BeyondReach

A Level 5 Defender with no enhancements with fixed xp. Um, I would ask you to give my arc a try, but first of all, I recommend you get some enhancements (the tutorial gives you some as well as for completing missions/killing mobs so I think you would be hard-pressed to find a character who didn't have some enhancements at Level 5) and fill up on insps. Even then I'm not sure you could do it, seeing as it is Challenging, and it's almost impossible to balance your arc so it remains challenging to the best soloers while remaining feasible for the worst soloer to complete. Still, you can give it a try. I just recommend that you are well prepared.

And the conclusion of No Mercy. I would appreciate even the three words 'I read it'. To know that you had done so :P


Explosion. Dust and rubble crackled through the new entrance to the warehouse that had been presented, and the plethora of different armed civilians within suddenly turned their eyes towards this...distraction. A sound like someone spitting cut through the air, only louder, and faster. It made a hole in the neck of one of the rebels on the warehouse floor, silencing him as it killed him. As he collapsed to his knees, the body of a young woman crashed headfirst into the floor from seventy feet up in the air, where a walkway going round the inside stood. Ropes were tossed over the side and more silenced shots were fired as mercenaries who didn't fire rappelled down them, hopelessly following the falling corpses of more sharpshooters.

The animalistic dissonance of gunfire erupted. Broken Verse slipped into the warehouse and casually walked unnoticed through the chaos as he had so many times done before. Solomon, the man in the olive green hood was even oblivious to him as he directed his troops masterfully against this sudden ambush, while doing what little he could himself with his two pistols. By the time he saw Verse approaching him, it was already too late. In a moment the villain had kicked out his leg and pushed to the floor - considerably non-lethally. With a swift, debilitating – but not deadly – stomp to the throat, he dragged him by his hood into a room at the back of the warehouse.

It was dark, small, empty. Dust choked the charcoal walls and thick cobwebs fortifying the corners made the room appear even smaller. A single window sat in the wall at the back of the room, small enough to fit a man through, but it wouldn't open. Very little light managed to get through the thick dust coating it. Solomon was now almost upright. Broken Verse grabbed him by the neck, pushed him into the wall at the back of the room and crashed his knee into the leader's ribs, stunning him again. “Solomon.” He said with a smile, stepping back about a foot. “Let's see what you are reduced to when you take the mask of a general away.”

Broken Verse pulled off his hood and all the equipment on his belt, finishing with his face scarf. What was left was a boy, no older than seventeen, reeling from the beating he had just been given and with a terrified look on his face.
“Who are you?” He asked, still retaining some of the confidence of a leader.
“I am known as Broken Verse, and I am someone who needs your help.” He said in his usual genuine voice. Nothing but a look of confusion consumed Solomon's unblemished face. “You have some unrivalled skills. A leader who given a mob of untrained rebels equipped with whatever they can scavenge can crush a patrol of highly-trained soldiers with the most advanced weaponry that money can buy is a prodigious creature. A leader who is so confident of his skills that he believes he can replicate that on a grand scale is invaluable. However...” At that point he paused, looking down, long since having abandoned his intimidating stance directly in front of the boy. Putting a great deal of effort into this 'act' – if it was such – he looked up to Solomon with a well-known expression that says, 'I've got bad news'.

“You know as well as I do that even when bolstering your numbers with the elite, metahumans etc. taking on the Arachnos presence here is a gamble. Sure, you could do a good job of taking Fort Darwin once you've got your hands on the EMPs that man was going to sell you. It's a small, not-well fortified base, it should be relatively easy. And we both know you've got most of Darwin's Landing, and it would be a good war for Mercy City. But, by the time you've cleared almost all of the island, cut your way through the city and it's Arachnos Tower, you could hope to have close to as many troops as you started with by recruiting more citizens as you go along. But you wouldn't be able to take Fort Cerberus with that. We're talking about Ghost Widow's Tower. She'd tear your army to shreds.” By this time Solomon had gone completely white, realising the truth of what he was attempting.

