HERO-TIMES magazine is seeking submisions

[Ken Solo]

I like the idea of the news paper acounts mentioned on another thread so much that I'm going to start one here soliciting just such accounts for my own game. I play with about two dozen NPC hero groups around the world, and a newspaper sumarizingtheir exploits would be wonderful for adding to the campaign world. (and giving me more springboards for plot ideas)

 

So what I ask of you all is this: would you please post a newspaper view of an event that happened in your campaign recently? I plan on collecting any and all that do not directly conflict with my campaign world and publishing a SUPER-TIMES news magazine that only covers news of the supercomunity and/or the wierd. Naturally, this magazine would also keep track of romances, divorces, product endorcements, charity apperances, etc. As well as wild speculation about world super criminals and/or strange event. All written by 'top men', of course.

This way your creativity will be imortalized forever in my gameworld, too!

[ChuckB]

Sure , sounds like fun.

[Trebuchet]

I've got six issues of Weekly Globe Enquirer for you, if you like. I'd appreciate it if you'd give WGE a byline or credit in Hero-Times for any articles you use, just like a real press service.

 

Let me know and I can e-mail them to you.

[levi]

This is not from a currently running campaign, but I have 2 .pdf files I can eMail you if you'd like.

[Ken Solo]

I appreciate the enthusiasm so far! My email is Rowric@hotmail.com for sending stuff.

 

I tried to make a campaign paper about 10 years ago, but it did not go well. I droped in stuff from the actual news, whatever happened at the last session, some hooks for future adventures if the players care to follow any up (they never did) and some red herrings. Unfortunaly, this was before I joined the information age and had access to cut and past so it was very tedious. And no one ever bit on my hooks. And my red herrings were too obvious.

I'm sure merging stuff you guys contribute will work wonders!! And of course I'll give by like credit. Now that I think of it, there has to be a little box naming all the contributing writers, right?

Thanks for your support!

[levi]

Well thanks to Ben Seeman, here are the .pdf files one at a time

[levi]

and the next one

[Killer Shrike]

