HCC: HCC#31 Results

[EDMLite]

     Building Suspenders Lad stared at the envelope in his
hands.

     Why?  he thought.  Why me?  And why now?

     Why had he, of all the members of the Oddball Legion,
been chosen to deliver the news of the winner of the latest
High Concept Challenge, whatever that was?

     Why not another member of the Legion -- Penultimate
Ninja, or Particleboard Man, or Good-Timing Girl, or even
So-Lame-Not-Even-Saxon-Brenton-Would-Create-A-Parody-
Alternate-Version-of-Him-for-a-Throaway-Gag Lad?

Why the Oddball Legion at all?

Why?  Why?

     And yet, Building Suspenders Lad thought, perhaps it
made sense after all.  Perhaps someone had remembered his
glory days -- when he had prevented the collapse of the
Golden Goat Bridge with an enormous pair of flexible
rainbow suspenders?

     Or the time he had ended the cosmic threat of the
Peanut Bryttle Brothers by placing both of them in
suspendered animation?

     Or how his piano-key suspenders had saved humanity
by allowing Pants-Rabid Lad to keep his pants in place?

     Yes, he thought.  Whoever had chosen him for this
task had done so because they expected something grand.
Something epic in scale and scope.  Something...

     ...bracing.

     "Oh, get on with it," sighed LARPing Girl, who had
-- as usual -- escaped his notice, clad as she was in
faux Renaissance garb.  "Just read the damn letter!"

     No sense of occasion, Building Suspenders Lad thought,
his dignity mussed.  Nevertheless, he opened the envelope...

    ...and reeled in shock.

    The winner of High Concept Challenge #31, "Big Monster
Battle!" was...

    ...was...

    "Oh, for the love of Pete," LARPing Girl snapped.
"It's Coherent Super Stories #29, by Dave Van Domelen."


     --Rob Rogers
     --Better late than never
     --And this is mighty late