His father was the greatest of Heroes, saving the entire universe
from subjugation time and time again! Now he must continue that tradition , his powers are
the same, but his outlook is different. He wields the mighty Nega bands and has the
Celestial insight of Cosmic Awareness. The universe is his inheritance, for he is its
Protector as he struggles to find his place amidst the Heavens, his buds call him Genis,
but he's known and feared by his enemies as....
Cruise ships to Earthmen mean one thing, great ocean going vessels, small cities that
ply the waves and carry party going peoples across the worlds seas as they revel in an
atmosphere where they can forget all their problems and anxieties of the "real"
world for a time.
In deep space, the meaning is no different. As great space faring vessels slide through
the cosmic ether from world to world in different sectors of space. For the Barrellian
people, a world of people not so unlike Earths denizens in many respects. They work, they
play, they vacation and they grow old. Their skin is a slight brown tint, and their
forehead has a large brow ridge across its length. Their height is slightly taller then
earth based humans, and their average weight is less then an Earthman, giving them a tall,
almost gaunt look with their brownish-blonde color hair.
Their solar system has several worlds they have colonized and re-groomed to fit their
air breathing race. They are scientific giants, and see their solar system as their
domain. A domain that they are in complete control of. Their cruise vessels carry no
weaponry, relying on the Police (for want of a better word) ships that patrol their system
always.
Their arrogance will prove to be their undoing.
The K'hmer is one such cruise ship, a vessel that holds over a thousand vacationing
Barrellians. A cruise ship that was simply making a routine trip from one space going port
to another within their solar system.
Suddenly, off the ship K'hmers bow, several small attack craft appear in bursts of
light, as their cloaks disengage. Instantly, they train weapons on the K'hmer, as they
immediately make demands over the suddenly very silent and still K'hmer's Communication
system.
"You will not be harmed if you cooperate. Hand all your valuables to your captors
as they appear."
As the voice speaks, surly looking pirates transport in with deadly looking weapons
trained on the hapless and very scared passengers, each holding a sack that the frightened
passengers begin filling with their belongings.
Then two things happen almost simultaneously. One, an explosion off the ships bow
lights up the room, as all heads, including the pirates, turn towards the burst of
incandescence.
"Look!" a heavy woman in her middle ages shouts excitedly , "I know who
that man is flying about out there, that's Captain Marvel!"
En masse, the entire populace of the ship catches its breath, as the universal
protector dodges energy blasts outside the ships hull from the raiders weaponry, and then
returns fire , as blazing photonic energy rips from his hands, smashing through the ships
force fields, and puncturing their hulls, as he flits back and forth between the half
dozen enemy attack craft.
A small boy tugs on his fathers jacket, getting the mans attention, "Daddy!"
The boy questions in awe as his eyes flit back and forth across the room and again
outside.
"What is it "Nbral?" The father answers, transfixed on the battle taking
place outside.
"Who are those men?" the boy asks as he points across the inside of the ships
huge main dining hall.
"What men?" his father answers as he turns his attention behind him, to where
his son is pointing.
Then he sees them. To wildly costumed men. One in a tight fitting silver body suit,
with a silver cape that falls almost to his ankles, and a matching silver headband that
covers his brow, and keeps his black, shoulder length hair in place. His Boots are black,
as is his belt that encircles his waist. His height is perhaps 5'10" and his build is
slight. He appears to be in his late teens, and his ice blue eyes stare holes in the world
about him. He would be considered very handsome.
Next to him stands a being who's his seemingly exact opposite. A being that can barely
be described as a 'man'. He skin is the darkest black possible, and seemingly scaled or
furred, depending on the moment you stare at him. He stands slightly hunched, but is
powerfully muscled . His face is furred with small fangs protruding both above and beneath
his mouth. He stands about 6'2" or so. His head darts around quickly taking in the
scene around him.
"Where...are...we?" The feral man asks the other.
"I-I don't know, Creature. I have no idea. In space somewhere, but I don't
recognize the stars. It's no where I've been before."
The being now known as 'Creature' nods its head towards the passengers huddled around
their captors , staring at the flashing battle in space before them.
"What... are...they...looking...at?"
The younger man stares, suddenly wide eyed. "It's a battle of some kind, a lone
man against those ships , and he appears to be winning!"
Outside, Captain Marvel has had enough!
"Okay you pirates have done just about enough to annoy me here. I've tried to be
good about this, and to leave you all in one piece, but if you keep this up, well, you
better have a good insurance policy, that's's all I can say."
