Riled

The base was empty. The lights were off, save those that hovered over The Corporations private bar. The music of Frank ‘Blue Eyes’ Sinatra echoed around the steel walls filling the base with a strange atmosphere not normally felt in the Isles, calmness. Sitting at the bar was William Breaker, right hand man of John Sebastian. He sat with his elbow resting on the bar, resting a cloud of light smoke. Before him stood an ashtray, with a half smoked cigar resting on the edge, and bottle of fine whiskey. He poured himself a large glass and took a small sip, enjoying the taste, placing the glass down he picked up his cigar and took a short draw upon it, blowing out a smoke ring and watching it dissipate in the hazy light. The last item to sit before him was the infamous picture of himself and his family, days before his life went to hell, occasionally he would pick it up, look at it for a long moment and sigh.
He tried to let the feelings of melancholy wash over him but his world had been shaken with a single sentence said by Frederick ‘Headliner’ Jones,

“…The only other person Lunk can’t beat is Statesman…”

With that every-thing came crumbling down around William. Every-one knew Ben ‘Big Lunk’ Campbel was strong, probably one of the strongest people both in the Isles and Paragon, but knowing that even he couldn’t beat Statesman put Will in a dark place. He had put his whole life into beating the boy blue, the year of intense modification, the journey around Europe and Asia, the Superhuman Fighting Ring, was all so he could one day face States and kill him, but knowing what he did now he began to wonder if his reasons were just. Was Statesman really to blame for every-thing that went wrong? Did he just look for some-one to blame and picked the most obvious person? William knew the answers were all yes, but the anger in his heart, the anger he had built up for so long now told him no. The conflict in his heart and head brought him lower. The song changed and now Blue Eye’s classic ‘My Way’ began to play. William sat and listened to the lyrics, tapping his foot in time to the music. He closed his eyes and upon the very line the song was named after, William merely said to himself,

“Wish I could do it my way Franky…but it’s not that easy any more…”

He picked up his cigar and took another draw…

Multi-verse, nuff said :P

If they went back in time to god-mod kill you when you are a bubby, then they wouldn't come back the the universe you still exist in...so they unfortuantly god-mod them-selves out of the game >_<

((This is actually set before Brits last post))

24/10/07 Evening, Sharkhead Isle

The warehouse was filled with darkness; the only light source was a single computer, filling the area around it with ghostly flickering blue light. Within the wash of blue was a single person, whose hands raced across the keyboard, entering commands and redirecting data without making a second thought. He had hacked the Corporation’s computers originally just as a bit of fun, since however he had found an abundance of information that aided Partisan in his greater plan. He had hacked the system earlier this evening and found that Mistress Jaqueline, John Sebastian’s lover and magical advisor, had foolishly started up her laptop and connected it to their system. It was only a matter of moments before he was inside and snooping around. He knew they were in some form of meeting and Jaqueline would be busy minting it, so he had plenty of time to snoop about. He moved through all kinds of files, medical reports, contact numbers, birthday photos, spells, financing, future wedding plans, Corpmunitions Shipping Shedu-

The last one caught his eye and he opened up the file. Inside were documents on when, where and what the Corpmunitions ship, The Pride Of Sharks, was going and doing. He opened up the most recent and studied it carefully. The ship was about to have a few extra journeys from the isles to Paragon city. The other things that caused his curiosity to grow was that the ship was transporting more than it’s usual payloads. The document did not say what it was transporting; only that it was a larger number that usual. He checked the other documents to be sure and soon was convinced that the Corporation was up to some-thing. He copied the file and moved back into the main directory. There was one final file upon her computer ‘Antipode’

“Hello…what have we here?”

Before he could click on it the connection was rapidly severed and instantly he knew that they had realised they were being hacked.

The young man cut of his connection to the greater web and began to print off what he had copied. As soon as it was done he began to type furiously once more and a timer appeared on screen, counting down to when the HDD would be wiped clean. With that running he made his way to the exit.

He was half way down the street when he rapidly turned the corner. He peered back at the warehouse to see the form of Red Grevious, The Corporations Chief of Security, kicking in the warehouse door and then sending his personal Red Guard into apprehends whoever was inside.

The young man slowly moved down the street towards the teleportation network and activated his module disappearing in a flash of light.

----

Partisan had been difficult to sway but a smaller system had been set up in the Chapel for Cyberspace to do quick information gathering tasks. It also brought Humanity First into the new world of Cyber-crime. Sitting on the swivel chair he rolled over to the system and began to load several programs. He began to type and one program began to run what appeared to be a low resolution video of the Bronze helmed leader, Partisan,

“What is it Kyle? I am in no mood for interruptions!”

