Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

[wylodmayer]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Some guys don't know when to give up. Sometimes it's worse when they should have never started in the first place. Sometimes, though...

 

You gotta admire Bill "Buck" Hatcher's determination and sunny optimism. Once a stuntman for a certain sand-and-surf television melodrama, Hatcher was present when The Black Gondolier tried to rob the Fifth-Third National Bank over in the San Fernando Valley last March. Sure, the Tiki Torcher showed up to put a stop to the Venetian Villain's latest outrage, but our Favorite Big Islander was still fighting off a nasty case of bronchitis and was having a rough go of it until - at an opportune moment - Hatcher, a former redshirt strong safety at USC, hit the Italian miscreant with a form tackle that would have made Johnny Sample proud.

 

Well, the papers were all over it, of course; you probably saw the photographs of Hatcher standing next to the Torcher, who was really gracious about giving the guy his fifteen minutes (the Torcher has always been a class act, though, even with the little loincloth thing). Who knew that Buck Hatcher would want something more?

 

Mind you, I'm not saying he's in it for the fame. In fact, even though he gets more television screen time now than he ever did as a stunt man, it seems like he's only taking the appearances to pay the bills. No, whereas others who circle the big bright bulb that is fame tend to take any chance they can get to incinerate themselves in a blaze of glory, Hatcher - or, as he calls himself now, the Lifeguard - really got something else entirely out of his brief moment of national exposure. I think maybe that's working in his favor, to be honest; everyone else who's ever got a brief glimmer of fame works so hard to hold on to it, you can almost smell the desperation. But not Buck. He's really working on a whole other level.

 

He really changed, that day. It's cliched to say it, but in that moment, he saw his life flash before his eyes. Contrary to a lot of the unkind rumors and jokes, Buck isn't dumb - at least, he's not as dumb as he looks. He knew that trying to take down that supervillain was likely to be a suicidal move. But he didn't let himself think about that. He just, well, did it. To his credit, he doesn't try to make it sound like heroism; heck, when he tells the story, he makes it sound like it was a spasm or something. To this day, he sounds surprised, and even a little horrified, to think about what he did. But in the doing of it, he gained something important. No, he didn't get superpowers - not exactly, anyway. He got perspective.

 

Buck Hatcher realized that - even if he died - he was doing something, in that moment, that made a difference. As he and the Black Gondolier crashed to the floor in a tangled mess of wide brimmed hats and baggy pants and deposit slips, Buck saw the other people in the bank. The ten year old girl with the balloon. The college kid and his girlfriend. The old guy with the paint-spattered overalls. The annoying yuppie with the cell phone. He saw them and he realized that maybe, just maybe, he had just saved their lives. And in that moment, he felt something he'd never felt before. He looked at each one of them and wondered what that person would do when he or she went home, or back to school, or grew up. Who might that person save? How many lives had he affected in just a moment of thoughtless daring?

 

Buck Ha... no, let's call him by his name, now. The Lifeguard doesn't have any powers. He doesn't have any special, super crimefighting skills, although he has been reading every book (good and bad) on crime-detection and supervillains that he's been able to get his hands on. And while he's been training in martial arts real hard, fighting Dr. Destroyer is gonna take more than a Brown Belt from Dan Shukeda's Greater Los Angeles Martial Arts and Cardio Center. He may have something going on with the second hand gadgets he's been able to beg, borrow, and buy from indulgent and amused "real" heroes, but only time will tell.

