((Paul is Blake's roommate atm.))
Paul had returned home from discussing things with his superiors. It was midday, and yet the apartment suite still seemed rather dark. Paul put his keys on the entry table by the door, and hit a lightswitch.
Nothing.
Something was off. Power was channeling through the lights, but there was no light comming from them. Actually it seemed that turning the lights off made the room brighter. Logic compelled Paul to turn all the lights off and manage himself like that. However, the creature inside the room had other plans for Paul.
As Paul moved into the kitchen, the essence seemed to gather itself around the flourecent light fixture above him, pooling heavy like a rain drop. It was hungry. Recently losing it's host to strenuous torture and pain was not a pleasant loss. It wanted a new host, but it also wanted to feed. It had waited so patiently for new prey, for the right opprotunity. It seemed now that here, in this apartment, this man standing in darkness in the middle of the day would be his first fresh meal in ages. Paul rubbed his eyes, the absence of light starting to bother him and causing him to lose his focus. As the drop of black essence pooled over him, he moved out of the way. The drop fell into the floor, but quickly reformed itself. It slithered and slunk behind Paul until he stopped and looked for the curtain pull. As Paul groped around int the darkness, the brooding sense of fear tapped his brain, resulting in a rapid and sudden turn to face whatever was behind him.
Paul's face could have been held frozen in that horror if it was to be his death. It had risen from the floor behind Paul and shaped itself into its true form, a Nictus. The dark creature seized its moment to act, and wrapped its tentacles fiercely around Paul almost scarring him.
While Paul was only human, it did not stop him from having a strong will to resist such a posession. It was this strength that drew the nictus to him, and it was this strength that would be Paul's undoing. The more he resisted, the more frenzied the nictus became. In a fierce motion, the nictus chose to feed rather than posess, and attempted to swallow Paul's head in one gulp. Knowing that something had to stop it, Paul dropped his guards and welcomed the Nictus within his body. As the two merged, both mids screamed in agony and terror at what they had just became.
With nothing to suspend Paul's body in the air, he collapsed, pulling the curtain down with him. Light pierced the room as Paul shuddered and hid from the light. The nictus was furious at losing his meal and unwilling host. Paul's journey to contain the being had only just begun, and many fights would ensue inside his head for dominance.
The room was silent. Paul lay motionless beneath a bundle of curtains while the phone rang. However, while Paul's body was present in the room, his mind was far too preoccupied to consider checking in on reality.
The world around Paul was a purpley ooze that seemed to glow the same blackness that he had seen in his apartment. It was like he was walking around in a fog machine. He could hear a voice thinking, but not sure from where. "H-hello?"
<Yes?> The voice seemed to boom from all directions, echoing off the walls of infinity, even though it seemed like a whisper.
"W-what do you want? Paul demanded."What are you doing here?"
<You somehow tricked me. You tricked me into entering you willingly. You have wrecked both our powers, boy, and now we're stuck. My strength will return, and I expect to take this body as mine.
"My my. You are arrogant. Take a look around in here, and pull yourself back. This mind was always dark, and your presence does not mean a forced change in morals. I never wanted you in here, but I wasn't about to let you take me. I was as hungry as you were, and both for power." Paul laughed. He sounded more evil than the nictus he had just consumed. "Not all humans are good, and not all humans need to be forced to do something."
<Interesting proposition. We can be stronger as one, and both will have the power the other desires. Yet I still long for a soul to feed upon. We must find it!> The nictus' voice was hurried and rushed. In the hurriedness, it seized control of Paul's body, and jumped out the window.
It teleported itself to the ground, preventing a fall that would hurt them. Paul started to struggle against the nictus having control, but it only was a slight distraction to it. A civilian passed by the alleway, and the nictus tentacles reached out and snagged her. Paul's body was unrecognizable, as the black aura of the nictus was emanating from his eyes. Holding her suspended in the air, he sucked her soul from her body, and devoured it into his own. Paul felt devirginized as he heard the woman scream and knew he was the one letting her die. As the soul coarsed through the nictus' and thus Paul's body, a sense of desire filled with him. He enjoyed the taste, but dared to think of what he would become if he just fed on anyone.
"Such power...such taste...such a foul act. You killed her!
<And yet you did not stop me. You and I are equally at fault for her death. WE killed her.>
"We must not do that...we must only feed on our enemies. To do otherwise would surely mark us as villain and we would be hunted like an animal." Paul shuddered internally as he thought about what he had done.
<You liked it, didn't you? You want more. I can taste your hunger. A new taste of power, you're only saying you don't want to do that. This is going to be quite the interesting bonding, my pet.>
"Have you ever bonded like this before? I mean, with another human that wanted it, or has it always been something you forced upon them?"
<There was once a sourcerer...my first human. He willingly took me for that power I offered. He was a black magic practitoner, and lusted for that power I offered. No human since has wanted it, until you.>
"Then as an entity that works together, we shall honor that sorcerer with our name. Let us go and register, so we can further mask our will."
Paul headed to Galaxy City where he registered as a heroic Warshade named Keaj, after the sorcerer the nictus once inhabited. The symbiosis was a dark one, and there was no telling what evil or good the two would accomplish.
Summer Heat
((OOC: this is the 'reader's digest' story of my character, Blake "Trak" Davies, as found on the Paragon University thread. At a later time I may add other character's backstories to his as my character list grows. The PC events mentioned are all found on the website under City backstory, so I'm not giving away any spoilers to those that can't find them. Hope you enjoy!))
