Blackstripe

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

@Zero Hex Looks good to me! Approved!

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

January 1st, 7:37 PM
Madison Square Garden, New York

"Jones!" shouted Karen when he approached her, following his lead without hesitation as they fled to the safe room he had prepared in the event of such an attack. "He came out of nowhere...and there was something weird about him. I don't think he was a normal meta human like the last one!"

When they arrived at the safe room, Karen glanced at the guards in concern. "Is everyone alright back there? Did any fans get hurt?"

More than anything, she hated the idea that the people who had attended her show were yet again in danger because of her. Was it wrong for her to keep trying to host concerts if this was going to be the result? Maybe she should just cancel the rest of her tour, for their sake.

Even Sterling Records had to see what a complete disaster it would be if this became a regular occurrence.

January 1st, 7:38 PM
Madison Square Garden, New York

Timothy's eyes widened when the orange skinned monster skated across the arena after being thrown back. How had his attack not caused more damage than that to her? And how could she be so quick? Between the pain that was finally starting to overwhelm him and her speed, he was unable to dodge her kick.

Crying out in pain as it slammed him hard against the stage, his teeth slammed together with enough force to crack several and loosen a few more. His world began to spin, and he clumsily started to push himself back up, only for him to catch the glint of an oncoming dagger. Reflexively raising his hand, it pierced clean through it and spilled his impossibly crimson blood onto the stage.

"GRYAAAH!" he howled in pain, clutching his hand.

But his screaming would not last long. When the blunted tendrils of void slammed into him, his voice cracked and caught in his throat, and his eyes rolled back into his head. His body spasmed sharply, and then, at last, he fell limp onto the stage.

The fight was over.

Slowly, cautiously, the uninjured security guards began to make their way back to the stage. Their weapons were raised, just in case there was any fight left in him.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

January 1st, 7:37 PM
Madison Square Garden, New York

@MsMorningstar@DC The Dragon

Timothy screamed when the metallic framework of the stage sprang to life and encircled his legs, thrashing helplessly against them. Turning his bloodshot gaze on the one responsible, he scowled. "KAREN IS MINE, BLACK LIGHTNING!! YOU WON'T TAKE HER FROM ME!!"

Reaching down to grasp the metal beams that had ensnared him, a red energy immediately split open a thin network of web-like fissures throughout Timothy's body, starting with his chest and ultimately reaching his hands. It hurt worse than anything he had ever felt before, like a hot iron had been ran through his every blood vessel. But that wouldn't stop him. Nothing would, until he had her.

"Grrrnnn..." Timothy growled through the pain, the metal soon glowing with the same red light he did. Twisting and deforming from the simple stage framework they once were, the ends split open into distinctly cobra-like mouths sporting a pair of shimmering fangs, the bodies having been sculpted into gleaming serpents with deep crimson eyes. Even he himself hadn't known what result using that power would have on steel; he barely understood what he had been given.

He was nevertheless pleased with the results.

"KILL HIM!!" Timothy shouted to the steel serpents, who immediately uncoiled from his legs and lunged for his attacker, tearing clean through the stage when it tried to restrain the lower parts of their lengthy bodies. "TEAR HIM--GGHK!"

For the second time tonight, somebody else had pulled his arm behind his back, and this person was strong! Too strong for him to ever have any hope of breaking under his own power. But he didn't have to rely on his own power anymore!

"LEAVE. ME. ALONE!!!" he roared, releasing a second, even more powerful omni-directional shock wave of Chaotic energy. While it would badly burn those who were vulnerable to such things, it also produced considerable kinetic force, enough to easily shatter bones and blast humans across the room.

But this wasn't to be the end of his suffering.

Before he could even think of turning back to Karen, Timothy felt himself yet again being restrained...and this time by what looked like his own shadow! It had encased him, and constricted his breath. What was this...? It felt...familiar, like the power they had given him. But it couldn't be them! They wouldn't betray him, surely? He was just doing what they told him to do...

He violently shook his head, trying to retain his consciousness.

Damn it...it couldn't end like this...not when he was...so close...!

"...GAH!" Timothy gasped, his shadow having released him. At the same time, he managed to glimpse more shadows wrapping around what he assumed was the one that had grabbed him just before. He didn't care, the one with the weird shadow powers was the other woman, the one that said--

”Star, get out of there!”

