Union Roleplayers - Recaps, Plots and Banter.

Last night proved to be a curious time for members of the Militia. Arriving in Pocket D, they were approached by Lady Silverwing of Primal who informed them of a threat that concerned both teams. Although earnest in her request, it disguised her current agenda: to observe Militia members in combat. Joined by her Primal colleagues Carrion Paw and Dorak , they combined forces with Slix, The Golden Scarab, Genesis Blade, Tygerboy and new Militia recruit GhostSpy .

Following their successful outing, the team socialised a little, the verbose Force Commander indulging in his usual imbibing of what fine wines they stocked behind the bar. However, once Dorak took offence at something the Commander said, Silverwing made her excuses and left, not wanting to get drawn into a conflict until the time was right. She retired, compiling notes on the various Militia members in her study once she returned home.

Back at the bar, the Amber Banshee joined her friends although it was clear that she was still smarting from her emotional outburst last week. She declined the offer of a drink for undisclosed reasons. After saying hello to Ghostspy and establishing that he was in fact one of the undead, Slix informed her of recent developments with Lady Patriot who appeared to now be on the run after assaulting several Longbow patrols. Amber became very defensive, refusing to believe that Sarah would do something like that. Blackrun was able to reveal that the Patriot responsible for the crimes was likely to be Sarah’s dark twin. Amber was about ready to go and take on the doppelganger when Mort stated that any such attack would undoubtably hurt the other Sarah as well. Despondent, Amber sunk into a sulk. Crimson Archer proposed asking the magic users in the Militia to see if there is some sort of mystical link between the two Patriots and mobilising the forces to locate where Sarah had disappeared to.

At this point, Amber complained that she was feeling nauseous and ran off to the ladies to be sick. On returning, she claimed that it must have been something that she ate and departed for home, clearly not very happy.


((There may have been more but I was really tired so if I’ve missed anyone, apologies.))

((And as far as I'm aware, the dating scene in Paragon moves pretty fast in my experience! ))

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(The corpse of Nick and Zeyna's relationship isn't even cold yet and already the vultures begin to circle... As someone pretty new to the CoX RPing community, I have to wonder, is this normal? ))

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Yes. Yes it is. I could list all the relationships, but that'd be one huge, huge post that I make.

Alraune tended bar in Pocket D last night yet again, chatting to various people, serving drinks, getting irrate with impatient customers and getting worried about Nightschild, seeing as she could overhear most of what he said. Last thing she wants is a customer doing something stupid. She also got very friendly with Energyneer.

Friendly enough that the two went back to Dinah's place in Port Oakes for a nightcap.

Dinah also chatted briefly to Star Crusader, Half-n-Half who she considers to be an aqquaintance now, and some others, including Blackrun who forgot to take his tea, Hand of Sorrow who ordered a huge pitcher of beer, then didn't pay, and way too many for me to recount!

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((The corpse of Nick and Zeyna's relationship isn't even cold yet and already the vultures begin to circle... As someone pretty new to the CoX RPing community, I have to wonder, is this normal? ))

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You need ask?
Vultures were already circling many a relationship before those became carcasses.
(and in some cases, circling already starts before a relationship..)


Last night...

Sarah2 invited Roselin over for a tour of the Giza.
A short tour was given, they chatted for a while, had a drink in the strip bar (lacking strippers at that hour )
Then they had much fun with betting at blackjack (mostly the between them side bets, which Sarah won all the way up to the 'double or nothing' bet which Roselin won)

Early Friday morning Britanic was visited at Sentinel Tower by teamate COP to dicuss events from that mornings Paragon City Post and COP's own investigation into city tensions resulting from the earlier reported "Super Plague/Virus" apparently brought to Paragon by members of The Silent Tempest.

Although subsequent reports have since said that the quaranteened members are clear of infection and there are no other confirmed cases, the original broadcast had already impacted on the city.

COP then confirmed to Britanic that not long after the original broadcast rumour of infection amongst the cities Lost had been circulated, and there had been a number of clashes with "concerned citizens". Also the PPD were trying to track down this new Lost speaker who had been inciting various factions into violence of their own and the theft of medical supplies.

Later that day Britanic went to Pocket D where he spoke to vampire hunter Bloods Embrace and the apparently Rogue Isles do-gooder Justice Goodheart, both of which he had met the night before.

Justice Goodheart then relayed to Britanic some details concerning the capture of Arachnos agent Velvet Spider(A woman who Britanic had become inappropriately close to) after her assaination atempt on the hero Royal Flush.

The news prompted Britanic to call his teamate COP, and it was apparent that the conversation did not go to Britanic's liking. Looking both worried and perplexed Britanic decided to patrol Kings Row to clear his head.

A couple of hours into his patrol Britanic had to rescue a member of the Lost from a gang of youths. When questioned one of the youths responded with...

"Hey man we know, we been told. Lost have got that Tempest virus thing. they need to be dealt with. You shouldnt be stopping us you should be helping, you are supposed to be on our side!"

Later Britanic went back to Pocket D and once more ran into Bloods Embrace, Justice Goodheart, and a new woman he thinks was called Rayne. They briefly disscussed the virus situation, before somehow getting on to improvised and unorthedox weaponry.

Although the conversations had done a lot to lift Britanic's mood, as soon as relationship talk came up he became withdrawn, and promptly left to deal with his own inner conflict concerning his own love life.

A copy of a poor quality printed leaflet being handed out to citizens of Kings Row by smartly dressed but otherwise non-descript men during saturday morning...

Leaflet!

(( Broadcasted at 7 am in the morning of 25.2.2007, then repeated every hour for the rest of the day. ))

* There is a man in his late thirties looking at a camera. Neat hairdo, reassuring smile. You've maybe seen him before. He has a suit on and stands relaxedly, genuinely so this time. No one is standing behind him as a background. *

"Good day. I am Roger Sholder, the public relations manager of Chiron Medical Center. I am pleased to announce that the threat of what has become known at the Tempest virus is over.

The capable personnel of Chiron Medical Center has successfully tested every single member of the team that traveled to another world and has not found any sign of a deadly virus infiltrating into our world.

Backed up by the extensive scientific expertise of some of the most prominent leaders in the field, among them Paragon City's celebrated hero Doctor Temporis, the team lead by doctor Jane Bright has concluded that it is a hundred percent certain that the contamination risk is over. There is no virus.

All Silent Tempest members have been let out of the isolation. The only one staying for further medical examination is the group's leader Coile. That examination has absolutely no connection to the once suspected virus.

The crisis is over."

Last night, Red Commissar and Drade both muttered about Volts suspicious behaviour and Lu handed RC a slip of paper with a contact number to pool her thoughts.

Something is up with Volt Master alright.

Maybe he's had a bit too much wodka? =P

Nightschild visited Pocket D again last night, having decided that the best way to start feeling better was to try and get on with his regular routine. He sat, rather subdued, at one corner of the bar while everyone talked around him. Eventually he noticed there was a strange-looking girl huddled in the corner, watching everyone fearfully. With no-one else taking much notice, apart from occasional questions which merely resulted in her cowering furthere away, Nick decided to see what was happening.

The girl was rather fearful of everyone, but Nick eventually managed to get her to be a little less afraid of him. Blackrun, Arrow Flame and Vigilante Storm all noticed his attempts at conversation and wandered over one by one, though none of them recognised the strange language the girl was speaking- they did discover that her name was Zian, though. Realising that she seemed intimidated by the noise and the crowds, Nick coaxed Zian into a quieter corner where she seemed more relaxed. A patron named Alexandra, who claimed to have an ability with languages, attempted to communicated, but only got a few basic concepts. It seemed, though, that Zian had no idea where she was or how she had come to be here. Eventually Nick arranged for Zian to spend the night in one of the back rooms of Pocket D. Taken there, she fell asleep on the makeshift bed almost at once.

Nick talked with Rachel for a while afterwards. She told him a little about her past, and her association with the Lost. She also made a few impulsive advances, and while Nick didn't find them unwelcome, he still didn't feel over Zeyna enough that he felt right returning them.

Nick left the club hoping to find some magical means of translating languages which could be used to communicate with Zian. He sat down to a long night searching through the stores and libraries back at Castle Balthory...

Alraune tended bar again last night, chatting a bit to various patrons including Nightschild, who got him a free drink. She also talked to Justice Goldheart and several others, making chit-chat as she served the customers, before after clocking off her shift going to speak to Energyneer.

She later on hopped behind the till again to serve a few more people, including Amber Banshee, and recommended that Ginger drinks were good for digestion.

Last night...


