Stormfront_NA

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I'm usually in favor of villains having new, not regurgitated content, yes. I did think Lusca fit into your new zone idea, though, and in fact with a series of islands in general. I also like the idea of a seafaring GM in general.

*thinks*

You know, we're always going to Pargon via submarine, wouldn't they come at us in a submarine, too? Although I'd really rather not fight more Longbow.

I'm having a bad brain day. I know I can do better than that. Someone please send coffee via the universal speed boost port.

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Oh please, No Longbow, they are over used in villain side...

Stormy

I completely and totally love it! Can we get some special costume drops from here?

giggles

Stormy

Mmm...

By having standard percent of a recipe drop per mob class, and have it were any recipe could be obtained; it gives the freedom to do anything you want and still have the opportunity to acquire it. Granted that since there are so many recipies the odds are againt you getting the very one you want, yet you do get a chance, which at this time you can't unless you do specific type of activities, and now with merits, there are pool choices you can't even get now outside of using merits.

So I still propose get rid of the multi-pool concept in favor of a single pool approach. Normalize the drops among mobs types, so there is a clear advantage of taking on tougher mobs, otherwise, folks would set missions to avoid AVs, EBs, Bosses for they are, at this time, not worth the effort for the meager reward they offer. By normalizing, then folks would have the freedom to set missions at any difficulty, enjoy the game in its many variations, with out the temptation to min/max.

Hugs

Stormy

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The table, suggested, would offer for each type of mob the percent chance to get any colored recipe:

............None.....White..Yellow..Orange..Purple
AV...........0........ 40......30.........20.........10
GM.........20........ 32......24.........16...........8
EB..........40........ 24......18.........12.......... 6
Boss.......60........ 16......12...........8.......... 4
LT..........80...........8........6...........4... ....... 2
Minion....90...........4........3...........2..... ..... 1



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Do you have the mathematics of the spawn code that determines how many minion/lt/boss are in each mob based on the size of the team?
I keep trying to find that and it never seems to be documented anywhere.
I ask because whatever table you make, it needs to balance the same odds regardless of team size (ie: normalized to the spawn distribution formula).

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As far as I can tell, all of you out there please feel free to educate me on this one, I believe that the chances of getting a recipe is calcualted individually for each player in the team, thus potentially all 8 members could get a purple drop from the very same mob. This is opposed to, the recipe is determined from the mob, and then randomly awarded to a member of the team.

As I said, I am not sure of the process the game is using. But my impression is the one all gets a chance up front.

With regards to the mix of bosses, lts, etc. I understand is based on both the level of complexity of the mission primarely and the number of players.

When solo, you have to go the third level of difficulty to see bosses, and fifth level to see EBs. The second and fourth is just an increase in numbers of spawns. Do note when you go from second to third level of difficulty, the level of monsters go up, but the numbers regress to same as you had in the first level. Also third and fifth levels of difficulties increases the level of mobs by 1 incrementally.

With numbers of players, I am not precisely certain; and varies from mission to mission. with 6 players an EB will become an Archvillain, but will remainan EB at 5. Maybe someone can publish the breakpoints for us.

But as per my suggestion, I did not take into account spawn rate of what levels, for they are not really of great consequence. All I was seeking a fixed percent chance to get a recipe regardles of what and how you fought. I was seeking the freedom to street hunt, do threads, TFs, and Trials and not be penalized by artificial limitations of what I could get.

In the words of Wallace in Braveheart.... FREEDOM!

Hugs

Stormy

Hi:

While its true that my proposal does not address the desirability of some recipes over another, at least it does allow for any recipe to drop, which at this time is not true for TFs and Trials no longer drop recipies but offer merit awards instead.

A possible suggestion would be to reclassy those obviously not useful rare ones such as Pacing of the Turthle, Trap of the Hunter, etc from "Orange" to yellow. Thus if my proposed drop system was to be used, then a higher use that a truly useful rare would be received.

Hugs

Stormy

Hi:

I know, this may souond a bit odd, but why have these crazy pool choices. Why not? just have "white", "yellow", "orange" and "purple" drops, one big pool where anything can drop.

So regardless of what you doing, TFs, Threads, Killing stuff in the streets, or what not you coulod actually get any recipe in the game; its a matter of luck to receive which color, and then another random luck for which of all the ones in that color you get.

I think if we simplify the drop pool system we have now by ridding ourselves of pools, lots of problems would get fixed rather quickly.

Also remove any artificial measures on acquiring drops, such as certain AVs gives you nothing for your effort. I feel things need to be normalized, thus any AV has a much higher chance to drop a purple tha any other mob would have. The table, suggested, would offer for each type of mob the percent chance to get any colored recipe:

............None.....White..Yellow..Orange..Purple
AV...........0........ 40......30.........20.........10
GM.........20........ 32......24.........16...........8
EB..........40........ 24......18.........12.......... 6
Boss.......60........ 16......12...........8.......... 4
LT..........80...........8........6...........4... ....... 2
Minion....90...........4........3...........2..... ..... 1

This change will increase the supply across all types of recipes to be available in the market, thus restoring the market volumes. Also the table above, gives meaning to addressing tougher mobs. I always felt it was dumb that killing a minion would yield more loot than an AV.

Hugs

Stormy

Hi:

To be honest, this is the first game I ever played that some players are too worried about others possibly exploiting a weakness, farming or what not.

While I truly do like the merit concept as a reasonable means to influence market prices, I do have objections on how the merits are awarded.

What I see are the invasive practices of those more worried about what others are doing versus what they are doing. Frankly, some people should keep their noses out of others business.

I see poeple essentially jealous of the success others can attain through good teamsmanship, leadership, planning, and yes friendships. All I can say, learn to make friends, learn to be a leader, learn to play in a group and you will be able to enjoy the rewards from it, that you so loudly want to deny others.

Lets talk about the much maligned Katie TF, good leadership and careful mix of players makes Katie relatively easy to do, have a poor team and it just can't be done. The game has been fortunate to have grown many good leaders that would run this TF effectively, but what is the reward these good leaders get?

I know the developers are looking to reward mostly in the basis of time sunken into a TF or activity, practically oblivious of the greater traits of players such as innovative thinking, leadership, teaming, etc. As a result, I expec the devs will punish the better players in favor of the complainer and un-sociable players.

I find it ironic, for a game that nurfed a lot of classes in order to force team work, to be so oblivious at the results of good team work.

Stormy

Hi:

I hear a lot of complaints about how long it takes to gain merit awards, and truly it is not that bad.

Considering that the best IO recipe cost 250 Merits, how long does it really take to get, if one is smart.

There are three different leveled re-speccs, each awards about 25 merits a piece and can be done within an hour (with a good group). Also Manticore awards about 25 Merits and can be done in an hour. So if you do these 4 TFs you get 100 merits, in just 4 hours, yuo can repeat this for the next two days and end up with 300 Merits!, that is 300 merits in 12 hours of play, that is not really bad, whn you think of it.

But I see a lot of pro market folks, slamming the merit system, do they have a conflict of interests? You bet they do.

Lets explore a Miracle +Recovery level 20, 250 award merits (10 hours of TF work) or 60 Million influence at the Market.

Lets see here, a good farm team can harvest 1 Million an hour, in general, Oh my did I say Farm? So at this increased level of earning versus doing threads, TFS, and zone hunting, it would take 60 hours to save the 60M influence. Frankly I take the 10 hours over the 60 hours hands down.

Hugs

Stormfront

I like the merit system, and I like it a lot! For starters it provides me a means to disregard the over-priced market, for quite some time I needed another means to get the recipe drops I simply do not get. Still I need the merit system to go one more step deeper, it needs to sell purple recipes!

If any modifications needs to be done to the merit system is the merit awards given for thread completion really needs to be increased, this may in fact decreease the pressure to do TFs one really do not want to do.

I recently completed the Unai Kaman thread and got the 16 merits. Frankly the effort that went into doing this thread is way too much for the meager 16 points awarded. The clockwork kill all at the factory, is insultingly boring and annoying, my Axe Tanker while all of her powers are knock "down" or "up" behaved as knock "way back" instead; thus I could not kill any of the clockwork with out chasing hem for stories as they always fell away. Since this cursed mission was a kill all, trying to keep up with them was a nightmare. This thread has a lot of kill all missions, and travel gallore that makes many TFs seem simple compared to this one.

In a nuthsell, please increase the thread award rewards to give players more real choices on how to go about getting them.

Stomry

I been searching without success, can someone point me out to a link that has each IO recipe price in award merits?

Thank you

Stormy

I need a clarification, if you all would:

I understand diminishing returns is 50% of the previous award cummulative from the first instance of a TF and reset after 24 hours.

If I do say Positron TF, I would get the full merit award; but say after Positron I go to Synapse; will my Synapse merit award be subject to a diminishing return? or if I was to repeat Positron a second time within 24 hours, it would be subject to diminishing returns?

Hugs

Stormy

Ps: I think I13 has a lot of promise to evolve into, like all new things, it will have rough spots, but time tends to polish those rough spots. I still wish, that superior teamsmanship, leadership be truly rewarded as opposed to penalized.

must agree that speed farming and what not, should not be used as a justification to penalize the casual player.

Exploiting game coding defects are bad, but shame on the developers for not fixing them after a few weeks, and thus should not be valid justification to penalize the casual player.

Still despite of it all, while 1) time to do a TF should be "a" consideration,not "the" consideration; the game needs to make 2) challenge/risk "a" consideration; 3) mission difficulty "a" consideration; 4) team size "a" consideration, and 5) organization requirement should be "a" consideration. With all considerations being nearly equally important.

Reviewing the considerations:

1) Time to do mission: We get paid by the hour in real life, so I would imagine time on the job should be paid for.

2) Challenge: Doing a bunch of repetitive missions leading to a single AV is not much of a challenge, and risk is very limited (only when you fight the AV), versus fighting a whole bunch of AVs at the same time is an entirely different story. While Katie is highly maligned by many, do note that in the execution of the kill ten times the AV lots of players do die, there is challenge in that. ITF at times does fail, because of lack of leadership, group mix, etc. Just because a few can do this well, they don't always do it well, and always succeed.

