Coile

Capes belongs to Blackdove. Easiest to reach through Tempest forum.

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Instead, I will try to do a more limited version - with Coile's permission (still to be formally obtained ) using the ST-forum.

[/ QUOTE ]

Consider the permission obtained. There's the dedicated section for forum roleplay which should be ideal.

Tempest forum requires registration and activation by hand as well as rights granted before posting is possible. Yes, I did grew weary with spammers. Plus my online presence during early evenings is tentative at best. Just so that those concerned are aware.

Pinned down (12.9.2007)

"Oh, if you see him comin'
Get away if you can
Just keep on runnin'
Run as fast as you can"
- Alice Cooper

Part of the life of a leader, any leader, is the responsibilities that come with the status and it's always a trick to juggle them with the other, more private parts of one's life. Andre had people to meet, a son to look after and a girlfriend who could probably use some personal time despite her insistence to the contrary. That's why he took the baby out for a walk and set to meet both Dragoness and Andrea near the Arena on Talos Island.

There he ran for the first thing into Nadia (Light of Truth) who was probably there to visit the place where she and Andre had lived together for all too brief a time before she was captured, cloned and hidden away. She seemed surprisingly curious about Andreas and a little later even asked if she could hold him for a moment, which was allowed. Her budding romance with Andre had come to an abrupt end with her captivity and her unsuspecting clone Sword of Truth had lived the sad love tale to its end. Now Andre was with Diana and they were caring for Andre's son together which meant that whatever dreams Nadia may have had once upon a time were now obsolete.

Dragoness showed up and did not look exactly as she used to. She had clawy feet, wings on her back and other things usually associated with dragons. She had found a way to her home dimension and something had happened to her, mutating her to resemble her foster parents. This development was not welcomed by her and Andre promised that once Xan was out of the hospital he might be able to offer help or advice.

Andrea who had arrived at some point was sporting a brand new mechanical arm that Angelique had built. She was anxious to show the modification off which propelled Andre to take one look at her and ask if she'd dyed her hair. There's no telling how far down his throat he could have pushed his leg through his open mouth if there had not come a distraction.

The sky turned sickly green. Some distant sirens wailed. And Rikti dropships commenced their bombing runs. Instantly Nadia had her sword drawn and Andrea was creating layers of force bubbles around her brother and his son. That showed what constant exposure to danger and combat situations could do. There was no hesitation, just reaction to the situation, securing, guarding and protecting. Andre ran inside the Arena for a shelter and Andrea came there refusing to go outside in case the Rikti invaded the interior. Dragoness made them company while Light of Truth took care of the business outside.

While waiting for the attack run to be repelled Andre managed to prove that he had acquired some meager management skills. Dragoness was entirely without a home since the beginning of the Rikti invasion and Andrea was staying in a hotel in Atlas Park so he fixed them with a shared two bed family apartment from Crimson Archer. In the same building that he and his new family lived.

It was a little curious why Andrea chose to have a hotel room in Atlas Park as she was struggling to make the ends meet as it was. Shabbier but far cheaper shovels were up for grabs for example in Kings Row. However Andre did not ask about thinking that his so called sister was relying on things that she was familiar with and they had all lived in Atlas Park hotel when they came to Paragon City all those months ago. With the shoddy, partial memory transfer she was bound to seek security wherever she could find it, even if it was in a hotel she'd stayed in over a year ago.

Finally the calamity ended, Nadia got to hold Andreas for a while, Dragoness went to university to do something and Andrea went home with Andre and Andreas until Jay could deliver the key to her and Evelyn's new place.

Snared & rooted (11.9.2007)

"And after 2000 steps of climbing...
- I know it was the whole trip worth!"
- D:A

This Tuesday ended up being one of the important days in the life of Andre Kraft when important things happened. The day started pretty early on with a meeting with Shadowplay in Atlas Park. Jon wanted to explain his reasons for quitting the trial and also asked insightful questions about the vision document that Andre had written for Silent Tempest. The men parted as on good terms with promises of co-operation should situation call for it.

As Andre was about to go to Chiron medical center to see his son his phone rang. At first he thought that someone was playing a prank but somehow the voice at the other end convinced him that it really was Statesman calling. The call was because Andre had been made a Freedom Phalanx reserve member a few weeks before, like so many other heroes before him. It was nothing special and the Freedom Phalanx members were not in the slightest more his friends now than before. The status only meant that he'd be called to assist in things that the main team was too busy to do themselves.

Not knowing how severe the situation was Andre called Mesoc and got Xan out of the hospital where he was recovering for this task. Others present were his old acquaintances Sil and Rachel, his one time ally the mysterious stranger known only as The Priest and a hero going by the name Wolfram. Accompanying them was a Freedom Corps observer called Marge.

It was not clearly stated whether or not this task force was just one of the many working on the same problem or not so each could think what they wanted. Maybe Statesman was asking just a select few to assist him in secrecy, and maybe they were a cog in a big machine along with a hundred other heroes.

