Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: BOOK(S) - Begins January 4 / Ends January 11 (01/04/18)
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TITLE: Fiction Is Stranger Than Truth | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Westefeld
01/11/18 -
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At the home he shared with his aunt and uncle, he went straight to his room without even stopping for a soda, curious to see how the comic book mangled his life, knowing they hadn’t spoken to him or his teammates. He opened the comic and nearly laughed loud enough to wake his sister. Diamond’s secret identity was revealed to be Jim Stone. The ‘origin’ story was straight comic book schtick: his dad, Rex wished he had one, was an archaeologist who brought home a glowing crystal. Jim touched it when a thunderstorm hit the area and the shock and radioactivity gave him the power to turn into the hero Diamond.
Not sure what the rest of the team’s fictional origins would be, Rex read on and noticed that Jim’s adventures were taken straight from the news of his own early adventures. Shaking his head, he enjoyed the “special double sized” first issue of the Light Force.
He put the comic on his nightstand, and got ready to start his turn on patrol. Simply concentrating changed him to his costume, as opposed to his fictional counterpart wearing it under his clothes.
It was a comparatively quiet night as he flew around River Edge, just a couple of accidents and a bank heist. As he brought the thieves to police headquarters, he received a bit of ribbing by the desk sergeant. “Well, ‘Jim’, you going to give us the usual runaround about doing the paperwork?”
Rex let loose the laughter he’d held in all day, until a radio call announced a robbery in progress at the U-Carry convenience store on Tenth Avenue. The holdup guy had a gun, and shots had been fired.
“Got to go help the people working at U-Carry. No time for paperwork, Sarge.”
When he arrived, he noticed several news vans in the parking lot, and wondered how they got the news about the holdup so quickly. He also prayed that his sister, who was working the overnight shift, was OK.
Landeding just beyond the barricade of news vans, reporters, and camera crews, he was barraged with questions. “Diamond,” they called over each other, “what’s your take on the comic book that hit the stands today?”
Diamond had enough experience with the media in his superhero career to know when a simple “No comment.” was appropriate. He growled, “Don’tcha think the real story is inside? Ya know, the threat to the employees and any customers.”
He strode up to the front door, the gunman clearly visible.
“If you come through that door, I’ll shoot this woman!”
Diamond saw that the creep had an arm around his sister’s waist, his gun wavering in the general direction of her heart. Obviously this moron didn’t think his plan through if he didn’t factor in Light Force intervention. Rex decided to have some fun with this loser. “Ok, man, how ‘bout I just fly through the window?”
As he did so, glass shattering from the impact of his dense diamond form, the fool pointed his gun at him, which gave his sister a chance to get free of his grip. Diamond laughed in the grating sound he had in his diamond form, crossed the couple of feet between them, and wrenched the gun from the thief’s hand, crushing the gun to a clump of metal. Rex heard a snapping sound and realized that the guy had still been holding on to the trigger, and he’d broken the knucklehead’s finger with his super strength.
At the attack of pain, plus being disarmed, the robber sank to his knees and surrendered. Diamond jerked the crook’s ski mask off, and was surprised to see the face of another local reporter. Diamond asked, “Why, man?”
The reporter sobbed, “I just wanted to get an interview with you about the comic book. You aren’t really Jim Stone, are you?”
Diamond shook his head in disgust as he left the store via the broken window. “Really,” he muttered, “this just ‘cause of some silly comic book!”
He’d need to warn his teammates about this kind of foolishness before issues featuring them came out.
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