Several years ago, in the midst of the Atomic Age, a city of dreams was built. Powered by nuclear, solar, and wind energy, it contained monorails, electric busses, personal airships, and gleaming towers that touched the clouds. It was a vision come to life.
In the generations to come, it became the home of home of Earth's only superheroes, Team Tempest. They were powerful, near-immortals led by the living legend known as the Phenom.
The Phenom was born of the Earth and was bestowed the powers of the universe. He defeated the Nazis, the demonic Church of the Leatheryne, and the mysterious alien force known as Pangea. He now worked behind the scenes as Team Tempest's leader and last line of defense.
Lady Light was an angel of unimaginable beauty and charm. She could summon burning light and wormholes crossing great cities. Her wings carried her high above the Earth. Unable to speak, she communicated by telepathy.
Phantasi was a shapeshifter who could assume any form she touched. She could mix and match superpowers when necessary, but needed fresh DNA the more she burned out her abilities. Her time in multiple identities left her with fractured memories.
Mother Lodestone was a highly-paid model with the power of magnetism at her disposal. She could attract and repel most forms of metal. She was also highly adept at computer hacking and engineering.
Max Hydro possessed the power of hydrokinesis. He could command water to burst from pipes or create tidal waves. He served as the team's doctor and worked in multiple fields of science. He and Mother Lodestone were once lovers.
Pulse Pounder lived fast and dangerous. She was a long-legged speedster with time-bending abilities that allowed her to run circles around everyone. She also had a bad habit of tempting fate in and out of battle, endangering herself and others.
Knight-Beast was a cybernetic werewolf from parts unknown. His tracking abilities and intimidating appearance were a boon to the team. He seemed to cater to Mother Lodestone and Max Hydro, keeping the two of them together for the benefit of the team.
While Tempest City was often quiet and peaceful, an underground movement of villains and anti-heroes was threatening to explode. Various factions were at odds with another on how to defeat Team Tempest and win over control over the city.
A sorcerer known as the Red Knight stepped up to bat. He represented long-time rivals of the Phenom. He offered them the powers they needed to defeat Team Tempest in exchange for the loyalty to his organization.
Foolishly, they accepted. They were transformed into brainless, Frankenstein-like brutes who knew only rage. The Red Knight unleashed them into the streets to destroy all of Tempest City and tear apart Team Tempest.
As the city fell into chaos, the Phenom was hard-pressed to contain the situation with only a handful of people at his disposal. It was time to use his powers to their maximum extent. While nearly all-powerful, he could only appear at one place at one time unless he split himself into a hundred, powerful-but-weaker duplicates of himself.
The Red Knight had set the trap. Tracking the Phenom's energy signature, he was able to sneak through the city by teleportation and vaporized the Phenom clones. Each death left Phenom-Prime weaker and more vulnerable.
Eventually, only Phenom-Prime remained. Although stronger than the rest, he was not in the position to counter the Red Knight's magic. He was saved by the timely appearance of Lady Light and the rest of the team. Acting as one, they were able to beat down the Red Knight despite his magicks and keep him away from the Phenom. The damage being done, the Red Knight vanished, laughing that he had already won.
The Phenom was fading fast. Max Hydro did what he could to save him, but he was beyond even his science and medical know-how. With the last of his lifeforce, he passed on his energies to the one member of the team that could carry on in his place... Phantasi. The Phenom died within the hour.
With the Red Knight gone, the villains were powerless once again and left for parts unknown. As the fires simmered down, the rubble was removed, and the people came out of hiding, things seemed to return to normal. Sadly, they wouldn't.
The funeral was attended by thousands. His body was laid to rest in a secret location far, far away from human eyes. It only seemed right his body be returned to the place of his birth.
As the team said their final good-byes and turned away to the wormhole, Phantasi made the Phenom one final promise. She would continue on in his place and avenge his murder. Morphing her body to assume his massive form, she took to the sky and disappeared from the team seemingly forever...
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
"The Statesmen: Underground"
An epic battle was fought here over Tempest City. The first superhero the Phenom saved all he could by sacrificing himself along with the first supervillain Master Warrior in a massive explosion high above the skyline. A strange fallout had spread throughout the city. Things were forever changed...
Tempest City had grown and evolved. Gone were the relics of the old world. The new city was replaced by mile-high skyscrapers, monorails, electric cars and busses, experimental aircraft.
The people of Tempest City had also evolved. Strong, powerful, beautiful, and potentially immortal, they were infused with the cosmic/magical abilities of the Phenom. They had become a new race of superhumans and god-like deities. A new police force would emerge to face this potential threat. The Statesmen project was initiated.
Centuries had passed and the people of Tempest City spread throughout the United States. The superhumans remained eternally young and beautiful as the human race slowly died out. The Statesmen, instead of protectors, had become tyrants and locked up the remaining weak, sickly humans that dared stand up to them.
