Kid Mysticism & The Net.Titans #34 "A Humble beginning to an Epic" PART 1 OF THE MAGICIAN'S WOES By Ben Rawluk An LNH Title, taking place in and around Net.Ropolis, LNHQ, and the Shadow Realms ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Cover - The 'Kid Mysticism & The Net.Titans' logo is white, against a black background. The head-shots in the corner box arer all freaking out, looking at the main cover. Against the blackness is a gold-framed mirror. In the glass, an evil-looking Kid Mysticism can be seen, wearing his old red trenchcoat. In gothic, white letters, below the mirror, is written, "The Coming of....Mysticism Kid!"] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Midnight. The small alleyway, somewhere in Net.Ropolis was dark, and excessively dingy. It was as if some idiot had tried to Liefieldize it into a grim n' gritty atmosphere. The costumed figure remained in the shadows. His costume was vaguely similar to that of Kid Mysticism. In fact, his face was like a twisted version of The LNHer's. Mysticism Kid glanced down into the muck, and saw a wonderous prize. A trenchcoat. A _red_ trenchcoat. "PARTY TIME!! LOOK OUT WRITER! I'M COMING TO GET YOU!" --*LNHQ*-- Lurker Lad sighed a heavy sigh. He was knee deep in old issues of _Limp-Asparagus Lad_. Plus the seventeen OTHER piles of comics strewn about his private quarters. "I'm NEVER gonna get this organized!" He slumped down into the easy-chair he had managed to pull out of storage, the month before. --*The Peril Room*-- Plot-Device King calmly waded through the pounds of crushed metal, hologramically disguised warriors, and battle-mechs. For the last three hours, PDK had gone through Peril Room program after Peril Room program. Every program had been beaten in about 10 seconds, because his plot-device power had consistently protected him from physical harm. There was no challenge. He was sure others, like Ultimate Ninja, had done better times, of course, but they had to WORK at it. He tapped the console, hoping to find a harder program. Then he considered. PDK had, in the past, been able to employ his power consciously, when he was not in peril. What if he tried to used it to influence the program...made a plot-device of a foe capable of circumventing his power. "I'd be fighting my own power!" he chuckled, and tried. Waves of invisible plotdevicion particles flew from his body, showering the computer banks. He tapped a few keys, and stepped back into the Peril Room. --*Kid Mysticism's Private Quarters*-- Kid Mysticism floated in a meditative state, a few meters above the ground. Stacks upon stacks of grimoires and scrolls were streen about the room, and KM was surrounded by a faint glow of Retcotheric energy. He glanced at an antique gold-framed mirror across the room. KM recoiled in horror, almost falling to the ground...a twisted, evil reflection of himself was staring back at him, a twisted grin on his face. --*The Alleyway*-- Mysticism Kid hungrily fingered a small metal device in his hand. The palm-sized widget glowed with untold power. He slowly pressed a control mechanism on the object, and was surrounded by a glow of primordial energies... --*Parallel Universe Comics & Cards*-- The comic shop was a small and pleasant place. It's atmosphere was almost friendly, and Linguist Lass felt quite comfortable as she entered. She glanced quickly at herself; LL had put on a trenchcoat and an old fedora hat she found lying around in the back of her closet (She, of course, had no idea where it was from), in an attempt to look mildly normal. Linguist Lass quickly nodded to the shopkeeper, who was to engrossed in a copy of _Dvandom Force #64_ to care enough to look up, and barely nodded. The net.heroine made here way to the back of the shop, where a few treasured issues could be found: A stack of old, two for a dollar, foreign comics (Graciously left untranslated, LL thought to herself). LL quickly snatched two issues of <The Dirty Pair> (Original Japanese, of course), and headed back to the counter. The shopkeeper finally chose to look up. "Yoose wants somet'ing, miss?" the shopkeeper asked, his voice so full of a cheap Brooklynese accent, LL nearly laughed. "Um yeah, I wanna buy these two...there were from the two for a dollar box...oh, check box 257, please?" LL replied, stifling her laughter. The shopkeeper's nose contorted