Doulos hits 50.

Cold wind swept Peregrine Island, leaves rustling in the wind were picked up and carried as a gust lifted them high into the sky. To the north dark clouds were rolling across the sea, soon the storm would be upon this most remote section of Paragon City. The Coalition team stood watching from the hill top by the Portal Corporation.

“Let’s move out,” muttered Doulos, “Today has been waiting for us as long as we have been waiting for it.”

“Lead on D, lets make this happen.” Said J. Brute. He balled his fists and his knuckles cracked in a ripple from him little finger to his index.

Okton ran a hand through his wild hair then undid the top button on his shirt to loosen his collar and pulled his tie loose, “I’m ready.”

“Manf, are you with us?” asked the Precision Ranger.

Slowly the empath nodded. “There is something wrong with today, I cannot say what, but we must be cautious.”

From behind them came the sound of feet landing on wet earth, the heroes turned, “I’m not too late am I?”

“No Frosty, you made it just in time.” Answered Doulos smiling before pulling up his face mask.

The heroes waved at Tina MacIntyre as they passed her going into the build grey building, against the black clouds coming in it looked even more stark than normal, cold and ugly. Tina waved at the group, she knew them all pretty well, J. Brute blushed slightly as she winked at him, the other said nothing, but Okton did give him a nudge in the ribs as they got to the lifts.

The roar of the portal greeted them long before they entered the cavernous chamber, a familiar noise to them all, but the sight of the huge device still filled them all with a slight feeling of wonder. The clanking and whirring of the big machine was deafening up close. None of them said anything, there would have been no point, just a nod to each other and then they stepped into the portal. Doulos paused as the others went through, checked his rifle, launched his targetting drone and activated his cloaking device before leaping through the flashing surface of the portal, whatever waited for them, they would be ready.

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

The Amazing Shnyet stood in the Rangers control room with Frozen Rogue and Scapegoat. “Good Morning all on this fine winters day, I would be most grateful if every Precision Ranger who is out on a mission would be gracious enough to check in and lets us know there stance.”

“Squad Leader PowerSWAT checking in, I got Crossfire, Accel and Chillblaze with me, we’re busting some Nemesis out here in Crey’s Folly.”

“Solar here Shnyet, I’m at a convention between heroes in Galaxy Girl, we’re currently discussing the lack of options for the fire department in rescuing cats stuck in trees.”

“Very good,” said Shnyet watching a screen, “Who else is active?”

“Aero here,” came a transmission of less clarity, from the noise in the back ground it appeared he was thick in combat. “Yellow and I are out with Linx, these bloody sewers stink, if I ever come down here again it will be too soon.”

“Aero,” said Scapegoat into the comm. “Do you need any back up?”

There was the sound of a massive explosion in the speakers, “Nah toots, we’re ok, I just wasted them.”

Scapegoat shook her head and rolled her eyes, Shnyet continued, “Very good Squad Leader Aeronaut, keep it up, Kid Hellfire, Doulos, I have you both on as active please check in.”

“Awaken please?” Came Aeronauts voice, then “oops, wrong channel, sorry.”

“Kid Hellfire, Doulos, please check in.”

“This is Kid Hellfire.”

“Kid Hellfire, where are you?”

“Seeing the nice nurses in IP again, if I get treated like this every time I go for that stinking squid I’m gonna have to keep doing it.” There was a momentary pause then a muttering, “Oh right there baby, you know where kiddy likes it…”

Frozen Rogues hand darted to the control panel cutting off anymore of the communication. A low growl rolled out of Scapegoats throat. “Frozen, go and find Sun Beam, tell her that Hellfire is in the hospital again!”

“Shall I tell her which one?”

“No need to bother, she’ll know.” Frozen Rogue ran off in the direction of the living quarters. “It was bad enough when we had to pull him out of bars…” Scapegoat said frowning, “this is even more embarassing, at least there the employees were meant to strip and he could blame the alcohol.”

“But we have managed to keep him sober now for several weeks.”

Scapegoat folded her arms, “Only because he has found another addiction. Doulos check in please.”

“Hi Scape, Shny,” Came Doulos’s voice over the comm. Disrupted by gunfire, “I’m here with some of the boys and a load of weird little blue monkey things.”

