Mr. Mud/Nightstick

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

Nightstick was a villain who operated in Kings Row, Paragon City from 1976 to approximately 1998, when he completely disappeared from Paragon City's underworld and was never seen again. His current whereabouts are currently unknown, and none of his previous contacts seem to even know if the villain who was known as Nightstick is even alive or dead.

Nightstick was a magically empowered supervillain. He carried a nightstick as his weapon, but very rarely was he seen using it as a physical, hand-to-hand weapon. Instead, his nightstick seemed to be imbued with some kind of power over negative energy, and at times was even heard to talk in whispers or let out loud screams as Nightstick used his powers. The stick itself was known for emitting dark energy, and was capable of creating portals into dark, eerie pocket dimensions from which his victims would usually not return. It has been reported from heroes who fought him and villains who entered into partnerships with him that, from time to time, ghostly or even demonic figures would emerge from the stick, and as such it has been theorized that the weapon itself was perhaps possessed or could channel the dead.

One contact of Nightstick's once professed in court that Nightstick had confessed that he had stolen the nightstick from a Prison execution chamber in Texas while he was a guard there, after becoming aware that the baton itself seemed to be possessed by the souls of the men who had died there. It was said that Nightstick had made a deal with the souls trapped in the weapon that he would free them from the prison once and for all if they would help him embark on a life of crime. This report was never substantiated, but is the only account of Nightstick's origin that has ever been taken seriously by M.A.G.I., the Midnight Squad and other magical authorities.

Nightstick was known for teaming up with other villains operating out of Kings Row, including Mr. Mud, Mindswipe, Jumpsuit and Spikeman. Nightstick was one of the villains freed during an ambush on a transport to Ziggursky Correctional Facility on November 24th, 1998. He was last seen three weeks later.

The nightstick itself has since changed hands several times. There has been another man to call himself Nightstick since the disappearance of the original, but his tenure was short lived, and the nightstick was once again sold into the black market. For a while, M.A.G.I. held the stick, and were studying it when their vaults were raided and the stick, again, fell into the hands of the criminal element. Since then the stick has fallen into obscurity; no one has any idea who currently holds it, or for what purpose they plan to use it. It has become a matter of uppermost importance to the Midnight Squad and M.A.G.I., both of which fear the stick could be devastating if it were to ever fall into the hands of a truly powerful sorcerer.