Mr_Grey

New Grey's Army and a whole new concept...

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=240533

Basically, I'm switching to an individual story format as opposed to continuing the Grey's Army Chronicle thread. The old thread had gotten so massive and was so difficult to navigate at times, I just couldn't keep up with it anymore. I'm hoping this new approach, of having chapters that reference each other, will work better.

Kipland pushed his way into his apartment, sighing as the door closed behind him. It had been a long day and he was starting to feel the effects from several weeks of similarly long days.

Blue Talon Security was getting as many contracts as it could to protect merchandise, technology, payrolls and even important people. Kipland and his partner, Gordon "Eisenherz" Grigham, were two of the repeatedly deployed meta humans for many of those services.

Today it had been weapons for use in evidence. Some Council troops tried to come along and swipe them. They failed; many of the terrorists had to be sent to the hospital before they could be placed in jail. Their super soldier serum could only withstand so much, and Kipland's skill had only increased during the course of the year. He should have been concerned that he could still deflect bullets, punch through bricks and mortar and dent steel, but he wasn't. There was just always so much more important stuff on his mind.

In that moment he thought about it. All of it. He'd been training his friends, the former members of the "Brutal Warriors Order," working for Blue Talon, handling the bureaucracy of Grey's Army... So many responsibilities he'd heaped on himself, and now he was faced with what he'd sacrificed to do so much.

His girlfriend, Cathryn Dobson, the Fire-Shield, was on the couch. She was staring at him, her face locked in a look of shock and fearful uncertainty. Next to her was the man she'd just been kissing. His skin was orange, like hers, and he also had blond hair. Kip had met the young man once or twice and recognized him as a former Outcast, but he couldn't place the name.

"Kip..." she squeaked and the other young man leaped from the couch and his body was lit ablaze.

Durj looked at the other young man and frowned. He recognized him, now. Ashen Roast. He didn't know his real name.

"Look man," he said, "I don't want any trouble."

"Relax," Kip waved his hand at the orange man and walked to the kitchen, "I... I'm too tired to do anything about it, anyway."

The other two stared dumbfounded at him as he proceeded to pour himself a glass of orange juice and mulled over the new development. She was cheating on him. What was strange, though, was that it didn't bother him.

Kip was a rare breed. He could see clearly when something was his fault, and this situation certainly had a lot to do with his neglect.

"I should have been there for you more," he finally said.

"Yeah, you-!" Ashen stopped and bit his lower lip; he knew what kind of a fighter Durj was and didn't feel ready to take him on.

"Kip, I'm so sorry..." Cathryn said quietly.

"I know, I know..." the short man said before taking another drink, "So... How long has this been going on?"

"Since last week. We met at that swap meet in Kings Row and... Well..."

Cat frowned her rosebud lips and lowered her head. She felt horrible about the whole thing. Kip was a nice guy, but he was hardly there for her anymore. Alex made her feel appreciated, and he was just as nice. Plus, she never had to worry about accidentally burning him.

She told him as much and was surprised at Kip's nodding in understanding.

"Will you stop being so agreeable!" she shouted, "It's making this whole thing very... Weird..."

"Would you prefer if I acted typically?" he asked in his typical deadpan manner, "By yelling, throwing things, demanding you 'get the Hell out' and maybe getting into a fight with our friend, Ash, here?"

"Uh..." Alexander Ross (Ashen Roast) raised his hand for attention, "I would, um, rather that didn't happen..."

"So would I," Kip and Cat said at the same time.

They all looked at each other sheepishly and started laughing. When they were done, Kip rested his forehead in his palm as he leaned against the counter. Sighing, he looked up to Cathryn. She was one of the best women he'd ever met in his life. She deserved somebody who would keep their attention on her.

After telling her as much, he capped with "I failed at that. I can't blame you for falling for somebody else... And you... Ash... Last I knew, you were a decent guy, right?"

"I think so," the orange-skinned man replied with a shrug, "My friends say as much..."

"Then I think you two will be alright."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So what's happening?" Roland asked as they sat in the office building.

Kipland had just finished relating the story to the portly son of Randall. He had listened calmly and quietly, as was his nature. It wasn't until Kip was clearly finished that he finally asked the question on his mind.

"Well, their relationship is still new," Kip replied, "For now, Cat and I are going back to our roommates status, with her going back to her old room. We cans till share the apartment, we cans till be friends. Hell, in the end, we were little more than friends, anyway. We barely talked, we shared some humorous stories about people we knew, but otherwise... There was no spark."

