Paradigm_Shift

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"Yeah, sure, I'll help. Just want to know, though, why ask me, and not, say, Positron or somebody a heckuva lot more important than me," Blake would keep to his word and do it, but it was an honestly curious question.

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"Because Positron has not killed any of the pack. The leader will not be trying to hunt him down any time soon. It could be months before we run into another person who has managed to take one of these monsters down, and frankly we do not have that kind of time." Erik explained. "I will warn you right now though. Only you and I can pull this off. If any others get involved, there is a chance the leader might run. And whoever or whatever it is, it has already killed four veteran heroes."

Erick got up off the bench.

"If you lose interest, remember that as long as you do not attack the leader when it appears, you should be fine. If you still want to help, meet me in the Southernmost warehouse in Constellation row at Midnight. It is out of the way, and secluded, so innocents will not be involved."

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Good job again, Mr. G.

Wouldn't have thought of Ms. L as having quite the same mindset you do, but you sold me on it ... and I can actually see her not asking for help in learning how to shield her mind ...


Wouldn't have minded if you had mentioned how one of those guys she kept thinking about had a thing for the color blue ...

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Ms. Lib tends to be closer to the gutter in Grey's universe. I personally LIKE the interpretation. Her massive flaws make all her other behaviors seem more realistic in the context of a world filled with super heroes and villains.

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Ms. L actually is better than Malaise is seeing her here in my world. He just pressed a personal button on her (indeed, it would be a personal button on ANYONE), so she's very, VERY ticked off at the moment.

As for Malaise being ticked off at being cooped up in the Vindicators base, well...

Where the HELL is he after the Calvin Scott TF!? You see him ONCE on Redside, and that's only if you choose Scirocco as your patron! You also might get his help in the Blueside Mender Silos TF, or fight him once in the Redside Silos SF, but his role there was already covered in the comics. He's still in the Vindicators, but he's not doing anything!

Of course, as far from Statesman as I see Ms. Liberty, I still see her as not being one to waste resources, so... A paperwork shuffling he'll go... And how many people can do that, day-in, day-out, for, oh, three and a half, four, going on five years?

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You do fight him in the LRSF, I believe. And I think you can encounter him in a specific safeguard, but I'm not too sure about that.

OOC:

Backpack: One Smooth Operation Indeed, DeviousMe. *glare*

BIC:

The backpack wasn't going to do a thing about the current situation.

"That was not a request, it was a demand." The Caldok snarled at her, a plasma rifle suddenly materializing in his hands. Unfortunately, this was not an actual plasma rifle. With the backpack gone, Egregore was entirely bereft of all his weapons. The rifle was just an extension of the hard-light hologram disguise. "But seeing as you've decided to be nothing but unhelpful, I'm going to kill you now..."

This would have been the perfect time for security to show up. One found themselves wondering how exactly they weren't already there in the first place.

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Good job again, Mr. G.

Wouldn't have thought of Ms. L as having quite the same mindset you do, but you sold me on it ... and I can actually see her not asking for help in learning how to shield her mind ...


Wouldn't have minded if you had mentioned how one of those guys she kept thinking about had a thing for the color blue ...

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Ms. Lib tends to be closer to the gutter in Grey's universe. I personally LIKE the interpretation. Her massive flaws make all her other behaviors seem more realistic in the context of a world filled with super heroes and villains.

The four not-so-normal bar patrons poked their Fallen friends along, out of the Den and into the street where they escorted their prisoners into dark alleys. The four resounding gunshots probably went unnoticed during the fight with Crey. The thugs didn't come back, but if they were protecting the bar on orders, they would be back. Looking very different than previously, of course.

Ildela found she was unneeded. Four rather unassuming and normal bar patrons had all simultaneously stood up, drawn semi-automatic pistols of surprisingly good quality, and used their positions to more or less sneak up on all of the gunners.

"Ok GIRLS." One of them said rather loudly as they all held death right to the back of the Hellions' skulls. "Big mistake. This joint is under Red Death's protection. Put down your weapons and we'll go for a short walk outside...A short walk with a sudden stop."

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"Ain't that cheery news," he muttered, then looked up at Erik and asked "So, what do we do? You just come to warn me or what?"

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"As I mentioned, these hunts have been going on for a while now. They endanger everybody in the city, as they operate almost unseen in every zone with occasional outbursts like the one we took a part in. I am part of a task-force trying to put a stop to it. Our goal is to either capture or eliminate this mysterious leader. So I am here to ask. Would you be willing to help us catch whatever is behind these hunts?"

