The Kallisti Girls... How it all began!

[Kallisti]

Part 1: Excerpts from a Golden Diary

 

Well heya thanks for dropping by!

 

My agent told me its good to write about my careeer as one of Paragon Citys most popular models! Well here I am!!!!!!!!

 

Well I started off living in England with my parents and all I ever wanted to do since I was little was be a model! So Mummy decided if thats what I wanted, she'd do what she could to help. So like all good models I started with singing and acting lessons, which were lots of fun!.

 

Then I saw this promotional thing that said Paragon City was looking for Top Models! I'd only ever been to Marbella and Mummy's home town in Greece so this seemed like a perfect chance to see the world and become a famous model! I came to Paragon City and they put me in this really dingy flat in Galaxy City - I didn't like it at all - it was smelly and dirty. But it did give me a chance to go to auditions and stuff coz it was so close to the railway station.

 

I went to lots of auditions and got a few bits and bobs that meant I was able to move to a nicer flat in Talos Island. That was much better - the clubs in Talos are so much more upmarket! So then I got talent spotted at this nightclub by a big model agency promoter guy! Woweee was that exciting! Anyway the next morning he told me and this other girl we met in the club that we should go to these auditions for this new Promotional thing his company is starting... something to do with paint or something.

 

Anyway so I went along and got accepted!!!! They seemed to like me - they were laughing a lot anyway. So here I am in my dressing room ready to go on set for this BIG important TV advert they want to do...

 

I just LOVE this metalic swimsuit I've got to wear - I'm amazed it doesn't - you know - chaff anywhere, considering it so small!

 

OOO okay they are calling me in... be back soon....

 

Love and kissses

Kalli

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

 

PS hope they like my nails... had them done spesh!

 

 

 

==========================================================================================================

 

Oh dear!

Well its 6 months since I wrote that last entry in my "journal" and things are a bit different now. Was I so totally brainless then?

 

Some weird changes have occurred since then, but I am getting ahead of myself. Let us go back to that day 6 months ago...

 

That advert was for one of Crey Industries subsidiary companies, a paint manufacturer, who had developed a new lustrous gold paint, designed to be a cheap substitute for gold leaf on statues. The advert was supposed to feature a gorgeous blonde model (that was me) in a gold swimsuit, who swims through this large pool of the gold paint.

 

That all seemed fine, just nobody bothered to check if the paint was safe in direct contact with skin. Needless to say - we are dealing with Crey Industries after all - it wasn't and apparently after about 10 minutes in the stuff I collapsed into a coma, from which I didn't recover from for 4 months. Apparently at one point they were going to turn off my life support!

 

Anyway I woke up 6 weeks ago and wonders to behold, I could think! Well my nails were in a right mess and that bothered me but I could think BEYOND my manicure or even what to do with my hair (most of which had fallen out because of the toxins)! Wow, it was a revelation I can tell you!

 

Once I had woken up, the doctors were surprised at my rapid recovery, and I was even more surprised by how quickly my hair grew back! I had to have the hairdresser come to the hospital, and there was such a fuss when the staff nurse saw all the split ends cut off on the bed!

 

So 3 weeks ago, I was able to discharge myself from the hospital and boy was it good to be out in the sunshine again! But I had this strange feeling, a sort of pressure building up inside of me like I was about to burst - it was very peculiar, almost like an orgasm! There I was walking along the street - I had all my possessions in a small suitcase - even the swimsuit I'd worn in the gold paint! Then one of those Hellion gang members and his pal ran up and tried to grab the case.

 

Well normally I would have just screamed for help form one of those heroes and hope some muscular hunk would come and save me... but this time all I felt was a righteous anger that they could NOT be allowed to get away with it and before I knew what was happening one of them was flying through the air backwards with a solid bolt of energy connecting him to my fist!

 

Wow!

 

The second Hellion just looked at me and started running, but I wasn't having that - even in my high heels I found I could run after him and WHAM he was knocked down as well and blown to kingdom come!

 

I was changed! No longer the brainless bimbo who thought only of her nails and what to wear! Now I was a Superhero Energy Blaster!!! Of course my nails and appearance are still important - I mean we have an image to project to the public, and presentation is always important! I even found a use for the swimsuit - it became my first Superhero costume! Funilly enough it seems the "unique" design the boutique raved about when I first bought it, isn't quite so unique - I've seen dozens of other heroes wearing similar, but of course none of them fill it properly!

 

Kallisti Gold is on the case, so poisoners and polluters beware! I will be on your tail and to the people who made that paint.... I have a Power Blast with YOUR name on it!

 

 

===================================================================================================================

 

Lawyers are such parasites, corporate lawyers doubly so! Turns out the Crey Corp lawyers wanted me to sign an NDA contract to stop me talking about the 'accident' that made me a superhero. Of course I told them to stuff fit where the sun doesn't shine... and no I didn't mean Dark Astoria! They threatened me with the medical bills that had grown quite large while I was in the coma - that wasn't something I was used to coming from England and our wonderful NHS! My lawyers told me that if I didn't sign it I'd be declared bankrupt and sent back to England! I did seriously consider it, but then the lawyers told me that Crey would keep chasing me even in England - my only options were to sign the NDA and effectively give up my career OR find criminal evidence of their dangerous products and pollution. Well what a choice?

 

So there I was in Brickstown, chatting  to this chap in an orange jumpsuit who knew something about someone who knew something happening inside Crey's laboratories... Complicated eh? I must admit to being distracted by the orange jumpsuit, it REALLY didn't suit him, I mean so 70s darling - and not in a good 'retro' way! Turns out this experiment wasn't anything about poisonous paint but something to do with trying to open a portal thingywhatsit to another dimension and it would be THE END OF REALITY AS WE KNOW IT!!! Not again... I mean surely this happens every other day, its amazing we are all still living and breathing!

 

ANYWAY, so I traipsed off to this secret Crey Laboratory hidden under some rocks in Talos Island... hmm that reminds me I saw some awesome Jimmy Choos in the shop there... what? Oh yes the story, right...

 

So Crey Lab, reality destroying portal... yadda yadda yadda...

 

Anyway for the past week or so I've had this terrible tickle in my nose and halfway through one fight... by the way have I ever told you how ANNOYING those bloody Paragon Protector pillocks are? No well let me tell you, bloody annoying - especially when they do their "I'm an Invulnerable Dickhead" trick and NOTHING you do can hit the buggers! so... yes... anyway, tickle in nose... suddenly halfway through the battle aaahhh ahhhhh aahhhh CHOOO BOOOM!!! What the hell? Big flash bang wallop and the bunch of Crey loosers I was was fighting are flying arse over tit, slamming into walls and through windows and whatnot.

 

Wow that was spectacular - felt a bit drained after it though, so need to watch that sneeze! I've since been told its REALLY called a Nova - I like to think of it as a nuclear sneeze!

 

Then I noticed something odd - there was this large hoop-shaped machine standing in the middle of the room with one of the battered Crey techs sprawled across the control panel and there were a bunch of blinking red lights that looked DECIDEDLY unhealthy and this sort of rumbling, humming, whining sound that just set my teeth on edge... oops something other than the Crey techs got broken by my sneeze!

 

I looked up at the hoop and there was a shimmering sort of glassy look and I'm thinking.. .Oh crap looks like this might be the reality destroying portal that I've sort of sent into overdrive... oops! So I'm turning tail and about to flit out of there when there is this sort of silent explosion... hmm well it sort of was a soundless BOOM if you get my drift... yes I know that doesn't makes sense but NONE of it made sense!!!

