Nostalgia clubs. I never really got the purpose of those. Is it so the people who were alive then can party like it's forty years ago? I figured most of the people who were in their twenties then would prefer to be napping nowadays. Maybe it's so the latest generation can get loaded while listening to their grandparents' music? If so, they're listening to some shit music. Even all that synth-whatever the kids are listening to these days would be better.

I'm guessing it's the latter, because as Giovanni pushes the door open and revels in the atmosphere, all the people I see are half my age. He leads us through the crowd, people dancing to the beat of the music, if you can call shimmying in place "dancing". Ed said that he'd stay with the chopper, but by now I was wishing he had come with me so I wouldn't be the only person in the club over thirty, and even then I'd still be the oldest person in the room by a decade. "Let's go!" Gio shouted, throwing his hands into the air as he began to lead us forward. Gabriela and her sister, Isabella, followed close after him as I pulled up the rear.

One guy who looked like he'd had four drinks too many stumbled up to Isabella, reaching out to grope her chest. I stepped in, and what he ended up grabbing was me. After a few moments of mindlessly squeezing my gut and probably realizing "hey, these aren't tits", he looked up, eyes widening as he caught sight of my scowling face. I lifted a hand and shoved him to the ground, before following after Gio and the girls and massaging my temples. Between the painful music, the flashing lights, and the drunken idiots, I needed to get a drink fast.

Gio led us to the bar, where he and the girls took a seat. I held up a hand before they could order. I needed to drink first... You know, in case they had poisoned the booze. "Uh... Un esc... Un escocés, por favor." The bartender looked at me in confusion, while Giovanni and the girls laughed. I furrowed my brow in confusion. "What's so funny?"

"You just ordered a Scotsman, amigo," Gio said in between bouts of laughter.

I gave a dry chuckle. "Heh. Alright, well tell him I want a scotch."

Giovanni had a few words with the bartender, before the bartender made me my drink. He and the girls ordered theirs while I downed mine and quickly gestured for the bartender to pour me another. Now this was more like it: a drink, so I could drown out the incessant chatter of soulless people over piss poor music in a gaudy night club. Gabriela and Isabella left to go catch up with some friends; Giovanni drank his beer while surveying the room, before turning to me. "... How do you do it, Dave?"

I pulled the shot glass from my lips to answer him, some of the scotch leaking out of my mouth. "Do what?"

"How do you get girls? Guy like you, I bet you've made time with some nice chicks in your life."

I paused, shaking my head. "No, no not really. Never really did that kinda stuff past my high school years. Too busy doing... Things."

"No shit?"

"No shit," I replied, downing the rest of my drink and getting some more.

"I figured you would've been married or some shit, man."

I clutched the glass tightly at that. "... I considered it, once. I was nineteen or so."

Gio quirked an eyebrow, as if curious. "Really? What happened?"

I took a long drink at that. "Didn't work out that way."

"That sucks, man..." He stayed silent for a moment, before he said, "You know, I'm in love with a woman, but I haven't told her."

"You should. Life's too short to let things go unsaid. Then you just think about the what-could have-beens."

"No, she's... With another man."

I quirked my eyebrow in a very Kasimir sort of way. "Didn't figure that'd stop you. Guy like you, I bet you've made time with married women before," I echoed.

Gio sneered as I chuckled at his expense. "Yeah, fuck you too, Dave. I'm gonna go catch up with the girls."

"Yeah, you do that, pal." As Gio walked away, I let out a sigh of relief. Thank God. I didn't need to be offering advice to the kid. I was the last person you went to with your troubles about life. Only thing I'd be able to teach him was how to kill a man in a hundred different ways, how to destroy your liver, and how to rip your family apart.

As I finished off my latest glass, something in the back of my mind kicked in and the world slowed down around me. I noticed how there were a group of guys clustered around Gio and the girls that were wearing black beanies and raggedy clothes, clashing heavily with the designer suits and dresses the rest of the patrons wore. I was already setting my glass down and moving forward when the guys pulled their beanies down... Except they weren't beanies.

They were ski masks.

My gun was out and I was maneuvering through the crowd to get a clear shot, when one of the men cleared it for me by firing his revolver into the air. Three of them grabbed Gio and the girls, throwing bags over their heads, while the crowd screamed and scattered at the sound of gunshots. I aimed my pistol and fired off a few rounds at the guys who didn't have my charges; they went down like flies, but the ones that were left held Gio and the girls as human shields. I couldn't get a clear shot.

