Mister Nice Guy
1. Introduction
2. Prologue
3. Origin
4. Costume 1 The Court Jester
5. Costume 2 Gravedigger
6. Costume 3 Crey Overload
7. Costume 4 Vanguard Soldier
8. Costume 5 Recomposed Champion
Introduction
A classic story of revenge, with a twist at every point. Instead of a mundane family man, Keith was a different kind of family man. Instead of direct betrayal, his suffering was a punishment for his own failure. Instead of getting his revenge directly, he got his revenge stolen away from him, and then channeled his anger for selfless reasons. Finally, unlike most revenge stories, this one is mostly about escaping the cycle of rage itself, as the soul devouring anger was both a prison and an empowering friend which Keith had a love/hate relationship with throughout the story.
Prologue
Keith Jones. Father of two daughters, Michelle (Mickey, age 7) and Patricia (Pooh bear, age 4) both loved their father, who would dress up like a clown for them on their birthdays. Husband to Catherine Smith Jones, and still very much in love. Successful lawyer with a lovely and spacious home, three vehicles (a 4 door Mercedes, a Porsche and a Cadillac SUV) and a summer cottage on the lake. Keith and Cathy and Michelle and Patricia were what most people refer to in the term keeping up with the Jones'. Good-looking, a nice house in Atlas Park and cars and summer cottage and good job and otherwise very normal people who don't stand out in a crowd.
The one thing that enabled the Jones' to live so well, especially in a town as consumed with violence as Paragon City, was that Keith was the exclusive defense lawyer for Vince Marcone, who was high up in the family. This meant that the Jones' were well protected, and that Keith was both well paid and got some extra catering to by virtue of his associations. However, those who the Marcones clashed with especially the Brotherhood and the Skulls, saw Keith as one of the guys who kept the Family strong by keeping their bosses out of prison. So Keith Jones would fit the bill nicely as a character who got kidnapped and needs rescuing from a hero in a low level mission.
Origin
Well Keith had a flawless track record of success. That's why he was doing so well. But like anyone who is undefeated, Keith eventually suffered a loss in court. This would normally be fine, except that this one loss was a big one one that cost the Marcones billions in superadine and put his boss, Vince, in prison for the next ten years. So the quiet order to make Keith suffer wasn't argued with at all. Now the police and the other, more super-powered, enemies of the Family were quite sure that Keith would be targeted, so they kept their eye on the Jones' and on the major players of the Family, looking for an opportunity to catch them in the act without the Jones' getting hurt. The Family knew this, so they came up with a plan.
A lie was invented, and quietly relayed to the Brotherhood and the Skulls: Keith threw the case on purpose, because he was poised to take some measure of control within the Marcone family. Further, some in the Family were a little upset about this (an outsider in charge inexcusable!) and are pulling back their protection. Thus this was an ideal chance to take out Keith, both to remove this (temporary) head of the Marcones and to strike some fear and/or respect in the Family as a whole. So the Skulls went after Keith and the Blood Brothers went after the Jones household. The mission: to turn Keith's life into hell.
Keith was cornered in an alley in Galaxy City by the Skulls, where they viciously handled him for over an hour. They took whatever he was carrying and (by being selective with their weapons) covered his body head to toe in bruises, and every inch of skin with frostbite (using canned air). Meanwhile, some observers from the Family looked away from their telescope and made a call to a doctor at the hospital. This was only the beginning...
Keith crawled to the street, begged for a passer-by to call him an ambulance and got to the hospital. He was going deep into shock and suffering a cardiac arrest, and required an epinephrine shot when he overheard some police enter the ER, talking about his house being on fire.
The doctor, David Wong, had connections with the Tsoo (and thus the family) and earned his bonus by mixing some special cocktail in with the epinephrine. The 5% Superadine, 45% Rage and 50% Epinephrine only partially pulled Keith out of his heart attack, but it woke him up in a screaming frenzy. As a side effect, his face seized up in a permanent snarl which (to this day) cannot be removed. He fought his way through the hospital staff and sprinted the 2 miles to his burning house in Atlas Park.
