Sol Crafter's Blog, page 9
October 3, 2013
Riptide, Wtf Kindle autocorrect, Movies
Riptide Publishing: Anniversary Sale!
Riptide Publishing is turning 2 and there’s all kinds of awesome things taking place. It’s a whole month of sales. This could be your chance to round out your Andrea Speed collection.
Week 1 (Oct 1 – Oct 5): All First Wave titles 40% off, plus 15% off other select backlist titles
Week 2 (Oct 6 – Oct 12): All Second Wave titles 40% off, plus 15% off other select backlist titles
Week 3 (Oct 13 – Oct 19): $2.99 sale! Plus 15% off other select backlist titles
Week 4 (Oct 20 – Oct 26): $3.99 sale! Plus 15% off other select backlist titles
Week 5 (Oct 27 – Oct 31): Gift Certificate Sale: All gift certificates are 10% off
Go check it out Riptide Publishing
*
Kindle auto-correct is pissing me off
Remember when I was getting pissed off that there was no better spell check on the Kindle? Yeah. How do I turn the auto-correct off?
It’s very frustrating when I painstakingly spell something out — there it is right on the screen — then one hit of the spacebar and I look incredibly stupid.
If I spell something out a key at a time, why would it try to fix it? I don’t need to have my words corrected by something that seems to know less about spelling than me.
*
I saw this
I haven’t watched a ton of new movies, but here’s a list of stuff — movies and shows — worth seeing:
OBLIVION – movie. beautiful, cinemagraphic dystopian sci-fi.
PACIFIC RIM – movie. fun monster fighting robot sci-fi.
PROMETHEUS – movie. thinky horror sci-fi.
LOOPER – movie. crazy time travel mafia sci-fi.
BREAKING BAD – TV. meth making science teacher/drug kingpin.
YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL – TV. girl dressed as boy, joins band kdrama.
PENELOPE – movie. Girl cursed with a pig nose. Wonderful costumes and sets.
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN – movie. Still beautiful knight during the Crusades story.
IRON MAN 3 – movie. Tony Stark is a ninja.
ORPHAN BLACK – tv. BBC sci-fi series about a woman that finds out there’s eight of her.
Any great movies or shows out there? I’ve got Netflix and DramaFever.
The post Riptide, Wtf Kindle autocorrect, Movies appeared first on Harper Kingsley.
All content copyright HarperKingsley.net unless otherwise stated.
Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
October 1, 2013
What’s Up, Buttercup
I’m trying to watch this show, but my dad won’t stop talking. Asking questions is all right, but he makes these dumb comments.
I think he needs his own Twitter. That or I should set him up with a blog. He has thoughts and opinions he would really like to share.
*
Heroes & Villains is a finalist for the 2013 Rainbow Awards. How cool is that?
There’s so many great books listed this year. It’s thrilling to see my book up there with all of them. They look so bright and hopeful all on one page.
*
All this quippage during action scenes, I think that would be totally distracting. There you are focusing on your job, and someone feels the need to make with the funnies.
This is serious time, boss. STFU.
Then again, it’s kind of reached the point of ridiculous with having a brand new girl go out in the field with no training. They are supposed to be a highly trained government agency. WTF? I question putting the safety of the world in their hands until they at least go through Basic.
It’s an interesting show and I look forward to watching more episodes, but I wish the script was a little better. I’m hoping the show gets better.
They’re playing up the sexy — sexy people, sexy technology — I wish there was a bit more plot to this porn.
*
What I’ve been writing on -
ParaShift: My mm sci-fi mpreg story. The elements introduce
themselves. I just took the concept of a post-apocalyptic society that’s been struck by a sterility plague, added a touch of A/B/O, and ran with it.
Tuesday Night: My mm au superhero story. I’ve introduced Henry David and things are chugging along. I promise not to go all hate-style on Carrie. That’s not an angle I want to play.
The Panic Pure: My mm suspense thriller. I posted Chapter Eighteen on FictionPress if you’re following that. I’ve gotta clean it up before posting it on Kimichee but I’ll start catching everything up.
= posted from my kindle =
The post What’s Up, Buttercup appeared first on Harper Kingsley.
All content copyright HarperKingsley.net unless otherwise stated.
Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
September 23, 2013
Heroes & Villains, ParaShift, birthday wish
I have largely been without Internet for most of this month. I’m back now, but it will be sporadic at best and I apologize. I hope that I will be able to make posts through my kindle and email, but it’s been giving me a hard time lately and some posts haven’t gone through.
Anyways, I have several things to share, so brace yourself:
Heroes & Villains was reviewed by Joyfully Jay and got 4-stars and a really nice write up. I was scared to look at first — I’m such a wuss — but it was a really nice review. I’m still grinning.
Check out the review HERE.
In case you didn’t know, Heroes & Villains is my mm superhero novel.
Heroes & Villains
by Harper Kingsley
mm superhero
publisher: Less Than Three Press
isbn: 9781620042328
word count: 130k
Darkstar x Blue Ice.
Series so far:
Heroes & Villains
The Wedding
Allies & Enemies (upcoming)
Psychotic
All That Remains (upcoming)
In the same universe:
Pulse of the City
The Dark Hearts (upcoming)
Savior Unknown (upcoming)
* * *
I’ve added some to ParaShift, if you’re following that. Chapter Fourteen will be coming up shortly, and we’re already 39,000 words in.
For the official version, Park is becoming an ever more interesting character. Seriously, this dude should be named B.A. Park, because he’s just that bad ass. He’s also more thoughtful than I first envisioned him to be. He’s turning into a real romantic lead.
* * *
I would like to wish the lovely L.J. LaBarthe a happy birthday.
The post Heroes & Villains, ParaShift, birthday wish appeared first on Harper Kingsley.
All content copyright HarperKingsley.net unless otherwise stated.
Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
September 10, 2013
Allies & Enemies, by Harper Kingsley. Chapter 4 [superhero, mm]
Title: Allies & Enemies
Author: Harper Kingsley
World: Heroes & Villains
Genre: mm superhero
Summary: Vereint and Warrick are still adapting to having a teenaged girl in their lives.
CHAPTER FOUR
Life settled into a routine they could all live with. The whole having a kid thing no longer seemed like such an emotional ball kick and Melissa really began to seem like a member of their family.
It was hard keeping Warrick’s identity as Blue Ice away from her, but it wasn’t like they hadn’t been practicing liars before. Vereint’s supervillain past seemed more like dirty laundry than Warrick’s predilection to go out and save the world.
Melissa spent most of her weekdays at the expensive prep school they’d gotten her into. Burstow Academy was the same place Warrick had gone to as a kid, so she received a legacy benefit, and even though her last name was Kim, it was well understood that she was a member of the Tobias family. Special treatment abounded.
There had been a few rough spots, like when Vereint got called in because Melissa had been “acting out.” He’d shown up nervous, expecting to hear that his kid had killed someone or leveled a large chunk of the school. Instead he’d had to bite his lip hard to keep from calling the teacher a “Nominal bitch” to her face and flinging her desk at her. He still had a few anger issues he hadn’t managed to tame.
Some jerk had called Melissa a chink whore. So naturally she’d kicking him on the shin and cursed at him in Korean. By the time Vereint got there, the kid had already been sent home with an ice pack and Melissa had nearly been suspended for physical assault. He’d had a long talk with her about how physically attacking someone was not the correct response, especially when she was at school, and she seemed to really understand. Especially when he pointed out that his being called into school was not a good thing.
Vereint was proud of his level of control. Nobody died and he got Melissa’s suspension revoked. But that teacher had been added to his List.
Other than a few minor issues, Melissa settled into school with the kind of easy grace other kids envied. It seemed natural that she would become popular and join after school activities such as Cheer Squad, gymnastics, and drama club. She was so full of energy that she was constantly looking for something to do with it.
Life was good.
There was something soothing about doing household tasks the old fashioned way, the human way. When he could speed through every task as a blur, it seemed almost a game to slow himself down and fold the laundry at human speeds. It was like a childish game of make believe.
It was a normal Wednesday. He had the radio on and his hips wiggled to the beat, not-quite dancing. Warrick was at Tobias Industries schmoozing the board, and Melissa was at cheerleading practice. He had the whole place to himself and he’d taken advantage by breaking out his secret stash of Girl Scout cookies. Both Warrick and Melissa thought they were all out, but he’d saved an extra box for himself. He did used to be a supervillain after all.
He tossed a rolled up pair of socks into the basket and had just bitten into a cookie when the front door slammed open. There was the loud clatter of Mary Jane’s on the hardwood floor.
“Vereint? Vereint!”
He quickly stuck the cookie back into the plastic tray and slid the box under the folded towels.
“I’m in here,” he called. He glanced at his watch with a frown. She shouldn’t have been home for another hour at least. Something must have happened.
Melissa burst into the laundry room, her shoulder length black hair tangled at the bottoms. She looked like she’d hastily changed into her school uniform, one of her knee socks crushed down around her ankle and her little black tie gone. Her short sleeved white blouse was wrinkled where her hands had been wringing the fabric.
Vereint stepped away from the counter. “Are you all right? What happened?”
She shook her head, her eyes wild. “I… I…”
Vereint reached out and caught her shoulders. He stared down into her face. “Breathe. Come on, just breathe. I’m here.”
There was a nervous twisting in his gut. She was a pretty girl just turned fourteen. If someone had taken advantage of her or hurt her he would…
“I’m a freak!” she burst out.
“What?” he asked, his vengeful thoughts derailed.
Melissa blinked at him fearfully. “You won’t hate me, will you? I don’t know what I’d do if you hated me.”
“I don’t hate you,” Vereint stated. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on.”
“I’m a freak,” she said again. “We were supposed to be practicing lifts and I… I don’t know what happened. She just felt so light all of a sudden, then Tiana was flying through the air and she could have been really hurt if we hadn’t been using the mats. I could have killed her because I’m a giant freak.”
Vereint furrowed his brow. “But she’s okay, you said?”
Melissa huffed and pulled out of his hold. Her whole body was tensed as though ready to run. “Don’t you get it? I’m a metahuman.”
“Oh, is that all?” Vereint shook his head. “You got me all worried it was something serious.”
She stared at him, her mouth agape. He was tempted to laugh, but he was still surprised that his supposedly normal human kid wasn’t so normal.
She was like them.
It made something fierce burn in his gut. She was like them.
Calming Melissa down involved ordering her to change into more comfortable clothing while he made herbal tea and cut them each a big square of brownie.
She came out in a pair of black sweatpants and a bright pink hoodie. She must have been stressed because she had the cat-eared hood up over her head.
“Come on,” he said, pointing to her spot at the dining table. It was where their most serious family moments took place.
She sat down and he pushed the plate toward her. “I can’t eat this,” she said, staring longingly at the brownie. “It will make me fat. I won’t be able to fit into my cheer uniform.”
Vereint laughed and took a big bite of his own brownie, trying to catch all the crumbs on his plate. “Don’t worry. If you’re a physical based metahuman you burn calories faster than a normal human. You’ll actually need to eat more to stay healthy.”
“Really?” She broke off a corner of her brownie and nibbled on it. “You’re not upset that I’m a freak?”