Just as I was about to break out into a sprint towards them, gunshots went off behind me. On instinct, I fell to the ground and rolled onto my back, firing at the attacker and putting him down. But as I picked myself up, the kidnappers were gone. "Son of a..." I burst into a sprint in the direction I saw them heading, picking up one of the fallen thugs' revolvers along the way. Two guns in hand, I gave chase.

I burst into the next room, pistols at the ready. My legs burned, my side ached, and my arms were about to complain too; there were at least a dozen guys throughout the room, all taking out the club's patrons and staff. Much as I hated to let those bastards get away with the people I swore I'd protect, I couldn't let them kill these people either. Plus, the bullet that just grazed my cheek might've made me want to get more than even.

I charged forward and threw myself into the air over a set of stairs, two guns blazing as I flew to the ground. I hit the neon dance floor with a thud, letting out a bark of pain. One of the crooks ran forward, firing the machine gun in his hand. I had just half a second to roll to the side, coming to a stop on my left arm and shooting him in the head with the revolver. It was empty now; I tossed it and pulled myself to my feet, shambling forward while clutching my left shoulder and firing blindly.

I was lucky to hit a few more guys before I had to reload, taking cover behind a bar as I did so. After catching my breath, I took in one last gulp of air before jumping up onto the bar. Time slowed to a crawl around me as I leapt up into the air, firing at the remaining thugs while thinking to myself how much this landing is going to suck. Fortunately, I had taken them all out in the span of three seconds, saving a dozen innocent lives. Unfortunately, I was ten feet in the air and about to land on the cold hard ground.

"ACK! FUGGIN' SHIT!" I sat up, clutching at my leg. I moved it around a bit, thanking whatever Gods existed that I didn't break it again, but still, things were about to be a little tougher for me from here on in. Sucking it up, I reloaded my Beretta and limped forward, grim determination in every step. I said I'd protect Gio and the girls and Goddammit, I was going to.

Anti-hero/villain Name: Xue Huoyan/Snow Flame
Civilian Name: Siobhan McKenna
Origin city: Galway, Ireland
Hometown: Transient/Shambala
Sex: Female
Race: Human
Height: 6’2
Weight: 191 lbs
Age: 45 (physically 22)
Birth Date: April 28th, 2001
--------
Costumed Appearance:
Civilian Appearance:
Icon:
Costumed Personality: Xue Huoyan is as playful as she is irreverent, holding little respect for any authority but her own. A free spirit with an insatiable appetite for the unknown, she is always eager to hone her abilities in the martial arts and unearth secrets thought lost to time. To this end, she’ll even feign respect for those whom she has need of, at least until they have ceased to be useful. Should one be able to earn her genuine friendship, however, then she will prove to be an unshakably loyal and dependable ally. She hates bullies, and those who lord their power over the weak and helpless.
Civilian Personality: As she doesn’t have a secret identity in the typical sense, there is no significant difference in her behaviour during her downtime. Still, when relaxing, Siobhan is slow to anger and is a generally friendly and upbeat drinking companion.
Super abilities:

-Skills:
In the twenty-one years that she spent in the immortal lands of the Jianghu, Siobhan has studied a vast array of martial arts under the tutelage of the ancient masters of Wulin. Both her physical abilities and her mind have been pushed beyond the boundaries of even the finest athlete as a result.

Beyond Peak Human Conditioning: Even without using chi, Siobhan is superior to the very finest of athletes in terms of running speed, gymnastics, acrobatics, striking power, and reaction time.

Martial Arts: During her travels between the sacred cities, Siobhan was educated in the most ancient of martial arts by the Eight Immortals themselves. From them, she has learned the original forms of Jiao Li, the many styles of Shaolin Quan, and Changquan. From other Wulin masters she also learned Chen Taijiquan, Wing Chun Quan, Baguazhang, Xing Yi Quan, Choy Lai Fut, and Bajiquan.

She also retains some knowledge of the Shotokan Karate that she learned before discovering Jianghu, though she seldom uses it as it was a point-based fighting form.

