Extirpon 2

Extirpon 2 is a story in the Tales of Extirpon novel of the Gerosha Legends super-pack of The Gerosha Chronicles in Dozerfleet Comics. It is the sequel to Extirpon, and continues the adventure of the titular anti-hero as he wrestles with the darkness of his own nature - to unlock a power he only suspected that he might have.

Plot


The story opens up with Extirpon two years later. Young Katie Bulban has been abducted and forced into a trafficking ring. She is about to be sexually assaulted in the car by her captor, a much-older man named Ricky Mordal. He is taking her to a secret brothel location, where his buddies are keeping several other girls around the age of 12 as prisoners. As he reaches for the girl and demands to have the "right" to pinch her nipples, Extirpon arrives and lobster claws him, then impales him through his nipples with extreme prejudice. He rips Ricky in half, putting a temporary force shield around the Katie so she isn't splattered with the victim's HIV+ blood. He then teleports the child out of the car, and lights the car on purple fire.

He enters the building in normal human mode, and demands to know where the girls are. He is attacked by others in the brothel, who are incensed that he would call them "nithings." They demand to know if he is a cop, to which he taunts "you could only be so lucky." When one of them shoots, he stops the bullet, then goes into monster mode. He systematically and poetically kills off all remaining resistance. Outside, an officer notices the car on fire. The girl standing outside tries to explain what is happening. However, the officer immediately calls for police helicopters and Homeland Security tanks when he hears her mention that it was Extirpon that saved her.

Extirpon is barely able to teleport himself and the remaining girls to safety, as the helicopter pilot fires a missile at the building with the intent of killing everyone inside. He brags that he "rocked and socked" Extirpon, who appears in the helicopter nearby and promises to "pick up and drop" the pilot. He teleports himself and the pilot to just above the helicopter blades, then demands to know if the pilot feels any sympathy for the girls inside that were about to be freed. When the pilot responds with disrespect, Extirpon sends the pilot falling straight into the blades of his own helicopter. Extirpon then flies into the helicopter and lands it before disappearing. However, Homeland Security arrives and begins opening fire on some of the escaped brothel girls. They manage to shoot and vaporize Ashley Faris, the red-headed victim that did the most talking for the girls while Extirpon tried to free them. Extirpon quickly battles with DHS, teleporting their hollow-point ammo so that it hits the shooters rather than the girls being aimed at. He is able to teleport all but one of the surviving girls 50 miles away, where they are taken in by a minister and his family and given clothes and phone access to contact their families. Extirpon advises them to also get lawyers to sue DHS with, before vanishing.

At a college campus in Utah, a street preacher discusses the role of women exercising self-respect as God intends, and how this does not excuse rape, but nor are women with rebellious attitudes excused for their attitudes. A band of groupthink feminist radicals raids the area, accusing the preacher of advocating rape. The preacher protests, and several others in the crowd begin defending him. The feminist mob quickly turns violent. A security officer tries to intervene, but the mob assaults him and takes his gun before he can even call for backup. They shoot the cop dead, then capture the preacher. Extirpon intervenes and stops the bullet right as the mob's leader tries to execute the preacher, and he quickly engulfs the entire mob in purple flames. He tells the preacher to beware: that some shades of humanism are pure poison and are not rational.

Eric then retreats to his old neighborhood in St. Louis, where he begins reflecting on his entire career. He notices that his anger is not what it used to be. However...he doesn't know what he will live for when he no longer has enough anger left to mask how horrible he feels at being the monster everyone fears and hates. He observes a news broadcast, in which the mayor shows no remorse for ordering DHS to shoot at the brothel girls. He instead tries to defend a few of his friends, who were discovered to be among the brothel operators that were slaughtered by Extirpon. Sickened by the news, Eric retreats to find a place to put his mind at ease - after confronting a woman who claims to have voted for that mayor three times in one election. With a flick of the wrist, Extirpon glues three of her fingers together and keeps moving.