"The latter." Erik responded, not even bothering to look at Blake as he arrived. "Please have a seat. About the encounter earlier." And now the albino deigned to meet Blake with his eyes. "You are going to be targeted soon. These wolves have been covertly hunting throughout every city zone. They are a large pack, and this pack has a leader. Previous experiences have confirmed that this leader hunts down those who kill members of the pack. Five heroes have had contact with this leader. Four are dead, and recordings revealed that they attacked it on sight. The remaining survivor claims that this leader had no hostile intentions and merely issued a warning not to kill anymore members of the pack. Do you see where I am heading with this?"

"Well you obviously are not doing your job very well. I have already accomplished what I came here to achieve." The Caldok retorted. "Although I do admit you could still be useful. Your touch-pad, hand it over." He extended a hand palm-up. He obviously wasn't taking her very seriously, given that he appeared to be totally unarmed or even very alert.

The Tsaiv may have suddenly heard the gentle clinking noise of metal connecting with metal softly amongst the shelves.

Military Coup. I wouldn't call it a civil war, I would call it more of an expulsion on the part of Romulus towards Imperious. Romulus just up and went,

"Hey this joint is mine now. Kill Imperious and his pals."

So everyone who thought that was a jolly-good idea joined up with him and started killing Imperious and his Pals. Imperious does the whole fighting retreat thing back to the small village w/ fort at the back of the peninsula, and tada!

[u]Freedom Court (Rear)[u]

Erik sat on a bench, his umbrella looming over him as he watched people move along. He mentally checked what time it was - right around an hour after he had detected his message had been received. 'So Blake should be here relatively soon.' Erik thought. While he had been waiting for confirmation, he had checked in with the task-force he was part of. The pattern of "hunts" throughout the city was holding, as expected...Except for Talos Island, which until recently had been one of the more active spots with five occurrences monthly before suddenly dropping to zero. It had been then that the entire pattern had changed, or rather shifted. Independence Port rose from three occurrences to five, with corresponding changes through every city zone except Peregrine Island and the Hazard Zones...

It was like some sort of countdown.

'And everybody on the task-force save Vanessa has noticed it, naturally. This may be our only opportunity to stop the hunts dead in their tracks. If we miss it, months could pass until we get another chance. And then it may be too late...' Erik stared at the ground almost solemnly as he thought while waiting for Blake.

Ironically enough for Ildea, a member of the Lost had just been sneaking up on her when she had decided to vanish. The enforcer, now dressed as a member of the Family, looked rather sternly at the Pariah.

"Ey youse." He snarled. "We give you this joint an' what happens? Eh? It gets filled with fish. You the last one standin'?" The Pariah nodded demurely. "Well git dis." The enforcer spat on the ground. "The Lost an' the Family. We're through. We don't want your second rate goods or youse stickin ugly faces in our business anymore.We're gonna be EVICTIN' you from Dockside." He hoisted his tommy-gun and opened fire...

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[u]Right Outside[u]

One of the warehouse's windows shattered as the Pariah was thrown through it, covered in bullet-wounds. The mutated creature struggled to its feet and started limping away as fast as possible.

"That's right! Youse better run!" The enforcer shouted out the window, sending the occasional hail of bullets the Pariah's way. "Go and tell your hotshot friends, we're gonna put em on pikes and feed em to tha fishies if we sees them! As in we'll kill em with bullets, not actually feed them to the Coralax. Had some appeal. BUT THEY WERE ALL JUS' KILLED. We don't want your kind no more, trash!"

Satisfied, the enforcer leaped out the window himself and walked in the direction of Marconeville, ditching his stolen clothing and tommy-gun as he went...

So I have a villain group with one NPC in it. I use it in the last mission for the final boss fight.

Filesize: 56% -------> Filesize: 116%

I WISH I was joking.

I don't mind the filesize limit, but JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR WHY THE HELL DO CUSTOM GROUPS TAKE UP SO MUCH SPACE?!?!?!?! Haven't they ever heard of file compression?!?!?!?!

Strangely enough, the group with three minions, two lieutenants, two bosses and three uniques took up less space than the single-unique group...But still had the gall to take up 29% of filespace.