There he saw the firefighters, struggling and failing to fight the fire. Cranked up on Rage and Adrenaline, Keith flew past them (getting soaked by the fire hose) and into the burning blaze, looking for his family. Inside, he saw the charred remains of his wife, crumpled in front of the door to the basement. In tub of the downstairs bathroom, not yet touched by the fire, were his daughters, cut up and bled out in the tub, and the blood was used as paint to Desecrate the basement with symbols of The Brotherhood.
Horrified, yet overcome by the chemically-induced aggression pounding through his veins, Keith slowly and with shaking hands took the blood of his daughters and made the only comforting gesture he could pull from a rage-tainted memory he painted his face up like a clown, just like for their birthdays... the one thing that made them happy would be the face he would wear from now on. He then walked out of his burning house, aching for revenge, his bloody clown face forever twisted in rage. He walked through the fire fighter crew without a word, took an axe from their truck, and headed to the nearest Brotherhood hideout he knew of without looking back. Keith's life from thence forward was nothing but unending anger and pain.
During his bloody rampage of revenge on the gangs of Paragon City, Keith found the time to put an add in the personals of the Paragon newspaper and it's been running ever since that day. The add goes thus:
I've always been kind and generous, giving to charity, helping my neighbors. I say hello to people on the street, show courtesy to strangers and I'm a loving father and husband.
Or at least I was.
Now I wear the blood of my children on my face. Now people run from my snarling glare, which can never go away. Now I'll never make another penny in my life, and thus, sadly, charities will see nothing more from me. And it's all because some people got upset that I was less than perfect.
But can I forgive you.
I'm 'Mister Nice Guy', and I look forward to meeting every last one of you who made me what I've become. All of you who expressed yourself by burning my wife to death, torturing and robbing me in a dirty alley, pumping me full of illegal drugs like Superadine and Rage, butchering my daughters like pigs and burning my house down... I want to meet you all. I want to meet everyone involved, everyone who approved, everyone who calls those perpetrators 'comrades'. I want to show you that can I forgive you all.
So if you see me and my cheerful clown smile, and I'm carrying my axe and I fix my gaze upon you, just know that I want to forgive you for bringing sorrow, pain and death to good people. I carry my axe as a symbol, you see: I just want to bury the hatchet. So please, let's all meet so I can bury the hatchet, again, and again, and again, until my forgiveness sinks in.
[u]Effects[u]:
* The frostbite and bruises and drugs have made Keith's body feel only pain, on every inch of his body. The only advantage is that nothing hurts him more than he already hurts, so harming him with clubs and knives and gunfire and electrocution and burning simply doesn't phase him. Whatever condition makes the effects of the drugs persist also prevents his body from recovering from this painful state.
* The drug cocktail has made him increasingly sturdy, and thus very difficult to hurt. He is now in a permanent state of maximum flight-or-fight, and thus is incredibly strong, fast, tireless and durable (and angry). It could be something about the mix, or it could just be how it works with his body chemistry, but for some reason the effects of the drugs never wore off.
Natural Tanker: Invincible + Battle Axe, Fitness, Invisibility, Energy Mastery
Costume 1 The Court Jester
This is named so because he's in his suit, dressed like his old lawyer self, but his face is painted up like a clown (using his daughters' blood). Hence he's dressed for court, but painted up like a jester (clown)... get it?
Anyway, this is Mister Nice Guy as seen walking away from his burning house. He's wielding the axe he took from the fire truck. The suit didn't burn on account of it being wet from the fire hose on his way in. His hair, once sandy blond, is now gray as a side effect from his transformation. His tooth-grinding snarl is a permanent fixture, as his facial muscles seized up and froze like that. His skin is pale from both the frostbite and the effects of being on a constant adrenalin high, as well as from bad circulation due to a sketchy heart.