Narrowing his eyes on the costumed nuisance, Timothy screamed and slammed his fists down into the stage. Again, he had little idea what the effect of this would be, but he knew it would hurt them both, but hopefully her worse. As predicted, a thousand needles of searing pain shot through him. Tim threw his head back in agony as the red fissures in his body further parted, and from his fists flowed a dual channel of energy through the wooden surface of the stage, both heading straight towards the costumed woman.

All along these channels arose a most unnatural black fire that seemed to lash out towards the woman with a deliberate and malicious intend, attempting to encircle her and reduce her to ash.

Only briefly appraising his handiwork, he quickly refocused his attention back to where Karen had been...only for his eyes to widened in horror upon realizing that she was gone!

"NO! NO, NO, NO, NO!!" Timothy screamed clutching his head. Falling to his knees, he slammed his skull against the stage with enough force to knock a normal man unconscious and splinter the wood beneath the point of impact. "SHE'S GONE! SHE--"

He glared at the trio of "heroes" and pointed in their direction. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!! I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!!"

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

@Rondo of Blood Okay! Everything looks good now, accepted!

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

@Sir Lurksalot Well done! Accepted!

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

January 1st, 6:04 PM
Madison Square Garden, New York City

“Broken horns, scattered feathers, cracked fangs, what’s it matter?” sang Karen as she danced across the stage in a series of fluid yet powerful motions, her own style of self-taught freestyle.

She reached a hand out towards the seats immediately in front of her stage, staring into the eyes of each terran in the front row, regardless of their species. ”Your fur is wet, with bones that ache, they’re waiting for your will to break.”

Spinning on her heel, her dance continued, her movements become wilder, even wrathful. Sharp, aggressive stomps and harsh cuts through the air with her hands served to emphasize the anger pouring from the lyrics.

“A cold laugh pierces your ear, just give in, surrender to fear! You’re just a Demon, just a Mage, just a Monster, you can’t cry for help. No one will see your Blood-Stained Pelt!”

Karen could feel her heart pounding against her chest as she neared the end of her first song. Blood-Stained Pelt was easily one of the darkest, and certainly the angriest song she had ever written. It had been born of the disgust she had felt whenever another terracide had been ignored because the victim hadn’t been human.

“Don’t let them win, fight back the pain, listen to the fire burning in your veins! You’re just a Demon, just a Mage, just a Monster, you don’t need their help! We’ll make them see your Blood-Stained Pelt!”

A final scream from the guitar behind her extinguished the lights as she fell into a crouch. As the music went silent, the bone rattling cheers of the crowd once again swept over the stage unopposed.

Breathing heavily, Karen subtly grinned. That was one song down, with eleven more to go—not counting for encores.

Her one thousand guests in the front row roared, screeched, and barked their approval at her performance, and she slowly stood to offer them her warmest smile. They all looked so very different from the rest of the people in attendance, and from each other, even. But on none of their faces did she see malice or cruelty.

“You know, even if they don’t see you, I do!” said Karen in between shallow pants. “And anyone who believes in my music sees you too! Who here believes?”

The arena trembled with the crowd’s affirmation. Karen allowed their cheer to linger unopposed for several moments in other to fully regain her breath. She would need it. No amount of cardio would let you dance your heart out for five minutes straight without being at least a little winded.

“Then show me! Throw your hands in the air!”

The beat of the drums behind her heralded the start of “Tear Through the Doubt”, a decidedly more upbeat song than the last about finding the courage to not bow down to sorrow and oppression.

And so she continued to work her way through her latest album. One song after another was completed, with her taking an occasional intermission to have a glass of water and freshen herself up. Before she had even realized it, Karen was already on the tenth song of the night, the one immediately preceding the album’s titular “Fighting the Hate”, which she usually saved for last at live performances.

It must have been past seven-thirty by that point, easily.

“Guess there’s no sense putting it off any longer,” said Karen, offering a wry smile to Jones as she sat backstage sipping from her water jug. “Just two more songs, and I can crash for the rest of the night.”

Just two...but the first of those had been mandated by Sterling Records as a part of the “new look” they were pushing for her.

Originally, the company had presented her with a song they had written—the only one she hadn’t composed herself since her professional debut. There was no substance in it, no message, it was sleaze. She wasn’t even certain how they had planned to show it on any mainstream site. They referred to the idea behind it as being “shock therapy” for her fanbase.

