SG: West Coast Defenders #50 -- Stronger

[Frobozz]

    Jenny, the A.I. paused from her work.

    At a table in the computer room, a small chocolate cake with a candle 
rezzed into existence. She sat at the table, a party hat rendered on her 
head. She smiled and closed her eyes, thinking back about many things, and 
then leaned over and blew out the candle. As the cake winked out of view, 
she whispered, "Happy Birthday Uncle Spectrum, wherever you are."

[Post-Event: 3 hours]

    Dr. Sloan adjusted the portable recorder, as the group in the meeting 
room coughed, and shuffled in the seats, occasionally taking a sip from 
their assorted drinks. "Alright everyone, this debriefing is important but 
informal. What I mean is, if you have something to add or interject, any 
observations or impressions, please feel free to speak up at any time. The 
goal is to gather as much information as we can while the incident is 
fresh in our minds, and so we can sort out the junk later. Clark, why 
don't you go first?"


Diet Dew Industries and Aperture Science Technology Present:

WCD #50: "Stronger"

Costarring Aurora and the West Coast Defenders

By Lawrence Brown and Chris Angelini "I nao iz Senior Superguy Author?"


[Post-Event: 3 hours. Clark Interview]

Let me tell you a story.

    A long, long time ago there was a young man who, one night, looked up 
at the sky. I think it was in autumn, but hey, don't hold me to that. The 
air was crisp and cool, so it probably was sometime in the fall. I suppose 
that doesn't really matter too much to the story.

    So like I was saying, it was night. And for no real reason at all, the 
young man was staring up at that limitless expanse of sky. It was a clear 
night and one by one the stars were coming out. The moon was new and there 
wasn't much city around, so nothing competed with the starlight for a spot 
on the stage.

    Anyway there I was, staring up into the vast ocean of stars, completely 
mesmerized by the sight. It was this huge vastness, so serene and so full 
and so empty. I remember feeling so small and so tiny in the face of it 
all.

But suddenly, there was this enormous blooming of light in the sky, sort 
of like how you'd imagine a nova might look if you saw one all up close 
and personal. It was a blossom of fire and of rage and it swept across the 
sky like the hand of creation, swatting aside the void to call light to 
be. For a moment... just for a moment... that eruption outshone the stars, 
but as it faded I realized something. I realized that however briefly that 
candle had been lit, it had captured my imagination even more firmly than 
had the stars, in all their remote and infinite glory.

    To this day I don't know what caused that fulmination of light. Maybe 
it came from a superguy fight far overhead; or maybe it was one of the 
many alien invasions that've come to our shores. Maybe it was an angel in 
the process of either earning or losing his or her -- or its --- wings.

    But I will tell you this: the stars felt so far away that I could never 
touch them, even if I stretched out as far as I possibly could and wished. 
That fireball... it was something near to me. Near to humanity. Unlike 
those distant stars that'll go on shining whether or not humanity's around 
to see them, this fireball felt close. Almost personal. It was something 
to do with me, however tangentially.

    Why am I going on about stars and fireballs at a debriefing? I guess 
the real explanation is that I'm just a total story ham, but there's also 
a point to it, honest. What did I see on the ground today? Well, I guess 
there's only one way for me to explain it: it was like seeing a star being 
born. It was one moment of absolutely fiery glory; but unlike the one I 
saw such a long time ago, this one never went out. Maybe never will go out 
again.

    Just between us? When I met Spectrum at the beginning of this voyage, I 
was not impressed. He was just this guy, like any other. I kept trying to 
match the legend up to the man and the legend just kept outshining the guy 
who was standing in front of me. There was something... wrong with him, 
that's how it felt to me. Maybe that's just hindsight filling in the 
details, but it always felt like this guy was, despite his strength and 
despite his marvelous armor, this incomplete sad sack with a few pieces of 
his personal jigsaw puzzle missing. Like there was a part of him 
-missing-, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Well, I guess I was right. 
There was a piece missing. Only it isn't missing any more.

[Time to event: T-minus 15 seconds]

    "Nooooooooooooo!"

