| Posted: 16 Sep 2007 05:34 |
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so i'm just gonna spitball some stories out on here, it doesn't have any affiliation with my superdude comic.
__________________"You...complete me."
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| Posted: 16 Sep 2007 06:33 |
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SuperDude Presents #01
Private Eye in Space
I'm a detective. A space detective. I'd say what year it was but I'm not into technicalities. Maybe that's why I'm freezing and taking my last couple of precious breaths right now. A detective who's not into details. But then again, I've learned that in this pool of worlds and moons that serves home to humans these days, technicalities are a luxury not afforded to us.
I'm floating in space at the moment. Without a ship. Wihtout a space suit. Wihtout Oxygen. I'm breathing in a bag feeling my skin giving into the icey depths of space. I'd be dead now if it weren't for the heat still radiating from my ship (recently combusted)...(in flame). But even that heats' growing smaller and smaller as I drift away from it and it freezes into nothing. I have a story about how I got here and maybe that's why I'm narrating it to myself when death is surely approaching. Just hanging on to the hope of getting a chance to tell it I guess. If only I had a chance, a clue, anything for another couple years of my unfulfilled life.
It all started when I'd gotten my first case in two weeks. Someone wanted to know if there husband was cheating. It was the rotten sort of thing a successful P.I. stays away from but I needed the money. Little did I know I'd be running for my life, shooting off my round within an hour. See, I was on my way to the ladys' house when I see a guy running. The type of run you run when you're out of bullets and the guy behind yous' not.
Next thing I know, I look up only to be splattered with the poor saps blood. I'd become an involuntary witness. And I didn't know it at the time, but I'd also become the involuntary owner of something someone with a loaded gun wanted badly.
The runner was already dead lying on top of me when he gets shot up even worse. It took me a second to realize I, the witness was now the target. I picked up his body and used it as a shield as I dove for cover behind a nearby building. I'm covered in blood and shaking as I pull my piece and curse the fact that I didn't pay the extra money for the spare cartridge. I'd never even used the darn thing except a couple times at a shooting range for fun.
I'm what 20th century kids would call a loner, I had nowhere to go as the footsteps of a murderer grew louder around the corner. There was noone to come to my rescue either. This was an old city on an old planet and it had long since been forgotten by the government, law enforcement, heck, even I had trouble finding it. So I did the only reasonable thing and decided to take the enemy by surprise. I leapt around the corner and fired wildly, I was a worse shot than I'd thought and dove at him before he could aim his piece. My gun was a better punch than shot and he was out could with one wack to his tempel. I may not be the best detective, but I know the brand of a syndicate when I see one. And this guy had the mark of the Red Sun printed right on his piece. They waved it around like a badge on these small planets where law enforcement was a lost art. Despite this,it wasn't my fight. I decided pretty quickly I'd be best off getting off that planet as fast as I my adrenaline could carry me. I raced to my ship and started up my hyperspeed boosters. I wasn't gonna get caught up in this crap. About 20 miles out of the atmosphere it hit me. Quite literally, out of nowhere a missile that looked like it had been shot from within the atmosphere hit me. I saw it through my rear view mirrors (yes, my ships' that old)just in time to watch the back of my 3010 Titan exploding and in my panick I leapt away from the oncoming explosives just before they caught up to me and blew the fuel tank wide open. I was shot out the front of my ship, now a heap of flames, far enough away so that I was safe from burning. But now I was screwed, no space suit, no oxygen, nothing but me, my clothes and something falling out of my pockets.
The explosions warmth grew smaller and smaller as I drifted away. I frantically checked my pockets looking for anything to give me a fighting chance when I found a bag wiht three tiny capsules in it. I figured they were just drugs of some sort that the runner had stuffed into my pocket during his last seconds of life. I hadn't noticed at the time. Some detective I am, maybe I'd still have a ship if I'd just thrown the bag around that corner rather than going all maniac on the guy. I figured they were jsut drugs or somethin' but the detective in me stuffs them into another pocket as I began to feel my lungs lurching for air. I held the bag to my mouth and started breathing in the recycled air I'd hel in my mouth since the explosion. What a lifesaver. To think, the very reason my ship was blown up, depriving me from oxygen is now the only thing keeping me alive. For now anyway, I'm starting to freeze over, and the air is becoming too polluted in my small bag of life. I don't know what to do.
__________________"You...complete me."
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| Posted: 18 Sep 2007 02:46 |
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i've got the second part planned out. i think the second one'll be a conclusion, for now anyway. i'll probbably have to wait til' the weekend to get the time to do it unfortunately. i've got this part actually thought out though. i think i'll draw up some panels and put it into comic format someday.
