A Beachport Reader's Guide

This meant that the only surviving member of their family was young Dawn who, a toddler at the time, had been left in the care of a housekeeper when the rest of the family flew off on their doomed mission. The Walshes' will left everything to their daughters, of which only Dawn apparently survived. Thus a fierce legal war ensued, as a seeming army of distant relatives emerged to fight over the conservatorship of the young child - and with it, effective control over the Walshes' considerable property and assets. This war was still ongoing when, three years later, a strange figure wearing very little wandered out of what was now legally the Fertalian Preserve and declared herself to be Felicia.

There were some attempts at objection, by the more avaricious claimants. But the returned Felicia could answer any question flawlessly, provided perfectly matching fingerprints, and even passed a DNA test with ease. At last, any hope of challenging her identity vanished. Conveniently having just turned eighteen, the question of conservatorship was moot - Felicia assumed full ownership and control of the ranch and other properties, and guardianship of her young sister.

But the Felicia who emerged from the wastes was still a very different woman from the young girl who had gone in. Although she found her experiences difficult to recount in perfect detail, it was soon clear that she had spent years wandering the various savage dimensions which the Preserve was now in a state of permanent superposition with; before finally chancing her way back out. But in that time, the strange worlds she had visited had changed her. She was stronger, tougher, and faster. Her meager starting outfit having long since been reduced to tatters, she had gotten used to wearing only the bare minimum of clothing, and that only what she could craft from the hides of the creatures she killed with her bare hands. And, bluntly, she now frequently felt more comfortable being alone in the wastes, than stuck dealing with courtrooms or other trappings of the so-called 'civilized' world - which she still had to do, as the last few attempts by the more persistently avaricious relatives to claw away some piece of her inheritance got dealt with one by one.

But Felicia was pleasantly surprised to discover there was one group she was at home with: both in temperament, and in wardrobe preferences - the city's superheroines, who had become steadily more prominent during her absence. And they had need of her: they had to date struggled more than a little to deal with the Preserve, which was too close to the city to ignore. This was a role which Tiger Queen took on handily. For the Preserve was in bad need of a protector: someone to protect both the more valuable creatures within from violent criminal poachers, but also someone to make sure the clueless humans outside stayed safe from the many many monstrous things within. Adorning herself in a last soon-to-be trademark version of her customary self-made outfit, the newly christened Tiger Queen eagerly took up this responsibility - and it remains her proud duty to this day.

In the meantime, trying to make up for her lost years of being educated in and by the wilds, Felicia has gone to great lengths to educate herself. She managed to complete her GED to cover her lost high school years, and then get a degree in Xenobiology from Beachport U; although she is not the best academic in the planet after her long absence from the world of letters and got only middling grades. She is now attempting to get a PhD to go with it, so that she can have the scientific credentials to match her official role as the principal conservator of the Preserve; but it is very slow going due to her numerous distractions. Financially she is supported by paying visitors to the family Ranch, which she takes a keen interest in administrating, although much of the day-to-day work is in the hands of some paid staff.

Special: Tiger Queen's primary assignment is to continuously patrol the primal and wild Fertalian Preserve, an otherwise-forbidden wasteland just outside of Beachport. The Preserve is host to chaotic and otherworldly forces, and was created by an as-yet unspecified accident some time in the past. Presumably due to her origins Tiger Queen is noted as having a special affinity for the Preserve and its many inhabitants and dangers, allowing her to often sense hazards that might ensnare more powerful heroines. She habitually goes barefoot when on patrol, in part to enhance this connection. Still, this affinity is not perfect, and she can quite easily fall afoul of the Preserve's more predatory denizens, particularly if she gets too arrogant or careless.

Appearances to Date: Tiger Queen vs the Bush Poacher, Tiger Queen gets Treed, Valiant Valkyrie in the Zoo Ch. 3.

