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Due to COVID, Atlantic City casinos have gotten pretty aggressive with their free play offers to get good players in the door, and a nice batch of those offers lured me out this past weekend. I didn't want to be in town for the insanity of Super Bowl Sunday, so I got in Thursday night and left Saturday night.
If you don't know, Atlantic City isn't like Vegas with dozens of smaller casinos around. Atlantic City has 9 casinos, and 3 are on the same players card system (Caesars). I don't bother with Bally's since it's not convenient enough for the niceness or the comps they give, so each trip has 6 stops.
Most AC casinos have 5x odds, and a bunch of them have a weird version of 5x odds where a $30 pass line or come bet allows you to take $250 odds on 6/8, $200 odds on 5/9, and normal 5x odds of $150 on 4/10 (so any hit pays $330). I typically do $30 pass line and $30 come bets to get 4 total targets on the board, but on my own rolls I usually keep doing come bets until I 7 out. If a table is good I'll do $300 each 6 and 8 before doing come bets as well.
I started my trip off at Tropicana since that where I was staying. I brought $3k and got a $5k marker to start off, and instantly went on a nice run, winning a quick $2k and deciding to hit and run after less than an hour. I also had $100 free slot play and some dining credit, so I used those and got another $100 profit and some decent food.
Friday morning I headed over to Hard Rock for some nice free play ($500 table play and a $300 Amazon gift card). I did my free play over at BJ and won $250, then headed to craps. The table was rough for a bit, I was down $4k or so, but then I had an awesome roll, got up $3k and quickly cashed out. (+$5.4k running total)
Resorts is probably the worst casino in AC. Weak comps, bad free play, not many other benefits, terrible rooms (so I've heard), old, run down casino, etc. I still go there each trip since it's right next door to Hard Rock anyways, and it's nice to walk on the boardwalk in between them for a few minutes. I only do quick sessions there. I was up $1000 after my first roll there and just left right away. Some minor free play got me another $50 or something. (+$6.4k running total)
Next stop was Ocean casino. This was another rough table at first, leaving me down $3k rather quickly and considering just cutting my losses since the rolls were all particularly bad. However on my second time getting the dice I went on another nice roll, lasting about 40 minutes, and ending up turning a $3k losing session into a $5k winning one. I won a couple hundred off of free play as well and had a nice dinner at their VIP lounge. (+$11.7k running total)
Saturday morning I ventured out again, heading back over to Hard Rock for $300 slot free play. I won $300 off of that, and headed over to craps. At this point I'm up $12k and want to leave up at least $10k for the trip, so I only buy in $2k. Luckily, I have a hot run right off the bat, and wind up winning $3k over an hour session and leaving. (+$15k running total)
My second to last stop was Borgata. They only gave me $200 match play and some dining credit, and I broke even on the match play and headed to craps. It was very back and forth, but finally caught a decent roll and left up $1k. (+$16k running total)
Last stop was Golden Nugget. I won $300 off of free slot play and then jumped on the table, where I broke about even for a bit and then got the dice again, and had another 40 or so minute roll, hitting a ton of 4s and 10s. People were going nuts because I kept throwing hard way winners, and multiple people had $50-100 on them (I never bet hard ways). After my roll I instantly colored up and left with exactly $5k profit. This put my total winnings for the trip at $21.3k cash and the $300 Amazon gift card. Best of all, I never left a table down. Talk about a hot run. Not bad for a 48 hour trip!

Here are some excerpts from an interesting interview with magician Steve Brooks. Steve has a lot of valuable insights about magic to share, based on his own experience and involvement in this performing art. He's even in the process of writing a couple of books about magic theory, which is in itself a testimony to his ability to be a creative thinker.
When did you first get interested in magic, and what got you started?
I’ve been studying and performing magic since I was about nine years old or so. I saw a magician on television doing something and asked my mother, "How did he do that?" She said, "He’s a magician. I don’t know." That kind of piqued my interest.
When I was maybe nine or ten, my grandmother took me to see Harry Blackstone Jr., to see a show somewhere in Los Angeles. And Harry did all the stuff he was doing, like the big Buzz Saw Illusion and the Floating Light Bulb, and birds, and more. All this was more than a little nine or ten year old could take at the time, and I just had to know how this stuff works. I wasn’t content thinking, "Well, he’s a magician and it’s secret and you can’t know."
So when the show was over I broke away from my grandmother’s hand in the crowd and decided I would go back stage so I could see how this stuff worked - because if he could do it, maybe so could I. So I crawled under the curtain and got backstage and I was touching and checking out the Buzz Saw Illusion. And I hear this really deep voice, "Can I help you young man?" And I turned around, and it was Harry Blackstone Jr. - who stood like a mountain to a little boy! I was totally scared, because I knew I wasn’t supposed to be back there.
And he kind of knelt down on one knee and he pulled a little red ball (in hindsight I’m sure it was a billiard ball). He just threw it up in the air and it vanished, and he said, "When you can do that, come back and see me and I’ll show you how to do the good stuff." Then he took me by my hand and helped me find my grandmother.
How did you continue to learn magic after first meeting Harry Blackstone Jr?
After I first saw Harry Blackstone in person, a couple of years later or so, I saw a magician on television, Marshall Brodien who was selling his TV magic cards and TV miracle cards and TV mystery cards. And I saved up my pennies and I went to my local Thrifty drug store and I purchased those.
When you got those decks, inside with the instructions would be a little folded catalog, and you could buy more magic tricks by mail. Back then, I didn’t know there was such a thing as a magic shop. So I started ordering tricks, e.g. Fun Incorporated items under the Royal Magic brand. You know, classics like the Ball and Vase, Drawer Box, Crazy Cube, Pentro Penny, etc. As the years went by, I would continue to save up my money and buy even more magic tricks, books, etc.
I also had a neighbor who was in the Boy Scouts and I would borrow his Boys Life magazines and look in the back and they’d have all these ads for magic shops. So I’d send off my quarters or dimes off and get all their catalogs, and look through all the amazing things I might get. So I grew up doing magic.
Did you ever meet Harry Blackstone Jr again?
Around 40 years later, probably in the early 2000s or the late 1990s. Harry Blackstone was doing a show here in Northern California, and I saw him do his show at Chico State University. After the show he and Gay Blackstone came out, selling little magic sets for kids. I was prepared this time, because I had brought a billiard ball and I told Harry the story. I threw the ball up in the air and vanished it, and he started crying. It was a very emotional moment. He had tears coming down his eyes and he says, "I’ll be right back." And he disappears.
He comes back and he brought me a bunch of stuff, including this huge photograph which I still have. I said, "Because you were kind to a little boy who was someplace he shouldn’t have been, that turned out to be pretty much what I’ve done all my life." So it kind of came full circle, I guess.
What should be the goal of a performing magician?
What we’re really here for as magicians is to create that wonder, so that people can say: "For five minutes I can forget about my pain. Maybe I’m losing my house, or my daughter’s pregnant, or I’m going through a divorce, or my father just passed away. But for five lousy minutes, I don’t have to think about that stuff." For a short time I don’t have to think about all the drama and all the craziness. Right now with the coronavirus and everybody panicking and dying, people need laughter, entertainment, and magicians. They need something positive in their lives.
And this is why if you go back and look at the late 1920s and 30s and 40s when you had the Depression and Prohibition and a war going on, Vaudeville was so popular. This is why we needed the Marx brothers and Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy, and we needed the Slapstick and we made fun of things. Back when folks understood what humor was – you know, a joke? A story with a humorous climax. Back before everyone became afraid they might offend someone.
Magicians take you away from pain and make up something wonderful. This is something that we need to keep in mind. Why are you doing magic? Are you trying to impress yourself or are you doing it for your audience? And are they just spectators or are they participants in the moment?
I remember a conversation with Eugene Burger, and I asked him, "Eugene, when you go to perform, whether it’s for one person, two people, a room full or a whole auditorium, whether it’s magicians or it’s lay people, what is your number one goal?" And he looked at me without blinking an eye and said, "To fool them." And I said, "Really?" And he looked at me and said, "Why, what is it you do?" And I said, "To entertain them." If I fool them, that’s great. That’s icing on the cake. But honestly, I’ll take a pie in the face if it makes somebody laugh, if it makes them giggle, if it makes them just have fun.
How should this impact how we approach our audience when performing magic?
I’m actually writing a couple books on magic theory. We need to look at whatever we do - and especially magic - and concentrate on making them have fun.
If your audience likes you, they’re going to stop being confrontational. Every magician I know, at some point during their career or in doing magic, has had this experience: The audience has folded arms and is rolling their eyes backward, saying, "Okay, Mr. Magic Man, fool me, do your trick." You have to turn that moment around because you can’t sit there and fight your audience. And as long as they are there to fight you and confront you, there’s a problem.
We all build this little wall around us, and we don’t allow people into our personal space. In order to connect with your audience, you can’t bust through their wall. Instead you have to let them open the door for you. And once they open the door and allow you into that personal space, now you have an opportunity. Now you can tell a stupid joke and they’re still going to laugh because they like you. And if they like you, they’re having fun and they’re enjoying the moment rather than trying to deconstruct the moment.
This is all about how we approach them. I don’t think you have to be the greatest magician in the world to have your audience walk away thinking "That person was awesome!" If they had a good time and they enjoyed themselves, they’ll remember you.
How important is sleight of hand compared with entertaining?
I know guys that are some of the best "mechanics", you might call them, with cards and such in the world. But some of those guys couldn’t entertain themselves out of a wet paper sack. They can do all these great moves, but when they get in front of an audience, they freeze, or they’re boring. You’d rather watch grass grow than to watch them perform.
For example, if you’re in front of some people and you throw a ball up in the air and it vanishes, they don’t know how you did it. And whether you did it by fantastic misdirection and sleight of hand or whether you use some gizmo is irrelevant to them because all the audience saw was the ball vanish. And that’s what’s important, that moment: the ball vanished.
You have a couple of different schools of thought on this. Some magicians say, "If it’s not done with sleight of hand, then you’re not really a magician." Others say, "If you can use a gaff card and make the trick work, that’s what I’m going to do." It’s like comparing Vernon and Larry Jennings, and how they would sit together at the Magic Castle and somebody would come up with a problem to solve. There are different ways of achieving something, and which one you choose doesn’t matter. So find the things that work for you. Not everybody has great dexterity. That’s okay.
Is it essential to be a good performer in order to be involved in magic?
Not everybody in magic needs to be a performer. There can be people that just collect props, or they collect posters, or books or whatever they collect. Or they are historians.
Just because you don’t go out and perform for audiences doesn’t mean anything. You still can be in magic. You can still hang out with your magic buddies. You can still enjoy everything that is magic. You don’t have to necessarily be a professional magician.
How important is hard work in order to be successful in magic?
There are seminars about how to get rid of a bad habit, or how to create a good habit. Let’s say I want to create a habit like getting more work done in my office. I’m going to condition myself to go to work one hour earlier every day so that I can get more work done. If you do that, after about a month or so, you’ll just keep going in an hour earlier.
Or if you want to spend time writing a book, but your life is a mess. You start off by saying, "I’m going to start at least once a week, on Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I’m going to devote two hours to writing my book." At first it will be tough. You may not even make it every Tuesday. But if you keep doing it, after a couple of months, you will do it and you might even spend more than two hours. In fact, it’ll get to the point where you don’t feel right unless you do sit down and write something on your book.
You can apply that to magic. I want to learn a new trick but it’s really hard, and it’s got a lot of difficult moves. So you start practicing and you put yourself in a habit of practicing.
What can we learn about hard work from performers who have been successful in magic?
People that make it in business, or people who make it in magic - whether it’s Penn and Teller, David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy, David Blaine, Criss Angel, Mac King, any of them - they didn’t get there because they didn’t work at it.
Somebody could say, "Well, they got lucky." Did they now? Maybe the harder the work you do, the luckier you might get, and you place yourself into situations to have the opportunity to be lucky and meet somebody. But you don’t do it by sitting playing video games on Xbox or reading BS on Facebook You do it by actually going out, and because you give something else up.
So you say: "So I want to be the next Criss Angel." So what are you willing to give up? What does Criss give up? I’ll tell you what he gives up. For years he gave up hanging out with all his buddies. He gave up chasing girls everywhere, and going to the parties. He gave up tons of stuff. Why? Because he was too busy trying to be successful.
You need to ask yourself: "How am I going to learn this? How am I going to get into this position? How am I going to meet the right people that will open doors for me to get over here?" I’m not going to do it sitting at home. So you take chances. You invest money that you might lose. You invest time that you may not get back and you try things and you fail at them and then you say to yourself, well that was a mistake, so I’m going to do it different next time, but I’m not going to give up.
Does this change once you achieve a successful career in magic?
You can say "Somebody in Vegas that makes $20 million a year has got it made." Really? So are you willing to do what they do? That $20 million contract is also wrapped in golden chains. Because it means I can’t go anywhere. I’ve got to do two shows at night, whether I feel like it or not.
And I have got to go and hang upside down off the stage whether I feel like it or not, and get in that tank of water and do this trick again and again in front of my audience and smile and be happy whether I feel happy or not. Maybe I just got in a fight with my mom or my brother or whatever, but I still have to be there. It’s seven o’clock, and I’ve got to do my show. I’ve got all this money, but I don’t have any time to really enjoy it. Because most of my time is at my showroom or at the casino I work at.
And who are really my friends? The people that just want to hang out with me because I’m famous? Do I have real friends, somebody that I can talk to and they’ll just tell me the truth because they don’t want anything from me?
Why is magic so much harder in real life than when a famous magician does it on TV?
I’ve seen this on the Magic Café. Some person will attempt to do a trick, and say: "I saw David Blaine do this great trick, but I tried to do it, and this homeless guy threw a beer bottle at me."
When somebody like David Blaine or Criss Angel or anybody else is going to do magic on the street, they have a bunch of advantages you don’t have. They’ve got a crew of camera people and grip holders and light people and sound people with them and they walk up and they get to know the guy. They find a guy that is receptive to this. So now we’re going to run the cameras and I’m going to do four or five tricks. And finally we’ll do the trick that we want to show on TV. But by the time we edit the episodes, we don’t have time to show you us getting to know him. We just walk up, do the trick and it’s done. That’s the way it works.
In real life you can’t always do that. It’s tough. You watch videos of how to learn magic and then it looks great on a video. Someone like Michael Ammar or somebody else who knows what he’s doing, and everything just works great. But when you do it, that lady grabbed the deck out of my hand, or that kid ran off with my scotch and soda coins. Yep, that’s the real world.
How important is it to get experience when performing magic?
That’s the thing that’s missing from these videos. It’s not that the videos aren’t good. It’s not that the books are not good. They are good. But they don’t teach you the experience.
Say somebody wants to be a doctor. So they go to medical school for eight or nine or 10 years or whatever, and they come out and they know all the technical stuff. They know all about chemistry and how the body works and what these tools do. But when they start working with real people things don’t always happen the way the book says it might happen. So experience, experience.
I worked restaurants for years, and behind bars alongside bartenders. Some of the toughest magic to do is working beyond a bar because why? Because you’ve got alcohol involved. Alcohol plus humans often equals disaster. People will do things when they’re drunk that they wouldn’t do otherwise. And they’re not paying attention all the time.
So books can get into how to do the moves, and tell you how you might want to dress. But they can’t give you experience. You’re going to have to go up there and fail. You need to fail. You need to get busted a few times. And any magician who says "I’ve never been busted" I say: "bs. Yes, you have. Quit lying. Yes you have."
So learn from that and always be a step ahead of your audience. Always have an out in the back of your mind and say "What happens if this fails on me?" You must be able to adapt. Or do you just say "Oh sorry, it didn’t work." That’s really not a good out. You need to be able to take a bad situation and make it into a good situation.
What has experience taught you about dealing with hecklers?
It teaches you how to deal with a rowdy spectator. For many years it was said that there’s no bad audiences, only bad magicians. I call bs on that. There could absolutely be a bad audience. You could like do a show thousands of times and it’s awesome. But then get an audience and it’s just a train wreck. You can have unruly spectators and people who basically aren’t there to have a good time.
You’ve got to understand another thing about magic: some people don’t like it. It’s a psychological thing. If they’re sitting in a seat watching a magic show, somewhere in the back of their mind, they feel that if they get amazed and fooled by this, they must be an idiot, and everyone’s going to laugh at them. It’s almost as if they think the rest of the theater is too smart for this and they would be the only ones getting fooled by it. So they have to be the heckler, the rowdy guy, or the person who knows everything.
When I was younger and did kids’ shows, I learned a couple of little tricks for dealing with kids. Kids can really be a problem. I would set up all my stuff and stand by the doorway and watch the kids for the first two or three rows. Sure enough, there’d always be some kid who is slugging other kids in the arm and pulling people’s hair. That kid’s going to be my problem, so I’m going to deal with that right now.
So you walk up and say: "What’s your name? Come here." And you take him out in the hall and say "Listen, I’m going to be doing this show and I got a couple of tricks which I’m going to need your help. Can you keep a secret?" And you get the kid involved somehow. You make him feel special. You make him feel wanted because a bully at school is a bully at school because he’s being bullied at home where he feels like he has no power. So give him some power in your show and guess what? He’s not slugging kids in the arm, shouting things at the magician, or grabbing things, because he’s part of the show now. So it’s a pre-emptive strike.
What insights about magic have you gained from your passion for science fiction?
I like things like Star Trek and Star Wars and BattleStar Galactica, Stargate SG-1. You could make a movie and put billions of dollars into it and have the greatest special effects. But if it doesn’t have good characters that you care about, it’s not a good story. A series like the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien is good because it has good characters. Similarly Star Trek has always been good - not because of the cool space ships or the battles – but because of the relationship of the characters, and their ethics and ideas of morality. That’s what creates good stories.
That also applies to magic. Magic is more than just making something appear or disappear and standing up there saying, "See how wonderful I am. Aren’t you impressed?" Good magic is about how you can touch your audience on an emotional level.
That’s why I love close-up magic. Most people have never experienced magic in person. They see it on television and they might be impressed with it, but they’re thinking in the back of their heads, "Those people were in on it", or "It was a camera trick." But when you borrow somebody’s finger ring that their mother gave them as a gift and you do something wonderful with it, there’s this emotional connection because, "Hey, that’s my ring," or "That ring belonged to my grandmother. That’s not a camera trick, that was real. I saw it."
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed hearing from Steve Brooks and reading his insights and observations as much as I did. He certainly has some real wisdom to share. There's a wealth of knowledge we can gain from interacting with fellow hobbyists, whether they be playing card collectors or magicians. So thank you Steve for doing this interview and for sharing your perspectives on magic!
Author's note: I first published this article at PlayingCardDecks here.

