Deus Ex/Fallout
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Due to the blatant act of murder being caught on camera and then subsequently broadcasted well before anyone shy of the news agencies know what had occurred, an immediate arrest warrant was granted for Deus Ex. It began a city wide manhunt with the majority of registered heroes and virtually all of the P.P.D. looking for the killer.
The press had a field day with the story while the public raged about such a blatant act of evil being performed in their midst, unchecked from this monster. They learned he operated within Paragon for over a year as a vigilante before ’volunteering’ to register. They learned about his predilections towards combat, and wondered how someone so innately violent even passed the psyche portion of registration. While the news stations ratings climbed steadily, public opinion dropped on heroes to it’s lowest point in the aftermath of the Rikti invasion.
The cops, particularly those stationed in King’s Row, were more or less out for blood. There was a lot of speculation and talk inter-departmentally that Deus would probably be found resisting arrest and would likely not be taken alive, regardless of the veracity of the matter. He killed a cop, after all, someone who spent the better part of his life working with the homeless and troubled youths by all appearances. With Detective Millner’s dramatic execution, the children held aboard the Sea Arrow were rescued and the ship was impounded, but evidence was slow to be processed, as most police personnel were working hard to ‘catch’ Deus Ex. There were rumors that the P.P.D. attempted to bury recovered evidence from the Sea Arrow, but they were later discredited, even by Deus himself.
The hero community had a decidedly different point of view, preferring to take him alive, in part to give what was formerly one of their own his fair day in court but also to help bolster now-shaken public opinion in them all. That shaken opinion turned towards hostility as Deus continued to elude detection, some of the public claiming that the heroes were trying to let him get away. That thought grew rampantly across Paragon City, and in many cases costumed heroes were met with scorn and disdain instead of thanks.
As a result of so many resources being assigned to locating Deus, crime rose throughout the city. This then gave more ammunition to what was quickly becoming an anti-hero movement. In the wake of so much hostility, inevitably some heroes that were ready to fight with villains but not with the people they were attempting to help, became embittered. Specifically towards Deus Ex. As more and more sensationalism towards the story was promoted by the media, the more these wounded-pride heroes looked at Deus less like a criminal that needed to be captured but the bringer of their downfall and someone that deserved punishment as much for the public execution as for the tarnishing of their image.
It was one such hero who first stumbled on Deus Ex inside Perez Park. A novice hero with the power to harness energy, Crimson Force was having a tough run of his time in Paragon, especially with recent events. Blowing off a little steam against the gangs in Perez sounded like a good idea, but the streets were irregularly quiet. Looking around for some action, he spotted Deus entering a dilapidated building and decided to attempt to catch him single-handedly.
The confrontation was short, the hero attempting to sneak up on Deus and knock him out from behind with an energy punch, when the vigilante spun suddenly with his sword, severing the hand of the would-be hero of the day fluidly. Surprised, Deus Ex began to apologize but in the shock, Crimson Force’s emergency medical transponder activated, transporting him to the Atlas Park hospital along with Deus’s location.
What followed was a flood of police and heroes rushing into Perez. Deus, unwilling to engage in combat with his assailants, played hide and seek two days until he was finally located and brought in.
