Union Roleplayers - Recaps, Plots and Banter.

Last night at Pocket D, hero side bar (why isn't the chalet being used now we can?)


Rose arrived and was pleased to see Sarah, and alone it seemed, that just won't do!
Rose gave Sarah a little something because she thought it'd look nice on her: a silver necklace with 5 tear shaped diamonds, which probably cost a pretty penny (or considering she's from the Rogues, perhaps not ). Rose was rather annoyed by a Tygerboy because he just assumed she was from the Isles (he claimed it's the salty air, which is plausible but as it's not the first time it annoyed her).
But she was pleased that Sarah didn't think she was evil looking and moved a bit as she found herself positioned between the tyger and some nut hurling testosterone at each other.

Rose noticed that Sarah seemed a little down so she dragged her off for a chat... or rather just asked if she wanted to talk. Sarah asked if she wanted to listen and of course she did, so they went upstairs away from he hoard of ninja's and the black vapour spewing leader.
There they talked about relationships and kissing and such.

Sadly, Roselin had to go, but before she did... she wished Sarah a happy birthday and....
Then she left

(following is a recollection of several days events. I tried to compile them. It's not complete, of course)

Two days ago, the Silent Tempest team held a meeting in their rather empty base due to a noticeable absence of futnitures. The circumstances being that the team base was refitted, walls and floors painted and/or strengthened, but the furnitures ordered didn't arrive yet.
In this minimalized meeting room, the team welcomed the arrival (and addition to the roster) of Hand of Sorrow, Mesoc and a girl apparently saved by Coile during his trip in Jamaica, named Merisol.
Kitalia , also present, was formally integrated into the team, after having spent time away in the Kraft family farm in North Dakota. Kitalia, whose peculiar existence is the consequence of the choices from the former and now vanished team member Kitia, was sent there after her arrival in Parago City, in a time where neither Coile or Sword of Truth were really able, or willing, to take care of her.
Dustine arrived with Arrow Flame (*), someone the mystical woman of the Silent Tempest looks to be closer and closer.
The discussion orbited around the now really missing Steel Guard , whose personnal problems might have reach a peak.
Sword of Truth having checked in vain Steel Guard's home, a second trip, with Sword and Coile, to the "grumpy old man" home (according to Love Angel wording) having not taken place (for, here again, very personnal reasons), Subaiku , the shadowy-gypsy-like-faerie-werewolf (depending who is speaking about her), looked to be ready to follow the trail of the missing member. Subaiku, actually, being most probably the member being ever the closer to Steel Guard.

For the Sword of Truth, nights in Pocket D were difficult. After Coile announced her their relationship was over, the leader of the Silent Tempest was easily and openly (and naturally if not logically) going around with his new girlfriend and soon-to-be-wife Nightsparrow . A situation truly difficult for Nadia Forester (the Sword of Truth), who is unable to stand by the newly formed couple, especially when they are displaying their happiness.
Such situation created emotionnal turmoil in Sword, to the point of having her fainting at the upper level bar of Pocket D.
Still, someone else was lurking in the dimly lit dimensional nightclub.
A young woman, whose manners and physical appearance are somewhat familiar to anyone kowing well Nightsparrow, was behaving oddly. That young woman kept, during days, lurking around, studying things with strange gadgets or simply and openly scavenging the most curious items (like collecting empty bottles and cans, getting cigarette packs and so on).
Even weirder, some days ago, the said young woman was called Darksparrow by another young and unknown woman who just arrived at the club.
From similarities in manners and look to a real similarity in name to Nightsparrow, the scavenging-analyzing girl could not raise the interest of Coile.

Lastly, Coile asked Xan, also known as Star Crusader to provide him simple equipment to collect blood samples. Xan the alien, who incidentally, is more and more becoming the private doctor of the Silent Tempest and affiliates, having helped the Silent Tempest members Dawn Perez, the Militia member Lady Cobra, Kitia before she left our world, who announced Nightsparrow pregnancy and was recently asked by Coile to find medication for nerves (to be given to Sword of Truth).
Is Darksparrow a blood relative to Nightsparrow ? Future might tell us.

The last night in Pocket D, Sword of Truth, still unable to withstand Coile and Nightsparrow hapiness, found haven at a bar out of sight of the couple.
There, Hand of Sorrow came and talked with her about the idea of having a charity ball. The discussion soon drifted on the idea of creating a foundation.
Both Hand of Sorrow and Sword of Truth discussed ways to help people, priorities and hierarchy of suffering.
Still, both ideas are going their way with good hopes that, at least, the charity ball becomes a reality.
Sword's idea of having a themed charity event is going to be true or if a more classical event will be held has yet to be determined.

The mid night saw a discussion between Hand of Sorrow and Tygerboy about the exercise of law and justice. How to punish criminals. That discussion has actually been sparked by Hand of Sorrow mention of a kind of witch hunt targeting him.
The discussion was fueled by occasionnal interventions from Sword of Truth and Nightschild .

And finally, in the late night, Sword of truth talked a lot to Jiffy Blakes , journalist at the Daily Comet. Hand of Sorrow had to leave while Pocket D was granted the presence of Mesoc .
Sword and Jiffy mainly discussed about the presence of youngsters, kids, in heroic teams and the linked responsability, or irresponsability.
Jiffy, being also a "drinking buddy" of Nightsparrow, so more or less aware of the ended Coile-Sword relationship and the new Coile-Nightsparrow one, tried to get Sword "point of view", without real success due to the lack of interest of the woman to speak about that.
When Sword finally left the club, leaving Jiffy and Mesoc, she had also learned the reporter tried to contact her, in vain (possibly geting Coile on phone rather than Sword), months ago. He was wanting to deliver her a disc about a certain company...
Sword, still having in mind the charity event and the foundation idea, asked Jiffy if he could promote those ideas. And she will return him the favor later...

(*) I was on phone at that time, later got several hardware failure, I just hope I was able to recognize who was there with Dustine ! If not feel free to correct me and accept apologizes !

As with FaeryFire's post above, this is a recollection of the past few nights at Pocket D.

Tuesday:
Hegira was at the Heroes bar looking out of the window, and chatted to Pix and Mort au Vif(?) about various things. Pix was rather intimidated by the fact that Hegira has claws, and when offered to look into her mind, Mort found some interesting barriers of mind control.
Hegira then later met... someone who's name escapes me at the moment, called Mort brother or something though, and Lady Patriot, and they chatted briefly before Hegira headed home.

Number Nine and Madame Midknight went out for a night on the tiles in Kings Row's BDSM-themed bar/club, The Pits of Hell. The experience was certainly an eye-opener for Nene, as she chatted with patrons, Jane and staff like Isaac Anderson, discussing Life, the Universe and everything else. And learning to poledance from a gendershifting mutant. And getting completely hammered thanks to Jane convincing her to turn on her Alcohol Intake Behaviour Modifying program. And dancing. And... well, it was a busy night, leaving her rather undercharged for work the next day.

Surreal is a leather-clad bear of a man and a silver-skinned Gynoid sitting at a bar discussing metahumans and their effects on world politics.

Wednesday:
Today saw Minako Nizishumi, the heroine known as Hikari-Hime turn 17 and go out to Pocket D for a little party with family and friends. Nene gave Mina hugs, a kiss on the forehead, offers to take her out for ice cream and... a twig. Mina was a little perplexed until Nene used her chronoshifting abilities to make the branch of a cherry tree blossom. Miss Ellie and Grav Mistress were also there, along with Sara Aegis, and she discussed her night out partially with the others, before heading home to get an early night. On the way out, she swung over to speak to Nightsparrow and Coile (Huzzah, spelt correctly first time!), and chatted with them a little. Lack of addiquate 'sleep' made her tongue a little loose (Not that she has one), and she believes she may have embaressed Andre a little. Melanine seemed to think Nene would make a good Dominatrix, with thigh high boots and a whip. Nene quickly left after that point. Is -everyone- out to corrupt our favourite gynoid, or simply show her some of the more alternative things in life?

