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arts / rec.arts.comics.creative / Re: [ASH] REPOST: ASH #121 - City of Night Part 2 actual: Nachtlich

SubjectAuthor
* [ASH] REPOST: ASH #121 - City of Night Part 2 actual: NachtlichDave Van Domelen
`- Re: [ASH] REPOST: ASH #121 - City of Night Part 2 actual: NachtlichDrew Nilium

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[ASH] REPOST: ASH #121 - City of Night Part 2 actual: Nachtlich

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From: dvan...@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.creative
Subject: [ASH] REPOST: ASH #121 - City of Night Part 2 actual: Nachtlich
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2021 17:32:39 -0000 (UTC)
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 by: Dave Van Domelen - Mon, 11 Oct 2021 17:32 UTC

(OOPS! Posted part 3 as Part 2. Here's the actual part 2.)

[The cover shows members of EUROPA (Arc, Ymir, Hotspur, Justice, ghostly
Oni, and a woman in an unfamiliar EUROPA-styled uniform) launching attacks
against a wall of blackness. "We attack the darkness!" cover blurb.]

.|. COHERENT COMICS UNINCORPORATED presents ACADEMY OF SUPER-HEROES #121
--X------------------------------------------------------------------------
'|` /|(`| | City of Night Part 2 of 6 - Nachtlich
/-|.)|-| copyright 2017 by Dave Van Domelen
___________________________________________________________________________

ACADEMY OF SUPER-HEROES ROLL CALL

CODENAME REAL NAME POWERS ASSIGNMENT
-------- --------- ------ ----------
Solar Max Jonathan Zachary Spacetime Control AMERICA
"JakZak" Taylor
Meteor Sarah Grant-Taylor Superspeed AMERICA
Poniente Esmeralda Colina Wind Mage AMERICA
Scorch Scott Handleman Pyrokinetic CANADA
Centurion Salvatore Napier Strength, Regeneration MEXICO
Fury Arin Kelsey Concussion Blasts MEXICO
Contact Aaron Zander Psi, Mind-over-Body DIPLOMATIC
Breaker Christina Li Telekinesis DIPLOMATIC
Essay Sara Ana Henderson Gadgeteer VENUS
Peregryn Howard Henderson Jr. Elemental Mage VENUS
Beacon George Sylvester Living Light VENUS
Geode Unknown Living Crystal VENUS
Lightfoot Tom Dodson Velocity Control TRANSIT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[January 9, 2027 - Berlin, Germany]

"OH, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"
"Calm yourself, Damon," Mischa put what she hoped was a comforting hand
on her friend's shoulder.
"Calm? CALM? SERIOUSLY?!" Damon raged. "I came to visit you to help
forget about Montreal, about how my whole life got turned upside down and I
can't go home because home is on verruckt VENUS and now all the craziness has
followed me HERE and..." he trailed off into panting, wide-eyed silence.

Elsewhere, the mood was quieter, but no calmer.
"No one's answering at work, either, I think," Gerd Karstens said
softly. "But I don't know if anyone could be getting there right now, with
the roads packed." Anna had tried going out earlier, but had turned back
when she saw the rapidly growing crowds and feared a riot would break out.
"Any luck with the cel?"
She shook her head. "I think whatever's going on crashed the network.
Phone can't find a signal. I got ahold of Gretchen earlier, before things
dropped, but she didn't know anything we didn't. Now I'm regretting not
trying harder to meet the neighbors."
Gerd nodded. He'd tried knocking on a few doors, but no one would open
up, and one threatened force if he didn't go away. They'd lived in the
building since last summer, but he couldn't even remember the name of the
family across the hall. They'd introduced themselves when Gerd and Anna
moved in, but....
"It's hard being all alone in the middle of a city," Anna put his
thoughts into words.

* * * *

[January 9, 2027 - Chicago, Illinois Sector]

"I take it this sort of thing is unusual?" Sharon Venturi nodded at the
bank of screens showing various angles on the same thing: a perfect dome of
utter darkness covering the central districts of Berlin. Some views focused
on the traffic jams of refugees trying to get out of the city before
something worse happened, a few were on analysts discussing the dome, but
every news source on the planet was reacting to the current crisis. "I mean,
it sort of reminds me of...damn, the name's gone, staying gone...a part of my
old city. Covered in darkness and eternal night."
"Yes and no," Lightfoot shrugged. "A few months before you showed up,
feels like longer, but there's superhero life for you...anyway, Monaco got
caught in a time bubble sort of thing. Split four ways, no one could get in
or out at first. And since then, the entire Sun got covered in a shell,
and. Damn. I guess it's not really that unusual lately."
Sharon laughed bitterly. "Same shit, different dimension."
"I was going to say 'plus la change,'" Breaker took a sip from her tea,
"I try to mind my language around the old man here."
Sharon looked around. "Jed?"
"She means me," Tom rolled his eyes. "Time travel. I was born about
fifty years ago."
"I remember time travel. It never seemed to be useful for anything but
causing trouble," Sharon looked back at the screen. "You suppose that thing
is time travel again?"
"Could be," Tina swirled the remnants left in her cup. "The Impossible
Five are still out there. But as far as we can tell, they don't have their
own time-based powers. They had to manipulate someone else to get them here,
and he's no longer available to them. I wouldn't rule out them having some
involvement, since they're mostly focused on Europe, but this is more likely
the work of Lady Sable."
"Darkness is definitely her schtick, and last time we ran into her she
was trying one of those apotheosis schemes we were talking about last week,"
Tom nodded. "In fact, that was the last major threat we faced before your
arrival. Well, as a whole team...Poniente more or less soloed a crisis in
between."
"So, do we get on a plane or something?" Sharon asked. "I don't really
want to fly to Berlin under my own power."
Tina shook her head. "Jurisdiction issue right now. EUROPA has first
call on it. But don't worry, we've gotten past the squabbling phase of our
superteam relationship. If it's more than they can handle, we'll get a
call."

