The Adventures of Star
Eagle
Episode 2 A New
Champion
by L'Espion
Chapter
2 Star Eagle
Police Lieutenant John Drummond shook his head slowly as the charred corpses of the dead thugs were placed in body bags. “One hell of a mess. You think it’s that Star Eagle again?”
Sergeant Jack Reilly shook his head. “Hard to say. It’s not really her style. She usually beats people to death. These thugs look like they were electrocuted.”
“She’s been lying low for awhile in any case. Haven’t been able to link any deaths to her in the last few months. This looks like something different.”
“What do you think about him?” Drummond continued, pointing to Stetsman.
“Can’t get anything out of him so far. He seems to be in a state of shock; if you’ll pardon the pun.”
“No, I won’t pardon it. See if you can find a reason to hold him for a few days. I suspect he’s holding something back. Sooner or later I’m going to catch up with that superheroine vigilante, and when I do I’m gonna nail her shapely bum to the wall.”
“This seems silly,” muttered Melissa Valour, shaking her blonde head. She tossed down the book she had been reading.
“Vhat you reading, darlink?” her roommate Karla Pestova asked, looking up from the computer where she had been working.
“The Superheroine Handbook. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“What’s wrong with it?” asked Karla dropping her contrived pronunciation. It had been Melissa who had helped her lose her Russian accent, but she sometimes deliberately reverted to it simply to tease her superheroine friend.
“Such as?”
“Well, the second chapter dealing with the dress
code.” She picked up the
book and began to read.
“Superheroines
must dress in provocatively minimalist costumes, designed to titillate and
excite any male who sets eyes on them.
Complete nudity is frowned upon, but the costumes should be tight
fitting enough to leave very little to the
imagination.”
And then there’s this part.
“When faced with a choice
between caution and extreme danger the superheroine always walks into danger
without any consideration of the
consequences.”
“I see what you mean,” said Karla. “Who wrote the book?”
“Some defunct heroine called Mary Marvel. Small wonder she’s not still around.” Melissa got up and stretched, emphasizing her amazing figure. “Well, enough reading. It’s time for my nightly patrol.”
“Oh goody,” said Karla. “Where are we going tonight?”
“We?” Melissa asked, archly. “I thought you had an exam tomorrow.”
The beautiful redhead jumped up from the
keyboard. “With the help
you gave me I already know more than the
professor. I can afford to take
the night off. Besides, the class
isn’t until
“Alright,” agreed Melissa. “Let’s head over to the east side of the city. There’s something strange going on there and I want to investigate.”
“Strange how?”
“A lot of low lifes have been showing up with very strange injuries. I want to see if I can figure out what is going on.”
“Strange injuries? Like what?” asked Karla pulling on a dark long-sleeved sweater. She was the driver, but she liked to be able to blend into the dark when necessary.
“They’ve all been unconscious and suffering from what appear to be electrical burns. Very strange. I want to see if it’s some sort of gangland feud or something else.” Melissa headed for her bedroom. I’ll be back in a flash. Just have to change.”
Karla nodded. Melissa would change into her red, white, and blue Star Eagle outfit and then wear a long coat over her costume until she was ready to go into action. Karla would drive her to the part of town she wanted to investigate. It was faster than trying to get there on foot.
A few seconds later Melissa was back. She had not as yet changed her hair colour, an ability that Karla would have given anything for. She was dressed in her startling one piece costume. It left very little to the imagination, leaving more of her body exposed than it covered.
Her legs were bare as were her arms and shoulders. A pair of knee high blue boots covered her feet. Her dominantly blue costume was broken with bands of red and white over her breasts and around her waist and hips. Karla pursed her pouting red lips. It looked as if Melissa was living up to the Superheroine Code as far as dress was concerned. She had seen the outfit many times, of course, ever since she had helped her strange friend defeat Dmitri Vlasov, one of Grand Centre’s most ruthless and vicious crimelords and the man who just happened to have been Karla’s father. It was a strange story, and stranger still in that it had brought the two women very close together. Since that time they had worked together whenever possible.
Of course, Karla did not have the special alien powers possessed by Melissa, but she was proficient in the martial arts and was much more worldly than her superheroine friend. In spite of her advanced intelligence, Melissa was quite naïve in the ways of world. Sometimes it was as if she had been born on another planet. Karla grinned. She knew all about Melissa’s extraterrestrial origins. Or thought she did. Melissa had kept back certain details about herself. Karla would have had a hard time believing them anyway.
Melissa caught the grin. “What is so funny?” she asked suspiciously.
“Oh, nothing, darling. Just thinking about how we met.”
