I decided to write a short introduction and explanation of the world of "Twisted Tales" for those of you who don't know much about the stories. or even those of you who do but may have some questions. I would enjoy hearing what you all think, or perhaps suggestions as to topics that I may have missed and should expand upon down the road.

Thanks.

A) APEX Labs

APEX Labs, Inc. (full name: Applied Experimental Laboratories, Incorporated) is a privately owned and operated corporation specializing in highly advanced technological and biological research. The company is owned by a group of investors made up of some of Metrobay's wealthy and elite. The majority owner and chairman of the board is Maximus D. Indeks, who has been known to run APEX with an iron fist and utilize its assets and employees for his own illegal and unethical purposes.


B) Brown Sugar

Brown Sugar is a member of the Superheroine Squad and the protagonist of "Mission Control". She was born Caramel Georgia Brown and raised by a single father who was in the military and constantly on the move. When she finished high school she followed in daddy's footsteps and enlisted, becoming an intelligence officer. After her service was up she came home to Metrobay and joined the police department, looking to help clean up her decaying hometown. The leaders of the Superheroine Squad liked what they saw and offered her a position on the team, where she puts her espionage skills to good use.


C) Control Helmet

When Ted Twiss was employed as an APEX scientist he developed an obsession for researching and experimenting on the human brain. To that end he designed a series of computers and peripherals which could utilize a brain's electrical charges to send and receive information from it. This led him to invent two very important devices, the M.I.N.D. (Mental Interface and Networking Device) and its relative, the control helmet. It was the construction of these devices that ultimately set in motion the events that led Ted Twiss to become the spiteful villain that he is today.


D) Dr. Twisted

Ted Twiss took on the pseudonym "Dr. Twisted" after breaking out of Metrobay's prison for the criminally insane. He realized that he was a marked man and decided to embrace his newly discovered dark side by adopting a villainous persona. He took the alias "Dr. Twisted", a juxtaposition of his real name - Ted Twiss. His fellow scientists at APEX used to mock him by calling him "Twisted", adding the doctor prefix as the final insult after finding out that he was expelled from school and never completed his degree.


E) Enslave

From the very moment that Ted Twiss escaped from prison, he has vowed revenge on those who put him there. He realized right away that he was going to need some help to carry out his master plan. With that in mind he was able to sneak into APEX and steal one of the M.I.N.D. device prototypes, which he then refitted into the first of the control helmets that are in use today. He has used his inventions to enslave and reprogram three of Metrobay's finest heroines into his very own team of thieves, kidnappers, bodyguards, and sex slaves. He will not stop until he has amassed an army powerful enough to bring down APEX from the very top.


F) Factory

Dr. Twisted's secret lair is actually an old, run down factory tucked deep in the heart of Metrobay's "Grime City" neighborhood. After he escaped from prison he took over the old mill and began to upgrade it into a laboratory and base of operations. At first he went undercover as a janitor to steal parts and supplies, but now rarely leaves the lab and instead sends his minions out to do his dirty work for him.


G) Grime City

Grime City is the nickname for the old section of Metrobay that was left behind after the city's cultural and infrastructural rebirth. It is a haven of crime and despair and home to much of the city's poor population. Most cops won't go near the area, so it is a perfect place for Dr. Twisted to live and work in relative peace. He only has to deal with an occasional thug or hooligan looking to make a quick buck, not a major problem for someone with his own super-powered security force.


H) Human Robot

"Human Robot" is the term coined by the legendary Dr. Boris Balenkoff to describe his own mind control experiments in the mid-1960s. Dr. Twisted borrowed the term and uses it to describe his slaves after they have been reprogrammed into mindless servants. They are not truly 'robots' in that very little of them is mechanical, yet they are not fully 'human' because their minds are continually linked to at first his laboratory computers and later Sentius. The doctor enjoys thinking of his slaves as "Human Robots" because the term harkens back to his childhood and the sci-fi movies and pulp comics that he grew up reading and later fantasizing about.


I) Implants

Instead of wearing a control device like the other robot women, Marcy Smith has been implanted with special cybernetics that are more completely integrated into her body. They allow Sentius and Marcy to interact with each other as if they 'share a brain', which they kind of do... hers, of course. There are occasions when Marcy shows some independence (a side effect of her special programming) but for the most part she remains a loyal and obedient disciple of Dr. Twisted and exists only to carry out his orders.


J) Junior Partner

The relationship between Valient Grrl and Alpha Woman is relatively short yet very strong, built on a basis of trust and friendship. They met soon after Valient Grrl joined the Superheroine Squad. Alpha Woman took her under her wing in order to help her find her way in her new role as a heroine. Over the past couple of years they have grown to be close friends, confidants, and if the rumors are true... perhaps even lovers.


