Kasoh

I have finished "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" by Stieg Larson. Compared to the first two, it does feel somewhat like a novel length denounment, but for some reason Larson makes the intracasies of Swedish Constitutional law fascinating.

"A Journey: My Political Life" by Tony Blair. Though utterly boring in some parts, the man has that dry British wit that made me laugh outloud. I learned quite a bit about British Government and other such things.

"Happy Ever After" By Nora Roberts. Book 4 of her bride quartet, I found it weaker than the previous books, with books 1 "Vision in White" and 3 "Savor the Moment" being the best of the lot.

"The Mark of Nerath" by Bill Slavicsek. A story of Human Cleric set in Dungeon & Dragon's new core setting it wasn't bad as stories set in the generic points of light setting get.

"Waiting for Barbarians" by E. M. Coetzee. A fascinating story about imperialism, torture, and humanity.

I don't even remember most of my books this week, but I can say:

New Avengers: Bendis you magnificent *******. Squirrel Girl is the Cage family nanny.

and Generation Lost's Maxwell Lord does not appreciate irony

are my two 'At least comic books are still funny on occasion' picks of the week.

If it appeals to you, simply think that Darrin Wade heard you were a villain who got things done and wanted to work with you on a project of a 'equal profitability'.

If the Carnival of Light comes in the 21-45 gap of Praetoria, it requires a schism between Vanessa and the rest of the Resistance and a complete loss of sanity to try to put something as non sequitor as an army of mask wearing psychic carnies in a place as McGrimDark as Praetoria.

Its a relic from when Praetoria was a goatee mirror universe and rather than rework the concept as DeVore's elite cadre of resistance troops or something, we have what it is: a single reference or two in a mission or three.

The expert nature of the powers leads one to think of Henry McCoy or Mr. Sinister from the X-men. Genius level intellects who specialize in the X-gene.

Such a person would likely have at least one doctorate in genetics, and perhaps an intensive study into psychology or social sciences to understand how manifestation of powers can affect an individual or a populace.

Now, as to the AT, anything is up for grabs. The handwavy nature of the mutation origin allows for any powerset combination really, but to emphasize the changing nature of the origin, I would stay away from sets like Willpower, Ninjitsu, AR, Pistols, Achery, Swords, Clubs, etc. Though a mutant could use these, then it begins to emphasize their trained talents and less their strange mutation.

((On the other hand, a mutant who whose sole mutation is the ability to change the color of their eyes, but fights crime as a MA/WP scrapper is something else entirely))

On that basis, and the lack of a scrapper or brute in your lineup, look at the elemental attack and armor sets, see what strikes you.

Another way to look at it is how the character looks:

There is the mutant who can pass as a human--how has that affected the focus of their studies of the mutant condition? Melee ATs would lean towards Super Reflexes or Regeneration

A monstrous mutation seperates the mutant from society, once they were normal but the genetic lottery gave them wings, a monster head. It increases the 'woe is me' factor if a character wishes to indulge in it. Spines, Elemental Armors and attack sets could be found here.

Anyway, hope that helps.

While his storytelling and directoral efforts are lacking, the man knows how to make money. I will not be surprised if this turns out to be popular.

I enjoyed it. The theatre at my location only had 3D, but it really went well with the picture. I would recommend it to most anyone.

And the best Visual pun I've seen in ages. Blue Blood! C'mon!

If I recall correctly, the Aqualad in the show is based of the new Aqualad who was introduced in the Brightest Day ongoing right now, who happens to already be black.

Deathstroke, who does have superpowers, but is closer to Steve Rogers than Superman has beaten the Flash by knowing where the Flash is going to be and attacking there.

Batman could likely beat any number of other metas in a similar fashion, but usually Superspeeding characters are not used to their full potential, or fan's perception of how useful superspeed is greatly overestimated.

I liked the old Judge Dredd movie, mostly because Armand Assante was so over the top...

But this could not suck too.

Looks good.

That seems...completely random.

I approve.

Its moderately interesting as the evolution of Batman goes, so I'll buy a couple of issues. I normally don't read Batman, just Batgirl and Red Robin, but I'll give it a go.

Sometimes ideas people have may be good ideas, but aren't in the direction where the Development team wants to allocate resources. By framing the suggestion in the form of a Booster, it provides incentive to the Development team to give the idea a second look. Presumably, some things are issue material and others are Booster material, though that's supposition on my part.

Here's the wikipedia entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_(Ultimate_Marvel)

“Yeah, that’s broken.” Kasoh Onnoroc: doctor, medical researcher, and occasional superhero inspected the surly teen’s arm. A clean break shouldn’t be too hard.

The gray pants still had blood on them, and he could smell the acrid smell of ‘dyne. He had put an obviously false name and address on his paperwork, and generally looked shifty—to use the technical term. Kasoh’s money was on the kid being a fresh Skull.