-Powers:
Chi
From her training with the Eight Immortals, Siobhan learned to channel and harness her Chi, the internal energy that flows through all non-magical creatures. This allows her to greatly enhance her physical abilities and attacks in a wide variety of ways, including:
-The ability to augment her strength for either lifting, jumping, or striking purposes.
-The ability to directly damage or destroy a target’s internal organs. This can even ignore a metahuman’s invulnerability to a degree.
-Giving one’s appendages the properties of various weapons or creatures, such as knives or an animal’s claws.
-The ability to glide along the air following a high jump.
-The ability to become near-weightless, to the point where she can perch on light tree branches.
-The ability to focus all her body’s chi into manifesting as physical energy, which she can then launch at her opponents for a devastating ranged attack. Doing so will leave her completely exhausted, however.

-Gadgets: None
-Weapons:
Yu Chang
Siobhan’s favoured weapon is Yu Chang, the sword of bravery. A jian (Chinese longsword), it can cut or pierce through nearly any material to reach its target. An ancient and legendary sword stolen from Nanda Parbat.

Civilian Occupation: Professional Thief

Biography---------

Character History/Origin: Siobhan McKenna was born in Galway, Ireland to Devin and Lydia McKenna. Due to her father’s out of control alcoholism, he had trouble keeping a steady job for long—they often found themselves counting on government assistance. Resentful of the turn his life had taken, Devin vented his frustrations through verbal and physical abuse towards his wife and daughter.

At school, Siobhan was often picked on by the other children for her unusual height, being taller than any boy in her class. The stress from this caused her to eat and gain weight, which only caused their bullying to become worse. Nicknamed “Big Bertha” McKenna by classmate Beatrix O’Kelly, she spent most of her early school years in bitter isolation.

The torment she endured at both home and school often bled over. For example, whenever Beatrix and her gang would trip her into a mudpuddle, potentially ruining one of her few outfits. Upon seeing her come home covered in filth, Devin would always fly into a rage about having to buy her new clothes with their limited finances, ensuring an already horrible day became that much worse.

To escape her hated reality, Siobhan often enjoyed reading and watching fantasy novels and films. These allowed her to lose herself in another world, a world where she could go on endless, amazing adventures, free from her father or Beatrix. The aesthetics and elegance displayed in Wushu films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon captivated her the most.

After her father passed away from a heart attack shortly after she turned thirteen, Siobhan often found herself alone after school as her mother began working to support them. It was during this time that she decided to leave the realm of fantasy and actually train in the martial arts she had become so fascinated by. Unfortunately, there were no Kung Fu schools near her home, and so she ultimately had to settle for the Galway Academy of Shotokan Karate.

It wasn’t quite what she had expected—instead of the exciting battles she had witnessed in many a karate film, her dojo was mainly concerned with calisthenics, aerobic exercises, and point-based sparring. Still, she fully dedicated herself to the classes, tired of being the butt of everyone’s joke. For an entire year, she would spend each and every afternoon after school (and the entirety of the weekend) training.

In that time, she greatly impressed her teachers with the speed at which she learned techniques and kata. While most students only trained twice a week, Siobhan never missed a single day of her first year there, even when ill. By the time she turned fourteen, “Big Bertha” was no more—her weight had been burned away by more than a thousand hours of intensive training. She would soon after compete in her first tournament, which she easily walked away from with a trophy for first place, despite her youth.

Her heart now swelling with a newfound confidence, Siobhan boasted of her skills to all who would listen. This, unfortunately, attracted the attention of her old bully, Beatrix O’Kelly. “Bea”, as her friends called her, was now the women’s champion of their school’s boxing team despite only being a freshman. Having been Siobhan’s most relentless tormentor throughout their younger days, Bea disliked how uppity the ginger had become in the past year.

Challenging the other fourteen-year-old to a “friendly spar” one day after school, Siobhan chose to skip karate class for the very first time to meet with her. When she arrived, a small crowd of students had gathered to watch the exhibition. Her hands already taped and ready, Bea wasted little time in starting into Siobhan with her usual taunts, speculating on whether or not she was hiding drapes of sagging skin beneath her gi.

When the match at last began, the first hit, to everyone’s surprise, went to Siobhan when she successfully delivered a hard kick to Bea’s stomach, dropping the boxer to her knees. Surprised by the sheer reach of Siobhan’s legs, the 5’8 Beatrix was nevertheless on her feet in mere seconds. Closing the distance between them again, Siobhan once more took advantage of her superior reach to strike her opponent in the face—only to find herself on the defensive immediately afterwards.

