[MISC] An Abecedary of Villainy #4

[Jamie Rosen]

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PqR          An
sTu           Abecedary
VwX                   of
yZA                    Villainy
bCdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYzaBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ vol 1, #4
"Dr. Vista"

Don't be surprised if one day you see Alexa Harnmouth being hailed as a
hero in your history books. For the difference between hero and villain
is all to often just a matter of perception.

***

Her vision soared and the worlds pread out below her like a lover in
all her beauty. She knew now some semblance of the exhileration that
must be felt by those men and women who could fly, but she couldn't kid
herself into believing it was the same -- no matter where her senses
took her, her body remained bound to the Earth by gravity.

With conscious effort, she snapped her vision back into her body and
blinked into renewed awareness of her surroundings. Outside her office,
the science centre was dark, lit only by the security lights mandated
to be on at two-thirty in the morning. No one was around; even the
guards were likely asleep at their posts.

She closed her eyes again and pushed her senses out further still --
further than they had ever been, until they broke out past the fragile
shell surrounding the Earth and into the cold vacuum of space, and then
even farther, searching for something she could not quite name. And
there it was, on the outskirts of the Oort and headed Earthward at a
steady pace: a ship.

Extrapolating backwards, she followed the path they had taken to this
point, her vision moving at the speed of thought, and found their
devastated homeworld. She swooped in for a closer look; no, this world
was much too primitive to have built that ship. Curious, she spread
herself out in all directions at once, her vision blurry as she took in
as much as possible, thinking she had miscalculated their trajectory.

What she saw was horrible, for they had cut a swathe through this part
of the galaxy, leaving only devastation and extinction in their wake.
She pulled herself frantically backward and tried to calculate their
time to Earth. It was not long at all.

Back in her body, she realized what she had to do. The Earth had many
men and women who could caome to its aid, but they were too spread out,
too fractious, too given to fighting amongst themselves to present a
unified front against the invaders. They would need to be galvanized
ahead of time, united and prepared for battle. She knew from news
reports that they did not take well to taking orders, but that was not
the only option. If they were already united against a common foe when
the invasion came, perhaps the Earth might stand a chance.

For that, she'd need a costume

FIN

Author's Note: I don't know. I'm not entirely satisfied with this, or
any, of the stories so far. But that's not the point. The point is to
get me writing again, because after doing a story a week for months on
end, I stopped writing at the beginning of October and didn't start
again until the New Year. I need to keep my hand in, and this is a
pretty good way to do it for now.

Let me know if the formatting is pants. I don't entirely trust Google
Groups' posting abilities.

[c]Copyright 2005 Jamie Rosen, all rights reserved, right under your
nose