iynx

Group Name: Pastfinder’s Shop of Magic ( PSoM ) Alignment: Brrrrrrrrrr… ( Wheel of Fortune -soundeffect ) it really depends: PSoM try not to break the law, but if and when they do, they avoid getting caught. And when they do get caught anyway, they Marin themselves out of trouble. Ok, if not total villains by intention, they are moral-fluid people. Roleplay: RP heavy. Discord: ( must pass discord interview to join discord ) Recruitment Officer: @iynx ingame, iynx#5276 discord Recruitment Message: Pastfinder's Shop of Magic -the FIRST magic shop in Paragon City run by Kamala Haaska, a woman of extremely diverse heritage and social justice- is seeking to rearrange their personnel by parting ways with every current employee and hiring new inclusive staff by intersectional hiring principles. If you are of an oppressed minority, and know something about magic, look up at this… actually don't. Kamala, you are going to kick me out just because you found out about a new fashionable trend and want to gain more public appreciation? After all these years I put my hide in the line to save you from scandals you got yourself into because of your own arrogance and stupidity? All these years I served you loyally and put up with your unbearable attitude, and now you get rid of me because of physical characteristics I was born with and which I cannot change. Knowing that you are too lazy and dumb to read this before it goes to print, let this be my last FU to you before you fire me and get someone else to replace me. -your future former employee, Michael. OOC: PSoM is seeking active, RP-heavy players with a sense of humor. The shtick is to make money: get stuff to sell, get customers, make good customer relationships and sell stuff and services making profit, Discord-server is used to keep up with purchases and sales. Task/Strike Forces or normal missioning is not the thing PSoM does; they rather poke into ongoing plots and take every opportunity to make money and gain power. Think of Pawn Stars mixed with What We Do In The Shadows dictatored by a magic-savvy undead cross-breed of Gordon Ramsay and Sanna Marin. Pastfinder's shop of Magic is located in King's Row, Paragon City.

WITCH MAKES A SLIMY COMEBACK - GOODBYE REPUTATION Paragon City\CityCelebrities\AtlasPark Joe Queen and Aubrey Slots PARAGON CITY LIFESTYLE - THE HOTTEST ONLINE LIFESTYLE BLOG YOU SHOULD TALK ABOUT High School students of Steel Canyon High, among other visitors and staff of Atlas Park City Hall, were traumatized when a portal opened right in the ceiling of the main hall and dropped Kamala Haaska, best known as the Magnificent Pastfinder, on the floor in front of many pairs of perplexed eyes. And several cell phone cameras. Two of the best super powered lifestyle bloggers [ that is us! ] were at the scene when Miss Haaska, covered only by gooey green & black slime and torn remains of her clothes, stood up pushing severed tentacles ( which were cut when the portal suddenly opened and closed ) off her body and asked for a cigarette. After we got confirmation of identity, we tried to ask where she had been these few months, but the answer was only as follows: “I’ve been around. Now give me that cellphone. Don’t film me. Get back. Everyone stop filming. I’m not me, this is somebody else just pretending to be me. You are spreading fake news. Ouch.” While the literally naked witch covered in slime was trying to confiscate cell phones from bystanders while slipping and falling on her face, we made a quick exit to post process our video material. On our way to our editor, we were able to avoid a falling grand piano that was dropped out of nothing just maybe 5 or ten feet behind us- **Time manipulation sound effect** …on our way to our editor, we were able to avoid two falling grand pianos that were dropped out of nothing. The first one hit the ground just maybe 5 or ten feet behind us and the second one was dropped just a few feet in front of- **TIME MANIPULATION GOES BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR** MASS AMNESIA IN CITY HALL - TWO OF OUR BEST BLOGGERS HOSPITALIZED Paragon City\StrangeEvents\AtlasPark Chad Hatchett PARAGON CITY LIFESTYLE - THE HOTTEST ONLINE LIFESTYLE BLOG YOU SHOULD TALK ABOUT Strange events took place yesterday in Atlas Park when a myriad of rookie heroes, PPD, Longbow and FBSA agents and even a whole class of highschool students were subject to a mysterious memory loss. Events that happened literally just a few hundred yards behind ms. Liberty’s back left little trace or clues to be investigated. MAGI and FBSA were tight-lipped on how their investigation was going, but were able to confirm that whoever, or whatever was responsible for the mysterious event, left a slimy, slug-like trail out of the City Hall towards monorail station, littered by broken and smashed smartphones. Involvement of MAGI suggests that the event was magical in nature, but this claim was not confirmed. In connection with this City Hall phenomena, our two most proficient lifestyle bloggers, Joe Queen and Aubrey Slott, were buried under hundreds of grand pianos falling from nowhere on top of them. Joe Queen, known for xer super-reflexes and danger sense, could not avoid getting buried under the musical debris, as our brick-like, invulnerable Aubrey Slott, suffered the same fate. Both of our hero bloggers were excavated from under the debris and are now recovering in a hospital. This brutal attack on the free press has all of our staff- <PAYWALL-POP-UP:> SUBSCRIBE PARAGON CITY LIFESTYLE AND READ THE FULL ARTICLE! 10% DISCOUNT TO ALL NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS...

Paragon City shopkeeper saves Kings Row neighborhood church from been demolished Paragon City\CityCelebrities\KingsRow Joe Queen and Aubrey Slots PARAGON CITY LIFESTYLE - THE HOTTEST ONLINE LIFESTYLE BLOG YOU SHOULD TALK ABOUT Kamala Haaska, best known as the Magnificent Pastfinder of Pastfinder’s Shop of Magic, made a significant investment in Paragon City’s cultural heritage by purchasing a small church next to her shop. This church, Church of Everlasting Virtue, was hit by a small, local earthquake last February and sunk a few meters into the ground. Miss Haaska remembers the incident well: “Yes, I remember. It was last February, late Saturday night when I was doing absolutely nothing at all in my shop. Then suddenly, a small earthquake shook the ground. I only later found out that the earthquake had caused the nearby church to sink.” The Church of Everlasting Virtue, built almost one hundred years ago, sank first only one and half feet, but continued to sink the coming weeks after the incident, causing the whole building to tilt and strain its structure. The church interior was transferred into a temporary church when the repair and restoration of the sunken church were initiated. However, it was soon found out the costs of repairing the church were way too high, and building of a new church was started. Foreman Davidson’s assessment of the situation at that time to Paragon Times (quoted from an article last February): “The whole building keeps slowly sinking, and it not only makes it harder and harder to dig this old building up, but we need to tear open a lot of roads and streets and pavement, set up cranes, hammer iron into the ground and cause the neighborhood traffic and living conditions considerable inconvenience. We could do it, but someone had to pay a lot of money to make this all done. And even then, the church is probably already snapped in half and too dangerous to use. And then, repairing a small church or near one hundred years of age? Maybe, if you could find a millionaire and this was a culturally more major church.” But we here at Paragon City Lifestyle found out that someone was ready to pay a lot of money to save the church. The purchase made if not in secret, but in low profile by Kamala Haaska came to our attention via anonymous tip. Miss Haaska was well prepared for our interview, when we made our surprise home-call to her shop: “Of course, as a well-known benefactor of this city, preserving a part of its cultural history, however small, is close to my heart. Many young heroes were born in that church, and some laid to their final journey in that very same place. I am glad to be known as someone who selflessly invested money to save a landmark of cultural importance.” Kamala Haaska, who reminded us that she is a frequent contributor to several charity efforts, revealed her work on the church so far: “My lovely muscular human workmen have been working for a few months now, and thanks to their underground efforts without outside interference or any other distraction to their concentration, the further sinking of the church has been stopped. A tunnel has been dug from my shop to the church, and further repairs can now be done by my well-paid army of unrelenting workers without exposing them to sunlight.” When asked about the future of the church, miss Haaska told she has an intention to respect the spiritual heritage of the church: “The church is damaged and may not ever be cleared to host a large number of people due security reasons, but individual visits may later be possible. The church has been a holy place of consolation, spiritual fulfillment and satisfaction, and my intention is to keep it that way.” After the interview, Miss Haaska was determined to have an impromptu photoshoot with us. While we were not allowed to enter the church in question, we were able to snap a collection of pictures of Miss Haaska in her shop, in her office, on top of several cars of her shop and in her private massage parlor, wearing a compilation of different attires. The pictures of the photoshoot can be viewed in the members area of Paragon City Lifestyle by clicking the link below: JOIN PARAGON CITY LIFESTYLE -10% OFF FIRST PURCHASE - TURN AD FILTER OFF

i think they are, and if one is looking for more lawful shop and more law-abiding 🤣shopkeeper, then Pastfinders could be an option?

