The Sons of Crimson (Arc)

**The Sons of Crimson** is an arc set in **Scarlet City** during one of the weeks of the three week time skip between Days 9 and 10, shortly after the events of Insurgency. The story follows **Alice Drake** on a path to redemption after having been forced to execute her brother at the climax of Insurgency, renouncing her villainous ways and re-dubbing herself The **Red Queen**.

Having returned to her old home of Scarlet City, Alice comes across the **Sons of Crimson**, a team of vigilantes each inspired to take action against the city's corruption by the symbol of Alice's late brother; Tommy Drake, formerly known as Crimson. As events unfold Alice gets caught up in a series of altercations with the Sons, never sure whether or not to trust them, uncovering city-wide conspiracies and dastardly plots of crime and evil.

## **Characters**

### **Protagonists**

#### **Alice Drake | Red Queen**

Alice begins this story broken, lost in the world, and starving to find an answer to her turmoils. Now all of her family is dead, with the recent death of her brother, and she feels truly alone in the world. Though Alice is also on a mission; before her brother's death he made her promise to a walk a path both different to his own and the path she was currently on, both paths of self destruction, hate and bloodshed. Alice wants to repent, but knows not if she has the aptitude or the will to be a hero.

When Alice learns of the Sons of Crimson her first reaction is rage. Alice is enraged to think of a group of impostors desecrating her brother's legacy. But as she learns more about the Sons' cause, their motivations and their struggles, and as she gets to know them, Alice's viewpoint on them slowly changes, becoming more open minded as she learns to understand the depth of their respect for her dead brother; despite the fact that she continues to hide that fact of her relation to Crimson and that he is even dead, never mind the cause of their idol's death.

#### **Guy Graves | Cardinal**

Guy is the leader of the Sons of Crimson. He is headstrong, confident and most of all a slave to his emotions. Skilled in hand-to-hand and close-quarters combat, with a short fuse and a no-nonsense attitude, Guy is a strict and somewhat overzealous leader, commanding his allies against the Mercer Family's regime in desperate hopes to save Scarlet City.

On "that night in '56", Guy was out partying with friends when Pain and his grunts stormed the streets of Scarlet City in their massacre. Guy's mother and father were among the casualties, leaving him orphaned and alone at the age of 19. Through this he grew personally detached and untrusting, with a vicious rage against injustices. He would eventually found the Sons of Crimson along with others affected by Pain's wrath who sought to do good.

#### **Jane Davies | Ruby**

Jane is Cardinal's most trusted ally. As well as a skilled engineer and tinkerer, Jane is an extroverted but deeply layered woman, often hiding her true self behind quips and jests. Though confident in both her abilities and femininity, Jane's own sense of identity is somewhat confused.

Jane was 15 when she suffered Pain's wrath. Her parents where out of town for a few days leaving her to look after her 10 year-old brother. Yet despite her charge, when Pain's men visited her house that fateful night she was unable to protect the boy. She survived and has ever since held survivor's guilt over the incident. After her brother's death her father turned to drinking, with her mother leaving home to flee from her grief. And when her father died of liver failure Jane was left alone.

#### **Christian Reid | Carmine**

Reid is a tired middle-aged man. While humorous and appearing jolly Reid has few friends left alive or free due to his many dangerous prior job paths. He tries very well to not let it bother him and for the most part Reid takes it in his stride but more than anything he finds himself continually drawn back into dangerous games, craving the rush and the satisfaction of bringing about change.

Unlike the rest of the Sons, Reid was already an adult in 2056. At 36, he was the proud father of two young boys whom he scared custody of with his ex-wife Helena. Christian was a good man and a great father but could never provide for his sons as well as his ex-wife expected him to due to his low income, but he always tried his hardest for honest work. But when Pain struck, his world was turned upside down. From safety of his home during the thunderstorm that ravaged the city that night, Reid watched as the news reports flooded in of the incident at the prison, as news of Pain's massacres reached television, as well as the streets and districts targeted. The entire block. They'd blown up the entire block that Reid's sons and ex-wife lived in. There were no bodies.

Destroyed and distraught, Reid turned to drugs and began entangling himself in large gang wars and political quarrels to instigate changes that he thought would prevent injustices such as Pain's wrath from happening again, as an information broker and hacker for mercenaries and assassins, crossing paths with Brendan Foley - The Black Whisper at one point quite significantly. But eventually Reid's drug addiction would become too much and he would force himself to join a Drug Addicts Anonymous group. Years after going clean he would return to the group and volunteer as a group leader, meeting Guy Graves as a young man. This was how he would join the Sons of Crimson. Eventually, the allure of changing the world, of being a hero, would pull him back in, and he's never looked back.