K) Kink

One of Ted Twiss's personality quirks can be traced to his aforementioned obsession with all things robotic. As a teenager his warped mind turned what was once a childhood affinity for science fiction into a kinky, hormone-driven fetish of epic proportions. During his time in prison all he could think of was how he would love to capture Alpha Woman, the most beautiful and powerful woman in all of Metrobay, into a robot who would serve his every desire. Eventually he got his wish but he's not done yet, not by a long shot.


L) Laboratory

Dr. Twisted's laboratory is a marvel of high science, which is especially impressive since has obtained most of the equipment through illegal means. Much of the technology for his computers and even the lab table itself were stolen from APEX labs under cover of night. Max is pretty confident that he knows who did it, but is reluctant to share this hunch with police for fear that APEX should come under greater scrutiny than it already has. Many illegal and immoral experiments take place within the walls of APEX, experiments that Max and the board would prefer to keep clandestine.


M) Metrobay

Metrobay is where it all takes place, a giant, sprawling urban center and major port into the country. Grime City is located near the harbor, across town from the business and residential districts. On a private island a couple of miles offshore sits ROPE mansion, accessible only to members via their private yachts. There they scheme to rule the city as a haven for the aristocracy, where the filthy rich play God with the lives of those less fortunate.


N) Night

Like all good criminals Dr. Twisted sends his disciples out on their missions under the cover of darkness. He knows that the outlandish 'robot' costumes that he has designed for him, while quite arousing, are also very conspicuous. It is much easier for his robot women to blend in at night when all of Metrobay's freaks come out to play. Hell, compared to some of those degenerates his girls don't look very strange at all.


O) Oral sex

Another one of Twisted's fetishes is the feeling of power he gets when one of his robots is on her knees before him obediently servicing his freakishly large member. The doctor uses oral sex as the ultimate test of a newly converted slave's loyalty and obedience to him. If she freely and willingly subjugates herself and worships his manhood with her mouth, then he knows that her willpower has truly been broken and she will do anything to serve him and serve him well.


P) Police

Metrobay's elite Superheroine Squad is actually an arm of the Metrobay Police Department. It was originally started with just a handful of members who helped to keep the peace and apprehend criminals that average cops couldn't handle. The squad has grown over the years to now include over two dozen active and part-time members from all walks of life and backgrounds, each with her own skills and expertise that she brings to the table.


Q) Quartet

It may seem like pure chance that Dr. Twisted came to acquire his four buxom beauties, but three of them were specifically chosen because of their unique talents. Each of the former heroines brings a different skill to the table: Valient Grrl with her super strength, Alpha Woman with her telekenetic powers, and Brown Sugar with her espionage skills. Marcy Smith was the only one of the four whose robotization was at random, but it worked out for the doctor because her intelligence and technological savvy only compliments those of Twisted and Sentius.


R) Recharge

Because they are still living beings, the robot women need adequate downtime to rest and rejuvenate after a long day just like anyone else. Dr. Twisted calls this process 'recharging'. He has constructed alcoves where they stand while they are hooked up to monitoring equipment. This equipment regulates their biological functions while they sleep standing up... in effect recharging their 'batteries' in anticipation of the next day's activities.


S) Sentius

Sentius is the most powerful computer in Metrobay, built by APEX Labs for the police department as a weapon in the war on crime. He was given self-awareness, the first such computer in history, in order to be able to think, analyze, and theorize on his own. It was originally intended that Sentius be the prototype for a number of artificially intelligent computers, but an alleged accident in the lab destroyed most of the original research and the formulas which created Sentius's consciousness have not yet been duplicated. Thus, for now he is one of a kind.


T) Tits

There's something in the water in Metrobay... literally. Around 35 years ago it was noted that many of Metrobay's children were growing up sicker and weaker than the previous generation. Some scholars attributed this to the terrible pollution problem gripping the city. To combat this APEX was commissioned to devise a vitamin-enriched formula that would be added to the city's water supply. Somehow, the formula was tainted and only seemed to work on the female children. The project was halted, but as a result most of Metrobay's female population grew up stronger, healthier, and better endowed than any other group of women on Earth. Also, census statistics show that the majority of babies born in Metrobay within that time frame were female, which leads many to believe that the effects of the enrichment were felt on a subcellular level.* These effects may explain why most of the city's superheroes are women, but so far studies have proven to be inconclusive at best.

*Thanks to 'pelusa1ca' for the idea.


U) Uniforms

The costumes that most superheroes wear are a mix of form and function, state of the art materials woven into a traditional design. The members of the Superheroine Squad are no exception. A heroine can choose the style of her costume for any number of reasons, but they usually pick one that compliments their powers or matches their personality. For example… Alpha Woman, a respected veteran of the team has chosen a full length bodysuit, designed to give her maximum comfort and mobility while retaining a bit of modesty. Brown Sugar, on the other hand, is proud of her physique and has no problem wearing outfits that show it off. Valient Grrl is a special case, though. Her name and costume were bestowed upon her to honor her predecessor, the ‘original’ Valiant Woman. Being such a young and inexperienced heroine, she did not have much of a say in the matter.

