gallery/47371126The whole Wonderland series is here.
WONDERLAND
Phantasm had a premonition that led her to meeting the Guardsman. They find out that there was a common incident in their lives that changed everything for both of them. Now they are searching for clues about what gave Ed his super powers and what happened to Phantasm's mother.
Phantasm, (Chelsea Juarez) is a skilled hand to hand fighter. Her precognitive ability means she can anticipate any move that a foe can think of. She wears customized body armor, and has a lot of gadgets she uses as she fights crime in the city. But even with a multitude of weapons, such as her bow and specialty arrows, she still prefers beating the bad guys to a pulp in hand to hand combat.
Guardsman (Edward Fenton) is the only known hero in the world with super powers. He is super strong, able to lift well over a ton. He is even tougher than he is strong. He has enhanced reflexes and regenerates injuries very quickly. He doesn't wear a mask and voluntarily lives homeless to stay 'under the radar'. He has a tablet PC he got from the lab that gave him super powers with all kinds of information about the drug 'Wonderland' that made him super.
Phantasm has recruited a friend, Sarah (Pennington), to help get the encoded information off of the tablet. Sarah showed Guardsman that he is not as incognito as he had thought, and that most of his exploits have been recorded via smart phone and are readily available for viewing on the internet via Instagram or YouTube. As Sarah works on the tablet, Ed and Chelsea both lay down to take a nap.
From Wonderland Part one – The Premonition
She shows him to a room, and he looks in. It seems to be a guest room. "Go ahead and take a nap here if you want. I'll wake you up in three hours." Ed goes in and plops on the bed. It only takes a few seconds before he is asleep.
Chelsea goes to her room. It is really large and well decorated. She has a lesser Monet on the wall. She falls onto her bed. She was sore before she started her patrol earlier in the night, and now she is exhausted. Then she has a thought. She gets on the phone and makes a quick call, then closes her eyes.
About two hours later, Sarah calls her. Chelsea sits up with bleary eyes and rubs them, then answers, "Hello?" "Hey it's Sarah. You really need to see this. Get down here as soon as possible."
Wonderland part 2 – The Doctor
She sits up and sees she is still wearing her Phantasm gear. Her body armor; the grappling hook built into the forearm protector; the unregistered smart phone she has built into her left forearm protector; the zipline device built into her right shoulder; her various doodads she has in her belt satchels, including some flares, handcuffs and sensor devices; her quiver where she keeps her specialty arrows; her collapsible compound bow that is her main weapon after her hands and feet; The large survival knife in a scabbard attached to her left boot; and of course the small 9mm pistol she has hidden in her right boot, just in case. She changes into some regular clothes and puts her gear in the closet, and sets the lock. 'Good idea putting a lock on this closet, so I don't have to think about my gear', she thinks. As she goes out her room, she sees the guestroom. She thinks, 'Ed looked like he needed some rest. I'll get back to him later.' As she opens the entry to the secret staircase, she thinks that she could have used a little more sleep too…
She gets to the bottom of the steps and sees that Sarah is intently staring at the computer screen. She looks over her shoulder and is a little lost by what she sees, but can see the word 'Wonderland' and a bunch of statistics. Sarah turns and says, "Guardsman is a lucky S.O.B. According to this, he was the 133rd person injected with Wonderland, and the first one to survive it." Chelsea is shocked and steps back. This drug, that her mother was involved with, is like strychnine to most people. Sarah continues, "It looks like Wonderland was supposed to change history. People would be healed from terrible diseases and live much longer than they would have normally. And they would be stronger and tougher. But they never expected Ed to be as strong as he was! They have a little rating scale over here…" She points at a corner of the screen, and continues, "It showed that Ed's DNA was a 103% match to the drug. They have a rating for his abilities; Strength, 114; Toughness, 168; Reflexes, 77; Regeneration, 103; Longevity…" They both look at that number, and aren't sure what to make of it – 999? What does that mean? "I think that means he isn't going to age anymore."