“How’d this happen, anyway? Super powered zealot?” Kasoh asked as he reached for his medical supplies.

“No, it was a freaking monster! This…huge…thing came out of the sewers and tossed me and my buds around!”

“Huge thing. Right. And it came out of the sewers? Which one?”

“Over on East 23rd, by the liquor store. Lost don’t bum around there, and the Cots stay away. Figured a good place to you know…hang.”

“Of course. I’ll be right back with the plaster.”

Kasoh stepped out of the examination room into his clinic’s hall. Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed. “Alice? It’s Doc K. No, no you’re fine—blood work came back clean as could be, all things considered. I need you to do me a favor. Got a lead on something fishy. Sewers off of East 23rd. Yes, that’s the Row. I’m busy with a patient—No, a kid with a broken arm. That certificate is more than just a pick up—you know what? No. I’m not going to be the subject of a teenage girl’s ridicule. Just check it out for me, would you?”

Alice Springs hung up her phone and looked out at the nighttime ambiance in Founders Falls. The blonde teenager smiled and waved at some passers by as she jumped into the air, quickly flying into the night sky. First things first, she had to go get her costume. Probably the red one, because the gray one didn’t look so good at night, even if the gray one was in this season’s materials.

As she adjusted her costume’s skirt, she considered finding some leggings; just because sewers were really gross, but her last set that looked good with this uniform got torn while fighting those crazy knife guys in Croatoa. Alice put on some makeup, really believing in the empowering feeling of coloring her lips.

Satisfied with her appearance, Alice hoped it wasn’t an emergency, because then she’d feel absolutely terrible, but Doc hadn’t mentioned an emergency, and he was annoyingly precise with labels, like it really mattered if he was hypothesizing or guessing… honestly…shaking her head, Alice turned on her beacon and called in, “Alpha Source going on duty, investigating a lead in Kings Row.”

As Alpha Source set landed on East 23rd, she wondered briefly why Doc liked this place so much. In her opinion, there wasn’t much to like about King’s Row. It was broken down, dirty, and there wasn’t a single designer boutique in the entire zone. Like when the War Walls went up, they just kind of sealed away the slummy part of town and tried to forget about it.

The sewer grate in question was hanging open, and Alpha stepped through, crinkling her nose at the awful, terrible smell that accompanied the brackish water. It was undignifying how much time she spent in the sewers. The dull yellow lights that lined the walls cast long shadows of pipes and blocks amidst the churning of water and omnipresent hiss of steam pipes.

Her booted feet hovering off the ground, Alpha crept forward, and as she moved, she concentrated and bright green motes began to glow around her, particles of high intensity radiation clinging to things in the air.

Empty spaces can be quite dangerous. Especially if you expect something. Every odd noise becomes the shuffling of zombies or the murmur of heavily armed gang members. Several times, Alpha Source spun around and almost zapped a moving shadow with some neutrinos.

After traveling down several hundred yards of dank sewers, in a small intersection of passageways Alpha came across the remains of a fight. Skulls, six of them, were sprawled out over the small concrete platform, in various stages of hurt. Bullet casings and broken sledgehammers were tossed randomly amongst the fallen men.

Alpha Source let out a gasp when she saw them, most of them groaning or moaning as they tried to recover. Rushing forward, the young blonde called out, “I’m Alpha Source, is anyone badly hurt?”

She turned to the closest Skull, a boy who couldn’t be much older than her, who had his knees tucked close to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. With a burst of radiation, she could close small wounds, but healing gang members couldn’t be a smart thing, right?

“Who did this?” she asked.

So tightly wrapped in his fetal position, the Skull didn’t answer Alpha Source, or perhaps was just too terrified to give voice to it. He winced and whimpered at her touch, and Alpha looked around nervously. This wasn’t something that usually happened. If a hero had done this, the Skulls would have been arrested already. None of the Skulls responded to her questions, or her prodding, so she sent them to the hospital via arrest tags.

Hovering in the cross of the streams of filthy water Alpha looked for any indicator of which way to go. Staring intently into the dark recesses of each path, she never noticed the slithering under the water.
Her shrill shriek almost gave the slimy tentacle pause, but it wound itself around her leg anyway, pulling the young girl into the filthy water. Immediately, she let out a powerful blast of radiation in all directions, and the smell of burning flesh gave some hope.

A second tentacle sprang from the water, this wrapping around an arm. Together, they pulled Alpha to her knees, and she thrashed wildly in the water. She screamed again when she felt the gangly limbs pull her deeper into the sewers. Using lasers of pure energy from her eyes, she zapped the one holding her arm, and it writhed away, allowing Alpha to fly back out of water, fighting against the single limb trying to pull her down.

When she had built up enough energy to blast the tentacle wrapped around her leg with another blast from her eyes, the second tentacle came back, slamming her into the wall before wrapping around her neck.

