Note- this is a Onevision that I wrote many months ago, at the start of last summer, but have had saved on my computer the whole time. I meant to post it, but my computer troubles at home started up. Anyway, it involves Anne from ‘Price of Security’ and Tarquin from ‘Journeys and Destinies’. It’s not the best written story or one I’m most proud of, but it’s a quick little character bit that I like. I should note that this was largely written during my reactionary period to Identity Crisis #2, which left me very angry. Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Tarquin stared into the mirror, cold water dripping off his face. The face that stared back at him was not recognizable. Where once there was a very handsome face, in fact devilishly handsome, there was now a terrifying image. A thick purple scar cut directly across his face, growing especially purple and thick under his left eye, and then through his lips, so that his bottom lip split and hung open. He was horrifically ugly now. It was the LMBer Invisible Brainiac’s fault.
His mission for Septimus failed. He had been prepared to kill all of the LMBers, and was sure he’d killed at least a few. He was preparing to cut the boy a little, to make sure the little bastard was too terrified of him to do anything. Then Invisible Brainiac, the youngest little punk of the crew of heroes stopped him cold. Tarquin had been nailed, and this scar was proof of that. Inivisible Brainiac cut him across the face with his own knife, and now both his looks and reputation were destroyed.
He was going to have his revenge.
He managed to escape, and he waited and he planned. And then he found his way to Legion World, and smuggled himself in. It’s funny what the threat of death can get a space-line steward to do.
Septimus’ minions abandoned him. Either that, or the LMB actually destroyed the powerful wizard. Tarquin certainly didn’t care either way. He wanted one thing. To hurt and destroy Invisible Brainiac. He was going to make the kid feel pain. He was going to hurt him especially bad. He was going to hurt his loved ones, and he was going to make sure the kid was never more horrified in his life.
Tarquin looked out of his window. He was on Legion World. He was ready for revenge.
Anna nodded and smiled at her customer, as she handed him his cup of coffee. The customer, a handsome LMBer named Icefyre, smiled back and told her to have a great day.
She had been back at work Café Cramer for a full week and was finally getting back in the groove again. It was hard, though. Everything felt different since the attack. Since she almost died.
She only remembered it in bits and pieces. Legion World being attacked. The LMBers out in the streets, fighting off shadows and warrior women with flails. Then the burning sensation of a shadow grabbing her. It hurt and kept flaring, and then suddenly she knew she was going to die.
And then she felt a soothing feeling, and looked up to see Cobalt Kid healing her. He had been on a date with her that night, and had saved her. But she stared at him, and she was scared of him. This strange world that he and the other LMBers were a part of. The constant danger and death—people had died that night.
She was almost one of them.
He looked back, and he knew. He talked to her before he left on his quest, but they both knew that they wouldn’t date again. That was alright. He was a lot of fun, but they had only had a few dates, nothing serious. She was glad of that—she would have been more upset if it was serious. Because she knew she wanted nothing to do with the world of the LMB, and of shadows that killed people, and of death and misery.
She didn’t care that it was fear that made her feel this way. All she had to do was remember the pain, and remember the feeling of almost dying.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
It took a little while before Tarquin was confident in roaming the streets of Legion World. After all, this was a city full of super-heroes. This was the one place that the LMB were most powerful, no matter who was away on missions. He knew some LMBers, like Cobalt Kid and Lard Lad had not returned yet, but he also knew that others equally or even more powerful, like Space Ranger, Spellbinder and Harbinger, were right around every corner. And they could take down a powerless man like himself instantly.
No, Tarquin’s strong points were always in his wit and in his understanding of people. That was how he rose to power on his own planet at such a young age, and how he manipulated everyone he knew. He knew that he wouldn’t fight Invisible Brainiac one on one, since the boy had immense power. His name was a misnomer—he wielded the power of pure light, something far more scary than invisibility or intelligence.
He’d hurt him where it would hurt the most.
