Second String Heroes

LBV - 5

2012-02-21T07:56:00.001-08:00

“Thanks Dave.” Carl began rubbing his bald spot as he talked. “Our tech development continues at pace. But other than one major part we have had no real breakthroughs, just a few small upgrades to existing tech here and there. “

He checked some notes on his phone. “The body armor is ready for sale to governments through our normal front, Global Technical Unlimited. Our final figures on the armor is that it is thirty percent lighter, fifty five percent better protection and one third of the price of current US issue Kevlar. Which will be great for keeping our people alive. And it will boost our legal income.“

“And I am fairly sure that one of the members of the development team will betray us in just under a year if things go to schedule. It looks like we hired the right gal to have a crisis of conscience. My forecast at this point predict her using the chemical formula for the Resistex material to build some body armor, steal some of our portable tech and join a super team in the Boston area. Our betting pool today is whether she is going to snag the freeze tech, the somulence tech or go the adhesion route with the expanding goop. Who wants what?”

Mike leaned his head on one hand while his elbow leaned on the table. With is other hand he counted off his questions as he listed them. “Four questions. Where is she from originally? What did she do before she got recruited? Does she have family? What is her personality?”

“Good questions. She is from the Boston area. She was a senior going for her chemical engineering degree. Her parents are both alive and she has an older brother. She was the intellectually superior wallflower type.”

The other three around the table made appreciative noises.

Carl looked to Mike, “You spoke first. What do you think?”

“I have a dollar on adhesion. The chemical engineering means I think she can reverse engineer it.”

“I’ve got a buck on freeze tech. Intellectually superior wallflower? Definitely a chip on her shoulder. Probably arrogant. Ice user equals arrogant.” Dave piped in with a grin.

Ted just sighed and shrugged. “I guess that leaves me with somulence. So that is where my dollar is going.”

“With that out of the way I think I can talk about one of our super long term goals. Early last month we solved the unsolvable. By we, I mean Dave’s and my people working together solved it.”

Ted and mike looked at each other and each shrugged and took turns listing off the plans they knew of.

“Mind uploadable Cloning?”

“Nope. But closer than you think on that one.”

“Finding Hitler’s frozen head?”

“Sorry, nope.”

“Stage two of the power detection array?”

“No. We are having some delays on that one.”

“Cracking Tesla’s broadcast energy transmitter?”

“Nope.”

Ted rolled his eyes. “I’m out. Can you guess anything Mike?”

“I’m out too. Unless they somehow managed to crack cold fusion. But that one is eternally ten years away.”

Dave and Carl quietly smirked and said nothing.

Mike looked sharply at them. “No way. You did it? Seriously? You two monkeys figured out cold fusion.”

“Yep we did.” Nodded Carl. “Apparently you can get the atoms to react in zero gravity.”

Ted started clapping. “Incredible. I can’t believe you did it. That will solve so many problems.”

Dave looked a bit sheepish. “Yeah, don’t get so happy. It’s worthless. It is completely unusable. It costs too much to do. The energy output does not equal the energy put in to kick start it. And it can only be replicated in zero gee.”

“Yeah. Sorry guys but cold fusion is a bust for us. Zero point energy looks more promising.. Unfortunately I think we are ten years out on that one..So, yeah.. No cold fusion energy. The documents and research involves will of course be leaked on to the internet. Hopefully someone can build on this.”

All the heads around the table nodded sagely.

LBV - 4

2012-02-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

Dave aka Overwatch slurped on his fourth soda and piped in next “Bla Bla Bla, we kept that name secret and used the League of Brutal Villainy instead so everyone will think we actually were bad guys. Bla Bla Bla, We are leaving the fifth chair open for when one of us inevitably time travels or we find someone else that would fit in with our ideals. And we can’t get OK that about covers the rest of the history lesson. All in favor of moving on?”

Four voices as one “Aye.”

Chuckling Ted took charge. “Ok let’s get to current business and ongoing projects. Mike you go first.”

“Thanks Ted, I have good news to report. As of last month in Kraagbwei literacy rates have increased across the board. For those under twenty we are at seventy percent and for those above twenty it is at fifty three percent. Which is almost double what it was five years ago.”

He got a round of “Good Job!”s and a few claps.

“That’s not all. This year we will have our first crop of graduates from the university. All of which have jobs waiting for them. Around half of them the country of Kraagbwei is employing for infrastructure building and advancement and most of the rest Overwatch is going to use for work on the satellite defense grid. Kraagbwei officially thanks you and Skyshield.”

Dave gave a small smile, gave a slight nod and raised his soda can in toast. “And Overwatch and Skyshield formally thanks the country of Kraagbwei for training the people we need for the Extra-Solar Defense Grid and other deep space operations.”

“The long range forecast for Kraagbwei looks pretty much like The Seer predicted. Some of our neighboring countries are making threatening noises and posturing. We expect an attack or provoking incident within the next 3 years. The contingency plans for that remain updated with current information. Overall the morale of the populace is good and is improving.”

“Excellent news Mike. So who wants to be next?”

“I’ll go.” Dave cleared his throat, “Skyshield is on schedule with its construction of the components for the defense grid. Our estimates show that we will have enough for minimal dispersal in about nine months and coming up to the fully synced grid in two years. Those numbers will of course change if we get a major tech breakthrough or additional support up there.”

Ted nodded “I’ll look into it and see what I can do. Zeeros might need a place to lay low for a while.”

“Thanks, she would be a big asset up there. And in other news. The Cretaceous project is almost ready for unveiling. The slush asteroid has almost been towed into position and the moon impact trajectory has been calculated for impact on Mare Humorum, with boosters placed and coordinates tracking accordingly. In about two months I can make the ransom demands and issue threats threatening to drop the asteroid on Washington DC.”

“All your airtime has been paid for already and the interruption tech will be on standby starting a week prior to your estimated date of unveiling.” Interrupted Ted.

“Good. One less worry. And I think you guys will appreciate a few of the modern takes on the classics I incorporated. My personal favorite is the motion activated timed detonators. The detonator is inert until it gets a reading of a human sized object approaching it then its timer starts with a forty five second countdown. If no action is taken it resets after thirty seconds and triggers again at forty five seconds when another object approaches. And another nice touch is cutting any wire will disable it. And it has nice big bright wires including the classic red one.”

The room burst out laughing at his description.

“So when enough are disabled there is a terrible explosion sending the slush ball,” He made quotation marks with his fingers “’off course’ to impact on the moon. Providing the moon base that Skyshield is building and will” finger quotes again “’abandon’ when someone comes to stop foil us, with plenty of ice and hydrocarbons for water and air. I have something else but I will let Carl unveil that next.”

LBV - 3

2012-01-31T07:01:00.000-08:00

With the toast the four supervilians sat around their conference table. Dark Talon spoke up again.

“Also keeping in with tradition every five years we need to go over how we got started. To keep us humble and refresh in our memories why we are all doing this. Carl, you have the floor.”

“Thanks Ted, “Doctor Pandemonium aka Carl replied rising.”I prepared a few videos and some pictures which I saved a while back.”

The big plasma TV showed a shot of a news paper clipping showing four grinning men in their early twenties holding an oversized check, younger versions of the men sitting in the room. They were standing in front of a corner store with a blue awning that advertised “Lotto, Beer and The Best Pizza in Town” in bold letters on a sign in the window. The title of the article read “Local Boys Win the Big Lotto! Record numbers for the lucky foursome.”

“That was the day we won and made the first pact. That we were not going to piss the money away like so many other winners, that we were going to use it to benefit the world. And after we each banked three million dollars that was what we did. Or tried to do.”

The heads around the table nodded, with thoughtful looks on their faces.

The next slide on the screen was a collage of headlines:

“Aid Shipment Hijacked!”

“Homeless Shelter Permit Denied: Labor Dispute Main Culprit”

“Clean Energy Bill Voted Down”

“Do-gooders Tied in Red Tape”

“Animal Shelter Demolished by Animal Rights Activists”

Carl continued “It started to go bad then. It seemed like everything we tried to do got turned down or ruined by outside interference. Money embezzled by top people in the groups we set up, supplies stolen or destroyed, wrong paperwork. Freaking paperwork. It felt like we couldn’t do anything right. It looked like we were going to give up when the event that changed everything happened.”

The view of the headlines changed to a shaky home video, which seemed to have been shot on a pretty high quality video camera.

It showed much younger versions of three of the four villains in the room lounging around a living room generally grousing and hanging out like friends are apt to do. The room was rather noisy with the TV going in the background and a radio off playing in another room. The guys were complaining about recent events.

“.. and then the city council piped in and said I hadn’t filed the prerequisite paperwork to change the zone from commercial to residential and paid the ‘administrative fees’. Which sounds an awful lot like a bribe to me. “complained Carl “but two months ago they said that the homeless shelter/drug rehab center needed to be commercial because we would have people working there.”

The camera quickly zoomed in to Mike who was wearing a brand new looking Led Zeppelin T-shirt and sitting on the edge of the couch staring at the TV, trying to ignore Carl’s rantings. He waved his hand at Carl “Shhh, they are about to reveal the verdict.”

The image panned over to the screen where a suited man behind a podium was reading a pre prepared statement. “… After deliberation and thought the United Nations council of developing nations has decided to issue sanctions against the Warlord of Kraagbwei for crimes against the people of Kraagbwei and hijacking and willful destruction of relief aid. Furthermore…”

Mike angrily turned off the TV and threw the remote down. “Sanctions?! That’s it? He destroyed almost a million dollars of supplies that those people needed. And all he gets is sanctions? Seriously it is like honest human beings can’t do anything without being penalized and the bad guys can do anything and get away with it!”

The camera pulled out catching Ted leaning forward from the easy chair he was lounging in, tapping the rounded hilt of the sword he had resting against his leg. “Then why not become villains? Think of all the good we could do if we didn’t have to obey any laws.” It zoomed in unsteadily on his face. Ted paused looking at everyone’s faces”And besides we already have what is considered the greatest of all super powers… money.”

Except for the music from the radio in the background the room fell silent. The camera panned back and forth across the assembled people.

Mike spoke first. “You aren’t serious are you? That sounds crazy. Being villains?”

“What happened to helping humanity?”Carl butted in “Villains blow up dams, take hostages and try to rule the world. That definitely isn’t helping humanity.”

And finally the man behind the camera spoke “I dunno guys. It makes a twisted sort of sense. If you can’t beat them join them. And get them to do work for you without them knowing it. The idea has potential.”

Ted nodded. “Exactly Dave. Put the camera down and let’s talk about this.”

The camera abruptly blurred and came to rest on a cushion, the picture at a ninety degree angle, as they began to talk.

The video faded to black on the monitor as Carl faced his cohorts.

“And thus after many hours and days of arguments and planning our League of Benevolent Villainy was born.”

Today's update: Delays!

2012-01-26T04:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't had time to rewrite or create anything new. It has been a pretty busy week. I should be ready to go by next Tuesday.

This will never happen again, until the next time it does.

Swords of Power, Part 1

2012-01-19T15:52:00.001-08:00

Arondight – Sir Lancelot’s sword

The sword looks like a functional and lethal warriors weapon with a dark pommel and cross guard. Close inspection of the latter reveals faded and worn water motifs of waves, shells and water life. The blade itself always maintains it’s bright flawless mirror like polish, a quick flick makes all paint, mud and other like material slide off like water. The edge of the blade glows with a faint blue light when not in active use, while the whole blade itself glows a brighter blue when in active use.

The sword is said to enhance the wielder’s natural abilities to beyond normal men. And to give a supernatural fighting ability. It is sometimes paired up with Lancelot’s shield, which grants the bearer the “unflagging endurance and the strength of three men.”

Current user is Crusader a member of Storm Patrol in Seattle.

Excalibur aka Caledfwlch – King Arthur’s sword

From the Dream of Rhonabwy –“ Then they heard Cadwr Earl of Cornwall being summoned, and saw him rise with Arthur's sword in his hand, with a design of two chimeras on the golden hilt; when the sword was unsheathed what was seen from the mouths of the two chimeras was like two flames of fire, so dreadful that it was not easy for anyone to look. At that the host settled and the commotion subsided, and the earl returned to his tent.”

It’s abilities are unknown.

Excalibur has only been used by one man. That is King Arthur himself. It waits for him to be reborn to reclaim it.

Shén zhī jiàn aka the Sword of God – Atilla the Hun’s Scimitar

The Roman historian Jordanes, quoting the work of the historian Priscus, gave the story of its origin:
"When a certain shepherd beheld one heifer of his flock limping and could find no cause for this wound, he anxiously followed the trail of blood and at length came to a sword it had unwittingly trampled while nibbling the grass. He dug it up and took it straight to Attila. He rejoiced at this gift and, being ambitious, thought he had been appointed ruler of the whole world, and that through the sword of Mars supremacy in all wars was assured to him.

The Sword of God is very deadly scimitar that has a bronze pommel and elaborate abstract etchings along its blade. When it is used it always seems to catch the sun’s light and flash and sparkle.

The user is said to gain great charisma, stamina, the power to turn invisible and the ability to summon a flying spectral steed, sometimes known as the King of Ghost Horses.

It is being used by a man also called The Sword of God in the northern region of China.

Heaven’s Gift – The arming blade of Joan of Arc

Heaven’s Gift is the most un assuming and plain of all the Swords of Power. It looks like a simple knights arming blade made out of a dull redish metal with a black crude forged pommel and grip that are a single piece. The grip is wrapped in a stained white cloth.

Fire is the source of this weapon’s power. An interesting quirk of the sword is that it can only be used by a woman. A man trying to use it will get burned. When activated the user is given wings of fire and is surrounded by a corona of fire and flame that does not harm her but will hurt her foes. The sword has an ability called the Dragon’s Breath, which produces a cone of flam at anything the user desires. Unlike most of the other weapons it does not enhance the users natural abilities in any way.

The current user is unknown.

Surprise! Delay!

2012-01-19T10:06:00.000-08:00

Todays update was actually done on time. But after rereading it and looking it over I didn’t think it was good enough to actually post. It needs a reworking to make it, frankly, not suck. So it will go up on Tuesday in a better form.

To make up for it I will give you a bit more background info this afternoon to whet your imagination. Known information about The Eight Swords of Power. Half of them any way.

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LBV - 2

2012-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

They all started talking and yelling all at once, in anger more than frustration.

Ted “This is completely against the rules!”

Mike “Do you have any idea what will happen if they track you here!?”

Carl “The rule is no spandex at these meetings! Not cool man, not cool!”

The armored figure held its gauntleted hands up placating, trying to calm the 3 angry men before it. “Whoa, Guys come on,” its sibilant voice still booming mightily “Oops, sorry about that let me fix it.”

There was an audible click and the voice that spoke was nothing like what was heard before. It sounded fairly normal and a bit frustrated “If anyone managed to track my telebouncing they will think I teleported to the Canadian Rockies to a point two hundred feet below ground. I made sure this would be untraceable. And besides I have a very good reason to be teleporting here.”

Mike frowned at the fearsome armored figure before him. “OK Dave, spill. What was so important?”

Overwatch aka Dave clapped his metal clad hands together and a bubble of energy began to form between them expanding in size as he moved them apart. He twitched his hands and the glowing crystals in the palms shut off leaving a pair of stacked cardboard boxes that steamed gently. “This is what was so important. Fresh Chicago style pizza strait from the windy city itself, stored safely in the stasis field generated by the suit.”

Carl inhaled deeply savoring the scent that floated through the room. “No way, is this from the one place..”

“On the corner, with the blue awning, next to the nail salon. Yes it is.” Dave finished for him. “The place this all began.”

The power suit walked forward and set the pizzas on the table. “Don’t wait for me, dig in. I need to take this off.” He walked over to the corner with the coat hanger and powered the suit down. Its chest plate clam shelling open revealing a thin pale man with a few days stubble wearing a wet look grey and blue bodysuit that had wired and other connections plugged into snap fittings at dozens of different places.

It took Dave a few minutes to extract himself from his suit properly, giving his friends plenty of time to dive into the thick pizza, quietly eating with the occasional sounds of a bite that was too hot and mouth fanning motions.

Ted gestured to the fridge. “I have plenty of soda for you in there. All the good stuff, Mexican and throwback, with real sugar. I know the suit drains you and lowers your glucose levels.”

With a thumbs up and a grin Dave walked over stretching and working out kinks as he went to help himself to his choice of beverage.

After the four of them had gotten fresh drinks and had mostly sated themselves on fresh pizza Ted stood up holding his beer high.

“As is traditional whenever we get together for our yearly meeting we need to open with our toast.”

Every one stood up from their chairs brandishing their drink of choice, with various looks on their faces, from grins to stoic thought.

“To the League of Benevolent Villainy! Long may the world never get a clue!”

“To Evil!” toasted Dave aka Overwatch

“To Evil!” toasted Mike aka The Crimson General

“To Evil!” toasted Carl aka Doctor Pandemonium

“To Evil!” toasted Ted aka Dark Talon

On it's way

2012-01-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

Work was especially long this week. 14+ hour days. and i didnt have access to my laptop to be able to type anything out. I will try to have something for you folks on Thursday.

Other than that, how do you like the slight tweaking I have done to the site?

mk

LBV - 1

2012-01-05T04:41:00.000-08:00

The room had a feel of a converted windowless two car garage. A mini fridge sat quietly humming to itself off to one side of the entertainment system under the large plasma TV. The occasional poster of a woman in a bikini at the beach sunning herself hung on the beige painted walls. A neatly organized work bench was ready for use along the opposite wall from the TV. An industrial strength coat rack took up a corner near the bench. The dark brown carpeting was decent and clean thanks to the small robot vacuum that skittered across the floor. The whole thing felt like a guy’s rec room that his wife allowed him.

