LNH: Classic LNH Adventures #73: Birth Of A Villain Part Thirteen

Arthur Spitzer arspitzer2 at gmail.com
Sun Aug 12 13:28:16 PDT 2018


In this weeks reposting of stuff you can find in the eyrie archive
https://archives.eyrie.org/racc/lnh/
we have the thirteenth section of a Birth Of A Villain.

And joining the Birth of a Villain cascade for the first time
with #33 is John "uplink" Scheibeler who brings in his character
Opinionated Lad to express the opinion that maybe there are too
many Birth of a Villain issues.  Just Maybe.

And with #34 Saxon Brenton comes back with a brand spanking
new Time Crapper.  But who is this Time Crapper?  Don't worry.
This is Saxon Brenton issue and he'll not only explain who this
Time Crapper is, but will also explain who the previous three Time
Crapper's were (or are (or will be?)).


And now..


              _						
             | |      Classic			
             | |                      =
             | |      ____    ____    _    ____    ___
             | |__   | [] |  | [] |  | |  | [] |  | _ \  

             |____|   \__]    \__ |  |_|   \__/   |_|\_\
                                 ||
                                |_|  OF NET.HEROES

                                     ADVENTURES #73


                         =====================
                    Birth Of A Villain Part Thirteen
                         =====================




Date: 10 Apr 2001 07:34:46 -0000
From: "uplink" <uplink989 at hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.creative
Subject: [LNH] Birth of a Villain, part... too many.

Okay, what has gone before:

I have no idea, I wasn't reading the newsgroup.

Now:

    Opinionated Lad kicked back in the easy chair, finally comfortable in
his favorite place to sit, overlooking the entire Looniverse.  Before him in
the huge, cavernous room, walls of monitors showed everything that was going
on.  And I mean EVERYTHING.  Even the stuff you thought no one knew about.
If Santa Claus saw this monitor wall, he'd weep for joy that finally there
was a device that would reveal who was nice, and who was naughty... and how
much the naughty ones charged.
    Next to him, a plain ordinary wooden table, supporting the weight of a
ceramic plate, an uneaten hero sandwich, an uneaten pickle, an undrunk can
of a soft drink which was Opinionated Lad's favorite drink, chilled, but the
writer has forgotten the name of, much to Opinionated Lad's eternal disgust,
and an opened bag of chips.  Net weight of the bag of chips 15 ounces, a big
bag.  Sour cream and jalapeno flavoured.
    Well, the table couldn't actually be called ordinary, because it
supported its burden without visible means of support.  No, this did not
mean the table floated above the floor, sans legs, in fact the small table
had legs, four of them, quite sturdy ones.  It was the floor that was
missing.  Opinionated Lad, the overstuffed easy chair, and the table all
hung in space, as if the force of gravity had tried to impress upon
Opinionated Lad that no matter what his Opinion was, gravity would always
win, and the Opinionated One merely Opined that gravity was wrong.
    Which is exactly what had happened.
    The monitors, as stated before, showed him everything there was to see
operating in all the Looniverse.  Past, present, alternate futures,
everything was available for Opinionated Lad to become aware of.  With
these, Opinionated Lad could surpass even the Voyeur as the man who knew
everything about the Looniverse.  Unfortunately, Opinionated Lad only ever
used the monitor wall for one reason.
    To watch porn.

