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DarkLight Redemption – Chapter Four
Celebrate Friday with chapter four of DarkLight Redemption!
And don’t miss out on getting The Alpha for $0.99 – only two days left on this KDP Countdown Deal.
FOUR
I try to have dinner with the family at least once a week.
Sure, I catch plenty of grief for my questionable life choices, but I know I’m lucky to have them. I’ve run into too many super-powered nutjobs who have a traumatic upbringing to blame for their issues to bemoan my own situation.
My folks still live out in the ‘burbs, and I’ve got an apartment in the city, so it’s a bit of a trek to see them. I don’t have a car, so I usually just fly over there. Since they don’t know about my abilities, I naturally have to lie to them, and I touch down at the train station nearest the house.
It’s only about a mile away, and I always tell them that I’d be happy to walk over and get some air, but they insist on picking me up at the station. Truth is, it’d be quicker to just land closer by, but I’ve got appearances to keep up.
So I fly to the wooded area just behind the train station and walk out to the tracks. Pretty sure everyone who sees me thinks I’ve just finished taking a leak in the woods. The crooked looks and head-shakes confirm as much. From there, I walk to the parking lot just in time for Dad to pull up.
We make typical small talk on the short jaunt to the house. How have you been? Anything new? Did you catch the games on Sunday? The usual. We pull up to the house, and I can smell the pot roast in the oven as soon as I walk in.
My mom always makes pot roast when I come by. Or prime rib. I suppose she feels like she wants to make something nice, but I’d just as soon sit down and have some meatloaf or mac and cheese.
Maggie’s not here. My mom tells me that she’s out with her girlfriends. She’s rarely around when I come over — at least that’s how it’s been the last few years. At first, I figured it was the standard pouty teenage girl thing. But she’s out of her teens now, so maybe there’s something more to it.
I’ve already decided that this would be the night I finally come clean with my parents. Since I’m leaving the whole superhero/supervillain game to people less jaded and more interested, I might as well let the people closest to me in on my secret.
Some Posties claim that they keep their secret identities hidden from their loved ones to protect them. I guess I sort of understand that, but my reasons were a bit different. My parents have always been the worrying sort, so I mainly kept my work as LightBlast and DarkLight to myself to keep them from having a monthly nervous breakdown.
At least that’s why I kept my life as LightBlast secret. I really kept the whole DarkLight thing to myself out of shame. It would also raise questions about why I switched allegiances that I didn’t want to answer.
We stick to small talk through dinner, but once the coffee comes out, I decide that it’s now or never.
“So there’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you guys about for a while now,” I begin.
“What’s on your mind, son?” asks Dad. “The bar’s not in trouble, is it?”
“No, I’m doing fine with the bar,”
“Is there a special lady that you want to tell us about?” asks Mom. “It’s been too long since you brought someone over for us to meet.”
“No, it’s not that either,” I reply.
“Have you finally given more thought to going back to school?” Dad jumps in, and I ignore what I recognize as a light jab.
“What I want to tell you is that…” I pause for one last second to make sure I want to go through with this. “I’m a Post-Human.”
They look to each other curiously for a moment before turning back to me.
“Oh, honey, we know that,” my mom says with a shrug.
“You do?” I ask as the shock I was expecting backfires on me.
“Of course,” Dad adds. “Have for quite a while now.”
“How?”
“If you can’t recognize your eldest child when he’s flying around shooting lasers out of his hands, then you’re not a very attentive parent,” Mom explains.
“You know, they’re not exactly lasers, per se,” I start.
“But that’s still no excuse to not get a college education,” Dad says, ignoring my last comment.
“People go to college to get better career opportunities,” I say. I end up going on the defensive about a completely different matter than I’d expected.
“I’m already a successful small business owner. What would be the point?”
“Because knowledge gives you real power,” Dad says. This is a line that I’m sure he’s rehearsed numerous times before.
“The alien warlord Grytlepletarch The Indomitable has real power,” I counter. “And I’ve used my powers to help stop him from conquering the Earth on more than one occasion.”
“Don’t be so literal, sweetheart,” my mom gently insults me. “Your father and I just want you to understand more about the world.”
“I’ve been all over the world,” I insist.
“Having super-powered fistfights in the Roman Colosseum or over Tokyo don’t count as knowledge-gathering trips,” Dad states.
“I read!” I exclaim. “I watch plenty of History and Discovery Channel. Hell, I’m probably more prepared to win on Jeopardy! than any college graduate.”
“That sounds more like an excuse than a reason,” Dad says in a very Dad-ish fashion.
“So you’ve known about me for a while.” I scurry to get the conversation back on point. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“We respected your privacy,” Mom says. “And we figured that if you wanted us to know, then you’d tell us yourself.”
“Wait, you said you’ve known for a while.” I dread the answer to the question I’m about to ask. “Does Maggie know?”
“Of course she does,” Mom replied. “She’s a very bright girl.”
“College graduate,” Dad adds as an aside.
“Does she know why I…” I search for the proper phrasing. “Went bad?”
“No,” Dad says flatly.
“But we do,” Mom preemptively answers my next question. “We’re well aware of how difficult it would have been to get her into one of those treatment studies. God knows we tried our best.”
“And we wish to hell that you weren’t the one who had to make that compromise,” Dad adds with a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
“I know you do,” I say. “So why does she think I started committing crimes?”
Mom looks over at Dad again before replying.
“For the money.”
“Then let’s leave it that way,” I say. “I don’t want her feeling guilty or somehow responsible for my actions.”
“We agree with you on that,” Dad mutters, still with some shame.
It breaks my heart to see my dad — who was always such a strong, proud and noble man — wrestle with a horrible time in our lives that he simply had no control over.
“I suppose that explains why she’s not usually here when I come by,” I say with a sad smirk.