 

Next thing I know I'm lying against the wall, hair all OVER the place and then the portal thing goes black and this woman steps out, dressed in a sort of red/yellow outfit with a quite passe flame motif and get this... HORNS sticking out of either side of her head. She had also rather overdone the suntan as well, I mean bronze is a nice tan but this was like REAL bronze! She looked at me and started waving her hands and wham, I'm surrounded by a ring of fire.

 

"Hey cut it out, you'll singe the hair!" I said. She sort of did a double take.

 

"Say that again?" she said... her voice seemed oddly familiar but she did have a proper English accent and there are damn few of us here in Paragon City!

 

"I said lay off the barbeque effect please..."

 

"What is your name?" she switched the flames off and walked over too me - hmm about my height but the horns were a bit offputting, she looked sort of familiar.

 

"Kallisti Gold - what is yours? Hey whats wrong?" She seemed to pale at that, well as pale as someone with bronze coloured skin could.

 

"My name is... Kallisti Bronze!"

 

"What? You bloody copy cat! I've got that name registered as a trademark." I stormed. "You'll be hearing from my lawy... omg you are me!" I suddenly realised why her voice was familiar - it was MINE!

 

"Oh crap, were you trying to shut down a Crey interdimensional portal?" When I nodded she slapped her forehead. "I think we've somehow opened a rift between time lines!"

 

Okay she might be me, but I'm not that clever... looks like things might have gone a bit different in her timeline. "So did you get your powers from an accident with a bath of bronze paint which affected your DNA while modelling for an advert?"

 

"No it was gold paint... omg who is that?" Stepping through the portal was another woman, taller than both of us and with powerful muscles, she wore a skin-hugging suit of armour plates that were red and silver. Her fists glowed with energy I recognised...

 

"What the fuck..." she said in a very familiar voice.

 

"And your name is..." said the horned one.

 

"Kallisti Red - who the hell are you two and what just happened?"

 

===========================================================================================================

 

The forest clearing was awash with demonic energy and filled with the evil creatures. Without hesitation, Kallisti the Friar leapt into battle swinging her soul-bonded quarterstaff in a circle to connect with as many of the foul creatures as she could. With a hiss of hatred, the entire band of summoned demons turned on her, shooting dark bolts of energy and balls of flame at the hooded figure. The staff span in her hands as she turned to face the thickest part of the throng. Some of the fire and dark energy bolts slammed into her and she felt herself weakening but her enhanced reflexes kept her safe from most of the attacks. Suddenly there was a deafening crash, the ground shook and before her the demons were pushed aside as the Demon Lord appeared to face her! This was it, this was her time to sacrifice herself to defend her people like so many of her friends had done before!

 

With an almighty bellow, the Demon Lord struck out, catching Kallisti the Friar a glancing blow and spinning her round, but her opening move was a leap in the air to bring the tough quarterstaff down with a mighty blow that usually felled most lesser enemies. This time, the Demon Lord caught the staff in his hand and pulled her off her feet toward his deadly flaming maw...

 

A strange ripping sound echoed across the clearing as the Demon Lord's head exploded and a dark gash appeared in reality which swallowed the fighting girl and then winked out of existence as the headless Demon Lord collapsed in a heap and began to melt.

 

Kallisti the Friar landed on her feet in a fighting stance ready for the next onslaught, but this was not what she expected. She was in an alley with grey stone walls on either side and an a constant drone of noise in the background.  The air smelled strange, an odd sort of metallic smell but a whiff of decay and corruption caught her attention and she saw a group of shambling figures ahead surrounding a figure dressed in strapped black leather... wherever she was, she knew an enemy when she saw one!

 

 

 

 

[Kallisti]

Part 2: Red is the colour!

 

Okay so here goes, the airhead (thats Kallisti Gold if you hadn't realised) suggested that it might be an idea for us - what she calls "her other selves"- to write about how we came to be here.

 

Kallisti Red here, tanker extraordinaire!

 

 

Let me start with a little bit of shared background - it appears that all of us share some similaries in our background. Well that would sort of makes sense really since we are nominally the "same" person! Since the airhead has trouble thinking beyond the next facial, its not surprising she forgot to incorporate this in her biography. Dear God, its like reading the diary of an 8 year old with ADHD!

 

I was born in England, my father was a University Profesor at Oxford, studying Classics and my mother was originally from Greece, but came to live in England and eventually married my father. This is where my name comes from... Kallisti is Ancient Greek and means "For the prettiest one".  It was inscribed on the Golden Apple that the Goddess of discord and disharmony, Eris, created. 

 

The Gods of Olympus decided one day to throw a HUGE party, but they didn't invite Eris she always ended up causing trouble and arguments. So she decided to get her revenge and created a beautiful golden apple and inscribed the word "Kallisti" on it. Of course ALL the gods and goddesses beleived it was meant for them. In the end it came down to a call between Aphrodite and Hera, so for reasons known only to themselves, the Gods decided to let a mortal choose which of the two godeses was the most beautiful. This mortal was Paris of Troy. However, Aphrodite got to him first and promised him that if he chose HER, she would help him win his heart's desire... Helen, wife of the Greek King Agememnon. So Paris chose Aphrodite, won Helen of Troy and the rest is mythology...

 

I was MOST disapointed on seeing that Troy movie that Wolfgan Petersen had dropped all of the mythological background - oh well at least it means the airhead didn't get an even MORE inflated opinion about herself!

 

So that is where the name comes from - my father was the person who inflicted the name upon me, but I can't complain, its a good name all in all.

 

Now here is where the stories diverge for all of us. In MY world, there was a major incident at the tail end of the 1940s which triggered a world-wide cooldown. Nobody is really certain what actually happened. There were theories that it was a Rikiti plot and others that it was a secret super-weapon created to make the Soviet Union uninhabitable during the "Cold War" (which in my timeline turned into a REAL war).  WW 3 involved a short nuclear exchange between USA, UK and Russia which did more damage to the environment than it did to the cities that were targetted - all sides were so incompetant that most of the bombs MISSED their intended targets by quite a long way, so Moscow, London and Washington were untouched, but Paris in uninhabitable, as is much of Germany where most of the fighting took place.

 

The after-effects of the war though, accelerated the cooling and as a result instead of the global warming you are worried about here, on my "timeline" as Kallisti Bronze calls it (she seems to be the REAL brains of us all, mind you the horns ARE a bit off-putting!), we are facing a new Ice Age. The nuclear fall out also considerably increased the background radiation around the world and as a result genetic mutations are much more common. My mother was a victim of the mutations and exhibited some bizarre effects, most noticeable was her ability to control the temperature around her. Unfortunately she didn't have a lot of control over it so it was always a case of being careful not to upset her and keep a fire extinguisher handy! She passed some of this ability on to me but I only ended up with one end of the temperature spectrum - this is why my body temperature is lower than everyone here and I have a natural ability to manipulate ice and cold to my benefit... and to make ice cream - just don't ask okay?

 

As to why I like punching - I was always a bit of a tomboy and I just liked to fight! It could have made me into a bit of a thug and the airhead seems to think it has! However my father was friends with an English hero, London Pride, who took me under her wing and taught me how to do good with my abilities.

 

And so dear reader, we come to virtually the present day. Just like the airhead, I came to Paragon City a few years ago - not like her to be a celebrity model, but to help in the reconstruction. Then a couple of weeks ago I was clearing Lost in Skyway City as usual when I stepped through a doorway and ended up in a Crey Laboratory with the Airhead, Horns, Tin Girl, Dog girl and the rest. My bestie turned up a while back as well, Kallisti Scarlet - she's not into writing, when I suggested it to her her response consisted of two words and the second one was "off"! I love her to bits! We both love a good drink and punch up - she's a bit more brutal than me, but we have a laugh!

