Tales of the Parodyverse

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Mon Apr 03, 2006 at 09:09:40 pm EDT
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Semi-Transparent Lad #15
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Semi-Transparent Lad #15

"The rains starts to fall"


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Apartment 3b.
Whispering Pines apartment building, Goth Haven.
Monday Morning, 9-ish.

Laura Smith is watching a press conference on TV.

"On the front steps of his company, Thomas Marrow is speaking out against the government unjustly arresting his only daughter & her fellow teammates." The news commentator said.

Laura's attention was interrupted by the noise of someone knocking on a door. It wasn't her door, so it must be her neighbor, Ben Hermes' door. She got up from her couch & then unlocked her door to see who in the hallway. There were two men: one was older then the other. He looked to be in his mid to late 30's, he has blond hair. He is wearing a pair of dress pants & a suit jacket. Under the jacket could be seen a black t-shirt. On his feet were a pair of tennis shoes. The other man, who was standing a little to close to the other for Laura's comfort, looked to be in his 20's. He was wearing all dark clothing, he had shoulder length brown hair. In his ears were the tale tell earphones of an i-Pod.

The older gentlemen was in fact knocking on Ben's door.

"You looking for Ben?" Laura asked.

They turned to look at her & the older one said: "Yes. Do you know where he is?"

"Yeah. He's down at the Gulp 'N Go doing a shift." Laura replied, then asked: "Are you to from that group Ben's part of?"

"Yes." The older of the two said quite sternly. The way he said that made Laura not want to question any further.

"Ok. Ben should still be there, he just left a half hour ago."

"Thanks." The older of the said. The two of them left, Laura closed her door & went back to the Press Conference. Laura's been trying to keep up to date on that is happening with SR1066.

--------------------------


The Parodiopolis office of the Federal Meta-Human Resources Center.
Monitoring Station A1, Sub-Level Alpha.

Agent Ruben Holcomb stormed into the room, he hadn't changed his suit from his encounter with Mr. Summers.

"Howard!" Holcomb barks at he walk in that man's direction. This scares Howard, the chief monitor. He's never liked that tone of voice.

"Yes, sir." The dumpy looking gentlemen said nervously as he stood up from his chair. Howard stood at attention until Holcomb waved permission so he could sit down.

"Bring up all we have on C-Class on the main view screen." Holcomb said angrily.

"Yes, sir." Howard said & then went about getting all the info. He was going to bring up the condition of his boss's suit, but decided not to in fear of what he might do him.

Holcomb walked over a large plasma view screen. As he was awaiting the info, he looked over at the large hologramatic monitoring sphere next to it. As it slowly rotated, Holcomb could see every FMRC member clearly displayed by a fiber optic dot. Holcomb smiled. A minute or two later, the requested files popped onto screen one by one, some of the files with tagged with comments:

Amazing Rando, The - MISSING
Billy Goat
Dreama Garner
Human Zamboni, The
Masked Muskrat, The - INJURED
Professor, The - RELEASED FROM DUTY
Psi-Lance
Semi-Transparent Lad
Teen Avenger

As Holcomb looked at the file sizes attached to the entries his face darkened into another scowl. He clicked on one of the files & as it opened he saw that a lot of it was blacked out or missing.

"What's this?" He barked & pointed at the screen.

"The Info you requested, sir." Howard said weakly.

"Then, what's wrong with it?"

"All our copies are like that, sir. Some sort of virus has infected the file sever. Were having the boys down in IT look at it."

Holcomb began to grind his teeth.

"Uh... Sir." Howard again says weakly.

"What?"

"We've also lost two people."

"What do you mean?" Holcomb said. Holcomb looked back at the monitoring sphere. They shouldn't be able to lose anyone because it's not tracking the person but their genetic signature.

"Summers & one of his trainees'."

"Which one?"

"Jones."

"Which Jones? He has two!"

"Lance Jones, sir."

Holcomb concentrates to the screen. He tries to get some info out it. As he did, he was also trying to remember all he could from the last time he saw these files. He'd been over those files many times. That is what he mostly did during his time at the Observing Eye's Trials. They wouldn't let him manage the group, so he could at least know everything about them. As now, Holcomb knows that none of members of C-Class have any useful powers, certainly not any combat ready powers. That's part of the reason why they were assigned to C-Class.

Holcomb wonders if Summers has lost it. During his last psych test, he did show signs of stress.

"Hmm..." Holcomb thought to himself. "How is Summers using Jones to allude our tracking system?"

--------------------------


The Gulp 'N Go.
Ballard District, Goth Haven.

The bell on the door jingles. This tells Ben Hermes, the clerk on duty, that he has another customer. Today has been busy one: He's been at work for about an hour & he's already had three customers. That's more then he normally has all week! Ben looks up from his magazine to see two men he recognized looking back at him.

