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Shikarr

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  1. Here are the notes taken by one of my extremely good note taking players. They are an enjoyable read if nothing else and give an idea of my campaign style. Tell me what you think of the campaign so far and also what you think of the notes taken. I shall pass them along back to her to pump her ego even higher. :) Hope you all enjoy

     

    Base notes for campaign and then her journal of campaign notes to follow

     

    Hudson City - Located between Millennium City and Toledo Ohio, on the banks of Lake Erie.

    *********

    History according to G.O.D.

    In 1912 a group of mystics in Germany had stolen an ancient tome in order to cast a spell that would empower

    them for all time. The book comes from the depths of the underworld where demons lie. The spell is cast.

    However, the Trigrimagus (or Council of wizards) understanding what the spell would do, interrupted halfway

    through, disrupting the incantation for being completed. The backlash of power from the spell vaporized the

    mages and the all but one of the Council. The power flashes across the entire planet raising the levels of magic

    500%. This has an additional side effect; humanity, once exposed to this intense burst of power, is forever

    altered, a gene is triggered-creating in the first generation of children born after 1912-Mutants.

    Unbeknownst to the world, that one sole remaining wizard believed that the raising of the magic levels of this

    world could be disastrous. To counter this he summoned a Greater Demon, to go out into the world and destroy

    all magic using creatures that would be born from this effect. The Demon told the wizard “your crazyâ€, the

    wizard said, “It’s not my problem it’s yours.†So the Demon decided to kill the first magic using thing he saw,

    the wizard that summoned him. The Demon then remained stuck within the vicinity of the original explosion

    just trying to keep up with the job. After several years he figured that he was fighting a loosing battle so he

    summoned up lesser demons to assist him. The total of demons running about became 66; the last one

    summoned had some little brainpower to her and noted that the spell keeping the Greater Demon here could be

    erased if the summoner agreed to release him. Unfortunately the Greater Demon had killed the wizard who

    summoned him. However the younger demon figured that if any of the wizard’s bloodline survived, they would

    be able to release the Greater Demon from his duties.

    The lesser demon went out and found the granddaughter of the wizard who had cast the spell. The woman,

    smelling an opportunity, agreed to let the Greater Demon go but under conditions. He would be able to visit

    Hell but must be able to make return trips to this plain ever now and then to continue her bidding, part of which

    was to leave behind one of the 66 he had summoned to assist her in observing the world. To which, the Greater

    Demon summoned the more intelligent lesser demon who had figured out the bloodline problem, handed over

    her true name to the witch and told them both goodbye. The lesser has been working for the female witch ever

    since.

    *********

    Fast forward…

    In 1992 Dr Destroyer held the world hostage in the largest blackmail scheme ever concocted by this power-mad

    lunatic. He had set a large tractor beam towards an asteroid in space towing it towards the earth, either they paid

    him what he wanted or the earth would experience another “destruction of the dinosaursâ€. Many heroes decided

    that attacking Dr. Destroyer would be the better plan of action, since they new his broadcasts were coming from

    his base on the island of Disturgia. However when they got there they didn’t get Dr. Destroyer or the tractor

    beam and 34 heroes died in the process, killed by Dr. Destroyer himself. Although, those remaining heroes

    destroyed Disturgia, they were unable to locate the tractor beam for the asteroid (it wasn’t on the island). Fastforward

    to 3 months later, the world powers figure out how to destroy the asteroid still hurling towards the

    earth. With Dr. Destroyer’s base on Disturgia destroyed the world powers and heroes alike are unable to find

    him. Until Seeker of the Champions falls down a grate and follows his nose, accidentally finding the Detroit

    base of Dr. Destroyer.

    Seeker manages to get off a message to the rest of the Champions before Dr. Destroyer murders him. With this

    newfound purpose the Champions and 30 other heroes descend into Detroit to do battle with Dr. Destroyer.

    Only 12 are left alive when the base is destroyed, 4 remaining heroes die by Dr. Destroyer’s own hands in the

    first minute of the attack. The last 8 survivors actually defeat Dr. Destroyer and in that gracious way of all

    insipid heroes, give Dr. Destroyer the opportunity to surrender.

    Dr. Destroyer, rather than surrender to the likes of these idiots or be imprisoned or killed by the government,

    declares, “he would rather die by his own handâ€, then surrender. Dr. Destroyer activates and sub-orbital cannon

    which he targets upon himself and the base, vaporizing him and 6 of the remaining heroes in a mile wide swath

    of power. With no one controlling the cannon the beam wanders aimlessly around Detroit for 40 minutes until

    the USA sends up a nuke with blows the thing to kingdom-come; unfortunately, since the cannon was suborbital

    the radiation hammers its way back down onto Detroit, irradiating it completely. It is the worst disaster

    ever experienced on U.S. soil.

    **********

    The aftermath

    In 1994 President Bush declares Detroit to be a national disaster and swears to rebuild Detroit better than before,

    to be a shining beacon for the future. Bush creates the Millennium Bill, 5 Trillion dollars are to go to

    completing by 2000 the greatest of all cities ever designed by mortal man; Millennium City is to stand of the

    ashes of old Detroit.

    Of course when Bill Clinton enters the picture, the following election the fucks things up completely. Declaring

    that, although it is a great picture for the future, there is no way that the American economy can support 5

    Trillion dollars dumped into Millennium City, so he cuts funding and opens up funding to corporate sponsors.

    Microsoft, Gablesoft, Omega Corp., Pharos Inc. join hands and bankbooks to build Millennium City. A true

    marvel of the modern world; the city is tremendous, with computer-controlled freeways and chipped cars (no

    gridlock!), each automobile is also equipped with a life monitor (heaven forbid someone has a heart attack while

    in the vehicle under control).

    Mechanon almost used the computer driven roads as a means of taking over Millennium City when he sent

    hundreds of androids into the city behind the wheel of the chipped cars (1999). However he didn’t get far since

    once the cars hit the highways of Millennium City, the computers realized that there was nothing living driving

    the cars and shut every one of them down and alerted the authorities.

    Millennium City has the lowest street crime rate, but the highest super-villain crime rate ever. It seems that as

    much as heroes are drawn towards Millennium City so are villains.

    **********

    Meta-Human Registration Act

    Since the destruction of the Detroit was caused by a super-villain the social climate of the world became rather

    cold towards people exhibiting above human abilities, and without much of a fuss the Meta-human Registration

    act passed in 1995. It simply stated that all mutants will be registered, names, blood, finger prints and DNA,

    addresses, aliases, and powers; however, this list would not be available to the general populace the file is kept

    in the most secured locations possible Crystal Palace (NORAD) and the Pentagon hold the database. Part of the

    bill was to insure that very specific laws were in place to keep normal people from attempting to harm mutants,

    which included legislation that added anti-mutant attacks to the list of hate crimes.

    In 1996 PRIMUS was created to be the legal response to the rise of mutants across the globe. However the

    military thought that wasn’t quite enough and formed the Metahuman Armed Response System (MARS). For

    every Primus base in a city, there is at least one squad of MARS right along side of them.

    **********

    To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question….

    To combat the rise of metahuman crimes, the USA created three locations, Stronghold, Ironhold and Tinhold to

    hold super-humans.

    Stronghold is a maximum-security prison involving permanent incarceration known as “Hot Sleep.†The most

    violent, dangerous and murderous of the mutant population is kept here. Hot Sleep is a process in which the

    body is kept in a constant state of deep sleep, in which they remain until they die of old age. The murder of one

    person will get a mutant permanently incarcerated in Stronghold. The mass murderer Jason is kept here in Hot

    Sleep. The only mutant not kept in Hot Sleep is Freddy Kruger (the Nightmare); he is kept in a constant state

    of wakefulness in order to keep him from escaping in dream state. The only metahuman ever rumored to of

    broken out of Stronghold is Menton, the most powerful telepath in the world today, Menton was not completely

    under in Hot Sleep and was powerful enough to control the guards into releasing him.

    Ironhold is a maximum-security prison involving permanent incarceration for mutants that have not killed

    anyone but are still harmful or a threat to society.

    Tinhold is a maximum-security prison involving permanent incarceration for mutants that have been neutered

    in some form or fashion. An example would be cyborgs that have had most of their equipment ripped out.

    (Incidentally the government can do that now).

    ********

    “There are no such things as Telepaths.â€

    Anyone exhibiting powers that resemble Telepathy in any shape form or fashion will disappear within one

    month of demonstrating their powers; no exceptions. The meta-human could be walking down a crowded street

    in broad daylight and vanish in thin air. No one knows what happens to them.

    ********

    Fingers in every pot

    The military, feeling that there would be times when PRIMUS and MARS would just not be enough, formed an

    elite force to deal with extreme cases of meta-human activity, where safety of the citizens and property is

    priority and the capture or destruction of the meta-human is paramount. Superbeing Elimination Control

    Retrieval Team (SECRET) was established with full backing by the Military in 1998 and utilizes some of the

    most powerful mutants in the country.

    **********

    9/11

    Super powered terrorists hired by al-Qaidah detonated a nuclear bomb in Tower 1 of the World Trade Centers.

    The only reason why the nuke didn’t take out all of NYC is because a mutant named Aquarian happened to be

    riding the subway pulling into Tower 2 at the moment the bomb went off. Aquarian’s power was that of energy

    absorption (any energy) however once absorbed it had to be released. As he came into the basement of Tower 2

    he could feel the nuke going off above at Tower 1. Aquarian absorbed the energy of the nuke, however he had

    to release it immediately, which unfortunately the beam of energy he released destroyed all of Tower 2 killing

    over 600 civilians. In anguish because of the loss of life he had caused (although he had saved thousands more),

    Aquarian took his own life. However, the survivors in the subway surrounding him acknowledged Aquarian as

    a hero, and he was given a medial posthumously for saving the lives of thousands of New Yorkers. Aquarian’s

    selfless act turned public opinion about mutants around (well not all of them must be bad.)

    *********

    The Villains

    DEMON

    During the 1990’s it was suspected that DEMON had gone to high-tech, which couldn’t have been further from

    the truth; the technological show was to hide the real agenda. If it hadn’t of been for the infiltration of a

    “Mulder†into their organization the “good guys†might never of learned of their true goals. DEMON is

    working on restoring the Kings of EDOM otherwise known to the world as the Elder Gods (yes the

    Necronomicon is real folks and so is Chthuluh). DEMON believes that if they are the ones to let thought the

    Elder Gods when the stars align and the worlds are whispered through at their times, they, as the servitors of the

    Elder Gods they will be given dominion over the remaining world as it is slowly eaten away. (Figure they’ll be

    the last ones eaten…)

    THE CIRCLE

    However, the innermost circle of DEMON’s power took at look at the agenda of the others and decided it would

    be better for them to start tending their own garden. Mordaki the Undead Knight, Lucian the Necromancer,

    Baba Yaga the witch-hag of Russia, The Rose mystic martial artist and Bloodspurt a blood “elementalist†form

    The Circle. What their agenda is, only they know.

    LORD DEMONICUS

    While all the other Greater Demons of Hell decided it would be fine and dandy to keep up with the “Jonesâ€, one

    decided that he had quite enough of the souls of this world and struck out from Hell to find “greener pastures.â€

    What he found was alternative dimensions and whole new worlds to suck the soul energy out of. Each time he

    finished with one dimension he would make steps towards the next, becoming more and more powerful with

    quite the army of souls to summon when he needed to fight. He was recently foiled by the Charleston

    Champions upon his attempt to enter into this dimension, leaving a very pissed off and stranded Lord

    Demonicus in an alternate dimension to plot his next moves.

    GENOCIDE

    Nothing sends a chill down the spines of mutants faster than knowing the GENOCIDE is out looking for them.

    GENOCIDE is out to do one of two things to all mutants, to either capture or kill them. GENOCIDE is in

    control of the large AI driven robots known as Minutemen.

    GENESIS

    Technology is their goal, but what their primary goal is completely unknown. We know that GENESIS’s

    primary motivation is for life extension technology, superb technology in general and any mutant that has

    energy producing abilities. GENESIS did have mostly human agents to begin with, until they started running

    into mutants with mind control. Then they tried all robots, until they ran into mutants with machine control.

    Now GENESIS uses a combination of both types of squads, with unique little bombs loaded into the chest of

    both human and Skelebot.

