Ex_Libris

The Mantis

Journal of Harry Choen June 1st

I didn’t anticipate for anything interesting to happen today. After all, my plan was to finish reading Einstein’s paper on theory of relativity and continue working on my thesis. I headed down to the coffee house around noon to continue studying.
The air was hot and permeated with humidity; I could sense the storm coming. The coffee shop was unusually empty given the hour. The regular lunchtime crowd chose to remain in the coolness of their air-conditioned offices. As I sat at the bar, I inhaled the rich fumes of espresso and my clove cigarette. Outside got dark and it started raining.
I longed for conversation and Mr. Einstein did not seem like an adequate companion. There was only one other person sitting with me at the bar. It was a woman. I looked at her long flowy hair reaching almost as far as her lower back. It was beautiful, black as night but with glimpses of emerald and golden. It made me think of sunshine streaming through the leaves of a tree.
I followed her curves with my eyes, slowly down her back and onto her legs and back up onto her shoulders and face just as she turned around and looked at me.
-Hello- I said and quickly put out my cigarette.
-Hello came in reply… My name isss Mantisss…
-Harry, Harry Choen.
As I observed her face, I felt a shiver run down my spine. It was beautiful, yet it was dreadful. Her skin glimmered gold, her lips were full and pale and her eyes…They were the biggest green eyes I have ever seen. Their look enveloped me and I was drowning, loosing myself in their depth. They glimmered like jade and were hard like stone.
Quickly I blinked to release myself from their spell.
- This is the first time I see you here, I inquired as casually as possible.
- Thisss isss true, I just arrived here to the Paragon Ssity.
- Well, and where did you arrive from than?
- Coaxal.
- Funny, I never heard of this place before.
- I believe you kind calsss it the Amazon.
- Oh…
As the conversation developed I realized that Mantis was something more than human. In fact she seemed to be more of an insect, an ancient being enclosed in a body of a woman. Her words were hypnotic as were her eyes. As she revealed her story to me I began to understand that this woman was millennia old and spoke of the Inca as her people.

Mantis stepped out of the shadows and the moist embraces of streams. Her element was the forest. It was a vast domain she claimed her own from highest reaches of Endie’s cloud forests to the treetops of coastal cedars. Her words described the land almost as a person, a live being with emotions and moods that change quickly from adoration to severe anger. She chose to come forward to provide guidance for the people of “her land” as she called them. They called her “She-who-is-one-with-with-the-forest”.
Incas were a spectacular- industrious and innovative and yet humble and respectful of her wishes. Their culture worshiped the elements. Sun, water earth and wind. Sun was the God creator and She referred to him as Father.
Inca culture flourished with her help. She showed them how to harvest the forest without hurting life. She gave them knowledge of medicine and minerals and taught them how to cultivate new plants for nourishment.
Mantis was worshipped. There was a temple devoted to her in the city of the clouds. I believe she was referring to Manchu Pitchu.
Her story described many years of harmonious living with people. They performed rituals that she did not agree with, yet she respected their ways.
-Thisss iss nature… she said… everything has to come to an end to allow for other to have a beginning.
First trouble started when the outsiders arrived. Given the timeline of her story, I understood she spoke of the Spaniards. Both the people and the forest soon felt their arrival. With the Spaniards there came the sickness and animals that unsettled the balance.
-Ssspaniards, she hissed. They stank of body odor, alcohol and death. Their horsesss trampled the plantsss beneath their hoovesss. There was no respect in their eyes-jussst greed.
-My people fought them. It was a loosing battle. Everyone wasss dying, the wingsss of death were upon uss. I prayed to my father to give me power. I had to take my revenge.And he lissstened. I felt the power rise within me. I felt the anger and all the sssudden I could control creaturesss other than the forest. I hurled rocks at the invaders, I made their horssses quiver with frear, I made their bodies collapse and their minds disssipate with the power of my will…

