Little Miss Chaos – Part 4

It was twilight when this all started. Now the city was nearly engulfed in darkness, and its streetlights began to twinkle.

I stopped myself before I could go any higher and tried to shake it off. That was going to leave a mean bump in the morning.

The thing roared in my direction. Its breath smelled of rancid fish and…something else. It was so awful I almost threw up, but I pushed it all back down. The silhouette waved its hand at me trying to smack me again, but it missed, a small blast of air rushing past me. I shot a blast of light into the air in order to get a good look at it. What I saw could only be described as something from an old monster movie: Enormous, big black eyes; shiny gray and green scales; razor sharp teeth; these fins on the side of its head; its body like that of a tyrannosaurus, but with much longer arms and claw-like hands. Amazing and frightening at the same time.

I shot some light energy into its eyes. It squeezed them shut, roaring in pain and surprise. It waved its arms a bit more, but I managed to maneuver my way around it and gave it a good punch in the chin. It stumbled backwards for a few seconds. The way I saw it, I needed to find a way to get it further from the bridge and out towards the ocean.

“Come on! Come here!” I yelled as my hand lit up like an enormous torch, anything to get it away from the moving lights of the bridge. It followed me, almost as if he were in a trance.

Once I got it far enough from land, I managed to give it a few more blasts of light before it shot a strong blast of water from its own mouth. It pushed me into the water below. I was a bit disoriented but managed to pull myself together before it stepped on me. Through the water I noticed its tail wiggling around. I needed to get to it fast. It was very quick despite its size, when it wasn’t blinded. I swam towards it as best as I could, but it slammed its hand down in front of me, then it grabbed me and pulled me out of the water.

Its dark tongue hung out of the side of its mouth. It was ready to devour me.

“Oh no you don’t!” I said. “I’m not that tasty!” I quickly built up energy that surrounded my entire body, enough to create heat and burn the creature’s hand. Sure enough, it worked, and it let me go as it writhed in agony. I flew towards it backside, but it smacked me with the back of its good hand. Luckily, I saw it coming and blocked the hit with my arms so that the impact wouldn’t be as great, but it did make my feet skid amongst the waves.

Suddenly, a light flashed from the sky onto the creature. I finally heard the chuck-a chuck-a of the helicopter blades. I had been so engrossed in the fight that I hadn’t noticed the police flying overhead. The monster roared towards the light, and I realized that was my opportunity. I needed to act fast; I didn’t want the thing killing fellow officers, especially since they started shooting at it.

I managed to grab the whipping tail and pulled as hard as I could. The creature fell forward, its body smacking violently in the water. It remained still for a few seconds after, but I knew it wasn’t over. This creature thrived on water, so I had to think fast. By this time two more helicopters had arrived and began shooting at the body. The creature groaned and looked ready to return to the surface again.

I dived into the water, desperately looking for something useful. Luckily I found a somewhat-rusty steel beam in the water. Why it was so far out into the water I do not know, and did not care at the moment. I was able to heat up the tip as fast as I could and molded it as best as I could into a sharp edge. I pulled it out of the water, only to find the monster back on its feet, now angrier than ever and waving it arms frantically at the helicopters. Thankfully, the pilots were highly skilled, and were able to move out of the way, but I knew that wouldn’t last long. I jammed the beam into the monster’s back as far as I could. It screamed this high-pitched sound. It was ugly, and I had to cover my ears. The thing fell into the water a second time with a big splash, but this time it didn’t move.

Aside from the helicopter blades, everything was dark and quiet. Chills ran up and down my arms as a cold breeze blew. My muscles ached. I wanted to go home and sleep, heal, but I couldn’t. I had to speak with the police.

This had gone far enough already. I had to find a way to stop Eris, and find out who was behind Eris’s attacks.

Little Miss Chaos – Part 3

Andrea has never liked me. She has always been jealous of my relationship with Donna, but because Donna is my best friend, Andrea does what she can to please her, even if it means helping me. That being said, she wasn’t too pleased to see me that afternoon in the lab at her father’s home.

“Wow, what happened to you?” she asked. “Did someone throw you into the bay?” She was more confused than amused, but she took the opportunity to giggle a bit. I let it slide.

I was in fact completely drenched in water. After the bizarre accident pile-up and picking up that little piece of gold, one more car suddenly appeared and hit a hydrant, causing the water to rise high into the air. After that, more water mysteriously arose from the sewers and created a small flood.

“I had a little…accident in the city. But right now, I need you to do me a favor. Would you mind taking a look at this?” I handed her the gold piece. It had browned a bit on one side.

