Survivor: the Initiative episode 12
Affirmations
Day 34
Lemar Hoskins, Battle Star, looked out at the other three contestants who remained in the game with him. It was evening, and the light over the Symkarian trees was dimming, with the light from the campfire they sat around chasing away the shadows of the forest that were fighting to take over for the night. Here they were, the final four. And, as far as Lemar could tell, they were more put together and comfortable than they had been the entire game.
“We’ve come a long way to get here. I could never have predicted this final four. A big black guy with a shield, a white lady with a sword, a winged multi-racial former cop, and an armored Irish-American. All from different walks of life, with different skills, different origins, different power sets. We’ve all had the chance to learn more about ourselves in this game, and to learn who it is we associate with. Not only that, but when this show airs, we’ll all be exposed to the public. But we can’t forget the reasons that we signed up with this program in the first place. For our own reasons, we all want to be heroes. Legal, certified, deputized heroes. And it is very difficult to remember all of that when we are caught up in this series of survival, challenges, and vote-outs.”
Lemar stretched his back and continued. “I have friendships and alliances with all of you. I admire all of you. I would be proud to be on a military team with any of you. And I hope we can all keep in mind that this competition, this game, is just that. It’s training for our future as heroes.”
MAULER, sitting in his boxer shorts across the fire from Lemar, smiled. “Aye, brother, I consider ye a friend as well. I’m glad we never crossed paths in my wayward days as a mercenary or a criminal. I’m proud to know ye now.”
Lemar nodded carefully. He appreciated the compliment and the condolences, but he would always be skeptical about someone who’d been a criminal at one time.
Unbidden by him, Nocturne turned toward Lemar. She kissed him on the cheek and nestled in closer to him. This was the first time she’d shown affection toward him in front of others. Lemar noticed Valkyrie, in her human form, smiling, and noticed MAULER looking shocked. “I admire your strength and your convictions, Lemar Hoskins. I am glad to know you.”
Lemar laughed now. “All this mutual approbation going on around here. Your turn, Valkyrie, tell me what a great guy I am?”
Valkyrie, so much nicer to look at in her smaller form now that she could choose to go back and forth between them, smiled smugly, her arms around her legs as the fire warmed her. “I can’t find a single negative thing to say about you, Battle Star. And that is a high compliment indeed.”
“I want you to know me, Lemar Hoskins. I want you to know my story.”
“Angela, I do know you. I—“
Angela Cairn, Nocturne, interrupted Battle Star. She was cuddling with him next to the fire. It was late at night now, and very dark, and MAULER and Valkyrie had already returned to their respective lean-tos. “Not in that way. You know the being I am now, and you know the being I was. But you don’t know my story. You don’t know how I became who I now am, the woman you now know.”
Battle Star, yawning into the night, patted her back. “I want to know you. Please, tell me your story.”
And so, with her voice a melodic trill, and with her emotional powers sending out waves of calm and comfort, Angela told her story. She told of her upbringing as a child of mixed races. She told of her constant need to prove herself self-sufficient and independent. She told of her enrollment in the police force and her gruff nature and work to prove herself better than all the men. She told of losing her friend and lover to a deadly mass murderer, and how it haunted her afterwards. She told of her transformation in the mutate-machines into the creature of the night, Nocturne. She told of her years spent hiding from herself and drinking the pain of others. And she told of her recent rebirth into this new confident being she had become.
As she finished, Angela noticed that her emotions had changed. She was no longer radiating comfort and calm, instead she was just feeling. No drawing in of emotions, no letting out. Just being. Juts comfortable. She felt tears come into her eyes as she realized that this was the first time in several years when she had been content to just be.
Battle Star rubbed her back and held her close. “Thank you for sharing your story with me,” he whispered. “I’m glad to know you, Angela Cairn.”
“And I you, Lemar.”
Day 35
Samantha Parrington, Valkyrie, in her immortal warrior form, drew her blade and slashed it through the air at Battle Star, careful that only the flat of the blade would strike him, and she was pleased when he parried the blow with his shield. Before he could move at her with strength that nearly matched her own, Samantha pushed into his shield with all of her strength and upset his footing, knocking him to the ground.
Samantha then turned and felt a startling wave of fear wash over her. She immediately recognized this as Nocturne’s powers. Fighting off the fear and steeling herself, Samantha scanned the trees and skyline for her attacker, but couldn’t find her right off. Nocturne’s natural ability to hide in her surroundings would serve her well. But Samantha did see MAULER, swooping down at her with his boot jets, his electric shock weapons primed and ready to fire.
Shaking off the nauseating fear, Samantha propelled herself toward the lake, and she felt the fear leave her as she got out of range. She knew MAULER was flying up behind her, but she refused to turn to see him. As she got within fifty yards of the lake, she could see it through the trees, and she heard MAULER’s weapons crackle, ready to fire. A thrill of exhilaration ran through her as she jumped behind a tree just as the electric burst came forward, striking the ground where she had just been standing, setting several small plants on fire and causing the dirt to explode upward. Valkyrie came out from behind the tree and saw MAULER landing directly in front of her. Then she turned to see Nocturne gently landing on the ground behind her. From a third direction, Battle Star came rushing out of the trees.
All of them were smiling.
Valkyrie laughed out loud. “Thank you for the sparring match, my friends! It is good to be back!”
Brendan Doyle, MAULER, was thrilled that there were only a few days left in the game. He was tired of living in the woods. He knew it was for a good cause and he knew it was all toward the meeting of his goals, but he was sick of being hungry, cold, and tired. And even more, now he longed more than ever to be with his son, Daniel, full-time. Brendan knew he would have to be smart it this time. No kidnapping or running off, no jail time. He would have to become a legitimate registered hero and then he could start the court battle for his kid. His brilliant, beautiful boy. He’d do it right. He’d be the dad that Daniel deserved.
That two-and-a-half days he’d got to spend with Daniel had been the best Brendan had ever had. Playing with his kid during the day, flying over the woods, telling him stories, holding him at night. It had been incredible. And then to, with Daniel’s help, win the immunity challenge! Daniel would have quite a story to tell all the kids back at the foster home. It gave Brendan just the charge he needed to make it through the end of the game. The boost in energy he had to have.
The game. Brendan needed to stay focused on the game. He figured he had played pretty smart most of the way through. His strategy at the beginning of the game had been to ally with all of the outcasts of the tribe, and he figured that would be what would pull him through, a leader in his own alliance. But that had all fallen apart because most the men on his tribe had been stark-raving crazy! Then he had formed that alliance with Sandstorm, and that partial one with the doting Number Nine, but both of those had crumbled to ashes around him. He had only made it this far in the game, he figured, because he was just a little less unstable than everyone around him.
Brendan figured he could win the game against Valkyrie and Nocturne both, assuming he could get a few more immunities, and assuming he wasn’t voted out first. He would have the jury votes to win the game, he knew it. He just had to find a way to get rid of Battle Star. A way that wouldn’t make the rest of the tribe mad…
Day 36
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
At Jasper Sitwell’s instruction, the four remaining contestants took their places at various corners of a complex construction that was designed to test their balance, memory, efficiency, speed, and agility. Jasper instructed the contestants to work through the complex challenge as quickly as possible. He explained that they would have to rely on their own merits to get them farther in the game. After balancing on a series of beams and ropes, each contestant would have to work their way over a series of steep walls, using only a few small handholds to get across. Then they would be required to memorize a complicated series of numbers and letters, after which they would have to go back across the course and write them down. Each contestant could go back and forth across the course as many times as necessary, but the first to correctly replicate the code would win immunity and be guaranteed a spot in the final three.
When the contest began, Battle Star and Valkyrie broke out at a dead even on the balancing portion, but both had to start over multiple times, their large frames not conducive to balancing. Nocturne flitted over the balance portion and easily maneuvered over the steep walls, with MAULER not far behind her, she using her wings to support her and he using his armor’s hydraulics. When the duo reached the memorization pattern, MAULER used his suit’s systems to easily record the sequence. After returning to the beginning, he was able to replicate it easily while Nocturne struggled to write it down and the other two were only just reaching the pattern.
MAULER was given the immunity necklace again, blowing everyone’s minds.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
Valkyrie, Battle Star, MAULER, and Nocturne took their seats at tribal council and watched as Biohazard, Sandstorm, Steel Spider, Derwyddon, and Ion took their places on the jury bench, there to silently observe in preparation for the upcoming final vote. There was a bit of tension in the room as the jury reflected different emotions toward the surviving contestants. Anger, frustration, hope, annoyance. Jasper noted all of this as he began his questioning.
“Nocturne, there seems to be a shift in mood around camp the last few days. What do you attribute that to?”
“Jasper, there has indeed been a shift in mood. For those of us still in the game, we have learned more about ourselves and, I think, as a result, grown more comfortable in our own skins. When you add the visits from our family members earlier this week, I think I can speak for all of us when I say we have had a boost in confidence and self-assurance. We are all feeling better, and it is a wonderful thing.”
“Better than what? MAULER?”
“Well, better than the dark an’ depressing moods we’ve all been in of late. The rain went away and so did our poor attitudes, it seems.”
Jasper cleared his throat. “Valkyrie, do you find it more difficult to vote out your fellow contestants as you get farther into the game?”
“More difficult? No. As difficult, yes. But as Battle Star recently reminded us, it is less about the game itself and more about being a hero in the end. My vote tonight is simply towards who is the least deserving to be a hero.”
Jasper smiled. “Blunt as always. Let’s get to the voting.”
The first vote was for Valkyrie. This was from MAULER, who didn’t care who left at this point, and who made this decision based on whose departure might upset the jury the least.
The second vote was for Valkyrie. This was from Battle Star, who didn’t want Nocturne to leave yet and couldn’t vote for MAULER.
The third vote was for Nocturne. This was from Valkyrie, who found Nocturne least deserving of being a hero of the remaining contestants.
The fourth vote was for Valkyrie. This was from Nocturne, who was voting along with Battle Star.
Valkyrie laughed good-naturedly when the decision was read. She stood straight as Jasper extinguished her torch and turned to the others. “It’s about time you got rid of the biggest contestant in the game!” She walked away, laughing, leaving only three in the game.
And here we are, with only two votes, and three episodes, left! Thanks to those of you who have stuck around this far! The episodes get shorter (as I’m sure you’ve noticed) as the contestants get fewer, and all the final plans are in place to see this series wrapped up. Due to random selection, the contestant who has immunity, and a guaranteed spot in the final two is…. Battle Star. That means you can only vote out one of the other two contestants. This will be an interesting final two!!! Can’t hardly wait.
TEAM ROGERS:
Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins—immunity)
MAULER (Brendan Doyle)
Nocturne (Angela Cairn)
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Survivor: the Initiative episode 11
Survivor: the Initiative episode 11
Resolutions
Day 31
Jasper Sitwell instructed his five guests to sit behind the assembled partition while he attended to his business. And then he walked into the camp of Camp Rogers. What a mess! He’d been monitoring this place through the cameras, but it looked even worse in person. The pieces of their wooden shelter lay strewn about from where they had been crushed by Ion’s blow several days before. Instead of anyone trying to rebuild the shelter, they had just used pieces of it to burn, or to build small lean-tos. Jasper knew morale had been low, but this was ridiculous. Jasper clicked his tongue. He saw the various places around the camp where MAULER, Battle Star, and Valkyrie (er, Samantha; that little mess had to clear itself up soon) had been sleeping. Three separate little camps. Ion didn’t need to sleep, and Nocturne probably slept up in the trees or something.
It took a few minutes for one of the contestants to return to camp. It was MAULER. Jasper instructed him to find and gather the other four contestants, and in another fifteen minutes the five remaining contestants stood before him. Battle Star. MAULER. Ion. Valkyrie. Nocturne. This was it. The beginning to the penultimate challenge of the game. Three more tribal councils, then they would finally have a winner.
As Jasper addressed the five contestants, he noticed how weary they all looked. This game had been rough on them. On all of them.
“We’re going to do something we haven’t done before in our past Survivor competitions. We’ve brought one of your loved ones here to camp, and they will be living with you here at camp for the next two nights. On the third day, they will be competing with you in the new immunity challenge.”
Before any of them could react, Jasper signaled for the five family members to come in. He wondered what impact the presence of these individuals would have on their loved ones.
5 year old Daniel Doyle, his tiny frame in shorts and a Spongebob shirt, his red hair messy, walked out tentatively, looking around in surprise. When MAULER saw his son, he rushed forward and scooped him up with a whoop of joy. “Danny, m’lad!” They spun around a few times and Jasper couldn’t help but smile.
When the portly Venessa Johnson walked out, the married sister of Ion, she smoothed her blue silk dress over her ample stomach. Jasper smirked that she’d chosen to wear a dress here in the first place. Though he could not gauge emotional reactions from Ion’s emotionless face mask, Jasper saw Ion’s form draw back a bit, and then he saw the two sisters stand uncomfortably close together, their eyes on each other.
Battle Star stepped forward to hug his father, Andrew Hoskins, a strong black man with a full white beard. The two held each other for a long moment, and Jasper heard Andrew whispering to Battle Star how proud he was of him. When the two broke the hug, Jasper noticed a confidence in Battle Star’s jaw that hadn’t been there for the last several days.
Frail-looking Samantha Parrington melted into tears at the sight of her mother, Malicia Parrington looked ridiculous in a stylish safari outfit, her wrinkled face appraising her daughter with a long look. Malicia eventually put a hand on Samantha’s shoulder, and Samantha melted into her mom’s arm in a long hug.
Finally, Jasper’s gaze drifted to the elderly, yet strong, Alma Cairn, a diminutive Native American woman in her late 60s. She walked forward toward her daughter, Nocturne, without seeming to see her. Jasper watched as Nocturne flitted backward and seemed to consider running away, then turned to her grandmother instead and gave her a large hug.
Jasper walked away in silence. These contestants had plenty to worry about in the coming days, and much yet to learn about themselves.
Day 32
“Why on Earth did you come here?” Dr. Voletta Todd, Ion, looked at her sister Venessa, sitting there freezing next to the fire. “Why, after all these years, would you even want to talk to me?”
Venessa, rubbing her hands over her shoulders for warmth, snorted. “Voletta, you were always so self-righteous. The entire time we grew up, you thought you were better than me. I hated you for it, but I love you for being my sister. You could refuse to talk to me when you were in jail and refuse to contact the family when you weren’t, but this was my chance to finally talk to you. To see you face to… face.” Venessa stumbled over that last word, remembering that Voletta didn’t have a face.
“I avoided you for a reason!” Voletta felt her emotions swelling out of control once again.
Venessa, still shivering, snorted again. “For what? So your family couldn’t be reminded of how you left us after high school and refused to talk to us? So we couldn’t be reminded of how much you hated us for holding you back, for being the little country bumpkins who had embarrassed you?”
Voletta felt her annoyance spike sharply. “I was too much for that town! I had to get out!”
“And you couldn’t even come home for holidays? Call on birthdays? Even—“
“And what?” Voletta pushed away the frustration she felt at herself for reacting so emotionally. “Be pulled back into the trap of our upbringing? Squander my looks and intelligence in trade for canning peaches?”
Voletta was shocked when she saw a few tears seep out onto Venessa’s cheeks. “Voletta, what did leaving ever get you? You missed Dad’s death. You missed my wedding. And we—we never got to help you after your… accident.”
Voletta felt a mix of shame, regret, sadness, anger, and fear all at once. She resisted the urge to will her body suit forward and hug her sister. In a softer voice, she asked, “Venessa, why are you here? Why did you come here?”
Venessa looked up into Voletta’s eyes, or at least the holes in her mask. “I’m here because you are my sister and I love you.”
“You kept my earring. You took it, didn’t you? Even while you let me think you were dead all those years. You kept my earring.”
Angela Cairn, Nocturne, felt waves of compassion rolling off of her mother. Not anger, not bitterness. Just compassion, tinged with sadness. “Mother, I—I was a different being back then. I was in a sorry state. After I was transformed, all my determination, all the strength of character I had grown up with, it was gone. It was just swallowed up by my sadness at losing Jackie. I had nothing but pain at the time. And I literally didn’t know how to cope. Yes, I took the earring. I wanted a bit of connection to my old life.”
Alma smoothed a wisp of white hair over her ears and then returned to preparing the fish they’d caught over the fire. Alma didn’t look up. “You don’t seem so sad now. Your confidence, it has returned?”
Angela nodded, willing her wings to fold in behind her. “Yes. I had another transformation. You always taught me about the animal totems, mother. I was reborn in the images of creatures of the night, but those creatures seem to have found the moon shining light on the land below. My life, my path, seems more illuminated and less murky now.”
Alma set the fish aside and sat back. Angela had always been impressed at this lithe woman with her strong bones thick. Alma looked at her daughter, never flinching at her new appearance. “I have always loved you, my buffalo child. I have always raised you to embrace all of your heritages. And you have always been strong enough to forge your own path. I am proud of you, my daughter.”
Angela let the love wash out of her and into her mother. She opened her arms and embraced her mother, feeling the love wash right back into her.
Lemar Hoskins, Battle Star, had never much cared for his father. Lemar had always been a big kid. He was 6’6’’, taller than his dad’s 6’4’’. Lemar had been a bit wayward in his youth and his dad had been too strict and never around enough. And when Lemar had joined the United States Army, Andrew, instead of being pleased, had been upset that Lemar didn’t want to stay and simply take over the family business. His dad, the underachiever, who thought college was a waste of money and refused to see potential in anything.
All that had changed after Lemar had become a wrestler and, eventually, Battle Star. Andrew had suddenly started trying to contact Lemar again, to let him know how proud he was of him, how much he wanted to be a part of his life. Lemar had always suspected that that had more to do with Andrew’s divorce from Lemar’s mother than any actual desire to change. But at least he’d shown an interest.
“I’m proud of you, son.” Lemar looked over at his father, so small next to his 6’6’’ frame, and laughed. “I mean it. Don’t you laugh at that. Lots of boys want to hear their daddies say that.”