Melissa smiled in return, her face lighting up. She really was incredibly beautiful. “Let’s go then,” she said, pulling on her long coat. With it she looked like a conservatively dressed young woman with a bit of a boot fetish.
They descended in the elevator to the parking garage below the building. A few seconds later they were motoring through the dark the streets in Karla’s mauve PT Cruiser. It was a rather ostentatious vehicle for the part of town they were heading for, but neither woman was worried about any confrontation. Melissa as Star Eagle was more than a match for the average Earth criminal. Even the car was well suited to her nighttime forays. Its ample back seat provided plenty of space for a costume change if needed and its tinted windows afforded privacy.
“OK,” said Melissa. “Here we are. Let’s see what happens.”
They were now in one of the most run-down areas of Grand Centre. It was an area of tenement buildings, abandoned factories, and a few small businesses. It also had a very high crime rate; the poor preying on the poor. There was nothing logical about that, it was just the way things were. Street gangs were rampant in the area and they feuded constantly over minute bits of territory. Deaths and injuries in these clashes were common. At least they used to be. Something had changed that. Now the gangs stayed off the streets at night. There was something out there that had them all cowed. No one was sure what it was, but it had certainly curtailed the gang warfare. Melissa had decided to find out what was going on. Driving into an alley Karla parked the car and Melissa emerged. Her concealing coat was gone and a few seconds later Star Eagle set out, quickly disappearing into the darkness. Karla got out too. She was a lone helpless white woman. With any luck she might draw out whatever was causing the disturbance in this part of town.
“What is she doing?” Lubaya thought. “Is she mad?’ She gazed in disbelief at a tall redheaded woman of considerable beauty walking down the centre of the street, seemingly completely unconcerned about the fact that she was in one of the most dangerous areas of Grand Centre. She stepped back deeper into the shadows to watch the incredible sight. Lubaya had been very busy in this part of town in the last few weeks. Her experience with Slash Morrison and his cohorts had shaken her confidence. If a thug like Morrison could capture her so easily then she probably wasn’t up to going after more dangerous game.
And so she had decided to concentrate on her home neighbourhood. Maybe she wasn’t ready for the big time yet, but she could hone her skills practicing on the street gangs that preyed on everyone they thought weaker than themselves. So far she had been pretty successful. But not so successful that an unaccompanied white female could walk down the middle of the street in the middle of the night.
Something seemed very wrong about this. She suspected a trap. Remaining in the shadows seemed like the best thing to do for the moment. She would wait and see what transpired.
She didn’t have to wait long. The tall redhead attracted trouble like rotting meat drew flies. A door opened in one of the dilapidated brownstones lining the street and three young black men skipped down the steps. “Yo bitch!” one of them yelled. “What your white ass doing here?” The words were badly distorted by the ghetto accent.
The redhead turned slowly in the direction of the three men. She seemed totally unconcerned by their aggressive posture. Quickly they moved into the street moving to block any possible retreat. The redhead flipped her long red tresses over her shoulder. “What’s seems to be the problem, boys?” she asked calmly. Lubaya thought she detected a slight accent but couldn’t be sure. The redhead’s command of the English language seemed far superior to that of the three young toughs who now hemmed her in.
“You be the problem, bitch. This be our territory. What you be doin’ here?”
“Sorry,” replied the redhead, “I didn’t see any signs. If you just step aside I’ll be on my way.”
“You ain’t goin’ nowhere, bitch, ‘less we say you goin’”
“That doesn’t sound very friendly,” the redhead replied. She turned slightly and Lubaya could see that she wasn’t very old, perhaps in her early twenties, but she was stunningly beautiful. She was also very self-assured; her manner suggesting that she was in complete control of the situation in spite of the apparent danger. Couldn't she see what was happening?
“It ain’t meant to be, bitch.” As the tough spoke he produced a knife and brandished it toward the redhead’s throat.
That was as far as he got, however. With astonishing speed the redhead’s hand snapped out, caught the wrist brandishing the knife and with a quick twist sent the knife clattering to the tarmac and left the young tough nursing his sprained right wrist. It had happened so fast that the eye could hardly follow it, but Lubaya’s trained eye caught the play in slow motion. The style was one with which she was unfamiliar, but there was no doubt that the redheaded was a very proficient martial artist.
The young black gasped in agony. “Bitch!” he exclaimed in shock and disbelief. His two friends took a step back, staring at the redhead with newfound respect.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll be going now,” the tall woman said. Without another word she stepped around the man she had disarmed and continued up the street. For a few seconds the three young blacks stared after her as if unable to comprehend what had happened and then the man she had disarmed came after her.
