Sisarose Mansion

((I changed the date of next meeting to Sunday February 10th.. we are lacking behind and our secret off - forum things todo need more time to... As next meeting will not be in Thugz Mansion I will start a new Thread for it.))

((Note: Global Healing is intended to be an ongoing community plot by the soon-to-assemble Lords of Destruction. At this stage only those invited can participate. See World Villains thread for discussion.))

Chapter One: Portal Corps

Alicia Barzini stood atop of her building in Nerva Archipelago, running her plan through her mind over and over. She hoped with all her might, to meet little resistance once at her destination. The last time she had tried this mission, almost two years ago, it lead to her death. However, she was even more capable now than ever, having outsmarted courts of hell-spawns, cheated death and escaped eternal damnation.

With delicate grace, she fluttered into the skies, her long black dress trailing through the dark clouds. The journey wasn't long, she'd arrived at Paragon City quite quickly, undetected. She proceeded to land on Peregrine Island, in the courtyards of Portal Corps. Despite her calm approach, nearby Police Drones honed in on her movements. She knew that an evening rumble with trigger-happy policemen and bigoted super-powered heroes would be counter-productive so she tried to remain undetected, hiding her face from passer-bys and machines. However, the police drone's face-recognition software was acute.

In an instant it had alerted local enforcements of her presence, an intruder on Portal Corps property. Pistol; known terrorist, presumed dead, threat level 52, super-powered, nuclear and highly dangerous. All the information stored on police database, disbursed to high-clearance heroes in the vicinity. The stealth game was over. Energy relocation beams fired towards her with deadly accuracy. She had no other choice. With an angry wave of her hands, moisture in the air froze into a solid shield of ice, deflecting the Police Drone's beams straight back at them. She hurriedly fought back, desperate to get inside the building before the capes respond.

Dimension Omega 27-3 'Devogon'
Portal Corps access:Restricted <No futher information>
February 23rd 2023, 6:42 a.m. World Time

[u]Tokyo[u]
The Rikti invasion had come early but the city was still prepared. Already two cruisers had met their fate, dispersing in the air as the energy blast tore them apart but the Mothership and it's remaining support were still hovering above. The shield had not been completed and so the invaders had managed to teleport to the streets. The Imperiat forces were tearing through them, keeping the streets as clear as they could as the massive defense cannon had finally charged enough and locked onto its target. With a bright flash and an earth-shattering boom, it fired and within a few seconds obliterated the mothership, scattering it's atoms into the aether. The invasion was ended.

The Empress watched from Tokyo Tower, the carnage was something she enjoyed. She relished it. Worthy opponents to mangle and crush beneath her. Her moment of pleasure was shattered as another dimensional alert came through her bracer. This time she smiled and made her way to the elevator, down to the portal room.

A single figure emerged from the awaiting portal as the Empress made her entrance. The figure of William Benedict became visible and the once ready soldiers stood down to an awaiting state. The Empress smiled and moved to him as he picked her up and embraced her.

"Welcome home, my love."

The sight was something the soldiers witnessed often in the last year; the two of them locked in a passionate embrace.

"I brought something with me this time..."

He turned to face the portal as another, smaller figure stepped through carrying a rather large particle accelerator on her own. Lucky was a cyborg though and carrying it was a simple task for her. She dropped it down with loud thud, the markings of Crey Corp clearly visible on it's housing. As one soldier tried in vain to move it on his own William smiled.

"Would you mind carrying that down for him, my dear?"
"Sure boss."

The soldiers embarrassment was compounded as Lucky lifted the device with ease and carried it to the freight elevator. William twisted on hand around his wrist, an audible click heard as his face and outfit started to morph into the form of Emperor Gar, condescendingly called Evil Tyger in the Unionverse where he had once been captured. He embraced his first wife again, arms round her hips.

"Much better. Gala dinners can be such stuffy affairs. Anything interesting happened while I was away?"

The Empress lowered her head, gesturing to one of the techs to pass her something.

"Another invasion, The Rikti attacked London and here at the same time for this one."
"They're getting smarter.."

The Empress put a finger to his lips as the tech handed her a screen tablet showing the locations attacked by Rikti in the last year, centering around one location more than any other. Emperor Gar looked at them and then glared outwardly.

"It's him. He's been more trouble than he's worth and now he's drawing 'them' here? I should send him back to his own universe... if it wasn't so delightfully amusing."

