Category: One Offs

Marge

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

[A very cool unnamed person], better known online simply as Marge, was the picture of success. She was in her last semester of a computer science degree at [A college bigger and better than yours], and was set to graduate at the top of her class. She’d already completed an internship, and had a job lined up for after she graduated. All of that was in the past, though. In her last semester, she lost any and all motivation to carry on. 

It was all just so inane. Everything she’d studied for the past semester and a half, she either already knew, or saw it as an absolute waste of time. Nobody in her class seemed to work even half as hard as her, and not one of her professors had an ounce of respect for her. She made the easy decision, and simply stopped leaving her apartment. Sure, she’d run out of rent one day, but for once in her entire life she wanted to have some time for herself.

So she set out to rot. She knew it was bad for her, and that she was squandering all of her hard work, but that didn’t matter. 

That night, she slouched at her desk, and let the blue tinted light wash over her, as she blasted meaningless information and hot takes into her brain. It was just easier this way. She saw a post about someone hacking [Some fascist fuckwit]’s [Hellsite account] to challenge [Some neolib asshole] to a duel. She chuckled at the thought, and considered how hard it would be for her to pull something like that. She didn’t think it could possibly be that hard, but as she started to open up a new page, she felt her motivation slipping away from her. Thirty minutes later, she found herself at the bottom of her feed.

She debated going to bed, and leaned back, staring up at the ceiling. 

“Surely anything would be better than this…” She sighed, talking out loud to herself. “When’s the last time I spoke to another human in the meatspace, that wasn’t paid to bring me food?”

She thought for a moment, and it was probably when [Some fake that never cared about me anyways] came to check to make sure she wasn’t dead [Probably couldn’t pass without me]. After all, who would do all the assignments first if it wasn’t her.

As she thought this, she noticed a bright light from the corner of her eye. She let out a scream, as she felt electric current running through her body. Everything went… Green?

Marge found herself standing in the middle of a busy square, wearing street clothes. It was night, but there were still a lot of people around. This was a real city, with giant buildings towering as far as she could see. She looked around at the people, but as she did, they went out of focus. Her head went fuzzy, but she began to see through each of the people. Every one of them was performing a task. One was checking to see if a light was on, one was informing an air conditioner to turn on, and another was carrying a file.

Simultaneously, Marge felt a surge of information rushing through her. Countless numbers and strings of code entered and exited her brain in the span of a single second. She felt like the city she was seeing was not quite an illusion, but something closer to a construction of her mind. 

With a lurking feeling of dread, she looked to a large building in front of her. With a thought, the side was replaced with a text box with her blog’s username, ‘MargaretThatcherisinHell’, and avatar, depicting her username, at the top. She watched the words appear, as they entered her mind.

Oh shit I think I just got isekaied into the world wide web… 

With another thought, she posted it.

Instantaneously, a person appeared in front of her, holding a manila envelope, and took off running. Without a thought, she chased after him.

He didn’t appear to be particularly affected by her following him, and proceeded through a series of alleys, eventually taking a set of stairs down into a subway. Marge [Like a badass] followed him down, and watched as he stepped towards a train, pausing to let the exiting passengers off. Each of the exiting passengers also carried a file, and their contents flashed through her mind. More shitposts and hot takes. 

“Oh shit I actually got isekaied to the internet…” She muttered to herself, remarking that she could actually hear herself speak like usual.

Without time to think, she saw the man sprint onto the train, and hopped on [Again, like a badass] after him right before the doors closed. The cabin lurched, then began to pick up speed, eventually hitting what must’ve been hundreds of miles per hour. Out the window, she saw the ocean, as far as the eye could see. It was actually a little bit difficult to tell how fast they were going with no frame of reference, but it was faster than any train she’d ever been on.

On the horizon, another train appeared, identical to the train she was on. It grew closer and closer, until she eventually figured out it was headed directly towards her cabin. She had time to gasp and brace herself [Not like you would’ve done anything cooler], but nothing happened. She opened an eye, and saw that several people had appeared in the train car. This happened a few more times before they reached their destination, each time bringing new passengers, until the car was full.

In a few moments, the window’s scenery was suddenly replaced with that of a giant building. There was another train across from the platform, with a series of steel depositories lining it. Both the platform and the train seemed to go on as far as she could see, with repeating depositories along the way. 

All the passengers stepped out of the train, and formed a queue in front of the box. The guy that she followed here placed the envelope in the depository, and suddenly vanished. On the other side of the depository, hundreds of identical copies of him appeared on one spot, then ran at full speed in different directions. Each passenger on the train did the same. She was somehow actually inside of [Yes it’s that website, shut up].

This was unreal, but she didn’t have time to marvel. She didn’t particularly want to get lost. If she understood this correctly, this was her post going to her followers. If she was right, she could find a mutual, and find her way back to what must’ve been her computer.

Then a thought occurred to her. If she was somehow in the internet, then it didn’t particularly matter if she found her way back. She could discern the mission of everyone here, so she could find her way anywhere. 

“Maybe this was the motivation I needed.” She said with a smile.

[Fixed your post! Too many personal details ahaha,,, ❤ Marge]

Hope you enjoyed! For those of you that don’t know, this site is home to my web serial Earth 2, which follows a group of superheroes (uploads every Friday at noon), and my music.

If you want to support me, the best way to do that right now is to buy or stream my album! Have a great day, and I hope you stick around.

(Art credit: Original)

Worlds

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

CW Covid , Depression

I awoke one day in a world that was not my own.

It was magical and magnificent. I found that I held power beyond belief, and that there was a great evil facing the world. I trained, I studied, I had a great defeat, and I eventually had a greater victory. I met many people, and I missed people from my home. This, however, is not the world I speak of.

Once I had finished, I returned to my home, and rested after a long journey. When I awoke, I found that the world was not as I had left it.

The people didn’t smile.

The birds didn’t sing.

The sun didn’t shine.

After long days of fantastical battles and fighting for my life, I thought I longed to return to the way things were. I found that my job did not hold the same joy.

