Lady_Cobra

[In the corner of an abandoned factory building, cuddled up on a bed of old newspapers, a white-clad figure stirs, and then sits up abruptly. For a brief moment she appears confused, but then seems to regain her composure. With a faint sigh, she assumes the lotus position and wills her mind to block out the coldness and dampness of her surroundings. After a while, when she has found mental balance, her hand reaches out for the torchlight she knows is hidden next to her. She turns it on, and - after making sure that nobody else seems to be lurking around in this part of the building - starts scribbling away in an old notebook.]

Jessica, Jessica - again this strange dream haunts me.

I wonder if you can imagine what it feels like - dreaming of a warm and cosy bed, and then waking up and realising that you're actually cuddled up on the floor in a cold and deserted factory - no, stupid me, I guess you can't.

I have still not had much luck in my attempt to find you. In my search, I have gone to places that would make even the Tsoo caves attractive in comparison, and I have met evil and heartlessness in more forms than I care to remember. Sure enough, many people around here claim to know you and to be able to help me, but the offers for help all come with a price attached. Unfortunately creativity, greed and various forms of depravity appear to be traits far more common than any degree of credibility among the people I have met here so far.

There are possible exceptions.

A few nights ago, I spoke with an old sailor at a bar. He claimed to know of Jessica Chang, and appeared to be too drunk to be trying to con me. Unfortunately, he passed out and was hauled away before I could get anything useful out of him. I haven't been able to find him again since.

Dark Animator may be the closest thing I have to a friend around here. He seems more noble and deep than most, and I honestly believe that he might want to help me if he could. However, he claims to be struggling with memory losses, and - at least for now - does not seem capable of telling me anything about you. Of course, I should be mindful that Dark's apparent helpfulness could just be a deception, and I will do wise to keep my guard.

Greenbuck also appears to be a better person than many of the other cutthroats around here. If noting else, I feel confident that the promise of a suitable monetary compensation could persuade him to help me if he could - unless of course, he were to receive a better offer from someone else.

The others I am still not sure about. Spidergirl Rika seems nice enough (she hates it when I call her that) and her punks quite useful, and then there is that hero Nitetsu, who says she comes from Paragon. I haven't seen her for a while though and some of the others said that she had been shot when she tried to get help from the Police. Touchdown, the big Guy remember? - he has been absent for a while as has the others, and I fear that they may have been caught and sent back to prison. At least, I guess I don't have to worry about getting my eyelids sewn together as long as Wax is away!

[The white-clad frame pauses, attempts to supress a shiver, and then coughs, flinching as the sound echoes through the building. She then resumes her writing.]

I think I am catching a cold Jessica - as you might have guessed, this is not the healthiest of environments. I shall hope to soon find better accomodation, but for the time being this will have to do, as I fear the Tsoo are still after me.

I had better rest now, it will be a busy day tomorrow - hopefully one that will lead to some kind of positive development in my search for you.

Goodnight Jessica Chang. I hope that wherever you are, you shall sleep well.

[She carefully hides away the notebook, puts out the light and then cuddles up on the newspapers, hoping that perhaps the nice dream will return to her.]

((Here goes the – very sad and long – back story for Lady Cobra. WARNING, on the odd chance that somebody hasn’t guessed the whole thing already, the story contains SPOILERS for the COV IC plot.))

[Ministry headquarters late afternoon. Two men are engaged in conversation. Both of them are dressed in black suits; one standing, one sitting behind a desk. The seated man leans forward across the desk and looks at the other, his ice-blue eyes skeptical]

“Tell me again why we should consider this Lady Cobra as Militia material?”

“Well sir – the reasons are plenty. She is very reliable, trustworthy, a skilled fighter, a dedicated hero - a celebrity hero even, whose status, if played right, could boost the Militia’s reputation…”

“Excuse me William, but would it not be more correct to state that she “was” all of those things – emphasis on the “has been”? I mean…for heaven’s sake…she’s been retired for how many years?”

“About 14 years sir, and yes, she may be a bit rusty, but back when she originally came here from Thailand she really was the “Next Big Thing” of her generation. Fighting street-crime and violence, fighting organized crime, undercover investigating, natural disaster aid, charity performances, rescuing cats from trees – you name it, she did it – and did it well! Add in the fact that she was very kind and attractive and the allure of the complete mystery regarding her true identity, and it was no wonder she became a darling of both the public and the media – a true costumed celebrity!”

