PlasmaStream

I planned to play it as further mutation and technical upgrades.

Done =)

The Art! - By Lady Judgement

The Story below....

Lt. Dale Allard lifted his visor and rubbed the bridge of his nose for the third time that hour. He shifted the weight on his tired and sore feet, as he leaned on the wall desperately craving a cigarette. For the past two hours he had been deployed with the Detective Ritter of the Psi division and the Awakened Officer Netterville. There was also "Chuck" but he wasn't nearly as talkative being a Mecha unit. Of the two hour deployment, the SWAT officer had been listening to 90 minutes of debate on ephemeral subjects so far above his paygrade he swore he felt his brain ache.

The rain beating down on the foursome didn't help his aches any as he tried to maintain his vigilant position watching over the Crey warehouse supposedly storing some of those Devouring Earth monsters. The PPD had been tipped off that a villain from the 'Isles was coming here to cause the usual panic and mayhem by releasing the plant monsters. He drew the short straw and was assigned to the Guard duty with the others, not that Chuck cared either way.

The smell of the wet dumpster behind him and the arguing of the two 'enlightened' officers was probably going to drive him to a leave of absence of this stake out took any longer. He lowered his visor again and checked the M-30 he'd had since he was assigned to SWAT. The 'Heroes' of Paragon had their 'Trick Arrows', the joke around the office was he was in the 'Trick Grenade' division. He glanced down the alley again towards the Crey facility as he adjusted his nomex gloves a bit tighter.

He spun quickly bringing his M-30 up as a bottle rolled across the alley behind the four PPD officers. Twenty years of SWAT training and another fifteen on the Force had every instinct in Allard telling him it wasn't just a rat.

"Chuck. Perimeter scan, run thermo."

"Acknowledged." The robotic voice replied as it's eye slits began to glow red. Netterville and Ritter seemed to be bracing themselves to fire in their own unique manner as Allard dropped into a low crouch aiming down the alley.

The tension in the alley was nearly as thick as the beating rain. Muscles were wanting to react as they had so many times before, but the three humanoids waited for the robots scan to finish.

"Negative signs of human or animal life within 15 meters. Probability suggests a 92% chance it was only wind driven."

The two younger officers relaxed for a moment, but the instinct of thirty five years of civic service told the Detective it wasn't just the wind.

"This is an interesting species of ivy. Unusual to see in this area of the city." Netterville mentioned as he approached the brick wall behind the Leiutenant.

"Ivy, there's no ivy on that- oh no," the Grenadier said as he rolled away from the vine that lashed out like a bullwhip, tearing at the skin of the Awakened officer. Netterville screamed as his face was torn by the razor like barbs on the thrashing creeper vine. Ritter began to look around, holding his hands to his temples trying to scan for the controller.

"Poor, poor little meat sacks. So frail and soft, so easy to tear and rend." a voice echoed through the alley. It was both beautiful and haunting as the heavy rain prevented any of them from keying in on the source. "You are in my way, but you will make lovely food for my friends."

Allard jumped away again, the wind knocked out of him as he hit the wall harder than he wanted to, as vines erupted from the ground itself trying to swallow him in some form of green cocoon. The slow moving Heracles robot was not as reactive.

Allard and Ritter watched as the vines began to saw through the metal of its joints, tearing it apart like a petulant child with a hated toy. Nettervilles cries of pain were silenced as a power surge in the robot caused it's main cannon to fire, putting a high energy disruptive burst through the mans chest.

A blur of brown and green motion and the splash of something hitting the puddles in the alley brought the two remaining officers eyes down the dirty street. It was hard to see her through the rain, but it was definately a her. She was tall and leggy with what looked like a thick bark across most of her skin as she walked up the alley with supreme confidence in the outcome of this encounter.

Ritter put his hands to his temples again as Allard brought the M-30 to bear, and the woman laughed. "Silly mammals."

She lifted her hands quicker than the two could react. Vines erupted from her fingers piercing Ritter repeatedly. Lt Allard could hear the wet, meaty thump of the other officer hitting the ground as he pulled the trigger on the M 30. He blinked as the woman laughed when the grenade detonated dead center on her chest barely even charring the bark.

She walked forward the vines entwining him in his moment of shock."Oh you little monkey...you had no idea what you were in for."

Lilith Anderson walked into the Crey Facility laughing loudly as she listened to the man's screams behind her as the vines pierced and crushed the life out of him until there was no other sound but the pounding of the rain.

This one is from March 5, 2006, it was to be the "origin" and insights into Plasma, who is a very distant character to most people. It also shows the upcoming Invasion has been on her mind quite a bit.


"We just need a few more seconds Mandy, just a few more...I almost have the frequency right..." I yell across the din of battle. Everyone else is fallen, I see the bits of armor from General Stratos strewn upon the battlefield like litter on a city street. Rowr and Wulfen lay hand in hand together in death, no heat radiating from them ever again. Even JJ, Skylord, Skylady, lay crumpled and broken, their lifes blood pouring onto the tarmac of the AeroSpace Port.