Chelsea steps back, and is flabbergasted! No wonder they were so secretive, and those terrorists tried to get the drug – It's an eternal life elixir! Well, assuming you live through taking it…
Sarah scrolls down. "According to the notes, Ed was way stronger than they expected, and his toughness, whew. They did not expect a bullet to bounce off of his skin!" Chelsea is a little perplexed. "They shot him? Why didn't Ed say anything to me?" She stands up. "Good work Sarah. See what else you can find, I'm going to go get Ed." She walks up the stairs, and opens the secret door. She wanders down the hallway to the guest room and walks in. She sees him sleeping like a baby. She walks over next to him and shakes him hard – if he can't feel much, she had better make it noticeable! He opens his eyes, and sees her. "Hey. Did she find anything?" He sits up and stretches, then rubs his eyes. Chelsea says, "Yeah, she did. She is still looking, but Ed, that drug killed 132 people before they gave it to you. You are the only one that has lived through an injection of Wonderland." Ed shakes his head to wake up a bit more quickly. "Uh, what?" She looks him in the eye. "You heard me. They killed 132 people with Wonderland before you took it." Ed sits up and cannot believe what he just heard. Chelsea grabs the two smallest fingers on his left hand and leads him to her lair.
They walk over to Sarah and she points at another graph. "Ed? You weren't hurt when they gave you Wonderland. You were perfectly healthy when they shot you up." Ed is stunned! He remembers so clearly, the accident, the pain, looking over and seeing Tammy almost decapitated… He shakes his head to get that image out! "Th-that can't be. I remember all of the accident, and the ambulance…" Sarah says, "They must have used some drugs and video to implant those memories."
Ed is so stunned, that his knees buckle out from underneath him. Chelsea is shocked as well! How could her mom have let such stuff go on? "Are you sure Sarah?" She points at the screen. Sarah deftly strokes the keyboard, and they see a video of him being brought in. He looks normal, and then he sees them give a shot. The video vividly shows that the shot is Wonderland, and it is administered by Dr Juarez. Apparently this was a big deal, and they wanted it saved for posterity.
'Chelsea thinks, 'My mother. How could she be so cold?' Ed was healthy and had a great life ahead of him, and she took a HUGE risk with his life. Sarah senses the questions that everyone has, and says, "I bet it's this." She goes back to the screen with Ed's stats. "Affinity with the drug: 103%. That's why they picked him. They got a DNA sample and found out that he had the best shot of anyone at living. So they arranged your 'accident' and brought you in healthy." Ed says, "I had to give a DNA sample for a government contract that was offered. They paid really well on that job. So well in fact, that I took a year off to finish my masters degree. Tammy and I were going out to celebrate my graduation, and she said she had some big news too. I figured she got that job she wanted at the investment business. She wanted to tell me at dinner, so I guess we had lots to celebrate!" Ed looks at the ground, feeling pretty defeated right then.
Sarah stands up and says, "according to their research, Wonderland has a 'rejection phase.' When it is first administered, it is really really hard on the recipient's body. The first 132 patients were all nearly dead when they got them. So they couldn't survive the rejection phase. So I guess they made a plan to capture the most compatible person on the planet, and give him the drug while he was still healthy." She looks at Guardsman. "You won the lottery Ed. You were the one they picked, and they were right. You survived the rejection phase, and here you are." Ed stands up and walks over to a brick wall. He punches it, hard, causing a hole. His hand is slightly cut and bruised, but he sees that Wonderland is doing its job, and within an hour it will be as if nothing happened. "My 'unique genetic makeup' cost me my wife, and my humanity. I feel so privileged."
