Candi Flippo

* Inmate
* Ciem

1. Candi's mugshot.
2. Candi in a Forfica Mk. I Ciem suit.

## Rapsheet

### Charge(s)

Kirby Act violation, careless divulging of classified information leading to endangerment and death of a SCALLOP agent, curfew violation

### Sentence(s)

Completion of programs at Madison - *to SCALLOP satisfaction*.

### Misc. family

* Darius Philippine (half-brother)
* Insila Murtilo (half-brother's mother)
* "Grandma Centipede" (stone centipede used in experiment on her father that gave her powers)
* Nancy Philippine (half-sister-in-law)
* Lex Philippine (half-nephew)
* Reily Flippo (brother)
* Ashlee Flippo (sister-in-law)
* Kirby Flippo (nephew)
* Erin Wyer-Flippo (sister via adoption / legal guardian)
* Imaki Izuki (godfather / legal guardian)
* Miriam Flippo (sister)
* Marina Flippo (sister)
* Cynthia Trenson (adoptive mother)
* Karen Trenson (adoptive sister)
* Danny Loffin (ex-boyfriend, father of Angie)

## External links

Dozerfleet Database

**Candice Marie Flippo** / **Ciem** is a fictional inmate of the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility, and the main protagonist of the *Centipede and Fire Saga*, part of the *Legacy* volume in *The Gerosha Chronicles* by Dozerfleet Productions.

She exists in an alternate history / urban fantasy setting, in which the fictional Triumvirate organization uses its consolidated power and supervillain terrorist acts to cripple the United States and eventually collapse it politically and economically. Due to this, the 2016 elections are canceled and the entire world is thrown into chaos.

Before becoming an inmate at Madison, Candi was trying to get by as a superhero defending her hometown of Gerosha (Boonville) from her parents' assassins: the Hebbleskin Gang (a violent cult and part of the Triumvirate.)

Originally created in *The Sims 2* as a Spider-Girl knockoff, intended to prove to storytellers in 2005 that *Sims* software could be used to tell superhero stories as well as family soap dramas, numerous re-imaginings have morphed the character into a symbol of encouragement for teenage girls in poverty-stricken parts of Indiana - in the hopes of inspiring them to always develop and maintain a sense of personal integrity, no matter what the pressures they'd come to face in life. After her creator became aware of the series *Girls Incarcerated*, bits of Taryn's personal integrity and Najwa's personal frustrations were integrated into Candi's Madison life timeline.

## Mythology background

The Cataclysmic Gerosha universe is part of an events called the Divergency, which is described in Dozerfleet Comics mythos a time that the universe was split into several universes linked via a "Percolation Wave" energy event. After the shattering of a large staff full of crystals, called the Abdygalis, several Earth clone worlds and Abdygalis shards were created. This was put in place by God to punish a hero called Abrujan from getting lazy while in his quest to rid the world of the dark forces that Nimrod of Shinrar put in place on Earth in order to enslave all of humanity to evil under a one-world government. The Abdygalis gave godlike power to whoever wielded it, and its destruction was a symbol that men would forever seek such power, but never deserve it.

The actual Divergency occurred shortly after the Ascension of Chris, and some of the shards became Barely-Explicable Phenomena. Candi's universe saw two or three Earth shards, a Phaeleel Shard, a Metheel Shard, hundreds of Marlquaanite rubies, and the red energy phenomenon "Jell-O cloud" in space called the Marlquaan.

How it all works is complicated, and better explained at the Dozerfleet Database, but the basic gist is this:

* Those who find a way to be linked to the Marlquaan, either through some direct bond or through their DNA being altered by an experiment involving it, gain superpowers.

* Marlquaan storms, while rare, produce the purest bonds of "Marlquaanites," who may as well be wizards.

* Marlquaan rubies, while often impure and unstable, are a good way to acquire powers as well.

* A cult called the Society of the Icy Finger, founded in 17th century England, specializes in Marlquaanite ruby arms dealing.

* The worlds of Phaeleel and Metheel were colonized, and broke into warring factions of Phaelites and Meethlites - who have chapters of those warring factions embedded in the governments and organized crime units of Earth.

* Phaelites mostly altered their own DNA to have green skin, looking like green-skinned space aliens.

* Meethlites have a graphite texture to their skin, but are otherwise just the evil counterpart to Phaelites.

* The Phaelite Society of Earth forged a liaison with the US National Guard in 1992, to become the Security-Centric Alliance Lending and Learning Of Phaelites (SCALLOP.) Like a poor man's version of SHIELD in Marvel Comics.

* The Meethlite Society of Earth became known by its leading family, the Hebbleskins, as the Hebbleskin Gang.

* The Hebbleskins, Icy Finger, and a rogue Phaelite group called the Phaletori merged to create the Triumvirate, an evil terror syndicate hellbent on conquering the Gerosha universe and then finding a way to open up access to the multiverse and conquer that too, to complete Nimrod's original evil mission.

* Both Phaelites and Meethlites experimented on Earth humans to try to create human-something hybrid armies to fight each other's wars with. This includes vampires and werewolves, just like in *Underworld* mythology.

* Bug-man experiments were also included in these, and that includes Centhuens and Milthuens.

* Prototypes of these experiments were made, producing "5%" versions of the hybrids that remained mostly human.

* Phaelite scientist Insila Murtillo experimented on an infant Stan Flippo in the 1950s to imbue him with the Centhuen Prototype program, using a Michigan stone centipede and a Marlquaanite ruby and some lab equipment. This ensured one of Stan Flippo's future children would gain centipede-themed powers.

* Candi, from a set of fraternal triplets born to Stan and his wife Shalia, manifested the powers at age 12.

* By 2015, the Triumvirate set to work to start WWIII - radically altering the course of history in Gerosha from our Earth's history.

* The ensuing chaos led to an oppressive new law called the Kirby Act - which put Candi's very existence into question regarding legality. This was the result of a bill by Tom Kirby (R) of Georgia being hijacked.

## Abilities

Candi has hidden, retractable venom stingers in ten locations across her body. They are said to hurt like bee stings, and two or more such stings can temporarily paralyze most minor enemies for about half an hour.

Her ability set natively is otherwise very similar to that of Spider-Gwen, with a dash of Wolverine healing factor. When sufficiently angered, her eyes change color from dark brown to an electrified brownish-green. However, she cannot crawl up the sides of walls without assistance from special gloves - in spite centipedes in nature crawling on walls easily.

Her "centuition" works as a "phantom scream" sensation, converting danger precognition and radar sense into a sort of hallucinatory sonar, that employs the Doppler effect to give her a sense of when and where a threat is coming from. It also assists her in pursuing targets.

When not holding back, she is strong enough to break an enemy's spine in half. She has a fighting style comparable to Batman and Black Widow, mixed with Nightcrawler.

Being based on a centipede rather than a spider, she is heavily reliant on her suit's short-range teleportation tech to get places quickly - or else dependent on assists from a character with flight ability. She doesn't have webs or any swinging mechanic, as centipedes don't have those features.

She is in possession of a high-tech suit made by her godfather, Imaki Izuki, with classified gadgetry pirated from Imaki's past time working with SCALLOP. This includes Zeran wardrobes (similar to the Flash's costume ring,) Zeran teleporters (that allow her to imitate Nightcrawler's powers, but with flashes of yellow light rather than blue smoke), wrist-mounted dart shooters (modified staple guns) that let her inject venomous darts into enemies from a short range distance, and a mask capable of night vision similar to what is seen in the original *Ghost Recon* video games.

## Character bio

### Ancestors

The philosophy of "Gerosha" as a concept began with Shing Mang Zhu, a Chinese convert to Christianity from the 1770s that mirrored John Winthrop's "City on a Hill" speech. Rescued by a pirate crew from slavery in Morocco but still in poor health, he urged Captain Henry Lohtz: "Never forget what this book [the Bible] has done. Build a city for it with your wealth." His Chinese words of *Zhè běn shū yǒu shé me* ("这本书有什么") were misinterpreted as "Zhe-ro-sha, [for] you, she, and me." Lohtz in pronunciation, upon committing to the ideal, further corrupted "Zhe-ro-sha" to "Gerosha." Upon finding a seashell with a letter "G" carved into it by a lightning whelk, he buried it with his hidden trillions-of-dollars-value treasure somewhere near Cocoa Beach in Florida. Only a few throughout the centuries would be trusted with clues to locate his treasure, which faded into myth and legend. This seashell symbolized the right of whoever found it in the cave to create the city of "Gerosha" that would make Shing Mang Zhu's dying wish come true.

Lohtz was part of the Order of the Oraphim, a secret society dedicated to protecting the Divergency and punishing human hubris against God by wiping out access to powers related to the Abdygalis from all who sought to misuse such power - namely, the Society of the Icy Finger. The two sects of Abdygalins warred for centuries. At some point, the Order passed on to the Phaelite Society of Earth and a wise liaison between the PSE and Order knowledge of access to the lost treasure of Lohtz. The recipient was a man named Tobey Flippo. Tobey had been overseeing the PSE's Phaelite Experiments' Offspring ("Phexos,") both to access the ethics of the program and to recruit "ready" Phexos to assist in dealing with Hebbleskin and Icy Finger threats across the globe. He and a private investigator named Fred Thernip assisted the PSE in recruiting a team of Phexos for the Japanese theater of war in World War II: Charles "Centipede Charlie" Hammerstein, Rebecca "Becky Ryba" Volstika, Akiak "Anarteq" Sundue, and Donald "Arrowfrog" Walters. While the major experiment with the "Phexo Quartet" ultimately proved a failure due to sabotage by a corrupt senator, Centipede Charlie's tenacity before dying convinced the PSE to continue making more Centhuen Prototypes.

Elsewhere, the Order discussed assisting in the creation of a more mainstream church denomination as an ally / front: the "Sodality Church." One advocate of this was a certain Sadasheeva Cherupara, a convert living in India. His wife, Alexis Hood from Boonville, witnessed him be murdered by the Thuggee cult one evening. She was pregnant with his child, but was forced to flee back to Boonville without a chance to bury her husband.

Alexis grew up in the forests outside of Boonville, becoming very self-sufficient and teaching all of the Order's value to her daughter Marissa Hood. Marissa lived in the same cabin as Alexis, and took care of herself living alone after her mother's death. She was attacked one evening by a violent fugitive named Dwayne Lloyd. She survived the encounter, but became pregnant. She had a daughter that she named Shalia, and decided to raise Shalia just as she herself had been raised by Alexis. Shalia wasn't content to stay in the woods, however; and sought to go into politics one day to bring about a change that would give meaning and legitimacy to the Sodality cause.

After the war, Tobey settled down with and married Alison Ligash-Flippo, adopting her son Stan that she had with the psychotic and abusive minor league baseball player Steve McNolan. As a condition of keeping his family safe from the Hebbleskins - whom McNolan had made a deal with out of revenge for Alison choosing Tobey over himself - the young Flippo family elected to allow the PSE to perform two "minor experiments" on their firstborn son.

Stan Flippo grew up with a desire to find Lohtz's treasure as well as a love for baseball - embodying the best traits of both his fathers. As an infant, he was half-cloned in a lab. The half-clone used DNA donated from a Phaelite scientist named Insila Murtillo - who then agreed to have the clone implanted in herself when no better way to keep the lab creation alive could be found. Thus, she gave birth to a son with Stan that she named Ploribus Murtillo. Years later, Ploribus would change his name to Darius Philippine - to mask his mother's identity as he took on a more militant role as the new director of the PSE (and later, SCALLOP.)

