The FBI League

In the early 1990's there was an epidemic of vicious murders that occurred throughout the US. While the victims of these murders, mostly juveniles and young adults, were of little consequence, the ways in which they died did alarm the FBI. Almost all of victims were killed in ways that were remarkably similar to other serial murders that took place in preceding decades. The 1994 killings of several teenagers in rural Texas, who were all killed with a chainsaw in the same fashion as the Sawyer killings of 1974, being a chief example. More disturbingly, specific details of the "Slasher Era" murders such as the above were pointedly sealed away from the public, leading to much of the old guard of the FBI to be concerned that the original perpetrators of these horrific crimes were resurfacing en masse. To counteract this potential threat, the American League of Extraordinary Investigators program was reactivated and a new League was formed under FBI authority and scrutiny.

Officially, this new League only counted three respected veteran FBI agents with experience in "unusual" cases as part of its membership. The reason being, that the 1970's predecessor League had several problematic members (the psychic Carrie White having been the main reason the 70's iteration was disbanded in the first place) and senior members of the FBI wanted to ensure that their League wouldn't be made of subversives, outsiders, and monsters with unproven loyalty.

As such, these three handpicked agents were;

Clarice Starling: Formerly the mentor of current FBI director Jack Crawford, Starling began her rise to fame in the FBI when she interviewed infamous serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lector in an attempt to gain information about another demented serial killer that was kidnapping and skinning several women at the time. After her success, Starling went on to become a renowned investigator whose talents gained the attention of the senior FBI supervisors looking too full their League's roster. Having a double major in criminology and psychology, Starling's abilities to understand the criminal mind of killers, along with her dedication to the Bureau, made her an ideal leader of the new LXI initiative.

Milton Dammers: A highly eccentric FBI agent, Dammers earned a reputation in the FBI by successfully infiltrating several dangerous religious cults such as the Thorn Cult, The Order, and numerous satanic sects as an undercover agent. Unfortunately, his experiences with these cultists left him not only with physical mutilations but also severe mental trauma in the form of a proneness towards paranoia. Regardless of these faults, Dammers was recruited into the LXI anyway, with the hope being that his terrible trials would prove useful for its missions.

Dale Cooper: Best known for his bizarre investigation of the murder of highschool student Laura Palmer, Cooper was perhaps the most unorthodox FBI agent in the League, having a variety of quirks and interests that ranged from recording all his investigative notes with a portable microcassette and addressing them to a likely non-existent person named Diana to his appreciation of Native American and Tibetan mythology. These unique mannerisms aside, Cooper earned his place in the League because of his unique but effective investigation style, which used intuition and even symbolic dreams to help him solve difficult cases.

While the FBI was mostly satisfied with their choices it became clear that while Starling, Dammers, and Cooper would be effective in the investigative demands of League cases their ability to directly combat the supernatural was in question. Thus, the FBI begrudgingly went against their initial mandate to only recruit in-house FBI agents for the League and made the choice to add three more unofficial members to the League who would much better suited to the physical demands of the LXI project. These three were;

Burt Gummer: A controversial inclusion to the LXI, to say the least, Gummer was a survivor of a deadly Graboid infestation in Perfection, Nevada. While an unusual man, even by League standards, Gummer's impressive military background, knowledge of tactics and mastery of various firearms managed to get him considered for the League. Initially adamant about not joining a group that was under any kind of government supervision, the FBI's oath to rebuild Perfection and provide financial support to other survivors of the Graboids eventually won the man over. Gummer's almost preternatural ability to survive even the most impossible of situations along with his surprising cunning made him an indispensable member of the League while his down-to-earth attitude and enthusiastic love of the League's work made him appreciated by much of the team.

Buffy Summers: While now infamous amongst the monster and hunter communities today as "The Slayer" Summers before her career of vampire-hunting was a vapid teenager. Summers future destiny started off when she suddenly started experiencing strange dreams and gaining enhanced physical abilities. Summers was quickly discovered by a member of the Watcher's Council who instructed her about her purpose as the newest incarnation as the Slayer. After defeating a local vampire lord stalking her highschool, Summers went on to develop her abilities in secret, killing any supernatural threats that presented themselves. This eventually caught the attention of the FBI who while concerned about her age couldn't deny her incredible talents and recruited her.

Eric Draven: Once just a normal man with a loving wife, Draven was transformed into a revenge seeking revenant after being murdered by ruthless gangsters and resurrected by a mystical crow that blessed him with terrifying physical and mental abilities. After avenging his death and his wife's deaths Draven would only know a short return to the grave before being once again revived by the crow, this time in the service of avenging the loss of others throughout his city. It was only a manner of time before the FBI noticed Draven's vigilantism and decided it was better to have such a powerful asset in their service than against them. Driven, to say the least, Draven's almost single-minded desire to ensure that the monsters that the League faced were destroyed made him arguably the most effective of the group's combat-focused members, but his sullen attitude and tendency to self-harm made his colleagues weary of him at best.

