Quote:
Originally Posted by AmazingMOO
The problem I have with Paragon-Earth Penny being Vanessa's daughter is that Paragon Vanessa has always been shown to be pretty far to the right on the Kinsey scale-- she seems to prefer women almost exclusively and treats men as inanimate objects.
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Giovanna Scaldi has those characteristics, and since the Rikti War, since donning that mask, those characteristics have became a part of Vanessa Devore. We all seem to forget, that day the Rikti poured forth and and in a few hours the city of Paragon's landscape was remade into a collage of broken rubble, raging fires and dead heroes. The day the Rikti showed absoultely no respect for out dead, they stacked our dead in those orderly little piles all along the streets of Baumtown, from the Green Line to the steps of the Phalanxer.
Vanessa Devore knowingly made a deal that day, she traded the lion's share of her soul to an ancestor died long long ago, but was such a despicable and twisted soul Hell wouldn't let her stick around.
You remember the day the Rikti bombed the Canal Bridge, the Rikti had been bombing Northern Baumtown block by block, forcing everyone south to the bridge, cutting off every route of escape. Just like a farmer flushes a rabbit out of its warren with water, the Rikti flushed us out with Plasma Fire and Sword. That bridge was packed bumper to bumper with the traffic of people fleeing into Steel.
The Rikti forced everyone out onto that bridge, the Rikti took their time, blowing up a single city bus here, a SUV there. It doesn't take many blown up SUVs to stop traffic, at which point everyone and I mean everyone got of their cars and starting running for Steel. The Rikti had been so selective in there strafing of the bridge, picking large vechiles that would burn and spew smoke. Everyone fleeing south couldn't even see Steel Canyon, the smoke was so thick. None of those people had any clue when that first big Rikti Salvo took out, what was it 200 ft of bridge. Just a little chunk of the bridge, but it was gone and noone on that bridge was going to get to steel that day. If the Rikti had used a missle or a bomb to blow up the bridge, all those people, blinded by smoke, fleeing on foot would've felt an impact, would of felt the earth shake. If they had maybe, maybe they would have stopped running. The Rikti choose to use a disintegration ray to destroy the bridge.
When people stopped falling and being pushed off the edge, when people realized the trap and tried to run back to deathtrap that Baumtown had become. The Rikti disintegrated anther 200ft chunk of bridge. The Rikti didn't want anyone running back to Baumtown and alerting anyone else on that bridge, Steel was cut off, there was no getting out of Baumtown.
Vanessa was on that bridge that day. She didn't wanna trade her soul away, she just wanted to get out of Baumtown and then out of Paragon. But when she got to the edge of the bridge, 800ft shy of Steel. she was quick to she the trap. She didn't freeze like so many others. She turned and ran. Seconds later the 200ft of bridge right Vanessa had just been standing on disintegrated.
Vanessa ran 3/4s of a mile back to car, warning people along the way that Steel was cut off. People were gripped in such panic, they couldn't believe anything could be worse then Baumtown had become. Vanessa pulled that mask out of the luggage and told Giovanna she would trade her soul for the power to stop this panic and carnage. At that moment Giovanna said the deal had expired, the deal now required an even bigger share of her soul.
Vanessa didn't even pause before she said yes.
And then the panic stopped. People turned around and didn't run, but walked with haste, free of panic, back towards Baumtown. The stronger of the survivors would flock towards wrecks that trapped the living. 4 or 5 men, working as one would move debris to free survivors. When someone was freed but unable to walk, two people would almost slide out of the crowd, and then three would work as one. These little groups of 3 could be found all over that bridge. People working to together, without the need for speech or thought, free of fear and panic. Vanessa lead the survivors back into Baumtown and into the sewers. She kept them hidden and safe for 86 hours until help arrived.
The puppets that run this city haven't repaved the streets of Baumtown, rebuilt the homes, shops and churches of that once beautiful city. Almost 10 years later, after all the plans for a grand monument, built in remembrance of all those who died, have been written to paper for years. Those plans do nothing but gather dusk in some drawer in city hall.
The Statesman doesn't want the monument to ever go up. The day that monument is standing, firm as stone, no longer a weak promise but something real. The Statesman is going to look at the monument, read that list of the dead. That long long list, and when he gets to the end, to the last name. The Statesman is at moment going to realize that without Vanessa pulling off that Miracle on the Bridge and fighting off the Rikti in the tunnels below Baumtown. That list of dead would've been twice as long, that this monument would've had to be twice as tall.
The Omega Team give their lives fighting the Rikti and are remembered as heros. Vanessa sells her soul for the same cause and The Statesman uses his bureaucratic power and tricks to hide the fact Vanessa is a Hero of the Rikti war.