Westin Phipps

"What could you possibly want here, you fiend? You've hurt enough of the good people of these islands with your villainy!

Hold on.

Okay, no one's looking. Sorry for the outburst, but we must keep up appearances. I can't do my job amongst the downtrodden if people don't trust me, you see. The only reason I can stand playing the noble crusader among the poor is that it makes betraying their few miserable hopes all the more satisfying."

- Westin Phipps

Westin Phipps is a contact in the M.M.O. City of Heroes/City of Villains. Phipps was infamous among both high ranking villains in Grandville, capital of the Rogue Isles and among the villain side players themselves as the single evilest being in the entire game, even compared to the likes of serial killers, mad gods, Nazis and genocidal aliens.

Haven House
Westin Phipps runs Haven House, a home for the poor in Grandville, seat of power for super-villain organization, Arachnos and their megalomaniac leader Lord Recluse. Grandville's main stronghold section, Spider City, is built over the broken homes of the original residence, who live in what is now a vast slum simply called "the Gutter". Arachnos has a vested interest in keeping it's citizens alive, both because it needs taxes and because the organization lives and dies entirely on the philosophy of Social Darwinism, meaning as much contempt that some members might have for innocent civilians, they keep them around specifically so some can die as examples of where weakness gets you while others can be pushed too far and become super-villains, thus fueling the organization. As part of such a system it is of the utmost importance to Arachnos that civilians have both a sanctuary and a place to break their spirits, to this end Arachnos employee Westin Phipps was given Haven House. Phipps is the organization's single most sadistic member, this includes Lord Recluse himself. If a person is robbed of their home, either literally robbed or forced to leave by one of the many anthropomorphic spider mutants the Arachnoids, they are welcomed to Haven House, where the poor go to live and their hopes go to die. Phipps plays the part of concerned philanthropic egalitarian, taking the poor and sick in to "give them a place to stay" but uses the opportunity to double his pity as a way to get into their heads and let them know how pathetic and worthless they are. Westin is invaluable to Arachnos as he not only keeps the common man too insecure to attempt a rebellion but also roots out anyone who might try to improving things as Westin can sift through the oppressed at the source.

Miss Francine the Freakshow Teacher
Westin will get word that the cybernetic punks known as the Freakshow are reforming and doing good deeds around the city. The notion of evil turning to good fills Phipps with utter disgust and he will hire the player character to investigate the issue and put a stop to it. The first mission to a Freakshow lair will reveal a group of Freakshow doing homework and in their lair in-between acts of random kindness, overhearing the chatter combined with notes from chapter boss will show that they are completing class assignments for a teacher, Miss Francine. Reporting back to Phipps after beating the Freakshow will prompt Westin to do some digging of his own over this "Miss Francine", where she came from and how much "damage" she has done to the Freakshow community.

Westin finds out in short order that Miss Francine had been in the Rogue Isles for a while as a school teacher for the under privileged. Phipps sends the villain to recover Miss Francine from one of the Freakshow's makeshift bases, find out how she got into the Isles and bring her to Arachnos custody. Raiding the base will turn up even more Freakshow, trying to get their lives together and doing home-work, among the base's papers will be a letter from Miss Francine to the android heroine, Luminary of the Freedom Phalanx. Miss Francine thanks Luminary for the opportunity to help the troubled youth of the Rogue Isles and was pleased to report both a reformation of character and increased good grades. At the end of the base the player villain will find Miss Francine surrounded by the boss Freakshow, praising their efforts to help her get her school supplies. When the Freakshow see a super-villain there to capture their beloved teacher and turn her into Arachnos they fiercely protect her, after defeating the bosses the villain must escort her to the exit and into Arachnos custody.

After the mission Westin sends the player on a follow-up mission to recapture Miss Francine. The Freedom Phalanx were not willing to sit by while an innocent woman was taken into Arachnos custody and broke her free before she could be harmed and were making preparations to move her back to Paragon City. The player will have 90 minutes to raid the Freedom Phalanx's Longbow base. The base will be protected by some of the Freedom Phalanx best, including Luminary. Once again the player will need to fight their way through a base, this time not only through Freakshow but Longbow, who are specifically trained to deal with super-villain threats and with Luminary, a full fledged hero to guard Miss Francine at the end.

