Nocturnal Justice

Part 2: Another Land

2005-10-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

ok, before you read this, go to Part 1: Peir

ok, I'm refreshed. Pee'd, grabbed some O'boises potatoe chips and some lemonade, so I'm at the computer ready to continue with the tale.

Let me start off by talking about Dimensional travel and ole' John here. First off, its not some wacky metaphysical thing, or mind power, or make-believe. Its real, there are dimensions, of course just like we can experience the 1st and 2nd dimension here in the 3rd dimension. And yes I have been on field-trips to other dimensions when I was a wee lad on Novatoria. This one time our teacher took the class to ZZyza. Bad experience. I just dont like going to other dimensions. now galaxies and solar systems, fine, but not dimensions. So as you can guess, when that light came out of that U-haul van and I was sucked into some warp-like hole I was not pleased.

People talk about nausea with travel in dimensions, but really its not like that, its more like feeling that your insides are exploding and inverting to the otherside of your body. Its no splash mountain.

so after a few mintues? hours? I dont know, time doesnt work in the middle of this mess. I feel a spongey bottom/floor and I look around me, I'm definately not in Kansas anymore and my feeleria is not on me.

the surroundings looked something like this:

The Pier

2005-10-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

I went back to Long Beach for that look-see at the warf where a few nights ago I saw what could be neferious activity going down.

This time I went late at night as Nightstalker. Perched up high on one of those large cranes, I watched as a shipment of crates were unloaded into some U-Haul vans. Normally this wouldnt be an issue, but do to the fact that this was at 2am, and there were men stationed guarding this activity along the ramp and at the gates to the dock, who did not look like people who were employed by the city, I thought something was up.

But at what point do you 'pull rank' and bust people up?

well, for me it was when I heard a very odd sound in one of the crates when it was being moved. It didnt sound like a human voice, but that was the first thing I thought of, some sort of slave-trade thing. So I swung down to the crane operator, and broke through the glass door and knocked him out. Unfortunately the crane had dropped the cargo it was carrying when I crashed through, so the crate fell a good 20 feet and broke, spilling out some sort of ...thing. It this point, it was too dark to see what it was.

Climbing out of the operator's cabin, I began to take fire from the dock workers below, yes they were packing.

As I've mentioned before, bullets can not wound me mortally when I have my Feeleria on, but they are darn annoying, and do hurt at times. So I was being pelleted but bullets and I swoop down with a nice kick to the face of one of the dock-thugs and throw some of my krystal-shards at another. At this point I'm doing ok, theres about 5 of them and one is already down. I glace at the broken crate and see a large leg of soemthing stick out and then I get zapped good.

Of course I wasnt looking and those fellas who came running from the gate had some heavy artillery. They had plasma generators. I couldnt believe it, this was no run of the mill thing, these guys were packin' in case of Superheroes. So I get thrown about 15 feet bangin my head right into the back of one of the U-haul vans. I feel the blood on the back of my head underneathe the mask and stand up, pulling out my sword, ready to get serious.

Thats when, whatever was being shipped here, in that back of that van started to glow and turning around I saw a bright light and not much afterwards....

I woke up in a strange land.

to be continued. (I got to go pee)

2 months of blogging.

2005-10-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

holy cow.

Have a established that there is way too much going on in my life for this blogging thing to be functional?

Well, hold on tight, I will be blogging all day today to catch you all up to speed. And I'll let you know why I happen to have all day today to even do this.

another day

2005-08-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

Got my car back. Well, rather I found it in the 'A' parking lot at UCLA, with a nasty note from 'Sarah' I guess that bridge is burned.

Something is going on over in Long Beach, I went over there last night after a call from our Hot-line that there were a bunch of nice cars and a limo out there late at night over at the docks, where the Queen Mary is at sometimes. This was no wedding party at 2 am, so I went to check things out. There arent alot of roofs around that area to see from, so I just went in disguised as a common man, complete with classic flannel shirt. There was a small crew unloading a shipment using those large cranes. I slinked around and overheard a few bits about a group of men that were there a few hours ago making sure their 'shipment' will be ready for tomorrow. The lead said somethign about bringing in a few friends to help out cause it will be a busy night.

It didnt sound like it was on the up and up from the way he was talking.

Could it be drugs?

I got as much as I could from eavesdropping, so I went back to the HQ.

Tomorrow night I'll be there and check this out as Nightstalker.

The date.