Roland nodded and flipped through a few more pages of his magazine. Kip seemed to have the issue handled. Most would have expected him to lose his mind and start punching walls, but then they didn't know him. He had a solid sense of right and wrong, and he knew it would have been wrong to blame either of them for his own neglect.

"It still sucks, though," Kip finally sighed, "You think everything's going fine, and then this happens..."

"It could be worse," Roland replied, "She could have turned out to be a half-succubus trying to suck you dry."

"Oh yeah, how's that going, by the way?"

Roland was referring to a former tenant in his apartment building, Lilian Rose. The girl had been a bombshell and had, for reasons later learned to be nefarious, started flirting hard with the pudgy superintendent. She turned out to be of infernal ancestry and was an assassin. She took the contract to assassinate the middle Grey sibling, one which had been put out on him because of his relationship with one of Paragon City's heroic elite.

If it hadn't been for the fact that Roland's sister kept a psychic link to her family members to warn her if any of them are in danger, he probably would have died when she got fed up and attacked him anyway. He said he'd convinced her to stop, but Kip and their friend Cortland shook their heads in distrust. The girl wasn't far-removed from her demonic ancestry, and she was just as likely to go back on her word and try ****** him anyway.

"She's out of prison," Roland said bluntly, "Sapped a couple guards of their life force and flew the coop. She called me on one of their cellphones and said she'd see me sometime. I had Cory put enchantments on my windows, door, and an alarm on the walls. I'm asking Sheldon if he knows of anything that can kill demons."

"She's just a half-succubus," Kip replied, "She'll be tough, but it's not like she's immortal. Eventually, she'll be hurt too much and she'll try to flee, or she'll pass out or die or something. You're smart, you'll figure it out."

"Hrm. How exactly is there such a thing as a half succubus? I mean, are there male succubi?"

"A male is called an incubus," the shorter young man said quickly, "People tend to forget that. And she is evil. Succubi are built from evil and magic. How much longer are we going to have to wait here?"

The office door opened then and a young woman in a neatly pressed power suit walked out to greet them. She asked them to follow her inside and take a seat in front of her desk. They did as requested, their prior conversations now out of their heads.

Now was the time to focus on the matter at hand. Roland's apartment building had just changed ownership. The new company was reviewing the previous company's employees. Grey figured he ran a tight ship. He'd been able to patch together and replace parts of the building's plumbing system. He'd fixed a lot of the electrical wiring, too. The building had been in bad shape, but he'd painstakingly brought it back up to code.

All of this was reflected in the report the young woman read to the two of them. She was all smiles. It seemed like the meeting was going well. Kip had the same thought Roland did, however. Why was he asked to be here?

"Well, you're both registered as 'Heroes' with the FBSA," the young woman replied, "And you're registered as Mister Grey's superior, correct?"

"Correct," Kip replied, "Though we both usually default to his dad..."

"Well, we need to be sure that his duties as a hero don't have a negative impact on his work for us," she said brightly, still with that pristine smile, "Are you thirsty? Have you had some coffee?"

Kip shook his head and arched his eyebrow. Looking at the desk, he realized there was no nameplate. He realized something was feeling very odd about this whole situation.

"I brought that building up to code while I was a 'super-powered enforcer'" Roland growled, the "super-powered" part being funny because he wasn't super-powered, "I don't know what could be so terrible that it would harm my duties in that building if it weren't something that threatened everybody else, too!"

"We're just concerned that you would be splitting your duties in a manner that would adversely affect your work with our tenants," she replied sweetly, "There's no need to be offended."

"There's never a need to be offended," the rotund man agreed gruffly as he stood to leave, "It just happens! Look, you want to fire me or kick me out or whatever, you go right ahead. I don't need the job. You can be certain I'll be seeing lawyers about a wrongful termination, though! I'm the best superintendent they've ever had in that old rat trap! I cleaned out the vermin, I fixed the pipes, the wires, the windows, the sinks, the tubs... I put the effort in, and now you're trying to tell me you've got some problem with me because I also put an effort into fixing things around the city, too?"

"We're just concerned that you would be splitting your duties in a manner that would adversely affect your work with our tenants," she replied sweetly, "There's no need to be offended."

Kip and Roland looked to each other, then back at the woman. She still hadn't stopped smiling.

"Are you thirsty? Have you had some coffee?"

"Oh no..." Kip groaned.

"You already asked us that," Roland replied.

"Did I?" she asked, "Oh, well then I guess I didn't receive an answer. Would you like some coffee?"

"What's your name?" Kip asked.

"I told you already," she said, her smile looking unusually forced and genuine at the same time, "Didn't I?"

