Idiot! a bone white fist hit the table. The Cabal cringed. I gave specific orders to avoid any confrontation with heroes. I taught him magic. I gave him power. It went to his head.
The skull turned to the Cabal. Its eyeballs rolled over each of them in turn. Now Tremors arrogance threatens us all.
Mr Bones stood up. He was a skeleton. He wore a tailored zoot suit, and a fedora. Reaching to a shelf, he opened a jar. A moth fluttered out, and perched on a skeletal finger. The moth bore a deaths head on its back.
Number five. The skull whispered.
The moth fluttered once about the table as if searching, and then flew out the window.
Mr Bones looked at the 11 members of the Cabal, We now have an opening in our little group
Were in position, Command. Whats the visual?
>No movement, same as before. Covers over his head.<
Officer Kowalski didnt like this. Unknown metas were always dangerous. That Falcon girl said he had some sort of earth based powers, so he was placed in one of the Zigs upper story holding cells. And now he hadnt moved in 6 hours.
Get ready. Kowalski warned. The team crouched weapons out. He stood to one side, and entered the code. The first set of blast doors opened. He punched a button and the 2nd set slid open.
The team rushed in. Weapons pointed at the man under the covers. Kowalski wished he has a super to back him up. The man was surrounded.
Kowalski kicked the bed and backed up. Wake up call! You were given the order an hour ago.
No response.
Last chance, loser! Kowalski grabbed a fistful of the blanket.
No response.
Kowalski ripped away the blanket. He gasped. The team looked on in fascinated horror.
The meta human was dead. The sheets were soaked with blood. His face was eaten away, only the skull and the eyeballs were left.
No one noticed the dead moth in the corner
NAME: Black Falconn
ALIAS: Natasha Faraday
AGE: 23
ORIGIN: Technology
ARCHETYPE: Scrapper
POWERS: Dark/Willpower
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...08/BFGlow2.jpg
At 23, shes a slim 115 pounds, 56, light brown hair that matches her wings, and blue eyes. Shes as pretty as a super model. BF is a bubbly, spontaneous, energetic girl. Shes always quick to smile, and loves to tell jokes. Crime fighting is excitement for her, not a grim duty.
Paragon city knows her as a heroine, but the nation is far more familiar with Black Falconn, the spokeswoman for Cooks Electronics. Her good looks, wings and skimpy outfit has made her a favorite on the internet, and launched a second career in commercials. But her first love is crime fighting. Shes a bit more violent and less concerned with property damage than other heroes, but thats why she wears a mask-no litigation. She loves fighting Arachnos for the sheer variety of troops, and she hates zombies, because they smell bad and squish when you hit them.
Natasha Faraday was born a mutant. A fact that she remains ignorant of to this day. You see, her mutant ability is to build things, or rather, create a focus for her abilities to work through. Tasha is convinced that she is some sort of brilliant inventor-even though she never took a course in science or electronics.
She started building things in high school. It all started with a broken mirror. She couldnt help but to try to improve it, so she added glitter to the super glue. Before long she had all her tools out, adding gears from her watch, a battery from her camera, and LED lights from her VCR. When she was finished, all the parts melded into a new whole, the mirror was thicker, but otherwise seamless.
Tasha felt she has built something significant, but what it was, she didnt know. Peering intently, she willed the mirror to activate. Colors shone from the depths of the glass, glitter swirled, LED lights flashed a warning, and the mirror went black. Tendrils of smoke wafted up. Surprised, Tasha dropped the mirror, and it nearly cracked her worktable in half.
Tasha had made her first contact with the netherworld, and she discovered its damaging energies. At first she was afraid, but she began to think of ways to harness the energy she discovered. Her first attempts were failures. She built a backpack, and attached a baton to it with a coiled wire. But the netherworld energies consumed the baton a mere hour after activation, it crumbled into dust in her hands. The same fate held true for a sword, a mace, and a tire iron: they all crumbled into dust.
What she needed was an otherworldly substance that could withstand contact with the netherworld. At this point, the 2nd Rikti war broke out. Seizing the opportunity, Tasha braved the battles to scavenge armor and technology.
It was perfect!
She was able to refit Rikti armor into a battle harness that could channel the netherworld energies into her gauntlets. The harness joins at the neck and protects her shoulders, arms, and hands.
The battle harness was examined by Positron, who expressed amazement at its construction. He could make out no rhyme or reason for the circuitry involved. It was expensive, involved alien components, but it made no sense. Indeed, Tasha seemed to have run out of money at one point: the circuitry of the inner left arm was missing, it was a diagram, nothing more. Yet it worked for her just fine. Positron mentioned none of this to the young Black Falcon (a mere 18 at the time). He just encouraged the girl, signed her hero registration, and sent her on her way.
