The Saga of Stella #11:
Stellar Man is a Dick!
It’s
a special flashback issue! Telling a lost tale from the Sensational
Sixties when Stella was still Stellar Girl and the Minx was still Night Fox
Girl!
Learn
lost secrets and see why they say ‘Stellar Man’s a dick!’
Marcus Lycus
March
2008
Legal
Horrors –
Stella, the Minx and other characters are copyright and trademark Marcus Lycus. All rights reserved.
If
you want to use any characters in another story you need my permission.
It also means that you can’t repost this story without my permission.
And
since 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!
Issue 11 – Stellar
man is a dick
Gloria Barbarossa stepped out of the plane
with a small suitcase in her hands. A white cadillac was waiting for her outside Miami
International Airport.
“Warren!” She yelled happily. “So good to see you again!”
“Gloria! Looking
better than ever!”
“You too! Retirement must agree with you!”
“Well I was Ferret the Boy Wonder for almost
30 years. I miss it sometimes but then I remember those short pants and
that furry cape… and then I don’t miss it so much after all.”
“You never felt slighted? Never felt
like you should be the one protecting Megapolis
instead of a Foxy-come-lately like me?”
“Nah Gloria, like I said, I’m 42 now.
I’m way too old to be walking up the sides of buildings and making bad
puns. I’m just happy to be here in Miami where the sun’s always shinning
and there’s hot and cold running blondes for a distinguished gentleman with a
bit of cash in his pocket.”
Gloria smiled at that, trying to imagine
Warren with a girl. Even after all these years he was keeping up
appearances. It was so old-fashioned. “So, how’s Wes doing?”
“Oh you know Wes, just as cranky as
ever. He’s been doing a bit of sleuthing on the side, exposed a judge who
was getting payoffs from the mob.”
“Does he ever, you know, talk about me?”
Warren smiled, “Never.”
“Never? Not even a-“
“Never talks about you, but let me tell you,
in a secret compartment on his bookshelf (well he thinks it’s a secret) he’s
got a copy of every news article on you. The thing’s almost overflowing
by now.”
Gloria blushed. Wes Adams was never
much for showing affection or giving praise so she knew this was about the most
she’d ever get.
***
Timmy O'Leary climbed out of bed,
disentangling himself from the young Daily Comet intern. What was her
name again? Suzy? Sally? Something like that. Even at 39 his red hair, chubby cheeks and
freckles preserved his boyish good looks, and the girls loved to hear about his
adventures as Stellar Man's pal.
But it was Sunday morning, time for him to
get to work. He opened the cabinet and turned on the Omniwave;
a bit of alien technology Stellar Man gave him years ago.
"Stellar Man come in, come in Stellar
Man. This is Timmy O'Leary calling Stellar Man." No answer,
there never was. But Timmy wasn't done yet.
"Earth Alpha to Earth Beta, Timmy
O'Leary calling Solar Man, Earth Beta come in."
"This is Earth Beta, we read you
Timmy."
"Billy Boson? Is that you?"
"You got it bud. Can I guess why
you're calling?"
"Yeah, he's still missing."
"Sorry mate, no sign of him here,
nothing since he teamed up with our own Solar Man against Claudius Crowe and
Romulus Raven last year. Sorry."
"Thanks, let me know if you do hear
anything, okay?"
"You know it mate. We superhero
pals have to stick together y'know."
Timmy scowled, he twisted a dial. It
was frustrating but he still had about a dozen other calls he could make.
The Astro Corps, Planet Gemma…
he had a whole list.
"Calling the year 2636, this is Timmy
O'Leary of the year 1970 calling the Legion of Stellar Heroes..."
***
Lynn Lewis spent that day like most others,
sunbathing on the rooftop terrace, reading Cosmo and more or less listening for
trouble. Someone was shouting about a cat in a tree, but it was nothing
she needed to care about. The November chill meant nothing to the Girl of
the Stars. She barely even noticed stuff like that anymore.
Last night she’d wanted to tell the Minx all
about her adventure in the Midnight Realms, how she’d finally shown that stuck
up Moon Witch who was boss. But Gloria had just stumbled in at dawn,
grabbed a suitcase and announced she was leaving for Florida.