While being seen around town like this, MNG was hacking his way through the ranks of the Brotherhood, the Skulls, some of the Tsoo (for more rage), the Vahzilok (for their medical substances) the Trolls (for more Superadine) and anyone else who brings suffering to good people. He started with the Atlas Park chapter of the Brotherhood first, but quickly started adding more and more gangs to his "chopping list". It got to the point where any group that was destroying the homes and families of decent people were applicable to be hacked up like so much firewood. But primarily, MNG was after the Skulls, Botherhood and the Family.
Once the Brotherhood and Skulls were dealt with, and MNG turned his axe on the Tsoo and Family in Steel Canyon, the Family got scared and quietly killed off the circle of lieutenants that carried out the plot againts the Jones'. With everyone involved dead, MNG was robbed of his revenge, and vanished off the grid. He went to his summer cottage, lived alone like a wild beast and tried to recover what remained of his sanity.
Costume 2 Gravedigger
It was a few months later when MNG got a visitor, named Carson. He was one of Keith's old forgotten frat buddies, who knew Catherine (Keith's wife). Carson showed up at the cottage, calling for MNG, saying that Catherine was on life support, at the hospital in Steel Canyon. MNG never showed himself, and Carson left, thinking that MNG's silence meant he wasn't there.
It was a week later that MNG was spotted again in Paragon City, stinking, swarmed with flies, filthy and barefoot, and clad in shredded jeans and a beat up brown leather trenchcoat. He came on the scene like a savage beast, skulking the streets and flying into blood-stained action as he hacked his way through the ranks of the Family, Tsoo, Warriors, Council and the Freakshow. Investigating police discovered that Catherine was indeed being kept alive in the Steel Canyon medical center, and that there were a few suspicious events surrounding her: It seems that there existed a party who was holding her life hostage, using MNG as a weapon against the rival factions. At first the obvious suspects were the Family, but it wasn't until sometime later that the Police discovered that it was the Family that was paying her medical bills and that dirty police (who were suspected for taking Family bribes) were going out of their way to ensure that she remained safe. The Family were terrified of MNG and did this in an attempt to earn favor with him. Surprisingly, the mastermind behind the situation was an exceptionally cunning member of the Freakshow, who claimed he had superhuman means to save her life, and as payment he simply wanted to make MNG do what he does best - go wild on all the gangs in and around their area. The plan was for MNG to weaken the Freakshow's rivals, eventually get killed and then the Freakshow just move in on their weakened rivals. Quite simply, it was a plan to get more turf.
But, as expected, the plan backfired. MNG indeed started hacking up all the rivals, but he would always leave a few alive (but amputated) and gave them a message to boost Catherine's security and put pressure on the Freakshow if they wanted to keep living. Then, Catherine died in the hospital from her burns. Well MNG's berzerker frenzy, already high, skyrocketed. He first turned on the Freakshow, turning their more fortified bases into chambers of horrors, flooded with body parts and amputated corpses with faces frozen in fear. Then MNG broke into the morgue and stole Catherine's body, and he buried it in an unknown location. The Tsoo's drug houses were next, and MNG was seen chopping people up with a shovel (presumably the one he used to bury his wife) and then consuming entire caches of their alchemical labs. It is around this time that MNG's powers started to take on a more supernatural flare, so it's quite possible that he ended up augmenting himself further.
After this killing spree, lasting almost half a year and claiming the lives and limbs of over a hundred criminals, MNG again vanished. This time, there was no way of knowing where he went or why. Evidence gathered in his wake revealed that MNG had undergone a strange transformation: According to some survivors, after Catherine's death, MNG had no pulse - his heart had stopped and he was literally the walking (leaping, fighting, snarling, slaughtering) dead. In the last few days of his onslaught he was seen as moving slower, more sluggish. It is presumed that MNG finally lay down and died, to be with his family. No body was found, however.