“Pshaw, you’re not a freak. You’re just a metahuman. It doesn’t even get you special parking or your own Olympics.”
Melissa spluttered. “Vereint!”
He grinned at her. “See, you’re the same easily outraged kid you were before. All that’s changed is that you might have some superstrength.”
“Might?” she asked.
Vereint shrugged. “I won’t rule out the possibility that you had one too many Luna Bars and all the energy made you misjudge yourself. We’ll have to run some tests before we get you your superhuman tee shirt.”
“How are you going to test me?” she asked.
“We’re going to order some takeout food and wait for Warrick to come home.” There was no way he could do the testing himself, not if he wanted to keep his own abilities hidden.
“And how is that going to help any?” Melissa asked.
Vereint looked at her for a long moment, then reached out and poked her bottom lip. “Suck that lip back in and learn to have some patience.”
She gave him a doubtful look and opened her mouth like she was going to demand another answer. He used his fork to pop a chunk of brownie in before she could say anything.
“No more questions. Just enjoy the deliciousness and drink your tea.”
* * *
There’d been a mind-numbing meeting of the board and Warrick had spent nearly the entire time wishing he were very far away. He’d doodled some rather artistic renditions of the people in the room with him and was glad his position at the head of the table kept anyone from seeing what he’d drawn. It had been a relief when the meeting ended and he was able to go to his large executive office alone.
He hit up the liquor cabinet and poured himself three fingers of ridiculously expensive brandy. His people always bought him the best brands, but whenever Vereint stocked their private supply he always picked up the cheap rotgut. Warrick had kind of developed a fondness for it over the years, but good brandy was something he preferred.
Warrick walked over to the large window and leaned his shoulder directly against the glass. He sipped his brandy slowly, enjoying the warm mellow burn in his stomach as he stared over the city sprawled out below.
Megacity really was a beautiful town. It was so bright and clean from this high up, all skyline and patches of green. He had one of the best views in the whole city and sometimes he felt sorry for all the people that never got to see the city like this.
The door to his office clicked open.
“I thought I asked to be left alone,” he said, not turning around.
“Your husband is on the line,” his personal assistant, Amy Jennings, said. She was a statuesque blond with big gray-green eyes and a penchant for tight sweaters. She looked like she could be an underwear model, but had a serious no-nonsense approach to work that he respected. She just liked to look amazing.
“Ah, thank you.” Warrick turned away from the window and walked over to his desk. He took a last sip from his glass before answering the phone. “Hello?”
Amy slipped out, the door shutting quietly behind her.
“Warrick, I need you to come home early,” Vereint said. He sounded normal, not as though the penthouse had burned down or anything, but that didn’t mean much. Vereint had a strange propensity for treating even the most panic worthy situations as completely everyday.
“What’s wrong?” Warrick drained the rest of his glass. He figured he’d toss back one more before making his way home.
There was a sigh on the other end of the line. “Well, it seems that Melissa is a very special girl. More special than we ever thought she was anyway.” There was a disgruntled “Hey!” in the background. “Oh, chill out, why don’t you? I’m obviously speaking in code. Anyway, Warrick, can you duck out early? We’re going to order food from that one place you like.”
“Jenny Lee’s?” Warrick asked hopefully. They made the most amazing pies he had ever tasted, both hearty dinner and fruit pies. Vereint didn’t really like the restaurant for some reason he wouldn’t explain, so the only way Warrick got to eat their delicious apple crumble was to go alone or with Caspian.
There was a moment of silence. “That other place you like. Or maybe that one place that I like. Whatever. There will be food waiting when you get home and we can handle this situation like a family is supposed to.”
“What, throwing the kid out the window to see if she can fly?” Warrick grinned. “The building’s tall enough we could probably catch her before she hit the bottom.”
“Yeah, no,” Vereint said. “We’ll save that option for a kid we don’t want to keep. Anyway, she’s got an issue and we’ve got delicious food coming. If you leave nowish you’ll probably be here at the same time as the food and we’ll wait to eat.”
“Otherwise you guys will eat everything by yourselves, huh?” Warrick shut down his computer and locked his desk drawers. If anyone needed to see the files inside they could requisition a look at the company library’s copies. “Darling, leave a light on for me. I’ll be there before you close the door to give you all the loving you need,” he deadpanned.
“Ugh, you’re sick,” Vereint sounded amused. “See you.” He hung up.
Warrick put on his coat and grabbed his briefcase, then stopped off at the liquor cabinet to drink another glass of brandy at wasteful speeds. Such an excellent label shouldn’t have been abused like that, but his metabolism burned alcohol fast. He needed more to get less of a result than a normal human.
He left his office and found Amy waiting for him, her butt propped on her desk. “Leaving early, boss?” she asked.
“Were you listening in on our conversation?” he asked.
“Please,” Amy said. “The day I have to listen in on your phone conversation with Mr. Georges to find out that you’re going to leave work early is the day I marry that guy my mom keeps pushing at me. You always duck out early when he calls. It’s sweet.”
“I’m sure it is,” Warrick said.
He and Vereint had somehow become the local “it” couple. He’d caught a group of secretaries huddled around a magazine spread featuring him and Vereint and he’d quickly retreated before they spotted him. There were even websites dedicated to them that he refused to visit for fear of being mentally scarred forever.
“I’ll have the notes from the meeting sent to your ePad as soon as they’re ready, and I’ll clear the rest of your day. I’ve already told your driver to wait for you out front.” Amy smoothed her black pencil skirt when she stood. Her high heels were bright red like the cashmere sweater she was wearing. “Tell Mr. Georges that I expect those chocolates he promised to be delivered promptly.”
“Why is he bribing you?” Warrick gave her a suspicious look.
She shrugged with a catlike smile. “That’s our little secret. You better get home before he calls again.”
Warrick sighed. “I feel like my life is being controlled by other people,” he said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight Mr. Tobias.” There was way too much amusement in her voice. He refused to glance back at her, afraid of what he was going to see.
He came home to an apartment that smelled like something spicy and mouthwatering. It had him throwing his coat in the hall closet and hurrying through the living room to the dining area. There were unopened boxes of takeout food arrayed in the middle of the table.
Vereint and Melissa were sitting across from each other sharing what looked like half a salmon covered in soy sauce, red pepper, and green onions. They had the fish on one plate and were poking at it with their forks.
“I thought you guys were going to wait for me?” Warrick asked accusingly. He crossed his arms and shook his head, then went to his chair. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was.
Melissa’s cheeks were chipmunked out and she looked guilty, but Vereint managed to swallow and smile at him. “We are waiting. See all this food we’re not eating? We…”
“We thought you wouldn’t like the fish!” Melissa said loudly. “You always eat the blandest stuff and this salmon is pretty spicy, so we thought we’d eat it before you got home.”
“You know, Melissa, it’s not that I like eating bland food,” Warrick said. He started opening boxes and used the big spoon to dump different stuff on his plate. “It’s that Vereint is a tyrant that won’t let me eat anything that I really like.”
“Give me that. You’re making a mess.” Vereint took the spoon and his plate away. “You’re the one always complaining about your weight.”
Warrick sat back in his chair and smiled slightly as he watched Vereint quickly fill three plates with food. There was something oddly elegant about the way Vereint held the spoon. The turn of his wrist made Warrick want to bite his lip and he didn’t even know why. Sometimes it startled him to remember that they’d been together a little over ten years; it didn’t seem nearly that long.
“So, why exactly did I come home early today?” he asked, once they all had food and had a chance to try a few bites.
“Because I have superstrength!” Melissa was excited, her cheeks flushed pink. “I’m like a superhero or something.”
Vereint snorted. “You’re ‘like a metahuman,’ kid. You don’t get to have superhero status until you’re registered and saving the world.” He slanted Warrick a look and they shared a smile.
There had been a time when Vereint had been new to the superhero life too, and he’d screwed nearly everything up. Warrick felt guilty about not helping Vereint back then, because he really had been a giant dick. He must have been battling the world’s biggest schoolboy crush at the time and he hadn’t been able to resist tugging Vereint’s pigtails. Not that he’d known that was what he was doing.
“The first thing we’ll have to do is run some assessment tests on you to find out what exactly you have going on,” Warrick said. “Superstrength’s a pretty basic metability. It’s one of the ones people are most likely to have and doesn’t earn you super status unless it’s remarkable in some way.”
“How do you know so much?” Melissa asked. She held her fork in her hand, but it was just hanging in mid-air over her plate as she gazed at him out of wide eyes.
Warrick glanced at Vereint to see what he wanted to do, and received a level look back. Vereint was leaving it up to him if he wanted to unmask himself or not, though he’d already figured out that Vereint was keeping his normal status. He could understand.
It was hard for Vereint to live a normal life. He had so much power in him that it was a struggle not to use it. If he told Melissa that he was a metahuman, she was going to ask him to show his ability, and if he did that there was a good chance he wouldn’t be able to stop. Melissa was a smart kid and it would only be a matter of time before she put things together and realized that Vereint was Darkstar. There was a chance she wouldn’t take it well.
If someone was going to be coming out to Melissa as a metahuman, it wasn’t going to be Vereint. Not now and maybe not ever.
“Watch,” Warrick said. He picked up the thick glass salt shaker and unscrewed the lid, pouring the salt out onto his napkin. Then he held the shaker in his hand and gave it a steady squeeze. It crushed inward, sprinkles of glittery glass particles coating his hand.
“How…” Melissa’s mouth made wordless shapes for a moment after that first word. Her eyes looked huge and she’d leaned over the table to see better. “How did you do that?”
Warrick smirked. “Superstrength. You’re a special kid, but you’re not that special.”
“Wow,” Melissa breathed. Her eyes were nearly glowing with fascination. “Can I do that?”
“Not yet,” Warrick said. “We need to assess you first or you could end up hurting yourself.”
“And we wouldn’t want that to happen,” Vereint said. “Which is why there’s no superpowers in the house. It’s like that Brady Bunch episode where Marcia gets her nose broken.”
“And in that scenario Vereint is Marcia and we go out of our way not to hurt him,” Warrick said, giving Vereint a smirk.
“Which one is Marcia?” Melissa asked.
Vereint tsked and shook his head. “Just for that, we’re having an ancient TV marathon and your whole life will be changed against your will.”
Melissa flopped back in her chair. “How do you make even the day I discover I have superpowers so terrible?”
Vereint grinned at her. “That’s my superpower.”
* * *
It was probably a sign of bad parenting, but Vereint called Melissa in sick so she and Warrick could use her unexpected three day weekend to check out her power levels as a metahuman. He thought about joining them, but figured it was a chance for them to bond. There were some times when he felt as if Melissa was so much more attached to him that Warrick was left out.
The superpower thing could be Warrick’s “in” with Melissa, and Vereint didn’t want to get in the way of that. So he stayed home and baked reward cupcakes in between assembling a pan of lasagna.
By the time the lasagna was cooling in the oven with the door partly cracked, and he’d finished decorating the chocolate cupcakes with red frosting and the sprinkles Melissa loved, he was feeling a thrum along his nerves. He wanted to be out there doing something. A big part of him wished that he could be the one to train Melissa, to show her all the tricks he’d learned as a supervillain, but that way lay trouble.