It was then, as blow after powerful blow hammered her head and body, that Siobhan began to understand the shortcomings of the martial art she had been so zealously studying. During the tournament she had won, the fighting had always been stopped by the referee after one of them had successfully landed a strike on their opponent. In fact, throughout all her training, emphasis had been placed on Kiai, the act of posing and shouting after a successful hit.

Indeed, that is what she had done after each of her first two successful hits, and now she was paying the price. Her offhand had remained down by her waist in proper hikite form, just as she had been taught, leaving her head an easy target. When she finally awoke to the sight of the sniggering faces of Bea’s gang standing over her, Siobhan was forced to admit a painful truth to herself: despite all her training over the past year, despite having won that tournament…she didn’t know how to fight.

In fact, her journey had only just begun.

After this humiliating loss, Siobhan returned to many of her old habits—once again she wore a hoody to school to hide from those who might jeer at her from the sides. Once again, she avoided talking to others unless absolutely necessary. Once again, she had to endure the taunts of O’Kelly, who often would joke that they had to wave a donut in her face to revive her after she was knocked out.

But she hadn’t given up. On the contrary, she was now training harder than ever. Not just at the dojo, but in her very backyard. Having explained the events of her match with O’Kelly to several of her fellow karate students, they began to meet in secret each day to practice full-contact sparring. Siobhan now understood that the only way she would ever learn to fight was by actually fighting.

For yet another year she trained relentlessly alongside her small gang of friends from Galway Academy of Shotokan Karate. Together, they honed the practical aspects of their martial art to a degree they never could have if they had merely followed their instructor’s teachings. Not long after turning fifteen, Siobhan was officially recognized as a black belt, earning her 1st dan in just two years.

But Beatrix O’Kelly had once again outdone her. At the mere age of fifteen, she had just returned from Rio de Janeiro with a gold medal around her neck, having become the youngest boxer to ever accomplish such a feat. Naturally, her popularity at school exploded, and soon offers of scholarships to far more prestigious academies came flooding in. It was only a matter of time before Bea would leave their ruddy comprehensive behind forever.

And Siobhan was livid. She was infuriated, in fact. After O’Kelly had humiliated her so, she was going to just prance off into the sunset? She wasn’t about to let that happen. Not before she at least had a chance to avenge all the years of suffering at her hands.

Issuing another challenge to O’Kelly, Siobhan was shocked when she not only rejected it, but outright dismissed her. She had a reputation to uphold now, and duking it out with another student in the streets could endanger her scholarship. She called Siobhan’s grudge pathetic and childish, and told her to move on with whatever sad life she could achieve.

It was a response Siobhan wasn’t about to accept. If O’Kelly wouldn’t willingly face her, then she’d have to make her.

Grabbing an old t-shirt from her heavier days and wrapping it into an effective ninja mask with the help of a youtube demonstration video, she stormed into the gymnasium during the women’s boxing team’s training hours. While Beatrix had taken a break from the team to recover from her long trip back home, that was just fine with Siobhan.

She had often had her fellow karate students attack her in groups during their private training sessions, and so she knew that the first rule of fighting multiple people was to never let them surround you. Without a word, she attacked the first of O’Kelly’s teammates, who was busy taping up her hands. Instantly knocking her out with a hard kick to the side of her head, Siobhan quickly moved onto the next, who had only just realized what was happening. Another hard kick to the sternum sent this one to the ground, and a stomp to her head kept her there.

Staying quick on her feet, Siobhan maneuverer around the gymnasium, taking full advantage of her superior reach to beat them down one by one. Their skill paled in comparison to Beatrix’s, and it showed. In the end, the only one left standing was a trembling freshman. Leaving her untouched, Siobhan told her to tell her captain that “Big Bertha” would be waiting for her in the park.

And so she did, hiding in the bushes just in case Bea had decided to simply call the police on her. Fortunately, her rival’s anger had gotten the better of her, and she had indeed come alone, hands already taped. When Siobhan emerged, no words were exchanged between them, the only sound being a scream of rage as Beatrix launched herself towards the other girl.

