Archive for November 24th, 2011
#23 Lord Blackheart The Ruthless
Lord Blackheart The Ruthless is the most feared king on the Animal Planet and the archnemesis of Turducken. He longs to build the world in his image. But don’t all ruthless dictators want that?!?
# 20-22 TURDUCKEN!!
This Poultry Pounding trio fight to the defend the citizens of their tiny village from the clutches of a ruthless Lion King, who like most villains, wants to take over the world.
Day 24: Shia
Character #24, Shia. This is another 2 part character, you’ll have to see the other OC too to understand her.
Shia was once a normal girl. Then she hit that point in life where she got distressed over emotional issues and couldn’t take it. One day, she discovered the Black Pin, which told her it would take all her problems away. Upon donning this badge, all the color has been drained from her, transforming her into the entity of black. After rampaging around, the Elders of Gray sought her out and banished her to the Wayside World.
She controls black light and bends it in the form of arrows.
Upon accepting the burden of the entity of black, she has been locked into the wayside world, a world of pure black and white. She exists in the White Way, while the entity of white exists in the Black Way.
#24 Cassandra Solhammer
Cassandra is one of the chief defenders of the Empire of Steel, the second “faction” of humanity to reach the stars.  Wielding the Solhammer, a mystical weapon discovered in an ancient underground temple on Mars.  Made of unknown materials, it makes it’s wielder almost superhuman.
#23 Orchid Princess
A space-time travelling delivery agent, pilot of the vessel Iris. This specialized and rare vehicle is capable of controlled travel to any point in space, though this also shunts is to a random point in time. Reaching the correct time period is achieved using secondary systems. The ship’s drive uses a process only known to the inhabitants of the great capsule-city of Terra. There have been several attempts by outside forces to invade the city, but they have always been blocked retroactively by the time-travellers.
The pilot of the Iris is the orchid-princess of the capsule-city. What this means exactly is known only to her. She collects life-forms from the various worlds she visits, storing them in stasis for study and memento.
#19 Danor
Danor did not think that he would ever shake that mild unease, that tingle of awareness that he always felt walking in the wood. It was not enough to make him leave or find shelter somewhere else, but it was always there, keeping him on his toes. In fact, he found he rather liked this little nudge that daily sharpened his awareness. It made sense, as not much since he left the war ever had.
He had spent so much time on the front lines and often well into enemy territory that all sense of what it was to be loose, relaxed and off his guard had been burnt out of him. Only one of the may things the war had burnt out of him, the last of which was the will to keep fighting. Unfortunately, well-armed skittish man was not exactly welcome in peaceful lands. His commander had tried to warn him, had ridiculed his wish to leave, asked him where he thought he would belong. Danor had responded that perhaps assassins made good butchers, but his commander had responded that behind a flag to hide behind, civilized society would never see him as more than a thief and murderer.
He had been right, but still and all, Danor was glad he had left the service. He could no longer fight. This was no crisis of conscience or higher moral choice. He simply could no longer fight. But his instincts could not leave him. So, in the end, he found himself much at home within the confines of a wilderness which, although it sustained him well enough, never exactly made him feel welcome.
He was glad of those instincts on the day the wolves came for him. Those instincts kept him calm as he spotted first one, then another, and so on until he realized he was surrounded. Those instincts kept him from leaping into a mad and hopeless struggle with the beasts who could overpower and kill him handily. Those instincts were the only thing which led him to understand that they were intent on herding him and not simply making a quick meal out of him.
Halfway disbelieving, the grayed and broken man of war let himself be led, let himself believe this daydream or folly, ran with them when their pace seemed to insist it. Followed the wolves all the way to the girl. The lovely flower of a creature lay in a pool of her own blood, skewered mercilessly by the fresh green shards of a blown out tree.
He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her. It wasn’t the massive black wolf that sat at her hand that had frozen him, nor was it the keen awareness in her eyes as she looked right past him and to the pack. It wasn’t even the nature of her wounds. He’d seen worse. He’d treated worse, having no recourse for medics days away from any territory which could be considered remotely friendly. It was just that he had never seen this sort of wound on such a delicate thing. She seemed little more than a child, really. And even from the short distance that he had kept, he could tell they were serious.
