#28 - "Dressed for Success"

"You are so beautiful," Jim whispered softly into the ear of Whitney Parks. The couple slowly moved across the dance floor, swaying gently to the music, their bodies tightly embraced. It was Tuesday evening and the couple were enjoying themselves at one of the many trendy nightclubs in Los Angeles.

"Always the flatterer, James," Whitney sighed in response.

"It's just the truth." Jim turned to face Whitney eye to eye. She wore a pleasing sea-blue dress that perfectly accented her figure while still maintaining a classy look. Her makeup enhanced her appearance without overpowering it. Her platinum blond hair was perfectly styled. Several tasteful pieces of jewelry just served to heighten her beauty. "Just about every guy in the place has had his eye on you. Not that I blame them."

"Oh, stop it. You're embarrassing me." The couple exchanged a small kiss.

Jim smiled as he looked into Whitney's blue eyes. With heels on, she was nearly as tall as him. "Whatever happened to that scrawny girl I knew in college?"

"She grew up into a woman," Whitney answered as the music came to end. "And I may have been thin, but I was never 'scrawny'." The dance over, the couples politely applauded and made their way back to their table. "But the compliments are appreciated. You seem to be in a very pleasant mood tonight."

"All in all, I feel pretty good," Jim answered as he held Whitney's chair for her. "After everything I've been through, things can only get better."

"I'm so happy for you, James." Whitney casually finished off what remained of her drink. The couple had spent several hours here by now, first having a romantic dinner and then staying to dance. "You know, all of the sudden I'm feeling crowded in here. Shall we continue the evening in a more, shall we say, intimate setting?"

"I get the distinct feeling that you are trying to seduce me," Jim answered with a chuckle. "Not that I need much encouragement when it comes to you, lovely lady." Jim rose and took Whitney's hand. "Your carriage awaits, milady."

"My place or yours?"

Hours later, the two were relaxing in Whitney's bedroom after sharing their passions. Whitney's eyes were closed, her head resting on Jim's chest. He absentmindedly stroked her hair while they talked.

"Impact?", Whitney questioned. "I suppose that will take some getting used to." Jim had just relayed how he spent his morning assisting his brother Bryan in practicing with his newly gained superpowers. Bryan had decided to take up the heroic identity of Impact.

"It does accurately describe what he can do. He hits people. Hard."

"I suppose it does at that."

"Then there is SIMON. The robot that Captain Lightning gave us," Jim quickly added to further explain. "I still don't know what to make of him."

"That's understandable. There seems to be a great many things that we are just getting used to. I've known that you were Spectrum for a long time, but dealing with it as part of a healthy relationship is... well, unique."

"Tell me about it. This is all new turf for me as well. My life has been pretty wacky for the last few months. I have the feeling that it's going to be just as strange in the months and years to come."

"Please do just one thing for me," Whitney requested, a serious tone underlying her voice. "Don't ever change."

"I'd start to smell up the joint if I didn't change once in a while," Jim joked.

Whitney just sighed at the attempt at humor. "You, not your clothes."

The request caught Jim off guard, so he said the bad joke to by time to think. He couldn't imagine himself being any different than the way he was now. Of course, he used to be a different person before his kidnapping by Hexmaster. Maybe that's what Whitney meant. Or it could be she didn't want success to go to his head. That could always be a possibility.

"Me?", Jim finally answered. "Change? I can't say that it's something I plan on, but if I ever do and you don't like it, you have my permission to slap me. Okay?"

"I'll hold you to that. Goodnight." Whitney leaned up and kissed Jim goodnight. She then rolled over and drifted off to sleep.

"'Nite." Jim closed his eyes and quickly fell to sleep.

"Time to get up, James."

Whitney's announcement broke Jim out of his deep sleep. Groggily, he opened his eyes to find that it was daylight out. A quick glance at the clock told him that it was after ten. Jim sat up, yawned, and wiped away the sleep from his eyes. "What's going on?"

