The militia stirred and mounted the walls. Under-manned as they were, they held at the sight of thousands of warriors, still held when all the warriors stopped mysteriously just out of gunshot. Yet, the militia fled when out of the horizon stomped a giant, 50ft tall, squid wolf-parrot samurai. The terrifying monster laughed at their screams and unsheathed a large katana which was American modified.
The monster swordsman swung the sword down upon the wall and with one great smash cleaved a section of it.
The army outside cheered and cried, running straight to the rubble. The first ones to climb the rubble were met by four masked figures, all in different costumes.
There was the Red Jaw (Maryam) who wore a black trench coat, shirt and trousers with a red scarf-bandanna around her lower face.
There was Emperor Coil (Yi) who was in costume, which was ripped to tatters when he transformed into a giant, 10ft steel coil.
There was the Flaming Calm Before the Storm (Ms Blank) who was in a Buddhist nun’s garb with a faceless mask that had only slits for eyeholes.
Finally there was Mr. Strong (Ray Burroughs) who just looked like a giant Mexican wrestler.
The invading soldiers were confounded by the striking and flamboyant figures. They almost laughed, but they didn’t have time before the heroes attacked.
The Flaming Calm Before the Storm scorched apart the first battalion with a pyrokinetic meditation; all who her eyes looked upon burst into hot fire.
Mr. Strong hurled large chunks of rubble down on the second row of the battalions.
Emperor Coil swung and snaked, smashing the third batch of the battalions.
The Red Jaw punched and spattered with psychic currents at the fourth wave of the battalions.
The attacking army was amazed. Never had anyone seen superpowered people use their powers this way, and more, they were holding off the troops from entering the city.
The hybrid samurai creature looked on the scene, annoyed. The wolf-squid howled from its parrot beak, “I killed a sister samurai the past night. I can unmake a bunch of superpowered ants!”
The monster flicked a claw-paw. A truck rolled near it, bearing a mighty, giant guitar.
The four superheroes looked in awe and terror. They hoped the Canadian-wolf-squid-parrot samurai wasn’t what they thought it was.
The samurai took up the giant guitar, plucked a few strings and then it started. Out of the instrument an unearthly music twanged forth. The music shook the air, made the earth shake, yet more than the sky and the earth trembled: reality itself quivered in the cacophony of the samurai’s reality quake. It was as the four heroes feared! The samurai was a reality shaker!
The heroes were shocked and unbalanced as the music tore and howled into their souls. The American legions redoubled in a charge and soon drove the superheroes into the town.
The streets were bare and deserted because of the attack, but not entirely, for in the middle of the road stood little Red and Mic.
Yi (Emperor Coil) was the first to spot them and shouted, “Hey! What are you two doing here?!”
Mic shouted back, “Our father told us to stay next to you guys, saying that it was the safest place in the town.”
“Wise man,” remarked Mr. Strong (Ray Burroughs), punching an American soldier into the sky.
Maryam (the Red Jaw) shot an eldritch blast of psychic energy to stop the reality quakes, but to no avail. She cried, “So is he going to come and help us or not?!”
Red cried out to reply, “Well, he…” Red was interrupted when a soldier broke through, tumbling over the Flaming Calm Before the Storm (Ms. Blank) and rushed toward the two boys.
The soldier’s charge flung Red to the ground and Red flinched as the bayonet was lifted over him. Then suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, there jumped down from a roof-top a figure – and Superman punched the American soldier to the ground.
It was Jim! He was dressed in a multicolored skirt and blouse, with a purple-colored cape. He was armed to the teeth with two rapiers, and a pistol on his belt, as well as two guitars on his back. He wore a mask shaped like a fox’s head and had a fake tail running down behind his legs. Immediately he struck a pose and cried, “I am the Foxy Lady!”
Red, lying on the ground, muttered, “Really, man…you’re, you’re…Really going to do this?”
“Ah, shut up, Red! I’m having fun!” He rushed to the stairs of the walls.
“Hey wait! Where are you going!?” cried the Flaming Calm Before the Storm.