#### **Will Jones | Oxblood**

Will is a tall, athletic and amicable young man, despite his troubling past. He can oftentimes become overwhelmed by his emotions, which he is very much in contact with, but likes to believe himself to be the most analytical of the group, besides tech genius Jane.

At the beginning of the story Will's younger brother Trent is kidnapped by the Mercer Family to be used as a weapon against the Sons and experimented on by Dorothy Mercer, the latter unbeknownst to the Sons. The Sons first mission with Alice is to extract and rescue Trent from Dorothy's brother; Nick. As Alice and the Sons prepare for their mission it is immediately apparent how much Will cares for his brother and how concerned he is over his safety as he sufferers horrible anxiety attacks, only aided by Alice's surprising care and patience. When the mission goes awry, Will is forced into a situation where he is forced to execute his young brother after the latter transformed into a feral beast and almost killed Alice and the Sons, however Alice at the last minute was able to take the shot for Will, killing Trent but sparing Will the pain of the responsibility. This fundamentally changes Will, as he is forced to question whether he is truly alone in the world now without his family.

Will was 12 when he and the 7 year-old Trent were orphaned by Pain's attacks, also losing their older, 17 year-old sister. The pair danced from foster family to foster family, trouble following them wherever they went in Scarlet City, along with their misery. Will joined the Sons of Crimson to save people and to make Scarlet City a brighter place for people like his younger brother, though since his motives have been questioned as he enters a crucible.

#### **Dan Darake | Tuscan**

Dan is the youngest of the Sons of Crimson, lithe and agile. He is cunning, quick and very charismatic, often the comic relief of the group and likely the life of any party he would one day be invited to. With his arsenal of blades and tools, Dan is well equipped for most situations.

Unlike most the of the other Sons, Dan had already lost his parents long before Pain visited his home. He was 5 when his parents were killed by a mob hit, and was majorly cared for by his older brother Ken, who was a whole 10 years older than him. Constantly fleeing the law, Ken taught Dan in the art of petty crimes and roguery to get by. But when he was 10, and his brother; 20, his life was destroyed once more when Pain's wrath caused Ken to be killed while he was working as an enforcer for the villain Nightfiend. As Dan hid in their hollow he eventually found out that his brother was never coming back.

As he grew up, Dan realised the horrific impact that villainy had had on his life and swore to turn his life around. He joined the Sons of Crimson where he could not only do good for his city and repent for his sins, but also become part of a new, loving family; something he was so dearly missing.

### **Antagonists**

#### **Dorothy Mercer**

The illusive head of the Mercer crime family. Not much is known about her, but her approach to her rule includes unorthodox methods. This has included being open to human experimentation or genetic modification, such was the case for Trent Jones.

#### **Nick Mercer**

Brother of Dorothy Mercer and a member or the same crime family. Unlike Dorothy, he takes a more active role in the crime syndicate, involving personally overseeing operations in Scarlet City. He is easily identified by his orange suit, and is able to manipulate the properties of fire.

#### **"Blight"**

An armoured woman possessing elite training. Not much is known about her, but she is easily recognisable from her twin blades.

### **Supporting Characters**

#### **Trent Jones**

Oxblood's brother and victim to the Mercer Family's genetic modification.

#### **Brendan Foley | The Black Whisper**

An old associate of Carmine, and highly trained in a wide variety of weapons. Former member of the Black Cries, and was recently released from a high security prison.

## Chapters [SPOILER ALERT]

### Issue #0

After being forced to execute her brother, **Alice Drake** takes his body on a pilgrimage back to their hometown; the scum-ridden crime hive of Scarlet City to bury him among the rest of their family. The morning after, Alice sobers up in the desolate husk of her childhood home. Distraught and depressed, Alice watches the news as the events of the Battle of the Citadel are reported on, but following this Alice witnesses a news report on the emergence of a rogue group of vigilantes, all clad in red, after they had taken down the biker gang; The Ebony Jackals, the night before. Immediately, Alice is enraged to learn that they call themselves the "**Sons of Crimson"**.

But as Alice rushed to equip herself to take down whom she dubs as "posers", Alice comes to a realisation. In this moment Alice renounces the title of The Queen of Hearts, along with her outfit that so closely mimicked her brother's, donning a new outfit of black armour along with a new alias; The **Red Queen**.