    MECHANON

    The bane of all life, he exists only to eradiate any living organism from the planet. Mechanon is known for

    having more lives than a Cheshire cat, when his body is close to destruction, it sends out a signal to a local base

    alerting it to build a new Mechanon and download its saved data. Mechanon is also known for planting 2

    kiloton explosives in its machine body should it be shut down by some means; this takes out both Mechanon

    and the one that took it down. Mechanon was recently destroyed in 2001 when a new machine-manipulation

    mutant named Technique (formerly of the FBI) shut his off (quite to his surprise were sure). However this did

    not save her from the auto-destruct sequence, which killed her and all plant life in the airport where the battle

    took place. Technique’s powers were never fully studied, so it is unlikely that they will be copied any time

    soon. One saving grace to Technique’s sacrifice is that Mechanon’s shut down occurred so quickly that it was

    unable to send the reconstruction signal. The world had a slight reprieve from Mechanon until 2002 when a

    thief ran across one of Mechanon’s secret bases and began removing materials. By the time the security system

    had activated there wasn’t enough parts left to make a new Mechanon. So the system tried its best with what it

    had and created Mechana the female version; (once this was completed the base sent out another signal to the

    next base to begin processing of a new Mechanon. However, as time wore on, her own programming and

    personality began to break through the previously programmed personality, Mechana began developing her own

    ideas about how to take over the world. Mechana is not out to eradicate every living thing on the planet, but to

    enslave it. Although Mechana does not have all of Mechanon’s powers she is no less dangerous to humanity, or

    even possibly Mechanon himself.

    3 NINJAS

    Assassins for hire, known to be the most deadly trio on the planet with a 99.9% success rate on their contract.

    Information on who exactly the 3 Ninjas were before they became their known personas is completely

    unavailable.

    White Ninja is a Japanese Vampire; he is not affected by any of the standard European Vampire means of

    destruction or control.

    Grey Ninja is a ghost with complete possession powers, able to travel along any means and able to hop bodies

    as necessary to make his kill. He cannot control, or more specifically has trouble controlling the body of anyone

    with a high willpower. If he cannot completely control the body he inhabits the he cannot manifest all of his

    Ninja abilities. If he has complete control, lets just say you wont notice your friend cutting your head off for

    long.

    Black Ninja is not only a Ninja of extraordinary skill but a Demon as well.

    RED BANNER

    A triad of martial artists with skills and powers of some renown, all members of Red Banner are known for the

    use of black magic as well as their martial skills.

    DR. YIN WU

    Possibly the foremost martial artist/mystic super-villain in the world. He is known for dealing with anyone in

    order to make a goal or objective he has set for himself. It is completely unknown why Dr. Yin Wu does what

    he does or how he does it. Rumors exist that he is immortal and has been alive now for over 600 years. Dr.

    Wu’s favored home is in a valley in China that no one has ever been able to conquer or attack; although it is

    known that Dr. Wu dose have other locations where he occasionally visits (per conversations with people who

    have met with him) no one knows how he moves from place to place.

    VOICE

    Vanguard Organization for International Crime and Espionage. VOICE is the brainchild of Red Dragon a

    martial artist of incredible talent (though no one believes that Red Dragon is in charge due to much

    misdirection). VOICE is the crime syndicate from hell, there may be no illegal business in the world that they

    do not have their fingers into (or are trying to get their fingers into). VOICE is notorious for panicking heroes

    by announcing the VOICE is recruiting in the area. Which means that all martial artist villains usually come out

    of the woodwork to take on the heroes that stay in the area (usually killing a hero means instant entry into

    VOICE), and to do the crime that they have set up to lure the heroes out of hiding (could be anything from a

    bank heist to, well anything else). VOICE’s known inner circle is filled by Goshawk a razor tipped winged

    assassin who loves taking people’s heads off; Red Dragon teleportation/mesmerism and martial artist from hell;

    Plague disease creation; Centurion growth/strength and supposedly reported to be from ancient Rome; Barron

    an axe wielding maniac, the axe happens to have a demon trapped inside of it giving the axe infernal powers and

    Black Hawke or Raven depending on her mood she has communication with birds, wings of her own and uses

    javelins and a shield.

    ********

    Not quite villains but their a little extreme

    Followers of Light:

    This group of “heroes†(and we use the term loosely) are Demon hunters that are supposedly of Angelic

    properties. Their methods are extreme and sometimes have huge amounts of collateral damage when attempting

    to take down Demons.

     

     

     

     

     

    Excerpts of V.H.S. Journal

     

    May 15, 1992

    Mother, you always told me "Vi, make sure no matter what you choose to do, you do it well." Well mother, I know your listening up there, so I'd like to say, "I've chosen well, now I'm going to do my damndest do to the incredible!"

     

    I know you know that Science has been studying the human genome since the discovery of the double helix in 1953, after being accepted into the University of California at Santa Cruse my sophomore year of high school (which I know you and dad must have been doing cartwheels up there in heaven about that one!) I was able to worm my way into UCSC's part of the Genome project. Nobody, not even myself knew how far we could reach, or how much information we could learn. I must say that for my PhD. thesis, "DNA Mutation and the Origins of Mutants in Society" took Bioinformatics quite by surprise.

     

    And now I know you and dad have got to be collecting bets off the silver platter up there. I'm graduating from Santa Cruse 2 years earlier than expected; I've got my PhD in Genetics (sub-specialty evolutionary genetics & DNA research) I've been accepted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information to work on the Human Genome Project!

     

    I've been told by NCBI that I'm going to be one busy little scientist once I get there. Although the normal DNA sequencing is still going on (and will probably continue till into the year 2000 or so), no one has ever been able to understand the DNA of a mutant. At 24 I'm now officially the youngest scientist in charge of a team totally responsible for sequencing mutant DNA. We have our samples from a member of the Champions! Though they wont tell us which one was willing to donate. I'm all a twitter! This is going to be the most magnificent experience in my life! It's going to be a long, occasionally dull trip, but it's going to be totally worth it. We mapping the DNA of mutants, how cool is that?!

     

    Ever since dad bought me my first comic book, it's always been my dream to understand mutants. And then Toby was so instrumental in getting me into serious study of the mutant phenomenon, I wish he could of seen why his "stupid power" inspired in me, drove me to lean why it happens. I miss Toby as much as I miss you two, I hope your all-playing canasta in heaven on Thursday nights. The mutant phenomenon has increased over the years and now your best friend or neighbor could be someone with special powers. If things go well, I will be able to continue working on why mutants are occurring as well as the mapping project. Wish me luck.

     

    With much love,

    Ahem. PhD. Vivian Helen Stratford!

     

     

     

     

     

    July 10, 1992

    My God, how can such evil exist? Mom, dad I know your watching, I hope your prodding God in the ribs and asking him why the hell he lets things like this happen? Dr. Destroyer is holding the world hostage. There is a tractor beam pulling from somewhere on the planet aimed at a huge freaking asteroid pulling it towards earth; with Destroyer holding the reigns. I hope our world's heroes can do what they need to in order to destroy him and stop the asteroid. Yes, I know mom, but evil deserves to be destroyed, no questions asked no quarter given. There are too many good mutants out there who try to live normal lives or to actually do good deeds, and yet we have things like Dr. Destroyer threatening the world.

     

    Sigh, on a lighter note, NCBI treats me like gold, the sequencing is long and drawn out process. However, my research into mutant DNA and its origins has caught the eye of a few government operations. I don't know much about them, though they have shown up on television fighting super-villains, reminds me of some of the groups in the comic books. High minded humans who bond together under the government to fight evil, bizarre but true. .... oh wait the news is on about Disturgia.

     

    Oh God, we've attacked Disturgia, I'm sure your seeing this from up there mom and dad, but can you believe it! A league of superheroes have gone to fight Dr. Destroyer on his island of Disturgia to stop the tractor beam and have failed miserably. I, I, I'm going to have to stop; I need a drink and time to think. So many dead, the island is gone but Destroyer lives on and the asteroid is still on its way.

     

     

    July 12, 1993

    34 heroes dead. Destroyer still on the loose. It's just so mind-boggling how this can keep happening. We have so much science and technology at our disposal, we have incredible super powered people willing to do what's right. He outsmarted them, not to mention just over powered them (according to the survivors). Is he really that powerful? I've read some of Destroyers manifestos, he is a brilliant scientist, but so amoral. I'd love to know his history, why he became what he is, is it genetic or nurture? The age-old question, nature or nurture. I believe it's both.

     

    I wonder if it's possible to make a mutant? What would it take?

     

    November 20, 1993

    Well mom, dad I wont be joining you folks any time soon, the world powers sent up a team of scientists and several tons of heavy explosives and blew up the asteroid Destroyer had set on course towards earth. Hurrah for the mundanes of the human race lets have a drink.

     

    The government has been to the facility several times now and has interviewed me regarding my theories on mutants and DNA. I must admit, despite the growing ranks of super villains around the world, I still believe in the greater good of man, both homo sapiens and homo-superior.

     

    My theories on mutant development and mutant DNA have been published in several medical and scientific journals now (publish or perish the credo of the PhD.!) I've caught the attention of several groups, both scientific community and mutant community. After Thanksgiving I'm going to be guest speaker in Luxembourg at a conference on Mutant Evolution. I'm both honored and a little worried; my topics are very controversial, even though I'm presenting only scientific data, not personal opinion it becomes moot in the face of fanatics.

     

     

    January 4, 1994

    Hope you and dad had a great new year. Mine was wonderful. I spent the weekend in NYC and watched the ball drop from a penthouse in Manhattan with a very special man. Dr. Peter Maximilian Vann of Rheine Germany, fellow researcher in the mutant experience. I'm enjoying a completely sexual and mental relationship that is only going to last for another, oh, I'd say 3 or

    4 more days, and then Peter is back to Rheine and the wonders of German science. It's been a great fling, I feel like an episode of Sex in the City. I know mom but for heavens sake I'm what, 25, to be 26 in June, and I've only ever had sex but two other times? If it wasn't for the fact that

    I'm so completely absorbed in my work I'd worry about the fact there isn't a bouncing baby Stratford in my life. But you both know better, I'm not going to have kids, I'm married to my work, so I'm not going to delude myself into thinking I'm going to live the "American Dream", Like Benjamin Franklin's quote, "If you're not to be forgotten, when you're dead and rotten; write something worth reading, or do something worth the writing."

     

    I plan on both. Peter has given me some interesting insight into the mutant phenomena in cross genetics of plants and animals. I've been so focused on humans I forgot about the basics of mutation in the most basic of life forms. When I return to the lab on Monday, I've got a whole new angle of how to look at my problem of mutant human DNA. Time to look outside the box.

     

    Oh, Congress is trying to get a bill passed to register mutants. It doesn't have my vote, how could the meta-human community survive if it was general knowledge of what they were? It would be Nazi concentration camps all over again.

     

    April 1, 1994

    Detroit is gone, wiped away by the hand of Dr. Destroyer. We thought he was gone, boy were we wrong. News came out of Ohio that Seeker of the Champions had found Dr. Destroyer's hideout in Detroit. Every single Champion and then some came do to battle. The report from the 2 survivors was that Destroyer held out for as long as he could and when the Champions had him on the ropes, actually defeated, they could of killed him, gotten rid of him for good... what do they do, but back off and ask him to surrender. You know mom, dad, I never thought of how much I could look at some of the most honorable people in the world as being the most stupid, but I do. They gave him the opportunity to think and to act. A sub-orbital laser cannon was set off right on Dr. Destroyer's position, wiping out all but 2 of the champions and vaporizing a miles worth of city surrounding them. Then! With no one controlling it, it cuts a 40-minute path of devastation through the remains of Detroit. Oh but wait mom it gets better! Some one of very little brain at the Pentagon figures that if we send up a low powered nuke we can knock out the satellite and destroy the cannon, some other brilliant homo sapiens agrees and bang, no more satellite. Did I fail to mention it was a sub-orbital satellite? Did I fail to mention that enough nuclear fallout coated what remained of Detroit to keep it radioactive for the next 1000 years? I need a drink.

     

    May 8, 1994

    Well at least Bush is doing something right. The Millennium Bill looks like a good push into the right direction, the 5 trillion dollar bill passed by Congress and the House will raze the remains of Detroit to the ground and rebuild it as Millennium City. Good luck and blessings upon them.

     

    Btw mom and dad, My contract has been bought out. My specialty in mutant genetics (incidentally its become my second PhD.! Kudos to me!) NCGR the National Center for Genome Resources has tapped me for continued research on mutant DNA. I'm moving from Tennessee (WHOOPIE!) to Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love. I'll be there by the time my birthday roll around, so that's one heck of a 26th birthday present! I’m getting my own lab, my own research team and my own projects, with no one breathing down my neck. Now that's something to be proud of. Oh, and the raise isn't bad either.

     

    I know one of my first private projects will be what triggers the mutant DNA from non active to active, why is it that some children going through puberty have the change, while others are born already able to utilized their abilities, and some with the DNA strain don't activate till their adults or sometimes never. We'll see, that one will be my pet project.

     

    November 1994

    Oh God a Democrat has been elected to the White House, were doomed.

     

     

    February 4, 1995

    Happy Birthday to me. And to top it all off the Mutant Registration Act has been passed, only 5 congressmen and 7 senators voted no. On the good side of the coin, only Crystal Palace and the Pentagon will have the database and of course, they put wording into the bill that makes it illegal to discriminate against a mutant, but everyone will have to register. Millicent broke down and cried in the office this morning; her son Jim exhibited mutant powers only earlier this year, he can build up a static charge and "zot" things with a mild shock discharge, caused some low level magnetism in some iron ore we had in the office (and made the lab rats hair stand on end. Mil is thinking about leaving the country and taking Jim with her to avoid having to register him. I've convinced her to at least think about it rationally and not to panic.

