Heroic League: Free Spirit II Bio

Free Spirit II
Real Name: Yolanda Morgan
Born: September 17, 1982, Shreveport, Louisianna
Affiliations: Ravenport City Police Department
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 175 lbs
Powers: Mystic abilities, able to cloak herself, shift her molecules to phase through walls, can produce psychic blades
Current residence: Ravenport, Maine
History:
Yolanda Morgan is the third youngest of the Morgan children.  While she is a practiced voodoo priestess, she went to college to study forensic sciences and psychology.  Both of these she felt would give her a good resume for the career she wanted, which was in law enforcement.  She began college young, almost as young as her younger sister Chelsea.  Yolanda entered university at the age of 16 (Chelsea was 15, and earned a Masters in Law by the age of 20).  When Yolanda entered college, she also began dating.  It didn’t last long, though, as her boyfriend skipped town when she announced she was pregnant.  Her pregnancy didn’t deter her from her studies, and she graduated at 24 with a degree in psychology and a degree in forensic studies.
After a few years, she moved to Revenport, Maine to be with her sister Chelsea, who was the assistant district attorney for the City of Ravenport.  Yolanda became a detective for the Ravenport City Police Department.
During her work, she noticed several strange cases, and found that the normal mode of investigation wasn’t going to work.  Knowing her sister Regina once was the costumed hero Free Spirit, she chose the mantle and began to investigate crimes using it, joined by her sister who had taken the name the Bowhuntress.

 

The Heroic League

More downloadable pdf stories.

Okay, just two, but still…

Each of these is a link to a pdf.  Just give it a click and download to your computer to read at your leisure in your pdf reader.

A lesson in life | Cayons of Steel | Flag on my Backpack Pt1 | Flag on my Backpack Pt2

Flag on my Backpack Pt3 | Lawman in a lawless land

The new ones are Flag on my Backpack Pt3 and Lawman in a lawless land.  The former is a part of Canadienne’s story, with the later being a part of the Canyons of Steel story.  Please note, all of these are in a very first draft setting.

Related articles

• Heroic League: Canadienne Bio (taholtorf.wordpress.com)
• Slight redesign (taholtorf.wordpress.com)
• Heroic League: Canad-ARMED bio (taholtorf.wordpress.com)

 

Heroic League: Canad-ARMED bio

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting biographies that will be included in the Heroic League Project page.

Canad-ARMED

Real Name: Not Applicable
Born: created mid 2006, Vancouver, British Columbia
Affiliations: Stewart Industries
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 260 lbs
Powers: Multi defensive capabilities, invulnerability, flight, GPS Unit, multi language conversational mode
Current residence: between Vancouver, British Columbia and Windsor, Ontario
History:
Canad-ARMED, or Ari as she/he likes to be called, is the creative collaboration between Donelda Stewart of Stewart Industries and Nikki Hargrove, an engineer from Windsor, Ontario and the daughter of Richard Hargrove, the first Yellow Jacket. Donelda wanted to create a android that could be issued for emergency response purposes and be able to enter hazardous situations.
Ari has a personality all her/his own. Ari does not have a gender outside of two chassis that are used as armour plating for the main components for Ari’s systems. One appears male and the other appears female. Ari will often choose which one to appear as on different days. Ari also has come to calling Nikki and Donelda ‘mother’.

More biographies coming soon.

 

Heroic League: Canadienne Bio

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting biographies that will be included in the Heroic League Project page.

Canadienne

Dominique (Dom) Turgeon as the electrifying Canadienne.

Real Name: Dominique Turgeon
Born: July 1, 2986, Laval, Quebec
Affiliations: Blanc Noir (independent metal band)
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 125 lbs
Powers: extensive martial arts training, gymnastic abilities, and can rock out on any guitar placed in front of her
Current residence: Montreal, Quebec
History:
All Dominique wanted to be since she was a child was the lead guitarist of a rock band.  But she knew of her father’s exploits as Canadien, and as fate would have it, she would share in his legacy.  When she was sixteen years old, her best friend, Yves, was beat up by a bunch of punks.  She raced home, demanding her father put on the uniform again and go after them.  After a great deal of debate, it was finally decided that Dom should take up the mantle of Canadien.
Since then, Dominique has found ways to balance her private life, public life in a metal band, and her life as a vigilante.  It isn’t always easy, but she does manage to do it.  It became much better when she told her bandmates and her girlfriend Michelle that she lead this dual life.

