Morningstar : the Northern Light (campaign journal)

I really should wait for these things to build up some momentum before creating a thread, but so long as the Lords of the Boards don't object ...

Morningstar



Real name: Trevor Jones
Identity: Known to the Canadian government
Legal status: Citizen of Canada with no criminal record
Place of birth: Yellowknife, NWT, Canada.
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Nathaniel Johnson/Thunder (deceased)

Height: 6'3"
Weight: 265 lbs.
Eyes: Green
Hair: No body hair. Blonde paste on eye-brows.
**Note**: The Morningstar synthoid looks almost physically identical to the Thunder synthoid, save for eye colour.

Fighting - Excellent
Agility - Remarkable
Strength - Incredible
Endurance - Monstrous
Reason - Good
Intuition - Good
Psyche - Poor

Health: 141
Karma: 19
Popularity : 0
Resources: Good

Known Powers
* Body Resistence: Morningstar possess Excellent (16) resistence to force-based attacks, Typical (6) resistence to energy attacks, and Remarkable resistence to both heat/fire and cold. Furthermore, his eyes are capable of instanteously screening out Amazing (46) degrees of light, and he has Unearthly (88) resistence to all poisons/toxins, radiation, and disease.
* Starlight Vision: Morningstar's eyes are capable of amplifiying existing light, providing him with Good (8) nightvision.
* True Flight: Morningstar can fly at up to Incredible (36) speeds, which is 300 mph or 20 areas/round.
* Solar Energy Absorption (full Light spectrum): Morningstar is capable of absorbing Unearthly (88) amounts of sunlight. The points so absorbed can be used to instantaneously heal all forms of damage, including that suffered via starvation,. dehydration, or suffocation, or to bolster either his Strength or Light Generation/Manipulation powers. On a clear day, while near-naked or clothed in his specially designed custom, Morningstar can absorb up to 1 point every 3 rounds. This rate can vary quite considerably based upon a number of factors but can never exceeed the power rank, ie. Unearthly per round.
* Light Generation/Manipulation: Morningstar is capable of both generating and controlling light with Amazing (46) ability. Thus far he has learned the following stunts ...
- generate light of up to Amazing brilliance
- darken/intensify existing light with Amazing ability
- fire a Photon Blast that strikes with Amazing force
- shape various objects of solid light that have up to Amazing material strength, and which last for a number of rounds equal to the power rank points invested once he has shifted his attention away from them. He can always return and renew such energy constructs before they expire

Talents
None

Contacts
Dr. Jessica Banks (GenTech)

History
The Morningstar synthoid has been awake in his energy "womb" at GenTech Research and Developement Facility just outside of Yellowknife, NWT, for two years now. However, most of that time has been spent in the confines of GenTech. Only recently has he reached full growth and begun to undertake the "Advanced Socialization" program. Overseeing his developement (as the frontman for an entire team of GenTech psychologists and sociologists), is Dr. Jessica Banks (appearance-wise, think Thelma (?) from Scooby-Doo; the short, chunky one with the glasses).

Like the Thunder synthoid, Morningstar has been conditioned according to ethical guidelines, and with very strong instincts toward compassion for the human species. While no where near as "spacey/thick" as Thunder, Morningstar nevertheless has an open, quiestioning, and somewhat niave disposition.

Morningstar #1

While out shopping in Yellowknife with Dr. Banks (as part of his socialization program) a great commotion of rage filled yells and horror filled shrieks began to split the air from outside. As the two made their way for the small parkade and the Doc.'s car, they were confronted by a trio of hideous, demonic mad-men intent on killing them.



These creatures were quickly subdued by Morningstar.

Despite the terrified Doc's orders for him to get in the car, the synthoid quickly retrieved his costum, donned it, and then made his way outside ... where the commotion persisted.

Once outside, he spotted a winged-insectoid mutate just up the street destroying a police car. It immediately turned to glare at him, gurgling a barely intelligable word, "kiiiillllllll" from its drooling and chittering mouth.



Morningstar and the strangely familiar creature then charged each other, and a struggle began. It culminted when the synthoid called upon an enormous amount of his solar energy stores and sent the insectoid-mutate hurling back with a Herculean blow.

At that moment, the Dr.Banks came pulling up in her car. She jumped out and told Morningstar that she just heard from GenTech, and then related that these "madmen" must be restrained and detained -- as apparently their condition will pass -- following which the synthoid was to return with all due haste to GenTech.

At that moment, even as the insectoid-mutate rose up into the air and began to fly off, roughly a dozen of those formerly injured by it rose to their feet ... the "demonic madness" upon them.

Morningstar was quick to wrap both himself and Dr.Banks in a lightshield, and then fly to the roof of a nearby office building. Setting the Doctor down, he next trapped a small cluster of the "madmen" in a half-sphere of soldified light, before flying after a couple that had chased a lady down a back alley. Even as he pursued these two, an Epsilon Shuttle descended to the street, depositing a trio of Epsilon Blacks, before once again rising into the sky and blasting off toward GenTech.

With the aid of the Epsilon troopers, the remaining "madmen" were quickly tracked down and incapacitated. And, after a brief exchange of introductions, the local authorities were mustered to detain the "madmen".



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2006 02:22PM by Powersurge.

Morningstar #2



With the "madmen" restrained and detained, Morningstar offered the trio Epsilon Blacks a ride to GenTech; creating a "basket of solid light, loading them in, and then taking to the sky with all due haste.

They arrove to find the Epsilon Shuttle landed in the GenTech parking lot, the pilot and a number of GenTech suits standing near it -- Chief Administrator David Durham amongst them -- and a large crowd of personel gathered on the far side of it away from the facility.

A number of cars sat, still in flames and destroyed in the parking lot, while whisps of smoke eminated from the shattered and broken main entrance.

Landing near the shuttle, Morningstar and the Epsilon's made their way over to Durham. He informed them that the "Broodling" as he called it, reached the facility about 20 minutes ago, cutting a swathe through the assembled security force and numerous personel, and leaving a number "drones" in it's wake. Thankfully, the Epsilon Troopers arrived hot on the Broodling's heels, and managed to both incapacitate the drones and secure the groundlevel before pursuing the Broodling itself into the sublevels of the facility.