Tarquin followed around a few people, and finally got a sense of where the boy was and what he did. He had been in the hospital for some time, from injuries obviously sustained during his fight with Septimus, although the details on that fight were kept very secret. But the boy had many visitors and one in particular who was not another LMBer.
Her name was Sara, he had learned. This girl, Sara, visited him more often than any other did, and it was very clear that she was his girlfriend. Once he had been released from the hospital ward, anyone in plain sight could see the two laughing and fooling around with one another in the streets. It was through this girl Sara, that he would have his revenge.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
“You’re late,” said Anne, as she watched her sister Sara enter Café Cramer.
“Sorry,” said Sara with a big smile, as Invisible Brainiac, her boyfriend came in afterwards. Obviously, she wasn’t that sorry. IB laughed with her.
Anne rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help smile and laugh with them. They were infectious, and they seemed to be the only thing making her laugh anymore.
“Ms. Cramer expects you on time, goofball,” replied Anne with a bemused expression on her face.
“Aw, FC doesn’t mind!” replied IB, as carefree as ever.
“No, but I do,” retorted Anne, enjoying annoying the LMBer. She was very fond of him and glad her sister dated him—to be honest, he was probably the only LMBer that she went out of her way to interact with besides Fat Cramer, her employer, who she admired. “You’re shift starts now, and I’m ready to rest these little feet.”
“Going out tonight, Anne?” asked Sarah, although her face suddenly changed as if she realized she asked a stupid question.
“No,” was the stiff reply.
“Oh, well, uh, that’s too bad,” said Sarah, trying to end this particular conversation quickly.
“How come?” asked IB nonchalantly.
“Don’t feel like it.”
Sarah tried to shoot him a look, but Anne noticed it. Anne poured herself a café ole, and took off her space-apron.
“Have a good night kids,” she said, walking out.
“What was that all about?” asked a surprised IB.
“You know why…” said Sarah, “she’s still so freaked about what happened. She won’t even go out when it’s dark anymore.”
“What? Why? There’s like fifty super-heroes that live in this city. At least a third of them could take out whole armies.”
“I know that, and you know that, but that just makes Anne more scared. That thing that happened, where she almost died…she just hasn’t been the same. She was always shy, but she at least had a sense of humor. Now she’s just so scared all the time…”
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Anne sipped her café ole, as she walked back to the apartment she shared with her sister. They had arrived on Legion World with the usual bunch of nomads looking for a home, although the two were quickly accepted as people who could benefit the community. Their mother had passed away earlier that year and the two had little to no money, and the universe was becoming an increasingly dangerous place for people, as well as a hard place to make a living.
It was close to getting dark and she wanted to just get home, lock up and relax. A warm bath and a good book was all she needed right now. She was comforted by the thought that she had no intentions to start dating anytime soon.
As she walked on, lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice that a man was walking behind her, about twenty feet away. He had been walking behind her for a few blocks. That was because he was following her.
Tarquin had seen Sarah and Invisible Brainiac walk into the Café, and then saw what he thought was Sarah walk out alone. Who know what the young LMBer was doing now? He had his girlfriend dead in his sights, and he was going to make her pay for what Invisible Brainiac did to his face. He’d have his revenge by putting her through the most terrible hell that she could ever imagine.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Anne turned her light on and quickly locked up the door. Once it was locked, she felt a huge sigh of relief. She was starting to feel like she never wanted to leave her apartment at all these days. She didn’t even realize it, but she was a little out of breath from the walk home…and she was in great shape. It was because she was too scared to even breathe right.
She giggled at herself a little. “Stupid girl,” she thought, as she walked into her kitchen and put her stuff down. It was a little cold and she thought a warm bath would be just the thing. She was reading a new book written by Dr. One, the famed LMB scientist, on how his experiment on enlarging a giant amoeba led to the creation of new forms of sentient rocket-fuel. It was a little heavy on the technical stuff, but the author was witty and enjoyable.