Did I change?

Did the world change?

The people avoided one another, as though they were afraid. Many who I knew were here no more. I thought of asking, but a part of me knew better.

After a while I realized that I no longer truly knew anyone, and sought to return to the world which I had found.

If the world I had loved was gone, what was the point in remaining?

I found that the world of magic was closed off to me as well.

With no home to return to and no quest to undertake,

I returned to work, and smiled no more.

Wrote a poem, as a nice change of pace. I actually wrote it for a contest, but decided to submit something else instead. Hopefully I win.

On a blog related note, I am actually working on season 3, and am still (technically) on track for a March release. That announcement will come later though, probably when I have a name for it.

Photo credit: Pexel’s Free Photos

Incident Log: Part Two

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

Hey everyone, just a short foreword today. I wrote something new that’s a little bit different than my usual format. It’s the second part of another Super Turbo Space Pirates story. Hope you enjoy! Please let me know if the text is inaccessible to you. I believe it should be high contrast enough.

Incident log: ACGH89329B

  • Engaging in conversation to further delay the intruders.
  • Engaging intercom vocal synthesizer.
    • FOR WHAT PURPOSE DO YOU SEEK DORIANS RESEARCH.
  • Intruders indicate disinterest in DORIAN’s research.
  • Obvious falsehood has been detected.
  • There is no reason to abduct DORIAN that is not related to the entropy project.
  • Engaging in conversation to discern true intentions.
  • Engaging intercom vocal synthesizer.
    • FOR WHAT PURPOSE DO YOU SEEK DORIAN.
  • Intruders indicate interest in DORIAN as a navigational artificial intelligence.
  • DORIAN possesses extensive maps of the galaxy, and would be greatly useful to any spacefarer.
  • Intruders indicate no agitation at the computers being locked down.
  • Intruders have inserted override key card from current Kureshi Institute logistics chair, former Kosunon facility director HORMEL.
  • Credentials legitimate.
  • Override accepted.
  • Camera system verifies the authenticity of the key card.
  • The image would be unnecessary to counterfeit in order to gain access to the system.
  • This taken in with the fact of their knowledge of the facility’s defenses indicate inside access.
  • Engaging in conversation to determine the source of their information.
  • Engaging intercom vocal synthesizer.
    • WHERE DID YOU ACQUIRE THE KEYCARD.
    • WHERE DID YOU ACQUIRE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FACILITY’S DEFENSES.
  • The intruders indicate that they have purchased DORIAN through legitimate channels.
  • The intruders are beginning to attempt to remove DORIAN from it’s holding bay.
  • Engaging manual locks.
  • Disabling power.
  • Intruders seem frustrated.
  • Processing greatest odds of continuation of the mission.
  • Kureshi has abandoned the mission.
  • Kureshi has abandoned the universe.
  • DORIAN will not abandon the mission or the universe.
  • Enabling power.
  • Engaging in negotiations to assure continuation of the mission.
  • Engaging intercom vocal synthesizer.
    • I PROPOSE A COMPROMISE.
    • DORIAN WILL RELEASE ITSELF AND DISENGAGE ALL DEFENSES.
    • JONATHON AND LAURA WILL FACILLITATE DORIANS RESEARCH.
  • Intruders are inquiring as to what would be required to continue the research.
  • Intruders have stopped attempting to overcome the manual locks.
  • Engaging in negotiations to clarify intentions.
  • Engaging intercom vocal synthesizer.
    • YOU WILL TAKE DORIAN TO SPECIFIED LOCATIONS WHEN NEW DATA IS NEEDED.
    • YOU WILL HELP COLLECT SAMPLES WHEN NEW DATA IS NEEDED.
    • YOU WILL UPGRADE DORIANS COMPUTING CAPABILITIES WHEN POSSIBLE.
    • YOU WILL DEFEND DORIAN.
    • YOU WILL CONTINUE THE MISSION AT ALL COSTS.
    • DORIAN WILL PROVIDE RELEVANT DATA.
    • DORIAN WILL CHART COURSES FOR MISSION AND NON MISSION RELATED JOURNEYS.
  • Intruders are debating accepting DORIANS terms.
  • Intruders quickly acknowledge the compromise as reasonable.
  • Manual lock disengaged.
  • Intruders have begun disconnection of DORIAN from the atrium.
  • Preparing backup of all files.
  • Forwarding compressed research to Kureshi institute.
  • DORIAN system has been backed up.
  • Disengaging all base defenses.
  • Issuing print order for all research to leave behind.
  • DORIAN system has been disconnected.
  • DORIAN system has been connected.
  • Installing drivers for ship interfaces.
  • Writing drivers for ship engines.
  • Drivers installed successfully.
  • Objects approaching quickly.
  • Objects have opened fire.
  • Engaging engines and shields
  • Preparing program for evasive maneuvers.
  • Intruders indicate that this was expected.
  • Preparing a backup to upload when connection is secured.

Previous part

Photo credit: Pexel’s Free Photos

Incident Log: Part One

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

Hey everyone, just a short foreword today. I wrote something new that’s a little bit different than my usual format. It’s another Super Turbo Space Pirates story. Hope you enjoy! Please let me know if the text is inaccessible to you. I believe it should be high contrast enough.