She smelled it and rubbed it lightly between her fingers, then smiled. “Oh, this cannot be what I think it is.” She placed it under the microscope and took a peek. She laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“I’m surprised you have no idea what this is.” Using her powers, the Black Enchantress formed what this object originally was: a golden apple. She threw it at me, and I caught it. It glistened in the piercing lab light.It still hadn’t occurred to me.

“Now don’t tell me you don’t know where this came from. I thought you were smarter than this, Terri,” she said coyly.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Enlighten me.”

“This golden apple is synonymous with anything and everything that can possibly go wrong on a whim. Only one person is capable of even having something like this.”

And then it clicked!

“Golly! How could I have been so blind? I mean…I never met her, but I’ve heard the stories. Why is she here of all places?”

“Easy, she’s after you.”

“Did you not hear me correctly? I’ve never met her. This makes no sense.”

“Terri,” she said as she put her hand on my shoulder, “take it from a girl who has been a villain practically her whole life. If there is no grudge, it’s usually a paid hit.”

I sighed. I had to stop this before it got any worse. I did not need more innocent blood on my hands.

“What do I owe you, Andrea?”

She grinned this big evil-looking grin. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll make it up to me in due time.”

____________

As I flew away from the mansion, I spoke with Lucas on my communicator.

“Inform the rest of your unit. Try to spread it to the rest of SF police. If you see anything suspicious, any odd form of destruction, be on the look-out for a woman carrying golden apples, one who could possibly fly like myself.”

“Golden…apples, Feran?” he asked, confused.

“Lucas I know it sounds silly, but this is very serious. I have reason to believe she caused the chaos downtown and at Olga’s…”

That’s when I saw her. As incredibly cliche’ as this sounds, she was floating maybe a few hundred feet from the Golden Gate Bridge. She was a beautiful-looking young woman with her long strawberry-blond hair tied up in a high ponytail. She was wearing relatively normal clothing: jeans and a sweatshirt. Yet her sad, tired brown eyes were the most striking. They revealed everything and nothing within her soul.

“Feran! Fer–” I shut off my communicator.

“Eris!” I yelled. “Stop this. If it is me you’re after then don’t act like such a coward. Fight me!”

She didn’t say a word. She just stared at me. It made me angry. I wanted some excitement, I wanted this battle, and this was not exciting at all. I flew towards her until she pulled out one of her golden apples. I froze. My heart beat a little faster.

She dropped the apple, just let it go, and as I watched it fall I could hear the small plop as it fell into the roaring waters. I look back at her and she begins to fly away.

“Hey, don’t you fly away from me!” I yelled as I grabbed her ankle, but then I heard the rumble above the roar. Before I could react, what felt like a brick wall smacked me upwards, and my body flew towards the sky.

Little Miss Chaos Part 2

After we were able to catch our breath, Olga and I heard sirens. I guess someone saw the commotion and called the cops! Once they arrived they checked the scene and were completely confused as to what was going on. Luckily, my boyfriend Lucas who is also a cop was there to help check things out. He asked me if there was any darkdust within the flowers. I told him I didn’t find any trace of it, but it did get me thinking.

For those of you who aren’t aware, darkdust is a drug that has been spread throughout San Francisco, and it involved an old enemy of mine, Nikki Caldwell, also known as the goddess of darkness Nyx in Olympus. While it gave the user a high, it slowly sucked their souls away, turning them into giant creatures. Thankfully the spread is much slower nowadays.

Was Nikki involved in this? She’s been trying to destroy me since the day she knew of me, but it was common knowledge that she was not in San Francisco at the moment, nor would she be for the next three months. Besides, lots of people want to get rid of me. But I hate an unfair fight. Well, at least when everything against me is unfair. It makes whoever this enemy is look like a coward.

But these weird instances continued. Some idiot decided that day would be a good day to rob a small grocery store. I grab him and try to make an example of him…you know, the usual. Suddenly, I hear a crash! Everyone starts running, and I turn around to find that someone had driven their car into the store! I checked to see if the person inside was alright. It was a middle-aged man clearly shaken up by this.

“It wasn’t me!” he said. “The car started driving by itself. I couldn’t stop it!” I tried to calm him down but he kept repeating it over and over. Besides his rambling the man seemed coherent. He didn’t reek of alcohol, and I don’t think he was on drugs. Then again, I’m no doctor.