    Spectrum plunged into the foggy void of the canyon. Twisting, he 
faintly made out the shape of the platform above him, and fired his 
grapple. The shot went wide and the cable on his line went slack. Its 
powercells drained, his armor went dark, leaving him in blackness. God, 
you have to help me save Foxy, he thought aloud. Please, someone, anyone!

    Victoria Queen sat bolt upright. The psi-scream was so strong, and yet, 
so faint. Was it Spectrum? It sounded like Spectrum. But no, he was 
groundside. That was impossible. She needed to stop obsessing about him. 
And yet... Victoria found that couldn't get him out of her mind. 
Literally.

    Spectrum continued to plummet, lost in the darkness of his overtaxed 
suit. Frustration and fear overwhelmed him as he tried to spy something, 
anything, in the stygian void that surrounded him. Then, impossibly, there 
appeared a  far away faint flicker of light. It was so faint that Spectrum 
was almost certain he'd imagined it; but if there was even the slightest 
chance it was real, he knew that he had to take it. He reached for it in 
desperation, screaming out for someone to...

    {-help me!-} Cried the voice in Victoria's mind, loudly enough that she 
gasped in shock. The voice was real, and it sounded... -felt-... 
desperate. And for some reason, that voice's owner thought that she could 
help. Taking a deep breath to calm herself and to push away her doubts, 
Victoria concentrated.

    With an unexpected jerk, the grapple snagged on an outcropping. 
Spectrum found himself slammed into a wall, the breath knocked out of his 
lungs. And as he collided with the cliff-face, radiance exploded around 
the superguy. The energy... it was a strangely familiar yet still alien 
plain. Lines of energy stretched off to whatever horizon might lie with 
the plains, and the world glowed with a sense of depth but at the same 
time non-existence.
    Wow, thought Spectrum. I feel like I'm watching Tron or something. What 
was that light in the distance? It arced toward him like a meteor and with 
a strange silence, impacted onto him. But rather than being rocked by the 
collision, feelings rushed through Spectrum. Warmth. Music. Light.

    {Are you an angel?} The childlike innocence of the question almost made 
Victoria laugh aloud. Taking in the surroundings, she filed away an 
observation about her abilities: everyone's mindscape seemed to be unique. 
It was an obvious fact upon reflection. Everyone's mind must be more 
complex and unique than their fingerprint or their DNA. The mind, and all 
of its myriad parts, was really their all.

    Spectrum stared into the brightness and slowly began to make out a 
figure, itself composed of light. He could -- barely -- resolve it as a 
glowing female form. She was there to help him. She had to be. With Foxy 
in danger, nothing else mattered. {Not exactly an Angel, Spectrum. I'm 
Victoria Queen. We met on the Lenny Bruce, though you probably... don't 
remember me. And... and I'm a telepath.}

    The moment she completed that message, Victoria's mind was nearly 
overwhelmed by a jumble of emotions and random thoughts; first tinged with 
amusement at her name, closely followed by fear and anger as her words 
sunk in. A cry boomed out to shake the radiant firmament...

    {GET OUT OF MY HEAD!}

    {And leave you to certain death?} She replied, recoiling at the 
rejection but still holding firm. Victoria steeled herself, then shot back 
with her own frustration and anger, using it like a knife to pierce 
through the noise filling her mind. {Now what kind of superguy would I be 
if my first attempt at saving someone was a failure?} Then something else, 
{especially someone I have a crush on?} Victoria gasped at the slip, which 
had somehow managed to sneak through her defenses while she was giving 
full reign to her powers.

    {What?}

    {What?}

    {Did you say-}

    {Oh, damn it. I am going to have to watch what I think aloud...}

    {What?}

    {Look, do you want to save Foxy or not?} Victoria snapped, deflecting 
the conversation back to the important point. The thought of Foxy snapped 
Spectrum back on track.

    {Yes. But aren't I dead?} Images of the plunge tore through her 
awareness.

