It's been awhile since I've written any journal entries, as I've been so busy of late.

After the events I last documented, I've spent a lot of time in the Dark Mesa engineering labs, improving on my armor. I was able to almost double the protective coating, while keeping the weight distribution the same. I also increased my power output, so my energy supply won't run low as fast. I also increased the out put of my laser blast, so that it is slightly more effective. Lastly, I was able to create a holographic emitter, so I can now create images to distract opponents with. I was trying to reduce it's power cost, but I screwed up somehow, and blew out power in the labs.

At that point, I was called in by the brass. I figured I was in deep shit over the power outage, but it turns out something else had priority. Seems my new team mates had been dispatched to deal with a threat to Prince Drakkar Island, home to the head of CHESS R&D. I'm a novice compared to this guy, except when it comes to Dimensional Physics (as I'm the one who invented the science after our incursion to the Shadow Realm).

To make sure I got there ASAP, they had my armor attached to a booster rocket, and launched me up into the Upper Atmosphere. I almost passed out from the lower level of air; I made a note to add life support systems next time I can get into the lab. Once the rocket did it's job, I engaged my internal propulsion system, and rocketed toward the island (no pun intended!)

When I got there, I found both Kid Nemesis AND Captain Atlas out cold. This kind of freaked me out, as Atlas is the strongest being on the planet! The rest filled me on the situation, and I hacked into the computer system for the island, BINARY, and got the access codes. We went inside, and using a schematic BINARY provided, took Atlas and the Kid to the medical center.

After getting them taken care of, we found where Harold Van Irye, aka the Quidnunc was. He was supposed to be alone, but when we opened a camera view, we saw some skull headed guy in pirates clothes was sawing his head off with a cutlass!

We rushed down there, and after a short fight, defeated the skull pirate (known as Jolly Rodger). Startide and Warlock took Quidnunc's head to the Null room, keeping his brain from dying.

The Ancient Mariner was also in the complex, and after trying to both gas and electrocute him using the bases defenses, we trapped him between two titanium walls.

While all this was going on, and army of Deep Ones (a race that live under the ocean) were storming the beach, supposedly summoned by a creature named Deep Blue. Startide and I activated the bases external defenses, which held them back for the time being.

(to be continued)

I was only able to work in the lab one day, which I got yanked for some field duty again. I was able to lower the power usage of my holograms though, so it wasn't so bad. I did learn that Modi has returned though. I wanted to see him, but they rushed me out of Black Mesa before I could welcome him back. I've still got some of that mead he gave me before he disappeared, so we'll have to sit down and have a tankard or two when this mission is over.

CHESS is launching satellites into space that will release some kind of nanonet around the planet, in the hopes that it will foil Movian cloaking tech. Captain Atlas and Powerhouse are actually lifting the satellites up by hand, and flying them into space! I'm working with Scion, whom I've never met before. She's pretty powerful from what I've read in the data files. She's pretty friendly, though she bust my chops over blasting the back of Modi's head on my first mission (god, that seems so long ago now!).

This is boring duty, but a few hours in, we get a priority alert. Some kind of possible alien craft has crashed in New Jersey, and they've requested metahuman assistance. Scion (who flies much faster than I do) grabs me, and we take off. I tap into local radio stations, and relay to her via communicator what info I can pick up. I really need to get back to the lab so I can finish that holo communications array for my armor!

Anyway, we get there in a few minutes, and it's a fucking disaster area. The ship crashed into an industrial area, and damaged a power plant. Scion goes to help with rescue operations, while I check in with the local law enforcement.
While Scion rescues some civilians, I do a fly over the craft to get a closer look. There's some weird damage to the top; it looks like something crystallized part of the hull! The dome on top has fissures in it, and I can see movement inside.

When Scion rejoins me, she moves in closer (the flames don't bother her; I really need to add that life support function ASAP!), and something inside sends her a telepathic warning. She tells me it was in English, but with a Movian accent! She grabs a girder, and starts to beat at the dome, until she finally breaks through! A Movian leaps out at her, swinging, and they start to tangle.

