Starbolts #719: The Road of Life

 Hail! 

    Oh, Poor Tanis. His day started so well, didn't it? Let's recap shall we? He rejoined the Starbolts in the hopes of clearing his reputation and found that a woman named Heidi really liked him. They had intimate relations and it turned out Heidi was really working for Cyclone Consulting, a organization that's been a recent thorn in the Starbolts' side. Heidi was hired by Cyclone to seduce a Starbolt and to get information on aliens from them. 

    Heidi had second thoughts about her mission and came clean to the Starbolts. She urged them to help save her family in case Cyclone decided to act on Heidi's betrayal. So, Tanis and Carter decided to take the ship that brought Firaxil to Earth and save her family. When they get to Omaha they come face to face with not only her parents but a guy named Josh. 

    Josh is the captain of the football team and Heidi's former boyfriend. The awkward levels have now gone through the roof. How is Tanis going to compete with Mister Football here? Well, he may not have anything to worry about since Heidi said she had her fill of jocks a long time ago. We'll see how things go! Tanis's journey has just begun. Will Josh be competition or will he not stand in the way? Time will tell.

    All I know is that he'd better heed Carter's warning and not blow it with her.

    Special thanks go out to my friend and fellow Wikitreer Wendy Callahan! This week she and I discussed where in Omaha the Monroes lived. I thought about having them live in Carter Lake since well...Carter's name is also Carter. She said that wasn't a good idea. So, I had to choose between Aksarben and Elkhorn. Elkhorn, as it turns out, is a ritzy neighborhood in Omaha. So, I decided to go with that one because of Mr. Monroe's job. 

    I appreciate a lot of help on geography when I know little about the area. We'll see how the Starbolts handle their trip to Nebraska next week.

See ya next time!

Starbolts #718: Romancing the Dragonfly

Hail!

    Now that the truth about what Heidi was doing with Tanis is out in the open, you have to wonder if he has what it takes to step up to the plate and save her family. She seems genuinely apologetic for what she did. Let's face it. Seducing someone to get information is not a good look. Heidi knew it was wrong and was forced to do what she did in order  to save her family. The saving grace here is that things didn't go very far and the Starbolts should be thankful that Heidi has a conscience. Things could have been way worse. She could have used her powers to alter his mind and take all the information he had. 

    As you might have guessed Tanis is on a bit of a redemption arc. He's on the road to becoming the hero he wants to be and right now a damsel in distress needs him. Though, he has to get his mind right before committing to anything romantic, I think. For starters, he has to stop comparing himself to others. 

    Crystal has only ever been with two men in her life. Heidi has a lot more experience because her powers recently activated and she's probably in her twenties. Crystal joined the Starbolts as a teenager and her life before that was not exactly normal and neither is her life these days now that I think about it. None of the Starbolts save for a few ever had a "normal" life. So, it's going to be interesting to see where this goes from here.

    Next week we'll be on the road to meet Heidi's family. I'm sure they'll be normal people working average jobs in Omaha or something. Nothing crazy like being on a fake farm or something. Still, they are in real danger and Tanis here has to step up to the plate if he wants to be the hero he wants to be. 

    The first thing he has to do is stop putting his foot in his mouth and think before he speaks. Crystal is probably rightfully annoyed with him at the moment because of those comments.  Tanis has to figure out his own feelings and hers before even thinking about being in love with someone he met a week ago. These things take time and Tanis has a lot to figure out.

   Will they be a couple? I don't know. We shall see. For now we've got a road trip to Omaha to go on. This is gonna be interesting. No powers. Just Carter, Tanis and Heidi in a van. This should be an interesting trip indeed.

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #717: The Mind's Eye

 Hail!

    This week we get a little insight into the background of one of the academy's newest students! Her name is Heidi Monroe and it looks like she has quite a bit of baggage. What comic character doesn't have baggage at this point? At least we've learned quite a bit about Heidi's past. She was a supermodel on the fast track to being a household name like Anya Petrov. Anya, if you recall, is also a Starbolt and is Jack's girlfriend. I would say it's a small world. But, it's really just a small superhero community. The general public is unaware that Anya is also a superspy.

   Heidi's telepathic abilities manifested themselves at the worst possible moment. A photographer was ogling her and she had to get out of there fast. Though, she ran right into trouble when she arrived at Agents Academy, didn't she? Yeah. It turns out that Cyclone wanted her to gain information on the alien races the Starbolts encountered and to seduce one of them in order to get a Starbolt on their side.

    The plan might have worked if Heidi's heart wasn't into it. She didn't count on getting feelings for the Mosqukatara who turned out to be Tanis. Man, was she relieved when she found out the bug was really Tanis. Terrans wisely do not trust the bugs and for good reason. Their reputation as brutal conquerors precedes them. I mean they are basically Nazis in space. Sure Tanis is the son of a brutal dictator himself but he definitely doesn't take after his father!

    Now that Cyclone's plan has been revealed, what is Heidi going to do? Well, Cyclone doesn't know that their plan failed. So, I think our heroes are going to have to get her family to safety before something bad happens to them. We'll be meeting them fairly soon. Though, I think that trip is going to need a babysitter for her and Tanis as you know he'd want to tag along! I wonder who I can get for that job! We shall see!

 See ya next time!

Starbolts #716: Beauty and the Bug

 Hail!

    Well, it looks like Tanis and Heidi are just "really good friends", huh? Yeah, no. That's likely not the case. I don't know if there's love there yet. But, it seems Heidi might not be able to complete the mission Cyclone sent her on. Cyclone likely never counted on one of their operatives falling for their target even if he is an alien from another dimension.

    We should probably talk about that for a second. I'll delve into it a bit more next week. Tanis's people is apparently biologically compatible with Terrans. There's a mystery about why that is. I mean both species are humanoid and we've seen Tanis's mother Medea get romantically interested in people in the Starbolts' dimension. She did hit on Garazo. Whether or not that was successful or not is up for debate. Either way, they were able to become paramours. Is it love or lust? I don't know. She was thinking of the mission and now can't finish it.

    In the next comic we'll be looking at her origin. Some details of her life mirrors Crystal's. I think she's gonna need to talk to her as well. I think before that we'll likely see the talk Marcus is gonna have with Tanis and that guy is gonna get an earful.

    We learned this week that Aquans have the technology to detect pregnancy shortly after sexy times. That shouldn't be a surprise. They're an advanced race who, as Aquita said, mastered interstellar flight when it was just the 1500s on our world. Sadly, the conflict with the Mosqukatra destroyed most of their fleet. But, great strides have been made to regain what had been lost. Aquans also have really, really good birth control methods. Both men and women take them. I don't think the FDA has approved it for general consumption, yet. Aquans willingly share their technology. However, some things might be a little too complex for Terrans at the moment. Thankfully, they are willing to share and aren't jerks about it. They just know that some humans aren't to be trusted with various aspects of their technology.

    Anyway, we're going to get a look at Heidi's backstory next week and learn a bit about Tanis as well. He was grown in a lab. I can only imagine how Medea will feel about her son dating a Terran. Who am I kidding? She'd be thrilled! It's Demonstorm who'd be less than thrilled. If he ever escapes that prison I put him in.

See ya next time!