So, Im having a blast with this game, currently on postgame.
I usually tend to clear zones and then check the guides just in case I missed monsters or treasures, however, yesterday went back to Puerto Valor to play casino after doing Sylvando and Eight's side quest.
However, when I went back to Don Rodrigo's villa to check flavor text, the butler gifted me with an awesome looking costume for Sylvando.
There is literally not a single mention of this on the guides, in fact, I didnt even knew this outfit existed, so Im wondering if there are more "missable" stuff within the game?

HEROES of DEAD WORLD
PART FIVE:
Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Complex, Colorado, 1100 hours…
This was turning out to be the longest five minutes of Green Dragon’s life. Though Green Dragon was near invulnerable to most damage, especially fire and heat based attacks, and despite the fact that he was a more skilled in hand to hand combat that his opponent, Firefox’s plasma attacks were powerful enough to hurt even him. Green Dragon’s own fire based attacks weren’t harming Firefox, who made absolutely no effort to avoid them. In fact, Green Dragon suspected that his fire attacks was only making Firefox more powerful. In contrast, Green Dragon knew that he couldn’t dodge Firefox’s plasma attacks indefinitely and soon, one of his blasts was going to connect. Below him, the landscape was pot marked for miles around with eight foot deep smoldering craters where Firefox missed with his powerful plasma blasts, each impact probably causing more damage to the Cheyenne Mountain facility. Green Dragon knew that this had to end quickly and he hoped that the cameras at Cheyenne Mountain were still monitoring the battle.
Green Dragon’s only chance was to maneuver close enough to Firefox and force a physical fight. If he could get within arms distance, he was sure that he could knock the arrogant son of a bitch out. He barrel rolled to the left, narrowly avoiding getting incinerated by another one of Firefox’s blasts, then yelled, charging straight towards the plasma powered hero, the two foot long razor claws mounted on his left forearm gauntlets glowing white hot and ready to strike. Green Dragon only had time to raise it defensively across his face as one of Firefox’s plasma blasts finally connected.
The plasma blast hit Green Dragon like an artillery explosion and he tumbled uncontrolled out of the sky training fire and smoke behind him as he fell. Skidding across the ground nearly 500 feet below him, Green Dragon left a trail that scarred the earth for nearly a quarter mile before finally coming to a smoking halt in the middle of a field in the valley below. Firefox landed a few feet from where Green Dragon lay motionless, his fists glowing white and ready to fire the killing blow.
“Barbecued dragon time,” he hissed.
“Oh no you don’t, you mother jerk-face!” Firefox looked up just in time to see Sky Fyre flying low over the ground towards him, her eyes and fists ablaze with fury and fire.
“Sky Fyre,” said Firefox, holding out his hands out in front of him. “No, honey! Wait! I’m…”
A look of surprise filled Firefox’s face as Sky Fyre’s plasma fire ball struck the overpowered hero dead center of his chest. The blast explosion hurled Firefox high into the sky, trailing a fiery tail of pure plasma energy twisting behind him. He smashed into the mountainside nearly a mile away, lying motionless in the middle of a smoking crater nearly ten feet deep and fifty feet wide. Sky Fyre stood there, eyes and mouth wide with surprise. “Did I… did I… did I just…” she muttered.
“Yeah,” grunted Green Dragon, picking himself up off the ground, straightening up his helmet and massaging his bruised shoulders. Brushing large clumps of dirt and rocks off of his shoulders and neck, Green Dragon said, “You just defeated a Level 8 hero with Level 10 thermal, fire, and plasma projection powers.”
Sky Fyre leapt. “Whoo-hoo! I kicked his ass, huh, GD?”
“Language, Sky,” reprimanded Green Dragon, squinting in the distance at the thin plume of rising smoke to see if Firefox had recovered yet, and smiling to himself knowing that he and Sky Fyre would be long gone before Firefox regained consciousness.
“Sorry, GD,” said Sky Fyre. “But, wait. How did my fire ball blast knock him out? Firefox feeds off of solar and heat sources, causing fire or heat based attacks against him to actually make him stronger. My fire ball wasn’t any stronger than one of yours, GD. So how did I hurt him so bad?”
“We have to get to the detention facility in Kansas,” said Green Dragon, abruptly changing the subject. “With our stealth jet destroyed, we will have to fly ourselves directly to Ransom then figure out a way to get Doctor Genocide’s assistant out of the facility. Do you think you have the energy for it, Sky?”
“Yeah, man!” the teen heroine said, clapping. “I just kicked Firefox’s butt!”
As the pair took to the sky, the young heroine looked over to her mentor and said, “Hey, GD, did you hear that old creeper call me ‘Honey?’ What a weirdo!”
“I heard,” replied Green Dragon.
“I wonder what he was trying to say before I blasted him?” said Sky Fyre. “And what were you two talking about before the fight? I could see it on the monitors, but there wasn’t any audio.”
“It wasn’t anything important,” lied Green Dragon. “Right now, we have to keep focused on the mission at hand.”
“You got it, GD,” smiled Sky Fyre. “Ha! I just kicked Firefox’s butt and… oh… wait! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” Sky Fyre smacked her forehead.
“What’s wrong, Sky?” Green Dragon had a worried tone in his voice. Sky Fyre was extremely intelligent and observant for a girl her age. Had she figured out the truth? Did she realize why he and Firefox had been locked in such a deadly battle? Was she aware of her mentor Green Dragon’s betrayal?
“Aww, nothing, GD,” said Sky Fyre. “I just forgot the damn bag of sandwiches back at Cheyenne Mountain!”
“Language, Sky,” said Green Dragon, relief in his voice and happy that he had deflected the subject again.
Sky Fyre looked over at her long time mentor, and squinted her eyes. “So, you’re lying to me, too,” she thought. “Okay. We’ll see about that.”
PART SIX:
Hannover, Germany, 1800 hours local time/ 1200 hours US EST…
Azure Blade dropped Tasmanian Devil on the top of a four story red brick building near a street corner in Hannover’s famous Stone Door district, one of many blocks in the city where young people and tourists had been welcomed to party, dance, mingle, and satisfy other vices back when the world still lived. The top of the red brick building on which the three heroes now stood was one of several brothels which lined the two blocks which made up the Stone Door district. Across from the building was a line of casinos, dance clubs, and gentlemen’s lounges. The white stone building connected to the brothel and facing the wide cobblestone courtyard where local bands used to play in an open air venue was the famous Sansibar Club. The sun was setting, the fading fire red and violet skies casting long shadows across the downtown city plaza. The dead shambled below, as if taking a late day stroll or doing last minute shopping in the plaza’s department stores. There were many, but not as closely packed as they were in Amsterdam.
Azure Blade looked over the city, a dubious expression on her face. “Okay, Devil. We’re here. Now what?”
Taz lifted the bottom of his mask, exposing his mouth. Producing a fine Cuban cigar from one of his pouches, he lit it and took a deep, satisfying drag. “Now?” he said. “Now, you two broads get lost.” Taz blew a cloud of smoke into the air.
“What?” said Wyvern, her eyes blazing with fire. “What are you talking about?”
“I said,” continued Taz. “You two get lost! You need to get to Berlin. Link up with the German heroes Haupmann Schnell and Schutzen Meister at the research laboratories. Go find out what you can!”
“And what about you, Devil?” said Azure Blade, threateningly. “Were you really serious about getting drunk tonight? And why here? Why in Hannover? Why at this particular place?”
Tasmanian Devil chuckled. “Yes, that was the plan and yes, I have my reasons for being here.” He took another drag of his cigar and blew the smoke towards the beautiful female heroine, Azure Blade.
“What’s the matter, blue eyes,” he smirked. “After all these years we’ve worked together. Don’t you trust me?”
“Yes?” whispered Wyvern.
“No!” yelled Azure Blade.
“No!” repeated Wyvern.
Taz rolled his eyes, chuckling again but without any humor. “Let’s just say we’re killing two birds with one stone. You two get to Berlin. I’ve got something to find out here.”
“Why the secrecy, Devil?” persisted Azure Blade. “What is so important that you have to do it alone?”
“Because I do!” growled Tasmanian Devil, swiftly unsheathing both of his sword-scythes from the two scabbards on his back and taking a fighting stance facing Azure Blade. For her part, Azure Blade instantly drew her two glowing blue swords in her hands as she squared off against Tasmanian Devil.
“You may be a Level 7 hero with Level 9 fighting ability, blue eyes,” snarled Tasmanian Devil. “But you’ve never bested me when we sparred in practice.”
“I was holding back on you, Devil,” responded the powerful female sword master. “Two of our comrades have already died on this mission and one remains under siege in London. Why are you so eager to abandon the mission and get rid of us? Is it so that you can run?”
“Nobody calls me a coward!” yelled Taz, charging towards Azure Blade with his right arm cocked back, ready to deal a killing blow with his sword-scythe. Azure Blade also yelled angrily, her twin blades wind milling in front of her as she charged towards the berserker hero. One fireball slammed into Azure Blade while another struck Tasmanian Devil, flinging both of them backwards and slamming each of them painfully on opposite sides of the rooftop ledge so hard that large chunks of concrete fell to the street below.
Wyvern hovered over them, her eyes and hands blazing with fire. “Go ahead, you two stupid fuckers! Give me another excuse!” She raised both fists, pointing them at her teammates.
Taz rubbed his head as he slowly and painfully got to his feet, his battle suit smoking from where the fireball hit him. “You roasted my cigar,” he groaned, tossing his ruined cigar aside.
“You’re lucky that’s the only thing I roasted,” sneered Wyvern.
“You said, ‘If you are still alive in the morning,” said Azure Blade. She was already standing tall, pointing one of her swords at Taz, although she was wincing in pain from the fire ball blow she took from Wyvern. “What did you mean by that?”
“I mean just what I said,” said Taz. “Meet me here in the morning. If I’m dead, you’ll know that I failed. If not, then I’ll have help. But only I can do it. I’m the only one they trust. If they see you two, they may bail, and any chance we have of saving the world may vanish.”
“Who?” yelled Azure Blade. “Who are you meeting?”
“You won’t like it if I told you, so you’ll have to trust me.” answered Taz, feeling around in one of his modular pouches attached to his battle suit belt.
Wyvern gently put her hand on Azure Blade’s shoulder. “Blade. We’re running out of time. If he wants to stay. If he wants to run. We can’t stop him. But if we come back in the morning, and he is neither dead or has brought help; if we find him laid out drunk and hung-over, I’ll fry him myself.”
Azure Blade looked at Wyvern, a heroine as innocent, bashful, and timid as she was beautiful and powerful. Wyvern was more a follower than a leader. Before she was gifted with super powers and became the heroine known as Wyvern, Krysta was a young Catholic nun from Ireland. But now? Something had changed. The young and inexperienced hero Wyvern, though supremely powerful, was also relatively untrained, unworldly, and extremely timid. Before she had gained her superhuman powers from the comet, Krysta was an attractive, red haired, twenty-one year old nun from Waterford, Ireland. An orphan secluded from the secular world, living much of her life in a convent, she had moved to New York two years ago to serve with the Catholic diocese there. Her superpowers manifested soon afterwards and for the past year, the heroine now known as Wyvern was recruited to serve with the US government super hero Operation Team Bravo. Azure Blade simply exhaled and nodded, giving Taz a distrustful glare before she and Wyvern took to the sky, flying east towards Berlin.
Later, Tasmanian Devil sat on the ledge of the rooftop of the brothel, dangling his feet and watching as an increasing mass of dead roamed below him, attracted as they were by the yelling and blasts of fire coming from the roof. They would have eventually made it to the roof where Taz was sitting, but Wyvern blasted the stairwell leading up to the roof before she and Azure Blade flew to Berlin.
Taz watched as the streets darkened below him, the moaning from the dead getting steadily louder. Soon, the light would fade and the dead would lose interest and shamble onwards. Taz tossed away the small empty bottle of Mint-Peppermint schnapps that the Dutch commander had given to him back in Amsterdam and pulled out the second bottle from a modular pouch on his belt.
“Thank God for plastic liquor bottles,” he thought, unscrewing the cap. Reaching into another pouch, he took out a small headphone transmitter, one set to a hidden frequency that none of his comrades or the US government could trace. “I’m here,” he said.
“Yeah, we know,” said the surprisingly clear voice at the other end. “Jeez, Master Sergeant! Could you have made any more noise? Fucking Metallica makes less noise than you!”
“I had to convince the rest of the team to leave,” replied Taz.
“Well, okay,” said the voice on the other end. “Come on down, then.”
“What?” said Taz. “You really wanted to meet inside the Sansibar?”
“Yes, I really wanted to meet inside the Sansibar!” said the other voice. “After every combat tour, we always met in Hannover, at the Sansibar, to blow off steam and get a little down time before returning home to the States. Come on down, Master Sergeant!”
Taz exhaled, steeling himself for what was obviously a trap. Four stories up with no way to get down off the roof, Taz jumped off the side, landing on the three story roof of the casino across the narrow cobblestone street . Pivoting, he leapt again dropping to the second story balcony of the brothel he was just on before somersaulting forwards, sword-scythes in hands and landing in the middle of a pack of the dead beside the Sansibar entrance. Taz immediately took a fighting stance, expecting to have to fight his way into the large night club. Instead, however, the dead parted ways, forming a makeshift clear corridor which led to the entrance of the Sansibar. Alarmingly, the club was now brightly lit. Two large muscular dead men, probably bouncers for the Sansibar while they still lived, emerged from inside the club and opened the doors. Knowing that this indeed was a trap, Tasmanian Devil none the less ran through the corridor created by the dead, both sword-scythes held across forearm to elbow in case the dead attacked as he burst into the club. With a start, Tasmanian Devil realized as he passed through the doors of the Sansibar that the two muscular bouncers were still alive!
The two bouncers closed the glass doors behind them as Taz spun around, ready to strike with his wicked blades should the two men attack him. Both men were extremely muscular, each wearing some type of makeshift, armored football pad uniforms with wicked spikes mounted on the shoulders, leather gauntlets and gloves infused with more armor plates, and black and red leather pants lined with yet more armored padding. The only difference between the two bearded brutes was that one had a Mohawk whilst the other had a reverse Mohawk.
“Hey,” said Taz. “I know you dudes! You two were super powered executive body guards before the world went to shit. The Intimidators, right? ”
The brute with the Mohawk, the one Taz knew as the German mercenary called Barbarian, extended a hand towards the bar and speaking in German, said, “Sit, please,” in a gruff but not unfriendly tone.
Taz looked over to Barbarian’s partner, the equally huge mercenary with the reverse Mohawk named Highlander. He simply puffed out his chest, crossing his massive arms. Highlander, predictably from the Scottish Isles, nodded towards the bar, saying nothing. Taz turned, facing the long, well lit bar still stocked from counter to ceiling with bottles of liquor and taps of beer. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the lady standing behind the bar.
“Alda? You’re still alive?” said Taz in German.
Alda, the short platinum blonde bartender in her late thirties stared questioningly at the hero. “You…ummm…. you look different from when I last saw you. They say it’s you under that mask. But…”
Tasmanian Devil removed his mask, revealing a grim faced, middle aged man with short cropped white hair, thick furrowed brows, haunted grey eyes and a mouth in a permanent scowl framed by short, white stubble. “This better? How’ve you been, Alda?” Tasmanian Devil, smiled revealing incisor teeth that were twice as long as the average human’s.
“Yep. That’s you alright!” Alda laughed. “Although I think I like you better with that silly mask on your face!” She reached up and grabbed a tall glass from the rack over the bar. “Go ahead and sit down. It’s been a while. Can I get you your usual?”
There was always something about Alda’s voice, so gravelly, yet so seductively German, that appealed to Taz. “Where is he, Alda?”
Alda slid the long island iced tea in front of Taz, nodding her head and motioning to the side of the bar where an opening led to stone steps going down to the restrooms and storage spaces under the club. “He wanted to make sure you were alone, which is why he had Floppsy and Moppsy over there to greet you!”
“Hey!” yelled Highlander. Taz looked past the two mercenaries, outside past the glass doors where the dead seemed to have formed a protective barrier around the club, facing outwards.
“Master Sergeant Gunther!” A tall figure wearing a white mask and white cowl emerged from the stairway. He wore a red battle suit with white straps, gloves and combat boots. Two submachine guns where strapped to each thigh, two pistols on each waist, and a Carl Gustov rocket launcher was slung across his back. Over his right eye on his white mask was a gun-targeting, lead angle site that homed in on Taz.
Closely behind him came another man wearing a black, skull shaped helmet, black leather jacket and pants, over a white shirt with a black skull and crossbones design on it. In the man’s hands was a black steel mace. Next to him came another young man with wavy dark blonde hair, sunglasses, a black leather jacket and black leather pants. He wore a red leather shirt with a stylized ‘A’ in the middle of a black star design. Tasmanian Devil recognized the first two guys, but the last one looked like a young David Hasselhoff if he had decided to take up being a rock star instead of an actor. Taz figured he had to be German. Immediately, Taz leapt off the bar stool, holding his sword-scythes in a defensive fighting position as he faced the threats. Alda yelped and ducked under the bar as everyone else took fighting stances, surrounding the outnumbered hero.
The one with the white mask and cowl held up his hands towards Taz. “Whoa, there, Gunther! We’re all friends here! Is that how you greet your former commander? Hell, back in the day, you used to salute me!”
“That was before you became a damned assassin and domestic terrorist!” growled Taz. “Back then, you were Lieutenant Colonel Mayfield , MARSOC, and I was your senior ranking NCO, Master Sergeant Gunther. Those days are long gone. Now, you’re the murderer known as Arsenal, the leader of the criminal group known as the Jail Breakers who specialize in breaking super criminals out of prison. I’m the hero known as Tasmanian Devil, and the guy standing next to you with the black skull mask is the toady known as Dick Face! The only one who I don’t recognize is that Hitler youth wannabe’ who is skulking around behind you!”
“Black Skull,” yelled the man wearing the black skull helmet, hefting his mace threateningly at Taz. “You better call me by my correct name!”
“I’m Captain Awesome,” said the other man, pushing past the villain Black Skull and speaking English but in a thick German accent.
“Hero?” laughed the villain named Arsenal. “Really, Gunther? You call yourself a hero?” Arsenal continued laughing as he took a seat at the bar, motioning his two henchmen Black Skull and Captain Awesome to sit down with him. Barbarian and Highlander remained at the doors, obviously being paid by whatever currency that was valuable to them to keep watch and safeguard this meeting between hero and villains.
“Alda, would you kindly pour us a tumbler of your best bourbon, bitte?” Arsenal reached up, pulling back on his white cowl and removed his mask. Short cropped jet black hair topped a handsome black face, a thin, well trimmed moustache over his lips. The man now known as Arsenal had the dashing good looks of a black, Hollywood, action hero, save for the deep scar that cut from his upper right forehead and down across his lower right chin, a present given to him from Tasmanian Devil during their first battle when neither knew each other’s identity. In truth, if Tasmanian Devil had known that Arsenal was actually his former commanding officer, he may have plunged both his sword-scythes into his heart, instead.
“Come on, now Gunther,” said Arsenal. “I’ve wondered that for a long, long time. After everything we’ve done, after everything I know about you, how can you call yourself a hero?”
“Why am I here, Mayfield?” said Tasmanian Devil. “Why are those dead outside not attacking us?”
“I mean, admit it Master Sergeant,” continued Arsenal, ignoring Tasmanian Devil’s questions. “You’ve forgotten more people you’ve killed than I’ll ever remember people I’ve killed. So what? That comet gives you enhanced powers. The government gave you a fancy battle suit, a stupid code name, and an obscenely huge weekly paycheck and you now think you’re a hero?”
Arsenal downed his bourbon in one gulp, setting it down on the bar as Alda filled it again. “C’mon, Master Sergeant. Aside from tying to make an honest buck, what makes you any different than me?”
“Dammit, Mayfield,” Taz slammed his fist on the bar and making all of the glasses jump. “I didn’t come here to drink and catch up on old times with you as if nothing ever happened! Those were civilians that you had killed in Afghanistan! I don’t know what brought you here to Germany and frankly, I don’t care! I have a world to save! That’s what makes me different from you!”
Arsenal glanced over at Taz, who was sitting next to him at the bar and rested his chin on his hand. “Really, Gunther?” said Arsenal calmly, almost condescendingly. “You have a world to save? And how do you expect to do that, hmm?” He took a sip from his bourbon, savoring the smooth taste as it flowed down his throat. “Would it surprise you to know that that’s why we are here? It’s our world as well, you know.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Mayfield?” said Taz.
“You’ve already seen it, Master Sergeant,” said Arsenal. “Look outside. Go ahead. There are one hundred of the dead standing guard in front of the Sansibar, keeping the other dead from trying to enter. And they’ll be there for at least another three hours under his control before the nano’s expire.”
“His control?” said Tasmanian Devil, eying his former commanding officer suspiciously as he sipped his long island ice tea. “Who is in control?”
“Him,” said Arsenal, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb back where the stairs were. “He was our last mission. He was the last person the Jail Breakers broke out of SEAD custody, and believe me, you’ll thank me for it.”
“I’m pleased that you would come all this way just to see me,” said a figure climbing up the stairs. “It’s Mister Tasmanian Devil, isn’t it?”
“You!” growled Tasmanian Devil, grabbing up his sword-scythes and leaping towards the frail looking figure standing at the top of the stairs with the wild, unkempt, hair wearing a dirty white lab coat. When Tasmanian Devil’s former commanding officer, now turned super criminal, contacted him and asked him to meet him here in Hannover to have a meeting with someone who had the ability to save the world, the hero never imagined it would be this monster. It was him! Public enemy number one before the world died. It was this old man whose mechanical abominations had been responsible for murdering untold thousands of innocent people in his quest to wipe out mankind.
“I’ll kill you, you monster!” raged Tasmanian Devil. “I’ll kill you, Doctor Genocide!”
Continued in Mission Two- The Only Heroes Are The Dead Ones...