It was probably just as well. Gloria
could be really uptight sometimes and probably would have hassled
her about it. Sometimes she was just as bad as Cousin Ken. Besides
with the Minx out of town she really felt she could relax without her partner
always nagging her.
Later she figured she’d go shopping.
Spend some of this month’s diamond money.
***
The cadillac
pulled up in front a sprawling pink mansion a few blocks from the beach.
They entered and Warren pointed her towards Wes’ library. Gloria walked
up to the door but froze. Even after all these years, even after becoming
his successor she could feel her mouth drying up, her heart racing, even a bead
of sweat down her back. She swallowed and raised her hand to knock.
“Come in Gloria.” He said before she could
knock.
“Yes sir…” She muttered and opened the
door.
Wes was waiting for her. His back was
to the door, he was sitting at a table pouring over newspapers and deed
registries. “Hmph.
Property fraud. Just as I
suspected.”
Gloria quietly and timidly sat down in an
overstuffed arm chair. She hadn’t seen her mentor in over a year; she
could wait a little longer.
Wes Adams spent the next hour going through
papers. Only speaking to Gloria to request another book or file from his
shelves.
Finally he took out a sheet of paper, quickly
wrote a letter in his neat but cramped handwriting and rang a bell.
Warren appeared at the door seconds later.
“Take this to our friend the DA; deliver it
to his hands personally.” Warren nodded and left without a word.
Then and only then did Wes turn to Gloria and
say “Well?”
“Hello sir.”
“Don’t call me sir. Makes
me feel old.”
“Yes, um… Wes.” It felt awkward, like
your professor asking to be called ‘Frank’.
“Well? What do you have for me?
The Jester loose again? The Hoaxer pull one over
on the city? Night Cat steal the baseball
diamond? It must be something big if you need to call me in.”
“No, no, it’s um, the Green Golfer.”
“Pah,
that lightweight. Did you check the city records for all
abandoned or defunct golf courses within 50 miles which is the maximum range of
his hover tee?”
“Yes of course. I… I found him.
And I…” She felt a tear run down a hot cheek. This wasn’t how she
imagined the meeting at all. She came here for friendship, for guidance,
instead she felt like she was a kid in the principal’s office. “And I
killed him!”
“Killed him?”
“Yeah. He… he killed my boyfriend. Captured me.
He… he hurt me. I got loose, he activated his hover tee, aimed the spike,
I could have just beaten him up… I could have knocked him out… but I just got
out of the way and let it hit him. He’s dead.”
“Haven’t seen it in
the papers.”
“It was an abandoned mini golf course.
I doubt anyone’s found it yet.”
“What will they find?”
“Him. Impaled on his own hover tee, stuck in the side of
the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe.”
“So no evidence that
you killed him.”
“No.”
“What’s the problem then?”
“What’s the problem? I killed a man!”
“Yes. And…”
“And?”
For the first time Wes’ tone softened.
“Gloria, I know how it feels. I do. But ask yourself, was he a
murderer? Was he a criminal? In a sane world would he have gotten
the electric chair? If so, all you did was save the taxpayers some
money.”
“But…”
Wes slowly climbed out of his chair and
limped to the bar. He poured two tall glasses of gin and handed her one.
“Look I know, hell I taught you. We’re
heroes; we have to stand for something better. We can’t be judge, jury
and executioner. Back in the 30s, maybe, but today…
Things are different now.”
“So…”
“But let’s not go overboard.”
“But you never killed!”
“I didn’t? News to
me.”
“But your files…”
“Come on Gloria, you’re always bragging about
that phenomenal memory of yours. The Case of the
Chemical Syndicate?”
“The Poisoner? But he
accidentally fell into a vat of toxic chemicals, you didn’t-“
“Didn’t what? Push him? Certainly
no one could ever prove it.”
“I…”
“We do what we have to do Gloria. That’s what
makes us different. I thought by now you would understand that.
Tell me, do you remember the first time you and Lynn met?”
“Of course I do, photographic memory remember? It was about two years ago now, the
Jester and Claudius Crowe teamed up and-“
“No not that time. The
first time.”
“That was the first time! Believe me,
I’d remember!”
Wes sat back and smiled. “Yes, yes you
would. If we had allowed you to.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about five years ago, a case we
had to call…”
***
The Night Fox/Stellar Man War!
