Bounce

Star Wars - Jedi Exile.

“Keep the blade steady.”

The large hands of the Mon Calamari weapon master seemed virtually massive in contrast to the youngling’s, as the venerable instructor steadied the raven-haired youth’s grip on the training shoto. From out of the corner of his eye, the young, near-human boy caught a glimpse of a Nautolan boy executing a number of Soresu orbits in perfect harmony. Distracted, Sor-Jan’s jaw dropped open slightly as the amphibian youngling neatly countered shots from the two hovering training droids that were picking away at his defense.

That was before a Mon Cal elbow poked him in the side of his head. “Focus, youngling,” the weapon master chided the boy, pushing on the child’s lower back to straighten his posture slightly. “You have opponents of your own.”

As the instructor took a step back, the young Anzati looked up at the small, spherical droid which hovered just a meter away in the air. Swallowing slightly, the youngling tried to focus his thoughts there. He could feel the Force moving between him and the droid. He could feel the other younglings in the room, the instructors moving through the students...

“It is important to know your surroundings, but not at the expense of what is in front of you,” the Mon Cal weapon master said, breaking through the youngling’s concentration. “Now show me the opening stance,” the instructor directed, crossing his arms across his chest.

Drawing in a large breath, the Anzat boy straightened his body as he brought the lightsaber upright to the center of his body, then elevated it overhead as he took a step back, holding the blade parallel to the ground as he swung his body so that it was positioned on a ninety-degree axis from the droid’s line of fire. As he planted the foot behind him and settled into the stance, the youngling slowly let out the breath that he’d been holding.

“Good,” the instructor commented, reaching into a pouch on his belt and producing a second training droid, which hovered through the air about a meter behind the first droid. “Now, begin.”

Without being conscious of what his body was doing, Sor-Jan realized after the fact that he’d driven the shoto saber forward, holding the blade upright as a training bolt connected with the blade. Instinct was superseding thought, as the young Anzat found himself pulled into a moment that seemed to distort time. He brought the blade into a vertical position, deflecting a bolt from the second training droid, then upright as he stepped around and swept aside another from the first.

“Good, good. You understand the circle of protection,” the instructor intoned. As the two droids drifted apart and began to circle the youngling independent of one another, the boy brought the saber up and around in a tight orbit around his body. “Let your emotions flow like water,” the Mon Cal urged on from the sidelines.

Let your emotions flow like water, the youngling echoed in his thoughts. What the nerf did that even mean? Transitioning from one orbit movement to the next, the young Anzat continued to try and maintain momentum as two more training bolts were fired. Pivoting on one foot, the Anzat neatly neutralized the one along the blade of his training shoto, before whipping the blade around to...

Sor-Jan’s stomach turned, a wave of overwhelming emotion slamming into his body as though he had just been physically punched in the gut. Stumbling over his own feet, the second training bolt caught the youngling in the leg as, all throughout the room, the younglings all cried out in terror.

“Younglings, quiet!”

With a wave of two of his four hands, the clan’s Thisspiasian master disabled all of the droids in the room, sending the spherical shooters clattering to the floor. A yellow lightsaber was glowing in one of Azul Gol’s hands, the first time that Sor-Jan recalled ever seeing the Jedi ignite his lightsaber. Behind him, the Mon Calamari weapon master ignited a blue lightsaber, while another instructor activated his lightsaber as well.

Sor-Jan’s confusion turned to panic as an explosion sent a tremor through the building. Several younglings blurted out questions as to what was happening, as the Jedi instructors again called for quiet. The building anxiety turned to dread as a sound began to echo from outside the room.

It was the sound of blaster fire. For real blaster fire.

“Whatever is happening, we cannot stay here. We would be trapped,” the Thisspiasian Jedi Sentinel declared at the front of the room, as the bearded serpent slithered to the door. The smell of burning ozone whiffed into the room as the Jedi opened the door into the mezzanine. A number of blaster bolts were visible as they sailed by the open portal into the hallway outside.

“This is Coruscant,” the other weapon master stated, a hint of anger slipping into his voice. “The droid army could not invade here.”

“Stretch out with your feelings. These are not droids,” the Thisspiasian Sentinel answered flatly, before looking over the collected faces in the room. “We will make for the hangar,” the snake-like Jedi stated firmly.

“I shall bring up the rear,” the Mon Cal instructor answered immediately, pushing Sor-Jan and the Nautolan boy forward. Staring down at the group of children before him, the Mon Cal lowered his head and said, “Younglings, when we step outside, whatever happens, do not stop moving.”