     

    I did something that could almost be considered unethical; actually I'm sure it's unethical. I took a sample of Jim's blood. He is going to be the target point of my private research on mutant DNA. I will use Mil's blood and my own as secondary and base line. 3 DNA tests running at once, I'm going to blow the computers to hell.

     

    March 10, 1995

    Clinton has handed over Millennium City to big business. He had congress cut spending and opened up sponsoring of the bill to corporations. Microsoft, Gablesoft, Omega Corp., Pharos Corp, (to name a few) is pumping billions and billions of dollars into building the city. If I see a Nike swoop on the side of a building I think I'll throw up. Why in Gods name would he do such a thing? It’s ridiculous; leave it to a Democrat to fuck up a perfectly good recovery bill by cutting it in half.

     

    December 1995

    Mil and Jim left the country today, she's moving to Spain to avoid registering Jim. I'm loosing an incredible friend and researcher because of anti-mutant protests and a government registration act. It's going to be a depressing Christmas, I think I'll work through it.

     

     

    February 29, 2000

    Well mom, dad is been five years of straight research ever since getting my samples. To top it off, I've been bought out again and I'm now working for PRIMUS as civilian consultant on metahuman's, and although I'm still running the ongoing DNA Tests, my secondary research on metahumans as become more important. The origins of homo-superior are fairly prevalent now, and I'm eyeball deep in the research.

     

    Having government contacts has been very beneficial to the project, I begged for blood samples of people dating back year, after year after year. I actually have a viable sample of blood from 1910. There has to bee a change in DNA somewhere along the lines when mutations became present into the mainstream of human biology. Some "Trigger Event", as I've come to call it, had to have occurred to trigger the mutant response.

     

    It does appear that biologically speaking, a homo-superior were exceedingly rare prior to 1910, there are a few cases of scientific experimentation or mystical effects that have created some heroes and villains prior to WW1, but those are few and very rare. For the most part more mystical augmentation has been seen then scientific prior to WW2. Historical research shows that somewhere around 1924 is when the first large batch of "mutants" started appearing (although still a much smaller group of people then we have today). These first batches, which were teenage hormone triggers, are from children born around 1912 and 1913. Which means the trigger event had to have occurred during one of those years. I'm hoping to get my hands on further information once I reach PRIMUS.

     

    My base is now Hudson City Ohio; however, it is within spitting distance of Millennium City. I will be allowed to study mutants and metahumans on a regular basis now. This should be fascinating.

     

    I’ve also discovered a comic book called The Authority, I find myself associating with the character called The Engineer, a self proclaimed geek that made herself into a superhero. I’ve toyed with the idea for years, there has got to be a way to make a mutant, somewhere is the trigger.

     

     

    July 16, 2001

    Been busier than hell mom, who knew so many metahumans existed in the world, and so many classifications, scientific alteration, mystical alteration, chemical, biological. I've been up to my eyeballs in researching the origins of mutation; I feel I'm closer now then ever before. PRIMUS has given access to an incredible laboratory for research. The DNA is perking along quite well, haven't had any problems transferring research to Hudson City. My research is now locked up tighter than a drum though; some of it is now considered Top Secret security levels. Sigh, of course the government has their hands into it, what I'm working on now could have repercussions across the globe.

     

    September 11, 2001

    God help us all. God have mercy on Aquarius and all of those people in NY. I'm numb, who could believe such absolute destruction from a group no one ever thought touched American soil. It's just too terrible. What if we had other mutants like Aquarius who thought of saving the world instead of destroying it. I've been given access to his file, I understand why Tower 2 went up now, that poor boy, no wonder he took his own life in grief over what he did, even though he saved all the rest of NYC from the nuke. It must be possible to create others like him, moral, upstanding, and with his powers, it must be possible, but to find the trigger.

     

     

    February 15, 2002

    For a late birthday present I treated myself to watching Spiderman; it was cool to see them take it from a DNA point of view instead of just irradiated spiders. I can't believe I never thought of this sooner; it's all very simple now; hard to believe it took a revisit to my favorite comic books to finally get it. I've begun working on a trigger serum; a cocktail meant to revise DNA, it will be a crapshoot, a shot in the dark. And a lot of time and effort, this is not going to be an easy task. There might be a way to predict which way the powers could go based upon the trigger serum; I will run more tests.

     

    March 20, 2002

    Happy Late Birthday Vi, your trigger serum is now a viable option let the testing begin!

     

    May 10, 2002

    The trigger serum so far is too random; it's killed more than its created. There is something I'm missing; something about mutant DNA I'm not seeing. DAMN I wish the sequences would be completed.

     

    October 20, 2002

    SUCCESS! The genome project is done! Data complied from the GENOME PROJECT begun back in 1953 is finally complete. The human genome is mapped. Mutant DNA is mapped; my triumvirate is now a permanent part of history. Celebration! Drinks are on me! Ok, well maybe after I start using the computers to pull the comparisons down to look for the variant.

     

    November 12, 2002

    Mom, dad, thank God for me for the creation of fast processors and worldwide databases. I've found Variant, my life as a research scientist will go down in history, as the woman who found MV1-190 the mutant gene in human DNA. Last year I took samplings of both human and metahuman tissue, we ran the sequencer (along with Mil's, Jim's and my samples as well) and did a cross sectional analysis. Turns out mom that almost everyone born after 1912 has specific sections of DNA that are susceptible to the mutant trigger event. However, not this entire DNA is capable of being triggered, a small percentage, almost .0000001% of the sampling has the genomes necessary for a trigger event to manifest into a mutant power. Mom that means, roughly estimated, one person in every one million people will be born with the gene, which will allow a trigger event to create a mutation. It's mind boggling, that there could be so many.

     

    Oh, yes! God I can see it. I can compare the genomes of DNA and see the 1% that makes a mutant. Jim bless you dear boy I can see what makes you, you. I also see where you got the original variant from your mother. Jim it's hereditary, but yours took whatever it needed in a trigger event, which turned the variant into a mutation, probably puberty since you were "normal" until your 14th birthday.

     

    Mother, guess what, I have the variant too.

     

    November 21, 2002

    "Trigger" works! When I exposed "MV1-190" to "Trigger" I got a full-blown mutation array! A complete shift in the 1% from Variant to Mutant, however I can't tell what sort of powers have developed. I'm going to have to inject Trigger into a living-thinking organism to test it completely…

     

    Well, nothing like a lab rat that grows batwings and spits acid... I think that one goes down in the history books for lab animals. I have already bred several rats with specific MV1-190 DNA; the results were spectacular but none of them predictable. Not a single one actually manifested an attempted power, I tried for teleportation I got knobby skin and superior strength; I tried for spider powers and got dragon rat; I tried for superior strength and got superior bouncing. Thank God it didn't come up with invulnerability, I wouldn't have been able to kill them. However of the 3 that did generate powers, the other 3 died rather horrible deaths. All six of them were in horrible pain as the mutation ripped through their DNA, they had all passed out roughly 10 minutes into the procedure. Full manifestation of powers occurred, 5.9 hours after injection in rats 1, 2 and 3, but rats 4, 5, and 6 never awoke from the coma, their bodily functions ceased after 9.5 hours.

     

    Sigh, it's a crapshoot; the genome is so specific I am unable to yet understand what sort of power could actually manifest. But I have done it; I am now able to create a mutant, I am perhaps the first scientist in the world to do so. I'm not sure if this would get me the Noble Prize, incarceration at Stronghold, or a trip to Arkham Sanatorium.

     

    Given what I now understand about MV-190; oh yes Mother I am really planning this, If I test Trigger on myself, since I have the gene, I too will develop some sort of super power. What knowledge I now hold is beyond dangerous and must be kept secret, if what I have created would ever be stolen or myself captured, the villains of the world would wreak havoc. If I were to give myself super powers, then I could defend myself better, not to mention I would fall under several clauses within the Mutant Registration act that would give me quite the lot of immunity to prosecution (time to make that law work for me). I just need to decide when to make the attempt.

     

    December 4, 2002

    I’ve stabilized “Trigger,†each subsequent lab test has come up positive with 100% viability results and best of all, no further deaths. Timing of mutation activation increased based on body mass, lab rats 5-6 hours, monkeys’ 7-8 hours as I moved up in tissue mass, the two swine experiments increased time to 8.7 hours on alpha and 9.3 hours on beta; before coming out of what I’ve termed “chrysalisâ€; the period of time in which the injection reacts to MV-190 and creates the flip within the gene activating the mutant potential.

     

    Although I administering anesthesia to the test subjects to “take the edge off†the pain of transformation, it didn’t do squat. Test subject baseline temperature rises 15 to 30°; fever does not break until almost 88.9% of the transformation is complete; muscle spasms were present within all test subjects not anesthetized; however all subjects showed high pain thresholds 20% above normal. I can cut the spasms, but the pain of transformation and the high fever is still present. Each subject is terminated after confirmation of mutation becomes manifest. Powers are a wide variable, with no basis for determining what power will manifest. That above all is the most annoying thing I’m dealing with.

     

    December 19, 2002

    Several attempted anesthesia cocktails created adverse affects in mutation dropping the live subject success rate from 99.7% to 43.5%. Deaths became cumulative the more relaxed the subject became, under induced coma death was 100%. Bare minimum anesthesia, .5cc or less, is tolerated, just enough to stop muscle spasms. Further testing will determine if I begin human subject testing.

     

    December 24, 2002

    Merry Christmas up there in Heaven Mom & Dad. PRIMUS states that human testing is out of the question, I’ve been allowed to experiment on cloned tissue and blood samples but that is all. I’ve decided to begin experimentation on my own blood samples. Trigger flips MV-190 completely activating the gene. An examination of the difference between the original sample and the mutated sample is unexceptional; under maximum magnification of the electron microscope alterations to the blood are not apparent; however when samples are run through the DNA identifiers the alteration is remarkable, full mutant array. I’m beyond pleased and I feel that the time for human work is required. Corpse experimentation is out of the question; I cannot experiment on dead DNA although it is there, its hardly viable. Besides; heaven forbid the possibility of an undead rising could occur (at least in horror movies, I’m reminded of Resident Evil), I’m not going to accidentally create a group of undead supers.

     

    No, I plan on injecting myself at the beginning of the new year. It will be painful, I’ll avoid giving myself the anesthetic to insure 100% success rate. I just wish there was some way of determining what type of mutant I will become. There is something I’m overlooking I wish I could get an inkling of what it was. More brooding later. I’m late to the PRIMUS Christmas party.

     

     

     

    January 3, 2003

    Mother, Father pray for me, I've done it.

     

    The lab is locked and within 2 minutes my temperature should rise by 15 degrees if not more and the muscle spasms should commence. I’ve cleared a section of the lab; some convulsions in the animals have been very violent. I’m using the audio program to record for as long as I am conscious. At 1 minute 15 seconds hands have begun trembling. I have broken into a sweat. The wrist monitor and remote sensors will record thought the session the rises in all biorhythms, I can, oh, ah, (holly shit that hurts) only 3 minutes, it’s accelerated!………end recording….

     

    -----------

    I'm awake. It’s now 10.3 hours after injection. I've survived the night; I can't describe how much pain I caused myself. My lab looks like the Hulk tore through it on a binger; I had put myself on a table and strapped myself in, yet I still broke through them and awoke on the floor of the lab broken test tubes and beakers everywhere, I’m lucky I had sense of mind to turn of the burners otherwise I would have had a fire.

     

    But I now, am amazingly unaltered; at least I look normal, no outward signs of any changes. The mutant indicators pick up a slight variation in my structure but they don't "ping" and I'm not sure why they don't. Is it possible that the experiment failed in giving me a power? Do I still need an EVENT to spur the power into being? I thought powers would become immediately evident, as they did in the animals; the simplified mental process of the animal causes immediate evidence. Although we share many similar traits with animals the human nervous system is more complex, I was unconscious just under what I had calculated for my height and weight, so apparently that theory works. I'm going to test if anything happened or if I merely came close to poisoning myself to death last night.

     

    Damn it. Still nothing, I haven't been able to trigger anything! Oh this just sucks. I set off the mutant detectors at close range on the highest setting, but once I move more than 3 feet away nothing registers and short of causing damage to myself I have not been able to trigger any powers yet. I feel like Peter Parker and the "go web" scene. Fortunately there are no odd protrusions or new crevasses formed anywhere on me.

     

    Come Monday, I'll head to PRIMUS base and run the tests on the DNA sampler to check if MV-190 actually flipped. It might be a good test their mutant sniffing technology as well.