 

Bronze reckons there is a way to get us back to our original timelines, but me I reckon we are stuck here, so might as well make the most of it and have fun cracking a few skulls in the process!

[Kallisti]

Part 3: Kallisti Bronze

 

Much as I hate to do this, Kallisti Red has threatened me with all kinds of blunt trauma unless I tell my story. Red is a strange girl... okay so she is a version of me, but its amazing just how different we ALL are. I suppose coming from such a tough world as she has shapes the personality.

 

My story then:

Like the other Kallistis, I am originally from England where I excelled academically (unlike certain "shiny" people!) and studied Physics at the University of London. I graduated and went straight into my doctorate in Particle Physics. I helped design and build several experiments in CERN in Switzerland.

 

I was leading a double life though, because during my first years as an undergraduate, I had been talent-spotted by a modelling agency in a club in London, so I started moonlighting as a model.  I tried to make sure it didn't get in the way of my studies, but it was a great way of earning the money I needed to continue my education. It was also a lot of fun! I got used to dealing with the typical people in the industry - the manipulators and the users, and found it surprisingly easy to turn the tables on THEM and manipulate and use them.  I think the average type of girl they meet is usually more like... well you know who I mean.

 

A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to work with some researchers at Portal Corp in Paragon City, so came over, narrowly missing the Rikiti invasion which meant I missed the traumatic events that in another timeline created Kallisti Steel. I was able to get in touch with some modelling agencies in Paragon City so was able to carry on my other job.

 

Now this is where my story gets scarily similar to Gold's.  I was recruited for a campaign for one of Crey's subsidiaries - a paint manufacturer who specialized in metallic paints for outdoor use. Just as in Gold's case, I was supposed to wade through a bath of paint - Bronze paint - wearing a revealing outfit. Well true to form, things went bad and I ended up hospitalized. In my case though there was some sort of mutagenic chemical in the paint that infected my DNA and actually rewrote parts of it.

 

When I awoke from the coma, my skin had turned a bronze colour and was slightly metallic, but just as flexible as normal skin (I still need facials!) but what was most dramatic was I had grown horns from my head! Needless to say that freaked me out a bit and suddenly things around me started bursting into flames! I had become a pyrokinetic!

 

While taking a routine x-ray of my skull to investigate the horns, they discovered they were unable to see anything because I kept blocking the radiation. I could not only control fire, but radioactive emissions too. I've yet to work out WHY I can do these things - I mean why should a change in my DNA create these abilities? So like anyone who has something different about them in Paragon City, I decided to try my hand at being a superhero.

 

My modelling contacts enabled me to find a designer who made an outfit the looked JUST right and fitted even better and I arrived on the scene as Kallisti Bronze.

 

 

In between the crime fighting I started studying my condition and abilities, trying to work out WHY. However not long ago, they were interrupted - I was using my radiation emission to feed a cyclotron when suddenly a rift appeared around me and the casing of the cyclotron cracked. I fought to restrain the radiation leakage until I could power it down but no sooner as I moved toward the control panel but the rift swallowed me up and I found myself in a Crey Laboratory, with a wildly misconfigured portal generator and a handful of girls who all seemed strangely familiar.

 

Red, as her usual charming self, was threatening to "punch her up the 'froat" unless Gold explained what had happened. I'm not sure where Red picked up the South London accent... maybe the glaciers have forced people south of the Thames. What a ghastly fate, no wonder she is angry ;) It seems that I appear to be the "brains" of the outfit, so its fallen to me to find out what happened and how we can get back to our own timeline. Red doesn't seem to worried about returning - I think she prefers this timeline, especially since Scarlet has turned up! Those two are inseparable.

 

I've tracked the rift and it appears it didn't just open in the Crey Laboratory - I have plotted spatial disturbances in a couple of other locations, including the Rogue Isles, so who knows HOW many of us there are.

 

I will say this... if I get ONE MORE dickhead saying "Do I make you Horny?" I think I am going to burn someone badly! Gold seems to find it funny but won't explain the significance of the phrase, especially when it is said in a truly BAD English accent!

 

I think there are several differences in this time-line that are trivial yet important in some way. Its an interesting challenge working them out!

 

Okay I think I've written enough to keep Red happy...

[Kallisti]

Part 4: The Friar's Story

 

I have finally found the time to sit at this writing machine and describe how I came to be here. Please be so kind as to forgive me if my writing is poor - where I came from, we are not encouraged to write, but simply obey our holy leaders. The world I come from is very different from the one I find myself if now. I was not taught much of our history in detail and curiosity was not encouraged, but from what I can remember Bronze believes that there was some manner of magical catastrophe several hundred years ago [bronze's note: Looks like around the 15th or 16th Century, around what would have been the Renaissance era]. In my time, I was brought up in a Martial Monastery. I don't remember my parents but that was not unusual, most of the children had been given up to the Holy Orders by their parents as it was their duty to supply the Church with soldiers to fight the demonic hoards.

 

Life at the Monastery of the Friars of Norton Folgate was dedicated to training us to fight the demons that plagued the world. It was a harsh life and I look back on it with fear and sadness. Your world is so much better than where I came from, you have a freedom that allows you to enjoy life. It has been a miraculous revelation to me! I was trained to fight with the Quarterstaff, a powerful weapon in the hands of a holy warrior as the wood of the staff becomes imbued with the holy spirit of the wielder so can hurt even incorporeal demons and spirits!

 

How I came to be here is a mystery - one moment I was fighting through hoards of demons then next I was standing in an alley in the city, confronted by zombies and evil sorcerers dressed in black leather. After I defeated them, a group of girls showed up lead by a golden angel but I saw what I thought was a horned demon and made to attack it when the angel begged me to halt and wait for an explanation. What I head defied belief and it was only when they showed me my face in a mirror (we didn't have mirrors or other such fripperies a the Monastery) that I realised I looked the same as the angel in gold!

 

Since then My Angel has introduced me to baths, showers (oh what luxury!!), hairdressers and people who polish fingernails... although I don't understand why this is as important as My Angel says it is... and most of all clothes shops!! Oh what marvellous things to be able to wear! We only ever had crude homespun robes that were often hand-me-downs, dirty and infested with lice. Here I can wear ANYTHING!!!! My Golden Angel has encouraged me to try all manner of outfits and I find myself blushing at the admiring looks I get from others.

 

 

Some of these outfits are quite 'sinful', but I find myself enjoying wearing them, especially when My Angel takes me to visit this 'Pocket D' place where people gyrate in a most unusual manner to loud music. She is teaching me some 'dance moves' which are strongly reminiscent of my Quarterstaff training, indeed My Angel has said that I should swap my staff for a pole... but I don't understand what she means by that or what makes it so funny. [Red's note: Kallisti Gold frankly has NO SHAME!!!]

 

It appears that I have achieved something remarkable in this world while fighting not just demons but evil in all its forms and have become and Incarnate, although I am still struggling with what this means. None of the others has achieved this yet and so Bronze is trying to help me understand it.

 

Recently, My Angel took me back to Albion, flying in a giant metal bird which was rather frightening as it was flying higher than I can jump! When we got to Albion, we were met by her mother and father who are also my parents, although I never knew them. It was a very emotional time as they were lovely people and looked after me in a way I'd never known before. They are wonderful people and I love them dearly, as do all of us Kallisti Girls! Our mother says she is the luckiest mother alive to have so many wonderful daughters and only had to give birth once!

 

Bronze is still looking at ways of allowing us to return to our home times but I do not wish to go back. I love it here with all the marvellous modern things like hair-dryers and mobile phones and I could not bear to be parted from My Angel and my other sisters now.

