Starbolts #769: Saving Himself

Hail!

     This week I wanted to show that Tanis was more than capable of freeing himself. After all he is a speedster. He isn't as fast as Marcus. However, he is pretty strong. That allowed him to break free of the aliens' cell. Luckily, they were all distracted by the battle or else he might not have gotten all the way to the computer room. The poor guys didn't know what hit him and now the Starbolts are here to pay the baddies a visit.

    We also learned what's under their helmets. It looks like a few of them are purple skinned aliens. I imagine there are different races present on that ship. More on that next week. Our heroes are going to force the Valeen to talk about things before Tanis can officially return to the Xazes.

    When that happens, you know Heidi and Tanis will have to talk about their bond. They'll be discussing how it happened and most importantly why he never felt anything afterward. There are so many questions running through Heidi's head. Let's hope Tanis can answer them. At the very least perhaps Medea can hold his hand as he tries to explain everything.  We shall see. Heidi definitely wants to talk about what happened and poor Tanis has no clue. That should make for a fun discussion.

    Before they can do that, our heroes will have to face the leader of these bounty hunters. Their shields are down and their ship is damaged. Maybe now they'll be more inclined to negotiate. Never underestimate a small vessel.

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #768: Finding Love

 Hail!

    Happy Valentine's Day or Singles Awareness Day! It's very rare for me to actually have a comic out on Valentine's Day. Sure I've done several comics near the day and I have done quite a few romance comics. This week, I thought I would show how exactly Marcus and Crystal bonded back in Starbolts #593.  That was the first time they bonded and they bonded again much later. It took them quite a few tries to get it right.

    Tanis on the other hand seemingly bonded with Heidi right away. I don't know why that is right now. I suspect it might have something to do with Tanis's Faeori nature. The Faeori are more in tune with the mystical forces of the universe. Crystal is a void witch and she is half base-line human. Her father is Earth's sorcerer supreme and her mother is basically a really good athlete. Tanis may have less of his father in him than what was initially believed. 

   Frequent sex may have also played a role in Heidi and Tanis's bond. You never know. He definitely did it subconsciously. Knowing him he's going to freak out once Heidi tells him what he did next week.  Thankfully, he can't run away or anything.

     Either way, at least our heroes know where Tanis is. Once they save him, they can get back on the road to finding the Faoeri. Though, there may be more to these bounty hunters than meets the eye. 

 See ya next time!  

Starbolts #767: Finding the Dragonfly

 Hail!

    This week we learn a little more about Tanis's captors. It seems that they are working for a client who is interested in magic and magical people. Specifically, they are interested in Tanis and his mother. What could they possibly want with them? The mind boggles. Either way, it seems our hero isn't going to be leaving that ship any time soon. It seems that they've been tailing the Aquito ever since it left orbit of Demonsk.  

    Back on the Aquito we have Heidi dealing with Shenra. It's safe to say that the two of them won't be friends any time soon. She clearly doesn't like Tanis and Heidi does. Fortunately, Heidi visited Medea and the witch discovered something interesting about Heidi. 

    Medea is theorizing that Tanis somehow made a mystical bond between him and Heidi during sex. This might be how our heroes find Tanis. Remember, Crystal once went missing and Marcus was able to use their mystical bond to find her. Perhaps it will work again. We'll find out next time in our special Valentine's Day comic. We don't seem to have many of those. It's very rare, indeed!

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #766: Slaves to Violence

 Hail!

    It's honestly amazing how a van full of escaped slaves went unnoticed by Demonstorm and his men. I suspect that was Medea's doing. She might have caused a distraction that allowed the slaves to run free. Or in this case take a van. I'm sure other slaves ran the same way.

    Now it seems that the Valeen bounty hunters were former slaves of Demonstorm and rather than enjoying their newfound freedom they decided to turn to bounty hunting in order to become slavers themselves. That's....ten shades of messed up right there. I mean you have a ton of people who were wrongfully subjugated and a few escapees want to become the masters. I suppose it could be argued that that's all they slaves know.

    I wonder if they knew Medea freed them. That seems extremely unlikely. Why else would they have captured Tanis? They knew he was the son of Demonstorm. I guess they thought he was just as dangerous as his father. That reminds me. Why didn't they take Medea? She was on the ship, right? Well, I think Medea being a very powerful void witch may have played a role in her protection. She was too powerful and so they took the next best thing.