“D, why didn’t you wake me this morning?” Asked Scapegoat.

“Because you got in so late last night Scape, I thought I should let you sleep, you looked so peaceful.”

Shnyet smiled at Scapegoat and was surprised to see her glowering at the speakers that Doulos’s voice was eminating from. He would never understand women, and failed to understand how any man could understand any woman, computers were so much easier.

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

The assault rifle blazed again and again as the praetorian creatures charged the heroes. Their size and speed made them difficult targets, but once they hit the caltrops they became sitting ducks. The air was cold around the heroes who stuck close for safety, small blue and furry but lethal to a lone here. Inspector Frosts ice patch gave them a little more protection as the creatures struggled for their footing. Eventually the jabbering stopped, as did the noise of gunfire and moving ice, Manf checked J.B.’s head where a fall on the ice had cut his head open, as the others watched it sealed before them. Weird and slightly stomach wrenching, yet everytime they were all impressed by Manfs miraculous healing ability.

“You guys ready to move out?” Asked Doulos. The others nodded. “Great, then lets go.” He activated his cloaking device and the air spoke. “I’ll take point.”

The building marked as the target of the mission loomed in the distance, it was suspected that plans for a Praetorian invasion were in there somewhere. Previously a conflict with Battle Maiden in this section of Praetorian Paragon had driven out the foe, the hope was that the plans she had left were still in her previous head quarters. Aside from the shadow monkeys there was little sign of any other villains in the area, which was a relief as the monkeys themselves were enough of a handful. The wind blew and a familiar scent wafted in the breeze, Doulos frozen and spoke into the comm. “Rikti.”

The group behind him stopped, “Let me scout.”

“Careful D, you’ve run afoul of drones before.” Said Inspector Frost.

“I know buddy, I won’t do anything stupid.”

Doulos activated his anti-grav unit on his belt and then lifted into the air, moving with grace he flew high enough to be out of scanner range of the drones and began to scout the area. From a safe height he assessed the opposition. “Looks like the Rikti are after the same thing we are, but they sent more than we have. I count at least five mobs closely grouped, they appear to be on guard, like they’re expecting an attack.”

“They know we’re here?” Asked J. Brute.

“No, from the looks of things they’re having as much of a problem with shadow monkeys as we are.”

“Can we get past them?” Queried Okton.

“Not a chance of all of us getting in there through the front door, Oky if you can get past them you can get us in.”

“I hear that.”

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The control room of the Precision Rangers head quarters had been quiet all morning. Scapegoat sat with a magazine on her lap and her feet on the desk, she’d long given up actually reading it but it was better than looking at blinking flashing lights that said nothing. Frozen Rogue sat behind her on the edge of the control platform drumming his hands on his knees. The pattering was getting to Scapegoat, it had been for the last half an hour. She could have been out on patrol but instead she was stuck on duty with Frozen on a day when nothing was happening. The blip of the computers and the patting faded into back ground noise as she read for the fifteenth time an article on heroic make-up and how to make it match your outfit. “Is nothing going to happen today?”

“Probably will,” answered Frozen.

“You can handle this can’t you Rogue, I’m off to join Aero and Yellow.” Scapegoat stood up dropping her magazine on the terminal desk. “If anything comes up just call me.”

As Scapegoat was leaving the room the terminals drone changed into a sparkle for a second. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” said Rogue already at the terminal, “I don’t know enough about these things.”

“Get Shnyet and Genergy if you can find them, there’s nothing different on the screens, but I’m sure the machines are droning at a different pitch to before.”

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The Heroes gathered in the building, Okton had found his way in through a broken window and had teleported them into a room sufficiently far away from the Rikti. It seemed that they were tearing the place to pieces looking for the plans. “We need to find those plans and get out of here.” Said Manf, “This place is a little rough.”

The others nodded in agreement, “From outside it looked like the Rikti are searching top to bottom.” Doulos said, “So we better go bottom to top, and hope we’re right.”

“So how do we get down there without them seeing us? We can’t all cloak and there are too many drones for Okton to get us down there.” Stated Frost.

J. Brute grinned, “That is something I believe I can help with.” Said the massively build tank. Without waiting for a reply he slammed his foot through the floor below him. “Don’t worry D, the Rikti are making enough noise on their own, they’ll just think it is one of their own teams.”

