Global
Protectors – Growing
Pains
By
Marcus Lycus
(Marcus_Lycus@hotmail.com)
Legal
Horrors – The Global Protectors are copyright, trademark etc. of Doctor
Droid
(www.superstories.net/droidzone)
and are used with his permission.
Other characters and text are copyright Marcus Lycus.
Do
not repost this story or use the characters created in it without my permission.
This
story is meant for people over the age of 18, please don’t read it if
you are younger than that. Any
resemblance between characters in this story and any actual persons living
or dead is purely coincidental of
course.
And
finally, please e-mail me with any comments, complaints or suggestions. Remember
feedback leads to more stories!
Part
2 - The Education of Rising
Sun
Rising Sun tried to sit calmly in the waiting
room. Tried to pretend this
was just another interview, just another
appointment. But how could
she!
The room was crowded with all sorts of outlandish
characters: a 10’ robot with missile launchers, a team of teenagers
in multicolor ninja costumes, a tough looking street fighter in a torn karate
gi, a school girl with a magic badminton racket, a grade school boy with
an alien pet, a floating alien princess and who knows what
else!
Above them all were smiling posters of some
of Japan’s greatest heroes and
heroines. Moon Princes, Ramen
Rider, the Kaiju Rangers even the Science Ninjas, all of them had gotten
their start just like this. Rising
Sun remembered the Science Ninja’s old cartoon from when she was growing
up. Their bird suits looked
a bit cheesy now but back then she would have given anything to meet
them. And now… and now she might be joining their
ranks.
This was the first time in years the Grand
Sponsor Agency had held an open audition for heroes and
heroines. After that unfortunate
incident with Moon Princess and the Sailor Princesses they urgently needed
a new group of heroes. It looked
like every martial artist, alien and mecha in
Kisume was dressed in her Global Protector
uniform of course; a white spandex leotard decorated with a simple red circle,
two thigh-high white boots, white gloves and a white
mask. Usually she felt like
a freak or a pervert when she wore it in public but in this room she looked
completely normal. She saw another
applicant come out of the interview room
crying. It was a teen girl with magic flying sneakers, her stern
mother walked behind her hissing insults at the girl for her
failure.
Trying to calm herself, Kisume decided to
chat up the girl next to her. She
was a tall Japanese girl with a tan that could only come from expensive tanning
parlors and the sort of dyed blonde hair that must have cost another fortune
at the beauty salon. She wore
a brown leather halter top, brown leather hot pants and matching knee high
boots. She also wore a collection of silver jewelry from her
hoop earrings to her belly button stud to a multitude of
rings. She looked like some
Japanese surfer girl from a magazine.
She looked Rising Sun up and down a few times.
“H-hi!”
Stammered the rookie heroine.
“I’m Rising Sun, I’m 24, I’m a superheroine from
Megapolis. So what’s your
name and, uh, do you have super powers?”
The blonde Japanese girl looked at Kisume
like a bug in her rice bowl.
“You can call me Ko Gal
grandma.” Her voice was
low and sexy, the sort of voice you could only get from smoking cigarettes
from Junior High School onwards.
“And as for powers well… I’m 17, I have 36” breasts,
a 24” waist and I’m a champion
gymnast. I’m sure the Grand
Sponsors can hook me up with a magic gem or a force field belt or
something. After all I’m already more qualified to be a celebrity
heroine than him…”
She contemptuously gestured at a pimply kid
with a weather control machine.
“Or you for that matter
grandma…”
She casually gestured towards Rising Sun’s
less than prominent breasts.
Before Rising Sun could sputter a reply one
of the secretaries came out.
“Ko Gal-san, please
report to the interview room.”
“Well that’s
me. Time to make
history!” She leaned in
and whispered to Rising Sun.
“By the way, lose the bra and panties grandma, the bra’s
obviously not doing you any good and I can see the lines through your
costume.”
Blushing red the Global Protector remained
in her seat until the tan beauty strutted into the interview
room. Then she ran for the ladies
room and tore off her bra and panties.
***
“Rising
Sun-San they’re waiting for
you!”
Two hours had passed since Ko Gal had
left. The waiting room was mostly
empty now except for some androgynous pretty boys (or girls?) in school uniforms
and a kid with a blue robot cat.
Rising Sun grabbed her bag, took a deep breath and headed
in.
“Hajimemashite!” She announced in her highest most
feminine voice as she bowed low.
She could only see the floor from her position but she heard some
vague grunts of acknowledgement.
She rose and faced the judges.
There were five of them, varying in ages from junior executives in
their early 40s to the vice president in his
70s. Several office ladies in
pink uniforms floated around serving tea and distributing
forms. Video cameras were rigged
up to catch the action from every angle.
On a white board behind the judges were the names of various candidates
with their scores. Rising Sun
noticed that more than 90% had failed to make the cut, but that Ko Gal had
the highest score up there.
“So, Rising
Sun-san what do you want to show
us today?”
Rising Sun didn’t like the gleam in
the executive’s eye when he said
that. But she swallowed and
started her presentation.
***
No one was more surprised than Kisume when
she was invited back for an interview.
She spent hours on the phone with Maple Leaf getting tips and
advice. La Sola even Fed-Exed
her a new costume with a padded top.
Kisume Hiro didn’t really want to be
a heroine or a celebrity but she also didn’t want to let her team down,
especially after what happened last
time. She knew they were counting
on her to help keep them funded.
For the final audition there were more than
20 executives in identical dark suits watching
them. In the center sat Mr.
Nambu, the president. He had
to be more than 80 years old and just sat there with his eyes closed, either
deep in thought or deeply asleep.
They were seeing all three finalists together,
Rising Sun, Ko Gal and a blond girl in a miniskirt, halter top, silver go-go
boots and playboy bunny ears.
Ko Gal looked down Rising Sun’s new
padded costume.
“Nice breasts
grandma. Silicon or foam
rubber?” She pinched the
padding on one.
Rising Sun sat there stunned at her rudeness
and humiliated that she was right.
One of the office ladies called out to
them. The blonde with the bunny
ears went first.
“I am… LOVELY WARRIOR CUTIE
BUNNY! And my superpower is…
BUNNY FLASH!”
There was a flash of light, the girl spun
in mid air and her sexy outfit
dissolved. She hovered naked
and spinning for a full minute until a new set of clothes of appeared, this
time a translucent nurses’ uniform which left her assets clearly
visible. And which also had
a set of bunny ears.
“So… you can change into a
nurse?”
“Oh
yes! And a biker girl, and a
police woman, and an office lady and…
watch! BUNNY
FLASH!”