Melissa was going to be one of the good guys. He wouldn’t get in the way of that.
The front door slammed open hard enough to leave a dent in the wall. “Oops, sorry!” Melissa dashed inside, running toward him, a big grin taking over her face. “Oh my God, Vereint, it was amazing!”
She ran at him and he dropped the bowl he held onto the counter so he could catch her. “Did you have fun?” he asked.
“Fun? Fun!” She squeezed him tight enough that if he had been a normal human he would have been looking at ruptured organs. “You would not believe how awesome it was. I did all kinds of things and I was fantastic and it was just… It was amazing!”
Vereint glanced at Warrick over her head. “Was she really that amazing?”
Warrick wore a faint smile. “She was a little amazing. Not just superstrength, but she seems to have the ability to kind of visualize what someone’s going to do before they do it. We’ll have to test the limits, but should be good enough for her to dodge some punches.”
“Dude.” Melissa pulled away from Vereint so she could flap her hands excitedly. “They were only practice blades, but I could hit the target every time with a knife. It was… It was like my hand and my arm were possessed by magic or something.”
“Yeah, she’s got great speed and accuracy with throwing projectiles,” Warrick said.
“I could totally be an awesome ninja assassin!” Melissa yelled. Her grin was manic.
Vereint sighed and shook his head at her. “Yeah, that ain’t happening. No assassining for you.”
“I can do whatever I want when I’m grown up.” Melissa crossed her arms and stuck out her chin. “When I hit eighteen, you can’t tell me what to do anymore.”
Vereint snorted. “There will never be a time in your life when I won’t be telling you what to do,” he said. “Believe it.”
“Never quote Naruto to me ever again.” Melissa made a dramatic gagging sound before her eye was caught by the cupcakes on the counter.
“Never make me have to then. You are never going to be an assassin.” He stopped her from poking her finger in the icing of one of the cupcakes. “I have spoken.”
She knocked his hand away with her free hand before poking a cupcake. She stuck her tongue out at him before sticking her finger in her mouth. “Fascist,” she accused.
“Fabulous,” Vereint corrected her, “that’s the word you’re looking for. I’m fabulous and I’m going to keep you from being a body in a bag somewhere. You’re just not meant for supervillainy, m’dear. Being a superhero is just your cross to bear.”
“What do you know?” she demanded. “Have you ever met a supervillain before in your life? I don’t think so.”
Vereint looked at Warrick and pointed at Melissa speakingly. He didn’t even have the words to say what he was feeling.
“I got this,” Warrick sighed.
“You better,” Vereint said. He handed Melissa her cupcake, then held one out to Warrick. “I’m not raising a supervillain in this house.”
“What’s your problem with supervillains?” Melissa asked, biting into the top of her cupcake. She got frosting on her nose. “They’re people too, you know. People with feelings.”
“Look,” Vereint said, “when I was younger I ran with a rather tough group of people. I let myself be talked into doing some really stupid things that now I’m ashamed of. It was just luck that I didn’t end up in prison.” He wiped the frosting off her nose with the side of his thumb. “I don’t want to see you in prison.”
“Would you visit me if I got sent to prison?” she asked.
“Yes,” Vereint said, “though I’d probably also tell people you were away at a special school.”
Melissa clutched her chest with her free hand. “That really wounds my hypothetical supervillain heart.”
“When did you become this kid? I remember a time when you were nothing but sweet.”
“I think it started when she became a teenager,” Warrick said. He had peeled half the paper back from his cupcake and taken a careful bite. Just seeing him made Vereint want to smile; Warrick was so fussy about some things. “The whole superpower thing hasn’t added to her charm any.”
Melissa scowled. “I’m not sure if I’m offended or not, but I think that I might be.” She took a big bite of her cupcake. “I think I deserve a car to make up for all of my emotional pain.”
“Considering you’re only fourteen, the chances of you getting a car now are…” Vereint made like he was checking an invisible origami fortune teller, “slim to none.”
She gave him such a disgruntled look that he couldn’t help laughing.
“Why don’t you take your ninja assassin self in and wash your hands?” he said. “I probably should have made you do it before giving you anything to eat. You’ve probably just ingested a million germs off your filthy hands.”
“Maybe it’s my superpower. Maybe I’m impervious to germs, did you ever think of that?” She stuck her chin out and glared defiantly. If he’d been a normal human, he might even have been a little scared of her taking the swing he saw moving behind her eyes.
He gave her a flat look. “Or maybe you can wash your hands if you expect to get any dinner tonight,” Vereint said.
Melissa huffed and rolled her eyes before stomping off toward the bathroom. Her hair flipped up behind her sassily. Her mood had done a complete turn around.
He looked at Warrick. “What the fuck was that?”
Warrick shrugged, his eyebrows raised high enough to touch his hairline. “I don’t know. Puberty?”
Vereint groaned. “Not just superpowers, but teenaged angst at the same time?” He threw up his arms. “That’s it, I quit. You handle the next four years while I tour the world.”
“What, with your band?” Warrick laughed at Vereint’s expression and stepped close to give Vereint a kiss on the forehead. “I’m sorry, but you kind of asked for that one.” He looked up at Vereint and smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. He leaned tipped his chin to kiss Vereint, his lips tasting of sweet frosting.
Vereint wrapped his arms around Warrick’s back and pulled him even closer, deepening the kiss. He pulled away enough to say, “You’re brilliant. We will use sex to desensitize ourselves to the upcoming horror.”
“I think you’re making too much of it. Your drama genes are showing.” Warrick grunted when Vereint gave his ass a hard squeeze and went up on his toes with a wince. “By which I mean this is a situation of serious importance. Code Black all the way.”
Vereint nipped Warrick’s chin with his teeth. “It’s the sinking of the Titanic in our living room, and we have no lifeboats to escape.”
There was the sound of stomping footsteps and they pulled apart just before Melissa came into view. Vereint leaned his hip against the counter while Warrick grabbed another cupcake off the plate.
“There, I washed my hands. Are you going to let me eat at the table, or are you going to pour my food into a bowl for me to eat outside?” Melissa crossed her arms and glared at them both.
Vereint looked at Warrick. “No lifeboats.” He went to take the salad out of the fridge.
Warrick shoved practically the whole cupcake in his mouth and didn’t reply. Vereint couldn’t help thinking, Wise man.
* * *
Even realizing she was being a jerk, Melissa couldn’t seem to help herself. Words would pop out of her mouth and they would sound so horrible she would cringe to find out she’d been the one to say them.
The hurt look Vereint would give her after she said something awful only made her feel worse. Then he would be super nice, and she just felt crummy.
It wasn’t his fault he didn’t have superpowers, so why did she feel so angry at him for not appreciating hers? It just seemed sometimes that she expected more gushing when she told him about something she could do.
Instead he would tell her he was proud or just say that it was wonderful, then he’d make her clean her room or something.
It seemed that someone with her abilities shouldn’t have to wash the dishes or rinse out the bathroom sink after brushing her teeth.
She was going to be a superhero someday, she’d already decided that, so why did she have to play at being normal all the time?
It wasn’t fair.
* * *
There was all this tension in the house. It made Warrick cringe when he came through the door, at least until he found out the mood of the day.
The worst part was that Vereint didn’t slap Melissa’s attitude down. He never flat out told her that she was being an awful brat. He just accepted it as she acted like a jerk and rewarded her every accomplishment the same as always.
It came to a head one day when Vereint told Melissa she needed to do her homework before Warrick would train her.
Warrick nodded and picked a magazine up off the coffee table. He didn’t mind waiting.
Melissa blew up.
Her face turned red and she stamped her foot on the floor hard enough to crack the tile in the entryway. “Why do you have to be like that?” she yelled. “This is the one thing I want to do, and you have to ruin it because you’re jealous.”
Vereint’s expression went blank and he just looked at her, his eyes going flat. “Jealous? You think I’m jealous and that’s why I want you to do your homework before you have fun? Is that what you really think?”
“You’re always telling me what to do,” she said, and something like fear crossed her face as she stared at Vereint. She knew she’d gone too far, but didn’t know how to stop. “You boss me around all the time because you know you’re nothing but a normal.”
Something shifted in Vereint’s expression, and Warrick was across the room holding Vereint’s shoulders before he’d consciously decided to move. He knew he couldn’t really hold Vereint back, but he had to at least try.
“Go to your room!” Warrick barked, and Melissa fled, her bedroom door slamming after her. The sound of her flinging things around didn’t show that she’d learned any kind of lesson though.
Warrick could feel Vereint vibrating under his hands, just barely holding onto his control. And Warrick realized that Vereint had been struggling to maintain for months.
“Was I supposed to yell at her the first time she mouthed off to you?” Warrick turned Vereint so he could see his face. “Was I supposed to be authority guy and did I drop the ball on that?”
Vereint didn’t say anything. He squeezed his eyes tight shut, though violet light shone through his eyelids, proof of just how close he was to losing it.
Warrick wondered if Melissa would still be muttering curses in her room if she knew how close she was to facing her first supervillain. He hoped she’d be smarter than that.
“I’ll talk to her,” he said. “Why don’t you go take a walk until you calm down? You can get one of those chocolaty coffee drinks you like from Java Johns.”
Vereint drew in a deep breath and opened literally burning eyes, the violet light so bright it cast shadows across his cheeks. “You handle her,” he said. So I don’t have to.
Warrick nodded. “I will,” and watched Vereint go to the closet and take out his jacket. He didn’t really need it, but he was always careful to maintain the illusion of being a normal human. And it was getting pretty nippy out.
The door slammed behind Vereint, and Warrick was just glad there had been no strength behind it or he’d be looking at replacing the frame and probably a chunk of the wall. He made a note to get the cracked floor tiles fixed.
He drew in a deep breath and went to talk to Melissa. There were a few things she was just going to have to understand.
* * *
She took her shoes off and flung them across the room, not caring that they thudded hard against the wall and left a black mark. She ripped her socks off one at a time, flinging them after her shoes. Her heart was thudding fast in her chest and her muscles trembled with nervous energy.
The look Vereint had given her… It had made a cold chill go through Melissa and she didn’t know why. He was the nicest person she knew. He’d never even yelled at her before. Yet he’d made her feel afraid, as though the walls were closing in.
Warrick had sent her to her room and she still felt as though acid had been poured over her. She knew she’d been acting like a spoiled brat and the guilt over it made her feel worse. She wanted to punch holes in the walls and scream. Her whole body was vibrating with energy she didn’t know how to rein in much less control.
She’d said such awful things to Vereint and she didn’t know why. She didn’t think that she was better than him just because she had metabilities and he was a normal human, but the words had just popped out. He hadn’t even looked mad. He’d just looked at her, and his blue eyes had gone flat and it was like he wasn’t even seeing her anymore. She didn’t want him to look at her like that.
She felt so mad all the time and she didn’t even know why. There was just some part of her that kept taking over and making her want to hurt the people around her as bad as she hurt inside.
There was the brush of knuckles against her bedroom door before Warrick came inside.
She’d never realized before just how forbidding he could appear, his face all tense lines and his eyes so hard that it almost hurt to meet them, so she didn’t, staring down at her bare feet instead. The dark green nail polish was chipped on her big toe.
