Starbolts #722: Calling in the Big M

 

 Hail!

    Wow! It's all over when your mother gets involved in your love life. But, will things be as bad as we think when Medea finally meets the woman who has stolen Tanis's heart? Good question. The bigger question is how will her parents react. That's going to be a bit interesting to say the least. At least Medea wants to help her son out because once again Demonstorm's programming has royally messed up her son. She has to clean up the mess he made. 

    There's a perfectly good reason for why Tanis has been so flighty and why he's been trying to attach himself to various women. First it was Shenra and now it's Heidi. Something is going on with the bug and next week we'll figure out what's been bothering our friend. The poor guy's a victim of mad science and you might even say he had it worse than Crystal and Carter. 

    Meanwhile, I think someone should talk to Junior about hitting on married women and engaged women. Junior is a teenager so I think he'll learn quickly. We might see him again. Poor kid didn't know what he was getting into trying to hit on two ladies who are quite happy with their relationships. Though, I imagine the sight of Firaxil was enough to splash cold water on his fantasies. He's a kid. He'll learn.

    For now we have Tanis to deal with. Heidi admits that she's probably falling for him, too. Is it too soon? You make the call. I think she feels a connection because her exes haven't all been that great. Tanis is the only one who listens and she was able to figure out that he genuinely cares about her.  More on that soon. Right now Mommy Dearest is about to make a house call.

See ya next time!

 

Starbolts #721: Caught in the Act

 Hail!

    Oh, there's a lot to cover this week. Tanis's libido seems to be in overdrive and he doesn't realize it. You might sake he takes after his mother Medea in that regard. Tanis needs to slow down and it seems Heidi wants to go full throttle with their relationship. I think I can see why. 

    Heidi has had a lot of boyfriends as I illustrated during the argument her parents had. She wants someone like Tanis who'd give her stability and she won't take no for an answer. When Crystal told her to slow down, she spoke from experience. The thing is Heidi is actually more experienced than Crystal and told her off. 

    As I've said before, Crystal has only ever been with two men and one of them was a complete and utter scumbag. As a result, she played it safe on the romance front. However, Heidi doesn't know Crystal's full background. I bet once she finds out WHY she has taken things slow she'll be changing her tune. That remains to be seen. Here's hoping the two will eventually become friends. 

    For now it looks like Heidi has her heart set on Tanis and he's more than happy to reciprocate. I think next week we'll explore how the ex and her brother are reacting to their new surroundings. We'll see what the next comic brings. We may even see how her parents react to their daughter being more than just a "sliugger". Yeah, they just got another wake up call about their daughter.  Twice in one day. How are they going to handle it.

   Meanwhile, I think Crystal's faith in Tanis has been shattered. She is a big believer in second chances. So, she may have some trust issues with her friend now. That's gonna take time to heal. After all he and Heidi did have sex in the ship that brought Firaxil and his parents to Earth. That didn't go over well with Carter as we saw this week. It's definitely not going to go over well with Crystal. That's the main thing they're mad about. It's not so much the tryst. But, the place they did it could stand some scrutiny and raise a few eyebrows.

    Talk about a soap opera! More on this next time!

See ya then! 

Starbolts #720: The Case of the Ex

 Hail!

    Yikes! Tanis is going to be in DEEP trouble next week. Now was probably not a good time or place to have a romantic interlude. Think about it. Not only are the Starbolts on a mission to save some civilians from Cyclone. The shuttle that Carter is driving once brought Firaxil and his parents to Earth. Before it was recovered by our heroes, it was in a cave in Kentucky collecting dust while her husband was abused by the Arronfelds. The Starbolts now use it as a means to transport groups of people on the ground at high speeds since it can never fly again. It can still hover, though! 

    The only saving grace here is there Josh will likely stay out of their way. Or will he? I don't know. I was initially going to write him as a nice guy. I think we've had way too many jerk exes in the comic and so I thought Josh being nice would be a great change of pace. Well,. we'll see how that goes.

    Then we come to Heidi's brother Alex. Alex is a kid. I would say he's about fifteen or sixteen. He's got some growing up to do. We'll be seeing how he interacts with Ellie and the other kids around his age at the Academy. Since he doesn't have powers (that we know of) we can safely say he might bite off more than he can chew. 

    There's not much I can say about Heidi and Alex's parents at the moment. They seem okay. I mean they were shocked to find that their daughter is a metahuman. But, I'm sure once they talk to the Whitefoxes they'll get over it. Time will tell. For now, though? I wouldn't want to be Tanis when he gets caught by Carter....and you know he will! Remember, this is the second time he had a tryst on a mission. This is also his second chance. Yeah....Things aren't looking good for Dragonfly.

See you next time! 

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!