Hi all, Damien here (www.twitch.tv/damienf16)! Hope you're all doing great and staying safe in these crazy times.
My birthday is this weekend and since it's not exactly wise to go out and party, were staying in and doing another 24 hour streamathon, this THURSDAY, FEB. 11th!! And since it's a Thursday, it will also be CASINO DAY all day, so there will be games, bets, gambling, chat battles and more! Earn some Wings, max your chances to win the giveaways, and perhaps even be crowned Wing Champ at the end of the month and win an ADDITIONAL $50!!
We'll be doing multiple GIVEAWAYS of digital gift cards ($50-$100, winner's choice of: amazon, apple, steam etc), and an M:tG loot crate! ANYONE IS ELIGIBLE TO WIN, no matter WHERE YOU LIVE (shipping covered by me)!
Remember, on the DF16 Channel, we do multiple GIVEAWAYS EVERY SINGLE FRIDAY! We're giving away a ton more awesome stuff so come by and say hi, drop a follow if you like, and stay tuned!
You don't even have to follow or sub, just be in the chat when the draw is made and you'll automatically be entered. If you wanna say hi or hang out for a bit, even better! Hope to see some of you there!
Game on! www.twitch.tv/damienf16
The 24h stream lineup (ALL TIMES ARE PDT, schedule posted weekly on our discord): Thursday, Feb. 11th, 2021 : 24H BIRTHDAY STREAM + CASINO DAY+ GIVEAWAY DAY!!
10am-11am: Fall Guys!
11am-12pm: Hollow Knight!
12pm-2pm: Call of Duty: Warzone!
2PM GIVEAWAY!!
2pm-3pm: Among Us!
3pm-4pm: Gartic!
4pm-5pm: Marbles on Stream!
5pm-8pm: Sea of Thieves!
8pm GIVEAWAY!!
8pm-10pm: Deep Rock Galactic!
10pm-1am: Magic: the Gathering!
1AM GIVEAWAY!!
1am-3am: The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters!
3am-5am: Ori and the Will of the Wisps!
5am-7am: Star Wars: Battlefront 2!
7am-9am: Wargroove!
9am-10am: Just Chatting!

Yes, you are.
I'm slowly gaining control of my life again and organizing all the beautiful mail you've sent me. I used to be in such a bad mental state back then, that I would stress out because of grammar, spelling and being the perfect brat I'm not, and made a lot of unfinished drafts that are all over the place. I am really, really sorry for that.
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u/HoneyGirlLZ Thanks for the Vancouver postcard. Ohhh, how I wish I could travel to Canada! My two sisters did an english course there but I got so good with English by myself and so bad at graduating at anything, I never got the “graduation gift” that was some sort of tradition. Wait... I haven't actually graduated yet....
u/ImOkReally Thank you so much for this wonderful piece of mail. Your envelopes are just so amazing, they feel like cards themselves. I wish I could decorate like that, but I am very insecure and never make up my mind with my designs. I love the colors youu use, I love your sensibility, your patters, the combinations, everything. They're just so amazing. I try to open them soooo carefully so not to tear them apart. Love it it love it love it. You're so talented, believe me. Inside you told me about yourself and some memories. I read it at my grandma's house and I felt so cozy reading it. I replied to it with what I found around. I sometimes stay at her house when I have to work. I'm gonna try some day doing those cool patters with those stickers and lovely stuff you sent me, hopefully when the festive season ends. I did something similar during october and I found it so relaxing, problem is that when I decorate postcards, I'm left with no space left to writem, haha. I'm planning on buying stamps online, but still can't make up my mind, there are so many and so pretty! I actually have to write a mail to the woman in charge of them at the office and indicate a lot of things manually. Your mails always make me smile and cheer me up Thank you so much.
u/LeeElla Lol, thank you for the Raoc birthday postcard. There you told me about the kid that cried for not being able to blow the candles. Lol, some kids are like that. When I was little I hated that if kids did that, some poeple would light them up again and have them blow them too, and I was horrified because they were not the birthday boys... like stealing the birthday wishes! How dare them! Now I'd be annoyed to see blatant spoiliage of kids. Dunno if I'm using the correct verb, please someone correct me, haha. I'm amazed the wax seal made it safe and sound! it's so cool. I learnt that word finally: Hidrangea. They're one of my favorite flowers. They bring me sooo many childhood memories. So many houses grew them in the south and I loved seeing these flowers made of lots of tiny flowers. My grandma also loved putting some in the dinner table. I also used to like playing hide and seek behind them... until I got scared of spiders. Lol, grandma used to have an apt in a town that actually means "place of spiders" in native's language, hahaha, and I went there many summers. Now it's become so pupular, and badly regulated, they destroyed it. They covered it in buildings and apartments and casinos and entertainment, but the town's capacity was never improved, so now you need 3 hours just to get to the other nearest town, and it's a nightmare, when it used to be 20 -30 mins in this tiny curved road. Also, thanks for the washi and the pretty stamps, I love them so much! what is this one of ""Strawberry driving?"" lol. I wonder what that is supposed to mean, haha
u/Lonelytwatwaffle Yoo!! got your Random-Random acts of cards-card for being random. Thank you so much! I still like doing it. I like thinking that randomizers are like destiny telling me who needs a smile and some love sent from here. I ADORE the dragon stamps you put, so adorable and pretty! Oh, right before quarantine we got a boiler (or heater) when we can set the temperature, so yay, that's how I discovered the wonders of green tea. I used to hate it, but that's because it was burnt! Wow. Quarantine discovery. I ended up liking tea so much, I use a french press to brew my tea, haha, so I get a full liter. So I'll be able to enjoy your tea now! Thank you so much! I also find it super funny all the labels and warnings and adjectives your American teas have, lol. ""Oh no! My tea has 14 mg of naturally occurring caffeine! But it's not coffee!!"". ""Oh no, I'm a pregnant breastfeeding woman, I need to consult my *healthcare practitioneer * (lol, what a long name) to drink tea, or I won't be legible for suing the traditional medicinals makers done by herbalists""."" I'm gonna OPEN this TAMPER EVIDENT-MOISTURE PROOF WRAPPED Tea Bag and POUR freshly boiled water in it. COVER it, STEEP it for 10 mins and SQUEEZE it to ENJOY 3-4 cups daily."" Is this bag telling me me how many I have to drink per day?? Wait... do I have to repeat this process 3-4 per day with this single bag??. ROFL. Oh gosh, I'm enjoying this too much. What the hell. So thanks for this HERBAL SUPPLEMENT, with *daily values not established for organic green tea"" and 0 calories!! Hahahahaa. Did you feel worn after scrutinizing all the offers to make this batch of cards? That was quite a nice thing you did. Also, thanks for the sticks and washi, I like the summer vibe they have, I'm going to take them to my vacations.
Edit: The mail didn't lose it. It was me. It got burried in my depressive mess and finding it during this time I haven't got any mail was like getting mail again. Such a huge adrenaline rush, it was awesome. I think life holds these surprises for the moments we need them the most.
u/ninajyang u/shadesoflanternhill Oh wow guys! I had forgotten you guys met! How was is? What did you do together? Oh wow, can't believe it was this same year. Such a weird year. I thought it was going to be the year of the meetups... so many were happening back then! And I was about to do some myself once in Australia and Asia xD. Well, I'm glad to know I have a spare bed in Japan waiting for me now, haha. And a bigger fridge to store a yummy cake I could bake, so you can try it, 'cause you must. Nina, have you set up your next destinations once all this is over? The only one I have for sure is Europe 2023 with friends... and if I can try and stay longer, the better. I actually wish I could go there next year, but who knows!
u/talkingroses Thank you for your adorable little crab postcard with a review of Percy Jackson. I was thinking in seeing if I could find it in the library, but then I remembered my card got expired and I'm not a student anymore so.... I'll have to check other ways of getting my hands on it. (I dun wanna read it in spanish.... so many things get lost in translation sometimes). I can't wait to be able to send to Australia again. Man, who'd have thought? I'd be living there right now if nothing of this had happened.
u/vickiiiie (x3) I'm happy to know my test postcard made it your way the other day, and that mail is working again, because I once promised to try to write the “Rat” Character once I got this cool year of the rat postcard, where you told me it was the hardest character of the zodiac. Challenge accepted! I hope I don't horrify you with all my aberrations xD It looks like a rat skiing. I also loved the cool red envelope with cute stickers and, no kidding, I spent like 5 minutes just staring at the envelope and its texture. Do they have a specific purpose there? The flowers are the same of the rat in the envelope (love it), do those flowers mean something too? Thank you so much for such nice mail!
Also, thank you so much for the 29th of February postcard! You also added a cute cactus seal. So cool, I wanna try one day doing them. I actually wondered.... if you work in February, any February, if you get paid monthly, are they actually paying you more for that month every year? Or they adjust that? Hmmm.... Well, here February is the month were almost everyone, or at least the government, takes vacations, so nobody is worrying too much about that. Well... you might get a day or less of vacations. We didn't because we only took 2 weeks this February, and it got cut short because my cousin decided to get married the 1st, so pretty much everyone in the family had to start their vacations 2 days late, since you spend a whole day traveling. We usually try to travel the 31st. How long you were quarantined? Many people here are still working at home, and I just recently started working in the kitchens again. It's been fun, and I like cooking with a mask on. Feels more clean.
And least but lot last, The first HK RAoC meetup card with u/vickiiiie and u/chikadatte !! I loved it so much when I got it! Oh, gosh, crazy times back then! Haha, I wonder why nobody guessed you were going to an American dinner for bacon and eggs. I sent some test cards both your ways, but it seems they haven't made it yet. I wanna give it another try. I need to know if you both are keeping your same addresses though, I have some unsent mail waiting for you guys. Oh, I was sooo looking forward to traveling to HK next year, but my trip to Australia and then Asia got.... cancelled until... who knows when and who knows if that's ever going to work out. Who knows? Maybe the future awaits me with some surprises I haven't imagined yet. Maybe it's better that what I was going to do. Who knows? We'll see.

