Within the Brass Web.
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Within the Brass Web
A City of Heroes Fan Fiction Novel
By Brian W Moon
2011
This free novel is released under: Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial, Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
For more information visit creativecommons.org
You may share and repost this story as long as you give the author credit. You may NOT make changes without the author’s permission. You may NOT make a profit from sharing this story.
City of Heroes if the property of NC Soft and all rights belong to them. If you enjoy the story or just enjoy comic books, check out the online game City of Heroes at cityofheroes.com
I am merely a fan of the game City of Heroes; I am in no way affiliated with this awesome game other than as a player.
You can contact me at: moonlyte01@gmail.com
A message from the author;
Within the Brass Web is a piece of fan-fiction based on the MMORPG City of Heroes. NC Soft and Paragon Studios created the game’s world and characters. I was as true to game history as I could be, but large gaps in information and tight-lipped developers forced me to get creative. Real history events where not altered to fit to the story. They happened in the same time frame as the game history and I wove many of them into the web. Although I tried to be accurate to the game and history, ultimately this is a work of fiction based on a fictional world. If you look at what happened in 1932, it’s easy to believe that it could all have been a Nemesis plot. Then again, maybe it was…
Welcome to Paragon City
Just up the Rhode Island coast from Point Judith sits the port city of Paragon. Like all major cities it had its humble beginnings in the seventeenth century as the settlers came to the new land. The natural large, deep-water harbor made it an idea port city. The Baumton Canal connecting Liberty bay is a mile long stretch to the Atlantic Ocean and the over all affect provides ships with a very safe harbor. This gave Paragon City two advantages over its neighbor, New York City as a major port. The protected harbor and it was a one-day shorter travel time from the European countries. Because of its active port, other industries quickly moved in and Paragon found itself becoming the front runner for manufacturing and commerce. In the early nineteen hundreds the city found itself in an economic boom and wealth. The city quickly started to expand and grow and there was talk about moving the state capital there.
Like everywhere else in the world, the great depression spared no one and no city. The companies that had thrived suddenly collapsed, Fortunes where lost and parts of the city became a ghost town. New buildings stood incomplete and shop owners boarded up their windows. As the legitimate businesses closed or left the city, a criminal element entered the town, some of it organized, some of it random. It only took a few months for the Marcone family to establish ownership of the docks and control over everything that came into the city. From the humble beginnings of bootleggers they moved and expanded through intimidation, murder and bribery until they became the largest organized crime group in Paragon City.
Like wise the great depression saw the growth of another type of organization in Paragon City. The Southern United Manufacturing Company seemed to simply appear out of no where, buying defaulted contracts for construction, fabricating parts, and becoming partners with other failing businesses. Their tactics were not that different that Marcone’s but the end result was different. With the city’s politicians on their payroll, the little known company grew quickly, putting people back to work on their payroll or on the payrolls of other companies. It wasn’t like the prosperity of the twenties, but at least people received a fair wage for a day’s work. The Marcone family and Southern United came to an understanding and mutually agreed to leave each other alone or at least limited the amount of open violence in the streets. The joke was that Southern United put money in a man’s pocket so Marcone could take it from him, in one of his bars. Most men went about their lives just thankful to be alive and to have something that paid them. Whether it was legal or not wasn’t their concern. Many had it far worse, and everyone knew it.
One man couldn’t over look the crime; one man knew he had to bring justice back to his beloved city. Now that man has returned home with the power to make a difference. No longer would he tolerate the criminals.