Super Genetics

HeroWatch Entry

(last updated Year 55:7:5 08:32 local time)

Terrence Fairway (Emperor Necroton)

Summary

Terrence Fairway (chosen super moniker: Emperor Necroton (formerly Lord Necroton)), is an S-ranked Summoner (confirmed) with emphasis on spectral control and the use of summons ((Familiars), (Thralls), (Revenants)). He is a part of the designated (Originals) that first accepted (the Call) in Year 0 (1982 in the pre-super era calendar). He is believed to have been born roughly around Year -22 (1960) though the exact date is unknown (needs citation), making him approximately 80 years of age.

After returning from his (Capstone Quest) in Year 23, he changed his super name from Lord Necroton to Emperor Necroton, and asserted control over the Free-City of Wichita.

Powerset

Believed to be a single-class super, evidence suggests that Emperor Necroton has remained a Summoner since answering (the Call). Earliest accounts of his powers indicate an affinity to bone as an F-, E-, and D-ranked super. Upon returning from his (Midmark Quest), he was seen in the presence of (Familiars) (also see (Thralls) and (Revenants)) of an undead variety. As he has progressed up the ranks, the number of (Familiars) surrounding Emperor Necroton have only increased. His confirmed revenant count stands at five former supers (see Section: Summoner (C to S) for a full list) and his non-revenant (Familiars) are believed to be in the hundreds, if not thousands (needs citation).

+ Summoner (F to C)

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+ Summoner (C to S)

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Affiliation

Upon returning from his (Capstone Quest) in Year 23, the super known as Lord Necroton established control over the Free-City of Wichita, adopting the title of Emperor. Unlike his rival, (Solomon Rosenthal/Sol), Emperor Necroton has always acknowledged and encouraged the idea that Wichita is his kingdom. The super community at large first condemned Emperor Necroton as a supervillain in hero clothing. However, other than his ongoing dispute with the Free-City of Topeka, no coalition of supers has made any public effort to remove Emperor Necroton from power. Some have even suggested that he has the tacit approval of his peers, regardless of the public criticism levied his way (needs citation).

Emperor Necroton and Wichita have been in a cold war with the Free-City of Topeka and (the Knights of Sol) for the past two years. (The Council) of Kansas City has spoken out against open conflict, citing the unimaginable potential for collateral damage should the two S-ranked supers unleash the extent of their powers, though they have not taken any overt action to intercede.

Personal Life

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Notable Exploits

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As the caravan approached the edge of the city, Terry noticed flood lights fighting against the fog ahead. They lit up the night sky, but did little to help with visibility. The lamps struggled against the dense fog for every inch, but mostly just served to illuminate their surroundings without penetrating beyond a small radius.

“What’s that ahead?” Terry asked the driver.

The man leaned forward, using his vantage to see further than Terry could through his hazmat suit from the backseat.

“Appears to be a checkpoint or something of the like, my prince.”

Terry sat back, the sweat cooling on the back of his neck. Though Crunch and the other ghouls had accepted his leadership, he couldn’t know how these undead at the city’s edge would react. Would they turn them back on the Emperor’s orders?

The vehicle slammed to a halt, bucking Terry forward against his harness.

“Apologies, my prince!” the driver called back shakily. “The lead truck slammed on its brakes.” The man muttered something under his breath that didn’t carry through the thick material of Terry’s helmet.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Not sure, my prince. The checkpoint’s another hundred yards, but I see some brake lights ahead. Another accident, perhaps?”

“Can you radio ahead and ask?”

“At once, my prince.” The driver picked up his handheld and began talking to the lead driver.

Crunch leaned over, his single eye tracking restlessly across the windows and the encompassing fog.

“My prince,” the ghoul said quietly. “Exposed and blocked here. Request reroute back to palace—”

“Back?” Terry asked incredulously. “What’s the problem, Crunch? We’re not even out of the city. Not only that, we didn’t inform anyone of our excursion.” Despite what Terry considered a very logical point, the ghoul still looked noticeably uncomfortable. “You can’t honestly think someone staged an ambush in the middle of this fog on fifteen minutes notice?”

Crunch said nothing, his eye continuously scanning outside the vehicle. After a moment, he turned to Terry. “Admit difficult. But right powerset…difficult become possible.”

Terry sat forward, his gaze turning to the impenetrable fog around them. “You don’t…” He lowered his voice so as to not alarm the driver. “You don’t think there’s supers out there?” Waiting to kill me, he couldn’t say out loud. Saying it would have made it seem too real in his mind.

“Unknown, my prince.”

Terry studied the ghoul’s expression, longing to see the bodyguard laugh it off or smile in a disarming way like Whipvine would have to let Terry know he wasn’t worried. But, as far as he knew, ghouls didn’t laugh and half of Crunch’s face was so badly warped that a smile would have been less than comforting.

Still, he desperately wished Crunch had lied to him. Then he reprimanded himself for being a coward. You’d rather sit in your room with your hands over your ears than face the truth? Pathetic.