More biographies coming soon.

 

Slight redesign

I’ve done a major facelift to one of my pages at my wordpress blog.  That’s been to the Canyons of Steel page (which seriously needed it).  It is now the Heroic League page, and will contain everything I have written in that super hero universe (which includes Canyons of Steel).

It will contain pdf downloads of stories, bios of characters and a lot more.  Cruise over to The Heroic League Page.

Each of these is a link to a pdf.  Just give it a click and download to your computer to read at your leisure in your pdf reader.

A lesson in life | Cayons of Steel | Flag on my Backpack Pt1 | Flag on my Backpack Pt2

I have also added character bios and a new one which happens to be for the character of Ari (Canad-ARMED), an android created by Stewart Industries and young engineer Nikki Hargrove.  Plus, there’s pictures of each character bio.  Here’s the one for Ari.

 

Native American Heritage Month

This month is, as the title of this post suggests, Native American Heritage Month.  This month is celebrated throughout North America, and takes a close look at the history, customs, and culture of the many different Native American people who live across the entire continent.

With this post, I’m going to look at pop culture, and do a bit of a self promotion as well.

There have been a huge number of Native American comic book characters that have been created.  Many by the big two of Marvel and DC, but also quite a large number of independent comics.  This list is long.

Azteca Productions

• Plainsman (Daniel Brightfeather, part Cherokee, part Navajo, Team Tejas)

Blue Corn Comics

• Rain Falling (Hopi / Pueblo, Peace Party)
• Snake Standing (Hopi / Pueblo, Peace Party)

Dark Horse Comics

• Naayééʼneizghání (Navajo, vampire slayer, Fray / Buffyverse)

DC Comics

• Arak (Quontauka Indian)
• Aztek (Aztecs)
• Black Condor (Navajo)
• Butcher (Lakota)
• Captain Fear (Carib)
• Captain Thunder (Mohegan)
• Chief Crazy Horse (Renegades)
• Chief Great Eagle (see Man-of-Bats)
• Chindi
• Dawnstar (member of Legion of Super-Heroes)
• Eagle Free (Prez)
• Flying Fox (Quontauka Indian, member of Young All-Stars)
• Green Arrow of Earth-D (Justice Alliance of America)
• Hawk (half, father is Tomahawk)
• Hawkman, Katar Hol (Hawkman vol 3, Katar is of Thanagarian and Native American ancestry)
• Little Raven (Sioux, member of Batmen of All Nations)
• Man-of-Bats (Sioux, member of Batmen of All Nations)
• Manitou Dawn (pre-Apache, member of JLA)
• Manitou Raven (pre-Apache, member of JLA)
• Mirage, (Indigenous, member of Team Titans)
• Night Eagle (ally of Superman)
• Owlwoman (Kiowa, member of Global Guardians)
• Pow Wow Smith (Sioux)
• Rain in the Face (Renegades)
• Redbird (Batman sidekick, version of Robin in The Blue, The Grey, and The Bat)
• Russ Tenclouds (Metropolis S.C.U.)
• Seneca (Iroquois member of Cadre of the Immortal)
• Strong Bow (western hero of the 1800s)
• Super-Chief (Iroquois, Wolf Clan)
• Tall Tree (Renegades)
• Thomas Kalmaku (Inuit)
• Wise Owl (Native American, shaman killed by Johnny Thunder in All-Star Western)
• Willpower (half Apache, member of Primal Force)

Vertigo

• Ghost Dancer (The Sandman)
• White Buffalo Woman (The Sandman)

Wildstorm

• Blackbird (Wetworks)
• Comanche (formerly of Stormwatch)
• Crossbones (Team 7)
• Joe the Indian (Half-Mexican, Half Navajo, Crimson)
• Pilgrim (Wetworks)
• Rainmaker (Apache, Gen¹³)
• Red Bird (Sioux, Black Ops)

Hexagon

• Darkwing (Lakota)
• Ozark (Lakota)

Image Comics

• Barbaric (Special Operations Taskforce, former member of Freak Force; wife is Ricochet)
• Broadarrow
• Ian Nottingham (a.k.a. Excalibur of Witchblade, of British and Native American descent)
• Kodiak (New Men)
• Nighteagle (Master Magus of the Age)
• Ripclaw (Apache, member of Cyberforce)
• Stalking Wolf (a.k.a. Shaman’s Tears)

