Romanov

It's the biggest Nightsparrow's Scrapbook (now compiled by Diana Bright) ever! This special edition is dedicated to the young heroine and new Lady Cobra, Jessica Chang. Read about her kidnapping as a baby, be enlightened by her anti-bullying campaign, be exciting by her vacation dramas, and be baffled at why nobody has worked out the secret of her special friendship with Anna Pulsar.

Plus, it's a tear jerking moment for Silent Tempest as Star "Xan" Crusader pepares to finally return to his home. He has many memories to take with him; perhaps none as vivid as the Xanettes who arrived at Pocket D to wish him bon voyage!

Also read about new boy on the block Kaneko Jutaro, Silent Tempest's latest battles, and the shameful reporting of poor innocent Cally by the New Paragon Inquirer.

Read it all HERE!

Although there are contributions from myself, Kunoichi X and others, a big message of admiration has to go to @Rhino for the effort, skill and creativity that goes into this project.

Silent Tempest battle the evil, and perhaps familiar, Star Lord and his robot army. Recent hero team ups make the news. One of the BUGS welcomes a foreign visitor and we learn a little about Wales. Dr Megaton hits Tokyo. And British heroes join the fight in Paragon. And Diana Bright talks to a BOY! It can only be the new Nightsparrow’s Scrapbook which can be read HERE.

Read more about the Scrapbook and check out the previous 90 editions HERE.

[u]The Ceremony [u]
(aka The Calm Before the Storm Conspiracy)

Part One

SwallowTail House, Talos Island

Dee Dee Diablo had been looking into the full length mirror in the recently decorated bedroom for a while. Into herself. The reality of what she was doing still didn’t quite fit. In just a matter of hours she would be the guest of hour at a ceremony at City Hall to celebrate her achievements. But not as a musician or songwriter but as a hero. A hero? Her? She’d spend a year trying to prove just that but now a shiny medal and the nodding approval of people whose opinions didn’t matter to her seemed a little empty. The people who did matter knew what she was about. Nene. Diana. Jonathan. Jay. And wasn’t this sort of ceremony stuff for the Boy Scout brigade like Britanic, Lady Cobra and Miss Teen?

“Dee, the car will be here in 20 minutes.”

The sound of her lover Nene’s voice brought her back from reflecting. She smoothed the sheer material of her designer little black dress over her skinny hips.

“I’m nearly ready, Miss,” she replied. “Oh, and you know how I wanted to show off my ink on account of it expressing my individuality and not caring what the suits think?”

“Yes, Dee?"

“Well I want to wear a jacket now.”

“Yes, Dee.”

Covering her tattoos didn’t mean anything. There were always covered when she was on patrol. Leather and ceramic. Her angel and other marks were part of the Dee Dee Diablo who came to life when she was on stage or alone with Nene.

Nene entered the bedroom and slipped the slinky tailored jacket over Dee’s shoulders. She held her lover’s waist and whispered into her ear. “You look beautiful, Dee. And, remember, you deserve this. I would kiss you if it didn’t mean I would have to do your make up again.”

Dee smiled as she turned within the gynoid’s arms. She looked into Nene’s green eyes, not even the mix of soft blue silk and a plunging neckline revealing pale skin drawing her attention. “We still have 15 minutes,” she said before pressing her mouth to her partner’s in a lingering kiss.

Hot chicks on fast bikes, zombie apocalypses and fashion show disasters averted! It can only be the new page in Nightsparrow’s scrapbook lovingly compiled by Diana Bright.
Who is that mysterious woman with Manticore and Silent Tempest? How many times can the same dick joke be used in one letter? Why does Silver Sentry seem so familiar? Can a broken heart really make you smell of cabbage? How long will the latest themed super group last?
All these questions will be asked but not answered right HERE!

I'll sign up for both.

Miss Teen has a link to New Vigilants and Dee to Ryan, so I could play either depending on the needs of the team.

Same for the lvl 50 Carnie mission, but I'd prefer to play Dee as Missy doesn't fair well against Carnies.

