Part 3: Dark Husk of Protector
Happiness. This was where she was. Despite all the horrors of the last several years and the seemingly unending plague of misfortunes which Paragon City has faced, she was happy, felt safe, and had every reason to be. The new inflow of heroes everyone was seeing was sure to protect her and everyone she loved. Of course, then everything suddenly became hot, she felt a force, piercing, and then blackness. And that was when she woke up. Every night, the same nightmare. Her real live nightmare. It was a good thing that tonight she didn't see all of it like she used to. That way tonight she didn't scream waking up. Everything she had ever loved, gone, in an instant. First part of yet another gang war between the skulls and hellions they told her. It all seemed so pointless, and she thought that life could not get any worse. This was after she found out about her organ damage, that she was chained up to numerous life support devices just to keep her heart going. And then the Vahzilok got to her. The zombie-like cadavers and sheer abominations managed to assault her hospital and steal her arms - her arms! - before being forced out. Like many other heroes, this loss spurred her to action. With her substantial remaining savings she funded construction of a unique exoskeleton to maintain her organ functions, and outfitted her customized robotic arms with the accessories necessary to take her fight personally into the fray. Hence, she became the Dark Husk, with nothing left inside her but loss, pain, and outright cold rage. With her suit becoming somewhat of a blessing for her newly enhanced strength, endurance, speed and senses, and the truly expensive claws which cut through pretty much everything, Kings Row would never be the same. This was her kitchen, and she was the cook.
Kings Row was the city zone where most different kinds of villainous groupings appeared. The Lost, Skulls, Circle of Thorns, Clockwork and Vahzilok all made large incursions into the area. Of course, it was the Skulls and Vahzilok which interested her most. Death worshiping gangsters and zombies following a pseudo Dr. Frankenstein had stolen her life from her, and she only existed now to do the same to them, though a bit more literally. She did enjoy her work really, more than she probably should have as a hero, but the city needed her more than they upheld certain ideals, so here she was. She never did bother with calling Paragon Security to beam any crooks out, it was more appropriate to have them in the hospital. It wasn't like they'd be going anywhere with several lacerations, missing limbs and severe bleeding from several arteries. Later generations may be glad of the fact that none of these villains would ever have children after encountering her.
Kings Row was really quite under her league actually. She could take a mob here single handedly, but it was her center, and always will be no matter where else her work takes her. However, lately she'd been noticing that local gangs had been carrying significantly more powerful hardware. New heroes entering the zone were having a much harder time than before, and here she was, trying to find out why. The Lost, always sporting Rikti tech, were suddenly wearing tougher armor, scraps really, but with the mysterious ability to repair damage done within moments of taking that damage. A healing armor. Upon first hearing this, she'd hunted many Lost, stealing those scraps of armor to complement her own, so now, she had self healing armor, though she was still at a loss as to how it worked in the first place. Knowing the Lost had a certain preference to the sewers, Husk knew that she would eventually have to venture into the Underworld there. She needed some sort of lead however, and the Lost were hardly reliable if captured.
With nothing left to go on, and deciding that there was pretty much no other way around it, she ventured into the sewers, the stealth enhancement of her armor activated. As much as she enjoyed slicing swathes through her enemies, this was one situation where discretion would be useful. Therefore, she only hunted stragglers tonight. Noticing a trend in the Lost's weaponry, she followed a trail of increasingly powerful foes north, to Boomtown. Boomtown, the wasteland. If there were anywhere which truly looked like where a nuke went off, that would be it. An army could hide in there easily, and in ways, several armies did. The sheer numbers of 5th Column training platoons to be found there are shocking. This of course is not to mention the hordes of other gangs which call it home. She enjoyed darker places however, true cities where she could hide herself in the forest of concrete, steel and asphalt. Still, this was where she was heading. Suddenly, there was heat, a blast, and before blackness fell yet again, she saw her auto-teleport fizz and die.
Half expecting to wake up again looking forward to the fact that she wasn't screaming, she woke up, well, trapped. Latched into holding which she couldn't break out of in strength, nor use her claws to help her in any way, she decided to hope that the Vahzilok weren't about to take her legs. Her organs weren't useful to them anyway. In fact, she was even musing as to what enhancements she could use on robotic legs, assuming of course that she survived all of this. Maybe a piledriving mechanism which would enhance her jumping even more, so that she could make significant leaps. Interesting. As she looked around her, she saw numbers of other heroes held in similar ways, so as to contain their powers specifically, and decided that if this were indeed the Vahzilok, this would be where they cut up and used body parts from fallen heroes to form into their pretty hideous 'Abominations'. The place looked too clean though, so she had her suspicions. The technology available was also stunning from merely what she could see. Vahzilok typically used bladed weapons, primitive if still effective. Advanced weaponry was beyond their ability to operate. She then began to have fear for the first time since seeing the cadavers approaching her hospital ward all that time ago. However the Lost had been receiving their new equipment, this was the source. Now was one of those ever so rare times she wished she were back in Kings Row frustratingly responding to the endless calls of new heroes asking where they could find Vahzilok or Lost. Really, she was that scared.