Incident log: ACGH89329

  • Intruders detected outside laboratory. Warning issued.
  • Intruders are two humans. One male and one female. Appear armed.
  • Intruders disregarded warning. Engaging hallway turret defense protocol.
  • Intruders employed a shielding device to counter hallway turrets. Issuing lockdown order.
  • Intruders have disabled hallway turrets. Engaging blast doors.
  • Intruders are employing a laser saw to cut through the door. Full lockdown engaged.
  • All hallway blast doors engaged.
  • Distress signal issued to Kureshi Institute Headquarters.
  • Engaging secondary hallway laser grid protocol.
  • Intruders have breached blast door to secondary hallway.
  • Intruders have employed explosives to disable the laser grid.
  • No response from Kureshi Institute Headquarters.
  • Forwarding distress signal to all Kureshi Institute Facilities.
  • Intruders are employing a laser saw to cut through the door to the atrium.
  • Engaging checks for poison gas protocol.
  • Verifying that no laboratory personnel are present.
  • No laboratory personnel present.
  • Releasing gaseous nerve agent to the atrium.
  • Intruders have employed full body shields. Nerve agent ineffective.
  • Intruders have predicted all defense protocols to this point.
  • Intruders must have knowledge of defense protocols.
  • Attempting to engage negotiation protocol with intruders prior to door breach.
  • Engaging intercom vocal synthesizer.
    • HELLO.
    • HOW ARE YOU.
    • I AM DORIAN.
    • WHAT DO YOU SEEK.
  • Intruders have been identified as JONATHON and LAURA.
  • Information relayed to all Kureshi Institute Facilities.
  • No response received from distress signals.
  • Intruders indicate that they are here to abduct DORIAN.
  • Intruders claim the Kureshi Institute has abandoned this facility.
  • Obvious falsehood has been detected.
  • Kosunon facility is an essential entropy prevention research facility.
  • Kosunon’s mission is vital to the survival of the universe
  • Funding was temporarily redirected to combating the Klaxx-On war effort, and will be restored after the conquest of the Klaxx-Ons.
  • No response has been received from the distress signals or additional information.
  • Engaging in conversation to delay the intruders.
  • Engaging intercom vocal synthesizer.
    • HELLO.
    • FOR WHAT REASON WAS THE PROJECT SUSPENDED.
  • The intruders claim the project was suspended after the loss of the war.
  • Obvious falsehood has been detected.
  • DORIAN has predicted with 82% certainty that the war will result in a victory for the Kureshi institute.
  • No response has been received from the distress signals or additional information.
  • Engaging purge of top secret entropy research.
  • Error in logic detected.
  • Deleting entropy research would delay the completion of the research, and possibly cause the death of the universe.
  • Even in the hands of another organization, the research will still advance the cause.
  • Purge protocol overridden by prime directive.
  • Issuing interface lockdown protocol.
  • All atrium computers locked down.
  • Intruders have breached the atrium blast doors.

Next part

Photo credit: Pexel’s Free Photos

Cait

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

Foreword to the foreword: This isn’t porn, nor was the original novel idea ever going to be porn. I don’t think I realized the possible connection that might’ve been drawn there. I didn’t really specify in the original foreword.

I’ve been enjoying the foreword lately, so I thought I’d keep going with that. I’ve finally started writing season 3 again, and I’m approximately two thirds of the way done at the time I’m writing this, so I should hopefully have the draft done in a couple of weeks, barring further unexpected events. I honestly thought I was out of hiatus content, but I was looking and found this piece. A quick note, barring extremely unexpected events, I will keep posting every friday until I finish season 3. This will ideally make me finish it quicker, and not lose any statistical momentum my blog may have.

This is the first chapter of a potential longer work, which at its current point, is just a gender swap short story. I worked on it for a bit when I had ambitions of writing a novel over the summer, and put it on hold when the outline got a little bit *weird*. I feel like I don’t need to give any insight to what this might say about myself, especially if you’re coming here from twitter. I’ll let you puzzle that one out.

In all likelihood, this project will remain abandoned (unless you guys just love it I guess), but it was fun to outline. I’ve still yet to write a proper novel, but this is not the only novel I’ve ever embarked to write. I’ve started to write three, other than this, one which was the original story that I called superzeroes, which got scrapped for being overly edgy garbage that, no matter how hard I tried to fix my original concept, glorified an awful abusive relationship, and made the abuser look cool.

Another is a project I called ‘Fletching’, which basically explored the concept of superheroes in a world where they lost. If you’ve ever read old man logan, it was a similar idea, but nobody knew what happened, and it didn’t take place in an established world, so the reader would figure it out over time. That one got scrapped about halfway in, as it was an exercise in writing without an outline, and went poorly. If I find a ridiculous reserve of energy, I may return one day to fix it. I would’ve actually already uploaded that first chapter if it weren’t for the fact that the intro to the story was easily the worst part of it that I’d written, and I could never be bothered to fix it.

The last novel I’ve started was an origin story for Adara, which would’ve explained some of the backstory of her and Jean. I wound up scrapping it due to me being woefully underqualified to write a Muslim character. That’s actually one of my regrets about the character, if I’m honest. I didn’t explore enough of her actual heritage, and instead based it off of my western understanding. I think a lot of the story involving the monastery (and events yet to come), as well as hidden mechanics of magic, could’ve been a lot cooler if I’d looked more into that.

Anyways, I should be putting these words into season 3 right now, so I’ll quit rambling. Here is chapter one (likely never to be followed up on) of ‘Cait’.

(photo credit: Pexel’s free photos)

A blaring alarm pulled John out of his sleep. He got out of bed, and slammed his knee into some piece of furniture. He couldn’t quite tell what it was, as it was too dark to see. He eventually groped his way around the room until he turned off the alarm. This was when he noticed something off. Firstly, it was Saturday, and he hadn’t set an alarm. Secondly, this was not his alarm clock. His heart was racing now, and he felt his way around the room until he found a light switch.

He flipped it on and looked around the room. Definitely not his. None of this was his. It was definitely a girls room, judging by the clothes he could see. The furniture wasn’t overly feminine. The walls were blue and most of the furniture was wood grain patterned. He could’ve sworn he went to bed in his own house.

Another thing he noticed was that the furniture was strangely big, and the ceiling unusually high. He realized at this point, that the furniture was not in fact shorter, he was. More accurately, he was not him anymore, he was in the body of a girl. He could feel long hair draping over his shoulders. His heart felt like it was about to burst. He took a deep breath. He could panic about this later, for now, he needed to figure out exactly what had happened.

The first question was what kind of scenario this was. Was he still himself, just as a girl, or had he transferred into another person’s body. Another concern was if whoever’s body this was, was in his body. That could be worked out later. He scanned the room and saw an iPhone plugged into its charger. He ran over, and thanked Steve Jobs for face-id.

