From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

The Menace X Project is a group shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Most of its members look almost too young to possess the skill and cunning that they do, and their control over fire and nether energies is uncanny, as is their raw fighting prowess. Most of them are still novices by most standards in the Isles, but they appear to learn very quickly, striking from nowhere and stepping back into the shadows before you can get a glimpse of the unique symbol emblazoned on the chest of each of their uniforms. They call themselves by titles that would be more at home in the Council or the Fifth Column... yet they seem to have no loyalties to either group.

Members

(on screen and off)

• Archon Broadhurst : Founder of the Project, he is still considered by most to be their commanding officer, even though he has not been seen in years...
• Menace Alpha : The de-facto leader of the Project in Broadhurst's absence, and admired and trusted by his team.
• Menace Beta : Alpha's second in command, gifted with frightening abilities and prone to violence, feared by most in the Project.
• Menace Gamma : The last of the original members, now deceased.
• Menace Theta : Mysterious, scarred, and well respected by the other Men-Xers.
• Menace Adjutant Tau : Under Beta's command, a melee fighter who had the misfortune to develop a rather unique set of wings.
• Menace Force Kappa : Under Alpha's command, a ranged fighter who was among the first to continue to mutate after he was grown.
• Menace Force Mu : Under Alpha's command, a ranged fighter and one of the Menace Twins, rarely shifts expression or tone.
• Menace Force Nu : Also under Alpha's command, the other twin... eerily like her sister in many respects.
• Menace Blast Chi : One of the youngest and last of the Menace to be created, Chi currently resides in the main base back in paragon. Her duties include requisitions, covert stake outs, and cleaning the base.
• Menace Tech Psi
• Menace Adjutant Rho
• Menace Adjutant Phi
• Menace Tech Omicron - A fourth gen and a tech, one of the vent crawlers.
• Galaxy Archon Kyriakos : A strange Nictus from the Council who has begun working for Alpha

History

The Menace X Project was originally part of the Fifth Column's work, under the direction of scientist and geneticist Kurt Broadhurst, but is was a being known as Dark Xion who was the genetic progenitor of the Menace X project. A fallen angel, originally known as Rashiael; Dark Xion took possession of a human body during the sudden boom in business with the Devil that came with the panic of the stock market crash of 1929. Shortly after, he was hunted down by a group of Celestial descendants and mages. They were unable to force him out of the human's body, and thus were unable to defeat him. Settling for second best, they bound him permanently into the human, stranding him on the mortal plane, relatively powerless.

D.X. continued to harbor a hatred for humans and those who protected them for many years after, and was involved in several nasty attacks on both sides during the second great war. This attempted reign of terror ended with him in a Russian prison, till sometime in the late 70's. It was at that time that a young Kurt Broadhurst of the 5th Column came looking for the epic Menace he had heard of, hoping to buy Xion's cooperation in starting a new Column project; and a new age of war. The energies of the damned having been bound to a being possessing DNA, the strands had become altered, and could, in theory, produce offspring that also would manifest formidable superhuman abilities. Broadhurst had the means to break him from his prison... in return, Xion agreed to donate blood samples, provided he was "in on" the developing work.

Obtaining viable tissue samples, however, was a long and arduous process, as the DNA strands weren't of the usual type, but also contained magical bindings. Competing genetic programs within the Column, such as the Nightwolves and the Vampyri, made resources tight. Eventually, cutbacks were made to almost every aspect of the project, until it was declared a failure and scrapped entirely. For whatever reasons, Broadhurst concealed most of the lab work and notes on the project, and he and a team of doctors and scientists chose to continue it covertly. In July of 1986, two of the original five experiments became viable outside the life support tanks, and a third became viable only two months later. Broadhurst was thrilled with his success, and began fierce attempts to further fund the project through mass robberies and extortion until his arrest late in 1987. In the event he was, in fact, caught, he had left standing orders as to what was to be done with the project, including plans for future generations, as well as what was to be done with the original two samples, nicknamed Alpha and Beta.