Diamond_

December 21st, 2005 - Atlas Park

Kara had wandered through the chaos of the toy aisles for sometime, her arms full of packages for her friends. She was doing some last-minute Christmas shopping in a toy store and had decided to look at Barbie dolls for Phil, the little girl who had become her ward.

As she entered the row dedicated to the popular doll she noticed a nicely-dressed little girl was excitedly looking through the Barbie dolls as well, with a roll of money clamped tightly in her little hand. When she came upon a Barbie she liked, she would turn and ask her father if she had enough money to buy it. He usually said “yes,” but she would keep looking and keep going through their ritual of “do I have enough?”.

Kara smiled at the on going exchange and began to look across her selection for her little ward.

As she was looking, a little boy wandered in the aisle just beyond and started sorting through the selection of popular video games. Kara noticed he was dressed neatly, but in clothes that were obviously rather worn, and wearing a jacket that was probably a couple of sizes too small. He, too, had money in his hand, but it looked to be no more than five dollars or so, at the most. He was with his father as well, and kept picking up the games on a similar process of the little girl. Each time he picked one up and looked at his father, his father shook his head a little forlornly, “no.”

Sighing at the sight a bit Kara bit her lip and returned her gaze to the shelf of Barbies only to see that the little girl had apparently chosen her Barbie, a beautifully-dressed, glamorous doll that would have been the envy of every little girl on the block. However, she had stopped and was watching the interchange between the little boy and his father. Rather dejectedly, the boy had given up on the video games and had chosen what looked like a book of stickers instead. He and his father then started walking through another aisle of the store. As she watched he saw the father offer the little guy a hug as they walked away from the games.

Before Kara could act herself, the little girl put her Barbie back on the shelf, and ran over to the video games. As Kara watched, the girl excitedly picked up one that was lying on top of the other toys, and raced toward the check-out, after speaking with her father, who merely blinked as he listened and follow.

Intrigued Kara picked up her purchases and got in line behind them, with a lovely Barbie tucked under her arm for Phil. Then, as she looked down Kara noticed the little girl glance over her shoulder looking beyond Kara with a delighted smile. Practically bouncing in place she turned back to her father. Puzzled Kara turned and Kara smiled a bit as she noticed the little boy and his father had gotten in line behind her. The boys father nodded to Kara to which she returned a smile and a "Merry Christmas" turning back to her place in line.

After the toy was paid for and bagged, Kara watched as the little girl handed it back to the cashier and whispered something in her ear. The cashier smiled and put the package under the counter. Still quite curious Kara stepped forward to pay for her gifts and was rearranging things in her purse when the little boy came up to the cashier.

The cashier rang up his book and then said, “Congratulations, you are my hundredth customer today, and you win a prize!” With that, she handed the little boy the video game, and he could only stare in disbelief.

"Oh Wow! "he said breathless, "This is the ONE i wanted...Dad lookit!!"

Kara beamed her eyes watering a bit as she turned to look over her shoulder to see the little girl and her father had been standing at the doorway during all of this, and saw the biggest, prettiest, toothless grin on that little girl that she had ever seen in her life. Then they walked out the door. Picking up her presents and purse Kara followed them out in the chilled Rhode Island night.

As Kara walked back towards the yellow line, in amazement over what she had just witnessed, she heard the father ask his daughter why she had done that. Kara's heart leaped as she knew she would never forget what she said to him.

"Daddy, didn't Nana and Poppop want me to buy something that would make me happy?" she said looking up at him

He said, "Of course they did, honey." To which the little girl replied, "Well, I just did!"

With that, she giggled and started skipping toward their car. Apparently, she had decided on the answer to her own question of, "Do I have enough?"

Standing on the platform of the tram station Kara swayed a a bit to the soft brass music of the saxophone played by the old man in the corner of the station. As the soft music of "What child is this" wafted around her, She had felt very privileged to have witnessed the true spirit of Christmas in that toy store, in the form of a little girl who understood more about the reason for the season than most adults she knew!

Spinning to the lovely music she darted over to drop a fifty into the Sax players hat as the tram pulled up. He smiled but never stopped playing as Kara twirled a bit much to the annoyance of a few trying to get onto the tram.

May God bless her and her parents, Kara thought as she reached up to grab the handle of the overhand supports. Just as she blessed that little boy, and me, tonight!!

The tram stuttered forward momentarily then glided with ease as it carried its passengers into the brightly lit snow covered city still bustling with activity tonight.

<Hey All! Like Halloween We at the TEMPLARS of the ABBEY run a Holiday thread each year! I thought i would post them here to share them with you as we work towards another Holiday Season! To spread the cheer! >


December 1st, 2005 -

Im opening this thread for those who wish to post about stories and thoughts about their characters in Paragon...it is open to all. Have fun and share some spirit

Exerpt from the Toy's R Us Winter 2005 Catalog...

Girl's DIAMOND has arrived! She is here just in time for the Holidays!!!

[u]The Valiant Dazzling DIAMOND![u]

(Picture of a 12 inch Kara in her Classic Diamond One Piece, Bracers and Boots, posed atop a scaled version of the top of City Hall. The doll is very similar to a Barbie Doll style)

Description: Villains beware! Here comes our own Valiant Dazzling Diamond. Equipped with her signature Pure White outfit, silver-ish white wristbands and black streaked Boots, she features all the detail you'd expect from a Barbie doll. She even comes with a mini lunchbox clip and display stand so you can show her off when she's not busy fighting crime. IN STOCK NOW.

[u]Diamond's Friend[u]

(Picture of a 10 inch Red head in a sleek Green scaled costume, green boots and mask, posed beside an American flag atop a flagpole. The doll is very similar to a Barbie 'Skipper' Doll style)

Description: Villains beware as well! Fighting beside Diamond is her fierce and loyal comrade in their fight against crime. Equipped with a pretty green body suit and matching mask and boots, she is ready to stand beside her friend as they battle for justice. She also comes with a mini lunchbox clip and display stand so you can show her off when she's not busy fighting crime. IN STOCK NOW.

[u]Action Diamond from the Paragon Heroes Collection is now here![u]

Diamond

(7 inch scale action figure for Diamond is posed amongst scaled plastic rubble ready for battle)

Description - Diamond is just over 6 inches tall, made to a 7-inch scale. She comes with a sculpted rubble display base and a glow-in-the-dark blueish white energy halo. Diamond's articulation is a neck twist, ball-jointed shoulders, mid-bicep twists, hips, and knees. Featured in her classic white costume with her vintage White and Black Cape which goes from her shoulders to the ground, is a soft flexible plastic. Diamond's cape helps her stand without the display base.

Diamond's Serpent friend

(This action figure is picture beside Diamond in a fierce battle pose)

Description - She stands is about 5 inches tall to the 7 inch scale, she comes with a flexible serpent she wields like a whip or that can be wrapped around her.
The serpent is about 6 inches long when stretched out, or about 4.5 inches on its own. She like Diamond also comes with a Diamond logo display base and two movable pegs. The pegs can be placed into any of the four peg holes on the base. She only has one peg hole, in her left foot.

[u]Vehicles and Play sets[u]

DIAMOND'S CRYSTAL SHARD!

(picture of a Stunning white and silver plastic looking multi tiered play-set for the 12 inch dolls (ala Barbies townhouse) )

Description - Diamond's secret lair and hideaway when she is not fighting crime in Paragon City. Her headquarters and home, she and her friends come here to plan how to dispense justice or just exchange beauty secrets!
The Shard,at a towering 3 1/2 feet, this innovative play set is a true original. Using new adhesive technology, you can set up The Crystal Shard on just about any wall. Crafted in soft white and silver plastic it cuts a stunning addition to any little girls room. Features include a movable gun turret launching Diamonds own crystal projectiles, a working play elevator, and an adjustable active zip line for quick get aways! .Working Secret Hidden Elevator, Transforming Rooftop Radar
Diamond-Computer with working lights, Secret Weapons Chamber and closet.
3 Tiers of non-stop excitement of multiple rooms for your Diamond to plan to stop crime or discuss dating with her friends.
Figures sold separately

The Alluring Crystal cruiser

(Picture of a sleek smooth surfaced White Car with silver highlights. Open roof for the Actions figures to be placed inside)

Description - Coolest superhero car: Ride along with Diamond and her friend while they save the citizens of Paragon City from evil villains. The adventure starts with the action-packed Cruiser that includes light, sound and twin missile launchers that eject from each side of the vehicle. Seats two 7inch action figures (not included).

Measurement: Approximately 12" L x 5.25" W x 6" H.

Ages: This product is recommended for children ages 5-9 years.

Note: Requires 3 "AA" alkaline batteries (not included).

Crystal Jet

(Picture of a sleek open bay crystal like white plastic jet with room in the center for the 12 Inch dolls (much like the Barbie airliner ;p ) )

Description: The Crystal Jet is a powerful crime fighting vessel used by the Valiant Dazzling Diamond and her friends. Its transport bay can carry Her fellow Heroes into battle in style and comfort, deploying them through the side door and with the drop-off landing chute. Outfitted with several comfortable reclining chairs and a soft white carpet, each chair linked with table top laptops to the Jet's online Diamond battle alert. an impressive arsenal of weapons including Diamond cannons, and crystal missiles, the Jet is a sleek powerful yet stunningly beautiful crime fighting tool!

Features: This dazzling playset features an opening canopy to a cockpit for one figure, firing white plastic missiles, a working rappel line that really holds Heroes and citizens to be rescued (sold separately) and a Hero deployment drop chute to get right into the action!

Note: Assembly required.

Diamond's Bracers

(a picture of a young girl wearing plastic replicas of Diamond's wristbands)

Description - 'Oh you are SO going down!' Fly into battle with your friends using these pretend Diamond intercom arms. These two cuffs include a built-in light simulator blaster function, so you can take your imaginative play to the make believe streets of Paragon. The intercom has a range of 1200 ft and you can speak with another hero wear Diamond's bracers to coordinate your crime fighting efforts
Requires 2 "9V" batteries (not included).

Boys don't forget to check out the Doc Neutrino page of our catalog, hurry before Santa fills his orders!!

Happy Holidays!




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originally posted by Templar Lucianna Addo

(Commercial appears during the Peanuts Christmas Special)

Jingle bells play in the background as the scene fades in.

Diamond (a little doll Kara) and Miles Thirst (the Sprite mascot) are flying over a snowy town decorated for Christmas. Diamond is wearing her white costume and a Santa hat. Miles is wearing ski and a Christmas jet pack. Diamond zooms ahead. “Come on, we have to help Rudolph deliver the Christmas Sprite!”

“Time to spread some Lemony-Lime cheer,” Miles says racing after her.

“Oh no! It’s the Bumble!” Diamond points toward the ground.

The scene changes to Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer ((the animated stop motion figure)) tied up a string of Christmas lights. Next to him is a sleight full of Sprite. Each bottle has a little red ribbon tied to it. The Bumble ((the Abominable Snowman from the same Rudolph cartoon)) laughs at Rudolph, picks the sleight and puts it the back of a refrigerated truck.

“Stop that Bumble! He’s stealing that sweet Sprite!” Miles shouts.

Diamond dives and fires a blast at the Bumble. He run in front of the open truck doors. Diamond dives at him. The Bumble moves the side. Diamond flies into the truck. The Bumble shuts the door and puts a big pad lock on it.

Meanwhile, Miles unties the string of lights from Rudolph. Rudolph says, “Thanks!”

The Bumble is laughing by the door of the truck. Miles makes the lights into a lasso and lassos the Bumble. “Get em’ Rudolph.!” Shouts Miles.

“Got em!” says Rudolph. The Bumble turns around and his eyes go wide as Rudolph rushes at him. The reindeer head butts him and sends him sailing into the sky. The figure of Bumble flies by the moon, the lights around blinking cheerily.

“Now we just to rescue that delicious Sprite. Hey where Diamond go?” Miles look around for her.

Giggling is heard from inside the truck. Miles rushes over and pulls on the padlock. “It’s locked!”

The scene changes to the inside of the truck where Diamond is sitting in a pile of Sprite bottles, holding in each hand. “Merry Christmas to me!”

Outside Rudolph hits the lock with his head and Miles karate kicks it. “Don’t worry Sprite, we’ll save you!” shouts Miles. Miles kicks the lock and skids backward, striking a cool Kung Fu pose. The truck opens for a second and Diamond’s hand tosses a Sprite out. The truck slams shut. Miles catches the Sprite. “Show ‘em my motto!.”

The screen changes to the Sprite logo decorated with Christmas lights, against a snowy background. Diamond is heard giggling again.

[Fade Out]

November 29th, 2008 - Skyway City


“Kar?”

“Yes, /William/?” Kara sighed.

Damn, Guardian Star thought a sigh. He knew this would be a tough sell this time of night but desperate times call for desperate measures! “What should I do?”

“About what?” Diamond replied, engrossed in writing up her arrests reports for that night’s raids.

“You know what! Patti!” Bill hissed back quietly, aware that the door to the old ramshackle office they usually occupied in the old precinct house was open and Nancy could be anywhere, listening in. The young sprite-like defender was good at that, it seemed, she found everything out somehow. Her and Kara seemed pretty close lately though, maybe she was getting inside information-‘Snap out of it!’ his mind screamed, ‘You know Kara would never say anything, she’s your best friend for God’s sake!’

Kara shook her head as she typed a few things into her lap top, she was aware of the night's mishaps that had led to Bill's girlfriend not speaking to him. “I really don’t know, William, she seemed pretty mad after our last briefing, I’d so leave it alone for a couple of hours, then talk to her…”

Bill winced, she called him William twice now, this was bad. It could only mean one of two things, either Kara was mad at him for not working on his reports or she had taken Patti's side on this issue. He groaned inwardly, or maybe both. “But it wasn’t my fault! How was I supposed to know that she was in there?” he tried in desperation now.

“Um like hello! It’s her office!" Kara grinned to herself as she now scribbled on her clipboard "You were the one that knocked the water over her in the first place! So like why didn’t you knock?”

“Well " Bill cleared his throat "First off...that was not entirely my fault...that stupid pail was not marked as full of rain water...Second.."

"The ladder it was perched on had a note that clearly said ..." Kara interrupted just a little too sweetly.

"Yes! Yes I know! 'Beware of Bucket'...I saw it after I leaned on the ladder while talking to her"
Kara giggled.

Bill sighed "I read it clearly /after/ the bucket fell"

Kara giggled more "Ye-AH I'll so bet that was a big help"

He shook his head as he remembered the image of his beloved standing there in the precinct stairway, her clothes drenched in stale rainwater and a red old bucket draped perfectly over her head. He winced again at the visage. "Anyways though NOT entirely my fault I went to apologize ...so..I..."

"Just walked right on in " Kara helped amused. "With Kevin in tow..."

"Yes" Bill nodded, gulping remembering that Psiwarp had been trying to tell him something and had been right behind him when they barged in. "I....um we... just walked right on it...um her I meant and...and…she was…you know…” he gestured helplessly as he began to pace.

“Naked, yes, I know.” Kara smirked.

“I mean, it’s not like I haven’t seen it before…” Bill offered.

Kara just clicked her tongue a few times “I soooo don’t think Patti sees it that way…” she looked up to him "I am so totally sure Kevin hadn't ever seen her naked before..so there goes that theory"

Bill winced again "Yeah that didn't help" he sighed and slumped his shoulders “…she looked great though…”

Kara shook her head and returned to her paperwork “Maybe you should apologize? At least then we might be able to get some work done without analysing everything about you two?”

“Hey! I didn’t complain when you went on.....well when you go...um..." Bill frowned as he tried to find a way to make his point " Look whenever you go on about...."

Kara quirked a brow and looked over at him "When I go on about who? and what? "

Bill looked over to her "My lord...you really don't go on and on about dating or having issues ..do you?"

Kara shook her head and with another /long/ sigh she returned to her paperwork "Not when there is work to do"

Bill scowled "That isn't fair..."

Kara half glanced back up "What isn't fair?"

"You not having any kind of social life that interferes with our work to help me prove my point that you need to listen to me like I am always listening to you"

Kara frowned as she tried to follow that "So I ruined your point thus proving mine?" She smirked "and this isnt fair?"

Bill frowned trying to follow that "No it isnt" he shook his head "You need a social life Kar" He said looking back over his shoulder at her. "It's very sad"

She narrowed her eyes but smiled beating him to his usual line about her life. "Yes I lead a sad sad life"

"Very sad " He added nodding.

"Look..I am so fine at the moment..thank you" she then grinned "I am so sorry I ruined your point though..../work/ now?" She glanced at his rather large stack of arrest reports.

"All right..but lets assume I am often there for you on stuff like this" Bill tried.