It was the year 1965…
The Sound of Music premiered, Canada adopted
the Maple Leaf flag, the United States invaded the Dominican Republic, the
Beatles played Shea Stadium and comic books were altered forever by the debut
of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1.
And in the woods outside Middleton Orphanage,
Stellar Man’s fifteen year old ‘secret weapon’ was getting an education.
“Golly Rich, we sure are far from the
picnic.”
“Yeah Lynn, we’re pretty far away. I
doubt anyone can even hear us.”
“Um, maybe we should head back.”
But Rich sat down on a log and gestured for
Lynn to join him. The young girl sighed and sat down. He looked
into her eyes and smiled.
“You’re a pretty girl Lynn.” He put a
hand on her shoulder.
Lynn blushed, she’d been in the orphanage a
year now, ever since that terrible night her parents died and Stellar Man gave
her some of his powers to save her life. But during that time he had
ordered her to hide, to only use her powers in secret and to make sure no one
learned about them. For that reason he had moved her from her hometown of
Littledale to Middleton, clear across the state,
where no one knew her. He made her wear a brown wig over her blond hair,
and told her not to make friends, not to get adopted, and never, ever, to have
a boyfriend.
It had been a lonely year for the teen
girl. Very lonely.
“Really pretty.”
Rich was one of the nicest boys in the
orphanage. He and Lynn were always working together to entertain the
younger kids. She sort of, kind of, liked him. One morning, she’d
even used her stellar sight to peer in on him in the boys shower.
They kissed.
They kissed again.
He undid three buttons on her white shirt and
slipped a warm hand inside, resting on her breast. She could feel it
through the protective barrier of her bra, it was so exciting. She hiked up her
brown skirt a bit and moved closer to him, their legs intertwining.
In the distance Lynn could hear a familiar
whoosh of wind. Her eyes went wide with fear. “No…” She
said. There was a CRACK and a branch fell, hitting Rich right on the head
and knocking him out.
“STELLAR GIRL! What are you doing?!”
Lynn backed up, letting Rich’s limp body fall to the ground. She hurriedly buttoned up.
Stellar Man landed in the clearing a snarl on his face.
I could hear you two from Megapolis!
Thank the merciful stars I arrived in time! My stellar vision knocked
loose that branch and knocked him out for a while.”
“I… Um…”
“That boy was trying to take advantage of you
Lynn! How could you be so careless! What do you have to say for
yourself?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Well that’s a start.” His blue eyes
turned pale as his stellar sight checked out his cousin. “And where is
your costume? Why aren’t you wearing it under your civilian clothes?”
“I… Well it’s a picnic and I knew I’d be in
the woods so if my blouse got torn and someone saw the costume underneath they
would wonder why I was wearing a Stellar Man costume and suspect I’m your
cousin.” It was a lie of course, she’d been waiting weeks for today,
alone, in the woods, with Rich. But she could hardly say that!
Stellar Man chewed on her excuse for a second
and nodded. “Well at least you thought of that. But Lynn you must
remember that with our stellar strength, even a single unguarded moment in the
heat of passion could mean the death of a normal human. Relationships,
kissing and um… other things, they’re out of the question with normal
humans. Perhaps if we weren’t cousins and you weren’t so young…” He
let the words trail off and shook his head. “But anyway that is the price
we must pay for our great powers. We are beloved by the world but we must
remain apart from it, alone, except for each other. I’ve told you this
before.”
“Yes Stellar Man. I’m sorry. It’s
just that…”
“No I understand, your female weakness allows
bad boys like this Rich here to take advantage of you. But I’ll fix
that.” He lifted Rich and gave him a slight slap to wake the boy up.
“Huh? What? Stellar
Man? Lynn what’s going on?”
Stellar Man’s eyes seemed to spin, different
colors danced in them, Rich’s face became completely relaxed.
“You’re going right back to the orphanage
Rich, you’re going right back and you will never try to get close to Lynn Lewis
again. Do you understand?”
“Yes sir.”
“You will forget you ever saw me. Now
go!” He dropped the boy and Rich ran back through the woods.
“It’s a good thing I was here to protect you
Lynn, especially since you never developed stellar hypnosis.”
“Um, yeah. Thanks Stellar Man.”
