This is a chronological but truncated synopses of significant stories on the server. For more information, please use the "Interested" button at the bottom of the page to apply for a Reader Role that will allow access to the full accounting of each incident.
-Mod Team
The rumors of it had long persisted before the news became official. Annoyed with growing unrest and increasing tensions the leaders of the Sanguinis Pura determined it best for the security of society to publicly execute the most rebellious voices from each faction.
A highly valued and very dangerous prisoner Mr. Darcy had escaped the prison two days prior. It was big news and widely spread and an extreme embarrassment for the Pures. They feared not only the knowledge he possessed, but the message that it sent to those subjugated to them.
They immediately issued a massive bounty in his head and rounded up the generally accepted leaders of each faction. Though individual leadership of mutate factions was strictly forbidden these four were the ones chosen to be made example of.
To serve two purposes. It would cement their status as the ruling class. And it would further demonstrate that despite their genetic improvements, these mutates were still human and therefore subject to the laws of men.
As the hour of executions approached all televisions stations, which were owned by the state, broadcast the history and crimes of the individuals. Casting them and malcontents and rabble rousers the reports painted the leaders in the least favorable light possible.
From the artificers there as Gavin “Odysseus” Longhorn. A brilliant tactical mind. Originally from Canada he has settled to the region and opened a small coffee shop within the Sanguinis Pura controlled region. He was tied directly to the recent breakout of Mr. Darcy as the escape went off without a single missed step. A perfectly executed plan.
Serena “Stormbreaker” Muldoon was the elemental posed as the sacrificial lamb. From Ireland she had come to the states in search of a new life. She’d found work difficult and was rumored to have been a mutate for hire. Recently a dirigible owned by the state had been forced to make and emergency crash landing due to unexpected high winds while patrolling the wastelands border. Two men on the crew were killed and all indicators were that it was the work of a mutate.
Cara “Joan of Arc” Gibson was an clairaudient intuitive. She was from the Seattle area originally and ran a thriving psychologist practice before she ran afoul of a local magistrate and was run out of business. A few months later the magistrate committed suicide. In his dying not he blamed the voices he heard in his head for doing so.
A brawler by the name of Brock “the Hammer” Culpepper was the peacemaker who by all stories told was anything but peaceful. Originally from Oklahoma he had made a name for himself early as an bodyguard for the Pures. A legend in the underground fight circles he cast an imposing shadow. However last week his client went missing, and was later found beaten to a literal bloody pulp. Though rumors of inappropriate conduct with some ladies in the mutate area existed about this man; none could be proven. But his death was obviously some form of vigilante justice delivered by a brawler. Brock was the natural suspect.
After a long description of the wrongs these four had perpetrated all the while painting the Pures as hapless victims the shot cut to a live fear of a prison yard with four wooden posts standing straight and tall. The midday sun hung high overhead hardly casting any shadow from them.
They first lead out the brawler Brock Culpepper. The hulking mountain of man flesh looked lethargic. Weakened and hardly able to stand to lift his muscle bound arms seemed a great labor for him. Obviously starved Brock would have severely thrashed the three guards escorting him under any normal circumstances. But now in his current state he could hardly stand as they wrapped his massive arms behind him and fastened them behind him around the large oak post.
Next they brought out Serena Muldoon. Covered in dirt from head to to it was obvious how the Pures had been keeping her in check. Earth is the anti-element to air and they must have kept her buried up to her neck to keep her subdued. She looked exhausted and sleep deprived. She didn’t even put up a fight as they strapped her to the post.
Cara Gibson was brought next. She seemed jumpy and jittery unable to focus on even the simplest things. The Pures has obviously kept her pumped full of stimulants to keep her mind in its Alpha state. It would have been torture for a mind like hers and would have worked wonderfully at keeping her subdued.
Finally Gavin Longhorn was the final leader to be brought out. He lacked the normally sharp and aware sense he typically had. His eyes looked hollow and vacant as though the Pures has reached in and snatched his brain from his skull. He was passive and quiet as they strapped the last of these alleged anti-state leaders to the post.
Masses of people huddled around the televisions sets in both the Sanguinis Pura area, as well as those in the Mutate area.
Their eyes glued to the flickering screens as these once proud men and women now stood before them, shells of their former selves.