As he finishes, Genis-Vell fires a blast of photonic power, punching a hole in the
nearest ships engine, causing it to spin off into space haphazardly. His face flashes his
cosmic awareness momentarily, as he turns towards a new target.
"Next." He flashes away through space, a glittering photon trail in his wake.
"These people were lucky I was in the next sector. If I hadn't been here spending
a few days at the vacation world of Rysa, these guys would be in deep stuff about
now."
Genis circles the nearest attack craft, drawing its fire, as he continues to streak
around it, in almost an atomic signature pattern.
"This should be fun." he thinks, as he continues to circle it, its
guns blazing, following his every move, but always a scant second behind his blazing
photon trail.
Suddenly Captain Marvel stops his flight, and rams the ship, fists first, slamming into
its hull, and out the other side, instantly the ship decompresses, as huge gouts of oxygen
escape its hull, before the self sealing systems finally cover the breaches.
Genis stops in space and stares around him, then smiles. "That worked better
then I thought."
All around him, the remaining raiders ships are decimated. Destroyed and damaged by
their own. When Genis circled the one ship he was attacking, its weapons fire hit every
one of the other ships, strategically, as his cosmic awareness told him it would. They are
all incapacitated.
"Now to see what's going on inside that ship." He flies over to the
luxury liner that hangs unmoving in space, and immediately seeks out an air hatch with his
cosmic awareness. "I'm sensing chaos in here. There's fighting going on, and a
lot of unknown parties involved."
He enters the hatch and immediately flies towards the sounds of battle. Rounding a
corner, Captain Marvel pulls up short, as he see two figures battling against dozens of
armed raiders!
"I don't even need cosmic awareness to see who's who on this fight card." He
streaks across the great hall, heading directly towards the raiders, when suddenly the
black scaled 'Creature' leaps at Captain Marvel, and as he does, his back sprouts leathern
wings, and his hands grow great claws!
"You... not...help...your...friends I..will...not...allow...it." He slashes
at Captain Marvel savagely, who ducks below the attack, and kicks out in mid air, with a
left roundhouse kick that sends the brute sprawling !
Thwack!
"Get your act together, Fido, I'm one of the good guys." Genis angrily grunts
as he begins to dig into the pirates, punches and kicks fly, as the raiders fire energy
beams at him from their pistols, but he is to fast, to powerful, and tags them one at a
time with enough force to render them unconscious. They are a motley lot. Many different
races from throughout the galaxies, joined together simply to rob and plunder.
Nearby, the silver-blue adorned youth murmurs a few words as differing energy beams
leap from his fingertips with a moments concentration. "Solar blast" He begins,
and a burst of solar power flies from his hand. "Hammer beam." follows and
several enemies fly from him as if they were shot out of a cannon. Suddenly , he's jumped
from behind and brought to his knees as three of the pirates pummel him un-mercilessly.
Suddenly he shouts beneath the pile. "Anti-Gravity beam" and the three fly away
from him, he then aims at them, as blood runs down his lip, squints his eyes, and rapid
fires two more blasts out. One from each hand in succession, "Spinner beam, vertigo
effect!" Instantly the weightless villains begin to spin around in place faster then
the eye can see, and then they begin to wretch painfully as the vertigo effect washes over
them. After a moment they mercifully drop to the floor, unconscious.
Across the great hall, Creature again rises, as his angry demeanor flashes towards
Captain Marvel, before he turns and attacks several of the pirates standing near him with
renewed anger and ferocity, as his body changes again, this time growing seeming reptilian
armor as he slashes back and forth, cutting his way through the attackers.
"Who are these two?" Genis thinks as he hammers away at the pirates
ahead of him, right left, right, left, he strikes, like a beating drum. Suddenly the air
shimmers near them as literally hundreds of the pirates appear, bolstering the forces of
the attackers. "Oh this is not good at all." Genis speaks aloud, as he
roundhouse punches another pirate away.
Suddenly he feels a movement at his back, and quickly spins to see the silver garbed
warrior backing up against him. "Who are you?" Captain Marvel asks, as he places
his back against the unknown warriors.
"My name is 'Starbolt', or at least that's what I go by, you?"
"You can call me Captain Marvel." Genis answers as he uppercuts another
villain away.
"Good, Captain. Vibration beam!" Starbolt mouths the words, as he lets
another energy blast fly from his hands, snapping the pirates away, scattering them.