He was in no way certain he could bring himself to move. In his weakest of moments, had he been forced to admit it to anyone, this was exactly the sort of thing which had finally shoved him out of uniform. There was just so damn much blood, blood which meant pain, blood which was unfair. Blood which may well mean loss. Yet again, another loss. He had doubts that he could do it, but he stepped forward anyway, ignoring the wolf and placing a gentle hand upon the young thing’s forehead.
#18 Calli
She could call the whole wood down if she so wished, she could bring out any threat known to thief or hunter, and eliminate any foe she faced before they even knew she existed. Foolish to think that it made her invulnerable. Because she couldn’t ward herself against rain slicked ground, a broken tree, and a careless blind dash. And she should have been well aware by now that she could not ward herself against the foolishness that came of thinking oneself invulnerable. But she was young. She knew herself to be young, careless, foolish, and most likely soon to be dead.
A sudden and massive early snowfall days ago had caused trees to nearly burst from the unexpected weight, cold and pressure. The rainfall which followed had made the fallen leaves as slick as ice. The combination left her on the ground, impaled, struggling for breath, and slowly starting to loose her senses. She knew of no animal or spirit who could help. No beaver could pull loose the branches within her in such a way that she would not bleed do death immediately, no swarm of spiders could bind her shut well enough to stem the flow.
Although she was terrified, now that the initial shock had worn off and the pain had begun to ebb with her stillness, she had become resigned to dying. At least she knew she would not have to die alone. Those creatures closest to her, who were often present with no call from her, were there with her, giving her their heat, their gentle touches. They knew exactly what was happening to her. It was not as though any animal in the wood was unfamiliar with death, even violently accidental ones.
But there was only one wolf with her– the old man, who spent his life on the fringes of the pack, shunned for his unpredictable ill-temper. It was odd, really, and it stung a little that her closest of companions had not seen fit to give her their company, but she would not hold her hurt against them. After all, their concern should be with living, anyway.
Calli dug the finger of her still working hand into the old man’s thick coat. The large black wolf whined low and licked her gently. As if to comfort her. As if to ask her to hold on.
#24 Billy, Maggie, and the Bad Dog
His life ends in much the same way it began: an accident. An accidental conception which involved a shotgun marriage. An unfortunate incident with a melon, a cat, and an improbable crossbeam.
(ow)
The moments between birth and death were not overly interesting, if Billy was honest with himself. If he had time to be honest.
 (wo
of)
Aside from the fact that his parents were uncommonly young (at least for the area in which he had lived), there was not much to differentiate the path his life had taken from others. He had gone to public school, played baseball throughout his teenage years without any hope of making it big, and had fallen in love.
(marry)
(me)
Maggie was a kind woman with soft, warm eyes (so prone to tears now) and an iron will. She could lead a horse to water and make it drink out of sheer stubbornness alone.
 (that was
          the source of
      this problem)
If Billy had lived another month, he would have been married. The caterers had been contacted, the guests invited, the church decided. Everything would have been perfect.
The day they should have married hadn’t a single cloud in the sky.
 (I love you)
Death wasn’t a peaceful as Billy would have liked it. It wasn’t full of soft clouds and pearly gates like he had been promised, or heat and sulphur like he had feared. It was much like living but with the sound turned down. Or like someone had poked the world with a needle and let all of the colour drain out. (red threads binding, coupling, fating, choking)
Maybe that was how death was, to exist on the edges of the world you once lived in. However, that didn’t make sense because for the longest time Billy thought he had been a ghost alone.
 (not alone)
       of)
(wo
Nice dog, says another ghost to Billy. She reminded him of the old lady who had lived on the same street as him when he was ten, who used to fly her flag, day and night, rain or shine. When she eventually died, her children took down that flag, which had become so faded and frayed at the edges that it was barely a flag anymore.
I don’t have one, he replies. I‘m allergic.
