Stella and the Minx #27:
Stellar Eclipse
Our
story so far: Stellar
Man and Night Fox were the greatest heroes of the 60s but in the 70s their
female counterparts Stella and Minx took over!
But now the Minx is missing and Stella has
been left alone to defend Megapolis. Can
she do it or will she finally crack under the pressure?
Marcus Lycus
May 2009
Issue 27 – Stellar Eclipse
“Stars and Comets Gloria, WHERE ARE YOU?” Stella yelled the last part loud enough to
echo through the mountains and valleys of
The Sexy Sentinel had been missing for weeks and the Girl of the Stars
was getting worried.
So finally she’d flown to
Finally this old lady told her about a white woman in a fur coat
wandering the mountains near a lost temple or something. That was all Stella needed. She’d had enough. She needed her partner, and she’d find her,
and she’d drag her back to Megapolis!
Of course there were like a million little valleys with temples on the
side of the mountain! Finally Stella
found one that sort of looked like the old lady’s description. She landed outside the mountainside monastery
and knocked on the door.
“Hello?! Hello monks? I’m Stella, y’know, the Girl of the
Stars. I’m looking for my friend!”
She could hear chattering behind the door. A vision slit opened, two brown eyes looked
her up and down and the slit closed.
Still the door did not open.
“Come on! I’m freezing out here!”
Stella knew the cold could not harm her invulnerable body but she could
still feel it. She pulled her cape
around herself but it did little. She
shivered in her hot pants and loose top.
“Brrr… maybe I should make a costume with long pants, or even better a
coat like the Minx has.” She
scowled. Her stellar sight showed her
the monks were still jabbering away on the other side of the door, no one was
making a move to let her in.
“Fine then, knock…” She lowered
her fist against the door, it shattered into splinters. “KNOCK!”
Stella entered some sort of stone chamber, candles lit the room and
tapestries hung from the walls, it was filled with orange-robed monks. The monks froze for second, then the rushed
towards her trying to push the Girl of the Stars out through the shattered
doorway, all the time jabbering in their language. Stella, of course, didn’t budge.
“Hello? English? Do any of you speak English?”
The monks kept pushing and pointing towards the door.
“Yes I know, I know. Look” she
reached into a pouch on her cape.
“Here’s 20 bucks for the door, now will you help me find my friend or
not?”
Then the monks froze again and backed away from her. They started to bow towards the back of the
room. One of the tapestries was pulled
back and an ancient monk in more elaborate robes entered.
“I am Master Wot” he said.
“What?”
“Yes.”
“No I mean um who?”
The monk’s serene expression became puzzled. “You know Hu?” He pointed at one of the kneeling monks.
“What? No, I don’t know who.”
“This is Hu.”
“I don’t know!”
“Pardon?”
“What?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know! Stars and comets
how could I know who you are?”
The monk frowned, puzzled.
“Perhaps you are slow. I am not
Hu, Hu is over there, I am Wot.”
“What?”
“Yes.” The monk nodded, happy to
finally be understood.
“Stars and comets why me… why?”
“Wai? Do you know him? He is
“Why do I know him? I don’t. Wait.
Who’s in
“No Hu is over there.”
“What?”
“Yes.”
Stella sighed loudly. “Look I’m
here looking for my friend, the Minx, I just want to know if you’ve seen her.”
“She is lady friend?”
“What?”
“Yes.”
“No, I mean uh, yes, she’s my friend and she’s a lady but not like,
y’know my lady friend. I uh, don’t do
that. Really.”
“No ladies here. No ladies
allowed. You go now.” Master Wot said.
“What?”
“Yes.”
“No, I mean, what do you mean no ladies allowed?”
“Yes I mean no ladies allowed.”
“Why?”
“Wai is in
“Huh? No, wait I mean um, uh… how
come no women are allowed here?”
“Is forbidden.”
“Why?”
“Your hearing is bad? I tell you,
Wai is in
“Who?”
“Hu also tell you the same thing but he speak no English.”
“What?”
“Yes.”
Stella sighed again. “Stars and
comets, it’s 1972! Didn’t you even hear
about women’s lib up here? All I want
is-“
CRASH!