Roselin arrived at PD with Sarah(1) and noticed the upstairs hero bar was... swamped!
As Rose made her way around the crowd to the other bar, she glimpsed Shydow in the corner of her eye and paused. Sarah was still standing at the top of the stairs, and Rose gave them some room. Shydow wanted to talk, in private... Which Rose barely overheard due to the noise, but as they walked over to a quieter bar or.. 'the quiet bar', Rose went over to around the wall where she could still hear them...

To Rose's ear, it sounded like Shydow was either a bit dense or distracted by Sarah's body(language) or perhaps even observant enough but focused on his own gains to let Sarah's hessitation and doubts get too much in the way...
Or the more likely story being that he doesn't know Sarah.. at all.
(( Sorry, IC observations! ))

As they were interrupted by some latino dude, Shydow took off on that job he's been postponing for Sarah (hey, he's learning!) and Rose came out of hiding, but kept her distance.

Some guy came along and talked a bit with Rose and offered her a drink, which she accepted, but then declined when he didn't know/tell what the drink was and ordered a white wine.

Chatting with Sarah and Carlo (the latino), then also with Jan Boa and her friend a name Rose will probably get wrong more times then she does Jan's (Jane isn't right...) who seemed to like salt water (Lae'ori)

Sarah was quiet and even spaced out (no blond jokes!) at times, but insisted that she was fine.
Not believing but respecting her choice to not wanting to talk... Rose arranged to leave for an early evening... the previous ones ended rather late

((Posting on behalf of the lovely Zortel!))

Last night at Pocket D:

Alraune turned up for her part-shift, serving drinks up and talking to Lae'ori (The Fisherwoman), Detective Benedict and others, getting into a chat with Lae'Ori and a tall blue female demon about jobs and mating, and chats with Detective Benedict on humanity and various things. David Pyrons, in a generous mood set up a bar tab for the night for all drinks, and the bar quickly got very crowded, so Alraune had to tell people to move away from the bar if they weren't ordering. She also is getting good with remembering peoples drinks, getting Alexanda Cain a bottle of Millers and Justice Goldheart a glass of carrot juice upon seeing them.

Her shift soon coming to an end in time for some training, Alraune hopped over the counter, bid goodbye to the Detective and Lae'ori and headed out to learn how to work other various parts of the Pocket D facility.

Jan Boa turned up and ordered a drink, with Cobra, one of her henchmen, going over to leer over the Detective and Lae'ori. Sending him off back to Boa Personel Services base of operations, she proceeded to chat with the pair about her line of work and services, giving out buisness cards and saying goodbye to Blaze(Detective) when she left, and heading over to the other bar for a drink with Lae'ori.

Jan met up with acquaintance Roselin Thorne and was introduced to Caged Eagle, and started to talk buisness with Roselin. Jan was paid for a job in jewellery and was looking to fence it, and seeing as Roselin is a jeweller, a meeting was arranged for Roselin to get first pick on any good pieces she had.

Jan freaked Roselin out a little with her snakelike torso when stretching, and got chatting to Lae'ori again, pondering a buisness dealing with her. Jan soon bid her farewells as she had an early job in the morning, giving her card out to some others, and recieved a certain kind of card from Lae'ori that was less than conventional! It seems Lae'ori's lips secrete an oil which allows her to form a telepathic link, so she kissed her fingers and planted them on Jan's lips.

Alraune returned from training, and seeing as the new barmaid was doing okay, went over to chat to one of the other bartenders, Lae'ori and others. Nightschild turned up to chat to Roselin and Caged Eagle, and Dinah (Alraune's real name), asked him how he was and brought him a Jack Daniels. Seems she has a bit of a softspot for the young half-demon boy!

Roselin soon left, and Dinah bid her farewell and to come back soon, before cursing that she was still in barmaid mode. Chatting to Lae'ori some more, they discussed jobs, ecology, how Dinah herself became a plant girl, love, relationships, dancing and made a few jokes about a debate between a vampire and some kind of vampire/demon hunter arguing over at the other bar.

Alraune headed off to collect her bag (and I helped someone out on the V-Day mission), and came back, continuing the chat before Alraune decided to head home. Lae'ori wished to make a contact link with Dinah, and kissed her fingertips, before grinning and just giving Dinah a kiss. The barmaid didn't seem to mind, saying it was a rather unique way of establishing contact and headed of home.

((Thanks to ShadowGhost for posting this, seeing as College has clamped down on me accessing the forums. Going to try and find a fix somehow!))

Earlier that day, Roselin met with Sarah 1 and 2, having cooked them a fine meal and chatting a bit about the curious turn of the 'hunter' Feyth turning 'protector'...

Then she got them both to dress up (no, not that kin.. I'll shut up now) in their original suits to pose for the camera.

One was sellected and sent to various adresses in Paragon, the result is found here

Being away from the sea was daunting for Lae'ori (The Fisherwoman) but the rogue islands were a more hospitable place because of the easy access to the sea, however she wasn't happy with her new home and headed to this place called Pocket D she'd heard about.

Well, she thought she was going to hurl!!! Being inside another dimension with no access to the sea troubled her, so she consumed as much salt water as her body could handle.

Whilst there she met up with several new people, Jan Boa, Roselin Thorne, Detective Becktress, Alraune and Caged Eagle The Siren had a great time with all these people but soon as she got home she went to sit on the sea bed a few miles off the coast.

Mary Raynard as The Avenging Fox Found herself as part of a trio of trouble with Sword of Albion and Avo's Tear ((None roleplayer)) It felt like a part of something, like she'd come home. Although often her mind drifted back to Roselin Thorne. And soon she was back on the Isles as Ms Behave once more.


((Note: Avo's Tear mentioned he did not wish to be approched with invites into roleplay so I'm covering my behind on this one ))

Earlier on Monday:

Jan Boa, accompianed by bodyguard Cobra arrived at Garden Jeweller's in Port Oakes with a fire-proof safebox full of jewellery for Roselin Thorne to appraise and buy. Included among the box was some other pieces of Snake culture, that have been unconsecrated by Arachnos-sent theives and thus free for Jan to have. Jan sold several of the pieces to Roselin, along with some of the other jewellery she brought, which was payment from a job she was on.

Included amongst the jewellery was a lovely white gold set in a floral design, including a broach, necklace, bracelets, rings and earings. Roselin snapped these up quickly, and after some discussion, Jan and Cobra walked away from the store with US$50,000 and an $80 silver signet ring for Cobra.

Last night at Pocket D:

Alraune turned up to bartend, serving various people including Echo Hammer, Big Lunk, Energyneer and a very hyper Fallen Patriot. She also went to see Nightschild and Zian, checking they were okay and making sure the young girl was fine. She agreed to help Zian if Nick wasn't about, and headed back to the bar. A pager message soon distracted Alraune however, and she had to head off.

((This was due to me feeling a little bleh to be playing Alraune at that moment))

Jan Boa turned up, and soon met Detective Benedict, the two starting to chat about various things including powers and living on the Rogue Isle, as well as Jan's somewhat unique physiology. The two were visited by a rather hyper Fallen Patriot, who rather than being drunk, admitted to being under the effect of some sort of drug. She also apparently liked Jan's way of talking, and among other things like hugging the truck in Pocket D, soon went off to talk to Roseling and Nightschild.

Jan and Blaze (Benedict) left to talk at the bar near the staircaise up by the window, talking about powers, Jan's success with her jobs today and some more little chat, before sleep caught up with both of them and they went their seperate ways.

Alraune came back and took a look about Pocket D, before making her way back to the Rogue Isle. By the elevator, she bumped into Nightschild, who asked if she had seen any of the Militia about. Mentioning she thought she saw one of the members and giving a brief description, Nick said goodbye and went off to find the person.

Meanwhile:

Where has Guardians of Destiny member Number Nine been? She hasn't been spotted lately, and certainly hasn't come to aid her friends in the Silent Tempest, dispite the troubles proclaimed on the news. Where has Nene got to?

Even the cadaverously cool Madame Midknight herself has no idea, and Jane is starting to get a little worried. A ghostly purple form of energy has been seen drifting over the city lately, much like Jane's Ethereal Projection.

The officials have deemed the so called "Tempest virus" to be a non-threat. Is the situation really over? Not if you believe Leela Rin of Paragon Inquirer. Meanwhile citizens have taken it to themselves to act and there is no guarantee that the acts cease with just the official word.

Read all about it. The newest Nightsparrow's scrapbook as collected by Love Angel is now available.