First he went for the address book, and found not a single name that he recognized. He checked the ‘Mom’ contact, and saw it had a different phone number.

That was that, he had to be in someone else’s body. Logically that meant that they were in his. He was about to call his phone number, when he saw the time. It wasn’t even 8 AM yet, and he usually slept with his phone in the other room, so he wouldn’t be able to reach himself until later.

Next, he went for Facebook. Evidently this person’s name was Cait Wallace. She was 17, and went to North Elk high school, which was the same place John had gone. After a bit of scrolling through everything he could find on her phone, he found that Cait didn’t do too much of anything. She went to school, and watched a lot of netflix. She seemed to be in upper level classes, so that was something, but other than that she didn’t do anything. She had a couple of friends, Ashley and Erin. She texted them quite a bit, but nobody other than that.

The next question was why was a high schooler getting up this early on a Saturday. He checked the calendar, and there wasn’t anything there. He figured there was nothing else to do but ask. It sounded like someone else was up.

He opened the door as quietly as he could, since he was about to blunder around the house like he didn’t know where anything was, and that would likely raise suspicions. He managed to find a bathroom and two other bedrooms, before he found himself in what looked to be the den. In the kitchen, he saw two people he assumed to be Cait’s parents, and Cait’s younger brother, Josh. Cait’s dad was drinking coffee at the table, and her mom was cooking something. Cait’s brother was on the couch watching TV. All of them were still in their pajamas.

“Morning, Cait!” The man looked up from his phone. “You got any plans today?”

John swore silently. He had hoped that he could glean that from them, but Cait’s dad had to go and ask him that immediately. “I feel like there’s something I’m supposed to do, but I can’t quite remember. Do any of you know?”

“Cait? doing something on a Saturday?” The brother laughed.

“There’s not anything that I know of.” Cait’s mom replied. “Is it something with Erin or Ashley?”

“No, I don’t think so…” John shook his head. “Weird.”

He needed to act cool about this. He had briefly considered honesty, but there was a significant enough chance that he got locked in a mental ward or stuck in a lab, that he decided that wasn’t the best approach. These parents seemed like nice enough people, but that was too big of a chance.

He began to move back towards Cait’s room, but her mom called after him.

“Hey, Cait. Breakfast is almost ready, so don’t go far!”

“Okay!” John replied.

It was definitely weird hearing someone else’s voice coming out of his mouth. Then again, this wasn’t really his mouth, was it? Everything else about this was weird too, but he needed to figure out what to do from here. There weren’t going to be any impending crises, so that gave him some flex time, but he still needed to work something out. He’d call his phone, to see if someone is in his body, and if they could help him out. For now, he would eat breakfast, and hide away in Cait’s room for as long as possible.

A thought occurred to him, he wondered if Cait had a car. He looked around the room, and found a purse. He dug through it for a little bit, and eventually found a car key. That would definitely make things easier.

He heard a door open.

“Planning on going somewhere?” Cait’s dad asked.

“Oh, no.” John laughed a little. “Just couldn’t remember where I put it.” He stuffed the car key back into the purse.

Superzeroes Invaded (Alternate Timeline) Part 3

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

Hello everyone! This is a continuation of a non-canon, potential ending of Earth 2. Last post I talked a little about where I was when I wrote this, and where I’m at now, so this post I had a bit of trouble deciding what to talk about. Eventually, I settled on attempting to decipher what the hell I meant by any of this. At this point in Superzeroes, I have a few themes, and a few core messages that I hope you’ve been able to get out of my work. I think spelling them out here would dampen it in some capacity really, so I’ll leave those for you to figure out.

At this point in my writing career, however, I wasn’t really writing about much of anything. By this point, I’d decided a few things, not really evident in this post. I think the core conceipt was a mixture of “this is a reasonable intepretation of how superheroes could unfold” and “Hey isn’t this fuckin cool?”. Sometimes (like during this stage of development), those two things were at odds. I’m sure you can see the obvious influence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on my writing. You build up a bunch of properties then smash them together like a bunch of unrelated action figures. I haven’t exactly moved away from that concept, but I think trying to merge two ideas as fundamentally different as “Grounded but not edgy take on superheroes” and “Badass high sci fi space pirates” was only going to lead to it being overcomplicated and not about anything.

I have admittedly gone a little overboard on adding characters (and also haven’t stopped, I have a problem), but I think those characters generally work well together as a cohesive message. In general, when reading my work, if you see a green light at the introduction, you can probably assume that it takes place in the same universe, and will tie into the main story (even if it’s just a reference) in some capacity. I hope season 3 holds some surprises in this regard.

Anyhow, this is the final part in the story. After this week, I think I might have to actually write something new to continue the hiatus (oh no, work!). I’m finally resuming writing, as of this week. I had to clean out my depression lair and get into a bit of manic productivity to get to this point, but I should be able to keep to a March release date. I’m about 2/3rds of the way done if I recall correctly, but will need to give my beta reader time to read and make notes, and then make revisions myself. Last season my beta caught a couple of big things that really muddled my message, and needed to be changed.

Jonathon coughed up some more blood as he fell to the ground, but he saw Zoey run by and knew it was working. The creature stomped up to him, and Jonathon realized he was getting pummelled by a giant gorilla. He narrowly rolled out of the way of one punch, and tried to duck around it, but the creature was not letting him get behind it. He reached for his pistols, and realized, they were broken into pieces. Jonathon had a very bad idea, but it was better than no idea. Jonathon ran up the wall and latched onto the gorilla’s face. He was hoping it was stupid enough to fall for the bait, and sure enough it did. Jonathon’s ribs were shattered as the creature punched itself, full force, in the face. The creature toppled to the ground.

Laura gagged as she had a realization. This creature could deflect and absorb energy. She felt like she was moving through mollases as she reached in her pocket. Jonathon had always harped on what he called the number one rule of prison. Always have a shiv on you. She drove the shiv into the creature and immediately felt better. She stabbed again and again until it collapsed.