They watched as the State Police marched out in single file line. Their steps falling in unison in military like precision, eight of them in total. Their dark gray uniforms spotless and pressed. Sharp creases in the trouser legs that hardly broke with each step. Boots polished to a high sheen and each of them carrying military grade rifles.
As if some unseen hand of God had reached down the men stopped. The ranks running parallel with the leaders of the rebellion with approximately five meters of space between them.
Under silent command the eight men turned to face the haggard group of leaders now bound and helpless. These faceless assassins stood as statues as a man in a merlot robe strode from the side with a leather bound portfolio tucked under his arm. He stood in the gap between the state police and the accused and pulled the portfolio from his arm, opened it, and began to read.
Brock Culpepper, Serena Muldoon, Gavin Longhorn, and Cara Gibson. You have been tried in a fair and judicious tribunal and found to be guilty for the following crimes.
The man paused for a moment allowing the gravity of the situation to sink in.
Treason, sedition, murder, and conspiracy against the state.
His baritone voice echoed from the walls.
For these crimes you have been sentenced to public execution by firing squad. To be carried out immediately and without delay.
As the man finished reading out the sentence the eight men sprang into action hoisting their rifles to their shoulders and leveling them at the four individuals bound in front of them.
The man having finished reading their sentence stepped back three steps and held his hand aloft before turning his attention to the convicted rebels.
Do those convicted have any last words?
The Intuitive Cara Gibson still wide eyed and jittery could be seen trying to calm her nerves. She lifted her chin and looking into the nearest camera.
She began to speak... People...
But the man dropped his hand and eight rifles erupted in unison announcing their deadly intent. Each man’s aim was true as the bullets ripped through their torsos silencing these voices of discontent eternally.
A collective gasp could be heard across Seattle and the surrounding areas as the reality of what they had just seen began to settle. What the Pure Bloods had seen was justice and the punishment that was due for such criminalities and mutinous behavior. They thought they had cemented their hold on power with such a brutal response. Believing such displays would fracture the mutates and wither their spirits. The mutates witnessed a blatant abuse of power. Nothing more that simple schoolyard bullying taken to the extreme. They had watched as those who were their voice had been silenced in a most gruesome way. What they had witnessed was not the death of a revolution...but it’s conception.
Duncan enters and meets Amelia
Inara enters with timber
Darcy shows up
Duncan and Darcy talk
Everyone Leaves
Amelia cleans up and goes to bed
Another meeting
Margot was in the middle of an undercover op and trying to escape SP custody when Duncan Bishop captured her. She is a physical empath and specialized in causing other's to take on physical pain from her own injuries. During the pursuit, she sustained enough damage that the Hunter was obliged to take her to Harborview Medical Center.
During treatment, she spoke of Duncan and those like him making a big mistake at turning her back in. As they were departing, they crossed paths with Mr. Darcy . Using his clairvoyant gift, he searched Margot's mind and saw glimpses of the operation. He convinced Duncan to not turn her in and hide the empath for the time being.
At Darcys Estate , it was revealed that there is a government-sanctioned project to forcibly sterilize mutates, based out of Harborview. It is unknown who is at the top of the project, but they have a short amount of time to stop the first round of surgeries and find out what's really going on at the hospital.
It was also revealed that the project has been going on for some time, and Inara / The Lamb was one of the first compulsory sterilizations of the project when she was an SP pet.
Now the race is on to sabotage the Harborview surgical equipment with the help of an artificer so they can root out the leader of the project
Inara was living a quiet existence in the mutate area forests. She is former Resistance but now freelances, taking on jobs that utilize her emotional empath ability.
A representative of the Winthorpes (an influential SP family based in Seattle) forced her into a contract to influence a negotiation deal with a rival family conglomerate. She accepted and was forced to wear a bracelet that carries an explosive should she try to escape. As revenge for threatening her, Inara shot the rep (Evan) in the leg with an arrow charred cabin ruins.
After meeting Meryn and turning the care of her wolf Timber and horse Sergeant over to the healer/chaser, Inara tried to enlist the help of an Artificer ( Travis Benson ). He said he could help but would need time and tools. She agreed to try and return with his price - technology resources - to get the bracelet off. It was also the night Duncan Bishop informed her that the Winthorpe's had taken a contract out on her, dated ahead to when her Winthorpe work should be completed.