The Man of the Stars sat down on the log and
motioned for his teenaged cousin to join him. She meekly sat down next to
him. “Now Lynn there’s one more thing.”
“What is it?”
He grabbed her hair and pulled her over his
lap; he raised his other hand and brought it down with a fierce SLAP!
Lynn screamed, even with her stellar powers these slaps hurt! He raised
his hand and brought it down with enough force to shatter a building. He
did this ten times and Lynn screamed each time. Through it all she could
feel something pushing through his trunks, into her side, like an iron
bar. Finally he released her and stood up. She could see tenting in
his red briefs.
“Now I hope you remember your lesson little
girl. If you don’t learn to contain your wanton womanly ways someone is
going to get hurt, hurt a lot worse than a simple spanking.”
“Y-yes Stellar Man. T-thank you Stellar Man.”
“Now I’m off, I… I need to go to… to take
care of something.” He seemed to want to say something else but just
looked away and said “Up! Up! Into the sky!”
And then he was gone leaving his teen cousin in the clearing rubbing her aching
butt.
Miserable she made her way back to the
orphanage. She wondered what Stellar Man meant. She knew all about
what her powers could do but still… She was just kissing Rich. She wasn’t
going to, y’know, DO anything.
The orphanage was getting closer; her stellar
hearing could catch what people were saying.
“So Rich did you nail her?”
“Lynn? Nah, just
second base. Frankly she’s a cold fish, weird too, hardly ever
talks to anyone, never tries to get adopted, always vanishing into the
woods. She’s a freak; I’m not into her anymore. I can’t even
remember why I was into her.”
Lynn started to cry.
***
Faster than a speeding comet, Stellar Man
flew back towards Megapolis. He arced upwards
and flew through the cloud cover, enjoying the feeling of the sun on his
face.
His powers were almost without limit.
Ordinary people thought of him as nothing but a strong man who could fly, but
that was only the most obvious of his powers. Stellar Man could break the
time barrier and the dimensional barrier with ease. He could move planets
with the gravitational energies channeled through his hands. He could
observe every man, woman and child on Earth at once, and had the speed to
protect all of them from any harm. His mind could find the cure to any
disease, the solution to any social problem. He could even plot ways to
do this without anyone knowing it was him.
But he did not.
His powers were tempered by an even greater
humility. He recognized that no matter how subtly he acted, ultimately
the human race needed to stand on its own. So he confined himself to the
role of a protector, dealing with threats from other worlds that the human race
could not be expected to handle. Occasionally he acted to blunt a natural
disaster or stop a crime but nothing more.
That was his greatest virtue, and his
greatest burden. He was not some uncaring deity, watching people suffer
for his amusement. He cared deeply for everyone on Earth; he heard every
crime, winced at every unnecessary death. But it was not his place to
remake the world in his image.
He wondered if Lynn would ever share this
insight. Her powers were so much weaker than his, and she showed no signs
of developing his stellar intelligence. Even the simplest tasks like
protecting her secret identity and mastering her own desires seemed beyond
her. He resolved to try even harder to help her.
Flying too fast for anyone to see he entered
Ken Clarke’s apartment, the only sign of his passage was a sudden gust of wind.
He froze, someone was waiting for him.
“Hello Mr. Clarke, or should I say… Stellar Man?”
***
That night in the girl’s dorm, the rest of
the girls were asleep in their bunk beds but Lynn could see Sharon Tanner slip
out of her bed and silently open the window. Her fellow orphan was almost
18 and every couple of days slipped outside for her ‘night job’. Outside
Lynn’s stellar hearing caught the conversation. “Hey Rich, I didn’t think
you’d show, I heard you had something with that Lynn chick.”
“Nah she’s a freak.”
“You know the deal right. $5 for first base, $10 for second, $25 for third, and $50 for a
home run.”
“Well Sharon I just got paid at the soda
fountain so let’s go all the way.”
Lynn cried into her pillow.
Suddenly there was a hand on her shoulder.
“Lynn Lewis?”
“Wha-?” The hand covered her mouth. The intruder put a finger over his
lips and made a ‘sssh’
noise.
With her stellar strength she could easily
pull it away but for the moment she decided to play along. She nodded.
He tossed her her
Stellar Girl costume and pointed to the window. “Outside,
in two minutes.” He whispered.