"I have to get going," Whitney explained as she moved about the bedroom, adding clothes to her suitcase. "Remember we talked about this last evening?"

Still only half-awake, Jim tried to recall the conversation from the night before. Something about going out of town on a case came to mind. "Right, right. You're going away for a few days?"

"Down to San Diego to run several background checks on prospective employees for Henderson Electronics. I should be back by the weekend. Monday at the latest." Jim should have remembered that as it had been a regular story in the news as of late. The electronics giant had built a new skyscraper, the Hentronics Building, downtown to house their West-Coast operations. Whitney had landed the lucrative private investigations contract to run background checks on new employees.

Her packing finished, Whitney sat down on the bed beside Jim. "I made breakfast if you're hungry."

"Silly question," Jim answered with a grin as he put his arms around Whitney, drawing her closer.

"I thought as much. I'll give you a call when I'm back."

"Sounds good. I'll take care of the dishes and let myself out. I've got a full day of editing my book ahead of me back home."

Whitney rose after exchanging a lingering kiss. "Don't forget to miss me, James."

"Little doubt of that. Have a safe trip," Jim added with a wave.

"'Bye." Suitcase in hand, Whitney departed the bedroom. A moment later Jim could hear the front door open and close, leaving him alone in the apartment.

"Well, might as well get moving." Throwing the covers aside, Jim got out of the bed and tidied it up. Next, he went to the dressing mirror and concentrated, changing his sleeping apparel into a t-shirt and shorts. Making his way out into the kitchen, Jim quickly devoured the food Whitney had left and cleaned up his mess making sure to wash and dry the dishes.

After checking to ensure that the apartment was neat and tidy before he left, Jim changed into his Spectrum costume and headed towards one of the apartment windows. Turning invisible, he opened the window and flew out. Stopping only to close the window behind him, Jim accelerated towards the Van Nuys area and home.

"What's this?", Spectrum wondered as he flew over his late parents' home. He had intended to just fly invisibly up to the back door and enter the house like he had done many times before. However, there was activity at the Sculley residence this morning. Two trucks with "Reynolds Construction" painted on their doors were parked out front. A trio of workers were busy replacing the front picture window.

"I'd forgotten all about this," Spectrum silently realized. Lightmaster had smashed the front window last week and Jim made arrangements for it to be replaced. The fact that the workers were going to install the new window this morning had completely slipped his mind. "Time to change tactics."

Turning invisible once more, Jim landed a few doors away between two parked cars. He ducked for a second and turned his Spectrum costume back into regular clothing before becoming visible once more. Casually, he came out from between the cars and walked down the street towards his house.

"How's it going?", Jim nonchalantly asked the foreman as he approached. Oddly enough, there was loud music coming from inside the house. "It's looking real good so far."

"Ah, Mr. Sculley.," the foreman responded as he greeted Jim with a handshake. "Nothing unexpected so far. In fact, we're just finishing up. We even repaired the lock on the front door like your brother asked."

"Oh, thanks. Well, I'll let you guys do your job." Confused by the reference to the broken lock, Jim made his way into the house. The loud music was MTV on the television. Camped out on the couch was Bryan, several large fully stuffed duffle bags were just inside the front door.

"Bryan!", Jim yelled, trying to be louder than the TV. "What are you doing here?"

Realizing that he was not alone, Bryan looked up and spotted Jim. Thumbing the 'mute' button on the remote he waved and said, "Hey, Jimbo! I wondered where you were. I thought it was strange for you to be gone all night."

"I spent the night at Whitney's," Jim explained offhandedly. "What's all this stuff?" Jim gestured towards the duffle bags. "And what's this about a broken lock?"

Bryan sat up as he answered. "Well, I still don't know my own strength and I broke open the front door late last night. I thought you were sleeping, Jimbo, so I pounded a bit too hard. Sorry 'bout that, bro."

