Amazing Fantasy#12
A Mighty Tale Told in the Mighty Marvel Manner!
Videoman
Game Over!
Frances Byte wasn't the most popular girl. She wasn't the most unpopular either, but she was usually considered in the running for that dubious honor. She had managed to make it a full eighteen years with all her limbs intact, a few scars aside. She had good grades, excellent in fact, but as far as the rest of the student body at Midtown High School was concerned she was pretty much persona non grata.
And as far as Frances was concerned, that was just fine. She didn't hate people, but people didn't seem to care that much about her. So, she worked at it, making herself as invisible as possible. She joined a few clubs, at least enough to check off any admission requirements, but she kept her mouth shut and head down.
To the rest of the student body, Frances was just a name on the roll sheet. Except to Bonnie. No, to Bonnie Frances was a special project. She had been tormenting Frances since pre-school, and showed no signs of stopping.
Frances had tried ignoring her and going to the teachers. All that got her was several stab wounds to the back and worse when the teachers couldn't do anything as they never actually saw Bonnie being anything other than a perfect little angel. So, Frances learned to deal with the taunts, the late-night phone calls, and the occasional dead animal slipped inside her locker.
One dark and stormy day, however, Frances had made the mistake of fighting back. It was a quick punch, clumsily thrown, but it was enough to connect with Bonnie's nose. The blood was barely a trickle, but it was enough to get Frances after school detention. When she was finally released, the sky was dark gray and growing black.
Frances was so absorbed she failed to see Bonnie and her friends standing around the bus stop sign. "Going somewhere nerd?" Bonnie hissed, her voice nasally thanks to the tissues shoved up her nostrils.
"Bonnie, I said I was sorry!" Frances clutched her books to her chest. It was a gesture less of protecting the papers and more defense, as she saw a few pen knives drawn.
"Oh, you're going to be sorry." Bonnie grinned. "Let's give her a haircut!"
Frances threw her books at the nearest girl and broke into a sprint. The streets were of course empty as she darted through a series of alleys. Bonnie's posse seemed to be cutting off every avenue as she found herself in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
She didn't stop to look at the street signs. Her heart was hammering as she slipped past loose boards and looked around the piles of scrap. "A junkyard? Good enough!"
She dashed past rusted cars and rotting refrigerators. She saw a large black cluster near the center of the yard. Her lungs were burning as she limped towards the promised haven. Bonnie and company followed close by.
"Bonnie, are you sure she went in here?" One of the girls asked. Bonnie slapped her.
"Of course I'm sure you moron! Spread out, that little bitch is here, I know it!" Bonnie seethed. Frances drew her knees close to her chest and breathed slowly. Looking around, she saw that her makeshift fort was a forest of broken arcade cabinets. Multi-colored images surrounded her, showing brave heroes and weird monsters. The closest one stood out the most though.
"Videoman?" She eyed the blue and white figure on the front of the machine. She vaguely heard of the game, but less due to its popularity and more the rumors around it. She heard arcades had been ordering scores of the games then shipping them back after the players started getting sick. Something about the lights, maybe?
The clouds overheard grew darker. Shouts from the yard's dog snapped her out of thoughts. Bonnie yelled at her companions to run as the giant mastiff chased after them. The idea of Bonnie being bitten was comforting, but now all that meant was she was still trapped by an animal.
She wasn't sure what happened next. She heard rumbling and the tell-tell sound of thunder. Before she could slip out of the machines, the entire world turned white. She felt a bolt of searing heat go through her shoulder and shoot all the way past her feet. The white face of Videoman looked on as she fell forward.
Instead of simply hitting the machine, Frances continued to fall. The screen gave way as she dropped into a void. Blue and white pixels danced in front of her as she fell, her clothes seared away. The pixels grew into squares as she fell faster. Her mind reeled as she stopped.
Not just moving, but everything. She felt nothing. Her breathe was gone. The unmistakable beating of her heart was silent. Everything was numb. "Am I dead?"
Her mind was still working. After the falling feeling stopped, she opened her eyes. Or at least she thought she did.
"What?" She looked down. Her hands were white, square, and flat?
Frances looked around. Her entire body was now flat, no, two dimensional! Her face was a simple square, with no visible mouth. "What happened?" Her voice was flat and distorted, like she was talking through a bad microphone. She also had no idea how she talked, as she lacked any lips, and to the best of her knowledge, lungs and a tongue.