3) Mission Difficulty: If you set mission at lowest difficulty, your team will face reduced number of opponents and levels from those set at higher difficulties; it almost falls under the challenge type of consideration, but it is unique enough to deserve a category of its own.

4) Team size: Small teams, no bosses, large teams can get EBs; big difference here, merit awards needs to consider this.

5) Organization: Lets face it, some TFs are entirely dependent on this consideration. Hamidon comes to mind as the best example of this category. To do this right and successful you need much more than 8 people to do this. You really have to choreograph everybody's roles, you have to figure what your role is and understand the flow. Hamidon is binary in nature, you either succeed or fail. If you succeed it will happen quickly, because you did it right. There is no such thing as success after six hours, likely after 2 hours people gave up on it after many deaths.

So we have 5 considerations, and all quite important. So I am ok as using time to do a mission as a baseline to set merit rewards, but I am not ok on how the other considerations are used to modify this baseline; they strike me as being way too trivialized. Thus some of this consideration can be addittive to the baseline, others can be multiplicative of the baseline.

Challenge: Multiplicative from a range of 1 to 10, would be my suggestion, the more AVs at a time you have to engage the more valuable. If you have to fight 8 AVs at a time, you get a X8 multiplier, if you do it multiple times, add a +1 to that multiplier for each time you have to do this. In the case of Katie, in which you have to fight an increased in level and support group each pass of the ten defeat the AV, is not quite as bad as fighting 8 AVs at a time, but fighting an AV supported by half a dozen bosses is no walk at the park either; suggest a multiplier of x3. In ITF at the end you fight Rommie and 3 other AVs clearly supporting each other (heal, etc) thus should be a x4 minum but because they are self supported and have ambushes spawning in the middle of the fight often, I recommend a x5.

Mission Difficulty: Its additive to the multiplier, after all think of the dramatic change in environment the difficulty setting does enact. Since there are only 5 difficulty levels and the first is baseline, doing the highest level should be +4 to the challenge multiplier.

Team Size: Another multiplier addition, as I recall, the nature of the mission environment changes at 3,5,7 sized groups, thus when a mission or TF is done with 3 to 4 players a +1 is added to the multiplier; 5-6 receives a +2 to the multiplier, and finally 7-8 gets a +3 multiplier.

Organization: Some TFs can be done by any mix and number of players, thus they do not require much for leadership. Yet others are extremely dependent on leadership and planning skills. hamidon being the greatest challenge, LRGF, STF being mid challenges; ITF, Katie being small challenge, and Positron being no challenge from this consideration. I would make the organizational modifier a + to multiplier as well, with Hamidon a +3, LRGF a +2, ITF a +1 as a suggestion.

So when the final consideration to how much to award, is a mix of the above 5 considerations.

Hugs

Stormy

Going back to basics:

Time to complete TF is an invalid metric as greater portion to determine awards, plain an simple. Challenge and risk should be truly significant valid metrics for merit compensation.

I sense from reading many posters, that there is an innate jealosy of those who can complete TFs very efficiently. That is sad that those who can not join others and learn from them, much rather see those who use good leadership practices, team compositions, strategies, and combat tactics punished, by having them receive less value from their success.

With regards to farming, farming is here because the prices of IOs are too high. Purple IOs are a tremendous temptation for those who PvP; for the better equipped you are, the better the chance for you winning an engagement. From a PvE perspective, the better equipped you are, the more mighty you will feel.

Since one can not afford IO recipes at 40M or more a recipe, one has to do it the old fashioned way: Earn it; or cheat and buy influence from the everyday spammer.

I find it ironinc, that the merit system does not provide for purple IO recipes, I am truly disappointed in this. So in order to get those purples you want, you have to kill, kill, kill and oh yes kill again. Thus you will farm in some fashion or another to get that purple you want.

Think of this, in the 6 hours of doing a Positron and get a handfull of merits, a reasonable farmer will get more orange recipe drops than what you could buy from the Positron merit awards and oh yes! You arelikely to get a purple drop as well. Frankly, I see little practical use in the merit system, when you do the math.

Perhaps an interesting metric to use, based on time and other factors equally, could be based on how many orange recipes a player would get during a normal period of time just doing missions, and thus set the number of merits a TF would award be set based on that. Say that the average player, gets 2 orange recipies and hour (quite common) doing missions, and the average orange recipe cost in merits is say 50 merits, thus each TF should award 100 merits and hour. Thus Positron and its 6 hours would be worth 600 merits. Now take this base and have a merit multiplier based on difficulty. Since positron is basically tedium, no challenge, it has a multiplier of 1. Take the real hard TFs such as Statesman, it would have a multiplier of say 10, so while Stateman could be done in half an hour, and worth 50 merits base, after the x10 difficulty it would be worth 500 merits. Take ITF which can be done in half hour, thus worth 50 merits, but since its not as hard as Statesman, but it is significantly hard, it would be worth say a x7 multiplier; thus becoming 350 merits worth. Katie, having to beat an AV 10 times and each time its harder, may be worth a x5 difficulty and thus worth 250 merits. Thus the real challenge would be to agree: 1. How many Orange drops a player gets per hour doing missions; 2) official average time it takes to complete a TF (don't base time on the most efficient group solely) or the most incompetent); and 3) determine the difficulty level of each TF. I would also add to the effective difficulty level of all TFs, by +1 to the multiplier for each difficulty level setting increase of the TF (heoric, invincible etc.), thus doing say Statesman at highest level would result (based on my example) a x(10+4) or x14.

Note that this suggestion, does not penalyze good practices, and offers choice. I can do a Positron take my sweet time, have little risk and get a good number of merits; or do something very intense for a short time and get a good number of merits; best of both worlds.

hugs

Stormy

Hi:

As long as the metric for number of merits is time, the game will be tedium not fun; it penalizes folks for being organized, ingenious, team oriented and what not. Frankly I had hoped the merit system would fix the very defective recipe drops at end of TFs, and in a way it does; sadly in the way of fixing it, they now broke the entire TF system. If folks do not do Positrons often, is because they are too long, repetitive, and therefore boring. So now, we are punished from playing the fun TFs by receiving no reward to speak off, and encourage us to do the TFs that we might as well be lobotomised and do.

Shudders

Stormy

Hi:

I truly appreciate your taking the time to explain the merit system as devised by the developer team; and as a consequence all the second and third order ramifications thereoff.

I have an issue with the merit award being a time in TF metric to begin with my reasons are stated below:

1) Punishes good team leadership
2) Punishes good team work
3) Punishes good team composition planning
4) Gives the game a "tedium" feel effect, despite of the you only gain merits once a day, oh my this is so discouraging...
5) Hammy is the most challenging team organizing event in the game, is organizing something taking close to hundred players to work in unison that unimportant?

Now some observations and questions:

I felt the solo ability of some classes and builds were noticeably changed to become more team oriented, main reason why the non-melee have status effect resistances, so they are encouraged to be support players. It seems to me the developers decided to emphasize team play.

Now if we going to emphasize team play, should we not be consistent?

1) My end of mission thread rewards me, not the rest of you. Do you all want to help me get a merit while you all don't? I don't feel this restriction leads to harmonious team building.

2) I need to do Katie TF for my badge, anyone want to help me? No way looser, its a waste of time to do, no merits... So much for urging teaming opportunities.

3) Lets do a Positron, lots of merits! Well I really don't have 6 or more hours to blow on that. I can actually farm a mission and get better drops that I can sell at the market. So much for experienced players being available to help form strong Positron teams. On the brighter side, Positron teams and other TF teams are going to be so hodge podge players with weaker skills and experience that they will take much longer to complete the TF, but in time they will be rewarded with more Merits for finding a way to spend 10 hours doing Positron instead...

I really wish you all would get off the time spent metric, and use challenge as the central metric; kinda reverse the way you are doing it now as a doctrine to decide how to reward TF success. I much rather see you all reward good tactics, good teaming, good leadership, good strategy, good planning rather than punish them as you going to do, perhaps unintentionally.

Hugs

Stormy

Hi:

I tend to see RP in multiple stages of maturity from marginally a role player to hard core rokle player.

If you want tob e considered a role player, there are many things to conside, a short list follows:

1. Bio, you have to have a bio! You have to have a reason why you are a hero or villain, a reason of why you have certain attitudes you role play during the game.

2. Your battle cry "F10" has to make sense as to your origins, for example one of my lady heroes, a healer, she was attacked and her clinic personnel killed, that horrendous experience awoke her powers. Her battle call: "You gonna hurt much more, if you try to hurt anyone" would make sense based on her experience.

3. Cool outfit, your costume has to be relevant to what you are! I seen some beautiful costumes made with leaves and a natural theme to it, and the player is a plant dominator, quite appropriate. My Tanker Lady Reaver used to go around in a victoria secret's outfit and sporting mean looking shoulder pads. While it seems weird, if you read her bio, the costume makes sense, and the shoulder pads are a souvenir.

4. Powers, the have to make sense to your character concept, in general it is not going to be flavor of the month (fire/kin, etc). Often you will choose powers that may not be the optimum and in fact you may handicap yourself as a whole, you may avoid powers because they may give you an inappropriate look. For example, you could say you are a natural based person, but you are very fast, thus you feel haste is reasonable, yet haste gives a pom pom glow to your hands, which is quite un-natural. Thus as a result you chose not to get haste, despite it could have been very helpful.

5. How you behave in game, what you say! If you are a clown, you should joke alot, say funny things, etc. If you are the dark reserved type, you should be somewhat quiet with pragmatic statements.

6. The final stage of role play, is actually behaving as the character is designed. That is you say and do as if you weret hat person. I made a Norse Barbarian warrior, in the terms of a Red Sonja. I found it difficult to roleplay, too many other players did not like it, were freaked by it, or simply went out of their way to ruin the feel. But at times others do get into the feel of the moment, and the experience is glorious.

Hugs

Stormy

You are welcome to use my Chronicles of Lady Reaver, the are a set of 12 stories, and they are posted in the Roleplay Forum in this web page.

Stormy

The Chronicles of Lady Reaver
The Wages of Evil
By Ed & Sue Garcia

Lady Reaver silently stared at the monitor for a long time, as Countess Crey laughed at her. But Countess Crey’s laughter was caught short as she saw Lady Reaver decapitating the scientist that had set up the conference.