VALIANT VALKYRIE

Concept: Norse Valkyrie who was inspired to leave Asgard and become a superheroine

Epithets: the Queen of Valor, the Golden Goddess

Public Name: Kaja Hammer

Public Identity: Billionaire Businesswoman

Residence: Hammer Manor, an enormous mansion on a palatial walled estate, located in one of the richest neighborhoods in the city.

Character Notes: Valkyrie is basically the 'stock superheroine' against whom the others compare themselves so she tends to embody all my standard super-lady traits: proud, confident, fearless, a little vain, very protective of her image, a little reckless. Her main defining features compared to the others are that she's still a bit of a fish out of water and that she is immortal. The combined effect of these two traits is that she is, in a non-pervy way, sort of like a big kid. She has no sense of her own mortality and thus feels zero pressure to pick a path for herself and stick to it: and by the same token as long as she doesn't actually die there is basically nothing she can't ultimately recover from. So, she tends to have a 'fuck it, I'll try anything once' attitude. In her efforts to fit in within this crazy modern world she will gladly adopt one approach, and if it doesn't work, turn on a dime and try another. Although she came here voluntarily, as with many expats she does find her new environment a little bewildering and foreign at times. Used to millenia of political stasis she can't follow modern politics at all and doesn't try (which is why she has a blind spot about, just as an example, why some people seem to react negatively to Rebel Belle). She absorbs idioms and language well enough but doesn't follow pop culture generally - although she will occasionally get completely absorbed into one thing only to later abandon it entirely. Her approach to crime fighting, for better or for worse, is 'point me at where the big bad guy is, and I'll go punch him a bunch.' However, in my opinion, she does ultimately mean well - even if things often don't work out anything like she intends them to.

Sexual Notes: Valkyrie has had the longest career of any woman on the team so defining one status quo for her here is difficult; and you will see some variation between stories. But generally, she is 'married to her work' and though interested in sex and dating has a very hard time getting it through proper channels. This is further hampered by the fact she is very conscious of her image as one of the leading superwomen on Earth and tends to put a very restrictive set of rules on herself ('ten dates or six months whichever comes last' being the main one we see quoted). That said, as noted above, she has an impulsive streak, so you will on occasion see her just say 'oh, fuck it, let's go' if she's horny enough.

Age: ~2500+ (looks 25)

Hair: Blonde, long, flowing

Eyes: Blue

Race: White (Nordic Goddess, literally)

Body: tall, buxom, athletic, giant tits, huge ass, monster thighs, super-Amazon

Color Theme: Blue and Gold

Heraldry: Gold Double-V on Blue

Costume: Blue bikini covered in pattern of golden double-Vs. Matching boots, gloves, mask. Golden circlet. Golden magic belt.

Powers: Superstrong, Supertough, Bulletproof, Very experienced fighter.

Weakness: Losing her belt reduces her in effect to a very skilled and athletic mortal woman.

Base: the Valkyrie's Lair, a secret cave underneath her mansion filled with high-tech machinery and gadgets. Most notably includes the Virtual Justice Center, her advanced supercomputer that does much of her crime-solving for her.

Vehicles: as befits one of the wealthiest heroines in the city, Valkyrie has an entire fleet of branded vehicles at her disposal. The most common is the Valkyr's Steed, her double-V-logo emblazoned supercar. But she also has her own jet, and speedboat, and possibly more besides.

Aegis Host Status: Aegis Shield (Overall Leader)

Aegis Host Rank: Assault Squad Leader

Aegis Host Clique: None (the loneliness of command keeps her out of this, plus she doesn't understand modern pop culture or politics so she doesn't really 'get' most of the differences that actually drive the cliques.

Relations: Fulvia Arena aka Vestal is her adopted daughter and lives with her in her mansion.

Backstory: Kaja (not her real Norse name, it has yet to be revealed which if any of the named Valkyries in various sagas she is) spent thousands of years serving as, as she would now put it in her own words, "a glorified divine barmaid" and "dead dude Uber." Then one day, curious, she began to read some mortal writings. She became enamored with many philosophers professing a far more individualist and liberationist view than she was used to, especially but not exclusively the then cutting-edge cause of the suffragettes. She ultimately became convinced that continuing to be serve 'a bunch of crusty old dudes who call themselves Gods' was 'stupid.' So, she decided to leave.