The Grid. Not many heroes now admire what the grid does, and most take it for granted. Then again, not many heroes now a days were around before the Grid, before the medical teleporters, before the criminal teleporters .before the war walls and before the war, when Boomtown was Baumton, Faultine was Overbrook, and the Hollows were known as Eastgate.
The history of the Rikti War intertwines Paragon Citys history more than ivy growing up the side of a building. Its common knowledge that it was connected to the Portal Corp, but its less common knowledge that the drug Superadine was also linked to it. Looking back at history when Back Alley Brawler first discovered the drug was when the whole thing began. It was in the mid 80s and addicts were looking for their new fix; dealers for their new market. The Regulators and the Dawn Patrol teamed up to fight the war on drugs in the streets, and in a desperate attempt to stem the tide of drugs coming in, they went after the source. The Freedom Phalanx was called in and the effects of the drug were discovered: the ability to see and travel to other dimensions. This is so rarely known because Statesman forbid any amount of the research to become public knowledge in the risk that other madmen would follow suit on the citys population. It seemed however that Dr. Brian Webb, a brilliant scientist and member of the Freedom Phalanx, couldnt let the possibility of such knowledge and research go to waste. He left the Freedom Phalanx and went on to technologically recreate what the research had found, and ultimately founded Portal Corp.
Blake Davies was only eight years old when Portal Corp was founded. He had grown up in Galaxy City, and went to school there. He played in Perez Park before the gang wars started to escalate. He had grown up admiring a hero, like every other child in Paragon City. Every child had a favorite, and there were enough out there it was a treat for two kids to have the same hero. Blakes favorite hero was a speedster named Synapse. Synapse was a member of the Freedom Phalanx, and it was the fact that he was a speedster that drew Blake to him. Since Blake could walk, he ran. He ran wherever he could, and he did so quite well. It wasnt until high school when he was tested for metaphysical abilities that he discovered he was a Meta. On the genetic level, Blake had the ability to transfer electrons across atomic molecules so quickly he could generate a charge.
Blake never had tapped into it except to enhance his ability to metabolize food for energy, and he didnt even know he had done that. Removed from the track team, Blake started on a downward spiral towards delinquency. He quickly got picked up by the Outcasts, and grew to have quite a reputation within his small crew, moving up in ranks faster than he could run. Unfortunately, on a particular heist he was planning, a local hero came in and put an end to his little party, sending him straight to the Ziggurat. Because he was still a juvenile when he was arrested, the court could only ban him from usage of his powers.
As years went by, Blake had started to learn how to properly use his powers, not just for offensive purposes. He learned his elecrokinetic mutation was more than just electrical. He discovered how to transfer energy from other objects into himself and others for a more healing manner. In 2002 things were going well for him, and he was about to receive his bachelors degree in electrical engineering. He was hoping to work with one of the big-name companies that dealt with technology and computers by the end of the year. Those dreams would be put on hold, just before class one day in May when strange lights appeared over the city.
When the invasion struck, the city was crippled within the first fifteen minutes. Blake trampled across grounds running faster than cars trying to dodge blasts from the strange energy weapons. He had one thought on his mind: his family. Reaching Galaxy City faster than he ever had before, he arrived only just in time to see an energy blast tear through his brother, Kevin. His sisters, Susan and Angela had fallen on the ground but were too afraid to stand up. Blake was frozen with fear. Their only saving grace was a passing hero sped by them and moved them out of harms way only to have a second later a pothole where the two girls had fallen. As Blake looked up at the hero, he saw it was Synapse. Bullets and explosions in the background froze as the revelation of what just happened sunk into him. He could run that fast, he could save lives, and he could perhaps be the guy that saves someone elses family from an energy blaster.
Thus, Blake created his superhero personification, Trak. As Trak, Blake sped through the city streets aiding heroes and civilians getting them to safety. He also became a runner for supplies between zones that seemed to have lost communication. His past crimes were temporarily forgiven by the city and he was given temporary registration. As the summer of 2002 progressed, Blake saw the war walls go up, and entire city zones crumble within as Paragon City became the biggest war zone of the invasion. He did everything he could to save who he could, but this was a time before medical transporters, and many times his efforts to save countless heroes were futile as they died beside him and he was forced to run. The images scarred him, and after the Omega Teams sacrifice and the stemming of the war, the city revoked his temporary hero status. It seemed to Blake that he was no longer needed.
Months went by until one day a member of the G.I.F.T. division contacted Blake about reapplying for superhero work. Blake accepted, and joined the first wave of new heroes to return to Paragon City after the war. Trak was reborn.
Traks career was a simplistic one, growing from local hero to well-known until he ultimately earned his place within the Freedom Phalanx under reserve status. However, Blakes days as Trak were numbered, and soon he encountered one of the most dangerous villains ever to be rumored in the Portal Corp since its reopening in 2004: Tyrant.
The day Tyrant and Trak clashed was as horrifying and one-sided as the clichéd Godzilla vs. Bambi. Trak was decimated against the Praetorian version of Statesman, and the ending battle left him so wounded physically, mentally and emotionally. At the end of months in critical condition, Blake retired from working as a superhero upon leaving the hospital. All was not lost for his work as a hero for the city however, as one of his contacts at the Portal Corp had put in a good word for him with someone, and Blake was contacted by the Grid. Using the painful images of the countless heroes he had tried to save and seen fall in battle against the Rikti, Blake readily took the position at the Grid to ensure that no hero would suffer death while inside the walls of Paragon City.
Summer Heat