The job was simple enough. For one reason or the other Statesman wanted a certain construction yard attacked and the equipment destroyed. Simple, yes, but not without hazards. In situ they encountered heavy resistance and while they were able to carry out the task it was not without a cost. The Freedom Corp worker died in the firefight. Joining the team for the remainder of the task, mainly getting out and apprehending an arbiter in the process was one more old time associate, Bettie Bimbeau.

Afterwards Coile was pretty agitated and even yelled at Statesman for sending a woman without powers into such a combat situation, disregarding that he himself had no powers beyond his technosuit, the FC worker being a trained professional who knew the risks and Statesman knowing what he was doing.

The following tasks were various and seemed to center around Freedom Phalanx trying to find out what Arachnos was planning. It all escalated to the point where the team was sent covertly to Grandville in order to deliver a strike against the higher echelons of Arachnos if it was deemed necessary. Luckily for all it was not and one skirmish against Black Scorpion ended with a victory. It was during the clash with Ghost Widow that the recall order came and everyone was just happy to cut away and return home. Whatever had been the threat Statesman was preparing for was not revealed but it will perhaps someday turn up again.

Then, finally, came the major event for Andre. It was time to take Andreas home with him and Diana. He had become a true father when his son had been born six days ago. Now he donned the responsibilities related to it. Never before had anyone depended on him on this level. From now on there was no heroing whenever there was a need for it. Not for both of the parents anyway.

The evening was spent on marveling at the very small life and how enormous it felt. The coming days would bring about hard proof that the only meal that parents of a small child get to eat warm is ice cream.

(( The Inquirer has written about wider selection of subjects, I imagine. It's been a weekly magazine, after all. Nightsparrow's scrapbook represents the contents that interest the person(s) compiling the scrapbook from various sources. Only related articles are put into the scrapbook, and in Inquirer's case it has meant mostly Coile.

The old Paragon Inquirer folded and this is the New Inquirer. The intent is that it is done "on its own", meaning not so tightly connected to the scrapbook. That by definition means that it is far easier to include articles about other characters.

The aim is also slightly different. While the old Inquirer could just plain lie and come up with outrageous claims that had no or only little to do with the reality this New Inquirer is about real facts that can be twisted nastily.

The makers of New Inquirer are Romanov and Nightsparrow (IG Dee Dee Diablo & Love Angel) with me just as a general busybody so those two can give real answers. ))

If I have figured it right, you have to go to special pages, pick categories and there locate your supergroup's name. Then create that page (category) and put in:

#REDIRECT [[your sg's name]]

I did this for The Dunelm Group and now the link seems to work, so I guess it went right.

How to move it from article to subcategory is wiki wizadry not known to me.

Two guys are talking in the Freedom Corps HQ, in the lounge area near some counter on Wednesday.

"Did you hear that Marge bought it last night?"

"Bloody hell, no? What happened?"

"She was assigned to to hero task force called Champion and went to the Isles. Some covert seek and destroy op. On Statesman's say-so, is the word. I don't know what took place, but my cousin who's a chopper pilot was on deck when the sub brought the heroes home and this guy Coile walked to the Statesman and started to yell at him about sending a non-powered woman with them. I guess they botched something up out there."

"Yelling at the 'Man himself? He's the greatest hero who ever lived. Sheesh, some people have no shame."

"You're preaching to the choir, mate. Then this Coile made a threat that if something like this ever happened again he'd send, listen to this, 'an angry pink angel to kick his leg'."

"What kind of a threat is that? That's weak, man."

"Who knows with these people. Come, let's go someplace and have a drink for Marge. She was a good girl."

Newsflashes (10.9.2007)

"I am what I am...
A family man
Mother... father... brother..."
- Fleetwood Mac

For once more the Tempest meeting was a relatively and peaceful one. The agenda could have sparked more controversy but people seemed to be pretty laid back perhaps trusting that things would sort out on their own pace.

Things with Hand of Andros were more or less on a wait and see basis. Nothing would be happening until Portal Corp could point out the installation of Siege and Nightstar where the missing scanners had been taken. No one had questions.

Andre explained the dreamwalk with Andrea but the only point that was raised was the reliability of dreams as a source of information. That was despite Subaiku providing with an exact number of one hundred and two days being between now and the moment Andrea was embedded with the memory set of Coila. That meant that Zirgei was probably alive. No one seemed to want even think of it, and what it could mean with the big picture. It became obvious to Coile that this would be handled within the family, without the reluctant ballast of the rest of the Tempest. Him, Andrea, Diana and Angelique.

The final item was Dee Dee going after the Hellion gang she used to run with. Since she could not give an exact date no one could give exact promises of being there. For Andre it was up to whether or not Andreas had come home by then. If Diana went out, he would stay in.

Right at the end of the meeting and old acquaintance called in. Evelyn, or Dragoness as her other name went, had returned from somewhere and she wanted to talk to Andre. As it was not an immediate danger the talk would happen in the next few days. After the call Andre relayed the news to others and remembered to finally mention to Sword that he had managed to get a hold of Rakila not too long ago and she was doing fine, traveling around with some friends she had made.

While Andre was making his way home he wondered why was Dee so miffed about Chi, and how it was possible that Mesoc was now eyeing Savannah instead of Sword. He felt some gratitude that for once he was not in the eye of the storm.

