#1 - "Bizarre Adventures"

"We now number only five. I no longer have enough men to safely explore the inland areas of the island to verify the rumors about the mysterious city said to exist there. The others are only sailors; I am the only professional adventurer on board. The danger of this great venture has taken its toll. Too many crewman either died in the storm or by cannibal spears. On our small sailing ship, they are competent enough to run the vessel. On land, and in hostile territory, we would be helpless. I should be able to recruit a party of professional adventurers once we return to the mainland. Then I shall return to claim the black pearl I have heard so many stories about."

"Before sailing back to the mainland, we circled the island and made a rough map. It was deemed to dangerous to land anywhere on the main island; native fishermen warned us treacherous beaches and hidden rocks. Therefore, our map shows only the coastal areas that could be charted from the ship. It is not much, but it is much better then nothing."

James Sculley leaned back from the keyboard and surveyed his work. He was fairly average in appearance, but everyone seemed to comment on his bright blue eyes.

"Not exactly Pulitzer material, but it's a start, " he quipped. "This is certainly a lot harder than writing stories for the paper." Jim had attended UCLA and received a degree in journalism. After a couple years, he realized that newspaper journalism was not what he really longed to do with his life. Creative writing was far more interesting to him than simply reporting events as they happened. Rather than waiting for an editorial position to open up, he decided to take a risk and jump into writing his own novel. He had struggled for a time on various ideas before settling on a particular premise. Now, all that remained was the not so simple task of actually writing the darn thing.

Just then, the telephone rang. Jim reached over and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?... Hello?" A weird multi-toned beeping was all that he heard coming over the phone, however. "What the heck is this? It sounds like a computer or something... Great, now I'm getting obscene phone calls from HAL." Jim looked at the receiver again and set it back down.

"I guess I should have expected it," he thought to himself, "things have really been strange since I woke up in this place." Jim looked around the apartment where Whitney Parks lived. They had dated on and off while in college at UCLA, but he hadn't seen her since after graduation. Until waking up on her couch just a few days ago. Apparently, he was suffering from amnesia, but some memories were still quite vivid. Others managed to elude him entirely. Like how he got here. And why. And where did he actually live anyway; certainly not here.

Suddenly, the far wall exploded inward. Chunks of plaster and wood pelted Jim and sent him sprawling from his chair.

"What the hell was that?!"

Jim looked up to see a huge creature standing in the newly made opening. It had a monstrous stone appearance. The creature was only about 5'8" tall, but appeared to weigh twice that of a normal man. Its skin was glistening silver with brown patches. The monster's eyes glowed with a greenish light. A musty smell filled the air.

"Oh my, aren't you the ugly one? You look like an overgrown walking rock. Smell like one too."

The monster shouldered its way into the damaged apartment knocking more plaster free as it entered. Jim started to stand up, brushing pieces of plaster from his body.

"Giganto find friend. Master say to find friend. Giganto take friend with." The creature, which called itself Giganto, reached toward the startled author.

"I don't know who-- or what you are-- but I ain't goin' anywhere without a better explanation than that!" Sculley backed away from the creature, as he spoke.

"Giganto take friend with!" As if to better make his point, the creature smashed its rocky fist into the desk Jim had been working at and splintered it beyond recognition.

"If I'm your friend, I'd hate to see how you treat your enemies. That desk cost money. This isn't even my apartment! You asked for it now!"

A bright flash lit up the entire room, causing Giganto to shield his eyes briefly. As he looked again, in Jim Sculley's place now stood a brightly costumed individual that went by the name of Spectrum. The costume was striped, traveling twice through the entire spectrum of colors. Flying into the air Spectrum unleashed a blast of light into Giganto's face.

The monster was only mildly annoyed by the display and roared his disapproval. In fact, Giganto loved nothing more than any reason to fight and Spectrum was giving him just what he wanted. As Spectrum hovered near the ceiling, Giganto hefted Whitney's couch and launched the unorthodox missile at his opponent. It missed its target and tore a massive hole in the ceiling as it crashed through.