 

What we do know right now, though, is that Buck Hatcher, the Lifeguard, has a mission in life. That mission is simply to do some good. Maybe save a life. Maybe help someone change a flat. He's not picky. Tooling around Orange County on his motorcycle, wearing his surplus bulletproof vest and listenting intently to his police-band scanner, he's basically just looking for ways to pitch in and help. Maybe you heard about how he almost got himself killed when he tried to intervene in a brewing gang fight. He was the butt of a lot of jokes for that one, yeah. But did you do anything? Did anyone else? And while you were laughing about that, did you know that in the same week, he: helped a little girl who had gotten off at the wrong bus stop, three miles from home, get where she was supposed to be going; walked fifteen waitresses and bartenders to their cars through largely unlit parking lots and actually physically confronted and drove off one would-be mugger; turned in five wallets, three purses, and eighteen cell phones to local police precincts, where most have been since reclaimed to the relief of their owners; and, yes, saved one man from drowning at Redondo Beach.

 

Buck Hatcher, the Lifeguard. Anyone who says he's "not a hero"... doesn't know the meaning of the word.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

To the above Character......WOW!!!! I liked ..... so I repped.

[wylodmayer]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Does dbsousa know he's also supposed to pick a winner, since he picked the hero?

[Sundog]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Apparently not.

 

I vote you make the next choice, wylodmayer. I think you had the best "Lifeguard" anyway.

[David Johnston]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Yeah. Go ahead.

[Spidey88]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

wylodmayer:

 

That was some seriously great writing there. I owe you rep.

[wylodmayer]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Well, thank y'all very much. For the next reimagining, I'm gonna pick a character who needs to be, well, anything other than what he is already. His name is vague enough that you can go in just about any direction. I choose...

 

... Marvel's Forge.

[Whitewings]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Josiah Bender was a blacksmith, and a good one. Not an artistic sort, not really, but very good at his work. It had been a slow week... slow couple of weeks, actually, and he'd taken the chance to get ahead on the demand for nails and shoes, and for hinges and other common bits of ironmongery; he'd been doing OK until the rains came. Heavy rains, delaying his usual shipment of coal. Nothing to do for it, really, but wait around until the delivery guys could get through. Then the wagon came. A real fancy-talkin' guy needed his horse shod; he had a sick wife, had to get to Kansas City as quick as he could.

 

Now Josiah didn't have much book learning, and he didn't talk fancy, but he spoke the truth. Without heat, he couldn't rightly work iron, now could he? The stranger agreed, but asked him to try anyway, and showed him his wife, the poor thing. Pale as milk, didn't look fit to last the night. Josiah sighed heavy, and said he'd do what he could, and went back in. The fancy-talker brought the horse in, and Josiah made the measurements, and went to work. He knew it was pointless, but... he really did want to help, and maybe, Lord willing, he could bend the metal by sheer strength. So he clamped it in a vice, and put a bar against one end, and hit that bar with the biggest sledge he could use in one hand. And the metal bent. Not just a teeny bit, it bent a whole lot - near an eighth of an inch. He hit again, and checked it against the horse's hoof. Perfect! So he hammered the new shoe on, and went to his little house. The fancy-talker moved on with his wife the next morning, but Josiah still didn't have any coal.

 

So he went to the smithy and thought. He was a strong man, sure, but there was just no way one hit could have opened that shoe up like that. Something mighty strange had happened. Mighty strange. So he picked up a piece of rod stock, and clamped it, and pulled with all his might on one end. And it bent! That just plain could not have happened, but it had. He knew his trade, he knew his strength, and that bar hadn't been any easier to move than usual. So, with nothing else to do right then, he figured to try a little fancy-work on a bit of scrap iron. He put a little end-of into a vice, and took up a chisel and hammer and started to tap on it, and pretty soon he had a nice little picture of a shepherd girl and a couple of sheep, like it was straight out of a picture book. He looked at his tools, and the pretty little picture, and knew he couldn't possibly have done that with those. So he picked up the bent rod, and started molding it with just his hands, until he had a statue of a girl, without no clothes. It made him blush, seeing what he'd made, but it was a right pretty statue, like he'd heard was in them fancy museums. By then, it was time to make himself some dinner, and when he meant to bed that night, he added a little special thanks to it.