Quote:
I don't know what to do. that quote almost had a "what to do...or write" after it. lol
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| Posted: 18 Sep 2007 05:18 |
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wrote most of the secind part tonight but want to finish it before i post it.
__________________"You...complete me."
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| Posted: 19 Sep 2007 05:26 |
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SuperDude Presents #02
Private Eye in Space
Part 2: The Catch
I'm Dead. I've been dead in space for five minutes. I look on that now like it was a dream. Little did I know I was still living the dream of life and I thought I had it bad then. Maybe if a ship had passed by and seen me. Maybe if I hadn't been so stupid throughout the whole ordeal. Maybe if that lady's husband hadn't been cheating. Just how much does one choice affect us, or those around us? One stupid, irrelevent choice.
It's not what it seems though. There I was in space, panicking now. I'd lost my cool when I realized losing conciousness so I could just roll over and die wouldn't be so easy. This could be painful. Pills, maybe drugs would ease the pain of my last moments of life. “It's stupid,” my concious says before it freezes and dies. You've still got your dignity. Dignity?!? You're seconds away from fainting and dying where you'll float into nothingness. Voices! I start to lose it and panic tells me to eat everything in my pockets, the pills, eat the pills. I reach for them; one of them's something that looks like a tiny scrap of tinfoil. I throw it aside. The pills! I throw them down and make a quick prayer that my instincts directed me, not my fear. The blackness. I'm done. I'm dead. It's over.
I wake up. It's black. This ain't right, I''m still in space, what kind of torture is this, waking up in time to see my lungs collapse and my body decompose. I'm dead, why am I being taunted?!? Then a burst of joy, the pills! Maybe they did something. Take a breath. I'm okay. This ain't right. A new energy, hope. What happened? I remember the tinfoil and see it floating in front of my face right where I left it. Good old non-gravity. How long was I out? I check my watch and see I've been in space for only 20 minutes since my ship blew up. It feels like years ago.
I'm not one to question miracles like breathing in space, but that tinfoil is lookin a lot like a recordable x-5 chip now that I've got oxygen in my lungs. Or, something in my lungs. I'd better not test the pills durability. I've got one bullet I can use for a little projection. I could wait for a ship, but the pills would surely ware off by then. These damn outer planets.
I see a meteor shower taking place about a mile away. Finally, something good about these outer planets, we dump a lot of waste on them. And by waste I mean everything from extra rocks to garbage to dead animals. Luckily, most of it burns up before hitting the planets. People’d have riots if they knew we were using the older planets as waste dumps. This of course may be a problem when I re-enter the atmosphere, but I'll worry about that when the time comes. I'm glad it's rocks this time. I've only got one shot but if I aim right I should be able to creep over there. Me aim? That's a good joke. But it's my only shot....no pun intended.
Here goes... I maneuver myself to face 180 degrees away from the shower, and just try to keep myself steady. Blam! The sound leaves me quickly trying to spread across the vast emptiness of space. But what a shot! I straighten myself out and look directly into the meteors. I'm headed right for them!
A second chance. What's the catch? I grab an asteroid and start plummeting closer and closer to the planet. I hadn't thought of this yet. Why would a syndicate famous for doing everything and anything illegal and getting away with it make a superhuman drug. Last I checked breathing in space wasn't something you could get at your local infirmary. Not only that but it's also preserving my body in these harsh temperatures.
I get closer to the atmosphere and the asteroid starts to burn as it speeds up. I'm gonna have to jump. I should be throwing up with nervousness but for some reason I feel calm. Strangely calm.
I make the jump and lie limp for a couple of seconds. It'll be a minute before I have to make any real decisions about what to do. Then the realization of it hits me. Space has a weird way of making you forget the laws of gravity. Especially when it's artificial crap like this planets' full of. I see the ground getting closer way too fast. I'm coming down through the clouds over a launching pad. Even this old heap of a planet has old folks who visit grand kids on far off planets every now and then. Maybe an average of one ship off every two hours. And it's my lucky day...well, this parts' lucky anyway. I see a ship coming towards me; I'll have to catch it before it gets into gear to break the atmosphere. I try my best to maneuver my body in a quick diving position as my hair and everything else hanging from my body are pressed forcefully into the air. I've got a certain confidence that should be completely lost in this situation. It's suicide, I should've waited in space, but somehow, I know I can make it. If I can just make the pilot see me.
Getting closer...closer... $#!#! TIME TO SLOW DOWN! I grab the ends of my coat and use them to as a parachute device. Wind blows just enough to give me a good swing at the oncoming ship. I'm going in to fast...
