UnHolyPimpHand
Not LitShark
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2010
- Posts
- 539
Like most things that become more meaningful with age, Joey Cadence’s fascination with superheroes began when he was very young. The victim of schoolyard bullying, Joey got into his first comic book at age 8—he got into his first fist fight at age 9. The tales of valiant underdogs who stood up for what was right, even if it meant sacrificing everything inspired him to stand up for himself and after he fractured his bully’s skull on the edge of a concrete step, nobody bullied Joey again.
Just like the heroes he admired, Joey had to suffer consequences for his actions—with great power comes great responsibility, as Old Ben Parker used to say. As punishment for fighting, Joey’s single mother burned all of his comic books and forbid him from ever owning any such “filth” ever again.
Joey was forced to take his reading hobby underground, and that was how he first met Stormy.
He was loitering outside of his favorite comic shop, imagining the tales of vigilante justice and moral absolutism when he was approached by a beautiful girl, about his age who wanted to know if he saw anything he liked with a giggle in her voice. Stormy was a casual fan looking to expand her reading list and Joey needed an accomplice to feed his addiction. After that, the two were inseparable, a perfect partnership. He knew the complex geography of interwoven narratives that composed multiple comic universes and she could hide and store his ever-expanding collection of books and graphic novels.
It was almost too easy. Stormy seemed willing to do whatever Joey asked of her and his mother was so overjoyed at him spending time with a girl she gave him carte blanche to spend as much time as he wanted with Stormy. They grew up together, sharing in those worlds that always felt more real than what everyone else called “real life.”
It came as something of a shock to Joey when Stormy seemed interested in more than just friendship with him—he’d been too focused on his training in Brazilian Jui Juitsu, Muay Tai and Kung Fu. While Joey was obsessed with making his body into a weapon, Stormy fell in love with the heart that he held behind those new muscles.
They each gave their virginities to one another on prom night—it was the all-American love story cliché. In spite of how perfect they seemed, Joey never quite loved Stormy as much as she loved him. For him the stories were always at the forefront of his heart and mind. He’d break into tears at a story on the news, he’d take a beating from six college students who he saw bullying a foreign exchange student—Joey always wanted to lay his thumb on the scale of justice.
Joey tried college for a while but was promptly expelled after he fractured the jaw of a frat brother who was trying to leave a local bar with an unconscious girl. Stormy, on the other hand, flourished in college, earning multiple degrees in criminal justice and forensic sciences.
Aside from a rather extensive criminal background, Joey’s mistrust of conventional law enforcement limited his career opportunities after being kicked out of school and disowned by his mother. Working as a bouncer and an underground fighter, Joey was able to support himself and Stormy—even funding her post-graduate education. He proposed in May when she walked the stage for her Masters’ degree.
Things ought to have gone smoothly after that, but Joey wasn’t content being Stormy’s kept man, wasting his life away while she served the impotent social order. He still wanted to make his mark, to fight for justice and to do the things that the police couldn’t or wouldn’t do themselves.
Despite his training, Joey still wasn’t a hero then, but he was nonetheless compelled to go on, enforcing his own brand of vigilante justice any time he was able. He was neglecting his fiancée. One night, he tried to break up a drug deal, but there were more thugs than he’d realized and when one managed to stab him, he lost the advantage. Those thugs beat him within an inch of his life and he was confined to a hospital bed for the next three months.
While he was in the hospital, someone brought him a special issue of Newsweek which featured an interview and profile of Phoenix Jones, a so-called “real life superhero” who was doing exactly what Joey had only dreamed of—fighting crime as a costumed crusader. After that, Joey couldn’t get his hands on reading material fast enough, comic books were replaced by newspapers and magazines from across the country. Mr. Xtreme, Purple Reign, Superbarrio from Mexico City—they were actually making a difference and Joey found renewed purpose.
By the time he was ready for physical rehab, Joey threw himself into his workouts with single-minded focus, like he did everything else. He blew even the most optimistic estimates for his recovery out of the water and was back to his MMA training immediately after his release from the hospital.
