THE WEAPON MASTER'S ARMORY: MAGIC BOW

BY: Todd Goode id# 12205



You are walking through the center of the town market in Okinawa, Japan. There are some nice items for sell but clothing and food is not what you are looking for. An old man notices that you are a warrior and says," If you are looking for something special, there is a small shack at the edge of town. It's the one that looks like it's going to fall in. Go there, and you may find something to your liking. You give the old man a coin and thank him for his courtesy and follow his direction to the old shack.

You find the old shack and it definitely looks like it could collapse at any minute, but you enter anyway.

Everything is covered in dust and cobwebs and there is water damage on the floor from the leaky roof and it smells of mold and rotting wood.

You look around and see nothing but dilapidation and wasted time. Feeling a bit angry, you turn to leave the run-down shack only to be face to face with an old man with long white hair and overgrown brows, mustache and beard.

Startled and a little angry, you lash out at the old man with a strong super punch, but the old man blocks it with ease, grabs your arm and pushes you to the floor and says, "I am Katsuo Mitsurugi and this is my humble shop. Why are you here?"

I was told that I may find something of special use in combat by an old man with an eye patch in the town market. He sent me here. Now release me old man. I see there is nothing here. I will leave this place peacefully.

Mitsurugi grunts, "That was my older brother, He lost that eye years ago while fighting an evil called, Legion. He failed to duck a creature with the Hair of Medusa, and it removed him from his eye. In return, my brother relieved the creature of his hair by the neck. He must sense great power in you."

"Young warrior, looks can be deceiving. There is more here than you realize." Then Mitsurugi pulled a lever that at first appearance looked to be simple ornamental door molding.

The floorboards began to separate at the back of the run-down shack and a light could be seen shining through the opening.

Mitsurugi leads you to the opening and a lighted stairway.

"Follow me young one, this is my true buki ko and dojo. If you have the gold and the power level to wield it, I can train you on many mystical items."



"The newest item I have acquired for sale are these Magic Bow scrolls. Within these scrolls are the instructions to manifest a magical bow. A bow made of light brighter than the sun and enhanced with morphonic powers. With this bow you can shoot arrows hotter than the sun and you will never miss. This bow can hit anything within a thousand yards."

"I can offer you one scroll and training for 62 pieces of gold or for even more attack strength, I can offer a bundle of five scrolls for a special cost of 248 gold pieces."

You begin to laugh at the old man, "Ha Ha Ha! You must think I'm mental. Scrolls and magic bows. Get real old man!"

Mitsurugi grabs you and you both are teleported outside. "You doubt Mitsurugi?! Pick any target within a thousand yards!"

You point at an old cart around 300 yards away.

Mitsurugi says, "Pick again and make the distance much farther out!"

You point again to a saloon high atop of the mountain side. "You see that saloon old man? The one high on top of the mountain side? That is my saloon. In front of the saloon stands a small sign to welcome people. It can scarcely be seen from here. Hit that!"

Mitsurugi's eyes began to glow like the sun as he pointed and said, "That sign? It's pretty far away huh?"

A bow of light manifested in Mitsurugi's hand, and he pulled back and let loose a fiery arrow that found the target in seconds without even really aiming.

You begin to laugh again, "Ha Ha Ha! You missed old man!"

"Did I now?" replied Mitsurugi. "Call your saloon manager and have him look."

You call your saloon manager and have him check the sign. Sure enough, there was an arrow of light burning the sign.

"Okay, old man, you hit the sign but it's not doing much damage according to the manager."

Mitsurugi says, "I know. I've not released the arrows energy yet. That was to show the bows precision." Mitsurugi's eyes got even brighter, and the arrow exploded. "That is to show the arrows power."

The saloon manager could be heard yelling on the phone, "The sign! The sign is gone, and it took out my car as well," cried the saloon manager. You turn to the old man and say, "I'll take five".

Mitsurugi turns the bow towards you and says, "You will refer to me as Mitsurugi or Weapon Master!"

You quickly bow and ask for forgiveness. "Forgive my rudeness Mitsurugi-San. May I still have the offer?"

"I forgive you young warrior and the offer still stands but know this, there are five tiers of power to these magic bow scrolls. Each tier will increase the bows power, but each tier will also take more training and 105 pieces of gold per scroll per tier for 5 scrolls."

You bring the Weapon Master enough gold to tier all 5 scrolls to the fifth tier and say, "Here you go Master Mitsurugi, here is the gold. When does my training start?"

Mitsurugi bowed and said, "Thank you for your business. Your training will start early in the morning. Be on time and be prepared to stay for one month. Tier five will take some time to master and receive your magic irezumi. Now be gone until then! My favorite show, "As the World Burns," will start soon. The girls on that show really get my blood pumping, He He He."

You laugh and giggle to yourself as you walk away, "Yeah? Whatever. You're worse than Master Roshi old man."

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The Hanzo Ninja Clan Presents: Raiders Of The Lost Arx!

25104

Image by Daryl Danforth

Raids are now a well known and well used mainstay in Heroes Rising. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of energy to be a raid toon successfully. In the past, putting Skill Points (SP) into your Energy stat beyond what was generally needed was generally frowned upon for competitive toons. Some players squeezed every point they could into fight stats, spending none on their Energy Bank. Most took their Energy Banks up to 30 (20 SP) so that they could complete an entire Fight Club. A few pioneers like John Dellorusso went a step further and upped their Energy Banks to 50 fairly early on, to give them a leveling advantage. Energy Alts were the primary exception, but aren't really designed for competition.

Things have changed though. Back then, we were pushing levels of 200, 300, and 400 for ages. Leveling was very slow and stagnated. Players had to really hoard every SP and carefully decide where each should go. But as we start to quickly reach level 900 and look beyond to level 1000, SP are becoming less and less as crucial a resource. Don't get me wrong. They are still extremely important. But as more become available, small numbers spent experimenting in other areas become less of a liability. Early on, everyone put their SP in Move. As time went on and diminishing returns started to cost heavier and heavier tolls, adding SP to Att and Def started to make sense. Later still, adding large quantities of points to life started to see a strong benefit. Yet, at one time, 99% of players would tell you to build a strictly Move SP allotment.

Now, with raids becoming a bigger and bigger part of HR, trying to find the energy to do Patrols, Fight Club, Missions, and successfully Raid might seem impossible. It most certainly can be. Something is going to have to give. Either you're going to give up FC, and miss out on more MP and Crystals, or you're going to miss out on Patrols that provide power cards, MP, Crystals, Bux, AMA, Summoning Items, etc., or you're going to miss out doing maximum damage for what you want from the raids, making the process more difficult and costly to you in the long run. Energy Gifts only provide 420 energy a day. That's pretty much only going to dent a raid. You can buy items from the store that provide more energy or speeds up energy production, but those cost resources too. Resources that might not be easy to come by. Sure, you can spend 5 MP and refill your Energy Bank, but at 30 energy a pop only, this can get expensive very fast.

Perhaps putting points into your Energy Bank isn't such a bad idea anymore. I have a toon with just slightly over 2 hours worth of an Energy Bank. Because of my HQ, my Fight Bank also takes 2 hours to completely fill. I only have to get in game every 2 hours to be sure I don't lose any resources that I can use to improve my toon. When I feel like it, making huge leveling feats becomes less a task than it once was. When I go to sleep or leave the game for extended hours, I lose far fewer resources from my Energy Bank and Fight Bank filling. When I level, I get a nice surge of energy and fights to help me in my in game efforts. And IF I decide I want to spend 5 MP to buy energy, 2 hours worth, 120, is 4 times as much of a bargain as what I was getting at 30 energy.

Adding SP to your Energy Bank will make raiding a much easier and much more rewarding task, that only minimally, if at all, invades your ability to do other tasks. You'll get more damage in, winning you more cards and gear, building your power and damage, increasing your rewards even more, etc, etc, on and on in a snowballing cycle. I think there's a bear wandering the lists that could tell you a little more about how that cycle works. My best toon has 100 SP in Energy plus a lvl 5 Cafeteria. That's a mere 50 levels worth of SP. That might sound like a lot, but as we start closing in on a lvl 1000 lvl cap, is it really?