     

    January 6, 2003

    Well they went off. I'm a mutant! Huzzah, break out the champagne. PRIMUS base almost blew a new hole in me before I got the chance to speak with Livingston. Commander Knight is going to transfer me to the Washington base to run me through the big “danger room†to discover what I can do. This is not a test I want to take, I know it’s will hurt, it’s guaranteed the way to trigger my mutant event will be detrimental to my health.

     

    Jan, 6, afternoon...

    Well, it appears I can manipulate and create both hot and cold, from below freezing temperatures to super heated plasma. I also appear to generate a type of frozen/fire armor when I shift over to me "hero" form. Incidentally it took getting tagged with the laser to trigger the first change, getting shot, stabbed, and almost dissolved in acid did nothing to help the Trigger Effect, why couldn't it of been high emotional stress like most other triggers, God knows there was enough stress.

     

    OK, so, now I'm a mutant, and I will have to register. Apparently I have two forms, I generate a strong mutant signature only when I'm in "Hero" form (as Dr. Baly said) otherwise I'm "normal" and only the strongest sniffers will be able to pick me up when I'm just plain old Vi. I think I'll call my alter ego Celsius. PRIMUS is getting ready to register me in the database.

     

    Oops, can't do Celsius he already exists in the database. So we had to think up a new name. Dr. Baly came up with it actually; he took the simplest of ideas to do it. I generate hot and cold, fire and frost, so he christened me Firefrost. Now its official, I'm in the database and a permanent member of mutant society. This is either a really bad thing or a really good thing; I'm not sure which yet.

     

    January 10, 2003

    Oh wow, Mom, Dad I know you two have got to be in heaven right now just shaking your heads in wonder. Don't feel too badly about what I've done, I'm planning on making it work out all for the better.

     

    Well, we now have a full listing of my powers as Firefrost; I fly, create plasma and ice and have this really impressive take off when I need to move fast, lets just hope I do not have to use that very often, my "blast off" looks like the space shuttle launching with almost as much destructive force behind it and is just gawd awful exhausting.

     

    Something else happened today, I've been told I'm a national treasure. My knowledge of mutant DNA & genetics is specialized and since I have now created a mutant (myself) my brain is worth more than Einstein's. Which also means, I am unable to publish any of my findings. There was no way I was going to publish Trigger but the events and information leading up to it would of made Noble Prize winning material. It is simply too dangerous, as I remember thinking on this earlier, all it takes is one villain out there creating a league of super monsters to take over the world and were screwed. In my heart of hearts, I know that at some point in time I will regret my research and where I have taken it, but it is far too late for me now.

     

    I have been assigned a cyborg bodyguard to protect me, he's not happy about it since is specialty was infiltration and killing people, yea team;-) but he's doing the job very well, he sneaks about so well he scared the hell out of Captain Yurato when he came into the lab unexpectedly.

     

    January 23, 2003

    Mom, Dad, I've been tapped to be a mentor to an 18-year-old mutant named Succor; he can absorb or boost any energy. He's improved my computers output by 90%. Succor found a 14-year-old I've named Geiger, who has the ability to absorb either physical or energy kinetics to boost not only living body armor but his strength as well. I have Succor and Geiger training together on PRIMUS base when I'm not running tests on them myself.

     

    February 9, 2003

    My 3rd child has been handed to me by Commander Stone of the Charleston SC branch (and member of the Charleston Champions). This 18-year-old boy is apparently the son of his one time teammate Jester. The boy calls himself Wire-Runner; I think it's going to get shortened down to Wire; he appears to have some control over magnetism. He also claims to be from an alternate dimension he calls DEVA. I researched Commander Stone's and the rest of the Charleston Champions PRIMUS reports, which confirm that dimension travel does exist and I am officially now in WAY over my head. I'm going the way of Dr. Hank Pym and Reed Richards and suddenly I have the Teen Titans showing me "their moves." My life has officially become a comic book.

     

     

    March 15, 2003

    What a way to start a new career. While working at Hudson base, we (as in me and the pizza hogging kids) get a call about a man in armor bleeding to death on the rooftop of 15th and Vine. I’m told to grab Succor, since Jacob is the closest thing we have to a healer and launch myself off the roof, 3.5 seconds later were there, (at least I’ll never need a taxi in the city). So here is this guy, in body armor with the chest plate ripped off and his rib cage exposed, (watching his heart beat through the remains of his chest was interesting). Succor immediately went to work healing the guy, I managed to get a little bit of information out of him, mostly, “check on the girlâ€. The two boys in blue downstairs were just about as lucid. It kinda went like this, “this huge dark thing with claws jumped out and tried to kill the guy in armor, and oh he managed to save this kidâ€. See what I mean? Is that coherent? No, well try writing it up in a report sometime. Wire Walker and Geiger managed to follow us to the location. Jason (Wire) entertained the 6-year-old girl in the back of the police car, where she told him her story…she was more articulate then the adults’…sheesh.

     

    I noted we had a few other “supers†in the area, some guy in blue with a cape and a rope, some guy all in ninja black (not more ninja, please) and some lady, that looked like a lawyer. The cape swung away after stalling in an alleyway. When I went to investigate I came across the “chest wound†looking at an oddly drawn pentagram. He says there is something familiar about it but he can’t put a finger on it. Well I sure the hell didn’t know what it was so I had Succor leave him my business card and tell him to get in touch with me if he felt that something might come out of this. Little did I know…..

     

    Geiger decides to further case the area and winds up meeting an ole PRIMUS baddy, Black Paladin, who in turn introduces Geiger to his mace with a follow through to the wall across the street. Of course I didn’t know this at the time because I was half a block away but I heard the THUD of the impact. So flying down the street (I love that!) I zoom past not only Black Paladin but teleporting into the area is Mordachi previously of DEMON now of the CIRCLE. BP and M face off but when Wire Walker decided to try and distract them, Mord vaps out of the area leaving us to play with BP. Who apparently not wanting to play pulls out a brand new weapon, a black sword, which causes the entire area to become pitch black. I had swooped down and grabbed the “chest wound†since he had decided to take of what remained of his torso armor and then run back into battle (idiot, you can get killed that way, not to mention have your soul sucked out of you by Mordachi’s sword). Once we got out of the dark area (with Succors help calling us towards him) we could see perfectly clearly.

     

    Geiger tried to get himself out of the wall but proceeded to jump into the other building (Dennis still needs work), BP tore open a portal with the sword and went away. Thank god, I don’t know if it’s the same sword that we have registered to him before, but with swords that suck people’s souls out and/or mentally dominates you, but I wasn’t willing to risk the mundane to check out a theory. Danny Darko of Remington Steel Investigations was there to photograph it all, bless his fuzzy little heart and his incredible camera. The boy got some excellent shots in several different visual fields of the fight, including BP’s new blade. I’ve put into my report getting Darko or at least Remington Steel onto the payroll for photo updates and research. (Remember put new sword powers into database).

     

    Did an analysis of the blood and ichors on the child’s shirt, the human blood is the “chest woundsâ€, I’m going to run his blood through the analysis, he might be human but I’d like to check if he has to the potential for evolution. The ichor is of no type previously identified but does have some similar traits to that of a reanimated corpse. Our dead looking killer really is dead. Perhaps this is why he stays in the dark and all attacks have happened at night, he can’t stand sunlight. If he is a reanimated corpse then this also explains the removal of the gland, since the secretions from it allow for movement.

     

    I fill out more paperwork now as a member of PRIMUS then I ever did in my 15 years of research.

    Off for a soak and sleep…Oh wait, I’ve got a new series of tests to run, ok maybe sleep later.

    March 19, 2003 morning

    Why is it that when you want to sleep you can never get a break? Very early this morning I get a call from the “chest woundâ€. He calls himself Matt Slate (did he tell me last night? I can’t remember) and tells me that he has found information on the pentagram thingy. It’s apparently some part of a spell that this killer is creating to bring for the rise of an ancient demon. Just what I need to hear this early in the morning. According to Mr. Slate, the Huntsman (guy in blue w/cape) has been following this thing (killer) for several months now; the murders stared in Rio D., females, ages 6 to 36 have been murdered, over similar pentagrams, with their thalamus removed. According to Mr. Slate, he and the 3 other individuals from last night went to the local authority on the supernatural in the city Father O’Malley of St. Ignatius Church; this is where they got their information. Going to drop off for some sleep now. Before we (as in me and the kids) head to St. Ignatius to interview Father O’Malley. This Slate guy is pretty good with research, I wonder what ever prompted him to get into the “superhero†business, I mean he’s mundane, no powers at all, that’s even more dangerous than doing it with powers!

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Note to self, never to have a conversation with a priest while a demon sits outside the building. Apparently the lawyer looking female is actually a demon in human guise. <> I’ve been introduced to the three magical type people are Jet-a.k.a. Ebony Chase (aforementioned demon), a Shadowkahn hunter of evil and slayer of demons (her keeper? why isn’t she dead yet?) and The Huntsman (dude in cape) another hunter of supernatural evil. A cape, he actually wears a cape. So its official, the supernatural is running loose in our city trying to raise a huge earth shattering, pre-Christianity, possibly pre-evolution of man, DEMON. Yea, I am so freaking thrilled. The meeting, needless to say, was strange. Came back went back to run tests batch A.L.G. 122-329, results sill nominal.

     

    Got another call from Mr. Slate, honestly, this guy would make a great private investigator; he’s got the tenacity of a bulldog with a T-bone in sight; dose he do anything else with his life? A lot of hints and workups later, we’ve gotten an ok for an active search pattern in the city. We have an estimation of where the killings would be “required†to fit the type of ritual necessary to break down the barriers to this demon the Killer is trying to release. The Huntsman volunteered information that he has located several other murders within the city that fall under the same categories as the current ones and it would appear that several of them are starting to crop up in our area specifically. We put a tab on the little girl we rescued and discover that within a 6 or so block radius would the next victim. We have the 6-year-old, an 8-year-old and a 16 year old; Succor volunteered himself, Geiger and Wire to go to the 16 year olds house to check on her, yea right, like Succor isn’t trolling for a date.

     

    Just got an emergency call from Succor, he found Huntsman near death and they’re under attack by the Killer at the girl’s house, updates later.

     

    March 19/20, 2003

    Really freakin early in the morning.

    Luck, sheer freakin luck that’s what it is. I seem to remember there being a quote about “I’d rather be lucky than good?-or something to that effect. I find Mr. Slate on route to the 16’s house, so with a little fancy flying from me, he paraglide onto the roof of the house. I flew into the house through the open kitchen doors. I could hear a lot of screaming and yelling from inside the home, but when I got there the only thing I could manage to do was get blasted by the Killer. Fortunately the funky barrier he put around the house and the kitchen sink managed to keep me from flying out back through the window (my back still hurts). I managed to catch a glimpse of Geiger and the teenager trapped in pentagrams in the dining room, unfortunately by the time I was able to do something the Killer teleported away with the girl. Somebody was able to free Geiger from the field and next thing I know there is this huge bright light coming down the halls from across the house. There was this incredibly ghastly scream that came along with that bright light. After I pried my ass out of the kitchen sink, I was able to fly around the house, to survey the damage. Apparently the Killer had grabbed the girl along with Succor at the same time and had managed to teleport across the house to the ballroom (or something like that), he was about ready to kill them both when Succor, sensing her to be a mutant, “pushed†her powers to activate at the highest level. Which, as he explained to me, happened to be light generation. (Just about everyone had burned retinas except for me; I guess there was something good out of being useless in the fight.) He’s not sure what happened to the Killer but we can assume from the fine ash I discovered on the floor that he was highly allergic to sunlight and vaporized.

     

    I called in an ambulance for the girl and a pickup for my “teamâ€. The kids and Slate were in bad shape having taken quite a lot of damage from the Killer (not including the retinal burns), Slate agreed to come with us back to base for cleanup and The Huntsman somehow managed, recovering from a sucking chest wound, to somehow get away without us knowing it; irritating little git, who the hell does he think he is with the mysterious disappearing acts, Batman?!

     

    Slate was suitably impressed with the lab; I was rather impressed about how much he knows. His expertise in sciences is much more technology based, he’s more Tony Stark to my Dr. Bruce Banner. I let him and the boys sleep in at the bases dorm to recuperate from all the damage, Succor managed to heal most of the wounds but the retina damage will still take time, plus its always a good idea to rest up after a fight, you have to get the fatigue out.

     

    I on the other hand, decided that being slow really sucked, so I went to the gym to start a training program to increase my speed and strength. I filed the report with Artemis and got in a few hours of working out; I think I’ll try and do this on a continual basis to put my body into better shape. Though I did notice something, I went back through some old family photos and noticed that since January my physiology has changed. When I actually benched weights back in 2000 I was fairly weak, now I’m pressing some serious weights, not like Geiger but I’m able to carry him and others without any strain. I’m leaner than I was just 5 months back. I’ve also noticed something else, I’ve always had nice deep black hair, midnight shiny with a slight hint of red; I’ve noted at the tips, have faded, there are white streaks about a half inch from the edges, almost as if I’d dyed them in that new fashion fad. But I haven’t, I wonder if that is part of my process? Am I still evolving as a mutant?

