Dr_MechanoEU

The main reason for doing this (besides being a good idea for a plotline, it is a classic comic book storyline, hero on trial) is to show that nobody is above the law. Mind you if Ed hadn't been followed he would have gotten away with it since he would have left no witnesses but as it is, a police officer following him, well it's pretty much a given.

Oh and Shadowe, you've been given Jury duty, so follow the words of the hitchhickers guide and 'don't panic'.

In my opinion once the vet rewards hit five years they should stop issuing anything except costume change and respecs. Five years is a bloody long time to wait for something as is and they're really running out of any good ideas.

I've always been in favor of revamping the vet reward system to a token system but to me these do seem like a cop out. The Arachnos helms are already available (except Mu) as the villain VEATs and I'm getting the feeling side-switching is going to be Issue 14 or 15 so heroes with those helms may be possible. Yeah while it is cool you can get the 'other power' that you may have wanted from the 12 or 33 month rewards it is definitely a cop out.

I don't think Ed has met her to be honest and if he has, well she definitely wouldn't be classed as someone he 'knew' in the style of the rest of the GG crowd.

Any other takers, need a few character witnesses that can be called up.

We still need someone to play the prosecution.

Well for marching order, I can safely say Ed is infront, I doubt anybody would trust him to be behind them now.

As for powers running, only the norm for a regen scrapper is running (I.E. Intergration, Fast healing, Quick recovery, Swift, Health and Stamina) since 90% of my powers are clickies instead of toggles.

This is in regards to what Ed did in the Freak out 2 topic. He clearly used excessive force on the Freakshow he encountered and thus Kata is going to have to bring him in.

We have our defence lawyer, kindly played by Cactus Brawler.

We need our (secretly a Nemesis Automaton) Prosecution lawyer to be played by someone.

We have Cassandra who will be playing our judge.

We also need a few people for the jury, character witnesses and the like. So please sign up, specifying which role you want to fill.

Of course those who are not character witnesses can not know Ed so people who do know him will be required to play alts.

The Jury will get to decide Eds fate, guilt or not guilty so if your in the Jury you actually get a say in how my character develops after the trial, is he guilty as charged and sentanced to time in the Zig or was it a case of something else and he will be set free?

He smiled and tossed her his hero ID.

"Darkness Redeemed is my Hero handle, perhaps you know me better by my old name of Doctor Mechano...Doctor Edward Johnson...and I was IN the attack that happened on the office building, I saw Ellie buried in the rubble and then go all wierd, I nearly lost my arm to that gas..."

He decided enough was enough, the time for talk had ended he begun trudging through the sewage, deeper into the tunnels, "Shad00w is around here someone and he know's we're coming, one of his Sneaky Freaks took off..."

He gave a sigh, "I...well..." he looked at Kata, "it was pure bloodlust...but please before you take me in can I atleast accomplish one last truly good deed...even if those abominations would have only broken out of the Zig and killed more people...killing them was the only way to stop them but the laws of man still apply even if the laws of God do not..."

He looked at the assembled group, "alright kids, behind me...I'll lead the way, since I'm infront it means our friendly neighbourhood sword wielder there wont worry about me stabbing her in the back, infact it gives her ample opportunity to should the need arise..."

He grinned, "and the Isles made me the man I am today...I got out and started doing something good with my eternity but those freaks back there can testify to my wrath so play nice..."

The ITF has groups of EBs (around the 'beastmaster' general), talking about 10 at one time. Admittedly they range the gamut from even con to +2 still it's more a hell of lot more fun than facing an AV on his own simply because it's a mass brawl.

He growled low, "got the taint of the Isles on you girly...it takes one to know one...I trust you about as far as I could get on a date with you...which is not very far...keeping my eye on you girly girl."

He looked back at Skip, "she does have a point though."

Blinked a moment, "what is this...a sewer convention...am I wearing an incredibly attractive cologne today that draws people in for miles around even over the stench of the sewer?!"

He rolled his eyes, "I come down here to find out about a certain Freakshow tank enhanced with magically imbuded cybernetics and his Meat Doctor maker, it turns out what seems like half the population of Paragon is tracking my progress..."