Durham further related that he had been in touch with Dr. Stone of GenTech HQ in Toronto. He was in transit to this site even as they spoke, and had reason to believe that the creature would be heading for area C15 in the north-wing of sublevel 2. Stone stressed the importance of containing the threat, and enforcing a quarentine on all personel.

Even as Durham explained this, the Epsilon's received a communication from their unit commander, Captain Geoffrey London. He explained that the sublevels were crawling with both drones and regs, but that the unit was nevertheless approaching the target area.He further ordered the trio to remain on the surface, help enforce the quarentine, and stop anything that might get past them.

Morningstar however, enjoyed no such luxury. Durham, under the order of Stone, insisted that the "synth" proceed to the defense of area C15 with all due haste.

So, penetrating to sublevel 2, Morningstar heard numerous growls and screams coming from the south wing. He saved 3 lab techs from a number of drones, and then as the lot of them returned to the elevator foray, he saved a group of 5 others from 2 more drones. The people in this second group seemed oddly familiar to the synthoid, but of course, they did work here ... where he lived.

After locking the drones in a room, and aiding the survivors to the surface,
Morningstar at last proceed to area C15. He arrove to find a large room containing 5 large cylinders all hooked up to numerous compters and machines along the walls via. capables and tubes. Much of this equipment was damaged and shooting sparks, while a goodly number of blood soaked bodies lined the floor of the room; lab techs., security guards, Epsilon troopers, some laying naked. In the midst of it all, drooling profusing and chittering and gittering about stood the Broodling.

The battle was quickly joined as each went at the other. Morningstar thought to end the fight fast and so channelled nearly all of his solar energy into one titanic punch. And while this did manage to slam the Broodling back and leave it momentarily stunned, it then occured that 4 of the Epsilon Blacks, their helmets shattered but their armour fully intact, rose up as drones.

After a brief exchange with the Epsilon drones, and with his reserves near empty and the Broodling rising back to its feet, Morningstar decided on a strategic retreat. However, such was the fury of the Broodling that the synthoid was crushed by the charging fiend as he entered the elevator shaft and then hurled down to the shafts bottom ... some 20 floors below.

Morningstar #3



Having been located and hauled up to the surface, Morningstar at last regained conscious outsdie of GenTech. He was in the company of Dr. Stone (Head of GenTech; think a business suavey version of Jeff Goldblum's character in Independence Day or the Fly), Dr.Banks, Mr. Durham and a few other GenTech employees.

After helping the synthoid to his feet, Stone excused the others and performed a brief examination of Morningstar. Though the synthoids body had suffered much trauma in his fight with the Broodling, the Doctor was very pleased with the speed of recovery once exposed to direct sunlight.

When Morningstar asked what happened to the Broodling, Stone explained that it emerged from the facility just before his own arrival some 20 minutes ago, attacked a few (more) security guards, and then flew off to the southeast. More importantly though, stressed the doctor, was the fact that the Broodling succeed in releasing 5 hostile xenomorph's that were being held in stasis in area C15.

Nearly a decade ago, Stone explained, an alien craft crashlanded near a isolated GenTech research centre here in the NWT. This ship contained a number of hostile aliens that "impregnated" a team of GenTech scientists that had gone to investigate the crash. No one knows exactly what went on, but when others at last arrived to relieve this team, the centre's power was gone and the scientists were found, apparently frozen to death from the winter cold.

It was eventually discovered however, that the scientists were not dead, but had somehow merely entered a cryogenic sleep. And it was soon discovered why, as the first to be unthawed quickly underwent a metamorphosis into a terrible creature that called itself a "Brood". This one was groggy and quickly slain by attendent security guards. It's corpse dissolved within a moment of it's death, and so it was decided that the other infested scientists, while they would be brought out of their cyrogenic sleep, would nevertheless be placed directly into stasis-tubes. And there they had remained ... until now. If such creatures were to establish a foothold on Earth, the consequences could be ... apocolyptic.

Thankfully, Stone continued to explain, that each of these "hosts" were tagged with tracking devices while still in stasis, and one of these devices managed to survive the metamorphosis. Presently, the device had come to a dead stop at a small house in Yellowknife.

Dr. Stone then began to lead Morningstar over to the Epsilon Shuttle, its pilot, and it's two remaining troopers. En route to Yellowknife the Doc said that the Brood were able to shift back and forth between their insectoid form and human form, and so gave Morningstar pictures of the five people he would be looking for. The synthoid immediately recognized them as the five lab tech.s he had saved back at GenTech; the one's that seemed strangely familiar.

Arriving in Yellowknife and getting into position, Morningstar was at last given the go ahead, and went in hard and fast. He quickly learned that the Brood had 5 people (3 women, 1 child, and an old man) as hostages, but had no time to free them as the Brood-Warriors, enraged at his prescence, attacked him with savage fury. So great was the synthoid's concern for the hostages that he soon found himself overwhelmed, and restrained by order of their Queen.

She sniffed at him, saying that she could already smell the mark of the Brood upon him, but that in his current state he was but a mockery of her glorious race. She then implanted a Brood egg in him. And while the synthoid struggled, he was soon overwhelmed by pain and fell unconscious.


In due time Morningstar once again regained consciousness. He found an Epsilon Black in the doorway of the house, his weapon leveled at him, with Dr. Stone "cowering inquisitively" behind him. As he struggled to his feet, the Doc exclaimed his great pleasure about his suspicions being confirmed ... that the Brood gene he used in the creation of GenTech's synthoid's was so tenacious that not even a Brood implant could surivive it's counter-attack. When the synthoid questioned into this, Stone told him that the base structure for all GenTech's clones not only enjoyed an enhanced immune system thanks to Brood DNA (not to mention the collective germ-line of all life on Earth! Yep, they use ebola as stool softener), but also their strong fighting instincts along with their base strength and toughness.

Morningstar pondered this information, even as he recalled the great sense of familiarity he had when confronted with the Brood in their human form. Likewise, if to a far lesser extent, with the Broodling.

He didn't dwell on it for more than a moment however, beforer Stone related that the Brood and their hostages were presently speeding North out of the city along the gravel road, bound for Yellowknife Highway.

Taking the hint, Morningstar ran outside and flew off even as Stone and the one remaning Epsilon Trooper made their way back out to the shuttle and followed suit.