Costume 3 Crey Overload
After the mysterious disappearance and supposed death of MNG, things were back to "normal" by the standards of Paragon City. Then, almost a year later, MNG again appeared on the scene, but he was very different.
His absence was due to the fact that he had consumed too many unusual substances: Superadine, Rage, magical potions and elixirs, and so on, were keeping him alive and fighting, despite his dead heart. But it eventually started to bring in side effects. MNG's body finally shut down, and he did die, and his body was quickly snatched up by Crey Industries. After attempting to revive him, as they do with many other heroes, they only got partial success. Without a living host, many of the magical substances simply faded out. MNG's corpse was effectively that of a normal human, but so toxic that it could only be revived for a few seconds. They sent his corpse to the biomechanical team, so it could be integrated with their power armor technology.
The bio-mech division kept MNG's body on a refrigerated slab for a number of months before deciding to use it in one of their experimental prototypes. It used a new kind of generator that was "technology" which mixed Crey tech with Circle of Thorns magic, and worked great except for the fact that it created a strange and unexplainable field of high pressure on the inside of the suit, which would crush a normal pilot to death in a matter of minutes. But MNG's body, being unphased by pain and highly resistant to physical damage, was ideal. In fact, when they tried it out, the suit's crushing effect actually helped to sustain MNG's animated state. This supernatural pressure field and the extended state of animation proved that the Crey scientists were wrong - the effects of the potions were not gone, they were only dormant, and now they reactivated. They not only reactivated, but they fed off the Circle of Thorns magic from the generator and together they achieved resonance. MNG's enhancements spiked and were sustained at this overwhelming level, completely overriding the behavioral control chip implanted in his head. MNG, clad in heavy Crey armor and seething with drug-induced and supernatural energy, tore through the labs like tissue paper, stole a Rikti battle axe from the vault and carved his way out of the facility.
Since that day, MNG had no more direction except to follow through on his earlier promise - to wage bloody war on those who perpetrate violent crimes, and thus prevent other innocents from suffering the way he did. He became a more traditional type of superhero in Paragon City, and his ferocious snarl, bloody clown face, indestructible body and enthusiastic axe swings became well known among both the local heroes and criminals. He was able to remove the battle suit, but after a day or two his potions would again wear down, threatening to again let MNG slowly die. Thus his life was dependent on the Crey battlesuit as a way to "recharge" his life-sustaining magics.
Costume 4 Vanguard Soldier
After a year or two of fighting violent threats in Paragon City, the United Nations got the resources to sustain a larger Vanguard force, and gave the go-ahead for heroes to join the Vanguard. MNG has seen what the Rikti have done to entire neighborhoods, and knew many people who lost loved ones in the invasion. MNG saw this as an opportunity in many ways:
* Avenge those good people who died during the Rikti Invasion.
* Avenge those good people who lost their homes, friends and relatives during the Rikti Invasion.
* Purge Paragon City of the hostile aliens, to make way for rebuilding.
* Earn the respect of his peers and the UN, who he sees as a benevolent force in the world.
* Network, and possibly find a way to escape from under the weight of constant agony and rage. If anyone has the means to help him recover some of his humanity, it's the Vanguard.
* Use his murderous violent tendencies, practiced hand with an axe and unstoppable power to do something which seems somehow more "correct".
* Make peace with his conscience, for all the death and fear he brought into the world during his quest for revenge.
MNG declined multiple offers to join advanced forces, instead opting to join the front-lines as a regular soldier. He felt that he could save the most lives there, and that the soldiers are the most deserving of his help. Superheroes can handle their own, and are less likely to have families at home, worried sick about seeing them in a body bag. Soldiers are average people with families and friends (like he once did, and wishes he could again) and putting "more of themselves" on the line.
Nevertheless, MNG ended up being pulled into assorted special missions, and took up a commando role during down time, roaming the war zone for squads in trouble and acting as a human shield.