“And of course we're forgetting the fact that as soon as you take Fort Darwin Arachnos will fly in an elite army to make an example of you, exterminating every single one of you and probably burning Darwin's Landing to the ground.” Broken Verse's voice returned to it's usual casual carelessness. All the second skin of a valiant general had been cut away, and the petrified boy slid down against the wall to the ground. “Now, Mr. Solomon, are you really going to go back out there and lead your troops to certain death?” Solomon sat there, silent for over two minutes, just staring into space. Broken Verse waited patiently in front of him with a smirk on his face. Finally, the boy turned his head up towards the villain who had shattered his veil.

“What do you want from me?” Verse made no attempt to hide his smile as he knelt down to Solomon's level.
“A partnership. Give and take. I want to give you the opportunity to really destroy Arachnos, because let's face it-” he grabbed him roughly by the centre of his shirt “deep down inside your soul, you know the real reason you started this war wasn't to liberate the people of Mercy Island. It was to get revenge on Arachnos for killing your family. You can carry around the illusion that it's for any other reason, it doesn't bother me. After all, eventually Mercy will be 'liberated' if our partnership works out.” Broken Verse rose to his feet, pulling Solomon up with him.

“Now, come with me.” He offered his hand.”Come with me and save the lives of every rebel under your command. Come with me and one day, you will stand over the corpse of Lord Recluse, knowing that your family's memory has been avenged.” Solomon took his hand.

Hmmmm, I'm not sure. I like most of my things being non-canon personally...If pressed I would probably say that my Praetorian that doesn't exist yet, Zachariah Kurran. I think he would generally make a good Loyalist signature character. He's a very strong Loyalist, he dresses like one and he exemplifies most of their values, but what makes him interesting is the fact that he doesn't actually believe in Tyrant's system, and he could be argued as a heroic character.

EDIT: ALSO there should be a full-blown rebellion on Mercy Island!

I present the third chapter of No Mercy. If you view yourself as highly suggestable, I would not read on.



The midday sun streamed like an orange haze through the high windows of a warehouse on the northern end of Mercy Island. It shined brightly in the face and eyes of a number of well-armed, dim-looking mercenary-types standing around a small, weasly-looking dark-haired man who instructed them. The light made it difficult to make out anything but a vague vision of what was before them, and most of them seemed unwilling to move more than their heads slightly to get out of the passage of the sun's influence. Besides, they had a good enough idea of what was ahead of them, it wasn't a time when they had to see particularly clearly.

“Alright gentleman,” the man began in a strong Italian-American accent, “there is no cutting corners here. We're dealing with a real big-head extremist here-” seeing the confused looks on the face of his ignorant flunkies he paused and quickly explained. “I mean he's crazy! He's got no respect for the natural order of things!” He said partly angered at his flunkies' stupidity, but seemingly also at the individual he was talking about. “And that also means that he's a nasty, dangerous *******. Who also happens to think that he owns this island, so he might just randomly decide that seeing as we and the stuff we're trading with him are on his island, they belong to him. So keep your eyes to your sights. If one of his boys makes a wrong move, pull the trigger on the head man.”

“Oooh!” Someone interrupted with a sharp, criticising intake of breath from the shadows nearby. The mercenaries quickly stood to alert, finally moving to step out of the sunlight's interference. “You didn't quite catch what's going on here did you?” The voice seemed to echo from all around, so the mercenaries just blindly darted their guns around, waiting for any kind of movement. “Cover every direction! Don'-” he was interrupted by one of the mercenaries shooting a rat that scurried out of the shadows with his silencer-less assault rifle, provoking a howl of laughter, again from all around. “You are being rather silly.” They continued to watch the darkness attentively for their unseen foe.

“Imagine if I were to step from the darkness right now and shoot me, you would never know what you were walking into.”
“Where are you!? Who are you!?” Seemingly ignoring his words, the sweating, weasly man nervously darted his eyes around, now with a handgun in his hand prepared to defend himself just in case the sixteen other assault rifles didn't work.
“And in killing me, you would effectively be killing yourself.” The voice concluded as if it had been interrupted in a soft, melodic voice.
“Fine, tell me what you know!” The voice made no immediate verbal response, merely a heavy, annoyed sigh. Followed by a series of events that occurred in the space of approximately ten seconds.

