The Stormcrow, A Superhero's Tale Options

[macole]

The (failed) striptease was an amusing anecdote, which might be a story that gets told in the future. Just one of those examples of how when you want something to be romantic and steamy, it can often just completely fall apart.

A "fail", no I found it to be quite believable and real. It made me dream of things long gone. I could you tell a few really dumb things said when clothes flew off faster than expected. Then there is the truly smoky-eyed romantic evening that led only to a long hug and a teary eyed parting.


This post has been edited by macole: Oct 24 2021, 04:22 AM

[Renee]

I think a nerd party would be a great idea. Just for one chapter. I imagine Jan would feel at home with her friends, and so it would be fun to read.

Ha ha 20 sided die. I still have all my weird dice, too. They are great for making decisions with sometimes. Oh cool, she did say the L word. Goodness. This whole set of chapters are like something which could be from a show on the CW channel.

Oh wow. Hannah says "count me in!" Yes, it is the lady's decision for sure.

"I can't believe you don't have a TV,

Jan doesn't need a TV. Every day of her real life is like something from a TV show.

Take care.

This post has been edited by Renee: Oct 26 2021, 04:32 PM

[SubRosa]

Acadian: Poor January, people assuming that you are doing the happy dance with your 7x great grandma must be a real disturbing thing!

That was a little reminder for us that even though this romantic interlude is taking place, there is a main quest out there whose conclusion we are rapidly hurtling toward.

That was indeed a red flag. Not the only one if you look carefully.

Thanks for catching that nit. Another one of those little things spellcheckers do not catch.


macole: Sometimes it is our failures to pull off the "cool" things that turn out to be the most memorable and touching moments in our lives.


Renee: A lot of these episodes in this part of the book do have a very CW feeling. We will be getting to some of the more meaty things in time however. In fact, the biggest battle I have ever written so far will be later in this book.

"Read the TV Guide, and you don't need to watch TV." You are right. January's life is more exciting than a TV show. Well, at times it is. These little scenes with her and Hannah are a wonderful way for me to show the readers what January's ordinary life is like, and just how different she is from most people. In many ways she does live a monk's existence. While in others she is a total nerd.





Book 8.11 - Blood

January could not contain a yawn. She leaned back, raised up both her arms, and stretched. It had been a long, eventful day. She had both fought and made peace with a supervillain, gained a protégé (and perhaps girlfriend?), and trained with said apprentice. That was just what had happened after lunch. If that was not enough to wear her out, two hours of watching Reckless Homemakers on her tablet with Hannah was more than enough to put her to sleep all on its own. She had no idea what the other woman found so fascinating about the show. It was just so... trite and vapid. It was as interesting as watching paint dry.

"It's bedtime," January murmured. She had to admit, the thought did cause her heart to beat faster. What exactly did that mean? Sleeping near Hannah? Or sleeping with Hannah? As much as she longed for the latter, she knew it felt wrong. She also knew that it was going to be a problem, no matter what. It was a bridge best not crossed.

"So what is your plan January? I didn't see any other beds, or even a couch." Hannah smiled coyly.

"I know." January leaped up from the bed and strode to her walk in closet. The long, narrow room sat behind the fireplace. Even all of her clothing hanging within, it still looked empty. She reached down to a plastic-wrapped lump on the floor, and dragged it back to the bedroom proper.

"I'll take the sleeping bag," January said, "and you can sleep on the bed."

She unzipped the thick plastic case, and pulled out her pink, blue, and white striped sleeping bag. She had never gone camping with it. But she had spent plenty of nights sleeping in it at Avery's house.

"You know, we could both just, sleep in the bed," Hannah offered.

"There is barely enough room for just me in that bed," January pointed out.

"I think you are making my point for me," Hannah breathed.

January felt her cheeks blush. This was literally the stuff of dreams. An exciting, mysterious, and undeniably attractive woman was interested in her, really, really interested. In high school she would have scoffed at such a thing ever happening. Not to her. The lead in her pencil was more likely to spontaneously turn into gold. Yet here Hannah was.

"We hardly know each other," January forced her lips to work, in spite of how much her brain just wanted to turn itself off. "I think we should take it slow. I mean, you aren't just a Scissr hookup for me. Well, not that I would really know, I never actually had one of those. I mean..."

"I think I know what you mean," Hannah smiled quietly. "You really are the nice, shy, awkward girl you come across as sometimes on the videos."

"You mean as Stormcrow?" January wondered. "Well, yeah. I am just me. I mean, I try to act more professional when I am in the suit, so people take me seriously. But the reality is I'm not some regal princess, or glamorous supermodel, or even a grizzled space marine. I'm just me."

January thought back to what Blood Raven had said to Hannah earlier, about looking at January, and seeing her for who she truly was. Not the suit, or the wings, but who she was underneath it all.

She felt herself blush once more.

"Ok, we'll do it your way." Hannah's words came as a great relief to January. The other woman walked over to the doorway and shut off the light. That plunged the room into darkness, though not nearly black enough that January could not see Hannah walk back to the bed and climb under the covers.

"Sleep tight," the other woman said.

"Don't let the xenomorphs bite..." January replied out of reflex.

She woke later that night. Not to alien monsters with horrific double sets of jaws, but to something much more pleasant. She smelled the lavender and hyssop body spray that Hannah used, and felt the other woman's soft skin sliding against her own. Their lips met, and January was overwhelmed by the sensation. She was only vaguely aware of the sound of her sleeping bag being zipped open. But she was very conscious of the young woman climbing atop her.

"I'm sorry," Hannah breathed after one particularly long kiss. She laid her head on January's shoulder, face buried under the crook of her jaw. January took a deep breath, and delighted in the competing scents wafting from Hannah's hair. "I know what you said. But I..."

Now it was January kissing Hannah. Her hands raced across the other woman's naked body. She was soft and warm, everything a girl could ever want. Hannah's own hands likewise explored January's lithe frame. They slid under her bedclothes, and drifted across the muscles that banded her tummy. Then one dropped lower, and lower, until her fingers probed between January's legs.

January leaped out of the sleeping bag with a sharp intake of breath. She shook, and reached down with one hand to make sure her pink and white pajamas covered her waist. Hannah squealed. It was not a sound of delight, but one of shock. She looked around wildly, before settling her eyes upon January.

"What's wrong?" She pulled the abandoned sleeping bag up to cover her frame. "What did I do?"

"I'm sorry," January murmured. "I can't do, that."

"What, you mean your... hand crank?" Hannah scrunched her eyebrows up in consternation. "I don't mind it. Like I said, I had a boyfriend once. It just makes it more interesting when a girl has one too."

"Hannah, you are a literal unicorn," January said honestly. The number of women she had known to ever say such a thing now tallied up to one. "But I've got... issues. By Niflheim, I have a whole subscription. The psychologists like to call it gender dysphoria. There are a lot of things about my body that gross me out. That is the worst."

"January, your body is a lot things, but gross is not one of them." Hannah rose from the floor. She wore nothing but the light of the moon that shone through the window. But January could not find anything to marvel about at the sight. Not at the moment. Instead she turned her head down, and wrapped her arms around her torso tightly.

Hannah's own arms clasped around her a moment later, as the other woman settled down beside her. She felt a hand cup the side of her face, and allowed Hannah to pull her head down to her shoulder. She breathed in her flowery scent. But it did not bring her comfort. Instead she just felt her skin crawl.

"I can't do this." January pulled away, and rose to her feet. She stepped to the door. "I'm sorry, I just can't do this. I want to. I wish I could. But I can't be who you want me to be."

"I just want you to be yourself," Hannah insisted softly.

"But I'm not myself," January spat through a lump that had formed in her throat. She sniffled, and felt her eyes water. She waved down at her waist for emphasis. "This isn't me. It's not who I'm supposed to be."

"Okay, so tell me about it," Hannah asked. Her moonlit face looked serious enough. January walked back, and sat down across from her.

"Close your eyes," she said. "Now picture yourself in your mind's eye. Think of your hair, your eyes, your body. What it all looks like. Now imagine opening your eyes, and seeing Steve Bucemi every time you look in the mirror. Imagine hearing his voice whenever you talk."

"Ewww," Hannah instantly reacted to the name of one of Hollywood's least attractive - but undeniably prolific - character actors.

"That is the start of it," January explained. "It feels like my real body was stolen by some monster, and it left me its own in recompense. The literary character I most identify with is Frankenstein's creature. Like him, I didn't ask to be brought into this world, certainly not the way I am. I'd have rather have never been born."

January stared down at the old scars that crossed her wrists.

She heard her mother shriek. It was a ragged sound, but soft, as if from far, far away. January was dimly aware of the covers of her bed being thrown back, revealing the red sea in which she floated. Her father's Roman dagger clattered to the floor, again, sounding distant and muted as it struck the hardwood.

"It's ok Mom," January heard her twelve-year old self say. "It's better this way."

"So that's what you meant about attempting suicide when you were younger. I'm sorry January, I had no idea life felt that way for you. But you can fix things. I mean, you've got girl parts too." Hannah stared at January's small but firm chest. "I know, I've felt them. They're nice."

January did manage a weak smile at that. "I started taking puberty blockers when I was twelve. Then after I convinced my shrink that I was serious about being trans, they let me start hormone replacement therapy. I'm lucky. I managed to escape most of the damage testosterone does to a girl. But not the things I was born with."

"But you can get surgery right?" Hannah said.

"Yes, once I can get enough money for it," January agreed. "That's what keeps me going. Of course I'll have to go back to therapy again, to prove I'm worthy of the honor."

"Do I detect a note of sarcasm?" Hannah smiled.

"More than a note," January sighed. "If you are born with a cleft lip, you don't have to prove that you should have surgery to correct it. It's taken for granted. But everything about helping trans people is blocked off by gatekeepers and money. I don't have the right to declare what my identity is. Only someone else can do that for me. I don't have the right to get the medical care I need, unless someone else allows me to first. This world does everything in its power to prevent us from just living our own lives. That's how much our simple existence scares the shit out of them."

"So that's why you came out," Hannah nodded. "Now I get it. It's not just about you. It's about everyone else like you."

"Yeah," January agreed. "I had to do it. I can't convince someone's therapist that they have the right to surgery. I can't give them the money they need to get it, or to live on after they get fired from their job because they transitioned. I can't keep them safe from the people who will murder them. All I can do is use that damn cape to shine a light on these things, so one day no one can deny our right to exist. If that's the only thing I ever accomplish in my life, I guess it will be worth all the pain."

"I'm sorry Hannah," January said. "If this was a book or a movie, this would be some wonderfully romantic evening, filled with candles and rose petals and true love's first kiss. If I was anyone else it probably would be. A lot of trans people don't have the issues I do with sex. They can do it just fine, even with the gender dysphoria. I even know one girl online who described her junk as just an overly large clitoris. I try telling myself that, but it just does not work. I can't get used to it, and really don't want to get used to it."

[Acadian]

I was wondering how the romance would play out as the two began to explore their physical attraction for each other. Hannah sounds like she is more of less aware of what she is getting into at least as far as the physical side of things. It is January’s internal confusion that holds them back. I was pleased to see Hannah’s acceptance, even support of January. And Jan did a superb job of explaining her inner turmoil in a manner that was easy to understand and empathize with. January pretty bravely bares her soul in this episode and, for that reason, I imagine it was both intense and challenging to write. Beautifully done though!

Wow, lots going on here and these two certainly face some daunting challenges. Surgery for Jan? Will Hannah continue to stand by her with the passage of time? Will Blood Raven’s warning be prophetic?

[Renee]

Reckless Homemakers! Sounds like a combination of Real Housewives and Love It or List It.

This part of their relationship is tricky, because technically they're still on their first date, right? So that can also get tricky. Because they've literally jumped from the "getting to know" phase to a full-blown relationship very quickly. Jan is already getting bored by Hannah's show. That's something which normally wouldn't happen for months, maybe years.

But nothing is really normal about these two. I'd imagine they have to skip a bunch of steps, because their lives are sort of in a fast-forward mode. Jan being constantly, unofficially on-call, for instance, or willing to put herself in that situation. Maybe they have to capture whatever experiences they can. Because Hannah could be maimed or killed tomorrow if she chooses an opponent she's not ready for.