Lady Reaver turned to address the large monitor and said with her usual from beyond the grave voice: “Founders Falls, Building 203, 52nd Street, 25th floor, and Northwest Corner office”

Countess Crey gasped for a moment and said with in a voice filled with surprise: “How did you know my location, who told you?”

Lady Reaver remained silent for a few moments, her face showing a colossal struggle on going in her mind, and then her face relaxed and said with a flat voice: “Nothing is kept from Forseti’s instrument of judgment, at least not for long. There is nowhere you can go, where I can’t find you. The voices of the innocent death, whose blood are on your hands calls for justice, and they shall receive it. I’m coming for you, your time to stand before Forseti has come”

Countess Crey laughed, and menacingly leaned towards the camera and said: “You little tramp, a mere housewife, you dare threaten me? Ha! I have bested better than you and your ridiculous Norse God. You serve me now, or I destroy those precious organs of yours in punishment”

Lady Reaver remained silent once more, and then replied with a detached voice: “The housewife is no more, and she died when her family was murdered. I am the servant of Forseti till the end of time, for that was the agreement in our covenant. Attempting to coerce me with those organs is of no consequence, for regardless of how my mortal form may feel it is irrelevant”

It was now Countess Crey’s turn to remain silent and to consider her next action, then with an intimidating yet soft spoken voice she said: “My records indicates that your mother lives in Galaxy City, how quaint. As we speak Crey Operatives are on their way to protect her from ruffians. You shall serve me!”

Lady Reaver’s face became quite saddened and mumbled towards the monitor: “There was a price to be paid, and it seems I’m still paying it. I’m coming Countess, and you are going to regret crossing me”

Countess Crey laughed and as she pressed a button said: “I sincerely doubt it”

The building that Lady Reaver had ravaged blew up in a fiery explosion that rattled most of Brickstown. When the dust and smoke settled down, a fiery figure stood amidst the rubble, axe in hand.

Lady Reaver leapt towards the West and landed on a roof where several Crey agents were monitoring the activities of a nearby building. The Crey agents attempted to fire their weapons, but Lady Reaver had caught them flat footed and with a wide arc sweep of her axe, killed all of them. At a distance more Crey agents could be seen, with a thin smile Lady Reaver leapt towards that roof.

Most of that day, Lady Reaver endeavored herself in ridding Brickstown of as many Crey operatives as she could, and then went to a phone booth and made a call.

Founders Falls never saw so many Crey personnel brought down so quickly and brutally as it happened that day. The trail of Crey devastation lead directly to the building Countess Crey resided on, and as Lady Reaver got closer the more desperate the defense of the building became. A few lawyers tried to intimidate Lady Reaver with the threat of legal lawsuits, but what was a lawsuit to the servant of a God? Lawyer blood and body parts were splattered over building walls and sidewalks; there was nothing in this mortal world that could stop the determined servant of Forseti.

The building doors at Crey headquarters at Founders Falls blew open into thousands of glass shards as Lady Reaver’s axe bit into them. Alarms went off all over the building and a few unwise guards attempted to stop Lady Reaver’s advance into the building. The guards’ reward was having their bodies hacked to pieces. Once more destruction of anything of value or Crey personnel was observed at every floor, as personnel learned of Lady Reaver’s advance on to their floor, total panic ensued. There were a few terrified Crey that actually leapt out of windows and to their deaths to avoid Lady Reaver’s flames of judgment and axe.

Finally Countess Crey office doors were hacked open and Lady Reaver stood before Countess Crey.

Countess Crey smiled at Lady Reaver and said: “You have destroyed a lot of my property, and you will pay dearly for that. You will pay even more for daring to challenge me! You will never find your family’s organs. I did not destroy them, ha, ha, ha! You will go crazy trying to find them and achieve closure, but that will never happen, you will never find them”

Lady Reaver looked at her and said: “You murdered my mother; her body can be found in a warehouse in the corner of 15th street and Brawler Avenue. I know, for she has told me. My family’s organs are at the bottom of the sea between Talos and Founders Falls. I shall retrieve them, after you have been sent to Forseti”

Countess Crey laughed and said: “You think you can take me on alone?”

Lady Reaver stepped aside and said: “What makes you think I came alone? Forseti has many ways to aid his servants”

Countess Crey looked past Lady Reaver and recognized Stormfront, Thunderkick, Sun Witch, Acasta, Dream Witch, Odin’s Wrath, and Irish Spring entering the room with grim faces, faces of powerful super heroes that remembered the tribulation they had just been put thorough from Countess Crey’s Rogue-Clone campaign.

The Chronicles of Lady Reaver
A Mother’s Fury
By Ed and Sue Garcia

Lady Reaver stood within the train car with a very grim expression on her face, with flames engulfing her body and holding her axe in a quite threatening stance. The few unlucky passengers riding in the same train car with her did their best to be as far away as they could from her and remained silent for the entire trip.

The train stopped at Talos and the doors opened, no passengers stepped off the car, and a few would be passengers at Talos commenced to enter the car but decided against it. Finally the train stopped at Brickstown and Lady Reaver stepped off the car as several sighs escaped the terrified citizens that had ridden the train with the emissary of Forseti.

Lady Reaver slowly left the train station and stood in the middle of the street. She looked, observed and searched for something with kin interest. People traveling on the street across from the train station saw the fiery figure with an intimidating axe, and simply chose to take a different street.

Lady Reaver commenced walking in a southern direction, and then turned west to parallel the bridge. Soon she saw a group of Crey agents, intimidating citizens as they often do. Lady Reaver heard a few voices of the innocent slain, but their voices were drowned by her own thoughts of punishment, vengeance, and wrath.

There were no words exchanged, as her axe raised and lowered a Crey died. She said nothing, asked nothing, she just killed. Crey powered armor agents were rendered to pieces by her mystic axe; agents screamed in anguish as her fiery aura engulfed them in righteous judgment and their laments abruptly ending by the sharp edge of an axe.

Lady Reaver looked around for any challengers, but no other criminal organization wanted a part of what was being delivered. She walked further west and another unlucky cluster of Crey agents came into sight. Once more, with out a word, Lady Reaver assaulted the Crey with deadly intent. The Crey fought for their lives, but they were no match against the anger of a grieving wife and mother; they were no match for Forseti’s Valkyrie of justice.

A powered armored Crey tank broke away and ran, but Lady Reaver simply leapt in pursuit and did not try real hard to catch up with him. In time, just a mere two blocks away from the initial place Lady Reaver started the fight with the Crey minions; the terrified Crey tank entered a building. Lady Reaver allowed herself a very thin smile, for she had wanted the Crey tank to lead her to a Crey facility. The tank entered the facility and slammed the door shut, but his respite was of no consequence, for Lady Reaver hacked the door into pieces and stepped into the facility.

Two Paragon Protectors stepped to bar her way, and the leading protector, a male scraper, said with threatening voice: “You are entering private property of Crey Industries, if you continue performing this criminal activity, Crey will press charges against you”

Lady Reaver looked at the two Paragon Protectors and said with her beyond the grave voice: “Crey has taken my property, a property that is very dear to me. You all will pay dearly for what you have done” She then stepped forward and attacked the nearest scrapper Paragon Protector with her axe. The scraper Paragon Protector was actually very competent and managed to avoid many of her attacks but eventually found himself engulfed by her flames of judgment, and during his hesitation found himself hacked apart by her mystic axe. The second Paragon Protector was a lady blaster, whose energy bolts had no noticeable effect on Lady Reaver, and simply turned around and flew away in terror as she saw her partner hacked to pieces.

Lady Reaver destroyed everything along the way, machine, crate or Crey employee. A few employees begged for mercy, but all they received was the sharp end of her axe. As Lady Reaver penetrated the Crey facility the intensity in which the facility was defended increased, but it did not matter for Lady Reaver wanted revenge, plain and simple.

Paragon Protector after another fell by the might of her mystic axe, and many a pleading spirit received peace this day. Finally as she entered the last room of the building, a lone Crey Scientist stood in sheer terror by a large computer display. On the computer display the face of Countess Crey could be seen, and she was not happy.

Countess Crey cleared her voice and said: “I know who you are, and your little rampage has costed me dearly this day. What you want?”

Lady Reaver stopped in the middle of the room, bathed with cleansing flames and mystic axe in hand. She said nothing for a few moments and then said with a firm and threatening voice: “I am Lady Reaver, servant of Forseti the Norse God of justice. I only exist to punish the wicked that murders the innocent, so that their spirits may receive eternal peace. You have in your possession several organs of my deceased husband and daughter. I want them back; Gaia told me your operatives took them from her three days ago”

Lady Reaver could see that Countess Crey was no longer looking at her camera, but busily typing something on a keyboard by the sound of the clicking of the keyboard’s keys. A few moments later, Countess Crey stopped typing and faced the camera. With a feline smile she said: “Yes, I have records of us raiding the Devouring Earths for materials and that among the loot some human organs were discovered. I take it you want them back, don’t you”

Lady Reaver nodded with acceptance, and waited for Countess Crey to continue. Countess Crey once more smiled and said with a threatening voice: “I have a task for you to perform, if you do it well enough, I might give you the organs back”

The Chronicles of Lady Reaver
Mother Nature
By Ed & Sue Garcia

Lady Reaver stepped off the Talos train station into a thunderstorm, and she looked about to see people running for cover. At first she believed the citizens of Talos were looking for a refuge from the torrents of rain and occasional hail, but closer examination and a tip from a friendly ghost, quickly yielded a number of Crey personnel in power armor waiting in ambush. Lady Reaver knew the ambush was for her, as it so often has happened these past few days, and wondered briefly why were the Crey so intent in persecuting her? Why her instead of the hundreds of other super heroes that spend considerably more effort ruining Crey plots than her.

Lady Reaver wanted to continue with her line of thinking, but the voices of the unjustly murdered commenced to build up in her mind. It was time for her to get busy and do her job as Forseti’s Valkyrie; as Forseti’s spirit of retribution. Soon her body was engulfed by divine sourced flames and her mystically powered axe was ready for use.