(let me go)
He could see it now. Barely. If he looked out of the corner of his eye or over his shoulder, he could make out its shape, huge and monstrous. It kind of looked like a dog. It had four legs, a tail, fur, and a snout like a dog, but that was where the metaphor ended. Dogs didn’t have that many teeth in their mouths, nor oil-black fur which looked like the most macabre rainbow ever. Their tails didn’t seem to stretch out forever, twisting into smoke wisps. Their barks didn’t resound with the screams of a thousand ghosts whose lovers hadn’t been able to let them go.
(wOOF)
(but I love you)
(I will die if you don’t end our engagement)
(you are already dead)
(you know what I mean)
(WOOF)
(no I don’t)
(I love you)
(I love you)
(I love you)
(I‘ll save you)
(because I love you)
(how?)
(I can’t be saved)
(There’s nothing)
(no damnation)
(WOno salvationOF)
(I‘ll find a way)
Its stench is the only thing he can smell now. It reeks of fruit left out too long, of fresh blood, of – somehow – the screech of violins (Billy had never been good at playing one). The smell fills Billy like air in a balloon, making his lungs expand with its rot, leaving no room for anything else.
(you said that you would save me)
(I will)
(be patient)
He can’t breathe.
It hurts so much. He feels frayed and faded like that old woman’s flag, like that old ghost, out of touch with who he used to be (snapping at his heels, finding him because of the red thread). He barely remembers what it was like to be alive. He swings his arms like he’s up to bat, but can’t remember why. There’s no bat in his hands and he couldn’t think of why there should be or why he would want a beautiful day like this for any occasion other than for baseball and what is baseball what’s that who is he who is he who who who who
(who)
snap
slice
And then the world fades to white, and so does Billy.
(I won’t let you have him)
(bad dog)
(I said)
(bad dog)
(whap)
Day # 24 – May Striker
May Striker, better known as Madame Striker is the owner and proprietor of one of the cities biggest brothels (havnt’t decided on the city) She is publicly neutral when it comes to the war. “As long as the money’s good, and they’re not swimming in filth my house won’t turn anyone away.” Of course she does this because she and her workers are some of the best information gatherers in the buisness. not only does she assist her chosen factions, but she also uses the secrets gleaned from buisnessmen to further her own underground network and earn a little extra cash.
#25: The Frog-man
But efforts to study have not yet availed.
The Doctors don’t know, the Government’s baffled
(The Biologists are understandably rattled.)
Nobody knows what to do with him now,
But he doesn’t care, he just wants to lie down,
and if he can dream, then he’d like to, somehow.
Day 24 The Neptonian
Kel’ Or Rann was a low level transport officer in what would be on our calendars would be approximately 3 billion AD. By now two great cosmological events have occured. 1) The sun has ballooned into a supermassive red giant and absorbed the inner planets. 2) Neptune some undetermined time earlier had been knocked out of its previous orbit to a closer one abound the sun. The result is that life will develop on Neptune to an oceanic world somewhat like earth but with over 95% of the surface covered with water. Sentient life developed from what could be approximated as a salimander like form. These beings eventually developed a civilization with faster than light space faring technology, which resulted in contact with other worlds. Neptune or Ceanus as the natives called it were in cold war with beings called Crolons that resulted in acts of piracy and skimishes from both sides. One such act occured as Kel was transporting supplies to a nearby colony. Kel engaged manuvers to try and evade his attackers. Which drew him into a wormhole. Seeing that there was no other way out he went in and came back out 3 billion years into the past to the year 1948. He was also followed by three of the enemy starships. Kel made his way to the nearest habitable planet, which was Earth where he was assisted by the adventurer group called The Alliance, and was eventually asked to become a member. Kel’s race possess the ability to breathe and survive on both air and water. Kel is also 5 times stronger than a normal human, has a greater tollerance to heat and cold, has increased hearing and sight, and can generate a small electric field as a defensive mechanism. He is also in possesion of several devices and technology way ahead of ours. Kel served for several years with this group, until their disapearence on a deep space mission in 1953. They did not appear again until the dawn of the 21st Century where he reassumed his role in protecting his adopted homeland from internal and external threats, waiting for the day he can return home.