I didn’t interrupt as the words poured out of her. Her jade eyes seemed to flash thunders. Her body grew and swelled as spoke. I felt like an intruder catching a glimpse of a forbidden knowledge.
-What happened than?.. I inquired. Mantis turned her eyes to me and her look f froze my lips and my limbs.
-Father sssaid it had to be. I rebelled and acted against his will. His wrath wasss immense. I watched my land die. I watched my people die. SSStuppid… how sstupid were they to think that their own bloodssshed would prevent the distruction. They sssacrificed themselves, and for what?
-I couldn’t bare to witness this dessstruction no more. Tiered I retrieved back into the darkness and the wet embrace of the foressst.
Mantis fell asleep. Little did she know that her Father chose to punish her and make her sleep for centuries When she awoke, according to her about 3 weeks ago, she found her land changed, her people gone and her Father silent. Her once vast domain was reduced to a fraction of a former self; some areas of the forest were entirely gone. She no longer felt the presence of many animals and plants. The forest was angry, but it was also helpless. It seemed like its spirit vanished. As she explored the remnants of cities that her people left behind, she found extraterrestrial beings pillaging the ruins. Their arrogance once again awaken the anger within her. As she fought them, and resisted their attacks the forest spoke to her again. The silence was finally broken after so many years.
-Paragon Ssity , it told me. They came from the Paragon SSSity.
The words of the forest were sparse, but they gave her enough direction to find passage here. She arrived to take her revenge on the foreign invaders, to restore the balance and life to the forest. However, I think that a part of her motivation goes back to the times of the Inca…
Even though her story was captivating I felt the call of nature myself. I excused myself to run to the bathroom (bloody coffee). When I came out of the bathroom, which couldn’t be longer than 25 seconds she was gone. Bloody coffee…the bar stool next to mine was still warm, all that remained was a strange smell of her perfume. Made me think of orchids and moss.

Supergroup Name: The Biofreaks
No website
Everyone in the sg: just me for now
i like to be contacted: ingame or ingame mail
Motto for sg: We havent lost our minds, we sold them on E-Bay

Supergroup Name: The Biofreaks
No website
Everyone in the sg: just me for now
i like to be contacted: ingame or ingame mail
Motto for sg: We havent lost our minds, we sold them on E-Bay

[ QUOTE ]
stealth & cloak don't stack.

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So smoke grenade + cloaking device is what lets ya sneak in and drop that trip mine?


Thanks,
Captain Beyond

Ok, 2.5 is out. No big changes, but I finally tracked down some bizzare problems with transitions to Autorun. It seems that ++forward works strangely when also using other direction 0/1 commands like right 1. Also caught a bug that added downwards movement if you had forward pressed when you went into Autorun.

Gnarly

Ding Chavez sits on the roof of a skyscraper in Steel Canyon. Quietly he ponders to himself...
"what kind of un-american ******* would get pieces of Immortal on an american flag?"

Sighting down the barrel of his rifle, he squezes gently and watches Gravitomiton's head spark and go dark.

He turns and quickly places another slug between the fourth and fifth ribs on Immortal for not cleaning his entrails from the flag.

He then slinks off back into the darkness, as sniper makes his living being a sneaky *******.

How good is cloaking device? If you add stealth with it is this just as good as invisibility from the concealment pool?


Thanks,
Captain Beyond

The Whispered One, Finally driven mad by the dark whispers in the corners of his mind, exits Pandora's Box, removes his hood and scarf, instantly killing the first person that accidently gazes at his Eldritch and horrifying Head. It happens to be that citizen that keeps Asking i" is interupting people heroic?"

this is the greatest bind i have ever used yet!!

Thanks a ton guys.

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I just got accepted to the WoW beta (woo!), so my free time just become rather scarce.

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p.s WoW isn't worth playing unless u have absolutly nothing better to do. I hate to be negative but i'm not playing it and yes i've played the beta...hope my opinon isn't breaking the NDA. =p

be happy...play CoH and wait for VanGuard: Saga of Heroes to come out.

However, if u are big blizzard fan i'm sure you will love WoW. I'm just a EQ founding father's fan waiting for the masters of MMOGs to release the lastest masterpiece!!!

Peace~

[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to see you guys skipping hover and then getting owned by Freak Tanks and speeded Ink Men. You can't hop around like a little bunny with those. The tank doesnt care about little tacs on the ground, he'll knock you down with his m30, run straight over caltrops and 1-hit you. Now please tell me an example where jumpin around would be more effective than hovering.