Once again, Siobhan drew first blood, countering Beatrix’s furious attack by imbedding her shoe into her face. Stumbling back, blood falling from her nose, Bea barely had time to think before a second kick slammed into her sternum. There would be no kiai this time, no hikite. Only kicks, punches, throws, and joint locks.

Bea tried to fight back, tried to get inside her opponent’s reach, but Siobhan was relentless this time. She seemed to have a counter for whatever the boxer tried. Get inside? A throw or joint lock. Try and outbox? Exploit superior reach. Use your anger to push through it all?

Siobhan had an entire childhood’s worth of suppressed rage for her.

And then, at last, Beatrix O’Kelly fell. Down onto the grass, sprawled out on her back. She stirred, tried to stand, but Siobhan was now on top of her. One punch after another slammed into Bea’s face, her vision blurring. When her last punch landed without a grunt of protest, the newly christened black belt stopped.

Beatrix was out cold. She had won. At last, after so many years, she had finally overcome her tormentor. The burning confidence she had felt after the tournament returned, and this time it had a solid foundation.

O’Kelly never reported their encounter at the park to the police, for fear of what would happen to her scholarship. Siobhan didn’t care if nobody knew; she hadn’t done it to impress others. She just needed to prove to herself that she was better.

Optional information
----------
Nemesis:
Allies:
Team:

---

Have you ever found yourself dangling from a cliff, the strength of merely your fingers protecting you from a painful death thousands of feet below you? I'm doing that right now. And I'll be the first to tell you that it's even worse than it sounds. The Heirloom Seal is in my left hand, dangerously close to being lost once more, while I try desperately to pull myself back up with my right. Damn the others to Hell! All of them running at the first sign of danger, leaving me to die!

Well if there's one thing I know, it's that I laugh in the face of death almost daily; it's nearly a second job. Pocketing the Seal, I throw my left hand up to the cliff and begin to pull myself up... Only to stop short at the sound of footsteps not too far ahead of me. Voices speak, distinctly German. I can't make out what they're saying, but I know exactly who they are: the scum of the Earth, led by the dastardly Adolf Hitler himself - Nazis!

I lower myself further to hide my presence from the German soldiers. Between the strong gusts of wind that come from being this high up and my rusty German, I can barely understand what they're saying, but what I do grasp is proof enough that they're after me; one of them said that I must be around here, judging by what the others told them. Poor bastards. They must be dead now. Comeuppance enough for their abandoning me.

I begin to climb along the cliff to try and get away from the Germans. I successfully manage to shimmy along until a chunk of the cliff flies out as I grab it and takes the plunge to the depths below, making me curse as I nearly go along with it. The Germans hear me, and soon I find myself facing the barrel of an MP40 submachine gun. I nearly reach into my shoulder holster to grab my M1911, but I know it would be futile and only lead to an untimely death. Instead, I give the Nazis peering over the edge a nervous grin. "Uh... Hallöchen!"

They drag me up and throw me to the ground. When I try to crawl up in a sitting position, one of them slams his boot into my face, sending me right back. "Woah, guys, we can talk about this!" Another one, seemingly their commanding officer, kneels down beside me. He gives a dark, foreboding chuckle, before speaking in heavily accented English.

"No, American, we cannot." He pulls a combat knife from his boot. "Now tell me. Where is the Heirloom Seal?" I stay silent. He clicks his tongue in disappointment, shaking his head with a tsk. "Not going to talk? Strong will you have. It appears I must take your extremities. Maybe then you will speak."

My eyes shoot open in terror, and I raise my hands. "Woah-ho-ho, okay, fine! It's in my pocket, right here!"

"Very good. I will be sure to retrieve it after I cut off your scrotum." He takes the knife to my crotch. Acting quickly, I swing around and kick him in the head, leaping to my feet and tackling one of the Nazis to the ground, mere inches away from the cliff's edge. We struggle for a moment, before he rolls on top of me... And great timing too, as I hear the distinct booms of machine gunfire, putting him down. With his corpse on top of me, I pull the gun from my holster and fire at the Nazis, killing one, two, three, four...

*CLICK!*

"Dammit!" I push the Nazi's corpse off of me and over the edge, before rolling backwards and grabbing the cliff's edge. I begin to shimmy along, the remaining Germans firing in an attempt to get one of my hands. One of them runs forward to stomp on my left hand; I quickly grab his ankle and yank him over the edge before he can do so. He falls to the ground below with a scream which dies down the further he goes, before cutting off as he hits the ground. Poor son of a bitch.

