JR’s Characters

[JR19759]

Ruby-Star

Chapter 6

The transmission room was dark. The equipment is very sensitive to light so the room has to be. The only light in the room was the red back glow from behind the screen (we never quite figured out why it does that) & the light from the screen it’s self. The face on the screen was that of a girl, around my age. She had short brown hair and she was quite pretty under her sand beaten exterior. Her head was turned to one side, obviously talking to someone else of screen as I came in, but when I shut the door she snapped her head round to face me. Her eyes fixed on me and she gave me a puzzled look.
“Where’s Solar?” She asked as I sat down.
“Dead,” I said. Arcade Angel only ever talked to whoever was leader at the time. I’d only ever seen her once before and we didn’t hit off that well. She shrugged and sighed.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” She said in a tone that told me she wasn’t, “but we have much bigger things to worry about now. You know the EYE unit in the middle of Jago?”
“Yes.” I could tell where this was going.
“We need it destroyed. We’re going to be attempting a big move against AbInc in Zone’s 4 and 5 and most of the surveillance information goes through that place, so we need it offline.” She said in an off-hand manner, as if it was the easiest thing in the world. “Can you do it?”
I didn’t answer. I was fed up of her giving us these supposedly important missions and then not caring when one of us dies. I decided to go on the offensive.
“You know, I’ve just been in Jago. We saw Chaos Trail. He was killed by Zane because he knew something about you.”
“Well that was nice of him.” She said dismissively. “Now are you going to do it or not.”
“Why don’t you do it yourself? Every time we do one of these missions for you, one of us gets ghosted.”
“I can’t because I’m busy doing other things in other Zones.” She said angrily. “I assume that you aren’t going to do it.”
“Yes, I will.” I said reluctantly. “But only because I’ve got a score to settle with Zane. After this I’m not doing anything for you. Is that clear.”
“Yes.” She looked very unhappy about it. “But you will hear from me again.”
“I doubt it.” I said as I switched the screen off. I had a feeling that I was going to regret getting myself into this.

[JR19759]

Zane

Chapter 7

“We’re doing WHAT?”
Venus stared at me in bewilderment. I had just broken the news to everyone and I was getting pretty much the reaction I expected. Venus immediately started shouting, Sparrow was pacing up and down the room, Ruby-Star was looking quite unsure what to say, Night-streamer was just sitting staring out of the window.
“That’s suicide.” Venus carried on. ‘You have to be insane to think that that is a good idea.”
“This is a war.” I retorted.
“Look, I’m not exactly thrilled with walking into the biggest AbInc base this side of Utopia either.” I said before Venus could come up with a reply. “But this is a good opportunity to strike a huge blow on AbInc and, besides, if it means we can bring a building down on Zane’s head then I want in on that.”
Sparrow nodded, he was in. Venus was still looking skeptical. I turned to Night-streamer and Ruby-Star.
“I agree,” said Ruby-Star. “After what happened last night, I would happily go along with any plan that dropped a couple of tons of rubble on that agents head.”
It looked promising now. As much as Venus was opposed to the idea she wasn’t going to go against a majority decision. I looked over at Night-streamer. She was being unusually quiet and that worried me. When something worried Night-streamer, it was definitely worth worrying about.
“Night-streamer,” I said tentatively, “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” She said distractedly without looking up.
“Well are you in or not? It would be nice to know where everyone stands before we go and get ourselves blown up.”
“Yeah, I’m in.” She said in a distracted voice. I could tell that she wasn’t paying that much attention, something was bothering her. I’ll ask her later, I thought as I turned back to Venus.
“So, is this going to be unanimous? I know you don’t like the idea and neither do I, but just think this is a step closer to bringing down AbInc for good. That’s got to be worth dying for, hasn’t it?”
Venus gave a half hearted nod. She wasn’t going to argue, even though I could see that she was still opposed to the idea.
“Ok people.” I said clapping my hands together. “We need to be ready. We’re going in 2 hours. We need to get in before curfew. You know what to do. Ruby-Star, can you help Sparrow. Right people get a move on.”
Everyone started making their way towards the door. I grabbed Night-streamer and signaled for her to come with me.
We walked outside. The sun was high in the sky so we stayed in the shade. There was no wind and it felt like the air was trying to smother us.
“So, what’s bothering you?” I asked. She looked slightly taken aback by the question. “Look, if we are gonna do this we need to all be one the same page. Now what is it?”
“I have a bad feeling about this mission.” She said without making eye contact. “And……..” She trailed off.
“What?”
“I’ve been having these dreams recently. Nightmares.” She started to look very worried. As if she wasn’t sure if she should be telling me this.
“Go on.”
“There are men dressed in black military uniform, marching along this road. And there is a woman crying. She is sitting on the floor in a ruined house, crying. Then I wake up. What does it mean?”
“I don’t know.” I replied. I must admit, that did make a chill go up my spine. It sounded a lot like something that Battery Cola had told me a few days before she was ghosted. “We don’t have time to worry about it now, we need to get ready. We’ll talk about it when we get back.”
“If, you mean,” she said with a wry smile as we went back inside.
“Don’t worry, we’re all coming back,” I said with a smile. “What could possibly go wrong?”