Then more cars started crashing into each other. One huge pile was forming outside the store. I pulled out the people in the cars as quickly as I could. Some were very badly injured, others barely had a scratch. They all said the same thing: They weren’t driving, and it was as if the car had come alive and forced itself to crash. Then I noticed the cars seemed like they were flying towards me! I stopped one with my light powers and put it down quickly…then another, and another! It was as if I were juggling, and someone kept throwing more and more dangerous items at me. One car hit me slightly in the jaw and gave me a bad scrape. Another came at me too quickly and crashed into my stomach. Golly, that knocked the wind out of me!

And just as it started, it suddenly stopped. It was a mess. Maybe twenty cars, maybe more. Some piled on top of another, some crushed from the front, some from the side, and some from the top. I helped the people inside get out. What the hell was going on? But then I noticed a small piece of gold next to one of the victims. I picked it up and examined it. It was thin, and it smelled a bit sweet. I had no clue as to what this was or what it meant, but I knew one person that could find out for me.

Little Miss Chaos – Part 1

Forgive me for not updating in quite some time. It’s been a very busy and abnormal few weeks. It’s such a long story, so I’ll tell it to you in parts.

You remember the tumultuous weather a few weeks ago correct? It was abnormally windy, cold and rainy. I knew this wasn’t normal from the very first day it began. It was so gloomy it was starting to depress me, and so strange that it affected me so emotionally. It was as if I were somehow being intentionally weakened.

I went to Olympus. I asked almost everyone there if there was any negative tension within the realm, if anyone was angry or if they were simply playing tricks to the mortals on Earth. No one seemed to know a thing.

But after five days, all that rain and wind and gloom suddenly stopped. That Saturday was the most beautiful Saturday in many months. I felt re-energized and much happier.

On that day Olga decided to call me and ask me to come over to her flower shop. I was so happy to see her, and she me…we hadn’t seen each other for about two weeks. Busy schedules, lots of crime to take care of. We were chatting, and she mentioned that one of her flowers, an orange tulip, had slowly twisted around a yellow one and they had both grown abnormally large.

“It’s really strange. Come and see,” she said, so I followed her to the rear of the store. There it was, much larger than I had previously anticipated. They were twisted and half my height and…did they just move?

Then the petals started to glow. And grow some more. Golly, moving stems were rapidly growing out of it!

I asked Olga if she brought that in from somewhere, and she said no, they are one of her older flowers, one that she grew herself. They were growing normally until recently.

The petals of the tulips opened and showed their sharp teeth. They screeched so loudly the force catapulted us against the wall. I shot some beams at it, but it only ended up growing bigger and stronger. By this point their top reached the ceiling.

“Olga! See if you can keep him busy!” I screamed. She gave them a few strong shocks, and they screamed. Her electricity and a couple of punches weakened them, but it was not enough. They swung at her and with their tough limbs and gave her a couple of bruises. I tried pulling off some of its limbs but they nipped at me and managed to throw me off.  I flew to the back room and grabbed what I thought could help: pair of garden clippers and a fire extinguisher. I covered it with as much of the fire extinguisher as I could, including the inside of their mouths. That weighed them down greatly, and when they couldn’t move I chopped off the heads of the tulips. That definitely killed them.

Olga was angry. She didn’t know how this could have happened, and now this creature had completely ruined her shop and many of her flowers. I offered to help her. I was angry too. It was all much too strange. Unfortunately it would only get worse.

More of Sean’s Stuff!

Did you like what you saw while you read the interview? Here are a few more pieces of Sean’s work that I hope you’ll enjoy. They’re of both myself and Lana.

My Interview with Sean Harrington!

I’m so excited to share with you a little of my interview with my newest artist, Sean Harrington! He works on my weekly newspaper strip, as well as the comic Spying with Lana, and I absolutely adore him. I was really glad that he took the time to answer some of my questions. Check it out!

Q: Hi, Sean! It’s a pleasure to get a chance to meet you! Let’s start by asking you to tell us something about yourself and your background.

A: I was born in Connecticut and after spending a few years in the bizarre Lewis Carroll-like realm known as Florida, I moved to Virginia which is where I now reside. Aside from my art career, I’ve also worked in advertising. Both involve working long hours and dealing with those modern-day pirates know as printers, but art is infinitely more enjoyable.

Q: So how did you get into artwork?

A: I’ve pretty much been drawing since I was old enough to hold one of those chubby kids crayons (although very little work from my Chubby Kids Crayon Period survives today). My brother and I both loved to draw and loved comic books so that’s what we’ve been doing in some form or fashion since we were kids. Art and comics are the only careers I’ve ever seriously pursued (although I was pretty decent bowler as a teenager and my parents entertained the idea that I could be a professional if I got a little better. I didn’t get any better.).