     

    In comic books there are second evolutions usually caused by drastic alterations or attacks on the mutants’ body. I haven’t had anything drastic happen but I am using my powers more frequently now, perhaps there is a continued evolution as you grow into powers. There is so much I wish I didn’t have to look at comics for, I’m still guessing at half the shit necessary to do what I do. Still, my life is not as dull as it was just 2 years ago.

     

    Oh and the boys have decided to take up a permanent patrol of the city, I applauded the efforts of the Junior Justice League.

     

     

    March 21, 2003

    I am now officially a PRIMUS agent, as in street agent with police powers and everything. Why? Because the freakin media got a hold of the story about us taking down the Necro Killer and I got tagged as a hero and the savior to us all. Sarcasm! Honestly I didn’t do any of the footwork, or the research, I mean it was just silly, I even told that to the media once I got wind of the story hitting the airwaves and papers, I told them of the people who had done the work and that they were the heroes not me. And what did that get me? A louder pat on the back for being so “selfless†in making sure that the “little people†gets noticed. Shit. I was alerted to all of this by Commander Stone of the SE PRIMUS Division calling to congratulate me and notify me of my promotion; I swear nobody cares about who does the work, just who appears best on camera. It sucks. On a related point, Succor got a date with the 16 year old.

     

     

    April 1, 2003

    If it weren’t for the fact I’ve seen it with my own eyes I’d say that it was an April fools joke. But there it was larger than life. Someone or something has large robots that generate plasma blasts and rob armored trucks. Our ever vigilant Mr. Slate calls me to tell me he’s being attacked by some large rocket that followed him down the interstate, he managed to jump from his van before it impacted; however, it didn’t blow up, it shimmered and vanished. I did a scan through the area and sure enough we pick up a blip of Genesis radiation, they hit him with a teleported rocket and stole his truck, what luck. Why did he drive around in a van that has all of his electronics stuff for his armor? I don’t know but I can bet you Genesis will be finding out shortly. Anyway, he’s walking along the road looking for me to come pick him up when he comes across an armored care robbery, only its not your everyday normal kinda day robbery, the driver and guard were killed by a single shot to the chest of a plasma bolt, burned straight through the glass right into the back of the cab. The cargo hold was ripped open with such ease it could have been a kid with a candy wrapper and whatever was inside stolen.

     

    Mr. Slate is telling me all this while I’m getting there (useful radios eh what); he said there was a cabinet unsealed still in the hold. So I told him to do what any nosy PRIMUS agent would do, told him to rifle through the top two shelves and take whatever he could find and stash it until I got to him. By the time I pulled up Mr. Slate was in the middle of getting a pat down by the boys in blue, (not like you can do that real well in body armor) and the Army was pulling up. Mr. Slate is not the most diplomatic of people I’ve met, so I did all the talking to the Boys and the Army to make sure he didn’t wind up under lock and key. I brought him and the files back to base where we could review them. Mr. Slate was able to scrape some samples off the cab and get a metal sample from the door; I lent him my smaller lab and let him run the samples at the lab in PRIMUS while I peruse the TS files.

     

    Turns out it was a good call on my behalf the files hold strategic information and partial building designs of a TOP SECRET satellite created by US Army, yippie! I wonder if I can get into the Pentagon database and snoop around.

     

    April 2, 2003, early am.

    Oh wow, never let it be said that I can’t hack! Actually I’ll go with the pure freakin luck theory again. I managed to tap the Pentagon database and get the information on the satellites. These satellites are totally spies, super magnification down to picking out the number of freckles on your face; talk about scary. Apparently a control chip was stolen; but who would want access to that technology, what good would it do? Martek Co. and the Army created them and Martek is not too far away from where the truck was hit, I’m going to work on a hunch that we need to go around the facility and see if another attack is immanent to steal more technology. I’ll grab Geiger and Succor in a few hours to do a little bit of surveillance. Mr. Slate is also working very hard on creating a scanner for the energy signal robots put out and the type of rare metals that the things are made of. He’s got persistence and quite the hand at technology creations, I’ll give him that. I wonder what his mutation would be?

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I wish you were here Mom to help administer that TLC love that helps healing. Crap I hurt, crap we sucked big time. Surveillance on Martek went well with Slate’s scanners picking up those unique energy signals, until we got close enough to the building to see that there was obviously a fire or something of that nature going on, so utilizing my new found police powers we (Slate, Geiger, Succor and myself) zoomed into action. To which we found in a warehouse, 4 new fangled robots that had a basic understanding of my powers, Geiger’s powers, and Succors powers (them feeling that Slate and his big gun were inconsequential until he hurt them HARD, then he got a new threat assessment). They were stealing parts and some Martek employees were holed up in a room. Then the shit really hit the fan, we blasted, beat upon, shot and tried to ice over (one had a force field) the bots, which then proceeded to try every freakin beam weapon on us until we were pulverized. It took them several tries to finally get through Geiger’s defenses; he’s learned to fear the “green†beam, and the skinny one with the force field that had all the parts teleported away! Since when do bots TELEPORT?! After the one teleported away the rest of them went into self-destruct mode (we had managed to blast 1 to pieces once Wire decided to show up and magnetize the hell out of them), Geiger thinking that the one going into self-destruct would of blown up the civilians along with us so Succor powered him up to max and Geiger took himself and the bot through the wall into the parking lot away from everyone. He’s a good kid, he’s sometimes a little to impetuous but he’s got is hero thinking in the right place, save the civilians. Fortunately the bots didn’t explode; actually they had internal meltdowns, liquid plasma right down to the feet, nothing left but the shell. We dragged one back with us to the lab, Slate spent a lot of time examining it while we recovered, he is well and truly pissed at the thing, I guess he was hoping to salvage some technology but nothing survived. So now he’s playing Quincy searching for clues on the body itself.

     

    Right now I just want some coffee and something other than pizza to eat, I’m beat. I’ll check on Lot A.L.G. 421-519 later, assimilation of structure seems to be plausible after 16 hours, integrity check at 20 hours.

     

     

    April 8, 2003

    I hate magic people, did I ever mention that Mom? I got a call from Slate on behalf of the cape called the Huntsman, who wanted to meet me down at the City Morgue. Needless to say I was a little freaked by this, you don’t usually get phone calls from an elusive caped figure looking to meet you at a morgue. So I go, sans unique self but in “costume,†after all I have a secret ID to maintain. Oh, Slate told me he found a pine needle stuck to the foot of one of the robots, he’s researching where the genus comes from, that might be our only clue as to where this threat originates.

     

    So I went to the morgue to meet the cape. I did not like the reception. Now that I’ve gotten a good look at Huntsman I’m not sure of my first impression. He is a paranormal investigator and very used to solitary work, very secretive but only because its part of the nature of working alone. I can understand this, after all scientists, unless your working on a project together, are solitary creatures and have a tendency not to tell anyone what they are doing until the findings are confirmed and your putting it into print; this cuts down on the theft of theories and formula. However, when you become aware of crimes you really should make it known to other crime fighters in the area that something is up. I’m going to try and explain that to him over time, because if he doesn’t open up a little more and become a team player, what’s the sense in working with him, we wont be able to trust him and we’ll always be finding things out second hand.

     

    But he is thorough, which explains why it took a few killings before he presented his findings, I did point out to him that we would like to avoid multiple killings and if we could keep it down to one in the future that would be grand. Anyway, now we have 2 unexplained, very unnatural killings present in our city morgue; one set of murders involves a college professor at Hudson City University and a student: death is by a stab wound to the chest which pierced sternum, a item was then inserted into the wound and the chest cavity torn open to expose the heart, the heart is missing and blood exsanguinate from the body prior to death; blood was not found at scene.

     

    Murder two is stranger: 3 women all of different ethnic heritages, one single strike in the heart by a slightly curved blade. Here is the really freaky part, a Black woman is now Caucasian, a blond now has black hair and a brown-eyed girl now has yellow eyes. A large predatory bird feather was found clutched in the hand of on victim, a tuft of golden animal hair in the hands of another, each victim was supine and exsanguinate.

     

    And here is where I hate secretive magic people; Huntsman tells me that he had a vision of one of these girls falling from a great height into the river. I asked him where he had this vision, he said it was from an obsidian mirror that he, Shadowkahn and Jet found in the lair of the now permanently deceased Necro Killer, apparently they all had a different vision when they touched the mirror and looked into it. Shadowkahn saw another victim fall to their death and Jet saw some black hair, Goth looking woman with a dagger. Why the hell didn’t they say anything sooner?!?!?!?!

     

    I very nicely asked for Huntsman to begin looking through the rest of the morgues in the city for similar victims, since Shadowkahn’s victim hasn’t shown up yet. I also spoke with the coroner and asked for the bodies and any similar bodies to be brought to PRIMUS after they had been examined by the city, along with any findings and a complete case file, the gentleman said he would notify the other morgues and do just that.

     

    I’m very confused by the physical alterations, such dramatic chemical alterations are not easily identified or created, how would it be possible? I hate to say it but magic, especially true mystical work like the freaky stuff the Charleston Champions used to run into, really scares the hell out of me. Magic is too unpredictable an abominably of reality, it just creeps me out.

     

    I think I’ll give Dennis the task of looking up the friends of the Professor that died at the university; he’s really gotten into researching things online who knows what he’ll find. I’ve put in a call to Slate to notify Shadowkahn what where on the lookout for 2 serial killers with odd magical items one sucking all the blood out of the body the other transforming the victims. I hate magic.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Oh this is cute. I find a note on my refrigerator, Dear Dr. Stratford, your security sucks and you should meet me at the Happy Fun Park last stall to discuss your security problems on the morning of the 14th. Yea freaking rah. Who the hell did this and why shouldn’t I be totally freaked out beyond my wits. I’m sleeping at the base.

     

     

    April 13, 2003

    Blue Herron Pine, which means Blue Herron State Part. I’ll have Slate take one vehicle and Succor take another, we called Shadowkahn and left a message, I wish we had more backup but we don’t. So Slate, Succor, Wire, Geiger and myself are headed to Blue Herron to look for these robots. More later.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

    God help us all, if I hadn’t been there to see it I would of never of believed it. We went to the park, followed Slate’s nifty little detectors to a small cabin on the side of the mountain set there for tired hikers. After examining the shack Geiger discovered a trap door in the floor. We proceeded down the hole (there being no ladder) carefully and lo to our wondering eyes did appear a fully decked out computer room with 4 robots playing Command and Conquer with the satellites they stole. The fight was just plain ugly, they blasted us, we resisted, blasted them; then they turned the energy beams on to funky settings and teleported part of Slate’s shoulder off. The worst part is that throughout the entire fight they kept identifying targets, assessing targets and reprioritizing target as abilities or powers were downloaded and updated (we know because they kept saying so, same thing they did at Martek).

     

    Once we had them down enough they started to go into meltdown, no matter what we did to try and stop it. Then it happened. The video screens came on with Doctor Destroyer announcing his return; gloating about the technology he’s created and with the tech he stole from Martek he blows up all the spy satellites in orbit. Effectively blanketing the USA completely. I noticed that plans for the satellites were left behind so we grabbed them and one of the computers hoping to get some information out of the hard drive. Succor put Slate’s shoulder back together as we fled from the rapidly self-destructing base.

     

    Destroyer is alive, he has incredible new Destroids at his command and is more powerful then we remember: life officially sucks big time. I doubt I’m getting much sleep tonight, Shadowkahn returned our call and asked for assistance in a case he’s working on, I’m leaving Slate and the kids to recuperate and work out the information on the computer we salvaged. I’m heading to a bookstore that Shadowkahn is waiting at. I’ve got to file my report as soon as I come back.

     

     

    April 13/14, 2003

    Magic sucks; there is no two ways about it. Shadowkahn and Jet are waiting for me at the bookstore, which is currently infested with some odd supernatural ghostly worm-type-fish thing. There is a corpse with its face eaten out lying on the floor; Jet assumes that the worm-thing is probably what killed the guy. Shadowkahn assumes that the body is that of the bookseller; believing that the worm-thing was a guardian of the book, when the bookseller opened the book it ate his face off and that by shutting the book it would be possible to put the worm away. With that theory in place, Shadowkahn being very careful about where he walks (i.e. keeping away from a book the worm thing is circling) heads into the room to try and identify the body. Now I don’t anything about supernatural but I know when I see someone’s ass about to be chewed off by a vicious worm-lantern fish thing I move. Shadowkahn tried to shut the book the worm-fish thing moved in to eat him, I flew in grabbed Shadowkahn and flew out before he lost his face to the set of teeth on that thing. Fortunately the worm-fish thing couldn’t go too far away from the book. I asked both of them if they had a theory on how to get rid of it, they both said no considering that Shadowkahn managed to shut the book but the worm-fish thing was still swimming around. Personally I was wondering what the hell Jet was supposed to be doing to help, especially since she wasn’t doing jack shit.