Catching up to the van in no time, Morningstar created a suit of solid-light armour around himself and then charged the van. While he missed it, it was not by much, and the vehicle went flying into the air as the road exploded in fornt of it. What followed was a vicious battle against, not four warriors, but seven. In the end, Morningstar was victorious, but only thanks to the help of Lt. Katherine Henderson, the only Epsilon Black left standing (other than the pilot of the shuttle).

Unfortunately, the Brood-Queen managed to escape during the melee and was last seen flying back toward Yellowknife. Morningstar did a quick recon of the city, but found nothing.

Morningstar #4




After losing the Brood-Queen in Yellowknife, Morningstar was contacted over his ear-mike by Dr.Stone. The synthoid informed the Doctor of the situation, the area the Queen was last spotted in, and also, in passing, that he had a vague sense that she was still in the area. When the doctor questioned into this, Morningstar related that he had somekind of limited ability to sense the Brood-Queen. Stone then postulated that this was due to his Brood genes giving him some form of access to the Brood "Hivemind" .... even as it appears to have done with the Farhill-Broodling.

Assuring Morningstar that a door-by-door search of the area was being organized even as they spoke, and that Epsilon reinforcements would soon be arriving from BC and AB, Dr. Stone ordered the synthoid back to GenTech.

Once there, Stone immediately began subjecting Morningstar to a battery of tests as he hoped to isolate the mechanism that allowed acces to the so-called "Hivemind" and develope some means to boost Morningstar's "reception". If he could, the synthetic hero might be able to pinpoint the Queen via this sense, and track her wherever she might flee.

No sooner had Stone begun his tests than he was informed that the Epsilon Guards from the Dungeon in BC had arrived in Yellowknife, and where participating in the quarentine of the city. And no sooner had the good doctor finished with Morningstar and begun to analyze the initial results than they were informed that the Farhill-Broodling had once again appeared, and was currently locked in battle with the Epsilon's unit that arrived near simultaneoulsy from AB.

Morningstar lost little time in taking to the air and speeding for Yellowknife ... some 20 minutes off even at sustained top speed. When he at last arrived, smoke rose from the main strip of the tiny city, as Epsilon's battled fiercely to contain the Broodling's drones, while the Farhill-Broodling itself continued to increase its ranks with attack after attack.

Charging in at full speed, an angry and spiteful battle began between these two products of Brood DNA ... between these two "brothers". While the Farhill-Broodling was shaken by Morningstar's opening gambit, his sheer hatred and contempt for the synthoid, his rival for the Queen's affections, soon shifted the tide of the battle in the mutates favour. Mounting the fallen synthoid, Farhill cut into it with slash after viscious slash ... until Morningstar at last flashed with the light of a small sun, blinding the Broodling and forcing it up and off of him. Then, shaping a pair of "brass-knuckles" around his already mighty fists, the synthoid began to pummel the Broodling.

In the end, Morningstar stood victorious and the Farhill-Broodling was secured in the Prisoner-Transport Shuttle of those Epilon's that came in from the Dungeon.

Unfortunately, even as Morningstar joined his battle with Farhill, the Brood-Queen was spotted making a low-altitude break for it. She was tracked, at a safe distance for a short while, but eventually disappeared beneath the treeline. And while Stone soon adminstered his amp-drug to Morningstar, it proved to be unsuccessful in locating the xenomorph.

Morningstar #5



Over the next three days Morningstar and the Epsilon troopers spent much time patrolling the surrounding region, and an A.P.B. was put out on the Brood-Queen's host, Brenda Polowski.

During this time the Farhill-Broodling's "drone-virus" ran it's course and those infected returned to normal, thus allowing the human damage to at last be @#$%&. Between the "riots" in Yellowknife and the outbreak in the sub-levels of GenTech there were a total of 39 casualties.

With no sign of the Brood-Queen, Dr.Stone ordered Dr.Jessica Banks to accompany Morningstar to GenTech HQ in Toronto. Apparenly there was a matter to attend to there that might require Morningstar's assistance, but he would talk more about that in a couple of days time when he joined them there.

Arriving at GenTech HQ, Trevor (Morningstar) was shown to his on-grounds quarters by a young company man named Carl Clausson. He had a very soft and easy-going manner to him, used the phrase "ma'man" alot, and informed Trevor that if he needed anything, all he had to do was buzz. He immediately asked Carl if he could introduce him to Thunder. Carl responded with a laugh, pointing out that it was Trevor who was all buddy-buddy with Dr.Stone. He did however bring Trevor all of the tv footage and newspaper clippings he could find on TO's official superhero.

As Jessica slept in her own quarters, Trevor spent most of his first night in Toronto perusing this material and imagining what it would be like to meet his "brother". And on the odd occassion, as he wandered the halls at GenTech, a couple people greeted him in passing as Nathan (Thunder's civilian name) ... greetings he met with an apprehensive silence.

The following day, Jessica decided to take Trevor into the big city where they could take in some sights, practice his social skills, et al. As they meandered about downtown however, it came to pass that the terrified screams of a woman and a child were heard from a block over, racing across an intersection and then out of sight again continuing down the same street. A thunderous booming followed them as a huge purple skinned freak followed in close pursuit.

With the crowd on the street distracted, Trevor surrounded himself in dark light, changed into his custom, and then went in pursuit. As he followed he noted that the purple skin thing looked remarkably similar to the "Goon" villian he had seen on the Thunder footage ... save that it "melted" at the end of it's fight with Thunder.

As Morningstar chased after the monster his pursuit was interrupted when it casually scooped up a min-van (contaning a woman, a baby, and a small child) and flung it out of his way, high into the air. No sooner had Morningstar caught the minivan, set it back down in one piece (if not altogether "gentle-as-can-be"), and continued his pursuit when a gasoline truck that swerved to miss the Goon went careening out of control. While Morningstar was unable to prevent it from crashing into a nearby building, he did manange to surround the tank in protective light and prevent it from puncturing and possibly exploding.

The synthoid at last caught up with the purple skinned brute outside of an apartment building. It had corned the kid outside the frontdoor, and the lad screamed tearfully for help, for someone to please come and save him.

Morningstar surrounded himself in light-armour and slammed into the Goons back at over 100 mph. This distracted the brute long enough for the boy to slip inside the building, and caused the purple skinned freak to grunt with pain. As for Morningstar, he bounced off of the Goon and then off the pavement a couple of times, before scrambling to unsteady feet. He then launched a punch at the Goon, only to have the brute grab his arm and begin slammig him into the street over and over again, until finally hurling him into the body of a crane in a nearby construction sight.

