Story Arc #16016: Uninvited

[Lazarillo]

Finished tweaking and re-published an old arc I did back in the day.  Would love if anyone has any sort of feedback on it, or just wants to enjoy some lowbie villainousness (or Rogueishness?  I actually flagged it as Rogue since I could only pick one, and it's somewhat...mercenary, more than evil).  It ties to the end of the Hollows arc/Cavern of Transcendence Trial, so you'll probably get more out of it if you're familiar with those, but I tried to make it clear enough without having played them.

[DougGraves]

what level?

[Lazarillo]

It's 10-15, as a couple of the missions utilize Minions of Igneous who cap out at that point.

[Kyksie]

"Hey-YASHOO!"

 

Mopping her nose with the back of her hand, Jessica Thornwood gazed around the dimly lit attic. A dim beam of sunlight poked through a grimy window set in the sloped roof, bravely forced its way through the miasma of dust in the air, and settled wearily on a old cardboard box that once held a stereo, now scrawled with the cryptic label "878-932". Boxes lay atop boxes, boxes leaned against boxes, boxes within boxes poked out from inside other boxes. A thick layer of pale dust covered everything.

 

"Hey-ASHOOO!"

 

Jess wiped her nose with her sleeve, then her watery eyes. She was allergic to dust, pollen, fur, perfume, and detergent, but mostly pollen. Said allergy was the reason she was inside, nosing through a dreary attic, as opposed to being outside playing softball, planting flowers, running through fields, or all the other things that people did on allergy commercials after taking the sponsor's product.

 

Snuffling wetly, Jessica looked around the hot, stuffy attic for the other reason she had come here. Another box, longer and sturdier than the others, dust clinging to it like a shroud. One by one, Jess moved the boxes atop it over to the side. The top was sealed with many, many layers of yellowed packing tape. A dark red magic marker scrawl read "Mumford".

 

Jess sneezed loudly, sending a cloud of dust into the air. This, she knew, would soon make her sneeze again, filling the air with more dust, which would make her sneeze even more, kicking up still more dust, until she was sneezing helplessly. "Cascading Nose Failure", she called it. Trying her best to clench her nose shut, she tucked the box under her arm and slowly climbed down the aging ladder.

 

After scrubbing her face and swallowing another allergy pill, Jess sat down on the bed in the spare room of her aunt's house, where she was staying the week. Carefully, she ran a kitchen knife along the ancient strips of tape, peeling them back like an onion. Another sneeze as she opened the box; yellowed, crumbly newspapers lay within, crowing 'Last Remnants of Rikti Invasion Routed!" She set them aside, revealing an expanse of sumptuous velvet, deep red the color of crushed cherries.

 

Jessica's uncle had been known as The Amazing Mumford. He had been among the first wave of heroes to answer the call to protect Paragon City, back in April of 2004. Wearing a black suit with top hat, a scarlet opera cloak, and wielding his signature black wand, he patrolled the streets of Galaxy City for a year and a half, using his powers of illusion to confound street muggers and bank robbers, eventually reaching Security Level 23. When the Rikti invaded, he stood alongside Galaxy Girl for several days, simultaneously confusing the alien invaders and helping civilians to safety. After three brutal days, when it looked like the worst was over, a lone street punk took advantage of a distraction to shoot him in the back. With the mediport system overloaded, The Amazing Mumford bled to death on the pavement on front of an El Super Mexicano.

 

The day after the funeral, his widow gathered his belongings into the attic, where they waited until now. Almost reverently, Jessica pulled out the long, scarlet cloak, gold neck chain, and stately black opera suit, a relic of a forgotten time. The top hat was gone; it had been lost on the streets of Skyway. A clutch of bundled newspapers, a few small award plaques, a handful of badges; and in the corner, wrapped in threadbare silk, his wand.

 

It was heavy in her hand, very heavy. The shaft was wood, but not any wood she was familiar with. Three metal prongs at the top encircled a sort of gem, but again it was like nothing Jessica had seem in the display cases at Wedgewood. She held it in her left hand, then her right, then both; in her mind, she was striding down the streets of Steel Canyon, evildoers trembling in her wake.