“And remind me again why this crime-fighting “prodigy” of yours then suddenly retired.”

“Well, it is a complicated and rather sad story. Some elements of it are based on speculation and rumors and have never been finally verified…”

“Give it to me anyway…”

“Yes sir. As you may recall, it all started when it was suddenly and quite surprisingly announced that she was getting married…remember sir; she was hardly 20 at the time and had until then kept her private life completely hidden from the public. Why she would suddenly decide to marry a much older man and announce it publicly had everyone baffled and speculating!”

“So who was the lucky *******? A Chinese billionaire or something if I remember correctly?”

“That’s right sir - a character almost as mysterious as Lady Cobra herself, known only as Mr. Chang and under investigation by us at the time. Needless to say, much speculation arose as to why a dedicated young hero would suddenly marry a suspected crime lord all but 40 years older than her. Some speculated that the arrangement was not entirely voluntary on the part of Lady Cobra. A common theory at the time was that she might have been doing some investigations of her own in respect of Mr. Chang, and that somehow, he may have discovered her true identity or gained some other hold on her. For a happy bride, her smile certainly looks a little pale on the official photos.”

[The man called William hands the other an old copy of Paragon Fame, the magazine that had won the bid for the exclusive rights to report from the wedding]

“Ah…a pretty girl indeed…much too young for that old fart of course…and I see she was married in her mask and costume…oh, and am I right to say that the costume looks a little tight across the stomach?”

“Your eyes are sharp as ever sir. Indeed it soon transpired that she was pregnant, and she announced that she would be taking a break from her crime-fighting activities. Later, it was announced that she had given birth to a daughter – Jessica.”

[William hands his superior an old copy of Celebrity Weekly, who had managed to secure the exclusive rights to report from baby Jessica’s 2-year birthday]

“Ah…such a lovely little child…now the next turn of events I remember – a terrible tragedy!”

“Yes sir…the Jessica Chang kidnapping – like the Lindbergh baby, only bigger! As you know, baby Jessica was never found and Lady Cobra retired and shunned the public eye, supposedly devastated from grief. It was later reported that she had left her husband. Then, after a couple of years, she suddenly left Paragon – presumably to go back to Thailand!”

“Oh dear…how could she leave like that…I mean…it must have been like definitively abandoning her lost daughter…”

“I know sir – it did seem illogical, and of course new speculations arose. One rumor that I have heard from…erm…semi-independent sources is that baby Jessica was kidnapped by Tsoo in order to force Lady Cobra to retire, when she was getting a little too close on their tail for comfort. She had no choice but to officially comply. However, working undercover in disguise, she reportedly gained knowledge of where baby Jessica was being kept and embarked on an attempted rescue mission. However, according to my sources, the Tsoo were warned off at the last moment and managed to move Jessica, and Lady Cobra’s rescue attempt was thwarted. The Tsoo were furious that she had violated the arrangement and literally ran her out of town, threatening to kill Jessica if Lady Cobra did not go back to Thailand!”

“Good heavens…the poor girl…but why come back now…I mean, it’s been like 13, 14 years?”

“Officially, she has refused to comment on it. However, from what we have learnt from other sources, it may be possible to arrive at what could be an explanation.”

“Well?”

“Recently, we received reports of disturbances ripping through the Talos Island underground fight scene – the clandestine so-called “Naked Fist Society”. As you may recall, they are in control of much of the illegal fight scene around here. Until very recently, the N.F.S. as they are commonly called had been all but completely dominated by the Tsoo…”

“Ah yes…the Mr. Po file right?”

“Right you are sir. We are investigating this Mr. Po, but we suspect that he may just be a straw man for someone further up the chain. Anyway, the Tsoo had dominated the N.F.S. due to their breed of young fighters, allegedly kept in caves and trained to fight practically from their infancy. Some of them are said to be real prodigies…”

“And the link to Lady Cobra?”

“Well, about two months ago, there seems to have been an upset with the Tsoo. Some of the child prodigies launched a rebellion against their captors and managed to escape from the caves where they had been kept…”

“I repeat – and the link to Lady Cobra?”

“Coming right up sir – the link lies with the escapees. We think Jessica Chang might have been one of them!”

“Good heavens!”