A shadow was seen to the right scaling a pile of two shipping containers on the right of the dark-haired man. As the group turned towards this and aimed their weapons the figure on top of the shipping containers tossed something towards the north-west wall, causing an explosion. As their attention was drawn to this the container on the top was pushed off and crashed to the ground with a huge thud, blowing a thick, obscuring cloud of dust into the air. By the time it cleared, a figure in beige and dark red suit with thick, blood red lines going down the sleeves had appeared and was standing behind the weasel with a gun pointed to the back of his head. The man had his hands raised and a look of fear on his face.

“Throw your weapons away, get down on your knees and put your hands behind your heads, thugs.” Broken Verse spoke with a very dissatisfied tone. They were uncertain for only a moment before their boss nervously nodded, and they did so. The villain took the scalpel out of his breast pocket and put the gun away – the mercenaries looked to react for a second, before the weasel desperately shook his head, well aware that this man could easily slice his throat with the scalpel before they raised their weapons. Forming a vice-grip on the man's right wrist - clearly rather painfully - he took his scalpel and with a precise – and angry from his expression – swipe he cut off the man's middle finger, provoking a delayed cry, the attack so fast it took him a moment to realise. Taking a box of matches within his jacket, he struck one, producing an abnormal white-hot glow, and brought it to the wound to cauterize it, provoking further screams. “I hate ignorance!” He said as he kicked the man forwards, returning the box of matches to his jacket and retrieving his pistol in the same moment. He remained silent, with a small smirk beginning to appear on his face, merely pointing his weapon at his captive.

“Wh-what do you want?” He said nervously after a moment of silence.
“What I want is irrelevant. Who you are, and what you want is another matter.”
“My name is Robert Verdano, and I work for The Family.” He said, the fear beginning to slowly drift away.
“I'm sorry?”
“You better be-”
“No, I mean, is that supposed to mean anything to me? You're acting as though that has some kind of worth, that I'm supposed to be afraid of you because you said those pathetic words. You didn't answer my question.”
“The Family are going to tear you to pieces when they find what you did to one of their own-”

Broken Verse took the safety off. “Wait, wait! I don't know you what you mean, what do I want?” The villain moved towards his captive in a flash and kicked him in the mouth, knocking him back down from his sitting position. “You ask me what I want and not know what it means yourself!? Do you want me to take another one of your fingers!?” The small man was quickly becoming absolutely terrified, tears were welling up in his eyes, his face had gone white and he was shivering uncontrollably; however his survival instinct kicked in, and he managed to get some words out through his debilitating stutter.

“Ahh-ahh- well- I suppose- I want mo-money? Se-security?” These words seemed to calm Broken Verse down a great deal.
“Why do you do what you do then? You can earn money and keep yourself safe by working a legitimate job. More than you earn murdering, beating and stealing. Why?” Despite the villain's softening tone, it did little to quell the fears of the small man, he continued to shake, worried by the questions and his captor losing his temper again.
“Ahh...I-I'm a Verdano, th-that's what we d-do.”
“Hand me your gun.” The weasel hesitated and Verse responded by kicking the Family man in the ribs rather casually, provoking coughing and spluttering. Despite his pain, choking for breath he handed over his weapon.

“Fear and Terror are two very different things. Fear is what you feel when you think what stands before you is going to end your life. You freeze, you sweat, you're paralysed. Terror is what you feel the moment before you think that you're going to die. It gives you vigour, instinct. But unfortunately you can't have one without the other. There are so many things in this world that can kill you before you feel terror – me for example – so eliminating both is the only logical option.” Ignoring the now worn and beaten dark-haired man – although he kept one of his guns pointing at him, he did not seem to be paying the slightest attention to him – he aimed the new gun he had acquired at a random thug.