The girl transformed several more times,
each time hovering naked for a minute before the
executives. Not that they minded
the delay. She became a school
girl, a bikini model, a cheerleader and a
geisha. And each time her new disguise had a prominent pair of
bunny ears. Finally one of the
executives had to ask…
“What’s with the bunny
ears?”
“What?
These? Oh I’m a
robot and these are my cosmic wave scanners that let me summon my costumes
from subspace.”
“So you have the power to get naked
and change outfits, but only so long as the new outfit has bunny
ears?”
“That’s
right!” She smiled
widely.
“Thank you miss Bunny, we’ll be
in touch if we need your services.”
“Thank
you!
Arigato! I hope
to hear from you soon!”
Once Cutie Bunny left Rising Sun saw the
executives throwing out her resume and muttering “Changing
clothes! That’s not a
superpower!”
Rising Sun couldn’t help but smile,
just one other applicant! The
odds were looking up for her. Then
she looked over at Ko Gal who was casually filing her
nails. The tan beauty hadn’t
even looked up during Cutie Bunny’s
demonstration. She stood up
and took center stage without waiting to be
called.
She tilted her hips, licked her lips, stuck
out her chest and clicked the remote for her portable
stereo.
A fast paced techno mix started and Ko Gal
started to gyrate to the music in an ambitious and enthusiastic dance
routine.
Several of the executives crossed their legs
to hide their arousal.
The office ladies
sneered.
The company president opened his
eyes.
Ko Gal rose from a split and stood in the
center of the room just gyrating her hips hypnotically, she started lowering
her hot pants bit by bit, showing the judges that she was clean shaven all
the way down. She zipped them
back up, not quite all the way and jumped on the
table. On her knees she thrust
her pelvis forward and back in time to the music while she ran her fingers
through Mr. Nambu’s thin grey hair.
Finally the music reached a climax and she rose to her feet and
somersaulted off the table back to her original
position. The music stopped
and she bowed. The judges
sat in stunned silence for several minutes, and then started to applaud
wildly.
Ko Gal didn’t even spare Rising Sun
a glance as she left.
Then the Global Protector was
on.
***
Rising Sun finished her powerpoint demonstration,
twisted a few steel bars and flew around the
room. There was no
applause. The president’s
eyes were still shut. So she
bowed and thanked them and asked for
questions.
“You know the heroine
pose? Please do it
now.” Rising Sun obediently
put her hands on hips, spread her legs, flounced her hair and
smiled.
Some of the executives got up and started
walking around her.
“What are your three
sizes?”
“Um…”
Rising Sun tried to remember La Sola’s advice “36C-25-34”
she rattled off. One of the
executives stopped in front of her, looked down her top and shook his
head.
“Really?”
Rising Sun blushed and looked
down. “Sometimes it’s
32…”
“32 what?”
“32…B”
There was much grunting and muttering.
Suddenly one of the executives prowling around
her pinched her stomach, getting about an inch of
skin. Rising Sun flinched but
the executive smiled and muttered excuse
me. Then she heard him mutter
the word fat.
She felt a hand on her ass but didn’t
dare react. Another one rubbed
her bare arm. Someone sniffed
her hair. She could see the
executives around her making gestures of approval or
rejection.
Just when she thought she couldn’t stand
it anymore the president opened his eyes and looked at
her.
“Why are you
here?”
“I-I…”
“You don’t enjoy
this. You don’t want to
be a celebrity do you?
You’re afraid.”
“Y-yes…”
“So why are you
here?”
“I… my
team. My teammates need me to
get this contract.”
“And…”
“I… I don’t want to let me
team down.”
“You say there are five of
you? From different
countries?”
“Hai! Yes, from Canada, Kenya, Sweden,
Argentina and me from Japan of course.”
“All good
looking?”
“I think
so…”
“Thank
you. That will be
all.”
He closed his eyes.
Walking out Rising Sun saw Mr. Takeyama chatting
with Ko Gal in the lobby. He
casually mentioned that he had a collection of magic rings in his apartment
and asking if she’d like to come over tonight and see
them. The tall tan beauty
enthusiastically agreed.
***
That night Rising Sun bought herself a large
bottle of sake and headed for her cheap hotel room in a seedy part of
In her dreams she saw herself in rags standing
in the rain outside the premier of Ko Gal: the Movie.
***
The next morning the senior executives for
Grand Sponsor met.
Mr. Takeyama was a bit late and was walking
funny, as though he’d injured his pelvis in the
night. He limped in and called
the meeting to order. Mr. Nambu
was present as well, sitting at the head of the table with his eyes tightly
shut. Takeyama thought he heard
snoring.
“Well I think we have an easy decision
today. Ko Gal is very, very
talented, in many ways and will have strong appeal to both young men and
fashionable young ladies. I’ve spoken to our friends at the network and they
are very interested.”
The executives around the table grunted in
approval.
“So if there is no further
discussion-“
The president opened his
eyes.
“Yes.
This is a very easy decision.”
“Yes, I will go call Ko Gal now
and-“
“Tell me Takeyama what were our top
three projects?”
“Sir?
Well there were the Science Ninjas-“
“Five ordinary college students given
ninja powers to fight evil.”
“Yes.
Then there were the Kaiju Rangers-“
“Five ORDINARY high school students
given robot dinosaurs to fight evil.”
“Right sir, then there was Moon Princess
and the Sailor Princesses-“
“FIVE ORDINARY junior high school students
given magical powers to fight evil.”
“Yes…”
“So tell me Takeyama what should our
next project be?”
“Um… Ko Gal is very
talented…”
“How about FIVE ORDINARY young women
given super powers to fight evil!”
“But…”
“Ko Gal is a filthy
slut. We can sell a filthy slut
of course. For a year, maybe
two. Then everyone will be tired
of her and what will we do then?
Did you see that girl yesterday?
She was so shy all we had to do was look at her and she was almost
in tears. This is not America,
Takeyama. Japanese people do
not want some arrogant bitch with big tits like Ultra
Woman. They want someone who
is meek and humble and shy. And
ordinary. Someone like them.”
“But…”
“Did you see
her? She was obviously humiliated,
obviously wanted nothing more than to leave but she stayed and endured our
prodding and abuse.
Why? Because she made
a promise to her teammates!
That’s the kind of girl we
want. Someone who will sit there
and take orders like a good trooper.
Do you really see Ko Gal meekly taking
orders?”
“But Ko Gal’s
look-“
“As time goes on we can adjust Rising
Sun’s image. Have her dye
her hair brown, maybe an affair with a sports star, a broken heart, dye her
hair blonde, have her do a nude picture book and then we’ll marry her
off and retire her. Like we
did with the Crane Ninja, the Cherry Blossom Ranger and Princess
Venus.”