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Lv26 blaster here and I never regretted in skipping past those chump Hover/Fly disabilities. Between Combat Jump, Hurdle and Super Speed, those wuss mobs that you mentioned never touch me. Those mobs go down just like other mobs. It's slightly annoying seeing those Freaks self-rez but it's no sweat.

He sat alone, staring out at the rising sun from the roof of the highest building in Galaxy City. He didnt sleep anymore, but the dreams still came. They were never clear, since his mind refused to shut down he viewed them without the clearcut lucidity that came only with healthy natural sleep.
Everything was gone, his family was dead, his wife, his son. He still saw their faces in the back of his mind. His body had been nearly destroyed by the rikti and he was now more machine than man, existing only thanks to the professor's excellent self sufficient cybernetic technology.
Even his savior, the one person who had thought him worth the effort, the man who had taught him to walk again, to use his new body...

"Its all gone..." Nathan said softly to himself, looking off into the early morning sky.

The dawn was as beautiful as ever, shades of orange and yellow tinting the spent rainclouds still hanging over the city as the streets began to fill with life. Here and there, Nathan could see groups of heroes going about their daily rounds down below.
With a sigh, he looked down at himself, examining his armored hands. The craftsmanship was incredible, every molded finger joint perfectly sized to fit with the others, every single peice of plastisteel plating expertly cut to be a part of the armored whole.

"What am i going to do without you Donovan? Theres still so much i need to learn about this body, i dont have the slightest clue how to repair myself..." Nathan muttered.

Suddenly he remembered the stacks of manuals he had often seen the professor leafing through while he was practicing his motor skills.

"Maybe if i went back to his lab..." he thought aloud, getting to his feet.

It was a long jump down, but he easily absorbed it with his enhanced legs before sprinting off in the direction of Donovan Trask's laboratory. He was sure there would be some answers there, some kind of clues to help in understanding his new body... there had to be...

I am rather confused about the description and abilites of some of the powers. I was taking a look at the powers listing from coh.warcry.com and was comparing 2 powers from the Dark Blast listing: Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall. According to coh.warcry.com, both powers have: cone range, moderate damage and reduce the targets accuracy. However, the Tentacle power also immobilizes the target(s) and costs 4.2 Endurance less to use.

My Defender is almost level 16 and I was contemplating taking either Tentacles or taking something else and selecting Nightfall at level 20 (when it becomes available). But these two powers seem rather "unbalanced". Is there something about the Nightfall power that I am not being told?

Also, why do some powers have the same "rating" for recharge times when the times are completey different? For example, when my Energy Blaster took Build Up, the game said that it had a recharge rate of "Long". It takes 90 seconds to recharge with no enhancements. Sniper Blast also says a recharge time of "Long" and takes 12 seconds to recharge. What the heck is up with that?

Thanks guys! I'll try these out this week.

It's unbelievable what you all have done with binds... far beyond anything I ever thought possible.

Hiya Curveball, glad to help out somebody who helped me get started in binding

Ok, there are different versions of the binds, with different pros and cons. Ahzurdan's are smaller and more clever, mine are more configurable and self-correcting, at the cost of drive space, and number of binds.

To use mine, however, for your setup, just download the .exe file from the link in my sig. When you run it, you can enter any triggers instead of the defaults for any keys. So, instead of accepting the default forward key of 'e', enter 'rbutton' instead. Switching altitude fast while moving forward is taken care of with the up key.

You may also want to try out the auto-mouselook feature. Turning this on puts you in mouselook while any movement key is depressed.

Little adds I like are binding lshift+space to ++up, and lshift+rutton to ++mouse_look. The ++up is good for superjump characters in conjunction with autorun, as well as being good to improve your look-angle (45 degrees down) while flying long distances without losing altitude.

Let me know if that works for you.

Gnarly

Version 2.4 is out.

Fixed a buggy transition , but very little new functionality added if you are not a weapon user (scrapper or tanker), but if you are, you will LIKE this. This should balance scrappers and tankers, at least as far as my binds go

I've been playing my Broadsword Scrapper, and using my own binds for Sprint on Demand, I put my sword away whenever I moved. Hated it. Id made me redo the draw-sword animation often, which took time that could be better spent swinging the dang thing.