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Earlier on Monday:

Jan Boa, accompianed by bodyguard Cobra arrived at Garden Jeweller's in Port Oakes with a fire-proof safebox full of jewellery for Roselin Thorne to appraise and buy. Included among the box was some other pieces of Snake culture, that have been unconsecrated by Arachnos-sent theives and thus free for Jan to have. Jan sold several of the pieces to Roselin, along with some of the other jewellery she brought, which was payment from a job she was on.

Included amongst the jewellery was a lovely white gold set in a floral design, including a broach, necklace, bracelets, rings and earings. Roselin snapped these up quickly, and after some discussion, Jan and Cobra walked away from the store with US$50,000 and an $80 silver signet ring for Cobra.

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She knows a collector that she can sell those snake pieces to for a bit more then the 50k... and she knows a collector that... thanks to creative accounting, doesn't have to pay for the flowery set... herself!

Last night at Pocket D:

Roselin said hi to Nick and his new friend Zian. Got zooomed around by Sarah2... Roselin wasn't happy to notice a repeat behavior, and dragged her off to try and find/talk some sense.. in vain of course...

Nick found them and they chatted a bit about various things, including Sarah2's condition, Sarah1's condition that contributed to that... Rose's situation and Nick being a great friend and good person...

Roselin then took Sarah2 home to make sure she didn't get in to any more trouble...

Last night at Pocket D:

Alraune turned up for her shift at work, it was mostly quiet for the first part of the evening, and chatted to Tormentress and a rabbit-eared person in samurai armour, who’s name escapes me. Tormetress asked to be called Tress instead of Miss, making a remark asking if she reminded Alraune of a grade school teacher. Dinah grinned and responded that if Tress was her teacher, Grade school would have been more interesting.

Tress also mentioned that Echo Hammer had spoken of Alraune, though Tress mentioned they were good things when Dinah asked. She then got a phonecall and went off to speak to someone, telling Dinah to get a whiskey for her ready for when she came back.

It was quiet for a while before Roselin Thorne turned up, ordering some wine, followed shortly by Lady Patriot and then Shydow Flysh. Dinah served them their orders, and chatted to an older-seeming, armour clad Zian who then went to talk to Nightschild’s friends about getting some clothing, as her own had torn.

Energyneer arrived, who Dinah treated very warmly and fondly, getting her a peach schnapps and chatting to her with some flirting going on, and when Unbesiegbar called Alraune a barwench, well, the comment wasn’t well received by either Alraune or Promethea, and they were glad to see him leave.

Tormentress returned and got her drink from Dinah, and Echo arrived and chatted briefly to Dinah while ordering before turning her attention to Tress. Buisness was as usual, getting a little busy later, and Dinah started to show signs of feeling a little ill, rubbing at her forehead and generally looking a little in pain. Longshot Lorrie asked if Dinah was okay, and she smiled and said she was, before feeling even more ill later. Locking up and calling an end to her shift early, she made her way around the bar instead of over the counter and said hello to Justice Goldheart, asking how she was and chatting briefly before she made her way to the second bar for a time out, resting in one of the booths. She swayed a little as she walked. She went over to speak to Mitch, the bartender at that bar, and ordered a glass of water, looking a little shakey and pale.

Lady Patriot and Roselin waved over at her from where they were sitting, and she gave a smile and waved back before heading to get her bag, dabbing at her face with a hankerchief.
X-Saviour came over to speak to them, so Roselin excused herself and went to speak with Alraune, sensing something was up with her. Dinah was looking more and more unwell, and dropped the glass of water she was drinking from. Nightschild arrived and was a little concerned for Dinah, especially when she almost slumped over into the broken glass under her, and the two guided her over to a chair to sit, Alraune being very weak legged and ill.

Roselin said that Alraune was feeling very warm, and almost like she was growing inside. Where her hand was on Alraune’s shoulder, yellow-y green vines started to grow out and cling to Rose’s hand, looking like grass that had been hidden from the sun for a while. Nightschild, using his senses, said that Alraune seemed very weak and almost like she was wilting.

Using her skill with plants to try and get the vines to grow, Rose succeeded a little before they shriveled up, and Dinah looked a little more than unwell. Noticing this, Lady Patriot and X-Saviour headed over to see what they could do to help. Using one of her spirit tree seeds, Rose grew one and it aided Dinah a little, her thorns and vinebuds that had formed on her bare skin starting to retreat back into her, and she looked a little less peaky.

Talking about things, Roselin suggested Dinah might need some more sun, and after asking if anyone knew of a good doctor that wouldn’t send a blood sample off to Arachnos or somewhere, and Roselin mentioned someone at a clinic in Cap Au Diable. Alraune then joked that she might take advantage of her rooftop access to do some topless sunbathing, and hoped that no one flew over. A few comments from the others got her grinning, and she was pleased that Nick was able to make some similar comments after hearing him mention something to her about that a few nights ago. Still a little unsteady on her feet, she assured everyone she could get home fine and shakily made her way out of Pocket D.

Demon-human thing The Fist of Faust arrived and, after finding out one of the bars was out of Thai chili bar nuts, he went to the other and found what he was looking for, starting to devour said nuts and drink his cider in pretty equal amounts. He made a few comments to the group to his right, before he got talking to Justice Goldheart.

She was a little worried and offput by his Apperance, but some friendly conversation soon hopefully lowered those barriers, and they got onto discussions about religion, theology and Ty’s job as a dockworker in Cap Au Diable, and how he wanted to be a professional metawrestler.

There were some really interesting lines happening to do with Justice’s religion and Ty’s background, though I think the most noteworthy was Justice asking if Ty wanted to come to church to redeem himself. Ty didn’t think he had anything to redeem, when Justice mentioned his lineage, which he described as having ‘a fair bit of brimstone in my bloodstream’. Ty quipped that there wasn’t much he could do about that other than going back in time and aborting himself, but that would be a sin itself. They chatted briefly about Ty’s childhood, before he bid the woman farewell and went home to sleep, ready for another days work at the docks.

Addendum!

Big Lunk paid for a bottle of best whiskey with a diamond, which Dinah pocketed and then put her own money in the till to cover it. She'll probably want to get that checked out.

Last night in Pocket D…

Roselin Thorne was there, sitting on the rail beside War Witch, looking on. Some vaguely familiar person in a heroic costume (Britanic) walked up to her, warned her it was a long drop and a dangerous sitting place. Roselin just smiled and said she would be fine, and he jumped over the rail and was off.

After a while, Roselin moved closer and sat down in a booth, chatted to Sarah for a moment about Shydow, and her situation/complexities. But then he showed up with a rather lame excuse about why he was hours late… He had a fish that needed swimming lessons…

Rose observed for the most part, talking bits with Nick, mostly whispered.
Then Nick asked Rose about that job she might have for him, so they moved to a more private area to chat. Nick started off with some personal comments and questions, which Roselin answered to the best of her ability. They talked a bit more, also about the job Roselin had: namely finding a certain gem with probable magical powers. What Roselin didn’t mention was that it was for Feyth, enemy turned cautious ally due to outside contracting (should last to the end of the year). Nor did she mention Rose could break that millionaire’s barrier with this job. Neither did she mention she’s still not sure if she’ll complete the job. For now, she wants to know why Feyth wants it.

They talked about more things, mostly relationships and such, Nick and Zeyna… Sarah and Shydow, and Roselin and Sarah, or Sarah2, or Mary… Rose revealed that she was thinking of letting Mary down to be there for Sarah. They also talked about Sarah as a mother… that she wouldn’t be a good one as she would be too busy babying her children to give them some discipline/correction. (and there for it would be better for her that she’d be with some one where that isn’t possible – Nick said )

More evaluations of the Sarah/Shydow situations were discussed…
But were quickly aborted with the arrival of Sarah, apparently having left Shydow alone at her apartment to settle in a bit? Or maybe he had to go off on one of his jobs again. (honestly, he does more ‘jobs’ then most villains!)
And they chatted about things, mostly about things that embarrassed Sarah
Then Mary showed up, keeping sneakily aside so she wouldn’t scare Rose’s friends away. But Roselin went over and dragged her off for ‘the chat’… Mary seemed understanding, and was happy with Roselin’s wish to remain friends, and said she’d try and sit with her and her friends. So she did and the four of them sat … in silence for a while, lost in contemplation… before Mary made a comment and Rose made the attempt of a conversation…

During the conversation, Nick went to see Dinah (Alraune) and a bit later Sarah went off… it seemed that Nick told her what Roselin’s purpose of the chat with Mary was… It seemed like she was feeling guilty… for her decisions, decisions she made because she was insecure and didn’t want to hurt people.

Before long, Mary was bitter that Rose’s friend seemed to think they were to good for her, and eventually left so Rose’s friends could come back… which they didn’t really.

