This was a work in progress for my highschool magazine. It was eventually published in the mag.
The League of Heroes
Pt. 1 – Introductions and Ultimatums
Written and Edited by Antonio C. Scarpelli
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The brown haired giant nearly lost his footing as he took the 90 degree turn at a full sprint. Sweat dripped into his eyes, and a long bloody gash ran down one side ripping open a slash in his already patched brown leather jacket. His pockets were bulging, and a used Leatherman tool hung on his belt. A small satchel swung to the rhythm of his running at his right side. The sound of clacking skates and malicious laughter followed behind him, increasing in intensity. The man started to slow as his endurance began to crumble. Breathing heavily he stopped and turned to face his doom.
“The game is up Jak, you are mine. I’ve waited four years for this moment. Long years of plan after plan foiled by you and your brother. Prepare to meet your maker, Jak of all Trades.” The speaker was a fairly short man dressed in a tight turquoise and grey body suit of diving material. His face was covered by a mask cunningly crafted in a hammerhead shark motif. His boots were retro-fitted to a pair of skates with steel tips in the front. A spear gun was hung over his right shoulder.
Two similarly dressed behemoths of men rolled up beside the man, hulking over both Jak and the man by at least a foot. “Sorry we’re late boss” “Yeah, we had some trouble with Tao, but it’s all ok now, we made fish bait out of ‘im.” The man turns to his underlings, barely containing the contempt in his voice. “Good job Grouper,” he turns back to Jak, “So it seems you won’t be saved by your brother this time, Jak of all Trades. You truly are………..beached? Mwahahahahah!” The shark-faced skater and his gigantic thugs laughed uproariously giving our hero some valuable time to live up to his name.
Jak scrambled through his pockets furiously, searching for the one thing that could save his life. The trouble was he wasn’t sure what that ‘thing’ was. A bottle of Listerine Spray tapped his fingertips through he wads of string, paperclips, gum, pliers, cardboard bits, brake cable, a turkey baster, a tube sock, and small coins. Jak lifts his head to meet the man’s eyes. “I’d love to stay Rollershark, but I’ve got an appointment with the Mayor of Central City.” Jak lunged forward spraying his weapon into Rollershark’s eyes through his mask, following up with a cross-kick to both thugs stomachs, collapsing them to the floor. The shark-faced man clawed at his eyes, as he reeled backwards, trying to regain his sight. “Your two goonies are out cold, Rollershark, it looks as if it’s just you and me now, you’ve destroyed your last power generator.”
Before Jak could move forward to take his would-be captor into handcuffs, Rollershark unslung his spear-gun and sighted through blurry eyes to Jak’s unprotected chest. Jak slowly raised his hands to dissuade Rollershark from any painfully rash decisions. “You won’t have any help from you’re little gizmos now Jak, you truly are mine. DIE!!!”
The spring unfolded and launched the steel barbed spear at the defenseless Jak of all Trades. A quick breath and closed eyes preceded the impending doom of Rollershark’s steel death. Instead of harps and the bright light of accession, there was only low flute music, and a sharp sound of cracking wood. The two halves of Rollershark’s spear left a draft in Jak’s leather jacket as they fractionally missed a killing blow.
The flute music was accompanied by a small thin man, with curly brown hair. He was dressed in a solid black kimono embroidered with scenes of the ocean and sea birds swirling around. The man’s legs were folded in a lotus position, his eyes closed. He floated down from the rafters, a soft blue halo surrounding his body. “Grandfather asks, if arrow always reaches halfway to target, will arrow ever reach target? I think not.” His eyes open revealing all white irises, no color at all. Even his pupil was a pale as fresh ivory.
“Tao? Where the hell have you been!? I could have been finished right there!”
“Calm be the one who sees best in complete darkness, rash be…”
“Don’t give me that Zen crap! What happened? And what took you so long!”
“Ok, so I got a little held up, it’s not my fault there were two of them, and twice as big as me to boot!”
“What do you mean twice as big!? What about all that ‘if you push forward, you push back twice as hard’? You could break a van in half with your mind!!”
“What about you! I didn’t see you taking out Grouper as he flanked me down the hall, only a quick ‘you take care of ‘em, I’ll get Rollershark!”
This ranting went back and forth for some time, not unusual with brothers, even more common for brothers who also happen to be super heroes. Unfortunately, this unsuppressed rave, took all attention off of the not unconscious Rollershark, who quietly slipped away with a low curse, and an oath of revenge. After quite a length of time, and a few exchanged punches, both brothers had had their fill and were forced to return empty-handed, and quite angry, to Mayor Sinclair’s office in Central City Hall.
The office was sparsely furnished for a Mayor, a few stuffed chairs, a teak desk and a frayed carpet. The desk was now covered with back files of all the most dangerous Villains and influential heroes in the long history of Central City. Among them were Damion Malefactor; the high ranking official in the Cosmo Rift INC. super company and Osiris; the Japanese Yakuza gang lord that has shipped in more illegal drugs than any other criminal in the history of the city. Among the Heroes were Lady Lavender; ruler and beneficiary of all things green and growing and Mr. Fahrenheit; ladies man and human fireball.
The mayor himself was a small thin man with black hair, and think glasses, his voice spoke of long hours and little vacation defending the City from the clutches of evil. “Gentlemen, it seems as if Rollershark is the least of our problems. Megalomaniac is back, and he is demanding your heads or the total destruction of Central City itself.”
The End of
Pt. One -- Introductions and Ultimatums of
The League of Substitute Heroes
The League of Heroes
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The League of Heroes
Avatar wrote:But then, the answers provided by your imagination are not only sometimes best, but have the added advantage of being unable to be wrong.
when can we see the next part?