My parents both struggle with how to reply to that. Dad finally decides to get the discussion moving forward again.
“Why have you decided to tell us about your secret identity now?”
“Because I’m finished with it,” I say with some pride of my own.
“All of it. I repaid my debt, and I’m walking away.”
“I’ll be honest with you, son.” Dad looks to Mom again, this time with a smile. “We’re very relieved to hear that.”
“Well, I’m relieved to say it,” I reply, even as the whisper of a doubt creeps into my thoughts.
“You know,” Dad begins, sitting up straight and taking a satisfied sip of coffee. “Since your full attention will now be on your business, perhaps you should consider getting an MBA?”
The post DarkLight Redemption – Chapter Four appeared first on Joe Mikolay.
July 13, 2015
DarkLight Redemption – Chapter Three
It’s Monday, which is usually a terrible thing, but on this Monday you get to enjoy Chapter Three of DarkLight Redemption!
THREE
I know what you must be thinking: Hey, I thought this was just a guy in over his head. But here he is, taking briefcases full of cash from criminal masterminds. What gives?
So allow me to offer some context. Post-Humans (often referred to by the public at large as Posties, though I can never tell if that’s meant as a slur) first appeared a little less than twenty years ago, which means that I’ve never really known a world where super beings didn’t exist.
No one really know the why or how. Maybe the stars were properly aligned. Maybe the mad scientists of the world unleashed something. Or maybe it was just time for the world to change.
It was strange because people who had been ordinary their entire lives suddenly began exhibiting these powers. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it — it just happened.
There are two theories that I think hold some validity. The first is that Earth had its first encounter with extraterrestrial beings at around that time. And the second is that Charles Porter made a breakthrough in his work with dimensional barriers.
I can’t prove a connection to either event, and I wouldn’t even know how to start explaining Charles’ work since he’s a world-renowned physicist, and I never even finished my second semester of community college.
Instead I’ll focus on my personal history. It was all pretty boring. My dad’s worked in construction for thirty years, and my mom’s a veterinarian. My sister, Maggie, just graduated college with a degree in sociology, which I have no doubt my parents will use to try and guilt-trip me into going back to school.
When I was a kid, I loved reading all about the superheroes. Half the comic books on the shelves were non-fiction, if you can imagine that. All the action seemed to be in the major cities, so growing up in the quiet suburbs, I always longed to visit a big city and see a super fight in person.
When I got old enough to travel to Manhattan myself, I would take the train in every weekend just hoping to come across a Post-Human showdown. It was stupid and morbid and dangerous, but if you can’t do dangerously stupid morbidity when you’re fifteen, then when can you?
One day, I got my wish — and it nearly killed me.
I was in midtown when the wall of a bank evaporated. It didn’t explode; it just sort of went away. A Postie named Moleculon was robbing it. He has the power to manipulate any physical matter that he’s touching. And yes, that’s as terrifying as it sounds.
In this case, he touched the wall and transformed it into a gaseous state. Again, not a physicist, so I have no idea how one turns brick into gas. But Moleculon did it nonetheless. He was making a break for it when MasterBlaster arrived on the scene.
MB and The Paradigm became the faces of the superhero movement about fifteen years ago when they were both in their early thirties. Not P.H.A.T.E.’s government-sponsored version of the movement, mind you, but the real one.
The Paradigm was your classic all-star quarterback type: all brawn and media-friendly smiles. MB came across as more of a thinking man’s hero. His insightful brown eyes expressed a great intelligence, but his square jutting chin showed that he could take a punch. MB is a pretty big guy in his own right, so you know he can throw a punch as well.
Seeing him in person was just as awesome as I’d imagined it would be. MB flew down from the sky, glowing blue and wearing the red and gray costume that I’d seen in photos and drawings for years. Here was the heroic masked man swooping in to save the day! Classic.
Moleculon turned some cars to gas, blew them toward MB and then resolidified them. MB took a pounding, but his force field deflected most of the impact. The whole fight only lasted a few minutes, but it felt like an hour while I was watching it.
But losing track of time was less of a problem than losing track of where I was. And so I ended up too close to the action, and Moleculon grabbed me.
He held me in front of him like a human shield as MasterBlaster set down on the ground. There was yelling back and forth — I don’t really remember details, but it was your typical chest-beating stuff.
What I do remember is that my entire body began to feel lighter. I felt like I was disappearing — and in fact, I was. Moleculon was threatening to turn me into smoke if MB didn’t let him escape.
Not surprisingly, I was getting the sense that would happen anyway. Moleculon had killed before, and I didn’t doubt he would again. MasterBlaster must’ve felt the same way since he quick-drew a narrow energy blast, which shot through Moleculon’s shoulder.
At the same moment that he fell, my body seemed to come alight, and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was in a laboratory. MB was unmasked and running some tests on a machine. He introduced himself as Charles Porter and told me that I’d been changed on a cellular level.
When Moleculon had a hold on every atom in my body and Charles blasted him, my cells became infused with the same kind of power that Charles’s had.
I, of course, thought that was awesome. But Charles warned me of the dangers of carrying that sort of power without any understanding or training. I agreed on the spot to join up as his sidekick, LightBlast. I came up with the name myself.
I say “agreed” to become his sidekick, when “forced myself into the job” might be more accurate. Either way, Charles took me under his wing, and we got our superhero on together. For five years, I partnered with Charles, even starting my own superteam with other teenaged Post-Humans.
There was no adult hero equivalent, as most team-ups ended up being temporary. Egos and such always end up getting in the way. But my team, Varsity Squad, stuck together. I came up with that name as well, and I’m not sure if I’m more embarrassed by that one or LightBlast.