Marvel Comics

• American Avenger (Pacqui)
• American Eagle (Navajo)
• Black Crow (Navajo)
• Centurious of the Firm (Amerind)
• Cusack (Tuscarora), Timespirits (Epic)
• Danielle Moonstar (Cheyenne, member of New Mutants, X-Force)
• Doot (Wawenoc), Timespirits (Epic)
• Echo (a.k.a. Crazy Horse, Ronin) (half Cheyenne, half Latina, member of New Avengers)
• Elisa Maza police detective from the Gargoyles comic series, (half Hopi, half African American)
• Fire Eyes (Amerind, ally of Daimon Hellstrom Son of Satan)
• Forge (Cheyenne, member of X-Men & X-Factor)
• HighNote of the Young Gods (Part Colombian, part Indian)
• Moonstalker (Inuit, member of Young Gods)
• Naze (Cheyenne, Forge’s shaman teacher)
• Portal (member of same tribe as Puma)
• Pvt Jay Littlebear (of the Leatherneck Raiders)
• Puma (former enemy turned ally of Spider-Man, from an unnamed Arizona tribe)
• Red Warrior (Comanche)
• Red Wolf (a.k.a. Wild Run Cheyenne, Anachronauts)
• Red Wolf II (Cheyenne)
• Red Wolf III (Cheyenne, Rangers)
• Red Zeppelin (Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation)
• Redstone (Apache, member of Squadron Supreme, Earth S)
• Ringo Kid (half)
• Risque (Cuban Seminole, member of X-Corporation, deceased)
• Running Fish (half Apache, half Cibecue, Sunset Riders)
• Shaman (Sarcee, member of Alpha Flight))
• Silver Fox (Native Canadian, ally of Wolverine)
• Sitting Bullseye (Band of the Bland)
• Snowbird (half Sarcee, member of Alpha Flight)
• Spirit/ Iron-Knife, Charlie (of G.I. Joe)
• Talisman (Sarcee, member of Alpha Flight)
• Talon (Derek Maza) leader of the Mutates from the Gargoyles comic series (half Hopi, half African American).
• Thunderbird (Apache, member of X-Men)
• T-bird, alternate Universe version of Thunderbird, (Apache, Exiles member)
• Tomorrow Hawk (a.k.a. Ceyote. of New Breed and Eternals)
• Venus (cloned from the DNA of Goliath and Elisa Maza, Gargoyles comic series)
• Warpath (Apache, member of New Mutants, X-Force, X-Corporation, & X-Men)
• Werehawk (Futurians) [1]
• Witch Woman (former enemy turned ally of Ghost Rider)
• Wyatt Wingfoot (Keewazi, associate of Fantastic Four)
• Zachery Moonhunter (of the Avengers)

War Drums Studios / Mystic Comics

• Earth (Navajo, Tribal Force)
• Gan (Apache, Tribal Force)
• Little Big Horn (Sioux, Tribal Force)
• Thunder Eagle (Lakota, Tribal Force)

Red Cloud Comics

• Jake Red Cloud, Quechua (Red Cloud Comics)

Independents

• Alma Grande, el Yaqui Justiciero (Mexican Yaqui, Publicaciones Herrerías, July 1961)
• Anthar (Gold Key Comics & Valiant Comics)
• Broadarrow (Valiant Comics)
• Captain Canuck (Tom Evans, first incarnation, Metis, published by Richard Comely backed by CKR-Productions)
• Centaur (1/8 Cherokee, F.R.E.E.Lancers)
• Cloud-Splitter (PS 238).
• Jerônimo (from Jerônimo, o Herói do Sertão, RGE, 1957)
• John Redfeather (from Spirit of the Wolf) (Wild Wolf Studio)
• Haokah the Thunder Being (Spirit of the Wolf) (Wild Wolf Studio)
• Coyote the Trickster (Spirit of the Wolf) (Wild Wolf Studio)
• Koda the Warrior (Lakota)
• Longhunter (Valiant Comics)
• Nighthawk (Navajo, F.R.E.E.Lancers)
• Scout (Apache, Eclipse Comics)
• Scratchbuilt (Half Miskito, Half Central American, F.R.E.E.Lancers)
• Stallion Canuck (Native Canadian, Created by Lou Douzepis, King Led Comics)
• Supermaya (Mayan, Mexican comic)
• Tall Tree (Freedom Fighters, Valiant Comics)
• Turok (Dell Comics, Gold Key Comics, & Valiant Comics)
• White Buffalo Warriors (Valiant Comics)
• Wilde Knight