While an unorthodox League that's divided membership made it more difficult for its members to form a cohesive team as strong as the 60's or even 70's incarnations, the 90's League did manage to successfully complete a variety of missions in its four-year run between 1994 and 1998, outdoing the early 1960's group and the disastrous 2000's group. Their horrifying missions included;

- Numerous cases dealing with the return of several "Slasher Killers" from previous decades, including, but not limited to, serial killer legends Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Charles Lee Ray, and Drayton Sawyer. While seemingly successful in neutralizing many of these monsters during their run most of them would somehow resurface again in the 2000's and 2010's to the astonishment of many annoyed supernatural containment organizations and independent hunters.

- Investigating murders in New York City committed by what can only be described as a race of giant mutant cockroaches, the League explored much of the city's underground labyrinth of abandoned subway tunnels in search of the creatures. When finally facing the creature's queen they were aided in defeating it with the inexplicable assistance of a quartet of mutant turtles with a fascination for martial artists and pizza.

- Going to the impoverished public housing community of Cabrini-Green in Chicago, Illinois, the League investigated the appearance of a pyromaniac spectre haunting the dilapidated apartment buildings in the area. This case suffered greatly from a lack of concrete intel on the history of the spirit and the locals of the community being unwilling to risk being seen sharing information to agents of the FBI. This made the League's initial confrontation an exceptional dangerous affair which almost resulted in the long suffering Dammers being immolated in a botched exorcism attempt. Fortunately, a former LXI associate Jericho Drumm was called in to assist on the case and with his help the spirit was successfully put to rest.

- An attempt to see whether Sil 2, one of many alien human-hybrids created by one of the many secret branches of the government, could be a reliable member of the League goes horribly wrong when the creature breaks its mental programming and tries to mate with Cooper and breed a new species capable of replacing mankind. Fortunately, Cooper was able to resist the creature's allure and with the help of the rest of the League destroyed the hybrid before she could try to escape.

- The League would spend the entirety of its existence trying to capture the legendary Crypt Keeper, an undead ghoul well-known in the supernatural community of monsters for his cringe-inducing wise-cracks and love of ironic horror stories. The League hoped that if they were able to capture this monster his almost encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural would help them solve cases dating as far back as the 1950's. Regrettably, no matter how hard the League searched they were never able to find the ghoul's trans-locating mansion during their tenure. That said, if rumors are to believed, an alliance of children and teenagers inspired by the 80's Mystery League, and led by Marshall Tyler of supernatural hotspot Eerie, Indiana, would band together in the early 2000's to defeat the undead villain themselves. While information on this mysterious group of youths is scant it is said that the storytellers of the Midnight Society, the alien-hunting Animorphs, the the infamous Addams Siblings, and even the clandestine adult hating terrorist group the Kids Next Door were all a part of this alliance.

- A rare mission to Mexico would see the League be forced to combat a small army of vampires in the remote strip club called the Twisty Twister. With Summers natural vampire-hunting abilities the League was able to severely deplete the vampires ranks but were simply too outnumbered to destroy them all and were forced to retreat. By the time League was able to return to the US and request backup in the form of numerous B.P.R.D agents, the strip club was mysteriously emptied of its former inhabitants with nothing but dust and bones to prove they were ever there.

- While originally created to defeat the slasher killers of yesterday, the League also investigated the emergence of a new generation of serial killers who wanted to make their murderous mark in the world. The knife-wielding Ghostface Killer, the deranged Dr. Giggles, the revengeful Ben Willis, the almost laughable Leprechaun, and even more ridiculous Jack Frost, were all some of the League's most memorable enemies.

- Undertaking several missions that served as the FBI's "clean-up operations" for the infamous X-Files department headed by the often-ridiculed Fox Mulder, the League was tasked with removing any remaining evidence of supernatural, or worse extra-terrestrial, activity that could be traced back to government involvement. These top-secret missions included hunting a flukeworm-human hybrid, eliminating "super-soldiers" that had gone rogue, destroying all traces of a strange black oil, and numerous other cases that are still classified. Several times during these cases, Gummer would make strong (and heavily profane) criticisms of the League's and the government's actions and during an especially arduous mission involving the recapture of the last of the "Eve" clones threatened to leave the League and tell the media of all he knew. Fortunately, Gummer was "persuaded" by the League's FBI supervisors to remain on the team and stay quiet with thinly-veiled threats of their own that this account can only concluded involved revoking their promise to aid the town of Perfection.

Like all the other Leagues before, the 1990's incarnation of the League of Extraordinary Investigators would come to an end, albeit one that was especially odd and spectacular even by League standards. The 90's LXI as it turned wasn't the only League battling horrifying threats to humanity's safety.