Kara sighed , it seemed he never got to work when he got like this, she lowered her pen to her clipboard and looked up "Bill you are like always there for me..okay?"

“Yeah, well that isn't always true but okay!" He grinned "I was there for you, well? It’s your turn now.”

“Okay, okay! I don’t wanna argue with you! Just wait ‘til the next briefing, then talk to her after and say you’re sorry, that you never meant to walk in on her with company and then slip in a compliment that’ll make her feel good and forget that she’s supposed to be mad at you." Kara shrugged with a slight glint in her eyes "Simple, so you should be able to manage it.” Kara then grinned innocently.

“Very funny. Thank you. I might go now, it’s only 15 minutes ‘til the next briefing, I should speak to her before it though.” Bill spoke, turned and headed towards the door.

“’MmmKay." Kara returned to her paperwork "Have you finished your reports or did ya want me to do them?" she sighed "I’ve like almost done mine, and you know how crazy they get when you give it ‘em late.” she smirked "Oh and be sure you bring Kevin with you to apologize as well"

Bill turned around and nodded gratefully. “Yeah Kar, thanks. I owe you.” And walked through the door calling for Kevin.

“Good luck!” Kara shouted at his retreating back. “You’re SO gonna need it…” she added under her breath as she turned to begin work on his.

September 9th, 2006 - Independance Port

Originally posted by Kara's Praetorian Counter Part Dark Thorn of the Nemesis Council


He awoke to the smell of dirt filling his nose and to a small puddle of blood next to his face. He couldn’t move his arms or legs. His chest heaved as he struggled to breathe. The reality of what had happened and what was to come, started to dawn on him when he heard the hollow moans of the dead near by.

It was to be a simple ambush. It had been weeks, almost a month since the Project had made an attempt to bring in the target, that the powers that be had decided to chance it. A full team of lightly equipped riot troops and Armored Cryo Agents had struck without warning. The target had been spotted, through a field tip near a dock in Independence Port and was alone.

The attack had been swift and they had surrounded the girl with unexpected ease. The agent winced horribly as he struggled to breath, the cold heat burning his lungs made breathing difficult. He had been with the Project for sometime, twice he had face Diamond in the field. Something about the way she had been dressed this time, or maybe it was her surprise at seeing the Crey. Something had alerted him that it had all gone terribly wrong , even before it had begun.

In mere seconds he had been beaten nearly half to death, then had both of my legs shot out by a wispy inky black darkness. His chin was busted open and his ribs were cracked. His heart burned with anger and a sense of betrayal that numbed the terrible pain in his body.

He saw me, the agent thought, I know he did. The agent was right there begging for his life but the dark figure didn’t move from his spot high in the shadows of the rusted fire escape. He just stood there with a blank expression on his face as the dead..../her/ dead ran over and smashed the remainder of the collection team.

This wasn't their target! He remembered thinking, This wasn't Diamond, she looked like her, but Diamond was never able to make an army of undead /things/ appear from no where....

The agent tried to focus his fuzzy vision to the darkened figure high above. It took a moment then he recognized him...

Alpha!

The agent remembered the face of the former Malta security chief for the project, turned renegade. Alpha . . . you [censored]!. You led us here just so you could trap her...only this isn't her!

Memories of his past flooded his my mind as he heard them drew closer across the alley. Alpha seemed to matter little now that he knew with a heavy heart, he was going to die.

Diana . . .

The Agent rolled onto his back and despite his injuries, he lifted himself up in a sitting position, fumbling in vain for a pistol that had been knocked free.

The Dead were coming closer...

He thought of his wife, the girl who will forever changed his life from the minute she saved him from getting robbed by his childhood bullies. That was the first time they met. She stared at him with those big dark brown eyes, that held either gentle pity or a soulful connection.

He always wondered what was it she saw in him. He was a nothing back then but yet she still came over to his apartment and eventually she began to date him. Waiting for him even during his tour in the Army and standing by his side during his dishonorable discharge for theft. She had married him and together she and he worked to enjoy his job as a Crey soldier.

“Why do you let me hang out with you” he once asked her in High School.

They had been at her house doing homework. She dropped her pencil and stared at him, “what kind of question is that”

“Well, why do you let me hang out with you” he had asked again.
She just smirked and shook her head, “because you’re my best friend”

“But why”

“Because you’re my best friend and I love you. Do I have to give you another reason.” She asked.

The part when she said, “I love you” was something he hadn't ever heard from his parents. “No.” he had said.

“Honestly, you get weirder and weirder everyday”

“What can I say, I got it from you” he had laughed until she hit him with a pillow.

He could still smell her hair spray from the pillow case as he realised his time was growing very short, the moans of the dead filled his ears as he rested against the brick face wall of the alley.

They were coming closer and closer. He couldn't believe it.

I going to die, he thought fitfully, I’m really going to die. There so much I never said to those who I should've...

(Closer)

Momma, I’m sorry for never defending you from -him- every time he was drunk. I’m sorry, but it’s hard to forgive you from ignoring me all my life. .

(Closer)

I curse you, Alpha, for doing this to us.....TO me . . . god, I hate the taste of blood in my mouth . . . and I hate your Malta bastards! I have a bad feeling your fate will be down right cruel and bloody just like mine is about to be.

(Closer)

I’m sorry for the fight we had Diana and I wish I knew whether you could forgive my slap. If I could I would go back in time and cut off my own hand before it struck you. I am NOT my father! You’re the greatest thing that ever happened to me and I’ll never forget it.

I love you.....

The shambling corpses moved in, their bloodied and encrusted claw like hands reached for him. The shear terror sends his last memory deeper into the recesses of his mind as he shuts his eyes tightly. The memory of his Diana and he making their vows to each other, play over and over in his mind.

No, I am not here,he thinks frantically. I will feel no pain, I will feel no pain!

He can feel their decomposed hands grabbing at his arms and legs, their fingers tearing at his wounds. He hears the Dark one's lilting almost musical voice coo to her minions

"Go ahead my babies...feed...he is the last of those who would harm your beloved"

Shuddering he repeats shouting his thoughts within, I will feel no pain, I will feel no pain, I WILL FEEL NO PAIN!

Like a thousand paper cuts, he can feel it, he can feel them biting and tearing his flesh off. OH GOD, THE PAIN, THE PAIN, THE TERRIBLE PAIN IT'S SO UNBEARABLE. MAKE IT STOP, MAKE IT STOP, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE IT STOP!

He screamed as loud as he could, hoping against hope for his tormentors mistress will just end his suffering as quickly as she had the others of his team.

I WILL FEEL NO PAIN, I WILL FEEL NO PAIN, I WILL FEEL NO PAIN!
PLEASE, SOMEBODY, WAKE ME UP, PLEASE TELL ME THIS ISN’T REAL, TELL ME IT’S A DREAM. SOMEBODY HELP ME, HELP!

“DIANNA, DIANA! HELP ME, HELP ME, OH GOD I DON’T WANT TO DIE LIKE THIS.”

PLEASE, I DON’T WANT TO DIE LIKE THIS, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE. TELL THIS ISN’T REAL, TELL ME THEY’RE NOT TEARING MY FLESH OFF OR CHOKING ON MY BLOOD. SOMEBODY HELP ME, I CAN’T TAKE IT ANY MORE!

More flesh is torn off with blood gushing out of his body like a waterfall. running through and over the decayed fingers. He could feel his body about to be torn in half, those very same fingers digging into his stomach flesh and ripping it apart to get to the precious body organs within. The largest of the dead, a woman once, grabbed a hold of his mouth and began to tear it loose. With the last of his strength , the last of his breath he screamed out one last time...

DIANA!

The double shot rounds, fired from above pierced through his head, ending his suffering as his jaw was ripped away. His blue eyes widened as his vision....his pain..darkened into nothingness..

His body fell to the alley floor in a pool of his own blood as he became yet another feast for the hungry dead.

==========

The shot drew the cool eyes of the mistress to these undead monsters his way. His gaze locked with hers for the briefest of moments as she stood beneath her protective shimmering bubble. Alpha shivered despite himself as he found the coldness of his own stare mirrored back.

This was not his beast, this was a whole other nightmare in and of itself. He withdrew quickly leaving -that- Kara to her victory over the Crey he had intended to use to trap his Kara.

Good Lord, he thought. What the hell was that.

Was it possible she had changed since that incident in Boomtown? Or was this something new?

He had to find Fergie, he thought as he moved through the back alleys of Independence port.

Fergie would know..

He could make this right. That wasn't Diamond!

That was another predator, one as lethal as he...

Novemeber 2nd, 2008 - Steel Canyon

Originally Posted by Epine Rouge


A lone figure perched on the shoulder of the great statue of Blyde in Steel Canyon, silent and brooding for the moment. He was in an ill mood. Two weeks of this darkness in Paragon City, two weeks without the sunrises. Rose wasn't kidding, it did wear on him. He, however, had the fortune to find someone to take much of the sting out of the situation, but it faded quickly whenever he was away from her.

And now he had other worries. Jimmy was peering at his right arm, the sleeve of his armor having flickered away for the moment. The bite he sustained fighting one of the zombie hordes kept returning. True, it was slowly lessened every time it returned, but the fact that it was returning at all worried him. He would have much loved to be able to find Rose and ask her about this, but he still had no word of her travels.

He remembered accidentally catching a glimpse of her changing only a week before she left. He was mortified, she was amused. It was one of the few times he'd ever seen her laugh. But what bothered him more afterward was the black mark on her chest that he'd seen. A shadow crossed her face when he asked about it, and she would only say that there are things even creatures like them had to fear death from. But she also insisted that she had dealt with that particular problem. He had let it go, but he still felt even now that she had been hiding something from him. This incident came to mind after the first time the wound returned.

But, the wound was fading. He thought that maybe he was lucky that the zombie that bit him was one of the weaker ones. Maybe he did have something to fear for his own sake from this event after all. His mind had always been on the safety of the civilians...and Beth when she had patrolled with him.

Jimmy stood suddenly, just noticing the commotion starting below. Screams. Gunshots. He looked up at the reddening sky. It was starting again. In a flicker of flame his sleeve reappeared, then he was sheathed an an aura of fire that formed great wings sprouting from his back. Without a second thought, he leapt from his perch and dove toward the growing mass of zombies even before other heroes began responding to the call that went out on the alert channels.

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November 4th, 2008 - King's Row

Originally Posted by Epine Rouge


Jimmy sat on the corner of the rooftop of his apartment building, eyes closed and facing eastward. He had heard it this morning, if "heard" was ever the right word for it. Something that had been missing for far too long now. It was a song, faint, but its long absence made him more keenly aware of it. The song reached to his very core, the part of him that harbored the phoenix flame. As the song grew more intense, he stood up. Then he felt it, the first ray of light as the sun broke over the horizon. The aura of life's fire sprung into live around him, streaming back behind him into the great flaming wings. His feet left contact with the rooftop and he rose slowly into the air as the sun climbed higher. Just as it broke fully over the horizon, he settled lightly onto his feet again and opened his eyes.

"Bonjour, mon ami. It's been too long." A smile lit his face as the aura continued to flicker around him, exhilarated by the return of the long hidden sun. The spell had been broken and day had finally returned to Paragon City. He had endured the night, much better than he should have, but only because of Beth. He opened his eyes, looking into the sun without squinting or blinking. It would not damage the eyes of one of its children. Several minutes passed and the sun climbed higher above the horizon. It was time to move.

Jimmy took flight, clicking on the com in his ear as he did so. No voices yet. It was too early, of course. He missed sleeping late, but he also found that he didn't require as much sleep as before the phoenix had awakened in him. Plus, the song of sunrise was something not to be missed.

Something on the street below distracted him from his thoughts. He wheeled around to hover over an alley. Two lingering groups of zombies had pinned a dog in, coming in from either end of the alley. He made a dive just as they converged on it, burning them to ash within a minute. They were weakened by the breaking of the spell that had held the city, but also by the daylight. He looked around quickly once they had been dealt with and saw the furry form laying on the ground. He knelt beside the German shepherd and looked her over. She was old, gray fur around her muzzle. And she was quite still. Jimmy looked at her sadly, watching the light slowly dim from her.

"You're tired, girl..." Even as he said this, he noticed another dim light within her and gasped in astonishment. He placed a hand over her belly in wonder. She was too old for this, and after being attacked as she had been, it was a wonder the one remaining was still alive. The others had been lost previously, he guessed. This one would be too if she died. He gently stroked the dog's head and a flicker of flame stretched from his hand to slowly cover her whole body without even singing the fur. Jimmy smiled as the dog's eyes opened slowly. Ragged and old, but alive now. "I knew you'd come back. You have one last thing to do before you can rest, don't you? Come on now. I'll take care of you as long as you need to stay for him, then I'll make sure he's taken care of."

Jimmy picked up the old dog and took flight again, carrying her to the Abbey. Maybe someone there would know more about what she'd need so he could keep the promise.

November 20th, 2008 - Skyway City


Guardian Star had taken the creaking metal stairs up to the roof of the old precinct by twos, his enthusiasm reflected clearly in his body language. He had a good day, he and his team had finally broken a case and had caught a serial killer from the Rogue Isles they had been targeting for weeks now. Now, Bill wanted to share the good news with Kara in person.

The cool new England breeze whipped across the crumbling rooftop as he stepped out of the door and into the cold late fall night. The city lights of Skyway shown through the large cement pillars that surrounded the old station house and held the interstate that ran through the city high above his head. The soft distant buzz of traffic added to the distant symphony of a city that didn't ever seem to rest.

His gaze fell on his friend's dark silhouette over on the far side of the building, her new dark costume blending in almost perfectly with the darkness and shadows that surrounded her.

Her stylized black and white cape fluttered idly behind her as she stood gazing out across the zone, arms folded tightly around her chest, her hair lightly wafting in the wind. It appeared that she hadn’t noticed him approach or that she was ignoring him; either was possible. Bill looked at her with faint amusement as he watched the raven haired heroine before him. She moved her neck in slow circles, from side to side to ease apparent tension in her muscles.

“William!” She announced in surprised when she sensed another presence in the room with her. Her form grew tense and he thought he saw her flinch as this obviously confirmed his earlier suspicion that she hadn’t noticed he was there. He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not, it could mean she was that relaxed around him, that was if he allowed himself that much hope. Recently his childhood friend had seemed distant since the invasion.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” A grin spread its way across his lips making her scowl at him. "I don't know, you seem to be having these 'private times' of yours more and more these days.."

“Ye-AH, and I totally see you so barged in on one…yet again.” She knew that her authoritative tone of voice didn’t work with him but she opted for it anyway, trying not to show how much she enjoyed Bill's little interruptions.

Bill abandoned his position leaning on the old dented air conditioning unit and crossed over to where she was standing, completely ignoring her 'teacher voice'.

“Tough day then?” He asked, his voice softer now.

Kara nodded, wincing as she jarred the muscles in her neck again.

“Well here is some news then Kar, we solved the Star Burner case.” He told her in an attempt to cheer her up, He knew it would work as a temporary solution.

Diamond smiled. “Good work, Bill.” she sighed looking back out to the night cityscape. "Everyone like make it back to the barn then tonight?" she held her breath as she waited.

“Yep, all agents accounted four though four of them went through Mediport, they are all stable. Kevin and Nancy are both fine, I think they've both taken off for the night and gone back to her place..” Bill smiled too but Kara looked pained now. "Kar? Are you okay?” He asked, concern for her flooding his voice and his clear brown eyes.

She managed a weak smile as the wind carried her black silk like hair across her face. “Do you like know what I could use right now?”

“I dread to think.” He smirked as he noted she had all but ignored his question, he nodded instead. “Go ahead.”

“I /so/ really need one of your hugs.” She said, her cheeks deepening a little in color as the words slipped out of her mouth.

Bill smiled a little, moving so that he was standing directly in front of her. He wrapped his arms securely around her athletic frame, pulling her close to him. Kara let out a low sigh as she let Bill envelope her in the embrace. She fought the instant sense of revulsion of being this close physically to someone as she rested her head against the soft fabric of his costume. She closed her eyes and imagined the two of them anywhere but here atop the high roof, enjoying the safety of his embrace. She knew it was wrong to think about him like this, although her friend he was also seeing another of her friends, yet she did miss his hugs.

Slowly, with regret building up inside of her, Kara freed herself from her friend's strong arms. “Thanks William.” She smiled softly.

Bill smiled and pressed a gentle kiss across her cheek and stepped back. “Anytime, Kar.” He added, giving her one last smile before leaving her side without another word to give her back her 'Private Time'.

Kara returned her gaze to the far off lights and in her mind she rewound the last few minutes. She could smell his familiar scent as she wrapped her arms around herself. Somehow things always felt better when she was in his arms. He had as always been able to make things seem a little better for her with his hugs.