Is Pastfinder's okay? It's technically just a magic shop. Ran by a dictator of an undead woman who meddles with everything, believes she does good, but messes up everything with her villanous plots and lets her minions to cover it up for her. Pastfinder's Shop of Magic Theme: magic help&artifacts for sale. And whatever the customer wants, the customer gets. IF the price is right. (Plus expenses.) Alignment: moral-fluid Time zone: GMT/EUR Contact : @iynx

tl;dr: A Hunan-born action-actress, who played a japanese martial artist "Ghostdoll" in an action-drama TV-serie got her character written off the show because the character had become unpopular among the audience, even mocked as "Clowndoll". The actress blamed the writer-team, intruded into set and started a rampage in revenge. After causing casualties, the actress escaped police capture and is now considered fugitive.

One day at Pastfinder’s: ”Mike-hall! I ree-ceived thees le-eht-her!” Kamala throws a letter to Michael, but the letter floats on the floor. Michael patiently picks it up and glances it, then looks back at Kamala, who is already more interested in her fingernails. She talks to Michael without even looking at him: ”Eet was too long, reed eet for me-eh!” ”It says: Dear ms. Haaska, we at McCormick and Starr LLP represent mr. Jeffrey Smith, a city counselor of-” ”No no no! I wanth to knoweth what eet says! Not that fancy beeg words. Tell me-eh what eet says een hoo-man language!” Michael takes a moment to read the letter, while Kamala drums her fingers on her stone desk. Then Michael answers: ”You, and your legal entity as a business, have been sued for-” ”No! Mike-hall no! Tell me-eh what eet means! Een Eng-leesh! Hoo-man language! Eng-leesh, do-oh you speek eet?” Michael takes a minute to amass enough willpower to remain calm, and then he answers: ”Kamala. In short, it means: better call Bob.” (( Hopefully mister Goldstein is still available for rp ))

Camera-shy superhero saves Pandora’s, and this is why we need to talk about it Paragon City\HotTopicsToday\Talos Island Joe Queen and Aubrey Slots PARAGON CITY LIFESTYLE - THE HOTTEST ONLINE LIFESTYLE BLOG LIKE EVER Pandora’s Box magic shop in Talos Island was attacked yesterday at noon by the Freakshow, when yet barely known and as barely clothed superheroine appeared at the scene and saved the day. “They [The Freakshow] just suddenly teleported inside. First they looked baffled, but quickly started to wreak havoc. If Lady Magnificent had not appeared, the Freakshow would have mauled us all to the ground”, told Sanna Heard-Ramsay, a dissatisfied customer of the Talos Island Pandora’s Box. She was determined to give us first hand recollection of the events, after describing in detail why she was displeased in the shop’s products and their discriminating customer service. The shop suffered moderate damages, including damaged books and destroyed arcane crafting ingredients, but human casualties were avoided. For some reason, the Freakshow apparently took VHS tapes of the shop's video surveillance system with them. “This is strange. I did not witness any of them going to the back room where monitors and the surveillance video recorder is located. But it was such a chaos. First the Freakshow ported in, and almost immediately the scantily clothed heroine came through the door singing… her own theme song? Or maybe she was just shrieking in pain. Thank God she stopped and summoned her shadowhound to chase away the Freakshow, while she valiantly hid behind a bookshelf herself”, described Iris Harrison, the shop manager, the events of the hero intervention. Luckily the Paragon City LifeStyle’s finest superpowered lifestyle bloggers [that is us!] were nearby and we were able to get a short xoman-to-woman talk with the mysterious shy superheroine, when she was trying to exit the scene unnoticed through the back door of the shop. We asked her preferred pronouns, her race, her sexual orientation and her hero moniker and what she would like to say to the people of Paragon: “Don’t do crime! But if you do, don’t get caught! But if you do get caught anyway, then get caught by no other than the Magnificent Lady Magnificent and her Magnificent Magnifihound. Now excuse me, I’ve got more crime. To stop!” And so she was off. The white, cis-het pale-skinned dark-haired woman in skimpy blue swimming suit and a bulky cape with apparently many hidden pockets for large superhero equipment bolted away to the sky only moments before the PPD hard suits and Awakened arrived at the scene. This modest and shy superheroine ( who had a severe speech impediment issue and of whom we regrettably do not have a photograph ) shows by her own example, that even a shy superheroine with severe physical communication barrier can be a hero. But even with her noble and humble start, we need to address the issue of her choice of clothing. When fighting crime wearing apparent gender-signaling-<paywall-pop-up:>SUBSCRIBE PARAGON CITY LIFESTYLE AND READ THE FULL ARTICLE! 10% DISCOUNT TO ALL NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS...