Newspapers

• Captain Chinook (from a Canadian newspaper, created by Jean Claude St. Aubin)
• MuttonMan, a comic in the Navajo Times, created by Navajo comedian Vincent Craig
• Patoruzú (Tehuelche, Argentine comic character created in 1928 by Dante Quinterno)

In the early 2000’s, thanks in part to the MMO City of Heroes, and thanks to the interest in the idea that Katar Hol (Hawkman) was of Native American ancestry, I created a character who was a full blood Dakota.  This eventually became the character of Maxwell Running Cloud (Hawk’s Scream) who appears in the book Canyons of Steel along with his sister Naomi Simonson (nee Running Cloud), and Naomi’s son Peter (who is, thanks to marriage, half Dakota, half Finnish).  While the book is available at lulu.com, on Amazon.com, and through Barnes & Noble (available for the Nook), I do plan on cleaning it up a lot more in time.

However, this post was a long one looking at the different Native American characters in comics.

And now, a bit of history.

In 1863, Chief Whitecap, who’s people lived in Minnesota, knew that something horrible was coming for the Dakota people in the years ahead.  So he and his entire people moved north, not stopping until they settled in the South Saskatchewan River Valley.  The bright side of this was the fact that Chief Whitecap became good friends and neighbours with John Lake, a temperance colonist who wanted wanted to create a temperance settlement along the South Saskatchewan.  This would eventually become Saskatoon.  Whitecap showed Lake some of the best land along the river.  The two groups got along quite well.  In 1885, when tensions grew between Natives, Metis and the federal government, Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel petitioned Whitecap to support the cause and send warriors to help fight the North West Mounted.  Whitecap agreed, but on one condition; Saskatoon would not be attacked.  The settlers who had made their homes in 1882 would be free of violence.  Whitecap and his warriors were held in a prison camp for a time after the Northwest Rebellion, but eventually released.

Had it not been for Whitecap, though, the city of Saskatoon may never have existed.

 

The Heroic League: Third Wave

Yesterday was the second wave for this story idea, as it explored the 1990s.  The day before was the first wave as it explored the 1970s.  Welcome to the 21 Century.  Lots of new characters to go over here.  And, there’s even a couple of pictures to go with these ones.

The year is 2000

Ending the 1990s, a manhunt began for Raven Running Cloud as an Amber Alert was issued. Raven went missing after a house fire killed Miranda Running Cloud, wife of Maxwell Running Cloud. Together with a colleague at the University of Saskatchewan where Max was a professor, they developed a suit and wing harness. He dubbed himself The Hawk as he began his search for his daughter in his own way, and fought street crime and tried to get First Nations kids off the streets and into a better life.

In 2001, the world watched as terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Centre. In Petawawa, Ontario, soldiers at the base watched the morning news in shock. It wasn’t soon after that Canada joined the United States in a large manhunt for the leader of the attacks, Osama bin Laden. Among those soldiers sent was Peter Simonson, captain in 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Unit, husband of Lieutenant Naomi Running Cloud. Together they have a son. Peter is ordered to join the operations in Afghanistan, while Naomi stays in Petawawa. Four months later, Peter is killed in action. Not long after, CSIS Paranormal Division approaches Naomi. She is given a suit and calls herself The Grey Kestrel.

CSIS Paranormal Division itself was an oddity. Officially, it didn’t exist. It was developed in the Second World War as a branch of a similar organization developed by the British Government. The reason why it officially didn’t exist was because only one operative within the agency was actually human; Naomi Running Cloud. The world she entered was one that was often thought to live in nightmare and fantasy. The director was a half vampire, the assistant director a Medusa, various goblins, trolls, half dragons, and other beings thought only to live in myth were among the in house agents, a few werewolves and half vampires were field agents. They even had mermaids among their ranks.