A thundering boom tears my eyes away from the machine I am working on faster than the eye can see. Kid Valor, her left arm hanging broken, useless at her side flying into the air with a Cybernetic Rikti Hybrid slamming it down onto the assault tank. She gives me a smile over her shoulder through a broken jaw and swollen eye as she dives into the armored column trying to give her mom just a few more seconds.

Star is throwing up ice wall after Ice wall, the air temperature around me dropping below zero so fast my teeth chatter before my energy based body adapts to it. I can see the fires of a ruined Paragon across the river. It was a third invasion attempt, Rikti merged with Freakshow, using cybernetics in ways the freaks never considered. The battles still raged over there, but we were losing. We were losing bad from the moment the portal Hero 1 had sealed ripped open with techno magickal energy and a laser ripped through the city completely destroying Freedom Phalanx HQ, with all hands inside dead before they knew what hit them.

Vigil Station, Wulfen's dream was burning up in orbit above me like a shooting star. The Rikti had been smarter this time, they knew the heroes. They had time to disect them and learn what they needed. The bases were the first to go followed by the hospitals, catching so many off guard we were losing from the first breath. We regrouped thinking we could take another infantry invasion and in our arrogance we pushed them back to their portals thinking we were winning. It was their plan all along. Disruptor cannons normally placed on ships were mounted on the other sides of the portals. The first wave of heroes didn't have a chance, I watched Captain Valor, Psylum, Anthem, and other friends die instantly as their atoms were scattered in photonic energy.

Oh don't get me wrong, we were still making them pay for every inch, but we paid so dearly for it. I had lost contact long ago with some of my allies, Dragonberry and Rakescar were fighting side by side in Sirens call when their signal was lost. A mushroom cloud rising to the south of me told me what happened. Never Dark, called Nod by his friends, Machina Shard, and others I had fought with and along side in Sirens call had tried to form a beach head in the Canyon, I hadn't heard from them in three days. Mega Babe had lead a battered and weary group with Radey Ate into a portal we had secured to try and bring back one of their weapons, in hopes to use them against them. I recieved a report that the weapon was brought to the Baumton Air station by the survivors.

A broken body with metal in her spine and green hair was draped on the controls when what was left of the Guardian Force arrived. She was only a child. The remains of the archaeologist turned goddess were still smoldering along with bits of red and white armor that must have been Roy. Ty's last words to me were, "awesome", before he Nova'd out taking a dozen cyber-rikti with him. I'll never say it to his face, but he really was one of the best energy slingers there was.

A gravity bomb took out the entire hub of the space station, Sidney was obviously back from her trips to other dimensions family in tow as a tidal wave washed what was left of the compliment into the sea. Then I felt it, it started as a slight tingle on the back of my neck, like a normal person gets when a thunderstorm nears. Me? I get it when there is a large build up of energy. Dr. Toxin wheezed at me, I turned my eyes to him from the machine for a fraction of a second my vision shifted into the X ray spectrum to view his collapsed lung and more internal bleeding than anyone still standing could deal with.

"It is done as far as I can go woman..." he hacked up something black and wet on to broken green armor. "You and the others around the planet doing this....are it."

I sighed and crossed the last few wires and fused them with my fingertip acting as a laser. It was a plan the smartest people on the planet thought would work, using their own weapon against them, reversing the polarity to switch the portals. That energy signature that I felt on my neck was growing, my "skin" surface atomic structure switching to match the signature to avoid too much damage. Two tank blasts from the Rikti Armored column and a young girls cry made me bite my lip. The pinkish blue fluid that actually makes up my body leaks from clenched eyes, the nearest thing I can manage to tears as my little girl falls.

A wave of heat hits me like a freight train, the tatters of my pink and black leather fly away in the wind as I watch Toxin's body be turned into a charred corpse next to me. I don't have to turn to remember the feel of this weapon, a Rikti plasma cannon, Dreadnaught class. Destroying Baumton again, destroying everyone I know again. Sid, Kelp and the other resistance fighters, the other heroes don't even get a chance to scream as the wave washes across them stronger than before. I watch Mandy turn to look at me, tears evaporating on her cheeks as she vaporizes in front of me, the last look in her eyes is love and sorrow. My atoms speed up and distance as I lose cohesion reverting me into a pure energetic state.

It takes me three months to pull my body back together into it a gelatinous like fluid state, standing where I fell. I stagger, drained of strength across a blackened city scape. A city devoid of anything living, even the enemy. It was their final weapon, their final solution if we looked like we might win. Scorched earth. I collapse in front of the skeleton of the woman I had planned to marry. A star filled sky above is the only audience to my scream.

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

I wake up.

The human body I take is sweating on blue satin sheets, a pale arm and leg draped over me. The most beautiful woman in the world rubs her face against my neck as her dreams are apparently far more pleasant than mine. Mandy loves when I sleep next to her after a long day of work for us, I love being by her. I hate the sleep though, that nightmare recurrs every night. It never changes and ends the same, alone on a dead planet, having watched everyone I know and love die before me. Newton was a [censored].