Things were about to change as a sorcerer known as the Red Knight joined the human resistance. He offered them great power and immortality in exchange for their loyalty. He now had a powerful army at his command and several, beautiful wives in his bedroom.
Soon, Tempest City would fall and man would rule again, or so it would seem...
Tempest City had grown and evolved. Gone were the relics of the old world. The new city was replaced by mile-high skyscrapers, monorails, electric cars and busses, experimental aircraft.
The people of Tempest City had also evolved. Strong, powerful, beautiful, and potentially immortal, they were infused with the cosmic/magical abilities of the Phenom. They had become a new race of superhumans and god-like deities. A new police force would emerge to face this potential threat. The Statesmen project was initiated.
Centuries had passed and the people of Tempest City spread throughout the United States. The superhumans remained eternally young and beautiful as the human race slowly died out. The Statesmen, instead of protectors, had become tyrants and locked up the remaining weak, sickly humans that dared stand up to them.
Things were about to change as a sorcerer known as the Red Knight joined the human resistance. He offered them great power and immortality in exchange for their loyalty. He now had a powerful army at his command and several, beautiful wives in his bedroom.
Soon, Tempest City would fall and man would rule again, or so it would seem...
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
"Pangea, Life Force & the Statesmen"
(This following is a slight re-telling of a story I've been working on for the past few months.)
Pangea, once the central hub of life in the universe, was destroyed by its protector the Phenom. The planetary spirit sought to end all war on the planet by destroying all life. Survivors took what they could and fled to the stars on an endless journey to a new world that possibly didn't exist.
The energy spirit known as the Phenom settled in a nearby galaxy in a newly formed solar system. Infusing his lifeforce with that of the 3rd planet, he brought new life to a world that would have not known any.
The Pangeans, lost, starving, and dying, crashed upon this 3rd world also. Barely surviving, they renewed their strength and forces to conquer its wild jungles and forests. Once they prospered, they enslaved early man, destroyed those that did not fit their genetic coding. They became gods and took a more human form.
As mankind grew and the Pangean population began to shrink, the aliens took to controlling man through secret societies that exist to this day.
As WWII erupted throughout Europe, the Nazis sought out the legendary aliens and their fabled technology. Towering, walking machines began to cast shadows across the battlefields and the Allies seemed doomed.
The spirit of the Earth, having awakened from an eternal slumber, cast his energies out to a defender to stop the onslaught. An ordinary human had now become the new Phenom. His enormous strength and power would tip the odds in the favor of the Allies once again.
Hitler and Berlin were vaporized. The war in Europe was over.
The Phenom would once again disappear until recent years.
A lone figure, streaking across the skyline of Tempest City, had averted disaster again and again. An urban legend of a large, golden man striking fear within the mob spread across the city. A different kind of fear lurked in the night. Those who did evil to others faced a fate worse than death.
A scientist trying to crack the secrets of the Phenom found himself facing an alien force that seeked an avatar of its own. Embued with cosmic energies, the scientist was reborn as the Master Warrior.
The Master Warrior called out the Phenom on a campaign of terror. He had destroyed the bridges and highways leading out of Tempest City. He began to tear apart buildings. Then, the Phenom arrived...
An epic battle rattled across the downtown area. Blast for blast, blow for blow, they were evenly matched.
Meanwhile, deep below the surface, an alternative energy generator supplying power throughout the city was being sabotaged by a legion of men in black. It's energy had been corrupted and was slowly being transformed into anti-matter.
Visions of the alien sabotage littered the Phenom's brain. He had to convince the Master Warrior he was being duped and would die along with everyone else in the country. The Phenom had to take the battle deep underground.
The machines were glowing a bright white. Toxic radiation was sprewing out.
The Master Warrior now realized he was a simple diversion and began to rip apart the aliens.
The Phenom began to absorb all he could from the machines, but it proved too much. He need the Master Warrior to clear the remaining energies, or else all was doomed. The machines finally shut down, but the two titan were now toxic and dying. They would explode if they did not immediately leave the Earth.
The two rocketed into the atmosphere. A bright glow ignited the night-time sky. The aliens had won.
In the generations to come, mankind changed. They became larger, stronger, and more powerful. They had become the Phenom...
Across the United States, a superhuman police force known as the Statesmen had become commonplace. They numbered in the hundreds. They had replaced movie stars as the new hot celebrities. Tempest City had become the central hub of Phenom activity.
A loose, confederation of supervillains had also spread. Known as the Revengers, they were led by an evil sorcerer known as the Red Knight. They were less in number, but still considered dangerous.
Mother Lodestone, a high-ranking member of the Tempest City division of the Statesmen, sensed things weren't right with the law and quit. Forming a private team, she decided to go under the radar. She now had to deal with the Statesmen, the Revengers, and men in black who sought to erase all corruption from the Statesmen's records.