No, he had known there would be the possibility of danger and had forced his guards and drivers into this situation. He had to take responsibility for that and not pretend to be shocked if danger found them.

Ignorance wasn’t bliss; ignorance would lead him and the people following him over the cliff to crash on the rocks below.

“Are Blood and Burg out there?” Terry asked with a nod toward the fog.

“Yes, my prince.”

“Can you send one of them ahead to see what’s causing the hold up?” Terry asked. Then, he added, “And tell them to be on guard…for anything.”

Crunch nodded once and opened the door. With his one arm, he reached up to the roof of the vehicle and propelled himself out of the cab, shutting the door behind him with the heel of his foot. It happened so fast Terry could barely follow the ghoul’s movements.

The driver had noticed Crunch’s departure in the rear-view, his eyes visibly wide at the acrobatic display.

“I sure am glad they’re on our side,” the driver muttered. Then, remembering himself, he hastily added, “My prince.”

Terry waved away the man’s anxiety. “Please, no need to be so formal in private. Call me Terry. What’s your name?”

“Dalton, my pr—uh, Terry.”

“Nice to meet you, Dalton. How long have you been driving for the family?” Terry was both being polite and filling the space with small talk. It was the only way he could think of to fight the nerves. Though he knew an ambush was unlikely, Crunch’s paranoia had infected him.

“Nine years,” Dalton responded with an obvious hint of pride. “Your mother brought me on herself—” He cut off, glancing back at Terry.

Though he quickly masked it, the mention of his mother had brought on a flurry of emotions that must have registered on his face. A lump formed in his throat but he fought past it.

“Please, go on,” he said tightly.

“I’m so sorry, my prince. I didn’t mean to rub at a still fresh wound.”

Terry shook his head quickly, fighting to keep the tears down. “Please speak. I…there’s no one else to talk to about her…”

A shocked look crossed the man’s eyes, then realization hit him. “Your father, the Commander…he’s gone to war with the Emperor.”

It was more statement than question, but Terry answered anyway. “Yes.”

Dalton nodded sympathetically. “Forgive me for saying so, my prince, but a child shouldn’t lose both parents in a single week.”

Terry couldn’t agree more, but the feeling in his throat had become an immovable object. He knew, just knew, that if he tried to speak, Dalton would hear the trembling in his voice. So he simply nodded and turned away to look out the window while he mastered himself.

There was nothing to see other than fog, but Terry kept his eyes glued to it like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

Minutes of silence later, a tap on the opposite window made Terry jump in fright. He spun around to see Crunch’s melted face staring back at him as the ghoul clung to the outside of the vehicle like a man-sized spider. Terry leaned over and opened the door. Crunch slithered in with a casual swing, pulling the door shut behind him.

Terry slid back over to the far side and continued staring outside the window at nothing. He didn’t want Crunch to see how hard he was working to keep from crying. But despite his best efforts, the ghoul was incredibly attuned to his charge’s mood.

“My prince? Something happen?” Terry risked a glance over to see Crunch scanning the interior of the cab like he was looking for some interloper hiding under the seat cushion.

Terry still didn’t trust his voice, so he quickly shook his head and turned away. A rush of movement startled him and he turned back to see Crunch’s claws poised at Dalton’s neck. The driver was ghost-white, his chin pointed at the roof from the pressure of razor-sharp bone pressing against his carotid.

Despite the threat of his actions, Crunch’s voice was level as he asked, “What do?”

Terry saw Dalton’s Adam’s apple bob as the man swallowed tightly. “Nothing, nothing!” His voice raised an octave for the second word. “I swear!”

“Crunch!” Terry shouted, his melancholy all but forgotten in the face of Crunch’s aggression. “What are you doing? Leave Dalton alone.” When the ghoul didn’t respond, Terry reached out and grabbed Crunch’s arm with both hands. Pulling with all his weight, he was shocked to feel the iron strength in the limb. Crunch hadn’t budged an inch, hadn’t even registered the child hanging from his arm.

But after a split-second, Crunch obeyed, retracting his claws and returning to the back of the cab.

“What the hell, Crunch?” Terry shouted. “What is wrong with you?”

Crunch seemed to realize what he had done—not assaulting Dalton, but his half-second of disregarding Terry’s orders—and he threw himself to the cab floor.

“My prince! I-I…” The ghoul trailed off and Terry felt his simmering anger dissipate in an instant. He didn’t want his friends throwing themselves at his feet at every slight. But at the same time, the ghoul was a superhuman killing machine. Crunch couldn’t just attack innocent people for every perceived slight.

Terry sighed, meeting Dalton’s nervous gaze in the mirror. “Are you alright, Dalton?”

The driver’s eyes flicked to the still prostrated ghoul, then back to Terry. “Yes, my prince. No-no harm done.”

Terry nodded and turned back to Crunch. “Get up, Crunch,” he ordered harshly. The ghoul rose to a single knee rather than returning to the bench seating. Terry pursed his lips, feeling like an imposter with even that simple command. Sighing, he sat back against his seat. “What was that about?” he asked quietly.