Dazed, Alpha felt the warm wriggling flesh constricting around her neck and screamed, though as soon as she was pulled under the sewage, the sewers grew silent once more.

In any other circumstances, Alpha Source might be disgusted and annoyed by being drug through several hundred yards of Paragon City sewer water, but even if she could draw more than a half breath, when face to face with the source of the creature that drug her across the sewers, there wasn’t a very coherent thought running through her mind.

In no time at all, Alpha Source found herself tried at the arms and legs, her limbs kept taught and spread out, the pain barely registering as she looked upon the multi layered mouth, with rows and rows of dark pointy teeth that gnashed and gnarled as it drooled viscous.

She’d stared down Devouring Earth monsters, battled hydra slime creatures and giant octopuses, she shouldn’t be so bothered by this thing, but the dark writhing mass of it, where spindly grasping limbs would flail about darting in and out of vision kept her from focusing entirely on something she could ground herself on.

Grotesque came to mind, but it was more than that. A dozen bulbous eyes stared at her, shiny and wide and all around her, large writhing shapes wriggled in the shadows of the room where it made its lair and each time she kicked at the tentacle holding her slithering whispers could be heard and another tentacle would reach out of the darkness and try to restrain her.

The focused gaze of the…thing’s many eyes kept Alpha twisting away, recoiling from its gaze, and it seemed that no matter how she turned, another eye was staring at her.

“Let me go!” she screamed, punctuating the command with a strong burst of radiation. When the tentacles pulled tighter on her, Alpha just shrieked when she was dragged closer to the monster’s mouth, and she could feel its fetid breath wash over her. Alpha gagged as drool spilled into her hair, running down her face.

One eye stuck shut from crazy monster drool, Alpha tried to look at the thing, trying to form a single useful thought. She didn’t want to die.

The gnashing maw of its mouth drew her attention, and Alpha screamed again.

She didn’t want to be eaten.

Normally, she directed radiation with her hands, but with terror firing all her synapses Alpha Source began to pour radiation out of her body in every direction. The radiation counter that she used a chest emblem began to change color, going from white to red, and then darkening to black as she lost all control over her powers.

She couldn’t see her skin become almost transparent as radiation leaked from her pores, The sheer unimaginable terror she felt kept her from seeing much anything at all, The room began to glow brightly, and whatever had been crawling in the shadows disappeared until Alpha Source accelerated her own radiation beyond safe levels, and the air around her exploded in a nuclear haze.

Bruised, drained, and head still hazy, Alpha woke up on a soft bed, staring at a white florescent ceiling lamp. Next to her was Doc, his one eye looking worried.

“It…it was…” Terrible, horrible, haunting, creepy, disturbing, “…wasn’t real, was it?” she asked quietly.

Kasoh frowned, then shook his head, “It was from the Neth—“

Alice threw herself at Kasoh, cutting him off as she cried, clutching to his white doctor’s lab coat, and the guilty looking man took her in his arms, whispering useless platitudes and apologies.

It wasn't the best time for there to be a Resistance member to actually *look* at his surroundings, but even though she was annoyed at his exceptional eyesight, The tenets of the ninja moved her past her base emotions.

Never strike in anger.

Lady Praetoria's wave of energy provided a suitable distraction in lieu of shadows.

Adapt to ever changing circumstances.

Darting forward, Inevitable Fist leapt towards the startled soldiers, her hands shone with a bright pink glow as one hand reached back, slamming forward into the chest of a Resistance soldier, shattering his chest armor and dropping him in a single stroke.

Shots rang out and splotches of red appeared on her white robe.

Bear your pain in silence.

Inevitable Fist moved onto the next soldier, lashing out with a palm strike to stagger him and a roundhouse kick to send him spinning to the ground. Without pause Inevitable Fist moved onto the next available target.

Unyielding resolve has no conquerer.

She finished the brawl with a Heavy Fist, worse for wear, and turned to Arek, bowing slightly, "No one should be forced to suffer incompentent assistance. You're welcome."

Inevitable Fist lowered herself into a fighting stance, a slight weave a tell tale sign of how much the combat with Arek's squad had hurt.

Inevitable Fist prodded the laser burn on her side. Overconfidant, she had tackled a large group of Resistance fighters and she took a wound in doing so.

It wasn't too serious. The ninja stepped out of the alleyway in time to see things suddenly take a turn for the insane. Not that this turn surprised her, There were never enough constants in the world, and a distinct lack of sanity.

Irelevant, Inevitable Fist chastised herself. Prioritize. Large robot attacking civillians, Resistance speech maker, or the smatterings of rebel activity.

Safeguarding civillians was a low priority, rioting wasn't so much fun if there was danger involved. They got whatever they deserved.