I’m trying to finish these as quickly as possible, as it is highly highly unlikely I will be posting anything tomorrow or the next day, for obvious reasons. However I’m still one image short. Need to think of something fast.

[JR19759]

The Faceless

Chapter 8

It was quiet in the garage without Doc Dread around. It felt strange. The place was exactly how we had left it yesterday, but it didn’t feel right without Doc Dread tampering with some sort of machinery. I idly wandered over to the ‘Vette. Doc had done a good job on it. The suspension looked brand new. I turned the key and let out a strange little joyful noise when the big V8 rumbled into life. Doc Dread truly was a genius when it came to mechanics. The something caught my eye. I switched the engine off and walked over to the table. There was an old newspaper lying open. The headline read “Army to Fight On. Says Chris Rush” The picture and half the story was missing, which was odd.
Before I had any more time to ponder why someone had removed half of the paper, Sparrow walked in.
“We’re all ready for you,” He said solemnly.
“How much explosive have you got?” I asked without looking over to him.
“Half of the dynamite. I didn’t think we’d need a load.”
“Take the lot. We aren’t blowing up some tanker. We’re taking down the biggest building in the Zone. And if you have any of that C-4 that we bought off of the guys from Zone 5 that might be useful.”
“Ok, got it. Do you want us to load up the Charger?”
“No, we’re taking the ‘Vette. You guys load up the van, you can take the explosives in that. Tell Venus to get out Doc Dreads old bike. You’re not gonna all fit in there and she’s the only one who can ride it. We ride in convoy. It’s the only way we can make sure that the van isn’t aimed for by the faceless.”
He nodded as he turned and walked out the door. I turned back to the paper in front of me. I don’t really know why this was bothering me so much. Maybe it was what Night-streamer had said to me outside, I don’t know. It just felt important. I grabbed it off the worktop and shoved it in my jacket pocket. I’d try and find the rest of it when I got back. Sparrow would need some help loading up the van & I needed to get the ‘Vette down and out.
Sparrow & Ruby-Star had got a most of the boxes in by the time I’d got the ‘Vette outside. I opened one of the ones that were yet to be loaded. It was full of straw and contained quite a few sticks of the stuff.
“Is this all of it?” I asked Ruby-Star as she got out the van.
“Sparrow has just gone to get the last boxes.” She said without a smile. She looked around at all the stuff. “Where the hell did you get all this stuff anyway?”
“We scavenged it.” I said as I replaced the lid. “The C-4 we got of the Renegades in Zone 5, good lot, they know quite a few different ways of blowing things up. Did Sparrow pick up the rucksacks?”
“In the van. So, what is the deal here? You get a transmission from some girl in another Zone, who gives you a suicide mission & you obey? Why?”
I could see what she was getting at. To be honest, I don’t really know why our team had this relationship with Arcade Angel, neither Crash nor Lithium Killer had ever explained it to us. It was just the way it had always been.
At that moment Sparrow and Venus walked out of the base carrying the last of the explosives.
“That’s all of them,” Sparrow said to me as he placed the box he was carrying in the back of the van.
“Why exactly do we need all of them?” Venus said as she put her box down. “Aren’t we going to need some of this?”
“This is too big to be done with anything but the full amount,” I said as Night-streamer walked out, shoving her gun into its holster. “Besides, I get the feeling that we won’t need it after this. Anyway, let’s get going. Ruby-Star, you’re with Sparrow. Venus, you got the bike? Good. You go up front. Night-streamer, in the ‘Vette with me. The bazooka is in there. We’ll go at the back.”
We roared out of the base, leaving our home behind in a cloud of dust. Night-streamer flicked on the radio, she liked listening to music in the car. Doc Dread had obviously been at the radio, as it came on with DMT as default. It was half way through a song that I’m sure I’d heard before. It was kinda fast, punky even. The lyrics were quite fitting for the situation. “I’ll tell you all how the story ends, where the good guys die and the bad guys win.” Then we went under the radiation shield and the signal was lost. I turned back to the road. Off in the distance I could see the Hell House. It sent a shiver down my spine even then.