Stan himself was then subjected to rays of controlled Marlquaanite energy, combining his DNA with the Marlquaan and merging sequences with that of a Michigan stone centipede to create a Centhuen Prototype sequence that could easily manifest in any of his future children.

Shortly after meeting and marrying Shalia and initially unaware of being a Centhuen Prototype Progenitor, Stan Flippo discovered the treasure of Henry Lohtz. He immediately employed it to help his native Boonville become a better city: Gerosha.

The Hebbleskins, opposed fundamentally to everything the Flippos stood for, made it their goal to capture the city and place an energy dome around it - and kill anyone who embraced the Flippos' beliefs. With some new allies, the Flippos were able to disable the energy dome and rebuild damaged parts of Boonville. The Hebbleskins retreated to a hidden fortress in Idaho, and the city was renamed Gerosha.

While much of the Flippos' influence would later be undone due to relentless forces in the American culture war, they finally realized for a few years the dream of the dying Shing Mang Zhu.

### Early life

Stan and Shalia eventually learned of Darius' origin; yet they didn't accept him as true family - leading to a steadily-growing resentment in Darius that his almost-the-same-age father didn't accept him. Stan did have four other children with Shalia: Reily, Candi, Miriam, and Marina. He and Shalia also adopted the orphan Erin Wyer - who was later revealed to be a frail child with a lot of physical and mental health problems. The family lived inside a mansion Stan and Shalia built called the Triangulum. After Reily married Ashlee Kornsdall and had a son with her named Kirby, his branch of the Flippo family began touring the world and hosting a cooking show that became an international sensation.

Candi and her triplet sisters, Miriam and Marina, were born on September 9th of 1999 at the St. Vincent Hospital of Warrick County. Fearing their enemies would return, Stan and Shalia taught preparedness early on to their small children. They emphasized religious education and grounding - as well as higher critical thinking skills. Initially, Reily agreed with the family that he'd raise the sisters if anything happened to the parents. Candi grew closer, however, to her SCALLOP-associated Japanese godfather Imaki Izuki - an old friend of Stan's from the Battle for Gerosha that had been around long enough to vaguely remember Stan's stepfather Tobey.

The girls became apprehensive when Stan and Shalia became increasingly busy later and later on, seldom having time for their daughters. On early tests, the girls scored exceptionally - indicating potential for very high intelligence. Darius let it be known to Imaki that SCALLOP would need some Centhuen Prototype black ops from time to time. However, Imaki took offense to how Darius ran his black ops, saying he would render the Flippo girls into heartless monsters if he oversaw their training for that life. Imaki vowed that *he* would train the girls - *if* any of them manifested abilities. What he didn't mention was that he'd alter the training with SCALLOP tech he was pirating, and would train the girls to behave more like traditional superheroes than the cold assassins Darius wanted. This created a rift of mistrust between the two men, especially after Imaki accused Darius of wanting to make the Flippo girls "into slaves."

At age 7, what everyone in Candi's life feared would happen came true. It was the fall of 2006, and the Hebbleskins sent skilled assassins and a young recruit named Gunner Soorfelt after Stan and Shalia's car. The Flippo patriarchs never made it home that evening, and the news left the sisters devastated.

In spite her health problems, Erin volunteered to raise the girls after Reily reneged on his promise to. The Triangulum became Reily's home / studio, and Erin used her share of the family fortune to purchase the house on 1205 North 1st. Street. Candi's share was put into safekeeping in Houston, requiring her to go there some day after her 18th birthday if she wished to reclaim it. Miriam's share, likewise, was hidden in Honolulu. Marina's, in Vegas.

Since Candi bonded most with Imaki, Erin agreed to joint custody of Candi with Imaki. Darius and SCALLOP meddling - along with Imaki's difficulties with securing a green card - ensured that the home would the only place Candi's recommended education could continue. Erin enrolled the girls in Gerosha public schools - in spite Imaki's objections.

The girls grew up believing they had to be ready for the possibility of Imaki's vision of them as a team of superheroes to come true. However, Imaki believed Candi was the most predestined for this. Miriam, the most intelligent of the three sisters, took it on herself to learn how to be a skilled hacker. She reasoned that this would allow her to forever be an asset, even if she never manifested abilities. She took on the online persona of "Sniperbadger," and would become part of a band of online vigilantes called the "Critter Resistance Network." Marina was the least interested of the sisters in Imaki's plans for the Order, Sodality Church, SCALLOP, or any of it. She instead developed a huge love of music and the music industry, especially fond of "indie" bands. Candi, however, had difficulty envisioning herself in any sort of life or field that didn't involve raising a family or being the hero that Imaki was looking for. She took on some interest in being a DNA analyzer or a scene profiler; but always felt these would be "cover" positions. She dreamed of falling in love and getting married as one of the greatest callings she could ever fulfill.

As time went by, the strain of Erin and Imaki being pushed to and fro while raising the girls left the girls often alone, fending for each other and raising each other if one of their legal guardians were absent. Imaki had a separate house from Erin. And while Miriam and Marina could visit him, only Candi officially "lived" at both addresses. Even then, Miriam was the one that would want to visit Imaki most often. When not in the States, Imaki was usually in Tokyo tending to his other goddaughter: Charlotte "Mukade" Yamamura.

The girls did what they could to make this arrangement work; yet it took a psychological toll on them - made worse when outside forces led to a consolidation of SCALLOP power and Darius becoming increasingly corrupt by it. This all but made it impossible for them to seek counseling when they needed it, having to bury and suppress their grief until they became very depressed and developed attachment issues.

### Middle school

In spite Erin's specific rules about no sex and no dating, Candi couldn't resist the urge to get a boyfriend behind everyone's back. However, she found herself trying to win over the unstable and angry Don Mendoza - whom her Hebbleskin enemies later found and turned into a quasi-vampire minion of theirs after converting him to their cult beliefs. Don's rejection of Candi's faith on the grounds that he was angry with God over issues with his own mother was painful to Candi - as was his dumping her over her refusal to have sex with him.

Due to the external forces of the culture war filling in the culture vacuum created by all the Hebbleskins' assasinations of religious leaders, the subculture of Gerosha schools had been quickly corrupted from top to bottom. Teachers under the influence of such corruption often refused to enforce any rules regarding prevention of sexual harassment, creating a free-for-all for sexual bullies. Said bullies made it their goal to relentlessly prey on anyone who still had strong traditional morals. This made Candi a frequent target.

One evening, some of the girls went too far by conspiring with Don Mendoza on how to sneak him into the girl shower stalls so he could rape Candi out of revenge for holding her "offensive" views on life. Candi fought him off, but manifested her centipede abilities. He retreated after she sent him flying into several lockers and knocking them over - but he vowed revenge. She used her newfound powers on some of the bullies outside the showers, after hearing them openly brag about what had just happened and that they set it up. She sent the leader flying into the ceiling tiles and stinging her.

Don Mendoza got away. When SCALLOP and police investigated the incident, they elected to have nothing come of it. Candi was issued a warning for fighting with the girls, and not much else. She was told to ignore the fact that she had just been sexually assaulted in the midst of a conspiracy, and that the town and school district's intent was to cover up the incident.

Imaki was one of the few outside of her sisters Miriam and Marina that were allowed to know what was really happening. Erin was to be kept blissfully ignorant, by Darius' orders, to the fact that Candi had been raped. They feared the worst from Erin if she discovered any of her sisters was "no longer a virgin" for any reason at all. The Hebbleskins also burned down a church in town that Candi attended, in an effort to send a message to the Flippos that God "isn't listening to anyone in this town anymore."

Imaki comforted Candi, and vowed to train her to become a centipede-themed vigilante so that she could find a constructive venue for their shared anger at all the perversion and injustice engulfing their town. Candi harbored another issue: a desire to find a boy to sleep with one day on her own terms, right or wrong, so as to reclaim her sexual destiny from the psychological scars of Don's words and actions continuing to haunt her. Once again, she was denied therapy for her trauma. This trauma was worsened when another student raped Marina - and Candi became the "Spookfaced Centipede" to beat up the rapist. Her identity wasn't revealed; but the rapist got the message that he should leave the Flippos alone.

After this, Imaki kept looking for ways to help Candi improve her technique of becoming a centipede heroine - including brainstorming a new name for "Spookface Centipede."

### High school

By the fall of 2014, Candi and her sisters entered Gerosha High School. Peer pressure and bullies - including their new archenemy, the politically-connected and bratty sexual psychopath Julie Saffins - led to the girls being more tempted than ever to compromise their strong moral upbringing. Even if only to ensure that they decided who they would date, rather than be dragged into the affairs of other students' destructive hobbies.

Marina started touring with bands whenever possible, staying out of Gerosha if she could help it. Miriam and the "Critter Resistance Network" buried themselves often in online vigilantism on par with "Anonymous on crack." Sniperbadger soon became a feared hacker alias across the world, with even the Chinese and Brazilian governments frustrated by an inability to deduce her identity.

Candi found her "Spookface Centipede" increasingly being recruited for odd mercenary jobs, where her violent actions against terrorists like the Icy Finger's "Screwworm Network" were authorized. Questions about the ethics of beings like Spookface Centipede existing, however, caught the attention of a corrupt-himself Texas Supreme Court judge named Terry Beliah - as well as a Georgian politician named Tom Kirby. However, the "Kirby Act" largely became the result of Beliah hijacking Tom's legislation for the state of Georgia and making it a national issue. As the nation became increasingly volatile under pressure from the growing-stronger "Triumvirate," concerns for the Kirby Act's constitutionality were suppressed even more aggressively under Obama than concerns about the Patriot Act were suppressed under Bush.

Imaki and Erin both felt this was unfair to the triplets, as it arguably made it a crime for them to *exist*. Candi found that the list of things she could go to prison for kept growing - and becoming more absurd. This led to her and SCALLOP becoming increasingly less trusting of one another, and of a love-hate relationship developing between her and the organization.

She also befriended the Loffin family - one of the few families that didn't treat her badly. However, she and Danny Loffin began dating behind everyone's back. In spite her best efforts to keep things pure, Candi's unresolved personal issues going back to Don led to her seeing Danny as the "Anti-Don" - whom she had to sleep with in order to "reverse" her pain. One day in July of 2015, when the two of them were left unsupervised after a long day of volunteering with cleanup on the north side of town, Candi and Danny entered an abandoned property and had sex for the first time ever. She felt very guilty about this; but also became almost immediately addicted to sex. She and Danny, in spite their reservations about it, would continue to remain sexually active with each other well into the beginning of the school year in the fall of 2015.

Candi finally confessed to Imaki that she and Danny were sleeping together. While he promised not to tell Erin, Imaki let his disapproval of the arrangement be known. Candi was apologetic, yet still felt she wouldn't be able to stop.

### Foiling the Evansville attack

*See also*: Ciem: Inferno

After the Emwault Phexo superhero Donte "Emeraldon" McArthur foiled an Icy Finger plan in Florida and then went to assist Isitoq Sundue (the new Anarteq) near Yellek, Ontario; the Screwworms plotted revenge in Evansville - which they deduced was Emeraldon's hometown. An Icy Finger plant inside SCALLOP leaked to their new leader, Warren "Rappaccini" Buntine, that Emeraldon's real name was Donte McArthur.

