No nation before or since has so methodically attempted to induce variant powers in otherwise normal people...

Axis Variants

Given their rhetoric about being the "Master Race," you can imagine that Hitler's Germany had strong feelings towards variance. In fact they bred, bled and schemed for it. No nation before or since has so methodically attempted to induce variant powers in otherwise normal people, and they met with considerable success.
    That success was mostly due to one man: the natural German variant Purifier, whose sole power was his incredibly increased intellect and scientific ability. Purifier's research team was responsible for much of the Reich's enhanced weaponry, the breakthroughs in the "over-man" treatments that made normal soldiers superhumanly strong, fast and durable, the cybernetics that kept many of their best men in the field even to the final days of the war. Purifier might have had the greatest variant mind in history, and certainly the greatest before the new variant emergence. It is assumed that he died during the war, but the possibility exists that he survived and escaped to Brazil, as evidenced by the existence of Sargent Master Stryker's foe The Technical Man. What follows is a brief run-down of other Nazi variants and Purifier's creations.

The Over-Man Experiments
The main task Hitler gave his wunderkind scientist was the development of controlled, transferable, true-breeding variance. (I suppose we should all be happy that he didn't tell him to build an atom bomb...) Purifier was greatly aided by the amount of available test subjects in the form of undesirables, and hindered by the ever-tightening restrictions in supplies and funds as the war drew to a close. His successes were mixed; he never developed 'decantable variance', but he did succeed in creating several unique more-than-human soldiers, and the children and grand-children of many of his liberated test subjects have developed the powers that Hitler requested. There are now a few dozen such 'overmen' in the world, using their inherited powers for various causes. Like the cybernetics information, the notes on the Over-Man experiments ended up in the nearby state of Trans-Bialka.

Commander Nazi
The flagship super-human of the Third Reich, Commander Nazi was at first a standard variant with limited variant strength, regeneration and durability. After a crippling defeat at the hands of Snapdragon and Black Thunder, Commander Nazi's mangled body was handed over to Purifier with a request to 'make it better.' The scientist took great advantage of the young man's regenerative powers and used him as the teat case for dozens of cybernetic systems. The re-worked captain Nazi was much more powerful: stronger, faster, tougher, carrying a variety of advanced armament and a jet-pack for personal flight. Commander Nazi was shut down and hidden at the end of the war, only to be re-awakened in the early 1980's for repeated clashes with the American team Ground Zero.

Kymera
The intelligence chief tasked with locating and capturing the French variant Esprit de Revolution met with very little success--so little that he was eventually handed over to Purifier for 'assistance.' Purifier had laid his hands on a sample of the semi-mystical make-up that formed the basis of Esprit's powers, and used that to concoct a formula for injection into the hapless agent. The result was Kymera, a Nazi variant with impressive if ill-controlled shape-changing powers that fought Esprit and other Allied variants on several occasions. Believed to be killed in the war, he did leave a son conceived after this treatment who inherited his powers and is now a member of the League of Nations under the name Kymrik.

Altar Flame I
Another natural variant from wartime Germany, Altar Flame had powers involving plasma fusion, which he could direct into personal force fields, magnetic manipulation of several tons of matter, flight and devastating streams of super-heated plasma. The strength and control of his powers was dependent on his physical state, but given his already enhanced strength and endurance it took quite a while for fatigue to have any impact on this dangerous soldier. Like Kymera, he died at the end of the war but left a son behind, who was one of the faithful spirited off to Argentina for the continuation of the Reich. Unfortunately, a heart murmur prevented Altar Flamešs heir from using his powers for more than a few seconds at a time.

Sangreal
Another true variant of the Third Reich, Sangreal was a commander of shock troops and was flown across the various fronts for maximum effect. He was a holy terror in combat, possessing not only naturally variant strength and durability, but the ability to absorb bio-energy for more of the same. In other worlds, shedding the blood of his enemies made him stronger. Sangreal was most effectively countered by the mysterious Ally known as The Baron, and the two waged personal battles that devastated communities. While he was thought to have died without issue, it was later learned that he had one child by a French prostitute, who is now the international mercenary named Bladethirst.

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