SG: WCD #50 "Stronger"

[Lawrence Brown]

  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 Spectrum?

  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 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's eye that had personally 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
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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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