Lemar laughed again, and reached into the lake to wash his mask out with the water. Boy was he ready for a shower and a washing machine. “Dad, I’m glad you are proud, but you’ve told me that like 12 times today alone.”
“Well, making up for lost time, I suppose. I should have been more supportive of you all along. I always knew you would be a hero.”
Lemar wasn’t sure if his dad meant it, but he knew it felt darn good to hear it. And with that, he felt the last dregs of his depression drain away.
Day 33
“Samantha, darling, what is it? What’s wrong?”
When Samantha Parrington, Valkyrie, had awakened, she had tried hard not to stir so that her mother, Malicia, could sleep in longer. Malicia was in her early sixties and, despite being in good health, should not be in the Symkarian woods sleeping for three days. Since their shelter had been destroyed, and since Samantha had found herself unable to change into Valkyrie, Samantha had been sleeping in a small constructed lean-to by herself, wrapped in her meager clothing and large fronds. With her mother there sleeping by her, she had at least been warmer. But Samantha, in thinking about how she’d acted as a teenager toward her parents, in thinking about how her mother had come here to support her, had found herself in tears and her crying had awakened Malicia.
Wiping tears from her eyes, she explained to Malicia everything she had been feeling, and what her experience on the show had been like. How she’d been hiding out in the body of the immortal Valkyrie for months, and how she was now stuck as a human. Malicia listened attentively, uncharacteristically holding her daughter close to her and letting her cry it out.
“Samantha, sweetheart, your father and I have always made you the most important thing to us. Whatever you showed interest in, we’d spend money learning everything we could about it. Karate, ballet, democracy in the Soviet Union, helping the homeless, feminism. We didn’t do it to pry or to be terrible and annoying parents. We did it because we love you and want to be an active part of your life. And when you started embracing this side of your life, becoming the Valkyrie more and more, well, your father Reginald and I worried that we would lose you. We wished for you to find some way to balance your two lives. To be our little girl and the woman who saves the world all at once.”
As her mother spoke, Samantha felt the strength well up inside her again for the first time in days. She stood up abruptly, gripped the hilt of her sword, which had laid invisible at her waist, and pulled it free from its scabbard. And just like that she was transformed into the woman warrior once again. Samantha, feeling the strength of the Asgardian wash over her, threw back her head and laughed.
Using his cybernetic control over his suit, Brendan Doyle, MAULER, tilted his head downward slightly and moved his armor toward the ground. He’d taken his son on a flight over the Symkarian lake, and had delighted as his boy laughed and hooted for joy in his arms. Brendan had loved this blood of his blood and kin of his kin the first moment he’d laid eyes on him. He’d loved him before he’d even seen him. But he hadn’t known how to be a father back then. He’d tried to kidnap his own son, and only Spider-Man had helped him realize he wasn’t fit at the time to be a parent.
Brendan set his son down on the ground and little Daniel went running, punching his fist into the air. “That was so awesome!” Brendan pulled his helmet off and laughed at his son, running after him. This past three days with Daniel had been perhaps the best he had ever experienced.
“Oh yeah, ye think that was fun, wait’ll I toss ye in the water where the sharks can get ye!”
Daniel squealed and rushed off with Brendan right behind him. “Silly, there’s no sharks in a lake! It’s not salt water!” Amazed at how a five year old could know this, Brendan laughed and chased his son across the woods. When he was finished with his military training, nothing would stop him from keeping this little boy with him full time. His mom had been out of the picture for a long time now. No more foster care for Daniel. He would be with Brendan, and that was that. He’d win this whole game, get the fame, and raise his son to be the best man, the man Brendan never was.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
Jasper Sitwell brought the contestants and their loved ones into the arena and explained that each Survivor contestant would be blindfolded and would have to rely on the directions of their loved ones to get from one end of a maze to another. The five family members took their positions on pedestals above the maze, and the contestants were blindfolded, a special device being used to block Ion’s sight.
As the challenge commenced, Nocturne flitted about confused, overwhelmed by all the emotions and noise surrounding her. Battle Star and Valkyrie seemed to have a difficult time hearing the voices of their elderly parents. Ion was highly uncoordinated with her sight stunted. MAULER proved highly effective in the challenge as Daniel’s excited, soprano voice called out instructions to his dad, getting him through the maze in record time.
After Jasper placed the immunity necklace around MAULER’s neck, he instructed the others to say goodbye to their loved ones and meet him at tribal council.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
As the four members of the jury, Biohazard, Sandstorm, Derwyddon, and Steel Spider, entered to watch, Jasper turned toward the five contestants and began questioning them.
“Valkyrie, I can’t help but notice you have gotten control of your powers again! What happened and how are you feeling?”
Sounding like her old self, Valkyrie responded. “I’m feeling more myself than ever before. My mom’s visit just helped me put things in perspective, and I was able to overcome the emotional barrier that has been blocking me for the past several days.”
“For the past few days, the five of you have had the opportunity to have a loved one at camp with you. Nocturne, what was it like having your mother around with you? Did it change the game?”
Nocturne nodded, a small trill escaping her lips. “Yes. We’ve all been taking care of ourselves recently, and we were even less connected with our family members here. We simply spent the time with our own family and stayed away from each other. It was a welcome break, and incredibly healing for all of us, as I can tell by the emotions I am reading.”
Valkyrie interrupted. “Which reminds me, there is something I’ve been keeping from the group. The morning I woke up stuck in my human form, it was Ion who destroyed the shelter. She threw a small fit and smashed our shelter in upon itself. I thought we should all know.”
Jasper gave Ion a chance to respond, sensing the building tension within the group now. “I could lie and say it was Valkyrie, attempt to swing more votes to my side of things, but I can’t lie. That would be dishonorable. Yes, it was me. I apologize to each of you, and I’m very sorry that I haven’t worked to rebuild the shelter.”
After hearing the various reactions to this, and questioning MAULER, Battle Star, and Ion about their family visits, Jasper moved directly into the voting.
The first vote was for Ion. This was from Battle Star, who was furious about the shelter’s destruction.
The second vote was for Valkyrie. This was from Ion, who was annoyed that she’d been exposed in tribal council.
The third vote was for Ion. This was from MAULER, who wasn’t all that angry, but could tell which way the votes would go.
The fourth vote was for Ion. This was from Nocturne, who disliked the angry bitterness radiating off of Ion.
The fifth vote was for Ion. This was from Valkyrie, who had no use for her former ally any longer.
Jasper extinguished Ion’s torch and she turned, with the head of her containment suit held high, and floated out of the area. Jasper reminded them that only two tribal councils remained.
Thank you for your patience in getting this episode out! The last two episodes (almost done!!!) will be broadcast on Mondays, as my schedule and commitments have shifted a bit lately. Voting will close on Saturday night, and votes can be Emailed to me at hellochadman@yahoo.com, sent on facebook, or posted here. Thanks to those who have stuck their way through this series!
For the purpose of this episode, I created the characters of Andrew Hoskins and Venessa Johnson, and I provided a name for Nocturne’s mother. The character Daniel Doyle (though seen only as a baby) and the character Malicia Parrington already existed.
In our next episode, due to random selection, MAULER gets immunity again (that’ll make a few of you happy). I always use a random number generator online to determine immunity; Megan can verify! Somehow we ended up with two boys and two girls at the end.
TEAM ROGERS:
Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins)
MAULER (Brendan Doyle—immunity)
Nocturne (Angela Cairn)
Valkyrie (Samantha Parrington)
Resolutions
Day 31
Jasper Sitwell instructed his five guests to sit behind the assembled partition while he attended to his business. And then he walked into the camp of Camp Rogers. What a mess! He’d been monitoring this place through the cameras, but it looked even worse in person. The pieces of their wooden shelter lay strewn about from where they had been crushed by Ion’s blow several days before. Instead of anyone trying to rebuild the shelter, they had just used pieces of it to burn, or to build small lean-tos. Jasper knew morale had been low, but this was ridiculous. Jasper clicked his tongue. He saw the various places around the camp where MAULER, Battle Star, and Valkyrie (er, Samantha; that little mess had to clear itself up soon) had been sleeping. Three separate little camps. Ion didn’t need to sleep, and Nocturne probably slept up in the trees or something.
It took a few minutes for one of the contestants to return to camp. It was MAULER. Jasper instructed him to find and gather the other four contestants, and in another fifteen minutes the five remaining contestants stood before him. Battle Star. MAULER. Ion. Valkyrie. Nocturne. This was it. The beginning to the penultimate challenge of the game. Three more tribal councils, then they would finally have a winner.
As Jasper addressed the five contestants, he noticed how weary they all looked. This game had been rough on them. On all of them.
“We’re going to do something we haven’t done before in our past Survivor competitions. We’ve brought one of your loved ones here to camp, and they will be living with you here at camp for the next two nights. On the third day, they will be competing with you in the new immunity challenge.”
Before any of them could react, Jasper signaled for the five family members to come in. He wondered what impact the presence of these individuals would have on their loved ones.
5 year old Daniel Doyle, his tiny frame in shorts and a Spongebob shirt, his red hair messy, walked out tentatively, looking around in surprise. When MAULER saw his son, he rushed forward and scooped him up with a whoop of joy. “Danny, m’lad!” They spun around a few times and Jasper couldn’t help but smile.
When the portly Venessa Johnson walked out, the married sister of Ion, she smoothed her blue silk dress over her ample stomach. Jasper smirked that she’d chosen to wear a dress here in the first place. Though he could not gauge emotional reactions from Ion’s emotionless face mask, Jasper saw Ion’s form draw back a bit, and then he saw the two sisters stand uncomfortably close together, their eyes on each other.
Battle Star stepped forward to hug his father, Andrew Hoskins, a strong black man with a full white beard. The two held each other for a long moment, and Jasper heard Andrew whispering to Battle Star how proud he was of him. When the two broke the hug, Jasper noticed a confidence in Battle Star’s jaw that hadn’t been there for the last several days.
Frail-looking Samantha Parrington melted into tears at the sight of her mother, Malicia Parrington looked ridiculous in a stylish safari outfit, her wrinkled face appraising her daughter with a long look. Malicia eventually put a hand on Samantha’s shoulder, and Samantha melted into her mom’s arm in a long hug.
Finally, Jasper’s gaze drifted to the elderly, yet strong, Alma Cairn, a diminutive Native American woman in her late 60s. She walked forward toward her daughter, Nocturne, without seeming to see her. Jasper watched as Nocturne flitted backward and seemed to consider running away, then turned to her grandmother instead and gave her a large hug.
Jasper walked away in silence. These contestants had plenty to worry about in the coming days, and much yet to learn about themselves.
Day 32
“Why on Earth did you come here?” Dr. Voletta Todd, Ion, looked at her sister Venessa, sitting there freezing next to the fire. “Why, after all these years, would you even want to talk to me?”
Venessa, rubbing her hands over her shoulders for warmth, snorted. “Voletta, you were always so self-righteous. The entire time we grew up, you thought you were better than me. I hated you for it, but I love you for being my sister. You could refuse to talk to me when you were in jail and refuse to contact the family when you weren’t, but this was my chance to finally talk to you. To see you face to… face.” Venessa stumbled over that last word, remembering that Voletta didn’t have a face.
“I avoided you for a reason!” Voletta felt her emotions swelling out of control once again.
Venessa, still shivering, snorted again. “For what? So your family couldn’t be reminded of how you left us after high school and refused to talk to us? So we couldn’t be reminded of how much you hated us for holding you back, for being the little country bumpkins who had embarrassed you?”
Voletta felt her annoyance spike sharply. “I was too much for that town! I had to get out!”
“And you couldn’t even come home for holidays? Call on birthdays? Even—“
“And what?” Voletta pushed away the frustration she felt at herself for reacting so emotionally. “Be pulled back into the trap of our upbringing? Squander my looks and intelligence in trade for canning peaches?”
Voletta was shocked when she saw a few tears seep out onto Venessa’s cheeks. “Voletta, what did leaving ever get you? You missed Dad’s death. You missed my wedding. And we—we never got to help you after your… accident.”
Voletta felt a mix of shame, regret, sadness, anger, and fear all at once. She resisted the urge to will her body suit forward and hug her sister. In a softer voice, she asked, “Venessa, why are you here? Why did you come here?”
Venessa looked up into Voletta’s eyes, or at least the holes in her mask. “I’m here because you are my sister and I love you.”
“You kept my earring. You took it, didn’t you? Even while you let me think you were dead all those years. You kept my earring.”
Angela Cairn, Nocturne, felt waves of compassion rolling off of her mother. Not anger, not bitterness. Just compassion, tinged with sadness. “Mother, I—I was a different being back then. I was in a sorry state. After I was transformed, all my determination, all the strength of character I had grown up with, it was gone. It was just swallowed up by my sadness at losing Jackie. I had nothing but pain at the time. And I literally didn’t know how to cope. Yes, I took the earring. I wanted a bit of connection to my old life.”
Alma smoothed a wisp of white hair over her ears and then returned to preparing the fish they’d caught over the fire. Alma didn’t look up. “You don’t seem so sad now. Your confidence, it has returned?”
Angela nodded, willing her wings to fold in behind her. “Yes. I had another transformation. You always taught me about the animal totems, mother. I was reborn in the images of creatures of the night, but those creatures seem to have found the moon shining light on the land below. My life, my path, seems more illuminated and less murky now.”
Alma set the fish aside and sat back. Angela had always been impressed at this lithe woman with her strong bones thick. Alma looked at her daughter, never flinching at her new appearance. “I have always loved you, my buffalo child. I have always raised you to embrace all of your heritages. And you have always been strong enough to forge your own path. I am proud of you, my daughter.”
Angela let the love wash out of her and into her mother. She opened her arms and embraced her mother, feeling the love wash right back into her.
Lemar Hoskins, Battle Star, had never much cared for his father. Lemar had always been a big kid. He was 6’6’’, taller than his dad’s 6’4’’. Lemar had been a bit wayward in his youth and his dad had been too strict and never around enough. And when Lemar had joined the United States Army, Andrew, instead of being pleased, had been upset that Lemar didn’t want to stay and simply take over the family business. His dad, the underachiever, who thought college was a waste of money and refused to see potential in anything.
All that had changed after Lemar had become a wrestler and, eventually, Battle Star. Andrew had suddenly started trying to contact Lemar again, to let him know how proud he was of him, how much he wanted to be a part of his life. Lemar had always suspected that that had more to do with Andrew’s divorce from Lemar’s mother than any actual desire to change. But at least he’d shown an interest.
“I’m proud of you, son.” Lemar looked over at his father, so small next to his 6’6’’ frame, and laughed. “I mean it. Don’t you laugh at that. Lots of boys want to hear their daddies say that.”
Lemar laughed again, and reached into the lake to wash his mask out with the water. Boy was he ready for a shower and a washing machine. “Dad, I’m glad you are proud, but you’ve told me that like 12 times today alone.”
“Well, making up for lost time, I suppose. I should have been more supportive of you all along. I always knew you would be a hero.”
Lemar wasn’t sure if his dad meant it, but he knew it felt darn good to hear it. And with that, he felt the last dregs of his depression drain away.
Day 33
“Samantha, darling, what is it? What’s wrong?”
When Samantha Parrington, Valkyrie, had awakened, she had tried hard not to stir so that her mother, Malicia, could sleep in longer. Malicia was in her early sixties and, despite being in good health, should not be in the Symkarian woods sleeping for three days. Since their shelter had been destroyed, and since Samantha had found herself unable to change into Valkyrie, Samantha had been sleeping in a small constructed lean-to by herself, wrapped in her meager clothing and large fronds. With her mother there sleeping by her, she had at least been warmer. But Samantha, in thinking about how she’d acted as a teenager toward her parents, in thinking about how her mother had come here to support her, had found herself in tears and her crying had awakened Malicia.
Wiping tears from her eyes, she explained to Malicia everything she had been feeling, and what her experience on the show had been like. How she’d been hiding out in the body of the immortal Valkyrie for months, and how she was now stuck as a human. Malicia listened attentively, uncharacteristically holding her daughter close to her and letting her cry it out.
“Samantha, sweetheart, your father and I have always made you the most important thing to us. Whatever you showed interest in, we’d spend money learning everything we could about it. Karate, ballet, democracy in the Soviet Union, helping the homeless, feminism. We didn’t do it to pry or to be terrible and annoying parents. We did it because we love you and want to be an active part of your life. And when you started embracing this side of your life, becoming the Valkyrie more and more, well, your father Reginald and I worried that we would lose you. We wished for you to find some way to balance your two lives. To be our little girl and the woman who saves the world all at once.”
As her mother spoke, Samantha felt the strength well up inside her again for the first time in days. She stood up abruptly, gripped the hilt of her sword, which had laid invisible at her waist, and pulled it free from its scabbard. And just like that she was transformed into the woman warrior once again. Samantha, feeling the strength of the Asgardian wash over her, threw back her head and laughed.
Using his cybernetic control over his suit, Brendan Doyle, MAULER, tilted his head downward slightly and moved his armor toward the ground. He’d taken his son on a flight over the Symkarian lake, and had delighted as his boy laughed and hooted for joy in his arms. Brendan had loved this blood of his blood and kin of his kin the first moment he’d laid eyes on him. He’d loved him before he’d even seen him. But he hadn’t known how to be a father back then. He’d tried to kidnap his own son, and only Spider-Man had helped him realize he wasn’t fit at the time to be a parent.
Brendan set his son down on the ground and little Daniel went running, punching his fist into the air. “That was so awesome!” Brendan pulled his helmet off and laughed at his son, running after him. This past three days with Daniel had been perhaps the best he had ever experienced.
“Oh yeah, ye think that was fun, wait’ll I toss ye in the water where the sharks can get ye!”