She walked down the train ramp and towards the center of the open plaza, and making no attempt to hide her presence. Her walk was slow and deliberate, and she smiled as she knew she was tempting the Crey to assault her; yet no attacks were delivered. She stopped at the center of the plaza, and looked towards the skies as the rain poured down, yet her divine flames prevented the rain from reaching her. Lady Reaver looked around, and sighted with boredom. Yet no attack from the Crey followed, the thunderstorm finally moved on its way towards Dark Astoria and gradually the skies began to clear.

Finally Lady Reaver slowly looked around herself and said aloud with her characteristic voice from beyond the grave: “I have been told of your presence here, servants of Countess Crey, there is no surprise to be had, disperse or prepare to receive Forseti’s judgment”

A single Crey operative, dressed in a purple power armor suit, stepped away from a parked mini van, and said though his amplified voice speaker system: “Lady Reaver, you have been found guilty of using super powers in public with out appropriate permits. We have been dispatched by the legal authorities to arrest you. You may surrender to us the easy way, or the hard way. Which way you choose is of no consequence to us”

Lady Reaver smiled at the Crey Operative and said with a firm voice: “Show me the warrant”

The operative nervously shuffled his feet, and turned around looking for moral support from his colleagues. After a few minutes he said with an irritated voice: “Police drone Talos-1, incapacitate Lady Reaver”

Lady Reaver turned to look at the police drones, but neither moved or did anything beyond the normal flashing of their warning lights. Once more the Crey Operative repeated, but this time louder and with a great deal of anger: “Police drone Talos-1, incapacitate Lady Reaver”

Lady Reaver stepped towards the Crey operative and said: “It is Forseti’s will that the drone obeys, not yours or any other mortal. Remove yourself and your companions from my presence now”

The Crey operative made a motion with his right hand, and a large number of operatives moved towards the plaza to surround Lady Reaver, but no sooner had they surrounded Lady Reaver, another super lady hero stepped off the train. The people immediately recognized assistant district attorney Odin’s Wrath, and cheered at her with loud voices and whistles.

Odin’s Wrath looked at the lead Crey operative and said with a firm and authoritative voice: “The people of Paragon has dropped all charges against Lady Reaver as part of the Rogue-Clone settlement, your orders are obsolete. Return to your duty station, and disturb this lady no more”

The Crey operative regarded Odin’s Wrath for a few moments and said: “Show me the paperwork to validate what you had said”

Odin’s Wrath replied with anger in her voice: “You show me your paperwork that gives you the right to apprehend Lady Reaver. If you fail to provide it, I will charge you with unlawful attempt to imprison and use of deadly force”

The Crey operative stood motionless for a few moments, and then said with a shaky voice: “I have received updated orders from central dispatch, and they have canceled the arrest mission and reassigned me to patrol Dark Astoria”

Lady Reaver nodded with gratitude to Odin’s Wrath and leapt away towards the North while Odin’s Wrath returned to the train station.

Past the Circle of Thorn infested islands Lady Reaver jumped; island after island she explored in search of the dreaded Devouring Earths. Many a rumor she had heard of this enigmatic organization or perhaps cult, yet she was not able to make sense of to their purpose of being. It was not money or power, as so many other criminal organizations pursued, that the Devouring Earth cherished or even lightly considered. As far as she could tell they were protectors of the environment, but perhaps a bit too fanatic about it and often becoming too blood thirsty to be considered a benign organization. The voices of the unjustly murdered continued to fill her mind, and increase in desperation, thus she knew she was getting closer to her destination. It was all too obvious to Lady Reaver that the blood thirsty Devouring Earth had killed many an innocent citizen; and they now cried for justice, demanded vengeance.

As soon as Lady Reaver landed on a mid sized island, she found herself assaulted by a barrage of spines, swarms of bees, and chocking clouds. While these attacks would kill a normal citizen, and even incapacitate many super heroes; they were no risk to one who was a divine emissary. Her body was now brilliantly covered in divine flames and her axe was brutally swinging at all kinds of nature’s defenders. The Devouring Earths were no match for Forseti’s Valkyrie, and were falling totally destroyed each time Lady Reaver swung her mystical axe. Finally the Devouring Earth stopped their attacks, and stepped aside forming a corridor in between their ranks. Lady Reaver allowed her axe to dematerialize but remained protected by her cleansing fires, and cautiously commenced to walk down the bizarre looking corridor.

She walked for a few minutes and the corridor lead her to a cave entrance, she was not intimidated by the darkness she saw within the cave; for her protective flames would provide all the illumination she would need. The cave’s interior was mostly made of a crystalline material and not the typical rock like materials found in conventional caves. Lady Reaver being a creature born out of magic, had no difficulty feeling the great amount of magical flows and emanation sources, she knew this was no mere place people would come for a casual stroll. After a few minutes she reached an underground lake and saw in the middle of this lake a small island. In this island Lady Reaver saw an elderly lady sitting on a marble throne, as Lady Reaver stood by the water’s edge, the elderly lady motioned for Lady Reaver to come to her.

Lady Reaver looked at the brackish water and looked towards the elderly lady, waiting for something to happen, perhaps a word of encouragement; maybe a taunt; or maybe some kind of horrid monster would emerge from the lake’s bottom and take her prisoner for the rest of eternity. Yet not one of these choices occurred, instead the water parted between Lady Reaver and the elderly lady, showing a narrow walkway that have been covered by the brackish water, thus hiding its presence. Lady Reaver stepped on this narrow walkway and slowly began to travel towards the elderly lady. To her surprise the walkway was dry and not slippery as she had expected it to be.

Lady Reaver stood before the elderly lady and waited for her to say something. After several anxious moments, the elderly lady said with a tired voice: “My daughter, why do you fight my servants? Why have you come here?”

Lady Reaver regarded the old woman and said with her customary from beyond the grave voice: “I am not your daughter, if I was, I am not now. I am the servant of Forseti; the God of Justice. I serve non other than Forseti, and have given up all that I was and will ever be to avenge the deaths of my daughter and husband. I shall forever roam this world seeking those who murder the innocent and the helpless, for that is the price demanded by the pact between Forseti and myself. I do eat, sleep, drink, and breathe air as if alive, yet I can’t die and I really don’t live a mortal’s life anymore. While eternity is mine to have, my life is empty of joy and happiness; it is one of servitude. I have come here seeking for what has been taken away from my daughter and husband’s bodies; your servants took these organs from the evil Circle of Thorns; and I want them back so that their bodies may be buried whole”

The elderly lady commenced to loudly weep, and she slowly lifted her face to look at Lady Reaver’s face and said: “I grieve for you, my daughter, for I am Gaia, mother of all that lives in this world. I cry for your loneliness, as a mother suffers from her child’s misfortune. You have paid a grievous price in the pursuit of justice for a horrible crime done against your family and me. I blessed you when you and your husband conceived your first child; I blessed your child as she grew up; and my work with you was all lost when they were murdered. My loss became total, when you left me and became an emissary of Forseti. I know of your loved ones missing organs, and had captured them from the degenerate Circle of Thorns so they could be buried in consecrated grounds, but alas, that did not happened. An evil organization known as the Crey raided our island in search of material components for some experiment of theirs, most surely one which will bring great harm to the environment, among the items they took were your loved one’s organs. I grieve with you, for I know that your sacrifice to Forseti is all in vain until those organs are buried with your loved ones. Be well my child, and I hope a day will come were Forseti will release you from his service and let you return to me”

The Chronicles of Lady Reaver
The Face Evil
By Ed & Sue Garcia

Lady Reaver leapt towards the next island, in an attempt to find the one with a large waterfall, but so far it had all been in vain. But her visits to each tiny island was not a total waste of time, for she vanquished many a Circle of Thorn evil ritual and freed many would be victims. Finally a larger island presented itself before her, and Lady Reaver somehow knew this was the place she had been looking for. As soon as she landed on the island, she was attacked by spectral spirits and behemoth demons, but they were no match for Forseti’s avenger of justice. In time she climbed up the mountain, and found the waterfall just as it had been described. She readied her axe, and then stepped through the waterfall and to her relief into a dimly lit cave. Barring her way deeper into the cave was a huge oaken door, carved with all sorts of mystical symbols. She looked at them for awhile, and wondered if they were wards of some sort, or worse yet glyphs which could explode by being triggered by her mere presence.

The fire engulfing her glowed brightly, and her axe reflected the light produced by the flames in a rather intimidating manner. Lady Reaver took a step towards the door, but nothing happened, no feelings of dread, and no explosions occurred. She thought about knocking at the door, but felt that would not be appropriate, after all she wanted, really wanted for the Circle of Thorns to know she was coming.

She raised her axe, and lowered it with brutal force. The door exploded in a rain of splinters from the sheer might of her axe blow. The guards on the other side were caught by surprise, or simply stunned by the sheer brutality on how the door was destroyed. She stepped forward into the cavern, and said with her normal from beyond the grave voice: “You have slain the innocent, tortured the weak, and you will now suffer all the pain you gave during your life, before I destroy you”

The Behemoth demon was the first to cast fire bolts at Lady Reaver, but they had no effect. A few guides fired their crossbows, but their bolts were disintegrated by the heat of her fire shield. Finally a death mage utilized his dark magic at her, but no noticeable effect could be discerned. Lady Reaver charged the huge winged demon, for it best represented the evil that threatened to overcome this world. The axe cleaved into the demons right shoulder and it howled in pain, followed by the judging flames of Forseti that engulfed it. Once more Lady Reaver was denied the pleasure of seeing the evil doer suffer the pain they had given to others, for Demons had no conscience. She swung her axe once more and killed the demon, and turned to face off with the death mage. The death mage focused his attention on her and summoned a dark energy force; that manifested itself as dark tendrils reaching out from him towards her. But the tendrils were destroyed as soon as they attempted to pierce through the cleansing flames. Lady Reaver leapt and landed next to the death mage, and as she did swung her axe vertically in order to benefit from the momentum of her leap. The mage’s scream was a short one, for the single massive impact of the axe sent him to Forseti for his final judgment.

