My thanks go out to Astra, Furious Squirrel, Aflima, Crossroads, and Krystal Fae for taking part. Each of you will receive at minimum 2 Reality Writer cards for your efforts.
I hope everyone takes a moment to read the entries, which I will include below. Top Marks go to Aflima and Crossroads for their descriptive tales about how they got to the Stellar Arena, use of other player's characters, set-up for their departure, and their eventual arrival. They wove the current in-game events into their story from their character's perspectives.
Aflima Arrives
"Just shows you can't trust known baddies," grunted Aflima as he opened the hatch to the spacecraft. His arm was still not 100% from a previous situation that he and his team encountered, but he didn't want to worry his friend. (editor's note: This refers back to a different Fiction Forum story that Aflima is taking part in. Please check it out at
Rosa, also known as Macaia's Daughter, slid in behind him. The spacecraft was on the small side, but since the BADGE aeronautics team had their crack at making the vehicle souped up for rapid-flight, it wasn't a bother.
"You could zoom off ahead. Your ability does enable you to handle a lack of atmosphere for a good bit," offered Rosa.
Aflima chuckled. "No way, it won't take long. Besides..."
"I KNOW, I'm not a good driver," Rosa pouted, before settling back in her seat. She buckled her belts.
The spacecraft burst from the ground, the G-forces throwing both Aflima and Rosa hard against their chairs as they rocketed away.
"The AI will be able to handle things until we approach the station. Get your helmet on, Rosa!" Aflima called out loudly. Rosa followed the command without hesitation.
In rapid time they were outside the Earth's atmosphere and soon approaching BADGE's Orbital Station. Aflima from the cockpit could see a number of other space vessels approaching as well as smaller figures which he figured to be heroes with space flight capabilities.
"Can we get in through there?" asked Rosa as she pointed to an object near the arena. The object glowed bright and spun slowly.
"Why, I do believe someone's set up a direct portal for us," smiled Aflima. "Well done, Crossroads. Rosa... ready?"
"Ready."
"Hatch opening now. Grab my hand."
Aflima, partially ablaze, turned and grabbed Rosa by her shoulders. Together they flew toward the portal gate that would place them in the arena for a battle unlike any other.
Crossroads Arrival (She chronologically got there first, but Father Time was messing with clocks, so deal with it.)
Allison was tending bar, again.
"I swear, Alex," Allyson complained, "if Bobby calls off again you need to fire is butt. This is the third time this week. I do have a life, you know! I mean, I fight crime and I've been more reliable lately than Bobby!"
"I know and I really appreciate this, Ally!" Alex answered, trying to calm her down.
Alex was well aware of Allyson's abilities and other life as Crossroads the superhero, the entire night staff was. After all, last year when those gunman burst into the restaurant, she saved them all by dropping them all through a portal to a hotel across town. Unfortunately, she was turned into a cat. An event that Allyson definitely does not like to be reminded of.
"Well, we're dead right now and will be closing up in hour, anyway, so why don't you take off and let me close up your station tonight?" Alex offered.
"Really?! Your the best, Alex!" Allyson chirped with a bright smile while she struggled to untie her apron.
Allyson felt a weird wave of...something wash over her. Just then, a group of eight men pushed through the doors. From the way they were dressed, it looked like an episode of "What Not To Wear." An eye-tearing mix of frat boy "whatever is most clean" and "wannabe hipster from WallyWorld" clothing on what were obviously hired muscle. They were belligerent and ready to cause trouble.
Allyson froze for only a second. She knew these guys. But what were they doing here? The leader of the group was dead. She was told that Morganna killed him for failing to capture Allyson. All the rest of these guys were in prison! She reacted immediately.
While the gang was still approaching the bar, Allyson created a portal large enough to drop the entire group through and aimed it at Purgatory Penitentiary. A couple of tables and chairs went with them, but that was a small price to pay for the safety of everyone here.
At that moment an alert came over Ally's BADGE communicator. Gar's voice came over the speaker.“Heroes, Father Time has betrayed us. Get to the League Wars Arena! All heroes! FIGHT!”
Allyson, looked at Alex. "Sorry about the tables and chairs, I'll get them back as soon as I can, but right now, I have to go!"