# 19 Laura Durbin
# 18 Lewis Emerson
Lewis is poised to be the greatest inventor to have ever lived. And with the praise and adoration that comes with being a world famous inventor, Lewis hopes to get the attention and love of Laura, the pretty girl next door, who doesn’t share his affection. So with every rejection he receives from Laura, Lewis creates an invention more elaborate (and most often dangerous) than the last, hoping to get her attention.
#24 – Hyde: Man, Monster, Deliverer of Justice
The Doctor is In
“Mr. Hyde I presume?”
A quiet and subtle voice, barely heard above the howling wind outside the hundred and second floor of Grayson Tower, the tallest building in the center of Hub City. “I suppose I will have to have those claw marks buffed out of the front of my building.” The speaker has his back to the window, sitting down, hunched over a desk. “You know, we do have an elevator.”
A thick cane leaned against the desk with a large black stone on its tip. He was writing something slowly. Once done, he folded the letter meticulously and placed it into an envelope. Slowly he rose, gripped his cane and turned around to face the window and the towering form of Hyde.
He wore a grey suit and over it a white lab coat. His suit, obviously expensive and his cufflinks flash in the brightly lit room. His face was brown like a burlap sack and his age was indeterminate. His eyes, black as coal, peek out from underneath wide and bushy eyebrows. He is bald but his face bears a well-manicured goatee. His full lips are peeled back in a predatory and menacing smile. His eyes however, do not share the smile. He leans back onto the desk. “Do you mind if I smoke?”
The man is calm, I’ll give him that. “Enjoy. It will be your last.” Hyde’s voice is gruff, coarser than usual. He was just finished healing from the beat down, he received two months earlier from the super-soldier commandos. The only thing that made that drubbing worthwhile was watching them turn into smoking, cancer-ridden piles of rotting meat. Whatever technology they were using was not ready for prime-time. It had taken two months of hunting, limb-breaking and old-fashioned detective work. The trail led him here. It was time for some payback.
Hyde turned his head to take in the room and saw an extensive laboratory filled with a variety of computers, autoclaves, other machines, some familiar, others not. A flash of memory sweeps over him and he remembers a biometric monitoring system across the room. He is not sure why he recognized it, but the memory was strong. Whoever this doctor was, he had money to spare. Not just anyone could afford this setup. Another mystery.
“You like my lab? It is only one of many. I will take you on a tour tomorrow, if you like.” The man uses his cane to point around the room.
Hyde snorts, “What makes you think you’ll be alive tomorrow? I plan to rip you limb from limb.”
“Really? Before you get the answers you have been searching for? Or should I say, Carlucci is searching for? That would be so anticlimactic.”
“Spare me the small talk. I think I will prefer the answers you will give me when I am ripping open your chest. People lie less when I am eating their ribs before their eyes.” Something’s wrong.
“Spare me the posturing, Mr. Hyde. I know who you are. I know what you are. In a way, I helped to create you.” He stood up from leaning on his desk and squared his shoulders. Though not quite as tall as Hyde, he was nearly six feet tall himself. “Now we can have this conversation, the easy way or the hard way. Your choice.”
Hyde clenches his hands and his knuckles crack with a rhythmic precision. He turns his head and his neck bones crack as well. A hot, metallic smell starts to rise from his person and his ragged jumpsuit begins to smoke. “You know what, let’s do this the hard way. I am sure I won’t break a nail on that nice Armani, you’re wearing. What do your friends call you? I want to know who to mail your head to.”
“In Japanese tradition, it is considered polite to give your name to your enemy. You have chosen the nom de guerre, Hyde. I will be Doctor Jekyll to you, sir, after all, I did help create you. And like the good Doctor, I too have a dark side.” Stepping out of his shoes, and taking off his lab coat, he throws it over the chair. “Anytime you’re ready, sir.”
