“It’s not fair! People go on and on about my hyperstasis, they don’t know anything. I’d even call it a metapathogen. This stupid power only ever gave me enough rope to hang myself.”

 

–King For A Day

 

“Mostly the poor boy just slept. He was very tired when he found me. He told me to use my powers to open a portal to somewhere safe for him, so I opened a portal to the Roundhouse knowing that’s the safest place for him but he told me to close it. He couldn’t infect Gold Star, and he already infected Crime Fighter, Space Savage, and Oneironaut meaning he would have had to infect Form Master Ido and Captromancer if he wanted to get away without getting captured. I think he didn’t like those odds and what was more he was just so tired. Poor boy kept leaning against the wall. He made me open a portal to Mahorela. I guess you can’t do better than a universe of omnibenevolent darkness for a hiding spot.

 

“ It was so strange. He completely controlled my actions. I knew on a small, submerged level of my thoughts that I should be concerned but I kept my voice calm and non-confrontational. The boy’s comfort was at the forefront of my mind. Even now I worry about him, not from compulsion, but from sympathy.”

 

–Dr. Chime

 

Build me a castle

And throw a parade

Put my name in stone

So the words don’t fade

Start a religion

And name it for me

Build me a city

And give me the key

I’m king for a day

I can do no wrong

I’m king for a day

’till the next one comes along

 

–King For A Day, Planet P Project

 

Introduction

 

King For A Day, or KFAD (pronounced Kay Fad), is a young man who, through poor decision making and the willful abuse of his power, is on the run from the BOL, the Statesmen, ARGO, the Warp and Weft Authorities, Earth State…pretty much everyone. KFAD is able to control the minds of others through an extremely powerful telepathic virus called the Regis Virus which shreds through most known telepathic defense, but the catch is that after 24 hours, the victim develops total immunity. For 24 hours, he’s the king. His victims will think of him in the best possible light and feel compelled to help and assist him. They will obey his every command. But once those 24 hours are up, those 24 hours are up forever, and the victim will be free of KFAD’s control forever–and will remember everything KFAD forced them to do.

 

A Nameless Boy

 

Very little is known about KFAD. We aren’t even sure what his name is. He’s been very careful not to reveal anything about himself to his victims, but criminal profilers from the Red Cardinals and Crime Web believe, based on his actions, that he underwent primary hyperstasis (“random” hyperstasis), is from a broken or abuse home, and abuses his powers believing that doing so allows him to exert some control over what had been until his empowerment a very chaotic life. He couldn’t be further from the truth. 

 

Short term, his powers do allow him to exert a significant amount of control over his environment–but only in the short term. Long-term, they promise him nothing but a life of uncertainty, danger, and grief.

 

As annoying as a nigh-unstoppable mind-taker is–and make no mistake, he hit the jackpot for his power–it is important to remember KFAD (as his choice of moniker would suggest) is a child, and a child in a great deal of danger. He’s taken over the minds of powerful, reckless, evil people who don’t take kindly to being humiliated by a child. It’s not just superheroes that he’s mind controlled into giving him loot like he’s playing trick-or-treat (and food and a place to sleep), its supervillains, and not just BOL flunkies, seriously evil, vindictive men who will kill him if they catch up to him.

 

Because he’s only king for a day, and when that day’s over, he’s left with victims that remember everything he made them do.

 

The Regis Virus

 

The Regis Virus is as mysterious as its user. What we think it is is a very exotic, very irregular thoughtform, but that’s an untested hypothesis. If it is a thoughtform, it doesn’t register to any sensor or system of detection as a thoughtform. It doesn’t seem to exist, which makes studying it and combating it all the trickier.

 

Telepathic defenses are of little use against the Regis Virus. It simply works, and even telepaths as powerful as Oneironaut have been infected by it and don’t even realize it’s presence until they’re taking orders from a child. Some beings have proven immune, but very few. Gold Star was unaffected, though most powers don’t work on Gold Star. Captain Marvel was unaffected, presumably through the Wisdom of Solomon, and neither was his descendent Deborah. Captain Marvel’s sister Mary Marvel was likewise unaffected (KFAD once tried to infect the Marvel Family during a reunion of the Crime Crusaders Club, but had to settle with controlling the non-Marvel members: Bulletman, Bulletgirl, Mr. Scarlet, Pinky, and Minuteman, who fended off the Marvels long enough for him to escape) with her Wisdom of Athena presumably conferring the same protection as the Wisdom of Solomon.

