Oh.

It was closer and tougher than I thought it'd be. Blue's faster than most would give him credit for. A few good breakaways and hits were really what it came down to.

Still, I won.

Only when it's raining.

I believe i've checked off a few of them, pretty early in my career, one way or another.

I honestly haven't been interested enough to look into any in the last year or so. Know of any good ones?

There's a few big things left for me to deal with. Other than that, I'm in a great place.

((SO, as promised answering this with a summary of the events that were going to occur in Checkmate and the surrounding stories.

I wanna preface this with two things.
1) This is likely gonna be a HUGE read. I'm sorry if I gloss over some minor details, I don't have ALL my notes here with me at work.
2) I haven't spoken with a LOT of the owners of said characters, so this is the story as it would've been in my head. I imagine, given the crazy amount of creativity in this community and among the respective creators that things would have twisted and turned in various ways. Even if people weren't named, my goal was to try and write something HUGE and epic in scope, but with enough smaller parts/pieces that really anyone in the FS community could say they were there in retrospect.

As always, I was looking to write this as if it were a graphic novel so if I mention other 'books' and crossovers, that's why.

Not to mention that the story always has a way of changing when pen meets page and live roleplay starts happening. I'll try my very best to keep everything as close to broken up into 'parts' as I can. Also, for those who were curious, yes, I'd researched chess terms and intended to 'name' each chapter using one.

-Four moves before Checkmate
Set to occur over Labor Day Weekend, it centered around Max, his friends, and the various Formspring community as a whole enjoying a cookout and general relaxation at the gym. Max can't shake a bit of a bad feeling, like they're being watched, but aside from that things are relatively calm.

The real importance of this story being that it is a tie in to the "Shadow War" storyline happening with @feelthestinger. Adam's crew catch up with the transport moving the recently recaptured Darian Toth to prison and kill the guards, rescuing him.

Cut to an underground warehouse with a device that looks very similar to the portals we know and love housed in Portal Corp where Darian is shoved forward. Adam reveals/recites the information he learned in prison, most importantly that Darian's powers were a 'gift' from Thoth, the Egyptian God of Magic. In calm supervillain fashion, he stabs Darian and cuts out his heart, pointing out that it's the last piece he needed. Panning backwards, we see that several magic based heroes/villains/vigilantes have been gathered, including @shocknawyeah, who is @Pathrunner's padawan of sorts.

With the heart (which I actually had a fancy name for but don't have with my notes here) in place, briefly magic surges enough to make all magic users aware that SOMETHING big just happened. The portal churns to life, being fed by draining away magic from @shocknawyeah who literally wilts away to nothing. From the portal step dozens of armed soldiers from Adam's home as well as one of his house captains, a powerhouse Amadeus, who is told to serve Devilfish (who has been present and watching) as he would serve Adam. If memory serves, he and Adam's troops were designed to be helpful NPCs for the PCs during the AE arc for Shadow War.

-Three moves before Checkmate
Things progress quickly from here. @russianjgrnaut's sister is grabbed for her magical ability. Several other FS members are assaulted in quick succession, including but not limited to, @nigredofist, @totallywitchin, @stheras, @tenebraxa, @foxyferret, and @intothedarkness, though I intended for each of them to win/escape, potentially capturing these 'strange' people that came at them out of nowhere. It's only when @ceruleanvenus tells Max about an eerily similar attack on her that the pieces fall into place.

Max speaks with @Zexecutioner to devise a way to get rid of the soldiers other than killing them. He also tells her about their connection to Adam, which is as long as they are on this 'plane' (Earth), they empower him. She eagerly throws the Forge into coming up with a solution, but not before commenting on how she's seen the video footage of his clashes with Adam.

-Two moves before Checkmate
Attempting to cut back on any chance that Adam could attack yet another of his SOs, Max increases the amount of time he spends in the Rogue Isles with @cynicalblossom (gasp!). His apartment building in Skyway City is blown sky high, killing a lot of the tenants inside. For those wondering, Rowdy is unharmed because he was staying with @russianjgrnaut. Rushing back to Paragon, Max is ambushed by a fully trained, ice wielding member of the Apostacy ((see the unfinished page: http://virtueverse.net/wiki/The_Senet )), who Max is able to fight evenly for a time but eventually overwhelms him due to his weakness to ice. Rather than finishing him off, she instructs him to train and get stronger then leaves.