[Kallisti]

OOC: Comments welcome. Most of these were originally written for my characters on live (as you might have noticed with some of the no-longer-topical references :) ) but I've updated them a little to incorporate updates and changes such as the Friar who was never created on Live.

[chase]

Keep it up!

 

So kinda a "into the Kallisti-verse".  Have the rest of the Kallisti girls on your site already made it to this universe, or are new ones periodically popping in as the story unfolds.

 

PS.  I liked the detail with the "definately not approved by the comic code on your comic PDF

[justicebeliever]

I really enjoyed these stories!  Thanks for sharing, and +1 Inf

[Kallisti]

Have the rest of the Kallisti girls on your site already made it to this universe, or are new ones periodically popping in as the story unfolds.

 

PS.  I liked the detail with the "definately not approved by the comic code on your comic PDF

 

All that appear on the site currently exist in game... there are some in game that haven't yet made it onto the site and there are some that were on live that have been retired or replaced, eg Kallisti Steel was a Stone Tank on live but I never enjoyed it - when she got recreated, she became a Elec/Force Field Corrupter.  Similarly Kallisti Silver was recreated in Praetoria which didn't exist in game when I last played in 2009-ish.

 

They haven't made it into the stories yet - the cast is already large enough currently, but there are some stories I'd like to tell with the others, particularly a villain Kallisti who isn't listed and has an interesting and hopefully touching story.

 

Glad you liked the comic :) it happened on the test server in the release that introduced bunny ears and filght poses and then they did a rollback and the items that were on KG were removed with nothing to replace! I can inform you that the toons are not anatomically accurate under their clothes, hence why you only get rear or side shots in the comic... and of course to protect Kallisti Gold's modesty... well SOMEONE has to!

[Kallisti]

Part 5: If she only had a heart...

 

Kallisti walked down the road toward the Steel Canyon University campus, swinging the shopping bag containing her brand new shoes. What a bargain in that sale! Her allowance was not great - the Pound/Dollar exchange rate wasn't great at the moment so every penny mattered - but these shoes were to die for! She couldn't wait to show her roomie! Her thoughts of glamorous footware were interrupted by the sound of a siren!

 

"ALERT! ALERT! Rikti Dropship reported heading for Steel Canyon! All citizens take cover!" a loudspeaker blared out a warning. She now became aware of a buzzing sound that set her teeth on edge. She ducked into a doorway as people around her started running. Where was the nearest shelter? A deafening crash shook the ground and she stumbled to stay on her feet. A blast of hot air shot past the doorway and she saw debris and - oh no - bodies cartwheel down the street. A large black car skidded across the road, colliding with a large boulder that crashed down in its path, and bounced up the kerb crashing headlong through the windows next to Kallisti.

 

Crouching, she saw two doors open and black suited security men and women jumped out, drawing weapons and looking down the street to her left. She glanced out to where they were facing and was horrified to see an army of black and green armoured aliens stepping out of glowing portals and aiming their massive guns her way. Blasts of energy eruted blowing the security people into fragments, tipping the car over onto its roof, crushing another armed guard beneath it. The passenger door nearest to her hang off its hinges and inside she could see a woman with dark hair hanging upside down from the car's seatbelt, struggling to release the clasp. The woman's glasses fell from her face and she screamed in frustration and the seatbelt trapping her in the car.

 

Without thinking, Kallisti crawled out from her hiding place and clambered into the car. She pushed herself up to support the woman's weight to take the strain off the seatbelt clasp and the woman released it finally, collapsing down onto Kallisti. "We need to get out of here!" Kallisti shouted, pulling the woman out of the car and into the doorway she'd been sheltering in. The woman stumbled and fell, dragging Kallisti down on top of her. At that moment there was a tremendous explosion behind the car which lifted off the ground and slammed into the building showering the two women with debris and knocking them back against the door - Kallisti's head banged against the door frame and she looked up to see the concrete lintel supporting the doorway crack and the side of the building shatter, raining debris down on top of them...

 

blackness

 

flicker

 

flash

 

flicker

 

"Audio active"

 

"Frontal cortex failure"

 

blackness

 

silence

 

...

 

flash

 

"System booting"

 

"Audio active, visual online in 3... 2... 1..."

 

Flash, bright light, blurry vision, focus...

 

An operating theatre ceiling, bright lights - iris contraction, gamma correction, colour separation adjustment. Image processing subsystem nominal.

 

"What is happening?" A voice, not her's - it did not sound right, what is this? She lifted her hand, a blur or movement but it didn't' feel right.. .it didn't feel at all! She lifted her head - that wasn't right either - and looked at her hand. No, that wasn't her hand - that was oh my god oh my god! She knew should be screaming but there was no feeling, no emotion, no fear.

 

"Welcome back Miss Kallisti." a man's voice was beside her. "We have some good news and some bad news for you." he said. She sat up - there was a faint creak in her joints. She looked down at her 'body'. Blue metallic plates formed an imitation of where her breasts should have been. The metallic arms and hands that were connected to her body moved to touch that body. Sensations from the sensors in the fingertips transmitted tactile information which something within her processed into something that was like touch but not quite.

 

"What have you done to me?" Her voice was almost hers, she realised that her mouth was moist but her throat was dry and so her voice was croaky.

 

"Let me adjust that..." the man said, consulting the tablet in his hand. Suddenly she felt her throat tingle and grow moist.

 

"Glub glub" she said.

 

"Oops too much" the man made a further adjustment and she spat out the excess fluid, leaving a green stain on the wall. "You were caught up in the Rikti attack and while saving Countess Crey you were very badly injured. She insisted on doing everything within our abilities to save your life but..." he hesitated "Your body was crushed and beyond saving, so we built you a knew one..."

 

She could feel the emotions in her mind but there was no way to express them... she knew she should be crying but her new body could not cry...

 

===========================================================================

 

"Hello Kallisti, I am so glad to finally be able to meet you and thank you for saving my life" The woman from the car sat behind a large mahogany desk, almost dwarfed by the black chair she at in. She was dressed in a tight black dress with cut-outs at the shoulders. her dark hair was cut into a quite severe-looking bob and her wire-framed glasses perched on her nose. So this was the infamous Countess Crey!

 

"It seemed the right thing to do at the time." Kallisti's emotionless voice was unable to inject the sarcasm she intended. The Countess narrowed her eyes.

 

"There were a great many casualties in the Rikti attack and I was determined you would not be counted as one of them."

 

"I should thank you then, but somehow that would not be a truthful statement." Kallisti's gyroscopic balance mechanism adapted to her combat stance with a faint whirring. The state of the art musculature that had been installed in her reacted as she tried to launch herself to attack the person who had inflicted this horror upon her, but instead of attacking, her limbs locked rigid.

 

"That sort of behaviour will not be permitted I'm afraid. I had hoped you would adapt better to the circumstances but it seems you have not." She sighed. "You may be interested to note that you are listed as one of the casualties of the attack so nobody knows you still live. We were waiting to see how this experiment turned out before announcing your miraculous survival to the public. Under the circumstances, however, that won't be happening. You are now the property of Crey Industries and we shall use you as we see fit. Take it away." she gestured to the techs who appeared with a wheeled trolley. "That was silly!" she heard a faint voice at the back of her mind as they trundled her immobile form down the corridor.

 

 

==========================================================================

 

"Test 1921A, subject K, overload of sensor receptors." The voice announced and Kallisti's mind convulsed in pain as the technicians flooded her tactile subsystem with contradictory inputs. Unable to scream or even move, she suffered silently as she had done countless times in the last few months, unable to escape the tortures they inflicted on her mechanical body. The induced pain shut off suddenly, sooner than expected. "What was that?"