Hello, We are a smaller community that would like to reach out and invite all players that enjoy a nonpay2win experience to come join the server and give us a try, we have been around for a bit and have worked hard on implementing a ton of awesome plugins that expand on the pixelmon mod and rewards the players who put in the time and work!
As an example, our latest addition to the server is PokePass this fulfills our promise to give our most committed players a constant rewarding experience for playing not paying!
Pokepass: is a playtime based rewards menu that has 5 tiers and in each tier there is 10 levels to complete once you have put in the playtime you can redeem anything from pokeballs, Rarecandy even Pokemon of all variations and types!
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We are currently looking for Staff Apply here: https://www.pokeodyssey.com/staffapp
IP: play.pokeodyssey.com
Website: https://www.pokeodyssey.com [Massive Sale]
Discord: https://discord.gg/UvVm3ZK
Technic Modpack Link: http://modpack.pokeodyssey.com/
Plugins & Features:

• Custom Form Pixelmon!
• Professionally created Custom Skins!
• Custom Rankup system with Prestige!
• Gifts menu to store and customize your Pixelmon!
• Diverse Casino with INSANE Rewards!
• Raid Bosses with CRAZY Drops.
• PokeInvasions: Battle/Catch pokemon as they invade random villages through a portal!
• Mini Games: Spleef, Crane Game, Crate Envoys and more
• Daily Drop Parties
• LuckyCapture: Each Pokemon you catch has a chance at turning shiny, having its HA or both!
• Jobs with custom Missions updated daily!
• Competitive Matchmaking with Elo Shop.
• Legend Trade: Trade one of your legends away for a random one every 6 hours!
• PokeCollector: Turn in a shiny that the collector is looking for for rewards!
• Auction and GTS!
• Catch Rewards!
• Custom Achievements!
• Custom Gyms
• Custom PokeDayCare [A mix of pokemon daycare and animal crossing]
• PixelSkills: [Runescape style skills made for Pixelmon]
• GriefDefender with almost 80k earnable claimblocks
• and so much more

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Feel free to ask as many question as you'd like we will answer them as fast as we can thank you!

