Thursday, January 14, 2010

THE LOCAL HEROES: Shadow Of A Chance


Shadow of a Chance
by
Al Bruno III


No one came to the River City docks at night, it wasn't safe. That was why no one was there to see what happened.

A cluster of automobiles that surrounded the dilapidated warehouse were sleek and classy, the men that guarded them were not. Their clothes were shabby and stained, their faces and bodies networked with prison tattoos and old scars. Each of them was armed with a brand new gun, freshly cleaned and scrubbed of any serial numbers.

Boss Aragosta and the Shellfish gang were taking no chances.

But neither was Kevin. He slipped from shadow to shadow, his body literally a wisp of darkness. One by one he knocked out the Boss's thugs, sometimes with a punch, sometimes with a headlock. It didn't matter, they never saw him coming. They were too busy expecting a rescue attack to come blazing from above.

He slithered along the pavement, a ribbon of black. This was his power and his curse- every night Kevin Raymond became a tangible silhouette with the power to become and strike from the darkness.

And that was every single night since he was a teenager whether he wanted to or not.

It made his teenage years a dateless misery, after all if he revealed his condition to a friend or a special girl he was all but revealing his father's secret life as the crime fighter Shadomask. No one knew what caused his son's strange condition but everyone suspected that somehow the impossible fabric of the hero's mask had affected his son at a genetic level.

Slipping under the door Kevin made his way through the warehouse. Any moment now the bidding would begin, any moment now and these assorted villains and thugs were going to take his adopted sister apart piece by piece.

He knew he was a fool to come here by himself, not when the Local Heroes would be more than willing to help but this was something Kevin felt he needed to do alone. It wasn't because of his father's legacy- his father was almost ten years gone now and the responsibility of defending truth and justice had moved onto a younger, flashier generation.

Not that any of those gleaming paragons had much interest in the likes of River City.

Moving quietly now, past where Overkrill stood guard and beneath where Johnny Crawdad waited on the rafters with a high powered rifle, Kevin tried to control his anger at the sight of his adopted sister- Lisa aka the Maven. She wore a dark purple costume and a full face mask that emulated the one worn by the man that had been her father in all but blood. They had tied her by her arms and weighted down her feet, there was no sign of her utility belt. It looked like she was barely conscious.

His father had taken the girl named Lisa Gray after her parents had been murdered by the RedDeath. Kevin had been thirteen then and preparing this short lived and disastrous quest to try and follow in ShadoMask's footsteps. Millionaire industrialist Rob Raymond had seen to it that his son had gotten the very best training in the martial arts and detective work; and after some wheedling and begging Kevin had found himself learning these things along with the 9 year old girl that had become his sister.

And damned if she wasn't better than him at all of it. Before Keven knew it he had been gently pushed aside in favor of her and while ShadoLass became a sidekick sensation he found himself using the name NightBleed and working with the other like minded young heroes of Emo Force.

That was fifteen years ago now and Kevin had fond memories of those days, of friendship and adventure and really questionable costume choices but he was done playing hero; he had thought he was done forever, at least until now.

Boss Aragosta stepped onto the stage and raised his fleshy claw arms for silence, “All right, quiet down you mugs. It's time for the real festivities to begin.”

Retreating further back into the warehouse Kevin found the fusebox. He waited until the bidding to begin before he shut down the lights.

The chaos was immediate. Boss Aragosta tried to hide behind Overkrill and knocked them both off of the stage. Johnny Crawdad fired at random onto the lower levels wounding Pink Eye and killing Walt Mephisto. Kevin moved fast, weaving between the criminals, pausing only long enough for a well timed punch or to smash a pair convenient heads together. Some slashed at Kevin, barely missing him by inches- he didn't recognize the costume but a kick to the solar plexus crumpled him as quickly as any of the rest.

By the time Boss Aragosta had untangled himself from Overkrill and Johnny Crawdad had gotten the lights back on the Maven was gone.

An hour later Kevin and Lisa were sitting on a rooftop, she had her mask off revealing a smile that shone through bruises and welts. “I can't believe you did it,” she said.

Kevin kept his voice neutral, “I'm just glad you're all right.”

“I haven't seen you since the funeral,” she said.. “Where have you been?”

“It's almost dawn,” he stood.

“Don't go,” Lisa grabbed for his hand but he was intangible again.

“Why?”

“Just don't”

“Be careful,” Kevin jumped from the ledge into the darkness. It was time to head home, back across the river, to his one room apartment in Megalopolis City. He had wanted to stay, Lord how he had wanted to but he couldn't take the chance. She was one of the world's greatest detectives and he couldn't risk her deducing how he felt. Would she return those feelings or find them a betrayal? It was better never to take the chance.

It was at moments like this he was glad his face was obscured by shadows.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Thirty Three

One of members of the superteam Emo Force had steel claws but she usually just used them to cut herself.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Thirty Two

By his fifth marriage Joe finally realized he was just too much man for one woman.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Thirty One

Solyent Gene the edible superhero did have a costume, just a t-shirt that read EAT ME.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Thirty

Flowers, candy, jewelry, he had everything he needed for Valentine's day. Except a girlfriend.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty Nine

Like all good salespeople Gary learned that selling his soul and values had a surprisingly good commission rate.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty Eight

It came as quiet a shock to the Jersey Devil when he was downsized but Chupacabra was willing to do the work at a much lower rate.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty Seven

“That's the problem with alien symbiotes,” Rusty Johnsonn explained, “they're like clingy girlfriends but clingier.”