Jane arrived and dished some more dirt on Nene's night out. Jess (Grav) didn't seem too impressed that Nene was taken there. Jane chatted with the others for a bit, making the usual chitchat with Mina about eating her brains, and then gave her a present! A Thingamajig! A clear plastic box with a floating pink nebulous cloud inside (Imagine a pink version of Warshades shields )which responded basically to thoughts, spelling out names in glittering little stars of shifting into a heart shape when Mina thought about someone she loved. Mina and everyone else was pretty stunned when as she was about to leave, she told them to mention poledancing to Nene, before grinning wickedly as she left. She's a bad, bad woman. In a good way.

Isaac Anderson arrived to wish Mina a happy birthday, Dark Stone having a quick little break from work. Pulling her into a hug and a kiss, he chatted with the others before having to get back to work. He also mentioned about moving out of 6-9 Nebula District, the warehouse-turned-home where he and the other mutants who formed a group in the Hollows live.

Then Sophie Reynalds arrived, dressed up in a little black dress and gave Mina a big hug. When she and Mina found out that Sara was on a date on Sunday night with Tower of Power things quickly became unravelled, and the revelation of a doppleganger or something posing as Sara was revealed. Sophie nearly went meltdown at that point. Should Sophie and the dopple meet..
Sophie calmed herself down, and after saying goodnight to everyone headed off.

Last night:

Hegira was at the bar, a little out of sorts and having real problems with her memory as she chatted to Drake Flame, having several drinks and discussing how having amnesia and the memory of a fish makes finding work really hard. They chatted for a while before Hegira thought it best to head off.

Number Nine spent the early evening having a nice chat with Doctor Temporis, with hugs, friendly banter and nice words said between the two. Nene looks on the good doctor as a father figure more and more, and Doc is pleased with how Nene is developing socially as she recounted her e-mails with Love Angel and inviting people out to dinner, as well as generally chatting.

Nene swung by Pocket D to find Coile and Darksparrow chatting, and left them in peace to chat after some brief words, and Andre informing Nene that when he knows the date of his and Melanine's wedding, she'll be informed.

[ QUOTE ]
Mort au Vif(?)

[/ QUOTE ]
Mort ou Vif (Dead or Alive)

[ QUOTE ]
Coile (Huzzah, spelt correctly first time!)

[/ QUOTE ]
Congratulations ! But...

[ QUOTE ]
Melanine

[/ QUOTE ]
Melanin ?
Maybe... Melanie ?

Last night...

Roselin showed up and greeted Sarah, who seemed busy so she left her to it. She greeted the woman with the funny but deep name. She met Drake and briefly discussed hero rules, like cheesy names, flashy costumes, cliché secret identities and such.

But then she heard Sarah asking to talk to Nick about some advice, and so ordered a drink and followed. She did say that she'd leave if asked, but Sarah was welcoming the extra help. More problems with her new (and first) boyfriend.

Nick left after a bit of advice that he said in advance might not be best for Sarah, muttering he should fix his own relationship before giving others advice.
Rose commented that if you have problems, you can at least advice what not to do, or some such.
A little more talk before Sarah asked about Rose, who admitted being worried about a ... friend, she had not heard from.
Sarah had to beat dad's curfew and they hugged goodbye

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Melanine

[/ QUOTE ]
Melanin ?
Maybe... Melanie ?

[/ QUOTE ]

... There's a scary thought, a cross between Number Nine and Nightsparrow.

In my defence, I've been bouncing off the walls all day waiting for Mutants and Masterminds 2nd ed and Freedom City 2nd Ed to arrive. Coherent thought was fleeting as the clock drew nearer to the time I had to leave the house, and 3 minutes before I left, the doorbell goes and they arrive.

Last night...


Rose was at Pocket D, hovering near War Witch, watching, listening... why? Who knows?

Something happened that Rose thought would be a good time to step up, the less said about that the better.

Some 'angelic' figure seemed to find it odd that Rose was conserned for the welbeing of Sarah, a hero, while she could sense darkness in Rose... There was also someone that seemed to think Rose's green skin was unhealthy

She went to check on Sarah, who was sitting with Drake (her personal stalker ) and they talked for a bit about some assasin being after Sarah. Drake left for the Chalet, asking if Sarah'd meet him there.
Rose and Sarah talked a while longer before Sarah went to see what he wanted.

After Rose went over some things and got up to get a drink, a familiar voice asked her a question from the shadows... a voice she didn't expect to hear, and for a fraction thought she didn't... but there stood Mary. Who was missing for a while. They chatted a bit about that and such.

When Sarah came back, she revealed that Drake said that he loves her... Oh well.
Rose introduced Mary and Sarah to each other and they chatted a little bit before Drake came back and was soon lightly ridiculed (Drake meaning male duck, or baby dragon) and a 'friend' coming over slapping him silly and calling him 'fatty'... there was also a walking plant-man and they chatted a while. Where Rose and Mary lightly teased each other.

When Rose decided to leave, Mary decided to leave too... not that at ease with heroes despite the neutral grounds

[ QUOTE ]
waiting for Mutants and Masterminds 2nd ed and Freedom City 2nd Ed to arrive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Have them both (as well as Lockdown and Mastermind Manual)
I should receive Ultimate Power today.

Ok, posting brief recap, very brief since i've not got much time for anyone interested in someting major happening for Jack last night:

At Pocket D

after helping Nene (number Nine) in rescuing the frozen Andrew Varrs Jack decided to head back to the bar with Pix and Arc to have a general relaxing evening with friends. He did not however expect to see his recently re-incarnated girlfriend, Wynd Flysh, standing at the bar. This made things even more complicated when, in mid-hug, Pix arrived from having gotten changed out of her uniform.

Things were made worse when the two women shook hands and didn't seem to be getting along two badly for about... 5 seconds before Pix realised what had happened during introductions. What followed was, surprisingly, a very calm talk about everything that had happened, Jack was grateful for Pix taking over the story at about mid-point after he managed to stumble through.

"Well... um... you died..." Half-smiles and then swears under his breath

At the end of the conversation Pix left in a hurry, telling Jack to stay with Wynd and comfort her for the night cause of all that had happened. Jack and Wynd had brief talk before heading home, Wynd went straight to bed and Jack soon followed, however sleeping on top of the covers so as to be able to hug and give Wynd some comfort without giving the wrong impression. Wynd didn't seem to mind all that much and still looked shell-shocked after the recent news.


Sophie was sitting at home when a crying Pix emerged through the front door, they then spent much time huddled together with Arc eating some ice cream and watching movies which some how Arc managed to sit all the way through.

yup,in his sleep deprived condition...i think he could just sit through a Barbra Streisand concert...just

Been a while since I tried to recap anything. Writing the journal has taken some of the creative juices and just trying to juggle a whole lot of characters takes its toll. Let's see what we got. Again, this is either from my point of view and in some cases from the characters' point of view and thus hardly the unbiased truth.

Lightspeed love! (Coile)

"Would you do it with me
Heal the scars and change the stars
Would you do it for me
Turn loose the heaven within"
- Nightwish

Considering Coile has no superspeed he sure is moving fast. When Nadia Forester (Sword of Truth) walked out of their apartment in mid-December without a promise of marriage something fragile inside him cracked. Never having been independent and insecurities plaguing him he was looking for certainties that the woman he loved could not give to him at the time. When the door closed an era came to an end. For the first time in his life Andre Kraft felt to be alone.

Things were piling up. Nadia walking out. Kitia dying. Visiting his old home on the robot farm refreshed memories of an abusive girlfriend. Love Angel found out that Coile's sister Coila had been a construct instead of a born human and that the ND-units that had taken care of Andre and Andrea since they were babies were no mere robots at all but contained the personality emulation of their dead mother. Add a confession of love by Nightsparrow, mix carefully and let simmer over Christmas.

