Supermaxx

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

Cowboys And Aliens: Issue #4

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Warpath, Texas

Gutting a living, breathing person was a strange sensation. Skewering through that first layer of flesh and clothing was like sticking a knife into a piece of flabby elastic. It bent and contorted around Jaime's talon, giving so much that he thought for a moment that it simply wouldn't break through. He was wrong, of course; once the tip managed to dig even a millimeter in, the flesh gave way easily. The layers of fat squished and squirted as the razor sliced it's way through with a frightening speed and momentum. It tore open as easily as a piece of paper tore from the rings of a notebook. Passed the initial incision came the thicker bits of the body- the muscle. It was simpler to cut through each layer than the flesh, but there was just so much of it. The sinew was like hundreds upon hundreds of cords tightly wound together, making it near impossible to cut through all of them at once; the blade kept catching at poor angles, slowing it's advance for a short while.

But Reyes kept pushing. The adrenaline pumping through his veins wouldn't let him slow as he finally tasted Black Star's intestines.

It made his stomach churn, but he wasn't given any time to regret the attack before Black Star retaliated.

There was a crack in the air just before his fist made contact with Jaime's gut. It was the sound of the sound barrier breaking just before Black Star struck the teenager with the force of a howitzer gun. The chitin armor on his abdomen exploded into splinters, the living metal screeching and squirming as the knuckles dug into Jaime's stomach and forced their way up into his insides; mere inches of the Scarab lay between Reyes and a fist through the hair as Black Star pulled his hand back and Reyes was sent flying backwards.

He didn't make it far before the villain was upon him, another blow sent crashing against the underside of the child's jaw. An audible, sickening crack sounded just as he was sent air born. The momentum would've been enough to send him flying across town if Black Star hadn't reached out and plucked him from the sky. Massive, powerful fingers contorted around Jaime's throat, cutting off his breathing with an incredible amount of force. The armor bent and cracked underneath the force, threatening to shatter if Black Star continued to apply such pressure.

Jaime was almost lucky that the man imbued with the Power Cosmic decided to slam Reyes's face into the dirt. His face plate cracked in half like it was made of cheap ceramic the moment he hit the ground, bits of dust, blood and mucus spilling out across his face. Though his mouth was agape, he could not scream; all he could do was suck in polluted air in a desperate bid to keep from asphyxiating after nearly having his throat crushed.

The battle that continued around him was a blur of thunderous sound and dizzy, foggy images. He couldn't make much of it with the pounding headache threatening to split his skull in two, and the agonizing pain that stretched across his body from head to toe. Otto's acidic scars had opened up along his back, hissing and screeching as pus and blood dripped down his flesh, warm, sticky and hard to ignore. His ribs were aching fiercely, something scratching and screaming along in his insides every time he squirmed even a little bit. His nose and mouth were both leaking streams of crimson, though he couldn't tell if anything important was broken. It was hard to focus on anything in that moment. Even the pain felt dulled and numb, like his senses had been shoved under water and weren't allowed up for air.

"-...Nnng..." Jaime gasped and sputtered, his hand weakly reaching forward to drag himself along the ground. He wasn't sure where he was headed. He had no idea if he was even going to live through this. But he felt a powerful urge driving him to drag his battered body through the mud.

Then he saw it.

Just barely, out of the corner of the eye, but it was there- he couldn't deny what he was looking at, no matter how unreal or impossible it might seem. "Holy shit." He breathed.

A monster with a skull cased in black fire was clashing with the Black Star. They were exchanging blows and throwing one another across the town with abandon, destroying buildings and crushing cars along the way. It was a terrifying and magnificent sight to behold all in the same moment as the immensely powerful metahuman traded punches with a demonic beast dragged out from the depths of hell.

"What is that?" He blinked, unsure if he was hallucinating. Where did it even come from? One moment it was just Jaime and that Vigilante guy, and the next...

'Entity is of extradimensional origin.' Khaji Da answered flatly. 'Relativistic integrity compromised. Recommend termination.'

"Thanks." Reyes groaned, partially from the pain and partially from the pain of dealing with the Scarab. "That clears that up."

That odd feeling of numbness that Jaime felt only seemed to grow, stretching out across his form like a blanket had been laid over him. He could hear the living metal at work stitching itself back together, the hard plates during to liquid and morphing together to reform itself harder and tougher than before. But that wasn't the only healing being done, Reyes realized, as he felt those same tendrils running along his nose and up his back.'Beginning self-repair process. Recommend rest time of up to forty eight hours.' The Scarab informed him. Jaime's annoyance deflated slightly; so maybe the Scarab wasn't totally useless after all.

Reyes wasn't going to sit here in the dirt for two days, however, as he slowly pushed himself back up to his feet. The destruction had come to a halt, he noticed. The sounds of battle fading with the dying roar of a motorcycle of all things. Curious, he made a cautious trip further into the town. Part of him thought he should take flight while he still had the chance. Trusting a demon bathing in hellfire not to pull his spine out wasn't exactly a smart move. On the other hand, however, he couldn't just leave this town to be ravaged by two all-powerful monsters. People had to have been hurt during the chaos already. Reyes...Reyes didn't want there to be even more names added to that list.

His shock could not be understated when he finally discovered the demon standing over top the fallen form of Black Star, the villain held within inches of it's flaming, menacing head.

”No one messes with my town."

There was something about that voice. That distorted, demonic voice, that Jaime found vaguely familiar. Even through the screams of the damned and the choking heat of the Ninth Circle's embers, that thick Texas accent found a way to shine through. Reyes was taken aback, but all of the pieces seemed to come together at once. "Vigilante?" Reyes balked, approaching the "man" from behind. He made sure to keep his distance on the off-chance he was wrong, yet...Something told him he wasn't.

As he approached, Jaime was once again assaulted by the sound of Khaji Da's abrasive voice blaring within his mind. 'Not compatible.'

