When I first heard about Michelle being involved in something called Tigress, I assumed it would be an original creation. I work in a comic book store, and have always wanted to break into comics, so as I was reading a book on screenwriting ("Story" by Robert Mckee, which several comic authors recommend) I had the idea to start working on a Tigress story starring Michelle. Sort of as practice (or maybe if I'm really lucky a published work??) for my chosen profession/daydream.

I imagined a sort of action/comedy that has semi-absurd villains centered around a touching, character driven story. So if it seems a little silly at first, bear with me. I don't have the script for the first issue finalized yet, I do have a step-outline for the entire six issue series that I am going to expand over the next few weeks and then turn into scripts. I just wanted to know if anyone would be interested in reading a Tigress story that didn't revolve around a 20-year old Conan character that no one has ever heard of (who didn't google her, that is), because, you know, how many Tigress characters can a consumer audience want anyway?

Ok, so here's the premise;
"Tigress" is about a young woman who was put up for adoption at birth, and developed cat-like powers during puberty. Her foster parents divorced when she turned eighteen and her foster mother has been her only family since. Her powers would draw the wrong kind of attention, so she has had to work an endless series of dead-end jobs and hide who she really is from the world. One day she sees a news report about two superheroes in a neighboring city who accidentaly kill a super-villain during a failed bank robbery, one of the heroes is a latino with cat-like abilities called "El Tigre" who resembles the man who put her up for adoption. So she hatches a plan to go to this city, and become a super-hero herself in order to draw him out and learn why he put her up for adoption and why she has super-powers. From there she goes on to battle a group of ninjas (see, silly) a corrupt government agent (not so silly, unfortunately) and his legion of killer cybernetic teddy-bears (back to silly again) in her attempt to garner media attention, and thus her presumed father's attention.

I should have the first issue script in a week at the most, unless you all think this is a horrible idea and don't want me to post it. Let me know, please.

p.s. those killer teddy bears are scarier than they sound, trust me (they're also adorable and @#$%ing crazy).

Ok, hero goes nothing. I was going to write this as a comic script, only to realize that without an artist I would have to go to great lengths to describe the images. What should have been an entire issue ended up being only the first two scenes...equalling about ten pages. I should have the rest of the first issue up by next week, until then here is the first chapter of "Tigress". Michelle's character is called "Mayte" (I'm bad with creating actual names for people so I'll use her real name), her foster mother Carmen (see?) and the feline hero "El Tigre" (yes, literally "the tiger", I'm a gringo after all) make up the principal characters.

Enjoy.

Tigress

By Bryan Coe, 2007
Genre: action/adventure, drama, general goofiness
Rated: pg-13-R
Disclaimer: I already gave a brief overview in the topic starter, you can skip it if you like.


Chapter One



Destiny can be a funny thing sometimes. Control is a funny thing too…..you may think you are in control of your life, but the life you are living might not be the one the universe meant for you. Maybe you need a little push to get you on the right path, a little wake-up call from the powers-that-be. Sometimes, just when you think that your life is set and you are too old to change it, the universe steps in. And, as two people (who may be closer than they both realize) are about to discover, destiny and the universe as a whole….can be a real kick in the pants some days.

“El Tigre”, or as the vast majority of the people in this city who didn’t speak Spanish simply called him, “The Tiger”, had been waiting for an opportunity like this all week. Behind him, police and firefighters were trying to manage the chaotic scene of a failed bank robbery. Smoke rose from the bank as hostages ran in all directions, some into the open arms of police or paramedics, some just running away. Sirens and screams filled the air as the four men he was chasing leapt onto the rooftop of the building ahead.

One of them, was bouncing around as easily as if he was on the moon, leaping far ahead of his three partners and then having to circle back and wait for them to catch up. He wasn’t dressed as a frog or anything (thank god), instead he wore regular clothes. Most likely he was the first man inside the bank and didn’t want to spook anyone until his partners were in position.

The second man looked as if he was made out of concrete, with hair that looked like jagged rocks and skin that looked like someone had taken a sidewalk and shaped it into a man. The third villain looked as if he had been dressed as a jester or clown, but during the botched robbery most of his costume had been torn to shreds and all of the clever gadgets he had spent hours making to help in his life of crime had been used or discarded. He seemed the weakest of all three and was probably the brains of the outfit, for all the good it did them (taking orders from a man with bells hanging from his hat is not a smart career move).

The final villain looked like the nightmarish love-child of Edward Scissorhands and Grizzly Adams. From head-to-toe he was covered in sharp edges, knives and swords, armor plating, and black leather topped off with a huge unkempt beard. Unless stupidity had become a super-power, this guy was probably not that dangerous. Of course, that’s no reason to go easy on him or his friends. Not after they hurt several people in that bank and then led him on this merry little chase across the city in 90 degree weather.

It didn’t even matter that he was outnumbered, he had a secret weapon that was going to make this the shortest super villain team-up in recent memory.

Launching himself onto a windowsill and than up the side of the brick-walled building, El Tigre lamented (and not for the first time) being born with cat-like abilities instead of those of a bird. The chase was already tiring him out. His legs felt like they were on fire, and it wasn’t just the heat that was making him sweat….this was a younger man’s game. Even his tail didn’t wag the way it used to, it usually just hung limply behind him these days. The villains were nearly on the other side of the roof already as he poked his head over the edge, but they could still hear him give voice to the pain creeping up through his legs.

“Sucks getting old” He said as the struggled over the edge. Ahead one of the villains (Grizzly Adams Jr.) turned and stood his ground.

“What’s the matter grandpa? Your arthritis acting up?”. The concrete-villain slows down a little but continues on, looking back on his partners as they stop to taunt El Tigre. They start laughing at him as he picks himself up off the ground with visible effort. With his back to open air, he unsheathes his claws as the villains begin circling him.

“You just made the biggest mistake of your life Gramps”. Ironic, El Tigre thinks coming from the grown man dressed as a jester.

In the background concrete-guy is walking backwards, keeping his eye on the fight. In his hands are two bags containing what’s left of the money they stole from the bank. They should have had more, but the police arrived too soon, and the subsequent explosions from Jesters arsenal of toy-themed weapons burnt the rest of the money to cinders. No matter, this is plenty he thinks. Smiling confidently, he starts to turn away from the fight and prepares to jump to the next rooftop.

“You guys handle the hero, I’m gonna stash these someplace safe and then…”, before he can finish that thought he slams into a wall. He lets out a surprised grunt and promptly falls onto his back. When he stands up, he sees that it’s not a wall, but a man…hovering a few inches off the ground.

The other villains turn to see what made him stop talking, and they all freeze. With his cape fluttering in the breeze (what little breeze there was), his bright primary colored costume and his muscular chest, he strongly resembled a certain well-known (and copyrighted) fictional character. Not that heroes ever got sued by anyone in this day and age. It’s hard to file a suit against someone you can’t even find, much less know the real name of.

“Meet my new partner, his names Guardian. He’s new and doesn’t know that many super-villains personally. Hey, why don’t you guys introduce yourselves?”

Concrete-guy laughs and drops the bags on the roof. “Ha-ha-ha, “holy copyright infringement Batma…””

(sfx) WHAM.

Guardian’s punch sends him all the way across the rooftop, nearly landing on top of Grizzly Jr. and the others.

Now wearing a child-like smile from ear to ear, El Tigre yells; “Game on!”, before leaping into the air at the bouncing villain, tackling him in mid-air as he tries to take off. He pounces on him like a cat with a mouse, his tail whips wildly back and forth as he shoves the man’s head into the roof. While a few feet away, Grizzly Jr. rushes towards Guardian head-on.

Jester rushes to concrete-boy’s side to help him up as Grizzly Jr. tries a jab at Guardian’s face. If he felt anything from the impact, he hid it well. Grizzly Jr.’s punch resulted in nothing more than the blades attached to his forearm snapping off like cheap plastic. Guardian doesn’t even strike back at first, letting the guy punch and kick and attempt to stab him to no avail.

“You know, most people never get to have this much fun at their jobs. Working day in-day out, running a register or typing reports and such…” El Tigre says to the bouncing villain while he pummels him. “…that’s why I could never work in an office, you don’t get the same healthy exercise from wailing on super-villains while working in a cubicle”.

The concrete villain gets to his feet, wipes some blood from his mouth and then rushes off to help Grizzly Jr. as the Jester frantically searches his utility belt for anything that could be useful. “Damn , there has to be something left in here…” He continues searching, completely unaware that El Tigre is sneaking up behind him, getting ready to pounce on him next. “Come on, Come on…”

Guardian is having the time of his life. These villains clearly pose no threat to him, thanks to his super strength and invulnerability, and his partner (and only friend) might finally show him some respect after this is over. Maybe, he thinks, if he does a really good job the city will honor him with a parade or the key to the city for stopping these villains and returning the money. Yeah! That’s it, a parade and maybe a medal!

He is so wrapped up in these thoughts that he doesn’t notice concrete-guy behind him until the villain starts putting him in a head-lock. Grizzly Jr. joins in and grabs one of Guardian’s arms, preventing him from freeing himself. Together the try to bring the hero to his knees.

Across the rooftop, Jester finally extracts a tiny home-made vial of acid. “YES, I knew I had something left…” Raising it up, he shouts to get Grizzly’s attention. “HEY,,,,CATCH!” He wraps his fist around and prepares to throw it. He stops in mid-throw when he sees the panicked look in Grizzly’s face and his outstretched hand pointing at something behind him.

“JESTER, LOOK OUT!”.

His warning comes to late, before he can turn all they way around El Tigre tackles him. Latching onto the hapless villain in mid-tackle and using the momentum to roll him over and over towards the other villains. “Heads up buddy, HERE COMES THE PITCH” In one smooth move, El Tigre plants both feet on the ground, stopping the spin, and then launches the other man at his invulnerable comrade.

Frustrated that he can’t get the two villains off of him, Guardian is struggling furiously. Swinging left and right, he tries to dislodge the concrete arm around his throat. His face is red from the lack of oxygen going to his brain, and his only free hand can’t reach the villain pinning his other arm. When he hears El Tigre shout that code-phrase, he immediately turns and prepares to throw a punch, just like they practiced.

All those back-breaking training sessions, boring lessons on teamwork, complicated strategies that made his head hurt, and El Tigre’s merciless taunts-that-he-said-were-encouragement were about to pay off. He wasn’t going to let his partner down now, no sir. It doesn’t matter that he is already fighting two villains, or that El Tigre got to fight the two weaker villains. That’s why you have a super-strong guy paired with a street-fighting type of guy, you’re supposed to handle what you’re good at. At least that’s what El Tigre told him, and he wouldn’t lie to his partner, right? This was no sweat, everything was going according to plan.

….except the idiot in the jester costume was coming at him way too fast.

Whether El Tigre simply botched the shot, or Guardian wasn’t paying enough attention during those training sessions regarding the proper-amount-of-super-strength-to-use-on-an- unprotected-human, didn’t really matter.

Guardian happily turned towards the sound of his partner’s voice and swung his free arm with all his might at the oncoming human missile (okay maybe it was his fault) . His fist could rend solid steel, crush coal into diamonds, or in this case, collide with a man’s face….

….and go right through his head.

El Tigre and the bouncing villain both looked up in horror. Concrete-guy and Grizzly carefully and quietly released Guardian from their hold and began awkwardly stepping away from him. All eyes were on the poor sap in the jester costume, now hanging limply on the end of Guardian’s forearm. He had been flung towards Guardian facing forward and nearly standing up. Now, his arms rested at his sides while his legs dangled beneath him. Calling him, “him” was somewhat inaccurate, as his corpse wasn’t even standing. Since Guardian was several inches taller than him, Jesters legs were bent backwards so that only the tips of his feet were actually touching the ground. Blood and gore covered Guardian’s quaking fist.

Bouncing villain doesn’t waste any time with sentiment over his friend and just takes off for another rooftop. The other two villains turn tail and run in no particular direction. Neither stops to pick up the money. Silence grips the rooftop as the two heroes are now alone.