     

    Good thing about PRIMUS police powers, I called Jonsey at the base and had him put me through to Lynn Chou of the supernatural division of PRIMUS. She said she would get in contact with Crystal Claire (late of Charleston Champions files fame). I have never seen a more colorful individual in my life, Mohawk, piercing, tie-dye, black leather and a bundle of mystical mumbo-jumbo that I’m sure even David Copperfield wouldn’t have been able to decipher. She sets up this intricate little ritual that manages to trap the worm-fish thing in a small ceramic dish (don’t ask Mom, I have no idea). I asked her if she knew of how to clean up the body, not to mention the oogy-creepy-evil feeling that Shadowkahn and her had felt. She suggested a Mr. Alan Quartermain for cleanup, gave me his number and left. Shadowkahn and Jet did the same as I told them I would need to call this in; mystical people don’t like being associated to odd deaths much.

     

    Now Alan, that is one odd guy, actually he’s very handsome, highly educated and very debonair…did I mention handsome? He and his team arrived to do the dirty work, I got some new insights into the world of magic talking to him; which included the fact that he could see right though my ice/fire field and into my face; that sucks much too, apparently nothing I can do about it though, mystical sight and all that. Sheesh, what a night. At least Jet told me that in order for her to work with me I would have to clear it with her “ownerâ€, apparently she only works for the summonor, I’ll have to set up an appointment with the lady in the next few days and clear having the demon work for me, what the hell am I saying?

     

    This sounds so bad. I had to tell Silver Avenger Clark about what happened in Hudson City and the blow up at the cabin, so now they are aware of our involvement with the Doctor Destroyer incident. I also let Clark know about the satellite plans and part of the Top Secret information used in the creation of these satellites that we were able to scrounge. I have been informed to keep these under wraps in our safe. I have also been notified to update Artemis with all pertinent information on Destroyer and his bots.

     

     

    April 14, 2003, early morning

    I so want to sleep but I have to zoom over to the Happy Fun Park and find out who is stalking me and why. I have a meeting with Jet’s “boss†in 5 hours in Millennium City, coffee! I need coffee!

     

     

    April 14, 2003, not so early morning

    Life sucks. You know this is just too much, Remington Steel himself has been tailing me and has found out, through sources he would probably kill me over, that VIPER is out hunting for my blood…Literally. Someone in VIPER knows my secret ID and wants either my or several vials of blood for whatever nefarious purposes they can think of. I have to notify PRIMUS of this new development, I’ll have to move to a secure location. Why would they want me?? I’ve told the kids and the rest of the supers that work with me, Succor ticked off on his fingers, “no leaving the base without escort, no super hero business, etc.,†I laughed but he’s serious, how am I supposed to be a hero if I’m too scared to move out of my own office? Either way, I have a job to do, no matter how afraid I am for others or myself; I’m off to my meeting with Jet’s “bossâ€.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Oh God I’m beat and what’s worse we had a total of 5 bodies that fit the MO for the single cut/body alteration murders. I’ll look at them later. Jet’s boss didn’t do the whole fire and brimstone “I summon the demon from hell†thing, she just called Jet on the phone and said, “You can take orders from her.†I now have a demon working for me, which means their working for PRIMUS. How the hell do I get that on an ID card, the supernatural division is going to have a field day.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Geiger came up with info on the dead professor, I’ve sent him and Slate off to the University to verify some things before we go talk to the man’s coworker.

     

    Me, I need to lie down and die for a few hours. Oh, batch 34 turned out to be 99.78% viable, the sequence is now shorter, I’d crack open a bottle of champagne to celebrate but I’m just too damn tired, I’m gong to get a shower and then drop. Oh shit, I forgot about the report to headquarters.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Oh well, headquarters took it much better than I thought they would, they’ll be moving my stuff into Harborcore Towers (nice and secure) shortly, until them I’m to stay at base or be under guard. Makes me wish they had kept that commando guy on my tail. There was another killing last night involving the exsanguination and removal of heart, why do villains like going out in the rain; were going to talk to the original victims coworker, Professor Johnson, tomorrow. I’m going to update Artemis now and then collapse.

     

    Note to self, hide credit card from boys so they stop ordering pizza with my ID.

     

     

    April 15, 2003

    Huntsman is finally getting in touch with us on a regular basis since we seem to be of great assistance in helping him solve these supernatural cases (damn Batman complex!) This is the worst fight I’ve ever been in and it was completely supernatural driven. Slate and Geiger found out from the University that the deceased professor’s coworker had been in South America studying a blood god worshiped by ancient Incans, some Tshagua (or something like that). This coworker, a Professor Louis Johnson had recently returned, round about the same time the other professor died, from South America, with several relics of the area, including an odd bronze dagger. Prof. Johnson apparently was recuperating at home from a case of suspected Yellow Fever. So we went to Prof. Johnson’s home Slate, Geiger, Huntsman and myself all to speak with him, already under the assumption that Professor Johnson was guilty of something. We got to the Profs’ house and noted that there were very muddy sneakers sitting outside on the porch. I had Geiger and Slate hang back out of sight and let Huntsman and I do all the talking. Working with him is odd, we mesh on a few levels but then the rest is like oil and water.

     

    The professor was an old man, middle/late 50’s and kept himself hidden partially behind the open front door, talking to us through the screen door. I introduced myself from PRIMUS and went into my best “good cop†interview scenario, explaining why we were there, sorry for his loss, etc. The muddy shoes wouldn’t have been a big deal if the professor hadn’t lied to us that he had remained indoors since his return. Feeling that tingling feeling about being lied to, I did a low audio call for Slate and Geiger to head around the back of the house to the back door. Obviously were going to have to take the man one way or the other. Slate caused a distraction near the back door, which got the professor to walk away from the front door, and here is where I got a NEW surprise, Huntsman “shadow walks†when he sneaks, when he’s in light you can just see him but in shadow, he vanishes; so he went from shadow to shadow getting into the house. It probably would of worked out fine if the professor hadn’t turned and actually managed to see him.

     

    And Mom, that’s when things got weird. I heard Huntsman get blasted by something and the back door slammed, so I shifted forms and went in to help. Inside standing over Huntsman, zapping him with purple eyebeams was this frog type humanoid. I flung an ice bolt at it, which it seemed to go right through him, which then he turned and tried to eyeball me! Fortunately I was able to absorb it. On the com radios I could hear Slate and Geiger yelling for backup, a second being was attacking them and had managed to stab Geiger hurting the boy terribly. I radioed back that we had our own problems and for Slate to get Geiger out of there. At that point I had returned to fighting the frog thing and keeping him from trying to chew Huntsman’s face off. Fortunately a well-placed fire blast took the thing down fast. Huntsman started to recover from the initial attack and I radioed Slate for their position. They were on the porch and Geiger had just taken a second shot from the dagger and had gone unconscious, Slate had also been stabbed. I yelled for them to “hit the dirt†and blasted an ice-ball through the front picture window blowing it out so I had a clear line of fire to the threat. What I got was a nasty surprise; it looked like the desiccated version of the professor and moved with a speed that was phenomenal, it leapt through the opening I had made and stabbed me through the shoulder, straight through my own armor like it was a hot knife through butter. I felt weak as the dagger drew and immense amount of blood out of my body and came close to blacking out, but I had managed to grab a hold of the thing and hold him against me, one to keep him from pulling out the dagger and hitting me again, secondly I was going to go up like a roman candle in another breath, be damned the building, it was going to burn. Fortunately, Huntsman had managed to shake off the creatures attack and shot lightning out of his hands into the creature, electrocuting it! That boy has more interesting powers popping up the longer I’m around him. The thing fell dead in my arms and I toasted it to ash, just to be sure.

     

    We staggered out of the house, I set to healing Geiger, his breath was very shallow and his heart beat low, if the dagger drew out blood every time it struck, he was probably down at least 2 pints, maybe more. Slate dragged him into my vehicle and we drove back to base with me conducting first aid and keeping his body temp low. I put in a call to S.I.D. PRIMUS and told Chou about the situation and required cleanup; I also told her we had the dagger that was being used to send blood sacrifices to that horrible god the professor had taken to worshiping. Huntsman had suggested incasing it in a nice block of lead to keep it from being used again, S.I.D. PRIMUS agreed and said they would meet us at base.

     

    Succor also met us at base, which was good because although Geiger was stabilized he was still very bad off and I had felt myself black out for a moment. Slate actually survived the encounter fairly well and only required some stitches and a pint. Huntsman took up the responsibility of sitting in with S.I.D. and overseeing the encasement of the dagger while the rest of us got several pints of blood pumped into us intravenously. The dagger is now sitting in the vault of S.I.D. and good riddance to bad things. I went to congratulate Huntsman with his assistance but by the time I had gotten there, he was already gone, he must really enjoy being all mysterious.

     

    Aside:

    When PRIMUS returned to the home of the late Dr. Johnson we found the desiccated remains of a Caucasian male, approximately 56 years old on the floor of the basement. His wife, who the monster had declared was visiting a sister, was found dead in the basement freezer, murdered by the same blade that had killed the others. It’s so horrific how an ancient evil can reach though time and technology and destroy the present; I’ve prayed for both their souls, may God grant them peace.

     

     

    April 23, 2003

    Oh Mom I’m so screwed. That little lead about VIPER out for my blood wasn’t a fake. Geiger and Wire Walker were out on their usual daily patrol when they were attacked. It was a pretty good trap actually, falling piano on innocent bystanders, the boys doing the right thing, and then a car door explodes out sending shrapnel into everything. So of course they called in for backup, which actually managed to get Slate, myself, Succor, Jet and Shadowkahn to the area. Which is exactly what the bad guys wanted. Turns out that this well designed trap was to lure me into the area so that these agents could get me. While flying above a building that an agent had been sighted on, a ninja appeared above me and with a katana and cut me in two. At least that’s what I thought happened, I had never felt such pain, even after the dagger incident and I dropped like a rock unconscious to the rooftop. From then the gang tells me they attempted to get to me before I was kidnapped, perhaps kidnapping was the plan, perhaps not, but the ninja got at least part of me, 2 vials of blood hastily drawn from my neck. Then, according to Shadowkahn the group had advanced close enough for him to escape with his samples but not with me. Geiger attempted to follow down into the sewers only to find the shaped charges, which blew out a 2-block radius worth of tunnels as well as damaging himself. Succor healed me and brought me back to consciousness.

     

    PRIMUS is furious and I can’t blame them, they have started a full sweep patrol to look for the VIPER base in the area. I can only hope they find it in time.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I’ve just been notified that PRIMUS found a VIPER base in a warehouse; however, by the time they got there a massacre had occurred. Charred bodies, limbs and organs vaporized or gaping holes found in remains of heads, horrific. Col. Bowman told me they found a message indicating that Telios had contracted VIPER to steal my blood. My blood in the hands of that genetics madman, guarantees that he’ll tinker with it and create a new version of me. It would be flattering if it weren’t so ghastly.

     

    All indications at the VIPER base point towards Vengeance being the one in on the kills. Vengeance is in the area; this is going to be one bloody city if he has his way. He might have started out with a noble idea but he has slipped too far into the madness of revenge to be considered anything other than a madman and a villain now.

     

    Hmm, my 3 supernaturals and Slate are at my door; let’s see what they want.

     

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The Nightmare Club decided they would tell me about the obsidian mirror and brought it out. Huntsman (who appears to be showing up on our doorstep more and more) had gone over the reports about the 5 other murders and the abnormal alterations to their bodies; he noted a particular similarity amongst all of the murdered women; they were all born between the Winter and Spring Solstices, which I pointed out, includes me, Feb. 4. That statement from me sent them into a bit of a tailspin, now they think I might be on the murders list, (wonderful thoughts we have isn’t it).

     

    The mirror is how they found 2 of the murders, so I suggested looking into it again to find the next murders and perhaps, to find the next victim before they become a victim. Shadowkahn and Huntsman looked and got nothing; Jet, upon looking for the female she had seen earlier with the dagger had a spell from the 7th plane of hell thrown at her which popped her into her demon form and did horrific damage to her, skin split and bleeding; Shadowkahn managed to grab the mirror before it hit the ground. We brought Jet into the “danger room†and set fire around her mangled form so she could recover. She was so hurt, I felt sorry for her.

     

    When I got back to the guys I took the mirror and asked to see the next victim, which it graciously allowed me to see a young smiling woman in an office, a drawing of the bridges in the background and large planners file cabinets in the background; it also gave me a nosebleed. I called for the sketch artists so we could start immediately looking for this girl to try and save her from her horrible fate. Slate borrowed the mirror and asked if I was going to become a victim (sweet of him to ask but rather creepy), to which he got a vision of me sitting at my computer desk in the lab before it went fuzzy blank and he got a nosebleed. I kinda pointed out to him that he should of asked worded it differently considering just about every woman in Hudson City born between December 21, and March 20 between the ages of 18 and 35 were at risk. But before Slate could try again, Shadowkahn took the mirror away to keep us from further hurting ourselves; honestly it is a dangerous thing and we really don’t know what it does to us each time we use it.

