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Genome X · Joined: 30 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

My name is Genome X and I am a machine specialist.

I came to this world in strange circumstances. Back on my homeworld my people lived in relative peace with others in the land, content to live underground and work on our wonderful technologies. It wasn't an idyllic setting at all, but most of the problems we would encounter were minor. Helping others with their wars or cleaning up the mess when one of our own had been reckless while developing machines that go boom.

I never had much time for machines that go boom. Most of mine went Ding. Good machines usually go Ding. Sometimes they whirr but that's the exception.

All of this changed, however, when we were attacked from underneath. Impossible I know but they cut open the floor of our underground city and came in from below, bypassing our impressive defences. When it was clear that we were in real trouble a few of us volunteered to head down and find the source of their attacks. Surely they must have some kind of base just nearby. As we prepared to venture forth the others worked on plans of last resort.

We were quite right. What I found down there was a portal of some kind which led into a room in what I now know to have been Paragon City. I was working on a plan to destroy it from this side when I was interrupted by some people in strange red and white ... clothes doesn't describe it. It was some kind of second skin. I was able to trigger a machine to go boom but I don't know if that was an end to the portal as I was overwhelmed by these red and white people.

I came to in a jail. It was suprisingly warm and dry but that didn't change what it was. They injected me with strange drugs which prevented me using some of our more spiritual ways but did nothing to stop me secretly biding my time and producing a machine that goes Pow. When the breakout happenned I jumped at my chance and slaughtered my way to freedom.

Nominally I am now working in league with Arachnos, but my mission is not complete until I establish who built the portal and whether it was destroyed. Paragon city may yet stand in my way.

Evil Janet · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:12 pm Post subject:

Love it! Kind of reminds me of HG Wells. Very much his sort of style, but with tongue firmly planted in cheek Laughing

Nice to have another writer on board! Feel free to update Genome X's exploits in the world of the Rogue Isles.
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My kind of life don't last, preacher. So I expect I'm invested in making good sport of it whilst I can. - Mal Reynolds: Firefly

Evil Janet - Grav/Energy Dom 50 * Jimmy Spoons - Thug/Poison MM 40 * Womanman - Super Strength /Invulnerability Brute 32 * Doc Och - Dark/Dark Stalker 13

Alts not in the SG: Sweet Fanny Adams - MCBeth - Evil Ken Eval

Genome X · Joined: 30 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

Not a continuation but I thought I'd keep them all in one thread.

It was an ordinary day at Paragon Research Inc until the bombs went off. Anthea Lawrence was working at her bench in the zoological research division when glass shattered and chemicals splashed everywhere. Down the hallway she could hear screaming and saw smoke coming from other laboratories. Startled, her only clear thought was to head for the fire exit. She was wholly unprepared for the animals which came running out from containment.

Rushing ahead of the squeaking, yapping, chittering throng, she reached the fire exit. It was sealed off. Her passcard did nothing and, terrified, she ran through the crowd of lab animals toward the main stairwell. Again the door was sealed. As she tugged it, however, it was opened from the inside. Anthea fell backwards against the wall as men in hazard suits filled the corridor, spraying some kind of foam which turned back the animals.

Struggling downstairs, Anthea came across people left unattended in corridors. Some were terribly wounded but the security teams seemed interested only in containing the experiments. She tried to give assistance to one person but another security team arrived and pushed her toward the exit, shouting to get out.

Outside, Anthea thought to call the emergency services. The response she was given was that they were already in attendance and had dispatched another four fire crews and two ambulances. She watched from a distance away but they never arrived.

Company branded vans began leaving the site after a couple of hours. Anthea was still watching and it dawned on her that she hadn't seen any reporters either. Calling the local newspapers and Paragon TV resulted in the same response as the emergency services. They were aware and people were already there. She told herself that there would be reports out in the morning and she'd read them then. On her way home she tried to call friends from work but couldn't reach any of them.

That night, Anthea slept badly. Her joints ached and her skin was itchy. In the morning, stiff and sore, she walked out of the shower and noticed small blotches, like insect bites around her lower legs. Some of the animals must have bitten her. She made a doctor's appointment and called work. Work told her not to bother coming in for a week since the damage had been extensive.

At the doctor she was examined in great detail, up until the point when she mentioned how the injuries had occurred. The doctor made a brief and not very believable show of continuing to examine her before announcing that it was the onset of tetanus and delivering a booster injection. They had caught it in time, he insisted, and unless she had any major cramps she should come back in a week to confirm everything was okay.

Anthea was used to lies by now. She didn't bother telling him that she was a biologist and knew the symptoms of tetanus. Her doctor had lied to her to cover something up. Back home she plowed through newspapers and flipped through a dozen news channels but there was nothing about her workplace. Something was wrong and she might be in danger. Her vision swam for a moment and she decided to do something decisive there and then.

She went to find Longbow.

Inside the longbow base, Anthea was met with concern, interest and promises to investigate the situation. This was not enough. Anthea patiently explained that she had heard this from the police, the press, the fire service and her own doctor and that none of them had done as they said. We're different, they said, we're Longbow. Trust us.

Anthea wasn't about to trust anyone, even a hero group. She demanded assurances, demanded to know what action would be taken. Eventually a man in spandex with a rank insignia came into the room and invited her to come and see for herself.

Once they were alone he moved to pin Anthea to a wall. "Look, you stupid bitch!" he snarled in her face, "Paragon Research work with superpowers. They provide chemicals vital to protect this city, no the world from villains like Lord Recluse's lot and they have research that could hand the world over to those people if it got to them. Do you want to live surrounded by villains? Do you? Drop this now or you'll find out on the inside."