At any rate, I was living the dream. Beating up bad guys, fighting off alien invasions, and just enjoying all that comes with having superpowers. I felt invincible, like nothing could touch me. And then Maggie got sick.
She got hit with something new, rare and nasty. Fast, too — in fact, most cases ran their course from first symptoms to death in less than a month. I had no options and little time to find some.
There was no widely known treatment at the time, and to get Maggie enrolled in the experimental testing would have required pulling a number of strings that my family simply did not have access to.
I went to Charles first, hoping that he might know something I didn’t. He called his friends, mostly other Post-Humans, but nothing came of it.
That’s when I had to make a hard choice. There was one person I knew of that had the sort of resources I needed to save my sister. So I went to Drake Weston and made a deal with the devil.
As it turned out, he had the inside track on a treatment for the disease. He’d run a few tests of his own, and each one was a success. The only reason he hadn’t cashed it in yet with the world medical community was because he was still waiting to see if the cure would last.
I didn’t have time to wait and see whether the treatment would kill Maggie, as the sickness would take her long before then. So I agreed to work for Weston, and he agreed to get my sister enrolled in his own private treatment study.
Five years later, my sister is alive, and I’m finally done paying off my debt to Weston. It took betraying all my friends and most of my principles, but I would do it again in a heartbeat if it meant keeping Maggie’s heart beating.
But what about the money? you may still be asking.
Well, Weston could have had me doing his bidding for free if he wanted. But, always one to take preemptive action to avoid future complications, Weston made sure that all his employees were well-compensated.
I did try to refuse the first few payments, but I eventually caved and accepted. Say what you will about my wobbly moral compass, but the money helped me buy my pub. And having that will allow me to walk away from LightBlast, DarkLight and my whole messy past once and for all.
The post DarkLight Redemption – Chapter Three appeared first on Joe Mikolay.
July 10, 2015
DarkLight Redemption – Chapter Two
Enjoy Chapter Two of DarkLight Redemption. And, if you like what you read, please spread the word.
I’ll be back on Monday!
TWO
Secret identities are a surprisingly rare commodity these days, but I’ve managed to keep mine intact. My choice of costume helps since my mask offers nearly complete facial coverage.
It’s constructed of a spandexy space-age material that covers the top of my head to my nose. It extends down my neck as well, just leaving my mouth and jaw exposed. I haven’t shaved for a couple days, so I’ve got a decent amount of scruffiness happening. But that’s hardly a distinctly identifiable feature.
The eye holes are pretty wide, but lots of people have blue eyes. I’d once considered an open-topped mask so I could work the whole hair-dramatically- blowing-in-the-wind thing. But dirty blond hair coupled with a strongish jawline, six-foot-tall athletic build and blue eyes does form a decent Wanted poster.
Since you asked, my costume is two pieces: top and bottom, long sleeves and pants. I wear gloves, too, because if you can’t keep your fingerprints to yourself, then you can’t keep a secret identity.
Color scheme is charcoal gray with midnight blue trimming. The mask and the symbol on my chest are both blue. The symbol is an eight-pronged crystalline compass. I’ll be honest: It doesn’t really mean anything — I just thought it looked cooler than a stylized DL. Get it? For DarkLight?
Yeah, I thought it was lame, too, which is why I went with the other thing. Anyway, no cape for me, though I was tempted by the thoughts of it billowing badassedly in the wind. But it really wouldn’t serve any purpose besides getting in the way.
Unlike many other Post-Humans, my costume is neither spandex nor leather. It’s not skintight because, while I’m in pretty good shape, I’ve hardly got what you’d call a herculean physique.
Truth is, I did try a full costume made out of the same material my mask is made out of. But I sweat through it in ten minutes, and it bunched up in all sort of uncomfortable crevices.
So I go with a nylon/canvas hybrid. It looks good on me, and I’ve got a full range of motions, so I’m happy with it. That being said, I fold it up and drop it in my duffle bag before making my way to Weston Tower.
I put on a suit because I’d look just a suspicious going to a meeting with Drake Weston wearing a t-shirt and jeans as I would wearing my costume. He does have several subterranean entrances to the building, but they’re generally saved for emergencies.
After signing in at the lobby desk, I’m escorted to Weston’s private elevator and sent up. They don’t bother sending security up with me since I’ve been here plenty of times before.
Weston has some contingency plans in place in this building since — while he may be the most powerful man in the world — he’s still just a man. This is why every light in the building emits an energy signature that interrupts the powers of any Post-Human under them.
He sold the technology to the government a few years back for a couple billion dollars. It’s mostly used by P.H.A.T.E. for imprisoning captured supervillains.
One thing you have to hand to Drake Weston is that he knows how to play all the angles. I’d respect the man even more if he weren’t a power-hungry megalomaniac.
When the elevator doors slide open, I’m met by a pair of the most beautiful big green eyes I’ve ever seen. Once I get past them, I take in a view of short red hair, pale skin and tall, lean gorgeousness.
She smiles at me, and we nearly bump heads as I’m leaving the elevator and she’s getting in. Pretty smile, too. This is the kind of girl that could get me in trouble, especially if she’s got business with Weston.
I manage to grunt out half of a couple of words. Think I was going for either “Pardon me,” “Excuse me,” “I’m sorry” or “My bad.” Naturally what came out sounded like “Perdexmesorrbad.”
She gives me a sweet, smokey chuckle and replies, “S’noprobkay.”
Seems she’s as bad at this as I am. We exchange friendly smiles and swap spots. The elevator doors slide closed, and I find myself in Drake Weston’s office.
A woman with a different sort of beauty walks over to me. Elizabeth Stokes, AKA Whisper, greets me. She’s got a sharp aristocratic nose, chin and cheekbones, long, wavy black hair and eyes to match. Black eyes, I mean, not wavy. I’m not even sure what wavy eyes would entail.