In 2002, Johnathon Tiberius Walker (known as Operative Violet Rose) sets in plan his and his unit’s escape from the underground paramilitary organization known as The Red Hand. Together with his operatives Omega Six, Crimson Luna, Indigo Beta, and Grey 6-2-6, Walker tries to deceive the deceivers during an op in Columbus, Ohio. It appears things may go wrong when Operative Pravda, a former KGB Agent named Dimitri Kovolenko, and members of a second secret organization called The Sisterhood. Filled with female assassins, the Sisterhood can lay claim to thousands of political assassinations over the last 100 years. They could, but they don’t. The Sisterhood is a ghost organization that The Red Hand has a loose alliance with. This group includes two operatives only known as Sister White and Sister Eventide. With the assistance of The Hawk and Grey Kestrel, Walker and his crew manage to part ways with The Red Hand, Dimitri Kovolenko is arrested, and Sister White breaks ties with the Sisterhood. Walker and Omega Six (also known as Malcolm Montgomery Watt) escape to the Mediterranean and are soon joined by Sister White. But not before she manages to stop an assassination attempt of Derek Stewart. Sadly, Maxine Wollcot, who has worked with the Stewart family for twenty years, is killed. Maxine’s sister, Marianne Wollcot was on hand to witness it. Marianne is also known as Sister White. (for complete details on the Columbus, Ohio incident, please see Canyons of Steel: A Modern Day Western). Kovolenko is taken to Siberia, where he is transferred to Major Lina Gregarin, a member of the Red Army who is also secretly known as the Russian hero, Soviet Wing.

In 2003, evidence comes to Max that points to a secret research facility in Northern Saskatchewan. It is suggested his daughter, Raven, is being held there. He contacts Naomi, she contacts her superior, Colonel Richard Adams. The three decide that it’s best to go in with a super team, and bring in Mariah, Tim and Tamara. What they don’t know is that the Mannekin also knows about this facility, and together with Black Bowman and recent operative, Moquette (who is, in fact, former Sisterhood agent, Sister Eventide, who killed Maxine Wollcot), are already aware of this facility. Donelda, who has finally woken from her coma, asks Melanie to look out for Derek. Melanie manages to talk to Regina, Jean Pierre and Richard, and convinces them all to come out of semi retirement to aid her. Their objective is to make sure Derek doesn’t do anything stupid. When the two groups meet, it’s Naomi and Melanie who manage to avert a superhero smack down (which was primarily instigated by Derek). The groups go into the facility, with Naomi’s group looking for Raven, and Melanie and Mannekin’s group gather information to implicate Mandrake.

Also, up to this point, Jean Pierre Turgeon discovers his daughter Dominique, has uncovered old newspaper clippings about his old heroics as Canadien. He believes it to be innocent, but it would turn out to be very different. In Windsor, Richard is pleased that his daughter Nikki has taken an interest in robotics, and feels a sense of pride when she wins a science fair award for her development of “Robbie”, a robot that is programmed to have a sensitive and emotional conversation with whomever it is talking to. Even to the point of stating to those who may interrupt the conversation “excuse me, but I am currently speaking with this person. I can talk to you once we are finished” in polite manners.

In Hamilton, Ontario, the Canadian Football League team, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats sign non import receiver Harold Mimms to a multi year contract. No one puts together the connection that once Mimms arrives in Hamilton, so to does a mysterious crime fighter known only as The Owl.

Generation 3

The Hawk: A.K.A Maxwell Running Cloud

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’3”

Weight: 215 lbs

Place of Birth: Outlook, Saskatchewan

Date of Birth: June 2, 1970

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: First Nation (Dakota)

Education: Native American history and Archaeology

Monetary Status: Middle Class

Marital status: widower

Base of Operations: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Grey Kestrel: A.K.A Naomi Simonson (nee Running Cloud)

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 195 lbs

Place of Birth: Silver Spring, Saskatchewan

Date of Birth: October 2, 1968

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: First Nation (Dakota)

Education: Military, political science, engineering

Monetary Status: Middle Class

Marital status: widow

Base of Operations: Petawawa, Ontario

Operative Violet Rose: A.K.A Derringer, A.K.A Johnathon Tiberius Walker

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’0”

Weight: 200 lbs

Place of Birth: San Antonio, Texas

Date of Birth: December 15, 1954

Hair: Grey

Eyes: Hazel

Racial Background: White

Education: Career Military

Monetary Status: inapplicable

Marital status: single

Base of Operations: inapplicable

Omega Six: A.K.A Monty, A.K.A Malcolm Montgomery Watt

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 220 lbs

Place of Birth: Sydney, Australia

Date of Birth: March 5, 1965

Hair: Black

Eyes: Green

Racial Background: White

Education: Career Military

Monetary Status: inapplicable

Marital status: single

Base of Operations: inapplicable

Sister White: A.K.A Marianne Wollcot

Physical Attributes

Height: 5’11”

