All posts by Jim Zoetewey

Guest Posts, The Omnisphere

The Omnisphere: Part 6

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~*~

Nick did the only thing he could think of–he flew.

Whoever this guy was, it was clear that he had been issuing orders to Legion from afar–possibly another dimension. Those orders had included keeping the rest of the League alive–which made Nick the primary target.

As soon as Nick turned and took off, War flew off after him. The gunfire tore through the floor where Nick had once been, gouging out silver dollar sized holes; Nick aimed for the window and flew out into the cold night.

Behind him, the wall exploded as War tore through it and pursued. Continue reading The Omnisphere: Part 6 →

Guest Posts, The Omnisphere

The Omnisphere: Part 5

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~*~

Vaughn traded strokes of lightning with Shock Jock, with the former rising higher and higher into the air. Shock Jock grinned, moving forward.

“I was hoping to see you again before we left,” he said. “I wanted to ask you a question.”

“Me too,” Vaughn replied. “Are you color-blind?”

Shock Jock extended his arms outward. Several generators shuddered and groaned, tearing their way off the ground and floating toward him. Tongues of electricity wove their way across the surface of the generators, licking any nearby metal surface in bright, violent strokes.

“Have you told your ‘friends’ yet?” Shock Jock asked. Continue reading The Omnisphere: Part 5 →

Guest Posts, The Omnisphere

The Omnisphere: Part 4

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~*~

By the time Nick had managed to rewire the elevator to work, it was clear that the attackers had left.

His first priority–making sure that everyone was safe–was immediately satisfied when he charged into the lobby, sonics armed and ready to fire.

Haley raised her hands. “Everyone’s okay,” she said. “Daniel and the others are in the lab, cleaning up the pieces.”

“What happened?” Nick said. Continue reading The Omnisphere: Part 4 →

Guest Posts, The Omnisphere

The Omnisphere: Part 3

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~*~

“Good evening, Mr. Sumerset,” the orderly said, his voice coated with a sugary-sweet enamel.

“Fuck off and die in a greasefire,” the old man replied.

“Now, now,” the orderly said, “is that any way to behave?” He took hold of Daniel Sumerset’s wheelchair and nudged the old man down the hallway. “You really should behave yourself, Mr. Sumerset. It’s only polite, what with all I do for you.”

“You eat my candy-bars and steal my meds to sell to your punk friends,” the old man said. “Be grateful I don’t sneak into the cafeteria and take a piss in your cereal bowl every morning.” Continue reading The Omnisphere: Part 3 →

Guest Posts, The Omnisphere

The Omnisphere: Part 2

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~*~

“What the hell happened here?” Vaughn whispered.

“My best guess? Teleportation gone wrong,” Nick replied.

A sphere shaped chunk of reality–approximately 10 feet in diameter–had been carved out of the floor, wall, and several exhibits, then summarily replaced with another sphere shaped chunk of reality from elsewhere. Within that space, a carpeted floor had collapsed into the crater created by the effect. Half of a bed had tipped over near the edge; the part where it had been ‘cut off’ smoldered.

Within this space, there were two girls. Continue reading The Omnisphere: Part 2 →

Guest Posts, The Omnisphere

The Omnisphere: Part 1

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~*~

Robert’s Introduction:
There are a lot of reasons I love comics, but at the end of the day, it’s mostly because Superman once punched Dracula in the face.

How many settings have that level of elasticity? Would we buy superheroes showing up in a Twilight novel? No. What about Twilight characters showing up in a Deadpool comic? Absolutely. Hell, that thing I just described? That actually happened. Deadpool issue #30. Go look it up. I’ll wait.

Back? Cool. Moving on.

In most narratives, the rules are flexible, but solid. Your average urban fantasy setting has some basic protocols. Magic exists, yeah, there are werewolves and vampires, sure–but a robot dimension? Nazis on the moon? Amelia Earhart running a government agency that deals with invasions from alternate universes? Now you’re just being weird.

But in a superhero setting, anything is possible. Superman can punch Dracula. Batman can fight reptile people in the earth’s core. Zantanna can cast an invisibility spell by saying ‘Elbisivni’. The weird isn’t just possible; it’s probable. In a comic book universe, the weird is standard operating procedure.