El Tigre slowly rises to his feet and begins walking over to his partner. This was supposed to be easy, four low-rent villains robbing a bank in broad daylight. Simple, straightforward and an idiot-proof way to train a new partner. Now, in less than three seconds it had all turned to sh-t.

“Doug, listen to me, listen to the sound of my voice, okay?” Guardian was as pale as a ghost and sweat was starting to run down his face. He was invulnerable, so it wasn’t the heat wave the city was experiencing that was affecting him. El Tigre slowly crept toward his partner, raising his hands palm-up and talking in a quiet, calm voice. “It’s going to be okay, just take a deep breath and stay calm”

Trying to take in a deep breath only made Guardian, the nearly seven-foot tall man of Herculean strength, begin to cry. At first, it was just a tear on the right side of his face that could have been mistaken for sweat. Then another, and another and suddenly Guardian was bawling like a child whose ice cream cone had just fallen to the ground on a hot summer day. With every movement of his body, Jesters corpse would dangle back and forth with a sickening sound of torn flesh punctuating every action. Which in fact, only made Guardian cry harder.

El Tigre was now approaching him on his right side, raising one arm to put around his shoulder. “Just take it easy, you can handle this, I know you can, cuz’ you’re a hero. And heroes have to handle this kind of thing all the time. Now, let’s just…”

(sfx) SCCCHHWWUUMMP

He never finishes that thought as Jester’s body slides off the end of the other man’s fist and falls into a heap at their feet. As it falls the corpse’s knees hit first and prop the body up so that it falls backwards, giving both heroes a perfect view of the gaping hole where Jester’s face used to be. For a moment, Guardian stops crying, unable to comprehend what he is seeing. While all of the fake courage on El Tigre’s face disappears, to be replaced with a look of absolute terror.

“We have to get the hell out of here.”


==========================

The street lights were the only real illumination at 3 a.m. in the morning. There wasn’t even any moonlight tonight, as the moon was barely a sliver up on the sky nearly invisible against the light pollution. The only real light was coming from the television against the wall across the room. Half-eaten General Tao’s Chicken, vegetable fried rice and some wonton soup (with a free coke) lay across the table. Mayte had just gotten home from work, and she was dead tired. After nine hours of slinging drinks across a counter at drunken frat-boys, the headache felt like a welcome respite from the cat-calls and taunts and grabby hands.

Finally able to relax, she began to take down the disguise that had become her regular appearance. Shoes off first, then letting her hair down. Lifting up the back of her shirt, she undid the string that kept her “inheritance” tied around her waist. Easing back into the couch she popped two aspirin out of the bottle and washed them down with a mouthful of soda. That’s better, she thinks, much better. As she relaxes a little bit more and lets the medicine do it’s job, she adjusts her position so that her tail can uncurl.

Putting her feet up onto the table as she stretches to her full body length she thinks (and not for the first time) how great it would be if she was born a fish-girl instead of a cat-girl. Trade in her tail for a pair of flippers or something. Then she could just swim the hell away from it all; the taunts, the constant fear of being discovered, the dead-end jobs, and just leave for some tropical island where no one would ever find her. Maybe she could just travel the world, going from beach to beach and never setting foot in any damn concrete jungle ever again. Maybe find someplace where she could be who she really is all the time and not have to hide.

She lets out a sigh and consoles herself that, someday she will get out of here. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday. Too tired to go out, and still too awake to go to sleep, she reaches over for the remote and turns the TV on.

Commercial, commercial, reality show, commercial, rerun, some drama/mystery show. She stops on that one for a moment because the characters are on a tropical island. No idea what they are upset about, they are all attractive people stuck together with no cell phones to bother them, no bills to pay and no pollution clogging their throats, just miles of uninterrupted sand, palm trees and sun. Their worst problem seems to be a moderate risk of sun-burn, so she resumes channel-surfing. She finally decides that the only way she might feel better about herself is to watch some entertainment news show and maybe find some poor schmuck who is having a worse day than she is.

The young woman on screen seemed to be the typical TV personality type these days; too young, too well dressed compared to the pathetic ease of her job, and just too damn happy to tell you what’s going on in the world outside your door. She reaches for the remote and is about to try her luck with some other channel, when her eye catches the image frozen in the upper right hand side of the screen. The caption reads “El Tigre”, but she only pays it half a mind, her gaze is fixed upon the tail protruding from this man’s lower back.

“Continuing with the big story of the day in our “Hero News” segment, it looks like local hero El Tigre’s luck has just run out. “

Mayte turns up the volume and sits up, her heart is beating a little bit faster and her headache is now all but forgotten.

“Police and F.B.I. officials are now certain that the feline hero played a part in the alleged murder of the super-villain “Jester”. A stock photo of the villain replaces El Tigre, underneath the box we see 1977-2007. As she continues speaking, a new image pops up, this time it’s a mug -shot of what Jester really looked like.

“Jester, a.k.a. Sam Randall was arrested three years ago for attempting to steal technology from Logi-Tech. the company he worked for at the time, claiming that they had stolen his designs and refused to pay him royalties. Escaping from prison six months ago, he once again tried to steal back his designs and succeeded. Recently he was spotted performing daring daylight robberies with the help of several other super-powered convicts he had met while incarcerated.

“A statement from the police commissioner explained that the hero had fought the escaping villains on the rooftop of a nearby building and that during the fight the Jester was apparently killed by excessive force to the head”. Now the picture is of a an older man outside of a police station, speaking from behind a podium. “Nothing has been said to counter the rumors that the Jester was actually decapitated or that another hero may have been involved in the killing.

“For those of you unfamiliar with El Tigre, his short career in this city started only two months ago when he rescued several young children from a fire at the “Open Your Heart” adoption agency…” there’s more, but Mayte isn’t hearing it.

This can’t be happening, it just can’t be . That’s the place she was adopted from. And when it burns down, a cat-like Latino super-hero just happens to be there? She’s dialing the phone before she knows what she’s even going to say, or how she’ll explain what she just saw.

“Hello?” an older women answers on the other end of the line. She was obviously asleep when the phone rang.

“Ma, it’s me. Listen I need you to…”

“What? Oh, hola my little Gato-Niña…what’s going on, is something wrong?” Mayte clasps her free hand to her forehead, and sighs at her foster mother’s nickname for her.

“No, I’m fine. Listen, I know this is kind of out of the blue, but…remember when you told me that the people at the adoption agency you got me from actually saw my dad before he left…”

“Mayte, I didn’t “get” you from anyone, you were a gift from God. When I brought you home all those years ago, I felt as if my life had new meaning. I had in my hands the most wonderful little girl and I knew how proud you were going to make me someday.”

There is a pause as Mayte is humbled by her foster mother’s words. “…and I continued to love you, even after you started climbing my drapes and clawing up the furniture…” at that old joke, even though she doesn’t want to, Mayte smiles. “I can practically hear you smiling through the phone Gato-Niña, you can’t hide that beautiful smile from me.”

“Thanks ma, I really needed to hear that.” She looks up to see that the woman on TV is gone, replaced by a commercial. She reaches for the remote and turns it off.

“Now what did you want to ask me about?”

“I just saw on the news a man I think could be my father.” She lets that bomb drop and wait’s for her mother to say something. Her foster mother catches her breath on the other end of the line.

“He might have killed a super villain by accident, and the cops are looking for him. He has a tail just like me, and a couple of months ago he saved some kids from the agency you g…(she almost says “got” again) that you found me at, when it burned down.” She explains the details, as fast as she can, while having to stop and repeat several parts because she is so excited that her foster mother can’t follow. When she finishes, she pauses to let the information sink in.

“Mayte, this doesn’t mean that he’s you’re father. There are dozens of super-people who act like cats these days. Just because…”

“Maybe there are hundreds of them ma, thousands, but how many operate in my old home town? How many would be there to rescue that particular place? How many have an actual tail and not just some store-bought costume? I think it was him…something inside me is telling me it is, maybe he was even looking for me, y’know?” Her voice raises a little bit at that idea, as she sits up on the couch, the hope of finally getting some answers plants itself in the back of her head.

“Maybe he was looking for your address so he could find me…”

“Honey, you shouldn’t get your hopes up like that. Why now? After all these years of not knowing where you were and how you were doing, why would he seek you out now?

“I don’t know ma, but I have to find this guy…I have to talk to him.”

“So what are you going to do?



End of Chapter One

Could you follow these rules?: Posting Rules. Thanks!

I like it alot. It's a very intriguing premise and well-written. You did a great job describing the characters without the advantage of graphics. I think Mayte is a great name choice. Hopefully more people will read and feed, but don't let the weak response deter you.

Thanks! Yeah, it's tough to do this without an artist. I want to maket his as an honest-to-god comic one-day. My original plan was to write a comic-script and it would have went something like this:

panel 1: something, something, something
panel 2: (wide angle) something else, something else
(sound effect)
panel 3: and so on and so on.

In short, boring. Writing as a novel is the only way to go until I find someone who wants to draw this for real. When I finished this on my computer, the double-spaced printed out version was ten pages long. In a comic with the artist expressing what is happening, it would only be four or five.

And thanks again for the reply, right now I would even gladly take a bad review. I want to iron out any details like things you didn't understand, as in you don't understand a character's motivation, or you might need a better description of the setting, etc.

Tigress
By Bryan Coe, January 30th 2007
Genre: action/adventure, drama, general goofiness
Rated: pg-13-R, some language, and some fu#$%^& language
Disclaimer: Since there are about a million “Tiger” characters, I’ll only claim that this story is mine.


Chapter Two



Special agent Simon Reynolds had worked for the United States government since he was eighteen years old, first as a rifleman in the army, then special forces, and eventually as an operative for the National Security Agency. Rising through the ranks, he became the director of his own project, an early attempt to create super-human assassins by combining human test subjects with the DNA of numerous animal species. He was not a scientist, rather he was good at organizing the people who were. Keeping them focused on creating viable products and not wasting Uncle Sam’s time and money on their wildest nerd fantasies. He would take the order from his superiors about what they wanted, listen to the scientists tell him what can and can’t be done, and then direct their resources appropriately.

The project was a failure in every sense of the word. Almost half of the test subjects didn’t survive the implantation process and except for maybe a dozen successes, the other half either became vegetables, or their “powers” simply didn’t work. Some of the survivors had mental breakdowns while others became successful operatives only to die while on assignment. Worst of all, several of them escaped the training facility and were never seen again. That last bit was what cost him his position, forcing him to start over at nearly thirty years old and rebuild his reputation within the organization.

It had taken another thirty years to reach his current position where he could think about retiring. He had found other assignments, ones that needed him to either train or run security teams. Three years ago, he found a project that no one seemed to think would work. No one except it’s designer, a scientist from the R&D division who everyone thought was a quack. She had come up with what she thought was a “foolproof” way of eliminating targets without anyone being able to identify the killer, a perfect assassin. He latched himself onto her C.U.B.S. project, and used every connection he had made to see it completed. Two years of field testing and eventual active status had proven that it did in fact work, and once again he was all set. This time, his operatives could not disobey him, nor could they even think of running away.

He didn’t actually care about the project though. Or the scientist for that matter, even though he was now sleeping with her. Truthfully, he didn’t care much for the good old’ U.S. of A. either. Soon, very soon, he would be able to retire. And then he was off to some tropical island where no one could bother him. No more freezing winters, no black ops. Insertions into third world countries, no more paperwork. Just miles and miles of sand, warm weather, drinks with little umbrellas in them, and half-naked women…..oh, good lord there would be women. He had no family to support, so once those retirement checks started arriving he was going to pick out the cutest/youngest little hottie on the beach (or two, or three) and help them earn their college tuition the old fashioned way.