Weight: 145 lbs

Place of Birth: Swansea, Wales

Date of Birth: February 27, 1963

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue

Racial Background: White

Education: inapplicable

Monetary Status: inapplicable

Marital status: single

Base of Operations: inapplicable

Sister Eventide: A.K.A Moquett, A.K.A Darla Drobsky

Physical Attributes

Height: 5’10”

Weight: 145 lbs

Place of Birth: Glasgow, Scotland

Date of Birth: December 1, 1967

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: White

Education: inapplicable

Monetary Status: inapplicable

Marital status: single

Base of Operations: inapplicable

The Owl: A.K.A Harold Mimms

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 235 lbs

Place of Birth: Halifax, Nova Scotia

Date of Birth: February 1, 1979

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: Black

Education: mathematician, English literature, astrophysics

Monetary Status: Upper Middle Class

Marital status: single

Base of Operations: Hamilton, Ontario

 

The Heroic League: Second Wave

Last time, I detailed the first wave of the Heroic League, during the 1970s.  This time, fast forward 20 years.  A lot has happened, and this is an outline.  Unfortunately, there are no images I can put up.

The year is 1990.

By this time, Regina Morgan-Simms has retired from a life of a crime fighter, as has Donelda Stewart. Jean Pierre Turgeon has ended his costume crime fighting days as he and his wife now have a young daughter, and another soon on the way. Richard Hargrove is still Yellow Jacket, and has just finalized his third divorce after he finally admitted that he was gay. Adding to that, his young son came out saying he felt more like a girl. After a while, Richard has come to terms with this and has taken to calling his former son Nicolas, now his daughter, Nikki.

By the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s, the world of sports changes. At least in Canada. Two individuals are given credit with helping the 1989 Saskatchewan Roughriders for winning that year’s Grey Cup; Inside Receiver Tim Andrews and Linebacker Lewis Morgan. Andrews retires from football in the mid 90s and eventually marries Tamara Wattly, a nurse in Overview, Saskatchewan. Lewis Morgan is hired shortly after his retirement from football in 1991, as chief of security for the main research building at Stewart Industries in Vancouver.

By the mid 90s, certain players begin to make themselves noticed. In a small town called Silver Spring, on the Whitecap Dakota First Nation in Saskatchewan, a woman accepts a position as doctor at the hospital. Dr. Fadra Englen, of Palestinian descent, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Silver Spring is a small town, a population consisting of mostly those of Middle Eastern, Pakistani, Indian and Chinese descent. Silver Spring has the largest Muslim community in Saskatchewan. Maxwell Running Cloud, also from the Whitecap Dakota First Nation, graduates from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Native American History and Archaeology. His sister, Naomi Running Cloud, returns from her fourth tour with Canadian Armed Forces and international peace keeping missions.

Melanie Coopers is still active as Britannia, finding that the augmentation done to her has kept her aging process slowed down. She receives medical assistance from Donelda, who has focused more on science. Dr. Fadra Englen is also called in from time to time. During this time, Melanie is granted her full British citizenship back.

Toward the latter half of the 90s, a tragedy does finally occur. A bomb explodes in a Halifax hotel, killing Gerald Stewart, placing Donelda Stewart in critical condition in hospital where she’d be in a coma for a time, and also killing Elizabeth Mumford, fiance to Derek Stewart, Gerald and Donelda’s son. Derek is devastated, and the happy adult turned much much darker.

Four new heroes appear on the horizon in the 1990’s. Each is granted a special crystal that grants them incredible powers. All of these individuals are from Saskatchewan and together they are dubbed the Celestial Warriors by the media. Their real identities are secret, but due to the position of one of them, Colonel Richard Adams, the four are brought into a secret wing of CSIS dubbed The Paranormal Division.

Also in the 90s, Colonel Johnathon Tiberius Walker, United States Rangers, is given a dishonourable discharge from service. This was due to an incident from a mission that went horribly wrong while Rangers were deployed in Somalia. He is contacted by an organization called the Red Hand, and joins their ranks.

Toward the end of the decade, a rival bio-genetic company gives Stewart Industries a run of it’s money. Mandrake Bio-genetic Services comes on the scene. No one sees a coincidence between this company and those missing persons which suddenly crop up in what is described as an epidemic.