"Oh, not this- what? What isn't compatible? How about you explain it to me, bastardo, instead of just shouting in my-" He didn't get to finish as one cryptic message was replaced by another. Instead of two words, however, Khaji Da could only offer one.

'Darkseid.'

"-Like of the Force? You're not making any sense, ese. My L-phone's better at explaining things than you are." It wasn't the time for humor, Jaime realized, but he was very close to snapping after everything he had endured in such a short time. If he didn't do something to break the tension, he might just lose it.

'Your handheld device lacks sufficient information on this subject.' Khaji Da countered.

"Oh, and how would you know that?"

'I checked.'

"You did what?" Jaime blinked.

'I still have access to the device we assimilated seventy one and a half hours ago. Your 'information super highway' knows nothing of the ๔คгк ๒гเภﻮєг.'

It was time for Reyes to throw his hands into the air, turning around to take several steps away from the ghostly Vigilante. He couldn't help but cackle at the sheer ridiculousness of what he was hearing. "My alien parasite gets WiFi! What- what's next, unlimited talk and text? Gonna sell me a cable package too?!" He mockingly joked. "Good Lord, when did the world stop making sense?" And on top of it all, Khaji Da spoke a word that definitely wasn't English. It was the first time he'd heard the Scarab fail to translate anything in his mind. It was oddly disturbing, given the subject matter.

The Scarab never skipped a beat, ignoring Jaime's obvious distress as he continued with his previous thought with brisk accuracy. 'I have cross-referenced the facial recognition software installed in this device with your 'internet.' This 'Black Star' appears only by a different name- one William Mowse. There are several news articles about his incarceration in the prison complex known as the Raft. According to the most recent reports, hundreds of similar inmates have appeared across the United States, performing attacks similar to the one we have experienced.' He explained. There was a pause before he decided to add a more...personal comment. 'I am surprised the warden has neglected to activate the explosive chips embedded in the base of each prisoner's spine.'

"What?!" Reyes shouted incredulously. He knew SHIELD was bad, but-

'...Is that not standard practice on your world? How primitive.'

The pain wracking Jaime's body hadn't fully subsided. He still winced a little with each step he took, and there wasn't a great deal that the Scarab could do the alleviate the exhaustion that had taken deep root in every inch of Reyes's muscles. By all logic he should've simply passed on what he had learned to Vigilante and returned home to El Paso to rest- and to finally see his family after suffering through this ordeal. By all rights, he had earned the rest. He hadn't asked for any of this. Responsibility and power had both been thrust into his arms in equal measure, and the Scarab was expecting him to rise to the occasion like this wasn't complete and utter insanity.

Jaime had no real responsibility to...to any of this, right? What he wished to atone for had nothing to do with the Silver Surfer that had tried to destroy the world.

The Scarab's rage did not burn for the life of the other alien- it burned for Dr. Caulder and Dr. Caulder alone.

SHIELD wasn't going to stop hunting Reyes until he proved that the telepath was responsible for the incident, and not Jaime or the alien.

By all rights, this was not Jaime Reyes's fight. And yet he felt a tug upon his body that went deeper than any of that. It went deeper than the armor covering his flesh. It went deeper than the ache in his muscles. It even went deeper than the very marrow within his bones. He felt a pull so strong and so profound that there was no fighting against it. He knew it wasn't the voice of Khaji Da trying to convince him to join this fight; in fact, if the Scarab had it's way, they'd just lay down right there and not move for the next two days. No, this pull...it belonged to Jaime. It belonged to his mortal soul.

After what felt like eternity he came to a decision, turning on his heel to face the Vigilante that he had met just tens of minutes ago at most. They didn't know so much as one another's names, yet Jaime felt a degree of trust in this man that went deeper than that. The Vigilante had saved his life; and that was a debt not easily repaid.

Jaime had just gotten a metric ton of new information that he needed to share with the man, but there were more pressing matters to attend to in the immediate future. They needed to get moving as quickly as they possibly could. "Right, so I'll...I'll explain on the way, but how fast can that fancy motorcycle-from-hell of yours move? 'Cause if we want to get to the Surfer, we're gonna need to head up to New York and I left my running shoes at home." He joked, smiling underneath his creepy, stoic mask.

"Oh, by the way..." It still felt rude for him to go on without introducing himself, the gravity of the situation be damned. This was his way of coping- by pretending everything was normal and continuing to act like the dumb, stupid kid he still wished he could be. "My name's Jaime. Jaime Reyes. I'm from El Paso."

Superboy's Shitty Characters

Cowboys And Aliens: Issue #4

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Warpath, Texas

Gutting a living, breathing person was a strange sensation. Skewering through that first layer of flesh and clothing was like sticking a knife into a piece of flabby elastic. It bent and contorted around Jaime's talon, giving so much that he thought for a moment that it simply wouldn't break through. He was wrong, of course; once the tip managed to dig even a millimeter in, the flesh gave way easily. The layers of fat squished and squirted as the razor sliced it's way through with a frightening speed and momentum. It tore open as easily as a piece of paper tore from the rings of a notebook. Passed the initial incision came the thicker bits of the body- the muscle. It was simpler to cut through each layer than the flesh, but there was just so much of it. The sinew was like hundreds upon hundreds of cords tightly wound together, making it near impossible to cut through all of them at once; the blade kept catching at poor angles, slowing it's advance for a short while.

But Reyes kept pushing. The adrenaline pumping through his veins wouldn't let him slow as he finally tasted Black Star's intestines.

It made his stomach churn, but he wasn't given any time to regret the attack before Black Star retaliated.

There was a crack in the air just before his fist made contact with Jaime's gut. It was the sound of the sound barrier breaking just before Black Star struck the teenager with the force of a howitzer gun. The chitin armor on his abdomen exploded into splinters, the living metal screeching and squirming as the knuckles dug into Jaime's stomach and forced their way up into his insides; mere inches of the Scarab lay between Reyes and a fist through the hair as Black Star pulled his hand back and Reyes was sent flying backwards.