NO! I'll have a millisecond to grab the ship...
WACK! No, I'm falling. There it goes, I see bright red blood spiraling up from me...turn around, turn around, I hit you, you can't have missed me....
......... YES! He's turning! Oh man the ground is getting close. Come on, follow the blood, dammit, follow the blood! I see the ship racing for me, it's gonna be close. The ball’s in the air now, it's up to me miraculously having hit an amazing pilot.
AAAWWWWWFFFF!!!! He caught me, he caught me. I'm riding with the momentum from his ship on his windshield. We slow down and my beaten body falls on to the cool grass of a long since abandoned emergency landing strip.
I'm out for 2 hours. I wake up in what looks to be the ship that saved me. An old man is sitting there with a somewhat sad look on his face. I don't feel immobilized. I can move everything, and the only thing on me bandaged seems to be a few cuts and my chin, which despite having gotten whacked good, doesn't hurt that bad.
"How did I do that?" I ask him. I sit up. "That's impossible. I don't know why I even considered that. What's going on?"
"Why should I know?" He asks.
"I took some pills...I...I could breathe in space. Why could I breathe?"
"You seem to think I know what you're talking about." He replies dumbly.
"The chances of me seeing a ship and not dying during my freefall are unreal. You haven't bandaged or even checked my chest which is covered in blood. And you didn't immediately start interrogating me about how I hit you at about 50 miles an hour freefall and lived without hardly any wounds to show." I'm a detective, don't forget it. I know when someone ain't giving me the whole story. Then he tells me all I need to know in his face.
"You know whose blood it is. The runner in on the street. You knew him." I declare and he nods slightly.
"He was my son....He left me this chip about a day ago. Said he had to leave and that if anything happened to him I should run too, but only after I'd told someone I'd trusted-face to face- what he'd left on this video chip. Someone big, in the central planets, he says." And just like that the plot thickens and I realize just how big this is. These ain't no petty steroids, or magical beans either. There just had to be a catch.
"I got a chip too. He was running from them when he stuffed it and some pills in my pocket. He was trying to get off planet and show these to some real authority. He was trying to do the right thing." I assure the man and myself. It's the only explanation.
"You survived because you took the pills. You did take them right?" He asks, looking up slightly.
"Yeah, but why are they illegal. What's the catch?!? Just what does that video file say?" I start to get frustrated. This ain't gonna be pretty.
"All you need to know now is to keep that chip safe and get it off this planet as soon as possible. Save the chip for the higher authorities, but don't watch it." He continues in a deep voice.
I hate it when there's a catch.
"Why can't I watch it?" I ask. I keep hoping he'll tell me there's no catch they're just illegal for some stupid reason. "Why are you telling me this instead of getting off this planet NOW?"
"I busted an engine in that landing. It needs replaced. As it is, the syndicate’ll find us. I haven't got the energy to keep going. YOU have to finish this."
"Hey, I was just thrown into this, man, I want nothing to do with this, I just wanna wash my hands of it!"
The old man gives a sigh. "The syndicate'll be here any second. They were watching the flightline and taking out everyone as soon as they broke free of the atmosphere. I knew I had to try and get out but then I saw you and somehow I knew what I had to do. I landed deep in the boonies near the old airstrip, so it's taking them awhile to find us. I can fight em' off enough to get you out." I start to protest when he continues, "Watch the video file once you get out. You'll know what to do then."
Deep down I know what I see on that video file ain't gonna be pretty. But now I have to see it. My options are agreeing with the old man and desperately try to escape the syndicates' search party, or die here without a fight.
"OVER HERE!" A voice yells form outside of the ship.
"Here we go." The old mans' voice stings me like a bee as he tosses me a pistol he pulled out of an old case emblazoned with the Interplanetary Law Enforcement imprint and then grabs himself what looks like an old-school hunting rifle. So the old man was a cop. Damn. The more I know about him the more I hate what's about to go down.
The voices grow louder as I see about ten figures footsteps growing louder as they get nearer and nearer. Suddenly that boost of energy and control I felt back in space enters me. Panic and fear leave me and now there's only improved awareness as my senses seem to heighten. What the heck were in those magical pills?
The door breaks down. The party starts.
The old man gets a quick free shot in as they bust the windshield open. He sends the guy flying back almost faster than he came in. He gets another before he has to reload and I cover with my newfound shooting skill. Then it gets messy. They start to come in through the door as one of them blasts it open. I fire everywhere. The old man’s hit. He slumps back onto a chair and takes a couple more. All I can do is to watch out of the side of my eye as I gun down a couple more. As quickly as it started it’s over, we beat em’ but the old man is all but dead, covered in so much blood, some not even his own, he’s almost unrecognizable. I’m fine; he gave me the cover on the wall while he rushed head on. There’ll be more in a matter of minutes. Those were just the expendables. I look at the old man for a last time as he heaves out… “go.”