He smiled at his first and rubbed their heads together. Their moment was interrupted as another alert was detected. Another portal was on its way to being activated and heading right to this verse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Portal Corps: secure area
Slowly Feline Surbast examined the artifact before her... She was called in from the Paragon Museum of Classical History as expert on strange and sometimes dangerous ancient artifacts by the man beside her. His name was Dr. Gene DeCroix and he was Portals head of Dimensional Investigation.

The artifact was a neclace... It came from an alternative dimension not unlike our Earth... There the Portal team took it from a magician that was taking over the Earth. Even though they where not meant to be involved.

"At first sight I can't see anything wrong with it Mr. DeCroix. I will have to do some test. Maybe even find a magician to study it on a occult level.", Feline said...

Suddenly the alarms went off. Feline looked up...

"What is that Doctor?", she asked energetic...

"Ah... that's the security alarms.. I guess the droids encountered a hostile intrusion. They will be able to deal with it, I am sure!", he explained...

Feline looked worried... "Can I be excused for a second... where is the bathroom?"

"Sure... first door at the end of the hall. You are alright I hope?!"

"Ofcourse... just powdering my nose." She smiled and walked to wards the pointed bathrooms. Inside her attitude changed a lot. And with it her appearance. Her eyes turned yellow... and grey fur grew on her body. The claws of Bast where needed again. Nightseye would walk the Earth once more.

She opened the ventilation shaft and crawled in... The noise of action took her straight to the problem. She saw a woman engaging the guard droids.

"Who in the gods name is that?", she whispers to herself. Then jumped out of the shaft and blocked the path of the intruder.

Having defeated the drones Pistol raced across the courtyard, towards the East Wing entrance. Just as she reached the doors a blur of grey fur chased past and blocked her path. In her haste, she reacted with instincts, charging directly into the animal with her shield of deadly sharp ice. She readied a sharp blade of frozen air particles, poised for a follow-up attack.

Nightseye looked up for only a fraction of a second. Her cat-like reflexes saw the woman charging. She jumped up over her and her claws grabbed the back of the intruder trying to topple her over. Shifting her weight she landed neatly behind her attacker.

Annoyed by the hypersensitive animal, Pistol followed through with the momentum of the throw and somersaulted backward onto her feet. When she landed she had gained superb kinetic speed, siphoned from her foe. Without hesitation she focused a blast of bladed icicles directly at the animal and then she was gone.

Nightseye felt like she hadn't slept in weeks for a moment. Even the normally easy act of avoiding the ice blast cost her everything she had.

She just managed to let her body fall to the ground in an agile motion... letting the bladed icicles fly over her. She looked up as fast as she could... but that was for the moment waay too slow. The intruder was nowhere to be seen.

Cursing herself she noticed that the droids came in closer... "Identification: Nightseye... Recently new member: Militia... Objective: Failed"

These electronic words struck a small nerve. It would be better to return to her work for now and try to track down the woman later. She jumped on the top of the building and down the other side... disappearing into the ventilation shaft again. Back to the bathroom she had left before she would be missed.

Pistol sped through the Portal Corps lobby security defences, up the elevators, through the brightly lit corridors and into the portal control room. She commandeered a station with practised ease and at the right moment, she produced a small metallic device which tricked the computers to identify her as the Statesman. Minutes later Pistol's enhanced kinetic energy had withered back to normal. The dimensional portal however, shot to life, vibrating the ground with all its power. Pistol wasted no time in charging in. Displayed on the computer screens was the message, 'Destination: Omega Devogon 27-3. Portal Closing in T-minus 6 seconds and counting'.

Dimension Omega 27-3
Somewhere in the remnants of the 5th Column base, Striga Isle

The portal made a couple of brief flashes before it stabalised, the aperture exposed to the courtyard of the base as a single figure stepped through and took a slight tumble as the uneven ground, covered in rubble was a sudden change to the flat Portal Corps gantry. Pistol stood straight, an observer would've thought it were quite comical... as Tyrell did. The quantumn scanner had been right again, portal location bang on target. Although Tyrell had been hoping for more Rikti, he didn't mind picking on a naive dimension-hopper.

"Capture her, don't hurt her"

His father's voice rang through his consciousness. Tyrell was a little disappointed but his father's will be done. Tyrell focused as he sank into the building heading through the rock towards his target.