WARNING!!!! I DO NOT advise this strategy for players that wish to pole-sit at 1 level or feel their toon must be so finely tuned as to not be able to afford leeway for versatility.

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FAN FICTION: BREAKING NEWS: CRISIS AVERTED

BY: Todd Goode id# 12205



Welcome to the WHRT 6 O'clock News. I'm your news anchor, Harry Wankman. Today in the news, numbers are the leading cause of statistics and ....

Hold on folks, we have a breaking emergency alert from NASA.

This is bad news folks, according to this, there is an asteroid headed directly for Earth and initial analysis are saying this asteroid is larger than the one that killed the dinosaurs.

NASA leaders are also saying that the world's Superpowers' have fired numerous nuclear warheads at the object and due to its enormous size and sudden appearance, attempts to destroy the asteroid or alter its course have failed.

I'm being told that the President will have a statement and will be speaking to the public in two minutes. This a somber moment in time folks. The end of all things.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, our president, President Franklin Hardwood.

I address you tonight not as the President of the United States, not as a leader of a country, but as a citizen of humanity. We are faced with the very gravest of calamities. What Mr. Wankman just reported is correct. This is a very dire situation. All of Earth's leaders' efforts have failed. It's still unknown where this monster rock came from. I have been told it just appeared mysteriously in an otherwise empty part of space. We are not giving up without a fight. We still have an ace left to play.

As some of you are already aware, there is an organization known as B.A.D.G.E. that has in the past been able to maneuver numerous anomalous situations and taken care of those threats.

I am aware that some think they cause more harm than good, but materials things can be replaced. The Earth cannot.

I have been assured that B.A.D.G.E. has created a new emergency defense system to prevent disasters such as this. They call it Atlas. I call it hope. They are our last hope to render this planet killing asteroid neutralized.

This will be the first test of this new system. The dreams of an entire planet are focused on these brave souls that traveling into the heavens to stop this, this Armageddon. As citizens of the world see this event through, God speed and good luck. MEANWHILE AT THE B.A.D.G.E. SPACE STATION .... Nova and Arx are watching the breaking news report.

"Nova! The world's governments are freaking out pretty bad. They have nearly exhausted most of their nuclear stockpiles and giving hope and good luck speeches. I think it's time," remarked Arx.

Nova replied, "Yes, It's time. Initiate Atlas."

Arx calls on Earth's heroes. He orders Quark and agent Justin to continue investigating the coordinates in space where the asteroid first appeared and let keep him apprised of what they learn. Someone or something has to be causing this.

Dr. Shapiro, I need you to run analysis on those crystals brought back earlier. See if they have any special properties of any kind. Arx radios some of Earth's strongest heroes,"Rakly, Hanzo, Death Punch, Island, Zen, Shinobi and Anomaly! Get up there and take lead. Make sure none of these new heroes make any mistakes. Figure out the best way to tackle this monster asteroid.

They all take off and rallied all of the other heroes together.

Rakly says, "I think the best way to do this is to have three platoons of heroes take positions around the asteroid at different intervals. That way the closest platoon, 1st Platoon, can concentrate fire on a bigger center mass and make the initial explosion. 2nd Platoon will make sure the largest chunks of the asteroid are destroyed and the 3rd Platoon will hang back the farthest and make sure any dump truck sized pieces are blown to bits. Any smaller pieces should burn up in the atmosphere."

"If your powers or suits enhance your attack strength take up the closest positions. It's critical that we hit this thing at full strength and take out as much as we can on the first attack."

"If your powers or suits can resist the physical effects of the asteroid take up the middle positions and if you have any movement speed enhancements, take the positions the farthest out and bat clean up."

"Okay, you have your orders, get into positions and start firing on my mark. So, keep your communicators on."

Rakly, Island and Death Punch took up 1st Platoon positions and reported aloud, "In position and ready!"

Hanzo and Shinobi took up 2nd Platoon positions and reported, "In position and ready!"

Zen and Anomaly took up 3rd Platoon positions, "In position and ready!"

Okay folks, this is it. It's time. Fire on my mark! 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Mark! FIRE ON THE ASTEROID!!

After a few minutes of constant bombardment of the asteroid Rakly hollers out, "Are we doing anything? Are we even making a dent in this thing?"

Island replies, "It's getting a hot spot, shouldn't be much longer now to cause a fracture."

Death Punch breaks off from the platoon and flies closer to the asteroid and says, "I got this! I got the most power!"

Ralky replies, "Get back into proper position! We have to heat this thing up evenly or the asteroid will not break up into equal size pieces! This thing is already acting weird. It should have split apart already but it's just taking our blasts."

It was too late. Death Punch had already powered up and struck the asteroid with his strongest punch ever.

The punch exploded the asteroid apart unequally as suspected and the energy from the explosion sent a bigger part of the asteroid into Death Punch, both hurling through space away from Earth at an outrageous speed.

Rakly remarked aloud, "Death Punch! Report! Are you okay?" as he and everyone else shielded themselves from larger the chunks and shards of the asteroid.

There was no reply from Death Punch.

Island replied, "That guy just can't stick to a plan. His communicator is probably busted and may be floating away unconscious in deep space or both."

"You're probably right," replied Rakly,"but someone has to go and get him."

Rakly said, "Krystal Fae, I need you to catch up to him and take him back to med bay and get him checked out."

Krystal Fae said, "You got it, I'm on it. I'm going now."

"Death Punch may have a problem sticking to a plan but he at least one big chunk is safely flying away from the Earth," Martial Law replied as he took out five smaller chunks of asteroid.

Rakly spoke up, "Okay people! We still got two large chunks to take care of and countless smaller chunks. Hanzo! Shinobi! Take your platoons and pick a rock to take out. 1st platoon will split up and rejoin Ya'll."

Both Hanzo and Shinobi's platoons started to pick the two large chunks apart. The two chunks broke apart into smaller pieces. Some were still the size of skyscrapers and others about the size of a Volkswagen.

"Hey Hanzo! You seeing this? asked Shinobi. Hanzo said, "Yeah! I'm seeing all kinds of different crystals floating around when we blast a big chunk apart."

Well, grab a few as the fly by. We can add them to our rock collection when we get back. Once a rockhound, always a rockhound." Shinobi quipped.

Hanzo chuckled, "I got a hand full already and a lot of these crystals are different colors. There is also a bunch of powdered crystal along with bits of asteroid. Weirdly though, some of the crystal powder is sticking to my suit and some of the bits of asteroid almost seem to be avoiding our power blasts, like they are being controlled by something."

"Same thing over here!" Shinobi proclaimed. Shinobi got on the communicator, "Platoon 3, some of these chunks are getting past us and they seem to be sentient or at the very least, controlled by something or someone! Make your strikes count and take out as many as you can before they get close to you."

Zen and Anomaly, along with their platoons spread out and start blasting the leftover skyscraper sized remnants with amazing accuracy.

After blasting apart the biggest chunks of asteroid, 1st and 2nd platoons took up positions with 3rd platoon to eradicate the many larger chunks left.

Everyone but Midgardsormr struggled with the thousands of pieces of space rock, he took out the most but after an exhausting near twenty hours of nonstop blasting, the crisis was averted but not without a few scrapes and bruises.



"Great job everyone! Report back to the space station for decontamination then get checked out in med bay," Rakly exclaimed.

Rakly reported back to Nova, "The asteroid is destroyed but we need to look into the crystals that came from the asteroid and there is also some powdered crystal. I don't think it's good that the powdered crystal sticks to our suits. That's not all, some of the fragments of asteroid have a mind of their own. Some of the pieces dodge our blasts."

Nova was just about to summon Quark and Agent Justin when they sounded an alert.

"Nova! Our sensors are picking up another disturbance from the same coordinates as the asteroid we just took out and also, these crystals you have us analyzing are starting to glow a little." reports Quark.