“Indeed sir – and we suspect that Lady Cobra might now have somehow learnt of the escape and decided to return to try to find Jessica before the Tsoo get to her!”

“But…this Jessica…she’s what – 14, 15? There’s no way she could have escaped the Tsoo for this long!”

“She is rumored to be quite…erm…resourceful sir. We have intelligence that shows heavy Tsoo activity in the weeks after the alleged escape, and reports of a number of violent confrontations – all of them ending with the Tsoo patrols on the losing side!”

“But even if all these speculations are true, all I see is a disaster waiting to happen. How could a rampaging heroine mother out to save her child possibly benefit the Militia?”

“Think of it sir. She will stop at nothing to save Jessica. We could use her dedication to our advantage! Also, if we offer her the support of the Militia, we might get the opportunity of using the whole thing as a publicity stunt!”

“I can certainly see the potential in that – but what if something goes wrong!”

“If something goes wrong – well sir, might I suggest that we worry about that if and when we come to it? I will of course take standard precautions to make sure we reserve our positions in a prospective fallback scenario sir.”

[The superior sits silently for a while, pondering on what to decide. Finally, with a sigh, he leans forward again and pierces William with a steely gaze.]

“All right then – make sure the “cover our [censored]” procedures are in place and send the poor woman the damn letter.”

Yay! On-line and just taking Lady C for a spin

It sure looks like it - unless something goes really wrong, application of the new patch should be finished in 5 minutes - that really was fast compared to what I had feared

I feel awful to keep spamming scrappers on the Militia, but the way Lady C's story ties in with the COV-plot, she would simply not work as anything other than an MA

On another note, the download timer for COV on my new PC now says 2:41 hours left, so it's nowhere near as bad as I had feared - of course there will be some more time to apply once the download is finished, but I had feared I would be looking at 20+ hours

((Wow - just to get things straight - did all the Militia get the possibility to overhear the conversation between Saff and Sabrina by accident??) ((And poor Sabrina doesn't realise?? Does Amber??)) ((In any event, a great dilemma on how to react ))

((Nice Story Stalingrad - welcome on board ))

Great - I will keep an eye out,

Should we assume IC-wise that these new "reserve"-members also got a letter asking them to join the Militia?

Sounds great

I finally got my new PC installed today, and now all that remains is to install COX and download the patches when I get back home tonight.

Depending on how long that takes, I should be up and going and in game around Saturday evening, Sunday afternoon, and/or Tuesday if that would suit you (Monday is COV IC team-up). My new toon's name translates into "Lady Cobra" (which is her in-game name). I hope to see the new Tankers around.

It seems like a good idea to have some extra tankers in the team - I just hope it won't mean goodbye to any of the existing characters, but more be a case of players switching a bit

Also, I certainly agree that nobody should leave out of fear of "falling behind" - it should be easy to help Hyper/Blitz or anyone else missing out a few times to catch up.

Finally, since some of you may be starting up some new characters, would it be possible that I could tag along with another scrapper? I know that there's no shortage of scrappers at the moment, but this is a character tied into my COV IC character, and I think it would be of help for the COV plot (poorly explained, but I'm afraid to provide too many spoilers).

She's currently at level 2 and would love to give the new tankers a hand

Email from Meriam to Sabrina:

Hi S,

I just got out of bed - I am feeling sooo much better today!

I hope you're not too angry with me? I really wasn't feeling too good last night - I've never been sick like that before - I'm so relieved to have been cured from that nasty plague!

Anyway, if you are still angry with me, do you think a shopping spree could be a cure? And perhaps afterwards we can go and watch Amber sing - I can't wait to hear her with a microphone in her hand! Some of the others might be coming too - it could be really fun!

BTW, I loved your new outfit - you are so beautiful!

Hope you're not still mad at me,

Love Meriam

Letter from Meriam's mother (the former Masked Angel):

Dear members of the Militia,

Please allow me to express my sincere gratitude for your kind assistance to my daughter Meriam.

Needless to say, I was shocked to learn that she had contracted a nasty disease after venturing alone into the sewers. However, listening to Meriam's account of how you all helped and supported her throughout the ordeal, truly touched my heart.

I must admit that I had my doubts when Meriam was first contacted by the Militia. My daughter is young and inexperienced, and in my mind had no place fighting alongside heroes much more skilled and powerful than her.