Anyway, that was because I used powexec_unqueue to ensure sprint was off, which also sheathed my sword. I added an option to the program to allow the unqueue command to be replaced by a weapon attack command, so that your sword stays drawn. It works great... I'm always 'up' so to speak.. Better than Viagra

Issues: Be careful if you stop near villains you DON'T want to attack, as you will if it's targeted. But with Melee powers, this isn't much of a problem, but be extra careful if stealthed or invised. Also, you will get a "out of range" sound whever you stop if you have something targeted.

As always, post here if there are any problems.

Gnarly

this is the bio of my char Ghost Dancer who is a illusion/radiation controller, i was haveing issues makeing a back grond story for that power set , haveing a hard time coming up with with a story around illusion and radiation powers so i changed them completely , well only in description,as i found the animations spark some interesting ideas for differnet discriptions and story ideas, wich you will see below, hope you injoy

Ghost Dancer


A Succubus from the lands of the dead, Ghost Dancer consumes the Souls of the Wicked. Normally imprisoned in the Dead Lands, as all her kind are, she has since been released to the world of the living, as the amount of evil has become out of control in the last few decades.

She uses the tortured sprits of those she has Devoured to tear at her victims life essence and mind, able to Call upon the souls she has consumed to manifest for a short time to Assault her foes. Each victim being added to the ranks of ghosts at her disposal.

She is also able to call upon the forces of Entropy to drain and weaken her foes life essence with Balefire from the Dead Lands. When necessary she can use the soul energy of those she has consumed to increase her and her allies power for a short time, filling them with the life energy that only a sacrificed soul can provide, thus increasing strength, speed, and resilience for a short time. She can also use soul energy of her victims to heal the most grievous of wounds.

Also if she is witness to a death she may judge the soul and if it is found pure and worthy can return it to its body revitalizing and instantly healing all damage to the fallen hero, how ever such a things taxing on her and the heroes as well and they will both be drained for a short time. However such things happen rarely to her allies as she has amazing control over the ghosts of her victims uses them to encase and shield her allies from sight, sound, and harm. often a disturbing experience having Tortured Souls of the damned sliding all over ones body.

Due to her deal with one of the Lich Lords of The Dead Lands she must stay in the lands of the living until every blackened soul is sent screaming into the abyss of the dead lands.
Prone to bouts of melancholy and a twisted since of homesickness, she often laments to others about missing the quiet oblivion of the dead lands and wants very much so to go back to her home plane, content to judge and traffic in souls as the others of her kind do.
However until such a time comes if ever, she is content to continue her task in serving out the lich lords commands in the lands of the living.

Well CM, I look at this way:

Part of the backstory of Paragon City is that there is a "Hero Registry" where heroes are required to sign up. Since all heroes are registered, and have varying levels of security clearance, it seems reasonable that they will have a file on said hero. So my bio information is essentially what you would find in each characters dossier, which is accessible at City Hall.

Of course I rarely run into roleplayers in game so it's mostly a wasted effort, but there you are.

It was a dreary moonless night with dark clouds hanging menacingly overhead as the rain came down in torrents, washing the filthy streets of Galaxy City's industrial district clean.
Outside of one particular warehouse a lone figure stood in the shadows cast by a large stack of storage bins, listening to the faint sounds seeping out from the thin metal walls. He had no words to express the rage he was feeling, he didnt need to say anything. In the abandoned warehouse a few feet away were the punks who had stolen his last friend, the last connection between his old life and the new one he had been given. In the building in front of him were the people who had taken the life of his savior...
Clenching and unclenching his large plastisteel fists, Nathan slowly walked up to the shoddy wooden door a few feet away, placing his palm against it as he listened to the conversation going on between the gang members inside.

"So this old guy was there in some weird labcoat yellin things about how the equipment was delicate an stuff!" one voice said between bouts of laughter. "We beat that old man so bad! And look! I got a new labcoat outta him too... pity about the bloodstains."

At that, the gang members burst into laughter, the sound of their voices was nearly drowned out by the constant slapping of raindrops on the warehouse roof but Nathan could hear them perfectly and it was only making him angrier.