She always seems to have a slight smirk, which I always notice because I never look her in the eyes. See, Elizabeth can take control of a person’s mind for twenty-four hours if she looks them in the eyes. Even though her powers are nullified here, just like everyone else’s, it’s a force of habit.
It’s a really hard habit to break since I once found myself in a thirty-foot-wide crater in Paris with no memory of the previous day after the first time we met. News reports filled me in about missing works of art afterward. That was before I got into the villain business so it was all quite embarrassing.
I would have ended up in one of the Post-Human prisons myself if my mentor, Charles Porter, hadn’t found the artworks and returned them. Never could pin it on Whisper, though.
Charles Porter, AKA MasterBlaster, is one of the first and greatest superheroes in the world. He’s also one of the main reasons that I hate myself every time I walk into this building.
“We heard that you ran into a little trouble, Thomas,” Elizabeth tells me in her vaguely Eastern European accent, and I regain my train of thought.
“I wasn’t expecting BioBorg to be with the convoy,” I reply.
“And we were not expecting you to waste escape time playing with exploding cars,” Elizabeth retorts, her smirk stretching a bit wider.
“Now, now, Ms. Stokes,” Drake Weston says in his baritone voice as he walks out from behind his desk. “Our young man accomplished his mission. That’s all we ask for in the end.”
“Yes, Mr. Weston,” Elizabeth says, and I smirk a little when hers shrinks.
“It’s always good to see you, Tom.” Weston offers a handshake, which I reluctantly accept.
His brown hair is perfectly sculpted and parted to the side. The suit he’s wearing costs more than the gross national product of some small countries. His calculating eyes and strong chiseled chin always make me feel like I’m a dumb teen sidekick again.
Weston is not yet fifty years old, and he’s owned a chunk of the world for nearly half that. Last year he was named both Forbes‘s Most Eligible Bachelor and Fortune’s Most Powerful Man. It wasn’t his first time topping either list.
I owe the man a great debt, but I never stopped wishing I could find a way to get him locked up. He’s just too damn good, though, and no one has ever been able to put together a strong enough case against him. An army of lawyers and a ledger filled with all the right names will do that for you.
“How is your family?” Weston asks in a way that is friendly and menacing at the same time.
“They’re well,” I say through a forced smile.
“And the bar?” he asks. “How’s business these days?”
“People always need a drink,” I say as he finally releases my hand.
Only three people in the world know my secret identity: Charles Porter, Elizabeth Stokes and Drake Weston. The only one of them who isn’t a morally impaired evildoer is the man whose trust and faith I betrayed.
Weston only mentioned my family and the bar I own to remind me that, even though I’m finished working for him, he still holds all the cards. This is the one man who could destroy the strongest of Post-Humans just by picking up the phone.
I follow him to his desk. He walks behind it and gestures to the chair across from him.
“Please, have a seat.”
“I’d rather stand, if that’s alright.”
“As you wish.” Weston remains standing as well.
He crosses his arms across his chest and looks out his seventy-fifth-story window. He views New York City the same way he views the rest of the world: as a chessboard. And he is the grand champion.
“You’ve done some great work for us, Tom,” he says without looking at me.
“Not sure that’s the way I’d put it, Mr. Weston.”
“No, I’m certain that it is not.” He finally turns to look at me. “I realize that you find the jobs I asked you to do rather repugnant, but at least I spared you from the worst of it.”
It’s true — I’ve been involved in numerous heists, but there were lines he’d never asked me to cross. That was for his benefit as well as mine since even I’m not sure how I’d respond to such a request. While I’m sure he’d considered it, it was not a headache he wanted to deal with.
My lack of response is response enough for him.
“What will you do now?” he asks. “Will you go back to thwarting the nefarious plots of Post-Human criminals?”
“Honestly, I’m tired of the whole scene,” I reply. “I’d just as soon toss my costume in the trash and spend the rest of my life tending bar.”
“Perhaps that’s for the best,” Weston says. “MasterBlaster has filled your old position anyway.”
“I’m too old to be a sidekick,” I say like the over-the-hill twenty-five-year-old that I am.
“Indeed,” Weston replies. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about the new LightBlast, would you?”
“No,” I reply in regards to the young man wearing the title that I used to carry. “Just that he’s been active for a bit over a year. Which means that I’m shocked you don’t already have a three-inch-thick file on him.”
“I will eventually,” Weston nods. “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in staying on with us, would you?”
“No, sir, I would not.”
“I thought as much,” he says. “If I may ask: What did you think of our new girl?”
“Dominatrix?”
“Yes.”
“She did her job.”
“She did,” Weston agrees. “We have high hopes for that one. She’s the first second-generation Post-Human to become active.”
“Is that so?” I ask, trying to hide what interest I do have in her.
“We see enormous potential in her,” Weston finishes and walks out from behind his desk. “I’ve always seen great potential in you as well, Tom. It’s just a shame that this is the end of the line for us.”
My pulse quickens for a moment, as I’m not sure whether or not I should take that as a threat. I hear Elizabeth walking up behind me, and I realize that I could be in trouble.
I turn so I have them both in my line of sight, just as she holds up a briefcase.
It’s a familiar case. I’ve collected about thirty of them under these same circumstances. Elizabeth opens it up to show me the cash within, and she closes it after I’ve seen it. Once it’s snapped shut, she hands it to me.
I look back to Weston, who extends his hand once again and says, “I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors, Tom.”
I accept the handshake and then make my way back to the elevator. I step inside and turn to face the office once more. Elizabeth stands next to Weston, and they’re both watching me.
“If you change your mind about my offer, you know where to find me,” Weston calls as the doors close in front of me.
The post DarkLight Redemption – Chapter Two appeared first on Joe Mikolay.