In the meantime his superior had requested a meeting, and while he hated meetings with the higher-ups (or meetings in general really), he didn’t want to jeopardize his last year before retirement by pissing someone off. So here he was, having to spend an afternoon away from his project in order to make someone higher-up on the chain of command feel appreciated (lips, get ready to kiss some ass). The N.S.A.’s branch office in this region was underground, at the basement level of a typical looking office building, in a typical looking business district designed to fool anyone who was below-moron level into thinking that this place wasn’t up to something shady (because the American public was always so trustworthy of corporations and big business in the first place).

There was a lot of unusual activity that day, men and women from all departments were moving through the halls. As he left the elevator, he saw one man whom he had worked with before (but didn’t consider important enough to remember his name), packing up his personal items as if he was leaving for good. Another man two doors down was doing the same thing. Around the first corner he saw Linda, the woman who had slapped him with that sexual harassment lawsuit for staring at her chest (you would have to be blind to miss it frankly), crying as she walked past him carrying a box.

Reynolds was getting nervous, three people getting fired all at once was more than unusual. Maybe they were downsizing again? The current administration was always got a little queasy when it came to black ops. and cracking down on super-humans. That’s what this organization was made for, their unofficial mandate said it all, “Dropping nape’ (napalm) and stopping capes (heroes) in order to preserve democracy“.

Or maybe it was freedom…or freedom and democracy. Wait, maybe U.S. interests abroad, freedom, and democracy.

Reynolds stopped to ponder that for a moment. It used to be so clear what his mission was when he was a young up-and-comer in the organization, now he was getting a little foggy on the details. He was sure it had something to do with freedom, but from who? He started walking again, all the while racking his brain. Crap, I should know this, he thinks.

Stopping terrorists maybe? Stopping terror period? Putting an end to terrorism in North America? Terrorizing North America?

He stopped again, pulled out his wallet and drew one of his personal cards. On it read “Simon Reynolds, special agent. National Security Agency“. Underneath the company name was it’s motto “We don’t need foreigners to terrorize our people and endanger our democracy, we can do that ourselves”.

At the end of the hall is a receptionist, she immediately straightens up when she sees Reynolds approach. As he nears her desk, she tells him to wait a moment so she can let her employer know that he’s here. As she does that, Reynolds admires the paintings on the walls, at least he does until one of the maintenance personnel starts taking them down. At the other end of the hall, he sees another two men lifting the bench outside of someone’s office and then carrying it away. He waits, pacing the hall until a voice comes through on the intercom telling her to show him in.

Inside, Reynolds sees his boss Geoffrey T. Smart sitting behind his desk. He is only a few years older, but his hair (what there is of it) is almost white. His own hair still retained it’s color, and while he wasn’t a young man anymore Reynolds was in much better shape than his superior. The difference in the appearances was something that had always created a sort of rivalry between them, Smart was in charge, but Reynolds it seemed, commanded more respect. To Reynolds’ amazement, Smart stood up when he entered and smiled.

“Simon, come on in and have a seat” Odd, Reynolds thinks, I always got the feeling this guy hated me. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“No thank you sir”

“Then please, sit down” He gestured at the chair across from his, and returned to his seat.

A promotion, that had to be it. It had just occurred to Simon that the last time he had seen his superior smile at him had been the day he was promoted to the head of his current department. They must be merging some departments together and bumping anybody they don’t need either up a pay grade and maybe off to early retirement, or simply bumping them out the door like those schmucks in the hall. It had happened before. His superior was still smiling when he continued speaking.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news, Simon” Yeah, for those assholes outside you mean right? Bad news for them and GREAT NEWS for me. In Reynolds’ head floated images of palm trees, bikini clad Caribbean women and ocean waves.

“Our branch of the N.S.A. is being merged with the anti-super-human departments of the C.I.A. and the D.O.D. to create a single agency devoted to curbing the super-human threats to this country…” Now the bikini clad women were taking their clothes off…

“…sadly, budget restrictions have forced us to limit the number of personnel we take with us into this new organization…” the palm trees were swaying back and forth on a light breeze, music was playing in the background, and the waves were gently breaking against the shoreline…

“…certain sacrifices have to be made in order to keep our most successful projects running smoothly…” the topless cutie was now massaging his back, while a cool drink rested within arms reach.

“…as to what this has to do with you here today, well…” the poor saps who were being fired were there too now, one was reduced to working the bar while another was fetching hot towels for all the people on the beach. Linda, poor Linda, was being eaten by a shark just off shore…

“…there’s no easy way to say this Simon, you wont be able to retire next year like you planned.” they all began pointing and laughing at him. The bartender, the towel boy, even the shark that was eating Linda was pointing one his fins at him and rocking back and forth. Linda, sticking up out of the shark’s mouth was doing the same.

“I know you are one year away from retirement, but with the reorganization you will have to be demoted since there are no openings at your pay grade in the new agency. And as you know, your reduced pay grade doesn’t qualify for retirement for another five years.” the palm trees were on fire now, the music was gone, and the cutie rubbing his back had turned into a 300lb redneck with prison tattoos on his forearms.

Simon tried to find the words, but all that escaped his lips was a dry scratchy sound. Collecting himself, he tried again.

“This…this has to be a mistake. I have served this agency for almost my entire adult life, you can’t….you can’t do this to me. Not now, not after I got that damn C.U.B.S. project to work.”

“Simon, please, the C.U.B.S. haven’t lived up to expectations. They’re way too expensive and they don’t stand a chance against any substantial super-human threats. Plus, we already have super-soldiers and A.I. piloted androids for that kind of thing anyway. They‘re only good against normal humans, and while they do an amazing job at that, it‘s just not enough.”

“Then all of my work was for nothing? And I suppose in five years, you’ll just tell me that I get to take over your job for another five years.”

“Well, no…actually…”

“What do you mean “no”, I’m next in line for your position aren‘t I?”

“Yes, technically you are next in line, that’s not what I was going to say. What I was going to tell you before you cut me off was that it won’t be my job in five years, you see I’m retiring before the changeovers take effect, while there’s still time.” Smart was now wading in the water next to the shark and Linda, he had a drink in his hands and a Hawaiian shirt complete with a Leigh around his neck.

“Your doing what?”

“Retiring. Yeah I’m getting the hell out of here. I’m was due for retirement myself anyway. The higher-ups offered me a severance package and I took it. My plane leaves for Hawaii tomorrow at 6:00pm and them I am GONE baby”.

The older man stands up and starts doing the cabbage patch, shaking his hips from left to right while pulling in and pushing out his arms in a perpendicular motion to his hips. Realizing that his little dance may be upsetting to Reynolds, he sits down awkwardly and clasps his hands together awaiting a response.

“Then why can’t I be promoted to your position now? You are only one grade above me, I can handle your job for one measly year.” A faint glimmer of hope began to emerge in his eye as Reynolds leaned forward. Smart avoided his eyes for a moment before speaking.

“Sorry, can’t do it. My job has already been filled. You remember a couple years back, when Agent Murdock’s department hyper-evolved that dolphin only to find out that they made him too smart? They ended up having to give him a job with R & D. Apparently he’s a real go-getter, been rising through the ranks ever since. Tomorrow he‘ll be moving in here to oversee the rest of the merger.” At that sentence, the shark began laughing so hard he started crying. As he laughed, Linda was propelled out of the shark’s mouth, landing in the water.

“Mother fu@#$%”

“Hey don’t talk about your new boss that way, dolphins can take that kind of thing personally. I know I wouldn’t take that kind of crap from you. I’d tear you a new #$%hole right now if I wasn’t a mere eighteen hours away from drinking myself into oblivion on Waikiki beach.”

“So I’m supposed to wait five years and then get permission to retire from a dolphin? What if there is another merger before then and he gets replaced by a hyper-evolved gopher or something?”

“Don’t be silly, we’re still years away from developing hyper-evolved gophers. In any case, it doesn’t matter if there is another merger. You can’t be demoted again without just-cause.” Reynolds sunk in his chair, unable to comprehend the situation.

“Oh, there is one potential piece of good news.” He pulled a piece of paper out of the folder in front of him and passed it to Reynolds. “The high-ups are having a kind-of lottery for all the projects about to be cancelled. Whichever project can eliminate a substantial loose end and thus prevent a serious sh-t-storm from hitting the media, will get his or her project saved from the chopping block.”

“Loose ends?”

“Yeah, see with all the foul-ups involving super-humans lately there is a lot of cleaning up to do. There have been so many failed attempts to create super-soldiers that are now running around causing trouble for the taxpayers, that the administration can’t read the front page of any newspaper without feeling like idiots. They want to see some progress on eliminating these messes, and they want to see it within a week or two at the most.”

“So all I have to do is eliminate some idiot who got his powers from Uncle Sam and my project will be saved? And I’ll get to keep my position long enough to retire?”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t get too worked up about it. No one in the White House seems to think anyone will actually succeed at this. It’s just another of the president’s “initiatives” that he will probably have forgotten about come Friday.”

As Reynolds left the office, his mind was racing. How could he do it? Find some super-hero or villain that was a product of the government’s ineptitude and silence them? That could work, if only he could find one fast enough. He started to wonder if his C.U.B.S. were up to the task. Well, for the safety of the American people (and his retirement) they had to be.

He sure as hell wasn’t going to let that damn shark have the last laugh.

===========================================================================

They say you can never go home again.

For Mayte that was now true on many levels. She had left her home of the past several years to come the city where she had been born, supposedly. Leaving behind the few friends that she had along with her job tending bar, she was on her own now more so than ever before. The thought of just going home and forgetting this little quest still hung in the back of her mind. Her instincts on the other hand, wouldn’t let her quit. Not yet.

She couldn’t consider this city her home either, it hadn’t been since she was twelve years old. While looking for an apartment, Mayte visited the ashes of the “Open Your Heart” adoption agency. To see it all collapsed and charred hurt her more than she thought it would. Those people took great care of her until she was adopted, not like some of the horror stories you heard about “orphanages”. While none of them had been killed in the fire, they deserved better than this for their efforts. For twelve years she lived in this city, having only returned once when she was eighteen to try and get information from the agency about her father. They weren’t any more helpful ten years ago than they could be now.

It had only been three days since she saw that news report on El Tigre, and she was back where it all began, if only for the time being. Standing in the living room of her new second story apartment she wondered just how long she would be here. A knock on the door brought her out of her memories and back to the present. She quickly checked to make sure her tale was tied around her waist and that her t-shirt was in place to cover the knot.

The landlord, a nice forgiving old man wearing a faded flannel shirt stood on the other side of the door. He had shrunk in his old age, and was now just a little bit shorter than Mayte.

“Hello, Ms. Rodriguez.”

“Hey, Mr. Wilson” Mayte’s first thought upon hearing the man’s name was of the Dennis the Menace character who always yelled at the kid when he screwed up. This man was in fact his polar opposite, probably one of the kindest men she had ever met.

“I’m sorry to trouble you dear, but now that all your things have arrived, do you happen to have the advance rent and deposit we spoke about?”

“Sure, hang on one second” she turned, leaving the door open and walked across the room. On the coffee table was an envelope with her name on it. Even though her mother wasn’t crazy about her plan, she still gave her daughter the money to find a place. It wasn’t easy for Mayte to accept, she knew it would take a while to pay her mother back, but she didn’t really have a choice. Her savings (what there was) would only keep her in food for a week or two. She could get the advance rent back when she returned home after her mission was complete, and only lose the deposit money. She hoped all she would need is a week or two, if this took any longer than that she was going to need a job. And fast.

“Here you go”

“Thank you, and I want to apologize once again for the increase in the deposit. The last tenant in this apartment skipped town so suddenly and left behind quite a mess. And ever since, the misses has been so ornery about making new rules and this and that…I hate making new rules.” his voice is soft, and tired. His head, as he spoke, was sinking into his chest. He actually seemed saddened for having to ask for the extra money.

“I understand Mr. Wilson, you won’t have that trouble from me.” she smiles, a soft smile that seems to lift the older man’s spirit’s a little bit.

“Thank you, and please if there is anything wrong with the new apartment, please let me know. I’ll have it fixed right away. Well, I guess you have a lot of unpacking to do. If you need a hand, I have a grandson who could help out.”