A low-grade fission bomb was planted in the backyard of the home of Donte's mother, Betty McArthur. They would have targeted his father Hector McArthur as well; but Hector was already dead. Word slipped to Imaki that the Old National Events Plaza in Evansville might have its convention meeting - which the mayor would be at - disrupted. Imaki was able to smuggle Candi into the center, then run remote mission control for her. The Screwworms used their latest tech to set traps in case SCALLOP, the National Guard, the Gray Champion, or Extirpon came after them. However, they didn't anticipate a lowly Centhuen Prototype Phexo.

After the Screwworms assassinate the mayor and a small child for sadistic glee in front of terrified civilians being held hostage by emptying entire clips into their skulls and laughing, Candi uses her new suit to jump into the rafters and assassinate the Screwworm agents hiding in them. She destroys some of their equipment, then tricks several ground-level Screwworms into shooting each other while crippling or killing more. She finally encourages the townsfolk in Old National Events into a Todd Beamer moment. This chaos disrupts the Screwworms long enough for SCALLOP agents and the National Guard to break free of Screwworm defenses and raid the center. They soon regain control, with remaining Screwworms either retreating, being killed, or being captured. Candi attempts to interrogate a Dayton Bronson of the Screwworms; but barely prevents him in time from detonating a suicide device attached to a pull string on his vest.

She is taken back to Gerosha by SCALLOP agent Thevia Logindil. While the mysterious "centipede heroine" is credited with helping restore order at the Old National Events Plaza, the nuclear explosion in another part of town makes it clear to everyone that Rappaccini should not be underestimated.

Emeraldon is later interviewed by a news crew after helping Anarteq deal with Wishpon the Beaver of Death. He is asked what name the centipede that filled in for him has, and he can't think of one. Trying to say "centipede" in Spanish (*ciempiés*,) he only utters "ciem" before getting lost in thought. The news anchor jumps on that before Emeraldon can finish, and asks the world: "Who is Ciem?"

Miriam alerts Candi to this news, and Candi decides to call her suited alter-ego "Ciem" from that day onward. News hits the girls that the Hebbleskins might make another raid soon on Gerosha to take it over again; but the girls are too busy dealing with their smaller problems at school to prepare in time. Miriam is also distracted by her Sniperbadger activities. Candi, by her need to protect Danny from sexual bullies. And Marina, by her touring the country with rock bands.

### Arrest

As Ciem, Candi continued helping out local authorities however she could in dealing with local crime - and keeping an eye out for any signs of Triumvirate-grade suspicious activity. However, she was unable to find a whole lot of it.

On October 15th of 2015, everyone was caught off guard. Chris "the Purge-Flare" Kennal, a wanted and violent fugitive serial killer that made it his goal to assassinate all Gleeful-N'-Young members while disguised as a knockoff of the supernatural killer Extirpon, was somewhere loose in town. The Hebbleskins took over the city park right under everyone's nose, and began installing the equipment needed to make a new dome like the one they had over the city in 1990.

Frank Morvel, a human trafficker with the Hebbleskin-affiliated Gleeful-N'-Young Cartel, began a campaign to start abducting young women and girls from across Gerosha. He sent a band of teen deviants he'd hired, dubbed the "Pyro Panthers," on an arson spree across town. He also sent the monster Antonio "Lava Tigre" Frenze to destroy the Gerosha Fire Department, thus ensuring that outside help would be necessary for locals to maintain order. External fire trucks didn't arrive right away. However, Vanderburgh County lent Gerosha and Warrick County extra police after the Gerosha Police Station was compromised.

A state of emergency and a curfew were declared - but Miriam forgot to give Candi the memo. Right before the attacks, Candi decided to visit Danny. The couple spent the better part of an hour alone in the house together, having sex. Danny's brother Roger was disrupted when the Pyro Panthers attacked the grocery store he worked at. The Loffins' parents were in Oregon, as Richard Loffin was looking for a new job as a logger. Candi and Danny's session was brought to an abrupt end when the Panthers attacked the Loffin house, launching incendiaries into the living room through the shattered window and setting the house ablaze. The couple got dressed quickly and fled out the back door. They made their way to the front, and ran into a Roger that was rushing home to get Danny.

Roger concluded the safest place for himself and Danny was the Motel Manor on the north side of town. They urged Candi to join them; but Candi felt responsible for the chaos by not being more alert. She insisted on staying behind, and on putting on her Ciem suit to help restore order. The boys headed to the right down one street to enter Roger's car and drive to safety. Candi turned left down that same road, stopping in the parking lot of Posey's Supermarket to check her backpack for the Zeran wardrobe that her Ciem suit was hidden inside of.

However, Candi's luck ran out when three cop cars descended on Posey's - mistaking her for a Pyro Panther. Candi did what she could to reason with the officers; but she slipped up and revealed to them that Zeran wardrobes existed. Not believing her at first, the jumpy officers had her arrested as a suspected Pyro Panther gang member and arsonist. They informed her that even if this weren't true, she was violating curfew.

Officer Naggle and one other were in the car that escorted Candi out of town, where she'd be kept at the Vanderburgh County Jail until they could get her a hearing in Evansville Juvenile Court. Evansville had agreed to take Gerosha cases, as Warrick County was compromised.

Shortly after Naggle's car left city limits while heading west, however, the Hebbleskins' dome successfully encircled the town. Candi realized then the gravity of her mistake - and how difficult it would be to get herself back inside the city and save it. Worse: her boyfriend and her sister were now trapped behind enemy lines!

Naggle's car was attacked by a Hebbleskin assassin with a jetpack, dubbed "Drop-In" by adversaries due to a lack of better description for the masked foe. Candi used the distraction of police trying to fight "Drop-In" to break out of her handcuffs and flee into the woods. She put her Ciem suit on, then fought Drop-In personally. She damaged his equipment and partially damaged his jetpack, but was unable to unmask him. She did, however, force him to retreat.

Candi decided to then reveal her identity to her arresting officers. They allowed her to change back into her civilian form, as she hid in the woods and used a hairpin Zeran wardrobe to hide her suit in her hair should she have an emergency need for it. She returned to the police car, and was handcuffed once more upon her surrender.

She was housed with Phoebe Gadsbury - the classmate at Gerosha High that annoyed her most - for two whole days in the Vanderburgh County Jail; before she was finally assigned a court hearing. Her confessions during processing convinced her that even though she'd easily be acquitted for arson, she'd have far bigger problems once her carelessness with SCALLOP tech secrecy was made known to Darius.

### Temp adjudication

Feeling enormous guilt over her carelessness and shame for her sexual indiscretions, Candi came to feel that she no longer cared what her fate was - so long as she could save her family and her city before succumbing to it. She appeared in court early on the 18th of October in 2015, eager to be away from the pest that stole a car to flee to safety - only to get caught.

Her judge was Richard Deckinson, who was about to take a vacation and go on a golfing expedition. Deckinson informed Candi that she'd have separate trials - one for arson and one for "that other wacky nonsense red tape stuff." However, he wanted her to know the arson trial would be first. Yet, he wanted her to also know that she would need to be held somewhere until his week of golf was up. Caring nothing one way or the other about the reveal that she was Ciem, Deckinson instead sought to torment Candi's lazy and inept public defender - James Lonsil of the firm Lonsil & Tiver - with as much comedic verbal abuse as he could get away with.

Candi herself was informed she would be temporary-adjudicated in the meantime to stay at the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility. If she passed her first trial, she could be assigned bail before facing the "much sillier" trial. If she failed either trial, she'd be sent to Madison as part of an official sentence. Candi complied with the ruling, believing that a little time out would help her collect her thoughts - and scheme up a way to save Gerosha.

### Chaos at Madison

Candi arrived to Madison bepuzzled by the culture she found inside. Most of those she found there were the sorts of girls she'd tried to help walk away from bad decisions. Yet...none of them recognized her even after her identity was exposed. She'd put a few of their boyfriends away for some time for having done far worse things - with no complaints from them. She found most of the staff agreeable to at least tolerable, and got along with most of the girls inside. She particularly bonded well with the well-meaning-yet-aloof superintendent: Bruce Almin; almost viewing him as a substitute Imaki.

However, she clashed with one particular Amirah Rose - who was convicted of arson and alleged to have killed her own father. Amirah insisted everyone had her all wrong, but her anger was over-the-top. Amirah sensed that Candi was a bit different from the other girls she'd intimidated into joining her "Sparks of Vengeance" gang, and tried to pressure Candi into joining. However, Candi's centuition allowed her to always be one step ahead of Amirah's dirty tricks, thus irritating the latter greatly.

Candi spent several hours in MAC on Tuesday of her temp week, after offering to repair a broken PC. The staff wouldn't let her into the room, because there were no cameras in the room. Candi offered to take it to the day room and fix it, but they wouldn't take it out due to lack of a proper desk. Candi used her enhanced strength to turn a tennis table into a desk by moving it closer to the wall and grabbing a chair. Instead of being rewarded for her ingenuity, Candi was put in a solitary cell. She responded by yelling: "Stupid commies!"

Amirah finally tried to inform staff at a library meeting that Officer Lonny Factor was torturing her, and was a Hebbleskin spy. Almin's dismissal led to others not believing her, which angered her even more. When discussing matters with the acting counselor, Stacey Walleye, Candi had it suggested to her that she and Amirah were different manifestations of the same problem: a superiority complex. Candi found this hard to believe, but thanked Stacey for the advice to hone in on Amirah and hear what the latter was saying about herself when not aware of Candi's presence.

The following Friday was the volleyball tournament. However, Amirah's impatience with Candi led to her slipping up and launching a fireball. Candi jumped to the rafters, her centipede attack instincts nearly getting the best of her as she revealed her centilegs and her eyes began glowing. Before anyone knew what to expect, Factor arrived with Bezeetol darts to subdue the "Phexo" Amirah - whom Candi knew immediately was actually a Marlquaanite. The guards convinced Candi to come down from the rafters, and reminded her that the other girls were beginning to see her and Amirah both as "monsters." This revelation bothered Candi, as she didn't wish to be "the monster."

As Factor dragged Amirah away while being mildly chastised by Almin for the former's unorthodox use of Bezeetol darts on a student, Amirah threatened Factor that she'd expose him some way and somehow. She mentioned that he had a "damaged jetpack," and that soon, "more than that would be damaged."

Most of the girls were dismissive, thinking Amirah was simply a delusional pyromaniac. However, Candi immediately realized that *she* was the one who had damaged a jetpack recently. She noticed Factor's height, fitness, stature, and cold demeanor, wondering if Factor were "Drop-In."

After lights out, Candi pulled the pin out of the back of her head that she'd hidden. She used it to bring out her utility belt and Zeran teleporters, then paid Amirah a visit in her cell. She found evidence all over that Factor *was* hooking Amirah to equipment and torturing her, and that the other guards were somehow oblivious. Amirah didn't initially trust Candi; but Candi assured her that the mentioning of a jetpack was a clue that something was amiss. Candi assured Amirah that if she'd drop the "tough girl gang leader" attitude, the two of them could work toward a common goal. The girls got to talking, and realized that they needed to be on the same side. Amirah confirmed Candi's suspicions that Factor was Drop-In - but stated it was "useless" to try to prove it. Candi resolved that issue by using her Zeran teleporter to put Amirah - and the torture devices - inside of Brittany Lohmeyer and Samirah Fantine's room. The two Sparks of Vengeance watched over their fallen leader per Candi's advice, hiding her until the morning.