Scissr! Whoa! I'm too young for that part. It's well-written though, Rosa. All of this is very believable, CW or not. Not easy to pull off, in my opinion. I'd screw it up for sure.

Steve Bucemi is awesome actor. I agree I wouldn't want to be thinking of him then though.

Hannah really is a doll. Very open-minded and compassionate. She's a keeper. Jan really needs to get that surgery somehow so she can be herself. But at least Hannah doesn't seem to mind. At least there's that.

This post has been edited by Renee: Nov 3 2021, 03:22 PM

[SubRosa]

Acadian: Hannah is what the kids today call "Down to Fuck". Granted, whether that is because she sees January for who she really is - or if she still only sees the media image of Stormcrow - is another matter entirely. That whole scene was challenging, in a lot of ways. Not the least because even though we are not at the old Beth forums anymore, I still want to keep my writing basically at a YA level. So no gratuitous porn. But I do want to keep it real. And I want January's very real issues to be plain. She's not perfect. She's got enough issues for an entire subscription.


Renee: Reckless Homemakers is a total ripoff of Desperate Housewives. Or is it Real Housewives? Are there more than one of those shows? Some shallow evening melodrama that is just a soap opera of sexual misadventures.

You are right. Nothing is normal about these two. Even thought this is technically their first date, Hannah is already living with January, because of their weird meta-human situation. The abnormality of it all was very keenly imprinted on me as I was writing all these CW segments. As much as I have tried to keep it all as mundane as possible: making dinner, watching TV, worrying about sleeping arrangements, etc... there will always be an unreality to everything because of their shared super life.

I thought Scissr was a made up thing. But it is not! It really exists. It is the lesbian counterpart to Grindr. Sometimes life is more ironic than irony.







Uniroyal Giant Tire

The Girl Who Gets Gifts From Birds

Crows Know What They Know



Book 8.12 - Blood

January sat in front of her computer. Sunlight streamed in through her bedroom windows, and filled the room with warm gold. Hannah lay tummy down on the bed, head in her hands, and legs sticking up behind her with ankles crossed. She was idly flipping through her phone, and taking breaks to just stare at January and smile.

January had to admit, it was a little unnerving. She hoped that smile was a good one. But after last night's romantic fiasco, she was taking nothing for granted. Now she wondered if this was how Ryo felt all the time? He had told her that being around people made him steadily more and more uncomfortable, because he could not understand what their body language meant. He could not tell if people smiled because they were happy to be around him, or if they were making fun of him. Was this what his entire life was like?

She tried to ignore that, and instead concentrated on the computer screen. She had Lane State University's registration interface up, and was picking classes for the Fall Term. Thankfully she had already done all the preliminary work of enrolling and transferring her credits from Macomb Community College. Aside from her core literature and creative courses, she also chose to take another psychology class, and one on Queer studies. The former ought to be useful in both her writing and everyday life. The latter just seemed like a no-brainer.

Finally of course, she paid for it all. Well, her mother did. More importantly, Branwen Renner did. January did not know how she ever could have paid for it on her own. With her fiction selling now and the Artemis Argent Jumpstarter campaign being a success, she could pay her own day to day bills. But that was a far cry from paying for gender confirmation surgery and college. Lane State was a modest school, far from the most expensive in Michigan. But even it alone would have been completely beyond her. She would have been forced to get a student loan, and spend the rest of her life paying off the interest on it.

Her mother used to talk about how once upon a time you could work part time and put yourself through school. But those days were long gone, if such wild fairytales were ever true to begin with. Just like the days of going to the college to sign up for classes in person. Her mom had told her that she had to wait in line to sign up, and hope that the classes she wanted were not filled up before she had her turn.

That made January wonder if Julius Caesar had ever been disappointed to be left out of Intro to Conquering Warlord 1010, and been forced to take a class in Basic Demagoguery 1020 instead. What a crazy place the world used to be.

With it all finished, January leaned back in her chair with a sigh of relief. That was it then. She was going back to school after all! Her first class started at the end of August. That gave her two months of playtime over the summer, before she had to hit the books again.

Playtime of course meant working out, writing for her career, learning magic, and of course supering. Maybe she could work in a trip to the zoo somewhere in there? She had not been there since she was a child. It might be nice to use the summer to do something fun. She had heard that the zoo had wolves now, and new polar bear cubs.

"All done?" She felt Hannah's hands slide across her shoulders, and gently massage her muscles. A groan of pure delight escaped from January's lips, and she leaned her head back to relax. That nestled her right into the other woman's chest, which she decided was a much nicer place to visit than even the zoo.

"All done," January declared. "I am once again an academic. What about you? Are you going to school in the fall?"

"I don't know," Hannah said. "I haven't really thought about it. My mother wants me to go to the University of Sydney. That's where she went. But it's all the way in Australia!"

"Your mother's from Australia?" January asked.

"Yeah, she moved here after she graduated," Hannah explained. "She's a software developer for a company that makes phone apps. You know that phone game that Kenndra Kadassia put out? She's made that."

"The one that paid off her husband Kayne's debts?" January rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I remember hearing about that."

"That's the one. It's made a ton of money. I guess that's why my mom can afford to live in San Francisco." Hannah explained.

"San Fran must be nice," January thought. "You've got the ocean right there, Starfleet headquarters, Adrian Monk solving crimes, Dirty Harry torturing suspects, and Raven Baxter having psychic visions with wacky outcomes. It sounds great!"

"Plus Towering Infernos, Bullitts, and Escapes from Alcatraz," Hannah smiled. "Yeah, my hometown's got it all. But Detroit has... stuff too."

"We have a big tire," January said totally deadpan. When she saw Hannah was staring back her in confusion, she went on. "Seriously, we have a big tire. It's on the West Side, by the airport. You drive past it on I-94."

Hannah did not look impressed.

"It's like, the biggest tire in the world," January insisted. "It's got its own Wiki page.

She looked even less impressed than before.

"Here, let me bring it up on the computer," January insisted, "I'll show you."

But Hannah stopped her from straightening up. Instead she leaned down, and kissed her, upside down. It was like something from a movie. When Hannah was done, January had forgotten all about tires.

"So you're still okay then, after last night?" January asked pensively. "I didn't mean to be so dramatic. I should have stopped things before they got that far."

"No, I get it January," Hannah said. "We've all got issues and boundaries. I should have thought about that before I got in bed with you. It's just that you seem so, I dunno, confident, and self-assured, like nothing ever fazes you. I forget that you are just a regular person too."

"Well, as a regular person, I need to feed the birds," January declared. "Then maybe we can make breakfast before Blood Raven gets here for training."

"Feed the birds?" Hannah raised an eyebrow. "What are you like, a grandma in the park?"

"Come on," January tossed her head in invitation. "You'll see."

She led the other woman down the stairs to the kitchen. She pulled a container of nuts from one cabinet, and a wide plastic bowl from another. She carried them out the back door, down the porch, and onto the grass of the yard. She shook the nuts around in the container with a loud sloshing noise. Then she set the bowl down to the ground at her feet and poured some of the nuts out into it.

The raucous cawing of a crow lit out from a tree in the back of yard. The cry was taken up by another harsh, corvid tongue nearby. Then another and another joined the throaty chorus. In no time at all a bird with glistening black feathers and a long, thick beak came flapping down. It did not land at the bowl however. Instead it flew down to January's outstretched hand. It dropped something shiny there from its talons. Then it finally dropped to the earth and began to peck at the peanuts in the wide bowl.

January looked at her prize, and discovered that it was the shiny foil wrapper from a stick of gum. She smiled softly as more crows flew down. Some dropped more presents at her feet. Others simply went straight to the bowl. Soon it was crowded with blackbirds gobbling up the nuts.

"They really like peanuts. So far that's their favorite." January murmured as she bent down to pick up her other gifts. One was a penny, so new that it still shone with a coppery luster. Another was yellow plastic toy block, with a blue paperclip stuck into one of its locking tubes.

"Are they giving you presents?" Hannah stared. Once more January noted the look of awe in her face. It was like she thought this sort of thing was unique, rather than an everyday experience. It reminded January that what she thought was ordinary, and what others did, often seemed to be very different things.

"They've always liked me," January smiled. "Ever since I was little, they would come and say 'hi', and sometimes give me things. Crows are smart. They know what they know, and they remember. They never forget their friends, or their enemies."

"Now that sounds ominous."

"Crows?" January raised an eyebrow. The rough croaking sound of one of the birds lent emphasis to the motion. "Nothing ominous about crows, they've always been some of my best friends."

[Acadian]

So, it’ll be back to school at the end of the summer. I hope Jan’ll be able to balance things. Like getting a Crow Alert call from Gadget on her way to an important class. I hope she can get through school and settle in to her writing – that sounds like a much more flexible career for a superhero.

I’m not surprised that Branwen is helping with the expen$e of Jan’s tuition

The comparing cities (SF vs Detroit) was a hoot when Jan brought up the giant tire – and Hannah was not impressed.

A bit of closure from the awkwardness of the night before:
"No, I get it Jan," Hannah said. "We've all got issues and boundaries. I should have thought about that before I got in bed with you. It's just that you seem so, I dunno, confident, and self-assured, like nothing ever fazes you. I forget that you are just a regular person too."
- - I’m beginning to rather like Hannah.

How interesting about the crows bringing presents. That is one aspect of ESO that I think you would like. Numerous times you encounter talking crows. They have a whole courtly social/flock structure organization (Dukes and such) and generally have quite a thing about ‘shinies’.

[Renee]

I didn't know Scissr is real either! I thought you were referring to Tumblr. Forgot all about Grindr. Scissr makes sense as a lesbo site though, because of .. uh.. scissoring.

Yes, Desperate Housewives, not Real. There might have been a Real version at some point.

As much as I have tried to keep it all as mundane as possible: making dinner, watching TV, worrying about sleeping arrangements, etc... there will always be an unreality to everything because of their shared super life.

True. And also, if we look at the history of dating and include all walks of life, there are surely others out there who don't progress their dating in any sort of normal fashion. Drug users for instance, and other co-dependent types can wind up practically living together very quickly. I'd imagine homeless couples as well. Damn. Didn't mean to compare Jan with those living on the fringes. The same might apply to power couples as well, sometimes they're so busy, they haven't got time to take things slow. Although for them there are a lot of other options since they have money.

I had another thought about their relationship, which is guidance. They are both on their own, it seems. I know it's still their first date, but assuming they stay together as a couple, I wonder who Jan will call when she needs to know what Hannah meant when she did X. What does it mean when Hannah says X? Because sometimes when we day things, we really mean something else. That sort of thing.

Well, I suppose she could always call her mom, but I was thinking friends, as well. It always helps to talk to others about dating/relationship stuff. And I imagine Jan would have a lot of questions since Hannah is her first. All this stuff is *bam* suddenly new, along with all the other stuff going on in her life.

Ah, just ignore me, Rosa, if I'm getting too deep.

wow, she's picking classes for fall semester. That's going to be one heck of a dual life situation. I wonder how much her life will change during those "two months of playtime".

Yep, a lot of stuff used to be done in person. Renting movies is a huge one. Heck, going to movies seems like it's going to phase out at some point, especially with stupid Covid messing everything up.

Nice, she's feeding crows. And they're somehow making gifts out of foil. Crows are awesome. At my old job we used to feed a bunch of them, especially during winter. They'd come from nowhere, sometimes. Never could get any of them to make any gifts though.

This post has been edited by Renee: Nov 7 2021, 03:48 PM

[SubRosa]

Acadian: One of the reasons I picked Jan's career as being a writer was that it is something flexible. She can just dart off and do super stuff at any time of the day. Someone working a 9-5 job at a factory cannot do that, at least not without getting fired.

I have never figured out just how much money Blood Raven has. Just that it is enough for lifetimes. I suspect it is a combination of being a silent partner/shareholder is several businesses that she expected might become successful, such as Microsoft or IBM, as well as those that have come and gone, like Kodak and Toys R Us. Plus I know at one point she had a run in with pirates in Lake Michigan and/or the Mississippi. I suspect there was some buried gold involved there.

The San Fran vs. Detroit conversation was fun to write. Especially since we do have a tire. It's a big tire.

Hannah has her rough spots. But she has her good ones too. She might be a diamond in the rough. Or she might just be rough. Only time will tell.