[JR19759]

Arcade Angel

Chapter 9

We screeched to a stop out-side the EYE center just as the sun went down. I could see the faceless scrambling inside through the windows. I grabbed one of the rucksacks loaded with explosives off Sparrow and nodded over in the direction of the door.
“They know we’re here, so everyone guns ready.” The sound of simultaneous gun drawing greeted my words. “When we get inside Sparrow, Venus and Night-streamer make for the generator room that way we should make the biggest impact. Me and Ruby-Star will go to the monitor room. If you guys fail we should at least be able to make it hard for them to see for a few weeks. If all goes well you guys meet us in the monitor room. Ok.”
Everyone nodded. We were grim faced as we drew our guns. I could see the faceless tense behind the glass.
“On three. One- two- three!”
We ran forward as the gun fire started. I shot on faceless in the head through the glass and got another straight in the chest as I got through the door. I held the door open for the others as Venus covered me. Once we were all in, we didn’t hang around. Sparrow’s team went left whilst me and Ruby-Star went right. The faceless chased us as we made our way to the monitor room. Ruby-Star lit one of the dynamite sticks and threw it. It collapsed one of the walls, blocking off most of the faceless. We took care of those that hadn’t been crushed very quickly. The monitor room was pretty much deserted apart from two security guards. The first one to get up was thrown back onto the monitor he had just been at, thanks to a well placed shot from Ruby-Star. I shot the other before he got up and his body slumped forward. I chucked my bag down on the floor and went over to check the screens. I could see Venus on one of the generator room cameras. It was good to see everything was going ok down there; I had worried that they would have a harder time than this.
I turned back to Ruby-Star. She had already started laying out the dynamite. I grabbed a few sticks from the bag and placed them at strategic intervals on the monitor desk. Then I saw something on one of the screens. A huge troop of faceless was heading down the corridor towards where the others where. I grabbed the tannoy mic.
“VENUS, SPARROW, GET OUT OF THERE” I shouted. I saw them look up on the screen. “There’s a load of faceless heading your way, now shift it.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of them move faster. But it didn’t look good; they had at least 20-30 faceless chasing them and the faceless were catching up. Ruby-Star stopped what she was doing and came over to look. Then something happened that made me feel sick inside. The faceless front runners got within shooting range and opened fire. I saw Venus stumble and fall. Ruby-Star gasped. I felt sick. Four of us in little over two days. Sparrow & Night Streamer turned round and started shooting back at the faceless. Sparrow was quite close to Venus & he ran over to her. I breathed again when she responded to him. However, something didn’t feel right. Sparrow tried to help Venus up, but she kept on falling back down. She’d been paralyzed from the waist down by that shot. She looked defeated and helpless, which made it even worse. Venus never acts defeated, even when the situation looks hopeless, so I was feeling pretty dead inside. Then Venus’ voice came crackling over the transmitter.
“Sparrow, you need to go. Get Night Streamer out of here. I’ll hold them back whilst you go.”
I couldn’t see Sparrow’s face on the monitor, but I could tell he didn’t want to go. His voice was broken when he spoke.
“No….. I’m not gonna leave you……. We can’t let it end like this……. Not after everything that we’ve been through.”
“It’s going to be ok. I can’t even get up, let alone run. Just promise me you’ll take care of Night Streamer for me.”