A panicked officer Fran Hostar discovered that "Flintirah" and the devices were both missing. She began a sweep; but was unable to find Amirah due to Candi's continued interference. With Nancy Hizrah in on things with Candi by way of the Zeran teleporters, Fran soon realized that her and Lonny Factor's jig was up. The girls now all knew that Factor had been pulling a wool over Almin's eyes. They all knew that Amirah was a target of a Hebbleskin agent. And now, the girls were banding together to protect one of their own as a united force. Fran left work early, then called Factor to inform him that his cover had been blown.

Factor told Fran to return to a Hebbleskin base and "get to safety," announcing her immediate resignation from Madison staff over the phone. He immediately deduced that "the centipede" was to blame for his cover being blown, and vowed that he'd "handle it."

### Showdown with Drop-In

The girls finally revealed to Bruce Almin the following Saturday morning what had happened to Amirah. He agreed to take student complaints about staff a little more seriously upon seeing the evidence - shocked to see Candi and Amirah getting along and embarrassed that he'd been so dismissive of the girls' concerns. A sniper-fired dart entered through the day room window, however, striking Amirah and injecting her with a boost of adrenaline. Guards and inmates alike ran toward the hallway in a panic, as Amirah's power began melting down.

Candi insisted she and Amirah go outside, to avoid the building burning any further. A desperate Candi found a cold spot to grab Amirah from, tossing her out the nearest large-enough window and then jumping out of it herself after Amirah.

The two girls choreographed a fake fight near the swingset, to help Amirah burn off the excess adrenaline and get her anger under control. Candi deflected Amirah's blasts using whatever she could find. The horrified staff and inmates watched on. However, things took a turn for the worse when Drop-In returned from the sky - shooting both girls and anyone else he could with more Bezeetol darts.

Amirah became crippled with fear by her seemingly invincible tormentor. Factor confronted Candi, attempting to slit her throat for having "ruined everything." Weakened by Bezeetol, Candi was unable to fight off Factor - apart from removing his mask. She begged Amirah to realize that as a Marlquaanite, Amirah's power wasn't dampened by the drug - it would merely make her a little drowsy.

In a last ditch effort to save Candi's life, Amirah focused her power into a single, concentrated beam of fire blast right at the exposed Factor's face - while he was about to execute Candi. Both girls collapsed after Drop-In's defeat, and were taken to the infirmary.

Candi was treated to dilute the Bezeetol and get it out of her system faster, thus leading to her healing from the knife wounds very quickly. Amirah awoke, apologetic about all the problems she'd caused everyone. She insisted on replacing the Sparks of Vengeance with a benevolent gang called the "Last Legs," and declared Candi worthy of leading it.

Amirah and the Madison staff agreed that Amirah was too dangerous to be kept at Madison, and she was transferred to SCALLOP Juvenile Containment Center in Houston to receive the care and attention she needed. Candi and Amirah parted ways on good terms, wishing each other the best of luck. An investigation quickly revealed that Fran Hostar was a co-conspirator in Factor's misconduct with the girls.

### Saving Gerosha

With her temp-adjudication up, Candi said goodbye to her new friends in Madison - both staff and inmates - and headed to court. Deckinson declared that the case against Candi for arson should be dropped entirely, due to lack of evidence. However, he warned Candi that her other issues meant she'd be due back for another trial. Having arrived back in Indiana from Japan, Imaki paid bail to get Candi released until her next trial in November.

Miriam, in desperation, made a deal with the Chris "Purge-Flare" Kennal. The two of them were able to get Candi back inside of Gerosha, and staged a three-way coordinated operation to disable the dome and stop Morvel. Alas, even with most of the Pyro Panthers dead, Antonio "Lava Tigre" Frenze continued to serve as Morvel's bodyguard. Candi fought against Lava Tigre again briefly at a construction site - where Morvel began loading up victims into his van. Candi knew she didn't have the means to kill Frenze. However, she did have the means to save the girls in the van. She switched up plans, and had Chris take over attacking Frenze. The Purge-Flare and Frenze battled fiercely, setting most of the scaffolding ablaze and creating a massive scene for an already charred and traumatized Gerosha.

Miriam finally disabled the energy dome, leaving the city wide open for police, SCALLOP, and National Guard to come in and restore order - as well as fire trucks to put out the blazes. Chris finally used a cryo-chemical injection feature that Miriam installed into his "Purge-Wand" to poison Frenze, thus cooling the latter enough to be fatally wounded.

Candi gave pursuit of Morvel and caught up to his van, relentlessly battling the skilled driver to get him to lose control of his vehicle. She finally succeeded. As Morvel flipped over into a ditch, Candi was able to extract him from the vehicle. She stung him several times, and pulverized him. She also knocked out most of his teeth. Finally, she opened the back of the van up, and rescued the battered and bruised girls that were inside. She used a phone stolen off of the paralyzed Morvel to call for some ambulances, so the injured could be treated. She left the scene to find Miriam and Danny again.

However, Danny revealed to Candi after she got back to him that Miriam went with Chris. Per Miriam's agreement, she had to help Chris flee town in his repaired van, to avoid capture by the FBI. He assured Candi that Chris would honor Miriam's good faith, and not harm her. Candi confessed to Danny all of her misadventures, and the two headed to their separate homes to think things through after a parting kiss.

### Return to court

Candi was returned to court in November, and found that it was worked by Darius into a trap against Imaki regarding the Zeran tech. Candi also learned that some irresponsible SCALLOP staff had handled details of her case and confessions poorly, leading to the Hebbleskins learning that someone associated with SCALLOP somehow had leaked to the public the existence of Zeran tech that was supposed to be secret to Phaelites and Meethlites only. The Hebbleskins killed a woman in another state due to her connection with Zeran tech in retaliation. Candi felt the whole mess was indirectly her fault, as her carelessness enabled the carelessness and malice of others.

Wishing to protect Imaki and take responsibility for the other incident, Candi refused to turn Imaki in. She elected instead to take the fall herself. Erin was shocked by this, promising to get Candi whatever legal counsel necessary to battle the Kirby Act and Darius' malicious prosecution. However, Candi assured Erin that she could handle prison if that's what it took to save the family. SCALLOP agent Marion Wevenil counseled Candi on what steps to take next, and informed her that she might qualify for the SCALLOP Mission Furloughs program if she proved herself well enough. This would allow her day releases to operate as Ciem if a sufficient emergency called for it.

Judge Deckinson was impressed with Candi's courage, smugly dismissing Darius however possible and congratulating Candi. However, he still sentenced her to indeterminate containment at Madison.

Upon hearing news that his family would be moving to Oregon, Danny tearfully broke up with Candi. Candi assured him that them breaking up was the smart move for the two of them - but that she'd always remember him. She insisted he find a woman that could love him as she did, and that could be a more stable life choice. He congratulated her on her willingness to take the fall for "the stupid adults and their failures," but warned her that her having a juvie record would make it hard for them to ever get back together.

### Return to Madison

Deckinson gave Candi until mid-December, when Boonville High's winter break began, to turn herself in. A boy named Randy Mintzel witnessed Miriam get in the van with Chris to help him flee authorities, and the local news questioned if Candi were "in cohorts with Extirpon."

Furious that Candi would get blamed - and that other details were so wrong - Miriam elected to turn herself in and prevent Candi from taking the fall for Miriam's own decision. Miriam was taken to the Warrick County Jail at first, but was then later transferred to SCALLOP Juvenile Containment Center after her identity as Sniperbadger was finally exposed.

Candi was returned to Madison to complete her program and serve time. She found most of the inmates were still on her side, even more supportive after she learned she was pregnant. She was terrified of this news. She didn't want Erin to know the truth, and that was her biggest fear. The staff agreed to help her find a new home for the child if it came to that, to keep things away from Erin. She also feared that Danny's life would be ruined if he discovered that he were the father. Pregnancy hormones led to Candi becoming very depressed. However, she maintained a somewhat sweet nature with everyone as often as possible - often helping staff find smarter ways to diffuse other girls' temper tantrums.

### Miscarriage

In late January of 2016, Candi developed serious complications during her pregnancy. She was transferred to the King's Daughter's Hospital in Madison for treatment, and delivered a premature daughter that she named Angie. In spite efforts by staff to save Angie's life, they were unsuccessful. Before Angie's death, Candi insisted on having a minister arrive to have the child baptized. She was devastated by this, as she would have longed to be a mother. Her Madison programs were modified to help her deal with the trauma, and she was often monitored for severe depression to ensure she didn't become suicidal.

During this time, Candi opened up with Stacey Walleye about all the other times in her life that she was in need of counseling of some sort - and yet, her godfather was the only one willing to hear her out. Stacey assured Candi that in Madison, they would hear her out. It didn't have to *always* be her versus the entire world.

### Devotions teacher's pet

Candi took particular solace in the Bible studies offered to Madison students, often contributing to them. While troublemaking self-proclaimed lesbians often tried to make studies about them that had nothing to do with their interests or transgressions, and Candi clashed with them by defending the elderly devotions leader from their attacks and hijackings of sessions; many of the girls were highly inspired by Candi's willingness to admit her own mistakes - and desire to be better.

"Yes," she would argue:

> "These words about us falling short are intimidating. Yet, there is comfort in the universality of it. It is talking specifically about you. But also, specifically to everyone else. Everyone is paradoxically indicted uniquely, yet equally. And that's the *entire point*!" Because we *can* trace the steps. The Upper Room really does still exist in Jerusalem. It all *did* happen. And the same sickness in the soul that put us here, exists in all of us. You're not here because you're *imperfect*, you're in here because you got particularly *sloppy* about it. And so did I. Not too proud to admit it. That doesn't mean we get smarter about being devious. It means we become more humble toward the truth, and forsake the devious altogether. And you need the Spirit to do it. On our own, none of us will ever be strong enough. But if the sickness is universal, the antidote is likewise. It's that latter part that goes over everyone's head. Gospel is not there to contradict or negate law. They complement and complete one another, for the purpose of ensuring that love is part of God's nature to begin with. Otherwise, how can he be? He'd be a mechanical lawgiver, who gives laws for no reason. And we'd be subject to laws without higher point or purpose. Then why bother? Yet, when we adopt a not-bothering attitude, nothing good comes of it. So no matter how you slice it, we're back to this same dilemma.
>
>

Such speeches didn't always win her friends; but those who believed - and later, understood - what she was saying, became some of the strongest friends she made inside.

### SCALLOP Mission Furloughs

*See also*: Ciem / Anarteq: Kahoopiliana

By March, Candi was ready to get back into business being Ciem. A new security officer, Paul Driveway, revealed that he was the weregoat vigilante "Goatgruff." She became good friends with Paul; but feared them becoming too close and losing their objectivity. Still reeling over her miscarriage and moral failings in Gerosha, Candi was informed that she would be sent to court one fateful day that month to sign some paperwork that would earn her a chance to get tethered and monitored releases from Madison in the event of an emergency that required Ciem's presence.