I already own Darksiders III and Yakuza Kiwami 2, so I figured I'd just skip this month and trade for the other games on here. I haven't updated my list in a long time, so there may be one or two games that I don't have anymore, but I still own most of them. So far, the games I'm looking for are:
Imperator: Rome Deluxe Edition
Crying Suns
Darksburg
Little Misfortune
Smile for Me
Darkwood
Tsioque
Rover Mechanic Simulator
Youropa
Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt
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The ones that I have for trade are:
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Humble Gift Link -
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The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day
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Knights of Pen and Paper 1+2 Collection
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Road Redemption
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This War of Mine
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Throne of Lies The Online Game of Deceit
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Torchlight
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Torchlight II
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The First Tree
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One Deck Dungeon
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Skybolt Zack
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Golf With Your Friends - OST
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Codex of Victory
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Conglomerate 451
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Deep Sky Derelicts
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Gift of Parthax
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Haimrik
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Quantum Replica
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Re-Legion
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Shiny
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Through the Woods
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The Inner World
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Pixel Heroes Byte & Magic
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Safety First!
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SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell
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The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia + Soundtrack
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Vambrace: Cold Soul Soundtrack
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Vampyr
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AER Memories of Old
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Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
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State of Mind
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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III
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Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach
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Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
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Batman - The Telltale Series
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Batman: The Enemy Within - The Telltale Series
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Oxenfree
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The Walking Dead
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The Walking Dead - 400 Days
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The Walking Dead: Michonne - A Telltale Miniseries
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The Walking Dead: Season Two
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Astebreed Definitive Edition
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LiEat
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Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae
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Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight
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GET EVEN
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Carcassonne - Tiles & Tactics
​
Mysterium: A Psychic Clue Game
​
Small World 2
​
Splendor
​
Twilight Struggle
​
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father
​
Black The Fall
​
Children of Zodiarcs
​
Deadbeat Heroes
​
Forgotton Anne
​
Goetia
​
Tokyo Dark
​
The Turing Test
​
Train Valley 2
​
A Good Snowman is Hard to Build
​
A Mortician's Tale
​
Alien Spidy
​
Broken Age
​
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
​
Brutal Legend
​
Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition
​
Darksiders Warmastered Edition
​
DUCATI - 90th Anniversary
​
Europa Universalis IV
​
Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
​
GNOG
​
Hacknet
​
HIVESWAP: Act 1
​
Hollow Knight
​
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
​
Lostwinds
​
Magicka
​
Music Maker EDM Edition
​
PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION 2
​
Party Hard
​
Pikuniku
​
Psychonauts
​
Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville
​
Sniper Elite 3
​
Speed Brawl
​
Stealth 2: A Game of Clones
​
Stick Fight: The Game
​
Super Hexagon
​
SUPERHOT
​
This is the Police
​
Tilt Brush
​
Tropico 4
​
Undertale
​
VVVVVV
​
World of Goo
​
Worms Revolution
​
Zombotron
​
Dead Rising 4
​
Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition
​
RESIDENT EVIL 2 - All In-game Rewards Unlock
​
STRIDER
​
Reigns
​
Reigns: Her Majesty
​
Equilinox
​
MagiCat
​
Samorost 3
​
1 Screen Platformer
​
A Glider's Journey
​
Adventure Boy Cheapskate DX
​
Animal Super Squad
​
Anomaly 2
​
Anomaly Defenders
​
Anomaly Korea
​
Anomaly: Warzone Earth
​
Anomaly Warzone Earth Mobile Campaign
​
Artemis: God-Queen of the Hunt
​
Balancelot
​
Bastion
​
Cathedral
​
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
​
Clatter
​
Dead by Daylight - Of Flesh and Mud
​
Dead by Daylight - Spark of Madness
​
Deadlight: Director's Cut
​
Dino Run DX
​
Downtown Drift
​
Draw Your Game
​
Drink More Glurp Jingle Jam Challenge
​
Invisible Inc.
​
Kalaban
​
Kingdom: New Lands
​
Motorsport Manager
​
Must Dash Amigos
​
Nemo Dungeon
​
Neverwinter: Vestments of the Wind Pack
​
Ninja Senki DX
​
PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION 2
​
Potatoman Seeks the Troof
​
Pumped BMX +
​
Rapture Rejects
​
Rebound Dodgeball Evolved
​
Red Horizon
​
Rogue Rocks
​
Scanner Sombre
​
Songs of Skydale
​
Stories: The Path of Destinies
​
Super Chicken Catchers
​
THE TEAR
​
YORG.io
​
Chasm
​
Fluffy Horde
​
Regular Human Basketball
​
Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force Complete Deluxe Set
​
Megatagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies (Neptunia)
​
Moero Chronicle
​
Neptunia Shooter
​
Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls
​
Trillion: God of Destruction
​
Beckett
​
Everything
​
Rusty Lake Hotel
​
The Stanley Parable
​
Thomas Was Alone
​
Yume Nikki
​
YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY-
​
Game Character Hub PE: DS Generator Parts
​
Game Character Hub PE: Second Story
​
Game Character Hub: Portfolio Edition
​
RPG Maker MV
​
RPG Maker MV - GENE
​
RPG Maker MV - MADO
​
RPG Maker MV - SAKAN
​
RPG Maker VX
​
RPG Maker VX Ace
​
RPG Maker XP
​
Visual Novel Maker + Live 2D
​
Evergarden
​
Shenmue I & II
​
SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising
​
Bridge Constructor Portal
​
Portal Knights
​
SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell
​
Staxel
​
Tricky Towers
​
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
​
Planet Alpha
​
Puss!
​
The Spiral Scouts
​
Cat Quest
​
HIVESWAP: Act 1
​
Immortal Planet
​
Pillars of Eternity
​
Tyranny - Standard Edition
​
Carrier Command: Gaea Mission
​
Pound of Ground
​
Take On Helicopters
​
Take on Mars
​
Ylands
​
Distance
​
God's Trigger
​
Guacamelee! 2
​
MOTHERGUNSHIP
​
DISTRAINT 2
​
Rusty Lake Paradise
​
Unexplored
​
The Adventure Pals
​
Almost There: The Platformer
​
Yoku's Island Express
​
60 Parsecs!
​
Love is Dead
​
Road Redemption
​
Clustertruck
​
Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor
​
Party Hard
​
Punch Club
​
SpeedRunners
​
Duskers
​
Paratopic
​
Pool Panic
​
Red Faction Guerilla Re-Mars-tered
​
Black The Fall
​
Octahedron
​
The Turing Test
​
I'm not a Monster
​
Wandersong
​
11-11 Memories Retold
​
Impact Winter
​
Little Nightmares
​
PAC-MAN™ Championship Edition DX+
​
Project CARS
​
Genital Jousting
​
Highway Blossoms
​
Just Deserts
​
Purrfect Date
​
Sunrider Academy
​
Sunrider: Liberation Day - Captain's Edition
​
Among the Sleep - Enhanced Edition
​
Tooth and Tail
​
Dandara
​
MINIT
​
Steel Rats
​
12 is Better Than 6
​
BLACKHOLE
​
Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!
​
Kingsway
​
kuso
​
Soft Body
​
Way of the Passive Fist
​
Slipstream
​
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
​
GoNNER
​
Headlander
​
Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
​
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
​
Bleed 2
​
Rapture Rejects
​
Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder
​
Sniper Elite 3
​
Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition
​
Worms Clan Wars
​
Animal Super Squad
​
Anomaly 2
​
Anomaly Defenders
​
Anomaly: Warzone Earth
​
Blade & Bones
​
Board Battlefield
​
Clicker bAdventure
​
Cloudborn
​
Convoy
​
Cube Link
​
Deep Dungeons of Doom
​
Detective Case and Clown Bot in: Murder in the Hotel Lisbon
​
Don't Stand Out
​
Dungeon Escape
​
Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
​
Flux8
​
Freaky Awesome
​
Guns of Icarus Alliance Collector's Edition
​
Hackyzack
​
The Haunting of Billy
​
Hello Pollution!
​
Hyperdrive Massacre
​
Indecision.
​
Kabounce
​
Lakeview Cabin Collection
​
Last Encounter
​
LOVE
​
Lucius Demake
​
Marvin's Mittens
​
Match Point
​
No Time To Explain Remastered
​
Race The Sun
​
R-COIL
​
Road Doom
​
Slime-san
​
Super Steampunk Pinball 2D
​
Sure Footing
​
Switchblade Starter Pack
​
Temple of Xiala
​
Throne of Lies The Online Game of Deceit
​
Tower 57
​
Tross
​
Unit 4
​
Wizorb
​
Zero G Arena
​
Colt Express
​
King and Assassins
​
Kentucky Route Zero
​
RWBY: Grimm Eclipse
​
War for the Overworld + Heart of Gold DLC
​
The Dwarves
​
Resident Evil Revelations
​
Gremlins, Inc.
​
Old Man's Journey
​
Pathfinder Adventures
​
Talisman: Digital Edition
​
Carcassonne - Tiles & Tactics
​
Talisman: Digital Edition
​
How to Survive 2
​
Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition
​
12 is Better than 6
​
Bear With Me - Collector's Edition
​
Dungeon of the Endless
​
Jalopy
​
NBA Playgrounds
​
Action Henk
​
JYDGE
​
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
​
Kingdom: New Lands
​
Laser League
​
Holy Potatoes! We're In Space?!
​
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
​
Grand Theft Auto III
​
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
​
Filthy, Stinking, Orcs
​
Sanctum 2
​
Grey Goo
​
Sorcerer King: Rivals
​
​
Green Man Gaming -
​
CRUSADER KINGS II
​
WARHAMMER END TIMES VERMINTIDE
​
INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US ULTIMATE
​
THE FLAME IN THE FLOOD
​
FROZEN SYNAPSE PRIME
​
BEAT COP
​
SUPER CLOUDBUILT
​
THE LITTLE ACRE
​
INSURGENCY
​
FEAR 3
​
DEAD AGE
​
MAGICKA
​
SERIAL CLEANER
​
CASTLEVANIA LORDS OF SHADOW 2
​
FAHRENHEIT REMASTERED
​
OPERATION FLASHPOINT RED RIVER
​
ROCKET KNIGHT
​
LEGO BATMAN
​
BIOZONE
​
ADR1FT
​
​
Fanatical -
​
Autonauts
​
Guards
​
How to Take Off Your Mask
​
ENIGMA:
​
Garfield Kart
​
Stronghold Legends: Steam Edition
​
Styx: Master of Shadows
​
Among the Sleep - Enhanced Edition
​
EARTH'S DAWN
​
Do Not Feed the Monkeys
​
Rain World
​
Shadwen
​
Syndrome
​
The Technomancer
​
Chess Ultra
​
Arcana Heart 3 LOVE MAX!!!!!
​
DEAD OR SCHOOL
​
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom
​
XBlaze Code: Embryo
​
XBlaze Lost: Memories
​
Duke Nukem Forever
​
GUILTY GEAR Xrd -REVELATOR-
​
Party Hard 2
​
The Walking Dead
​
This War of Mine
​
Blood: Fresh Supply
​
Syberia II
​
If My Heart Had Wings
​
LoveKami -Divinity Stage-
​
LoveKami -Useless Goddess-
​
The Surge
​
Dungeons 2
​
The First Templar - Steam Special Edition
​
Urban Empire
​
The Dark Eye: Demonicon
​
Chronicles of Magic: Divided Kingdoms
​
Endless Fables 3: Dark Moor
​
King's Heir: Rise to the Throne
​
Lost Grimoires 3: The Forgotten Well
​
My Brother Rabbit
​
Noir Chronicles: City of Crime
​
Path of Sin: Greed
​
Queen's Quest 4: Sacred Truce
​
Tharsis
​
Little Big Adventure 2
​
Return to Mysterious Island 2
​
Damned
​
Return to Mysterious Island
​
Odyssey - The Story of Science
​
Little Big Adventure - Enhanced Edition
​
Sanitarium
​
The Royal Marines Commando
​
STARBO
​
Raptor: Call of The Shadows - 2015 Edition
​
Guns of Icarus Online
​
Hamsterdam
​
Gates of Hell
​
Perfect Heist
​
Aces of the Luftwaffe
​
Operation Thunderstorm
​
Clouds & Sheep 2
​
Archamon
​
The Crown of Leaves
​
HERO DEFENSE
​
Tales From Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
​
Last Dream: World Unknown
​
The Swindle
​
Robothorium: Cyberpunk Dungeon Crawler
​
Equilinox
​
Rogue Wizards
​
Codex of Victory
​
Haimrik
​
In Fear I Trust
​
In Fear I Trust - Episode 2
​
In Fear I Trust - Episode 3
​
In Fear I Trust - Episode 4
​
The Watchmaker
​
The Uncertain - The Last Quiet Day
​
World's Dawn
​
Extinction
​
Infinite Air with Mark McMorris
​
Super Inefficient Golf
​
Tales of Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
​
Shadwen
​
Creeping Terror
​
Fantasy Wars
​
Ascension to the Throne
​
Savage Lands
​
Survivalist
​
Still Life
​
Holy Avatar vs. Maidens of the Dead
​
Syberia
​
Miasmata
​
Syberia II
​
Looterkings
​
Damned
​
Lost Civilization
​
QuestRun
​
Railroad Pioneer
​
SkyDrift
​
Thunder Wolves
​
Airline Tycoon Deluxe
​
Overclocked: A History of Violence
​
Dark Strokes: The Legend of the Snow Kingdom Collector's Edition
​
Eternal Journey: New Atlantis
​
Forest Legends: The Call of Love Collector's Edition
​
House of 1000 Doors: Evil Inside
​
House of 1000 Doors: Serpent Flame
​
Joan Jade and the Gates of Xibalba
​
Love Alchemy: A Heart in Winter
​
Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light
​
Mind's Eye: Secrets of the Forgotten
​
The Fog: Trap for Moths
​
Analogue: A Hate Story
​
Detention
​
The Coma: Recut
​
The Coma: Recut - Soundtrack & Art Pack DLC
​
Revolution Ace
​
Californium
​
SkyDrift
​
Clinically Dead
​
Out There Somewhere
​
Fate Tectonics
​
Plazma Being
​
One Finger Death Punch
​
ESport Manager
​
Dungeons 2
​
Galaxy Squad
​
Oriental Empires
​
Stars in Shadow
​
TASTEE Lethal Tactics
​
The Lion's Song: Season Pass
​
Homeworld Remastered Collection
​
Shuyan Saga
​
Steel Vampire
​
Arcana Heart 3 LOVE MAX!!!!
​
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
​
Lifeless Planet Premier Edition
​
Snake Pass
​
BEEP
​
DRAGON: A Game About a Dragon
​
Destiny Warriors RPG
​
Gun Rocket
​
Labyronia RPG
​
Labyronia RPG 2
​
LocoSoccer
​
Out There Somewhere
​
Storm of Spears RPG
​
Subterra
​
Sun Blast: Star Fighter
​
The Odyssey: Winds of Athena
​
Tiny Bridge: Ratventure
​
Crouching Pony Hidden Dragon
​
GAUGE
​
Isbarah
​
Poöf
​
Puddle
​
Replay - VHS is not dead
​
Wooden Sen'SeY
​
House of Caravan
​
Cultures Northland
​
Splatter Zombie Apocalypse
​
Squirbs
​
Learn Japanese to survive Hiragana Battle
​
Airscape The Fall of Gravity
​
Revolution Ace
​
Labyronia RPG
​
PARTICLE MACE
​
Cultures 8th Wonder of the World
​
GIBZ
​
STAR WARS Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
​
STAR WARS Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast
​
Dex
​
Figment
​
Hive Jump
​
Jalopy
​
PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist
​
THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII STEAM EDITION
​
Blades of Time Limited Edition
​
Blood Knights
​
Demonicon
​
Drakensang
​
GemCraft - Chasing Shadows
​
Heroes of Annihilated Empires
​
Inquisitor
​
Knights and Merchants
​
Lichdom: Battlemage
​
Numen: Contest of Heroes
​
Rune Classic
​
Sudeki
​
Two Worlds II: Velvet Edition
​
Wizardry 6&7
​
Asteroid Bounty Hunter
​
Charlie's Adventure
​
Cube Runner
​
Duke of Alpha Centauri
​
Fly and Destroy
​
Hungry Flame
​
Neon Space
​
Neon Space 2
​
ShipLord
​
Slash It
​
Slash It 2
​
Spin Rush
​
Survive in Space
​
Upside Down
​
Distant Worlds: Universe
​
Heavy Burger
​
I am not a Monster
​
Learn Japanese to survive Hiragana Battle
​
SimplePlanes
​
Sword Legacy Omen
​
Moero Chronicle
​
Moero Chronicle - Deluxe Pack DLC
​
35MM
​
Deadlight
​
Distrust
​
Killing Room
​
March of the Living
​
Savage Lands
​
Tharsis
​
Valnir Rok Survival RPG
​
Dreamscapes: The Sandman - Premium Edition
​
Dreamscapes: Nightmare's Heir - Premium Edition
​
Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light Collector's Edition
​
Witch's Pranks: Frog's Fortune Collector's Edition
​
Kingdom of Aurelia: Mystery of the Poisoned Dagger
​
Taken Souls: Blood Ritual Collector's Edition
​
Silver Tale
​
A Plot Story
​
Hexus
​
Jane Angel: Templar Mystery
​
Dream Walker
​
Witch's Tales
​
Escape Doodland
​
Mad Dream: Coma
​
Earthworms
​
Clinically Dead
​
Mech Rage
​
Camper Jumper Simulator
​
ESport Manager
​
Darkest Hunters
​
The Sexy Brutale
​
Beholder
​
The Last Door - Collector's Edition
​
The Last Door: Season 2 - Collector's Edition
​
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller
​
System Shock: Enhanced Edition
​
System Shock 2
​
Metal Fatigue
​
Spirits of Xanadu
​
Shadow Man
​
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
​
Homeworld Remastered Collection
​
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
​
PAYDAY 2
​
Jalopy
​
Hover
​
Figment
​
Subterrain
​
STARWHAL
​
Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure
​
Joggernauts
​
The Long Reach
​
Mainlining
​
Coffin Dodgers
​
The Rivers of Alice - Extended Version
​
Zombie Kill of the Week - Reborn
​
The Walking Vegetables
​
Unbox: Newbie's Adventure
​
System Shock: Enhanced Edition
​
UNLOVED
​
Killing Room
​
Sir, You Are Being Hunted
​
Styx: Shards of Darkness
​
STAR WARS - Knights of the Old Republic
​
STAR WARS Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords
​
Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition
​
SimCity™ 4 Deluxe Edition
​
STAR WARS™ - The Force Unleashed™ Ultimate Sith Edition
​
METAL SLUG X
​
Oxenfree
​
Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition
​
Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity
​
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes
​
The Political Machine 2016
​
The Corporate Machine
​
Sorcerer King: Rivals
​
Demigod
​
Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~
​
March of the Living
​
Four Sided Fantasy
​
Dungeon Rushers
​
The Invisible Hours
​
Dead Secret
​
The Free Ones
​
HIVESWAP: Act 1
​
Castle of no Escape 2
​
Galactic Lords
​
W4RR-i/o-RS
​
Nogibator: Way Of Legs
​
WN - ShP
​
Fairy Lands: Rinka and the Fairy Gems
​
Drill Arena
​
Walhall
​
Er-Spectro
​
Risky Rescue
​
Frederic: Evil Strikes Back
​
16bit Trader
​
Midnight Mysteries
​
Midnight Mysteries 4: Haunted Houdini
​
Zombie Bowl-o-Rama
​
Little Farm
​
Silver Knight
​
ANKI
​
Lift It
​
3 Coins At School
​
Deep Eclipse: New Space Odyssey
​
Green Ranch
​
The lost joystick
​
UBERMOSH Vol. 5
​
Trip to Vinelands
​
TTV2
​
SWARMRIDER OMEGA
​
UBERMOSH
​
UBERMOSH:BLACK
​
UBERMOSH Vol.3
​
Iesabel
​
Daemonsgate
​
Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess
​
Spiritual Warfare & Wisdom Tree Collection
​
Prophecy I - The Viking Child
​
Drakkhen
​
Hostage: Rescue Mission
​
King's Table - The Legend of Ragnarok
​
Eternam
​
Chaos Control
​
Bubble Ghost
​
Mystical
​
Alien Rampage
​
Frederic: Resurrection of Music
​
Teddy Floppy Ear - Mountain Adventure
​
Teddy Floppy Ear - Kayaking
​
Millie
​
Sparkle 2 Evo
​
Story of the Survivor
​
SharpShooter3D
​
Goodbye My King
​
Watch This!
​
Crazy Oafish Ultra Blocks: Big Sale
​
Crystal City
​
Bloody Boobs
​
AuroraRL
​
Dispatcher
​
Casino Noir
​
Detective Noir
​
Reptilians Must Die!
​
The Braves & Bows
​
Zzzz-Zzzz-Zzzz
​
The Dweller
​
Surfingers
​
Timberman
​
Sparkle 3 Genesis
​
Cat on a Diet
​
Zombillie
​
Asteroid Bounty Hunter
​
ShipLord
​
Neon Prism
​
Slash It
​
Slash It 2
​
Cube Runner
​
Upside Down
​
Spin Rush
​
Neon Space
​
Neon Space 2
​
Duke of Alpha Centauri
​
Hungry Flame
​
Survive in Space
​
Fly and Destroy
​
Charlie's Adventure
​
Luxor Evolved
​
Luxor: Amun Rising HD
​
LUXOR: Mah Jong
​
Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife
​
Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena
​
Red Risk
​
Particula
​
Overcast - Walden and the Werewolf
​
OutDrive
​
Invasion
​
Cubium Dreams
​
Iron Impact
​
Stigmat
​
Marco Polo
​
Cybercube
​
Mr. Dubstep
​
Monstrum
​
Wick
​
Lethe - Episode One
​
35MM
​
I Shall Remain
​
Silence of the Sleep
​
Rebel Galaxy
​
Punch Club - Deluxe Edition
​
Grey Goo Definitive Edition
​
RiME
​
Gloom
​
SharpShooter3D
​
Goodbye My King
​
Crystal City
​
Art of Murder - Cards of Destiny
​
Art of Murder - Deadly Secrets
​
Art of Murder - FBI Confidential
​
Art of Murder - Hunt for the Puppeteer
​
Art of Murder - The Secret Files
​
Chronicles of Mystery - Secret of the Lost Kingdom
​
Chronicles of Mystery - The Legend of the Sacred Treasure
​
Chronicles of Mystery - The Tree of Life
​
Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual
​
Megadimension Neptunia VII
​
Megadimension Neptunia VII Digital Deluxe Set DLC
​
Galactic Lords
​
W4RR-i/o-RS
​
Nogibator: Way Of Legs
​
WN - ShP
​
Fairy Lands: Rinka and the Fairy Gems
​
Drill Arena
​
Walhall
​
Er-Spectro
​
Daemonsgate
​
Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess
​
Spiritual Warfare & Wisdom Tree Collection
​
Prophecy I - The Viking Child
​
Drakkhen
​
Marco Polo
​
Hostage: Rescue Mission
​
King's Table - The Legend of Ragnarok
​
Eternam
​
Chaos Control
​
Bubble Ghost
​
Mystical
​
Alien Rampage
​
Ocean Classics Volume 1
​
200% Mixed Juice
​
War of the Human Tanks
​
Worms
​
Worms Reloaded: Game of the Year Edition
​
Worms Ultimate Mayhem - Deluxe Edition
​
Worms Crazy Golf
​
Worms Blast
​
Worms Pinball
​
The Mooseman
​
Sky Break
​
Tropico 5
​
Super Cloudbuilt
​
Tower 57
​
Dex
​
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
​
Deponia: The Complete Journey
​
Table Top Racing: World Tour
​
Riff Racer - Race Your Music!
​
GT Legends
​
GTR Evolution
​
Vangers
​
Insane 2
​
Zero Gear
​
Race.a.bit
​
Mashed
​
Race: The WTCC Game + Caterham Expansion
​
Little Racers STREET
​
BARRIER X
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Super Toy Cars
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Mini Motor Racing EVO
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Drift Streets Japan
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Instant Death
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Spirits of Xanadu
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Swipe Fruit Smash
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Voxel Baller
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Breezeblox
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BalanCity
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VRog
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BoomTown! Deluxe
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City Siege: Faction Island
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Bomb The Monsters!
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Crazy Belts
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Rush for Glory
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Naval Warfare
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Insurgency
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Blood Knights
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Heroes of Annihilated Empires
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Wizardry 6 & 7
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Drakensang
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Rune Classic
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Gemcraft - Chasing Shadows
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Knights and Merchants
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Etherlords I & II
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Sudeki
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Numen: Contest of Heroes
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Inquisitor
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Commands & Colors: The Great War
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Making History: The Calm and the Storm Gold Edition
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Attrition: Tactical Fronts
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Imperial Glory
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Praetorians
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Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
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Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty
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Commandos 2: Men of Courage
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Commandos 3: Destination Berlin
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Ominous Tales: The Forsaken Isle
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Beyond the Invisible: Evening
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Tearstone
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Entwined: Strings of Deception
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Vengeance: Lost Love
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The Rosebud Condominium
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Where Angels Cry: Tears of the Fallen (Collector's Edition)
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Lightning: D-Day
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Congo Merc
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Hold the Line: The American Revolution
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Battles of the Ancient World
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Peninsular War Battles
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1812: The Invasion of Canada
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Russian Front
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7 Wonders II
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7 Wonders of the Ancient World
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7 Wonders: Ancient Alien Makeover
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7 Wonders: Magical Mystery Tour