Except for a few things.

One of the most obvious differences was the high tech conference table in the dead center of the room surrounded by five well padded comfortable looking chairs. Another odd thing was the number of doors entering the room, there were four solid looking wood doors instead of the one that would seem normal. And the most subtle difference was how quiet it was. Other than the quiet whirring of the vacuum’s wheels and the hum of the fridge it was dead silent. In a normal garage/rec room you should have been able to hear an occasional bird or the sound of traffic rolling by outside.

After finishing a final sweep of the room the vacuum robot docked at its charging station made a few beeps and shut down. The room was once again silent and still except for the humming of the mini fridge and the air circulating from the ceiling vents.

An indeterminate amount of time later one of the doors opened up and a fit looking light haired man in his late thirties dressed in a dark blue polo shirt and jeans walked in. He put the sword he was carrying down leaning against the entertainment center grabbed the remote and settled back in one of the chairs around the table and proceeded to watch a football game. A little while later a different door opened up and another man walked in, he was dressed much more casually with an old faded Led Zeppelin t-shirt on and a pair of beat up jeans. His dark hair was pulled back under a plain black ball cap. He called out to the man in the chair.

“Ted you’re here early. The meeting is not for another twenty minutes.”

Ted grinned from his chair, “I wanted to watch the game. This TV is much nicer than the one I have back in my place. Mike, can you beer me? I stocked the fridge yesterday.”

“No problem.” Mike headed over to the mini fridge and grabbed a pair of glass bottles, throwing one underhanded to his seated friend. He looked at the plain label. “Ooh, I don’t recognize these, Special Stock #32. Is this a new brew you found?”

“Even better, “He chuckled popping the top and taking a drink “This was brewed specially for me from some contacts in Germany as a thank you for helping them out. I have the full run, only 10 kegs. They thought I’d like dark beer.”

Mike snorted almost choking on the beer as he tried not to laugh and drink at the same time. “Dark beer, really? Did they actually say that when they gave it to you?”

“They didn’t but I can read between the lines when the brew they made just for me is darker than a Guinness. Somewhere there is someone having a good laugh thinking I wouldn’t figure it out.”

Mike shook his head as he took another pull on his beer and dropped into another of the chairs to watch the game. “Who’s winning?”

“The Titans are going to win this one.”

“Ahh, but the Giants are favored by 2 touchdowns.”

“True, but the Titans biggest fan is Makalu. And he wants the Titans to go to the playoffs. I happen to hear that he is going to make sure that happens.”

“This is going to be a good game then.”

Both the men sat back in their chairs and watched the game with rapt attention occasionally commenting on a good hit or pass.

One of the two un used doors opened and a thin balding man in glasses hustled in. “Sorry I’m late; I had to take care of some last minute details. You know how it is.”

Mike and Ted both nodded knowingly.

“Ooh it that beer?”

Still staring at the TV Ted gestured to the minifridge, “Help yourself Carl. It is a limited run. Once it is gone it is gone.”

“Thanks,” Carl grabbed a bottle and downed it in a single pull without coming up for air. He smacked his lips appreciatively, and obnoxiously. “It’s good. You’ll have to tell me where you got it. I don’t get much chance to get out of the lab to find anything worth drinking.”

He looked around the room. “No Dave?”

“Nope, you know how he is, working up to the last minute more often than you.” Mike remarked.

At that moment a low pitched humming filled the room. The sound amplified into a bass rumble then went up the register higher pitched and ended with a loud pop, similar to what you’d hear when you popped a piece of bubble wrap if the bubble was the size of your head.

Standing in an empty part of the room stood a nine foot tall suit of power armor. The armor was colored in hues of blue and black steel. Its lines were heavy and sharp. If it could reasonably come to a point anywhere on the armor it did, from spined ridged gauntlets to a set of swept back horns across the top of the technoskull shaped helmet. It felt reminiscent to a streamlined version of the villain in a popular fantasy trilogy that was released in the early 2000s. Except the villain didn’t have the small rocket packs attached to the forearms and glowing yellow eyes behind the slit of the visor which stared menacingly at the others in the room.

It called out in a deep sibilant voice. “Tremble before the impeding might of your doom. For I Overwatch have arrived!”

The three men in the room looked with shock at the unexpected visitor before them.

Interlude - Origin Story - Crusader

2012-01-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

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Public Persona: Crusader

Secret Identity: Aaron Lakes
Affilialation: Storm Patrol
Base of Operations: Seattle

Place of Birth: Seattle, Washington
Age: 24
Nationality: American

Characteristics

Gender: Male

Height: 5’10”
Weight: 200 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

Powers Classification: O:MyEnF, Speed – 2, Strength – 2, Defense – 3, Power – 2, Luck - 2

*Object: Mystical, Enhancement, Fortune

Occupation: Pizza Delivery Driver for Poppy’s Pizza/ College student

Favorite Food: Triple Bacon Cheese Burger
Favorite Music (Public): Cream
Favorite Music (Private): Van Halen (with Sammy Hagar)
Favorite Color: Green

First Appearance: Episode 1.1

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History

Aaron is the holder of Arondight one of the Eight Swords of Power, the blade that first belonged to Sir Lancelot, a knight of the Round Table.

As he tells it Aaron bought the sword out of the back of a pick up on the side of the road out in the middle of nowhere from a man presumed to be the Forge Master for a small amount of money. Within the first few days of his ownership of the sword he was visited in his dreams by Ninianne, The Lady of the Lake, who begins to instruct him in the basic uses of Arondight and what his duties as its bearer are. Every time he used the sword for combat she visits again to help him refine his technique through duels with her in the dreamscape and reviews of his tactics, she can be harsh of her appraisal of his abilities.

When he is not in class trying to get his teaching certificate Aaron uses his delivery job to act as a cover for his heroic activities. It enables him to be all over the city with no rhyme or reason and helps him keep an eye on what he can do to defend those unable to defend themselves as per his duties as the bearer.

He came to the Storm Patrol’s attention after only a few weeks of activity when, following Betony’s directions, they found him helping firefighters save a group of people trapped on the top story of a burning building. After chatting and exchanging cell numbers they promised to call him when they needed the extra help, which they inevitably did.

Personality:

Up until recently Aaron has been sort of a casual laid back guy with a bad sense of humor. Just going to school, work and getting mad when his mostly vacant roommate drank the last of the orange juice and didn’t leave a note. The sword changed all of that. Now he fills every moment of his waking day, and most of his sleeping night thanks to the dreams, completely wrapped up in superheroing. He is feeling more than a little overwhelmed.

Relationships with team mates:

Sun Wolf is cool and level headed. Which seems pretty necessary is this line of work.

Grande is a cool guy and is fun to hang around with and seems like someone you want at your back.

He has no idea what to make of Roland. He seems like a smart guy for a cat.

Betony is level headed but wound really tight. Even though she has been doing this forever he can relate to her a bit more than the others on the team.

Not dead and Powers Classification

2011-12-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

Today is a writing/creative day for me. As of this post I have been writing, crafting and designing stuff for over 5 hours. I plan on at least 3 or 4 more hours.It is just nice to occasionaly get the urge to go go go.

One of the things I was doing was firming up my powers classification system. And I thought I'd ask for help. More brains are always a good thing for that sort of thing.

How I have it set up is Source and Effects.

For example:

Betony is a H:ElChV

Her power source is Hereditary, thus the H

The effects of her power are a description of her magic. Elemental (El), because it is nature based, Channeled (Ch), because she has to preform rituals to focus and cast it, and Variable (V), because it has many different uses.

While Roland is a E:PsiBM
His power comes from an Experiment (E)
His power effects are Psionic (Psi), because well he has psychic powers, Biological (B), because they orginate within his own body not an outside source, and Mental (M), because of heightened mental facilities that the experiment has given him.

As you can see I am trying to be semi vague but give the system room to flex for the core rating. Afterward I can break down individual specifications with ratings from 1 to 10. 0 being baseling human, ~~and 3 or under, powers that are active under certian conditions~~. ~~Higher numbers like Grande's Immunities of 8 are on constantly~~. The individual specifications I can take care of as I create the characters. What I'd like help with is getting a bigger list of Sources and Effects.

This is what I have so far. (Updated)

Source		Effects

Accident	A	Biological	B
Bestowed	B	Channeled	Ch
Experiment	E	Cosmic	C
Hereditary	H	Creative	Cr
Mutation	M	Elemental	El
Object	O	Energy	E
Unknown	U	Enhancement	En
Curse	C	Fortune	F
		Intuiative	I
		Mental	M
		Mystical	My
		Paranormal	Pa
		Physical	Ph
		Psionic	Psi
		Scientific	Sci
		Supernatural	S
		Technical	Tec
		Variable	V
		Spacial	Sp

If you have ideas please post them in the comments.

Thanks a Ton! And I'm looking forward to seeing what you can think up.

Interlude - Origin Story - Betony

2011-12-20T11:50:00.000-08:00

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Public Persona: Betony
Secret Identity: Betony Heather Ashe
Affilialation: Storm Patrol
Base of Operations: Seattle

Place of Birth: Renton, Washington
Age: 17
Nationality: American

Characteristics - Teen

Gender: Female
Height: 5’3”
Weight: 130 lbs
Eyes: Green
Hair: Short Blond

Characteristics - Adult

Gender: Female
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 165 lbs
Eyes: Green
Hair: Long Blond

Powers Classification: H:ElChV*, Willpower - 2, Energy - 3, Magic – 4 Healing – 2
*Hereditary: Elemental, Channeled, Variable

Occupation: High School Student
Favorite Food: California Roll
Favorite Music (Public): Katy Perry
Favorite Music (Private): Daft Punk
Favorite Color: White

First Appearance: Episode 1.2

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History

Betony is a third generation super hero and the fortieth great grand niece of Merlin. Her family has been practicing druidic magic in some form or another for the last eight hundred years, or forty generations.

As the child of supers (Roan of the Valley, her mother, and Astronicus, her father) Betony got her magical start at the age of ten, early even by the family’s standards. Her parents knew of the dangers that could befall their child if one of their old foes decided to come calling, but fortunately the Chavez accord was not broken and her training was not needed until she took up heroing on her own after her sixteenth birthday. This was when she received the medallion that held her adult form disguise.

Her first super powered conflict was a big deal for Betony. Over the previous few months her mother had used her scrying gifts to determine when the most favorable conditions for her to make an appearance were. Those turned out to be when the Citymaster was attempting his takeover of south Seattle by animating the warehouses there. She arrived on the scene to find Grande and Sun Wolf already engaging him with little success. The judicious application of some flight magic helped them put a stop to him. She encountered the team of Grande and Sun Wolf several times over the next few months before they officially invited her to join them as a member. After more scrying from her mother she joined just in time for summer vacation.

Personality:

Betony having grown up in this lifestyle of sparring and spandex takes it very casually. She has been preparing to do this for years and is glad to finally give it a go. But she is discovering that all sorts of practice and study is not translating well into actual field experience. Sometimes it seems she knows more about her foes powers and abilities that they do. Which is sooo frustrating.

Relationships with team mates:

She actually looks up to Sun Wolf. Kind of like an older sister/mentor. Sun Wolf seems to be the best rounded of all their team mates which is something she wants to aspire to. She does find the Sun Wolf, Grande relationship thing a bit puzzling.

Grande is a strange man. He seems to take more time to have fun and play jokes than practice. Which seems odd to her study filled life. He is a good guy though, even if he makes fun of her all of the time.

She likes Roland. And he is an invaluable resource when it comes to homework. Both are still growing up and becoming a part of the world after semi sheltered upbringings. They exchange odd insights and observations they have made about it.

She likes Crusader, but not that way. He is a good guy and is like one of those knights out of a fairy tale, stepping in and trying to save the day. He just needs to practice more. And clean out his car. And get a better job.

State of the World

2011-12-01T13:22:00.000-08:00

And that wraps up the first two episodes I have planned for the crew of the Storm Patrol.

I have more ideas for the team, I think I have two or maybe three more in my head right now (Ninjas!), but I am kinda getting burnt out on them. And it is feeling more like work than fun some times. And this should be fun for me and you. I am not going to abandon them but at this point I am just going to step back and work on something else because I feel a bit like I am working in a void, with until recently no real feedback. Just me going “Is this ok? Does anyone like this? Did I do a crappy job?” and the occasional harassing text to a friend who reads this asking if I didn’t suck that day. Not real fun.

That being said I want to tell a few of the tales of the others who live in this world to flesh it out. Some stuff from The Emerald City Defenders (Giant Robots!), a bit of information on The League of Brutal Evil (Evil Origin Story!) and a story or two from The San Fran Six (The Terror of Tuesday?!), although admittedly that team name is also a bit of a work in progress. I vaguely remember that I had a better name for them, which of course I can’t remember right now. There are lots of ideas and plots bouncing around in my head right now, it can be hard at times to keep them separate.

I do plan on coming back to the Storm Patrol. No worries on that. And before I begin the new tale I will post up Betony and Crusader’s Bios.

Hopefully this doesn’t sound like “Waah, Waah poor me.” I totally don’t want it to come off that way. This is just a bigger challenge than I thought it was to keep the ideas flowing and fresh. And I don’t want to put garbage out there.

So there you go. See you back here in a few days.

Episode 2.22

2011-11-29T08:28:00.001-08:00

The Rain poured down from overhead. The latent energies from the aetheric nexus combined with the rain clouds to form the beginnings of a fierce storm.

Grande and Sun Wolf stood silently in the places assigned to them in the druidic pattern, the newly drawn circles near the center, all the while getting soaked to the bone from the brewing storm. The remaining druids finished the last hurried preparations and took their places.

At Margat’s signal everyone except for the two in the circles began chanting. Fitfully at first but stronger as time passed once again, just like before all the mess started, little sparks of multicolored light and glowing twisting threads appeared in the air between the chanters. The threads looked wispy almost spider web-like with little pulses of stronger power running along them like rain drops in time to the chanting. The whole ethereal construct slowly began to increase in brightness.

At first nothing seemed to be happening near Grande and Sun Wolf, but as the pattern began to grow it seemed to stall and struggle almost beginning to fade away. Threads began questing out from the spell web toward the two of them. The threads stopped at the edge of the circle as if they hit an invisible barrier and began to circle along the border swiftly making what looked like a tornado of gossamer threads completely obscuring the heroes standing inside. The threads coming from the spiraling mass glowed more intensely than the rest of the pattern and the power that was contained there sped along the threads in large pulses and began to reinforce the faltering spell. This continued for some minutes with little change other than the temperature in the clearing slowly rising as the spell gained in power and its illumination increasing.

As the rain fell, hitting the flowing energy, it hissed and evaporated creating a low clinging fog that added to the mysterious air of the ritual. The strengthened threads and sparks flowed upward toward the storm in the sky in an outwardly spiraling pattern, mimicking the two pseudo tornadoes in the center that surrounded Grande and Sun Wolf. Lightning began to flash across the sky, some hitting the strands and being absorbed into the mass causing it to increase in size and brightness, with power actually seeming to flow back toward the center.

The wind which had been mostly limited to a light breeze started to gust with growing power causing the rain and fog to move chaotically about the clearing and the bordering trees to thrash about snapping limbs and kicking up fallen leaves.

The spell got brighter and brighter reaching into the storm tossed sky. It’s reach growing ad ever widening the higher it got, the threads weaving in and out of each other. The surrounding countryside glowed with the multihued light of the web as if a psychedelic noon day sun had arisen. The lightning strikes happened with increased frequency and ferocity against the fragile seeming web as the storm surged to new heights.

And suddenly with a resounding crescendo everything seemed to happen at once. The magically charged storm above burst into a finale involving several rapid fire thunderclaps and a shocking display of raw elemental power and the druid’s spell web scattered off into all the directions of the compass breaking apart and fading away, dissolving into nothingness.

Silence descended onto the hill top as the last remnants of the storm and spell faded away. The candles guttered out, the magic sustaining them fading out.

The participants all seemed exhausted with Grande and Sun Wolf sitting slumped in their circles, more tired than they have ever been before. The spectators who were too injured or weak to participate in the casting came out into the dry clearing to help how they could.

While Betony ran over to her mother Crusader hobbled over to his friends, still favoring his side.

“You two ok? That looked pretty intense!”

“Si, I’m good. But man I am beat. I theink I could sleep for a week or two.”

“Da, the same for me. I will never volunteer for something like this again. I thought I was going to die a couple of times.”

“Yeah Sun Wolf eit was pretty rough. But It deid give me an idea for a name that I theink you weill all like.”

Crusader and Sun Wolf made eye contact and both rolled their eyes. “I can’t wait to hear it. I’m sure Roland and Betony will be thrilled to hear it too.”

“Yah, yah, get her I theink it weill be worth eit.”

Sun Wolf looked at Crusader, “He usual isn’t this proud of an idea unless it is really bad.”

“It almost scares me more than a tribe of bigfeet.”

Betony came over a little bit later. “Roland said that you had something we all needed to hear?”

“Si. I have a great name for the team that I know everyone weill love.”

“If it is Grande and His Amazing Friends I will totally murder you.” She looked at Sun Wolf and Crusader’s puzzled expressions and shook her head. “Don’t ask.”