As I move in closer, I see another humanoid with some kind of black energy surrounding them, and another one that's definitely alien. Scion has thrown the big dude away, and is now flying into the ship. I still hover above, unsure what to do. I see her attack them with the girder, but it disintegrates when it almost touches the crackling dude. She concentrates on the alien looking one more, and it's body contorts (I later learned their bodies are malleable). The crackling dude aims at her back; I fire off four laser blasts to try and prevent him from hitting her. He hits her with his blast, but my laser blasts take him out of the fight.

I go into the ship to check on Scion when the big Movian leaps back in, swinging. He hits my armor once, and the shockwave my internal sensors register freak me out! If I had been wearing my original armor, it would have taken a nasty hit from that. Thank god I improved on that!

Scion starts slugging it out with him, so I check on crackling alien. From what I can discern, he has some kind of anti-matter field surrounding his body. I call CHESS immediately, and tell them we need an anti-matter containment unit. Since they have none, I have to tell them on the fly how to make one!

Scion has thrown the Movian away from the ship. She calls me over the comm, but at that moment, the other alien does some kind of mental attack on me. It fucking hurts, and I scream. Scion rushes back to the ship, and attacks it, but doesn't seem to affect it. I'm pissed, so I fire off four more laser blasts. The first one misses, but the other three nearly cut it in half at the waist! It collapses, and goes kind of gooey everywhere.

The Movian returns, and misses me, but hits Scion. I was going to try out my holograms on him, but Scion flew straight up, and came back down fast. She slammed into the guy, and drove him through the ship into the ground underneath! When she came back up from underneath, she was covered in dirt. I shudder to think what the other guy looks like!

I was checking out the ships systems, when Scion noticed something wrong with the crackling guy. I yelled that he was going to meltdown, so she grabbed him, and flew up towards space. She threw him into orbit, and he blew up. She caught part of the blast, but was able to make it back safely. She likely saved a good portion of the northeastern United States that day. I made sure to tell CHESS to stop making the containment chamber, as it was no longer needed.

When CHESS arrived to take over, we discovered the alien looking one escaped. I was pissed at myself for not keeping a closer eye on it.

Scion tried to tap into the ship's computers, but didn't get far. As no one has my level of skill with computers, she gave me a crash course on the Movian language for the next 2-3 days. Once I was ready, I broke through the encryption, and learned this was a Movian Scout ship. The strong guy was called Atomic Child, and the crackling guy was called Entropy. The alien looking one was called Alien Intelligence. It was from the Confederation, a coalition of alien races who had warred with the Movians in the past. Seems they are skeptical we're the threat the Movians make us out to be, so we might have blundered by attacking it.

However, the bigger discovery was what caused them to crash. They were attacked in space by a being that glowed golden. Whether it was human or Movian, I have no clue. The blast it fired caused their hyperdrive to turn to crystal! They didn't get any energy readings before they crashed; if they had, I could have built a scanner so we could locate this being. We could use an ally like this right now!

Once I got back to Black Mesa, I got a good night's sleep. Then I was back at the lab, working on the suit again. I finally got the Life Support module working. At least now, I can function in space if need be. I also worked out a way to offshoot my holo emitters into a HUD. I can use visual comms inside the armor. More importantly, I can use it to make images outside the armor, so I can share the images with my team mates.

Even better: I found a way to link my armor to all the spy satellites orbiting the planet. That's going to come in handy when we're heading on a mission, as I can get up to date imaging of where ever we have to go. That might allow us to get the drop on our enemies, and not get ambushed. It might not always work, but hey, I couldn't do that before.

I need a shower now. Then I think I'm going to find that overbearing Norse God, and drink some fucking mead. After all that's happened of late, I need a damn drink!

Hawk wrote on Mar 20^th, 2011 at 1:05pm:

Looks good. I can't wait on the Glaring commentary. How about giving us some information on your new character.