She truly wanted to go back down with him and celebrate with the team, share in their victory tonight but she knew she didn't belong there. It was their win, they deserved it not her.

After only a moment more she shifted her energy and took to the night sky, silhouetted briefly across the white face of the moon she pirouetted gently and soared off towards Talos.

Far below her, sirens blared and calls for help went out, she was going to be very busy until morning.

August 28th, 2006 - 'BoomTown'


His sides burned in agony, the cuts torn deeply into his skin, the blood encrusted around the wounds chafed against already sore skin as he crept slowly along the wall of the sewer. Around him the makeshift lab that Blue's gunslinger Paradox Black Iota burned and flickered, the bodies of the dead and wounded Malta and Crey lay around the ruins of the outpost.

Fergie licked at his chapped lips, it had been a horrible fight, unexpected and furious. He had risked trying to contact Blue's Malta, he grew weary of being a renegade, not that he was no longer loyal to Alpha, his friend and his mentor, but Fergie worried for the men under his command. Many of Alpha's team were not even aware their hunt for Kara Reynolds had branded them renegades. Now with the target's reassignment to Warburg Alpha was about to place them in the middle of a war to get her....

A war backed by the Malta...he had to try and end this. Find a way to coordinate. He had heard of a Malta/Crey facility being set up in 'Boomtown', not to far from the last attack on their target. The night Blue's teams were crushed by the walking [censored] plants...in the middle of a rubble pile. Blue and the Crey demanded to know how Kara had pulled that one off...Fergie suspected the Crey were not telling the Malta everything.

As Usual...

He had broken away as he briefed his runner's for Alpha and made his way into Boomtown. Finding the base had been quite simple enough, He had finally been able to meet with Iota and begin to talk about a possible alliance. Iota had gotten Blue's security center online and that was when he had first heard about the impending disaster.

-She- was coming...

Fergie remembered standing there and listened as he heard Blue's team and the Crey Security scramble over the comms. Iota had gone to hid own boards and tried to reach his team leaders, Delta, Epsilon and Gamma. Fergie listened to the frantic calls from the other three gunslingers. Two Knives of Artemis bases, and one of their operations had been knocked out. The mainstay of the attack was the albino abetoir Ivy Roberts...

Fergie seethed, he knew she should've been killed immediately. Crimson it seemed had fooled them all yet again. Ms 'I'm heading to Warburg' was right there on the video screens blasting away and protecting that white freak with her bubbles as she ripped apart Blue's highly trained teams.

In time each base, each team, each bunker fell. Gamma was first, he his team and the Knives present fought in vain to hold back the pair. The bubbles made it impossible even for the sappers to hit as much as they needed too.

Delta's warehouse was next, this fight was brutally fast as the young heroines made short work of the Mech's under Delta's command. Delta's boys were on target but unable to breach the shields covering the scrapper on her offensive. They all stood there as the comms grew silent. Fergie knew it was only a matter of time as he began to prepare his own weaponry..

Blue had tried to order the evacuation of Epsilon's team but the gunslinger would have none of it. He ordered his men to dig in and prepare for the girls assault. When it came , as before the pair cut through the Malta with lethal precision, though different in their approach each moved with a grace Fergie and Iota had to admire. One with the deleicate grace of a ballerina the other with the powerful grace of a predator. Soon Epsilon's team was off the grid and his base compromised. They listened as Ivy informed Kara of the operations base in Boomtown...

They were coming..

He could've fled, he could've retreated...but what good would it have done? Blue's team and Iota's people would need the help, and that would go a long way to easing his own renegade status. Plus he might get that one shot to end this...just one shot and Alpha's prize would be dead....no more of his men need get hurt or killed as renegades..

So he stayed...and his one shot soon presented itself.

It came too late to save Iota's men, even too late to save Iota himself as the last stand in the lab began. Ivy and Diamond had been picture perfect again. Diamond seemed as driven as Fergie knew she would be after all Alpha had put her through. Her spirit not dampened but resolved to go on..

Gathering two of Iota's surviving sappers and three tac-ops he prepared and waited. Cornered and knee deep in the muck the girls had made their first mistake as Fergie's sapper's struck. Each of them took on a sapper and began to drop them quickly as the third struck Ivy, pinning her to the floor as Fergie rose from the dank water. With careful aim he fired three explosive slugs into Diamond's back.

The first had dropped her shields tearing into her ribs on her left side as the sapper she was fighting fell. She had jerked and spasmed wonderfully as his slugs slammed between her shoulder blades. His next double shot was aimed at the base of her skull as she dropped to her knees in agony...

He had her! It was over! He pulled the trigger...as his side exploded into white hot pain. His shots deflected by the impact of Ivy sheathing her claws deep into his sides. He watched as the one slammed into the side of her head sending her face down into the muck, its twin going into the wall...was she dead he wondered?

Slammed into the wall Ivy became a blur of white and claws, Fergie's weapon slipped from his hands as he felt his torn form lifted off of the ground...he was finished he knew it, there was blood in the young hero's eyes...The eyes of his own personal 'Fury'...here was his judgement

...At last. He thought.

"Ivers...." a harsh raspy whisper as several blasts were sent at the remaining tac operatves of his failed ambush. Incredibly there she stood, bleeding and shaken but up and firing. Fergie couldnt believe it...she was back in the fight...it was his last thought as he felt himself being released...he awoke to find himself in hell..

A hell of fire and pain, IV had released him, she had let him live. Most likely to help Diamond finish off the base. The comms were silent...

No Longbow had arrived....no police..not in a hazard zone..

Maybe he would just wait here for awhile...he closed his eyes as the pain danced with darkness.

Yeah....I could use the rest.

===================

Crimson smirked to himself as Indigo reported calmly about the night's sting operations and IV's Offensive. He was even more amused when he learned IV had reported Thornchilde's interest in this, his most current Malta offensive.

Oh yes, he mused. Diamond is quite the little rallier. The team grows...

How perfect this was. His new weapons had performed brilliantly.

It was now only a matter of time.

October 31st, 2008 - Paragon City, Rhode Island


MAGI Representative - (weary voice) ".....I'll take your questions..."

FOX NEWS Reporter - "...Why did this start so early?"

MAGI Representative - "We don't know..."

HEADLINE NEWS Reporter - "How do you hope to contain the spread of this....new threat through out the city?"

MAGI Representative - "We...don't know"

MSNBC Reporter - "Is this a city wide health hazard or a Military and Corps one?...We have had reports of horde of these...things in the war zone and Croa.."

MAGI Representative - (Interrupting gently) "We don't know...."

CNN Reporter - "Are these things alive or not?"

MAGI Representative - "We don't know....no..yes...we aren't sure at this time"

There's a man goin' 'round takin' names.
An' he decides who to free and who to blame.
Everybody won't be treated all the same.

"Once more this is Harrison Carter, Channel Five News...most city streets remain clear of nonessential traffic as emergency vehicles move throughout the streets below and the skies now seems to be turning red with as we lose the sun once more..."

There'll be a golden ladder reaching down.
When the man comes around.

"This is an update to the Emergency Broadcast system...remain in your homes...as with any such event citizens are encouraged to prop open any and all doors that are already open and leave them ajar..."

The hairs on your arm will stand up.
At the terror in each sip and in each sup.

"....and get to safety at once...once more we are reporting at this hour an early arrival of a city wide event...do not attempt to encounter the creatures invading your home...there are also reports of a new threat..."

For you partake of that last offered cup,
Or disappear into the potter's ground.

"....I can clearly see literally hundreds of heroes across the city engaging these creatures of the night as they go from secured door to secured door ...police and emergency units are responding as fast as they can to desperate attempts to evacuate those who wish to leave the city..."

When the man comes around.

" ....It's clear at this point Janice that all attempts at the preplanned evacuation have fallen into complete chaos now with the early arrival of this years horrors...City and State resources are being pushed to their limits..."

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin'.

" ....It was simply horrible! They just keep coming!..The smell!!!"

Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum.

"....repeat do not attempt to reach loved ones, report to your designated evacuation station or follow your assigned route out of the city...police and national guard units are preparing...."

Voices callin', voices cryin'.
Some are born an' some are dyin'.
It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come.

"They came out of the ground! I mean all teeth and rot...if it wasn't for the heroes nearby they would've torn us apart!!..."

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree.

"...I have mentioned earlier at previous Press Conferences, all civil and state authorities are in complete cooperation...we will get to you as quickly as possible, As Mayor I can guarantee my fellow citizens Paragon City will..."

The virgins are all trimming their wicks.
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree.

"....Bob, The Heroes below have formed a defensive circle and are completely surrounded with a ...well what only can be described as a /horde/ of undead, shambling corpses ....it is pure chaos down there..."

It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

"...As mentioned earlier the Mayor has urged all citizens to either remain home or make their way to their designated evacuation centers....schools have been closed...some businesses have also been advised to close ..."

Till Armageddon, no Shalam, no Shalom.
Then the father hen will call his chickens home.

"(screaming in the background) ...Oh My God! Andrew!...as you can see behind me ....careful careful now! ....Its total chaos, reports are now coming in that evacuation centers have simply just given up and become rescue stations at this point...(automatic weapons fire in the background)

The wise men will bow down before the throne.
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crown.

"....I can't believe I'm seeing this Tom, it's like something out of a Romero film...The Heroes, Police and National Guard have drawn up a defensive line here at Portal Corps...GET DOWN!...HERE THEY COME!!"

When the man comes around.

(A jostling camera,images of people running and screaming, sounds of sirens and explosion, a giant pumpkin stalk of a foot slams down)....oh my god my god...ROB! ...ROB?!"

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still.
Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still.

"...Repeat this is an Emergency Broadcast...this is not a Test...."

Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still.
Listen to the words long down,

"..This is simply incredible Sharon, ...it has to be thirty no! forty feet tall! striding across the streets....its head a massive flaming pumpkin!....the sound of the battle is deafening as it tries to ward off the heroes!"

When the man comes around.

"...this has turned into a massive battle! Dozens of heroes have arrived to drive the massive horde of undead back from the helpless refugees as they try to defend the shelter....Oh My God there are more! MORE OF THEM ARE COMING OUT OF THE GROUND (sounds of a horrific battle and people screaming)..."

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin'.

"(Screaming and people running) .....please please remain calm....let them through to -them-...please...oh my god!....Nooo!..(static hiss and horrible chewing and tearing sounds) *PLEASE STAND BY* (Tone)"

Multitudes are marchin' to the big kettle drum.
Voices callin', voices cryin'.

"...rescue shelters have been set up throughout the city....volunteers have been donating blood and cooking food all day Steven...Citizens are urged to stay in their homes all attempts at organized evacuation have now ceased ..."

Some are born an' some are dyin'.
It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come.

"Mister Mayor...Mister Mayor!...When can we expect an end to..."

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree.
The virgins are all trimming their wicks.

"....unbelievable Michael as I am watching the heroes have managed to defeat the horde before they could break through to us...the heroes are swarming back out into the city. Presumably to deal with the creatures from the doors as I am watching, Emergency Personnel and Volunteers are moving to deal with the wounded now..."

The whirlwind is in the thorn tree.
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

"Repeat this is a broadcast of the Emergency Broadcast System..this is Not a Test..."

In measured hundredweight and penny pound.
When the man comes around.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts,
And I looked and behold: a pale horse.
And his name, that sat on him, was Death.
And Hell followed with him.



<another shameless tribute. This time to a horror classic's remake, but I couldnt resist again! HAPPY HALLOWEEN! >

Status Reports

Star Strider Force: Virtue

Name: Diamond

Global Contact: @Diamond

Reporting on Assignment: Historical preservation and Protection : Steel Canyon University Campus. 11/18/08 1420hrs

Level of Alien Threat: Low

Report Details: As reported by Zambo concerning the situation in Founder's Falls, the University Campus in Steel Canyon has likewise been secured with the help of the Midnight Squad at our location. Colation and securing of all exhibits under their care has begun as well as sweeps of local private and public collections has begun in the surrounding zone. Reciepts are being issued as well as Government insurance policies to protect the private owner and his/her item of any damages incurred..if any.

As these and any further items are located, they will be secured in the Midnight Society Club's storage areas for safe keeping.

Analysis of Current Situation: Also as reported by Zambo, efforts are underway to continue to locate and and private collections as well as stolen contraband magical items that the Rikti and their intelligence services may attempt to locate.

Secondly all efforts are continuing to increase the effiency of the response time of emergency services teams to and from Rally points throughout the zone to Area Hospitals and emergency shelters located throughout the city. An effort is currently underway to restock old Cold War era Civil Defense Shelters located in some of the older Skyscrapers in the zone, most notably in the Fool's Gold District.

Suggestion of Action: As stated previously in a report issued by this Hero to the Governor in coordination with the National Guard, an increase in emergency medical and food supplies is required to reinforce the fortifications and shelters set up around the Campus and several Area Museums. This can and will alieviate the on going stress and prevent possible overloads of the Mediport system during times of attack. I also second the reccomendation of Zambo in requesting more dilligence in the locating and securing of all items that may have a dangerous mystical ability. Such items must be made a priority to locate and secure as the Rikti Interest in Magic Grows.

Lastly I can not stress this enough, a number of those of the order have requested a greater level of security be placed on the vaults of Magi. Even some have gone so far as requesting /all/ items of power be transfered directly to the Society for care nd storage during this time of emergency. Given the ability I have witnessed these last four years, concerning the security of Magi's vaults I feel I must endorse such a request personally.

Im not sure what this is, but its against the Rikti so I am in!

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name: Diamond.
Global Contact: @Diamond
Level of Classification: 50 Blaster
Origin: Mutant
Super Rank & Super Group: Officer, Templars of the Abbey

August 23rd, 2006 - Warburg

"....as i said it's like total chaos in there, but for each bunker taken and each group of refugees secured, even if it is a food and medicine drop...we so bring a little more order to region" Kara smiled a bit over her shoulder to the reporter as she leaned on the rail of the Longbow ship as it lay anchored off the besieged little island city.

"So you believe that Longbow is doing right here in Warburg" He pressed. "That we have a right to be here"

She smirked "I think I said what I meant Daniel, Blitz has access to weapons of mass destruction and like every nut from both Paragon and the Rogue Isles is like here to secure them....in the middle of all of this mess are the civilians of Warburg. They are why I am here and to save the lives of those here to do the same...." she smiles warmly "Got it?"

He nodded "So ...order out of chaos and to protect the innocent...What...” he began as she turned to face him.

"Also the Malta are here, they are supporting Blitz's men and in a sense Longbow makes an effort to balance that out....I've had a lot of dealing with Malta and well /renegades/ .....Though that seems to have dropped away as of late...I guess they are /hiding/" she added a soft taunt to her tone with the last.

"But....what do you mean Malta operations are still listed as high priority in Paragon...I mean..." The reporter seemed confused as he glanced back to his cameraman, who shrugged.

Kara waved her hand "oh well I've been out of the loop I guess, like being out here...sorry Daniel. Was there anything else?"

Daniel blinked unsure of how he lost control of his short live update interview merely slipped back into his normal demeanor with a "No no thank you Kara.." turning back to the camera he spoke over his feed to the desk back at MSNBC's headquarters. "And that was Blazer, Kick Start and of course Diamond on the on going operations in Warburg...back to you Dana"


=================


Undisclosed Crey Facility

....I've had a lot of dealing with Malta and well /renegades/.....though that seems to have dropped away as of late...I guess they are /hiding/"

Blue laughed warmly as he watched the feed from the console’s monitor in his quarters, deep within the Crey facility. He sank back into his chair and kicked up his heels to the lazy ottoman before him. He shook his head his southern drawl lazy yet filled with a touch of amazement and amusement.

"Gutsy kid, callin' ya out like that, Alpha" he chuckled and took a long sip of his whiskey. "She is up to sumthing pardner..." he raised his glass in a half hearted salute to his one time mentor turned renegade.

"Time ta watch yer butt" he tossed back his head as he finished his whiskey in one gulp. He sighed enjoying the soothing warmth as it moved through him. He turned to his reports for the next phase of their own operations. It was going to be a long month. Operation Karma and all of the data that was coming back on the possible cause of that weird raid by the Devouring Earth.

"No Allies mah [censored]" Blue murmured as he began to read...


==================


Undisclosed Location - King's Row

....I've had a lot of dealing with Malta and well /renegades/.....though that seems to have dropped away as of late...I guess they are /hiding/"

That Little [censored]! Alpha stood before the old TV and stared daggers at that hated smile! Mocking, taunting....TAUNTING.....ME!

His fists clenched tightly as his nails cut deeply into his palms. Rage and pain blended into a perfect fire that began to refuel his gut.