Meanwhile, the Brummel family from the Sodality Church had deduced that the Hebbleskins' retreat after Morvel's capture led to Duke Arfaas Hebbleskin passing the torch of planning disaster for the Midwest back to Rappaccini. Rappaccini's plans were encoded on a flash drive, hidden behind project names all written in Hawaiian words. Since Darius Philippine had a love-hate working relationship with the ancient Marlquaanite Hawaiian native Pakulihi "Kamohoalii" Lekaho, he cut a deal to gain Isitoq "Anarteq" Sundue refugee status if he stayed in Hawaii - but on the condition that Anarteq had to get Kamohoalii to review the Brummels' stolen Screwworm flash drive and deduce what Rappaccini's evil plan really was. After some long deduction and explanation of Rappaccini's misuse of Hawaiian mythology, the two psuedo-mers concluded that the plan somehow involved a volcano-inducing Marlquaanite ruby necklace dubbed the "Heart of Pele," after the Hawaiian goddess. Yet, they couldn't pinpoint which region would be targeted for the necklace's wrath - nor whom Rappaccini would choose as his herald to wield the Heart of Pele.

Anarteq, with Emeraldon's help, had previously destroyed an Abdygalis Shard. This led to Rappaccini threatening Canada, and an appeasement-minded Justin Trudeau declaring Anarteq a fugitive. His cousin, Jissika "Nemara" Sundue, was being held in a juvenile detention center in Sault Ste. Marie. SCALLOP was able to secure Jissika's release, so she could join Izzy in exile in Hawaii.

Candi, back in Madison, waited to hear word from Madison's SCALLOP liaison Agent Randy Lapborn about missions of the sort that would require her. She signed the paperwork that entered her into the furlough program - but on condition that the Madison staff and Last Legs gang member inmates could be allowed to assist her during operations. Her wishes were honored by the judge. Nancy Hizrah, Brittany Lohmeyer, Samirah Fantine, and a few others were overjoyed to hear that they'd just been promoted from "mostly-forgotten delinquents" to a superheroine's official sidekicks. Staff put up with this, as they wanted to girls to start believing that they *could* devote themselves to positive causes.

### Losing her family

Months of therapy are almost undone in a moment when Candi is called in to Almin's office with bad news. Darius reneged on his promise to leave Erin and Imaki alone if Candi agreed to go to prison. Per new orders, Candi is required to find another home to sponsor her. Imaki is also prohibited from contacting Candi directly until she turns 18. Erin is likewise not allowed to let Candi into her home until Candi is first released elsewhere.

Realizing that her options are limited for finding another home, Candi is enraged and devastated. Darius will negate satisfaction of Candi's programs to his heart's content and deny her a chance to return to her family as often as possible; ensuring that Candi can't earn her freedom until she's served a few months in an adult center after leaving Madison.

Almin and Walleye do what they can to comfort Candi, assuring her that they will turn this around on Darius and make Madison the best base of operations for her just shy of having her old home back. Walleye promises to search for contacts that Darius would be hard pressed to interfere with, ensuring Candi can be adopted and leave Madison in a decent time frame.

### Project: Kaiakahinali

*See also*: Ciem: Ash Cloud

By June of 2016, Candi and Paul were out performing reconnaissance missions together in Madison - or sometimes, separately. The Brummel family was exposed, and the Icy Finger began hunting them. More information was available about Kaiakahinali 2, the "Second Great Flood (of Fire)" that was Rappaccini's plan. The flash drive was to be given to Randy Lapborn to take with him directly to Darius, as it spelled out which cities were to be targets for the Heart of Pele.

Realizing that the Brummels had outed the plan, Rappaccini moved up his timetable. He selected the sadistic, child psychology-fascinated, half-Russian and half-Mexican mercenary Eric Korsicht to be his herald, and bear the necklace. The Anito Squad - mutated monsters with kidnapped Filipina street prostitutes and porn stars trapped inside them - were added to Korsicht's army to destroy the Midwest. For good measure, the Anitos were teamed up on the northern Ohio destruction campaign with some leftover Qalupaliks - which were created to terrorize Canada and were common enemies of Anarteq. The coup de grace was to be a meeting of all of Rappaccini's armies in Cincinnati; and the ultimate destruction of that city by volcano *after* ravaging the locals with war and death. It was believed that the volcano would damage the Midwest's ability to yield crops after choking out several fields with ash fallout, leading to famine and disease. Thus was to be America's punishment for being the chosen land of John Winthrop to be a "city on a hill," and defy the satanic ambitions of the Icy Finger. This was also to be America's punishment for tolerating another Puritan: John Domeck, the then-current Gray Champion.

Korsicht revealed that his plan was simple: destroy one city as a proof of concept for what the Heart of Pele could do; and then destroy Indiana as a favor for the Hebbleskins. He'd "show them how it's done." Meeting up and detonating a recharged necklace on Cincinnati would be his final act before retiring as Rappaccini's herald. During his Indiana raid, he had four objectives:

1. Burn the schools
2. Cut off plumbing to the hospitals
3. Compromise the adult jails and prisons, setting dangerous inmates loose to terrorize the general public.
4. Kill everyone in the juvenile centers, so that single mothers praying for their children to reform would be brought to despair.

Meanwhile, the Brummels were being chased through the streets of Madison by Screwworm terrorists. Lapborn informs Tyler that he and his teenage daughter Lacey stand their best chance of making the delivery by heading to the Madison Center. Goatgruff and Ciem do their part to deal with the hordes of Screwworms giving pursuit. However, Candi is confronted with an Anito along the way. She also has to deal with Screwworms detonating their suicide vests inside of vans, in a desperate attempt to blow her up and drain her Zeran teleporter batteries. The Brummels' van is tipped over, injuring Lacey inside. Goatgruff and Ciem manage to neutralize just enough of the Screwworm convoy that Candi is able to get to the Brummels inside and recover them and the flash drive.

Tyler Brummel is informed that he will have to go with Lapborn and confirm the findings on that drive to Darius. Meanwhile, Candi escorts Lacey via Zeran teleportation inside of the Madison Juvenile Center, and into the infirmary to stabilize her. Almin warns that she can't stay in the Madison infirmary - and that the Screwworms would expect to look for her at King's Daughter's Hospital. Last Legs member Angie O. Plastie assists the nursing staff in treating Lacey's wounds; and Lapborn calls for an airlift to take Lacey to a SCALLOP center for safekeeping. The staff and Last Legs inmates of Madison alike congratulate Candi on saving Lacey; yet Candi is disturbed by the Anito she confronted.

### Battling Korsicht

Korsicht makes his move, destroying Louisville with a 48-megaton volcanic eruption that fills a 200-mile radius of atmosphere in a ginormous and thick ash cloud - one capable of producing "eternal nightfall" if not cleared. While waiting for the Heart of Pele to recharge to the point of doing it again on Cincinnati, he begins his campaign of destroying Indiana by attacking South Bend - working his way back toward Madison. The Madison facility is issued an alert, and informed that the ash cloud will be monitored. If it begins to precipitate on the city, the entire prison and psych ward campus will be evacuated.

Classes are canceled; and Paul and Candi meet with Almin and everyone else on campus in the library - to discuss strategy, should the center come under attack. Their plans are put to the test in a matter of hours. Paul is killed while battling the Screwworms on jetpacks raining down. A bright-glowing Marlquaanite is shot dead during the raid by another officer; but not before generating cyclones around the juvenile center to stir up additional chaos. Anitos begin breaking into various rooms across the center, killing everyone that gets in their way.

About half the girls in Madison are killed in a single afternoon. In spite hesitation due to protocol, the guards eventually let Candi have access to her gloves and utility belt to fight back at the incoming threats. She soon teams up with a shotgun-wielding Superintendent Almin to deal with continued threats. However, when Korsicht himself comes for Candi's roommate Nancy, things get extra personal. Korsicht is frustrated when Candi can dodge most of his attacks and heal quickly from the ones she can't. He soon decides that Candi's loyalty to Almin is offensive to him, and he abducts an injured Almin. Fleeing the center, he gives Candi clues to find Almin with. He challenges her that she has "maybe three days, at best," to demonstrate that her loyalty is "really worth it."

Securing a S'Poling tether and release time permission before being declared a fugitive, Candi sets out with officer Jordan Grentzwell in a helicopter to head to Cincinnati - and face the war zone dead on to recover their jeopardized warden.

Not only Korsicht, but nearly the full might of Rappaccini's entire global force of destruction descends on Cincinnati. Candi is distracted from the hunt for Korsicht and Almin by the need to rescue civilians in peril - which are everywhere. Korsicht routinely uses this to slow her and Grentzwell down - putting her prowess as Ciem to the test. Bothering Candi especially is Darius ordering Candi to execute Korsicht herself, rather than merely subdue or capture him, if she wishes to get her release date moved up. She feels there is something not right with Darius playing games with her soul like that. Grentzwell agrees with Candi that it's beyond the pale - but also, fears nothing can be done about it.

After Candi is rendered unconscious and Grentzwell seriously injured while saving Cynthia Trenson and her daughter Karen, the two are taken into the Trenson family apartment. Cynthia looks after her rescuers until Candi awakens. A few moments are shared, and Candi gets back to work. She discovers that Korsicht has been distracted by a successful capture of the Gray Champion, and deduces that she'll find Almin wherever she finds John Domeck. Her instincts prove correct. A showdown occurs between her and Korsicht in an abandoned factory complex in Cincinnati. Candi is able to free the Gray Champion and steal the Heart of Pele off of Korsicht before the next volcano can be detonated. She rescues Almin, badly injured and in need of hospitalization, before he is ripped apart by Anitos. The Gray Champion avenges all the slain by brutally executing Korsicht in Candi's place. Extirpon arrives and uses his Positive Battery to cure the remaining Anitos, turning them back into frightened young Filipinas.

With time running out on her S'Poler, Candi begs the Champion to take her and Bruce to the King's Daughter's Hospital. Grentzwell elects to stay behind, fleeing Cincinnati on foot with the Trensons. Bruce is taken to intensive care; but warns Candi to get back to Madison before time runs out and stop worrying about him. She tearfully says goodbye, wishing him a speedy recovery. The Gray Champion returns to the war zone in Cincinnati before Candi can ask him for a ride to the Madison campus, so she gets creative with her Zeran jumps to maximize her range before time runs out. With seconds left, she leaps over the fence into the "safe" region. A malfunction causes her to crash back-first into a tree, which slows her to a fall into the grass. Security and grateful inmates come and bring an exhausted Candi inside. Much to everyone's relief, the precipitation zone for the ash is away from Madison. No one needs to be evacuated.

Candi is greeted a few weeks later by the Trensons, who express an interest in adopting her once Darius allows Almin to give her a release date. Candi does what she can to foster a relationship with Cynthia and Karen, improving her chances of adoption and also establishing contact with them and Imaki as a roundabout to Darius prohibiting direct contact.

### Minimizing the Yellowstone Apocalypse

*See also*: Ciem: Caldera

The year is 2017, and Candi is alerted that operations at Madison are going to be transferred to LaPorte by 2018. Rappaccini hands off the next attack plan back to Arfaas. Arfaas sends Bernie "Quoll" Mudster, a man-quoll hybrid monster, to terrorize Madison and Gerosha.

Meanwhile, Gerosha residents are stockpiling in preparation for the next doomsday event. Rappaccini's destruction of Cincinnati has just about split America into four countries. Making matters worse, the Gray Champion's failure to save Boston from Halal Affadidah has led to an ISIS resurgence wiping out western civilization across a large part of the eastern US.

Via Cynthia, Candi is able to maintain indirect contact with Imaki. Two new Ciem suits are made for her to phase out the Forfica Mk. I with: the lighter Forfica Mk. II and an experimental "Carbonica." Candi secretly trusts Tanya Woven with the Carbonica, in case the girls need a Ciem and Candi is unavailable.

