City of Heroes 18

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THE DARKNESS:LEVEL 3 WITCHBLADE #104

THE AGENCYVOL. 1 TPB

East me ts west in

P o p u l a r

J a p a n e s e

M a n g a s e e s

U S r e l e a s e

I N F U L L C O L O R !

A Top Cow Man ga event

IN STORES NOW!

Ko bayshi Sumita Blond

Cyberforce, Witchblade, The Darkness, The Agency. 2007 Top Cow Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. Cyberforce, the Cyberforce logo, and the likenesses of all featured characters are trademarks of Top Cow Productions, IncWitchblade, the Witchblade logo, and the likenesses of all featured characters are trademarks of Top Cow Productions, Inc. The Darkness, the Darkness logo, and the likenesses of al l featured characters are trademarks of Top Co

Productions, Inc. The Agency, the Agency logo, and the likenesses of all featured characters are t rademarks of Top Cow Productions, Inc.


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March, 2007 $2.75

Rose in Bloom

THE PARAGON

TATTLER

Paragon Citys ONLY source for the TRUTH

PAGE 6

Part 2, PAGE 2

PAGE 4

www.cityofheroes.com Be a Tattle Tale too! - see page 8

THE FURTHER MISA DVENTURES OF

Q-4ORCEPAGE 7

Paladine

FANTASTIC FAN ART! from the City of Heroes Community.

Part 1

He foated in the night sky over the

ocean...He was troubled.


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The Paragon Tattler March, 2007 Page 2 www.cityofheroes.com

I said RUN! Bobcats laughter rang out, chasing herthrough another nightmare

For over a year Rosas nights had been haunted bythe same horrifying dream. Tat Bobcat would re-member the mouse that got away and would cometo correct the moment of mercy.

Rosa came awake with a start on a cold metal oorunder the harsh glare of orescent lights. She was ina cell of some kind, wearing only a loose gray tunicand metal shackles that gouged her wrists and an-

kles. How had she come here? Her memories werea chaotic jumble. Screams, men laughing, the smellof her building burning, of people burning. Rosavividly remembered waking to the voice of Malaise,Mother Mayhems sycophantic servant, as leatherclad men dragged her out of bed.

Bring the girl. She is yrants property, he had pro-claimed.Kill everyone else in the building. Burn it tothe ground. Ten Rosa had collapsed.

Te cell door opened, breaking through Rosas hor-rible memories and bringing her to an even moreterrible present. It was Bobcat who pounced fromthe doorway to crouch over Rosas limp form. Well,

well, well. Your smell is a familiar one. Where have we met before, little mouse? She purred, her whis-kers tickling against the nape of Rosas neck.

For a moment, Rosa wildly hoped it was just an-other dream. But here was Bobcat purring, the hotbreath of reality whispering in her ear. Te hybridfeline woman lightly traced Rosas cheek with aninhumanly clawed ngertip.

Better, I think, to have killed you on that day.Bobcats feral slit eyes almost softened for a mo-ment. Unlucky little mouse.

Ten she snatched Rosa by the arm and hauled herout of the cell. Still in a state of shock, Rosa wasbarely aware of her surroundings. She stumbledalong steel corridors that gave way to tunnels hewnout of solid rock. Te air grew warmer. Rosa wasbrought into a chamber decorated with humanskulls and lit by the red-hot glow of molten mag-ma. Bobcat tossed her limply at the feet of yrantsthrone.

Our Lord and Master, who rules in glory, yrantis his name. Rosa gibbered the opening line of theprayer that every child was taught since the day he

had proclaimed himself king.

Childe, do you see how worthless your cause is?Te words were spoken softly in a voice that wasmelodious, deep and resonant.

In her darkest nightmare Rosa had never imagined

she would hear yrants voice. Had she tried, she would have thought it a harsh sound, agonizing andpainful as his rule had been to the world. She was

wrong. It was cultured, beautiful even. Te voice ofa god; a cruel and unjust god, perhaps, but a godnonetheless.

After everything she had been through, Rosa couldmake no sense of his words. She struggled to raiseher eyes and saw the true focus of yrants attention.

Te prayer caught in her throat. A woman hung inmanacles, suspended from a column beside yrantsthrone. And though her skin was a deep blue color,and her eyes naught but glowing pits of indigo re,Rosa knew her. Impossibly, the woman was Rosa.

Scorpio Rose, yrant sneered. Statesman growsdesperate to send such a pitiful wretch on his er-rands.

yrant reached out and pulled the broken heroinesface up to meet his glare. In return she gave only anenigmatic smile. Her eyes suddenly swirled with vi-olet sparks. A haze of energy coiled with throbbingblack radiance surrounded the prisoner, yrant andthe cowering Rosa at his feet.