Nova order Quark, "Lock down those crystals in the lab's safe room and tell me the second anything appears in that part of space." Rakly asked Nova, "How are Krystal Fae and Death Punch? They should have been back for a while now. I sent Krystal Fae to fetch Death Punch after he jumped the gun and went all gung-ho on the asteroid and the initial explosion blew Death Punch into deep space."

I can't say Rakly, they never made it back ......

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Fan-Fiction: The Dirigible and Spy Balloon

Furious Squirrel #12351



After two weeks in a hospital and some physical therapy, I returned to my beloved dirigible and started the long process of fixing it. Some may think that this balloon is silly, old school, or useless, but its my home, my weapon, and been a part of my identity since I first fell into this time from the past.

"Did they defeat Krampus?" were my first words after waking up in the ICU.

Dr. Henderson told me that they didn't really defeat him, since it wasn't real. But, that the real enemy got away.

What do I do now? I am pissed. I got my butt kicked by a shadow of a monster only to find out that the person behind it got away. And, worst of all, Director Nova is with her.

After rage fueled devotion, I got my dirigible in working order and looking better than ever. Now is the time to start working. I know BADGE will be on this, but that doesn't mean I can't try to help. BADGE has insisted that I put some new tech into my dirigible, a computer and sensors. I don't know much about them, but if it makes them happy, I'm fine with it. First day back in the air, I get a call, "Furious Squirrel, you there?" It was Chase.

"Sure, what do you need?"



She told me about a strange sighting of a flying object near Alaska. It looks like another balloon, maybe someone else who is using a dirigible. Both the United States and Canada aren't happy, it won't respond to calls. So, BADGE is sending me into investigate.

Sure enough, flying over Anchorage is a giant balloon. At first glance it looks like an old weather balloon. But, it has a bevy of info gathering devices attached to a platform underneath it. Using some of the modern tech BADGE has built into my ship, I send out greetings and get not response. Then I send a signal designed to contact whoever is controlling it. Nothing happens. Then, this computer on my ship starts buzzing and making all sorts of weird noises. Damned if I know much about computers, but I try to figure it out.

"Hey BADGE, you know what my computer is trying to tell me?" I ask through my wrist comm.

Moments later, Justin pipes in as worried as I've ever heard him. "That is showing a high radiation level and detonation devices."

"Translate?"

"It is rigged with nuclear weapons. By the looks of the readings, it is some sort of fail safe device. It blows that thing to hell if it is compromised and takes whoever or whatever is nearby."

"Aw, crud. I just put my baby back together."

"Don't worry. I don't think it's triggered yet. But...wait, you're getting some clear readings. You must be close."

I look out the window and watch the fat white balloon drift by. "Uh, yeah, like next to it." "That's too close. Then again, you're getting some clear readings. Hold your position for a moment while I run this data by our systems." I wait while Justin does what he does. This is annoying. Now I am sitting next to a flying nuclear bomb and hoping it doesn't blow me straight to hell.

"Good, good. We got the data. Looks like that thing originated somewhere in China. Not sure if its from their government or from some other organization, but it's snagging every open internet signal it can, as well as any open Bluetooth channels. It isn't just gathering data, it's downloading viruses and hacking programs everywhere. This is sophisticated programming. With this, it could crash computers, cell networks, everything it touches."

"Justin, all I heard was that it's doing bad things. What should I do?"

Justin says. "Stay there for a moment longer. We are going to send a hacking signal back into it and, if it works, crash the onboard computer. We now have the virus data it was using, so we can create a counter program. It should..."

The computer started beeping loudly again and the balloon made a sudden motion for the ground.

"What just happened?" I ask.

"Damn! It's responding to our hacking. It's going to slam into the ground and blow. It'll take out Anchorage and all the surrounding area. Do something."

I pull levers and spin the wheel, moving my dirigible on a path toward the falling balloon. "What do I do? If I shoot it down, it will just blow up and take me with it."

"Grapple it, drag it to a safe place!"

I load the grappling hook gun and pray that I don't hit the wrong part of that stupid balloon. Firing, I wrap around the ropes holding the balloon and start dragging it out toward the sea.

"I got it! Now what? Let it blow in the ocean?"

"No, it could spread radiation over the water."

"I can't just pull it all over the place. Its gonna blow!"

Justin was silent for a moment.

"Hey, Justin! What do I do?"

"Okay, change your heading eighteen degrees and head for the hole."

"Hole?" I spin the wheel and alter my course.

"You'll see it."

The computer next to me is saying this thing is on the verge of exploding and I am pushing every ounce of power into my engines. I have never flown over the ocean this fast before. Then I see a blue funnel in the air with a black center. Strange Quark is waiting on me like a butler at the door. I race directly for the opening, hit the starboard breaking and make a hard turn, cutting the grappling line at the moment of turning. The balloon is freed and speeds right into the hole. I see the flash of an explosion just as the funnel shuts and is completely gone.

Slowing my baby down, I contact Justin. "It's done."

"Good work. You saved a lot of lives, not to mention protecting the computers that thing could have wrecked."

I lean on my wheel and admit something I never wanted to. "I need to learn more about computers. Justin, is there still opening in that class you told me about?"

"Sure thing. Starts next week."

"I'll be there."

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The Hanzo Ninja Clan Presents: Turning Climb Events Into A Victory Even If You Lose!

Climb events are currently an absolutely great way to power up your toon. Prize cards are equal to much of what you can win from the Nova Shuffle. Currently, participation and division breaks make competition pretty light, allowing most players in most divisions the ability to win prizes even if all they do is sign up. This is less so in the lower divisions, but more so in the higher divisions. Honestly, it's hard to go wrong entering Climb events at all.

If, by chance and effort, you manage to win two of these events within the last 4 tries, you are given the opportunity to go into a "secret mode" where your toon can go under the mountain to face unknown shadowy villains for potentially great prizes. Be forewarned, these villains are tough and don't always give the prizes you want. Further compounding their difficulty is the fact you have no idea what you are facing till you've faced it, or unless you use a candle. Candles can be found doing Patrols, or in the Items Store. They give you the ability to at least see the cores of these villains so you can set up your gear with at least a little intel. Don't worry. You can leave this screen to change gear and head back without losing your place. You will face 3 sets of opponents, with each set consisting of two opponents you get to choose from. All of them are VERY hard and I can't tell you how best to beat any of them because they are all always different. (At least, I currently believe so. Others may have better information than I do for this part.)

If you beat these 3 opponents, you then face a shadow version of yourself. These pesky shadow clones are popping up everywhere. I blame Mayor Justice for this outrage! Fortunately, unlike the previous opponents, there's a trick to fighting this one. He is a clone of your toon. So he will be wearing the same gear, but is sometimes slightly stronger. The best way to defeat him is to strip off all your gear and use cons and HQ bonuses to beat him, since he only copies your gear and powers, and not your bonuses.

But that's all IF you can find your way under the Mountain, AND decide you want to go. Why might you decide to go? Well, there's potentially 4 cards and 4 cons you could get. But you don't know what they will be until after you get to them, and there's no guarantee you'll win any of them. Lose just 1 match and your journey ends. If it's the 1st one, you're just out of luck when it comes to prizes.

Meanwhile, if you don't make it to Under The Mountain, or choose not to go, you have a shot at 3 different prize packages in the Climb event. Each comes with 1 power card and 1 con. You know what these are before you ever enter, simply by looking at the prize tab. And with current participation levels and division splits, you're sure to win something. If you don't like what you see and want to take a chance going Under The Mountain, and that option is available to you, then sure, go for it. But remember you're taking a chance vs taking a sure thing.

Now, prize packages are randomly rolled for by the game for each place and each division. It's very possible for lower place prizes to be more rare, useful, and/or valuable than the prizes above them. This is where losing can actually help you win. Before you just up and decide you want to go for Gold, take a look at the prizes for your division. Is 1st really something you can use? Or is Silver better? Is Gold out of your reach but not so much with Silver? That's great too! But what if Bronze prizes work better for you than Silver? It's quite possible you might improve your situation more by taking a lower spot than a higher one.

Let's take a look at what I mean.