Anthea was shocked. The people she trusted, the people she relied on, had been willing to sell her out for the 'public good'. They had let her be poisoned because the 'public good' was more important than her own safety. Goodness knows what those animals were infected with. Some kind of bioweapon that even superpowers couldn't save you from?

The Longbow commander saw the shock in her eyes and let her go. "Try to go public and you'll find that every news station owes Longbow big time. Try to shout the truth from the streets and some Skull ganger will likely try to kidnap you for what you know. We are the good guys here, Ms Lawrence, do remember that."

As she left the building, Anthea's legs gave way and she fell down the front steps. Nobody came to help her and she dragged herself to her car. Inspecting her face in the mirror she could see some blood but couldn't find the cut. There were also some visible blotches on her face now, the edges of them itched.

Whatever she had been infected with, Anthea knew she didn't have much time. From where she was parked she tried again to call people from work. This time she didn't even get answerphones, just messages that the telephone number was no longer in service. Driving to one colleague's house she was informed that he had moved away the day before. Nobody knew where to, had she considered asking his office?

Anthea finally gave up trying to find some clue that things weren't as bad as she thought. Longbow or her employers or someone had silenced her colleagues. They would continue to cover up endless crimes so long as they got what they needed. Well, she decided, they would stop getting it. One way or another.

Her first stop was home, where she changed into work clothes, applied far too much makeup to cover up the blotches and borrowed her late father's walking stick. She tried not to limp when she walked into her old workplace exactly as normal and walked into the elevator. She pressed an entirely different button to normal.

She stepped out into the chemical storage area. slipping between shelves she knew what to look for. In a few moments she had gathered a large quantity of explosive chemicals on a trolley, when the Longbow commander stepped into view.

"Thought I wouldn't expect this did you?" he sneered, "Paragon city needs these chemicals, Statesman needs these chemicals, what you're doing is an attack on the heart of our city and I won't let you." he raised his gun and there was an almighty explosion.

As she lay bleeding to death, Anthea felt some satisfaction in the sight of the dead Longbow officer. His skull had been split by a piece of shrapnel from the blast, like the one which had torn her leg apart. She had allowed for this to go wrong and when it did she had used the gun up her sleeve to set off the explosives. It wasn't a victory but it was as close to justice as existed anymore.

Looking down at her mangled body, Anthea was truly amazed to see the wounds closing. Black ooze poured out of the gashes and formed some kind of covering which stopped the bleeding. As she gingerly raised herself to her feet, she reasoned it was time to escape. She had to find out what was happening to her. As she reached the elevators they all opened at once and the corridor filled with Longbow agents.

* * *

It was an ordinary day in the Zig until the bombs went off. In her cell, the creature which had been Anthea moved for the first time in days. Legs that were no longer human slipped over the side of the bed. Segmented eyes took in the carnage outside the door. Unfazed, Ant Lioness took a shallow breath and extended four chitinous spikes from her wrists.

She had been waiting for this. Statesman had decided that the chemicals were worth the risk of creating a few supervillains. She intended to thank him personally at the first opportunity. She stepped out of her cell the exact moment a guard ran into view and punched her spikes through his chest armour. She had never done this before but somehow knew exactly how it would feel.

Clad only in her new chitinous shell and the forgotten tatters of her work clothes, Ant Lioness made for the sound of the explosions. The floor had caved in and she jumped into the crater.

Few guards noticed her, fewer still managed to fight back once she was revealed. Heedless of the human blood coating her arms, the creature made her way to the waiting flyer. The pilot didn't see her either until she was in front of hime. He was noticably shaken. She guessed he was aware to expect Anthea but not of what she had become. Her mandibles clattered with her first laughter since this began. It was time to embrace her new destiny.
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Alts:
Phantom Operative Sonic/Kinetic Corruptor, wears a mask and I don't ask about his past, I smile.
Ant Lioness Claws/Regen Stalker, hot nekkid chick with an exoskeleton.
Law Clerk SS/Inv Brute, looks good in a suit.

Genome X · Joined: 30 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

The phantom operative is a failed hero. Born horribly disfigured, he responded to the world's rejection by throwing himself passionately into the mystical arts. Later, with spells at his fingertips and in his voice he resolved to win people's affection once and for all by protecting the world. He thwarted hijacks, prevented bombs from being planted and rescued countless damsels in distress, all of whom were more than willing to throw themselves at him in gratitude but ran away when he actually expressed an interest in them personally.

Tireless in his search for happiness, the phantom kept doing his good deeds for years before finally something snapped inside him. Newspapers speculated about his mother dying or about a particularly brutal rejection, nonetheless he went rogue. When he was finally arrested he was sent down for seventeen bank robberies, twenty four arsons, two hundred and sixty four indecent assaults and one kidnapping, the victim of the latter having been rescued by Longbow when he took her to a five star restaurant for the fourth time.

Out of the Zig once again, many women in the Rogue Isles owe their lives to the phantom's intervention, although to date only one has seen fit to show him any fondness at all.

(OOC: If anyone feels uncomfortable around the phantom please do /t me)
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Alts:
Phantom Operative Sonic/Kinetic Corruptor, wears a mask and I don't ask about his past, I smile.
Ant Lioness Claws/Regen Stalker, hot nekkid chick with an exoskeleton.
Law Clerk SS/Inv Brute, looks good in a suit.