But, being an immortal being, she had plenty of time to prepare, and took it. Stealing small quantities of gold, she snuck them out and set up a fake identity (whose wealth she would eventually 'inherit'). She built this up over some time, in secret, as side trips during her occasional official duties of going out to observe mortal battles.

Though she thought she was undetected, in fact, several of the gods were aware of what she was doing. However, they let her get away with it, for reasons that ranged from 'she could ultimately prove useful for my current plans' to 'fuck it, I'm bored, it'll be entertaining'. There remains conflict in Asgard about exactly what to do about her - which is why she has not been interfered with so far. If they ever do come to a decision, perhaps there will be a story about it. (But I currently have no ideas for how to make it sexy, so likely they'll just keep watching, like a bunch of old pervs).

In any case, eventually Valkyrie swiped her soon-to-be trademark magic belt and one last armload of gold and split for good.

She came down to the mortal world after the emergence of several other male superheroes, but as one of the first powerful and openly active superheroines. As such, as you might imagine, there was an immense amount of (panting, desperate) interest from her new male colleagues to have the newly-emerged mystery woman (who claimed to be an immortal goddess and had a body that medically-speaking counts as a cure for impotence) onto their teams.

However, Valkyrie had just gotten done being 'barmaid to a bunch of rowdy dudes' and (correctly) suspected that if she joined any of the existing almost entirely male-dominated teams this is what she would quickly become again. So, instead, she decamped to Beachport which, having just suffered the horrible incident that wiped out Rebel Belle's father and the rest of his team, was then without any superhuman protection at all. Setting herself up there, in short order through a combination of her own inspiration and chance (such as Rebel Belle herself taking up her mantle), she found herself joined by several other costumed women. Seizing her opportunity while it presented itself, Valiant Valkyrie quickly brought them together and founded the nation's first all-female superteam, the Aegis Host - with herself as its leader naturally.

Meanwhile, while her smuggled gold provided her initial 'inherited' seed capital, this was only enough to make her moderately wealthy. However, early in her super-career Valkyrie was in a position to observe several secret technologies before they were released to the public, and in a bit of super-insider-trading was able to use her alter-ego to heavily invest in the companies involved. After said companies exploded enormously she rapidly became extremely rich indeed, and now is easily the wealthiest woman in the city.

That said she is an almost entirely absentee-CEO, being far too focused on her superheroine activities to pay much attention to day to day operations. She mostly lets a combination of professional managers and outside consultants run her business empire for her. Hammer Holdings is a combination of an actual holding company, that just sits on giant shares from other profitable firms and rakes in dividends; plus a few actual tech or industrial firms that she does own outright, usually ones that have particular utility to her as a superheroine. These subsidiaries usually go by a common naming convention, e.g. Hammer Plastics, Hammer Automotive, etc.

Special: "I just modified my belt!" Valkyrie will often try out new belts with altered properties. (It's not actually her modifying them, she has a whole team working on this for her, there is in fact a planned story that will give us a look at them.) Generally the new belts have some critical weakness that makes her abandon them. One example is in Valiant Valkyrie gets Punched Out where she debuts a belt that makes her completely immune to harm (which turns out to have come at the cost of having no protection at all in one rather critical location). There have been several others, but they're even harder to discuss without spoilers.

Appearances: Numerous Titular Roles; A Game of Stealth.

VESTAL

Concept: Valkyrie's sidekick

Public Name: Fulvia Arena

Public Identity: high school senior, cheerleader, gymnast

Character Notes: Where Valkyrie is the archetypal superheroine Vestal is the archetypal sidekick. She is brash, impulsive, even more vain than her mentor, has a short attention span, and is always eager to be involved.

Sexual Notes: She is sexually active and not a virgin, but in many stories Valkyrie is not aware of that. She has not had many partners however, and is generally completely unprepared for what the villains can sling into her.