The Foxy Lady did not reply, he just ran and jumped to stand on the wall’s top.
The reality quakes were bearing down hard, especially on the walls, yet through this the Foxy Lady picked out one guitar from behind his back. He suddenly blared out a tremendous counter shock-wave with one burst from the guitar. The immense shock wave made the army’s horde stumble in the charge, and the squid-wolf-parrot samurai fell off its feet from the wave, crashing onto the truck.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for coming to my first official concert!” shouted out the Foxy Lady, “My name is the Foxy Lady and this is the first time I have used my superpowers to their full extent! But hey! No time like the present! This is a little song I like to call ‘Purple Haze’
Purple Haze! Beyond Insane!
Is it pleasure? Or is it pain?!
Down on the ceiling! Looking up at the bed!
Seeing my body painted blue and red!”
Reality shook, quaked, and convulsed at the pounding of (Jim’s) the Foxy Lady’s sounds. It quivered, shivered, and cracks in the fabric of the universe itself began to form.
“By Allah!” cried the Red Jaw.
“Buddha!” cried the Flaming Calm Before the Storm.
“Oh my Atheism!” cried Mr. Strong.
Emperor Coil shouted, “He’s not just a reality shaker! He is a reality breaker!”
Portals and doorways to another reality were unlocked by the cracks made by the Foxy Lady’s music. Fantastic, otherworldly, kaleidoscopic vistas were gazed upon in these holes in existence and streaming forth into the world was…What else! Purple Haze! It ringed forth, plaguing the American troops with strange, surreal wonders – as if their lives weren’t surreal enough.
One warrior, however, snuck through the four superheroes’ line and sprang onto the Foxy Lady. The Foxy Lady saw him and swung his instrument, smashing his guitar on the American warrior’s head. The guitar splattered its scattered pieces, broken.
An awful, dead silence enveloped the land. The cracks healed, the portals and doorways closed. Then the Foxy Lady simply pulled out the other guitar from his back, “Aw! There’s plenty more where that came from! We’re just getting started! Here’s Voodoo Child!”
The entire army screamed in terror and fled into the desert. The samurai narrowed its eyes as the fleeing legions swarmed about its feet.
The samurai then brought out its most powerful and feared attack. Lasers flared forth out of its eyeballs and came out of its beak. The three beams converged at just above its snout, then the combined ball of light sparked up, cutting a ray through the air, as the wolf-squid-parrot samurai moved the laser’s path to aim it at the Foxy Lady.
“Aw! You want to play that game, do ya!? Well, I think I can play that tune too!” mumbled the Foxy Lady and took off his fox mask. Portals to the other universe were created in his eyeballs and he opened another as he dropped open his mouth. A heat ray of purple haze shot out of the three portals and combined at his nose, similar to the giant samurai, beaming out in one big laser.
The two lasers hit directly at one another. Their powers surged as they pierced each other, but the Foxy Lady’s purple haze was stronger and blasted forward. It outdid the giant samurai’s laser, hitting the titanic monster. The 50ft tall giant wolf-squid-parrot samurai exploded in a burst of colors, butterflies, and flowers. The Foxy Lady raised his two fists in the air.
“Huh? What do you know?” said Mic. “This one time, the fox did beat the wolf.”
On top of the crumbled stone sat the Red Jaw (Maryam), Emperor Coil (Yi), Mr. Strong (Ray Burroughs), and finally the Foxy Lady (Jim). They were laughing and having a great time. Yi (Emperor Coil) sighed, “Phew, I thought we would never survive there. I’m sad that we can’t do this everyday.”
Jim (the Foxy Lady) asked, “Why? What do you mean?”
Ray Burroughs (Mr. Strong) explained, “The threat is gone. No reason for our team to stick around.”
Maryam (The Red Jaw) said, “Yeah, we were planning to disband after this.”
“Disband?! After this?!” cried Jim (the Foxy Lady), “I’ve only been in this town for a few days and I can see the crime rate is skyrocketing, and I’ve traveled these desert wastes and they’re not good out there either. We cannot disband, we merely have to change from army busters to crime fighters.”