I love the idea of talking crows. They really are smart animals. They remember people, and know who their friends are, and their enemies. And they definitely love their bling!


Renee: Jan does have some sources for guidance. Blood Raven for starters. She might be old and out of touch with pop culture. But some things never change. The Raven has already been trying to provide wise council as it is. Not that teens ever listen to such things...

Some very, very huge things are going to happen in those two months. In just the next two weeks. That is when Season One will wrap up. I see only two Books after the current one: Ashes and Abyss, and both look rather short in comparison to what came before. By the time Jan is in school, we will be in Season Two, and Jan will have a whole slew of new challenges to deal with.

Movie theaters have been a dying thing for a long time now. Covid has just made it more obvious. I pretty much gave up on going to movies about a decade ago. It is just too much hassle. I would rather sit and home and watch a movie, and be able to pause it whenever I want to use the bathroom, or make something to eat, or to look up the actors in the IMDB. Not to mention that at home, you can watch any time you want.





Cosmos - The Lives of the Stars

Graphophone


Book 8.13 - Blood

January, Blood Raven, and Hannah all stood within the sanctum once more. All were suited up in their armor, with Hannah once again wearing January's incomplete backup suit. This time they threw tennis balls at Hannah, obliging her to block them with her force fields.

In time Blood Raven mixed things up by adding in target dummies. She and January would throw the balls at them, and Hannah's goal was to block them with her force fields. That compelled her to create her energy shields somewhere other than in front of herself. She had difficulty with this at first, and more often than not the balls careened off dummy heads and chests. But soon enough, she was creating the opaque barriers within a short distance from her body.

After some time spent on this, they moved on to offense. During the chase through the mall Hannah had demonstrated the ability to create waves of force to strike both January and her father. Now Blood Raven bid her to do the same, this time using another dummy as the target.

This did not go as well. Hannah scrunched up her face with effort, and flung out her hands for effect. But nothing sprang forth. Blood Raven was patient however, and counseled the young woman.

"I suspect that creating these waves of force is much like generating a solid wall. Perhaps you should start by producing one of your normal force fields, and visualizing it moving away from you. Apply your will to that, make it reality."

Hannah closed her eyes, and created a stationary force field in front of her. January could only see the general outline of her form through the opaque surface of the energy screen. She could make out the other woman's arms push forward. But again, the force field did not budge.

"Think back to the mall, when you used your kinetic bolt to send your dad and me flying." January said. "Think back to what you were feeling. Try to conjure that emotion up, and channel it into your force field."

Then with no warning January leaped forward toward the force field. "Valhalla Awaits!" she shouted as she came crashing down upon it with her elbow. Her flesh met the pattern of energy and force and shattered it. January landed, and continued forward. This time she deliberately slowed herself, to give Hannah plenty of time to react.

The other woman did just that. This time when Hannah made as if to push January away, she did it with real passion. January felt a wave of force crash into her. It lifted her up like a tidal wave, and sent her careening backward across the sanctum. She was able to tuck herself into a roll, and bounded along with the hurricane of force. Finally she came to her feet, at least fifty feet away.

"OMG!" Hannah's mouth dropped open in horror. "Are you ok? I didn't mean to do that!"

"She is fine," Blood Raven answered as January took a moment to knock imaginary dust from her shoulders. "You were supposed to do that. Stop holding back for fear of harming another. Embrace it. You will damage neither the sanctum nor us."

"But what if I go home and destroy my mother's house?" Hannah bit her lip. "I already ruined my bedroom wall."

"I see now," Blood Raven nodded. "Your concern is admirable. If only more meta-humans shared your feelings, construction workers should be not be obliged to work so many hours of overtime. However, the irony is that we must first learn to use our power to its fullest extent, before we can also learn to not use it to that extent. Give it your all. Learn what that feels like."

"These abilities are a part of you, just as your ability to walk, or speak, or think," Blood Raven continued. "With practice, using them will be just as natural as doing those things. Just as importantly, not using them will become just as natural as choosing to not take a step. They will respond to your will, and your will alone, rather than to your fears. You must never fear your power. For then you will repress it, and it will only manifest when you cannot control it."

"In time we shall practice at scaling back, so that you might use this power with precision." Blood Raven went on. "Eventually you should be able to flick a feather off January's head, without disturbing a single strand of her hair."

"Now again, strike January!" Blood Raven insisted.

This time January was fully prepared. She focused upon Earth. She planted herself, and became one with the planet. She was stone, she was the mountain, she was adamant. When the tidal wave of Hannah's force bolt struck her, it simply flowed around her. January's feet did not budge an inch from the pebbles set into the floor's endless mosaic. Her frame did not bend. She was a literal immovable object.

"Excellent!" Blood Raven crowed.

So they went on for hours. Blood Raven clearly placed more importance on this than on the purely defensive force fields that Hannah could create. January did not have to ask why. These bolts of pure kinetic energy were dangerous. More than anything, these were what she needed to learn to control the most.

January found it helpful herself. She had spent years enchanting her body to resist harm. The bullies in Junior High School had provided plenty of impetus for that. But her recent battles had taught her that by focusing purely upon the element of Earth, she could increase her invulnerability to even greater heights. When she deliberately planted herself no one had ever moved her from that spot. Not the Nazi Werebear, or even Hungry Ghost when striking at his highest density. Now she immersed herself in not only employing that ultimate defense, but refining it.

She was almost tempted to ask Blood Raven to hit her for real, to see if she could withstand it. She did not however. This was not her time after all. This was Hannah's.

Finally Blood Raven allowed them to take a break. Hannah pulled the helmet from her features. She was bathed in sweat from the effort. January did likewise, and took a moment to pull her hair free from the hole set where the base of her helmet met her tunic for just that purpose. She clapped Hannah upon the shoulders and grinned.

"Good workout!" January exclaimed quite honestly. "You hit pretty good."

"I really didn't hurt you at all?" Hannah asked. January was not sure if she was concerned, or disappointed.

"I am fine," January smiled. "I know how to take a hit."

"So why do you wear armor?" Hannah asked.

"You know, I've been asking myself that same question a lot lately," January answered. "I think because at first it gave me the confidence to act, especially in that battle against Lighthammer in the hotel."

"Ever since then..." January shrugged. "I dunno. I just got used to it. It does have my 'colors' after all. I guess we all need some kind of suit, as a statement of intent, just like a knight had a surcoat."

"Perhaps we should speak with Mr. Blackwood about weaving new garb for you?" Blood Raven interjected.

By then all three had tramped down the stairs and into the kitchen. There January poured out a tall glass of almond milk, and took a deep swallow. Hannah took a can of FaeCo from the fridge, and guzzled down mouthful after mouthful. When she put it down, she looked around to see the other women staring at her.

"What?" she said defensively. "We don't have Fae Cola on the West Coast. It's all Sepsi and Koch-A-Cola."

They clustered around the marble kitchen island. January reflexively sat beside Hannah. She could not resist just gently touching the other woman's knee with her own. Hannah said nothing at this, but did smile in her direction. As a long silence developed, January picked her tablet up from the counter top. A few taps led her to her MeTube favorites. In no time at all the old documentary series Cosmos was playing. Carl Sagan sat in an elegant dining hall, dressed in a brown blazer and red turtleneck. He explained that to make an apple pie from scratch, one must first create the Universe.

Blood Raven took note, and after a moment she reached into her wrist-mounted computer. She detached a small wafer from it. She plugged this into January's tablet, and an instant later the cheap device went dark. But then a brilliant display leaped up into the air above Blood Raven's wafer. Carl Sagan stood within this holographic interface, and continued on speaking as if nothing had happened.

"Wow, that is lit!" Hannah breathed.

January had to admit, it certainly was. But she could not retain a twinge of jealousy. Not even Gadget could do something like that, yet... She knew that Blood Raven's holographic displays were courtesy of the Laughing Man. They were another meta-inventor, one who had been on the scene for a lot longer than her best friend.

January moved the time counter toward the end of the episode. She remembered this one. She remembered all of Cosmos. She had watched it nearly a dozen times with Avery after all. He owned the entire series on disc. As she had hoped, Hannah became enraptured when the talk turned to black holes.

Sagan explained how once its gravity was great enough, a black hole winked from our universe, and left only its gravity behind. It slipped through a self-generated crack in the spacetime continuum. All the while the screen moved through a series of three dimensional grids, each nested within the next. It was like traveling through one layer of reality after another.

Then the show moved on to a segment with Sagan standing on the edge of the standard flat representation of spacetime. It was a black plane with a grid drawn over it in white. The plane was revealed to be some sort of fabric, when the eminent science communicator tossed a large ball down its length. As it rolled along the surface it sank down and puckered the fabric around the ball. Sagan explained that this was similar to how gravity curved space.

"This is what I do," Hannah gasped, her eyes aglow with rapture. "It's like those pictures you showed me. I am warping space."

The show moved on to explain that black holes were a sort of bottomless pit created by gravity's inexorable distortion of spacetime. Then Sagan dropped the bomb January had been waiting for. He declared that by plunging into a black hole, you might emerge somewhere else in space, and possibly some when else in time. Assuming you survived the experience of course.

"This is me!" Hannah exclaimed out loud as the discussion turned to wormholes. "I've been doing this since I was fourteen!"

Hannah put an arm around January, and squeezed her gently. January could not restrain a smile of satisfaction. Not just from the physical contact, but from the joy she saw radiating from Hannah's features. Not even a black hole could have sucked that down. Blood Raven gave her an appreciative look, and even nodded ever so slightly. Clearly, she could see that January had not chosen to show this particular portion of this specific show by accident.

"I still don't understand why all this works," Hannah stared at the screen intently. "I mean I get how, sort of. But how does matter create gravity? Why does it do the things it does? Why does it affect spacetime? Why does spacetime even exist?"

"Perhaps you should go to school to study these things?" Blood Raven offered. "Then someday, you might explain it to us."

"Maybe I will," Hannah nodded. "Maybe someday I'll go out there, to space. Janos Heisen went to Jupiter. If the Technocrat can do it, why not me? Why not go farther, to another solar system? Or another galaxy?"

"You remind me of Keziah," Blood Raven mused. "Follow those dreams, as she did. Perhaps one day you will meet her on some distant star, in some distant time."

"She's the one who made this place," Hannah said, more a statement than a question. "She made the sanctum. What was she like?"

"She was a genius." Blood Raven leaned back, and stared at the ceiling. "She was passionate. She was stubborn. She was kind. She was opinionated. She was patient. She was the best teacher a person could ever hope for, and she was a good friend."

"Sounds familiar," January stared across at Blood Raven. She could not imagine coming as far as she had, as fast as she had, without Blood Raven's help. As much as they might argue at times, the elder heroine was always a literal rock for her to stand upon. Perhaps Blood Raven recognized this, for they shared a smile for a moment. At least until Hannah broke the momentary spell.

"So when do I get a super suit of my own?" the young woman asked. "A real one. I've got a name. And I know a design. I want a black hole, right on the chest."

January and Blood Raven both looked at her, then at each other.

"Why is it that I continue to have this conversation with your friends January?" Blood Raven almost smiled. "I should be tempted to inscribe it upon one of Mr. Bell's wax cylinders, so that I might replay it on a graphophone in the future."

"A what?" Hannah started at the elder heroine blankly.

"You don't have to do any of that," January said carefully. "Learning to use your powers is one thing. Every meta-human should, needs to really. But the rest... it's not necessary."

"I want to," Hannah declared. "I want to be like you! Like both of you. I could save people's lives too. I could make a difference in the world too."

"Consider the Technocrat then," Blood Raven insisted. "He has done a great deal wearing powered armor, and within his current robotic frame. I am not really sure if there is anything human left in him anymore. But he has done so much more as a scientist and a world leader than he ever did as a warrior. A good thing too, elsewise the Nazis might have won the war."

"He learned from the evil that he wrought. After the war he helped create a nation based on not only technological advancement, but the humanist principles which technology must always serve. He did none of those greater things with a laser beam or automatic cannon. He did it with a vision to make the world a better place for everyone within it, rather than just for a chosen few."

"You can do a great deal of good in this world Hannah," Blood Raven finished. "None of it requires you to follow a warrior's path. Indeed, there are far nobler, and far more important pursuits."