In the reflection of the mirror across the room I watch my pink eyes begin to glow with energy. I haven't quite been able to sufficiently explain using my powers and the pink glow, so much as just acccept it as the norm. I close them to not wake sleeping beauty next to me as I will my atomic structure apart, pushing my atoms further and further away from each other until I simply phase through her and lift into the air. I reconstitute myself as I lower my toes to the ground. My fingertips brush the mirror Mandy does her modeling poses in looking at the, the creature there. A simulacrum of life really, with strawberry blonde hair, albino pink eyes, a too tall athletic frame that some diety saw fit to endow well.

This form, like all my others little more than an illusion built from the atomic structure out. A moments concentration and the heroine people know as Plasma Stream looks back instead of the billionare scientist Jessica James. Fierce pink eyes, waves of pink hair, that shimmering black and pink leather with flames printed on the boots and gloves. Tanned skin around a strong, lean face, the only actual skin on this body. The rest contained within the suit is a gelatinous mass of semi solid plasma energy to give it mass that people expect to see. It's all a show really, being human, being a hero, giving the masses what they expect.
People do it every day, they put on a face and give the world what it wants. I just do it alot more literally than some. Mandy tells me the U.N., the Press, the oridinary people handle someone who looks remotely human better. So I put on my facade of semi normalcy, with a touch of inhuman to give the sense of awe people look for in their heroes. A handful of people have seen the real me, my fiancee, my daughter, my sister, not too many others. I alter myself on the atomic level again and phase through the ceiling and take flight over the city. Converting my atoms from one type of energy to another, accelerating and exciting them, structures and mass changed in seconds I find myself moving from Talos to a place I haven't been for nearly a year.

The lights of Galaxy City are warm and inviting, so different from the nightmare I woke from. I stop to blast a few rogue Carnie's hiding in Perez to Ziggursky, their soul screams reach my ears as solidified energy slams into them disrupting the normal electron flow of their body for just long enough to knock them out. The Guardian Force doesn't kill after all, those are the rules and such. I accellerate through the energy field of the War Wall my body adapting to their unique energy signature. To some I guess, I have been told it appears as magic. To me it's become as natural as swimming through a pool is. You just move through the air or water, pushing through the atoms with your own. I do the same, just literally down at the atomic structure instead of as a solid mass.

A solidify myself into the heroine look as I come to land infront of the skyscraper. The Tower. I had no idea when Jessica James purchased the bottom three floors and the ground of the foundation and below of this place it would be a moment of destiny for her, for me. The Guardian Force used to reside in the top twenty floors of the building, owned by the Let Freedom Ring Foundation. Out of rote memory I moved to a statue near the front door, crafted by Natalia James, my sister before the war. Lifting the hand on the altered masonry I punch in a code that unlocks the secret elevator behind. Used before I had gotten more control over my powers, when even the thought of phasing or a nova blast, much less my mothers heritage were a notion in my mind.

The elevator dings, as it opens onto the level I had constructed, sixty meters beneath the surface of the city above. I hover down the central hall, my interest lying neither in the lab to my left nor the facsimile of a home to the right. A low thrum comes from the generator that powers the entire building in front of me. Pink and blue fluid, aggravated, boiling in its containment swirling within the plasma reactor of my design. Ghosts whisper to my memories as I pass a trophy case it takes X ray vision to see.

A melted necklace and ring on a charred skeletal finger.

"Mommy love's you Jessy, I'm going to the mess hall to look for your father..." the womans ghost tells me.


An small plastic bag, empty save one brightly colored pill.

"Jess, I don't know how you manage to run twenty hours a day the way you do..." a concerned sister asks.


A charred report card from a school that is rubble, next to a family picture burned at the edges taken from a ruined pizza resteraunt in Baumton.

"Only Six A's Jessica?" the spectral memory of a man asked me.



A syringe, from a time not all that long ago.

"Shifty...Plasma...what did you do..." a respected commanders spirt demands of me.


I speed past the rest of the ghosts in the trophy case behind the wall. Most heroes I understand keep trophies from their success, their great deeds. Me? I keep mine from my failures, my moments of weakness. So I never forget, so I never let them happen again. I let the costume fade into the air as I hover in front of the roiling energy of the reactor. I run my fingers along the dust that has built up on the surface of the viewing window. I take a bare moment to look down over my naked form where I had unconciously created a normal coating of skin. Parts of my mind still clinging to a humanity that I was slowly losing touch with. Humanity in question when I look to the path I took finding no dust disturbed on the floor anywhere. My atoms seperated again as I pushed into the tank and joined with the liquidfied energy inside. My natural state, nothing close to human. I continued past the reactor though, beyond the internal walls and into a secret chamber, not much bigger than a closet.