Success
If successful the player will regain Miss Francine and hand her over to a high-security Arachnos team outside the base with all the heroes and Freakshow defeated and critically injured. Phipps plays his act of being outraged at-first, but then once he is sure no one is listening drops the act and under hushed breaths congratulates the player. Phipps tells thee villain not to worry about Miss Francine, gleefully stating that this time he has seen to it she will not be getting out until she breaks, and maybe even a few months extra just for good measure. After she is horribly disfigured, half alive and mentally broken he intends to hire her on in Haven House as an assistant, he intends to play up the angle of "giving the poor dear a place to go" but in truth wants to parade her around to show the poor where altruism and bravery get you.

Failure
Because the mission is timed it is possible to fail the mission, however 90 minutes is an extremely generous time limit for nearly any mission and if the player puts any decent effort into it, even with Luminary as a boss, it is nearly impossible to not have enough time. Phipps is depressed that Miss Francine gets away and says how he was hoping to break her down and then use her as an example of where being good gets you but states it can't be helped and at the very least she won't be around to reform anymore super-villains, he then sends the player on his/her/it's way. In light of the generous time limit the player will get a thank you letter from Miss Francine for letting her escape simply stating, "It's never too late."

The Rebels
Next Westin Phipps will hire the player to deal with some Arachnos Rebels. As Phipps explains some rebels from the contested zone of Warburg have left Marshal Blitz's service to cause trouble on the main land and word of their rebellion is spreading among the citizenry, bringing them hope for change; While Phipps knows he could just report the situation to Arachnos, all they will do is send an assault-squad to rectify the situation, Westin on the other-hand wants to destroy their entire cause and for that will send the player to the base, find any leads and crack the skulls of every single hope filled head.

Visit to the base will reveal one "Fortunata Amelee" was the cause of the decent in the ranks, but theft of her gear and ID numbers for Phipps allows him to send Fortunata Millia, in her place, a true Seer still loyal to Arachnos. Millia is sent to get all the information she can on the situations and the player is sent to "kidnap Fortunata Amelee" to provide cover for Millia's extraction. After recovering Millia she gives the player and Westin Phipps her information on the rebels, stating they were just a result of Marshal Blitz's pathetic attempts to oppose Arachnos and were reaching out to the Longbow and Freedom Phalanx once they came to the mainland in order to get support for a more powerful uprising. The rebels had been exchanging information on Arachnos technician Weaver-1 for Paragon City's support.

Phipps reads the full report and cautions the player that Freedom Phalanx member Swan had been set to meet them. Phipps says the rebels were all but defeated and had changed their price from asking for help fighting Arachnos to bartering for safe passage out of the Rogue Isles, a feint hope Phipps intends to be crushed and sends the player to do away with the rebels, stop the refugees and defeat Swan when she arrives. The player will need to fight the rebels, destroy their commander, recover the data they were planning to exchange and finally defeat Swan. The data recovered is on Weaver-1, designer of the Arachnos' psychic cyborg mutants, the Tarantulas. As it was the second time Weaver-1's name had come up Phipps becomes mildly concerned about how deeply the rebels were coordinated, even with Swan's potential help. However with the rebels destroyed and Swan sent back home in critical condition he considers the ordeal a rousing success and the player and himself to have do a much more eloquent than simply having an Arachnos patrol squad come in a shoot a few rebels.

Trivia

 * Westin Phipps was made by the devs as an answer to some complaints that villain players had that they didn't feel like they were given opportunities to be evil enough since many of their missions had them fighting fellow super-villains, even if it was purely as a dominance issue.
 * According to City of Hero Forums most players intentionally fail the Miss Francine story arc, this includes hard-core villain players, who simply view the ordeal as over the top evil even for super-villain role-play purposes.