 

Now her visual sensors were working again. she saw a shimmering above her a greenish sheen that she recognised as a force field. "Damn that wasn't supposed to happen yet!" the tiny voice at the back of her mind that had been gradually growing stronger as the weeks had passed sounded annoyed. "Bloody Crey shit technology fucking unreliable bollocks!" In her minds eye she saw a spanner being banged against a rusty box which sparked and flared. A sudden realisation she could move - the override commands that kept her locked and immobile during the indeterminable testing had been over-riden themselves! She leapt to her feet before the techs could react. "That panel!" the voice in her mind highlighted the panel with a pulsing glow. She thrust her hand out and a blast of electricity erupted from it to short the panel's delicate electronics into molten slag. That was new. "Thank fuck that worked!" the voice cheered. "now lets get the hell out of this shit hole... this way!" the door lit up in her vision and Kallisti charged it, crashing through scattering techs and guards in all directions. "Here!" a red arrow in her vision pointed to her right and another door which collapsed under her impact. "Might get tricky soon..." alarms sounded

 

"What are you and why are you in my head?" Kallisti said out loud.

 

"Hah so NOW you finally ask! About bloody time - I'm the you they have been trying to suppress with their electronic bollocks all this time, the rebel, the naughty one who you always tried to hide... the one who likes to fuck!" Behind the door armed guards turned to face her and she responded with more blasts of electricity and the force field sprang up again, deflecting their bullets.

 

"Oh!" she said, still blasting her way through the adversaries. "Where do we go now?"

 

"We get the fuck out of here! This way!" the arrow continued to direct her through door after door, corridor after corridor, blasting her way to freedom!

 

The black painted android held open the door to the truck that waited on a side street and waved at her. "Get in they are friends" her internal voice said.

 

"Welcome to the Android Liberation Front" said the android.

 

 

 

Some months later, Kallisti Steel as she had started calling herself had grown accustomed to the duality in her mind. She considered the two components the machine brain and the human brain. The human brain explained that this was normal in human mind, but it was usually left-brain, right-brain distinction and they tended not to have separate personalities!

 

On this particular day she was scouting a possible back route into a Crey laboratory, hidden in a disused water treatment tower in Crey's Folly. There were numerous sensors and traps that required disabling and she and her team were carefully clearing the route ready for the assault team to do their stuff. There was just one more passage to clear but suddenly up ahead she saw the moving shadows of a patrol.

 

"Patrol heading this way!" she sent to the other androids on the shared message band. Appearing out of the gloom, flash lights swinging from side to side, they Cryotanks approached to within range of her team "Now!" and the passage erupted with gouts of flame, blasts of energy and crackling electricity, catching the Crey tanks off guard, but the follow-up Paragon Protectors leapt forward, bristling with spines aiming for their attackers.

 

Kallisti Steel sent one of them tumbling away with a punch from her force field but before she could follow up with an electrical blast a sensor jangling noise smothered them and a dark gash appeared in the air beside her and an irresistible force pulled her in, tumbling over until she crashed onto a floor in a what was obviously a laboratory. There appeared to be bodies of several technicians scattered around and over to one side a group of girls arguing loudly. At the crash of her arrival they stopped and turned towards her.

 

"What is wrong with these adolescent wankers that they put tits on a robot?" exclaimed Kallisti Red.

 

[justicebeliever]

I love this concept of meeting all these variations of herself.  +1 Inf

[Kallisti]

[This takes place a while before the events in Kallisti Apartments, I wrote it a while back and forgot about it]

 

Kallisti the Friar sat on a bench in the park near to the cramped flat she was sharing with the other Kallistis, idly tapping the concrete with her quarterstaff, not really looking at what she was doing, her thoughts far away.

 

"Whats up kiddo?" It was Kallisti Red, dressed in her usual red biker leathers. She sat next to her on the bench, drinking from a plastic cup with a straw. She patted Kallisti the Friar's shoulder in her usual brusque but kindly manner. The Friar shrugged, not looking at her. "Homesick? I was too for a while when I first arrived, even though where I came from was a total shite hole. I missed it for a while, its what you get used to."

 

"This world is so different from that I am accustomed to. There is so many wonders and marvels that I cannot comprehend. It is the freedom I do not understand. There is nobody telling me what to do, no discipline, no punishments... " Her shoulders slumped a little as she said the last word. Kallisti Red narrowed her eyes. They'd all see the scars on the girl's back from the discipline that had been the norm in her old world. Red's own tough background had exposed her some of this nastiness - when you come from a post nuclear-holocaust world, rapidly being overtaken by a new Ice Age, you get to see a more visceral side to society. Institutional abuse, however, was something else entirely in her mind.

 

"Well, there is law here and we as Heroes are part of keeping that Law and Order bollocks ticking over. If you want we could go find some thugs to knock about a bit?" Friar smiled slightly at this. "I like watching you move with that staff, its almost balletic"

 

"Purity of Movement and Mastery of Staff is what I was always taught by the Master at Arms" the Friar said, rolling the six foot long staff across the back of her hand. "The movement should be enough to execute the manoeuvre and keep your balance, no more no less. Anything else is wasteful, allows the possibility of mistakes and opens your defences." The words were recited in a cadenced voice, as if learned by rote.

 

"Make sense to me." nodded Red. "Personally I just beat them to a pulp until they stop moving, keeps me happy. Scarlet is pretty much the same, just she doesn't always stop when they stop moving. She's a bit more single-minded like that and I can get along with that. She punches a bit harder than me, but gets hit a bit more. Me, I don't like them hitting my friends, I'd rather they had a go at me!"

 

"You are very noble in that cause, I had a friend in my old life who was much like that. He used the staff to block attacks on others and draw the demon's attention to him rather than us so we could dispatch the evil faster." Her head lowered again. "He died, the demons consumed him."

 

"So these demons you talk about... real demons summoned by evil buggers? Not poor victims of DNA resequencing like Bronze?"

 

"I do not understand those words, but the demons were real and yes summoned by evil sorcerers. Bronze has done some research and believes that there was a magical invasion on my world many hundreds of years ago which was the reason my Martial Order of the Friars of Norton Folgate was founded. We were all the orphans of families taken by the demons, so our lives were dedicated to avenging them and protecting those that remained." She looked around "This place does not exist over there - we know nothing of this 'America' - we were ruled by King Henry the Fifteenth of England and Anjou. My Angel has started teaching me to read so I can find out more of this world - I do not want to go back..." her voice cracked a little, "I do not want to live in fear all the time, I do not want to be..." She stopped talking and looked down again "used by others. You are all so kind and generous taking me in when I arrived..."

 

"Well you were in a bit of a state when the airhead found you in that alley in Skyway City with all those Vahzilok around you. She seems to have a knack of finding the newbies when they come through. You scrubbed up pretty well in the end"

 

"Oh showers! What a miraculous invention!!" the Friar finally smiled for the first time in a while. "That wonderful feeling of warmth... and new clothes! My Angel took me to the clothes shop and bought me all new clothes to replace my old ones."

 

"I know, we had to burn those horrible old robes - how many people had worn them before? They were lice infested, ugh! I can see Gold has inflicted you with her dubious taste in outfits though" Red smirked. Friar adjusted the new jacket she wore over the clingy revealing outfit she wore beneath.

 

"The clothes My Angel showed me were sinful, but... " she took a deep breath "I liked them!"  Red raised her eyes heavenward.

 

"She's corrupted you already! Next you'll be running around in another of those metallic mini-dresses she likes and..." Red looked at Friar blushing. "Seriously? Already?"

 

"She said she would take me to Pocket D and teach me to dance! She said my staff training would make me a natural dancer!"