Andre was hellbent on fixing his life, thinking things through and making choices. But as it was the home was no place for this. Too many distracting memories. Prior to leaving Paragon City for the funeral a pale white girl Kacey (Stormrise) had asked if he wanted to go to a scuba trip to Caribbean for new year's. That sounded to be ideally away from everything and everyone. However the few days in-between were spent in Paragon City and that's where Nightsparrow was too. A kiss was exchanged. Then it was time for deep waters and deep thoughts.

It was working. An underwater hazard situation occurred and with one affirming tap from Kacey Andre managed to follow a set of instructions he had gotten just two days ago. Remaining calm he offered a woman who was stuck in seaweed his oxygen to keep them both breathing while he cut away the restaining strands. This lead the rescued woman to come to Paragon City as ShadowWoman and offering her help to Silent Tempest. Another proof of a development was seen when Andre had to share the bed with Kacey and to up the stakes she chose to sleep naked. At an earlier part of life this would have sent the guy in sheer panic and probably through the door but now he had collected enough wits and guts to have a level approach to uncomfortable situations.

The plan was to finish the scuba trip, then go back home to confront his father Zirgei and ask questions about his mother and machine sister, then go offer his old girlfriend Emmily a chance to get into a theraphy and finally go to Madison to meet Nadia in order to see where they stood now. Oh well, the best made plans of simian bipeds and cheese consuming rodents. A call came.

It was Melanie, Nightsparrow. She had left things unsaid. She wanted a family. She wished for a marriage. She hoped for children. During those few seconds all the myriad plans, chances, options and alternatives started to shake and collapse. When the world had turned only one path remained, clearer and stronger than any other. It was a path to a life where he would be happy. If other options would have offered the same was no longer a question. The next day Andre flew back to Paragon City and became an item with Melanie.

The quest still remained, just that instead of going alone he now had a woman by him. The direction was back to North Dakota and the childhood stomping grounds. The first order of business was to seek out Emmily and get her some help. It went wrong. While Andre went into Emmily's room to talk Melanie remained behind the door, listening in. Emmily had never been quite right in her head while Andre had known her. When they had last seen each other Andre had run from her accompanied by various curses. Still Emmily had thought that they were still together. Now it dawned on her that it was not so, Andre was leaving her. A pull of a trigger and Andre went down like a bleeding sack of potatoes. Melanie crashed through the door and kicked Emmily to the head once. Broken neck, dead before hitting the ground after hitting the wall.

The wound was almost fatal (much dice were rolled to keep the uncertainty element in) but doctors succeeded in what they were good at. However a prank stemming from intuition had lead Melanie to claim Andre could cause a quantum burst if his plate was removed. This lead him to be shipped back to the farm when the immediate danger to his life had been negated. After two days of delirium and caretaking by Melanie a "Freedom Corps" healer came by, using Zirgei's weirdass equipment and took care of the slowly healing bullet wound. The bluish show of light and energy was seemingly quite painful and tempted Melanie to interfere with the process at one point, causing yet unknown effects (and another dice roll of D100 that was just 4 points shy of something very very bad). However, healed, they both returned to Paragon City with no confrontation with Zirgei having taken place.

Returned to Paragon City where Nadia had also returned. An encounter on Talos beach was full of deep hurt, anger, shouting and tears. Once again goes to show that you can't necessarily fix something that has been broken. The evening ended with a downer. However, as much as the dreaded confrontation had caused hurt it was now over and the situation with Nadia had been resolved, or at least was known. The uncertainties were abolished. There was nothing to stop the new couple from going at their own speed now.

That same night Melanie got pregnant (I just have to mention that we used an outsider GM to determine if it was a "hole in one" and will be using the same system for all pregnancy related mattters). The next evening Andre went on one knee presenting a ring and a proposition which Melanie accepted. Some days later Xan (Star Crusader) did a bloodtest and concluded that Andre and Mel were now a family of three. This fact was broadcasted loudly to all in Pocket D immediately and then the news spread fast. Nadia didn't take it all too well. The building emotional turmoil caused her to faint a few days later which resulted in Andre spending the night by her bed although he had the wits not to be in it.

Now the fast paced dash towards something that hopefully is happiness is reaching another landmark with the wedding coming this Sunday. Some have suspected that the wedding is of the shotgun variety due to the pregnancy. Some have wondered how long such a rebound relationship will last. Some have wondered would Nadia take back a man that has caused so much hurt and damage if there was yet another change of heart. Lots of questions, lots of speculations and only the future will show what will be.

The latest thing to take place is both Andre and Mel getting a job with Hero Corps. Mel will be teaching martial arts mostly to fill her days now that her vigilante days are over due to the pregnancy and Andre will be a sort of councelor to upcoming HC recruits with as of yet undefined scope of responsibilities.

Things unmentioned: Xan will be the family doctor as well as a godfather, Diana (Love Angel) will be a godmother and Nene Ninnezt will officiate the wedding.

Shakedown! (The Silent Tempest)

"Time pays us but with earth & dust, and a dark, silent grave."
- Nightwish

Having barely adjusted to the fact that Kitia was gone another tragedy hit from the blind. Thomas Irons, Steel Guard, committed a suicide by shooting his brains out. The poor man had stayed detached emotionally from the team since the beginning but Love Angel's membership some two months back proved to be too much. The young, energetic girl reminded him too much of his dead daughter, the Silver Sentinel who had also worn an armour and had perished in the Rikti war.

Finally the festive season and induced extra loneliness had gotten to the drunkard who chased his maid out, went to his study and held both his and Silver Sentinel's helmets on his lap. Facing a painting of his daughter Thomas took the small firearm and left this world. Goodbye, Steel Guard.

Other roster changes to occur were Phiseeque taking a leave of absence following the death of her brother and induction of four new members, namely Hand of Sorrow, Kitalia, Mesoc and ShadowWoman.

On the current agenda is holding a charity ball to start a foundation that the Silent Tempest will be running. A proposed link to a rather shady plan by Lady Cobra of using such an event to get a district attorney to drop charges against Nightsparrow was discarded when most of the Tempest saw it as unethical and perhaps also criminal.

Future imperfect! (Coile, Zirgei, ND-Nightsparrow)

"This is the birth of all hope
To have what I once had
This life unforgiven
It will end with a birth"
- Nightwish

During the following days Coile ran into a teenaged girl in Pocket D who displayed similarities in features and manners to his wife-to-be. When he learned that the girl's callsign was Darksparrow alarms went up. Just a week before Melanie had told of two kids in Militia who supposedly came from the future where they knew a girl who was a granddaughter of Andre and Melanie and was also following on the footsteps of her grandmother. Coincindences exist but some of the things that the girl was saying were confusing and finally Number Nine's scan of the girl exposed her true nature of a time traveler. From fifty years into the future. Same as Tygerboy and Juniper.

Andre made a leap of faith and concluded Darksparrow to be family. A threat to life by him from previous night transformed into a pledge of allegiance and reluctantly Darksparrow revealed more things. Yes, she was from the future. Yes, Andre was her grandfather. Her name was Angelique Kraft. In the future Nightsparrow's consciousness would be transferred into an AI construct and Andre himself would be officially dead in the Rikti invasion. According to rumours he would be alive and work behind the scenes, committing deeds that were both good and bad.

The future would be a dark one where a new Rikti invasion would demolish much of Earth's defenses and the following Jondahl invasion would decimate both Rikti and mankind to near extinction. The Rikti invasion would start due to someone opening a wrong portal. There was also a persisting rumour that it would be Coile who brought the Jondahl to Earth to wipe out the Rikti and at the same time cause the humanity to be overrun. Angelique was not certain but she also thought it was Coile who gave her her cybernetic enhancements to help her regulate her powers that would otherwise kill her.

Coile was immediately reminded of the work his Omega Task force was conducting right now in the present day, opening portals to different worlds in order to hunt new information on the Rikti. The situation with Melanie being made an AI was very similar to what his father had done to her mother, except with technology that was fifty years more advanced. Despite being just a load of uncertain rumours and flimsy assumptions all this cause Coile to start brooding about possible consequences of the actions her took and actions he did not.