"Mr. Summers! Lance! What are you doing here? Did I miss today's meeting?"

"No." Mr. Summers said.

"Then why are you here?" Ben asks.

But, before Mr. Summers could answer a customer came up to the counter. Summers & Jones move to one side. The customer drops his items on to the counter, some almost roll off but Ben or the customer caught them before they did. Ben rings the man up.

"That'll be Fourteen Eighty-Three." Ben says.

The man pulls a wad of cash & change out of his pocket. Then, begins to count it out loud. "Seven Seventy Five... Eight... Ten." He pauses & then says: "I don't have enough."

Ben rolls his eyes.

"Don't you have one of those dishes?" the man asks.

"Yeah. It's right here." Ben says & points to the 'take a penny, leave a penny' dish on the counter, near the cash register & 'help feed the homeless' jar.

"Can't you take the rest out of there?"

"I would say yes. But, there is only about four cents & a half a roll of Life Savers in there. You'll still need Six Seventy Three."

"Do you have a 'Take a Dollar, Leave a Dollar' dish?" The man asks.

They look at each other for a moment. Then, Ben says "No. Why don't you put some of the stuff back?"

The man gathers back up his items in his arms & walks away. As he does, he mumbles to himself "I could've sworn I saw one of those dishes in here once."

Once the man is out of range, Mr. Summers & Lance come back over. "We're here because I need you to come to a special meeting."

"When?"

"Like now." Lance said.

"But... I got like four, five more hours left in my shift."

"Can't you get someone to cover for you?"

"I'm not sure."

Another customer comes up to the counter, Summers & Jones move again. An elderly man places his items on the counter. Ben rings him up & gives him the price. The man gave him enough to pay for it, Ben gives him back some change. The man puts it in the 'leave a penny, take a penny dish' dish & then walks out the store with his items.

Summers & Jones came back over.

"We need to leave now, so we pick up the rest of the team." Summers says.

"Can't you come back for me?"

"No." Summers said sternly. He calms down a bit & says: "It's important we leave now."

"Why?"

"I'll tell when the group is all together."

Just then, the door opened, an orange & purple blur rushed into the store. The blur opened one of the cooler doors in the back of the store, it picked up a case of beer, closed the door, sped over to the counter, weaved around Summers & Jones, then put down the beer on the counter. All this before the bell on the door started to jingle.

"Hey, Ben." Said the speeder hero & frequent customer of the Gulp 'N Go: Sonic Boom. "It's kind of busy in here today."

"Yeah." Ben replied.

"These are.." Ben started to introduce Summers & Jones but Sonic Boom interrupted him.

"Gordon Matthew Summers & friend." Sonic said making reference to Lance's closeness to Summers.

"Yes." Ben said. He didn't know Sonic Boom knew Mr. Summers.

"You treating Benny here alright down at the FMRC?" Sonic kidded at he elbowed Summers in the side. He briefly moved Lance away from him.

--------------------------


"Sir!" Howard called out.

"Yes." was Holcomb's reply.

"We had a location for Summers for a moment & now it's gone."

"Where?"

"Goth Haven, Ballard District."

"So.. you're going after Hermes now, aren't you?" Holcomb thought.

--------------------------


"Just a case of De Bat Green, today? Your slowing down." Ben said as he rung him up.

"Yeah. My Doctor thinks I should. He said my liver can't take much more of my hard drinking. Even with my hyper-active metabolism rate!"

Then, the first customer came back up to the counter, Sonic Boom moved out of the way with his beer. The man asked: "I put back some gum. How much is it now?"

--------------------------


A few minutes later:

"Sir!"

"What?" Holcomb replied, he was trying to figure out Summers next move.

"We just lost Hermes."

"Crap." Holcomb said under his breath. "Now, where would Summers be going next?" he thought.

--------------------------


Ben called in a favor from fellow clerk, Roger Stanton, to cover his shift. Sonic Boom said he'd watch over the store until Roger came in. The rest of the group was pretty easy to get. But, when the group showed up they had pretty much the same reaction Ben had: What are you doing here & Did I miss the meeting?

After Ben, the group took a short trip to Gothametropolis York for Dreama. They had to break up some sort of mystical circle to get her, but she came along. After Dreama, they made their way back to Parodiopolis for Oswald, he wasn't home. His Mother said he was at School (Parodiopolis University). The group caught him as he came out of Science class. A few blocks away is the apartment building Betty & James both live in. Betty was about to leave her apartment for the day & James was still asleep when they came for him at his apartment. All though out this traveling, they were all huddled around Lance.

Next came another Parodiopolis apartment building, a short elevator ride & Mr. Summers lead the group over to an apartment none of them recognized. Mr. Summers unlocked the door. True walking through the door as one group was a bit hard, but they made it.