Panic struck the room. Bobcat hissed, backing awayand spitting while the handful of her pack turnedtail and ran. Mother Mayhem and her lap dog,

Malaise, shouted orders, readying the guards forsome nal attack from the prisoner. Only two inthe room did not react to the energies, yrant be-cause he feared nothing, and Rosa because she wasalready too terried to move.

Te manacles on the woman crackled with blackenergy, and she groaned in exertion...but the lumi-nous fog abated. She slumped in defeat.

I know you heroes too well. Your powers are noth-ing compared to my tools, yrant said, shaking theprisoner violently before changing the focus of hisconversation.

Tey told you this was a mirror universe of yourreality? he asked almost solicitously.

Yes, the woman replied in a voice that was soft asvelvet. Tey said everything was a warped reec-tion here on Praetorian Earth.

An insulting terminology, yrants voice sharp-

Rose in Bloom, Part 2By Robert Bergeron (Roughtrade)


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He floated in the night sky over the ocean, serene inrepose. Listening intently to the distant lap of the

waves, he allowed the white noise of the surf to con-sume his conscious mind. He was troubled.

hey all wanted something from him, not for whohe was, but for what he could do for them. At onetime, he could not conceive of the loneliness that waspossible when surrounded constantly by others. heidea still seemed ludicrous to him on its surface, butnow he had a better understanding; not of people,per se, but of what it meant to be around them.

Tese people were still a paradox to him. At onceparanoid and fearful, yet deant, brave, questing foranswers in a universe that seemed hostile to themand their kind. Tey embodied the very best of theirideals, yet typically exemplied the worst possiblebehavior at every turn. Tey were all saints and sin-ners, personied within each being.

He still could not understand them, even after allthis time, yet he strove to do so. Paladine was honestenough with himself to admit that this was some-thing he wanted, needed from them.

**

In their searches of alternate dimensions, they hadlocated it, though they did not realize it at the time.It had existed in a formless void, a null space. At thetime of their intrusion, it was without form, a poten-tiality oating in a white nihility. abula rasa. It be-

came aware of consciousness when it became awareof their presence. Teir entrance into its world hadbrought entropy into what would later be describedby their scientists as a pocket universe, a universe

where God had never started the arrow of time, acompletely static dimension. Teir entry gave its be-ing a direction.

It followed them back through the portal, and they were unaware that it had hitched a ride. As a being

of pure thought, it did not register on their sensesor instruments. Its elemental nature escaped thenotice of their mages and telepaths. Without trueconscious thought or real volition, it was essentiallybackground noise.

It observed their efforts to probe other-space, theirresearches into the unknown. It watched the scien-tists, the heroes, the technicians. It learned. Fast.Tey rst became aware of it thanks to the excep-

tional talents of a young witch who died early thein the senseless war with the Rikti. While attempt-

ing to probe the heavens in order to nd the homedimension of the alien invaders, she touched its raw,unformed being. Shocked and fearful, she turnedaway and sought the help of her fellows. Teyquickly came to Portal Corporations laboratoriesand extended their magical aerials into the ether. In

all their experiences, they had never contacted sucha raw, primitive being -- a creature of unadulteratedpower and innocence.

Teir probing did not harm it, but did arouse its cu-riosity. aking the rst tentative steps at true iden-tity, it answered.

**

Paladine had spent years ghting the good ght, asit were, to help the people of Earth. Untold count-less battles, constant strife, and never-ending hope,all directed to giving peace to those who could notprotect themselves. But now he was tired in spirit, acondition he had never experienced before.

He lay on his back, oating. His cape swayed in thebreeze, sighing gently in the gulf separating himfrom the water below, while his arms rested lightlyupon his chest. His normally determined face wasclenched in a frown of frustration. He lay with hiseyes closed, his forehead furled in thought.

Musing to himself, Tis must be what self-pity feelslike, he oated further out to sea.

Even though he had successfully completed his lastmission, it still perturbed him. Te mission had tak-en him to a parallel Earth, one on which all the hu-mans were dead, where only their spirits remained.Te scientists at Portal Corps were understandablycurious and worried that what had happened theremight happen here. He had been sent to discover

why that world lay in ruins, its dead never knowingrest.

After stepping through the portal, he had attemptedto talk to the shades, but they had instantly attackedhim, indeed had done their best to destroy him.Tousands of the wraiths had swarmed him, cloud-ing his vision, choking his breath, so thick was theirethereal presence. He had taken to the air, moving

with his preternatural speed, spinning as he rose toimpel their essences from his body. As he ascendedinto the heavens, they clawed at his face, his cos-tume, clung stubbornly to his cape. He ung eachfrom him as he ed, setting a pace the dead couldnot match. Remembering his mission, he avoidedthe dead, but searched for clues as to the cause of this

worlds demise.


