Spidey Omnibus Commentary Continued

It’s taking me way longer to go through this thing than I thought.  But here we go with PPSS # 58.

Page 3: A cop on a guard duty says, “A lot of mugs would like to get their hands on what we’re nurse maidin’.” I don’t know if I can use “nurse maidin’ in a similar context tomorrow.  But I’m damn sure gonna try.

Page 5: Intro for the Ringer–a villain that turns city pollution into physical rings that he can attack/trap people with.  I’ve never heard of this guy–very interesting.  It may be cooler to turn him into a hero someday.  Can you imagine? A hero’s powers that only work with pollution?  The ups and downs of that story write itself.

Page 10: Spider-Man laughs after hearing the Ringer’s name (apparently he doesn’t think the villain is as cool as I do).

Last page: Peter gets to have another happy ending for a change.  A fun read, probably the best in the omnibus so far.

Superheroes in Prose #11: The Princess of Atlantis on sale in the kindle store now! 

#SpiderMan

Space Pulp! Excerpt

Here is an excerpt from my new book Space Pulp! on sale in the kindle store now!

When you’re a rocket ship captain, you learn to expect the unexpected.

A routine charting mission can turn into the discovery of a sentient wormhole.  A Hedgmonian diplomat may possess your first officer and then try to assassinate you.  The Queen of Ridgimon IX may take you as her concubine and impregnate you with her seed.

But still … when you’re suddenly ordered to the fleet admiral’s office twenty-four hours before you’re due to punch, it’s enough to give even the most seasoned captain pause.  The Federacy doesn’t make hasty decisions, but they do give orders with little to no warning.  Orders that can turn your life upside down, back to front, or—literally—inside out.

“It makes one wonder, doesn’t it?”

I turn my head, look up at the Admiral.  I never even noticed him walk into the lobby.  “Sir?”

“The painting, Starson.”  He gestures at the oil canvas hanging on the wall in front of me. “It really makes you think, doesn’t it?”

“Honestly sir, I really wasn’t looking at it.”  I take in the painting.  It’s The Odyssey, the original rocket ship that first explored Earth’s new home five hundred years ago.  Earth hangs underneath it, distant but vibrant.  “Most paintings of The Odyssey show it going deeper into the Twelve—exploring. I’ve never seen one of it leaving Earth.”

“Oh, most don’t.  It’s not … sexy enough.” Admiral Bentura clasps his hands behind his back and straightens.  “But I’ve always been drawn to this one.  Helps remind me what it must have been like.”

“Going to the frontier?”

“Leaving the … familiar.  Leaving everything—everyone—you ever loved. In hopes of understanding why your planet had been yanked—torn away—from its solar system.”

“Sir, without The Odyssey’s discoveries—their experiments—we wouldn’t have been able to travel space like we do now. It was for the greater good.”

He sighs.  “The greater good … I wonder if that’s how they saw it once they returned, decades older?”

“I suppose sometimes that’s just part of the job.”

Bentura grins.  It’s a haunted grin that shows his sixty-plus years.  “And I suppose that sometimes the job requires too much.”

I stand from the couch.  “What can I do for you, Admiral?”

Bentura turns, walking between the leather seats in the lobby and stops at the viewport, his hands still clasped behind him.  Earth lights up his face with blue and green.  “I apologize for this being so short notice. I realize the Athens is due to ship out tomorrow. But we really need your help with something.”

I step beside him at the viewport.  “I’m listening.”

Bentura turns away and gestures to his office door.  It hisses open.  “A group of Preydean are willing to pay top dollar for a TMD. We can’t let that happen.”

I stop in the doorway.  “Where—who would be stupid enough to sell the Preydean a temporal warhead?”

Bentura walks behind his black desk and looks up at me with a devilish grin.  “We are.”

“… You’re gonna draw them out. With a dummy warhead. Then capture and interrogate them.”

“Before somebody else sells them the real thing.”  From a desk drawer, Bentura produces two small glasses and a bottle of Kreegari fire brandy.  He places the glasses on the desk with a soft clink and pulls the cork from the bottle.  “We’ve taken a casing and replaced the guts with a warp furnace from an old DC 10 hauler. You familiar with them?”

