8FOLD: Daylighters # 3 (Annotations)

[Tom Russell]

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              |___/     |___/  ANNOTATIONS

      # 3 -


[1] the slightly taller version

This is a very abbreviated version of Cal's origin story from the
DARKHORSE miniseries. The ability to be miniaturized is dependent on a
certain gene that both Cal and her sister Kate (Shimmer) possess. (In
fact, it's the presence of this gene that allowed Kate to phase
through solid matter.) The first time a person is miniaturized, it
takes several hours to be restored to full height. Each subsequent
time it takes less and less time until, as is the case with Microdot,
someone can change their height at will.

A shrink-ray was used (carelessly) by Tina Wazowie to shrink Cal, with
the intention of restoring her to full height. Before that could
happen, however, Cal was shunted off along with Darkhorse to a series
of parallel earths. By the time they got back to their earth,
reversing the process would have resulted in permanent injuries, and
probably death. And so unlike Microdot, Cal can't change size, and is
stuck at her current height.

"Kate and Simon" are Cal's siblings. Kate raised Cal and Simon after
the death of their psychotic, abusive mother. As mentioned above, Kate
is the superheroine Simmer, who we also saw in issue one. Simon is not
part of the spandex crowd, though he does have a mutual crush on
Darkhorse, and the two of them have started dating.

[2] Kyklokos

Kyklokos is a system-wide fascistic warmongering empire centered
around the Vampire Sun - a star that feeds on, and destroys, other
stars. It is a bleak hellscape of misery ruled by its dark overlord,
the space-god Maledux - and it is Earth's ally in the war against the
Pulse.

It wasn't the Earth's first choice. Many other space-faring powers
were approached, but none of them were willing to throw in their lot
with our tiny blue world (JOURNEY INTO # 24 covers some of this). It
is important to remember that the Pulse's empire spans millennia and
several star systems - it is the biggest and oldest political power in
the universe, with seemingly infinite resources.

Even Kyklokos is a speck in comparison. If Kyklokos throwing its lot
in with Earth sounds insane, that's because it probably is! All
sentient life in the system serves Maledux, existing only as an
extension of his despotic, nihilistic will - his death wish is their
death wish.

[3] The assassin

This charming fellow was last seen in the MIGHTY MEDLEY two-parter
"Wetwork", where he was hired to kill Darkhorse. His client was the
Blackfin, the half-brother of Lemuria's then-heir Terak. The Blackfin
had tried multiple times to assassinate his half-brother, but had been
thwarted by Melody, and so he figured that the first step would be to
remove her.

The assassin's plan involved vibrational vertigo to disorient Melody
and special "ghost" bullets to kill her while she was phased. He
injected himself with a drug called Hermys - liquid super-speed - to
give himself a speedster's reflexes. Darkhorse very narrowly escaped
death, and apprehended the assassin, turning him over to Lemurian
authorities.

The Blackfin was captured and then executed in August 2014 - so, about
four months or so before this series - but the assassin managed to
escape sometime between then and now.

[4] Mr. C

An alias for one of the Venusian elder gods, first and last seen in
MANCERS # 8. There we also first saw the direct link between The
Company and Cradle Tech (and thus FEVER), and found out that The
Company has owned Cradle Tech since around the time that Anders took
over as CEO.