Chapter 3, please review all right?
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"We must all not speak of this, he says. No one would believe us he, says." Alex said as they walked to James' house, side by side mocking the teacher along the way. "I don't care what he says, I know what I saw! A giant freaking ROBOT! And I know there's something you haven't told me James, we've been raised in pretty much the same God-Damned CRIB for crying out loud, so SPILL IT BUSTER!"
James sighed for the fifth time since they started walking home. "I'll tell you when we get home, alright? This isn't exactly something I need everyone and their dog knowing."
Alex groaned before her shoulders slumped in defeat. "All right, but you are so coming clean with this, got it?"
James nodded as they finally arrived at his house, they entered closing the door behind them then both he and Alex set their bags in the corner of the living room.
His house. The phrase seemed odd since he had spent the bulk of his years living with Alex in her house. Since his mother's death his father had thrown himself into his work, flying from country to country, business to business. Since a young child couldn't live on his own he was sent to the Yorkshire Household where he was raised along side Alex, the two seemingly inseparable. It wasn't until he turned fourteen that he had finally returned 'home' for more than a few days, the days his father would be around.
In a way the tables were turned now, since Alex seemed to spend a lot of her time staying over at his place. He turned the downstairs lights on and went to the recreation room in the basement of the house. James went to a spot in front of the TV and tuned around, considering the best way to do this. Alex walked over and sat on the armrest of the couch, looking at him with her arms crossed. "OK, get on with it."
James nodded and looked at her. "Giving you far warning though, it is kinda... weird."
"What do you mean by 'weird'?"
James took a deep breath and concentrated on the energy he felt before. He could feel it within him, as if it was waiting for his call. With a deep breath he directed that energy to surround him like it did in the tunnels, to wrap his body in a glowing barrier. He could see Alex's eyes widen as the energy responded, surrounding him in a blue glow like he was a human glow-bug.
"I think I got superpowers for whatever reason. Pretty neat huh?" He smiled at Alex trying to make his friend feel at ease.
In response she fainted, falling onto the couch.
James sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Alex! Come on, Dick Grayson didn't faint when he found out Bruce Wayne was Batman."
O
Meanwhile...
O
He sat on the old box, leg lazily banging against it as he looked over the old abandoned warehouse office and waited for tonight. The Benmark Shipment. In all honesty he had little idea what it was, some form of chemicals. It could have been explosives, it could have been toxic waste, and it could have been a new version of Windex for all he knew.
But it was valuable. All he had to do was steal it, find out what it was, and then go through his Black Market contacts to find out who wanted it.
Yes, Jester was sure whatever the hell it was it would sell for a high price. A loud ringing was heard and the large bald man next to him reached into his pocket to pull out a small cell phone. He opened it up and pressed a button before holding it to his ear.
"Duh, yeah? Dis is Taro. ... Uh huh. ... Uh huh. ... Really? I'll tell da boss den. ... Dah, yeah, thank you."
The big man closed the phone and put it into his pocket. Jester turned to his right hand, Damien Taro. Not very smart, but strong and loyal.
He preferred loyal over smart anyway. Taro turned to look at him. "Dah, dat was Wasten boss. He says da shipment been delayed, till tomorrow night."
Jester sighed and stood up pushing himself away from the box. "Nothing we can do about that then. We wait."
Compared to Taro's 6'7 height with a football player's build Jester was a much shorter 5'8 and with a thin build. His Wild Cards feared him however, that 5'8 man could beat any one they knew of. Wearing black leather pants, combat boots, black cotton tank top and a black cloak he looked frightening enough despite his stature. His face, however, was an unknown. He wore a white plastic mask over it with clown-style red lips. The holes for the eyes were covered in tinted glass and there was enough of an opening in the mouth of his mask to breath easily. The only make anyone knew of was a tattoo of two cards, a joker and an ace of spades on his upper right arm. All members of the Wild Cards had the same tattoo in the same spot.
Taro meanwhile dressed himself in a business suit with a 60's mafia style hat. In a case next to him was an M60 with three boxes of ammunition. The strong man proved that, while not 'smart' he was more than able to lay down heavy fire with the biggest of guns.
"Come now Taro. We'll tell the boys. Tomorrow night is our night then!"
O
Meanwhile, back at the house...
O
Alex moaned slightly as she opened her eyes. As she began to sit up on the couch she was laying on as she heard her friend's footsteps approach. "Oh boy, James I had this real weird dream, we got to your place and you started to... glow?" She looked at her friend, still surrounded in a blue glow, as he sat down next to her. "On second thought I must be dreaming still."
"No dream Alex." James said sitting next to her. "But it IS weird."
Alex laid a hand on her friend's shoulder, the glow warming her hand as she touched it. "This is for real? Wicked!"
James smiled, feeling better now his friend wasn't freaking out. "That's not all, check this out!" James pointed a hand at a book across the room. With some concentration a glow started to surround the book as it lifted off the ground and started to float over to them. With a little effort James set it gently on his friend's lap.
"Cool!"
"Gets better." James said standing up and moving away from the couch. He started to lean back until Alex was sure he'd fall backwards, but instead his feet left the floor and he crossed his ankles together as he floated in mid-air. "No need for a lazy-boy!"
"Oh, now that is totally cool!" Alex said clapping her hands. "How'd you get these powers?"
"I don't know! I was screaming at how damn dark it was in the caves, then next thing I know I'm glowing! Came in handy too. I wandered around until those robots found me."
