The Saga of Stella #12:
Whatever happened to the Man of the Stars?
Special one-year anniversary issue!
In this issue, everything changes!
When we learn the secret has Stella been hiding!
And we find out whatever happened to Stellar Man?
Marcus Lycus
April 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.
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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 12 – Whatever happened to the Man of the Stars?
The blond girl flew low over the ice fields. The fortress slowly appeared in the distance. She wasn’t flying at full speed; she didn’t want to risk damaging the flowers in her hands. Had it really been a year? Sometimes it felt longer, other times way too short.
She landed gracefully next to the enormous golden key. She carefully placed the flowers under a sheltered overhang and lifted the great key with both hands. Once the impenetrable door was open she replaced the key, retrieved the flowers and entered.
The main hall was still in shambles from her battle with the mini-Stellas. She slowly flew over the wreckage.
“Stars and comets, I really should clean this place up one of these days.”
But her final destination was still intact; Claudius Crowe’s Invincibot was indestructible after all. She paused in front of it. By then the lump in her throat felt like a beach ball. Tears were falling from her eyes. She knelt down and put the flowers by the robot’s mouth. She couldn’t get up, she was so wracked with sobs.
“OH STARS AND COMETS! I’m so, so sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I didn’t know… I didn’t mean…”
“Really Lynn? Really?”
“Huh?!” She sat up straight. “G-Gloria?”
The Minx swung down from the roof and landed on top of the fallen robot. “Who else were you expecting Lynn?”
“I…”
“Hard to believe huh? It’s been a year since I got that message from Stellar Man. A whole year since I found you right in that spot.”
“I…”
“A year. A year since I got a message from Stellar Man. Did I ever tell you what it said?”
“Um… Gloria… I…”
She cleared her throat and recited “Hello old chum, if you are getting this message then I may already be dead. The sensors in my Citadel are programmed to send this if anything ever happens to my vital signs. Please come to the Citadel immediately. My life may depend on it.”
“He said that?”
“I didn’t know what to make of it at first. I honestly thought it was some joke he was playing on Night Fox, they were always doing strange stuff like that. Still I decided to check it out. And I found you, right here.”
“Um, yeah, I remember, then we went to see his living quarters. Where I found him, all covered in blood. In her blood. All over him. All over his chest. All over his legs. All over his thing.” Her voice turned hard. “He told me, he told me his whole life, never kiss, never hug, never love, cause you’ll kill them. That’s what he said. But he did it! He did!”
“Yes Lynn, I know.”
“And he said never kill! He swore he’d never, ever kill. He said if I ever killed he’d take away my powers forever! He said that!”
“I know.”
“So you understand Gloria? You understand right? I had to! I had to!”
“I understand.”
***
The Minx could see it in her mind.
Stellar Girl returned to the Citadel after finishing her show at an orphanage. She loved that kind of thing, looking at the happy kids, their smiling faces. It reminded her of her own days at the orphanage, how she wished someone, anyone, had been kind to her.
The computer said Stellar Man was in the Citadel. She called out to him but got no answer. She swung by the lab, the gym, the gardens, the interstellar zoo, no sign of him. She smiled impishly. He had to be in one of the forbidden areas! And since he hadn’t answered, well she would have to look for him wouldn’t she? Maybe an experiment had gone awry, maybe he was hurt or maybe some enemy had attacked. So she flew into the Hall of Forbidden Science, past the Stellar Radiation Room, past the Vault of Time, to a small room labeled ‘living quarters’. She heard breathing on the other side of the wooden door. Then she heard a boom.
She threw it open “Hey cuz! Here you are!”
And there he was. His iconic blue costume coved with blood. His skintight pants around his ankles. His legs, pelvis and penis covered in blood. The room was coated in blood. In the corner was the upper half of Stellar Man’s girlfriend Polly Path. The girl took this in a second. And she froze.
“L-Lynn… I…”
“You…”
“Lynn wait, I-“
She vanished in a blur. Stunned Stellar Man stood unmoving for a minute. Then he moved.
Fast.
Stellar Man was fast. Stellar Man was beyond fast. He was faster than light. Faster than time. Stronger than the walls that separate dimensions. Senses that saw the world. Unstoppable. Invincible. Inescapable. Searching the Citadel did not take seconds, just a millisecond. Less. He found Stella almost instantly. She was in the main hall. He was there as soon as he thought of it.