In this image, the two cards aren't overly different in power. Yes, the 1st place card is a little better, but let's look at the cons, Destructive Soulgem vs. Turtle Shell. Destructive Soulgem is the most rare of it's type of con, found in "Through The Fire And Flames" patrol found in Ardeal, BUT........ it does drop as a patrol reward. Turtle Shell, on the other hand, is a far more rare drop. Usually it is given as a special drop for special limited time missions like the "Ticket To Orbit" patrols that only come out for the Birthday Anniversary. You can get it to drop in Patrols too, though, but only in the Black Market, and at a cost of anywhere from 15 to 40 MP. Furthermore, unless my build uses a lot of 3x damage, +8 might not serve me so well. But 10% Def serves any build. By losing here and taking Silver, I set myself up for a bigger win down the line by adding a better con to my supply reserves.





Now let's look at another example. Quad Damage gives the user +10 3x Damage. It really isn't that uncommon and can be found in the "Game Over" patrol in Purgatory Penitentiary. Again, if your build setup doesn't utilize 3x Damage, this con will only be mildly helpful to you. But Silver gives a Scarab of Protection. This may only be a plus 1% to your Defense, but this con is usable for any build. This con can also be found doing the "Shifting Circumstances" patrol in Purgatory Penitentiary and has about the same rarity as Quad Damage. Now the Bronze prize package in this group is Philter of Flamestrike, providing +100 Att/Strike (good for Duels and Brawls events) and +5 Elemental Damage. This con CANNOT be found doing Patrols. You are going to have to win it if you want one. That might be something you want to consider. In my opinion, the fact that I can easily obtain the other cons elsewhere but only win this one, makes Bronze start to look really nice.

Now, it's important also to consider how many of a particular con you have in your inventory. The Philter of Flamestrike only allows 1 use per day, whereas the Quad Damage allows 5 uses. If I have 5 Philter of Flamestrikes and only 2 Quad Damage, I might consider the Quad Damage of more importance right now.

Another factor to think about is Super Charges. If the Bronze prize card is one you already own, and you have a bunch of Super Charges on the copies you own, but have no Super Charges, or much fewer on any copies you might have of 1st and Silver place cards, it's probably a better choice to go after that Bronze card.

Now, "losing to win" isn't always going to be your best option, but sometimes it is. Keep a vigil eye out for opportunities when going for less will gain you more. They do pop up more often than one might think or expect. And the beauty is fewer folks want Bronze than want Silver, and fewer want Silver than Gold. Sometimes it's worth letting them have it and make a win/win scenario.

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The Hanzo Ninja Clan Presents: Energy Alts Revisited

25104



Bubba Wayne had just gotten the alert from Nova on his BADGE Comwatch. He was to meet up with Clark Kant on a mission to stop meteors from hitting the planet. He wasn't sure what he could do. He didn't have super powers like laser vision or nigh invulnerability like Clark. He didn't have super strength. He didn't have any nifty gadgets or vehicles like his rich cousin from Gotham. He couldn't even fly, so he wasn't at all sure how he was supposed to get into space to deflect these meteors. Still, Nova sent out the call and it was his job to answer. He was sure they would know what to do with him, or else quickly realize their mistake.

He looked back over his shoulder at his secret hideout. It was modeled after his more famous cousin's. He had a hidden cave fully equipped with computers and satellite monitoring systems, along with a whole host of other awesome stuff like a gym. But that was his rich cousin. Bubba just had a cave. His secret HQ was a literal hole in the ground. He didn't even have a posh butler trained by the British government to be a super spy. He just had 3 yellow goofballs in blue overalls that liked eating bananas. One of them only had one eye. He found them starving in the woods and gave them some dry banana chips he had with him. They've been with him ever since. The three of them waved excitedly at their boss as he left them to face certain doom trying to save the world from meteors. He hoped they would be ok without him. It's not like they could do much damage. It was just a cave, afterall...........

To Be Continued..............

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring urgent news about...........

ENERGY ALTS!!!!

Back in the Christmas Special Double Feature from a couple years back, I discussed the building of an Energy Alt. This is a utility alt whose purpose is to collect resources like MPs and Crystals to help build a league HQ for free. With the new addition of player summoned Raids, it's time to revisit this particular type of utility alt. This particular alt was discussed in Part 2, found here.

Now, an Energy Alt has all or nearly all their Skill Points (30) in their Energy, extending their Energy Bank as far as possible. The real value in Energy Alts comes in their ability to refill MASSIVE quantities of energy for a mere 5 MP. For most competition toons, that have around 30 SP in their Energy Bank, using MP Energy Refills is an economically bad idea the vast majority of the time. But for an Energy Alt, it can be huge!

I have one alt that has a nearly 1400 point Energy Bank. Simply doing 1 point missions in New Amsterdam will net me more MP than it costs to refill my Energy Bank for 5 MP. The only thing that limits me from leveling him nonstop indefinitely is my time and choice. But no matter what pace I choose to level that toon at, I always end up with a surplus in MP despite using MP Energy Refills.

Now, the main purpose for an Energy Alt is to gather resources for your main toon and your league, without sacrificing them from your competition toons, and to do so without spending any real world money. While not the only place to distribute farmed resources, the league HQ is the primary place one would distribute their mined Bux, Crystal, and MP. T

When it comes to most free or budget players, running an Upkeep deficit is crucial to competing with the bigger spenders. Energy Alts can be built to quickly level up to the minimum required level for the highest career. After that, they can simply collect Bux to pass off to your mains when your main toons are in need. Energy Alts make great Cash Cows!

Because Energy Alts can be built up quickly in levels, they not only make great Cash Cows, they make great Experience Cows too! When I need to level another toon fast, I can strip my high level Energy Alts of gear and either sell my cards or donate them to the HQ Sentinel, then hit them. Imagine a level 1 brand new toon with 5 powers and 1 ring gaining experience from beating a level 650+ toon. One hit would level him several times. Get a cache of these toons between you and your friends and add massive amounts of levels to new toons in no time. This is a great way to level up new Energy Alts that have a Red Cape consumable on, to quickly gather MP for HQ building.

There is a new aspect to the game since last we discussed Energy Alts; Raids. Raids give you the lowest return per energy spent when it comes to Experience Points. But what it does do is gives you cards and gear that you can then pass off to your league's HQ Sentinel. Doing so allows your leaguemates to keep their powers and gear as long as you have the donor Energy Alt on the team. It also provides another avenue for gaining MP and Crystals, by selling the cards and gear, that can be used to build your HQ.

Now that raids are here, it's even possible to turn an Energy Alt into a decent toon using just raid cards and mostly raid gear, supplemented with better when the opportunity arises. It won't be a great toon, but it potentially won't be a bad one either.

Energy Alts are also good for farming Raids Summon Items and Tokens. And the rewards they get for summoning them can buy you Red Capes from the Raid Punch Store.

If one of your raids needs to be finished fast, Energy Alts could be the cure you're looking for in a pinch.

Lastly, Energy Alts can collect gear, power cards, and cons for you and your friends. How so? Well, once Halloween rolls around, you can put those items in your Trick or Treat Bowl and let your friends and leaguemates know to jump in line real quick. And if several of you each have a few alts with goodies, the lot of you can really rack up.

I hope the original, combined with the update, serves to help you, especially the free and budget players. Energy Alts were designed for your needs and restrictions. Using them effectively can go a long way towards helping your main toons compete with the big dogs. From building up top notch HQs, to beefing up Sentinels, to passing gear and rare cons off to your leaguemates during Halloween, building one, or a few, and getting your leaguemates to do the same, can really give you an edge that costs others lots of money, for free.

We Now Return You To Your Regularly Scheduled Program.

Bubba was almost home. He would like to say he was glad, but that wasn't really the case. BADGE had assigned him to monitor incoming meteors from their satellite HQ, helping direct other, more capable heroes, to where the meteors were headed for Earth. They had the nicest facilities he had ever seen. Training rooms, a cafeteria, an infirmary, you name it, they had it! They even had indoor plumbing and air conditioning! Bubba had basalt walls and bat guano. No, he certainly wasn't looking forward to going home.