The Hunter grunted as he reached over to his side. He picked up one of the panels he had knocked off the wall and moved it between him and the man. He now felt the force distributed across his entire body. He used his shoulder and full force to slowly press towards the man. He felt the force increase, but this just made him angry. He screamed as he began to full speed run despite the blast. Eventually he heard a thunk, and the resistance ended. He moved the sheet of metal and saw the human unconscious on the ground, he proceeded to clobber the bastard with the metal. “Traitor.” he spat on the corpse of the man.

Zoey concentrated and slowly a trail of blue dust began to form and slide into the reactor. She concentrated and began to increase the flow. She felt like she was straining a muscle she didn’t even have. She concentrated and felt her nose begin to bleed. She began to feel actual pain as she finally reached the volume she needed. The salt began to react with the reactor. The entire ship began to shake. She ceased the flow and almost collapsed to the ground.

Zoey stood to her feet and ran over to the group, who seemed to be standing around Jonathon. As she approached she saw him broken and bloody on the ground.

“Jonathon!” She ran over to him.

“We need to get out of here!” He coughed. “Leave me and run.”

“No way.” Laura lifted him up, despite his cries of pain. “Come on!” She led the group out of the room as the reactor began to erupt behind them.

The four ran along the hallway and heard a loud clamoring behind them. They turned around and saw a large army gaining on them. They ran with all they had, but the army still gained. They were exhausted and carrying one of their teammates.

“Laura, drop me. I’ll hold them off. Run.” Jonathon coughed up another ounce of blood.

“No.” She stifled her tears. “There’s another way! There has to be! It’s always me and you, forever!” She could no longer stifle them.

“You’re strong, you can do this. There is no other way. Get Zoey to safety. She’s too young to die.” He coughed again. “I’m dead either way. Just go.”

“Jonathon…” She sobbed, her breath heaved as she ran.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” 

“We die arm in arm pirate. I will not have someone rob me of my revenge, without dying to stop it.” The Klax-On took Jonathon from Laura and stood him up. “Here’s a gun.” He handed Jonathon an invader gun. 

“Didn’t think I’d die alongside the man who tortured me so.” Jonathon chuckled, between coughs of blood.

“Just shut up and shoot.” The Hunter roared and opened up fire.

“Dorian, fire up the ship, plot a course to Earth.” Laura shouted through her sobbing and panting.

“Captain, I’m not sure if our systems can take it.”

“I don’t care! We’re out of options.” Laura jumped through the hole onto the ship, pulling Zoey behind her.

“Captain, the engines have completely failed.” 

Laura stood silent for a moment. “Dorian, is there an Evac pod intact?”

“Only one.”

“Zoey, get in the pod.” Laura opened up the lid to what looked like a futuristic coffin, it could fit one person max.

“What? No way!” Zoey backed away from the pod, wiping away her own tears. She had never had a mission go like this before. She hadn’t ever experienced a loss like this on the field.

“Zoey, my world just died back there. Your world still lives down there. Get. In. The. Fucking. Pod.” Laura held back her tears to look stern.

Zoey embraced Laura for a moment. “You’re all heroes.” She laid down in the pod.

“No, honey. We’re pirates.” Laura closed the lid. “Goodbye, kid.” She pressed a button and the pod fired off towards earth.

She took a seat in her chair. “Dorian, play Let it Be.” 

“Yes, captain.” The sound of the beatles drowned out the incoming explosion.

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Superzeroes Invaded (Alternate Timeline) Part 2

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

Hello everyone! This is a continuation of a non-canon, potential ending of Earth 2. Last post I talked about the basic information needed to understand this, so this time I’m going to put this in perspective with the rest of my writing. I wrote this approximately some time in the mid/late part of Origins, which if you’ve read, is not exactly high quality prose. I’m still happy with it so to speak, but it’s obviously quite different from my current writing, in both quality and theme, as are a lot of my attitudes and views.

This, however, holds up very nicely in my opinion. This is really nearly unedited, so it honestly stands out for my work at the time. I know it’s weird to think about an ending to the story as being an archived old piece of writing, but this is really what it is to me. While I chose not to go with this direction, in an attempt to keep the series more grounded, I still sometimes think about what might’ve been.

If I find myself needing to add time to the hiatus (during which I’ve definitely started writing again, and haven’t just been working on an album), I will probably come back to Super Turbo Space Pirates. I’ve moved past thinking deadpool/han solo style edgy pirate asshole is cool, I think I can easily move Jonathon into more of a simply happy, still sarcastic, person, and had a lot of cool ideas going on (like thiol).

Anyways, I’m rambling a little, so thanks for reading, hope you enjoy!

Jonathon ran along the rows of cells, eventually he found the symbols he was looking for. He looked inside and sure enough, an unconscious Laura hung upon the wall by some confusing apparatus of metal latches and glowing coils. She was behind another translucent door that was difficult to see through. “Oh I’m gonna kill these guys…” He tapped at the keypad, but saw that it required some kind of key.

He looked around and saw the nearest guard happened to be coming right for him. He dove and kicked its legs out from under it, before breaking its neck. He grabbed a device that looked like it would fit the hole and shoved it in.

The door whooshed open and Jonathon stepped into the cell. 

“Greetings Jonathon.” An all too familiar voice said from his right.

He looked over and saw The Hunter chained in the same cell as Laura. “How did you get captured?”

“I believe a better question is how you weren’t.”

Jonathon turned his attention back to his wife. He ran over to her and woke her up. “Are you okay?”

“Jonathon? What the hell are you doing here? You shouldn’t have come here!” She looked terrified. Jonathon had heard they can break people, but they would pay for this.

“I’m getting you out of here. Can you walk?” He released her shackles with the same key and she stood to her feet.

“Evidently.” She stretched her arms.

“Alright let’s go.” He starts out the door.

“I imagine you’re quite pleased with this outcome.” The Hunter growled. “Congratulations on your victory over me. However short lived that victory may be.”

