FloatingFatMan

I spent weeks in that cave, deciphering that book. Eventually I figured out what it was. It was an ancient tome of power, left by some people who called themselves Oranbega. They were long gone, but this book wasn’t, and this stone circle, a portal away from this world.

Deciding there really wasn’t anything left for me here, I began the incantation detailed in the book, the portal opened, and I stepped through. I spent nearly a year wandering from world to world. Something else in that book I’d found had given me an idea. With my own abilities, and that spell, there was a way I could bring my family back. But first, I needed to find them alive in another world, all of them, including me.

Eventually I found what I needed in another Paragon City. There was another Jessica here, and she had power too. There was another Eric here as well and, after a lot of searching, I found another version of my mother and father, still in Holland; perfect.
She’s had a nice life that other Jessica, good for her. But because of her happiness, all the other versions of us have been through hell, especially me, and she’s going to have to pay the price for that, oh yes, she’s going to pay alright… dearly…

I spend a lot of time watching that other Jessica… getting to know her; her habits, her work, her friends, and her lover. Hah!!! Her lover, that’s priceless! Just wait till she finds out Yoko’s spent time with someone else, without even realising it! Might have to take my time killing that one, have a little fun first… That alien that hangs around her though, she’ll have to go, and the quicker the better, she could ruin everything...

So I made my plans, but first... I needed money and I had none. So I selected a likely target and, when night came, I broke my way into a bank and started to rob it. There were only three guards, and my servants soon made short work of them. Then, they ripped the safe door from its hinges and I had the money I needed.

As I was leaving though, I made a mistake; I dismissed my servants… stupid. As I was making my way to the nearest sewer entrance to make my escape, I was stopped, by a damned hero! Before I could even mutter a spell to rip the fools’ life from him, he’d raised his hand and everything went white, then darkness took me.

I awoke to find myself in a cell, and a guard standing over me, running some kind of machine over me. He questioned me, but I refused to tell him anything other than the nom de plume I’d adopted. He went away after a while.

A few hours later, the whole building shook with an explosion, and a lot of sirens started going off. I heard my cell door unlock, and the collar they’d put around my neck, to stop me using my abilities, fell away. I carefully went to the cell door and looked out and saw... utter chaos! Prisoners were running around, and there were strange men dressed in black armour and guns, threatening the guards. They seemed to be looking for someone. I snuck out and headed through the cell block, looking for a way out.

On the way out, I spotted a young girl smashing open a storage compartment and pulling a sword and what looked like a ninja suit out. I watched her quickly change into the outfit with some interest, and followed her as she made her way in the same direction I’d been headed. As she headed out, she seemed to almost fade from view, though I could still sense her in the darkness. She didn’t notice me, so intent was she on getting out. I saw her kill a guard who’d gotten in her way and was quite impressed at how quickly and efficiently she dispatched him. Then I saw another guard she hadn’t seen, aiming a gun at her. Stepping out of the shadows where she could see me, I quickly fired a dark blast over her shoulder, and ripped the life out of him, feeding it into both of us.

She looked at me with surprise and shock, but with a small smile she nodded at me, and we both left the building together, following some others down a hole in the ground. We had to fight our way out though both other escapee’s and prison guards. Outside, we found some kind of vehicle, and a man in armour stood nearby. He gestured to us to climb into the vehicle and, having nothing to lose, we did.

During the flight, I spoke with the girl for a while. She calls herself Crimson Fox, and she’d just been arrested herself for attempting to kill one of the cities ‘heroes’, an alien no less! Needless to say I took an immediate liking to the girl. Turns out her kid brother had been slaughtered by this ‘hero’ and she was out for revenge. Well, I could understand that quite well so we made a pact. We’d help each other to get what we wanted, and once we had that, well, we’d see how things develop. She’s quite young really, only just turned 17 and quite pretty; she’s also quite skilled at what she does from what I’d seen.

When the flight ended, we were turned out to join quite a few others milling about, and sent to see some kind of fortune teller, called Kalinda. She introduced us to where we were, the Rogue Islands, and invited us to join their organisation, after we’d proved ourselves worthy of course.

So, Fox and I set out. If we wanted to achieve our aims we’d need the resources of this organisation to help us, and we wanted a few other things too.

During our various activities, we continued to get to know each other better, and I found out something most interesting. Turns out this ‘hero’ who’d murdered her brother is the very same alien my own target is friendly with! Well well well, how the fates smile upon us! Seems we can be of far more aid to each other than we first thought!