In that room, my atoms take shape again. I look in the mirror I had constructed there, looking back at me is a thirteen year old child with pink eyes and strawberry blonde hair. I curl up on the white floor, feeling the warm cotton of my favorite blanket as a child under me. This is my secret place, not even Mandy knows about it that I am aware of. My place to be weak. I look up into the mirror again and I see that thirteen year old girl begin to cry.

I let the tears come.

The story is done, awaiting approval by the character owner =)

*Hugs Rox* Hope you are happy where ever ye go.

Great background work and muscle definition. I am with Larissa, the only thing I feel thats lost is the length of the muzzle.

*steeples fingers together and smiles* I think i can come up with something for this...need to do a lil research.../dives into Wiki/

Brutal.
Violent

and so so beautiful.


I love the colors, the blood and the absolute look of glee on Lilliths face that you captured.

email sent!

Don't get too down Sapph, I once offered my writing for art. I had 2 takers. Don't regret it in the least either.

I like it, there is a nice comic / superhero feel to it. The look of the totem is damn nifty too.

Thank you. I love it!

PS: By popular demand, a Zombie story was added.

Thank you all for the kind words. It's been a long time since I posted anything I've written on the forums. Really happy you all enjoyed it and since there is a call for it...enjoy the read below. Zombies...by request

My breath caught in my throat as I slumped against the cracked plaster and brick wall behind me. Dust fell on the leather of my costume. Well what was left of it. I closed my eyes to hide the pink glow from them and concetrated on my breathing. In and out, in and out. Slow and steady, thats all it would take to get my heart from pounding out of my rib cage. I don't know why I had bothered to make a human body before this, but now I was stuck in it. I couldn't risk flaring my powers, one of 'Them' might sense it. It also kept me grounded, kept me from repairing the suit, or doing much of anything aside from running as if my life depended on it. I suppose if it came down to it I could shift my energy matrix into the Light Form of the Peacebringer genetics in me, but that would leave the rest of these people with me alone on this rock, alone with 'Them'. I didn't have to open my eyes to know that Kevin's eyes were on me. He refused to be called Captain Valor anymore after what happened to Alice. I knew he was waiting on me to say or do something, I also knew he was looking over my chest for injuries. Half my suit front had been ripped away by Erik in our last escape. He cut deep, tore away most of the two layers of leather that keep teeth away from skin, but thankfully didn't get a bite in himself before Kajii put an axe into his head.



No one knows how it started, maybe Hell was full like in the first movie. Maybe it was an experiment gone wrong like in others, maybe something was found that shouldn't have been. Hell, maybe God had finally gotten pissed off at us and wanted us to go old testament style. The movies had a few things right though, they were slow, the human ones anyway. Shamblers they were called, no one liked the other word, the Z word. It was hard to take it seriously, but the Shamblers, they spread. It was geometric. They could be stopped like in the movies, head shots, sometimes fire, but the shots to the brain were best. Breaking the neck wasn't enough, break the neck and the teeth still work. That's where things got dangerous. See alot of heroes, even me were cocky at first, cmon these were just like the movies. Just stay outta the way and put em down. The Blasters had it best, since we got to fly around and do what we did best. Until one of us, some rook' who didn't even have an ID yet flew too low and got grabbed by a shambler. See the movies had one thing, by and large wrong, Shamblers, they kept those skills they knew best in life. The core of who they had been. Not really a problem for office drones and some people, but athletes, cops, military, they were a problem. This kid, whoever he was made us realize we had a bigger problem. People with powers who became Shamblers, well, they kept their powers.



Things went down hill quick from there, every bite was an infection, every infection death. Every death only lasted a bit. Shamblers and the new ones, the Reapers we called em, the powered beings who died and came back. We called them that because they were damn near unstoppable. It was like a small campfire having a fifty gallon drum of fuel dumped on it. It spread and spread. The Rogue Islands were called the Dead islands within days. A few made it off or into their bases but not many. The Arachnoid Shamblers took grandville in three hours. All communications were lost after that. A friend of mine, Troy, with the ability to see distant places said all that was left was smoking ruins. The tower had fallen.



One would think Ghost Widow, the Pantheon, even the Necromancers like Lord Paragon would be ok. They weren't, this new breed of dead didn't respond to any of their powers. The ghosts and bound like her left this plane or are trapped here unable to do anything but watch. Most of the necromancers and Pantheon joined the ranks of the Shamblers, which made matters worse. Civlization broke down within a fortnight of the kid becoming the first reaper. There were pockets of humanity left around the globe, but not much, not much at all.



"I don't see any of them out there," Charolette whispered as her eyes peered through the wooden slats in the rundown building. "Think we can move, maybe get down to the docks and find a boat, just leave."