“Bitch,” he shouted. “You ain’t goin’ no place.” Reaching into his jacket he pulled out a snub nosed revolver and leveled it at the redhead’s back.
Lubaya had seen enough. Stepping from her place of concealment she moved into the center of the street. Immediately the attention of the three blacks was drawn to her. The young tough threatening the redhead whirled, raising his firearm.
“I wouldn’t so that,” Lubaya said calmly.
“It’s the electric bitch,” exclaimed the one of the thugs who had accompanied the young tough with the gun. A look of fear crossed the face of the thug with the gun, but he did not lower it; instead he stupidly raised the gun and pointed it directly at her. At that point the streetlights flickered and an intense blue light radiated from Lubaya’s fingers striking the thug in the chest. An electric crackle filled the air and his arms and legs jerked straight out accompanied by the strong stench of burning flesh. The impact of the electrical jolt hurled him straight back, dropping him in a smoking heap in front of the building. The other two hoodlums did not wait to see whether he was alive or dead, but took to their heels, heading down the street at a run. Lubaya let them go. Instead she turned to the redhead who was gazing at her in was she assumed was wide-eyed astonishment.
“You stupid fool,” Lubaya exclaimed. “What did you think you were doing. Why are you in this part of town?’
The girl did not reply. Instead she smiled; and then from behind Lubaya came a voice. “She brought me here.”
Startled, Lubaya whirled. Standing in the middle of the street was a tall, dark-haired, costumed figure. She was unmistakable. “Star Eagle,” she exclaimed in astonishment.
“The same. And you would be the electric girl I assume.”
“Why are you here? What is this?” She turned back to the redhead. “You could have been killed.”
“No,” said Star Eagle. “If you had not intervened I would have saved her. She was not in any real danger. I am sorry we had to force you out, but we had to find out who or what was terrorizing the criminals in this part of town.”
Lubaya took a step back, suddenly suspicious. “What do you want with me? Why did you play your little game?”
The redhead answered. “You are not easy to find. We have our own sections of the town to patrol. We thought placing ourselves in the line of fire might draw you out and it did. But we wish you no harm. You are a superheroine like Star Eagle. We just want to meet you.”
“All right,” said Lubaya. She was still a little put out at being tricked. She had just killed a man and was more than a little miffed that she had been placed in a position where she had been forced to commit such an act. Most likely the thug deserved killing, but that did not make her feel any better about it.
“We’re sorry about the way we drew you out,” said Star Eagle as if reading her thoughts, “but it is important that we meet. We needed to know whether you were good or evil and we would like to know more about your powers.”
Lubaya understood. She could imagine that it must have concerned the two women to learn that something was terrorizing the criminals in her section of Grand Centre, however, her anger at being tricked did not entirely dissipate. “Alright,” she said. “You’ve seen my powers. Now if you don’t mind I think I’ll be on my way.”
“Please, electric girl. I know you must be angry. But we came here especially to meet you. We would like to be friends. I think we can help one another.”
“I am called Simba,” Lubaya responded angrily, but she found that her resentment toward the two women was lessening.
“Glad to meet you, Simba,” said the
redhead. “I am
Karla.” She offered her
hand.
Hesitantly, Lubaya took Karla’s hand. An instant later Star Eagle offered hers as well. Somehow the simple gesture caused most of her irritation to evaporate. “Well,” she said hesitantly, “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to see what you have to say.”
“My car is parked in the alley,” said Karla. “We can talk more privately there.”
Lubaya nodded and accompanied the two women to the cruiser. A minute later Karla drove the vehicle from the alley while in the back seat the two costumed heroines talked.
“So,” said Lubaya after several minutes of discussion,” you want to know more about my background.”
“Yes,” Star Eagle said. “I am curious about where you got your powers. You say your mother once told you a strange story?”
“Yes. It’s very silly. She claimed she was once abducted by aliens. Let’s see, I think she called them Drongians or Drogantans or something like that.”
“Drizdrogalans?” asked Star Eagle.
“Yes, that’s it. Don’t tell me someone told you the same story.”
“No, it’s just that I’ve met them.”
“Met them?” Lubaya was beginning to wonder if her mother’s madness was infectious.
“Yes,” Star Eagle continued.
“And I wouldn’t put it past them to have tampered with your
mother. It would be just like
them to ignore the
Intergalactic Agreement on
Dealing With Inferior Species.”
“You mean there really are aliens? But that would mean that you and Karla…”
“Not Karla,” Star Eagle replied with a smile. “Just me. I guess I should have told you.”