“That did work but…”
“Plus she comes with her foreigner
friends. Tell me Takeyama,
what’s the most popular kids’ show in
America?”
“I think it’s still the Mighty
Powerful Morphing Rangers-“
“Which is just an edited version of
the Kaiju Rangers a show we did ten years
ago. We spliced in some footage
of American kids, kept the action scenes and now we’re practically printing
money. Funny how they never
noticed the yellow one is a girl in the American scenes and a guy in the
Japanese scenes. American children
are such fools. With this Global
Protector team we don’t even need to splice in
foreigners. Plus the Swede has
some nice tits, that will keep the boys
interested. They’re
perfect!”
The assembled executives muttered their agreement
as if that was what they had been saying all along.
“Yes sir… I’ll tell Rising
Sun the uh, good news.” Takeyama muttered.
The president closed his
eyes.
Takeyama was sure he could hear
snoring.
***
There were giant robots in Rising Sun’s
head, pounding on her skull trying to
escape. Someone had filled her
mouth with sandpaper and replaced her arms with lead
weights. And there was ringing,
like she was trapped in a giant bell.
She slowly opened her eyes; the florescent light in her room had been
replaced by a blazing sun.
She realized she was not in a villain’s
death trap, she was in her tiny hotel room, hung over and the phone was
ringing. On the third try she
managed to reach it and get it to her ear.
“OH MY GOD!”
***
Back in his office Nambu made a different
call.
“We have a new
heroine. No, no magic stones
or bird suits, her powers are all genetic.”
“Yes, I’m quite
sure.”
“Well I don’t know about that,
but they should be inheritable.”
“Good.
We can meet tomorrow and discuss her
case. And did I mention she
has four friends all with the same powers?”
“No, no King Kaiju, no need to thank
me. In fact let me thank you
for everything.”
Nambu hung up the phone and closed his
eyes.
***
A few hours later Rising Sun’s hangover
had been dispelled (one of the advantages of her rapid healing powers) and
she arrived at Go Nasai’s House of Fashion and was met by a man from
the agency. He was young, with
fashionable brown hair, round glasses, a sharp tan suit and had a nice friendly
smile. He was nothing like those
lecherous executives who had been poking and prodding her
yesterday.
“Ms.
Hiro? I’m Watanabe from
the Agency. Please come in,
we’ll be fitting you for your costumes today.”
“Ah,
so. But I already have a
costume.” She opened her
bag to show the white spandex inside.
“Yes, yes but a celebrity heroine
can’t just have one costume!
What would we do for the action
figures? You’ll need your
dress up costume, your power up costume, your bikini costume, your ninja
costume and so on. Go Nasai’s
company has been fitting heroines for costumes since the 70’s he’ll
take good care of you.”
Rising Sun noticed Cutie Bunny walking out
with her arms around some cyborg guy from the
audition. She was wearing a
skin tight blue and red dress with a heart-shaped cut-out over her pneumatic
breasts. He had a red trench
coat and a long scarf. Bunny
smiled at her and waved.
Rising Sun waved
back. For the first time she
realized this was it. She’d
done it! She had beaten the
others and she was going to be Japan’s newest celebrity
heroine. She wondered what would happen to Ko
Gal.
***
Ko Gal shouted curses into her cell
phone. She could not believe
it! She’d put all of the
money she’d earned as a hostess and escort into her costume, her hair,
her tan and her breast enlargement.
And now they didn’t want
her?
When she heard they had gone for the skinny
old lady she cursed again and tossed her hat into the
street.
Damnit!
What did that Rising Sun girl do?
Sleep with the president?
Ko Gal would have done that if she had though he’d live though
the experience. That must be
it. That old fart president
wouldn’t have lived through a night with her but that skinny girl was
just good enough to get him off without killing
him. Yes, she was sure that’s what
happened. That lousy
slut.
Slowly she got a hold of
herself. Nothing had been announced
yet. Nothing was
official. If something happened
to Rising Sun, well they’d have to go to the runner up wouldn’t
they?
She called Takeyama, he’d probably be
glad to have her over again.
***
“Take off your clothes and put on your
costume.” The tailor
commanded.
Rising Sun’s eyes went
wide. She was in a large room
with a dozen men standing around.
Other workers were coming in and out all the time!
Watanabe took her hand and held
it. “Don’t worry Ms.
Hiro, these men are professionals.
They work with the most beautiful women in
Rising Sun giggled at
that. She took a deep breath,
muttered “all right” and stared unbuttoning her white
top. Her dark blue skirt followed
it to the floor. She hesitated
for a second about her bra and panties but she noticed that Watanabe was
right, no one was giving her any attention as they moved in and out with
racks of clothes and bundles of cloth.
She also noticed that Watanabe had politely turned his back and was
staring intently at the wall. She
smiled, after yesterday it was nice to see there were still some gentlemen
in Japan.
She undid the bra and dropped her
panties. She pulled on the white
and red spandex leotard, fitted the mask in place and pulled on her
gloves. Then she looked at the
thigh-high white boots in annoyance.
“Excuse me Mr.
Watanabe? Could you
help?”
Watanabe turned away from the wall-mounted
mirror he’d been using to watch her and
smiled. He helped her squeeze
her long legs into the tight pleather boots and zipped them
up. Rising Sun gasped when his
hand slipped and touched her inner
thigh. Just that tender touch
brought back memories of her
humiliation. But it also made
her think… if she was with someone gentle, how good would that
feel? She blinked and noticed
everyone was waiting.
“OK, sorry, I’m
ready.”
She felt like an army of tailors descended
on her measuring her every conceivable
way. Even the lengths of her
fingers were recorded for custom gloves.
Her top was unzipped and her bare breasts were painstakingly measured
for close-fitting and natural looking
padding. They didn’t just
check her size, they checked the circumference, height, width, and nipple
sizes of each one. Watanabe
politely turned away again. Rising
Sun was glad he couldn’t see how her nipples got excited by all the
hands touching her sensitive breasts.
Watanabe noticed it in the
mirror.
Wow. This girl must be
desperate!
The costume was pulled lower and her ass
was measured with the same thoroughness her breasts
were. One tailor ran his hand
through her bush and commented she should shave it to prevent hairs from
slipping out. Rising Sun blushed
at the idea, and at the strange feelings a hand in her bush was
arousing.
Her leotard was around her knees now as tailors
measured her thighs in several places.
Their hands and cloth tape measures kept brushing painstakingly close
to her pussy and she couldn’t help but
squirm. She kept her hands crossed
over her breasts. It was too
late for modesty but at least it made her feel better and kept her from touching
herself.