It’s all I can do. I head out as quick as I can and start to run for nearby forest. I hear faintly cries of more syndicate members gathering to come our way. They’ll torture him even more before he dies. He ain’t goin’ down like that. He’s too tough to sit there and die. He’d kill himself first. I ain’t letting him go that way. He’s still got a chance. I turn around and jet for the ship. The old man is weary to see me again. But then he would be. I throw him over my shoulder and he wheezes a little.
“I ain’t letting you die old man.” My voice is firm and he’d die if he tried to argue. The voices grow louder. I start to run as fast as I can while carrying him. Suddenly as we get near the forest, the voices grow too loud. They start to shoot at us; I’m nicked in the leg but I hardly feel it. For the second time in a day I’m splattered in the face with blood. Once again, it’s not mine. The body on my shoulder goes completely limp and I dive under the cover of a tree. He’s gone. Why is this happening to me? Why did I have to be burdened with the blood of a father and son in the same day? I have to go.
I run through the forest faster than I ever have. I keep running and running faster and with more endurance than I’ve ever known. It makes running the pain off that much harder. For a while I half wish they’d catch me and we could clear this whole thing up. That’s me being stupid. I know how it is with syndicates like these. No matter the price, they do what they set out to.
Morning. I ran until I was deep in an old part of town and hid out in an old, abandoned electronics shop. The pills gave me a good ways between the syndicate and me over a couple hours of running. I’d fallen asleep as soon as I stopped to hide out in there and hadn’t had a chance to watch the video file. I’d have the equipment here, but I knew I shouldn’t stay here too long. I’d only slept for about two hours when dawn woke me up. My heart skips a beat as I remember the video file. I pop it in.
Up comes someone talking on a webcam with a panicked look on there face. I see the eyes of the guy that died in my arms and I think of his father too. Suddenly I feel very uncomfortable in my bloodstained clothes. The man in the video talks.
“Super Human Enhancers. That’s what the Red Sun’s calling them. They’re gonna hand them out in the outer planets as body enhancers that make…they make you… superhuman. It sounds great but… you… when…you use them…you die.” The damn catch. He continues but I can hardly listen. The ground below me is spinning.
“They tested them on me and they work great but…they…. You don’t notice anything wrong until the fourth day, and the superhuman enhancements ware off after three. They make the body exert a lifetime of energy and immunity and strength that your body can only take for three days. By the fourth day, your body’s so worn out you can hardly move and you die over the next few weeks.” The man on the video sweats. He looks horrible. “They have to be stopped or they…they’re gonna blame it on other things, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, they won’t care as long as everyone uses them. They’re gonna watch millions die! And out here, who’s gonna stop them? They will destroy the outer planet population until it’s a wasteland for them to control and build up against the interplanetary forces. I never meant to get in this deep. I was stupid…I…I’m so sorry for everything. I…. They know about the defect. I can’t believe they...they planned this…. They used me. And they were waiting for me to discover the effects to make sure the drugs work right and now they’re…they’re gonna kill me. I took them three days and three nights ago. I’m on my last hints of energy. I know what’s gonna happen because I broke into their lab and found notes on desired effect. It’s already making me tired. So now they’re gonna kill me before I tell anyone. That’s what they say. Everyone will see their health decreasing and wonder why…why….” Footsteps grow loud in the background and the face in the screen panics and moves his hand towards the camera. End of recording.
I’m sitting in a dump of a store. What if a ship had seen me? What if I hadn’t taken the case? What if a husband had been true? Maybe I wouldn’t have had my future taken. I’m in the doghouse, but there’s no door. No solutions. No hope. And maybe that’s why I keep replaying it all in my mind. Just hoping for a chance to tell my story in a better time, a better place. Just hoping for a second chance I guess. Heh, I’ve had my share of those today. And all of it to be stopped by the damn catch. I thought I’d be able to get through this.
“You’ll know what to do.” The old man said. He had a lot of faith in someone he didn’t even know. I’d always wanted it to be quick. I’ve got a loaded gun, but that ain’t me. I want to see how the story ends, just like the old man knew I would.
__________________"You...complete me."
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| Posted: 19 Sep 2007 14:46 |
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Shew! I'm glad he made it out of that space predicament. That was pretty harry. I could just imagine being in space without air. I hate heights.
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Superhero Collectibles
Green Hornet
Supergirl
Thor
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What happens next?