Daniel squealed and rushed off with Brendan right behind him. “Silly, there’s no sharks in a lake! It’s not salt water!” Amazed at how a five year old could know this, Brendan laughed and chased his son across the woods. When he was finished with his military training, nothing would stop him from keeping this little boy with him full time. His mom had been out of the picture for a long time now. No more foster care for Daniel. He would be with Brendan, and that was that. He’d win this whole game, get the fame, and raise his son to be the best man, the man Brendan never was.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
Jasper Sitwell brought the contestants and their loved ones into the arena and explained that each Survivor contestant would be blindfolded and would have to rely on the directions of their loved ones to get from one end of a maze to another. The five family members took their positions on pedestals above the maze, and the contestants were blindfolded, a special device being used to block Ion’s sight.
As the challenge commenced, Nocturne flitted about confused, overwhelmed by all the emotions and noise surrounding her. Battle Star and Valkyrie seemed to have a difficult time hearing the voices of their elderly parents. Ion was highly uncoordinated with her sight stunted. MAULER proved highly effective in the challenge as Daniel’s excited, soprano voice called out instructions to his dad, getting him through the maze in record time.
After Jasper placed the immunity necklace around MAULER’s neck, he instructed the others to say goodbye to their loved ones and meet him at tribal council.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
As the four members of the jury, Biohazard, Sandstorm, Derwyddon, and Steel Spider, entered to watch, Jasper turned toward the five contestants and began questioning them.
“Valkyrie, I can’t help but notice you have gotten control of your powers again! What happened and how are you feeling?”
Sounding like her old self, Valkyrie responded. “I’m feeling more myself than ever before. My mom’s visit just helped me put things in perspective, and I was able to overcome the emotional barrier that has been blocking me for the past several days.”
“For the past few days, the five of you have had the opportunity to have a loved one at camp with you. Nocturne, what was it like having your mother around with you? Did it change the game?”
Nocturne nodded, a small trill escaping her lips. “Yes. We’ve all been taking care of ourselves recently, and we were even less connected with our family members here. We simply spent the time with our own family and stayed away from each other. It was a welcome break, and incredibly healing for all of us, as I can tell by the emotions I am reading.”
Valkyrie interrupted. “Which reminds me, there is something I’ve been keeping from the group. The morning I woke up stuck in my human form, it was Ion who destroyed the shelter. She threw a small fit and smashed our shelter in upon itself. I thought we should all know.”
Jasper gave Ion a chance to respond, sensing the building tension within the group now. “I could lie and say it was Valkyrie, attempt to swing more votes to my side of things, but I can’t lie. That would be dishonorable. Yes, it was me. I apologize to each of you, and I’m very sorry that I haven’t worked to rebuild the shelter.”
After hearing the various reactions to this, and questioning MAULER, Battle Star, and Ion about their family visits, Jasper moved directly into the voting.
The first vote was for Ion. This was from Battle Star, who was furious about the shelter’s destruction.
The second vote was for Valkyrie. This was from Ion, who was annoyed that she’d been exposed in tribal council.
The third vote was for Ion. This was from MAULER, who wasn’t all that angry, but could tell which way the votes would go.
The fourth vote was for Ion. This was from Nocturne, who disliked the angry bitterness radiating off of Ion.
The fifth vote was for Ion. This was from Valkyrie, who had no use for her former ally any longer.
Jasper extinguished Ion’s torch and she turned, with the head of her containment suit held high, and floated out of the area. Jasper reminded them that only two tribal councils remained.
Thank you for your patience in getting this episode out! The last two episodes (almost done!!!) will be broadcast on Mondays, as my schedule and commitments have shifted a bit lately. Voting will close on Saturday night, and votes can be Emailed to me at hellochadman@yahoo.com, sent on facebook, or posted here. Thanks to those who have stuck their way through this series!
For the purpose of this episode, I created the characters of Andrew Hoskins and Venessa Johnson, and I provided a name for Nocturne’s mother. The character Daniel Doyle (though seen only as a baby) and the character Malicia Parrington already existed.
In our next episode, due to random selection, MAULER gets immunity again (that’ll make a few of you happy). I always use a random number generator online to determine immunity; Megan can verify! Somehow we ended up with two boys and two girls at the end.
TEAM ROGERS:
Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins)
MAULER (Brendan Doyle—immunity)
Nocturne (Angela Cairn)
Valkyrie (Samantha Parrington)
Friday, January 1, 2010
Survivor: the Initiative episode 10
Writer's note: In the last episode of Survivor: the Initiative, Battle Star won immunity, then subsequently received two votes in tribal council, from Derwyddon and Sandstorm. This was a simple mistake on the writer's part. Please trade those votes from Battle Star to Valkyrie, following the same motivations, and everything is all better. We can now start fresh with episode 10! :D
Survivor: the Initiative Episode 10
Everything old is new again
Day 28
Samantha Parrington, who, until recently, had been known as Valkyrie (before she'd been trapped in her mortal form as she had been for the past three days), looked around the decimated camp. The shelter had been smashed by Ion three days before, and Samantha hadn't told anyone who'd done it. And since then, no one had done anything to fix the shelter. It'd been raining too much, for one thing, but no one really seemed to care. But Samantha knew it was still eleven days until the end of the game, and she, for one, was sick of sleeping in the open. But she couldn't well fix the shelter herself. She sighed in frustration and kicked at one of the loose boards that had previously made up their shelter.
Samantha smoothed her hands over her hips. In this form, she was over a foot shorter, and over three hundred pounds lighter, than in her Valkyrie form. Valkyrie wasn't fat, just... robust. She reflected back to her earlier days. One thing this competition was doing was making her learn more about herself. When she'd been a young woman in her twenties, she'd been focused, primarily, upon defying her parents in whatever ways she could. She'd needed so badly to assert her independence from them, doing things just to spite them. Her parents had thrown a party for the Hulk, of all people, in a bizarre effort to win public favor, and Samantha had been transformed by the Enchantress into the Valkyrie, and had fought the Hulk. What did that say about her? From a young woman seeking her own voice to an immortal warrior woman battling the strongest man on the planet, all in a matter of minutes. She still didn't know quite what that said about her. But she thought she needed to figure it out if she was ever going to master her transformations and truly be a hero, something she really wanted now.
As she walked down the path to the small lake near their camp, Samantha reflected upon the resolve she'd found within herself in the past few days. She was no longer crying, that was a relief. Now she just had to keep that resolve through the coming challenges. She would figure this out. She would.
"An' what's a pretty lassie like ye doin' walkin' by yuirself?" Samantha turned to see MAULER, stripped to his boxers with his beard unkempt and down to his chest, walking up behind her with a broad smile on his face. "Surely ye'll be wantin' some company on yuir walk."
Samantha sighed again. "Mr. Doyle, you are welcome to walk with me, but please keep your annoying flirtations to yourself. I didn't notice you flirting with me when I was Valkyrie."
MAULER laughed loudly. "Well, ye weren't nearly as... approachable in that form, were ye?"
Samantha couldn't help but laugh back. "I guess not. But I'm still the same person. And I'm not interested."
MAULER laughed. "Don't let me bravado throw ye off. I'm here for game reasons only. I know better than tae get involved with the woman who could kill me quick."
"What game reasons?"
"I'm thinkin' we're both bein' in need of new alliances now."
"So you were lying to me the whole time."
"There's a big difference between lying to someone and not telling the whole truth."
Lemar Hoskins, Battle Star, grunted at Sandstorm's response and tossed another rock in the water. "You never told me you weren't black, even when I assumed you were black. You never told me you'd killed people. Lying is still lying if you leave the truth out."
Sandstorm rolled his eyes and shifted positions. "Kay, so I lied. I got bigger things to worry about. Kinda going through an identity crisis here."
"Join the club. What do you want, Tony?"
Lemar waited for several moments for Sandstorm to answer. "Our alliance, does it still stand? Cause despite my lies, I still really want to win this game."
And Lemar then told his first lie of the game. "Yeah. Sure, kid. Our alliance is still on."
After Sandstorm left, Lemar sat at the lakeshore for another two hours by himself. He saw Valkyrie, or Samantha as she now asked to be called, come and go. No Ion or Nocturne, but they'd been pretty scarce anyway, even after Nocturne had kissed him. He just sat there. And found that he didn't care about this game at all anymore. Not the challenges, not the vote. He'd won immunity the day before on reflex. He didn't like the competition, he didn't like his opponents. Heck, at this point he didn't like himself. He knew he needed to make a choice. He either needed to drop out, or to be in it to win it. But for now he didn't want to choose. He just didn't have it in him.
"Laddie, ye are seemin' more an' more down an' out. Ye need tae snap out of it." MAULER, in his boxer shorts, sat down next to Lemar.
"Brendan, I kinda want to be alone right now."
MAULER smiled that over-confident smile of his. "Laddie, just ye listen. I know when tae cut my losses. I think it's time for a new alliance for the two of us."
DAY 29
Voletta Todd, Ion, floated high in the sky, where she'd spent much of the past few days. She was furious with herself for losing her temper and destroying the shelter, and even more disgusted with her teammates, especially Valkyrie, for scorning their own humanity. She no longer cared to try heroism. She no longer cared to try getting her human form back. She no longer cared about scientific pursuits, or anything else that had ever given her meaning. She simply had lost her will. She now wanted nothing more than to cease existing altogether, and she knew of no way to end the existence of a being composed of ionic energy. She cursed her very existence, her very sentience, and allowed the breeze to carry her further out over the woods.
Voletta cursed to herself when she saw Nocturne flying past. Then she cursed again. How had Nocturne found her here, when she just wanted to be left alone? Voletta had shrunk her energy field to the size of a mite of dust. But Nocturne, she must have used her emotion-sensing ability to find Voletta, who was clearly giving off a strong sense of emotions at this point.
Nocturne slowed. She couldn't quite see Voletta, who was practically invisible, but she somehow knew where she was. Voletta wasn't so obtuse that she hadn't noticed the change in Nocturne, who had come across so much more confident in the past few days. Voletta didn't know what had changed, and she didn't care.
Nocturne spoke then. She spoke! Voletta had rarely heard her utter even a word. Even a sound. "Ion? It's me, Angela. I've been looking for you the better part of the day. Such... pain I sense from you. I wanted to offer to help you as you once offered friendship to me."
Unable to hide, Voletta willed herself back to "human" size. The amount of space a human would take up, though she was a weightless mass of energy. "What do you want, Nocturne?"
Nocturne's voice trilled slightly. "I... I wanted to offer to help. I am willing to take your pain from you. I can store pain now. It doesn't hurt me any longer."
Voletta's voice shook despite herself. "You want to... to take my pain. Why?"
Nocturne answered with an unexpected confidence. "Because I can."
Ion felt a stirring of strong emotions from within her. Again, emotions she wasn't prepared to confront, emotions she didn't know she had. "No! How dare you!" Voletta tried to cool the anger in her voice. She calmed herself. "Listen, I understand that you are trying to help. But you must try to realize that my mind, my personality, and my... emotional reactions. They are all I have left. They are the only humanity I yet possess. Please, leave, and let me brood in peace."
Nocturne trilled again. "Yes. But please understand, the rest of us, we don't know what it is like to be you. And we have emotions as well. Your unique state of being doesn't stop others from having difficult experiences."
As Nocturne flew away, Voletta thought that if she had the ability, she might cry.
"I like you, Lemar Hoskins. I like your confidence, and I enjoy the goodness that is in your soul." Angela Cairn, Nocturne, approached Battle Star with her new self. She wasn't yet sure how to react to the new being that sat before her. He was so empty inside, so despairing. It was a startling change from the being she had come across before. She laid her head by his shoulder as he sat by the lake, and ignored the smell of his unwashed body. She willed her hair, which she could control as she could her arms, legs, and wings, and stroked his back with it.
"Wait a minute, lady." He expressed protest, but didn't react with any movement in his body and no change in his emotional reaction. "You come on to me all strong. You kiss me, cuddle up next to me. Then you up and disappear from camp for several days. What do you want from me?"
Angela thought of the best way to answer. "Friendship."
"Friendship."
"Friendship."
"Yes. I find myself in need of friends."
Battle Star huffed. "Not a late game alliance."
Angela lifted her head and gave him a confused stare. "No. I've cared little for this game since the beginning. I just need friends. Before my transformation, I was a competitive, rational mind. I feel my old self returning more prominently now."
Battle Star smiled, and Angela felt a tinge of mirth from him. "Well, you sure talk a lot more now."
Angela leaned in on his shoulder and was content to sit in silence for a time.
DAY 30
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
When the six remaining contestants arrived at the immunity challenge, a few miles from their usual camps, they were surprised to see an ornate pavilion in front of them. And when they entered, they were even more shocked to see thousands of Symkarians in the stands cheering for them. It had varying reactions on the contestants, seeing fans cheering their names. Fans! Cheering! The dirty, disheveled would-be heroes stood in shock, surprise, excitement, and embarrassment, all at varying levels. When Jasper introduced the gorgeous Silver Sable, head of the mercenary elite of Symkaria, the Wild Pack, the men in the stadium stood a little straighter and sucked in their stomachs. Silver Sable, dressed in gorgeous silver leather, nodded at the contestants, then announced to them, and the crowd, that the contestants would be facing off in a duel against hand-selected members of her Wild Pack.
When Silver Sable gestured at a side gate, the six selected mercenaries rushed into the stadium, looking powerful, regal, and heroic. She announced that some of them were on loan to her for this specific competition. Windshear flew above the stadium, using hard air constructs to walk down from the top to the base, to the cheers of the crowd. Pulsar flew through the crowd, changing her light sources to various colors and dazzling the room. On the other side of the stadium, Lightbright cascaded over the crowd, spreading warmth and light over the audience, who applauded at the good feelings they were left with. On the ground, Sabra entered the room with multiple cartwheels and acrobatics, showing her strength and agility. Fin charged in, his giant green fin standing off his body as he charged through a brick wall that had been set up for that purpose. And lastly, Vibraxas used his vibratory powers, with tight control, to shake a section of the stadium, knocking some of the audience members out of their seats as they laughed.
Jasper explained that the contestants on both sides would be equipped with a piece of battle armor they would be required to adhere to their abdomens (Ion and Pulsar would be equipped with special ones that would adhere to their energy forms). They would then spar with each other. Once a contestant's armor was struck three times, they would be out of the challenge. The contestant to last the longest, or to defeat their opponent the fastest, would win immunity, and the challenge would showcase their skills in battle. Sandstorm versus Vibraxas. Battle Star versus Fin. Ion versus Pulsar. Nocturne versus Lightbright. Valkyrie versus Sabra. MAULER versus Windshear.
With the crowd cheering, the six contestants lined up against their opponents in the Wild Pack and prepared to engage in the challenge. Jasper and Silver Sable announced go, and the 12 opponents leaped into action. On the ground, Valkyrie, still in her human form, drew her blade, but Sabra delivered three quick blows to the armor shell and Valkyrie was the first disqualified. Nocturne and Lightbright flew across the stadium, pulsing each other with waves of emotion, and Nocturne successfully evaded Lightbright's blasts of heat and light with her wide wings; they couldn't seem to lay a hand on each other. Feeling free to use his offensive weaponry against the armored Windshear for the first time in the competition, MAULER used his laser and blaze cannons in his aerial battle, but found it difficult to get past the hard air shields in the air. They danced and flew at each other through the air, and MAULER received the first blow to his armor within three minutes of the battle. Battle Star and Fin quickly got into a brutish struggle of super strength, each holding the other's arms back, their foreheads touching as they strained, unmoving, across the field. In a shocking turn of events, Sandstorm, who surrounded himself with a powerful shell of grit armor, was blasted apart into sandy particles with a vibratory blast from Vibraxas, who quickly zapped the battle armor three times and disqualified Sandstorm. The most bizarre battle, however, turned out to be Ion and Pulsar, who zapped each other with waves of energy, neither doing any harm to the other.
After fifteen minutes on the field, Battle Star and MAULER had been eliminated as well. After several more minutes, Pulsar found a frequency that allowed her to contain Ion in, and she quickly defeated her opponent. Nocturne, who had been evading Lightbright successfully for several minutes, was declared the winner as she'd lasted the longest on the field.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
After welcoming in the three members of the jury, Biohazard, Steel Spider, and Derwyddon, Jasper sat down the six remaining members of the game. He felt waves of confidence-inspiring emotions washing off of Nocturne, who sat with a grin on her face and the immunity idol around her neck. Jasper smiled at the remaining players in the game, wondering who would end up winning.
"Today you got your taste of combat. When you become heroes for the Initiative, you will be pitted against foes in the defense of your country, you will train against others. Today, you were pitted against someone whose powers were meant to counter yours, and some of you fared very well. Don't worry, as you'll have much more training before you are deployed. Sandstorm, what did that combat feel like today? Did you enjoy it?"
Sandstorm shrugged. "I didn't not enjoy it. I didn't know what to expect, and that Vibraxas guy kicked my butt much faster than I would have expected. I guess it is good to learn lessons like that."
"Valkyrie, did seeing any of your competitors in battle change your thinking about the game at all?"
"No, not at all. I have gotten to know these folks pretty well. I am embarrassed to not have my own powers under control still, and to have been the first one out, but I know these five are all worthy competitors."
"Nocturne, with immunity, you are guaranteed a spot in our final five. How will you be basing your vote this evening, knowing you are safe?"
"I am glad to be safe. I have found newfound desires in me to win this game, and I am glad to be sure of a few more days. Alliances are fractured among us. Tonight's vote will be with what I hope is the majority."
Jasper then commenced with the voting.
The first vote was for Sandstorm. This was from Battle Star, who no longer trusted his one-time ally.
The second vote was for Sandstorm. This was from Ion, who was clued in to this vote by Nocturne.
The third vote was for Sandstorm. This was from MAULER, who needed to distance himself from his former ally.
The fourth vote was for Sandstorm. This was from Nocturne, who was voting along with Battle Star.
