GoldenMasquerade

Man, do I not want to do this, but I just recently started a new job, and I have to work during the event on Freedom. I've considered calling in sick, but it's a new job, and well... it wouldn't be the right thing to do.

So doc's just going to do some damage control back at home, if it's possible. Sorry, Rogue Isles.

Now THIS is how you get a Captain Mako fangirl into the game.

Somebody answer me this: who's bright idea was it to troll Mako?

Blindsight - My blind archer

I really like his name, but I barely play him. He needs a costume upgrade too...

I'm looking for the Tsoo tatoo parlor that I need for an arc. I had one in one arc, but the map seems to have vanished.

Arc Name: Out For Blood
Arc ID: 67690
Faction: Villan
Difficulty: Medium
Estimated Time To Play: 30 min to 1 hour
Level Range: 40-50
Arc Synopsis: Join forces with Dr. Lore on a tedious hunt for an elusive vampire elder, Kaoru von Varrgn. But be warned, you aren't the only one hunting Kaoru.

Notes: The first mission might cause some confusion, so here's a heads up and a slight spoiler for the arc: Some mission objectives are misleading. For example, in the first mission the last thing you have to do is "head for the exit". What I intend for the player to do is go back the way they came, and somewhere in "front" is a boss they have to fight to complete the mission. Some missions have similar objectives, so just do what they say. With that in mind, enjoy!

Happy birthday!

"Might as well go around the back, then." Dr. Lore nodded to herself. "Let's keep whatever security they have busy."

She made her way to the back of the building, pulling back on her red headband and adjusting the coat on her shoulders. Just after Rose kicked open the front doors, Dr. Lore opened the back doors in similar fashion.

If there was nothing in immediate view for her to look up information about the darker side of Sedadyne, then she was going to find something to vent her rage on.

To continue the Round Table discussions slightly, I am Golden Masquerade. I consider myself little more than the Freedom Server's Wallflower and a general lurker in the CoX forums. But when inspiration strikes, I love to write stories and CoX is full of them.

My main story at the moment is Angelfish. The story is about my main character, Dr. Lore, a villain with a lot of goals in mind which are more about her quality of life than world domination. While most stories were humorous "a day in the life" with little theme or purpose, I've been experimenting with using in-game story arcs and having Dr. Lore be a part of them. So far, it's been a huge sucess.

I'd like to thank everyone looking at the thread and taking interest, as everyone in the CCC did a lot of work. Bringing the group together, making the website, and putting together our own comics (coming soon) was well worth the effort. I'm happy to be a part of a growing web community, and I welcome anyone who'd like to be a part of CCC in making comics and helping to expand.

We have a lot of suprises in store for everyone (alike Sin, I'm not making any promises yet), so stay tuned!

[ QUOTE ]
"No idea about any rogues," Oakhammer replied to Dynamo, "They've been getting kidnapped too?"

"Makes sense, actually," another hero muttered, "Maybe they're being processed in another warehouse or facility..."

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, that does make sense...

Finally, Dr. Lore was relieved that there was something for her mind to process. Well, the logic was simple enough to her. If heroes were being experimented on and tortured in Paragon City, then perhaps there was a simliar laboratory in the Rogue Isles.

"Sounds like some of us better ship back to the Isles for the rogues." Dr. Lore concluded out loud. "Or if there's another warehouse here in Paragon City that is even less conspicuous..."

I kinda wish Operative Drago was here... No, no... Focus...

"Maybe we can find the information we need in the Sedadyne building itself." she suggested, pointing in the direction the main office was in.

My main toon is Dr. Lore. She lives in a really nice mansion in Cap (bought with mostly stolen cash) and gets her money from working as an Arachnos scientist and as a doctor in various hospitals.

My alternate is Golden Masquerade, a struggling hero who's actually... homeless. Any money she makes is through begging, and you can usually find her panhandling or demanding money from contacts in Talos Island.