Pistol checked her surroundings. Aside from the roman numerals along with the red and black banners, she recognised it as the Council Base on Striga. Disused and abandoned, only a few noises from local wildlife and overgrowth of vegetation covered what must've been one hell of a battle. Her solace was interrupted as a carrier flew overhead. Arachnos, but not quite. The design was similar but heavily modified, much more streamlined and without the garish red coloring. It hovered over as several troopers jumped out and survived a significant drop, weapons bared on Pistol. She wondered, had she been wrong this time? She drew her guns and they stopped in their tracks.

"What? Six of you, only one of me and you're already afraid?"

Pistol stood proud, a smile on her face not realising that Tyrell was feeding his rocky form up through the rubble behind her and in one swift motion stabbed his tranq pen into her neck making her spin round and shoot him once in the face. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Tyrell's smiling face as he spat out the bullet.


Gar Imperiat, Devogon City
Several hours later
Pistol awoke from her forced slumber to find she was sprawled out on a divan, sectioned offside to the rest of the room and rather large for one. Then she noticed her guns were gone and that she wasn't quite alone. A large desk in front of an equally large window and a chair right in the centre. She rolled off and stood up noticing her guns were on the desk. Pistol walked to her weapons, eager to reclaim them.

"Wait a moment, Miss Barzini."

Pistol had just about reached for her gun when a voice from the chair froze her. The chair spun round and there he was. She recognised him, even with the scar on his face... Tyrone Gar.

"Nice to see you again, Alicia"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

"Emperor Tyrone" said Pistol. "You're the version who built a clone from my corpse, right?"

A smirk formed on his face, amused at how she could know such a thing.

"Indeed I did. A pity you had to burn first and I had to ensure you were alive... in some way or another"

Tyrone stepped up out of his chair, eyes switching between the weaponry on the desktop and their owner. He leaned against the desk, arms folded and sideways-on to Alicia looking away from her.

"I know what you're thinking; if he keeps talking and looking away like that, I might be able to pick up one of my guns and pump two, maybe three rounds into his chest before he can react"

Tyrone looked at her with his one good eye, smiling at her.

"Of course, if you do that, you'll not find out why you are here."

Tyrone took several deliberate steps forward, moving away from the desk, turning so he faced her.

"The decision is yours, my dear"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

"I know about the Illuminati and I know you're part of the Upper Echelon" said Pistol, enjoying the surprise shift in status quo. "They recruited me just weeks ago after my miraculous resurrection. As you can imagine, I had a lot to answer for. They had a lot of questions about the Priest, about Dark Pistol and the League of Righteous Destroyers. I decided to tell them the truth, that a demon in my form was working on my behalf while I secretly fashioned my escape from death, that I was no longer associated with the LoRD's. So you see, Emperor, I know exactly why I am here, but do you?" she asked cockily.

"I'd imagine that it's because you want me.."

He let his voice trail off for a moment, almost teasing her with innuendo.

"... to help reform the Illuminati on your Earth and since I have succeeded where the others haven't as yet, I was chosen to be your guide."

He walked over to a large cabinet and opened it, a display of familiar and unfamiliar drinks along with crystal glasses of an elegant yet simple design. Taking two of them, he poured the liquid from one of the clear bottles into a glass and displaced the rest with a dark caramel colored one which fizzed up. It seems that while he was physical dissimilar to his Union counterpart, they still shared the same taste in drinks.

"Drink, my dear?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

"Why not" said Pistol. "While we're discussing motives, let me question your involvement with my clone's recent endeavours with the Marcone Family. Have you any control over her?"

"No"

He took several more sips before dipping his finger into the drink and running it round the rim.

"There was some subliminal programming but after some tireless and costly exposure by the resistance, they managed to keep it from being 'installed', so to speak. The upshot is she's caused more chaos in your world than she realises"

He poured a drink for Alicia and handed it to her.

"She won't be a problem though. I have someone who can track her down"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

"Good. Make sure she's dealt with, appropriately" Pistol threatened. "On to more pressing matters, the Upper Echelon have tasked me to spearhead the recruitment phase. The Illuminati needs people who care about the world, who are willing to go to drastic measures and beyond, to change it. We don't just need powerful allies but also a number of footsoldiers, muscle men who can keep their mouths shut. I don't know how familiar you are with my Earth dimension Emperor, but do you know anyone back there, fitting these job descriptions?"

Tyger handed her a list of names, a rather short list.

"Not had the time in recent months due to..."

RIKTI PORTAL APERTURE DETECTED, THIRTY MINUTES TO FULL TRANSPOSURE

"... well, that actually."