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7 Wonders: Treasures of Seven
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Discovery! A Seek and Find Adventure
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Gardens Inc. 2: The Road to Fame
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Glowfish
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Little Farm
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Luxor 2 HD
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Luxor 3
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Luxor Evolved
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Luxor HD
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Luxor: 5th Passage
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Luxor: Amun Rising HD
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LUXOR: Mah Jong
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Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife
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Midnight Mysteries
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Midnight Mysteries 3: Devil on the Mississippi
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Midnight Mysteries 4: Haunted Houdini
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Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials
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Midnight Mysteries: Witches of Abraham - Collector's Edition
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Pickers
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Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena
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The Dweller
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Iesabel
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EM: Shader Attack
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Invasion
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Labyronia RPG
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Labyronia RPG 2
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Legend of Mysteria RPG
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Chosen 2
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Balloon Blowout
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Bayla Bunny
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Block Blowout
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Chess Knight 2
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Dessert Storm
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Fantastic 4 In A Row 2
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Fantastic Checkers 2
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Ludo Supremo
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Mahjong Deluxe 2: Astral Planes
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Mahsung Deluxe
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Mini Golf Mundo
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Pepe Porcupine
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Puppy Dog: Jigsaw Puzzles
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Puzzles Under The Hill
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Ultimate Word Search 2: Letter Boxed
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Bubble Blowout
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Train Valley
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Broken Sword Trilogy
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Daemonsgate
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Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess
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Prophecy I - The Viking Child
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Drakkhen
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Marco Polo
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Hostage: Rescue Mission
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King's Table - The Legend of Ragnarok
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Bubble Ghost
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Mystical
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Ocean Classics Volume 1
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Pandora: First Contact
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35MM
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Grand Ages: Rome GOLD
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GT Legends
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Nether: Resurrected
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CAT Interstellar
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Circut Breakers
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Memoranda
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Sins of the Demon RPG
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Gladiator Trainer
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Dragon Sinker
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Neon Chrome
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Skullgirls
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Mad Games Tycoon
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Replica
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Patrician IV - Steam Special Edition
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Patrician IV: Rise of a Dynasty
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Patrician III
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The Swindle
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Zenith
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Hive Jump
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ICY: Frostbite Edition
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Commandos Collection
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Revhead
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Car Mechanic Simulator 2015
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Demolish & Build 2017
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Robot Squad Simulator 2017
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Skullgirls & DLC
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The Mims Beginning
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Dreamstones
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Cally's Caves 4
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Tank Battle: East Front
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Tank Battle: Pacific
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Tank Battle: Normandy
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Tank Battle: North Africa
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Tank Battle: 1944
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Tank Battle: Blitzkrieg
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Tank Battle: 1945
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Civil War: 1861
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Civil War: Bull Run 1861
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Civil War: 1862
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Civil War: 1865
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Civil War: Gettysburg
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Civil War: 1864
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SK8
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King of the Eggs
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Bouncy Bob
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Hotel Dracula
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Warfront Defenders: Westerplatte
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Pony Island
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Who's Your Daddy
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SWARMRIDER OMEGA
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SWARMRIDER OMEGA OST DLC
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SWARMRIDERS: Original Soundtrack DLC
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DinoSystem
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Super Sports Surgery
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Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
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Startide
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Timberman
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Kathy Rain
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Table Top Racing: World Tour
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Z
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Dark Years
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Exowar
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Total Extreme Wrestling
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World of Mixed Martial Arts 3
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IGT Slots Paradise Garden
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Anti-Opoly
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Wrestling Spirit 3
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Draft Day Sports College Basketball 3
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Draft Day Sports Pro Basketball 4
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Defend Your Life
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Hyperdrive Massacre
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The lost joystick
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Orbital Racer
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RUNRUNRUN
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Murder...
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UBERMOSH:BLACK
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Trip to Vinelands
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SWARMRIDER OMEGA
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Bad Dream: Coma
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Mad Games Tycoon
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Perfect Universe
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Daddy's Gone A-Hunting
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Deep Dungeons of Doom
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Worms
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PolyRace
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The Way
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Indiegala -
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Persian Nights: Sands of Wonders
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The Secret Order 6: Bloodline
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Demon Hunter 4: Riddles of Light
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Lost Grimoires 2: Shard of Mystery
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Animal Lover
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Magi Trials Deluxe Edition
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Highschool Possession
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Topless Hentai Mosaic
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Hentai Hexa Mosaic
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Borderus
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The Myth Seekers: The Legacy of Vulcan
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Eventide 2: The Sorcerers Mirror
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Nightmares from the Deep 3: Davy Jones
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Beach Bounce
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Beach Bounce - Soundtrack
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Beauty Bounce
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Bunny Bounce
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Club Life
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Club Life - Soundtrack
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Divine Slice of Life
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Divine Slice of Life - Soundtrack
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Echo Tokyo - Wallpapers
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Echo Tokyo: Graphic Novel
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Echo Tokyo: Intro
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Highschool Possession
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Highschool Romance
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Magi Trials Deluxe Edition
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Summer Fling
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Summer Fling OST
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Sword of Asumi Deluxe Edition
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Knock-knock
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Systematic Immunity
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OddPlanet
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The Quest for Achievements Remix
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Moot District
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Ceville
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Mutiny!
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Magic Trials Deluxe Edition
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Hentai Zodiac Puzzle
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PUZZLETIME: Lovely Girls
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Girls of Hentai Mosaic
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Girls of Hentai Mosaic - HQ Artbook & Wallpapers
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Hentai Hexa mosaic
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Hentai Hexa Mosaic - Soundtrack
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Lady's Hentai Mosaic
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Lady's Hentai Mosaic - OST
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Lady's Hentai Mosaic - PNG Artbook
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Pixel Hentai Mosaic
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Pixel Hentai Mosaic - OST
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Topless Hentai Mosaic
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Topless Hentai Mosaic - OST
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Topless Hentai Mosaic - PNG Artbook
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Echo Tokyo: An Intro
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Echo Tokyo - Wallpapers
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Echo Tokyo: Graphic Novel
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Last Anime boy: Saving loli
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Witch College
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Pleasure Airlines
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Senpai Teaches Me Japanese: Part 1
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Chibi Volleyball
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My personal Angel
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Riddled Corpses
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Nandeyanen!?
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AstroViking
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?????2 / Seven boys 2
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TimeTekker
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Girls of Hentai Mosaic
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Topless Hentai Mosaic
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Hentai Hexa mosaic
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Lady's Hentai Mosaic
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Pixel Hentai Mosaic
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Book Series - Alice in Wonderland
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On Earth As It Is In Heaven - A Kinetic Novel
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BAD END
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Frank & the TimeTwister Machine
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Linelight
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Hook
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Franchise Wars
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Rush Bros
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Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride
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Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden
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Without Within 2
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Cursed Sight
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Beauty Bounce
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Highschool Romance
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Beach Bounce
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Club Life
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Echo Tokyo: Intro
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Echo Tokyo: Graphic Novel
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This Strange Realm Of Mine
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Bot Vice
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Eliosi's Hunt
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Aspect
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Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan
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Crime Secrets: Crimson Lily
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Grim Legends 3: The Dark City
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Particle Mace
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Secret of Magia
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Sins of the Demon RPG
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Splatter - Zombie Apocalypse
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Airscape - The Fall of Gravity
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Fate Tectonics
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Battle Ranch: Pigs vs Plants
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Earth Overclocked
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Greyfox RPG
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Wish -tale of the sixteenth night of lunar month-
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Cursed Sight
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A Winter's Daydream
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Empty Horizons
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Poker Pretty Girls Battle: Texas Hold'em
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Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire
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Pretty Girls Panic!
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Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle
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Boneless Zombie
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Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire
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Koi-Koi Japan [Hanafuda playing cards]
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Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle: Schools Girls Edition
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Wild Romance
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Pretty Girls Panic! (Chinese version only)
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Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire (Chinese version only)
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Slash or Die
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Slash or Die 2
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RepairBot
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Stellar Interface
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Trench Run
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12 Labours of Hercules VII: Fleecing the Fleece (Platinum Edition)
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A Dream For Aaron
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A Duel Hand Disaster: Trackher
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ARENA GODS
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Adelantado Trilogy. Book Two
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Adelantado Trilogy. Book one
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Adventures of Dragon
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Aircraft Evolution
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Alice in Wonderland - Hidden Objects
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Alicia Quatermain 2: The Stone of Fate
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Alicia Quatermain: Secrets Of The Lost Treasures
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Amelon
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BAD END
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BELPAESE: Homecoming
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Battle High 2 A+
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Beat The Game
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Bitcoin Miner
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Blind Men
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BlowOut
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Border of her Heart
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Bottom of the 9th
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Bravium
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Brawlout
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Broken Minds
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Burnin' Rubber 5 HD
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Chinese Ink Painting Puzzle & Creator
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ClickBit
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Coffee Crawl
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Crashday Redline Edition
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Crazy Pirate
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Crisis in the Kremlin
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Crystal Catacombs
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Crystals of Niberium
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Cube Zone
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Cubiques
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Cubiques 2
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Curse: The Eye of Isis
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Digital Resistance
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Disparity
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Drake of the 99 Dragons
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E-Startup
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Elbub
​
FreeHolder
​
Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance
​
Goldmine
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Gothicc Breaker
​
Hentai Puzzle
​
Hentai Sokoban
​
Hide The Body
​
I.F.O
​
Inexplicable Geeks: Dawn of Just Us
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Insert Paper: Update
​
Joy Climb
​
Judge Dredd 95
​
Krampus Quest
​
Krautscape
​
LOOT BOX ACHIEVEMENT SIMULATOR
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Legend of the Skyfish
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Lunch Truck Tycoon
​
MIND SHIFT
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Maze of Infection
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Mines of Mars
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Mini Ghost
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Mission: Escape from Island 2
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Moto Racer 4
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Moto Racer 4 - Space Dasher
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Moto Racer 4 - The Truth
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Navalny 20!8 : The Rise of Evil
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Negligee
​
Neverliria
​
Next Hero
​
ORCS
​
PLATI NALOG: Favorite Russian Game
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Panzer Hearts - War Visual Novel
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Paper Shakespeare: To Date Or Not To Date?
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Paradox Wrench
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Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3
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Pixel Hentai Mosaic
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Pixelpunk XL
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Plant This
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Q-YO Blaster
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Questr
​
Ravensword: Shadowlands
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River City Super Sports Challenge All Stars Special
​
Rot Gut
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STATUS: INSANE
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SUPER BENBO QUEST: TURBO DELUXE
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Science Girls
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Shadowgrounds
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Shield Impact
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Shout Of Survival
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Spooky Cats
​
Store Simulator
​
Suna
​
SwordBounce
​
The Adventures of Elena Temple
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The Bluecoats: North vs South
​
The God
​
The Last Dawn : The first invasion
​
The Lost Gardens
​
The Reject Demon: Toko Chapter 0 - Prelude
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The Uncertain: Episode 1 - The Last Quiet Day
​
They Are Hundreds
​
Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found
​
Usual John
​
Visceral Cubes
​
WeakWood Throne
​
Welcome to Princeland
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Wings of Vi
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World's Dawn
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Zombie Desperation
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the Line