    Ralph walked in.  For those of you who don't know Ralph, too bad.  I'm
not going to explain who he is and why he's here.  It would take far too
long.  It is in fact a great and fascinating story, that is, Ralph's story,
of how he got to be where he is, and if I told it to you, I'm sure you would
read all 2,781 parts, and then, having read the entire tale from beginning
to end, sit, and weep, the single tear rolling from your eye signifying that
you have read one of the Great Works, one of the few stories that will last
forever though the ages, a classic tale destined to greatness.  But I'm not
going to tell it to you, because I'm a bastard.
    "Hey, Oh-El, what's up?"  Ralph raised his hand to Opinionated Lad, who
floated a few inches above the floor in front of him.  (I never said how far
up he was.)  "Watching porn again, eh?"  Ralph chuckled.  As the man who --
oh, no, I'm not going to tell YOU what he does -- Ralph was familiar with
Opinionated Lad's habits.  Having been in the facility that housed the
Monitor Wall since before Opinionated Lad came here, Ralph had had ample
time to become used to the new owner's quirks and fetishes.  Although Ralph
was a bit disappointed that Opinionated Lad didn't like whips and ... er,
yeah.
    If the Opinionator noticed Ralph's approach, he didn't make any outward
sign.  Well, actually, he did make an outward sign.  And yes, I guess he did
notice Ralph's approach, since he made an outward sign.  "Ralph, good,
you're here.  Look in the other monitors and tell me what's going on in the
Looniverse.  Am I needed?  Is the power of Opinionated Lad needed once
more?"
    Ralph looked up.  As one of the rare individuals who could -- ah,
thought you could trick me, did you?  I'm certainly not going to tell YOU
what Ralph can do -- Ralph related what he saw on the various screens to
Opinionated Lad.  "A group of LNH'ers are stuck in 1984.  A horde of strange
girls or bugs or clones or viruses are threatening them.  New writers have
no clue what's going on.  And apparently someone's registering old LNH
writers.  The activity of Usenet is dying, and AOL's share has gone up five
points since lunchtime.  It's 72 degrees in Vienna, and you haven't touched
your lunch."
    "Same old same old, then?"
    "Yup, sure looks like it."
    Opinionated Lad nodded.  "Good, because they're showing a Jenna Jameson
marathon in ten minutes, and I don't want to miss it."

    With that, Ralph nodded, and walked out of the cavernous room.

    There was a point to this scene, but it was on the top of Ralph's head,
and he's left the room.

ANNOUNCER: WILL --

Opinionated Lad:  SHUT THE HECK UP!  My marathon's starting!!

ANNOUNCER: Sorry.


uplink
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1 pr. mismatched leather gloves: $50
White Ford Bronco: $25,000
Johnny Cochrane's fees: $1 million
Killing your wife and her lover and getting away with it: Priceless
There are some things money can't buy.  For everything else...

From: Saxon Brenton <saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au>
Subject: [LNH] Birth Of A Villain #34
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.creative,alt.comics.lnh
Date: 11 Apr 2001 23:24:11 -0000

Having tried the use the handbrake, only to have it break off, 
Blue Light Productions careens out of control into:

Birth Of A Villain #34
a chaotic add-on cascade type Legion of Net.Heroes title

"Indulgent Exposition And Plot Development"

Written by Saxon Brenton with plotting conspiracy^H^H^H assistance 
from Rob Rogers

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Cover has a ground level image of highway sign saying 'Welcome To 
Sig.ago'. Behind the sign the skyscrapers of the city can be seen 
faintly, as if obscured by smog or an impenetrable force field.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