He just looked at her until she shifted uncomfortably. Finally he said, “You know you’ve been treating Vereint very disrespectfully, don’t you?”
Melissa nodded. She had been.
“It’s made him very sad, though he hasn’t said anything about it.” Warrick put his hands behind his back. “What do you think we should do about it?”
She shrugged and chewed on her bottom lip.
He shook his head with a sigh. “Vereint has always been your biggest fan, I hope you know that. More than anything, he wants to see you succeed in whatever you decide to do… even being a superhero. You know he’s not jealous of you, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Calling him a normal… that makes me worried. The way you said it has me wondering whether you’re ready for training and where training will lead you. Because real superheroes, they don’t call people normals or Nominals as though being a metahuman somehow makes them better.” Warrick stared down at her. “That kind of hate speak is not allowed in our house, do you understand?”
“I…” Melissa’s breath came in a hitching gasp and she nodded her head. Her eyes were tickling and burning and she was fighting to keep the tears in. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me,” Warrick said. “I’m not the one that you were so incredibly rude to for no reason. He has always supported you, and just because he doesn’t pander the way you somehow think you deserve, that is no reason for you to treat him like crap. You are not better than anyone in this house whether they have metabilities or not.”
“I’ll apologize to Vereint tomorrow.” She rubbed her streaming eyes. “I really didn’t mean to say such awful things. I don’t know why I…”
Warrick held up his hand, stopping her. His expression was still sternly forbidding. “That’s something you’re going to start working out with your therapist at your next session. All I know is that you’ve been taking Vereint for granted, and that needs to change. I want to hear the words ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ come out of your mouth and I don’t want you to ever act as though being able to beat someone up makes you better than anyone. It just means you have to be extra careful you don’t end up as a bully.”
Melissa sat on the edge of her bed. “I don’t want to be a bully,” she said.
“Then don’t be one,” Warrick said. “It’s really easy to lose your head and hurt someone when you’ve got superstrength. You cracked the floor tiles in the entryway when you stamped your foot. What do you think could happen if you got mad and hit someone? I don’t want to come home one day and find out that you got angry and hit Vereint. Do you understand?”
She nodded. The image of Vereint slumped on the floor with a fist-sized hole in his chest popped in her head. The shape of the fist was hers. A sob escaped her throat. “I don’t want to hurt him.”
Warrick nodded. “Good. You keep that thought right at the front of your mind. We’ll focus on your control and we’ll see how that works out.”
“Okay,” she said.
“We’re going to move on with your training,” Warrick said. “And you’re going to see what it’s really like to be a superhero. It’s not all fun and games.”
“I know,” she said quietly.
He gave her one last warning look, then left the room.
Melissa scooted back on her bed until she was leaning against the headboard and brought her knees against her chest. She stared at the far wall and chewed on her lip. Silent tears streamed down her face and occasionally she swiped at her eyes with her sleeve.
/CHAPTER
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Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
September 6, 2013
Allies & Enemies, by Harper Kingsley. Chapter 3 [superhero mm]
Truly, Vereint is desperate to fit into normal life. I think that’s what I like about him. Sure, he messes up, but he tries hard. He just can’t help it that sometimes he forgets how breakable other people are.
Title: Allies & Enemies – Chapter Three
Author: Harper Kingsley
World: Heroes & Villains
Genre: mm superhero novel
Rating: mature
A/N: Sequel to Heroes & Villains.
Summary: Chapter One & Two HERE (opens in another window.) Chapter Three has Vereint panicking over his parents wanting to meet Melissa. Yet Warrick can’t be found.
CHAPTER THREE
Life with Melissa wasn’t all roses and happiness. She was a grieving girl, and once the shocked placidness wore off, she was a bit of a spitfire. There were definite traces of a brat in there.
There were a couple of times where Vereint had to remind himself that he wasn’t a supervillain anymore. There were a couple of times where Warrick had to remind him rather forcibly as well, though those little scuffles usually ended in fabulous makeup sex, so he didn’t mind that as much. Still, having a kid around was a whole different world for them. It added depth to their relationship or something.
Vereint’s mom, Sandra, barely gave him any warning before she was in a car with Patrick and Hank, promising a long visit. She was desperate to see her new granddaughter and she wasn’t going to let anything get in her way, Vereint included. Not that he would ever try to block her from anything–he wasn’t that stupid.
His mother was a force of nature wrapped up in a human skin.
Instead, he made sure the apartment was immaculate. He liked hearing Melissa’s soft giggles as he raced around at human speed washing dishes, folding laundry, vacuuming, and preparing a feast for their guests.
“You could help me, you know,” he said, giving her a sideways glance. She was curled up on the couch, her little feet wearing brightly colored striped socks.
She shrugged. “I could. But you seem to be having a lot of fun.”
He switched off the vacuum cleaner and put his hands on his hips. “That’s it, little lady. Get your hiney off the couch and go make sure your room is clean. My mom’s going to want to see it first thing to make sure you’re not living in squalor.”
There was a visible shifting behind her eyes, as though she was contemplating telling him to go shove it. Finally, she threw her feet off the couch and stood up, padding quietly toward her room.
“I’ll be in with fresh sheets in about ten minutes,” he called after her. “I don’t want to see a single toy on the floor.”
“Gotcha!” she called back.
Vereint stood there for a long moment. His life really had become something very different and strange, yet it was a good kind of strange. Warm and quietly happy.
He shook his head and switched the vacuum cleaner on, going back to making sure all the lines in the carpet bent the same way. He paused midway through to light the scented candles on the coffee table and on both end tables, sniffing contentedly as he worked.
He glanced at the decorative sun-faced clock on the wall and had to wonder where Warrick was and when he was going to be home. Warrick had promised that he would be here when the Georges appeared.
* * *
“Son of a motherfucking BITCH!” Warrick braced his feet and tried to wrench himself free, but it felt more as though his hand was going to be ripped off first. The hot water steadily rising up past his shoulders made him blink his eyes furiously at all the steam and kept him from being able to freeze the manacle. There was a good chance he was going to drown, and that seriously pissed him off.
It was just supposed to be a routine patrol. He would fly around, take a quick look at what was happening in the city, and he’d be back in time to help Vereint panic and rip their already immaculate apartment to pieces. Then he’d spotted a strange glinting light from the air and he hadn’t spared a second thought about dropping down to check things out.
He was regretting not calling it in. That was the kind of mistake that got newbies killed.
Warrick still wasn’t completely sure what had happened. He’d approached the building, then there was a fiercely bright light strobing in his eyes and everything shut down. He thought he might have had a seizure or something from the way his arm and leg muscles felt and how his jaw ached from clenching.
He’d woken up in some kind of cylindrical concrete tube structure that had to be at least two stories tall, his right hand manacled to the wall. He’d received a jolt of electric current that left him pissing himself when he’d tried to freeze and break the metal. It had seared through his whole body and he’d bitten his tongue as he jerked around uncontrollably.
He’d been in too many battles to care too much about the loss of bladder control. That kind of thing happened, and he’d developed a thick skin about embarrassment versus survival. Survival always won.
He was still wearing his uniform, so that was a plus, but his utility belt and any hidden weaponry was gone. It gave him a sick feeling that maybe he was facing someone that knew him and how he operated. Someone that wouldn’t hesitate to kill him.
He’d been trying to physically rip himself free when the boiling hot water had started gushing in from spouts that slid open in the walls. His metability allowed him to cool the area around his body, though he didn’t dare stretch his powers out too far, not after that second, even worse jolt of electricity. It made him think that someone was watching his torment, probably getting their rocks off.
The water rose up past his chin and he tilted his face back, staring up at the round light glaring down at him from the ceiling. He could die here and Vereint would never know what had happened to him.
The thought of Vereint crying and grieving and ripping the world apart to find his body made Warrick have to blink back furious tears of his own. He’d never been afraid of dying, but he did fear leaving Vereint alone.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “What do you want from me?”
There was no answer. The water just rose higher, brushing against his lower lip teasingly.
“Fuck.”
* * *
After making Melissa’s bed and ordering her to get all those toys she’d jammed in her closet out and put away, Vereint gave into his worry and called Caspian on the phone.
It sounded like Caspian said “Yellow?” when he answered. He sounded exhausted and Vereint had the suspicion that he’d dragged the guy out of bed.
“This is Vereint,” he said. “Do you know where Warrick is? I don’t want to come across as some kind of worried housewife or something, but he said he was going to be home an hour ago and my parents are supposed to be showing up soon.”
“I haven’t heard from him.” There was a rustle of cloth as Caspian sat up. “He’s pretty tight assed about keeping to his schedule. He hasn’t called you or anything?”
Vereint rolled his eyes. “Do you think I’d be calling you if I knew he was supposed to be late? He went out for a quick patrol and said he was going to be home to help me.” He felt a nervous roll go through his stomach, but forced himself to stay in control. He wasn’t going to let himself panic over every little thing. “Do you think you can check to see if he left a location in the database or anything?”
“I’ll check it out,” Caspian said, then hung up.
Vereint stood there for a long moment, staring at the phone in his hand. Warrick had said there was nothing happening, that he was just going to take a quick look around. If something unexpected had happened…
He shook his head. Warrick was fine. He was going to come walking through the front door and maybe it would turn out that he’d stopped off at the grocery store or something and he hadn’t bothered to charge his phone. Never mind that Warrick was nearly anal about making sure that everything he carried was ready for immediate use, his phone included.
Warrick was fine. He was going to come home.
There was an unpleasant crunching sound and a whiff of ozone. Vereint blinked in surprise, realizing that he had crushed the phone in his fist.
The doorbell rang and he hurriedly dumped the twisted bits of plastic and circuitry into the trashcan before going to answer. There was a thud and mad scramble from Melissa’s room that made his lip twitch in amusement.
He opened the front door. “Mom! Dad! Hank!” He opened his arms wide and Sandra Georges rushed forward to fill them, Patrick hanging around at her shoulders to wait impatiently for his turn.
Vereint was hugged and kissed and shunted aside just as quickly. “Now, where is she? Where is my grandbaby?” Sandra asked.
“I see how it is.” Vereint sighed woefully. “Shoved aside by a younger child for you to dote on. The love is gone. My mama done did me wrong…”
She jabbed him in the ribs, causing him to make a high-pitched yelping sound. “Don’t go playing that card, son, you really won’t like how things play out. Now show me the girl and no one gets hurt.”
“Geez, she sounds like it’s a hostage situation or something,” Hank said to Patrick, who snorted a laugh. Both quieted at the fierce glare Sandra shot their direction.
“She’s in her room cleaning the place up so she can show it off to you,” Vereint said, gesturing down the hallway. “We’ve made the guest room hers.”
Sandra clamped an iron hand around his wrist and dragged him with her. “Come introduce me.”
“Yes, Mama.” It was the only reply he could give.
He glanced back and saw Hank and Patrick grinning at him, Hank even going so far as to flutter his lashes and stick out his tongue. Vereint realized that he had mommy issues, but there was no reason to call him on it.
“And where is Warrick?” Sandra asked, looking around the living room as they passed through. “Didn’t you say he was going to be here today?”
Vereint sighed. “I don’t know. He got called into work, but I haven’t been able to reach him on the phone.”