Generation 2

Emerald: A.K.A Richard Kyle Adams

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’2″

Weight: 215 lbs

Place of Birth: North Battleford, Saskatchewan

Date of Birth: April 10, 1960

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: Black

Marital status: married (to Mariah Boggotah)

Education: Military, political science

Monetary status: Middle Class

Base of Operations: CFB 15-Wing (Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw), Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

 Hydro: A.K.A Mariah Boggotah-Adams

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’0”

Weight: 165 lbs

Place of Birth: Johannesburg, South Africa

Date of Birth: January 20, 1960

Hair: Black

Eyes: Green

Racial Background: Black

Marital status: married (to Richard Adams)

Education: Environmental protection, water purification

Monetary status: Middle Class

Base of Operations: Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Prairie Fire: A.K.A Tim Andrews

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’0”

Weight: 155 lbs

Place of Birth: Invermay, Saskatchewan

Date of Birth: June 9, 1965

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: White

Marital status: married (to Tamara Wattly)

Education: Physical trainer (former inside receiver for the Saskatchewan Roughriders)

Monetary status: Middle Class

Base of Operations: Overview, Saskatchewan

Tiger Lily: A.K.A Tamara Wattly

Physical Attributes

Height: 5’9”

Weight: 135 lbs

Place of Birth: Yorkton, Saskatchewan

Date of Birth: April 2, 1965

Hair: Red

Eyes: Green

Racial Background: White

Marital status: married (to Tim Andrews)

Education: Medicine, nursing

Monetary status: Middle Class

Base of Operations: Overview, Saskatchewan

Black Bowman: A.K.A Lewis Morgan

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 225 lbs

Place of Birth: New Orleans, Louisianna

Date of Birth: September 21, 1957

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: Black

Marital status: single

Education: Security and investigations (former linebacker for the Saskatchewan Roughriders)

Monetary status: Middle Class

Base of Operations: Regina, Saskatchewan; Vancouver, British Columbia

The Mannekin II: A.K.A Derek Stewart

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 200 lbs

Place of Birth: Vancouver, British Columbia

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue

Racial Background: White

Education: Law, Commerce (self taught investigative abilities, martial arts training)

Monetary Status: Upper Class

Base of Operations: Vancouver, British Columbia

 

Next year’s NaNoWriMo

This is how early I start working on an idea for next year’s NaNoWriMo.  Using the costume editor in Champions Online, I came up with a group picture and individual pictures of an idea that has been just sitting there for a while.  The characters have had different incarnations over the years, the newest being CanadARM-D.

The assembled team.

Here’s the premise:  As more and more pressures are put on the world, a billionaire industrialist decides it’s time to form a team that can handle certain situations.  Donelda Stewart, who used to be a costumed vigilante during the 1970’s and 1980’s, brings together several people, while at the same time fulfilling a contract to the Canadian Government to develop a robot that would be able to enter hostile situations with the primary goal of rescuing those injured and in need of medical attention.  Thus, CanadARM-D (last picture) was created.  Canada Armoured Reconnaissance-Rescue ‘Droid is the full name of the development and the name taken by the prototype, who acts as a member of the team Stewart brought together.

The android CanadARM-D

Stewart knew that most situations that would require immediate attention involving injured civilians would need to have a doctor on site.  She contacted Doctor Facra Englen (second from the right), a trauma surgeon and an expert in DNA sequencing.  Englen was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba to Palestinian immigrants.  She was born with a rare genetic mutation, which is what spurred her interest in genetic science.  She wanted to learn why these genetic mutations happen, and learn why they happened to her.  Fadra Englen was gifted with an odd mutation.  While possessing all of the human abilities every single person on the planet has, she also has traits of panthera tigris; The Common Tiger.  Her skin has markings of a tiger, ranging from orange to black to white, her fingernails grow like claws, her sight and hearing is improved well past normal human abilities, her musculature is far greater than most Olympic level athletes, and she is much more agile than a very athletic human.  Fadra is a practicing Muslim, taking the tenants of the Qur’an very seriously with regard to the sanctity of life.  She receives no payment from Stewart, on her own request, as she believes that this team must act as role models for others to live by.