The fifth vote was for Valkyrie. This was from Sandstorm, who, sensing his own defeat, cast one last vote at an opponent.
The sixth vote was for Sandstorm. This was from Valkyrie, who was voting along with Battle Star.
As Jasper extinguished his torch, Sandstorm looked toward the group and stoically said, "I still have a lot to learn about myself. I apologize for my deviousness up until now." And then he walked off to join the jury.
Thank you for participating in this, our tenth episode. Only a few left to go, and somehow we have more women than men left! I apologize for the delays over the holidays. Illnesses and travel stopped me from getting things done sooner. We should be back on schedule now until the big finish. Bit stuff planned for all five characters!
Next episode, which should be back up on Thursday (regular time; voting won't close til Wednesday night), due to random selection, MAULER gets immunity. That means you can vote for any of the other four. See you then!
TEAM ROGERS:
Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins)
Ion (Voletta Todd)
MAULER (Brendan Doyle--immunity)
Nocturne (Angela Cairn)
Valkyrie (Samantha Parrington)
Survivor: the Initiative Episode 10
Everything old is new again
Day 28
Samantha Parrington, who, until recently, had been known as Valkyrie (before she'd been trapped in her mortal form as she had been for the past three days), looked around the decimated camp. The shelter had been smashed by Ion three days before, and Samantha hadn't told anyone who'd done it. And since then, no one had done anything to fix the shelter. It'd been raining too much, for one thing, but no one really seemed to care. But Samantha knew it was still eleven days until the end of the game, and she, for one, was sick of sleeping in the open. But she couldn't well fix the shelter herself. She sighed in frustration and kicked at one of the loose boards that had previously made up their shelter.
Samantha smoothed her hands over her hips. In this form, she was over a foot shorter, and over three hundred pounds lighter, than in her Valkyrie form. Valkyrie wasn't fat, just... robust. She reflected back to her earlier days. One thing this competition was doing was making her learn more about herself. When she'd been a young woman in her twenties, she'd been focused, primarily, upon defying her parents in whatever ways she could. She'd needed so badly to assert her independence from them, doing things just to spite them. Her parents had thrown a party for the Hulk, of all people, in a bizarre effort to win public favor, and Samantha had been transformed by the Enchantress into the Valkyrie, and had fought the Hulk. What did that say about her? From a young woman seeking her own voice to an immortal warrior woman battling the strongest man on the planet, all in a matter of minutes. She still didn't know quite what that said about her. But she thought she needed to figure it out if she was ever going to master her transformations and truly be a hero, something she really wanted now.
As she walked down the path to the small lake near their camp, Samantha reflected upon the resolve she'd found within herself in the past few days. She was no longer crying, that was a relief. Now she just had to keep that resolve through the coming challenges. She would figure this out. She would.
"An' what's a pretty lassie like ye doin' walkin' by yuirself?" Samantha turned to see MAULER, stripped to his boxers with his beard unkempt and down to his chest, walking up behind her with a broad smile on his face. "Surely ye'll be wantin' some company on yuir walk."
Samantha sighed again. "Mr. Doyle, you are welcome to walk with me, but please keep your annoying flirtations to yourself. I didn't notice you flirting with me when I was Valkyrie."
MAULER laughed loudly. "Well, ye weren't nearly as... approachable in that form, were ye?"
Samantha couldn't help but laugh back. "I guess not. But I'm still the same person. And I'm not interested."
MAULER laughed. "Don't let me bravado throw ye off. I'm here for game reasons only. I know better than tae get involved with the woman who could kill me quick."
"What game reasons?"
"I'm thinkin' we're both bein' in need of new alliances now."
"So you were lying to me the whole time."
"There's a big difference between lying to someone and not telling the whole truth."
Lemar Hoskins, Battle Star, grunted at Sandstorm's response and tossed another rock in the water. "You never told me you weren't black, even when I assumed you were black. You never told me you'd killed people. Lying is still lying if you leave the truth out."
Sandstorm rolled his eyes and shifted positions. "Kay, so I lied. I got bigger things to worry about. Kinda going through an identity crisis here."
"Join the club. What do you want, Tony?"
Lemar waited for several moments for Sandstorm to answer. "Our alliance, does it still stand? Cause despite my lies, I still really want to win this game."
And Lemar then told his first lie of the game. "Yeah. Sure, kid. Our alliance is still on."
After Sandstorm left, Lemar sat at the lakeshore for another two hours by himself. He saw Valkyrie, or Samantha as she now asked to be called, come and go. No Ion or Nocturne, but they'd been pretty scarce anyway, even after Nocturne had kissed him. He just sat there. And found that he didn't care about this game at all anymore. Not the challenges, not the vote. He'd won immunity the day before on reflex. He didn't like the competition, he didn't like his opponents. Heck, at this point he didn't like himself. He knew he needed to make a choice. He either needed to drop out, or to be in it to win it. But for now he didn't want to choose. He just didn't have it in him.
"Laddie, ye are seemin' more an' more down an' out. Ye need tae snap out of it." MAULER, in his boxer shorts, sat down next to Lemar.
"Brendan, I kinda want to be alone right now."
MAULER smiled that over-confident smile of his. "Laddie, just ye listen. I know when tae cut my losses. I think it's time for a new alliance for the two of us."
DAY 29
Voletta Todd, Ion, floated high in the sky, where she'd spent much of the past few days. She was furious with herself for losing her temper and destroying the shelter, and even more disgusted with her teammates, especially Valkyrie, for scorning their own humanity. She no longer cared to try heroism. She no longer cared to try getting her human form back. She no longer cared about scientific pursuits, or anything else that had ever given her meaning. She simply had lost her will. She now wanted nothing more than to cease existing altogether, and she knew of no way to end the existence of a being composed of ionic energy. She cursed her very existence, her very sentience, and allowed the breeze to carry her further out over the woods.
Voletta cursed to herself when she saw Nocturne flying past. Then she cursed again. How had Nocturne found her here, when she just wanted to be left alone? Voletta had shrunk her energy field to the size of a mite of dust. But Nocturne, she must have used her emotion-sensing ability to find Voletta, who was clearly giving off a strong sense of emotions at this point.
Nocturne slowed. She couldn't quite see Voletta, who was practically invisible, but she somehow knew where she was. Voletta wasn't so obtuse that she hadn't noticed the change in Nocturne, who had come across so much more confident in the past few days. Voletta didn't know what had changed, and she didn't care.
Nocturne spoke then. She spoke! Voletta had rarely heard her utter even a word. Even a sound. "Ion? It's me, Angela. I've been looking for you the better part of the day. Such... pain I sense from you. I wanted to offer to help you as you once offered friendship to me."
Unable to hide, Voletta willed herself back to "human" size. The amount of space a human would take up, though she was a weightless mass of energy. "What do you want, Nocturne?"
Nocturne's voice trilled slightly. "I... I wanted to offer to help. I am willing to take your pain from you. I can store pain now. It doesn't hurt me any longer."
Voletta's voice shook despite herself. "You want to... to take my pain. Why?"
Nocturne answered with an unexpected confidence. "Because I can."
Ion felt a stirring of strong emotions from within her. Again, emotions she wasn't prepared to confront, emotions she didn't know she had. "No! How dare you!" Voletta tried to cool the anger in her voice. She calmed herself. "Listen, I understand that you are trying to help. But you must try to realize that my mind, my personality, and my... emotional reactions. They are all I have left. They are the only humanity I yet possess. Please, leave, and let me brood in peace."
Nocturne trilled again. "Yes. But please understand, the rest of us, we don't know what it is like to be you. And we have emotions as well. Your unique state of being doesn't stop others from having difficult experiences."
As Nocturne flew away, Voletta thought that if she had the ability, she might cry.
"I like you, Lemar Hoskins. I like your confidence, and I enjoy the goodness that is in your soul." Angela Cairn, Nocturne, approached Battle Star with her new self. She wasn't yet sure how to react to the new being that sat before her. He was so empty inside, so despairing. It was a startling change from the being she had come across before. She laid her head by his shoulder as he sat by the lake, and ignored the smell of his unwashed body. She willed her hair, which she could control as she could her arms, legs, and wings, and stroked his back with it.
"Wait a minute, lady." He expressed protest, but didn't react with any movement in his body and no change in his emotional reaction. "You come on to me all strong. You kiss me, cuddle up next to me. Then you up and disappear from camp for several days. What do you want from me?"
Angela thought of the best way to answer. "Friendship."
"Friendship."
"Friendship."
"Yes. I find myself in need of friends."
Battle Star huffed. "Not a late game alliance."
Angela lifted her head and gave him a confused stare. "No. I've cared little for this game since the beginning. I just need friends. Before my transformation, I was a competitive, rational mind. I feel my old self returning more prominently now."
Battle Star smiled, and Angela felt a tinge of mirth from him. "Well, you sure talk a lot more now."
Angela leaned in on his shoulder and was content to sit in silence for a time.
DAY 30
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
When the six remaining contestants arrived at the immunity challenge, a few miles from their usual camps, they were surprised to see an ornate pavilion in front of them. And when they entered, they were even more shocked to see thousands of Symkarians in the stands cheering for them. It had varying reactions on the contestants, seeing fans cheering their names. Fans! Cheering! The dirty, disheveled would-be heroes stood in shock, surprise, excitement, and embarrassment, all at varying levels. When Jasper introduced the gorgeous Silver Sable, head of the mercenary elite of Symkaria, the Wild Pack, the men in the stadium stood a little straighter and sucked in their stomachs. Silver Sable, dressed in gorgeous silver leather, nodded at the contestants, then announced to them, and the crowd, that the contestants would be facing off in a duel against hand-selected members of her Wild Pack.
When Silver Sable gestured at a side gate, the six selected mercenaries rushed into the stadium, looking powerful, regal, and heroic. She announced that some of them were on loan to her for this specific competition. Windshear flew above the stadium, using hard air constructs to walk down from the top to the base, to the cheers of the crowd. Pulsar flew through the crowd, changing her light sources to various colors and dazzling the room. On the other side of the stadium, Lightbright cascaded over the crowd, spreading warmth and light over the audience, who applauded at the good feelings they were left with. On the ground, Sabra entered the room with multiple cartwheels and acrobatics, showing her strength and agility. Fin charged in, his giant green fin standing off his body as he charged through a brick wall that had been set up for that purpose. And lastly, Vibraxas used his vibratory powers, with tight control, to shake a section of the stadium, knocking some of the audience members out of their seats as they laughed.
Jasper explained that the contestants on both sides would be equipped with a piece of battle armor they would be required to adhere to their abdomens (Ion and Pulsar would be equipped with special ones that would adhere to their energy forms). They would then spar with each other. Once a contestant's armor was struck three times, they would be out of the challenge. The contestant to last the longest, or to defeat their opponent the fastest, would win immunity, and the challenge would showcase their skills in battle. Sandstorm versus Vibraxas. Battle Star versus Fin. Ion versus Pulsar. Nocturne versus Lightbright. Valkyrie versus Sabra. MAULER versus Windshear.
With the crowd cheering, the six contestants lined up against their opponents in the Wild Pack and prepared to engage in the challenge. Jasper and Silver Sable announced go, and the 12 opponents leaped into action. On the ground, Valkyrie, still in her human form, drew her blade, but Sabra delivered three quick blows to the armor shell and Valkyrie was the first disqualified. Nocturne and Lightbright flew across the stadium, pulsing each other with waves of emotion, and Nocturne successfully evaded Lightbright's blasts of heat and light with her wide wings; they couldn't seem to lay a hand on each other. Feeling free to use his offensive weaponry against the armored Windshear for the first time in the competition, MAULER used his laser and blaze cannons in his aerial battle, but found it difficult to get past the hard air shields in the air. They danced and flew at each other through the air, and MAULER received the first blow to his armor within three minutes of the battle. Battle Star and Fin quickly got into a brutish struggle of super strength, each holding the other's arms back, their foreheads touching as they strained, unmoving, across the field. In a shocking turn of events, Sandstorm, who surrounded himself with a powerful shell of grit armor, was blasted apart into sandy particles with a vibratory blast from Vibraxas, who quickly zapped the battle armor three times and disqualified Sandstorm. The most bizarre battle, however, turned out to be Ion and Pulsar, who zapped each other with waves of energy, neither doing any harm to the other.
After fifteen minutes on the field, Battle Star and MAULER had been eliminated as well. After several more minutes, Pulsar found a frequency that allowed her to contain Ion in, and she quickly defeated her opponent. Nocturne, who had been evading Lightbright successfully for several minutes, was declared the winner as she'd lasted the longest on the field.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
After welcoming in the three members of the jury, Biohazard, Steel Spider, and Derwyddon, Jasper sat down the six remaining members of the game. He felt waves of confidence-inspiring emotions washing off of Nocturne, who sat with a grin on her face and the immunity idol around her neck. Jasper smiled at the remaining players in the game, wondering who would end up winning.
"Today you got your taste of combat. When you become heroes for the Initiative, you will be pitted against foes in the defense of your country, you will train against others. Today, you were pitted against someone whose powers were meant to counter yours, and some of you fared very well. Don't worry, as you'll have much more training before you are deployed. Sandstorm, what did that combat feel like today? Did you enjoy it?"
Sandstorm shrugged. "I didn't not enjoy it. I didn't know what to expect, and that Vibraxas guy kicked my butt much faster than I would have expected. I guess it is good to learn lessons like that."
"Valkyrie, did seeing any of your competitors in battle change your thinking about the game at all?"
"No, not at all. I have gotten to know these folks pretty well. I am embarrassed to not have my own powers under control still, and to have been the first one out, but I know these five are all worthy competitors."
"Nocturne, with immunity, you are guaranteed a spot in our final five. How will you be basing your vote this evening, knowing you are safe?"
"I am glad to be safe. I have found newfound desires in me to win this game, and I am glad to be sure of a few more days. Alliances are fractured among us. Tonight's vote will be with what I hope is the majority."
Jasper then commenced with the voting.
The first vote was for Sandstorm. This was from Battle Star, who no longer trusted his one-time ally.
The second vote was for Sandstorm. This was from Ion, who was clued in to this vote by Nocturne.
The third vote was for Sandstorm. This was from MAULER, who needed to distance himself from his former ally.
The fourth vote was for Sandstorm. This was from Nocturne, who was voting along with Battle Star.
The fifth vote was for Valkyrie. This was from Sandstorm, who, sensing his own defeat, cast one last vote at an opponent.
The sixth vote was for Sandstorm. This was from Valkyrie, who was voting along with Battle Star.
As Jasper extinguished his torch, Sandstorm looked toward the group and stoically said, "I still have a lot to learn about myself. I apologize for my deviousness up until now." And then he walked off to join the jury.
Thank you for participating in this, our tenth episode. Only a few left to go, and somehow we have more women than men left! I apologize for the delays over the holidays. Illnesses and travel stopped me from getting things done sooner. We should be back on schedule now until the big finish. Bit stuff planned for all five characters!
Next episode, which should be back up on Thursday (regular time; voting won't close til Wednesday night), due to random selection, MAULER gets immunity. That means you can vote for any of the other four. See you then!
TEAM ROGERS:
Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins)
Ion (Voletta Todd)
MAULER (Brendan Doyle--immunity)
Nocturne (Angela Cairn)
Valkyrie (Samantha Parrington)
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Survivor delayed
With the holidays, I need a week off from writing. Feel free to vote on episode 9 for one more week. (I will also address the voting snafu that Angela pointed out. :) )
Chad
Chad
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Survivor: The Initiative Episode 9
Survivor: the Initiative Episode 9
Breakdowns
Day 25
Voletta Todd, Ion, continuing her strategy of trying to make herself valuable to the team, brought in an ionic field full of plucked fruits from the tops of the forest trees. Voletta was proud of her performance in the game thus far. She’d been a quiet, steady presence on her various teams. She’d been valuable around camp, valuable in voting, and hadn’t really made any enemies. Indeed, she’d tried to befriend many of them, though those strange alliances were not really valid; Biohazard was gone now, and Nocturne was rarely seen away from Battle Star’s side in recent days.
Voletta set the fruits in a stack by the fire. The Symkarian wilds had little to offer in the way of fruits, only bitter, shelled things, or so Voletta was told (as she couldn’t eat at all and thus hadn’t tasted the fruits). Voletta looked around the camp and saw that it was empty, which surprised her. She was the only one that didn’t sleep, and her six teammates had all been sleeping. She’d only been away from camp for an hour, and here she was, alone now. No wait, someone was still in the shelter. Who was that?
Voletta floated closer to the ramshackle wooden shelter, covered in fronds and ferns to keep out the rain. It had stormed heavily all night, and there seemed to be only a brief reprieve this morning. There was a woman in the shelter, sleeping. It clearly wasn’t Nocturne, in fact it looked more like Number Nine, who’d been gone for days. When Voletta stepped into the shelter, the woman she didn’t recognize sat up and screamed. Voletta flew backward in a panic.
“Noo! NO!” The woman looked at her arms, examining them. Voletta suddenly realized this was Valkyrie, though in a smaller, less muscular form. “Not again! I am not this woman anymore!” As Voletta watched, the woman stood and pushed her way past Voletta and out of the shelter. “Out of my way!” The woman then closed her eyes and seemed to focus inwardly on herself, her face showing great strain. She opened her eyes and panic flashed there. “NO!”
Voletta stayed a distance away. “Valkyrie? Is everything okay?”
“No! It’s not okay! I turned back into my human self again! I didn’t will the transformation, it just happened in my sleep! And—and now I can’t change back into Valkyrie! What’s wrong with me?”
Voletta felt a number of emotions course through her. Annoyance at Valkyrie’s tears. A bit of concern for her longtime ally. But mostly, overwhelmingly, a deep-seated swelling of fury. It was like a dam broke inside her and a river of unresolved emotions washed forward. With a furious scream breaking from her, Voletta unleashed a wall of ionic energy at the shelter, collapsing it in upon itself, destroying it completely.