Q: I like to bowl sometimes. Could you tell me how you got into doing your web-based comics?

A: I finally got an internet connection in 2004 (I wanted it installed properly so I waited until Al Gore could come and do it personally) and I had started investigating print-on-demand comics, since the price of conventional printing was prohibitive for us at the time. As I came to find out, a majority of the P.O.D. comics were originally webcomics, so I started investigating webcomics, and it seemed like a good venue to get my work out where people could see it and I could build up a following.

Do you want to read more? Check out the rest of the interview here, and don’t forget to check out the rest of my site too!

Well I promised myself that this year would be a bit different. I would try harder to take care of myself and that I would not let my anger get the best of me. Boy, I guess I’m getting off to a rough start. Someone decided that yesterday would be a good day to rob a bank. It was your usual robbery – a couple of guys in ski masks, big guns, lots of yelling and frightening everyone in the building. Golly, it was practically boring! I crash through the doors of the bank, so I can give them a good scare, and it worked a little. One of the robbers asked who I am. Now, I don’t require that everyone knows who I am, but considering that we were living in Los Angeles and that I have billboards posted all over (and that he had a regular American accent) really threw me off guard. I said I was Flare! I am a Champion!

…and he laughed! Can you believe that?

I noticed his partner trying to tell him not to mess with me, but he was too busy insulting me, saying that my costume was silly and other…gratuitous things. How dare he? Who was he to mock me? I quickly blind him with my powers, and in seconds I had him dangling by the ankle. I shook him and smacked him, and screamed that he never talk to me this way. I am Flare, I said, and I can break you in half. Never forget it. It brought me such joy to see the fear in his eyes, and his friend near tears. That’s when the police showed up.

I feel a bit of shame now as I write this. While I always feel satisfaction knowing that criminals are imprisoned, I usually tend to keep my cool when it comes to insults. I try to be good, not blindly break normal human beings committing petty thievery. I’m not exactly sure what happened to me then. Hmm, maybe I was channeling Donnah somehow.

…and a Happy New Year!

I am finally home! As much as I love to travel, it’s always wonderful to come back to what you know.

Forgive me, I know the page looks a little funny at the moment, but we’re all doing the best we can to make this site feel a little more comfortable. So please, be patient for a little while longer!

Anyways, I am proud to announce that I now have a Facebook page! Click the link, have a look at it…hey, and while you’re at it, why don’t you become a fan?

Now, I am off! The great Sergio Kline is throwing a party for thousands of guests, and I told Donnah I’d be there. Have a wonderful new year, everyone!

A Little Time in Rome

You know, one of the things I love most about being Flare is my second job as a supermodel, and one of the things I love most about being a supermodel is the traveling! I know I know, my job is a bit demanding, wearing gorgeous (and sometimes silly) costumes and heavy makeup, and posing for hours for the cameras.  I try to escape every once in a while with Donnah to view the sights and absorb the sounds and smells of the city, no matter where we are. Every place has its own unique fingerprint. We have been in Rome the past few days, shooting with a very famous German photographer. (We cannot say who; him and the project are very top secret!) Boy, is it beautiful! The area is so amazing, completely different from the feel of Los Angeles. The museums are my favorite destinations. And the food! It becomes more amazing every time I visit.

And the best part? No criminal, petty or otherwise, has crossed my path throughout the entire trip. I am quite pleased.

I am on my way home at the moment. I am on my laptop writing this blog on a plane! It’s is a very interesting experience, I had never done it before this trip. Everyone is exhausted, some are sleeping. I may just do the same. I can’t wait to get home so that I may sleep in my own bed.

A most eventful holiday

Hi everyone! I hope your holiday was fun! I know mine was very exciting. I got to spend Christmas with my little sister, Olga. It’s always fun hanging out with her, especially when the unexpected happens. Can you believe that evil Dash came rushing into our neighborhood while we were opening our presents that morning and started causing havoc? Can you believe how annoying that is? Let me tell you, Olga and I were definitely in the mood for giving…so we gave him exactly what he needed – a major butt-whooping!

Speaking of gifts, don’t forget to check out the latest issue of Flare (#38). Olga finally receives a fantastic hero costume (and thankfully gets rid of that drab yellow and orange one), which looks absolutely gorgeous on her! It was created by none other than my best friend, Donnah. We also get together and share our most embarrassing moments as superheroes. You don’t want to miss this! Go to my page on the Heroic Publishing website and have a look at it, and if you haven’t yet, check out some of my previous adventures too!