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Ashley and Ashlynne are the main supporting protagonists turn main antagonists in the last two issues of the Crossed: Badlands story "Homo Superior".
History[]
Issue #1[]
Greg Costello has been almost completely by himself ever since The Crossed first attacked humanity until one day he spots a woman riding a bike just as he was, and Greg follows her until he's suddenly ambushed by her and tied up. The woman begins to waterboard Greg and tells him she'll continue to do so unless he answers her questions, to which he agrees since he doesn't really have a choice in the matter. He tells her he used to be married to a woman named Greena and they had two children, a mentally impaired son named Harry and Sean who was just a baby, and Greg makes it clear he never cared for fatherhood or being married. One day, his wife calls him say that their neighbors (The Crossed unbeknownst to him at the time) were attacking Sean and Greg could hear over the phone that The Crossed were killing his wife and then raping his son Harry.
The Woman asks Greg why he didn't go home right after, to which Greg says that going back would've been pointless since they were all dead anyways and it wasn't worth it to go back and be sure. Greg asks the woman if his actions make him a bad person and the woman says that it indeed does, but that's what it takes to survive nowadays. The woman tells Greg to tell her how he's managed to survive, and Greg says he's just been avoiding populated places and hiding from The Crossed in the rare instances he came across them, as well as fishing for all his food. The woman then cuts Greg loose and finally tells him tat her name is Steve, much to his surprise. Now following her on his bike, Steve tells Greg that she used to serve in Afghanistan, specializing in interrogation and prisoner conditioning where she enjoyed torturing terrorists. At their camp site, Steve explains further that she believes Islamic terrorists created the virus that infected the entire world.
Elsewhere over the radio in Florida, Leon Long speaks over the radio for anyone who might be listening that he's looking for someone to have sex with, and his father Clint reprimands him for wasting energy in their prison camp. Leon explains he was tired of listening to the preacher that was planning on going to an island with "Homo Superiors", a white supremacist group, and find someplace to start civilization over again. Clint just tells Leon to feed his dogs alligator meat with his cousin Ray. Meanwhile, Leon's sisters Ashley and Ashlynne (whom he's never met or knew about and vice versa) reminisce about how their family while all the homes around their own house burn to the ground as they leave, spotting a giant Crossed man as they leave.
Back at Steve's campsite, she goes to bed shortly after their radio stops working where she has a nightmare about someone attacking her, worrying Greg when she starts crying.
Issue #2[]
The next morning, Ashlynne and Ashley are canoeing through the swamps near Clint's fortress as they're looking for a new place to stay, and then are force to hide from a group of Crossed head-hunters, who themselves are not seen by Leon since he's slacking off on the guard tower to get away from his father. Because of this, The Crossed attack the fortress and kill one of Clint's favorite dogs before Leon manages to gun them all down.
Because Clint cares more for his dogs than his own son, Clint ruthlessly beats his own son and as further punishment, locks him underneath a porta-potty with all of his belongings. Leon plans his revenge for when he's eventually let out, while his sisters rest after hearing the attack.
After moving away from their camp, Steve asks Greg what was the worst thing he had ever witnessed the Crossed ever do to anyone and he says he once came across the bodies of six children impaled on a flag pole. In the distance, Steve sees a diseased Crossed man and takes her time shooting him repeatedly in relatively non-fatal areas until finally shooting him in the head, then has sex with Greg since she intensely enjoyed murdering the Crossed. Greg wonders if Steve's lust is going to end up killing him.
Issue #3[]
After eight hours trapped beneath the porta-potty and even being shunned by his community afterwards, Leon goes fishing to think about how he can get his revenge on his father and the rest of the people in the fortress, until he suddenly pulls the severed head of a Crossed man out of a river. Leon then decides to make his community one last batch of meth tainted with Crossed blood in hopes to infect as many of them as possible and then leaves in an airboat after blowing up the dock with several hand grenades, taking several of his father's weapon in the process.
Later, Leon makes his way to a cabin where he meets Ashlynne and Ashley for the first time, while Greg and Steve come across what's left of Leon's former home which is now overrun with meth-addicted and cannibalistic Crossed. Meanwhile, Clint has somehow survived and escaped his further home and now uses his remaining dogs to hunt down his son so that he can kill him for ruining everything.