322 days to lockdown confined A man was standing on a street, with a lit cigarette on his lips. His name was Vic Evans, better known as Moopy. It was both his nickname and his hero moniker. He took a long drag of his cigarette. Menthol. ”This has to do”, he muttered. A female pedestrian hugged her book tighter, avoided eye-contact with Moopy and walked past him, a thin, young male figure in his late teens wearing black velvet trench coat, army boots and sporting black mohawk, black eyeliner and unnaturally pale skin. He was not a villain. Obviously, he was way too clean and overdressed for a Skull lieutenant. He didn’t have any mask, either. ”This has to do, [censored] [censored]”, he muttered again, when a jet black 4-door sedan parked on the pavement next to him. Two men got out of the vehicle, one from the driver’s, one from the passenger's side. ”Vic! How are you my friend!”, shouted the balding man in beige suit. He had been driving the car. After shouting his greeting he turned to slip a plastic note with Paragon Plan One -logo under the windshield wiper. ”My name is still Moopy, Saul”, reminded Moopy. ”Yeah, yeah, right… you remember Ryan?” Saul gestured to a man who had come out of the vehicle from the passenger's side. And no, Moopy didn’t remember this Ryan, a mammoth of a man who walked straight to Moopy, towering over him and covering him from the sun like a blimp. The man had broad shoulders, wide jaw and low forehead. Everything in that man’s physical presence underlined the fact that he was a brawler and a scrapper, someone whose main function in this world was to hurt other people. He was bald, and his skin tone was tanned. And when Moopy shaked his hand, he felt his hand was viced inside of a warm shovel made of human flesh. ”Howdy Moopy. I went by the name ’AbsoDestro’. Short for Absolute Destruction”, said Ryan to Moopy. Ryan talked slowly, having pauses in between words, like he was getting lost in his words in the middle of his own sentence. ”Former cape? No more spandex?”, asked Moopy. Ryan stopped shaking Moopy’s hand, but didn’t release it, pausing to think of an answer like a buffering online video. ”Oh yeah. Some trouble with the FBSA. But PPO got me covered. I still have a hero licence”, answered Ryan after his pause, and released Moopy’s hand. ”So, you? A Skull turned into a hero?”, asked Ryan. Moopy inhaled some tobacco smoke and blew it out through his nose. ”Nah. I’m a Skull only by my biological mother’s side. I was raised by a hero after adoption. But a hero myself? I never even... started”, answered Moopy. ”Gentlemen”, interrupted Saul, who took a brown leather briefcase out of the car and then locked it’s doors with a remote, ”You know the drill today? Paragon Plan One cut funding for a promising, but non-superpowered individual here, and we need to get her out of the apartment. By force, if needed.” Ryan cracked his knuckles and snorted. Saul waggled his finger: ”She is still, technically a high-profile person and we at Paragon Plan One do not need any negative media attention. Let’s not hurt her unnecessarily. Right, Ryan?” ”A high-Profile person. How? Who is she?”, asked Moopy while he watched Ryan nodding slowly. ”Her name is Proud Spirit. Yes, she is a child of Mountain Spirit”, answered Saul. Name-dropping didn’t impress Moopy, but Ryan tried to whistle, with the lips he had damaged during his brawlful hero career. The whistle wasn’t successful, but Moopy understood Ryan was impressed. ”What?”, asked Moopy, having no clue who they were talking about. Moopy had been out of the US for about 10 years. ”She has been depowered. Mr Moopy here is an expert in healing and mind control. We just go up there, and ask her to leave. She leaves, and everyone will be happy”, said Saul. ”She is dangerous. How dangerous?”, asked Moopy. ”As I told you, she has been depowered and she doesn’t have the Spirit family powers anymore. She is on probation under special conditions, because she has been convicted as a minor and then the state of her sanity at the time of her crimes was questioned-” ”State of her sanity? Is she crazy?”, Moopy interrupted Saul again. Saul had to collect her thoughts before answering. He was about to open his briefcase and already had his hand on the lock of the briefcase, but he changed his mind. Then he answered: ”Yes. She is delusional and irrational. But she is usually medicated. And she has been depowered. And we got Ryan here, and you. I’m confident we three can get her out of the apartment without any trouble.” Moopy looked up the outer wall of the building, tilting her head. ”After all, she is just a non-superpowered girl of 18 years of age, and we got a veteran brawler and a mindcontroller in our team. What could possibly go wrong?”, said Saul and marched to the front door of the building, gesturing for the two men to follow him. All the three took an elevator to the seventh floor of the building. Moopy could see the building was new. Walls, floors, lights, everything was new. Thick dark gray carpet on the floor suffocated the noise of their steps and made walking almost uncomfortable. When Moopy looked to his sides, he could see his reflection on the glossy, clear marble walls. People behind the Paragon Plan One had money. And when those people were investing into valuable assets -such as superheroes- they didn’t cut down on expenses. Unless, their investment was deemed profitless. ”Miss Spirit, this is Saul Bright of Paragon Plan One! Please open the door!” Saul rang the electrical doorbell again. The tune of the doorbell was made of electrical, hollow beebs that two of the men maybe felt familiar. Then silence. ”Miss Spirit! Are you in there?!” Saul was directly in front of the door, and started to knock on the door, while calling Proud Spirit to answer. ”Miss Spirit! We represent Paragon Plan One, the owner of the apartment and unless you open the door, we are obliged to enter using the master keycard!” Nobody answered Saul’s call. ”Miss Spirit! We have a right to enter the apartment, and we will do so now!” Moopy cursed silently and quickly mindscanned what was behind the door. It was one of his superpowers: he could sense people, humans and other sentient beings by their thoughts, feelings and emotions. The apartment was empty, except for a spot in the living room. Just maybe 6 or 8 feet from the door. There was a sentient mind in there. ”Saul, she is in there, I mind scanned the apartment. She is alone”, said Moopy, with a foul stench in his mouth. It wasn’t real: sometimes the feelings he could sense manifested themselves as scents or tastes. ”Can she hear us?”, asked Saul. ”Yes”, said Moopy, and added quickly, ”But she isn’t coming to open the door. Just use the master keycard.” Saul swiped the keycard, and the luxurious glossy door opened to the apartment. They entered, Saul first, then Ryan. Moopy was behind them, slightly reluctant to meet the person he had sensed. First they had to step over a pile of unopened letters and advertisements, and then they were in a dim lit apartment. The window blinds were shut, and they blocked the sun from the apartment. Moopy closed the door behind him, turned to face the sofa and stood on his spot, looking at a motionless pile of something on the sofa. Saul found the control panel of the blinds on a wall and opened the blinds, letting the sunlight fill the apartment. As the blinds slowly opened, Moopy saw how the sunlight uncovered a slender, green hair girl in a slumped posture sitting on the sofa. Discovering that there was someone in there, came as a bit of a shock to Saul and Ryan. But there she was, Proud Spirit. Wearing a worn, red t-shirt and black leather pants. No socks. Just sitting there and staring at a spot on the floor in front of her. Saul straightened his tie, and pulled a badge from his jacket. ”Miss Spirit. I’m Saul Bright and I represent Paragon Plan One. I’m afraid we have dire news to tell you, miss Spirit.” He kept his badge under the face of the girl, who was still motionless, but not dead. She was breathing, if nothing more. Saul put his badge back into his jacket pocket. Then he pulled a chair from underneath a living room corner bar to himself, lifted it in front of the girl while still awkwardly holding his briefcase in his hands, and placing the chair in front of the girl. Saul wasn’t that strong, and this effort brought a drop of sweat to his forehead. Then he sat down on the chair and continued: ”We at Paragon Plan One help young, promising heroes with potential to start their career in heroism. Our best experts believed that you, a heir to the well-known Spirit family and a seven year veteran of heroism, would strive to become one of Paragon’s best heroes. We are sorry to find out that our experts were wrong, miss Spirit.” Moopy looked at the slender green hair girl. She kept sitting in the same position, hardly moving at all. Her head was down, her eyes cast on the floor. Moopy could still see her pupils moving. Jittering, but not aiming at any of the people in the room, nor their feet. It looked like the girl’s eyes were chasing an invisible laser dot on the expensive looking, orient carpet on the floor. ”He is going to drop the bomb now, get ready.” It was Ryan, thinking aloud in a manner Moopy could not miss. ”We have found out that you have not attended any classes of the hero academy you were accepted into. We have also learned that you have not attended any regular psychiatric sessions past your first visit. And we have reason to believe you have not been honest to your probation officer about these matters. Therefore, it is my utmost unfortunate duty to inform you the funding given to you, including this housing, has been withdrawn. We already sent you a letter informing you about this regrettable turn which… as I can see...” Saul got up, turned away from the girl and walked to the front door. There, he bowed to pick one, unopened letter from the pile of letters, advertisements and free newspapers in front of the door. He raised up, lifted the letter to the level of his head and walked back in front of the green hair girl. Saul wagged the Paragon Plan One envelope in front of the green hair girl, who still had not raised her eyes from the floor. ”...you have not opened.” ”Here it comes, Vic! Anything?!” Ryan’s thoughts were pumping, pulsating excitement, ready to fight. The green hair girl felt… numb. She was just sitting slumped on