Previews of coming attractions

Mrs. Geek and I are about to embark on a long-awaited vacation, so I will not be around for a couple of weeks. I had hoped to have one of my currently in-progress stories finished and submitted before heading out, but it was not to be.

Instead, as an exercise in shameless self-promotion, here is a quick glimpse of what is coming, hopefully not long after we get back...

Enjoy.

Alternate Histories: Skylark

Currently in rewrites, the third story set the 'Liberty Belle' universe tells the story of Britain's secret superwoman who helped to win the Battle of Britain.

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"I was looking at the other Heinkel when it just dropped out of the sky. A searchlight beam swung across the area and I saw the sky witch. She was holding one end of a wing from a Heinkel, like she had torn it from the aircraft."

Peacock interrupted. "What did she look like?"

"She was young, blonde, and very beautiful. Like a Norse goddess. She wore a blue jacket and a short blue skirt. She saw me looking at her and she immediately dropped the Heinkel wing; she disappeared in a flash. Then I lost control of my aircraft. I bailed out and deployed my parachute."

"I saw my plane beneath me, tumbling towards the ground. It had been torn into two pieces; I think the sky witch did it. That is all I saw."

Meissner paused. "I will give you a little extra. Some of the other Luftwaffe prisoners told stories about her. One of them was a gunner on a Heinkel 111 and he said that he shot her."

Peacock started. Maybe this was the solution to the mystery of why the 'Skylark' had disappeared. "What happened?"

Meissner laughed. "Nothing. He said that he made a direct hit. That she just hung in the air, looking at him with those cold, blue eyes while a hundred rounds bounced off her chest. I have seen what a 13mm machine gun can do to a man and it is not pretty. She did not even flinch. Then she ripped the engines off his plane."

"Can you imagine what that is like? The only thing keeping you up is a fragile piece of machinery and you find yourself face to face with a woman who is completely free of gravity, who smiles in the face of a hail of bullets, and who can tear your fragile machine to pieces with her bare hands. You are looking for this woman, perhaps. I hope for all of our sakes that you do not find her."


Halloween Girls

The latest 'Stupendous Girl' story sees our young heroine visiting Salem, Mass. for a night of costumed Halloween fun. But this time she is not the only supergirl around...

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Stupendous Girl reacted with such lightning speed that her assailant barely had time to move; she grabbed the wrist of his knife arm with her right hand and squeezed. Her delicate hand was like a steel vice around the man's wrist; he screamed and lost his grip on the knife. Stupendous Girl caught it out of the air with her left hand, grabbing the blade between her fingers so that her middle finger was above the hard stainless steel and her ring and index fingers were below. She moved her middle finger down and her other fingers up, scissoring the metal between her slender digits. The steel snapped into two pieces and the knife fell to the ground.

Iona was not used to her new, super-fast reflexes, so she did not react as quickly. The tip of Mikey's knife struck and ran across the indestructible material of her corset, causing no damage to the garment, or to her invulnerable skin beneath. Instinctively, Iona grabbed the blade of the knife with her right hand. The blade was razor sharp and would have badly cut her fingers only an hour earlier, but now she was invulnerable to the primitive weapon and stronger than anybody on the planet apart from Stupendous Girl. The blade of the knife squeezed in her hand like a tube of toothpaste; the intense pressure generated by her grip raised the temperature of the steel until it became molten, dripping through her fingers like glowing red syrup.

The two men stood there, slack-jawed, staring at the two women who had disarmed them so effortlessly. They both tried to turn and run. The one whose wrist was being held by Stupendous Girl quickly realized that it was hopeless to try and escape her grasp. He pulled away with all of his strength, but her arm did not move even a millimeter and her hold on his wrist was as unbreakable as it was painful.

Mikey saw this and tried to make his own escape, but Iona moved quickly to stop him. She grabbed the wrist of his left arm and then twisted it behind his back, pushing down to force him to his knees. Not understanding the full extent of her power, she broke most of the bones in his arm and dislocated his shoulder in the process. Kneeling before the beautiful woman who had humbled him, pain shooting from his ruined arm, Mikey began to cry and beg for forgiveness.

"What should we do with them?" asked Iona.

"I do not know," said Stupendous Girl. "Maybe their intended victim has some ideas?"

The woman that the two men had been planning on assaulting was in a mild state of shock at the sudden rescue. As she recovered her senses, a look of anger and shame came over her face.

"I would like to see them humiliated," she said.

"Hmm," said Stupendous Girl. "I have an idea. I will show you a little trick that you can do with your laser vision, Iona. Then you can try it."

Stupendous Girl released her captive's wrist and stepped back a couple of feet. She looked directly at him. Two broad cones of red light shot from her eyes and enveloped the man in a coccoon of heat that instantly burned away his clothes and all of the hair on his body. The naked and denuded man screamed with horror, covered his private areas with his hands and ran off into the night.

"That was cool," said Iona. "How do I do that?"

Iona pulled Mikey up, dragging him to his feet by pulling his broken arm so hard that painful new fractures opened up along the entire length of the limb. She released his wrist and stepped back a little way.

"Don't move," she warned. "I won't be so gentle if I have to restrain you again."

Iona turned to Stupendous Girl. "What do I do now?"

"Relax your eyes," said Stupendous Girl. "Let your focus go until there you see a slight blur. Then fire your laser vision very gently; let it wash around him."

Iona tried to do as Stupendous Girl said. She relaxed her eyes and fired her laser vision. She instinctively knew how to use her new powers, but she lacked experience in controlling them; it was as if she suddenly had new muscles that she had never used before. Two broad cones of red light shot from her eyes and disintegrated Mikey in a fraction of a millisecond. A whisp of smoke that rapidly blew away in the wind was all that remained of the young thug.

"Oops!" said Iona.

"Do not worry, Iona," said Stupendous Girl. "I am sure you will soon get the hang of it."

Stupendous Girl turned to the woman they had rescued, who had a horrified look on her face. "Can we escort you home, Miss?" she asked.

The woman backed away from the two superwomen and raised the palms of her hands towards them. "No thank you," she said. "I can go the rest of the way by myself." She paused for a moment. "Don't take this the wrong way," she said, "but you two are the most frightening things in Salem this Halloween." She turned and ran.

Nice little previews. I look forward to reading the complete versions as and when they are ready.

Geek7:

Depending on when you read this: 1. Enjoy your vacation; or 2. Welcome back!

Thanks for the glimpses of your "works in progress." I'd been wondering how Stupendous Girl might be celebrating Hallowe'en. And "Skylark" looks like a great addition to your Alternate Histories. Can't wait to see the finished stories!

Argo

A interesting prevue I am defiantly looking forwards to these stories. I do have a couple of observations about these stories.
Firstly, I take it that Skylark will be an alternative ‘alternative history’ story (since the Battle of Britain took place long before the outer two stories)? Also, Gemma Atkinson doesn’t look very Blond to me, more Brunet.

Secondly, it looks Stupendous Girl had managed to acquire a little bit more self control and restraint (humiliating the attacker instead of simply killing him). I’m quite pleased about this, not being a big fan of gore and violence. Of cause it appears we now have Iona to cause the chaos, but it’s a start!

Pretty cool! Looking forward to the fully developed stories. The teasers were a lot of fun to read.