Today, Black Falconn lives in an apartment located in Faultline. She lives off collected bounties and her commercial endorsements. Her parents think she is an overworked commuter.
Her biggest secret is a small army of Private Eyes she employs. Shes not a natural detective, and so she built a camera and radio into her mask. Her favorite PI is a grizzled retiree named Madigan (who himself was a hero back in the day). Her camera feed goes straight to his agency (Paragon Investigations), and she can access any number of agents (she can end up with four or five of them walking through a mission with her). The favorite duty at the agency is Falcon Vision, they get to sit in easy chairs and give advice to a gal who does all the hard work.
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...lops08/BF2.jpg
Publicity photo. But it does give a good view of her battle harness. This harness, made of scavenged Rikti Armor, covers her neck, shoulders, and arms. It channels netherworld energies into her gauntlets.
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...lops08/BF1.jpg
Another publicity shoot. This gives an excellent view of BFs wings.
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps08/Help1.jpg
Sometimes being a heroine is just holding a helpful flashlight for a couple of guys who lost their keys.
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...FSuperstar.jpg
It was a simple smash and grab. Back the truck through the glass storefront, the boys would jump out grabbing the good stuff, and away they would go. It would take mere minutes what could go wrong?
Thats what Barry kept telling himself. All he has to do was stay in the truck, keep the engine going, and peel out when they told him too. But this was Paragon, and things werent always so easy.
Something fluttered. What was that? Looking out, Barry jumped when a woman smiled back at him. She wore a mask. Barry cursed. He hated Paragon! He leaned on the horn to warn the guys. More fluttering. Now she was in front of the truck. She had wings and her hands were smoking. She punched through the radiator. Boiling water sprayed out. She punched again, the truck shuddered, the hood crumpled, and the engine died. Barry fled out the back.
The guys were just standing there. Barry yelled, Its a hero!
They backed up. Glass shattered and the winged woman entered.
Hello boys. Little late to be shopping, dont cha think?
The guys stepped back, looking for a way out. Low laughter wafted from behind them.
What are you losers afraid of? Its Black Falconn. Shes on the Cooks Electronics commercials. This is a wanna-be movie star, not a cape.
Tremor stepped up front. He pulled a ceramic figurine from his leather jacket.
OK boys, scatter. Meet at the usual place. Ill take care of this one.
He threw the figurine on the floor, shattering it. Black Falconn was thrown off balance as the ground buckled and heaved. The floor burst, scattering chunks of cement. A giant creature of stone stood before her.
I was looking forward to testing myself against a real hero, But youll have to make do.
The creature swung a massive fist, it caught Black Falcon and slammed her into the truck. Even with her shields, she felt that. Raising her hand, she summoned a staff cracking with energy and blasted the creature, knocking it back.
What the Tremor fumbled with something in his jacket. Better give him something to occupy his time, BF thought. With a gesture, she opened a gate to the netherworld at his feet. Dark tentacles reached out entwining him. Otherworldly screams of torment escaped from the black pit. Sometimes the netherworld scared her.
The creature was getting up. Black Falconn leapt to attack raining rapid-fire blows upon its chest. Black energies from the netherworld cracked and split the rock. The creature roared in frustration, spewing a cone of super-heated sand and rock. She was engulfed and knocked back. I just washed my hair! She thought.
The creature pulled a two handed attack and missed. BF again leapt, reaching out with her left hand. Black energies released by her touch, siphoned its life force into the netherworld. A section of the creatures chest fell away crumbling into gravel. Again, she delivered a rapid-fire series of blows, smashing her way right through the creature. It fell in ruin behind her.
Black Falconn turned to face Tremor. The netherworld gate had closed. He was shaken, but not out. His fists were encased in stone.
I expected my elemental to finish you, movie star. No matter. I can do this better myself
Black Falconn said nothing, but summoned her staff. A wave of energy blasted him against the far wall smashing an array of monitors. Snarling, he rose from the wreckage. She was there to meet him with a rapid-fire series of punches, He staggered at the impact, black smoke blinded him. He swung wildly. Then he felt an almost gentle touch on his chest. He gasped. It felt like a piece of his soul was ripped away. He fell into a dark abyss.
Back Falcon stayed until the police arrived. They interviewed her, and hauled Tremor off to the Zig. She searched the area, but the gang had gotten away. The stores security cameras had caught the entire battle, The next morning the dramatic fight was all over the news. She never saw it, though. She was fast asleep.