Finally they were done and she pulled her
costume back on feeling humiliated and more than a little
horny.
Watanabe turned back to face her and
smiled. “See that wasn’t
too bad!”
“I… I
guess. Now
what?”
“Now we go to the
hotel.”
Rising Sun hesitated at
that. She was embarrassed to
let anyone see the dump she was staying in.
“Oh not that hotel, your new
hotel. We rented you the Ambassador
Suite at the Imperial Hotel in Ginza.”
Rising Sun’s eyes went wide; a night
there cost more than a month’s salary when she was an
engineer. More than a year’s
salary now that she was a heroine.
“Come let me call you a
taxi.”
“OK, you’re a
taxi!”
“Huh?”
“Sorry, it’s an American
joke. But why sit in traffic
in a taxi?”
“You think we should take the
subway?”
Rising Sun smiled, she was really starting
to feel like a heroine. “Not
exactly!”
She grabbed Watanabe in her willowy arms
and rose into the air.
***
Ko Gal arrived early at Takeyama’s house
in the mountains overlooking Tokyo.
As he let her in she noticed the pictures of his wife and kids, he
muttered something about them skiing in Nagano.
He led her upstairs but before he could lead
her to the bedroom she pulled him towards his study and his collection of
superhero souvenirs. They’d skipped that part last night but this time
she wanted to make sure she saw everything.
Swallowing his temporary disappointment Takeyama
started showing off the collection.
He’d been with Grand Sponsor for thirty years and had amassed
an impressive collection. Here were the cursed chopsticks that turned a school boy
into a rubbery monster. There
was the magic make-up mirror Moon Princess used to communicate with her
friends. On the wall were some
of the Science Ninja’s feather
shurikens. And in the glass
case… that was something really special.
***
“Mr.
Watanabe? Mr.
Watanabe? You can open your
eyes now, we’re on the ground.”
Watanabe slowly took his hands from his eyes
and looked around. He was on
the roof top garden of the Imperial Hotel, overlooking all of
Tokyo. Next to him the slim
heroine giggled like a school girl.
“You should have seen your
face! You looked so scared when
we were flying!”
Watanabe managed a weak
chuckle.
A manager and a squad of bell boys came running
up to the two of them yelling questions and demanding to know who was landing
on their hotel.
Rising Sun smoothly assumed the heroine pose,
flounced her hair dramatically and said “I am the heroine Rising
Sun! Take me to my
suite!”
The manager was still muttering apologies
as he closed the door to the Ambassador
Suite. Rising Sun noticed her
two humble bags had already been moved
there. She was actually kind
of embarrassed to see her K-Mart luggage in these plush
surroundings. But the feeling
passed, that luggage was part of her old life, she wanted to experience her
new one!
“Come on, let’s see
everything!” She grabbed
Watanabe’s hand and pulled him through the suite, opening every
door.
“Wow, this closet’s bigger than
my old apartment in Tokyo!”
“Marble
bathtubs?”
“Plasma TV?”
“Wow, look at that
bed! Look at
it! It’s
huge!”
Watanabe wandered over to the room’s
wet bar and poured two glasses of very expensive
sake. He handed Rising Sun one
and smiled. “Congratulations
Rising Sun, you’ve earned
it!” They toasted and finished
the sake in one gulp.
Rising Sun had to take a few deep breaths,
she was never a heavy drinker and she’d already had quite a
day. But the cold sake made
her feel warm inside, it made her want to do something…
crazy.
“Let’s jump on the
bed!”
“What?”
“Come on it will be
fun! I haven’t done it
since I was a little girl!”
Shrugging Watanabe pulled off his
shoes. Rising Sun sat down on
the bed and looked at her long thigh-high
boots. She smiled and cocked
her head. Watanabe knelt down
in front of her and started unzipping
them. She gasped again when
his fingers brushed her inner thigh. She couldn’t believe it, but she was still sensitive
from the treatment at the tailor shop.
She grabbed his hands and pulled him on to
the bed, they started jumping, timidly at first then faster and higher
until…
She grabbed him and held him in
midair. His glasses had fallen
off. Without them he looked
a bit like the baseball star Ichiro.
He also looked a bit nervous hovering in midair like this, even if
they were only a foot or two off the bed.
Rising Sun smiled.
Watanabe had seen her smile before, the
embarrassed smile of someone getting an unexpected treat, the naked smile
of a kid at Christmas but this was
different. This was the mature
smile of a hungry (and slightly tipsy)
woman.
“Ms. Hiro?”
“Please call me
Kisume. Can I call you
Kenji?”
“Of
cour-“ He never finished
the sentence as Kisume pull him in close and her eager lips clamped over
his. They slowly lowered to
waiting bed.
***
Takeyama drifted off into a fitful exhausted
sleep, his plump arms still tied to the bed
posts. Ko Gal rose gracefully
and wrapped a sheet around herself like a toga and slipped into the trophy
room.
She ignored the radio cassette recorder that
turned into a robot and the mini cassettes that also turn into robots and
walked to the dusty display case in the
back.
There they were.
In the 50s the Soviets had supplied them
to the Chinese who gave them to the North Koreans who promptly sent one of
their agents to destroy Tokyo with them.
Japan had no real heroes at the time but Americans sent the Liberator
and the American Dream who stopped the
agent. After that they were
locked up in an American military base and then sold as surplus as part of
the ‘peace dividend’ at the end of the Cold
War. And now they were in
Takeyama’s collection.
The Atomic Fist’s nuclear
gauntlets.
These 1950’s weapons were no match for
the latest models of course but they were enough to give some American
Superheroes a tussle back in the
day. Surely they would
be more than enough for Ko Gal to dispose of her pathetic
rival.
Takeyama awoke several hours later to find
his lover gone and his wrists still
tied. He had to wait until his
wife and kids came back from Nagano.
He had plenty of time to make up a story about accidentally tying
himself up. By the time his
wife was done throwing dishes and pots at him he couldn’t even tell
one of his trophies was missing.
***
Over the next few days Rising Sun endured
a grueling schedule of interviews, appearances and demonstrations of her
powers. Back in the States the
Global Protectors also endured visits from Japanese journalists as well as
writers and artists for the upcoming Global Protectors cartoon
show. Fortunately the checks
also started appearing which made the team quite a bit
happier.
***
Deep below
Finally…
“Stop.”
The figure was some distance
away. Watanabe couldn’t
see any details.”
“Um are you King
Kaiju?”
