New Readers' Guide
Hiya, new or returning reader! First off, if you like what you see, drop me a line! I've got a tumblr and a tweetr and an emailr, I want to hear from you! So, want to know what’s up and who the heck these people are, right? Well here’s a rundown.
HISTORY
Starting at the beginning, In the semi-near future, Canada suddenly invades the US with it’s legions of genetically cloned dinosaur shock troops. A stunned America can do nothing but watch as the northern states are taken over as the US had spent billions on missile defences and cyber-counter-measures, as well as anti-armor and anti-air weaponry, that they had basically no defense against dinosaurs.
Fast forward a hundred years or so, after the formation of Triumph City in what used to be the mideastern United States, and is now the northeastern United States, bordering what is now southern Canada’s great wall.
A sprawling metropolis by day, a futuristic nightmare by night, the incredibly high crime rates lead to the legalization and nationalization of vigilantism, forming the Super Hero Accounts Bureau, or SHAB.
Now, what would a dystopian future be without an evil corporation or two? So, there’s also Tera-Corp. Of particular importance are two people working on a new alloy: Hector Syphon and Jacob Rashart. Jacob was happy that he was inventing something which could save lives. Hector then took it, made a gun out of it, and ended up getting promoted because it was a very good gun. Jacob, in response, stole the gun and told his son Dechs to run away with it and hide while he got burned to the ground with his house by Hector’s goons.
Later on, Dechs’s friends also got burned up, and he was thought to have also died in the fire- he didn’t, and he then decided to become a Super Hero because what else are you going to do with a sweet-ass gun and a chip on your shoulder
Thus began the career of Shadehawk and, plus or minus meeting his Computer Radio Buddy and Gadget-Maker Laria “Wrench” Moondale, he’s been prowling the streets at night because there’s enough people prowling it in the daytime.
THE CURRENT SITUATION
Hector managed to get Shadehawk blasted into space. Shadehawk (and the ice guy we’ll mention later) then fell out of space, landed in Canada, and managed to escape through a series of crazy capers involving the Canadian superhero team, Patriot Love, and their evil counterparts The Literates.
Meanwhile, the Vengeful Sisters (see “Heroes” section) are back in the city after having Charles stolen from them by Jack (see Villians)
The city itself is being watched over primarily by Crossroad, which means a pretty big increase in villain deaths. But she’s trying, really. She just picked up a fudgeawesome sword, though. One that fell from space. And is Excalibur. And shoots lightning. Then she just said "fuck this" and left.
So to pick up the slack, Wrench (Shadehawk's internet sidekick) has been working on her own superheroing.. and now Shadehawk's back in town...
HEROES
Shadehawk is known by his ever-changing trenchcoat, red sunglasses which actually amplify light (and have other, less useful functions), and the handcannon he carries. Once known as “Project Crossbow”, it’s now just known as the “Silver Arrow”. it can take regular bullets en masse, but can also be single-loaded with specialty bullets constructed by...
Wrench, who spends some amount of time reading erotic fanfiction. Just throwing that out there. Rest of the time she’s helping Shadehawk or doting on her boyfriend...
Echo. He does much the same thing as Wrench, except for a different hero...,
Crossroad, known as Celestina Domerelli to her mafia don Father, is a loose canon with nothing to lose. If she had a badge, they’d make her turn it in, but as it is she cannot even get SHAB licencing because she’s too violent. She primarily works on allies of her father, but lends a hand otherwise. She carries a sword that projects a thin beam of matter in front of the core allowing it to slash virtually anything at any angle. She also has a pair of ridiculously expensive boots which let her walk up walls. She also recently picked up Excalibur, and found out it shoots lightning.
Shadehawk’s also clashed with a rival superhero team known as the Civic Guardians: They were tricked into arresting Shadehawk who then got shot into space. Off-again-on-again heroes and part time terrorists, the Vengeful Sisters started off punishing people who did bad things to orphanages. Now they’re wrapped up in a web of intrigue involving Wizard, Jack, Union and Tera-Corp. The five of them use prototype suits made by Tera Corp they thought they stole but it was actually part of a field test, so they really stole them this time. The members are Dragon: Martial artist who can shoot sais, Aftershock who is soft-spoken tall and is totally gay for Dragon (of which Dragon remains unaware) and creates shockwaves and force fields, Sparks who is often drunk and can shoot lightning and thinks Aftershock should just fuck Dragon already god, Snow Angel who is pre-teen and makes snow, and Waterfall who can control water and occasionally goes crazy.