Angelique needed to see family Kraft's grand old man Zirgei and Andre provided her the means and directions to make it happen. When she got to the robot farm a new unexpected chain of events was pushed into motion. She bartered with Zirgei and information was exchanged, one of the most important facts being that Darksparrow carried the compressed AI of Nightsparrow in her head. She needed a mainframe where she could load the AI so that her Caliburn 14 unit would function with full power without the AI hogging a lot of resources. Zirgei promised parts for the mainframe from himself and others in the scientists' network of his, the Hand of Andros. However, he had also a better offer to make.

Following Kitia's death and Kitalia's emergence Coile had asked his father to construct an ND unit for Kitalia to take care of her. When he learned that ND's were no robots but representation of his mother he was shaken, and the newly constructed ND-2+ had a major faul in it. It contained only the last memory imprint of the previous ND-2. That was from the time when they left for paragon City the last year and the ND that accompanied them had been ND-3. Now ND-4 was lost in the world and the chronological memory cory was outdated. In other words, ND-2+ was no longer his mother. Her existence felt wrong. Andre demanded that Zirgei do not actiavte the unit. Zirgei had, for two weeks but now the unit had been offlined and wiped.

A host body that could sustain a true AI with a passing ability to emulate a personality. So it became that Nightsparrow AI was uploaded from Angelique's storage chip into ND and ND-Nightsparrow was born. Whether or not Zirgei and Hand of Andros would leave a time traveler and her very advanced AI to walk around unsupervised is left for the persons involved to be discovered. I'm however inclined to mention that an additional ND memory core was was detected within the unit. Also, Darksparrow's agenda is to prevent the dark future from taking place. it will be seen later if ND-Nightsparrow has her own goal to fullfill in the past. Much information from past years were lost so Angelique had not many details to offer and Nightsparrow AI has parts of her memories locked for some reason. What lies beneath is as of yet anyone's guess.

Now the very weird and unlikely mix of allegiances, promises of help and mutual co-operation between Darksparrow, ND-Nightsparrow, Zirgei Kraft and a probability affecting girl Chaos Augury is ready to start affecting the world with blissfully not fully informed Coile providing protection to his family at any cost.

Notepad, beer and cigars! (Jiffy Blakes)

"I only wished to become something beautiful
Through my music, through my silent devotion"
- Nightwish

A talk with Melanie "Merry" Nightsparrow made Jiffy want to write a column about underage superheroes and the responsibility of the hero community and the society. However his one viewpoint was proven to be invalid and the refocus has been taking place during the two - three weeks that the story has been cooking. The scope has long since spiraled beyond the Ground Zero and the finished work is likely to be a full blown article in Heroic Affairs. What is now needed is wider range of material and more kids to be interviewed at lenght.

On a peronal front Jiffy is just glad that the Juletide is over. The holiday blues got to him just as it got to Steel Guard, only with less suicidal results. Still missing his divorced wife from fifteen years back he found solace in massive amounts of alcohol and some deep conversations with his new drinking buddy the Merry vigilante who by the end got entangled in her romances and frequented Pocket D less than before. Good banter with other patrons of the said watering hole offered a plausible distraction and the article under works keeps giving the life some meaning.

The younger generations that carry on the traditional heroing in Paragon City are nice to talk to but not very attractive to a man nearing the fifty year landmark and preferring female company in his own age bracket. A pleasant surprise was an aging teacher Ms. Gale who had become a widow in the Rikti war, and even more pleasant surprise was her accepting an invitation to a nightcap with some, honestly, expected results. There are no guarantees of there ever being a second time, but in life there rarely are guarantees of anything.

Wild magic! (Winter Heart)

"I'm a priest for the poorest sacrifice
I'm but a raft in a sea of sorrow and greed"
- Nightwish

Mom missing for months? Tough. Still waiting for a court date for theft and assault? Distant concerns. Suspicious dealings with the shadier inhabitants of the most volatile city in the world? No worries as no one gets caught. A best friend getting dumped by a no-good boyfriend? The gloves come off, girlfriend! There is a certain grasshopper who better not come back or he gets his antennas ripped off as well as a few other unspecified bodily protrusions.

An upside of this rotten development was a move from a nice hotel into the vast apartment of a celebrity football star Samuel Blayne. There Pyranha and Winter enjoy the life in luxury while mending broken hearts and eating loads of chocolate. Nothing helps to forget a treacherous boyfriend quite like enticing company and a jacuzzi with all the works.

All throughout the weeks and months Winter has been studying, something she never was fond of in the school. Maybe that's why she and Pyranha dropped out and both sought their own fortunes, Pyr with her powers in Paragon City as a hero and Winter in a local drug house from which Pyr dragged her out of last summer. Well, slacking off is now a thing of the past. Having been taught word magic by Spellsong Winter has found learning an educational, and just maybe a profitable, activity.

Some would say it is a major disaster waiting to happen. They might be right...

Related material

PLEASE NOTE! Not all the links are suitable for everyone, and some bloody well are not recommended to be clicked without a good tolerance for adult material. Those will be specially marked with **.

* The Big L **
* Scrödinger's grandchild **
* Kraft penthouse
* Shards of A
* Journal of A
* Diana's secret diary
* CALIBURN 14 system logs
* Nightsparrow's scrapbook


These recaps cover more or less two weeks although older occurrences have been referred to in order to offer better understanding where decisions and opinions come from.

And yeah, I'm having a blast!

Seeing Coile's mammoth recap post there has finally convinced me to post a recap of what's been happening with Nightschild, since the RP has been pretty good and seems to otherwise be going completely unrecorded.

Following his arrival in the Rogue Islands two months ago, the teenaged half-demon Nightschild (dubbed "Nick" at Pocket D, a name which has stuck) has been having a very busy and confusing time. He's spent less than three years on Earth, and most of that was in the Zig following his unfortunate first encounter with Longbow. He's been slowly making a reputation as a mercanary in the Byzantine politics of the Isles, and has become a member of the Court of the Blood Countess, in the sevice of the notorious Elizabeth Balthory.

Zeyna

He started coming to Pocket D in his spare time, and made the acquiantance of a number of superpowered individuals, most notably the Winged and blue-skinned lightening throwing heroine Zeyna. After some weeks of friendly banter and increasing flirting, Zeyna gave in to Nick's advances and slept with him. She was surprised to say the least to find that it was his first time, and even more surprised that he was able to persuade her to continue sleeping with him against her better judgement. Unfortunately, Zeyna was on parole, having been arrested for crimes committed during her youthful association with the Freakshow and granted early release on condition she make amends by working with Freedom Corps. Her parole officer, Tyler Marks, is a psychic who monitors his charges' minds to ensure that they really have changed their ways. Needless to say he was less than thrilled to learn of her relationship with an underaged supervillain. He told her how he felt in no uncertain terms, but strangely seemed to take no further action.

Nick and Zeyna continued seeing each other, and both were beginning to feel it was more than just physical attraction, even if neither was willing to say so at this point. But complications were arising from both sides of the relationship.

Tyler and the Freakshow

Zeyna was informed by Tyler that she was to be sent undercover for an extended period of time. She was to renew her old ties with the Freakshow, and establish herself in a position of influence there. She was reluctant at first, but was finally swayed the offer to let her finally have revenge on her Ex, Danny, who had kept her in an abusive relationship during her teenage years and was now a high-ranking member of the Freakshow himself. This meant, of course, that the amount of time she could spend with Nick was going to be greatly reduced.

During their last night together before she went into deep cover, Zeyna suddenly felt herself losing control of her powers during an intimate moment. She'd had problems with this in the past whenever she felt a particularly intense emotion, but this had supposedly been solved by psychic blocks the Freedom Corps had placed in her mind. Fortunately Nick's own powers saved him from any ill effects, but looking at the situation and its convenient timing, they were faced with the obvious conclusion that Tyler had removed the blocks in the hope that exactly this would happen and Nick would be killed. Zeyna managed to convince Nick not to go to Paragon City and kill Tyler until she could ask him what had really happened, then left him for her undercover assignment.