 

"Oh yeah and when you pull that 'spinning around with your legs in the air' move I can see all the blokes in Pocket D suddenly wanting to know you better! Its green isn't it - the dress?" Friar nodded, smiling shyly.

 

"My Angel said I looked good enough to eat when I tried it on" Red raised an eyebrow.

 

"Did she now? So when is this expedition planned? I have a feeling it might be worth tagging along... The Kallisti Girls hit Pocket D! The poor buggers!"

 

 

 

[justicebeliever]

Another good entry...please keep these coming

[chase]

oh my. 

 

keep em rolling :D

[justicebeliever]

Intense and dark...A little uncomfortable, but in a captivating way...Need to know how she gets out of this...

[Kallisti]

Okay I think I've got round my writer's block for the next part - got 3 more pages written tonight but I'm not going to post it just yet - want to get a bit further as I'm not quite sure on some of the details and it might need revisions as the storyline plays out 🙂

 

I can't say its been easy - I keep fighting the story to not slip into some pathetic BDSM porno junk, but keep it focussed on moving the story along while setting up the emotional milestones.

[Kallisti]

I decided to delete the two posts I put up back in July. I felt uncomfortable with the direction the story was taking and it fought me all the way until I got to the point I couldn't write it anymore. Its a shame because I knew the ending would have had a big emotional punch and develop the character of Kallisti the Friar in a very powerful way. However the route to that was going into places that I feel uncomfortable writing about. This was supposed to be a fun thing, not create problems or anxiety.

 

To be honest I hadn't though much about the story for the last few weeks, but I decided it was time to fess up and clean up 🙂 There are some newer Kallistis around now with some interesting stories, so having cleared this blocker it leaves the way clear to write about Kallisti The Janitor, custodian of the Kallisti Wharf cleaning bots, Kallisti Fae a visitor from an alternate reality where the magic realm never faded, Kalli Golden a reality TV star from another reality who is trying to sue Kallisti Gold for copyright infringement but doesn't understand why she can't phone her legal team to slap a cease and desist order on all the Kallisti Girls!

Edited October 17, 2019 by kallistiuk

[Kallisti]

So after a bit of a hiatus, here is another slice of life with the Kallisti Girls, set a couple of weeks back...

 

=======================================================================

 

"So you are telling me he'll get away with it?" snarled Kallisti the Friar, standing in front of the Longbow prosecuting officer's desk, her fists on the desk, her body leaning over the desk toward the bespectacled lawyer sitting on the other side. The lawyer squirmed at the very obvious anger in the young blonde woman who had broken up the kidnapping ring a couple of months before. She shuffled the papers on her desk and cleared her throat.

"He is a very prominent member of society and has powerful friends, if you get me meaning" she said, peering over the rims of her spectacles, trying with all her might to get the message across. "Strings have been pulled and the lines of evidence have been questioned... there is usually a little leeway when it comes to evidence acquired by super-powered representatives of law enforcement, however enough doubt has been generated..."

"Doubt? Doubt? I saw him with my own eyes! He tried to kill me!!!" Kallisti almost screamed.

"I'm afraid there were no witnesses to this and the injuries he sustained when you defended yourself make it difficult to present a credible case... and the fact that your own legal status is still in limbo..."

"That was supposed to be dealt with by FBSA and you people? Gold said it was all sorted!"

"Well Kallisti Gold's own immigration status is also under question, after all she isn't a citizen of the United States and you Kallistis do seem to keep appearing out of nowhere. It was not an issue when there were just four or five of you, but just how many are there now?"

"That's beside the point... I went through HELL to stop that gang of slavers and abusers - they killed girls, I had to watch them do it!" Kallisti's eyes were filled with tears as she remembered the horrors on the transport ship and in the camp at the end. "I had to stand by and watch those men hurt them so it could all be stopped, so we could find the ringleaders." She slumped into the chair, gripping the edge of the desk with despair.

"I know, I was one of the people in the recovery team, I remember too" the lawyer reached across the desk to touch Kallisti's hand. "What you did saved so many girls. We've got all of the gang who ran the kidnapping operation - its just the people running it are too powerful..."

"I thought this world had proper laws? Bronze told me things would be done properly here, that people get punished for being evil."

"They do..." the lawyer said, taking off her glasses and polishing them, not willing to meet Kallisti's gaze, "unless they have enough money to pay for lots of lawyers." she finished. The crash of the door slamming made her flinch, one stray long blonde hair remained on the chair opposite, silently accusing her of failure. She clenched her fists, wishing that she too had a super power so she could mete out the sort of justice those bastards deserved.

* * *

Kallisti the Friar sat in the park opposite Atlas Plaza, holding her head in her hands to blot out the hubbub of people around her. The trees around where taking on autumnal hues and it was noticeably cooler than the past few weeks. After all she had gone through and the others who had suffered, the people responsible were going to get away with it!!! Her blood was boiling!

She became aware of the sound of small footsteps nearby. "Hey lady, trick or treat?" She looked up into the face of a child wearing a demon mask...

* * *

The phone rang insistently as Kallisti Gold tried on her new hero outfit, a gold and red shiny form fitting metallic skin. Scowling she picked up her phone and checked the number - it was the Paragon Police Department!! She frowned and answered it.

"Is that Kallisti Gold? the voice on the other end said. "Yes, whats up?" she replied.

"You need to come to Atlas Park there is an um incident with your um sister..."

"Oh no what has Red been doing this time?"

"It is the Friar one - the one with the staff, you'd better come to the park opposite Atlas Plaza as quickly as possible..."

The Ouroboros portal dropped her in the corner behind City Hall. Striking her normal pose, she punched the air and took off, flying up over the dome and under the statue of Atlas. Ahead she could see a cluster of people and some flashing blue and red police lights. In the middle in a clear area stood the person she loved above all others but this did not look good - Friar's staff was in her hands and she was brandishing it angrily at the small crowd.

Gold landed close the PPD officers. "What's going on?"

"Ahh you are here already!" one of the cops said, taking his cap off and scratching his head. "It seems she just went berserk and almost hit a child with that staff. We've told her to stand down but she just keeps shouting something  in her funny accent we can't understand."

"Okay let me talk to her" she glanced over to see a mother and child being treated by paramedics. The woman shot an angry look at her and then turned back to her little boy who was still clutching the broken demon mask in his hands. He didn't seem to be hurt, just shocked and frightened. She stepped through the small crowd of onlookers and approached her doppelgänger.

"What is wrong with you people that you celebrate this evil time with games and tricks!!" Friar pointed at Gold with the staff that was forged from a slice of her own soul.

"You mean Halloween? Its just s time of the year for silly dressing up and parties, there nothing serious about it."

"YES THERE IS" Kallisti the Friar bellowed with such power that the crowd stepped back. "All Hallows Eve is the time when the barrier is weakest and the invasion is at its height, the time when the demons come to feast and lay waste! It is the most dreadful night of the year!" Kallisti Gold could now see the tears running down Friar's face. It was obvious in her expression that all the memories of her old life were coming back, all the horrors she'd lived with daily until the portal brought her here to Paragon City to a new life, to find love and some relative peace.

"They sacrificed my baby on All Hallows Eve to close the rift!" there was an audible gasp from the small crowd. Suddenly it was as if something had broken within her and she slumped to the grass, her body racked with sobs. Gold rushed to her and held her tightly.

"Oh my darling I'm so sorry" she whispered and kissed her cheek. Friar clutched at her as if life itself depended on it, her body shuddering with emotion. "I didn't know, you never said anything before. Its not like that here, its just a silly time of year. My darling..."

Friar pulled away roughly. "I never said anything because I didn't want to remember it." she clutched at her chest. "Who wants to remember watching as priests offer your newborn baby on the bloody altar?" she wailed and beat the grass with her fists. "I was only fourteen and they killed my baby!"