“Ohhh but you’re gonna like this one Big P...” he began to smile …”You’re gonna like this one a lot!” he began to explain what he found.

The soft sound of clicking filled the air.
Kyle had been watching a new Corporation member for a few days now and concern was growing. Techbot Alpha as he was known was a high tech robot with a sophisticatd AI program, self learning, moral-core and an advanced tactical planning system. He had several robotic constructs with an AI as sophisticated as his own, and each where scowering the net for any tracks Kyle had not covered. A for some reason had taken a personal interest in Alpha, constantly monitering his entry and exit from the greater web. As long as his trusty AI could keep this new threat at arms length then he did not need to worry. To be discovered now would not only ruin his plans but Partisan's also.

His mind turned to his attempt to frame Unending Scream. It was taking leaps and bounds, and soon, even Mr Sebastian would not trust his prized hacker. He had managed to use Scream's machine as a Zombie and with it, he hack several of the Corps allies, leaving a cyber trail as long as his arm. Every-thing now pointed to Scream. Things were going his way...

((Amazing time, never seen so many people in one space

Thanks for putting it on Romanov.

Freddy deserves a prive for that outfit ))

The room was filled with loud unsociable music. Since the concert Kyle's computer constantly belted out The Last Word. Last night had been a strange one. He knew Dee Dee Diablo was a mutant but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to hate her or the rest of the band as he did other mutants. He knew one day they would probably be taken out by Humanity First but he loved their music and some-what respected them for it. However mingling with other mutants proved taxing. Freddy Jones, formerly Laugh Riot, was one that made his blood boil. A former villain now completely pardoned, why, because he was a Meta who could fight against the invading Rikti! Where was the justice? A normal man could not fight against the Rikti, a normal man would have to do his time, survive in prison and would never be given the chance to get the pardon Freddy was so easily handed. He kept up a charade throughout the night but his blood boiled inside. One person did however cause him some genuine feelings of confusion about his dislike for the Meta community. One Nathalie Brissaud, the keyboardist of The Last Word. He wasn’t sure if she was a mutant but he talked to her throughout the night and genuinely enjoyed her company. He decided it was best not mention it to Partisan.

A's face gazed about the room, performing several tasks to keep Kyle’s control over certain systems around Paragon & The Isles strong. He looked down towards Kyle who was working on the broken teleport module of the suit. He had been working on it ever since he escaped from the Zig, yet he still could not understand what he was doing wrong. He replaced all the capacitors and wires, he reprogrammed the memory module and he even tested the circuit boards tracks to see if any broken or crossing over. He desperately wanted it working again. He was soldering one last section when suddenly a green LED started to glow. Kyle’s eye grew wide as the module started to show its first signs of life since it was damaged. He closed up the module and ran outside leaving A to his tasks.

He stood upon the roof of the building and reattached the module to his suit and waited for a moment to let it reconfigure. He closed his eyes and activated the trigger and he could feel the rush of air as the teleporter kicked in…

His eyes shot open, some-thing was wrong. The teleporter had activated but he was still in the same location. He did not feel the usual duality that came with a jump, the feeling of being in two places at once, the feel of your body being pulled forward and the sudden stop of arrival. Instead there was a gush of air as it started up…then nothing. He looked about and to his surprise he discovered it had worked, but not in the way he had expected. Sitting just behind him was a man in what appeared to be a driver’s seat. Within his hands was the remains of a steering wheel. His face was drawn with sheer terror.

“W-What happened?”

Kyle shook his head and walked away leaving the main frozen in fear while as in the distance the sound of a car crashing into a wall could be heard…

The device let out a shower of sparks.
He had not anticipated the complexity of such a devise. Figuring out how to put it together and what was needed wasn’t the problem; it was the magical element he was to add that confused him.

Acquiring the parts had not been difficult. Recent jobs had opened up new avenues for certain the purchase of rare objects. Big P didn’t agree with his methods of protection but his reputation was growing and people were now trying any means to find him.

Magic had always been a concern; it was the only thing he didn’t understanding. He had been told that the crystal would guard him from Scrying and tracking via a magical means, all he had to do was keep it charged with a form of energy. He had worked tirelessly to create a holding vessel that would slowly wash the crystal with mild radiation from his suit. It would guard him in the centre, but on the field he was vulnerable.

He finished soldering the last part and placed the iron down. He picked up the small crystal and looked into it, within was a swirl of colours and shapes, constantly moving and disappearing. He placed the crystal in the hold and closed the coverings, he then activated the device. A sickly green washed over the crystal and it began to glow brightly. He picked it up and laughed triumphantly. He had no real idea if it worked but at least it was a piece of mind for him. He put the devise in a storage bin by the door and left it to do its things. He sat heavily by his workstation and began to work on his next project.