He then reads about a child named Janelle who was abducted by corrupt DCF officials in Massachusetts, and who is being denied the medicine she needs to survive because of an incompetent intern at a hospital who didn't believe her parents' story. Bemoaning that he has difficulty actually rescuing victims as opposed to merely punishing the aggressors, he heads to Massachusetts and hatches a scheme to rescue Janelle and get her back to her parents. The lady in charge of Janelle's night time activities, Barbara, frequently taunts Janelle about how the judge will side with DCF and never let Janelle see her medicine or parents ever again. Janelle claims that the Gray Champion will find out about her plight and rescue her. Barbara taunts Janelle that since Gray is under constant surveillance by SCALLOP, he is not authorized to raid a DCF compound. Barbara then tells her not-quite-legally-so prisoner to abandon all hope. When Janelle asks for a glass of milk, Barbara denies her that luxury. Extirpon cuts a deal with Janelle, revealing that unlike with the Gray Champion, SCALLOP cannot tell him what to do.

He gives Janelle some of her medicine after lights out. He has her wait until the following evening, and then pretends to give her powers to break out of her cell. Extirpon, through Janelle, drowns Barbara in a giant pool of milk after giving off a list of transgressions. He stages the incident to trap Barbara, lighting his area to look like a horror movie and further Barbara know that her fate is sealed. He gives Janelle an extra stash of her needed medicine, and then warns her that she will be living life on the run from that day onward. Janelle finds her way to the Gray Champion, who helps her and her parents escape to another state with SCALLOP personnel aiding.

One week later, after foiling a brutal home invasion, Extirpon tries to save the life of an innocent child that has been fatally wounded by the next wave of bad guys. However, he is only able to heal damage to himself through defiance power. The child dies in his arms. With so many criminals dead and in terror of him, he feels his long-held-in anger begin to subside. Realizing he has lost some of his humanity to become Extirpon, he tries to reclaim it by learning how to love again. He goes incognito to Vermont, where he interviews Rev. Kyle Minter.

Kyle has gotten in trouble for helping a child named Irene Manning escape from state-mandated custody to a loathe pedophile named Jean Jennings. As the minister speaks of his convictions in obeying God rather than the desperately wicked Judge Warren Cogen in Vermont, and speaks of his willingness to go to prison for his convictions, Eric notices that he begins glowing golden color - not his usual violet hue. He takes the minister out back behind the coffee shop, and admits to being Extirpon. He asks what the golden glow means. Kyle states that if Extirpon has a Negative Emotion Battery, it might be possible that God is trying to redeem him by giving him a Positive Battery to balance it with. Extirpon parts ways with Kyle, hunting down Jean and animating a small army of murderous dolls to punish her for trying to steal Irene away from her biological mother, Laura. The dolls succeed, but not before she calls Cogen on the phone, and explains what is happening. Cogen insists that even if he has to give the child away to a convicted child murderer, he will destroy the Mannings for daring to defy him. Extirpon immediately places Cogen's confession into the hands of the FBI and pro-marriage groups, then traps Cogen in a semi-comatose state consisting of hellish nightmares.

The realization of a positive battery makes Eric crave the opportunity to unlock it. After destroying a nuclear missile and saving the west coast results in sheer ingratitude from Washington, Eric goes to hide for a time in the Philippines. He meets Pamela Anna Marcones, who falls head-over-heels for him and tries to have a relationship with him after he saves her from some gangsters. She takes him in, paying attention to his every emotional need. She finally comes forward to him about her needs, though he isn't certain he can fulfill them due to the requirements of being Extirpon.

Meanwhile, GLSEN/NAMBLA activists in Vermont grow incensed that Cogen, who was partial to their causes, would be attacked by Extirpon. They discover a man named Simon Lanson, given the nickname "Spoliat." They receive help from an underling associated with the cannibal cult leader Scott Morrisson to break into the facility where Spoliat is being held captive in a Marlquaanite prison, and they bring him his freedom. They tell him that in exchange, they want him to go after Extirpon. The sociopath manages to kill most of his would-be employers, then decides to go after Extiron anyway just for sport.