“That’s okay, I’ll manage on my own.” He straightened up, fixed his glasses and turned to leave. Mayte hung onto the door for a second longer and watched him walk down the hall and start down the staircase. He must have been a great dad, she thinks. So forgiving, so trusting. Not like her dad who left before she could even know him, or her foster dad who…

She shakes her head to try and forget about her foster father, shutting the door she starts thinking instead about what she’ll unpack first. She starts with the cooking utensils, pots, pans and all that stuff. Which is easy, because she doesn’t really know how to cook. Unpacking her favorite coffee mug, a few microwaveable Tubbaware containers, and some forks and knives only took a grand total of forty seconds. Next is clothing, but just as she’s opening the first of several boxes the phone rings.

“Nuthouse, head nut speaking” she knows it’s her mother calling, she‘s the only one who has her new number. The two of them had shared secret greetings and in-jokes since about the day Mayte learned to speak. Some times, it was hard to tell that they were mother and daughter and not sisters.

“Ha, how are things? Are you settling in ok?” …and clock it, yep, a new land speed record for the 100-meter nag. “Did the movers damage anything?” …and the medal goes to (Mayte pretends to cut open an envelope, then blow it open)…Carmen Rodriguez everybody!

“I’m ok ma, nothing is broken. I’m just starting to unpack now.”

“How long did setting up the kitchen take?” Carmen smiles on the other end of the line, Mayte just rolls her eyes. Her mother is a fabulous cook, and despite numerous failures still held out hope that she could one day impart her skills onto her daughter.

“About eight seconds longer than last time”

“Oh, so you did bring forks and knives this time. Was there enough room for them all?” Mayte grimaces and clenches the phone tighter.

“Yeah there was just enough. It’s a real shame I won’t get to use them though…”

“What? Why not?” genuine concern creeps into her voice for a moment.

“Well, with all the restaurants on my block alone, I’ll probably never even need them with all the free plastic ones I‘ll get. There’s a pizza place, a Chinese place…I mean there’s a Taco Bell just two blocks from here ma. Can you believe that, what luck!” Her mother hated when she ate out all the time. She had lost count of the number of times she had chastised her about living off of fast-food. And worse, even though she knew her daughter was joking, she got irked anyway.

Neither of them says anything for a moment, they don’t have to. They both know the other is smiling on the other end of the line and that sums up their entire relationship. If anyone doubts that there is such a thing as telepathy, Carmen and Mayte Rodriguez could change their mind.

“Mayte, can we talk about this plan of yours for a moment? I know you think you have this all figured out, but I’m still worried.” Mayte was expecting this, for the fifth and hopefully last time she began to explain her idea.

“It’s not going to be that dangerous ma, all I have to do is make it onto the news once, maybe twice. If enough people see me fighting crime, looking like I do (she absent-mindedly plays with her tail underneath her shirt) then they’ll report it. And once it’s on the news, this guy El Tigre might see it. And if he does, and he really is my father, and he really wants to find me…he’ll come back here.

“You don’t think it’s going to be dangerous? Mayte, there are killers and rapists out there. What if you run into someone with a gun or a knife? Who’s going to come and rescue you then?”

“I’m not going to fight anybody like that, I’ll pick my battles carefully”

“We don’t always get to pick our battles in life Mayte, sometimes they pick you. Hoping you don’t run into anything you can’t handle isn’t a plan.”

“You’ve seen what I can do. You know better than anyone what I’m really capable of when I get to cut loose.”

“Is that what this is about? Cutting loose? Dammit Mayte, tell me this isn’t about just using your powers. You always told me you hated your powers, having that tail, and the claws. How you always wanted to be just like everyone else. And now you want to use them to do…what, become some kind of vigilante?” A moment ago, Carmen Rodriguez was having fun teasing her daughter, now she was nearly hysterical.

“Ma…it’s not like that, I swear.” her voice was softer now, but there was still a sense of defiance to it. “I might finally have a chance to find my father, to get some answers. Y’know in a way, I guess you’re right, this is about my powers, it’s about knowing where they come from.”

“Baby, it doesn’t matter where they come from. I’ll love you no matter what.” Mayte pauses for a moment, she thinks carefully about what she is going to say next.

“You’ve always told me to be true to myself, ma. The truth is though, I don’t even know who or what I am.”

“You’re my daughter”

“I’m a freak.” Carmen begins to cry, Mayte hears her, but doesn’t back down. “If I don’t find out who I am, it’s going to eat away at me for the rest of my life. It’s all I have ever wanted, you know that, ma. I have to get out of the rut my life has become. I go from one dead-end job to the next, I can’t get a real job because somebody would figure out I’m not human. Then I become a side-show, and we never get any peace.” Carmen listens intently, she has heard this speech before many times and yet she listens as if she is hearing it for the first time.

“This guy may have the answers ma, he can tell me how to have a life, while being what I am. Maybe he’s not my dad, but maybe he can help me anyway.” Through her tears, Carmen summons the strength to speak.

“If you do this, no one will help you. I can’t run to the rescue if you get caught up in something you can’t handle. The police won’t help you, this El Tigre won’t help you and you can be damned sure ordinary people aren’t going to help you.”

“I’m already on my own ma, I have been since the day you convinced me to hide who I really am.” Before she can stop herself, the words spill out of Mayte’s mouth. She grits her teeth and turns her head to one side as she braces for her mother’s response, but all she gets is silence. She lowers her head in shame, searching for the words to say as if they might be written on the tops of her shoes.

She has never openly blamed her mother for how she has been forced to live her life, but they have both thought it before. It had remained unspoken for years, and now all she wanted to do was take back it back. There’s something else though, somewhere in the back of her mind. She has wanted to say that to her mother for years, every time they had a fight, every time her powers caused them trouble, but she never actually said it. She almost feels…good, now that it’s out in the open. For good or ill, she had to say it eventually.

“I hope….I hope you find what you are looking for. And I hope it’s worth it. Goodbye, my little Gato-Niña.” Carmen hangs up before Mayte can say anything else. She starts crying too as the sound of the disconnected phone begins to echo in her ears.

At her home, Carmen Rodriguez collapses into her chair. Her daughter has never hurt her like this before. Not just because of the anger or disrespect, but because deep down, Carmen knows that her daughter is right. She never knew what to do with a super-powered child, all she could think of were ways to hide her powers from everyone. And when her husband left them, hiding what her daughter had become turned into something of a mantra. She always knew that one day her little Gato-Niña would seek out her father, or try to use her powers openly. Now she had to deal with both at the same time.

Mayte hung up the phone and turned toward the wall. She loved her mother more than anyone in the world, talking like that to her was like a dagger to her own heart. Resting her head against the wall she thought, I hope it’s worth it too.

She turned back to the boxes piled everywhere in the room. Her enthusiasm for unpacking them all today had vanished. She moved one box over to the end of the bed, another got shoved next to the dresser while a third went straight into the closet in the other room. As she reached for the next box, she stopped to wipe a tear from her eye. Her name was written clearly on top of the box, but she didn’t recognize it.

There was a box cutter over on the window sill, but she didn’t need it. Turning her right hand palm-upward, she unceremoniously flicked her wrist producing a single claw from her index finger. One swipe across the packing tape and it was open, and as she pulled the flaps apart she froze.

Inside was a domino mask, like super-heroes wore. Just a thin piece of fabric shaped like two diamonds with holes cut in them for her eyes with a strap to be tied around her head. Beneath it were two other bundles.

Her mother had made her a costume. At the very bottom, underneath the boots, was a note. “Be careful out there. And know that whatever you find out about yourself, I will always love you.” signed “mom”

If Mayte could fall through a hole and just die right now she would. She glanced at the boots, the leggings and the rest of the costume. Colored like a Bengal Tiger, with orange and white mixed with black stripes it was a fearsome sight. And the boots were awesome! Any other day her mother would give her hell for wearing such provocative clothes, and now she wanted her daughter to go out into the night fighting drug dealers and pimps dressed like this? As upset as Mayte was, she had to smile at the fact that even though her mother had her doubts, she still supported her every step of the way. She would give her mother some time to calm down, and to calm down herself as well, before calling to apologize.

Outside the window, the sun was starting to go down. Mayte had planned to wait a day or two and learn to navigate the city a little bit before going ahead with her plan. But the idea of staying in right now, with all these emotions running around inside her head, made getting out and unpacking tomorrow seem like the best idea she had had all day.


“I guess it’s time to put these to work.”

Tigress
By Bryan Coe, February 7, 2007
Genre: action/adventure, general goofiness
Rated: pg-13-R, some language, some anti-dolphin humor
Disclaimer: Apparently putting a property in a tangible form counts as a copyright. So I technically own this already, don’t believe me? Check it out for yourselves under “U.S. copyright law”. And by “this” I mean the character I have created and not say, Michelle Rodriguez herself (but I’m working on that one).


Chapter Three



“I hope it’s worth it”

That little voice in the back of her head telling her to quit and go home had gotten louder. No one would blame her for going home, her mother would forgive her and they could go back to their normal lives. The world had plenty of super-heroes, one more wouldn’t make a difference. She could go back, right now, go back to tending bar, back to joking with her mom and get a good night’s sleep.

Mayte was on the roof of the building just three doors down from her apartment. There was enough cover so that people on the street wouldn’t see her change, though she still wasn’t completely comfortable. The costume fit rather well, she thought, mom always was a good tailor. There was even a little hole in the back of the costume for her tail. She remembers when her tail first appeared, and how her foster dad panicked and started yelling that they would have to take her out of school. Her mother simply took Mayte’s clothes with her into the sewing room and made a hole in the back of all her underwear for her tail to poke through, as well as devising the little string that Mayte still tied her tail around her waste with.

The voice was yelling at her now, calling her an ingrate and reminding her that Carmen Rodriguez was the only family she had in the whole wide world. Her mother was right when she said that no one would help her. Hell, this El Tigre might be long gone and not think twice about coming back for his daughter, if that‘s even what she was. Her mother had fed her, clothed her, protected her and would die for her, and all she could do was look to someone else for meaning in her life.

The gauntlets covered her forearms and hands, but they were fingerless to allow her claws to come out when she needed them. They covered all the way up to her elbows, orange on top and white on the bottom, with black stripes all over. Her shoulders were bare, allowing for better flexibility, while her hair was tied behind her head so she could adjust her mask. Most of her body was covered in orange, with white down the middle of her chest and on her inner thighs.

She could back out right now, just put her clothes back on, go back to her apartment and go to bed. And when morning came, she could go get her advance rent back, call a cab, and this would all be behind her. Just a little freak-out that she and her mother would laugh about someday.

Mayte bent over to adjust her right boot. They fit perfectly, she could run and jump and kick, and they weren’t stiff at all. Tucking the legging back in, she stood upright and looked into the small mirror that she had brought with her and propped up on her bundle of clothes. Just two words came to mind.

Kick. Ass.

She couldn’t go back. As tempting as it was, as safe as she felt at home and as dangerous as her plan might be, she had no choice. Somewhere out there was a man who had gone through the same experiences that she had, someone who wasn’t entirely human just like her. Right now, her former home represented a prison. Her mother never had the answers she needed, and every day she spent there since developing super-powers was just one more day of a life-sentence. Her answers were out there, in that concrete jungle full of predators and their prey. Now there would be one more predator, one searching for answers, not victims.

Mayte walked to the edge of the roof to watch the setting sun. The sky was turning orange, mirroring her own appearance, while a cool breeze drifted over her. She had to mentally thank her mother once again for insulating this costume, otherwise she would end up fighting a cold just as often as the bad guys. Propping one leg up on the edge, she gazed at the sunset. It had been an emotional day already, and she thought that doing something physical would ease her mind, but there was something about that sunset that made her pause.