Chelsea goes over to Ed and puts a hand on his shoulder. "There is nothing you can do now. All we can do is make the guys and gals that made this junk pay." Chelsea is livid with rage at her mother! How could she do this? Well, she will get one minute to come up with a satisfactory answer before she beats her to a pulp. Ed looks at Sarah with plaintive eyes. "Is Tammy still alive?" She stands up and looks at him. "I don't know. Let me see if there is a Tammy in the database. They numbered all of their test subjects, but they used first names until they were rated." After a moment she says, "There she is." Then she shakes her head. "Her compatibility score was 18%. There is no way she would live through it." She looks at Ed and says with a slight frown, "There is nothing more about her in this. It looks like this tablet was strictly for testing info." He looks at Chelsea and says, "Phantasm, I thank you for all the answers. I'd rather know than just be guessing. But I don't feel much like talking right now. Would you mind getting me into that guestroom again?" She nods and he starts walking up the stairs. Sarah runs to Chelsea and whispers in her ear, "Chel, do you think he'd be willing to, you know, let me help him with his pain?" Chelsea looks at her friend's face and sees the fangirl beaming out of it. She replies, "No Sarah. The last girl he tried that with ended up in the hospital with broken bones." Sarah frowns, and stretches a bit. Chelsea tells Sarah she can sleep in the bedroom down in the lair if she wants, and Sarah accepts the offer. Then Chelsea goes to bed, although it takes her a while to actually sleep.
But not as long as Ed. The memories he is dealing with, the guilt, the resentment, and the outright anger, are making it difficult for him. But eventually he does close his eyes.
The door bell rings. Chelsea sees that it's morning, and looks at the clock - 10am? She slept pretty late! She is still dressed from the night before, so she straightens her hair and answers the door. There she sees Cliff. He is an older guy, in his 60s. She smiles at him. "So you have nothing better to do than making armor for me?" He smiles and says, "No ma'am, I don't. Ever since I retired, I was looking for something to do, something that could help others. I wasn't quite thinking this, but I sure am fine with it." He has a few boxes on a hand truck. "You sure you want this stuff so heavy? It's going to work well, but it's going to take a pretty strong person to move it around." She smirks. "Don't worry Cliff, we got it handled." He smiles and says, "Stop by sometime for coffee with me and the misses." She smiles and nods, and hands him an envelope as he wheels the boxes in.
After he leaves, she goes to check on Edward. She pokes her head in and sees he is still asleep. She goes in and shakes him awake, and he looks at her and smiles. She is glad to see it; he hasn't had a whole lot to smile about lately. "Get up sleepy head! I have a present for you." She leads him out to the entry, and gestures for him to open the boxes. He does so, and is stunned! It's a piece of chest armor. He sees that it has a layer of Kevlar coated neoprene next to the skin, a layer of thin steel alloy plates, and another layer of matte finished Kevlar on top. It's pretty heavy, although that's not a problem for Ed. He puts it on, and sees there are diagonal braces that are colored blue. He says, "This is for me?" She nods. "If you are going to be a superhero, you should look the part." He opens the other boxes, and sees a full set of armor, including some metal reinforced boots with high tensile steel plates over the toes. No gloves, but he doesn't need them. Then he opens the last box, and there is a helmet that covers his eyes and lets his hair flow out. "That has a voice activated smart phone built into it. I know you've been seen without a mask for about a year, but this has an emergency gas mask in it. And it displays GPS data on that little screen to the right."
He smiles, this stuff could come in handy! "Why are you doing all this Chelsea? This armor couldn't have been cheap." She agrees, it wasn't cheap! "I don't know. You remember I talked about my premonitions? You are a big deal to me for some reason, so I am taking good care of you." She says, "The guy who made this was a friend of my fathers. He was my dad's commander in the first Iraq war. Even though the war was over so quick, there were still a lot of our guys that got hurt bad, some lost legs and arms that they shouldn't have. So Cliff retired from the military and has been working on state of the art armor ever since. He designed my stuff. I have a similar setup to what you have in my mask."