“Theis eis much better than that.” He paused dramatically and waved his hands like he was presenting a rare gem or the king of a far off land, “Storm Patrol.”

The three of them stood there in silence for a moment glancing at each other and back to Grande.

“That’s.. That’s good.”

“Da. I agree. It is unexpected.”

Betony nodded her head. “I wouldn’t be embarrassed to be known by that.”

Roland’s voice clearly spoke in their heads. “I like it.”

Grande stood up straight and brushed the dirt off of his pants. “From today onward we weill be known as Storm Patrol!”

Episode 2.21

2011-11-17T08:55:00.001-08:00

Sun Wolf interrupted before any questions could get asked.

“Rowan and Margat have a favor they want to ask us.” She gestured to the two women.

Margat smiled her little old lady in a cookie commercial smile. “Thank you Sun Wolf. As you all probably know by now we don’t have enough power to complete the ritual to contain the extra aetheric energy from the Nexus. A couple of the more sensitive members of our order noticed that you all have strong magical auras. We think that we might be able to tap into them to augment our power level using a sympathetic linking spell.”

Grande looked a tad dubious at Margat. “How long will eit take us for our power to return to normal?”

“There should be no problem with them regenerating back to their previous levels in a week or so. And honestly I don’t think you will even notice the energy being gone.” She looked hopefully at the three who were not members of her circle.

The three looked at each other.

“Sure, eit sounds like fun. Just try not to keill me.” He said with a grin.

Sun Wolf looked a bit more hesitant than Grande. “You said should both times you mentioned this to me.”

“Well my dear. This sort of thing is rarely done. And non o f here have actually attempted it before, we have just read about it. I am confident that we won’t have any problems. But with an untried spell there is always a chance of error, no matter how slight. This is important enough to take a chance on.”

“Da, you are right. This is too important not to do. I will do it.”

Everyone looked at the last member who had not spoken, Crusader.

He slicked back his rain drenched hair and made his decision. “Nope. I’m not gonna do it. I’m not magic, the sword is. And I don’t want to take the chance it gets damaged. So my answer is no.”

The older druidesses looked a bit disappointed. But each nodded her understanding of his reasons reluctantly.

Margat turned back to the cluster of waiting druids.”They agreed. Let’s hurry and get our preparations ready to try this again.”

They scattered and began once gain making sigils and placing candles that flickered and hissed in the rain, but that somehow didn’t go out. This time the patterns had an additional set of circles set near the center.

Betony started to join the rest of the circle and help with the rest of the preparation. Her mother stopped her, the fallen amulet in hand. “No sweetie. You have done enough tonight. Why don’t you two go get the others and get out of this the rain under the trees over there. And give this to Crusader.”

Betony was too weary to argue with her mother and walked over near the others and slumped against the trunk of a conveniently dry cedar, gesturing Crusader to come join her. He drug their captive out of the rain into shelter where he could keep an eye on her and gingerly sat down next to Betony favoring his side.

“Didn’t want her to drown.”

She nodded. “My mom wanted me to give this to you.”She said dropping the amulet into his lap. “That looks an awful lot like my mom’s...”

“It was. She bonded it to me. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Fair enough.”

The tired twosome watched the rest of the druids and their teammates prepare for the ritual in the pouring rain from the relative dryness of their cedar shelter.

“That looks miserable out there. I’m glad I’m not out in it.”

“Me too.”

Episode 2.20

2011-11-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

Grande and Betony trekked back out into the woods to grab the cause of all the evening’s problems. They found her exactly where Grande left her, with a nice purple fist shaped bruise on her face.

“Nice hit!”

“Thanks she deserved eit. After doing what she deid to you guys and Tasha, I steill feel that she deserves more than that.”

They paused in the middle of the rain looking down at her when Grande broke the silence.

“I’ve got eit!”

Betony jumped startled by his exclamation.

“Got what?”

“The team name. Grande and Heis Amazing Friends!” he made a little air guitar motion with his hands.

“I swear to the goddess Carlos that that is probably the worst team name I have ever heard.” She said in a weary and utterly disgusted tone.

“Eit’s not that..”

“Yes, yes it is that bad.” She sighed.

“Come on chica. You can sleep later we need to get theis Beastitrix chick back to the clearing. Do you have anything ein that magic bag to tie her up with so she doesn’t get free?”

“I might, give me a sec.” She dug for a minute or so with the occasional muttered no, when she smiled a slightly evil lopsided smile. She pulled out a big silver roll of duck tape. “I have this.”

Half a roll later their prisoner was secure.

“I like they way you made sure to press hard on her eyebrows when you covered her eyes with the tape.” Betony admired.

“Thank you.” Grande said with a grin. “Well I really don’t know if her powers use her eyes or her voice.”

“Suuure. Let’s get her back to the ritual site.”

Grande heaved Beastitrix over his shoulder and they trekked back through the downpour.

Margat nodded. “I shall dearie, thank you for being honest.” She gestured to Betony’s mother. “Come on Rowan. Let’s try asking that swords fellow. ”

With Sun Wolf trailing behind the three women walked through the thickening rain to where Crusader was gingerly leaning on a rock watching everyone hustle about the clearing. He tried to stand up straighter when the women got closer with a noticeable pained grimace on the portion of his face not covered by the bandana.

Margat made placating motions. “No need to stand up young man. You look pretty bad off still.”

“I kinda am, they needed to conserve power for your ritual. They healed me just enough to keep me continueous and stop the bleeding.”

Margat made a sympathetic face. “I’m sorry, but that is one of the reasons I came over to talk to you.”

“More magical healing?”

Rowan chuckled. “Not really Margat wanted to borrow some of your magical energy, but I might be able to help with the healing a little.” She reached into the belt pouch that every druid seemed to have and pulled out a golden amulet similar to Betony’s except where hers had individual thick links connecting to the central runic oval the one Rowan seemed to be made out of a broad golden braided cable. It was clear that the amulets followed a similar crafting pattern and might have even been made by the same person. “This works similar to Betony’s disguise amulet. It physically transforms you and increases access to your magical essence. Because you change physically it makes wounds less severe. Hold your hand out and I will attune it to you.”

Crusader held out his left hand, his right remained on the pommel of Arondight “Didn’t Betony say she was going to pass out if she took her amulet off?”

She placed the amulet in his hand covering it with both of hers. “That is because she used up almost all her essence stores holding up the shield. When she takes it off she is going to lose the access to that extra power. Now please quiet a moment I need to concentrate.” Rowan closed her eyes and began chanting quietly under her breath. A red light escaped from the gaps in her fingers as the amulet warmed up in Crusaders hand and bonded to him. Seconds later the light dimmed and she removed her hands from on top of Crusaders, holding the amulet. “All done, it is now tuned to you alone.”

“Umm, thank you?”

Sun Wolf and Margat looked on at this byplay. Sun Wolf looking a tad confused and Margat with a slight smile.

“You’re welcome. Here let me put it on you.” She reached behind Crusader and clicked it closed.

“So what happens now… Whoa..”

The magic in the amulet took no time before it began to work on the battered swordsman. He could feel his body shifting, contracting and expanding. It was not unpleasant. It was more odd than anything else, like the feeling of popping a joint except for all over the whole body at the same time, a bit of pressure then relief. The whole transformation was over in about ten seconds.

Crusader stood there blinking for a bit feeling significantly less pain then before, and a bit relaxed although his clothes were tighter and looser in odd areas. A lock of copper red ringlets fell in front of his new face. Without thinking he reached up and began to tuck it behind his ear when he saw his hand. His dainty fine fingered hand. He froze and looked over at the women standing there. The druidesses looking at him like nothing was wrong while Sun Wolf’s jaw was agape in shock.

“I’m a girl, aren’t I?” His new voice unmistakably feminine.

Rowan nodded her head. “What did you expect? It was my amulet, the one I used when I was as superhero. Of course it contained my heroing form. I forgot how much I looked like Betony when I wore that.”

Crusader reached behind her neck franticly to try to unclasp the necklace and return to normal. ”It is not coming undone. I don’t want to stay like this. Why isn’t it coming undone?” She sounded more than a little panicked.

“Calm down. It can only be unclasped by the person who put it on. It keeps your secret identity safer when an opponent can’t unmask you.” She reached behind the panicking superheroine and popped the connecting clasp. It fell forward and the transformation happened in reverse. Ten seconds later Crusader looked normal and was once again his normal self, and in a considerable amount of pain from his bigfoot inflicted injuries.

He looked directly at Sun Wolf, “Don’t you ever mention this to anyone, especially to Grande.”

It was at that moment when Grande and Betony returned with their duck taped captive. “Mention what to me?”

“Nothing.”

“Notheing?”

“Yep, Nothing.”

“OK, man. Whatever you say. We have our captive. Now what?”

Episode 2.19

2011-11-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

The heroes were a bit too tired to give the news the shocked expressions Betony’s mother expected. What she received was more of a tired resigned expression.

Grande looked at her “Leisten lady we deid all we could. We beat up.. Well drove away your beigfoot problem. What else do you expect us to do?”

“I didn’t expect you to do anything I was informing you of the situation.”

“Oh, sorry to be a jerk, I’m just worried about my pal here.”

While those two were talking Crusader gingerly climbed to his feet, reached into his jacket pocket and threw a bundle to Sun Wolf, who grabbed it and bounded off onto the nearby bushes.

Betony looked especially frustrated. “What can we do then? I used up almost my whole store of magic holding that shield up for so long. And I know if I take the necklace off I am going to pass out.”

Her mother made placating motions. “We will figure something out. Margat took a blow to the head and is being tended to right now. They should have her healed up shortly. She will probably know what to do.”

In the bushes Sun Wolf changed back into her were-form pulling on her studded leather bikini that Crusader had kept for her. She sent a mental nudge in Roland’s direction.

“Roland are you there? Are you ok?”

It was longer than expected before he replied. “I am fine. When I interrupted that woman’s control I got caught up in it… I am ashamed to admit I was reinforcing her commands but directing their aggressions toward Grande and Crusader. I could not stop.” His reply was subdued and Sun Wolf could feel his remorse.

“We both were controlled Roland. I understand. We will make sure she goes to jail and doesn’t do that again. I’m heading back to the group and am going to see what we can figure out to do about this Nexus mess.”

Clouds began to form on her walk back and a light drizzle began to fall. By the time Sun wolf came back the small group had broken up. Grande and Crusader perched and leaned on a nearby boulder complaining how they hated the woods.

“Shouldn’t you two be securing the cause of all these problems?”

They both started to move that direction, Crusader limping and grimacing in pain.

“Oh, sorry I didn’t think that you were still hurt. I thought the druids have had healed you. Crusader please rest and let Grande take care of it.”

“What? Why do I have to do all the work?”

“Grande!”

“I was keidding.” He called over to the huddle of druids at the other side of the rocky outcrop “Come on Betony lets grab the crazy woman who messed theis theing of yours up.”

After Betony and Grande left the druids motioned Sun Wolf over. They were standing around stiffly; all of them were pretty banged up displaying evidence of broken limbs bound up in slings and lots of brusing.

Margat began to fill her in. “We have been talking it over and comparing our essence levels and we just don’t have enough to complete the ritual. But a few of our more sensitive members have noticed a magical aura emanating from all of you. We think if we can tap that aura we can siphon what we need to actually complete the ritual. It won’t be much and it will replenish itself over a few days.”

Sun Wolf frowned. “That sounds mighty risky. What if something goes wrong?”

“It should be fine. We are just using a little bit to help anchor it.”

“You said should. I will do it but I don’t speak for anyone but myself. You will have to ask them.”

Interlude - Origin Story - Grande

2011-11-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

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Public Persona: Grande
Secret Identity: Carlos Perropatadas
Affilialation: (Team Name Undecided)
Base of Operations: Seattle

Place of Birth: Santa Rosa, Argentina
Age: 26
Nationality: Argentineans

Characteristics

Gender: Male
Height: 5’5”
Weight: 140
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

Powers Classification: H:SBPh*, Immunities 8, Charm 1
*Hereditary: Supernatural, Biological, Physical

Occupation: Professional Soccer Player for the Sounders Football Club (Third String Goalie)
Favorite Food: Medium-well Steak
Favorite Music (Public): Presidents of the United States of America
Favorite Music (Private): Katy Perry
Favorite Color: Green

First Appearance: Episode 1.2

---------------------------------------------------------------
History

In the time of the Inca Carlos’ family were hereditary priests of the god Ayar Cachi. Ayar Cachi made a proclamation of death to all of the children a newly conquered people. The high priest who was Carlos’ ancestor refused. Ayar Cachi was angry and cursed him and all his descendants to be able to survive everything and powerless to do anything, and declared them to be the kicking dog of the gods. The curse caused the family to all gain their invulnerability and their accidental secondary ability that attracts dogs to them.

Carlos was born in Santa Rosa Argentina to a family of laborers and was the second of three children. As a child he showed promise on the soccer field being willing to take risks and do crazy things to score or stop a goal. While growing up and going to school Carlos dreamed of two things, being a professional soccer player and a superhero. His family tried to talk him out of both but he stubbornly stuck to his dreams and kept going.

After a few years of playing soccer for small teams Carlos moved up to the big time. He got a call to try out for the Sounders up in Seattle. He got the job but due to his lack of real experience they have him in a lesser position so he can get more seasoning and eventually move up to be one of their main two goalies.

Carlos treated his new found freedom away from those he knows to expand his heroing career. He found himself on the periphery of several group battles with the Emerald City Defenders and various foes and lots of solo fights. During one of those solo fights against a plant creature from another dimension, the Woodwose, he met Sun Wolf. They teamed up and after an unsuccessful bid to join the Emerald City Defenders decided to form their own team.

Personality:

Carlos is hard headed and stubborn. His invulnerability has led him into many poor situations that he refuses to back out of because he knows no matter what he will survive it. He tends to charge in without thinking. He does have a positive outlook on life and tries to maximize everything he can do to have fun and when the going gets though he refuses to abandon his friends.

Relationships with team mates:

To him Betony is a little sister. The kind you playfully harass and protect. He does really like having her on the team because she can do so many different things.

He admires Natasha and her abilities, although he wishes that she would let him take charge more. Even though he has known Natasha for nearly a year he hasn’t gotten the courage to tell her that she is only attracted to him because of the secondary pat of his family’s curse. That does flavor his interaction with her a bit.

He can tell already that Aaron is going to be a great buddy. They both have the same sense of humor. He likes that Aaron jumps right in. he knows that he will have back up. And that sword is pretty sweet.

Roland is talking cat, which is kinda hard for him to get past. Yeah he is plenty smart and when he gives you information it is really good stuff, but smarts aren’t everything. He needs to work on his sense of humor. And he is pretty sure Roland has forgiven him for the catnip incident.

Episode 2.18

2011-10-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

Grande quickly rose to his feet facing Sun Wolf, fists at ready. But they weren’t needed as Sun Wolf sat on her haunches at the other end of the clearing shaking her head as if trying to clear it from a bad dream.

Grande slowly walked towards her still ready to avoid an attack. “Chica, are you ok? Does that crazy woman steill have you under control?”

The large wolf sat there for a little while before shaking her head in a negative. She unsteadily walked over to him and sloppily licked her tongue across his face then rubbed her head on his chest seeking comfort and offering apology. Grande in turn gave her a big hug around her neck while patting her back.

“I know you deidn’t do eit on purpose. Mrs. Talking-in-third-person over there deid eit to you.” He gestured towards the unconscious villainess. “We need to secure her and let Crusader and Betony know that the beigfeet aren’t under control anymore.”

They started to walk over to her and paused. Then simultaneously the both looked at each other and Grande cried out “Crusader!” they both turned and bolted to the ritual site.

Before he got to the edge of the clearing Grande stopped and doubled back to his fallen foe. He looked down at her and spoke “Theis eis for hurting my friend.” He then rabbit punched her in the head ensuring that she would remain out of the fight until he could return. That done he turned and sprinted in the direction his wolfy companion went.

The two arrived at Crusaders location at almost the same time. They found him sitting on the ground spread legged holding his sword in one hand and his ribs with the other, his head slumped down. When they got closer he lifted his head up and looked at them. His left eye was completely swollen shut, his nose obviously broken and what wasn’t covered in the dried blood from a scalp wound was black and blue.

“You did it.” He spoke through a jaw clenched in pain. “Any longer I don’t think I would have held out. They were getting really bad towards the end. Sorry if I don’t get up. I am exhausted.”

“No man, stay down. You look really bad. Like you got swallowed and barfed up by the Wyrm Lord bad. We need to get one of the druids over to feix you up a beit.”

The three members of the team looked towards the runic domes that were slowly dissolving revealing the huddled druids underneath them. Grande shuddered a little bit at the sight.

Crusader noticed the shudder. “What’s wrong man?”

“I was imagining them skyclad and was grateful for the robes.”

Crusader looking at all the middle aged men and women standing up gave a sympathetic shudder from his place on the ground.

When the purple tinted protective dome came completely down Betony limped over to her friends, she looked exhausted and drained. “You made it! Thank you so much for coming. We could catch a vague idea of what was going on out there and when the sasquatch suddenly broke off their attack I was hoping you had made it.”

It was only then did she see Crusader leaning on the rock at her feet.

“Mother! Bring someone over here to heal Crusader! He looks really bad.”

He looked up at the weary blond druidess and gave a bloody half grin. “I really want to do the bravado thing and say my wounds are no big deal. But that is totally a lie. I can hardly stay awake sitting here.”