We met a few contacts, who had some interesting jobs for us, then I picked up a newspaper from the trash and spent some time looking through it. There was an article in there about a potential spy. Hmmm… He might have some information that could be useful. We tracked him down and soon made short work of the fools he’d chosen to protect him, then Fox had a little chat with him whilst I waited outside. Let the girl have a little fun I say.

When she came out, cleaning blood from her sword, she seemed rather pale and quiet. Ah… must be her first slow kill; and he didn’t even know anything useful either! Oh well, she’ll get used to it. In the meantime though, I told her it might be best to let me deal with the next few. She did seem rather grateful. We came across another spy later in the day but this time I did the questioning whilst Fox waited outside. This one was much more forthcoming before he died, though I find myself wondering just how he knew some of what he told me...

Still... Oh how amusing! It seems our little alien’s been rather a naughty girl, got herself into a spot of bother with her friends AND the leader of some fool club she belongs to, and what she got up to too! Shame I wasn't there at the time really, would have been fun to interrupt! Oh I must have a chat with the other Jessica about this! Looks like there may be a chance she’ll be thrown out of her little club, and if she is, well, that’s a big chunk of protection she’ll lose; Fox was most interested.

Eventually, after a busy first day, we decided to find ourselves somewhere to stay. We found a broken down apartment, and whilst Fox cleaned herself up, I cleaned the apartment up and conjured some meagre furniture; enough to do us for now at least.

Once she’d cleaned the blood and grime of our activities away, Fox went out to find us some food, and to see if she could sell some of the gemstones we’d found earlier in the day, we’d need plenty of money after all. Whilst she was gone, I decided to make a little call on a cell phone I’d taken from that spy I’d taken care of a little earlier, he’s hardly going to have a use for it anymore… Time for a little hello to myself I think…

So, where's part two then? You been letting school work interfere with the important things in life Z?!?!

/em faints!

Wow, thanks Wordy! What can I say? I've been scribbling some stories since Trial (all unpublished apart from Homecoming), and have taken note of the good advice you gave me so I'm glad to see you like the result!

Having kids certainly helps when you want to capture something childlike, I can tell you!

I'll be posting part two either later today, or tomorrow, depending on when I get chance

Hi all. Shadowghost and I have rolled up nemesis characters to play off against our RP mains so I thought I'd writeup an origin story to explain the how and why for Grav's nemesis, the Grave Mistress!

Hope you enjoy it and please give me comments!


DISCLAIMER: I have endeavoured to keep the story suitable for 12+, but there are parts where this was unavoidable and still tell the story I wanted to tell. There is nothing graphic though...



The Grave Mistress – The Origin of a Villain - Part One

I still remember it like it was yesterday; the day they came and destroyed my whole world. I’d been playing in the back yard with my big brother Eric. I was only six.

Then they came, the so called ‘heroes’.

The war had started a few months ago, but I didn’t know anything about it then. I was much too young to understand the breakdown of law and order, and the rise of the vigilantes, the self styled heroes; murderers, all of them. Even now, no one really knows what started it all off, but we know how it ended.

I’d been in the swing when the big bang came. The house next door just… blew up, and people came flying from the sky, charging at the ruins, and my house. I heard my mother screaming and saw her running out the house towards me. Then, she wasn’t there anymore, just a big ball of fire where she’d been and a man standing in front of it, laughing. Eric ran at the man, screaming at him. He’d always been very strong Eric had, and when he hit him, the man he fell over and said a bad word. He hit Eric back, hard.

I never saw Eric again after that. The man hit him so hard he got thrown up into the sky; I didn’t see him come down again. Then I heard daddy screaming. He had a big stick and he ran at the man, hitting him on the head and making blood come out, but another man came. Daddy didn’t see him, but I did. I saw what he did to my daddy; I ran into our shed and hid.

I don’t know what happened after that. I stayed in the shed for hours and hours, too scared to come out. When I did, all the bad men were gone, and so was our house, most of the houses were. Just lots of fires and no people; I was all alone.

I spent the next few years living on the streets, stealing what I needed to survive. I was hungry all the time, and always scared. There were a few other kids like me left too, after a while we all sort of congregated together, for company, and safety; some of the bigger kids looked after us as best they could. But every once in a while, one of us wouldn’t wake up in the morning and one of the big kids took them away somewhere.