July 6, 2015
DarkLight: Redemption – Post-Human Universe – Book One – Chapter One
Hello Readers!
I’m trying something a bit different with my new novel, and that something is giving it away for free – one chapter at a time.
Since DarkLight: Redemption is a superhero story, and most superhero stories are told one monthly issue at a time, I’m releasing this in a similarly serialized manner.
Fret not, though, because I won’t just release one chapter a month. I’ll be rolling it out twice a week to completion. I’ll try to keep them regularly rolling out every Monday and Friday.
And so, without further adieu, here is the first chapter in the first book of what I’m calling the Post-Human Universe.
Enjoy!
ONE
What is the difference between a hero and a villain?
Sometimes it’s easier to tell than others. For example, saving a person from plummeting to their death off the top of a skyscraper is pretty damn heroic. While running through the streets at night killing people with a katana blade is among the more villainous things you can do.
But what if the person saved from falling to his death — or the people chopped apart on the street, for that matter — are serial murderers or terrorists? Who, then, is the hero, and who is the villain?
My own situation is decidedly less intense from a philosophical standpoint. I’m not like Katana Klown or The Archangel, who go around slicing up civilians and bad guys (respectively). My name is Tom Reynolds, and I’m a thief.
Although I’m more widely known as DarkLight — and technically, I’m a supervillain. But only because I have super powers and have engaged in some admittedly villainous activities.
I don’t have any plans for world domination, and I’m not seeking revenge on a society that fears and rejects me. I just do the jobs that I’m assigned to do because I made a deal a few years ago, and I have a contract to fulfill.
There’s actually quite a lot more to my story, but I don’t really have time to get into it right now. Currently, I’m flying above the clouds to avoid being spotted by the military convoy below. Flanking me on either side are my partners for this particular job.
To my right is Magnus Svetssen, AKA Mimic, named so because of his ability to replicate any other Post-Human’s powers in his immediate vicinity. He’s all decked out in white, symbolizing his blank slate/ever-changing type of powers. At least I think that’s what he’s going for.
No mask, but most guys who’ve got a rap sheet don’t bother with the masks, except in the rare case when they’re trying to change up their shtick. No point in hiding your face if everyone already knows who you are.
Me and the girl on my left are both fliers, so I can’t say for sure which one of us Mimic’s aping, which is a little disconcerting. I don’t know her real name — fact is, I’ve never met her before — but she calls herself The Dominatrix.
Can’t say what came first, the name or the black leather get-up she’s been sewn into. She wears it well, though, that’s for sure. Nice cape, too. It’s hard to pull off a cape most of the time, but she’s acquitting herself quite well. Long, straight black hair and an oversized domino mask make up the rest of her attire.
The mask appears to be made of microfiber that’s been molded to fit her face. It reaches halfway up her forehead and curves down her cheekbones. She’s new, and it looks like she’s trying to maintain a secret identity. Smart.
Below us, Lance Cassidy, AKA Blynk, is waiting for the signal to make his approach. Blynk is the fastest person on the planet, faster than any of the several alien races that I’ve encountered, too. So he may well be the fastest being in the galaxy or universe, for all I know.
Mimic is leading the mission, as he’s one of Drake Weston’s most trusted allies. Weston is the guy that I made my deal with, and we’ll discuss that in further detail later on. At any rate, Mimic looks our way, and we know that it’s time to go to work.
My powers are energy-based; I emit a deep blue light when they’re activated. Mimic now begins emitting the same light, so I know he’s replicating my powers instead of Dominatrix’s, which never ceases to be creepy. As far as I’m aware, she’s got the classic package of super strength, super speed and flight.
Mimic begins to dive, and Dominatrix and I both follow suit. The convoy consists of four trucks sandwiched in between two Humvees. The item we’re looking to procure is in one of the trucks. Our intel suggests that the other three are simply diversionary.
Mimic swoops down to take out the Humvee in front while I go after the one in back. He fires a powerful energy blast directly under his Humvee, causing it to flip over in the desert.
My instincts tell me to make sure everyone is still alive in that Humvee, but I need to stay on target. I open my hands and fire off four narrow beams of energy, which blow out the tires of the rear Humvee.
Sparks flash out from the undercarriage, and it only takes a few seconds for the vehicle to skid to a stop on the street. I look behind me and see Dominatrix crash in through the roof of the first truck.
I look to my side and see a straight line of sand shoot up from the ground. The line originates several miles back in the desert, but that’s nothing to Blynk. He’s in and out of the other three trucks before Dominatrix even finishes searching her first.
I see Blynk stop running. He appears like a mirage and shrugs at me before blurring his way into the truck that Dominatrix hit. As soon as he enters through the rear, Dominatrix flies out through the top with a large metal cylinder. I’m guessing she’s found what we’re here for.
Blynk flashes back into the desert, and Mimic follows him just as speedily. Seems he traded my juice for something more appropriate for a quick getaway. Not that I’m slow when I fly — I’m just not on Blynk’s level.
I know we’re done here, but I spot a flame growing from the Humvee that Mimic flipped. Looks like three soldiers are trying to crawl out, and they’re having a hell of a time of it. With the mission accomplished, I’m free to follow my own inclination, and I fly over to the burning vehicle.
I extend my energy shields out like a pair of long arms and hoist the Humvee off the ground. I’m about to extend a few more strands to move the soldiers away from the wreckage, but they manage to get to their feet themselves.
Two of them are carrying the third toward the street when the Humvee goes critical. I concentrate more energy outward, and form a full force field around the vehicle.
The fireball is contained inside the force field, so I contract the field and seal off any gaps. When there’s no oxygen left within, the flame swiftly suffocate. I drop what’s left of the Humvee to the ground, just in time to see an energy blast coming my way. I shift the force field toward the blast and deflect it like a shield.