The character I'm currently working on is Blindsight, a blind blaster. He lives in his laboratory in Steel Canyon with his older brother and both live off their father's inheritance.

Dr. Lore had been standing in a corner, quiet and distraught. Her eyes would sometimes dart in different directions as though they were looking for something to focus on, something positive, something that didn't direct anger towards herself. The kid was gone... Gone... Probably dead...

And it's your fault! YOU ran off and left him! YOU wanted to fight! YOU didn't wanna look like the sissy you were back in St. Martial. YOU left the kid to die!

One hand covered her frantic eyes. Everything felt like it was falling apart. It started to feel more and more as if it was her fault. Was it? Was there truely something she could have done differently?

The voice of the Rikti pulled her out of her self pity and she looked around again at the wrecked warehouse. Most of the party, hero and villain, had left in persuit of the truck. The captives in the cage had come around and were talking.

No, not captives... Patients... They were patients...

Shaking her head slightly as if to clear it, she went back to the cage and started helping the captives out. To keep her mind further occupied, she checked them over once again to make sure there weren't any injuries.

Everyone was asking the questions that she was going to ask, so she remained silent. "..."

There was little Dr. Lore could do to help shield against the explosion. She braced herself against both the cage and a crate placed in front of it and shoved when the explosion hit, and that was about it. She was too exhausted to do anything else.

She made another round check on the captives to check their status (they still seemed okay), before sitting back down again to catch her breath. Maybe she was finally getting out of shape...

She raised her head to the bickering going on around her, not minding it as no one seemed to be talking to her. Instead, she took a head count to see if all were present and accounted for. Obviously not, several of both her team and heroes took off after the van.

A stray thought crossed her mind: What about the kid? ...THE KID!

"Millions!" she outbursted in her shock. "We left him on the corner!" She got up and quickly made her way to the door, apparently not as exhausted as she thought.

Weird. There should have been a CoV Fansite pack. I downloaded it before the site redesign, and it's awesome.

Wish I knew who to talk to about it...

The hostage the doctor pulled down to talk to was still a little disoriented and confused. Dr. Lore frowned, and told him to just stay near the cage. She looked over her medicom for vitals, and didn't see anything pop out at her that looked out of the ordinary.

Then, the other escaped hostage came by her and asked for the status of the others in the cage. Dr. Lore looked up at him, wondering how her costume makeup was holding.

"They seem to be in good health, as far as I can tell." she answered. "Your buddy is too confused to remember anything. Can you tell me what hap..."

[ QUOTE ]
"Massive detonation: Imminent! Take cover: Evacuate now!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Dr. Lore's gaze shot to the agents and ninjas from the center of the room. Everyone seemed to be pushing them to the farther end of the warehouse and gathering by the opposite end. Sounded feasable, but...

She turned to the sitting, strong hostage. "Get back in the cage!"

"But..."

"GET BACK IN THE CAGE!" Without another word, she shoved him back through the makeshift opening and stood up to help. There was nothing ranged she could do herself, but...

No. No, don't do it. There's heroes here. It's a dead giveaway. As soon as they know you're a villain they'll have you locked up. But there's nothing else I can do. But we're too far from Sharkhead. But I have to try...

Arguing with herself in her head only took a couple of seconds. She balled her fists to her side and concentrated. Even if this didn't work, she had to try.

Draw up...

Faintly, she felt power seep from the ground, up her legs and well into her hands as if she was being filled with water. The unmistakable feeling gave her a confident smile.

...and push!

Her hands shot out in front of her, and the energy took shape of a shark and hurdled at the nearest agent. It slammed into the unlucky cyborg and the inertia knocked it further into the warehouse.

She had the energy to throw two more at the nearest agents before she herself plopped on her rump in front of the cage in exhaustion. What ever little bit helps, she thought to herself.

((Yeah, I intended the second hostage to be the strong guy, not Malachite. No confusion at all. I have been thinking of "kinda-sorta" taking him over, but I don't wanna lay claim to him if there's other plans for this guy/everyone else in the cage.))