Instead Dinah came over to tell her Rose’s help and advice were greatly appreciated and effective. They chatted some more about things, including the diamond Dinah received.

Justice Goldsomething came to Dinah and complained about the new bartender girl asking $6 for a cola! Dinah was outraged, a cola wasn’t even $1! And she stayed for chatting (Good tactic, a reason to make an entry and continue socializing )
Sarah asked Rose for a brush, which she grew a spiked pod for, as Mary had dumped a glass of water on Sarah’s head… Sarah wanted to brush her hair, and went back to Nick who was sulking somewhere.

Justice was impressed and asked if Rose could do similar and grow a flower in under an hour… “an hour? That long?”
Rose grew a pink rose behind her own ear, Dinah a blue flower in her hand… both well under a minute much to Justice’s awe.
edit: When Justice asked about juicy gossip to share... Dinah mentioned that some one had women's underwear thrown at him, Isaac (but which one? ) was complaining he didn't get it... so Dinah launched boxers on a thorn at him

Eventually Nick and Sarah came back, and more chatting happened, with Dinah’s nature being discussed and …
At some point Rose fell asleep from emotional exhaustion, while she had to be at the shop the following morning again, so they shooed her off home.


edit: I'm sure I've missed a lot, set things in wrong order and what not...
it'll be up to others to correct at their discression

Last night in Pocket D:

Ms Behave's world fell appart when Roselin Thorne broke off their relationship. Crushed and hurt Mary couldn't bring herself to show any real outwards emotion until she arrived at the table with Lady Patriot, Nightschild and Roselin Thorne. Whilst there the uncomfortable silence and atmosphere was thick enough to carve with a knife until Lady Patriot excused herself, followed shortly by Nightschild. Already angry and hurting Mary made a few unfair comments to Roselin and excused herself, taking the time to break into a safe and steal a very expensive bottle of malt whiskey before making a call to her teacher and mentor The Sword of Albion. During that time Mary returned for her drink and upended it on Lady Patriot for making her feel pushed out. When Sword of Albion arrived Mary told him what had happened and returned the bottle of whiskey before taking him to an arena to work off her aggression on him. After taking a few knocks the 17th Earl of Rutland put Mary on her behind deftly and that was that. She had a good cry about things and afterwards rejoined the group more as an onlooker then a participent before the group split up for the night.

Elsewhere, a sword awoke and a woman, looking a lot like Mary picked it up, blue eyes flashing as she smiled and stepped forwards, a blinding flash changing the scenery to that of Paragon City.

Miss Ellie's had an odd couple of days...

On Monday she decided to try an experiment and see how far she could teleport if she built up as much energy as she could. So, she spent several hours building up an absolutely MASSIVE charge of energy, aimed for London, and teleported.

Unfortunately, she'd kinda built up too MUCH energy, and instead of ripping a whole in space to travel through, she accidentally tore a hole in spacetime and careened out of control; arriving unconcious face down in a pigsty in medieval Camelot! Yuck!

Luckily for her, Myrddin (Merlin), was around and was able to contrive a spell to send her home just minutes after she'd left. Unfortunately for Ellie, it took him 7 months to do so; ruddy amature!

In the meantime, Ellie had to make do as best she could, posing as Myrddin's serving wench come pupil and wearing a magical disguise he taught her, to hide her less than normal features. She learned all sorts of things about tending goats, killing chickens, and how to correctly stuff a cows udder for Sunday dinner. Myrddin forbade her to use her own abilities as she'd just end up being burned as a witch...

When she finally returned, everyone was pretty amazed by her tale as, to them, she was only gone about 5 minutes. Needless to say, little was seen of Ellie or her loved ones for a day or so afterwards... After that little adventure, Ellie has sworn NEVER to try anything so stupid again!

Moving along to Wednesday evening; Ellie was at Pocket D for a while; drinking a coke and just enjoying being among civlisation again (even if there WERE a lot of villains about). She even got into a deep conversation with Fist of Faust about the merits of WWF and WCW (american wrestling), and learned he was a semi-pro wrestler himself. A little later he introduced her to one of the Rogue Isles few heroes, Justice Goldheart. They all chatted for a time before Ellie got a call on her mobile and had to leave.

Last night at Pocket D:

Wow, it was a fairly busy night.

Alraune wasn't bartending last night, due to taking the day off to rest and recover. And sunbathe nude atop her apartment block to get the sunlight she needed.

Isaac Anderson and Juan Ross turned up for a quiet drink, chatting about Uni, college work and the like, having a cuddle and just enjoying each other's company before the two headed off.

The Fist of Faust turned up at the bar and started talking to Miss Ellie, making light chatter with her. Ellie seemed a little nervous at first, or at least uncomfortable, but the two soon got talking properly, chatting about wrestling and marriage and other things. Ty (Fist) is a friendly guy at the bar, and when Justice Goldheart arrived, the three soon got chatting. Later on Malice Malicia turned up, and her costume was admired by Ty before he invited her over. Ellie got a phone call and had to leave to help a friend, which was a shame as Ty was enjoying their wrestling chats. Ty soon invited Malice to join them, and the three got chatting about various things, before moving away to the other bar (Away from the evils of $3 cola!).

There, Justice had a bit too much to drink, and soon dashed off to the toilets. Malice said "We should go and check on her." to which Ty replied that Malice could, but he wasn't going in the ladies bathroom. When she came back, Ty recommended she drunk plenty of water before bed, and after some more chat, Malice and Ty had to leave. A comment from Malice along the lines of "The night is young, but my client isn't..." led Justice and Ty to believe that Malice was a prostitue, which by the way she was dressed wasn't surprsing. Malice said this wasn't the case, and the two headed off their seperate ways, leaving Justice to walk about for a bit.

Alranue arrived for a drink of water and to check up on things, having suffered from quite the bad sugar crash after her body processed all the fruit juice she was drinking from the past few days. A while later, Nightschild came up to the bar to order, and Dinah and Nick chatted a bit about how she was feeling. Nick mentioned he was giving the three girls at his table (Roselin Thorne, Lady Patriot, Ms. Behave) some time to chat, and Dinah glinced some info about the relationship troubles, and chatted to Nick a little about some other things, including him missing her nude sunbathing. Dinah was happy that Nick was regaining his humour in that regard, and he left to head back to the table when he noticed Sarah ran off, before going to find her.

After a while, Mary (Ms. Behave) left, and Dinah headed over to chat to Rose, thanking her for the advice she gave last night, and then started to talk about dancing, drinks, and diamonds. Justice arrived to see how Dinah was doing, and mentioned the drinks prices. She also noticed how tall Dinah was, and called her an 'Amazon Queen', which Dinah rather liked the sound of. More talk happened, including underwear, due to Isaac's grumblings and Dinah chucking him a pair of boxers as a joke, wrapped around one of her thorns. Mary turned up to get her water, before heading off, and after a while Nick turned up at the table again as Dinah and Rose talked about exotic dancing and Dinah's experiences with it earlier in her career.

Chats about abilities happened, and Dinah grew a blue flower from her hand, called an Ewerblüte, for her last name and the german word for bloom, and she gave the sweet smelling flower to Justice. Sarah left, and chats about Dinah's anatomy and physiology happened, that she was part plant, if she could get pregnant and many jokes and puns about flowers, bees, nectar, pollen and the like, which helped brighten Dinah's mood. Rose fell asleep, and Mary headed off. After being woken up, Rose left as well, and Nick, Dinah and Justice chatted.

After a while, the hour got rather late (or early) and Justice headed off, waiting outside the Port Oakes door to walk Justice home, and Dinah gave Nick a little pep talk (and a kiss on the cheek) as he walked her to the exit, and he headed off to the Golden Giza. Heading out to meet Justice, the two walked back to Dinah's appartment, taking on some ruffians at that time, stopping a case of grand theft auto, and Dinah's hallucinogenic spores caused a bit of a tumble between a group of Lost, before arriving near the hospital and parting ways.

(this is a recap of several weeks of gameplay. There are holes in it, there are hazy details, because I didn't take notes and mainly because I didn't play all the scenes, only getting reports of what happened from others. So, maybe not 100% precise but good enough I think)

The last month was very eventful for the Silent Tempest team, directly or indirectly.

One of the major event is Nightsparrow trial.
Nightsparrow, also now known as Mrs Melanie Kraft, was arrested the day of her wedding with Andre Kraft, the man leading the Silent Tempest under the hero name Coile .
Prosecutor MacDougal, whose eagerness to frame for life Melanie is quite amazing, is charging her with hundreds of murders and acts of violence over the course of the last 6 years.
First detained, then released but confined to her home in Founders Falls, Melanie Kraft is now authorized to move but is still under strict watching by the police of Paragon City.

