The Crimson Dynasty (A Past Villain Profile)

Anyone remember these guys, the first opponents you ran into?

The Crimson Dynasty, once the feared “Dragon of the East,” had become a dinosaur that doesn't know it is extinct. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Crimson Dynasty ran much of Asia through their control of drug and weapons trafficking, as well as a healthy trade in slavery. Their leadership, a changing council of advisors, was directed by a family lineage that had established the Dynasty in the early 1950s, the Daigoro family. However, encounters with Agency, Shadow and Oversight Watch forces throughout the years eroded the power base of the Crimson Dynasty and the number of living Daigoro members. In 2002, there was only one Daigoro left, a childless rich boy named Kano. He went into hiding on his third birthday to avoid being tracked down by enemies, and rose to power in the Dynasty in 1999 when his cousin Shiro died.

Unfortunately for the Dynasty, Kano had no interest in running a dying criminal empire. He put all of his resources, all of his considerable planning skills, into one last game with The Agency. Using misdirection and intelligence gathered through channels from a freelancer named Michael Vaughn, he determined a way to get Agency codes and get inside the Agency computers. Using a proxy, he hired Tiger Claw and his hackers, the Neon Tigers, to create a program that would drain Agency resources, telling Tiger Claw to make the arrangements to get the Agency codes. Tiger Claw hired a Japanese wheelman/enforcer named The Shark, former Agency operative Vaughn and a Crimson Dynasty agent named Yuri to enact a three-pronged plan of infiltration into the Agency. Though the plan didn't work out due to the unexpected skills of the mission team, quick thinking by Vaughn got the codes to Tiger Claw anyway, and he began his work of stealing the Agency's entire budget.

A young team of Agency assets tracked the Agency's money down and recovered it, also causing a firefight that ended the life of the Young Dragon and left the Crimson Dynasty shattered.