VILLAINS
Remember when I said about the high crime rate? Well there’s quite a few.
Most important is probably Hector Syphon, but you know who he is. Only he ousted Tera Dameon, the CEO of the company recently and kinda took over.
He’s got an aide named Angelson.who is showing Hector the way to some mysterious power.
He also is responsible for the one known as “Wizard”. Way back when he brought him as a test subject for “Project Ringmail” (Remember that name,s it’ll be important later.) - he was mentally conditioned, went crazy, and is now a nearly omnipotent chessmaster. He has some history with Shadehawk that Shadehawk hasn't figured out yet, and he can control the kinetic energy of objects at a macro or micro scale. He tends to accidentally pull the heat out of the surrounding air when he gets really mad. Wizard works with a chick named Simile who talks in haikus and can shapeshift as well as create illusions. She hasn’t been seen in quite some time..
Another happy fellow is Doctor Nefarious, the most annoying and serial supervillain in the city. He’s tried it all: mind control, shrink rays, giant robots. He seems to revel in his work even if they constantly fail.
Baron Diamond was once Orange Earthsmantle von Potatoflight (or Earthscrust, depending on the translation), foreign diamond mine owner. He diamond-tipped everything he owned, resulting in a series of accidents costing him his eye and two arms. He now has diamond coated arms, but his eye they couldn’t diamond-tip at all. He uses them to punch things.
Cardmaster (once neon) is a hacker and roboticist who is obsessed with playing a certain card game. He seems to be sexually attracted and intimidated by Wrench. Currently working for whoever pays him.
Crimson Boomerang isn’t really a villain.
Jack is a bounty hunter who works for the bad guys. He’s always prepared, and if he finds himself insufficiently prepared he just cuts his losses. He’s also old and wears a trenchcoat.
Cubinator King of Ice Frozen North Coldular Whatever he’s going by now is a supervillian who can create ice by concentration, and uses a conductor coil to help direct it. He keeps lying about his history and can’t think of a name. He’s also immune to all temperature, even extreme heat from flames or arctic nights.
MANTIS stands for Military Agents Nominally Trained In Spying. They’re basically a group of mercinaries, but they’re top of the tops. If any agent fails but survives, they are transformed into a super agent tasked with making it right. So far we’ve seen three, including Paladin, a sword-wielding knight type, and Golem, who was once someone Shadehawk escaped from and now can shoot radiation and move super-fast. He also never speaks the object of a sentence.
Crossroad’s father Domerelli, known as “The Dom” is the head of a criminal syndicate. When he found out his daughter was fighting the good fight he kicked her out.
Princess is a heiress to a renowned children’s author and an action-archeologist. So, she steals stuff from museums while making up stories why.
Union was once Doctor Nefarious’ thug, but he realized that he was treated really bad in that job. So, he decided to reach out to the minions of the world under a banner of health benefits and flex time. The minions turned out to be stupid, so he’s working on an actual supervillian team now to take out Doctor Nefarious. He’s already hired an attempted terrorist and kidnapped Charles.
Shadehawk also ran afoul of Malvagia, Crossroad’s cousin and assassin. She’s not of legal age to do pretty much anything she does. She was hired to kill Union by Doctor Nefarious. VCHFLASHPAINTBOMB
The Creator is the, uh, creator of a church of computer programs and robots. It turned out he was (unknowingly) an AI himself.
OTHERS
Rose Kirkins thinks she’s a good guy,keeping bad hackers out of the network. But it turns out that network is Tera Corp and the hackers are Wrench and Echo. Oops. She really, really, really wants to be a superhero but she’s also a massive klutz.
O CANADA
Shadehawk and That Ice Guy ended up in Canada, where they fought a few more people, including both the superhero team Patriot Love and supervillians The Literates whom he accidentally joined.
Patriot love’s known members consist of Trans Canada - super speed, Canadarm - androgenous with robotic arm, Lumberjack: he’s okay and tosses cabers and has a velociraptor named Alanis, and a few more dudes.
The Literates consist of Grey Sherlock chapter leader, Green Dracula: vampiress and ice dude’s latest sexual conquest, Red Jekyll: very tall woman who can get super strength, Gold Dorothy: Who wears a dress and is very large hairy and male and can stomp on people with ruby slippers, and more. Green Dracula just recently agreed to sneak into the US with her blue beau because Hot Topic.
And because some of you care about this: Current Official Relationship List
- Wrench/Echo
- Aftershock -> Dragon (One sided
- Green Dracula/Coldular
- Dr. Nefarious/His Own beleived super intellect