He didn't make it far before the villain was upon him, another blow sent crashing against the underside of the child's jaw. An audible, sickening crack sounded just as he was sent air born. The momentum would've been enough to send him flying across town if Black Star hadn't reached out and plucked him from the sky. Massive, powerful fingers contorted around Jaime's throat, cutting off his breathing with an incredible amount of force. The armor bent and cracked underneath the force, threatening to shatter if Black Star continued to apply such pressure.

Jaime was almost lucky that the man imbued with the Power Cosmic decided to slam Reyes's face into the dirt. His face plate cracked in half like it was made of cheap ceramic the moment he hit the ground, bits of dust, blood and mucus spilling out across his face. Though his mouth was agape, he could not scream; all he could do was suck in polluted air in a desperate bid to keep from asphyxiating after nearly having his throat crushed.

The battle that continued around him was a blur of thunderous sound and dizzy, foggy images. He couldn't make much of it with the pounding headache threatening to split his skull in two, and the agonizing pain that stretched across his body from head to toe. Otto's acidic scars had opened up along his back, hissing and screeching as pus and blood dripped down his flesh, warm, sticky and hard to ignore. His ribs were aching fiercely, something scratching and screaming along in his insides every time he squirmed even a little bit. His nose and mouth were both leaking streams of crimson, though he couldn't tell if anything important was broken. It was hard to focus on anything in that moment. Even the pain felt dulled and numb, like his senses had been shoved under water and weren't allowed up for air.

"-...Nnng..." Jaime gasped and sputtered, his hand weakly reaching forward to drag himself along the ground. He wasn't sure where he was headed. He had no idea if he was even going to live through this. But he felt a powerful urge driving him to drag his battered body through the mud.

Then he saw it.

Just barely, out of the corner of the eye, but it was there- he couldn't deny what he was looking at, no matter how unreal or impossible it might seem. "Holy shit." He breathed.

A monster with a skull cased in black fire was clashing with the Black Star. They were exchanging blows and throwing one another across the town with abandon, destroying buildings and crushing cars along the way. It was a terrifying and magnificent sight to behold all in the same moment as the immensely powerful metahuman traded punches with a demonic beast dragged out from the depths of hell.

"What is that?" He blinked, unsure if he was hallucinating. Where did it even come from? One moment it was just Jaime and that Vigilante guy, and the next...

'Entity is of extradimensional origin.' Khaji Da answered flatly. 'Relativistic integrity compromised. Recommend termination.'

"Thanks." Reyes groaned, partially from the pain and partially from the pain of dealing with the Scarab. "That clears that up."

That odd feeling of numbness that Jaime felt only seemed to grow, stretching out across his form like a blanket had been laid over him. He could hear the living metal at work stitching itself back together, the hard plates during to liquid and morphing together to reform itself harder and tougher than before. But that wasn't the only healing being done, Reyes realized, as he felt those same tendrils running along his nose and up his back.'Beginning self-repair process. Recommend rest time of up to forty eight hours.' The Scarab informed him. Jaime's annoyance deflated slightly; so maybe the Scarab wasn't totally useless after all.

Reyes wasn't going to sit here in the dirt for two days, however, as he slowly pushed himself back up to his feet. The destruction had come to a halt, he noticed. The sounds of battle fading with the dying roar of a motorcycle of all things. Curious, he made a cautious trip further into the town. Part of him thought he should take flight while he still had the chance. Trusting a demon bathing in hellfire not to pull his spine out wasn't exactly a smart move. On the other hand, however, he couldn't just leave this town to be ravaged by two all-powerful monsters. People had to have been hurt during the chaos already. Reyes...Reyes didn't want there to be even more names added to that list.

His shock could not be understated when he finally discovered the demon standing over top the fallen form of Black Star, the villain held within inches of it's flaming, menacing head.

”No one messes with my town."

There was something about that voice. That distorted, demonic voice, that Jaime found vaguely familiar. Even through the screams of the damned and the choking heat of the Ninth Circle's embers, that thick Texas accent found a way to shine through. Reyes was taken aback, but all of the pieces seemed to come together at once. "Vigilante?" Reyes balked, approaching the "man" from behind. He made sure to keep his distance on the off-chance he was wrong, yet...Something told him he wasn't.

As he approached, Jaime was once again assaulted by the sound of Khaji Da's abrasive voice blaring within his mind. 'Not compatible.'

"Oh, not this- what? What isn't compatible? How about you explain it to me, bastardo, instead of just shouting in my-" He didn't get to finish as one cryptic message was replaced by another. Instead of two words, however, Khaji Da could only offer one.

'Darkseid.'

"-Like of the Force? You're not making any sense, ese. My L-phone's better at explaining things than you are." It wasn't the time for humor, Jaime realized, but he was very close to snapping after everything he had endured in such a short time. If he didn't do something to break the tension, he might just lose it.

'Your handheld device lacks sufficient information on this subject.' Khaji Da countered.

"Oh, and how would you know that?"

'I checked.'

"You did what?" Jaime blinked.

'I still have access to the device we assimilated seventy one and a half hours ago. Your 'information super highway' knows nothing of the ๔คгк ๒гเภﻮєг.'

It was time for Reyes to throw his hands into the air, turning around to take several steps away from the ghostly Vigilante. He couldn't help but cackle at the sheer ridiculousness of what he was hearing. "My alien parasite gets WiFi! What- what's next, unlimited talk and text? Gonna sell me a cable package too?!" He mockingly joked. "Good Lord, when did the world stop making sense?" And on top of it all, Khaji Da spoke a word that definitely wasn't English. It was the first time he'd heard the Scarab fail to translate anything in his mind. It was oddly disturbing, given the subject matter.