The two guides continued firing their crossbows at her, but as expected with no effect at all. A wide sweeping blade strike struck both Circle of Thorns and put an end to their evil ways. An ancient corridor laid ahead, dimly illuminated with torches placed about every ten feet. Lady Reaver could sense the evil ahead of her, and felt revulsion from it. She once more walked down the corridors in search of evil doers, and at a cross section she was met by a large contingency of Circle of Thorns. It was all too obvious that her presence was known, and that she was being dealt with. A mage at the back shouted: “Attack, render her helpless! Then we shall capture her soul and use her body to serve the Circle of Thorns”

Several Behemoth Demons and a huge oversized demon, probably their master, immediately summoned demonic bolts of brimstone which engulfed her with a wall of fire. Her fire shield took the brunt of the attack, but some of it managed to get through and produce searing pain. Lady Reaver screamed in anguish, and then it gradually turned into anger. As her anger increased at the unholy creatures her flame shield grew brighter, and she then charged the demons with her axe at ready. The demons continued to hail her with brimstones, but the master demon produced a huge fiery sword and stood ready to duel with her in mortal combat. Lady Reaver ignored the master demon, and attacked its minions with full ferocity. Each time she swung her axe, a dead demon was thrown aside. Finally it came down to the master demon and her. The mage who had ordered to have Lady Reaver rendered helpless, ordered his guides to guard the corridor he was quickly retreating into.

The huge demon swung his fiery sword, but Lady Reaver’s fire shield prevented it from doing any noticeable harm. Lady Reaver swung her axe, and struck the huge demon, but it also seemed unaffected by her attack. The demon swung again, but this time missed hitting Lady Reaver, who swung her axe with lethal conviction. The axe struck the demon in his midsection and sent them flying back and against the wall. As the demon attempted to regain his feet, Lady Reaver was next to him, and hacking. The demon knew that his defeat was impending, and said as a last sign of defiance: “My brethren will avenge me, and you will fall. Your soul will be captured and tortured for the rest of eternity” Lady Reaver looked at the demon and said with her cryptic voice: “Worse fate awaits you, for Forseti awaits your arrival” She swung her axe one last time and the demon’s life force was extinguished, as his eyes gradually dimmed and turned dark.

The guides rushed Lady Reaver with wicked looking blades, but as soon as they entered Forseti’s flames of judgment, their fanaticism quickly burnt away. They begged for mercy, but there was none to be given. Wordlessly Lady Reaver executed each and every one of the guides. She followed the corridor the mage had used to run away from her and entered a larger cavern; in the middle of the cavern was a large pyramid like structure. At top of the pyramid Lady Reaver could see the glow emanating from magic crystals, and she knew that what she had come to retrieve could be found there.

The battle to the top of the pyramid was a long and arduous one, for the steps to the top were filled with many demons and Circle of Thorn fanatics willing to die in the attempt to stop her from reaching the top. Lady Reaver thought to herself, that this day Forseti’s court would find itself very, very busy with lots of evil customers. Finally at the top of the pyramid the death mage was there expecting her, and with a voice filled with contempt said: “You had slain many of my minions, but I Gothos, will claim your soul to the magic crystals of Oranbenga. Your body will serve me, and it will satisfy each and every one of my desires, and your soul will be made to suffer endlessly”

Lady Reaver looked at the mage, and said with her cryptic voice: “The dead demands justice, the souls of the tortured demand freedom, and I demand revenge” She stepped forward towards the mage, but the mage summoned dark clouds of energy which engulfed her, and then manifested themselves as black monstrous tentacles, which prevented her from moving. The mage laughed and said: “See how easy it was for me to restrain you! Now with this crystal I will draw your soul out of your body, muahahaha” Lady Reaver saw the mage approach her with a transparent crystal, which at times seemed to sparkle with wisps of color alternating from blue, green and red. Lady Reaver waited till the mage commenced to move the crystal next to her, and then summoned Forseti’s flames of judgment. The dark bonds that restrained her were quickly burnt away, and she was free to do as she pleased. The flames engulfed Gothos as well, and the evil mage dropped to his knees in agony, yet in his eyes, Lady Reaver could see the vile hatred and inhumanity in this mage’s soul. She grabbed the mages wrist with her left hand and held the crystal between the mage and herself at eye level. Then she said with a threatening voice: “You will tell me all I want to know, or you will suffer a fate much worse than you had in store for me. Now tell me, and don’t play games with me” The flames of judgment became more intense, and Gothos screamed in agony once more, and gradually transitioned from screaming to sobbing as the intensity of Lady Reaver’s flames decreased as well. Lady Reaver looked into his eyes and said: “Answer this question truly, your minions a few days back attacked the Tsoo in Talos Island, human organs were taken from them. I want to take possession of those organs and appropriately dispose of them. Now tell me where they are, and your suffering in this world will come to an end” The mage looked into her eyes, and laughed. It was a laugh of a man gone mad, it was a laugh filled with hopelessness. Then the mage said: “The organs did not get to be used for our rituals, as my apprentice was preparing to use them he was attacked and slain by the Devouring Earths. The Devouring Earths took prisoner several of my servants and your precious organs as well” The mage attempted to push the crystal towards Lady Reaver, but could not summon sufficient strength to do so. Lady Reaver while holding Gotho’s wrist, smiled, and commenced to very slowly move the crystal towards his face. The crystal eventually touched his left cheek and Gothos screamed as she saw his soul being sucked into the crystal.

A ghostly voice whispered to her mind, and said: “Collect all the crystals and take them to Azuria in Atlas Park, she will know how to free the souls entrapped in them”

Lady Reaver stepped out of the waterfall and gazed into the skies, she knew that her hunt for her family’s organs would have to wait till she delivered the crystals to Azuria.

The Chronicles of Lady Reaver
The Circle is Broken
By Ed & Sue Garcia

Lady Reaver stepped off the train, and the smell of the sea filled her nostrils. She stood a few moments enjoying the scent and allowing memories of her and her family coming to Talos for a summer vacation so many years ago. She remembered when her husband, long ago, asked her for a date and took her to the boardwalk. She remembered her husband asking her hand in marriage, at the boardwalk’s pier. Then tears streaked down her face, as the memories of his death returned to her mind and she remembered why she was here this night.

Lady Reaver remembered tackling a few Circle of Thorn members in the past, initially in King’s Row and much later here in Talos. She remembered fighting them on some small islands north of Talos, where her search for their secret hide out would begin. Lady Reaver had a personal dislike for the Circle of Thorns, for they had exhibited a total lack of regard for human life. Their sacrificial practices and body snatching for ancient spirits to inhabit were truly abominable. She even found more disturbing their porting in of demons and then worshipping them as part of their perverted rituals.

The Thorns were particularly difficult to track because often the spirits of those they have murdered or stolen their bodies from; where also held prisoners on magical crystal shards, thus there were not many, if any voices of the dead to guide her. Lady Reaver’s body shivered, as the magnitude of the inhumanity that the Circle of Thorns could be capable of doing downed on her. Lady Reaver’s attitude became grimmer as she realized that if the Thorns defeated her, it is likely that her soul would be captured in some mystical crystal shard, and her body occupied by some evil spirit.

Bathed in the warmth of Forseti’s flames, Lady Reaver stared towards the night sky and saw a falling star travel through the horizon. She closed her eyes and made a wish, a wish that she knew all too well would never happen, for her family was gone, forever gone, taken away by the evil that had befallen Paragon City. Lady Reaver gripped her axe with increased determination and leapt away from the train station and towards the islands she knew the Thorns hid at.

A few jumps later, she landed on a small dumbbell shaped island, and just in time to interrupt a Circle of Thorns sacrificial ritual. Suspended in mid air was a victim, a victim pleading for their life, a victim who the Circle of Thorns felt no pity for. The Thorns would get no mercy from Lady Reaver this night or any other time either, they are a scourge, a cancer that most be eradicated from this world whenever encountered. There was a large winged demon seemingly guarding a death mage, and his two assistants, also a demonic spirit seemed to be supporting the ritual as well. It mattered not, for her faith in Forseti would see her through this battle and the Thorns will be made to pay. As she landed she rushed the winged demon, a Behemoth Master, she believed they were called, but a demon no less. There were no words exchanged, the two fire engulfed champions, one for good and the other for evil, engaged in mortal combat. But there was no honor among the Circle of Thorns, and soon all other Thorns participants of the ritual soon began shooting their crossbows and casting evil magic spells at Lady Reaver. Lady Reaver summoned a circle of cleansing flames about her, but the demon was not affected by it, but since when demons had a conscience. Yet Lady Reaver’s axe was all too real, and it commenced to quickly injure and devastate the huge demon, which also used its sharp clawed hands to deliver pain and agony to Lady Reaver. Lady Reaver’s naughty outfit commenced to shred to pieces as each clawed hand struck her, and soon discovered that all of her clothing had been destroyed leaving her nude. Yet this rather embarrassing situation did not prevent her from defeating the large demon. The death mage took a good long look at Lady Reaver, and she had no difficulty in seeing that the mage had become sexually aroused. This only made Lady Reaver angrier, at how evil and petty the death mage was, and thus he became her next target. The mage was protected by some kind of magical force fields, and had much difficulty seriously injuring him, and it seemed that no sooner did she hurt him some, that he would cast an evil spell at her and recover his health at her expense. She redoubled her efforts, and bathed the evil mage in soul cleansing flames, which this time affected the mage for he was no demon. Yet the mage’s magical protections guarded him from the mind agonizing, conscience, and judgment effects of her flame, but yet the flames were hurting him and also affecting how well he could cast. It was a long and arduous battle, but finally the mage was defeated with a final swooping axe blow that took him down, along with the demonic spirit and one of his assistants as well.

The last of the assistants commenced to run away, but was caught by Lady Reaver’s flames. The assistant fell to his knees and screamed in agony. Lady Reaver stood next to him and said with her normal from beyond the grave voice: “Tell me where the secret temple is at, and I will end your torment” The terrified Circle of Thorns assistant moaned in pain, but managed to signal with his head that he would cooperate. Moments later the flames ceased to torture the Circle of Thorns assistant, and Lady Reaver allowed her axe to banish away and crossed her arms waiting for an answer. The Circle of Thorns assistant slowly stood up, but being a man, could not resist the urge to stare at her breasts and groin area. This made Lady Reaver even angrier and more impatient, thus she summoned back her axe and changed her stance indicating that very soon she would be swinging. The Circle of Thorn assistant immediately stopped staring at her, and moved his head to look down towards the sand and with a trembling voice said: “Our underground temple can be found in the largest island to the northwest. At the center of the island you will see a large mountain, and on the southern side of this mountain you will see a waterfall. There is a cave at the other side of the waterfall, and in this cave is the entrance to our underground temple.”