Quickly, I pull a magazine out of my pockets with my right hand and swiftly reload my gun, before reaching over the edge and firing blindly again until it's out. I continue shimmying along, before dropping down onto another cliff's edge. I nearly stumble and fall, before a strong gust of wind pushes me forward and onto my face. I pick myself up, just in time to see the Germans firing at me and running to leap to my position. I quickly break into a sprint, running around a corner in an attempt to lose them.

Soon, all I can hear is their far off shouting. I stop to catch my breath, chuckling to myself. "Fucking Hell, that was close..."

... But my rest is short lived, as not long after I hear shouting right behind me. I turn around, seeing a Nazi soldier looking in the direction of his friends, shouting that he's found me. Acting fast, I run towards him and leap, delivering a drop kick to his chest that sends him flying over the edge of a cliff. He screams as he falls, "MEIN LEBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!" Well, that's indicator enough that he found me. I run again.

After turning a corner, still running and looking over my shoulder to see if they're following me, I bump into someone. I pull out my gun in fear that I found a Nazi, only to realize too late that I had forgotten to reload it during the brief break I had... And then I realize there's no reason for me to, as the person I bumped into is dressed in the conventional clothing of a Buddhist Monk. "Aw Hell, sorry, I'm just in a bit of a jam right now and I..." I pause. "... You don't speak English do you?"

His answer is a bewildered expression and some confused sounding Chinese. I knew I should've learned at least some rudimentary Chinese before I came up here, because I can't understand what the hell he's saying. "Listen, buddy, I am in some deep shit right now. I need you to hide me out in your monastery."

He continues to speak in a rapid fire, confused manner. I almost feel bad for the guy; some strange American just bumped into him while he was probably out in his Zen garden or something. I decide to book it, dashing towards the monastery in the distance. He shouts after me, before he's silenced by a gunshot. More follow, bullets whizzing past me or hitting the ground behind me as I run.

I slam my entire weight into the monastery doors, bursting through the old oak and shouting in pain. Man, that stings! But there's no time to get over the pain as I keep running. I notice a pillar decorated with a banner, going up to a balcony on the second floor that overlooks this entrance room that I seem to be in. I jump up and scramble up the wall, grabbing hold of the banner and climbing up it as fast as I can. Come on, come on...

My left hand grabs the railing of the balcony and I pull myself up, landing on my behind when I get over. I look up at two monks who give me a strange and almost terrified look. I pick myself up and give them a sheepish grin. "Uh, sorry about that, I just uhhhh..." The Nazis run through the doorway at that moment, and I look on with wide eyes. "GET DOWN!" I grab the two monks and throw myself and them to the ground, just in time too, as gunfire erupts and hits the wall where we once were.

"Go, go!" I shout, waving my hands for them to get out of here. Thankfully, they take heed and run, the Nazis barely missing them as they head deeper into the temple. I shamble towards the cover of the large wooden pillar, catching my breath... Then I hear it. "Granate!" A stick grenade lands a few feet to my right.

"SHIT!" I pull myself up and run forward, the grenade exploding with a large *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!* behind me! I stumble into the next room, thankfully avoiding taking any shrapnel or splintered wood to my body. I keep running, heading towards a window which heads to the large set of stone stairs outside the entrance, which leads back down the mountain. I push the shutters open and begin to climb out of it, grabbing onto the windowsill, before dropping to the ground below. Out of the monastery, I begin to run down the stairs so that I can head back to the plane that brought me and my late crew of backstabbing bastards here.

But halfway down the stairs, I hear it... German shouting at the top of the steps. Then gunfire. "Dammit!" I begin to sprint even faster as bullets whizz past me. If I'm being entirely honest, I'm more scared of tripping and falling all the way down these steps than I am taking a bullet to the head; at least that would be quicker and less painful!

Thankfully, it's not long before I'm back at the base, where the plane is parked. Tommy, one of my friends and my loyal pilot, is there, smoking a cigar. I look over my shoulder and curse. The Nazis are gaining on me! I turn back around and sprint faster than I ever have. "TOMMY! GET THE PLANE STARTED!"