 

Sighing, Jess opened her eyes and- ewwwww. A spider was crawling up the cracked plaster wall, one of those particularly icky breeds that seems to have a thousand legs. Grinning, Jess pointed the business end of the wand at the spider, imagining a bolt of lightning shooting forth to eradicate the offending arachnid. She squeezed the wand, waved it, and even chanted her uncle's battlecry, "A la peanut butter sandwiches!" Nothing.

 

A familiar tickle invaded her throat, then her palate, then her nose. "Hey-YASHEW!" she sneezed. Jess wiped her eyes, and-

 

The end of the wand glowed an evil purple, twin trails of radiance playing in the air around the violet gem. A dark spot smoked on the far wall, where the spider had been. The air smelled of ozone, and other smells, ones that most mortals had never encountered and a few prayed they never would.

 

Jessica's heart leapt. Had she really... no that was impossible. She hefted the wand, willing it to fire again. Another spider, even leggier than the first, dangled from the opposite wall. She aimed the wand at it, squeezed the shaft and furrowed her brow... nothing. From what little she had gathered from paragonfan.net, magical devices generally required a talisman, or a code word, or a series of gestures, or-

 

Something clicked in Jess's mind. Thinking back to her last sneeze, she pointed the wand at the spider again. "Yeshooo!" she shouted.

 

The wand buzzed in her hand, alive yet not. With a whoosh like a river of clotted blood, a torrent of purple-black energy flowed from the tip, hurling the spider's soul deep into the depths of spider hell. The wall smoked black, the air breathed like a field of dead roses.

 

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"Congratulations, Princess Punchy. You've made it to Security Level 12!"

 

it was a quiet day in Atlas Plaza, a warm-ish breeze playing beneath the legs of the huge statue. Lord KillerDeath shouted "dee eff bee!" into the air every few minutes, while Lady Galatea Ravenhair and Mistress Yiffstress stood under the great globe, staring wordlessly at each other. Ms. Liberty sighed. Isn't that what Pocket D was for?

 

The young hero grinned, nudging her tiara into place. "Thanks, Ms. L!" I'll be back in a jiff!" She tightened the straps of her huge pink boxing gloves and sprinted across the plaza, no doubt in search of more muggers and Superdyne dealers.

 

Ms Liberty idly scratched the small of her back, then saw her, walking across the plaza with the determined stride found only in a brand new hero. She was young, maybe sixteen, with a round face and brown hair tied back in a fat braid. She wore shiny black boots buckled up to mid-calf, and a 'party dress' that looked like it had tumbled from Macy's to J.C. Penney to Wal-Mart, bouncing off every bargain rack on the way. By contrast, the scarlet cloak draped over her shoulders looked like a relic from a more substantial time. In one hand, she clutched a familiar looking black wand.

 

She came to within ten feet of Ms. Liberty, slowed, then stopped. "Um..." her confidence ebbed, "...hi?"

 

"Hello there!" Ms. Liberty's meeting-a-new-hero routine took over. "What name are you going to be using as a hero?"

 

Jessica's confidence returned. "Mystress Blackheart!"

 

"Very nice," Ms. Liberty replied, knowing that there was no way in hell that name would be free. "And, it looks like you're using magic?"

 

"Right," Mystress Blackheart nodded. "I have recen... eh... eh heh HACHOOO!" Embarrassed, she turned and sneezed gloppily toward the pavement, but recovered quickly. "I"ve recently learned to harness the powers of my ancestor's wand." Ms. Liberty looked closer at the wand she was holding, and sighed inwardly.

 

The wand was a 'Blackwand'. MAGI enchanted them in bulk, and gave them to fledgling magic based heroes to help them out at lower levels. Once every thirty seconds or so, it would shoot a blast of 'negative energy', which felt like being drenched with evil, icy slush, like standing under the Slurpee machine in Satan's own 7-11. The problem, Ms. Liberty knew, was that Blackwands did not 'scale'. A hero's powers would become more impactful as they increased in Security Level, but the Blackwand would not. One or two hits would lay a common street punk out cold, but the Council soldiers lining Steel Canyon would shrug it off, and the Warriors in Talos wouldn't feel it at all. In short, someone who's only power was a Blackwand had no chance whatsoever of getting past Security Level four or five.

 

Still, Ms. Liberty knew from experience that it would be impossible to talk her out of it. "Great!" she effused, pointing over her shoulder. "Go into City Hall, and talk to the New Hero Registrar. They'll get you all set up. And," she smiled a perfect smile, "welcome to Paragon City! We're all glad to have you!"