2005-08-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have a little time now to talk. Lets start at the beginning. I met this woman (we will call her Sarah) at a party for a charity that Charles had invited me to a couple of weeks ago, it was some political thing to do with Mayor Villaraigosa and Prop 78 which is involving some big Drug companies who are trying to make drugs cheaper for the low-income folks. (do we really believe this is their goal?) So I’m there and I spot this beautiful woman, turns out she’s a model and we chat it up a bit. I seal the deal and get her number and a couple of days later I call her and we go out on this date.

Fast forward to last night. I plan out a lovely evening with this beautiful creature. I pick her up at her posh apartment in Brentwood, I have my LL Bean on, so I’m going a little casual. I have a single rose I hand her and when she walks out my jaw about drops. She has the perfect little number on, (it looked like Banana Republic) it’s a red top with this cute skirt. We head off to the Getty museum and look at some Monet and VanGogh. She smells wonderful, and we touch and play a bit with our hands. She has the most captivating smile I’ve ever seen.

So they close down around 6pm, so I take her to Malibu and this great restaurant called Duke’s right off the Pacific Highway. Overlooking the ocean we sit and eat. I order a steak and she orders some coconut shrimp. She is amazing to talk to and while I am not from around here, I can see myself with this little bird for a long time. Pretty amazing date so far huh? Well this is where it turns ugly…
So the plan was to take her to the beach and walk along the ocean, holding hands and enjoying the moment. Instead, as we are leaving the restaurant I see a group of 2 guys and their stripper-looking dates come out of a Escalade. At first I thought they were rappers, but then I realized it was Shade and Void, two bad-arsed villains. Now they don’t know what I look like outside of my suit, but I sure as heck know them.
So what do I do? Go with my date, enjoy the night and possibility make-out with a incredible woman or get into some shenanigans? Of course I’m an idiot and I do the latter. I whisper to ‘Sarah’ that I will be right back, I need to use the restroom and she waits in my car. Ok, this is only going to be a minute I tell myself, I get to the bathroom, touching my amulet and my Feelira (my suit given to me by my father in Novatoria) covers my body and I go switch into the invis or shade mode. When the door is opened again, I move out and spot the hoochies. The four of them are sitting at the bar section of the restaurant and I move a little closer so that I can hear them, I just want to hear whats going on and why they are in LA. (Last time I heard from Lord Kara they were on the east coast) Seems like they are meeting someone here later this evening, and honestly I’m starting to feel bad about my date waiting in my BMW.
I cant figure out what to do, but really this is ridiculous so I decide to head back out of the restaurant when I feel myself get thrust forward into the hostess’s bar. Crashing into the wooden platform and toppling a young girl I turn around and by now my shade mode is cancelled out I see Shade and Void in full regalia ready to kick my fanny.
Not missing a beat Void leaps on me and starts punching the heck out of me. His kinetic energy crackles around us as I get pummeled and people are screaming and all I can think of is that cutie I have in my car. I finally kick him off me and send him flying over to some dinner tables. I generally don’t like to thrash up a nice place, especially a place like Duke’s in Malibu, but this aint the time for clear thinking. Patrons run out of the high-class joint and its just me, Shade and Void. They mumble something about seeing me and wanting a piece of me from a year back and that LA is their new turf, blah blah blah. I ignore it and just start in on Void with my sword.
Shade teleports behind me and they both try to put the squeeze on me and I get a healthy dose of energy blasts (what kind I don’t know off hand) and knuckle sandwiches. I decide to jump back, get out of their melee range and jump out the glass window to the beach. Except the tide was a lot farther in than I had thought.
Hitting ice-cold water with a Feelira suit on is no fun and as I half-drown I hear sirens down the Hwy 1. I stand up in waist high water trying to take a shot at the creeps with a good Novatoria-electron-bolt who are laughing at me while they create a warp-door and bug out.
Wet, hurt and generally pissed, I get to the rocks, swing up to the roof and watch as the pandemonium below ensues. Cops, firemen, patrons, news people everyone is here, people screaming, yelling and I cant see my car.

Wait...I cant see my car.

She took my car.

So, I call up Charles and he picks me up later over by Sunset beach and drives me home. Suck.

date from hell

2005-08-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

uughhhh.

I dont have time today to write, I have a research post-doct I need to interview for my lab and my ribs hurt from last night.

I'll tell you all about my date last night, tomorrow.

Jon.

tech talk: Why NOT to use robots

2005-08-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

Now I realize that Robots from the strict Asimov viewpoint might be a helpful item, but this aint Novatoria and I dont have the neuro-gels that I need to make him like the 1248's back home. So what do I do? I adapt. I improvise.