Crunch kept his gaze glued to the carpet of the cab floor. “I disobey command. Injuries greater than thought. Request allow evolve. Serve better—”

“No,” Terry interrupted, his tone measured. “I’ve already spoken on that.” He wanted to shout at the ghoul, demand to know why he had almost impaled Terry’s innocent driver. But it was obvious the ghoul was beating himself up worse than Terry ever could. “Just…” Terry sighed. “Just tell me what happened.”

“Yes, my prince. When return, aura upset. Driver aura guilty. Nervous. I…I jump conclusion.” Crunch bowed his head even deeper. “I apologize, my prince.”

So that was what had sparked his outburst, Terry mused. It was understandable that Crunch was a bit jumpy after the incident with Sol, but what conclusion had he jumped to? Did he think Dalton had done something to him or said something egregious? To be fair, Dalton had said something that triggered Terry’s grief, but that was his problem. He didn’t need his undead supersoldier bodyguard killing people for being tactless.

“Thank you, Crunch. Now, I think you owe Dalton an apology, too.”

Terry couldn’t miss the wide-eyed expression on Dalton’s face at the suggestion and he could see the man’s objections die on his lips.

But Crunch handled the command with a professional grace. Lifting his head, he looked toward Dalton.

“Please take apology, driver—”

“Dalton,” Terry suggested lightly.

Crunch nodded once. “Please take apology, Dal-ton. No happen again.”

Terry examined Dalton through the mirror and had to keep himself from laughing at the man’s obvious discomfort. There was just something about mediating a dispute between the ghoul and the driver that tickled Terry’s fancy and made him forget his grief for the moment.

After a moment of horrified surprise, Dalton cleared his throat. “Uh, thank you, um, Crunch?” he phrased it like a question, but Crunch didn’t indicate one way or the other if he approved of being called that. Terry gave the driver a subtle nod to prompt him on. “I, uh, accept your, um, apology.”

Terry clapped his hands once as he’d seen the Emperor do many times to signal the end of a dispute.

“Good, we can all be friends again,” Terry said with a bit of forced cheer. “What did you find, Crunch?”

The ghoul took that as a signal to take his seat again, his half-melted face unreadable.

“City gates blocked,” Crunch replied. To the unfamiliar, they might have assumed that was the end of his statement, but Terry could read the ghoul’s mannerisms—if not his facial expressions. At the edge of Crunch’s fingertips, razor-sharp bone claws were protruding a half-inch. For a ghoul, the resting state of their bone claws would be fully retracted, while the fighting state would reveal six-inch long blades that could mar steel. Partial extraction was evidence of an agitated state, and Terry had a hunch that the ghoul’s run in with Dalton had already been forgotten in Crunch’s mind.

“And…?” Terry prompted.

“Some human try flee city. Draugr kill them. People fled cars. Why road blocked—”

“The draugr what!” Terry shouted, exploding up from his seat to smash the top of his hazmat helmet against the vehicle roof. “Ow.” He plopped back to the bench seating, rubbing at his head through the heavy material.

Now Crunch’s mood made sense. Terry would have never expected Crunch to attack Dalton based on simple auras. The ghoul must have had a run in with the draugr that put him on edge.

“Did you speak to the draugr?” Terry asked after his head stopped ringing.

“Yes. Emperor order. None leave city until His return.”

It took Terry a moment to process that statement. The draugr weren’t like ghouls. They were birthed from harvesting vengeful spirits and had a bloodthirsty edge to them that made them feared by all of the living. While ghouls were feared for their strength and speed, they had a reputation of honor and fairness. The draugr were creatures of instinct, only tempered by direct commands from the Emperor or the Commander.

And hopefully, the Emperor’s grandson.

To put a draugr at the city gates with orders to prevent escape was like putting a pack of sharks around a sinking ship. Deaths were inevitable.

“How could he?” Terry muttered. His fists clenched, the rubber gloves of his suit squeaking quietly. “Crunch, help me take off my helmet.”

“My prince—”

“We’re going to the gates to speak with this draugr,” Terry continued. “And if I approach with my face obscured, who knows what this thing will do to me.”

“I never allow,” Crunch replied sternly.

“All the same, it will be good for the people fleeing to see their prince.” God knows their Emperor and the heir-apparent weren’t around to give them hope.

Terry could feel Crunch’s hesitation, but to the ghoul’s credit, he didn’t argue. Turning Terry gently by the shoulders, he accessed the seal at the back of the helmet and released it. Terry reached up and helped pull the heavy gear off, breathing a sigh of relief once fresh air hit his lungs.

“Wait please, my prince. I inform Blessed travel on foot.”

Terry nodded agreement and Crunch whipped out of the vehicle like a racing dog out of the gate.

“Dalton?” Terry called ahead. “Would you radio the other drivers and let them know the situation?”

“At once, my prince.”

“Also, have them cordon off the street with their trucks. I don’t want anyone slipping past us and running into that thing guarding the gates.” Terry glanced outside once more, not even able to see where the street ended and the sidewalk began. “Let’s just hope no one approaches the gates on foot until I can force the draugr to stand down…”