Her fear could only increase as some heroes were taken away, not to return to this room at least. As the room emptied, the mysteriously dark armored villains pulled in a single replacement. She noticed something quite different about this one. Perhaps it was her helmets sensors, but she felt a strange distortion, that this hero was from.. Somewhere else. Not just any 'somewhere else' like half the heroes in existence, but really somewhere else. She of course, had very little idea what that meant. Then, she began to notice amongst all the other heroes, varying signatures of that buzzy feeling. Some were like this ones, but most others had all different kinds. She registered approximately ten different kinds of signatures, including hers and some heroes she recognized. It didn't take much to realize that each signature group of heroes came from a specific somewhere, a dimension for example, and that these captors had the technology to travel between them. Portal Corporation? That was closed down long ago. Did someone have access to the test sites and labs? Was she on the offshore island of the disastrous final test? Oh, she realized, it was another 'so many questions, so few answers' situation. She hoped it wouldn't become one where the answers only led to more questions. She really did tire of those, which led to many bodies in her wake.
It wasn't long before she began hearing shouts, screams, explosions and such. It sounded very much like a rescue operation, she told the hero next to her who was asking. Poor fellow, this relatively new hero had never even seen the green explosions of sacrifices made by the Circle of Thorns. Of course, she herself was waiting to experience what must surely be thrilling encounters with the dive bombing Sky Raiders. Then there was blackness, one she could be happy with. The power was down and the restraining clamps lost the energy within them which kept her strength in check. Ripping herself from the holding, she slashed through her neighbor's clamps. She learned he was the Angel Reborn. In any case, out came his sword, out came her claws, and they worked to free all the other heroes in captivity. Afterwards, would come the door, and freedom.
Happiness. This was where she was. Despite all the horrors of the last several years and the seemingly unending plague of misfortunes which Paragon City has faced, she was happy, felt safe, and had every reason to be. The new inflow of heroes everyone was seeing was sure to protect her and everyone she loved. Of course, then everything suddenly became hot, she felt a force, piercing, and then blackness. And that was when she woke up. Every night, the same nightmare. Her real live nightmare. It was a good thing that tonight she didn't see all of it like she used to. That way tonight she didn't scream waking up. Everything she had ever loved, gone, in an instant. First part of yet another gang war between the skulls and hellions they told her. It all seemed so pointless, and she thought that life could not get any worse. This was after she found out about her organ damage, that she was chained up to numerous life support devices just to keep her heart going. And then the Vahzilok got to her. The zombie-like cadavers and sheer abominations managed to assault her hospital and steal her arms - her arms! - before being forced out. Like many other heroes, this loss spurred her to action. With her substantial remaining savings she funded construction of a unique exoskeleton to maintain her organ functions, and outfitted her customized robotic arms with the accessories necessary to take her fight personally into the fray. Hence, she became the Dark Husk, with nothing left inside her but loss, pain, and outright cold rage. With her suit becoming somewhat of a blessing for her newly enhanced strength, endurance, speed and senses, and the truly expensive claws which cut through pretty much everything, Kings Row would never be the same. This was her kitchen, and she was the cook.
Kings Row was the city zone where most different kinds of villainous groupings appeared. The Lost, Skulls, Circle of Thorns, Clockwork and Vahzilok all made large incursions into the area. Of course, it was the Skulls and Vahzilok which interested her most. Death worshiping gangsters and zombies following a pseudo Dr. Frankenstein had stolen her life from her, and she only existed now to do the same to them, though a bit more literally. She did enjoy her work really, more than she probably should have as a hero, but the city needed her more than they upheld certain ideals, so here she was. She never did bother with calling Paragon Security to beam any crooks out, it was more appropriate to have them in the hospital. It wasn't like they'd be going anywhere with several lacerations, missing limbs and severe bleeding from several arteries. Later generations may be glad of the fact that none of these villains would ever have children after encountering her.
