[LNH2] Generation Zed, the New Class #4

[Martin Phipps]

                                      Generation Zed, the New Class #4

                                                New Genesis, Part II

2019.  The future.  C.bu.

  "N, Nimbo, Intuition Girl," Deja Dude said.  "Welcome to your new 
headquarters."
  "Um... it's a house," Nimbo said.
  "Yes, it's my house," Deja Dude said proudly.
  "It's a dump," N proclaimed.
  "Excuse me!" Deja Dude said, somewhat annoyed.
  "I suspect there is more here than meets the eye," Intuition Girl said.
  "Indeed!" Deja Dude said.
  "So will the three of us be sharing a room or what?" N asked.
  "Why don't you just come in and see?" Deja Dude suggested.
  Deja Dude opened the gate and they walked through.  N wasn't impressed.  
Deja Dude opened the front door and they walked through.  N wasn't 
impressed.
  "It looks like an ordinary home," N observed.  "Sofa, TV, stereo, kitchen 
--"
  "Go open the back door," Deja Dude suggested.
  "Alright."  N walked to the back of the room and grabbed the handle on the 
door.  She expected the door to swing open but then realised that the door 
was designed to slide open instead.  With her neta.human strength, she was 
worried about breaking the door so she slowly and gently slid the door open 
to reveal what was on the other side.
  "Oh... my...!"
  "Impressed?" Deja Dude said with a laugh.
  Beyond the door was a huge complex with supercomputers, holographic 
screens, transmat tubes and hallways leading to doors leading to other 
rooms, some for accomodation, some for training, some for pure relaxation 
and some for entertainment.
  "How is this possible?" N asked.  She looked up and noticed that the 
ceiling on the other side of the door was about 20 feet high.  To the right 
and left she saw hallways that seemed to go on for miles.  How could it be 
that she hadn't noticed all this from outside?
  "I had Kid Kirby over to make a few modifications," Deja Dude explained.  
"All the equipment was brought in via BOOM tubes, seeing as how none of it 
could fit through the front door of the house, let alone dragged through my 
living room and squeezed through this door here.  It was a bit noisy for a 
while but it was worth it."
  "Yeah, we timed it so that most of the work was done on New Year's eve so 
none of the neighbours complained about the noise," Deja Dude's son, 
Michael, also known as Deja Dude II told them.  He and his "cousin", Damien 
Bodharamik, had come down stairs just then, right on cue.
  "Yeah, all the neighbours were setting off fireworks and-- sorry.  I'm 
Damien.  Damien Bodharamik."  He went to shake hands with his new teammates.
  "Yes, I remember you," N said.  "You and Lagneto rescued us from the 
Net.tel factory where we were being kept as child labour [In Lagneto 2016 #2 
--Footnote Woman]."  Nimbo placed her hands together, performed a 
traditional Thai bow and said something in Thai.  "English, please," N said. 
  "This is not Thai.lan."
  "Nonsense!" Deja Dude said.  "While I would appreciate knowing anything 
that pertained to the rest of us, that doesn't mean that the three of you 
can't talk amongst yourselves in your native language."
  "So Damien is also from Thai.lan?" Intuition Girl asked.
  "So he is," Deja Dude said.  "But, in a way, you and him are like 
cousins."
  "How so?"
  "Well, your father, Philip Martin..."  Deja Dude hesitated.  "Surey you 
noticed..."
  "That you and my dad look alike?  Yes.  I figured it was because my mom 
had very specific taste in men."
  "Well, actually, it was because..."  Deja Dude was trying to come up with 
any easy explanation and couldn't.  He was waiting for Intuition Girl's 
power to fill in the gaps for him.  "You do know about the fictional nature 
of the Looniverse, don't you?"
  "Of course," Intuition Girl said.
  "Because your mom, she didn't.  Even though she lived with me in LNH HQ 
for months, she never caught on to what was going on around her.  Let me put 
it this way: if she had joined the LNH then her code name could have been 
'Complete-and-Utter-Lack-of-Ituition Girl'."
  "That's not a very nice thing to say," Intuition Girl said.
  "But true," Deja Dude said, "and that's how I wanted things to be: I 
didn't want her to know that she was a fictional character that I made up 
for... um... Let's just say that I wanted her love for me to seem as real as 
possible."
  "Dad!  You mean you and her mom...?!"
  "Yes, but that was before I met your mother," Deja Dude quickly pointed 
out.  "And, no, I am not your real father!" Deja Dude said, half jokingly.
  "What a relief!" Intuition Girl wryly.
  "Yes, well, anyway, I started to feel guilty about using her that way.  I 
mean, she started to seem like a real person to me and, well, you just can't 
keep secrets from a person under those circumstances.  It just isn't right.  
When she found out what I had done, she broke it off with me [In the now 
classic LNH #81 --Footnote Woman].  Your father, Philip Martin, was then 
brought in to make everything alright in the end."
  "My God!" Intuition Girl realised.  "You created my father so that my 
mother wouldn't feel lonely!"