The large metal blast door slowly opened and Kyle entered before sitting heavily on his desk chair. He slid over to the main computer bank of his command centre and rumaged through one of this draws for a cd. Slapping it in the disk tray he loaded up one of his many Cartoons, flicking between them before finally resting on classic Transformers.

The other screens sprawled their usual codes, all apart from one that showed a badly made video of two metas attacking Arachnos soldiers. The video was an obvious fake, but properly distorted and degraded, it looked genuine enough and by the newspaper reports, had worked a treat.

----

Kyle had been hired a Mr. Darvek to find information hidden within the Crey Databases. Kyle knew Partisan would not be happy he was making other deals, but he'd keep this one off the book.

Kyle started up his systems and A's impressive face appeared on the screen,

[Start up completed, Good afternoon master, what do you command?]

"Activate Zombies 1-9 and i want you to target the Crey main database. I need a big enough distraction!"

[Complience, starting process]

A's face faded from view and was replaced by commands, data, images and videos. Eventually A reapeared

[Completed, Crey network runners are occupied]

Kyle began to type furiously and before long he was looking at numerious files and reports.

"Spruk...Sprunk...Sprunk, AH HA! Here we are...David...DARVEK also known as Sprunk. That's interesting, ability to...produce any chemical at will. Died during the Rikti Invasion. Experiment number 5729, located...Crey's Folley, warehouse J9!"

Kyle slapped the desk triumphantly

"That's a cool thirty thousand in the ba..." some-thing then caught his eye

"...Crey are trying to duplicate this power? Well we can't have that can we? We don't need any more Meta's runnina 'bout!"

Kyle once again began to type furiously and one by one data files on Sprunk began to disapear. Eventually he severed the connection and lent back in his chair contemplating if he should pass on the information or not. Eventually his cartoons got the better of his interest...

The command centre hummed.
Kyle looked up from his busy work to catch the last scene of Spongebob and managed to let out a weak chuckle. He had been working for the past twelve hours strait, surviving on nothing but caffeine drinks and sugary foods, had come no closer to repairing the teleportation module. This was sophisticated even by his standards and he eagerly wanted to learn every-thing about it and eventually be able to build his own and improve it.

The suit he had stolen on his escape was almost ready, the parts he has stolen from Corpmunitions had been fitted and he had adjusted the firing triggers to an easier trigger. Now he only had to throw his arms forward and squeeze a palm trigger at a certain pressure to control how much radiation he wanted to release. The suit was now plugged into a large battery that powered the command centre.
The suit would charge the battery and power the base when not in use, when Kyle wore the suit out and about the battery usually had enough power to survive without him. All in all he had become self sufficient.

Kyle chucked the soldering iron to the side and sighed. He would have to compare his module to another before he could figure out what was wrong. He rolled his chair to his suit and unplugged it from the battery. Slipping on each part he slowly readied himself for the outside. Finally he slipped a large coat over the top.

[Detection, person detected outside of door, designation Quick Fix]

Kyle gestuered for the the heavy metal door to be raised. As it slowly rose he slid his chair over to it and greeted the woman that entered,

"Is it time?" Quick Fix nodded,

"It is Kyle, Partisan has given me our orders, you are to follow them without flaw." Kyle chuckled,

"Patience, i've got one or two more codes to compile then we are good to go. Pull up a seat, Buggs is about to start. It's a classic, he takes a wrong turn at Albakerky and ends up bull fighting!"

Quick Fix seemed confused and started looking about the Command Centre,

"A, activate your mobile program and complile..." he looked at Quick Fix who was looking his servers up and down "...protocol 916 and wait for my signal!"

[Compliance, as you command]

The face on the screen faded and then reappeared on an open laptop by the door, the voice then spoke,

[Process completed, mobile version of software enabled, uplink to main server enabled and awaiting use]

Kyle rolled over to the moniter and began watching the episode, laughing ever so often.

Eventually Quick Fix's com beeped and she answered it quickly, the voice of Partisan echoed around the commnd centre,

”Quick Fix, have you and Cyberspace left for the Arachnos Ministry of Interior building in Port Oakes yet?”

Quick Fix looked at Kyle,

”Not yet sir...Um Kyle says he needs to ..er finish something first." his reply was quick,

”You tell him to get moving NOW! I will not tolerate his antics, and I want that Arbiter. You have much work to do.”