“Tell me your name.”
“J-John Dell.” He replied quickly, and nervously.
“And what do you want, John Dell?”
“Security, comfort for my family.” He replied with a prepared answer, anticipating the question. Broken Verse took the safety off the second gun. “Is that the truth John?”
“Yes.” He said instantly.
“It's important thing to remember here that if you are not completely honest with me, you will die.” He nodded, nervously. “So you have a family John? Surely they would be distraught if you were to be arrested or killed, leaving them without a husband, a father, and no man to provide for them?” He had not prepared for the question, he was sweating nervously.
“I-I had no choice. I'm not a smart guy, and I seem to fail at most things...except fighting. All I need for that is my fists, and my body. I just stand there, look scary, point and shoot a gun maybe.”
“I understand. It's tough out here. So how's your relationship with your family?” The man looked at Broken Verse scared and confused, before answering.
“It's good. My wife understands that it's something that I have to do, even if I don't like doing it. And my kids...well they're happy.” At his pause, Broken Verse obviously moved his finger closer to the trigger. “Err-err the oldest one just got into school, I managed to get enough money together. But, we've got another one-”

Death. Shocked and lifeless, the body of John Dell slumped to the floor. His wife shivered.

Broken Verse turned his focus back to the weasel. “You talk about 'what you do'. Sure, you're a Verdano. You've got sex, comforts, money. Everything you need to 'live'. That is what the followers call it. But you know, that despite those base pleasures, you feel an emptiness in your heart that you can't fill. You don't have love for anyone, and nobody loves you. And so you fill that hole with murder and crime. It creates a darkness in your heart overshadowing the emptiness, and it dulls it's pain. But look at the truth inside yourself. You could never live without love. Your life is meaningless. You should be dead instead of John Dell there. So why aren't you?”

Because the dirty truth is, your life is just as meaningless as his.

“The Insipid, Intolerable, Monotonous Cacophony! It consumes your mind, because you are choked by it from the day you take your first breath to the day you are buried in the mud. Those who hum along to it's tune insist on it persisting to string you along after your death until they dump you in the ground like the trash you are. It tells you what living is. But Living is refusing to dance to it's tune. Living is stepping out of the existence of man, and becoming something beyond. It is fighting against it, tearing it apart until the day you Die. Those who drift along to it's melody do not Die. They just can't hum anymore because they've run out of breath. And you should be proud that when you rush into it's arm you know true Death. Proud that you fought back, and Broke the Verse.”


P.S. I would appreciate some feedback, or at least recognition that you've read it XD I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it would make me happy to see that someone had read it :P

I agree with the idea that Vigilantes do things the good guys won't, but saying 'because sometimes it needs to be done' is getting into a philosophical and political territory that I really don't think that we should get into on a game forum.

But the idea that Vigilantes think that's what they are, I'm completely happy with.

I intend to create one of my characters as a Villain who becomes a Vigilante when GR comes out. Although, this character was never truly a Villain. He was merely born in the Rogue Isles, and from his inception he fights for freedom and against injustice. But this doesn't make him a hero. In my opinion, the reason this doesn't make him a hero is the fact that he treats killing a person as nothing. He sees the world in the light of 'The War', the war between the soldiers of justice and freedom and those who wish to damage those two precepts. He believes that no mercy should be spared for those who damage those precepts. For example he would just easily kill a corrupt court official as a serial killer, but that is unlikely to occur considering the fact that he isn't like a vigilante at all in a traditional term. He doesn't "punish" people, and fight criminals unless they cross his path, he's more concerned in fighting the wider war.

He isn't a regular hero in that he doesn't see things in individual terms, he is like Hague looking over a map of the Somme Battlefield. He moves around the soldier figures representing regiments and knocks them down as he sees the battle progresses, and this doesn't make him flinch in the slightest. This may seem evil to some, but he isn't a Rogue because what he fights for is unselfish. And that gets to the core of the matter.

A Vigilante is a Hero who breaks the rules, or throws them out the window, but ultimately, his motives are unselfish.

Rumour has it that there was a riot in the Brickstown asylum in recent weeks. The place turned into total anarchy as every inmate was released from his containment cell. Although none of them were superpowered, as this was not the Ziggurat asylum, they were still very, very dangerous. Well, them not being superpowered is not quite true. Supposedly, Crey uses this asylum to acquire test subjects for their experiments that no one will miss. So, even if these crazies didn't have powers when they went in...However, the authorities in the asylum are quite confident that they brought in all of the few inmates that actually managed to escape - most appeared more concerned with tearing the place apart - but considering the amount of damage that was suspected to have been done to their records, they can't be that certain.

