Issue 11-Man Man's Rescue

"Courtney, what did you do that for? You didn't need to kill him."
"Yes I did, it was their fault, it was all their fault. They all have to pay, Andy." Andy was speechless to see a side of Courtney that he had never seen before.
"Courtney, I heard about what happened, we can get you some help."
"No, Andy, No. I have lost everything-My dad, my brother, my dog-for God sake's Andy, my dog. Forget about me Andy, you won't like the person I've become."
"Then why did you save me?"
"You didn't deserve it, you didn't do anything. Take it easy, Andy, I hope good fortune finds you." Andy didn't want to lose her.
"Courtney, wait!"
"Don't follow me, Andy, lest we wind up on opposite sides next time." And with that she disappeared into the sewer darkness.
...
Brady and Zane were trying to decide how to get out of MiD Cave. After arguing about it Brady finally decided he had enough, grabbed Zane, grabbed Zane and jumped out of the cave. He landed on his feet but felt no pain because of his highly enhanced strength and reflexes.
"Good job," commented Zane, "but now we have to find Justice."
"Your guess is as good as mine. I'm new to this whole thing."
"Let me call Jeremiah first." He called and waited a few rings but to no avail. "Nothing-I knew going on this search was a bad idea."
"Well, if this 'Liberator' is a menacing and imposing as you say, we can't just hide in a cave the whole time. Let's start with this, if we're trying to find Justice, how much do you know about him?"
"All the information we have about him, which may or may not be correct, is that he has four arms, can talk with animals, and resides in Glendora California. Past that we have nothing."
"Wait, Glendora, I grew up there, we can start by looking there. You call the taxi."
...
Shannon woke up once again back in the restraints that this strange man had her in before. For that she was angry, but she was glad that he had put a wet towel on her head to help abate her dehydration. She could tell that the restraints were strengthened and struggle as she could, she still could not take them off. She saw her captive fiddling with some random machines and she now noticed that the room that she was being held at was very cluttered and had things all over the floor.
Suddenly, as she watched her captor move about, unaware of what to do, she saw something bur by and hit him and knock him to the ground. Then she felt her restraints being attempted to unlock. She finally got a clear look at her savior to see that it was none other than Amanda Gage. She could tell that Amanda did not know quite how to unlock her restraints, and upon looking at them she did, and she swiftly directed her how. She was free, and the pair were ready to bolt, when Dreadnaught got back up.
"No, No, ladies, we aren't done yet." He took the two swords that he had out, and removed his shirt, ready to engage them. Shannon had no clue how to get out of this. She has super strength, but would not be able to touch Dreadnaught because he had the extended reach with his swords.
"Amanda, if you know what to do, I'm open to suggestions," she said while still watching Dreadnaught pace around them in a circle.
"Man-man, Man-man Man-man." Amanda could just point and try to get her point across.
"What?" asked Shannon, but once she looked at Amanda she could immediately tell that Amanda had almost entirely lost her ability to speak. Before Shannon could do anything, Amanda jumped so high she almost went through the roof, which distracted Dreadnaught enough as he prepared for her to land that Shannon could get a solid punch in. Shannon and Amanda took off running as fast as they could. Amanda easily overtook her, picked her up and kept running. Shannon fell asleep, unable to stay awake despite the heat, as Amanda just kept running.
...
Jeremiah and Zac had just been teleported somewhere by Liberator.
"Where the hell are we?" asked Zac. They were in a completely dark room.
"Perhaps the more appropriate question would be when are we. Don't forget that Liberator can travel through time as well."
"I'm tired of this!" answered Zac rather loudly. He turned up his force-field and directed it towards one of the walls, shattering it and revealing light into their now seemingly empty shed. "Now, I want to find Andy and figure out exactly what is going on here." He grabbed Jeremiah and started to fly.
"Now, you're thinking with your head, ol' boy."
"What time period do you come from, talking like that, anyways?"
"I come from the same period as you, but us Midas' have a regal way of speaking. There!" He pointed towards a house down below and the two of them flew down there. "We can ask these people where and when we are." At first nobody did anything. "You'd better knock, if I do, then the door will turn to gold."
"Oh yeah," remembered Zac. He knocked on the door to the house. It opened immediately upon his knock. They walked in, Zac first followed by Jeremiah. They heard a loud shriek, that knocked Jeremiah to the ground, turning the floorboards gold.
"Welcome," said a low, brooding voice.
...
Andy was wondering what his next course of action would be. After discovering a stature of himself which was made by an unknown person, fighting a guy with flaming pebbles, dreaming about someone he needs to find, meeting the 'new' Courtney, and still needing to find a wild animal to get to MiD Cave, he was a bit overwhelmed. He then realized that the rat he was talking with before was a wild animal, or any rat would do. He set out to find a rat. He was walking along the sewer, but all of the rats were split open, dead. He finally found one that was dying and asked it what happened.
"The statue maker is back," it spit out. Andy heard a noise and turned around to see...
~Good Luck and Good Eats

