Drunkard's Walk Forums

Title: HAVEN

Premise: A world of super heroes and villains is
shocked as an unknown creature crash-lands in lower Manhattan, and
are even more surprised when Vandal and Vanguard, two relatively
unknown Legion Initiates, are able to defeat it. Legion, a powerful
super hero organization wants to study the creature, to find where it
came from. However, while en-route to a Legion base, Gin, a
down-on-her luck mercenary steals the creature away for a mysterious
benefactor. On the way to her pick-up point she begins to think the
creature known as 'Fire Starter Theta' is hiding it's true intents.

Genre: Action

ACT 1

Inciting Incident: The Asesino of Fire,
a self-described being of "Pure Evil" crash lands in Manhattan,
bringing a floating base down with him. A city block already
destroyed by his chaos, there are only two relatively unknown Legion
initiates left to stop him – Vandal, a stuck up young man who grew
up on Staten Island and believes that happiness is power; and
Vanguard, who grew up in the Bronx and only wants to help people.
They manage to beat and subdue Fire, much to the surprise of their
superiors and a nation at large. A week passes, with the Legion
denying to release any information on the creature they're calling
'Fire Starter Theta'; they only insist that he's being held in a
maximum security facility designed for super-powered Villains. In
truth, Fire is being transported to upper-state New York, so the
leader of the Legion can meet with the creature face-to-face. A group
of down-on-their-luck Mercenaries, led by Gin and several friends,
strike the caravan, intending on taking Fire back to their employer.
They're plan is to use a woman named Christina that can sense and
sway the emotions of others. Even after releasing Fire from his
strength-reducing restraints, Christina can't sense any sort of
emotions from the creature. Deciding that this must be the now
infamous 'Fire Starter Theta', Gin and the mercenaries start their
journey West. Before they research their pick-up point, they must
pass through a relatively small town.

Plot Point 1: Word of the Caravan's
attack reaches the leader of Legion, Tom Singer. He has a brief
conversation with Vandal and Vanguard, putting the two in charge of
hunting down Fire. Vandal becomes irate at the news, and, in private
with Vanguard, reveals he plans on killing the creature if he gets
the chance. Vanguard is appalled, reminding Vandal that any other
super villain would have beaten the two – they just happened to
'get lucky' with Fire Starter. Vandal ignores the warning, stating
that Fire had 'unlocked something within the two of them'. Upset, his
comrade just decides to stay silent.

Back with Gin and her mercenaries,
they've reached the town and are about halfway through when a
lieutenant and close friend of Gin's notices some Legion soldiers
hassling a mutant. When the Gray Tabby sees how she's being treated,
we see a small flash of what happened when she was younger – we
only catch a glimpse of her body (covered in fur), but still never
her face. She confronts the Legion soldiers, calling them 'bullies',
but a fight breaks out. Gray is quickly able to dispatch the
Legionnaires without powers, but, fearing the young girl has seen too
much, decides to bring her with the group. ShiShi, a disaffected
Japanese youth, takes an immediate liking to the Asesino of Fire upon
seeing him. It's there Christina gets a brief glimpse into Fire's
head with her powers; to her surprise, she senses pain. She tries to
talk with the creature, but he seems much more interested in
listening to ShiShi and her stories of growing up in Japan.

ACT 2

Deciding to rush the rest of the trip,
Gin pushes her caravan on without stopping, crossing into
Pennsylvania. Reaching their pick-up point, their leader is
disheartened as she realized the ghost town is still deserted, with
no sign of anyone coming to retrieve them. The White Tabby (Tina)
tries to cheer her up; we see her out of her armor, looking just like
a regular human, but with the cat tail and ears. It's during this
conversation we learn that Gray is the only one truly 'deformed' by
the mutation, and that Gin has tried to cure it multiple times.
Depressed further upon hearing of her other failures, Gin wallows in
an empty building, afraid one of her competitors has set her up to
become an enemy of the Legion. The Tabbies order the mercenaries to
set up a perimeter; Gray points out that Fire, Christina and ShiShi
are missing. The Brown Tabby takes off, trying to find them before
the perimeter is set. She finds them in a field of flowers, where
Christina is trying her best to talk to the Asesino of Fire, doubting
him to be the furious creature she feared him to be. Fire continues
to pick flowers with ShiShi as both Christina and Jennifer (The Brown
Tabby) watch, sharing their fears on having picked up a decoy that
Legion may have planted. They both receive a radio call as Legion
descends upon the small town; to Gin's surprise, she finds that a
tracking device has been planted on one of her trucks. She bursts
from her hiding place and orders everyone to let loose their powers,
but not to kill; we see her lieutenants and some mercenaries showing
off their powers, drastically changing the tide of the battle.

As the battle continues, Vandal gets
further and further upset, ordering the use of lethal force. Vanguard
belays the order, telling the Legion to use non-lethal takedowns.
Irate by Vandals actions, he forces the hero to step down and wait
until the battle is over. Here, we see Vandal spots Fire and ShiShi –
with Fire leaving her side to deter a few Legionnaires from attacking
her.

