Superheroes In Denim
Page 69
Momma tsked at him. “I can take care of myself. Though I will say this house is whole lot quieter with you gone. Empty-like.”
What he wouldn’t give to be able to waltz right back into his life. Bobby sighed. “Did Daddy ever tell you about the stuff he did as a Marine?”
She squeezed his shoulders. “That’s how he stopped having nightmares. He talked about it. He never wanted you to hear any of it, so he’d tell me when he woke up and couldn’t sleep, in the middle of the night. Like now.”
If that wasn’t an invitation, he didn’t know what was. Bobby started talking, telling her the whole story, from start to end. Once he started, it came out in a flood of words, and he didn’t leave anything out, not a single thing. Through it all, she sat there and listened to him and didn’t let go. It was what he needed, more than anything else.
When he stopped, the silence was deep and wide. Momma pulled him into a hug and rocked him like she used to when he was little, until he fell asleep. He woke up later to the smell of bacon and eggs, a pillow under his head, and a glass of orange juice on the coffee table. Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, he took a long drink of juice. As he stood to take it to the sink, someone knocked on the door.
“Ignore it,” Momma called from the kitchen.
He grinned and ambled to her. “You figure they’ll get bored and go away?”
She set everything aside and wrapped him in a hug. “I figure my boy’s belly is more important than anything they want to know.”
Until that moment, he hadn’t realized how much he still worried about her acceptance. He hugged her back, reveling in the embrace. “I love you, Momma.”
“I love you too, Robert. You’re my boy, and that won’t never change.”
Listing of Superheroes
This listing includes all thirty-five superheroes, along with an explanation of their superpowers. Characters without ethnicity notations are nonspecific Caucasian/White.
Robert Mitchell (Bobby)
Age: 19
Occupation: Appliance delivery person
Hometown: A semi-rural suburb of Atlanta, Georgia
Superpower: His entire body is made of tiny robot dragons, which he can separate and re-form at will. The dragons have individual minds that operate on a simplistic level, and are each part of the hive mind that is Bobby. They can all breathe fire and fly.
Jayce Westbrook—Native American/Yavapai
Age: 22
Occupation: Hotel security guard
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
Superpower: The ability to change the composition of his body to any material he touches with his hands. He tends to choose steel or similar metals, which give him additional strength along with defenses against most kinds of weapons.
Ai Dazai—Japanese
Age: 22
Occupation: Not stated
Hometown: San Diego, CA
Superpower: Speed, 100mph.
Alice Fang—Chinese
Age: 21
Occupation: Pre-med student at Stanford
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Superpower: Creates ice. Her body is immune to the harmful affects of cold.
Jasmine Milani—Iranian
Age: 22
Occupation: Waitress
Hometown: Washington, DC
Superpower: Shapeshifter—squirrel form only. She can also run at unusually high speeds and exercise a mild form of mind control over other squirrels.
Hannah Parson
Age: 23
Occupation: Secretary in a real estate office
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Superpower: Makes a force field of blue energy that deflects everything she’s ever encountered, and can catch or carry people and objects.
Elizabeth Caulfield (Lizzie)
Age: 19
Occupation: None
Hometown: A small town near Little Rock, AR.
Superpower: Creates fire. She’s immune to fire and suffers no ill effects from exposure to heat.
Daniel Jarvis (Dan)
Age: 19
Occupation: Not stated
Hometown: A small town near Little Rock, AR.
Superpower: Body control (others). He can control the physical actions of others as if they were puppets for his mind.
Andrew Roulet
Age: 23
Occupation: Sous-chef in a fancy restaurant
Hometown: Baton Rouge, LA
Superpower: Nullifier. Whoever he’s touching is completely incapable of using their own power until he lets go. He also can remove the effects of a mental power from a victim/target.
Stephen Cant
Age: 20
Occupation: College student
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Superpower: Classical vampire. He can fly, has unusual strength, regenerates, and his saliva can overload the senses with pleasure. Unfortunately, he also can only ingest blood and burns in sunlight.
Christopher Gonzales (Chris)—Tejano
Age: 23
Occupation: hairdresser
Hometown: Austin, TX
Superpower: Empathy. He can sense and alter the emotions of others.
Tiana Brown—African-American
Age: 23
Occupation: Zookeeper at the LA Zoo
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Superpower: Animal telepathy.
Matthew Garrison
Age: 22
Occupation: Marine veteran of Afghanistan
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Superpower: Werewolf with regeneration. The alternate shape is tied to his PTSD. When in werewolf shape, he’s unable to control himself and rampages until stopped.
Lily Thatcher
Age: 20
Occupation: Mom to Sebastian (age 2), employee at her parents’ garden center
Hometown: San Jose, CA
Superpower: Creates objects out of a hard white material. She has the most success making weapons and tools, and can create fully functional bullets.
Anita Martinez—Hispanic
Age: 21
Occupation: Casino pit boss
Hometown: Reno, NV
Superpower: Telekinesis.
Kaitlin Tremont
Age: 20
Occupation: Online day trader
Hometown: Shelby, MT
Superpower: Precognition. She sees the future, both on demand and whenever her own safety is in jeopardy.
Andrea Foster
Age: 21
Occupation: Not stated
Hometown: Indianapolis, IN
Superpower: Disintegration. She can destroy any inanimate object, rendering it to fine dust, but cannot affect living things.
Greg Mezilis
Age: 20
Occupation: Graduate student
Hometown: Madison, WI
Superpower: Gadgeteer. He is a supergenius in the subject of applied science and engineering.