"Not bad, Starbolt. Where are you from?"
"Of late I'm from Earth, but before that the planet Glavinex. "
"Earth I know, but I don't recognize you. Glavinex I've never heard of at all.
"
The youthful hero turns towards Captain Marvel as he speaks "Glavinex is a world whose technology and compassion are unrivaled. How could you not have heard of it? It is a shining beacon amongst the heavens! At least it was." He ads with more then a touch of melancholy.
"Uh , right, Genis answers. What about furry?" He nods towards Creature, as
the fanged warrior tears through pirates, as energy weapons discharge all about them.
"His name is Creature. He's true hero beneath all that fur and muscles. That's
about all I know about him."
"Great." Genis grunts, as he kicks another half dozen raiders backward in one
smooth motion. "How'd you two end up here?" he continues as he backhands another
half dozen of the raiders to the ground.
'Stun Bolt." The mystery man words as energy leaps from his hands dropping more of
the enemies to unconsciousness. "We were battling with our team mates, 'Hyperforce'
against one of our enemies, a sorcerer named 'Crystalon', and he somehow transported us
here."
Genis flies upwards, and begins sweeping the floor with low level photon bolts,
scattering the raiders . "Hyperforce huh? Never heard of you guys. What are you like,
the Avengers? The Fantastic Four?"
"Uh, I never heard of those people, to be honest, Captain." Starbolt answers
as he sweeps his hands across the room in front of him, and speaks "Shock beam."
as electricity leaps from his hands in arcs of static, shocking more of the raiders.
Captain Marvel lands, as the final group of pirates drops to the ground, senseless.
"Never heard of them? And you're from Earth? Something's very wrong there."
"Why? Are they famous?"
Genis walks up to the man known as Starbolt, and looks at him a moment before speaking.
"Hang on a second. Let me scan you with my cosmic awareness, I think we can figure
this out."
Captain Marvels face begins to reflect the cosmos as he concentrates on the man before
him.
"Hhhmmm. There's something not right about you. Like you don't belong here,
really. Yeah, That's it. You're from a parallel universe. Both of you are. This Crystalon
guy sent you as far away as he could, another universe entirely."
"What???" Starbolt shouts, wide eyed and shocked to the core.
I'm afraid so, 'Bolt. This guy 'Crystalon' made sure you couldn't come back."
Then, Creature lumbers up beside his team mate, and stares at Captain Marvels cosmic face. "What...are...you?" He asks, while tilting his furred face to the right inquisitively.
"I'm the universal protector. At least in this universe. Yours may not even have
one, for all I know."
"So what do we do now?" Starbolt asks, as he turns his head between the two
men before him.
Nearby, the passengers begin to file closer to the heroes, as outside the ship, patrol
ships circle the incapacitated pirate ships, and begin to board them, rounding up the
remaining raiders. A moment later, several teleport into the cruise ship, and begin to
take the unconscious pirates prisoner.
"I don't really know, Starbolt, though I'm sure I could find a place where you
guys could stay in the meantime, until we can figure a way to get you both back to where
you belong."
Then, surprisingly, the two strangers begin to glow as if from within, and before
anyone can say a word, they disappear !
"Well that was weird, I hope they're okay. I don't sense there's anything I can do
about it anyway. My prayers are with you, guys." Genis turns and begins to speak with
a few of the patrol officers from the ships who have come to take away the defeated
raiders.
Elsewhere...A darkened room ,where slithering sounds can be heard. A tri-pedal
creature, akin to a squid more then a man walks in from an outside ante chamber, and
speaks.
"M'lord, our men have all been taken captive. All of them."
Out of the darkness, a powerful voice answers "Who did this? Who took away what
was mine to take by right of strength of arm?"
"It was the man known as Captain Marvel. He destroyed several of our ships single
handedly, and led to the capture of all our men."
Faster then the eye can follow, a tentacle, black as night, leaps out from the
darkness, slicing through the neck of the being who was talking, dropping its head off the
body, as both pieces smack the ground with a wet plop.
Then the voice continues to speak "Not 'our' men "G'darrp. My men. Mine, all
mine. And this Captain Marvel has just made an enemy. One he will regret, for what little
is left of his paltry life..."
And then, the creature's tentacle slides back into the darkness that envelops it, and
is silent...
Next: Planet of Gods!
Mail to Kree-Lore C/O [email protected]