“Well, no reason to worry about it,” Sandra said. “What’s the worst that can happen, paper cuts?”
“Yeah. What’s the worst that can happen,” Vereint said, trying not to think about what could be happening to Warrick. There was nothing he could do about it and he trusted that Caspian would do his best to find Warrick and make sure he was all right.
Vereint rapped his knuckles against Melissa’s closed bedroom door. There was the sound of frantic scuffling inside. “Melissa?”
“Just a second!” Something thumped against the floor and he thought he recognized the sound of Lego pieces being poured back into the tub. After another minute of waiting, the door opened and there was Melissa with a nervous look on her face. “Hello.”
“Oh honey, it’s nice to meet you,” Sandra said, kneeling down to bring their heights equal. “You can call me Grandma, and this is Grandpa and Uncle Hank.”
Vereint had worried that Melissa would freak out at seeing so many people hanging over her, but she was a tough kid. Throwing herself through the air without the hope of a net below had taught her to be fearless.
“I’m Melissa. This is my room.” She stepped back to let them in. “Vereint and Warrick bought me a lot of toys and a smaller dresser because the one that was in here was too tall for me.”
“I see that.” Sandra let herself be led around and shown all of the changes they’d made to accommodate Melissa. The look she gave Vereint had him nearly hearing her make an “Aw!” sound. He could already tell that she was enamored with her new granddaughter. It relieved some tension he hadn’t even realized he’d had.
He covertly glanced at his watch and frowned. Where the hell was Warrick?
“Come on into the living room,” Sandra told Melissa. “We brought you some presents.”
“Presents? For me?” Melissa sounded surprised.
“Of course,” Sandra said. “The minute I heard about you, I went out and got you some things I hope you’ll enjoy.”
* * *
When the water rose over his nose, Warrick had a pretty good idea that he was going to die if he didn’t get out fast. He had a lot going for him, but breathing underwater wasn’t one of them.
Silently cursing the assholes that had put him in this position, he brought both feet up next to where the manacle attached to the wall and held his right hand in place with his left.
He wrenched hard, air bursting out of his lungs in a pained gurgle as he broke his wrist with a pop. Then he jerked as hard as he could, working his wrist back and forth, trying to ignore the grinding pain as he tried to get his hand through the manacle.
Of course not, he thought bitterly.
He clenched his teeth together as he grabbed his thumb with his left hand and jerked sideways. He hoped it was only dislocated, otherwise he would be looking at surgery, but he really didn’t care at this point. His lungs burned and his heart was pounding fast and hard in his ears. His body was sending him desperate messages that he was about to lose consciousness, and if that happened he was going to be dead.
Ripping his hand out of the manacle, he kicked his feet hard to break the surface of the water. He gasped in some air and tucked his hand under his armpit to keep from jostling his wrist and hand, which were already aching fiercely.
He’d had to dislocate that same thumb several times in the past and he’d been told that there was a good chance he was going to end up damaging the joint due to lack of cartilage. It was one of the health risks of being a superhero, and when it came down to it he’d rather have his wrist permanently fused than his fingers completely useless.
Anger was smoldering away in his stomach. It drove him up into the air like a missile, his only thought to beat the crap out of whoever had captured him and go home to Vereint. That bright white light was his target. He burst through it in a shower of fluorescent tubing and glass.
There was a cement foundation and it didn’t take him much to realize that he was far underground, the cement reverberating with the sound of the city trapped outside. He punched his way out with his left hand and found himself in a darkened cellar. He shook off quickly, water splattering everywhere, and stomped his way toward the nearest load bearing wall. All those years of studying architecture as a hobby were finally paying off.
He listened and heard less than a handful of people in the building. It must have been some kind of old tenement or something that some assholes decided to use for their nefarious purposes.
Even knowing it was probably a bad idea, the kind of thing that could have him brought up on criminal charges, Warrick was so angry that he didn’t care. He just brought his foot back and kicked and kicked and KICKED until concrete was cracking and rebar was crumbling away, ice spreading out from beneath him in a wave of weakness, eating away at the building around him until walls were coming down and the ceiling above him was creaking threateningly.
There was a loud rumble and dust started falling down, a little bit at first, then more and more.
He kicked the wall one more time, then ran toward the opposite wall and hit it hard with his shoulders, slamming straight through and out onto the street. There was a loud crash and half of the building collapsed in on itself with a plume of dust. He heard the echo of screams inside, but he was beyond giving a damn.
“Whoa, what happened here?”
Warrick turned and found Caspian still straddling the shiny motorcycle he was so stupidly proud of. “How’d you get here?” he asked, raking his good hand through his hair.
“Your better half called me all concerned.” Caspian climbed off the motorcycle and walked toward Warrick, his boots crunching against the bits of shattered concrete scattered all over the road. “There was a lot of worry that you might be dead or something.”
“Thanks, I guess.” Warrick turned to survey the building he’d partially demolished. It still needed a thorough going over before he felt comfortable going home. Vereint would understand.
“I brought backup,” Caspian offered. “They can handle all this while we get out of here.”
There was a screech of tires on asphalt and a black van took the corner sharply. The back doors opened before the van was fully stopped and six junior members of the League of Superheroes jumped out, jangling with weapons and gear.
They all looked incredibly fresh-faced, the stink of newness still clinging to their skin. He recognized one of them, a young man named Neobright, that he’d dealt with before.
“I’m not going anywhere until I find out what the hell happened here,” Warrick said.
“You don’t think that’s a little stupid?” Caspian asked.
“Stupid is leaving the scene without me finding out what the hell they wanted,” Warrick said. He turned to the kid he’d met before. “You guys ready to get in there?”
Neobright nodded. “Yes, sir. We’re ready to go.”
“Take point,” Caspian said. “Blue Ice and I will bring up the rear.” He curtailed Warrick’s objection with a narrow-eyed glare. “Shut up. I can tell you’re still all kinds of wet and whoever is in there might be willing to try to take you out again.”
“If they try, I’ll flatten them. They got me by surprise the first time, and now I’m pissed,” Warrick said. He watched as the Junior League ripped an opening in one of the still standing walls and tramped inside, their boots thudding.
“Sure. You all right?” Caspian asked, his eyes raking over Warrick’s body.
“I’m fine.” Warrick cradled his hand against his chest and tried to pretend he hadn’t just destroyed a building in a tantrum.
“Yeah, you look fine.” Caspian shook his head. “What I can see of your skin looks the color of cream cheese. You should really go home.”
“I’m fine,” Warrick repeated through gritted teeth. He let Caspian walk a few feet in front of him as they poked their way into the building. He wanted to know for himself what was going on, but he knew he wasn’t in the mood to handle arrests himself. That was how superheroes became murderers and ended up serving hard time.
“Your hand looks like it hurts,” Caspian said. “Did you dislocate your thumb and break your wrist?”
“I was chained to a fucking wall,” Warrick said. “Whenever I tried to use my powers I’d get an electric shock so I couldn’t break my way free.”
“So you broke yourself instead.” Caspian shook his head. “Was it some kind of freaky handcuff situation?”
“Basically.” They followed where the Junior League kids had disappeared.
“Geez, you have the worst kind of luck.” Caspian didn’t hesitate to press a hand in the middle of Warrick’s chest and hold him back so he could enter first. Off Warrick’s look, Caspian snorted. “Please, you just escaped from these guys. I’m not going to let you take point.”
Warrick sighed and took up the rear. “Let’s just get this over with. I don’t want the rest of the building to collapse on top of us.”
Caspian had his head tipped back as he looked up. “Taking in the damage, you did a number on this place. It’s gonna be condemned forever.”
“Good. That was part of my master plan.” Warrick stepped over some chunks of concrete and went with Caspian into a large open room that smelled faintly of Pine Sol and dust. “God, there better not be any black mold in here. If I get lung cancer, I’m going to sue someone.”
“Whatever dude.” Caspian shoved aside a big slab of concrete to display the eight foot wide hole in the floor. He peered down into it curiously. “This is where you were trapped?” He spat to hear it splash into the water below. “If I’d been stuck in there, I’d be dead.”
“Except you can breathe under water,” Warrick said.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t help a whole lot if I was handcuffed to the wall.” Caspian scratched his chin. “I don’t know if I’d be willing to chew my own hand off with my teeth.”
Warrick rolled his eyes. “You should try it sometime. It’s not as bad as it seems. We could call it an experiment.”
“You’ve got some serious problems,” Caspian joked, shaking his head. He walked over to a shadowed pile of junk and kicked a box with the side of his foot.
“I’ve got a shortage of fucking cartilage is what I’ve got,” Warrick growled, as far from being in the mood as possible. “I didn’t want to have to dislocate my thumb again, but I didn’t have a whole lot of choice. After a while, I won’t be holding anything with this hand again, that’s what the doctor told me last time.”
“At least you’re alive.” Caspian had looking on the bright side of things down to a fault. “And you didn’t have to do like that guy in Saw.”
“Ugh, don’t mention that movie to me, ever.” Warrick made his way across the cluttered space to his friend. “What is this place?”
There were metal tables running along the walls piled with tools and wires and and all kinds of electronic components. There were cardboard boxes and wooden crates stacked everywhere. It was like someone’s basement workspace gone horribly wrong, and not just because of the murder pit in the middle of the floor.
“Dunno. I’ve got some of the kids rounding up the guys running this place and they’re already questioning with extreme prejudice. It looks like you were snatched by a bunch of mid-listers going by the name ‘The Society of M.’” He glanced up from his com with a grin. “The ‘M’ is for ‘Murder’ by the way. Complete amateur hour.”
Warrick snorted. “Really? Could I have been grabbed by a group that was anymore lamer? Whatever. Let’s get out of here,” he said, turning toward the door. “The kids can clean up the rest. I want to get my wrist taken care of and head home. Vereint is going to be pissed off.”
He wasn’t going to let himself consider the fact that he’d nearly been killed by minor league villains. That kind of thing happened.
By the time Dr. Jorge Vasquez had finished checking him over and fitted him with a dark blue cast, Warrick was more than ready to be on his way. His muscles ached and the first thing he did was wrap his cast up in plastic and take a shower, scrubbing himself down with antibacterial soap.
Vereint wasn’t susceptible to most kinds of sickness, but he did have a nose like a bloodhound and would throw a fit if Warrick came home reeking of sweat and mung water. Warrick hadn’t really noticed at the time, as he was busy fighting for his life, but the water he’d been swimming in smelled absolutely terrible, and so did he for having floated in it.
He put on his spare clothes and took the back way out of the League of Superheroes’ headquarters. Caspian was there waiting for him, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
“What are you doing here?” Warrick asked.
Caspian shrugged. “Thought I’d give you a lift home. You already drive like crap and I don’t think the cast is going to help you.”
“Thank you for your kind words.” Warrick rolled his eyes. “I really appreciate it.”
“I know you do.” Caspian fished the keyring out of Warrick’s pocket and spun it around his finger. “Come on. Let’s get outta here.”
Warrick was too tired to argue. He just followed Caspian down the corridor and out through the heavy metal door into the parking garage. He always kept a spare car around to save him in case he wasn’t in the mood for flying.
Caspian hit the button on the keyfob and there was a “boop-beep” sound and a flash of headlights. He whistled when he got a good look at the cherry red sports car waiting for them. “Fancy.”