Making its way over to the sight, the Goon gathered up the wrecking ball from the collapsed crane, and began to clobber the dazed synthoid with it. Thankfully, it was a sunny day and Morningstar had plenty of energy in his reserves. Thus was he able to pull himself from the wreckage of the crane and at last mount an offensive, reforming his shattered light-armour, along with a morningstar, and laying into his assailent.

And so the battle raged on and on.

In due time, Morningstar's strength began to fail. However, mustering his strength for one final blow, fate smiled on him and Goon walked headlong into it. Rather than knocking the monser out though, the purple skinned mutate simply vanished into thin air.

A couple of photogrpahers took Morningstar's picture, and one even got his name, before the hero made a quick search for the kid, and then, failing to find him, flew off.

Morningstar #6

Following his fight with the "illusion" of Goon, Morningstar contacted Jessica and then returned immediately to GenTech.

Later that evening Dr.Stone arrived back from Yellowknife and called both Moringstar and Dr.Banks to his office. They discussed what went on with "Goon", and Stone remarked that this was peculiar for a few reasons. First, in previous months, Thunder had encountered and battled somekind of holograms of various metahumans (Thunder 17, 19, 21, and 25 here ... [forum.alphaflight.net] ). And second, Thunder went missing roughly one week ago (Thunder #28), along with his romanitc interest Susan O'Conner, who just happens to have once been "involved" with he man that became Goon.

With that, Dr.Stone went on to reveal that Morningstar would be going on a trip to New Jersey, as Thunder's G.P.D. (Global Positioning Device) implant placed him on a small island just of the Jersey coast before it's signal was finally lost. Morningstar would be going into investigate this island, while Banks acted as his chaperon (in strictly non-life threatening climes).

During the trip and for the first while in Jersey there was some friction between Trevor (Morningstar) and Jessica due to the formers lack of confidence and self-direction, but Jessica was at last able to drive home the fact that Morningstar was a superhuman lifeform (while she herself was a mere psychologist). And so, at long last Trevor donned his Morningstar costume and flew off to the specified island.

Arriving at the island, Morningstar found that it was an abandoned amusement park. Landing out front of the biggest structure, a funhouse called "Never, Never Land", the synthoid entered and soon found himself in pursuit of a knight in black platemail dragging off a screaming woman. In his pursuit he had to fight his way over a bridge guarded by a mechanical troll, past nearly a dozen rediculous looking mechanical knights, and through 2 Shrek's before at last confronting the Black Knight at the top of a great tower. During his fight with this knight, he knocked off it's helmet to behold a robotic likeness of himself ... or Nathan, as the woman exclaimed.

For all of that, Morningstar made short work of the robot. He then saw that the woman whose aid he came to was the same as the one that fled with the boy from goon the other day.

Susan explained that she had been kidnapped out of her apartment at least a week ago, and was held in a small, dimly lit room ever since. Then, a couple of days ago, she heard a man and a woman talking about how business was official complete, and that they were now going to kill her. Thankfully, she managed to escape between the walls of this place, and found the tunnels and vents to be so extensive that she has been able to hide for a couple of days now. She had at last decided to make a break for it today, but was captured by the black knight.

With Sue in tow, Morningstar began knocking holes into the walls of the fairyland "set" until he at last found a large vent. Following this, they eventually emerged into a pac-man maze, and not only eluded the lethal pac-man that patrolled the maze, but found a control room at the centre of the maze. Within Morningstar found a hysterically laughing redhaired man wearing a whitesuit and an obnoxious bow-tie (Arcade, [www.marveldirectory.com] ). The synthoid tried to get him to reveal the location of Thunder, but he merely kpet on laughing ..... and counting backwards. Realizing what was up at the last moment, Morningstar was able to throw up a solid light barrier around Sue and himself, as the lauhging man (apparently a robotic likeness) exploded.

Soon after, the facility began to shake with multiple explosions. So, with Sue safely within a bubble of solid light, Morningstar blasted his way to the surface and carried her to safety.

Oooops.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2006 02:28PM by Powersurge.

Morningstar #7



Following his ecape from Arcade's Murderworld, Morningstar placed Susan O'Conner into Dr.Banks' keeping. She in turn helped get Sue in touch with the Canadian embassay and the American authorities.

Returning to Toronto a few days later, Morningstar was debriefed by Dr.Stone. While no body was found, it was concluded that Thunder was probably dead, assassinated by Arcade. Perhaps on behalf of Little Princess or one of her close associates.

A week or so later Dr.Stone flew to Ottawa to attend the otherwise closed-door trial of Powersurge (see Powersurge's write up here [www.classicmarvel.com] and Thunder #22 here [www.classicmarvel.com] ), and took Trevor along with him as his personal bodyguard. It was a brief and surprisingly matter-of-fact affair, lasting only 3 days. A small unit of Epsilon troopers stood guard within the courtroom, while the civilian authorities controlled the relatively peaceful demonstrations (both pro-Powersurge and anti-mutant) outside. When all was said and done, Powersurge was sentenced to a 5 year term of service as an agent of Department H.

As Powersurge was being escorted out of the courthouse to an awaiting Epsilon Shuttle, four 10' tall robots highly reminscient of Sentinels descended from the sky and in one fell swoop took out Powersurge and 4 of the 6 Epsilon troopers. One of them then began to surround the Canadian mutant in an energy field.

At this point the 2 remaning Epsilon's attempted to mount a counter-offense, and were soon aided, not only by Morningstar, but also by an enormous redhaired Scot and an Asian man. The Scot quickly tore the arm off of one of the robots, and then smashed its head in with it before going for seconds. And he finished this second off even as the 2 Epsilons, the Asian (armed with an Epsilon energy rifle), and Morningstar finished off a third. The fourth robot however, managed to escape with Powersurge's unconscious form.



As another Epsilon Shuttle arrived to reinforce their fellows, the Asian and Scotsman introduced themselves as Yuri Suzuki (aka the Examiner) and Elmer MacDonald (aka Battlehammer). They presented the Epsilon troopers with their "diplomatic" credentials, and informed Morningstar that they were both teammates of Powersurge's back when the U.N. Protectors project was still in existence.

The Epsilons soon let the lot of them go, assuring them the authorities would handle this matter, and with an obligatory warning about the unauthorized use of superpowers.