"And you could get killed," January frowned. "I mean, really killed. Some of the people and things we fight won't go that far. They will hold back so they don't take lives. But many dream of it. After we fought the neo-Nazis downtown there were people burning effigies of me on nooses. Social media is filled with people literally foaming at the mouth and screaming for my death."

"But that doesn't stop you," Hannah shot back.

"No, it does not," January said. "I learned a long time ago not to let homicidal bigots intimidate me. But it does give me pause. It does make me think about how my death will affect those around me. I already saw that, or near enough, when I tried to kill myself. I often still wonder if I am nothing but selfish for doing this."

"But you still do it," Hannah insisted. "You're an inspiration. Not just for me, but for all of us, for our whole generation. You're the reason I came here. I knew you would help me. Why can't I do the same?"

"You can," Blood Raven said. "You may. Or your life might spill out in a muddy ditch. I have seen hundreds of thousands of young people who were just as passionate as you. I have buried them. Some of them, I killed. To bear this covenant, it is the most serious oath one may ever take. It is made with your life. Be sure of that before you make it."

"I am sure!" Hannah cried. "I'm ready! January, tell her I'm ready!"

"I was never ready for it," January said honestly. "I still don't really know if I am. That's why it scares the drek out of me when the people I care about want to do this."

"Do you always try to talk everyone out of it?" Hannah railed. "Or is it just me."

"Yes we do," Blood Raven intoned gravely. "As I intimated, we have had this conversation before."

"So what happened with them?" Hannah asked.

"Well, I am right here." January waved a hand to indicate herself. "You might have seen the MeTube videos of us on the Ambassador Bridge recently. Ôkami was there too."

"So he's one of your friends then?" Hannah asked, "and now he's a cape?"

"You're bound to meet him soon." January nodded.

[Acadian]

A good training session.

"Excellent!" Blood Raven crowed.’
- - How else would Blood Raven exclaim something if not to crow it? Methinks your word choice here was neither random nor accidental – well done!

"What?" she said defensively. "We don't have Fae Cola on the West Coast. It's all Sepsi and Koch-A-Cola."
- - I imagine one could just forget about trying to locate a Nuka Cola. . . oh, wait.

It was touching when Jan quietly acknowledged what a mentor Blood Raven was to her. That was perfectly followed by Blood Raven’s anachronistic reference to a graphophone and Hannah’s ‘A what?’. Nice job of so concisely saying much about the nature of each of the three women.

A thoughtful conversation at the end highlighting the difference between the ability to become a cape and the choice to actually do so. I confess to fully endorsing Jan’s lingering reluctance/uncertainty – for that keeps her cautious and, hopefully, alive. The overeagerness of Hannah is something I hope she’ll mature out of before getting killed. Perhaps she may need to survive a close call to realize she’s not invincible.

[SubRosa]

Acadian: Blood Raven is not the only one who crows. I have been strategically placing that word here and there lately. It was practically made for this story.

There was a time when you could buy Nuka Cola from Target. I went looking for it, but sadly they were sold out already.

When it came time for Blood Raven to describe Keziah, I decided to instead write it as how January would describe Blood Raven herself. Then I put those words in Blood Raven's mouth. I like the idea of them both being part of a continual chain of teacher to student.

January still grapples with her invincibility. Well that is not exactly it. She knows she can be vinced. But she is so ready to sacrifice that it does sometimes verge upon recklessness herself. She never hesitates to suffer any injury for the sake of others.






Leeroy Jenkins

Ogun


Book 8.14 - Blood

Their second night together passed without any new romantic drama, which was to say that January spent the entire time alone in her sleeping bag. This was both cause for relief and disappointment. Therapy had taught her that there was a difference between things one wanted in life, and things one needed. You could live without the first, but that did not make wanting them frivolous. It just meant one needed perspective to understand the importance of one over the other.

She sighed and tried to forget about her love life as she wove her way through traffic the next morning. The sun loomed low on the eastern horizon, but the roads were already filled with people on their way to work. It was a relief to finally get out of the pre-rush hour traffic, and ride her motorcycle up Avery's driveway. She threaded past his mother's Buick Envision, and then Avery's own yellow Geo Storm. She pulled up her bike beyond even that, and parked it in front of the detached garage that sat in the back yard.

As usual, she locked the motorcycle down with Gadget's molecular adhesion emitter. Then she stepped off the Victory and drew the full face helmet from her head. She took a moment to straighten out her hair. Then with the flowery pink helmet clutched in one hand, she walked to the back door and knocked.

"Oh hi Jan," his mom answered a moment later. She still wore her scrubs from the hospital. Or perhaps she was preparing to go there? January could never tell which was which, given how many hours she worked.

"Avery's down in his cave." His mother nodded down the steps to the basement, and then disappeared into the living room a moment later.

January trundled down the stairs, and made sure to make plenty of noise so Avery could hear her coming. She found him at his workbench. A pair of safety glasses sat atop his handsome features, and a pair of thick gloves protected his hands. He was hunched over a long array of electronics. Electricity hissed and popped, and a curl of smoke rose up from the tech spaghetti before him.

"Spleck!" Avery cursed, as he reflexively jumped away.

"Maybe you should leave the lightning to me?" January remarked as she walked up behind him.

"Oh hey Jan," Avery waved a hand in the air to disperse the smoke, "just tinkering with something."

Now that she had a closer look, January could see that it was some kind of flexible joint, that linked two metallic sheathes. It looked like an elbow or knee from a knight's suit of armor. Except this knight's panoply was powered by a miniature fusion reactor. The familiar donut shape of the latter sat nearby, and was connected to the armor via a forest of wiring and conduits.

"So how are things with Hannah?" Avery said as innocuously as possible. He gave off the impression of a man cautiously traversing a minefield. January could relate, for she felt much the same way with her reply.

"Ok," she answered. "She's picking things up really quickly. I think it helps that she's been teleporting for years. So this is not all brand new for her."

"And the rest?" Avery carefully probed.

"The rest is... complicated," January sighed. "Look can we not argue about this? I know what you are going to say. You know what I am going to say. Can we just leave it at that?"

"Hey, I'm not going aggro on you." Avery held up his hands in surrender. "We're friends. I'm just asking as a friend. I actually do want you to be happy you know."

January stepped back and leaned against the back of the worn and battered couch that took up the center of the basement. She sighed again.

"I don't know," January said. "She makes me feel... so alive. When she touches me, it's electric. And believe me, I know what electricity feels like. When she kisses me... No one has ever wanted me like that before."

"But does she want you, or does she want Stormcrow?" Avery leaned back on the couch beside her.

"I don't know," January said honestly. "Listen, I know that I'm being dumb. I know this a mistake. I know it. But I want this. I want her."

"Yeah, I get it." Avery reached out put a comforting arm around her shoulder. By reflex, January leaned in and laid her head on his shoulder in return. "Maybe your Leeroy Jenkins tactic of just going straight in will work out for the best. Maybe her knowing everything right from the start is the right way to go. You won't be hiding a huge part of your life from her."

"Every time I start to get close to a guy, and start to think that maybe he's the one, I run up against this brick wall." Avery waved a hand out in front of him to indicate the workbench and nearby computer station. "How much can I tell him about me being a meta, and this thing we do? How much do I have to lie to him so he can't hurt me, or himself, with what he knows? In a weird way it is like being in the closet again. It's really starting to slag me off."

"Here we are moaning about our love lives," January snortled, "we're starting to sound like Reckless Homemakers!"

"Ogun forbid!" Avery laughed.

A light sprang up from the workbench, and a rich male voice with a distinctly African accent issued from a pile of electronics.

"Please restate command," the disembodied voice intoned.

January said nothing. She did cast a glance at Avery, and raised one eyebrow in Spockian incredulity.

"Ogun, shut down." Avery spoke in a loud, clear tone. A brief whir trailed away through the air, and the light went out.

"Making new friends?" January finally asked.

"Just something I am tinkering on." Avery rubbed the back of his head.

"Like that new fusion reactor?" January probed. "Or that elbow joint? And did I see a pair of boots up there too? Is that more cubic born nitride they're made of?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Avery rubbed the back of his head. "I'm just tinkering, like I always do."

"You know, Lighthammer taught me a lot about flying," January began with a sly smile. "He could teach you too, if you were ever interested. I have it on good authority that he's not that hard to look at either. He's got all the parts in the places you like..."

"Oh you are not setting me up with Lighthammer!" Avery laughed, and sprang to his feet. "I'd sooner kiss a wookie!"

"I might be able to arrange that too!" January laughed in return.

She held out her pinky finger. Avery wrapped his own little finger around hers.

"Friends until we die," Avery sagely intoned.

"Then our ghosts go on to scare the frak out of the living!" January smiled in reply.

"Ok, so what really brings you here to my cave?" Avery leaned up against the Blob. The battered old punching back hung from the bared studs of the ceiling overhead by iron chains. The heavy bag's worn brown leather skin was crisscrossed with duct tape, giving it the appearance of a mummy. "And don't tell me it's my love life."

"It's the armor," January rose to her feet and stepped toward the workbench. Did she see a gauntlet in there, with some form of energy emitter built into the palm? Was that a helmet farther back in the pile of gear?

"My armor," she continued. "I've been thinking about it for a long time. The truth is I don't really need it. I am tougher than it ever was. Don't get me wrong. This isn't about you. I never would have taken on Lighthammer that first night without it, or without you backing me up. But now that I know who I really am, I know I need to stand without it. Eventually it's going to become a crutch."

"Yeah, I've seen this coming," Avery nodded, "ever since you started talking about relying on gadgets too much, when you should be using your own natural abilities."

"So I need a new suit," January said. "But one that's not armor. Just something so people still know I'm Stormcrow."

Avery walked over to his computer desk, and fought open one of its battered drawers with a rattle of wood. He withdrew a palm-sized sphere of shiny chrome. January could see that it was bumpy. Each of these protrusions from its surface appeared to be cameras, or emitters, or some such devices.

"I still have this left over from when Mr. Blackwood made Ôkami's suit." Avery explained. He tossed it out in the air between them. But rather than fall to the floor, it glowed to life and hovered in the air. It slowly turned in place, and a gender neutral voice issued from its depths.

"Ready to open new project," it intoned.

"Blackwood sent it to me," Avery explained. "We used this to take Ôkami's measurements. It makes a full 3D model of you using lidar. Then it transmits it to him. He can use it to make a perfect, form-fitting suit for anyone."

"Take it home with you," Avery said. "Maybe you and Hannah both could put it to good use. I'll set up a meeting with him, and text you the deets."

"You're a lifesaver Avery," January took the remote in one hand. She stepped forward, and hugged him lightly. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Probably get in a lot more trouble..." he murmured, "and look a lot less fabulous when you were doing it."

[Renee]

I like how Hannah wears an incomplete suit. That's a nice touch if this were on CW. Whoa, they're practicing with tennis balls. Spaldings and Wilsons and Penns. Wow, this part's really neat.

"Think back to the mall, when you used your kinetic bolt to send your dad and me flying." January said. "Think back to what you were feeling. Try to conjure that emotion up, and channel it into your force field."

I love this part. It's sort of like when somebody was trying to train Seven to expand her Telekinesis in ST. Whoa. She sends January back with her power! The Force is strong in this one.

Blood Raven Goshdarn, I love the way she talks.

Finally Blood Raven allowed them to take a break.

...allowed them to take a break.

Wait, what is FaeCo? I see Pepsi and Coca Cola. Is it Fanta?

Cosmos is great; like a combination of philosophy and science. Yes, Hannah is right about warping time and space. I can't wait to see how she'll use this against baddies!


I am a week behind, I'll catch up with the new chapter later...

[Acadian]

Wow, I had no idea that Target once carried Nuka Cola!


Wonderful to spend some time with Gadget again. You really write the two of them well together. From the awkward exchanges about their love lives to the wonderfully well-established and intimate comfort they share as shown by the scene when they entwine pinkies.

’Avery walked over to his computer desk, and fought open one of its battered drawers with a rattle of wood.’
- - Just a simple action but really brought vividly to life by this superbly crafted and creative sentence. I’m envious.

So, a new set of threads coming for the Stormcrow! The idea flows naturally from the progression of her magicks. Can’t wait to 'see' it! Something crow-colored that covers her face no doubt.