    {Apparently not, but I'm guessing that we only have a few moments 
before that happens. I honestly don't know what we can do in this ti--}

    {What...? What?}

    {Give me... give me a moment. I'm not sure what I'm see-- I'm... oh my 
God, it's beautiful. It's...}

    {WHAT?}

    {Yes. Yes! My God, it's all so... so simple! I can help you save 
yourself, Spectrum! You must reclaim your powers!} From out of the 
illuminated plains' depths flew a glowing cube. Victoria's psionic 
representation raised a hand, deftly catching it. With a slight grunt of 
effort, the woman opened what she'd found, and like a genie released from 
its bottle a memory -- buried deep within it flowed into their minds.

************

    Spectrum looked at Foxy in shock, "You. Oh my god. You did it, didn't 
you."

************

    Its payload released, the box popped like an electronic soap bubble. 
Moments later it re-formed, but the awareness of the memory remained. More 
boxes appeared, falling from the sky like puzzle pieces or tetris blocks. 
Their descent rapidly built up a wall that separated the pair.

    {Stop!} cried Spectrum, fear suddenly stabbing at Victoria through the 
wall. {Don't!} {Please!}

    {What are you afraid of? I'm trying to help you! This is the only way!}

    Victoria's manifestation grew in size as, for the first time, she 
flexed her powers and saw just how far they stretched. Reaching down, the 
reluctant superguy scooped up the pile of boxes in one enormous hand.
    There's no time to sort his thoughts, she realised. I'm going to just 
have to open them all up at once.
    Victoria was stunned as chaos exploded around her.

************

    "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Lawrence's brain throbbed. His hands throbbed. He swung 
his fist towards the cyborg in a futile attempt to reach him. As 
everything shifted to slow motion Lawrence noticed the reason why his 
hands were throbbing. They pulsed with glowing energy. He didn't know what 
it was. He didn't care. He wanted to live, so he poured everything he was 
into the glow... and released it. Rainbow streamers of energy blasted from 
his hand into the barrel of the chest gun. The cyborg screamed as every 
system and circuit overloaded and slagged at once. The blast carried it 
through the door and into the alleyway, crunching into the side of a 
dumpster outside.

    Dr. Cheef shoved him to one side as a laser grazed his left shoulder.
Lawrence bellowed in pain and whirled to face the limping Zoomer.
The doctor shouted, "Get him! Stop the Zoomer! FIRE!"

    Fire. The word was in his mind. Releasing the energy again, he fired at 
the monster. White-hot jets of flame erupted from his hands, melting the 
torso, arms and legs and leaving the head bouncing backwards into a pile 
of now ignited debris. The flames spread quickly.

    Lawrence stared at his hands, amazed not to see charred stumps. Hans 
grabbed him and pulled him to the door. "We've got to get out of here! 
This place is going to burn down around us, and neither of us are 
invulnerable!" he said, glancing at Lawrence's shoulder wound. Lawrence 
darted for his desk, popped a SyQuest cartridge out of the dented PC and 
then followed the retreating doctor, out the door, and into the evening 
gloom.

************

    It was at that moment that the Qwyntor engine that Summer had thrown 
clear into the air exploded. Streamers of energy shot out in all 
directions. One bolt struck the five farm punks and blew them off their 
feet, into the mud.

    Spectrum's optics compensated for the blast as he searched the skies 
for Foxy. Suddenly he spotted her, tumbling and smoking, down towards the 
ground. He knew that he couldn't get to her before she hit.

    "NOOOOOOO!!!!" Spectrum cried, as he tried to close the distance in 
time. In desperation, he began shouting, "EDIT! EDIT! EDIT! EDIT! EDIT!" 
Bon Jovi appeared with his guitar and a very confused look on his face. A 
cooler full of Winter Ale. A Shriner from Boston. A pizza. Suddenly an 
enormous inflatable Saint Bernard appeared under the plunging toon. She 
imbedded in the back of the dog, bounced off its head and its 5 foot 
tongue, and into the arms of a very relieved Spectrum.

************

    Grounder walked to Spectrum. Suddenly Spectrum froze. "whats wrong with 
my armor?" He squeaked in surprise.

    "Its shut down hero. My powers have drained your suit of power!" 
Grounder squeaked menacingly (which is hard to do).

    Spectrum started laughing, even as Grounder walked right into his face.

    "what's so funny hero? Never heard anyone on helium before?"