She rejected it out of hand with some very choice words, and made it clear that while they might own her name and image, they weren’t going to own her beliefs or message. After a lot of back and forth arguing between them, Sterling Records finally agreed to a compromise. That was when Karen wrote “Work Your Fur”, a song that sought to prove that all terrans were desirable in their own unique ways.

Exhaling sharply, she stood from her seat and offered a quick wink to Jones over her shoulder. “Seems like the night was a success, huh? Not even a thrown bottle.”

“See you after the show!”

Stepping out onto the stage amid the bright lights, she raised her hands to greet the crowd for the last time tonight. Her usual backup dancers had been partially replaced with a rather distinct group consisting of three harpies, a female minotaur, and a couple of rakshasa.

“Hey! Who out there’s got a tail?” asked Karen.

A number of enthusiastic roars and barks rose from the one thousand seats before her, with several long and slender tails whipping about in excitement.

“How about tail feathers? Or fur?”

Screeches and lower growls were this time her response. Several very large and hairy terrans of various species stood proudly from their seats, while a dozen harpies eagerly squawked.

“And who knows how to work what they’ve got?” asked Karen, her lips parting into a grin, the whole arena now on their feet. ”Then show me how you work that tail! Show me how you work those feathers! Show me how you Work That Fur!”

Like a massive heart at the center of the arena, a hard and rhythmic beat swept over the crowd, who could doubtlessly feel it in their feet. It was a sound not typically associated with Karen, more Hip-Hop than rock or R&B.

---

7:36, Madison Square Garden

“K-Karen…” panted Timothy Vanz, staring at the distant idol from his seat, which was about as close to the stage as non-monsters and mages could be. It wasn’t fair that they got to be closer to her.

His breaths came out wet and sickly. His nerves burned like his blood had been replaced with magma. He didn’t care.

”You hear some say that fur can’t twerk, but fuck that shit, we’ll make it work! Scales, feathers, tails, and fur, you can shake it with the best of us, that’s fo sho!”

Timothy stretched one hand out towards her, even as the other clutched at his heart in a futile effort to suppress the sharp lances piercing through it with every beat it forced out. Coppery drool fell from his lips as he watched her every movement with his bloodshot eyes.

The pain meant nothing to him. It was a gift. He had been given power by them, and all they wanted in exchange was for him to claim what was rightfully his when the time arrived. Said time was to be during her last song, “Fighting the Hate”...but the wait was maddening when all he could do was watch her.

The subtle ripple of her bronzen thighs as she danced across the stage throughout the night had been tortuous enough, but with this song it was ten times worse. Twerking...it was like she was beckoning to him with every clap. She wanted him as much as he did her.

“Grrr…I...c-can’t…” he snarled, squeezing his chest tighter. The symbols that had etched across his body felt like they were going to melt straight through him. It had proven a welcomed distraction from his own desire. But it wasn’t enough anymore. “...c-can’t take it…!”

Timothy shot from his seat, unleashing a scream that easily rose above surrounding cheers. “KAREN!””

With a massive leap, he easily cleared the distance between his chair and the stage—a good twenty feet at least. His metagene gave him the ability to leap up to twenty-five feet, but was otherwise rather unimpressive, just like he was.

Was.

Starting towards Karen, his eyes began to glow with a crimson hunger.

“W-what are you doing?” she asked, backing away. “Stay back!”

He had only just managed to make out what she had said in his haze. It didn’t matter. She would be his, they couldn’t stop him. She couldn’t stop him...he would make her understand that they were meant to be together.

“Ugh…?!”

He felt a strong arm wrap around his throat, his left arm being forcefully pulled behind his back as a large security guard tried to throw him to the ground. But he would not move. This man was nothing to him—nothing but another obstacle between him and his Karen.

“GET OFF OF ME!” he screamed, a pulse of crimson Chaos magic expanding from his center to blast the security guard back into the half-dozen men who were right behind him, the guard’s flesh now marred with sickening burns. His cries of pain forced a smile from Timothy.

Good. That’s what he deserved for trying to keep them apart.

Stalking towards Karen again, who had started towards the backstage, he reared back for a powerful leap. He would seize her, and then flee the arena quickly.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

January 1st, 5:56 PM
Madison Square Garden, New York City

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” said Karen, smiling.