Nope. His life would turn upside down only tomorrow.

Ghosts of the past (9.9.2007)

"My wounds are open wide
The freezing wind blows right inside and feels like ice"
- Sentenced

The locale was known to Andre from the previous occasions. The warehouse was where all three other dreamwalks had taken place. Luckily the similarities did not run deeper. As this was more an observation journey into Andrea's memories through her dreams there was no need for an elaborate paintwork and most importantly no need to strip down. Even so it was a little strange to set down on the same bed as the other sibling.

Subaiku painted with a prickling stylus marks on their foreheads, breaching the skin. Not entirely pleasant experience. The side effect was that the marks would linger for maybe two weeks before they were completely faded. Then came the time to chew the roots that put people to sleep. The taste was no better than any of the other times.

They all plunged into Andrea's dream. There was the lab with the two scientists, something that was known to be false. Subaiku quickly located an anchor and rendered the implanted illusion to nothing. What was exposed was startling. The memories were not altogether coherent but the impressions were enough to offer clues.

Strange beings which defined a later description were building Andrea, the adult-sized gynoid. Present was a young woman who looked remarkably like ND-5 but felt somehow more lifelike. And with her there was a man in his fifties, black hair and strong mustache. Zirgei, father to Andre and his now dead sister.

The journey took them through years of memories, warm summer days on the farm where ND-1 was still looking after them. And then, suddenly, an unexpected scene. There was Zirgei but as a young man and with him was the exact same woman who had been there in the far more recent memories. She looked sickly and her belly was big. She was pregnant. They were watching a young infant girl being built and Andre realized that this was all two decades ago, the same beings were building his sister Coila and the woman had to be his mother, the real mother he had never even seen a picture of.

On request Subaiku took them back to the time where Andrea was constructed. The shell that was ready felt empty, devoid of anything else than just fragments of memories from the occasions she had been online. Then a helmet was brought to her head and there was a nauseating, broken feeling as memories were installed with far greater speed than the brain could digest them. The memories from Coila.

Eventually the dream came to an end. Andrea was disappointed that she had, in her own opinion, learned nothing more of herself and Andre was frantic about learning when the memory installation had taken place. If the images were true then his father had a hand at Andrea's creation, and he was supposed to be dead. If the memories succeeded the decimation of the robot farm it meant that he had somehow survived. Another curious point was the lifelike replica of the woman that had to be his mom. That was a subject Andre did not think of too closely. Not yet.

As the party broke each going to their own destinations Subaiku promised to visit Andrea's dream again and count the day.

Forever war (8.9.2007)

"So many strings tightly attached
He seems like he is lost
He makes a fine new decision
Whatever be the cost"
- Warmen

Towards the evening Andrea gave her 'brother' a call and dutiful as ever Andre made his way to the warzone. There he met also Subaiku who was planning on going with Andrea to deal with an urgent Rikti situation. There was an unending supply of them. While the call and the subject had been social by nature it turned out as Andre going with his two teammates.

The reward for work well done is more work. Vanguard noticed that one of their stooges was in da house and Coile got a call to tackle a situation or two. As usual, lives were at stake. Grudgingly the Tempest leader accepted and called for some help. Sword of Truth arrived presently, Mesoc a little later. As luck was they also encountered Powerstone and Shadowplay who in turn introduced a new guy called Dead Reckoner who had similar outward traits to Shadowplay.

The introductions threatened to run longer so Coile cut the chatter short, announced the mission and dashed through the portal. The rest followed and the day was saved from pointless chitchat. One of the missions took them even over to Rogue Isles but the nature of events of fighting the Rikti was that after a while the encounters started to blend together.

Mesoc was more level but offered no reasons for his earlier brutal behavior. Other than that the social aspect of teamwork seemed to drown into the endless hordes of the Rikti and the final feeling after missions was mildly victorious. The grandest achievement of the day was probably Andre, Andrea and Subaiku agreeing that the dreamwalk would happen the next night. So far the success ratio of that technique was 2 to 1 which was not bad, unless one considered the fact that the one failure had led to Melanie's eventual death.

Father's day (7.9.2007)

"I guess this is growing up."
- Blink 182

Change is inevitable. People who refuse to see that will be remembered by those who did not get squished by the wheels of history. Priorities change along the situations. Embrace it.

The Friday for Andre was of little actual action but packed nonetheless. Diana had gone ahead already to visit Xan in the hospital when the leader of Silent Tempest left his home building. Outside he caught up with Chi who was embarking on his private journeys and the two shared a few words and one bear hug for Andre proposing a marriage and Diana accepting. Chi was curiously lacking of cautioning words which was quite possible because they would not have had any great impact. Andre was living his life and it would have been foolish to try and prevent that. Instead Chi was just happy for his pal.

While hiking towards Atlas Park Andre kept his smile and whispered into the passing breeze that he was a father now, responsible for a small boy. And that he was engaged for a lifelong union with the lade he had courted. The words were carefully chosen to accommodate his audience because somewhere, anywhere, Aria would hear those words. He could talk to his elegant faery friend like this ever since Dustine had taught him to use whispers and winds. Now silently he hoped that his friend who had been gone now for some time existed somewhere with the goddess that she had served.