I opened my eyes slowly, concentrating to keep the glow dim as I looked around the room. Most of us had gotten used to the stench of death recently. So this little look showed me we were held up in an old day care center. I tried not to picture in my head what had happened here when the Shamblers and Reapers came through. The blood and bits told the story for me, the broken toys and the stains on the walls, the floors, the ceilings. I wanted to throw up. I swallowed back the bile and refocused on the living rather than the true dead. Kevin, Elysienne, Frost Sampson and Tarin; The Guardian FOrce, or what was left of us. I felt my knees ache as I walked across the room, Kevin's eyes boring into me. I don't think he forgave me for pulling him out of the Zenvious school, maybe he shouldn't. He was alive, they weren't. I shuddered a little thinking of how poor little Zoe and Graff took the school, took Alice and Kajii and Jade. I'd learn to live with it when I had time to regret it.



The boards creaked underfoot with each step and made me grimace, hoping we weren't heard by some Reaper with super hearing. I looked outside, sliding my hand into Elysienne's as I stood next to her. I felt my cracked and dry lips with my tongue as I whispered, "I'm not so sure, I heard some of the Illusionist Reapers were randomly making packs of Shamblers invisible. I wish I could say we could trust our eyes on this one baby." I felt her squeeze my hand, the weight on her shoulders from knowing all she did and her own powers more than I could understand. Knowing as a Telepath of her caliber she heard the screams of the dying and now, nothing but silence, save from the few living. "Frosty, Tarin, what do we have left, can we make it to the docks?"



Frosty shook his head, looking at our supplies, our weapons of survival. Tarin whispered first," The Tommy gun we found only has a single drum left. I have six shots left in the 9 and a few knives and the sword. If I remember what I saw, you have 4 left in your Browning Hi Power, Ely has 5 in her Colt and Ca..er Kevin is out. Frosty's only got the Bat, the Sledge and the Hockey stick left."



"What happened to the Pipe?" Ely asked, not turning her eyes from the window.



"Some Reaper with a metal jaw bit through it."



I sighed heavily and checked the clip on my gun. She was right. She usually was when it came to weapons which is why I am glad she was still with us.



"Do you hear that?" Kevin asked as he stood up suddenly.



Everyone shut up. Reapers and Shamblers weren't known for making much noise, groans, moans and other sounds, a few could speak enough to say important names to them, mostly that occured in Reapers. There it was! The boards over head were creaking, someone else was here. Some-THING else was unfortunately more like it. I whispered, "Remember the pact."



Everyone nodded, then moved to stand back to back in the room. I heard Frosty hand Kevin the Sledge as I clicked the safety off. Tarin pulled the bolt back on the Tommy gun and we waited. The movies had taught the survivors as many lessons as we were capable of following. One of the early ones learned, don't check the creepy sound. You'd die if you were lucky. You'd end up killing your friends if you weren't. Instictively reached my hand to the chainmail the Survivors had taken to wearing around the neck. It wasn't ideal, comfortable or perfect, but it was better than nothing. We waited in silence, the only sound our breathing. Though I would swear I could hear my own heart beating in my ears, it sounded so loud. It felt like forever we waited, the sun had finished setting and a thunderstorm had rolled in off the seaboard. A Noreaster, a good one too from the sound of the wind. Not so good for us though. I wish I hadn't been distracted by the storm, I wished alot of things in a single moment in time. I wished my spine hadn't felt that chill. That my skin wasn't crawling and dear whatever the hell is above in the supreme being category hadn't had me hear that sound. The sound of the wood splintering under Kevin's feet. The sound a man screaming like that. The sound of fifty shambler toddlers and children crying for food. That final sound I wish I could wipe from my memory.



I didn't really think about anything else after that. It all became reflex as the world turned to hell in a handbasket. The gun fell into its holster, my hand grabbed the bat from Frosty's back and came over my head with both hands gripping it. My own pink eyes looked down into those blue sky eyes of Kevins, "The pact, old friend." He knew what I had to do, I was probably one of the few he knew who would or could do it. Even then, even being that person. I closed my eyes and screamed for all I was worth as I brought the wooden bat down. I felt something wet and heavy, to thick to be blood or an eye hit my chest, something small and sharp stung my closed eye lid. I felt the tackiness of my own blood on my cheek a second later. Kevin had stopped screaming though, Kevin wouldn't be a reaper. That was the pact we had made to each other. All of us hoping it wouldn't have to be fulfilled.



We did the only thing we could then. We ran. We burst through the doors in to the cold gale and flashing lightning. Tarin's machine gun could barely be heard over the storm as we moved. It stopped too suddenly for her to be out of ammo. Ely paused only a moment at my side to turn and then I heard four shots from her gun. One of them had to count. I hoped for Tarin they did. Something moved out of the corner of my eye and I pushed Ely into the ground, the water splashing above us. I felt the back of my leather tear as something barely missed flying by. I choked back a scream as the unforgiving ice cold rain bit into the new wounds. I didn't have time to mourn for Frosty as I saw parts of him drop from the sky in front of us. He hadn't even had time to scream himself. If I survived I'd pray it was painless for him.