Nits:
- - "You know, Lighthammer taught me a lot about flying," January began with as {a vs as} sly smile.’
- - ’The battered old punching back hung {from?} the bared studs of the ceiling overhead by iron chains.’

[SubRosa]

Renee: This will be the last CW episode. After this, we will be cranking up January's fight music.

Blood Raven is an intense taskmaster. She pushes you to be your best. So no breaks until she says so. OTOH, the people who graduate her "school" of supertraining are the best there are.

Sepsi and Koch-a-Cola are plays on Pepsi and Coca Cola of course. FaeCo, or Fae Cola, is a play on Faygo. It is a local pop company here in Detroit, really big with ICP and the Juggalos.

I own Cosmos on dvd and I have the companion book, and pull it out to rewatch now and again. I did it last year, so it is still kind of in my mind.


Acadian: Target sells some other Fallout-related nerd toys as well. I bought a little Nuka Girl plaque from them that I have on one wall.

It is always a good scene when I can put Jan and Avery in the same room. They are like two halves of the same person sometimes.

New threads for Stormcrow, and for other people too. Some of which we will explore this episode.

As ever, thanks for pointing out those nits so I can fix them.






January in her sun dress

Mr Blackwood's estate (Villa Katsura) deck pic 1

Mr Blackwood's estate (Villa Katsura) deck pic 2

Mr. Blackwood (RL Michael Caine) pic

Jean-Paul (RL Hugo Philip) pic

Billy Joel - She's Always A Woman

Modern interpretation of a Black Hole



Book 8.15 - Blood

January returned to the Witch House. She immediately sensed Blood Raven's presence, even without the aid of the home's protective witch bottles. Once she stepped across the boundary of the magical defenses, they also alerted her to the presence of Hannah. Both were in the sanctum. January could feel a prodigious amount of energy being expended up there, and imagined that they were training once again.

She did not go straight to the sanctum however. Instead she detoured off the second floor mezzanine to go to her bedroom. There she stripped out of her clothes, except for the gaff that tucked up her genitals. She produced the remote which Avery had just given her, and put it to use. It whirred to life once January tossed it into the air. She bade it to create a new file under the name "Stormcrow", and it set out to fully scan her. January closed her eyes as laser light emitted from the ball and swept across her frame. She could hear it bob and spin around her body, rising to the crown of her head, and falling down to her toes. After a few minutes it was finished, and announced that the file was saved.

January got dressed once more. This time she left off the skinny jeans she had gone riding in. Instead she slipped into the flowery sun dress she had just bought at the resale shop down the street. It was now officially as girly as she ever got, even more than her Cthulhu skater dress. The multi-colored outfit was definitely eye-catching, with an open back and slit skirt that showed off plenty of her alabaster skin. She absolutely wanted Hannah to see her in it. She wanted Hannah to see her, not whatever idealized image she might have formed of who Stormcrow was. She even stopped by her mirror to primp with her makeup. She was going to be at her best for the other woman.

Then she finally climbed the secret stairway to the third floor of the tower. There within the sanctum she found Blood Raven and Hannah. As she had surmised, they were training. This time Blood Raven was pushing the young woman. She prompted her to alternate between teleporting, creating force fields, and firing her kinetic bolts. The elder heroine did this by flying about, and sending out the golden tendrils of her energy whips, or tentacles. January was not entirely sure what they were, except that they allowed her to both strike and grasp objects from afar.

Hannah turned to look at January. Her eyes glowed like fire in the wide open space as they cast over January's athletic frame, so clearly on display in the floral dress. January felt herself begin to blush, but she was not at all disappointed. She wished more women would look at her that way.

Then one of Blood Raven's golden tendrils of force smacked Hannah in the back of the head. Thankfully she was once more wearing the backup Stormcrow suit. Its armored helmet shielded her from physical harm, if not from embarrassment. January smiled. She had never had that effect on a woman.

It was nice.

"Take heed my young apprentice." Blood Raven floated across the room to hover in the air before the two young women. "Allow yourself to be distracted by beautiful women at your peril."

January looked down at her bared toes, before raising her eyes back to Hannah's. Sweet Freyja, she really wanted to kiss her. The next thing she knew, she was doing exactly that. It was pure bliss when the other woman's arms wrapped around her. She lifted her own arms around Hannah's neck, and clung to her frame. The form-fitting armor that the other woman wore left nothing to the imagination, and January eagerly pressed her body against Hannah's.

"Ahem," Blood Raven cleared her throat.

January pulled away, and felt another blush rise to warm her cheeks. This was not how she imagined things going. But somehow when she was around Hannah, nothing quite worked out how she expected.

"Oh go on and be young..." the other woman waved a hand and shook her head.

"Actually I'm here to be a grown-up," January insisted. Her fingers were still pleasantly entwined with Hannah's. She lifted her free hand to show off Mr. Blackwood's remote. "I'm going to get a new suit, and I thought that while I was at it..."

"I get my own suit too!" Hannah squealed with delight.

January looked at Blood Raven expectantly. She could not pay for these things. But she knew who could. The elder heroine seemed to consider it for long moments, and cast her gaze from one young woman to the next.

"Very well, I assume you have arranged a meeting?" she finally relented.

"In a few minutes," January said. "We need to set up a video link. I've got the IP address in my phone."

"No need," Blood Raven declared. "I have enjoyed a long relationship with the master of materials. Come then, let us adjourn to more appropriate quarters."

Those quarters turned out to be January's bedroom. There January gave the remote to Hannah, and explained how it worked. The other woman took it into the adjoining bathroom to undress and put it to use. In the meantime Blood Raven looked January up and down.

"You look lovely my dear," she observed. "Was that meant to impress Hannah, or Mr. Blackwood?"

"Ope!" January looked down at the sundress that she wore. That would not be the most professional way of appearing in a meeting with the world's preeminent superhero clothier. She closed her eyes, and called upon the element of Fire. She transformed, and was clad in her armor a moment later.

"Better?" she now looked back to Blood Raven.

"Under the circumstances, yes," the other woman nodded.

Blood Raven tapped the screen of the computer built into her own armored forearm. Then she withdrew the same holographic emitter she had used to display Cosmos the previous day, and placed it on the fireplace mantel. She stepped back, and tapped a few more virtual buttons. Then it sprang to light within the air in the center of the room.

After a smatter of static, the image from the other side of the link resolved itself into view. It was of a wooden deck that bordered a natural pool of azure blue water. Small ornamental trees and strategically placed rocks gave the place the appearance of an aquatic garden, rather than a place one would go swimming. A tiny waterfall even gurgled from one cluster of stones, falling into the crystal waters below.

A wooden bridge gently arced across the pond, to its far side. There a ring of carefully placed stones stood atop the wooden berm that held back the waves. Beyond stretched out a breathtaking view of the ocean, whose gentle waves mirrored the clear sky above. Dark shadows of islands rose miles in the distance, and the bright yellow and white sails of a pleasure boat skidded past between them.

Sitting in a wooden deck chair before this ornamental Japanese garden/infinity pool was a man in his middle years. He was pale skinned, and a nest of short, tightly curled brown hairs sprouted from his scalp. A strong, straight nose was the centerpiece of a face that appeared to have been carved from stone by a master sculptor. A pair of wire-framed glasses was the only thing that betrayed the illusion of his immortality, that and the graying hair around his temples, and the laugh lines that cut his chiseled features.

He was dressed in a blue suit that could only be described as immaculate. A flower was pinned to the lapel, and a bright yellow tie decorated with blue dots graced his chest. The links on his snow white cuffs shone like pure gold. January noted a diamond ring on one of his fingers as he lifted a colorful tropical drink to his lips, and took a short sip from a bamboo straw.

"Mr. Blackwood," Blood Raven began. "It is a pleasure, as always. I am delighted to introduce you to my compatriot, Stormcrow."

"The honor of meeting the Motor City's second Blackbird is all mine." He set down his drink and looked directly at January. His voice was smooth and polished and as English as one could get without tea and crumpets in the background. "You have made quite a splash since your arrival upon the scene my young friend. I only wish you had contacted me first. I could have conjured a suit for you of masterful proportions. Though I must admit that helmet is a work of art. You are like an ebon-winged Valkyrie descended to Midgard."

"About that," January looked down a moment. Then she raised her eyes to meet the older man's gaze. "I'd like you to make a new suit for me."

He clapped his hands to together in obvious glee, and leaped to his feet. "I knew it!" he crowed. "Sooner or later, they all come to Mr. Blackwood!"

"Jean-Paul, bring the computer." He turned to address someone outside of the picture. A moment later he waved his hands away.

"No, no, no, not that little thing," he admonished, "the big one!"

Finally a very fit man with tanned skin and midnight hair walked into view. He was bare-chested, and the tropical sun did all kinds of good things for his lithe frame. He pushed a gigantic touch screen computer that floated in mid air, and began to tap furiously upon its screen."

"Do you have one of my remotes?" Blackwood asked, face glued to the computer. "Your friend Gadget should still have one within his possession. The masterpiece I created for your mutual comrade Ôkami was a pure joy to construct. I cannot wait to see what I can do for you."

"It's coming," January said. "My other friend Vortex has it. We would like you to create a suit for her as well."

"Exquisite!" Mr. Blackwood exclaimed. "Is she the one from the mall? Oh she is in desperate need of proper attire for this sort of thing. That Nightgirl mask will just not do, not at all. A woman's attire makes a statement. That says shlock. What she needs is something that will proudly declare who she is and what she is made of to all! It shall be my delight to drape her in the finest of meta-materials. When I am done, she will be teleporting from one end of the globe to the next, and doing it with style."

"He gets excited, doesn't he," January said out of the corner of her mouth to Blood Raven.

"He can hear you, you know!" the Englishman declared. "Young people these days... But yes, you are correct. I do get excited about clothing. It is my passion. The clothes make the man after all, and I make men the world over. Women too, and non-gender conforming individuals as well. My true love is making everyone look the best they possibly can be."

"I admire your passion," January replied honestly. "It really is a joy to do what you love most in life."

"Now let's crack on shall we? How shall I attire thee, my Norse goddess?" Mr. Blackwood turned his camera so that January and Blood Raven could see his floating computer better. The blank outline of a female shape filled the current window. With a few taps to the screen the image of a golden-clad Valkyrie filled the space. A winged helmet similar to January's current model graced her head. Feathers of what looked to be pure sunlight draped her frame. Even a sword hung from her hip.

"Umm, that's a bit much," January said. "I was thinking-"

"I know!" Mr. Blackwood plunged ahead before January could finish her sentence. He tapped more buttons, and the image washed away. A picture of a woman in a form-fitting bodysuit replaced it. It appeared to be made of a series of hexagons, bending and flexing with every curve of her body. A golden crow was emblazoned across the chest. Her hair was a golden halo surrounding her head, while a cowl obscured her features.

"That really is a bit much," January felt herself start to blush just looking at the artistic interpretation of extremely overt female sexuality. "The truth is I like how my armor looks now. All I really want to do is change the material. I don't really need the hagfish fibers, or the cubic born nitride in the plates. Can you make me something with your meta-materials? But the same colors and look. Even the same plates on the chest and arms?"

"You want it to look the same?" Mr. Blackwood's face practically fell. "You mean, exactly the same?"

"That is correct," Blood Raven finally spoke up. January had not really discussed it with her. But the older heroine seemed to know her mind well enough. "Stormcrow is not truly one seeking to impress others with her appearance. Utility is more important to her, as is the appearance of utility, if you take my meaning. She does not want to look like she is trying to be a model on a runway."

"So you wish to look good, without it appearing that you are trying to look good," Mr. Blackwood seemed to appraise her all over again. He nodded. "I see. This will have to be subdued, subtle... Very well, I can do it, though it will lack panache. I know! What if I added a spike to top of the helmet? That would really make it pop!"

"I think it's plenty lively already," January said. "I prefer it just as it is now. Now tell me about this meta-material you have."

"Why I don't have it," Mr. Blackwood preened. "I make it."

He lifted one cufflink to the camera. He passed his other hand across it. Light danced from his fingertips, and curled down into the snowy white fabric of the long-sleeved shirt that he wore under his blazer. The stiff material of the shirt transformed under January's eyes, and became a shimmering sea of sequins.