In his weakened state, Max is easy prey for Adam & Co, who knock him out and take him captive.

In this part @RosieVision is actually contacted by the ghost of @ShocknAwYeah, who informs her and several other heroes of what he knows about Adam's plot. Rosie would then, presumably, make other heroes aware of what's going on, filtering out the knowledge to the community.

-One move before Checkmate
Max is held at an undisclosed location, kept depowered, and periodically beaten. Adam informs him that he doesn't want to take over Earth now, but instead plans to destroy it by way of a spell being cast on his homeworld. The final goal is to launch numerous PLANETS at the Earth, by way of large scale portal magic.

In the meantime, he's touched base with many other villains, and announces that he intends to hold a hero on trial. News of this reaches @shrikespikes, who, presumably, will at the least tell @rollofthedice and the other members of the Thieves Guild. ((From here I actually intended to let Shrike make the call on what he does with the knowledge.))

At the "Trial of Impact", @theturbo's Phanto is the judge, the jury is filled with other villains, as is the audience. Adam himself is the prosecutor. With the goal being ultimately humiliating Max before killing him, they try him as a hero, a person, and a man, sentencing him to death.

Before Adam himself can carry out the execution, heroes of all shape, size, and power levels invade the makeshift courthouse. (This was inspired by a scene from New Avengers "You don't fuck with Luke Cage because he has lots of friends." ) As the brawl continues, eventually what's left of the courthouse/area is destroyed in a flood and when all the water recedes and the battle's over, Max is nowhere to be seen. In order to prevent an all out war on the Isles, the heroes fall back to resume the search for their missing friend.

AND THAT, is the end of the prelude to Checkmate. I'll stop my answer here and I will answer the rest shortly. Idunno if FS has a response limit, so better to be safe than sorry.))

((Making this public since it's been mentioned a few times and I think it'd make a pretty cool/interesting story overall.))

More than I could reasonably ever fit on a single album/cd/disk.

((Oh Rosie....:( :( :( ))

Sometimes.

If he's in the mood, I tend to talk to Rowdy more though. It usually helps me to hear what I'm reasoning through/working on aloud.

((This made me misty eyed, like I told ya. :( ))

I was a dick.

No, really. I was a complete dick to her every time I saw her (EVERY TIME) because of how I was feeling at the time (about my current/prior relationship at the time, my life in general, and the lack of control or willing to control myself).

We'd meet, usually by chance, here or there. I think I didn't actually take much of what she said 'too' seriously or really to heart until we had a long conversation at one of my favorite thinking spots in the city. She left me with a lot to think about that night as well as a new outlook on things. I've mentioned some of what she said on here from time to time because I still find it pretty important.

So, in spite of all that is a mostly out of control me, one day she asked me to meet her and accompany her for a bit, to actually try to get to know her for herself rather than going by what I was told by person A or heard from person B.

After that, well, things went a lot like they tend to in this city.

Water.

Sometimes, yeah.

((Coolio. Whuzzit called?))

It's everywhere I go. And I get there one step at a time.

Lock's answer to his own question.

I don't forget any acts of kindness shown to me because they're all important.

((Finding out that radiation melee was coming ALMOST makes me wish I'd stuck to the original concept for Impact, which was that he used radiation instead of plasma. I changed it partly because of DCUO and because I didn't want to deal with refreshing myself on radioactive properties at the time ((thanks Doctor Blight)).

The idea was, even with the switch to plasma, that the character would still be someone very tempermental (initially) that wielded a very destructive force typically used by villains.))

Georgia. There really is no place like home.

((I had to really think on this question, so thanks for it!

Max's love of kids/thoughts of the future/effect on a community, all out of costume.

The story of Max getting involved in community centers and such was actually something that was mentioned as an aside, a consequence of him getting involved in (STARTING) a small bar fight to protect his best friend at the time. They were given community service as punishment and Max stuck with it.

It's somewhat bittersweet because those same guys would later kill Max's friend in a drive by.))