“Thanks.” Warrick opened the passenger door with his left hand and awkwardly climbed inside. “God, now I get to go home and pretend everything’s cool in front of Vereint’s parents and brother.”
“Sucks.” Caspian fumbled around, nearly backing into a parked truck, before he got a handle on driving. He peeled out of the parking garage at unsafe speeds, whooping as he avoided running into a concrete column by bare inches. “So you guys have officially got the kid now, huh?”
Warrick gripped the sides of his seat tight enough to leave finger impressions in the leather. “Be careful!” he warned, squinting his eyes so he didn’t have to see the oncoming death. “Yeah, we’ve got a kid now. We’re those guys.”
“I thought we used to make fun of those guys?” Caspian asked, spinning the wheel wildly.
“Not since we became those guys. From now on, we have nothing but respect for those awesome, hardworking guys.” Warrick leaned forward and switched on the radio. The sound of candy pop music filled the car interior. “Vereint’s happy.”
“Oh, well, as long as Vereint is happy the world will keep on spinning and puppy dogs will wag their nubby tails all over the place.” Caspian shook his head. “Change the station. This shit is a hard on killer.”
“As I don’t want you to have a hard on in my car, maybe I should leave this terrible music on,” Warrick said, already changing the station. “They’re all going to be there and we’re going to have to sit around eating dinner together and I’m going to have to pretend that everything is all right and I don’t just want to crawl into bed and forget this awful day ever happened.”
“But it did happen and you’re never going to forget,” Caspian said. “Go enjoy the fam-fam, eat Vereint’s delicious food, and maybe later he’ll give you some snoo snoo and you’ll be able to repress the memories until you’re in the therapist’s office five years from now pointing out on a doll where those guys electroshocked you.”
“You are the worst friend ever.” Warrick leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Let me know when we get there.”
“Will do,” Caspian said.
Warrick appreciated a friend that loved fast cars and always had his back. The fact that Caspian knew when to hold his tongue was an added advantage.
He let himself drift off, feeling the car slide him this way and that as Caspian took the corners at high speeds. But he felt remarkably safe with Caspian at the wheel.
“Hey, dude, we’re here.”
Warrick groaned and opened his eyes, wincing away from Caspian’s next finger prod. “God, you should file that thing as a weapon,” he said, going to rub his shoulder and thumping himself with his cast instead. “This is going to suck balls.”
“Maybe if you’re nice, it’ll be your balls,” Caspian snerked.
“Thanks for the ride,” Warrick cracked the door and stepped out. “Bring the car back tomorrow.”
“Awesome!” Caspian waggled his fingers at him. “Bitches love fast cars!”
“Bitches love smacking people that call them bitches,” Warrick said, slamming the door and trudging toward the lobby doors.
Rather than pushing the doors open, he slapped the automatic door opener. His wrist was beginning to ache and he was thinking about taking the pain relievers Dr. Jorge had given him. He usually swore off drugs considering his past history. Going back into rehab wasn’t something he ever planned on doing.
“Mr. Tobias, are you all right?” Franco, the desk clerk asked, making like he was about to come around the long counter.
Warrick waved his good hand at him. “I took a tumble, that’s all. I’m fine, thanks for asking.” He tramped toward the elevator, his back prickling with Franco’s eyes on him.
Once he got in the elevator, he leaned against the wall and cradled his broken wrist against his stomach as he waited for the numbers to count up to the penthouse. He hoped tonight wasn’t going to be completely terrible, not that he was too worried about it. Vereint’s parents were surprisingly understanding people and Hank was the kind of laid-back that meant they could share a cold beer and not have to talk about much of anything.
The elevator door dinged open and he walked to the apartment door in time to realize that he’d given his keys to Caspian. He closed his eyes a moment, silently praying that the door was unlocked, then reached out to try his luck.
The knob turned easily and he pushed the door open, stepping inside. Immediately the scent of Vereint’s candles assaulted his nose and he had to sniff hard to keep from sneezing.
Vereint’s parents and brother were sitting in the living room with Melissa, who was dancing around in her socked feet.
“There you are!” Vereint came out of the hallway, wiping his hands on the sides of his jeans. “I was really getting worried about you.”
“Look! Look what Grandma and Grandpa got me!” Melissa called enthusiastically the moment she saw him. She was waving a stuffed panda in the air by the paws, making it dance, then she grabbed a handful of glittery Lisa Frank stickers and held them out. “And stickers!”
“That’s great, honey,” Warrick said, trying not to limp. His muscles had begun to seize up in the car and he was wishing for his heat pad.
“Whoa. What the hell happened to your arm?” Vereint demanded, striding across the room.
Warrick shrugged. “I fell off a ladder. Just a stupid accident.” He tried to tell Vereint with his eyes that he was all right, that he would explain everything later. “I broke my wrist.”
“Hm.” Vereint’s lips went tight against his teeth for a moment, then he forced himself to relax. “I guess you won’t be signing anything for the next month.”
Warrick huffed a laugh. “Yeah.”
“Are you all right?” Vereint asked.
“Yeah,” Warrick said again, nodding. “I’m fine.”
He ignored the way his legs still wanted to tremble and pasted on the most realistic smile he could manage. He could tell that Vereint didn’t believe him, but there was nothing they could do with all the added people around.
Warrick had a feeling he would be catching hell later. He was just glad that he was going to be alive to get lectured.
He waited as long as he could before retreating into the kitchen. He needed a minute to get himself back together.
Warrick was leaning his hip against the counter sipping from a bottle of red Gatorade when Hank came in.
“Do I want to ask what happened to you?” Hank cocked his head. There was an extra bit of knowing to his eyes, but Warrick didn’t know how much the guy had guessed about him or Vereint.
At twenty-two years old, Hank had grown into his frame and was actually a few inches taller than Warrick. He had just started college in the fall, having had to catch up to his peers after living on the street for several years doing whatever he had to do to survive. Vereint had found him as a teen and taken him home to his parents; he thought it was hilarious that he’d found his own adopted brother.
Warrick calmly drank his Gatorade. He needed the electrolytes after burning all those calories. He would eat something as soon as he stopped feeling so nauseated; the pain of his broken wrist was just beginning to really hit him. Those pills folded up in his pocket were calling his name.
“I fell off a stepladder,” he repeated his lame excuse. “I was sure I could reach the top shelf and gravity made me its bitch.”
Hank raised an eyebrow. “You should be careful. Sounds like your job at the office is more dangerous than I thought it was.”
Warrick laughed, and it was maybe a little hysterical. “Yeah.”
* * *
It was amazing how well Melissa was getting along with her new grandparents. It gave Vereint the hope that everything was going to work out. His only concern now was that Melissa was going to run off with Sandra and he was going to have to get into a super battle with his mother.
He wasn’t certain that he would win.
“What’s with that frowny face?” Sandra asked in the brief lull when Melissa ran off to use the bathroom.
“You’re not going to kidnap her are you?” Vereint gave her an inquisitive eyebrow.
“It wasn’t part of my plans, but now that you’ve given me the idea…” Her smirk was almost a clone of his own. “While we have a brief moment, can you tell me why you didn’t tell me about my first grandkid the minute you brought her home?”
Vereint shrugged and earned himself a fierce frown. “What?” he asked defensively.
The look she gave him was fierce enough to have him shifting uncomfortably. “Why didn’t you bother to tell me immediately? What’s wrong with you?”
Vereint licked his lips and tried to lighten the moment with his version of humor. “I don’t think I was breast fed. I blame my mother for…”
Sandra thumped him on the shoulder just as Melissa came back in the room, adjusting the waistband of her pants. “You think you’re real funny, but you’re not,” Sandra said. “Now go get me something to drink as I get to know my new grandbaby.”
“Yes, Mama,” Vereint said.
He rushed into the kitchen where he found Warrick and Hank talking next to the refrigerator. He glanced to and away from the cast on Warrick’s arm. That was something they were going to be discussing later when the shouting wouldn’t bother anyone else.
“I cannot believe you guys left me out there like that,” he said. “Whatever happened to never leaving a man behind?”
Hank laughed. “I can’t believe you’ve met your mother, yet you thought it was a good idea to hold off on telling her you’d somehow gotten a kid.” He shook his head. “You’re lucky to be alive right now.”
Vereint sighed heavily. “Gee thanks.” He dug in the fridge until he found a can of ginger ale. His mom loved the stuff and he hoped an offering would appease her anger. “And you’ve gotten me thinking of my mother like she’s some angry volcano god or something.”
“She kind of is,” Hank said. He took the glass Warrick offered and stuck it under the ice maker. There was the grinding clunking sound, then the glass was half full of ice. Hank held it out to Vereint.
Instead of taking the glass, Vereint popped the top on the can of ginger ale and poured it into the glass. “There. Go take that to her, please.”
Hank looked at the glass he held. “Are you insane? You really want to try the switcheroo on Sandra? She senses movement you know.”
Vereint snorted. “She’s not a T-rex or something.”
“She’s worse than a T-rex,” Hank said. “A T-rex just wants to eat you. She makes you clean your room and join her in bonding activities.” There was genuine fondness running through his complaining. “She made me join her for a macrame class last spring. I didn’t even know what that was before then. I was happy not knowing. I’m not going back in there alone. You go first and I’ll cover you.”
“Unless she makes you go to the mother-son rodeo, you don’t have any right to complain.” Vereint snagged a large vegetable tray out of the fridge and snatched the glass out of Hank’s hand before turning toward the door. “Once more into the breach, dear brothers.”
He could hear Warrick and Hank razzing him as he made his exit and smiled.
There was something nice about having family around. Even his T-rex of a mother.
/ EXCERPT
The post Allies & Enemies, by Harper Kingsley. Chapter 3 [superhero mm] appeared first on Harper Kingsley.
All content copyright HarperKingsley.net unless otherwise stated.
Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
August 25, 2013
Heroes & Villains: Psychotic, by Harper Kingsley [superhero]
Title: Psychotic
Author: Harper Kingsley
World: Heroes & Villains
Genre: mm superhero
Word count: 8750
A/N: This story is set during part three of Allies & Enemies. It began as a cut scene and was expanded.
A/N 2: Includes excerpts of upcoming stories. First two chapters of Allies & Enemies, the first two chapters of The Panic Pure, and the opening of Normal Again.
Summary: Warrick should stay safe in their little cabin in the woods, but sometimes that whole superhero thing gets away from him.
Available at: Amazon, Smashwords for $0.99
EXCERPT:
He’d given up that life. He wasn’t that guy anymore. He’d made promises and commitments. But that was all in the past tense. He was in the moment, in the now, and there was the thunder red of rage-rage-rage burning across Vereint’s brain.
All this time, Warrick had been so great about following the rules. So why did he have to fuck up now?
Vereint had come back to an empty cabin, a TV still showing GNN, and a note. Warrick had seen something that called for Blue Ice, so he’d gone off to handle it.
Vereint’s panic as he chased after Warrick had gradually turned to burning anger. Didn’t Warrick understand what putting himself in danger did to him? The sense of helplessness and suffocating worry that he felt?