"Fergie?" he snarled a whisper

Ferguson closed his eyes as he sat cleaning his weapons. "Yes sir?" he knew what was coming and the bottom fell out of his stomach.

"Send out the runners...we are beginning ops once more...up the attacks I want our Titan reserves tapped into...the little [censored] is in Warburg" he turned and grinned at his aide "We don’t have to worry about holding back...or movement through war walls.." he chuckled "Besides if we hit her there, her little friends wont know it is us...hell they will blame Blitz....the Malta or Christ another hero there for god sakes..."

"Sir...." Fergie began "She wouldn’t be taunting you ....can’t you see this is a trap?"

Alpha grinned "of course Fergie...that is why I've got it covered...you see when you try to bait a Shark...you may catch -a- shark...but the bait is still devoured"

Fergie blanched "but our men..."

Alpha turned back to the TV "The arrogant [censored] trying to draw me out....sorry sweetheart...you will learn to eat pain like candy before i put a round right through that pretty little skull of yours...."

Over his shoulder "Go Fergie...have Raptor secure us a bunker or three in Warburg...the usual payoffs...and ship out the Titans...full press attacks...then send for Raptor to meet with me " his eyes gleamed ferally "I've an idea and I want to indivually brief him about it"

Fergie stood "Standard established low tech communication procedures for the Warburg ops?"

Alpha nodded "Yes...get a move on Fergie...she wants a fight? Let’s give it to her"

Fergie turned and walked out to begin as Alpha sat down upon the ruined couch. With a leathery soft hiss he withdrew his combat knife; slowly he drew the ultra sharp blade across the skin of his forearm. He sighed and shuddered as he felt the skin part and the pain blend with his rage. Repeatedly he dragged the blade slowly across his arm in neat little rows until his rage had subsided. In his mind's eye each slice was across the soft skin of his hated target, slicing away that hated grin....

His Beast....the blue white fire...he had to wash it away...he had to...

Before she consumed him....

October 30th, 2008 - Brickstown, 'The Zig'

Originally posted by Lucianna

“My dear, sweet Brianna. What have you become?”

Dark Doll sat up in bed quickly, startled to see more Mister Bocor looking at her. “How the hell did you get in here?”

“I can get into any number of places. In this case I arranged an official visit with the penitentiary.”

“You can officially see your [censored] out. This is all your fault,” she growled.

“My fault. Interesting. I feel I did my part in our arrangement. I said ‘Kill Lucianna Addo.’ I even gave you a partner. And you failed. Which mystifies me. It’s not as if she had given you trouble in the past.”

“I tried…” Brianna said weakly.

“What I don’t understand is that you beat her to death, save for an unexpected miracle in your first encounter…the second time you had her…defeated her once again. But the police were arriving. Instead of killing her quickly, you chose to attack the partner I had assigned you and tossed your prey in a garbage dumpster. Unconventional, but not very effective.”

“I wouldn’t have time to get away.”

Mr. Bocor smirked. “We would’ve arranged an extraction. A lot of people went to a lot of trouble to get you in place to do one simple job. Plots in the Isles are like matryoshka dolls. One inside another, inside another, inside another. You, Dark Doll, were the big doll, holding all the others inside. And the dolls on the inside, they became very unhappy when they were exposed.”

“[censored] you.”

“You’re too pale and too young.”

“[censored].”

“Let me continue my trip down memory land. Confrontation the third: Lucianna Addo unexpectedly held her own and the two of you maltreated one another horribly. I recall that she actually burst your head open. What was that like?” he asked, raising a carefully shaped eyebrow.

Brianna shuddered as the sensation of it came to her. A kick from Lucianna, followed by the worst pain of her life. She had felt her skull break apart, the disorienting sensation of her eyes being into two different places. Watching from one eye as her brain slithered back to the remains of her skull. The smell of blood and Lucianna’s vomit when her nose reformed. Her ears unnaturally separated, causing everything to sound wrong. And the pain, so much pain. Dear god why had she been conscious for all of that?

She looked up at Mr. Bocor. He was the reason. “It was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Thinking about it makes me wish I had just died.”

He sat on the edge of the infirmary bed. Brianna moved closer to the edge. “Don’t say that. The Gothic culture is equally about death and life. Obsessed with one, but craving the other. In endless supply. My gift gives that too you.”

“[censored] you! You cursed me! You made me that way! You turned me into a monster!”

Mr. Bocor laughed and it echoed around the prison infirmary in a way that chilled Brianna. “You were already a monster. Filled with rage and hate.” His voice became more excited as he spoke. “An angry little girl! Mad at her parents! Mad at the world! Mad without reason! I. Gave. You. A physical manifestation of your anger. You can’t hide it anymore! The whole world gets to see!”

“Laugh’s on you skull-face. My powers are gone. Lucianna’s friends cast some kind of spell on me. My shadow is just a shadow now.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. They did bind your magic. It’s an admirable job for not knowing what they were dealing with. But I am the original architect and I can see it’s all still just below the surface.” He reached out to her.

Brianna jumped up and started to back away. “Don’t touch me. I don’t want it back!”

“You don’t want revenge? Against Lucianna who’s been a thorn in your side. Against her girlfriend who put you here in the infirmary? Against your boyfriend abandoned you when you were incarcerated? Or are you going to let everyone walk on you? You’re just going to accept it? And most of all, do you really want to be weak for the rest of your life? I don’t think you do.”

Brianna backed into another bed. “I…I want to have a real life again. I want all the things I lost.”

“You can have them.”

“You give me my powers back? What then? I’m still in prison. I’m still in psychical therapy from that Japanese [censored] breaking my arms and legs. I’m not seeing much appeal here.”

“One thing at a time,” Mr. Bocor responded. “First…” He made no move or sound, but Brianna felt it. The same sensation when he had cursed her when she was ten years old. The world was so very cold; a coldness that crept over he limbs and filled her chest. A coldness that felt as if it was squeezing her heart.

Brianna stood stock still as it happened. It was over after a minute. Brianna stared at him with tears in her eyes. “You [censored]! Not again! I don’t want it again!”

“I didn’t ask. It’s not like you’ve got a choice. It was always there. I’ve just shaped it into something useful. Now I think it’s time we left.”

“Left?” Brianna chirped.

“Left.” Without moving Mr. Bocor was suddenly beside her, his hand on her wrist. “No more prison. No more weakness.” And with those words they were suddenly outside. They stood on the street in Brickstown, looking at the Zig.

“How..?”

Mr. Bocor flashed a devilish grin. “I made special arrangements. That was one time only.”

Brianna snatched her wrist away from him, looking around at the buildings, up at the red sky. “So…what do you want?”

“We won’t worry about that today. It’s Halloween. Yuletide for a Gothic lady like yourself. And this is a very special Halloween. Go enjoy yourself. And I’ll be back to talk with you when the time is right.”

Mr. Bocor was gone. Brianna stood on the sidewalk alone. Not too far away a woman opened a door and a pumpkin-headed monster leapt out and attacked her. Zombies clawed their way up out of the ground, lurching toward a group of people brandishing rakes and shovels. Somewhere someone screamed a bloodcurdling scream. Brianna smiled. She felt better. Her injuries were gone. A full blood red moon shined down her. She had dreamed of nights like this. Halloween. Freedom. Revenge.

August 20th, 2006 - Steel Canyon

With the cunning and stealth of a panther he moved through the darkness, following her slithering flight through the city. He had watched with dark amusement, her little game with Alpha's target's father. How easily this huntress had slipped so basic a ruse passed the Crey Security that surrounded him.

He quickly scaled the building across from her apartment and took roost once more in his private nook to observe. For sometime now he was in disobedience. He had ignored the recall for the most part after the defeat in Boomtown. There had been a larger defeat of Blue's recovery team by a horde of DE's and that had caused Alpha to withdraw for the moment.

I can not , he thought. He had become entranced by the duality he had witnessed in his subject. He still reported in to his runner that he was idle yet he thought as he watched the light of her bedroom illuminate, how can i remain so.

His thoughts danced in his dark mind as he observed her silhouette move her apartment,so far from his reach and yet not quite so far.

Melissa Darling,

I know you are in your room,

And I am elsewhere,

Endless contemplating,

Future, Present, and Past.

Flying free,

Your dark soul,

Pursuing a thousand years,

Fleeing the end of all,

Did you forget to read the small print?

Are nightmares invading your heart?

Does fear infiltrate your gut?

Would I be,

That much of il Monstrum

To you?

Are you afraid,

Melissa Darling,

Working so hard; for those above you, beneath you,

Hating and loving, and loathing and adoring,

Everything in this world.

Are you, a furious Angel?

Wrathful, and omnipotent,

Or do you quiver

As you,

Watch the night.

These words, are for you, Melissa.

And for you, alone.

These are memories, opinions, hopes, and fears.

They are sentiments, for you,

My remaining flower.

He smirked as her shadow moved away from the window. Switching to his thermals he settled down for their night together. Watching...

Yearning..never to touch, never to possess...

...for now.


=================

Originally posted by Skilla

Mel sang softly as she wandered around the apartment trying to ignore the prickling sensation down her spine. Bryce would be here soon. She wished she hadn't had to leave the party so soon, but that damn seizure...she was having more and more of them recently. She was having more sensory hallucinations too - fingers touching her hair, smells she knew weren't there. Tammie said it was natural after what she went through in the Council base. A little backslide. Just like Kara. Poor Bubbles- so on edge again. But she'd open up when she was ready - and she knew her Blossum would be there for her. I always am. she thought with a small sigh.

She glanced at herself in the mirror smiling a little at the sheer, short, whispy baby blue negligee and matching panties she'd picked for tonight. Her hair was done in soft curls around her face - Just how he likes it. I wonder if I can make him faint tonight she giggled to herself. The candles were all lit and the "treasure map" lay on the coffee table with a note saying "Read me." Tucked into little nooks around the apartment were the various "surprises" she'd left for him with little notes and clues - the champagne, the massage oil - finally leading to the bed she'd scattered with rose petals - and her. Everything was perfect.

She stepped out onto the balcony, looking for the familiar form of her lover sailing across the darkened trees. For a moment she stood, silhouetted in the moonlight, her beautiful figure shining as if cut out of ivory and silk. The night was warm, but suddenly she shivered. She drew back in, biting her bottom lip and pulled the brown bamboo shade down, irrationally. Breathing hard for a second, she turned her back to the shuttered glass door, listening to the soft sensuous melody of Ravel's Bolero, humming softly as she closed her eyes and swayed.

Yes....everything was perfect.

======================

Originally posted by Orion's Fist

Minutes later, he flies through the air quietly in the night, his metallic body catching the light from the moon and causing it to refract, making him look similar to a falling star at the right angle, still dressed in his pirate costume from earlier that evening, minus the wooden leg and hook, seemingly lifeless metal eyes scan the area subconsciously as he goes towards 'lissa's home. He lands at the doorstep of the building with a telltale and quite loud thud that echoes in the night and being impatient, walks in and flies quickly up the steps to her floor. Seconds after he walks into the building, he stands quietly at her door and knocks, a small smile on his face as he wonders what his "surprise" could be, that all too familiar feeling of anxiousness, like butterflies dancing around in his stomach is felt.

As the door opens he subconsciously converts his metallic skin back to the softer flesh and bone, the life returning to his oddly colored blue and green eyes as he does. When he sees the "treasure map" on the door he grins to himself and locks the door, makes sure it is shut and chuckles lightly to himself, his deep voice carrying easily through the apartment as he does his best pirate impersonation.

"Arrrrr.....what have we got 'ere? Some fool left thar bloody treasure map behind, methinks I'll be gettin' me some booty tanight...."

he looks over the map and strokes his fake facial hair in mock thought.

"Arrr....and quite the lovely booty it'll be I imagine...har har..."

October 29th, 2008 - King's Row
Originally posted by Black Fathom

The Abbey, about two hours later...


Thoroughly ill, or rather the spectral equivilant of such anyway.

As the Blackfathom shuffled miserably into the front doors of the Abbey, He sneezed, coughed several times and before long broke into a horrid-sounding fit of hacks and coughs that seemed to lack any voice to them.

At the very begnning of the All Hallows season, the sudden misalignment of the the spectral and physical realms often had a strange effect on the magically inclined. For bound spectres like him, it meant a form of rather annoying curse that often was mistaken for a cold or flu.

'Fathom, blatently hated it.

He had an important task to perform, the gathering of materials, scripts, tomes and resources in order to open a gateway to Shadalogoth, the home of the Sevathi Battlemages. This curse it seemed had other ideas and so, taking into account the constant onslaught of zombies shambling to and fro at un-discernable hours of the day, he had decided to retreat back to the Abbey for a quiet sit down and a snifter of Benedictine should the concept tickle him...

What he was not informed on however was the gauntlet of improvised traps laying in wait in the darkened entry-way to the bar area, set by two over-active young minds and a lot of improvised equipment...

The old mage's first ailed step led his foot right into a small patch of what would appear to be cooking oil smeared just thin enough to be slippery but just enough to send him skidding forward and into a neck-high piece of string which in turn sent him sprawling onto his back with a loud *THWUMP!* and a sharp, hollow-sounding grunt.

His vision swam a moment as he struggled back to his feet, rather stiffly adjusting his coat and taking a triumphant step forward which led him straight into the path of a swinging water baloon delivery system. This too sent him sprawling onto his side again, drenched to about the waist.

His hood clung comically around his face as he reeled from the last delivery rising to his feet once more in an act of sheer defiance and willpower which was swiftly met with a low swinging base-ball bat to the ankles on a spring mechanism.

Remarkably, he managed to hold his footing, staggering a bit but trumphantly holding his arms aloft to raise a challenge to whatever clearly malicious and distasteful mind had set such a devious assortment of traps

"Tis there nothing else? Tis such as I *Sniffle* have survived all there is to offer? What foolishness to think that such a paltry array could halt one such as *cough* I, the Black...fa...thom..."

His speech slowed to a crawl as he heard a gentle creak emenate from behind him, as he spun around to watch in absolute horror as what appeared to be a the handle section of a sledgehammer swing forward in a gracefully elegant arc into his face.

The world went black until suddenly he found himself sliding across the floor of the Abbey's main sitting area on his face, clearly laying in another puddle of cooking oil.

Things finally drew to a close as his movement slowed, finally coming to a stop somewhere in the middle of the floor. For a moment all was still as the murky figure slowly drew his hands upward and propped himself up on his elbows, muttering all manner of things in languages too foul and too ancient to be mentioned.

It was a with a final hang of his head and a struggle to his feet he shambled over to the bar, slumping down on a seat soggy, greasy, sore, cursed and miserable.

"To Hell with a simple snifter" He muttered to himself, fishing out the bottle of DOM Benedictine from behind the counter as he cleared his throat several times "A bottle seems rather more fitting considering prior events"

He opened the bottle, taking a more than healthy swig from it before raising the bottle aloft and proclaiming

"To All Hallows, and it ending promptly or at the very least promptly ending me..."


=====================
=====================

October 29th, 2008 - Skyway City
Originally posted by Mazin


Across town, in Skyway:

With a long suffering sigh, the black-clad demon plops into an office chair in the darkened shop. The M.W. Magical Emporium has been closed since nearly the second day of the zombie invasion, various wards having been erected by the magi on staff. It had started simply enough. Friends and family of the employees had been invited to stay there since it was likely more secure than most other places around Paragon, and then the occasional person with no idea where to go had been directed here by the demon hero. Before he knew it, people were piled in the subterranean shop, with most of the goods relocated to the storage rooms in the back in order to prevent accidents. Fortunately, only Ren had been blown to pieces before this decision was made. Sure, he regenerated almost immediately but the next victim would likely not be as lucky.

In order to make things more comfortable, Mazin had opened up the area below the shop that was used for summonings, product experiments, and similar things. Fortunately, Ren's workers keep the place in reasonable condition, so there were no unsightly bloodstains to worry the civilians. Though in the end, he supposes the most fortunate ones in that case are him and his workers. He has never before hated “serving” the people so much as he does now that they actually make it seem like he is a servant. Food, water, diapers, medicine... anything they could possibly require, he is expected to procure. Despite the many requests, not a single one of them seem to feel obligated to offer recompense to him for the many expenses. It is not that he has any trouble with money though. It is merely the idea that they expect him to manage it out of the kindness of his heart. Clearly they don't know him so well.

Still, he supposes that he should be building up the good karma, since he is supposedly going to end the world or something at some point. Then there is the worry of what Kara would say if he threw a tantrum and started tossing people to the zombies. So, he spends his time fixing up mass quantities of food and sending his minions out to collect the various things that his human “masters” require of him, when he would much rather be out there ripping apart zombies.