Something in the back of the temple broke, the monks started to mutter
in fear.
“You go! Go now!” Master Wot shouted, trying to push Stella out
the broken door.
“Hold on, what’s going on back there?”
Stella’s blue eyes turned pale and she looked through the walls. “Stars and comets! Lead paint!
I can’t see anything! What are
you trying to hide back there?”
“I no hide there, I am here! You go now!”
“Hmp. Figures.
No girls allowed, you probably think I have cooties or something. Well I don’t know what’s going on here but
I’ll just check it out myself.” The Girl
of the Stars pushed past the monks and through an imposing set of doors.
WHAM!
And went flying back into the entrance.
The building shook with heavy footfalls.
The monks panicked and fled out the gateway into the snow. The old monk scowled at Stella.
“Stars and comets, what hit me?”
“I no hit you! Gōlamāla hit you! You very stupid girl! You wake up Gōlamāla!”
“Go-go what?”
“Yes.”
“Aimai!” Came a shout from
inside.
“W-what is he?”
“He monster, very bad. You in
deep doo-do now.”
SMASH!
The doorway shattered and a hulking figure shouldered its way
through. It was an ancient bronze
statue, 12 feet tall, just as wide, four-armed with a monstrous head. And it was mad.
But the Girl of the Stars wasn’t impressed.
“Is that it? Some big
statue? I’m Stella! Nothing can hurt me! I mean except for stellar radiation of course. That and magi-OW!”
Gōlamāla grabbed Stella by the hair, held her up with two arms then used the other two to pummel her through a wall.
Stella painfully focused her pale blue eyes on the monster’s head and concentrated. Her eyes turned red and Gōlamāla howled in pain dropping her to the floor.
“Stars and comets I hate magic…” She spotted Master Wot hiding behind a pillar and grabbed him by his robes.
“What is he? What does he want?”
“Gōlamāla no want Wot. He want girl. He want sexy time!”
“Wait a second, are you saying he wants to fu-AH!”
Gōlamāla had recovered, he grabbed Stella’s red cape
and swung the Girl of the Stars into another pillar.
Two hands held her arms over her head while two more tore off her yellow
belt.
Stella screamed. She kicked at
the bronze statue with all her stellar strength, she tired to blow it away with
the force of a hurricane, her eyes burned red and small fires started around
the room but the hulking bronze brute didn’t budge.
It pulled off her red hotpants.
Something stirred under its red and black loincloth. Two more arms grabbed Stella’s legs and
pulled them apart. The bronze monster’s
skin heated up, steam rose from it.
“No! No! Stars and comets no!” The girl of the stars screamed. “Let me go!
I’ll kill you! I swear, I’ll kill
you! I’ll kill you all!”
Red beams stabbed out setting more fires, the monks scattered. Gōlamāla drew back a fist
and punched Stella in the nose. Her eyes
returned to normal, her vision was fuzzy, she couldn’t focus.
“Aimai!” Gōlamāla yelled.
She felt something coming towards her pussy. She could feel the incredible heat from it. She was afraid to look. Tears filled her pale blue eyes.
“Stars and comets, please, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I ever came
here… please monks anyone, let me go, I promise I’ll never come back, I
promise!”
Then she blacked out.
***
Meanwhile back in Megapolis…
“Come on man! The cops are
coming! Let’s move!”
Two burglars ran out of the secondhand bookstore, bags of valuable old
comic books thrown over their shoulders.
“Man I can’t believe that guy had a copy of Action Comics #1, I heard
you can sell that for 3 c-notes!”
“$300 for a funny book? No way!”
“I’m telling you man I – Hey who turned out the lights?”
“Afraid of the dark?” A grim
voice growled.
“Who are you? What do you
want?” The hood took out an automatic
and waved it around.
“Looks like you are afraid.”
“Fuck you! I ain’t scared of the
dark!”
WHAM! A harsh blow to the back of
the head knocked him out.
“You should be.” Blackout hissed.
The other hood didn’t stick around, he dropped his sack and ran as fast
as he could. The black cloud cleared and
he could see street lights ahead, but there was someone silhouetted against
them, a girl?
“Aw, don’t like the dark?”