"I do require certain base materials to begin with however. Alas, I cannot turn lead into gold. But I can weave anything, into any shape or form." Mr. Blackwood explained. "My base package meta-material is self-repairing, waterproof, stain resistant, moisture wicking, thermal insulating, and radiation resistant. Best of all, it is machine washable. After all, one cannot wait for a dry cleaning service while you are busy saving the world."

"That sounds... impressive," January nodded in approval. It was much more than she could have hoped for in fact, especially the self-repairing part. She had gotten so many holes in her chest plate that sometimes it felt more like a spaghetti strainer...

"Impressive? No, that is the very lowest tier of my creations," Mr. Blackwood waved a hand in dismissal. "My optional packages include creation of a full body seal for extra-planetary activity. I can also include a mask to filter out toxins, or a self-contained air supply, or a voice changer with a full range of frequency and tonal modulations. Of course I can also add armor to the material, proof against both kinetic and any other forms of energy, though of course you won't be requiring that."

"No, I won't really need any of that," January said. "In fact, I think I'll keep my current helmet, and my left arm guard. That has my digital assistant built into it. So I'll be needing it."

The Englishman shook his head and clucked in disappointment. "Will you give a man nothing to work with? I could make you a goddess!"

"I don't want to be a goddess," January replied honestly. "All I have ever wanted is to be a woman."

"As Mr. William Joel once said, you will always be that," Mr. Blackwood smiled. "But worry not about your onboard computer. I can reproduce the arm guard it is set into as well. It should be easy enough to transfer the technology over from the old to the new. I've done it many times before." The Englishman waved a hand to dismiss the difficulty of such an undertaking. "The helmet itself will be child's play to reproduce with all of its current abilities. Plus a few more, such as night vision, telescopic sights, heads up display, etcetera, etcetera..."

"Oh hello, who is this vision?"

The creator's gaze moved to Hannah, who walked back into the room with the remote in hand. She was again clad in January's incomplete backup Stormcrow suit. She handed the spherical remote to January, who tossed it in the air between them and Mr. Blackwood. It shone to life, and its owner glanced down at the screen of his tabletop computer. "Yes, I am receiving the data now, perfect. Since you would like to replicate your current armor, perhaps you should make another pass with it while you are so clad. In the meantime I can become more acquainted with your friend."

January reached out and took the remote in her hands again. She walked to the bathroom, while Hannah began to gush with the ideas she had for her new suit. January smiled. She liked it when Hannah was happy. It made her happy. She set to work with the remote, and half-listened to the conversation. Standing very still, she once more closed her eyes, and allowed its lasers to scour and map every inch of her armored frame.

Finished, January returned to find Hannah holding up her phone to show the meta-clothier a picture on its screen. Her face was lit with expectation and pure joy, which instantly brought a smile to January's own features. Sweet Freyja, Hannah was something to behold.

"See how the light from the accretion disc is bent by gravity? It warps spacetime so much that you can see the light behind the hole in a wide band of color on top of it. And there is a smaller band bent around under the hole. It is a rainbow of fire, that is constantly flowing as it is annihilated within the event horizon."

"Oh yes, I saw that film a few years ago," Mr. Blackwood nodded. "I seem to recall it being said that it was the most accurate depiction of a black hole in any movie to date."

"So can you do it?" Hannah asked pensively.

"I honestly don't know." The Englishman lifted a hand to his mouth and chewed a fingernail with concentration. But January could see the gears whirling behind his eyes as he faced this challenge to his abilities. Finally a light sparked there, and his face glowed in inspiration.

"Eureka!" he exclaimed. "Jean-Paul, clear my schedule! We are going into experimental mode."

He glanced back up the screen, and saw that January had returned. "Stormcrow, take note of your friend. She is a truly formidable woman. I haven't stretched like this since that time Stinger called upon me to create adaptive atoms. That was a collaboration of genius! Now I shall bend reality to my will."

"Oh, and be a good girl and transmit the data from the remote." he added offhandedly. "I will be in touch!"

With that the screen went blank.

"That man is something else," January stared back in amazement.

"He is a true artist," Blood Raven declared. "You will never find his match."

"There is nothing hotter than a hot gay man," Hannah mused. Then she looked around to see January and Blood Raven staring at her. "What, did you see him? He's gayer than a convention of Elton John impersonators. Besides, no straight man knows that much about clothes. He knows more about fashion than me, and that is saying a lot."

[Acadian]

Blood Raven’s golden tendril energy whips conjure images of Wonder Woman.

Love how the appearance of Jan in her sundress notably distracted Hannah at an awkward moment of her training.

I can see it now: Stormcrow and Vortex engaged against baddies. “Time out for a kiss!”

Mr Blackwood has some breathtaking digs indeed!

Motor City’s second Blackbird! Great nickname.

"My base package meta-material is self-repairing, waterproof, stain resistant, moisture wicking, thermal insulating, and radiation resistant.‘
- - That is some handy stuff. Sounds like a blend of silks from dragon, spider daedra and ancestor moth!

In just a short space, you brought Mr Blackwood very much to life with plenty of rich detail.

And your ongoing character development of Jan and Hannah continues wonderfully. Here we confirm, once again, that subtle and not seeking the limelight perfectly suit the noble character of Jan. Hannah, on the other hand, embraces flash and quite bubbles with enthusiasm.

[Renee]

The sleeping bag is okay. In 'normal' circumstances there would be some cool-down after all, as both of them go their separate ways for a while. I would say that at this point, Jan needs some love though. It's not just a want.

Avery has a man cave. Cool, I am glad she's talking with Avery now. See, this is what I was saying the other day when I was getting "too deep". We all need perspective, though.

Hee, so it looks like she no longer is going to be boosting Light Armor, instead she's going for Unarmored and maybe some Alteration (Shield spells).

Michael Caine...whatever happened to that guy? I can remember the era when it seemed like he was in EVERY movie ever made. So it is kind of funny he appears in this fan fic as well. Hey, I think he totally fits this role of Mister Blackwood.

Her sun dress. Work it, hon. Ha ha Raven seems perturbed! All of this makes me wonder if Branwen has ever had any sort of love interest(s). She seems asexual in her post-human form.

Ha this scene with Michael Caine is craking me up. Well, looking forward to her new supersuit.

[SubRosa]

Acadian: Well Blood Raven can be quite Wondrous...

Hold on to the that thought about the time out for a kiss...

I found Mr. Blackwood's home the way I have been finding many "normal" locations lately: I do a search of an area for houses for sale or rent. It turns up all sorts of prospects, that usually include pictures inside and out. It is really handy.

Blood Raven does own the company which IRL makes dragon silk body armor. So at least one of those is often in there!

Mr. Blackwood is a fun character to write. He will reappear in the next book, when Jan visits him to pick up her new armor.

January is a little weird, in that on one hand her natural inclination is to avoid attention. But on the other hand, as a superhero she is constantly in the limelight. And she even consciously seeks it out because she knows that she can use the media to do good in the world. It creates an interesting dichtomy within her character.


Renee: January's relationship with Hannah is anything but normal. Unfortunately, that will probably never change.

Avery has the Gadget Cave!

Michael Caine just got old. He is like 80 or so now. He does still appear in films. He was in Tenent. He just is in the grandfather/wise old mentor role these days. The guy has had an incredible career. He was making movies in the 60s. That's is sixty some years of movie making.

I don't really get into Blood Raven's love life. One reason is that like Jan, I want people to see her for who she is as a person, rather than who she is having sex with. I really get tired of the need so many writers have to forcefully interject romance into a story. It is like ticking a box. Rather than fueling the plot or characterization. Hannah is going to do both of those for January's tale, mostly the characterization. She is one example of January growing up into adulthood. Her first real girlfriend.

Blood Raven herself was married, and had children. Back in the 1780s. Otherwise January would not exist! But as the centuries have rolled past, I see her romantic desires dimming. Strictly speaking, she is not human anymore. She does not look at the world, or relationships, the way she once would have.












Thetis

The Summoner's Theme Music

As always Gull Island can be found on the Stormcrow Google Map

Jobbie Nooner

Gull Island Aerial View

Gull Island Beach

Gull Island Close Up

Persian Horned Viper (partial inspiration for the oniare's appearance)

níðingr = Old Norse insult meaning "villain" or "vile person"




Book 8.16 - Blood

More training followed. By now Hannah had become quite adept with her force fields and kinetic bolts. January likewise gained plenty of experience at using Earth to make herself immovable and invulnerable. It was not until lunch time that Blood Raven finally allowed them to take the rest of the day off. Well, the rest of the afternoon off. She warned that she would be back for more training in the evening.

January made them a quinoa salad for lunch. Afterward January led them back to her room for a movie. She soon became keenly aware of Hannah fidgeting beside her. They both lay on her bed, face down, feet in the air above them. January's tablet was propped between them with a pillow to keep it from falling over. The Wizard of Oz played in brilliant color on its small screen. As ever, the film filled January with hope and joy. She had prayed that it would arouse the same feelings within Hannah.

Apparently that was not the case.

"You didn't like it," January finally said when the credits began to roll.

"It was... kind of silly," Hannah frowned. "I mean, Gilda and the Wicked Witch are such stereotypes. And why couldn't Gilda just fly her to Oz right to begin with? And then we find out that she had the power do it all by herself from the start. And her whole crew all had the things they were looking for to begin with."

"That's the whole point," January insisted. "It is about us finding our own power. You are right about the stereotyping though. Dorothy was the only real Witch in the whole movie, because it is all about her journey to find her power. A power she always had, but never realized, and never exercised. It's the same with the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion. They all found what they were looking for, not outside themselves, but within their hearts and actions. They became the people they needed to be."

"Something else I really appreciate is that none of them did it alone," January added. "Because as much as finding our personal power is important, no amount of simply believing in ourselves can solve systemic issues. I found that out when my Junior High School kicked me out for fighting back against the bullies that had been beating me up. That kind of change requires collective action. So they formed a super team, and they all held each other up to make their world a better place."

"I guess so," Hannah shrugged. "It just isn't for me. Maybe we could-"

But January did not hear the rest of the sentence. Instead she smelled blood, thick and coppery. It was not Blood Raven. The elder heroine's magical scent was entirely different from this, even though it too was founded upon blood. Her aura held an odor of vitality. It was blood that sustained life. This was the opposite. It was blood creating death and horror. A sense of corruption and toxicity ran through the smell. It was like the universe was being pulled inside out, and perverted in some terrifying fashion.

The feeling was not coming from the area nearby. No, it was being transmitted via the link from one of the poppets that she and Blood Raven had created. The link tingled like electricity, and channeled the sensation directly into January's aura. She traced back along that connection and found the source, the poppet named Thetis, which lay at the bottom of Lake St. Clair.

January was already out of the bed. Her suit immediately transformed around her body, and she lifted Sága to her face. She punched the general distress call. It would connect her with everyone of their small but growing team. While she waited, she turned back to Hannah.

"Gear up," January said. "We have to fight, now."

"What, what is going-" Hannah blurted out in shock. But she was cut off by a voice that came over the comm link.

"This is Cray," came the deep and bourbon-smooth voice of the elder hacker.

"Gadget here," his younger counterpart chimed in a moment later.

"An Abyssal is being summoned," Blood Raven's voice came over next. "I sense it through Thetis. The event is perhaps five miles north of the poppet."

"I feel the same," January chimed in. "Vortex and I are going to teleport to Metro Beach. I'll fly us from there."

"That is the Lake St. Clair Metropark," Ôkami noted. "I am on the way."

"Come to the Witch House," January said. "Vortex can meet you here, and port you the rest of the way. You too Blood Raven."

"I don't know where that is," Lighthammer's voice came over the link. Unlike the others, his connection was filled with background noise, like the sound of someone driving in a car with the windows down.

"Just head to the north end of Lake St. Clair," January said. "I'm sure you'll see the summoning when you get there."

"Roger that," the former A-10 pilot replied. "Hoooahh! I just broke Mach 2! See you in a few."

January glanced from Hannah - who was even now fighting to climb into the spare Stormcrow suit - to the bedroom windows. She so desperately wanted to fly out a window and begin pouring on the speed. But she knew that if she waited, Hannah could get her there much faster.