Kyle tapped his own communicater and held back his laughter at the current scene,

”Hey, Big P, settle down man. This is a classic episode, and is only a couple of minutes left. Im telling you that Bugs Bunny kills me every time.”

”Perhaps you should worry less about that rabbit killing you, and more about me instead. MOVE OUT NOW!!!”

Both Kyle and Quick Fix shut down their coms as the command centre then echoed with A's deep voice,

[Personal Observation, purhapse it is wise if you follewed commands. Partisan is not one to be triffled with and the more time wasted the less time we can assure our own goals...]

Kyle threw a disaproving glance at the digital face. Quick Fix looked at him with a raises brow

"What did he mean?"

"God knows half the time..." he sighed "...alright let's do this thing!"

Kyle moved up to the laptop and shut the lid, unplugged it from the wall and slid it into a compartment upon his back, yet hidden by the coat. They slowly moved outside of the metal door that shut behind them.

There was silence for a moment, then A's face appeared on the screen. The other moniters began to sprawl code across their surface and A looked to be concentrating intently,

[Statement, my plan must not fail]

The room was filled with a bright blue light.
Rows upon rows of computer screens displayed images of people, places and events around the Isles and Paragon. Some screens sprawled code endlessly across its surface while others were an endless mess of windows and programs. Only two screens were for personal use. One sat playing cartoons, some from as early as the 80’s back to back; an endless reel of violence and humour, the other was of the game Counter Strike, sitting in observation mode watching the avatars running around gaining headshots and the likes. Yet one screen in the middle of the collection remained blank and unused.

Behind the glow sat a young man. He watched the screens intently waiting for a singular piece of information to appear. He rolled his desk chair from one end of the row to the next, occasionally furiously typing at one of the many keyboards. He rolled his chair backwards until he stopped at the wall at the back of the room. He span on the chair to face his many computers wiring and humming away as they hacked the world around them. He slid a flat disk into an open port and rolled back to his desk, thinking nothing more of it. Slowly the blank monitor turned its self on. Slowly a digital face appeared, its eyes shut. Slowly the image opened them and looked about the room until it’s ‘eyes’ settled on the young man,

[Process completed, several systems are now set up as Zombie-bots. Explanation, we now have several machines under our control for when the time is needed. Reassurance, the protocols are hidden away. While they were looking for us they became complacent in checking what was being done to their systems. Explanation, the protocol will remain dormant until needed.]

The young man smiled,

“Excellent work! That should be enough for now.”

[Question, what do we do now?]

“Now we lay low and wait for Big P’s to give us the word. We’ve shown people their systems are not as safe as they thought they were, there’s going to be chaos in the digital world and we’re going to ride this to the top!”

The face faded from the screen and once more it went to black. The young man rolled over to the screen displaying the cartoons and placed a pair of headphones over his ears. On the desk sat several complicated components and pieces of technology. He picked up a soldering iron and began working on a small devise, stopping ever so often to laugh at the misfortunes of Wiley E. Coyote.

"Did you hear, Corpmuntions Limited was robbed last night?"

"No, I didn't! How'd that happen?"

"Supposedly their security system was hacked and shut down at midnight for an hour. Suposedly the system reported that there was no problems the next day when quite clearly there was! Only several armour parts were stolent along with some components."

"What, no cybertrail?"

"Nothing, the guy must have been able to wipe all information about being there!"

"Whoa!"

"Yeah tell me about it...supposedly this has been happening to a few computers..."

Two workers in Sharks talking about the recent robbery of Corpmunitions

[ QUOTE ]
Working only part time gives me alot of spare time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lucky for some!

[ QUOTE ]
Any chance you could update the Hero/Villain Spotlight? I became addicted to reading those for a while, then it seemed to stop after Sword of Redemption and Headbreaker.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah i'm bored of seeing my self too!

[ QUOTE ]
Big Game pulls out his baseball bat, and advances on Love Angel.

[/ QUOTE ]

...your a nasty piece of work Brit...

Headbreakers Cigars, he'd be lost without them...

They don't come cheap!

Since i got HB his suit of armour i was wondering if there was a way to set a bind/macro that'll change HB into his armour and change his AFK message so his 'voice' changes with his suit and vice-versa for when he changes out.

Any-one able to help me out?

(Probably put this in the wrong section but it is technically RP related)

At least the lite version can get lost within a sea of emails as the boss walks past

Faceless looked at the priest and for the first time in a long time he felt some form of peace within his twisted and confused mind, he folded his wings and bowed slightly,

"You may one day Master Anthony..."

He slowly walked backwards into the fog, his form becoming nothing more than a shadow,

"...you may done day!"

Then the footfalls fell quiet as thunder rolled in the distace.