Alex nodded and said, "I understand, just go and..." But she was already gone.
"...be careful, Ally." Alex finished in a whisper.
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Crossroads stepped through a portal right onto the Stellar Arena's observation deck. The area was getting crowded and heroes kept arriving. She looked out the large crystoplast window and saw a multitude of shuttle and ships waiting to dock and offload their passengers. The shuttle bay crews were expediting landings and leavings quickly, but the number of ships waiting were increasing.
Knowing that many of the incoming heroes could fly and survive in space, she created several one-way portals among the waiting ships, letting the dimensional energies bleed out just a bit so each portal was surrounded by a very visible swirl of color. The exit point for the portals was along the wall of the Observation Deck. Those approaching the portals in space could see the into the Observation Deck, but those in the station, could only see a grey void. Making portals one-way meant that the atmosphere of the Stellar Arena wasn't being sucked out into the vacuum of space, along with all the loose objects and people.
Crossroads hurried off to see if she could find her league mates and go over any battles plans that may have been made. She was all for just attacking an enemy en masse, but Father Time was going to require a little bit more than beserker ass-kicking.Both of these stories will earn the reward of 460MP, for being the first featured story for each as well as being featured on the Sentinel News. That's enough for two triple-spins on the Nova's Mystery Shuffle should they choose to use them that way.Each of the other three entries do a good job of highlighting their characters, a bit of what their powers are, where they are when they get the call, and other interesting tidbits of information. A big round of applause for Astra, Furious Squirrel, and Krystal Fae.
Astra Arrives with Doug
Keri (Astra) and Doug were laying in the back of his pick-up staring at the night sky. They were counting shooting stars out in the field away from the lights of the city or even the small towns they grew up in. They had been doing this since they were two small boys.
"You know," Keri started, "people might get the wrong idea about you and me now that I'm a young woman." She stared at the falling stars. She put her hands behind her head, she thought it was funny how people looked at her now.
"Let them," Doug replied. "We've known each other since we were in diapers. You're still my best friend even if you are a young woman, now. It has taken me months to stop calling you Kevin. It's not like I can really do anything to you. I'm afraid of what your new mom would do to me even if I could. You heard EB, she has a bad temper." Keri laughed at that.
Just then they saw a familiar truck driving down the road. It was the same truck they were laying in the back of. "Oh, my, I think time is still fracturing," Keri stated in awe.
“Heroes, Father Time has betrayed us. Get to the League Wars Arena! All heroes! FIGHT!” Came over their communicators. It was Gar's voice.
"Astra here, Doug and I are on our way," Keri confirmed. She activated the psionic responsive nanites and she was in costume. In a flash of red psionic energy they were gone.
Furious Squirrel Arrives
Furious Squirrel was fighting crime on the mean streets of Neo Utopia. He got a signal from Gar that there was somthing going down in the arena. He jumped into his steampowered super dirigible and blasted off. this is no ordinary dirigible, it used mp for power. it can fly into space. He raced to the arena and landed in the middle of the field, steampunk pistols ready to blast mr time in his old butt.
Krystal Fae Arrives
Krystal was trying to ease a cramp in her distended abdomen.,. fortunately, yoga stretches seemed to help.
As the cramp eased, Krystal felt... well... not quite a wave of nausea, but something close to it... something was different.
From her bedside table, her B,A.D.G,E. comm sounded. She summoned it to it's usual spot on her wrist, then activated the unit.
The voice of Gar sounded from the speaker, and it sounded distressed.
"Heroes, Father Time has betrayed us. Get to the League Wars Arena! All Heroes! FIGHT!"
Krystal sighed, summoned her armor, and teleported to the staging area,
Each of these different scenes show different points of view on the same situation. Together, they become a collaborative fiction story. Participants in collaborative fiction stories are eligible for a monthly reward called "Collaborative Fiction Best of the Month". This reward is based on participation and quality, and may earn participants 2+ Strange Fiction Power Cards worth 120MP each.
So, hopefully some of you can now see that by participating in the Fiction Forum or joining others in collaborative fiction threads, there are worthwhile rewards for your efforts, on top of helping your hero become more well known in the Heroes Rising Community.
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