Same here. I enjoy IC arcs, special missions and tfs and it's also good to meet roleplayers outside of my usual suspects.

I'll do it too.

Arachnos’ Red Wolf Division uncover a sinister plot hatched from Paragon City, The FBI and mysterious mystics unite to hit Talos’ criminal gangs, those BUGS give the Hollows boys in blue a headache, two heroes are slain and a charitable construction site destroyed by a mysterious group of villains, and there is all the usual action from Silent Tempest, Silver Sentry, Juno, Jessica Chang, Sable Lynx et al.
Which all means that there is a new entry in Nightsparrow’s famous and award-winning scrapbook which you can read HERE

The scrapbook goes adult as a new strip club in Pork Oakes could cause trouble for Paragon’s heroes and an unscrupulous porn baron makes a skin flick starring lookilikies of the Tempest girls and their friends!!!
Also, those adorably kooky BUGS girls cause problems for a watch manufacturing company and Diana Bright’s trip to a hell dimension takes a surreal turn with leprechauns, 50s rock stars and a car shaped like a part of the anatomy.
Plus all the latest reports featuring Silent Tempest, Dee & Nene, Juno Cuervo, Jessica Chang and Silver Sentry!
See all this and ogle gals in their skimpies HERE!!!

Trouble in Tempest as Dee, Diana and Jessica put Light of Truth in the trash!
The BUGS are back in action to the annoyance of Paragon hero Fusionette!
Dare you drink the mind-bending brew known as Old Grout? Will Dee Dee Diablo? Probably.
Catch the first glimpse of Archnos hero hunters Red Wolf Division. Yes, one of them is dressed as a clown!
And the Inquirer exposes Darksparrow’s latest bad behaviour on board a flight to Thailand! Pass the peanuts please and take a look at the latest scrapbook HERE!!!

Blackdove left CoX at the end of last year. Capes articles since then, there have only been a few, have been done by others after checking with her.

Harbour District, Liberty City, The Liberty Islands

Even the most expensive restaurants in Liberty City were basic by the standards of New York, London and Paragon City. But The Pink Pelican was the best. And it was at the forefront of the exciting fusion cuisine of the islands that was gaining a reputation abroad. Under the current martial law, the restaurant was quiet. Although there was no curfew in place, many of the more well to do citizens preferred to stay within their own walls at night.

A gold early 1980s Mercedes pulled up outside the restaurant. A black man with dead eyes got out of the passenger seat and opened the rear door. A beautiful Indian woman in a red sari elegantly stepped out of the car.

She entered the restaurant and was immediately welcomed by the excited manager who showed her to a table in the far corner of the establishment.

Sokoke Village, Eastern Mountains, The Liberty Islands

A man approached from Primogen’s left. He made barely a sound and his mind was as blank as the dark faces of the mountains that rose into the night sky around the village.

He was tall, muscular and wore a loose dark robe that seemed to be favoured by the younger men and women of the village. In his right hand was a lance made from a single piece of wood.

“You are not hungry, beast?” he said in a melodious tone that almost made him sound as if he were laughing. “Our mama always likes to feed her guests.” He sucked in air through his teeth. “She will talk to you now. You are invited. Or you can leave, eh? Your choice, beast, but this is the last night you will spend near our village.”

He pointed the shaman woman’s home with the lance. Points of darkness throughout the village stirred. There were at least a dozen other robed men and women watching the Primogen.

PM sent.

The dusty open spaces of the village were abandoned in the darkness. No sounds came from the scattered huts and shacks that seemed to have fallen at random after being cast by a giant hand. A rusting pick up truck and a diesel generator were clues that the village was not completely isolated.

At the far end of the village a warm orange light spilled from a doorway. A long shadow was cast as the crooked frame of the shaman woman stood and surveyed the village. She showed no sign of noticing the Primogen and after a minute or two turned and went back into her home. She pulled a black curtain across the doorway and the village was dark again.

It's a yes. Is she heading to Liberty City?

I can give you the details asap.

Two days passed.

Those coming in and out of the village did not seem to see or hear the woman, or at least showed no sign of it.