A sudden clearing of a throat snaps him out of his thoughts and he lifts a hand from his eyes to regard the... person in front of him. A huge woman stands before him with her hands on her very wide hips, her pudgy face a mask of irritation. Ever since she had waddled into the shop in order to take advantage of the safety of the shop and the servitude of its employers, she has had this expression on her face. No matter what he has done to please her, she has continued to berate him for the time it took and has not yet ceased to have a request or complaint.

He takes a moment to regard her, contemplating how humans manage to move about on their own two feet after putting on that much fat. If he were to push her into Talos bay, with that much blubber, people would clearly mistake her for a... another throat clearing interrupts that thought. With a sigh, he blinks his eyes at her and asks, in as moderate a tone as he can manage, “Yes, whale?”

Her face purples and a tirade is just on the verge of being released, but Mazin puts his hands up to forestall her. “Ma'am, sorry. I was thinking about this, uh, giant mutant whale I fought off the coast of...”

She cuts him off, but this time it is fortunate, as he had no idea how he was going to continue to expand on that little lie. “I don't know why you are sitting here when there are people like me who are suffering in that little hole you stuck us in.”

He can't help but blink when he tries to imagine the basement as being small. The room is large enough to summon the much abused Envoy of Shadows and three of his friends with room to spare. “Suffering, ma'am? Everyone has plenty of water, everyone had dinner just a couple of hours ago. There's diapers, deodorant, and who knows what else down there after we went on a shopping spree to get everything you guys have asked for. I can't imagine what else you could want.”

She starts to open her mouth to tell him her latest demand, but he decides enough is enough, and holds up a hand to forestall her. For a moment it seems that it is not enough to stop her from speaking when she wishes to speak, but he simply talks right over her. “Come to think of it, for every complaint that someone else has had, you've had nearly ten. Then, no matter what I do to try to fix it, you have complaints about how I went about it. It's enough to make me feel sorry for any guy that's ever tried to stick a dick in you. I'm sure you'd berate him enough to make him regret ever having the desire to do so.”

Her face goes purple once more and she looks on the verge of an explosion, but she can only sputter for a moment. Her demon “servant” does not even give her the chance to explode, stepping forward to take hold of her flowery dress. “Now, you listen to me, Shamu. You've managed to annoy me enough that I'm almost willing to toss you out to the zombies, but I'm pretty sure they would just toss you back. Even zombies won't like a dinner that's all fat and little meat. But, if you don't get back down there and keep your mouth shut, we're going to find out. Do you understand me?”

The woman's pudgy cheeks seem oddly splotchy at the end of that speech, as if her purple face had tried to go red and then pale at the same time, ending up in an odd mixture of all three. She manages a small nod and when he releases her dress, she makes a squeak and hurries toward the stairs leading into the basement chamber.

Mazin watches her go for a moment, before sighing and rubbing the back of his neck. “Karma, that one doesn't count,” he says to the empty shop. “She had that one coming.”

August 18th, 2006 - Brickstown

Originally posted by Skilla


A knock at the door made him sit up. Outside the window, Melissa smiled as she treaded air. "We'll get that, Dr. Reynolds," the Crey agent snapped a bit.

Touchy aren't they. Mel thought.

"The Doc's pizza is here," called one of the Crey seeing the young teenage boy with the box from Antonio's Pizzeria. "Lesse...Pepperoni for you, Doc. Meat lovers' for Joe. Here Frances, here's your Veggie Delight..."

Doctor Reynolds sighed almost nostalgically as he took the box and returned to his work station. Kara loved pizza. Are you calling it 'za in your mind, Dr. Reynolds? Mel thought with a soft smile.

His back stiffened as he opened the box, staring at the surface of the pie. "Something wrong with your order, Doc?" the nameless Crey agent asked.

"No...no...not at all," he replied with a quick smile, removing a slice. He glanced back down, pretending to type as he snuck another quick look at the pizza. There in among the fragrant tomato sauce and cheese were his pepperonis...only the familiar red circles had been sliced into thin strips, arranged neatly across the slices, even the question mark neatly carved into the sausage slices.

William, it read

What are you doing William?
Love

Melissa


With a soft laugh, Mel took off from the window. I always knew having the same name as Kara's mom would come in handy. Jamal did his part well. I owe him a second twenty. she giggled. Thus begins the haunting of Dr. Reynolds.

October 28, 2008 - King's Row

The police sirens were a distant sound around him as the city continued to come apart, overwhelmed by the man's labored breathing and the sound of splashing water. Although his legs screamed in agony, he forced himself to keep running. All around him the heroes of the city had been fighting zombies and those damn things that crawled out of the shadows and doorways each year.

"Damn it!" he snarled as the shoulder of his costume snagged on a dumpster as he left the warehouse.

He had come to King's Row to sow the seeds of Mayhem and rob a bank for his contact. His reputation was on the line. All this week the undead had attacked the isles, but until he came to paragon he had no idea it had been this severe! Each door he had forced open he had met the creature of Halloween, that he could deal with. They were slower and dumber than most heroes and police he fought. However what he was not prepared for was the number of zombie hordes running around Paragon City.

His leather boots pounded on the pavement in an almost hypnotic rhythm. Then, they slipped as the man turned a sharp corner and slipped at a puddle. He barely stopped himself in mid-fall and bit back a scream as red brick friction-burned his hand.

Somehow he kept moving, stopping wasn't an option. Not with an Hero on his trail.

Maybe that was why he kept running even as his brain numbly registered the wall that he just crashed into. He'd been cornered, crashed into the wall, his head rocked back at the force and crimson stained his vision.

He turned around and shakily reached for his rifle, resting his entire weight on the unyielding wall. He flicked off the safety and raised it at the Hero who calmly approached him. Her red hair flowed down her shoulders and disappeared behind her green costume. Her green gloved hands glowed a pulsing soft purple as she began to charge her powers up for a blast.

"We don't have time for this" She panted wearily "Drop your rifle and the money"

A hysterical laugh escaped his lips as the other easily dodge each consecutive shot as he jerked up his rifle to fire. Those rounds that did strike home were easily deflected by her force field. Even when his magazine was empty, he still keep on squeezing at the trigger. He watched as she took her time as she raised her own arms up to aim at him.

That was when it happened.

There was the flutter of disturbed air as a dark figure leaped from the roof of a neighboring building. It landed with a soft thud on the pavement. With no hesitation whatsoever, it lunged for the Agent's throat. The cornered man watched with morbid fascination as his adversary helplessly struggled in the newcomer's firm grip. Dark red gushed out as row upon row of sharp teeth tore at the jugular vein.

"Damn...that's nasty." The man heard himself say as he cringed at the sight. The dark figure shook and trembled as an evil slurping sound filled the hallway to join the sounds of terror that wafted through the eternal night of the city.

"Wow....thanks for the timely rescue my friend" The villain rose, readjusting his satchel full of cash.

At that, the dark stranger looked up. Its movement brought part of is face into the moonlight, its pale white skin virtually glowing. The startled villain found himself frozen under the steady gaze of glittering black orbs, the twisted snarl like smile and the glint off of the crimson set of sharpened fangs. He watched as a delicate white clawed hand wiped the pale face clean and a long crimson tongue snaked out and licked its lips.

The man knew what this was, he had fought them before. This was one of the new vampires, a child of the shadows that came only once a year. Someone must've opened a door and failed to stop this one. It was loose in the city, he thought as he dropped the satchel and fought with fumbling fingers to reload his rifle.

The speed of its attack tore the breath from his body, the other was on him, it's hot hungry mouth tearing at his throat. The hapless heroine hadn't screamed. She didn't have the time.

But, the villain did.

October 24th, 2008 - Talos Island


He opened his eyes to darkness.

The air was stifling, the heat intolerable. His head ached and his body was sore. The hero known as the Scarlett Ranger realized the odd stench that wouldn’t go away was the smell of his own sweat, humidifying the air with fear. His mind painfully raced for answers, how had he come here, where was he? His head throbbed with a soft agony with each beat of his heart as he remembered. He was trapped. He wasn’t getting out. He had pressed against that wall with everything he had, scraped against the stone until his fingers were bloodied, and screamed until his lungs burned and his throat scraped.

After several hours, his mind had retreated to some dark corner of his consciousness. He had then collapsed in terror.

And now he was awake again, and the lovely dreams he had dreamed weren’t real, they were painful reminders of a life he would never again see, a life that was going to continue outside that room, on the other side of that wall, without him.

He was alone, he would die alone.

He cried out once again and pressed at his tomb. It had been too long. He knew that; the last time he had lit a match he watched as it slowly burned, then flickered out quickly, too quickly.

He was running out of air. The dark had become suffocating.

He walked in a circle as he had done before, and long before that. For the days he had been trapped down there. His matches had run out, he burned them all in a desperate attempt for light. No one was coming for him. He had heard what sounded like sirens in the distance.

Was it Saturday night, the sirens and strange thumps that couldve been explosions.

His stone room would served as his burial chamber, he wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place, he hadn’t told the police or his contacts of his discovery, his rash desire as a young hero had gotten the better of him. The strange composition of the stone and the amount over him had blocked his comm's signal. He had thought to make an impression, he had decided to take the initiative, he had to take on these mages and prove himself worthy of great assignments from the Corps. If only he had listened when Guardian Star was trying to brief them at the station. No, he charged off in a temper, imagine that, and found the ruins inside the cavern, and here he was. Caught in some kind of ancient trap.

He wasn't sure, his mind might've been playing tricks on him. As hours and hours had passed in the darkness, he had heard sounds, explosions, screams and what sounded like moaning and wailing....It had been so long since he had heard anything else in the dark that was no his world, just a distant shuffling...a shambling...or was it a dream?

No, it was a nightmare.

Surely they knew he was there, even though he told no one where he was going. Surely they would come for him. They were his fellow heroes. Damn it, They Were His Fellow Heroes!

What was keeping them?

His hoarse screams echoed back at him, taunting him, laughing at him, and all he could do was scream back, but that was taking up his precious air. Why did he come here, why, whywhywhywhywhy . . .oh god why . . .he could no longer wring his hands, it hurt too much, and it wasn’t long after that, that he couldn’t move.

He wanted water. Just a drop, a drop was the entire ocean, swimming in his memory.


===================================


He was long past crying.

The hours dragged on. The air grew heavy, his limbs sagged, his mind detached from his situation and started thinking on more lovely things, like sunshine, clean air, the rolling waves crashing against a city he would never see again. And yet he was there, standing on the beach of Talos, and Carl his little brother was with him.

That Carl had died at the hands of the Skulls didn't matter, it just felt right.

He could feel the wind tousle his hair, he could see Carl smiling. He suddenly wanted to say the name he had never uttered, the name that suddenly meant more to him than anything, the name that would have finally closed the distance between them.

“Carl” he whispered, his eyes closed, and in his mind his brother’s smile lit the waves beyond the shore before them.

He took out the back up knife he kept for emergencies one final time, shaking with the effort and the pain in his hands.

His fear was eternally tinged with regret as he ended his own torment.


===================================


Guardian Star stood back as the Paramedics and SWAT officers pulled the body from the chamber. He was in shock, he could only look for a moment, at the greyed skin, the slitted eyes, the matted, dried hair, then turned away, unable to believe they had looked for a friend, and found a corpse. Psiwarp seemed at a professional loss. “Some of his hair is missing,” Kevin said in a low, shocked voice. “I think . . .” he shook his head and walked away. Back out into the cavern where the National Guard soldiers were still collecting the bodies of the zombie horde that they had to go through once they had arrived.

Bill closed his eyes and shook his head, the undead had taken care of the Circle of Thorn Mages Scarlet Ranger had come to arrest.../last/ Saturday. Scar must've been trapped in here just as the crisis hit the city. Bill thought bitterly, damn it all why hadn't he told anyone?

Nancy just stared blankly. The young defender also known as Sapphire's Rose’s back was rigid as the body was carried past them as the paramedics laid out the rookie hero on the stretcher. She swallowed as the corners of her eyes were stung by her tears.

Bill felt himself overcome with the need to see where the scrapper had spent his last days as the blanket finally covered the young man's face.

He walked inside with a flashlight, and choked. Blood covered the wall that had closed him in, explaining the condition of poor guy's bone-exposed fingertips. The place smelled like hot iron disguising something rotten, and underneath that, the tang of human excrement, vomit, any and all bodily fluids that had fled the scene since the corpse couldn’t. It wasn’t how he wanted to remember the rookie. Not this panic, this fear.

No hero should have to die like this, he thought. Alone in the dark, lost in the paperwork nightmare this current crisis had created.

"God Damn It!" He snarled.

Bill fought to breathe, his light found patches of hair on the ancient stone near the wall that had closed him in, sealing his fate. He had pulled it out in his fright He started to back out, when his light fell across something that send chills through him.

A word, one word desperately scratched out onto the rocks, no longer in blood but chipped white bone...HELP.

Psiwarp caught him as he fell back, and helped him outside to the cordon of emergency vehicles. All around them the city was in chaos, sirens and far off sounds of terror and fighting. Bill fought for breath as the SWAT commander re-entered the chamber. It was some time before the hardened trooper exited, and he walked right over to the shaken defender, who was carefully sipping water as he tried to steady his nerves. “Sir,” The Swat Commander began, “I . . .”

“I'm okay...Report,” Bill said, exhaustion beginning to slip into his voice. The horror of what he had seen still had him shaken. Though he was sure didn’t want to know about Scarlet's struggle he would have to check in and make the report late.

He listened to what the officer had discovered and the news paled him, and there was nothing that he could do but return to the fight.


===================================


The Valiant Dazzling Diamond swallowed as she stood next to Lead Agent Benson in Peregrine, the surrounding noise of the news helicopters above and the national Guard tanks rumbling down the main street were hardly enough to drown out the horror of Bill's report to the Longbow operative who oversaw the operations of the young heroes.

“....Scar was pronounced dead upon arrival. It is evident by the markings around the chamber in which he was imprisoned that he made every effort to escape. There are clear indications of blood and even bone on the wall that closed him in, left by his desperate attempts to claw his way out. The degree of fear at this point can only be imagined."

She prepared herself for more, she had known Bill most of her life. Her friend's voice held a horror she hadn't heard from him before. As bad as this was she knew there was more to come from how he was acting. Even over the comm. Kara made a mental note to seek him out later. Her eyes wide and teary in frustration and sadness. Her hands trembled and clenched as Benson closed his eyes as Bill continued.

“He was so intent on moving the wall that trapped him, that there was one area he missed, hidden away in a corner... and if he had simply reached out..."

Bill's report paused, Kara thought she could hear Nancy's voice in the background encouraging him. After a deep breath with a shake in his voice that could only have been dread, he continued.

"If he had only just reached out in that other direction... Scar would have found a hole that led to the mouth of the cavern, and outside . . . .”

August 16th, 2006 - Skyway City



With a soft weary sigh Kara hopped up to sit on the side of the chipped worn desk. The smell of burnt ozone from their weapons and her blasts still filled the hallways of the old institution. All around her the red and white clad Longbow agents shuffled here and there rounding up the fallen Malta and Nemesis Troopers that had been battling each other, when her raid had arrived. Just hours before Kara had received a tip from Crimson that a Malta operation was currently using an old mental institution in Skyway as a cover for a supply base and a bunker to launch raids from. He went so far as to hint that this may be connected to the rogue operation that had hit her in Boomtown.

She had her doubts, so she asked Swan to arrange for Longbow support for her as she moved in. The building was already in chaos, a force of Nemesis Soldiers, with their usual poor timing had chosen tonight to raid the Malta base. Thankfully the hospital was closed the previous year so there was neither staff nor patients to be caught in the middle of the fight.

The fighting had been rough, but a bit disorganized for the criminals, for neither of them seemed fully prepared for a third front to have opened up. Kara stretched and rubbed her sore shoulder; she had been at the forefront of the fight as usual and had pushed herself a bit due to Crimson's warnings. Despite Rhu's assurances that she had been granted a reprieve for now, Kara wanted those responsible brought in before they could threaten her friends once more.

However even now as the arrests were being made Kara could see this was no rogue Malta unit. Crimson's intelligence had been in error. A full Malta communications center had been discovered and tons of files were present. She looked up as the Longbow raid commander, an agent named Carlson walked over to her, his mini-gun slung low across his back.

"Well Done Diamond" He nodded curtly

"Why thank you Commander, I so appreciate your back up on this one...if the fighting had spilled out into the streets innocent people like really could've been killed" She said her voice sweet but with an edge.

"You are most welcome Ma'am!" he began proudly."We were..."

"Why it is like so fortunate that the hospital's sprinklers were still on to put out the fires your flamethrowers caused...." she said dryly "Wasn’t it?" her look hiding none of her opinion of the use of such a weapon.

