Chapter 4

Twilight Dusk: Stepping off the ferry, my boys and I took a look around. Port Oakes looked to be a lot cleaner place than Mercy Island. The best thing was that I didn’t see (or smell) any Snakes. Man, I hate those Snakes! I was told to look up an old sea-dog by the name of Drea the Hook. After finding out where he was, we headed in his direction and decided to take a short cut through a marina. There were a bunch of losers hanging around the marina, including a few from some group that call themselves “The Lost.” Some big guy was actually wearing a tv for a head! Bouncer jokingly asked if he could get the game on the set or if the reception was too lousy. Trask and I just about broke our ribs we were laughing so hard. Then that crazy tv-wearing guy pulls a sword that was as big as me out and nearly cuts Bouncer in two! Holy crap! Bouncer bounced back and we all pulled our pistols. We canceled that bastard’s show!

After a few minor scrapes, we get to Drea the Hook. He seems kind of jittery, but I guess I can’t blame him. It seems that he lost his ship and crew off of Alaska and now is just trying to earn money to retire to the easy life. Drea told me that he didn’t have anything right away, but to check the local paper for jobs. If he had something for me, he would put in a fake ad letting me know to get in touch with him. Leaving, I picked up the latest issue of the Rogue Isle Protector. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I had just gotten to Port Oakes and there was some idiot quoted in the paper calling me out! There’s no way in hell I was going to let that stand. I can’t have my rep take a hit from some low-life loser. The brain-dead moron even said in the paper where he could be found. That was all I needed. I grabbed my boys, Trask and Bouncer, and headed over to learn that idiot the hard truth. Once we got to that idiot’s hideout, it didn’t take long. It seems that he was some big-shot with the Skulls and that he had some super powers to boot. All I know is that he died begging for mercy. I let my .45s answer his pleas. Hehehe.

After celebrating, I decided to check the paper again the next day. In the Finance section, it mentioned that the local bank was getting a huge deposit that day. I figured that it was time for me to make a sizable withdrawal! So, we headed over to the bank and slipped inside. The normal lunch crowd was in there: working class zombies shuffling through the lines. As soon as I filled the closest guard full of lead, the zombies began running around like mad and screaming. The bank guards were having some problems as that they didn’t want to shoot through the crowd of people. Sadly for them, my boys and I didn’t have the same problem. If somebody got in the way of my blazing .45s, then that’s their tough luck! What made it funner was that I had recently learned a new trick. I learned how to rapidly empty the clips in both .45s while still being able to hit the target. It’s way cool to be able to throw a wall of lead at some bastard who thinks that he can take me on! We then cracked the safe after dealing with all the guards. Grabbing the loot, we headed back out. We encountered some minor resistance as that some more rent-a-cops showed up, but they were no match for us. I sure hope that their widows took out a life insurance policy on them! Later that night, I let my goons blow off some steam at some local strip joint run by some outfit called the Family. They should have called themselves the Posers! I think these guys had watched the Godfather and Goodfellas way too many times. For a second, I thought I was in Little Italy, not Port Oakes. Oh well. As long as those goombahs stay out of my way, there won’t be a problem.

While I was cleaning my .45s a few days later, Trask was reading the paper out loud. Bouncer had tried earlier, but his brutal mangling of English almost made my ears bleed. Anyway, Trask read a story about some famous singer’s newest CD getting stolen before it was released. Some outfit named the Council appeared to have stolen it. I decided that we should retrieve the CD so that I could then turn around and sell it to some music pirates. Man, I loves the internet! The CD was being held in a swanky office building, but after me and my boys got through with it, the place wasn’t so swanky. The Council’s guys were competent and, for once, armed with guns. It kinda surprised me as that I thought they would use bows or slings or some other lame crap. Bad guys with guns. I have to give them props for that! So I showed some kindness and killed them quickly. I pried the CD from the last guy’s cold, dead hand and went off to hook up some online music pirates. So far, Port Oakes is really agreeing with me.

Jeffprime: So far, so good. Port Oakes seems to be a place that can keep my interest. I enjoy the visual contrast of the place to Mercy Island. I also really enjoy the new gangs that I’m encountering such as the Family, the Lost, and the Council. The different looks of the various groups keeps my interest up. The Lost are particularly cool, especially the guys that wear tv sets on their heads.

As for the missions, the different mix is working good to keep things from getting stale. The bank robbery was really cool. I guess I watched too many old gangster and western films as a kid as that I really enjoyed robbing the bank! Now, if only they would let you rob a train! That would rock immensely! 🙂

I made one mistake in choosing a new power when I went up in level. I had a choice between Equip Thug or Empty Clips. Equip Thug makes your thugs better while Empty Clips is an extra attack using my twin .45s. Now, you know that I love my twin .45s so I chose Empty Clips. In hindsight, it would have been better for me to have taken Equip Thugs then and later have taken Empty Clips. While Empty Clips is pretty cool, it doesn’t do that much more damage and it takes a lot of my endurance to use it. It works best if a group of adversaries are crowded together as that they all take damage (if I hit!).

I also realized that I made a mistake in my earlier columns. I kept going on how I use Dark Miasma all the time to heal my thugs that I summon. Well, I realize that Dark Miasma is the power set and not the power itself. The actual name of the power that I use to heal my guys is Twilight Grasp (sounds fitting, eh?) which belongs in the Dark Miasma power group. My bad.

Until next time, make those smug superhero bastards rue the day that they crossed you, my fellow super villains!