Lady Reaver raised her axe in a motion to ready her swing, and the assistant screamed: “But you said you would not harm me” Lady Reaver continued her motion and sent the assistant to await Forseti’s judgment and as she walked away said: “I said I would end your torment”

As Lady Reaver prepared to leave towards the northwest in search of the island with the mountain that had a waterfall, a column of flame descended from the skies and engulfed her for a long time. Then the column of flame slowly raised back into the night sky and disappeared from sight, leaving behind Lady Reaver dressed in a new costume composed of dark leather and a metal body fitting breast plate.

The Chronicles of Lady Reaver
Chinese Take Out
By Ed & Sue Garcia

The female Paragon Protector was quick to take advantage of Lady Reaver’s distressed state of mind, and blasted the lonely tanker with an energy sniper blow which glowed brilliant blue against the stark, dark and dirty grey of the sewer drain entrance wall. Lady Reaver was violently knocked back from the blow several feet, and limply fell to the ground, as if she was not aware of what had happened to her. The Crey hunting team, stood there stunned at the unexpected reaction of the flaming tanker. All riot geared officers stood still, away and visibly nervous of what may soon occur. The field agent, responsible for the operation, was also not sure of what course of action to take. The four Paragon Protectors, also stood expectantly, but a male spine scrapper type growled with impatience. Eventually this male, spine scrapper, Paragon Protector finally growled one more time and said with a voice filled with annoyance: “Lets take her out! That is what we were sent to do”

The Agent produced another device, adjusted a few knobs on it, and said: “The teleport rerouting unit is operational, take care her out with maximum brutality, she trashed too many of our colleagues a few days ago. Its time she learns to respect the Crey”

The male, scrapper, that had been growling all along and spoiling for a fight, was the first to leap towards the apparently helpless Lady Reaver. But as his leap took him next to her, he saw her starting to be engulfed by golden, blue and green flames. As he landed, a circle of flames engulfed them both. The Paragon Protector screamed in pain, for the suffering and pain he induced to all of his victims was now being experienced by him. Lady Reaver was now standing, with axe in hand. The other three Paragon Protectors reacted in an instinctive reaction to protect one of their own. Two of the Paragon Protectors, both ladies, were energy blasters, and commenced blasting at Lady Reaver with little effect. The other Paragon Protector was also a spine scrapper, and dashed forward to join his team mate.

Lady Reaver did not speak a word, and simply swung her axe in a vertical motion at the scraper Paragon Protector who was crawling away from her cleansing flames. The brutal impact of the axe sent the Paragon Protector skyward as he had been scooped up by the blow and thrown upwards. As all that goes up, must come down, so did the hapless Paragon Protector who was struck by a horizontal axe swing, and immediately afterward sent to stand before Forseti for judgment.

The second spine scraper, gave a feral growl, and leapt towards Lady Reaver striking her with ferocious claw attacks. Lady Reaver took the hits, but gave no signs of being injured nor impressed by the attack. Lady Reaver sought the eyes of her aggressor, and in time, the aggressor was stupid enough to lock his eyes with the flame engulfed avenger of the innocent slain. As cleansing fires now engulfed this second Paragon Protector, the Protector dropped to his knees in pain, and screamed a bestial howl of anguish. The other two Paragon Protectors desperately attempted to take Lady Reaver down, but they simply had no effect. By now the riot gear Crey were firing their machine guns at Lady Reaver as well, while the Agent was busy talking to his communicator device.

Lady Reaver struck the remaining Paragon Protector with her axe, once, twice, and with the third blow sent him to the final judgment fires and court of Forseti. By now the riot geared Crey lost morale and quickly dispersed as they ran away, so did the agent. Lady Reaver saw her aggressors run away, but focused her attention on the Agent, and with a leap landed in front of him. The agent screamed in terror at the sudden appearance of the flaming incarnation of vengeance, but his Crey training eventually took over and was able to calm down. With a slight throat clearing sound, the Agent said: “I have orders to arrest you, and take you to a high security Crey contracted prison. Your resisting arrest is only making things worse for you”

Lady Reaver looked at the little man, who so valiantly stood before her. In a way she felt a bit of respect for the man, but the voices of the dead prevented her from feeling much more of anything else. Lady Reaver locked her eyes with the agent’s, and said with her typical from beyond the dead voice: “The voices of the murdered calls for me to give them justice, they cry in anguish, always seeking peace and never finding it until vengeance has been given to them”

The agent managed to break the mesmerize effect that Lady Reaver tends to have and simply ran away as fast as he could. Lady Reaver leapt once more and as she landed swung her axe vertically striking the agent with brutal effect. The agent dropped to the ground, defeated with a single blow and was sent to Forseti for his final judgment.

A silent flame bathed figure stood at the train station, totally ignored by the police drones and the Paragon City police force. When the train to Steel Canyon arrived, she silently boarded it.

Lady Reaver exited the train at Steel Canyon, and memories of her coming here to punish the criminal deeds of warriors and destroying those pesky wind-up toy monsters known as the “clockwork” rushed into her mind. She knew where the Tsoo congregated around Steel Canyon, and how they preferred to hang around the hospital. With grim determination she leapt high and far, her jump took her over entire buildings and moments later she was at the Hospital district area.

Shortly afterward she had no problem locating a band of Tsoo, for they were arrogant in their knowledge of their power and status they enjoyed in Steel Canyon. As they harassed citizens for money or to sell drugs to them, the Tsoo paid no attention to what or who was near them, so they never saw Lady Reaver bathed in flame directly walking towards them with her axe held in her right hand.

The axe was swung in a swooping fashion, and a Tsoo Sorcerer was soon sent airborne, and his inert body noisily landing on the concrete paved parking lot. The Sorcerer’s henchmen were quick to counter attack, but they were dropping one by one just as quickly as the Sorcerer did. Finally the last of the Tsoo minions realized he was badly outclassed and decided to run, but Lady Reaver was ready for him, and had him bathed in cleansing fires, As the Tsoo minion screamed in anguish, Lady Reaver said with a firm voice: “I want to see your records, your clan had made a business transaction with Doctor Vahzilok and I want to know what happened to those organs”

The minion gasped in pain, and said: “Lady, please spare me! The organs we had acquired from the Vahzilok were stolen from us by the Circle of Thorns! All I know is that the Thorns left to their hideout in Talos. Lady that is all I know, this is the truth, please, please!” Lady Reaver swung her axe once more, and ended the Tsoo’s misery.

The voices of the dead that cried for vengeance were soon overwhelmed, by her own voice, as she cried for vengeance.

The Chronicles of Lady Reaver
The Doctor gets a house call
By Ed & Sue Garcia

A solitary figure stands by a sinister looking sewage grate, and her keen sight does not fail to notice the lack of rust and the well greased hinges, nor the newness of the padlock on it. She stands by the grate motionless, listening for any tell tale sounds. But all she hears are the drips of water dropping on shallow water pools, and none else. Her face seemed pained, as if some monumental inner struggle was being fought.

An arrow struck her unprotected back, and she screamed in pain as laughter filled the morning air. The slim brunette quickly turned to face her aggressor, and as the Reaper prepared to fire another shot, two Abominations charged her. The slender brunette’s body suddenly was engulfed with searing hot flames which both protected her from further damage and healed her.

The Reaper ceased to laugh as he witnessed the transformation, and knew all too well that he was in trouble. The Abominations, well being the retarded creatures they were, simply continued their charge towards Lady Reaver, who would soon end their charge and unholy lives.

The Reaper released another bolt at Lady Reaver, but it was vaporized by the flames bathing her body. An axe materialized on her right hand, and she maneuvered forward with a single step and swung her axe. The Abomination did not even attempted to avoid the blow, and was cut in half were he stood. The second Abomination, stopped his charge, and commenced to convulse. Obviously preparing to vomit toxic liquids upon Lady Reaver, Lady Reaver knew what was coming, and a different form of flame engulfed her as well, this time giving her glow a slightly greenish tint to the golden-blue fire aura she previously had. The Abomination vomited towards her, but somehow managed to miss all together, to its frustration it did not receive the chance to try a second time, for Lady Reaver stepped up to him and cut him down with a single swing of her axe.

The Reaper fired his crossbow at Lady Reaver, and missed. Lady Reaver searched for his eyes and when she finally found them said with her characteristic voice from beyond the dead: “I hear the voices of the innocent slain, they beg for peace, they supplicate to have their pain relieved, and they demand justice!” The Reaper drew a wicked looking blade and laughed once more, confident on his ability with the tool he used to disembowel his victims as they pleaded for their lives. Lady Reaver showed no indications of being intimidated by the attacker and his weapon, and simply stood her ground waiting for the fool to come to her. Before the Reaper could get within striking distance Lady Reaver formed a circle of flames around her, and thus engulfing the Reaper as well. The soul cleansing and judging flames engulfed them both, since Lady Reaver was pure of heart and soul, the flames soothed her, but for the Reaper the flames were sheer agony. The Reaper screamed and dropped to his knees in sheer pain, and tried to crawl away from Lady Reaver. Lady Reaver maneuvered once more to stand before him and said with a cold voice filled with utter hatred: “You are now feeling all the agony, despair, and suffering you gave your victims. The very same despair they felt as they begged you for their life, and you laughed at them as you took their life. How does it feel, to now, experience the pain of being disemboweled alive? The voices of the innocent demand justice, and justice they shall receive!” Lady Reaver lifted her axe once more, and with a vertical downwards motion and sent the evil Reaper to Forseti for final judgment.

Lady Reaver knelt next to the Reaper and searched through his body and back pack. In the backpack she found a container with a few organs, and a wallet which she deduced belonged to the victim whose organs were stored in the container. For long minutes she looked at the pictures of the wallet, and a tear escaped her for in the wallet were family pictures. The victim was a family man, and soon the news of his death would arrive to his wife and son. The memories of her own family, the deaths they suffered rushed her mind and many more tears now streaked down her face. With trembling hands she searched the Reaper’s body, checking each and every pocket. Eventually in his pant’s left pocket she found a key, and she felt very certain it was the key to the sewage grate. She continued searching the body for more clues, and anything else that may be of use to her, but found none.