Nadia Forester, the Sword of Truth , reluctantly accepted to participate to the defense of Melanie, alongside Lady Cobra , a friend of the recently wed woman.
Rapidly, it was discovered that a being known as Grinning Nightmare , was tormenting Nightsparrow. The dream fiend is said to have influenced Melanie during her sleep, leading her to commit various violent acts, down to murders.

The case mobilized the Silent Tempest forces. One of they key element was Kitalia, who finally was able to contact directly the dream fiend, using a stunning ability to project an incarnation of herself while asleep.
It was also discovered Grinning Nightmare is the daughter of Aria, better known as Keening Banshee .
Gathering all elements, it looked possible to try to trap the fiend and possibly force her to admit her role and influence in all the violent acts attributed to Nightsparrow.
In the meantime, Nadia Forester studied the accusation charges, not seeing how to prove Nightsparrow innocence without getting Grinning Nightmare, but willing to instill enough doubt to prevent Melanie to be declared guilty.
Yet, as days and weeks passed, Nadia was more and more pessimist about this course of action. Everything looked to be depending on Grinning Nightmare only.
Nightsparrow might have reported some troubling elements in her personal diary but nothing significant from the few Nadia agreed to read. And, reasonably, nothing proving the innocence.

But all of this became completely secondary the day a moody Coile crossed a portal to vent a bit, change his mind and maybe help the agenda of the Omega team, a shady group he was belonging to.
Using his clearance to go to another world, he didn't check his destination, assuming it will be a regular reco mission of some sort.
He was sadly completely wrong. The dimension he entered was high on the danger scale and wasn't at all destined to be explored by a single hero.
^The same day, the Tempest having a meeting, Coile being late was quickly noticed as he always arrive far before anyone else.
Soon, Nadia Forester discovered what happened, using her own connections to the Omega team, since Coile dragged her in with him.

The fact was there was no exit point for Coile. The portal he used wasn't planned to be opened and, for sure, it wouldn't be again to allow him to return.
Fiddling with Omega and Portal Corps procedures, Nadia quickly to decide to follow her former lover, to help him and to not leave him alone in this hostile world.
Despite being offered the possibility to bring a team with her, she refused the option, knowing it was going to be a one way trip and unwilling to risk the lives of everyone on the team because of Coile impulsiveness.

Assembling quickly her stuff, she wanted to name Dustine leader of the Silent Tempest, in the absence of Coile, and foreseeing one might never return from this dimension.
However, Dustine declined and, quite the opposite, was coming to announce her departure according to the will of her ineffable goddess.
Things were accelerating and while the Sword of Truth was reviewing possible candidates, Kitalia tried to intervene and talk.
Time was lacking and Sword wasn't ready to listen, especially as Kitalia was also apparently under some loyalty conflicts, willing to tell her something and also unable.
While Kitalia was muttering things about promises that may be broken, or secrets she shouldn't say but who are already known etc… Sword finally selected Mesoc to lead the Tempest in her absence (and obviously in Coile absence).
Cutting off the discussion, leaving Kitalia fainting because of the inner conflict, Sword left the Tempest base and head to Peregrine island.
There, agents of the Omega team gave her scanners and technological devices to carry during her time in the world Coile entered. The purpose being to sent back data about the world, possibly to finally consider the world being secure enough to open again a gate and let Sword and Coile leave.
When Sword stepped in the portal, she was leaving the team behind her, heading to an unknown and restricted world.

She met Coile some times after, exploring around from her arrival position. Brooding, the leader of the team wasn't aware of the situation he was in, they were both in.
Sword, displeased and angered, soon became aware they might be stuck in this world for days, weeks, months or even more, if they would come back on Earth one day.
Everything was depending on the scans they were supposed to perform. But, as events will show soon, the safer way for them was to hide and find a haven. While scanning with world implied exploration and facing lethal dangers. However, choosing safety was condemning them to stay in this world.
The world was empty of human life, yet full of cities, housing, cars, everything that our own world know, but empty of inhabitants; As if all humans suddenly disappeared.
Not totally empty. The heroes soon discovered the world was the domain of humanoid robots, extremely aggressive.
Quickly, they had to defend their lives, when energy shooting robots started to chase them across empty streets of a deserted town.
The first days were focused on survival, Sword being reminded her days during the Rikti War. Collecting food to resupply, finding drinking water, shelter, all of this while dodging the deadly robots.

Back on Earth, the Silent Tempest was in turmoil. The two head figures were missing and the team was left on its own.
Soon, plans started to be discussed.
The problem was the access to this world where both Coile and Sword were. Portal Corps was refusing to let them team enter it, pointing at the quality of the restricted dimension.
On the other hand, the team couldn't find a workaround with the Omega team, the said group being remote and impossible to even contact.
Missing the ability to cross world barriers, missing the coordinates of the target dimension, the team was helpless.

Diana Bright, also known as Love Angel , facing what she saw as unfairness from the Omega team, decided to make some scandal, even if she knew little.
Her initiative to contact newspapers however attracted the attention of the Omega team, which was quite unwilling to get some media coverage. Outraged by the whole affair, Diana Bright even wrote to the president of the United States.
Stalked by mysterious men in black, newspapers silenced, no story published, Love Angel was finally directly contacted by what was revealed to be an agent of the Omega team, a woman called Tina Bree .

Tina Bree, however, had a dual position on this. On one hand, she was protecting the Omega team from bad media coverage, on the other hand, invited to come at a Tempest meeting, she displayed an unexpected will to help the team up to her abilities.
At the same time, Love Angel tried a gamble bet, luring Bree to believe she learned a lot on the Omega team by having friends to hack Portal Corps computers.
Was that bet successful ?
Anyway, Tina Bree said she would be giving, on her own initiative, the coordinates of the target dimension, provided the team was able to go through a powered portal.
Options were few. At some time, going through the portals of Pocket D was discussed. An option that was finally not possible.

They however started to work on two plans.
Xan (Star Crusader), the alien, was asked to start working on building a portal for the team. A daunting task he said to take at least two months, maybe more, provided he had enough pieces to assemble and provided he was able to make it run.
He started to work quite rapidly, preparing to divert power to a future portal and reconfiguring the computer network of the base to this option.
Yet, more than the technical side to make a portal work; he was simply lacking the material and equipment.
The other idea was to use a portal existing on Nerva archipelago.

The main idea was to try to use that Nerva portal to enter and exit the dimension and, if the exit wasn't possible, it would have to Xan to finally build them the exit, months later.

During that time, things turned badly for Coile and Sword.
After some progress, exploration and scanning, fighting hordes of robots, they discovered some robots of a more advanced model, maybe information relays of a larger network, maybe coordinating all robots. Coile skills in robotics looked to be promising for future inquiries or maybe even to find a way to get out.
Yet, their deactivation didn't look to hinder the local robotic population. They also discovered, by comparing many trivial details, that all human life looked to have ceased six months earlier.
However, no corpses around, no mass grave. It was as if all humans suddenly had vanished, leaving everything in place.

Exiting the town they arrived to at first, the heroes started to explore the immediate surroundings and semi-rural area.
They were quite shocked to finally face groups of humans. Survivors ? No questions could be asked as the humans immediately chased them with as much zeal than the robots.
And all of this ended badly when Sword was shot straight to the heart by a man holding a bow.
A panicked Coile immediately and very lucidly applied the first aid procedures, then transported her back to town using his flight field, where he found an hospital.
There, he stitched and patched the ugly wound, while Sword had slipped into a bleak unconciousness.
Three days long, Nadia lied in a bed, in an empty hospital, while hostile robots were wandering all around.
When she opened her eyes again to the relief of Coile, things were looking grim.
Severely weakened, she couldn't walk and Coile was reluctantly and wisely willing to hold her in the air using his flight field.
The following days, Coile took care of everything and started to explore the surroundings.
It finally led to a massive confrontation with robots in the lower levels of the hospital when Coile was forced to unleash his power to destroy an entire section by shooting energy to the weak points of the structure.

At that moment, Sword was more or less strong enough, again, to walk but was cautious to no end to not reopen her wound.
The heroes started to move, unable to stay at the hospital since the big fight with the robots. All of this however led to another serie of tragic events.
Facing the deadly robots again, they found their way blocked. Sword, unable to fight, barely able to walk, had to leave all the burden of the fight on Coile shoulders.
Courage, tenacity and endurance allowed Coile to both support her and fight their way farther and farther… until that fateful moment when robots passed over Coile guard and one struck hardly the woman at her head.
Half stunned, vision blurred, Sword followed her team leader to the final confrontation.
Blocking their advance was one of those advanced robot, a powerful machine.
During several minutes, Coile led an epic combat against the robot, using all his resources and strengths. And finally, Andre Kraft body ended lying on the ground.