Fuchsia and the Bonding

During her first extended abscence, Nick began working with a vampire named Fuchsia in his missions on the Isles. He had encoutered her briefly in Pocket D, and now they began working together he found that not only did they make an effective team, but she was charming and attractive- but he had feeling for Zeyna and pushed this into the back of his mind, settling for simply occasionally flirting with her.

This situation was changed when he once again experimented with his magic, which he has no formal training in the use of and uses purely based on his inherited demonic instincts. A ritual where Fuchsia would drink his blood to gain more power to face a particularly tough enemy they had been hired to take down turned out to be far more then he had thought. Unknowingly, he had created something similar to the bond a Master Vampire uses to bind a lesser vampire as a Thrall. Fuchsia found herself increasingly drawn to him, and craved his blood more and more. Finally, she went into a frenzy and began to feed off him too deeply, and he responded instinctively by draining the life-energy from her to keep himself alive. The loop thus formed sent them into a state of bliss, and when he recovered enough to think he found that not only had they fed on each other but they'd had sex at some point also.

Wracked with guilt over what had happened, he nevertheless managed to find the courage to confess things to Zeyna at their next meeting. After much tears and heartache, Nick managed to persuade her to stay together with him. The problem with the bond was not going away, though, and he began searching the libraries at Castla Balthory for a solution.

As this was happening, Fuchsia was showing signs of increasing interest in Nick, but through their shared bond she could see how he felt about Zeyna, and so actually tried to help them resolve things- whatever her feelings, she could see that Nick would never choose her over Zeyna.

Breaking the Bond

The bond situation suddenly became far more serious when Fuchsia's "Family", the Dread Pack, learned of the bond. Their interpretation of things was that Nick had deliberately enslaved Fuchsia, and that anything Fuchsia said in his support was simply the bond talking. They told Nick that if he had one week to make some visible progress in breaking the bond, or they would start to consider plan B- killing him and hoping that Fuchsia would survive his death.

With this turn of evens, Nick had no choice but to inform the rest of the Court of the Blood Countess of what he had done. The Countess herself was less than amused, but decided that breaking the bond was the easier way to solve things. When it was discovered that Fuchsia had actually found herself unable to feed upon anyone but Nick and had begun to decay, a ruitual was immediately performed with members of the Dread Pack observing. The bond was declared broken, and Fuchsia was taken home by the Pack, leaving Nick to face a dressing-down from the Countess.

The bond was not broken, however, as Nick's half-demon ancestry and immense if uncontrolled magical reserves had allowed it to remain, in a much weakened form. Within a week of the ritual, both realised that the bond was still present. When they met to discuss it, she also told him she was having trouble feeding and starting to fail again. For whatever reason, they would have to perform the ritual where they both fed on each other on a regular basis or she would begin to decay again. Nick managed to perform it and stop short of full sex in the process, but the feeling in created meant that he would certainly slip again if it was done often enough.

He told Zeyna everything, and this was the last straw- she wasn't able to accept him repeatedly sleeping with Fuchsia and broke up. He was sitting in a bar trying to out-drink his demonic constitution when Fuchsia, feeling wheat he did through the bond, found him and tried to comfort him. The comfort turned into her trying to seduce him, and when she said that he hadn't given up the bond because he didn't really want to get rid of her, he lost his temper. He lashed out at Fuchsia with his power, and instinctively managed to tear the bond out- very nearly killing her in the process. It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to get rid of her, but that he hadn't wanted to hurt Fuchsia in the process.

Current Status

With the bond gone, Nick managed to sort-of patch things up with Zeyna. They were still on shaky grounds, but they were together again. The next crisis soon struck, though, as Nick overheard some Freaks talking about "That Blue **** with the Wings" and how she was sleeping her way to the top of the Freakshow. Torturing and killing them in a rage whilst trying to make them take what they said back, he was given a cellphone with a 30-second clip taken by another Freak at a party that seems to prove that they are, in fact, telling the truth- Zeyna is infiltrating the Freakshow on her back.



Looking at this, I realise that there is almost certainly a great deal I'm missing out of all this. The players of Zeyna and Fuchsia are free to fill in the gaps if they want, or people can just ask. I'm also seeing why people do nightly updates to ongoing RPs, and wishing I'd been doing that all through the above plot threads.

Over the last few days, Nightschild has been trying to get drunk in spite of his half-demon metabolism that makes him highly resistant if not completely immune to alchohol. He's been sitting around Pocket D drinking heavily, but there's been no familiar faces about much. A few strangers have chatted to him about his problems with Zeyna, and both Chiaroscuro and Royal Flush seemed to advise that perhaps he should just move on and find a girl that was right for him.

Last night on patrol…

The Amber Banshee joined her fellow Militia members for patrol duty. Together with Force Commander, The Portent, Silver Steel, Masked Angel and a surprise addition of Dragonfly , they were able to foil a bank raid by the Tsoo while hampered by a sudden attack by Arachnos.

Things appeared tense between Dragonfly and Masked Angel, the latter only just recovering from of broken ankle that had put her out of action for a while, forcing her mother to step in for her. Amber was pleased to see her again and the two briefly discussed an offer to move into the Crimson Archer’s block of flats in Talos Island. During the bank raid, Dragonfly appeared to transform into a winged version of herself and speak in a strange, oriental language. When questioned, she blamed the pair of reunited swords that she carried and took great pleasure in showing off their powers.

A hunt for technology stolen by the Lost revealed a cave full of Rikti leading Force Commander and The Portent to ruminate on links between the two, including the possibility that they were one and the same, a thought that disgusted Amber.

Angel’s swollen ankle forced her to retire, Silver Steel and Force Commander departing as well, the latter dressed ready for the Casino. The remaining team were joined by The Crimson Archer before travelling to Striga Isle to suppress more Council activity. During their hunt, Dragonfly revealed that she was engaged in legal action with Coile , who claimed to have ownership of her sword, a treasure she refused to give up. She then began a vitriolic attack on Nightsparrow and the impending marriage at which point Amber decided to stand up for her friends. The Portent attempted to placate them both but a brief argument ensued ending with Dragonfly accusing Amber of taking sides and calling her a half-breed. The last insult hit particularly deep, since Amber has only just discovered her Fae heritage. She took out her anger on a bunch of Banished Pantheon shamans before retiring for the evening, feeling bruised in body and spirit.

Nightschild arrived in Pocket D to find that Zeyna was present, talking to Royal Flush (who seemed surprised to learn that this was the girlfriend Nick had been talking to her about the other night). Zeyna asked to talk with him in private, which he agreed to do.


Zeyna told him that the video clip he had of her and a Freak was of a Freak feeling her up and trying to have sex whilst she was passed out, and that if the video had lasted a minute longer it would have shown her waking up and blasting him. She also said that she had kissed and been groped by some Freaks at the parties as part of trying to fit into the gang, but she had never gone all the way. She said that she really did love him and couldn't stand the thought of them not being together. He didn't like the thought of her even doing what she had with someone else, but after his own indescrections he didn't feel he had room to complain. They ended up kissing and making up, then Zeyna left to attend to business- promising to return and do more than just kiss.


As he waited, he wandered back into the bar to find a number of people there. He had a brief conversation with Nicole (Royal Flush) about the morality of gambling and the what in general it was like to work for their respective sides. Seeing a group of heroes in the corner, Nick recognised Coile and suggested that Nicole could use a few contacts on her own side of the fence. The two wnadered over.


The conversation was mostly about Andre's wedding, unsurprising as it was only two days away. Nicole introduced herself to Andre, Nene, Love Angel and Star Crusader. After a little banter about stag nights and married men cuddling women other than their wives, Nick got into a heated debate with the blue-faced alien about ethics, which left Nick feeling increasingly annoyed by what he saw as his opponent's tendency to shift the topic onto subjects that could be preached about.


As people were slowly getting ready to leave, Nicole started to shiver and act strangely. She seemed to rapidly become paranoid and delusional, but managed to blurt out some comments about blowing up a hospital wing which suggested that this was somehow connected to her powers and had happened before. As Andre and Nick tried to calm her enough to help her, she curled up on the floor and finally passed out. Andre rushed her to the Galaxy City hospital, leaving Nick to meet Zeyna in a slightly less upbeat mood than he had anticipated.