"Alright, enough," Kip slapped his hand on the table, "You're an Automaton!"

"I told you he was good," a voice said from behind them.

Kip and Roland turned and a large dark-skinned man looked down at them. Kip had met him repeatedly before. Former Tirailleur Graves, sniper for the Nemesis Army. Roland didn't recognize the man, however.

"Oh, what do you want?" Kip asked, "I take it they brought you back in..."

"I never left," the big man replied, "Though I rather wish I had retired... That undercover assignment got me so damn fat... I'm still working it off..."

"I take it this is a Nemesis plot?" Roland asked as he leaned against the chair he'd just vacated.

"Close," Graves said somberly, "Those of us in the Lord's Service prefer to call this particular type a 'Nemedyne' plot... And we need your help to deal with it."

Kipland pushed his way into his apartment, sighing as the door closed behind him. It had been a long day and he was starting to feel the effects from several weeks of similarly long days.

Blue Talon Security was getting as many contracts as it could to protect merchandise, technology, payrolls and even important people. Kipland and his partner, Gordon "Eisenherz" Grigham, were two of the repeatedly deployed meta humans for many of those services.

Today it had been weapons for use in evidence. Some Council troops tried to come along and swipe them. They failed; many of the terrorists had to be sent to the hospital before they could be placed in jail. Their super soldier serum could only withstand so much, and Kipland's skill had only increased during the course of the year. He should have been concerned that he could still deflect bullets, punch through bricks and mortar and dent steel, but he wasn't. There was just always so much more important stuff on his mind.

In that moment he thought about it. All of it. He'd been training his friends, the former members of the "Brutal Warriors Order," working for Blue Talon, handling the bureaucracy of Grey's Army... So many responsibilities he'd heaped on himself, and now he was faced with what he'd sacrificed to do so much.

His girlfriend, Cathryn Dobson, the Fire-Shield, was on the couch. She was staring at him, her face locked in a look of shock and fearful uncertainty. Next to her was the man she'd just been kissing. His skin was orange, like hers, and he also had blond hair. Kip had met the young man once or twice and recognized him as a former Outcast, but he couldn't place the name.

"Kip..." she squeaked and the other young man leaped from the couch and his body was lit ablaze.

Durj looked at the other young man and frowned. He recognized him, now. Ashen Roast. He didn't know his real name.

"Look man," he said, "I don't want any trouble."

"Relax," Kip waved his hand at the orange man and walked to the kitchen, "I... I'm too tired to do anything about it, anyway."

The other two stared dumbfounded at him as he proceeded to pour himself a glass of orange juice and mulled over the new development. She was cheating on him. What was strange, though, was that it didn't bother him.

Kip was a rare breed. He could see clearly when something was his fault, and this situation certainly had a lot to do with his neglect.

"I should have been there for you more," he finally said.

"Yeah, you-!" Ashen stopped and bit his lower lip; he knew what kind of a fighter Durj was and didn't feel ready to take him on.

"Kip, I'm so sorry..." Cathryn said quietly.

"I know, I know..." the short man said before taking another drink, "So... How long has this been going on?"

"Since last week. We met at that swap meet in Kings Row and... Well..."

Cat frowned her rosebud lips and lowered her head. She felt horrible about the whole thing. Kip was a nice guy, but he was hardly there for her anymore. Alex made her feel appreciated, and he was just as nice. Plus, she never had to worry about accidentally burning him.

She told him as much and was surprised at Kip's nodding in understanding.

"Will you stop being so agreeable!" she shouted, "It's making this whole thing very... Weird..."

"Would you prefer if I acted typically?" he asked in his typical deadpan manner, "By yelling, throwing things, demanding you 'get the Hell out' and maybe getting into a fight with our friend, Ash, here?"

"Uh..." Alexander Ross (Ashen Roast) raised his hand for attention, "I would, um, rather that didn't happen..."

"So would I," Kip and Cat said at the same time.

They all looked at each other sheepishly and started laughing. When they were done, Kip rested his forehead in his palm as he leaned against the counter. Sighing, he looked up to Cathryn. She was one of the best women he'd ever met in his life. She deserved somebody who would keep their attention on her.

After telling her as much, he capped with "I failed at that. I can't blame you for falling for somebody else... And you... Ash... Last I knew, you were a decent guy, right?"

"I think so," the orange-skinned man replied with a shrug, "My friends say as much..."

"Then I think you two will be alright."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So what's happening?" Roland asked as they sat in the office building.

Kipland had just finished relating the story to the portly son of Randall. He had listened calmly and quietly, as was his nature. It wasn't until Kip was clearly finished that he finally asked the question on his mind.