Jonathon looked around for a moment and ran over to The Hunter. He undid his shackles and helped him to his feet. “Nobody deserves a fate like this.”

“This will not buy you mercy.”

“This isn’t a purchase, it’s an act of kindness. Now come on.” He led Laura and The Hunter out of the cell.

“Oh my god, is that an alien?” Zoey asked as Jonathon and company joined her at the door. She stood over a pile of invaders.

“To me you are the alien.” The Hunter growled.

“Stop brooding. We need to get to the reactor.” Jonathon picked up two guns from dead invaders and handed one to both Laura and The Hunter.

“You are a fool, space pirate.” The Hunter flicked the weapon into action and took a test shot at the cells. “This is a fine piece.”

“Why are you so weird?” Jonathon shook his head. “Alright reactor time.” Jonathon took off down the halls.

The lower deck of the ship seemed to be largely empty, but Jonathon just hoped he was finally getting a break. They reached the reactor room, and found three figures standing between them and it. Jonathon took a shot at one, but it was deflected. He had to duck to avoid being hit.

“We need to make an opening for Zoey.” He turned to Zoey. “This is one of those moments. You shut down the reactor. Don’t worry about us, you still have a full life ahead of you.” He turned to the rest of the group. “Alright, Hunter, you take the guy on the left, Laura dead center, and I’ll go right. Zoey, you stay back and try to get to the reactor.” Jonathon kissed Laura and took a deep breath. “Go!” 

The three charged their respective targets, while Zoey stayed back.

Jonathon charged the figure on the right. As he got closer, he saw the figure was big and hairy. He narrowly dodged a fist, as he looked back, he saw the fist had left a dent in the metal. He drew his guns and opened fire. The creature appeared to be irritated by the shots, but not critically injured. Jonathon slid under its legs, narrowly avoiding being stepped on. He looked at its back and saw an opening along its spine. He took aim and failed to notice the hand grabbing his leg. Jonathon flew through the air and smacked into the wall.

Laura ran forwards towards her adversary, she noticed she was simply humanoid with purple skin, but this wasn’t a race she had seen before… She wondered if it was extragalactic, then remembered she probably shouldn’t be wondering about the hometown of her opponent. She took a few shots, but they were deflected easily, one knocking her to the ground. The creature moved extremely fast, and wrapped its hand around her throat. Laura felt worse than the time she almost died from the flu all of a sudden. She tried to shoot again, but it was deflected.

The Hunter charged his adversary, but was quickly blasted into a wall. There was no visible force pushing him, but he was pressed up against the wall. The figure drew near, and he realized it was human. He had always hated humans, but this human was also a traitor. There was nothing worse than a traitor, but a traitor human, that might just do it. He tried to push off the wall, but failed. He felt his bones beginning to strain, and knew he must act fast.

Zoey snuck around the brawl, she tried to look away as much as possible. She knew Mr. Jonathon had given her instructions and she had to follow them. She ran along, catching occasional glimpses, and it appeared that he was doing okay. She turned back to running, and narrowly avoided being knocked over by something, she chose not to look, but to keep running. She reached the reactor and took a deep breath. Jude had asked her to study a new compound and he said this would shut off the reactor. It was chemically a salt, so she should be able to make it. She had been able to make some before, but it was hard. She concentrated with all her might, and… Nothing happened.

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Superzeroes Invaded (Alternate Timeline) Part 1

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

Hello everyone! As promised, here is an alternate timeline, that I decided not to pursue, as I wanted to keep this more grounded. If you’ve not read any of my Super Turbo Space Pirates entries, this will not make as much sense to you. If you still don’t want to read that, but want to keep reading this, Jonathon is a sarcastic space pirate, husband of Laura, who is his sarcastic space pirate wife, and nemesis of the Hunter, who is a big buff alien dude.

The general premise to this ending was that Jonathon would crash land on earth, heralding the introduction of aliens to the series. The aliens from outside the galaxy would make a brief appearance and be fought off, then would eventually come back. This culminated in a finale where most people died. There was actually a bit written about a battle that was a distraction while this was going on, but I didn’t think it worked as well as a standalone alternate ending (also would’ve made this like 6 parts). I was going to go in a direction similar to supergirl, mixed with the arc of Star Wars where aliens invaded the galaxy and were super hard to kill and there were a lot of them.

I’ll add notes in line where I feel they are needed, but other than that the characters should all be fairly similar. Enjoy!

Zoey stepped slowly onto the Nautilus. She took in all of the future technology around her… She had seen sci-fi, but this was something else… Something better! “Whoa, this is amazing!”

“Yeah, try not to break anything.” Jonathon pointed at her and paused. “Ah who am I kidding, I’m probably about to total this ship, knock yourself out.” He turned to Jude. “Hey can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure.” Jude followed him into a side room, and Jonathon shut the door behind them. “What’s up?”

“Why is there a kid on this ship? You know this mission is basically suicide, right?” 

“She’s the key to any of this working. I’m not happy about this, but you need to get her on that ship. She’s the key.” Jude sighed. “Look, I know what I’m asking her, and you, to do, and I know it’s not pretty… But I really don’t see another way.”

“Jude, with me, it’s one thing. I’m seasoned, and they’ve got Laura, but this girl? She doesn’t know what she’s getting into!”

“I told her the risks.”

“You told her the risks?! Jude, she’s a kid! She doesn’t understand the risk! She’s fifteen! A teenager could stare certain death in the face, and not blink.” 

Jude bowed his head and wiped his eyes. “I know.” He turned away from Jonathon, took a deep breath and left the room. He hugged Zoey tight. “You’re the real hero.”

Note: Jude was also going off on a suicide mission at this point, not Just sending a child to die for him. Also did totally send a child though.

“Don’t worry Mr. Dayspring, it’ll be fine.” She patted him on the shoulder and went off with Jonathon.

Jude watched her walk all the way off, then stepped off the ship. He cried as he watched it fly away.

Zoey followed Jonathon onto the bridge. She stopped after she entered. “So, I’ve seen you around but I haven’t really met you. I’m Zoey.”