Andrea was already waiting by the Chiron medical center so that she could visit her nephew. While the terms used were not all that solid there seemed to have been a bond forming between Andre and Andrea throughout the weeks that Andrea had been in the city. Maybe she had ony confusing fragments of memories from the girl she was supposedly a copy of and probably all of those memories would never come back in a clear form, but she was the closest thing for a sister to Andre and he was the closest thing she had for a family. Together they went in.

By the door to Andreas's room they met Angelique, who else? She was seemingly standing guard for thirty six hours straight without a rest. Her only response to Andre's cheery tidings of a good morning was a grunt that may have carried some deeply hidden friendly undertones. Andrea seemed to be more in the same wavelength with this young, temporally considered curious addition the the Kraft family.

Andreas was doing well. Exceptionally well. The only reason, besides it being a custom, that he was kept in the hospital was that the nanites that had kept him nourished while Xan had carried the boy inside himself were now shutting down and it was important to see that everything kept working the way it was intended to. What was remarkable was that Andreas had been already gaining weight a little since normally babies lost some of their birth weight during the first few days before they started to gain it again. Being bottle fed was one reason, the other contributing factor was the still residing nanites at work.

Xan on the other hand was quiet and only responded to direct questions. Having his chest cavity pried open like a huge melon had taken its toll on his non-human physiology and Andre suspected that there was an underlying reason for his solemness which he did not speak of. Xan's people did not have life mates the way humans did. Being a parent was a task that was given to those who had proven their worth and the important thing in their lives were the children. There was no romance in the society where he came from, just the deep love for their progeny. Xan had been chosen by Andre and Melanie to be the child's godfather. Now he was in a way also a mother, after carrying him for two months. Since there was no gender with his race the chosen form of a blue-skinned male was not a representation of Xan's role in his society, more of a suitable disguise that would work on Earth. Thus trying to think of him as a father was more incredulous than saying he had performed a motherly duty.

Jane, Diana's mother and a department head in Chiron medical took her time to teach Diana and Andre the basics of child care. How to warm the milk, how to check it had not gone bad, how to change the diaper, how to take care of the hygiene. She had her own experiences to go by and she very much intended to coach her daughter and her man in the arts of baby care before the kid would be let out. By the Friday evening the rudimentary grasp of important things had been achieved.

It was the time to attend the young parents' group that Diana and Andre had been going to for a week now. The rest of the group had serious troubles of accepting that they now suddenly had a child despite Diana never displaying signs of pregnancy but finally all the harder questions were evaded and the roundabout explanation of a pre-arranged adoption sufficed.

Diana went off to spend the night with her friends while Andre went to his work place over at HeroCorp. His father's leave would commence after the weekend and there were several things to settle and put in order before a months long sabbatical. He said his farewells to Kerry who had become his work partner for most field assignments, and as an afterthought he took a company call to Brazil spending half an hour talking with Carlos who promised to relay the good news and best regards to his sister Carla.

The insecure, selfish boy who had come to Paragon City to look after his sister had gone quite a way. The man who finally put the phone down had grown up to be a father and a leader of his own ragtag team of heroes-after-a-fashion. He was dedicated to care for his little son come what may. Just because he was a lucky sod he also had a girl to do it all with, engaged to be married and committed to the grand task of seeing a small life to take shape and eventually take his place in the big scheme of things.

One of our scanners is missing (6.9.2007)

"I'm runnin' through the forest with the wolf at my heels
My king is lost at midnight when the tower bells peal,
when the tower bells peal"
- Bruce Springsteen

Finally Portal Corp techs managed to establish a connection to the world where their scanner had gone dead. Coile gathered a team to go and investigate. Those scanners were a crucial part in finding Michel. Answering to his call were Chi, Dee Dee, Light of Truth and Sword of Truth from Tempest, as well as Andrea, the faulty copy of his sister. Outside help was provided by Powerstone and Shadowplay.

The results were bleak. The war wolf carrying the scanner had been brutally massacred and the scanner was by the bones inoperative. The whole situation turned into a trap with silent, hooded warriors trying to bring the heroes down. The hostility culminated in a clash with Chimera who could not withstand the combined onslaught of eight determined fighters.

While victorious the team returned with scarce results. One scanner found but destroyed. Not one step closer to their ultimate target. Upon arrival they learned that there had been several steps backwards. All other deployed scanners had fallen silent simultaneously. That sounded ominous to say the least and the premeditation of the action was evident. They were being played but there was no telling just how much.

The next task was to go the Shadowhunter's realm to try find out what had become of the rest of the scanners. A fair few wolves disagreed with this intent but pack by pack the savage beasts were sent packing. After Shadowhunter had yielded before combined might of the assembled heroes he revealed that the scanners had been found and removed, no longer of any use to our guys. Then again his so called allies, and we use that term here loosely, we worried over what the scanners maybe had found out and thus the newly acquired tech material had been delivered to Siege and Nightstar to examine. That spells bad hoodoo.

One by one the good guys drifted away, who wherever.

Miracle of life (5.9.1007)

"We have all the time in the world
Time enough for life
To unfold
All the precious things
Love has in store"
- Louis Armstrong

The day was a blur but hey, at least it was keeping in line with the evening.