"...you bastards took my friend." he whispered, gritting his teeth as a single tear pooled at the corner of his right eye, lost in the raindrops falling onto his face. "...took my last friend..."

With a gutteral roar, Nathan keyed the mental connections needed to activate his weapons systems, sending a huge blast of energy screaming out of his palm into the center of the door leading into the warehouse. He didnt wait for them to regroup, leaping through the splintered shards of charred wood still falling to the ground, as he closed with the first gangbanger.
The skulls were too confused to react, too slow to even reach for their weapons. Nathan's cybernetically augmented muscles pounded his plastisteel feet down against the floor as he moved around the room at a speed so fast he was almost a blur, sending bolts of deadly energy searing through the air towards each target. It was over moments after it had begun. Silence and the stench of charred flesh were all that remained in a space that, a few seconds before, had been filled with laughter.
Nathan was still caught in the moment, his fists clenching and unclenching as he looked around at the dead bodies of the punks who had killed his mentor, killed the man who had saved his life.

"For you Donovan... im sorry" he whispered to himself before turning to walk back out into the night.

So is this fan-art submission still available? I had tried to send one via the provided e-mail address, but recieved an undeliverable mail message from PlayNC saying that the user was unknown on the mail server.

Now, Task Forces are a whole 'nother story altogether. I don't touch ANYTHING on a TF unless I'm leading it.

But on normal missions, I've been doing missions mostly since beta, and always have made it a habit to share the blinkies. I've run literally hundreds of indoor missions since then and never had any trouble whatsoever simply because someone else got the blinky. No missions ever got broken, no missions failed, no troubles.

I think this is just one of those things where people ASSUME it's broken because someone else got the blinky just because that's the only thing they can think of.

Kind of like the Vahz disease mission bug where even the Dev's were claiming it was because you used the CALL button to talk to your contact when in reality, there was ANOTHER SCIENTIST that needed saving in the mission but he was NOT on the list of mission objectives so you could actually complete the mission without saving the scientist that actually cures you.

Oh yeah, and by the way, on even THAT mission, it doesn't matter WHO saves the scientist, just that someone saves him.

Well here's what I know you're lacking off the top of my head. I'm not exactly sure what the syntax is for some of the keys and can't check them since I'm at work, so if I'm unsure I'll put them in parentheses.

EQUALS
COMMA
(PERIOD) -- maybe it's just "." come to think of it
ENTER
SPACE

NUMLOCK
SYSRQ
(PAUSE)

Thevshi:

Bernadette’s vision suddenly cleared as she saw Rook tear into two drones that were about to take advantage of her sudden disorientation. She quickly spotted another drone that was moving to hit Rook in the back as he stood atop a drone, tearing it to pieces. Bernadette stepped forward, her right hand swinging forward. The blow hit the drone in the middle of it’s torso, denting in the side of the metal and sending the large robot to the ground ten feet away.

It tired to push itself back up, but with the central support structure damage that badly, it couldn’t manage to stand. Bernadette looked for other dangers, but noticed that the other drones were falling back. She was shivering in the cold wind when Rook came over and put his leather jacket over her, asking if she was alright.

She looked over at the man whom just last night she had tried to kill. “I’m fine.” She said with a faint smile. “’ow about ye?” Rook didn’t have much of a chance to answer before a large shadow was cast over them and a huge man emerged from the blowing snow.

Bernadette heard Rook’s words and felt inclined to agree with him, but still gritted her teeth as she stood ready to face off with the enormous man. The huge man stepped forward, bringing down both his fists towards Rook who quickly jumped aside, as Bernadette stepped away as well, her density increasing to maximum as she slipped her arms quickly into the leather jacket.

Granite’s massive fists hit the ground, sending a massive shockwave out from the point to impact. Bernadette felt the ground moving, and if she hadn’t currently weighed twenty tons, she was sure she would have been knocked off her feet. She was just preparing a counterstrike when a beam of energy came out of the white and struck her in the upper back.

Bernadette staggered ever so slightly under the impact that sent a slight feeling of pain along her back. She managed to shift to her desolid form as half a dozen other blast quickly followed the first, all passing through her to disappear into the white snow on the other side of her. Bernadette turned to try to determine where the attack had originated from.


