Cryptic Studios owns the rights to City of Heroes, a massive multiplayer online game. Information can be found at I'm using my characters, with the exceptions being listed here. And yes, the Chicago gangs are my original ideas. Cool huh?
Other player's characters, used with permission: none here: Superbabes In game NPC's: Hellions, Outcasts, Family, Tsoo, Vahz, Warriors, Statesman, Back Alley Brawler
Joshua
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WILDE TANKE
"Bad beginnings never start well"
A few of you probably might guess at this- for most of you, it won't even occur to you. But the name is pronounced in two parts. Wil-Dee. Sort of like saying Will D., but with a shorter "e" noise at the end. Get it? Good.
I hail from Chicago, as some of you might already know. Grew up there most (all) my life, so that's where I was when I developed some strange abilities. Most of you would call me a mutant. That's part of who I am, but that's not as far as it goes. This is my tale, and my life.
Take it for what it's worth..
My mutant powers came out when I was 12. Kind of an early bloomer for mutants, I know. Usually, that's a result of having an inborn power of some potency. I don't think that was the case with me, though. I won't get into what my old powers are, because after a little experiment, they morph-ed into totally different powers. Almost like my original powers, but no form to it. It was kinda like a foam before.
I'd hoped to get rid of the pain using my powers caused in my arms and hands. Yeah, great. It worked, alright. But as I might have mentioned earlier, the electrical buildup didn't seem to be registering in my body right. Someone warned me that mutants are percisely biotuned to their own abilities. Geez, I think that was the word. You know, it's set up so if you're born with something, you can handle it, the guy had explained to me. (Or was it a girl? I forget, it was some big brain technician type.) If you try to alter it - like I did - you're more often than not screwing yourself.
So I have headaches. A lot. Usually really bad headaches. My body feels "off" in other ways, too. Back in Chicago, I'm hearing some bad things, and I'm worrying myself crazy. No one can stand to be around me, because I've changed too much after the experiment- and I don't care what they say about proof and safety records, anything that goes this badly isn't a "genetic alteration," it's a billion dollar freakin' college experiment!
I ain't the lighthearted lovable kid I used to be. It's not just the headaches, either. It's this.. I don't know.. passion.. this obsession, Shelly called it. Yeah, that's a good word.. to use my powers. It's been said a lot of times before, any mutant who gets too obsessed with their own power, usually ends up on the wrong side of the law.
I didn't want that to happen. I only came to this damned New York wannabe city to get a cure. I ended up doing the super hero thing, sort of like I did back in Chicago with my old group, only for real. I end up doing really badly at it. So here I am, wondering how much longer I'll be able to qualify for free living in this city, right? This's a few months ago, like three and a half-ish .. And out of no where, my old friend tracks me down. Shelly Hollins. She was always a short, serious girl. Lifelong friend of mine, ain't none closer. Oh, she's cute as hell. A babe, you might say. In fact, someone apparently said it, cause she told me she's a member of this Superbabes group.
Who I've heard a fair bit about. She also told me she'd came here looking for me.. That meeting didn't go well. She was too- demanding and I was too.. well I was myself. A wise $$ with an attitude, I guess you'd say.
I don't know where my story starts, though. You know how Paragon City has the Hellions and the Outcasts? Or bigger gangs like the Family and the Tsoo? Chicago had a bit of a different set of problems, although it usually boiled down to the same thing. Drugs, murder, thief, anything you can name.
Chicago's a big place, even with it's own war scars. "Dublin's Child" was one of the nastier groups I'd ever heard about. The name's singular, but it's talking about a full freaking gang, to be blunt. They were mostly Irish Gypsies. I know that don't sound frightening. They worked on a few legit street businesses, and on the side fortune telling, hawking old stones, usually to my mom, whatever. Thing is, and most people didn't know this but I had some insight into it, they worked a lot of less legitimate businesses. Not that I really considered pricing old stones at fifty bucks and hawking them as a cure all magic to be very legitimate, but whatever, huh?
I only had a few run ins with them. I mostly cut my teeth back home in Chicago dealing with the more common street thugs. The Country Posse are geniuses with lassos and pretty good fighters too. Doesn't mean they won't still toss a knife or pull a gun to get what they want, which's usually property owned by someone else. Too bad. Most of them have the talent to make it in show business or who knows what, but they're so lost in their own world, that, well, try telling them that.
The other ones were the second rate stringers known as the Elite- think Skulls but with martial arts instead of skullmasks- and the Lugares Bajos. Small group there, but it was the one we usually ran into.. Name is Espanol for "low places," I think. But like I said, my powers were a bit different back then, and I don't really FEEL like explaining two different sets of powers to you, so I'll probably just skip forward to my days in Paragon City.
The city was said to be pretty good to mutants, too. Heroes in general, I guess. Chicago was alright, but a lot of the old prejudices were still there, dating back to when Al Capone first used mutants in the twenties or thirties. I forget which. I'm thinking the latter since, wasn't Statesman the first mutant hero?
(Actually, I'm not sure if he's a mutant or not. I always figured he was. Unique powers, no explanation, and all of that jazz. I always heard he was, so I'm sticking to that story, dammit.)
I won't claim my powers are the best in the city, but I've been pushing myself.. I've also been taking jobs in the side, since I'm still getting too much energetic feedback from those powers, which never did stabilize. But I've forced myself. I've adapted, and used my brains instead of my fists when possible. (Anyone that knows me will get the irony there!)
Let's see, I've had a bunch of runs ins so far, starting mainly with scraps with the Hellions and the Vahzian evil army in the early days, to my more recent battles with the Family and the Warriors. Stories like most people, that started like most people's. With a train ride in.
Unfortunately, it went down hill from there. I just want to point out, I was a hero in my old life. Sorta. Maybe not a hero on the level of Statesman or even Back Alley Brawler, mind you.
But I tried to do the right thing in Chicago, and here.. Only here, the right thing wasn't always so obvious to me..
My name now is Wilde Tanke. Mutant. Would be hero. Former would be wrestler.
I'm a hero.
And much to my shame, I'm a former member of the Skulls and the Outcasts.. ..