"alright, two questions, who are you and why are you here?"

hmm I think the main problem is the particular title they're giving 'Arch-villain' Ice Mistral isn't really an AV storywise, she's a sidekick to an AV, which theoretically should make her the same power level as a player since player heroes are 'sidekicks' to the signature Freedom phalanx powerlevel wise. Stronger than their evil dopplegangers but not quite as tough as them.

It's the same idea with the Vindicators, Mynx in an SK to a big name hero, she should also be on the same power level as a player character. However the term 'hero' is far more broad.

Perhaps a setting inbetween AV/hero and EB called Heroic/Villainous Sidekick. Their slightly better than an EB but not as good as an AV.

If we want to get really fancy we could give them their own titles "Ice Mistral <Villainous Sidekick of Scirocco>" or "Mynx <Heroic Sidekick of Synapse>".

And for the record the only Statesman I've ever fought was the Recluses Victory version, who was incredibly tough (damn perma-unstoppable) and took a full group of eight villains and three vengeanced up heavies to bring down (it still took us 15 minutes).

Edward let out a chuckle, "that was the girliest scream I've ever heard come from a man...," he gave Skip a wink, "...you sure you've got a pair down there, didn't think men could reach the high notes like that.."

no this isn't a player power nerf post or a player power buff post.

This is more aimed at NPC AV nerf post.

As it stands player currently play second (well third) fiddle in the 'power scales' to most of the signature heroes/villains. Now I can understand the big guns (Statesman and Recluse) being a match for a team of 8 heroes/villains, they are Incarnates, the Darkseid and Superman of the CoX universe. Tougher, badder and generally all round meaner than anyone else.

Don't get me wrong Archvillains should be tough IF they have reason to be tough, the best example of this is the Nictus-infused Romulos, he's just been given a massive jolt of Nictus power, taking him from 'eight guys beat him down without breaking a sweat' in human form to 'more than a match for several heroes' in his second form.

There's a storyline reason for his massive increase in power plus Romulos on his own isn't actually that hard, it's merely the fact he's got the Essence backup (this was the reason the Essences we're added in the first place, apparently people in closed beta were saying how easy they stomped all over him).

Elite Bosses are 'roughly' the equivilent of one player character, some are more difficult than others (Madam of Mystery I'm looking at you!) but with most it's merely a case of bring enough insps to the table to deal with it.

This is fairly long and rambling but the point I'm trying to make is that certain AV's should NEVER be so hard for a team of eight to fight against and probably should con more as EBs instead.

Ones that we should have a tough time taking out:
Statesman.

The Freedom Phalanx

Lord Recluse.

The four Patrons (These are the best of the best for a reason, Ghost Widow is the embodiment of an entire organisation and ethos).

Nictus infused Romulous (it's nice that an AV actually requires some thought on how to defeat him for a change instead of = a big sack of hitpoints and stupidly high damage attacks).

Dr. Aeon in the STF (he invents something specifically to help him deal with such a massing of heroes against him, it's fair enough really).

People we really shouldn't have a tough time fighting against:
The villainous sidekicks (Ice Mistral, Wretch, Shadow Spider, Regent Korol etc. they should be used as a team of +3/+4 conning EBs for a one on one hero situation in a team of eight rather than, taken on one at a time in the STF, I mean, these guys should be about the same power level as player characters).

Any of the Vindicators (they're freaking sidekicks, how comes they outclass player villains? Admittedly you do take them on eight on five in the LRSF but they, again, should be conning as +4 EBs not AVs).

I think the problem is what gets given to an NPC with AV status, the stupidly high regen rate, the purple triangles, the very high resistance to debuffs. I feel these kind of big boosts should be reserved purely for the heavy hitters like Statesman or BaB.

Of course it's just a suggestion and more a sleep deprived rambling at that.

Edward blinked, "No...stop...we're not Freakshow..." He had to hold himself back from launching an attack but this woman clearly wasn't one of them far to...curvey...to say the least.

"Besides he's not the one responsible for that carnage...I am so please, Skip here has just managed to calm me down, I ask that you do not seek battle or I may change back again..."

He smiled, "So put Skip down before he gives us all time-induced headaches, temporal distortions are never good for ones head..."

Ok...the above post has me worried...just what is the fat man planning!?

