The entire top floor of the building was the owners penthouse. Quite possibly more room than she needed, but it never ceased to amuse her to tell others that she owned the top floor. Well...she owned the building, but telling a person that wasnt funny, it was pretentious. Sitting in her bed, reading a large book of limericks Celes OBannon, colorfully known to most as Doomtastic heard something coming from the balcony.
Taking the time to mark her page with a 2 dollar bill, Doomtastic rose, plucking a silk robe from the divan where she had casually tossed it in her excitement to memorize some bawdy Irish rhymes. While she wasnt one of those stealth nuts, the blonde bombshell considered her approach quite silent, if she hadnt stopped to giggle at her print of Dogs playing poker.
Peering into her office, she noticed that her balcony doors were still half open, just like she left them. The magnificient view of the Golden Giza was marred by two dark ropes dropped from the rooftop and the silhouettes of men checking for the kind of high-tech security systems they might expect from the owner of such an extravagant penthouse.
Fists clenched tight, Doom unconsciously held them by her chin and rocked them as she watched the first man give the OK symbol to his partner. He pushed the door open, only to have the large bucket of bottled water and containers of hand soap fall onto his head.
Spinning around in a brief happy jig, Doom struggled to keep from laughing at the hilarity of it. Biting her fist, her guffaws were muted into muffled snickers, which werent overheard over the intruders curses.
That aint right man
the first man muttered.
You need to be more careful, his partner scolded, That could have been a grenade bouquet, jerkoff.
The idea came to her in a flash of brilliance. Quickly, Doomtastic shrugged out of her robe, and checked which negligee she was wearing. A little long, but transparent enough. Poking her generous bust, and seemingly satisfied with the result, Doomtastic pulled her reading glasses further down her nose and pushed open the door, letting out the kind of startled gasp she heard her occasional victim utter.
This was going to be SO FUN!
Her voice pitched to a high falsetto that would be dubious to anyone, Doomtastic pointed, while keeping her other hand clutched tight against her chest, Oh no! What are you doing in my office?
The first man cussed again, and pulled out a large pistol, pointing it at Doomtastic, Dont move!
In her amateurish opinion, her shrill scream was the stuff Oscars were made of, but Doom had to cower to keep them from seeing her large grin.
The second intruder had crossed the room and grabbed Doom by her upper arm and hauled her up straight, You. Keep quiet. He turned and pointed to the gun toting thief, You. Put that away.
Wh-w-w-what are you doing here? Doom stammered, imagining the thunderous applause of an audience in standing ovation.
Just here to do some business. No one has to get hurt if you just keep quiet.
Youre not going to hurt me?
Not unless we have to. So why dont you be a good girl and open the safe for us.
Safe? Dooms face faulted.
We saw the plans, we know its here in the office. Just open it up and no one gets hurt.
Youre not here for my art? The jewels?
No. Just the safe. His voice was placating, somehow missing how all the despair had flown out of Dooms voice. He tried to pull Doomtastic towards the floor safe, but was stopped by her unyielding nature. She grabbed his wrist, and the first thought that they were now in over their heads was entering the thiefs mind.
Youre not here for my original Star Wars VHS tapes? My sequined Elvis jumpsuit?
No, lady, were just here for the documents in the safe!
Words could barely attempt to convey the rage welling up inside Doomtastic, How. Utterly. Plebian.
With a light toss, she threw the thief into her desk, and felt the sharp impact of bullets slamming into her battleship tough skin. She slowly stepped towards the younger and impulsive thief, glowering.
You have no taste. She grabbed him by the collar and threw him out the window.
The older thief had recovered by then, but there was nowhere for him to go. Doom picked him up too. When you get some taste, you can come back and try again.
With a twinkle in her blue eyes, Doom dropped the older thief on her balcony and closed the doors, locking them down with a force field. Opening her safe, Doomtastic pulled out a singular piece of paper with two columns. One labeled Taste had three checkmarks, the other was labeled Philistines and had considerably more. Putting two more checks under Philistine, Doomtastic went back to bed.