Commander Carlson blinked then sighed, this was gonna be one of those nights he thought before speaking "Well...um...yes that was....a good thing"

Kara nodded "Ye-up...sure was....so are you going to need me anymore?" Kara looked right at him with a disapproving gaze.

Her look caused him no small degree of discomfort, but with a hero that held such a good standing he was not going to win this argument. He drew a breath and nodded adding quickly eager to change the subject "Yes Ma'am...actually we need to catalog the armory and records...shouldn’t take more than an hour or so now, we have secured the facility and have let the local precinct know we are here. They have set up in the main parking area for the disposition of the prisoners"

"Sure....let me just check in with....well back home " she said with a nod.

"Back home?" he frowned as another agent came in with the communications gear. A few more followed in with laptops and other electronics gear, Kara noted, it seems this office was to be used as their main center of operations as the agents cleaned up the site.

"Yes I like need to let my sitter now I'm going to be late...and to start dinner for my little one" she said as she opened her wafer thin cell and began to dial.

Carlson raised an eyebrow in surprise, it was hard for him to think of the 'Valiant Dazzling Diamond' with a family, she didn’t appear old enough to him to 'squeeze out a puppy’. "Umm...all right" a noise to his left made him turn as another Agent stood waiting.

"What is it Dalton?" he asked.

"Well sir...um I’ve talked to some of the others...and well we are going to be here for awhile...and we were wondering? I mean a few of us are hungry" she began to ask feeling her commander's mood out.

He chuckled "You want to order food?"

She brightened "Yes Sir...since we didn’t lose anyone and this is now pretty much a [censored] detail...you know ammo and record counting?"

"Carry on Dalton....I guess grab em pizza's" He nodded to her, as she returned to her comm. gear, only to hear a soft chuckle behind him.

Carlson turned to the younger heroine he quirked a brow, slightly annoyed "Pizza is not allowed?"

Kara seemed amused "You are going to order 'Za...to be delivered...here for your team?"

"Yes Ma'am...and I don’t want to hear about regulations and all of that" he raised a hand as she opened her mouth to respond, already assuming her answer "My team deserves this ma'am"

"No like that wasn’t..." she began, interrupted by him further.

"Ma'am with all due respect if you don’t want any pizza you don’t have to have any...or if you chose not to eat with my troopers due to the flamethrower issue you have.." her look darkened "..then you don’t have too"

Her features softened and then impishly she added "all right....get me a Sprite...if you can"

Annoyed now at her patronizing attitude, Carlson sighed "We just handled the Malta and Nemesis /Diamond/...I’m sure my people can handle a simple Pizza order"

Kara smiled sweetly "Okies..." much of her look indicated something left unspoken...

Carlson turned to Dalton "add a sprite to that"

"Yes Sir!” The red haired agent said as she dialed up the number to the local Domino’s Pizzeria.

Kara grinned and leaned to rest her back against the wall while atop the desk and waited her soft features displayed no small amusement.

"Hello. I would like to order 19 large pizzas and 67 cans of Coke and 1 Sprite please" Agent Dalton began, eager to get her food sent on its way.

The droning voice of the Domino’s girl came across the comm. systems speakers as the other agents continued to busy themselves setting up. “And where would you like them delivered?”

Agent Dalton fiddled with her laptop as she answered nonchanlantly “We're over at the West Gate Psychiatric Hospital."

"The psychiatric hospital?” came the pizza girl's voice. Kara grinned.

Dalton barely looked up." That's right. I'm a Longbow agent."

A tone of surprise crept into the voice of the girl on the other end of the phone. "You're a Longbow agent?” across the room Carlson set his weapon down and began to set up his own Laptop.

Dalton nodded barely looking at the speaker. “That’s correct. Just about everybody here is. "

"And you're at the psychiatric hospital?” the girl asked slowly. Kara glanced around at the other agents who seemed not to notice anything might be wrong.

Dalton nodded once more as she worked answering quickly “That’s correct. And make sure you don't go through the front, the police have it blocked off; go around back to the service entrance to deliver the pizzas."

"The Police have it blocked off...And you say you're all Longbow agents?”

Dalton looked up and said "That's right. How soon can you have them here? "

Slowly the voice inquired once more from the speaker. "And everyone at the psychiatric hospital is a Longbow Agent?”

Dalton shrugged "Mostly...we have one superhero with us" Kara raised an amused brow as she listened to Dalton explain ""but yes that's right. We're mostly all Longbow agents and we're starving. "

With an oddly sweet tone to her voice the Domino’s girl asked “How are you going to pay for all of this?”

Dalton patted her laptop case as she answered evenly "I have my checkbook right here."

The Domino Girl tried one more time "And you're all Longbow agents?”

Dalton sighed, slightly irritated. "That's right. With the exception of the superhero, everyone here is a Longbow agent." Dalton leaned to the speaker to make sure the girl got this right. "Can you remember to bring the pizzas and sodas to the service entrance in the rear to avoid the police? We have the front doors locked. "

The Girl on the other end of the phone laughed and said "Riiight... I don't think so. ...."

Every agent in the room looked up from what they had been doing and over to Dalton and her speaker as the simplest of sounds loudly filtered over it "...*Click.*..."

Carlson gaped "What the...."

Kara giggled. "Trying to convince a citizen of Paragon City that you aren’t nuts by saying you are Longbow -AND- in an insane asylum...” She hopped down from the desk. "Better send an agent out to pick up any food Commander...or you guys are totally gonna starve" she said with a smile over her shoulder.

Carlson sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. Yep, he thought. It is definitely going to be one of those nights.

<Thought it would be neat to tell ghost stories or funny halloween stories from This year's events as we have for the last three years! So feel free to pen one up and tack it on to the thread! Happy Halloween!>


===============================



October 22nd, 2008 - King's Row

Kara was exhausted...once again.

She had been fighting all night, every night since the invasion alerts had sounded once more out over Paragon City. The blaring fire and civil defense horns began blaring soon after the first attacks had begun. She like most were caught completely off guard by the early arrival this time. She had known it was coming, yet her heart froze as she and her students watched the light bleed out of the sky that morning to sound of those far off sirens.

Her first thought was for her children, once they had been secured at the Abbey she then moved on to see that her students had been cared for. Even though it was a weekend she used the snow cancellation list to confirm that most of her student's parents were heading for the safety of one the any rescue stations being set up in the city or evacuating.

It was Halloween time in Paragon City again...and once more the city found itself locked in a struggle to survive.

However this time the creatures had somehow awakened the dead.

She came to a rest at the Abbey's entrance. Over her shoulder she looked out across the mayhem of the city trapped in perpetual night once again. The flashing lights of the floating helicopters and airships could be seen across the whole of the city as they moved from one crisis to another. Their spotlights acting as beacons pointing directly down at each trouble spot for the multitudes of heroes now on call.

The shrill wail of the police and emergency sirens danced around her from the streets surrounding the Abbey to mix with the horrible trills and screeches of the city newest invaders. The cries of the undead and howls of the wolves blended with police gunfire and the far away booms and blasts from responding heroes helped to compose a terrifying opera of the night for the besieged city.

A performance that continued uninterrupted across all the zones of the city she now called home.

She entered the darkened club, most of her fam already out in the middle of this mess hesitating only a moment before she noticed it was left slightly ajar, stepping over one the various 'booby traps' that had to have been set up by Phil and Katrina once more this time allowed by the staff.

Good girls, she thought to herself as she moved into the living area of the base behind the bar. She had called her daughter and 'Spooky' every hour on the hour tonight,and each night since Saturday to be sure that they were all right.

Of course the hero in them had them prepared by still she worried.

She smirked as she thought how casually Phil was taking the events. She was even becoming exasperated sometimes with her guardian's persistent calls. Why Kara was even given an update on the goings on with the TV show 'Degrassi" they occasionally watched together.

Her heels clicked across the floor as she began to make herself a quick hot chocolate. Atop the counter, next to the box of 'supplies' of snacks and other such preferred food for the girls, Kara found the note left by Katherine for her. She picked it up and read as she barely acknowledged a TV somewhere beyond the rooms blared on to an empty room updates and evacuation information still.

Katherine. the note said, had decided like most others to leave the city most likely until this crisis had passed. Her husband's family lived in the suburbs just beyond what Magi had learned was barrier of the darkness.

So far there were no real reports of the dead appearing beyond Paragon City and the Rogue Islands. The world may have been lucky...this time.

She half thought about sending Phil and Katrina with them, yet something in the children's voices had left that as only an option for now. Should things escalate further, Kara thought she would not hesitate to ship her young ward out to Katherine and her family. She noted the number Katherine had left should she decide to exercise just this option.

She shook her head at the thought for now as she retrieved her mug of hot chocolate from the microwave. Setting down the note she walked back out into the living area.

The wide-screen TV, though almost muted, bathed the rec room in a flickering blueish light as it showed various images and locales through out the city. Emergency information and instructions continued to run across the bottom of the screen telling any who remained awake what to do to secure themselves during Paragon's most recent invasion and how to reach an emergency rescue station. Reporters and experts added their impressions and advice as yet another night of the most recent invasion was coming to a close.

Kara paused as the TV showed yet another pitched battle in Peregrine with a rather large horde of the rising dead. She shuddered, deep down in her core the idea of true zombies terrified her. Adding to this what she had just learned from the MAGI briefing...

..It was going to be another long invasion.

Kara slipped carefully down the carpeted hallway to peek in on the girls. Apparently they had decided to 'bunker' up and sleep within the one room. She smiled as the moved into the 'heavily defended' room carefully avoiding all of the 'booby traps' the children had set through out the room to capture any 'Halloween critters', as the Phil called them, that may come for them as they slept.

She frowned at one or two of them this year, she would have to ask where they got a sledgehammer to drop on a zombie's head. She sighed, somethings in real life were NOT as easy as they appear in the movies.

Kara bend over to re-tuck Kat in her sleeping bag, pausing only to scritch Columbus between his ears as he closely watched over his little owner as she stirred a little.

"She will so be okies little one" she assured the guard kitty.

She then knelt next to Phil's bed and re-wrapped her up in her thick comforter. Phil stirred as well a little her eyes opening a little as she murred gently "Oh..good you are home"

"Ssssh" Kara reassured "Go back to sleep squirtle..I'm here" She settled in between the little girls as she could feel the weariness seep into her joints. She smirked a little, knowing it wouldn't last, her form would reset soon enough but for now she was tired and sore. She sighed as she watched over the pair for a moment and smiled.

Her heart stopped at the suddenness of her comm.’s buzzing. "Omigawd!" She leaned forward and kissed the top of Phil's head causing the child to stir only slightly this time and not awake again. Carefully as she maneuvered to avoid the traps, Kara navigated back out into the hall to answer her comm.

"What!?" Her voice weary but slightly annoyed at the interruption. She listened to the situation and briefing and shook her head. "Oh God Bill..like where are you?"

"No...I can't not right at the moment, I'm down for a few hours..." She smirked at the passive attempt by her old friend as he fed her the current situation in Skyway ant Talos.

"No...No...Yes...fine I will as soon as I can" She listened to him finally understand who she was with and where she was at the moment.

"...all right Kar...get some rest, you are needed there..." in the background she could hear the cries for backup and Bill yell to someone to 'GET DOWN'...there was a pause followed by his radioactive blasts. "We can hold here...its been days ...or is it called nights now...."

"Its been days..." she droned really tired as she looked back to the pair of sleeping children.

"All right Kar" Guardian Star cut her to the chase "I'll call around 8....all right?"

"So sounds good Bill...use the alliance comm if it really gets bad"

"Nah we got it...as Kevin says " he added with the chuckle "It cant get any more bad then how these things smell....nighters kiddo!"

She smiled, leave it to Bill to find humor in such a terrifying situation. She turned and walk back into the 'bunkered' room not even bothering with the light nor even to change out of her costume as she settled back in between the girls. She paused only to set her mug on the small table to her right as the TV continued to drone on just beyond the wall of their room.

"...THIS SITUATION IS CONTROLLABLE. PEOPLE MUST COME TO GRIPS WITH THIS CONCEPT...IT'S EXTREMELY DIFFICULT..."

THE SITUATION MUST BE CONTROLLED...BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE...THEY ARE MULTIPLYING TOO RAPIDLY..."

"...CITIZENS SHOULD BE MOVING INTO CENTRAL AREAS OF EACH ZONE OF THE CITY...OR TO ONE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD EVACUATION AREAS...INTERSTATE ACCESS AND HIGHWAYS REMAINED BOTTLE NECKED..."

Kara sighed as her eyes fluttered shut, the mutual peaceful rhythm of the children's breathing winning out over her desire to remain awake. Soon she found herself in a fitful sleep as across the city, darkness and the walking dead continued their strange danse macabre...

August 9th, 2006 - Eastgate

"...Thank you Janice for that update on the situation in the former East gate zone...for more on a mounting problem in Atlas park we go directly to Walter Scott....Walter can you hear me?"

"Yes Bill I can...as you can from behind me those fires and explosions that you see are the only evidence we have of a massive Hero Corps, Police operation. About forty minutes ago police were tipped off by locals that a very large force of what we have been told are mercenaries from the Knives of Artemis, specifically a band believed to be behind the kidnapping of Councilwoman Amanda McNealy..... “A large blue white flash erupts behind as the camera shudders and shakes. A column of white smoke billows up from several blocks away.

"Oh my god Bill can you see this....from what we have been told by Police, that the Heroines Tomoya and Diamond and possibly a third who as of yet has not been identified were pulled from the Riot in the Hollows to respond to what has now turned out to be an Army of Knives...

Kara rose up from her knee panting as the bodies of the Knives rained down around her. The air hissed as their shuirken tore passed them, thrown with deadly accuracy. Her chest heaved as she fought for breath as her energy recharged following her titanic assault. To her left the air cooked and broiled as her sister let loose a barrage of fire at an advancing column of the lethal women. Before them racing out to meet the new column was their little assistant of the night. Clad in armor Kara knew to be stolen from the council their little scrapper boldly launched herself in a maddening attack surprising the Knives with her ferocity....

A sharp pain lanced across Kara's shoulder as the sword cut through her fields with expert skill. Whirling she pushed her fields higher as pulses jetted out from her with each heart beat. The pulse struck her invisible attacker and launched her a dozen feet away and into a garden wall. Kara grinned as the skin of her shoulder reset, its folds sealing painfully.

"I so live for a ranged fight sweetie" she yelled as her follow up salvo dropped the blond mercenary. With this victory she spun as a fiery explosion lit up the night sky. More Knives dropped their armor smoldering as Tomoya retreated to cover to recharge. Their mysterious friend moving to cover her. Kara hovered slightly, just enough to watch their flank.

A whisper of movement showed yet another large contingent just to her right in an alley. She full out fly into them as their lethal metal stars were easily deflected or missed outright. She drew her breath and released the full might of her energy once more as she reached the middle of the group. Swords clatter, bodies twisted and flew and screams were cut short as the night flashed again with her explosion.

This is far too large a group to merely be involved in a kidnapping of a councilwoman, she thought.

What did we find here?

=====================


Undisclosed Location - Crey Project Facility


"God Damn it!" The Project Security Chief slammed his palm on the smooth panel of the console before him. He turned and glared at the Knives Liaison to his Project "Do you [censored] ever understand the words pull back and stand down?"

Thena stared at the screen her eyes firmly locked on the fight as she shook her head "This was not a planned engagement for this project. We have played too little a part in Blue's offensives...remaining in reserve as requested"

The Chief stood and pointed at the screens as between them the security operatives made sure the moment...each moment was recorded for review and study. "There again see not only has the target arrived but she has brought aid again....

The Knives operative cut him short "We were individually briefed, besides Chief...our target this time was -not- your precious target"

The Chief blinked "What?"

Thena turned to look back to the gunslinger behind her. She frowned as he smiled. His voice as smooth and almost charming as always as he stepped forward and put a hand on the Chief's shoulder "You see son...Thena is also the Liaison of another Project...the one I was drawn for when your old buddy Alpha went renegade..."

The Chief shook his head and looked back to the main screen as the three heroines continued to withstand the assault of the dwindling Knives of Artemis. "What Project?"

Blue looked up and shrugged saying almost casually "Why Operation Karma dear boy...” he shook his head "Tomoya Dengo...We were trying to trap her...you see we have to know whether that is the original or the copy you all made..." he added with a note of deep irony "Who could've known...she would've brought Diamond and that little ginsue-matic with her...she has been known to work alone."

Thena sighed as the final explosions rocked the screen; the trio had rescued and secured the councilwoman. She leaned forward and keyed her comm. to the remaining Knives "Abort Sisters...break contact and fall back" she slammed her fist into the console and snarled "Those [censored]..."