Xan had entered the hospital well in advance of the operation to discuss the details with the medical personnel. He was, after all, going to be opened up like a melon. When he had done the operation himself the first time and prepared a safe living environment inside his chest cavity the boy he had taken in had been very much smaller. Now, thanks to the nanobots keeping the kid nourished and securing his rather perfect health he had grown faster than normal and was ready to be taken out. That Xan could not do alone and professional help was needed.

While the day when this was happening was known to Andre and Diana the exact time was not and thus it happened that when Andre got the word a little before 8 PM Xan was already headed for the surgery. He only had the presence of mind to let Diana know with a text message that the time was now, and rushed to Atlas Park Chiron Medical Center. He could not later recall exactly how he got there but there were no news reports of serious traffic accidents in Atlas from that evening. Diana arrived a little after him being even more frantic and simply demanded to know what was happening.

A few people were notified of the grand event but as the life is with superheroes there are various needs that tug people into opposite directions. Nene happened to have free time and Angelique made the time, quite regardless what other things possibly were in the way. Also Andrea got there, perhaps looking for that family feeling. One person not on the initial guest list who was still told about the event and came by was Tygerboy. His expression was rather priceless when he realized that his sister Juni would be dragging him by his tail to shop for baby clothes.

The waiting was a grueling two hours that felt even longer than the two weeks stuck in the robot dimension. The pacing that Andre did cost the carpet at least three years of useful lifespan and Diana was running an extreme bladder stress test by emptying water dispenser. A few challenges, that did pale in comparison to what Xan was undergoing, of the night were when others tried to piece together what was happening after they got there. Because even if Andre and Diana did offer all the right fact the order and manner in which they were given left a lot to be desired by any sane person using the normal flavour of logic.

Andre and Diana were having a baby and that is why they were in maternity ward. In the waiting room, not a delivery room or surgery. Andre was father and Melanie was mother but so was Diana, and none of the three were delivering the baby, because Xan was. And despite four people being intimately involved with the process the child only had genetic material from two of them, out of which one was going to be his guardian because the biological mother was dead. This was told to Nene and Andrea who herself could have been said to be dead and thus not possibly present. The equation did not get simpler when Angelique arrived representing the latest generation of this twisted family setup because the boy who was yet to be born was also her father. I dare the makers of Happy Families card game to include Family Kraft in their next update.

Just after two hours of almost literal wall climbing Angelique's scanner detected a new anomaly from the surgery. Separate, independent mobile lifesigns. In a minute the surgery doors opened and Jane Bright appeared holding a little bundle with a wrinkly face and terribly small fingers. The life had changed for Andre and Diana forever. The baby they had been waiting for was finally here.

Little Andreas had been born.

Since everyone was looking at the new wonder no one noticed the very brief smile on Angelique's face. Despite stating that she was not emotionally vested there were things underneath that in extreme situations pushed through. All the gentle marveling was brought to an end when Andreas spoke his mind about the situation. The noise was a loud one but due to a lack of speech capability lacked the actual work which in no way detracted from the intended message. Hungry. Now. Jane took him back to feed and Angie set to stand guard for as long as she was needed.

The day had been long and eventful, and still not over yet. Propelled onward by both preplanning and the moment's euphoria Andre put his hand into a trouser pocket and took out something that fit inside the fist. Then he attracted Diana's attention and got to one knee. As an avid reader of Susan X's fluffy romance books she was well aware of what was going to happen.

It had been the intent that there would be no rushing with anything if they became an item. The first breach of that had been moving in together very quickly because they knew that in a few weeks there would be three of them. They had to live in the same apartment, rushing or not.

Now there was another occasion. The proposal and impregnation with Melanie had come to be from needs for stability and security. However the driving forces were now very different. Ever since they were just friends (no matter how Sword saw it) it had been evident that Diana would not go out and date just a guy. She was looking for a life long commitment even before the first kiss. That was what Andre had been prepared for, life long commitment. Now they were now parents to a small boy and while people did divorce, having a child to care for was a strong bond. All facts observed detachedly they were going to stay together all their lives.

Andre proposed to Diana, asking her to stay with him forever as his wife.

Diana said yes.

When at some point in future a retrospective look is taken this Wednesday is likely to rate high on the happiest-day-of-their-lives'o'meter.

(Now the recaps are in an easily browsable form in Union wiki. Check 'em out.)

Malta Meltdown (4.9.2007)

"I'm gonna break the cycle
I'm gonna shake up the system"
- Madonna

The first part of the day had been consumed by the last minute preparations for Andreas's imminent arrival. That could have been the schedule of the whole day if there had been an intervention of a serious kind. Michel's captured confidant had, for reasons unknown to Coile, revealed that according to a preset schedule a team of Malta operatives was targeting a guy and his parents. After calling for Sword of Truth and Andrea Coile paced around the meeting spot, probably rehearsing for tomorrow's big wait.