Inevitability was the word that came to mind. The Earth continued it’s little dance around the sun for one more day, settling in the same place at the same time that it always had. From the moment the day began until the moment it ended, it’s course was written in the heavens. So too now it seemed, that hers was as well. She had always hoped that one day she would find her real parents and get answers to the questions that had plagued her. Sometimes it felt like her whole life was meant just to prepare her for the truth, that meeting her parents was inevitable.

Focus Mayte, if you go out there with your head in the clouds your death will be the only thing that was inevitable. She hid her bundle of clothing along the edge and took one last look at the sunset. She could do this, just find some crime to fight and get on the news. Then all you have to do is…

“Uh, excuse me, what are you doing on my roof?”

The voice came from the sidewalk below. The sunset completely forgotten, Mayte spun around and ran for the other side of the roof. In the blink of an eye, she crossed the entire expanse and leapt for the building across the alleyway. Down below, the owner of the voice continued locking the door to his store and sighed.

“Yeah, that figures. Just once I‘d like to see a beautiful woman running towards a comic book store.” All the other stores on the street were closing up as well. He began walking home only to stop after just a few feet and turn around. Looking up at the roof he wondered out loud…

“I guess we got another new hero in town.” Putting his keys into his pocket, he resumed walking.


“Hope you last longer than that El Tigre guy”

===========================================================================

The mall was obviously closed. There were no lights on, all the doors were locked, and yet it seemed that some people weren’t quite done shopping yet. While the entrances on the ground floor would tell most people that the mall was empty, the open skylight with a rope descending into the darkness told another story.

It was as quiet as a tomb, the few security guards whose job it was to keep out intruders were laying unconscious at their posts. Victims of sleeping gas and a few well-placed nerve pinches, they would sleep through this little after-hours shopping spree. They wouldn’t get more than a slap on the wrist for their failure to perform though, for who could really put up a fight against the infamous “Al-Boa” ninja clan? No one, that’s who. Named for their leader “Al” and for his personal “Boa Constrictor” fighting style, they were the most feared group of assassins in at least the tri-state area.

Okay, maybe they didn’t get around to too much assassinating, but they were feared. They were among the top fifty most wanted gangs by the F.B.I. (ranked no.47), and there were few people (in this city) that hadn’t heard of them (by a friend of a friend who swears he saw one of them).

Their humble beginnings took place in Al’s dojo (a Tiger Schulman’s Karate franchise location), where he employed several trainers who all shared in his love of breaking other people’s bones and getting paid to do it. After several law suits, the dojo was closed down, and it seemed that they would have to give up their lives of hurting people to make a living. Until a mysterious old man came to them and offered them membership in an ancient ninja clan whose lineage could be traced back to a group of ninjas who, during their training, enjoyed wailing on their fellow students too much and were expelled for being bullies.

Now part of a new franchise, this one dedicated to larceny and general mayhem, the ninjas had found their calling in life. Robbing banks, jewelry stores and well, pretty much everybody, was as satisfying an arrangement as could be found for a group of people who liked hurting others and who also wanted a plasma screen TV to go with their home entertainment system. And all the old man asked was a percentage of their take to be kicked-back up to him in exchange for their added training, and of course, the fear and respect associated with being a ninja. Plus, if they ever needed help (which was doubtful), they could call on the other members of their clan.

If it seemed strange to any of them that an actual ninja would offer membership in his clan to anyone non-Japanese, none of them spoke of it. The only one among them who was even Asian, was in fact from South Korea, and aside from two African-Americans, their small clan was almost mostly Caucasian. Al himself was third generation Italian.

Their goal was the jewelry store on the second level, which in a way kind of sucked. The video game store was on the level below, and they hadn’t planned on “Grand Larceny 4” for the (video game console) to be delayed until next week. They might actually have to come back and pay for it like normal people, damn.

They worked silently, emptying each display case full of earrings and necklaces into their bags. None of them made a sound…. except for Andy who was coming down with a cold.

“AAACCHHOOO”

“Bless you”

“Thanks boss”

“Andy?”

“Yeah boss?”

“If you don’t find a tissue and blow your nose, I’m going to put your head through that display case.” The masks they wore hid any body language or facial expressions, but their leader’s eyes said that he meant it.

They went back to emptying the cases until Danni (the new guy) raised his hands in the gesture indicating that he heard something. Al gave the signal for Danni and Ed to go check it out, while the rest continued filling their bags. They both unsheathed their katana swords as they exited the store, then they split up and headed in opposite directions.

Ed cautiously moved past the electronics store, the pretzel stand and the cell phone store, but their was no sign of the possible intruder. He made a complete circuit of the east side of the upper floor, finding nothing, he started to turn back. But just then, out of the corner of his eye he saw…a crock pot. Hhhmmm, Karen’s been asking me for one of those for months, he thinks. The home appliance store was ripe for the picking, maybe he could grab some silverware while he was at it. His girlfriend hated using the plastic forks and knives that they got from fast food places. Now they could actually have something to put in their silverware drawer. He begins to pick the lock when he hears a sound, like a piece of metal hitting the floor, but far away. On his way to investigate he passed by the jewelry store, Dale joined him.

“Yeah we heard it too, c’mon.” They went to go find their partner, he had left in the direction of the food court. The moonlight coming through the windows above illuminated the far half of the food court, and lying there in front of the corn dog place was a katana sword. Danni was nowhere to be found, his sword just lay there like it was…a trap.

“Go back and get the others, hurry.” Dale turned without making a sound and ran as fast as he could while Ed put his back to one of the stores. His own sword was reflecting the moonlight, so he sheathed it, but kept his hand on it so he could draw it and attack at any moment. He scanned the food court, listening for any sound that would indicate the direction an attack would come from. Wait, what was that? He heard a sound over by that pillar. A small flash of movement too, he began to work his way over to it. As he circled, he slowly drew his weapon so as to not make a sound, he crept around the right side of the pillar and raised the sword over his head and prepared to strike. Leaping around the pillar he almost brought his sword down…stopping when he realized that the movement was caused by two legs, dangling upside down out of a garbage can.

The legs started wiggling at the sound of movement, Ed turned to scan the food court, expecting an attack now that he had fallen for the trap, but nothing was there. As he turned around however…

“Hi”

(sfx) WHAM

Ed was out before he even saw what hit him. The remaining four ninjas appeared at the edge of the food court and eyed the scene. Danni’s feet were swinging wildly back and forth to get their attention. When they reached him they saw Ed unconscious on the floor next to him. Dale and Jaime moved to help Danni out of the garbage can, while Al and the others formed a circle around them. With Danni up on his feet, they began to spread outward, each ninja gazing into the darkness of the food court trying to find this mystery attacker.

“AAACCCHHOOO”

“Bless you”

“Thanks boss”

“What?”

“I said thanks, boss”

“I didn’t say anything”

“Huh?, What do you mean you didn’t…” he turned around to face his leader who was searching in the opposite direction. Instead of a six-foot-two Italian man he found himself facing a five-foot-five Latina.

“You’re welcome” Before he could raise his sword she leapt at him and knocked him to the ground.

Everyone turned towards the sound, Al was the closest and charged at her as she tried to rise. He tried to take her head off with his sword, only to miss as she pulled her head back, just missing the edge of the blade. Again and again he tried, and every time she would pivot her legs or twist her waist a split second before the blade would hit her. Backing up at every strike, Mayte was having a blast. This guy was so freaked out that she could see his moves coming a mile away. Having the reflexes of a cat didn’t hurt either.

Then her back hit another of those pillars and she had to drop to a crouch to avoid having her head taken off. Al saw his opportunity and raised his sword above his head, this is the end he thought. With every ounce of strength he possessed, he drove the sword downward…

(sfx) WHAP

…only for Mayte to catch the blade between the palms of her hands. In one rapid motion she had raised both hands to the sides of the sword and clapped them together so that the edge didn’t actually touch her hands. Al’s eyes went wide with astonishment, as the other ninjas looked on helplessly. Mayte’s face was a fearsome sight, a tiger striped domino mask and a devilish, almost playful smile. Al had but a moment to admire the sight until Mayte slammed the flat side of the sword into his face, right between his eyes.

A whistling sound was all the warning Mayte had to dodge the throwing star coming at her head. She rolled to her left, then around another pillar. The ninja with the sneezing fit was launching them in rapid succession now, while the others regrouped. The tall lanky ninja off to Mayte’s right was now charging her wielding a bo staff. He tried a few swings at her, but fared no better than his boss with the sword. After a few swings, Mayte grabbed the staff and the two began a tug of war.

Andy produced his last throwing star, raising it to take aim he waited for an opening. Now that she was unable to move, he had a shot. Mayte saw him raise his hand to launch the star, the tall guy wasn’t that strong, but he could keep her where he wanted her for now. Maybe she couldn’t topple the guy, but she could maneuver him. As the throwing star flew towards her, she jerked the bo staff to her left so that Dale’s hand intercepted the missile.

“AAAGGGHHH, damn it Andy, I told you those things were garbage, why didn’t you…” Mayte pushes the staff up into the ninja’s face sending him backwards. The ninja who she had dumped in the garbage can was now helping the leader to his feet, while the last ninja started running towards her with a pair of nun chucks. Mayte was tired of just dodging everything they threw at her, so she launched herself into a dive past the ninja rushing towards her, rolling until she was clear of the swinging nun chucks and landing amidst the tables of chairs in front of the Chinese buffet. The ninja spun around and started towards her again, but she was ready for him. Kicking the back of the chair nearest to her, the makeshift missile flew towards him, knocking his legs out from under him, and in turn knocking him unconscious. She turned to see Andy searching his uniform in a panic.

“Dammit, c’mon I’ve got to have one left somewhere.” he stopped when he realized that Mayte was looking right at him. “Ah crap” she was on top of him before he could even grab his sword from his back, not that it would have helped him anyway. His feet turned to lead as Mayte lunged towards him, her clenched fist about to connect with his head.

“AAGGHH…..AAAACCCHHOOO” Mayte stops just before she hit’s him, pausing in mid-punch.

“You should really see a doctor man” the passion and anger had left her face, instead she looked at him with seemingly-genuine concern.

“I know, I know, I have an appointment tomorrow.”

“Make sure you get him to look at that that crotch-injury too”

“Huh?” he looked up at her with a puzzled look on his face.

In one swift move, Mayte clasped her hands onto his shoulders and pulled him towards her, while simultaneously ramming her knee into his crotch. She spun around in time to see the three remaining ninjas (Al, Danni, and Dale) racing towards the skylight from which they had entered. They had already started climbing when Mayte raced over to them. Dale, the one with the hand injury, was at the top slowing the other two down.

“Move dumb-ass, she’s coming this…” Al turned his head to see where she was, but it was too late. Mayte leapt at the wall next to them and used her claws to climb up it, bypassing the rope entirely. She latched onto the windowsill and swung around so that she could look down on the three men holding onto the rope. They all stared up at her as she held onto the window with one hand, and with her free hand, popped open the claw on her index finger.

“WAIT, WAIT, we’ll split the take with you. Just don’t cut that…”

Mayte turned her head and raised an eyebrow to make it look like she was considering it. Then with a wicked smile on her face, she swung her hand and cut the rope.

“sh-t”

All three men fell into a heap on the floor. Mayte turned her head to look out the window as she noticed a flashing light. Two cop cars were outside the front door, looks like it was time to leave. She tied the ninjas together around one of the pillars with their own rope, and then stopped to admire her handiwork. Six men, six armed men against just one of her.

They didn’t stand a chance.

===========================================================================

Officers Cole and Rolands carefully made their way up the stairs to the third floor. The Jewelry store’s silent alarm was what had brought them there, but it was the scene in the food court that had their attention. Several men wearing ninja costumes tied up in a mall food-court was a tad unusual even for this shift.

The jewelry store had indeed been broken into, but it looked like nothing was missing. Sacks filled with rings and necklaces lay on the floor, while the men in the food court had a few trinkets hidden in their uniforms. The display cases were trashed, but insurance would take care of it. Obviously they were the ones who broke in, but who stopped them from escaping?

