Obregon Kaine

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Possessing no powers, Kaine is a highly skilled soldier and commander, capable of wielding an array of weaponry. His main skill among the Negation escapees, however, is his strategic mind, allowing him to direct the more powerful members to the best effect.

He’s happy to serve in this role, but doesn’t hesitate to enter combat himself when necessary.

History

The youngest of seven brothers, Obregon Kaine was born on Kazrath, the main world in the Kazrathi Republic. Being the last born to a family of boys meant constantly having to defend himself growing up. This knack for fighting led him into joining the army after graduation.

Becoming a war hero in the Republic’s campaign to reclaim its sepratist colonies, he rose to become Captain of the 24^th Armored Air Cavalry’s Paladin Platoon. He was promoted after personally capturing rebel leader Karik Tobold.

But when he realised what a mass-murdering monster the Republic’s President actually was, Kaine felt he had no option but to kill him.

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Another world

Arrested and thrown in prison, he was soon abducted to another universe. There he found himself stranded on a planet with 99 other individuals from various parts of his own universe. The residents of the Negation referred to Kaine’s provenance as the “Bright Universe”.

A number of the other prisoners were significantly more powerful than him. Thus, Kaine was soon labelled as a “Pest” for his constant questioning of things. The others were more concerned with the hierarchy that emerged to govern their limited resources. Evinlea, of the godlike First, was at the top.

He became closest to the heavily pregnant Zaida, and helped deliver her daughter Memi shortly after their arrival.

Kaine soon deduced that they were being observed. And that the dangers they faced (lightning storms, floods, sandstorms, or the spontaneous Blackwall which resulted in sleep and dreams of being examined) were all part of them being tested.

Eventually getting others to listen to him. Kaine then manoeuvred them into causing their kidnappers to reveal themselves, bringing the surviving members to their facility.

Prison break

They learnt that they had been kidnapped to another universe, where the Negation Empire held total dominion. They were being experimented on to gauge the level of resistance their universe would have against a Negation invasion.

They were forced through more lethal tests. But Kaine managed to anger the base commander, High Castellan Komptin. Kaine soon managed to organise a prison break. Before Komptin could fully react, General Kryzorr teleported him out and initiated the planet’s destruction rather than allow them to escape, so only a few of them managed to get away.

The craft they seized took off before many of them could get aboard. But Kaine and a few others escaped the planet’s destruction in a pocket of air maintained by Evinlea.

After drifting for a while, with Evinlea’s powers just about giving out, they were rescued by the ship Outreach, captained by Fluxor. It was a wandering ship formerly of the Kremmin Continuum, which had been conquered by the Negation.

Always on the run

He welcomed the group aboard, and filled them in on some of the history of his universe. He agreed to try and help them return to their own universe. But they soon found that the Negation universe was surrounded by an impenetrable wall of entropic forces.

Fleeing Negation forces, they were shot down on the planet Senkiem, near a Negation substation. Sneaking into the city to try and steal transportation, they again ran afoul of Komptin, assigned to hunt them down. They managed to escape, but Fluxor’s crew were lost.

They stumbled across the other group of escapees on a lifeless planet, and hostilities ensued over the perceived abandonment. This was cleared up as being due to the stolen ship’s automated systems. But before they could decide on their next course of action, they were attacked by Lawbringer Qztr, one of the elite of the Negation.

Qztr slew Javi, the Sigil-bearer whose power protected Evinlea’s powers from the negative effects of the Negation Universe. He was distracted from killing them when he discovered baby Memi to be completely immune to his attacks. Qztr abducted her, taking her to the Negation god, Charon.

Rescue mission

Kaine rallied the others into agreeing to rescue Memi. But their path led them into conflict with the Clarion Battle Group under the command of General Murquade. Evinlea and Iress surrendered to the Battle Group as a ruse to acquire information. But as soon as they had it the Battle Group came under attack from the Australians.

Also recently abducted from the “Bright” universe, they had gained enormous power in the transit. They were dedicated to freeing the Atlantean, Gammid, from Charon. Kaine’s group allied themselves with the Australians, and used the shell of the destroyed flagship of the Battle Group to slip through the warp gates and charge the Negation homeworld.

Splitting off from the Australians, who engaged the planetary defences, Kaine piloted his ship into the top of Charon’s elevated palace. Meanwhile, the rest of the escapees attacked by another route. Surviving the landing, Kaine had little chance of handling Qztr on his own, and less when Kromptin and his Kaliman Retriever also arrive.

Angered by their affront, Qztr transported the three to the quarantined planet of Karakorum. The rest of the escapees managed to rescue Memi and Gammid, although the Australians all perished in battle.

Karakorum

Saved from immediate death at the hands, tentacles, claws and fangs of Kromptin and his pet by an attack by the equally dangerous native beasts, Kaine was knocked unconscious in his flight. Waking among the apparently peaceful native Karaki, his suspicions were aroused by their questioning.

Komptin soon abducted him from the Karaki’s village. He explained that they were an alternate form of the beasts which had attacked them on arrival. The Karaki were quarantined on this planet because they took any lifeform which arrived on their planet, performing horrific rituals which allowed them to create a portal to the being’s homeworld.

Once there they would hunt down and kill every member of their victim’s species, before returning home.

Determining to search a suspect hut in their village for communication devices from former victims while Komptin and his pet lead the Karaki away, Kaine was confronted by Komptin, who suspected betrayal.

Too late they realised that the Karaki could perform the ritual on Komptin’s pet, who would be intelligent enough for them, and reached him to find the portal to Komptin’s homeworld, Kalima, open.

Kalima

Stepping through to Kalima, they found the Karaki hunting down the Kaliman Retrievers. Kaine was quickly taken captive by Komptin, who took him to his mothers house for storage while he called for support.