The trio immediately proceeded to the Examiner's hotel room, where he retrieved his optics helmet. Following this, he used it to pick up the energy trail left by the Sentinel that kidnapped Powersurge. And then, after a brief stop at the Examiner's cousin's home (to pick up some additional tech.), Morningstar formed a makeshift shuttle of solid light, had Battlehammer and Examiner climb aboard, and then the trio began to track the energy trail.



They followed it northeast for several hours, till the trail at last disappeared ... at the foot of Mount Caubvik (aka Mont d'Iberville) in the Torngat Mountains that span the border between Quebec and Labradour. Two great metal doors were built into the side of the mountain, indicating some sort of facility within.

Searching for an alternate entrance, it was not long before Battlehammer found some sort of sewage pipe which he was just barely able to squeeze into. So, after tearing off the titanium steel grate, the lot of them piled in.

Following this pipe, the trio eventually found themselves in a maintainence room all full of pipes and boilers and the like. From there they gained access into the facility proper and were immediately confronted by a trio of Sentinels. These were quickly defeated, following which they located a computer node. The Examiner was able to use this to hack into the main computer system, download schematics of the facility, and locate the holding area ... where they believed Powersurge would be.

On their way to this area, they passed through a huge foray with numerous entrances. As they reached the centre, Sentinels began to emerge from all of the exits, both surrounding and entrapping them.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2006 02:31PM by Powersurge.

The Sentinel pic for issue 7 seems to be having some trouble loading. Lets try this ...

Morningstar #8

A moment after finding themselves in the large foray and surrounded by Sentinels, a man's face appeared on a large video monitor that hung from the ceiling on the far wall. The middle aged man was square jawed and stern of face. However, barely had he accused the heroes of breaking and entering when Morningstar destroyed the video monitor ... apparently not wanting the villian to spill the beans on his own "master plan". With that the surrounding Sentinels closed in. And despite a visciously fought battle, the heroes fell one-by-one.

When all was said and done, both Examiner and Battlehammer were taken captive, while two Sentinels were ordered to take the synthoid outside and dispose of it. And so they did, taking him roughly a mile away from the installation, to a valley floor, where they began to deliver the resilient synthoid his death blows. However, no sooner had they begun their barrage when they received a priority call to return to base. Apparently, Battlehammer had regained consciousness sooner than anticipated and was proving troublesome, while the synthoid's lifesigns had clearly begun a downward spiral.

Thus was Morningstar left on the valley floor. And there he remained for the extent of the long, cold winter night, until at last, some 10 hours later, the light of the rising sun at last crested the mountians peaks and began to rain down on the valley floor.

With that, the solar powered synthoid's lifeforce began to slowly replenish itself. And while the damage that he suffered was far more extensive than his healing factor could heal in a mere few minutes, it was not long before Morningstar was back on his feet with his solar powered cells charged to full.

Returning to the front door of the mountain-installation, Morningstar was able to bend the light around his body, thereby rendering himself invisible to basic visual sensors. Then, when a small group of Sentinel's emerged, he snuck in the open doors.

Morningstar spent over an hour searching the installation, unsure of whether or not he was going in circles, but at last he came upon a room blocked by a translucent green force-wall. Within he saw not only a humble living space, but also the Examiner ... deprived of his technology, but otherwsie unharmed.

The Examiner explained that their captor was a man named Randal North, a former Lt. Colonel in the C.A.F. (Canadian Armed Forces) who lost his wife and family in the "Winnipeg Incident" (a huge explosion that leveled several blocks of Winnipeg, mostly park area, when Powersurge's mutant powers first manifested many years ago). The Examiner explained that North feels that it is his expressed duty to do what the Canadian government refuses to ... protect it's citizenry from rogue superpowered beings and ensure they are punished to the full extent for their crimes, and without regard for the bleeding hearts, their agendas, special interests and double standards.

In fact, years ago when the governement decided to scrap the Flight Program in favour of something more... obedient, Lt. Colonel Randal North's "Project: Failsafe" was one of the proposals offered up as an alternative. It lost the contract to the Epsilon Program, and North retired soon after.

Nevertheless, North pursued his "dream", and with the aid of certain "benefactors" was able to build this base ... which serves as both a Sentinel production plant and as a detention facility. The Examiner went on to explain that North plans on using Powersurge as a power source in order to bring production to full and speed up the completion of his army of peacekeeping Sentinels.

So, after failing to hack the holding room's security code, Morningstar hauled off and blasted through the wall, freeing the Examiner. Then, after a brief search, and a tussell with a pair of Sentinel's, the duo located a tech.workshop. Therein they found the Examiner's equipment.

With that, they decided to first locate and free Battlehammer, hopefully from the Detention Area, and then to make their way to the Generator Room and rescue Powersurge.

Sentinel (Project: Failsafe)



F - Ex
A - Gd
S - In
E - Rm
R - Ty
I - Gd
P - Rm

Health: 100

Growth(permanent): 9' tall, +1CS to-be-hit.

Body Armour: Excellent vs. all force and energy based attacks.

Energy Beams (chest plate): 2 area range, Remarkable heat, cold, plasma, electricity, radiation, or kinetic damage.

Stun Ray (eyes): 3 area range, targets must make an Endurance FEAT vs. Remarkable intensity or be stunned for 1 to 10 rounds.

Disintegration Ray (palm): 2 area range, Remarkable intensity, weakens inanimate armour, forcefields and mateiral strength by power rank on a succesful hit. Organic targets must make an End FEAT vs. Intensity or be disintegrated. Success equals rank level damage, minus any protection.

Mutant Detection: 5 area range.

Flight: Gd (8 areas/round).

Self-Repair: can regenerate 2 points/round so long as Health has not dropped beneath 50.

** can be outfitted with Detention Sphere generators, which can create an Incredible strength forcebubble of solidified energy around a target.

Morningstar #9



Having made it to the Detention Area, it did not take long for Morningstar and the Examiner to fight their way past the Sentinel guards and free Battlehammer from his reinforced osmium steel cell, gravity field, and nil-leverage osmium restraining bonds.

With Battlehammer free once more, the trio began to make their way to the Generator Room on the otherside of the complex. As they moved on their way, they found the facility to be suspiciously empty. And when they at last arrived at the Generator Room they found out why.