We were called into a big planning session today, headed by Marshal Strong. Everyone was there, from Captain Atlas down to some new Metahuman named Coldsteel. We were going over plans to deal with the upcoming attack by the Movians against Earth. Captain Warlock kept trying to convince everyone that we needed to find a peaceful solution, and all Captain Atlas wanted to know was when he could smash something.

I did bring up the unknown Meta that was recorded by the Movian scout ship Scion and I encountered in NJ, and Strong confirmed him as Captain Astro, cosmic powered Meta.

I did learn that the Movian are divided into 3 main castes: The Military, the Merchants, the Church. The Military and Church want to destroy us, while the Merchants want to use us for cross breeding, as their race has stagnated, and is slowly dying out. Warlock had learned that the Merchants would attempt a snatch and grab raid to steal as many women as possible before the Military tries to destroy the sun. I also learned the Merchants do have their own cadre of Movian Metas, much like the Military has their Elites.

They also use specially bred troops called Orrush, akin to the Orcs from Tolkein's novels. They also have servants called Drow, much like the evil elves from a popular roleplaying game.

While Warlock was arguing his case for a peaceful resolution again, I got a stream from the nano-net around the planet. The Merchants raiding fleet had arrived, and were all ready engaged with The Top Five, a team of heroes (and as I later learned, Captain Astro). Within seconds, Atlas, Powerhouse & Scion flew into space to join the battle.

Strong divided the rest of us into teams, and started having Gate teleport us into the ships not under attack (and in locations provided by Looker, who can see that far into space from Mesa). I was teamed with Kid Nemesis & Modi. When it was our turn to port, Kid leaps through the gate, instead of letting Modi lead the way. Modi went in after him, and I flew in behind him.

When I got through the gate, I saw we were in a troop pod, and all these Orrush were harnessed in. Some Drow were flying around in Jet Packs, and they were engaged with Kid and Modi. I fired off a series of lasers at some of them, but my second or third shot misfired, and much like my first mission, hit Modi in the back of the head! I'm hoping that the portal threw my targeting sensors off a bit, and that it wasn't me being nervous (which I was).

One of the Drow fired at me, and my armor got peppered with heavy slugs. I actually felt the last two, and was pretty sure one of my ribs got bruised. Now I was getting nervous; I've slugged it out with Movian Elites, and some fucking stromtrooper is damaging my armor with an alien machine gun? I threw up a set of light duplicates of myself to confuse them; now was as good a time as any to try out my new holo emitters.

Modi hit some wicked move with his hammer that took out all the Orrush in their harnesses, but the Drow were unfazed. After awhile, Kid went to some hatch, and went through, trying to reach the ship's bridge. Modi followed shortly after, and I was left alone with the Drow. I blinded them with my armor flash, which caused them to drop their weapons. However, they drew these wicked looking blades, and I knew I was in trouble....

[To be continued....]

It's been awhile since I've done a journal entry. It's taken me awhile to repair my armor after the battles with the Moevian merchant raiders. On top of that, I had to help Carter Manning finish his Manta suit. He's told me that his father is doing some illegal drilling underwater, and he's concerned that its going to damage the environment. I've agreed to help him go down to the site, and take out the drills. I don't know if anyone else on the team would help. Well, I know Modi would, but I can't say what the others would think. Or what CHESS will think either.

Most of the team was away on another mission when a breaking news story from Japan showed a half dozen Jellymen coming out of the ocean carrying a large gurney with a giant egg on it. I was sent with Magnum, and they let Captain Warlock out of incarceration to assist since he's been cooperating. I wasn't happy when I learned of his apparent betrayal on his last mission, but I've come to respect him for his past efforts with the team.

We flew to Japan, where it turns out that even though my armor looks like one of their anime mechs, Magnum is much more popular than I am! He had to convince the Japanese authorities to let us assist after the man on the comm didn't recognize me!