Ely picked me up and we began to run again heading east towards the Marina. It was six miles of Shambler and Reaper infested city away. The sounds of slow splashing behind us told us that Reapers and Shamblers were on the move. Told us we were next. My breath caught in my throat, my pulse pounded in my ears as we ran. My legs felt like they were on fire as we kept running. Shamblers and Reapers moving from alleys in front and beside and behind us. We kept moving, a world of the dead around us. Water stun our faces, our wounds. The cold made us sore and stiff, but we couldn't stop.



The Marina was just ahead, the smell of the salt water and the sight of the sails between the sheets of rain could be seen. The Shamblers and Reapers had gotten as thick as the clouds over our heads, we were barely dodging them, their moans had drowned out the sounds of the storm. A few of the Reapers were calling out our names. So close, so close to the Marina, so close to freedom.



Suddenly I felt Ely, Charolette, my Char become dead weight in my hand. I stopped for just a second to see a gloved hand holding her hair and a familiar metal face plate and odd cape blockign my view of her neck. I knew what was happening and felt the tears in my eyes, stinging worse than the rain as I emptied my clip into the back of the former leader of the Phalanx's head. I never liked him anyway. I held Char's dying body in my hands not caring anymore about the horde growing closer and closer. Her blood leaking onto my hands and torn dirty suit. This wasn't how it was supposed to be for her, she deserved better. We all did. I saw her lips move, forming words we often said to each other before "Them". Then her last words whispered were, "The Pact"



I nodded biting my lower lip as I stood. There was no where for me to run, even circling over head the Reapers moved closer. Moving ever so closer down as the others trudged and shrugged forward. I held her hand as it began to grow colder, letting my power flare inside me. No longer having anything or anyone to care about. I smirked as I saw the faces in the forefront, people I knew once. The power was building up inside me, all my energy reserves to be placed into this one final act. I knew the moment Charolette died in my hands. I looked down into her glassy eyes and whispered, "Big Bada Boom......."



=========================



I screamed as I woke up. A final image in my head of a crater that used to be Rhode ISland, my pink eyes looking down on a world that was dead to me. Dead to itself.



I thought back to my talk with Alice the night before, about my inhumanity. Maybe it was time to try and be human again. I reached over the bed that had not had Star Flash in it for some months now and picked up the phone, "Char...."

(This is a tribute to the artist community and my friends among them. A little liberty was taken here and there, but the ultimate aim...to show them all as Heroes and Legends in the end. I have been told before I write apocalypse well, so without further ado....the Warsong

Edit: I know this isn't the usual forum for writing, but as it is for the Artists I felt it should go here. I hope you enjoy. Feedback welcome.)

"Wendy, what the frak is our status?" She shouted over the explosions rocking the space station. Sparks flew at her glowing pink eyes absorbed into her energy based body. The sound of a fire extinguisher being used behind her with a low feline growl told her Rowr had made it back from the mission with her wife.

"Coming dear," Wendy Olsen-James said as she brought up a the few monitor banks on the AES that were still working. The pinkish glow of her artificial energy arm dimmed slightly as she used some of her own power to feed the monitors. Plasma looked her over for a moment, seeing the recent injury hadn't scarred yet forcing her to build an artifical arm out of the plasma energy infused in the raven haired woman.

"It looks like we've lost Greece to them. Well what's left of Greece. Sayterra and 'Sin were there. Last recording shows the Goat going flatline against fourty armored bugs."

"How'd we lose the rest of the gorram country?"

"'Sin. Judging from the hellfire and pillars of salt. I'd say he went all Angel of Death on them. It's a wasteland there, human casualties were nil. Evac's got em fine, but there isn't an invader alive within 50 square miles."

"And Inky?" Plasma asked

"No sign of him."

"Damn." She muttered under her breath. The war had been going badly, Vanguard hadn't been as prepared as they thought they were. The Rogue Island incursion was short, though it wasn't fair to call them the Rogue Islands anymore. More like the Rogue Atol once Massacre Melanie had finished burning everything in the area to the ground. Even Mt Diablo was little more than a ruined hill. It was almost a shame she was dead or back in her own plane, they could use the fire power.

Pink eyes flared as she flipped through the images, Zikar was leading the London front, bearing Hero -1's old mantle, the Union Jack. He was one of the few british hero's still standing. The transformed Hero 1 had given away all the secrets of the British Defense Force, thankfully for the brit's Zikar hadn't been around then. She could see the smile on his face as he flew by the Rikti drop ships firing blast after blast into their engines causing massive feedback. The glow of his invulnerability sheild had become a beacon of hope for the remaining humans in London.

She watched, with a single pink energy tear as a pair of knee socks and a scarf burned in the fires of what had been New York, nearby the remains of a straight jacket that had belonged to the mad maiden was illuminated by the pale green glow of the crater. The Teen squadron's legends had gone out with a bang. stopping the Nuclear reactors in the area from going and seeing that the majority of New York had been evacuated into the Appalacians. They held the line like the Heroes they were, to the last. Radey was the final one to go and she made the Rikti pay for every step until there was nothing left but a smooth irradiated crater. The rikti lost three batallions to them alone.