Millennial Men Take Down Armored Menaces!   By Johnny Rocket MILLENNIUM CITY SUPER-STAR DAILY   Newsreel Capture of War-Man of the Millennial MenIn a stunning battle last night in the wharf district the Millennial Men squared off against the international armored mercenery known as Devastator after a successful raid on a warehouse alleged to be a munitions factory for the shadowy home-town menace of Wayland Talos. War-Man, Chitin, Major Savage, and the venerable antique John Wrath bravely squared off for battle over the mean streets of the dockyards, assisted by the well known member of the so-called Mutant Rights organization M-Force, White Dwarf. Footage taken from Law Enforecment helicopters indicates that War-Man bravely traded shots with the world-famous techno-criminal while Major Savage and John Wrath did the same against another armored opponent wearing a suit that looked oddly like the FBI's STALWART system, the brilliant beams of their blasters arcing through the night like a laser light show. Meanwhile Chitin and White Dwarf attempted to close with Devastator, but he cravenly refused to face them in close combat, opting to harass them with his vast arsenal of ranged weapons. Chitin quickly adapted to this cowardly tactic and returned to the warehouse to assist Major Savage, who was closing in on the other unamed assailant, his massive energy rifle sending volley after devastating volley into the obviously durable armored opponent. And a good thing to since true to form the far-past-his-prime octengenarian Wrath spent most of the encounter encased in some sort of glue based restraint used by the Devastator's nameless crony. Major Savage hopped from perch to perch, firing precisely aimed and unerring shots on the move as he closed the distance between himself and the armored goon, and like participants in a well coreographed dance Savage fired a final staggering shot on the bounce that caused the tin-plated thug to turn on a cloaking device, landed, and bounced again to catch the just arriving slow-flying Chitin and propel the bug-like hero at the space where the cravenly cloaked crony had been a moment before. The hulking beetle-man managed to catch the hidden opponent, perhaps using some strange bug-awareness beyond human comprehension, and easily ripped the armor suit off with his prodigious strength.Meanwhile War-Man continued to conduct an aerial dogfight with the frustrated Devastator, who clearly came to Millennial City not expecting to meet a superhero so easily his match as the heroic and noble War-Man! The cunning protector of the true citizens of Millennium City cleverly engaged the increasingly aggravated Devastator in a game of cat-and-mouse, manuevering the techno-merc into position for White Dwarf, who had spent the duration of the aerial battle finding the perfect place to ambush the Devastator from, to leap upon the armored menace and bear him to the ground. The super-strong mighty-mite easily disabled the armors powerful weapons suite, pulling Devastator's fangs. PRIMUS was soon on the scene to apprehend the de-armored thugs, while the team helped John Wrath get free of the glue blob he spent the battle in, similar to a mouse in a trap. When will John Wrath realize he's washed up and stop expecting his much more qualified teammates to cover for him and pick up his slack?No details have been released yet regarding the unidentified armor suit, or what the authorities plan to do with Devastator (or his world-famous armor). This reporters inquiries have been met with silence and no comments thus far, but never fear faithful readers, the truth will be revealed in due time -- they can't stonewall Johnny Rocket forever!In the rumors category, this exciting superbattle has brought into sharp contrast something that had heretofore been the subject of some buzz on the supers rumor sites. The running speculation regarding why the armor suit worn by the mysterious from-out-of-nowhere new hero called Major Savage looks like a sleeker, modularized variant of the Warlord/Devastator armor has been given new life by this set to between the Mill-Men and Devastator. Was the big D coming after Savage for his tech? Did Savage steal his tech from D? And why does the Savage armor bear military insignia, including a badge that looks oddly like a variant of the iconic Eagle Globe and Anchor of the United States Marine Corps? Who knows, but we will keep an ear to the ground about this in the days to come. Why were the Millennial Men working with the militant M-Force representative White Dwarf? Faithful readers will recall that the Mill-Men chased off the mutant menace Holocaust several weeks ago preventing the destruction of a high rise that will house an IHA office when it is completed. And now they are working with M-Force, an avowed enemy of the IHA? Strange bedfellows?The mysterious "Killer Bug" slaying drug dealers in Dearborne has still not been located, and the huge bug-thing Chitin still insists it's not him. PRIMUS has remained silent on the subject, saying only that they do not consider Chitin to be a suspect in this string of vigilante murders despite his obvious appearance of being a giant hulking bug, but local authorites are reportedly not so sure and an inside source indicates that a thourough investigation into the matter is underway, with Chitin as suspect #1 on a very short list. Personally gentle readers, this reporter believes that Chitin will be absolved of any wrongdoing in the final analysis. It's been a brave defender of our fair city for the last six months and has never been seen to do anything less than heroic and noble.The Mill-Men were not responsive to questions regarding where the popular Gravitic and Rook are. Neither member of the the team have been seen since they helped stop the insane Omegaworld attack by the now deceased Black Harlequinn. Rook is reportedly still working his day job at a Home Depot in Dearborne, but attempts to locate him for an interview indicated he was in fact on vacation. Finally, with the unexplained absence of the Champions these past seven months, a recent poll indicated that 39% of Millennian's polled now consider the Mill-Men to be the true preeminant supers of our fair city (45% still considered the Champions to be number one, 8% had never heard of the Mill-Men, 5% thought they were tied or were noncommittal, and 3% had unbelievably never heard of the Champions!). Many have begun to ask why the city doesnt offer the Champion's vacant base to the Millennial Men. "The Millennial Men hold the Champions in a high regard and wish them well in whatever matter they are involved in. We do not intend to supplant them in the hearts of the many they have gaurded and protected in this great city. The Millennial Men will continue to do their best to protect the city, and when the Champions return perhaps an accord will be reached between our two groups. We all want the same thing, the protection of the citizens of Millennium City from villains that would do them harm." said the Mill-Man leader and PRIMUS Sanctioned hero War-Man when approached on the matter.So until next time strap in and get ready for liftoff; Johnny Rocket will return soon with more of the super-news you need to know!

[Nato]

When I ran an online campaign, set in Chicago, I downloaded the HTML from Chicago Sun-Times website. Then I substituted my own headlines, stories and pictures into the template. It was super easy to publish that to my site and have a very realistic newpaper online. I don't have any saved anywhere, but I thought I'd throw the idea out there.

[levi]

That is a sweet idea Nato...I will have to try it sometime soon!