His bored expression morphs into a look of shock as he sees my sweaty, bloodsoaked form sprinting towards them. Fear quickly mingles with his expression as he looks up the stairs and sees the dozen Nazis giving me chase. Quickly, he climbs into the cockpit and gets the engine started.

Bullets strike near my feet, mere inches away from them in fact, and I nearly end up doing a dance as I run to avoid them. I reach the plane and quickly climb into it, before Tommy finally takes off. I give a loud "WOOHOO!" as we take off, leaving the Nazis behind. I laugh, nearly crying from the joy. "Tommy, you old son of a bitch, you just saved my life!"

"What the Hell was that all about?"

"Guessing our old buddy the Fuhrer was after the Seal as well. But no worries. I managed to grab it." I pull the jade Seal from my coat pocket, smiling fondly as I admire it. "This will fetch a high price my friend. The others... Weren't as lucky as I was. They won't be getting their cut, which means more for us."

"What happened to them?"

"Left me for dead as soon as the going got rough. Karma ended up biting them in the ass when they ran into the Germans."

"Poor bastards."

"I'll say... Well, time to head back to Gotham. Someone there will definitely take it. Maybe that old gangster Falcone will want a prized jewel to add to his collection or something."

"Let's hope."

With that, I close my eyes and lean back into my seat, prepared to sleep after that harrowing escape...

---

---

To many people, Kailani could easily be described as a puppy. Excitable, curious, and hasn’t quite learned the nuances of what is and isn’t a chew toy. She is incredibly upbeat, often sporting a toothy grin and bright eyes, as well as being incredibly hard to shake from that stance. Even death isn’t much of a dampener on her mood, being that she’s eaten plenty of people before - she sees bodies in a detached way and is never made queasy by death.

It’s a good idea to keep an eye on her actually, considering that ‘eating’ is her usual way of exploring or discovering something she’s curious about. Which, again, is a lot. Everything appears new to Kailani, and she’s an eager student - so far she likes batteries! They make her tongue tingle.

As an aside, she’ll often describe things by taste or texture rather than anything useful.



Black Hole: Kailani’s race is famous for their ability to devour anything. Solids, liquids, acids, rocks, bones - they can digest absolutely everything, as well as bite through everything with a combination of powerful jaws and strangely coated teeth, not to mention a reinforced throat. On the flip side however, they eat a lot, and if they don’t get enough mass ingested their bodies will begin to eat itself from the inside out.

Alien Physiology: The armor-like hide and heavy density seem to travel over with Kailani whenever she’s in her human form - getting her on a scale will bring up extremely strange results.

Adaption: These aliens are also extremely adaptable to their environment, as they have to be in order to eat whatever is in it! When they eat enough of a species they can take on qualities of it in shapeshifting - but not specific ones they ate, rather just a variation of the race. As well as that, due to being bred partially to help with recycling, their very lungs will adapt to whatever planet they’re in to purify the air; on earth they’d breathe in carbon monoxide and exhale oxygen, as well as destroying harmful pathogens they inhale as their body attacked with the ferocity of breaking down whatever entered their bodies.

Adaption Part 2: Electric Boogaloo: Part of the previous ability includes being able to pick up languages extremely easily, and even if their natural language of pitches and growls from large mouths full of sharp teeth can’t handle it that’s what the shapeshifting is for!

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Historically, Devourers have a very mixed reputation. They were first discovered when their natural predator on the planet Zaox became endangered, allowing them to breed out of control and emerge from underground. Soon they were devouring cities, people, and it’s said the very planet - down to the last rock they stood on. After all, with their hardy constitution and adaptability if they could survive being without food long enough to hit another planet while floating around, they’d just continue on with engorging themselves on everything in its path.

With that being said, Devourers when not hungry (or at least, not as hungry) showed an obvious intellect. Their bodies adapted to any place they were found, some being found green and covered in leafy foliage while others were course-skinned with diamonds seemingly embedded in them. More than that, they seemed to be able to almost understand any race they came across - sometimes as friends, more often as enemies.

Eventually, someone had the idea to use them. A good, well-fed Devourer could completely replace a garbage compactor and seemed happy for it - better for the environment, better to not make an enemy of the dangerous creatures.

There were still incidents, like what happened on Pekelo.

