Heya! Issue Eleven, coming your way! With the normal cast of
psychos, plus a new imported psycho! Double the fun, double the trouble,
as the author hopefully pulls her series Back On Schedule. Yeeeeha!
And as an added bonus, Flame Wars III is coming your way soon, and part
of it's happening in this title! Fear!
Sorry for the lateness of this issue. We're now more than two
issues behind schedule. First there was writers block, then schedule
change, then writer's block, then school starting, then the bells, the
bells... AAAAAA aaaahhh.... Urp. Issue twelve may be a little short, but
I think I'll be able to get it out before TFW3 hits my series, but until
the crossover's over, Misfits is probably going to be erratic. Then
again, maybe not. Oh well, we'll find out, won't we?
Much thankings for reviews guys:
Pam VanMuijen
Jamas Enright
Ian Porell
Abhay Khosla
=========================================================================
DERELICT Press Presents
with contributions from Blue Light Productions
The eleventh issue of
/~~\/~~\ {] /~~\ (^^^ || ***** /~~\
/ /\/\ \ [) ~\__ (^^ || ,' ~\__
/__/ \__\ (} \__/ ( || ', \__/
" Just Some Chick With Wings "
A psuedo-Acraphobe title
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.'COVER`._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.
The girl with the gold-metal wings stands center cover, glaring,
arms crossed wings spread out behind her. Brittany stands in front of
her, weaponless, grinning hopefully. A small stuffed fish lies on the
ground, where it has evidently fallen after bouncing off the girl's wing.
)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
" Hey Savannah! Open up!" yelled Brit from the other side of the
door," Hey cuz? Hellooooooo! SAVANNAH! Open open open open open..."
Something thudded loudly against the door, followed by a muffled grunt
and and the sound of someone fiddling with the door lock. After another
minute or so the door creaked slowly open to reveal Savannah, still in
the clothes she'd worn on their encounter with the Jr.Brotherhood, with
bed-head and deeply groggy look about her. She stared silently at
Brittany for a moment, her cousin grinning cheerfully back, then spoke.
" What is it? I just got up."
" Savannah, it's eleven in the morning. How late were you up last
night?" asked Brit.
" Dunno. I didn't look at the clock. But I fell asleep around
when light from the window started to shine onto the bed," said Savannah,
leaning against the door sleepily.
" Geez, that was at least early morning. What were you doing?
Focusing on Saturn or something? You realize what sleep deprivation can
do to a person, don't you? Do you really think the LNH needs another
psycho heroine gone bad, because of sleep deprivation? Hrmph. Oh yeah,
I'm supposed to be convincing you to come with us to lunch! Come with us
to lunch, okay? Puh-leeeeeeease?" said Brit, hopping cheerfully from one
foot to another. Her cousin, cearly not a morning person, sniffed
deeply, sighed and muttered something about giving her fifteen minutes to
get dressed. Then she closed the door again.
Brittany stood outside for a moment, just looking at the door
then shrugged and cupped her hands around her mouth, leaning up against
the thin wooden surface.
" OKAY! JUST REMEMBER TO MEET US IN THE LOBBY, OKAY? LOBBY!
LOBBY! LOBBY!" she yelled, then hopped away from the door and turned to
walk down the hallway, towards the elevators. She hoped Savannah had
heard her, because if she hadn't, who knew where she'd end up, and then
they'd have to go looking for her, and then they'd miss lunch, and
Project: By Binky, Will Someone Please Cheer Up Paytan would be a total
bomb. Brittany sighed and stopped in front of the little panel of buttons
for the elevator doors and hit the 'up' button. A second later the
elevator binged at her, and the doors slid open smoothly. Brit stepped
forwards to go inside, then got bowled over by something soft
and... fabricky.
" Hey!" she yelled, propping herself up on her elbows and glaring
after the piece of cloth running down the hallway away from her. It began
to speed up at the end of the hallway, then skidded around the corner,
rebounded off the distant wall, and disapeared out of sight. Brittany
shook her head and got to her feet, entering the elevator a second later.
Now all she had to do was convince Paytan to come.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Paytan lay on her bed, glowering at the ceiling and feeling mad
at the world in general. Things had been going badly ever since she'd
been in Hell, and she didn't see things improving now that she was in the
LNH. Still, Brittany had helped a lot, had helped her to see the lighter
side of things. But, every now and then, she remembered times she thought
were covered up.
A knock on the door startled her, and she leapt up to open it,
ready to yell at whoever was outside. She swung the door open, and
glared in rage at a bouquet of flowers.
Paytan took a step back in surprise.
The flowers moved inside, followed by a body that Paytan couldn't
immediately make out. The flowers lowered themselves in her field of
view, revealing a wide smile and a pair of glasses.
"Happy birthday!" the smile said.
Paytan blinked a few times before working out who this was. The
person she arrived at did not please her.