     Fourth Wall Lass rolled over, stretched, and yawned.
     "Here," somebody said, handing her a bottle of Mr Paprika. "This 
should help stave off the effects of Legionnaire's Disease."
     "Oh? I thought it was just lack of sleep..." murmured FWLass 
blearily and took a sip.
     "Your exhaustion acted as an inroad for the coma effects of the 
Disease. The Mr Paprika increases serotonin levels to stave it off." 
[As was noted in _Birth Of A Villain_ #26 - Footnote Girl] "You'd 
need to be a serious addict... I mean, consumer... to build up an 
innate tolerance from a soft drink though, so you'll need to keep 
drinking the stuff. You can ask Tsar Chasm or Gorilla Grad for the 
exact mechanics of it if you want."
     "Ah, okay," she said, taking a second sip. And then did a 
spittake as she saw who she was talking to. "The Time Crapper!"
     "Careful. You'll spill your drink."
     "What are you doing here!?"
     "A number of things. At the moment I'm getting you awake enough 
to join the others at the LNHHQ. Here. You'll need to give Gorilla 
Grad this sample of the Potion of Commotion," the Crapper said, 
handing her another bottle, this one marked in the italics lettering 
of psuedo-olde worlde writing saying: 'Thee Potion Off Commotion'. 
"Unfortunately he still thinks that Vector's powers derive solely from 
the technology that was stolen from Dr Stomper. He'll need this if he 
wants to develop a cure."
     She glared at him. "Fine then. 'Ask as silly question'. *Why* 
are you doing this? Why do you want Gorilla Grad to find a cure?"
     The Crapper replied simply, "You need a cure if the Legion is 
to defeat the Church of the Fourth Wall, and especially wReamicus 
Maximus."
     "That's not an answer. What's in it for *you*? Revenge? wReamicus 
screwed up you plans during Retcon Hour, as I recall."
     "Actually, that was the Time Crappers 1 and 2. My reasons, if you 
really must know, are more primal. My existence will be threatened if 
wReamicus Maximus succeeds in his plans."
     This threw Fourth Wall Lass off balance for a second. "Is this 
some part of the convoluted origin thing that Tom Russell foisted on 
Useless Powers Lad when he learned that he was going to become you in 
his future?" [_Teenfactor_ #15-16 - Footnote Girl]
     "No. That was the third Time Crapper."
     "Third? But... Oh no... Brenton's finally gone and carried out 
his threat to have a Time Crapper analogue for each version of the 
Time Trapper that's been running around in DC's Legion comics ever 
since the first Jim Shooter written issues back in the Silver Age, 
hasn't he?" She hastily tried to remember the theory behind it all.
     The First Time Crapper was the villain GreenRingwraith who had 
been turned into the Crapper just as the anonymous villainous 
scientist had taken on the identity of the Trapper to escape into the 
future and hide behind his Iron Curtain of Time. The second Crapper 
was literally a mobile pile of excrement, paralleling the 1980s era 
Trapper who had been the cosmic embodiment of entropy, both without 
any human origin. More recently Useless Powers Lad had discovered it 
was his destiny to become the Crapper, and this matched up with the 
revelations in Zero Hour that Rokk Krinn - Cosmic Boy of the Legion 
of Super Heroes - would take on the mantle of the Trapper and be 
corrupted by it. "That means you're either the first-and-a-half 
Crapper," she said, "or the fourth one; the female one from the end 
of Zero Hour. The Glorith analogue... Oh no."
     The fourth Time Crapper pulled back her hood. "Surprise," she 
said.
     Yep, it was another one o' them thar pesky Melissa-clones.
     Fourth Wall Lass put her face in her hands and went, "No no no no 
no no no no no no."
     "Enough of this," said the Crapper briskly. "I have brought 
you here outside of time to give you a few hours sleep to recover 
from your exhaustion, and used my powers over time to accelerate 
your metabolism slightly to overcome the lagging effects of the 
Legionnaire's Disease. It will wear off shortly. I will send you to 
the LNHHQ were you will find Tsar Chasm and his team, and you will 
tell them about the full origin and nature of Vector's power and the 
elements that went into synthesising the Legionnaire's Disease."
     "Legionnaire's Disease is lag-related then?"
     "In part, yes of course. After all, it fills up the spaces 
within and between you - making you slow and sluggish."
     "I wonder if the Net.Elementalist's powers could be used to 
help," FWLass mused.
     "Possibly. It would help to ward off infection. The lagging is 
only the initial effect, though. Once the person has been lagged and 
falls asleep, it has a completely different effect. An effect on the 
mind. Now, go."
     And with that Fourth Wall Lass vanished from outside of time.

