SOLAR SCOUTS
HISTORY
Originally the Solar Scouts were a team of super-powered teenagers from an alternate universe who were empowered as planetary avatars to defend the Solar System from the forces of evil. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths the Scouts' universe was co-opted by the pan-dimensional multimedia entity Kei Manga Corporation. Kei took advantage to co-opt several alternate realities in this manner and proceeded to use these worlds as stages to produce entertainment for various dimensions. The Scouts were involved in Kei's use of the being known as Nemesis, and would act as both opponent and ally during later confrontations between Kei and Nemesis and his allies in Justice Incorporated. When the heroes of Justice Inc. destroyed Kei's Hypertime Engine, the device that let them travel between alternate dimensions and timelines, several alternate timelines were merged into Justice Inc.'s timeline. One of those worlds was that of the Solar Scouts and the Scouts' own history latched onto an existing temporal anomaly, one involving a forgotten heroine named Moon Maiden.
The Story of the Moon Maiden
Two thousand years ago a group of scholars and philosophers calling themselves The Hundred fled the corruption of the Roman Emperors. Using alchemical devices of their own creation they travelled to the Moon and built a sanctuary to wait for a time when Rome might be ready to hear their message of wisdom and understanding. Soon after their arrival on the Moon, the Hundred attempted to bless a man on Earth with wisdom and longevity. They chose a poet named Anteides and sent a beam of alchemical energy to grant him great powers. But just before the beam struck Anteides was killed by a jealous rival, a member of the emperor's Praetorian Guard named Valkus, and the beam struck him instead. Over the centuries Valkus used his wisdom and immortality to further the cause of war and became known as the Centurian.
As the centuries passed, the Hundred began to die. To counter the evil they had inadvertently created, the last of the Hundred created an infant girl and left her to be found and raised. It is not known how long the infant waited in the Lunar Shrine, but she was not discovered until the latter half of the 20th century. That was when astronaut Hugh Klein, part of the crew of Apollo XXV, discovered the shrine and brought the girl back to Earth. They allowed Klein and his wife to raise the girl, whom they named Laura. Growing up Laura was an incredibly brilliant child and gifted athlete and on her 16th birthday she began to develop strange powers. That was when her parents explained her origins to her. Using her powers to travel to the Moon, Laura entered the Lunar Shrine and found a suit of armor specially made for her. Donning the armor, Laura joined the growing ranks of super-heroes appearing around the world as Laurel, the Moon Maiden. Laurel became an early member of the Justice League and was often drawn into battle with the Centurian.
The battles with the Centurian came to a head during a crisis called the Century War. The Centurian was on the verge of conquering the planet when Laurel apparently sacrificed herself to stop him. Using an alchemical weapon of the Centurian's devising which could remove a person completely from the timestream, Laurel eliminated the Centurian. Without Valkus becoming the immortal Centurian there would be no reason for the Hundred to create Laurel and she too ceased to exist. In the altered timeline there was no Centurian, no Moon Maiden, and no Century War. All was forgotten, until the Hypertime explosion that merged the Solar Scouts into the mainstream timeline.
The Lunar Kingdom and New Timeline
In the new timeline the Hundred were able to grant their power the Antiedes as they had intended. Antiedes used his wisdom to spread the Hundred's message across the Roman Empire. By the end of the Pax Romana in the early centuries A.D., Antiedes had gathered nearly a thousand followers across the Empire. As the Empire fell into war, Antiedes gathered his followers and they were taken to the Lunar Shrine on the Moon. Antiedes and a handful of his followers remained behind on Earth and eventually founded a hidden sanctuary. Together these Lunar and Earth-bound "kingdoms" began planning for their eventual return when they would spread the word of wisdom and understanding. In both kingdoms, descendants of Antiedes became leaders. On the Moon, the leader was assisted by members of various houses, each aligned with a particular Roman god.
All was well until a threat came from beyond our universe. In the anti-matter universe, an evil counterpart to the Moon Kingdom had arisen on the Moon orbiting the anti-Earth. The ruler of the Nega-Moon learned of the power of the Hundred's alchemical engine and wanted it for herself. When the attack came, the Moon and Earth kingdoms were ill-prepared. They fought valiantly but were being overwhelmed. In desperation the alchemical engine was split and its power distributed to the children of the Moon and Earth Kingdom and of the Lunar Houses. The last of the engine's power was then used to send the children forward in time where they would be safe. In the final battle with the forces of the Nega-Moon the Earth and Moon Kingdoms were destroyed saving the Solar System.
Fast forward to the present day and the children were reborn into their new bodies. They remained unaware of their true natures until the reincarnated Moon Daughter was awakened to her past. The alien armada that attempted an Invasion of Earth triggered a long-dormant defense system in the ancient Lunar Shrine and as a result the alchemical powers in some of the children were activated, though the children themselves did not understand where these new abilities came from. When the defense system realized something had gone wrong, an alchemical beam was directed to the home of the reincarnated Moon Daughter where it transformed her pet cat, Trivia, giving the cat intelligence, the ability to speak, and the history of the Moon Kingdom and its struggles. Trivia explained to the Moon Daughter who she really was and where her powers came from.
The awakening of the children's alchemical powers was detected in the anti-matter universe and the Nega-Moon sent agents to Earth to try and claim the power again. With Trivia's help, the Moon Daughter tracked down several of the other children of the Lunar Houses, all also teenage girls, and together they, along with some help from a super-powered teenage boy who would turn out to be the reincarnated child of the Earth Kingdom, were able to defeat the forces of the Nega-Moon.
The girls would choose to remain together as a team to use their powers to combat evil. They called themselves the Solar Scouts, as the names of the patron gods and goddesses of their ancient Houses were more familiar to them as planets in the Solar System than ancient gods. Over the years they were able to track down the remaining reincarnated Daughters of the Lunar Houses and they continue to act as protectors of Earth.
