorp.

By Dr. Peter S Piispanen.

Source of Character: Astro City comics, The Dark Age Books 1-4.

Writeup completed on the 2^nd of September, 2013.