Spoliat tries to make his way into the neighborhood, but finds that the love and kindness of mothers towards their children makes him feel dizzy and weak. He instead looks for those suffering the pain of rejection, and feeds off them before using the fact that they empowered him to visit hellish torture and murder on the loving families whose kindness is agony to him. He manages to locate Eric hanging out with Pam in the Philippines, and then challenges Eric to a fight. The battle between Extirpon and Spoliat proves to be a long and violent one. However, Eric's pain of dejection at the fact that Extirpon has so few friends provides Spoliat with a constant supply of fuel for his powers. He manages to blindside Extirpon, eventually knocking him to the ground and scrambling the Negative Battery. He drops a building on top of Eric, with debris taking out Eric's right eye. Believing Extirpon to be dead, Spoliat goes on a killing spree all over the islands.

Pam recovers Eric's body, hiding him in a hut to receive medical treatment from local doctors she trusts. They suggest turning Eric over to hospitals in Manila for proper treatment. However, Pam insists that if anyone knew Extirpon was still alive and well in the Philippines, it would only end badly. His right eye socket ends up being patched, and he decides to make the most of his time with Pam before Spoliat inevitably comes back to destroy everyone in town. He takes the time with her to reconnect with his own sense of humanity. While he is unable to use the Positive Battery to heal his eye, Eric's other wounds begin healing. He also notices that the Positive Battery begins healing the Negative one. He come across a robbery, but opts to show sympathy for the victim after the crime as opposed to battling the criminals. His newfound compassion accelerates his Negative Battery's repair, allowing him just enough access to it to fix his eye. Pam and Eric begin wondering if it is even necessary for him to be Extirpon at all. The two become attached over the next week, almost forgetting that Spoliat is still loose. However, the death of another Marlquaanite who attempts to face Spoliat convinces Eric that Extirpon will have to return. Pam grows fearful at the thought of losing Eric, and begs him not to abandon her. She begins soothing and coaxing him, in order to get him to stay. She even seduces him, in spite his moral objections and fear of upsetting her brother further. He assures her after an evening in her arms that he is not ready to abandon her forever; but that he cannot stay with her in the Philippines forever either. He will have to leave and return another time. She asks if they can marry, and he tells her he will definitely consider it.

Meanwhile, Spoliat grows bored with the Philippines, and decides to terrorize Shanghai next. He reasons that life under communism has created enough despondency to give him endless power. Eric goes out to the docks the following morning, feeling an overwhelming amount of positive emotion charge in his Positive Battery. Heartfelt sympathy for the victims of a mugging going on there results in him being able to repair the Negative Battery enough to unlock defiance, which allows him to save the lives of the couple that was about to be stabbed and killed. A glowing white Extirpon surrounds the couple inside a protective shield, as their love for each other makes the shield stronger. Extirpon finally uses the positive energy discharge to teleport them to safety. He then depletes his Positive Battery to repair the Negative Battery completely. He comes to the realization that he'll need both batteries to defeat Spoliat.

He heads to Shanghai, initially battling Spoliat with the Positive Battery to trick him into overconfidence. However, the real battle begins when Spoliat threatens to take away the source of Extirpon's newfound confidence. The Negative Battery returns in all its horrific glory, and a brutal showdown levels an entire city block in Shanghai. However, Spoliat's stubbornness results in him growing overconfident. Shanghai residents begin to see Extirpon as their rescuer, weakening Spoliat enough that Extirpon is able to finish him off. He then encourages the locals to hold hands with him, and think of hope for their future. The Positive Battery replenishes, and he is able to repair most of the town's structural damage. He then flees the scene, returning to Pam. He spends another three weeks living near her, the two of them passionately making love upon their reunion. However, Eric decides to return to the US and negotiate his way into being able to legally stay in the Philippines. As he says goodbye to Pam, she hides from him the fact that she's pregnant. The world learns to fear Extirpon again for an extra nine months, before Eric learns the secret and decides to settle down with Pam and raise their child together. He begins inquiring of the fate of Hester's locket, so that he may retire and give the Extirpon powers to someone else.