The Vanguard figured out the intricacies of his Crey suit and were able to reproduce the resonance effect in his Vanguard armor, making MNG a tireless and indestructable frontliner. Among the Vanguard soldiers, MNG became a hero of legendary status. Eventually, MNG tackled Nemesis and a prominent general in the Rikti invasion force, stopping a portal from flooding Paragon City (and thus Earth) with an invasion force of biblical proportions; MNG had saved the world.
Costume 5 Recomposed Champion
After his stunning victory, Mister Nice Guy did some work the Midnight Squad, solved the mystery that connected the Rikti to The Lost, and ended up saving the world yet again by finding a cure. He was invited into the Midnighters, and was able to travel to the distant past where he performed more great deeds, returning with a personalized suit of enchanted armor, and an axe of epic power. But despite all this, he was still isolated and alone in a cage of anger, pain and isolation.
Or so he thought.
While he was off saving the past, people were starting to come forward. First it was the Vanguard veterans, then a few heroes, slowly creating a buzz about town as they looked for a way to repay his heroism and ease his suffering, and perhaps to return some of his humanity. Then concerned citizens began to speak up, many of which owed Mister Nice Guy their lives, homes and families. The City Council was dubious and made an inquiry into Mister Nice Guy's record: He was a rather murderous and disturbing excuse for a hero, and was motivated by anger and revenge which are not very heroic traits at all. The results of the inquiry were startling, because in 100% of all cases, the only people ever hurt by MNG were violent criminals, alien invaders and similar threats to the public. Not one single civilian, hero, civil servant, or other bystander was even so much as bruised by Mister Nice Guy in years of swinging his axe. Even though his life was painted red in bloodthirsty frenzy, his every action, every step, every waking moment was spent protecting others and destroying public enemies. The statements made by witnesses confirmed all this, saying they were frightened by him, but he would always try to say something charming or kind through his grinding teeth, acting as a human shield against enemy attacks, charging into battle against overwhelming odd without a moment of hesitation. He has assisted fire and rescue personnel, single handedly held back regional invasions of the Rikti, and the list of selfless and heroic acts went on and on without end, despite the constant presence of MNG's graphic and sickening mutilation of his foes. Many people agreed in the theory that Mister Nice Guy's urge to massacre is probably how he vents his murderous impulses, and the reason he fights at all is because these impulses drive him to kill someone, and he chooses who that someone is by hunting evil.
When Mister Nice Guy returned, he was welcomed by a cheering crowd of thousands. The Vanguard, Paragon City Council, the Midnighters and many others all worked together over the next three months, helping Mister Nice Guy find the technology and the magic to free him from his prison of homicidal rage. They used his suit of Cimeroran armor as a foundation, and included microtechnology, discreet cybernetic implants, and a slew of chemical and magical modifications which finally allowed Mister Nice Guy to, after almost five years of snarling, make a genuine smile. The pain, his only companion for half a decade, receded. His violent urges faded away into comparative serenity. He was once again a human being!
The Cimeroran armor was also integrated with some dimensional and temporal modifications, allowing MNG to change shape into his old forms. He had the power of Mister Nice Guy but without all the physical side effects. The armor could even phase out of reality while still being "worn", effectively making it able to appear and disappear, and thus he could dress normally. MNG could once again walk among the citizens as a normal looking, normal feeling, person.
But he was no longer Keith Jones, lawyer for the mafia. He was no longer a husband or a father or the envy of all his neighbors. All the things he'd experienced, all the things he had done, and all that he was capable of doing, meant that he could no longer turn back. He recovered his humanity, and possibly his soul, and in an act of humility and grace, the man who was once Keith Jones changed his name officially to Mister Nice Guy. He chose one of his five forms, held firmly onto his axe, made a wish for the spirits of Cathy, Mickey and Pooh Bear, and went out into the streets of Paragon City... to bury the hatchet.