Hyde needed no more prelude than that and leapt across the room arms outstretched, his carbon-hardened claws, extended, fangs opened in a bestial roar. In a movement Hyde can barely see, Jekyll steps to the side and grabs Hyde’s arm and whirling him around he slams him across the room into a bookcase. The bookcase crumples under Hyde’s massive weight. The two hundred pound teak bookcase crumpled like tissue. Hyde laughed, knocking books and wood off of his back. “Nice throw, Doctor. I hope your plan does not include Aikido to save you. It’s not nearly going to be enough.”
“Not at all Mr. Hyde. I am not counting on Aikido to save the day. I was simply giving you the chance to see you were out-classed and offering you one more opportunity to see reason before I have to actually hurt you.” While Hyde was climbing out of the bookcase, the doctor had taken off his suit and laid it upon his desk. He was wearing a skintight undergarment that covered him from neck to the ends of his extremities. Only his hands and feet were naked. “I await your pleasure.”
Hyde turned to the doctor again, trying to figure out what his senses were telling him. The smell was not one of fear, it was one of excitement, and something else, something chemical. It reminded him of the metallic scent of his own transformation. But the doctor looked completely unchanged.
Hyde exploded across the room, books flew from under foot as Hyde moving as fast as a train, reached out with a clawed hand directly pointed at the doctor’s face. And again, with only a minimum of movement the doctor spun and avoided Hyde’s hand. Completing his spin he kicked Hyde right out of the window. The doctor stopped to grab his cane and looking out the window, leapt after Hyde to the nearby rooftop where Hyde would land, hard.
Hyde crashed into a concrete stairway rising onto the roof. Tearing through it, he lay stunned. As he tried to get up, Jekyll land squarely onto his chest, driving Hyde into the reinforced roof of the building. Jekyll bounces away lightly and lands nearby. Hyde’s response was immediate. He swept rubble with both of his arms toward the Doctor and bounded to his feet, while the doctor used his cane to deflect the rubble, Hyde began attempting to close the distance between the two.
Despite the fact, he had just jumped thirty stories out of a building, the doctor didn’t even appear to be winded or surprised. Hyde kept up his assault his clawed hands lashing out as fast a cheetah’s killing blow and with as much power. The doctor used his cane to block Hyde’s strikes but did not attack. This only seemed to infuriate Hyde further. Their exchanges were faster than the eye could see and the doctor retreated the entire time. Hyde pushed the doctor back to the edge of the rooftop. Leaping over Hyde, he landed twenty feet away.
Hyde pushed his body further, and felt his arms growing longer, muscles changing in texture and tone, hyper-oxygenating them, exchanging strength for speed. Hyde rushed the doctor and his clawed arms slashing out, striking the doctor on the belly and shoulder. The strange undergarment acting as an armor, the blows drew no blood. But Hyde was testing its strength and knew he could overcome it. His nails sharpened into needle-like points. The doctor withdrew outside of Hyde’s assault. He held his cane in two hands. Twisting the head, it transformed into a sword cane and armored sheath.
The two of them clashed together, a blur of motion, both landing strikes and taking blows, the sound of claws on steel range around the glass canyon as the two titans struggled for dominance. The doctor began to give ground as Hyde blows landed and one even tore his left arm’s armor away revealing muscular flesh beneath and the lacerations of Hyde’s diamond-tipped claws. The doctor, using his sheath, smashed Hyde in the mouth and knocked him across the roof.
Hyde shook his head, wiping away blood, “Nice. You’ve survived a lot longer than I expected. But this fight is just about over.” Hyde’s jumpsuit was bloodstained and nearly completely destroyed. Carlucci bought them in bulk since their arrangement. He was crouched and studying Jekyll for any sign of weakness. He didn’t see one. Palming a piece of rubble, an idea formed.
“I was trying to show you the pointlessness of this exercise and how we could work together. With my genius and your brawn, we could rule Hub City and remove the criminal scum that infests her.”
“You care about Hub City? I don’t think so.” Hyde stood gauging the distance between the two of them.
“But you do. Once we clear away Hub City’s vermin, I will show you things that will make Hub City worst criminals look like Girl Scouts.”
“You do realize I am an unreasonable person, right?” Hyde began to breathe faster and deeper. His muscles and bone density began to multiply. The scar on his chest began to heat up and his overall temperature rose.