Issue 10-The Internal Lie detector

Andy looked at the two arms that had just sprouted in astonishment and pejorative surprise. "What the heck?" he said.
"Now, there's one thing I need you to do for me," told the bat-winged figure.
"What is it?" questioned Andy.
"Wake up!" yelled the figure, and with that Andy opened his eyes to the image of another man standing above him. Andy quickly backed away after a quick look around to notice that he was still in the room with the statues in it.
"Fear not, for my intention is not to harm you," spoke the figure, an African American male.
"Who are you?" asked Andy.
"Me, I am the maker of the statues."
"Wait, these statues? How do you know what me and all these people look like?" Upon finishing his sentence, Andy remembered his dream and lifted up his shirt, and to his relief there were only four arms there. He then thought about his dream for a few moments and tried to determine how much of it was true. He then realized that the man in front of him was lying about the statues. He didn't know how, but he knew that he was lying.
"I've met you all before." Again, Andy knew he was lying.
"Why do lie to me?" demanded Andy.
"I'm not lying." Hearing again another lie, Andy walked away, realizing that trying to get this man not to lie was not worth his time. Suddenly, he was thrown to the ground. He turned around to see the man with fiery pebbles in his hands.
"Our conversation wasn't finished," he answered.

...

Dreadnaught was carrying his prize inside of his fortress, which looked much more like a castle, when suddenly Shannon woke up and pushed off of him, knocking him down.
"A little fight in you, as well, huh?" Dreadnaught spoke quite manically. Shannon ran at him and pushed him to the ground, which he hit hard.
"Just leave me alone, you creep!" she screamed.
"Creep? Yes. Alone? No." Dreadnaught replied. He took out his two swords that he had been wearing on his back. Shannon knew she couldn't beat him if he had two swords, but she also knew that he wanted her alive. She looked behind her and saw a sand trap and stepped on it. Sand shot up in the air, some getting in Dreadnaught's eyes, giving Shannon the opportunity she needed. She bolted, running as fast as she could, only looking back once to see that he wasn't chasing her. She thought that she was home free, but suddenly she didn't feel quite right. Then she looked at her hands. She realized that she was dehydrated as she had been running for several minutes and had had a skirmish, all in the middle of the desert. Come to think of it, she had been severly thirsty. She then collapsed, unable to stay conscious.

...

Jeremiah Midas and Zac were flying, trying to determine how to find Andy Martin. "Where do we start?" asked Jeremiah.
"First, let's go down to that diner and get some food," answered Zac. They Zac flew down to it, and Jeremiah covered his entire body, so that nobody could see that he was made of gold. When they went in there was a detective asking questions there.
"Sorry, no customers right now," told the clerk.
"What's going on?" asked Zac.
"A hostess was kidnapped from here a couple of nights ago," replied the detective, "They say that some monster took her. But, unless you have any information about the case, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Zac and Jeremiah walked out the door to find Liberator himself starring them in the face.
"Hello Jeremiah," he said nonchalantly. Jeremiah grabbed Zac and held tightly before answering.
"If you take me, you take him too."
"That can be arranged," cynically replied Liberator and in an instant the two were gone.

...

In a hotel room, with the exact location disclosed, a hostess, with blue skin, wakes up and begins to leave, then, upon remembering what had happened the last time she woke up, stopped.
"That's right, don't go anywhere," The Liberator approached her with a sly aura around him.
"What the hell did you do to me?" fiercly demanded the young woman.
"I gave you life, the way it is supposed to be lived. Well, not technically me, but I did pick you out. Dr. Moriarty gave you life, and my minion kidnapped you. Now, you have the ability to do great things, Carrol. Join with us, no, join with me, and together we can make an army."
"Maybe I should just end your life right here," shot Carrol, again with intensity. She wrapped her hand around Liberator's neck, and fire started to come down her arm, from the shoulder and down until it was almost touching his neck.
"You were lonely and sick, contemplating suicide; I gave you a reason to live." She looked at The Liberator squarely in the eyes for several seconds, before releasing him. He coughed a few times, but ultimately regained his composure. "That's a good girl. Now come with me and meet the rest of the family." Andy lead her away by the hand.

...

"You don't want to do this," spoke Andy to the man with the fiery pebbles in his hands.
"No, I do!" he shouted and he hurled one at Andy that struck him in the leg, knocking Andy to the ground.
"What is wrong with you?" yelled Andy as he he screamed in pain.
"Call me neurotic, or call me bored with power, either way, you'd be right." He threw another one on a collision course with Andy's head, but when it got close it dissolved and fell away. "What the hell?" asked the man, and he threw another one, but it too dissolved. It was then that Courtney stepped forward and, motioning towards the man with her hand, all of the stones in his hand dissolved.
"Thank you, Courtney," thanked Andy, "I can take him from here." But before he could even get up, Courtney started to dissolve the man, first his nails and hair left, as he let out an agonizing scream, and then his fingers fell away, and then his all of his body dissolved and nothing at all was left of him.