I just finished the Christmas Myster I had prepared for my hunters, and we had an absolute blast. On top of being a lot of fun, I feel like the way the session went demonstrates how just going with the flow and reaction to your players (rather than planing ahead) makes for awesome experiences, so I decided to share it here (it turned out really long even though I left out some parts, also sorry for grammaspelling mistakes, english is not my first language) :
The basic premise was that one of Santas Elfes, the toy inventor Kravitz, was making magical toys that where way to powerful for regular children. So Santa had degraded him to be the head of the post office in Santa Claus, Indiana (where all the Santa Letters from American kids are collected by elfes and sent to the northpole. But the megalomaniacal Kravitz continued to build his toys there in test them on the local kids, planning to go to the north pole to defeat Santa with his toy army, and then deliver his toys all over the world.
Basically all I had prepared was this premise, a describtion of Kravitz and for elf employees of his, a countdown, a description of Santa Clause, Indiana, and describtions of about 25 magical toys (which really weren't needed in hindsight, I used two from the list, all the others were made up on the spot).
​
The hunters where first alarmed by Claire, an NPC which they saved from an evil magical ventriloquist in a previous mystery. Claire has a blog on weird phenomena and was sent a video of a living, talking doll. She also joined the hunt. When the hunter picked Claire up the Spooky played a christmas-themed traiding card game with Claire and the monstrous Dschinn. (YES!!! that was perfect material for my weird toy theme of the mystery). When they arrived at the house with the living doll, they were invited by a very enthusiastic family to join them listening to the doll, which was telling really cringy dad jokes and puns. The Spooky figured out that the dolls magic made it so you find every joke told by it funnier than the last one. So the first one is really bad, but after listenig to the doll for a while you don't want to do anything but listen. Meanwhile the Professional notices that his Van started to drive away on it's own. He realizes that a kid is controlling his van with a remote controller for a toy car. When he talks to the kid, he finds out the kid got the toy from a tree in Santas village. He asks the kid to trade the controller and his van for the living doll, but the kid just transforms the van into a transformer and goes off to steal the doll himself.
After some shenanigans including the Spooky summoning a monster as a distraction and the monstrous transforming into a bird, they manage to snatch the remote controll, destroy the doll, and head of to Santas village. Also they get rid of some metalheads magically summoned by a kid with an electric guitar.
In Santas village, they searched for presents and the Spooky discovers an invisible christmas elf delivering presents with her true sight, and managed to capture it. The Professional convinces the elf the hunters were "elves, but for adults", by gifting a present to a random adult working nearby. So the elf lead them to his boss, Kravitz, in his workshop underneat the post office.
Kravitz welcomes them in his office, I played him like a bond villain parody. He traps them in his office and boasts that his plan would come to fruition in a few hours (without telling his plan), and that the hunters are invited to play some of his boardgames untill then.
And here is where the trading card game introduced by the Spooky came in, as they challenged Kravitz to a duell. If they won, Kravitz would allow them to watch his plan come to fruition in person. I expected this mystery to go to some really weird and wacky places, but "Christmas Themed Yugioh parody" wasn't one of them. But here we go. The hunters have to deliver presents past monsters summoned by the elfes, and in turn devise a good enough strategy (which I made a sharp-roll) to summon monsters that would stop the elves.
First they defeat some snow huskeys, but the elves won their round as well. Then they decide to switch strategies. In the earlier game between the hunters they established that Rudolph and the other reindeer where this games version of Exodia from Yugioh, assemble them all and you win. They want to win that way, so I have Claire read the rules manual for the magical version of the game, and she finds out that rather than drawing the cards from the deck, they could also find them inside the battle arena. One of the elfes transforms the arena into an icy casino run by penguins. There the hunters split the group to assemble the cards one by one, fighting wacky christmas characters or beating them in sports competitions. (these were really fun, but the story is long enough so I will leave it here). It was basically like a christmas/winter level from a rareware collectaton game. So they won the game by Rudolph obleterating the elves in an "Exodia, obliterate"-scene.
The classy villain he is, Kravitz holds his promise. So he tells them about his plan to fly to the north pole to overthrow Santa, and invites them to join him on his sleigh to watch.
On the flight, the monstrous Djinn tricks Kravitz into monologing about his end goal: sitting in an office at the northpole on a throne with some hot chocolate and watching the toys being delivered on Santas big holographic map. He then says this is what he wishes the most. The Djinn grants this wish, but as Kravitz technically didn't state he wishes to take Santas place, only that he is sitting in luxury in an office that looks like Santa's, the Djinn teleports him to a cell in an elf prison on north pole which looks like Santa's office.
So Kravitz is gone, but with no one to drive the sleigh, it is loosing height. But the Spooky figures out how to use the remote controll they stole from the kid, and call their van/transformer. It picks them up and lands them savely.
But the magical toys are still creating chaos in the town. So they head back to Kravitz workshop. The Spooky and the Professional beat some kids in a fight with paper swords in a small pirate world made out of origami in the workshop (as some kids sneaked in their after Kravitz left and found a book on pirate themed papercraft). They nearly get their asses kicked by an papercraft kraken, but Claire manages to get hold of the book and starts blasting loud, vulgar punkrock from her phone while making papercraft from the book. This causes the book to shut down, as someone engaged in "naughty"-behavoir while playing, so the kraken dissapears.
Meanwhile the Monstrous Djinn beats a teddybear made of soap bubbles in a schoolyard jumping game and manages to deactivate the toys using Kravitz computer.
So the toys are diactivated, the town and christmas is saved and the hunters celebrate christmas together in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana. They even got presents from Santa as thanks.
​
It was one of the greatest seasons I had so far, and a big part of that was how much what happened surprised even me as the keeper. For examample the only magical toys I had planned beforehands were the dad-joke doll and the remote controller. I shared this story not only because it was absolutely wild and hilarious, but also because it showed me once again how the basic principle of playing to see what happens can lead to awesome gaming sessions.
​
​
TLDR: I leaned hardcore into playing to see what happens and reacting to player contributions to the story, and ended up having a fantastic Christmas session (containing a christmas-themed Yugioh parody, a villain defeated by his own villain monologue coming true, the hunters being saved by their vehicle turned transformer and papercraft pirate swordfights).

Warning: Rant below. I felt the need to vent after seeing another pro-credit card hot take.
If you have been around this subreddit for any amount of time you will often come across people explaining how they are very financially savvy and recommend getting a credit card for a number of seemingly great reasons. I would argue that this is a really irresponsible, because it is just not true.
Credit cards are nowhere near as great as they are touted to be, in any category. And this misrepresentation of them causes real world damage to financially vulnerable people and families everyday.
​

"Credit cards help build your credit score!"

This is not a valid reason to get a credit card. In New Zealand the only credit score that matters is a bad one. There is no need to have had previous loans to secure lending, especially when getting a home loan. If you show good financial habits with your account logs, and you have the necessary income and deposit you will get approved. In fact, just having a credit card can greatly reduce the amount they will lend you, even if you have a zero balance, because you have an open line of credit.
​

I am protected from fraud, and insured when I go overseas!

Any debit card has the exact same fraud protection, and when you do go overseas, travel insurance is easy to purchase and often a one click purchase when buying a plane ticket. It is not expensive at all.
​

The points! I get so many points! If I didn't have my card I would never have been bought XYZ

No matter how hard the banks try to convince you, your reward points are nowhere near equal to cash. Reward points can expire. Reward points are not legal currency. Reward points can only be spent at certain merchants, which are high margin and more expensive than other merchants which are not entered into a reward affiliation. Reward points cannot be used to pay many bills such as your rent or mortgage.
​

But if I spend X amount I will break even and get free points!

Reward points are most certainly NOT FREE.
In order to maintain a points yielding credit card you must pay fees. The more points you earn per dollar you spend, the higher the fee. This means that all things being equal, you will ALWAYS be down in cash equal to at least the credit card fee if nothing else. Even if you 'break even' and spent 100 bucks on the fee, and made 100 dollars in points, you are zero REAL dollars better off, you have exchanged $100 for 100 points of limited utility.
You cannot invest points in stocks, or put it in your Kiwisaver. You can't use them to help with your house deposit. You can't even spend it wherever you want.
You should really think of points like, someone getting you a gift card for Christmas. Everybody knows that cash is superior than an equivalent value gift card, but the damn gift card companies have made grandma think that cash is not as loving as a gift card.
​
The other thing to remember is you are not only paying for the card annually, you pay per transaction.

But not everywhere charges a surcharge! I only use my card when there is no extra surcharge!

You might not always be aware of it, but you actually still pay to use the card. Have a look at Noel Leeming vs PB tech. Noel Leeming charges no extra to use a credit card, so I guess it doesn't cost you any money to get your points? Wrong. Noel Leeming pays the credit card service charge, but they pass it to you in the price of the product because they have beefier margins than the cheaper places to buy identical products. If you are not familiar with pricespy.co.nz, get familiar real quick before you buy another item at Noels, JB or Harvey Norman.
PB Tech charges a service charge for credit cards payments directly, and you will notice if you take two items at their listed price PB will be lower than Noel Leeming, 9 times out of 10. Right now Google Nest mini for example, $85.43 at PB and 89.99 at Noel Leeming. That is a 5% difference in price, and that's how your credit card surcharge is hidden.
I know there are die hard credit card users out there. You truly believe you have cracked it. That the banker goes home every night and complains to her husband about how badly you owned them today. "If they could just miss one payment!" she pleads "then we might make some damn money out of them!".
The system is not setup that way, the bank will always profit in the end, they do their best to hide that from you so you think you are winning. They are smarter than you, they are like casinos in that regard. You can't beat statistics.
Conclusion
In any case, all I would ask is please stop being an unpaid credit card advocate. It is no skin off your nose. You don't get a commission, or a kick back. It doesn't get you a better price or into heaven the more people you convert. And you most certainly aren't helping others with pro credit card advice.
To "win" with a credit card takes a lot of things going right, and realistically a good amount of cognitive work.
For every person that "does well" with a credit card, there are many people that are completely ruined financially due to their monthly credit card bill. Some of those people would have gotten their first credit card because they have heard anecdotes from people about the free points, the great rewards. They remembered hearing about the awesome credit building power that a credit card unlocks. Even if you think that is true for yourself, I think we can all agree that people who aren't very financially aware will more than likely get no benefit from a card, and in some cases be much worse off because of it.
TLDR: Please don't contribute to someone else's decision to get a credit card. Please enjoy your 'very valuable' points in private and don't recommended highly dangerous financial products to people when you don't know anything about their financial circumstance or ability.