(( Takes place 20.1.2007 ))

Face of evil

Traditionally the room would have been shrouded in deep shadows with ominous whirrings emanating from the machinery. The form present would have been crouched over a monitor or a crystal ball whispering mad words to no one in particular. However times change and so does the face of evil. Sometimes so much that in the end it becomes an excercise in futility to try to define evil itself.

Zirgei Kraft was sitting relaxedly in his reclining chair and sipped whiskey occasionally. He had a tobacco jacket and his hair and moustache were as black as ever. A perfectly enviable theaterical level surround system was playing soft jazz and out of the sixteen monitors on the wall ten was on. Nine had a head on it, the tenth was displaying a football game. Paragon City 49'ers versus Pittsburgh Steelers, the current champions. The rest were on but displayed only the letter A surrounded by a circle.

Two heads were talking in rapid success. They were arguing. Zirgei paid attention only so much that he appeared to be listening. This was the beginning of a meeting and this dance had long since become a permanent feature in the coreography. This time they were bickering over hardware wiring. Ever since Darksparrow had shown to Zirgei how to speed up his machinery these two computer experts had had a divided vision whether or not it was a feasible solution in the long run. Zirgei smiled by himself. Baby sparrow. Her scan data had been most intriguing.

Three minutes had been wasted and Paragon City 49'ers had got a touchdown. It was attributed to Samuel Blayne. Zirgei checked his notes and nodded. The bet was going well so far. Michel Sanders cut in. Dark skin, golden yellow hair combed half over her face to create an image of shyness. She was nothing but. "Stockmann! Kawamura! Enough! Continue your disagreement later. We have matters to discuss." Everyone fell silent instantly.

Michel continued. "Kraft, you called the Hand of Andros to convene. What was the reason?" With a flick of a finger Zirgei activated his microphone. "I have analyzed the preliminary data from our time traveling friend. It seems likely that Darksparrow was enhanced partially with the ND technology. Her own account suggests that my son will enhance her to ensure her survival." He kept a small pause noting that Magnus Strong was paying special attention now. That was expected.

"There is also evidence of your work present, Magnus. The cybernetics in baby sparrow remind me of the eye plates you made for my children. She needs to regulate her power flow just as my son. Your work will live on fifty years into the future." They both smiled. It was a goal for each of them, to see their work and accomplishments as scientists and inventors outlast themselves by decades. "Which reminds me.", continued Zirgei, "My son contacted me this morning. He took last night to a hospital a girl that he thinks has also energy output regulation problems. First name Nicole, license name Royal Flush. He asked if I could make her an eyeplate too if she needs one." It had been decided to leave Zirgei's children to think that it had all been their father's inventions.

Magnus nodded his bald head and almost flung his thick glasses to the floor. "I will consider it. I am currently working on something." Michel cut in again. She had a tendency to compress the meetings and was the almost sole reason that they lasted only a finite time. "How is your operational ND unit performing, Kraft?"

Now Zirgei had to think just how much to reveal. And how much to keep to himself, for now. "There are performance issues with the ND core embedded in the positronic brain. I will go to Paragon City to my son's wedding tomorrow. I will take a look at ND-Nightsparrow at the same time." There was, he reasoned, no need to share what exactly he thought was at fault with the ND unit. A purged memory core would work as an explanation with baby sparrow and so it would with the Hand of Andros.

Ontario's Voice spoke, represented this time by a still image of Max Headroom. "What of Steel Guard's replacement? We need a foothold in Paragon City." Michel agreed. "Losing Irons was a hard blow. You claimed your offspring warranted monitoring, Kraft. Is this under control?" Once again Zirgei weighted half truths and omissionable facts. "I have enough surveillance presence. Do not worry." There was now less need to monitor the events with Andrea gone. Such a shame.

An old but yet ageless Delhian man lifted his gaze. An outsider would have said that he had been sleeping but the group knew that Ken Sawaputra had just been biding his time. "Leave Irons's replacement to me. I have it covered. I will present a name for a review in a week." Three sentences. It was acknowledged that Ken had now done his part of the meeting. From now on he would listen only.

It was Kawamura's turn to speak. "I have now three operatives trained and prepared." With the Japanese businessman it was likely to mean conditioned. "Have you recruited yours yet, Kraft-san?" There was a slight nervous vibration in the fingers holding the whiskey glass. "My son is not yet ready. He will need the approval and backing of his woman. It should be easier with Melanie, his Nadia was too restrained and unpredictable. Give it more time, first the wedding. Then I will talk to them." His hopes had been with Andrea. Now they rested with Andre.

"Is there anything else to talk about for now?", queried Michel. No one said a word. The Max Headroom image came alive and soundlessly shook its head. "We will convene when needed.", she concluded. "A for Andros." All the screens went black with the red anarchy-like emblem shining on them. Zirgei finished his whiskey and got up. Maybe he should travel to Paragon City already tonight. There were quite a few affairs to tend to.

(( Takes place in the early evening on 20.1.2007 ))

Family Bright

The front door was intimidating. It did not look particularly malevolent but still Coile had this uneasy feeling down in his gut about approaching it. It was almost a herculean task to reach the doorstep and it took an additional effort to force his hand to knock. Then he waited.

A woman with blond hair and classy dress opened the door. "Yes?", she said and held the it barely wide enough for Coile to see her eyes. "Mrs. Bright? I am Coile, Andre Kraft. I called." The door was allowed to open more, cautiously and under control. "Yes, you did.", she said. "Come on in, please."

Feeling being under utmost scrutiny Coile stepped in wearing his full Silent Tempest combat uniform and looked around. What he saw was a regular apartment that was tidy. The lack of pink surprised him, and put a definite dread into his mind. Diana's room was bound to contain all the pink for one whole apartment. A tall, skinny man appeared from the living room with his hand extended. "Welcome, Mr. Kraft", he said in his sharp business suit. It was clear that Coile was in presence of people who took care of appearances.

"What can we do for you, Mr. Kraft?", asked the woman. They stood side by side blocking the entrance further. Coile cleared his throat. "It's about your daughter, ma'am. Diana." The shift in mood was immediate and noticeable. A touch of worried concern descended on the parents. The man motioned towards the living room. "Why don't you step inside, Mr. Kraft? We were having coffee."

Coile nodded and followed the pair into a room filled spaciously with antique furniture, a few carefully selected paintings and a bookcase filled with decorative plates. In a central position was a velveted showcase with trophies and medals. Without asking Coile knew them to be Diana's from the time she competed in archery. There were many.

While he took a seat the woman walked to a cupboard and took out an extra cup and a plate. They looked like what he would describe as fancy. Rare. Expensive. Precious.

"You can call me Andre.", he suggested. Seeing the matter at hand he wanted to cut down the level of formality as much as possible. There were uneasy smiles and wary glances exchanged between the master and mistress of the house. This sudden familiarity was both enexpected and unwanted, but forced on them nonetheless. To avoid appearing rude, heaven forbid, Diana's mother lifted her hand for another half-hearted shake. "Jane.", she said. Diana's father smiled with a touch more sincerity. "Nigel.", was his reply.

Coffee was poured while silence stretched towards a point where someone was oblidged to say something. They were staring at him. Coile lifted the cup full of steaming hot coffee to try and sip it if only a little just to have more time to figure out where to start. He had known it would not be easy but not even Diana's warning had prepared him for the polite distant superiority he was now facing. Jane spoke first. "What about Diana? Is she in trouble?"

"Oh no, nothing of the sort!" He wanted to dispel any misuderstandings as quickly as he possibly could. "She is doing fine, she is fine.", he continued hoping it would sooth his present company. It did not. Nigel looked directly at him and intoned, "Why don't you lay out the facts Mr. Kraft and after that we can see what kind of a situation we are in?" This spoke volumes of his conduct in big business. Present your offer, if it is not satisfactory, off you go.

