9/21/2013 9:28:46 PM by
Ironwolfe
(Edited: 9/21/2013 9:29:54 PM)
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The Villains of Nightwalker: I
The first villains to appear on Traynor Island, then still Heiwakoku, arrived from Spain in 1636. The island had been trading with Europe, Asia and Africa for over 40 years in sake, silk and to a lesser extent in jewelry and jeweled statuary and decorative items. On November 4, 1636, shortly after 0100 hours, three ships bearing 90 soldiers each docked on a southwest port of Heiwakoku. The 270 men moved quietly into the port city of Yujo and began a home to home search for the Daimyo. One hundred ninety three villagers--men, women and children--were murdered in the search. The Spaniards' plan was to force the Daimyo to provide them with the fabled Seishin horses that would help to make the invasion unstoppable.
The problem with the plan was that the fabled Seishin horses were just that: a legend, a fable, a myth and nothing more. There were animals on the island but not a one of them was Equine.
Another problem with the Spaniard's plan was that they had not counted on the lighthouses which doubled as watchtowers. When the ships were spotted, runners were sent to the Daimyo's Shiro.
The Ronin who founded Heiwakoku were attempting to leave war behind, but they were not naive enough to presume they would never need to defend their new country. Fifty fighters, men and women, were sent from the Shiro to meet the Spaniards. They recruited another thirty-four fighters from the village along the way. The eighty-four men and women slaughtered the Spaniards down to fifteen men. Five men were left for each of the ships, and the headless bodies of the warriors were loaded onto those ships.
The Spaniards did not attempt another invasion.
In the next twenty years Germans and Africans and Chinese all did, however, and they were all repelled by the people they expected to fold beneath their onslaught.
In I691 the British launched a successful invasion. The force they sent comprised twelve war ships and over one thousand troops. The war lasted five months, cost twelve thousand-plus British soldiers and nearly four thousand Heiwakoku citizens, and the Shogun finally relented to save the island and the innocent civilians who were the targets of the invasion.
These were the first real villains on the island, and while they may have been mundane in their villainy--as compared to a Jack Diamond or Rottweiler--they were infamous.
In 1760 the next great villain invaded Traynor Island: Black Jenny Wainscott. Jennifer Wainscott took her time scouting the island, looking for the weakest entry point and, on March 18th, 1760 brought her ship to land ten yards off the northwest coast of Heiwakoku, twenty miles from the nearest harbor. She led eighty-two conscienceless, remorseless pirates to land and made her way to the Governor's mansion.
Governor Elizabeth Grace was kidnapped from the mansion and taken to the Red Hound pub. She was raped by thirteen of Jenny's brigands during the eight hours that followed. At sunrise she was dragged to the public square, the alarm bells were tolled and, when the citizens had gathered, the Governor was drawn and quartered: four of Black Jenny's men held her arms and legs as she was disemboweled then beheaded by Black Jenny herself as four more of her men severed Grace's arms and legs. Black Jenny Wainscott kissed the Governor's cold lips, threw her head into the four hundred strong crowd and proclaimed herself the new Empress of Heiwakoku.
When the Reverend William Barton swore that God would not allow her to get away with this, he was dragged to the ground where Grace's bowels still lay and made an example of. He was stripped, his face was flayed, and Black Jenny proceeded to take him to pieces in front of the increasingly silent onlookers.
Black Jenny ruled the island for only a year, until 1761, when Empress Kagamiko Shigota publicly declared herself Empress. Empress Shigota demanded Black Jenny's surrender or Black Jenny's head. She had Wainscott’s most trusted mate, Elizabeth Marie Duffy, abducted and convinced her to turn on her mistress. No threats were made and no torture was used: Shigota simply found the price of first mate Duffy's betrayal: two small islets off the northeast coast of Heiwakoku, both of which had silver and sapphire mines.
At 0340 the next morning, Duffy led Empress Shigota's troops to Black Jenny through a secret door which led to her chambers and she was caught, literally, sleeping. The man with her was beheaded on the spot. Black Jenny was imprisoned in Brimstone prison where she would be executed six months later, and Kagamiko Shigota became legitimate Empress of Heiwakoku. But with Black Jenny imprisoned, the British returned. In late 1761 they sailed three Man-O-Wars into Yujo port. One of the ships decimated the port and all of the buildings--and citizens--within a mile of it after which an audience was requested with Empress Shigota.
The Empress arrived with forty of her troops, all armed with katana and wakazashi. The British cut all of the troops down with gunfire and took the Empress into custody. She was tortured for eight days as they tried to convince her to publicly cede the throne to the United Kingdom. On the ninth day she was led, clothed in silks and satins, to the square of Yujo. Four men held her, a Christian Priest denounced her as a witch and offered proof: she would be flogged until she begged forgiveness or screamed in pain. If she voiced no pain, it would be clear that she suffered no pain and was therefore a witch.