Kallisti Gold felt a numbing cold, the realization of the untold horror her beloved had been through. This was beyond anything she had ever dealt with in her own life. In comparison she'd had a pampered and privileged upbringing in Oxford. She had no idea what to say but simply reached out her hand to touch the face of this wonderful person she loved. Friar batted the hand away and glared at her. "I though I could escape from those things here with you... with all of you..." she looked beyond Gold to where Kallistis Red and Bronze had arrived and were talking to the police. "But I can't, they still live here" she put her hand over her heart, "and they will never leave me."

She looked back to Gold and her fierce expression softened slightly. "You have given me love and acceptance and a place to call a home. I love you dearly My Angel in Gold, but I must confront my demons and I can't do that while hiding with you. I feel a darkness growing in my heart - there are injustices that being a hero cannot fix and I can't be with you while I feel this way." The tears were running down her cheeks again as she explained and watched the expression change on her Angel's face.

"No, you don't have to go away, I love you, we all love you, we'll help you." the tears were running down Gold's face as well now. Friar smiled affectionately.

"Don't cry my dearest, it'll make your mascara run." she gently wiped away a tear. Gold smiled and sniffed but the tears would not stop.

"Don't go I love you so much." she sobbed.

"You have no idea how much that means to me my dearest Angel. I've never felt such happiness than I have since I met you, but that happiness is a mask that keeps me from dealing with what I must and I have to do that alone... at least for now." She cupped Gold's face in her hands and kissed her. Stepping back, the Ouroboros Portal opened beside her and she stepped through, the portal closing behind her.

Kallisti Red rushed to Gold's side and wrapped her in a bear-hug as Gold cried.

* * *

The Ouroboros portal opened up in Grandville and the vigilante Kallisti the Friar stepped through. She was still wearing her usual green and white, but her clothes were much less revealing, more sober and serious. She looked around an scowled. The callousness that showed in the very architecture of this place seemed to chime with the mood in her heart. She knew what her first task would be... a certain person of money and influence - justice WILL be served!

Edited November 20, 2019 by kallistiuk

[Kallisti]

The fallout continues... some unexpected consequences...

 

==========================================================

 

Kallisti the Janitor sat behind her office desk, engrossed in the latest cleaning bot schedule she was compiling on the computer screen. Since she had arrived in this version of Paragon City, she had been snapped up by the municipal authority that ran Kallisti Wharf. She suspected that her name and association with the Kallisti Girls was the primary motivation for her employment, but since then she had shown excellent organisational skills and she had been rapidly promoted. She found this recognition very rewarding. She wasn't a super-hero like the other Kallisti - she had no powers to speak of, just an ability to organise and a mechanical aptitude that had taken her through a Engineering degree in Cybernetics. However it was her project management skills that had kept her in gainful employment in her old world.

Her timeline was similar to this one, although it hadn't suffered quite so much with the Rikti invasion. It seems that at some point in the 50s and 60s her timeline had focussed on robotics and by the time she grew up, robots and androids were commonplace and much more advanced than in this timeline. When the spatial dimensions ripped and dragged her through her, she had fortunately been carrying some of the more advanced prototypes from her employer and these had been very useful to her in the new job. She glanced out of her office window to see that Sweeper was busy pushing the lawnmower across the patch of grass that bracketed this side of the Kallisti Wharf Municipal Facilities Management office. Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of her mobile - this was an area of technology that this timeline had exceeded in over her own, although she was not so keep on the 'surveillance capitalism' methods that had grown up around the devices. She checked to see who was calling but it didn't identify them, just a telephone number - the code indicated it was a public phone booth.

"Good afternoon you are through to the Facilities Management, Kallisti Hamilton-Stathis speaking, how may I help you?"

"Its me" came the female voice on the other end of the phone. The accent was English but it had that sing-song twang that had persisted from the medieval English...

"Friar! Is everything okay?" she frowned. She had not been present at the breakup between Friar and Gold a few days ago but had witnessed the aftermath at the apartment they all shared. Gold had been inconsolable and was still in a state of misery and dejection.

"Well mostly but I have a problem..."

"Is it Crey? Council of Thorns? Banished Pantheon?"

"No nothing like that its just... " Kallisti the Friar sounded hesitant, if not embarrassed "I don't have any money and I can't work out how to use these cash machine things!" she blurted.

"Oh!" she tried not to laugh. Kallisti the Friar had never really gotten to grips with the everyday modern technology that surrounded them in Paragon City. It had never really mattered before because there was usually one of the other Kallistis to cover for her. Then when she was out on missions, it wasn't an issue either as she could handle the transit facilities without a problem and for other things she could just use the influence she'd accrued saving lives. "So where have you been staying since you left if you don't have any money?" Hotel's did not accept influence!

"Um well I went to Granville first..."

"Granville? You mean you went..."

"No no I didn't go that far but I spoke to Mender Tesseract and he explained how to get the portal to let me travel over there. I didn't' stay there as the place just made me feel creepy - the Fortunas made me think of the priests - watching you all the time while not watching you... anyway then I got the Ferry to Port Oakes but that place smells awful so I went back to Ouroboros and spent the night on one of those floating islands..."

"I've never been to Ouroboros, but Bronze showed me a photo she took. So where are you now?"

"I'm in Kings Row - I thought I could find somewhere to stay here as I know Kalli Golden found somewhere to live here, but I need money wherever I go and..."

"When did you last eat?" Kallisti the Janitor suddenly felt her eyes well up as she realised just how vulnerable Friar was without the support network the other girls had provided.

"Um..." the hesitancy was enough to convince.

"Okay I'll be right there. Meet me at the train station!"

* * *

"What are you like?" Janitor hugged Friar on seeing her waiting at the Kings Row station. She'd been shocked at the difference just a few days had made. Friar's hair was a mess and she had resorted to the old trenchcoat outfit she'd used in her early days in Paragon city. It did not look particularly clean and Friar herself wasn't exactly sparkling. Friar clung to the Kallisti she thought of as the most practical and 'normal' of them all.

"I didn't think it would be so difficult." she said. She'd fought giant robots, monsters, helped stop dimensional invaders, Rikti invasions, zombie hoards but the simple everyday tasks of just looking after helself in the modern world were beyond this girl displaced from a mediaeval world. "I never really thought about how we lived and what needed to be done."

"The rest of us just sort it out and never think about it. We have money coming in from mine and Bronze's jobs and Gold's appearances and..." she broke off as she saw the look of sadness in Friar's face.

"Is she alright?"

Kallisti the Janitor paused and looked into Friar's eyes, trying to gauge how truthful to be. "She'll live... she's a blaster so is used to being knocked down!" she lied.

Friar bit her lip. "I didn't mean to go quite so far but things just happened..."

"Yes I heard about the kidnap gang prosecutions... or lack of them..."

"Hmmm, yes that is something I have to sort out." There was a look that chilled Janitor.

"Okay first things first, lets get some cash and some grub. Anything you fancy?"

"Fish and chips!" Friar's eyes lit up.

"I've been trying to persuade Harry Ramsden to open a branch in Paragon City but they don't see the benefit somehow. I'm sure we can get something in Talos." Kallisti the Janitor realised Friar had no idea what she was talking about and had missed the joke. "Come on I'll show you how to use the hole in the wall..." she linked her arm through Friar's and led her to the cash machine.

* * *

"Fries are no way a substitute for proper chips." Janitor dipped the last one in the ketchup. Friar had eaten her fill, catching up on two days of missed meals. "Okay so you now know how to use the cash machine - don't forget the pin number again!" Friar shrugged.