    Spectrum laughed. His faceplate shut, and pumped fresh air.
"No, whoever you are..."

    "Grounder" squeaked the villain.

    "Grounder, I'll let you in on a secret." Spectrum spoke, as his arm 
slowly began to raise.

    Grounder bleated, confused. "But, that's not supposed to happen! I 
drained your suit of its power!" He redoubled his efforts. "Stop!"

    "Here is the deal, sparky. THE POWER IS IN ME!" Spectrum fired a 
rainbow burst of every form of energy he could think of, in a 
kaleidoscopic explosion of power.

************

    Bull charged again, this time hitting Spectrum and knocking him back. 
The businessmen got bucked off as Bull turned to face Spectrum. Just as 
Spectrum was about to attack, Bull's horns began to arc and a bolt slammed 
into Spectrum.

    "Oh god that hurt..." Shakily, Spectrum got back to his feet again.

    Bull laughed the sound coming out of the mouth of the bull. "Had 
enough, hero! You gonna quit and run away like a baby again!?"

    "Lets"<cough>"try that again, you walking cow pie." Bull's horns 
crackled and another bolt blasted into the suit. Spectrum kept advancing, 
unfazed.
"You know, you sorry stinking punk, I bet you would never guess why it's 
not hurting me now. I bet you are wondering how you are going to stop me.
You can't. I'm just sucking up your juice and gating it off to another 
dimension. It hurts like the dickens but the gate works both ways. That 
leaves you with a problem of scale, punk. You're one hell of a 
firecracker, but I'm an atomic bomb!" Spectrum grabbed both horns, and 
channeled every watt of electrical energy he could summon into the horns, 
melting them into stumps. Then with a angry wave, he canceled the Bull's 
inertia and hit him with a two fisted blast of kinetic energy, sending him 
sailing towards Mule.

************

    {Oh. My Elvis! Oh my goodness!}

    Memories washed over her. Every intimate detail. The sheer joy of 
flying. Lovemaking with an alien named Marie. Then another pang of 
realization that the coupling had born fruit. His son Marcus; he had not 
been there for, and was not part of his life.

    Sadness. Should she tell him that--

    And what was this?!? Not just his memories were here. Summer? Jenny? 
Adam-Odd-Mike-Sarah-Link-Dog? Sigma? Awareness of a gestalt mind link awed 
her, as stars and dimensions spun before her. Giant Robots and 
doppelgangers.

    Disorientation. Confusion. Big Band music playing as a British youth 
fights World War II at his side. How old is he?

    Why was he kissing a Veloceraptor Sapiens? Were there any normal women 
in his life?

    Daisy Duke, no, not right, who is Pinto Sally? And Spandex Babe?

    She gasped as the memory of Spectrum's battle with Dark Radian. What 
could be worse than that?

    A small red box exploded at her touch, and she screamed as she looked 
into Hell.

    It was as if she was suddenly thrust into a game of Doom3, bosses all 
around her, and she with no weapons. None but her mind. Spectrum flared 
with energy and Victoria screamed aloud in terror. With extreme exertion, 
she crammed the memory of his fight on the Alamo's Revenge Revenge back 
into a box, and sealed it with the mental seeming of steel bands.

    Victoria was so shaken by the memory that she barely had time to react 
when a box filled to the brim with malevolent blackness struck her, 
breaking open against her consciousness. Hell(tm) on earth? So much blood, 
pain and helplessness. Magic and Innocents.

    The Moon rushing at her with impossible velocity.

************

    Spectrum strained. "You despicable creature, you want to know my worst 
nightmare? You filthy stinking space parasite! You may think you are, but 
you're not! I've already been there. In my nightmares, I'm not Bahamode 
Sigma, I'm Spectrum, not just any superguy. One of the most powerful 
hero's on the planet! And the nightmare is I'm not afraid to use my power. 
I cut loose. Completely. The infinite energy of a billion altiverses!" 
Spectrum's mind roared "*** AND I LIKE IT! ****"

************

    Epiphany.