"Dude!" James exclaimed when he say the size of the place. "You be living large!"

Yes, he was. The living room alone was twice as large as most of their individual apartments.

"Thanks, I think. This place actually belongs to my girlfriend." Mr. Summers said as he walked away from the group to take off his jacket.

"Wait!" Lance called out.

"It's ok, Lance. We can stop the huddle now." Mr. Summers as he closed the door behind them.

"Thank god. Someone kept on feeling me up all the way here from Gothametropolis." Dreama said with a shiver.

"Sorry. My bad." James said. That made Dreama shiver even more.

The Members of C-Class began to explore the Apartment. It had everything, it even had one of those things that spray water up your butt after using the Toilet!

From Summers' balcony, you can see Pierce Heights over to the left & Carrington over to the right. There in the distance is Dullards Corners.

"Uh, Guys.." Mr. Summers said & then corrected himself "& Girls. Can I have you come over & sit down on the couch?"

The group all went over & sat down on the semi-circle couch. As they did, The doorbell rang. No one did anything. The doorbell rang again. Then came some knocking on the door & some muffled talking. This went on for a minute or two: more knocking, more ringing doorbell & more muffled talking. Then Mr. Summers went over to the door, unlocked it & opened it.

Once open, in through the door strode in a vision in white. A young woman was wearing a long flowing, unbuttoned, white cloth jacket. It has white faux fur trimming. Under the jacket, she is wearing a white bikini & she had the body to fill it out. She also had a pair of white, knee length, high heeled latex boots on. Her hair was platinum blonde. It was cut short & slicked back, except for a couple strands that came down the sides of her face. Her lips are a bright shade of ruby red. In her arms were a couple Pizza Boxes. As she walked in, she kissed Summers on the cheek & made her way over to the kitchen.

As she did that, she talked: "Thank god your here. These boxes were getting heavy & I'm not even sure if I have my key with me. I did not want to be left waiting in the hallway wearing this getup. What would Mr. Johnstern from down the hallway think? I got what you asked for, I didn't have any money on me so I used my S.W.O.R.D. account. Which means were going to have to come up with some spy related reason for me buying 10 pizzas'."

She put the pizzas' down in the kitchen & then came back out into the main living area. "In fact, you may want to tell me why I just bought 10 pizzas', are you having a party your not telling me about?"

She then saw them sitting on her couch. They were all looking back at her. "Oh. Hi!" She said & gave a small, weak wave to C-Class. Some waved back. She then turned to Mr. Summers & said "Honey, can I speak you in private for a moment." After that, She pulled Mr. Summers into a room in the back of the apartment, most likely their bedroom. This left C-Class alone in the living room.

"Do you know who that was?" James asked eagerly.

"A woman with low self esteem?" Dreama said sarcastically.

"No. That was the super spy with super model looks, the top agent from Project: S.W.O.R.D.: Model Citizen!" James said getting more manic with every word.

"Oh, yeah. I've heard of her." Lance said.

"I think I may have heard of her, too." Betty said.

The Conversation including James ended there because he was lost to them in a day dreaming.

A few minutes later, Mr. Summers & a slightly different looking Model Citizen came back out. "Guys. I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, Abbey Parker."

Abbey gave another small wave. She was now dressed in a pair of old, faded blue jeans, a dark blue t-shirt & some tennis shoes. Her hair had changed to shoulder length brown hair. She still had the same lipstick on.

"James seems to think she's some type of spy?" Betty said.

"Well, she is." Mr. Summers said.

Betty couldn't believe it: James was right!

"Yes. My day job is being a international super spy for a clandestine semi-secret governmental organization known as Project: S.W.O.R.D." Abbey said.

"What's that stand for?" Oswald asked.

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you." Abbey said sternly. Oswald got a look of horror on his face. Abbey then laughed a bit & said "No. I can't tell you because I don't really know myself."

That comment settled Oswald a bit & he let out a bit of nervous laughter.

"What's with the get-up?" Dreama asked.

"The Uniform, as they like to call it, is a method used to distract the enemy."

"So, Boobs over Brains?" Dreama replied.

"Sure, something like that. They also gave me a wig to wear to protect my identity."

"Does it work?" Betty asked.

"No. Not really."

"Speaking of boobs, you seem less busty now then when you came in?" Dreama asked. James woke up from his daydream at that moment. He began to look around. Dreama shot him an evil look.

"yeah. The Project gave all us female agents who were slightly lacking in that area these breast enlarger things. They look like plastic skinned Chicken Breast with a fake nipple on it. There pretty good. They make my boobs look at least two or three sizes larger!"

"And why did they give those to you?" Betty asked.

"They said it was yet another way to distract the enemy." Abbey said sternly, almost like she was quoting someone.