He flexes and straightens his posture. He really likes the feel of this setup. He walks over to the guestroom and looks in the mirror, and likes what he sees. He comes out and says, "After the lab blew up, I was chased by some guys for a while. I guess they wanted to 'test' me. So I decided to become homeless, make it harder for them to track me down." He paces a bit and then says, "It sure would be nice to have a home, a place to go to, and a place to eat a quiet meal." Chelsea says, "I may be able to set you up with that, but I think we need to spend today finding out about Wonderland." He nods agreement. "Where do we start?" She replies, "Let's start where this all began, the Wonderland lab." Ed smirks, and Chelsea goes to get her Phantasm gear. After she gets her gear on, she brings some jeans and a hello kitty t-shirt – she knows Sarah likes Hello Kitty – to Sarah, and then leads Guardsman to the well entrance. Sarah is VERY impressed by Guardsman's new outfit! She watches as the two of them use their unique methods to get out of the well, and smiles, she is the leader of both of their fandoms, and now she knows both of them! She is so excited she feels like squealing, so she does!
Phantasm does her best to keep up with Guardsman, but his super jumps cover so much ground it's pretty tough. She gets quite winded as she pursues him, and is grateful that he stops to let her catch up. As she is breathing heavily with her hands on her knees, Guardsman scoops her up with one arm under her back, and the other under her knees, and says, "Let me know if the ride gets too rough." Then he takes off leaping towards the old lab! She is actually quite thrilled to travel like this! The adrenaline rush and the amazing view are awe inspiring, but she is also enjoying the closeness with Ed. Ever since her parents' death, she has not been much interested in dating. The guys she has met have been boring at best. And it is so obvious that all they want is her money. She knows she can't be more than friends with Ed, since he really needs someone that is boosted by Wonderland, but she enjoys the ride while she can…
The get to the lab and Phantasm pulls out a device that she puts in the ground. "This is a short range sonic mapper. It should show if there are any open areas under ground." She activates it and watches the picture build on her tablet screen. And she is perplexed. She beckons for Ed to come over. "Why is it that the view goes down about 6 feet and there's nothing?" He replies, "Someone has put some sound dampening material down. We used to do that in our designs to protect energy generating equipment from seismic activity. But…" He looks closer at the image. "…That stuff is all over. They are preventing anyone from viewing the area." She is glad she has a civil engineer with her!
Phantasm closes her eyes, and slowly walks in a circle. Then she senses it. She opens her eyes and walks over to a large rock. "Pick that up." Ed bends down, and lifts it up. It's a huge struggle; this rock weighs over a ton! But he lifts it up and they see some thick black material. Ed tosses the rock aside, and Phantasm pulls out a very large, and obviously very sharp knife, and starts cutting the material. It is several inches thick, and after a few minutes she has a hole cut in it. They see some steel bars, and Ed bends them back. It's a ten foot drop, and Ed jumps in. When he lands, he takes off his gauntlets and beckons for her to jump, he'll catch her! She is a little nervous, but then senses it. It's OK. She leaps down, and Ed catches her and absorbs the energy of the fall, she feels like she fell onto a workout mat. He puts her down and puts his gauntlets back on. They walk down a dark hallway with some rubble in it.
At the end of the hall is a door and they see some light coming from under the bottom! This is not what they expected. Phantasm starts trying to pick the lock, but it's a tough one. She fumbles with it for a minute, and then Ed gets a little antsy. "Allow me, milady." She moves out of the way and he breaks the handle off, and then reaches in with his finger and operates the lock. They open the door and are stunned! Wonderland is in full operation! The room they are looking at is obviously a patient care room, and they see a woman lying on a bed. They walk in and note that there are no workers there. They go over to the woman and see that she is breathing. Ed feels her wrist and can feel that she has not had Wonderland yet. Then they hear some voices coming down the hall.
Ed goes out the door to their entry point, and peers in through the missing doorknob. Phantasm hides behind a workstation area. She notes a small device under the counter that has a graph drawn onto a LED screen. She sees that it has scrawled at the top, 'ST TN RF RG LG' and it hits her – this is a device for measuring the results of Wonderland! She pockets it. Then three people enter the room. Phantasm is absolutely stunned, one of them in her mom, and she has an injection of what looks like Wonderland ready! She is about to leap out when she hears a familiar voice.