“Wow, they practically arrest themselves these days.” said office Cole as she looked down on the apparent leader of the ninjas. His nose was broken, and there was an unsightly indent/bruise right between his eyes. One of the others, this one with a pretty bad hand wound, was glaring silently at the ninja next to him, the second man tried to avoid his gaze.

Back-up had arrived, and the other officers took the ninjas into custody while the two officers made their way to the apparent break-in point.

“What do you think man, we got ourselves a new hero in town?” Rolands surveyed the scene, whoever took on these ninjas had to be pretty tough.

“Nah, check out those claw marks leading up to the window. I think that El Tigre is back.”

“Great that’s all we need. At least he didn’t kill anyone this time.”

===========================================================================

He had been looking for a way to save his job for three days, and all he had was jack. Actually the bottle of Jack was running out, so he wouldn’t even have that for much longer. The room was dark even though there was a full moon out, because his office didn’t have any windows (they were underground after all). The only light came from the television across the room, not that he was watching it with any interest. In his rage he had smashed the lamp on his desk, and he needed the TV on for light.

The local news station was giving it’s weather report for the week, Reynolds just continued drinking himself into oblivion. The screen changed and a new graphic had replaced the weather map, it showed a cartoon man in a cape flying over the city, with the words “Hero Report” underneath it. He paused, the shot of Jack less than an inch from his face. The young woman on screen couldn’t have been out of high-school for more than two or three years.

“Our top story for the night, it seems that renegade hero El Tigre may be back in town.” Right, Reynolds thought, that was the one that killed somebody last week, or something like that. “A break-in at the Stark Ridge mall was foiled by someone who apparently had claws. Several armed men were taken into custody, but they refused to comment on whether or not El Tigre was responsible.” Reynolds raised his glass in salute, “Cheers, morons” and downed it, then he reached for the bottle again. He was in the middle of refilling his glass when the image on screen changed. Reynolds caught it out of the corner of this eye and froze, the Jack began spilling over the shot glass and onto the floor.

“For those of you who didn’t catch the story, El Tigre, seen here in this amateur video from the incident…”There was more, but Reynolds wasn’t hearing it. He could swear he saw the tail protruding from the heroes back move when he leapt onto that building as he chased the bank robbers.

That was no store bought tail.

The bottle of Jack Daniels completely forgotten, he ran to his phone, tripped over his shoes, then got up and continued running (in a circle) in the general direction of the phone. He must be really drunk this time, usually the room spun in the other direction. Collapsing into his seat, he hit the speed dial for his boss. Only as the voice on the other end of the line said hello, did he remember that his boss, Mr. Smart, had already left. Instead, at nearly sixty years of age, and with a bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand, he was talking to a dolphin.

“Hello? Why agent Reynolds, it’s good to hear from you. I wanted to talk to you about your project, but I didn’t get a chance with how crazy things have been. How is the consolidation going?

“Shaddup fishy, I got something that…something that…” a wave of nausea overtook him and he had to stop for a moment.

“I believe you mean, “Shaddup fishy, Sir.” And you can call me Arthur, we don’t have to be so formal around here do we? I mean, were all mammals here, lets start off on the right foot, uhm, so to speak.”

“I have something…something that could save my project. Smart told me that if I did you guys a solid, that you’d save my project.“

“That’s correct”

“Years ago, some test subjects escaped…from my first project.”

“Ah yes, I saw that when I reviewed your file.”

“SHADDUP, I’m telling the story”

“Ahem…”

“I mean, shaddup I’m telling the story…sir.

“Thank you. Have you been drinking agent Reynolds?”

“Maybe, I guess that’s something we have in common fishy…sir.”

“I think you should go to bed, we can discuss this in my office tomorrow morning.”

“THANK YOU SIR, (Reynolds got to his feet and saluted) and let me say that it would be an honor to die caught in a net with you any day. I mean, you never truly get to know someone until you’ve been caught in a net and dragged aboard a fishing boat, and thrown in a pile of other fish with them, do you? What do you say…”

“Go to bed Reynolds.”

“YES SIR!” and with that, he collapsed onto his desk with the phone still in his hands. In his dreams he was back on that tropical beach. The shark was still pointing and laughing at him, but it stopped when he saw that he now had harpoon in his hands.

Hey guys, I don't want to sound all needy, but could you please post some replies to let me know what you think about Tigress? It's awfully quiet on this thread...

The first three chapters represent what would be the first issue if it was a comic book, the same for chapters 4-6 and so on. I should have the next chapter up by Wednesday night at the latest. Since I designed it as a six-issue mini-series, there should be at least 18 chapters when it's all said and done.

If you have any questions about the characters, settings, dialogue, anything at all...ask me. If you don't understand a character's motivation or if you think I left out something in the dialogue or if a transition to a new scene doesn't feel right, anything like that, let me know please.

Even if you hate it and would like me to please stop posting it so that you don't get those "topic subscription reply" e-mails any more, I want to hear it.

Thanks, oh and a friend of mine named Scott says that he is applying for membership on this board and is going to post soon. Since he ain't here yet though...I'll go ahead and warn you that he is usually horribly, horribly wrong and that everything he says or does can't be trusted.

I'm just saying.

Tigress
By Bryan S. Coe, 2/14/07
Genre: action/adventure, general goofiness
Rated PG-13/R, some language, some criticism of poor handwriting
Disclaimer: I own this. It's mine....ALL MINE, MUAHAHAHAHAHA
Chapter 4


“This is channel eight news, I am Felicia Murdock, with me is Steve Gardner in for Marc Holmes. Today we begin our series of interviews with the everyday people of this city regarding the recent surges in super-human related incidents.”

“That’s right Felicia, with the incident involving The Tiger only a week old, police estimates already place the crime rate at an astonishing twelve percent higher than this time last year.”

“It looks like we are in need of a hero or two huh, Steve?”

“That it does Felicia, that it does”
“Well, lets check in with our intrepid reporter, Janet McCoy who is braving this unbearable sixty degree weather, while we remain here in our comfortable newsroom, Janet?”

“Hey Felicia, yes it is just unbearable out here, only a few clouds in the sky, average temperature of about sixty-five, I wish I was back there with you guys instead of out here.” The cameraman rolled his eyes, he had to get out of this job and find a way to break into the movie business. If he had to spend another year listening to their pathetic jokes, he might just be on the news himself for a triple homicide.

“Well, we hope to have you back here soon. Now, what have you learned so far?”

“I’m here with Fernando Riviera, he works for Starbright Communications. Mr. Riviera, what do you think of this latest incident involving The Tiger?”

“I believe he calls himself, El Tigre, actually”

“Of course, did you hear of the incident in the Stark Ridge mall last night?”

“Yes, and I don’t think this man is the role model some people seem to think he is.”

“You disagree with the notion that he is a hero?”

“No, I understand that he wants to help people, I‘m not doubting his intentions. I don’t think any young people out there should follow these heroes at all, it’s worse than with celebrities. Some actor gets drunk, makes a scene, and as long as he says he’s sorry all is forgiven. Most of them don’t even do any community service. The few that do are to be commended, but they are the ones who get blasted by the media the most for whatever reason.”

“You think super-heroes are subject to this line of thinking as well?”

“Of course, they’re celebrities too. Except when one of them screws up, a super villain dies or somebody’s house gets blown up. Where’s the accountability?”

“Is there anything you would like to say to the heroes?”

“Yes,” he looks straight into the camera “…if you want to save lives, join the police or the fire department. If you cant help people without being famous, then forget about it. Go find yourself a real job.”
===========================================================================

That post-fight high was just now starting to wear off. Mayte was coming to the conclusion that super-heroics should be her primary occupation, or at least it would be if the job paid anything. She wandered down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk, it was a beautiful day out, perfect weather for job-hunting, and maybe later a walk in the park. She stopped and looked around, she knew there was a bar just three blocks down, but she questioned whether or not she wanted to go back to tending bar so soon. Nah, a new town requires a new job, she thinks.

There was a coffee shop in the other direction, but that would be trading one group of pains-in-the-ass for another, I’ll put that in the maybe pile, she thinks. What she really needed, was someplace that most people tended to avoid, somewhere that she could still earn enough to rent her apartment, and maintain her cover. Maybe if the customers there were so clueless, or so excited to actually be in close proximity to a girl that they wouldn’t ask too many meaningful questions, then she wouldn’t have to put too much thought into her secret identity. If only such a place existed, where a five-foot-five Puerto Rican woman could command respect, earn a fair wage, and maybe even slack off on the job to a point where work slowed to a crawl and no one would notice…

The sign in the window read “Now Hiring” and underneath in marker “…God help us”.

It was the comic book store from last night, the one she had changed into her costume on top of. The marquee read “Comic Rescue”, again in magic marker underneath it read “…no, we are not an animal shelter”. Mayte walked in and grabbed the sign from behind the window. It was a fair-sized store, twelve or thirteen hundred square feet she thought, one register, and a nice comfy chair behind it. The guy behind the counter was restocking a display of trading card packages and didn’t notice her coming in. She walked up to the counter and placed the sign down, there was no one else in the store except them.

“Hey man, I’m looking for a job.” He turned around….and Mayte nearly bolted for the door…

“What makes you think we’re hiring?” It was the guy from last night, the one that was locking up the store.

“Uhm…because this sign said so?” He was looking right at her now, but he didn’t seem to recognize her. Maybe he didn’t get a good enough look at her, maybe it was too dark already.

“Ah, good. You just passed our first qualification. Let me get you an application.” He was a little bit taller than Mayte, brown hair, brown eyes and he wore glasses. He also looked several years younger than Mayte, probably around twenty-one, twenty-two.

“Here you go, we’re looking for a full time employee, right now we need someone for the day shift. I’m Mike by the way.”

“Mayte, Mayte Rodriguez.” they shook hands and then he handed her a pen to fill out the application. “So what’s it like working here?”

“Oh it’s easy, running the register, stocking shelves, and locking the door when you leave, pretty basic.” Mayte was relaxing now, he obviously didn’t recognize her. Good, she didn’t need someone to figure out who she was and complicate things.

“I know how to run a register, but what about knowing all the characters and titles and stuff like that?”

“Oh don’t worry, my customers could talk all day about nothing, especially comics. Just answer that you don’t know something about a character and they’ll tell you everything you could ever need to know.” He smiled, just a little bit, though. Mayte got the impression that this was just their way of hazing the new guy, that all of them had learned that way. Dreams of nerds talking her ear off for hours on end popped into her head, and a shiver went down her spine.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, so how soon can I start?” she started filling out the application, name, age, etc. She tried to put the image out of her head.

“Well, first we have to decide who is the most qualified of our applicants.” he produced a pile of applications from underneath the counter. Crap, Mayte thought. “Lets see here, you said you can run a register already?”

“Yeah, you just have to familiarize me with this one.” he took several of the applications and tossed them back into a pile behind the counter.

“And you can read, how’s your hand-writing?” he flipped one of the applications around so she could see it, the form was filled with spelling errors (obveeus wuns), and it seemed to be written in colored pencil. She showed him her application, reasonably neat he noticed.

“Are you at least five-feet-four-inches tall?” a confused look appeared on her face, she was taller than that she supposed.

“Yeah”

“Currently single?”

“Uh, yeah. Why do you guys need to know that?”

“Actually, that was just for me.” he winked at her, then went back to looking at the applications. She smiled too. “And you’re over the age of eighteen so…” he tossed more than a dozen onto the pile, he now had only three or four left in his hands.

“Do you live nearby?” he held two in each hand, as if weighing them.

“I actually just moved into a place, three doors down from here.” he tossed two more onto the pile.

“Tu Habla Engles?”

“Uhm….”

“Good enough for government work, I think you’re hired.” he tossed the remaining application in the pile, took hers and started faxing it. “I’ll send this to my boss. We really need someone trained quick, so you can start tomorrow on new comic book day. That’s when we get all our new books for the week, it’s good training, you’ll jump right in.”

“Awesome, what time should I get here?”

“Eleven, if that’s okay.” She nodded. “So you’re new in town?”