Betony’s mother and another druid hustled over to see what they could do. While the attending druid worked magic over Crusader getting his wounds to bind and the bleeding to stop her mother spoke to the assembled heroes.

“Whoever caused the attack did their job well. I don’t think we have enough power to complete the ritual and bind the Nexus..”

Episode 2.17

2011-10-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

Sun Wolf turned and started to run toward the confrontation. But before she managed to get ten feet she was rudely interrupted by a white and red blur falling from the sky that was cursing in Spanish.

“Feos monos peludos apestoso! Hijos de madre de los zorrillos! Sucio pulgas sarnoso alfombras montado!”

The blur collided with her, tumbling them both through bushes, ferns and all sorts of forest debris. Skidding right back into the clearing that held Beastitrix.

Grande stood brushing twigs and dirt off of his mask and pants and spitting out a leaf or two. “What deid I heit? Eit was softer than a tree that’s for sure.” He looked around and spotted Sun Wolf rising to her feet groggily shaking off the blow. He was so concerned for his teammate he didn’t notice Beastitrix until she cleared her throat.

“Ahem. Pardon Beastitrix little Mexican man. Oh Beastitrix is sorry you people prefer to be called Hispanic don’t you.” She said with a slightly distracted thoughtful look on her face and an index finger tapping on her chin. “Pardon Beastitrix little Hispanic man. Are you the one causing Beastitrixes bigfeet to be distracted? If Beastitrix wants to get paid Beastitrix really must kill those druids.”

“What? Lady you must be crazy. Sane people don’t say their names like that in third person. And yeah Grande eis the one messing weith your sasquatch. See saying my name einstead of I sounds really dumb.” He gestured to his wolfy companion. “Come on Sun wolf let’s take theis crazy and save those druids.”

With a gesture from Beastitrix Sun Wolf stood up and padded over to Beastitrix and sat down next to her facing Grande, her eyes void of all independent thought. Grande’s jaw dropped.

“You poor mistaken man. Your wolf belongs to Beastitrix heart and soul. You don’t control her any longer Beastitrix does.” She pointed imperiously at Grande and with a demented giggle ordered “Destroy your former master!”

Crusader was nose deep in curdled milk and raspberry scented sasquatch. He dodged, weaved and blocked as much as he could of the attacks coming in from all directions. But with Grande gone he was still receiving a pretty good beating.

He managed to scramble away up to the top of a nearby boulder and get a few seconds breather. Crusader held his sword up above his head “Come on flash, come on flash. Flash!” Nothing happened. “Damit! Do something!”

Before he got a chance to try anything else his brief pause was over, the bigfeet swarmed up the boulder and managed to knock him to ground level and continue their beating.

Sun Wolf Hesitated a moment then leapt with a snarl at her former team mate. Grande still stunned didn’t even try to dodge and was bowled over by over two hundred pounds of platinum furred wolf.

Her teeth snapped at his face and throat while she held him down with her forelegs. After he got over his initial shock Grande began to fight back. He punched and kicked and thrashed around until he somehow managed to get out from under her.

“Come on loba! Don’t do theis!”

Beastitrix clapped “Get him! Obey Beastitrix!”

She hesitated again before leaping at him for a second time. This time Grande was ready and managed to get mostly out of the way. Unfortunately it was just mostly. The mind controlled werewolf managed to get her jaws around his right forearm. She clamped down hard, breaking a few teeth on Grande’s impenetrable skin. She yelped but still held on and began to shake him back and forth like a rag doll. The fight carried them all around the small space in a cursing growling flurry, kicking up dirt and plants and ricocheting off of trees in a minor swath of destruction.

Grande fought back, punching her as hard as he could in the head aiming for her eyes apologizing the whole while. “Sorry Sun Wolf. I really don’t want to do theis. But I gotta.” He got a good shot in hitting her eye so hard that she opened up her mouth wide in a howl of agony.

Grande went airborne. He tumbled through the air out of control on a direct course for Beastitrix. Her eyes opened up wide as she tried to avoid the airborne Argentinean. But to no avail. He crashed into her knocking her to the hard ground. Beastitrixes head hit with a bonk and she went limp, knocked out cold.

Episode 2.16

2011-10-18T02:40:00.001-07:00

Sun Wolf crouched and crept forward, the indistinct human voice becoming louder and forming actual words as she got closer. The woman’s voice was at normal volume, it was apparent that she was not expecting for anyone to be near her to overhear anything she said.

“What are you doing? Come on! You stupid fur bags! Kill the druids, not those other things. Why aren’t they responding? It is like there is some sort of strange interference.”

Her ranting did not change or repeat itself as Sun Wolf got closer but the intensity did ramp up.

After about another minute of stealthy lupine belly crawling Sun Wolf’s head poked out from underneath a tall cluster of sword fern and she came in sight of the ranting woman.

“Beastitrix controls them. They are Beastitrixes. Obey Beastitrix!” She was ranting and waving her arms about as she paced around a small clearing. She seemed to be in her late twenties early thirties and very fit like most people of the superhero set. And she wore a distinctly odd costume that looked like a classic safari uniform of jodhpurs, calf high boots and the requisite half buttoned shirt with the rolled up sleeves, but with the whole outfit was in shades of black and grey. Her black hair was piled up on her head in whorls of braids and random hair spikes. Her face was hard to see in the moonlight but appeared to be done up heavily in dark tones and looked to be in an animalistic design.

“Roland, “Sun Wolf sent her thoughts out “Do you have any idea who this Beastitrix is? She seems to be the one controlling the sasquatch.”

She received no reply. So she tried again.

“Roland, are you there?”

Still no reply.

Her wolfy brow furrowed in thought. ‘Strange, He usually answers fast. Maybe he is helping the guys.’ She looked at the woman again and made a decision ‘if I jump her that might throw off her concentration and free the bigfoot. They will probably run away.’

Her actions decided she tensed readying herself for her attack. The fern rustled slightly as she shifted her footing. Beastitrix instantly looked directly at Sun Wolf and locked eyes with her.

She smiled a wide eyed slightly deranged smile.

“Hello puppy. Be a good dog and come here.” She spoke in her raspy sing song voice.

Sun Wolf’s limbs seemed to have a mind of her own as she stood up and walked into the clearing.

“Oh you are a big wolf, not a dog at all. And what a pleasant color.”

She brushed her hands along Sun Wolf’s fur as she walked from her head to her tail. “So soft. Stay. Don’t move. Good wolf.”

Sun Wolf struggled against the command willing with all her might to move, but to no avail.

When she got to her tail Beastitrix grabbed it and lifted. “Good Girl Wolf. “ She emphasized.

If Beastitrix wasn’t in control her face would have been torn off by the angry werewolf. As it was a slight growl rumbled from her.

Beastitrix looked surprised. “Pretty wolves shouldn’t growl at their masters. Beastitrix does not like that.” She sauntered to face Sun Wolf’s face while shaking her own head and waving a finger back and forth.

“Beastitrix needs to show you who is the boss. Sit.”

Sun Wolf sat.

“Roll over three times.”

Sun Wolf fought with all her will power and rolled over two and a half times.

Beastitrix frowned and stared Sun Wolf in the eyes again.

“This will not do. You need to Obey better.” She stressed the word obey.

Sun Wolf’s vision blurred for a moment and she had a hard time focusing. Her thoughts were sluggish and hard to form.

Beastitrix smiled her creepy smile. “Do a back flip. Then sit.”

Sun Wolf didn’t even resist that time. She executed a near flawless back flip and promptly sat staring at her master.

She pointed towards the clearing with the protective shields and the rampaging sasquatch. “Good Girl. Now go kill some Druids and whatever is distracting my bigfeet.”

Episode 2.15

2011-10-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

The night was absolutely quiet. The only sounds heard in the clearing were the rustling of the branches and leaves as the autumn wind blew threw them. The two groups stared at each other. The sasquatch were frozen in position their heads turned to the unlucky two, their dark eyes staring. Grande and Crusader also were frozen in position looking up at the eight and nine foot tall hair covered creatures.

“Why aren’t they…?”

“Woooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

At the sound of Crusaders voice all the creatures in the clearing let out an ears splitting howl and charged, their massive arms and fists waving.

Standing in their defensive positions Crusader and Grande screamed along, more in fear than bravado.

Sun Wolf was patrolling the woods as fast as she could when it suddenly got quiet in the clearing behind her. She looked over her shoulder back to where her team mates were in puzzlement. Her head snapped back forward when she thought she heard an unnatural sound. It sounded like a person speaking.

But before she could identify where it came from the howling resumed, louder, if that was even possible, than before. She snarled silently to herself and began to concentrate her search in the direction that she thought she heard the voice in.

Dodging left and right, respectively, Grande and Crusader tried to avoid the attacking bigfeet. The howling and the smell of burnt chili and ammonia were overpowering and made it hard for either of the two heroes to think let alone coordinate anything.

Holding the glowing blade in both hands and blocking large hairy fists Crusader tried to make it pulse and strobe in an effort to temporarily blind or stun the sasquatch. It flared once and worked fairly well for the three closest, but their bodies blocked the light from the others behind them who kept pressing forward. That started a few brawls form the ones blinded when they attacked who ever jostled them. That managed to take four out of the fight as two of the blinded attacked each other in great sweeping punches and swings, the blows missing more than hitting. While the other blinded sasquatch managed to start a grapple with another bigfoot that it was evenly matched for. Crusader kept dodging having several near misses and occasionally trying to smack a fist with the flat of his blade. He thought to himself “Man I hope Grande is doing better than this.”

Grande was having a rougher time. Having no real offensive weapon he mostly tried all the dirty tricks he learned as a goalie to take down opponents without injuring them. Slide Tackles, shin scrapes, toe stomps, whatever he could do to slow them down. A few sasquatch were limping but he really hadn’t taken any out of the fight. “Theis doesn’t look good.” he shouted aloud “Roland can you make them hate us a beit less?”

When he got no response from the cat he got a bit worried, worried enough to be distracted. A large foot connected with his side, completely catching him off guard, flinging him into a large rock outcropping. Rock chips and dirt flew from his impact. The seconds it took him to get to his feet were enough to have the sasquatch close the gap and start punching at him again. Grande took a few more solid hits before he went flying again.

Sun Wolf meanwhile felt that she was getting closer to the controller. The wind had given her finely developed wolven sense of smell a whiff of something else in the air other than the stank of bigfoot, baby powder. She moved closer upwind to where she thought the scent was coming from. The scent became more frequent and stronger the closer she got. When her ears actually picked up what she had heard before. A human voice.

Episode 2.14

2011-10-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

Grande looked thoughtful for a moment. “I theink I have an Idea. What about a deistraction.”

The other two looked skeptically at him.

“Didn’t Crusader just say that idea wouldn’t work because they are protected?” Sun Wolf asked.

“Ya, ya. He deid, but my idea might work better. What eif just two of us deid the deistraction? And the third one deid the looking for who or what eis controlling them? And we deid not actually hurt the beigfeet just made noise and ran around a bunch to make them leave the domes alone.”

Crusader looked at Grande and back at the milling sasquatch. “That has got to be the..”

“The most brilliant thing you have come up with in a long time.” Sun Wolf interrupted.”Do you think you and Crusader can distract them for long?”

“Huh? Why me and Grande?”

She gestured to her hybrid form. “I can turn completely into a wolf and I have night vision. So I can actually find whoever it is out here without using a blatant light source.”

“Oh, yeah. That makes sense.”

She stepped behind a convenient bush and began to ready herself for her transformation.

“Catch” A small bundle of leather and metal flew out from behind the bush to land at Crusaders feet. “Keep these for me I don’t want them to get lost in the woods before I change back.”

Crusader gingerly picked up her leather bikini and put it into a pocket of his armored motorcycle jacket zipping it closed.

The sound of popping joints, the twangs of shifting muscles and grunts of exertion came from behind the bush as Sun Wolf underwent her transformation from wolf woman to wolf. Fur got thicker, her muzzle elongated and her hands became large padded paws. In less than thirty seconds her metamorphosis was complete. The blond haired wolf that came out from behind the cover was easily four feet high at the shoulder and stretched six feet long from tip of the muzzle to the end of the tail. She looked at Crusader and Grande then sharply at the sasquatch filled clearing commanding them to get on with their part of the plan. The large werewolf then turned and bounded into the woods quickly disappearing from sight.

“I guess it is time for us to do our job huh.”

“Si. Let’s do eit!”

Crusader thought in Roland’s direction. “Hey Roland is it possible for you to influence the big feet and make them more interested in us?”

“All I can do is try. As soon as you two start your distraction I will do what I can”

“Thanks Roland.”

Sun Wolf loped through the woods her nose working overtime trying to filter the scents of the sasquatch from the other scents of the woods. The glow from the moon and the protective spheres giving her more than enough light to see by as she looked for unusual movement. She began to circle the clearing spiraling out as she went. Hopefully the other two could draw enough attention their way to mess up the controllers plans.

Grande and Crusader bolted into the clearing in a scatter of leaves, twigs and dirt making as much noise as they could.

“Hey stinky over here!”

“Woo Woo! Here I am, come get me! What are you waiting for?! Come on!”

Crusader waved his glowing sword and Grande flapped his arms drawing the attention of the bigfeet.

A little too well, actually, when all the sasquatch stopped howling and turned as one to stare at the new arrivals in the clearing.

“Roland! I theink you deid your job too good! They really want to play!”

Episode 2.13

2011-10-07T05:28:00.000-07:00

“Are you nuts? That’s your whole plan?”

“Calm down man. I was joking.”Grande whispered harshly “I wanted to say sometheing that sounded all cool like ein a movie and stuff. I know these dudes are strong. I don’t theink I can take one.”

“Quiet both of you; we don’t know how sensitive the ears of sasquatch are.” Sun Wolf said through clenched werewolf jaws. “I think I can take one or two in a straight up fight. But even with the three of us I don’t think we can take on the whole dozen I see there.”

Looking out at the clearing full of milling bigfeet they had to agree and nodded in assent.

Sun Wolf paused and looked to the side and not quite up position you use when talking to a telepath. “Roland?”

He replied almost instantly to the group. “Yes Sun Wolf how can I assist you?”

“Roland we are at the clearing. And we see two runic domes. Probably protection spells of some sort. I am pretty sure Betony is in one of them. Can you contact her?”

“Let me try.” They all waited in silence as the sasquatch ran around. “Something in there is preventing me from making mental contact. It is probably the shields you were describing. Sorry.”

“No need to apologize.”

Crusader spoke up. “Is it just me or is this really unusual behavior for big feet? Aren’t they normally really shy and reclusive?”

“That they are Crusader. In the research I did while you were traveling I found that a gathering like this is unheard of in the recorded history of the bigfoot, which is nearly one hundred years long. When they are seen at all it is usually in singly or domestic groups of four at the maximum. And at the first sign of danger or trouble they quickly run away and hide.”

“That means somebody must be controlling them!” Grande exclaimed. Everyone looked at him. “Don’t look so surprised. I was paying attention. I am more than just rugged good looks.”

Sun Wolf smirked and shook her head while Crusader rolled his eyes.

Sun Wolf took the lead “Right. Good call Grande. We need to get out there beat up some sasquatch and cause some mayhem so whoever is controlling them gets mad and makes an appearance.”

“No can do guys.” Interjected Crusader “We can’t beat up the sasquatch. They are an endangered species. If we seriously hurt or kill one we are going to get fined and or go to jail. And from what you were telling me today you would have to register too. And wouldn’t that be the most embarrassing reason to register too? Beating up bigfoot?”

“So how are we supposed to rescue Betony and confront who eis controlling the beigfeet?”

“Sorry man. I have no idea.”

Episode 2.12

2011-10-04T03:52:00.000-07:00

The woods were dark and strangely still as Grande, Crusader and Sun Wolf entered them. Off in the distance echoing off of the valleys and hills they could hear an occasional whoop.

About ten feet into the forest Grande was the first to break the silence of their trek. “Deid anyone bring a flashlight? ‘Cause I am blind as heck and I don’t want to fall off of a cleiff or get eaten by a bear.”

“I can see fine..” Sun Wolf began “Oh, I forgot that you all can’t see in the dark like I can. Crusader Do you have any flashlights in your car?”

“Unfortunately I don’t. It is one of those things I keep wanting to do but never get around to. Sorry guys.”

“Well we’re boned.” Grande said disgustedly. “How are we supposed to get out to where Betony eis? No light means no rescue.”

“We have gotta figure something out.”

“Calm down, we can figure something out” placated Sun Wolf. She looked around for inspiration, checking the surroundings and her team mates gear. As she looked at Crusader one wolfy eyebrow rose as she had an idea.

“Crusader I want to try something. Please draw your sword.” He looked a little confused but did as she asked. He pulled the magical blade from the work leather scabbard. A faint blue glow emanated from the blade lighting the faces of the three present along the trail.

“Now can you try to make it glow brighter?”

“I’ve never even thought about that but I’ll give it a try.” Crusader stared at his sword for a few quiet moments and concentrated. The sword lit up. But it wasn’t a gradual increase. It flashed like a one hundred watt light bulb turned on in a dark room temporarily blinding everyone.

While everyone was blinking sword shaped after images out of their eyes Sun Wolf grinned. “That worked way better than I hoped. Come on let’s hustle and get to Betony.”

With Roland’s direction they trekked through the eerily quiet forest with only the distant echoing whooping to keep them company. The bright blue glow from the sword lit up the surrounding area very clearly, throwing everything into sharp contrast.