After that, the suit became his obsession. Studying the work of his new idols, modifying their designs, planning for hypotheticals confrontations, spending through their savings faster than Stormy could earn…
Eventually Joey had to take out a second mortgage on the house to further his passion project, even expanding the scope to include a second suit for Stormy at her request. Two years and a quarter of a million dollars after Joey was released from the hospital, it was done—his suit was finished.
The innermost layer was made of layered Kevlar panels, designed to allow for a full range of movement without leaving any part of his body unprotected. Over the Kevlar Joey had arranged hardened Carbon Fiber plates designed to absorb and diffuse any and all impact while also being impenetrable to knives or edge weapons. The plates were made to look like huge, comic book muscles.
Perhaps the most useful components in Joey’s suit were the cape and cowl. A Carbon weave throughout the cape’s entire length gave the garment the ability to buckle knives as well as serving as a crude shelter from gas or open flame. Diamond shaped panels of Kevlar extended down to the bottom edge, giving Joey another chance to slow down gunfire before it reached his body—it also gave the cape a sweet pleated look when hanging static that Joey really liked. The cowl was lined on the inside with football helmet padding underneath a Carbon fiber outer shell, which according to his tests could withstand a sledge hammer blow without even throwing off his balance. The visor included state-of-the-art night vision goggles and the chin strap had an embedded walkie-talkie feature as well as the ability to call 911 if he ever needed extra support.
In all, there were over a hundred customizations and practical applications for the suit, but what mattered most to Joey was that it made him feel invincible. All he needed now was a name, something to strike fear in the hearts of evil-doers, a name that the immoral would only dare speak in a whisper…
He was Phantom Shadow!
The black on black suit was a perfect compliment to his new persona… Stormy’s suit was more of a sidekick outfit—form fitting and more than a little sexually suggestive, purple and white, but she’d told him she wanted it that way. At last, Joey could begin his new life—his true life, as a “Real Life Superhero.”
*-*-*
Night 01 (11/02/18) 23:17
Patrol Sector: Glenn Park
Heroes on watch: Phantom Shadow & Lightning Bolt
In Newton City it’s commonly known that you don’t go into Glenn Park at night. The lighting is terrible and it’s a known spot for drug dealers to operate from. There had been a recent spree of muggings and even a rape in the park over the past month and a half—but all that was about to change. With his cowl over his head, Joey could see as clearly as if it were the middle of the afternoon in the green-washed screens of his visor—the shadows were his ally.
Joey’s heart was hammering against the inside of his chest-plate, he’d never felt so alive as he did right now. He reached back, giving Stormy’s hand a reassuring squeeze, he felt so close to her right now. They hadn’t done anything other than sneak their way to the park, but already Joey thought that patrolling was better than sex.
“Over there,” Joey whispered into his headset, letting the technology convey the message to Stormy while he pointed toward a tunnel where e could hear voices and spotted the glow of a cigarette.
As they drew nearer, hugging the shadows, Joey could clearly see four young men, dressed in urban clothing and using swear words. Even though there was nothing illegal about what they were doing, Joey’s instinct told him that these men were up to no good. He waited and watched…
Within fifteen minutes, right around midnight, a customer arrived and what was clearly a drug deal took place. Joey triggered his helmet camera and recorded the whole thing. Once he had enough to convict both parties he gave Stormy a hand signal and charged into the tunnel. When he sprinted into view, Joey triggered another ability of his cowl, activating super-high intensity flood lights just above where his eyes were—the tunnel was instantly flooded with light and all five of the suspects were temporarily blinded.
”You have all been witnessed committing a crime! Drop whatever is in your hands and show me empty palms!”
“What the fuck? Ow, shit—my eyes! Is this motherfucker serious?” one of the suspects complained.
“Fuck this light-bright motherfucker! Let’s kick his ass!”
The suspects were essentially fighting blind, the intense lights on the Phantom’s cowl making it painful to look at his face. The first guy was knocked unconscious by an elbow strike, the carbon fiber elbow cap knocking one of his molars free of his head. The second assailant was just as quickly dealt with as a front kick into the center of his chest knocked him on his ass and knocked the wind out of him.
At that point, the buyer fled and Joey gave chase, leaving Stormy to deal with the other two.