The Scarab never skipped a beat, ignoring Jaime's obvious distress as he continued with his previous thought with brisk accuracy. 'I have cross-referenced the facial recognition software installed in this device with your 'internet.' This 'Black Star' appears only by a different name- one William Mowse. There are several news articles about his incarceration in the prison complex known as the Raft. According to the most recent reports, hundreds of similar inmates have appeared across the United States, performing attacks similar to the one we have experienced.' He explained. There was a pause before he decided to add a more...personal comment. 'I am surprised the warden has neglected to activate the explosive chips embedded in the base of each prisoner's spine.'

"What?!" Reyes shouted incredulously. He knew SHIELD was bad, but-

'...Is that not standard practice on your world? How primitive.'

The pain wracking Jaime's body hadn't fully subsided. He still winced a little with each step he took, and there wasn't a great deal that the Scarab could do the alleviate the exhaustion that had taken deep root in every inch of Reyes's muscles. By all logic he should've simply passed on what he had learned to Vigilante and returned home to El Paso to rest- and to finally see his family after suffering through this ordeal. By all rights, he had earned the rest. He hadn't asked for any of this. Responsibility and power had both been thrust into his arms in equal measure, and the Scarab was expecting him to rise to the occasion like this wasn't complete and utter insanity.

Jaime had no real responsibility to...to any of this, right? What he wished to atone for had nothing to do with the Silver Surfer that had tried to destroy the world.

The Scarab's rage did not burn for the life of the other alien- it burned for Dr. Caulder and Dr. Caulder alone.

SHIELD wasn't going to stop hunting Reyes until he proved that the telepath was responsible for the incident, and not Jaime or the alien.

By all rights, this was not Jaime Reyes's fight. And yet he felt a tug upon his body that went deeper than any of that. It went deeper than the armor covering his flesh. It went deeper than the ache in his muscles. It even went deeper than the very marrow within his bones. He felt a pull so strong and so profound that there was no fighting against it. He knew it wasn't the voice of Khaji Da trying to convince him to join this fight; in fact, if the Scarab had it's way, they'd just lay down right there and not move for the next two days. No, this pull...it belonged to Jaime. It belonged to his soul.

After what felt like eternity he came to a decision, turning on his heel to face the Vigilante that he had met just tens of minutes ago at most. They didn't know so much as one another's names, yet Jaime felt a degree of trust in this man that went deeper than that. The Vigilante had saved his life; and that was a debt not easily repaid.

Jaime had just gotten a metric ton of new information that he needed to share with the man, but there were more pressing matters to attend to in the immediate future. They needed to get moving as quickly as they possibly could. "Right, so I'll...I'll explain on the way, but how fast can that fancy motorcycle-from-hell of yours move? 'Cause if we want to get to the Surfer, we're gonna need to head up to New York and I left my running shoes at home." He joked, smiling underneath his creepy, stoic mask.

"Oh, by the way..." It still felt rude for him to go on without introducing himself, the gravity of the situation be damned. This was his way of coping- by pretending everything was normal and continuing to act like the dumb, stupid kid he still wished he could be. "My name's Jaime. Jaime Reyes. I'm from El Paso."

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

<Snipped quote by Superboy>
Would I?

@Inkarnate

Yes.

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

<Snipped quote by Simple Unicycle>
I think I know your preference of what I should do, then.

@Inkarnate

Could totally have Vicki as one of Huntress's main NPC characters. Would let you bounce between both without much fuss, plus I think you'd write a dynamic like that pretty well.

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

If we're ever going to have a proper team in this universe, I figure it'll look more like several heroes with each other on speed dial rather than everyone hanging out in a mansion or a watchtower. A loose association like that keeps us from being tied down by players that drop, plus it'd let us more easily cross paths with other heroes. I don't see something like that coming together for awhile, however; I'm totally fine with the current way of things.

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

@Master Bruce
Do you have an estimated start date for season 2? Or at least when you might possibly post the OOC or Interest Check?

@Divine Darkness

Your signature is going to give me a seizure. _{i kidmostly}

TEST SITE ALPHA - [DO NOT ENTER]

under construction

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Chapter Four: Ambush Journalism

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The Springton Police Department used to have two separate stations, one on either side of the town. It was a fairly efficient system, all things considered; of course, this being Springton, it couldn't last for that exact reason. The north station burned to the ground two years ago.

At the time, the chief was convinced it was an act of arson carried out by a growing gang of young, violent delinquents looking to overthrow the municipal government. His conviction was so unshakable that he had the entire force sweep both North and South High for evidence of illegal activity. The search was ended prematurely when an electrician discovered the north station had actually suffered an electrical malfunction. Apparently the building's wiring was so poorly put together that an investigation was ordered by the mayor's office into the wiring of every structure put together by the same company that helped build the station.

What had once looked like a rural rebellion in the works turned out to be the result of horrific incompetence during construction. Almost half of the recently built government buildings in town had to be torn down and rebuilt, including the southern police station.

Since leaving Springton without a working police department wasn't exactly an option, the town bought out the current building they were working out of while the two original stations were under construction. They had originally thought finding somewhere to house twenty two uniformed cops would be difficult- luckily for them, the town's largest daycare center had recently gone bankrupt! Two stories tall and with enough square footage to squeeze in enough room for all of them, it was jam packed but efficient; it's positioning in the center of Springton made it practically perfect for all intents and purposes.

Plus, it was positioned right next to the Springton Watch Newspaper's headquarters, which made it quite convenient for a certain pair of intrepid investigative journalists looking to score their next big exclusive.

"...Are you sure about this, Harper? The last time we camped outside the station they sent Rodriguez out after us." Riley Rogers lowered her camera from her face, her lips curling into a pout. Try as she might, she couldn't find a decent angle of the sun peaking through the clouds and shining down over the station. If she could just line it up like it was in her head, Riley's picture would've been front page worthy for sure. 'A Ray of Hope In This Dark Time.' It...wasn't a great headline. She'd leave writing that part up to Harper.