“AH!” He screamed.
She had found the Green Stellar Radiation Ray. The most powerful man on the planet fell screaming to the ground. He pissed himself.
“S-Stellar Girl… why? Lynn? Why?”
“You! You! All my life you told me no sex! No boys!”
“Lynn listen…”
“No love! Can’t take the chance! You’ll kill them! That’s what you said! And here you were, fucking girls in the Citadel!”
“No… Lynn… the bitch… she set me up…(gasp)”
Stellar Man’s finger nails were turning green, he was sweating, his breath coming in gasps.
“All my life, Lynn do this! Lynn do that! Don’t do this! Don’t do that! And most important of all, don’t kill! And you killed!”
“(gasp) please turn it down… can’t…”
“You… you… you killed my family! You got them killed, you and your supervillain. And you made me one of you!”
“(gasp) Please Lynn…”
“Don’t you mean Stellar Girl? I mean that’s what you decided my new name was. And my new clothes. And my new hair. And then you tell me I can’t get adopted, I can’t have a boyfriend, I can’t even have friends! And I can’t even let anyone know about my powers! I saved airplanes and stopped forest fires, and even saved you and I couldn’t tell anyone! Anyone! I had to be your god damn secret weapon!”
“(gasp!)” Stellar Man’s skin was taking on a green tinge. His arms gave away and he fell face flat on the icy floor.
“And then you finally let me go public, and I got my parade and everything and all that. But you didn’t let me join the Defending League or anything! You made me report all my missions to you, I can’t go in half of the Citadel. I… I…” She screamed incoherently.
She crushed the ray in her hand and charged him kicking his limp body again and again. “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU SO MUCH!” She kicked him again and his limp body flew across the room and hit the far wall with a sickening squish.
Stellar Girl gasped. His body hit the floor and his head lay there at an unnatural angle. Unmoving.
“Cousin Ken?”
No answer.
“Cousin Ken, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it… Cousin Ken?” She took one hesitant step forward. Then another. She knelt next to him. His neck was broken, his skin bright green. He was dead.
“No… No, you’re not dead, I didn’t kill you… I didn’t… you’re OK! You’re OK!”
No answer.
“Oh stars and comet, stars and comets… Night Fox, the Defending League, they’ll kill me… Take away my powers, kill me. I can’t tell them…” She looked across the main hall at the impenetrable door. The sun wasn’t too far away, she could just toss him in, no one would ever know.
“No… no, they have satellites and stuff. They’ll see me. Hide it. Have to hide it.” Her eyes lit on the Invincibot.
***
“You hid him in there didn’t you?”
“Y-yes…”
“And then I arrived. You were scared, you were confused, you wanted a way out.”
“I…”
The Minx jumped off the robot body and walked around her prostrate friend, shaking her head.
“I knew he was dead. The recording said so. It didn’t say he left the planet, or gave up his powers or anything. It said something happened to his vital signs. But you told me he was ‘gone’. Just ‘gone’. And I believed it. I repeated it. FUCK! I helped you stage that little show with robots to convince everyone else! And I never, never, asked where Stellar Man was. Never. Me… the world’s greatest detective, photographic memory, years of training. Oh you must have laughed.”
“Huh? No, Lynn, I’m your friend.” Stella looked up at the Minx with an awkward smile. Her wide blue eyes sparkled with strange colors. “I never meant to hurt you, I really didn’t. Can’t we just put this behind us? Let it be? Forget it?”
SMACK!
The impact didn’t hurt the invulnerable heroine’s cheek but it cut into her soul. The Minx snarled. She pointed at her domino mask and thin lenses covering her eyes.
“Polarized glass Stella. It blocks your stellar hypnosis. It won’t work this time.”
“But I don’t have stellar hypnosis!”
“Stella…” The Minx just looked disappointed. “Just tell the damn truth.”
“I… OK, I know, I can’t really control it but sometimes… it’s like I can feel it. I… I’m sorry Gloria. I never meant to hurt you.”
“Y’know Lynn that might be the first honest thing you’ve said today.” In her coat pocket the Minx let go of the small pistol she’d been clutching. She was glad she hadn’t had to use it. Yet.