    Lawrence lay on the featureless plain, curled up naked and fetal.
As the capstone of the rebuilt wall of blocks clicked into place, Victoria 
wondered at the man. He held so much power within him. So much 
responsibility. And yet despite it all, it had been so easy for an empath 
like Foxy to strike at his weakest moment, using his greatest fears to 
block away his power. She gazed at the man, laid bare to her and so easy 
for a full-fledged telepath to peer into... to tweak, here... there... to 
make him return the feelings she felt... And it would only take the 
slightest exertion of power...

    Victoria drew herself up short, her cheeks radiating crimson light that 
reflected the intense shame she felt. It was so easy for a psi to abuse a 
trust, to violate someone at such a fundamental level. With as much care 
and gentleness as she could muster, Victoria swept together the pieces 
together, and then set Spectrum atop of the newly crafted altar of 
remembrance. The boxes pulsed and cycled through the colors of the 
rainbow. He glowed in sympathy with them, and in turn the boxes reformed 
around Spectrum as as his iconic armor. The superguy seemed to grow as he 
stood upright, glowing brighter by the moment. He opened his eyes, and 
looked right at her.

    {Here I go.}

    {It worked!} exulted Victoria, feeling weak with the strain of what 
she'd just done.

    {GET OUT OF MY HEAD!}

    Instantly Victoria found herself was thrown out of the mindscape, back 
to the tangible world. Back to her tiny, cramped quarters. Back to her 
bunk. Alert klaxons sounding and the ship shuddering from the force of 
something. Something incredibly powerful. Something was happening.

    Victoria fought back the urge to weep and slid her legs to the side of 
her bunk. She sprawled, as they refused to support her.


[Post Event: 3 hours, 5 minutes. Clark Interview]

    He went off a cliff chasing after his toony-love and I figured, well, 
that was the end of him. And that sucked, because in spite of the pieces 
missing, he'd seemed like a pretty regular guy. He'd inspired so much 
loyalty in his crew, you know, that had to say something about the man's 
character, right?

    Of course a part of me did feel like he'd gotten what he deserved; he'd 
run off on the squad, Hell(tm)-bent for leather, leaving us high and dry 
and under the gun. You don't do that in a squad situation. It's the best 
way to get yourself and your squaddies killed.

    So there he went, over the cliff, following Foxy. This is when the 
snakes got their reinforcements in order. Don't ask me to describe that 
part of the fight because most of it was spent hugging a rock and throwing 
a few rounds back at them to warn our attackers away. Oh and screaming at 
the Lenny Bruce to give us some cover fire, which they were, I just wasn't 
focused enough to notice it. The rock was doing about sixty knots towards 
the hard place, and me and my squad were smack dab where the two were 
going to meet. That's when the power sensors started to spike.

[Time to event: T-minus 14 seconds]

    H'ssah stared in amazement. With little or no regard for his own life, 
the warrior had charged the hoverbarge. And incredibly he had very nearly 
grabbed the corner of the barge, before plunging to his death, a yell 
echoing of anger, loss, and fear. The captive in the net slumped to the 
floor of the barge, as if its life-mate was gone. Truth spoken! That had 
to be it.

    "FATHER! LOOK!" His son gestured, and a dull silver grapple arched into 
the air, missing the barge. H'ssah hissed in respect. This was a warrior 
that would not give up. He leaned over the side of the barge, peering down 
into the misty depths, as the grapple disappeared from sight. "Get us back 
to the base. Reverse course." The flood of emotions were gone, replaced 
with a sense of emptiness and a lingering sense of... danger?

    Vibrations from below.

    "Inconceivable!" H'ssah muttered. "Nothing could survive that a fall 
such as that." The snake peered over the edge, tempting fate one more 
time. And as if in answer to his foolish dare, energy exploded upwards to 
fill the entire canyon below. Without a second thought, H'ssah shoved his 
son down against the captive, shielding him behind the bulk of the dead 
sandjaw. There was no time for words. There was only the briefest moment 
to half-turn away from a blast so massive it vaporized the other 2 thirds 
of the hoverbarge, and half the sandjaw. And then the one indivdual that 
had witnessed the finger of godlike wrath stab upwards into orbit saw 
nothing, ever again.