Lynn lay there in shock. She was still
in training. Still Stellar Man’s secret weapon.
No one was supposed to know Stellar Girl even existed. No one but Stellar
Man himself and whoever this intruder was he sure wasn’t Stellar Man.
With stellar speed she removed her nightgown
and wig and put on her blue minidress, red cape and
red boots. She flew out the window after the mysterious stranger.
***
At the same time Gloria Barbarossa was
listening to the police radio at her father’s house when she heard a startling
report.
“Attention, attention, calling all
cars! The statue of General Grant in O’Neal Square has gotten off of its
pedestal and is walking around!”
Gloria smiled, that sort of crazy event
sounded like a job for Night Fox!
“Daddy I just remembered I have a meeting of
my evening poetry club! See you later!”
But instead of heading for the lobby she
headed for an abandoned coal bin in the basement. There she removed her
blouse and skirt and slipped into the daringly tight leather bodysuit of Night
Fox Girl! She added her fox-eared cowl and furry red cape and finally her
utility belt. She jumped on her Fox Scooter and roared off.
She adjusted a dial on her Scooter to Night
Fox’s special frequency but heard nothing. He must be out of town.
All the better then, she could solve this mystery herself and prove that she
was worthy to be his sidekick!
She’d been Night Fox Girl for just over a
year now and had worked hard to prove herself worthy of the name. Since
that fateful night when masquerade-guest Gloria Barbarossa had to take on the
Green Golfer, she had grown to love the role. She’d always been a good athlete
and talented in science but somehow in this costume she felt stronger, faster,
smarter, more determined. It was like putting on a mask made her a
different, better person. She wondered if that’s how Night Fox and other
masked vigilantes felt.
But she’d faced an uphill climb. Night
Fox and Ferret had been a team since the 40’s and like a lot of men raised in
that time they had trouble adjusting to women’s lib. They kept insisting
that crime-fighting was too dangerous for a girl, or falling over themselves
trying to protect her. But they were gradually waking up to the fact the
‘Foxy’ could handle herself just as well as they could. She’d put
together her own equipment, even built this scooter with its sophisticated
radio equipment and inferred headlights. Now, even if she wasn’t exactly
a welcome part of the team, she was at least tolerated. And she was sure
she could do more than that.
Her reflections ended as she arrived in
O’Neal square. Sure enough the bronze statue of General Grant was walking
around, as if enjoying the spring air. Crowds of people were watching;
some were even taking pictures. Night Fox Girl got off her scooter and
readied a lasso.
“Ah Night Fox Girl! I thought you might come!”
“Huh?” Foxy froze, was this some elaborate
trap for her?
The statue shattered, under it was the iconic
red and blue costume of…
“Stellar Man?”
“The one and only!” He put a strong arm around her hip and pulled her close. They
shot into the air.
“I- Where are
we going?!” She shouted over the roaring wind.
“Actually Night Fox Girl, I need your help.”
***
“You need my help?” Stellar Girl
asked. “Me? Are you sure?”
“Yes Stellar Girl, I need you to help me stop
Stellar Man.”
Stellar Girl had found the intruder easily enough;
he was waiting in a clearing with a self-satisfied smile on his face.
“So I guess I was right after all. Lynn
Lewis is some sort of Stellar Girl.”
“You’re Night Fox!” She gasped. “The world’s greatest detective! The crafty crusader!
That’s how you know who I am! Stellar Man must have told you!”
“Hmph! The world’s greatest detective hardly needs Stellar Man to tell him
what’s going on. Weeks ago I noted the large number of mysteriously averted
disasters around Middleton and set up a number of motion-activated high-speed
cameras. I assumed there was a new hero operating in the area. Soon
enough I had blurry pictures of a blond girl in a Stellar Man costume.
From there it was a simple matter for me to recall that Ken Clarke has a
teen-aged cousin and to track you to this orphanage. I like the wig; it
will be very useful when you go public.”
“Um thanks. So Stellar Man didn’t send
you?”
“No, in fact I came because I’m going to need
your help. I need you to protect me from your cousin.”
***
“Stop Night Fox? But why? You’re best friends. The finest heroes in the world!”
“True, true, but this time he has made a
terrible mistake and I have to stop him.” Stellar Man and Night Fox Girl
were standing in the main hall of his Citadel of Isolation.
