Dozen

The Dozen is a Gallerran organization of supervillains whose founders predate the Deconstruction but did not directly participate in it, and who oppose the current cressarchies and want to overthrow the cressarchs and restore the world to its previous state. In this, they find themselves on the same side as the rebel heroes, but don't often work closely with them; the Dozen's criminal history, and their current drastic methods, make many heroes reluctant to trust them. Still, whether or not they can be relied on, and whatever their goals after the cressarchs are overthrown, the Dozen's hostility to the cressarchs is certainly strong and genuine.

Despite the name, the Dozen count more than twelve members among their core ranks, and still more among their many looser associates. It's true there were fewer members in the beginning, but even the founding members numbered thirteen. Although the organization's founder, Emerson "Sonny" Alligan, has never explicitly revealed the reason for the name, it is widely believed that he intended it as a reference to the movie The Dirty Dozen. If this is true, then either he saw the name as symbolic and not literally reflective of the organization's actual numbers, or he saw himself not actually as one of the eponymous Dirty Dozen, but as the supernumerary analogue of the movie's Major Reisman who gathered and organized them. (The latter possibility would certainly be in keeping with Alligan's personality; he has never seen himself as a supervillain, and indeed before the Deconstruction he used his money and influence to mostly keep out of legal trouble.)

History

The Dozen was founded in 2003, even before the Deconstruction was complete, by Emerson "Sonny" Alligan, who sought out and approached thirteen other supervillains whom he had reason to believe might object to these events and be sympathetic to his cause. Aside from Alligan, the other founding members were Checkmate, the Cranium, the Disappearing Woman, Earwig, Flashpoint, Fracas, the Glare, Mr. Blither, 73, Vermin, Vitriol, and Widdershins. The thirteenth villain, Stratagem, turned down Alligan's invitation, and Alligan soon afterward had her killed to prevent her telling any agents of the cressarchs about his plan. The possibility has been raised that Alligan only ever intended to gather twelve members, which means that one of the twelve he actually ended up getting together was an alternate who was only approached because of Stratagem's refusal. If so, however, it isn't clear which of the twelve it is.

Since the organization's formation, the Dozen has been a continual thorn in the cressarchs' side, and in particular that of Overkill; as the Dozen operates primarily in the former United states of America—now Asgaard—Overkill is their primary opponent, though he's by no means the only cressarch the Dozen has clashed with. The Dozen has managed to frustrate several of Overkill's plans, and kill or otherwise neutralize a number of his key underlings, though they have as yet never managed to significantly hurt Overkill himself. These victories have come with a cost, however; many members of the Dozen have died or been captured in its short history, and while new members have always been brought in to replenish their numbers, still the organization does have a fairly high turnover rate.

A year ago, the Dozen staged a major assault on Overkill's satellite headquarters in Chicago. It was a disaster; although they achieved part of their strategic objective (destroying a communications hub and killing off the Scythe, one of Overkill's functionaries), the Dozen's forces were decimated, and many of their members killed, including core members Checkmate, Fracas, and 73. Alligan himself was presumed dead, though his body was recovered and he was later revived; mortally injured, he managed to survive by transfering his mind into a young clone, though without access to his previous resources the process didn't go perfectly, and there were some side effects.

Today, fewer than half of the founding members survive (or at least remain free), but the Dozen has recruited other villains to bolster their ranks. The organization retains a relatively small core membership, but also now controls a number of other agents and subsidiary groups each of which has contact with only one or two of the core members. Not only that, but the Dozen has inspired a number of similar ex-villain vigilante groups elsewhere in the world; none have become quite so prominent or so powerful as the Dozen themselves, but still each carries on the good fight in its own part of the world.

Membership

Of the original founding members, only the Disappearing Woman, Earwig, Mr. Blither, Vermin, and Widdershins remain, aside from Alligan himself. Other current core members are the Bagworm, the Brass Monkey, the Catamount, Contagion, Jill Frost, Megaphone, Nobody, Positron, Supercharge, and the Wink. Theoretically, each of these core members takes an equal part in the organization's decisions; in practice, Alligan himself frequently overrules the other members if he disagrees with a decision, on the grounds that their cause is too important to stand on ceremony. While this has led to some grumbling among the ranks, it hasn't come near the point of any actual rebellion, partly because of Alligan's sheer strength of personality, and partly because when Alligan has overruled the others, he's almost always turned out to be right.

In addition to the core members, the Dozen probably have at least two hundred associate members—accurate numbers here are hard to come by because there are no centralized records of all the associates. Still, among the best known associate groups are the Sons of Demeter, a group of nature-related supers who want to bring down civilization entirely; the Monkeywrench, a loose collection of individuals who have taken positions in Overkill's government with the intent to undermine it from the inside; and the Coast Guard, a coalition of seagoing former villains that operates along the North American coast. Another notable associate of the Dozen is Typhon, not trusted enough to be a member of the core group but still useful to the Dozen for his sheer destructive power.

Tactics

The methods of the Dozen reflect their villainous past (and, as some would say, present). They have much fewer compunctions about causing pain and torture and about collateral harm to innocents than do most heroes. Still, if they're not quite as careful about it as most of the heroes would like, the Dozen does manage to avoid civilian damage sufficiently to not turn the populace completely against them. Occasionally innocents are used as test subjects for Positron's cybernetic creations and Alligan's biological creations, but these uses are kept secret.

Rarely, if ever, does the entire core group go out on a single mission; rather, they choose the members best suited for the task at hand. Alligan himself seldom personally takes part in an assault, taking more of a behind-the-scenes planning role; the same is true to a slightly lesser degree of Positron, although he does sometimes participate in a robot suit. Although there are some members of the Dozen quite capable of doing heavy physical damage&madsh;the Brass Monkey and Supercharge, most notably—the organization knows that a direct physical attack is tantamount to suicide. Rather, they do plenty of reconnaisance first (Nobody and the Wink are especially useful in that role, as well as some of Positron's robotic scouters), to find exactly what they're up against, then performing some sabotage and redirection of resources to soften their targets before the full attacks.

Relations

Naturally, the Dozen's biggest enemies are the cressarchs, who, if anything, detest them even more than most rebel groups, for the fact that (the cressarchs believe) they could have been their allies. Still, the cressarchs do occasionally try to recruit some of the Dozen to their side, and have actually succeeded in luring away some associate members, though the core members have always remained faithful. The Dozen does enjoy a loose alliance with the similar ex-villain rebel groups that exist elsewhere in Gallerra, and they and other such groups have on many occasions come to each other's aid.

The Dozen's relationship with the heroes of the world is a somewhat ambivalent one. While they share the same goal, the heroes don't really trust the former villains, and don't approve of their methods; the Dozen believe in the means justifying the ends more than many heroes are comfortable with. Conversely, many members of the Dozen see the nominal heroes as artificially hamstringing themselves with unnecessary compunctions, and see themselves as just doing what has to be done. Despite all this, their mutual cause is important enough that the Dozen and the heroes do find themselves working together on occasion, some of them more than others. The Brass Monkey, Positron, and the Wink are particularly willing to find allies among the heroes; Contagion, Megaphone, and Widdershins, on the other hand, are probably the core members of the Dozen most antagonistic toward them. Alligan himself is certainly happy to coöperate with any heroes who are willing to work with him, and sometimes seems frustrated that they don't fully confide in him.