That doesn’t mean I’m immune to the impact, though. The force of the blast knocks me to the ground, and I see the source of the problem. Sgt. Walter Cavanaugh, AKA BioBorg, has stepped out from the Humvee that I de-wheeled.
BioBorg is one of the government issued Post-Humans. More specifically, the Post-Human Affairs & Technology Engagement (P.H.A.T.E., for short) Bureau. They used the highest tech available from their own research, combined with some alien stuff left behind, to put these guys together.
Cavanaugh was one of the first, as he was badly wounded in the line of duty. His injuries would have killed him, so the military had free reign to do with him as they pleased.
Half his face looks human; the other half is full machine. Most of his body is metal now. His left arm is an ion cannon, and his right arm and his legs are super strong. He’s an intimidating sight, no doubt, and he’s got me dead bang. All I can do is toss an energy ball his way, which hits him just enough to throw off his aim.
There is now a five-foot-deep crater directly below me, which means it’s time to leave. So I put up the default force field around my body and take to the sky.
BioBorg doesn’t have flight capabilities, which makes me glad they sent him instead of FlyBorg with this convoy. Yeah, government-approved nicknames are all pretty unimaginative.
Either way, I’m happy to not have to slug it out with a damn war hero who’s just doing his job. My own job here is done, and it was my last one. At least that’s what I was told.
As I ascend, I spot Dominatrix in the distance. She’s still holding the device, and I’m not sure whether she stuck around to make sure I didn’t get taken alive or to help out if I needed it.
Motives aside, it wasn’t a great decision on her part since she’s the one carrying what we came for. She’s definitely new at this.
Me, I’ve been doing this for almost ten years. But after today, I won’t need to do it any longer.
She flies ahead of me and is en route to the drop point. I break off to the east and make my way to Weston’s office for my exit interview.
The post DarkLight: Redemption – Post-Human Universe – Book One – Chapter One appeared first on Joe Mikolay.
June 29, 2015
The Alpha Breakdown – Story
Now it’s time for the last part of my three part series breaking down The Alpha. This one will focus on the influences and inspirations for the story itself.
**There are spoilers involved so, if you haven’t read The Alpha (or The Pack for that matter), you may want to skip this until after you have.**
As mentioned in the characters post, the main theme of The Alpha is finding where you belong in the world. Of course, that also involves resolving past traumas and moving on to where you’re meant to be.
That the characters are working through their tragic pasts also allowed me to go a bit lighter with the tone. Which makes sense since who didn’t have a better time in college than in high school? You get a fresh lease on life, and you really are more well equipped to handle the emotional landmines that life lays in front of you.
I’ve also always been intrigued by the idea of secret societies directing the course of the world for their own nefarious ends. I was glad to have Hadrian Graysmith’s long tendrils give me a chance to explore that in this novel.
I wanted to change the mechanics of the story to differentiate it from the dread of the unknown that permeated The Pack. That is why I presented a trio of fully-formed venatores in the prime of their lives. In a way it was me reliving the excitement I felt when Star Wars: Episode One promised to show us that sort of fully-trained Jedi.
Luke never really became a true Jedi, Yoda and Obi Wan were past their primes, Darth Vader was an abomination, and The Pack only really showed Jack Halliday doing his best after being on a 10 year bender. Meanwhile, Craig, Izzy and Michael are all in mid-season form. I do rather hope that The Alpha was executed better than Episode One, but that’s still what planted the seed.
I also wanted to get into more action in this book than in The Pack, which built up the tension for the first two-thirds of the story before unleashing the horrific fury of violence of the last third. Allow me to indulge myself and discuss my favorite action set pieces from The Alpha.
The subway train/tunnel massacre was inspired by my many subway rides that were spent imagining what would happen if the train were suddenly attacked by monsters. What can I say, being stuck in a subterranean metal tube causes my mind to wander. It was also inspired a bit by the cult classic C.H.U.D, the creatures from which I also spent time looking for in the darkened tunnels that shot off in all directions.
That led directly to Michael winning a hard fought battle against a horde of vampires, and then moving directly onto the big boss. The rooftop pummeling was my chance to lay some groundwork similar to Batman: Knightfall, wherein our hero is not really prepared to deal with his nemesis and so is nearly beaten to death by him. That, of course, sets up the big rematch at the end.
Michael and Natalie as reluctant partners has its roots in most buddy cop movies or team-ups similar to Buffy & Spike or Daredevil & The Punisher. The pair fighting their way up the Graysmith Enterprises building was inspired by a number of sources as well. Not the least of which would be Ong Bak 2, The Raid and Dredd.
Alpha Michael vs Vamp Lord Graysmith was probably based more on the countless hours of pro wrestling I’ve watched over the years than anything else. Natalie cleaning up after Michael, and being the one who actually finishes off Graysmith, was just a fun twist on the typical End Boss Battle.
That concludes my three part blog breaking down The Alpha. I hope you found it insightful and, if you haven’t yet read The Venator Series, maybe it will inspire you to do so. There will be another Venator Series entry in the near future, but be on the lookout for a couple of other works coming from me in the even nearer future.
Thanks for stopping by, and keep readin’!
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June 28, 2015
The Alpha Breakdown – Monsters
Now it’s time for part two of my three part series breaking down The Alpha. This one will focus on the featured creatures of the novel so, without further adieu, please enjoy the monsters!
**There are spoilers involved so, if you haven’t read The Alpha (or The Pack for that matter), you may want to skip this until after you have.**
If you read The Pack then you’re already familiar with the werewolves, their lore and their forms – half changed, wolf-person, and alpha. For The Alpha it was just a matter of doing some different things with them, such as a wolf-man wielding a machete in the subway tunnels – which really ought to be airbrushed on the side of someone’s van.