"No permanent damage done there," Jim noted. True to the contractor's word, the front door had already been repaired. "But that still doesn't explain why you are camped out in the front room."

"I guess it doesn't." Bryan stood up, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to formulate his response. "It's like this: I quit the team yesterday."

"And??", Jim asked after Bryan paused in his explanation.

"Well, if I'm not on the team, then I'm not going to college. If I'm not going to college, then I don't have a place to stay."

Jim groaned to himself. "So you thought you'd move in with me, is that it?"

"Not like I have any place else to go," Bryan quickly added. "I don't have enough cash to get my own pad. At least not yet. Look, I'm not thrilled about this either. I just thought we could co-exist for a few weeks until I can get some cash scraped together."

Jim quickly ran through his options, few as they were. Apparently, Bryan really didn't have anywhere else to go and Jim couldn't turn his back on his own brother in his time of need. No matter how much he wanted to show him the door.

"Okay, okay, you can stay here until you get on your feet," Jim relented. "Let's just try to make the best of this bad situation and not kill each other."

"Now yer talking, Jimbo! It'll be just like your college days all over again."

"Lord, I hope not. Going through that once was quite sufficient. We might as well get the ground rules out of the way right here and now."

"Ground rules?", Bryan parroted, sounding confused. "I'm twenty years old. I'm not going to live under a curfew."

"I'm not asking you to. I do my writing at home, so you're not going to be able to blast the TV like that. You respect my privacy and work, and I'll respect yours."

Bryan considered for a few moments. "Sounds okay, Jimbo."

"As for the other stuff," Jim continued, "we'll talk about that once the contractor is done with the window. You can put your stuff in the guest bedroom."

An hour later, Jim was hard at work editing his novel. He had made some progress yesterday afternoon, completing chapters two through six. Only fifteen more to go. Still he now had enough finished material for a book agent to begin shopping his book around. Traditionally, only the first three completed chapters were required to make a sale. Unless of course you were one of those few novelists with the name recognition of a Steven King or a Michael Crichton who could sell a novel on premise alone. Of course, he hadn't even found a literary agent yet; a step that Jim wasn't quite ready to take right now.

Along with SIMON came information regarding VIPER's Los Angeles activities. A sort of thank you gift for Spectrum and Morning Star's assistance in foiling the blackmailing of Dallas scheme VIPER had launched a few months back. (Editor's Note: Back in Spectrum #18)

Shockwave had taken SIMON with her and no one else objected. She was the only scientist of the group, so it made sense. Morning Star had gone over the information contained in SIMON and uncovered the location of a secret underground base located underneath the Hotel Claremont. X-Factor was going to get together in a few hours at the offices of Heroes for Hire and start to iron out their assault plans. Fortunately, Morning Star was in good standing with the local branch of PRIMUS and they would be backing the team during the raid.

And so, Jim planned on spending the time until the meeting working on his book. Bryan had turned the TV down to a low roar. By closing the door to his writing room, Jim could block most of it out. Playing his own CD's completely masked all outside noise.

"Jimbo!" Bryan unexpectedly burst into the writing room. "We've got a problem."

"What do you mean 'we'?" Annoyed, Jim looked up from his work. It had been going so well up until this point.

"I never really thought about the consequences that quitting football would cause."

Jim rose from his desk, still trying to figure out what his brother was going on about. "What consequences? What are you talking about?"

"Take a look outside," Bryan said nervously as he pointed towards the front window.

Doing as Bryan instructed, Jim did a double take upon seeing what was happening out in front of the house. "What the heck are they doing out there?!"

There were at least six large vans outside and nearly two dozen men. All the local television stations, including ESPN, were present along with the LA newspapers. All of them camped out in front of the Sculley house!

"Trying to get my interview," Bryan answered with a shrug. "I guess they figure a potential first round NFL draft pick calling it a career is big news."

"Oh....", Jim groaned to himself. "This is just lovely. This just makes our dual lives all the more complicated."