I put an Elite Boss in Mission 3 and 4, and changed the Elite Boss in Mission 5 to an Archvillain in the local version and tested it on the test server with my previously mentioned Mastermind who has gained 3 more enhancements (5 Damage to Call Thugs, 5 Healing to Soothe and 5 Reduced Endurance to Maneuvers). The first EB didn't give me any trouble, her powersets are limited against a single foe, especially with my thuggish friends soaking it what she could do. The second EB gave me more trouble, but we still beat her without anyone dying - due to my 1337 healing skills. In the final mission the AV became an EB - I realised why, and also realised that only a glutton for punishment would remove their AV becomes EB solo rule with the Analyst or Fortunata - and I was extremely pleased to discover that it presented the greatest challenge out of all of them. Still, I stood fast as the victor with only one Thug death. Regardless, I changed one of his sets from Ice Armor purely because it obscured his costume, and for something that should make it a bit easier also - but hopefully not too much - in Energy Aura.

So, I'm currently viewing it as the one I will be entering to the competition, but please test it and see if the EBs - even weakened as they are from the original - still pose a too great difficulty and I'll see what I can do about that. I was considering the idea of a companion in the final mission, so I may do that if it poses other people a similar difficulty that the original did for airhead.

Okiedokie, just got back from playing my arc (with EBs become Bosses and AV becomes EB) as a Level 6-7 (he levelled) Thugs/Pain Mastermind with his only enhancements being two Level 5 Damage: one in Call Thugs and the other in Pistols, two Level 5 Healing: one in Soothe and the other in Nullify Pain and one Level 5 Defense in Maneuvers. It was challenging, but really fun! XD

Yes, I may be bias, but I did find it very entertaining, apart from the parts where my pets bugged, that was annoying, but I still managed to get away with my life. Regardless, I didn't die once, and although the final EB was a greater challenge than the rest of the Bosses for obvious reasons, he didn't actually kill a single pet, which other Bosses had. I'm thinking about changing his powersets to something nastier, again for obvious reasons. But anyway, he was more difficult than when I did it with my Dominator - or rather he took longer to kill - but not considerably so.

OMFG. Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning before Going Rogue!? WINNNNNNNN. I can't express my gratitude

Ooooooooh, this seems very intriguing, a villain helping a hero! I will try to give it a try before the deadline.

You are certainly very good at arranging her plots, it is a very good and well constructed story. And about your other piece, I wasn't criticising it's writing, just that I didn't really understand that it was set in the events leading up to Going Rogue; and that was really because I thought you meant that the scenery, the setting was supposed to imply that, not the fact that you were being rogue-ish. Because as you say, it wasn't really clear that you were a hero, for a start it looked like you had killed your captor to begin with XD

His hat not even brought low to conceal what he could of his face, Broken Verse paced around the abandoned factory, one of the many in Darwin's Landing, in which a bedraggled man sat bound to a chair. Despite the fact that he had the look of someone who was no stranger to sleeping rough, he appeared as though he had been yet unharmed. “I will ask you this once before I begin. Who is dealing with Solomon after Burke cut him off?” It was clear Verse had selected his target carefully, the man's expression told him that he knew the answer, but was keeping his mouth defiantly shut. The eccentrically dressed villain grew quickly annoyed by this, rushing towards the hostage with superhuman speed, pulling his head by his hair and bringing a scalpel towards his eye. He stopped inches away. His previously angered face dramatically changed to one of empathy.

“Would it help if I were to tell you that I mean your leader no harm?” He asked in a melodic voice. The petrified captive slowly nodded. This provoked a perplexing reaction from Broken Verse. Grabbing the captive by the collar, he tossed him face-first onto the floor while skipping around, crying in a maniacal voice: “You pathetic little ferret! I can't believe you believed that!” He laughed in a joyful manner, continuing his jester-like jig. Oddly indignant considering his position, the man yelled “What!?” Looking back shocked by the sudden noise, Broken Verse halted his mania and said seemingly genuinely, “Oooh, sorry!” before pulling the unkempt man upright again. Looking down at his hostage in a patronising way, he said: “Yes, what is it?” in his previous empathetic voice.