“But…”
“Perhaps I can explain.” A new voice
called out. A bizarre being stepped from the shadows, his skin was blue
and dotted with yellow bumps. He wore an elaborate red and gold
uniform.
“Holy close encounters Stellar Man!”
Night Fox Girl cried out.
“Indeed Gloria Barbarossa.
Indeed. As you surmised I am not from your world. I am Dur from the 5th planet in the Sirus solar system. There I hold the office of
Tontor-2, the equivalent of America’s vice-president. A few days ago the
Tontor-1, our president, was assassinated by unknown enemy agents. The
law decrees there is a 10-day mourning period before I succeed him.
Fearing I would be killed before then, I used one our molecular transporters
and teleported myself here to seek asylum. Thanks to years of observing
this planet we know its languages and customs, including your secret
identities!”
“Dur suspects that
an enemy agent has already arrived and deceived Night Fox. That’s why I
need your help.”
***
“You see Stellar Girl I was retuning to the Fox Den when suddenly a voice called out...
‘Greetings Wes Adams, or should I say Night Fox’.
It was an alien policeman named Tiron. He’s on
the trail of an escaped criminal named Dur and
believes Dur has already deceived Stellar Man into
protecting him. I need your help to get into the Citadel of Isolation.”
“Stars and comets! Of course I’ll help!”
***
“No, no Wes, wait a second. First of
all I don’t remember this at all. And believe me, I’d remember.
Secondly this story makes no sense at all. I mean you guys were best
friends, why would you believe some random alien’s story? And why
wouldn’t you just contact Stellar Man and straighten this out?”
Wes Adams smiled and waved her off.
“Don’t be so impatient Gloria, the story isn’t over. So Stellar Girl and
I flew to the Citadel, Stellar Girl was opening the main door when…”
***
“Stars and comets! It’s Stellar Man!”
“Night Fox you’re making a terrible mistake!”
“No old chum you’re the one making the
mistake! Get him Stellar Girl!”
“Stellar Girl? Great galaxies! Why are you helping Night Fox?”
“Sorry Stellar Man, but he’s right!”
Stellar Girl swung the gigantic 100 foot-long golden key and knocked Stellar
Man out of the air.
Meanwhile the Crafty Crusader slipped in through
the partially open door and caught sight of his quarry.
“Stellar Girl can keep him busy while I deal
with you Dur.” He ran after the fleeing alien.
“Ah but who’ll keep you safe from me?”
“Great Scott! Night Fox Girl?”
“Yup! And a handy cage from the Interstellar Zoo!”
The titanium cage fell from the ceiling
trapping the Crafty Crusader like a fox in a cage.
Meanwhile outside, Stellar Man grabbed his
cousin by the ankle and spun her at stellar speeds.
“I know you’re not enjoying this spin-cycle
Stellar Girl but you’re on the wrong side!” He released her and she went
flying across the artic wastes.
“Now I have to see if Dur
is all right.” He flew in, grabbed Dur and
Night Fox Girl and disappeared before Night Fox’s acid could eat through the
cage bars. Stellar Girl flew in and freed him.
“Stars and comets, I guess we goofed.”
“It looks like he had the same idea I did;
we’ll have to be twice as smart now if we’re going to catch that alien
criminal.”
***
“No, Wes that doesn’t even-“
Wes just held up his hand. The Minx
crossed her arms and frowned.
“Fine, fine, finish the story.”
***
Stellar Girl and Night Fox used Stellar Man’s
Defending League of Justice communicator to track him
to Schwartz National Park. He was standing guard outside a cave,
obviously protecting Dur. When they arrived,
the alien police officer Tirun was waiting for
them. “I used my special science equipment to track Dur
to this location.” He explained.
“Good job, now here’s the plan…”
Soon Tirun jumped
out of the woods and charged Stellar Man, his laser gun firing harmlessly at
the hero’s invulnerable chest.
“Death to you Stellar
Man!”
“Stay back, I don’t want to hurt you!”
The Man of the Stars cried.
“But I want to hurt you!” A voice cried
out as Night Fox jumped him from behind. “These special gloves I captured
from Claudius Crowe emit rays of green stellar radiation, your one weakness!”
He punched Stellar Man in the face, the
mighty hero was astonished, his punches actually hurt.