### Issues #1-2

Alice arrives at the Ebony Jackals Bar to collect any information she can on the so-called "Sons of Crimson". She finds the bar ransacked but recovering from the last night's attack. After inquiring at the bar, Alice engages in an all-out brawl against the Jackals and their burly patrons alike, becoming overwhelmed by their enormous number while adjusting to the use of non-lethal weapons over her swords and firearms.

Elsewhere we are introduced to **Guy Graves / Cardinal**, the leader of the Sons of Crimson. Awakening at their makeshift base, Guy leaves his quarters to greet the rest of the Sons. Guy greets **Jane Davies / Ruby**, **Will Jones / Oxblood** and **Dan Darake / Tuscan**.

### Issue #3

Back at the Jackals Bar, Alice is rescued by the sudden intervention of an unseen hacker who plunges the bar into darkness long enough for Alice to escape to the bar's roof. There she meets a middle-aged man in a brown trench coat calling himself **Carmine**, introducing himself as a member of the Sons of Crimson.

Alice immediately assaults the man but quickly the remaining vigilantes appear from concealment and confront her together. Cardinal, the leader, reveals that each of the Sons began this path when they suffered great tragedy on the 26th November 2056, the same night that Alice's family was slain in the prison break and massacre orchestrated by the villain **Pain**. Cardinal somehow recognises Alice as such a victim, saying that she is "one of [them]". Finally, Cardinal informs Alice on the state of Scarlet City, and it's oppressive rule by the **Mercer Family**. They inform Alice that the Mercer's have kidnapped Oxblood's brother; Trent, to get to them, and implore for her assistance after seeing her in action in the bar. Reluctantly, after striking a chord with their need to look after family, Alice agrees to help rescue the innocent boy.

### Issues #4-6

After preparing at the Sons' base, Alice reveals her name to the Sons to comfort the anxious Oxblood. The group then set off into the field and are called by the overseer Carmine to the most probable location of the hostage boy; Warehouse 337 on Scarlet's eastern dock, an address which is revealed by Alice to Tuscan and Oxblood to be one of the same location's her father and his partner were lead to the night that **Pain** murdered her father, at the cost of Pain's brother; **Grief**.

### Issues #7-8

With the sudden interruption of a mysterious assassin - secretly former associate of Carmine; **Brendan Foley** - summoned by an open contract to silence the threat that occupied the very same warehouse, Alice and the Sons leap into action. As they enter the warehouse and begin to beat their way through the resistance of a small army of thugs, Alice identifies the threat of a fire-wielding superhuman in an orange suit, **Nick Mercer**, standing beside the tied up young boy.

Alice and Oxblood attack Nick but are surprised by the arrival of an enigmatic woman in dark armour wielding twin blades whom Nick refers to as "**Blight**". Alice duels with Blight as Nick turns his attention to the assassin Foley. As this occurs Oxblood moves to untie his brother. Just as Alice overpowers Blight, stealing one of her blades and forcing her into immediate retreat, Oxblood frees Trent while Trent begs relentlessly through his taped mouth for Oxblood to not release him, claiming that a "**Dorothy Mercer**" had done something dangerous to him. But then, as Oxblood prepared to flee with the extraction seemingly almost complete, Trent keeled over, painfully metamorphosing into the hulking form of a savage wolf creature.

### Issues #9-10

Nick Mercer is defeated by Foley, knocked unconscious and left vulnerable having been taken out by two well placed explosives.

In a mad panic, Alice and the Sons wrestle with the beast formally known as Trent, narrowly escaping its relentless attacks. Cardinal strikes out at the beast with his electrified staff, dealing some damage before being beaten aside, knocked unconscious. Ruby and Oxblood retaliate but discover that their bullets and electrodes are unable to pierce the thick muscles of the creature's chest and arms. Tuscan is quickly incapacitated by the beast who then throws Ruby to the ground also. Alice clashes with the monster and is semi-successful in withstanding its attacks, but only manages one worthwhile attack, slashing the creature's head and discovering that its head was its only weak spot.

Alice continues to fight the beast but is overwhelmed, too forced to the ground, only saved by the quick intervention of Ruby who slashes the monster down the back with a knife, drawing attention to her. As Oxblood looks on bewildered, the last of the group standing, he clutches at his gun. The beast pounces on Ruby and prepares to gnarl her to pieces. With no other choice Oxblood accepts that he must shoot the creature; his brother in the head, killing him to save Alice and the rest of the Sons. A shot sounds, and as the smoke clears its revealed that Alice was the one to fire the shot, saving Oxblood from executing his own brother, just as she was forced to do just days ago.