Now Alex started to worry. "What happened to them? You didn't get hurt did you?"
"Believe it or not, no." James said setting himself back on his feet. "One of them took a big chunk of the roof out that landed on top of me, but I shrugged it off like one of your swings in a pillow fight. Heck, I made these weird blasts from my hands and took them both down and made it look almost easy! I don't know what is going on, but I'm getting these weird powers and they saved my bacon from those 'bots." He went over to a pool table in another part of the room, leaning on a hand against it as he tuned to look at Alex body still glowing. "It's just... weird."
"Yeah, it's like your turning into the Green Lantern or something. Only Blue." Alex said as her eyes lit up. "Hey, there's an idea!"
James looked at her, head tilted to one side. "What?"
Alex smiled and leveled a finger at James. "You could be a genuine Super- Hero!"
James blinked back before smiling back and nodding slightly. "Yeah... I could, couldn't I?"
O
Since the first play of Simon Grant High School in 1942 at the height of the Second World War, entitled Star-Land vs. Hole-Place, SGHS has held one play scripted by students during the Liberty City Star Parade.
Six months ago, the student directing the new play asked James and Alex to make a 'Batman-ish' costume for a superhero play. The two of them put their heads together and made an original one-of-a-kind costume for the play. Before it was done, however, their costume was dismissed for a costume of a yellow and black striped shirt, black sweat pants, an old Batman Halloween mask with yellow styrofoam balls stuck on the points, and added cheap transparent wings. Wasp-Man was born, and Alex and James' as- of-yet-unnamed hero uniform was completed for reasons they didn't remember, stuck in a box and placed it in the attic where it stayed until today unseen by anyone else.
Alex ventured into the dusty room and brought the box back down. She handed it to James who retreated into his room. Alex waited outside his room as James gave the costume a try out. After a moment he called out, saying he was ready.
She opened the door and looked at him as he adjusted a glove. The costume was made of black spandex, from ankle to neck to wrist. Black gloves and boots covered his hands and feet, a cape curtained from his shoulders to his ankles. The mask was 'Batman-ish' save the lack of ears/points. They came up with an original symbol for their costume as well, a black circle with a thick blue ring with points extending from the ring like a compass. The longest points were at the north, south, west and east points, the shortest at north-west, south-west, north-east and south-east points. In between those points were points that were slightly longer than the shorter ones. This symbol was present on the front of the chest and the back of the cape. Smaller versions of it was on the mask's forehead, the back and palm of the gloves and the sides of the boots. The last detail was a flame- like design going from the eyes to make a half-circle around the forehead circle. The final article of clothing was the black 'utility belt' with blue buttons that wrapped around his waist with several pockets of varying sizes.
"Damn boy, you look handsome!"
"Thanks Alex. The symbol on it fits too; it's like the glow around me, the blue ring with spikes on the black circle."
"Thanks, made it myself. Got the idea from seeing an eclipse."
James turned to the mirror and took another long look at himself. "All I need now is a name."
"Blue Star?" Alex suggested.
"No."
"Light-Man?"
"Too Cliché. I need an original name no one else would think of."
Alex scratched her chin in thought as James looked at the symbol again. It did look like an eclipse, the black moon with a blue corona of light around it. Suddenly the name hit him.
"Corona." He said simply.
"What?" Alex said turning to him.
James smiled and held his arms out, pinching the edges of his cape with his fingers. "My superhero name. I am Corona!"
Alex smiled back. "Has a nice ring to it. I like it superhero. Now, get to street clothing. If you going to fly off, you can't do it from your house, secret identity and all that."
James nodded and started to change as Alex left the room. After he had changed he put the costume in an old bag and left his room to join Alex to find someplace to take off into the sky from.
He couldn't wipe the grin from his face, he was looking forward to this.
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Profile: Simon Grant High School Occupation: Institute of Higher Learning Likes: None Dislikes: None
On June, 23rd of 1804 a man known as Simon Grant founded a small outpost in the State of New York. Calling the outpost Liberty Point it attracted fishermen, fur traders, lumberjacks and men of other trades. By 1846 it had become a small city. In that year, forty-two years on the day after the founding of Liberty Point, Simon Grant died of old age. To celebrate his life and to honor his death the city announced the Liberty Point Star Parade. Although it was held each year afterwards it wasn't until August, 11th, 1868 that the Star Parade was officially made an annual event. On October, 2nd, 1888 Liberty Point was officially renamed Liberty City and the Liberty point Star Parade became the Liberty City Star Parade.
On June, 23rd 1904 then Mayor Timothy Samuel hammered in the last nail of the new Simon Grant High School. It remained a standard high school since it's completion until 1942 during the height of the Second World War. During the Star Parade students of the Simon Grant High School put on a somewhat low-budget play, 'Star-Land vs. Hole-Place' a combination of satire and drama about the soldiers in the war to lift town spirits about those who went of to war. Each following year the SGHS would put on a new play, scripted and performed by the students of the school, a tradition which continues today.
SGHS has been updated and modernized since it's construction in 1904. In addition to the usual classrooms it has a wood workshop, metal workshop, small garage, dark room for photography, two gymnasiums, a football field with bleachers and an area for a concession stand, a track and field area, two computer rooms (One Macintosh, the other PC), a nurses room, councilor's room, teacher's lounge, music room and cafeteria. Other areas include storage rooms, bathrooms, showers and the janitors closet of cleaning things.
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