Jeez, I keep forgetting how short I am... Dr. Lore growled in her own head, looking up at the Rikti by the cage. Pushing aside the ire of being short, she got down on one knee to check the hostages in the cage.

They seemed okay upon external examination. She ripped off one glove and felt foreheads with the back of her hand. Nothing serious so far. Noticing a couple were rousing, and remembering the screaming she heard from the cage earlier, she quickly took sedatives out of her first aid kit.

"Shhh, it's okay." she assured, her hushing probably drowned out from the background noise of battle. Gently tilting their necks up, one by one she administered a light tranquelizer through small needles. "Go back to sleep. I'll wake you back up when things have calmed down." Taking out an empty needle, she took a blood sample from one of the hostages and ran it through the medicom to make sure everything internally was okay.

As that processed, her eyes gazed up at the second hostage that was freed: apparently the one who kicked the bars off the cage. He looked strong, but she wondered...

"Hullo." she said passively, snatching his wrist before pulling him down next to her on his rump. Rough, but not enough to hurt him. "You're gonna stay here with me and tell me what you remember."

The fight was soon being taken to the ninja-clad ones in the shadows. It was only logical to the doctor: they were a higher threat, healed by transering energy from other people, and seemed to have a longer delay in blowing up.

The cleaner operating tables looked like an effective enough weapon when handled properly. She picked up another one and took aim at another one she found in the further corners. Dr. Lore made a running charge for the man, pulling the table behind her. She watched as the hapless victom made a break for the left, which she was waiting for and swung the table into his chest and face.

She took the distracted second to see how everyone else was holding up. Then, she saw the hostages. One freed himself and was clearly taking charge of the others. Something about him made her pause.

"..."

Then she felt the tight grip of the tendrills again that pulled her right to the ground while her prey slipped back into the shadows. She was left writhing on the floor to get up, screaming and cursing in frustration. Not only was she caught off guard, but the moron she was hurting got away!

Oddly enough, she was able to push herself back up to her feet and escape much easier than before. In fact, she noticed that she was able to see the shadows assailents a lot easier and concentrated much better in battle. Before, she had noticed...

I wonder...

She looked back at the hostage that freed himself, noticing the auras he was giving off. Perhaps he did something...

Her eyes then turned to the others in the cage, noting that they were all unconcious... and guarded by a Rikti. Rikti aside, perhaps there was more she could do at the moment then take her chances with shadow controlling ninjas and cyborg super agents.

She took a sprint towards the cage to check on the other hostages herself, seeing if any of them needed medical attention.

The doctor was dealing some pain, and grinning like a madman for it. She grabbed the leg of one of her fallen victoms and easily swung him into another one. The damages they were taking created wounds that betrayed their nature.

"Cyborgs. Fun." she said to herself, still clutching the agent's leg. She steered clear of the tear gas, but noticing there were still agents inside that needed a clobering threw the previous body at them. She imagined the sound of a bowling ball striking pins seeing the collision, which made her smirk to herself.

With most of the others engaged, Dr. Lore turned her attention to the van. She didn't see a driver, and there were various operation tables arranged nearby. She was about to unhook her medical kit from her belt to examine the more bloody looking ones when she felt something grab her leg.

Her head shot a quick glance down to see the familiar dark tendrils curl around her ankle and shin. With a suprised yelp, she slammed her other foot down on the shadowy offender before a seperate one grabbed that leg too. Her glance shot back up to the shadows of the warehouse with a growl, seeing not one of the mysterious ninja-clad man from before but several. And one had gotten his grip on her.

She pushed her weight down to her feet to keep from being knocked over, and grabbed one of the operating tables. Comprimising her weight for a brief moment she shuffled the table around so she was grabbing it with both hands, hoisted the whole thing over her head and flung it at her attacker.

Dr. Lore spied the seven or so suits looking around as if expecting more trouble, and cracked her knuckles as she decided to give it to them.