“Who else do you expect to meet in a
tunnel under Tokyo?” The speaker stepped forward; it was hideous rubbery creature
with an almost comical crown on its malformed
head.
“I have some things for
you.”
“What
exactly?”
“Hair, skin scrapings, and uh…
fluids.”
The figure
laughed. “Leave it there
lover boy and you can go.”
“Um…”
Something slithered next to Watanabe’s
leg, he turned and ran.
King Kaiju picked up the
case. His fingers extended into
tendrils and started probing the
samples. Very interesting but
not enough. He would need something
much fresher. He started planning
how to get it.
***
Rising Sun was in front of the cameras again,
half blind from the flash bulbs going
off. For the life of her she
could not remember what she was supposed to talk
about. Was this the announcement
of the cartoon? The diet pills?
The cosmetics line? She
had no idea. It was all a
blur. Every day was a rush of interviews, press conferences,
costume fittings and photo shoots.
And every night a marathon of athletic
sex. But her relationship was
more than that. Kisume Hiro
was really falling for Watanabe.
He was standing behind her, he whispered
in her ear ‘just relax and read’ and pointed to the
screen. She glanced at the
teleprompter; OK it was the swimsuit
line. She thought how ironic
it was, the GP’s costumes were just off-the-rack flag-pattern swimsuits
anyway but now by putting Grand Sponsor’s official label on them the
company could charge twice as much.
She started her pitch, talking about how
wonderful and kawaii the suits are.
The reporters and audience smiled and applauded as if she was delivering
the Gettysburg address.
Rising Sun just focused on the teleprompter
and read, hoping this would be over soon so she could go home and have sex
with Watanabe.
She couldn’t understand
it. She’d fooled around
before of course but it was always just …
OK. She’d had an orgasm once with this dyed-blond biker
she met in a bar in college but other than that…
nothing. Just feelings of shame
and exhaustion. She’d just
assumed there was something wrong with her and focused on her
career.
But now… now she would cum two or three
times a night. Watanabe had to use his fingers and his tongue because
his poor dick couldn’t begin to meet her
needs. Of course it came at
a cost. Even her superhuman
endurance was drained by this, she knew she had to cut back soon but it felt
do good… She glanced back
at him and wiggled her butt at him behind the
podium. He
smiled. She couldn’t
wait.
Then it all went
crazy…
Rising Sun was reading about the new miracle
elastics when there was a flash of
light. The ceiling started to
fall! People started to
scream. Rising Sun took a step
forward to help when there was another
flash. The world went
back. She felt a burning feeling
across her chest and flew backwards.
She blinked a few times and vision
returned.
The auditorium was in ruins, the audience
was fleeing but the reporters were staying behind to cover their new
heroine’s first battle.
Kisume could feel Watanabe’s presence behind her, she heard him
whisper “are you OK?”
Rising Sun nodded, she was fine.
For now.
A figure descended through the hole in the
ceiling. It was a woman dressed in a black face mask, a black low-cut
swimsuit with a red circle in the center and black thigh-high
boots. Her skin was tan where
Rising Sun’s was pale. Her
hair dyed blond where the heroine’s was
dark. On her hands were two
black metal gloves crackling with
energy. It was obvious to everyone
who saw the costume that she was Rising Sun’s
archenemy.
Whoever she was.
“Who are you?”
“What are you
stupid? I’m you’re
evil counterpart, your archenemy, you can call me-“
“Ko
Gal?” Rising Sun asked,
recognizing the voice.
“Grrr” the villain bristled at
having her identity blown so early.
“NO! Not Ko Gal
anymore, not since you stole my job!
Now you can call me… KOWAI GAL!”
“Scary
girl…” Rising Sun
translated. “That’s
really not that good a villain name-“
“Shut up! SHUT UP! SHUT
UP! You called yourself
‘Rising Sun’ can you possibly be more
clichéd!”
“Actually Maple Leaf picked out that
name, I wanted to be called ‘White Eagle’ but they said it wasn’t
Japanese enough so-“
“SHUT
UP!” Kowai Gal yelled again,
this time punctuating her scream with an energy blast.
Rising Sun took to the air just in time to
avoid it and rushed the villainess.
She had to stop this crazy bitch before someone got
hurt!
Her tackle carried Kowai Gal back through
the roof into the open sky; hopefully, there wouldn’t be too many potential
victims. She slammed the black-clad
girl through a Sony billboard and then dropped her into the waters of Tokyo
Bay. Rising Sun hesitated for
a second. Maybe Kowai Gal was
out of action and she should check on the convention
center.
But then the waters of Tokyo Bay started
to boil and Kowai Gal rose from them surrounded by a raging field of
energy.
“KILL
YOU!” She screamed unleashing
another burst of energy. Rising
Sun gracefully dodged, noting that the blast went off harmlessly into the
air. She avoided the next few
blasts trying to stay above her insane foe so that the blasts would not hit
bystanders.
But circling the screaming madwoman Rising
Sun noticed the blasts were becoming more powerful and less
accurate. The heat from her
energy field was rising sharply.
Kowai Gal’s tanned skin was developing pink
lesions.
Meltdown.
The word leapt into Kisume’s mind and
would not leave. MELTDOWN.
She had no idea how the Atomic Fist’s
nuclear gauntlets worked but she was sure this was not
good.
“Ko Gal listen, you have to stop, the
Gauntlets they’re out of – AH!”
Stopping to talk was a mistake, Kowai Gal
landed a powerful shot right in Rising Sun’s
midsection. The white-clad heroine
fell into the waters of Tokyo Bay passing right through a small fishing boat
as she fell. The boat began
to sink and the two fishermen jumped off and swam for
shore.
“Heh… did
it. Got her… Buh-bitch…
showed you who’s boss… Now to guh-greet my
puh-public…”
She turned in mid air and started to drift
toward shore where the Tokyo Anti-Monster Police were finally taking up
position.
“By the authority of the Tokyo Municipal
Government you are to land and remove your gauntlets
immediately. This is your only
warning.”
Kowai Gal just laughed and vaporized one
of their Masamune-Class Battle Droids.
“Oppsie!”
She landed in front of the cops and giggled
again. Then she coughed a few
times and blood came up. The
asphalt around her started to melt.
The cops started backing away; one of their techs pulled out a Geiger
counter and winced. Energy was
flowing freely around her now, gathering for one big
blast. Or one big
explosion.
But then a massive wave emerged from Tokyo
bay knocking Kowai Gal off her feet and, for the moment dousing her energy
field.
Rising Sun shot out of the sea with the wrecked
fishing boat in her hands and dumped another load of water on her
opponent. With Kowai Gal stunned
she landed and pulled off the overloaded gauntlets.