Near a flea market he ran into Powerstone and the talking drifted towards responsibilities encompassing even whether or not it was alright to alter events through timetravel. That was, in short, what Angelique had set out to do. The girl was in dire need of new goals and once again Andreas would be involved. Once they took their exchange outside the earshot of chance passersby the point became moot as Crimson Archer saw familiar faces and stopped to shoot the breeze. With Sword and Andrea arriving the location became the momentary hotspot of hero activity and it drew in also Kara (Sister Kinetic) and eventually Mesoc. Who was in a foul mood.

This foul mood lasted for the entire mission resulting in several broken bones for the opposition. That was indeed a bad day to be a Malta agent which Powerstone and Crimson Archer later noted aloud, Crimson pointing out that he had had to deal with that kind of stuff in Militia but did not expect to encounter it in Tempest ranks. That was one more reason for Coile to hasten the schedule of drafting up the principles of Tempest, and then seeing that everyone followed them.

The mission itself was successful as the guy and his folks were saved. It turned out that he had been Michel's record keeper and had kept copies of all sort of nasty projects that she had been entangled with. Those files were stored away in a presumably abandoned office building and that is where they headed next, sans Kara and Mesoc, although they gained additional reinforcements from Light of Truth. Throughout the night they also faced robots that sported alarmingly familiar features, so much that memory impaired Andrea and Sword who had visited the robot farm only twice both recognized the designs. They were Zirgei's handiwork. The legacy of the man who supposedly lied dead kept creeping up on Tempest members with importunate abandon.

The last task was to invade a Malta stronghold and confiscate their main frame system that supposedly held files and orders regarding Michel and her end of Hand of Andros. With the team being already familiar with tactics regarding this particular group of opponents the strike went right along the Tempest slogan - Silence before the storm. Time will tell what all can be datamined from the files and what evil plans still lurk prepared and unsquashed.

Discordia (3.9.2007)

" The only choice you got, boys, is to be nasty
Hate everybody and everybody will hate you
You can bet on that!
You know, You can't fight the justice but
the justice can fight you, even if it wasn't you
it's you, Johnny."
- Hanoi Rocks

It is often with people that smaller things can and will be used to settle bigger issues. In the Monday night Tempest meeting Shadowplay quitting his trial after talking to Sword of Truth became a hot topic that propelled Dee Dee, Love Angel, Sword and Light of Truth into a shouting match. Dee blamed Sword for having some imaginary authority that could stop people from becoming members. What went disregarded completely was that Sword had asked Shadowplay to appear in the meeting to explain his stance and he had declined on his own accord. Such unreasonable outbursts are more or less that trademark response for Dee Dee and to a major extent also for Diana. It seems that standing up on chair and yelling is supposed to get the point across better than anything else.

Both Nadias also got told off for not talking to Shadowplay. When it turned out that they in fact had talked to the man at length they got blamed for not really listening to him. Observing from the outside it's easy to see that that bog of baseless accusations just can't be traveled without getting neck deep into the smudge. That's why Coile stayed for the most part out of the debate except for pointing out that as a chairperson of the meeting Dee should refrain from directly insulting people.

It is uncanny how just one guy who himself seemed to give not even a toss about Tempest could provoke an hour long argument but only if one did not take into account that the bad feelings stemmed from Diana becoming an item with Andre, both Nadias feeling resentful about it and Dee Dee supporting her friend nevermind if she was right or wrong. Another reason for Andre to keep his head down and mouth shut. For once there was useless shouting, talking beside the point and a meeting stretching to be three hours long and he was not to blame.

Even the beginning of the meeting was overshadowed by tension. Coile was recounting the success of their Vanguard task force that took a decisive action against the Rikti just a few days ago. Visiting attendant Powerstone volunteered to explain the workings of the MMB, the psychic bomb that had been used. His words painted a different picture from what had previously been told to Coile. The bomb did not in fact just incapacitate the enemy forces - if sentient beings were clustered together close enough with big numbers, as was the case with the staging areas that had been targeted, the damage would be quite lethal. These revelations left at least Coile and Angel quite shocked.

On Hand of Andros front there had been scarce developments. The only news was that Mother Mayhem knew that Malaise had parted ways with Michel Sanders and that made Bobcat their next best lead. The missing scanner also needed to be found but Portal Corps had to lock in onto the target dimension again after losing it.

One last item to discuss, or preach about, was the changed structure of Tempest base. The meeting room had been expanded and contained now also machinery which made noises that got especially on Diana's nerves. Coile was used to such ruckus after having grown up on a farm full of robots. Diana got tasked with finding Bart and Mesoc who were responsible for the changes through their construction company BAMM.

Andrea was accepted into Tempest as a trial member. Light asked a few questions, perhaps out of courtesy, and otherwise Andrea was waved in without a fuzz. No one was particularly worried that she had been constructed by parties yet unknown. Maybe she was seen as a continuation of their fallen co-leader, or just another lost soul seeking her place in the grand scheme of things.

After the meeting Sword wanted a private word with Coile. She was concerned that Tempest had changed and was changing more from the roots that it had had a year ago. That talk ended up taking quite long and during it Andre started to refine his vision for his group. He had been trying to interview each member to find out their opinions and hopes regarding the teamwork and then try to piece together from that a common ground that everyone could work on. However this talk rendered that need obsolete.