Rose watched as the young girl shrugged off her initial hit and then became intangible and avoided the following blasts. This girl was indeed dangerous, and she had made what should have been a very one side battle into something that was closer to a fair fight than Rose would have liked.

She moved positions and tried to think about what she had that might pack more of a punch than the energy rifle she had just used. She came to a stop near the base of a crane and lifted up a micro missile launcher, waiting for the girl to return to solid form. Glancing to the side quickly, she tried to see how Granite was doing with Rook.

Rook:

*THOOOOM*, was the sound of Rook's fist slamming into the open palm of Granite. Then, with his sheer gargantuan strength, Granite pulled Rook into the air by his fist as if he were a play-toy.

"Ello lil man....", said Granite as he lifted Rook up above his head, nearly 12 feet off the ground, "I hev been trainin fer this day fer years now."

"Well....thats a shame...", said Rook as he grimaced in pain from the man's huge red gauntlet, "cause when I'm dune wit ye...it ain't going te matter on bit!"

"Alot of talk Rook...but ye have nothing te back it upe.", and with that, the 9 feet tall Granite, threw Rook sailing into a group of crates.

Bloody hell...ee's plenty stronger then meh', thought Rook to himself as he gripped his arm and back in pain.

Rook could barely see what was happening with Thevshi. He only hoped that she was alright. A part of him knew that she could hold her own though.

Rook did realize that he was quicker than Granite though, and his agility far outmatched him.

For cryin out loud!, Rook thought to himself, he was the famed assassin from Ireland....not this wrecking ball of a man...

Rook summoned up the strength inside of himself and charged at granite with blazing green eyes. Gripping both of his hands together, he jumped and swung both of his arms together with a radioactive smash and knocked Granite back a bit, stunning him.

Taking advantage of this, Rook dropped from his jump, and placed a hard kick into Granites lower back, causing him to slump further, but still not fall over.

Jumping onto his back with amazing dexterity, Rook raised his fists above his head and slammed them down on the back of Granite's head, finally causing the man to hit the ground.

Rook quickly jumped back and began dancing around him like a boxer, awaiting Granite's next move.

Granite slowly rose to his feet, wiping the snow off of his black and red body armor nonchalantly as if the attack didn't even phase him. "So, ye ready te actually take the gloves off now, eh boyo?"

With teeth gritted like a wild animal, Rook's fists turned into radioactive green claws as he pounced on Granite again, ripping away at his stone face. The sound resembled that off a little schoolboy sending his nails down a blackboard, and it almost had to same effect on Granite. It made alot of noise, but was only a temporary disturbance.

Granite grinned with amusement, grabbed Rook with one huge red gauntlet and slammed him against a warehouse brick wall.

One huge fist after another went into Rook's face and body. It looked like a huge wrestler picking on a 2nd grader. Blood trickled down the red gauntlets and stained the snow as Granite continued to put punches into Rook.

When he was done, the wall around Rook held an imprint of his body. His face was caked with blood and bruises. His eyes could barely open and his bones felt broken. Rook had never taken such a beating in his entire life. It felt as if his life would leave him if the man continued any further.

Rook's body fell 8 feet to a slump in the snow. His head was throbbing, his body was aching and he could barely see anything through his black eyes. The blood smeared across his face and white shirt was black and red.

"I expected much more from ye...ye shall now die a disgrace....", said Granite in a sad monotone voice.

Lifting one red boot high into the air, Granite prepared to crush Rook like an insect.

Yet, at the last moment, Rook scuffled to his feet and grabbed the oncoming huge boot with both hands, and used all of his strength to push him off his feet. As Granite took to the air, Rook sent a very powerful sizzling radiation blast into the chest of Granite, sending him flying 6 feet.

Holding his ribs with his good arm; covered with blood, Rook staggered a bit but stood on his feet.

"...Now ye got me royally pissed off ye bloody feck..."

Thevshi:

Rose came to a stop, noticing from the corner of her eye as Granite and Rook began to battle. She move slowly around the crane with the micro missile launcher held ready to fire at the foolish girl that wanted to get involved in what was really none of her business. The area where the girl had been came into view, but there was not sign of her. Rose felt a slight feeling of worry as she moved around quickly some more, looking. Finding nothing, she looked up in the air with a quick move as she pressed up against the crane. There was still no sign of the girl.