"Faq Boy," she growled. "Get out now. It's not my birthday, and
I'm not in the mood for games."
Faq Boy wasn't disuaded so easily. "So, Happy Today then." He
revealed his other hand, which held a box of chocolates. "I just thought
that you might like to try some happiness for a change."
"Flowers and chocolates," Paytan said sarcastically. "Any other
cliches you want to offer?"
Faq Boy threw the gifts onto the bed. "Okay then" he shrugged.
"Next time, I'll bring whips and chains."
"I told you to leave." Paytan reached out, prepared to
physically enforce her orders.
Faq Boy raised his hands. "Hey, can we talk? You really need
someone to talk to, someone who can understand. I know about Dirmawr,
and what you've been though."
Something akin to panic lit Paytan's eyes momentarily. "How did
you find out?" she whispered.
Faq Boy shut the door slowly, keeping their conversation
private. "I know people," he said. "People who probably know too much."
Paytan clicked. "Fan.Boy," she muttered.
Faq Boy stepped closer, putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Don't blame him. I forced him to tell, and it's only because he's me
that he did tell."
Paytan looked at Faq Boy warily. "So, what do you plan on doing
with this knowledge?"
"Do you think you can survive this by yourself? These summonings
and possessions and stuff. You killed people for power. Can you really
handle it alone?"
Paytan tried to hold out, but he had touched a sore spot.
Brittany could understand somethings, but not everything she did. But,
then again, what claim did this guy have?
"What makes you think you know what I've been through?"
"Have you commanded someone into a mission that you knew was a
suicide run? Ever sent them gladly? Ever been used, backstabbed, and
overrun, just for one night of pleasure? Ever been ruled over by an iron
fist, not even having the luxury of thinking your own thoughts?"
Paytan's mind recoiled. What had this guy been through? It
wasn't her pain, but it was still pain.
"Some of us existed in other dimensions before Barry was created
in all of them. I lived a whole life in mine, under the Roster King, in
a devious pit of hell. I know what death can be like."
Paytan was unsure of how to take this. "Barry, I-"
Faq Boy shook his head. "That's _his_ name. Call me by my second
name, Allen," said Allen.
Paytan nodded. "All right. Allen. I'll have to think about
things. I'm hardly going to open my heart to a stranger, just because
he's had a hard time. Give me a while."
Allen stared into her eyes, calmly, then roughly pulled her into
a deep kiss. It was only becuase Paytan was caught unawares that Allen
didn't end up with three broken limbs, and why she didn't offer any
resistance. At least, that's what she'd tell herself later.
Allen broke the kiss, and Paytan came away with short breaths.
"I will see you," he said, then opened the door, and left
abruptly.
Paytan sat down on the bed, her mind whirling. What had just
happened here?
She stared at the chocolates, her mind flying elsewhere.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Kismet urvYuka, Daughter of the Setting Sun, Last Leader To Be of
the Eastern Towers, neophyte dimensional traveller currently visiting
Net.ropolis, and member of a semi-nonhuman race crouched in the shadow of
a rooftop gargoyle somewhere in the city's buissness section, watching
the natives beneath her with a mixture of amazement and terror. Her
massive golden wings were in the statue's shadow as best she could
manage, but their tips poked out into the sunlight, reflecting it
brightly to any who cared to glance upwards. Luckily not many did.
She had come here from her homeworld to learn new things, to
explore and discover cultures and wonders untold. She had expected
anything from curious to hostile natives, from strange systems of magic
to cultures far more primitive than her own. But she had not expected
this... this _many_ people. There were hundreds of them swarming beneath
her like bugs, brushing against each other and running into each other in
their hurry and closeness. And beyond them were more, stretching down the
sidewalk, walking from place to place. She shuddered and closed her eyes,
blocking out the swarms of insect people. She couldn't go down there, she
just couldn't. Not now. Not with so many so close, so close she would be
able to smell them, to brush up against their clothes, forced to fade
into the crowd until she wasn't even herself anymore, nothing but a part
of some faceless purposeless whole. Lost in the tide of alien
insect-people, jammed into some little box.
Kismet shuddered again and shrunk back further into the
gargoyle's shadow. She didn't want to be here now. She wanted to be home.
Home where people were sane and didn't live like bugs, home where she was
safe. But she wasn't home, and the gate she'd come through was gone.
Stupid, stupid, stupid to come through som unmarked gate like she had,
assuming everything would be alright, that wherever she ended up it would
be fun, and that she's find her way back eventually. This was nothing
like she'd imagined, nothing like home at all. It was big and cold and
there were too many faces here. Only the dead could live like this.