The only problem was, she couldn't physically control the sky to make it work with her imagination, leaving her with a subpar shot of a cloudy day and a brick roof. Not the most compelling photography work she'd done.

Harper Griffin stood not far from where her partner in crime was attempting to take the shot of her life, her mind focused on her matters. "Yeah, I remember."

She dismissed Riley's concerns almost out of habit, throwing a wave back over her shoulder as she stared down at her cellphone with an intense concentration. Harper was trying to put together everything she knew about the recent pair of cases that had cropped up- it was easily the two worst crimes to ever befall their tiny community since she'd moved there nine years or so ago, and they happened back to back.

It couldn't just be a coincidence, right? Audrey going missing and then Leon being murdered while he was investigating her disappearance all in the span of a week when- up until that point- almost nothing bad had happened in Springton for more than a decade. It was connected. It had to be. The only question was: how?

"Do you remember? 'Cause Rodriguez had to carry you back to the car-"

"I remember, Riley-"

-"Over his shoulder, and you were kicking him and screaming about your rights-"

"Riley!" Harper snapped, spinning around to glare at her younger partner. Fire burned behind Griffin's violet eyes, the intensity of which was enough to make even the hardest of men flinch away. It was a little overkill for someone of Rogers's temperament, however. She'd nearly cried the first...few...times- twelve or so, to be exact- that her partner had given her that look.

"Sorry." Riley squeaked, ducking down behind her camera, believing that the expensive piece of equipment would somehow save her from having her soul sucked out of her body by those horrible eyes. It wasn't exactly her most brilliant plan, she had to admit, but it seemed to work as Harper turned her attention back to her notebook.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Harper sighed, a pang of guilt digging it's way into her gut. She didn't mean to upset Rogers, but the girl seemed wired to take anything that wasn't direct praise as some kind of insult against her person. "Stop apologizing so much." She criticized, never looking away from the words she'd written on the parchment in front of her.

The sound of a car pulling into the former daycare's parking lot drew Griffin's gaze away from her notes. A black and white police cruiser slowed to a halt alongside several identically colored vehicles. There were at least a dozen unique models among the bunch, since the town couldn't afford to buy a whole fleet of the same cars in bulk. Hand-me-downs from other departments across the state would have to do for the foreseeable future.

"Oh! He's back!" Riley called out, her mood shifting wildly as she lifted up her camera to snap a couple of pictures of Officer Goodman while he was climbing out of his car.

"Wait, already?" Harper felt his throat go dry. She wasn't ready for him yet. She needed a little more time to prepare what she wa supposed to ask him. Quickly spinning around, the small town reporter ran her hands through her blonde locks, bunching them up to slip them into a quick, messily done ponytail. 'This is...this is fine. You don't need notes for this. It's just a few, simple questions- you've read them over a dozen times.' For all her attempts to self-assure, she couldn't shake the sinking feeling in her gut that seemed to be getting worse with every approaching footstep.

A small, delicate hand fell on her shoulder. She looked over it, met by Riley's smile. It was as warm and authentic as the day the two of them first met. "You'll do great!" Riley said, practically bubbling with enthusiasm. "And..And how you look is the last thing you need to worry about- h-honest." She stumbled, her grin twisting awkwardly as she realized how strange that came out. "That came out wrong. I-I don't mean- err, what I meant to say was-"

It took all of the willpower Griffin had at her disposal not to burst out laughing. She almost immediately felt bad for the near-outburst when she saw the look of pained embarrassment painting Riley's face; but it was hard to ignore that the brief moment of levity had ejected the butterflies "Thanks for that."

"What else am I here for?" Rogers gave a few awkward, forced chuckles as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Getting us a picture that'll land us on the front page. Back to it."

Any response Riley had was cut short before it could be interrupted by the sound of a discordant, far too loud laugh coming from behind her. "If it ain't Sherlock and Holmes, back at my front door again!" Officer Goodman gave the two women a crooked grin that made a slight tingle slide down Harper's spine. No matter how many times she had to talk to him, Stevie Goodman always managed to make her feel horribly uncomfortable. It was like he was gifted in the art of making everyone around him want to leave.

That was probably why the department used him to run off the press so often.

"Uhh, actually-" Riley shoved her round glasses up her caramel-colored nose. "It's Sherlock and Watson. Holmes is Sherlock's surname-"

"Yeah, hun, that's great." Goodman waved her off dismissively. "I gotta get movin', though. Busy day. Big case. You know the drill." He was moving fast, taking a quick, practiced sidestep to move around the duo standing between him and the station's entrance.

Harper responded by sliding to the right, placing herself directly in Stevie's path. "Do you have any updates for the public on the ongoing investigation into Officer O'Connell's murder?" She asked, receiving no reply aside from a stink eye from Goodman. He slipped the other way, only for her to jump back and in front of him once more. "Is what happened to him at all tied to Audrey Banks's disappearance a week ago?" Once more she received nothing but uncharacteristic silence from the bombastic policeman. He was still trying to find a way around her, but she managed to slip into his path before he could get more than a step in.

It was a dance they'd done a hundred times, and never once had Goodman succeeded in outmaneuvering the journalist. The first few times she tried it he had picked the slender woman up by the waist and moved her out of the way, but his boss had railed on him every time- apparently 'assaulting the press' was 'a supremely stupid' move.

"Griffin, babe, I got places to be!" Goodman finally stopped to protest, shaking his hands in front of his chest for added emphasis. "First murder case since I got outta the academy, and I am not wastin' it talkin' to you!"

