At the monthly meeting of the Cleveland-area NaNoWriMo group this past Thursday, I began working on the first of seven short stories I plan to write over the next seven months. These stories will tell the origins of eight superheroes I created in City of Heroes. Here’s a quick rundown of the stories:

• March – Cardelion: The Gladiator’s Tale. Max Barstow is a former television star attempting to reinvent himself as a costumed hero, despite a mountain of legal difficulties.
• April – QR7: The Android’s Tale is the story of an android whose origins are shrouded in mystery. A covert organization wants to find out who built the crimefighting automaton, who controls him now, and whether he can be recruited for sinister purposes.
• May – Dr. Garabiton: The Scientist’s Tale. Experimental physicist Patrick Nguyen finds himself thrown into a brutal conflict with CHAOS Factor, the supercriminal group responsible for the death of friend and mentor. When the mild-mannered scientist dons the Gravitas Mark IV battlesuit, gravity itself is bent to his whim.
• June – Karyx & Karykeion: The Tale of the Twins. Gifted with strange abilities to both heal and harm, Alexandra and Daniel Cahill kept their mutant powers a secret from the world, until a fateful car accident changed their lives forever.
• July – Conflagrante: Phoenix Reborn. An arsonist falls into his own trap and is reborn as a costumed crimefighter, but who is pulling his strings, and what will happen if his past is ever revealed?
• August – Kim Mak: Temporary Hero. Sometimes the difference between a hero and a villain is simply the outcome of a bet. When a world-renowned assassin loses a “friendly” wager with one of her peers, she must battle the forces of evil for a year.
• September – Major Dorque: The Old Soldier’s Tale. Major Jeffrey “Torque” Abrams served his country honorably for most of his adult life. Now, unable to adjust to being a civilian, Maj. Abrams has decided to come out of retirement to assist in the battle against those who would prey upon the weak, the helpless and the downtrodden. But someone at the Office of Hero Registration has a chip on their shoulder, and now the old soldier fights for his dignity against the most implacable of foes… bureaucracy.