Despite his shift of forms, he was still splattered in blood, Excelsior and sewage, it was quite obvious he had been the one who had butchered his way through the Freaks. He crouched down as he heard the footfalls growing louder.

"I seriously doubt that's Freak, the one's I left back there shouldn't be up and running around...though you never can tell with Freakshow...even the worst wounds doesn't always stop them...besides, there's no clanking..."

His flaming eyes illuminated the darkness around him, yes it made him stick out like a sore thumb in the darkness but it was also as intimidating as it could get. He moved forward towards the footsteps.

"Show yourself!"

indeed...come join our little band, our wee band of buggered

Ed has currently butchered his way through some freakshow in the sewers in a rather gory manner, it's probably overkill and may be considered excessive force by a law officer (say Kata).

He is now in the sewers with both Timothy and Kal (whose character name I don't know yet) and can hear Kata approaching.

He hadn't seen the other figure ((kalantari)) which had moved to block his slowed down blow. He paused when he heard the name, flaring his wings and pulling back, landing in a crouch.

"Skip?"

He stood up slowly, the black skin of his true demon form slowly flaking off as if it was clumps of ash, his normal half human/half demon form red skin appearing underneath until he had fully changed. The animal instinct slowly wearing off.

"So who's your buddy?" wonder who the broadsword wielding person was.

He hadn't expected company down here, in the distance he heard more footsteps. These were lighter than a Freaks ever could be.

"We've got more company but I doubt it's a Freakshow, lets wait for the company to catch up before we all start discussing things shall we?"

((your que there Artic , right so I've sorted it both Tim and Kal are in the sewers))

Edward panted hard for a moment, giving himself breathing space, a trail of carnage and blood behind him. He smirked to himself, "well these boys aren't your run of the mill..."

The nether-energy swirled around him for a moment as he regained his composure. Hearing footsteps coming up behind him faster he grinned, "boy you made the wrong move pal.." without thinking he spun around and lunged at whoever was approaching...((Timothy)).

Ed gave a sigh, "I knew this wasn't going to be easy..." his comm unit wouldn't give a workable voice signal down in the sewers but he was still trackable.

He turned the corner, not even thinking, instinctively reaching for the first head he could find to smash into a wall as hard as he could.

Edward made his way to the entrance...looking around, checking for guards, he should radio in for backup but he wasn't in the mood to have anyone slow him down...this wasn't just about smacking around some Freaks and bringing them to justice, his demon heart was now fully pounding in his chest, he wanted blood spilt and lots of it.

This was justifiable in the eyes of the Lord, the Zig didn't keep people like this penned up for long, they were always back out on the streets in days it seemed, the only way to stop more people getting hurt by these selfish, heartless beasts of men was for someone to put a stop to them so they could be judged.

He took in a deep breath as he exhaled and begun walking towards the door.

Ed head seemed to splinter and burst, all the time maintaining a sick grin, eyeball hanging out of it's socket as flames spewed from where his brain would be and black Ichor slowly dripped down onto the face of the Freak. His skull split open, half his face seemed to be missing. He still talked, even if with only half a jaw the words didn't come out completely right...

"Count yourself lucky...the boys in blue are showing up and I'd rather not have any questions slowing me down...still...you got pretty eyes boy...gonna help myself to one of them..." he plunged his taloned fingers into the Freaks eye socket, yanking out his right eye, "you'll thank me when you get you're upgrade installed..."

His head slowly reformed, muscle and bone reknitting itself, "you tell them I took this eye...and I'll be back for the other one...oh...and tell your friend he's a pretty good shot..even if he did empty two mags..."

With that Ed opened his wings and flew into the sky...

((mildly confused as to which persons account I shall go with but I'll go with Rocks, sorry Red)).

He smirked, "alright...fine...go get yourself repaired...think of it this way, you got yourself new arms..."

He arched his back as bullets ripped through his body for a moment, the exit wounds pouring out crimson flames before it begun to reseal itself...

"Oh...that was NOT clever..." Edward let out a howl and looked at the Freak charging towards him with a predatory look in his eyes a large, very disturbed, sick looking grin on his face "I'm going to take your face pal...and wear it like I'm at a masquerade ball..." he hunched down on all fours and lunged at the charging Freak, ignoring his gun-toting buddy...