Call it my special power, what you will, but by-golly, I can make me a artifical intelligent life-form this side of the vegan solar system.

Or so I thought.

Cypher is the andriod I am referring to. As you've read in the past, Cypher has been asking strange. You se it all started back a few years ago, when Charles (Doppleganger) and myself (Nightstalker) decided we needed a proper headquarters. Getting our place in South central was a whole adventure in itself, but thats for another day, so once we had our headquarters built, the underground lair, we needed someone or something to maintain it all while we were doing our day jobs. Thats when I came up with the idea for Cypher. Or maybe Charles did, I dont remember , but either way I built him.

Cypher does not talk. That was essential, that last thing I need is a chatty robot chewing my ear off about how sad he is, or that is wants a mommy and daddy. So Cypher doesnt talk, but he handles all the systems, checks the monitors and global stations and frequencies and alerts us to any issues that require our attention. So of course I needed to get satellite tv, the dish network, and alot of other government waves that I could listen in on. Its pretty spooky really to kn0w what the government is up to. So Cypher listens and watches to hundreds of channels all at the same time. Lately though he has been moody, and when I walk into the room, he is always watchig reality television. Not Resue 911, but stuff like Boot Camp and Paradise Island. So that was a tip off that somethign was not right.

Charles hasnt noticed anything but hes been busy and so I decided to do a diagnostic on Cypher.
His brainpatterns have totally changed. The pathways have re-written themselves, and connections have fused. Its troublesome, because all I can think of is that the TV he's been watching has rotted his brain. I'm going to de-activate him soon.

the stresses of a superhero

2005-08-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

may I just vent for a minute?

I just got a call from Lou (who manages the dilapidated apartment building that I own in South Central which is a front for the Nocturnal Justice headquarters.) he says theres leaks in the 3rd floor and wants to get his cousin to work on it.

Charles has been busy with this arch-enemy of his Effigy who I believe is starting to tear the team apart.

Tim the post-doct in my lab just announced that he wants to leave the lab.

Stacy has been bringing friends over to the office, and while she is taking the 1-800-noc-just phone calls, she has sometimes been drunk while doing so.

Cypher is acting weird again.

I have bills for my own home to deal with.

My accountant is not putting my money in gold, like I want him to.

I want to go car shopping

and lastly this young bird that I'm trying to date has been not returning my calls and I am Nightstalker: superhero, and member of Nocturnal Justice!

I need an assistant.
But can I? How can I delegate responsibilities to all these issues without giving away my secret identity? Do you see all the crap I have to do, just to keep all of this up??

its ridiculous. I should have fixed my ride and left Earth years ago.

Top of the world.

2005-08-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

Just got back from my vacation in Yosemite.

I went and did the Half Dome hike for one day while I was up there. I have been hearing about this Yosemite place for years now and I decided it was high time I got out of LA to get some human-style R&R.

Its no mountains of Chileeri on the northern side of the city of Rleen but it was very beautiful. I saw a great number of fellow hikers, of all types doing the same trek and I spoke to a few of them as we hiked. The people here seem nice enough, and once I reached the cables and the top it was nice to take in the area. Getting away from the crime and justice for a bit helps clear the mind and lets me re-focus on the things that are important to me.

I would love to have built a secret base here. I dont know how I would be able to pull it off, with all the people though. Still wouldnt it look great to have my jet coming out of the secret hatch of the back of half dome? hmmm....

The rental car worked well, I might get one.

Hope Charles is ok and I got to see if Stacy got paid while I was away.

Where is Cypher? I havent seen him in the HQ.

Rental car!

2005-08-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

yeah, I dont want to put miles on my car, so I'm getting this little number for the trip to Yosemite.

I like nice things. This is no Z-class warp-tube, but heck it will get me there. Besides its the journey not the destination thats important.

wish me luck!

vacation

2005-08-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

I need a vacation.

too much grit, grime and crap in this city. I keep hearing about Yosemite, so I think I'll go there. Maybe for a week and just relax.
I'm sure Doppleganger and the rest of the super-heroes and deal with the west coast while I'm away.

I'll take my stuff for emergency, you never know who will kidnap a loved one while your away.

Black Fang

2005-08-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

The encounter with Black Fang.