Leaving Amelia Longheart's bar the Down Under Bar , she ran into Mr. Darcy in the Historical Underground.
She reported to #winthorpe-tower and after successfully completing her contract, was forced to choose between continuing to be employed by the Winthorpes or turned over to her former master, Magistrate Hamilton
Had her bar trashed by ADF soliders sent by her Aunt Valerie.
She went into a semi coma state to recharge after she killed the soliders with Brooke Einarsdottir.
After waking she set out to the docks. Upon entering she realised too late that her Aunt ,Valerie Longheart, set a trap, tying her to an old execution chair she never travels without.
After revealing her forced sterilization and allowing a pet to carve a lightning bolt into the left side of her face. Amelia used the storm and lightening rods she placed around the warehouse and the chair to kill the soldiers. Passing out she was close to efreeze.
She was then saved by Mr. Darcy who took her through the tunnels and to the In Between after meeting up with The Lamb.
Recharging she wakes to Duncan Bishop , Darcy and Inara sitting around a table where she learns of the bounty on her. Now she will have to go on the run and change her appearance.
Currently looking for a phone to call Travis Benson for both Inara and Duncan. Her bar also sits untouched , but oddly enough cleaning crews are in the process of cleaning up and restoring the bar.
Having been informed of the new Magistrate’s plan to sterilize mutants without consent by Margot a plan is formed to intervene on the mutants behalf.
Duncan takes Amelia and Travis in to the Harborview Medical Center where these procedures are being performed. As a hunter with two fugitives he checks them in to get checked out.
Amelia using her ability pulls power from the building to cause a blackout. Duncan releases Travis who moves through the hospital and using his electrical engineering ability sabotages several pieces of equipment used, rendering them inoperable and irreparable.
Travis escapes and then Amelia releases the current back into the hospitals electrical system. Before shocking Duncan, as part of the plan, and making her escape as well.
Margot and Mercury make a stealthy jaunt into the heart of the city only to be accosted by anti-mutate security forces. Between the intuitive and the elementalist, the two handedly defeat their would be attackers, each demonstrating a near master level of their abilities. The last conscious member of the security force made the painful mistake of thinking Margot the lesser threat and paid for it with bruises and an impending headache that would make him think death more attractive.
Following their fight, they end up talking about life, and find they are actually more alike than either cared to admit. Mercury also promised Margot a door following the destruction of her's by his own gift. Before they left the city, VooDoo simply had to choose a color.
The night ended at the house of a National Resistance contact, Hailey. Mercury was to meet her following is failed arrival to the city, but when he'd discovered the station was under more security than before, he knew he had to go right to Hailey's house. Once they were in the house, Margot informed Mercury they were not alone.
Libra, a wealthy Pure, was in the house with them and she informed Margot and Mercury about her operation to give otherwise outcast mutates a chance at a decent life. Libra's mission had so far gone unnoticed, but she and Hailey were concerned with the arrival of the new magistrate.
No farther along in their planning on how to stop Hamilton's programme, but now wickered into the PNW and national resistance plans, Margot and Mercury departed the city and headed back to the empath's apartment. Of course, Mercury had a stolen door in tow.
After receiving the mission from Duncan Bishop and Voodoo Doll, the mutates and resistance allies went their separate ways to plan for their role in the operation. The Interdiction Team, led by The Lamb, was comprised of mainly intuitives and a sharpshooter Gh0st who walks. Their task was attack and destroy any scout elements that were traveling ahead of the train. Team Sabotage, led by Mercury, and comprised of a Meryn Brighan, Travis Benson, and Ronan Black, was tasked to prevent the train’s movement west and facilitate the success of the final team. The Destruction Team, led by the one-eyed Peacemaker, and included Amelia Longheart, Brooke Einarsdottir, Dwayne Hanson, and Eden O'Neill were tasked with destroying the contents of the train and prevent the continuation of the PNW Magistrate’s Mutant Sterilization Efforts.
Planning complete, the mutate teams stepped smartly off to accomplish their missions.