She stood her ground, however, her hand racing down into the pocket of her jacket to whip out a small, black device. She pressed a button on the side of the audio recorder and held it up between herself and the officer. She could've sworn his eyes rolled straight out of his head at the sight of it. "Ah, you gotta be freakin' kiddin' me-"

"Come on, Stevie. Give me something. It doesn't have to be anything big, just enough for my article-"

"No." He cut her off, his arms crossing over his chest.

"-I'll put you on the front page-"

"I appreciate the appeal to my ego, but no. I don't wanna get my tush canned for your crumby exclusive."

Harper let out an exasperated sigh, her free hand tapping against her hip. She'd forgotten almost everything she had written down, so she was forced to ad lib it. "You have to give me something." She repeated. "People are scared, Stevie- like you said, this is the first time anything this bad has happened- let me tell them something that'll calm them down. It doesn't have to be big. Just enough to let Springton know you've got it handled."

"I ain't doin' it!" He pressed back. "People'll only freak out more if I start handin' out incomplete information. Speculation by youse and your people is only gonna make it worse."

That struck a nerve with Harper, but she couldn't let it show. She felt very passionately about what she did, even if- in the grand scheme of things- the Watch's journalism didn't amount to much. She decided to come at it from another angle. "This isn't just your first big case, Stevie; it's the biggest thing to happen in this town since the Cowpocalypse." Spending several weeks following around hundreds of farmers as they attempted to wrangle escaped livestock had been fun, but it wasn't exactly going to help her score a spot in a big time newspaper. She needed something huge to really catch some attention. "How am I supposed to get out of this town if you stonewall me on the only important article I'm going to get to write before I'm old and grey?"

For a moment it looked like her words had gotten through to Goodman's charcoal heart, his expression softening at the thought of forgotten dreams and an opportunity to become more than another rural nobody living in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere. Goodman hadn't grown up dreaming of becoming a cop in a town where all he did was chase around teenagers for underage drinking.

His mouth dropped open, his eyes shifting away as he tried to think of some kind of excuse, or perhaps even something he could definitively tell her about the case. Finally, though, all he gave her was a sigh. "I can't, alright? I'm sorry, Grif, but I can't. I'm...I'm in a hurry, this new guy'll kick my can if I don't get back with the ax soon-"

"New guy?" The reporter perked up, her eyebrows shooting up her forehead in earnest curiosity. "What new guy? Who's the new guy? What's this about an ax?" She seemed to come back to life with three times the enthusiasm at the tiniest shred of information Goodman had supposedly leaked in a momentary lapse in attention.

He gave an elongated, irritated groan as he took a step passed Harper and started again for the station. He used his shoulder to make sure Harp couldn't get in his way again without ramming directly into him; it wouldn't be his fault if she did it all on her own, right? "You're the worst, Harper!" He called back to her, doing his best to suppress a grin. "You're gonna get me fired!"

"You brought in someone to help investigate Officer O'Connell's death, is that it?" Griffin spun about, chasing after the exasperated cop with the recorder held out in front of her to make sure she didn't miss his reply. If she could just get him to confirm it-

"Don't you have anything better to do with your life than hound me?" He chastised her without turning around, walking a little faster as he neared the door.

"Give me a yes or no, Steve! Please!" Harper pressed, even as he threw open the glass entryway and started inside. "For old time's sake?" And again he gave her nothing she could work with but abject silence.

"Is he a state trooper? A federal agent? A detective from the city?" She stuck her hand inside the door, shoving the recorder inside to push him to answer as she pressed for an answer as hard as she was physically able.

Goodman didn't give a peep, only to throw the door back behind him to let it crash against Griffin's extended arm. "Ow! Jerk!" She stumbled backward, dragging her wounded limb out of the threshold and letting it click closed once she'd removed herself. Despite the pain flowing down her forearm, Harper was exuberant, her eyes lit up like Christmas trees when she turned back to face her photographer. "It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I can work with this. How does 'Mysterious Outsider Joins Homicide Investigation' sound to you?" She asked, inspiration burning on the tip of her tongue. She could practically feel the opener writing itself already. This was going to be her masterpiece. Her Citizen Kane. Her pièce de résistance.

The question was lost on Riley, her entire attention absorbed into the world she saw through her camera lens.

Being ignored was a surefire way to take the wind right out of Harper's sails, her gaze darkening as she glanced over at her newly christened photographer. The much younger girl wasn't even focusing on anything that looked particularly interesting. From where Harper was standing, it looked like Riley was trying to take the picture of the treeline on the other side of the road of all things. How in the world was that relevant to anything? "Uhh...Riley? Hellooo? Earth to Riley, come in Riley." Griffin furrowed her brow, shooting a glare at the back of her partner's head.

Rogers didn't turn from whatever it was she was looking at. "Huh?" She absentmindedly grunted, her finger twitching on the shutter button.

"What're you doing? Case of our careers here, Riley. It's kind of important." Harper all but hissed, trying to be patient. She knew she needed to be patient with the newbie- she was...different- but this was getting a little ridiculous. "There a UFO I'm not seeing up there? Are the heaven's splitting open? 'Cause I don't hear any trumpets."

Riley didn't respond, pushing herself up onto the tips of her toes to get a better angle down the way. Whatever she was looking at seemed to be more important than keeping to task, which, Harper had to admit, drew her own curiosity out. "Do you see that?" Rogers muttered, snapping a couple of pictures. "Right over there."

Harper, now equally curious as she was frustrated, moved to stand beside her shorter co-worker and tentative friend. She didn't have any clue what Riley was so absorbed by at first. She seemed to be staring beyond the road, toward the woodland on the other side, and refusing to so much as glance away like her life depended on it. At first glance there looked to be nothing more than some bushes, shrubbery and a whole host of trees over there- none of it was exactly riveting, front page material. "What am I looking at?" Griffin huffed, annoyed and confused more than anything.

"Look where the road curves down into the woods. They'll pop up again in a second." Rogers explained, her trigger finger hovering over the camera's shutter release in anticipation for the event.