After a quick discussion with the authorities on scene (and having the local press in our faces), Magnum flies towards the egg, and slices it open with his blades. This gets the Jellymen moving, and they start to attack him. The egg cracks open, and this creature starts expanding. It lets out some kind of gas, and the civilians on the beach starting suffering ill effects. My armor protected me, and Warlock tried to use his TK to shield the people. Magnum was fighting the creature and the Jellymen, and I tried to assist him with the Lightning gun I had taken from the armory (we all took one, as the Jellymen are susceptible to electrical attacks).

I was able to destroy one of the Jellymen, and the rest started to attack me after Magnum flew too high for them to reach. He took them out with some phosphorus grenades, so I flew up and blinded the creature, as it had been tearing up Magnum pretty good. His attacks didn't look like it was doing much damage, so I fire some laser blasts into it's mouth. That just pissed it off, and it went to snap at me.

Magnum put a magnetic field around my armor to protect me, and threw some knockout grenades into it's mouth. It started to go down, so I backed off. I caught a brief telepathic flash from Warlock that salt was the cure for the gas the creature emitted. The creature went out, which kind of shocked me, seeing as how it was shrugging off Magnum's attacks.

Warlock informed us that the creature had come from Island Zero, and was supposed to be part of "the test" we learned about when we met The Sheppard. As it was stolen, he was angry, but told Warlock it was no longer his concern.

As the JDF moved in to assist the civilians injured by the gas. Magnum started to drag the creature into the ocean by it's tail. It woke up, and ran deeper into the ocean. Magnum let it go, as it was no longer a threat. He went to get stitched up, while I coordinated with the JDF on securing and helping the injured.

While we were both distracted, Warlock took off. When I learned this, this sudden rage came over me. I started to plan to carve him up with my lasers, and stick his organs into jars. He made a fool of both Magnum and myself, and he would pay! Then, I'd seek out the Blue Blood, and show him that I was smarter than the rest of the Octagon! I'd show all these fools that I was one of the smartest men on the planet!

As I started to formulate my revenge on Warlock, an echo of his last telepathic transmission "The cure is Salt" surfaced, and I came to my senses. I started to feel sick to my stomach. I had been told that my brain functions had entered into superhuman state, and I obviously suffered a bout of Metapsychosis. I almost threw up in armor at that point, disgusted at the thoughts that had come over me.

So this is what the Moevians feared about metahumans? This wasn't good. Somehow, Warlock's mental powers had helped me overcome succumbing to the Humaru state. As pissed as I was that he took off like a criminal, it seems I owed him one. First chance I get, I need a full physical at Black Mesa. That was a close call. Had I given in to those dark urges, I have no doubt that Magnum would have carved me to pieces.

More than ever, I'm afraid. Afraid of what I could become, but worse, of what my more powerful team mates could become. If one of them ever turns like that, how in God's name will I be able to stop them? I'm going to have to make more improvements on my armor, and just to be safe, I need to build a fail safe into it. Since I can't trust the team (being susceptible to this like I am), I'll give it to Carter. If I ever turn, he can shut my armor down so I don't kill anyone.

I feel really tired now. Bad enough that we have an alien race trying to wipe us out. Now I have to worry about turning on my own team mates. How much worse can things get?

While trapped under Magnum, the gas being returned, and changed back to human form. Not wanting to take any chances, I nailed him with 2 laser blasts, taking him out.

Annihilator kept ranting and raving about how he was claiming Earth in the name of the Moevian empire, and how we were weak, etc, etc. He was obviously delusional, and most likely had succumbed to metapsychosis. Magnum came too, and sprung to his feet, facing off with Annihilator. Fantasia used her powers to lift me off the ground, but kept me restrained. She struck me, but I didn't feel it. I blinded her again, while Magnum unleashed a torrent of attacks on Annihilator. His metal spheres kept hitting his force field, barely penetrating. His blades though, cut through; He slashed him good, and before he burst into a puddle of blood inside his own force field, he said "Not again...".