 

The Regis Virus does not act independently, otherwise KFAD would passively create mind slaves as he walks around. It’s a shame his power doesn’t work like that, otherwise most of the planet would probably be immune by now. It acts either when KFAD commands it to act or when KFAD is threatened. Many superheroes have tried to apprehend KFAD, and from their failures we’ve learned that the Regis Virus’ ability to protect KFAD is incredibly comprehensive. Speedsters have tried to grab KFAD between the ticks of attoseconds only to find themselves infected. Sneaky types have tried to get him while he’s sleeping–only to get infected. Powerful reality warpers and thaumaturgists have tried to will the Regis Virus out of existence–and have gotten infected.

 

It seems that if you try to accost KFAD or his power in any way, the Regis Virus triggers.

 

Symptoms of the Regis Virus include a profound sense of love and adoration for KFAD. KFAD becomes their favorite person. He can do no wrong. The victim will see KFAD in the best possible light and will pull their brain in knots trying to justify his actions. The victim will want the best for KFAD, and KFAD learned early in his supervillain career that this meant many of his victims would try to contact the Statesmen’s anti-KFAD strike team composed of the immune because any sensible adult can see getting him off the streets is KFAD’s best chance at not getting caught by his ever-increasing army of consequences. KFAD knows this and so gives his victims precise orders no to contact anyone unless he explicitly tells them. KFAD’s orders are law, and his victims will always obey them to the best of their ability. These orders do not have to be spoken–KFAD has controlled his victims through hand signals and written notes before–but they have to be understood and they have to be understood as coming from KFAD. KFAD was nearly caught (he’s had quite a few close calls) when BOL supervillain Glass disguised itself as KFAD, KFAD’s victims obeyed Glass as if he were KFAD, and when KFAD appeared the victims froze up under conflicting orders from the both of them. Another close call came when another BOL supervillain Veil Ultimus used his Cloak of Distortions to make KFAD appear as another person. Unrecognized, his victims were no longer compelled to obey him–or protect him–and it was only by dipping into his Bag of Tricks that he was able to avoid a beatdown.

 

While the Regis Virus may seem incredibly powerful–and circumstantially it is–it has one very important drawback–it only lasts 24 hours. After 24 hours, the victim develops an immunity to the virus. Were that this immunity was able to be copied–a vaccine for the Regis Virus would get this whole KFAD business resolved very quickly.

 

He’s king for a day–and when the next one comes along he’s just a kid.

 

Bag Of Tricks

 

KFAD has infected many powerful, influential people and has used them to get into many secretive, secure locations. He’s been inside the Intercessors’ Roundhouse, the Heart of Eternity, McQuarrie Science Base, and Limitless’ volcano island. He doesn’t know much about what he finds inside these places, he’s only a kid, but he knows that things protected behind several doors and forcefields have value, and he knows he can ask the people that own these bases to turn the security off and get him whatever he wants.

 

He has a backpack full of goodies he’s swiped over his career–his Bag of Tricks. He’s looted force projectors, nanite colonies, perkunite swords, rhecite supercostumes (crucial if you happen to have a powerset that involves stretching, shapeshifting, or setting yourself on fire), and other such objects.

Some of the objects in his Bag of Tricks are valuable, but harmless. He’s got an autograph photo of Blue Beetle from the 1930’s that once stood in the Joyous Harbor Statesmen Center, an old GOLD STAR SAYS DRINK YOUR MILK poster from the Roundhouse, and an old volcanic repeater he took off Urban Ranger because it looked cool. Some of the objects in his Bag of Tricks are just junk. He took a circuit from McQuarrie Science Base because it looked important to him, when in reality it was scrap metal. But some of the objects in his Bag of Tricks are dangerous–very, very dangerous. Fortunately, he doesn’t know what they do, so he never uses them. This is why the Statesmen have issued a general advisory that the exact contents of what’s in the bag should never be told to the uninfected lest they may one day reveal to him the information. He’s got something very, very important and very, very deadly in that backpack–but he doesn’t know, because we don’t know.