The Renegades

Opposed Toyo Harada and his Harbinger Foundation, the Renegades fight to put an end to both of them. The current members of the team are Peter Stanchek, Flamingo, Zephyr, Torque, Ax and Kris Hathaway.

History (After 2012 Relaunch)

In the universe after the VEI launch in 2012, the Renegades first formed around the outcast Peter Stanchek. Stanchek was taken in by Toyo Harada, who knew him to be the powerful Omega psiot referred to in the prophecies of the the Bleeding Monk as the Harbinger. Harada sought to control Peter and use him to further the means of his Harbinger Foundation, to make a better world (devoid of war, hunger, and disease), but one under Harada's complete control. Peter soon learned the lenghts Harada was willing to go to in order to achieve his vision (such as the torture and death of young unactivated psiots, and later the murder of Peter's only real friend Joseph Irons in an attempt to make Peter dependent on him), and splits with the Foundation.

Peter begins rounding up allies from the Harbinger Foundation's registry of potential psiots. The first is Faith Herbert, whose abilities Peter himself activated before leaving the foundation. With the help of Faith, and his childhood friend Kris Hathaway (who resents Peter for briefly mentally manipulating her into loving him and involving her in the conflict), Peter forms the Renegades. As an outcast and misfit himself, Peter seeks like-minded lost souls to form his opposition force to Harada's foundation. They soon recruit Flamingo (an abused exotic dancer with flame abilities) and Torque (a paralyzed boy who can project a psychic shell around his body to make himself super strong and invulnerable).

The newly formed Renegades then became embroiled in the power struggle between the Harbinger Foundation and it's rival, the private security contractor Project Rising Spirit. The two forces clashed in the city of Las Vegas as each side tried to recover Rising Spirit's escaped team of psiot child soldiers, Generation Zero, in what became known as the Harbinger Wars. During the conflict the Renegades found themselves up against the nano-enhanced soldier Bloodshot, and later against Rising Spirit's squad of cybernetically created psiots, the H.A.R.D. Corps.

After the conflict, the Renegades found themselves captured by the Harbinger Foundation, trapped in pods where they were subjected to the illusion of a perfect world, created by Harada to keep them pacified (Except for Peter, who is too strong for such an illusion to control and is instead kept in a coma by Harada). As Kris and Faith start to figure out what's happening to them, Harada is meanwhile weakening after forty days of no sleep. Harada eventually collapses into a psychic "mind-squall", an unintentional release of his energy, made uncontrollable by his state of exhaustion. The Renegades' fellow prisoner, Gen Zero member Animalia, manages to escape from the illusion using her psychically projected animal companions, and frees Peter, who then releases the other members from the illusion.

Following their escape from the Harbinger Foundation, the Renegades teamed up with Ax, a hacker trying to expose Harada's secrets to the world. Faith and Torque began a romantic relationship around this time. Peter leads an all out attack on the Harbinger Foundation, going head to head with Harada himself. The attack proves to be a feint, giving Ax and Kris Hathaway time to hack Harada's system and steal all of the foundation's data. The plan succeeds, with Ax going on to expose Harada's power and his organization's activities to the world. Unfortunately, Flamingo is killed during the battle and Peter is severely weakened in his fight with Harada, effectively disbanding the Renegades.

After the global exposure of the Harbinger Foundation, Peter tries to face his personal demons and come to terms with what he perceives as his failure to protect his friends. Meanwhile, Kris Hathaway is jailed for her involvement in the attacks on the Foundation. Peter tries to break her out, but seeing his twisted and drugged state of mind she refuses to go with him. Having given up any hope of redemption Peter seeks isolation in a psychic bubble at the bottom of the sea.

Since this the Renegades haven't made another appearance as a group, though members Faith and Torque have appeared several times. During the Armor Hunters event, they worked with Gen Zero to provide disaster relief after the destruction of Mexico City by the giant robot GIN_GR. Slightly after, Torque and Faith end their relationship, with Faith going to California to try her hand at being a superhero and Torque going off to star in a reality TV show.