Sor-Jan’s eyes grew wide as the confusion and anxiety transformed themselves into a genuine fear that was beginning to take hold, and take control. He felt a hand grab hold of his. Looking down, he saw a green-skinned hand and wrapped his fingers tightly around it as he looked up at Zak, the Nautolan boy. They were both scared...

...no, they were not scared. That word paled in comparison to what they were each feeling. They were terrified.

But they would be terrified, together. And that much helped to abate the chaos and confusion that he was feeling.

The youngling clan master’s voice spoke up again. “Ignite your lightsabers,” Azul Gol barked sternly. “We go. Now.”

Ultimate Comics: DC - Shadows Among Us

While I continue to contemplate re-inventing Lor-Zod, here's something to at least get me a foot in the game. I'm normally not a Flash fan, and I can't hope to hold a candle to Byrd's Flash, but here's my attempt at a foray into the Flash Family.

| Identity |
Bartholomew Allen Thawne [Impulse]

| Origin & Backstory |
A descendent of Flash ally Johnny Quick and villain Professor Zoom, Bart was born in the 30th Century the second of identical twins (the other being his ‘older’ brother Thaddeus). As infants, both children displayed a natural connection to the Speed Force. This also contributed to a lifelong rivalry between the two, in order to determine which was the real ‘fastest boy alive.’ As they grew older, the two adopted ‘hero names’ for this competition, with Bart naming Thad ‘Inertia’ for his propensity to run into things and Thad naming Bart ‘Impulse’ for his tendency to just run head-first without looking at where he was going.

When they were ten, the two boys came to the attention of the Legion of Super-Villains in the 30th Century, who wanted to use the boys in a trap set for the Legion of Super-Heroes. Luckily, Bart and Thad were rescued in time by Cosmic Boy and Bouncing Boy, allowing the heroes to prevail over the Legion of Super-Villains plans. Bart and Thad, as Impulse and Inertia, sometimes hung out in New Metropolis with the Legion of Super-Heroes in order to better train their abilities after that near disaster, but only when they finished their homework.

On one such occasion, about two years later, Bart challenged Thad to a race as the pair were departing their school for the start of a winter break. First to New Metropolis would claim the title of ‘world’s fastest kid.’ As the two were neck-in-neck upon arrival to Metropolis, both boys kept going. As they crossed the northern magnetic pole of the Earth however, something went wrong. A fissure formed within the aura of the Speed Force, creating an explosion that separated the two boys.

Bart fell into shadow, losing unconsciousness as he realized that he was moving away from Thad. When he awoke, he discovered himself on a world that was as foreign as it was familiar. Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, and the Grand Canyon were all there... but he wasn’t in New Metropolis anymore.

| Character Notes |
UDC Year 3 will be ‘Year 1’ for this character, as his backstory and history occur outside of the UDC continuity. I’m also not precluding the idea that Bart’s future is a parallel one (think Rachel Summers).

| Powers & Abilities |
Bart is a natural born speedster whose genetic make-up is ‘hard-wired’ to the Speed Force. This does not preclude him from ever being cut off from the Speed Force, but gives him access to the powers and abilities of a Speed Force Conduit for as long as he remains connected to it. This includes the ability to ‘phase’ by vibrating the molecules of his body (intangibility), physical movement at the speed of light (Speed Force Aura), heightened sensory perception, supercharged brain activity (accelerated rate of thought), and accelerated healing. As Bart’s use of the Speed Force taps into his own body metabolism, he is constantly taking in calories to fuel his superhuman speed.

| How is this character different? |
Oh, where to begin? I’ve melded together the histories of the DCnU Bart Allen and Thaddeus Thawne, making them identical twins rather than having one be the clone of the other (in purest ‘Reverse Impulse’ fashion). I’ve also taken Barry Allen out of the equation, in order to not restrict future Flash players in any regard (there’s no need for Barry Allen to have ever been the Flash), using instead the Golden Age character of Johnny Quick and maximizing upon Bart’s canon relationship to the Thawne family. I’ve also kicked the Cosmic Treadmill to the curb and explained his time travel as a Speed Conduit accident instead, which seems to work better for storytelling purposes.

| What is your goal with this character? |
Tacos, harassment of Kara, tacos, blatant oogling of Wonder Boobs... er, Woman! Wonder Woman, that’s what I meant, yeah. What was I saying again? Did I mention tacos? They have Taco Bells in this century, don’t they? Oh, and if there’s some Young Justice/Teen Titans stuff going down, there ought to be a Bart. And, in general, this place just seems like it could use some more Bart.

| Sample Post |



The Statue of Liberty.