“Who, who are you? Wh-what do you
want?” His hands shook as he aimed the
pistol towards the slender girl in yellow and red.
“Me? They call me Sunbeam, and
like the Beatles say; let the sun shine in!”
There an incredible flash of light and the hood staggered blindly. The cute brown-haired girl giggled and
delivered a karate chop to his neck. He
collapsed to the ground.
“Dawn you idiot!”
“What? What now Natalie?”
“The Beatles didn’t sing ‘Let the Sun Shine In’ that’s from Hair. The Beatles sang ‘Good Day Sunshine’. Everyone knows that! And stop using my real name when we’re on
patrol!”
“Hey! You started it! You called me Dawn!”
“I… don’t change the subject! You
should be happy I even let you come on patrol with me!”
“Let me come?! Half the time I
have to follow you out because you won’t even tell me you’re going on
patrol! Some partner you are!”
“Well at least I don’t dress like a prostitute!”
“Huh? We’re like practically
wearing the same costume! Except for the
colors of course.”
“Yeah except you decided your hoochie should be bright red! It’s all hey look at me and my red hoochie!”
“You’re just jealous cause that reporter published a picture of me and
not you!”
“Like no! I’m one with the
shadows! I haunt the night! I don’t want to be in some stupid magazine.”
While the two sisters bickered the hoods slowly got to their feet and snuck
away.
***
Stella awoke in a snow bank on the side of a mountain. Her hot pants were back, so was her belt but
her whole body ached. She was very cold.
She could see the temple sitting there unharmed, as if nothing had
happened. She was afraid to look inside.
She took off for
Hours later, the Girl of the Stars sat alone in her dark room. All the shades were drawn, all the lights
were off. After her trip to
DING-DONG!
DING-DONG!
“OK, OK already, I’m coming… Stars and comets hold your horses.” She changed into civilian clothes as stellar
speed and then Lynn Lewis opened the door to her penthouse. Behind the door was a middle-aged man, just
starting to lose his hair, just starting to grow a paunch but still
recognizable as the Ferret, the Wonder Boy.
“
“Hi
“Yeah, it really sucked. But I
beat them, no stupid robot is a match for the Girl of the Stars!”
“Um, good to hear. Is Gloria
around?”
“No, that’s the thing. While I
was being held captive by robots she just took off for
“
“I dunno, she never tells me anything.
I mean we’re supposed to be partners but she still treats me like a
little baby and never-“
“Can I see that note?”
“Sure, hold on, it’s still on the fridge.”
“See? Useless.”
“What? What?”
“Gloria didn’t write this.”
“Huh? It’s totally her
handwriting.”
“It’s close, it’s very close but it’s wrong. Night Fox, Gloria and I had a code where the
2nd letter of every other word would spell out certain key words to
authenticate the message. The letters in
this note spell out ‘yoehhe’.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing. So she didn’t write
it. She never told you about the code?”
“No, never…”
“Damn. Did you actually go to
“Huh? No, I mean um, not
yet. Honest.” Stella looked away to hide how pale she’d
turned.
“Good, whoever really wrote this probably set a trap for you there.”
“Um yeah… lucky thing I uh, didn’t go.”
“How long has it been since Gloria disappeared?”
“A couple of weeks.”
“Then the trail’s pretty cold.”
“But… but, you can find her right?
I mean you’re Night Fox’s partner, you must know how to find someone
right?”
“Of course, I mean I’ll try my best but anyone who can capture the Minx
must be pretty skilled at hiding their-“
“Capture her?”
“Well that seems the best theory don’t you think? With this forged note and with her still
missing.”
“But… is she OK?”
“
“Well what are you waiting for!
Get going! Find her!”
“
“Oh stars and comets… she has to be OK, she has to. What do you need me to do?”
“I guess I’ll start in the Minx Pad, see if she left any clues about who
she was investigating. Then work from
there.”
“You’ll find her right? And
she’ll be OK?”
“
“P-please?” Tears streamed down
Stella’s face.
“I’ll try my best
“OK” Stella sniffed.
***
The next morning…
“Surrender Stella! You are no
match for the power of my Smasherobot!”