Hit me up. I have plenty of Moonbeam Absinthe to hold me through the depths of nightmare fuel unleaded hell.

OOC:

Yay! DooDaa has been returned by the aliens! I knew bribing those Scientologists would work! ^.^

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she threw it with similar pinpoint accuracy at the offending weapon. She did no harm to the enforcer himself, but his gun would be most definitely inoperable now unless he had powers he wasn't showing off.

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The enforcer looked at her with a seething glare from behind his mirrored glasses. He sat down on the ground, pulled the knife out of his uzi, disassembled the gun in a matter of seconds, removed and replaced a few components, and put it back together, good as new. All professionals in his line of work needed to know how to maintain their weaponry, after all.

But this time, he kept his distance and allowed Ildela to kill the coralax in her own time. He wasn't here to deal with them in the first place. So while he followed her through her rampage, he tossed on a Fedora, discarded his trench coat in favor of a swanky tux, and at some point holstered his uzi and brung out a Tommy Gun. He was now a spiting image of a member of the Family, and now he simply waited for Ildela to finish up so he could continue.

OOC:

As it were, both my characters are now stuck and waiting on Doodaa, who has apparently been kidnapped by aliens. I'm gonna have to withdraw myself, at least until I see an opportunity to leap back in. Possibly with different characters since my current ones are stuck in limbo.

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And thus she continued for the forseeable future, practically ignoring the enforcer as though he wasn't even there. Until he did something to attract her attention, she paid him no mind at all.

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He threw a clip into the horde of coralax and shot it with pin-point accuracy.

*boom*

"YOU stay the hell out of MY way, missy." He snarled, not particularly caring whether or not she had been hit by the blast. He continued on to the next group and started mowing them down with a never-ending hail of bullets, making every group he attacked impossible to sneak up upon if only because dodging that many bullets while cloaked was impractical.

OOC:

I got an entire sentient specie's name wrong, sue me. You know, as opposed to incinerating me with a killsat orbital strike.

BIC:

Egregore's weapons did not materialize via teleportation. The Tsaiv's author should have known this by now. But since the mercenary was NOT feeling immensely aggressive at this juncture, that point was moot.

"I yam who I yam." He said in a deadly serious tone in response to her first question. "I carry nothing of such burden." In response to the second. "I want spoils from the vault of plenty." To the third. The Egregore Device turned his body partially and started viewing the stacks, as it were. "Here's a question for you, if you'd be feeling inclined enough to answer it. You have chosen to indirectly hinder me. Why, exactly?"

Beautiful.

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"This joint is supposed to belong to the lost....."

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"Wrong", Ildela stated flatly, that and the sword across his throat the first indication the man would have of her presence unless he had some truly exceptional senses.

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"Sword across throat. Is Thursday. K'." The enforcer mumbled, immensely startled but too cautious to make any sudden movements.

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"This joint belongs to the guy who paid me to clear it out for him. That might include you, or might not. Depends how convincing you are."

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"Wrong." The thug said smugly, his voice suddenly confident, as if he thought the situation was entirely under his control. "This joint belongs to the guy who hired you, and the FAMILY owns him and everything he owns. The Lost, who are running drugs off to the Family, have formed a mutually beneficial relationship with them. The Family looks out for its interests and is spread too thin. They ask the Lost to guard this place, see? And I'm just here cleaning up the trash."

THIS POST IS IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE SKIMMING THE THREAD FOR ARCS!

Silly me, I forgot about the stupid edit time-limit.

Until I can figure something out so this can work, please post all suggested arcs in yellow so people can more easily skim over the thread for names. If it's the second+ time an arc has been mentioned, do NOT write it in yellow. Much appreciated.

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<QR>

Rage, jump in, EA, Footstomp, KO Blow

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A competent mastermind will laugh at you and kill you. And not necessarily in that order.

"By all means." The Egregore Device responded laxly to the Tsaiv woman, his voice remaining steady and calm, the Caldolv disguise he wore crossing its arms. "Although I severely doubt you have anything to say that I will find interest in. You have ten seconds."

Ildela didn't get the opportunity to do so. The next group of Coralax she saw was being mowed down by a hailstorm of bullets. The thug enforcer from the bar earlier had beaten her here by just a few moments, but WHY was he here...?

"What're you freaks doin' here?" He grunted as he closed with the last surviving one and smashed it over the head with one of his uzi. "This joint is supposed to belong to the lost....."