Joey was able to chase down the buyer and tackle him about forty yards from the tunnel. A quick application of a strong, plastic zip-tie served to cuff the suspect’s wrists. He dragged the buyer back to the tunnel by his collar to see if Stormy was doing as well as he had.
"Are you alright, Lightning Bolt?"
Just like the heroes he admired, Joey had to suffer consequences for his actions—with great power comes great responsibility, as Old Ben Parker used to say. As punishment for fighting, Joey’s single mother burned all of his comic books and forbid him from ever owning any such “filth” ever again.
Joey was forced to take his reading hobby underground, and that was how he first met Stormy.
He was loitering outside of his favorite comic shop, imagining the tales of vigilante justice and moral absolutism when he was approached by a beautiful girl, about his age who wanted to know if he saw anything he liked with a giggle in her voice. Stormy was a casual fan looking to expand her reading list and Joey needed an accomplice to feed his addiction. After that, the two were inseparable, a perfect partnership. He knew the complex geography of interwoven narratives that composed multiple comic universes and she could hide and store his ever-expanding collection of books and graphic novels.
It was almost too easy. Stormy seemed willing to do whatever Joey asked of her and his mother was so overjoyed at him spending time with a girl she gave him carte blanche to spend as much time as he wanted with Stormy. They grew up together, sharing in those worlds that always felt more real than what everyone else called “real life.”
It came as something of a shock to Joey when Stormy seemed interested in more than just friendship with him—he’d been too focused on his training in Brazilian Jui Juitsu, Muay Tai and Kung Fu. While Joey was obsessed with making his body into a weapon, Stormy fell in love with the heart that he held behind those new muscles.
They each gave their virginities to one another on prom night—it was the all-American love story cliché. In spite of how perfect they seemed, Joey never quite loved Stormy as much as she loved him. For him the stories were always at the forefront of his heart and mind. He’d break into tears at a story on the news, he’d take a beating from six college students who he saw bullying a foreign exchange student—Joey always wanted to lay his thumb on the scale of justice.
Joey tried college for a while but was promptly expelled after he fractured the jaw of a frat brother who was trying to leave a local bar with an unconscious girl. Stormy, on the other hand, flourished in college, earning multiple degrees in criminal justice and forensic sciences.
Aside from a rather extensive criminal background, Joey’s mistrust of conventional law enforcement limited his career opportunities after being kicked out of school and disowned by his mother. Working as a bouncer and an underground fighter, Joey was able to support himself and Stormy—even funding her post-graduate education. He proposed in May when she walked the stage for her Masters’ degree.
Things ought to have gone smoothly after that, but Joey wasn’t content being Stormy’s kept man, wasting his life away while she served the impotent social order. He still wanted to make his mark, to fight for justice and to do the things that the police couldn’t or wouldn’t do themselves.
Despite his training, Joey still wasn’t a hero then, but he was nonetheless compelled to go on, enforcing his own brand of vigilante justice any time he was able. He was neglecting his fiancée. One night, he tried to break up a drug deal, but there were more thugs than he’d realized and when one managed to stab him, he lost the advantage. Those thugs beat him within an inch of his life and he was confined to a hospital bed for the next three months.
While he was in the hospital, someone brought him a special issue of Newsweek which featured an interview and profile of Phoenix Jones, a so-called “real life superhero” who was doing exactly what Joey had only dreamed of—fighting crime as a costumed crusader. After that, Joey couldn’t get his hands on reading material fast enough, comic books were replaced by newspapers and magazines from across the country. Mr. Xtreme, Purple Reign, Superbarrio from Mexico City—they were actually making a difference and Joey found renewed purpose.
By the time he was ready for physical rehab, Joey threw himself into his workouts with single-minded focus, like he did everything else. He blew even the most optimistic estimates for his recovery out of the water and was back to his MMA training immediately after his release from the hospital.
After that, the suit became his obsession. Studying the work of his new idols, modifying their designs, planning for hypotheticals confrontations, spending through their savings faster than Stormy could earn…
Eventually Joey had to take out a second mortgage on the house to further his passion project, even expanding the scope to include a second suit for Stormy at her request. Two years and a quarter of a million dollars after Joey was released from the hospital, it was done—his suit was finished.