Well, its happened, I met this tool called Black Fang. Yeah he ticks me off already. So I’m out by Temple St down in downtown LA, not much going on, plenty of homeless walking around, but you really cant do much about them as a force of nocturnal justice, so I am heading towards some warehouses by 6th street, which have had shady histories of drug-dealing and I see a small group of people up on the top of this warehouse. I see them a few blocks away with some little puppies I made a while back, they have Ultra-vision which is really nice for situations like this. So I look and I see one has a black spandex-type suit. Trouble is a-brewin’ so I head over there, using my lines and get the ‘drop’ on them.
Well, it wasn’t that easy, and melee ensued. Of course I was alone, as who knows where Charles is at this point, so I pull out my sword, and cut down the 4 flunkies that pulled out some automatic weapons (mind you, I don’t even know if they were up to no good, but one look at me and they pretty much were getting ready to blast me, so I made an executive decision on the spot.) Now when I take down the flunkies in general with a sword it can get messy, and I really am not the type of dark-hero that likes limbs everywhere, so I just go for the kneecaps or wrists, they cry like babies and don’t bother me anymore and I don’t feel too bad about that. One gets a pop off me, but even at this close range my Feelira suit can absorb that type of impact without any fuss, heck Cea used to blast me with high-throughput energy salvos back home.
So while I’m playing pick-up-sticks with the boys that black suited fella pulls out this machete and starts in on me.
Now let me explain, normally I would laugh at a machete, some grass-cutter, but darn gone it, it hurt. The arse really gave me a walloping. He said something about being Black Fang and screwing up his plans, honestly I cant hear much and don’t pay that close attention to the guy when I am trying not to get chopped up. We go at it for a bit, and he kicks me good in the solarplexes (sp?) and I go down for a second. I guess that’s all he needs and he vanishes.
Lets talk about Vanishing. I know all about it…that’s kinda my shtick. I know what a teleport looks like, I know the old smoke bombs and run away move. But this guy vanishes. No light, no warp portal just gone. Even with my new Ultra-vision lens, nothing. No trace, no heat signatures.

Suck.

So I’m standing there, with four guys bawling at me feet and I got nothing. I don’t even know what it was about. I left.

Charles?? Where you be?

2005-08-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

Where is Charles? He must be on some assignment again. What kind of super-hero-crime-fighter-dealer of justice/dark knight of vengeance is an anchorman? Well…still. I mean its not even something reputable like FOX news, it’s the local LA news station. Let me guess, he got sent to South Central to cover a drive-by? Or the terminator is in town? No, there must be an awards show going on. Well, I cant wait for him…justice awaits. And I’m going to go out there and deal it.

Patrolling by myself again. Cant say I look forward to being out there fighting the good fight without my side-kick, but someone’s got to, I sure aint going to let Shade and Void loose on those poor criminals.

crap.

2005-08-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

Cypher is on the fritz again.
He keeps getting stuck on the reality-shows. I got to go into that brian of his and fix him. But honestly I have no time this week, I might just have to keep him off-line until next week. Hope the world doesnt blow up until then.

my first employee

2005-08-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

well, its time.

I talked to Charles about it, and we agree, we need someone to handle the phones and the hot-line. So I put a post on Craig's list and got a little suite in Westwood to set up interviews. I had a couple days off from my research work and there was no classes, so I walked down from my lab and 'set up shop'.

I wore a wig that I got from a friend who works with the Eye and Mammoth on thier costumes, and I figured I could pass as the average-day employer. The last thing I need is a UCLA student recognizing me as Jon Butler and that I have connections to Noctural Justice.

So after a few calls from would-be emplyees I set up a time and waited there. I got the dixie cups and pitcher of water ready. I wasnt sure if that was for me or them, but I had it ready.

With a pad and pen I waited for the first knocks at my rented Suite off Santa Monica blvd.

The first person was a young man, in his 20s I'd say. I wasnt impressed at all. He worked previously at a Paychecks payroll place, had some experience, but didnt have the pizzazz I wanted.

The second was an over-weight fellow, must have been in his 40s, what was he thinking applying for this? Plus he drank most of my water.

The third, and by this time, I was getting impatient..I mean, come on, 3 people already! this young woman came in, she was buxom (which is the way I like them) and her name was Stacy. She was a student at UCLA, studying communications...how perfect! So I said, what the heck, I hired her on the spot. Cute, great voice and can do the hours. Not bad, if I say so myself.

I'll send a pic of her later once I figre out how to upload this thing. (Of course I took a pic of her for 'reference')

So now I have my first employee to handle our calls. I think I'm going to keep this suite as the offices for us. I like it close to my lab.

Blogging....

2005-08-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

well, I've been here for awhile now, and I figured I better get on this this blogging stuff.

Man do I miss Novatoria sometimes....