Sparrow nodded. I could hear his tears dripping onto the transmitter.
“Now go. The others need you.” Venus’ was trying to sound strong, but I could tell she was close to crying as well. Then she addressed me. I guess it was stupid of me to assume she hadn’t wanted us to hear that conversation, but I never had Venus down as one for the dramatic gesture. “Hey, X.”
I fumbled with my transmitter before raising it to my lips.
“Venus.” My voice sounded strangled. I hadn’t realized how choked up I was getting.
“I’m sorry about this, but it’s our best hope. You understand don’t you?” She sounded very relaxed. I could see the faceless closing in on the monitor. Venus couldn’t have more than a few seconds left.
“Yes, I understand.” I said, trying to sound as strong as I could. “I’m sorry I got you into this situation.”
“Don’t worry. Now you need to get out of there. Sparrow and Night Streamer should be nearly with you. And anyway, I’ve got a date with some faceless.”
“Ghost a few for me.”
There was a distant crunching sound, which I assumed was Sparrow and Night Streamer reaching the rubble pile down the corridor. I nodded to Ruby-Star to go help them. As she left I went back on the transmitter
“Got to go, Sparrow and Night Streamer are here.”
“Take care of them X. They need you.”
I didn’t say anything. I could see the faceless where pretty much on top of Venus now and I could hear the gunfire starting. Then I saw Zane striding down the corridor towards them. The blood in my veins froze as he raised his blaster, took aim and fired. Venus went limp, her blaster falling from her lifeless hand. I let out a howl of anger. I was barely aware that Ruby-Star had returned with Sparrow and Night Streamer. I was concentrating on the screen, willing Zane to drop dead. He didn’t. He just turned around and walked away from Venus’ limp body, leaving the faceless to body bag her.
I turned round to the others. Night Streamer was lent on Sparrow’s shoulder. Both were crying. Ruby-Star looked shell shocked. I grabbed the detonator out of my bag and thrust it into Sparrow’s hand. He looked at me bewildered.
“Get out of here.” I said in a steely voice. “When you get to a safe distance, you know what to do.”
“But, what are you going to be doing?” He asked. I could tell that he was finding it hard to come to terms with what I was planning to do. Night Streamer had raised her head and was looking at me in disbelief. She’d guessed what I was doing as well.
“I’m not going. Zane is going to pay for all our friends that he has ghosted over the years.”
None of them looked very willing to walk out of the building without me.
“Don’t say anything.” I said as Sparrow opened his mouth to speak. “I know what I’m doing and nothing you can say is going to change my mind. Now go.”
I waited for a few seconds before reaching for my gun. They still stood their ground.
“I won’t have any problem in stunning all of you and dragging you outside, taking the detonator and doing it myself, from the inside. There is no point fighting it. I will try to get out but if I’m not out in 10 minutes, then do it. Now go, before I make you.”
I set my blaster. Sparrow still didn’t look happy, but he finally bowed to my wishes. As they left, I went over to the tannoy. All I needed to do was get Zane’s attention and get the faceless out of the generator room. And I knew just how to do both.
“This is a staff announcement.” I said in a superstore tannoy voice. “Would Zane the agent please report to the generator room for a major dose of ass-kicking. And if any faceless should want to take part, may I advise them to start looking for the detonator; otherwise they are going to go in many different directions, all at the same time. Thank you.”
Now all I had to do was wait.