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty Six

He preached that your misfortunes were the result of sins you or your ancestors, when that meteorite hit him no one was surprised.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty Five

Karl had an extensive collection of dirty books, dirty movies and dirty pictures yet his house was spotlessly clean.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

(Recommended Article) "Jerry's Lament: Romanticism in Fright Night" by The Paradise Of Horror

Tonight, I want to talk about a movie that modernized the vampire mythology and puts it into modern suburbia. That movie is Fright Night. It’s a movie that I love very much and though I am not a huge vampire fan, I find the movie highly entertaining and pretty scary… for younger audiences. However, I want to discuss the main antagonist Jerry Dandrige...

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty Four

With their funding cut off the dance troupe found work at a local garage doing ballet parking.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty Three

It was eventual that every channel would have nothing but reality programs. Creativity is simply not cost-essential anymore.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty Two

Given the chance to live high school over again Eric put so many blemishes on his permanent record that it became a box set.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty One

In this age of the internet the most bizarre fetish is having no bizarre fetish at all

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twenty

In a very special episode of Law & Order: Greek Mythology Sysphus managed to push the stone over the hill crushing Narcissus.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Nineteen

Once video game technology became advances enough to communicate with the spirit world XBOXlive had to change its name.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Eighteen

For Mario Krump one of the best part of working for Homeland Security was being able to get dirt on his high school bullies.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Seventeen

Every time a child starlet appears on the scene there is some guy counting down until her eventual Maxim pictorial.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Sixteen

Pretty much every guy that Audra fell for ended up dying, it wasn't the kind of thing you brought up on a first date.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Fifteen

#5secfic Not only was the Maven the scourge of the underworld, most of the underworld had no idea what her name meant.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Fourteen

Every time IT upgraded the system to make it more user friendly another rep was hospitalized for acute angina.

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Thirteen

It started with “What's your sign?” Continued with “Wanna come back to my place?” Then became, “What the Hell is that?”

Monday, January 11, 2010

Why The Hell Aren't You Reading THE PRINCESS AND THE GIANT

I mean look at this artwork... evocative doesn't even begin to describe it...




click here to read the story from the beginning

An announcement regarding my update schedule and PRICE BREAKS AND HEARTACHES

It has been months since I last created a Price Breaks and Heartaches story, mostly because they are pretty epic in length and my other projects have been eating up my time.

So I have devised a plan. I am trimming down and splitting up my stories of retail and failed romance into much more manageable 1,000 word or so increments. I hope this will increase their readability and your enjoyment.

So the new schedule is as follows;

MONDAY: A new entry in Price Breaks and Heartaches.

WEDNSDAY: A new entry in my serial novel In The Shadow Of His Nemesis

FRIDAY: A new #Fridayflash entry.

My 5 Second Fictions and Lovable Links will continue to appear at random.


What do you the readers at home think?

Another KICK ASS trailer...

Sunday, January 10, 2010

5 Second Fiction Eight Hundred and Twelve

Not only did Solent Gene not hide his identity, he was also the first fully edible super hero.

Blogging

(Recommended Reads) "Vaultkeeper" by Maria Protopapadaki-Smith

Gaspard Daurenx, Vaultkeeper for the Liege, had been at his post since sundown, but it wasn’t until the last of the drunken revellers had begun to make their way home that he’d started to feel nervous. The Feast of Rosemonde had now ended, and it would not be long before d’Angerville showed up. Daurenx shivered – whether due to his ageing bones feeling the cold or because it was nearly time, he could not know. He was not proud of what he was about to do, but these were desperate times. He sighed; at least the night was as dark as it could be. He felt it fitting that the heavens would not be illuminating his act of treason...

Click here to continue

(INSANE NEWS) 'Crime lord's' fake penis falls off in raid

SOUTH African police caught more than they expected in a Cape Town drug raid when a strap-on dildo fell off a suspected crime lord during a search, the Sunday Times reported.

Fat Murphy, feared on the streets of Cape Town's notorious Cape Flats suburb, told a court that he is a hermaphrodite who holds male and female identity documents - one under the name Fadwaan, the other under Hilary.


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This has the makings of the greatest episode of LAW AND ORDER ever!

(Recommended Reads) "Banditties" by Peggy McFarland

Stomach against the pavement (as well as her extended legs), Raven peered into the grating. Sparrow crouched next to her, ignored the loud protest of his knees and instead, appreciated the way her jeans molded against her derriere. He retrieved his pack of smokes from the inside pocket of his duster.

"I think I see them," Raven said as she scrambled away from the storm drain...


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(Recommended Reads) "Papa Szorny " by Anton Gully

The brace on Rosa's crippled leg clattered and dragged across the cobbles as her mother tugged her along in her wake.

“Hurry, Rosa!” her mother pleaded. “Please hurry, dearest, or Papa Szorny will catch you and gobble you up.”...


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