They walked in silence keeping watch for rogue sasquatch.

Crusader spoke aloud as he glanced sideways at Grande “Man I sure hope there is not an abandoned summer camp anywhere near here.”

Grande was aghast. “Why would you say that?”

“Well I have creepy horror music running through my head. And it would totally fit with what we are doing in this creepy middle of nowhere spot.”

“Man eif a guy in a hockey mask shows up with a machete and tries to kill us I blame you and am making sure he gets you first.”

If anything Grande was even more paranoid in searching for attack as they continued.

“Roland,” Sun Wolf spoke aloud while looking directly at Crusader “Are there any abandoned summer camps near here?”

A minute or 2 of walking in silence passed.

The cat’s voice answered in their heads “No Sun Wolf. I checked the county records back for one hundred and fifty years. The nearest abandoned summer camp is near Olympia.”

“See Grande you have nothing to worry about. Now keep quiet I think we might be getting close I think I see a light ahead.”

Grande looked visibly relieved.

As they walked closer to the top of the hill a faint purple illumination shone through the trees near the top. The light seemed to flicker as if it was moving rapidly. The whooping and screams got louder as did the strong smell of bigfoot.

“Crusader put away your sword; I don’t want them to see us.”

Crusader quickly complied and they walked the last three hundred feet only using the purple light from the clearing to guide their way. The source of the light revealed itself to be a pair of semi-translucent domes with runic script swirling across their faces; one a purple and the other in red. Both domes had multiple people inside from what the threesome could see from their position at the edge of the woods. What they originally took to be movement of the lights was the shadows cast by the capering bigfeet. There seemed to be at least a dozen there in the clearing yelling whooping and trying to crush the domes with their fists and the occasional large rock.

Grande grinned. “I got the ones on the left. You guys take the rest.”

Episode 2.11

2011-09-29T03:56:00.001-07:00

Natasha picked up after two rings

“Hello Betony, what”

In a rapid frantic hushed whisper Betony interrupted her “Please just listen. The ritual was interrupted by a tribe of sasquatch. They are running everywhere and attacking people at random. Does this even make any sense to you?”

“Da”

“I am hiding behind a rock right now, they don’t see me. I think so anyways.” Betony related as she peered from around the large chunk of granite.

“Da”

She quickly hid back in the shadow and used her hand to cup over the phone to minimize the noise. “I’m kinda freaking out here. I don’t know if I can do this without you guys.”

“OK, calm down.”

The howling and whooping of the big foot tribe continued unabated. “I have to help. I just can’t just sit here. What should I do?”

“Sit tight, we are on our way.”

From the other side of the rock Betony heard a whooping noise getting louder and an incredibly bad odor of dirty sweat sox and burning bread get stronger. “Oh no, I have to go, I think one sees me. Please hurry.”

“We will get there as soon as we can. Goodbye.”

Betony ended the call on her phone and tossed it into her belt pouch just as a large hairy five fingered hand gripped the top of the rock and sent it spinning into the surround forest with a howl and a reek of bigfoot stank. Dirt, rocks and leaves flew everywhere as the boulder tumbled off.

Betony scrambled backwards trying to pull herself to her feet from her nearly prone sitting position. She franticly tried to come up with a spell, any spell, that might help her in this situation. Just as the lumbering beast reached for her she remembered a spell that might work. A few eldritch words and a twiddle of fingers later a bright purple flash erupted from her hands directly into the face of the rampaging sasquatch.

The bigfoot’s hands flew to its face covering its eyes. Its howls of rage turning to howls of pain as it stumbled backwards blindly into the path of one of its companions. The enraged beast feeling contact turned blindly to attack what it thought was its assailant. The two creatures attacked each other with wild abandon.

With several of the creatures distracted Betony finally was able to stand up without worry of being eaten or suffocated by stink. She looked around the clearing for the other druids to see how everyone was and where she could lend a hand. About half way across the clearing she spotted her mother constructing some protective wards with a few other conscious members of the ritual. Most of them looked pretty bad. More than one had scrapes on his or her face and bloody torn robes. Large hairy fists pummeled the dome of swirling and moving runes.

Using a spell of far speech Betony sent a message to her mom. “Are you ok? Do you need help?”

Her mother’s head tracked across the clearing trying to look through the milling bodies until she saw Betony and sent back. “Are you ok sweetie?”

“I’m fine mom just a little bruised.”

“Is your reserve still mostly full?” Seeing her daughter nod Roan continued “You will probably need to transform to unlock total access to it. Then grab everyone you can and start another dome of runic protection. We need to figure out why they are attacking. Normally the sasquatch are peaceful timid creatures.”

“I called my team they are on their way. So we need to hold for about 4 hours unless Crusader is driving then probably less. Did you see where Margat went to? I could really use her help.”

“She is in here with me. She took a blow to the head early and is out cold. You unfortunately have to gather everyone you can on your own. It looks like my spell is distracting a majority of the sasquatch, so that will be a point in your favor. Good luck hon.”

Betony nodded to her mother and knew she had to get working if they were to survive the next few hours. So she reached into her ever present pouch, pulled out her amulet and put it on. Within moments the teenage druidess grew up onto her adult crime fighting form allowing her magic reservoirs to flow through her veins. Now she could get to business.

Episode 2.10

2011-09-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

As they got out of the car they were greeted warmly by a short older robed woman whose face was a plump smiling face that reminded Betony of the grandmothers you always see in commercials handing out cookies to plump smiling children. Her curly black hair had steaks of silver in it and flowed unbound nearly to her waist. While her dark grey eyes sparkled in welcome.

“Roan! I’m so glad you made it here on time. The ritual would not be completely effective without you. Oh and this must be Betony. She sure has grown since the last time I saw her.” She exclaimed jovially with her arms outstretched toward Roan, Betony’s mother for a hug. Who happily gave it to her with a smile on her face. After the hug ended Margat faced betony with a smile.

Betony smiled back a little unsure

“Hello Betony I am Margat. I will be leading the ritual tonight.” She kept going speaking at a rapid continuous clip not giving betony a chance to reply “I just remembered this is your first ritual. There is nothing to be worried about dear. We just need to reinforce bindings on the aetheric nexus. A strong spell working. But not terribly complicated. Which is why it needs renewal once a year at the turn of autumn. I remember my first major ritual it was back in nineteen forty four. The Nazi’s undead battalion was just unveiled in Lorien France ….”

It took about twenty minutes for them to unload the car and set up their tent and sleeping bags, Margat talked the whole time while helping them telling stories about events she was involved in, bits of arcane knowledge and her grandchildren.

The sun lowered in the horizon as the druids chatted and gathered their magical paraphernalia for the ritual.

Margat clapped her hands together to get everyone’s attention.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we have to begin our procession to the crest of the mount. It is about five miles to there. So we need to be in position and ready to begin just as the sun begins setting. Not that I need to remind you all. But I will say this none the less. It is important that we utter no words from here on out until the ritual has began as part of the purification process.”

The grey and green robed druids followed Margat onto a forest trail that headed to the north east. They hiked in silence following the trail as it slowly climbed a rocky hill covered in stunted pines and cottonwood for about an hour.

Betony meanwhile was un characteristically quiet during this procession looking around and occasionally making eye contact wither mother who smiled supportingly. As she walked near the rear of the druids she felt her skin get prickly with a feeling of loose unclaimed magic in the air, the feeling got stronger as they approached the top of the hill.

The procession crested the hill and stepped out onto the bare stone summit, the landscape spreading below them in all directions.

With gestures and hand signals the high druidess Margat directed everyone where to stand and orient themselves for the sealing of the aetheric nexus. Betony went to an outside edge while her mother took a more prominent spot near the center of the pattern of druids. When everyone was positioned to her satisfaction Margat walked over to her place.

It was nearly half an hour later when the bottom of the setting sun touched the tip of the tallest peak of the cascades. With a slight nod the ritual began. Slowly at first a low chant filled the rocky expanse. It increased in volume very gradually. Little sparks of multicolored light and glowing twisting threads spontaneously appeared in the air between the chanters.

Betony chanted along with the others, smiling in wonder at the magic happening before her. When a smell started to reach her nose, it almost smelled like rotten eggs mixed with cinnamon and cigar smoke. It grew from barely noticeable to very strong in hardly any time at all. She glanced around her eyes watering at the others near her. They also seemed to be in distress, with the occasional tear and runny nose dribble.

An earsplitting howl burst from the woods startling everyone present. The ritual faltered and the sparks and threads faded back into nothingness. Margat frowned and began to chant louder to get everyone back to their place in the chant when nearly a dozen large hairy bipedal forms burst out of the woods and threw themselves at the druids. Giant hair covered arms and hands swung sending bodies sprawling.

Betony hit behind a large rock as even more Sasquatch burst out of the woods hell bent on interrupting the ritual and hurting the assembled druids.

Thinking fast she reached into her bottomless belt pouch and pulled out her cell phone and called the most recent call in her phone. Sun Wolf.

Episode 2.9

2011-09-20T06:12:00.000-07:00

More than a little tired from the training she had just completed Betony sat in the passenger seat of the car as her mother drove to the ritual. She looked out of the window at the passing scenery as the miles rolled on letting it zone her out.

“Betony Heather Ashe. Have you even heard a word of what I have said for the last half hour?”

“Sorry mother. I am kinda tired from the fight yesterday, cheer practice and today’s practice session. I am trying to build my internal stores back up, they are a bit low.”

“Hmm maby you are trying to do too much. You are young after all. Maby you should drop cheer and concentrate on crime fighting instead.”

Betony looked over in exasperation at the attractive older red haired woman next to her in the drivers seat. “No, I am not dropping cheer. Just because you weren’t a cheerleader and were vice president of the chess club..”

“Treasurer dear, I was treasurer.”

“Whatever.” With rolled eyes “I mean just because you didn’t do it yourself doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it. I did take up heroing like you and grandma did just because you wanted me to. It was a good idea and my group are really good people like your fortelling said. So don’t say that I totally ignore your advice.”

Her mother gave a small smile to her.

“That was actually what I was talking about, your team mates. You have a good dynamic, a very focused skill set. But I am curious about your newest member the sword guy.”

“His Code name is Crusader or if you want to use his real name Aaron. Why? What are you curious about?”

“He seems nice, cute and he is about your age. Just a little older.”

“Mother! Eww No He is way too old like almost twenty four and he is more of a defender and protector than anything else. And besides he delivers pizza. How totally uncool.”

Her mother laughed out loud at that.

“I was joking with you dear. There are rumors about you two on the Seattle Heroweb. Mostly speculation. I thought you should know. The upside is that your real identity is still safe, they don’t know you are a high school student.”

Betony gave her suffering sigh “Ugghh. Really? Well at least it isn’t rumors about me and Grande. That would be soo gross.”

Betony looked out the window again, “How much longer do we have?”

“If traffic holds like this it should take about three hours.”

“OK, If you don’t mind I’d like to take a nap so I can recharge before the ritual tonight.”

“Sure sweetie. Go right ahead I will wake you when we get there.”

Betony fished around the back seat for a few moments and pulled out a camping pillow with a grin of triumph. She leaned it on the window and within a few moments he was fast asleep.

Betony awoke when her head hit the window, hard.

“Ow wow ow owowowowow. What are you doing?”

As she rubbed her head and quickly woke up she saw that the car was driving down a forrest service road that had seen better days.

“Sorry dear you were so tired looking that I wanted to let you sleep as long as possible. I didn’t think the road would be so bad. Otherwise I would have woken you up sooner. “

Still rubbing the sore spot on her head “It’s ok. Thanks for letting me sleep so long.”

Ten minutes of negotiating giant mud puddles and pot holes the car arrived at camp. About a dozen people wandered about setting up a large communal campsite. Trailers, Tents and campfires seemed to be the rule of the day.

Betony’s mother looked over at her. “Well we made it. Just a ew more hours and we can start the ritual.”

“I can’t wait.” Betony said with a smile.

Episode 2.8

2011-09-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

The car sped along towards the Olympic Peninsula cutting in and out of traffic like a bat out of hell and took back roads known to delivery drivers statewide, the setting sun bright in the wind shield. Grande kept everyone not so entertained playing his favorite game; What Should We Call The Team?

“The Saviours.”

In stereo “No.”

“Magic Incorperated.”

“Nope.”

“Power Patrol.”

“Grande you said that one earlier today. Still no.”

“Lightning League.”

“Umm not bad, write that one down. There has got to be a scrap piece of paper on the floor.” Crusader wrestled in the center console. “Here’s a pen.”

“Battle Cows.”

“What? No!”

“Old Rusty Peickup Patrol.”

“Seriously, you are just calling out things you see outside the windows.”

After about two and a half hours the car approached the forest service road that Roland mentally indicated.

Roland narrated in Aarons head as he drove.“As you approach mile marker 271, you will see a gravel road on the right hand side. Turn down it and go straight for a one point 4 miles then take the bend to the left. Follow that for five miles and you will find the encampment where Betony and the other druids were staying. As a side note, you made phenomenal time. My calculations indicated that it should have taken you four hours and twenty one minutes. I think we need to see if you have an innate power in addition to what you receive from your sword.”

Five minutes and several giant muddy water filled potholes later the beat up car pulled into the clearing next to a random assortment of pickups, sport utility vehicles and campers all centered around a cluster of fire pits. Tents were ripped up, coolers tossed about and camping supplies were scattered about as if a storm had struck.

As the last rays of the setting sun illuminated the tops of the trees everyone warily geared up and stepped out of the car and immediately an intense smell reached their noses.

Eyes watering Crusader pulled his mask closer to his nose, ”It's quite pungent.”

Sun Wolf shapeshifted into her humanoid wolf form and inhaled deeply “It's a formidable scent... It stings the nostrils. In a good way. “

“Natasha, I'm gonna be honest with you, that smells like pure gasoline.”

“My god, what eis that smell?”Grande Exclaimed covering his nose and mouth with both hands “Oh!”

Grande and Crusader tried to out do the other in describing the scent that filled the clearing while their eyes watered.

“God no, it smells like, like a used diaper... filled with... Indian food!”

“What eis that? Smells like a turd covered ein burnt hair”

Sun Wolf wanted no part in their game“That, Gentlemen is the smell of bigfoot.”

“Seriously, bigfoot smells like this? How did it sneak up on anyone at all?” Crusader asked gasping.

“One sasquatch isn’t this bad. This is definitely the scent of a tribe of them. They may be close, be on your guard.”

Playtime being over the other two became more serious and with their backs to the car they began to scan the campsite looking for a sign of anyone else. Grande thought in Roland’s direction; “Hey Gato, you picking up any people thoughts out here?”

Roland projected equally across all of them. “I am reading a few people about a quarter of a mile to the northeast. For some reason I can’t pick out individuals. But I think Betony may be among them.”

Sun Wolf looked at her cohorts. “OK, Roland says they are to the northeast. Let’s go that way and see how we can help.”

Crusader looked at the other two. “Umm, which way is northeast?

They both looked around at the clearing.

Roland’s voice piped in. “Northeast is near the tipped over grey camper.”

“Thanks Roland.”

The threesome then ventured towards the camper into the waiting woods.

Episode 2.7

2011-09-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

Aaron sat quietly on the couch his head spinning with all the news that he had just received from Roland. His sword had belonged to Lancelot, the most famous knight of the round table next to King Arthur. And he held Excalibur, it was just a moment or two, but still Excalibur. This was simultaneously the coolest and scariest thing he had ever done.

His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of Natasha’s cell phone, an overly loud techno rendition of ‘Who Let the Dogs Out?’

Crusader and Grande looked at each other as they caught only half of the conversation.

“Hello Betony, what… Da… Da… OK, calm down… Sit tight, we are on our way… We will get there as soon as we can. Goodbye.”

Natasha looked over at her quietly waiting teammates.

“That was Betony. Apparently there was some sort of attack during the start of the ritual. She needs our help. If they don’t finish the ritual tonight the Nexus will become unbalanced for the next month or so. And you don’t need to be told what that means.”

Aaron and Carlos nodded sagely. Then made slight eye contact with each other and shrugged slightly.

Roland piped in, “Get your equipment and costumes and head out towards the Olympic Penensula. I will be able to give you exact directions on the way.”

A short scramble of equipment gathering later and the team stood in the parking lot staring at each of their respective vehicles.

Aaron spoke. “Whose do we take?”

Natasha Looked at her small two seater sports car. “Mines fastest. But I don’t think we all will be able to fit in it..”

“Sorry, but mine eis one person only.”

“Carlos, it is a lifted truck. There should be plenty of room in it.”

“There would be but I had them make the cab like the einside of a monster truck. I sit ein the middle of a roll cage. Eit’s pretty cool.”

Aaron sighed. “I guess it is mine then. I gotta warn you it is kinda messy and smells like pizza inside. Give me a second to clear a space for you guys.”

“Shotgun!”

“Nope Carlos, the lady always sits upfront.”

Natasha gave Carlos a wolf like grin and a wink as she climbed into the car.

A quick trip inside for a garbage bag and a trunk full of pizza warmers later the 3 members of Seattle’s other super hero team hit the road towards the Olympic Peninsula.

While the sun set they cruised down the freeway at a bit above the speed limit when Grande leaned forward, mask in hand, between the front seats. “So what are we facing? Hippies? Rednecks? Some renegade Klointh?”

Aaron looked in the rearview mirror at Grande. “The Klointh?”

“You know, space aliens, the greys?”