     

    I gave the artist my description of the girl; we scanned the photo and then hijacked the DMV database to do a scan of all females meeting the criteria for becoming a victim; that is going to take some time, hopefully not too long. I don’t care if we have to do a door-to-door search of every office planners building in the city, were going to try and find this girl.

     

     

    April 24, 2003

    Geiger has been kidnapped by the Black Ninja. Even after my warning to him and Wire Walker about splitting up during their daily patrols they still separated and Geiger was captured. Jason wound up with a sprained arm trying to keep Black from kidnapping him. I chewed him out about his carelessness and then felt bad about it, after all what is someone so young to do against the demon that is Black Ninja. What the hell am I going to do? Why does it seem like everything is falling apart? I’ve felt like leading this “team†is a bad idea, after all I’m responsible for them.

     

    I swear I’m coming off as a nag; its just that all of these people, for whatever reasons they have, are trying to stop evil from being loose in the world but gave up their individual ways of fighting to become a member of my team. Although they didn’t have to, hell Hunstman is doing a pretty good job of staying fringeworthy, I feel responsible for those under “my commandâ€, I even feel responsible for Hunstman.

     

    For so many years I’ve been responsible for nothing more than my own work and my own life, now I work with people, who on a day-to-day basis, have super powered villains trying to make us take the big dirt nap. Maybe I’m over reacting, I’m probably over reacting, but then look at what’s happened. Geiger’s been kidnapped and God only knows where he’s been taken to or how I’m going to find him. How do I tell his mother?

     

    I never collected the original comic but I wonder if Superman ever had days like this? Maybe I should go pick up a few Justice League’s and see how they somehow manage to work as a team.

     

     

    April 25, 2003

    Shadowkhan just called, he’s got a lead on Dennis.

     

    ~~~~~~~~

    We got a lead, from the freakiest means possible, the ones who kidnapped him. Actually Dr. Lee (now owner of the evil aura and demon infested Ravens Claw Bookstore), called Shadowkahn to say that White Ninja wanted to speak with him and for some reason I was invited along. These magic types have so many rules involved in what they do. White Ninja was in the back room with a small tea ceremony going on; when Shadowkahn and I walked in he offered some tea, which Shadow accepted, me not knowing any better and under the paranoia of poisoning, declined. Here’s a little something about White Ninja I didn’t know, if your visiting with him, you are safe from attack by him or the other 2 Ninjas if your drinking tea with him. I dropped the tough attitude and sat down to tea; honestly, they scare the shit out of me and I thoroughly believe that White Ninja knew that.

     

    WN then asked Shadowkahn about if he had made a decision about joining their organization, now that’s not something you learn about your comrade every day, Shadow politely declined and WN reminded him that the offer would only stand till the end of the year. Shadowkahn told WN he knew that and would continue to think about the decision, (I was beyond uncomfortable at that point!) Then WN apologized to both of us, the stupid look on my face must have been easily seen through the layer of ice, since he laughed a little at my surprise. He explained that they only take contracts if the 3 of them find them to be a challenge and one, taking the contract to get some of my blood (or myself) was quite the challenge with everyone surrounding me and two, the contract to get Geiger for Viper had appeared to be quite an enjoyable physical test. He apologized for taking my blood and for any discomfort I might of experienced! He also then apologized for taking a comrade and then he blew my mind further by offering to tell us where they had taken Geiger! When I asked him wouldn’t that be betraying the confidence of the contract, White Ninja very calmly told me the contract was only for obtaining Geiger and nothing more. So he told us, Madame Dragon at the Dragon Place Viper base in Millennium City.

     

    Did I mention that I don’t understand these magic types??! I also got a very odd compliment; White Ninja asked Shadowkahn if I was “with himâ€. I didn’t understand the extent of the question until WN spoke about how shapely and good looking I was… I have been “hit on†by a vampire ninja, what’s the world coming to?

     

    We didn’t stay much longer; I had phone calls to make to PRIMUS Millennium City and personally, getting eyeballed by a vampire ninja didn’t make me overly comfortable either. We found Jet outside the building, she had spent our time during the meeting speaking with Grey Ninja, who apparently in another life had been a Demon hunter himself (small world) and had trained Shadowkahn. No wonder they were asking for him to join them. Implications aside, I put those thoughts on the back burner. I got Jonesy to put me through to Silver Avenger in MC and alerted him to the newest developments in Geiger’s abduction; i.e. to beg for troops and assistance, were hitting Millennium City tonight as soon as I can scrape together everyone at Hudson City base, I’m not letting him stay in Vipers clutches any longer.

     

     

     

     

    May 6, 2003

    Sorry it took so long Ma but I’ve been really busy and away from the journal for 12 days. Let me try and sum up what’s gone on.

     

    We got to Millennium City that night April 24th and staked out the Viper base “Dragon Palace†Avenger Clark lent me 2 squads of agents for the assault. PRIMUS Squad leaders usually have some training before they get assigned a team. Me, I met this odd group of people and suddenly were a team and I’m leader, how the hell did that happen? Though falling into “commander†mode was incredibly easy, I had been told I have a natural presence, apparently that helps greatly with barking orders. We came packing, the whole team, Slate, Jet, Shadowkahn, Huntsman and Wirewalker. I left Succor hanging back with the recovery team just incase we needed healing, I’m so glad I had the presence of mind to plan this out.

     

    Clark supplied us with blueprints of the sewer system and the initial design of the upper building, I had split the two squads, 30 of them uptop, 10 down here with us “powersâ€. Shadowkahn and Huntsman, being the sneakiest of us ran the gauntlet down the sewers making sure the way was clear for us to follow. They volunteered, which surprised me because I didn’t know that their abilities consisted of being sneaky like that, well Shadowkahn is a ninja, so I guess it stands to reason he’d be sneaky.

     

    A few deactivated cameras later we were at the threshold, only for them to find some metallic monstrosities on the other side, which they made short work of (really short work!) We followed in down a hall past abandoned gun posts, at that point I was worried and called into team A; team A upstairs was meeting little to no resistance, mostly robots and such; there was just something about the situation that was making me increasingly nervous. Shadowkahn and Huntsman met two new cyborgs at the end of the hallway where it T-sectioned.

     

    Somebody noted that there was heat building up under our feet as apparently some reactors were set off and had begun to melt the floor in the section we were in, but that might of happened after the second blast. Or was it one blast? I’m trying to remember but honestly everything is a large blur. Unfortunately the rest of us managed to find the two claymores hidden within the abandoned posts, with some warning from Slate and Wire Walker I was able to get B team out of the way of the blast with an ice wall; unfortunately, Wire Walker and Jet took most of the blast from the claymores; Jet actually shielding Wire from the majority of the blast (check mark in her report card for good behavior). I radioed team B to make sure they were all right, which they were (phew!) and rather then have them rejoin us I sent them to rendezvous with team A. When something else exploded near us, Slate grabbed me and sent me sliding down the hall out of the vicinity of the blast.

     

    I caught radio chatter from team A, there was no further resistance and they were beginning to come across deceased VIPER agents, with a few descriptions of the deceased I deduced that Vengeance was in front of them and heading our way. I ordered all of PRIMUS to evacuate the building to avoid Vengeance attacking us as well as the VIPER agents. There was so much chaos I couldn’t tell what was happening with Shadowkahn and Huntsman and those two cyborgs and something was going on behind me; then the world blew up.

     

    I mean it felt like literally the world blew up, if I hadn’t been on the floor already I would have been bowled over like the rest of the team. Shadowkahn and Huntsman seemed to take the explosion the hardest since they were closest to it. When the smoke cleared debris was everywhere and the walls looked as if they had rippled from the discharge, doors blown off, windows shattered. Shadowkahn and Hunstman had survived the blast and as the rest of the team dusted themselves off I headed into the epicenter.

     

    Words can never describe how much horror I felt when I found his remains of the room. If it hadn’t been for the tiniest sliver of his armor on an exposed hand, it would of taken dental records to identify Geiger. When I first examined him I thought he was dead, Dennis’s body looked like so much charred meat. I caught the barest hint of a pulse; somehow he had lived through whatever VIPER had done to him, but only just. I did the only thing I knew would keep him alive, I froze him almost solid, I had never thought about maintaining my ice as a cryogenic field, but it worked.

     

    I screamed for the rest of the team to find us a way out and everyone scrambled to find an exit, the rumbling continued on down the hall behind us, apparently the building was supposed to self-destruct. Down one hallway somebody found a tunnel leading to an abandoned subway, I radioed Geiger’s situation in to Clark ordering for Succor to meet us at the opening; honestly my hopes of saving Dennis were fading fast, I didn’t think Succor could heal him enough to recover. Then word from Clark broke over the communicators; I had been given clearance to fly to Washington base to get Dennis into the regeneration tanks PRIMUS had salvaged from Disturgia. By the time I got to the edge of tunnel everyone had cleared a path far enough away from my blast radius and all air traffic between Millennium City and DC emptied. I radioed word to the team to come to DC to report (and honestly for emotional and moral support for me) and keeping Geiger tight and blasted off. No other flight in the world would ever be able to make it from Millennium City to DC in less than ten minutes.

     

    What happened next is such a blur of activity I can barely remember it, Dr. Baly and team met me at the platform and we rushed into ER, somehow I had presence of mind to defrost the boy before they plugged him in and dumped him into the tank. Much to my relief, he didn’t cardiac upon entering the tank, there was one hurdle overcome, now if he could just survive the next 48 hours things might not be as dire as I thought they were.

     

    After that is was report, questioning, more reports, more questioning. Silver Avenger Clark called in from Millennium to tell me he was sending Ms. Crane and the rest of the team on the next flight (once air traffic had returned to normal) to DC. Dr. Baly was really supportive and let me slept next to his tank until the team arrived.

     

    Surprisingly enough, everyone came. I was at least expecting Huntsman to take a hike, but no, even he showed up. That was really heartwarming. Everyone who needed it got patched up, fed and placed their reports on how the situation unfolded. While they finished that I went to visit Ms. Crane, I found her in front of her boys’ tank, watching him. Honestly I didn’t know what to expect, or to say; I mean this woman places her sons livelihood in my hands every day, and here he was a fried bird under glass. Much to my surprise all she did was hug me and say thank you for trying. I couldn’t take any more and I broke down and cried in her arms, we sat and cried together for a while; I eventually left her sitting watching her son.

     

    Mom, Dad, it’s so difficult for me, I put up this very brave front but inside I’m terrified of failing. Here is a mother, who knows what her son is capable of and what he wants to do with his life, she’s already resigned to the idea that at some point her son is going to die fighting, and yet he is only 15. Do parents of military personnel who go off to war feel the same? She is braver than I, I’ll admit that. There are too many “what ifs†that go through my mind about how it could have gone down, what could have happened, how much could of gone wrong.

     

    It was around midnight when Baly called me into his office; they had just completed the first set of scans. The results made me sick, Geiger was worse off than we first thought, part of his stomach, kidney, liver and intestines were missing; a large swirled mass of ruptured tissue were all that remained. Remaining internal tissue and organs had a level of charring, as if burnt from inside, his dermal layers had been completely burned off. Geiger absorbs both kinetic and basic energy, the damage to his tissue shows two things, one VIPER was feeding him enough energy to overload his ability to absorb and two, Vengeance decided, for whatever reasons, to fire his warp gun at the boy. I can only assume that Vengeance died in the explosion being so close to Geiger at the time when he went up. If he didn’t, we’ll, I’ll probably die trying to murder the bastard.

     

    However, this started me on another line of thinking, VIPER’s intelligence network is more thorough than we originally thought. Whether it was for Vengeance, ourselves or to take out both of us, it was a well-made trap. They have twice now used information that was classified against our group, one can only surmise that there has been a breach in security somewhere and VIPER took full advantage of it. I’ve already included my theories within my report.

     

    That morning Commander Armstrong called everyone on my team together and gave them the official rundown of “you are now affiliated to PRIMUS and work under Firefrost in Hudson City, don’t embarrass us, have a nice day.†Which when asked, I explained that basically everyone has been officially accepted as my “team†when it came to missions for PRIMUS, which meant, they were limited hired, limited police powers and currently in a probationary period. Basically if they manage to survive another few months with me, they can or I can officially appeal to PIRMUS to have them accepted into the system, which would mean getting paid for getting blown up; needless to say I got a mixed reaction. There are after all, pros and cons to being an agent.