[Fade to black, roll credits]

((A special thank you to you Pious for helping me devolpe Faceless just that little bit more))

Faceless flexed the wings for a moment. He knew not how he controlled them, but they reacted to his every whim.

"It would seem Master Priest has, how shall i say, effected my body in some way? Another gift purhaps? Or maybe this is some-thing else..."

Faceless was thoughtful a moment, then realised he was under great scruitny from the citizens. He looked at Anthony and bowed slighty

"I cannot stay Master Anthony. While i may do good in this City Of Heroes, history has a way of coming back to haunt you...I still feel that i am too much of a monster and that would refelct in the eyes of those i aid. No, i shall return to the isles..."

Faceless stumbled out of the cathedral, his hands glowing brighter with each passing moment. He began to scream as he fell to his knees, and rolled down the hard concreat stairs. The pain through him was unbearable! What was this feeling? What was happening to him? Why here? Why now? What had The Priest done to him?

"Help me get my jacket off!" Anthony obliged quickly and as he did he moved back in shock.

Upon Faceless' back, two lumps had begun to appear under his outfit and were slowly tearing through the thin material. As they grew his screams became louder and more terrifying. His fists were glowing so bright that it lite up the surronding area and the area filled with a sickly heat.

Suddenly the growths burst open...

Boney, decading wings burst from his back and spread outwards knocking the gathered people off their feet.
As the wings reached their fullest a wave of raw energy washed over the area, filling the air with a loud hum, and then it dissapated quickly.

Faceless remained on his hands and knees for a long moment, untill he slolwy rose, his wings out streached. He looked at the gathered men and women and then eventually his eyes fell upon Father Anthony,

"Father...?"

"Yes, yes he has...if but only name to work from..."

Faceless slowly placed his mask back over his head, in doing so his voice regained it's composure and he seemed more confident with it on,

"I am still unsure if my dreams are memories or illusions of my own creating. I still feel lost, i just have a little more direction than before. He said I was a man who murdered for sport, for personal gain, but I don't feel that that is entirely cor...urgh!"

Faceless' hand began to glow slightly, and he cluched at his stomach as if some-thing shot through him. He fell to his knees as both of his fist were soon ablaze with energy,

"Master Anthony, take me outside...QUICKLY!"

"A name...?" Faceless could not describe the feeling. A name was some-thing he desired most, his own would help him on the road to recovery or a new one, so he may start to forge a new life.
He thought long and hard about Priests offer then he simply nodded,

"Read my mind Master Priest, but be warned, do not give my body a reason to feel threatened, doing so may cause a disaster i wish to avoid in such a beautiful place..."

Faceless's white washed eyes entered contact with the Priest's he let his mind calm for a moment,

"Give me a reason to belive..."

Faceless waited in the line, as each person before him went he grew more interested in the man known as the Priest. He has healed the boils, the girl has lived, he had even given the reckless teen hope that heroship was in his grasp, could he give him some humanity back?

Faceless felt awkward, every-one else was normal, they were not shrouded in costume, he felt every gaze bore into him scruitinizing him.

He eventually stood before The Priest and was silent a long moment as he contemplated what he would say,

"Master Priest, my name is Faceless..." he reached for his mask and pulled on it. It slide off the top of his head finally revealing his face. His mouth had been pulled into a permenent snarl from a scar that ran the length of his face, his nose was almost non-existant, his skin was scortched and cracked from the burns it had recived, his hair was but whispers of what it was before and his eyes were grey and lifeless, he his changed slightly as the mask was removed, he still held his polite british accent, but his voice became gravely and weak, it was almost as if the mask gave him strength, and without it he was vunerable,

"...and I have died and returned to this world but as nothing more than a shadow. My mind has been stripped of any identity that it once held and i have become a monster, a creature feared by many. I ask of you...help me find out what i am, let me know if this is some cruel joke that some deity is playing on me...let me know who i was so i can give my self a name...please?"

Two Rouge Isle Sewer maintenance workers

"It's strange, Bob says he found another junction like it!"

"Really? Was it like the other two we found?"

"Yeah, every-thing was burnt to a crisp, dead rats and every-thing. Some-things been living down there and it's been doing some crazy s-"

The break whistle went and the two put their hard hats back on,

"I swear, they ain't paying us enough..."

Faceless looked at the former villain, he stood and put on his jacket, then slowly followed him back out into the darknened sky.
The rain had eased and the thunder rolled quietly in the distance. The moon slowly broke through holes created in the clouds and it flooded parts of the land in it's ghostly light.

He stood beside the man known once as Mechano,

"What is it you wish to show me?"