The Interdiction Team, at Inara’s direction, created the illusion of an IED emplaced on the tracks for the scout team to find. With the Emotional Empath’s gifts, the sight of the illusion was met with anger, fear, and confusion. This was only after Timber, Inara’s faithful lupine companion, utterly destroyed the drone used by the Pure scout team. Once that Scout team went to investigate the “IED,” Ghost opened up on them from his overwatch position on the overpass. With every shot, the Pures took double the casualties, thanks to Margot’s abilities. By the time the shooting was complete, punctuated by a surgical shot made by Ghost at a runner, the Intuitives were close to passing out. They were successful, but it had been a heavy lift.
Team Sabotage began work as soon as Ghost sent the text the Interdiction was successful. Travis cut the rail, Mercury moved the metal, while Ronan kept the forest quiet, and Meryn sought out any surveillance that may have been emplaced in the woods. By the time they were done, the team had the tracks diverted to the river, the enemy Humvees were prepped just inside the woodline for a rapid exfiltration, and zero casualties were taken. Their mission successful, they watched the train come to a dynamic and thunderous stop.
Duncan and his Destruction team fought enemy security forces on the objective. Dodging bullets, calling up torrents of water, gusts of air, bolts of electricity, and some excellent marksmanship, the team battled for dominance over the site of the crash. The fighting was thick, death narrowly avoided on several occasions, but the team emerged successful. Thanks to the ingenuity of the elemental-peacemaker taskforce, the members of the Pure team did not stand a chance.
After the final shot fired, final soldier drowned, security officer robbed of breath or zapped into oblivion, Duncan and his team searched the cars for the medical equipment Enzo the tailor told them would be on the train.
They found bandages and gauze.
They found food and beverage.
They found they were set up.
On a helipad several miles away, Magnus and Marcus Hamilton received the medical equipment the mutate force had been looking for, the surgeries would begin. The attack on the train would not stop the Programme.
Following the raid on the train containing supplies and the special equipment requested from Marcus, David Winthorpe and team try to determine what happened and what all was taken. Of the three cars ransacked, only one was completely empty- the container supposedly holding the magistrates special order. The Winthorpe team was worried, but were making strides to fix the situation, both for the company and with the region's chief law enforcement officer.
David sent his assistant off to schedule a meeting with Hamilton, only to discover that Marcus and Magnus were in the building. So too was their security team. It seemed the magistrate was not very happy.
Still, David had lost on deals before, and thought he could maneuver his way out of Marcus's and Magnus's clutches with promises to make things square. Unbeknownst to the senior Winthorpe, something else was brewing. Secrets that should have been kept were not, and thanks to a Mutate tailor named Enzo, those secrets left the Winthorpe to find the ear of Margot, aka the VooDoo Doll.
After a tense meeting where Marcus accused David of treason as he was the only person inside the Winthorpe company to know of the request made by the magistrate, it became obvious David would be arrest, tried, and executed for a crime he did not commit. Seeing no other option, he drew his pistol, secreted beneath his desk, and fired it at Marcus.
The rounds speeding through the air were stopped mid-flight by the talent Magnus. David was brutalized by the telekinetic while receiving an instructive lesson on bullet speeds, weights, and flight dynamics. It ended with Magnus pushing David through the glass of the tower, only to fall to his death.
Of so David thought.
By the time Marcus and Magnus exited the building, the magistrate was suprised to find the suffering, struggling form of David floating some ten feet above the ground. Magnus was performing a near miraculous excercise of his powers. Only after a snide remark was David allowed to die, splattering on the streets in full view of the public.
Justice, it would seem, could be very messy work.
Tempted with the promise of an exceptionally rare comic book should she complete the task, Audrey Bender goes on the hunt for a particular emotional empath, Inara, aka The Lamb. All she knows is a name and a rough description of the woman, but Audrey, a telekinetic Artificer, desperately wants the prize offered by Magnus. It would seem the magistrate is also interested in the empath.
Her search takes her all over the Seattle region, chasing clues and whispers of her target. Audrey meets interesting characters in the black market and the Underground bar, hoping to learn anything leading to the whereabouts of Inara.
She finally comes into some valuable information and makes her way to the residence of The Lamb, only to discover the woman's cabin has been burned down. Audrey, feeling as though her task complete, with nothing to report, almost leaves the cabin, when she discovers a note. The message, intended for Inara, seems to indicate the girl is very much alive and certain people, namely the Winthorpes know how to contact her.