The trick would be to pin it down on words, and offer it to the others.

For the grand finale, after Sword had left, Diana told Andre that Andreas would be born in two days' time. The big event that they had been waiting for was upon them.

I finished putting up Coile's recaps. Took a while that. And I ended up creating a horde of redirects as well to connect civilian names to hero names, like Sabrina San to Dragonfly.

I hope the recaps amuse at least someone.

Last night a new name was entered into citizen registry.

Name: Andreas Kraft
Date and time of birth: September 5th 2007, 10:05 PM
Father: Andre Kraft
Mother: Melanie Kraft (deceased)
Guardians: Andre Kraft, Diana Bright

Currently not many people know of Andreas but those who do may well talk. The information can be also found if someone runs a background check for Andre or Diana.

Hectic times, sleepless nights.

Tonight around 8 PM English time (which we use as Paragon City time as well) Andre Kraft (Coile) and Diana Bright (Love Angel) will be in Atlas Park's Chiron Medical Center, specifically in the maternity ward. Sitting on chairs in a waiting room, or nervously pacing around the room. Anyone who has any business thereabout, like helping a pregnant woman to get to her destination - we're heroes after all - could meet them.

In-game we will be using a base for this small event. If someone has an interest in this, send a /tell to either A-Struck or Love Angel to be invited to the team and gain an entry to the base.

If someone would compile such an article, it would be good. I know our group has used existing IRL laws and age limits when tackling such issues in RP.

Disharmonia (2.9.2007)

Seeking answers can lead to more questions. Disturbing questions. As Coile met the copy of his dead sister in Pocket D he was expecting a more detail recount about the two scientists who had made this Andrea. However the telepathic session with Savannah had turned up all sorts of hidden memories and it seemed as if the two scientists were nothing more than implanted ghosts who had never existed. Under the facade had emerged strange beings who constructed Andrea, and not only them.

Present in those memories had been also been their father Zirgei, and their mother ND. To cast more shadows over the whole affair Zirgei had in some memories been young, in some old. It was impossible to discern from Andrea's tale which memories had been recorded and when. The body could have been twenty one years old, constructed to full adulthood at the same time that the baby Andrea had been made to be Andre's sister. If the unit was that old, where did the shards of memories about Coila's life come from? When had they been put it, why, and by whom?

If the unit was newer, who had constructed it now? The same beings who had created the original Andrea and made a copy of their mother's memories into a massive data storage? Or perhaps their father Zirgei. Suddenly Andre was no longer so convinced that his father was dead. The reappearance of his mother after a year, and now this new poor man's copy of Coila were telltale marks that something was up. While it had become rather evident that Andrea was no spy of Michel Sanders, no insidious ploy of Hand of Andros, the new information only deepened the mystery of her origins. Perhaps Subaiku's dreamwalk could provide concrete answers.

The arrival of Zian and Sword of Truth propelled the Tempest assembly to seek a quieter corner as the bar downstairs had become rather crowded and noisy. Thus the quartet sought out a new locale to conduct their conversation at. A table at Monkey bar sufficed nicely. Just as they got there Coile got a call from Shadowplay and soon after the man became present as well. His matter at hand was a brief one. Setting a team com unit on the table in front of Coile he quit his trial to enter the ranks of Silent Tempest stating as a reason the differences in opinions. Then he left.

Sword explained that she had just had a discussion with Shadowplay about acceptable methods and the way she expressed the matters, quoting the man himself really sounded as if he was not compatible with how Tempest did things. By quitting the trial one day before a group meeting he had also declined to appear before all the members and explain his stance. Instead he chose to walk away. There was nothing to help with the situation.

Andrea expressed her interest to work with Tempest in the future to make a bigger impact and also to help her learn more of herself. There's been worse reasons.

From Paragon Times

http://beserat.utu.fi/coh/images/new...s_vanguard.jpg

(( Text by Coile, layout by Love Angel ))

Paragon Times

'Vanguard achieves a major victory against Rikti' by Caleb Stanford

Incandescent, the leader of Herald (PR division of Vanguard) was personally present in a press conference held for the big news of Earth striking a crippling blow on the Rikti forces.

Vanguard was originally approached by a former licensed hero Ben "Big Lunk" Campbel with a plan that would set the Rikti war effort back for a long time if not put a stop to it altogether. The plan called for a small task force to penetrate several Rikti strongholds and use their own portals to deliver devices to Rikti homeworld which in turn would destabilize their local military forces and finally the task force was to destroy the suspected central Rikti portal that had allowed them to gain reinforcements. The devices were designed and built by Doctor Alexander Helios, the founder of Colossus Labs.

The plan was green-lighted by Vanguard and Big Lunk put together a team consisting of seven other capable individuals. They were Doctor Helios himself, Britanic of now disbanded Militia, Zortel of Unity Vigil, Coile of Silent Tempest, Powerstone from M.A.G.I., Vanguard operative Nightschild and a man going by the name of the Priest. The briefing for the mission was held at 2000 hours Paragon City time and the mission was launched subsequently after a few photos were taken.