With a cold fury, Voletta turned around and saw Valkyrie uncharacteristically cowering there before her, looking frightened for her life. “How dare you.” Voletta was practically whispering. “How dare you tell me of the curse of being human. How dare you lock yourself in an immortal form and hide your human self from us. How dare you tell me there is something wrong with you.”
And with the realization that something in her had shifted beyond repair, Voletta willed herself to fly away.
Lemar Hoskins, Battle Star, was frustrated. He’d come down to the lake shore for a bit of solace. He’d awakened earlier than his tribe mates, earlier than all save Ion (well, she didn’t sleep anyway) and walked down here. He’d had barely a moment to himself in the last several days. What, with all the drama up at camp leading up to Steel Spider’s departure, with this new bizarre “relationship” he found himself in with Nocturne, with the constant pressure of trying to make it in this game weighing on his shoulders… he just needed a few minutes to himself. The rain had stopped for a short time, but now it was steadily falling again. Lemar sat nestled against a large tree trunk to keep himself dry, but it was cold, and with each drop of rain, he felt his spirits fall a bit farther.
“Brother Lemar, may I have a word?” Lemar saw Derwyddon standing a few feet away, his brown robes soaked and clinging to his form. Lemar sighed. He shrugged and slid over slightly so that Derwyddon could sit next to him.
“Geez, old man, you must be freezing.”
Derwyddon didn’t look at Lemar. “I rarely feel the effects of nature upon my form. It is mine to command the elements, not to be subject to their fickle nature.”
Lemar rolled his eyes, then steadied himself. “What’s up?”
“Brother Lemar, several days ago I asked you of your motivations, and you expressed to me that you were meant to be a hero. I wondered how you came to that resolve.”
Lemar was confused. “I don’t know that there was some moment that I suddenly decided it was for me. Life just led me down that path.”
“Life. Not fate? Not god?”
“Look, Derwyddon, I believe I make my own fate. Whether or not a god exists, and I believe there is one, I still think I’m in charge of my own path. I’m not on some scripted path of events that I am meant to complete.”
Derwyddon looked at him now. “I have lost my faith that my path is being directed. I once felt compelled to be here. Then, recently, I felt it was my duty to see the wrongs done to my brethren, such as Steel Spider, righted. But now that wayward youth is gone. I have not been able to determine who in our camp is the poison among us. And I find myself overwhelmed with memories of my past failures. Brother Lemar, I am… weary. And, as modern mortals put it, depressed. I no longer know my place, and I no longer know my path.”
As a fresh wave of annoyance washed over him, Lemar turned away to look at the lake, riddled with pinpricks along the surface where the drops of rain were hitting. “Sounds to me like you never knew your path to begin with.”
And not for the first time, Lemar wondered if he ought to just throw in his hat and go back to jail.
Day 26
As the rain poured down around him, Brendan Doyle, MAULER, sat in his armor. He hadn’t taken the armor off in two full days now. It was uncomfortable, and he knew that he reeked, but it was easier than dealing with the cold and the rain. And it gave him an automatic mask. No one could read his facial expressions and reactions when he had his helmet on.
Things around camp were a mess. The rain was pelting them so hard they couldn’t get a fire going. Their shelter had been shattered into pieces and no one was saying how. Valkyrie had changed into some hottie blonde who kept crying all the time. No one had seen Ion and Nocturne in over 24 hours, and Battle Star and Derwyddon were so depressed they barely did anything at all.
But, Brendan noted to himself, that was pretty much exactly how he and Sandstorm had wanted it around camp. Everyone miserable and not trusting each other. Everyone infighting. Their two biggest threats, Battle Star and Valkyrie, who were primarily threats due to their strength of character, were now off the playing field. And Brendan felt safe simply kicking back for a bit and ignoring the game for a day, giving in to his own self-pity for a time.
Brendan looked over at Sandstorm, who had used his grit armor to create a solid rain guard around him; Brendan was guessing that Sandstorm could do that for all of the team, but he knew that wasn’t part of his ally’s strategy for sure. Sandstorm smiled, though there was no joy in his eyes.
“You ever killed a man, Doyle?”
Brendan felt a shiver down his spine, and was glad again for his helmet. “Aye. Back in me mercenary days. Never for sport, always for cash. What about ye?”
“Dozens, at this point. But always for a purpose. Always for cause.”
Brendan looked over at the camera that was recording them, knowing there were government agents watching their every move. “I’ve changed since then, though, laddie. I’m not the same man anymore. I’m workin’ at bein’ a hero now.”
“See, I’m still the exact same guy. I’m still the guy willing to do what it takes to get the job done.”
Brendan lowered his voice, though he knew the cameras were picking up his every word. “Tony, what’re ye doin’? Why’re ye bein’ so… candid, what with the cameras right here?”
Sandstorm stood up now, and looked right at MAULER. “Because it didn’t matter that I kept my motivations a secret. The government found ways to get telepaths in my head and pull my secrets out of me. No there is no reason to hide it.” Sandstorm looked at the camera directly now. “And I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way.” Then he looked back at MAULER. “Luckily, I’ve still got allies who have my back.”
As Sandstorm walked away, MAULER felt cold dread creep through his system. He had joined an alliance with Sandstorm because it suited him, it was something he could be a bit devious about, and he liked being a bit devious. But he didn’t know then that Sandstorm was a murderer; he didn’t know that this kid was so dangerous. So unstable. He had to get out of the alliance, before he was judged by the government to be a threat rather than a potential hero. He had to get out now. Or he’d never get his kid back.
Angela Cairn, Nocturne, felt the water surround her form and it seemed to flow into her skin, into her tissues and veins and organs. The water purified her, somehow, and she felt her body changing. She lay at the bottom of the lake, where she’d been for the last thirty hours and more. She didn’t need to breathe or sleep or eat. She was regenerating. She was being reborn.
Angela had been reborn in water once before. After her initial transformation into this creature of the night the fed on the pains of others, she’d been killed and had lain in the water for several days before awakening, and finding herself a new being. She hoped her rebirth now would be as dramatic. She needed this change. She needed to be over the pains of the past, for once and for all.
Under the water as she was, Angela couldn’t scream. She couldn’t cry. And the ache in her heart had steadily decreased. She would always love Jackie Kessler, but she didn’t have to mourn her lost partner so intensely. She didn’t have to suffer so terribly and for so long any longer. She could be new. She could feel hope. Maybe she could even speak without restriction again. This new transformation would be powerful indeed, she just knew it.
Several hours later, Angela’s form rose to the top of the water. Her transformation was complete. She moved forward, testing out her wings, her legs, her lungs. Testing her new voice. She reached out with her emotional powers and realized they were somehow sharper than before. The pain was gone! The pain was gone.
Day 27
Immunity Challenge
Jasper Sitwell looked through the rain as the seven remaining contestants gathered. He immediately noted some marked differences among them. Ion floated eerily away from the group while Nocturne, looking confident instead of frightened, clutched the arm of a downtrodden Battle Star. Derwyddon looked exhausted and MAULER and Sandstorm, who were usually rather chummy, stood on opposite sides of the group from each other. But most startling of all was Valkyrie now stood in her frail human form of Samantha Parrington, looking miserable and wet. Jasper knew that these self-awareness challenges would be taking their toll on the group, but he hadn’t expected so profound an impact so soon into the challenges.
Jasper introduced the guest for this challenge, a bizarre mystic named Crimson who had briefly served with the Hulkbusters. Jasper explained that today’s challenge would be proceeded by Crimson using his mystic abilities to ferret out the true motivations of each of the contestants, to learn what would drive them as heroes, and what was driving them to be heroes in the first place. Jasper noticed a dangerous sneer on Sandstorm’s face, but moved on to explain the rest of the challenge. After their motivations were tested, each of them would be put through a difficult obstacle course, involving intense running, climbing, a swim (even though it was raining), and a series of agility tests. The individual to finish fastest would be given immunity and would be safe at that night’s tribal council.
Battle Star was just glad to be out of the rain, even if he wasn’t sure he could take another of these challenges. He didn’t recall ever being so tired, especially not since he’d had super human strength. When Crimson put his fingers on either side of Battle Star’s skull, he felt the spell delving into his very being, and he felt his feelings become exposed. When Crimson was finished, he turned to face the other contestants.
“Lemar Hoskins desires to be a hero for one primary reason: to prove that he can do it. He is tired of being in the shadow of others and wants to become a leader in his own right. But he wants to do it on his own terms.” As Crimson spoke, Lemar felt shame flush his face, and he wasn’t sure why. He knew it was the truth, but why was it so hard to face?
With a briefly renewed determination, Lemar entered the prepared obstacle course. Using his superior strength, he barreled through it and finished in seven minutes. Then the newly familiar emptiness descended upon him once again as he sat back down in the rain.
Ion, still reeling in fury at the others and at herself, wasn’t sure how these challenge hosts got into her brain; she wasn’t even sure she truly had one. Yet here she was, in her containment suit, with Crimson’s hands on either side of her helmet plate.
“Voletta Todd desires to be a hero for one primary reason: to become human again. She so hates her transformed state that she is literally willing to do anything to find her way back to being human. Having tried routes of evil, she is now willing to embrace acts of good.” Voletta was humiliated, having her secret motivations exposed to the group this way. At least they didn’t know it was she who’d destroyed the shelter. Not yet.
Given her ionic state and capacity for endurance, Voletta had expected she’d do well in the obstacle course, but she couldn’t simply fly through the portions that required running. Struggling to manipulate her body suit to follow her mental commands, it took her a full twelve minutes to complete the challenge.
With a cold realization, Sandstorm sat down and saw Crimson standing before him. He considered refusing to participate in the challenge, but knew that that would disqualify him from the game. It would be now that everyone would know his motivations, his willingness to do anything to stop the government from using humans as weapons. He figured that after this, he would be forced back to jail, and not even allowed to finish the game, and he felt sick inside. All his goals, all his hard work, gone.
“Tony Trainer desires to be a hero for one primary reason: to protect the rights of the innocent and the victim. Despite his efforts to discover his own life path, Tony has struggled to find the best ways to accomplish his mission, and he is now learning that following the path of a true hero is the way to do so.” Tony was absolutely flabbergasted at this. Could this be true? It didn’t seem like Crimson was lying. Was Tony… changing?
Tony had a difficult time focusing on the challenge. He cruised through it on autopilot, failing to use his grit armor as effectively as he normally would. With his thoughts spinning and his mind racing, Tony finished the challenge in seventeen minutes.
Samantha Parrington (she wouldn’t think of herself as Valkyrie, she couldn’t) sat shivering, wet, cold, and hungry. She couldn’t figure out how she had ended up here. Her hero self was strong and self-assured, but she’d somehow kept Samantha from being her human self for several months. How had this happened? Samantha didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t change back to Valkyrie, and she didn’t know if she even wanted to. She closed her eyes tightly when Crimson placed his hands on her head.
“Samantha Parrington wants to be a hero for one primary reason: to prove to herself once and for all that she is an individual who can make her own way in life. Not willing to rely on anyone for help or to ask anyone for advice, Samantha has spent months wrapped in her immortal form to avoid facing the pains of mortality. She fears failure more than anything else.”
With a cold, knowing dread inside her, Samantha worked her way slowly through the challenge, but her mortal muscles just weren’t up to the task of this difficult competition. She wouldn’t quit, however, and finally finished, after forty-four painful minutes on the course.
MAULER was struggling within himself to find what his own motivations were, and he felt shocked that he couldn’t say for sure. It used to be money. He wanted to think it was his son now, but that wasn’t a for sure either, that might be just an ideal. He felt a cold sweat as he took off his helmet for the first time in days and allowed Crimson to place his hands on his head.
“Brendan Doyle wants to be a hero for one primary reason: to find some semblance of happiness in his life. After years of searching for it, Brendan is subconsciously realizing that he doesn’t have anything to bring him steady or lasting happiness. He hasn’t found it in family, adventure, or self, and he is hoping that the life of a hero will bring him the happiness he has longed for.”
Filled with an embarrassed fury, thinking Crimson had called him some kind of sissy, Brendan flubbed in the immunity challenge, making a few careless mistakes that caused him to start the course over. He finished in eighteen minutes.
Derwyddon would normally be curious at meeting another mystic, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care. He knew he had a penchant for feeling low, but this was bigger, more unsettling, than his last depression. He truly didn’t care what happened to him in this moment.
“Derwyddon wants to be a hero for one primary reason: he wants to feel like his life has some purpose. Derwyddon is confused by the centuries-long path his life has taken, and he has a habit of looking for meaning in the smallest of things, attributing his faith and self-doubt to spirituality. This motivation is in contrast to his greatest fear, that his life has no meaning at all.”
Derwyddon, expecting to feel an increased amount of depression, instead felt an increased amount of apathy at hearing these words. He couldn’t will his magic to work for him, not under these circumstances. He simply stood in the entrance of the challenge for several minutes before he was told that he could sit this one out if he so chose. He chose to sit it out.
Nocturne felt the intense gaze radiating outward from Crimson as he extended his hands toward her. The flavor of this intensity was powerful. Nocturne was loving this new experience she had of savoring the flavors of positive and strong emotions, rather than just the pain in other beings.
“Angela wants to be a hero for one primary reason: to prove herself better than those around her, or at least as capable as them. This is a new motivation, one that has come after years of pains and self-recriminations. Angela now realizes that her role as a hero can be as a triumphant individual, and not only one who absorbs the pain of others to cover up the pain of self.”
Feeling more confidence than previously, due to her drinking of the intensity of Crimson, Angela pushed herself through the course and finished it in nine minutes, using her strength, prehensile hair, and wings to her benefit at all the right moments.
With the rain coming down around him, Jasper held out the immunity necklace to Battle Star, who looked less than thrilled to receive it.
Tribal Council
After welcoming in the two members of the jury, Biohazard and Steel Spider, Jasper began asking questions to the strangely changed group. “Valkyrie, there seem to be some not so subtle shifts among your group tonight. What happened?”
Jasper was shocked when she began to cry. “Our shelter, it’s gone, somehow wiped out. And the rain. And we are all just going through some p-personal things.”
MAULER jumped in before Jasper could ask another question. “There’s been a lot’a tension around camp these last few days. We’re all jest getting’ ta know one another better, I suppose, and getting’ ta know ourselves better at the same time.”
Jasper focused on Derwyddon. “Derwyddon, you seem especially miserable this evening. What is going on?”
Derwyddon refused to make eye contact and simply didn’t answer. Jasper quickly moved into the voting.
The first vote was for Battle Star. This was from Derwyddon, who was sticking to his past strategy.
The second vote was for Derwyddon. This was from Samantha Parrington, who wanted to see the sad old man finally put out of his misery
The third vote was for Battle Star. This was from Sandstorm, who still wanted his greatest competitor out of the game.
The fourth vote was for Sandstorm. This was from MAULER, who wanted to unsettle his former ally.
The fifth vote was for Derwyddon. This was from Battle Star, who couldn’t stand the mage’s self-recriminations.
The sixth vote was for Derwyddon. This was from Nocturne, who was voting along with her alliances in Valkyrie and Battle Star.
The seventh vote was for Derwyddon. This was from Ion, who was clued in to the vote by a surprisingly confident Nocturne.
With sadness, Jasper announced that Derwyddon would be the tenth person voted out and the third member of the jury. He didn’t have time to extinguish Derwyddon’s torch as Derwyddon did it himself with a gesture. He walked away with a disappointment that seemed to speak of just one more failure in a long life worth of them.
Thank you for your votes and participation! We are back on schedule this week, and this was a close vote! We are now down to six, with only a few more weeks left to go in our little competition here. There are still more shake-ups to come, and they’ll last right to the end of the game. I hope you are enjoying the series, and the character progression (shh, that’s my favorite part, if you couldn’t tell).
Voting closes on Tuesday again this week, and you can post votes here, Email, or send them on facebook. Who goes next? Due to random determination, Nocturne gets immunity next week.
Team Rogers:
Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins)
Ion (Voletta Todd)
MAULER (Brendan Doyle)
Nocturne (Angela Cairn)—immunity
Sandstorm (Tony Trainer)
Valkyrie (Samantha Parrington)
Breakdowns
Day 25
Voletta Todd, Ion, continuing her strategy of trying to make herself valuable to the team, brought in an ionic field full of plucked fruits from the tops of the forest trees. Voletta was proud of her performance in the game thus far. She’d been a quiet, steady presence on her various teams. She’d been valuable around camp, valuable in voting, and hadn’t really made any enemies. Indeed, she’d tried to befriend many of them, though those strange alliances were not really valid; Biohazard was gone now, and Nocturne was rarely seen away from Battle Star’s side in recent days.
Voletta set the fruits in a stack by the fire. The Symkarian wilds had little to offer in the way of fruits, only bitter, shelled things, or so Voletta was told (as she couldn’t eat at all and thus hadn’t tasted the fruits). Voletta looked around the camp and saw that it was empty, which surprised her. She was the only one that didn’t sleep, and her six teammates had all been sleeping. She’d only been away from camp for an hour, and here she was, alone now. No wait, someone was still in the shelter. Who was that?
Voletta floated closer to the ramshackle wooden shelter, covered in fronds and ferns to keep out the rain. It had stormed heavily all night, and there seemed to be only a brief reprieve this morning. There was a woman in the shelter, sleeping. It clearly wasn’t Nocturne, in fact it looked more like Number Nine, who’d been gone for days. When Voletta stepped into the shelter, the woman she didn’t recognize sat up and screamed. Voletta flew backward in a panic.
“Noo! NO!” The woman looked at her arms, examining them. Voletta suddenly realized this was Valkyrie, though in a smaller, less muscular form. “Not again! I am not this woman anymore!” As Voletta watched, the woman stood and pushed her way past Voletta and out of the shelter. “Out of my way!” The woman then closed her eyes and seemed to focus inwardly on herself, her face showing great strain. She opened her eyes and panic flashed there. “NO!”