January moved to help her with the suit. At least there were no armor plates to strap on this version of the armor. It was just the base layer of hagfish fiber. She fitted the helmet over the other woman's head, even as Hannah pulled one glove and then the other over her hands. January leaned in and briefly kissed the other woman.

Well, it was supposed to be brief. Her heart raced, as it always did before a fight. That familiar tightness again lived within her chest along with it, along with that dryness in the back of her throat. All of these things vanished when her lips met Hannah's, except for the pounding of her heart of course. If anything that only increased.

The world fell away, and January felt weightless. Then reality came back, and she was standing in the gazebo at the eastern tip of Metro Beach. It was the same one where she had first kissed Hannah a few days before, after the long pursuit from the Lakeside Mall. A crowd of people leaped away in shock. January noticed a white wedding dress, women in satin, and men in tuxedos. There was also a photographer who deftly switched from taking pictures of the wedding party, to January and Hannah's kiss instead.

"Well, this is awkward," January breathed. But Hannah looked around at the onlookers and just giggled in amusement. She leaned in, and this time more deliberately kissed January. It was a lovely experience. One January desperately craved, especially because there was no telling what she was about to face. But for those same reasons, it was one she just had no time to indulge in.

"Get back and ferry the others here," January commanded once she mustered the will to disengage herself. "I'm going ahead. Maybe I can stop it if I get there fast enough."

Hannah nodded, and reality twisted and warped around her. Then she was gone, and the world snapped back to normal in her wake. January took a moment to conjure her wings. She would need all the speed she could muster to reach the site of the summoning in time. So she willed them to grow directly from her arms, rather than her back. That always gave her the most power.

They did make navigating her way through the wedding party awkward. She did not want to knock anyone over with an errant swipe of her wings. Or worse, cut them in half. So she held her winged arms in and pointed to the ground, and scampered her way out of the gazebo to where the open sky beckoned overhead.

"Hey Stormcrow, who's your girlfriend?" the bride shouted from the gazebo.

"Her name is Vortex!" January turned back and smiled. "Get used to seeing her."

A single bound sent her rocketing skyward. Then her wings snapped out, and added to her velocity. She focused her energy on her speed, and poured more and more mana into her wings as they propelled her over the deep blue waters of the lake. January could see the far shore in the distance. It rose up from the water like a hazy wall, a darker shade of blue and gray than the waves below. She focused on the horizon, and pushed herself farther and faster.

"Do we have a fix on the position?" Cray said over the comm link. "I didn't think there were any big events this weekend."

"I didn't see anything on the calendar." Gadget mused. "And it's only Friday afternoon. A fair or festival probably wouldn't really get going until the evening."

"It's straight ahead of me, just a few miles away." January said. "I think it's near the far shore. Maybe it's in Canada? Wait, I can see boats, a ton of boats, around a little island in a river mouth."

"Spleck!" Gadget exclaimed. "It's Jobbie Nooner! Why didn't I think of that?"

"What the heck is Jobbie Nooner," Lighthammer's voice came over the communications link.

"It's a big boat party off Gull Island," Cray's mellow tones came back in reply. "Some auto workers started it decades ago. It happens every June. A bunch of people tie up their boats, get drunk, go swimming, that sort of thing."

"It is a veritable Bacchanal of aquatic hedonism," Blood Raven added. January could practically hear the puritanical sneer in her voice.

"Sounds like fun," the younger man said. "How come no one invited me?"

"They probably don't appreciate your history of destroying massive drug shipments." Gadget noted. "You sir, are what is officially known as a party-pooper."

January could feel Blood Raven behind her now, so Vortex must have teleported her from the Witch House to the park. Her mentor was coming in fast, and closing the distance between them. January did not turn to look back however. Instead her eyes remained focused dead ahead upon her target.

She could see Gull Island clearly now. It was small, perhaps three football fields long from east to west, and much narrower across at the waist going from north to south. Some trees clustered in a small forest on the western side of the island, facing her. The rest of it was mostly open grass, or possibly marshland. January could not tell how solid the ground there might be. However, a sandy beach did stretch for a short distance along the center of the southern shore.

A shiny metal tower rose up in the middle of the isle, inland from the beach. It stretched perhaps eighty feet into the air, making it taller than the trees around it. It seemed to host an assortment of cameras, with a full field of view around the island, the river mouth, and the shorelines nearby. A tall fence surrounded it, topped by razor wire.

"Looks like that tower's owned by the Border Patrol," Gadget said in her ear. "It's basically border surveillance, so smile for the cameras. That's Canada just a little past the river."

That was the St. Clair River, and it emptied out north-east of the island. The land on the eastern side of its mouth continued south, and stretched past the island for a short distance into the lake. Its shoreline was straight as a razor's edge, and January imagined that it had been purposely dredged out. That had to be the shipping channel for the freighters that came down from higher up in the Great Lakes.

To January's left, the western bank twisted and curled back and forth, like a winding serpent. It came to an end far sooner than the eastern side, in a slender peninsula that jutted toward Gull Island like an accusatory finger. Its nearest point was all empty bogs. But farther north on the narrow strip of turning land were homes and a very small marina.

Gull Island itself sat downstream of the river mouth, with a wide channel between both that peninsula to the north, and the marshes to the east. It was a hive of activity. Boats of all sizes dotted the water. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands, far too many for January to even guess their number. They ranged from sleek little speedboats and simple, utilitarian fishing vessels, all the way up to luxurious cabin cruisers and yachts. Some floated alone. But most were tied side by side in long chains. These formed several rings around the island, and created artificial channels between each row of vessels. These ersatz canals were filled with people floating on blow up rafts or standing on paddle boards.

There were people everywhere, tens of thousands of them. Some waded in the water near the beach, or even swam in the channels between the boats farther out. Most lounged on the watercraft, or stumbled from one to the other. Even from January's altitude, she could see that most hands were filled with cups or cans. She also noted that this seemed to be a young person's affair, but not too young. There were no children. But there were plenty of women her age, clad in bikinis or little more. The men ranged from the same age to older, and many went bare-chested in the late June sun.

January even noted a large Coast Guard cutter that lurked farther from shore. Its black hull sat low down in the water. The white superstructure that rose up from the icebreaker appeared outsized in comparison, and far too tall. January did not know how it did not tip over with all that weight so high up. Its crew moved around the deck, eyes glued to the party-goers that frolicked in the waters off the island.

"I am going to try to contact those Coast Guard guys, and let them know there's going to be a fight." Cray noted over the comm link.

"They are going to see it soon enough," January noted as she buzzed past the cutter. She could feel the summoning spell ebbing. Its energy faded, and winked out as she crossed the shoreline. Just as at Ferndale Pride, she was too late.

Her eyes scanned the land below. There was little she could see in the heavy trees directly beneath her. She had just broken past them and out into the open ground, when she caught a flash of something out of the corner of her eye. She banked hard, and bled off speed as she circled to the right. That took her out over the beach, and then the water beyond.

A man strode from the trees and onto the sand. He was tall, far taller than any of the people who partied nearby, and he appeared be wearing a long cloak. He did not walk, so much as slither. Come to think of it, January could not even tell if he had legs, let alone feet. That is when she realized that it was no man at all, but rather a thing from beyond this world.

The scales of its body - yes, those were scales - were colored in bands and patches ranging from light brown to a green so dark it was nearly blue. Its head was long and serpentine, and two bony crests jutted from either side of its temples. There were no eyes within that face however, nor any sign of nostrils at the end of its rounded snout. Its wide mouth was on full display however, and bristled with long, dagger-like fangs. These dripped with green saliva that hissed angrily when it fell to the sand below.

Then she noticed the red blood that splashed its body, and left a long, serpentine trail behind it in the sand.

"That's it!" January nosed down, and dove directly for the newcomer. She could feel it now that she grew near. There was a wrongness about it. This creature did not belong here, in this universe. It set her teeth on edge, and made her skin crawl. She was glad that she had refrained from astral sensing, for she could tell that she would not like what she would have perceived in that realm.

Now the celebrants noticed the wrongness about the cloaked figure as well. Someone screamed, and sprinted away. Others dropped their beers, and simply stared in horror, apparently frozen to the spot. The monster loomed up above two of these people and raised its arms to strike.

That is when January realized that it was not wearing a cloak. Those were wings that wrapped around its frame. Now that she was closer, she also noted that its tall body stretched out into a bony tail, which was tipped by a wicked-looking stinger. It was like a giant stingray, pretending to be a man. Those wings came rushing down, clearly intent upon cutting the two men in half.

But January got there first. She crashed headfirst into the monster. Now she sort of did wish for that spike that Mr. Blackwood had wanted to affix to the top her winged helmet. She could have speared the creature with it. Not that the kinetic energy of her strike was anything to sneeze at. She took the creature fully off its feet - or whatever it ambulated upon - and they both careened back to the edge of the woods.

They struck a cottonwood tree with a tremendous crack, and its trunk shattered beneath them. Wood fragments flew everywhere like shrapnel, and skittered off the bare flesh of January's lower face. She could see the length of the broken trunk above her, falling back in the direction they had come from. That was also back toward the beach, which was still filled with people.

January did a back flip through the air, which put her back above the sand. Her wings separated from her arms, and now sprang independently from her back. That left her hands free to catch the falling tree trunk. She sagged under the weight of the cottonwood. Her wings beat furiously to keep her aloft, above the people that scurried to and fro beneath her.

It felt like it weighed a ton. She remembered the car that had gone off the Ambassador Bridge. She had failed to keep that aloft. She could not afford to fail this time however. Lives were at stake. She concentrated upon Air. She became the Sky. She poured her power into that ideal, and she raised the tree higher into the firmament.

She saw the monster coming back from the woods. It turned its blank face toward her, and spread out its wings, as if to meet her in the sky. She did not give it the time to do that. Instead January charged forward, tree still in hand. She used the trunk as a lance, and speared it directly in the chest.

The creature was smashed down to the ground under the blow. Wood shattered upon impact. But January continued forward, straight into the monster. More wood disintegrated, raining chips of it everywhere. In moments the entire trunk of hardwood had literally been annihilated by the impact, and January was left standing over the monster bare-handed.

One of its wings slashed out. January's own wing reflexively moved to block it. That intercepted the strike just in time to save her neck from the appendage. But the force of the impact sent her tumbling backward to the beach. She tucked herself into a ball and performed a back flip once more. She stabilized her flight and beat her wings to hold herself in place in the air.

The monster rose to its feet just as January turned her eyes skyward. Dark gray clouds swirled overhead, casting all below into shadow. Rain now pelted the beach, and thunder rumbled a low warning.

"Valhalla awaits you níðingr!" January snarled.

Then she ripped open the heavens and brought down a hissing bolt of lightning. Its impact was deafening. January could feel the sound waves from its impact hammer through her frame. But the creature leaped out of the way, and sand fused into glass where it had stood a moment before. January was about to hurl a second bolt, when she saw that it was nearing people again. She held back, fearing to loose electricity so near to innocents.

[Acadian]

Wow! *counts on fingers – and it takes all of them on one hand* . . . A flock of five fighters.

And its off to an Abyssal summoning – well after a long kiss of good luck. Oh ho, Hannah has a wicked sense of humor as she ports them into the middle of a wedding. Prophetic perhaps?

And feeling the need for speed, Stormcrow wastes no more time zooming to Gull Island.

And all that speed pays off as she does arrive in time to engage her foe pretty quickly after its summoning. By Kynareth’s wings, the Stormcrow has come a long way – spearing her foes with trees now! Followed by a bolt of real lightning from the sky.

Although an impressive combatant, Stormcrow probably needs help to herd the beast away from partiers into a safer killing zone. On the edge of my seat waiting for the rest of the Crow Coven to show up.

[Renee]

I don't really get into Blood Raven's love life

Sure that's fine. It would make her come across as too human.

I really get tired of the need so many writers have to forcefully interject romance into a story

YES I know what you mean. It's something which makes me roll my eyes sometimes, romance scenes which feel added in. Granted, if it's done well, great. But for instance, over the past year I've been reading Janet Evanovich, and she writes about a bumbling bounty hunter named Stephanie Plum. Her stories are a mixture of adventure and humor, all of which keeps me coming back. But then there are these romantic parts which just get annoying. They piss me off sometimes actually, because I feel like Janet wrote them up to appease some of her female readers. Stephanie falling for the same dude over and over, they hook up, it never goes anywhere. She wants to get married, but then she doesn't. Same for the guy she keeps hooking up with. He's all confused. All of this is supposed to be humorous I guess, but I just find it annoying, maybe a little insulting, too. Because it makes the protagonist come across as stupid and weak. Just move on, already! Or hook up for good!