The innermost layer was made of layered Kevlar panels, designed to allow for a full range of movement without leaving any part of his body unprotected. Over the Kevlar Joey had arranged hardened Carbon Fiber plates designed to absorb and diffuse any and all impact while also being impenetrable to knives or edge weapons. The plates were made to look like huge, comic book muscles.
Perhaps the most useful components in Joey’s suit were the cape and cowl. A Carbon weave throughout the cape’s entire length gave the garment the ability to buckle knives as well as serving as a crude shelter from gas or open flame. Diamond shaped panels of Kevlar extended down to the bottom edge, giving Joey another chance to slow down gunfire before it reached his body—it also gave the cape a sweet pleated look when hanging static that Joey really liked. The cowl was lined on the inside with football helmet padding underneath a Carbon fiber outer shell, which according to his tests could withstand a sledge hammer blow without even throwing off his balance. The visor included state-of-the-art night vision goggles and the chin strap had an embedded walkie-talkie feature as well as the ability to call 911 if he ever needed extra support.
In all, there were over a hundred customizations and practical applications for the suit, but what mattered most to Joey was that it made him feel invincible. All he needed now was a name, something to strike fear in the hearts of evil-doers, a name that the immoral would only dare speak in a whisper…
He was Phantom Shadow!
The black on black suit was a perfect compliment to his new persona… Stormy’s suit was more of a sidekick outfit—form fitting and more than a little sexually suggestive, purple and white, but she’d told him she wanted it that way. At last, Joey could begin his new life—his true life, as a “Real Life Superhero.”
*-*-*
Night 01 (11/02/18) 23:17
Patrol Sector: Glenn Park
Heroes on watch: Phantom Shadow & Lightning Bolt
In Newton City it’s commonly known that you don’t go into Glenn Park at night. The lighting is terrible and it’s a known spot for drug dealers to operate from. There had been a recent spree of muggings and even a rape in the park over the past month and a half—but all that was about to change. With his cowl over his head, Joey could see as clearly as if it were the middle of the afternoon in the green-washed screens of his visor—the shadows were his ally.
Joey’s heart was hammering against the inside of his chest-plate, he’d never felt so alive as he did right now. He reached back, giving Stormy’s hand a reassuring squeeze, he felt so close to her right now. They hadn’t done anything other than sneak their way to the park, but already Joey thought that patrolling was better than sex.
“Over there,” Joey whispered into his headset, letting the technology convey the message to Stormy while he pointed toward a tunnel where e could hear voices and spotted the glow of a cigarette.
As they drew nearer, hugging the shadows, Joey could clearly see four young men, dressed in urban clothing and using swear words. Even though there was nothing illegal about what they were doing, Joey’s instinct told him that these men were up to no good. He waited and watched…
Within fifteen minutes, right around midnight, a customer arrived and what was clearly a drug deal took place. Joey triggered his helmet camera and recorded the whole thing. Once he had enough to convict both parties he gave Stormy a hand signal and charged into the tunnel. When he sprinted into view, Joey triggered another ability of his cowl, activating super-high intensity flood lights just above where his eyes were—the tunnel was instantly flooded with light and all five of the suspects were temporarily blinded.
”You have all been witnessed committing a crime! Drop whatever is in your hands and show me empty palms!”
“What the fuck? Ow, shit—my eyes! Is this motherfucker serious?” one of the suspects complained.
“Fuck this light-bright motherfucker! Let’s kick his ass!”
The suspects were essentially fighting blind, the intense lights on the Phantom’s cowl making it painful to look at his face. The first guy was knocked unconscious by an elbow strike, the carbon fiber elbow cap knocking one of his molars free of his head. The second assailant was just as quickly dealt with as a front kick into the center of his chest knocked him on his ass and knocked the wind out of him.
At that point, the buyer fled and Joey gave chase, leaving Stormy to deal with the other two.
Joey was able to chase down the buyer and tackle him about forty yards from the tunnel. A quick application of a strong, plastic zip-tie served to cuff the suspect’s wrists. He dragged the buyer back to the tunnel by his collar to see if Stormy was doing as well as he had.
"Are you alright, Lightning Bolt?"