Freedom's Most Wanted Design Journal #4

Invisible, Inc.
Dr. Norman’s research into the creation of force fields backfired in 1964, leading to the destruction of the unnamed South Sea island that had been the site of his experiments (as well as the good doctor himself). The world thought him just another failed mad scientist and didn’t give a second thought to his research. The world was wrong.

In a sleepy Boston law office, the doctor’s will was read, leaving his estate to a former lab assistant, Dmitri Korcek. A handsome, respected immigrant, few suspected Korcek was actually a former KGB spy! Prior to his desertion, Dmitri had been one of the Soviet bloc’s best deep-cover operatives, an impersonation specialist. He had been hired as Norman’s assistant to steal his inventions—now they were being handed to him on a silver platter!

Korcek was assembling a ring of thieves dedicated to industrial espionage, through which he hoped to collect enough wealth to retire and enjoy the good life. Norman’s research, however, was the mother lode. Korcek discovered his former employer had stumbled onto a process that turned people invisible!

Korcek, Incorporated, was soon transformed into Invisible, Inc., industrial saboteurs for hire. From 1966–1971, whenever you wanted someone to get info on an industrial rival, steal a prototype, or alter records, Invisible, Inc. was the group to call. Korcek’s original crew was unorthodox: petty hustlers, circus acrobats, even a sumo wrestler, however this “island of misfit spies” was extremely effective.

Starting in the early ’70s, Korcek began to suffer from delusions of grandeur (perhaps caused by excessive use of the invisibility process). Believing western society was on the verge of collapse, Korcek allied himself with the ambitious Asian warlord Si Fong. He offered Fong his exclusive services and in return became Si Fong’s head of American operations. Unfortunately, while the federal authorities didn’t like theft, they really didn’t like political agitation. AEGIS made a concerted effort to track down and eliminate the “cockroach gang” (as the AEGIS task force called them) and eventually found them. Si Fong perished in a terrible explosion. Korcek fled to South America, but his health failed and he died in 1982. Everyone else was captured or killed—or so AEGIS believed.

The one that got away was Dr. Noah Manley. He had been one of Dr. Norman’s assistants, but fled from “Invisible Monster Island” before its destruction. Korcek did not trust him but was forced to give him a job as with Invisible, Inc. after several tragic malfunctions threatened to shut down the project. Manley studied Dr. Norman’s machine carefully, but despite many attempts, could never rebuild it.

Though Invisible, Inc. was busted, Manley’s sense of self-preservation kicked in and once again he escaped. His failures gnawed at him, however. For decades he tried to rebuild the machine, bouncing between corporations and criminal organizations in a vain attempt to research “the missing piece.” Three years ago, he landed a position at the Foundry. While studying someone’s ideas on force field generation, he finally solved the puzzle. Leaving his position with the Foundry (while remaining on good terms), Manley finally built a working Invisibility Field Generator. He christened it “Inviso-2,” and renamed himself “Dr. Noman.”

What good is an invisibility machine, though, if you don’t use it? So Invisible, Inc. has returned, unseen, of course.