the sofa, looking at the floor. ”I’ll take a look” prompted Moopy to Ryan, mentally. Then he dived into the mind of the green hair girl. ”I hereby state that you have no right to stay in this apartment any longer. You should take your belongings and leave immediately, or these two fine gentlemen here will escort you out”, Saul continued. Vic backed out from the mind of the green hair girl. ”Saul. Ryan. I think we should leave”, he said with haste, speaking as fast as he could, leaving only tiny pauses in between words. Saul laughed: ”No, it is miss Spirit who will leave this-” ”[censored] this [censored] I’m out!!!” After hearing Moopy suddenly shouting that, Saul and Ryan saw an image of Moopy running out of the apartment, taking off from there like he was in a life-threatening danger. As the two saw their mind-reading healer escaping the room, that was residing an individual classified dangerous and erratic by the FBSA, the two PPO agents looked at the ominous silent figure of the girl, and rushed out of the apartment themselves. At the door, Moopy made Saul drop his master keycard. And after the two PPO agents were out of the apartment, following the phantasm he had created of himself in their minds, Moopy got up, walked to the door, picked up the keycard Saul had dropped, and then shut the door. Then he turned back to look at the girl with the green hair. She had not moved. Moopy put the keycard to his pocket and walked a couple of steps towards the girl, then turned away from her and went to the hi-tech kitchen of the apartment. There, he took a blender, filled it half with ice, half with cold water. And then blended that mixture and took the glass jar with him to the living room. The ice-cold torrent of water woke Proud Spirit out of her half-slumber. She became full-conscious in a second, staring incredulously at the pale man who had just poured a full blender jar of glacial water on her. ”What the [censored] did you just do?!”, she shouted. ”Wake up [censored], reality calls”, Moopy answered, and put the empty blender jar on a transparent table next to the ice-water soaked girl on the sofa. ”What did you call me?!”, screamed the girl. ”I called you an [censored]. Because that is what you are. I took a look into your mind. I know what you’ve done”, smugged Moopy. That shut the girl up. She just stared into the eyes of him. Moopy took the chair and turned it around, then sitting on it, facing the girl boldly. ”Hey, I’m not going to be an [censored] to you. At least, not any more than this. Get your stuff and get out. I know you heard and understood what Saul just told you”, Moopy said. The girl just looked at him at first, and then she started to stray her eyes off Moopy. ”No drifting away or you’ll get a new ice-slushie”, warned Moopy, grabbing the jar of the blender back into his hands. The girl shot a fierce look back into Moopy and hissed: ”Where the [censored] I go now?” ”It’s your problem. You [censored] up. Deal with it, [censored]”, answered Moopy. There was a short silence after their exchange, then the face of the girl started to twitch. Moopy didn’t say anything, he just got up, pulled the girl up with him, and walked her to the balcony of the apartment. The girl was almost nothing but a doll and Moopy literally put a cigarette in her mouth and lit it. The girl inhaled, and then took a hold of the cigarette, resuming to smoke it normally. Moopy lit one for himself, too. ”You cool now?”, he asked after a moment. The girl nodded, but didn’t look at him. ”Right. You’ve got people. That shrink I saw in your mind. And the hero academy. Deal with the [censored] you’ve done, move on and be a hero”, he told her. ”I can’t be a hero after what I’ve done”, whispered the girl, almost inaudibly. Looking away from the guy. ”And why do you think that?”, asked Moopy. ”I’m [censored] evil. Evil people can’t be heroes”, said Proud. ”You regret what you’ve done?” ”YES! [censored] yes I do!”, shouted Proud back at Moopy, directly at his face. Moopy kept cool. He kept smoking and looking at the distressed girl for a long time, her face in front of his. Then, after thoroughly going through his train of thought, he said: ”The evil don’t regret. You regret. You’re not evil. Not anymore.” Moopy stubbed out his cigarette and didn’t look at the girl. She was starting to become a sprinkler. ”I saw into your mind. You understand what you’ve done. You know you’ve done wrong. But, it’s not too late to start doing good again. You will never again be a hero anyone looks up to. Not after what you did. But you can be a hero. And hey, please get away from this apartment as quickly as possible so I don’t lose my job. I'm going to check with my boss now.” Then he left. He hurried away from her. He walked away from the balcony, from the apartment to the luxurious passageway to the elevators. He pressed a button to call the elevator and heard his own words echoing in his head: ”It’s not too late to start doing good again.” The elevator arrived, Moopy stepped in and pushed the ground level button angrily. He put his hand to his coat pocket and felt his Paragon Plan One badge there. Paragon Plan One was a multi-million dollar charity organization and not any kind of authority, not at all: they just liked to title their employees ”agents” and ”operatives”. An idea intruded into Moopy’s mind when he walked out of the elevator and out of the building, in the middle of a swarming chaos of PPO ”operatives” and ”associates”. That scene took Moopy by surprise. Few of them, wearing armors badged with PPO logos, took him to Saul and Ryan, who were talking with someone, apparently in charge of an operation to… ”...neutralize the threat of the Spirit-girl, without endangering the other residents of the building or our own operatives. Mister Evans, glad you could join us. Where were you?” Moopy pointed his finger up, trying to make it clear without words that he had been in the apartment the whole time. Moopy didn’t know who was the man in PPO operative uniform, in charge of an operation Saul apparently had called up. The man in uniform continued to give orders to people around him, while Saul was nodding, crossing his arms, leaning back and looking important. They probably wanted to think they were part of some kind of a police or hero operation. But for Moopy, it looked more like something Crey would do. “Alpha team, Beta team and team Ypsilon are ready, agent Bright! Agent Evans has come out of the building and we can carry on phase one of the extraction. I’m giving a “go!” to team Alpha now, agent Bright.” Moopy turned his head, looked behind him, and then looked back at the PPO commander, Saul and Ryan. Moopy shook his head and said: “You don’t need to do that. You don’t need to go up there to get the Spirit girl. Just call everything off now, okay?” Saul laughed shortly: “Vic! You are not in a position to give orders to commander Morgan. This is strictly a level Omega operation now. We at the level-” “I don’t give a flying [censored] about the Omegas, Ypsilons, Betas or anything. You just don’t need to go there. Not anymore”, huffed Moopy. The PPO commander approached Moopy, and said with an authority: “Agent Moopy! You are not in command here. Stay back, and see how the Omega level operatives take care of this!” Then the commander talked something to a radio phone microphone on his collar, and Moopy could see people in PPO uniforms and armors gathering near the entrance of the building. Most of them had non-lethal weapons such as stunner-rods and batons, some were readifying their super powers. They were seemingly deemed more capable to take care of a situation they thought they had in their hands. More capable than Saul, Ryan and Moopy. The three of them watched from afar, as the more capable Omega team marched inside of the building. The PPO commander focused and produced three magical, misty displays around his head. Like ethereal computer displays, that started to relay him visual feed of how his operatives advanced inside of the building. “Waste of time”, huffed Moopy and fished his PPO badge into his hands, sitting down on a hood of a PPO branded vehicle. Ryan took a few steps closer to Moopy, blocking the sun again with his huge frame. “Why? She is a powerful psychopath? She is going to level them all to the ground?” Ryan asked Moopy. Moopy touched his nose, glanced a look at Saul and answered: “No. She is not the psychopath around here.” Saul was smirking, a smug expression was on his face while he was standing behind the PPO commander, looking how his men were going to take out a confused, troubled teenage girl out of her home. Moopy sighed, put his PPO badge back to his pocket, and exchanged a pack of cigarettes into his hand, he then put one of the smokes onto his lips, took out a lighter and lit the cigarette. He took a few drags and said: “No. It’s just no use to go there when she isn’t there anymore. While these clown soldiers, blinded by their egoes, were assembling, she walked out of that door. Maybe two minutes ago.” A block away from them, a hunched figure of a girl was walking down the street. She wore a hoodie under her jacket, and the hood of that hoodie was covering her green hair. She had thought maybe it was a good idea to put as much clothes she had on her, because she really didn’t have much bags to fill with her stuff. She had just grabbed something, put some extra clothes on and walked out of her apartment. She thought about what the guy with a mohawk had said. Her psychologist. The hero academy. Maybe even Dan? She could go somewhere. She had people to go to. Her phone started to buzz in her jacket pocket. She stopped and took it out of the pocket, unlocked it and saw a new message. It was from a therapy cat she had met in Pocket D. She started to read the message when someone bagged her. Literally. A thick bag of some sort of special, durable material was pulled on her, covering her into darkness and making her drop her phone on the street. She felt she was wrangled to the ground, and her hands, that were left outside the bag, were tied. Then she could feel her being lifted up off the ground, carried and thrown somewhere. She could feel her head colliding with a metal interior, and a stench of motor oil intruding into the dark bag she was trapped inside of. Then she heard a male voice saying, with a slight Italian accent: “We’ve got the girl confined. Call the widow.”