Lady Reaver tried the key on the sewer grate lock, but it did not fit, it was the wrong key! How could this be, the Reaper was returning back to base, how was he to get in without the proper key? Perhaps the key was the key to another box, which was hidden somewhere near, and in that box the true key could be found. Lady Reaver’s face contorted once more with pain, as more voices of the dead filler her mind. In desperation she swung her axe, and obliterated the grate that barred her way. She ran through the sewer corridors, looking for ways to go deeper into the system. But after the very first turn, she ran into a large mob of Abominations being lead by a Reaper. The axe quickly materialized in her right hand, and she began the gruesome task of destroying the undead zombies of Doctor Vahzilok. Toxic vomit flew all over the narrow corridor, at times striking Lady Reaver and giving her a great deal of pain, but the greenish healing fires engulfed her body, thus protecting her from further toxic damage and healing the wounds they had caused. Her axe chopped, swung, and whirled about. After a few minutes the squad of Abominations had been totally obliterated, along with the original Reaper. Among the wreckage of the battle, Lady Reaver discovered that during the fight a second Reaper and a Mortificator had joined the fight and been defeated as well.

Despite the destruction of so much evil, the number of voices of the unjustly slain kept raising instead of diminishing. As Lady Reaver continued traveling down the filthy and reeking sewer corridors, she wondered if she could handle the dozens if not hundred of voices within her head as she fought the evil Vahzilok.

Another turn and another gaggle of Abominations, Reapers and Mortificators was found and destroyed. It seemed that there were more and more of these monsters to be found each step she took, yet they were each confronted and destroyed. Finally the sewer corridors opened up into a large square chamber, and in it large numbers of the unholy creatures could be seen, along with Reapers and Mortificators. But this time, there was something different, something else. The new creatures in there were dressed in tight fighting silver colored clothes, like spandex of some sort. It became very evident to Lady Reaver that these silver dressed creatures were very much in charge. It mattered not, for she could not tarry much longer, as the number of voices in her head continued to increase. She stepped into the room, and immediately two squads of Abominations rushed her, and a hail of crossbow bolts were flying all around her. Her protective fires’ glow became much more intense, and she waited for all the Abominations to gather around her. She focused her mind on her next attack, and leapt into the air, and twirled in a circular motion as her axe materialized in her right hand and brutally swung it. As she completed her leap and twist motion, all the creatures around her had been devastatingly struck by the axe, with over half of them destroyed from the mighty blow. The rest were knocked down, and not able to counter attack. She stepped next to the closest Abomination and swung her axe in a horizontal motion, thus finishing what her area attack started. Bolt after bolt flew past her or were destroyed by the flames that engulfed her. To her great irritation, the Reapers and Mortificators were not closing in to melee range, and seemed pretty comfortable attacking from range. After a few moments all the Abominations had been destroyed, and it was the Reapers next in her agenda to deal with.

As she stepped forward she found herself surrounded by dark evil tentacles, she found her forward movement had been totally denied and that the tentacles were starting to tightly grip and constrict her. In anger she summoned her cleansing flames, and a circle of fire burning everything around her was formed, thus destroying the tentacles and freeing her to once more charge her opponents. But this time she was now going for the silver dressed and enigmatically masked creature. As she approached the silver dressed creature, she heard a Reaper say with a mocking voice: “She will now pay for what she has done to us, the Eidolon will render her helpless, and we will harvest her organs for our master Doctor Vahzilok”

So this new nuisance, thought Lady Reaver to herself, is known as an Eidolon. It mattered not to her what the creature’s professional name was, for it was her destiny to bring them all to judgment. She closed the distance with the Eidolon whose futile efforts at immobilizing her accomplished nothing, but then a second Eidolon stepped away from the concealment of a column and engulfed Lady Reaver within a dark thick fog. Lady Reaver felt a portion of her endurance zapped away in a very painful manner, and thus with grim determination she confronted both Eidolons. They were very agile and quick, a stark contrast to all other Vahzilok she had fought before, and wondered what the Doctor would be like. Despite their greater agility and remarkable powers, both Eidolons were no match for Lady Reaver and were both sent to Forseti a few minutes later. With the defeat of the Eidolons the surviving Reapers and Mortificators morale dropped, and they commenced to disperse and simply run away. Lady Reaver chose the nearest one and chased him down the corridor, the use of her enhanced movement powers gave her a distinct edge, and had no trouble catching up to the Mortificator and lay him low. It took considerable amount of time to track each of the large room’s occupants and destroy them, but there was no escaping Lady Reaver, for the voices of the unjustly dead told her where to look each time.

There was another corridor that provided another path to follow out of the large room, and she quietly took it. She entered the dark corridor with her flames breaking the darkness, and warning those whose hearts are filled with evil that justice was on her way; that Lady Reaver was coming!

The corridor was clear of monsters, yet the voices of the innocent slain continued to grow in numbers, exasperated Lady Reaver thought: “Surely after all the slaying of these evil monsters, the voices would start to quiet down”

Abruptly the corridor came to an end, for a large steel iris looking door barred her way. On a box to the side was a key hole, and Lady Reaver decided to give the key she had retrieved from the Reaper long ago another try. To her surprise and great pleasure, the key was to this box and with a turn of the key the sound of machinery could be heard as the iris opened.

As the iris opened, she could see a large number of Abominations once more, with their standard complement of Reapers and Mortificators. Also a large number of Eidolons could be seen milling about. At a distance to the far corner, there was an enormous looking abomination, and it seemed all other creatures treated it with a certain amount of awe.

As she stood at the entrance studying the gruesome spectacle before her, she was spotted by an abomination wearing a strange backpack. It rushed at her, and she immediately materialized her axe, but then a few steps away it stopped and seemed to be concentrating to do something, puzzled Lady Reaver simply stood and watched the creature do whatever it was going to do. Then it blew up, the shock of the explosion engulfed her, but her flames were more than a match for the explosion and laughed at the silly way the Abomination gave its unholy life away.

The explosion while not harming her was not a total waste, for it had served as an alarm, and a large contingent of Abominations, Reapers, Mortificators and Eidolons were now running towards her. Her first impulse was to run away from the unholy mob, but the voices of the dead, continued pleading, begging, imploring her for peace. Thus she stood her ground, and clenched her teeth tight in preparation for what was coming ahead.

Soon the arrows and dark energies of her ranged aggressors was upon her, and the Abominations where nearly atop of her. She endured the pain from the many dark powers used upon her, and the pricking pain of the bolts that did manage to penetrate her fiery shield. The toxic vomit followed, obviously being shorter ranged than the other Vahzilok ranged attacks, but the pain inflicted by them was much greater. Lady Reaver briefly closed her eyes and summoned the cleansing fires of Forseti, and the pain was gone with the majority of her wounds. Then she was rocked, and knocked of her feet as several Abominations detonated the explosives within their backpacks, but this time she was injured from the massive number of explosions so near to her. She blindly swung her axe as she attempted to regain her feet, striking many Abominations in the process; after all it was hard to miss when so tightly surrounded. She screamed with rage, as she swung her axe with deadly intent. Each time she swung an Abomination was destroyed, but commenced to falter as the massive number of attacks commenced to take their toll. She thought of her husband and daughter, and how they were killed. She thought it was because of these monsters, that her family had been slain in such a gruesome manner. Inspired by these thoughts and her faith in Forseti, her health was restored and also felt her endurance invigorated. Once more with grim determination, she went about her task of decimating the unholy life about her. Minutes later the last of the Abominations detonated itself in an act of desperation, but it was a futile act, for it did no damage. To Lady Reaver’s surprise two Eidolons closed the distance with her, and attacked. Lady stared at them, and engulfed them within her circle of fire. The pain they suffered made them hesitate, and while they attempted to exit the circle of flames that pained them so much, Lady Reaver took the opportunity to swing her axe with deadly results and destroy one of her aggressors. The Reapers ceased to fire their crossbows at Lady Reaver and closed in with their wicked looking blades to support the second Eidolon. Four Mortificators could be also seen instead of firing their crossbows to be busily working on four destroyed Abominations. Lady Reaver swung her axe wide as she leapt, striking all of her nearby opponents with a mighty blow, many were knocked down, but none had been destroyed. She swung her axe in a tight arc, centering her arc on the Eidolon. Her attack was true and the Eidolon fell destroyed along with three other Reapers. But her victory was short lived, as she saw four Abominations standing back, obviously reanimated by the Mortificators.

Lady Reaver knew that as long as the Mortificators were reanimating the Abominations this battle would never end. So she ignored the remaining Reapers and charged the nearest Mortificator who was now kneeling by another Abomination. The Mortificator did not even realize he was under attack, for he was too immersed in his unholy task. The single axe blow sent the Mortificator to Forseti, but not before he had completed his task of reanimating the abomination. Lady Reaver once more leapt and swung her axe, and killed the four Reapers and two Abominations next to her with her brutal axe blow. Yet there were three Mortificators at large, busily reanimating more Abominations. It was a long tedious process of charging a Mortificator and destroying him and the Abominations he had made, but eventually the job was done.

Lady Reaver was amazed at the arrogance of the large Abomination at not even reacting at her decimation of his associates, but was happy not to have to deal with such large creature during the fight she just had. Lady Reaver stepped back, and evaluated the current situation at the room. Her current count included the huge Abomination, one Eidolon, a Mortificator, two Reapers, and eight Abominations left in the room. Also past the huge Abomination was a large set of cabinet files, to which she hoped the information regarding her husband and daughter’s organs would be available.

Lady Reaver boldly stepped towards the huge Abomination, and as she neared him the huge Abomination said: “You, how dare you interrupt Doctor Vahzilok! Kill her!”

It seems that everything in the room, simply charged at her with murderous intent. It mattered not, for Lady Reaver knew all along what the outcome would be, for it was written in the book of justice. She swung her axe in a vertical and downward motion at the closest Eidolon, striking it with uncanny precision and destroying it with a single blow. She followed her attack with a twirling leap and an axe swing, many Abominations dropped dead from her axe attack, and the rest of her aggressors were knocked of their feet. As they attempted to regain their feet, Lady Reaver swung her blade with deadly result at a Mortificator in a close arc, which also destroyed a Reaper and another Abomination.

