Tyrant Lizard

Originally formed in the late 1970s S.C.A.L.E. was originally the brainchild of science fiction author Carlsbad Skink. Skink returned from a mountain climbing trip to the Himalayas with the foundation for a new religious philosophy that he shared in a book called Reptilian Complexities: the Next Evolution of Man. His new religion, which he called the Scientific Church of Advanced Latterday Evolution, proposed that advanced beings he called the Serpent People were the true source of human evolution and that by adopting their philosophies and teachings humanity could continue to evolve past what Skink referred to as man's recessive mammalian period. Skink claimed that he learned of the existence of the Serpent People by visiting extra terrestrial Preservers that dwell within the Nexus of all Realities while lost in the Himalayas. He opened several self help centers in Washington and California where believers could have their Maha Virus Levels measured and begin the metaphysical process of advanced latterday evolution. After several scandals involving charges of abuse and claims that his church was a cult Skink abandoned the mainland completely in 1981, gathering up his loyal followers on his private cruise ship, the Lemurian, and sailing out into international waters indefinitely.

Skink and his followers reemerged in 1985 as SCALE, with a plot that involved highjacking a American Space Shuttle in an attempt to launch their own satellite into space. Skink wore a mask that covered his face and called himself the Tyrant Lizard, declaring that SCALE now existed to subjugate what he called the unevolved hominid  population. They were stopped by Majestic 20, who believed SCALE to be a front for alien invaders, but continued to escape custody and prosecution for the next decade, attempting wilder and more elaborate world domination plans until eventually fading into obscurity during the middle of the Iron Age of heroism.

In 2001 a new terrorist organization began operations in international waters under the command of a new Tyrant Lizard. Unlike Skink's old cult bent on world domination this new SCALE focused on acts of open waters piracy and the destruction of archaeological sites. Although more technologically advanced and in possession of actual super human agents the new SCALE remains under the radar as a global threat. The modern version of SCALE has never made an attack on American soil...until now.

The identity of the new Tyrant Lizard is unknown, although it is widely believed among intelligence services that it is no longer Carlsbad Skink under the helmet. What the most recent Tyrant Lizard ultimately wants, and what motives the organization has for attacking archaeological sites remains a mystery.