Within the enormous room, surrounded by the last of his current army of Sentinels (9), was Randal North. He stood, awaiting them, on a grated platform suspended over the farside of a large and very deep hole in the floor. Many computers sat behind him on the platform. Hanging over the center of the large hole was a huge tubular generator device, tappering to a point about midway down from the ceiling (about 30' overhead), and with a translucent red globe near it's summit. A quartette of tubes ran out of this globe, and the vague shape of a human could be gleaned within.

North welcomed the heroes, stating that he had been expecting them. He began to speak, with increasing anger, of how he was the true hero in all of this, of how the spirits and the families of those slain in the Winnipeg Incident would at last have justice, and of how his "Failsafes" would keep such a tragedy from ever happening again. The heroes attempt to refute his beliefs, and point out how it was he who was acting against the law and greater good of the land, but this only brought the matter to a head and the Sentinels were given the order to attack.

And so the battle began in earnest. And no sooner had it, then North went to work on the computers behind him. Within a few moments a great humm filled the chamber and both the energy globe and it's attached tubes began to glow and pulse with energy.

Morningstar fired a hastily aimed blast at the generator, grazing it, and in response North warned that destroying the generator would lead to the certain death of their friend.

So, with barely a trio of Sentinels left to take down, the large doors on the fare side of the room, leading to the Sentinel production line opened, and another Sentinel entered the fray. And a few moments later it was joined by another, then another.

Things were looking bleak for the heroes, when Examiner at last finished his analysis of the generator. He exclaimed tht North was lying, and ordered Battlehammer to take out the device while Morningstar used his powers to pluck the falling Powersurge from the debris.

And so it was, with Battlehammer grabbing a Sentinel, twisating it's head off, hoisting it above his head, and then hurling it into the Generator... shattering it. Likewsie did Morningstar quickly reach out with his light powers and surrounded the unconscious body of Powersurge in a protective field of light and haul him to safety.

The rest of the debris rained down from the ceiling. Some of it struck the platform North was on, carrying him to his death at the bottom of the hole.

Moments later the installation began to rumble and small energy geysers began to shoot up out of the hole in the floor. The remaning Sentinels were destroyed by the first two, while Morningstar shielded himself and his comrades with a light shield. Then, making a tunnel of solid light leading to the exit of the Generator Room, the group fled to the front dorr of the facility. Here, Morningstar again surrounded his friends in a carriage of solid light and then took to the sky with them.

They had barely made it more than a mile away when an enormous geyser of energy blow the peak off of Mount Caubvik.

Settling in a nearby valley, the badly wounded and utterly exhausted heroes gathered their wits. They were soon met by an Epsilon Shuttle and a troop of Epsilons, whom had found the group courtesy of Dr.Stone and Morningstar's G.P.S.

The hereos were lifted back to Department H's HQ in Ottawa, with Morningstar quickly being released into Stone's custody and hospitalized. Both Examiner and Battlehammer were soon released as well, with a gentle warning and a sincere thanks for their help in this matter.

Morningstar #10

Following the Project: Failsafe affair, Morningstar spent nearly a month recovering from his injuries. And when he was at last released, Dr, Banks was given the go ahead to help Trevor establish himself in Toronto.

Over the course of the next two weeks, as Jessica helped Trevor get an apartment, a bank account, hook up his utilities, et al., GenTech was hard at work arranging another public event at the Skydome... this time to showcase Morningstar.

And so it was that the event went ahead. And while Morningstar was at first received with boo's and hisses and calls for Thunder (the crowd chanting the beginnig of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck"), he put on such a spectacular display and finished with such a dazzling lightshow, that in the end the crowd had been won over.

Both Chief og Police O'Roarke and Mayor Gillespi were in attendence and took part in the Q&A that followed. It was made public that Thunder had disappeared and was believed dead, and that Morningstar would be replacing him.

However, no sooner had that announcement been made when a rumble of Thunder was heard overhead. And a moment later Thunder appeared at mid-field, his face a mask of rage and his voice booming a condemantion of and a challenge to Morningstar.

When an off balance Morningstar replied that this was neither the time nor the place, Thunder let a sonic blast fly. Morningstar responded by erecting a force-barrier to defend the intervening crowd of reporters from the blast, but was then smashed hard by the charging Thunder.

Morningstar attempted to reason with his brother-synthoid, as he weathered anoher blow that nearly took his head off, but he couldn't pierce Thunder's raging fury. So, the battle began in earnest.

Morningstar took to the air and began to use his superior speed and manuverability to stay a step ahead of Thunder. And the tactic worked. From that point on, the odds slowly began to shift into Morningingstar's favour, till at length, Thunder was nailed with a huge photon blast... disappearing into thin air as though he had never been.

Morningstar #11

After foiling a jewelry store heist in downtown Toronto, Morningstar was approached by an Epsilon Trooper and asked to accompany him to Department H HQ. Once there, the synthoid was introduced to General Jeremy Clarke.

The General began by explaining that, as a sanctioned superhero, Morningstar had certain obligations to the Canadian government. He then began to relate how late last night a trio of mutants broke into Department H and kidnapped a child being treated there. Rolling the security camera footage, three distinct figures could be made out despite the gloom and shadows. The first was identified as Cyclops, leader of the X-Men, Rogue (a former member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants), and Wolverine (rogue agent of Department H).

Clarke then finished the briefing by expaining that an Epsilon Stelath Shuttle would carry the synthoid to within striking distance of the X-Men's hideout, and then provide Morningstar with a read-out of the locations of all mutants present. It would then be up to him to locate the child and make it back to the shuttle for extraction. And of course, if things went against the synthoid, the Shuttle would make a hastey retreat to Canadian airspace and the Canadian governemt would disavow any knowledge of the synthoids activities.

And so it it went. Arriving in the vicinity of the Xavier's School, the mutant-scan picked up only a small number of signatures; one in the mansion, another in the car garage, yet another in the estates wooded area, and finally a trio out in the outside pool area.

Morningstar chose to target the one isolated in the woods. He took a subtle and quiet approach, but when he at last arrived at the spot he thought to surprise the mutant, he found no one there. Then, from behind he heard a distinctive "SNIKT", and quickly found that Wolverine had gotten the drop on him. While Morningstar was quick to attempt a parley, it only took a faint whiff of the synthoid's Brood-ish" scent to set the berserker off and send him charging headlong at the synthoid, claws a-slashing.