Kings Row was really quite under her league actually. She could take a mob here single handedly, but it was her center, and always will be no matter where else her work takes her. However, lately she'd been noticing that local gangs had been carrying significantly more powerful hardware. New heroes entering the zone were having a much harder time than before, and here she was, trying to find out why. The Lost, always sporting Rikti tech, were suddenly wearing tougher armor, scraps really, but with the mysterious ability to repair damage done within moments of taking that damage. A healing armor. Upon first hearing this, she'd hunted many Lost, stealing those scraps of armor to complement her own, so now, she had self healing armor, though she was still at a loss as to how it worked in the first place. Knowing the Lost had a certain preference to the sewers, Husk knew that she would eventually have to venture into the Underworld there. She needed some sort of lead however, and the Lost were hardly reliable if captured.
With nothing left to go on, and deciding that there was pretty much no other way around it, she ventured into the sewers, the stealth enhancement of her armor activated. As much as she enjoyed slicing swathes through her enemies, this was one situation where discretion would be useful. Therefore, she only hunted stragglers tonight. Noticing a trend in the Lost's weaponry, she followed a trail of increasingly powerful foes north, to Boomtown. Boomtown, the wasteland. If there were anywhere which truly looked like where a nuke went off, that would be it. An army could hide in there easily, and in ways, several armies did. The sheer numbers of 5th Column training platoons to be found there are shocking. This of course is not to mention the hordes of other gangs which call it home. She enjoyed darker places however, true cities where she could hide herself in the forest of concrete, steel and asphalt. Still, this was where she was heading. Suddenly, there was heat, a blast, and before blackness fell yet again, she saw her auto-teleport fizz and die.
Half expecting to wake up again looking forward to the fact that she wasn't screaming, she woke up, well, trapped. Latched into holding which she couldn't break out of in strength, nor use her claws to help her in any way, she decided to hope that the Vahzilok weren't about to take her legs. Her organs weren't useful to them anyway. In fact, she was even musing as to what enhancements she could use on robotic legs, assuming of course that she survived all of this. Maybe a piledriving mechanism which would enhance her jumping even more, so that she could make significant leaps. Interesting. As she looked around her, she saw numbers of other heroes held in similar ways, so as to contain their powers specifically, and decided that if this were indeed the Vahzilok, this would be where they cut up and used body parts from fallen heroes to form into their pretty hideous 'Abominations'. The place looked too clean though, so she had her suspicions. The technology available was also stunning from merely what she could see. Vahzilok typically used bladed weapons, primitive if still effective. Advanced weaponry was beyond their ability to operate. She then began to have fear for the first time since seeing the cadavers approaching her hospital ward all that time ago. However the Lost had been receiving their new equipment, this was the source. Now was one of those ever so rare times she wished she were back in Kings Row frustratingly responding to the endless calls of new heroes asking where they could find Vahzilok or Lost. Really, she was that scared.
Her fear could only increase as some heroes were taken away, not to return to this room at least. As the room emptied, the mysteriously dark armored villains pulled in a single replacement. She noticed something quite different about this one. Perhaps it was her helmets sensors, but she felt a strange distortion, that this hero was from.. Somewhere else. Not just any 'somewhere else' like half the heroes in existence, but really somewhere else. She of course, had very little idea what that meant. Then, she began to notice amongst all the other heroes, varying signatures of that buzzy feeling. Some were like this ones, but most others had all different kinds. She registered approximately ten different kinds of signatures, including hers and some heroes she recognized. It didn't take much to realize that each signature group of heroes came from a specific somewhere, a dimension for example, and that these captors had the technology to travel between them. Portal Corporation? That was closed down long ago. Did someone have access to the test sites and labs? Was she on the offshore island of the disastrous final test? Oh, she realized, it was another 'so many questions, so few answers' situation. She hoped it wouldn't become one where the answers only led to more questions. She really did tire of those, which led to many bodies in her wake.
It wasn't long before she began hearing shouts, screams, explosions and such. It sounded very much like a rescue operation, she told the hero next to her who was asking. Poor fellow, this relatively new hero had never even seen the green explosions of sacrifices made by the Circle of Thorns. Of course, she herself was waiting to experience what must surely be thrilling encounters with the dive bombing Sky Raiders. Then there was blackness, one she could be happy with. The power was down and the restraining clamps lost the energy within them which kept her strength in check. Ripping herself from the holding, she slashed through her neighbor's clamps. She learned he was the Angel Reborn. In any case, out came his sword, out came her claws, and they worked to free all the other heroes in captivity. Afterwards, would come the door, and freedom.