Blue grinned warmly "Now now...you sisters work well together Thena...Now why would expect less of the Dengos....you will get another chance at Tomoya..." he grinned "Could always try nabbing little Hayaka...that just might bring both Targets right where we need 'em"

Thena and the Chief looked to the gunslinger as the latter turned to walk away. "But the orders to stand down from Diamond until we find the source of the Devouring Earth attack?"

He chuckled as he walked out into the hallway.

"Heck can we help it if they come to us?”

October 30th, 2007 - Steel Canyon

Sleep does not come easily for the young woman curled up in the corner of the semi dark room. The woman's face begins to twitch, as thoughts and horrors slip into even that realm of imagined safety. She moans slightly and her expression grows more desperate as a mix of subtle sounds begin to fade in around her..

As the sounds begin yo to get louder, we can discern what sounds like a busy office area. It is actually a frantic television studio with the hum of panic in a national emergency. The woman's moans get louder and more desperate as the background sounds reach full volume and the credits stop. The woman sits up, snapping awake.

Her eyes wide in terror as she tries to flee from the horrors that had found her in her refuge of sleep. She lurches forwards into the arms of a strong young man, dark circles under his eyes. "Easy Patti" the man holding says to the frightened woman. Her hair is hanging, dishevelled and sweaty, her jeans and blouse have been worn for several days. She blinks as she looks around the room where she has slept the last several hours, covered by an old overcoat.

The young man, Tony she thinks speaks to her once more "You okay?"

Patti stares at him, she is shaking. She doesn't speak so her continues "The [censored]'s really hitting the fan"

She tries to clear her head as the young man moves on to where others around her are sleeping on the floor. He wakes them up one at a time as she can hear voices now, voices over the busy hum of the studio where she works. Patti looks about, still shaken from her dreams. As she can see into the television studio, reporters buzz about madly. Everyone like herself appears dishevelled and exhausted. Technicians man monitors as people on the little screens, arguing emotionally.

"WHAT'S MAKING IT HAPPEN? WHAT THE HELL DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE, WHAT'S MAKING IT HAPPEN."

"YES, BUT THAT'S..."

"THAT'S A WHOLE OTHER STUDY. THEY'RE TRYING..."

"BUT IF WE KNEW THAT, WE COULD..."

"WE DON'T KNOW THAT! WE DON'T KNOW THAT! WE'VE GOTTA OPERATE ON WHAT WE DO KNOW! "

She blinks a few more times trying to shake away the fuzziness of her deep sleep. The room around her is pandemonium. People run in with wire copy; others organise the stacks of bulletins as they arrive as still others trip over cables and generally get in each other's way. Patti stares at the madness, still trying to clear her head as a voice beside her brings her back to reality.

"I'm still dreaming"

Patti turns her head to him "No You're not"

Another voice calls to her "My turn with the coat" Patti looks up to see a young woman offering her coffee in a paper cup. Patti smiles apparently she is next in line for the overcoat and a few hours sleep it seems. She sighs and gratefully takes the coffee and struggles to her feet. "Thanks Janet"

Janet shakes her head "The guys on the crew are getting crazy. A bunch of 'em flew the coop already. Headed out to be evacuated. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to stay on the air"

Patti nodded as she staggers over to the control consoles, the technicians are at the end of their ropes, their nerves seemingly frayed as they barked at each other.

"Watch camera two...Who the hell's on camera s god damn idiot?... Watch the frame...Watch the frame... Roll the rescue stations again.

"We got a report that half those rescue stations have been knocked out"

"So get me a new list"

"Sure, I''ll pull it outta my [censored]"

Patti turned her focus to the monitors and stares incredulous at the screens, stunned by the madness which surrounds her. She realises the hopelessness of the situation as she zeroes in on the televised conversation. 8 We begin to listen over the din of the news room.

"I DON'T BELIEVE THAT, DOCTOR, AND I DON'T BELIEVE... "

"DO YOU BELIEVE THE CITY IS BEING INVADED ONCE AGAIN?"

"I'M NOT SO..."

"DO YOU BELIEVE THE CITY IS BEING INVADED ONCE AGAIN BY THE SAME CREATURES THAT HAVE DONE THIS TWICE BEFORE?"

"I'M NOT SO SURE WHAT TO BELIEVE DOCTOR! ALL WE GET IS WHAT YOU PEOPLE AT MAGI TELL US. AND IT'S HARD ENOUGH TO BELIEVE..."

"IT'S FACT... IT'S FACT..."

"IT'S HARD ENOUGH TO BELIEVE WITHOUT YOU COMING IN HERE AND TELLING US WE HAVE TO FORGET ALL HUMAN DIGNITY AND..."

"HUMAN DIG... YOU CAN'T..."

" ...FORGET ALL HUMAN DIGNITY... "

"YOU'RE NOT RUNNING A TALK SHOW HERE, MR. STINTON...YOU CAN FORGET PITCHING AN AUDIENCE THE MORAL BULL [censored] THEY WANT TO HEAR!"

"YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT ABANDONING OUR HOME AND CITY AGAIN DOCTOR, AND THERE'S A LOT OF US WHO AREN'T READY FOR THAT DOCTOR!"

Patti looked around at the great cry of assent goes up from the studio floor the. Doctor Foster the representative from MAGI is flustered and frustrated. The stage hands and cameramen are all screaming at him, swearing and ridiculing, blaming MAGI for not being able to stop this from happening again. Patti rubbed the bridge of her nose, as she thought maybe just maybe a second invasion soon after the Rikti mess this summer may have been too much for people to take. She looked around to see Police guards, armed, at the studio doors. They it seemed control the traffic in and out of the big room.

Her eyes returned to the screen where confusion still reigned.

Her director called out to her "Pattie, get on the new list of rescue stations. Charlie's receiving the on the emergencies. She pulled herself away from the monitors as the argument rages on screen pushing her way through the busy newsroom she fights through the heavy traffic to reach Charlie, a harassed typist who is holding the receiver of an emergency radio unit under his chin...

"Say Again ..can't hear you" He was speaking loudly into the radio.

"Rescue Station?" Patti said as she looked down at him. She began to leaf through sheets of paper on Charlie's desk. He is busy writing notes as he listens on the receiver. He half glances up to her "Half of those are inoperative any more. I'm trying to find out at least about the immediate area. We've had old information on the air for the last twelve hours

Patti looked stunned "Charlie these are rescue stations we can't send people to inoperative rescue stations"

"Say Again Fool's Gold " Charlie quickly scribbled some notes to hand to Patti. Still listening on the receiver, he shakes his head "I'm doing what I can! These are definite as of now, Skip and Dusty are on the radio too, Good Luck."

Patti snatched up the sheets and moved across the room stopping at the consoles calling out "I'm gonna knock off the old rescue stations, I'll have the new ones ready as soon as I can."

With that Patti moved toward another control room and paused as she was stopped by an armed officer. A young man rushing through with copy intercedes tried to vouch for her "Hey she is all right"

The officer refused to budge "Where is your badge?"

Patti reached instinctively for the lapel of her blouse and froze, Her badge was missing. She snarled in frustration "JESUS!"

Another reporter screamed to the police officer "She is all right!"

Patti shook her head and pointed back to the first control room "I had it ...I was asleep over there"

Another clerk rushing by with a handful of readouts called out to her "Somebody stole it," the women turned to the police officer "there is a lot of them missing. She is all right let her through"

The officer reluctantly stepped aside.The young woman and Fan move down a crowded hall and into a small camera room. The foot traffic is solid. Patti shakes her head "I cant believe someone stole my badge"

The clerk responds wearily "one of those little badge can open a lot of doors, you can avoid a lot of hassles if you have a badge...any kind of badge out there."

Patti shook her head "It's really going crazy"

The pair eventually reaches a small computer station, the computer is rolling out a list of rescue stations. The list is superimposed over the live broadcast as it goes out. The Cameraman turned to Patti "You got the new ones?"

Patti shook her head "I gotta type 'em up. Kill the old ones"

"But but Givens wants em!" He complained.

"Kill em Dick! Tell Givens to see me!" Patti snapped. She was worried about Bill and the others out there in this mess but more worried about the families heading out in it that were heading to closed rescue stations.

The man shuts off the old list with the clicking of a few keys as Patti fights her way back through the the studio.

On the monitors, the the rescue stations blink off over shots of the two men who still argue on the air.

"WELL I DON'T BELIEVE IN GHOSTS, DOCTOR."

"THESE ARE NOT USUAL GHOSTS. NOR ARE THESE HUMANS! THESE ARE MAGICAL SPIRITS TRYING TO INVADE OUR CITY THROUGH ANY PORTAL OPENED FOR THEM!. ANY DOOR OPENED RELEASES THESE HORRORS. AND IT'S PRECISELY BECAUSE OF INCITEMENT BY IRRESPONSIBLE PUBLIC FIGURES LIKE YOURSELF THAT THIS SITUATION IS BEING DEALT WITH IRRESPONSIBLY BY THE PUBLIC AT LARGE THIS TIME AROUND! "

Another outraged cry roars up from the stagehands and observers. Doctor Foster tries to out-scream the cries...

"YOU HAVE NOT LISTENED...YOU HAVE NOT LISTENED... FOR THE LAST WEEK...WHAT DOES IT TAKE... WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE PEOPLE SEE? THIS IS HAPPENING AND IT MUST BE RIDDEN OUT!"

Patti moves into the large studio area where the broadcasters argue. She winces commotion is maddening.

Doctor Foster continues virtually pleading now "THIS SITUATION IS CONTROLLABLE. PEOPLE MUST COME TO GRIPS WITH THIS CONCEPT. IT'S EXTREMELY DIFFICULT...WITH FRIENDS... WITH FAMILY...BUT A DOOR MUST BE LEFT ALONE IF IT WAS CLOSED WHEN THIS BEGAN...THEY MUST BE SECURED WITH DOOR JAMS ....OR MARKED TO LET OTHERS KNOW TO AVOID! PEOPLE BEING CARELESS ARE BRINGING MORE AND MORE OF THEM OVER AND MANY PEOPLE ARE BEING HURT BY THIS CARELESSNESS...THE POLICE AND HEROES CAN ONLY HANDLE SO MUCH!"

Another outburst in the studio, People weary of invasions, seeking MAGI to just snap their fingers and end it.

Doctor Fostor continued trying to yell over them "THE SITUATION MUST BE CONTROLLED...BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE...THEY ARE MULTIPLYING TOO RAPIDLY... "

Patti moves through the crowded room of emotional people and finally reaches another emergency radio installation. Skip and Dusty are trying to listen to their receivers. They furiously jot down notes.

Patti pats Dusty on the shoulder "Operative rescue stations?"

Dusty growled frustrated "They are dropping like flies tonight. Here is a few"

Patti nods gratefully as she gives the rest of her coffee to the two haggard men. "Not too much left guys, have a ball"

She rushes off towards a nearby computer as the two men slurp eagerly from the half filled cup. In from of her the broadcasters still argue emotionally.

"PEOPLE AREN'T WILLING TO ACCEPT YOUR SOLUTIONS, DOCTOR, AND I, FOR ONE, DON'T BLAME THEM. THEY HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THEIR CITY BEING INVADED AND IT NEEDS TO STOP NOW!"

"EVERY DOOR OPENED THAT IS NOT SECURED BRINGS MORE OF THEM OVER! THE MORE HEROES AND POLICE DIVERTED TO DEAL WITH THOSE PREVENT THEM FROM DEALING WITH THE OTHERS! "

Handing the list of active rescue stations to the teleprompter typist, Patti rushes back toward the control room all around the monitor consoles, the commotion has been made even more frantic by an angered Dan Givens one of the station managers. "Nobody has the authority to do that! I want..." He whirls on Patti as she moves into the room. "Patti who told you to kill that list?"

"Nobody" She said in return "I killed them, they are out of date!"

Givens waved his hands in the air "I want that list up and on the air all the of the time!"

Patti stared at him stunned "Are you willing to murder people by sending them out to stations that have closed down?"

Givens huffed "Without those rescue stations on screen every minute, people wont watch us, they will tune out!"

Patti and a few of the techs stare at the red faced man in disbelief as he continued yelling "I WANT THAT LIST UP ON THE SCREEN EVERY MINUTE THAT WE'RE ON THE AIR."

Patti was about to say something in anger, but before she could, one of the technicians, having overheard Givens, gets up from the control panel and starts to walk away. Givens stunned waved his arms at the man "Lucas....Lucas?, What the hell are you doing? .. GET ON THAT CONSOLE...LUCAS...WE'RE ON THE AIR!

Lucas waved his hand disgusted "I'm outta here Anybody need a ride?"
Two other men from various positions in the room snatch up personal effects and follow the technician toward the door guarded by a nervous Police Officer.

Givens quickly yelled "Officer ...Officer you stop them! ..LUCAS...GET BACK ON THIS CONSOLE... "

A frantic hubbub begins over the lack of console control. People rush in and out, the floor director's voice can be heard over a talk back system...

"What the hell's going on in there?"
Switch....switch...there is no switcher....we are losing the picture"

Givens screams "OFFICER...STOP THOSE MEN..."

The young officer faces the men as they reach his post. He takes a grip on his rifle then... opens the door and lets the group through. As Givens stares in shock, the young cop runs out himself, deserting the losing cause at the station.

Givens jumped toward the console. He frantically tried to work the complex dials and pots...yelling all the while "GET SOMEBODY IN HERE THAT KNOWS HOW TO RUN THIS THING...COME ON...I'LL TRIPLE THE MONEY FOR THE MAN THAT CAN RUN THIS THING...TRIPLE THE MONEY...WE'RE STAYING ON THE AIR..."

Patti moves slowly off toward the studio. In the big room, the tension is thicker than ever. A few of the newsmen still earnestly try to perform their various functions, but most of the crew are reduced to emotional polarisation over the broadcast which still rages, exhausted by the repeated invasion...wanting someone, anyone to have stopped it.

"THEY KILL FOR ONE REASON. THEY KILL FOR FOOD. THEY FEED ON THEIR VICTIMS FEAR, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT, MR. STINSON. THAT'S WHAT KEEPS THEM GOING."

Patti stops to listen to the argument and shudders, she knows her boyfriend, Guardian Star His friend Diamond and the others are all out in this. She falls back into the shadows of the studio as people rush past her, some leaving the studio in disgust.

"IF WE'D LISTENED...IF WE'D DEALT WITH THE PHENOMENON PROPERLY...WITHOUT EMOTION... WITHOUT...EMOTION... IT WOULDN'T HAVE COME TO THIS!"

Foster wipes his sweat away with a dirty handkerchief. He pulls his tie away from his tight collar, and pops the shirt button open. He is desperate now, shivering with anger and frustration.

"THERE IS A MARTIAL LAW STATE IN EFFECT IN PARAGON CITY... CITIZENS MUST UNDERSTAND THE...DIRE...DIRE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS PHENOMENON...SHOULD WE BE UNABLE TO CHECK THE SPREAD... BECAUSE OF THE EMOTIONAL ATTITUDES..OF THE CITIZENRY...TOWARD...THESE ISSUES OF... MORALITY... IT IS THE ORDER OF THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR... CITIZENS MUST REPORT TO THE EVACUATION POINTS OR REPORT TO A SECURE RESCUE STATION....THEY /ARE/ ALLOWED TO OCCUPY PRIVATE RESIDENCES, DEPENDING ON HOW SAFELY PROTECTED OR WELL STOCKED...HOWEVER IT IS RECCOMENDED THAT THEY MOVE TO A SECURED FACLILITY TO ENSURE THIER OWN SAFTY......THIS MUST BE DONE...."

A murmur in the studio begins to build to an emotional crescendo as Foster tries to talk over the noise...

"CITIZENS WHO REPORT WILL BE MOVED INTO CENTRAL AREAS OF THE CITY... "

Technicians abandon their posts while a few others jump in to take their places, but pandemonium reigns. A cameraman whips off his headset and breaks for the door. His camera spins on its liquid head, and on the monitors, we see a whirling blur as Foster continues to speak. Patti moves quickly for the spinning camera. She aims it back at the sweating Foster, and she stares through the viewfinder not believing what she is seeing. Praying she gets this right, having only seen it done occasionally. She was just the Network's Meteorologist and weather girl.

"THE CREATURES THAT COME THROUGH THE DOORS MUST BE DEALT WITH BY HEROES, POLICE AND SPECIALLY EQUIPPED SQUADS OF THE NATIONAL GUARD FOR ORGANISED DISPOSITION... "

Suddenly a Hero clad in a tight Blue and White costume darts out of the bustling crowd and comes up quickly behind Patti.