[JR19759]

[JR19759]

Finishing off the Renegade Chronicles with a group shot

Chapter 10

The generator room was dark, just what I needed for my plan. I hid behind one of the gas tanks, making sure I had a clear view of the door. I didn’t have to wait long before Zane turned up. He and his stupid hair came through the door almost silently, like a bat. He had his gun drawn and raised, ready to shoot.
“Where are you, Renegade?” He hissed. His words echoed round the room, bouncing off the walls and tankers.
“I’m here somewhere Zane. You’ll just have to come and get me.” I taunted. I slid across behind the neighboring tanker. Zane started looking around the tankers. Every so often he would stop and sniff the air. It was as if he was trying to smell me out. I grabbed a loose bolt from my tanker and threw it across the room. As it landed, Zane wiped round and blasted it before it had bounced. He didn’t even wait to see what it was before turning back to his search. I edged round until I had a better view of what he was doing. He was gliding between the generators on the other side of the room.
I checked the time on my transmitter. The 10 minutes were nearly up. I highly doubted Sparrow would go through with the plan, so I found one of the bombs that they had already planted. The remote detonator was still active, which was helpful. I set it for 2 minutes. If Sparrow didn’t press the button, the place would still go up anyway.
Whilst I was preoccupied by the detonator, I didn’t notice the shadow descending over me. I felt a sharp blow to the back of my head and I feel forward. I rolled over to see Zane standing over me with his gun pointed in my face.
“Renegade scum!” He spat on the floor next to me and grabbed me by the collar, hoisting me into the air. His strength was impressive, seeing as he wasn’t built much different to me and I’m not exactly Mr. Muscleman in any respect. “What were you expecting to accomplish by this?”
He holstered his gun and ripped the detonator from the bomb, raising it to my face as if to show me how foolish I had been.
“Well, I was hoping that you would show me how to do the splits with explosive assistance,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. “But I guess you’re busy at the moment. Shall I come back later?”
Zane dropped me, as if in disgust. As I tried to get up he booted me, so I sprawled head over heels back onto the floor. I couldn’t help wondering what Sparrow was doing. He was cutting it very fine if he was going to do it and if he wasn’t, Venus and I would both die for no reason.
Zane knelt down beside me. He looked quizzical, as if something was puzzling him and had been for some time.
“Why do you fight?” He asked me. I was taken completely off guard; it wasn’t exactly the question I was expecting.
“It’s the system” I replied. “The system is the problem.”
“The system is perfect,” Zane retorted haughtily, getting to his feet and drawing his gun.
“The system is wrong,” I countered.
Just then, a sweet sound reached my ears. The beep of a detonator count-down. I acted fast. I jumped up and grabbed Zane in a bear hug. I felt the blaster round hit me in the chest, but I didn’t care. I just held on for dear life. I just needed a few seconds, just a few seconds before the blackness could take me in its arms. Then, it happened. I saw them all. Venus, Doc Dread, Crash, the lot. All my friends standing before me, smiling. And I saw Zane’s face, terrified as the blinding light grew around us, enveloping us in its warm embrace. I wasn’t afraid. I had never felt so calm. And as the light clouded my vision, I did something I hadn’t done in years. I laughed.

Epilogue

The sun was rising over Jago. It brought sharp relief over the last night’s events. The EYE center lay in rubble on the spot where it had once stood, imposing, over the city. There were no signs of life. None except the three Renegades, standing, motionless amongst the ruins. Scout Sparrow, Night Streamer and Ruby-Star. They stood among the shell of the building which had, in some aspect or another, claimed so many of their friends. They were so wrapped up in memories, the failed to notice the lone figure walking towards them through the destruction.
“Well done” Arcade Angel’s words cut through the silence like a knife. “You have done well.”
None of them looked up at her. She came closer, but still the three Renegades did not move.
“We need to go,” She said in a quiet, calm voice. “Faceless will be all over this place in an hour.”
Sparrow looked up, before striding towards his fellow Renegade.
“You killed them.” His voice shook with barely controlled rage. His hand was wavering very close to his holster. “You sent them on a suicide mission.”
Arcade Angel did not recoil or step back. Her face was solemn but not uncaring. Her eyes glistened with tears in the morning sunlight.
“I am sorry,” She said as the first tear crawled down her cheek. “I truly am. If it could have been done any other way, it would have. I know you probably want to get out your blaster right now and shoot me down, but that won’t bring them back.”
She looked at the somber faces in front of her and felt a wave of pity for those three. Those three who had given so much and lost so much without answers.
“Come with me,” She said. “We can make sure that none of your friends have died in vein. Come with me and I can explain everything.”
As she walked away, the others followed.
The night was over.
A new day had dawned.