And this is why I love superhero comics. Because rather than just recreate our world except with werewolves, they celebrate the bizarre. They blend science fiction and fantasy together into a frothy mixture and pour it down our throats. The best superhero comics aren’t about dark, gritty, washed out worlds where men in tights fight crime–they’re about the strange, the hideous, the beautiful, the intense. They’re worlds full of color–some of them darker than black, some of them brighter than the sun.

And this is why I love Legion of Nothing–because while its characters occupy a world where the danger is real and death lurks around every corner, it doesn’t forget that these are heroes. Flawed, sure. Just kids, absolutely. But they’re good guys, fighting the weird fight. Rather than parody or deconstruct it, Legion of Nothing celebrates superheroes and all their strangeness.

You can keep your violent re-imaginations and deconstructions of the superhero genre; I want stories that embrace the weird. To that end, I’ve hijacked this narrative with my own piece of Legion of Nothing fanfiction. I beg your pardon in advance if it’s a little stranger than what you’re accustom to–my settings probably tend to be a little more ‘unhinged’ than Jim’s. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy it, and not hold the fact that Jim allowed me to post this here against him.

Thanks for reading.
Continue reading The Omnisphere: Part 1 →

Meta, The Omnisphere

And Now for Something Completely Different…

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Well, not really, but a little different.

What’s coming next is the first complete Legion of Nothing story written by someone other than me. It’s written by Robert Rodgers alias “The Great Hippo” who some of you may recognize from his own web fiction, one of which is called “The Last Skull.”

Those of you who have read The Last Skull will recognize a few characters in the story. Those of you who haven’t will be introduced to them.

Odd thing about how this story came to be. When we did an April Fools Day writer’s swap, the person who was going to write the story had a hard time with it, and due to miscommunication, no one told me.

Thus, both Gavin volunteered to write something (and he did), and so did Robert–except Robert’s grew into something much bigger.

We’re talking 17,000 words here.

That’s roughly two months of material for me. So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to serialize it three days a week in a little less than 3000 word chunks. That’ll give me two weeks in which I can work on the ebook version of Book One, and get myself started on the next Legion storyline (Nick narrates what happens during the rest of their summer break which is not especially restful).

I think everyone will enjoy it. Robert did a great job of recognizing what makes the characters work.

The first segment goes up later today.

Arc 4.1: Haley

Haley: Part 11

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I listened from a roof top while the police talked to people, and the specialist paramedics who drove the Box sedated Laser Guy (he’d begun to wake up). Cassie talked to them. Donna told the police everything, even showing them Rod’s room inside her house. They came out carrying the bag of money he’d stolen from Chuck’s Pizza.

That was nice. It made it feel the whole night of pointless fighting had been worth something. I didn’t think three or four hundred dollars had been worth the risk I might lose control, but he didn’t deserve to get away with it either. Continue reading Haley: Part 11 →

Arc 4.1: Haley

Haley: Part 10

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When Grandpa McAllister taught us about the Change, he said, “It’s strange to say, but the war helped me with it. I got used to going deep. I got used to coming out. It’s like the torture drugs. Me and the rest of the unit spent a lot of our time behind enemy lines, so they trained us to handle torture. They tried any drugs they knew the Nazis used on us, and then when we got captured, we were ready.

“The Change is a lot like the drugs. Best thing you can do is get used to it. Go into a forest somewhere, and hunt down a deer, heck, a herd of deer. Do it enough times, and you’ll be able to come out of the deepest parts of the Change at will.”

“I don’t want to kill a deer,” I told him. “They don’t deserve that.” Continue reading Haley: Part 10 →

Arc 4.1: Haley

Haley: Part 9

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Cassie didn’t wait to find out if he’d shoot. She swung her staff at him, hitting the laser encasing his right arm with one of the electrified ends. A bunch of different things inside the casing made popping noises, and I smelled electronics burning, a smell I know a lot better now than I did before I started dating Nick.

Laser Guy started doing what most of the League calls, “the lightning dance.” That’s when you get shocked, and it’s enough to make you flail around, but not enough to knock you out. I don’t know who started saying it, but between Rachel’s gloves, Cassie’s staff, and Vaughn’s lightning, there are way too many people flinging electricity around during team practices. I’ve been hit more than I want to think about. It’s irritating, and it hurts. Continue reading Haley: Part 9 →