I nod. “They play hell on ship sensors.”

“Just like a real temporal warhead would.  It should be enough to convince them it’s the real thing, draw them out of whatever hole they’re hiding in.”  He pours two fingers of the blue liquid into each glass and squeaks the cork back into the bottle.  Within moments, the fire brandy turns red.

“You want me to make the sale … ”

He hands me a glass.  “We want you to setup and make the sell.  Frankly, there’s no one better.”

I let the glass stay in his hand for a long moment before taking it.  “Admiral, I … I’ve been exploring for a long time. Espionage isn’t something I’ve even thought about for—”

He raises a hand.  “We don’t need just a rocket ship captain. Or just a spy. We need someone that can be a little bit of both. It’s a short list and you’re at the top of it.”

“I … this isn’t me. Not anymore.”

Silence.

“Think about it, Starson.” Bentura slides his glass off the desk and walks to his office’s viewport.  He points at Earth, peacefully turning in its orbit below.  “The Preydean are animals.  If they get their claws on a Temporal Warhead? Aim it right at Earth?  You know what the repercussions could be.”

I sigh.  And take a long drink.  The fire brandy burns all the way down my throat, but leaves a sweet aftertaste.  “How long until the dummy warhead is ready?”

“Three weeks.  Your crew can wait until—”

“No,” I place the glass back on the table.

Bentura raises his eyebrows.

“The crew of the Athens isn’t up for something like this.”

“No Federacy officer is—not really.”

I shake my head.  “That’s why I don’t want Federacy officers.”

“…. What are you thinking?”

“Bard.”

The Admiral leans on his desk. “Dear Lord. That Kreegari gives me—well, he unsettles me.”

“Bard’s … interest in ancient Earth culture—”

“Interest?  The stuff he wears? The way he talks?  More like an obsession …”

“He has his reasons.  The point is that this ‘obsession’ gives him access to black markets all over The Twelve.” I point at the Bentura’s glass.  “Including those with fire brandy.”

Bentura grins.  “Touché.”

“If we need this deal to happen, he’ll have the contacts to make it happen fast.”

“I don’t have a problem with him.  He’ll just attract a lot of attention.”

“Which is what we want.”

Bentura nods.  “Alright, point taken.  Anyone else?”

I raise the glass back to my lips and pause just before saying in a low voice, “Olivia Nova.”

“Nova!” The Admiral rounds on me, sloshing fire brandy out of his glass. He swipes a hand through the air.  “No way—forget it!”

“I know you two have history,” I say in a calm voice.

“History—that’s one word for it. She knocked out three of my teeth you know.”

“She’s really good at what—”

“And this scar!” He rolls up the blue sleeve of his uniform, spilling the rest of his drink.   “You see this scar? That was her too!”

“She’s really good at what she does. You’ll never find anybody better with an explosive. Or an engine. And she’s a hell of a pilot.”

“Oh, I’m aware,” He rubs the sleeve back down. “But it’s those same talents that has her going through clones like gym socks.  What’s she on now? Sixty-three?”  He turns up his glass, and curls his lip when he realizes it’s empty.

I pick up the bottle and pour him another shot.  “Her people don’t like the word ‘clone.’ ” He doesn’t hold the glass closer to me, but he doesn’t pull it away either.  “They prefer ‘shell.’ ”

“Like I give a damn what she prefers.” He takes another sip before the brandy has a chance to change colors.  He puckers at the sour taste.

I ease the bottle back onto Bentura’s desk. “Livy’s experience gives her a lot of talents.  She’s basically three officers rolled into one.  And since we’re going to have limited space anyway …”

Bentura starts to raise the glass to his lips, then stops.  “What do you mean—limited space?  We’ll give you a Federacy rocket ship.  Something older of course, but you’ll certainly have the room to—”

I shake my head. “That may have worked years ago, but now I’m too well known. If I’m going to sell this, I need to use my identity. People have to think I’ve turned.  I have to use my personal ship.”