As he got closer, he could hear the unmistakable sounds of cheering and construction going on. Lots of cheering and lots of construction! The voices sounded like his little yellow buddies, but there were so many of them. As he got closer, he found his three little friends, once helpless and saved only by a bag of banana chips, had multiplied into a veritable army of little yellow workers all building something around the mouth of the cave. It was a giant metal door with a basalt veneer that looked just like the rock wall and hid the entrance perfectly!

Upon his arrival, his 3 little buddies cheered, followed shortly by the rest of their friends cheering as well at Bubba's return.

"BOSS!!!! YEAH!!!! BOSS IS BACK!!!!"

As the rest continued working, the three originals then led him on a tour of all the new improvements they made while he was gone. There was a cafeteria, a training room, an infirmary, and a host of other additions. Not only that, the group had been hard at work building underground tunnels to other HQs they had built all across the country, with an express Rakly Industries patented Magnarailgun Train system to get them instantly from one to the other in no time. Bubba couldn't believe his eyes! This was everything he could have ever dreamed for. Eat your heart out Bruce! He just had one question.

"This is great, guys! I can't believe what you've accomplished while I was gone!" he said.

"YAY!" they screamed. "WOOHOO!" "It's been a long trip though." he continued. "Where's the bathroom at?"

"Bathroom?" they said as they looked at each other in confusion, "Uh...... heh........" before arguing over who's fault it was that there was no bathroom...........

The End.

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FAN-FICTION: THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND

February Joan of Arc ID: 35981



We arrived at the abandoned train station. A cop was already approaching the gate with bolt cutters to break the lock off. Jamie immediately started giving out orders to cops. “You go there, want all nearby exits covered and someone get me a city plan so we know the layout and what we are getting into. I approached Jamie,” what do you need me to do.” You and the swat team and Danny will breach and search and find the missing children and engage and arrest the kidnappers. A man came up to Jamie with rolls of paper tucked in his arms. “Here the city plans detailing the surrounding subway tunnels.

Jamie grabbed the papers and spread the papers on a squad car,” ok we are here.” He then pointed to a section on the map, “this maintenance room is the most likely where they are keeping the children. “Okay gather at the entrance we are going breech on my count.” Swat with helmets and shields and cops lined the entrance. “Okay 1,2,3 breach.” I followed close behind the swat team with my bow at the ready. Went room by room making sure each room was clear as we went further and further into the abandoned station. I grew anxious and rage seem almost take me over I hope I find the kids when I find the kidnappers, they are going get my sword I thought to myself.

As we pushed further and further, I grew concerned. “I hope this is where they keeping.” I hope so too we have no other leads to go on.” We approached the Main Atrium and saw a man smoking in the middle of the room with his back to us. The Swats and cops aimed their guns at the man. “Hands in the air, turn around slowly!” The man turned around. “That’s Lucian Nahash.” Said the Swat officer. As he said this Lucian face began to grin sinisterly. “I guess I have fans,” he laughed. “Pity I don’t have more time for you I have an appointment must keep.” He with glee. Then he opened his mouth wide and black smoke started spewing out quickly the room with a dark haze. The room soon was filled with hopeless screams of cops and SWAT screaming for lives and began firing their guns frantically at the smoke. I soon heard snarls and growls then one by one the cops and SWAT around me started to get ripped apart. “Stand close it’s a lot harder for him to take us it if we’re close together, hold your ground!” Yelled Danny” I shouldered my bow and drew my sword.

Then all of a sudden, the smoke cleared revealing the horrific scene of bodies ripped apart on the ground and blood all over the place. One remaining cop began to look pale. “I think I’m going to get sick.” He started Retching and Puking. Then black smoke appeared and Lucian appeared. “It has been fun I must be off as he took off downstairs leading to the main platform. Danny took off after him. We reached the platform but no one was there. “Where the hell is that freak show!” Yelled Danny.” I think the maintenance room is ahead.” I said as I pointed to a door to the left. Danny ran to the door. Just then heard a loud growl and bark. It was coming from the subway tunnel. All sudden a huge black dog. The dog’s eyes seem almost glowed like fiery embers. I held up my sword. The dog leaped toward me mouth open wide ready to rip me into. I jabbed at the dog stabbing right his lower jaw right through its head “What hell was that, that was not a normal dog Joan!” Yelled Danny. Danny and I ran up to the door. Together we bashed against it till we broke the door down. The room was full of children tied up and with tape over their mouths. I began untying each child and removing the tape. “Uncle Danny, Joan, you found us you saved us.” Said Michelle as she leapt into my arms. Danny took out his radio after untying the last child.” We found all of them, we found Michelle.” He said with tearful joy. Michelle took both my hands.” You’re my hero and gave me another hug. We took the kids back to the surface to the ambulances waiting to give them any medical attention. Jamie walked up to me. “We lost a lot of good men you did good Joan you saved all the children and my daughter I am in your dept thank you.”He said shaking my hand. “We arrested a few kidnappers that were trying to escape hopefully we can get so some information out of them, about this Lucian fellow.” “He not person sir he is demon and powerful at that.” That explains the grizzly scene in the atrium that heard reports of I was headed down there now to look at the scene and see if can find out how he got away.” You Danny come along with me.” Let’s see if can find any traces. To Be Continued……

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Fan Fiction Contest February Origin story ♆TASkullC♆

♆TASkullC♆
ID: 11184

How did I get here. The evil one the wizard after all this time I must find a way back somehow he's sent me to the strange place through his powers just when I thought the battle was over.

It almost destroyed me that portal the powers and now this world with all these machines and now they've used these machines on me maybe it was the only way to survive.

I must find a way back but how it's unknown world did I had almost defeated him.

The battle nearly destroyed the realm The villages burning the fighting the armies along it has gone on.

Yet I almost claimed victory and freed the realms of his power.

These strange machine weapons that I have my claws and my teeth still.

The burning of villages the eating the reins of power gripping the entire realm.

Yet it was almost over almost he was defeated.

Yet the people the burning the running the screaming the pain the sorrow yet they cried I was fighting to free them no more sacrifices no more rain and power over them control of the land completely and all the offering yet what was it they cried in fear as I walked as I final descent to destroy him they shriek in fear the destruction but it was the war the fight for freedom I only wish to help yet the shrieking was I the evil one after all?



ID: 11184

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FAN-FICTION: Negatron The Equalizer

10950



The alarms were blaring. Someone was attacking Chaos Theory HQ. Mayor Justice looked at the security monitors to see what was happening. A wall on the East Wing had just been breached with an explosion. As the dust settled, the Mayor could see the lone image of a man dressed in body armor. Was this one of the World Corps? It couldn't be. They acted in units, not as lone individuals. The Mayor didn't recognize him, but he gave him credit for having balls the size of watermelons to try attacking this League.

"We have a breach in the East Wing." the Mayor sounded over the comlinks. "So far I am only placing one assailant on our security cameras."

"I'm on it." Super Rakly replied back as he raced to greet their uninvited guest.

Alongside him slithered the giant serpentine form of Midgardsormr.

"Neo and I are already closing in." Old Man Hanzo answered back.

"Good." said the Mayor. "You 4 should be able to make short work of this guy. "Starcrawler, Punlork, and Heretic check the perimeter. I doubt this guy came alone. I'll sit here and watch just in case I see anything else."

"Already ahead of you." said Heretic as Magnificent Punlork and Starcrawler joined him to patrol the area around the HQ for any other signs of intrusion.

By the time Rakly and Midgardsormr reached the intruder, the two Hanzos had already made it there. The two watched in horror as the Hanzos ran towards the villain, just to melt into two black puddles of goo before they could get even close. The villain laughed maniacally.

"You heroes are no match for me!" he taunted the two remaining heroes. "All your might and power are useless before me, NEGATRON THE EQUALIZER!"

"USELESS????" roared Midgardsormr as he charged in. "YOU'LL KNOW FULL WELL WHAT USELESS IS ALL ABOUT AFTER I'M DONE WITH YOU!!!!"

"Midgard, wait!" Rakly yelled, too late. The great serpent fell to his knees where once there were none, his form now that of a mere mortal human. Taking advantage of Midgard's confusion, Negatron landed two swift punches and a kick to the once giant serpent's head, laying him low and unconscious.