“Actually I used to live in this town, sort of…” Talking about the time before she was adopted was always a touchy subject with her, it was a confusing and lonely experience, even with the wonderful people who took care of her. “I was adopted from the “Open Your Heart” agency, when I was little.”

“Ah, geez. Did you hear what happened to that place?” She nodded again, it was still hard to think of that place in ruins, even though she hadn’t been there in so long. “Shame, I hear they were good people.”

“The best” a thought occurred to her, this guy lived here, he might have seen El Tigre at some point. “Did you hear some super-hero rescued them from the fire?”

“Yeah, that El Tigre, man I hope what they say about him isn’t true. You know, that he killed somebody. I think that’s crap, he’s no killer.” She perked up at that, could he really know something?

“You know him?”

“Nah, but I saw him once. Before he made the news, but after the fire, he saved some woman from stepping in front of a bus. I was right across the street when it happened. It was actually kind of funny, after he did it, he looked her in the eyes and said something that made her shake her head, then he ran off. Heh, later when the news crew arrived they asked her what he said to her, she said he thought she was someone else. Of course once the story got picked up, everyone in the local media just assumed that they must be dating or having an affair or something, you know, because if a celebrity makes physical contact with a Latino woman in broad daylight there must be something going on.”

And just like that, reality shifted. Her father was looking for her, what else could explain this story? She had to get home and call her mother, she had to tell somebody, anybody.

“Uh listen, I’ll come back later so you can show me around and stuff. I need to get back and start unpacking, I’m way behind on getting my place in order.” She started backing off towards the door.

“Hey, uh…if you need some help, give me a call. My shift is over in about ten minutes.” She thought it was kind of cute, she hadn’t even started working here and a co-worker already had a crush on her. A smile crept across her face.

“Really? Yeah man, that’d be great. I’m three doors down, second floor.” Mr. Wilson’s grandson just lost a job, she thought.

“Okay, see you in a few minutes then.”

As she left, she smiled and tried to remember the last time someone hit on her and he wasn’t some drunken frat-boy at the bar, or just some creep. Then she remembered what he said about El Tigre.

He had to have been looking for her, she was certain of this now.

===========================================================================

The parking garage was almost empty, save for one limo parked near the entrance. This level had been cleared out to make room the for the V.I.P., some foreign dignitary that wanted to visit an American shopping mall. Milo knew this situation wasn’t right, he had received word that the dignitary was leaving ten minutes ago, but his limo was still here. His boss had sent him up here to find out what was going on, they needed the parking level cleared so they could re-open it to the public.

He was going to get yelled at for this one way or the other; his boss was furious, the other levels were packed with cars and people were starting to leave in frustration, and the police wanted him out of here so they could all get back to their patrols. This guy in the limo might yell at him too, he might be in the middle of something. Milo paused at that thought, the last thing he needed was to barge in on the guy nailing his secretary in the back seat, while everyone waited for him to leave.

“Lord, I’m not asking for much here. Let them all be fully clothed, that’s all I want…” he tapped his hand on the driver’s window. He tapped again, but still no response from inside. “Hello? Is everything all right?” He moved down to the passengers windows and tried again. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but we need you to move your car.” Nothing, Milo was getting worried, he had to try the door handle. Please don’t be naked, please don’t be naked, please don’t be naked…he thought to himself.

“Oh, I’m sorry to disturb you miss….oh, my….oh my god.” at first, the woman seemed to be sleeping, but the blood on the seat and on her arms told a different story. She had a teddy-bear clutched underneath her arm, it‘s feet rested in the pool of blood. Milo tried to avert his gaze, only to see the rest of the carnage inside the limo. Mr. foreign dignitary was dead, so was his secretary, and both of this bodyguards. A bloody smear on the partition told him why the driver didn’t answer before.

“Jesus, what…what the hell happened?” he turned and ran, should he run downstairs and get the police first or call his superiors on his radio? No, there was a phone in the security booth just over there by the exit, better call 911 first. He ran for the booth, too freaked out to shut the door, and too busy to notice something inside the limo move.

Milo was not very good at making quick decisions. Call the police and have them get an ambulance? No, call the ambulance, then the police. Wait, maybe it would get here faster if the police called it. He had the radio on his shoulder, and the phone in his hand, but he still couldn’t decide. Times like this, his mother had always said, were why he was never going to be a doctor. He dropped the radio and started dialing 911.

“Nine one one, what is the nature of your emergency?”

“I need an ambulance…uhm, a couple maybe. I just found some dead people in a limo, I don’t know what happened to them.”

“Okay, sir just try to stay calm. Where are you…sir?” he could have sworn that he shut the door behind him.

“Sir, what is your location?” there was blood on the floor leading all the way back to the car, it looked almost like footprints. “Sir, I need to know where you are in order to send help.”

“I’m on the second level…near the…” Did he track that in here himself? When did he step in the blood, and why aren’t the puddles the same size as his feet?

“I need an address sir” the footprints led right into the booth, but then detoured away from where he was standing. He continued to turn and try and follow them, but they seemed to be leading him in a circle.

“Hang on a second, something is…” he felt a weight jump onto his shoulders, and two very small hands seemed to clamp onto his head.

“Any last words, slappy?” the hands were really small…and furry?

“Uhm…”

“Well said.” the paws twisted his head sharply and broke his neck with an ease that defied explanation. As Milo crashed to the floor, the 911 operator continued speaking.

“Sir, please I need you to stay on the line. Help is on the way, but you have to hang on.” A tiny little hand reached over and hung up the phone. The bloody footprints that had followed Milo into the booth now led all the way up his back. Milo’s killer attempted to dial the phone, only to realize that his paws were too big to press only one number at a time…

(sfx) BOO-WEEP “I’m sorry, your call could not be connected as dialed. Press only one key at a time when entering the number you wish to dial.” He attempted once more before slamming the phone down, reaching across the desk he grabbed a pencil, turned it upside down and used the eraser to dial the number.

(sfx) BOO-WEEP “I’m sorry, to reach this number you must first enter the area code. If you do not know the area code, press one and an operator will assist…”

“Gaaaggghhh” he tightened his grip on the phone, if he didn’t need to call in his extraction he would just rip the damn thing out of the wall. Trying once again, he dialed the number and waited.

“How did it go?” a woman’s voice picked up on the other end. There was no need for pleasantries, she was waiting for the call.

“Mission accomplished Mama Bear. I’m ready to be picked up.”

“Roger that Papa Bear, police have been notified to stay out of the area until our team arrives to “inspect” the scene, wait until they get there.”

“You got it ma.” It was almost unnecessary to cover up his being there, who would ever suspect a harmless looking teddy-bear of a multiple homicide?

===========================================================================

“…you got it ma.” Mama Bear, a.k.a. agent Katherine Blaire, couldn’t help but be amused at her creation. Millions of dollars of cybernetics, software programming, and titanium alloy / compact ceramics could still not remove the need for a mom.

She had started the C.U.B.S. (cybernetic-undercover-bear-soldiers) project nearly five years ago, designing them, programming them, and socializing them. They had grown to think of her as their mother, and in a way she was. Though the idea of cybernetic black ops. Teddy Bears calling her “mom” did nothing to garner her any respect.

“Hey, “ma”, can I take a break?” her chief communications officer, Dorian loved to tease her about the bear’s infatuation with her.

“Yes, you can take a break. Just double-check to make sure the team is en-route.”

“Thanks ma, want anything from the snack machine?” next to him, Hank, the man in charge of video surveillance held his hand over his mouth to cover the smile.

“No thank you.” enjoy it while it lasts guys, she thought to herself. We're going to be out of a job by the end of next week. “Hank, when the bears get back let me know, we still have a lot of equipment to mothball for the move.”

“Yeah. So what do you think they’ll do with the bears, the higher-ups I mean?”

“For right now, they go to R & D, unless Reynolds can find some way for us to save our jobs by the end of the week.” She hated to think about what they might do to her bears. She could tell herself that they were just machines all she wanted, but it didn’t make that nagging feeling that she was letting them down go away.

“So…I guess I should start packing then?”

“Yeah, I guess so” She wouldn’t cry, not here.


Anyway, they were just machines…

Hey pitdroid??? You are sounding needy. :lol:

I'm really liking this story and can easily see Michelle in the roll and more importantly
it reads well and is keeping me interested.

Bring on the killer teddy bears!!

Mike the comic store guy sounds awful familiar. ;)

And yes, comic buyers can talk all day about nothing. :lol:

yeah bring on the bears

Well, well I see my friend Scott finally made it onto the board. :lol:

Tigress
By Bryan S. Coe, 2/19/07
Genre: action/adventure, general goofiness
Rated PG-13/R, some language, some motherly nagging.
Disclaimer: I own this. It's mine....ALL MINE, MUAHAHAHAHAHA.

Chapter 5


“So you only saw him that one time?” Mayte was steadying the dresser while Mike pushed it against the wall of her bedroom. She could have done it herself, actually she could almost lift it above her head with her super-human strength, but that might tip him off to her little secret.

“Nah, I saw him one other time. It was from a distance though, and only for a second. He was leaping across a rooftop…” he paused and tilted his head up at her. “You know come to think of it…yesterday I saw some hottie on the roof of the store dressed in spandex, her costume kind of reminded me of him. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?” he smiled, a wicked smile that normally would have seemed playful. Mayte nearly jumped out the window.

“What! No, why would I…” Smooth Mayte, real smooth.

“Yeesh, relax I’m kidding. That chick had nothing on you anyway”

If you only knew…she thought.

“You think so?” A smile crept across her face. Nice try kid, but I’m not looking for a boyfriend.

“Oh heck yeah, all that orange spandex she was wearing made her look pretty ridiculous.” …you’re a dead man, Mayte thought.

“You have something against women super-heroes?” C’mon, give me a reason to unsheathe my claws…

“No way, there aren’t enough super-heroines these days. I’m just saying they need to start dressing better is all.”

No one would blame me if I pushed him out of the window, she thought. There’s a dumpster in the alleyway, it would be a couple of days before anyone found him. Mayte flexed her claws a little, then retracted them before he could see. “What’s next boss?” Before she could answer him the phone rang.

“Can you set up the TV in the living room while I get that?” He nodded and went to work, Mayte paused before picking up the phone, it would be her mother. She hadn’t yet called her back after their fight, and she had to brace herself for what her mother might say. She took the phone with her into the bathroom while Mike worked on the TV in her living room.

“Hey, ma”

“Mayte, honey are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. I guess you saw the news.”

“They said El Tigre was back in town, but that was you right?”

“Right, don’t believe everything you see on TV”

“I just caught the report a minute ago, they said you fought ninjas? Since when are there ninjas in this country?”

“I don’t think any of them were Japanese, ma. Just some idiots who took Karate lessons and thought they were tough.”

“And you beat them all by yourself?”

“I told you I could handle myself, they never even hit me.” She bit her tongue, she wanted to apologize so badly for what she said before, but she didn’t know how to just come out and say it. She needed an opening…

“I’m sorry I doubted you Mayte, it’s just so hard to stand by and watch you put yourself in danger. You’re my only child and I’d do anything to help you, I hope you know that.” And there it is, Mayte thought.

“I do ma, I do. I’m sorry I was such a jerk to you yesterday. I know you aren’t wild about my plan, but it’s something I feel I have to do. If this doesn’t work, if I can’t find this guy or it gets too rough, I’ll be back home before you even see it on the news, I promise.”

“Do what you have to do Gato-Niña, I’ll always be here for you.” Mayte was nervously playing with the string tying her tail in place, a bad habit that had almost gotten her into trouble several times before.

“I know you will ma, you always have been.” They both thought about what else was said during that phone call; if she was just out here to use her powers or if El Tigre could even be her father, but they didn’t speak of it. They would talk about it later, for now it was enough to know that they both regretted arguing and wanted to go back to being friends.

“Have you found any leads on this man you think might be your father?” A change of subject did little to mask the sound of her mother wiping tears out of her eyes.