"Will you tell her that you've seen me?"

"I don't know. On the one hand it might annoy her that you reached out to me and not her, on the other hand if I don't tell her and she finds out she'll think we've been going behind her back - which we have."

"Oh! You should tell her then, and tell her I miss her." Friar's expression softened as she thought of her Angel.

Janitor glanced out the window of the seafood restaurant they were seated in on the board-walk on Talos Island. 'That would be a BAD idea!' she thought. "I'll sort it out, don't worry" she said out loud. "So I think the next thing will be to find you somewhere to live. I heard there is a nice apartment block in Atlas Park that's been recommended by Hero Corps. Its called Renaissance Suites and I've heard good things about it. So long as the rent is reasonable, it should be okay. Are you going to take on paid jobs now?"

"Well I did meet a couple of people in Granville who wanted me to help rob a bank but I don't like the thought of that, its wrong."

"Well yes, I'm glad you haven't started down THAT slippery slope! You should enrol in Hero Corps, I bet they'd love someone with your talents, experience and influence!"

"Could you help me apply, I'm still not that good at writing and its going to be difficult for Bronze to help me."

"I reckon we can sort something out... how good are you with a broom and a mop?"

Edited November 22, 2019 by kallistiuk

[Kallisti]

...and the story moves on... a couple of weeks later...

 

============================================================

 

The bedroom was quiet apart from the snoring of the middle-ages man in the bed. There was a faint light in upper one corner of the plush bedroom, indicating the security system was active as this particular man was sensitive about his own safety, particularly after the unpleasantness of a few month before. He slept peacefully though, knowing that his influence and contacts shielded him from the worst that could happen. The faint light in the corner of the room flickered briefly then faded to darkness. The man continued to snore. The girl on the other side of the bed jerked awake as a hand was placed over her mouth and strong arms held her still.

"Shh, don't move, don't make a sound, you are safe, nobody will hurt you" came a quite whisper in her ear. The hand was removed from he mouth and she took a deep breath but before she could scream a warning, blackness descended and she fell unconscious.

"Told you not to trussst her!" came a different, sibilant whisper.

"Had to give her a choice!" the first whisperer replied.

"Security are watching a loop, all the sensors have been intercepted and showing normal" said a male voice, quiet but not a whisper.

"Okay lets wake the git." the first whisperer spoke, a female voice with an English accent. Kallisti the Friar removed the black hood that concealed her blonde hair and set up a lantern on the side of the bed. Her two companions also removed their hoods to reveal a shoert female with scales on her face, no hair and a forked tongue that flickered out, tasting the air and a man with cybernetic enhancement on his face and over his bald head. She nodded at them and with a good portion of her strength slapped the man in the bed across the face, causing his head to bounce into and then up from the pillow.

"Wha!" he woke in surprise, hand automatically reaching out for the panic alarm at his bedside. A staff crashed down on the outstretched hand with a bone shattering crunch and the man screamed in pain. Kallisti glanced at Interference, her cybernetically enhanced electric corrupter colleague, who shook his head.

"Surprise!" She smiled at the stunned man who's grey eyes widened as he realised who he was confronting.

"GUARDS!!!!" he bellowed, nursing his broken hand and trying to crawl up the bed away from her. His free hand collided with the unconscious girl beside him and he glanced at her briefly before trying to push her aside. He was hampered by only having one hand and as he scrabbled at her his nails scratched her face, narrowly missing her eyes. Kallisti grabbed him by the front of his pyjamas and dragged him off the bed to the floor - she wasn't prepared to let the girl get hurt, enough girls had already been harmed by this man!

"You can't do this, I'll have you thrown in jail until you rot!" he blustered, trying to get to his feet. Kallisti's staff swept his legs from under him and he crashed back to the floor, crying out in pain as his broken hand was caught between his bulky middle-age spread and the floor.

"You can't threaten me, I've seen what you do and I'm going to make sure you never harm another soul - you've bought the courts, you've bought enough lawyers, but I'm here to dispense real justice!" she spat.

"You can't - you are supposed to be hero, heroes don't kill!" he sneered.

"I gave that up after meeting you - your corruption is so pervasive that I had to change. Thankfully that meant I could meet up with some new friends from Grandville!" she gestured to her two companions, who bowed and waved. "Anyway I'm not going to kill you..."

"Hah, spoken like a coward, unwilling to kill - well when this is over I'll make sure you and all those other Kallisti whores suffer for this - you'll watch as I have each one of them tortured..."

"Oh shut the hell up you disssgusting excussse for a man, we're not going to kill you what we will do to you isss ssso much worsse you can't comprehend..." hissed Kallisti's companion with the scaly face, the psychic who called herself Psython. She moved over to the man on the floor, her movements sinuous and hypnotic. "I'm going to do things in your mind that you can't imagine. You'll wish we'd killed you instead!" her eyes glowed and the man's face paled. His eyes widened as images started to appear in his mind, images taken from his own memories by the telepath and replayed in front of him but instead of him watching his victims in his memories, they were transformed so he became the victim. Horror overwhelmed him and his body lost control as he soiled himself. As the telepath manipulated his memories, she was shutting down control of his body and he slumped to the floor, locked into his own mind, unable to communicate, unable to move, all he could do was experience the horrific memories that overwhelmed him.

Kallisti stood over the helpless man, her rage still unfulfilled. "Did you get where they are being held?" she asked the telepath.

"Oh yesss and a lot more... there is a ssafe behind the toilet... sssome interessting things in there!"

"Will anyone notice if they go missing?" Psython shook her head.

"Only he knows itsss there!"

Kallisti smiled, "Then this is your paydirt for helping me! I couldn't have done it without your both."

Interference shrugged, "What the hell, you are paying me, its not like we are buddies. You wanted shit done, I did it for you. Sounds like this guy was a nasty piece of work, surprised Lord Recluse didn't take an interest." he spoke with a hint of a southern drawl.

"There is villain evil and then there is just plain evil. This is plain evil, someone with no morality, too much money and some nasty perversions."

"Darlin' I know loads of them... well apart from the money. Its no shit to me, so long as I get paid."

* * *

The Commander of the Longbow raid team came out of the concrete bunker, his face pale from what he'd seen inside. He looked to Kallisti the Friar dressed in her green and white combat armour, her blonde hair cut much shorter than when he had last seen her. During the raid, she had been kept waiting by the flyer that had brought the raid to this remote hillside in New York State so early in the morning.

"How many?" she demanded angrily. She had not been allowed to take part in the raid, even though she had supplied the location of the hidden bunker, allowed along just as an observer.

"Its hard to say but its more than enough." he replied grimly. "We've got three survivors and five people in custody. One TP'd away but we have a trace on the destination. You can follow that up if you like, it was Sharkhead Isle and you seem to be getting familiar with the territory over there." He narrowed his eyes at her. Kallisti found herself unable to hold his gaze and looked away. "We also have video evidence... he is easily identifiable on the video. He'd better be paying his lawyers a lot of money for what they will have to watch!"

"This should do it, though, this should be enough to get him." he nodded. "Its handy you were able to get someone to crack the encryption on his messages..." he let the sentence trail off. Kallsiti raised her head and faced him down. She didn't understand the technological words but Interference had come up with a plausible explanation of the source of the information.

"I had to pay a lot for it and Sharkhead Isle was the only place I could get that sort of help since I got little elsewhere." she said, throwing his accusation back at him, her face unreadable.

"Boss!" the purple-skinned lieutenant arrived holding a phone up for her Commander, "Apparently they just found him in a coma!"

"Damn!" he cursed, looking back to Kallisti. She frowned, her expression showing shock at the news. Inside however, she wondered why she did not feel content with the justice that had been served.