Voletta stayed a distance away. “Valkyrie? Is everything okay?”
“No! It’s not okay! I turned back into my human self again! I didn’t will the transformation, it just happened in my sleep! And—and now I can’t change back into Valkyrie! What’s wrong with me?”
Voletta felt a number of emotions course through her. Annoyance at Valkyrie’s tears. A bit of concern for her longtime ally. But mostly, overwhelmingly, a deep-seated swelling of fury. It was like a dam broke inside her and a river of unresolved emotions washed forward. With a furious scream breaking from her, Voletta unleashed a wall of ionic energy at the shelter, collapsing it in upon itself, destroying it completely.
With a cold fury, Voletta turned around and saw Valkyrie uncharacteristically cowering there before her, looking frightened for her life. “How dare you.” Voletta was practically whispering. “How dare you tell me of the curse of being human. How dare you lock yourself in an immortal form and hide your human self from us. How dare you tell me there is something wrong with you.”
And with the realization that something in her had shifted beyond repair, Voletta willed herself to fly away.
Lemar Hoskins, Battle Star, was frustrated. He’d come down to the lake shore for a bit of solace. He’d awakened earlier than his tribe mates, earlier than all save Ion (well, she didn’t sleep anyway) and walked down here. He’d had barely a moment to himself in the last several days. What, with all the drama up at camp leading up to Steel Spider’s departure, with this new bizarre “relationship” he found himself in with Nocturne, with the constant pressure of trying to make it in this game weighing on his shoulders… he just needed a few minutes to himself. The rain had stopped for a short time, but now it was steadily falling again. Lemar sat nestled against a large tree trunk to keep himself dry, but it was cold, and with each drop of rain, he felt his spirits fall a bit farther.
“Brother Lemar, may I have a word?” Lemar saw Derwyddon standing a few feet away, his brown robes soaked and clinging to his form. Lemar sighed. He shrugged and slid over slightly so that Derwyddon could sit next to him.
“Geez, old man, you must be freezing.”
Derwyddon didn’t look at Lemar. “I rarely feel the effects of nature upon my form. It is mine to command the elements, not to be subject to their fickle nature.”
Lemar rolled his eyes, then steadied himself. “What’s up?”
“Brother Lemar, several days ago I asked you of your motivations, and you expressed to me that you were meant to be a hero. I wondered how you came to that resolve.”
Lemar was confused. “I don’t know that there was some moment that I suddenly decided it was for me. Life just led me down that path.”
“Life. Not fate? Not god?”
“Look, Derwyddon, I believe I make my own fate. Whether or not a god exists, and I believe there is one, I still think I’m in charge of my own path. I’m not on some scripted path of events that I am meant to complete.”
Derwyddon looked at him now. “I have lost my faith that my path is being directed. I once felt compelled to be here. Then, recently, I felt it was my duty to see the wrongs done to my brethren, such as Steel Spider, righted. But now that wayward youth is gone. I have not been able to determine who in our camp is the poison among us. And I find myself overwhelmed with memories of my past failures. Brother Lemar, I am… weary. And, as modern mortals put it, depressed. I no longer know my place, and I no longer know my path.”
As a fresh wave of annoyance washed over him, Lemar turned away to look at the lake, riddled with pinpricks along the surface where the drops of rain were hitting. “Sounds to me like you never knew your path to begin with.”
And not for the first time, Lemar wondered if he ought to just throw in his hat and go back to jail.
Day 26
As the rain poured down around him, Brendan Doyle, MAULER, sat in his armor. He hadn’t taken the armor off in two full days now. It was uncomfortable, and he knew that he reeked, but it was easier than dealing with the cold and the rain. And it gave him an automatic mask. No one could read his facial expressions and reactions when he had his helmet on.
Things around camp were a mess. The rain was pelting them so hard they couldn’t get a fire going. Their shelter had been shattered into pieces and no one was saying how. Valkyrie had changed into some hottie blonde who kept crying all the time. No one had seen Ion and Nocturne in over 24 hours, and Battle Star and Derwyddon were so depressed they barely did anything at all.
But, Brendan noted to himself, that was pretty much exactly how he and Sandstorm had wanted it around camp. Everyone miserable and not trusting each other. Everyone infighting. Their two biggest threats, Battle Star and Valkyrie, who were primarily threats due to their strength of character, were now off the playing field. And Brendan felt safe simply kicking back for a bit and ignoring the game for a day, giving in to his own self-pity for a time.
Brendan looked over at Sandstorm, who had used his grit armor to create a solid rain guard around him; Brendan was guessing that Sandstorm could do that for all of the team, but he knew that wasn’t part of his ally’s strategy for sure. Sandstorm smiled, though there was no joy in his eyes.
“You ever killed a man, Doyle?”
Brendan felt a shiver down his spine, and was glad again for his helmet. “Aye. Back in me mercenary days. Never for sport, always for cash. What about ye?”
“Dozens, at this point. But always for a purpose. Always for cause.”
Brendan looked over at the camera that was recording them, knowing there were government agents watching their every move. “I’ve changed since then, though, laddie. I’m not the same man anymore. I’m workin’ at bein’ a hero now.”
“See, I’m still the exact same guy. I’m still the guy willing to do what it takes to get the job done.”
Brendan lowered his voice, though he knew the cameras were picking up his every word. “Tony, what’re ye doin’? Why’re ye bein’ so… candid, what with the cameras right here?”
Sandstorm stood up now, and looked right at MAULER. “Because it didn’t matter that I kept my motivations a secret. The government found ways to get telepaths in my head and pull my secrets out of me. No there is no reason to hide it.” Sandstorm looked at the camera directly now. “And I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way.” Then he looked back at MAULER. “Luckily, I’ve still got allies who have my back.”
As Sandstorm walked away, MAULER felt cold dread creep through his system. He had joined an alliance with Sandstorm because it suited him, it was something he could be a bit devious about, and he liked being a bit devious. But he didn’t know then that Sandstorm was a murderer; he didn’t know that this kid was so dangerous. So unstable. He had to get out of the alliance, before he was judged by the government to be a threat rather than a potential hero. He had to get out now. Or he’d never get his kid back.
Angela Cairn, Nocturne, felt the water surround her form and it seemed to flow into her skin, into her tissues and veins and organs. The water purified her, somehow, and she felt her body changing. She lay at the bottom of the lake, where she’d been for the last thirty hours and more. She didn’t need to breathe or sleep or eat. She was regenerating. She was being reborn.
Angela had been reborn in water once before. After her initial transformation into this creature of the night the fed on the pains of others, she’d been killed and had lain in the water for several days before awakening, and finding herself a new being. She hoped her rebirth now would be as dramatic. She needed this change. She needed to be over the pains of the past, for once and for all.
Under the water as she was, Angela couldn’t scream. She couldn’t cry. And the ache in her heart had steadily decreased. She would always love Jackie Kessler, but she didn’t have to mourn her lost partner so intensely. She didn’t have to suffer so terribly and for so long any longer. She could be new. She could feel hope. Maybe she could even speak without restriction again. This new transformation would be powerful indeed, she just knew it.
Several hours later, Angela’s form rose to the top of the water. Her transformation was complete. She moved forward, testing out her wings, her legs, her lungs. Testing her new voice. She reached out with her emotional powers and realized they were somehow sharper than before. The pain was gone! The pain was gone.
Day 27
Immunity Challenge
Jasper Sitwell looked through the rain as the seven remaining contestants gathered. He immediately noted some marked differences among them. Ion floated eerily away from the group while Nocturne, looking confident instead of frightened, clutched the arm of a downtrodden Battle Star. Derwyddon looked exhausted and MAULER and Sandstorm, who were usually rather chummy, stood on opposite sides of the group from each other. But most startling of all was Valkyrie now stood in her frail human form of Samantha Parrington, looking miserable and wet. Jasper knew that these self-awareness challenges would be taking their toll on the group, but he hadn’t expected so profound an impact so soon into the challenges.
Jasper introduced the guest for this challenge, a bizarre mystic named Crimson who had briefly served with the Hulkbusters. Jasper explained that today’s challenge would be proceeded by Crimson using his mystic abilities to ferret out the true motivations of each of the contestants, to learn what would drive them as heroes, and what was driving them to be heroes in the first place. Jasper noticed a dangerous sneer on Sandstorm’s face, but moved on to explain the rest of the challenge. After their motivations were tested, each of them would be put through a difficult obstacle course, involving intense running, climbing, a swim (even though it was raining), and a series of agility tests. The individual to finish fastest would be given immunity and would be safe at that night’s tribal council.
Battle Star was just glad to be out of the rain, even if he wasn’t sure he could take another of these challenges. He didn’t recall ever being so tired, especially not since he’d had super human strength. When Crimson put his fingers on either side of Battle Star’s skull, he felt the spell delving into his very being, and he felt his feelings become exposed. When Crimson was finished, he turned to face the other contestants.
“Lemar Hoskins desires to be a hero for one primary reason: to prove that he can do it. He is tired of being in the shadow of others and wants to become a leader in his own right. But he wants to do it on his own terms.” As Crimson spoke, Lemar felt shame flush his face, and he wasn’t sure why. He knew it was the truth, but why was it so hard to face?
With a briefly renewed determination, Lemar entered the prepared obstacle course. Using his superior strength, he barreled through it and finished in seven minutes. Then the newly familiar emptiness descended upon him once again as he sat back down in the rain.
Ion, still reeling in fury at the others and at herself, wasn’t sure how these challenge hosts got into her brain; she wasn’t even sure she truly had one. Yet here she was, in her containment suit, with Crimson’s hands on either side of her helmet plate.
“Voletta Todd desires to be a hero for one primary reason: to become human again. She so hates her transformed state that she is literally willing to do anything to find her way back to being human. Having tried routes of evil, she is now willing to embrace acts of good.” Voletta was humiliated, having her secret motivations exposed to the group this way. At least they didn’t know it was she who’d destroyed the shelter. Not yet.
Given her ionic state and capacity for endurance, Voletta had expected she’d do well in the obstacle course, but she couldn’t simply fly through the portions that required running. Struggling to manipulate her body suit to follow her mental commands, it took her a full twelve minutes to complete the challenge.
With a cold realization, Sandstorm sat down and saw Crimson standing before him. He considered refusing to participate in the challenge, but knew that that would disqualify him from the game. It would be now that everyone would know his motivations, his willingness to do anything to stop the government from using humans as weapons. He figured that after this, he would be forced back to jail, and not even allowed to finish the game, and he felt sick inside. All his goals, all his hard work, gone.
“Tony Trainer desires to be a hero for one primary reason: to protect the rights of the innocent and the victim. Despite his efforts to discover his own life path, Tony has struggled to find the best ways to accomplish his mission, and he is now learning that following the path of a true hero is the way to do so.” Tony was absolutely flabbergasted at this. Could this be true? It didn’t seem like Crimson was lying. Was Tony… changing?
Tony had a difficult time focusing on the challenge. He cruised through it on autopilot, failing to use his grit armor as effectively as he normally would. With his thoughts spinning and his mind racing, Tony finished the challenge in seventeen minutes.
Samantha Parrington (she wouldn’t think of herself as Valkyrie, she couldn’t) sat shivering, wet, cold, and hungry. She couldn’t figure out how she had ended up here. Her hero self was strong and self-assured, but she’d somehow kept Samantha from being her human self for several months. How had this happened? Samantha didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t change back to Valkyrie, and she didn’t know if she even wanted to. She closed her eyes tightly when Crimson placed his hands on her head.
“Samantha Parrington wants to be a hero for one primary reason: to prove to herself once and for all that she is an individual who can make her own way in life. Not willing to rely on anyone for help or to ask anyone for advice, Samantha has spent months wrapped in her immortal form to avoid facing the pains of mortality. She fears failure more than anything else.”
With a cold, knowing dread inside her, Samantha worked her way slowly through the challenge, but her mortal muscles just weren’t up to the task of this difficult competition. She wouldn’t quit, however, and finally finished, after forty-four painful minutes on the course.
MAULER was struggling within himself to find what his own motivations were, and he felt shocked that he couldn’t say for sure. It used to be money. He wanted to think it was his son now, but that wasn’t a for sure either, that might be just an ideal. He felt a cold sweat as he took off his helmet for the first time in days and allowed Crimson to place his hands on his head.
“Brendan Doyle wants to be a hero for one primary reason: to find some semblance of happiness in his life. After years of searching for it, Brendan is subconsciously realizing that he doesn’t have anything to bring him steady or lasting happiness. He hasn’t found it in family, adventure, or self, and he is hoping that the life of a hero will bring him the happiness he has longed for.”
Filled with an embarrassed fury, thinking Crimson had called him some kind of sissy, Brendan flubbed in the immunity challenge, making a few careless mistakes that caused him to start the course over. He finished in eighteen minutes.
Derwyddon would normally be curious at meeting another mystic, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care. He knew he had a penchant for feeling low, but this was bigger, more unsettling, than his last depression. He truly didn’t care what happened to him in this moment.
“Derwyddon wants to be a hero for one primary reason: he wants to feel like his life has some purpose. Derwyddon is confused by the centuries-long path his life has taken, and he has a habit of looking for meaning in the smallest of things, attributing his faith and self-doubt to spirituality. This motivation is in contrast to his greatest fear, that his life has no meaning at all.”
Derwyddon, expecting to feel an increased amount of depression, instead felt an increased amount of apathy at hearing these words. He couldn’t will his magic to work for him, not under these circumstances. He simply stood in the entrance of the challenge for several minutes before he was told that he could sit this one out if he so chose. He chose to sit it out.
Nocturne felt the intense gaze radiating outward from Crimson as he extended his hands toward her. The flavor of this intensity was powerful. Nocturne was loving this new experience she had of savoring the flavors of positive and strong emotions, rather than just the pain in other beings.
“Angela wants to be a hero for one primary reason: to prove herself better than those around her, or at least as capable as them. This is a new motivation, one that has come after years of pains and self-recriminations. Angela now realizes that her role as a hero can be as a triumphant individual, and not only one who absorbs the pain of others to cover up the pain of self.”
Feeling more confidence than previously, due to her drinking of the intensity of Crimson, Angela pushed herself through the course and finished it in nine minutes, using her strength, prehensile hair, and wings to her benefit at all the right moments.
With the rain coming down around him, Jasper held out the immunity necklace to Battle Star, who looked less than thrilled to receive it.
Tribal Council
After welcoming in the two members of the jury, Biohazard and Steel Spider, Jasper began asking questions to the strangely changed group. “Valkyrie, there seem to be some not so subtle shifts among your group tonight. What happened?”
Jasper was shocked when she began to cry. “Our shelter, it’s gone, somehow wiped out. And the rain. And we are all just going through some p-personal things.”
MAULER jumped in before Jasper could ask another question. “There’s been a lot’a tension around camp these last few days. We’re all jest getting’ ta know one another better, I suppose, and getting’ ta know ourselves better at the same time.”
Jasper focused on Derwyddon. “Derwyddon, you seem especially miserable this evening. What is going on?”
Derwyddon refused to make eye contact and simply didn’t answer. Jasper quickly moved into the voting.
The first vote was for Battle Star. This was from Derwyddon, who was sticking to his past strategy.
The second vote was for Derwyddon. This was from Samantha Parrington, who wanted to see the sad old man finally put out of his misery
The third vote was for Battle Star. This was from Sandstorm, who still wanted his greatest competitor out of the game.
The fourth vote was for Sandstorm. This was from MAULER, who wanted to unsettle his former ally.
The fifth vote was for Derwyddon. This was from Battle Star, who couldn’t stand the mage’s self-recriminations.
The sixth vote was for Derwyddon. This was from Nocturne, who was voting along with her alliances in Valkyrie and Battle Star.
The seventh vote was for Derwyddon. This was from Ion, who was clued in to the vote by a surprisingly confident Nocturne.
With sadness, Jasper announced that Derwyddon would be the tenth person voted out and the third member of the jury. He didn’t have time to extinguish Derwyddon’s torch as Derwyddon did it himself with a gesture. He walked away with a disappointment that seemed to speak of just one more failure in a long life worth of them.
Thank you for your votes and participation! We are back on schedule this week, and this was a close vote! We are now down to six, with only a few more weeks left to go in our little competition here. There are still more shake-ups to come, and they’ll last right to the end of the game. I hope you are enjoying the series, and the character progression (shh, that’s my favorite part, if you couldn’t tell).
Voting closes on Tuesday again this week, and you can post votes here, Email, or send them on facebook. Who goes next? Due to random determination, Nocturne gets immunity next week.
Team Rogers:
Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins)
Ion (Voletta Todd)
MAULER (Brendan Doyle)
Nocturne (Angela Cairn)—immunity
Sandstorm (Tony Trainer)
Valkyrie (Samantha Parrington)
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Survivor: the Initiative Episode 7
Survivor: the Initiative Episode 7
Targets on Backs
Day 22
As Brendan Doyle, MAULER, thought back to the contestants they’d voted off previously (primarily Brother Nature, Number Nine, and Biohazard), he figured most of the major drama queens would be already gone. Nope. Despite getting rid of the weirdest guys, and despite having mostly men left in the game, Brendan found himself surrounded by drama queens.
“Woman, it is not your place to question my direction or my motives. I find the Initiative a confining and despicable use of government power.” In the three weeks Brendan had known Derwyddon, he’d never seen the old man lose his cool like this. Ion could really push his buttons.
Ion was floating in front of Derwyddon, her weird suit holding in all that energy that made up her body. “First of all, Derwyddon, you should address me with more respect. I am a renowned scientist, and calling me ‘woman’ is derogatory and unappreciated.” Ion waited while Derwyddon gave a humph. “And secondly, if you hold such scorn for the Initiative in the first place, then why did you choose to enroll, no less to take part in this competition?”