While Komptin was absent, his brother, Kamfir, revealed himself to be part of a resistance against the Negation. He offered to help free Kaine if he would agree to try and help free their captive leader, held in a secure prison facility.

Kaine agreed, and soon managed to contact the other escapees. They arrived and managed to free him from Komptin and General Kryzorr. But Evinlea teleported them away ignoring Kaine’s plea to take Kamfir with them. Before they could return for him, they discovered that Komptin killed him.

Kaine barely managed to convince the other escapees to try to rescue the resistance leader. He succeeded mainly because Gammid supported him. Kaine found their confidence in his leadership diminished, as most of them were just tired of the fighting. They attacked the prison, but found the resistance leader guarded by Lawbringer Lkqr, who proved devastating in battle.

He was only overcome when Matua sacrificed his life to slay the Lawbringer. They finally freed the prisoner, only to discover he was a renegade Lawbringer, named Blyq. He left with a number of his followers, thanking them for their aid. But the cost of the mission further embittered most of the escapees against Kaine.

Javi returns

While re-supplying, Kaine came across a Kaliman Retriever pup. His guilt over the death of most of its kind led him to offer to buy it, despite the steep price. Before he could convince the others to spend resources on it, the puppy turned up at their camp. It was used as a diversion by agents of Charon who manage to get Evinlea alone.

These agents, who have been marked with a Sigil similar to that possessed by some of the escapees, were led by Javi, who hadn’t been quite dead when the escapees buried him. His Sigil had maintained his life.

Driven insane by what he’d undergone, and broken by Charon, Javi now worshipped the Negation’s God-King. He used his increased powers to drain a number of his former colleagues, while empowering and healing his new team.

The battle cost Gammid his life. But Kaine managed to kill Javi, and the rest of his team fled.

Abandoned

Tired of Kaine’s leading them on an apparently impossible crusade against the Negation, most of the escapees decided to find a quiet planet where they could try and make lives for themselves. This left only Evinlea, Lizard Lady, Zaida and Memi with Kaine. Evinlea then left, declaring she was going to make an alliance with Charon. Their betrothal was announced soon thereafter.

Having time to think, Kaine decided to investigate Memi’s invulnerability. Using Lizard Lady’s Saurian ability to access the mind of others through consuming a portion of their DNA, they found the hidden word that combined Zaida and Memi into Zamida.

Zamida was an avatar of the being known as Danik. Danik had been making preparations to oppose the Negation invasion, such as by influencing the creation of the Sigil’s, and wanted an (unknowing) agent in the Negation universe.

Zamida took them to Appolyon, who transported them back to the bright universe, just as Charon announced to his people that the invasion was about to commence. Back in the bright universe, Zamida led them to a gathering of Sigil-bearers by Danik.

Planned History

(The following was outlined by the writer, Tony Bedard, during an interview)

Back in the Bright Universe, Kaine and Lizard Lady recruit the Saurians to battle the Negation forces. Kaine makes peace with Komptin by giving him the Kaliman Retriever pup, and the pair team up, luring Charon and Danik to the hellish corner of Negation Space known as Perdition.

They set off Appolyon’s “Soul Bomb”, which turns Charon and Danik into ordinary humans, whom Kaine then beats senseless with a toilet (debris from a world destroyed by the recent hostilities). Leaving the pair to Komptin’s tender mercies, Kaine then heads off to find the other escapees, and then has to free Negation Space from the unleashed Appolyon.

Personality

Intensely disciplined and driven, Kaine rarely loses his temper. He is always calmly assessing the situation, and testing those around him.

He’s extremely perceptive, capable of working out the intentions of others, even if only from the effects of their actions. Kaine also is a skilled combat leader, quickly making plans of action for a group with a diverse range of abilities.

His determination can sometimes alienate him from others. He’s generally unrelenting in viewing the big picture, never tiring of the fight while his goals are unachieved.

Quotes

[When the situation goes from bad to worse] “Bohica !” (Bend Over, Here It Comes Again)

“I’m not crazy, Zaida. I just have a lot of questions, and sometimes looking for answers gets me hurt. But that’s not madness, that’s recon.”

Evinlea: “My kind created the universe ! Why should I listen to a common footsoldier ?!”
Kaine: “Because Generals are in the business of getting people killed. Captains like to keep theirs alive. You wanna put on a parade ? Go find a General. You want to fight your way home ? Talk to me.”

DC Universe History

A collection of refugees from the mysteriously vanished New Genesis and Apokolips found a new planet on which to live together in an uneasy truce, where they renamed themselves ’The First‘. Other survivors existed, such as a group of New Genesians who had been put in suspended animation a while before for mysterious reasons, watched over by the powerful Danik.

The entire population of one of Earth’s earliest colonies on Mars mysteriously disappeared after experiments by archaeologist Robert Charon and scientist Nathan Appolyon, and the troubles on Earth at the time meant that it went unnoticed for a long time.

The victims were thrown into another universe, where time moved differently, so that the hundreds of years in Earth’s dimension became 10,000 for the new god Charon, establishing the Negation Empire.

When Danik had a premonition of the Negation invading his universe, he began to set his plans in motion to combat it, both by creating Sigil-bearers and by manipulating the nascent Legion of Super-Heroes into growing into an organization capable of repelling the Negation.

When Charon found a way through to his home universe, his first action was to dispatch one of his Lawbringers. It ran afoul of the Legion, however, leading Charon to take a more cautious approach. Kidnapping inhabitants of a number of planets, and making smaller incursions onto target planets, he began preparations for a full scale invasion.

By Gareth Lewis.

Source of Character: Crossgen.

Helper(s): wikipedia, www.geocities.com/negationspace/interview2.html (defunct), Darci.