The Combat Network
Back to Supervillains
The Combat Network, or Réseau Combat, can trace its origins back to a super-soldier program. Every sufficiently advanced nation has tried (and usually still tries) to create superhumans for its military; such programs meet varying degrees of success. One such program, carried by the French army, aimed at stimulating the brain's motor centers, giving the subject superhuman agility and combat skills.
The project's head scientist was the brilliant (but, as would be discovered later, untrustworthy) doctor Edmond Aurel. The test subject was a promising infantry officer, Alexandre Moran. After many tests, Moran's dexterity had attained phenomenal levels, turning him into one of the deadliest martial artists in the world, though it seemed his skills were more adapted for melee combat than ranged attacks. Moran had previously taken to fencing as a hobby; now, he was among the greatest swordsmen of all times.
This was not considered satisfactory - on the modern battlefield, ranged weaponry trumps all else. The project heads, while they couldn't improve Moran's aim, attempted alternate solutions - including the acquisition of a super-alloy monomolecular-edged sword, with which the supersoldier could parry machine-gun fire and cut through tank armor.
Even then, though, another major problem remained: The procedure had a small (approximately 1%) likelihood of causing severe brain damage. As no solution was in sight, fundings dwindled, and it seemed as if the project would be canceled; only Moran's masterful work as Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, the military's new superhero, kept the project from being canceled outright. Finally, one day, all notes were destroyed, along with the laboratory; the equipment, stolen. Dr Aurel had decided to use the project toward his own ends.
Taking a calculated risk, Aurel used the treatment on himself, becoming Docteur Combat. He went on to hire normal thugs, and use the treatment on them to create superhuman fighters. Soon enough, the doctor had his own army – the Réseau Combat, or Combat Network.
The Combat Network has at times been called "a poor man's Shadow". Indeed, the criminal organization, which aims at conquest, has attained over the years an international reach; the Combat Network's ninjas are feared everywhere. Doctor Combat has divided them into the "tueurs" ("killers", the regular minions, roughly comparable to elite soldiers), the "effaceurs" ("erasers", or field officers), and the "commandants" ("commanders", all of whom are competent leaders in their own right). The network maintain its HQ in the Cryosphere, but is active all over the globe.
When Doctor Combat first started becoming a threat in France, the government put into place Opération Synapse, a military group designed for the express purpose of combating the network. Over the years, as the network became active the world over, so did Operation Synapse grow into an international effort. Its field commander is none other than Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, who has essentially become Doctor Combat's arch-nemesis.
Combat Manifesto:
"One should never have to apologize for excellence.
Alas, our world has downgraded excellence to a shameful thing.
Popular sayings can be both a boon and a trap. What are they, after all, if not an attempt to compress pearls of wisdom into a form simple enough that the most slow-witted imbecile can remember it? In so doing, the wisdom they contain ends up over-simplified, and turns into a partial truth at best.
For instance, it is a popular saying that money makes the world go 'round. That is only partially correct – it would be more accurate to say that it is power that fills such a position. Money is naught but a form of power.
The modern man, when told that "power makes the world go 'round", will most likely object. After all, does our modern society not provide protection for the weak from the powerful? Do we not have democracy to ensure that power belongs to the people, laws that ensure the strong cannot use their power against the weak, and compassion to refrain from abusing what power we have over others?
Such will most likely be the reaction of the modern man, yes. But a quick study will prove such a view to be naive at best.
Through all ages, might has always made right. Kings, emperors, churches, all crushed their enemies as well as they could. Strong tribes exterminated or enslaved weak tribes. Large corporations swallowed small corporations. To suggest anything else would have been absurd.
Why is it then that in this day and age, people have come to believe differently? The reason is that the weak and mediocre have worked hard to convince them of it.
In a certain sense, one cannot truly blame the mediocre for dragging the rest of us to their level. After all, it is in the interest of the weak to have less people above them in terms of power, and that can be achieved either by becoming powerful themselves, or by neutering the others. The second option seemed easier.
This is why so much of modern culture is nothing more than enforced mediocrity. From politics to the judicial system to political correctness to international diplomacy to a million other things – all is one large machination designed by those too weak to seize power in order to prevent others from ever using power against them. As such, modern man has been steered away from using his power as he sees fit and into kowtowing to those who have no power over him save for his sociological conditioning.
Some might argue that this is not necessarily bad. After all, while this twisted society prevents most of us from attaining true greatness, it protects the weak. But even if one accepted that enforced mediocrity – a perversion of the natural order – was an acceptable price to pay for the protection of the mediocre, even then, the system is essentially doomed. It is merely a matter of time, after all, before a supervillain manages to break it down, and then we shall have the end of enforced mediocrity. Unfortunately, we will also have the end of society and order; supervillains are a chaotic lot, and even if they maintain an alliance long enough to take over the world, their alliance will crumble as soon as their initial goal has been attained.
The Combat Network offers an alternative. We will not accept any plea to restrain ourselves; we will not accept mediocrity; we will not hide our head in the sand and pretend not to see that might rules. On the contrary; we will do everything in our power to achieve excellence, seize power, and put an end to the reign of weakness. Our strength shall be forged in combat, and reinforced with whichever means are available to us. Through combat, we shall become powerful and proud in our power. Through combat, we shall defeat all who shall oppose us. Through combat, we shall remake the world.
We are the Combat Network.
We are the future.
-Doctor Combat"