“”Oh right, the ones who issued the apology 5 or 6 years ago to the states of Arkansas and South Carolina for all the probing.”

“Nope none of those,” Interrupted Sun wolf. “This is more of a local real threat.”

“More local than redneck heippies?”

“Da. Apparently the magic gathering during the ritual attracted a tribe of Sasquach. They went sort of crazy, attacked everyone and ruined the ritual.”

Aaron nodded.

Grande looked over at Aaron and his non reaction. “You don’t seem surprised that Beigfeet exist.”

“Why would I be? I have grown up in the northwest. Everyone up here knows that they exist. Hell I almost hit one with my car about 2 years ago while on a delivery. They are all over the place.”

“Speaking of deliveries,” Natasha said while her fingers dug into the door arm rest in supressed fear “Shouldn’t you be going a bit slower and deliver us safely? You just passed a Corvette back there. You don’t want to get pulled over and registered do you?”

“I’m just going a little over the speed limit, nothing to worry about. I am in perfect control. And I’m not in costume. Nothing for me to worry about. You guys on the other hand should probably buckle up.”

Interlude - Origin Story - Roland

2011-09-08T05:52:00.000-07:00

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Persona: Roland
Secret Identity: None
Affilialation: (Team Name Undecided)
Base of Operations: Seattle

Place of Birth: An alley in North Seattle
Age: 3 or 4 (Unknown date of birth)
Nationality: American Shorthair Alley Cat

Characteristics

Gender: Male
Length: 2’10” tip of nose to tip of tail
Weight: 15lbs
Eyes: Green
Hair: White

Powers Classification: E:PsiBM*, Immunities - 1, Psionics – 5, Intelligence - 4
*Experiment: Psionic, Biological, Mental

Occupation: Headquarters Cat
Favorite Food: Salmon
Favorite Music (Public): Mozart
Favorite Music (Private): Birds chirping
Favorite Color: Blue

First Appearance: Episode 2.1

---------------------------------------------------------------

History

Roland was born as one of a litter of five kittens in a back alley in northern Seattle near the University of Washington. He was less than a week old when he, his mother and his littermates were picked up by animal control and raised to be put up for an adoption.

He was adopted by a research scientist who worked at the psionics lab at the UW and became the labs mascot. Being an inquisitive kitten he was frequently into things he shouldn’t be. During his explorations he was accidentally exposed to a mental enhancement serum. Over the next few years his intellect expanded and he developed psychic powers. And growing up in a university he had a fantastic environment for learning.

One weekend there was a break in at the lab by Mentalismo and in the ensuing commotion of the fight and his capture the psionics lab was demolished and Roland’s owner killed. Roland escaped the rubble and wandered for a few months before he was spotted by Natasha eating out of the dumpster behind her restaurant. She was surprised by a cat that wasn’t instinctively afraid of her and her werewolf heritage. Natasha set out a returned plate of fish for him, and when Roland thanked her she knew that she needed to help him.

Roland moved into the headquarters that Natasha and Carlos had set up shortly thereafter and grew to feel like the place was home.

Personality:

Roland is an academic. His early years in a university setting gave him a scientific view of things. He has a very straightforward view on life. For all his intelligence he has not been able to master the contraction, which is a minor source of frustration for him. Living in the Headquarters with its internet access has given him more room to grow mentally than even the lab. He does find great enjoyment in being in coordinator for the team.

Relationships with team mates:

He is continually surprised by Betony’s studiousness and her versatility. Her powers and skills do not make much sense to him, so he underestimates her often. Magic cannot be scientifically measured.

He is puzzled by Grande’s sense of humor and his ability to ignore what he doesn’t understand. He does find him a bit dull intellectually. But for all those faults he does think he is a decent human.

He is grateful to Natasha for her saving his life. She does not have any idea of how deep that gratitude goes. He likes her willingness to pitch in and help out in any situation. He is confused about her attraction to Grande.

He doesn’t know Crusader well enough to have an opinion about him. Time will tell how he and his sword fit in.

Posting Delay

2011-08-31T21:35:00.001-07:00

I am heading to DragonCon in Atlanta and it will be a busy few days there. I will try to post, but I am not going to make any promises. I will try to get back to a normal schedule as soon as I can. Other good news, I have a friend who is going to act as an editor. She is starting from the first post and going forward, reviewing everything I have written so far. So my terrible tenses will be fixed! It can only get better. Thanks for Reading!

Episode 2.6

2011-08-30T07:22:00.000-07:00

Another half hour or so passed while the three remaining members of the team watched tv, or tried to as Grande kept flipping channels and asking Sun Wolf about each cartoon they came across to see if they had any sinister or amazing history, and waited for Roland to let them know what he discovered.

A polite mental cough got their attention.

“Lady and sirs, I believe I have gathered all the information that I am likely to on this subject. If you would please join me at the table I have some fascinating information to share.” His mental voice contained a hint of excitement which seemed out of character for him.

Tasha and Aaron sat in a pair of chairs while Carlos flopped bonelessly into his in a very relaxed sprawl. He spoke “What deid you learn while Tasha ruined childhood memories?”

“Quite a bit Carlos. Aaron before we begin, you said your sword’s name was Arondight. How did you learn that information?|”

Aaron looked a tad uneasy. “I was told that in a dream.”

Tasha looked at him and raised one eyebrow “A dream?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

The small white cat nodded, choosing not to pry. “Very well. Arondight Is the name of the sword carried by Sir Lancelot, one of the knights of the round table. It is one of the Eight Swords of Power. The Eight Swords of Power are swords that originate from all over the world and were used by historical figures.” Everyone could hear the capitols in their heads as he spoke the title. “Aaron's sword Arondight is said to be able to only be carried by a noble honorable soul. And that it will be used by a champion in defense of the weak and helpless.”

Everyone including Aaron looked in silence for a moment at the blade resting on the table in front of them , then they all spoke at once.

“Impossible!”

“They existed too?!”

“Seriously?!”

Roland interrupted them again. “Yes It is the blade. It has surfaced several times over the centuries since it’s first appearance in history.”

Several images of various knights, warriors and soldiers flashed in the holographic projector. Some in paintings, some in photographs, but all bearing a sword that matched the one before them.

“But that is not the important part. What is important is that using Aaron’s descriptions I have figured out which of the Eight Blades are currently active in the world today. Unless the forge master has given out another one, there are five in circulation.”

As he spoke the names of the blades images popped into view.

“From news and other reports I knew two swords were being used but the other two surprised me. First Shén zhī jiàn also known as the Sword of God which was first used by Atilla the Hun.” A very fine looking scimitar that had a bronze pommel and etchings along it’s blade hovered in 3D in front of them slowly rotating ”is being used by a man of the same name in the far east. The Hungering Tooth, a Macuahuitl belonging to Tlacaelel a legendary figure of Aztec mythology has been spotted on the east coast.” A vicious wooden blade with studded obsidian chips spun next to the first image. “The next two I do not have any photographic images of. But l do believe they are somewhere in someone’s hands. Crocea Mors, the cestus owned and used by Julius Cesar and Heaven’s Gift, the arming blade of Joan of Arc. Both of which aresaid to be powerful the Crocea Mors gives the bearer great charisma and the ability to influence people. While Heaven’s Gift gives control of fire and heat to it’s bearer. Those are not subtle weapons. The fact that they are not immediately known of makes me nervous.”

Aaron swallowed nervously. “I am almost afraid to ask about the other three.”

“You shouldn’t be. If your descriptions of them are accurate, and I am not doubting that they are, the other blades not in use are The Taming Sari of Hang Tuah, the wavy bladed kris sword you described as a triangle. The Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi also called theGrass Cutting Sword, which first belonged to Yamato Takeru a famous historical samurai from Japan.”

Roland paused a moment. Grande butted in. “That is only two. He saw three. What was the third one? Theis is really kinda cool. I gotta know.”

“If I may, could I read something to you first before I tell you what the last one is?”

Everyone nodded silently.

“This is an exerpt from the Dream of Rhonabwy ‘..with a design of two chimeras on the golden hilt; when the sword was unsheathed what was seen from the mouths of the two chimeras was like two flames of fire, so dreadful that it was not easy for anyone to look. At that the host settled and the commotion subsided, and the earl returned to his tent.’ Chimeras are three headed dragon like creature. Does that somewhat describe the sword you saw?”

“Yeah that seems about right.”

“That sword is Caledfwlch.”

“Caledfwlch?”

“Yes, Caledfwlch, commonly known as Excalibur.”

Aaron paled instantly and seemed to shrink in on himself in the seat as he muttered quietly. “Excalibur, oh crap. I touched Excalibur.”

Episode 2.5

2011-08-25T05:02:00.000-07:00

“Fascinating” projected Roland “You bought a magic sword from a man on the side of the road. And if it is what I think it is..“ his thoughts faded out as he sat on the conference table. Images rapidly flickered in the holographic display as Roland dove deeply into a search through various databases and files.

“If you think it is what?”

Carlos sighed “Don’t bother, he zones out some times. When he gets like that eit eis best just to let heim go and find what he needs to find. Lets watch some TV while he does heis theing. Deid you go back to see eif the old man was there after you figured out that the sword was magic?”

“Yeah I did to get some answers, but he was long gone.”

“ Lame.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

The group sat down on the couch for an hour or two with Grande started flipping through the chanels looking for something to watch when Crusader spoke up. “hey stop there, the old thundercats cartoon. I loved those growing up. They seemed so crazy unbelieveable even when I was little, they are worse now.”

They watched chuckling at the show for a while before Tasha made a comment. “You know these are based on the Thundarkus right?”

Grande and Crusader both looked at her with skeptical expressions, neither saying anything.

“I’m serious.” She went on “The thundarkus live in an underground cavern several hundred miles across at the south pole. They were discovered back in the early eighties. The explorers who found them studied them off and on for years. They tried to make a profit off of their findings and ended up selling to a cartoon studio because they offered the most money.”

“Nope,” Grande butted in “I don’t believe you. You had me going for a second or two. But no. There is no way there is a race of cat people living in an underground cave fighting an ancient necromancer mummy who lives in a black pyramid living under the south pole.”

“Oh it is all true. Hmum-roteph is a powerful ancient Egyptian sorcerer. The thundarkus and their allies do manage to keep him contained.”

“This is pretty hard to believe Tasha. So there are cat people with names of surface cats, driving cat shaped vehicles and living in cat shaped buildings.” Scoffed Aaron “Next you will be telling me He-Man and Scooby Do are also based on real events.”

She sighed “No the cartoonists and writers took some liberties with the names and other stuff like that. It was a cartoon after all. No I am not going to tell you that He-Man was real. Scooby Do on the other hand…”

“Really? A bunch of kids rolling around in a van with a talking dog? That has got to be the stupidest..“ Aaron paused and looked over at Roland sitting over on the table “Ok, it is a bit more believable to me now that it was twenty four hours ago.”

Natasha and Carlos both laughed at that.

“That show was based on the adventures of the Groovy Mystery Society a group of twenty somethings in the late sixties who drove their van around the deep south while experimenting with recreational drugs. Although it was toned down a bit for the cartoon, most of those shows were based on real events. Not every villian was a guy in a mask. They did encounter some very disturbing and unnatural things from differing planes of existance, which they managed to stop time and time again, against all odds. It is suspected that the drugs somehow helped them not go insane from some of the things they saw, due to the fact that their vision of reality was altered to begin with.”

“So a bunch of drugged up hippies and a talking dog in a van stopped an invasion of the earth from creatures from another plane of existence in the sixties. And they made a cartoon about it.”

Natasha nodded “Yep that about sums it up.”

“The world is so much weirder than I thought it was.

Episode 2.4

2011-08-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

Grande got the five dollars.

Several hours passed as they practiced team tactics in the open area of the warehouse. Sometimes one on one, two on two or three on one, Roland kept watch offering encouragement or tips from the safety of the conference table. At the end of the practice a very tired and sweaty group sprawled about the rec area on the couches and floor.

Betony looked over at a clock on the wall. “My mom’s going to be here soon to pick me up. We have a ritual tonight up in the Cascades. I’d better go get cleaned up. I wish I could hang out but this is kinda important. There is a focusing of the Nexus with the new moon. And that means lots of energy leaking from the aether. The local druids need to perform a ritual or two to contain it. And I get to be included this time. It might be fun.”

As she stretched and walked back to the changing areas Grande called out to her with a grin, “A ritual out ein the woods huh? You gonna be all skyclad with the other druid ladies?”

She paused and looked back at the impervious pervert with a slightly incredulous look on her face.

“Did you just ask what I think you asked?”

“Maybe..”

She rolled her eyes “No Carlos we will not be skyclad. That is Wiccan practice, I am a druid. This is a druid ritual. Did you look up magic on some lame website on the internet just so you could harass me?”

“Would I do something like that?” He paused a beat “Si, I totally deid. It was worth it to see the look on your face though.”

Everyone chuckled at that, including Betony as she finally went back to change.

Betony’s mom came and went right on schedule as the other four cleaned up the area and their gear, which for Grande and Sun Wolf just consisted of putting their clothes in their laundry bags while Crusader polished his magic blade with a rag from his duffle bag. Roland watched Aaron with interest, paying close attention to the sword.

“Aaron,” he projected after a few moments, “May I ask you a few questions about your sword, if you do not mind. I would like to confirm a few thoughts that I have.”

“Not at all Roland. What do you want to know?”

“Does your sword have a name and how did you acquire it?”

Aaron looked at the long sword. It did not look like all that much. The handle was well wrapped and sweat worked leather while the pommel and the cross guard were lightly patterned dark heavy metal. The only truly special thing about the sword was that the edge of the blade looked infinitely sharp and that it seemed to be glowing, a blue so faint that you could barely see it in its otherwise bright mirror finish. It looked like a highly functional finely made warrior’s weapon. “I have been told that the blade’s name is Arondight. It is really not much of a story on how I got it. No dramatic quests, no saved princesses, no buried treasure. I was coming back from a long delivery and I saw an old guy in a stained t-shirt selling swords out of the bed of his beat up pickup on the side of the road in a gravel lot with a cardboard sign that just said ‘Swords For Cheap’. I had just gotten a nice tip and felt like splurging, so I pulled into the lot.”

The others paused what they were doing and listened in to the story.

“Well the old guy seemed kinda pleased to be seeing a customer and he was all smiles. He told me to pick the sword that I thought was right for me. There were only four swords there, not much of a selection to be honest. It was slightly creepy the way he stared almost intently at me as I looked at each one. There was a really gaudy sword in an ornate sheath with two three headed dragon things for the cross guard, he almost passed out when I picked that one up. It was really weird. Another one was a cool sword that was shaped like a wavy triangle; it didn’t fit right in my hand. He had a samurai sword too, it also had a nice sheath, but I am not a fan of those, so I didn’t bother with it. But this sword, “He said gesturing to Arondight “felt perfect. Just the right weight, it wasn’t gaudy and it felt made for my hand. He seemed suppressed that I chose that one out of the four there. He quoted me a price, the exact amount my big tip was. I didn’t find that strange at the time, I did a few days later. I paid him, got in my car and drove off. And that is my sword’s story.”

Episode 2.3

2011-08-18T05:39:00.001-07:00

“Well,” continued Roland “Maybe you can fill us in on what you do actually know superheroes now that the Granite Island question is out of the way.”

“Umm, ok.” Crusader began “The first real superhero showed up in world war two, Jonathan Kilroy. If I remember my history lessons he was part of the United States super soldier program and served in the Pacific theater before the accident that killed him at the end of the war. Although according to internet rumors he is still alive and has shown up occasionally to help against overwhelming odds over the last fifty years. His ‘Kilroy was here’ graffiti showing up after those events.”

“The first US super soldier program.” Natasha interrupted. “There have been six.”

“Six? There were six super soldier programs?”

“No. Six United States programs, not just six in total.”

Under Roland’s direction the table hologram began to search online databases and display the results which he listed aloud. “There have been eleven European programs, two German programs, four Canadian programs, five Russian or soviet programs, three Chinese programs and two Mexican programs. Not all of which have been successful or yielded any results.”

Aaron looked over at Carlos. “So were you..?”

Grande looked offended. “No! I am from Argentina. Do I look like I am from Mexico? I am not some experiment. I am all natural!”

“Whoa, Whoa, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry!”

Roland attempted to defuse the situation “Please continue Aaron.”

“Sure, if I remember right everyone was pretty much solo until major teams formed in the mid sixties to fight the First Vrall Invasion and most of them are still together in one form or another. We have the Atlanta Action League, The Shadow Syndicate in New York, The Guild in Chicago, the Freedom force in Washington DC, the Golden Host in San Francisco and of course the Emerald City Defenders here in Seattle. Honestly, that is pretty much al l know. “

Betony nodded. “That is not too bad. But that is mostly history. Do you know about anything current, or anything about laws?”

“Nothing really, pretty much just what I told you guys.”

Natasha began to type on her section of the conference table. “Here’s a quick overview of some laws that pertain to us. Supers don’t have to register their identities until they commit a crime in costume, any crime. That includes a speeding ticket if you are driving a car in costume. I’ve seen how you drive. You need to be careful.”

Crusader hung his head slightly and nodded abashedly.”Yeah.”

“The bounty system for powered criminals and the MCTF controlling body to oversee their posting and payment went into effect January fourth nineteen eighty. It gives the powered individual an incentive to help as opposed to causing problems. Of course the state and federal governments take a cut out of it in taxes. Also we have to cooperate with local, state and federal law enforcement. Share all threats that we learn about and if they request it lend them a hand in capturing criminals. Not a lot of stuff if you look at it on paper but in whole a lot of responsibility and restrictions.”