Juggertha and Rox appeared on the next panel fighting in the Denver front. Plasma had to blink for a moment, perhaps in awe, perhaps in fear. It was a rare occaision to see a Godling let go. Primal Earth was losing the battle to the invaders and the safeties had come off. Juggertha's blood lust was a force of nature itself. His axe swung and the earth shook with fear. Roxstar was doing what he could to get the refugees into the deeper mountains outside the city, but he was taking a pounding from Rikti artillery. That footage, if they didn't survive would ensure everyone knew the meaning of the word, "Tank" from then on.

She turned to the next monitor, to see what to a human observer would appear only as a wall of fire forming a circle around a Rikti Armored battle group. To inhuman eyes however, one could see a girl, barely a woman running laps around hundreds of Rikti, leaving nothing but fire in her wake. They called her Lightspeed, and she was living up to her name as she sped up to the point even Plasma's eyes saw nothing but the flames in her wake. The Rikti were firing wildly into the fire as the wall grew higher and higher, the oxygen inside burning away with each pass of the speedster. She winced as a Rikti Plasma howitzer landed a femto second in front of the girls path. She prayed to whatever deity there was that may have been listening that Lightspeed didn't feel a thing. A small gleam formed in her eyes though, hoping the heroine knew that her fire wall collapsed and incinerated the entire group in a backblast Inferno of cosmic proportions. That part of the Sahara near Egypt would have nearly two hundred miles of glass available to it, if anyone lived through this, The monitor went black.

Soul Train, Lady Judgement and Celtic Bolt were holding the line at the Chicago water front, hundreds of refuges were attempting to escape across the Great Lakes to get out of the city. The Rikti had only one thing on their side, sheer numbers, but for a brief moment, it didn't appear to be enough as she heard across the monitor "Guilty" from LJ, as she threw an empty city bus at a column of marching Rikti. The bus alone may not have done much, but with the power of SOul and a well placed Snipe by Celtic bolt, the bus became a fireball that blocked the road. It was a small victory of the moment, they didn't have time to celebrate as a Rikti bomber flew overhead, moving to the refugee boats. The monitor went fizzled for a moment as the Space Station shook from another explosion, as she watched the three Heroes take to the sky. When the image stabilized, the bomber was in ruins just meters away from the last refugee boat, there was no sign of the Heroes who had just saved hundreds of lives.

Vigil Station shook again from another Blast. The Rikti had sent a Dreadnought class battle cruiser to deal with the Orbital Bases. Vigil was one of the last as it's orbit had been higher than most. Her sheilds were failing though under the bombardment. They had a saying in the US Navy for the Battleships, "Fear God and Dreadnaught", now she knew why. She spoke to the air, a holographic image of an eye patched old man and a werewolf working through smoke and fire, "Tell me what we have left Stratos?"

"I wish I had better news Plas, but Wulfen and I have plum run outta ideas, we take another hit like that and the sheilds are gone. After that...so are we."

"Alright. Get everyone to the Revere. I am calling the code, 'Supernova'".

The hologram chewed it's toothpick for what seemed like an eternity, the old man's jaw set. "Alright. It's been an honor and a privledge to serve with you."

"You too Marcus, you too. Now get the frak outta here." She turned from the hologram to look to Valkyrie, Rowr, and Wendy. They looked at her solemnly, "Go. No arguments, just go. It's the only way."

Wendy opened her mouth to protest, but Rowr touched her arm and shook her head. The feline looked to the energy being, the leader of the Guardian Force. "Good bye Pasma."

"No goodbyes. Just...until later." Plasma tried to smile, but it didn't reach her eyes as she watched her family head to the emergency Hangar. She turned back to the monitors and punched another button, "Fallen Skye. You're it. Vigil is toast. Good luck." She hoped the alien princess heard the message as she felt the space station rock again from another bombardment from the Dreadnaught. Panels exploded around her. Flames began to melt the control room around her as the fire suppression system shut down from overload. A brief shudder in the station told her the Revere had punched the hyperdrive and was clear.

She glanced back to the last working monitor. Cyberlynx and Hawkknight fighting side by side in Washington, piles of conscripted Rikti around them. Back Alley Scrapper, Sartori, Gill Bates showing the Rikt the Los Angeles would not be theirs. Thors Assassin and Sassy pushing the Rikti back from San Francisco with all they had in them.

She smiled as the base power shut down, ending the image stream. They were all heroes and the world would survive at their hand. It had to. She had hope as she floated to the remains of the Guardian Force observation lounge. The Rikti Destroyer was closing for the kill shot. It's primary weapon's charge building up causing a sickly green glow around the craft.

"Not this time. You lose," she whispered. She closed her eyes tapping into the power core of Vigil Station drawing every last neutron and ion of energy the reactor had into herself, "Big Bada Boom...."


-------

Katfood withdrew her claws from the Rikti Armor as she saw her shadow cast across in in the darkness of the night, her eyes turned skyward as Kid Valor threw another Rikti to the ground.

"What was that?"