She slumped to the floor next to Stella, her back to the invincible robot. “So you hid his body in here. It’s indestructible so you figured no one would find it. Heck, if I hadn’t remembered finding you here I might never have put the clues together.”
“So now what?”
“Now, we open it up.” Stella hesitated but under the Minx’s hard stare she finally nodded. She found the hidden catch and opened the hatch to the robot’s interior. “I kind of, always thought maybe he wasn’t dead, y’know. There were so many times everyone thought he was dead and he came back. He might just be in a coma or something. So maybe…”
Then the stench hit them. Stella staggered back and threw up. The Minx winced but covered her mouth with a handkerchief and went in.
She found him. What was left. After a year there wasn’t much. If it wasn’t for the costume she’d have never recognized him.
***
Hours later the Minx and Stella stepped out of the Stellar-Ship’s airlock, between them was Stellar Man’s remains, wrapped tightly in his red cape. The merciless sun beat down on them. Even through the polarized visor on her spacesuit, the Minx was almost blinded. Here inside the orbit of Mercury the sun dominated 90% of the sky. Even through the vacuum of space the Minx could feel the heat. Even Stellar girl looked uncomfortable.
“I guess we should say something.” The Minx finally said.
“Yeah… I mean… he was a hero, he saved the world a lot.”
“He made mistakes, sure but his heart was good. He always did what was right.”
“He exiled me to an asteroid. Said he’d take away my powers if I didn’t obey him. Got my family killed, made me give up all my friends, live in an orphanage, wouldn’t let me make friends or get adopted…”
“Um…”
“Made me wear a wig, wouldn’t let me show myself in public, yelled at me all the time, DAMN HIM! DAMN HIM!” She pulled the body out of the Minx’s hands and threw it at the sun.
“Well then, I guess that covers it huh?” They stood in silence and watched the shrouded body turn end over end until finally it disappeared. There was a solar flare and then nothing.
The two got back in the Stellar-Ship and headed home.
***
“So now what?” Stella finally asked. They’d flown back in complete silence. “You’re going to punish me aren’t you? Take away my powers or whatever. Just… just promise me you won’t send me to jail OK? Please Gloria! I’m your friend! You can send me to some asteroid or something but not to jail!”
“Lynn, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Are… are we still friends?”
“I don’t know that either.”
The ship continued silently through space.
And the Minx remembered the last four weeks…
***
“Gloria have you ever been hypnotized?” Night Fox asked.
Gloria blinked a few times. “Huh? What were we talking about?”
Night Fox frowned, he made a ‘be quiet’ gesture to Gloria and rang for Warren. He made 2 quick gestures and beaconed for Gloria to follow. It had been years since she had seen him like this. In public Night Fox and Ferret the Boy Wonder were always jovial and causal, projecting a nonchalant arrogance towards their foes. But it was an act. In private they were intense, never wasting words, communicating with gestures and looks, executing plans they had refined and rehearsed for decades. As a late-comer Night Fox Girl had barely been allowed into their circle and now she was reminded that she never got further than the edge.
Warren opened a secret panel and led them into a hidden basement. He pointed at a hulking concrete box the size of a small truck. Wes opened the vault-like door and took Gloria through a rubber-lined passageway into the small steel room inside. Gloria did a quick calculation, the interior room filled less than half the space of the concrete box. She opened her mouth to speak but Wes shushed her. He checked the second hand on his watch and then finally let out a sigh.
“It’s OK now. We can speak freely.”
“What is this? Some sort of shielded room?”
“Some kind? This is the best kind. The exterior is steel-reinforced concrete, lined with lead. It blocks all forms of radio waves and X-rays. It’s laced with cold iron and silver, no magic can penetrate it. Between the outer shell and this room there are a few inches of hard vacuum. The rubber passageway we passed through lets us enter. Now Warren has pulled back the rubber walkway and pumped out any air that got in. This box floats in a magnetic field, it does not touch the outer walls at any point. Simply put, no one, not even a blonde with stellar hearing, can hear what we say.
Gloria tapped the walls. “Wow” was all she could add.
“I’ve been afraid of this day, ever since the 40s when I saw Steel Man tear apart a Nazi tank. You and I are just ordinary people. Smarter than most, better trained, but in the end, ordinary. What happens then the extraordinary people, the superhumans, go out of control? How can stop them?”