Doctor Vahzilok growled with a feral voice, angered at the destruction of his handy work and charged towards Lady Reaver. By the time he got near Lady Reaver the last of his henchmen had been sent to Forseti for judgment. So it was down to a one on one encounter.

Doctor Vahzilok swung his great arm and struck Lady Reaver with a mighty blow, yet she held her ground as she said: “The voices of the innocent slain are demanding peace, calling for vengeance, and they shall have it” Then the cleansing, burning fires of Forseti engulfed them both, but to Lady Reaver’s surprise she saw no visible effects on Doctor Vahzilok. She swung her axe, and struck the Doctor; but to her horror, she saw him to begin regenerating the damage quite quickly. Then the Doctor struck her again, and this time she was knocked down. He continued pummeling her as she tried to get up, but no sooner she would regain her feet, she would be knocked down again. Finally she managed to swing her axe and get a good blow in, by all rights the Doctor should have been knocked down, but he did not fall. Lady Reaver summoned the healing fire to restore her health, and endured another brutal blow from the totally healed Doctor. Then as anger and the thirst of justice grew in Lady Reaver, her attacks became much more accurate and brutal. It was a titanic struggle between the two figures standing on sewage water, with the sounds of their fighting echoing through the walls and corridors of the sewer system. Neither villain nor hero asked for mercy, for there was none to be given. The battle ensued for hours, with Doctor Vahzilok starting to show wear and tear. Lady Reaver thought of her husband’s last words to her of gratitude, and the rage of it inspired her to hit even harder, each blow she delivered was a coldly calculated attack. Finally with the last of her endurance, she delivered one final blow and Doctor Vahzilok had been defeated. With the last blow, the voices of many of the dead commenced, one by one, to go silent.

Lady Reaver was appalled at the large number of victims Doctor Vahzilok had disemboweled and used their organs. She followed the alphabetically ordered files, and came across her husband and daughter’s files. She read them as tears streaked down her cheeks, and learned that their organs had originally been used to make Abominations, but then a deal had been bartered with the Tsoo gang at Steel Canyon for their organs were needed for some kind of drug making process. Once more the sounds of crying and laments could be heard echoing through the walls and corridors of the sewage system, and slowly a broken hearted woman stepped out and past the sewer grate. As she stepped out, with tears blurring her vision, she heard: “You did not think you could get away from the Crey that easily, did you?”

The Chronicles of Lady Reaver
Sticks and Stones…
By Ed and Sue Garcia

The Crey agent removed a strange pair of metal gauntlets from an aluminum case, and raised his head to look into Lady Reaver’s face. Then with a flat voice said: “Raise your hands towards me, and allow me to place these gauntlets on. They are designed to prevent you from activating your powers, regardless of the source that enables you to use them” Lady Reaver quietly submitted herself to be restricted by the strange techno-gauntlets, and then was lead to the back of an armored truck. A Paragon Protector, the male, brusquely lifted her by her hips and brutally threw her inside. As a result of her being thrown, her left chick became bruised, as her face was smashed against the side of a bench at the back of the truck. The female Paragon Protector laughed at Lady Reaver, and brutally kicked Lady Reaver’s ribs. As Lady Reaver gasped in pain and for air, she was lifted and thrown against the bench in a sitting position by both Paragon Protectors. As Lady Reaver’s head was spinning from the blow she just endured, the paragon Protectors chained her arms, and legs to the bench to prevent her from being able to move.

The Crey officers in riot gear silently entered the truck and sat across Lady Reaver, as the Paragon Protectors closed the doors and reported to the Agent who was now sitting at the passenger side of the vehicle. Moments after, the vehicle was traveling down the Atlas Park roads with both Paragon Protectors flying over the vehicle. The vehicle left Atlas Park and entered Steel Canyon, whose tall buildings’ glass reflected the sun light upon the Crey truck. The truck traveled through buildings so tall, that they seem to almost touch the sky, and in their own terms were miracles of technology. Nothing disturbed the truck, not even a warrior would challenge the vehicle that so obviously traveled through his territory, for they feared the retaliation Crey would render on them. The smell of the air changed from smoggy to a tinge of salt, as they entered Independence Port. Once again no one disturbed the truck, not the gangster group referred often as “the family” interfered with the vehicle, nor the hordes of parading 5th column personnel trying to recruit new personnel and completing shady deals attempted to harass the Crey detachment.

The vehicle entered Brickstown, but then it suffered a flat and was forced to stop. The agent stepped out and softly cursed: “Those darn Freaks, always destroying property, and setting traps” He turned to the truck driver and said with an irritated voice: “Well, what you waiting for? Are you waiting for an invitation or something? Get off your rear, and change the tire!”

The Officers in Riot Gear opened the back doors of the truck and let cool air enter into the truck and stepped outside while the tired was being replaced. As the driver replaced the tire, the Male Paragon Protector flew next to a young lady walking by and commenced to ask her out for a date. The young lady simply ignored him and tried to walk away a bit faster, and eventually was forced to run as the Paragon Protector continued to harass her. She screamed for help, but none came, she screamed again, but the scream was cut short as the Protector slapped her face. The slap had been hard enough that the young lady was rendered unconscious and fell off the side of the highway bridge. As she fell, the Paragon Protector did nothing to rescue her, in fact as he saw Lady Reaver staring at him said: “Serves her right, she could have been pleasured by me, but was too dumb to know what was good for her”

Moments after the screams of the dead filled Lady Reaver’s head, tears covered her face as she recognized the young lady’s voice among them. She tried to stand and rush the Paragon Protector but the chains held her at bay, and the gauntlets had somehow prevented her from summoning her fire aura and axe. The Paragon Protector laughed at Lady Reaver’s obvious consternation, and helplessness. But then the floor about Lady Reaver began to burn, fire erupted from the base of the truck and engulfed Lady Reaver and all of those around her. The offices in riot gear yelled in pain and quickly ran away from the searing flames that had engulfed them, and the driver had also left in a hurry. The Male Paragon Protector stopped laughing as he saw the metal gauntlets melting away from Lady Reaver, and then his eyes locked on with hers.

Fire now bathed the slender brunette who now stepped off the truck with axe in hand, and with a cryptic voice said: “I hear the voices of the innocent slain crying for justice, and justice they shall receive”

The female Paragon Protector was the first to react and opened up with a twin energy bolt attack, which seemed to have no effect on Lady Reaver. The Agent pulled her pistol and commenced firing along the rest of the officers in riot gear. The Male Paragon Protector threw a slew of vicious spines at the flaming lady, but with little effect, for his apparent intent to pin her in place did not work.

Lady Reaver stepped off the truck and swung her blade at the closest aggressor, the Crey Agent. Her swing was a horizontal blow that cleanly cleaved though his flak jacket and bit deep into the agent’s flesh. The agent moaned in pain and collapsed unconscious from the blow. The female Paragon Protector became airborne and continued pummeling Lady Reaver with energy beam after another, but such was the rage of Lady Reaver that her fire shield absorbed all the damage or the great majority of it. The male Paragon Protector screamed a battle yell and charged Lady Reaver with his entire body as he swung his clawed fist. The brutality of the blow was such that Lady Reaver was knocked off her feet, but the damage was not so severe to prevent her from immediately getting back up. The officer in riot gear continued firing their automatic weapons and stood next to the male Paragon Protector, yet their bullets had no effect that could be seen. Lady Reaver swung her axe in a wide arc and struck all the riot officers and the male Paragon Protector, and in return knocking all of them off their feet. As they all were getting back up, Lady Reaver once more swung her axe in a wide arc and sent them all flying back and off their feet. But this time, only the Male Paragon Protector stood back up. Before Lady Reaver could get another swing in, the male Paragon Protector shivered for a few moments and a golden glow appeared around him, to Lady Reaver’s dismay her axe attack missed her mark. Both Paragon Protectors continued their assault at Lady Reaver who was starting to show some wear and tear from their attacks, while the male Paragon Protector was easily evading her attacks. Lady Reaver suddenly stopped attacking, and simply stepped back and away from the male Paragon Protector. The male Paragon Protector was surprised at the sudden stop of Lady Reaver’s attacks and said with a mocking voice: “I see you have tired, and no longer capable of fighting. I will pummel you till you are unconscious, and then I will ravage your body till you cry for me to kill you”

Lady Reaver’s face had no expression, but her voice hinted no passion, no exhaustion, just the normal from beyond the death voice: “I hear the voices of the innocent murdered, they cry for rest, they yell for justice, they demand vengeance” Suddenly Lady Reaver engaged her super speed and then leapt and brutally swung her axe at the lady Paragon Protector. The blow was so devastating that the lady Paragon Protector was violently thrown towards the ground and loudly crashing against the Crey truck. As she tried to get up, Lady Reaver delivered a second and final blow to her. The male Paragon Protector stood still, too surprised at what had just occurred and then with a voice filled with surprise said: “But, but, but you are not supposed to fly or move that fast. Our reports said nothing of that”

It matter not what he had to say or thought, for the voices of the innocent slain demanded justice and it was Lady Reaver’s job to dispense justice and give them the peace they so ardently desired.

Lady Reaver swung her axe in a vertical motion and struck the male Paragon Protector’s left shoulder. The evil Crey screamed in pain, and disbelief that he had been struck, but before he could say more, Lady Reaver struck him a second time with a horizontal blow and struck his right leg, then said with a voice filled with hatred towards the Paragon Protector: “The voices of the dead told me about your ability to focus your defenses and greatly prevent you receiving any damage from those attacking you. But the voices of the innocent slain also told me that your ability only last for a short period of time. Now I will send you to Forseti for judgment, but before I send you to Forseti, I will make you feel the pain and suffering you so readily gave them”

Soul cleansing fires engulfed both the Paragon Protector and Lady Reaver, the Paragon Protector screamed in pain as he dropped to his knees, and tried to crawl away from the punishing fires. No sooner would he leave the circle of fire, that Lady Reaver would start another one. After several long minutes of torturing the Paragon Protector, she raised her axe and swung it one more time. Mercifully the voices of the innocent dead slowly began to quiet down, as justice had been rendered.

Lady Reaver took a step away from the now burning Crey truck, and walked towards the train station for she had unfinished business back in King’s Row.