The whole table nodded in understanding, even those that had heard this information before.

Grande was the first to break the thoughtful silence. “Man, that was a total downer. Let’s do something fun. Combat practice!”

A chorus of agreement greeted his idea.

Everyone went to their lockers and got the gear they needed ready. Crusader opened up the baseball duffle bag that he brought with him and removed his sword belt with its sheathed blade.

Grande spotted him and with a grin challenged him. “Bring your magic toothpick over here and let’s see what you can do. Five bucks says I can land the first hit.”

“You’re on!”

Episode 2.2

2011-08-11T09:45:00.001-07:00

Aaron Lakes aka Crusader paused had to do a slight mental reboot. “Umm, yeah. Sure. We can start. Totally.”

The whole table lost it in laughter, including Roland.

“I am sorry,” apologised Roland after the laughter had died down “but Carlos wanted to see how you would react. He finds it very funny to see how people react to me the first time”

“Even eif you beat me up eit eis totally worth eit.” Grande replied with a huge grin on his face.

“You’re invulnerable. I don’t think I could beat you up if I tried.”

“Yep like I said; Totally worth eit.”

Roland interjected. “Let us start with the basics. I have been informed that your career as a crime fighter is a new one and that you lack some of the basic knowledge that most of the group including myself take for granted. Can you give us a bit of what you do know so that we may fill in the gaps in your knowledge?”

“Umm sure, Granite Island specifically? Or everything I know about super heroes in general?”

“Please begin with Granite Island. We will discuss the other information after that.”

“I wish I knew I’d be taking a quiz today.” Aaron joked weakly “Ok, after a bunch of internet searching last night after I got off of work I found out that Granite Island is a place where they keep super criminals. And that’s about it. Which, sadly, is more than I knew yesterday.”

“It is a good starting point. Natasha, can you please turn on the projector?”

Natasha tapped the tabletop in front of herself several times, typing in commands and dragging her finger across it to open programs. Moments later a 3 dimensional hologram sprung out of an emitter in the center of the table displaying an island in the center of a body of water.

Aaron actually looked at the table for the first time. It was a high tech marvel. Along each side there were several touch pad keyboards and displays inset of the smooth plastic. Near the center holographic emitter lens were multiple access ports of various types, most of which he did not recognize. But the coolest part by far to Crusader was the holographic emitter. The rotating image was crisp and sharp. It seemed to hover in the air at about eye level, semi transparent so that you could see the person across from you through it.

“Sorry I have to interrupt. Where did you get this table? You pull it out of a mastermind’s lair? Was it given to you from an ancient starfaring race for a job well done?”

Everyone else chucked at that.

Betony grinned over at Carlos. “Yes fearless leader, tell him how you got this technological marvel.”

Grande mumbled something under his breath.

Betony leaned in. “What, I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

“I bought eit at Office Depot with the reward from our first bust.”

“Seriously? They sell these at Office Depot?”

“Actually at the Office Depot Outlet store. Apparently there was not a market for these. Eit was significantly marked down from the original price, and on a sale at the outlet store and I had a cupon.”

Aaron paused a moment. “Ok. I gotta know, how much was it?”

“Seix hundred dollars. Wheich was about two and a half percent of the original price. And before you do the math ein your head, eit was originally twenty four thousand dollars.”

“Twenty Four Thousand Dollars?”

“Well eit deid come with these really nice chairs.”

Roland did a polite psychic cough in everyone heads. “If we could resume? Thank you.”

Roland stared intently at the image and the cursor began to move highlighting the building on the island. The picture zoomed in as Roland continued to narrate. “Granite Island is a massive chunk of solid rock, a type of super dense granite from the earth’s crust that somehow got upthrust almost intact. It is situated nearly in the center of north Puget sound. Sheer cliffs 23’ tall ring the island on all sides except for the southern tip of the island. Where it looks like Aeons past a portion of the cliff had shorn away leaving a gradual slope to the peak of the island where the prison rests.”

He continued “The prison itself is constructed out of titanium reinforced concrete. Walls 20’ high surround the complex are dotted with searchlights, high tech and magical monitoring devices and guard emplacements. An administration complex for the MCTF sits just outside the walls near the power generators, that is where all prisoner access in and out of the complex is located. It goes down several layers into the solid stone. No one outside of the complex has any idea of how deep it really goes.”

“It is not just a place designed to hold supervillans and other powered criminals. It is also used to hold dangerous unpowered individuals too, mass murders, cartel and gang leaders and the like.”

Aaron whistled. “That sounds like a very unpleasant place to visit.”

“It is indeed.”

Episode 2.1

2011-08-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

The Name In Debate Patrol headquarters was located in south Seattle. It was nestled in a warehouse in the Georgetown section of the city.

From the outside it was a normal smallish building with a completely mundane, if slightly rundown, look. The peeling white paint, dead weeds growing along the base of the walls and in random spots in the concrete parking lot, the large roll up door that had dents in it, and several painted over windows all added to the general feel of the place.

Crusader pulled his car into the lot just before ten, rechecking his directions for possibly the eighth time, just as the first drops of rain fell from the heavily laden clouds above. He got out of his car grabbing a baseball duffle bag and headed to a side entrance with the words no solicitation written on it with a marker. Walking past a pair of vehicles that were significantly newer then the beat up machine he arrived in he sighed and shook his head.

He banged on the metal door when he discovered it was solidly locked.

A few moments later a muffled voice called through the wall. “Who eis eit?”

He yelled back “It’s the League of Brutal Villainy! Here to make your life a living hell!”

A small pause, “Crusader?”

A small sigh. “Yes Grande it is me.”

The inside of the headquarters was significantly nicer than the outside. It still looked like a converted warehouse, but it was nicer. Several second hand couches and an animal bed, with a sleeping white cat in it, sat in front of a big TV in one corner. Off to one side along another wall was a white board with notes written on it and a large conference table. The opposite wall of that sat a bunch of surplus sports lockers. A small kitchenette was stationed in the corner with the ever present pot of coffee and sink full of dirty dishes. At the back of the room, opposite of the big roll up door, was a hallway that led to several other rooms.

Grande and Sun Wolf were already there, and in the middle of a heated argument, which Grande continued the moment the door was open.

“Meystic Society!”

“No.”

“Meystic Patrol”

“No.”

“Grande League.”

“Hell no.”

“Meidnight Patrol.”

“No.”

‘Rain Ceity Renegades.”

“Seriously Carlos, where do you come up with these verbal nightmares?” Sun Wolf asked disgustedly.

“They are not that bad. Tell her Crusader.”

“Ummm,” glancing over at the attractive Russian woman who smirked at him. “Mystic Society wasn’t that bad. But a lot of the others were.”

About then the side door that Crusader had just entered through opened up and a soaking wet girl rushed in. ‘Like, it is dumping like Zeus forgot to turn off his shower or something.” She paused and waved outside at someone. “My mom gave me a ride.”

She shrugged off her wet coat and threw it toward a wall where it seemed to float over to a locker of its own accord and place itself gently on a waiting hook inside.

“What did I miss?”

“Tasha and Carlos were arguing over team names.”

“Oh, were there any good ones?”

“Nyet. They were pretty much like normal.”

“B, I’ve got your stuff in my bag over here, come get it. I really don’t want to keep it any longer than I have to.”

Grande ignored the banter and sat down at the conference table. “Ok everyone time to get to work. Crusader here doesn’t know anything about the business. And first Order of business; what the heck is your real name. I am seick of saying Crusader all of the time.”

They all sat down at the table some more casual than others. Betony putting on her herb belt and placing the amulet into a jeans pocket. The cat even sauntering over and hopping onto Natasha’s waiting lap.

“Oh dang I’m sorry. I really should have done this earlier. My name is Aaron Lakes.”

Everyone smiled or nodded.

“That wasn’t that bad was it AAron?” asked Betony

“Not really, it is just awkward introducing yourself in the middle of a fight. And why are we getting started? I thought you said someone named Roland was coming back from vacation and was going to join us?”

Natasha smiled. “He is here. In fact he has been here for a while.”

“Is he in back?”

The white cat on Natasha’s lap looked up and made eye contact. And a polite voice spoke inside Aaron’s head. “Greetings Crusader, I am Roland. Are you ready to begin now?”

Interlude - Origin Story - Sun Wolf

2011-08-04T10:59:00.001-07:00

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Public Persona: Sun Wolf
Secret Identity: Natasha Motova
Affilialation: (Team Name Undecided)
Base of Opperations: Seattle

Place of Birth: A small hamlet in the Ural mountains
Age: 34 (Appears to be in early 20s due to regeneration)
Nationality: Russian, American

Characteristics - Human

Gender: Female
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 160lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond

Characteristics - Hybrid

Gender: Female
Height: 6'8"
Weight: 250lbs
Eyes: Black
Hair: Blond

Powers Classification: H:PaBPh*, Immunities - 5, Regeneration - 3, Strength - 3
*Hereditary: Paranormal, Boilogical, Physical

Occupation: Head Chef
Favorite Food: Steak, Medium Rare
Favorite Music (Public): Warren Zevon (Specificaly the song Werewolves of London)
Favorite Music (Private): Toby Keith
Favorite Color: Red

First Appearance: Episode 1.2

---------------------------------------------------------------
History

Natasha comes from a long line of Russian werewolves. Her family’s pack has lived in the same hamlet in the Russian Urals for centuries. For the most part they have been left alone with little contact with the outside world, just the occasional modern convenience like electricity, satellite TV, satellite phones and the internet.

As with all werewolf litters are Natasha was born under a full moon. Her litter was a bit unusual because of the color variation amongst the fur of the pups. Three had the slightly uncommon black fur while she had the once in a generation blond fur. This was taken as a good omen. Her upbringing was normal for her kind, training, spring hunts, summer hunts, fall hunts, and winter feasting and celebrations. After being the first generation to grow up with TV she grew restless and with her family’s blessing she went to seek her way in the world.

As an adult she worked her way across the continent discovering her love of food and learning all that she could becoming quite an accomplished chef in any number of cuisines. Eventually her travels took her to America and the Seattle area where she fell in love with the food, the people, the scenery and the strong natural background energy of the aetheric nexus.

She had little heroing experience (the occasional mugging and gang fight) before she encountered Grande battling the Woodwose in the middle of a downtown park. After the fight they got to talking and decided to try to apply to the Emerald City Defenders. They were thanked for their time but rejected. Due to their lack of experience and the chance that the property damage that they would cause from their fights would be too high. After a bit of convincing Grande convinced her that forming their own team would be a great idea.

Personality:

Natasha is a bit more serious and business minded than the other members on her team. Her job as head chef has definitely prepared her for high pressure environments and giving orders as necessary. She and Roland try to coordinate the group’s activities and spending habits. No sense in them going broke before they can do a good job.

Relationships with team mates:

She like Betony’s work ethic and finds her eternal frustration with their enemies amusing. She thinks that Betony is going to live up to her family’s legacy, in her own style.

She finds Grande cute, but doesn’t really know why. He is totally not her usual type. His attitude and need to prove himself is good, but she thinks that when he finally gets over his head he is really going to be in deep. He needs to recognize his limitations.

Roland and her are surprisingly good friends. She respects him and is surprised by his insights occasionally.

She also feels that Crusader has potential and a good future ahead of him once he learns more about what he can do. His quick wit and willingness to step up is a good fit that she thinks will only help the team.

Episode 1.7

2011-08-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

“What’s Granite Island, huh?” Betony looked over to Sun Wolf and Grande for help “That is not too hard of a question. But it might be better to talk about it in less public surroundings.”

“How ‘bout the base?” Grande suggested.

“Da, good idea Grande. And besides,” The wolfwoman smirked “You can change your pants. I imagine that rip up the back is getting a bit drafty. The red was a good choice; it matches your costume well.”

“OhDiosMio.”

Betony, also smirking, nodded her head. “Yeah, totally. We should do that. Wait, what time is it?”

Everyone looked around the street trying to find a clock when The Crusader coughed in a stage whisper to Betony. *cough* “Your cell phone.” *cough*

She grimaced and pulled it out of another pouch on her belt. “Four o’clock! I’m gonna be late! Practice is at Four thirty! Crusader can you give me a ride to the school? I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

“I can do that for you.”

“So eit eis settled, being that tomorrow eis Saturday, we will meet at the base, let’s say tomorrow at about Ten-ish.”

“When was that settled? Was that one of your executive decisions?” Sun Wolf sighed and waved her hand “Sure that will work. And besides Roland will be back from vacation. We can introduce him and Crusader to each other.”

Betony and Crusader both waved to the other two as they got into the beat up Focus. Crusader climbing in the driver seat and Betony into the cluttered back seat. She had to shift a still slightly warm pizza bag and a few empty fast food drink cups to make a space to sit down.

Crusader looked in the rear view mirror at his companion “Why are you sitting back there?”

“I have to change; I can’t look like this at school. Secret identites are supposed to be secret. And, like; besides because I am running late I need to put on my cheer uniform so I am ready when we get there.” As he watched she reached around behind her neck and unclasped the large gold necklace she wore. Magically her features began to change, youthening dramatically. Her long nearly waist length blond hair shrank down to a simple pageboy. Overall her body shrank down and got less mature until she looked her actual age of seventeen not the mid twenties appearance she normally had while on the job. She glanced up at the mirror and smirked at Crusader “My mom made me a good disguise huh? You can stop looking now.”

“Crap, sorry. That is just so cool to see.”

“It is kinda cool isn’t?”

The car the 2 heroes were in began to quickly pick up speed and cut in and out of traffic in the manner of all good delivery drivers as it raced to Betony’s school.

“Roosevelt High School right?” Crusader called over his shoulder. Being very careful not to look in the mirror at the changing teen in his back seat.

“Yep!”

A mere fifteen minutes after they had left the heart of downtown they pulled up to the front of the Roosevelt High School campus.

“We are here.”

“Wow that was super fast! Are you sure that is not another super power?” Betony climbed out of the back of the car adjusting her uniform and smoothing down the skirt of her green and gold cheer uniform. She posed over dramatically “Go Rough Riders!”

He chuckled at her over cheerfulness. “Well I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait!” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “Can you do me a favor?” She held out a small bundle, her costumes belt and the amulet. “Can you hold onto this for me until tomorrow? I don’t want to take a chance of anything happening to this here. You know just in case. There are herbs in here that might look suspicions to security. And this valuable and I’d rather not have this stolen and need to us e my mother’s disguise amulet. “

“Sure thing B, you have my word that I will protect your stuff and keep it safe.” Momentarily reality seems to pause except for the 2 of them as he utters that promise. “Whoa, that was weird. What kind of power do you think that was?”

She also looks a bit startled. “Yeah that was weird. Maybe it was an oath? We should check that out tomorrow. Well, see ya later! I’m off to practice!”

Crusader waited until she walked through the front doors of the school before he drove off. As he drove off he picked up his cell phone and made an important call.

“It’s me. Sorry it is taking me so long to get back to you. There was a villain fight or something in downtown. Yeah, it killed traffic. I’ll be there soon to finish my shift. That last delivery? Yeah I made it there on time but that old lady gave me a fifty cent tip. Quit laughing. Yep, see you in fifteen.”

Crusader pulled off his chainmail coif, undid his bandana, shrugged off his jacket and put on his red mesh Poppy’s Pizza hat. Time to get back to work.

Episode 1.6

2011-07-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

Waiting by the armor plated transport Sun Wolf, Betony and Crusader watched the grey and maroon armored MCTF troopers walk down the ramp. Each trooper wore standard issue Mega Crime Tactical Armor. In addition to a visored helmet, the armor itself was built out of high impact ballistic plates which gave the wearer protection from small arms and light powered energy weapons; it covered the chest, groin, forearms, and thighs in a dark matte maroon over an industrial grey jumpsuit. At the waist hung a tactical belt covered in pouches and devices that the average trooper might need during his dangerous duties. In addition the troopers had matching armored leather boots and gauntlets once again in a dark matte maroon.

A tall man in a maroon half helmet with captains bars and a tactical visor separated himself from the troopers and offered a hand. “I’m Captain Sherman. Good job capturing these two.” He looked around at all the damage “It looks like quite the fight; I wish I could have seen it.”

Handshakes all around.

He pulls a military grade touchscreen pad out of a hip pouch and taps the screen a few times pulling up files and photos and occasionally adding a few notes here and there. “Ok, the Electrocutioner and Abominatron. Class B and C powers respectively.” He shouts over his shoulder to his men. “Second class electrical containment, the usual the reinforced rubber restraints on the Electrocutioner. Remember not to disturb his hood; we have to follow the law. Separate the robot parts in bins, no more than 20 pounds per. He can reassemble at 30 pound increments. And put the EM detectors on top to see if the parts start to go active.” His men get to work.

Natasha looked over at the pad one eyebrow raising in appraisal.

She whistled, an odd sound coming from a muzzle “That is quite the database. Where can we get ahold of one of those?”

“These? They are standard MCTF issue. Touch screen, sound and video recorders, GPS, a copy of the powers database software. I’ll see what I can do. Maybe we can sell you one at a discount, with a self updating subscription plan of course so you have the latest info.”

“That would be great, very useful in a fight.”

He accesses the pad again. “These two had a reward. Want me to send it your usual account? It is about six thousand combined before taxes and admin fees.”