"I know. Sorry."

"Even 'Scoop' Conners is out there," Jim complained. Scoop was a well known sports reporter for the Times. As per his nickname, he was very skilled in getting stories ahead of other reporters. Jim recalled the tenacity in his quest to break a story when he worked for the Times himself. Conners was like a bulldog when he caught the scent of a potential story. Having him on Bryan's trail was only asking for trouble.

"What do we do now?"

"I take it you don't want to talk to them?"

"Are you kidding?", Bryan asked in a shocked tone. "What am I supposed to do? Say, 'Oh, I quit the game because I suddenly have superpowers like the rest of family'?"

"I'll take that as a 'no'."

"I'm probably better off keeping my mouth shut. Just ignore them and they'll go away. Eventually. Maybe."

Jim couldn't argue with that. It probably was better for Bryan to keep quiet as to the true reasons for his sudden retirement. He'd probably blabber away their secrets in the process!

"I'll talk to them," Jim finally stated. "Then maybe they'll get the hint and go away."

"So much for that idea," Bryan noted half-an-hour later. Jim did indeed talk to the press, relaying that his brother had no comment on his decision to quit football and his plea to respect his brother's decision and his privacy. None of the television trucks had yet to move.

"Look, I tried," Jim countered. "I guess we'll just have to hope that they get bored and go away on their own."

"Held hostage in our own house," Brain stated with a grin. "Who would have thought it."

"Fortunately, I can just turn invisible and fly out a window." Jim had done it plenty of times already.

"But that doesn't do me any good. I can't turn invisible or fly all that well."

"We'll think of something," Jim added after a few moments of reflection. "Make any plans about your future as Impact yet?"

"I've decided to stick around LA and try to cash in for awhile. I need money more than a trip to Sanctuary."

"I could talk to Blizzard," Jim suggested. "He's still doing the Heroes for Hire thing with the Empress. If they've got extra work I'll see if they can throw it your way. I know I made quite a bit of cash for just a couple of nights' guard duty." (Editor's Note: Back in Spectrum #13-15)

"That sounds cool! The Empress is one foxy lady! I'd love to work with her."

Jim just sighed as he sat down at his computer once more. Somehow, he would try to concentrate on his work and get something accomplished before he had to leave once more.

"Are you sure this is going to work?", Bryan wondered aloud. He was currently dressed in his football player's costume. It was the same outfit that he wore a few days back when Spectrum had taken him out to Morning Star's home to test his powers. The two brothers were in the attic, near one of the windows. "Don't get me wrong, I'm dying to get out of the house, but those reporters are still out there!"

"It's the best I could come up with, Jim explained. Unlike his brother he was still dressed in normal clothing. "Just listen for a commotion out front and that'll be your cue. Do it like we discussed, and everything should work out just fine."

"Okay. I hope you know what you are doing."

"Me too," Jim muttered under his breath as he went down the stairs.

The last two days had been, to say the least, interesting. X-Factor held their first tactical meeting concerning the raid on VIPER Wednesday afternoon. Shortly after the meeting broke up, Morning Star contacted him, relaying a message that Spinnerette was requesting their presence out at the Guardians Mansion. They agreed and discovered that it was actually American Eagle who wanted to see them.

American Eagle wanted a favor and neither Spectrum nor Morning Star could find a good reason to turn him down. The great-grand niece of the original American Eagle was getting into the business and the current American Eagle thought that she would fit in better in a relatively new group like X-Factor than the older, more established Freedom Squad.

And so at the tactical meeting Thursday afternoon, Mockingbird was introduced to the rest of X-Factor with mixed results. The team continued to plan until interrupted by another call by Spinnerette. This time it was to report that the rest of the Guardians had vanished! The team went out to the Guardians Mansion to investigate. Spin related that the team had most likely been summoned into another dimension to deal with a crisis and got left behind.