And that's not the only example but... that's enough of a Renee tangent. I could be here all day.

Again, I notice that one sentence. "It was not until noon that Branwen allowed them to take the day off..." Allowed them... Not that she's a threat to her two younger students, but still. There's some depth there. Like, what would happen if...

Quinoa salad... hey, she's eating something healthy! No corn dogs today.

Interesting that the two ladies had such different opinions over Dorothy & company. Wizard of Oz scares the [censored] out of me to this day. I saw it when I was five. Wicked Witch of the West is the one who inspired my Luci Pheria character in Oblivion. What's your take from it, Rosa?

Dorothy was the only real Witch in the whole movie, because it is all about her journey to find her power. A power she always had, but never realized, and never exercised

Wow, I never thought of it this way. Yes, with the Tin Man and Lion and all the others it's sort of obvious what they lack. Never thought of Dorothy's need for empowerment, though. Only Toto has nothing to discover, I suppose.

Sounds like Hannah wants to watch more of her reality shows! ... Uh oh. The poppet at the bottom of that lake. Now who could that be causing this? Is it MuckMan (whatever the Slime guy was called)? ... Nope, doesn't sound like it. Whoa, Lighthammer's back. Cool. I like this sudden change from complacency to Action!

"Hooah!"

Too bad Jan did not cut the cake with her wings. The whole conversation about this festival is cracking me up. Cray and Avery are so casual.

Whoa, what the hell? Awesome. This scene is awesome. Wow, people are running away. So they can see the creature as well. Jan smashes into it. Knocks the [censored]ing thing over. C'mon Hammer & Hannah, help the Crow out! Maybe there's more than this one creature too! Maybe this will be the last Jobbie Nooner ever if this doesn't get resolved! Arrrgh!!

Phew.

This post has been edited by Renee: Dec 6 2021, 04:42 PM

[SubRosa]

Acadian: You are going to need to start using another hand before this fight is over. More are on the way! This will be the biggest fight I have written, so far.

Hannah's port was simply to the place she knew: the same gazebo that she, January, and her father had talked in earlier. I should probably go back and make that more clear.

To think that a little while ago she was simply jumping in the air and gliding a little distance before falling back to the ground. She has leveled up a lot since these stories began.

Put a pin in that thought about the non-combatants. And about that of reinforcements on the way.


Renee: I did want to get in that Quinoa salad to show that January does indeed normally eat quite healthy. She will be having some vanilla almond cereal next book as well.

You got my take on the Wizard of Oz from January. It is a story about people finding their inner power, like a real witch.

The CW episodes are over. Well, mostly. The rest of this book is either action or drama. Well, except the very ending, which gets CW again. But you will see.

Don't worry, help is on the way. Jan just took point instead of waiting for everyone else. She's got a whole crew to back her up this time, including Blood Raven herself.








Two Steps From Hell - Never Back Down (Extended) - January's Fight Music

Oniare

Craquehhe



Book 8.17 - Blood

"That is an oniare," Blood Raven's voice came over the comlink. "The Iroquois peoples encountered them on the Great Lakes in the past."

Even without astrally sensing, January felt Blood Raven hovering in space near her. She also felt magic stretch from the other heroine to the Abyssal. Magic that smelled hot, wet, and coppery. The energy spiked into the monster like a harpoon. But it was effortlessly deflected by a field of power that sprang up around the creature's frame. The Abyssal did halt however, and turned its full attention skyward to January and Blood Raven.

"It is proofed against blood magic," Blood Raven noted. She was near enough for January to hear her without the com link. "Deal with it Stormcrow. I shall face this new devilry."

January felt sudden heat at her back. She turned her head, only to see a wave of fire rolling down from the sky at her. There was no time to move out of the way, or even raise a wing in defense. A golden field of energy sprang up an instant later, between her and the flames. The fire washed across its face without singing even a single one of her feathers, and dissipated into the air.

She gaped when she saw the source of the inferno. It looked like a dragon, made of gray ash and gleaming obsidian. Wings of living fire stretched out from its body, somehow holding it aloft. Gleaming spikes radiated from its tail, and more fire sprang from its body, and dripped from its fanged maw. Its eyes glowed white hot. They shifted and flowed, as if they were made of magma.

"Is that a dragon?" Gadget's voice was filled with the same awe that January felt.

"Nay, tis a pyrkaïá ptéryx: a firewing," Blood Raven replied. "It is a being of combined elemental flame, earth, and sky. But most would call it a variation of the salamander, for above all it is a creature of fire."

"So elementals have subraces too, like moon elves, sun elves, hill dwarves, and all that, makes sense." Gadget murmured over the comm.

The vampire flew past her, and hovered in the air between it and January. She raised a hand, and January felt power rise there. A golden circle filled with Celtic knotwork designs spun about her fingers, and she heard the woman sing in Gaelic. Then the light show vanished, and in its place rose a real dragon.

Its roar was palpable, not to January's meat ears, but to her magical ones. She was not even sensing astral space, and she felt its presence there. It was a hurricane, reverberating through the magical realms like a series of waves crashing down to the earth below.

But it was not a dragon that January saw there in Blood Raven's hand. It was a longsword forged of gleaming black steel, and etched with glowing golden runes. At least it looked like a sword. But January did not believe that was what it truly was. She had seen it before. She had been in its presence at Ferndale Pride.

It was Y Ddraig Aur, the Golden Dragon. It was the sword that Blood Raven had insisted never taste human lives, lest it grow too fond of them.

"Ok, the Bestiary says the oniare is a horned water serpent of Iroquois legend," Gadget related. "It can also only be harmed by magic. It seems to have a particular aversion to the thunder god Hinon. So your lightning might be just the ticket Stormcrow. Oh, and its breath is said to be poisonous, so watch out for that."

January dropped down to the sand of the beach, and strode in the direction of the oniare. It locked its eye-less head upon her, and moved to intercept. People scattered all around in between. They yelled and screamed, dropped bottles and cans, or paper plates of hot dogs and hamburgers, and just generally became a wave of chaos. January wished they would stop running back and forth between her and the oniare. Couldn't they just run away, like a sane person? But if she had learned anything since she had taken up the cape, it was that people did not always act logically when they were scared to death.

January smelled something just then. It was the sickly-sweet stench of rotted meat. She stopped, and looked about herself. It was everywhere. It was strong. Not physical, but magical. Now she did pause to stretch out with her astral senses. She was rewarded with a feeling of revulsion that curdled in the pit of her stomach.

Buried in the sandy beach all around her were human forms. Well, formerly human at least. Their auras bore none of the warm energy of life and vigor. Instead they were cold and dark. But there was mana there, a great store of it within each. That power thrummed with corrupt joy, as it animated the creatures into motion.

They burst up through the sand to stand under the now darkened sky. Their skin was bloodless and white as wax. Their sunken eyes glowed red, and their greasy hair crawled with maggots. Their torn clothing revealed more vermin and other insects that crawled through their rent, mummified flesh beneath. The nails on their fingers were long and jagged, and their teeth were blackened and broken.

"Craquehhe," January spat. "I remember reading about these. They're basically revenants."

"Okay, they are creatures from French folklore," Gadget murmured. "They eat flesh and drink blood. It says only fire or decapitation can stop them, and they have to be burned to ash to prevent them from rising again."

One of them came right at January, hands outstretched for her head. She neatly slipped to one side, and lashed out with a wing. That took both of its arms clean off at the elbows. Then her back foot lashed out with all of her power. The creature's head literally disintegrated under the force of the roundhouse kick.

"Looks like just destroying their heads works too," Gadget noted as what remained of the revenant collapsed to the sand and lay still.

"They've got no blood," Cray noted. "None of them do. The only one that does is that oniare, and it's been warded against blood magic. This is a trap, specifically for you Blood Raven."

January instantly understood what Cray had left unspoken. As a master of blood magic, Blood Raven could superheat the blood in any creature's body, and cause it to explode from the inside out, like a mouse in a microwave. January had seen her do it to the djieien at Ferndale Pride. This most deadly of her attacks was now off the table.

But even beyond that Blood Raven was a vampire, and therefore vulnerable to fire. That firewing's name certainly revealed its preference of attacks. The Abyssal that had been summoned was clearly bait, meant to draw Blood Raven into this ambush of creatures specifically chosen to counter her abilities.

"I have spied the Summoner!" Blood Raven cried over the comm link. "He is mine."

"Right," Cray continued over the link. "The oniare is now headed for the water, cut him off if you please Stormcrow. Ôkami, deal with the craquehhe on the beach. Vortex, your job is crowd control. Get people out of danger. Drop them on that Coast Guard cutter, or over to one of the riverbanks."

"I can fight!" Hannah's voice cried out over the communications link. "And who are you anyway?"

"He's the eyes and ears we lack," January said. "Do what he says. Saving lives is the most important thing here. It always is. Start by getting people off this beach."

January leaped skyward to bypass the beach full of craquehhe. Or at least she tried to. One of them grabbed her ankle. That completely threw off her aerodynamics. Her wings snapped out to keep her airborne, but the weight of the creature dragged her sideways along the beach.

Out of the corner of her eye January saw Ôkami ride up to the beach on his hoverbike. Apparently it did work just fine over water. He leapt off the wheel-less motorcycle, and performed a forward somersault in mid air. He came down with his sword in hand. January could swear she heard it howl like a wolf as it cut through the craquehhe that held her, and sliced its hand off at the wrist.

The high-tech samurai landed on his feet, and decapitated the revenant with his next stroke. From there on he became a blur of gray, black and white, as he danced among the revenants. His sword Chujitsu fit in his hand like he had been born with it, as did the dragon silk and cubic boron nitride samurai armor that he was clad in.

January hoped he would be ok. These were only undead, not an Abyssal. But it was still a very deep end to be thrown into for one's first real time out as a super. She did not count the car accident on the bridge. No one had been deliberately trying to kill him there, certainly not magical creatures of darkness.

She shook off the disembodied hand that still clutched at her ankle. Once free from undead entanglements, January turned her full attention back to the oniare. She tilted her body down, and beat her wings to gain speed. But she was too slow to stop the Abyssal from reaching the lake.

"Sága scuba." she barked a moment before she hit the blue-green waves herself. Armor plates snapped down over her mouth and nose, and immediately began pumping in air.

Then she was in the water, and under it. The Abyssal was right in front of her, but agonizingly out of reach. It moved through the water like greased lightning. Now January saw that her previous supposition had been correct. The creature was more like a stingray that played at being human than anything else. It certainly flew through the water like a ray.

Well if it could do it, then so could she. January tried to emulate its movements. It did not fly through the water in quite the same way as a bird did in the sky. Its wings sort of undulated from tip to torso. She focused her will upon doing the same, and was pleased when she found herself gaining upon the creature. She was Water. She could flow, and she could crash.

They darted under the fiberglass body of a boat. This put them within one of those artificial canals created between two long lines of boats, all tied up side by side in a row. A handful of people swam in the water between them. One bobbed on a float shaped like a sea dragon. All January could see of them was the inflatable, and their legs slashing the water to either side of it.

The oniare saw those legs as well, for it changed course to torpedo directly for it. January poured mana into her wings, and pushed herself harder through the water. She reached out, and was able to just catch its stinger in her hand.

She clamped down with all of her might. Now she became Earth, solid, inviolable, immovable. Unfortunately she was not able to plant herself upon the lake bottom. But she was able to pull back, and rear her head and torso up out of the water. Her wings hit the waves at a right angle now, and beat against them with all her might. This sent huge splashes of water up into the air, and acted like a sea anchor behind the Abyssal.

It pulled up short in front of the bather and spun around. Its tail snapped from January's fingers. But that was ok, since now it gave its full attention to her. It rocketed upon her, and drove both of them back down under the water. They rolled together beneath the waves, each seeking purchase upon the others flesh. The monster bit at her with its fangs. January replied with a series of muay thai elbows to its head and neck. The rest of the world beyond the roiling waves vanished, as January fought for her life.