[Killer Shrike]

HYPE, Hero or Harasser?   By Deborah White MILLENNIUM CITY GAZETTE   HYPE Publicity Photo Courtesy of HeroLore PublicityThe super-fast "hero" known as HYPE, a.k.a. "the Hyper-sonic Man", well known nationally for his NAR-Cola endorsements, has made Millenium City his home for the past 5 months now. In that time there have been numerous complaints regarding his methods and violent tendencies by both the criminals he apprehends and the populace at large. Sixteen different alleged criminals brought in by Hype had to be hospitalized prior to being taken into custody, and over 40 other criminals have lodged complaints regarding his rough treatment of them. And of course what Millennial can forget the "Bessy" incident, where he knocked out Bessy, the only surviving mastodon in the world and a fixture of the MC Zoo, after she was freed from her pen by the super-criminal Highrise? His disregard for the saftey of others and violent tendencies have been noted by more than just alleged criminals however. Hype's lack of consideration for normal-speed people has extended to the press, and bystanders to crimes that he has questioned. He also allegedly assualted Mike "Spikey" O'Connors, a celebrity photographer that tried to snap a shot of Hype as he bore down on criminals fleeing a bank heist. O'Connors initially pressed charges but later retracted his claim before it came to trial. "Look, I've got fast reactions, but if some (expletive deleted) jumps in front of me when I'm running several hundred miles an hour and pops a flashbulb in my face, what the (expletive deleted) do you expect me to do? I couldnt even see the guy for a couple of seconds because of the (expletive deleted) light blobs from the (expletive deleted) flashbulb in my eyes. He's just lucky the bank robbers didnt get away, or else he might have a real reason to cry. Besides, what did he happen to be (expletive deleted) doing there just as a robbery was occuring to snap a picture of me? Highly (expletive deleted) suspicious if you ask me!", said Hype when questioned about the incident.Hype has had several public battles with super-villains such as Ogre and members of GRAB (Ogre and Black Diamond were both hospitalized after these encounters, though both later escaped custody), and was a founding member of the Millennial Men, though he apparantly left that group soon thereafter. "Hype is a capable and dedicated crime fighter, and we were glad for his assistance when he was with us, but his methods and personality were not in-line with the Millennial Men as a whole. As one of our founding members he is always welcome on the team, so long as he can respect the views of his fellow Millennial Men.", said War-Man, the current leader of the Mill-Men when asked.However, the ever-colorful John Wrath was less PC when this reporter inquired on a seperate occassion. "That kid's gonna blow up one of these days. "Contents under pressure" and all that. I think he needed to be spanked more as a child, and somebody should put him on a diet of De-caff and Riddlin.", said Wrath.Two days ago Hype apprehended Javier Montoya, a 17 year old boy, who was allegedly holding up a Quiki-Mart in Northside, near the Northwest Gate. Hype reportedly streaked in while Javier backed out of the store pointing his gun at the shop keeper, stripping the gun from Javier's hand, breaking his wrist in the process, and simultaneously threw Javier to the ground, breaking his collarbone and two ribs. Reportedly Hype then proceeded to dismantle the firearm, bending the firing pin while Javier lay on the pavement screaming, and then shouted threats at the boy until the authorities arrived to take him into custody. One bystander, who wished to remain anonymous, had this to say; "It was hard to make out because he talks so fast, but he was saying stuff like 'You want to be a criminal?', 'You think you're a big man with a gun in your hands?', 'You think you're going to like jail?'. You know, tough cop talk. Of course, the guy's laying there screaming the whole time with his wrist all puffed up." Sadly this sort of incident has become all too common. While there is some truth to the statement that Hype catches more criminals before breakfast than most heroes do all day, some of them later walk due to improper procedure. Further, while he has thus far easily defeated the actual super-villains he's faced there is typically an excessive amount of property damage involved. Many have begun to question whether the bad outweighs the good when it comed to Hype. How much longer will his violent methods be allowed to continue by the authorities and other heroes? At what point do we stop considering him a hero and name him a violent vigilante instead? Hype served with the noted southern supergroup known as NewGen until it's disbanding earlier this year. He was also active in Southern California as a hero prior to that. His identity is not known and he has not sanctioned with PRIMUS.