This team journeyed across the Western Hemisphere, discovering a world that no one knew existed. She and her team would likely die for what they knew. She named her team Life Force...
Pangea, once the central hub of life in the universe, was destroyed by its protector the Phenom. The planetary spirit sought to end all war on the planet by destroying all life. Survivors took what they could and fled to the stars on an endless journey to a new world that possibly didn't exist.
The energy spirit known as the Phenom settled in a nearby galaxy in a newly formed solar system. Infusing his lifeforce with that of the 3rd planet, he brought new life to a world that would have not known any.
The Pangeans, lost, starving, and dying, crashed upon this 3rd world also. Barely surviving, they renewed their strength and forces to conquer its wild jungles and forests. Once they prospered, they enslaved early man, destroyed those that did not fit their genetic coding. They became gods and took a more human form.
As mankind grew and the Pangean population began to shrink, the aliens took to controlling man through secret societies that exist to this day.
As WWII erupted throughout Europe, the Nazis sought out the legendary aliens and their fabled technology. Towering, walking machines began to cast shadows across the battlefields and the Allies seemed doomed.
The spirit of the Earth, having awakened from an eternal slumber, cast his energies out to a defender to stop the onslaught. An ordinary human had now become the new Phenom. His enormous strength and power would tip the odds in the favor of the Allies once again.
Hitler and Berlin were vaporized. The war in Europe was over.
The Phenom would once again disappear until recent years.
A lone figure, streaking across the skyline of Tempest City, had averted disaster again and again. An urban legend of a large, golden man striking fear within the mob spread across the city. A different kind of fear lurked in the night. Those who did evil to others faced a fate worse than death.
A scientist trying to crack the secrets of the Phenom found himself facing an alien force that seeked an avatar of its own. Embued with cosmic energies, the scientist was reborn as the Master Warrior.
The Master Warrior called out the Phenom on a campaign of terror. He had destroyed the bridges and highways leading out of Tempest City. He began to tear apart buildings. Then, the Phenom arrived...
An epic battle rattled across the downtown area. Blast for blast, blow for blow, they were evenly matched.
Meanwhile, deep below the surface, an alternative energy generator supplying power throughout the city was being sabotaged by a legion of men in black. It's energy had been corrupted and was slowly being transformed into anti-matter.
Visions of the alien sabotage littered the Phenom's brain. He had to convince the Master Warrior he was being duped and would die along with everyone else in the country. The Phenom had to take the battle deep underground.
The machines were glowing a bright white. Toxic radiation was sprewing out.
The Master Warrior now realized he was a simple diversion and began to rip apart the aliens.
The Phenom began to absorb all he could from the machines, but it proved too much. He need the Master Warrior to clear the remaining energies, or else all was doomed. The machines finally shut down, but the two titan were now toxic and dying. They would explode if they did not immediately leave the Earth.
The two rocketed into the atmosphere. A bright glow ignited the night-time sky. The aliens had won.
In the generations to come, mankind changed. They became larger, stronger, and more powerful. They had become the Phenom...
Across the United States, a superhuman police force known as the Statesmen had become commonplace. They numbered in the hundreds. They had replaced movie stars as the new hot celebrities. Tempest City had become the central hub of Phenom activity.
A loose, confederation of supervillains had also spread. Known as the Revengers, they were led by an evil sorcerer known as the Red Knight. They were less in number, but still considered dangerous.
Mother Lodestone, a high-ranking member of the Tempest City division of the Statesmen, sensed things weren't right with the law and quit. Forming a private team, she decided to go under the radar. She now had to deal with the Statesmen, the Revengers, and men in black who sought to erase all corruption from the Statesmen's records.
This team journeyed across the Western Hemisphere, discovering a world that no one knew existed. She and her team would likely die for what they knew. She named her team Life Force...
Saturday, January 1, 2011
2011 Resolutions, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb
I know it's lame, but here are my 2011 resolutions...
Get rid of the blue lemon! This would be the 1994 Oldsmobile I bought off some old man for $1,295 in cash. In the year I've had this car, it's been nothing but trouble. The engine runs like shit and runs hot. The driver's side window only works half the time. The lock doesn't work on my side. I'm always having to inflate one of the tires. Now the battery is dead!
Get out of Walmart! Walmart is the most soul-crushing entity in America. No one epitomizes the "Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians" attitude like Walmart. Everyone there is a supervisor or manager of something in the store and boy, do they NOT know how to do their jobs. After 11 years, it sucks that I'm still everyone's little bitch.
Get out of the house! Basically, I spend too much time on the Internet and not enough time actually meeting people. I'm in need of a hobby to help me unwind from the constant stress of everyone at work and certain family issues.