Doctor Jekyll’s eyebrow rose in surprise. He is altering his nervous system, attempting to increase his reaction time and attack speed. He is reducing his mass to increase his speed. This was unexpected and exciting to learn. What is the source of his transformation energy?
Cupped in his hand, Hyde threw the piece of rubble with supersonic speed. As his deadly projectile crossed the distance between he and his target, his mighty legs were already propelling him right behind it.
Jekyll, momentarily stunned by the speed and ferocity of this improvised attack was struck by the deadly projectile in the left shoulder and dropped his sword. The missile exploded into dust.
“So you can be surprised.” Hyde landed his punch squarely across the jaw of the doctor and the doctor’s head snapped to the right with the force of the blow. With a reflexive backhand the doctor knocked Hyde sailing across the roof.
Hyde rolled with the blow and landed on his feet sliding across the rooftop. What the hell was that? How did he do that? I thought he was on the ropes. What did I miss? I need to buy some time. “The commandos, they were yours, weren’t they? They move like you do, fight like you do, mixing martial arts with superhuman strength and speed. But they turned into piles of rotting meat. But you don’t appear to be about to turn into a pile of organ-bursting goo. Why is that?”
“Nice strategy, make me talk while you look for my weaknesses.” Doctor Jekyll smiled. He rubbed his jaw. “That was a surprise. I didn’t know you could do that. I see why you refuse to use a weapon; its visceral, primal, savage. You see, there is so much we can learn from each other. But I think our time is done. I have learned all that I think I can today.” Dropping his sheath, he turned toward Hyde, dusting himself off. “You, for instance, will learn…” He disappeared from where he was on the roof and reappeared in front of Hyde. Hyde never saw him move. He punctuated every word with a powerful strike from his fists, driving Hyde’s face into the rooftop with each blow. “I.” Boom. “Don’t.” Boom.”Have.” Boom. “Any.” Boom. “Weaknesses.” Boom. And then Hyde lay still. Smoke rose from the hole in the rooftop. A light rain started to fall.
“I know you are teetering on the edge of consciousness, Mr. Hyde. I trust I have made my point. I will have need of you at some time in the future. When I do I will call for you. And you will come. Otherwise I will destroy everything you hold dear, Mr. Carlucci.”
Doctor Jekyll walked to the edge of the rooftop. He stopped to pick up his sword cane and sheath. Locking them together he leapt away into the night.
Hyde sank into unconsciousness.
The Doctor is In  © Thaddeus Howze 2011. All Rights Reserved
First Appearance: The man-monster Hyde first appeared in Hyde: Portrait of a Modern Monster, a novella due to be released May 2012. Hyde, transformed by an alien technology into a fusion of man, machine and psychopath, the monster Hyde is determined to bring order to the criminal element of Hub City if he has to kill every mobster, crimeboss and drug lord in the city. He never counted on the machinations of the criminal and scientific super-genius, Dr. James Eckyll.
About the Artwork: Xue Duan, an artist of Beijing, China, archives samples of his work on cghub.com, produces some of the finest fantasy paintings I have had the pleasure of seeing. His creation FoX, was the epitome of what I was seeking for my man-monster Hyde. I have included a link so you can partake of Xue Duan’s photorealistic art style. Enjoy! Xue Duan retains all copyrights to his creation, FoX.
#24: Svara
Day 24, Svara, a boy unhappy with his newly established horns. But what can he do, really.
#24-Rat-a-Tap Tap
Rat-a-Tap Tap is the greatest tap dancer since Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. No one can shuffle across the boards like this rodent. He dreams of someday going to Hollywood and finding his perfect partner.
#25 Ghede Oussou
Wears a black or mauve jacket marked on the back with a white cross and a black or mauve headscarf. His name means “tipsy†due to his love of white rum.
#11 – Gretchen
Gretchen wants to be a singer. A little shy, she poses for publicity photos, previous to her first level competitive event at the local tryouts for the season’s popular reality TV talent show. She really hopes that English judge likes her. Wish her luck.
#30Characters Chatter…