Fantasia fled, and I chased her, even though my armor was at about 20% power. I Fired a series of laser blasts at her, hitting her three times. She was still getting away. Magnum attempted to throw a fuel tanker truck at her, but misjudged his aim, and it struck the J-Train platform exploding. He was knocked out again, and the explosion caused a lot of damage. I saw a J Train coming, and debated what to do. I considered flying into it, hoping my momentum would stop it, but realized if I couldn't lift Magnum, I wouldn't do squat to the train. I flew towards Magnum, and slapped him hard with my gauntlet, waking him up. I told him he had to save the train, and he used his magnetic powers to guide if over the damaged track, so that it could continue on.

After that. we called in emergency services to help the injured, and remove the dead. Vespa and the gas dude were taken into custody. Magnum and I were treated for our wounds, and we went back to Black Mesa to file our reports. I expect we're in even more trouble than we were after Japan.

However, when we got back to Black Mesa, we didn't get called in for an ass chewing. We did our debrief, and that was it. I went to bed, because the next day, I was in the lab repairing my armor. Took me two days to get it back to full capacity.

After fighting this gaseous villain (who I found out calls himself Sublime), I decided I needed to do something about opponents who can't be affected normally. He's the third villain I've encountered who could ignore physical attacks while out of phase (Death Ray being the first, and Red Devil being the second). Since I have all the specs for the Spectral Analyzer and Ectoplasmic cannon that Quidnunc designed. Using his specs and my knowledge of Dimensional Physics, I designed and built a Phase Analyzer for my armor. Now I can detect the frequency of items, so if they're out of phase, I'll know.

Once that was done, I started work on a Phase Compensator, to allow me to modulate my suit's light blasts to affect insubstantial beings. I've got it calibrated just right; now to run a diagnostic on it. Power's on...looks good...oh crap....

[to be continued...]

OOC: I rolled a 00 on my inventing roll, so now Glare got phased into another dimension. Without his armor. This should be good!

Paul wrote on Mar 18^th, 2012 at 9:40pm:


That was pretty funny. That's two missions in a row where we caused a lot of mayhem!

Sounds like it's time to roll up a new character.  At least you went up and not down!

Quote:


Sounds like you guys saw Magnum naked as well.

[New Journal entry]

For the past week, I've had nightmares. I keep seeing that gigantic entity, the one known as Cthulhu. It towers above the Hotel California, it's hand trying to force it's way through Magnum's magnetic force field.

I wake up, my heart racing, my burned flesh covered in sweat. It's still so raw in my mind, that we faced a being out of nightmares, and lived to tell about it.

I guess I should start from the beginning. Phillip Manning was hosting a part on The Hotel California, a massive, mobile deep sea oil drilling platform. Heads of states, celebrities, and numerous super heroes were invited to the inauguration of this vessel. I knew all about it thanks to Phillips son Carter, who had brought me proof that this ship was built using shoddy materials, and skirted numerous international laws. I had spoken with some of my team mates about it, and we were prepared to shut it down. Carter was with us, and he brought his Manta suit with him at my request. Thank god he did too, as you'll soon realize.

Phillip Manning put on one hell of a party. It was excessive in the extreme. He had Blackwater doing security. They claim to be a security firm, but their nothing more than high end mercenaries.

Carter tried to approach his father repeatedly, but was intercepted by Manning's goons at every turn. He was getting real frustrated, and started to lose his temper. The team was busy mingling, and the Mighty Seven, Manning's personal team of superhumans were there.

Most of what went on was pretty boring (other than Captain Atlas & Magnum having an arm wrestling contest) until Carter finally confronted his father. Sure enough, he made Carter look like an ass, which pissed him off. He took off for his room, so I had Omega tail him to be make sure he didn't do something stupid. While Omega was in the hallway, Carter put on his Manta suit, cut a hole in the wall, and went into the water. After reporting back to me, I got Modi & Magnum together, because I knew trouble was brewing...