“Stars and comets Crowe, your robot names get dumber every time we
fight.”
“Bah! Taste laser fire you
under-dressed blonde!”
The towering steel robot was 10 stories tall and had wrecking balls for fists
and fired lasers from its eyes but the lithe girl of the stars easily dodged
these threats. It was nice to have
something clear and straightforward to smash.
No magic, no mystery, just a stupid mad scientist and his stupid giant
robot!
“Honestly Crowe, you’ve been fighting Stellar Man since he was Stellar
Boy back in the 50s, so this is what a million losses, no wins? Why don’t you just give up?”
Stella raised her arms and shot through the robot like an arrow,
punching a hole through its hull. It started
to smoke and stumble. It fell into a
building, smashing through bricks and steel.
“Stars and comets, I hope no one was inside that building!”
The robot’s head detached and flew away.
Stella hesitated a second between the checking the building and chasing
the fleeing mad scientist. She snarled
and pursued him.
“Sorry Crowe, looks like I broke your little toy!”
“Indeed Bimbo of the Stars, and unless you want its nuclear reactor to
explode in downtown Megapolis you’d better take care of that instead of chasing
me!”
Stella froze in mid-air. She
looked back. The robot was firing off
sparks and smoke.
“Drat.” She muttered and turned
around. The flying head was still
retreating.
In the flying robot head Crowe chuckled and shook his head. It really was too easy.
For Stella it was pretty simple to pick up the ruined robot and fly it
into space. It exploded harmlessly
there. But by the time got back Crowe
was gone.
She shrugged and flew back to the penthouse. There would be more chances to catch Crowe
later. That mad scientist had been
annoying her and Stellar Man for years, there was no rush.
She looked at the pile of bills on the kitchen table. Stupid Gloria never told her their bank
account numbers or how to sell the diamonds or gold bars. If
Then she heard it. The radio was
talking about a dam braking in
“Stupid powers” she muttered as she took off for
***
Elsewhere in the city Warren Herbert effortlessly picked the lock on Ashley Acker’s door.
It was a bit of a long shot but Dr. Acker was a psychiatrist called in
to interview Gloria just before she escaped.
One glance told him he was too late.
The apartment was empty. He
slipped out and headed for the super’s office.
$20 got the super to tell him that Dr. Acker moved in a week before her
interview with Gloria, then vanished leaving the rent unpaid. She’d left an empty apartment and no
information.
Despite the cold trail Warren Herbert suppressed his grin. He was worried about Gloria, scared for her
but still, somehow it felt good to be back in game, finding leads and pulling
on loose threads until the lies fell apart.
His next stop would the DA’s office.
Someone had gotten Dr. Acker in to see the Minx and they would know who.
***
“Stars and comets! So then I get
back to Megapolis and does anyone thank me for like, saving the whole city from
the robot? No! They’re all mad at me because some stupid
people got trapped in the stupid building and I didn’t rescue them! Plus some of them want to sue me for
radiation poisoning, like how was I supposed to know it was a nuclear
robot? Then I tried to tell them about
“Ack! Ist very hard Fräulein Stella!” Dr. Corvidae said.
“You don’t know
what it’s like! My ears are always
buzzing with like radio waves and people talking all over the city, my eyes are
always seeing, like, stuff, and it just never feels like I can relax. Did I tell you that lately I’m sleeping in
the Minx’s box-thing? It’s wonderful! I can’t hear anything inside it!”
“Ist very güd Fräulein Stella. You are need to
resting.”
“Rest… ha! The only time I get to rest is here. So like, can we get on with it?”
“Ack! Ya, ya, of course. Please to remove the…”
“I know, I
know.” Stella stepped out of her red
ballet slippers took off her cape and hung it on a hook. The Doctor turned his back and busied himself
with some equipment as Stella walked behind a screen to remove her top and hot
pants. Her indestructible costume could
interfere with scanners and hurt the experiment, and she desperately wanted it
to succeed. She wrapped herself in a lab
coat and headed into the experimental chamber.
“I haff ein new
power coil, ist very strong power coil.
Last long, long time.
“Sounds great
doc! Fire it up!” She dropped the lab coat, just in case it
might also interfere.