Issue #4[]
Greg and Steve watch as Leon, Ashley, and Ashlynne leave their hummock after destroying the airboat, when they're suddenly met by Clint with his hunting dogs. Steve asks what he wants to which Clint replies that he's looking for his son Leon, and Steve tells him to check the hummock nearby since she was able to smell fish being cooked from it at dawn the other day, and Clint thanks them before leaving. Later, Clint is met by his fellow white supremacist friends turn Crossed Manatee Mike, his nephew Ray, and another unnamed Crossed man, and they offer him the same meth that infected them.
The next morning Clint, who is now infected, shows up at the home Greg's group is staying at looking for Leon. Steve stays they should stay out of it, but Greg fires at the group and soon kills Manatee Mike, though the RPG he was holding blows up their home and injures Greg and Steve. As Steve lays unconscious, Clint tries to rape her until Leon arrives to finally stand up to his father and shoots him in the head with a crossbow.
After the attack the two groups join forces for the manpower, and after some amount of time travelling together it's made clear that Greg has gotten Steve pregnant, though she makes it clear to him that she plans to keep the baby herself without Greg even though he lost his previous family. Ashley goes to check on Ashlynne and Leon and finds out that the two had just had sex after lots of past flirting, so the jealous Ashley beats her sister to a pulp and knocks Leon to the ground with her gun, preparing to rape him to "feel what she felt".
Issue #5[]
Some time later, it's revealed with a conversation between Greg and Steve that Ashley murdered Leon and the two sisters have agreed to lie that it was Leon that had beaten up Ashlynne and then raped her, before being shot by Ashley. After only two days, only Steve remembers Leon even existed.
With Leon gone, the balance of power has shifted in the group with the twins acting more innocent and vulnerable while Greg and Steve acting more like parental figures. After a bit more walking, the group comes across a camp for overweight children in search of food, and Ashley's leg is suddenly caught in a bear trap when several infected children suddenly ambush everyone. Forced inside the camp's cafeteria, Ashlynne irrationally decides to go back outside with a gun in an attempt to save her sister, but after hearing some screams both Greg and Steve assume she's dead, then set the camp on fire while running through the smoke to escape.
For the next week, Greg and Steve run from the Crossed children but due to being vastly outnumbered and Steve's advancing pregnancy, they're unable to keep very far away from them for long. Eventually, Greg and Steve decide to spend the night inside a wrecked boat where Steve tells Greg that if she were him, she'd go on without her since she doubts she'd survive giving birth, though he initially declines. Later that night however, the thought of having a family again scares Greg to the point where he cowardly tries to abandon her, but Steve shoots him in the knee in order to leave him behind for The Crossed.
After leaving him with morphine in order to dull his pain, Greg runs out of bullets just the infected Ashley and Ashlynne reveal themselves to be alive to him, and plan to "party" with him.
Issue #6[]
Four months after leaving Greg at the mercy of The Crossed, Steve is living in an abandoned hotel while on the verge of going into labor knowing fully well she has no knowledge at all of how to raise a baby or even deliver it by herself due to her careless mother never bothering to teach her, even drinking alcohol before and as she's delivering her baby. Outside the hotel, Ashley and Ashlynne have finally caught up with Steve thanks to the now infected Greg, whom they have turned into a dog-like abomination.
The Twins and Greg enter the hotel where they're eventually led into the kitchen where Steve has turned on the gas of one of the ovens to cause a massive explosion, though the three survive, albeit with burns all over their bodies. Knowing she's too weak to carry on for much longer, Steve abandons her child by a lone lounge chair in order to slow down Ashley and Ashlynne, though eventually returns to find they've finally killed Greg to cook his flesh. Steve orders them to give her baby back, though they tell Steve if she wants it back then she'll have to eat Greg's infected flesh in order to become a "Homo Superior" and be strong enough to raise her child for "Tomorrow Land", and Steve agrees to become one of The Crossed since she's never fit in with humans anyways.
Victims[]
- Ashlynne's Crossed Step-Father - Shot to death by Ashlynne.
- Crossed Man - Ran over by either Ashley or Ashlynne.
- Four Dogs - Shot to death by Ashley.
- Turtle - Killed by Ashley.
- Leon Long - Shot to death by Ashley off-panel, mentioned.
- Unknown Person - Killed by the Crossed Ashlynne off-panel, severed face shown.
- Greg Costello - Infected by the Crossed Ashley and Ashlynne off-panel.
- Crossed Greg Costello - Killed and eaten by Ashley and Ashlynne off-panel, body shown.
- Total - 11
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 Villains
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The Crossed Humans Groups | ||