It sounded like a waste of precious daylight to Harper, but she held fast, trusting her younger partner to not be completely crazy. Sure enough, her faith was rewarded as a flurry of heads and shoulders briefly popped up from the incline. They were moving fast and erratically, disappearing back down just as quickly as they had shown up in the first place. There had to be close to twelve people, if Harper had managed to count all of those heads correctly before they vanished behind the horizon. "Huh. What're they doing down there?" It wasn't completely out of the ordinary for people to be moving through the woods; that particular area made for a decent shortcut from central square to the northern half of town.

Still, that was a much bigger group than any she'd seen head into the woods at once. Something was clearly going on, but Harper hadn't a clue what it was.

"No idea, but there's a bunch of 'em. Looks like they're running somewhere, too." Riley finally lowered her camera, turning to look at Harper. All of the concern and interest she'd shown in whatever it was going on down there seemed to evaporate the moment she'd gotten a decent enough picture of it, her attention shifting entirely to the previous thing she should've been worried about in the first place. "So are we going down to the crime scene or what? I wanna get a picture of the house; y'know, get that front page pic you mentioned! Ohh, maybe- maybe if we hurry we'll run into this mystery man Stevie mentioned. Maybe he'll have somethin' for us."

Griffin just sighed, her gaze lingering near the treeline. She couldn't sworn she heard someone yelling, but it was too far away to be sure. Maybe it was just a car or something. "Right." Eventually she was able to tear her eyes away. Her muse had been gunned down and brought to a grinding, bloody halt by this new develop that Harper was sure she'd never get closure for. It'd take her forever to get back into writing that article in her head. "Let's get going, I guess. Unless there are some more bushes you just need to capture."

Riley shook her head, already on the way toward the car. "Nope, I'm good! Let's go."

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

"...The imprint will be DC’s home for classy, collectible superhero stories aimed at mature readers..."

some news website

Read- a bunch of DC folks wanna write an erotic fan fiction and put it into actual publication.

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

Cowboys And Aliens: Issue #3

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Warpath, Texas

'Behind you?' Jaime was taken aback in that brief moment when an ordinary man in a cowboy chaps told Jaime to stand behind him. Jaime, the one wearing the alien power armor, needed to be protected by the guy with a pair of six shooters. The cowboy was brave, there was no denying that, but Reyes couldn't help but think he might have a screw or two loose underneath that ten gallon hat of his.

Reyes stepped forward to stand beside his defender as he went to confront the stranger. Everything about the giant of a man painted him as a metahuman- no one was naturally that large, and the black spandex wasn't exactly ordinary attire for the ordinary man. He had to have powers. But that begged the question, then: what was he doing here? Jaime's first assumption was that he was working for Dr. Caulder and he'd come to secure the Scarab, but that didn't make any sense. Caulder had just disposed of him; why would he have a change of heart so quickly? Of course, there was a possibility that falling through that portal had taken much, much longer than Jaime had first assumed...

His assumptions were thrown out the window when the figure addressed the 'vigilante.' Of all the things Jaime could be called, that certainly wasn't one of them- which meant that 'Black Star' was here for the Texan.

"Wait- the Silver Surfer-" A thousand questions raced through his mind as the Black Star spoke of the other alien, but Jaime wasn't able to get another word out before the metahuman disappeared from his vision in a blur of midnight fabric, only to reappear several meters away underneath the shade of a nearby porch. He tore one of the support beams from the wood with the same ease that a child might take apart a Lego set, sending the beam flying through the air like a spear aimed right for Reyes's heart. So dumbstruck by what was going on and unprepared for the sudden burst of speed, Reyes would've been impaled on it if not for the hands that threw him out of the way of the incoming projectile.

The roar of gunfire mingled with the sound of splintering wood as Jaime pushed himself up to his feet, every part of his body crying out in agony. He hadn't taken even a moment's rest since his last fight, and with the strength and speed this 'Black Star' seemed to possess, this was shaping up to be even more difficult than his duel with Otto and Caulder. The protesting, sharp pain in his muscles went ignored; he couldn't just sit back and let this 'Vigilante' be torn apart by a guy who was clearly out of his league. Maybe Black Star was out of Reyes's league too. He wouldn't doubt it. But Jaime wasn't about to turn tail and let a total stranger die alone.

He'd left too many bodies behind him already.

"Unless you've got a hand grenade in that belt, I think you might need my help!" Chunks of concrete and wood soared through the air, punching holes in the barn behind them like a pen pressed through a sheet of paper. The only thing keeping the two of them from being punctured through with equal force was the makeshift smokescreen Vigilante had managed to kick up with that whip of his, but it wasn't going to last. "This guy's a bit above our weight class- we're gonna need a plan!"

'Not compatible. Eliminate with extreme prejudice.' The voice of the Scarab snarled once more, it's words echoing deep in Reyes's mind. He felt strongly compelled to follow the 'suggestion,' his right arm already morphing to form the deadly energy weapon he'd used to eliminate the German surgeon back in Caulder's prison camp. Reyes didn't particularly want to use that kind of force against anyone, but this guy...he was next level. There was no holding back if Jaime wanted to walk away from this without any casualties among the townsfolk that had- surprisingly- yet to rear their heads.

"Yeah, not helping. You get any better ideas other than 'kill him'?" Reyes shot back. For a thousand year old parasite packing so many weapons and tools, it didn't seem all that forthcoming with ways to use them. Most of it's suggestions tended to be something along the lines of 'just kill them' or 'maim and cripple.'

'Not compatible. Target possesses enhanced strength and speed. Surrounded by unknown energy. Not compatible.'

Reyes stood to his feet, lifting his cannon to fire off several blasts in the general direction of where he'd last seen Black Star. "I got it! Not compatible! Dios mío you're useless. What does that even mean?!"

'Not compatible.' It repeated in that same angry tone it had taken since the metahuman first appeared. Jaime was getting real tired of hearing it.