While Morningstar's was caught off-balance, he proved to be remarkably resilient, and even managed to take out Rogue with a flash-attack when she came charging to her teammates aid. However, before long Wolverine had found a sensitive spot and began exploiting it. And with the arrival of Gambit, Cyclops and Jubilee, it was not long before Morningstar was subdued.

Morningstar #12

Following his battle with the X-Men, Morningstar awoke in one of the X-Mansion's holding cells. He was very indignant, believing his captors to be kidnappers, and initially responded to all of their questions with threats and accusations. However, the quickly changed when Cyclops cleared the area of all personel save Wolverine, and was almost out the door himself.

He told the X-Men his hero-name, and revealed that he smelled like a "Brood about to hatch" because his creator, Alfred Stone, had utilized Brood DNA in his creation. He went on to reveal his ties to Department H, his mission, and the reasons for it.

After a brief recess, Professor Xavier returned to Mornignstar's cell with Cyclops and Wolverine. He related that Dr.Stone had once been a... "student" of his, and after a few pleasantries went on to assure Morningstar that, despite what the alleged video footage might suggest, the X-Men were all present and accounted for on the night of the kidnapping. Thus, it could not have been them.

This quickly led into talk about the "holographic duplicates" that both Morningstar and Thunder had been encountering over the past year. In response, Professor X suggested that he scan Ontario with Cerebro on the off chance a new mutant was at the root of these incidents.

And so it went, with Xavier donning the Cerebro helm and performing, first, a general scan of Ontario, and then a more isolated scan of Toronto. However, no sooner had the Professor detected a new mutant whose power levels were spiking off the chart, when a burst of "psychic feedback" left him comatose.

After getting the Professor to the infirmary, Cyclops gathered the X-Men in the War Room, and informed them that they would be taking a trip to Toronto. Once there, they would split up into teams and use the handheld Cerebro's to pinpointing the location of this new mutant and contact him or her.

Arriving in Toronto the next day, Cyclops split the teams into Wolverine and Jubilee, Rogue and Gambit, and then himself and Morningstar, before beginning their search. Before long, Morningstar and Cyclops got a bite and tracked the signal to the front door of Thunder's old apartment building.

However, as they got out of the rental car and began making their way over to the building, they found themselves confronted by Vindicator, Sasquatch, and Puck. Accusations were made, heated words were exchanged, and then from out of nowhere (literally) Vindicator was downed by an energy blast.

Thus did the battle begin. And it was soon joined, first, by Gambit and Rogue, and then by Northstar and Aurora. Wolverine and Jubilee were the next to enter the fray, and then finally a confused Powersurge arrived on the scene.

The battle continued to rage until only Morningstar, Powersurge, Sasquatch, Wolverine, Rogue and Jubilee were left standing. Then it happened that the apartment building momentarily shimmering, to be transformed into a stately building and a great blast of green energy exploded the street between the warring parties.

Looking toward the source of the blast, both groups found themselves confronted by a very angry group of comicbook superheroes*. Emblazoned on the front wall of the stately building were the words "Halls of Justice", and arrayed before it stood the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, Batman, and Hawkgirl.

*NOTE: In my MU there are no Marvel comics, only DC, Wildstorm, and other indies.

Morningstar #13

As the heroes stood in shocked disbelief at the appearance of the comicbook heroes (see last issue), a ferociously angry looking Green Lantern announced that this "villainous rampage" would now be brought to an abrupt end even as he KO'd Powersurge with a blast of his emerald energy.

Thus was the battle joined. And as it raged Hawkgirl fell to Rogue, who then moved to aid Sasquatch and Jubilee against Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, as she moved in to help, the Amazon sprung her trap and Jubilee accidently took Rogue out of the fight with a dazzling blast of fireworks. Nevertheless, Sasquatch quickly took the measure of his enemy, and with Morningstar's assurance that these were all figments of a young mutants imgination, he tore into Wonder Woman and quickly removed her from the fight.

Meanwhile, Batman put up a valiant effort against Wolverine, but was at last KO'd when Morningstar came to the X-Man's aid. Soon after, the Flash fell to the combined efforts of the dazzling Jubilee and Wolverine.

The Green Lantern was managing to hold his own against all comers, until, unbeknownest to him, Powersurge regained consciousness. His revenge was swift and certain.

With the last of the comicbook heroes dealt with, Morningstar began to give a more detailed explantion of events to
Sasquatch. Then, suddenly, the big orange wookie was struck by a blow that brought him to his knees and shattered all windows in a one block radius.

Enter Superman.

On shakey knees though they were, the remaining members of the X-Men and Department H had little choice but to fight. Superman tore into Sasquatch. Both he and Morningstar together managed to hold their own for a few moments, but before long, Sasquatch was KO'd. He was soon followed by Wolverine, who had climbed to the roof of a 4 story building, seeking to catch Supe's in a surprise charge/fall attack. He connected... much to his own dismay.

With Sasquatch dealt with, Superman next turned to Morningstar. Though Powersurge still continued to strayfe, effectively, from the air, it did not take Superman that long to pound Morningstar into the pavement. And with that, he quickly overtook Powersurge and smashed him through a 2 story building from 70' in the air, even as he took out Jubilee with his heat vision.

As these events took place, Aurora at last began to recover from the earlier battle. She was not slow to clue in. And a moment later, she hit Superman with the brighest dazzle effect she could muster... and it left the Man of Steel stunned! With that, the recently recovered Vindicator took up proper positioning, activated her shield, and then aligned herself with the rotation of the Earth in an all out Charge attack, but she was, unfortunately(?), a small bit off her mark... and so was carried, temporarily, out of combat.

The battle was next joined by the recently recovered Northstar and Gambit, but both were KO'd again almost as soon as they re-entered the fray.

With things looking grim for the heroes, a recovered Wolverine pulled himself to his feet and quickly tracked down the unconscious Rogue. With a paternal kiss he gave her his regeneration powers and intent. She quickly tracked down Sasquatch and absorbed his powers.

Meanwhile, even as a newly recovered Puck was trying his darnest to occupy Superman, Aurora made her way over to the fallen Morningstar and managed to use her light power to revive him!

Then, even as Puck was slammed through a wall and sent down for another afternoon nap, Rogue began to tear into Superman. She was soone joined by Vindictor.