But if she didn't move, then she'd never find a way home, she'd
be stuck here in this hell forever. And if she stayed here on the top of
this huge rectangular pillar, the insect people down there might come up
here, swarming up to where she was, hundreds and hundreds of them, too
many faces and feet and hands and bodies to count, just coming and coming
until she was trapped beneath a pile of them that kept growing and
growing. Until she couldn't see anything and the weight of the people
crushed the air from her lungs and her spirit from her body, until all
she would be able to feel was Them, hundreds of them everywhere -
Kismet screamed and launched herself from the top of the
building, using her wings to thrust herself upwards into the empty sky,
where she souldn't have to watch the insect-people or fear them coming
after her, where she could be safe. The sun flashed against her wings as
she flew, and a few of the Net.ropolis pedestrians beneath her looked up
and rushed for cover, fearing another superhero encounter. Kismet ignored
them, pretending the mad world beneath her did not exist, that only the
sky and herself were real, and that maybe if she flew high enough hard
enough she could get home...
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Paytan was still sitting on her bed a while later, the flowers
cushioned in her arms, and a deeply puzzled expression on her face.
Something like this had never happened to her before. Back when she was
still in high school, before her `powers' surfaced, she had gone out with
a few guys, but nothing lasting had come of it. There had been one, just
before the first time she was summoned, but she'd driven him away
afterwards. Manic depressive and occasional suicidical streaks did not a
steady relationship make. But now...
Well, he seemed nice, if a bit aggresive. Like he cared. But how
could he act like he cared, when they'd barely even spoken to each other?
All he'd done was seen her around a while, and maybe read that
application form she'd filled in... If he just wanted to go out with her
because of what he'd heard - oh yeah.
Fan.Boy, the little snoop. So at least Faq Boy knew something
about her, instead of making assumptions. But that was part of the
problem. How much did Faq Boy know? How much had he been told? Had
Fan.Boy showed a little discretion, or spilled everything? Everything,
probably. But what, exactly was everything, and did it even matter?
And what was she supposed to do when she didn't even know him?
She knew his code name, his first name, what he looked like, and maybe a
little bit of his personality. Maybe _he_ had filled out an application
file she could snoop at, or she could go find Fan.Boy and a hot iron or
something and try to convince him to spill his guts on his dimensional
twin. That held possibilities. But what if -
" HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO?! PAYTAN!" screamed someone outside her room
as they energetically beat the door with something.
" SHUT UP!! I'M COMING!" screamed back Paytan, her reverie
interrupted. She carefully set the flowers and chocolates down on the bed
and stood, glancing at herself briefly in the mirror to make sure she
didn't look as weird as she felt. Her appearance remained unchanged by
the events around her, and Paytan sighed in relief and opened the door
for Brittany, who was standing out in the hallway, in horribly clashing
street clothes, smiling. Paytan winced at the mix of orange and purple on
Brit's clothes, and raised an eyebrow at her friend.
" Hi Brit. I take it something's up?"
" Yes! We're going to lunch, and we're late because there was
this cloth thing with the elevator, and I'm sure we're going to have to
find Savannah, and if we don't get out of here soon I just _know_ Fuzzy's
going to come up with something she wants us to do, and if that happens,
then we'll probably get swept into some massive plot and - "
" Okay. Just give me a minute to change," said Paytan, and closed
the door, leaving Brittany silent in the hall. Brit shifted quizzically
>from one foot to the other for a minute, then moved to her left a few
feet and turned to lean against the wall. That was strange. She had
expected to meet up with a lot more resistance to the lunch idea, mainly
in the form of angered depression. Paytan seemed...well, if not cheerful,
at least not depressed or angry. What had snapped her out of it? Britany
stood pondering possibilities for a few minutes more, until Paytan
finally swung open her door again and stepped into the hallway.
" Ready when you are," she said. Maybe if she did something to
take her mind off things for a while she'd be able to make better sense
of them.
" Okeydoke. Let's go find Savannah," said Brittany, stealing a
quick glance into Paytan's room before the door swung shut. Flowers?
Where'd she get -
" C'mon, let's go!" smiled Paytan, and grabbed Brittany by the
arm, moving them at a swift walk down the hallway.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
It was a little past one o'clock at the Green Park Cafe, a small
dining establishment sitting by one of Net.ropolis's smaller, prettier,
parks. It had nice tables and wicker chairs with comfortable looking
cushions on them, with clean floors and large windows opening onto one
side of the park. It was in one of the nicer areas of town, and smelled
faintly of perfume and spring flowers. The rest of the street it dwelled
on was full of vendors of one sort or another, and a spaghetti restaraunt
a ways down the street. People moved slowly from place to place, drinking
in the street's peaceful aura.
Which was disrupted slightly by a high-pitched whine and a faint
thumping sound, slowly growing closer. The whine peaked just as a highly
technological sleek motorcycle-type object turned the corner. It was
black, and it's botton half was surrounded by a pale yellow aura that
seemed to hold it steady in the air. Of the three girls on it, only one
seemed entirely comfortable with the situation, and that may have been
because she didn't quite seem to be paying attention at the time. The one
in the driver's seat, with the horribly clashing wardrobe, was staring at
the control panel of her machine with deep concentration, allowing the
machine to coast slowly to a stop at the side of the street.