“Da,” She agreed “that sounds good. It is almost time for the usual bills and such. This is not a cheap line of work to get into. Especially if you don’t have any sponsors.”

Captain Sherman nodded “Will do. Oh and do you guys have a team name yet? I know it would make our job a bit easier when it came to get ahold of you.”

They all shook their heads.

Betony spoke “Like, we are still arguing about that. We have kinda decided that it needs to have patrol in it. Grande has some of the worst suggestions.”

Grande chose that moment to walk up after his interview. “No I don’t, I think Power Patrol eis a great name.”

They all shook their heads or rolled their eyes. “That sounds like a name a bunch of kids would have.” muttered Sun Wolf.

Sherman chuckled “Good luck with that. A name can make or break the team’s reputation.” One of his men signaled him as they were loading the last of the tubs with Abomination’s parts inside. ” Looks like my guys are about done. Well off to Granite Island. If you want I can try to arrange a tour some time. You deserve to see where some of the guys you bust end up.”

“Thanks for the offer Captain. We might be interested in that. Use the team email you have on file for us.” replied Sun Wolf

“Will do. “ The Captain waved as he got in the MCTF armored transport.

Betony glanced over to Crusader after the MCTF had left. “You were awfully quiet back there. What’s up?”

“I had no idea what you guys were talking about back there. I’ve only been doing this for about a month. This was not my plan for my life. I'm still coing to community college to get my associates degree. I just read a bit about this kind of stuff online and in the paper. I thought it would better not to say anything and look stupid in front of that guy.”

She winced “Oh yeah, I think we forgot about that. Most of this is probably pretty weird for you. Anything in particular you want to know.”

“Yeah, what’s Granite Island?”

Episode 1.5

2011-07-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

The mobile news truck was in the middle of setting up its microwave antenna when Grande swaggered over. He waited there patiently almost posing while the crew finished their set up, occasionally wiping off a bit of dust and grime from his multiple collisions with the ground and other objects. The news crew seeing him waiting hurried up their prep work to interview the battered luchadore.

Meanwhile the rest of the team, while subtly keeping an eye on the unconscious Electrocutioner, was busy gathering the random chunks of brass and steel belonging to Abominatron and waiting for the MCTF (Mega Crime Task Force) containment units to show up.

Glancing over at Grande Crusader shook his head. “That guy loves giving interviews. He puffs himself up and takes most of the credit for stuff we all did.”

“Why don’t you give an interview or two?” Betony asked “I think you would do a good job.”

“No no no no.” he said holding his hands up. “Not me. My costume sucks. I don’t want to get recognized.”

The girls laughed lightly as they gathered the junk.

“I mean seriously. Think about it. Sun Wolf you shape change and Betony you have that amulet. I have a bandana and this chain maile coif I bought online.” he smirked “I couldn’t face my friends or family if they learned about this. It would be soo embarrassing to admit that I attack guys in spandex with a magic sword. Can you picture thanksgiving dinner? “

Poorly imitating an old woman’s voice he went on “So dear I have been reading about these “makes finger quotes with hands “ ‘alternative lifestyles’ on the internet. Do you belong to one? I was talking to Muriel at my bridge club and she said her nephew joined one then went and built a robot in his garage and started wearing spandex. Are you planning on doing that? Or does a sword mean something different? Why can’t you find a normal job and a nice girl? Not all those hussies in skintight spandex and odd colored hair that we seem to see you with all the time on the news. Your mother and I worry about you.”

“Or maybe even worse, if they accept it” he said before he went on in the old woman’s voice “the Hendersons down the street lawn is terrible. I think they might be supervillans. Can you get a bunch of your friends to kick their door down? I’m moving next week, can you get that speedy girl and that 4 armed guy to move furniture?”

The girls are almost dying with laughter at this point.

Grande on the other hand was right in the middle of his interview when he heard the loud laughter erupt behind him from the girls. He glanced over his shoulder, frowned and turned back to the microphones.

“Sorry ‘bout that, they were probably relieving stress. Can you repeat your question?”

The asian woman in the expensive plumb colored suit and perfect hair spoke into the microphone “Does your team have a formal name yet?” and pointed it back toward Grande.

“No not yet. That eis the one beig argument that we seem to have every few days. I theink that sometheing like Grande’s Guardsmen would be pretty cool. But they say no.” He shrugs “Oh well. You can’t have a good name like the Emerald City Defenders without a beit of thought.”

They both chuckled at that.

“I, I mean we, respect that group and what they can do. But we are not them. We need something just as good.”

Off to his left a large grey and maroon armored vehicle with MCTF in big black letters on the side rumbled over to the fallen villains and stopped with a hiss of air from the brakes on its six large tractor sized wheels. A ramp folded down with the sound of strong industrial motors.

“Well that’s my queue. Eit was nice talking to you Susan, but duty calls.”

“Thanks for the chat Grande” Turning back to the camera. “This is Susan Kim Chanel Six Action News. Back to you in the studio.”

Episode 1.4

2011-07-21T05:56:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile the Crusader and Betony were in the thick of it. Abominatron was short one fist and thanks to a lucky hit on a knee by The Crusader, had a crippled leg. It’s tesla coils flickered inermittantly discharging randomly. The Electrocutioner on the other hand was livid. The electro-whips he kept forming and flaying at Betony repeatedly missed and struck everything other than the flying girl that he was aiming at.

He snarled at her as an electro-whip arced through a spot she was in moments before “Stop all your fluttering about and hold still witch!”

“I’m not a witch I am a druidess!” she said dodging and shooting off a purple and green beam at him in return “Witches are, like, evil, Druids aren’t! I’m sick of people saying that. And hello?! I’m wearing white and gold.” Gesturing to her white flowing gown, golden necklace and belt with a hand.

His only reply is another electro-lash in her direction.

“Crusader, how are you doing over there?” Betony calls over her shoulder as she hears a crash and rending metal behind her.

“Getting tired,” he pants “I had no idea I was this out of shape. I need to join a gym or something. And Abominatron isn’t slowing down much. I hope Grande and Sun Wolf get back soon.”

At that moment the two tired combatants hear a loud heavily accented voice “Deid I hear someone say my name? Grande to the rescue!”

Caught off guard the Electrocutioner starts to turn toward the returning heroes when he is blindsided by a from behind tackle. Electricity crackles down his arms illuminating his lightning tattoos and shoots from his body in a miniature electrical storm. Yelling at the top of his lungs he tries to get free, lightning strikes Grande several times but it hardly seems to phase himand only making smoldering spots on his pants and mask as he goes for a sleeper hold on the suprised villan.

“Betony! Sleep spell heim. Just heim!”

The almost equally surprised druidess chants a moment and a pale green roiling mist surrounds the electrocutioner’s head. He struggles for a moment or two the lightning eminating from him getting more fierce and then slumps over, out cold.

“Awoooooooooo!” A wolfs howl cut through the air as a golden furred form flew down from the sky to land with a 2 footed kick to the Victorian menace’s torso. Abominatron staggered back and nearly collapsed as it’s damage leg buckled and sparked.

“Nice hit Sunwolf!”

“Thanks Crusader! I’m going to try to grab it’s arm.” She said acrobaticly dodging around a weak pulse of energy from the flickering teslas. “And..”

“And I’ll wack it a good one!”

A swift flurry of ducking, dodging and attacking later Sun Wolf managed to get onto the smooth bronze and steel carapace of the robot and lever it’s functioning arm back. The Crusader charged in, his attack seemingly guided more by his sword than his personal skill. The gleaming blade glowed with a faint blue light as it seemed to effortlessly cleave the steam powered arm from it’s socket.

More sparks shot out of the malfunctioning teslas as the enormous robot shuddered and clanged for a few moments, random gears cogs and wires falling from the arm socket, before it slumped over and halted movement.

It’s speaker played what sounded like music from a carousel that was slowly losing power. The notes getting longer and drawn out. “Notoothinnng caaann stooopp meee….” Abominatrons voice faded out over the top of those sounds before it could say any more.

The whole team cheered, fist pumped and highfived as their final opponent was downed.

“Yeah we did it!” Whoohoo!” “Allright!” “Ole!”

It was about then that Crusader noticed the news crews from the local news.

*cough*”Cameras!”*cough*

The others quickly looked about and saw more than 1 news team as well as local PD. Almost instantly they became more professional. Grande immediately began barking orders.

“Crusader. secure Electrocutioner. The taskforce from Granite Island weill hopefully be here soon to get heim. We don’t want him getting away like Psiren deid.”

Crusader muttered under his breath as he walked over to the prone villain. “It was one time, and he never lets me live it down. She fooled everybody , not just me. But does he remember that? Noooooo.”

“Sun Wolf gather the junk from Abominatron. Betony, do ummm something I am gonna go talk to the News.”

Betony smirked a bit. “You go ahead and do that Grande, I will be right back here.”

Episode 1.3

2011-07-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

Natasha bound down the street at top speed, the blond hair on her head and body streaming out behind her. She was in such a rush that she sometimes used her arms to propel herself forward faster occasionally dropping to all fours. She bounded off of whatever gave the most traction, walls, streetlights and even the occasional car to hurry to the pile of twisted metal that now housed Grande. Her worry and concern for Grande made her push herself harder. The breeze of her passing caused her nose to twitch as it picked up the scent of some of her singed fur from one of the near misses by the Electrocutioner.

“Uggh, I hate the smell of burnt hair. Even more with this nose.”

Even then as she ran down the street her burns and singed fur healed and grew back to normal.

The body in the mangled pile of cars lay there unmoving, but not from lack of trying. Grande struggled futilely at the metal pinning him in place. Anyone else would be in extreme pain or life threatening danger, but not Grande, he was just mad. “Estúpido robot. He’s not allowed to have electricity too, jus punching. I need electricity gloves or something. Si, that would be cool. I wonder who I can get some from.” As he tries to struggle again, the knifelike edges of the twisted metal pieces press tighter against his legs.

*riiip*

“No,no,no,no. Not my last pair of hero pants. I’ll never match some new ones to the mask!”

The wolfwoman catapults herself off of a lamp post lands next to the junked cars with a heavy thump. She hears swearing in Spanish coming from within and sighs in relief. With a grunt of exertions she begins bending back some of the metal, glass and plastic to free her trapped comrade. “Hold on Grande I am coming.” Her voice a surprisingly feminine growl.

“Tasha? Help me out of theis mess. I need to show that Estúpido robot who is boss. He has to learn that you can’t zap Grande into a few cars and get away with eit.”

With grunts of exertion she works closer, chunks of metal and other debris clatter to the ground all around her. “Carlos why do you go after the big ones? You are only invulnerable. Not super strong. One of these times you are going to be knocked so far and buried so deep we will have to call Molareon to help dig you out.”

“It’s a machismo thing. A chica like you wouldn’t understand. You’d better not call Molareon; I hate that mole guy heis eyes creep me out.” The sounds of more metal bending and rivets popping “Be careful with that stuff I already have some tears in my hero pants. I don’t want to be on TV in my briefs!”

More sounds of metal bending. “ I still can’t believe you call them hero pants. “

With a final heave Natasha the last barrier of metal parts and opens a wide enough gap to for Grande to get loose from his automotive iron maiden. He is greeted by a sloppy werewolf tongue across his mask. Grande sputters “Loca mujer loba now eis not the time for theis. We need to get back to the action.”

As they begin sprinting back to the brawl Grande looks over to Sun Wolf. “Do you know anywhere I can get electric gloves?”

Episode 1.2

2011-07-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

Grande smiled as The Crusader’s car pulled up

And quickly frowned as he saw him crumple from the impact of the wayward newspaper box.

He looked over up and to his right. “Betony!” he shouted at the attractive young blond-haired woman hovering nearby “The Crusader took a hit. Use your magic to help that Estúpido up, we need him!”

Betony gave a pained sigh the way only a 17 year old girl can when told something stupid and obvious. She fired off a bolt of purple energy at the huge 4 legged robot as she glided over to her prone companion, her long blond hair streaming out behind her. “This is, like, taking too long. I still have to study for my biology test.” She muttered as she came to rest on the ground her sandaled feet landing moments before her white flowing dress, next to the groggy hero.

Pulling out a curved dagger with a handle made of a pair of twined snakes and taking a pinch of herbs from a leather belt pouch she begins to chant in a language that was old when man first came to the British Isles. A pale purple cloud begins to form in front of her quickly enveloping The Crusader who begins to twitch and groggily sits up.

“Uggh, what hit me?” He glances up at the frowning blond druidess. “Oh.. Thanks B. Wait isn’t it a Thursday? Didn’t you say something last week about you having cheer practice and a math test tomorrow?”

“Duh” her valley girl tones frustrated “but it is, like, biology and stuff. But robojerk and electrojerk decided to hit the bank. And Grande Morono thought it would be a good idea for us to try to stop them before they did too much damage. But with him crashing into things..”

The 2 of them looked toward the melee in the center of downtown Seattle that was erupting in front of the US Bank. A vaguely victorian 4 legged brass and steel crab centaur robot was using pneumatic fists was trying to pummel a short shirtless dark skinned man in a bright red and white luchadore mask with matching pants that were a bit too tight. Who appeared to be cursing in Spanish. Every time it struck, knocking divots into the city street, a cloud of steam bellowed from the pipes on the back of its shell and shoulders. It was a wheezing clanking bubbling loud mechanical monstrosity.

In another part of the melee a tall blond bipedal female wolf in what looked like a leather bikini bounded off of buildings, light poles and parked cars at a laughing man in an executioners hood with a glowing axe made out of yellow electricity. His rippling arms stuck out of hit loose sleeveless shirt and had tattoos of lightning bolts all down them.

“B, who are those 2?”

Looking at her smartphone Betony did a quick internet search.

“The guy with the axe is the Electrocutioner. He shoots lightning and can make weapons and whips out of energy. He is normal though. And like, a total nut job.”

She scans again. “And that big dork is Abominatron the Steam powered Terror. Seriously. That is, like totally, its name. It is pretty much what it looks like a tough huge robot that punches and shocks things.”

They looked at each other. “Shocks things?”

At that moment a dozen Tesla coils sprouted from its arms and back and began to hum, rising in pitch quickly. A bright blue arc of electricity shoots out of its clenched fists slamming into Grande throwing him 4 or 5 blocks and through several parked cars.

“And so fall all who oppose the might of Abominatron the Steam Powered Terror!” A harsh artificial voice proclaims from a brass grilled speaker mounted in the creatures armored chest.

“Ca … Grande!” A concerned cry escapes from the blond wolfwoman who turns and bolts toward the downed luchadore.

“And we lost Tasha.” The Crusader drew his sword and looked toward the robot “Looks like it is my turn at bat.”

“And it looks like I’ll hold off the electrojerk till they get back.”

Episode 1.1

2011-07-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

*bing bong*

*knock, knock, knock*

More insistent, *Knock, Knock, Knock*

An older woman’s voice comes distantly through the old wooden door. “I’m coming, I’m coming.” A brief while later she speaks again through the door “Who is it?”

“Poppy’s Pizza delivery ma’am. You placed an order.” He checks the receipt “A large extra cheese with pepperoni and mushrooms.”

“Oh you were so fast! I don’t have my money ready. Give me just a moment to go get it.”

He fakes a smile. “Under 30 minutes or it’s free. I’ll be right here waiting for you.”

Standing in the late afternoon sun on the front porch the delivery driver begins to fidget playing with the zipper on his black and blue armored motorcycle jacket. Tugging on the black bandana around his neck. Readjusting the bright red mesh baseball cap with the Poppy’s pizza logo on it, a pizza with a slice out of it wearing a chef’s hat. Trying to polish the scuffs out of his over buckled boots on his blue jeans.

Off in the distance from the direction of downtown the sounds of an explosion rumble momentarily startling the singing birds into silence. The driver glances back over his shoulder in that direction, becoming more impatient.

He mutters under his breath as another rumbling sounds,” Come on, come on.”

The front door cracks open revealing the little old lady standing there with her purse.

“How much was it sweetie?”

“Twelve eighty two with tax and delivery fee.” Holding out the receipt.

She cracks open her purse digs around and pulls out her wallet. Each motion taken with the infinite care of the elderly. She pulls out 12 dollars. “I have exact change in here, just let me find it.”

The explosions and rumblings are now joined by crashes. All of which seem to be increasing in pace and ferocity.

“50, 55, ooh a dime, 65, 68. Oh dear I don’t seem to have any more change.” She reaches back into her wallet and pulls out an additional 1 dollar bill. “Here you go young man. Keep the change.”

“Thankyouverymuchma’amhaveaniceday.”

Money in hand he bolts for his car, chucks the hat and the warming bag onto the back seat and floors his third hand ford focus toward downtown.

5 minutes, 2 run red lights and a near miss with a taxicab later The Crusader got out of his beat up silver Focus. He adjusted the bandana over his lower face, tugged the chainmail coif into place and checked the seating of his enchanted sword in its belted scabbard.

He looked out over the street where his teammates were fighting, bolts of electricity, magic and the occasional chunk of concrete flying through the air.

The Crusader spoke “It’s time to get..” just as he was knocked down by a flying newspaper box.

Start Here

2011-07-11T10:04:00.000-07:00

The B and C list heroes. The other guys. The ones not quite good enough for their own endorsement deal.

You know them. The guy who can run pretty fast. The girl who can talk to fish, but not breathe underwater. The stretchy guy, there is always a stretchy guy.

These stories are about them.

Well maybe not these guys exactly, but pretty close.