No one can really say where the original Devourers came from. If a pregnant one had eaten its last planet and ended up landing on Pekelo, if someone smuggled some eggs in and lost them, or even if they had always been there but contained. What everyone on Pekelo knows is that one day they were discovered - a whole infestation of Devourers, having already eaten what was estimated to be a tenth of the planet’s core beneath the crust. It certainly explained the influx of earthquakes and cave-ins.

A group of Devourers that big would never have a use, not when they couldn’t be contained. That’s why the Lantern Corps were called in. Devourers are strong, tough, fast - they needed the power of the Yellow Lanterns to be exterminated for the good of everyone on Pekelo. Yet not everyone felt this was fair. They were intelligent, could seemingly understand them like they did to so many races before, and though the planet was in danger it wasn’t the Devourers’ faults for being what they were.

So it was that a small group of them began to smuggle what Devourers they could convince to let them help to safety.

This is what happened to Kailani - though she didn’t go by that name at the time. As one of the smallest Devourers, excluding babies and the very young, she was easy to pack in a transport pod at her mother’s urging to go with Pekelo’s natives. It was her bad luck that this was also when the Yellow Lanterns discovered what was going on. In the ensuing scuffle her transport pod was damaged, and though it took off it went off course - which may be why the Lanterns never caught up. It was her continued bad luck that she ended up in the Milky Way, and inevitably, the mostly uncontacted Earth.

She hit land, at least, as adapting to live in liquids was never pleasant.

After eating the door off the transport pod Kailani found herself on a little island, that had even stranger creatures. For awhile she kept to herself, only observing them and eating the remains of her ship after they had finished investigating it.

That’s when the strangers came, similar to her bipedal creatures - but different. Unbeknownst to Kailani she had landed on one of the very few uncontacted tribal lands in Polynesia, and with the governments that normally kept the laws regarding them being uncontacted in complete disarray after the One-Week War, these people became nothing more than a point of interest to mercenaries. Wealthy collectors would pay a pretty dollar for exotic things from these islands - for pictures, mementos, evidence they had been where no one else was allowed. It was lucky that it was very few who had this interest, otherwise the islands might have been stripped bare before Kailani arrived.

As it so happened, Kailani found a connection with these strange creatures, stranded on this island as she was. So when the new bipedal creatures pointed strange things at them that made loud noises and shot fire, she went to their defense, and did what she did best - devouring the strangers, devouring their weapons, devouring every trace they had ever been there.

And when it happened again with people seeking out their comrades, then again for that crew, so did Kailani’s rampage happen again.

Eventually the people of the island began to help feed her enormous appetite. She protected them after all - even if she sometimes dug up the graves of the recently dead to eat. (After all, it must have been a gift! Why bury perfectly good food if not for the burrowing creature to snack?)

Between the strangers and the familiars, Kailani even managed to change to a form that could blend in to these people - it just took a couple crew of men.

It was during the fifth “month” that the fourth group of bipedals showed up. As usual, Kailani had happily scampered into the water to swim out to them - and was met with amusement as this small girl had clambered up into the boat, curious and bright eyed. That amusement was quickly replaced with alarm when she bit a man’s arm clean off. Even more so when a bullet just seemed to rebound off her skin!

In all, it seemed to be just another boat full or morsels for Kailani… until it wasn’t. Until there was a person she couldn’t just handle with teeth.

Well, to be fair, she probably could devour the woman… if Kailani could actually manage to sink her teeth in. Yet as it was the last person on the boat had managed to stop her cold, with movements too fast to track and blows that strangely hurt. Even changing back to her true form didn’t help!

When Kailani retreated to lick her wounds the woman followed, as curious about the alien as it was to her. It took some time for Kailani to figure out more of the language this woman spoke, but thanks to catching snippets of what the other bipedals spoke soon Kailani was parroting phrases back. It helped once she stopped trying to bite this strange woman on realizing she was no longer interested on the other residents of the island.

And what this woman, now introduced as Siobhan, spoke of was so fascinating! Creatures all gathered in cities like the scampering people of her own planet, but even more densely populated and full of strange contraptions, strange materials, strange food. When Kailani was promised that these people would be left alone after the latest disaster to befall an expedition, not to mention the girl’s own burning curiosity, well … how could she resist going to America?

Even if she's not allowed to eat people anymore.

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