She remained silent throughout the flogging, which lasted three hours and flayed skin from her body so deeply that her ribs where plainly visible. Her silence, however, was due to the British having cut out her tongue and cut her vocal cords before they dragged her to the square. This was reported in an anonymous diary dated 1763 and was confirmed by two autobiographies written by British officers who were a part of the murder (a term both of them used in those books). Because she rid the island of Black Jenny, the Empress Shigota was shown 'mercy'. A barrel filled with oil was brought to the square and she was drowned in it. It took nearly ten minutes for her to die.
On, then, to the costumed and 'super' villains of the islands.
A year after the appearance of Dynamo and Powerhouse, the first real masked and costumed villains appeared on Traynor Island. They didn't appear one or two at a time and come together as a group; they appeared in a pack, like dogs, as villains often do.
The group was dubbed Doomwatch and comprised four men: John Smith, Rottweiler, Crew and the Mangler and two women: Salome and, commanding the group from behind the scenes, Jayde
John Smith was an American, from Wisconsin, whose real name was John Bradley Smith. He was a knife-man and traveled the circus and carny circuit as Adolfo the Blade for twelve years, beginning at age sixteen. Smith was arrested a year after Powerhouse's death, but would only admit to kidnapping him. Following his death (ironically he died by the blade, victim of a 'shiv' while in prison), he was linked to over three hundred crimes across the United States. Most of them were home invasion thefts which nearly always included the theft of panties from the woman of the house. Only four of the crimes involved murder.
Mangler, another American, who has been linked to twenty three torture murders in Virginia, Ohio and Delaware, is the only member of Doomwatch who was ever directly charged in the death of Powerhouse. As an American he was sentenced to life in prison. A year after he was jailed, he broke out and fled the island. With another nine known murders attributed to him on Traynor, the TIPD is, officially, still searching for him. His name is still a mystery. DNA matches from the murders are useless without a real name to match them to.
Jayde, whose real name is known to be Jariko Kikuchi, has been imprisoned only once during her long career. That was for the murder of her sister, Kimiko Kikuchi, wife of Kazumi "Dynamo" Endo. Whether she kidnapped and murdered her for her own reasons (Jayde was in love with Dynamo) or for Jack Diamond is unknown. She was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by public hanging. A week before her execution was to be carried out, the security cameras in her cell block malfunctioned for an hour and Jayde disappeared from her cell. The guard on duty was questioned by the Traynor Island PD four times and maintains his innocence to this day. He claims he was attacked from behind shortly after the cameras went out.
Crew and Salome are serving prison sentences, although neither of them is for murder. While Kazumi Endo did declare that 'justice had been done for Powerhouse and Major Force with the Doomwatch arrests’, it was a watered down justice.
Crew is rumored to be either a British mercenary named Harold Salinger or a Canadian enforcer for organized crime name Jonathon Tyler. No DNA or fingerprints are available for either man, and Crew denies being either one of them. What we do know is that he was the enforcer for Doomwatch. Quick and brutal, he has--he claims--killed half a dozen 'big' men with his fists, "...perhaps including a local hero or two." Crew is in prison for three bank robberies, one of which involved an assault. They are the only charges law enforcement on Traynor Island have ever been able to make stick against him.
Salome, whose real name is Jacqueline Thomas, bears dual citizenship: Traynor Island and France. She was arrested four years after Powerhouse's death for the murder of Police officer Gary Manners. She claimed and maintains to this day that it was self defense. Her French citizenship makes it impossible to execute her.
Rottweiler, aka Burdon Davies, aka Jed Masters, aka Dominic Lorde was the worst of the original Doomwatch group. Two witnesses came forward a week after Powerhouse was murdered and told Police that they had overheard Jed Masters bragging about '...overseeing Powerhouse's bitch-down'. Masters was picked up for questioning. Only one of the witnesses agreed to come forward and pick him out of a lineup and a week later both had disappeared. The one who didn't come forward was found six years later, buried in the polar bear exhibit at Grace National Zoo. Masters went to prison anyway, because when TIPD detectives searched his home they found a multi-bladed weapon that looked like the ones Rottweiler had been seen with. The device was similar to brass knuckles but had five stainless steel claws jutting from the knuckles. Masters did two years for owning illegal weapons. Less than a year after his release he was reportedly crime boss of a new band of villains. Masters was found strangled to death with a thick dog chain shortly after Brute joined Dynamo's group. Police initially suspected Brute of murdering the crime-boss, but he had an alibi and forty witnesses at the Cobalt Gym when it happened. What they don't know is that it was Gemfyre who did it. Rottweiler had captured her and Julie "Alleycat" Lake. Gemfyre was locked into a dog cage and forced to watch Rottweiler torture Lake to death. It took two hours for Lake to die, and there had been no consolation for Gemfyre in killing him when he let her out of the cage.
I'll get to the more current villains soon.
Jared Ironwolfe
21 September 2013