The exact details of the several missions that followed one another have been classified as Vanguard secrets but what is known is that in the process several civilians were rescued. The main objective itself was reported to have been achieved with resounding success.

Some members sustained damages that were classed as 'minor' despite unconfirmed reports of mission operatives having been hospitalized. However the team did not survive without permanent losses. Upon arrival to Vanguard base Doctor Alexander Helios was pronounced dead on arrival with no chance of resuscitation. Incandescent called him "a true hero" and remarked that "the resolve of humanity is highlighted against the darkness of losses - we shall not yield".

(( Article has been written, pics from a few sources have been forwarded and now the layout is cooking. Ready tonight at some point (with the standard high quality expected from Nightsparrow). ))

(( Would those who have the screenies about the assembling heroes put them in net (if possible) and PM me with the the addresses on this forum? Has to do with an IC news piece. Thanks. ))

(( I intend to write an IC piece of this as well, but for now this escapade is presented in the latest Coile's recap. I have tried to avoid any spoilers about Lady Grey TF to retain the surprises that those not yet familiar with will be thrilled to learn of in their own time. ))

Counterstrike (1.9.2007)

"Set your hopes up way too high
living's in the way we die."
- A-Ha

There are times when the lines between heroes and villains blur, and one such time is when the fight comes down to be about the survival. Besides, the villainy is in the eye of the beholder. Is not a man who risks his life for the good of the whole planet a hero, even if after a fashion? What about the man who sacrifices his life for it?

What was known about the mission did not put it into the extreme hazard category but nevertheless Coile and his girlfriend Love Angel spent the two days before it mostly together. The Friday included a homemade dinner, watching Casablanca and going to the young parents group that gathered on Talos Island thrice a week. The Saturday went by with Andre taking Diana out to eat to a nice fish restaurant which Andre hoped would be something that Diana took for a romantic gesture. It had, after all, been his very own idea without anyone butting in with advice, especially Diana.

The young parents group had been less of an ordeal than Andre had feared. His foremost worry had been that most other couples in the meeting had been clearly expecting a child of their own quite soon. Diana on the other hand did not seem to be pregnant which was a good thing considering the fact that she was. Still somehow they had managed to wiggle out of explaining what their situation exactly was save that they wanted to learn how to care for a child. Perhaps the others assumed that this young couple was just a month or two into the waiting and were just keen on hopping onto the parenthood bandwagon as early as possible. In a week, two at maximum, they would of course bring their youngling into the meeting and be forced to offer some kind of an explanation but that challenge would be faced when needed.

The mission began with a briefing in the Vanguard base in Rikti War Zone. Doctor Helios was telling about MMB's but Coile missed some of that while pondering over bomb initiation sequence instructions. Albeit the fact of them being of the complexity of "push button, stand clear". Then Big Lunk, Ben to his friends, explained the mission structure. The idea was to breach four different locations in a bid to take over four separate Rikti portals and send retransmitters to the Rikti homeworld. After they were in place it was time to take over the main Rikti portal and through it send a psychic bomb. MMB - Monkey Mind Bomb. It employed the theory and practice of Rikti monkeys sending out psychic waves. The bomb worked on similar principle and the four retransmitters would deliver the blast throughout the Rikti homeworld. The big idea was to cripple their military structure on the other side and on this side knock out the dimensional anchors that kept the main portal working. With one strategic strike the Rikti would lose their ability of gaining reinforcements, or at the very least be forced to sacrifice a tremendous amount of resources into reconstruction.

After the briefing the assembled heroes, and heroes they were, stood ready to embark on this daring endeavour. At Big Lunk's invitation beside Doctor Helios present were Britanic from the now decommissioned Militia, Coile of Silent Tempest, Unity Vigil's Zortel, a man of cloth identifying only as the Priest, Nightschild and Powerstone of M.A.G.I. fame who had two nights before assisted Silent Tempest in their pursuit of a murderous lunatic hiding behind the backs of Praetorian guard.

The locations each were heavily defended and the opposition they ended up facing was at times rather surprising. Needless to say that the cataclysmic clashes of fierce forces at the best of times exceeded the epicness of the bombastic bouts as the Rikti poured in their elite troops the still the onslaught of the advancing hostiles. For naught, as it was. Nothing could stop the tide of war turning, just as it had five years ago when the Team Omega had brought the first Rikti War into an end.

And just as then, not without a price. The bomb went on its way! The anchors lay in ruins! The mission was a success but by then the situation in the direct heart of Rikti war effort had deteriorated into pure chaos as hundreds upon hundreds of Rikti poured at the cursed humans thirsting for vengeance. It was both skill and luck that brought them out alive amidst the hordes of lethal enemies.

Tragically, somewhere along the road things had gone wrong. The last, desperate battle that almost brought the whole team of heroes to their knees saw a man fall. A man valiantly taking a fatal blow at the moment of their triumph. When the rest emerged two were missing at first. Britanic and Doctor Helios. Eventually they returned as well but by that time Doctor Helios, carried by the brave Britanic, was already beyond the help of medical professionals of this world.

Doctor Alexander Helios, founder of Colossus Labs and an associate of many who belonged to EVIL - perhaps through deeds he was a villain. But let no one say that he did not die a hero.