When Dr. Twisted conceived the idea of capturing and robotizing heroines, he decided that they would require new clothing to compliment their new personas. He has always enjoyed the color silver, and wanted to incorporate that color into as much of their wardrobe as possible. In his mind his drones should wear uniforms that reflect their new lives as human robots. He started with a simple bikini for Valient Grrl, but has been able to procure more specialized garments for the other subjects and was even able to find an exact replica of Alpha Woman’s original suit, except silver in color, of course.


V) Valient Grrl

Valient Grrl is the youngest and least experienced member of the Superheroine Squad. She joined the team just barely out of her teens after dropping out of college to hone her latent power of super strength. Alpha Woman took Valient Grrl under her wing in the hope that by working together, Valient Grrl could learn the ropes and look upon Alpha Woman as a role model and mentor. The partnership was working great until one day Valient Grrl received a strange message from Dr. Twisted. Allowing her impetuousness to get the best of her, Valient Grrl followed the directions on the note hoping to capture the escaped scientist and impress her fellow heroines. We all know how that worked out.


W) Woman, Alpha

Dr. Twisted’s obsession with Alpha Woman began innocently enough, at least for her. She was just doing her job as a member of the Superheroine Squad when the police captain asked her to assist in apprehending a suspected supervillain who was causing a disturbance over at APEX Labs. She arrived at APEX to find a recently fired Ted Twiss being escorted from the premises by security. He was making violent threats toward Max Indecks and Belinda Giolla and looking generally crazy and disheveled. At Max’s (a close friend of the mayor, her boss) urging she arrested Ted and hauled him away to jail, publicly shaming him and ending his career in science. Max was able to fix Ted’s trial and have him committed to Metrobay Criminal Asylum where his slow descent into madness really began, and where he started to form his grand vengeance scheme.


X) X-band

Each of the control helmets has a built in transmitter/receiver that allows Dr. Twisted and/or Sentius to communicate directly with the wearer. In Marcy’s case, the equipment is integrated into her implants. Twisted transmits his orders within the X-band, an ultra high frequency that is extremely secure and difficult to intercept or even detect. Only one other scientist in the city has even experimented with X-band frequencies, and her name is Dr. Belinda Giolla, Ted Twiss’s former partner and the current head of operations at APEX Labs.


Y) Youth

Most Superheroine Squad members are recruited when they are in their late teens or early twenties. The potential team members leave their homes and enroll in a six-week superheroine boot camp where their powers, intelligence, and integrity are tested in a rigorous but fair set of trials. Those who pass the course are admitted to the team as junior partners, where they are assigned a senior squad member who works closely with them and shows them the ropes of the crime-fighting business. Those who do not pass the course are asked to try again the next year, and kept under careful surveillance to track their growth and ensure that their emerging powers are not corrupted by the forces of evil.


Z) Zapped

As stated before, the M.I.N.D. and control helmets operate on the theory that a computer can harness the electrical energy of a person’s neural pathways and send its own messages along that network. When the subject is wearing the helmet and has been properly connected, it is as if that person’s brain becomes another peripheral, a living extension of the computer itself. The computer is able to send and receive signals directly from the cerebral cortex, bypassing many higher cognitive functions like memories, emotions, or personality. The process of connecting the mind to the computer requires a large amount of electricity, which is zapped into the helmet and dispersed throughout the skull. This initial shock to the system recalibrates the brainwaves and priming the mind to receive and assimilate electronic data.

Wow, what a rundown. Obviously, this is bigger than I though. Oooh, I can't wait to see how this settles down. I'm sure it can only lead to more mindless thralls, but since when has that ever been a bad thing? Keep up the good work.

Thanks! It's funny, but what started as just something that I wanted to do to fulfill little fantasy of mine (Rookie Mistake) has mushroomed into an entire fictional city that has been able to mesh nicely with the world already created by Finister Foul for his Pink Pussycat and Agents of DESIRE series. All of these characters exist in the same basic 'universe', and who knows... perhaps someday we'll even be able to have them meet up and interact with each other. We shall see.

Doc,

Have you considered writing some alternate endings to the final chapter?

What if Ted had won or Sentinus?

Sort of a parallel timeline finale?

I have to admit I have really missed your story since it was finished, as it was the reason I joined hipcomix.

P

Thanks for the compliments, Pelusa. I really appreciate it.

Finister and I are currently knee-deep in planning the "Twisted Tales" sequel. We expect it to debut sometime in April and run for a number of months. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks!

I love the chloroforming and knocking out heroines by other methods. But the Mind Control to convert heroines into Slaves is hotter than I thought.

I like the leading, during and after the Converting process

Glad to hear it, Ashley. There is always room for more 'converts' to the mind control genre!

- Doc