On the second night the two men in loose robes cut her free. They gave her water and took her back the way they had brought her.

Three hours passed and they returned, pulling a man behind them who was bound at the wrists. They removed his clothes and tied him to the tree as they had the woman.

The men looked out into the jungle. Silent. A small curved blade appeared in the hand of the taller of the two men. He made two swift cuts across the bound man’s chest in the shape of a V. They watched as blood streamed down the man’s chest.

One more scan of the jungle and they returned to the village.

Those cute but pesky BUGS are in trouble again! Silent Tempest travel to the South Pole to rescue a member who tries to eat them as a thank you! Heroes unite to thwart Clockwork rampage.

Yes, it’s the latest entry in Nightsparrow’s Scrapbook which you can view yourself by clicking
HERE!!!

The scrapbook illustrates the adventures and misadventures of the members of Silent Tempest and their allies. Find out more HERE!!!

Cute insect heroes go crazy of fruit juice and go on a destructive rampage! A scantily clad Lady Cobra is the start of a console beat em up! The Eastgate Devil is “adopted” by the PPD! Silent Tempest’s Light of Truth is found after being lost in time!

It can only be Nightsparrow’s Scrapbook which you can view yourself by clicking
HERE!!!

The scrapbook illustrates the adventures and misadventures of the members of Silent Tempest and their allies. Find out more HERE!!!

Sokoke Village, Eastern Mountains, The Liberty Islands

As dusk came, two men ran from the village. They ran fast but steady, giving the impression they could travel that way for miles without tiring. They wore loose fitting robes as dark as their skin.

When the night was at its darkest and the sounds of the jungle pierced the air, they returned. They were pulling another figure behind them, a young woman who’s simple but modern dress marked her out as not being from the village. They took her to a clearing several hundred metres from the village edge. A skeletal white tree, long dead, was in the centre of the clearing. The men stripped the woman of her clothing, there silence in contrast to her tearful pleading. They bound her to the tree.

The tree seemed to have some spiritual or ritual significance to the village. The elderly shaman woman of the village would visit it most days and pick plants from the surrounding rocks.

The men waited several moments. Looking out as if studying the jungle for something that had not been there before.
Finally, they returned to the village.

Romanov lowered his glass. To predict Hatesman’s actions was similar to trying to guess which way a drunken man would fall down. But Hatesman had fallen at last.

He turned to look at Hatesman, forgiving the insult of assuming that six men with guns could slow down one of the doctor’s former allies never mind four.

“You were always out of your league in our company, Dr Oswald, so your choosing to leave us does not surprise me. But forgive me, did you really say ‘don’t try to hurt me or I’ll tell?’ I wasn’t aware they’d published an edition of Supervillainy for Dummies.

He placed his glass on the table. “You have never understood the complexities of what we are trying to achieve here, Dr Oswald, so your threat carries little weight. For my part, I kept you around because it amused me to do so. You were little more than a jester or a small dog that does tricks.

“Time will reveal the consequences of what you have done today. Wasting my time being only one of your crimes. You have made enemies today. Enemies with long memories. And you’ve made it worth my while to notice you. And that will be your undoing. Like Britanic and Pious Hunter, you will come to learn that I do not suffer those who would inconvenience me.”

He took a step towards Hatesman. “But that is a game we will play another day, Dr Oswald. Now you should be more concerned with getting your vessel out of my ocean. There is a storm coming and I could not help but noticing that some of the seals on this submarine are not what they were.”

Romanov bowed his head slightly to the Countess and acknowledged Erebus and XV before a swirling black cloud consumed him and faded into nothing.

In an early post, the population of the village was described as 1,100 I think. This is a bit heavy for what I original had in mind so I'm going to adjust it to 110.

“Well it would be a shame to go to the trouble of nurturing a virus and not release it,” said Romanov recalling Hatesman’s actions. “I am confident that the epidemic will have the desired effect. I will of course release some information to the world media. Perhaps we will be able to milk a few million dollars from some charity organisations as an added bonus. I believe that the Angel Foundation has particularly loose purse strings.”