Maryam (the Red Jaw) looked at everyone else sitting on the rubble. She lay her arms on her lap and her head on her hands and said decisively, “Continue.”
Epilogue
A month after the famous Bata Taun battle. In a nightclub beside Ray’s bookstore.
A regal, formally dressed, Japanese man sat by a table in the back room, just next to the dance floor in which the people were moving wildly. An equally regal, formally dressed, Canadian man walked by and sat next to him.
“Prime Minister Eisaku Satō,” said the Canadian.
“Emperor Lester B. Pearson,” greeted the Prime Minister.
“Have you read over the reports?”
“Yes. We, as the Canadian-Japanese Union, must choose our reaction to these superpowered vigilantes carefully and very seriously.”
“This ‘Foxy Lady’ could be quite dangerous.”
The two settled down as the room became quiet.
An announcer came up on stage, “Hello everybody! Hope everyone’s having a great night! Now here we have a lovely father and two son band from the desert waste. Please give it up for Jim! Red! And Mic…The Jim Experience!”
The crowd cheered and Jim, Mic, and Red came on stage. Mic went to the drums, Red to bass guitar and Jim went to the front, being lead guitar.
“Hello, everyone.” said Jim, “I want to say a couple of things. First: this music is inspired by the Foxy Lady who without her, or him, we wouldn’t be here today. Secondly: this performance marks an important time for me, it being one month since I’ve had a drop of liquor to drink.”
The crowd cheered at that.
“And thirdly: I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve learned to accept some things about myself, learned not to deny things about my identity. However, without further ado, we’re going to play you Are You Experienced?”
The party and the performance went over very well. At the end, Jim had his guitar set on fire. No one knew how, though. Most thought it was stagecraft, but they never noticed one particular lady standing calmly amongst the hubbub.
GHOST
Milton Davis
One
A cold drizzle settled on Seaboard Industrial Boulevard, ushering in another miserable January night in Atlanta. The lights still burned at Gentech, a small genetics laboratory tucked behind a cluster of naked maples – an odd sight for a Friday night. Bryce St. George sat at his desk inside, wrestling with a genetic sequence that played hard to get. The brilliant Jamaican loved the challenge; it was something that was rare in his life in the outside world.
Bryce was a blessed man. At twenty-eight, he stood six foot four, carrying two hundred and twenty pounds of natural hard muscle on his bones. He was a gifted athlete who excelled in sports throughout his life, earning a football and academic scholarship to college. After graduating he turned down the physical challenges of pro football, soccer and basketball for the mental challenges of genetic engineering. With dark chocolate skin, dreadlocks that lifted over his head then fell to his broad shoulders like a lion’s mane and deep green eyes, Bryce was a woman’s dream. If his looks didn’t capture her at first glance, his deep, melodic patois usually sealed the deal.
The glare of car lights interrupted his scientific scrutiny. He looked up from the stereoscope and recognized the red Honda Accord pulling into the parking lot. A knowing smile creased his face. Briana had returned to ‘surprise’ him. He went back to his desk and pretended to be busy, ignoring her clumsy attempt to quietly open the front door. He kept his back turned as her heels clicked across the vinyl floor. Warm, honey-brown hands slipped over his eyes.
“Guess who?” she purred.
“The cleaning lady?” he answered.
“Bastard!” she exclaimed as she smacked him on the head.
Bryce spun his seat around to view his boss’ latest assistant and his soon to be latest conquest. Briana posed in a black trench coat pulled tight against her body.
“You ready to play?” she asked. She opened the coat slowly, revealing a sheer chemise, then eased onto his lap. Their kiss was wet and full.
“Not here,” Bryce whispered. He picked her up suddenly and she yelped. He carried her into Lenny’s office and her eyes widened.
“We can’t do it here!”
Bryce smiled. “Yes we can.”