"Ok, something happened involving that video game, I'm sure!" She walked, on two shaky legs, towards the video games. The Videoman cabinet was charred and the screen white. "Did I die? Or did I switch places with the character?"
She heard the watch dog snarling. She turned and realized how tall she was. "I must be over six feet!" The dog growled and charged. Frances thrust a fist out, sending a yellow square out. It struck the dog, sending the animal away, yowling in pain.
"Huh. No idea what that was, but it was useful." She walked out the yard and into the street. "What do I do now?"
Walking on the sidewalk provided no answers. The few people she saw screamed and ran. Spotting a phonebooth, she slipped inside. Grabbing the receiver, she thought about talking to the operator when the box sparked. "Hello?" A woman's voice came out of the receiver.
"Yes? Who is this?" Frances marveled at how she made the call.
"You can call me Jean. Hold on…" the woman went silent, but Frances felt something, like there was someone else in the booth with her.
The feeling stopped. "Are you still there?" her voice rang out over the phone.
"Yes, what just happened?"
"It would take too long to explain. Stay put, I'll send a friend to meet you. His name is Kurt." The connection went dead.
Frances waited a few minutes. The sun was fully down by now. She couldn't stay there forever as the streets would be teeming with people. Right when she opened the booth door she suddenly smelled the stench of brimstone. Something large had landed on the roof.
"What?" Frances shouted as the blue skinned…no, furred, figure leaped down. Clad in a bright red costume, his hands and feet ending in two pointed digits, he bowed before her. His tail flexed slightly.
"Good evening," his German accent was thick enough to almost be comical. "My name is Kurt Wagner, sometimes known as the amazing Nightcrawler. Whom am I addressing?"
"Um…Frances, but I suppose Videoman? That was the character's name on the machine." From there a brief recap of what happened in the past few hours. Kurt, to his benefit, nodded slightly and kept silent as she talked.
When she finished, Kurt took her hand in his. "Child, we must hurry. I see cars coming." The world was enveloped in smoke.
When Frances could see again, they were on a roof overlooking the street. "How?"
"I am a mutant, one of those rare few with powers, ah, I'll let someone else handle the pitch." Nightcrawler looked over the city. "As much as I would love to look at the night sky, let's talk about you. You picked up the phone and dialed my friend Jean. May I ask how you know of us?"
"I didn't mean to, it just sort of came to me." Frances talked slowly, trying to piece everything together. "I remembered reading about the mutant expert Dr. Xavier, so I figured I would call him, but I never dialed! It was like the machine did what I wanted it to do without my doing anything!"
"Impressive!" Nightcrawler's yellow eyes looked at her two-dimensions. Actually… she wasn't sure what he was looking at, but he seemed nice about it.
The sounds of breaking glass and explosions interrupted her thoughts. Rushing to the edge of the roof, she saw a nearby arcade going up in flame. "Those kids, what are they doing?"
"Causing quite a ruckus." Nightcrawler crouched on the edge. "Well, if you're interested in being a hero I could use some backup."
"Um, ok?"
Frances would have blinked had she any eyelids. As it was the arcade was quickly filling up with smoke. Several machines were busted open, flames licking hungrily at the wooden casing. The players, ranging from children to adults, were either in a state of panic, rage, or despair.
"Do you have anything to stop the fire?" Nightcrawler wrapped his arms and tail around the nearest people and vanished. He reappeared a second later. "I took them outside." He continued to appear and reappear as she looked around the burning building.
"Ok, let's try this!" She thrust her hands out. A massive yellow square shot out and immediately crashed to her feet. The fire it landed on was smothered. "Well, not sure if that's helping, but why not?" She started to move slowly forward, punching her arms out and snuffing out the fires. "No, too slow!"
She put her hands down in front of her and concentrated. A solid bar appeared before her. Slowly moving her hands apart, the bar widened into a rectangle. Rushing forward, she snuffed out the fire in every direction. "Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this!"
"Indeed, a pity I'll have to destroy you both." A strange armored figure stepped into the room. He seemed to unaffected by the smoke and flame. His armor was green and white, with complicated circuitry interwoven into the metal itself. In his hand was a large metal tablet with the words Fear, Doubt, and Hate engraved on large buttons.
"Who are you?" Frances put her hands up in what she hoped was a threatening gesture.
"I'm called quite a few things, but beings from this dimension know me best as Psycho-Man." He glanced down at the tablet. "Interesting. You have no trace of doubt, but your hate and fear are rising."