The group began to move swiftly down towards the basement, J.B. taking apart ceilings with hands and fists like they were made of cardboard.

“You know, I think this is the place.” Said Okton as he and the others looked at the thick steel door in the basement, “I can’t believe the Rikti started at the top.”

“Just so you know, there is no way on earth I can take that door down.” Said the tank, “It is too big, if we could weaken the hinges then we might be able to move it but…” he shrugged his giant shoulders.

Without speaking Inspector Frost walked to the door and placed his hand on it, “It’s going to get very cold in here.” He said as he placed his hand on the door. Slowly the metal began to dim as frost covered its surface, creeping with painful slowness across the face of the vast metal door. “Its big, this is going to take some chilling. D, you might want to lay some mines to blow the hinges when its cold enough.”

“Roger that.” Said Doulos through gritted teeth. Already the room was getting cold, “You know they’ll hear the bang right?”

“Then we’ll just have to be quick.”

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Genergy rested his hands on the terminal in front of him, the machine and he had been in conversation for the last few minutes. Shnyet was under the desk doing the physical tests on the ports and connections. “So have you guys figured it out yet?” Asked Scapegoat.

“Everything is appropriately placed here, I can only assume that the difficulties lie within the programming, if they do then I am sure that Genergy will be able to locate any issues that need a resolution.”

As if on cue Genergy snapped out of his trance like communication with the machine. “Pull them all out.”

“Who?”

“Everyone you can, get them out of the missions.”

“What do you mean?” Frozen demanded.

“I don’t know exactly, but I know this, someone has hacked into the teleporting network, I don’t know what they have done, but until it is fixed get everyone back here.”

“What are you going to do?” Asked Scapegoat.

“Get some more answers. I hope”

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“Are you guys getting this too?” Asked Okton as he shivered in the freezing room.

“The general return to base call?” Replied Manf, “Yes, its coming through strong.”

“Are we going then?”

“Just a couple more minutes.” Inspector Frost said. He looked drained as he leant on the door, pouring all his energy into freezing the thick metal. “Doulos, hows it going?”

“There’s enough explosive laid to blow apart a mob of Zeus Titans, the door should be no problem. We’ll all be deaf until tomorrow probably, but hell, at least we will have accomplished our task.”

“I’m all ready to do this.” Frost said, staggering away from the door, J.B. stepped forward and caught him before he fell. “D, blow that stupid door apart.”

“Everyone get into whatever cover you can find, when the door goes down, get in there as fast as you can, find the plans and get out of here, those Rikti will get here very fast, and we really want to be out of here when they do.”

“We’ll get the door D,” Said Okton nodding towards himself and J. Brute, “You guys do the searching, we can hold them for long enough.”

“And I can help.” Said the Inspector leaning heavily on J.B.’s shoulder.

“Do it D!” Manf muttered.

The room errupted in fire, smoke and noise. As soon as the blast had past the heroes sprung into action, J. Brute threw aside the heavy metal door and Doulos and Manf leapt through the doorway into the dark vault room.
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The Rangers base was filling up as the recalled Rangers arrived. “What the hell is going on?” Aeronaut demanded taking off his helmet.

“We’re not sure yet.” Said Disco King Junior to the assembled heroes, “All we know is that someone has tampered with the Rangers teleport frequency, the other Coalition groups report no such loss, which means we have been targetted for some reason. We’re drawing up a list of suspects.”

The room fell into silence, but only for a minute, Genergy burst into the room, “Doulos’s teleporter has been altered, some ones after him again.”

“Woo, bloody woo. Why am I not surprised.” Grumbled Aeronaut, “And that narrows down the list of suspects how? Doulos has more enemies than anyone else, mainly his fault I think you’ll find.”

“It will be Burrel.” Terra Byte said.

“And how would you know?” said Frozen Rogue.

“Stop it Rogue. Whatever the issue between you and terra there is no reason to speak to her like that.” Snapped Sun Beam.

“Actually Sun Beam, its quite simple.” Said Terra with a hint of sadness in her voice. “Burrel has hacked teleporters before, and who else do we know that wants Doulos dead as much.”