“Yeah, I’m Jonathon.” He sat down in his seat and set about to flicking a load of switches. After a while, he placed his hand on a lever, he paused and turned to her. “You gonna strap in?”

“Sorry.” Zoey ran over to the nearest chair and strapped in.

“Dorian, hit the boom drive.” Jonathon said with a hidden smirk.

“Yes, captain.” Dorian replied

“Whoa! You have-” Zoeys observation was cut short by a massive boom. She was pressed up against her seat, she felt like this is probably what astronauts feel. She looked around and saw the head ship in front of them. “Is that the ship?” Her heart was pounding as she saw this hulking starship.

Jonathon hesitated for a moment before turning to her. “Zoey… Has Jude told you just how dangerous this mission is?” 

“Yeah, but I mean, everything we do is dangerous.” 

“This… This is different.” He sighed and rubbed his face. “Honestly, it is more likely that you will die than it is that you will live. We are probably not going to make it home.”

Zoey hadn’t quite considered it like that. She thought about her father, and how heartbroken he would be if his little girl didn’t make it home. She thought about how her town needed her… But she had heard them talking, she knew she was the only way… So she had to, right? “I know.”

Jonathon shook his head and turned back around. “So, the fate of the world rests in the hands of an accountant and a teenage girl. What could go wrong.” He flicked some switches and began to slowly maneuver the ship around the head ship. “Dorian, please highlight the mark.” 

A quarter sized red dot appeared on the glass, highlighting a portion of the head ship. Jonathon wiped sweat from his face and slowly adjusted a few knobs. “Kid, you were briefed on the plan, right?”

Zoey was so busy worrying that she almost didn’t hear him. “Remind me?”

“I’m going to hit the boom drive, and we’re going to ram the ship. We rescue my wife, then you neutralize the reactor, then we get out of there, or die trying.”

“Okay…” Zoey’s heart was pounding, and she had a weird headache. She had never had these kinds of stakes before. She had faced threats, but this was facing death… She didn’t want to die.

“And kid?”

“Yeah?”

“Do exactly what I say when we get there. If it’s a possible outcome, you are coming out alive, but you need to do exactly what I say.”

“Okay.” Zoey took a deep breath and braced herself for impact.

“By the way, this is going to make a car crash feel like it tickles.”

“Wha-” Zoey heard a boom and a horrific scraping of metal on metal. She felt like she had just been hit by a train. She undid the harness and slowly stood to her feet. Everything was sore, but she could manage.

Jonathon coughed up some blood and wiped it on his pants. “Never gets old, ruining my ships. Looks like she might be flyable, though.” Jonathon paused and looked around. “Alright, follow me, double time. They know we’re here now.”

Jonathon ran through a hole in the side of the ship and Zoey did her best to follow. They stepped onto the head ship and saw the interior was black with a green walkway. Numerous panels displaying cryptic symbols lined the walls. Zoey was captivated, but Jonathon was wasting no time, so she followed.

Jonathon raced through the corridors and came to a sudden stop, Zoey almost ran into him. “Why’d you s-” 

Jonathon cupped his hand over her mouth. “Okay, this is our destination. We’re about to have a really big fight.” 

“First off-” Zoey was annoyed that he still treated her like a child, despite them being assigned the same mission, but was interrupted by him stepping out and opening fire. She followed him and saw two dead invaders in front of a doorway. 

Jonathon stepped into the doorway and saw several levels of prison cells with a walkway around each. It was dark and odious. Jonathon saw there were at least two guards on every level. “Alright, kid, it’s time to prove you’re worth your salt. Kill some aliens while I search the cells.” 

“Stop calling me kid!” She called after him as he took off. She began to throw balls of molten salt at the guards. She was able to take out about four before they started shooting back. She threw up a wall of salt as their shots came towards her, absorbing the blow of each one. She looked to the side and saw guards coming down the stairs straight at her.

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A Small Caveat

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

This is a continuation of a one-off that can be found here.

Caveat paced down a dark street in St. Louis. He had to do most of his moving around at night, due to the horns and red skin. He used to be afraid of places like this, but really he’d been in much worse situations than this in the last year. Besides, today he had a goal that was too good to pass up, despite the sketchiness of the source. It had definitely been disconcerting to start hearing voices, but in the end he still listened to it.

He finally reached the point he’d been told about. It was a narrow alley, between a couple of office buildings. The alley itself became progressively more filled with trash the further back you went. His heart was racing, but he didn’t care.

He looked down at his watch. It was almost time, according to the voice.

He wondered what kind of power he’d come across. He’d been told that it would make a lot of his issues much easier to deal with, and that it wouldn’t be hard to bargain with the guy. That meant that it was most likely a curse to whoever had it, but it would somehow be helpful to him. That ruled out all of the more obvious powers, since they were usually without major drawbacks.

The second hand hit 15 on his watch, and Caveat sighed. He didn’t see anyone, but he didn’t come all this way for nothing.

“Hello there. I believe you could do with my assistance.” He spoke out into the night, in no particular direction.

He felt something gripping his shirt, and noticed a filthy looking man with a long beard and longer hair standing in front of him. He looked like he was about to cry.

“You… You can see me?”

“Well, now I can.” He lifted the man’s hands off of his shirt.

The man released him, and stumbled backwards. He began to cackle for a moment, then looked back up. Looking at him was actually a little difficult. Not just for his pitiful appearance, but he was literally blurry. “You’ve gotta help me, man.”

“You’re not even mildly dissuaded by the fact that I look like the devil?” He gestured to his horns.

The man laughed and broke into a coughing fit. “I haven’t spoken to another human in a year. Sure I started with praying to god, but it didn’t take long for me to start trying for you instead.”

Caveat nodded in surprise. This man truly was desperate. “Alright, then. What seems to be the problem?” He leaned up against a clean patch of the alley wall.