Teen Titans

In Illumination
Issue Eight: Who is Cassie Sandsmark?
Originally posted January 2018
 
 
Blüdhaven wasn’t good for much. An old whaling town, the dirty, industrial cityscape was later transformed by wealthy, criminal investors, building its industrial district into a neon paradise, a city-sized casino idyllic as long as you never looked beneath the surface.
And though the Teen Titans were almost always preoccupied with minimising the rampaging of emerging metahumans, they would often strive to tackle the crime that lurked in the shadows cast by the neon lights. One such criminal was André LeBlanc.
See, the smarmy and greasy Angel Marin, one of the ‘philanthropists’ so cherished in Blüdhaven had held an exhibition to show off the depths of his riches, including his star piece: the Night Diamond, a priceless gemstone. This naturally presented a challenge for the self-styled ‘world's greatest jewel thief’ LeBlanc.
He was a wanted man internationally due to his masterful skills and cutting edge tactics, but targeting the home of such a dangerous man as Angel Marin, LeBlanc was - even to his own admission - pushing his luck.
The thief darted silently down the crime lord’s corridor, his footfalls suppressed by his rebalancing boots and his hi-tech jumpsuit hiding him from thermal sensors despite its garish white colour. On his cracked face sat a green monocle, which LeBlanc used to scan for traps in real time. As he ran, LeBlanc gripped the azure jewel tightly, the diamond no bigger than a golf ball despite its exorbitant worth. The man’s agility and resolve was unmatched for someone of his age, but unfortunately his resistance came in the form of three meddlesome teenagers.
Angel Marin slept soundly in his bed, LeBlanc having eluded all of his security, but the Teen Titans had already seen the thief’s approach. Thanks to a recent upgrade to Cyborg’s tech, the teen was able to piece together a wealth of technological information sources to track LeBlanc all the way from his previous heist, and now they were moments from thwarting him.
LeBlanc pushed into the drawing room, the window he had entered through still cracked open. But as the man emerged through the open doorway, the oak door immediately pushed shut. The thief turned back towards the door, drawing a glowing, white knife to slash out at whoever had pushed the door to, only to find an empty place. Furiously, he pivoted back toward the window, now to find the shadowy figure of the blue-clad vigilante blocking his path. Nightwing. LeBlanc threw his arm out, slashing at the slender assailant, only for Nightwing to strafe aside with a boastful cartwheel. “No thanks!” Nightwing spat, springing off of the ground and throwing himself at the thief. Quickly, he struck with his twin sticks, aiming to disarm the thief as well as snatch the stone from him in one fell swoop, but André wouldn’t unhand his prize so easily.
The thief swung out once more, with Nightwing this time much closer. Before the vigilante could bounce back, he cried as the searing hot blade streaked across his chest, cutting through his black-and-blue armour as if it were butter, exposing his pale and bleeding flesh.
“Heh.”
Recoiling, the vigilante brought his hand across his chest, wiping the blood aside before clutching at his sticks once again. Nightwing leapt vertically and hooked his sticks around the industrial-looking chandelier above, using it to fling himself across the room to intercept the white-clad thief who continued his way to the open window. He landed and - stick still in hand - threw a fist out, striking LeBlanc cleanly in the nose.
The thief staggered, dazed. He would have just shot the kid if he had even brought a gun, though in his line of work a firearm was such a clumsy weapon. Narrowing his gaze on the dark figure he faced, LeBlanc focused himself. How strong could one kid be? Arrogant as ever, he then threw his knife aside and slipped the Night Diamond into his white satchel. He brought up his fists, ready to exchange blows.
The two men clashed, and quickly LeBlanc began to impress Nightwing as he dealt fast and powerful strikes. As they traded attacks, blocking and leaping up and down, they almost seemed to dance with each other, with LeBlanc using his streamlined gauntlets to deflect strikes from Nightwing’s escrima sticks. But LeBlanc caught Nightwing off-guard when he delivered a spinning kick to the vigilante’s head, flooring him with a manoeuvre Nightwing never would have expected from a man approaching forty. Though as LeBlanc turned away with a sneer, seemingly having bested the Gotham crimefighter, he turned to find himself face-to-face with none other than a towering, green gorilla. With a single punch, he was out.
“You know, I don’t know why you didn’t just let me just punch him sooner,” Gar grinned, morphing back to human form. As he rose from the ground, Dick produced a pair of black boxer shorts from his belt compartment, unfurling them and throwing them the way of the nude, green child as if it were a regular occurrence (which, by this point, it was).
“That’ll be because we’re sitting in the house of a dangerous gangster,” Dick smiled coolly, his hand pouring over his throbbing head, “Ever heard of ‘lowkey’?”
“Ah, you got me there!” Gar exclaimed, slightly quieter this time, “I’m many things but lowkey isn’t one of them.”
“Nice work though,” Dick replied, before activating his communicator, “Cyborg: you still on overwatch?”
Beat.
“Cyborg?”
Vic spluttered, suddenly bursting in over comms, “Yeah. Of course, sorry just got distracted by… things...”
“Finlay,” Dick continued, “Of course. I’m sorry. Look, head back to the roof of Iris Cove Casino, and we’ll regroup with you there.”
“Got it.”
Since Dick had discovered that it was an associate of Vic’s father, Jacob Finlay, who was responsible for stealing the Cyborg blueprints, as well as springing the metahumans that almost killed Vic, he had wanted nothing less than see the crooked physicist see what was coming to him. But what he couldn’t have expected was for the doctor to turn up dead - his neck wrenched - in Gotham River. It was a tragedy, and not at all what the man deserved.
The Teen Titans had attempted to follow up on the death, but had found nothing. That was until Dick received a clandestine call from Silas Stone.
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
The fifteen-year-old Cassandra Sandsmark emerged from the Music Box Theatre wide-eyed, her mind blown. Growing up in Buckinghamshire, England, Cassie had always dreamed of seeing a Broadway show, and it was every bit as amazing as she had expected it to be.
Her mother was an archaeologist, and therefore was often away for long periods of time, and when Cassie wasn’t couped up at her boarding school, her grandparents were too old and untrusting - despite their riches - to fly her out to New York. And though Cassie had finally gotten her wish, it was through the most distressing of circumstances. Now, though Cassie was raised by a strictly Christian family, she always found difficulty in believing in a God for one reason or another, so imagine her surprise when she was visited by the image of what appeared to be an angel, imploring her to flee to New York City, of all places, that she was being hunted and would only be safe within the bounds of that city so far across the pond. No answers, only urgency.
And so, the Fear of God firmly instilled in her, the fifteen-year-old stole as much money as she could from her grandfather’s bank account and grabbed the first plane ticket to the United States.
Though Cassie honestly didn't know what to expect. Upon arriving in the ‘greatest city in the world’ she had heard nothing from the otherworldly figure that had addressed her before, and she quickly began to realise that she couldn't occupy herself in her hotel room for very long. And hence, she decided to indulge herself in an overpriced visit to Broadway, and it was worth every penny to the young girl.
But now Cassie was lost once again. Cars hurtled past her along the wide road, as monolithic buildings stretched high into the jet black sky. There wasn't a moment of silence, the city filled with a cacophony of noise, even at this hour. Quickly, she pushed over to the nearest taxi, pulling her red hoodie up tight over her slender shoulders to keep out the quickly emerging chill. As the driver rolled his window down, Cassie doubled over, peering through the window to address him.
“Hello? Do you go to the White Ram Hotel?” she chirped in a polite tone.
“Do I!?” the driver exclaimed. He was a middle aged man with olive skin and a sleazy black tracksuit. “This ain't the subway. I’ll take you anywhere you want, hot stuff!”
“Excuse me?!” Cassie cried, pulling herself up. Sure, she was more developed than other girls in her year at school, but she was only fifteen. Surely he could see that! Right?
“I love me a British accent,” the driver sneered, “Say somethin’ sexy and I’ll give you half fare!”
Cassie was flustered and infuriated. Slamming her foot down on the pavement, she pushed away. “I’ll think I’ll walk, thank you very much!!”
And so Cassie took off down the street, walking against the flow of heavy traffic, the sounds of the city growing more fierce. Quickly, the black of the night seemed to slowly seep in around her, the darkness consuming her, but Cassie kept plodding on towards the White Ram.
As Cassie walked, a enigmatic presence lurked in the distance, watching her; stalking her from the shadows. There was a quality to Cassie, something powerful that just made her unignorable, something that called to the presence in the dark.
Unbeknown to this, Cassie continued on, eventually coming to pass the exterior of an old Irish pub that stretched along the street. Nervously, Cassie pulled up the hood of her red hoodie and picked up her pace, the footfalls of her black Chucks growing heavier against the concrete sidewalk. Something she’d call the pavement.
Though Cassie wouldn’t get off so easy as from the pub, right as she passed its doors, emerged three men of varying levels of intoxication, all swaying with the breeze. They each looked around thirty and each similarly struggled to keep their balance as they poured out onto the street. Quickly, one caught a glimpse of the young girl attempting to hurriedly make away, catching the side of her face as she walked past. “Hey!” He blurted out, steadying his lacking weight on his friend’s shoulder, bottle in hand. “You’re very pretty!! You should be… v… very proud.”
She ignored him and continued down the street, still a while off the next corner.
“Hey–” he repeated before bursting into a cry, “I SAID HEY!!”
Cassie jolted, glancing over her shoulder for just half second, enough time for a few of the boys to catch her eye. She turned away and continued on.
“HEY!!” Another man called after Cassie, this time annoyed, “He’s talking to you!!”
“Fucking bitch…” the first man mumbled to himself.
“No!” the third man called out, pulling the first man forward and snapping him out of his sulk, “N– No she doesn’t get to ignore you like that!!”
The third took off in a sprint after Cassie, continuing to define call out, “My friend wants to talk to you!!”
The first and second men looked to each other, too drunk to roll their eyes, and began to stumble after their leading friend. Cassie looked over her shoulder once more to see the three men clambering towards her. But before she could run, the man threw himself in the way of her path.
“No need to be rude…” he grumbled, his friends then catching up behind.
None of the men were cruel, but all were plenty menacing as they surrounded the 15-year-old girl, who stood alone and afraid in a city mostly unknown to her.
“Get out of my way…” Cassie seethed, her breath unsteady as she pretended to be as tough as she could muster.
“Ah! British!” exclaimed the youngest of the men, the one who had first noticed Cassie, “I like British!”
He placed a hand forcefully on Cassie’s shoulder as she faced away from him, and pulled her around to face him. “C’mere.” Instinctually, Cassie reacted, flinging herself back, and crashed into the chest of the man who had first pursued her.
“We ain’t gonna hurt ya!” the crushing man cried, only for Cassie to react by delivering a swift kick to the man’s groin. He fell quickly, groaning in pain.
“What the fuck, lady!?”
The man behind her jostled Cassie’s shoulder, threatened and enraged. Taking no shit, Cassie turned socked the man in the jaw, causing him to stagger back.
“Stay away from me!!” she cried before punching him once again, unaware of the third man behind her as he drew a knife.
But as the man threw himself forward to slash out at the increasingly violent young girl, out of nowhere flew a glowing gold chain that seemed to magically wrap itself around the wrist of the man’s knife hand. And with one quick tug, the man went flying several feet. Though as Cassie turned to see just what had occurred behind her, she saw not the floor assailant, but a woman, tall and draped in black, her skin lightly tanned and her hair as dark as her plated armour. “You need to come with me.”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
The next morning, Dick Grayson pushed hurriedly through the S.T.A.R. Labs security checkpoint, already a registered visitor at this point. He didn’t know the cause of Silas summoning him, but he had guessed from the police cars lined up on the street outside that the scientist likely had information regarding Finlay’s death.
And as Dick entered the central lab, he was implicitly proved correct as he found Silas seated, the figure of a tall, muscular man in a beige coat and a black-banded, white cowboy hat. Immediately, Dick recognised the lone policeman as NYC Sheriff Saunders. It was rare that the man ever came out to investigate first hand since his election, and he and Dick had never crossed paths, especially while the latter was Nightwing.
“And… Dr Finlay: any reason to believe he had any enemies?” the Sheriff spoke in a gruff, deep tone, befitting of his fearsome silhouette and his fifty years of smoking. The man was no nonsense.
Silas took a second. A part of him wanted to pretend the man was a saint, but the truth was that he was far from it. Similarly Silas knew that what he had to said could incriminate himself, but was already worn down by the death of his coworker and his son shunning him for a second time. He had no time for lies.
“It was... I strongly suspect it was Finlay who allowed the meta thief - Selinda Flinders - to break into the lab. There, she not only freed her brother but also stole my blueprints for the cybernetics I used to treat my son from a safe that only myself and Finlay knew even existed.”
The Sheriff took a deep breath, still unaware of Dick standing in the doorway behind him. Carefully, he jotted down some notes in his small paper pad. “And what would Dr Finlay have wanted those… blueprints for? Industrial espionage?”
“No,” Silas sighed, “He wanted them so that he could save his brother the way I saved Victor, despite all my protests that the technology wasn’t ready.”
“His brother: This is Arthur Finlay, correct? Paralysed after a burglar attacked him in 2006.”
“That is correct.”
Saunders paused and took another long, deep breath, before launching into hurried speech. “Now it’s funny you should mention that as Arthur Finlay was nowhere to be found when we visited his estate earlier this week. Odd for a man who can't wipe his own ass.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying it’s entirely possible that Dr Finlay– that Jacob succeeded in ‘fixing’ his brother.”
Beat.
The Sheriff smiled. “But that’s for me to chase up. Sorry, I shouldn’t have divulged that with you, - it’s as of current - entirely unfounded.”
“It’s fine.” Silas smiled tiredly, “We can all speculate. Now, if you don’t mind, I have another visitor.” Silas gestured graciously towards the door, where Dick Grayson was standing.
Sheriff Saunders looked across and his face immediately dropped, realising his mistake. “Ah, I see. Well, I won’t keep you then. Thank you for your insight, Dr Stone. We’ll be in touch.”
Quickly, the Sheriff wrapped up his notepad and made his way over to the door. As he exited, he tipped his hat towards the young spectator. “Nice to meet you, young man.”
And he was gone.
Silas stood, meeting Dick in the centre of the lab. “You know, I thought he’d never leave.”
“Was that it, Dr Stone?” Dick asked, perturbed, “You think Jacob’s brother killed him?”
Silas sighed. “That seems to be the leading theory, but no, that’s not why I called you.”
“Then what–”
“Christmas has come and passed, and this is the first year I’ve spent it without my Victor since he was born, the first year since my Elinore…”
Silas blinked.
“I wanted to give you a package. A gift. To give to Victor. A belated Christmas present.”
“He’s still not talking to you?”
Silas crawled along to his desk where, from a lower drawer, he produced a small purple box tied with a red bow, no bigger than a ring box. He held it out to Dick, his eyes so tired.
“Just please make sure Victor opens it,” he replied, “Won’t you do that for me, Richard?”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
Silently, a robed figure approached the derelict apartment block in Avalon, Blüdhaven. This was the only known address for the Teen Titan known as Cyborg, but clearly circumstances had forced him to move on. The figure sighed, shaking her head before moving on.
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
“It was like my nan always said: that someday I’d feel something, and all that crap about burning bushes and… the big man in the sky would just slip into place.”
As Cassie spoke in the relative warmth of the drab, grey squat, her words were lost on Donna, who - despite having developed more than adequate conversation skills - had no idea what the young girl was talking about after she had asked her why she had come to New York City.
Cassie grinned, sat on the only chair in the apartment, as she registered her saviour’s bemusement. “I had a vision. It sounds crazy I know, but some angel came down and told me that… I was being hunted… and that I’d only be safe if I came to New York.” Her eyes were wild, as if she were reliving those impossible moments as she told the tale, “She told me some monster wanted to kill me, that it was the plan of the Gods that I remained safe. Truth is, I struggled believing in one God, never mind plural!”
Donna was beginning to understand, but remained bemused as she looked up from the floor to the girl she had found herself driven to protect. The idea that anyone could believe in just one God perplexed her. Surely there would be too many responsibilities for just one God to handle.
Shaking off her confusion, Donna stood up from the floor and made her way to the open window. Behind her, Cassie sat by the breakfast bar, wrapped in a shawl Donna had found in the bedroom. Donna needed to understand the connection she shared with this girl. They had to be connected somehow, or else what would explain the otherworldly, gut-wrenching pull towards her that Donna had experienced as soon as Cassie had stepped within a thousand mile radius.
Who was Cassie Sandsmark? That’s what Donna kept asking herself. What did Cassie mean to her? Though Donna supposed that to answer that question, she’d have to figure out just who she was herself.
Cassie sat up quickly, shrugging off her trepidation for the thrill of the adventure. “So is that it then?” she asked. Donna moved away from the glass to face her. “Are you my guardian angel? The person the vision said would protect me?” “I…?” Donna honestly didn’t know.
“Come to think of it: why are you wearing battle armour?” Cassie’s eyes were wide as she looked upon her fearsome protector, stood against the New York City skyline through the thin glass, “Are you - like - one of those Amazons? Like Wonder Woman?”
“NO.” Donna spat, suddenly recoiling. Immediately, she realised her mistake as she watched Cassie flinch back. Calmly, she elaborated. “No. I’m nothing like… I’m not Wonder Woman…”
“Oh.”
“But I think I am supposed to keep you safe… from whatever monster is trying to harm you.”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
Vic fumbled with his keys, half distracted by his conversation with Gar as he stood in the hallway of his new apartment block on Payton Street, attempting to unlock the door. He’d gotten into his new place over Christmas, his last home desolated when Shimmer and Mammoth attacked him at his home.
“So the guy goes through all the trouble of hiring these supervillains to steal your… thing and then just mysteriously ends up dead?” Gar jested, his voice animated and non-serious.
Finally, Vic turned the key and the two entered into his new apartment. The place was much more spacious than Vic’s previous place, with a more open-planned layout which Gar definitely considered an upgrade. Though a winter chill emanated through the place, visually it was quite warm, the Christmas decorations still up and on full display almost a month later.
“The guy was my dad’s friend, Gar.” Vic replied, irritated. “If he weren’t such a jackass, he’d be like my uncle, so please take this seriously.”
Vic pushed forward, pulling off his thick, grey hoodie and laying it across the arm of his couch along with his keys.
“Dude, he tried to kill you!” exclaimed Gar, “That doesn’t exactly scream close family friend.”
“A man is dead!” Vic snapped, his tone now deadly serious, something entirely unheard by Gar until now from his usually somber but amicable friend, “Get a grip.”
Gar lingered in the doorway. He took a deep breath. Vic was right. “I– I’m sorry, man. I guess that’s just how I cope with... things. He was your friend, I get it.” He stepped forward, slowly pushing the door shut behind him.
Jacob Finlay wasn’t a friend of Victor’s. In fact, Vic could never stand the man. But it saddened Vic deeply to know that he was gone, even after all the hurt he had caused him.
Slowly, Vic made his way over to the fridge, feeling his stomach yearn for a snack. He opened the metallic white door and looked upon its contents with disappointment. He sighed.
“I know we just got in, but do you fancy heading back out for food?” Gar suggested earnestly, “I know a diner that’s cool with people like us in downtown Blüd.”
’People like us’. Vic was used to that meaning something else, but he supposed he did have that in common with his plucky, if not crass, young friend. They were both outcasts due to their appearance. Vic was half-metal, Gar was green. On the rare occasions Vic had left the house as himself (rather than the superhero Cyborg) he made sure to never stay too long in one place, as to avoid anyone noticing his horrific visage under his shadowy hood.
“How do you mean?”
“This old couple owns the place,” Gar explained, “Man’s blind and the lady’s… well, actually open-minded and reasonable.”
Vic froze, actually considering the proposal. It’d been a long time since he’d sat down in a restaurant - however fancy - and eaten out. He looked to the empty, open fridge and then back to his discarded hoodie. His eyes flashed.
“Sure,” he smiled, “You wanna grab your coat this time? You’ve been complaining about the cold all day!”
Gar grinned back at Vic, deeply pleased by his response. “Yeah, one sec!” He ran, bounding across the floor and over to the hat stand Vic rarely seemed to use. From there, Gar pulled down his orange-red Parka and pulled it on in one fluid motion. As he did, Vic made his way to the couch and slipped back into his hoodie, zipping it up slowly.
The two smiled at each other and Vic - now stood closer to the door - pushed forward, wrapping his metal grip around the door handle and pulled it down. As he swung the door open, there stood a startled Dick Grayson, moments from ringing the doorbell"
“Woah!” Dick jumped.
“Dick!” Gar exclaimed, “We’re heading out to eat, you coming?”
“You?” Dick replied, pleasantly surprised to see Vic trying something new. “Uh, yeah… sure!”
From the pocket of his black pea coat, Dick produced the purple box he’d been handed earlier, nervously fidgeting with it between his hands slightly as he glanced up and down from it to Vic. “Though, uh… I actually came to give you this, Vic.”
Dick held the box out. Vic looked open-eyed to Gar and then back to him. “Dick, you already got me a Christmas present,” he laughed, walking over and taking the purple-wrapped present, eyeing it curiously.
“No, it’s… it’s from your dad. Cos you missed Christmas.”
Beat.
Vic looked back up to Dick. “Dick, I missed Christmas cos I can’t stand the man. He made me into this… thing, and it was his lies that almost got me killed.” Without even looking, Vic tossed the box over his shoulder, it hitting the ceiling and ricocheting before landing between the couch and the television.
“Vic…” Gar moaned disappointedly.
“What?!” Vic cried, “He’s human garbage. Has that brilliant mind and uses it to constantly fuck with my life. I don't need him. He’d be better off dead.”
Dick and Gar both looked at him in stunned silence. Dick’s eyes flitted back and forth and his moved out of the doorway and into the apartment. He looked to Gar, an orphan like himself, and then to Vic. He nodded. “How about we go get that dinner?”
Vic took a breath, calming himself. He nodded reluctantly, his confidence shaken but determined not to let his dad ruin his victory. “Right, yeah. Sure!” he affirmed himself. “I– I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to–”
“It’s fine.” Dick smiled, turning to face the open doorway, “Let’s just g–”
Just as Dick had moved, replacing him in the doorway was a tall, hooded figure: one none of the teens had met before yet one that all three recognised.
“Holy fuck!” Gar exclaimed, “It’s Wonder Woman!”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
“I was speaking with my former teacher Athena after I sla–” “Wait, Athena?” Gar interrupted, starstruck, as if he were taking notes, “As in Popped Out of Zeus’ Forehead Athena?” Diana nodded solemnly. The Amazon sat on a kitchen chair, comfortably at a level to explain herself to the three young men, who each stood.
“Athena revealed to me a child of both Ares and Circe roamed the man’s world, that… an adversary of mine sought to hurt the child, for the misdoings Circe had committed against her.”
Diana told the tale, her eyes hollow as she seemed to hold back some inconvenient truths, something Dick picked up on easily, “I was told that I would find the child in New York City, and knew that Batman had established a strike team nearby. So here I am, hoping you can lend me your assistance.”
Dick sighed, running his hand through the front tuft of his dark hair. He’d never met the Amazon warrior before, but knew that she and Bruce were friendly, with Diana being part of his ‘Justice League’ initiative. But Dick was disappointed to hear how the Teen Titans were perceived by the older heroes. “Batman had nothing to do with it. I formed this team, uh… we formed this team. Together.”
Diana smiled. “Of course.”
“So that’s all you know?” Vic replied, addressing the matter at hand, “Some kid is in danger in New York City. No idea whereabouts?”
“That was where I was hoping that you could help me,” said Diana, addressing Vic directly.
Vic smiled softly to have garnered any sort of attention from somebody as powerful and well… beautiful as Wonder Woman. “Well I suppose we could tr–”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with that other Wonder Chick running about New York? Does it?” Gar interjected, perhaps a bit louder than he had intended.
Diana cocked her head, moving her vision away from Vic and towards Gar, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“This amazing, gorgeous warrior. Long, flowing black hair. This awesome armour, all jet black and mysterious. She looked a lot like you actually.”
Diana’s eyes darted open as she bolted to her feet. Could it be? The doppelganger she had faced in the Trials, who had fought with her own skill and ferocity.* Had Ares sent her here? It was more than possible that she was an emissary of Ares, posthumously working to secure Ares’ progeny.
It was as Athena had said to Diana: death was the only way to transfer the mantle of God of War.*
“Gods…” she groaned, “I’ve fought her before. She is far more dangerous than the woman I seek to stop. If she gets her hands on Ares’ daughter, the consequences could be dire. We need to find them both and pray that she hasn’t already found her.”
Dick stepped forward. “I’ve been trying to locate this black-armoured Amazon since Gar ran into her a couple months back. She’s been being very discrete. I’ve tried everything.”
Vic stepped forward. “I haven’t.”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
“Don’t you have any games? Or a telly or something?” Cassie sighed, stood peering out of the frosted window onto the New York skyline.
“Telly?” Donna asked, standing a few feet behind Cassie, surrounded by a whole load of nothing. “I’m afraid not. This place doesn’t have much outside of shelter, and sometimes warmth.”
“Then what do you do for fun?” Cassie had been cooped up in Donna’s squat for some time now and was beginning to grow restless. Despite the drab decor, the place was an improvement on sitting alone in her hotel room, but the boredom was killing her.
“I’ve found the city to be the best source of entertainment,” Donna explained very matter-of-factly, “Although I think it might be best for us to stay put until we know you are safe.”
“And when is that? When the thing hunting me gets bored? When I get a follow up message from the angel?”
“I don’t think that was an angel.”
“That isn’t the point!” Cassie groaned, frustrated. “I just wanna have some fun!”
Donna stopped. She thought for a moment and then nodded. “Alright.”
Donna couldn’t recall much of her past, but did remember one thing that she had always enjoyed: combat. She didn’t remember all the details, but Donna used to love sparring as a child, with Diana, the monster that now plagued her nightmares. It was always so exciting, and it really seemed to develop an interpersonal closeness between the combatants. She smiled before removing her silver gauntlets slowly.
“Here.”
“What?” Cassie asked.
“Take them.” Donna held the gauntlets out for Cassie, one in each hand. Carefully, the younger girl took them and slipped her wrists into them.
“They’re too big.”
Donna grinned as the gauntlets seemed to magically adjust, twisting and forming into a perfect fit around Cassie’s forearms. Donna then flicked her own wrist forward, causing a cloud of black smoke to erupt from the palm of her hand. Cassie recoiled, watching the black smoke move and stretch before giving way to the form of a solid, golden sword. Donna gripped the blade tightly and pointed it forward.
“Wait, what?”
“We shall fight?”
“Fight?!”
“Well, you won’t have a weapon, so it’s more like exchanging blows. I’ve found it quite enjoyable.”
“Right…” Cassie replied, reluctant, “So what’s gonna happen?”
“I will make an attack with my blade, and you shall bring up your gauntlets to intercept. You’ll find them more than capable of deflecting my attacks.”
“Like…?” Cassie practiced thrusting her arms back and forward, flashing the silver gauntlets as she moved.
“Exactly! We’ll start slow.”
And they did. Beat-by-beat, Donna would move the sword towards Cassie, giving her plenty of time to bring up her gauntlets to clink against the blade. One strike. Two strikes. Three strikes. Four. Gradually, Donna increased her speed, and with her Cassie would begin to move with increasing ease and agility. She was a natural.
As they grew more and more rapid, their movements also increased in intensity. Before they knew it, both began to shift their footing until they were dancing back and forth around the room, sparks flying each time Donna’s blade crashed against Cassie’s forearms. First, Cassie began to cackle with laughter, then allowing Donna to join with a more conservative chuckle. But all this ceased with a knock at the door.
They stopped. Cassie glanced over to the door first, then Donna. They weren’t expecting visitors. Donna flourished the blade in her hand, furrowing her brow and narrowing her gaze, ready to attack whatever came through.
And just as expected, the door came crashing, the wood obliterated into splinters. Through it leapt a fearsome warrior clad in red and gold, a beast of a woman, a terrifying figure. The demon Diana.
Nightwing had tried to knock, but the Amazon warrior wasn’t willing to wait. Bursting into the room, Diana charged at Ares’ puppet, seeing her with her blade drawn, the young Cassie Sandsmark terrified beside her.
Donna slashed out as Diana came crashing down on her, unarmed yet incredibly dangerous, but the strike was fruitless as Diana evaded with ease, delivering a mighty punch to the centre of Donna’s chest. Diana of Themyscira didn’t need a weapon.
Donna stumbled, kicking over a small coffee table as Cassie scrambled out of the way. The demon moved incredibly quickly, far faster than Donna could comfortably comprehend. She hadn’t been this fast when they’d fought before. First, another punch to the chest, then grabbing Donna by the arm - catching her sword strike - to pull her close, only to pound her back into the ground.
As Donna hit the ground, she skidded, whipping back around onto her feet, beaten but ready to persist. “Your master is dead,” Diana seethed, “And you shall fall with the rest of his forces!”
As the two warriors clashed, Cassie scurried away, ducking and running for the door. However, she found herself blocked by the bodies of three young men: one some kind of robot man, one green and the other clad in blue and black spandex. “Ack!”
“We’re not gonna hurt you!” Cyborg panicked, holding his large, cold hands up.
“Like shit you don’t!” Cassie spat, her teeth clenched, pivoting back around to watch her friend fight off the red-and-gold blur of a woman. Wait... That was Wonder Woman!
Donna grumbled, moving her sword arm back and shifting her off-hand forward. She then allowed her bronze shield to materialise magically in her grip with a flash of amber light. “I see you have new toys.” Diana smirked, her gaze as steely as her black-clad doppelganger.
She was right. Donna recalled easily that in their last encounter, the one that haunted her, she fought Diana unarmed. Now, Donna couldn’t recall how she came to wield the magic required to summon her weapons, but she was more than happy to use them if it meant having an edge over the tyrant that had previously terrorised her.
Donna didn’t reply. Instead, she threw herself forward, shifting her weight rapidly across the wooden floorboards, heaving the mass of her shield against Diana enough to stagger her, giving her an opening to strike with her blade. Diana cried out and kicked, colliding her leg into her adversary’s shield and dragging her strike to the right.
Donna saw through this trick immediately, it was an attempt to disarm; to wrench the shield right from her hand. It wouldn’t work. Not if Donna kept as best a grip as she could. However, Donna had underestimated the strength of her foe, and subsequently found herself launched across the room along with the shield, leaving her sword by her feet, crashing down on a pile of wood in the corner of the shabby apartment.
She attempted to pull herself up, but couldn’t, her armour too heavy on top of the weight of her aching bones. Diana persisted however. Breathing heavily, she pulled herself over to her floored quarry, scooping her foe’s blade off of the ground as she moved. Finally, she stopped. Planting her crimson boots into the wooden floor, Diana loomed over Donna, a relentless, fearsome monster.
Diana looked upon her quarry, this supposed emissary of Ares, deliberating over her fate. Perhaps she had overestimated her, for the puppet Diana had fought during the Trials fought with such ferocity and intensity that she now found entirely lacking. It was as if she was another soul inhabiting the body of that abomination.
But that moment of hesitation on Diana’s part was exactly what Donna need to act. In one fluid motion, Donna burst from her pile on the floor with new mobility. After delivering a kick to the monster’s head, Donna swung her empty hand out in a wide arc. Instantly, the sword vanished from Diana’s grip, reappearing in Donna’s own with a black flicker.
As Diana staggered, Donna let loose with slash after slash before finally winding up for an overhead attack, a killing blow. However–
“STOP!!”
A shock wave exploded through the room, launching its contents as well as the two combatants. Donna hit the ground and skidded once more. Bloodied, she looked up to see Cassie between her and Diana, her silver gauntlets glowing white hot, her face mortified.
“She doesn’t want to hurt you!” she screamed to Donna before turning to look upon Diana, scraping herself off of the floor, “You don’t want to hurt each other.”
Donna stood up uneasily, her eyes still wild, waiting for Diana to attack once again.
“I…” Diana mumbled, gripping her bloodied arm.
“You’re Wonder Woman. You save people.” Cassie explained, her voice compassionate yet quivering, “And I don’t need saving. Not from Donna. She’s my friend.”
Diana painted, finally looking upon her adversary with new eyes, “... Donna?”
Donna’s eyes flickered, filled with doubt. She looked to Cassie, then finally to Diana, and instead of a demon, saw an injured woman. She lowered her sword.
Diana saw this and recalled her parting words to the black-clad warrior, when Diana had pummeled her into the bloody waters during the Trials. 'Barely real and always a copy. What kind of emptiness must exist inside you?'
But when she focused on Donna’s eyes, those that so closely resembled her own, she saw not the rage she had seen during the Trials, but fear. Pure fear. There, she remembered.
“Great Hera, what have I done…” Diana groaned, looking upon her friend with a long forgotten familiarity. “Donna…”
But the moment wouldn’t last, for Gar was moments too late to cry out, warning them as a fearsome feline figure crashed through the window, emerging from the urban jungle of New York City’s skyline. There, the animal moved immediately for Diana, launching into an all out assault, no longer Dr Barbara Minerva, but The Cheetah.
 
 
Continued in Wonder Woman #21