Midpoint: Desperate to win the battle
and get a chance to kill Fire, Vandal picks up an SUV and throws it
at the most vulnerable target at the time: ShiShi. Seeing her in
danger, Fire leaps in front of the vehicle and stops it just in time.
Vandal is surprised to see Fire save an innocent, and is even more
surprised when he leaps into action and beats the armored hero to the
ground, throwing him into Vanguard and knocking the sword-toting hero
unconscious. As the Legion soldiers are mopped up, Gin spots a black,
tank-like vehicle roll up near her. A figure in odd red armor steps
out, explaining he's their contact – and he's there to take them to
Haven. Knowing that time is limited, he offers to take them, but only
if they agree to be knocked unconscious for the trip. The Mercenaries
all know what awaits them if they stay for the Legion to find them,
and all happily agree to be knocked out. Before she is placed into
the comatose-state, Christina senses an emotion from Fire –
something of satisfaction.

Plot Point 2: Gin and the major players
from her group awake in an unknown structure with six figures in
front of them. We're introduced to the villain of the story, and
anymore to come: A man named Wrath who claims to have control of the
largest corporations in the world. He admits to an Agent of his
slipping a tracking beacon on Gin's vehicle, saying that he wanted
her to prove her strength. Impressed by Gin, the Tabbies, and even
her soldiers, he offers them a place in his Haven – but is quick to
warn them that it's a dangerous place, where might determines how
much pull someone had. He also tells them the two golden rules of
Haven: Never to attack him or his lieutenants; and never to attack
the 'Wills', special assigned soldiers who carried the almost exact
same armor as Wrath himself. Almost in awe at the prowess of Wrath
and his lieutenants, Gin and her companions are all surprised as Fire
speaks for the first time. He challenges Wrath, revealing that the
self-proclaimed 'Overlord of Villains' was his target all along; and
with the death of Wrath, chaos would reign supreme over the world.
Fire doesn't have enough time to explain his plan in anymore detail
when one of Wrath's lieutenants – Legacy – intervenes and pummels
Fire within an inch of his life. ShiShi reveals her powers, just
knocking Legacy of Fire long enough to save the Asesino. Using the
combined powers of the Tabby Quadruplets, Gin and the others safely
make it out of Wrath's complex, stumbling onto the chaotic streets of
Haven below. They quickly find that Wrath was right about strength in
the world of Haven. They begin to carve out a small piece of land
with a warehouse, recuperating and getting their forces back
together. In the few days it takes, the Asesino of Fire disappears,
much to the disappointment of ShiShi and Christina.

ACT 3

Wrath, happy with how quickly Gin
acclimated to Haven, decides it's time to truly test her powers. He
incites a gang that roams the neighborhood she frequents to begin
attacking her Mercenaries; and, just to make sure it's an uneven
fight, has Legacy join in the fight on the side of the gang. ShiShi
is out looking for Fire when the gang first attacks. Christina is
able to try and protect the young girl, but they're both captured by
Legacy. Hearing the sounds of battle, Fire goes to investigate, and
finds one of the Tabby sisters cornered as she tries to fight her way
out of an alley. Here we find that Fire has been communicating with a
disembodied female voice, who reassures him saving the weaklings will
allow him to cause more chaos, even if it meant he would appear
'soft'. After consulting with this Mother, Fire joins the fight,
quickly defeating any of the gangsters he came across. Unlike many of
the Mercenaries, Fire kills the gangsters he fights.

Climax: Gin's Mercenaries find out that
ShiShi and Christina are being held by Legacy. Led by the Asesino of
Fire, Gin, the Tabbies, and even a few minor soldiers in Gin's army
try to dissuade him from killing the gangsters they come across.
Finally reaching their destination, Legacy launches a surprise attack
on Fire, catching the Asesino off guard. They begin to fight as the
mercenaries try not to die fighting another group of gangsters; it's
obvious the Fire is losing the battle.

Resolution: Driven on by an unsuspected
rage he receives seeing Christina and ShiShi in danger, Fire is just
barely able to knock Legacy out. After rescuing the two, Fire
disavows any sort of attachment to the group and leaves to create
more chaos – hopefully enough to destabilize Wrath's hold on Haven.
Gin uses her Mercenaries to try and protect the small area of land
that she's claimed in Haven, happy to have found something in her
life that she believes is worth fighting for. Vandal carries on a
search for Fire, fueled by rage; unbeknownst to him, a Legion
initiate reports back every action to Wrath. Vanguard is seen
visiting the house of a Legion Soldier that died during their battle
with Gin and her mercenaries; we see that he's been promoted to a
much higher rank than before. Back in Haven, Fire silently picks
through the dead bodies of several Wrath soldiers, reaching down and
picking up dog tags; With an evil grin, we see the beast shift and
transform into the dead soldier. Finally, Tom Singer sips from a
glass of brandy, looking out across the skyline of Manhattan. Several
air-cruisers sit in the background over construction equipment. On
his desk is a folded up newspaper that reads "Can Legion Protect
Us?"