 

"Thanks!" Jess grinned, then sneezed again.

 

Over the next two hours, Jessica stood in line, filled out forms, and stood in line some more. After several tries, she finally settled on the moniker "Mystress Darky Dark11". The guy behind the computer assured her that trailing ones are all the rage among new heroes, honest. They fitted her with a security badge and mediporter, then made her sit through lectures detailing in agonizing detail who she was and was not allowed to use her powers on. Finally, she strode confidently into MAGI, gazing at the magical relics arrayed along the wall.

 

"Hhhhmmgh." Azuria barely glanced up from her clipboard. "New hero? All right, I need someone to go recover... no, wait." She squinted closer at the clipboard, scribbling an entry out. "Okay, I seem to have misplaced my, er... no that's not it." Azuria looked over the clipboard and seemed to see Jess and her Blackwand for the first time. "So... why don't you head down to Prometheus Park and defeat, say, ten Hellions? They, uh, took my pen or something."

 

"Sure thing!" Jess bubbled, but Azuria's attention was gone again.

 

Jessica bounded across City Hall's shiny floor, down the steps, under the statue. "Hi Ms. L! I'm all registered and everything!" she gushed. "Now I'm off on my first mission!"

 

"Go bring those thugs to justice!" Ms Liberty replied, knowing what would happen. The young hero would charge into a group of Hellions or Clockwork or something, take a few hits, and the mediporter would send her to the hospital before it got too bad. Repeat two or three more times, and "Mystress Darky Dark11" would go home, hang up her cloak, spend a few days in her bedroom sulking and listing the The Cure, then marry an insurance salesman and forget all about it.

 

Sure enough, two minutes later, Jess found herself at the perimeter of a paved courtyard, hemmed on three sides by high-rise apartment buildings. Low wooden park benches clustered at the corners. On one of them lounged half a dozen men wearing the Hellions' outfit; dark jeans, white t-shirt, red vest, tattoos of fire and demons adorning their arms. They drank beer and listened to a blaring ghettoblaster. One was idly tossing a lit torch end over end.

 

Mustering her courage, Jess strode up to them and planted herself fifteen feet away. "Hold, evildoers! Prepare to face the wrath of..." she paused dramatically, "Mystress Darky Dark!" She decided not to pronounce the 1s.

 

The Hellions barely moved; they had been down this road many, many times before. One turned his head lazily. "Did your gramma buy you that dress?"

 

"Yes, actuallTHAT DOESN'T MATTER!!" Angered, Jess pointed the wand at the speaker and chanted the activation phrase, "Yeshoo!" The wand hummed, and a stream of blackness shot from the tip, coating the offending Hellion. He fell to the ground shivering, clutching his head. The remaining Hellions stood, holding their ground, waiting for the next attack. When it didn't come, they glanced at each other, then took a menacing step forward.

 

"Hey, girlie," the leader oozed a liquid smile, "looks like you made a, uh, strategic error?"

 

"Tactical, boss."

 

"Tactical." He nodded at his henchman and grinned harder. "That wand takes, what, half a minute to recharge, and there's six of us,"

 

"Five, boss."

 

"Five. So-"

 

"It'll be six when Higgs gets back up."

 

"Six. Right." The boss looked over his shoulder at the flunky, then back. "So," grinning like a wolf about to sink his jaws into a Bic Mac, "what ever are we going to do for the next ten minutes?" The junior Hellion opened his mouth, then closed it. Best not to spoil the moment.

 

Eyes wide, Jessica started to backpedal, realizing her error. The Hellions followed, spreading out to encircle her. Frantic, she retreated faster, and bumped into a waist high concrete planter filled with scraggly yellowish flowers. Clutching the wand, she shifted to the side, the hellions spreading out to-

 

Oh no. An all too familiar tickle appeared in the back of her throat, crawling up her mouth. No, NO, not now! She tried to hold it in, but it was too much. Eyes clenching shut, she sneezed fiercely, then again, then twice more. Sniffing frantically, she opened her watery eyes to an impossible sight. Four of the six five Hellions lay scattered across the plaza, limbs askew, while the leader stared at her, slack jawed. The urge flowed through her nose again, making her sneeze explosively; when she opened her eyes again, the leader was sailing gracelessly through the air, like a washer-dryer set that had grown weary of life in a basement and chosen to take flight. As Jess watched, the Hellion flew up, up up, then down, down, down, landing squarely on the back of the bench, his spine snapping with a sickening crack.