Violet Grace
Age: 21
Occupation: Graduate student (Law school)
Hometown: Mobile, AL
Superpower: Flight, 100mph.
Owen Johnson
Age: 22
Occupation: Garbage collector
Hometown: Denver, CO
Superpower: Sound control. He can manipulate the sound of his own voice in any way imaginable.
John Tseng—Chinese
Age: 21
Occupation: Florist
Hometown: Raleigh, NC
Superpower: Plant control. He can manipulate plants to change their characteristics, supply them with nutrients, and communicate with them.
Javier Ortiz—Hispanic
Age: 19
Occupation: Auto mechanic
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Superpower: Wall crawling. He can walk across any surface at any angle, including water.
Maisie Polape—Native Hawaiian
Age: 20
Occupation: Hula dancer
Hometown: Honolulu, HI
Superpower: Portal throwing. She can create a wormhole between any two points, so long as she has a surface to put the portals on. The two portals she can create are person-sized and allow anyone to pass through.
Paul Pearson
Age: 20
Occupation: College student
Hometown: Seattle, WA
Superpower: Telepathy.
William Moore (Liam)
Age: 23
Occupation: MBA student at Harvard
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Superpower: Empathic Healer. He takes the injuries of others onto his own body, then regenerates them himself. Injuries he sustains personally do not regenerate, but can be given to someone else.
Samantha Green (Sam)
Age: 20
Occupation: Webmaster, college student
Hometown: New York City, NY
Superpower: Accesses and controls any type of device that runs an operating system, including peripheral devices, like cameras and microphones.
Antonio Benti—Cubano
Age: 21
Occupation: Not stated
Hometown: Miami, FL
Superpower: Shapeshifter—inanimate objects of a size similar to his own body only.
Lisa Brewer
Age: 23
Occupation: Kindergarten teacher
Hometown: St. Paul, MN
Superpower: Accesses a pocket of extradimensional space with unknown dimensions. She is able to climb into the space herself, and can theoretically stuff something as big as a car inside it.
Camellia Androvitch
Age: 21
Occupation: Customer service call center drone
Hometown: Phoenix, AZ
Superpower: Chameleon. Her body can shift what it looks like to match her surroundings. When she stands still, she’s effectively invisible.
Dianna Jackson—African-American
Age: 18
Occupation: None, recent high school graduate with no plans
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Superpower: Controls the movement of air and can propel herself, others, and objects through the air.
Chelsea O’Malley
Age: 18
Occupation: Mental patient (institutionalized)
Hometown: Boston, MA
Superpower: Has two feathery, angel-like wings that allow her to fly.
Kevin Astrid
Age: 21
Occupation: Apartment complex security guard
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Superpower: Invisibility
Brian Arralt
Age: 20
Occupation: College student—marine biology
Hometown: Portland, OR
Superpower: His body can melt into clear water bounded by a transparent membrane as tough as steel.
Raymond Beller (Ray)—African-American
Age: 23
Occupation: Construction worker
Hometown: New Orleans, LA
Superpower: Creates a physical shield that he cannot be separated from against his will. It can range in size from covering only his fist to a ten foot square, and he can lift it easily no matter the size he chooses. The material is impervious to harm.
Kanik Okpik—Inuit
Age: 22
Occupation: None
Hometown: Juneau, AK
Superpower: [redacted]
About the Author
Lee French lives in Olympia, WA with two kids, two bicycles, and too much stuff. She is an avid gamer and member of the Myth-Weavers online RPG community, where she is known for her fondness for Angry Ninja Squirrels of Doom. In addition to spending too much time there, she also trains year-round for the one-week of glorious madness that is RAGBRAI, has a nice flower garden with one dragon and absolutely no lawn gnomes, and tries in vain every year to grow vegetables that don’t get devoured by neighborhood wildlife.
She is an active member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and the Olympia Area Writers Coop, as well as being one of two Municipal Liaisons for the NaNoWriMo Olympia region and a founding member of Clockwork Dragon Books.
Find Lee on Facebook and Twitter, and visit her blog for more information about this and her other books.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this book, please consider posting a review on Amazon. You can also sign up for my newsletter to keep up with my new releases.
Books by Lee French
Spirit Knights
YA urban paranormal adventure
Girls Can’t Be Knights
Backyard Dragons
Ethereal Entanglements (coming June 2016)
The Maze Beset Trilogy
Superheroes in denim
Dragons In Pieces
Dragons In Chains
Dragons In Flight
In the Ilauris setting
Standalone fantasy tales
Damsel In Distress
Shadow & Spice (short story)
Al-Kabar
The Greatest Sin series
Epic fantasy co-authored with Erik Kort
The Fallen
Harbinger
Moon Shades
Illusive Echoes (coming summer 2016)
Anthologies
Into the Woods: a fantasy anthology
Merely This and Nothing More: Poe Goes Punk
Unnatural Dragons: a science fiction anthology (coming summer 2016)
Missing Pieces VIII: short stories from GenCon’s Author’s Avenue (coming August 2016)
Non-fiction
with Jeffrey Cook
Working the Table: An Indie Author’s Guide to Conventions
Legal
Published by Clockwork Dragon Books
Superheroes In Denim, Maze Beset, Dragons In Pieces, Dragons In Chains, and Dragons In Flight are a works of fiction. Names, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
No dragons, squirrels, goats, superheroes, or government agents were harmed in the writing of this book.
Copyright © 2015 by Lee French
Cover copyright © 2016 by Keith Draws
All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Dragons In Pieces
Interlude at the Farm
Dragons In Chains
Dragons In Flight
Listing of Superheroes