    Meanwhile, we have Heidi and Crystal talking. Crystal has agreed to train Heidi how to fight. Heidi hates feeling defenseless and now she wants to learn from a woman who learned from the best heroes on Earth, the second Lady Liberty and others. With her beauty, a few martial arts degrees could make her one of the most deadliest assets the Starbolts have on their roster.  We may see her training soon. 

    In the meantime, it looks like Tanis is in some hot water. What do these bounty hunters want? Why are they like this? We'll see soon enough. Right now Tanis is in trouble and is in need of saving. Let's hope our heroes can find their lost friend. They never leave a man behind. Stay tuned for more!

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #765: Chasing the Funk

 Hail!

    Even in the Delta Quadrant our heroes can't catch a break! It turns out that the ship that was following the Aquito was a Jaleen ship,. The Jaleen are a bunch of bounty hunters. I know I said I'd reveal them. However, I think it's best to keep their identities a secret for now. We may actually see them next week. I'm just building up the tension and trust me the payoff will be pretty sweet. All I can tell you is that for some reason they wanted to take Tanis and that magic allowed the kidnappers to penetrate the ship's shields and take our blue haired friend.

    The Jaleen seem to roam the quadrant in a sphere-shaped ship. Who knows where their allegiances lie. Someone clearly hates the Funkeezi and hired them to destroy anyone in their path. There are so many questions. Why were they so close to Demonsk? What is their deal? I'll explore their story in the comics to come. Right now I think Crystal is gonna have her hands full taking care of Heidi. 

    Here's hoping they find Tanis soon! It's probably a good thing she and Tanis weren't doing what everyone assumed they were doing. See Starbolts #716 for instance. Special thanks go out to my friend and fellow Wikitreer Jenn for Marcus's line. "Stop the ****ing!" We say that every time we encounter a family with a ton of kids. How many, you say? I think 15 to 16 qualifies.

See ya next time!  

Starbolts #764: The Stowaway

 Hail!

    This week, I'm introducing the first alien race our heroes have encountered in the Delta Quadrant! They are the Funkeezi and they are pretty much inspired by the classic Sega Genesis game "Toejam and Earl".  I played that game and its sequels a lot growing up and I figured now would be a great time to create a race similar to Toejam. There are some key differences, though. I don't think they'll be all about funk or anything. We'll learn more about them soon enough. I just thought it'd be a cool idea to create a three legged race. I will admit that creating Toejani's sprites was a little difficult. At least I got the basics down!

    It also looks like the strange ship that's been following our heroes is after Toejani. We'll see them next week. I haven't decided on a look for them. That's why it's "Audio only". I haven't really made up my mind for how I want the second Delta Quadrant race to look. Needless to say this area of space doesn't have as many generic humanoid shaped bodies as the Alpha Quadrant does. Creating a look for the new aliens is going to be a challenge. But, it'll be worth it.

    Now then. Is Toejani really a criminal? We shall see. We'll also see our new alien friends next week too. Medea also has Toejani's padd. Perhaps that'll hold the key to figuring out who or what Toejani really is!

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #763: Minor Observations

 Hail!

    A lot of things are happening in this week's comic! First off we have someone or something aboard the ship. It remains to be seen if whoever this intruder is is friendly or not. Could it be a friend who will guide our heroes through the Delta Quadrant? Or is he a foe? I think if he was a foe he would have made his intentions known. It's clear that his race has some sort of cloaking device AND that they can mask themselves from telepaths. They seem to be the perfect spies. The question is...how did he get aboard the ship? Well, he could have gotten on board at the starport. That's the most likely option. He may have been hiding on that ship for a long time and watched as the Demonei made their repairs. His story will be revealed in the coming weeks.

     The next major thing to happen this week is the revelation that Tanis is finally over Shenra. It didn't take much. I think he got the hint a long time ago. Now he wants to move on with Heidi and Lucy. I just hope Shenra isn't too jealous. She might be. It remains to be seen. She likely isn't jealous and more just annoyed that Tanis isn't discreet. Here's hoping it's the latter! See ya next week as we find out more about our very curious alien friend.

See ya next time!