"You could've hurt somebody with that! Hand me the refrigerator. Toss me the couch. I never thought anyone would take that literally!" Spectrum's banter was wasted on the massive creature. Giganto just roared. But that's what he did most of the time. "Need to put some space between me and gruesome."

Spectrum looped up through the new exit Giganto had created and zipped off into the Los Angeles air. Looking back at the apartment from above, Spectrum watched as Giganto burst through the roof. His leap wasn't strong enough to reach the surprised super however, and Giganto crashed back to the ground. He was on his feet again in just a moment. This time he hoisted a nearby car over his head.

"Giganto take friend with!" Flexing his massive muscles, Giganto let fly with this new missile. It also was far too clumsy of an attack to connect with the more nimble Spectrum.

"I'll say one thing for you, gruesome: You certainly have a one-track mind." Spectrum flew in and around his stony adversary and blasted him in the back with a burst of energy from his hands. Giganto looked over his shoulder and roared again. "This is getting me nowhere fast."

Suddenly, dark, shadowy tentacles wrapped themselves around Giganto's legs. Before he could do anything more than just look stupidly at them, Giganto was covered completely in dense inky blackness.

"How the heck did that happen," Spectrum asked, quite confused. Certainly this was not his doing.

"Just lil' ol' me, I guess, sugar." Spectrum spun around in the air to face the voice that came from behind him.

"Surprise!" The woman Spectrum saw wore a dark gray, low-cut, long sleeved, legless body suit, a dark gray mask and dark gray boots. She had the figure of a fashion model. Everything was trimmed in black and a black choker circled her delicate neck. Long lustrous dark brown hair flowed past her shoulders and partway down her back. Shadowy tendrils still played about in the air about her outstretched hand. Spectrum's heart skipped a beat when he saw her.

"Oh... my..." Spectrum was just about speechless.

"Cat got your tongue, Bright eyes?"

"Talk about Beauty and the Beast. Thanks for the help, miss....?"

"I'm the Shadow Queen, darlin'."

"Shadow Queen, huh? I'm Spectrum. How 'bout we get outta here before gruesome starts getting violent again?" A bellowing roar from Giganto as he tore the darkness tendrils apart, punctuated Spectrum's suggestion.

"Sounds good to me, hon. How about givin' me a lift?"

"Oh, I'd really love to... Uh, yeah,... Sure..." Spectrum landed next to Shadow Queen. She had backed further away from the monstrous Giganto, who was busy rending another car into very small pieces.

"Ready when you are!" Shadow Queen threw her arms around the brightly clad adventurer. Together, they flew into the air and rapidly left the area.

"Things are looking better and better."

"They're not bad from where I sit either, sugar." Shadow Queen winked seductively.

After flying over the city for a few minutes, Spectrum landed on a rooftop.

"How about we land over here? Super strength is not one of my powers."

"Nice view," the Shadow Queen said.

"Very nice indeed. So, you been in Los Angeles long?"

"Not too long. I like traveling about. Here and there. You know. The weather is absolutely gorgeous, here in Sunny California." SQ ran her fingers through her hair, letting the light breeze catch it.

"We like it. It's great for tanning."

"So, what was that big, ugly thing that was chasing you anyway?", Shadow Queen asked.

"I'm not really sure." Spectrum tried vainly to remember anything about the monster from his past, but was unable. Likewise he knew nothing about this 'Master', which Giganto had referred to. "It seemed to think it knew me but I don't remember anything that looks remotely like that thing. Maybe..."

"Uh, Sugar? I hate to interrupt, but we seem to have company." Sque pointed over Spectrum's shoulder. He turned to see over a half dozen costumed people standing on the far edge of the roof. A man in a dark blue and burgundy costume, with a stylized chess piece knight on his chest, gestured menacingly at the pair.

"I told you that you'd never get away, Shadow Queen. Now you will answer to Thugmaster's Elite!"

"Friends of yours?", Spectrum asked.