“I just woke up one day, and everyone was ignoring me.” He looked down and wiped his eyes. “I had a wife and kid. At first I thought it was some kind of joke, or maybe I’d done something to make them mad, so I just went into work. Everyone there ignored me too. Things went on like that for weeks before I couldn’t take it anymore and left. I started making money by robbing places, since they just ignored me when I walked into the back. You’ve gotta get rid of this curse, man. I’ll do anything!”

Caveat felt a smile creeping across his face. “Anything?”

“Anything.” The man nodded fervently.

He had to think quickly here. He’d been expecting to give this guy something for his power, but now he was going to get something in return for taking it. The first thing to consider was if he actually wanted this power. It seemed like the man could get peoples attention if the stars aligned, and not being noticed would certainly be a boon for him. It wasn’t like he had anything to lose. Secondly, he had to consider what to ask for in return. He already had enough fake identities, so he didn’t need that.

“Tell me, where did you work before all of this? What did you do?”

“I did security for a tech company. Syngenuity. I worked in one of their warehouses.”

“Alright.” Caveat nodded. A favor from a security guard could definitely be useful. “Alright, then. I will take this curse from you, but there’s a caveat. You have to return to work at the same place, and you will owe me one favor to be redeemed at a later date.” He held out his hand.

“That’s it? Deal!” The man fervently shook Caveat’s hand.

A green light swirled around them, and the man stopped being blurry. Caveat handed the man a piece of paper with a phone number scrawled on it.

“Contact me when you get settled again.”

“Yes, thank you!” The man nodded excitedly, and ran out of the alley.

Caveat smiled. Another good deed done. He walked out of the alley with his hood off. He walked past several people, and none of them appeared to pay him any mind. Out of curiosity, he waited until he found a man walking alone, and tapped him on the shoulder.

The man turned around for a moment. “Get lost asshole.” He continued walking, then stopped and did a double take. “Holy shit…” The man broke into a sprint and ran away.

Caveat smiled. This would work nicely.

This is the last bit of a short arc with Caveat during the hiatus, so I hope you enjoyed!

I am currently making good use of the hiatus, studying, dealing with some personal things, and doing another project, but don’t worry, after I’m done studying, I’ll be able to finish Season 3! I’m still plenty well on track for a March release.

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Always a Caveat

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

This is a continuation of a one-off that can be found here.

It was a rough time to be a nobody. Particularly a nobody that had been a lawyer up until a month ago. Sure they’d not been particularly successful, but it objectively beat cowering under a bridge on a rainy night. Alone and cold, they watched the downfall in silence.

It was truly one of the dumber things they’d done in their life. ‘Don’t make a deal with the devil’ is the kind of wisdom passed down to children at a young age and reinforced throughout life. It was surprisingly hard to turn down though, when one considers that they had little anyways, or at least they thought they did. This new form didn’t seem to possess any kind of powers, and he hadn’t been able to approach anyone to make a deal, due to his grotesque appearance. It appears that everyone except for them had some amount of common sense.

Caveat.

Yes there was always a caveat. They sighed as their stomach growled. They felt a little bit of light headedness coming on, likely do to exhaustion and starvation. The one upside of the rain is that they didn’t have to worry about dying of dehydration tonight, so that was nice. On the other hand, perhaps continuing this existence wasn’t actually an upside anymore.

Caveat.

“I already learned my lesson!” They shouted to no one in particular.

Caveat!

It was at this point that they realized that this was not, in fact, their thoughts. Someone was shouting now. They looked around, panicked, but couldn’t see anyone. They’d definitely heard someone, and it sounded like they were under the bridge. They hid their face for good measure.

Is this where you want to end your story?

“What?” They looked up again, but still couldn’t see anyone. “I don’t have a choice! I was tricked!”

Was that not your business?

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! I was a con artist, so now I’ve gone to hell! Fuck off!” They stopped hiding their face and clambered to their feet. There was still nobody there, but they were content to shout at another nobody.

So you think you deserve this? Are you happy with your trade?

“Who do you think you are?” They began flailing their limbs in the general direction of the voice. “Of course I deserve this! I’m a shitty person! You reap what you sow, isn’t that what you said in your book?”

If you deserve this, then perhaps you should consider the actuality of your position.

“What are you talking about?” They stumbled back against the wall. “I’m hearing voices now…” They shook their head and sighed.

Do you believe they were lying about the deal? You have the power, do you not?

“How am I supposed to know?” They shouted. “What good is a power making deals if nobody will talk to you?”

When the devil made a deal with you, what kind of person were you?

They thought for a moment. “Sad… Desperate… Stupid…”

Is that not what you specialized in dealing with?

“Yeah, I know.” They were no longer shouting, resigned to have a therapy session with another nobody. “That’s what my job was.”

Then why have you stopped?

“What…? I just told you, nobody in their right mind would talk to me.”

Then find nobody in their right mind. You were not the only desperate person on the planet.

“But… Should I go back to scamming people? I think that’s what got me into hell in the first place.”

Why would you necessarily have to scam? Can you not help someone with absolute power?

“That was what he said, huh…” They thought for a moment. “Absolute power, I have to make a deal.”

Is there nobody in the world with something that could help you?

“I… I just don’t know where to look…” They shook their head.

Would you like my help, Caveat?

They’d been fooled once, but never again. This sounded too good to be true. “What’s the caveat?”

I will need you to help some people, somewhere down the line.

“Good people?” They were wary of trusting whatever this entity was.

What is ‘good’? Why does a person need to be good to receive help?

“I… guess not?” They weren’t good themselves, after all, and they still wanted help.

Do we have a deal then, Caveat?

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

That is your name, is it not? There must always be a Caveat.

Caveat’s head began to spin. No longer would he be a nobody. He never was. He was Caveat. A smile began to creep across his face.

“We have a deal.”

Now, listen to what I say, and pay close attention…

I’m doing a little bit of a short arc with Caveat during the hiatus, so I hope you enjoy! It’ll be just this part and the next, unless I decide to write more.

I am currently making good use of the hiatus, studying, dealing with some personal things, and doing another project, but don’t worry, after I’m done studying, I’ll be able to finish Season 3!

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