We spent most of our time hiding from the gangs that wandered the wrecked streets, looking for kids like us that no one cared about. Kids they could use and throw away. Sometimes they’d catch one of us, usually we didn’t see the one who got caught again; those that did come back were, different, more scared than usual, and cried a lot. They usually ended up cutting themselves and going to sleep forever.

Then, when I was twelve or thirteen, I got caught. They all had skull masks on and they dragged me to an old warehouse. It was filthy and stank, and was full of little fires and funny circles with weird writing in them, not that I’d have been able to read them anyway, I couldn’t read... or write… But, that’s not what they wanted me for anyway.

They tied me up and threw me into one of those circles and stood around me, laughing and pointing. Then one of them, a big one, walked up to me and said something. I didn’t understand what he said, it was in English I think but I didn’t know how to speak that back then, I only knew Dutch. He got angry when I didn’t answer him and he hit me, hard. Then… he pulled out a big knife.

I thought he was going to stick it in me and I just gave up, glad it was going to end at last, but he didn’t… He did worse… he started to cut my shirt off. I knew… I was only little, but I knew what he was going to do… I’d heard some of the big girls talking about it in our hiding place, what happened if you were caught. I didn’t want him to hurt me like that. I tried to get away but he just laughed and held me down, the others laughed to.

I tried to curl into a little ball, trying to protect myself, feeling his hands tearing at my clothes and, then I felt something else. It… was like a dark hole inside me opened up, and something came out. Then I heard the noise… a low... moaning noise… and then the screaming started. I scrunched up tighter, trying to hide, but the noises got worse… There were lots of gunshots, and more screams and low moans, and lots of wet crunching noises. Then the hands on me went away and I heard the sounds of people running away. Then it all went quiet.

I laid there for a bit, then finally opened my eyes; right into the face of something awful. I screamed and tried to back away but it just crouched there looking at me. Then it said something. “Miss… tress”. I screamed and told it to go away and, it just, fell apart!

I know what it was now of course; it was the first manifestation of my powers. A zombie, called forth in my terror to do my bidding and protect its mistress. Those animals who’d taken me didn’t have a chance. It killed most of them in a… most unpleasant way. But I didn’t know then so, when I finally got free of the ropes, I picked my way through the horrible messes on the floor, got out of the building, and just ran and ran and ran. I never went back to the other kids.

I wandered the world for a few years. Drifting from place to place, never staying anywhere long. A lot of the places I went had been ruined in the war, not many people were left. Some I met were OK, let me stay around and gave me food… But some were like those men in the warehouse; they soon regretted trying to hurt me though.

I spent nearly a year walking through some country called… Vietnam I think it was, and didn’t see a single person alive. You’ve no idea what spending a year with only the dead for company can do to you; by the time I left that place I’d changed, a lot. Eventually, I reached China and, in time, found someone who could see what I might be, and took me in. He was a nice old man, and a scorcerer; the first person who’d been kind to me for years. He taught me how to control my powers properly, and helped me to open doors to more abilities. But he never saw the growing darkness inside me.

Once I’d grown strong, I started to wander the streets at night; hunting those who preyed on the young. When I found them, I called forth my servants, and they died, every single one. I wasn’t going to let animals like that hurt more kids, like they’d tried to hurt me. I crafted a new identity for myself, The Grave Mistress, and haunted the streets in the darkness; like the old tales of monsters in the night.

Eventually, by the time I was in my early twenties, my benefactor found out and we argued. He tried to tell me that killing to protect others was just as wrong as what those I was killing were doing, but I didn’t care. By then, I was mostly dead inside anyway; I guess that’s what happens when everything you can do is based around the dead, you die a little bit each time yourself. He yelled at me, said he was going to call the heroes to take me away. I couldn’t let him do that, so I showed him something else I could do, and ripped the life from his body, using it to make myself stronger; something I’d been doing more and more lately.

I was a little bit saddened I’d had to do that. He’d been kind to me but, well, he shouldn’t have said he set heroes on me; I hate heroes… all of them.

I left China then, and wandered around the world for a few more years, before I eventually arrived in America, and Paragon City. By now the war was over and the heroes had won, as if you’d want them in charge. The city was beautiful; no crime of any kind was tolerated there. Anyone caught so much as dropping litter was executed on the spot by one of the many roving ‘heroes’. See, they’re still nothing but murderers.