 

Jess stood for a long moment, eyes like saucers. Then, the tickle returned, and began creeping up the back of her nose again... just as another group of Hellions appeared almost out of nowhere, clustered around another bench.

 

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Azuria shoved a pile of scrolls aside, looked behind the pair of stone hands, and peered into the depths of the ancient Mu urn which stood against the wall of the MAGI office in City Hall. Where was her donut? She had just put it down a moment ago.

 

A snuffle, and Azuria looked up; Jessica was standing in the entrance, nose red and hair mussed. "Hi! I got that thing done. Ten Hellions."

 

"Um... yeah! Nice work!" Azuria peered at Jess as if she was a Christmas trinket long since thought lost, only to turn up under one's bed.

 

"I didn't find your pen, though."

 

"Pen! Right! Um... don't worry, I'm sure it will turn up."

 

"Soooo..."

 

"Oh! Yes! Ten Hellions!" Azuria fumbled in her pocket, pulled out some expees and passed them over, wondering if she had enough left to get Jess to help find her donut.

 

A few paces back, a throat cleared. "Ms... Darky Dark?"

 

"Yes?"

 

A tall man in a black suit extended his hand. "Antonio Nash, I'm from GIFT. I just got a rather... interesting report of your field performance. I'd like to run some tests, if you're interested."

 

An hour of tests later, Mr. Nash accompanied Jessica back to the Hero Registration desk, where the clerk changed her origin from Magic to Mutant. The power of her late uncle's wand, coupled with the terror of her fight with the Hellions, had awakened her dormant mutant power... super powered sneezes. She changed her name to "Hayfever Lass", which for some reason had not been claimed yet.

 

"So, what now?"

 

Antonio fumbled in his pocket for his Blackberry, which he had picked up in '04 and refused to part with. "If you're interested, my friend Jose Brogan has been hearing reports of Skulls in a nearby office. If you'd like to investigate..."

 

Grinning, Hayfever Lass headed down to Hyperion Way, found the dilapidated office building, and sneezed the Dyne-dealing Skulls into submission. Clues lead her to King's Row, where she broke up a huge Superdyne ring involving the Skulls, Trolls and Family. Then, she took the monorail to Steel Canyon, and joined a group of heroes working with Positron. Alongside three other Blasters, two Scrappers, a Controller and a Warshade, she sneezed on mages, zombies, and robots, culminating in a pitched battle inside City Hall.

 

"Great work! Thank again, Jes...er, Hayfever Lass!" Azuria picked up a squeegee from the corner and began mopping the snot and mucus from her blouse. "Ah! There's my donut!"

 

The group walked slowly through the atrium. Hot Prick smiled. "Great work, everyone."

 

"Yeah," Jessica grinned.

 

"We sure knocked 'em cold!" exclaimed Princess Punchy, bouncing on her toes as she always did.

 

"Sorry I wasn't much help," Nonconsenticles sighed. They rest ignored him, as they always did.

 

The group went to Ms. Liberty for training, then drifted apart. Hot Prick turned to Jessica. "I saw you at the registrar this morning. You used to go by 'Mystress Blackheart?' "

 

"Uhhh..." she blushed, "that was... kind of a phase."

 

"I getcha." He smiled, a few stray spines flying from the corner of his mouth. "But, ya know, if you're interested in doing something a bit less than heroic for a little cash on the side, I know a guy who knows a guy..."

 

 

Arc #16016: Uninvited, levels 10-15

 

1) The contact is Operative Castillian, from Arachnos. He's lost contact with some operatives, and then lost contact with the guys he sent to regain contact. Hayfever Lass heads into an Arachnos base and sneezes on some Igneous.

2) We need information, so HL invades a Legacy Chain office.

3) We know where they're going to attack next, so lets ambush them. Hayfever Lass heads into an Arachnos base and blasts Agent Doobie and friends.

4) Now we need to destroy the Cavern of Trancendance so the do-gooders can't use it. The map is the Bat'Zul one, where she sneezes Legacy Chain and the archmage into the lava.

 

Uninvited is a nice, quick arc for low level characters. Give it a try.

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by Kyksie

[Securityuniform]

Not quoting as it's too big but I loved that story way more than I possibly should have 😂