333 days to lockdown nervous dreck Meet people. It was an advice Dr. Fine had given Proud earlier. And Proud had done that. Pocket D was an interdimensional nightclub, owned and overseered by no other than DJ Zero himself. There no-one could hurt Proud. And vice versa. Thus, it was a safe place for her to meet people. Keeping in mind, that if she ended up fighting and hurting someone, it would be the end of her probation. And she ended up fighting someone. Luckily, the weapons of the fight were not fists, lightnings or arrows. Although the verbal fight she initiated had not endangered her probation, it did not make her feel happy. She had met someone, a young hero, white male. Maybe a year or two older than her? They had started to play pool together, while Proud had educated him about some matters important to her. The man had started to mansplain his point of view, clearly not understanding the importance of the matters precious to Proud, and having an opposite point of view to Proud's. That had not ended well. It had ended with Proud walking away from him, angered. Feeling the same anger she had when she… The passenger side door of the sheriff’s SUV opened, and her deputy jumped off the vehicle, closing the door, looking inside the vehicle once more, and dashing away. Proud wasn’t interested in him, instead, she shouted in rage at the SUV in front of her: ”GET OUT OF THE DAMN TRUCK!!!” Proud staggered back first to the wall, grasping into her black leather jacket, inhaling violently. Her neck was strained and she clenched her teeth, forcing the memories she re-lived in her head to part from her. And they did. She collected herself again, standing back up and continuing her walk towards the exit to Kings Row. She was still sweating cold sweat, and shivering, taking few step astray from her path. Kings Row bouncer on her way looked at Proud, and Proud gave the bouncer a cold stare. The anxiety attack had passed, just nearly, but it had passed. Angered, sad, shivering and sweating from her anxiety near-miss, she opened door to Kings Row, and the dimensional shift threw her out of truck doors to an alley in Kings Row. Right in the middle of an assault scene. A bald, scarred and bruised woman was laying on the ground. Next to her was her assailant, another woman wearing a helmet. A hero? Maybe, because the woman on the ground was a Skull gangmember, without a doubt. But who had that Skull attacked? There was no victim anywhere to be seen. ”I take it you were put up to this?” It was the Skull woman speaking. She had been beaten up and had to support her upper body up from the ground by her arms. The hero woman looked like she would have taken another free shot at the Skull woman, if Proud had not come out of Pocket D, directly in the middle of the scene. ”The [censored]?”, exclaimed Proud. The hero woman turned her head sharply at Proud and said: ”...Ce n'était pas moi!" Then she was gone. Bolted back into Pocket D before Proud had time to recover from her surprise, leaving her in the scene, next to a beaten Skull gangmember. Gangmember or not, the woman on the ground was beaten, and now with her, there was only Proud. And Proud did not have a hero license. If the cops found her like that, would they believe the truth? What if the Skull died? ”[censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored]...”, cursed Proud. It was like a mantra to her, but it didn’t help anything. She started to become nervous. The anxiety that had passed her earlier, took a turn back and set her on a collision course. ”Heey... She run off?”, asked the battered Skull woman on the ground. Proud didn’t properly realize that. She was more worried if the cops found her like that, next to a beaten woman. ”This isn't happening...”, Proud muttered. She touched her hair lightly and walked nervously around a small circle, like turning in her place. Then she kneeled next to the beaten woman: ”Don't be dead.. don't be dead.. don't be dead.. don't be dead..” Proud still didn’t realize the woman was alive, and the woman was conscious and baffled that Proud tried to check for her vitals. ”Huh? Hey, chiapet. I'm alive. I wouldn't be talking otherwise”, said the Skull woman. Proud let out a sigh, shivering nervously, but only lightly. She started to feel her heart beat faster, but she was able to keep that under check. The beaten up Skull woman sat up, and lit a cigarette. ”Hey, can you like... get into the hosp without me? I’m on probation.”, said Proud. ”Yeah, I get [censored] up all the time. I'm fine.”, said the Skull woman. She spat out one of her teeth and took a long drag of her cigarette. Then, out of the blue, the anxiety HIT Proud Spirit. Her anxiety had set it’s sights back on her a moment ago, and now it hit her at it’s full power, suddenly rendering her a violently shaking, sweating, nervous dreck. ”Jesus, kid what's your malfunction?!”, exclaimed the Skull woman, ”Never see an assault before?” ”Nuthing! Yeah, no!”, tried Proud to answer. It was not easy for her. ”Man, you MUST be new to Kings Row”, said the Skull woman, watching Proud floundering helplessly in her crippling anxiety. ”I've gotta..”, muttered Proud. She was able to guide her hand inside her jacket pocket, and pull out a plastic tube of pills. The Skull woman was saying something, but Proud could not hear her anymore. It took all of Proud’s concentration to open the tube, get some pills out and put the pills into her mouth. Proud swallowed them quickly, and hoped she would not puke them out. The Skull woman witnessed how the palsied, slender green haired girl collapsed onto ground in front of her. ”Umm... [censored]. [censored] God Damnit.”, cursed the Skull woman and got up to pick the green hair girl up. ”….ey...” ”….hey...” ”….Hey...peace...” ”Hey. Green-Peace. You awake? Can you drink this water? The voice of the Skull woman echoed inside of Proud’s head. Proud tried to focus her eyes. She was laying on her back, eyes up to a...ceiling? She was inside of a building. On top of a bed. The sweat had dried inside of her clothes, and made her stink like a bum. She sat up and saw the Skull woman again. ”Who are you?”, asked Proud, and got an answer from the Skull woman promptly: ”Dan. My name's Dan. Who the [censored] are you?” The Skull woman shoved a bottle of water to Proud’s hand, aggressively. Proud took the bottle, she grasped her hands around it and answered: ”Chill mother[censored], I'm Proud.” ”Chill!? [censored] I got my ass beat and YOU almost died! How the [censored] does that even work!?” Proud took a sip of her water and answered: "Just got panicked, that's all." The Skull woman looked at the green hair girl, who tried to avoid looking her eye contact, and asked: ”So, what like a blood pressure issue? Anxiety disorder?” Proud laughed powerlessly, ending her laugh in a way it sounded more like a muffled cry. Then she tried to explain: ”It depends which shrink you ask. Mal said I'm a schizo, Irina said I ain't, Kai.. I dunno. Anyway, no police, ok?” The Skull woman nodded lightly: ”Yeah no police. Nevermind I never talk to shrinks so I for sure don't know those people.” Proud took another sip of the water and asked: ”You alright? What was that tussle?” ”Huh? Oh I'm pretty sure a friend of mine hired that french [censored] to kick the [censored] outta me. So no point in fighting. She slipped me a cool fifty bucks”, answered the Skull woman. ”Why the [censored] would a friend want another friend get her ass kicked?” Proud asked. ”Because Proud, I'm the worst [censored] person you've ever met”, answered Dan, the Skull woman. Proud started to laugh. Loud. She closed her eyes while laughing and saw her hands grabbing the roof a mauled sheriff’s SUV, and then tearing the roof off like it was tinfoil. She remembered throwing the roof somewhere behind her, and remembered the sound that it made when it hit the ground, at the same time she saw the open eyes of- ”Yeah, seems weird after I dragged you here and handed you water but I'm at least in the top three”, said Dan, the Skull woman at about the same moment Proud’s laugh died in silent tears. Proud grimaced, blinked her eyes and tried to get the sight off her mind. She knew it would never truly go away, but she could shove it somewhere background. Proud opened her eyes and asked Dan: ”What did you do?” ”Me? A lot of [censored]. I'm a drug addicted, serial killing, cannibalistic...” Proud didn’t really listen to Dan anymore. The sight of the glazed eyes she had seen was haunting her. ”Paroled? Probation? Escaped? Or never caught?” Proud asked the question, but didn’t really care about an answer. She just wanted to say something to divert her mind off the eyes she had seen. ”I... Never got super caught... I sorta made a deal so that...” It didn’t probably look like it, but Proud’s attention was nowhere near. It looked like she was listening to Dan, and in some manner she was. And she tried. She tried her best to shove the painful memory background, out of her mind, and concentrate in the present. Into the words Dan spoke. ”Hand drawer. Ooh, he was married. Marcones always have the nicest rings...” That snapped Proud out of her memories. She saw Dan holding a gray human hand she had took from a drawer, and pulling a ring off of the finger of the hand. Proud became genuinely scared. She jumped on her feet and backed to a wall. She was standing on a bed, pushing her back tightly to the wall behind her. Dan was still sitting nicely in front of a dressing drawer, and admiring the ring she had pulled off the finger of the hand. ”Yeah. I wasn't [censored] kidding. You however are exempt from my list of victims” said Dan, the Skull woman. Proud was too scared to move. She kept pressing herself tightly to the wall. Yes, she had been a superhero before, but she had no proper superpowers anymore. And even with her powers, she had never actually fought a supervillain. And now there was a real, dangerous supervillain with her. ”You stopped to check on me soo... Yeah, I'm not going to [censored] with you. That and you're like... A kid? I don't hurt kids. Ever.” After saying that Dan, the Skull woman took a brief glance at Proud and saw, how Proud was scared. Dan scoffed: ”So what did you do that was so bad? Jay-walking?” Proud bit her lip and made herself to calm down. She took a cautious step closer to Dan, and sat down on the bed again. Then she sighed: ”Class A felony.” She waited for a moment, but apparently Dan didn’t know what that meant. ”It’s just a [censored] profound way to say that. I just… killed someone”, added Proud. ”I’d rather not”, she exclaimed silently, not really sure if Dan heard her. ”First one is always rough… Don't worry kid. Easier when you get to number five or six”, said Dan. Proud heard that, and raised her eyes to look at Dan. Few moments later Proud was staggering down the stairs from Dan’s hideout to Rogue Isles street. The Skull woman had let her go, to catch a portal back to Paragon City. The words Dan had said earlier echoed in Proud’s mind: ”First one is always rough… Don't worry kid. Easier when you get to number five or six” Proud zipped her black leather jacket shut, buried her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket, and walked towards an illicit, hidden portal to Paragon City.