Coile had considered multiple angles to go about this, make a speech about heroism, laudate the efforts of the younger generation, draw parallels between school achievements and results one got on the streets, or even just congratulate them on how wonderful a child they had who cared about the world and everyone in it. Each approach felt so terribly inadequate now. He would have to sell his case.

He had no clue how. "I am the leader of a supergroup called Silent Tempest. It has been going on since last May and we have accomplished things." This was a part of one angle that he had rehearshed in his head. "Your daughter Diana is in my team as Love Angel and she has been doing a terriffic job." They wanted facts, he would give them facts. One upside of not being completely on the level all the time was that one could bypass hindering formalities like sound explanations without much care and just present the bottom line. Much like Nigel had asked.

His piece said Coile fell silent and awaited for a reaction. Any reaction. From either one. Either at all. Any other reaction than the disbeliving cold stare that he got from them both. The lack of voices dragged on and somewhere in the room or in the house or in the world a clock was ticking away seconds. The scene reminded him distantly of the time he had gone to meet Nadia's parents to tell them that their girl had died in an avalanche.

Jane was shaking. Nigel drank nervously more coffee. While it was not unreasonable to deduce by how they sat or stood or acted that Jane was the leading figure in the family she was now simply too shocked to take the initiative. Finally Nigel spoke. "Are you telling us that our daughter is some kind of a licensed hero?"

A nervous smile was the only thing keeping the growing feeling of panic at bay. Coile fought to maintain it while he assessed just in how deeply he was over his head here. Jane and Nigel were people who were used to getting what they wanted. Their world was in order because they would not have it any other way. Now there was a breach, a breach uparalalled in severity and magnitude. Their secure and secured world was suddenly being shaken from beneath the base stone.

It was like handling an over-saturated solution. The liquid was clear and serene but the slightest shock could start the lightning fast crystallation sweep over. In the worst case the whole decant glass could burst apart.

Coile nodded.

A shock.

"My daughter will not be a hero!" Jane was now standing, leaning her hands on the table and shaking not a bit less than before. "Heroes are people with too much time in their hands, parading around in their ridiculous costumes." She was looking straight at Coile and was not fazed at all by the fact that he was wearing a costume. "They are generally uneducated, ignorant, juvenile delinquents or freaks with delusions of grandeur and they most certainly are not proper company for a girl who should be studying hard and planning for her future." She drew breath.

And continued. "As for you Mr. Kraft I cannot begin to describe your irresponsiblity in this! Taking along a minor without the consent of her parents, subjecting her to numerous dangers, risking her life and most importantly risking her future by allowing her to waste her precious time in expense of these frivolous pasttime activities."

Coile opened his mouth. He was not allowed to say anything. "I am not finished." Now she straightened her back, the flair of defining the world around her taking over once more. "This will cease immediately. You will cease all associations with Diana and tomorrow we will have that idiotic hero license revoked. She will stop wasting her life in folly. Is this clear, Mr. Kraft? She is no longer a member of your organization."

The silence felt almost cacophonic in his ears. Coile wetted his parched lips and tried to shake the sudden terror out of his mind. This was too important to get clogged down now. "She has been doing a wonderful job and we are proud to have her in. She has helped many people, saved lives. And she studies too, she really does. This does not take away from her studies."

Before Jane could present a full fldged rebuttal of such nonsense Nigel cut in. "Mr. Kraft, while Diana's grades are decent at the moment they are declining. Or will. I have discussed on one occasion with the headmaster and it seems like Diana has some problems concentrating in class. As if she did not sleep enough. Now I think I see why. If such continues, her grades this semester will drop, and her chances to get into a good university will lower significantly. Her investment into future until now will be in vain."

"NO!", bellowed Jane, face now pale and almost contorted. "Her grades will not drop because these lies and shenanegans will stop here and now! Curfew at seven. Grounded for three months. Oh no, if she can not control herself then her parents have to fill that role."

Earlier in the day Coile had pondered what was the worst that could happen. He had thought of many scenarios but this exceeded his wildest speculations. Even in the worst case he had thought he could sway the parents to see that Diana was doing an important job and she was being a responsible girl about all of his duties. This catasthrope was just so unseemly that nothing had prepared him for this. He was fast losing a team member and more importantly the contact to a dear friend.

He stood up. So did Nigel. As Coile had made sure that Diana was out of the house it was left for him to defend her position. Standing up like this was very foreign to him but if there ever was a situation where it was needed it was now. "With all due respect she is adult enough to make her own choices. When she came in she was a bit of a kid but she has since shown just how capable she is. I would trust my life into her hands any day. She is a great hero and saying she shouldn't be doing that is robbing her of a chance to make the world a better place. You can't stop her!"

Jane's voice became a shrill shriek tainted with the mother's primal fear for her child. "She will stop! She will, or I will throw her out. My daughter will not be a hero!" Nigel Bright looked at her wife and opened his mouth to voice an opinion. Maybe he declined to say anything. Maybe his opinion was the silence. Finally he said, "Mr. Kraft, you would better leave now." His voice was quiet, sad and defeated. Jane's eyes had a wild look and the arms were trembling, that hard she was gripping the back rest of the chair.

"Get out!", she snapped coldly. And that was that. Nothing Coile could say would now change a thing. He turned around and walked to the living room door. One glance backwards into those cold blaming eyes. There was hate there, hate for destroying Diana's life. Or maybe Jane's own life. The only thing that could salvage the situation was if the parents accepted that their daughter now would not grow up just as they had planned.

The outside air was refreshingly chilly. Coile breathed deeply and his head started to clear. This had gone so wrong. But he had done his best. Right? It was the stuckup parents who had turned it into a nightmare. Anyway it would be up to Diana now. She could convince her parents that she was making the right choices. That, or move out. Nadia could use the company. If that didn't work, there was the his and Melanie's penthouse too.

If Diana's parents maintained their stance she just would have to grow all the way up very fast and decide her future for herself. It would be rough, but not really that bad. She had friends. How bad could it be, in the end?

At Pocket D over the weekend, Nightschild found himself chatting with Royal Flush again. He found her in the company of Mischievous, who introduced herself as Savannah. Nicole was talking about the problem with her powers the other night, and explaining how she had been given something that was keeping it under control, although this meant she wasn't allowed to drink, along with a few other interesting side effects (she made occasional comments about the invisible rats).

Whilst discussing this situation, Savannah mentioned that she was a Psychiatrist with psychic powers who specialised working with Superheroes. Perhaps she could help Nicole control her powers, or at least help her with any synptoms, mental or otherwise, that she was suffering from. Nick wasn't to enthusiastic about her helping, having had some bad experiences with shrinks during his time in Longbow custody, but Nicole seemed willing to give it a try. It being Nicole's head, Nick let her accept Savannah's help.

Savannah took Nicole to a relatively quiet corner of the club and had them kneel down facing each other, with their heads touching. After some time like this, Savannah declared she was done and Nicole said that she did feel better- at any rate, she could no longer hear the rats.

The two women and Nick talked for a little longer. Savannah looked somewhat distressed, and tried to pass it off as a side effect of the mind-link. Being pressed further, she admitted that she was having some problems in her relationship with her fiancee, and that the mind-link simply made it harder to suppress her feelings about anything. Nicole and Nick listened to her describe what was going on- he had put their wedding back several times, stopped letting her mind-link with him, and she'd been seeing her friend around him an awful lot lately- and told her that it did sound as if her fears might be justified.

Nick suggested that she phone him and say she wasn't going to be home tonight due to work, then turn up in a few hours anyway. She dithered about this, not really wanting to risk having her fears confirmed, but when asked what she'd advise to a patient who was in this situation, she finally made the call. Nicole had let slip that she was short of a place to stay, due to a bad run of luck at cards, so she and Savannah decided to find a motel together, as Savannah might not feel very welcome at home tonight. Savannah said she would also be able to help if Nicole took another turn for the worse, and Nicole said she'd make sure Savannah at least drove past her house to see if her friend's car was parked there. Everyone drank up and left shortly after this.