Vereint wanted to scream in Warrick’s face, but he knew he would end up on his knees begging him to never leave him. And that patheticness only made him angrier. Never in his life had there been anyone to bring him so low as Warrick could.
By the time he reached the warehouse, he was mostly in control. Then he broke the lock and slid open the door. It felt like the moment froze in front of him, the air going heavy and still.
Warrick was dead.
There was blood everywhere in a butterfly spray, and at the center the torn cocoon. Flesh splayed open in pink and white ridges of muscle and tendon. Eye sockets blackened and exposed amongst the brain matter. Warrick’s face was pasty and still, his shattered lips still parted around where his teeth had been kicked out.
Vereint sucked in a hissing breath and his hands clenched into claw shapes at his sides. He was going mad. The world was a riot of bright reds and softer pinks and the glistening lengths of intestine. The image before him soaked itself into his brain. Becoming the truth of his existence.
Then he noticed that the Blue Ice uniform was wrong. It was one Vereint knew for sure had been ruined in a fight with Behemoth. He’d thrown it away himself, which had been a real hardship. It had been his favorite.
Just that quick he knew someone was messing with his brain.
It was as though someone had snapped a new lens on a camera, everything coming into focus. He could still see the mind fuckery of the illusion, but it was hollow and thin, all the emotional impact removed.
There were two men in black three-piece suits standing next to a card table. They were laughing and joking, placing bets on how long he would freak out.
As his mind started working again, Vereint’s eyes were drawn to the vibrating silver device on the table. He’d only ever heard about them, but he was sure that it was a Psiren. It produced sound waves focused to some frequency that could force the human brain to experience different emotions. The feelings drawn up were so strong that some people experienced correlating hallucinations.
Vereint tried to make his body convey terror and grief and was glad of the ski mask he’d pulled on before leaving. He’d never been that great of an actor, which was why he usually let Warrick do the lying for the both of them.
His eyes slid to the back of the room where he’d spotted the glint of a blade pressed tight against the real Warrick’s throat. His jaw clenched tight with fear and anger.
Warrick wasn’t moving, was flopped limply, but Vereint could see the minute quiver of his breaths. He was pulled across the over-sized lap of a man that had to be a good fifteen hundred pounds.
Vereint recognized the man as Jericho Slim, sometimes called the Knife Man because he could do horrible nightmare things with a blade. He could draw them out of his flesh like gall stones. He would gag and a blade would come out from between his lips or sometimes it would just be slivers. It was said he could spit his Needle Darts faster than a viper and he could hit a target up to two hundred feet away.
Even though he was sure he was faster than Jericho Slim, Vereint didn’t want to risk the guy getting lucky. It was better to play it safe and maneuver the situation to keep Warrick alive. Because a single scratch from one of Jericho Slim’s bioblades and Warrick would rot from the wound like it was the bite of a Gila monster; it was a horrible way to die.
After what he figured had to be a good five minutes of shivering, shaking, and quavering garbled cries, Vereint let himself sag to the floor with a low moan. From what he knew, an improperly used Psiren could cause catatonia in people that had experienced severe psychological trauma.
He was worried about Warrick. With his history and not possessing Vereint’s natural protections, things were worse for Warrick. Being hit with the effects of a Psiren could give him permanent brain damage.
Vereint was certain he was going to be killing some people today.
/EXCERPT
The post Heroes & Villains: Psychotic, by Harper Kingsley [superhero] appeared first on Harper Kingsley.
All content copyright HarperKingsley.net unless otherwise stated.
Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
August 23, 2013
Master Post: Paradigm Shift
Title: Paradigm Shift
Author: Harper Kingsley
Genre: mm science fiction
Rating: mature
Status: WIP
Notes: This is a State Rule story. There are Judges, Law Officers, and zombies.
Warnings: genetic modification capability of mpreg, mentions of forced breeding, fascist society, post-zombie apocalypse
A/N: I’m posting the Gregor POVs at my LJ in 500-1000+ word bursts. The version that will be available for purchase will have Dylan’s POVs, and his part of the story includes the intrigue and action happening in the backgound. Dylan’s actually scarily bad ass.
Summary: Gregor has been living as a Two for most of his life, but it’s a lie. He’s really a Third. And now he’s been found out and pulled into the lives of one of the great Families.
“I am a member of the Family,” Park stated as though it was everyday kind of news, and to him it probably was. Gregor was shocked enough for two people. “The Family requested that I assess you for the possibility of merging your genome with the Duadenora.”
“And I passed?” Gregor hadn’t meant to ask, but the words had slipped out.
Park looked amused. “So far.”
– 01 – 11 – 21 – 31 – 41 – 51 -
– 02 – 12 – 22 – 32 – 42 – 52 -
– 03 – 13 – 23 – 33 – 43 – 53 -
– 04 – 14 – 24 – 34 – 44 – 54 -
– 05 – 15 – 25 – 35 – 45 – 55 -
– 06 – 16 – 26 – 36 – 46 – 56 -
– 07 – 17 – 27 – 37 – 47 – 57 -
– 08 – 18 – 28 – 38 – 48 – 58 -
– 09 – 19 – 29 – 39 – 49 – 59 -
– 10 – 20 – 30 – 40 – 50 – 60 -
Chapter One: 01-02
Chapter Two: 03-06
Chapter Three: 07-10
Chapter Four: 11-12
Chapter Five: 13-19
Chapter Six: 20-25
Chapter Seven: 26-30
Chapter Eight: 31-34
Chapter Nine: 35-39
Chapter Ten: 40-43
Chapter Eleven: 44-47
Chapter Twelve: 48-
Gregor Tierney. Magister Dylan Park. Zero Park. Judge Rulf Tersoe.
EXCERPT:
This story is rated: Mature (for violence and sex)
He didn’t hesitate a moment to slide into Park’s abandoned spot and peer out through the observation hole. He had to kind of mash his face close to see, but he didn’t care.
Their balcony overlooked the whole theater. People were huddled in groups around the seats, their finery in disarray and their expressions terrified. The Players had been hustled off the stage and shoved in amongst the Patrons, their brightly colored costumes contrasting sharply.
There had to be over a dozen members of the Halcyon Horde standing by with weapons slung. They wore black and blue camo pants, black boots, and heavy flak vests. Each of their faces was covered with the flat black mask of the Horde, the only color the gold outlining the eye holes.
Gregor winced when the leader of the Horde cell opened fire on a woman in a red dress. A man had been holding her in his arms, and when the multicolored blast hit her directly in the chest, the man too went down with a choked cry, his limbs flailing before going still. The woman died without a sound.
“Now you see that we are serious,” the leader’s voice was strange and mechanical. He had a voice distorter built into his mask. “Would you like to live?”
No one said anything, too terrified of giving a wrong answer.
“I said, would you like to live?” the leader asked. “Answer me!”
“Yes! Yes we want to live!” “Please don’t kill us!” Hundreds of voices shouted out, pleading for their lives.
The leader laughed and turned to one of his own men. “You see how easy it is? You threaten the safety of the herd, and the individuals fall over themselves to spare their own lives. Pathetic.”
He turned and shot a young man; the guy was just a kid really, probably still a teenager. An older man shouted something–a name–and made to go to his son, but his wife held him back. She was crying, but resolute. Her husband stopped resisting.
Gregor had seen violence before, but it had always been through the safe medium of a view Screen. This… this was real and horrible and he hated his sense of helplessness, but there was nothing he could do to help. He had no training and no real weapons.
But Park does, an insidious voice whispered in his mind.
Park had weapons and training and he was out there, planning something to save the hostages. Something dangerous enough that he hadn’t been sure he would survive it, which is why he had told Gregor to stay hidden.
The leader of the Horde was still talking, rambling on about human weakness and animal herds and blah, blah, totally crazy, blah. Gregor had spotted Zero surrounded by the circle of his Family bodyguards. He was sitting quietly, not making a fuss, not drawing any attention to himself.
Gregor couldn’t help admitting that Zero had impressed him a bit. The guy had seemed like a complete airhead when Gregor first met him, the kind of useless, ornamental rich guy that wasted all of his opportunities by not even realizing what he had going for him. But Zero really knew how to be a good hostage. He didn’t even look afraid.
Gregor had been staring at Zero, so he was just as surprised as everyone else when the leader of the Horde developed a hole where his right eye used to be. The shot punched through the lens of his mask and continued on into his brain.
His legs folded up and he dropped to the floor. Dead.
There were screams from the hostages and the Halcyon Horde members started waving their guns around wildly, trying to triangulate where the shot had come from. There was no sign of Park.
When a female Horde member tried to scoop up the dropped Tumbler, her hand was barely an inch away before she was struck between the shoulder blades and was sent flopping forward, her spine severed. She aspirated a bit of blood across the polished floor and her limbs twitched minutely, then she died.
Gregor covered his mouth with his hand. His breathing was loud and wheezy to his own ears. His paranoia insisted they would be able to hear him.
/ EXCERPT
The post Master Post: Paradigm Shift appeared first on Harper Kingsley.
All content copyright HarperKingsley.net unless otherwise stated.
Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
August 19, 2013
Excerpt: Allies & Enemies, updates, and winner announcement
I’m still doing the Scapple beta, but not as seriously as those first few days. I’ve turned in a few bugs and hiccups to the team and it’s likely that I’ll be buying the program when it’s out of beta. Until then I don’t want to save too much to it.
Still, I’ll try to get a screencap of my mind map. It basically spans all of my stories and I had a lot of fun making it. There may have been some squeeage.
Scapple for Windows is supposed to be $15. Which is reasonable. Scapple is by literatureandlatte.com, the same guys that do Scrivener.
*
The winner of the Heroes & Villains blog tour giveaway: Sin Chan. I’ll be contacting you shortly. Congratulations.
Thanks to everyone that participated. I hope you all had a great weekend.
-I wrote a list of everyone’s name with a number beside it, then went to random.org and had the numbers drawn. Easy peasy.
*
Here, have an excerpt of the upcoming Allies & Enemies, sequel to Heroes & Villains. It continues the story of Darkstar, though several years later.
Honestly, it’s really hard for me to find good excerpt material that doesn’t spoil the story. A lot happens in Allies & Enemies, but it’s all tied into the main plot. It’s kind of a struggle because I’ve never been very good at keeping any kind of secret. I want to just babble it all away, but I can’t.
Anyways, here’s a scene where Melissa of the Fabulous Kims is doing some stuff. Yeah, stuff.
Like helping to stop a mad bomber in Megacity.
Title: Allies & Enemies
Author: Harper Kingsley
World: Heroes & Villains
Genre: mm superhero novel
Word count: 136,000
Excerpt rating: teen+
Summary: Melissa gets herself into some trouble.
EXCERPT:
It was strange how color saturated everything had begun to look to her exhausted eyes. A bone deep weariness had settled over her and it was a battle to lock her knees to keep from stumbling.
More than anything she wanted to slip into her own bed. She wanted to nuzzle her cheek against her pillow and close her eyes, just for a little while. A few desperate hours of rest.
Instead Melissa was once again helping to defuse a bomb. It was one of dozen she had to deal with before she would be allowed to sleep.
It made her want to sleep.
She blinked her stinging eyes quickly and didn’t let her eyelids stay closed for too long. That way lay madness and a crashing down on the building below while the bomb exploded, killing her and anyone nearby.