“No, but I did find someone who says he saw him before the thing on the rooftop. He says he was there when El Tigre saved a woman from being hit by a bus, and she told the police that he was looking for someone, a young woman. This was after the fire ma, when he saw this woman he thought she was someone else. I think he really was looking for me, he just doesn’t know what I look like now.”

“Who is this man that told you about it? You can’t just believe someone when they tell you something you want to hear.”

“He’s a co-worker, ma. I just got a job at a comic book store today, he says he was across the street when it happened.”

“A co-worker? You got a job already?”

“Yeah, I think I was over-qualified. I think I can trust him, he seems like an o.k. guy.”

“Oh yeah, what’s he like?” Mayte couldn’t believe it, was her mother asking if she liked him?

“It’s not like that ma, he’s just a friend…”

“Oh he’s a friend now is he? I thought he was a co-worker?” Mayte’s grip on the phone tightened.

“Don’t even start ma, I’m not here for a boyfriend, I’m…”

“Wow, he’s moved up to boyfriend already huh? Tell me about him, what’s my future son-in-law look like?” She wished her mother was still mad at her. Mad she could deal with. Her mom playing match-maker was another matter entirely…

“I’m hanging up, I’ll call you when I fight a giant robot or something.”

“You’re not even going to tell me his name? How will I know what to put on the invitations?”

“Invitations? What are you…” Wedding invitations, for the love of God. “His name’s Mike, are you happy?”

“Mayte and Mike, hmmm, Mike and Mayte. It has a nice ring to it. Have you discussed names for your children….

(sfx) CLICK

Mayte slammed the phone back into the receiver. Looks like she would have to call and apologize to her mother again tomorrow.

She walked into the living room, Mike was almost finished with the TV. Mayte looked at him as he hooked-up her VCR, why did her mother have to start that boyfriend nonsense with her, she thought. He’s too young for me, and besides, I’m here on business. As she thought about not thinking about it, she realized that Mike was talking to her…

“Huh?”

“I said, where do you want this clock?”

“Oh here, I’ll put that up.” She took the clock, grabbed a hammer and a nail and the step ladder in order to hang it above the door frame leading into the kitchen. “Sorry if I took so long on the phone, I don’t want to hold you up or anything.”

“No problem, where do you want these cookbooks? In the kitchen or on the bookshelf?” Cookbooks? What the hell was he talking about?

“Huh?” she looked at the book he was holding up, it was one of her mother’s collection. She must have slipped them in along with the costume when she was helping Mayte pack her things. “Uhm, the bookshelf. Sorry, those belong to my mom, she thinks she can teach me to cook one day.”

“Ha, mine too.” Mayte turned to climb the step ladder as Mike put the books on the shelf. The ladder wasn’t quite tall enough to reach where she wanted, so she had to stretch. She didn’t realize it, but the stretching, coupled with her playing with the string tying her tail in place had caused it to come undone.

“So how long have you been working at the comic book store?” When he didn’t answer right away, Mayte just assumed he was taking the opportunity to stare at her ass, and she was almost right. “Mike? I said how long…” she turned around, and he was indeed staring at her, but with a confused/horrified look on his face. “What’s the matter with you…” she twisted her body to look where he was looking, and saw her tail hanging out, completely exposed.

“Holy crap, you are that chick from last night!” horror and confusion had turned to excitement as Mike forgot all about the books he was holding. Before he could utter another word, Mayte leapt at him from across the room, tackled him and rolled him over so that she landed on top of him. He tried to free himself, but her super-strength kept his back pinned to the floor.

“If you tell ANYONE about this, I swear I will kick your ass so hard…”

“Whoa, whoa hang on. Look, I won’t tell anyone I swear.” He held his hands up, trying to appear as cooperative as possible. Mayte considered it for a second before responding.

“Only a handful of people know about me, and it’s going to stay that way, GOT IT?” she remembered thinking about pushing him out of the window a few moments before, now it seemed like an even better idea.

“Got it, yeah. I won’t tell anyone you have my word. This town needs a super-hero, ever since El Tigre left…wait, that was you last night on the news, wasn’t it? Fighting those ninjas?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“That was great! Those jerks have been robbing places in the town for weeks, even El Tigre never stopped them.” She let him stand up now, slowly they both got to their feet.

“Really? They didn’t seem that tough”

“Oh, modest too huh? Hey wait a minute, you have an actual tail right?” She touched her tail, it felt good to have it untied. It was always uncomfortable to wrap it around her waist all day.

“Yeah, it’s all me. What about it?”

“Well that El Tigre guy had a tail too, are you two related?”


“That’s what I’m here to find out.”

===========================================================================

Simon Reynolds hated meetings, with superiors, in general, and especially when he was hung-over. The events of last night were a little foggy to him, he remembered being demoted, having his boss replaced with a dolphin, and something about taking a harpoon to a shark. Wait, that can’t be right, he thought.

He was sitting in the waiting room outside his new boss’ office, which had been converted into a aquarium-like tank to house it’s new marine inhabitant. The new secretary was talking to a friend of hers from down the hall, even though they were being quiet, their voices pounded in his head and killed what few brain cells he had left. What the hell was I going to ask him?, Reynolds thought. It must have been important, did I find something to save my project? He thought about last night, nearly passed out, then tried thinking again. He saw something on the news, but what?

The secretary’s were discussing what they had for breakfast, for some reason Reynolds became fascinated by this, anything to take the focus of the pain in his head he supposed.

“So what did you have this morning, anything?”

“Just a bowl of cereal.” She showed the other woman the empty travel-sized box of cereal on her desk, it had an image of a cartoon TIGER on it. “Can you believe they have to put the serving directions in SPANISH on here now? Who needs a translation to understand cereal?” Reynolds took his hands off of his face for a moment, what did she just say?

“Ha, hey did I tell you my boyfriend just got a new motorcycle? He got one of those, what do you call it? A NINJA? He’s going to take me riding tomorrow.” Reynolds got up and walked over to her…

“What kind of motorcycle was it?” they both jumped at the sound of his voice.

“Uhm, a ninja, sir.” Oh my god, that was it! It all came flooding back to him, the news report, El Tigre, everything. He kissed the woman right on the lips and ran towards the office door.

“THANK YOU, hahahahaha” Too stunned for words, both women just stared at him as he ran away.

Reynolds barged in through the door, in the center of the room was a giant tank of water, Arthur, his new boss was inside, and another man was standing beside it.

“Uh, thank you agent Damson, that will be all for now, we’ll pick up later. Agent Reynolds, what can I do for you?”

“I have something that can save my project.”

“Ah yes, you were saying something about that last night on the phone. Are you feeling up to discussing it now?”

“Yes sir, sorry about last night. The reason I called you is that I may have found a leak from one of my old projects, the hybrid experiments. Two of the escapees had cat-like abilities, one was even based specifically on a tiger. I just saw a news report about a super-hero with tiger-like abilities, who fit’s the age and the profile of the escapee, he may have killed a super-villain recently.”

“I see, and you think your bears are up to the challenge of taking him out?”

“Yes sir, not in an open fight per se. The bears are good at reconnaissance, surveillance and all that, so they can follow him to his home or set an ambush and take him down where no one would see anything.”

“Wouldn’t it be hard for them to operative hi-tech equipment with paws?” It was hard to tell when the dolphin was mocking him or being serious since it had that perpetual smile on it’s face.

“Uh, well we have specially designed equipment…”

“I’m joking agent Reynolds. Okay, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, for now. I want information about the target as soon as you have it. It has been nearly thirty years since the break-out, are you sure it is the same person? There are a lot of people out there with cat-like super-powers these days you know.”

“I know sir, but the news report clearly showed him having a real tail, not many people can fake that. He appears to be the right age, height, ethnicity, and all that.”

“Is there anything else that might make this man a threat to us?”

“Maybe, by now he may have had offspring. If one of them is involved in this, they could potentially sue us for damage caused by birth defects or something.”

“Ah crap, that’s all we need. Our budget is being chopped down so badly, we won’t even be able to afford half of the secret illegal wars we’re fighting, let alone handle a lawsuit. Take care of it agent Reynolds, and fast.”


“I will sir.”

===========================================================================

“This is Janet McCoy here, with the second in our series of “man on the street reports” about super-heroes in a fair city. With me today are Allison and Jennifer, we were just discussing super-heroines in particular. What do you have to say ladies?”

“Yeah, we think it’s messed up how few female super-heroes there are. Women can be just as good at saving people as guys.”

“Right, and how come the girls are always the ones being rescued? Even when they have super-powers they are always the weakest member of any team they are on.”

“Are you saying that you think the many super-teams in this country only pick women who can’t pull their weight?” She offered the microphone to the woman and she accepted it.

“No, I’m saying they only pick ones who look hot in spandex. I’m sure if you look great in a tube-top and thigh-high boots, any super-team would love to have you. But if you’re not some super-model slash super-hero, then don’t even bother applying.” Her friend laughed and started imitating a woman with huge breasts by arching her back and walking forward as if in slow motion.

“What we need are some super-heroines who are secure in how they look and aren’t afraid to kick some ass. Not some skanks who just want to get on television.”

===========================================================================

Reynolds office was still a mess, when Arthur’s secretary woke him two hours earlier to remind him of the meeting, he had left in a rush. He cleared the mess off of his desk and eased back, his head still hurt, but not as bad as before. Now he had a goal, he might have to kill some people to attain it, but hey a goal is a goal. A gentle tapping at the door brought him out of his thoughts.

“Simon? Oh there you are, I heard you had a meeting with fish-boy.” Katherine Blair a.k.a. Momma Bear was, perhaps, the only person he trusted outside of himself. Almost everyone in the department thought the new boss was kind of a joke, but none said it to his face. Dolphins were one thing, hyper-evolved intelligent dolphins were another, and no one wanted to find out if they held a grudge.

“Yeah, I may have found a way to save the C.U.B.S., have a seat.” He realized that the chair he was indicating her to sit in had been tossed across the room in his drunken stupor, so he got up, offered her his chair and went to get the other one.

“Really? What do we have to do?” She leaned forward in his chair, she had entered feeling kind of somber and maybe a little depressed. Now there was a hint of hope in her eyes.

“We might have to kill somebody, if they are who I think they are. Some super-hero named El Tigre, he might be one of the escapees from my first project that I told you about.” She remembered, it wasn’t a topic he spoke lightly about. In fact, he had first told her about the incident when he was really, well…drunk, one time years ago. “If it is him, we have authorization to eliminate him and any offspring he might have.”

“…but, that’s horrible. What if they aren’t criminals?” Shock was not an emotion that carried well on her face. Normally she was a textbook example of professionalism, perfect appearance, dress, etc. The look on her face belied just how young and naive she really was underneath it all.

“And what if someone gets a hold of their genetic material? These people were some of the deadliest killers we ever created, if some terrorist or rogue nation gets their secrets, they could build an army of these people.”

“Why can’t we just capture them?”

“We couldn’t contain them the first time, what makes you think we can now?” Katherine had ordered men’s deaths for her country before, but it didn’t make her ruthless or cold-blooded, not yet anyway. “They are too dangerous anyway, this El Tigre may have already killed once, we can’t let him do it again.”

“You’re sure this guy is one of yours?”

“Positive, and if I’m wrong, we just abort. We’ll do recon. first, but if it is him, or if he had a kid, we eliminate them both.” She took a deep breath, if anyone else had asked her to do this…

“I’m not sure about this…”

”Katherine, baby listen to me. We’ve worked too hard for things to fall apart now. You just have to trust me, okay?” He reached across the desk and put his hand on top of hers.

“I do trust you Simon, it’s just…“ She started to cry a little, Reynolds stood up and brought her close to him. They embraced, and as they kissed, a soft, gentle kiss, Reynolds started daydreaming again. There was the beach, the bar, the dead shark, and Katherine …was nowhere to be seen.


He only needed her for a couple more days anyway, then he wouldn‘t need her anymore.