One of the most surprising feature of the robots was they weren't trying to kill them. They never tried. They were undeniably aggressive, able to hurt but something just didn't make them complete killing machines. A clue of the truth was going to be revealed later.

Coile and Sword retreated together, back in a town appartment they broke in. There, Coile, having received a mighty strike on the head, stated to have serious headaches.
Sword sight had deteriorated quickly while the wound on the left side of the head didn't look promising. Unable to see on her left, blurry vision, it was an almost blind Nadia who saw her former lover finally collapse.

Back on Earth, the Silent Tempest team was ready to act. The need for coordinates from Tina Bree was bypassed by Dustine, whose oracles and contacts with her goddess allowed her to determine the position of the missing leaders.
Weeks had passed since Coile and Sword left. When the team was going to act, Coile was seriously injured and Sword couldn't help him.

The team was transported to the Nerva gate and sneak through it. A detail that would be proven decisive later.
Dustine, Mesoc, Kitalia, Bart ( Hands of Sorrow ) and Marisol ( ShadowWoman ) had entered the target world.
Subaiku , who Love Angel stopped calling a "werewolf" to favor the "werecat" theory now, had crossed the dimension barrier a few days before and using her supernatural scent, had tracked the missing duo.
That's how Subaiku found a unconscious Coile, watched by a powerless half blind Sword, both hiding in an apartment of this ghost town.
The faerie-gypsy-werecat (who know the truth about Subaiku) placed a kind of inner lock over the power buildup Coile was experiencing since his last battle and removed the famous eyeplate.

Finally joined by the whole rescue team, all Tempest members nevigated to find their way out of this dimension. They had to fight hordes of robots, battling bravely despite the might of their opponents.
Coile and Sword able to move with the constant help of Kitalia healing powers, could only watch the others fighting without being able to help.

The team had to get a vehicle to drive to another nearby town, as the portal technology to get them back looked unreliable and couldn't reopen the gate at the place where they arrived.
On their way, Sword scanners (indeed Omega scanners) identified a signal.
Investigating, the team discovered a looping, broadcasted message over radio waves. The message was warning that robots were releasing an airborne virus destined to kill humans within a week.
Oddly, it looked that killing themselves humans weren't part of the robot program. At least, it was what Sword guessed. Many enigmas were left on that world… the robots, the goal to slaughter mankind, survivors…

When the team crossed back the barriers between world to our Earth, several surprises were awaiting.
First, Dustine and Kitalia basically vanished. It seemed that Dustine was prevented by her goddess to fall into…
A trap which was laid by E.V.I.L., led by Echo and Lunk caught the returning Tempest members.
Having spotted the use of the Nerva portal, E.V.I.L. reconfigured it so the arrival point back in our world was their headquarters.
After some tension, the tired, wounded, Tempest could only surrender…
Warning about a possible contamination by the virus which wiped all human life in that otherworld, several Tempest members begged for quarantine measure (which were more or less including E.V.I.L. members who were in contact with the Tempest)
Finally, Echo decided to keep Coile in the base and release the other members, abandoning her initial project, whatever it was like getting a ransom as it was said once.

Sent back to Paragon City, the Tempest immadiately went to the Atlas hospital where they explained the urgency.
Took under care by doctor Jane Bright (Diana Bright's -aka Love Angel- mother), soon with the help of Xan, many tests were made to determine what the virus was.
Ultimately, common sense and science agreed there was no virus. Sword and Coile were on this otherworld during more than two weeks and should have die before any rescue team could reach them.
The days at the hospital were very tense, Bart having depressing thoughts and being convinced of his future death by a virus, Dustine finally back at Paragon City, being moody and contemplating a flame she was making flicker in her hand.

Several interviews and appearances of doctor Bright, speaking of a viral alert, however created some panic in the town, something apparently still lingering in the outskirts or Kings Row.

Few days after the Tempest arrived back to Paragon City, after their release when no virus was found, Coile was actually also freed by Echo, with no real explanation coming from any of them.

During all of this, Nightsparrow, under watch by the police in her Founders Fall apartment, was victim of an assassination attempt. Her trial didn't look to go better.
Love Angel, who couldn't go to this otherworld with the rescue team, had to manage the growing affection of Tygerboy but looked to no longer be at odds with her mother. Mother who, in turn, looked to be a bit less harsh in her judging about "heroes".
Xan, the Star Crusader, received a card for the Valentine's Day, which couldn't surprise him more. He spoke about the card but also about artificial and biological life with Number Nine , the gynoid.
Which was something Love Angel found very interesting, especially on the Valentine's Day. On her side, the same evening didn't look romantic, maybe to her distress.

Things were barely settling.
The Sword of Truth was left crippled by the experience. Her optic nerve damaged, her heart was weakened enough by the wound she received to risk a cardiac accident now if under too much strain and blood pressure.
Coile, whose buildup was threatening his life, was left powerless. But, his powers, he didn't recover them. Without eyeplate, without powers, he went back to his wife.

That's when Bone Fire Havoc appeared. Locked into a lethal vendetta with Mugon from E.V.I.L., he was given shelter and protection by Love Angel and Xan.
Yet, Sword clashed with him when she learned Havoc was ready to almost anything to achieve his revenge.
The tension reached its peak the following day, during the Tempest meeting.
Facing both Coile and Sword contesting his position about revenge, things escalated and Havoc finally left the base, unwilling to stay with people who, according his wording "were lacking respect to him".
Some time later, he was found dead, assassinated by Mugon and his henchmen.

In the meantime, Sword and Love Angel had decided to get back the man (with Coile agreement) but he never answered to Love Angel call.
The whole affair left the Tempest divided.
Tensions built since the "otherworld" affair crystallised around Havoc and his death.

Sword proposed Coile could go on vacation. They settled on a month duration. Everyone had to think a bit and cool down, Coile maybe more than others. At least, it was Sword opinion on the matter.

Since, Sword is trying to talk, to each member of the team, in private.
She can no longer fight but she can still help.

(some other things happened since but I stop here)

Where on Earth is Nene?

That's the question undead Parapsychologist, ghostbuster and mediator to the living impaired Madame Midknight, aka Jane Darc has been wondering.

Number Nine, while searching through and decrypting files from Crey given to her by possible love interest Star Crusader found possible whereabouts of her creator, one Doctor Novikov, in Japan. Bidding farewell to Doctor Temporis, the father figure in her life, Nene hurried off, forgetting to tell her best friend as she performed a dimensional incursion to Kyoto, Japan, where she began her search for the mastermind behind the Chronomanipulation Unit series of androids and gynoids.

Following a paper-trail, electronic trail, and using some persuasive skills, Nene soon crossed over into Hong Kong, following the paths she could find, hopefully to the man who built her. Numerous Crey officers got battled in the process, and Nene headed onto Mainland China, where in a fierce battle in an underground bunker, Nene's use of her chronomanipulation abilites lead to the destruction of ADAOS, a bodyguard unit built by Doctor Novikov. Sustaining some injuries to her chassis, Nene rested, recovered and found information pointing towards Seoul, South Korea. With her body repaired, Nene set off on her continuing journey.

Jane Darc was getting increasingly worried, and spoke to Doctor MacAllister, finding out that Nene was currently in China. A little put off with her best friend for not telling her, or even inviting her, Jane started to tap into her magical arts to try and see if Nene needed her.

Which Nene did indeed need. Tracking Novikov down to a secret facility in South Korea, she found herself face to face with her elderly creator, and a new batch of Chronomanipulation Units. An hour of talking passed, with Nene learning much of her past, before the Doctor ordered the Neo-Number units to take Nene down for an autopsy and system debug.

Nene wasn't having this, and with tremendous effort managed to circumvent her Chronomanipulation limiters, taking down a Neo-Number One, Four, Six, Nine, Eleven and Twelve before being overpowered and captured. Impressed at how one inferior unit took down Six of his latest creations, the Doctor soon began to experiment on Nene, gleaming much from her, amazed at how far she had progressed since the day she destroyed the lab and eleven other Chronomanipulation Units. The process wasn't that pleasent, and the Doctor was even more impressed to discover Nene feeling pain.