I also revealed more about the nature of the Alpha state. Namely, that it distills a person into their very basic self. It’s not dissimilar to what was explained by Jack Halliday in The Pack, only taken to a starker degree. And there’s also the notion that one must willfully turn off their humanity to fully transform, and tap into the the Alpha state.
New monsters include mention of a gill-man, which is a sort of Creature from the Black Lagoon homage. But the first new monster we actually see is the insectoid. I was looking a bit at low budget giant insect movies from the 1950’s for inspiration for them, but Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic was also an inspiration for their form and function. They’re really just straightforward nasties covered in slime and stingers.
The vampires are the main new monsters here though. I didn’t want any suave or beautiful or sparkly vampires, I wanted to use scary as hell vampires. Their abilities borrows from many classic vampire tales, even Dracula scaled his castle walls. For the jaws that unhinged, I was thinking about snakes or a freaky dream I once had had where someone’s mouth just got wider and wider as they ran after me. The glowing red eyes just cut a nice spooky image in my mind.
I liked the idea of using the standard vamps as sort of drones for their Master, which is a notion that has its roots as far back as vampire lore goes. Though a couple of good recent examples of something similar are The Strain trilogy or The Passage. The varying strength of the psychic connection between Master and minion was only briefly mentioned, but it’s something that may be pursued further in future venator novels. In this case, it was primarily added to give credence to Hadrian Graysmith’s ability to wield power and control over people.
Graysmith himself is a different sort of vamp – in regards to both his power set and his personality. Early on I present him with a classic suave, aristocratic air. Kind of like Count Dracula-by-way-of-Jon Hamm. But this is all just a smokescreen hiding the monstrosity within. This concept is not new, in fact it’s been used to varying effect in films ranging from Fright Night to Vampire Hunter D to Van Helsing.
I like the duality of how Graysmith presents himself versus what he becomes when he truly unleashes the beast within. The other advantages here are the ability to first reveal his transmogrification during the rooftop battle with Michael as a bit of shock and awe, and then use that altered state to create a strong, visceral thrust to the big monster mash that concludes the story.
Speaking of the story, my next post will be about the general inspirations for the overall narrative and structure of The Alpha. So stay tuned for that!
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June 27, 2015
The Alpha Breakdown – Characters
I’d like to let those who follow this page know that I’ll be doing a $0.99 KDP Countdown Deal from 7/12 – 7/19. So, if you haven’t picked up The Alpha yet, that will be your chance.
With that in mind, I did a three part blog post about influences for The Pack some months back. Those posts can be found here, here and here.
I’d intended to do similar posts for The Alpha, but haven’t gotten around to it until now. So, here is the first part of a three part post. This one will focus on the characters of The Alpha.
**There are spoilers involved so, if you haven’t read The Alpha (or The Pack for that matter), you may want to skip this until after you have.**
In The Pack, the primary group of characters were in their senior year of high school. The choice was made to cast them at that age group was because it was about growing up, and becoming the person that you will be for the rest of your life. This is the frightful proposition everyone faces with the end of their high school life in sight.
The Alpha skips forward a few years, to the time when college graduation is fast approaching, even though only one of the three returning characters actually attends college. That choice plays into theme of the second book, namely finding your place in the world, which is the natural next step after discovering your true self. I also wanted to skip over the remaining couple of angsty teen years, as that wasn’t the story I was interested in telling.
The end of The Pack left the surviving characters – Michael, Ellis and Natalie – in pretty bad places. So I wanted to reveal the different ways they each evolved to survive what happened to them., and they ended up following three distinctly different paths.
After learning to control his blessing/curse, Michael went searching for other supernatural creatures who – like him – wanted to live in peace. And, while he found a few examples of that, most of what he found were bloodthirsty killers that he needed to stop. As such, he took up his father’s venator mantle and dedicated his life to saving others. His dedication did not waver, even when he decided that he would need to sever ties to the girl he loved for her own protection.
Ellis struggled to escape the massacre of West Chatham, though she needed to do so alone since no one would believe the truth. That solitude led to her setting her focus on revealing the truth about the things that lurk in the dark in hopes of preventing another such tragedy. She never chose to deal with her trauma alone, so you certainly can’t blame her for reacting violently when she discovers that Michael is alive and believes he abandoned her.
Natalie, meanwhile, very intentionally set off on her own. After the killing of her abusive stepfather failed to heal the wounds inflicted upon her soul and, in fact, led to the accidental death of her mother, Natalie was lost. She ended up venturing out into the world seeking those who she considered to be deserving victims. Subconsciously, though, she wanted to recreate that fateful night in the manner that would finally give her peace.
So, while the trio adapted in different ways, each one of their paths were still inextricably tied to the horror that befell West Chatham.
As far as new characters go, Craig and Izzy are a pair of venatores who are introduced through Michael. I wanted them to represent a full fledged, swashbuckling venator duo, who also happen to be in a happy and healthy relationship. In that way they offer a nice balance to the baggage of dysfunction brought in by the returning characters.
Pete and Jenny, introduced as the people closest to Ellis’ orbit, represent no more or less than your typical NYC college students with all their flairs and flaws. They make selfish choices and handle the fallout from them poorly, but they aren’t bad people – just bad friends. They also happen to be the lambs brought to the slaughterhouse, unknowing what awaits them in the shadows.
Detective Cliff Gillen & Andy Bendis are opposite ends of the law enforcement archetype spectrum. Gillen is a hard working veteran who’s seen his share of terrible things, and does his best to stop them. Bendis, on the other hand. is young, ambitious and willing to take any shortcut for upward mobility. He signs up for the fast track without even knowing if his brakes work.