“But… but that hasn’t happened has it? I mean just because I can’t remember where Stellar Man went, why does that mean-“
“It means that Stellar Girl hypnotized you. I could see it from your body language and reactions.”
“But Lynn doesn’t have stellar hypnosis!”
“And you know that how?”
“Well she told… Oh.”
“She told you a lot of things. And then made sure you would never think to investigate them yourself.”
Gloria sank to the cold metal floor. “Oh my God…”
“It’s partially my fault. I should have followed up with you much sooner, but I knew you needed your space. And to tell the truth I underestimated Stellar Girl, I never thought she would do anything like this.”
“Like what?”
“Killing Stellar Man.”
“But how do you know, I mean even if she did hypnotize me-“
“I’ll show you. Consider it one last lesson from your mentor…”
So he explained. All the clues had been right in front of her from the beginning and she had ignored them. She had been forced to ignore them. By her best friend.
“I have to stop her!” She jumped to her feet.
“How?”
“I… I don’t know. I mean she has her weaknesses, red stellar radiation takes away her powers, and green stellar radiation is poisonous… but I don’t know how to generate those rays. You don’t-”
“I’m afraid not. Ken was always careful about that information, ever since Claudius Crowe deceived him. I used to have a pair of green-radiation gloves I captured but I was never able to reverse engineer them. But as I said, I’ve been afraid of this day since the 40s, and I’ve been preparing for it. Stellar radiation isn’t their only weakness you know.” He opened a safe on the wall and took out a gun. A small ‘pepperbox’ derringer with four barrels.
“A gun?”
“Yes a gun. But more importantly, bullets. Four of them. Do you remember the Storm King case?”
“The Storm King – This mysterious Viking villain used his spear and magic helmet in an attempt to kill the rabbits of Megapolis. He was stopped by Night Fox and Stellar Man.”
“I see your memory is as sharp as ever. But one detail we left out of the Kirby Guide was that his spear actually cut Stellar Man. Our friend always had a vulnerability to magic. I claimed it as a trophy afterwards. I broke down the shaft to make some magic arrows, and melted down the head to make some bullets. The ones in this gun. Four shots going off simultaneously. Small caliber, but Enough to kill Stellar Man, or Stellar Girl.”
“But… kill her? Wes she’s my friend!”
“You don’t have to kill her. In fact I would prefer you did not. Whatever she has done the fact is we need her. The next time aliens invade or a giant monster attacks Megapolis she might be the only thing that can save us. But you have to be ready. There is no telling what she may do when confronted with the truth. Ideally you will find a way to control her.”
“Control her? How?”
“The same way Stellar Man did. She is powerful, more powerful than any of us know, but she’s still a young girl. With all of the emotional and intellectual vulnerabilities of other girls. You have to use that leverage. Make her depend on you. Remind her she needs you. Have her look to you for guidance, for approval. Harp on her mistakes. Play on her need for friendship. Withhold that friendship when she feels vulnerable.”
“But… she’s my friend!”
“She’s a teenaged girl who is more powerful than a nuclear bomb. And she had already killed once.”
“Look Wes, I know what you’re saying but surely the best way to go is to help her with her issues. I know she had problems, she’s had a hard life, but if she can work through that…”
“So you want to send her to see a shrink? And then have her destroy California the next time she has a mood swing? Gloria listen to me!”
The Minx rose to her full height, she was still a head shorter than Wes but managed to command the same air of authority he did.
“No.”
“No?”
“No. Wes, you’re a great man, almost like a father to me, but you’re wrong. And you know it. The reason Lynn killed Stellar Man was because he twisted her up inside, just like you’re telling me to do now. You know it, and I know it. The only solution is to work through her issues and help her heal.”
“Sounds like a bunch of hippy bull-“
“You retired. And not just because of your back. It’s because you know the world is changing, the old ways don’t work any more. Hell, they never worked! They only seemed to work because you grew up in a world where women and minorities didn’t matter. A world where women like Lynn, like me, would stay home and be quiet! But that world is gone. Lynn and I are going to have to make tough choices every day, and she can’t do that unless I treat her with respect. Things have changed. That’s why you retired, and that’s why you chose me to be your successor.”
Wes opened his mouth and closed it. Nothing came out.
“I will listen to your advice Night Fox, but killing Lynn, or manipulating her is out of the question!”