Powerful lamps
around the room activated, first giving off a green-tinged glow. Stella staggered and gasped from the sudden
pain. But the lights slowly shifted to
red and she breathed a sigh of relief.
She could feel the terrible burden lifting from her shoulders. She couldn’t hear anything outside this room,
see anything outside its walls. No one
could call for her help.
She smiled and
sighed happily.
She leaned on
the cool metal wall, she could feel it, she could really, really feel it. With her powers everything felt like she was
wearing thick gloves, everything was dulled, muted, now it was vivid. This was great!
BZZT!
Stella heard
something short out, sparks flew. She
gasped. What if something went
wrong! What if there was a fire! She was helpless!
“Doctor? Doctor what’s wrong?”
The red light
flickered and started to shift, becoming lighter, almost pink.
Stella gasped
and doubled over.
It didn’t feel
painful like the green rays, or make her powerless like the red, no this… this
felt…
“D-doctor,
please, come here, hurry!”
The door opened
and the short scientist ran in panicked.
“Ya, ya Fräulein Stella, are you vell?”
“P-please…”
“Fräulein
Stella? Vat ist die matter?”
Stella’s
slender arms reached up, and pulled the diminutive scientist down.
She kissed him.
“Fräulein
Stella? Dis ist very stran-“
She kissed him
again. She tore off his jacket and
kissed his wrinkled chest, she pulled down his pants, she wrapped her fingers
around his member. She needed this, she
wanted this, she needed it so bad…
She cried out
as he entered her.
And all the
time the vivid pink light twinkled above her.
***
Stella opened
her eyes. She was on the couch in Dr.
Corvidae’s office with a lab coat over her naked body. Everything ached.
Dr. Corvidae
entered with two cups of coffee.
“Oh stars and
comets… I… we… um…”
“Ya, ya, ze
machine it haff malfunctioning. Very
odd.”
“Yeah. Odd.
That’s one way to say it.”
“I am tink zee
pink light haff strange effect on you.”
“Yeah,
strange. I mean I know that green radiation
is poisonous, red makes me powerless, but I never saw pink before. Maybe Stellar Man’s files back at the citadel
have something. It sure felt, um…”
“Ya, but first
you rest, you still very weak.”
Stella sat up
but even that made her dizzy. “Stars and
comets, what happened? I mean the last
thing I remember was you were under me and I was um… you know.”
“Ya, ve go long
time. Very long.”
“That explains
why everything aches so much.”
“Ya.”
The professor
sat next to the heroine and they sipped their coffee for a while.
“I’m sorry
doc.”
“Ist not
problem. Ist pretty good.”
“I mean um,
you’re not exactly my type but I guess that ray sort of did a number on me and
um…”
“Ya, ist
okay-dokay.”
Stella
chuckled. “Thanks doc. Hey um, you won’t tell anyone will you? I mean um, this has to be a secret because
um…”
She wanted to
say she’d die of humiliation if anyone ever found out she’d slept with the
winkled old scientist but caught herself before the words came out.
“…um, my
enemies might come looking for you.
Y’know, to steal the technology.”
“Ya, ya, ist
big problem. I tell no one, not even
vife.”
“Wife? Um, yeah, great. Hey um, I feel a bit better now, I think I’ll
head home OK?”
“Ya, ist good,
you get sleep.”
Stella slipped
behind a screen and put her costume back on.
She had to giggle, after all that it was kind of weird to feel
modest.
“OK, and um,
doc?”
“Ya?”
“Do you think
you can um, make that pink light again?
I mean, you know, for research?”
“Ya, I tink I
can.”
“Thanks
doc! Thanks a lot. Hey um, how’s tomorrow?”
“Ack! I go to out of the town. Maybe next week?”
“Next week?”
“Ist
okay-dokay?”
“Um, yeah,
fine. Next week then. Bye.”
Stella flew
four blocks before landing in an alleyway exhausted. She’d never felt this tired before, tired but
restless. OK. Horney.
She was exhausted but still very horny.
She changed
into civilian clothes and hailed a cab.
Back at the
penthouse the girl of the stars furiously mauled her breasts and fingered
herself until she finally drifted into a deep and contented sleep.