Mudster stages an attack on South Bend to lure Emeraldon into a trap. He then stages an attack on Gerosha to convince SCALLOP and the Madison crew - with Randy Lapborn supervising - to let Candi return to her old hometown and ward off the attack. However, Candi's brief visit with her soon-to-be foster mother Cynthia leads to Cynthia handing Candi a piece of paper printed off from a page from the Ruth Institute's website about Saul Alinsky's infamous phrase "the issue is never the issue."

Candi is able to ward off Mudster and his raid rather easily, leading to her and Lapborn being confused as to why. Most of his forces turned out to be easily-defeated dummy drones. The few that posed an actual danger had no MPF or other protections. Recalling some of the villain's dialog about a "revolution," Candi concluded that Mudster was using Alinsky tactics to misdirect everyone - and that the Madison girls were the real target!

Candi and Lapborn attempt to head back to Madison in time; but are intercepted by a transmission stating that the Last Legs have already been taken hostage. They are given and address in Colorado to go to if they wish to fight for the girls and save them. On a hunch that it's another misdirection, Candi inquires about where the Heart of Pele is.

Just then, it's revealed that the Hebbleskin-affiliated Meethlite terrorist Kropimak Duzerit and some of his goons had stolen the Heart of Pele from a vault buried beneath the SCALLOP Women's Containment Center near Houston. Covering his tracks, Icy Finger spy Jim Oisdaat assassinates another SCALLOP agent and frames him for being a Hebbleskin plant.

Candi and Lapborn are given new orders: to follow coordinates given to them by way of an RFID chip embedded on the necklace after its capture feeding intel back to SCALLOP. They are to intercept Duzerit at all costs. If all else fails, Lapborn is to activate an emergency bracelet that will contact Extirpon.

It's concluded that the only reason for Duzerit to steal the Heart of Pele from lockup; is to detonate Yellowstone. The budding Sodality of Gerosha has caused too many problems for the Triumvirate by virtue of killing Korsicht; and now the bad guys are going for the big kill switch of a VEI-8 eruption of a supervolcano. Yellowstone's innate volatility will allow the Heart of Pele to detonate with it a much more extreme explosion than anything the necklace was capable of alone. (The necklace's maximum capacity to detonate normally stable, non-volcanic land was equal to about two Mt. St. Helens eruptions at most.)

Candi is told to ignore her friends; a request she takes offense to. However, Lapborn insists that they not call Extirpon right away. Candi argues this is insane. She can go after her friends; and Extirpon is much more qualified to deal with Duzerit. Still, orders are orders. The risk of a Screwworm raid with MPF generators capable of capturing Extirpon - or of the latter growing careless with his anger and endangering locals - outweighs the need to make Candi's job easier.

The captured girls sense that they will simply be executed when there is no more use for them. They pressure Tanya to put on the Carbonica. However, she insists that she'd be an inferior Ciem. She has none of Candi's centuition, stingers, healing factor, reflexes, jumping power, nor her strength or constriction abilities. The girls insist that having *a* Ciem to help them escape is better than waiting around to be executed by their captors. Tanya gives in to pressure, and puts the suit on. However, she relies more on her wits than her combat skills to help the girls escape capture. The Hebbleskins search for the girls in Boulder, Colorado - as Tanya attempts to contact Candi and the US Marshalls in order to get the girls back to Madison safely whilst also giving Candi her Carbonica suit.

Candi and Lapborn arrive at the mountain coordinates where Duzerit is supposed to be - only to discover that Duzerit isn't at that exact spot on the mountain! Mudster sets an ambush for them, revealing that he found and removed the RFID chip on the necklace. To save Lapborn's life amidst a battle with all of Mudster's new machinery, Candi is forced to use Mudster's own dropped gun against him and shoot him in the head. Lapborn assures Candi that this will finally satisfy Darius' requirement that Candi personally execute a major target - something she takes no pleasure in.

Duzerit attacks. He uses the Heart of Pele to put Lapborn in a cage. In spite not knowing about the bracelet, he pins Lapborn inside in such a way as to make the bracelet inaccessible. He then beats up Candi with the necklace's powers, trashing the top to her Forfica suit and sending her tumbling down the side of the mountain in what he believes will lead to her death.

Candi survives, but finds herself immediately in trouble upon reaching the bottom. With her Zeran teleporters damaged also, she is forced to use her stingers and wits to save a local man as he is being attacked by a bear. The local man takes her to his cabin for some hot chocolate - and to help her locate her friends. Mudster made the mistake of mentioning the girls' "disappearing act," suggesting to Candi that Tanya may be using the Carbonica. She establishes radio contact with the Carbonica suit via ham radio, giving the girls coordinates to the cabin.

Tanya receives a message from Darius intended for Candi's ears. However, Tanya throws the message back in the "never-helpful" Darius' face, and assures him that the new Ciem would do whatever is necessary without him until Candi could be recovered. Darius makes a phone call for Lambrelli Labs to send whatever resources it has to Boulder, not realizing that Tanya was trolling him.

Candi and her Madison friends are finally able to catch up to Duzerit, though Candi insists they stay out of sight with the exception of Tanya. A Zeran wardrobe in the Carbonica's utility belt reveals a backup Carbonica. The two girls decide to use Quoll's own misdirection lesson against Duzerit. He'd be fighting two Ciems, yet fooled into thinking it was only one that was getting the jump on him constantly.

He valiantly puts up as good a fight as he can, with several Qalupaliks arriving and forcing the hidden girls to reveal their locations. He aims the necklace northward of Boulder in the direction of Yellowstone and detonates the necklace right before Candi can rip it off his neck. Tanya and Candi quickly execute him, and then work together to battle the Qalupaliks. The Lambrelli drones finally arrive around that time, finishing off several more Qalupaliks.

The girls can sense that Yellowstone is about to go full VEI-8. Amidst the chaos, Candi finally manages to make a heroic dash to free Lapborn and activate his bracelet. Extirpon destroys the remaining hordes of Hebbleskins and Qalupaliks coming after the girls. News media arrive at the scene. Extirpon reveals that he needs the girls - and the media - to urge prayer and positive thought from as much of America as possible. Only then, can his Positive Battery form absorb the emotional energy and translate it to the constructs he needs. Extirpon is unable to completely stop the Yellowstone eruption. He is, however, able to minimize its impact. He is also able to send most of the ash cloud into space, before retreating in exhaustion.

Candi changes out of her Ciem suit, taking the other one from Tanya. Lapborn and the girls await arrival by US Marshalls to take them back to Madison. They are alerted that their actions only allowed Arfaas and Affadidah to further cement their plan to divide America. However, the girls know they saved countless lives - and vow that nothing will take that moment of victory from them.

### Release

As a reward for finally meeting all requirements in his eyes, Darius allows Candi to wear her burgundy. He also allows Imaki and Erin to contact her - and informs her that Miriam is doing fine at SCALLOP Juvenile Containment Center with a March 2018 release date. Candi herself is awarded a release date of January 20th of 2018. However, she is still required to move in with the Trensons upon release. Candi has no objections to this. Bruce Almin's failing health means that he is forced to resign as the superintendent. He is initially replaced with Corey Flontin - whom Candi and Nancy quickly out as an Icy Finger spy. Flontin is then replaced with James Galloper as the superintendent.

Stacey Walleye's departure also left Candi convinced that it truly was time for her to move on. News of what she was about to face outside didn't make her comfortable at all. Fearing she'd be too preoccupied with life in a ravaged Gerosha, she put Brittany Lohmeyer in charge of the Last Legs. Brittany, Samirah, and Nancy became their own sort of gang, and moved to Texas together after release.

Lapborn helped Candi with transitioning into life with the Trensons - who moved to Gerosha after Cincinnati was destroyed. She was most elated when Miriam - finally released from SCALLOP Juvenile - paid her a visit. Marina came back from touring to visit as well, with Erin back home after some more recent treatments. Imaki also visited that day. For the first time since 2015, the surviving Flippos were reunited. The Trensons were happy to be made a part of that Flippo extended family, with Miriam and Marina also eager to meet the young Karen that Candi would be helping take care of.

### Post-freedom

*See also*: Sodality, Battle for Metheel, Percolation Warriors, Swappernetters, Centipede + 49

Candi's fortunes only improved for a few months. Halal Affadidah and his evil forces took over a quarter of the nation. Trapped behind enemy lines, Candi would lose most of her remaining family fighting to get her freedom. She met and quickly became romantically involved with Donte "Emeraldon" McArthur. By the spring of 2019, the two eloped. She and another survivor, Dolly "the Earwig" Malestrom, resettle in Texas and make new friends. A major Hebbleskin operation to dismantle Texas forces a band of heroes to coalesce around the Rev. Wilbur Brocklyn to form a new and official "Sodality of Gerosha." However, Candi resuming life as Ciem doesn't prove easy. The four states that come together to form "Toklisana" are revealed to be burdened with constant threats of war from outside and incessant corruption within. Houston nearly becomes a totalitarian police state unto itself, forcing Candi to have to relocate to Waco to gain any peace of mind.

She saves Toklisana from a number of invasions as Ciem. However, she also found herself constantly harassed by corrupt officers while she attending the University of Houston. She was the subject of a few false arrests, and extorted for bail money each time. She finally landed herself on probation after breaking the arm of Gerald Milewing - a bank robber and lobbyist for gay activist - turned - politician Senator Gobar. This was in spite the fact that Milewing pointed a gun at her while she was pregnant. However, her carelessness in using a Zeran teleporter to flee the bank during the robbery while still a civilian led to the other victims in the bank learning of the existence of Zeran teleporters. For this, she had to be placed in protective custody. Stephanie "Strawberry" Barrin attempted to guard Candi from Gobar's private army; but became a target herself.

Candi was later forced to violate her probation and travel to Louisiana in order to stop King Morzhuk from destroying New Orleans. Since she was in a legal impossible dilemma and traveling outside of Texas anyway, she volunteered afterward to be transported to the planet Metheel. She assisted Shabika's resistance forces and the rest of the ever-growing Sodality of Gerosha in finally toppling Morzhuk - forever putting an end to the Hebbleskin Gang. This led to her probation being extended to last until 2030.

In 2026, the McArthur family's home was attacked by the Screwworms. Candi fled in her car with her son Frank; leaving Donte behind to battle the small army that came after them. Under pressure, SCALLOP's new director decided to put the McArthurs into internment camps "for their safety." Candi was charged with "reckless driving while in possession of a minor" as a cover for placing her there. That her son would have been murdered by terrorists if she didn't drive like crazy to get away was patently ignored by the courts. The initial place of internment, SCALLOP Women's Containment Center, was temporarily shut down after the Screwworms destroyed the SCALLOP Juvenile Center and killed nearly every child inside of it. Candi was sent to Houston Women's Prison for five years, then released to her husband. The Sodality of Gerosha was nearly destroyed completely by Rappaccini's forces, survivors either imprisoned due to corrupt politicians or else scattered to the wind. Candi was let out briefly to help take back Arkansas from an Icy Finger-affiliated occupying forced called the Chrome Kite, but decided to initially forego putting her Ciem suit back on. She instead joined a band of roof-hopping ninja teen revolutionary forces led by her longtime fan Tabitha Pang.