a bit, and he got up, heading back into the backroom, to check LL's box. Linguist Lass, in the meantime, glanced at the cover of the open _Dvandom Force #64_, and smiled. She had heard it was supposed to be an excellent issue. A minute later, the shopkeeper returned, holding two comics. "Jus' dese too com'cs..._La Lantrine Verte numb'a t'ree_, an' de old _Akira_ ya ordered." He plopped the issues on the other two comics, and LL payed him. As the Net.Titan strode out, the shopkeeper returned to his copy of _Dvandom Force #64_, and smiled a contorted smile, as he read a particularly good part. --*Elsewhere, Elsewhen*-- The chamber was incredibly large. It was an open air chamber, of course, and had shaped its personal continuity to allow itself to assume the appearence of the Par.net.thanon, in Alt.hens, Gre.sys. Under the "Roof", the most prominent object was a large diabolical computer system. Well, perhaps "Diabolical" is the wrong word. "Grossly Kirby-esque", maybe or "Bizarre-o" would do better to describe its nature. And a single bring sat in front of it, hands flying over the keyboard at breakneck speed. KA-BOOOOOM!!! the sound of reality being momentarily breached. And suddenly, before the Author, stood Mysticism Kid, his face stretched into a horrid smile. "HELLLLLOOOOO NURSE!" He giggled evilly, and a blast of cosmic energy surged from his hands, knocking the Author from his chair. "Oh, you got out did you?" Th Writer asked, rather nonchalantly, and snapped his fingers.... Reality rethreaded itself. Mysticism Kid's frame of reference altered; suddenly, the writer was back in his seat, and again was furiously typing, completely oblivious to the net.villain's presence. "Curiouser and curiouser..." Kid Mysticism muttered as he found himself in the middle of the non-real Par.net.thanon. He glanced at Mysticism Kid. "I'm behind...the Fourth Wall.." Barely turning his head, the Writer muttered, "I brought you here to deal with HIM...I have some writing to do, so would you please troubleshoot him outta here? Thanxyeradoll..." Kid Mysticism lunged at his evil imposter/clone/counterpart gone bust, and in a brilliant burst of sapphire energies, both had vanished, leaving a rather gaping hole in reality. "Ho-Hum...another little mess to dispense with." the writer muttered, and clapped his hands, and some mean-looking mecha-warriors appeared, cleaning up the problem with reality, and then popped off early to get a cup of coffee. --*The LNHQ Library*-- The library table was covered with books, comics, and magazines, holovids, and paper, with two Net.Titans working unceasingly behind it. Browsing Boy sat to the left, browsing through an item, and then handing it to Research Lass if it was any use, and RL hyper-speedily researched through it, writing an relevant data down. "Ok...there..a list of resources and notes pertaining to the Hyper-Quanta reactions to a Poly-Vianol plotdevicium synthetic." RL finally mumbled, as she dotted her i's and crossed her t's. "Dr.Stomper can use these to replicate a simple plotdevicium synthetic, that's cheaper to make and use." "Yeah, oh better include these energy-profiles I gathered, from PDK's powers, in case Doc can use that in some way." BB answered, and handed another wad of papers to RL. "Gotta admit...we make a great team." He slowly got up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go find Linguist Lass..I'm taking here to see a foreign film..." "Have fun..." ============================================================================== Next Issue: Return to the Shadow Realms! Jury Duty in the Eldritch Alliance! Be here for THE MAGICIAN'S WOES PART 2! ============================================================================== CREDITS: -------- Kid Mysticism & Mysticism Kid are mine. Browsing Boy and Lurker Lad are reserved as Net.Titans. Linguist Lass is owned by Martin Phipps, but reserved by me. Research Lass and Plot-Device King are owned by me. Dvandom Force #64 is owned by Dvandom, shamelessly used because I think it's so cool, and deserves shameless plugging! For all you Linguist-fans, _La Lantrine Verte_ is french for _The Green Lantern_ This issue took place mostly at LNHQ and Net.Ropolis! God help us if its considered to be at the core of the Looniverse! <grin!> Please email me comments/suggestions/praise/flames...Back to the Index.