[Killer Shrike]

An hour with John Wrath   By Jeff Brooks HERO Magazine, October 2003   John Wrath, Solo Avenger Photographer: Donald Gerrik, HERO MagazineIt's a warm afternoon in Millennium City, as I sit in a run down apartment downtown about a half block from the local PRIMUS HQ. The couch I'm sitting on has seen better decades, there are bars on the windows, and from where I sit I can pretty much see the entire place. Strangely the building itself would be as old and run down as the furnishings if this were any city other than the big MC, but as it is the battered coffee table my host's feet are propped up on is probably older than the apartment by at least twenty years.My host looks like an aging "man of action", maybe in his early 40's. The only thing that would hint to a person that didnt know him that he isnt 30 anymore are a few wrinkles around the eyes (one of which is cybernetic), a certain indescribable grizzled hardness to his features (including a large facial scar thru said eye socket), and of course the un-trendy cuban cigar jutting out of his mouth. Finding such a mythical observer who didn't instanly recognize my erstwhile host would be a difficult achievement in its own right. His likeness has been seen, largely unchanged, by several generations of TV watchers over the past two decades. He is the well known and controversial John Wrath, formerly the Silver Avenger of Miami and then of Millennium City after Detroit was detroyed and rebuilt. Not just any Silver Avenger, but one of the first, the chronologically oldest, the longest still in service until very recently, and perhaps the most experienced ever to serve. Though he looks to be in his 40's he is in fact two times older than that and prior to serving in PRIMUS for 19+ years he was in the CIA for a decade and before that was a LRRP Ranger in the Army for two more decades, doing several tours in Nam as leader of the famous Growling Recondos.In all he's served the United States government uninterrupted since the 1950's. The length of his service is so long in fact, it can be measured by the number of times the word decade is used in this article.So how do you talk to somebody older than your grandfather who is still very capable of leaping out the 4th story window onto the back of some rampaging supervillain without a second thought? I've interviewed a lot of supers in my time with HERO Magazine, but this is JOHN WRATH. I mean, my dad used to tell me John Wrath stories from his time in the bush. This guy was on the TV when I was a kid growing up in the 80's, and here he sits like an unaging artifact of the cold war, armed and still very dangerous. I remember when he took down Explosor before he could destroy the Rose Bowl in '82 and when he beat the snot out of the so-called "undefeatable martial artist" Perfecto back in '86 on national TV, which still tops the best wire work movies coming out of Hong Kong for sheer over-the-top martial arts action in my opinion. I'm not embarrassed to admit it, for a few minutes I lost my reporter's composure and was at a bit of a loss for words, fumbling around with my recorder and trying to get my thoughts in order. Never one to sit around waiting, Wrath took charge as usual.Wrath: "Get on with it, kid. I ain't got all day."Q: "Yes, sorry, uh, sir. Just getting my notes in order."Wrath: "So what do you want to know already?"Q: "Well, the readers of HERO Magazine would like to know the details of your recent retirement from PRIMUS and subsequent activities with the superhero group, the Millennial Men."Wrath: "What's to know? I told my useless paperweight bosses at PRIMUS to piss up a rope and the spineless politicos gave me my walking papers six months before I was eligible for retirement. Uncle Sam wants you all right; he wants you over a barrel." Q: "But, the official account is that you retired early."Wrath: "Kid, let me tell you something, and write this down because its important. The only thing you can be sure of about "official accounts" is that they are all a pack of lies."Q: "Well, you were a Silver Avenger; so the only people that you could mean are either the Golden Avenger or the Director of PRIMUS. What happened?"Wrath: "Well, Ill let you figure out who kid, but as to what, just bad timing mostly. Congress was hassling PRIMUS over their budget again about the same time the Synth-tech robberies started happening locally. My boss got fussy because he wanted PRIMUS looking white hot just then, and