Who is Void Razor?

After a mysterious shadowy figure was seen carving up Longbow in the shadow of Fort Cerberus, everyone is asking, "who is Void Razor?" Sources indicate that she has been seen many times coming and going from Fort Darwin, possibly taking orders from Kalinda. Even more ominously, the shadowy killer's appearance in the Rogue Isles seems to coincide with the disappearance of the former heroine Bright Wing from Ziggursky Penitentiary.

Bright Wing's fall is a tragic story. "She was as good-hearted and inspiring as her name implies," says Paradigm, one of her former comrades. "She was just a little headstrong, and the one serious mistake she finally made just snowballed into... I'm sorry... that's all for now."

After charging into a villain conclave without clearance, Bright Wing seriously injured an undercover Longbow operative. She was, of course, suspended pending a hearing where it was to be decided whether to discipline, fire, or prosecute her. She never made it there. Corrupt elements within the Hero Corps organization tricked her into thinking she was to be escorted under guard. They then kidnapped and sold her to a Council laboratory on Striga Isle, where she was tortured and experimented upon for months. She lost most of her powers during this time, including her ability to fly.

She eventually began to mutate on her own, however, surprising even the mad scientists who caused her transformation. Because they weren't prepared for her new powers, she was able to escape and return to Paragon City. Unfortunately, word had gotten out that she was coming to kill the mayor and perhaps several prominent figures in the Hero Corps bureaucracy. This was not true, but it was enough to put Longbow and the heroes of Atlas Park on alert. Although she probably would have been able to convince them of her innocence at this point, Bright Wing was terrified of being captured again - by anyone - and resisted arrest violently. This time, she was sent to Ziggursky.

There, both her mind and her body grew darker. Her journals indicate that she blamed not only the Council agents, but everyone she felt had failed her, even civilization itself. And then she was gone, vanishing in an Arachnos raid on the prison along with several other super-powered inmates.

Could the shadowy blade-wielder shown here be the fallen Bright Wing? For now, no one is sure.

Unbeholden Forever

"The Unbeholden? What Unbeholden? Beasty Boy was their heart and soul, and he's gone solo. Mistress Terror or Terrorist or whatever she calls herself, the so-called leader, has gone into hiding. The rest are strictly small time. Trust me, the Unbeholden are just a bad memory. It's groups like the Angry Bees or the Technocratic Dominion that we need to be watching, not those has-beens."

-- Captain Jerry Tooley, November 2007Longbow Senior Staff Briefing,

It seemed, for some time, that Captain Tooley was right. When they were in the news, the Unbeholden were plagued with rumors of internal upheavals, interspersed with recruiting surges and reunions that sounded suspiciously like canned press releases. Even Beasty Boy's rampage in the summer of 2007 seemed unable to stir them into action. Then events began to unfold that suggested the Unbeholden's lethargy had been a smoke screen all along.

It started with a single picture of what appeared to be Sarana, long believed to be Mistress Terror's personal assassin, taking down a mob boss in Port Oakes. Other pictures followed. Sarana battling snakes, fighting her way into Fort Hades, even defeating the Ferocious Flambelle in an Atlas Park bank robbery. Flambelle has, thankfully, recovered and was a key factor in positively identifying the elusive swordswoman. There are rumors that she was seen with Beasty Boy at some point as well, but all our sources seem to have disappeared.

Mistress Terror, meanwhile, was rumored to have been captured while trying to assassinate Ghost Widow. An Arachnos informant even released the following photo:

Then, on January 24th, the big news hit:

Mistress Terror, aided by familiar cronies Hanoi Jane, Nightmare Pixie, Erith, Plague Dog, Exterminus, and Screeching Harpy, made a spectacular strike on Atlas Park, targeting not the bank, but Wentworth's Consignment House. Then, at long last, she spoke to the press. Our Rogue Isles affiliate, possibly but not definitely that guy who puts the secret notes for villains in the newspapers, conducted the interview at night, under a bridge in Port Oakes.

"I hate Wentworth's," Mistress Terror explained. "That, and Plague Dog has been working wonders in the interplanetary contraband industry, and nothing makes him happier than a pile of weird junk."

Asked about the group's long quiescence and what might be next on their agenda, Mistress Terror replied, "For one thing, I wasn't trying to assassinate Ghost Widow. In fact... well... never mind. We've been gathering artifacts, researching the origins of our powers, making new friends, and... do you really expect me to tell you everything?"

Our plucky reporter followed Mistress Terror the next day and snapped one more surprising photo in Aeon City. After a tense pause during which she seemed to be considering teleporting him over the ledge, she offered the reporter a brief statement: "What can I say? The Unbeholden are back in action, and we are everywhere. Don't mess with us."