 

Pretty soon, the whole town knew about what he could do. He joked once he was like a living forge, and the name stuck. So now he's called Force, and that pretty little gal Martha's starting to take an interest in his fancy-work, and maybe in him. Word's spreading, too; that fancy-talker's back. With his wife, too.

[Clonus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Post-Scarcity! That was the shining vision of Simon Hendriks when he created the Forge, an automated manufacturing facility that could make anything from toasters to sophisticated robot servants for the asking. Naturally it ran amuck, seeking out its own raw materials and manufacturing a host of robotic foragers to get them, then soldiers to protect itself. It rebuilt itself into a gigantic tracked vehicle equiped with ground to air weaponry for protection. Naturally the military blew it to smithereens anyway, but some of the foragers survived and secretly they are reconstructing Forge, as a burrowing machine this time.

[nexus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Unlike his namesake, Jonathan Henry wasn’t a physically powerful man or tireless but what he did have that determination. Drive enough to work his way up from a poor upbringing, get through school and get a degree eventually to become manager of a steel plant, working his way from the floor. He might not have been a “Steel Drivin’ Man” worthy of legend and tall tales but he was determined and driven one with a good heart and mind.

 

When his plant was caught up in the middle of battle between the Champions and a group of Luddite super villains with a grudge against technology several John stayed his post, shutting down what he could to prevent a whole sale disaster. His parents taught him right from wrong and that a man lived up his responsibilities. But John went beyond even the call of duty by venturing back into the plant to help rescue trapped workers. He was in his third trip when the facility gave way and John was caught in a flood of molten steel and debris.

 

Later he was described as being like baptized in the sun by God himself. And John emerged born in again in flesh instead of spirit. He was a metal titan, cloaked in cooling steel. He found he could control heat and metal with merest thought and was blessed with near invulnerability. John Henry was a steel man in the literal sense. His appearance changed the odds and convinced the would-be eco terrorists to flee, fortunately before John’s novice powers were put to the test to much. John greeted the Champions and, after explaining his predicament, asked for some training with his new powers. From his perspective, he’d been not only been spared but blessed and it was only right he use these powers to help people as the Lord intended.

 

Defender and the others agreed to assist and over the next few weeks John learned greater control of his powers including, thankfully, the ability to return to a more normal form. When asked to if he was going to take on a heroic title (after being jokingly informed Ironclad was taken), he didn’t have to think long before he settled on what seemed natural given his powers, background and profession: Forge.

[Clonus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

I wonder whether Wylodmeyer is even on the forum any more

[nexus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

He last logged on Oct 29th.

[Clonus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Then let's just give the nod to Whitewings for resurrecting the thread and let him pick the next name.

[Whitewings]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Thank you. I choose Dawnstar

[Clonus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

George Mitsotakis thought he was the luckiest man in the world when he met the beautiful girl with the multiply shaded red hair. It was a whirlwind romance, a marriage within weeks, and she was soon pregnant with a daughter named Elena. For seven years everything was as perfect as he could reasonably ask until he did one thing she'd asked him never to do, peek into her room in the morning. Dumbstruck at the unearthly glow that surrounded her, he could only stare and listen as she explained that she was Eos, goddess of the dawn, and her freedom to remain on Earth had been dependant on not revealing her nature to any mortal. Then she disappeared, leaving George to raise their daughter alone.

 

As she grew it became obvious that she'd inherited some of her mother's powers. She could fly, emit burning or blinding light, and she was stronger than you'd expect from such a slight girl. Eventually in the midst of a demonic invasion she took to the field as "Dawnstar".

[Whitewings]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

*bump*

[nexus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

I have an idea but I'm a bit bogged down.

[Whitewings]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

*bump*

[nexus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Vampires, the undead, they have existed alongside humanity for countless centuries perhaps since the beginning, preying on us, hunting us. Like many predators and all parasites their survival depends on being undetected, on blending in and drawing no attention to themselves until it is time to strike. As such they prey under the under class and poor, those who’s misfortune would cause little stir and less concern.