Diane Coolidge, Captain Russell Owens and Professor Claire Kinney are three examples of characters who have, for better or worse, already made all their choices. Coolidge and Owens made deals with the devil to attain prominence and power, while Kinney relied on her own merits and so didn’t reach quite as high.
Hadrian Graysmith is the aforementioned devil. While he’s not literally the devil, he is a 700+ year old vampire with his claws sunk deep into the heart of NYC. He pulls the strings, and controls the highest levels of government, media, and any other source of power. In fact, since he played a big part in the founding of Manhattan, the power really flows from him. The bottom line is that Graysmith has infected the very lifeblood of the city – which is appropriate, all things considered.
That’s it for now, but keep an eye out for part two of this post where I get further into Graysmith and the other monsters (good and evil) of The Alpha.
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June 20, 2015
On Time Travel & Terminators
Terminator Genisys opens on July 1st and, while I am cautiously optimistic that it will be good, I am certainly going to use the opportunity to discuss the use of time travel in entertainment.
I’m no quantum physicist – sorry to disappoint – so I’ll be giving a bit of a layman’s take on the three most frequently used types of time travel. Of course there have been many other types used here and there, but I’ll be focusing on the ones that seem to be the most recurrent. The Terminator film franchise had really made use of all three types, which is why I’ll be using that as a jumping off point.
I will be referring to the theories here as the the Infinite Loop, the Running River and the Parallel Timelines theory. Not exactly scientific terminology but I find them to be fitting, so let’s just roll with it.
The Terminator goes with the Infinite Loop theory, which essentially states that time is a circle. Everything that will ever happen has already happened and will happen again and again and again. Specifically in this case, John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect his mother Sarah Connor from a Terminator sent back to kill her by Skynet, and then Reese ends up becoming John’s father.
The suggestion here is that Reese was always John’s father, and so the future and the past have always been set in stone. By the end of the movie, Judgment Day – the nominal nuclear destruction of the human race – has not been averted. So, humanity is blasted, John Connor leads the rebellion against the machines, Skynet sends a Terminator back in time, John sends Reese back in time to protect his mother, and the events of the film continue on an infinite cycle.
The Infinite Loop is typically used in tragic stories, as it plays with the notion of unavoidable fate always trumping free will. This is why it’s the theory favored by the fairly nihilistic Rust “time is a flat circle” Cohle in True Detective, and Battlestar “all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again” Galactica.
T2 switches gears and uses “no fate but what we make” as it driving mantra. I’m going to skip the details of the film since, if you haven’t seen it, then I’m sure you’ve already stopped ready this blog post. The bottom line is that Sarah Connor, the super annoying preteen version of her son John, and a Terminator fresh off a babyface turn (wrasslin’ reference alert) decide to go ahead and stop Judgment Day from ever happening.
It’s not made clear whether they succeeded in the theatrical release, but several of the home video versions have a deleted epilogue where an elderly Sarah Connor is playing with her grandkids in a park. All of which suggests that Judgment Day was, in fact, averted.
This is the Running River theory, called such since a good analogy for it is that, if a river’s course is diverted at any point, then every point that flows after that affected point is changed as well. However, it is still the same river. This theory is used in stories with happier endings, as it illustrates that we can change our future for the better. The best example of this is perhaps Back To The Future, wherein Marty McFly changes his family’s life for the better after a brief, reverse-Oedipal wracked, visit to his parents’ past.
Terminator 3 flipped back to the Infinite Loop theory and, while I wouldn’t mind blogging about how that movie get a bad rap and is actually pretty good, it would be superfluous to go further into it.
Terminator Salvation, also better than its reputation though still not especially good, doesn’t really have much to do with time travel. As such, I’m going to twist the facts here to get to my last point. It could be interpreted as saying that the future (or the present, I suppose) may not be the same as it once was. In fact, it may be an entirely different timeline.
Parallel Timelines have long been the theory of choice for ongoing stories. DC and Marvel Comics have had several “Event Series” and one or two movies that stemmed from this version of time travel. Buffy The Vampire Slayer had a great episode titled Dopplegangland, where a vampire version of Willow crosses over the the “Prime” timeline. That’s a good specific example of why comic books favor his method – because it allows for different versions of characters to interact with one another. It also enables them with to do things with – and to – famous characters that they otherwise couldn’t (for primarily economic reasons).
The broader explanation for Parallel Timelines is that anytime someone goes back in time and changes something, a whole new future is created from that point forward. The original timeline still exists, adhering to the Infinite Loop rules, but the new timeline essentially falls under Running River rules. But, again, that timeline has not been changed. A new one has simply been created.
Looper, an awesome time travel movie that you should see if you haven’t yet, sits on the fence between Parallel Timelines and Running River, but I always interpreted it more as the former than the latter. The underseen Source Code is a better pure example of Parallel Timelines, where soldier/lab rat Colter Stevens is continually sent back in time to try and stop a terrorist attack on a train. This theory can be bittersweet, as it allows for a happy ending in one timeline, but you know that things still turn out crappy in the others.
The Parallel Timelines theory of time travel actually plays off of a similar philosophical theory. The philosophy states that, to keep it as brief as possible, every decision that every living being makes creates its own distinct timeline. I’m rather fond of this theory, but it would take another couple thousand words to get into.
To bring things full circle, or back to the start of this particular Infinite Loop, Terminator Genisys opens on July 1st and I’m going to check it out. Looks like they’re throwing together a grab bag of every time travel theory mentioned above, and so it may be an unholy mess. But I’m never one to pass on a time travel movie, so I’ll be there.
Thanks for indulging my crackpot take, I’ll be back soon with some news about my own works, so keep readin’!
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June 13, 2015
Book Goodies Interview
Check out my interview with Book Goodies that just went up!
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