And on the other side
of the hill.
“This time while Night
Fox keeps my cousin busy I’ll tunnel in and nab Dur
myself!”
“Sorry Stellar Girl, but you’re not going
anywhere.” Perched on a cliff over Stellar Girl, Night Fox Girl sprayed
sticky fluid at the Girl of the Stars, completely covering her in adhesive.
But Stellar Girl easily tore free. I
don’t wear this costume as a fashion statement you know! I’m almost as
powerful as Stellar Man!” She started to spin, drilling a tunnel into the
hill.
Night Fox Girl recoiled, that adhesive was
strong enough to hold a charging rhino! This was a lot more serious than
she’d expected. The hill shook violently from Stellar Girl’s
efforts. Night Fox Girl slipped on some gravel and fell off the cliff.
“Great galaxies! Night Fox Girl is falling and I’m too weak from the green stellar
radiation to save her!”
“Damnit!” Night Fox swore and ran to the cliff side to catch his falling
partner. “Got you!” He yelled.
“And now I’ve got you!” Stellar Man
added wrapping the crafty crusader in his invulnerable cape. “I only
needed a second to recover from your radiation, then I
used my stellar vision to cut the wires on your little gloves.”
“Now where did Stellar Girl get to?”
“In here!” She cried out from inside
the cave, “But Dur is missing.”
“What?” Night Fox Girl yelled.
“But I put him in there myself.”
“Perhaps I can explain” Tiron
said. He reached up and pulled on his own hair, the hair and his entire face
came off!
“Stars and comets! It’s a mask!” Stellar Girl exclaimed.
“And if I’m not mistaken, you’re Ronald
Jason! The famous actor! You’ve been masquerading as an alien all
along! Then who was Dur?”
“(cough) There was
no Dur, there never was (cough). I’ve been
playing both parts all along! It was the finest performance of my
career! I’ve planned it ever since I was diagnosed with cancer months
ago…”
***
“And so he explained how he figured out
Stellar Man and my secret identities with his actor’s eye. As a trained
mimic he noticed the similarities in our voices and body language. He
then used Hollywood make-up and a jet pack from one of his movies to trick
Stellar Man and I. Then he died.”
“But… but…surely you and Stellar Man could
easily see through his ruse, I mean-“
“Gloria, please listen to the end of the
story. We returned to the Fox’s den. While you and Stellar Girl
made us coffee Stellar Man and I compared notes…”
***
“Great galaxies, that
was fun!”
“You can say that again old chum.”
“It was good of you to play along with his
ruse.”
“Well I may not have stellar sight but I
could see right away he was human, and quite sick. Then I recognized the
voice and remembered the news articles about Ronald’s cancer. I figured
he deserved to die a happy man. Besides, as you said, it was fun.
You should have seen your face when Stellar Girl attacked.”
“Great galaxies, I can’t believe you figured
out he exists. She’ll have to be a lot more careful.”
“You’ll have to be careful too, I mean a girl
with all of your powers? Is that a good idea? A bit of flightiness
or irresponsibility could cost lives.”
“I’ve done my best to teach her
responsibility, but sometimes… I do worry about it. She’s family
though, and I’m sure that sooner or later she should develop stellar
intelligence. If not… there’s always red stellar radiation bombardment.
That will remove her powers forever. But what about
your new partner? Got tired of Ferret?”
“No, no, never. To tell the truth it wasn’t my idea, she came out of nowhere and
sort of forced herself on us. But to tell the truth she’s not half bad.”
“Not half-bad looking either. Have you
two uh…”
“No, not yet. She’s Joe Barbarossa’s girl, it would be kind of awkward.”
Stellar Man nodded. “I’ll have to erase
her memory of course; Stellar Girl is still a secret.”
“Naturally, may as well erase your cousin’s
memory too, I’m not quite ready to trust her with the location of the Fox Den.”
“No problem. Now
where the hell is our coffee!”
They both laughed.
***
“I don’t even know where to start with
that. The illogic of it, the chauvinistic attitude, violating my mind,
and is that what you really thought of me?”
“Then you get the point.”
“What point? That your 60s adventures
don’t made sense? That you and Stellar Man were colossal dicks?
What point?”