          =================================================

     "It's frustrating," said Gorilla Grad. "I know I memorised every 
bit of the information that the Acolyte revealed to me when I was 
being held captive." [In _Birth Of A Villain_ #9 - Footnote Girl] "But 
something seems to be missing."
     "Maybe he was holding out on you about something," suggested Lad.
     "That would seem to be the case," agreed the Simian Scientist. 
"But considering he thought me helpless, why would he bother?"
     "Probably because the Acolyte is wReamicus Maximus, and wReamicus 
Maximus loves chaos," offered Fourth Wall Lass, who had arrived a few 
seconds earlier and had heard the preceding utterances. "I think he 
goes out of his was to be deceptive and to reveal half-truths, and 
generally be twisted and unpredictable, just to keep in practice."
     Tsar Chasm raised an eyebrow behind his killer shades. "Well, 
hello Fourth Wall Lass. What brings you here? Your log note said you 
were heading off to help find the Lotion of Emotion."
     "I did, but I got captured by wReamicus. Now I've been yanked out 
of that and sent here by one of the Time Crappers to tell you that 
Vector's powers were developed from a combination of Stomper Tech and 
the Potion of Commotion, of which this," and she handed the bottle to 
Gorilla Grad, "is supposed to be a sample. She also said part of the 
effect of the Legionnaire's Disease is lag-based, but that's only the 
first stage."
     "I had deduced the lag effect," said Gorilla Grad as took the 
bottle over to the workbench of the lab for examination. "Vector's 
claim back in issue 3 that she and her numerous iterations would fill 
up the spaces within us turns out to have been more than a metaphor. 
The Legionnaire's Disease seems to create a form of 'information 
congestion' analogous to lag in the body's neural system, causing 
people to fall into a coma. I've theorised that the blocking powers of 
Writers Block Woman repel the congestion altogether. By comparison, 
Invisible-Intangible-Inaudible Lass seems to make the congestion pass 
through the bodies of the people she's protecting so that it doesn't 
affect them, essentially making them immune to the congestion even 
though the congestion is still permeating their material forms."
     Meanwhile, Tsar Chasm was frowning at something that FWLass had 
said. " 'She'?" he asked.
     "Long story. This Crapper was a Melissa-clone. She seems to think 
that unless we put a stop to wReamicus she'll be in danger. She didn't 
specify how. I'd hazard a guess that now that the Church of the Fourth 
Wall has split with wReamicus over summoning Dave Van Domelen into 
the Looniverse and re-allied itself with the Nodakommandos to try and 
summon David R. Henry instead, that she thinks wReamicus will try and 
disrupt the plans of everybody else and kill them out of revenge. 
Which isn't an unreasonable guess, I suppose."
     "*What*!?" exclaimed Tsar Chasm.
     "She said, the Time Crapper was a Melissa-clone," repeated Lad.
     "No! Not that! The Church of the Fourth Wall was working with 
wReamicus, and now it's working with the Nodakommandos?"
     "Yes," affirmed FWLass.
     *No honour among thieves, then,* commented IIILass.
     For a half second Fourth Wall Lass was looking at nothing in the 
air above their heads, then replied, "You're right, Invisible-
Intangible-Inaudible Lass. There isn't. The Church of the Fourth Wall 
was being silly to have tried to work with wReamicus' Church of 
Dvandom."
     *You can hear me?*
     Again a fraction of a second of staring into space. "No. And I 
can't see you either. But I can read the captions and thought 
balloons, so I know you're here."
     *Ah.*
     Tsar Chasm, meanwhile, had brought up an image on the monitors. 
"Look. This is a satellite photo of Sig.ago, which has been sealed off 
since the Church's gambit began."
     They all stared in amazement. Lad whistled. It wasn't just a shot 
of Sig.ago, however, but of northern Illa.net. The city and a large 
chunk of the surrounding state and adjacent Lake Mi.sig.an was sealed 
off inside the shimmering of an absolutely sodding enormous force 
field dome.