The voice boomed out through the city, Tyger stood there unafraid, carrying on his conversation.

"Feel free to pick out any others you might choose. The Unionverse isn't the only one I patrol.. as you are already aware."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Pistol collected the list of names and made her excuses to leave. "Thank you Emperor" she said curtiously, "If you'll excuse me, I'll leave you now to deal with your crisis."

Tyger smiled and nodded. He pointed to the main doorway

"That way leads to the lifts. If you get lost, just ask a peon to help you find the portal room. They should all be aware of who you are by now"

He moved to the desk and hit a comm panel.

"Get the defenses ready and find me the scientist who's supposed nullifier obviously isn't working and have him lashed. Last thing we need is that stripey, glowing, yellow freak throwing his glowing energy out again"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Pistol flew through the dimensional portals and emerged back in her home world marked Union 22-1. The hole had been conveniently positioned in the skies above Grandville. She quietly looked around for a safe spot to land. She produced Emperor Gar's list and say the name Ms. Adams, an Arachnos affiliated assassin.

Beneath Spider City

A figure garbed in the black clothing preferred by members of the Midnight Club ran through the tunnels underneath Spider City, its face obscured by the hood of a cloak which billowed out behind it as it sprinted. The cause of the figure’s pace revealed itself a few moments later to be a group of spiderlings that clanked and sparked their way speedily through the tunnel.

The figure did not dare look back and was clutching something in its gloved hands – a box of some description, which glowed eerily with magical runes. The figure was fast approaching a crossroads in the tunnels and it made the decision to feint to the right before doubling back on itself and diving to the left where a few grille panels replaced the metal roof overhead. It had miscalculated the move as it careered into a wall a hundred yards down the passage. The figure, breathing heavily, now chose to turn around and face its dogged opposition – there was no sound of pursuit, no sight of the tiny yet savage spiderlings. Its shoulders sagged in relief and it slumped to the floor, hoping to blend in with the shadows cast by the poor lighting down here.

The figure’s attention turned to the box it had been carrying. The runes still emitted an odd light but nothing that might give the figure away to its enemies. Slowly, it felt its way around the box, trying to find a catch or indentation.

“Naughty, naughty.” A woman’s voice, very soft and light, caused the figure to freeze.

“Didn’t your mother tell you it was wrong to steal?” the voice laughed but there was no sign of its source. The prone figure remained silent.

“Aren’t you going to ask ‘Who’s there?’ ” Another laugh.

“It’s all right. Just hand me the box and I’ll let you walk away.” The figure remained resolutely silent.

“Cat got your tongue? Oh well, perhaps you’re more of a man of action?”

Suddenly, the figure was lifted by its shoulders up into a recess in the ceiling. It’s legs thrashed as its arms, dropping the box, tried to wrest itself from the creature that held it so tightly. The pressure increased and the figure, now proving to be a man very much in pain, howled.

Then the man dropped a little as arms encircled his throat, stifling his cry. During his last moments all his darkest fears rose to the surface so that when his attacker deftly snapped his neck with a sickening crack, it felt like blessed relief. The body fell to the floor and a moment later a lithe figure jumped down from the shadowy ceiling, landing silently. She was wearing an olive green bodysuit and looked no more imposing than the average hired goon, despite her recent activity. Her midnight blue hair reflected some of the dull light of the corridor and the lower half of her face was covered up which, in the shadows, gave the appearance of her having only half a face. The woman touched a button on her right arm and spoke, “Intruder apprehended and dealt with. Tell Scirocco’s men to be more careful with the vetting procedure next time.”

And with that, Ms Adams picked up the box and headed back to the vault it had been purloined from. High above, visible through the grilled ceiling, something dropped into the sky.

Pistol waited patiently above the Arachnos base, watching closely for her target. Minutes later, someone matching the filed description emerged from a tunnel gate. Quickly, Pistol landed and positioned herself ahead of her path. In the unlit area, shadows enveloped the cloaked lady, smoke from the tunnels highlighting her silhouette. She appeared eery and mysterious, her voice sharp and intriguing as she uttered the word "Adams".

“My, my. You people are so prompt when it comes to dishing out the vengeance. What was it? Ten minutes since I broke one of your operative’s neck?”

Ms Adams’s body tensed, ready to fight or flee depending on her adversary’s talents.

Pistol emerged slowly from the shadows. "You've been recommended by the powers that be as a potential asset to my company. I'd like to talk business."