Getting changed had given her a chance to cool down a bit after her heated argument with her tour manager. She really couldn't stand that guy—a company appointee. She had tried many times to explain the importance behind the tour, but all he ever saw were the dollar signs. Not that the dollar was worth a whole lot.

Things were getting a little better as people began adjusting to the status quo the world had fallen into, but a cup of fairly plain coffee still cost nine-fifty at any corner shop. A lot more if you went to a more upscale place like Starbucks.

Pointing her eyes forward down the hallway, Karen took a set of steadying breaths. In just a few minutes she would be stepping out onto the biggest stage of her career. In addition to the more than twenty thousand people in attendance, they were also streaming it live to many millions more.

She couldn't afford to mess this up.

As they neared the entrance to the main part of the stadium, the low roar of the crowd became apparent. They weren’t even really cheering yet, but their endless natter nevertheless carried through the walls. It only grew louder when they neared the doors themselves, a pair of armed security guards nodding her a silent acknowledgement.

Swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, Karen glanced to Jones. “Wish me luck.”

The guards pushed the doors open, and the undiluted screams of her fans hit her like a wave crashing over the rocks. Raising her hands to greet the crowd as she walked down a lane between the ascending rows of seats on either side, she couldn’t help but note the half-dozen additional guards that flanked her path.

As she passed, hands would occasionally reach out for her. Security was quick to—rather gruffly—shove these people back into their seats and issue them a firm warning.

But none of that mattered; she wouldn’t be afraid.

Slowly ascending a short flight of steps, Karen stepped onto the wooden stage where her instrumentalists and backup dancers were already waiting in the darkened parts towards the back. Being passed a tiny headset microphone by a stagehand, she fastened it to her ear and carefully adjusted the mic until it was just in front of her lips.

Blue, purple, and green lights burst to life all around her as she took center stage, and Karen once again raised her hands to acknowledge the almost deafening cheers of her fans. Although she made certain to sweep her gaze across the entirety of the arena, it was perhaps inevitable that she would settle on the row of seats directly in front of the stage.

Harpies, ghouls, gorgons, Cynocephali, and more were seated in attendance there, along with precisely one hundred Mages. These were the thousand seats she had purchased for Terrans that weren’t baseline or metahumans. Many of them were far too poor to ever afford a ticket themselves, and she had wanted to prove to them that she wasn’t all talk.

Taking in another breath, she offered the arena her very best smile.

”Who here is having a Happy New Year?”

The crowd’s enthusiastic response hit the stage with enough force to nearly bowl her over, a forest of hands whipping about in a disorganized frenzy. Sharp, piercing whistles and indiscernible screaming stabbed at her ears, but her smile remained unbroken.

”And who here is ready to rock?”

Again the roar of the crowd was deafening. Her ears would certainly be ringing after tonight.

Turning to face the greater stage, the darkness that had shrouded it up till now was instantly swept aside to reveal the instrumentalists and dancers. Karen pointed to the sky. ”Hit it!”

The sharp screech of a guitar pierced through the cacophony of enthusiasm pouring from the crowd, and it was soon joined by the thunderous beat of the drums as “Blood-Stained Pelt” began to play.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

@Alfhedil Alright, everything checks out! Accepted.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

@Sanity43217 ...Seriously?

Yes, you can make essentially the canon version of a character. But they still have to fit within the setting's lore! You can't just make up your own lore or take it from other sources.

So if somebody had made Clark Kent, for example, they would still have to make him fit within THIS game's world. He could still have grown up on a Kansas farm. He could still have parents named John and Martha. He could still move to Metropolis to become a reporter. But Smallville would have still been wiped out by the Blackthorn Coven. Perhaps his parents were killed in the Two Month War.

Do you understand? Even if they're essentially the same character, they live in different circumstances.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

@Korkoa Accepted.

@CaptainSully Goons and Speed of Sound is good! Just fix up the phrasing in your profile, please. Otherwise, accepted!

@Rondo of Blood Okay, that seems fine thus far.

@Sir Lurksalot Looks good to me!

@Sanity43217 WTF? No. >.>

Like...no.

You didn't even read the history. "Superboy"? Who is "Superboy"? When did I ever mention CADMUS?

I'm going to go out on limb here and say you just copied over this profile from another, more conventional DCRP and didn't bother changing anything on it to fit with this.

So no, rejected. Denied. Shame on you!