Derwyddon’s cheeks reddened slightly. It was like they’d both forgotten that Brendan was standing there. “I have a difficult time explaining this to those… not of my faith. Please understand. I’m centuries old. I come from a different age of man, before the cursed religion of Christianity wiped out the pagan faiths across the Earth. I little approve of institutionalization or those who choose to support it.”
Ion floated down to the ground now and stepped in close to Derwyddon. “Then why did you choose to enroll?” Brendan found himself curious about the answer as well.
“I had nothing to do with the decision. It is where my gods chose to send me.”
Ion threw up her hands. Brendan was shocked about how passionate she was sounding. She generally came across as so clinical and stoic. “So despite being centuries old and having a wealth of wisdom to draw from, you choose to rely upon some inner compass to guide your every move. Then you attribute it to messages from god, despite the fact that the very thing you are being ‘instructed’ to do goes against the very person you profess to be at your core.”
Brendan expected the old man to be angry, but Derwyddon looked into the distance, like he was remembering something old. “When I first awakened, my fury was so great that I ensorcelled a group of monsters to destroy the very world around me. I spent the next few centuries atoning for that mistake, hunting down those monsters until I felled the last just a few years ago. My path since then has been a mystery to me. I know that I am to right the injustices done. Injustices such as a government agent biting the arm off of a misled hero, our own ally the Steel Spider.”
Ion’s face mask turned toward Brendan and gave him the chills, as she always did. “My ‘path’, as you call it, is not so different. My own intense focus on science led me to being the creature I am now. I see the Initiative as the opportunity to not only redeem myself, but to find a cure for myself as well.”
Brendan walked away from the pair, letting them continue their heart to heart without him. He wondered at the contestants he was surrounded by. Derwyddon, an incredibly powerful sorcerer who was undergoing a centuries-long identity crisis. Or Ion, a sentient gas who wanted people around to believe she was sincere in everything she said and did; Brendan didn’t believe a word.
Brendan couldn’t wait until he could talk to Sandstorm about this. A few more weaknesses in their opponents they could exploit, just as soon as their plans against Battle Star and Valkyrie, their biggest threats, bore fruit.
“How did you get your powers, Angela?”
Angela Cairn, Nocturne, felt the strength radiating off of Battle Star as she nestled against him. They were alone in their shelter and he’d invited her to take a rest. She had sensed his surprise when she had lain next to him and put her head on his shoulder. He’d immediately rested his hand on her back, in between her pliable wings. She felt safe. Angela had never really thought of strength as an emotional state, but Battle Star was an incredibly self-confident man. Such a refreshing place to be, his arms, after all the uncertainty and pain of the past few years.
Her voice trilled as she spoke. “My past, it is difficult to speak of. You have heard of Baron Zemo?”
She felt Battle Star nod. “Yeah, he’s one of Captain America’s bad guys.”
“Yes. He created a machine, a terrible machine that mutates the human form. It painfully mutates you into a new being, one that reflects your various subconscious desires or thoughts of self. For me, at the time of my transformation, I was in incredible pain over the loss of my partner. I had been a police officer, eager to prove myself on a force full of men, but I had failed the person most important to me. I was transformed against my will, and changed into a creature of the night. A creature who could hide in the shadows, who could defend herself, and who could make others hurt as she did, but one constantly forced to feel the pains of others as well.”
Battle Star’s chest moved evenly below her head as he breathed in. Angela drank in his strength as he spoke. “I went through a pretty painful transformation myself, in the Power Broker’s machines, but I did it willingly. Did you ever find Baron Zemo and stop him?”
Angela fought away the fear that filled her when she thought of the Mutilation Killer. “Zemo was never my enemy. It was one of his mutates, the Mutilation Killer, who killed my partner and transformed me. I have put that part of my past to rest.”
“So what have you been doing since?”
“I’ve been helping those who feared as I did, who hurt as I did. I’ve been taking their pains upon myself to give them peace.”
Battle Star lifted Angela’s head with a hand and rolled onto his side to look at her. “But you don’t deserve all that pain. Not a beautiful creature like you.”
Angela looked away. Because she was scared. Because she was embarrassed. But mostly because she was feeling something she hadn’t experienced in a long time. Desire.
Battle Star leaned in closer, his head on his hand, his beautiful brown eyes focused on hers. “Don’t fly away.” His voice was so soft.
Then he kissed her.
Day 23
Oliver Osnick, the Steel Spider, remembered all the big words his psychiatrists had thrown around in prison at him. Histrionic. Hero worship. Attention-seeking. Antisocial. Provocative. Exaggerated expression of emotion. Personality disorder. Delusions of grandeur. Narcissistic.
Oliver understood every word. He cognitively recognized the truth in everything the doctors told him about himself. About his brain chemistry. They helped him understand how pervasive his disorders could be. They knew of his brilliant mind, which he had frequently turned to weapons design (including that of his amazing harness). Oliver was not an idiot. The doctors helped him understand himself.
Then they locked him up, doped him up on medication, and forgot about him.
Oliver had chosen to go off the medication. He’d quit it cold turkey, all in one day. That’d been a few months ago. All the withdrawal was done now, and he had a free-thinking mind was again. As Oliver dipped his hand into the lake and cupped water in it, he wondered if things weren’t getting bad again. He knew he’d been emotionally reactive in this game, that he’d been moody and irritable and that he’d even had a few delusions. But this was training to be a hero. A hero! He could do this.
As he looked back at the water, he noticed Sandstorm standing above him, and Oliver immediately tensed up. He didn’t like people sneaking up on him or getting so close. “What do you want, Trainer?”
Sandstorm smiled that bright while smile of his, offset by his dark ebony skin. “Calm down, Ollie. I just saw you down here and thought we could talk for a minute.”
“I don’t really have anything to say to you.” Oliver stood up and moved to walk away, but Sandstorm caught his shoulder.
“Listen, out of respect for an ally, even though we aren’t good friends, I wanted you to be aware, Valkyrie is gunning for you. She’s been talking with everyone privately about voting you off next. Apparently she thinks you are unstable and not a very good hero, at least that is what she told me.”
Oliver refused to respond to Sandstorm and instead took the hand off of him and walked away. Once in the trees, Oliver attached his harness, then he extended his metal legs and used the to propel him across the beach. Where was Valkyrie? He needed to confront her now, while his anger was still hot.
It took him several minutes, but Oliver found her, her feet in the water on the other side of the small lake. Valkyrie had been laying on her back, soaking in some sun, before Oliver had approached, now she was sitting up and looking at him expectantly.
Oliver settled down next to her, pulled back his mask, and looked her in the eyes. “I know what you’ve been saying about me. I know you are after me. And I won’t go down without a fight.”
Valkyrie narrowed her eyes. “Oh, my plans are exposed, are they? And who has been telling you of my game strategies?”
Oliver, pushing down his fury, stood up and extended his metal legs to move away. “I know about all your little secret alliances. You try to vote me out, I’ll expose you to everyone.” And with that boast, he rushed away.
Day 24
Immunity Challenge
Jasper welcomed the eight contestants to the new immunity challenge. He introduced this challenges guest star, the bizarre Think Tank, a fledgling hero with his eyed brain preserved in a jar atop his body, and a premier member of Montana’s Freedom Force. The contestants, except for Nocturne, seemed a bit uneasy around him and took their seats. Jasper explained that the format of this challenge would be much like the last one. Each contestant would work privately with Think Tank to determine what their greatest failure had been in the past, as opposed to their greatest fear in the previous challenge. They would then be given an electronic gun and given the chance to shoot as many targets as they could in a gallery filled with cutouts of villains; two points would be lost for every hero or civilian “shot” during the challenge, and one point gained for each target successfully acquired. The order of the contestants was determined randomly, and the contestant with the highest point total would win immunity.
As Battle Star took a seat in front of Think Tank, he steeled himself in an effort to maintain calm. The greatest fear challenge had shaken him more than he’d expected, and he intended to be prepared for this one. This experience was more intense than the last one. Instead of just seeing a form in front of him, Battle Star found him, in his own mind, transported back to the moment of his greatest failure, required to live it all over again.
As Battle Star recognized where he was, he felt a stone drop in his stomach. The militant Watchdogs, again! The same group that had hung him and left him for dead. They had targeted the elderly parents of John Walker, who was then acting as Captain America. And, before their eyes, the elderly Walkers were gunned down! Fodder for the criminals, who were trying to put the new heroes in their place. Battle Star had relived the failure, and the pain it had caused his friend, dozens of times, and the pain hurt as badly today as it ever did.
When Battle Star moved into the shooting gallery, he did his best to put his own concerns aside. He wasn’t used to offensive weaponry, and made several mistakes. At the end, he walked out with a score of 17.
MAULER prepared himself, but truly felt like he had no regrets in his life. Sure, he’d missed the birth of his son, but Daniel’s rat of a mother had never even told MAULER she was pregnant, so that was a regret, just something to be mad about. Before he could reflect further, Think Tank had pulled MAULER’s mind into events from the past.
It was just a few years ago. Brendan Doyle had been hired by Edwin Cord to steal the MAULER armor, but he’d come across his old soldier-of-fortune partner James Rhodes. After donning the armor himself, Doyle had gone to battle with Iron Man and he soon realized that he wouldn’t be able to complete his entire mission. His reputation ruined, Doyle decided to keep the armor himself and start life as a costumed criminal instead. And that was his regret; going from a mercenary to a criminal had been a terrible idea, and all of Doyle’s setbacks could be traced to that decision.
In the shooting gallery, MAULER used his armor’s reaction timing to easily take out each of the targets with pinpoint accuracy. He surprised everyone, except himself, with a score of 95.
As Think Tank entered Derwyddon’s mind, the old druid already knew what to expect, and he wasn’t surprised. He briefly noted the irony of this “vision” falling directly after his last, when he’d faced his fear of being stuck in the ocean for so long. Here he was, newly awakened, reborn in a world he no longer understood. Derwyddon experienced again the shame, the pain, the frustration, and the fury at finding the world overwhelmed by Christianity, finding his own faith null. Derwyddon had lashed out with his new magics, creating deadly monsters, cursing the Earth with a flock of demons sent to destroy all things that sang of this new faith. One act of fury that had taken Derwyddon centuries to atone for.
On the shooting gallery, freshly overcome with shame and unfamiliar with the associated technology, Derwyddon fired multiple times, missing or hitting a wrong target nearly every time. He finished with a shameful -30 points.
Nocturne’s insides went cold as this strange man with the brain on his head used a telepathic energy to read her mind. She knew what was coming. It was the same as her greatest fear. It was the turning point in her life, when she went from being a human to being a nonhuman, from working to prove herself to being a creature of the night. The death of Jackie Kessler. Jackie’s image was ingrained in Nocturne’s brain, at the forefront of her thoughts, at the edge of her every action. And yet seeing Jackie come to life before her caused Nocturne too much pain, just as it had the challenge before this. Even with the possibility of finding love and safety with Battle Star now in her life, Nocturne could not face this now. She couldn’t face it ever.
She once again opted out of the physical part of the challenge, and flew away to console herself.
Sandstorm knew this moment would come eventually. This was the point when everyone would start to learn the truth about him. He’d be questioned and the authorities would wonder why they even allowed him into the Initiative in the first place. But they were invested in him already, and they couldn’t cut him loose, not now.
As Think Tank entered his brain, Sandstorm willed the memories to come upon him. He was in Canada, during one of his assignments. The government there had a secret branch, something they called Department K, and a program that they used to turn humans into weapons, heroes into soldiers. A group called Weapon PRIME was fighting Sandstorm away, attempting to stop him from infiltrating the government facility. And they succeeded. They repelled Sandstorm’s grit armor, stopped him long enough for the government agents in the facility to get away. Sandstorm had later hunted down and killed three of the men, the ones he could find, but this, the moment of his greatest failure, had been the first time a super human presence had stopped him from meeting his goals.
With cold calculation, he entered the shooting gallery, fired on the assigned targets, and left with a score of 22.
Regret was an emotion that Valkyrie did not feel, and did not allow herself to feel. So she had suspected that when Think Tank entered her brain he would simply walk right back out, disappointed at finding no weakness there. Instead, she heard the voice.
“You can’t keep me in here forever! You have to let me out! I have a life to live! A family! Goals, wishes, dreams, pains, desires, wants, hurts! You can’t keep me stifled in here under your shell of strength! I feel! I exist!” The words sounded loudly in Valkyrie’s ears. It was the voice of her human self, Samantha Parrington, the very part of her identity that she’d kept hidden all these weeks. She couldn’t face this, anything but this, anything but her own weakness.
Valkyrie entered the shooting gallery shaky, unsure of herself, and she hated herself for feeling that way. This, plus her unfamiliarity with offensive weaponry, yielded her a score of 10.
Ion knew that this exercise would reawaken her old failure to turn herself back into human form, so she steeled herself emotionally and waited there while Think Tank entered her brain.
She was right. Her mind was taken back to the cold climates of northern Greenland. She’d moved there for a time after her transformation, using her scientific moneys to purchase a small cabin. She spent as much time as she could in the extreme colds, loving the feeling of being human again, but freezing at the same time. Within weeks, she’d taken incredibly ill and had to stay in her energy form to keep from dying. The pain of the transformation had never been greater than at that time.
Ion used her ionic field to hold the electric gun, but she lacked the mobility to use the weapon properly. Cursing that she couldn’t use her own powers in this competition, she scored a mere 8 points.
Steel Spider had a multitude of regrets on which to draw, but he had no idea which one was the greatest. He almost wondered if it would be allowing himself to remain overweight so long in his youth. But he shouldn’t have been surprised when Think Tank entered his brain.
He was taken back to the time when he sat at Jane Lane’s bedside, seeing her nearly dead because of his inability to save her from that nearly fatal gunshot wound. The beautiful girl who’d seen the best in him, who’d relied on him to be there for her. There she lay, helpless, and it was all his fault.
Steel Spider tried to put his concerns aside and focus on the challenge. He was an excellent marksman, after all. He fired shot after shot, but he was too overwhelmed and hit too many false targets. He ended with a score of 12.
Jasper declared MAULER the challenge’s winner, by a longshot, and granted him immunity in the upcoming tribal council.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
As the eight remaining contestants took a seat around the fire in the shelter, it began to rain hard outside. They watched as the sole member of their jury, Biohazard, his power dampener still secure around his neck, arrived to watch the proceedings. Jasper proceeded with the questioning.
“Battle Star, in the last tribal council, you were nearly voted out. Where do you see your position in the game now?”
“Jasper, I’m still not sure what happened. No one will fess up to voting for me in the first place. I obviously don’t know what is going on with everyone around me, but I ain’t scared of any of them. They are right to see me as their toughest competition.”
“MAULER, with immunity around your neck, you are safe tonight. Do you think this was a good night for you to have immunity?”
“Aye, fer sure, laddie. Ye can never be too sure in this game what is gannae happen, an’ I’m happy ta be havin’ assured safety, that’s fer sure.”
“Derwyddon, are the new immunity challenges causing more difficulties for you in the game, and what impact are they having on a group as a whole?”
Derwyddon was thoughtful. “These challenges are unsettling. They aren’t a test of strength, but of character. They are requiring us to look at our individual motivations and to determine where we stand as heroes. Most challenging indeed.”
Jasper then moved on to the votes.
The first vote was for Steel Spider. This was from Nocturne, who was voting along with her womens’ alliance and who wanted the most unstable party out of the game.
The second vote was for Steel Spider. This was from Ion, who was following Valkyrie’s instruction in getting rid of an unstable competitor.
The third vote was for Steel Spider. This was from Valkyrie, who wanted this bizarre competitor who had challenged her out of the game.
The fourth vote was for Battle Star. This was from Derwyddon, who was repeating his previous vote.
The fifth vote was for Battle Star. This was from Sandstorm, who wanted his toughest competitor out of the game.
The sixth vote was for Battle Star. This was from MAULER, who was voting along with Sandstorm, seeking to sow discord among the tribe.
The seventh vote was for Steel Spider. This was from Battle Star, who now saw Steel Spider as least deserving of being a hero, though he was concerned about the new revelations regarding Sandstorm.
The eighth vote was for Battle Star. This was from Steel Spider, who was clued into this vote by Sandstorm.
Jasper announced that they had their first Survivor tie. He explained that everyone would have to revote, and that if there was still a tie, then the six contestants without votes would have to draw rocks and one of them would be randomly sent home.
During the revote, everyone kept their vote the same, except for Derwyddon, who didn’t want to trust the fate of the rocks. Steel Spider was announced as the next person voted out of the game. Jasper extinguished his torch and the would-be hero slowly walked away.
Thank you to everyone who voted and who continues to stick with this little story of mine! I hope you continue to enjoy it! We are down to our final seven contestants, and are rapidly moving toward the conclusion of the game. Five men, three women, only one sole survivor among them.
Next episode is titled Breakdowns, and everyone of our characters goes through some startling changes as they react to the revelations about themselves in the immunity challenges. Their self-discovery, and their own abilities to be heroes, will be tested like never before. Episode 9 begins the character tracks that will take them through to the end of the game. Don’t miss it!
As always, you can post votes here, Email them, or send them through on facebook. Due to random selection, Battle Star gets immunity next episode, and boy does he need it!
TEAM ROGERS
Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins) (immunity)
Derwyddon
Ion (Voletta Todd)
MAULER (Brendan Doyle)
Nocturne (Angela Cairn)
Sandstorm (Tony Trainer)
Valkyrie (Samantha Parrington)
Targets on Backs
Day 22
As Brendan Doyle, MAULER, thought back to the contestants they’d voted off previously (primarily Brother Nature, Number Nine, and Biohazard), he figured most of the major drama queens would be already gone. Nope. Despite getting rid of the weirdest guys, and despite having mostly men left in the game, Brendan found himself surrounded by drama queens.
“Woman, it is not your place to question my direction or my motives. I find the Initiative a confining and despicable use of government power.” In the three weeks Brendan had known Derwyddon, he’d never seen the old man lose his cool like this. Ion could really push his buttons.