Age: 18

Hair: Black, long

Eyes: Blue

Race: White (Italian-American)

Body: Slender yet busty, lithe, svelte, shapely, supple, ass like a goddamn ripe peach.

Color Theme: Pink and Gold

Heraldry: Gold V on Pink

Costume: Pink bikini covered with golden V's, matching boots, gloves and mask, golden belt.

Powers: Like Valkyrie's but weaker

Weakness: Losing her belt.

Vehicles: in addition to frequently riding along with Valkyrie, Vestal has her own pink-and-gold branded motorcycle.

Aegis Host Status: Shield Maiden (mentor: Valiant Valkyrie)

Aegis Host Rank: Assault Squad, Rank 4

Aegis Host Clique: the Total Divas (Daring Diva)

Relations: Kaja Hammer is her adopted mother. Valkyrie takes this responsibility very seriously and is often overprotective. That said, she has even less understanding than average, both from a cultural standpoint and because she hasn't been a teenage girl herself in a few millennia, so she misses a lot.

Backstory: Early in her career, Valkyrie dealt with a string of thefts of ancient artifacts, which she eventually traced back to a mysterious cult who was attempting to resurrect an ancient Etruscan god. After defeating the cult she rescued the intended vessel for the summoned god - which turned out to be an infant human girl.

Despite searching, Valkyrie was unable to discover the poor baby's true identity or parentage. So, not seeing any other good option, she ended up adopting her in her civilian alter-ego. She ascribed to her the name Fulvia Arena, based on her best guess as to her 'true' identity from the cult's cryptic notes - although that lead, like all the others, had turned up blank.

Fulvia grew up into a spunky and eager adolescent, and soon proved a natural and competitive athlete. As her young ward began to enter a precocious and very well-developed adolescence, Kaja found she was unable to keep her nightly crime-fighting activities secret. As a result Valkyrie soon inducted Fulvia as her sidekick. Having learned enough in her failed investigation to know she was almost certainly of Italian heritage, Valkyrie assigned her an appropriate codename to match her own; one that still allowed her sidekick to use a variant of Valkyrie's own golden double-V logo.

Special: Vestal's Belt: Kaja is constantly having her people try to replicate her own belt. So far they haven't succeeded but have come up with weaker prototypes, plus all the side-grade variants she tries out (see Valiant Valkyrie's entry). The best of these at any given point is what Vestal uses as her own belt.

Appearances to Date: numerous; but has noteworthy roles in A Game of Stealth, Valiant Valkyrie in the Zoo Ch. 1, and Valiant Valkyrie vs the Boarman.

WILDERLASS

Concept: Tiger Queen's kid sister and sidekick

Epithets: none

Public Name: Dawn Walsh

Public Identity: high school student, animal trainer, wilderness explorer

Character Notes: flower child, friend to all living things (at least until they start getting a little too friendly to her), granola girl, grown-up girl-scout, outdoorsy, kind and generous, always wants to be helpful, gardener, not easily disgusted by bugs and other 'icky' stuff (until we start getting into monster territory)

Sexual Notes: she is a virgin (or at least was just before any story she appears in).

Age: 18

Hair: Brown, often with flowers in it

Eyes: Blue

Race: White (Irish-American)

Body: slender, lean, supple

Color Theme: Brown and Pink

Heraldry: Brown Diagonal Band over Pink

Costume: Khaki short-shorts, Khaki sleeveless vest, hiking boots, safari hat, utility sash, leather gloves. Underneath her shorts and vest she wears a leopard-print bikini.

Powers: similar to Tiger Queen, Wilderlass is at home in the wilderness and has an intuitive connection to the strange lands of the Preserve, making her an ideal guide through its twisted wastes. She is nowhere near as experienced or as confident as her big sister, however; which partially manifests in her preference for sturdy hiking boots and tough if brief and breathable outerwear, rather than going barefoot and in a bikini to maximize her sensory perceptions like her big sister does.