[To Be Continued]

[Journal continued...]

At Cthulhu started to press down on Magnum's magnetic shield, Modi activated the belt of strength he wears around his waist. He also went berserk (something I've only seen him do once before), and leapt at the Outer God. The Hotel California pitched, and came close to capsizing at the force of his leap! He started to batter at Cthulhu with his hammer, ignoring it's facial tentacles (which were trying to ensnare him). Captain Atlas and Magnum join him, and the three dish out damage that would destroy cities in seconds.

Cthulhu seems to shrug most of it off, and causes Modi a lot of damage. I'm worried he's going to die in his berserk state, so I try and blind it with my light blasts. It recoils at the light, but doesn't seem to be fully effected by it.

Omega and Kid Nemesis try and stem the tide of Deep Ones and Ithilids trying to enter the ship via the hull breach.

Cthulhu knocks Modi off it's body, and he crashes through the ship, and lands in the reactor core! Thankfully Carter showed some initiative, and shut it off. If he hadn't done that, the ship would have gone off like a nuke, and I wouldn't be writing this now.

Magnum and Atlas continue to batter at the Outer God, but it keeps on coming. Remembering the stories I had read, I know it's body had been trapped by something called an Elder sign. I contact Magnum, who flies into the water to try and locate it. Carter joins him, as his sonar would be useful down there.

Realizing how desperate the situation is, Captain Atlas makes a decision I wish he hadn't. He lifts Cthulhu up, and flies upward, heading into space. Tapping into the Argus Array, I see him slam the Outer God into the surface of the moon, where parts of it's flesh flies off. Atlas then lifts it up again, and starts to fly off into space. As he does, small winged beings materialize, and separate them, and take both off into the stars.

Modi collapsed, and Magnum had to do an emergency surgery on him to save his life. He's still in a coma right now.

Because so many people were at the gala (especially leaders of other nations), CHESS couldn't contain this from getting out. Now the world press covered Cthulhu's rising, and mankind is in a general state of fear as they realize aliens do exist, and they are out to get us.

Phillip Manning is in a coma as well. The cultists have confirmed he was under the control of Qam, the mummified being Nemesis and Omega fought. He's now somewhere down in the depths of the ocean, with the Deep Ones and Ithillids as company.

I'm starting to wonder if Qam's control over Phillip is tied into my dad's disappearance. Manning's really bizarre behavior started around the time Qam took control of him, and my dad went missing weeks later. I'm starting to fear the worst, that he might actually  be dead. Until Manning wakes up, I have to wait before I can ask him about it.

I feel guilty about the things I said to Captain Atlas. In the end, he proved to be the real hero, saving us all from Cthulhu's physical form. What took him, where he was taken, and what those beings are doing to him, no one knows. If not for the threat of the Moevians with their sun killers, we'd be going after Atlas right now. If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to find him after we stop the Moevian threat. That is, if I live that long.

I saw Modi in the hospital ward. He doesn't look good. I couldn't stand seeing him like that, so I went back to my lab, and tried to work on my armor. I couldn't concentrate, so I went to my new quarters, and drank some mead he gave me.

With Atlas gone and Modi incapacitated, can we still hold off the Moevians?

[End Journal Entry]

Sounds like you guys could have used Magnum.  Sorry about that!

Warpsmith is probably the most powerful NPC I ever made up.  He went easy on you guys.

I am too nice to you all in general.  Time to amp up the bastard quotient.

Bump

No problem. I was searching through for other posts yesterday so I knew it was there when I passed it. July was the lasst update so that gave me a pretty good idea where it was.

Now please get along with the rest of the story......

I was going to post this in A Glaring Commentary, but it appears that thread is gone 

I got a new commission of Glare from another artists, and wanted to share it with everyone. The artist goes by the name Celtic Bolt, and I found him via DeviantArt. His page there can be found here. Hope you all like it!