"What the hell?" muttered Rakly in disbelief. Never had he seen any of these leaguemates fall so easily. Who was this guy and what exactly were his powers? Rakly spoke over his comlink once more.

"I need all hands available or not!" Rakly commanded. "This guy just cut through Midgard and both Hanzos like they were butter!"

"The perimeter looks clear." Heretic replied. "We'll head your way to provide backup. What kind of intel do we have? What are his powers?"

"..........................."

"Hello? Hello?" Heretic attempted to get a response. "Rakly, you there? $#!+........" before racing to the outside wall of the East Wing with Punlork and Starcrawler. There they saw the large hole the intruder had made. Punlork spotted the intruder just as he dropped the limp body of Super Rakly to the floor.

"AHHHHH!!!!!" he screamed as he fired two energy blasts from his hands, just to watch as they fizzled out and disappeared before reaching their target. Equally as puzzled as Midgardsormr had been before him, Punlork looked at his hands questioningly, before trying a second time with similar results. And again, confusion took hold of him and Negatron took advantage, quickly knocking him out with a whirlwind of acrobatic kicks and strikes.

"My readings indicate he isn't showing any signs of powers. There's no energy signatures at all." Starcrawler told Heretic. "It doesn't make sense how he is defeating us. For all intents and purposes, he's only a regular human."

"Oh, I'm no regular human, supes." Negatron said. "I've spent my entire life mastering every form of fighting there is. No one can beat me in hand to hand combat. NO ONE!"

"No one, huh?" Heretic quipped back as he began to step forward.

"If all you are is a regular human, even with an unmatched mastery of martial arts, there's no way you could defeat those of us that you already have." Starcrawler exclaimed. "How were you able to turn the Hanzos into puddles, Midgard human, and deflect Punlork's energy blasts? No martial arts teaches that!"

"I told you already." Negatron smirked. "I'm no regular human. I'm just like you. But my power is to negate other's powers. You supes are so reliant on your powers, you're worthless without them. You become easier victims than regular humans, even. The shapeshifters simply reverted to their unpowered form, a shapeless colony of cells. The world serpent lost his enchantment and became human once more. Your fallen friend's energy blasts shorted out as soon as they got within my area of effect. After that, it is simple enough to just walk right up to you and beat you senseless."

"Oh really?" replied Heretic. "Well, you're not the only one here that knows hand to hand combat. And I promise you, I won't be turning into a puddle of goo either." Heretic unsheathed his katana and he and Starcrawler rushed Negatron.

From the safety of the security room, Mayor Justice continued to watch the monitors as Heretic and Starcrawler also fell unceremoniously to this new super powered villain..... or is it de super powered villain???? Even though Heretic was a physical fighter, he benefited from the speed, strength, and enhanced durability his powers normally gave him, a luxury he lacked in this fight. Starcrawler likewise fell. The electronics and circuitry in his Super Rakly designed suit were seemingly affected just the same as his powers. No doubt this is what caused Rakly to fall too.

"Um..... guys????" the Mayor querried over the comlinks. "Is anyone still out there? I'm running out of people to send. Is anyone out there?"

Avenger and Calibos arrived next. They had been off on a surveillance mission when they got the notification.

"We're inbound and closing in on the target." Avenger answered.

"Oh, thank God!" exclaimed Mayor Justice. "I thought I was going to have to go out there and you know, I just got my hands manicured. It would be a travesty if I chipped a nail after that lady spent so much time on them."

"Don't worry, Mayor." Avenger replied. "We'll handle thi......SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

The comlink went dead with white noise. Mayor Justice looked frantically at the monitors to see both Avenger and Calibos unconscious at Negatron's feet.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" Mayor Justice paced the floor. "What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? There's no one left but me???? F@#%!!!!"

"Don't worry, Mayor. I got this." came an unexpected voice from a broom closet. Looking to see who it was, the Mayor laid eyes on G.S., the janitor.

"What do you think you're gonna do?" asked the Mayor. "You're just a janitor! You don't even have super powers! Look at the rest of the team! He took them all out and they have powers! You don't! What are you gonna do????"

"Just leave that to me, Mayor." answered G.S. as he opened the door to the security room and walked out towards the East Wing.

"Ok, hero!" mocked the Mayor, as he quickly locked the door again. "You go make his day. I have no doubt you'll succeed where everyone else failed. Better you than me! Good luck! I'll be in here if you change your mind!"

G.S. slowly and deliberately walked the halls to the East Wing where he found Negatron, the uncoscious forms of Chaos Theory scattered between them.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" laughed Negatron at the sight of a regular human janitor walking up to face him. "Oh ho! They must be getting desperate. You don't even have any powers! Don't you see your fallen comrades? What hope do you have of besting me? Go home to your wife and kids. Save yourself. Let them send someone worthy to fight me! Where are all the great super powered heroes? Where are the gods and monsters????"

"I'm your hucklebearer." replied G.S. before flipping his coat followed by a loud "BANG!!!!" that echoed through the halls. Negatron tried to say something, but the words stuck in his throat and wouldn't leave. He felt his knees buckle and the ground suddenly rushed up to meet him. As he lay there on the ground, unable to move, he watched as the boots of the man he just faced casually walked up to where he lay.

G.S. squatted down and lifted his cowboy hat with the barrel of his 6 shooter, as Negatron The Equalizer labored the word "How?" to escape from his lips.

"You see, partner," G.S. replied, "I never needed super powers to take down a cocky ass like you. In a world full of super powered villains and heroes, I didn't get the name Gunslinger for nothing."

https://youtu.be/AFa1-kciCb4

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The Hanzo Ninja Clan Presents: Power Leveling

So, you're thinking about packing on some levels. Maybe you want to gain a level advantage over an opponent during League Wars. Maybe you want to push to the next gear slot. Whatever your reason is, you've decided it's your time to roll. You've seen other players fly up the levels in very short order, but perhaps aren't quite sure how.

First off, power leveling isn't commonly recommended. It puts a lot of levels on that need to be filled with powers and possibly more gear. In a lot of events, overall power is pushed to the side in favor of power for one's level. So before you decide you want to power level, make sure it's not a bad idea first. Most successful power levelers are fairly big budget toons. They are able to offset the quick addition of empty levels by buying power and gear cards to fill them. Others may have a back stock of cards that allow them to keep their decks and gear filled even before they add those new levels. Whatever you do, make sure you are able to fill those new power and gear card openings as quickly as possible, or else suffer being weak for your level until you do. For every level you gain, you will also have to add fifteen cards to your deck; 5 Att, 5 Def, and 5 Move cards. A dedicated power leveler can pack on 40 levels in a day fairly easily. That's 600 powers they will need to acquire just for that one day's worth of power leveling. And that's just for one day. Multiply that by one week and we are looking at adding 4200 powers to fill your deck. Then there's tiering........... So, all in all, is it worth it? For the average player in the average scenarios, the answer is probably no. But in certain niche instances, like post sign up pre League Wars, or to a player that has the want and means to build a toon fast, or someone building a utility alt, it can be a very handy tool. But how do those guys manage those insane leveling feats?

First, you need to identify where and how you can get experience as efficiently as possible. For example, raiding gives you an experience return ratio of 1 exp point per energy spent. Meanwhile, most Missions do 2, 3, or 4 exp points per energy spent. When it comes to fights, the higher level toons you can beat will provide more experience than lower level toons IF you can beat them. Furthermore, fighting someone in a regular duel usually provides a lot more experience than fighting them in a King of the Mountain/Climb event. So picking where you farm exp points is important.

Now, analyze where you can gain experience from not immediately obvious sources. You gain experience from doing your Daily Login and Daily Missions. You gain experience from Boss fights, found on both the Missions and Patrol pages. You want to have these ready and save these for when you start your experience run sessions.

Next, you want to figure out how to multiply the exp points you do gain. One way is by building an HQ and build up the Training Grounds building. This can increase your exp point gain by as much as 13%. Combined with other methods, this can end up packing on exp points fairly quickly.