In a slight spin-off universe, Candi was then recruited to the Percolation Warriors - an multiversal force of heroes bent on keeping the Triumvirate from reversing the Divergency of Abrujan too soon. She and her surviving Gerosha Sodality friends were recruited with the Knights of Cortascius from the Eccentriaverse (world of *Volkonir* and *The Bison*), as well as the Camelry from the Dromedeverse (world of *Camelorum Adventures*.)

A much older Candi would play a role in liberating the parts of America that were occupied by Affadidah's crumbling empire, before finally retiring from superhero life and waiting patiently for grandchildren to enter her life. Her sons Frank and John would join her daughter Dana in moving to a liberated Gerosha in order to help rebuild it. Candi herself remained with Donte in Waco for the remainder of her life.

Inheriting a fortune from her deceased parents upon moving to Texas and claiming it, Candi was able to invest wisely in stocks and keep herself financially afloat in spite her woes. She was able to use her Lambrelli Labs connections to land herself a job after release from Houston Women's Prison, thus allowing her to semi-retire from being Ciem and work in surveying and scene profiling as she had wished to do when she was young. Lambrelli Labs acquired Malestrom Industries, and also merged with a construction company. This allowed Donte to also find work.

## Personality

Clingy and affectionate as a child, Candi built an outer shell of being dismissive and guarded in response to repeatedly being subjected to abuse and neglect throughout her life. Darius' abuses of government power over her, and treating her like a slave at times, particularly led to her feeling a need to validate her prior positive views about authority in order to prove to herself that *not all* authority was bad. This gave her a confused love-hate attitude about authority in general, concluding that it was necessary but that few deserved to have it. Therefore, she sought to respect authority figures for their office. However, she would not hesitate to call out abuses or negligence when she saw it. She firmly believed that the accountability of an authority figure needed to count for double, and was not very accepting of failure. Realizing others might look up to her, she often sought to hold herself to high standards too.

The combination of a tiny handful of positive bonds with a lot of negative experiences and trauma resulted in Candi developing attachment issues, impairing her development of healthy social skills. Due to Imaki's influence, Candi and Miriam hesitated to get smartphones. Marina insisted on one at the age of 14, to aid in her pursuit of a music career. Candi and Miriam, however, preferred flip phones. Imaki encouraged them early on to cling to old-fashioned communication methods - which had a better chance of surviving and / or recovering from an EMP crisis. This resulted in the girls being slow to adopt social media, and preferring older platforms. Candi refused to get Snapchat, and almost never used Instagram when offered to her. When Miriam found out that others were using Instagram to report to known Hebbleskin associates about the Flippo family, she had SCALLOP deal severely with those students. Crying young girls found themselves on trial for capital treason and murder conspiracy. This didn't win the Flippo girls any friends.

Repeated abuse - and inability to protect her family to her own standards - filled Candi with an anger inside that she could barely suppress. Eliminating targets on missions was never enough to fully vent her inner anguish either, yet she came to believe that there was no use complaining - no one ever had any answers for her. Or if they tried, they died.

Danny was the first boy (the girls weren't much better) in years to treat Candi like more than a mere sexual object, hence why she trusted him to know about her Ciem operations. However, this meant he was also bullied mercilessly at school.

With education assistance at home from Imaki (and sometimes, Erin as well,) Candi learned early on how to have a solid work ethic - to the point of not being able to comprehend peers of hers who lacked any concept of one. Imaki also instilled a massive vocabulary in her; resulting in her being able to talk over and above some of her peers. Only a few kids could match Candi's intelligence - though she knew she was hardly MENSA material herself. One of the few who could match her, however, was her Gerosha High archenemy Julie Saffrins. Julie had the intelligence to match Candi's; but was notorious for always misusing it.

Candi was described by many as "having values from a half a generation prior to her own."

> "She may be 16 [at the time of the assessment], but has the vocabulary of a 26-year-old - and craving for a secure parental bond on par with that of an 8-year-old. She was born in 1999; but may as well have been born in 19*89*, for what it's worth. Her high school peers have noticed. She can't relate to them - or to much of anyone outside of her family. This, combined with how past traumas and injustices have shaped her understanding of the world, have led to attachment issues and other social impairments that put her at high risk for a very difficult life, no matter what she chooses to do with it. The worst part of it all is that many of her problems will not stem from anything she can change; but from the difficulty that will be imposed on her by peers of an ever-diminishing standard of excellence with which she will have to interact."
>
>

In spite wishing to curb her sexual appetite after the miscarriage, she longed for a loving man's arms to validate herself with - and the ability to convince herself that losing Danny didn't mean that she was condemned to be a single woman for life. Burying this concern would cause problems for her after her release. The miscarriage caused her to be very hard on herself, going from a sometimes-cocky and often angry and driven young woman to a severely depressed and submissive creature with defeat draped across her face.

Candi's pre-miscarriage sense of humor all but faded away, as did her irreverence and a lot of her quips. She became the sad, angry Ciem persona that she previously only assumed when battling Screwworm terrorists. Even with a lot of therapy, Candi had a hard time with being as cheerful or playful ever again as she once was. What helped her most was operating the Last Legs, and helping terrified new inmates find a sense of confidence. By building them up, Candi was able to build herself up as well.

Korsicht challenged Candi to explain why she still believed in the value of authority figures at all, after Korsicht attempted to deconstruct Almin's flaws and convince Candi that *all* authority figures were undeserving of her loyalty. She made a point of disproving and rejecting Korsicht's message, in spite being shaken by his revelation to her that many of those she remained loyal to were undeserving of it.

Even after release from Madison, Candi found Darius abusing power any way he could to frustrate her attempts to advance in life. She knew cooperation with SCALLOP was necessary to protect herself and her loved ones; but she also became resentful of having to answer to what she saw as the "lesser of two evils." Her patience paid off, leading her to a happy life much later on in life. However, she never did get over her hesitance to develop massive friend networks. She loved to remain in a tight-knit circle, and rarely ever expanded it. She and Donte spent as much time with their children as possible. And much like with Candi herself, they had limited access to screen-based tech until the age of 14.

Further alienating Candi from her high school peers, her music tastes consisted of indie, 2000s hard rock, and epic. Her classmates were almost all bubblegum pop and hip hop. Instead of a lot of modern music platforms, she preferred bands' official websites - or their MySpace pages if they still used that site. She was also not entirely opposed to using Wikipedia. She was seen as a contradiction - having an athletic body yet the personality of a "neek and teek."

As an adult after moving to Texas, Candi often felt invisible to everyone except her family and small circle of friends - and a jumpy police state industrial complex. Her new case worker, Brian Mizgel, became a sort of "Big Brother Brian" in her mind - a substitute for that which she lost when both of her real brothers were dead.

While cutting down Screwworms in cold blood when following orders, Candi's otherwise warm family ties and nature compelled her to want to find non-lethal solutions to conflict in her life as often as possible. Learning she had misjudged Amirah Rose, for example, gave her a greater concept of need for compassion, patience, and empathy for her peers. Her education outside of Madison had denied her many opportunities to learn these values.

She sought to make up for this by teaching some of her fighting skills to girls inside - but only in authorized matches with staff overseeing. That way, the girls could defend themselves on the streets *without* having to always resort to gun or knife violence. Candi extended this to include timid girls in for non-violent crimes, so they'd be better able to defend themselves from violent inmates should one try anything. For example, she took the terrified Patty Trean (in for writing a bad check) under her wing.

## Programs while at Madison

Program Director Jack Silver assigned the following programs to Candi's curriculum, in order to help maintain appearances and assist Candi in her role as a play-along prisoner. Promise High principal Rick Evans then enforced Candi's curriculum to include these programs.

* Cage Your Rage: This decision was made after she unloaded to Stacey in a counseling session about the abuse she endured at Gerosha High. She was informed that she demonstrated remarkable intelligence and articulation regarding discussion of her past trauma, placing her far above most other girls in the facility and even more articulate than most of the staff. In this regard, Candi's only true rival for intelligence was Brittany.

* Steve’s Bible Study

* Employability Skills: Candi struggled with this the most. In spite the numerous disciplines required to be Ciem, no one could figure out a way to assist Candi in applying those specific skills toward ordinary workforce experience. The program was not equipped for the sorts of special cases that usually fell under SCALLOP jurisdiction.

* **SCALLOP Mission Furloughs**: Operates with the Restorative Justice agenda to help Marlquaanites and the genetically-altered (Phexos and Meethexos) use their gifts to thwart major crises. This allowed Candi to sometimes resume work as Ciem even while remaining technically incarcerated.

* **Understanding the Kirby Act**: A course specifically for genetically-altered and Marlquaanite offenders who may be confused about why they were deemed offenders in the first place, and on the few options they have if they believe themselves victims of injustice. May occur concurrently with **Criminal and Addictive Thinking**, or in place of it, if applicable.

* Finally-Free Prison Ministry

* Girls, Inc.

* Grief and Loss: This program was emphasized for Candi after her miscarriage of Angie. However, everything else that led up to her being in Madison was also used as a reason for her to be enrolled in it. Various other girls could relate to Candi's twisted tale of loved ones being constantly murdered in front of them, making Candi feel less alone.

* Substance Abuse Treatment Group: Even though Candi didn't abuse drugs or alcohol, she was placed in this group due to her admitting to sexual addiction.

## Candi outside of Ciem suits

* Civilian
* Inmate

Candi as a civilian, pre-arrest. Rendered with *The Sims 4*.
Candi in a variation of Madison outfit (with tan pants.) Rendered with *The Sims 4*.
## Ciem suits while at Madison

Proto-Ciem suit (with Forfica mask), used by Candi in *Inferno*. Parts cannibalized for upgrading Goatgruff's arsenal in *Kahoopiliana*.Forfica Mk. I, used by Candi in *Ash Cloud*.Forfica Mk. II, used by Candi in *Caldera*.Carbonica suit, used by Candi and Tanya in *Caldera*.
## Development

### Character evolution in comics

The push to make Candi's backstory involving juvenile detention somehow was not so much a push to alter her, as to make the environment and circumstances around her more fleshed out. Before the Cataclysmic Gerosha timeline was established in 2012, there had always been a huge question mark regarding why Candi was such a broken individual going into *Sodality*. The time gap between Stan and Shalia's deaths in 2006 some time after the main storyline in *The Battle for Gerosha* and Candi's introduction as this broken, battered soul in *Sodality: Instigation* was rife with plot holes that begged to be filled. Various inspirations that came out on TV and movies around 2013 through 2017 helped to reshape and reframe the early years of Candi's career as Ciem, allowing Candi and everyone else in her world to become far more developed as characters and demonstrating that everyone had something important happening even before the *Sodality* series.

All of this was to make the alternate history timeline of Cataclysmic Gerosha make more sense, and convey its own messages more poignantly. This was not always the case with earlier attempts to create a Gerosha mythos. The first ever attempt at developing what would be considered Gerosha continuity came back in the fall of 2001, when the author was still a senior in high school. "Hyper-Uber-Proto Gerosha" consisted of an early effort to reimagine the Gray Champion from Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story as a modern superhero through a short story for an American literature class, as well as panels that reimagined *The Scarlet Letter* as if it were a cartoon in the Disney Animated Canon, done in the style of *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*. This vision was never pursued further, as time it would have taken to write was instead taken up to write a Rubik's snake puzzle fanfic dubbed *Replox: Abstract Foundations*.