Moving into the bathroom, she turned on the Fawcett and set the bath. She felt tired, suddenly, as the anxiety began to slip away. She looked in the mirror and felt a bit of depression. She thought she looked terrible. Her long, auburn hair, which she once loved, looked ugly to her now, and she just wanted to get it out of her face.
Something made a sound.
Anne jumped quickly, thinking she heard a sound. Like something scratching. Panic set in. She waited. Nothing. More waiting. Nothing. The panic began to subside. A small giggle started to build, and she had to suppress it. She was terrified and a little amused at herself for it. She peaked her head out of the door, but saw nothing. The entrance door to her apartment was shut, as it had been.
For no reason other than to make some noise in the otherwise quiet room, she said aloud “Anne…you’re a coward.”
And then she heard the reply.
“Things are about to get scarier.”
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
His voice sounded like sandpaper. She looked up, and before she knew what was happening, there he was.
He was hideous. He was in all black, and had oily black hair. And he had a large scar that ran across his face—it was the ugliest face she’d ever seen. He smelt like woodchips.
“Please…” he said to her, in a low voice, “…please fight back.” Before she could move, he was right next to her, throwing her to the floor. She didn’t realize it, but she was screaming. His hands were around his throat. She felt like the world was collapsing.
“C’mon you little skank, fight back!” he yelled.
She struggled and tried to squirm away, and held her breath, hoping it all would end soon. He continued to choke her.
And then, as tears rolled down her cheeks, she remembered the exact instant when she was being attacked last time, and how helpless she felt about being unable to do anything at all to defend herself. She remembered seeing others running and moving, and some even fighting back. Running had been useless, although any moving was good. Really, all you could have done was fight back.
He had stopped choking her, and she knew he was going to try and unbuckle his belt. The tear rolled down her cheek, and she felt her jaw muscles clench. She reached up with her little hands, and grabbed his face. At first she thought she’d scratch him, but that would be useless. She extended her thumb, and plunged it into his right eye.
He screamed a shrill little scream, like a five year old girl whose birthday cake had just been spit on. He feel backward, and her fear began to turn to adrenaline, and she rubbed her thumb in as best she could. When she pulled it out, there was blood.
He fell backward and continued to scream. A knife fell from his hand, which she didn’t even realize he was holding to her throat. She was still in her shirt and pants, although her shoes had been kicked off. Fear turned into outrage.
She went for the knife.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
“I’m going to kill you, you bitch!” he screamed, taking his hand off his face, revealing a bloody eye-socket. “You and your boyfriend will pay for this!”
He ran at her and she knew he was going to try and kill her as quickly as possible.
For some reason, the adrenaline in the heat of the moment allowed her to think more clearly than ever before. His words “you and your boyfriend” made Anne realize that he thought she was her sister Sarah, and once that set in, her rage hit her harder than ever before. And she realized that there was no reason to be scared of this pathetic bastard, or any pathetic bastards anymore. For months now, she had kept her head down and continued along, afraid of what was around every little corner, ready to run away from it when it came.
Not today, and not ever again. The only way to deal with it was to take it head on and fight back.
He ran at her with his arms outstretched and she suddenly leapt back at him, and she caught him off guard, knocking him backward again, and plunged the knife directly into his throat.
As blood squirted onto the floor, his legs gave out, and she knew that these were his final moments.
For Tarquin, whose life had been defined by revenge, a lust for power and a confident arrogance that he was one of those who knew he was better than the rest, it seemed unfitting that he would be cut by his own blade once again. And that was the end of him.
Anne watched him fade away, and then sat down next to him. She felt like maybe she should be crying or panicking, but realized she just didn’t have it in her. She even thought about kicking his body once or twice, but didn’t really feel like that would make her feel better.
A wave of emotion swept through her, for some strange reason, she felt a weird feeling of relief. Now a tear rolled down her cheek, and a small smile crept across her face. What in the world was she going to do next, she wondered?
