I don’t know if anyone here follows my superhero series over in fictionpress, but I am about to finish posting it. It is about to be over over and I want to celebrate by dumping a bunch of stuff from the series on my tumblr.
I found an old--like, super old--bit of pre-writing. Something that would have gone in the second book if it hadn’t been written way before the second book. I laugh at how off base it was character/story wise while being impressed at how spot on the underlying narrative and themes are.
“That’s Cat,” Jonathan said as he watched the replay of the bank robbery.
“What the hell is she doing?” Pat asked.
“Robbing the bank,” John said. John? JOHN? I take it back, this has to be pre-first book. He never went by John.
“Yeah, but she’s a good guy,” Pat said. “Why would a good guy rob a bank?”
John and Pat exchange a look before racing down to the lab.
“Midge, we’ve got a problem,” John yelled.
“I know,” Midge said. “The serum I gave Cat is changing. Mutating.”
“Mutating in an evil way?” Pat asked.
“Serums can’t mutate someone to be evil,” Midge scoffed. “It’s screwing with her judgement. Playing with her temptations. Pushing her to be reckless.”
“Pushing her to rob banks,” Pat said. “Tell me you have an anti-serum or something.”
In response, Midge held up a small vile. O’Conner grabbed it out of her and and started toward the door.
“I’ll have T give this to her,” Pat said.
“It’s not for Cat, it’s for you,” Midge said. “It’s a less potent version of the serum.”
I think the thing I’m enjoying most about Invasion is that I have found a way to believably slide in almost every big bad from the previous books. The Psionic Doom Irregulars are back, Hastrman is back, the Protectorate is back, Adept is back, the ELH is back. They’re all back and they all play important roles in the story. And it’s fun. The callbacks to the journey the characters took to get here have been fun.
The only villains I missed are White Serpent and the Mob from the 4th book. But the mob’s all dead thanks to Speaker except Lye, who switched sides. So maybe that counts. As for White Serpent, well, I liked how her story wrapped up in the 6th book. Any attempt to top that would just be shoehorning her in for the sake of having her.
Besides, it leaves you feeling like she’s just waiting in the wings for her chance to come back once the playing field has cleared.
Man, this was the obvious scene. Why did I not come up with this before tonight? Both Midge and Jaz have lost someone close to them before and that loss ripped apart any potential they had at being friends at the time. It was the entire bases of their contentious relationship in the fifth book.
So obviously now that they’re in a better place and have figured out how to at least rebuild a working partnership if not a friendship they need a moment to grieve together. Where they admit that they miss not only the friend they just lost but also the one they lost years ago. Where they finally get a chance to offer the shoulder they should have offered years ago. Golden.
Man, I missed some golden opportunities for comedy my first time around Invasion. How could I have possibly thought it was okay to write this book without a scene between Cat, Jaz, and Sade? What on earth was I thinking?
God, Invasion has just been awful to reread through. I went right for ‘everything is awful’ and forgot that while the future might be awful, everyone is supposed to be in a good place at present.
"You know, Margaret, for a moment you had me worried," the Adept said. "Imagine my relief when I realized your little operation was going down at the wrong location."
"Morgan," General Jones said softly, tapping his communicator. "You've been compromised. Get everyone out of there now."
"While you all have been working so hard to keep your operation moving forward without a hitch, I was able to kick back, relax, and enjoy watching you work. And it has been oh so enlightening, Margaret."
"CESPAIR, find the location of the gateway device. The real one this time."
"Ah, yes, your pesky little AI," the Adept said. "Like a roach, it will take some time to weed her out. But I'm not worried."
"You should be," Crofton snapped. "All we need to do is keep you occupied long enough for the AI to find the information we need."
"That would be the correct course of action," the Adept said. "Too bad you'll be too busy keeping the warehouse from exploding to worry about what I'm doing."
And tomorrow I'm going to have to write the thing. Which, on one had is awesome because I wanted the thing to happen in the first 50,000 words and it's totally going to happen. On the other hand, I'm super nervous. The thing is kinda the emotional pinnacle of the series and I'm just super worried I'm not going to be able to pull it off.