She dove down the hole and landed on her hands and feet before springing towards her prey. Seven? Too many? Probably wouldn't matter in a second. She forced one out of her way with a punch to get in the middle of the group, then slammed her foot down hard with extreme velocity to knock them all off their feet.

Stay... or move? Stay... or move? Dr. Lore's hand twitched after Rose ran off. She knew the mission was to gather evidence and avoid fighting, but a feeling deep down nudged her battle instincts slightly. There was almost no hiding it even though she tried; she was itching for a fight.

Reason was fighting for control, but the need for action was present as well.

"Come on." she urged the remaining party, heading for the warehouse as well. Unlike Rose and Stahlhund, she leapt up to the roof to see what made the thunderous blast. The discovery of the hole and the silent reminder of the force field around her gave her the bravado to walk up to the hole and peer inside.

Her reaction was hard to fight back.

"What in the...?!"

[ QUOTE ]
"Ask him if he can see anybody in the building. Robots, zombies and cyborgs usually don't havelife signatures." Millions proposed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dr. Lore nodded, and radioed the German machine back.

"Stahlhund, can you see anything or anyone at all? Any robots, cyborgs, roombas, anythi..." Then she watched as two people walked into the front entrance and she quickly cut herself off. Hopefully, they didn't hear that coming from Stahlhund's communicator.

There was nothing left she could think of to do except keep an eye on both the headquarters and the warehouse.

[ QUOTE ]
"Trouble?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"Possibly." Dr. Lore nodded, craning her head around the corner towards the warehouse. "Stahlhund said there's no signs of life he can pick up, the place is deserted, but it's completely spotless. I don't think it's a trap, but something is really wrong here..."

[ QUOTE ]
"Hm. Very good, Doctor. I shall do that." The german machine said.

[/ QUOTE ]

She turned away from the building with an approving nod, and started putting her coat back on. She started re-checking her equipment as everyone else started to gather. Her health revitalizer had only enough power for twenty heals and one resurection. She put the machine away, prepared to use it wisely.

[ QUOTE ]
"King's Row was filthy and looked to be composed entirely of condemned buildings. This Skyway place doesn't look much better." Millions said, striking up a conversation. "It's appalling to see the state of the city. The mainland must really be as bad as they said it was..."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Oh, it's not all bad..." Dr. Lore started, but before she could bring up an example:

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"Doctor, I see no one here. It's quite odd. The place looks like it was well kept. No dirt, or dust. I am not even sensing the signs of vermin. Everything is neat. I do not like it. I am moving towards the front doors. Stahlhund out"

[/ QUOTE ]

"..." She agreed. Too quiet, too clean, too deserted. It was still business hours too, and no holiday she was aware of. Something nagged at her that it was still too dangerous to just go inside, but nothing was going to be accomplished just standing here.

"Okay," she radioed back to Stahlhund, "watch yourself."

"Suit yourself, teapot." Dr. Lore smirked. "Put your cloak on, so you don't have to pay." Keeping her coat tucked into the crook of her arm, she walked to the train station and paid for her ticket in cash at the terminal. Before boarding, she picked up a newspaper from a vender (again, paid with cash) before boarding the train. The moment the doors opened, she sat down and opened the paper to appear to be reading but was using it for extra cover just in case.

The train soon arrived in Skyway City, and the doctor stood up and walked onto the exit platform. She flipped through a few more pages in the paper and appeared to still be reading as she walked. When she noticed the streets were a little less crowded, she made a leaping super jump over one building to save time before stopping a block away from Sedadyne headquarters. She pressed her back to the wall of one building before looking straight at the headquarters itself.

"There it is." she confirmed aloud, not sure if Stahlhund was still beside her. "Since you have that cloaking device, it'd be best if you could sneak inside or around the back and make sure the coast is clear for the rest of us. Sound good?"

Dr. Lore took the beacon, nodded in approval of it and placed it next to her medical device.

"Sounds good to me." she confirmed. "If there's nothing else, let's move out. I don't have a problem taking the train."