Audrey returns home with a decision to make: report the charred ruins of the cabin and nothing more, or give Magnus, the ruthless telekinetic and companion of the magistrate, the note she'd found. After many hours of contemplation, the Artificer makes a choice. She calls Magnus.
For the price of a comic, colorful pictures and dynamic text, she sells Inara to Magnus, thereby all but ensuring the magistrate will once more have his Lamb.
Audrey Bender, prodded by Magnus, decides to meet with Marcus Hamilton to suss out the particulars of her proposed new position within the Magistrates employ. What could she gain from the relationship? What could he gain? Would she eventually be hung out to dry?
Through a tumultuous back and forth between the pair, they came to an agreement. Service for privileges and power.
She left thinking she was either in a more advantageous position or deeper in the mouth of the devil.
Before Margot and Mercury could lick their wounds following the failed Train Heist, they were sent on a mission to the north by The Friar. Enzo, the affable artificer and tailor to Seattle's elite, was to be escorted to Libra's farm where he could live out the remainder of his life away from the Winthorpes and Hamiltons of the world.
What should have been a pleasant, albeit physically taxing, walk to the north for two mutates on the mend and an older city mouse became much more arduous. Gangs and patrols seemed thicker in the Wastelands, ultimately slowing the trio's progress north and away from the city.
Shortly after their second night on the road, and not long after they broke camp, Margot uses her gift to find there is another group in the misty forest with them. Between the three of them, they come up with a plan to learn more about the others in the woods.
Margot discovers the others in the woods are a group of mutates: two artificers and a wood elementalist. To VooDoo Doll's chagrin, there isn't the fight she'd been itching for, but found it entertaining none the less. Doc, a young medical artificer, lets slip that his team is headed south to "Thunder Dome."
-to be continued-
After finding out the news of Amelia’s untimely death, Brooke has a break from reality. Being that Amelia is the closest relationship she has had since her parents. (Who were killed at the start of this post apocalyptic world, when she was just a brand new teenage mutate).
This has done significant damage to her mentally and emotionally. Driven by pure rage she exacts her revenge on Scarlett, one of Valerie’s pets. Brooke does this by hunting her down and killing her in cold blood, without any remorse.
While the kill brings her a false sense of release, it doesn’t last long as her last memories of Amelia play in her head rapid fire. Unable to take the pain Brooke shuts off her humanity, making herself numb.
Filling her days with menial tasks, fighting off her flashbacks and any way to forget her memories.
After questioning the Winthorpes once again and being no closer to finding Inara, Marcus decided to visit the Crossroads Market to see if he could discover information on his own. While he was getting a warm meal, he was robbed by a street urchin. During the theft, the pickpocket used empathic powers to aid in the fleecing of the magistrate, and Marcus recognized the gift being plied on his mind.
The thief left the scene, but not before Marcus's security detail was able to spot the petty criminal. From that moment, there was a chase. The urchin was skilled at evasion, changing clothing, doffing the wallet to come back to it later, and effortlessly swimming in a current and press of people. Talented as the pickpocket was, the young criminal did not realize it was more than just another mutate in pursuit or crime boss.
Additional Anti-Mutate Squads were called in and moved along the streets and roofs of the market to maintain eyes on their target. Advanced technology, superior numbers, and the best training available, the Urchin was in a trap with very little chance of escape. They closed in the net around the young empath.
The Urchin was not without other resources. To slow down the AMS members, the thief used the empathic gifts again to drive a homeless man insane and violent. The actions did provide an obstacle to pursuit, but it was not enough to stop the chase. Even as the ground troops executed the mutate responsible for the altercation, the others were chasing along different routes.
Finally getting to the intuitive's penultimate safe house and using the gifts once more, the Urchin confused the AMS members and they nearly missed the pickpocket. However, they were able to find the correct building and moved inside to find the empath. Unfortunately for the AMS teams, the thief already exited.
Running through the scrapyard, the criminal thought escape was within their grasp. That is when the third AMS was placed on the board and directly in the path of the empath. Marcus had captured the thief.
The empath had a name and a hunger.
Her name was Faith and she desires "More."