He was placing her down on the sofa when he noticed Lenny’s monitor. Instead of the usual screensaver of his boss’ family, there was an unfamiliar emblem flashing.
“What’s this?” Bryce went to the screen. “Vanguard?”
This was something new.
“Bryce?” Briana sat up on the sofa with a frown. Bryce flashed a smile, then sat at Lenny’s computer.
“Give me a minute, Bree. I need to check this out.” Bryce’s fingers flashed across the keyboard as unfamiliar data streamed past his eyes.
“Lenny, you naughty boy,” Bryce whispered. He jumped out the chair, ran to his desk and returned with a flash drive. He plugged it into the computer and began downloading files.
“What are you doing?” Briana asked.
Bryce turned to her and began to remove his shirt. “The question is who am I doing?”
They nestled onto the sofa, the room illuminated by the flashing monitor lights.
***
Leonard Steinberg arrived at Gentech Monday morning, just as the snow flurries began to fall from the blanket of gray clouds overhead.
This is too early for this kind of weather, he thought.
Snow usually came to Atlanta in February, sometimes as late as March. It was the reason he moved down from upstate New York years ago despite the wailing of his family. Gentech was the type of business you could run from anywhere in the country and at fifty-five, Leonard had his fill of shoveling snow and grueling drives to vacations in south Florida. Georgia was an excellent compromise as far as he was concerned. Besides, there was Bryce, who refused to relocate any further north than Atlanta. Gentech was nothing without Bryce.
The building was empty; Bryce and the other technicians usually didn’t arrive until after nine. He hummed as he shuffled to his office, briefcase in one hand and the Journal-Constitution stuffed under his arm. He opened his office door and was assaulted by the aroma of Glade Morning Mist.
“For God’s Sake, Bryce!” he barked. He looked at his sofa, his pale face crinkled as he imagined what had taken place the night before in his office. He knew Bryce used his office as his office tryst station; he knew that Bryce knew he knew. But Bryce also knew his own value to the company.
“I’ll have to call the upholstery cleaners,” he mumbled. As he sat his briefcase down, he noticed his monitor still on. His pale face became paler.
“No, no, no,” he stammered. He sat in his seat and hit enter. Vanguard options jumped on the screen and he dropped his head. He didn’t log off yesterday. Bryce and Briana had been in his office. Maybe they were too hot with each other to notice. As he logged off the system
his phone rang.
“Gentech,” he answered.
“We have a breach,” the voice said.
Leonard took the receiver away from his face and cursed silently.
“There was no breach,” he replied. “I forgot to log out, that’s all.”
“This was not log error. This was a breach. Files were entered and downloaded. Important files. Sensitive files.”
Leonard’s head began to sweat. He waited for the next words.
“I need names and information.”
“He’s too valuable,” Leonard replied. “Everything you have from me, he created.”
“No one is too valuable. Everyone is expendable, including you. Besides, the project is nearly complete. I need names and information.”
Leonard pulled up Bryce’s file on the screen. He gazed at it for a moment, regretting the terrible act he was about to commit.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. He opened the secure e-mail and attached Bryce’s file.
“Anyone else?”
Leonard closed his eyes. “Yes, a woman, but she’s fairly new. I’m sure she wasn’t involved.”
“That’s not your decision to make.”
Leonard attached Briana’s file to the e-mail and clicked Send. There was a moment of silence before the caller spoke again.
“You have a week to shut down operations. Your new facility will be in Sao Paulo. No more mistakes.”
Leonard rubbed his head. “Yes, I understand.”
“Goodbye, Leonard.”
The caller hung up. Leonard placed the receiver down, dropped his face into his hands and cried.
Two
Malik Cooper sat in the stall of the NSA building, staring at a picture of Tisha and the twins. He was doing it for them; giving up a storied career as a deep cover agent for his soon to be family. He rubbed his head, brushing his close cropped hair back and forth and sighed.
“It’s the right thing to do. The best thing to do.”
He exited the bathroom and marched to Sheryl Jennings’ office.
Black Power- The Superhero Anthology Page 6