~Good Luck and Good Eats

Issue 9-The Chase

The figure that stood in front of Andy put his hand up.
"I do not wish to fight you," it told, "instead I have come only to warn you."
"Warn me of what? Who made these statues? Where is Courtney?"
"Only one of these questions can I answer." His voice is very deep and throaty, and his skin tone is more of a pink rather than the normal pigment of a human's skin. This creature has two large bat wings, and is consequently shirtless, but is wearing long jeans, rolled up at the end. The also bald creature saw the statue of himself and walked up to it. "I've come to warn you about yourself. I don't know how there are two of you, but there are. He sent me to kill you, Liberator did. But I can see that he has done the same to you as he did to me."
"What do you mean?" asked Andy. The figure was walking around, looking at the various statues.
"He's in charge of it all, all the distribution of abilities, it's all Liberator. He's sick, ranting about some sort of another world in which 'justice does not exist' and 'where people can be properly liberated'.
"You see, I used to be like you were, confused, depressed, and with nowhere to go. I signed up to be in the army, and they put me in a 'special' division. That's where I met him, Liberator. He told me all about his plan, before handing me a pill and demanding I take it. I did, and the next day I woke up with these." He motioned towards his wings. "For some reason, he said I was different. After a few days my skin tone started to turn; he was monitoring me closely and he said that he had never seen a subject behave like this before. I slowly started to develop my other abilities, the breath, the voice, the strength, and the ability to blend into the shadows. Liberator was relishing it, but he said that I had to stop. He told me that I was changing, becoming a monster, and only drugs would suppress it from attacking me further. So, he developed these pills that I take, and in repayment, I do his bidding. He sent me down here to kill you. I'm warning you because I want someone to stop him, even if it means the end of me. Beware, Justice, for you are the only one who can."

...

Shannon now find herself on a landmine in the middle of nowhere and she knew that the person that had kidnapped her in the first place would be back soon. She suddenly heard something behind her and looked back to see that figure who had spoken to her before walking towards her. She tensed up, but knew that she couldn't move. He was still quite a few yards away when she looked down at the landmine. Somehow, she knew exactly how to disable it, and she quickly bent down, removed the proper levers, pushed the right buttons and heard a click. She then took off running.
"No! Don't run!" she heard the figure behind her yell, "We're not done playing. Besides, you will never get past everything!" She had no clue what he meant by that, but she was not looking back. She could see all the spots on them that had landmines, with her recently acquired 'robo-vision'. She could tell where all the traps were that he had set and was able to avoid them, but this quickly slowed her down, and he was able to catch up with her. The figure grabbed her by the arms and spun her around. He hit her on the neck and she collapsed.
"Such a hard one to hold, but oh, so important."

...

"How do you expect us to find the Andy Martin that sounds more like the one I know?" asked Zac. He, Brady, Jeremiah, and Zane had lit a fire and were resting in the cave.
"Maybe we should go out and discuss it over dinner," answered Brady.
"We can't leave," replied Zane, "This is the only safe place. This is, for some reason, the only place that Liberator can't teleport to."
"We have to take the chance," spoke Jeremiah, "We have to try to find Justice and end Liberator's reign. There is no way that Liberator will know exactly where we are or where we are going. But, he have to split up. As a foursome we have no chance at finding Justice. Zac, why don't you come with me, and Brady, you go with Zane." He stopped talking and turned two stones near him into gold. "This will pay for all your expenses." He tossed one to each of them. Brady and Zac exchanged numbers so they could keep in contact with each other as the four prepared to leave. Zane pulled Jeremiah aside.
"Do you think we can trust them? After all, we've just met them."
"We don't have much of a choice. We won't get a better chance at taking down Liberator after what he has done to us. Besides this is just like what you foresaw." He put a hood on that was connected to a heavy jacket worn in order to conceal his all-golden appearance. The two groups set out. Zac and Jeremiah set out first, with Zane looking on with an uncomfortable look on his face. He turned towards Brady.
"Let's go, yellow one."

...

A woman wakes up in what she thinks is her home, remembering nothing from the day before. The last thing she remembered was working as a hosstess two days prior. She gets up and quickly realizes that this is not, in fact, her house. She was frightened, but she started to explore the house that she now found herself in. The didn't feel good, but fortunately she is able to quickly stumble her way into a bathroom. She throws some water on her face, and looks into the mirror. It is then that she notices that her skin has turned blue, and her eyes had turned black.
"What the *&%$?" she yelled as she punched the nearest wall, and it immediatly caught fire. A gas came out of a vent in the wall that knocked out the woman. Liberator looked at the whole incident from the other end of the two-way mirror with a smile on.

...

Andy was still reeling from the information just given to him from this mysterious creature while still trying to figure out who made the statues.
"How can you prove all this?" he asked the creature.
"I'm afriad I can't. but for right now, you are just going to have to trust me. Here, these will suppress any further mutation of your DNA like what happened to me."
"I'm not taking anything!!" Yelled Andy. "What happened to you won't possibly happen to me." But by the time he was done talking he lifted up his shirt, to see that two more arms had sprouted below where the other ones were.

~Good Luck and Good Eats.