Fly Me To The Moon - Monday

Nene/Number Nine is finding that the stresses of modern life are getting to her a bit. Anxiety about the vast amount of choices in life she can make, angry about the interuption to Andre and Mel's wedding, and being a bit unprepared to cope with the various emotions. Jane Darc decided that what Nene needed was some quiet time, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, to just have a girly chat/scream/cry. And that's what they did. Switching off the DVD they had been watching, and taking the fast food they had for dinner to the bin, Nene took Jane up to the surface of the moon. Being a gynoid and a zombie respectively, neither needs oxygen, and a simple spell kept Jane's body warm and enabled the two to speak to each other. Taking a stroll along the lunar surface, Nene had a good cry, vent and scream, as well as indulging in some fun activities with Jane, such as lunar jumping and enscribing a message into the dust.

Returning back to Earth, Nene headed to Pocket D, where she spoke briefly with Ebon Tear, Lady Patriot, Roselyn Thorne, Alexandera Troy and Dark Blow, before making her way to The Pits of Hell to enjoy a quiet drink in the place, looking rather reflective.

Sunday 21 January 2007 - Wedding Day Blues
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Running late as usual, The Amber Banshee hurried to the furthest point of Talos Island for the wedding of Coile and Nightsparrow and arrived only seconds before the groom himself turned up. Having spent ages pouring over what to wear, she had eventually decided on wearing the formal tartan of the clan Mackenzie, a gift given to her by her family during her stay in Scotland.

She watched with amusement while Dustine took charge and arranged the well-wishers into orderly rows and stood the bride and groom close to the small, blue flower that Coile was so fond of. Nene opened the ceremony and despite a slight confusion regarding the rings, all went well. Coile’s speech was eloquent and touching, despite his nerves. Nightsparrow was blunt as always but no less emotional. In fact, it seemed like the perfect wedding, right up until the point when the sky filled with helicopters and the sea churned with powerboats bearing the PPD logo. A very rude detective disrupted the wedding, claiming to have a warrant for Nightsparrow’s arrest. There was an uproar amongst the guests, Doctor Temporis perhaps the most restrained of the people demanding the detective’s badge and promising to lodge a formal complaint.

Amber faced off with the interloper, wondering perhaps how much trouble she would get into for making the detective’s ears bleed. Fortunately, the arrival of a very angry Tygerboy proved a useful distraction, his threats to disembowel the detective forcing herself and Dustine to try and calm him. Amber left, scouting the islands to see if she could locate the errant newlyweds who had flown off the moment the detective had made her claims. She returned to the island, slightly out of sync with reality so she could remain undetected. She arrived in time to see Nightsparrow hand herself over to the police and for Coile throw his license into the sea in disgust.

Realising that there was nothing more she could do, Amber returned home despondent and more than a little sad about her own stagnant love life.

A busy evening for Nightschild at Pocket D this wednesday. He turned up to find Lady Patriot, Vigilante Storm and Lady Cobra at the bar already. They briefly talked about Sarah's (Lady Partiot) bodyfriend Shadow Flysh and how he seemed to be away so much, then as if by magic the man himself appeared, apologising to Sarah for his extended absences recently. Sarah showed off her new costume, complete with transformation belt for instant change from civilian attire, and Roselin Thorne arrived in time to add her own comments on Sarah's new cape.

Whilst Rachel (Vigilante Storm) moved to the far end of the bar to put the moves on a tall, handsome stranger, Nick asked Flysh about what it was that he did. Revealing that he worked for an extra-dimensional group that Nick, after hearing his description, dubbed the "Paradox Police", Flysh and Nick had a discussion about parallel universes, time travel and paradox. Sarah complained that her head was hurting early on in this, and settled for a less mentally taxing discussion about fashion with the other girls.

Royal Flush turned up in time to be introduced to the other heroes (and Roselin) present. Flysh left as she arrived, but the others were able to chat with Nicole briefly before leaving.

Left together at the bar, Nick asked Nicole if she was feeling better after her recent difficulties. She said she was as well as could be expected, and was eventually drawn into telling him the full story of the accident that had given her both her powers and her problems.

This discussion was cut short by the arrival of Zeyna. The three talked for a while about business, and Zeyna was given the short version of Nicole's story. She was sympathetic it, given her own past, but also turned out to have a phobia of rats- so Nicole's increasing mention of them had her rather jumpy.

Eventually they all called it a night, and Nick and Zeyna retired to a more private location. Zeyna confronted Nick about what she felt was his growing tendency for killing- she'd heard about him killing a member of the Freakshow who'd been bragging that he'd slept with Zeyna. Nick admitted that he'd let his anger get the better of him there, and that he probably shouldn't have gone as far as killing. He refused to feel guilty about it though, or about any of the killing he'd done on his jobs. The argument didn't end in any bitterness, though, and Zeyna still spent the night with him.

Last night Rose came to Pocket D and found Sarah sporting her new cape. Looked good too, despite some drawbacks pointed out by Nick.

Sarah's boyfriend turned out to be a law enforcer... but the universal laws.
Oh well, the world has seen many crazy people, some have even spoken the truth, so who knows? (when was the world flat again?)
Still, he was fairly convincing in his act... so Rose asked about dimensional twins, particularly 'opposite twins' (AKA the evil twin)

This because she had information regarding Sarah, and so she passed it to her. Pushing the responsibility of making a choice to Sarah, who's twin it entailed, so...

Meanwhile Nick and Shydow were discussing more of those laws, including time travel...

This was giving Sarah a head ache, so Rose brought her attention to fashion! They talked about Rose's 'new' outfit, Sarah's civilian clothes and colour matching.

Some more things happened, Rose had trouble not flirting/teasing Sarah for some reason and only barely caught herself. Nick didn't, or did, help with some comments... some to Sarah, others to Rose...

Andre's journal has moved and for now is part of Nightsparrow's Scrapbook. In practice I make the journal entries and comment on the paper clippings. Sparrow makes the pretty pictures and thus far the clippings as well although I may start contributing to writing them too.

With Melanie in jail and trial pending it is left for Andre to keep the diary up to speed.

January 27th. "Together they Stand"

When Hero Corps broadcasted the sudden rise in criminal activity this weekend, it seems like the entire roster of the Militia took to the streets. Throughout the day, they tirelessly fought Arachnos, Freakshow, Vampyrii, The Council and the Fire Bolg, putting out a clear and precise message to the alleged new Kingpin. Overall, a good day for the celebrity heroes both in preventing a sudden storm of criminals but also repairing their public image, which was recently stained by the Nightsparrow arrest and Hyper Drive's rampage.

We managed to have a quick word with The Ultimate and this is what he had to say "I want to take this opportunity to send a message to all our friends and supporters inside the Zig. TRACOR, I'm looking right at you... Cerborus, Centron, Nitrolok, Dr. Vahzilok and all you other small-timers - The Militia is watching and we're here all night baby. Remember to clean up that cell, say no to the drugs and err... don't bend over."

On patrol today were Unit-29, Silver-Steel, Devil Wind, Seph Reet, Tygerboy, Dante S. Carver, Tarei, Gauisus Somnium, Genesis Blade, Wild Child, The Portent, The Ultimate, Dragonfly, Shydow Flysh, Stalingrad, Inuit X, Jayhawk, Barbwire, Ebon Tear, Vigilante Storm, Cryotherapy, the Amber Banshee, leaders Mer'de, the Masked Angel, Lady Cobra, Crimson Archer, Force Commander and new recuits Jessica Chang, Jaded Harmony, Twilight Shinobi, Em-pulse, Speedie, Wynd Flysh, Utered Oath, Lady Patriot, X-Saviour and Cosmic Silver. That is a presence of over thirty and well into the fifties when accounting Derek, Hyper Drive, Healing Chi, Helvetic Knight, Extrisity, Charlie-Bravo, Pious Hunter, Hyper Cat, Kobra Guard, Caul, the Keening Banshee, Radiated Kin, and new recruits Slix, Redsight and Aqua Boy, including others currently on holiday. It seems from the proof provided today that the Militia really are a force to rely on.