“Why-” the man paused – maintaining his shocked indignation and spitting a tooth out onto the floor, which the villain frowned in a disgusted manner at - “did you say that? Aren't you just fighting against yourself!?” Broken Verse responded with the strangest reaction he had made so far: “What!? Like your face!?” Before blindly making two lightning-quick slashes with his scalpel, cutting open his hostage's neck. Walking straight away from the obviously dead civilian, he reprimanded himself, “Damnit Versey-Verse! Get the information from him before you kill him!” He barely paused for a moment, sharply angling his head in a different direction before continuing, “But I suppose, keeping to a plan would have kind of defeated the point now wouldn't it?” He sighed deeply. “I s'pose it's time to do the one that doesn't involved any torture...” He wandered out of the factory into the sunlight.

I soloed the final enemy EB as my Grav/Psi Dom, and I beat him pretty easy. I was exemplared from 32, and I think I have a Chance for Stun or Knockdown IO (on a power that I couldn't use ) like S_Z but that's it, and I think the only accolade I have is the one that let's you use Architect from anywhere, though that was obviously vital in my fight XD

That was great, really extensive and detailed. I knew virtually nothing about the war before the magazine, it's coverage was really useful. Thanks for the contribution to the community! Unfortunately I can't return it at the moment due to lack of free time, but I wish you the best of luck, and am anticipating the next issue.

Wait, so were you able to do it alone!? Just so I can get that really clear, because that would be a rather important factor XD After airhead's comments I did take on the final enemy weakened to an Elite Boss on my Grav/Psi Dom and I beat him pretty easily, along with the Shock Paragon - although I did die once due to me being stupid and not taking advantage of my Hover - so I think it's certainly doable. Although I have not faced the final enemy as an Archvillain yet, I intend to try to that tomorrow.

Thanks for the feedback. I did do a couple of redesigns in the initial process of creating the custom group, so I'm pleased that my hard work was appreciated. I will check out the patrols as you said - I believe in the 3rd mission there were 6 + 3 more set to spawn so you may be right, I'll try and tone that down to an appropriate level - and I'll investigate what you said about the messages getting mixed up...I don't remember setting anything for the middle Legacy fight that would suggest you hadn't fought the final enemy yet - though I did intend for the fight to end with you defeating the EB last - ahhhh, I think I know what you mean. Do you mean that you receive a clue relating to the EB as the Mission Complete clue? And consequently as you didn't kill him to complete the mission it didn't make much sense.

Unfortunately the set to spawn thing doesn't really work because if they did as you did, go to the end of the mission first and then defeat the Legacy Boss they would probably 1) not think to head back to the end 2) be kind of annoyed that the first time they went there he wasn't there and then he magically appeared (or was it a she? I think it was a she, not that that really means anything XD ). I think I'll just look at finding a way to make the clues unrelated.

I wish you would have specified the typos XD but I'll look over it again in search of those elusive and annoying things :P I didn't even realise I'd put in an Entry Mission Pop-up for the rest of them, I usually don't do it unless I think it will add to the story, but I suppose I'll put a generic one in the fourth mission just to create that sense of "completeness". I'll look into your arc if I get the chance and return the favour. Good luck to you as well!

Well Dr. Aeon suggested something that usually isn't seen in levels 5-10, and so I decided my something would be Elite Bosses/Archvillains. I'm sorry you didn't even give it a try I hope if you come across a team soon, you'll consider giving it a go. The Custom Group will give regular xp, just to let you know. Also the arrangement of Elite Bosses/Archvillains is: nothing in the first mission, two EBs in the second mission, one EB in the third mission, one EB in the fourth mission and the Archvillain in the final mission.

When approaching making this arc, I wanted to make an instance for Mr. Bocor in which you get the fabled "orange text" suggesting you should form a team and you actually get that in the second mission briefing; though approaching this arc you should proably have already formed a team, or just be willing to ignore him and thus it's just for in-game reflection purposes.

If only you could make two versions of an arc designed for solo and team difficulty, while keeping it as a single arc. I'm apprehensive about changing it for solo difficulty because obviously 1) it would reduce the team difficulty 2) I would still drop in at least an Elite Boss in the final mission no matter what, thus defeating the point. Although I have defeated an Elite Boss solo before it might make it "too difficult" regardless.