It was then that she heard a voice echo from somewhere nearby. “Lookin’ fer me?” Rose spun, just in time to see the girl emerge from the crane beside her and start to solidify. Her finger almost pulled the trigger, as she realized that firing the weapon at this range could likely kill her as well so she started to dive to one side to make some room between them. Quick as she was, the girl was quick as well, grabbing the micro launcher from her hands.

Rose rolled back up to her feet ten feet away from the girl, pulling a large caliber handgun from behind her back. The girl crushed the micro launcher in one hand as she started forward towards the female assassin. Rose lifted the Desert Eagle 50 cal and started firing.

Bernadette dropped the destroyed weapon as she rushed forward, her density near maximum. The female assassin held up a Desert Eagle and began to fire as Bernadette put her left arm up in front of her face. The rounds started hitting her and bouncing off as she closed, the impacts hardly noticeable. The assassin started to back up as Bernadette’s left hand swept across in front of her, knocking the pistol from the woman’s hands.

Rose ducked to the side as the girl’s right hand shoot out at her face. She stepped to the right, her left leg kicking up into the girl’s midsection. It was like kicking a brick wall, as Rose felt the jarring up her leg and pulled back her kick some to keep from breaking her ankle. She tried to keep moving back, but her right foot didn’t support her well, causing her to stumble in the snow as the girl moved in, grabbing Rose’s collar.

Bernadette pulled the female IRA assassin towards her as her left knee came up into her midsection. The woman doubled over in pain as there was the sound of ribs breaking from the impact. Bernadette pulled her back up right to knock her out when the woman’s elbow shot out into her throat. The blow was almost noticeable, but did little to phase Bernadette who turned to her left, throwing the woman towards a building wall with her right hand.

Rose flew through the air and slammed into the wall with a jarring impact. Falling to the ground, she saw black spots in front of her eyes. She couldn’t believe that this little girl was beating her so badly. She started to pull one of her rifles from her back, hoping it worked still and that she could get it ready before the girl was back on her again.

Bernadette was about to follow the female assassin when she noticed the gigantic IRA assassin pounding Rook into a wall. In her heart, she felt a feeling of fear as she started over towards the battle. When Rook was thrown to the ground and Granite moved over to stomp him, she was afraid she wouldn’t make it in time. But Rook managed to stop the attack and send Granite back onto the ground.

Rook staggered to his feet as the huge assassin stood back up as well, anger evident on his face. Before he could move back towards Rook however, Bernadette slammed into his side, sending both of them into the ground with a huge explosion of snow and concrete. The impact from the twenty ton girl jarred Granite some, mostly due to the suddenness of the attack.

Bernadette was on top of the huge man and lifted up her right hand, smashing it into his head. The blow smashed Granite’s head into the ground, sending more concrete flying. As she pulled back for another strike, Granite managed to focus enough to reach across with his right hand and shove the girl off him.

It took a lot of strength to shove her weight with one arm, but Granite sent her sliding across the snow and pavement a good fifteen feet before she rolled back up to her feet. She was pretty much unhurt, but her skirt was torn more from the skidding as she stood up, ready to face off with the huge assassin as he climbed back up to his feet, anger evident in his face.

Rook:

Rook clenched his side, which throbbed with stinging pain. Blood poured from a large gash above his eyes and his white undershirt and jeans were torn and bloody. A normal person in his condition would have been dead long ago.

Granite rose to his feet, high above the two Irish heroes, with a look of frustration and anger evident.

"Alright ye lil chissler..", Rook said to Thevshi, "this eejit wants to fight? E's gonna have a bloody 'ard time gettin through the booth of us..."

Thevshi, a young girl more powerful than Rook has ever seen at her age, looked a little hurt, but she stood strong.

"Now!!", Rook yelled aloud as he sent a bright radioactive green blast from his fist, directly into the eyes of Granite, causing him to stagger back and block the blast with his hands.

Thevshi, without the slightest hint of delay, rolled forward, and underneath the legs of the nine foot tall giant.