"Patti...at nine o'clock meet me on the roof. We're getting you out. "

Patti ,letting the camera slip slightly sighs in relief at seeing him "William...are you alright...I Don't believe this...what..."

Bill insistently repeated "We are getting you out in a National Guard evac chopper."

Another technician stepped over to take the camera from Patti. Bill talks more quietly as she turns the camera over to the other man.

"Nine P.M. Alright?"

Patti shakes her head slowly trying to protest "William...Bill I can't ...I've got to .."

Bill shook his head, she now got see how mussed up and exhausted he looked "You've got to to nothing Patti. You've got to survive. Somebody's got to survive. Now you be up there at nine and don't make me come looking for you."

William is gone in a flash. Patti nervously looks back at the cameraman as the argument still rages between Foster and Stinson. The cameraman, without taking his eye from the viewfinder, speaks to her quietly and slowly......"Go ahead...we will be off the air by midnight anyway. The Emergency Networks are taking over."

Patti swallowed as she looked around at the chaos of the newsroom she once called home as the cameraman continued....

"...Our responsibility .....is finished I'm afraid."


<a shameless tribute to a horror classic, but I couldnt resist! >

August 6th, 2006 - Skyway City

Originally Posted by S.D.I.'s Wolfcry Division's Pastoral


It is said that there are no more than six degrees of seperation from one individual to any other individual. Some people are much closer, of course, but in theory if you know anyone then you can, by proxy, know anyone else...

Communication is the Cornerstone of Civilization.

Somewhere, a phone is ringing...
~~~~~
"Speak."

"Good evening, Knife."

"..."

"These words will not be heard by others. As a creature of secrets, I respect the secrecy of others. Need, however, drives me to break our silence with this conversation. Will you speak?"

"...who are you?"

"You may call me Operator."

"Right..."

"I have an offer for your consideration."

"There are channels to go through."

"The fewer know, the happier we all are. Those channels lead to you. We will speak."

"I could hang up now."

"But you want to find out who I am, so that you can perhaps seal this percieved breach of your security by my destruction. Let us not bandy about threats and counterthreats. Neither of us has time for child games."

"...all right."

"You are mercenary."

"I have standards. And requirements."

"Of course. I do not seek mere thugs."

"Of course."

"I will require you to discontinue certain working relationships."

"We won't break a contract."

"Suspend it, if that pleases your integrity."

"They won't like this."

"I do not expect them to like any of what I have in mind."

"What do you have in mind?"

"There is an individual I wish you to observe. There is no specific wetwork involved...I want you to see to it that she remains alive for the duration of our arrangement. You may use whatever methods you wish, though she is not to be detained. Secrecy is, naturally, preffered."

"Naturally. I'll speak with my colleagues, but I doubt they'll like this."

"They will like what they will be paid."

"Yes?"

"Details will follow. Through other channels."

"I see. Do we get to meet you? Face to face?"

"No."

"I see."

"You will. Take care, Associate Knife. We will speak again, another time."
~~~~~
Help, I'm steppin' into the Twilight Zone...
This is a madhouse, feels like bein' cloned.
My beacon's been moved, under moon and star...
Where am I to go now that I've gone too far?
~Golden Earing, Twilight Zone

October 26th, 2007 - Steel Canyon


Cutter ran as fast as he could down the dark alleyway, trying not to trip over plastic bottles and loose pieces of cardboard. Breathing heavily he ran without stopping, his sides burning with pain from struggling and keeping from screaming.

Something was chasing him... and that something was gaining....Fast.
Turning the corner he saw that again, the sidewalk was empty. The entire road and surrounding area was blanketed with fog, the streetlights ominously looming above him.

It was as if Steel Canyon had turned into Dark Astoria, all around him in the fog he could hear the sharp discharge of police weapons and the sounds of the horrors the heroes of the city had faced this week. His eyes struggled to pierce the gray veil, No one was in sight near him.

Perhaps because he was scared... he wasn't noticing anything else. The Outcast gang member's senses were running wild. He could hear the menacing growls and snarls right on his heels. "Don't turn around, don't look back! AUGH!!!" he screamed within his own mind as his legs pumped furiously beneath him. Finally he fell face first into a pothole unseen in his panicked flight, scraping his knees badly, perhaps spraining an ankle. He moaned in pain as he gripped his ankle.

The beast, having seen that its prey had been practically handed to it since it left its doorway, jumped down from where it had been following atop the buildings, keeping a close eye from above. Cutter gasped and screamed as he saw the beast looming down from above, petrified, eyes wide with intense fear. All his attention focused on getting away, his pursuer getting ever closer... ebony claws glistening in the light of the red moon. The blood-red orbs of demise... filled with the desire to spill the life force of its prey.

The sharp pants of chilling white breath launched forth from the snout of the great wolf, the moonlight cascading down its soft black fur as it grew closer to the terrified black vested Outcast, inches away from each other... claws rose into the air as the boy tried to scream but could not find his voice, his heart thudding in his chest.

A swift motion, brings the rending claws slicing down.

A piercing cry split the silence that had settled so thickly in the pale fog of the night. Fabric, blood-soaked pieces, tore under the force of the powerful claws, flesh ripping apart, blood splattering and forming into a puddle freshly spilled, now settling under the deceased.

Eyes staring into nothing, rolling back into the skull as the beast growled satisfied, taking its deeply embedded paw out of the impaled chest.

A shotgun blast and a blueish green energy blast rocket through the air to end the beast's feast. Its large frame falling to the cracked pavement with a thud. The mists part as a hero in blue and white settles over the body of the fallen prey. A white gloved hand reaches for the ruined neck to confirm what the hero already knows as he hears charging footsteps behind him.

"Is it?" The uniformed officer inquires eyeing the body of the fallen werewolf.

Guardian Star looks up from the ruined body of the fallen Outcast and nods "Its down"

"What about him?" her partner asks as he re-chambers another round into his shot gun.

Sighing the tired defender stands "He has had it too..."

The first cop smirks and shakes her head "Well it was just an Outcast gang banger...we better get a move on before more of these [censored] things find actual good people"

Her partner nods and begins to back out of the alley. Bill remains a moment, his gaze fixated on those dead eyes.

"Come on GS.." the woman police officer said eyeing the remainder of the enshrouded alleyway "We will send a bus for the body, we should get going"

Snapping his gaze away from the body he nodded, he knew he was still needed. "Of course" he turned and followed out. He could not shake the feeling as he had starred into those eyes, that they were no longer those of a gang member of a villainous street gang, but of a young boy terrified.

"Fear makes innocents of us all" He muttered to himself as he shuddered.

All around him he could hear the cries and sirens fill the night.

And it was not yet even half over....

August 3rd, 2006 - "The Abbey", King's Row

Thursday Morning...

Muffled sounds...distant noises...far off yet growing closer slipped in past her dreams and frightful visions. Peace and horror struggle within her as she slept fitfully at first then deeper and more soundly at last. Her eyes fluttered open as a sense of displacement filled her. She blinked as her hand ran across the soft pillow her head now rested on. Confused she tried to sit up but was met with a degree of stiffness, of soreness, a reminder now of the fight from the night before.

Where am I? She thought, though slowly she turned her eyes to the room around her. I am at the Abbey? Confusion deepened as she laid her head once more across the pillow. Her eyes roaming across the room.

How? Boomtown, she began to think then stopped as her eyes fell to the nightstand beside the bed. Returning her gaze was a small stuffed Bear with its stitched on yet pleasant grin and deep black eyes. His fluffy arms wrapped around the base of a vase of blue roses. She blinked and gasped a bit then smiled. Perched along the pad of his paw was a card. She stiffly reached forward and retrieved it to read inside and discover just how she had been returned to the Abbey, and who had done it.

It took awhile before she felt awake enough to stand and deal with the fading stiffness, eventually however she managed. She inhaled deeply from her roses and shook her head. She had never seen a blue rose before. So beautiful, she thought as she ruffled the top of the bear's head. She read the card again and believed. Don’t worry about the Malta for now, she smiled...

"All right..." she smiled feeling a bit safer now, sore but alive. She decided to take the next night or two off. Spend some time with Phil....definitely see Susan...

She gathered up her roses into her arms and headed out into the Abbey slowly with a soft limp. Oh Yeah, she mused darkly gonna take a bit to heal...


=================


August 4th, 2006 - Skyway


Last night...

Alpha shook his head as he paced in the backroom of their new headquarters. Fergie continued...

"The entire team was dispatched to a man.....From the amount of ammo expended by the team it was a quick fight....by the amount of ammo expended by Shrike...he should've killed her"

"[censored]" hissed Alpha. "She is /mine/!"

"Alpha...." Fergie said "Look something else happened out there....our teams weren’t the first to arrive"

He looked over; there was something in Fergie's tone "What?"

"Blue's teams got there first even before we did...now the data we intercepted from them indicates she only killed Shrike...and she was severely wounded....she had already dispatched his team...she fought through the ambush...and then...just fly away erratically."

Alpha's eye's widened "So she is still in Boomtown....or did Blue's teams find her? We have to ..." he stopped at Fergie's raised hand.

"You don’t understand....Blue's four teams, the ones he sent to Boomtown... are gone"

"Gone....she got them? But surely her wounds..." stopped again.

"No Sir....she didn’t.....they were slaughtered by a horde of Devouring Earth" Fergie looked up from his report and tossed the surveillance photos atop the broken and worn table. "To a man....Our team found them and scores of dead DE's"

Alpha frowned astonished. DE's, he thought. This is new. Very new. He knew this [censored] could call in support, aid from unimaginable areas ...she had in the past.

"Somehow they made it into the zone and struck the teams unprepared...it had to be mass numbers...they never had a chance" Fergie said with no small degree of awe. He had faced the DE...it had to be a horrific fight. No way for a soldier to die. He shuddered "Sir with all due respect ...until we..."

Alpha headed him off "Send out the runners Fergie...all ops on standby to our remaining teams....However I /want/ to know where the DE's came from...if she called them in I want to know how....if this is an ally I want it found and eliminated....permanently"

Fergie nodded, this was a new player and had to be dealt with quickly. Blue's teams had more resources to call on then theirs. The DE's terrified Fergie, dealing with this threat was now his priority.

Alpha continued "All strike teams are to go dormant and await further instructions, recon and surveillance ops are to be stepped up....all marked targets are to be watched closely....i want to know what happened out there..."

Fergie nodded and headed off to see the runners got the message quickly.

Alpha shook with rage after his friend left. She did it to him again,

"You [censored]", he sneered coldly "You [censored] [censored]...."


==================


August 5th, 2006 - Undisclosed location in Peregrine

This morning....


"......four teams people...all off the grid" Blue shook his head as he circled the polished wood conference table. Across it and on the monitors of the plush carpeted conference room showed photos and images of the devastating DE raid on /his/ men. Seated around the table, The Crey Project Advisor, her security chief and Dr. Reynolds representing the research staff of the Project.

"This makes three very expensive failures in a row" The Project Advisor droned.

"In my men's lives Advisor" Snapped Blue "Where in blazes did DE's come from? Why the hell weren’t they listed under her assets?"

"She doesn’t have any connection to them" The security chief intoned "nor has she any connection to any one who might....we have experimented with DE's and there are a few threats out there who could do such a thing I guess..." he turned to look across the table "Dr. Reynolds ....are there any correlations...any at all of any of those former projects connected to your daughter?"

Dr. Reynolds smirked inwardly and then slowly shook his head "I've been over and over all such files....no Crey Projects, that I can find or that are made available to me...show any such abilities...quite simply put ..Either this was a coincidence or something Alpha has done has brought down the wrath of the DE's on the Malta...."

Blue sighed "Well lookee here folks...on the subject of Alpha...the Malta Group is givng priority orders now to all Malta Operations....to seek out and terminate Alpha's ops with /extreme prejudice/...and i mean to add my teams to that hunt."

The Crey security chief spoke up now "Blue and I discussed this...and recommend all containment attempts cease and deceased for the time being...allow our research to continue but wait for a time when our scouts can ascertain where and how the DE's entered the picture...to be honest such an ability to wield the DE's could be..." he stopped as the Project Advisor stood...

"No....that is not our project....though i agree with going dormant for now to allow the Malta to put its affairs in order so they can return to being more effective for us..." She sighed "Thank you all....return to your departments and brief them on the stand down"

Nodding each left the room. Dr. Reynolds hurried down the hall a bit excitedly. He had work to do now, a chance to help someone who /had/ to have helped him and his daughter. He had managed to bury the connection....for now.

He had seen the news too last night. Fiery Dynamo, Rico Chavez and his Kitten had destroyed a major Malta bunker, the main supply bunker for Blue's men. He had been worried; she had seemingly vanished for a few nights.

The Malta were scared, he smirked. He liked seeing fear in their eyes; it was like a spark of something deep within his own heart was reawakening. He sighed as he reached his desk, he was playing with fire. The Crey could destroy his work, his career, Stephanie, his wife would never forgive him such a social fall....she barely tolerated the fact he had a mutant for a daughter....

Somehow...this evening. He no longer cared. His daughter was alive still and fighting these bullies...

Could this be pride he felt for her? He thought of embittered questions asked of him recently and he set about his work for tonight...

October 25th, 2007 - Paragon City, RI

Originally Posted by Crosscut

And from the cold dark side-streets and narrow byways seeped another darkness. The chill autumn air swirled in her lungs, sparking her blood with a familiar sharpness. Purity and clarity.

She leaned forward, pivoting off the ledge and into the alley below. Thin, sharp light scattered off of brilliant darkness briefly illuminating the gaily bedecked figure as it tumbled through the air with nary but the faintest jingle of bells. Landing, she stepped and turned, dancing sideways through the darkness and into the city.

Silver dust floats through the starbeam lighting.
~~~~~
Even zombies dream, in the strange, ruined pathways of their minds.

Some might dream of juicy brains, and others dream of stranger things, and somewhere in that darkness peering: Some recall when they were living. Once I was a man...

He stands at the threshold, uninvited and forgotten guest. Not a moment prior, he'd stood with the others, but they had gone away. He remembered a suit, and a leather briefcase, hanging in his withered hands. What had he been? What had he done?

He remembers a smiling face, and a woman's voice.

And then, in the creeping dark, with a whisper of chill, he tumbles into the shadows and forgets forever.

The streetlight plays across his second killer, the ribbons in her strange green hair glittering faintly before she steps back into the alley.
~~~~~
What then, the dreams of men and wolves, brought on strange sweet breath given up to the passing breeze? Strange, sad fancies howling in the nighttime woods. Twisted memories and fevered thoughts.

No more the man, no more the beast, the nightmare careened down the streets beneath the electric lanterns and cried it's displeasure with it's violence. Snarling, advancing, rushing on clawed feet and warped hands towards blood and destruction and then

a silver scalpel, slashing.

A blue latex glove in a pale white sleeve drawing back into the darkness.
~~~~~
Pumpkins do not dream, but they have a role to play in it all.

The gentle hack-hack-hacking of the harvest sickle in the least likely places.
~~~~~
A lord of blood on a makeshift throne. Imagine the horror of the cliche, decked as he is in black coat and crimson sash. A tragic young student of the Lugosi school of vampirism, who has forgotten to respect the fathers of his story by getting his own damned act.

See him lift the glass to ghastly pale lips. He never drinks...wine.

See the stake, and the old dried blood as the silver-screen veneer drains away like blood from a sudden wound. He has enough time to marvel blankly, before crumbling to dust like a proper sucker.
~~~~~
And the Headlines Roll On.

There's no such thing as ghosts.
~~~~~
Silver dust, floating on the breeze.
~~~~~
She could fly.

Some people couldn't, but there's just no helping them.

Black lip gloss, eyes shaded to a healthy sleepless, cadaverous gleam. Designer darkness, with a pointy hat. She had the magick. And nearly a thousand dollars of Prada accessories that said she had it, and who was going to dispute that?

Picking up her purse, she stepped out of the window and onto the fire-escape, straight over a carefully extended platform boot, off the edge and into the alley.

She flew about as well as a corpse, all the way to the fatal cracking sound at the bottom.

Silver dust swirled softly through the air as her killer carefully placed a little orange ball on the window-sil and applied a match to the candle inside. The carved, smiling face cast a pale golden glow into the night.

The assailant smiled, and stepped back, pivoting off the edge after the witch and disappearing.
~~~~~
All up and down the alleyways and at the crossing streets, little pumpkins holding little lamps in neat little rows. A still, autumnal silence, broken only by the rap-tap-tapping of knuckles on doors...
~~~~~
Underneath a neolithic sky...
...where the beasts are so proud to die.
Across the sea of a million dreams...
...nothing is as it once seemed...
~Inkubus Sukkubus, Beltaine