At least this time she was partnered with Leithfold, a quiet superhero that didn’t seem to hate her the way Sonic Pulse did. He did his job anyway, with an easy competence she couldn’t help admiring.
Melissa gripped the side of the building with her gloved hands and felt the tugs of the straps around her waist. Once again she was to use her ability to fly to help an earthbound colleague dangle from the side of a building. It felt very spy movieish and she might have been amused if she wasn’t so tired.
“Hey, what’s going on up there?”
The irritated snap to Leithfold’s voice jerked Melissa back into focus. She hadn’t even felt her eyes close and had begun to sag against the side of the building, releasing some of the tension in Leithfold’s line.
“Sorry,” she called down, then forced her eyes to stay open. Her neck felt made of rubber and her head kept sagging forward or back and she would have to snap upright. Everything was getting a bit hazy around the edges and she didn’t know how much more she could take.
“After this, I’m going to need a break,” she said into her comm.
“I hear you. We can stop off for some coffee before heading to the next target,” Leithfold said.
Melissa held back a groan. Her stomach churned from all the coffee and energy drinks she’d downed already. It was only luck and a damn good super metabolism that kept her hands from shaking. She didn’t know how much more she could take before she started screwing up.
Maybe I can get in a power nap somehow?
She snorted. Where had all that boundless energy she’d once possessed gone? Now she just felt tired; jaded and tired, her dreams ground small by reality.
“All right, got it,” Leithfold said. “Pull me on up.”
Melissa grabbed the climbing ropes and hauled the much larger man up onto the roof. “Do you really think we’re going to manage all the bombs?”
Leithfold tugged his uniform straight. “Probably not. Considering the law of averages, there’s a good chance a few bombs will be missed.”
“Wow, that’s pretty negative thinking,” Melissa said.
“Truth hurts. And there’s hundreds, if not thousands of bombs set up all over the city, and he’s still making more. We’ve only got a finite number of superheroes to handle things. It’s gonna make things messy before it gets over.”
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Well, you’re just full of puppy kisses and bunny fluff.”
He gave a surprised sounding laugh. “Haven’t you heard? Negativity is the new positivity.”
“Whatever. Let’s get out of here.”
Moving around and having someone to talk to had perked up her energy, but she knew it wasn’t going to last. What she desperately needed was a good night’s sleep, something she would only be able to dream about for awhile yet.
“Well isn’t this cozy,” a raspy voice drawled.
Melissa whirled around, dropping the rope she had been coiling. “Whoa, who are you?”
The guy looked like he’d escaped from some hell or other. His head had been shaved and was only now speckled with stubble. His cheekbones in his emaciated face were sharp protrusions, the bone trying to tear through the fragile skin. His eyes were sunk deep in his face, shadowed and insane.
Just looking at him gave Melissa a foreboding chill. This wasn’t just some homeless person as she’d first assumed. This man was dangerous.
“You’re going to come with me,” he said, staring at Melissa.
Leithfold stepped half in front of her. “Now look, I don’t know what you think is happening here, but it’s not. Don’t make us arrest you.”
The man grinned, a frightening spread of teeth and gum. “She’s coming with me or–” He pointed toward the distant spire of the Steiger building and there was the bright flare of an explosion. “–I’ll blow up this whole half of the city.”
“You’ll blow up too,” Melissa said.
The man — Atom Splitter — just grinned. “I am a walking chemical reaction. I am immune to my own powers. I could blow up the whole world and dance between the twirling waves of flame. I am unstoppable. But you can die in screaming, burning agony. It’s your choice.”
If there was one thing Melissa hated dealing with, it was a superpowered madman. There was no reasoning with whatever lurked behind Atom Splitter’s eyes; he was blackhole empty, swallowing all the light.
“Why do you want me? What are you going to do?” she asked. There was no way she wanted to go anywhere with this guy, but she didn’t see much choice. He’d rigged enough bombs that there was no doubt about who was in charge of the situation–he was.
“You’re a brave little toaster, chugging along.” He laughed, making her shiver at the unpleasant sound. “Just like him.”
“What are you talking about?” Leithfold asked.
Atom Splitter snarled at him. “You shut your mouth. You’re ruining our beautiful moment.” He held his hand out toward Melissa, the tips of his fingers stained black from whatever chemicals he’d been using. “Come here now or I blow up your precious city.”
Leithfold tried to stop her, but she brushed his hand off her elbow. Her boots crunched against the rooftop and her heartbeat thudded loud but sure in her ears.
Atom Splitter’s hand was warm even through her gloves. His laugh was choppy and unpleasant. “I’m disappointed, but maybe you’ll be enough.”
As she was led away by the mass murderer, she realized that she wasn’t sleepy anymore.
Melissa was wide-awake.
/EXCERPT
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Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
August 15, 2013
Aquaponics – growing vegetables and fish together
Okay, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time watching videos on aquaponics and I am simply amazed by the whole concept.
WIKIPEDIA: Aquaponics, or pisciponics, is a sustainable food production system that combines conventional aquaculture, (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks), with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity for the fish. This water is led to a hydroponic system where the by-products from the aquaculture are broken down by nitrogen-fixing bacteria, then filtered out by the plants as nutrients, after which the cleaned water is recirculated back to the Fish.
Basically, you can have tower gardens or trays with gravel or chunks of granite in them. You set up some seed trays, then once they’re sprouted into tiny plants, you move some of the rock away and pop the plants in there. Then you flood the whole thing with water, which drains out into an overflow tub that then drains into a tub containing edible fish like tilapia or trout (depending on water temperature. Some people do tilapia in warm months and trout in cold.)
People are growing all kinds of vegetables – lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli – and there seems to be a fondness for beautiful strawberries grown in tower gardens (50 plants in less than five feet of space depending on tower height.)
Here’s some of my fave YouTube videos:
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All content copyright HarperKingsley.net unless otherwise stated.
Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
August 13, 2013
New books and Excerpt
Okay, so there’s been stuff happening with me. Sorry I haven’t kept you up-to-date, but I’ve been in one of my moods, though I seem to be coming out of it fast 
So that’s good.
Heroes & Villains is releasing August 14th (tomorrow!) from Less Than Three Press. You can pre-order it now if you don’t already have a copy. Or if you want to try and win yourself a copy, follow the blog tour. A winner will be drawn August 19th, and since there’s five stops, you have five chances to win. Awesome.
The Armchair Reader – Aug 12th with the awesome Cole Riann.
– Aug 13th.
Pants Off Reviews – Aug 14th.
World of Diversity Fiction – Aug 15th.
Megan Derr’s LJ – Aug 16th.
And if you don’t know Heroes & Villains, it’s the first full-length novel in my superhero series chronicling the life of Vereint and Warrick.
Set in a semi-dystopian world where everyone can have superpowers if they’re lucky in the genetic lottery or they have enough money to buy some, Vereint starts off wanting to be a superhero like his idol Blue Ice. He was lucky enough to be born with metabilities, so he set off to build himself a secret identity and became the superhero Starburst.
Quickly nicknamed Candy Ass for being so lame.
Everyone seems against him, especially the man he spent his teenaged years admiring, Blue Ice. It feels as though nothing he does is every enough, he needs to break out of his humdrum life where he has an office job for money and is mercilessly mocked every time he goes out to help people. Nothing he does seems to alleviate the public’s opinion and he feels like he can’t take it anymore…
So he doesn’t. He sheds his superhero skin and becomes the supervillain Darkstar.
He’s no Lex Luthor plotting and planning world domination. He’s out to have some fun and make some money. He’s not interested in atrocities, especially when they’re done in his name. He’s got no interest in minions or followers and he’s a little creeped out by all the fanfic. He’s just a guy with superpowers having a good time and committing some crimes.
Though it’s kind of cool that Blue Ice is his arch-nemesis. There’s nothing like making the guy that bullied you squirm.
Darkstar x Blue Ice.
(And suddenly I started sounding like a commercial for toys. Unfortunately, I talk like that in real life too. Never ask me to describe a stirling engine. It gets real weird real fast.)
Plus there’s this
Across Two Divides: Arc One comprises Chapters 1-10 and is available now from Amazon and Smashwords for $2.99.
You can still catch up with the free version at FictionPress. But look, I made such a nice cover! I’m so proud of myself.
This is my soap opera romance novel family life story. I’m already planning out all these story arcs that these people can go through. The assassination attempts, the killer allergies, the grief for a cousin that’s gone… This is totally my soothing brain story.
And this is the same world as The Panic Pure and From Diamond to Coal, so there might be crossings with Arianetta and his creepiness, or William with his giant robots.
EXCERPT:
-FRANKIE-
Sitting broody on his couch wasn’t something that Frankie did very often, though he’d caught himself drinking more and more until he was starting to get vaguely concerned. It was one thing to be a social drinker, and something completely different for him to need a drink in his hand to be able to even think about facing his day.
Looking around his living room, his accomplishments hanging from every wall, he should have felt proud but it was just empty accolades from people he didn’t care about.
He looked down at the magazine still held in his hand and tossed it away with a grimace before taking another swallow from his tumbler of scotch.
It was just a stupid magazine and he shouldn’t let it get to him, but it was the little things that always ended up cutting him the most. He’d had a lot of respect for Hester Mann, but it looked like that feeling wasn’t returned, to the point that she’d written such an awful article about him. It was like a straight stab to the heart.
Frankie let himself flop sideways on the couch, resting his head on a fat red decorative pillow, the rich brocade probably leaving marks against his cheek.
As a kid he’d believed that fame would bring happiness and everything that he wanted out of life. Instead, he’d found himself emptier than ever.
“I’ve got a black hole heart,” he muttered, then barked a laugh that sounded more like the start to tears.
He held his arm up in front of his face, making the medical alert bracelet dance and sparkle against his wrist bone. He could see the reflected light hitting the opposing wall and that entertained him for a while. Anything not to think about Hester Mann and her strange vendetta against him.
His thoughts were broken by the vibrating buzz of his phone in his front pocket and he had to fumble around to get it out. “Hello?” He was proud that the word came out clearly and not the slurred mess it might have been.
“Francis? This is Christian.” There was something dark in the man’s voice that had Frankie forcing himself upright on the couch. He didn’t even care that Christian had used his real name.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded.
There was the sound of a heavy sigh. “Do you think you could come and see Nicholas?”
“Why? Is he all right?” Frankie was worried, more worried than he’d thought he could be. There was just something so fragile about Nicholas, a brokenness that no one had ever been able to completely fix.
“I don’t know,” Christian said. “He was fine at work, then there was a bit of an accident with some spilled coffee and now he’s crawled into bed and I just don’t know what’s going on with him.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Frankie said. “You still at that one hotel?”
“Yeah, the same one we always stay at,” Christian said, then gave the room number. “Hurry.”
“I’ll be there.”
Hanging up his phone, Frankie wasn’t sure he would be able to make it there as easily as he’d thought. He’d already drunk more than enough scotch and he wasn’t sure just how steady his legs were going to be, but it wasn’t like he had a lot of choice. Nicholas needed him to be there for him.
He’d failed before, but never again.
/EXCERPT
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Please do not steal my words. In a hundred years they are all that will be left of me.
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