Increasing her density, Thevshi sent a fist as hard as a diamond crashing into the crotch of Granite.

Granite yelled out in pain as he grabbed his pelvis and fell backwards in agony. The giant cried aloud as he rolled through the snow.

Rook, taking any chance he could, hopped onto the chest of Granite with a fist that poured radioactive energy off of it.

Slamming punches into Granite's face incensed Rook with anger. Each punch felt as if Rook's fist would break, but he continued his attack until Granite lay motionless on the ground.

His stone skin faded into flesh as he laid unconscious.

Rook raised his fist to finish the job, but Thevshi called for him to stop.

"No more blood needs te be spilt anymoor Rook....let im go..."

Rook stared at Granite in anger, but slowly back away and stood atop the chest of the huge man.

*THWAP THWAP THWAP*, rang through the air as Rook was struck in the back by three of Rose’s energy blasts struck their target.

Rook fell onto the snowy ground as he looked back behind him as smoke streamed off his burnt back. He couldn't see where his attacker was coming from. All he knew was that Rose would be on him soon.

Rook glanced over at Thevshi.

"Run....", were the only words Rook could get out of his mouth as a small canister rolled next to him.

The huge fiery explosion rocked Rook's body into the air and slammed him into a group of barrels. His body laid sprawled out on top of them as he nearly lost conscious.

Rook tried desperately to open his eyes. All he saw was the now-charred flesh of Granite. Rook figured that this would be the end of him. Rose would stop at nothing....she even went as far as killing her teammate.

Rook only hoped that Thevshi listened to his advice and ran. She was no where in his sight.

With a black and red charred face, Rook slowly stood to his feet, only to fall to the snow as his leg buckled and snapped below him.

Rook said a prayer to himself. He thought of his sister and his mother. He thought of everything in his sick and twisted past. He thought of the images of dying mothers and children. He thought of the day he escaped Ireland and came to Paragon City to escape his past and the day he met Equinox and fought crime beside him.

He smiled though as he stared into the snow blankly. He had accomplished his goal. He believed that he redeemed himself.

An image slowly walked to Rook out of the snow. As it got closer, Rook saw Rose's devilish face. She looked to be a little injured, but not nearly as bad as Rook. Rook knew that this was the end. He didn't even rely on his regeneration powers anymore.

Unholstering a small handgun, Rose frowned as she stood above Rook and raised the weapon to his head.

It was very sparse when I put it in, and I've been too busy playing to update it since. Though it looks like the appendices need updating -- I need to take out the slash command appendices and instead refer to the FAQ that deals specifically with slash commands, and probably need update the named keys quite a bit.

And there are a ton of ingenious binds that should go in the "Neat Stuff you can do with /bind" section.

Curveball: I was referring to Appendix C (Named Keys) to check the validity of inputs for a program I'm working on and noticed that it is very sparse. Is there an updated version of this somewhere that I'm not aware of, or would you like a listing of what isn't there currently?

OK, I need a little help here.

These binds are brilliant but they focus on a wasd keyboard layout. I'm using a much simpler layout. I have a number of keyboard keys mapped to my logitech mouse, and am using mouse buttons for all this stuff.

rbutton +forward
pgdown (button7) +backward
home (button5) +up
q for strafe left
e for strafe right

button4 is mapped to the lcontrol key.


I currently use a variation of the first post in this thread for Curveball's flight.

flight1.txt

lcontrol+e "powexec_name Sprint$$powexec_name Hover$$bind_load_file c:\binds\flight2.txt"
rbutton "+forward$$+mouse_look$$powexec_name Hover$$powexec_name Fly"
pgdown "+backward$$powexec_name Hover$$powexec_name Fly"

and then Flight2.txt brings me back to sprint mode.

I opted not to add the toggles to the +up and +down keys because I wanted to be able to change altitude fast while I'm moving forward.

I am still having problems with getting the hover and flight settings switched around, though. I've been trying to figure out the complicated toggle binds you all have set up to get around that (and to set up sprint on demand) but I can't figure out how to convert the wasd binds to my mouse setup.

Can any of you give me advice here? I got to about page 8 in this thread before I decided I was too confused to keep going.