Absolute Duty by Red-Rum-18
A man with nothing left to live for and nothing to lose. An absolutely fearless soldier who wrote his wedding vows to freedom in the blood of America's enemies. And, for the men of E-Company of the 222nd United States Army batallion, he is, for all intents and purposes, their rock. Master Sergeant Frank Rock, dogtag #409966, was born in Pittsburgh, PA to a father who lost his life in the line of duty in Korea, predating the future deaths of Frank's step-father and mentor. Frank's siblings would later suffer untimely fates, either dead, comatose, or lock-up in in a mental institution. Frank, in his adult life, joined the Pittsburgh police force before enlisting into the Army at the beginning of America's war on terror (which was instigated by foreign terrorists who tried to suicide-bomb important American structures, a plot foiled by a meta-talented being called “Superman”). Assigned to E-Company, or Easy Company as they were jokingly dubbed, Prvt. Frank Rock served under a lieutenant nicknamed “Skipper” and fought shoulder-to-shoulder with good men like Jake Johnson, Horace Canfield, Joe Shapiro, and Phil Mason. By the time that Frank had been promoted to Sergeant, Skipper had been killed in an ambush, Frank had fallen in love with Anais Guillot (a French-American army nurse), and the US military had toppled the tyranny of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, who was in cahoots with terrorist factions such as the Taliban. While the troops were investigating the abandoned palace of Hussein in Baghdad, Frank's team had discovered a secret vault containing research on a new chemical weapon. What the didn't know was when they had accidentally triggered a signal when they stole those files. When the signal activated, a German-American fighter pilot named Hans von Hammer, who was actually an unwilling mole for the terrorists, convinced his squadron that the Middle Eastern US military base had been overrun by terrorists. The fooled squad bombed the base, and then actual terrorists ransacked what remained when the dust cleared. Jake Johnson was blasted in half, still alive, while being dragged away from the slaughter, tank operator Jeb Stuart is now MIA, and the remnants of Easy Company were captured by the terrorists along with the lockbox containing the bioweapon files. When
Sgt. Rock awoke, he and his team were in the innermost sanctum of the terrorist stronghold. The cloaked and obscured visage of their leader appeared before them, announcing these four Americans as the test subjects for their bioweapon, which will “cleanse the Earth of sin and decadence as the one true god takes his rightful place”. As Frank tried to remain conscious as the chemical compound was injected into his brain, the leader raised their hand to the sky, displaying the symbol for Omega carved into their palm...
Notes:
* It's just a coincidence that Mainstream Sgt. Rock was born in Pittsburgh, which I chose to replace Gotham City as home of the Absolute Batman; the mainstream Batman joined forces with mainstream Sgt. Rock on a few missions.
* In the mainstream comics, Easy Company members Horace, Joe, and Phil went by the respective nicknames of Bulldozer, Wildman, and Ice.
* Anais Guillot, in the original comics, was one of many women who used the codename “Mademoiselle Marie”.
** Another French woman named Marie Salomon, with no other connection to Anais other than the mainstream legacy of Mme. Marie, is the girlfriend of Batman's ally Alfred Pennyworth.
* Hans von Hammer has no interest in this war other than doing the dirty work of whomever pays him the most.
* Jake Johnson will return to the war after becoming a cyborg, courtesy of the American Govt. research division CADMUS.
* Other war-time characters that may come into play later include Gravedigger, the Losers, Gunner, the Unknown Soldier, and a disgraced Desert Storm veteran named Jonah Woodson...