He turned to Erebus and gestured with his hand. “I interrupted,” he said as a statement of fact without a hint of apology. “Please, Lord Erebus, tell us more about your creation.”

Nadja Romanov
Prison Yard, The Zig – Four minutes to The Cadre Breakout

Nadja reeled backwards from the latest blow. Her gymnast training taking over as she stepped backwards along the wall she was balanced on, still with a modicum of poise, as the Longbow agent Sachs advanced leaving a trail of smoke from her damaged flight pack.

Nadja could sense Sachs' anger, as palpable as the tears soaking into her Longbow facemask.

Sachs hit her again. And again Nadja stepped back. This time she felt a wall at her back. She looked down. On one side of the wall, prisoners spilled into the yard looking for their ticket out. And on the other, more prisoners. The pale blue letter E on their prison uniforms marked them as the sexual predators and beasts that were kept segregated for their own safety. Many of them were baying at the two women locked in combat above them.

Sachs steeled herself. “I don’t know why I was ever afraid of you, Romanov. Take away your fancy talk and your superior looks and you’re nothing special.”

Sachs pushed Nadja back into the wall. The force of the flight pack giving applying more pressure and she forced Nadja into the flaking concrete.

“And without a weapon,” Sachs continued. “You’ve got nothing!”

Nadja tasted the coppery warmth of her own blood in her mouth. She half smiled as she looked at the Longbow woman. “Who said I’m without a weapon?”

She plunged the sharpened point of the hairdresser comb into Sachs' lower back. Twisted the shiv as she tore through her opponent’s spine. She swiped her leg hard, sweeping Sachs’ legs from under her. The Longbow officer’s flight pack kicked in and thrust her into the ground below.

The inmates of E Block cheered as they fought for the first taste of their unexpected prize. The terror in Sachs' eyes was the only sign she was conscious as her lifeless body was dragged into the shadows.

Nadja Romanov
Prison Yard, The Zig – One minute to The Cadre Breakout

Nadja could see the flyer as walked purposefully across the prison yard.

She turned, distracted briefly from her goal, as someone called her name. A young woman prisoner was calling her from inside one of the sewer outlet pipes in the yard.

In spite of herself Nadja moved closer to the tunnel. The girl was on the other side of thick, rusting iron bars.

“Nadja,” said the young inmate. “It’s Nadja, isn’t it? Help me out of here please.” She turned to look back down the pipe. “I can hear them. I can hear them coming this way. Help me.”

Nadja looked at her. She recognised her as the girl who’d sat at her table the day she’d added fatal frosting to Matilda’s pudding in the canteen. There was a wild desperation in her eyes. And something else Nadja couldn’t quite place.

“I don’t have time,” said Nadja, turning away.

“Wait!” said the girl in a half shriek. “I know something…something that’ll make you want to help me. I…” She turned. “They’re getting real close now.”

Nadja looked at the flyer then back at the girl. “You don’t have anything,” she replied. Then, in a rare moment of compassion, she tossed the blood-caked comb through the bars at the girl. “Good luck.”

Nadja Romanov
Inside Arachnos Flyer, Prison Yard, The Zig – The Cadre Breakout

Nadja pulled off the blood stained vest and trousers she was wearing. Even naked, she had a cold confidence despite being in an enclosed space with several men just escaped from prison. He balance didn’t falter as the flyer rose into the air. She opened a black bag that was on one of the seats. The black Night Widow suit inside fitted toned lines like a second skin. She ran her hand over the cool surface of her arm, resting for a second on the hidden telescopic blades laced with poison.

She looked at the men, monsters and woman in the flyer with her. For the time being this was her future.

This was The Cadre.

"A hologram. How quaint," said Romanov after the image of Hatesman had disappeared.

Soon after, the LoRDs in attendance were in the area Hatesman had designated for the meeting.

Romanov turned to the Countess. "Dr Oswald and Lord Erebus have much to report, I am sure. I suggest we give them the floor so they may do so."

((I'll alert the burn unit))