Who’s mustache would win?
Rooting for the Outcast.
My boy Dorian could kill Ortega with one shock spell.
The lightning wouldn’t kill him, it would be the lighting.
2 Likes
Ortega’s hands down. He can tag team it with the beard.
Hmm Dorian does have style going for him.
2 Likes
Sorry gotta give it tp my boi ortega tgat moustache with beard is just a combo waiting to explode
1 Like
I just played another delicious playthrough of Fallen Hero and I must say, this is my best one yet! Thank you @malinryden for creating characters I can fall in love with again and again (figuratively and literally) and I must say I loved Ortega the most but when I developed an actual relationship with Dr.Mortum mmmmmmmm…
I love the replayability and I must say, hats off to you sir!!
I cannot wait for the second one and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours! (Cannot wait to playtest chapter one, and I have a quick question:when did you start writing Fallen Hero:Retribution?)
5 Likes
Some more fan-fiction for the overshipped Chargestep
Summary
Strange. There is only darkness and you can’t feel anyone’s mind, not even your own. Something must have gone horribly wrong. You wonder why you’r not afraid, but it would seem the part of your brain that controls that emotion isn’t currently active.
It only takes a few seconds for you to realize, you must have somehow managed to enter a specific form of conciousness you were designed to achieve. You’ve fainted from some sort of excessive trauma, and even then your brain maintains some sort of conciousness. This state was meant to give the operatives a way out in case of enemy interrogation.
There are a few things you can do while you’r here, and even if time is relatively slower in this state, it will not last forever.
You…
a) Go over the events that lead you here.
You walk trough the darkness until you see an image forming before you. It’s a memory… but it’s detached, so it’s sensory or emotional effects can’t reach you for the moment.
Your fall to the ground, beaten. The armor seems to be about to come back online, but it’s too late to stop Ortega. He is already onto you, and sends another strong punch your way, a loud crack letting you know your mask finally broke down under the repeated agression. You feel his hands pulling it off, as you fruitlessly try to get him off you, but without the strength enhancements it’s like trying to displace a mountain.
With a final pull, it comes out, and you feel the hot air, as the mist and smoke from burnt electronics makes it way out. Ortega is staring at you with an enraged expression… one that suddenly turns into confusion.
Darn.
… C… Cyrus ?
This isn’t happening.
What… is this some sort of telepathic trick you monster ?
You take a deep breath. How in the hells you’r going to get out of this, you have no idea. You can feel the armor powering up tough it’s in no condition to help you, and what Ortega saw, he can’t unsee. But you still have to try to struggle out of this.
Ortega catchs onto you, and pins you down once more. Nope. This is definitely happening now.
Cyrus is this you ? What is… why ?
What could you possibly tell him? You are in shock, but your practical mind can’t help pointing out silence will trigger the wrong response, and you need to say something.
Because i’m a mess Ortega. You say at last. You’ve be better off if i was dead. Everyone would be. Even me
Ortega says something else, another question. His voice sounds more and more distant. The armor feels hotter with each passing second, and it gets harder and harder to breath.
Ortega asks again.
I … I can’t… “I can’t breathe” you think. The world goes dark.
The memory ends.
Oh. So Ortega questioning your choices in was such a traumatic experience your training made you think you where being interrogated by a hostile enemy force and put you into a catatonic state. Fantastic. that’s just great.
B) Try to get in touch with your senses, and figure out where you are now.
You can’t open your eyes or move in this state, but if you focus, you might catch what’s going on around you.
You feel your body lying face upwards over a soft surface. A bed? Your arms are extended over your head and bound together. THe binding seems to be metal… handcuffs or some other implement, and whatever that is fixed so you can’t use your hands. Your legs seem to be relatively free. You feel a weight over you… possibly some sort of soft covering. Blankets?
Your chest and face hurt in several spots, so you can assume you’ve been beaten down before you got bound to your current position. Aditionally you feel you’r not wearing a shirt and there are some strange bindings over your shoulder… possibly bandages? The tought of your body being exposed would be enough to send you into a panic in a wake state, but right now it’s just more bad news.
Your ears catch a voice talking , but it’s not in the inmediate proximity and you can’t make who’s talking or what are they saying.
So you’r bound and lying in some sort of bed. And they’ve left you alone for the moment. Possibly a medical bed in an enclosed facility and they know who you are, if they are so confident not to leave a guard you can manipulate. Oh and your body is exposed so they can see your tatoo and serial number. This keeps getting better.
C) Try to use your mind to scan the area
You don’t have access to all of your psychic arsenal, but you can do a basic scan of the surrounding minds, and it can go pretty far too. You’ve trained for this and it should work at least.
You feel no minds near you. THere are other minds above and below you in different levels. You tap into the minds spacial awareness and manage to decipher some of the feedback. Appearently all these minds are enclosed in different compartments separated trough different levels of a building.