334 days to lockdown broken mind Proud was sitting on a sofa. It was a large, comfortable sofa that smelled new. In front of her was a new, large, curved screen television she had been staring since morning. In between the television and the sofa, there was a small table made of transparent materials. On that table, was an opened letter from a hero academy. Last night, when she took her medicine and fell asleep, it was so dark she didn’t bother to close window blinds. It would have been easy, the only thing she needed to do to make that happen was just to push a button on a wall. But now, since the windows had not been sealed from the sunlight, bright sunlight penetrated into the apartment Proud had rented -with a little help from her benefactor- and glowed back into her eyes from a pitch black screen of the television in front of her. She slowly realized she was staring her own reflection on the screen and lowered her eyes away from the reflection, fearing the reflection would notice her, recognize her and walk away. Her eyes saw the opened letter from a hero academy and escaped elsewhere. She ended up staring at a wall, in an unnatural pose for her body. Her neck got sore, and she turned her head back at the table. And she saw the letter again. She lost a moment. That happened a lot. Now she was holding the letter and reading it again, leaning on a pillar of a balcony and sipping a cold, ready-made breakfast smoothie from a carton can: ”...has been approved. You are welcome to join our academy...” She closed her eyes and grimaced. Last night had not been just a dream. It was true: she had been approved to join a hero academy. A gust of wind took a hold of the letter, and stole it off her hand. She opened her eyes and saw that precious letter flying away from her, high in between buildings of Kings Row. If she still had all her powers, she could have flown after it, easily. But she could not fly anymore. ”...you need to promise me that, Proud. Call your new psychologist, I already talked with her on the phone, she will give you a try, it’s just you need to call her. You need to take initiative, Proud.” ”Yeah.” ”Proud, you really promise me you will call her?” ”...yeah.” Proud walked back inside and inside her head, re-living the conversation she had had with her previous psychologist, Dr. Irina Fine. Proud had given her word to call the new psychologist in Paragon City, and she was going to keep her promise. Just... maybe not yet. Not today. She had also planned to go to the academy and register there, but not today, maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow. ”Proud! Shadow! Clean your room!” ”Can’t mom! Shadow is still playing! We will clean it tomorrow!” ”You clean it now! Proud, teach Shadow to clean up after playing!” ”But mom-” ”Now, Proud! Do it now!” Remembering the words of her mother in her head made Proud grimace. She gasped for breath and sat down on the sofa again, suddenly shivering, like she was in cold. She opened her eyes and saw her phone on the transparent table, in front of a television that had never, ever even been turned on. ”...do it now!” She picked up her phone and almost dropped it. The number she had received was still stored in the memory of the phone. ”Now!” She kept re-hearing the sound of a voice she could never hear in real anymore as she pushed the phone to call, and raised the phone on her ear. It took awhile before the call connected. She could hear the line opening, but there was no answer. Though, she had not said a word herself, either. She lowered the phone away from her ear and looked at the screen. The number was there, with a name. And the line was open. Under the number and the name, there was a symbol of a red phone receiver. She moved her thumb on top of that symbol. ”No.” The meaning of the word was negative, but the way she remembered hearing it was full of warmth and compassion. Proud lifted the phone back on her ear and opened her mouth: ”...hello?” That was all she was able to say. For a moment, there was only silence. That moment wasn’t long, but for Proud, it felt like an eternity. She could feel herself falling again. Spinning away from reality. Ruining yet another opportunity. Falling lower, and lower…until a friendly, assuring voice snapped her back into reality: ”Hi there. I am Dr. Kaireen Greene.”