Characters

 * Eric Stanley Opendi / Extirpon: An ultra-violent, super-powered antihero who can feed on the pride of others to bend his reality-warping powers. He has a "battery" that stores all the negative emotional energy that he feeds off.  However, he grows frustrated with being only a destroyer with nobody to love and no friends.  Desiring to regain some of his humanity, and feel that he still has a soul capable of salvation, Eric sets out on a personal journey to learn to unlock his Positive Battery - and learn how to love again.  His career as Extirpon, however, has drawn the attention of the world's most evil psychopaths - on both sides of the law.


 * Pamela Anna Marcones: A woman in the Philippines who finds Eric wandering lost, and takes him in. Throughout that point onward in the story, she gradually grows into a love interest for him.  She also proves that she is not entirely a useless woman.  Her nurturing spirit helps Eric more completely utilize and control his Positive Battery.  She is initially conflicted between having pity on Eric for who he is, and being overcome with a lustful fascination with being with Extirpon.  However, she grows to genuinely care about him and love him as he spends time living near her.  The fact that she is so fascinated with him, both as Eric and Extirpon, draws the ire of her brother Abir; who accuses her of having Bonnie and Clyde syndrome.


 * Rev. Kyle Minter: A brave minister in Vermont who dared to serve as a sort of modern-day "Underground Railroad" for the Mannings to flee homosexual slavery in Vermont, and find freedom in Jamaica. He is sent to prison for his work as a "conductor."  But before police arrive to arrest him and haul him off, he gets in one last talk with Extirpon about how he is not afraid to be a martyr for the cause.  His speeches also raise Eric's awareness of the Positive Battery, and lead Eric to believe that a better life - and version of himself - are possible.


 * Warren Cogen: A corrupt Vermont judge with NAMBLA sympathies who orders young Irene Manning into the arms of a sexual predator, depriving the rightful mother Laura Manning of parental custody. When mother and daughter flee the country with the aid of Rev. Kyle Minter, Cogen orders Minter thrown into prison and sends goons to kill Laura and kidnap Irene; so that Irene may be extradited back to the US and become Ms. Jennings' personal sex slave.  Cogen's complete lack of regard for the child's safety in all of this makes him an easy target for psychological assault by Extirpon, leading to the corrupt judge being trapped inside a nightmare.


 * Abir Marcones: Pam's older brother, who is involved with gangs and is terrified of his sister dating a known poetic serial killer. However, his fear and hatred of Extirpon drive him over the edge.  When his sister gets pregnant, while he rots in jail, Abir vows to break out and kill his own sister and nephew.  He especially vows to find some way to kill Extirpon, out of revenge for the latter "ruining" his sister.


 * Amado Marcones: Another brother of Pam's, who is sympathetic toward Eric's cause, and protects Pam from Abir while Eric is away.


 * Simon Lanson / Spoliat: A sociopathic Marlquaanite that feeds on despair and is allergic to hope and to family members showing familial love to each other. After Cogen is put into a coma by Extirpon, NAMBLA and the Scott Morrisson cannibal cult join forces to free Spoliat from prison.  The cannibal cult then immediately gets out of the way, while NAMBLA personnel try to offer Spoliat a reward to kill Extirpon.  He ends up killing his rescuers / would-be employers, opting to kill Extirpon for sport instead.  Believing himself successful, he uses his time being free to terrorize the Philippines and China.


 * Jean Jennings: A cruel child molester who is friends with Judge Cogen. She was in a relationship with Laura Manning in the past, and now feels entitled to Laura's daughter.  In spite Laura being able to prove that Jean has committed felony sexual assault on young Irene, the judge throws it out and demands Jean be given custody of Irene with no questions asked.  This forces Laura to flee to Jamaica.


 * Laura Manning: An ex-lesbian on the run with her daughter. Cogen sends goons to assassinate her, even though she has sought refugee status in another country.  The goons are under orders to kidnap her daughter and extradite her back to the US to be placed back in Jean's arms - even though Jean creeps the little girl out!