The speech maker was an obvious figurehead for the attack. Taking him out of the picture might quell the riot. Though at this stage, Inevitable Fist did not consider that likely.

Eliminating the smattering of Resistance troops that impeded the PPD response would assist in putting down the riot, but her specialty was single target assassination.

All the possible targets were already being engaged, so where could she apply her force to the greatest effect?

Taking to the rooftops, Inevitable Fist began to approach the speech maker and his Resistance good squad. She took caution on her approach. The art of the ninja gave her abilities far superior to that of lesser men, but as the wound to her side reminded her with every leap, it was not infallible.

Upon the rooftop, she watched the large blue...Resistance member threaten the PPD precinct. Not her problem. Still, while he and the highly visible meta debated morality she could take out the Resistance back up who had stopped firing.

Though my tastes in bios lean towards the irreverent, these are some of my less amusing ones. I've lost some of the names to other people on some servers , but these characters existed at one time:

Cohen's Cat Claws/Regen Stalker
Cohen, Stanely H. (1922- ). American biochemist who determined that DNA molecules could be cut, seperated and joined, thus paving the way for genetic engineering. Sadly enough, the only thing science has been able to do with this knowledge is create Cat girls to fill the harems of rich men with barnyard preferences and Anime fans with tastes for Furry. Created in a lab two years ago, Cohen's Cat was sold to a young man with good credit references. After weeks of being used and abused like property, sleeping on a pile of dirty clothes in some unwashed, rude, antisocial twenty-something anime fan's parent's basement Cohen's Cat escaped the clutches of its master with a certain deadly finality. Done with dead end relationships, Cohen's Cat supports herself by contract killing. Scientists and Anime fans for free.

The Astral Assassin Claws/Energy Stalker
People have looked to the heavens for answers since time eternal, and over the ages the ones who have recieved answers have been called many things: Prophets, Messiahs, Heretics, and Lunatics. I take none of those titles for myself, know only that the stars have spoken to me, and they said, "Kill".

Once, I merely studied the stars. Astronomer Janice Sanderson longed to unravel the mysteries of the Stars Above when late one night during a meteor shower I heard the most beautiful sounds, the longer I listened to the harmonious music, the clearer its message became.

Certain people are born with ties to the heavens, ties that give them power, and put great destinies before them. When these beings go too long squandering the power of the stars, someone must return the energies to their rightful place, else the music of the heavens will cease to be...and I do not know if I could remain sane if the only beautiful thing in the world was taken from it.

Scatterstar Umbral Blast/Umbral Aura Warshade
When I was meandering my way through my bachelors I volunteered for some psych tests, those crazy professors will do anything for their PhD you know, and it was usually entertaining. After it all, the prof gave us a profile that told me everything I already knew about myself except that I was must have filled in a blank wrong because he claimed I was forgiving and nuturing of all things, and my pals had quite a few laughs about that one at the bar.

And when I said those profs will do anything for a PhD I guess that means selling psychological profiles to interest groups, because two weeks later I get a phone call and heard the words Kheldian, Nictus, and Symbiot more times in twenty minutes than I ever had in my life. Well its turns out I *am* forgiving and nurturing, because even after hearing about these reformed Nictus, I agreed to meet one. Well Iabaer isn't one for talking but he sure does want prove himself as a good guy soemthing fierce, so here we are.

The Magisterium was getting full. Lots of people who appeared quite unhappy. It was unlikely they all got the nerve to get up here and express their displeasure at the moments the Magisterium’s two Praetors were off somewhere else. That spoke quite heavily of conspiracy, not coincidence.

She heard the call for Powers Division and was content to ignore it for a few more minutes. The Inevitable Fist did not dance to the drum of the PPD. Instead she watched the riot grow.

The usual PPD response was disorganized and being hindered by something. Not the citizens, even the greenest PPD grunt could handle four or five of Emperor Cole’s ‘beloved’ pets. No, they weren’t the problem…

Ah. The Resistance. Now that was something worthy of her time. Under her half mask, Inevitable Fist smirked. She stood and concentrated on the growing mass of people, thinking of good places the Resistance would ambush PPD response. Little did they realize that their traps were about to be turned against them.

“This is Inevitable Fist. Responding to Powers Division all call.” She considered using a less secure frequency, so that TPN might overhear—avoiding news cameras made it more challenging, but the element of surprise against the Resistance was more important.

Leaping down from her perch, Inevitable Fist hit the ground running, moving quickly and silently, being unseen by the angry masses, despite her white and pink robes. They didn’t understand the proper aspects of stealth, the rare and esoteric art of the Ninja.

She would teach the Resistance something about that today. With her fists. Few things were more rewarding than teaching.

Names rarely come to me, but when they do, I make the character as soon as possible, my brightest gem among these is the Dual Pistols/Kinetics Corrupter, Rushin' Roulette.