He turns back to the viewport, fingering the rim of his glass.  “I didn’t even know you had a ship.  How big is it?”

“Big enough to get the job done.”

“What model?”

“Phoenix Dx.”

“Phoenix? That’s barely Solar Class.”

“It’ll need some work.”

“You’d be better off in something bigger.”

“It’ll need some work.”

Bentura lets go of a heavy breath.  “Phoenix Dx… those ships are—what—thirty years old?”

“Forty.”

“It’d be strange if it didn’t need work. How much are we talking?”

I smile.  “Oh, I think anybody that’s footing the bill for a fake temporal warhead can handle it.”

Bentura crosses the space to his desk, picks up the fire brandy and pours himself another drink.  “Alright. Fine.”

“Bard and Livy will need to be paid.”

He gestures vaguely. “Fine to all of it.”

I place the empty glass back on his desk, then start for his door.  “I’ll comm Bard and Livy first thing in the morning.”

“Starson …”

I turn, face him as his office door slides open.

Bentura’s mouth moves a little, as if he’s trying to find the right words.  “The Preydean are very unpredictable.  And so is this crew you’re putting together.  Be careful. There’s a lot riding on this.”

“Relax, Admiral.  This will go off without a problem …”

Check out Space Pulp! on sale in the kindle store now!

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Superheroes in Prose Handbook Preview

Here is Galaxy’s entry from the new Superheroes in Prose handbook, on sale now in the kindle store. Enjoy!

Quote: “I hover out of the bathroom.  I ball my hands into fists as I float out, hoping it looks cool.  I have to shake loose some toilet paper wrapped around my ankle, which totally ruins the moment.”

First Appearance:  Superheroes in Prose #1 Real Name: Gabe Garrison Height:  5’ 10” Weight:  148 lbs. Eyes:  Brown Hair:  Brown Unusual  Features:  When using his powers, Galaxy’s body becomes a window into the reaches of space. Level: 8 Registered:  No

STORY Despite being adopted at birth by Nolan and Dr. Mary Lou Garrison, Gabe Garrison had the typical early childhood of a boy living in Prose.  He idolized his older brother Jack, his father, and most of all Superheroes.  When Gabe was six, his father and brother died within a few months of each other.  To fill that void, Gabe immersed himself in Superhero pop-culture, even entertaining fantasies that his biological father was one of the great HEROES like Hunter or Liberty.

The summer before Gabe started high school, he met Reagan MacPherson (see Reagan).  He fell in love with her immediately, in the way that only a geeky, socially awkward, fourteen year old could do.  She didn’t know he existed until the next year when the two had some classes together.  Eventually, they became friends.  Gabe never told her about his romantic interests, despite the advice of his best friend Bo Dudley, probably due to Bo’s cringe-worthy overtness in his own dealings with women.  By the time they graduated high school, Gabe had decided to distance himself from Bo and his vulgar behavior, but Gabe’s priorities changed when he suddenly got Superpowers.

Having graduated high school and enrolled in college, Gabe was looking for increased independence from his mother.  He took a job as a barista at Rock Creek Book Store.  While taking out the trash on his first day, a blue energy cloud rushed out of the local dumpster-diving dachshund and into Gabe.  He had become host to an incorporeal alien consciousness.  The alien, who Gabe called M, had almost been destroyed by a group of his race called the Council and could only keep his consciousness together by bonding with another life form.  The symbiotic relationship would give the pair access to various special abilities, but the host had to consent to the bond for it to work on a long term basis.  Gabe accepted on the condition that M help him be a Superhero.  M agreed despite a long list of reservations and his chagrin when Gabe kept the dachshund.