"Dr Juarez? Why did you do this to me? Why are you going to risk this girl's life, like you did mine?" Guardsman walks into the room, and walks up to her. Phantasm just watches the scene. This wasn't how she was planning this, but she can work with it… Dr. Juarez sees Guardsman, and is very surprised. "Ed? Is that you?" He nods. "I didn't think you got out of there." He glares at her. "Doc, you know quite well that the lab collapsing on me was just an annoyance. Now answer my question." She is scared; she knows what he is capable of. "We have to make this work, Ed. It will change life on this planet if we can work out the kinks." He is getting a little angry now. "And how many people have to die before you 'work out the kinks'? 132 people died before I was your first success. How many more have died?" She says shakily, "Uh, 241. Sad to say, you are our only success story." He smacks his fist into the table that the girl is lying on. "Is she going to be number 2, or number 242?" Dr Juarez replies, "I-I don't know. We are just going to keep trying. The lives we can save and the money we can make…" Looking at his face, she sees that was the wrong thing to say! Ed picks the girl up and throws her over his shoulder. "You can't take her! She is 77%, the highest we have had since you."
Then Phantasm shows herself. She is livid, steaming mad, but it is all hidden behind her mask. "You are going to stop these experiments right now. I have a little pull with the authorities, and they will be here in mere moments to take this place down." The doctor is shocked! "You can't do that! Once we are done with this, the world will be a better place." Phantasm replies, "I can think of 373 reasons why you are wrong."
Suddenly the door opens, and some security officers poke their guns in the door. Dr Juarez ducks, and then they start firing. Ed puts himself between the unconscious girl and the bullets. He winces with each one that strikes him; they may be bouncing off his armor and skin, but that doesn't mean that they don't hurt! He waves for Phantasm to take the girl & get out of here! She grabs her and throws her over her shoulder and goes into the hallway. Then Ed smashes his fists into the ground causing a tremor that knocks the guards to the ground! Then he fires about a dozen rounds from his SMG to keep them there! Then he runs out of the hallway. He gets to the hole they cut and leaps up and out! He sees Phantasm has gotten the girl a fair ways from the lab, and then he starts smashing the ground with his fists! He strikes over, and over. He knows that sonic proof material will keep the ground from collapsing too much, but it should cause an evacuation. He can see on the HUD that Phantasm has already called the police, and thinks this would be a good time to get out. He leaps over to Chelsea and takes the girl, then leaps towards a nearby hospital. He goes in, tells them what is happening, and then runs out.
Once he is outside, he sees Phantasm. He runs over and grabs her and starts leaping away. As they are moving rapidly, Phantasm says, "That isn't going to stop them. I bet they have another lab somewhere. But I was able to put a tracer on her lab coat, so we should be able to find it." Ed smiles, he likes this arrangement! And he also likes the closeness with Chelsea. She is smart, capable, and pretty to boot! He knows they can't do anything without him hurting her, but never-the-less he can enjoy their closeness…
When they get to the well, Phantasm lets him know when he can go in, which he does. Then she follows right behind him. They go into her lair, and see Sarah is excited to see them! "So did you two have fun on your first date?" Ed starts laughing! And Chelsea takes her mask off and starts laughing too! She says, "Yes, we had fun Sarah. We saved a girl from getting killed by Wonderland, and we, well Guardsman, messed up their lab pretty good. I kinda like having him along for the heavy lifting!" Ed smirks, he'll do missions with Phantasm any time. Sarah says, "Put your mask back on. Let me take a quick vid to put on Instagram." Chelsea figures, why not. She puts it on and leaps into Ed's arms like he was carrying her earlier! Ed is surprised, but thanks to his enhanced reflexes he doesn't drop her. Then she waves, and Sarah gets her video. She gets down and says, "That will be good for your reputation with law enforcement."