     "Heap big juju," said Authorial.
     "I'll say," said Fourth Wall Lass. "That sort of thing would go a 
long way towards explaining why wReamicus said he was so short of 
readily available resources. That thing would be, what, a hundred 
miles across?"
     "Just over one fifty, actually," said Tsar Chasm. It's about 
ninety miles from Sig.ago to the Dvandom Force base, and the dome is 
centred between them to totally cover them both. What I want to check 
is... Yes. It looks like the security cordon around that dome has 
largely been abandoned - and recently."
     "Well, except for that giant dragon encircling the city and 
making like Ouroboros with its tail in its mouth," Narcoleptic Lad 
pointed out.
     *It's got red hair. Three guesses where it came from.*
     "IIILass thinks it's another Melissa-clone," Fourth Wall Lass 
informed them.
     "That wouldn't surprise me," said Tsar Chasm. "It certainly 
wasn't there earlier."
     "So, what, the Church of the Fourth Wall was chased away by the 
dragon?" asked Lad. "Or they went because they're not in cahoots with 
wReamicus and his Church of Dvandom?
     "A good question," said Tsar Chasm. "The answer would rest on why 
they sealed of Sig.ago in the first place. It hasn't just been sealed 
off by that dome. Look at these readings on the 'white noise' that are 
the indicators of Legionnaire's Disease. There's more than twice the 
intensity of the Disease in there than there is in Net.ropolis. For 
some reason, they went for overkill in trying to make sure that the 
long-winded city stayed out of touch with the rest of the world."
     "I overheard wReamicus tell Father Brown that he was trying to 
lure as many LNHers as possible into this storyline," offered Gorilla 
Grad as he continued his work. "But he also said that he didn't want 
Dvandom Force becoming involved under any circumstances." [Also back 
in _Birth Of A Villain_ #9 - Footnote Girl]
     *Well, he does worship Dvandom,* said IIILass. *Maybe he holds 
Dvandom's characters in such high regard that he doesn't want the hurt 
in the cross fire,* she suggested. Fourth Wall Lass duly relayed this 
on to the others.
     "He said it was vital to his plan," Gorilla Grad disagreed.
     "If he's summoning Dvandom, maybe he needs them as focuses for 
the process, or batteries for it, or something," suggested Lad. "You 
know, then he'd put them out of action and collect them later as his 
plan firms up."
     "No, that's silly," countered Authorial. "The bad guys have been 
trying desperately to keep us heroes all under control ever since 
Vector made her first move. It hasn't worked. If they had needed 
Dvandom Force for something as important as the main element of their 
plot, then they would have collected them right from the start, rather 
than wasting time and giving us the rest of us the opportunity to 
throw spanners in their works. They want Dvandom Force out of the way 
because for some reason they're *scared* that they'll get involved."
     "I'm inclined to agree," mused Tsar Chasm. "But then, why are 
they scared?"
     "Hey, Dvandom Force are a pretty tough bunch. They've taken on 
Master Workload and DeFacto V," Narcoleptic Lad said.
     "Yes, but the rest of the Legion has it's power houses too. And 
to be blunt, the enemies you face don't really factor into it, since 
Writers are almost always partisan and any group can be made to 
triumph over almost any odds if the Writer can think up an even semi-
plausible explanation for it. I'm suddenly having flashbacks to 
scores of old Spiderman stories where he defeats some villain vastly 
more powerful than himself simply because he's the hero." He shook 
his head, obviously irritated at the mental image.
     It occurred to more than one of the Legionnaires present that 
Tsar Chasm might also be recalling the times when he had lost, simply 
because he was the villain.
     "No matter," said the Master of Put-Downs. "The triumph of fanboy 
logic over substance isn't what's important here. Grad, how's it 
coming?"
     "Quite well. The Potion seems to be the missing ingredient. It 
looks like Vector's powers were indeed the result of a combination 