@Christopher Robinwriting just for fun but if you give critique, i will read it.

340 days to lockdown agent of chaos ”Katjuska!” Dr. Irina Fine was pulling her wheeled luggage behind her, hurrying to the gate of her flight. She was at Paragon’s airport, talking to her phone, while not running, but walking in a fast manner. ”Irina! So nice to hear from you, too bad you didn’t visit me during your visit to my home town”, answered a voice on Irina’s phone. ”I just got a call from Miller’s Probations. You turned her down. Now they are going to give her case to just someone”, said Irina to the phone, trying to keep up the pace with the crowd walking with her. ”That Spirit girl? I wonder who will be the unlucky one to get that patient. Or fool enough to accept her”, wondered the voice on the phone. ”You are a superhero, why won’t you help one of your own?” Irina had to change her phone to her other hand. Her luggage, while on wheels, was heavy to pull. She missed the beginning part of Katja’s answer: ”...are many reasons. Firstly, I don’t take a patient who has no hope. There is no use to get attached to someone who will get the needle anyway.” ”She has a chance to live and you know it. She needs help to get into a Hero Academy and stay clear for a year. You can help her to do that.” There was a short pause, like calm before a storm. Irina knew her sister, and knew what was coming, and thus held her phone a bit farther away when Katja exploded: ”Irinovska, what the [censored] are you suggesting, and why?! Why did you even get mixed up with her?!” ”Because she is a hero!!!”, clapped Irina back at Katja. She knew there was going to be a yes-no exchange. Like always: ”No. She is not.” ”She saved more lives than you ever!” ”That alone, does NOT make her a hero.” ”Explain, Katjuska. You are a hero. Explain what makes you a hero and not her.” ”Irinovska, I know the difference between right and wrong. She does not.” ”Saving lives sounds like a lot of right to me.” ”Pulling bowstring and aiming an arrow at an unarmed civilian does not. The Ironbay case.” ”He is a bully and douche. And she didn’t shoot him”, Irina huffed. ”It is not illegal to be an asshole. He is a bully yes, but not a criminal. Threatening someone with a weapon, however, is a crime. Also, she posted a video of that on her own videosite. And then she acted surprised when the police came to arrest her. You know, I watched her videos when they were still online. On one of them, she lectured how there is an infinite amount of personal Truths, one to each one person, and those Truths are all true at the same time, even if they are conflicting with each other. In short: everyone is right and nobody is wrong! Except, of course, in the case someone holds a ”Truth” the Spirit girl doesn’t like herself. How could she learn to know right from wrong, if she doesn’t even know truth from false? The way she views the world, is bizarre at best.” Katja had a point. And a sharp one. Irina had interviewed Proud, as much as she could. ”She is a hero to many”, told Irina to Katja, only to hear Katja scoffing her answer: ”True. Fuzzbead News ranked her on some of their lists. Puffington published an opinion piece of her. Oh yes, she had a cult following on social media, before it was all taken down. But really, she is just an agent of chaos, wanting to push this world into total madness. That, of course, would make us many, many more new patients.” ”Katja. That is not funny.” ”It is not. Finally you understand it yourself, Novska.” ”She deserves her second chance, Katjuska. She really does.” ”She already had it. And her third, fourth, and even fifth chance. And she blew them all. Why do you keep siding with this girl?” ”Because she needs help. Katjuska, I’ve met her. I’ve seen how she genuinely regrets her crime.” ”Oh? So now she regrets? It took her own-” ”ATTENTION ALL PASSANGERS. ALL UNATTENDED LUGGAGE...” A loud announcement made Irina hunch over on an instinct, pushing her phone nearer to her ear. But even then, she could hear only the end part of Katja’s answer: ”...and I don’t believe that’s regret she is exhibiting: she lost the only person who truly cared about her, and she is moping only because of that: a loss of something she previously had. She does not necessarily understand, nor is willing to admit, that she did something wrong.” ”I’ve met her, you have not”, said Irina. ”And I never will. I can turn myself into stone and punch holes into a concrete wall. But I refuse to go anywhere near that girl. Not to mention of being in a room alone with her. Good luck finding someone willing to help her.” Katja’s answer sounded final. The queue in front of Irina was standing still. Irina stopped too, and positioned her phone better on her ear. Then she spoke: ”Katjuska, you say you are a hero, when you know the difference between right and wrong? Okay? Then tell me this: do you think it is a right thing to do, when you refuse to help someone in need? You can help her, you just don’t want to, you scared, selfish little [censored].” Irina clammed up. The last word of her sentence, and the way how unpleasantly she had said that, had caught attention of people around her. When Katja didn’t answer, Irina continued: ”Katjuska, are you a hero, who helps anyone in true need of help? Or are you just someone who decides who is worthy enough to be helped?” Again, Katja remained silent for a very long time. Irina was standing in a line, and just holding the phone against her ear, waiting Katja to answer. Then, Katja answered: ”No. My answer stays. I will not go anywhere near her. Ever. But there is someone, who might. Believe me, there are not many to take this case, but I know one. It’s a longshot, but that’s all I can do for you. Novskaja, I’ll send the phone number via a text.” Few minutes later Irina received the phone number of a doctor Katja knew. Someone, who perhaps would help.

352 days to lockdown poor impulse control ”...of Paragon City believe in second chance. Some of our students had trouble with the law, just like you. Some of them even had started a criminal career in Etoile Isles, before their reform.” The man stopped talking and started to show signs of him being uncomfortable. Brains inside Proud’s skull came to a conclusion she had been staring the man for too long. In a creepy way. Proud steered her eyes away from the headmaster. ”Yeah.” That was everything she managed to say. She was wearing mostly black leather covering her bright red t-shirt, that had hammer and sickle printed on it. She sat on a chair in headmaster’s office, her head turned sideways. Looking at backs of books in a bookshelf than staring at the headmaster felt more natural to Proud. ”You are now adult, miss Spirit. I hope you understand your responsibility of yourself, and we urge you to take your studies seriously. If you don’t contribute to the studies, we will let you go from here. Do you understand this, miss Spirit? Show us any wrong attitude, and you will fly out.” Proud shifted her eyes in somewhat headmaster’s direction. ”Eye contact is important. Don’t [censored] this up! Don’t [censored] this up!” ”Yes sir. I understand. I will contribute to the studies, the best I can.” Proud bit her lip. She felt like floating. The feeling that she usually had when she was experiencing big life changes. She was nervous, on the edge. ”Because of the nature of some of our students, power suppression is present in most of our facilities. Any use of physical force to harm anyone in these premises will count as a serious violation, and will be dealt as such. Do you understand, miss Spirit?” Proud’s heart started to pound faster. She realized: she was getting in! ”I understand, mister- ...sir. I don’t give any trouble. And I don’t have most of my powers anymore, anyway.” ”Your records from Claypool High show us lots of absences. That will not be tolerated in here. Can you elaborate the reason of your absences?” ”Don’t [censored] this up! Don’t [censored] this up!” Proud tried to breath normally. The beating of her heart made her lips throb. ”I spent a lot of time in Juvenile Detention Facility in Durango.” ”I see. Would you care to tells us what kind of crimes you have committed?” Proud froze. It felt like she had run into a brick wall at full speed. ”...[censored]...” ”Sir- Mister.. Sir.. you- I mean, haven’t seen my record, yet?” It was suddenly difficult for Proud to make up an intelligible sentence. Her posture on her chair shifted. ”No miss Spirit. The juvenile criminal records are always treated with extreme confidentiality. We had to check credentials to the fed’s network and the encryption is slow during a normal school day, the file has been opening on another tab in my computer right here. I believe it should be open now.” The headmaster moved his mouse. Otherwise, the office was silent. Behind the computer display on headmaster’s desk, Proud listened to the clicks of the mouse. She lowered her eyes. Down from the face of headmaster, to his desk, to the floor. The carpet. ”I have heard of your father, Mountain. And how your family dealt with the wildfires few years ago. So, miss Spirit, this seems to be just like you told me. Regular probation meetings, regular psychologist consultation, and ah, here are the arrest records and convictions and here are the open-” The headmaster stopped talking. He just moved his mouse. Click. Move again. Click-click. Another move. Click. And then, silence. Proud stared at the floor. She could hear and feel how headmaster looked at his display, and then Proud again. But she didn’t have to look at him. She knew what he looked like at the moment. ”You want to ask ’why?’ don’t you?” Proud was slightly shaking. Of anger. Her question slipped out of her lips without full permission from her common sense. ”Just ask. Do it. You want to know [censored] why?” ”[censored] this! They’re not going to take me anyway!” ”Security to headmasters office.” Headmaster’s voice was calm. And why would it not be? Proud was a slim, thin 18 year old girl without superpowers. Proud’s voice, however, was cracking as she shouted: ”I’ll tell you [censored] why!!!” The security, armored, superpowered guards wearing the logo of the academy just appeared into the room, both sides of Proud. She raised her hands and hissed: ”Don’t touch me.” 5 minutes later the headmaster looked through his window to the gravel road of the academy yard. He was looking at three figures. Two large, and one small. Proud Spirit was walked out by the two security guards. Their backs slowly becoming smaller and smaller, as they retreated towards the outer gate of the academy. The headmaster turned back to face his desk. Proud had not resisted her removal from the premises. After her verbal outburst, she had listened to the headmaster and agreed to leave the academy premises escorted, and not to come back. The headmaster sat down on his chair and looked at Proud’s file the last time. Knowing she would be convicted as an adult in Arizona, in October 2020, made him feel bitter sympathy. He went to close the file. Mouse moved, and clicked.