“But we haven’t heard from him for almost three years.” Byte said.

“Three years in so time to wait for revenge.” Replied Terra.

“You’d know all about planning revenge wouldn’t you Terra.”

“Frozen Rogue, you will change your tone now, whatever you’re issues are with Terra Byte you will resolve them behind close doors, and display a little decorum.” Snapped Scapegoat. “The issue now is Doulos and getting him here before he teleports anywhere.”

“I will try to raise him on the communications network.” Said Shnyet leaving the room.

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“FIND IT!” Roared J. Brute as another Rikti drone exploded under his fist, “We can’t hold out much longer!”

Sweat poured off Okton as he struggled for control with a Chief mentalist, Inspector Frost leant on the wall, doing his best to maintain the ice field that gave some balance to the fight. Manf had joined the fight, keeping the others upright whilst Doulos frantically searched the room. “Doulos,” yelled Manf, “The Rangers are trying to get hold of you.”

“My comm. is scrambled, tell them I’ll talk to them when I get out of here.”

“They say it’s urgent.”

A blast from a Rikti gun ricochet around the vault, “And so is this!”

“I have it, let’s get out of here.” Said Doulos pulling a file out of a draw. “Everyone get out.”

Doulos reached for his teleport recall device, “Wait D, they’re telling me not to let you…”

There was a flash and Doulos was gone, “Everyone out,” J. Brute shouted, “We need to go.”

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“Where is he?” Scapegoat yelled as they watched the monitors in the base. “Where did he go?”

“I have no idea.” Genergy said, “something encroached on the signal as he teleported out, I have no idea where he is.”

Scapegoat grabbed his arm, “You have to find him. Frozen, Aero, Yellow, Deluge, come with me.”

“Where we going Scape?” Asked Deluge.

“Warburg, we need to talk to a villain.”

“Why?”

“Because someone must have arranged this, and a villain is more likely to know who.”

“Scape, that’s a needle in a haystack.” Said Disco King.

“That’s better than nothing.”

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

Cracked earth ran as far as Doulos could see in any direction, he held the file in one hand and had his rifle in the other. He was south of Paragon City, a long way south by the sun and the heat. All around him the heat rippled off the ground.

He heard the crack of a rifle, fractions of a second later he felt the hot lead rip through his calf muscle, and another crack and a bullet hit him in the thigh. Turning around to face the direction of the shots and another shot it him in the shoulder throwing him to the floor.

As he pushed himself to his knees he saw some of his attackers, three soldiers with raised weapon came towards him, he raised his rifle to shoot but another bullet hit him from behind driving him to the floor.

Shadows fell across him and his gun was kicked from him, the file was pulled from his hand. A boot was placed on his back and his face was driven onto the ground.

“Hello Jackson, I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.”

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

The Arachnos foot soldier spat blood from his mouth. “I won’t tell you anything.”

Scapegoat grabbed his neck and released another vault of electricity into the soldier. “You will tell us one thing, who is your senior.”

The soldier began to cough blood, “Scape, you’re killing him.” Said Deluge reaching for her arm.

Turning with tears in her eyes, “Someone has to know where he is, and Arachnos is the most likely to know.” But she dropped the soldier to the floor.

The comm. crackled to life, “This is Genergy, we have a location for Doulos.”

“Where is he?” Asked Frozen Rogue.

“Arizona.”

“How the hell did he get there?”

“Burrel is there with him, I’ve been able to acquire the satelitte.”

“We’re on our way, send back up.” Said Scapegoat.

“Pretty much everyone has already offered to go.”

“Then send them all.”

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A soldier grabbed him by the hair and pulled painfully onto his knees. Looking forward he saw Burrel. “Looks like I have you this time Jackson.”

“You have nothing Burrel, you never did.”

One of the soldiers smacked him in the face with the butt of a rifle, Doulos rubbed his jaw and spat blood. “I want you to take his trigger finger.” Burrel said to one of his mercenaries. The soldier pulled out a combat knife but Burrel caught him by the arm, “With these.” Burrel handed him a pair of pliers, “I want it to really hurt him.”