Hearing how you fearlessly joined Meriam in her quest to find a cure, and fought alongside her in the face of overwhelming odds, often setting aside concerns for your own safety to help her, I now realise how wrong I was. My daugther is very lucky to have you at her side as friends and companions, and I now feel confident that being a member of the Militia will enable Meriam to grow - as a person and as a hero.

Thank you again; I am forever indebted to you,

Kindest regards,

Marjaneh Keser

P.s. You will probably be pleased to know that Meriam is now feeling much better after a good, long sleep.

Hi all,

First a belated happy birthday to Max.

Second, thanks for a great session last night and sorry again about "forcing the direction" of events due to Angel's unexpected contraction of the Vahz plague just before the session started.

Adjusting levels seems like a good idea, so apart from a prospective shopping session with Sabrina and an evening out to go and hear Amber sing, I promise to keep Angel quarantined until next week

Shadow Whisper probably will not be able to make it tonight, but should be back in good shape for next Monday.

Congratulations to Stasis for the good news about your uncle

If we are getting cable, Meriam would opt for sports-channels, Sci-fi, Discovery and National Geographic - she will politely excuse herself if the boys are watching playboy

Meriam will pop by at Stargazer - perhaps after a quick look at the base, as she hasn't seen it yet

Hi Wyrlock,

Shadow Whisper is my COV alias , and as mentioned yesterday the Militia will be meeting tonight at 7.30 BST - look for Masked Angel (another me ) if you want to give it a try.

Meriam will be up for any story arc suggested/available.

I hope to be there tomorrow on a borrowed PC - my own new one will be delivered Friday but then needs to wait for the installaton team to contact us

Hope to see you all Thursday

I have managed to negotiate the borrowing of my dad's PC for tonight and hope to be there

Hmmm...difficult for me to vote on - Meriam liked Blitz very much, but hasn't really had the chance to get to know Hyper yet...so I had better abstain from voting - perhaps you could keep both?

Hi, just to answer on behalf of Masked Angel - Meriam certainly hasn't killed anyone and would try her best to avoid using excessive force, but if the circumstances were grave enough or by accident, I suppose it could theoretically happen (e.g. situations like in the classic dilemma: could it be justified to torture a terrorist to receive information to prevent a nuclear bomb from going off and thereby saving thousands of innocent people etc...)

To complicate matters a bit, Meriam's mother (the former Masked Angel) might be carrying the burden of a dark secret on her shoulders...

Dear all,

As those of you who are also in the Militia may have read already, my PC has burnt, and as I will not be able to borrow my dad's PC for tonight, Shadow Whisper will not be joining today. I hope to be back on a borrowed PC for Wednesday though.

Also, I have ordered a new PC, which will hopefully revolutionalise (is that a British word?) my COV gaming experience, and reduce lag to next to nothing. I don't know much about PCs, but COV runs nicely on my dad's PC almost without lag (even grandville), and my new PC should be even better (our IT-department referred to it as a "monster" so it can't be all that bad ).

looking forward to being back in game and seeing you all soon.

I am the supreme noob, no doubt about that!

However, good news is that I may be able to get over the problems on my dad's PC by editing the firewall settings, so I may be back in action soon.

Also, I just ordered a new "super"-PC for myself which will de delivered in 7-10 days, so please don't count Masked Angel out of the action yet

As regards flaws, this is very much the way I see it too,

I somehow always have much more fun picking weaknesses and flaws than powers when designing RP-characters; perhaps because I have so many of my own to choose from

Hmmm...interesting,

Perhaps the best way for me to answer the first question would be to use a RL-analogy of giving contributions to charity. When you do so, you know that it is only a small contribution compared to the enormity of e.g. a hunger disaster, and you know that there are large corporations and states that can give much more than you, but you still want to contribute to doing good by whatever limited means you can.

The same motivation would apply to some of my less powerful heroes. They may not be able to defeat Hamidon, but stopping a mugging is still a good deed.

As regards the second question, I probably like playing the less powerful characters best. However, I do have a couple of potentially very powerful characters who can be quite fun to play, because of the limitations and dilemmas they might be made to face. As an example, one of my characters is basically the spirit of the goddess Inanna trapped in the body of a schoolgirl, and the contrast between being Queen of Heaven and Earth on the one side and having to write an essay for school on the other side, for me provides for some interesting RP/IC-conflicts.

I don't know if any of this makes any sense