Though it was dangerous for me there, I was able to conceal myself and snuck into the city. I’d heard some things about recent discoveries they’d made about some other worlds, things that interested me a lot. Eventually I found out they’d discovered there were other worlds, copies of ours, but each one different. They’d found ways to look at some of these worlds, but no way to actually go to any of them. I was pretty disappointed by that so after I’d found out what I wanted, I left the city; it was far too dangerous for me to stay for too long.

As I was leaving, I found a tunnel leading to some caves under the city so, curious, I went exploring. I wandered around in the tunnels for hours before eventually, I came to a large cavern, where I found an old stone circle, and a book.


<End of Part One - Part two later... If you ask nice! >

I'll have to let you know Ellie's powers list this evening... It's rather long!

I need a 4th power tray to be visible......

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Indeed, you need to keep those alts in...

[/ QUOTE ]

Funnily enough, smart [censored], they are. Because they never left. It just says revoked because a member left regardless.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now THAT was just uncalled for. Calling people names is against the board rules, don't do it.

Is this the "let's go get Lalane" mission? If so, apply the fudge libarally and don't forget to let us know which IRC server it is

No it doesn't... A mate and I have stuffed a single SG with 7 alts each and we got the 20k for each one. Alts don't matter.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
edit.. looks like FFM beat me to it anyway

[/ QUOTE ]
He's a fast one, isn't he?

[/ QUOTE ]

You know it!

Well, you already know I love it mate, but I'll say it again! I love it!!

Yes, but only for up to 15 members, after that you don't get any further bonus, but you won't LOSE any bonus if people leave either, as long as you keep at least 15 members...

And have you or any of your team earned the title of ganker yet? Man... you gotta love the devs sense of humour for that one... Show the world your shame!!!

Oooooooh.. I just WONDER how you found THAT little nugget out TG!

You should try it sometime.. It's wicked fun Especially when Magenta has a strop and yells at everyone to stop attacking until she's got the mobs full attention... Always good for a laugh that is!

Then there's everyone calling Jester My Lord, and Ellie calling him J or dad, and being generally not as respectfull as the rest... Untill she loses her own temper and goes on a maniacal rampage of complete destruction (I pop most of my insps and go bonkers for a couple of minutes )

And of course, they don't just do glowies, they kill everything, ensuring loads of XP

That's kinda why I started my Roleplaying and PvP thread, as this is something a lot of RPers are going to want to do (me and at least one other definately, their nemesis are birthed tonight!)

Best bet, both of you get into the zone, and send a broadcast out asking to be left alone, looks like quite a few folks might even offer to do a bit of guard duty for you

[ QUOTE ]
If you actually want some effective protection, you know who to call. Weve got our very own Mitchell brothers in Beowulf & Chives

[/ QUOTE ]

Miss Ellie doesn't want Chives anywhere near her until he stops using that cheap rancid aftershave named after him that's got dog pee in it

Ah.. salvage...

At the moment, Miss Ellie is trying to figure out what best to do with the Glittershrooms she picked up the other day. Eat them, or smoke them!!

Indeed I am... I'm planning to queue up several times in fact as there's at least three pics I want to get done. Novastar, Miss Ellie, and another one, maybe two... Could cost me a bob or three, but meh... The pics will be worth it, and it IS for charity!

So he goes there and you come to Brighton, sorted!

Yes, finally, they've hit the big 50! Congratulations to you all!!! And Ringmater, 1122 hours? Geez man, that's scary!

Now why do I have a feeling there's going to be a few more aliens floating around the Cirque now?

Union is the unoffical RP server, though some does happen on Defiant but it's hard to find.

On union, we have nightly meets in Galaxy City at the Galaxy Girl statue from 9pm onwards (some are there from 8). Feel free to come along and observe

That's some really nice offers guys! Once we have villains (or even just the heroes) high enough, you're very likely to get called upon

Awww... That's a BIG shame Ghost... I was hoping you might be able to manage it (Hell, I'd have picked you up at the airport/ferry and put you up for the night!), but I quite understand...

Fingers crossed for the comic competition then!!

Actually, the main reason I'M going is to meet as many as I can Oh, and get some pics of Miss Ellie (and others) done! But then, I'm only an hour away at the most .(Actually, I've done it in 40 minutes before, but that was naughty of me!)

They would indeed (I'd even let em have as many free shots at me as they wanted after the RP )

I know what you're saying Birdy, but it won't hurt to at least give it a go, especially for some things I have in mind, and Ghost too. TG made a generous offer there even if it IS the wrong server) and Duckdee agreed to leave us be. If we can persuade the rest, it could at least be usable from time to time for certain events...