League Profile - Hot Addiction

Travel back with me, dear friends, to the year 1986. As the end of the cold war looms, the resolution becoming more apparent, we observe Agent Natascha "The Dirty Doppleganger" Rashenko, as she boards a plane outbound from Moscow. As one of the KGB's premier Super Agents, DD became infamous in super communities the world round for her infiltration and assassination abilities; while no crimes had yet been pinned on her, the consensus among those "in the know" is that the USSR had been using her to knock off supers all around the world which it perceived as a "Threat to the Motherland." As the end of Soviet era approaches, Natascha was aware of the stigma against her in the global community, and we join her now implementing her plan for an "early retirement".

She arrived in Spain a few hours later, where she planned to keep her head down and live a relatively quiet life hiding amongst the bustle of Madrid. And so she did for several months, until she attended the bullfights; for it was at the bullfights that she met Ricardo, and everything changed. Ricardo Vega was a man of charisma, a man of strength, a man of style. As the old cliche goes, the two fell for each other immediately, and life was good. Barely a year later, the two celebrated the birth of their first child, whom they named Enrique after Ricardo's father. The celebration was to be short-lived, however. You see, one does not date the most famous bullfighter in Spain without a bit of attention, and when you have DD's reputation, a bit is a bit too much. Two months after Enrique's birth, Natascha disappeared without a trace, never to be heard from again; no one is entirely sure what happened to her--maybe revenge for one of her many supposed killings, maybe the Soviets tying up a loose end.

Ricardo was devastated by his loss, and the results showed in every part of his life. He began to drink heavily, and as a result his bullfighting got sloppy. And when he slipped into obscurity--and poverty--he projected most of the blame onto young Enrique, whom he treated mercilessly. This was shown no clearer then on the fateful day when, being too drunk to bullfight and too broke to buy any more booze, he sent 8 year old Enrique into the bullfighting ring, betting (on credit) against the boy in hopes of making a quick buck. In the course of the bullfight, Enrique was cornered, and grabbed the bull's horns in a desperate attempt to avoid goring. You can imagine the crowd's (and young Enrique's) surprise when not only did he stop the charging bull, but he turned and threw him across the ring. In the end, Enrique defeated the bull and his father furious.

Later that evening, as they left the ring, the pair were attacked by a group of thugs who, by the order of Ricardo's bookie, were to make an example of him. He was beaten, his legs broken, and finally he was put out of his misery with a bullet to the head as the terrified young Enrique looked on. He probably would have met the same fate as well, had mysterious man in a suit not shown up.

The man appeared next to Enrique seemingly from nowhere, and while the thugs were picking through Ricardo's pockets grabbed him and ran off faster than the boy knew possible. He explained to Enrique that he was here to take him somewhere his talents would be appreciated, that he would learn to harness his powers and use them, as the mother he couldn't remember once had.

Thus was born Agent Enrique Vega. Perhaps it was some deep-seated fear, or a desire to rise above his father, but young Enrique took to his KGB training better than any trainee in recent memory. He was trained in infiltration, espionage, and assassination, and although he showed a firm distaste for killing excelled in nearly a dozen different martial arts styles. For ten years, Enrique learned all that Boris would teach him; looking up to Boris as the sort of father he wished he'd had, he took his cues from the senior agent in much of his young life. Strangely enough, he even developed much of the super-speed and dexterity his mentor possessed.

Eventually, Enrique earned the nickname "The Hot Addiction" for his notorious party-animal ways while off the job; several higher-ups were furious that Boris had apparently "corrupted" their child prodigy, but he maintained that he was simply letting the boy become himself. On Enrique's 18th birthday, Boris disappeared. His contact claimed he'd been sent deep undercover on a mission, but when he failed to return after several months, Enrique grew suspicious. Leveraging some favors from colleagues, he was able to determine that Boris had indeed been "removed" as "a bad influence", so as not to "damage the specimen further". Enrique became outraged, storming KGB headquarters in a blur of fury and fists and killing nearly half a dozen "top men" before narrowly escaping the compound.

Now on the run and being hunted by some of the KGB's top agents, Enrique fled to Siberia, hoping to evade detection in the harsh climate; eventually, he became accustomed to the frigid cold and, over the next four years, he successfully evaded or defeated each KGB agent sent to capture him. Eventually, the attackers began to arrive less frequently, until it seemed the KGB had finally lost interest in their prodigal son. Desperate to return to society--and fun--Enrique stowed away on board a freighter headed to the United States, the evil capitalist regime that he had been taught was full of wastefulness, decadence, and debauchery (heaven!). Upon his arrival, Enrique quickly began to accrue a name for himself, robbing his way across the country, bank by bank, until he reached the east coast, where he intended to settle down with his gains into a comfortable life of lasciviousness. He changed his plans, however, when he met an interesting woman named Beatriz who promised him a life of excitement and power, if he would come work for her in some evil organization she called "The League." Upon arriving, he discovered that while some people were quite fun and interesting (like that giggly girl), not everyone was as easy-going and fun as Beatriz, and when he angered some Lady he ended up thrown in "R&R", where he stayed for nearly a year...