 * Irene Manning: Laura's daughter, who has been molested by Jean and is terrified of her to no end. She has learned self-defense tactics from her mother, and lives every single day in fear of agents coming to get her and bring her back to Jean, who still haunts her nightmares.  When her worst fears are about to be realized, Extirpon saves Laura from assassination and kills most of Cogen's goons.  He leaves one for the Jamaican police, who deport the goon back to the US.  The goon later protests his orders from Cogen, which results in a Crooked Rainbow mob burning the ex-goon's house down for "betraying" them.


 * Ricky Mordal: An arrogant, evil sex trafficker with HIV. His abduction of Katie Bulban goes virtually undetecteed by most.  But then, he goes too far with assaulting Katie in public and attracts Extirpon's attention.  The intersection where the brothel-prison is located soon goes from a simple extirpation to a flat-out war zone when the mayor, sympathetic to Ricky's sex ring, uses the attack as an excuse to level the city block and send DHS to assassinate Extirpon.  The plan fails miserably, instead making DHS look bad and resulting in everyone whose home or business was within the blast radius of the fired missile to view the mayor as an out-of-control villain.


 * Katie Bulban: A 15-year-old girl who was kidnapped from her own bedroom by home invader Ricky Mordal. Ricky and his wife Tammy had repeatedly gang-raped Katie, and were holding her prisoner in their home.  They invented clever ways of keeping the girl from being discovered by police.  But after she grows particularly rebellious following a forced abortion, she is about to be thrown into the backroom of a makeshift brothel-prison operated by Ricky's friends.  She is saved by Extirpon, but soon finds her life in even greater danger when the mayor gets DHS involved in a plot to kill all the girls inside the brothel out of hopes that they'll finally kill Extirpon by doing so.  Katie is eventually able to slip away, getting in touch with less-crazy cops who then reunite her with her family.  In spite Extirpon's best efforts to protect her from Ricky's blood, it is later revealed that Ricky knowingly gave her HIV beforehand.


 * Ashley Faris: A red-headed and curly-haired girl around 16 years old at the time Extirpon discovers her. She is the most courageous of the girls rescued from the brothel.  When Extirpon frees her from the sex traffickers only for her to be murdered by out-of-control DHS agents, it causes him to question if he is accomplishing anything good by trying to save the United States from destroying itself through moral freefall.  He begins to wonder if it would not simply be better the hide elsewhere for a while and let the nation bring about its own demise.


 * Janelle Pettelin: A girl with a rare genetic disorder who needs special medicine. After an incompetent hospital intern doubts the diagnosis of her family doctor, he arranges for her to be kidnapped by the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, which then uses corruption to cover for its mistake and get a judge to grant custody of Janelle while treating her parents like criminals.  While in DCF's care, Janelle's health fades as she is denied even her basic needs to survive.  She hero worships the Gray Champion, and is saddened to learn that SCALLOP will not allow him to break her out of her DCF prison.  However, the injustice shown to her leads to Extirpon breaking her out - and seeking revenge on one of her DCF tormentors.


 * Barbara Wile: A rotten-to-the-core DCF employee, who delights in knowing she can force Janelle Pettelin to slowly waste away while making sure the judge treats Janelle's parents as if they were the criminals guilty of neglect. She soon becomes a victim of Extirpon's fury.

Concept and inspiration
In 2010, as the original plot to Extirpon was being outlined, it became obvious that another story would be needed to make Eric's story more complete. It was not until 2011 that Eric was given the alter-ego of Eric Stanley Opendi, being previously known in materials only as Extirpon. The character's evolution was very rapid from there. However, it remained a mystery until late 2013 what much of the plot to Extirpon 2 should be.

In late 2011, it was ruled that the plot should revolve around the Positive Battery. This was seen as a way to give the character a sense of hope and closure, a way to keep him from being so psychotic that he would eventually be driven over the edge into outright villainy. The Positive Battery also gave him something to strive for - beneficial and healing powers that he didn't previously have access to. It was envisioned in 2012 that the Positive Battery would give him "angelic" robes to wear, to contrast with the dark and angry persona that his Negative Battery encompassed. To be truly effective as Extirpon, Eric would have to unlock the potential of both batteries.