“You’re an alien?” Lubaya gasped in disbelief. It was difficult to resolve the beautiful woman sitting next to her with the image of bug-eyed monsters that such a term conjured up.
Star Eagle nodded. “I hope it doesn’t bother you too much. I suspect there may be alien connections in your background.”
“Mine?” gasped Lubaya,“but…” Sudden realization dawned. “That would mean…”
“Yes,” smiled Star Eagle. “Small universe isn’t it? I suspect that the story your mother told you was true. The Drizdrogalans have a bad reputation for tampering. It is forbidden by galactic law, but that has never stopped them before, and the intergalactic agreement is difficult to enforce. But there is only one way to find out. I will have to meet your mother.”
“This is ridiculous,” Lubaya said. “You can’t be serious.”
“Then how do you account for the fact that you can shoot bolts of electricity out of your fingertips? Doesn’t it strike you as a little odd?”
“Well, what about all the other superheroines?” Lubaya protested. “They all have special powers.”
“Yes they do don’t they?” replied Star Eagle airily. She gave Lubaya a dazzling smile.
“This is nuts. They can’t all be aliens.”
“Oh, they aren’t. Just some like me. The rest have just been tampered with.”
“Tampered with – like me.” Lubaya replied.
“We will see when we have met your mother,” Star Eagle replied. “But that is what I suspect. Now what did you say your address was?”
Lubaya gave up. “Alright. But you have to promise not to upset my mom.”
“It wasn’t hard to get her talking was it?” Melissa said. Lubaya shook her head. Star Eagle had changed out of her costume before being introduced to Lubaya’s mother. She had watched the heroine in stunned amazement as she had changed her hair and skin to match Lubaya’s. Her mother had welcomed the attractive young black girl into her modest apartment. It hadn’t taken Melissa long to get her talking. All she had needed to do was mention a fabricated UFO sighting and her mother had immediately launched into her tale. Unlike Lubaya, however, who had always regarded her mother’s story as the symptom of a deranged mind, Melissa had encouraged her to talk, asking questions in all the right places.
They were seated around the kitchen table in the dilapidated apartment that Lubaya called home. She felt a little ashamed although she shouldn’t have. She had overcome the poverty and deprivation of her childhood to become a formidable superheroine. She had triumphed in spite of her poverty and lack of opportunity.
Star Eagle seemed oblivious to the conditions in the run-down tenement that Lubaya called home, Karla was obviously less than impressed. “This really isn’t much of a home for a superheroine. How do you manage to survive and still fight crime?”
If Lubaya had been capable of blushing she would have. She must seem so culturally deprived to the sophisticated Russian girl. She could tell from the way Karla spoke and carried herself that her background was far more cosmopolitan and cultured. She suddenly felt like a complete social outcaste.
Karla seemed to realize what she had said. She placed her hand over Lubaya’s. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s alright. I suppose I must seem like a real bumpkin compared to you and Star Eagle.” She looked toward the superheroine who was gazing with rapt attention at some inane Japanese game show. The TV was perched on top of the refrigerator so she was arched back in her chair, her long black hair streaming down her back.
Both of the heroines had changed back into civilian
attire. Lubaya was wearing
tight-fitting jeans and a loose T-shirt.
Star Eagle wore a form fitting dress that showed off her superb figure
to maximum advantage. But was
really astonished Lubaya was her skin
colour. She had matched her skin
tones to Lubaya’s assuming the same golden brown colour and
She suddenly turned to the other two women. “Did you see that?” she said pointing to the TV. “She just got dumped into a tub of slime.” She grinned innocently. Lubaya suddenly revised her estimate of Star Eagle’s sophistication.
Karla raised one elegant eyebrow and gave Lubaya a wink. “Yes, that was quite amazing wasn’t it?” She turned back to Lubaya. “I think perhaps we should be going. The night is almost over and I don’t want my car left in this neighbourhood. Will your mother be alright?”
“Yes; she always tires herself when she relives that experience. At least now I know she’s not crazy.”
“We will be in touch. I am very glad to have met you.”
Lubaya nodded. She liked Karla in spite of the Russian girl’s brash attitude. She seemed genuinely friendly. As for Star Eagle, she was an enigma. The powerful superheroine seemed to possess knowledge far beyond anything what any human could possibly know and yet at the same time, she was almost unbelievably childlike. Still she felt a certain kinship with her and wanted to get to know her better.
She stood up and saw her strange guests to the door. It had been a most eventful night. As the two women drove off into the night she knew that she would be seeing them again. She was no longer alone. Smiling, she closed the door. She had a few hours to snatch some sleep before her part-time job started.
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