Cons are another big focus. There are many, many cons one can use when power leveling to increase their exp point gain. Some, like the 3 versions of Liquid Learning, can be found in the store regularly. Other cons, like the Cogitator, Weighted Clothing and others pop up from time to time in the store as well. So keep a vigilant eye out there. Who knows what goodies might appear there from day to day. Experience cons can also be found doing patrols, both as a reward and in the Black Market. Some patrols, like Detroit, are more prone to give exp cons.

One special experience con you should consider are holiday cons. These come in the form of Christmas or Birthday cards, Easter eggs, and the like, and are mined by searching various pages in the game during special events. No two of these cons are the same. And because you can stack any cons that aren't the exact same con, you can stack ALL of these for a super fast, short but sweet, power leveling session. Combined with your other experience cons collected, you can hit the stratosphere in no time.

Other cons that help and should be looked into for stackability, are those that give more energy and fights, or increase the rate at which you acquire them. More fights means more experience. Same with more energy. Be forewarned, these cons are best used at the tail end of a power leveling session. This is because you will be leveling so fast, your fights and energy will refresh too quickly to make using these cons worth it, right off. But as your experience gain begins to dramatically slow, and you are now waiting on energy and fights to get to the next level, go ahead and start using these cons too. Just avoid using them when you're going to be filling up your resource banks to full using other means. Another potentially useful game mechanic is purchasing energy refills. These cost 5 mp each time and there is a limit based on your level. Luckily, you're power leveling, so that limit is constantly increasing. Now, for most people this is an expensive and wasteful use of MP. But for a handful of players out there with large energy banks, it can make a huge difference. Now, I probably wouldn't use energy refills to power level if my energy bank only goes up to 30, like most toons. But I do have some toons that have a considerably larger energy bank. One of my competition toons has 125 energy per fill up. 5 MP for 125 energy might not be a bad cost in some people's minds. Even better than that, I have a couple utility toons with well over a thousand energy. At 5 MP per refill, that becomes a really good bargain. To be honest, my largest energy bank, at 1374 energy, can level non stop using mp energy refills, while simply doing nothing but 1 energy Missions, and paying for those refills off the 1 mp Mission rewards that occasionally pop up. That certainly makes using mp energy refills worth it.

Ok, so now you know how to get the most experience per action. Now it's time to pick a date and time. Naturally, you want to pick them based on your schedule. But certain dates and times are better than others. Let's take a look.

At the start of a new game day, the Duels lists reset. If you save your duels that net you the most experience till the end of the day, and then switch on your cons, you can hit those valuable opponents once before the day ends, and again right after the day starts, doubling your access to large, quick quantities of Duels gained experience in the time your cons are active. Most of the top players that power level use this method. Another time to consider is just before noon game time. Consumables usage refreshes at noon. So you can save your cons till shortly before noon, pop your cons shortly before noon, and then burn through those gifts and consumables that provide energy and fights to gain experience. Then, once noon hits, you can immediately do it again with a whole new set of gifts and cons. Both methods allow you to pack as much experience gain into one set of stacked exp cons as possible.

Next, you might want to consider the day. While, again, that's entirely up to your schedule availability, there is now a new semi monthly event that definitely gives you better opportunity than other days. That event is called Item Explosion and allows you to use 10x the gifts and cons in a day as you normally would. That allows you a lot more fights and energy to gain experience points with.

Different experience cons provide different periods of effect. Pay close attention to this. How many cons and which ones you have running will determine how quickly you level per action. If it only takes 5 fights hitting the top toons to gain a level, you lose 9 fights and all your energy when you level. That's missed opportunity. You really want to spend all your energy and fights from leveling up before you level up again. 1st use up your energy. Next use your fights, but pay special close attention to how close or far away you are from leveling, and pick your fight opponents to level you up just as you use your last fight. If you go under by a little bit, that's ok. It's actually better than wasting resources. Just recalculate that into your head for the future and use one of the gifts or cons that add fights or energy to top off to the next level.

Take advantage of your Red Cape cons too. If you don't have any, they can be gotten in the Black Market, or more easily from the Punch Card store found on the Raids page. Without really trying too hard, I was averaging 40 levels a day when power leveling until I got within 100 levels of the level cap. With a red cape, that equates to 1200 mp each power level session. Yes, please!

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Heroes Rising Fiction: ATLAS

(Two months before the Shadow Krampus Incident)

 With a clear, loud yell, Strange Quark blasted clean through the rocky surface of the meteor. He turned to examine the dust that had been the hurtling stone. Three more heroes came flying by him, each plowing through their own tumbling rocks. Each meteor exploded on contact and was allowed to dissolve in the planet’s atmosphere.

“Quark, report!” Nova’s voice came through the earpiece.

Quark looked around at the heroes destroying more of the stones. “Looks like this little disaster has been averted. Plus, I found some really cool crystals in the first one I punched.”

EB spoke into Nova’s comm, “Hey, Quark, why d’ya punch them? You could just make them cupcakes?”

“I like punching things now and then.”

“Oh, hey, bring that crystal back, I’d like to...hey, stop it...I’m not done...”

Nova now spoke into his own mic. “Get back to the station when you’re done. Nova out.”

Quark appeared in the Operations center of the station moments later. He found Nova and EB still arguing.

“I told you before, don’t pull my earpiece out.” Nova said.

EB sneered at him, “Well, you took away mine.”

“You were using it to bother Chase in the shower.”

EB grinned, “Yeah, that was fun.”

Quark approached. “Having fun?”

Nova took in a controlling breath. “Not really. Now, what further information do you have from that incident?”

Quark said, “Nothing new.”

“That’s the third meteor shower that threatened the planet in two weeks. That cannot be coincidence.” Nova looked up at the video feed, showing the rest of the heroes out in space.

Quark said, “Something that did bother me is that the rocks appeared out of nowhere. Our sensors did not pick them up until they were a threat.”

Nova pointed at one of the robots. “I want astrophysics to analyze all the data on those meteors and exactly when they showed up and from where. Quark,” He turned to the blue hero, “see what you can do to help. This is a strange situation and you have a knack for all things strange.”

“Glad to be recognized.” Quark smiled and strutted up to the robots station.

A week later:

Nova watched the main monitor as a dozen windows were open, with complex calculations and charts sprawled across them. Quark walked around with Dr. Shapiro, an astrophysicist with BADGE.

“What am I looking at?” Nova asked.

Quark pointed at the screen. “We have been studying the information and have come up with something...well...strange.”

“It’s always been strange. What’s different now?”

Dr. Shapiro flicked his fingers over a computer tablet and changed the windows to show entirely new charts and calculations. “As you can see, the wavelengths of matter and light are converging on a strange singularity that seems to have no gravitational impact outside of normal...”

Nova held up his hand. “Okay, now, try that again, but with less geek speak.”

Quark said, “Here, let me show you.” He changed the monitor to show space outside the station. It zoomed in on a single location. “Now, this seems to be normal space. However, there is something wrong with it. Light and matter are both acting like there is a strong gravity pull on it, but our sensors don’t show it, and when I go investigate it, I don’t feel anything wrong. But just yesterday, our optical sensors picked this up.” He changed it and a video rolled by. Space rippled like a pebble thrown into a placid pond.

“What was that?” Nova asked.

Quark said, “We had no idea. But it was the first time we picked that up. Something seemed to emerge out of that exact location, but we couldn’t see it. After three hours, tracking the potential trajectory of this object, something came into view.” He changed the view again and this time a large asteroid faded into view, tumbling toward the planet.

Nova said, “When is that arriving?”

“In twenty hours.” Dr. Shapiro stated.

“Where did it come from?”

Quark said, “We weren’t certain at first, but I cross-referenced all astronomical events over the past few years and I found an exact match.” He flicked his fingers across the tablet and a picture appeared of The Darkness enemy they fought.

“The Darkness?”

“Yes.” Quark said, “You know that this creature was trying to breech space and create a doorway into our universe. Well, we stopped him, but he had already spliced a hole in space. I suspect this tear is still there and causing problems.”

Dr. Shapiro said, “There is just one thing about this that’s puzzling.”