***
Dr. Corvidae’s beaten-up chevy carried him into the hills outside of
Megapolis. After an hour the hills
became mountains and the car pulled up to a weather-worn cottage.
Corvidae hobbled up the steps and entered the wooden building. He looked at a bust of Einstein on a shelf
and checked it carefully. If there was
any sign of stellar radiation within miles the eyes would glow. Even the faint energy of stellar sight would
trigger it. But they were dark.
He nodded.
He opened a lead-lined chest and took out a bottle of pills. He checked the bust of Einstein again (still
dark) and popped the pill.
He grunted in pain.
Muscles shifted, bones stretched, his body contorted and remade
itself. Any other man would have been
screaming in agony but not him.
Not Claudius Crowe.
He panted a few times and wiped the sweat from his brow. After so many days as the diminutive imp Dr.
Corviodae, speaking with that outrageous accent, it was good to be back. To be
himself again.
Polymorph pills were painful but they were the only way to disguise
himself these days. Stellar Man long ago
learned to check people for makeup, masks or holograms. He couldn’t take the chance that his bimbo
cousin had learned to do the same.
At least she was still dumb enough to be fooled by an obvious alias like
‘Dr. Corvidae’, Latin for ‘crow’. He
always felt honor-bound to offer those Stellar Simpletons some clues.
From Corvidae’s briefcase he took out a cylinder. It was cold to the touch. He pressed a button and the floor opened up
revealing a passage into the mountain.
He headed inside. The passage led
to an elevator, the elevator dropped him half a mile below the surface. The doors opened in a casual living room
where a 6-year old boy sat reading a book on nuclear physics.
“Calvin, I have returned.”
“Father!”
Calvin was Crowe’s first born, the unexpected product of a union between
him and a Mexican prostitute while he was in hiding. He’d left soon after of course but two years
later he heard stories of a brilliant prodigy in a Mexican backwater. It didn’t take long for him to figure out it
must be the fruit of his loins. The
Crowe blood would always tell. So he
reclaimed young Calvin and took him to this lair so that he could be raised
properly, by Crowe’s robots.
“I see your studies continue.”
“Yes father.”
Crowe squinted at the book.
“Though I expected you to be on something more advanced by now.”
“Yes father, I will work harder father.”
“See that you do. How is
everything here?”
“Quite well father. The robots
and I have prepared the Tachyon
Howitzer for storage. We removed the
vacuum tubes and disconnected the power crystals.”
“I’ll check your work, I expect it will be… adequate.”
“Yes father. It seems a shame
though, it was a remarkable machine.”
“Yes, it truly was. It would have
torn Stellar Man apart at the sub-quantum level, making every particle in his body
fly apart faster than the speed of light.”
Claudius Crowe closed his eyes savoring the thought, then smiled and
shook his head. “But son you will learn
there are finer ways to destroy your foes.
Much finer indeed.”
“Yes father. Shall we go to the Howitzer
now?”
“No, not yet. First I have
something more important to attend to.”
He took out the cylinder. “Come
with me Calvin, we are going to the genetics lab.”
“What is that father?”
“This son, is the result of almost three years of work. Soon, this will be your younger brother.”
Afterword
So we’re back. Issues are going to be a little slow in
coming this summer. Real life is
intruding again and also I’m really not getting much feedback. I appreciate the people I do hear from but it
seems like forever since I heard from a new reader and a lot of old ones aren’t
writing in anymore. So if you’re out
there and you like this series, please, please let me know.
This issue is the beginning of the end for
Stella. I set this up all the way back
in issue 1 and now it’s happening. Let
me know what you think.
I do apologize for the extended ‘Who’s on
First’ routine, I needed a name for the chief monk and once I thought of Master
Wot, well it was all downhill from there.
Some of you might recognize Calvin Crowe and
the Tachyon Howitzer. If you don’t well
then you’ll never know will you?
A-ha-ha-ha!
Anyway, keep writing! And if you haven’t dropped me a line, please
do!
Next
Issue – The Minx is
dead! Who will defend the streets of
Megapolis? Find out in this special
spotlight on Blackout and Sunbeam!
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