"Well, their relationship is still new," Kip replied, "For now, Cat and I are going back to our roommates status, with her going back to her old room. We cans till share the apartment, we cans till be friends. Hell, in the end, we were little more than friends, anyway. We barely talked, we shared some humorous stories about people we knew, but otherwise... There was no spark."

Roland nodded and flipped through a few more pages of his magazine. Kip seemed to have the issue handled. Most would have expected him to lose his mind and start punching walls, but then they didn't know him. He had a solid sense of right and wrong, and he knew it would have been wrong to blame either of them for his own neglect.

"It still sucks, though," Kip finally sighed, "You think everything's going fine, and then this happens..."

"It could be worse," Roland replied, "She could have turned out to be a half-succubus trying to suck you dry."

"Oh yeah, how's that going, by the way?"

Roland was referring to a former tenant in his apartment building, Lilian Rose. The girl had been a bombshell and had, for reasons later learned to be nefarious, started flirting hard with the pudgy superintendent. She turned out to be of infernal ancestry and was an assassin. She took the contract to assassinate the middle Grey sibling, one which had been put out on him because of his relationship with one of Paragon City's heroic elite.

If it hadn't been for the fact that Roland's sister kept a psychic link to her family members to warn her if any of them are in danger, he probably would have died when she got fed up and attacked him anyway. He said he'd convinced her to stop, but Kip and their friend Cortland shook their heads in distrust. The girl wasn't far-removed from her demonic ancestry, and she was just as likely to go back on her word and try ****** him anyway.

"She's out of prison," Roland said bluntly, "Sapped a couple guards of their life force and flew the coop. She called me on one of their cellphones and said she'd see me sometime. I had Cory put enchantments on my windows, door, and an alarm on the walls. I'm asking Sheldon if he knows of anything that can kill demons."

"She's just a half-succubus," Kip replied, "She'll be tough, but it's not like she's immortal. Eventually, she'll be hurt too much and she'll try to flee, or she'll pass out or die or something. You're smart, you'll figure it out."

"Hrm. How exactly is there such a thing as a half succubus? I mean, are there male succubi?"

"A male is called an incubus," the shorter young man said quickly, "People tend to forget that. How much longer are we going to have to wait here?"

The office door opened then and a young woman in a neatly pressed power suit walked out to greet them. She asked them to follow her inside and take a seat in front of her desk. They did as requested, their prior conversations now out of their heads.

Now was the time to focus on the matter at hand. Roland's apartment building had just changed ownership. The new company was reviewing the previous company's employees. Grey figured he ran a tight ship. He'd been able to patch together and replace parts of the building's plumbing system. He'd fixed a lot of the electrical wiring, too. The building had been in bad shape, but he'd painstakingly brought it back up to code.

All of this was reflected in the report the young woman read to the two of them. She was all smiles. It seemed like the meeting was going well. Kip had the same thought Roland did, however. Why was he asked to be here?

"Well, you're both registered as 'Heroes' with the FBSA," the young woman replied, "And you're registered as Mister Grey's superior, correct?"

"Correct," Kip replied, "Though we both usually default to his dad..."

"Well, we need to be sure that his duties as a hero don't have a negative impact on his work for us," she said brightly, still with that pristine smile, "Are you thirsty? Have you had some coffee?"

Kip shook his head and arched his eyebrow. Looking at the desk, he realized there was no nameplate. He realized something was feeling very odd about this whole situation.

"I brought that building up to code while I was a 'super-powered enforcer'" Roland growled, the "super-powered" part being funny because he wasn't super-powered, "I don't know what could be so terrible that it would harm my duties in that building if it weren't something that threatened everybody else, too!"

"We're just concerned that you would be splitting your duties in a manner that would adversely affect your work with our tenants," she replied sweetly, "There's no need to be offended."

"There's never a need to be offended," the rotund man agreed gruffly as he stood to leave, "It just happens! Look, you want to fire me or kick me out or whatever, you go right ahead. I don't need the job. You can be certain I'll be seeing lawyers about a wrongful termination, though! I'm the best superintendent they've ever had in that old rat trap! I cleaned out the vermin, I fixed the pipes, the wires, the windows, the sinks, the tubs... I put the effort in, and now you're trying to tell me you've got some problem with me because I also put an effort into fixing things around the city, too?"

"We're just concerned that you would be splitting your duties in a manner that would adversely affect your work with our tenants," she replied sweetly, "There's no need to be offended."

Kip and Roland looked to each other, then back at the woman. She still hadn't stopped smiling.

"Are you thirsty? Have you had some coffee?"