Fortunetly, Jane was finally able to locate Nene, and dashing out of her appartment, she bumped into The Burning Sensation himself, Cauter. Cauter, once debriefed, quickly agreed to help, and the two harnessed the power of a Chaos Gate to teleport into Seoul, alerting the South Korean Goverment of magical tresspassers.

Speeding their way to Nene's location, the battle was soon joined with Jane and Lance bursting into the room Nene was trapped in, and freeing her. The Neo-Number units started to attack again, and finding her GunARM was useless, Jane called upon the power of Warforge, her golem, and quickly started to lay into the Neo-Number units with her armoured form and powerful axe. Though they quickly dealt with the Neo-Numbers, they started Temporal Revisioning, and reforming to repaired versions of themselves. Cauter told Jane to let his girlfriend, Lyn-Legend know he loved her if they didn't get out of this alive, and soon began a frenzied attack on six of the Neo-Numbers, drawing fire and pushing his Firebrand armour to the limit.

Jane was able to deal with the human forces coming to the doctor's aid while Nene recovered, and soon restarting her Chronomanipulation Engine, she was able to perform a series of temporal disjunctions on the Neo-number units, destroying them and the engines inside them. The three fell back into Doctor Novikov's office, barricading themselves in to recover, and the Doctor himself was soon dealt with, by his own hand no less as he tried to escape and ended up trapping himself in an eternal second.

With a Situation M in place in the Crey Facility, and the South Korean metahumans attatched to the military approaching, it was up to the three of them to fight their way out to the surface and into the forests nearby, where they were able to lose their persuers for long enough for CIRCE to get a lock on and teleport the three back to Paragon City, where they had a -lot- of explaining to do.

And so our three heroes arrived today at around Five PM back in Paragon, and were soon contacted by Freedom Corps for a bit of a slapped wrist. The three of them are now banned from entering South Korea, and Jane had her Lineage 2 account cancelled. She was more annoyed with that than anything else.

With the mastermind behind Crey's Chronomanipulation unit gone, and all existing records and units bar Nene destroyed, the timestream is safe for now, at least from that threat.

I refrained from recaps while the dimensional trip was on-going as not to give too many OOC hints about what was going on. As far as anyone knew Sword and Coile were either busy dying fighting against a superior foe, or just taking it easy and living a life of new-found love. Afterwards I considered recaping it all but the task was sort of intimidating. Now, FaeryFire did one take on it and I got excited about some of the stuff that happened and felt like, omg, writing.

So, here's my limited view. Not intended to cover all, and as per usual some IC bias.

Note: the damages taken were results from dice rolls. A personal matter of taste to keep unpredictability in the events. As can be seen from the severity of the wounds we were pretty unlucky.

Oh, and if you would rather piece the events together IC, it's not wise to read further.

Ashdor rising

"It's hard, cause my spirit is willing
But my flesh is weak
We are living in a brave new world"
- Heavenly: Wasted Time

An ordinary evening in Pocket D. Nadia (Sword of Truth) was talking with Aria (Keening Banshee) about Grinning Nightmare who seemed to be an integral part in if Nightsparrow was to avoid the almost certain life sentence. Nearby Andre (Coile) was sharing with Mesoc his uneasiness about Kitalia and her connection to the same 'Grinni' that the other two were discussing. Aria was telling about how Grinni had influenced Nightsparrow's decisions when she had chosen to take lives or use needlessly excessive force, and how she believed that anything Melanie still did was influenced by years-old her tormentor.

In other words any choice that Melanie had made was likely not her own. Coile realized that his marriage to Mel could well be just a months long deception, nothing more. He left Pocket D in a hurry. Two things were on his mind. First, Grinning Nightmare could find a way inside someone's head if they were in the blackest pit of their personal hell. So, he was in danger. Second, Requiem's men had taken Nadia into another dimension after her capture to hide her presence from any detection. Conclusion: it would be a good idea to hide from the dream grinner in another dimension.

All Andre wanted was a set of dimensional coordinates that he could use. Without much thinking he went to the conference room of Omega task force (also known as Octavo) and acquired a list of dimensions. Not being picky he took the first and off he went. The world was inhabited by robots that seemed rather aggressive but flying high was a safe bet for now. Time passed and the despair waned. However horrible the situation was it could be solved one way or the other. There was enough expertise to find out the truth. All he needed was to head back home and confront the situation.

Except the beacon detector drew a complete blank. There was no return portal. Nothing that he could do would conjure one up. Maybe there was some trouble? Yeh. Just sit tight, wait a bit and they'll fix whatever is wrong.

A day later Silent Tempest was gathering and there was no sign of Coile. No one had heard of him that day and Sword got worried. While she called around to various places and people, Andre's father Zirgei was visiting the base wanting to have a word with his son before returning to the robot far and in his absence resumed one of his favourite pasttimes. Well, two. Talking his son down and yanking Love Angel's chain. He succeeded in both quite well.

Meanwhile Sword had reached Omega's commander Morgan Bree and learned that Coile had made an unauthorized excursion to a dimension that had for undisclosed reasons after the original survey decreed to be dangerous. Under the circumstances a return portal was not possible because it would have to remain open for who knew how long until Coile got to it. A brief portal for a retrieval team was possible but the commander didn't want to use more than maximum one Omega member for this. Sword was volunteering. She declined to take a team with her.

The deal was simple. She would go through, but due to a lot of unknowns there would be no return portal until it was resonably certain that there was no immediate danger from opening one. She and Coile would need to do extensive scouting including but not limited to viral, radiation, technological, biological and tactical scans. Meson detectors would ascertain the presence or absence of native portal technology. And if there were Rikti present - the results would not be pretty.

Equipped to the teeth Sword of Truth crossed the dimensional barrier cutting her off from Silent Tempest and the rest of her life, and at the same time uniting her with the man who had left her for another woman.

Not before long Sword indeed found Coile, sullen and brooding and quite oblivious of the plight they were in. She explained the situation and Coile explained why he was there in the first place. His biggest worry seemed to be that what if Melanie's love had been a lie. A nice topic to share with the woman who had been dumped in the process. While they talked Nadia wrapped her cloak around Andre who was wearing a t-shirt and the temperature was dropping soon below water's freezing point.

Since scouting was what they needed to do that's what they engaged in. Very quickly the chase and tense fights began when the robots started to pay attention to them. At one point Nadia got knocked off the roof of a tall building and it was just the quick reflexes and a desperate plunge by Andre with his extendable flight field that prevented her hitting the pavement with lethal force. The fight never ceased until they noticed on one roof a gathering of robots with one different among them. A leader? A relay unit? One way to find out. After a brief but brutal skirmish the robot was rendered to a scrap heap. Andre's very limited skills in robot maintanance were barely enough to identify a few vital systems that they took with them.

The following days were alike. Constant combat, constant flight while looking for anything to be scanned and covering ground to other areas. It was not very dissimilar from the work they did in Paragon City except here the whole world was hostile and gave scarce respite from hardships. It began to take its toll.

Then things changed as they left the urban area and ventured in the rural area ever scouting and gathering data in the hopes that one day it would be enough. Near a circular crevice they came across beings that they first took to be inhabitants of the world. Later on Coile would reach the conclusion that they were just another group of robots. Mysterious hooded beings who shared the aggressiveness so predominant in this bleak world of ghost cities and ever present danger.

Slowly but surely they were advancing and taking readings that would get them home that much sooner when they came across of a being that proved to be exceptional in the forms of physical combat. Nadia had to concentrate so fiercely on evading his blows that an arrow escaped her notice. That proved fatal. Suddenly Nadia dropped to the ground which drew the attention of the fighter so completely that Coile managed to land one massive blow on him knocking him out of the action. He was about to share the jubilant news with Nadia when he realized that she was not moving. There was an arrow sticking out of her chest and there was sticky red stuff on her. Red stuff that was supposed to be inside.

His only medical skills were basic first aid but if he now messed up, Nadia would die and there was no one else to pull them out of the trouble. It was all up to him now. Andre removed the arrow and with stuff from first aid kit managed to get a pressure bandage on the gushing wound. Then he took her in his arms and flew back towards the city in a frantic search for a deserted hospital. Once there and in a surgery he did what he could. Clean the wound, sew it shut, apply more pressure to still the bleeding. Since the world was otherwise normal, just all humans yanked out six months before, there was enough supplies to last them a lifetime. Antibiotics to fight the possible infections and morphine to counter the pain. A drip to keep the fluids going.