“OW!”
And dropped the red hot metal the next
moment. Even her psychokinetic
field was not enough to protect her from the
heat. The asphalt under them
was starting to smoke.
“Rising
Sun-sama do
something! They’re going
to explode!”
She scowled at the cop, did he think she
hadn’t figured that out! From
the corner of her eye she spotted a fish net and quickly wrapped the gauntlets
in it. She took off flying as fast as she
dared. Even the soaking wet
net was starting to scorch from the
heat. When she was as high as
she could manage she swung the net in a wide arc and released
it. The gauntlets soared upwards
and exploded with a mighty flash.
Rising Sun blinked a few times until her vision cleared and then
smiled.
She’d done it.
She’d saved
Tokyo.
She couldn’t believe
it.
She landed gracefully back on the shoreline
and smiled at the cops. They
saw her and came running.
“It’s
alright! I did
it!
I-“
They aimed something at her and
fired. The world went
black.
***
“Are you OK Rising
Sun-sama?”
“Eh?
Where?
What?”
“The exploding gauntlets released a
lot of radiation. The police doused you with anti-contamination foam and
you passed out. You’ve
been asleep for two days. However
the doctors say you should recover
shortly. You have amazing
recuperative powers.”
Kisume looked around; she was in a
“I did it didn’t
I? I saved
Tokyo! He was
wrong! I am a heroine, not a coward, not a
slut!”
“Um, right.”
“What happened to Ko
Gal? Is she OK, is she in
jail?”
“Ko
Gal. Yes… There was some
difficulty. Actually she is
dead.”
“D-dead?”
“Yes,
dead. She was killed by the
feedback when you doused her with water.
She was probably already dead when you pulled the gauntlets
off.”
“Dead?”
“If you feel bad, I should tell you
the doctors say she certainly would have died of radiation
poisoning. She didn’t have
your healing powers. Besides
she was nothing but a whore and a two-bit
thief. The only bad point is
that we will never, ever, know where she got the gauntlets
from.” Takeyama chuckled
to himself at that. Rising Sun
didn’t notice.
“Dead.
She’s dead. I killed
her.” Rising Sun pulled the covers up to her neck as if to hide under
them. “I want to see
Watanabe-kun!”
He would tell her it was all right, he would make it
OK.
“That would be…
difficult…”
“I know he must be busy but surely he
wants to see me. Doesn’t he?
Did he say he didn’t want to see me
again?”
“No, no he said nothing like
that…”
“Is he
OK? Is he in the hospital
too? Oh no, he’s not hurt
is he?”
Takeyama hissed again, his normally impassive
face started to twitch.
“Perhaps tomorrow…”
Rising Sun climbed from the bed and casually
bent the steel railing in one hand.
She was dressed in a thin hospital gown with the back open but
didn’t bother trying to close it. Takeyama could swear her eyes turned
red.
“No
excuses. Take me to him
now.”
Takeyama stammered for a second, then bowed
and opened the door.
***
They got in the elevator and Takeyama pushed
the button for the subbasement.
Rising Sun’s head was
swimming. In the hall all the
nurses and patients had bowed as she had gone
by. No one seemed to know or
care she was a killer. Now she
was just dizzy. Maybe she was
not as recovered as she thought.
The elevator arrived in a cold deserted corridor
in the subbasement. In a daze
Rising Sun followed Takeyama down the hall, never even looking at the
signs.
Takeyama stopped to whisper to a clerk and
gestured for Rising Sun to take a seat.
She frowned and remained
standing. She was just staring
to notice how cold it was, her butt was freezing and her nipples were standing
up. She hoped Watanabe would
find it sexy.
She paced a bit, why was it taking so
long?
Finally an orderly came in wheeling a metal
gantry covered in a sheet.
Rising Sun still didn’t figure it
out.
Takeyama walked behind the gantry and slowly
pulled the sheet up.
“I’m very
sorry.”
Rising Sun gasped.
“Apparently he was standing behind you
when Ko Gal attacked. The blast was deflected by your powers
and…”
“NO!”
Rising Sun turned and
ran.
Takeyama lowered the sheet, getting one last
look at the junior executive.
“She really loved you.
I guess you did your job better than I expected
Watanabe-kun.”
***
“She’s been in there for a week
Nambu-sama.”
“Have you tried to meet with her
Takeyama-Kun?”
“She threw dishes at me until I
left.”
“I
see… This is most
unfortunate. That little slut
Ko Gal may very well have destroyed our new
investment. I wonder how she
got those weapons.”
“I have no
idea-“
“Well, thankfully the media believes
our story that she is recovering.”
“Sir if I may
suggest-“
“No need, I have a plan in place
already. You may
go.”
After Takeyama left Nambu sat in his office
for some time before picking up the
phone.
“King Kaiju, I think we need to
move.”
***
The monster emerged from a disused subway
tunnel and tore its way onto the crowded Tokyo
streets. Thankfully the Tokyo
Anti-Monster Police detected it early and evacuated the
area. A call went out to the
Kaiju Rangers and the Chojin but neither was
available. The Rangers were
at Dragon Con in Atlanta and the Chojin had already used his three minutes
of power per day filming a coffee
commercial.
But there was one hero
left…
***
Rising Sun was spending the morning as she
had spent the last seven, eating ice cream, watching soap operas and
crying.
From the occasional news stories she knew
that
She’d miss the other girls but it was
for the best.
She noticed the shaking building about the
same time her soap opera was interrupted by a Giant Monster
Alert.
“Attention people of Tokyo, this is
a Giant Monster Alert. A giant centipede is attacking the Harajuku
district. All civilians should
evacuate. All available superheroes
should immediately come to our aid.”
“No… I
can’t…”
“Scientists believe the centipede, whom
we have named the Carrion Crawler was mutated by the radiation unleashed
during the battle between Rising Sun and Ko Gal.”
“No… not again…NOT
AGAIN!”
“So far no one has died but surely it
is only a matter of time…”
By then Rising Sun was nothing but a white
blur shooting from her hotel balcony.
***
The monster was
fierce-looking. It was a city
block long with dozens of segments covered in spikes and
horns. The head had dozens of
eyes and gross tentacles sprouted from the
mouth. Legs the size of telephone
poles crushed cars as it crawled down the
boulevard. It was bearing down
on a group of schoolgirls paralyzed with fear at the sight of
it.
But at the last moment a thick black electric
cable wrapped around it on the sensitive joint between the head and
body. Standing on a nearby building
Rising Sun pulled with all her might and reined the monster
in. The schoolgirls finally
came to their senses and ran. The
monster turned towards its tormenter.