[Post Event: 3 hours, 6 minutes. Clark Interview]

    I had no idea what was happening, though I was pretty sure that it was 
going to be really, really bad for us. I'd like to report that I said 
something pithy and to the point upon seeing this new phenomenon, but what 
came out of my mouth was more like 'oh crap, what -now-?'. We needed 
information, we needed guns and we didn't have either, so we were about to 
get hit with this new... thing, completely blind, which is the scariest 
place in the world to be when you're on a battlefield.

    And then a new star was born. Or reborn.

    He came screaming out of that ravine with his girlfriend in his arms, 
holding the remains of one of the transport platforms as easily as a 
waiter balances a serving tray. Power outlining his silhouette and a 
slam-dance salsa song to play on my sensors. I'm serious, I had to block 
out even the passives, because they were getting that confused.

    But while Spectrum before had been distant and dim, Spectrum now... was 
a nova.

    The only times I've ever seen power like that up close, I've always 
been afraid for my life. This was no exception... except this time, this 
blaze of power was on our side. He set Foxy down behind the rock we were 
hugging and gave her a long kiss... the kind you give your best girl 
before you go off to war. And then he proceeded to do just that. I thought 
that the toon would protest that he was leaving her behind, but she just 
stared... stared after him as he went. I think she was even more 
enthralled than I was. Which makes sense now that I think about it; to 
her, this wasn't a birth. She was seeing the man she'd come to love return 
to himself, and return to her.

[Event minus 1.00005 seconds]

    "Captain!" Sparks shouted, "Massive Energy Surge Bel--"

    "SHIELDS!" Tonk screamed. "Close all viewports!"

    Sparks hand was already slamming buttons, and the crew of the Lenny 
Bruce was saved from blindness by his quick reactions and a sudden half 
roll that banked the ship away from the incredible energy discharge. 
Moments later, emergency klaxons sounded as a Nintan warship appeared on 
their screens.

    "We're being hailed!"

    "Attention Enemy Vessel! Nintan Warship Yojo transmitting on all 
channels. Stand down and prepare to receive transport shuttle to discuss 
terms of surrender!"

    "Captain!?"

    Tonk critically eyed the warship before her. Her eyes darted from the 
status screens of her own battle-scarred ship to the ones feeding data 
from the ground crew, apparently pinned down, and from the larger far more 
heavily armed ship in her view screen. Explosions and yelling could be 
heard from the troops still on the ground. "Why is the rum always gone?" 
she sighed.

    "Attention Nintan Warship. This is Captain Tonk, of the starship Lenny 
Bruce, of the planet Earth. Message received. Enter through Bay Alpha. We 
await your arrival."



IS THIS THE END OF THE CREW OF THE LENNY BRUCE?

CAN SPECTRUM SAVE THEM IN TIME?

AND WHY *WAS* HE KISSING A VELOCERAPTOR SAPIEN?

All this and a big surprise in the next exciting episode of SUPERGUY!


Authors Note: This episode marks not only the 50th episode of Spectrum and 
the West Coast Defenders, but the 15th anniversary of the Amigoid, and a 
posting that was triggered by a Microstuff soul collecting EULA program 
smashed at exactly the wrong moment, and of all things, spam.

>
> Contact Delphi. $20 a month gets you 20 non-prime hours a month with full
> internet access. Additional hours cost $1.80. There are no additional
> communications surcharges for using Tymnet & Sprintnet in off-peak hours.
>

Here is to another 15 years of writing with you crazy authors. I tip my 
goblet of Diet Mountain Dew to you. And baff you with my Nerf Sword, for 
good measure.
All of you, readers, authors, (and especially authors I have collaborated 
with over the years) in the crazy mixed up altiverse known as 000SUPERGUY, 
you are forever a part of my life.

Lawrence H. Brown, aka the Amigoid

Frobozz's note

    I just want to give a shout out to Amigoid and wish him a happy 
anniversary. It's a thrill working with him, and also a hell of a lot of 
fun. Also, the fact that this post is late is entirely on me... my mail 
filters betrayed me!
    Here's hoping that he's still writing in another fifteen!

---
-Chris
frobozz at eyrie.org
http://www.eyrie.org/~frobozz

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