Infinity
Sam Varden 50 MA/Reg Scrap
Doomtastic 50 SS/Inv Brute
Ceus 50 Eng/Kin Corr
Cinderstorm 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
This is a weekly article, delivered to you every Wednesday. These articles are intended to be a fun exercise as well as a good resource for role-players to explore Character Development so please feel free to post your own characters reaction to the weekly prompt. So be sure to stay tuned to this blog for future installments!
Someone has broken into your home, what do you do?
The Tiburon style of Serena’s apartment never seemed to fit the facade of Rose Maiden, Liz or Pearl White its occupants, everything though crisp and modern seemed to have a no nonsense elegant comfortably about it, a reflection upon its owner herself. The building housed eight other stories, each story containing four apartments each with a central turn of the century wire caged elevator with polished wood floors and steel running through out. Wrought iron fire escapes circled the building only eight of the stories, the top two bare of accent looking out over the northern portion of the neighborhood, with what would have been a grand view of Perez Park, but the view had been lost when the war walls had been constructed. The top two stories where surrounded by floor to ceiling windows, the open polished steel kitchen, back splash and diagonally cut leopard wood floors, the design of the modern over stuffed white furniture and other modern amenities even Serena’s own bedchamber seemed extremely out of place in the Kings Row top floor apartment when compared to the other buildings in the neighborhood.
However the design suited Serena Jordan, when she had turned twenty one and taken possession of her fathers apartment and all its contents, with her first patent sold she had bought the entire building and renovated it lovingly from the ground up with help from a local friend and contractor. It had been her passion at that time and her taste for the serene and modern lines of sail boats of the time that influenced her choice of design and when remodeling she had decided to turn whole of the top two stories into one giant suite of modern luxury.
However Serena was a bit of a security nut since leaving her first fiancé David Prescott, she had invested in the best security systems money could buy, She had tracking devices in each of their phones or comm. Badges, she could track the whereabouts of Lizzy, Pearl or herself within a two foot radius, which more often than not saved Serena time in dragging Lizzy out of shoe stores or Pearl from wandering into places where she was still to young to frequent. Motion sensors, infrared, armed security guards and closed circuit television monitoring stations where set up in all buildings owned by Serena, that was why on a clear day any super hero flying by would notice Skulls perched on fire escapes and roof tops trying in vain to get into one of the windows of the Serenity Apartment complexes.
These extra precautions where what had tipped her off first and how she had found out someone had breached her security. Though the officers had gained admittance to her building with no problem even Joe the security man on the scene could not provide the Inspector with a key or the access codes to Doctor Jordans Ninth floor apartment, and without the correct finger print scan belonging to the inhabitants the Inspector and his men had broken into her home without any further to do.
Joe had dispatch call Serena as soon as the breach had been made; in the entire six years he had worked for Doctor Jordan he had never seen armed officers in that building, there had simply never been the need. Doctor Jordan was a fine upstanding citizen and held a lightweight belt with the local bare fist boxing circuit, even the thugs on the street knew not to mess with what was hers. However these where armed and badge carrying officers of the law, when he had asked to see a search warrant or a warrant for the good Doctors arrest after one of the officers had accidentally broken one of the large window they had told him in no uncertain terms to hit the road.
The officers had been in the apartment for only twenty minutes when Serena had finally shown up. When she had received the call from dispatch, her own security device had warned her of the break in while she had been in the middle of guiding the new Prosthetists through a particularly grueling procedure using the new Grae180 model for Vanguard. Her hands had been elbow deep in rewiring neural pathways when the alarm had gone off. Used to working well under fire she had finished her lesson before allowing the new doctor and her team to close. After she had taken off her scrubs and dodged some colleagues in the hallways of the bunker she had flown with all haste and speed landing lightly on the pavement only a few minutes later while a block away a sonic boom echoed setting off car alarms. She ran at a brisk trot into her building noting the several PPD cars and a few unmarked Bonneville’s parked illegally in front.
She had decided to take the stairs, ever since she and Shadowstormm had repelled down an active and booby-trapped elevator shaft of a building in Steel Canyon she had taken the stairs ever since. The main elevator did not go all the way up to the Ninth floor but rather stopped at level eight where a specific key was required to take the second elevator up to the following ninth and Tenth floors. Opening the stairwell door she quickly stuck her head around the corner for a quick peek down the hall and seeing a few boys in blue milling around with uncertain faces by her apartment door she saw what was making them all look so uncomfortable and guilty.