wanted to know why I hadn't caught the culprits yet. Christ, it was like a three day window; these things take a little bit more time to crack than that. It wasn't some punks flipping cows or something like that, which the pencil-necked seat warmer would know if he had ever spent a single day in the field actually doing something more strenuous than kissing the ass of the politico above his rung on the ladder. So I told him to keep his nose where it belongs and out of my business. So, the petty little functionary retired me. That's the way it works kid; the faceless bureaucrats call the shots, despite the fact that they aren't qualified to do so. It was like that in Korea, it was like that in Nam, it was like that in the Company, and it's like that in PRIMUS. The bands keeps changing but the song remains the same."Q: "But didn't you come out of Nam festooned with glory and fame?"Wrath: "Glory? What the hell are you talking about, glory? When you've had one of your best friend's brains sprayed all over your face after they took a bullet that would have gotten you instead if it had been a half-foot to the left, THEN you can talk to me about "glory" in war. Hah! "Glory" he says. There's no glory to be had in war, kid. Just a lot of killing."Q: "So, uh...back to the PRIMUS situation, would you say you are bitter about the whole experience?"Wrath: "Bitter? No, I like having 19 years of service flushed down the drain with no retirement benefits to show for it. But hey, at least they let me keep my cybernetic eye. I half expected them to ask for it back when I turned in my badge. Hey, at least I'm still a young man and have time to retrain for a new career. I hear that there's a big market for truck drivers these days; maybe I'll become a teamster. Hah!"Q: "Can you tell us a little bit about why you changed your Superhuman Registration information to "John Wrath, Solo Avenger", and your work with the Millennial Men over the last six months?"Wrath: "It takes more than some wet noodle political appointee to tell me when I'm ready to retire. I've got another 30, 40 years left in me easy. I didn't quit in Nam after taking three bullets to the back in the middle of the damn jungle, I didn't quit a dozen and more times after that when I was shot, stabbed, or dragged from a jeep working for the Company, and that was before the god damn Cyberline. You think I'm going to quit now just because they told me to? Hah. I'll take the war to the enemy, even if I have to do it alone. The U.S. Gov thinks its time I "slow down and take it easy"? Hell if I will! Besides, on the plus side there's a lot less paper work involved now that I'm no longer working for PRIMUS, and I hate paperwork. Q: "Well, is there anything you miss about working for PRIMUS? The people, the prestige, the office?"Wrath: "Shove all that crap."Q: "Uh....ok...what about your work with the Millennial Men, Millennium City's newest superhero group?"Wrath: "I do miss the car though."Q: "Uh...excuse me?"Wrath: "Deaf? I miss the CAR. You know. The Flying Car? Best damn use of technology I've ever seen. It's a car -- but it flies. You're driving along and suddenly you need to be 30 miles away thru down town traffic to bust up some lug-headed perps pulling a job on your beat. So what do you do? Push the big red button and go into Flash Gordon mode. I loved that damn car."Q: "Uh...yes, the Flying Cars are very spiffy. About the Millennial Men..."Wrath: "I once acheived escape velocity in one, did you know that? The last time I flew one, oddly enough. Or at least the analysts said I had. Of course, the nimwits in R&D didnt think to make the cabin space worthy, but they put a powerful enough engine in it to slingshot you into orbit. Typical government engineering. Cutting edge technology, made by the lowest bidder. Never changes."Q: "So, you first met up with the Millennial Men when you still had the car, right..."Wrath: "Thats another thing I DONT miss about PRIMUS, Ill tell you that much for free."Q: "Er...what's that?"Wrath: "The damn R&D boys. Those jerks were trying to kill me, I'd swear to it. Every piece of gear they ever gave me was a hunk of junk. I never knew if it was going to work, blow up in my hand, or turn into a bouquet of flowers or something. R&D. More like AD&D -- Accidental Death and Dismemberment. Hah. You know what PRIMUS R&D's motto is?"Q: "No, can't say that I do."Wrath: "PRIMUS R&D -- Reinventing the Square Wheel, One Spoke at a Time. Hah. Cigar?"Q: "Um, no thank you, I don't smoke. So, what would you say your most interesting moment has been since you joined the Millennial Men?"Wrath: "The who?"Q: "The Millennial Men? The supergroup you are a member of?"Wrath: "Is that what they are calling themselves today? I'm not a member of the Millennial Men or any other group. I'm John Wrath, Solo Avenger."Q: "But, since leaving PRIMUS you've been involved in several encounters with supervillains, and all of them with the Millennial Men."Wrath: "Just a coincidence. Those kids keep following me around. I've told them to stop, but they do it anyway. No accounting for kids these days."Q: "So you're saying that you aren't a member of the Millennial Men, but that they follow you around?"Wrath: "Did I mumble? I didn't even know they were called the Millennial Men until you mentioned it. That War-Man kid is a good seed, the rest of them I'm not too sure about. Savage is ok for a damn jarhead. The rest are just scrubs."Q: "Scrubs? You mean to say you dont respect them?"Wrath: "Well, when they've got another 9 or 10 years under their belt and have faced down something a little more serious than a run-of-the-mill megalomaniac like Holocaust or a garden-variety psychopath like Black Harlequinn, I'll have some respect for them. They're good kids with bright futures, but half of them belong in day care. Not yet ready for prime time. It's all I can do to keep them alive as it is."Q: "Um...Ok, so where do you see your self going over the next year?"Wrath: "I look like a fortune teller to you? I dunno. I'll fight crime and protect my city until a greater need comes along. I just cant abide screwhead criminals making a mess out of the place; and that skirt Sanchez certainly doesn't look up to the job."Q: "You mean Silver Avenger Sanchez? The new Silver Avenger assigned to Millenium City?"Wrath: "Who else? Cute kid. Reminds me of a girl I knew once back in Da Nang. I'm sure she means well, but a Silver Avenger? I've got several pairs of boots with more time-in-service than her. This is a crazy city, and it takes more than a public relations oriented appointee to keep it safe. Where was Sanchez when I stopped Holocaust last month, or dealt with Black Harlequinn? Where was Sanchez when I raided Wayland Talos's arms factory? Where was Sanchez when I put a stop to Papa Zombie and his army of undead? No where to be seen. She's on TV a lot though. The camera likes her, or she likes the camera?"Q: "Are you saying that Silver Avenger Sanchez is a...uh..."Wrath: "Pretty face assigned because she looks good in front of a camera? Yeah. Woman? Minority? Pretty? Hasn't done any real field work since she got here four months ago? What do you think? How long does it take to 'familiarize herself with the City'? PRIMUS-MC has done what since she's been here? Not generate negative publicity, that's what. It's all a political shell game. Congress passed the PRIMUS budget last month after six months of deliberation. I'd bet you a case of JD that the order went out -- don't do anything unless it's sure to get good press."Q: "Well, I think I have enough for my article..."Wrath: "Good; I need to get back out there. I've been off the streets for four hours; no telling what kind of screwhead is up to what while I'm sitting here."I left quickly there after and had time to think about the interview in the taxi ride to my hotel in a nicer part of town. I came to Millennium City for a flavor piece, revisiting a hero with a checkered history that has appeared in HERO Magazine in one form or another since it's inception as a publication. Instead I find indications of a disquieting political agenda that might go to the very core of PRIMUS. Was John Wrath, the last of the original generation of Silver Avengers still serving, really put out of the organization because his old fashioned results oriented mentality was at odds with the political agenda of the current administration? Either way, I came for an interesting story and as usual John Wrath, Growling Recondo, CIA Agent, Silver Avenger, and now freelance superhero didn't fail to deliver the goods. I see now why my father held him in such high regard. He's hard and edgy, but there is a core of selfless dedication to serve the interests of the American populace coupled with an honest cynicism and distrust of the government by which he has served those interests. Personally I hope that we can look forward to another 20 years of the Avenger, John Wrath, Solo or Silver.