In 1996, FBI agent Dana Scully, the other half of the X-Files, had lost her partner Fox Mulder who had gone missing after investigating the new drug Playback's possible connection to an extraterritorial civilization manipulating humanity for some bizarre purpose. Realizing that she couldn't deal with his mission alone, Scully, with help of assistant director Walter Skinner, was able too secretly reactivate protocol LXG and create a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen of her own using FBI files on possible recruits for the LXI. Her League included a detective and skilled firearms expert from Hong Kong by name of "Tequila" Yen, a murderous teenage sorceress named Nancy Downs, a strange but kind man-machine known as Edward Scissorhands, a highly immature teenage boy with the possible "Mutant" power to subtlety manipulate called Zack Morris, and lastly a full-on time traveller that only went by the names Rufus or the Time Traveller, who only joined the League to ensure that the timeline was set right. After rescuing Mulder and preventing a scheme that involved not only aliens but also somehow deadites, Scully made the fateful choice to not disband the League and instead keep in contact with all its members in case a threat popped up that was too great for even her and Mulder to defeat alone. As it turned out, Scully would have to secretly gather her League several times between 1996 to 1998 to deal with a myriad of particularly dangerous cases from a man-hunting alien predator stalking the streets of LA, infiltrating a highschool that had been taken over by an alien queen, discovering a clandestine group of Men in Black in New York City, to thwarting a bodysnatcher conspiracy brewing in Alabama, Scully's League was quite active in only the span of two years.

Unfortunately, this would be the beginning of their end as the FBI would be tipped off to the group's existence after Mulder tried to reveal the truth of the attempted Martian invasion to the public. The FBI was able too not only bury that story but also connect the dotes and realize that the missing files LXI could have only have been taken by the X-Files division. Seeing this renegade League as a potential threat to their interests (and those of the shadowy Syndicate) the FBI League was tasked with bringing them in. Seeing an opportunity to his turn his cloak and join a League that wasn't a slave to nefarious government interests, Gummer finally made good on his promise to leave the LXI and invited his teammates to join him. Starling and Dammers were unsurprisingly loyal to a fault to the FBI and refused while Cooper was tempted but ultimately decided not to defect. Summers, also tried of the League's less than heroic actions, decided to quit the League but not side with Gummer or Scully and instead return to her hometown of Sunnydale. Draven was seemingly unmoved by Gummer's arguments and stayed true to the FBI League. With Gummer's and Summers's departure the FBI League was two men short and was forced to rely on several squads of the very super-soldiers that only a year ago they were hunting to match the now eight member rival League. The final confrontation between the Leagues would come when Scully's was in Scissorhands old mansion that the League used as a secret gathering place. The team had been in the amidst of planning an expedition to the Antarctic to investigate Rufus's claim of a future alien threat that would make all others pale in comparison if not stopped now. While at first the FBI League seemingly had the edge with their super-soldiers, the tide quickly turned against them when Draven showed his allegiance and began to slaughter the super-soldiers, stating that he had long grown disgusted at the FBI League's willingness to serve corrupt interests. Realizing that without the super-soldiers and Draven they wouldn't stand a chance against Scully's League, Starling, Dammers, and Cooper surrendered to their counterparts.

Afterward, the FBI seeing that their operation had failed decided to bite and bullet and grant all members of Scully's League clemency for their previous secret missions and the option for Scully and Mulder to return to the X-Files with greater agency when it came to how they handled their cases. Deciding this was the best option the pair did just that and granted Rufus leadership of the League. This would serve as a blessing in disguise given that Rufus's mission to the infamous Mountains of Madness in the Antarctic would prove to be disastrous with nobody but Rufus and Gummer surviving the mission. In regard to the FBI League, its failure to stop Scully's resulted in their immediate decommissioning. Starling would go to have another encounter with Hannibal Lector that would leave her his brainwashed slave. Dammers would die fighting the ghost of a serial killer a few years after the FBI League's dissolution having sunk into an even worse level of paranoia and mania. Cooper would disappear after retuning to the town of Twin Peaks having been apparently consumed by what is only known as the Black Lodge. As already mentioned, Gummers was the only other survivor of the Antarctica mission besides Rufus, and while he lived through the experience he would never be the same again. His last known whereabouts is in Perfection where sporadic amounts of Graboid activity still occurs. Summers, as many would surely know, would go on to be the Slayer and this account couldn't even begin to chronicle the adventures she would have in the town of Sunnydale. Lastly, Draven did the only thing he knew how to do, bringing justice and death to the worst of humanity and inhumanity.

While the 1990's League of Extraordinary Investigators and many of its members would meet horrifying ends, what cannot be discounted was their efforts to stop the evils that plagued 90's America. While their actions weren't always heroic they still went above and beyond to ensure the safety of those who arguably needed to stay ignorant of all the various forms of monstrosity that would haunt them.