The Eiffel Tower.

The Taj Mahal.

As the young, brown haired boy stood in the shadow of the Great Wall of China, slurping a steaming batch of fresh noodles from off a street vendor cart in Kowloon, he was left in awe and confusion over everything that suggested where he was. This was China, he’d passed through India and France, and started out in the United States. But, if that were true, why was everything so...

A Chinese tourist walked by wearing what looked like some kind of wired earphones. Wired, like actual cables connecting a device!

And there were these... things. Vehicles? They moved on the ground, like they were restricted to moving on four wheels. Or two wheels, some of them had two wheels... But they were burning something, as smoke came out of a pipe on the back.

Where were the sky cabs? Where were the hover boards?

For that matter, what were these people wearing?

As if to reinforce the last point, a couple walked by staring hard at the youth with his large, yellow lens goggles atop his head. A short jacket was worn over a unitard-like, quilted, coverall kind of design. But, it wasn’t like he was wearing Metro Kids. This was from Interlac! All the cool kids wore this, from Tameran to Titan. Heck, The John had worn something like this is Twilight IX!

That was another thing, where were the holovid theaters?

Slurping up the rest of the noodles, the youth ditched the take-out box into a trash can halfway between Beijing and New Metropolis. Or... not so new Metropolis, as the speeding blur arrived at what should have been Centennial Park, only it looked like something out of a holo at the Smithsonian. That was probably his biggest problem with everything he saw. Everything looked old.

Popping open the bag of chips he’d snatched up on the run through Las Angeles, Bart tossed a handful of starch and transfat into his mouth before elevating the goggles from around his eyes and propping them atop his head once again. Continuing to survey the area around him, still surprised that he hadn’t found Thad, the youth strode toward what should have been the MegaPlex 9000 HoloTheater. Instead it some dumb hole in the wall called the Wired City Movie Theater.

What the heck was a movie? Wait, wasn’t that... two dimensional?

Did that kind of ancient tech every actually exist? Like cavemen and stuff, reading materials on printed...

As he turned his head, Bart observed a man handing what looked like metal coin currency to a vendor and receiving a pulp paper printed news media. And, on that note, he was officially guest starring in the History Channel.

If this was a dream, why couldn’t there be more women? And not like Miss Garren, the history teacher, but like the Olivia’s Secret Succubi women?

Star Wars - Jedi Exile.

Enter the youngling... *cue Imperial March*

Name: Sor-Jan Xantha

Age: 9 years

Gender: Male

Species: Anzat

Appearance: A young boy who is exactingly near-human in almost all details, save for that his skin is slightly more 'ashen' or gray in complexion than that of a baseline human. The primary distinguishing characteristic is that Sor-Jan, like all Anzat, has no detectable heart rate or body rhythm, so that he appears as though a recently deceased corpse when asleep or lying prone. Sor-Jan also possesses two tendril-like proboscises, which are ordinarily retracted into cheek pouches on either side of his nose. The cheek pouches and proboscises are not visibly apparent when retracted. Identifying as Corellian, Sor-Jan wears a sage green youngling tunic in lieu of the standard Jedi brown palette.



Level: Initiate (Jedi youngling)

Class: N/A

Force Abilities: Force Speed, Telekinesis, Force Sense, Basic Mind Trick

Non-Force Related Skills: Basic Mechanical Knowledge, Basic Knowledge of Computers, Novice Understanding of First Aid, Novice Understanding of Piloting (Air Speeder)

Lightsaber Forms: Form III - Soresu

Lightsaber hilt and colour: Standard "Shoto" Training Lightsaber, green colour

Other Equipment: 1x datapad; 1x plush "teddy wookiee", whose name is Rawr.

History: As a newborn, the Anzati youngling was discovered outside of a Corellian orphanage in the hamlet of Bela Vistal and, later, adopted by a medical doctor and his wife, imparting to him the surname Xantha and naming him Sor-Jan. By the age of three, Sor-Jan had been identified by the Corellian Jedi as Force sensitive and he was taken into the custody of the Holy Order of Jedi Knights to be trained as a Jedi youngling. As of 19 BBY, Sor-Jan was part of Clan Womprat in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, which was under the care and supervision of a Thisspiasian Consular named Azul Gol..

Note: As Sor-Jan is less than a hundred years old, he doesn't do the "vampire thing" as of yet. My take on the character/species would be that, at his age, he'd be an omnivore the same as a human.

Star Wars - Jedi Exile.

whoops, double post. Sorry!

Star Wars - Jedi Exile.

Interested :)