Ion was floating in front of Derwyddon, her weird suit holding in all that energy that made up her body. “First of all, Derwyddon, you should address me with more respect. I am a renowned scientist, and calling me ‘woman’ is derogatory and unappreciated.” Ion waited while Derwyddon gave a humph. “And secondly, if you hold such scorn for the Initiative in the first place, then why did you choose to enroll, no less to take part in this competition?”
Derwyddon’s cheeks reddened slightly. It was like they’d both forgotten that Brendan was standing there. “I have a difficult time explaining this to those… not of my faith. Please understand. I’m centuries old. I come from a different age of man, before the cursed religion of Christianity wiped out the pagan faiths across the Earth. I little approve of institutionalization or those who choose to support it.”
Ion floated down to the ground now and stepped in close to Derwyddon. “Then why did you choose to enroll?” Brendan found himself curious about the answer as well.
“I had nothing to do with the decision. It is where my gods chose to send me.”
Ion threw up her hands. Brendan was shocked about how passionate she was sounding. She generally came across as so clinical and stoic. “So despite being centuries old and having a wealth of wisdom to draw from, you choose to rely upon some inner compass to guide your every move. Then you attribute it to messages from god, despite the fact that the very thing you are being ‘instructed’ to do goes against the very person you profess to be at your core.”
Brendan expected the old man to be angry, but Derwyddon looked into the distance, like he was remembering something old. “When I first awakened, my fury was so great that I ensorcelled a group of monsters to destroy the very world around me. I spent the next few centuries atoning for that mistake, hunting down those monsters until I felled the last just a few years ago. My path since then has been a mystery to me. I know that I am to right the injustices done. Injustices such as a government agent biting the arm off of a misled hero, our own ally the Steel Spider.”
Ion’s face mask turned toward Brendan and gave him the chills, as she always did. “My ‘path’, as you call it, is not so different. My own intense focus on science led me to being the creature I am now. I see the Initiative as the opportunity to not only redeem myself, but to find a cure for myself as well.”
Brendan walked away from the pair, letting them continue their heart to heart without him. He wondered at the contestants he was surrounded by. Derwyddon, an incredibly powerful sorcerer who was undergoing a centuries-long identity crisis. Or Ion, a sentient gas who wanted people around to believe she was sincere in everything she said and did; Brendan didn’t believe a word.
Brendan couldn’t wait until he could talk to Sandstorm about this. A few more weaknesses in their opponents they could exploit, just as soon as their plans against Battle Star and Valkyrie, their biggest threats, bore fruit.
“How did you get your powers, Angela?”
Angela Cairn, Nocturne, felt the strength radiating off of Battle Star as she nestled against him. They were alone in their shelter and he’d invited her to take a rest. She had sensed his surprise when she had lain next to him and put her head on his shoulder. He’d immediately rested his hand on her back, in between her pliable wings. She felt safe. Angela had never really thought of strength as an emotional state, but Battle Star was an incredibly self-confident man. Such a refreshing place to be, his arms, after all the uncertainty and pain of the past few years.
Her voice trilled as she spoke. “My past, it is difficult to speak of. You have heard of Baron Zemo?”
She felt Battle Star nod. “Yeah, he’s one of Captain America’s bad guys.”
“Yes. He created a machine, a terrible machine that mutates the human form. It painfully mutates you into a new being, one that reflects your various subconscious desires or thoughts of self. For me, at the time of my transformation, I was in incredible pain over the loss of my partner. I had been a police officer, eager to prove myself on a force full of men, but I had failed the person most important to me. I was transformed against my will, and changed into a creature of the night. A creature who could hide in the shadows, who could defend herself, and who could make others hurt as she did, but one constantly forced to feel the pains of others as well.”
Battle Star’s chest moved evenly below her head as he breathed in. Angela drank in his strength as he spoke. “I went through a pretty painful transformation myself, in the Power Broker’s machines, but I did it willingly. Did you ever find Baron Zemo and stop him?”
Angela fought away the fear that filled her when she thought of the Mutilation Killer. “Zemo was never my enemy. It was one of his mutates, the Mutilation Killer, who killed my partner and transformed me. I have put that part of my past to rest.”
“So what have you been doing since?”
“I’ve been helping those who feared as I did, who hurt as I did. I’ve been taking their pains upon myself to give them peace.”
Battle Star lifted Angela’s head with a hand and rolled onto his side to look at her. “But you don’t deserve all that pain. Not a beautiful creature like you.”
Angela looked away. Because she was scared. Because she was embarrassed. But mostly because she was feeling something she hadn’t experienced in a long time. Desire.
Battle Star leaned in closer, his head on his hand, his beautiful brown eyes focused on hers. “Don’t fly away.” His voice was so soft.
Then he kissed her.
Day 23
Oliver Osnick, the Steel Spider, remembered all the big words his psychiatrists had thrown around in prison at him. Histrionic. Hero worship. Attention-seeking. Antisocial. Provocative. Exaggerated expression of emotion. Personality disorder. Delusions of grandeur. Narcissistic.
Oliver understood every word. He cognitively recognized the truth in everything the doctors told him about himself. About his brain chemistry. They helped him understand how pervasive his disorders could be. They knew of his brilliant mind, which he had frequently turned to weapons design (including that of his amazing harness). Oliver was not an idiot. The doctors helped him understand himself.
Then they locked him up, doped him up on medication, and forgot about him.
Oliver had chosen to go off the medication. He’d quit it cold turkey, all in one day. That’d been a few months ago. All the withdrawal was done now, and he had a free-thinking mind was again. As Oliver dipped his hand into the lake and cupped water in it, he wondered if things weren’t getting bad again. He knew he’d been emotionally reactive in this game, that he’d been moody and irritable and that he’d even had a few delusions. But this was training to be a hero. A hero! He could do this.
As he looked back at the water, he noticed Sandstorm standing above him, and Oliver immediately tensed up. He didn’t like people sneaking up on him or getting so close. “What do you want, Trainer?”
Sandstorm smiled that bright while smile of his, offset by his dark ebony skin. “Calm down, Ollie. I just saw you down here and thought we could talk for a minute.”
“I don’t really have anything to say to you.” Oliver stood up and moved to walk away, but Sandstorm caught his shoulder.
“Listen, out of respect for an ally, even though we aren’t good friends, I wanted you to be aware, Valkyrie is gunning for you. She’s been talking with everyone privately about voting you off next. Apparently she thinks you are unstable and not a very good hero, at least that is what she told me.”
Oliver refused to respond to Sandstorm and instead took the hand off of him and walked away. Once in the trees, Oliver attached his harness, then he extended his metal legs and used the to propel him across the beach. Where was Valkyrie? He needed to confront her now, while his anger was still hot.
It took him several minutes, but Oliver found her, her feet in the water on the other side of the small lake. Valkyrie had been laying on her back, soaking in some sun, before Oliver had approached, now she was sitting up and looking at him expectantly.
Oliver settled down next to her, pulled back his mask, and looked her in the eyes. “I know what you’ve been saying about me. I know you are after me. And I won’t go down without a fight.”
Valkyrie narrowed her eyes. “Oh, my plans are exposed, are they? And who has been telling you of my game strategies?”
Oliver, pushing down his fury, stood up and extended his metal legs to move away. “I know about all your little secret alliances. You try to vote me out, I’ll expose you to everyone.” And with that boast, he rushed away.
Day 24
Immunity Challenge
Jasper welcomed the eight contestants to the new immunity challenge. He introduced this challenges guest star, the bizarre Think Tank, a fledgling hero with his eyed brain preserved in a jar atop his body, and a premier member of Montana’s Freedom Force. The contestants, except for Nocturne, seemed a bit uneasy around him and took their seats. Jasper explained that the format of this challenge would be much like the last one. Each contestant would work privately with Think Tank to determine what their greatest failure had been in the past, as opposed to their greatest fear in the previous challenge. They would then be given an electronic gun and given the chance to shoot as many targets as they could in a gallery filled with cutouts of villains; two points would be lost for every hero or civilian “shot” during the challenge, and one point gained for each target successfully acquired. The order of the contestants was determined randomly, and the contestant with the highest point total would win immunity.
As Battle Star took a seat in front of Think Tank, he steeled himself in an effort to maintain calm. The greatest fear challenge had shaken him more than he’d expected, and he intended to be prepared for this one. This experience was more intense than the last one. Instead of just seeing a form in front of him, Battle Star found him, in his own mind, transported back to the moment of his greatest failure, required to live it all over again.
As Battle Star recognized where he was, he felt a stone drop in his stomach. The militant Watchdogs, again! The same group that had hung him and left him for dead. They had targeted the elderly parents of John Walker, who was then acting as Captain America. And, before their eyes, the elderly Walkers were gunned down! Fodder for the criminals, who were trying to put the new heroes in their place. Battle Star had relived the failure, and the pain it had caused his friend, dozens of times, and the pain hurt as badly today as it ever did.
When Battle Star moved into the shooting gallery, he did his best to put his own concerns aside. He wasn’t used to offensive weaponry, and made several mistakes. At the end, he walked out with a score of 17.
MAULER prepared himself, but truly felt like he had no regrets in his life. Sure, he’d missed the birth of his son, but Daniel’s rat of a mother had never even told MAULER she was pregnant, so that was a regret, just something to be mad about. Before he could reflect further, Think Tank had pulled MAULER’s mind into events from the past.
It was just a few years ago. Brendan Doyle had been hired by Edwin Cord to steal the MAULER armor, but he’d come across his old soldier-of-fortune partner James Rhodes. After donning the armor himself, Doyle had gone to battle with Iron Man and he soon realized that he wouldn’t be able to complete his entire mission. His reputation ruined, Doyle decided to keep the armor himself and start life as a costumed criminal instead. And that was his regret; going from a mercenary to a criminal had been a terrible idea, and all of Doyle’s setbacks could be traced to that decision.
In the shooting gallery, MAULER used his armor’s reaction timing to easily take out each of the targets with pinpoint accuracy. He surprised everyone, except himself, with a score of 95.
As Think Tank entered Derwyddon’s mind, the old druid already knew what to expect, and he wasn’t surprised. He briefly noted the irony of this “vision” falling directly after his last, when he’d faced his fear of being stuck in the ocean for so long. Here he was, newly awakened, reborn in a world he no longer understood. Derwyddon experienced again the shame, the pain, the frustration, and the fury at finding the world overwhelmed by Christianity, finding his own faith null. Derwyddon had lashed out with his new magics, creating deadly monsters, cursing the Earth with a flock of demons sent to destroy all things that sang of this new faith. One act of fury that had taken Derwyddon centuries to atone for.
On the shooting gallery, freshly overcome with shame and unfamiliar with the associated technology, Derwyddon fired multiple times, missing or hitting a wrong target nearly every time. He finished with a shameful -30 points.
Nocturne’s insides went cold as this strange man with the brain on his head used a telepathic energy to read her mind. She knew what was coming. It was the same as her greatest fear. It was the turning point in her life, when she went from being a human to being a nonhuman, from working to prove herself to being a creature of the night. The death of Jackie Kessler. Jackie’s image was ingrained in Nocturne’s brain, at the forefront of her thoughts, at the edge of her every action. And yet seeing Jackie come to life before her caused Nocturne too much pain, just as it had the challenge before this. Even with the possibility of finding love and safety with Battle Star now in her life, Nocturne could not face this now. She couldn’t face it ever.
She once again opted out of the physical part of the challenge, and flew away to console herself.
Sandstorm knew this moment would come eventually. This was the point when everyone would start to learn the truth about him. He’d be questioned and the authorities would wonder why they even allowed him into the Initiative in the first place. But they were invested in him already, and they couldn’t cut him loose, not now.
As Think Tank entered his brain, Sandstorm willed the memories to come upon him. He was in Canada, during one of his assignments. The government there had a secret branch, something they called Department K, and a program that they used to turn humans into weapons, heroes into soldiers. A group called Weapon PRIME was fighting Sandstorm away, attempting to stop him from infiltrating the government facility. And they succeeded. They repelled Sandstorm’s grit armor, stopped him long enough for the government agents in the facility to get away. Sandstorm had later hunted down and killed three of the men, the ones he could find, but this, the moment of his greatest failure, had been the first time a super human presence had stopped him from meeting his goals.
With cold calculation, he entered the shooting gallery, fired on the assigned targets, and left with a score of 22.
Regret was an emotion that Valkyrie did not feel, and did not allow herself to feel. So she had suspected that when Think Tank entered her brain he would simply walk right back out, disappointed at finding no weakness there. Instead, she heard the voice.
“You can’t keep me in here forever! You have to let me out! I have a life to live! A family! Goals, wishes, dreams, pains, desires, wants, hurts! You can’t keep me stifled in here under your shell of strength! I feel! I exist!” The words sounded loudly in Valkyrie’s ears. It was the voice of her human self, Samantha Parrington, the very part of her identity that she’d kept hidden all these weeks. She couldn’t face this, anything but this, anything but her own weakness.
Valkyrie entered the shooting gallery shaky, unsure of herself, and she hated herself for feeling that way. This, plus her unfamiliarity with offensive weaponry, yielded her a score of 10.
Ion knew that this exercise would reawaken her old failure to turn herself back into human form, so she steeled herself emotionally and waited there while Think Tank entered her brain.
She was right. Her mind was taken back to the cold climates of northern Greenland. She’d moved there for a time after her transformation, using her scientific moneys to purchase a small cabin. She spent as much time as she could in the extreme colds, loving the feeling of being human again, but freezing at the same time. Within weeks, she’d taken incredibly ill and had to stay in her energy form to keep from dying. The pain of the transformation had never been greater than at that time.
Ion used her ionic field to hold the electric gun, but she lacked the mobility to use the weapon properly. Cursing that she couldn’t use her own powers in this competition, she scored a mere 8 points.
Steel Spider had a multitude of regrets on which to draw, but he had no idea which one was the greatest. He almost wondered if it would be allowing himself to remain overweight so long in his youth. But he shouldn’t have been surprised when Think Tank entered his brain.
He was taken back to the time when he sat at Jane Lane’s bedside, seeing her nearly dead because of his inability to save her from that nearly fatal gunshot wound. The beautiful girl who’d seen the best in him, who’d relied on him to be there for her. There she lay, helpless, and it was all his fault.
Steel Spider tried to put his concerns aside and focus on the challenge. He was an excellent marksman, after all. He fired shot after shot, but he was too overwhelmed and hit too many false targets. He ended with a score of 12.
Jasper declared MAULER the challenge’s winner, by a longshot, and granted him immunity in the upcoming tribal council.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
As the eight remaining contestants took a seat around the fire in the shelter, it began to rain hard outside. They watched as the sole member of their jury, Biohazard, his power dampener still secure around his neck, arrived to watch the proceedings. Jasper proceeded with the questioning.
“Battle Star, in the last tribal council, you were nearly voted out. Where do you see your position in the game now?”
“Jasper, I’m still not sure what happened. No one will fess up to voting for me in the first place. I obviously don’t know what is going on with everyone around me, but I ain’t scared of any of them. They are right to see me as their toughest competition.”
“MAULER, with immunity around your neck, you are safe tonight. Do you think this was a good night for you to have immunity?”
“Aye, fer sure, laddie. Ye can never be too sure in this game what is gannae happen, an’ I’m happy ta be havin’ assured safety, that’s fer sure.”
“Derwyddon, are the new immunity challenges causing more difficulties for you in the game, and what impact are they having on a group as a whole?”
Derwyddon was thoughtful. “These challenges are unsettling. They aren’t a test of strength, but of character. They are requiring us to look at our individual motivations and to determine where we stand as heroes. Most challenging indeed.”
Jasper then moved on to the votes.
The first vote was for Steel Spider. This was from Nocturne, who was voting along with her womens’ alliance and who wanted the most unstable party out of the game.
The second vote was for Steel Spider. This was from Ion, who was following Valkyrie’s instruction in getting rid of an unstable competitor.
The third vote was for Steel Spider. This was from Valkyrie, who wanted this bizarre competitor who had challenged her out of the game.
The fourth vote was for Battle Star. This was from Derwyddon, who was repeating his previous vote.
The fifth vote was for Battle Star. This was from Sandstorm, who wanted his toughest competitor out of the game.
The sixth vote was for Battle Star. This was from MAULER, who was voting along with Sandstorm, seeking to sow discord among the tribe.
The seventh vote was for Steel Spider. This was from Battle Star, who now saw Steel Spider as least deserving of being a hero, though he was concerned about the new revelations regarding Sandstorm.
The eighth vote was for Battle Star. This was from Steel Spider, who was clued into this vote by Sandstorm.
Jasper announced that they had their first Survivor tie. He explained that everyone would have to revote, and that if there was still a tie, then the six contestants without votes would have to draw rocks and one of them would be randomly sent home.
During the revote, everyone kept their vote the same, except for Derwyddon, who didn’t want to trust the fate of the rocks. Steel Spider was announced as the next person voted out of the game. Jasper extinguished his torch and the would-be hero slowly walked away.
Thank you to everyone who voted and who continues to stick with this little story of mine! I hope you continue to enjoy it! We are down to our final seven contestants, and are rapidly moving toward the conclusion of the game. Five men, three women, only one sole survivor among them.
Next episode is titled Breakdowns, and everyone of our characters goes through some startling changes as they react to the revelations about themselves in the immunity challenges. Their self-discovery, and their own abilities to be heroes, will be tested like never before. Episode 9 begins the character tracks that will take them through to the end of the game. Don’t miss it!
As always, you can post votes here, Email them, or send them through on facebook. Due to random selection, Battle Star gets immunity next episode, and boy does he need it!
TEAM ROGERS
Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins) (immunity)
Derwyddon
Ion (Voletta Todd)
MAULER (Brendan Doyle)
Nocturne (Angela Cairn)
Sandstorm (Tony Trainer)
Valkyrie (Samantha Parrington)
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