Nova looked back at the screen. “Why are all the meteors sent on a direct path toward Earth?”

Quark nodded, “It does seem...strange. But, as it stands, this isn’t just another rock, it’s a huge rock. The biggest so far. We need to gather a lot of heroes to take care of it so that it doesn’t plow into the planet.”

Nova asked, “Can’t you do something about it? Turn it into a cupcake...I can’t believe I just said that.”

Quark smiled, “No, sir. If it were normal, sure, I’d make it a giant pie and laugh when it creamed the Atlantic. However, its molecular make-up is still being affected by whatever this anomaly is. So, we will have to go the old-fashioned route and just punch it. I’ll get a team together...”

“No, I have this.” Nova actually smiled. “This is the perfect opportunity to try our newest program, Atlas.”

“Atlas?” Quark frowned.

“Come with me. I think you’ll be impressed.”

Nova walked with Quark into a meeting room on the base level of the station. Agent Justin and Arx sat at a table with a few other agents around. Screens lined the walls with waiting signs for communication.

Agent Justin stood up straight when he saw Nova. “Sir, we have everything ready. We have transformed this room into the central communication center for Atlas.”

“Good.”

Quark asked, “What’s Atlas?”

Nova answered, “Atlas is a new emergency defense system for Earth based out of BADGE and the heroes who ally with us. If the Earth is in danger from a natural disaster of some nature, Atlas will bring heroes together to assist and possibly end the danger.”

Justin added, “This isn’t a tactical group. We aren’t here to fight villains. That job is taken by BADGE and the Leagues.”

Quark smiled. “Sounds like you got a promotion, Justin. Leader of Atlas.”

“I’m not the leader. He is.” Justin pointed to the man next to him still wearing old Greek style apparel.

Quark blurted out, “Arx?”

He answered, “Yeah, got a problem with that?”

“No, I just never thought you’d be interested in humanitarianism.”

Arx huffed, “The Arx that was the ego maniac that tried to destroy L.A. is gone. That man is not me. I can’t even remember anything from his life. I want to be a hero and actually contribute. I’m not much of a tactician, but I can do something.”

Nova said, “Surprised me as well. Arx came to me a month ago and pitched the idea of Atlas. I liked it, thought it had merit. Agent Justin has been organizing it with him since then.”

Quark asked, “What made you think of this?”

Arx plainly answered, “Publicity.”

“So, you’re still after making yourself look good?” Quark’s question was honest, not accusatory, but Arx took it as an insult all the same.

“Look. This isn’t about me. First, I wanted to do something to be a contributing member of BADGE. Second, this world is still distrustful of heroes after the World Corps crap. So, this makes sense. We help, I get to contribute, and the population sees BADGE working for the betterment of mankind. I think it’s a win/win, don’t you?”

“Sounds perfect. But why the name Atlas?”

Arx said, “Myths say that Atlas holds up the sky. Some say he held up the world. It was a burden, but if he failed, many would die. Our job will be to protect this world from natural disasters. It will be a great burden, but also necessary to maintain life.”

“I like it. Atlas it is. So, what do I do to help?” Quark asked.

Nova said to Quark, “You and Dr. Shapiro go and keep an eye on the sensors. I don’t want any ugly surprises. Arx will contact you if he needs your help. For now, I am going to leave Atlas in his hands.” Nova turned to Arx. “Looks like we are about to put Atlas to the test. We have an Extinction Level Event to subvert. An asteroid larger than the one that killed the dinosaurs is heading for Earth, and we need to muster our forces and take it on. Do you think Atlas is ready for the task?”

“More than ready, sir.”

“Justin, get the information from operations and keep me updated.”

Justin gave off a brief salute. “Right away, sir.”

Nova watched the monitor in Operations as a window popped up in the center. Arx stood before a screen that displayed the incoming asteroid. “This is Arx, new head of the Atlas program of BADGE. I am calling on all heroes, regardless of league or location, to join together and stop this from destroying the Earth. This will take time, as we cannot simply blow it up quickly, otherwise risk an even greater disaster by spreading the impact over a larger area of the planet. Follow Atlas guidelines and help prevent human extinction. Arx out.”

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Febuary Fanfiction ST Michael: ENTER THE INFERNO

ID: 14267



As flew away since I feared and hoped the perimeter around the rift would hold till came with aid if I came with aid. I wondered if I was trading one problem for another if I release a fury or furies, I could have another problem on my hands that could cause wind spread destruction. Remiel was already at the entrance to purgatory. “I implore please do not release any of the furies they would rip the world apart before its time. As he said this a loud scream came from inside. “The faithful oh the faithful slaughtered must avenge them, burn them burn the heathen, avenge the fallen!!” “That would be Kaddoshiel the angel of the martyrs.” Said Remiel. He had a long shepherd crook in one hand with a tongue of fire in the hook. Then it came to me he is screaming that the perimeter was failing and people were dying to keep hold of it. Just then Jesus stepped in. “The battle isn’t going well many faithful are losing their lives in the effort to defend humanity from the darkness.” Sadly, many more fall in the coming battle ahead.” “This must in,” he said as walked toward Kaddoshiel and approached him and place his hands on his head. “So many faithful must, must avenge!!” “Ani mshukhrar otcha ( I release you),” Jesus muttered and with that, his chains flew off. “ akhshav kadima lharot lahem et hazaaam shel gan eden (Now go forth show them the fury of heaven). He cliched his shepherd crook. “Take me to the heathen.” I approached Jesus. “Our sure my prince one is enough to turn the tide. He chuckled softly and smiled. “No one all you will need.” With that he walked out. Remiel and Kaddoshiel flew and I flew off. I thought to myself I hope this works and there is no collateral damage in the process.

When we arrived at the scene it was much different from what was before I left. It was utter chaos people running around trying to form lines to hold off the horde while others were running from the area with the injured. Wrecked Tanks and a variety of military vehicles littered the landscape. The smell of blood filled the air. Massive craters from relentless artillery barrages dotted the area. Then look front there was Shepherd on a stretcher, struggling to move and breathe. A medic was checking him over. I saw blood dripping from behind his cracked mask. The medic carefully pulled the mask off, revealing that his eye had been scratched out by a demon. The medic began treating and cleaning the wound. As I looked the face it looks oddly familiar from long ago. He appeared to look like a boy that I secretly visited when he was sick. I don’t know why I was drawn to the boy he had lost long ago oddly enough a Michael metal in my image that he felt he drew courage from. His parents replaced it though. One week when his health was really bad he was bedridden with help of his guardian angel I found his old metal placed on the floor next to his bed as encouragement. He eventually got better with a few minor relapses every now and then. After a while visited the boy less and less till I quit visiting due to all the growing problems of the world and the constant missions I was given. He sure grew to be a wonderful man. “Will he be ok I asked.” “I don’t know if time will tell trying to get him stable to transport him to our forward base. “We must finish now the rift is widening.” Kaddoshiel bellowed. “Your right let’s finish this.”

Kaddoshiel stepped forward “He said clear the whole area.” He yelled. A soldier Radioed cleared out. Soon after what remaining forces started retreating from the area. Then he took shepherd’s crook and came to me and said,” cover me my front.” “Okay,” I said puzzled. I thought why not his back. He took the crook and began holding the end of the crook to the ground and a fire sprang from the hook a line of fire as he dragged it across the ground. Demons started charging the line and when they did flames rise up and engulfed the demon in flames instantly turning them to ash. He began singing as walked> “Dies irae ( Day of wrath).” As he walked, he left a line of fire in his tracks still singing the same words the whole way around to finally forming a complete circle of flames. Then lifted the crook and raised it in the air a fiery tempest began to form above the rift. “Nil Inultum remanebit (Nothing will remain unpunished)!!” with a loud yell and let down his crook bringing a huge tempest engulfing the whole circle in a complete fire. “It is finished,” he said. “It is,” I said. All that was left massive pile of ash everything had been consumed. We made our way to base camp and give everyone the news. Many angels were still struggling to leave the area some helping each other fly back. It was a victory at great cost though. TO BE CONTINUED

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