Then there was the wait. Three days during which Andre mostly sat by the hospital bed and just waited. Waited for Nadia to live or die. He did brief scavenging runs to secure food and water supplies. And waited. Would he now lose Nadia completely, unable to do anything more for her while she withered away? He had never denied still loving her, even if he was married to Melanie now. But in the end she opened her eyes, weak as a just-born kitten. It was assessed that Nadia would need at least one week from that day before they would even attempt to leave the hospital. Alas, that was not to be.

While scouting the vast lab complexes beneath the hospital Andre came across advancing robot patrols. If they reached their destination they would discover Nadia who was completely helpless. Once more a fight on which life and death depended commenced. A relentless push drove the robots back ever deeper through the corridors and halls. Until a new monstrosity appeared. Realizing to be out of his depth Andre slipped past the leader unit and lead the rest of the present robot forces in a chase still deeper into the underground complexes until he saw a chance to break away. Blasting the support structures of the remote cavern he brought the ceiling down on the robots and made his escape. It was hours later that he returned to Nadia with grim news - their location had been compromised and they had to run despite Nadia's condition.

Back in Paragon City Love Angel was working her own brand of mischief with flimsy media campaigns and some successful hacking. The most notable result was a visit from Tina Bree, Omega commander's daughter who put out her best Woman in Black act and got Angel to tone it down. This bought a few days of silence but eventually as time passed there was a need for a new contact. Tina agreed to attend the Silent Tempest meeting to discuss the situation. She had only a little news. First of all some events had lead to the dimension in question to fall under a protocol 'lockdown gold'. Even if previously access there had been a possibility at the discretion of the commander, now it was an impossibility. No one got in or out. A second matter was that according to scan results and movement patterns something had happened and tactical unit had declared one of the two Omega agents to be killed in action. Either Coile or Sword had died. Tempest didn't take the news too well. It looked like something would happen rather sooner than later. Tina presented her own suggestion.

The only one who presently knew the coordinates to the dimension where Sword and Coile were stranded was her father. She would get the coords, but only if Tempest could present a plausible enough a plan as to how to get there and back. This excluded the usage of Portal Corp's assets but opened the game for any unauthorized portals that various groups had at their disposal. Tina left the group to discuss whether or not they could persuade Dj Zer0 to allow them to use one of his portals to a dimension that Portal Corp was sqeuamish about enough to prohibit all traffic to and from.

Back in the otherworld Coile and Sword had gone underground. Outside the windows gathering robot groups could be seen and Andre had suspected snipers. The corridors were presently empty until they reached a warehouse part of the structure, medical supplies in huge crates stored away for times of war. It was heavily guarded but seemed to remain as their only way out. Andre supported Nadia's movements with his flight field and played a dangerous game of hit and run tactics with the guards. On the other hand he could not keep Nadia with him or she would get collateral damage quite fast. On the other hand if she was too far behind she would be vulnerable to attacks from the back. There was no guaranteed safe distance.

Then it went wrong again. Coile was overwhelmed at one point and knocked out. However this time the droids were interested in if there were others nearby and found Nadia huddled against the wall behind a crate. When Andre came to again he found Nadia lying on the ground, visor struck in half, head almost bashed in, bleeding, partly delirious and crying. All he could do was offer a little comfort and go on. They finally got into a big storage hall with a door leading to outside. There was just one massive robot guarding the place, a clearly advanced model of the type that had been giving them trouble earlier. Now Coile would face it in combat all alone.

In sports people who give their best may not win but at least they know that they gave all that they had. For them it's just a matter of training more and trying even harder the next time. It's a case of having hope. In a fight that determines whether you and your companion live or die it is a cold comfort to give your best if you still in the end fail. If your best wasn't enough the game ends there. Instead of hope there is just hopelessness, doom and death.

Coile gave it nearly his all. Only thing he held back was removing the eyeplate that prevents him from overloading. He had a nasty feeling how it would end. What in his youth had been a nuisance and lack of fine control had now become quite possibly lethal. During his adult years he had only once unleashed his full power. It had been during the escape from Requiem's forces when he and Nadia had faced two full fledged Nicti. That fight had left him almost totally burned out. The only thing to return him to health had been the very blood of Mad Leprechaun that he was given. Since then he had removed his plate for two seconds just once because according to a deal Darksparrow would then show him her eyes. Those two seconds had been time enough for Coile to realize that the next full blast would no doubt cost him his life. Not an unreasonable sacrifice if it had gotten Nadia to safety but she was so frail that having to go on without Coile would have soon been the end of her as well.

When it was all over Coile lied on the dirty floor unmoving and the robot just walked away. Minutes or perhaps hours later Andre and Nadia stumbled out of the building and onto the street. Neither to this day has no clear recollection of how exactly they entered into an apartment nearby. With them they had the scanners, a little food, water and medicine. It was all haze. Time passed but it was impossible to say exactly how long. Just a day or several? Andre's long running headaches grew stronger and finally he just stopped moving and didn't open his eyes anymore.

Back in Paragon City Subaiku had been hard at work. Initially following Tina Bree to her home had enabled her to locate the dreams of the Omega agent and walk in them. Some time after she walked the dreams of Morgan Bree and gained the precious coordinates. All that she needed was a portal. The elusive and infamous Crown had a possession of at least one portal, a fact the Silent Tempest had learned months ago when Dark Rose had by chance found it and stepped to the other side where Crown was conducting terribly hazardous viral experiments. In the aftermath the lab in the other dimension had been emptied and the portal room relocated. Subaiku had kept her eye on them for months now and when the need was great could gouge out the portal location uninhibited by human restraints like morals, compassion for the enemy, respect for human rights or dislike for dispensing pain. Such matters don't bind a fairy-werecat-gypsy who can strike mortal terror in the hearts of those that cross her path.

When all was ready Subaiku let others know of her plan and executed it. Others could join her or follow later. Her leader was lost and in peril and she was going to act. A sneaky assault on a secret Crown portal facility followed and then Subaiku had crossed over. What she found was a heavily injured Sword and a comatose Coile. Her initial tasks included scavenging for more food, setting traps and tripwires and casting healing magic of her people. For certain reasons which will not be discussed the spells were quite far from the more potent ones that she could cast in better conditions. However Nadia started healing.

Andre was worse off. Subaiku entered his dreams and found out some kind of a loop or conflict that was causing damage. Not quite understanding what was going on she shut down things that were harming Coile and uopn returning from the dreams removed the eyeplate. It seemed as if it was damaged and instead of controlling the powers was now killing the man. Shutting down something that had to do with his powers would prevent overloads.

While Subaiku kept the surroundings safe, or rather by standing guard made sure no enemy was approaching, Nadia just lied in bed clutching to awfully still Andre. It seemed so unfair that he was likely dying. He had walked out, made his own decisions and built a new life. But if he died he was gone forever. So unfair. All that she could do was hug him and hope for the best.

On Tempest front things were cooking. Right after Dustine had explained a plan how they could use her goddess to locate the missing members Tina Bree made that plan obsolete by revealing a location of a portal under Arachnos control. The plan was for the tempest to seize it and use it while an Omega team would enter right after and retain the control only to reopen the portal one day later. Tempest members Mesoc, Dustine, Kitalia, Hand of Sorrow (Bart) and ShadowWoman (Marisol) went through and fought their way to the place where the others were holed up. Around that time Andre returned to consciousness as if there had been no death just a vreath away from claiming him. He was groggy and weak but alive and awake.

The return trip proved to be an ordeal as well. Andre and Nadia were able to move about but required assistance if they were to travel at length. It fell on Bart and Mari to support them. Subaiku and Mesoc took the point and were backed up by Dustine and Kitalia as they reaped a way through the robotic masses that confronted them along the way. Hours later they lost the pursuit and secured ground transportation in the form of a hijacked minibus.

Before returning to the expected portal site the scanners picked up a signal that was coming from close by. It was an abandoned TV station that was broadcasting a message, over and over. It was a warning and a plea for help. A scientist spoke to the world telling the reason of the deathly pandemia that had hit their world. The AI that served the whole planet by providing a central control mechanism for all the robots had deviced an insidious plan. It had developed or acquired a virus that was very lethal and quickly affecting. The virus had been given for the robots to carry and then unleashed on the human population at once world wide. The result had been total annihilation of all human life as far as any could see. Now the world belonged to the robots and ASHDOR, the AI that had vanquished its flesh and blood masters in one swift stroke.

Now there was a problem. If they returned home they could bring the virus with them. If they waited, the virus could finish them off and if not the virus, then probably the robots. Besides there was no telling if there ever would be more than this one assigned return portal. If they had the virus they could remain stationary and call for a medical team that would place them in isolation and hopefully come up with a cure in time.

Not a bad plan. If you disregard EVIL's involvement.

NEXT: The Tempest virus