So it would seem you’r alone, in an unknown (possibly subterranean?) building, and other minds are each enclosed into their own separate compartments. Very likely a prison like construction. Good thing you’r in a dispassionate state because this is beginning to feel quite grim.
D) Focus on awakening yourself
You spend a few more (Minutes? Seconds? Hours?) in the darkness before mustering resolve to wake up. The worst part is you can’t really make a plan, from what you’ve gathered. You need to find out more. Still you can’t help but keep thinking all this points to you being back at the…
…Farm! You wake up with this word in your lips, as you start struggling weakly against your bounds. You open your eyes, and the light in the ceiling temporarily blinds you. As your emotions return your mind hurridely pieces the story back together trying to make sense of it. Your plan was a success, and you defeated them again, but then Ortega somehow managed to beat you down and capture you. And now they’ve handed you to them, and you’r back at the farm. And there will be hell to pay if you don’t find a way to escape.
You struggle fruitlessly, as tears fall from your eyes, entering a complete panic. All you can think of is you need to get out of here before they take you for interrogation, no matter the cost. The blankets on top of you make a mess as you struggle as hard as you can to break free, without much success
Hey stop it ! A voice. A guard. You open your eyes and focus on the blurry figure, trying to get into his mind… but it doesn’t work. Desperate, you try to kick in his direction before he gets any closer.
Wow… Stop it. I mean it. You don’t. He gets a hold of your leg and for a moment stumbles, before sitting on the bed and forcefully stopping you. It’s Ortega.
Enough! what are you, a child? You know how this goes, you’r a villain, i’m the hero, i’ve captured you, now you have to behave, ok ? You go silent, speechless at the absurdity of the situation. The two of you stare at each other silently for a few moments.
How did you get here ? You ask at last, dumbfounded.
What, to my mom’s apartment ? She’s out of town visiting friends. He replies dryly. You study the room once again, your eyes getting used to the light. There are posters… and a desk… a large bean bag couch… yes. It’s his room. As your gaze goes back to Ortega, you begin to notice he’s quite mad, and you’r only making him go angrier.
Now you’r going to tell-me-Why
You feel your mouth go dry. But fainting again really isn’t an option.
There are lots of reasons you didn’t want to tell Ortega the truth. But there’s also your training. You’ve been endlessly conditioned to stop yourself from talking about the Farm or it’s secrets with anyone else. You’ve defied their controls before true, but this is different.
You decide to tell the truth, even if it kills you. You might already be dead for all you know and this just a hallucination.
You feel exhausted. This is Ortega after all… and if you don’t speak he’ll figure it out sooner or later. And he’ll tell others. And that will get him killed too. And you can’t have that… You feel a painfull feeling on your gut as you open your mouth. The words make you physically sick.
I’m sorry. you begin. I’m so sorry… He observes you with contained rage, but doesn’t interrupt. I lied. I lied about everything. Steel was right, you should’ve never trusted me. I only bring pain after all.
Why pretend to be dead ? Why return now ? And what’s with the powersuit? his patience is wearing thinn. You should start with the juicy stuff.
Because… Ortega… i’m not real. Nothing about me is. You’ve can see my serial number _ you gaze at your chestand the re-gene tatoo _ I’m not real.
I say Enough! Give me a straight answer you … he stops short of name-caling. He can see the Re-geneTatoo but he hasn’t figured it out yet. Maybe he just sees what he wants to see ? You take a deep breath.
I’m not Human. I’m a thing. A piece of property and i always was. I’m Government property. I’m a re-gene. On the run from them.
He just glares at you, with an incredulous look. He opens his mouth to say something but then he just stands up and leaves the room.
Your gaze drifts back to the ceiling, lamp. Maybe it can blind you so you don’t have to look at him again. You shift uncomfortably, your hands still bound by handcuffs to the metal bed. You feel a cold sensation overcome you, before you manage to regain your senses. It’s impossible to know if this is your training, or maybe these are just too many emotions for you.
Ortega comes back after a while, walking straight torwards you with a pointed finger.
What… in the hells… why didn’t you tell me ? We could have helped you!
No you couldn’t. You reply in a cold voice. You’r getting better at this. Telling the truth. Still it doesn’t help the feeling that you’r digging your own grave with each word. I told you. I’m not human. I’ don’t have rights, and specially not human rights.
If you shot me right now, and killed me, it wouldn’t be murder. Worst case scenario you get sued for damage to goverment property You point out. I don’t go to jail in the end, but to the scrap-yard.
So… you expect me to believe you’r just some sort of escaped experiment?
Not escaped… i just lost contact with them the first time because of the Catrastrophiends attack, and managed to stay out of their reach for a very long time. And then you where in that case too… I tought i’d fit in if i made myself look like a hero. And… I… I don’t expect anything. You should just get rid of me. I’ll only bring troubles. You look away from him.
Was this all some sort of sick game ? Why did you even keep pretending to be a hero anyways ? He asks slowly, with increasing anger as he pronounces the words.