"My mom." KV said quietly, "She's gone. She took the dreadnaught with her."

=====================================


Plasma awoke with a scream, banging her head on the work station light above her. A suit of pink and black battle armor lay before her. She hovered over to the observation port in the hangar and looked down to see the earth as it should be. The Rogue Islands, Greece, all still there. A quick check with Guardia confirmed all the heroes were still out and about as normal.

She sighed to herself and wiped a few tears from her eyes. She knew the dream was more than that, as she gazed upon the new battle armor she was constructing for herself. She turned her eyes back to the blue orb 150,000 miles below. "Goddess, help us all. The war is here...."

I no longer stalk the Virtue Forum. 'sides the art community tis the awesome.....

*just grins and begins to stalk*

Wowzers

mega gratz juggy!

*smiles and hugs Myth*

Nice guide. very useful

First I am scared I read here that Lemur lad giggled...

Second, I love it. Look forward to more.

Crossword Puzzle...1 down. I am laughing at work and getting strange looks from coworkers...

Monsterous legs clip through Crouch

Costume editor / SG mode still borked and not showing new options

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To appeal to the largest possible audience, a game should appeal to both PvP and PvE segments of the marketplace.

A PvP only game has difficulty generating sufficient populace willing to pay a monthly fee -- why pay a subscription when I can play Battlefield 2 for a single upfront payment? Especially when there is an extensive mod community which can churn out new maps/content?

A PvE only game runs the risk of growing stale. Players will always be able to burn through content at a rate many times faster than a development team can create, and this creates situations of player burnout and constant cries for 'new content!' A great example: A WoW developer said at one point that it would take players as long to go from level 60 to level 70 as it took to get from level 1 to 60. And yet, within 48 hours of the expansion going live, there was already a level 70 player. While it is certain that he did not experience all of the content of that expansion pack in that time, it should be apparent that the rate of consumption is far greater than can be met by a development team working with realistic resources and budgets.

By taking both elements (and both are extremely wide categories) upcoming MMO's are hoping to appeal to a broader range of customer, which is the only real way to recoup the incredible development costs involved in projects of this size. The challenge is, therefore, how to incorporate PvP elements so that they do not repel predominately PvE players?

Player Auction houses are a great example of PvP content that is typically embraced by PvE players. They are not strictly competitive; they can be viewed as cooperative, they help you progress your character in direct ways (new armor, weapons, enhancements, Implants, etc) as well as indirect ways (name recognition, money.) As an aside, this is tangentially related to my abhorrence for the third party 'gold/item/PLing' market -- using out of game resources to bolster your in game efforts is cheating, regardless of the excuse used. I own a second chess set, mind if I set up an extra bishop or two for our game?

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

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I'll agree with all your points and add to it. I think there is a third element often missing from games which is the RP groups.

As much as some people might hate them, I think I'll always be rather fond of them. My first MMORPG was Star Wars Galaxies and I played on their beta server Bria. It's early days were living NPCs cities and bars (cantinas) as crowded as what you saw in the movies, the hospitals had doctors and the cities were the center of all activity in the game.

There was a genius to the early player development of player content there, from the players and the devs. The addition of complex RP and PVE style classes like Master Dancers, Image designers, Crafters, and Musicians had a life of their own. The game had an economy and everyone had a purpose. Further, as a side bonus, it kept the average spouse out of the weeds because if one was a pvp-aholic the other could do something completely separate in the living cities, just Creating, Healing, PVEing or RPing.

I actually think games are at their best when all three can peacefully co-exist, with most of each group respecting one another. No, more than that, when they actually help and augment one another.

There were some design decisions in that first game. The results led to the death of the cities. The cantinas are just graphics, the hospitals are empty and the npc cities are used for bizarre trade & starports. They don't really live anymore.

The pvp is up and is fun, but much of the life is gone. There are large holes where giants of all three communities once walked and nothing will ever fill those holes again.

Not being SOE, the next time you all make something from the ground up, as what I see as a wiser company, please help those crazy RPers sandbox some more stuff up. The goofy stuff they do from acting, making music, dancing to anything is what makes the game live and breathe.

Help those PVErs, whom, like you said are probably going to get a big kick out of trade and inventions. It has a good chance of making them something much more in this game by making them the driving force behind a lot of what will be the trade of the game.

And help my fellow pvpers, we'd love a balanced game, where every toon is fun to play regardless of the initial build decisions on the players part. Every class should have it's foil, but no one should feel useless against everything else.

Before any of that sounds negative, I really love the game Cryptic has designed. There are elements here that blow every other game away, just the joy of the travel powers alone are worth most of the issues.


But, if I get a chance to respond to a dev on my own thread, why not ask for the moon... =)

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God I hope people read this.

I've seen it noted above, so I'll ask

in the 5 hours I was on the TF, probably around 300 mobs or more (including the fact the Defeat Aeon mission reset itself once).....

Total SO drops: 1 mission end

No SOs from any AV, the tree, nothing......