The girl in the middle, who seemed the most normal of the three,
dismounted quickly and backed away, breathing heavily.
" I'm never driving with you again Brittany. Ever," said Paytan.
" Oh come on, I was getting the hang of it towards the end,"
muttered Brittany, poking experimentally at the control board with one
hand while pushing back her wildly windblown hair with the other. "We
hardly even disrupted the street, see?"
Paytan looked around. Brittany was right. They _had_ managed to
make a semi-subtle arrival, even though the horrible rythmic thumping
sound that had started when they made their first turn continued to
emanate from somewhere around the hovercycle's engine area. Brit finished
poking some buttons, and the thumping sound ground to a halt as the
glowing yellow light faded from the bottom of the cycle, setting it
gently to rest on the black pavement beneath it. Brittany dismounted and
stuck her tongue out at Paytan.
" There, told you I could do it," she gloated, then turned and
tapped Savannah's shoulder. Her cousin looked at her blearily.
" Are we there? Here, I mean, already?" she asked, turning her
head slowly to look at their surroundings.
" Yup. Come on, let's go inside and get a table," suggested
Brittany, helping Savannah down from the cycle and turning to follow
Paytan inside. They managed to get a table and order without too much
trouble, sitting in a booth near one of the large windows that opened out
into the park. Paytan stared out of it distantly, one hand idly drawing
circles on the table with water condensation from her glass. It was nice
out here, away from the random chaos and violence of the LNHHQ. Life
would be looking pretty good, if only she could forget one thing.
She was utterly defenseless, and as soon as the demons summoned
her the next time, that fact would become clearly apparent. No Dirmarw,
no memory wipe. No memory wipe, no sanity. Well, she's probably still be
sane, but not very. Not to mention that right now she was utterly useless
in a fight, should one come up. What was she going to do, walk up to the
villain and try to punch his lights out? Maybe she should forgive him,
just this once...
" Um, hey Paytan?" asked Brittany," You okay? The food's here and
you haven't touched a thing - " It was then that they heard the scream.
It was coming from out on the restaurant's open porch area.
" Oh my Lord, it's a superhero!! AAAAAAAAA!!" screamed one of the
Cafe's waitresses, and dove under one of the tables, sending patrons into
a panicked run into the cafe. Paytan moaned and buried her head in her
arms.
" We should never have left HQ," she griped," Whenver we leave HQ
things _happen_ to us. Why can't we have a nice calm lunch JUST ONCE?!"
-=ð=- -=ð=-
She had flown to high. That must be it. The air had weakened and
thinned around her, but she hadn't cared. She'd just worked harder,
trying to go higher and higher, away from the crazy world she was now
falling towards. For some reason she couldn't seem to brake her descent.
Something about the cold maybe, and she was so tired, just looking up at
the deep blue sky above her and thinking faintly about things. And the
wind felt so nice, rushing through her hair like that.
She sighed and lazily turned over in the air, noticing the ground
hurtling towards her again. Oh yes, she was falling. Her eyes widened and
some energy returned to her weakend limbs, as she tried to turn her
tumbling fall into a more gentle glide. It didn't work very well, and the
ground was getting awfully close.
There. A green area, with a small lake in the middle of it. If
she could hit the water instead of the ground... She strained to move her
wings into position, and her hearts began to pump more blood through
them, trying to heat them up, bring things back under control. The ground
was very close now, and she could see some of the insect-people
by the lake, faces upturned to watch her fall. They must be waiting for
her there, waiting until she landed, to take her to some hive, to some
place where they were everywhere, and you couldn't see anything for all
the people walking to and fro like some monstrous crawling mass - She
closed her eyes. It was either the lake or die.
Slowly she managed to straighten her wild tumble into a more
controlled fall, setting herself diectly above the little lake. She began
to backwing frantically, pumping her wings for all she was worth, trying
to slow herself enough so that when she hit the water her neck wouldn't
break. Then suddenly her adrenaline rush faded away, and took what little
energy she had left with it. Her last sight was that of the lake rushing
towards her, rimmed in black that slowly grew bigger and bigger until it
blocked out her vision. Then there was nothing.
_________________________________________________________________________
Binky, Dirmarw, Kismet, Out-of-It Lass, Perdition, Weirdness Girl,
copyright Jennifer Whitson, 1995. Faq Boy is Jamas Enright's, as is the
scene containing him.
NEXT ISSUE:
Dealing with Kismet. Dealing with other stuff. Setting things up,
and maybe taking things down.
=========================================================================
------
.sig is living in jungle with pack of wolves and refuses to come back.