Maybe i was an idiot. Maybe i tought if i did good enough, i could be forgiven for not being a human. Maybe i thought if i managed to be good enough, then when the secret of what i was got out… maybe…
Maybe what ? He asks after several seconds when you fail to finish your phrase.
Maybe i’d be real too. You say, unable to control your tears. You’ve done it. It’s over. It’s all over.
Another long silence. You shift lightly, your arms still bound. Not that it helps, there’s no posture that would make you feel any more comfortable about this conversation.
What happened at the Hearbreak ? Was that part of a plan ?
I didn’t know what … you grasp for air as your voice breaks I didn’t know what was going on. I had fooled myself into thinking i was a hero like you and the rangers. It was just another case You gather strength to continue. The telepath causing it was… he was just like me… earlier model, but they had done different experiments on him. Opened his mind. And he was sharing the pain with us all. He wanted to kill himself. And he made me want to kill myself when i saw what he went through.
But I stopped you. he adds. Pulled the gun from you hands.
Yes. you reply You did
And afterwards?
They caught me again… until i broke free. For real this time.
He stays silent, processing this. Finally he speaks again
What do you expect to achieve ?
I wanted to put an end to it. Become a villain for the public to hate, and when they finally get me they’ll know the sick governemnt is to blame.
So the plan is going out in a blaze of revenge. How’s that working out for you?
You suddenly break into tears again. But there’s nowhere to go. You can’t break free until Ortega decides to get rid of you. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I tricked you… i’m not real… I’m just another defective batch they’ve grown in the lab. I’m an idiot… and i’m dangerous. … i’m sorry.
Ortega sits on the bed and takes a deep breath.
Look no one knows you’r here. I just hid you after the fight until the others left and brought you here.
And you’ve been a jerk to me and lied and broke my arm. he remarks
You begin to say something but he just continues.
But you and I are going to talk this trough until we clear things out, ok? He runs a hand trough your face, clearing the tears.
I’ll get you something to eat… you’ve been out for half a day he adds. Handcuffs stay on tough. Because my arm HURT A LOT. he smiles lightly at you and leaves for the kitchen, leaving you with a puzzled look.
While he is gone you begin trying to pick up the pieces of yourself, until you suddenly realize you’ve missed something important. “Darn… i forgot to tell him about Eden. Well that’s going to be a memorable and pleasant conversation… saving the best for last, Sidestep”
18 Likes
Who did you romance in your FIRST playthrough?
- Ortega
- Ortega (puppet and MC)
- Mortum
- Both
- Holding out for Argent, Steel, or Herald
0 voters
Just interested what people did
5 Likes
Romancing Ortega, but when Book 2 comes out I’m moving on to Argent with Ortega’s relationship still complicated.
2 Likes
Good idea 
What is the best % relationship can you have with argent at the end of book one??
1 Like
Yeah I’m fully commiting to Argent, but I want to make Ortega suffer a little.
The highest I was able to get it to was 64%. Malin said you have to romance Argent the old fashioned way.
1 Like
@No_This_Is_Patrick How did you get that ? The best I got was 37% and that’s after I manipulated her to like me
2 Likes
Ortega romance is always complicated…
even with higher score…
So…#TEAMORTEGASMOOCHIES 
1 Like
Same!! I got 43% on my best run, again after manipulation. send help SOS
@Chopper What I noticed is that it also somehow depends how you treat her body in the beginning when your using it.
- Protect her body instead of the box
- Choose to linger in her mind
- Have high manipulate 70%
- Admit to Ortega you have powers
- Say Ortega exaggerates alot
- Agree to help Lady Argent
- Joke with her and make her feel comfortable
- Skim over her mind don’t deep dive
- Choose See me as a friend
- Choose Exhausted Concern
5 Likes
I tried out Ortega first because during that time, Steel’s romance was not yet confirmed by Malin if they will include it in the future books or not.
Ortega did grown on me during my first playthrough so I am keeping the save file I made. But now that it is confirmed, I will make another save solely for Steel romance (I can’t thank Malin enough for making it available)
Boo! if you do that…
She kick ya behind in the last fight though 
I like leaving EXODIA in her head! 
(I can’t help it…that’s what it reminded me of…and I know…neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd lol )
All you have to do is use telepathy on her during the fight and you’ll still win. Besides my goal isn’t to fight her. Funnily enough I care more about her than Ortega.
2 Likes
yeah…I guess…but I like to go toe to toe with Ortega…so I usually take str and speed 
1 Like
You can beat her without the Damocles trigger if you choose her as your rival when you’re training and then use telepathy on her in the sewer fight, but she’ll think you’re a cheater (says the one with skin made of steel and razor sharp claws that are harder than titanium)
3 Likes
yeah I know…
I got a couple of saves…for pretty much every result with her lol including the one she goes scratchy scratchy…
And thats one reason why…I aint no cheat! lol I dont even use the cape…don’t gonna give her any trophy!
I mean it’s not like she can do anything about it. It’s like fighting Superman as a normal human and complaining he punched you across a city.
1 Like