From there, "Uber-Proto Gerosha" consisted of a horror novella called *90 Has No Secant* and its canceled sequels *Cursed is the Ground* and *The Natural Logarithm*, revolving around a Rintel family and stylized after *The Ring*. Efforts to re-create the Louisiana Rintels' home led to purchasing in late 2004 of a copy of *The Sims Deluxe*, which led to a side project of creating Candi's parents Stan and Shalia Flippo for the first time ever in what was dubbed "Proto Gerosha."

"Test Gerosha" came next, with an early attempt to re-create younger versions of Stan and Shalia in *The Sims 2* in May of 2005. Later that same month, *The Battle for Gerosha* as told in Gerosha "Prime" established most of the rules for Gerosha mythos moving forward. Candi was introduced in *Ciem*, a spin-off from *The Battle for Gerosha* that sought to explore what became of Stan and Shalia's many children - which were initially created due to an in-game challenge with the Family Aspiration.

There was also a desire to prove to *Sims 2* players that not every single story had to revolve around teen pregnancy drama exclusively. Almost no one was attempting superhero drama. Ciem was therefore made a thing, in an effort to create a Spider-Girl-like heroine that could be stylized into existence using primarily resources that already existed in the game, thus reducing the need to use Marvel trademarks and minimizing dependence on custom content. Further stylization of action scenes was to take hints from the Sam Raimi *Spider-Man* trilogy. Candi's initial appearance more closely resembled that of Ivy from *Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego*? than her genetics-informed current appearance. She also used to be taller, at 5'7". Character design evolution would see her reduced to a height of only 5'4".

The initial *Ciem* trilogy of *Sims* comics failed to gain much of an audience. A reboot / remake was attempted in 2006, seeking to fix problems with the overall mythos of Candi and her life and create a more compelling narrative. However, the 2006 project was scrapped after the desktop PC that the comic was being produced on experienced a critical motherboard meltdown following a critical malfunction to its power supply. This led to the 2006 version being dubbed "Despair" Gerosha, given the futility of it.

A third attempt at a *Ciem* webcomic *Sims 2* trilogy began in 2007, after operations moved to a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. The first story was successfully created and implemented, entering syndication on Mod the Sims in late 2008. It gained several thousand views, before changes in Photobucket policy led to the story's images being taken down. Changes in the author's life led to cancellation of *Ciem 2* and *Ciem 3*. A desire to make a for-profit novel series led to further character evolution, as well as replacing the entire "Classic" Gerosha mythos with a more-developed "Comprehensive" Gerosha timeline. The first comic would be replaced with a similar book dubbed *Ciem: Vigilante Centipede*. *Ciem 2* was to be renamed *Ciem: Nuclear Crisis*, and the third book *Ciem: Condemnation*.

Unlike other Gerosha continuities, Comprehensive Gerosha sought to emphasize that Candi was part of a *shared* universe with the Gray Champion and plenty of other heroes - a nod to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Frustration with the narrative in general, as well as author frustration with the results of the 2012 US presidential elections, led to Comprehensive Gerosha being scrapped altogether and replaced with the current Cataclysmic Gerosha alternate history timeline.

In that time, Candi's character model designs have also gone through heavy revision. All Prime, Despair, and Classic Gerosha versions and depictions of Candi had been made entirely with *The Sims 2*. By 2010 and beyond, she was depicted with *The Sims 3* for Comprehensive, Cataclysmic, Gaming, and Crossover Geroshas. Cataclysmic and Crossover Gerosha Candi has also been depicted using *The Sims 4*, with a MakeHuman character model also portraying Cataclysmic Candi. Real life models have also allowed for doctored photos of themselves to portray her on the Dozerfleet Database, primarily Indonesian model Nanda Soebaigo and Arizonan (formerly New York) model Lee Loo La.

### Inspiration for Candi in *Centipede and Fire*

As research was being done for how to handle Candi's situation in *Ciem: Inferno* - which would later inspire the rest of the *Centipede and Fire Saga* as well as *Sniperbadger: Fall of the Critter Resistance* as a spin-off - Dozerfleet Comics took on a very curious interest in the social climate and logistics of female juvenile detention centers.

However, reliable materials on the subject were scattered, and offered little insight into the social climate of how inmates and guards realistically would interact with each other under mundane circumstances. There was a scramble to search for materials that would shed more light on the subject, compounded by a need to further research adult centers for *Sodality: Vindication*.

Hollywood and indie company movies proved to be of little use, with most depicted scenarios coming off as highly contrived and stereotyped around 1970s exploitation film tropes.

### Inspiration from *Jailbait*

Jared Cohn's *Jailbait*, released by The Asylum, was the inspiration behind early drafts for *Inferno*, in which Candi took Anna's place - but was too overpowered and overconfident to be so easily abused. Kody (played by Erin O'Brien) became the main inspiration behind Amirah Rose, except her seemingly all-powerful social bubble in *Jailbait* was routinely subverted and humiliated by Candi's actions in ways that borrowed cues from the Peter Parker and Flash Thompson bully fight scene in 2002's *Spider-Man*. The Sparks of Vengeance were originally to be a parody of the Low Riders, but they were later rewritten to be less evil and more sympathetic.

*Jailbait* was later set to be parodied in the *Camelorum Adventures* 2-parter "17 and Amphibious," wherein which Candace Mason travels to the *Teen in Terror Life* pocket dimension to stop Rita Rigatoni's evil plans; but then gets mistaken for a juvenile delinquent and sent to the same center as Anna Ford. After some careful testing of Candace's DNA and bones reveals she's not really a teen (she's almost 21 by that point), Candace is then taken to an adult center, in a parody of *Prison Break: The Final Break*. She returns to Camelorum with MODM's help, with a clone of Anna somehow being created by the Percolation Wave. Said clone is then turned into a frog by being too close to Carly Rancine upon entry to the main Dromedeverse, and is hired by Stan Woudean to be his new secretary - much to everyone's confusion. (A confusion made worse when the frog does a better job than Julie Mulie.)

### Inspiration from miscellaneous jail TV shows

Several episodes of *Locked Up* and *Lockdown* were released on Netflix for research, yet these were almost never around juvenile centers and seldom featured women's centers. More to that, non-staged interactions between prisoners proved to be very rare, leading to ineffective pursuit of research for social climate depictions that would be useful for writing *Inferno*. Heavy editing also complicated matters.

The series *Las Vegas Jail* offered some insight; but was mitigated by the majority of prisoners focused on being adult males and of a reflection of Vegas culture rather than southern Indiana culture. None of these shows seemed to be good references to explain what Candi would have personally experienced. The A&E series *60 Days In* offered some relief, as its first season was at least set in Indiana.

However, it focused too greatly on adult temporary detention, not on long-term juvenile detention. As such, it was of little use for describing what Candi would've had to deal with in her journey. This was further mitigated by real-life former inmate Jaime Lind expressing her accusations of the show's producers being less-than-honest via both repurposing of pods and of heavy editing to the first season to make plants Tammi and Barb look more noble than they actually were.

### Inspiration from *Kid Criminals*

The first actual gem of useful information came upon discovery of the British documentary 2-parter *Kid Criminals*, first released in 2015. Its second episode focused on Indiana's juvenile prison population, with parts of it emphasizing Madison in particular. While others at Madison featured on the episode, then-superintendent Tim Greathouse and then-inmate Amanda Artyamsoal got the most speaking lines.

While Amanda's accessory to arson and murder circumstances weren't ultimately used for Candi's specific situation, she did inspire the theme of Candi initially being mistaken for an arsonist. Candi's problems with being mistaken for other girls that looked like her that were wanted on felony charges continued to be a theme in *Sodality: Adaptation*, where Candi had to clear her name after being confused with doppelganger Julia "La Scarrabachonda" Milagro.

### Inspired by *Girls Incarcerated*

By far, a majority of the depictions of Madison culture in the *Centipede and Fire* saga take cues from *Girls Incarcerated*. Brittany Lohmeyer of the Last Legs, for example, is intended to be a super tech wizard / nerd version of a fusion of Brianna Guerra and Paige McAtee. Hannah Stoutquin is an obvious stand-in for Heidi Lakin. Even Candi's friend in *Caldera*, Tanya Woven, is a blatant stand-in for Taryn Twine. Most of the staff of Promise High School that Candi encounters are given names that are parodies of actual teaching staff.

Candi's prison outfit was originally going to be all white, until exposure revealed what the girls actually wore inside. Bruce Almin was created as a joking reference to *Bruce Almighty* and the *Dark Knight Saga*, being face-modeled after Michael Caine as Alfred and put in a position where he had hair similar to that of Tim Greathouse.

Candi's exact in-prison curriculum was revised based on studying the IDOC's official website to learn what Madison students actually were given. However, this was not enough to deduce a class schedule for her. That would have to be determined via other means.

Her situation of losing the ability to go home with either Erin or Imaki is based on making Darius abuse his authority at SCALLOP to make calls typically made by Child Protective Services - namely, declaring Candi's legal guardians as too negligent. That she was forced to have to find another family - with placement not easy to arrange - was written into the outlines for *Ciem: Ash Cloud* in response to Najwa's dilemma. Her integrity in playing along with the incarceration scam to protect her godfather - but also to answer for careless SCALLOP agents handling her case getting someone killed - was in response to Taryn blaming herself for bad civil engineering on Potter Shop Road.

The idea was to portray Candi as a paradox of being among the most privileged in education and intelligence for her region, yet also able to relate to and be a hero of the lowly folk of her region. Having Candi interact at Madison changes the sense of life and purpose of other girls in there with her. They don't believe she truly deserves to be there with them; yet she is willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill her vows as Ciem. Many of them become her sidekicks, adopting her cause as their own to replace their lives of feeling devoid of a worthy cause.

From there, the idea came that Candi's Last Legs philosophy - which she implemented to replace the Sparks of Vengeance - could become a constructive mindset for future girls in real life to be encouraged to try. Last Legs encouraged teamwork and comradery, allowing the girls to overcome the more vain and selfish components of their own nature. The logistics involved in helping a superhero operate from out of a juvenile detention center also allows the girls and staff alike to reshape their priorities when thinking about nearly everything else in life, thus encouraging a more organized set of thought patterns and challenging the girls to use their minds to the fullest extent toward creative problem solving.

While terrorist attacks on par with the Screwworm Network are highly unlikely to happen in real-life Madison or LaPorte, it seems to go without saying that challenging the girls to want to use their heads toward a positive goal by giving them something they can be passionate about getting behind is a good idea. A real-life Last Legs, however, is still pending.

### Inspiring others

In an Instagram poll taken on July 16th of 2019, all girls who responded to the question of "how would you have reacted if Candi were in your unit and were real?" gave an overwhelmingly positive response. Brianna Guerra in particular saw the poll, making it likely that she responded to the question. In other words, the girls would have been very confused and yet flattered to have had a superhero housed with them.

This confirms suspicions that outside of Amirah and a few others - who are forced to distrust Candi per necessity of the plot - most of the girls would have been just as eager to be her friend as is portrayed in story notes. Candi herself would have been equally as shocked in this world as in her own to have been so popular - and equally befuddled by how she got along better with a bunch of girls whose boyfriends she probably helped get put away for life (and also put in the hospital) than she ever got along with her classmates in her old, regular high school.

## References

1. ↑ BulldozerBegins. "Girls following my feed: how would you have felt if some gal in your unit were an actual superhero? If Candi Flippo / Ciem were real?" (poll question.) Instagram. July 16th, 2019, 2:21 AM EDT.