Swallowing the soldier took the pliers and stepped towards Doulos. Doulos looked into his eyes with his one good eye, “You touch me and you will die.” The soldier hesitated until a growl from Burrel made him step forward. As he did Doulos moved with lightning speed, his taser flew into his hand and his hand flew hard into the soldiers groin, driving the electric charged unit hard into the soldiers flesh as it crackled to life. At the same time he hit his teleport device on his belt and the scenery jerked around him. 200 yards behind him he could hear the yells of pain from the mercenary, he pressed the button again, but the men working for Burrel were professionals, and very good. Bullets pounded into him as he moved through the air, landing sprawling on the floor with more bullets in him, this time he couldn’t get himself up again. The soldiers ran towards him, leaving their screaming comrade behind them.

“Nice trick Jackson. You give any more and I will kill you.”

“You’re planning on killing me anyway.”

“Fair point.” Said Burrel, and he pulled a gun from his belt, “I’ll take your finger from your corpse.”

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

Scapegoat and the other Rangers and members of the coalition landed in the desert. Doulos lay a mound covered in dust. Rock Eagle put a hand on her shoulder, “Let me go Rocky.” But the heavy hand didn’t move.

Frozen Rogue and Aeronaut ran forward, Manf and Electrify right behind them. The empaths too one look at him then turned away. Scapegoat screamed. Frozen Rogue and Aeronaut looked at each other, tears welling in his eyes Frozen Rogue turned away. Aeronaut shouted to Rock Eagle, “Keep her back Rocky, keep her back.”

Genergy, Kid Hellfire, the Amazing Shnyet and Disco King Jr. stepped forward joining Aeronaut and Rogue, in lifting the fallen hero to their shoulders they began the long journey back to Paragon City.

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This is not the end of Doulos, however it is the end of his story for now. You will still see and hear from him in Paragon City as he campaigns for his badges and his accolades, however he will be leaving the Precision Rangers to make to make room for my new blaster: Blapper. I would like to thank everyone who has helped me in the quest for 50 with Doulos, the list is long and esteemed:

Rock Eagle
Inspector Frost
Aeronaut
Scapegoat
Okton
J. Brute & Jiaozy
Disco King
The Amazing Shnyet
Okton & Changomonster
Manf
Luminos
Kid Hellfire
Guise
Electrify
Mr. Knockout
and numerous others.

But a special mention must go to one player. It is now tradition in the Rangers that when Commander reaches level 50 he or she appoints a new commander. And my last ish as a Commander of the Precision Rangers is that this individual to be promoted to the rank of Commander before Doulos leaves to make space for Blapper. This player has shown much promise and commitment to the Rangers and this Community in general, that after discussion with Disco King and the Amazing Shnyet we have agreed on his promotion. The new commander to the Precision Rangers sent his first ever private message to me on the forums and has been a good friend both in game and on the forums and on topics not covered by the forum. So without further ado the new Commander of the Precison Rangers is Frozen Rogue. Gratz dude, you really deserve it.

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What a great end to a great toon Well done Doulos, and a brilliant piece of work

/ninjaedit That doesn't read how it sounded in my head, so don't take offence

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You knocked that up in the last 10-15 mins since you Dinged? I'm impressed

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nice. indeed. cool. i dont know what to say accept for goodbye sir and well done frozen.

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I am the Blaster, I have filled the role of Tank, Controller and Defender
Sometimes all at once.
Union EU player! Pip pip, tally ho, top hats and tea etc etc

[ QUOTE ]
“FIND IT!” Roared J. Brute as another Rikti drone exploded under his fist, “We can’t hold out much longer!”

[/ QUOTE ]OMG; gotta love this, it took a while to read but very well made D! Have some stars dude!!

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/em weeps

Great story D, had me tingling! rogue had asked me the other day who'd be the new commander, expressing worries that whoever it was wouldn't live up to your standards. Byte and I said it would be him! He said initially that he'd turn it down, but in his heart of hearts he knows he's the only choice.

It's been an era, boss, and will be remembered - the victors write the history, and the Rangers are ever victorious!

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You do know D's story must end in victory don't you? Congratz D, well deserved .

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�How do I like my MMOs? I like them the way Paragon Studios used to make them.� - a fitting tribute from kiasa.org

EU, Union mostly.

nice1 D, an epic finish to an epic story of 1-50

Shnyet AWAY

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Great story with a sad ending of a great hero.
Well done Doulos and gratz again.