"Oh no..." Kip groaned.

"You already asked us that," Roland replied.

"Did I?" she asked, "Oh, well then I guess I didn't receive an answer. Would you like some coffee?"

"What's your name?" Kip asked.

"I told you already," she said, her smile looking unusually forced and genuine at the same time, "Didn't I?"

"Alright, enough," Kip slapped his hand on the table, "You're an Automaton!"

"I told you he was good," a voice said from behind them.

Kip and Roland turned and a large dark-skinned man looked down at them. Kip had met him repeatedly before. Former Tirailleur Graves, sniper for the Nemesis Army. Roland didn't recognize the man, however.

"Oh, what do you want?" Kip asked, "I take it they brought you back in..."

"I never left," the big man replied, "Though I rather wish I had retired... That undercover assignment got me so damn fat... I'm still working it off..."

"I take it this is a Nemesis plot?" Roland asked as he leaned against the chair he'd just vacated.

"Close," Graves said somberly, "Those of us in the Lord's Service prefer to call this particular type a 'Nemedyne' plot... And we need your help to deal with it."

I think we've done a Power Rangers-themed TF before, though. I think Sentai Sage ran it... Or he was a part of it... Of course, this had to have been years ago, around when I first joined JS.

So... I would be down for Super Sentai or Super Lazy. I've heard of TWGWTG, but it never really interested me enough to follow it.

There's a problem with going your own way in a storyline...

Nobody's paying attention to you.

In this world, we have Longbow and Arachnos. They're the ones that the media are paying attention to, like G.I. Joe and Cobra. Now, if you want to start up your own criminal organization or your own superhero group, or even just work for Vanguard or the Midnighters, not a lot of people are going to care.

In the game's story, Vanguard are still distrusted, largely because of their willingness to "hire mercenaries" (You; they're hiring You). It doesn't matter your background, if Vanguard believes you have power or resources that can help them (and this is the "public opinion" of them), they will say whatever they have to to make you feel special when you sign on. Considering the fact that you have to take a tiered approach to meeting the major players again after the introductions are made, one could say there's merit to such slander/libel, but that's a discussion better left at another time (like when Vanguard was first introduced).

The Midnighters are a different concept. They're not public. That goes for Ouroboros, too. Sure, a lot (A WHOLE LOT) of meta humans know about the Menders and the Midnighters... But the average citizen has never heard of them or thinks the Midnighters are gone the way of the Dodo. Working exclusively for either means you're not doing anything that the public is paying attention to. Even if you are noticed, you're just another hero or another villain, either capering about like some other super powered renegade or you're doing work for Longbow/Freedom Corps or Arachnos.

Now... If you want to just "Be Yourself," I recommend hitting the Police Band or the Newspaper and start "keeping a journal." Write out your characters' adventures, see how they're making sense of this crazy world. Otherwise, you'll just be playing the game's story, with your character locked in being attached to one group or another, with the rest of their decisions having little real impact.

Moo, Sam, you two are some of the most eloquent writers on these boards. If you have a story to tell, please let us know.

My condolences. It's always a terrible loss when a friend passes.

I WANT this!

What's so special about Monday?

*sends oil*

You know... For the tank

What you're describing, Brand, is a Feats system.

...

Me LIKEY!

I think Praetorian Infernal IS Prime Infernal's friend, they just haven't gotten around to writing that story out yet.

My brother's packed his day rather full. He says he's going to be calling for my help around 2:00 or 3:00 P.M. (Eastern), and we'll be pulling the roof off the trailer. Don't know how long that will take, he's estimating around an hour.

Might I remind you that Azuria doesn't guard the MAGI Vault? Gregor Richardson does.

Hey! I've got level 42 Rogues who wouldn't mind helping!

I've got a number of different characters, so I could fit in almost any role.

However, I'm not entirely sure how my Saturdays are going to be over the next two weeks. My brother recently acquired a wreck/salvage job and he's asked for my help, and we're definitely going to be doing it on a Saturday.

I'm not sure if it'll be this week or next week. So, keep me in mind. If I'm online when the whole thing starts, and have no foreseeable interruptions, send me a Tell, and let me know what the team needs. I'd love to help!

I got a chuckle, but more for (and I'm sure you hear this a lot, Thorny) the avatar.

Perhaps it's time to step away from the conversation, then.

It appears as if the players are getting exhausted.

Homer Simpson: "Hey, this sounds like fun!"

I love my Mind/Psi Dom and my Mind/Sonic Controller, but the Mind Control set always feels like such a chore to me.

Then start writing a book, Moo.

Games will never have what you're looking for.