"Didn't you fight the Fantastic Four once?" Frances tried stalling for time as she saw Nightcrawler creeping in the background. Faster than she could blink, Psycho-Man backhanded the blue furred mutant.
"Indeed, and many more besides. I suppose this is where I explain my master plan?" He adjusted a few knobs on the tablet.
"That would be helpful, yes."
"Appearances are rather important, aren't they? Very well. I've noticed that you humans are obsessed with electronic media, especially these new devices you dub 'video games'. It was child's play to implement dozens of them with my special devices. You see humans are capable of many things, but their emotions, ah, those are a treasure. Through them I can assert my will and create an army of slaves to serve my people back home."
"Through video games?"
"Indeed. People fear losing, losing causes doubt, and doubt can inspire hate. All three emotions can be triggered by say, a difficult game? Moving a knight across a haunted castle to rescue a princess, or directing a dot to eat other dots with increasing difficulty. You should see the levels I can raise with games based on your popular culture."
Frances leveled both arms and fired. The yellow square zipped out and struck the Psycho-Man dead center. The armored figure staggered back, but his grip on the tablet never loosened. "Impressive. Had I been flesh and blood I've no doubt that would have rendered me unconscious." The ceiling started to sag as the flame raced up the walls. "I see our game is coming to an end. You can stay and fight with me some more, or you can rescue your friend." He pointed to the now rising form of Nightcrawler.
"How about option three?" Nightcrawler vanished. Frances blinked and she was outside. The Psycho-Man stood still in front of them.
Frances fired again. Psycho-Man took the blast and fell over, his head rolling away. "What?" Frances poked at the empty helmet. "It was empty?"
"Hmm." Nightcrawler looked down into the chest. "It looks like he was controlling the suit by a remote?" He didn't say anything about the tiny chair or minuscule monitors inside the chest.
"So, did we win?" Frances looked around at the burning building. Sirens grew closer.
"Sometimes this is as good as we can do." Nightcrawler shrugged. They vanished, leaving the Psycho-Man's empty suit in the gutter.
Back in the Microverse, the real Psycho-Man looked over his machines. "Installing the teleporter inside my suit was a rather good move on my part." He mused. The machines spat out printouts. "Good level of emotions. The false corporations should obscure my trail, but I can't guarantee the breach won't be an isolated incident." He started to manipulate controls. The special software in the games would be deactivated within the hour. "A profitable venture, but this Videoman figure bares future observation."
Back at the scrapyard, Frances pointed to the circle of arcade machines. "This is where it happened."
"Interesting." Nightcrawler examined the burnt machines. "I'm no scientist, but you said lightning? Have you tried switching back?"
"Haven't tried to. I wasn't much before, but I suppose this body would be hard to explain to the school."
Frances stood in the center of the machines and concentrated. Nothing happened. "Maybe you need lightning?" Nightcrawler looked at the darkened sky.
"I'm not sure-" Frances suddenly pitched forward. The world turned white as she felt herself filling out. When she opened her eyes, she was on her knees in the dirt. "I'm human again?"
"So it would seem." Nightcrawler eyed the burned Videoman machines carefully. "But can you do it again?"
"I have no idea, and I don't care!" Frances scrambled to her feet. She kissed the blue furred adventurer on the cheek. "I got to get home before I'm grounded forever!" She took off. Nightcrawler watched her leave. He chuckled softly.
"I wonder if we'll see her again?" He shot another glance at the burned and ruined arcade games before vanishing in a puff of brimstone.
The end
Amazing Letters
They Call Me Bruce
Great chapter here fella
The story is original. Videoman was based on the character of the same name which first appeared in "Videoman" Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, NBC, October 24, 1981. Credits to Christy Marx (script)
Frances Byte is inspired by the character Francis Byte who appeared in "The Education of a Superhero", Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, NBC, October 1, 1983. Credits to Dennis Marks (script).
Nightcrawler first appeared in Giant-Sized X-Men I#1 (May 1975) with credits to Len Wein (script), Dave Cockrum (pencils/inks), Peter Iro (inks), Glynis Wein (color), John Costanza (inks)
Psycho-Man first appeared in Fantastic Four Annual #5 (November 1967), with credits to Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks), Stan Goldberg (colors), and Sam Rosen (letters)
Be here next time when the Grim Ghost rides again!
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