of Dr Stomper's technology and the Potion's mystical properties. 
The combination - or at least, this particular combination of the 
two - seems to be unstable, which would also explain why a significant 
minority if the Melissa-clones have mutated out of control." A thought 
occurred to him. "I wonder if the Acolyte of Dvandom did that 
deliberately as a way of undermining the Church of the Fourth Wall at 
the same time he was seeming to offer aid."
     Narcoleptic Lad yawned. "I wouldn't put it past him," he said 
before nodding off again.
     Gorilla Grad nodded darkly at this, then returned to the subject 
at hand. "In any case, I estimate it will only be a short while before 
the cure is properly synthesised."
     "Good," responded Tsar Chasm. "If we can wake the rest of the 
Legion, especially the Writer Characters, we stand a solid chance of 
preventing the collapse of the first through third walls." [A threat 
that was revealed in _Birth Of A Villain_ #23 - Footnote Girl]
     .oO( And if nothing else, ) Tsar Chasm thought, ( if I can wake 
up Ultimate Ninja, or Fearless Leader, or any other halfway competent 
LNHer, I can dump this mess in their lap and get the net.hell out of 
this storyline. ) Involuntarily his fists clenched. It wasn't that he 
was finding the situation unpleasant or onerous. Quite the opposite. 
He was disturbed to find himself enjoying things. Giving orders. 
Rallying the troops. Being in command.
     Tsar Chasm was beginning to suspect that he was on the verge 
becoming addicted, once again, to the unquenchable urge to (yes Pinky) 
Take Over The World.
     That was a worrying thought, and Tsar Chasm deliberately thrust 
it aside, even as Fourth Wall Lass worked hard to pretend that she 
hadn't read that particular thought balloon and narrative caption.
     Tsar Chasm turned to Lad and Authorial. "I'd like you two to take 
one of the flight.thingys and head over to Sig.ago to check out what 
conditions are like inside the dome."
     "How will we get in?" Authorial asked.
     "Oh, that's easy. It's turned permeable. I'd say that without 
full effort being constantly applied to keep it solid, it's simply too 
large to maintain it's cohesion"
     Gorilla Grad nodded and put in, "I would hypothesise that unless 
the Church makes efforts to strengthen it, it will probably dissipate 
entirely within a few days."
     "Okay then," said Authorial.
     "Hold up!" protested Lad. "What about the dragon?"
     "I think she's sated," Tsar Chasm replied. He fiddled with the 
image of northern Illa.net until it zoomed in on the dragon's head, 
which was resting near Lake Mi.sig.an with its tail in its mouth. 
Nearby there was the remains of a large cargo ship lying on the 
shoreline, which had clearly been bitten in half. "Now that she's 
fed, she should sleep for a while. But if you want to take extra 
precautions, swing around to approach from the south-west, on the 
opposite side of the dome."
     "And what do the rest of us do?" Fourth Wall Lass asked.
     Tsar Chasm shrugged. "We wait. There's a few other things I'd 
like to tidy up while we're waiting for the cure to decant: try and 
contact Writers Block Woman's group again; do a surveillance search 
to see if the personnel who were embargoing Sig.ago have turned up 
anywhere else... Probably they were a squad of Melissas who merged 
back together for easy distance travel, and then hightailed it back 
to the Church's headquarters of Washington.net. Whatever. But for the 
most part, the cure will be the most important thing, and for that, 
we wait.

WHAT PLANS DID wREAMICUS HAVE FOR DVANDOM FORCE?

WILL THERE FINALLY BE A CURE TO WAKE THE LNH?

WILL TSAR CHASM SUCCUMB TO THE URGE TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD?

Eh, maybe. We'll have to see, perhaps in the next episode of: 
Birth Of A Villain.

----------
Saxon Brenton     Uni of Technology, city library, Sydney, Australia
saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au

==========
Next Week: It's Birth of a Villain Time!!! (Part Fourteen)!!!!
==========

Arthur "Same Classic Channel.  But Same Time?  Probably not." Spitzer


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