"Great. Just great. My psychotic Jiminy Cricket comes with an error message. Terrific." With the smoke beginning to clear and Jaime being able to make out that black costume of their adversary once again, he realized that they didn't have any time left. Black Star was going to break them apart the moment he spotted them among the cloud. Reyes might be able to take that kind of punishment, but Vigilante? Unless he had some kind of secret superpower he was hiding, he was just a normal man with some very abnormal enemies. Jaime needed to do something to keep Black Star from taking his life.

So, in all of his teenage brilliance, he decided there was only one thing he could do.

He rushed Black Star.

Both of the Scarab's talons drawn, he let the engines on his back flare to life as he leapt through the air to quickly cover the distance between himself and their black clad foe. He had little control over his flight, but he could stabilize enough to simply shoot in a straight line right for Black Star like a less-than-human ballistic missile. Both blades held out before him, he could only hope that the super villain wasn't as durable as he was strong.

Superboy's Shitty Characters

Cowboys And Aliens: Issue #3

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---

Warpath, Texas

'Behind you?' Jaime was taken aback in that brief moment when an ordinary man in a cowboy chaps told Jaime to stand behind him. Jaime, the one wearing the alien power armor, needed to be protected by the guy with a pair of six shooters. The cowboy was brave, there was no denying that, but Reyes couldn't help but think he might have a screw or two loose underneath that ten gallon hat of his.

Reyes stepped forward to stand beside his defender as he went to confront the stranger. Everything about the giant of a man painted him as a metahuman- no one was naturally that large, and the black spandex wasn't exactly ordinary attire for the ordinary man. He had to have powers. But that begged the question, then: what was he doing here? Jaime's first assumption was that he was working for Dr. Caulder and he'd come to secure the Scarab, but that didn't make any sense. Caulder had just disposed of him; why would he have a change of heart so quickly? Of course, there was a possibility that falling through that portal had taken much, much longer than Jaime had first assumed...

His assumptions were thrown out the window when the figure addressed the 'vigilante.' Of all the things Jaime could be called, that certainly wasn't one of them- which meant that 'Black Star' was here for the Texan.

"Wait- the Silver Surfer-" A thousand questions raced through his mind as the Black Star spoke of the other alien, but Jaime wasn't able to get another word out before the metahuman disappeared from his vision in a blur of midnight fabric, only to reappear several meters away underneath the shade of a nearby porch. He tore one of the support beams from the wood with the same ease that a child might take apart a Lego set, sending the beam flying through the air like a spear aimed right for Reyes's heart. So dumbstruck by what was going on and unprepared for the sudden burst of speed, Reyes would've been impaled on it if not for the hands that threw him out of the way of the incoming projectile.

The roar of gunfire mingled with the sound of splintering wood as Jaime pushed himself up to his feet, every part of his body crying out in agony. He hadn't taken even a moment's rest since his last fight, and with the strength and speed this 'Black Star' seemed to possess, this was shaping up to be even more difficult than his duel with Otto and Caulder. The protesting, sharp pain in his muscles went ignored; he couldn't just sit back and let this 'Vigilante' be torn apart by a guy who was clearly out of his league. Maybe Black Star was out of Reyes's league too. He wouldn't doubt it. But Jaime wasn't about to turn tail and let a total stranger die alone.

He'd left too many bodies behind him already.

"Unless you've got a hand grenade in that belt, I think you might need my help!" Chunks of concrete and wood soared through the air, punching holes in the barn behind them like a pen pressed through a sheet of paper. The only thing keeping the two of them from being punctured through with equal force was the makeshift smokescreen Vigilante had managed to kick up with that whip of his, but it wasn't going to last. "This guy's a bit above our weight class- we're gonna need a plan!"

'Not compatible. Eliminate with extreme prejudice.' The voice of the Scarab snarled once more, it's words echoing deep in Reyes's mind. He felt strongly compelled to follow the 'suggestion,' his right arm already morphing to form the deadly energy weapon he'd used to eliminate the German surgeon back in Caulder's prison camp. Reyes didn't particularly want to use that kind of force against anyone, but this guy...he was next level. There was no holding back if Jaime wanted to walk away from this without any casualties among the townsfolk that had- surprisingly- yet to rear their heads.

"Yeah, not helping. You get any better ideas other than 'kill him'?" Reyes shot back. For a thousand year old parasite packing so many weapons and tools, it didn't seem all that forthcoming with ways to use them. Most of it's suggestions tended to be something along the lines of 'just kill them' or 'maim and cripple.'

'Not compatible. Target possesses enhanced strength and speed. Surrounded by unknown energy. Not compatible.'

Reyes stood to his feet, lifting his cannon to fire off several blasts in the general direction of where he'd last seen Black Star. "I got it! Not compatible! Dios mío you're useless. What does that even mean?!"

'Not compatible.' It repeated in that same angry tone it had taken since the metahuman first appeared. Jaime was getting real tired of hearing it.

"Great. Just great. My psychotic Jiminy Cricket comes with an error message. Terrific." With the smoke beginning to clear and Jaime being able to make out that black costume of their adversary once again, he realized that they didn't have any time left. Black Star was going to break them apart the moment he spotted them among the cloud. Reyes might be able to take that kind of punishment, but Vigilante? Unless he had some kind of secret superpower he was hiding, he was just a normal man with some very abnormal enemies. Jaime needed to do something to keep Black Star from taking his life.

So, in all of his teenage brilliance, he decided there was only one thing he could do.

He rushed Black Star.

Both of the Scarab's talons drawn, he let the engines on his back flare to life as he leapt through the air to quickly cover the distance between himself and their black clad foe. He had little control over his flight, but he could stabilize enough to simply shoot in a straight line right for Black Star like a less-than-human ballistic missile. Both blades held out before him, he could only hope that the super villain wasn't as durable as he was strong.