“That being a costumed hero means making
tough choices. Yes, we could have exposed Ronald’s plan and nixed it
right away, but instead we helped a great actor give one last, great
performance. We could have let you and Lynn remember everything, but that
would mean trusting an immature girl know my secret identity and trusting you
to keep her secret. It was a risk we did not dare take.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“You killed a man. Yes, it’s
terrible. Yes, you could have averted it. But you had to make a
tough choice and you’ll learn to live with it.”
Gloria sat quietly for a few minutes.
***
Lynn came back to the penthouse, her arms
filled with shopping bags filled with new shoes and dresses.
She noticed the light was blinking.
“Stupid light.” She made a note to have Gloria look at it when she came back.
Gloria was good at the kind of stuff.
About a half hour later she remembered Gloria
had set up a blinking light as a signal from the police. “Stars and comets!” She shouted and flew out the
window in a blur. She was on the roof of police headquarters within the
minute.
“Ah finally!” Commissioner Brown said.
“Sorry, sorry, there was like this big, um,
tidal wave and I…”
“No problem I know you heroines are
busy. A bit too busy it seems.”
“Um…”
“Come downstairs…”
The chief led the frazzled heroine to the
morgue and opened the drawer.
“Stars and comets! It’s Gregg!”
“Yes, Detective
Stanley. We found him on top of the Conway
Bridge, broken neck; he had this around his ankle.” The Commissioner held
up a thin line with a diamond-tipped spike. “Look familiar?”
“Yeah, it’s one of the Minx’s. But you
don’t think…”
“There’s more.” He pulled open another
drawer. Stella wrinkled her nose and looked away from the corpse.
“Arnold Nicklaus.
Better known as the Green Golfer. We found him
impaled on his own hover tee in a mini-golf park. He had more of the
Minx’s stuff on him. There were signs someone had been tied up there.”
“Was it G- G-, uh my
good friend the Minx?” Stella started to look sick.
“We don’t know.
But I have two dead bodies and no one’s seen the Minx.”
“Oh stars and comets…”
***
After they’d been sitting in silence for
fifteen minutes Gloria got up to go. “Thank you I guess.”
“Any time Gloria, any time. By the way,
have you heard anything from Stellar Man?”
“Stellar Man?”
“Yeah, it’s been about a year since he and
Polly left for space, surely he must have checked in via Omniwave
by now.”
“Oh Wes!” Gloria giggled “That speech on TV, that wasn’t real, that was two of
his robots. I guess you’re not the only one who can pull off a trick.”
“Robots?”
“Yeah, he was gone days before we put on that
show, the robots were just to reassure people and kind of pass the torch to me
and Lynn.”
“Gone?”
“Yeah gone. I got this prerecorded message from him and headed up to the
Citadel. Lynn was there and he was gone.”
“Prerecorded message? At the Fox Den?”
“Yeah, it was for you but I figured he
wouldn’t mind me coming up to investigate. When I got there he was gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Huh?”
“Gloria, where did Stellar Man go?”
“He’s gone.”
Wes Adams voice became dry and cold.
“Gloria Barbarossa, where did he go?”
“Who?”
“Stellar Man.”
“He’s gone.”
They sat in silence for another few
minutes. Gloria’s eyes were blank and empty. Slowly they began to
focus again. She blinked.
“Sorry, what were we talking about?”
Wes sat there for another minute. His
voice turned very serious.
“Gloria, I think you’d better tell me exactly
what happened when you found Stellar Girl last year…”
Afterword
I’ve been wanting to show off the silver age Stellar Man and
Night Fox for a while. This story is based, almost word-for-word, on a
Superman/Batman/ Batgirl/Supergirl story from the
Showcase Batgirl book. Actually my version is a bit more logical since I
left out the actor’s brother who invented a teleporter
and the bit about Robin and Jimmy Olsen having their own secret HQ and spying
on Superman and Batman… God that story made no sense.
And it’s a good excuse
to set up the…
Next issue: Secrets revealed, anniversaries celebrated, and a
new beginning. Whatever happened to the man of the stars?
Feedback has been a
lot lately with just the same few people writing in, please, please do take the
time to email, it’s the only reward I get for these stories.
Besides, don’t you
want to guess what the secret of issue 12 is? Sure you do!
PREVIOUS
CHAPTER