* * * *

[January 9, 2027 - Brussels, Belgium]

"Oni's body is still being transported from the air base, but I think we
can start," Arc addressed the conference room. While it was crowded with
Important People from the EU government, it was safe to say that a mere
handful of people dominated it. [Unless otherwise specified, all characters
in the rest of this issue are speaking in the Standard Eurolac language, with
occasional words from other languages dropped in. Translations are more of
meaning and intent than literal. - Ed]
Ymir dominated it more than most. The hulking Scandinavian may not have
been much stronger than a normal person of his size, but that was still
pretty strong, and his power over cold meant his codename suited him well.
Hotspur had dropped the punk attitude that was part of his public
persona, and when clarity was called for the multilingual patois of his
"street Eurolac" gave way to fairly formal English, French, or Standard
Eurolac as the situation called for, but he was still given a fairly wide
berth by many of the "respectable" people in the room.
Justice, ironically, was far closer to his Vogue Ghoul criminal roots
than Hotspur, but he'd never made that part of his public face in EUROPA. He
was also less likely to lapse into street Eurolac than Hotspur. Those same
respectable people weren't bothered by him at all.
Oni was strikingly attractive in person, and would have stood out in
this room simply for not being European in descent. For now, however, she
was communicating via her invisible magnetic "ghost" form interacting via a
piece of metal sculpture that had been pulled from the lobby and placed in
one of the seats at the table.
Felka, who was trying out Tytanika as a codename, probably wanted to be
invisible, and her nervous attempts to not draw attention to her did exactly
the opposite. The petite young Pole also had a natural tendency to act as if
she were a bull desperately trying to not destroy the china shop, something
Arc herself had to consciously overcome, even though she wasn't nearly as
strong as Felka.
Arc's discomfort was less because of her powers and more because she'd
fallen into the leadership role as a sort of battlefield promotion, and
because she had the best...ah, relationships...with the world's other
superhuman teams. Justice seemed to be more of a natural leader, but he was
still a security clearance nightmare on many levels despite looking and
acting respectable these days. Also, Arc and Ymir were the only remaining
founders, and they both agreed Claire was the better choice.
She just hoped this latest crisis wouldn't require more battlefield
promotions.
"STRAFE has deployed to Berlin in a purely investigatory capacity," Arc
continued, after taking in the room, "and their preliminary assessment is
that no incursion should be attempted until EUROPA has had a chance to reach
the scene. Less because we're better suited to sneaking into places..."
Oni's sculpture rippled with what Arc had learned to recognize as a
stifled laugh.
"...and more because any attempt to enter the dome of shadow could draw
a response, and our raw power would be needed. The Academy of Super-Heroes
has been in touch and is ready to offer aid, but is currently remaining
within Combine territory. No word from Chancellor Radner one way or another,
but I expect that if Khadam were behind this he wouldn't have remained
silent."
There were a few somber nods. No one trusted Triton to be a responsible
global citizen, even after his help in several world crises, but the
bombastic young man's taste for showmanship was never in doubt. If he or one
of his people had engineered the dome over Berlin, he would have crowed about
it by now. In fact, the lack of any announcement from anyone was beginning
to worry everyone. In the history of "powerful entities taking over cities,"
silence from the conqueror almost always meant that they didn't care what the
rest of the world thought, because they were confident that the rest of the
world would be conquered soon enough.
"So, if we could keep this as brief as possible, I'd like to get my team
in the air within the hour...."


Click here to read the complete article
Re: [ASH] REPOST: ASH #121 - City of Night Part 2 actual: Nachtlich

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From: pwer...@gmail.com (Drew Nilium)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.creative
Subject: Re: [ASH] REPOST: ASH #121 - City of Night Part 2 actual: Nachtlich
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2021 05:34:02 -0000 (UTC)
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 by: Drew Nilium - Mon, 1 Nov 2021 05:34 UTC

On 10/11/21 1:32 PM, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> (OOPS! Posted part 3 as Part 2. Here's the actual part 2.)