  "Not exactly.  He was actually originally conceived as a joke about colour 
blindness.  You know, he was a would be net.hero with the ability to 
perceive red and green as the same colour.  Heh.  But with you mother 
breaking up with me, yeah, it seemed like a good idea to bring them 
together."
  "And then you wouldn't feel jealous about her being with another man--"
  "Because, in a sense, Philip Martin was still me, yes."  Deja Dude sighed. 
  "Likewise, Damien's father, Psykeye, was also me, an evil twisted version 
of myself but still essentially me.  So, in a sense, you three are all 
siblings, one Filipino, one Thai, one Taiwanese."
  "Except that I am _not_ Taiwanese.  I'm Asian Ame.rec.an!" Intuition Girl 
insisted.
  "My apologies!" Deja Dude said quickly.  "Anyway, I hope you don't change 
your mind about joining LNH Asia now that I've told you all this."
  Intuition Girl thought for a moment.  "Well, I did suspect a lot of this 
already.  I mean, I knew about you and mom and she did tell me why you broke 
up.  I did think it was a bit odd that she met my dad so soon after breaking 
up with you but I guess it makes sense now."  She looked at Michael and 
Damien and sighed.  "I guess that makes us family then."
  "I'm glad you feel that way," Deja Dude said.
  "Ah, yes, but I am _supposed_ to feel this way, aren't I?" Intution Girl 
said.
  "So are the six of us going to be LNH Asia?" Nimbo asked.
  "No," Deja Dude said, "there's one more member coming."  He looked at his 
watch.  "He's late."
  "Maybe he wanted to wait until it got dark," Michael suggested.
  "Maybe," Deja Dude said, typing a number into his cellphone.  "I can't 
reach him on his cell phone so I can only assume he's already left Japa.net 
and is on his way here."
  "He's from Japa.net?" Intuition Girl asked.
  "Yes, that's right," Deja Dude.  "Or, rather, he is Asian Ame.rec.an like 
yourself but has chosen to serve as the net.ional net.hero of Japa.net."
  Just then, Deja Dude's cell phone rang.  "Just a moment," he said.  
"You're here?  Alright.  We'll go outside."  Deja Dude closed his cell phone 
and nodded at his son.  "You were right.  He wanted to make a big entrance."
  "Who?" Intuition Girl asked impatiently.
  "Moonfire," Deja Dude told her.  "He is the son of Sailor Coon and Tuxedo 
Mongoose."
  "So what is he?" she asked.  "Some kind of flying rodent?"
  "No, he didn't inherit either of his parent's shape shifting abilities: 
frankly, I didn't want to go the funny animal route in my next series."
  "So what can he do?"
  "Fly.  Glow a silvery white.  And... well, look, he'll be here any minute. 
  Let's go outside and see."
  The six of them gathered in the front yard and looked up at the sky.  They 
saw nothing at first and then noticed something that looked like either a 
falling star or a bright comet.  They saw this heavenly body appear to get 
larger and larger.  Indeed, it was coming closer and closer, for it was not 
a meteorite or a comet but, rather, a young man of mixed race, much like 
Michael, Damien and Stephanie, three of his future teammates.  His costume 
was all white and resembled ninja garb, except for his mask which was a 
cresent moon shape that covered only half of his face.  He reminded 
Stephanie (AKA Intuition Girl) of the Phantom of the Opera, except that she 
suspected that the left side of his face was as handsome as the right.
  "I approve," she said softly to herself.
  "I knew you would," Deja Dude said even more softly so that nobody else 
but him would hear.
  Moonfire landed in the front yard and stood there amongst them.  "I am 
Shiro Armstrong!  I am Moonfire!"
  "And I am impressed!" Intuition Girl said quite sincerely.  Just then, 
Deja Dude found that Intuition Girl reminded him of her mother but he let 
that thought go before -- damn! -- it got mentioned in the narration.  He 
knew he'd be in trouble if his wife read this story now.
  "Say," Deja Dude said quickly.  "My wife is frying noodles for dinner.  
For all of us.  It'll be ready soon.  Let's all go back in and gather around 
the kitchen table!"
  Deja Dude was excited about his new teammates all having dinner together 
for the first time.  He hoped that this new group would be not just a team 
of net.heroes: he hoped that they could be a family.  His wife had always 
wanted a large family and this team would be the next best thing... and if 
they could do anything to save the world, or at the very least their half of 
it, then that would be good too.

NEXT: LNH Asia goes into action in LNH Asia 2020 #1!

BUT FIRST!

Meet the new LNH Europe in LNH Europe 2020 #1!

COMING SOON!

Credits

N, Nimbo, Stephanie Martin / Intuition Girl, Deja Dude, Michael Narona / 
Deja Dude II, Damien Bodharamik, Psykeye, Philip Martin / the Colour Blind 
Kid, Moonfire, Sailor Coon, Tuxedo Mongoose, Imelda and Julie Lee are all 
mine.  Wow.

Kid Kirby was created by Jameel Al Khavitz
Lagneto was created by Jef Kolodziej
Footnote Woman is the LNH2 version of Footnote Girl by Saxon Brenton.  My 
apologies for not having mentioned this before.

Martin... thinks this issue turned out ok :)

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