Any critiques are welcome, especially this time on the story that has accompanied the characters.

[The Atomic Punk]

Great story! It strikes a lot of themes familiar to most fiction readers. So it was easy to follow. Even for non-fans, there was enough dialogue and interaction between the characters that the setting was identifiable. The setting was almost secondary to the action.

The editor in me notes: ““We can make sure that none of your friends have died in vein.” That should be “vain.”

The designs are solid and complemented each other well. You definitely have an eye for making characters part of the same world. And, of course, the group shots at the end.

[JR19759]

Thanks AP. I will put up parts two and three up if people wish (in the story writers corner). There was meant to be a part four, but I never got round to finishing it, but part 1 is the only one that works as a stand alone story.

Anyway, new business, new Solarian villains.
The Eyes Of Azgul

“The word of Azgul is law and law breakers will be terminated.”

[son4]

Nice designs , let me ask you something. How do you come up with your colors ? is there a process to it or do you just play by ear?
Your color scheme are consistently well put together and its always something I get stuck on.

[Scatman]

Great eye guy!

[JR19759]

Thanks Scatman. Eye was inspired by you for that one, eye think you’ll know which one (eye think eye should stop talking like this)

Son4, it’s hard to answer that question because it’s different for every one. Good tips are, concentrate on what sort of hero you are creating, a night-time hero like Batman, Punisher or Daredevil will have generally dark colours (blacks, greys, dark reds/blues) for example. I usually keep to a small range of colours for costumes, 4 being the maximum, otherwise the costume ends up being to overworked and you have one of Kitty Pryde’s 80’s costumes and no-one wants that. When making teams try to make them look like they belong together, unless you are going for the Justice League/ Avengers deal. Try to give a repeating colour scheme, you don’t have to use the colours in the same way like the Fantastic Four do, but shared costumes are the easiest way of saying ‘this is a team’. So far your guys are all looking pretty good on the colour scheme front. Just give thought to how you are going to design your main bad guy now, you’ve used a lot of black and red so far, so find the opposite to use for your villain. Villains should always be the opposite of the heroes when it comes to costume, Superman and Spider-Man both wear Red and Blue so Lex Luthor and Green Goblin dress in green and purple. Batman wears dark, muted colours, so Joker wears loud, vibrant colours.
Hope this helps.

[JR19759]

Anyway, back to new villains.
Azgul

“Difference is inefficient and only leads to conflict. There is no purpose to difference, Solarian. The universe would be better served if life was terminated and remodelled in a new image. My image.”

[JR19759]

“On the planet Magnus Superior there is a great portal, known as the Eternal Gate. Where it leads, no-one knows. Some say it is the entrance to another plain of existence, where the Ancient Ones, the Elder, live, the home of the great Light. Others say it is a tunnel to a parallel world. All we do know is that it is guarded by an immortal race of warriors known as the Guardians. They do not sleep, they do not eat and they can not be hurt. They will only let you pass if you can defeat their leader and since the dawn of creation only one has ever bested him and he never returned from the portal.”

[Alexander of Limbo]

i’m really looking forward to the development of the solarian stories, the first villains are great

[livewyre1014]

creepy eye guys…AMAZING!!! blew my mind, concept and execution is perfect, well done sir!

[Author]

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