Gabe took the name Galaxy, but his motivations for wanting to become a Superhero were naïve and selfish.  He wanted to be special and to have fun.  He wanted to look cool.  Some success in his first week, which included defeating Dr. Villainous, gave Gabe false confidence in his abilities (see Dr. Villainous).  That all changed during a demonstration of Dr. Silas Thatcher’s “Dark Lighter,” a machine used to detect the presence of dark matter.  An interaction between the Dark Lighter and the Ramma radiation emitted by Gabe due to his bond with M endangered Dr. Thatcher and several University of Prose students, including Reagan.  The accident killed two students and transformed Dr. Thatcher into the Supervillain Dark Light.  Blaming himself for what happened, Gabe despaired until his boss, Jessica Gem, inadvertently made his responsibilities clear.  With a greater sense of purpose, Galaxy stopped a plan by Dark Light to recreate the Dark Lighter experiment on a larger scale which could have killed billions.  Dark Light’s defeat required a sacrifice that made Gabe’s choice to bond with M irrevocable.  He would die if M left him for an extended period.  In addition, the energy which fueled Galaxy’s powers would have to be recharged after prolonged use.

Gabe continued his secret life as Galaxy, understanding the sacrifices and impossible choices that Superhero life would require.  Yet, the people he could protect from a world made dangerous by threats both mundane and Super were worth taking responsibility for.  He did not register as required by the Wertham Act.  M’s reluctance to have his presence made known to others, and Galaxy’s involvement in the Dark Light incident, convinced Gabe that registration was not a valid option.  Over the next several months, while he settled into college life and his job at the book store, Galaxy destroyed one of Shank’s robots; stopped Victor Verse from flooding Prose after he had learned the Sonnet of Storms; and prevented many lesser crimes and catastrophes.

At some point Galaxy came to the attention of Tibus Maul, an information broker residing on a space station far outside the solar system.  Maul put a large bounty on Galaxy which attracted the attention of the undead cyborg bounty hunter Deathbot (see Deathbot).  The cyborg’s attack on Galaxy put the whole world in danger of infection by Deathbot’s transformative nanites.  To save countless millions, the unregistered Galaxy put himself at great risk and enlisted the aid of Liberty and HEROES.  He soon learned that Liberty had agreed to help Deathbot collect the bounty.  Galaxy barely defeated Deathbot.  In the process he saved Liberty’s life and became indebted to Pink, a relationship that would soon alter the balance of power in Prose (see Pink).

The night he defeated Deathbot, Gabe accidently revealed his identity to Reagan MacPherson.  In turn she showed him that she possessed the same powers.  The impossible coincidence was resolved when Dr. Villainous attacked Gabe and Reagan at the book store, looking for the temporal ray gun Galaxy had taken as a trophy from their first encounter.  During the incident Villainous mortally wounded Gabe and accidently sent M back through time.  Two months in the past, M temporarily bonded with Reagan and waited for the night of Dr. Villainous’ attack.  M helped Reagan defeat the villain and tried to convince her to let Gabe die because M preferred to bond with someone uninterested in being a Superhero.  Reagan refused the permanent bond and left M no choice but to save Gabe.  The situation caused Reagan to leave Prose after revealing to Gabe that she loved him but could not be with him (see Reagan).

After M’s treachery Gabe attempted to give up his life as Galaxy.  Salvador Casa, one of Gabe’s new professors and perhaps the world’s foremost expert on Superheroes, convinced him to reconsider, and Gabe and M came to more agreeable terms when Gabe threatened to fly them both into the sun.  Through his ally Pink, Casa knew that Gabe Garrison was in fact Galaxy.  He described the conflict brewing between registered and unregistered Supers and that he believed Galaxy would be indispensable in overthrowing the untenable paradigm imposed by Liberty and the Wertham Act.

Liberty made it clear he was ready to act on his earlier threat to kill Gabe and his mother.  Galaxy enlisted Pink and Casa to break into the Bend and retrieve from Deathbot evidence they could use to blackmail Liberty.  Deathbot refused to cooperate unless he were both released from prison and paid for the evidence.  During the breakout Galaxy tricked Liberty into getting his powers stolen by Leech’s brain while Pink possessed it.  Deathbot accepted the powerless Liberty as the payment he required, and in return he provided Galaxy with Tibus Maul’s location and the incriminating recording of Liberty he desired.