It wasn't until June of 2013, however, that the villains were defined. Vanna Kerling was given the alter-ego of Nematode so she could be the main villain proper of Extirpon. Spoliat, or he who spoliates, renders things desolate, was thought up as a villain for Extirpon 2 due to the fact that his feeding off the despair of others meant that he could feed off Extirpon's feeling dejected and rejected the same way that Nematode could feed off of his anger.

In addition to this, it was seen as necessary to Eric's recovery that he learn to love himself again. First, he needed to re-learn what unconditional love was. He had heard of it in theory, but seen almost none of it in his journeys. The concept needed to be made real to him before he could adopt it. Pam was seen as a perfect plot device for this very reason. She not only becomes someone for Eric to love, in order to get over Nematode's betrayal; she also is able to make him see how many small things about himself he can easily change, details he would have overlooked had she not pointed them out.

Another value that Eric has lost by becoming Extirpon is patience. The drama with Pam's brother hating him requires him to learn how to exercise restraint again, which proves therapeutic. It gives him an opportunity to out-grow his need for petty revenge. Also, the inclusion of Pam in the mythos allows for Eric to see that a bright future is what is truly divinely planned for him. His early career when all he had was Vanna served as a distraction from that, giving him a bleak outlook on life and his meaning in it. However, having a family with Pam allows him to see his place in the world as a human being, not just some enforcer of wrath against the hopelessly reprobate. It also gives him a more logical motive to want to eventually retire, not tempted as much to remain Extirpon forever. He learns to love others more than he does his own power. And that new insight sets him free.

While Spoliat is not a very complex character, he does fulfill a purpose in that he becomes an accidental teacher in Eric's path to self-discovery. Pam, meanwhile, gives Eric an opportunity to live somewhere outside the US. She was chosen as a Filipina in celebration of some of the Dozerfleet founder's exes, who were also Filipinas. She represents the ideal, what those women should have been. She becomes a reflection in Eric's mind of what he doesn't deserve; but that which he could have anyway. Her inclusion, and setting of Manila, allow for playing around with the idea in ways that are not possible in The Slushy Show, which is set in Cagayan de Oro. They also allow for more time and complexity than the brief Felpany scenes at the beginning of Stationery Voyagers, which are there merely to establish that the events on Mantith caused by the RMM will affect the entire planet as opposed to only one nation. This means that Extirpon 2 is officially the second work to take place primarily in the Philippines. It also features Shanghai in China towards the end, although Shanghai features more in Sodality.

As far as social commentary, the story also weaves in a fictionalized version of events similar to those of the infamous Jenkins-Miller fiasco, with the names changed to allow some leeway. The brothel raid incident is inspired by a different story, that of Tranace and Richard Morris luring a 15-year-old girl into their home and making her a sex slave. Some details are changed to fit Extirpon's world. The radical feminists slandering and trying to murder a street preacher incident is a dramatization based on a flame war that happened on DeviantArt in June of 2014. The Janelle Pettelin story in Extirpon 2 is a thinly-veiled reference to real-life Justina Pettlier case. It imagines the case having a worse ending than the real-life version, one which requires Janelle/Justina and her family to flee Massachusetts via a sort of "underground railroad."

Visuals
For Extirpon 2, the subplot about Eric finding Pam and learning to love again via her nurturing him was a development that didn't emerge until late June of 2013. Prior to that, the entirety of emphasis on the story was on defining a look for Extirpon while he is utilizing the Positive Battery. It was decided that he should have white-and-gold robes, to give him an angelic appearance. Everything about him would become angelic, except for him lacking wings. Also, Extirpon would learn how to use both batteries in tandem to do things neither has the ability to do alone - like destroy AIDS without also killing the patient infected with it. The ability to use both in tandem becomes a huge relief for him, as he had to previously choose between saving the innocent or slaughtering the guilty.

The image of Extirpon's Positive Battery form was first screen captured in The Sims 3: Pets in early January of 2014. Its DeviantArt concept art upload was completed on January 23rd that same year, in 2D and 3D formats.