Her front door had been reduced to splinters, but guarding the doorway keeping the men at bay from entering was Pearls cat, Mr. Fluffers. The white female cat rushed out of her hiding place to rub against Serena’s legs and to hiss forcibly at the Detective who came from the apartment when Serena walked confidently forward before with a sniff and a twitch of her white fluffy tail Mr. Fluffers left the hallway like a Jailer who was giving over duty for the night.
Detective Drew Cross of the PPD who was working in conjunction with Captain Spangler the head of long bow special task force in charge of routing out the members of the Guardian Angels was the lead Detective on site. He was only slightly older than herself a large man in his early thirties, about six foot eleven inches, easily two hundred and fifty pounds of lean muscle of an ex football player with sandy brown hair, cold blue eyes that could look all sympathy and remorse one moment and hard the next, a smirk to his lips that seemed to let everyone know he was not impressed with what he saw, and large paw like hands which always rested on the butt of his gun when he crossed his massive arms.
“Ms. Jordan, I’m so happy you could join us” He smirked at her as she entered into her own living room stepping over the broken front door. “As you can see we let ourselves in I hope you don’t mind?” he picked up one of her favorite dinning room chairs now with the seat and back slashed to ribbons and setting it down before him he sat in another opposite to her own “please sit” he said it like he was used to giving orders and being obeyed. Seeing she would gain nothing by being uncooperative before he had had his chance to explain why he had broken into her home she complied pulling the chair just out of arms reach and sitting down in it with her hands at her sides. “Hello Detective.. Cross? And please call me Doctor Jordan.” She said Cooley unimpressed by the man standing before her.
Detective Cross sat back in his chair putting one foot upon his knee, his hands clasped before him as if they where going to have a pleasant chat, “Of course Doctor Jordan” the arrogant ******* even put a pleasant smile on his face while he proceeded to interrogate her as to her whereabouts over the past few days and if she had had any contact with any of the members of the Guardian Angels.
Though not widely circulated it was well noted in her file with Hero Corps that Dr. Serena Rose Jordan was also known under the Alias Rose Maiden. She did not flaunt her super powers while dressed as a civilian and only those with access to the Hero Corpse or Vanguard records would have been able to learn of her alternate identity as the personality of the two where so seemingly different that one would never think to connect one with the other.
Producing a stack of papers from his inner jacket pocket Detective Cross tossed them to the floor at her feet “We Found these tickets to Monaco, London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Tuscany and Rome for yourself and Mr. Adrian De’Havaland Dated about two years ago Ms. Jordan, same time in which that Shadowstormm a known vigilante and member of the Guardian Angels was spotted in these same places in Europe, would you care to explain that?”
Serena shrugged easily answering the annoyingly personal question with relative calm, even as they sat amidst the destruction of her home and personal property, with him sitting there as if they where just two good friends chatting over coffee. “We where engaged to be Married, the Wedding was canceled the tickets where non-refundable.”
The Detective took out a small pad of paper and pulling a pen out of his pocket he began to take notes, looking up at her with mock sympathy. “Was it a mutual break up Ms. Jordan?”
Serena sighed not immediately answering his question, “Look we’re no longer together ok, and we haven’t been for two years, whatever you think to gain by coming here and interrogating me, breaking into my home without a search warrant and destroying personal property I cant begin to imagine, I don’t frighten that easily.”
Cross sat forward his blazer falling open to give her a quick but pointed glance at the glock tucked into his shoulder rig. He smiles at her, a smile which didn’t reach his eyes and was little more than a baring of teeth. “Ms. Jordan, you should really cooperate with us if you know what is good for you, we’re all friends here.”
Serena sat forward, that part of her personality which was most comfortable as Rose Maiden shining through her clear deep blue eyes to stare unflinchingly back at the man across from her, her husky whisper of a voice like a good malt whiskey on the rocks spoke dangerously into his face, “I’ll tell you what Detective, you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t desperate to pin something on Adrian, probably for this Shadowstormm characters acts of vigilantism again no doubt, when you know damned well that it is stated on my file with Hero Corps that I do not condone manslaughter. What makes you think I would be with such a violent man as this Shadowstormm if that is indeed whom you believe Adrian to be?”