361 days to lockdown ”Open up Proud! It’s Ray!” Man banging the door was in his early 30’s. He had dark hair, tan skin complexion and he was of average build. His clothing -blazer, plain pants of mellow color- told a tale of him being a cop in plain clothes, but that tale wasn’t true. Door to the lodging room opened, just a little bit. Ray entered the apartment, it was quite dark. Almost all the lights were out and curtains were closed. He had to step over un-opened letters and a parcel Proud had left under the front door. The apartment was small, like a motel room, yet it had much less furniture. Just a bed, a table and three chairs. The only lightsource was a table lamp on the table. Chairs were covered by clothes of a teenage girl. She was Proud. That was her real name. Proud Spirit. A tanned, thin caucasian girl in white shorts and a t-shirt, with neon-green hair, sitting on her bed slumped, doing nothing else than breathing and staring at the floor. It was like walking to the front door, opening it and then walking back to the bed had been too much for her already. Ray pulled a chair to himself, sitting in front of Proud and then lowering a briefcase he was carrying to another chair near the bed. ”Hi Proud, how are you doing? Have you taken your medication?” Proud raised her head a bit, not enough to see Ray’s face, but just enough for her to pan slowly from left to the right. Then she said: ”Hey.” ”You have”, said Ray and opened his briefcase. He took a breath analyzer and extended it to Proud. He waited for a brief, silent moment for Proud to take the analyzer. After the girl took it, and used it like she had done many times before, Ray took out some papers and a clip board from his briefcase. Then he took the breath analyzer back and checked the result, then marking it down in the papers. ”No alcohol. Good. Two days ago a girl with green hair and a red t-shirt stole a boat from Talos Lounge and wrecked it. Would you happen to know anything about that?” Proud didn’t raise her eyes to Ray when she answered: ”Lots of girls with green hair and a red shirt in here.” ”The girl was seen leaving the lounge, intoxicated and carrying a bottle of vodka. Some said she had a hammer and sickle -symbol on her t-shirt”, said Ray. He looked around the room and clothes scattered around there, but quickly decided he didn’t see the t-shirt he described anywhere visible in the room. He then changed some other papers on top of the clip board he was holding, and put the breath analyzer back into his briefcase. ”I wouldn’t know how to drive a boat”, said Proud. ”Neither did the girl who wrecked that boat”, answered Ray. He then paused to wait if Proud had anything else to say. She didn’t. ”Okay, did you receive your student uniform? Have you already tried it on?” asked Ray after a moment of silence. Proud raised her head a little, Ray could see the whites of her eyes move in a manner she was looking at the parcel near the front door. Ray got up, walked to the unopened parcel and picked it up. Then he walked back to the chair in front of Proud. ”Proud, have you been to that academy? Have you been anywhere near to the campus?”, asked Ray then. Proud shaked her head. ”Good. Because: don’t go there, do not approach the campus or any students of the academy. If you do, you threaten legal action. Proud, I need you to understand that it could jeopardize your probation and get you back in prison.” ”They saw my file”, said Proud, still hanging her head down. ”Yes they did”, said Ray. He then waited if Proud wanted to continue, but she remained silent. ”Look, your approval to study has been withdrawn, I’ll return these”, said Ray tapping the parcel sent from the hero academy in question and continued: ”There are other hero academies in Paragon City, too.” Proud could have nodded. At least, it looked like she did. Then she spoke: ”I’m the tree that falls and makes no sound.” Ray looked at the girl, perplexed. He didn’t say anything for a moment, waiting Proud to continue. And she did: ”I make no sound.” ”Proud, I don’t understand. Are you hallucinating?”, Ray asked. ”No. Seether.” ”Who?”, asked Ray. ”An old band. Lyrics of a song”, answered Proud. ”Never heard of them. You like them?”, asked Ray. He waited for Proud to answer, but this time she didn’t. Ray sighed, and offered Proud his clip board and a pen. Proud took the pen slowly in her hand, but didn’t do anything to take the clip board. ”Proud, will you please sign on the dotted line? It is for that you have acknowledged and agreed not to approach the academy premises nor their students.” Ray held the clip board when Proud signed the document. Ray took the clip board and pen away from Proud, and stored them inside of the opened briefcase. ”Proud, so far you are doing good. Hey, check with Dr. Fine if you may halve the dosage of the medication, will you do that? It is important, I can see the dosage is too much at the moment. And, you are going to need to apply to the next academy on your own. I won’t be here. You are appointed another probation officer. Regular meetings will continue with the next one, too.” Proud raised her head and her eyes, and looked at Ray. For the first time in very long time Proud looked directly into the eyes of Ray. She didn’t say anything, and then she lowered her eyes back to the floor. ”It’s like the first meeting, remember? You were like this, and I got so worried. I didn’t leave your side for hours, making sure you were okay”, spoke Ray. He looked at the green hair of the silent girl in front of him. ”You are going to get a local probation officer. It’s the law. In the state of Rhode Island and especially in Paragon City, the probation officer must be of same sex, and in case of a super powered individual being supervised, the officer needs to be super powered, too. And I have a home and a family in Phoenix to be with. A wife and a daughter. You remember them?” Ray waited an answer from Proud. She didn’t answer. ”Since this is our last meeting, I can tell you”, said Ray. He raised slowly up, and then sat on the bed next to Proud. There, sitting next to her, he pulled a wallet out of his blazer pocket, opened the wallet and took out a folded newspaper clipping. He opened the clipping in his hand, revealing a photo of Proud in her white warpaint, wearing her primitive family heritage superhero attire made of brown canvas and leather. In the picture she was holding a baby in her arms, and smiling to the baby. ”It was 2014. We got caught in a wildfire when we tried to outrun it with our car. My wife Ellen hunched over our daughter when the flames hit the car. I remember my skin just starting to burn, and then I passed out. I woke up when it was really bright and cold. We were flying, very high, all the flames were out. But my skin was still smoking and I was in pain. But I remember wondering, why the car was flying. Then the car landed near rescue workers, you came out underneath the car and ripped the melt doors off our car with your bare hands, allowing rescue workers to get us out of there. Me and my wife had suffered surface skin burns, but luckily my wife covered our fragile daughter from the fire when the flames hit. That baby, in your arms, is her.” Ray kept the picture visible for Proud for a moment, and then folded it, and put it back into his wallet. ”You saved us all”, he said. Ray put the wallet back into his blazer and just sat for a moment there. Both him and Proud were silent. Then he got up and sat on the chair opposite to Proud. He looked at Proud, who was still staring at the floor, silently. ”Every time I see you like this it just turns my stomach. Let doctor Fine help you. Talk to her. Please, find a way to let it go”, said Ray, and looked at the green hair of Proud. As usual, the girl didn’t answer. Ray waited for a good while until he spoke again. ”Proud, it’s goodbye time”, he said and raised his fist closer to Proud. She slowly raised hers and only lightly touched Ray’s fist, without looking at him. Ray put his stuff back into his briefcace, closed it and got up. He then spent a moment looking at Proud, who didn’t move. Then he turned and walked away from her. She remained seated on her bed, hearing his footstep going away, door opening and closing behind him. ”Bye”, she said, long after Ray was already gone.