Galaxy later became embroiled in the intrigues of the Magickal world.  The Ward Ember hid within him the late Eldritch’s Magicks, and the pair had to slay a dragon to get them out.  Galaxy and Ember enjoyed a brief physical relationship, much to M’s delight.  Galaxy had accidently used Eldritch’s Magick to limit Pink’s ability to possess people, but before this mistake could ruin their alliance, Pink’s absorption of her alter-ego Black changed her priorities.  Galaxy revealed M’s presence to Pink—and inadvertently Casa—shortly before she was kidnapped by Ms. Mystick and Ember (see Ms. Mystick).  To save her, Galaxy coaxed the evil Sayer Macabre into a direct assault on Ms. Mystick’s brownstone in Prose (see Macabre).  Together with Casa and Ember, he saved Pink and joined Ms. Mystick in defeating Macabre.

Galaxy has proven himself to be a resourceful hero capable of meeting any challenge.  He has made the world safer for unregistered Supers by defeating Liberty and hamstringing HEROES’ ability to enforce the Wertham Act.  While he has saved the Magickal community from Macabre’s twisted designs, his ally and lover Ember let herself be possessed by Pink, knowing it might be permanent.  Each victory has its cost.  The life of a true Superhero will never be easy.

SKILLS AND SUPERPOWERS Once virtually omnipotent, M’s attempted execution by the Council stripped him of most of his former power.  Currently, his ability to employ Ramma radiation to access the Void is severely limited and can only be used to manipulate gravity.  Without a symbiotic bond to a compatible being’s nervous system, M requires all his concentration to maintain the integrity of his consciousness and cannot focus enough to use these powers.  Even bonded to Gabe Garrison, M’s consciousness remains fractured, making it possible for shards of it to be removed.  The loss of a shard can limit M’s abilities even further.  The piece lost during Galaxy’s encounter with Dark Light made Gabe Garrison and M obligate symbionts.  Neither can survive long without the other.  This loss also rendered M unable to draw from the environment the Ramma radiation needed to fuel their powers.  Instead, the radiation must be produced through chemical reactions in Garrison’s spinal fluid.  While M’s conversion method is highly efficient, some spinal fluid is consumed, but M’s presence in Garrison’s central nervous system protects him from the adverse effects associated with spinal fluid loss—up to a point.  Once M can no longer protect him, Galaxy is unable to use his powers without risking severe brain trauma and likely death.  A healthy body produces spinal fluid fairly rapidly, giving Galaxy’s powers about two and a half full “charges” in a twenty-four hour period.

Members of M’s race are sensitive to most of the near infinite energy spectrum found throughout the cosmos.  In M most of this sensitivity survived his brush with death at the Council’s hands.  He can use these senses to provide Galaxy with information ranging from the life signs of nearby organisms to the presence of forms of radiation unknown to humans.  Most uses of this sense do not consume Galaxy’s available energy, though M can conduct more intense scans which require Ramma radiation.

Galaxy’s gravity manipulation powers can be employed in various ways.  The same gravitational field which allows Galaxy to fly can be extended into a “Grav Beam” and used to lift nearby objects.  The maximum weight he is able to lift in this manner is unknown, but it is no less than ten tons.  Galaxy can also focus gravity into an energy bolt which can be used to repel objects or shatter stone.  Defensively, Galaxy’s powers can erect a force field resistant to most attacks, but which must be constantly replenished and can quickly drain his powers if under sustained assault.  In the vacuum of space, Galaxy can fly at near lightspeed, able to travel from the Earth to the Sun in minutes.  On Earth he is limited to supersonic speeds due to simultaneously maintaining his force field to deflect heat generated by friction with the atmosphere.  With the exception of flight, all of Galaxy’s powers are controlled by M.  Months of practice have produced a strong enough rapport between the symbionts that M can often determine Garrison’s intended use of their powers through hand signals and body language alone.

Intelligence:  2 (M: 7) Strength:  6 Speed:  7 Durability:  6 Power Projection:  5 Fighting Ability:  2

Advantages and Weaknesses: Born Hero +2 Multiple Superhuman Attributes +1 Flight  +1 Secret Identity -1 Uncooperative Alien -1 Power Drain -1

The Superheroes in Prose handbook on sale now in the kindle store!

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