Wes sat there is silence, looking like a sad old man, but a sly smile slowly appeared on his face.
“I knew I made the right choice.”
***
The Stellar Ship landed back at the Citadel. The two women stepped out.
“I um, guess we can go home now?” Stella ventured.
The Minx just nodded curtly and headed for the Flying Fox. Stella shrugged and followed her home.
They said nothing else that night.
***
“Get up Lynn.”
“Huh?” Stella had cried herself to sleep and had not stirred until it was noon.
“Get up, we need to talk.”
“Huh?” She repeated.
“Get dressed Lynn, I’ll explain in the living room.”
Stella shook her head and crawled out of bed. She threw on a cropped tee-shirt and a pair of jeans and wandered into the living room. Gloria was waiting impatiently.
“Lynn, I’ve been thinking. Who are your friends?”
“Huh?”
“Your friends.”
“You are Gloria! Unless you’re mad at me…”
“No Lynn, I’m not mad, I’m your friend. Who else?”
“Um…”
“Who else do you even talk to?”
“Well the delivery boy, sometimes…”
“Since you got your powers, how many friends have you had?”
“Well… you.”
“That’s pretty much what I thought. Lynn, what Stellar Man did to you wasn’t just cruel, it was unhealthy. Since you were fourteen you’ve been isolated, no parents, no boyfriend, no close friends, hardly any acquaintances. You’re supposed to protect the world but he never let you be a part of it. No wonder you’ve had so many problems.”
“Um….”
“But I have an answer for you.” Gloria tossed Lynn an envelope. The blonde just stared at it.
“I got you a job.”
“But I can’t have a job! What if there’s an emergency? What if I have to save someone? I mean if they hire Lynn Lewis and then all of the sudden Stella is always flying by they’ll figure it out in a minute.”
Gloria just gave the girl of the stars her most patronizing smile and tossed her a bag. The blonde opened it. There were some papers, a pair of glasses and a brown wig.
“Huh?” She said again.
“Lynn Lewis, meet Kara Danvers, teaching assistant at New Troy School for the Gifted. Your new secret identity.”
“But I already have a secret identity…”
“That’s the beauty of it. Even if anyone does figure out that Stella is really Kara Danvers, who cares? It acts like an extra layer of protection for you and gives you a fresh start.”
“But…”
***
“Hello Principal Pierce, I’m Kara Danvers your new teaching assistant.”
“Ah yes, we usually don’t hire someone so young, but you came highly recommended by Ms. Barbarossa. I worked with her a great deal when she was at the Megapolis Public Library. How is it you know her?”
“Oh, um, we worked together, on some projects.”
“Well she must have been very impressed. As you know New Troy is an experimental school for gifted children. We have state-of-the-art facilities, a full gymnasium, a swimming pool, an art museum, science labs, even a computer. We attract top students from around the country and even around the world.”
“Stars and-, um, that’s super-duper.”
“Yes… I suppose it is. You’ll be assisting our teaching staff part-time.”
“That’s um, great. I can’t wait.” She sounded like she was at a funeral.
“Hmm? Oh you’re worked about your problem. Don’t worry Ms. Barbarossa explained all about your bladder problem.”
“My bladder problem?”
“Yes, she explained that you might have to duck out suddenly from time to time. That’s OK, we’re very accommodating here.”
“Oh, right, great.”
***
Gloria checked and rechecked the homing beacon in Lynn’s wig. She was still at the school.
“Now or never.” She whispered and powered up the Flying Fox. The stealth aircraft took two hours to make the trip to the artic.
By lunch, the Minx was back inside the Citadel of Isolation.
“Jesus Christ what happened in here?” She wondered again. The trophies were in shambles, smashed robots were everywhere, and priceless alien technology was shattered beyond repair.
The Minx’s last visit hadn’t left much time for sight-seeing, and Stella hadn’t exactly been forthcoming. Had Lynn thrown some kind of temper tantrum? Had there been an attack? Why hadn’t Lynn said anything?
Gloria was afraid she knew the answer; Lynn’s problems did not start with killing Stellar Man, and they hadn’t ended there either.
The Minx stopped by the Robot Control Room hoping to find some record of what happened. She fiddled with the controls but they’d been damaged too severely.