     

    With that being done, I told everyone they could go home, I would remain in DC until Geiger recovered, which could take some time, and we had too much to do still in Hudson City. I asked Slate to go back to base and see if our DMV search had come up with a match (to which it did find about 300 women of similar looks) so Slate volunteered to start looking at every planner’s office in the city, if that’s what it would take to find this girl. Now that’s real dedication to the cause I tell you. Huntsman, Shadowkahn and Jet stayed in DC to take in the sights for a few days and then returned to the city. Succor and Wire Walker returned shortly after their own tour.

     

    DC gave Ms. Crane room at a nice hotel while Dennis remained in tank. I took up residence in the base barracks; life consisted of running tests, analysis and working out, no need to let the physical suffer from the emotional. Ms. Crane and I talked about her and Dennis, their family life, how proud she is of him for doing the right thing; how hard it was to deal with him when his powers first appeared. From a scientific aspect I got a greater understanding of how the home life effected being a mutant; from an emotional aspect I learned a lot about what it meant to be a mother; it’s sad that it takes a tragedy to for people to talk to each other, I’ve vowed to take more time with both of them.

     

    On day ten, Geiger came out of his coma. He was confused, disoriented but remembered his own name, his mother, me and, importantly in the eyes of PRIMUS, the events that led up to the explosion. By mid afternoon PRIMUS had a full account of what happened to him that night.

     

    He was hounded by the Black Ninja, captured and knocked out. When he awoke he found himself in a large open room, starkers, bound to the wall by restraints over his hands, chest and feet. At intermittent times he would be either jolted or prodded as VIPER forced energy into him. They even had a ray gun hitting him with some sort of energy. Dennis said he could feel himself grow stronger and weaker as the cycle kept repeating, he doesn’t know for how long; at first it wasn’t painful but after awhile he says he became aware of different things hurting. Finally some old creepy oriental lady, (to use his exact words) walked in with two samurai robots. The Dragon Lady taunted him about how she couldn’t play with him any more and that the bombs left behind for his friends coming to rescue him should be sufficient. With that, the lady left the room, leaving behind the two robots. Dennis said that he could feel himself getting stronger since they weren’t draining the energy from him any more and when he flexed his hand to try and break the restraint it just about shattered off of him, but then he noticed there were cracks in the armor on his hand, with fine glowing lines underneath. He was trying to remove himself from the rest of the restraints when Vengeance walked into the room. Apparently without any feelings of remorse or even attempting to help Geiger out, Vengeance pointed his gun at Dennis, still attached to the wall, said something like, “I’m not letting another of their abominations live†and pulled the trigger. Dennis said he felt a strange twisting sensation in his gut and the world went white, he thinks he remembers seeing the wave hit the two samurai robots and watched them vaporize; he also thinks he saw a strange warp hole around Vengeance for a second and he remembered nothing more.

     

    Dr. Baly let Dennis get some normal sleep in the tank; this will be his last night in it, as everything has regrown back to “normalâ€. Baly, Commander Armstrong and I talked about Geiger’s revelation; which confirmed my earlier suspicions about VIPER, their intelligence database has defiantly improved. They knew exactly what they were getting when they took Geiger and knew how to set him into overload. The trap was meant for Vengeance or both of us, either way they got part of what they wanted to achieve. There is a good chance that Vengeance is dead, though my gut instincts say there is still the possibility of him being alive. No matter, Armstrong is updating Vengeance’s listing from hero to villain in Artemis; we now have a “highly dangerous, shoot to kill†order. Once I had pity for Vengeance and all that he suffered; loosing his wife and unborn son to the villainy that is VIPER but now, now he is no better than the other psychopathic killers out there and deserves to be put down like the rabid dog he is.

     

    The next morning we pulled Dennis from the tank and let him get used to walking again, his recovery is truly remarkable and I thank God every day that PRIMUS had managed to save 3 regen tanks from Disturgia.

     

    After Dennis has had time to eat and get himself acclimated Dr. Baly will begin running him through the Danger Room to see what changes may of taken place within his mutant physiology. A long time ago (i.e. before PRIMUS) I had written a journal article on mutations and the continued evolution of powers under diverse/extreme conditions; Baly and I agree, with the overload there is a good chance that Geiger’s powers have altered to “deal†with his event. We’ll see this afternoon.

  2. Thank you for the complement on my having Hudson and Millennium City next to each other. I do use the contrast between them quite a bit and also it helps me slowly integrate a bit of higher tech into the game city slowly instead of full blown as Millenium City is. Also it allows my lower to middle powered heros to sometimes deal with street crime and the occasional outbreak of advanced weaponry from Millenium with complete believability and ease. :)

  3. I have a thought or two. One is what types of campaigns do people run? Low powered, High powered, mid level? Mine run basically from Mid level to high powered. Generally well in the middle though. Also what setting do people use? Do they use Millenium City, Hudson City, or a local city or one of their own making. I am using Hudson City basically as a backdrop at the moment but have placed it close to Millenium City in my game world. Also, do people keep decent notes of their campaigns? Luckily I have a slightly obsessive compulsive in my group who likes to personallize her notes on the game and I keep a backup copy of her stuff with mine for keeping track of the campaign. If you all would like I have asked her if it would be okay to share her writings of our campaign and she said if you all would like I can post them. They are quite an interesting read overall. So let me know what your all answer to the questions are and if you would like to see the record of my campaign to date.

  4. Strikeforce was and is my favorite book. It had wonderful characters and great ideas for helping move campaigns along. And also great tips for game mastering. I have used many ideas out of that book in every campaign I have ever run from bluebooking to other little ideas but just as important. I am obviously one of the lucky ones that has a copy. I have not thought about it but it would be good to update the stuff to 5th edition if for no other reason to see how they turn out.

  5. Alright guys, here is the question. My group of intrepid adventures has actually gotten on Primus's good side and some have even joined up with Primus. So here is the thought I am thinking. Primus would like to slightly sponsor the group, key word there is slightly. A base with some simple labs and computer stuff in an older abandoned or unused government building would not be an undue expense and would be even better with a few Primus personnel to run it and keep an overwatch on what the heroes are up to. So that is basically what Primus has decided to do the only question is the general functions they will provide. So what do you all think that a slightly anal Primus would consider shelling out to get the heroes under their overwatch?

  6. Dr D of course deserves honorable mention as does Lung Hung from Voice, but the two that actually get the most oh craps are my premier honorable assassin group The Three Ninja and a high tech group known as Genesis.

     

    Black, Gray, and White are all Ninjas of a very high level in general, but it is their extras that make the characters groan. Black is a shadow Demon possessing a man with appropriate powers reflected. Gray is a ghost capable of possessing almost any normal person and then manifesting through that person(kinda hard to take out a powerful opponent when you are afraid of killing the innocent host), and White is a Japanese vampire. And the worst part is the group has actually had upon occassion had to thank the Ninja for information. I did say they were honorable of course they are still assassins. :)

     

    Genesis is out to remake the world or at least they look to be trying to do so at times. They only target 3 things mainly. All extreme technological advances in any field but especially energy generation, propulsion, and life sciences. They target mutants with powers relating to energy generation or propulsion. Also any mutant with regenerative capabilities. And lastbut not least any country or government which threatens the ecosphere in any major way. (Afterall how can you rule a world if everyone is dead) They use a mixture of robots and powered armor agents with exotic programing to combat any form of telepathy or cypherkenesis. Thier robotic troops while usually not tough individually are usually opperating in a hive mind mind link which makes them very dangerous. Very

  7. And as to the question of how to run the game. I actually ran a Xmen based game a few years ago although the team did have Colossus for the brick role. Generally Everyone had a small amount of resistent defenese through their costumes which did have activation rolls and the team had to work as a team to function well. In one on one their defenses were weak but if using teamwork to make sure that large attacks are taken on the defenses of the ones who could handle it. Colossus stayed in front as a shield and phoenix covered others with her forcewall while nightcrawler tported out and about avoiding everything and attacking at the same time. Wolverine could attack well also but occasionally had to retreat to heal up. And Storm played high guard. As said a bullet is dangerous to them but only when surprised, otherwise they are trained to work as a team which in the comics what all of the danger room sessions were about. To work as a team and cover each other's weaknesses, while allowing for someone in the team to get some hits in. In a game like this teamwork is paramount.

  8. I am running this adventure and am now getting into the the middle of the 2nd act. My players have loved it greatly so far and I again can only say that it is tremendously well written. So far the adventure has predicted everything my players have thought up and done, which by itself alone is an amazing feat. Hats off to the writer.

     

    Has anyone else ran their characters though this adventure and how did it go?

  9. I enjoy both, but alas if it is to be a hero system game I am the only game master for it. I get to play in other game systems but when it comes to hero I am the only one in the area that runs them. I have been playing champions and hero system since 1984 and game mastering them since about 1986. I have run space opera, fantasy, modern, and champions games over the years. I would prefer to play though more than game master. As a game master I can't really get too attached to any of the characters or play them into the games too much, after all the game is for the players. I became rather attached to all the characters I was lucky enough to play over the years and do use them as NPC's but that is definitely not the same as concentrating on just one storyline and character development. While I enjoy weaving a campaign and complex web of stories, my first joy would have to be playing and having fun with a character, but as someone once said few would feel comfortable with a player with almost 20 yrs of GM experience as a character in their game so few invite me.

  10. I agree with most of what has been said before. I have had to do a set up a time or two in the past but always made sure that there was a warm up about using too much force. The misc newspaper article on the hero indicted for manslaughter or use of lethal force on some villan. Then there is always the tried and true minor mutants team. Someone with running but human normal defenses, with a brick type with high defenses but not resistant, and a martial artist period. A team of them against a normal pc team is relatively sure to get one of them at a minimum hurt very badly and show that restraint is sometimes neccessary

  11. Alas I am guilty of characteristic creep myself in some cases but usually not too badly. The main difference on point cost between my villans and the heroes is I don't skimp on skills or things that fit into the concept of the villans. So skills and such add up quickly where characters might not byuy that biology skill if they didn't need it a villan in mine would have it simply because I didn't have to worry about cost for him. My standard villans against my group if singular usually run in the 500 to 800 range while my villan teams run from 400 - 700 each depending on the team and such. Of course with everything there are exceptions. My Three Ninja group of Black, White, and Grey Ninja are at a minimum of 645 and the maximum of 900 points. And then again there is always my Genesis Organization Robots. Being Automatons is costly in all cases and with some defenses and powers they become point hogs rather rapidly. But those 2 groups luckily don't dominate my game although they are both woven into the background of some of the characters. As said before game points for NPC's is a teribly subjective matter. Only each game master can decide what they allow and disallow and what points they want in their villans. The people at hero try to do there best I am sure at pushing out a group of characters that will appeal to most games. There will always be some that are over the top like Dr Destroyer or Viperia, but even they have there uses. Fear factor if nothing else. :)

  12. tweaked too much

     

    Personally I wouldn't allow him in one of my games he has several things that raise my alarm bells.

    First the character is simply too tweaked out. This seems to be way too overdone on limitations of his powers simply to cram as much as possible in as possible instead of balancing. But another question would be what are the rest of the group he is running with at point wise and is this character tring to make up experience points and is planning on buying off a lot of these limitations as the game goes on?

    As others have mentioned he has one thing I never allow which is a OAF that is in OIHID. Those 2 I never alow together. Other than that one power which stands out which I can't seem to get past my filters is the Rapid Carpet Movement spell in his VPP which VPP raise my sheilds in any case but the spell Rapid Carpet Movement itself I wouldn't allow as he has built it. Or if I did I would use his own limitations on it against him at the first opportunity so that he would never use it again.

  13. Compliments

     

    All I can say is that your artwork is very very nice. I have hopes of getting a commision done by you in the near future when my finances clear up (after christmas) :) :) I have also sent your web page to everyone in my gaming group and told them what amazing work you have been doing and do. And who knows maybe I can talk my wife into getting one done as a Christmas present for me. :)

  14. I have enjoyed all you all have done on this list. Question though now with 5th edition out and the enormous increase in skills available what would lung hung look like now written in 5th. I have done a port myself and brought him/her up to date overall but what does the great red dragon look like from your all end?

  15. I would have to agree also. I have been threading it into my game for the past 4 game sessions and it is wonderful on adding tremendous characterization to Black Palladin. Everyone has enjoyed it so far of course they haven't gotten into the fun heavy combat parts yet. Heh heh. That might change their minds. :) But personally I think the adventure was very well written and thought out. While no one can predict everything I must admit that the adventure has pretty well pegged my group very well so far. :) It is a tremendous adventure. The maps within the adventure are wonderfull also. They would be even better if I could figure a way to print them to scale. :) I am probably missing something easy there. But a hearty thank you and great job from me for this one and I greatly anticipate the next adventure.

  16. I have greatly enjoyed this thread so far. I have used VOICE in several of my previous games and was just getting ready to introduce them in my present game. I am interested in VOICE and the councel all being elder Vampires in the fact I am getting ready to have an Immortals War sub adventure start up soon in my game. I have greatly enjoyed all the peices and bits you all have come up with and thank you all for the ideas you have helped create for me.

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