“That’s enough
monster. No one else gets hurt
because of me! No
one!” Rising Sun casually
tore loose an air conditioning unit form the roof and tossed it at the
monster. It was the heaviest
thing she had lifted so far and she didn’t even think about
it.
The monster roared in pain and charged the
building. Rising Sun tossed a few pipes at it like
javelins. The enraged beast
hit the building with a crash and was caught in the
rubble. Rising Sun set her mouth
in a determined frown and flew in after it.
The Japanese girl ignored the slime and the
smell and grabbed two of the creature’s back
spines. She pulled herself forward
towards the head. If she could
stun it the Anti-Monster Police would have time to capture the
creature.
Just as she approached the head the creature
reared upwards, smashing through the front of the
building. The heroine fell stunned
to the ground. The creature’s
tentacled head lowered towards her limp
form. She stirred and looked
up, just in time to see the twitching tendrils descend.
A dozen camera crews captured this
disaster. “Is this the
end of Rising Sun?” reporters asked in hushed
voices.
Rising Sun felt the slimy tentacles crawling
along her slim body, several wrapping themselves around her head. Smaller
dendrites scraped flakes of skin and hair from
her. Suckers eagerly drank her
blood, sweat and tears. One
tentacle reached between her legs and started to probe her womanhood through
her thin spandex costume. A
dizzy spell hit her and for a moment she felt like her life was flashing
before her eyes. Her heart started
to pound, her mind was gripped by panic, she felt like the tentacles were
actually boring through her skull into her
brain! She had to get free,
she had to fly!
The Carrion Crawler started to heave and
buck, then suddenly Rising Sun punched through its head like a red and white
bullet. The monster fell to
the ground and exploded! The whole neighborhood was showered with slime and rubbery
flesh.
Hovering above it all Rising Sun caught her
breath and regained her composure.
She’d done it! She’d beaten the
monster! In her panic she had
flown through the creature’s brain killing
it. Below her she could hear
the people of Tokyo yelling “Rising Sun
BANZAI!” She smiled and
laughed. She was a heroine after
all, not a coward, not a failure.
She knew she would never forget Watanabe and Ko Gal but she would
carry on in their memory. She
would dedicate herself to becoming a great heroine so that no one else would
die if she could prevent it.
Rising Sun gracefully landed to meet her
public.
Watching the victory on television, Takeyama
and Nambu drank a toast. Their
new investment was a hit!
***
No one noticed the spider-like creature the
emerged from the monster’s head or saw it scurry downwards into the
sewers with a precious cargo in a pouch on its back.
It scurried from tunnel to tunnel, deeper
and deeper into the bowels below the city before finally arriving at a smoking
vat half a mile below the metropolis.
It entered the pool and was soon
digested. Its precious cargo
of DNA and memory RNA was spread throughout the vast workings of the
caverns. Tubes like veins carried
the fluids to the beating heart of this dark world, King
Kaiju. Not the silly monster
it used as his public face, that was just a genetically engineered construct.
This was the real King Kaiju. An
organic sphere fifty feet across pulsing with energy and
fluids. But there was more,
Kaiju was also every tube, every vat and every creature that lurked in these
miles of tunnels. Kaiju was
an alien organism created to manufacture monsters.
Its real name was
unpronounceable. It barely
remembered it; it had no need for it.
It had arrived on Earth over a million years ago to start altering
this world and its primitive life forms for its alien
masters. It was little more
than a seed then. But something
had gone wrong and it had been buried beneath the
When it was awakened in the late 1940s by
an American nuclear test King Kaiju had no idea how long had
passed. It began its
mission. It hollowed out tunnels
and extended tendrils deep into the
Earth. It formed vats and grew
small leathery creatures to be its eyes and ears in the
world. It soon learned the world
was infected with primitive life forms that would have to be cleansed before
the world would be conquered. So
it started to experiment. It
captured apes, lizards and turtles to alter them into new
forms. They grew to gigantic
size; their hearts were replaced with biological atomic
furnaces. They were unleashed
one by one on the nearest infestation, a place the primitives called
Japan.
The testing continued for
years. Despite Kaiju’s
best efforts the monsters failed.
Jet fighters, tanks, laser cannons and superheroes proved the downfall
of even its most powerful monsters.
Perhaps Kaiju could have ended the infestation with a simple virus
but it was not programmed for that.
King Kaiju was programmed to create massive nuclear monsters, and
that’s what it made.
In time the Japanese government located the
source of its problems. They
sent in their Science Ninjas. Not
those clowns in bird suits, the real Science
Ninjas. The ones who walk through
walls and whose swords cut you through the fourth
dimension. Against them even
Kaiju’s mastery of genetics was
useless. But Kaiju also had
a measure of intelligence, of self
awareness. It could negotiate, it could
plead. A deal was made.
Kaiju relocated to caverns below Tokyo where its body was laced with
tamper-proof bombs. It was given
a job to do, to make monsters on demand to meet the specifications of the
Japanese government and certain powerful corporations (who were essentially
the same thing as the Japanese
government). These monsters
would entertain the Japanese people and keep them
afraid. Keep them from asking
too many questions about what the government was doing with their
taxes.
In return Kaiju was allowed to live, and
given access to any interesting genetic samples the government came
across.
And these samples from Rising Sun were very
interesting indeed.
***
A week later Kisume Hiro got off a plane
in Megapolis. There were no reporters there to greet her, no crowds
of screaming fans and she felt fine about
that. After the madness of being
a celebrity in Japan she was happy to be back in
America. Jillian Havre met her
at the airport and gave her lift home.
They made small talk and caught up on the
news. Jillian was confident
that Rising Sun’s success in
Kisume listened to her leader’s grand
dreams of a headquarters by the St. Giffen River and private jets taking
them all over the world. It sounded nice but not very
realistic. Kisume was just happy to know that she was a real heroine,
brave and strong and capable of protecting the people who relied on
her. She was Rising Sun now,
and she would never be a victim again.
Epilogue
Someplace dark…
Kisume Hiro fell naked to the cold stone
floor. She was
terrified! She had no idea where
she was or how she got there! Her
last memory was being embraced by the maw of the Carrion
Crawler. Now she was covered
in slime and quite, quite naked.
As naked as the man facing her across the
cave.
“Um…
hello?
Koichiwa? Hola? Ni hao?”
He didn’t
answer. But as he looked at
her he grew more and more aroused.
“Um… I’m flattered that
you’re so interested but really this isn’t the
time-“
He took a few steps towards her groaning
and flailing his arms in front of him.
He was a muscular white man, over six feet tall with dark hair, clean
shaven. He looked vaguely familiar
and might have been attractive in other circumstances.