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First time someone used me in a story, its awesome. Thanks D!

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Best story ever - I loved it. It'll be sad to see Doulos go


"
“Awaken please?” Came Aeronauts voice, then “oops, wrong channel, sorry.”"

Sorry, but that was hilarious...

Oh, and I said it in the ranger thread, but Frozen? You deserve it more than ANYONE

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[ QUOTE ]
“Awaken please?” Came Aeronauts voice, then “oops, wrong channel, sorry.”

[/ QUOTE ]

very nice. those MT's are the fault of the game designers... they need to sort out the chat interface...

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[ QUOTE ]
“Awaken please?” Came Aeronauts voice, then “oops, wrong channel, sorry.”"

Sorry, but that was hilarious...

[/ QUOTE ]

Indeed... made me laugh out load, which at 1am isn't good, for it woke up the missus!

Needless to say, she didn't understand

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Wow.

Dramatic and funny, excellent work. Loved the Aero and Solar bits!

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Nice story D, congratulations on 50!

Can't help but feel a little disgruntled having to count myself under the 'and numerous others'

G-Force

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[ QUOTE ]
Nice story D, congratulations on 50!

Can't help but feel a little disgruntled having to count myself under the 'and numerous others'

G-Force

[/ QUOTE ]

Dude I am Totally SORRY!!!! your name should be there in lights! I guess its cause the story was kinda emotional to write and I was a bit exhauted after it!

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*cough* and what Doulos forgot to say was:

"A special mention must go out to Halo and Chillblaze, 2 Rangers who I started my early career as an Ranger with and whose awesome blasting skills have saved me from faceplanting on several occasions, I love you guys "

*cough*

Ah D, don't mention it buddy heheh

anyhow, great story and well done on coordinating the multi-dinging last night.

Sorry I didn't wait but as I explained it was a combination of tech problems and not wanting to make a promise I wasn't sure that I could make

BTW this story ties in nicely with the backstory I came up with for my MM in beta:

Reverant info

gratz on being the first pure ranger to go from 1-50 in the SG, a very sizable achievement matey, very sizable..

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Now, i haven't known Doulos for as long as many of you have. But reading this story brought tears in my eyes (well not literally but you'll get the idea).

I don't know this Burrel guy, but if i ever meet him he's going to get his [censored] kicked so hard, he'll be crying about it until x-mas 2007.

Oké, serious part coming up...

I love the way that more and more Rangers and friends, play small parts into Doulos' (and other peoples) stories. This story especially. (*quietly hopes that Star Jewel will be in one soon* )
The story it self has a good plot. But i'm missing a few links, which is probably my own fault as i missed some history on the Rangers and its members.

I humble at Doulos' magnificent creativity.

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Hero: Star Jewel(50)
Associates: Gemstone; Storm Lock; Star Sparkle; Dawnshade; Lunara; ...more
Enemies: Shadow Vine; Tirana Q; Forte Cadenza; Black Ion; Pursuit; ...more

[ QUOTE ]
*cough* and what Doulos forgot to say was:

"A special mention must go out to Halo and Chillblaze, 2 Rangers who I started my early career as an Ranger with and whose awesome blasting skills have saved me from faceplanting on several occasions, I love you guys "

*cough*


[/ QUOTE ]

Technically he probably teamed with all 'oldies' when we were abit lower.

Remember a certain mish tho :
http://img322.imageshack.us/img322/8...82018188xa.jpg

http://img322.imageshack.us/img322/8...82023241ip.jpg

After that Doulos horribly outlevelled me .
Always enjoyed teaming with ye mate and always will.

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wow, I was still in jeans in those pictures! Thats so cool!

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lol, nice to see you've captured my roleplaying side

big grongratz tho, and keep these stories coming even if they dont have D in them

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Great story D im new to the rangers and enjoyed the short amount of play we had, maybe i can get in blappers story in the future, who knows.
Anyway keep the stories comin and see ya in game

Xamari lvl 34 blaster (precision rangers)

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Dear god man you can write some master pieces Gratz Doul!!!! on the big 5-0 and what a brilliant way to end it
good luck with blapper and BB

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