As that ferocious battle began to rage, Morningstar and Aurora found the portable Cerebro that had been dropped by Cyclops, and entered into the "Halls of Justice". With the aid of the Cerebro they quickly pinpointed the mutant, and entered a apartment and bedroom in which he found a young boy, Brent Smithers, hovering prone over his bed, eminating a maelstrom of blue-black energies, and his frantic mother huddled in the corner screaming for help and nearly out of her mind with fright and hopelessness.

Aurora tried to use her light powers to sooth both mother and child, and after a few moments it seemed to have some feint effect. Nevertheless, great explosions could be heard from outside, so, as Aurora kept it up, Morningstar made his way back outside.

He found that Wolverine was back on his feet, Rogue was down for the count, and Vindicator was waging a desperate last stand. And then in the next breath, she was KO'd.

So, with the last of their strength, Wolverine and Morningstar threw themselves back into it. Wolverine was immediately KO'd, and Morningstar was again suffering under a massive pounding, when at last the combined might of his photon blast and the newly recovered Cyclop's Optic Blast at last overcame the Superman "hologram". And with his defeat, bot the Halls of Justice facade, as well and the torrent of blue-black energy pouring out of the boy, ceased.

Within moments Epsilon Troopers were on the scene, along with Department H officials, to take custody of Brent. The situation with the X-Men, ie. the kidnapping, was quickly resolved, and Vindicator promised both the X-Men and Department H officals that AF would be looking into this young mutants fate... especially after the history they had heard from Morningstar.

As Morningstar made his way around to each of the heroes to thank them for their help in this, he spotted Powersurge and Rogue a slight ways down a back alley. As he approached however, Wolverine got in his way, telling the "sleazling" that he had no business down that way, not now, and to go join the others over yonder... gesturing in the direction of a perturbed looking Gambit.

In the end, the Canadians accompanied the X-Men to the airport and saw them off. Powersurge sought out Morningstar and thanked him for helping him out with Randal North and Project: Failsafe. They shook hands.

A recent commission portraying a classic confrontation...





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2006 06:21PM by Powersurge.

Morningstar #14

Over the course of the next month Morningstar eased himself into his role as Toronto's official superhero, going out on regular patrols and establishing a prescence in the city. During that time he responded to a number of calls involving crazed young men on somekind of PCP rampage, displaying heightened strength and resistence to injury.

While Morningstar stopped these rampages with *relative* ease, one of the men, a weightlifter that had gone on a rampage at his regular gym, was found to have a vial filled with a near flourescent green liquid in his locker.

The case was taken by a Detective Larry Holmes, who did not take well to Morningstar's concern and so shut him out with extreme prejudice.

Nevertheless, after one of a duo of youths that had gone on a rampage fell into a coma and died, Morningstar received a call from a woman, "Investigative Reporter Tanya Sullivan", who set up a meeting between them to discuss the case.

At this meeting Sullivan revealed that a new drug, somekind of super-performance enhancer called "Hype" had recently hit the streets of Toronto and was beginning to circulate. She produced a vial of near flourescent green liquid, and went on to say that she believed it was responsible for these rageful rampages. Finally, she told Morningstar that three of the four people that had rampaged had all visited a shadey medical doctor, Lionel Barthallamew, at a downtown clinic and all within the past 6 weeks.

Before she could go on however, three thugs strolled up to them and one of them plucked the vial from Sullivan's hand. When Morningstar stood up to them, each slapped their own arm with a palm-held injector. A moment later, their faces turned red, the veins on their necks poppoed out, and their muscles swelled.

Nevertheless, Morningstar quickly placed two of the "Hype" powered thugs in restraints of solid light. And while the third hit him with a number of solid blows, he quickly recovered and subdued his assaillent.

The trio were soon turned over to the police. Morningstar thanked Sullivan for the info. and then returned to the station himself to write a report.

Morningstar #15

The next day Morningstar decided to once again try to befriend Larry Holmes. While the Detective was thankful for the information Morningstar provided in his report from last night, it was grudging and accompanied with another warning to butt out of his case.

Later on, Morningstar went to the forensics lab to check the results of the analysis of the "Hype" obtained from the gym rampage. It was found to have much in common with your common "upper", but also contained some properties that couldn't be identified.

The synthoid went on to track down the location of the clinic Dr.Barthallamew worked at, along with a photo and some background, and ended up tailing the good doctor to his apartment building later that evening... for reference sake.

Concluding that GenTech would be able to run a much more through analysis of the "Hype" than the authorites could, Morningstar contacted Tanya Sullivan the following day and asked her to obtain a vial for him; almost letting his synthetic nature slip in the course of the conversation. She said she could, and would, but he would have to provide her with the result of the analysis, and give her an exclusive interview.

And so the following morning, Morningstar met with Ms. Sullivan, successfully navigated the interview (with the help of a bit of coaching in the hours prior), and obtained the sample of the drug. Promising Sullivan that the results would be in within 24 hours, he bid her farewell and immediately made his way to Dr.Stone and the labs at GenTech.

When all was said and done, Dr.Stone called Morningstar into his office to discuss the results of the analysis. As it turned out, the unidentifiable aspect of the drug was a mutagen, custom designed by Stone himself years ago and virtually exclusive to his own private research.

Thus, Morningstar was to keep this information quiet until a better handle could be gained on the situation. Stone said that he personally would immediately begin an internal investigation, while Morningstar focused on this Dr. Barthallamew and uncovering his source.

Later that night, Morningstar again tailed the doctor home form the clinic after it closed. However, halfway to his apartment, the doctor turned around and returned. As the doctor entered the dark building, the synthoid noticed a black van parked in the adjacent lot, and also a car up the street that was the same make as Tanya Sullivan's.

Not more than a few moments later Dr.Barthallamew once again emerged. As he got back in his car and began to pull out of the lot, two very large men (NFL linebacker large) also emerged, carrying a rolled up carpet toward the van.

Fearing the worst, Morningstar wasted no more time with speculation and immediately swept in, took control of the "carpet" and flew it to the safety of a nearby roof. There he unrolled it to find an unconscious Tanya Sullivan.

Making his way back down to the lot, Morningstar engaged the two men, who were now all arush with Hype. They were soon joined by a third even bigger man, also all "hyped-up", but after a long, tough battle, resulting in at least a bit of property damage, Morningstar was victorious.

As the sound of sirens grew ever closer, Morningstar sped off with Ms.Sullivan; landing her at a hospital before returning to the station to, once again, write a report.