“S-stay
back! I-I’m not wearing
my costume now…” Rising
Sun unwisely pointed out “but I’m a
superheroine!”
The man grunted and continued to
advance.
Rising Sun took a deep breath and concentrated
she could feel her psychokinetic field surrounding her
weakly. But even with a weak
field she knew she could stop this man.
“I warned
you!” She joined her hands;
hit him across the face with a double handed
punch. “OW!”
Her hands bounced off his chin, it was like trying to hit
steel! She shook her hands to
lessen the sting.
“Who are
you?” She asked in
awe. The man just grunted and
seized her shoulders. He threw
her to the ground with incredible strength and delivered a swift kick to
her gut. Rising Sun tried to
crawl backwards but the man puffed his cheeks and (she couldn’t believe
it) blew at her. It was like
being hit in the face with a sledge
hammer. Rising Sun’s vision
went dark and her head hit the stone floor
hard. She blacked out for a
minute.
When her vision cleared the man was between
her legs pumping furiously, his hips almost a
blur. She felt something hot
inside her and the man rose to his feet.
Tentacles descended from the ceiling and collected the dark-haired
man and Rising Sun was left alone.
“What?”
She rose shakily to her feet and shook her
head. It happened so fast, it
felt almost like a dream. But
she could feel something sticky between her legs, it had been
real. Horribly
real.
“What’s
happening?” She called
out to the stone walls.
Then the floor under her
opened.
“Ah!”
She screamed as she fell through the stone
tunnel. She didn’t have
time to focus her thoughts and fly.
Then she was caught by a nest of tentacles, she could feel them gripping
her body, probing between her legs.
Then they released her and she fell again, finally landing in a pool
of water far below the cave where she had awoken.
“Are you
OK?” A blond woman leaned
over her. The woman was as naked
as Rising Sun and looked oddly familiar.
“Are you all
right? Do you speak
English?”
“What?
No!
No! I mean yes I speak
English but I’m not all right!
What’s happening to me?
Where am I?” Rising
Sun’s voice cracked.
The blonde
sighed. “Calm down, we
won’t hurt you; we’re all pretty much in the same boat as
you.” The blonde looked
at her again. “I don’t
recognize you, you’re new aren’t
you?” Rising Sun looked
puzzled. “Sorry, you’d
have no way of knowing would you?”
She handed the Japanese girl a pink and purple fruit. “Have something
to eat and let me give you some answers, my name’s
“R-Rising
Sun.”
“Oh we don’t use our heroine names
much here, what’s your real name?”
“What?
It’s Kisume but what do you mean-“
“I guess I should start at the beginning,
take a seat and take a look around, see anyone you
know?”
Rising Sun sat down on a rock in the pool
and glanced around the cave. There
were a half dozen other women there, all naked some clearly in advanced stages
of pregnancy. A pool of water
dominated half of the cave but the other half was dry and covered in white
sand. Strange fleshy plants lurked in the dark corners. Rising
Sun took bite out of the strange fruit, it was slightly
salty. Some of the other women in the room moved closer to
hear.
“OK Kisume, what’s today’s
date?”
“December 12.”
“What year?”
“What
year? 2000 of
course.”
Some of the women gasped at
that. Others shook their heads
sadly.
“So you are
new. Not just you, you but you
in general, all of you.”
“What are you talking
about? Of course I’m new
I just got here!”
“Calm down, let me explain… geeze
OK, my name is
“Stella?”
Rising Sun remembered Stella, one of the most popular heroines of
the 1970s. Her long blond hair,
red hotpants and loose blue top had decorated the covers of many fashion
magazines from those days. Rising
Sun remembered her sister had once worn a Stella costume for
Halloween. “But you disappeared
back in 1986.”
“Yeah that’s what Ninja Chick tells
me, but you see, the last thing I remember is it was 1978 and I was fighting
a giant monster in
“Time travel?”
“No, not
that. Ninja Chick over there”
she pointed to a tall oriental woman who looked about 6 months pregnant
“Ninja Chick’s last memory is she and the Blood Corps were fighting
some lizard monsters in
“With a man.”
“Yes, what did yours look
like?”
“Tall, muscular, curly dark
hair.”
“Oh, my older
brother.”
“Stellar
Man? He disappeared in the
60’s! How can he be
here? Why would
he-“
“It’s easier to show than to
tell. Kisume, were your ears
pierced?”
“What?
Yes.” She reflexively
felt her ears, they were smooth.
“How long was your
hair?”
“Past my shoulders…” she felt,
it was only a few inches long.
“How?
What?”
“Kisume, you’re not the real Rising
Sun. You’re a
clone. Probably a few hours
old. I’m a clone, so is
she, so are all of us.”
“But…”
“Someone is capturing heroines, cloning
them, implanting memories and then… impregnating
them.”
“But…”
“When one of us is about to give birth
the tentacles come down from the ceiling and carry the woman away, we never
see her again.”
“But…”
“And I’m not the first Stella in
this cave.” She pointed
to the call where an S had been carved and several tally marks, at least
20. “And she’s not
the first Cosmic Girl, and she’s not the first Ultra
Woman. In fact we have two Ultra
Woman here now. They’re
both clones of the Silver age Ultra Woman, the brunette, created about a
month apart. And we suspect
this is not the only chamber like this.”
“But…”
“Don’t worry you’ll have a
lot of time to get used to the idea, nine months or so. Come on, you should
meet Katie, the American Dream; she’s from the
1950’s. She’s the
fortieth one here since they started keeping
count.” Rising Sun nodded
and meekly followed her.
Was this
it? Was this her
future? An endless succession
of rapes, pregnancies and
reincarnations? Was this some
Buddhist hell? Was there anything
more cruel?
***
In the center of the complex King Kaiju
speculated on what form the combination of Stellar Man’s star-born powers
and Rising Sun’s psychokinetic powers would
yield. He would find out in
a few short months. But there
were other combinations worth trying too…
***
Elsewhere in the caverns deep beneath
A hulking purple man grunted and moved towards
her.
She
screamed.
Afterword
Well
that was fun. The main inspiration
for this story was the anime Perfect Blue about a Japanese pop star whose
managers gradually corrupt her for higher
ratings. I thought that in a
superhero world entertainment companies would treat superheroes a lot like
they treat singers and other
celebrities. American Idol and
all those other shows where pretty women are mocked and humiliated for a
chance at fame also provided some inspiration.
Anime fans will probably see some
other familiar faces in this story.
If you can find it, I recommend the live action Cutey Honey movie, the funniest thing I’ve seen all year.
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