Doctor Fadra Englen

The third and fourth team members are actually members of something else.  Dominique Turgeon, or Canadienne (third from the right), is the lead guitarist of the Montreal indie rock band, Blanc Noir.  Together with Yves and Jacqueline Manderville, Michelle Villenueve, and Raven Running Cloud (fourth from the right), they are one of the most popular rock bands on the indie circuit.  Dom has even gone public with her dual identity, which she inherited from her father.  Jean Pierre Turgeon fought against FLQ Terrorists during the October Crisis of 1970, dressed in a similar red and white uniform of Canadien.  Dom has something a little extra, however, aside from her training with Tae Kwon Do.  She has a mutant ability to achieve the speed of sound.  Dom has been clocked running at speeds of 1237 kilometers per, which is faster than the top speed of Canada’s CF18 fighter jets.  Dom has been crime fighting, and rockin’ out as a guitarist, since she was in her mid teens.  Dom was born in Laval, Quebec, and is Metis, as part of her ancestry is European French and Mohawk First Nation.

Dominique Turgeon, a.k.a. Canadienne.

The other member of Blanc Noir to be a crime fighter is Raven Running Cloud.  Raven, like Dom, comes by her crime fighting from family members.  Her father, Maxwell Running Cloud, was known as Hawk’s Scream, a moniker he took up when his wife was murdered and Raven kidnapped.  Raven, as it turned out, was taken to a secret facility and had several experiments conducted on her.  She was 8 at the time, and spent two years in the facility before Max, along with Dr. Englen, his sister Naomi Running Cloud (who was the first Grey Kestrel), and the Mannekin (the son of Donelda Stewart), could rescue her.  The experiments had two very serious effects.  First, Raven was completely blind, only able to see certain light spectrums which would allow her to “see” a person’s aura.  The other was an increased strength and physical mass.  She appears to weigh about 150 pounds, but in reality she weighs upwards of 500 or 600 pounds.  She took up her Aunt Naomi’s namesake, and began fighting crime as a sidekick of Dom’s, as her father had retired a few years earlier.  Raven was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and is a member of the Whitecap Dakota First Nation.

Raven Running Cloud, a.k.a. Grey Kestrel

So this is what I’ll try and work on for next year’s NaNoWriMo.

 

Related articles

• NaNoWriMo is Right Around the Corner! (soulishexhortations.wordpress.com)
• NaNoWriMo + No Shave November = Hairy Novel (jsimson.wordpress.com)

 

Canyons of Steel: Redux

Prologue

Washington D.C., 9:43 am., July 15th, 1993

Dejection.

Frustration.

Loss.

These feelings went through Johnathon Tiberius Walker as he stood at ease in the hallway of the small office. He waited for the inevitable as he stood, hands clasped behind him, feet shoulder width apart. His head was held high as though he did not want to disrespect the uniform he wore. Only a few short months before, he had completed a mission in Somalia with his unit. It was a simple mission, that had gone horribly wrong. His commanding officers wanted answers.

As he stood in the hallway, he began to realize that his commanding officers merely wanted a scapegoat.

He snapped to attention and saluted as a woman in a smart looking naval uniform entered the small hallway. They may have been ready to strip him of his rank, but he would still show the respect of the organization he had served so long in. She returned the salute, and spoke in a soft voice.

“At ease, Colonel Walker,” she stated as Walker returned to his previous position. She moved to stand next to him, allowing the subtle perfume to waft over him. Odd, officers weren’t allowed to wear such things. He took a deep breath as he turned to look her over, and then recognition settled in.

“Been a while, ma’am,” he said quietly. “Ain’t seen you since the Persian Gulf.”

“Yes,” she replied with a nod. “It has been a while. And there have been some things which I have not been completely honest about.” She lowered her head, looking to the floor as she spoke. “Our night in Baghdad, I thought that was all it was. Just a night. But…” She paused for a long moment as Walker waited for her to continue. “At least it gave me my daughter.”

Walker needed to do everything to keep his composure as she spoke her words. Daughter. That meant he was the father. His earlier feelings seemed to have amplified themselves, knowing that he had helped bring a child into this world, but had not been able to help show the world to that child.

“She is young, only three,” the woman remarked as she placed her hands in front of her uniform. She held a simple purple rose, along with a picture, which she held out to Walker. “I want you to meet her,” she simply stated as he took the picture in one hand, studying it with soft eyes as he gently held onto the rose with his other hand. “I think you would have made a wonderful father.”

Silence filled the room as the woman turned without another word. She didn’t have to. These small actions spoke volumes to Walker. But now, he had to take the next few steps.

Only time would tell where the road would lead him.