She takes off her mask, and Ed takes his off. He feels the suit and sees it is none the worse for wear. "Do I have any bullet holes in my back?" Sarah looks and shakes her head. Ed takes off his gauntlets and his torso armor. He actually got a bit sweaty back there. Chelsea manages to keep a stolid look, but fangirl Sarah drops her jaw and puts her hands on her cheeks. "N-nice abs & pecs, Guardsman. How much do you work out?" He replies, "Usually about 25-30 hours a week, although that is mainly for strength. My appearance doesn't change, no matter what I do."
Chelsea thinks about that. He could be a desk jockey and look like Adonis. She thinks that he was lucky to survive the Wonderland injection, and feels a tinge of jealousy. But then she immediately remembers all that Wonderland has cost him… She looks at Sarah. "Hey, you want a job with me? Housekeeper by day, Phantasm's girl Friday by night?" Sarah gets a look of barely reigned in excitement. "YES! YES! That would be a dream comes true!" Chelsea walks up to her and says, "Along with the dreams, there are always a few nightmares." Then she slaps her shoulder and says, "Welcome aboard. Let me set you up with the retinal code. So you can go up and down when needed." As she is leading her up, she says, "And oh, by the way, the last housekeeper quit two weeks ago. The place is due for a good cleaning." Ed snickers as he follows the girls up the stairs.
Ed goes into the guestroom and lies back on the bed. He is a little hungry. He changes into normal clothes, putting his gear in the closet. Then he walks out and looks for the kitchen. He gets there and sees that Chelsea has changed as well, into a tank top and Capri pants. She is pulling a large bag of pizza rolls out of the freezer, and puts some in and says, "Hungry?" He nods. "Do you have to eat more because of Wonderland?" He says, "Only if I am really active. If I'm not using my abilities I hardly eat at all." 'Wow,' she thinks, 'there are so many good things about this drug, why does it have so many complications?' She heats up a plate of them for Ed and hands it to him. He eats them in a civilized manner, which surprises her. After a year on the street, she figured his manners would suffer. Sensing what she is thinking, "I grew up in a house where manners were important. No matter what happens to me, I won't ever forget that good manners can make a difference."
She makes a few for herself, and they eat a quiet meal. She had shown Sarah where her quarters were going to be, and she assumed she is up there getting ready to clean the house. After they are done, she says, "Come with me." She leads him to a home theater, where she has a HUGE flat screen and a blu-ray player set up. She shows him all of the movies that she owns, which is a lot. He grabs one with a cartoon robot on the front called Wall-E, and asks her to put it on. She does so, and they sit on the couch and watch it. It's one of her favorite movies, she is glad he picked it.
After an hour, they are both a little tired, and they doze off. Chelsea falls asleep leaning on Ed's shoulder, and he starts snoozing as he leans back. When the movie ends, and Peter Gabriel starts singing with his loooow voice, they awaken. Ed has his hand on her thigh, and she has her hands on top of his. They both separate, and stretch a bit. Then Sarah comes in. "Did you two have a fun nap together?" Both of them blush and giggle. Ed puts a thumbs up and says, "This is the first time in a while I could nap and not worry about somebody trying to steal my stuff in a long time." Sarah is busy dusting and Ed stands up. Thanks for the movie; I think I'm going to go shower. I worked up a good sweat in that lab." Chelsea says quietly to Sarah as he walks out, "He picked up a one ton boulder and tossed it aside, and he was hit by bullets like 60 times, although none of them actually pierced his skin. I'd say he deserves a shower." Fangirl Sarah replies, "I'd like to watch that shower, you know, for scientific reasons." Then she giggles again! And she goes back to dusting.
Ed is taking his shower, and enjoying it the best he can. He can feel the warmth a bit, but he is pretty sure the water would be way too hot for most people. As he is showering, he hears Chelsea's voice. "Mind if I observe, you know, for scientific reasons?"
NEXT: Wonderland part 3 – What Price a Hero