Oop. X3

> [The cover shows members of EUROPA (Arc, Ymir, Hotspur, Justice, ghostly
> Oni, and a woman in an unfamiliar EUROPA-styled uniform) launching attacks
> against a wall of blackness. "We attack the darkness!" cover blurb.]

XD Ahhhh, some memes never go out of style.

> "Yes and no," Lightfoot shrugged. "A few months before you showed up,
> feels like longer, but there's superhero life for you...anyway, Monaco got
> caught in a time bubble sort of thing. Split four ways, no one could get in
> or out at first. And since then, the entire Sun got covered in a shell,
> and. Damn. I guess it's not really that unusual lately."

Well. X3;

> "She means me," Tom rolled his eyes. "Time travel. I was born about
> fifty years ago."
> "I remember time travel. It never seemed to be useful for anything but
> causing trouble,"

Well! X3 X3 X3 <3

> For now, however, she
> was communicating via her invisible magnetic "ghost" form interacting via a
> piece of metal sculpture that had been pulled from the lobby and placed in
> one of the seats at the table.

That is *so* cool. :D

> She just hoped this latest crisis wouldn't require more battlefield
> promotions.

Mmmmm yeah.

> In fact, the lack of any announcement from anyone was beginning
> to worry everyone. In the history of "powerful entities taking over cities,"
> silence from the conqueror almost always meant that they didn't care what the
> rest of the world thought, because they were confident that the rest of the
> world would be conquered soon enough.

Dun dun dunnnnn!

> We've seen a few birds land on the
> top, but they do seem to perceive it well enough none have simply bounced
> off.

Adorable!

> Felka stepped up and got a good grip, then tugged experimentally. The
> rail warped slightly, but the end that met the dome didn't move. Frowning,
> she crimped the rail down into a more solid bar and gave it a hard pull.
> With a sharp PING it snapped off raggedly at the dome end. As they watched,
> the tattered edges of the metal slowly sank into darkness. "Might not be
> stronger than me, but it's stronger than steel."

Niiiiiice.

> They'd been sending emergency generators, water purifiers, and other
> supplies through the dome for the last day, in the hopes that the people
> inside were still alive and could make use of the things. Each was
> accompanied by chemical lights so that they would stand out. Now they had
> picked a clear area away from any of the supply drops, but to reduce the
> chances of hurting any innocents they were letting a lit-up sign reading
> "Back away" in several languages get sucked into the dome first.

God, this is good thinking. <3

> Other objects at that edge of the dome were
> swallowed up serenely, but as the boundary reached the sign again it started
> to slowly push.
> "Okay, dass ist pesimo," Hotspur muttered. ["Okay, that is very bad,"
> in street Eurolac - Ed.]
> "I think we just got proof that whatever's behind this can see us, even
> if we can't see them,"

That's so cool. :3

> Then she hit the wall and nearly stopped. It was no longer adamantine,
> more like wet concrete. The others struck a moment after, and they all
> struggled to force through the boundary between inside and out, between
> captives and rescuers. If the Anchors weakened the barrier more, it would
> also further rob the EUROPAns of their preternatural strength, possibly a
> zero sum game.
> Another moment, though, and she won through!

Hell yeah! :D :D :D Good moment!

> Nothing so distinct as figures, or even limbs, but the shadows detached
> themselves from the ground and the walls and flung themselves at Arc.

ooooooooh love the visual

> Justice threw stronger lightning this time, and while it seemed to slice
> apart the shadows in its passage, the harsh light cast sharper shadows which
> then came alive to cut at him.

Oh *dang* even better

> If the mystic weapon had any reply, no one heard it as the shadows
> surged like a tidal wave and slammed them back against the wall through which
> they had entered moments before.

so coooooool

> "Regardless, I think it's time we called in ASH," Claire told those
> assembled. "I know, no one likes feeling like we have to run to them every
> few months, but they were the last ones to face Lady Sable, and they have
> better magic-lore people than we do.

Plus, their name *is* in the title.

> The dome started to twist upwards in the middle, a tendril reaching up
> into the icy clear January sky. The chill that ran down Arc's back had
> nothing to do with the wintry breeze, as the tendril resolved into the form
> of a woman hundreds of meters tall.
> A booming contralto issued forth from everywhere at once, the dome
> itself shaking like a titanic speaker. "Berlin is henceforth and forever
> more the City of Night," it intoned. "The domain of Lord Ebon, under the
> regency of Lady Sable!"

Awwwwwwwwwwwww shit!!! D: :D

> Therefore, I'm finding I have time and energy, having gotten really
> efficient at doing 125% of my job in only 100% of the time and now only
> having to do 100% of the job. :)

Heck yeah, that's the spirit!

Drew "in a similar but more mental-illness-inflected place" Nilium

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