Paladine, Part 1By Goth_Angel


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His search led him over much of the remains of ananalogue Paragon City. Te decaying remains of this

world, haunted by the spirits of the vengeful dead,lled Paladine with a dread he could not name. Fi-nally, he alighted atop a statue of some long-deadhero. Te statue had been half-blasted from its

foundations, leaving its remains tilting at a severeangle. From the air, he had spotted something lyingat the base. Scanning the area to assure himself thatthere were no wraiths nearby, he leapt to the ground.

At his feet were the remains of a human, the onlysuch remains he had seen in his y-over of the citysremnant. A mummied skeleton partially obscureda small, steel lockbox. Gently edging the box fromunderneath the remains, he looked for some sign ofthe contents or the owner. He pried the lid from

the vault, nding an old journal inside. He lookedaround to ensure that no spirits had followed him tothis place, and then opened the journal to see whatthe last living inhabitant of this world had left.

**

Te entity was able to communicate with the witchand her companions only at the most basic level, thatof raw primitive emotions, such as: curiosity, desire,

longing. Tey fed it with their own curiosities, sens-ing no malice within the thing. It soaked itself withtheir thoughts, their feelings, their attitudes, theirmemories, and it grew. Te young witch who hadrst sensed it and had been so frightened now helpedshape it more than the rest. Her power shown toit like a beacon. Her zesty life-force called out to it

with her desires. It materialized before her beforeit even realized it was capable of such a deed. Atrst it was simply a luminous white mist, barely vis-ible before the awesome energies of the portal. Tenit slowly coalesced into a human shape, as if sum-moned by the will and desires of those who soughtto communicate with it.

Slowly, the entity took on the dimensions and shapeof a man. It clothed itself in the shapes of those pres-ent, a little from each, but the thoughts of the young

witch directed its nal form the most. It assumedthe face, the body of a lover, long lost. She gasped ashe stood for the rst time, inhaling deeply in a rstbreath. His eyes snapped open, and his cry rent theair. Te rst cry of the newborn.

**

Paladine could barely see as he sped back toward theportal exit. ears of shame and rage poured from hiseyes, blinding him in his speed. More by luck thanskill did he elude the ghostly host that pursued him

in his mad dash through the heavens and over the

blasted earth. He stumbled through the portal backinto his own world. One of the technicians caughthim as he exited the portal and almost fell over theprotective railing. Tey dragged him away from theportal, asking what had happened. But he was toodistressed to even speak. ears choked his throat andhe kept his eyes screwed shut. Never before had any-one seen Paladine in this state. He thrust the journalaway from him and ed without a word. He ewup through the huge arched doorway. Punchingthrough the elevator doors, he shot past the compli-cated detectors at the security desk and blew out theglass front doors. He retreated into the skies, awayfrom humanity.

Te phone he carried in his belt buzzed with Jillsring-tone. He tried to ignore it as he shot away fromPeregrine Island, then habit and duty made himpause to answer it.

Paladine, are you alright? He could hear the con-cern in her voice, could almost see her face thoughshe was miles away.

He realized he was sobbing as he tried to answer her.He couldnt utter a single coherent sound, and wasincapable of stopping the tears.

Pal, please Come back to the island. Let me helpyou

His sobbing nally subsided, and he choked out,Jill, it was meI cant come back! I might do ter-rible things. His voice hitched, and then he whis-pered, I was the one that killed them all. I destroyeda world He shut the phone hard.

With the sunset at his back, he ew into the night,chased by demons.

END OF PAR 1


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FANTASTIC FAN ART! The Paragon Tattler March, 2007 Page 6 www.cityofheroes.com

The Best MindBy Anthony Goodsell

Cat StrykeBy Lunaseas

Electracutioner By Maxxrpg

MachBy Chaz Kemp


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Slowly Rosa came to terms with the changes. Hereyes were blue, but not her skin. She did not reallypossess the soul of the dead woman, just her memo-

ries. Tey were memories of a life well lived and ofa sacrice freely given. Rosa also had the powers ofdarkness and shadow that the woman had wielded.She could heal herself by draining life force fromothers. She could step into a shadow on one sideof the street and cross effortlessly to the other sideof town.

Tere was something more powerful still that Rosahad to keep her courage strong. Rosa knew that y-rant was not perfect, not infallible. She knew thatthere were others in her world that fought against

yrant. She knew there were heroes on another world that wanted to help her world be free.

Heroes who were willing to die, so that her worldcould be free.

Rosa, Scorpio Rose, was a Praetorian now, a differ-

ent version of a hero from another world. And she would bring hope to her own world, or she woulddie trying.

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Te Paragon attler: Community SectionEditor: Jesse Scoble; OCR, NCsoft Design: Hoss Fatemi and Jessi Marshall; Creative Services, NCsoft


The Paragon Tattler Fan Art & Ficti on Submission Guidelines are now Online!FOR THE SCOOP ON HOW YOU CAN BE A TATTLE-TALE TOO VISIT US AThttp://www.cityofheroes.com/community/fansubmission_guidelines.html

Rose in BloomContinued from page 3


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