[Killer Shrike]

Nobody else has articles?

[Creeper]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Nobody else has articles?

 

Dude, after your articles, we're all embarrassed to post any.

 

Nice articles.

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by Creeper

Dude, after your articles, we're all embarrassed to post any.

 

Nice articles.

Wow, first post! I feel honored!

 

Seriously though, more content = good content

[Creeper]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Wow, first post! I feel honored!

 

Seriously though, more content = good content

 

 

Hmmmm. Methinks the counters have been reset in the year since I've been here.

 

And "True Dat" in regard to the more content thing.

 

As an aside, are you the same Killer Shrike from ENWorld that posted all of the cool fighting styles for D&D3E?

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by Creeper

Hmmmm. Methinks the counters have been reset in the year since I've been here.

 

And "True Dat" in regard to the more content thing.

 

As an aside, are you the same Killer Shrike from ENWorld that posted all of the cool fighting styles for D&D3E?

Yeah, thats me. That was during my d20 phase, which lasted about 2 years. Then FRED was released and I returned to my one true love among RPGs, the HERO System

[Killer Shrike]

Fortress or Enforcer?   By P. F. Dunnsworth Superfad Weekly Journal! Jan 30, 2004   Rook, the Human Fortress Artists RenditionDEARBORNE, MILLENNIUM CITY -- Is the popular hero known as "ROOK", sometime member of the Millennial City supergroup the Millennial Men and well known as a "defender" of the people of Dearborne, located to the south of MC, really Sean Sullivan a.k.a. "Rookie Sullivan" a.k.a "The Butcher of Brooklyn", late of New York City and suspected in a string of gang and mafia related killings?   An anonymous source who risked death at the hands of the mob to make sure that this tip reached us here at the Journal indicates he is. "Yeah, thats him. Old Rory Sullivan's kid. He killed em all, every body he could get to. Had the Scappelli's running scared for a month; the ones that skipped town for awhile lived, those that didn't died. He must of killed more than 40 people in one night alone. They killed his old man and his brother and he snapped. Vendetta. The Scappelli's tried to wax him, but he's fricking indestructible or something. The Scappellis finally made a deal with the Micks and they put Sullivan on a leash." If this proves true, do we have a dangerous killer in our midst? A merciless slayer with a death toll that reputedly already exceeds what may be over 70 suspected slayings? And here is the nefarious thought: he might be the perfect killer. Here's what Lt. Erdon of the NYPD had to say about the so-called Tolintine Massacre, where suspected Mob underboss Vinnie Tolintine and 37 other suspected and in many cases previously convicted mobsters were slain in a warehouse in the lower east side of NYC last year. "The victims were each slain by a variation of intense pressure or blunt impact trauma, or both. Causes of death all indicate the assailant or assailants was capable of generating extreme force. Several of the victims bodies were jammed through the wall in places and into aperatures such as heating ducts, and in addition other victims were left lodged in various places in the rafters of the warehouse as many as 25 feet above the ground. We suspect that the assailant or assailants were professional killers for there are no witnesses, and no physical evidence that might indicate the assailant whatsoever thus far recovered. Almost all of the victims were armed and discharged their firearms; several hundred rounds of ammunition from small, semi, and some full automatic weapons have been found and all have been matched up with firearms found on the victims, yet we found no blood that is not also traceable to the victims. Several of the victims bodies bear defensive wounds and signs of a physical struggle, but we have not been able to recover any blood, fabric, hair, or tissue samples that can be traced to the assailant or assailants. The lack of evidence and method of killing is similar to those found in updwards of 35 other mob-related deaths over the past 4 years. Due to the lack of physical evidence or witnesses, this case has been filed as unclosed but not active, and the NYPD will no longer be investigating the case unless further information becomes available.", Lt. Erdon said via phone in response to our inquiry, reading parts of it verbatim from the case file. Could the force-field-clad Rook, media darling and popular member of Millennium City's Millennium Men really be the perfectly equipped killer; does his force-field in effect protect him from forensic science as well as bullets and laser eye beams? We already know that his force-field prevents clear photographs of him from being taken; though there is no distortion to the naked eye from it, photographs of him experience strange over and under exposure problems and are hazy at best. Obviously the possibility of having a killer, indeed a veritable mass murderer among us, is worthy of further investigation, but this reporter encountered stiff resistance from all fronts when trying to chase down the truth about the so-called hero known as Rook. PRIMUS refused to give any information other than he is Registered and in good standing with the practices required by the Registration Act. MCPD was decidedly uninterested in an unsolved case from NYC. Even the people of the neighborhood Rook reputedly lives in were unresponsive to the line of questioning. All that I was able to uncover that was not already known is that Rook apparantly has some connection to the Catholic Church and has gone on at least one Missionary journey to Africa since he has been in Millenium City. The day after this reporter began questioning his neighbors, Rook apparantly went on a rather sudden vacation from his job at the Dearborne Home Depot, where it was revealed he worked almost two months ago by a sharp-eyed civilian who soon posted the scoop on several of the cape-chasing websites. "Rook had to take off because too many fan boys were coming around pushing autograph pads at him. It was disruptive to business and I had to ask him to take an unpaid leave until people get over it and stop coming around.", was the official line from Mike McFadden, the Home Depot General Manger. Despite these initial setbacks, rest assured if any news staff is up to the challenge of determining whether Rook is indeed the "The Butcher of Brooklyn", it's the Journal! Unsovled case or not, we will get to the bottom of this, and you heard it here first!