"Well, then." Summers said trying to change the subject away from his Girlfriend's breasts. " Let's get down to Business. First off, I bet your all wondering why your all here today?" Mr. Summers said as he walked over around to the front of the couch.

There were nods all around.

"Well... I quit the FMRC a few hours ago." Summers said proudly.

There were looks of shock all around.

"They wanted to go though with it, didn't they?" Abbey said knowingly.

"Yes. The reason why I gathered you together before our scheduled meeting today was that if I didn't want you all to go to the FMRC. Why? Because if you did, you would have been patriot branded by the lovely Mr. Regent."

There were more looks of shock.

"They couldn't do that. Could they?" Oswald stammered.

"Yes & they already have. Our little group is the only unbranded class left."

"So, that explains the brain dead appearance of B-Class!" James said.

"Yes."

"But, I don't want to be brain dead!" James said. A few laughed. "What?" James asked not getting the joke.

"No one is going be brain dead!" Summers said.

"But, don't they know where we live, work & stuff?" Oswald asked.

"Yes. But, did something to their files which should make it a little harder for them to find you."

"But they can still find us, right?" James said.

"Sort of, they do have the way & the means to. But, that's why I took Lance with me to get you all." Mr. Summers said.

"What's so great about Lance?" James said.

"Well many things, James. But, I'm sure you know that Lance's power is to create area's of silence."

"Yeah. So?" James said interrupting. Betty jabbed him in the side for doing so.

Before Mr. Summers could continue & as James rubbed his side, Betty spoke up. "Are you saying that Lance's silence goes beyond just sound?"

"Yes. When Lance uses his power, he also becomes invisible to any known form of surveillance."

"And to be in his area of silence, we needed to be close to him!" Betty said.

"Hence the huddle." Ben said interrupting Betty. She didn't jab Ben like she might of James for interrupting her. Why? Because she likes him.

"Yes." Summers said.

"I bet Holcomb never thought of that." James said.

"I'm counting on that."

"But, were not in the huddle now?" Oswald said worried, looking around the group.

"Yes. But, My Apartment is blocking their surveillance much like Lance was." Abbey said.

"So, we can't leave this apartment unless we're with Lance? Great." James said sarcastically.

"You could if you want or you could wear one of these." Mr. Summers said holding up a small lapel pin.

"What's that?" Betty asked.

"A surveillance blocker an inventor friend of mine created for me. Their is one for each one of you."

As the pins were past around, Mr. Summers then asked "Who wants Pizza?"

--------------------------


TO BE CONTINUED...


NEXT TIME: More talking, revelations, a decision is to be made by the members of C-Class & some action is thrown in there for good measure.

--------------------------


FOOTNOTES:

This story takes place during the same day as STL #14. Also, what is presented here is only half of what I had planned for STL #15, but I decided to move that into it's own issue (STL #16). I know I'm sort of being a jerk. Deal with it!

Thomas Marrow was a WWII mystery man known as: Tom Marrow, the Man of Tomorrow. Mr. Marrow after the war put away the costume & went into the emerging field of Television. Over the years he's built up a sizable empire, Marrow Telecom. He married Catherine Forester, who was rumored to be a WWII villainess. With her, Thomas had two children: Janet & Jacob. Janet Marrow (as Inter-Planet Janet) went on join The Wonderful Seven (the premiere Super Hero conglomerate based out of Goth Haven). She along with most of the Wonderful Seven were arrested in STL #13. According to published reports, they were arrested for attacking a Patriot Branding station. They were stopped from destroying it completely by a group of Meta-Watch members.

Holcomb, Summers & C-Class were part of the Order of the Observing Eye's Trails (which was seen in Untold Tales #'s 246-250) on behalf of the FMRC (which was seen in my Tie-in's to those Untold Tales'). The Order only allowed one trainer per group, which was rightly Mr. Summers. So, Holcomb spent his time in a hotel room trying to control the groups movements from there (It didn't work). The Amazing Rando did not participate in the trials because called to another plane of existence to fight evil, the C-Class have seen lost contact with him. The Masked Muskrat (Mortimer "Morty" Jones) was injured during the trials, he was bitten by a flying pig. The bite has become infected, so he has been sidelined from the Team. The Professor (Dr. Roy Hinkley) did not participate in the trials because he was too old. After the group returned, He was let go due to actions unbecoming a FMRC agent.

Who's Who: Billy Goat's real name is James Milton, The Human Zamboni's real name is Oswald Vanderhoosey, Psi-Lance's real name is Lance Jones, Teen Avenger's real name is Betty Marsh & Semi-Transparent Lad's real name is Ben Hermes (as if you didn't already know that).

The branded B-Class appearance (and only appearance so far) was in STL #12. Why is it that they appear to be brain dead when none of the other branded Meta's appear to be? Answers to that a couple other related questions will be answered in a later story.


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