 

So when a series of disappearances and murders struck in a Nevada Indian reservation very little concern was raised. They victims were either young and thought to have or known trouble makers, drunks or other among the low tier. Reservation culture was insular and anyone that suggested there was more going on, something supernatural was dismissed as a quack.

 

One young woman, Danielle Lights the Day listened. A bright intelligent, introspective girl, the daughter of a line of traditional medicine men and wise women, she cherished the old ways of her people, leaning them at her grandfather’s knee. The nature of the killing, the condition of the victims and her instincts told her smoothing was deeply wrong. There was a thing among her people, culling them like a wolf among sheep. Of course this quickly got her filed in the crank category. The only one she could find to believe her story was a burned out ex police man named Charlie Turner and that was mostly because of listening to her let him spend more time around the attractive Danielle.

 

Danielle discovered she was wrong about their being something supernatural preying on friends and family. There was a nest of them, some of them the supposedly missing victims now converted in ghoulish thralls of the vampiric creatures. Danielle and Charlie barely managed to escape with their lives and destroy a few of the things, thanks in large part to Danielle fledgling mystical abilities. Of course their story was dismissed out of hand by the authorities, too quickly in fact and the physical evidence they’d gathered just seemed to…vanish as did the remaining beasts. Someone was protecting them, perhaps they had more pull and connections in the human world than anyone knew.

 

Danielle was smart enough official channels were probably worthless. Now she and Charlie were targets. They knew too much and had to go underground themselves much like the creatures hunting them. Knowing there had to be more people like them; that had seen these things lurking in the shadows, preying on and manipulating society, Danielle quietly began to build a network of survivors and hunters willing to strike back. They would bring light into shadows and drives the monsters into the cleansing light of day. It was too dangerous to operate openly and the group would need a name of course. Taking a cue from her own name and their purpose, Danielle thought the choice was obvious

 

Dawn Star

[Whitewings]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

My apologies, this thread slipped my mind. But the winner, for both an interesting use of the name and for a quite creative group origin, is Nexus.

[tadk]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Is this going to continue or not?

[nexus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Give me a bit to pick a name. It was what, a week before the choice was even made.

[nexus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Blast from the Past

 

The Green Hornet

[Clonus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Blast from the Past

 

The Green Hornet

 

Somewhere, on a parallel plane containing creatures who combine human and insect characteristics there is a colony of "hornet-women". Like almost all other members of her kind, Kzzm is a feminine humanoid, with functional insect wings, antennae, and compound eyes and skin marked in yellow and black. She lives in a world of constant peril, with gigantic avian monsters that eat her kind, spiders which weave traps hundreds of yards wide and soldiers from other wasp colonies and tyrannical beehives who often make war upon her own colony. But worst of all are the ground-bound but physically powerful ant-women who hate and envy fliers.

 

Kzzm had the misfortune of being "rescued" from a spider-web by an ant-patrol who took her captive and turned her over to their hill's queen, who was a dedicated scientist trying to create a new breed of ant soldiers with the power of flight using a mixture of recombinant DNA. There was an accident and Kzzm couldn't quite remember what happened next, but afterward she found herself free.

 

Counting herself lucky she returned to her colony and went back to work. But when the time came that colony was attacked and the distress pheromone filled the air, Kzzm...changed. The yellow parts of her skin turned green, she grew in size, and in combat with the attackers she demonstrated strength exceeding that of even the strongest ant-woman. Once the battle was over, she returned to normal. She didn't dare reveal that she was the hero who had saved the day. If she did, she might be honoured, or she might be cast out of the colony as a threat, or she might even be experimented on. She might not even be believed since she would only change when she smelled distress. And so she became the unknown defender of the colony known as the Green Hornet.

[nexus]

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines)

 

Are we sticking to the 72 hour time limit barring requests?