She knew there wasn’t really an answer to that, but she knew one thing: she was not going to be afraid of the world anymore.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Ironically, this was the same night that Cobalt Kid reemerged on Legion World, from his time away with the seven other LMBers in charge of taking care of Elagabolus. He had a full beard, was wearing a grey Elvin Cloak and looked dirty and tired. When the Security Officers came to figure out what was going on, he joined Space Ranger with them.
Anne walked outside with Space Ranger and Cobalt as her apartment was cleaned, and Tarquin’s body was taken away.
They were quiet for a minute.
“You’ve been through quite a lot the last few weeks, Anne,” said Cobalt.
“You look like you’ve had a fun few months too.” She replied.
He nodded. “Am I going to be charged?” she asked suddenly, as the thought occurred to her. Space Ranger looked at Cobalt.
“No,” he said matter of factly. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”
“It was have been terrifying,” said Space Ranger. “You’ve got some survival instincts, Anne.” She looked up at him. “What I mean to say is, that you’re very brave.” She nodded at him. He walked away.
Cobalt and Anne looked on, although now they turned away and faced the rest of the city.
“I don’t want to be scared anymore Cobie, and I’m not going to be. I haven’t been able to leave my apartment for weeks…maybe this terrifying experience has ‘woken’ me up from that. I thought I was going to die…”
“But you didn’t.”
“No…I didn’t.”
“This is a beautiful city, Anne. And there is plenty to see. We’d love it if you came out and joined the rest of us in seeing it.”
“Good. Because I’m going to. Whatever the world has in store for me, I’m ready for it.”
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Epilogue:
Six Months Later. Kid Prime and Ultra Matt were the leaders of the LMB. Legion World, as ever, was changing.
Anne overlooked the city from a rooftop. Her long, auburn hair was gone, and was now short, and dyed green. She was trim and lean, and in excellent shape. She had a grin on her face, and felt proud of herself.
“I wonder…” she said aloud again, for no reason, “…is the world ready for Danger Damsel?”
Danger Damsel Posted by High Priestess Viviane on :
I enjoyed this Cobie, I couldn't stop reading, I really like your Onevisions, hope you got some more for us.
By the by, I really like those pics you use, where did you get them?
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Actually Viv, I definitely do have some more. I have the largest Onevision project yet planned, which I will have to announce in the upcoming weeks. Just to give a little teaser, it’s an 8-part Onevision story (re: 8 mini-Onevisions), followed by a larger part II. I’m trying to encompass the large majority of posters during the Kid Prime era of leadership. More on that in coming weeks, but I want to get ahead of myself before committing (after all, I have the enormous continuity timeline to work on too ).
As for those pics, I made them around winter of last year (2003). What happened was DC or something had a contest with this graphics program to make pics along these lines and I was playing around with them one day and came up with a few designs. The designs were a little limited (you might note some of the similarities on them), but I had a lot of fun one day coming up with them. I think there are seven all together:
Cobalt Kid Space Tart Invisible Brainiac Poverty Lad Danger Damsel Princess Tarina Giant Squid
Danger Damsel and Princess Tarina were two totally new characters that I came up with directly out of the designs, b/c I liked the designs so much. Thus, I added Princess Tarina into the “Journeys and Destinies” story with a full backround, and plan on exploring her again in the future (in my upcoming project). Danger Damsel I also liked a lot, so I had the character of Anne, who had a significant part in “Price of Security” gradually make her way into becoming her. She too will have a major part in my upcoming story. Giant Squid was an alt ID that was around right around that point and had just been killed during the Dark Stu Saga by the Royal Inquisitor on the MMB.
Luckily for me, Lightning Lad is the coolest person in the whole world and helped walk me through getting these designs saved. He actually went on the site, followed my designs step by step, recreated them and saved them onto computer space for me so I can post them from time to time. Yup, Scooter rocks that much .
They’re scattered around the Bits forum and other places, but I think there is a thread with all of them in somewhere. I’ll look for it for you
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