Talyesin's Tales

Everyone knew what had happened with the New Super Teens.

Starlight and Starbright had been partners, dating, lovers, whatever kids called it back then, even before they joined the New Super Teens. They had been happy together. Then Stellar Girl had joined. She was beautiful and sexy and a couple years older and she had a definite thing for Starlight. Being a teenage boy, he let his dick do his thinking and started cheating on Starbright with Stellar Girl.

Anyhow, one day the team is going up against W.O.L.F.E.N., and they’re breaking into the paramilitary group’s secret bunker. The team splits up to try and save some time - I don’t remember the details - and Stellar Girl and Starbright wind up heading off in the same direction. Secret bunker being what secret bunkers are, there’s traps and pitfalls and stuff all over the place, and Stellar Girl gets herself trapped in a glass box that starts filling with gas.

Turns out Starbright knew all along that Stellar Girl was making time with her boyfriend. Instead of getting mad at Starlight, she snapped and watched Stellar Girl die a slow painful death.

At the trial she pleaded “Emotional Duress” - a court shrink decided she needed therapy, and she was sentenced to the Kane Sanitarium. I hear Starlight got out of the business.

All this was about fifteen years ago. Kimmy was about fifteen or sixteen. Knowing one of your friends let another friend die over a lovers’ spat... well, that sort of thing is going to leave a mark.

I put my arm around her, rubbing her far shoulder. She’s not big on public displays of affection, but she lets me.

“Kimmy,” Rick starts, but she interrupts.

“I know what you’re going to say. It was a long time ago. We’re older, more mature. We work well together. We can do great things if we team up.” She looks at him, a hard look, then gives me the same look.

“You’re right.”

I look at Rick. He has the sense to stay quiet.

“If we do this,” she starts, and I’ve got to admit, I’m surprised she’s turned around this fast, “then we have to do it like this: We join together as a loose-knit group. No regular meetings, no mandatory attendance. I want to be able to follow my own cases, get my own collars.”

“Uhh,” Rick says.

“Kimmy, are you sure about this?” I translate for him. She raises an eyebrow at me.

“Give me a break,” she says, smirking. “You two have been talking about this for, what? Going on two years now? Ever since you suggested it after we beat Doc Affe’s Simianstaffel?”


“Well,” I smile back, “I wasn’t exactly in my right mind at the time.”

She smiles back. It’s sort of true - my mind had only been in this body for a few days at that point, and I was still convinced it was all a coma-dream.

“Anyhow, since you guys haven’t shut up about the idea for all this time, I’ve managed to find it in me to figure out a way to make this work.” She looks at me and smiles. “Yeah, I love you that much.”

I just lean over and kiss her hard. She kisses back. Rick’s smiling this huge grin.

“Awesome!” he says, excited. “Now, we need to-“

“Wait a minute,” Kimmy says, lifting one finger. “The first thing we have to do is decide, right now, whether we want to stay street-level and bust some heads, making a day to day difference in people’s lives, or if we want to play in the big leagues, tackle the big problems, look after the big picture. We three can handle the street stuff - but if we go for the big leagues, we’re going to need to recruit. We’ve got to decide if we want to go up against assholes who want to rape college girls, or assholes who want to rape the planet.”

I look at Rick. He’s nodding, thinking.

“Who’d you have in mind?” he asks.

“So you’re thinking, big leagues.”

“If we go big leagues, we’re going to need serious muscle. Tanks, brawlers, flyers, speedsters. Metas.”

“That’s as may be,” she says, waving the waitress over. We order more drinks and our meals. When she’s gone, Kimmy says, “But I’m serious about the loose-knit thing. No role call. No mandatory meetings. Just a pooling of our resources, and the chance for backup if we decide we need it.”

Rick and I nod.

“Seems to me there might be quite a demand for that kind of group,” I say. “Lots of small-to-medium-timers might be looking for a way to team up without the full commitment most teams require.”

She nods, smiling. “I thought about that, too.”

She’s a marketing analyst. Of course she’s thought about this.

“Gonna need a name,” Rick says.

“I’ll do some research tonight,” she says. “We should all think about who we want to recruit. Come up with a list of folks we know, people we’ve worked with, that sort of thing. People we can trust.”

“And if we want everything a team’s entitled to, we’re going to have to register,” I say. “It’s the only way we can get medical insurance, sponsorships. Which reminds me, I’ll set up the trust fund for our financials.”

Rick looks at me.

“You can do that?” he asks.

“I’m an accountant.”

Rick starts laughing.

“Sorry man,” he laughs, “but I never imagined you were an accountant.”

“We don’t all wear glasses and carry calculators,” I say drily. “What do you do?”

“Electrical engineering,” he answers, which makes sense - someone had to design those cards of his. But doesn’t explain his uncanny aim.

“Hmph,” I say.

“Darts scholarship,” he adds.

“Ah,” I answer.

The waitress comes with our orders. We dig in.

“My powers developed gradually as I grew up,” Kimmy tells him, digging into her grilled chicken caesar salad. Rick nods, mouth full of burger.

“And I got mine from some weird alien radiation,” I say, cutting my steak. “Big battle over Ditko Park. Survivor stopped the invasion but when the ship crashed, well... I was studying in the park, wearing my headphones, feeding this squirrel. Radiation from the ship’s power source washed over me and the little guy. Few days later I developed my abilities.”

“Cool,” Rick says.

“So... Registration.” Kimmy sips her wine spritzer to wash down her salad. “I’m already registered. Rick?”

He shakes his head.

“No powers.”

“Right... that leaves you, hon.”

I nod, suddenly nervous.

“I’ll look into it tonight,” I answer. “After we track down the Pixie Dust.”

“Right,” Rick says. “Which reminds me... if we’re going up against the UnSeelie, we could definitely use some occult backup on this. I know my way around some mystical mumbo jumbo, but the UnSeelie aren’t lightweights, you know what I mean?”

“Who’d you have in mind?”

“There’s a little lady I know, down in Weirdsville,” he smiles. “Goes by the name of Darklight.”

“Anna Kimble,” Kimmy nods. “I know her.”

I know her too, for that matter. She’s good people. I nod.

“Okay, after lunch we’ll-“

I stop, suddenly tense.

“GET DOWN!” I yell.