“Damn” she swore and slammed her fist down on the controls. She stormed out.
She never noticed when one light on the console started to blink.
From there she entered the helpfully-labeled ‘Hall of Forbidden Science’ and then the ‘Stellar Radiation Research Chamber’.
And froze when she saw it. Not only was the equipment smashed but there were bodies. Not just the smashed robots she’d been seeing, but tiny little corpses dressed in Barbie-sized Stella costumes. She found one dead, its rotting corpse still glowing an unhealthy green and in the control room another one smashed into a pulp.
“Well that answers the first question…” the Minx said awkwardly. It only made today’s mission more urgent. She reached into a pocket and took out her micro-tools. She started taking apart an emitter. She checked her watch, it was almost one. She hoped it wouldn’t take too long to study the technology.
***
“Hey Lynn, how was school?”
Lynn Lewis pulled off the brown wig and threw the glasses across the room. She slumped down on the couch and sighed.
“Stars and comets! It was terrible! They wanted me to work ALL DAY! The kids wouldn’t sit down, and there were all these forms to fill in, and I must have shook hands with like a hundred people and I was so bored and… and… and…”
“And?”
“And… and… it was okay. I mean there’s this one guy there who coaches the track team and he’s so cute and one of the kids heard I didn’t bring a lunch so he gave me his apple and I helped in the art class and the kids were painting flowers and then after class me and some of the teachers went out for coffee and… and…”
“Happy?”
Stella laughed, for the first time in a long time. “Yeah, I’m happy. Stars and comets you were right, I needed to get out, I need friends, I need company. Thank you.”
The Minx sat on the couch and gave her friend a hug. “Friends.”
“Friends.”
But in her mind the Minx couldn’t forget the tiny broken bodies she had seen in the Citadel. Her brain kept working on her design for a green stellar radiation ray.
***
“Hello?” The woman said. “Is anyone there? Ken? Stellar Man? Is that you? It’s dark in here! Please let me out.” She pounded on walls of her closet-sized cell and was surprised when the door shattered.
“I guess I don’t know my own strength.” She giggled.
She gingerly stepped into the bedroom. Their bedroom. She ignored the dried blood that still stained the walls, the coat rack twisted like a pretzel and the burned out device with red lenses. They weren’t important
But she did catch sight of herself in the mirror and gasped. There was a thin coat of dust on her fair skin and her hair was askew. She sat down at the dresser and fixed her makeup and adjusted her sheer nightgown. Then she fixed the rumpled and bloody sheets and headed out into the rest of the Citadel of Isolation.
“Ken? Stellar Man?” She cried from time to time, but there were no answers, but she could feel some force pulling her towards the Stellar Radiation Research Chamber. It was littered with shattered robots and equipment, but she ignored it, it wasn’t important. “Stellar Man?” She asked again.
“Yes Polly, over here.” Stellar Man sat up. His head was missing but that was OK, he had a back-up brain and speaker in his chest. And there were plenty of extra heads around.
“Oh Ken! What happened?”
“It was an attack, Claudius Crowe no doubt. But it’s OK, we’ll be OK, now that you’re here.”
Afterword
And here we are. From the start I had this in mind. Stella killed Stellar Man. Maybe it adds a bit too much of a serious edge to what should be a parody but I think it works. Rereading old Supergirl stories it’s pretty clear she had issues. After seeing her whole family die of radiation poisoning and landing on an alien world, her one living relative carted her off to an orphanage with instructions not to get adopted. As time goes on she has no steady job, no boyfriend, no roots, with each new writer she started fresh.
In these stories I’ve tried to keep Stella on the edge, blowing her top in private, whinny and needy with friends, but not a bad person. The Minx, meanwhile, is learning that being smart, even superhumanly comic book smart just isn’t enough in the world. We’ll have to see how this latest scheme works out.
Oh and by the way, this was not the only surprise I’ve written in. I have one more waiting in the wings.
So I’d really like to hear if this worked, did it make sense? Did it catch people off guard? Did y’all like it? Feedback has been kind of low lately, which makes it harder and harder to build enthusiasm for writing the next issue. The feedback I do get is very positive but I sure would like some more of it.
Next issue: The shocks keep coming, now that the truth is out, the only place left to go is… The Trial of Stella.
And yeah, there will actually be sex in this one.
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