Find a REAL girlfriend! This is a tough one. I'm the king of long-distance girlfriends. I've been writing women long-distance since the 90s. The problem is one of us is constantly choking at actually meeting up. I have serious issues with women in this area. Most are very hateful and mean-spirited and have boyfriends on the side. This sucks for me being a small, unintimidating guy in a field of steroid-injected, easily-enranged Rednecks.
Start writing! I was inspired this summer by one of my Internet friends to finally do something with all those super-hero characters I had floating in my head since the 90s. So far, I've had some good responses. The problem is having the time and discipline to actually sit down and type it out.
Anyway, there's probably 500 more things I could write about, but I really don't want to bore you anymore than I already have, so I'll let it go at that.
Thanks for the time and stay away from the fish. It's gone bad...
Get rid of the blue lemon! This would be the 1994 Oldsmobile I bought off some old man for $1,295 in cash. In the year I've had this car, it's been nothing but trouble. The engine runs like shit and runs hot. The driver's side window only works half the time. The lock doesn't work on my side. I'm always having to inflate one of the tires. Now the battery is dead!
Get out of Walmart! Walmart is the most soul-crushing entity in America. No one epitomizes the "Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians" attitude like Walmart. Everyone there is a supervisor or manager of something in the store and boy, do they NOT know how to do their jobs. After 11 years, it sucks that I'm still everyone's little bitch.
Get out of the house! Basically, I spend too much time on the Internet and not enough time actually meeting people. I'm in need of a hobby to help me unwind from the constant stress of everyone at work and certain family issues.
Find a REAL girlfriend! This is a tough one. I'm the king of long-distance girlfriends. I've been writing women long-distance since the 90s. The problem is one of us is constantly choking at actually meeting up. I have serious issues with women in this area. Most are very hateful and mean-spirited and have boyfriends on the side. This sucks for me being a small, unintimidating guy in a field of steroid-injected, easily-enranged Rednecks.
Start writing! I was inspired this summer by one of my Internet friends to finally do something with all those super-hero characters I had floating in my head since the 90s. So far, I've had some good responses. The problem is having the time and discipline to actually sit down and type it out.
Anyway, there's probably 500 more things I could write about, but I really don't want to bore you anymore than I already have, so I'll let it go at that.
Thanks for the time and stay away from the fish. It's gone bad...
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
When Did I Get Old?
When did I become the old man? It seemed like 10 years ago I was young and hip and on top of all the latest fads and celebrity news. Now, I'm completely out of the loop. I was a big comic book reader, but now I'm so far behind, it's impossible to pick up anything with the Marvel or DC logo. I do enjoy modern rock, but I couldn't tell you a band name, a song title, or a CD title. All the stuff I enjoyed as a kid has been retooled and remade in the worst possible ways imaginable. Now, people think of Michael Bay when they think "Transformers" and people think Jar Jar and Baby Anakin when they think STAR WARS.
Just for one day, I'd like to go back to my 20s and the 1990s when everything was beyond cool. The movies didn't suck, TV didn't suck, comic books didn't suck (maybe, maybe not), video games were awesome and you could actually afford to buy them!
I miss the VHS movie stores the most! Yes, the tapes were big and clunky and you had to be kind and rewind, but I miss having thousands of movies to choose from any given day of the week. Now, it seems like a 1,000 copies of OLD DOGS.
I seem to remember a simpler life without cell phones and the Internet. I had all the time in the world and a lifetime of memories ahead of me.
Now, get off my lawn before I start shooting!
Just for one day, I'd like to go back to my 20s and the 1990s when everything was beyond cool. The movies didn't suck, TV didn't suck, comic books didn't suck (maybe, maybe not), video games were awesome and you could actually afford to buy them!
I miss the VHS movie stores the most! Yes, the tapes were big and clunky and you had to be kind and rewind, but I miss having thousands of movies to choose from any given day of the week. Now, it seems like a 1,000 copies of OLD DOGS.
I seem to remember a simpler life without cell phones and the Internet. I had all the time in the world and a lifetime of memories ahead of me.
Now, get off my lawn before I start shooting!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
A Dark & Stormy Knight (On-Line)
I'm hoping once I finally quit my job at Walmart, I can start working on my own. I've been wrestling with what to do. I like the idea of an independent movie store, but Netflix and Red Box pretty much destroyed that idea. You can't be all things to all people, so I thought it would be best if I specialize in something I like or have an interest in.
I'm hoping to start an on-line store for sci-fi, horror, and fantasy films, books, and games. A brick and mortar store will likely kill any profits I make by way of public utilities and upkeep. Plus, the property around here is dodgey at best.
If anyone has any input, drop me a line. I'd appreciate it.
I'm hoping to start an on-line store for sci-fi, horror, and fantasy films, books, and games. A brick and mortar store will likely kill any profits I make by way of public utilities and upkeep. Plus, the property around here is dodgey at best.
If anyone has any input, drop me a line. I'd appreciate it.
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