Serena sat back now smiling a soft smile, her face angelic, crossing her long legs tugging on the charcoal gray of her dress slacks and examining her manicure with a cool calm if not slightly annoyed demeanor. “and its Doctor Jordan to you.” She said lifting her own cold blue eyes to stare daggers at the Detective across from her.
“We also have records placing you as an onsite member at several of the Guardian Angels various events do you deny that you where affiliated with the group Ms. Jordan?” Cross asked through clenched teeth, he did not seem so unruffled as Serena, his jaw was twitching and she could see that the hand which rested on his knee seemed to be flexing as if he where afraid of her and thinking of his gun a man unused to being the one intimidated. “Are you aware that your involvement with Adrian De’Havaland a suspect wanted in connection with the Vigilante Shadowstormm not to mention the nature of your affiliation with the various members of this dangerous group of terrorists puts you in a compromising position? Aren’t you afraid that evidence will be found linking you with some of their crimes? What about the Death of your ex-fiancé David Prescott, his remains where never found Ms. Jordan, perhaps we should give up on investigating Mr. De’Havaland and focus our efforts on you.”
Serena looked up from quietly studying her nails her blue eyes fixing on the crooked cop who sat before her, “I have been a Role Model for years, there are lunch boxes and dolls made of me given to the children of this city, I have a cartoon for heaven’s sake! I have done everything asked of me, and you lot think you can come in here and try and intimidate me like this, an honest god fearing citizen?” She said squaring her shoulders and looking down her nose at the man in contempt.
“I wouldn’t get so high and mighty Ms. Jordan, we have enough to tie you to not only Shadowstormm, but also to other members of this group as well as a pending missing person case file still open on the disappearance of David Prescott. I suggest you cooperate Ms. Jordan.” Cross said letting a sneer curl his mustachioed upper lip.
“It seems likely to me Ms. Jordan that Shadowstormm and yourself where working in cahoots to kill Prescott, did you fund his killing spree across Europe too? Then the cripple wouldn’t marry you, am I right? What was it Serena, tell me who is Shadowstormm, you will get our full protection once you give him up, I know someone who will make your compliance worth your while, just give us the name and we will protect you; No? You won’t budge will you, I see how it is.” Cross said standing taking two photographs out of his jacket pocket, another treasure of evidence found in the gold mine of her home, found while he and his goons ransacked her belongings terrorizing her trust.
“Did you ever bother to tell him about these, is that why he went mad killing everything in sight?” He said holding up the two ultrasound pictures for her to see, with her name and a date of a little less than seventeen months prior written in digital script on the corner. The two little white blurs in the middle of the small squares of photo paper. Her heart stopped and tears stung her eyes as he spoke down to her in a vicious self righteous undertone, “or did you get rid of those too?” Cross finished with a sneer.
“Get out” she said in a low and dangerous tone, her voice seething with promised violence while her eyes blazed still brimming with tears and a sharp gust of wind slicing through the broken window which carries her hair out around her face causing it to writhe in a mass of ebon tentacles seemingly alive. She felt the rage building inside her, uncontrollable with the onslaught of her painful memories. The sounds of the gunshots echoed in her ears so loudly she had to clench her fist so hard that her nails cut half moons into the skin in order to drag her back from the brink where her fear and pain met in that dark jungle in Peru.
“I’ll be back Ms. Jordan and next time with a warrant for your arrest.” Detective Crosses voice was arrogant and indistinct from the call of the savage garden where she nearly died and lost everything. She almost gave in to the rage, to let it wash over her and to let it take out its indomitable will on anything that got in its way, but she couldn’t let it have free reign of her again, Cross might be a crooked SOB but she would not let even him come face to face with what resided in her.
“GET OUT!” She roared, the wind picking up whipping her hair back from her face, her chest rising and falling quickly near hyperventilation and her hands turned to fists as she lunged at the retreating backs of the officers.