Spectrum asked Spinnerette if she wanted to join in on the VIPER raid to vent some of her frustrations. X-Factor had already decided to fill out their ranks with a few select heroes to bolster their numbers. (Editor's Note: All of this was shown in X-Factor #9 & 10)

After the initial meeting, Spectrum spoke to Blizzard about the prospect of fitting Impact into Heroes for Hire. The icy mutant was skeptical at first. After Thursday's meeting, Blizzard relented, using the raid on the VIPER's Nest as an audition. If Impact did well, he would add him to the Heroes for Hire staff. Bryan was thrilled to no end.

The last tactical meeting was being held this evening at the Guardians' Mansion and was to include the extra people that the team had recruited. All Jim had to do was figure out a way to get Bryan out of the house and past the reporters still camped outside without being noticed. Some of the reporters were more persistent than others. Only three of the TV trucks now remained and a handful of newspaper reporters littered the area.

Jim took a deep breath as he stood before the front door. Night was beginning to fall and Jim hoped to use it to his advantage. From past experience, he knew that the second he stepped out the front door, the reporters would flock to him thinking him to be Bryan. Using that momentary distraction, Bryan would fly out the attic window and down the block keeping low to the houses to avoid detection.

Ready as he was ever going to be, Jim opened the front door, stepped out and closed the door behind him. The lights of television cameras were on him before he could even turn around. A collective sigh of disappointment came from the assembled reporters.

"Sorry, guys," Jim said with a wave as made his way through the throng of reporters. "I've told you before that my brother has no comment."

"How much is it going to take to get him to talk? Five hundred? A thousand?" The query came from 'Scoop' Conners. "I'll find out what's going on here, one way or another."

"Sorry, but he's not interested. You boys are just wasting your time here."

"It's our time to waste, Sculley. He can't stay hidden in there forever."

Jim stopped and looked back at 'Scoop'. "He doesn't have to, Conners. Bryan snuck out last night under the cover of darkness to avoid you bloodhounds. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date."

Jim's last remark brought a collection of discouraging remarks from the reports. Most walked off in disgust and began to pack up their gear. All except for 'Scoop' Conners who watched Jim walk down the street as he tapped his pencil to his notepad lost in thought. "There's something else going on here and whatever it was I'm going to get to the bottom of it!"

As soon as Jim was out of sight of the reporters he ducked into a shadow and turned invisible. With a simple act of concentration, Jim changed into his Spectrum costume and rose into the air. If all had gone according to plan, Bryan would be waiting for him on the roof of the local convenience store a few blocks from the house.

But first, he flew back to the house to check on the reporters. Most were in the process of departing, but not all of them. "I didn't think that would get Scoop off our backs," Jim thought to himself. "But even his patience will start to wear thin. At least I hope so."

Checking out the attic window, Spectrum noted that Impact was gone. He gently closed the window and then flew off to meet with his brother.

Bryan was waiting at the previously agreed upon location. He only noted Spectrum's arrival as he touched down. "So far so good," Spectrum reported. "In fact, I told them you snuck away last night. That got rid of a few more reporters."

"Good thinking, Jimbo!" The news was certainly a relief to Bryan. He was starting to get a serious case of cabin fever being cooped up like this. "I'll be so happy to get those guys off my back."

"You and me both. Come on let's get going. We're running late as it is." Impact nodded his agreement and the brothers took flight once more. Their destination: the Guardians' Mansion.

A short time later, Spectrum and Impact touched down in front of the Guardians base located on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Spectrum immediately headed towards the front door, while Impact paused to look the structure over. "Now this is impressive! So, when's X-Factor going to get their own cool base?"

"When we hit the lottery," Spectrum shot back. "Come on, quit acting like a tourist."

With Spectrum leading the way, the brothers entered the base and headed towards the main conference room. From the sound of it, the others had started without them. Reaching the doorway to the conference room, Impact could see that the chamber was filled with a host of colorfully clad individuals, most of which he could identify.

Morning Star was here in her trademark lavender and purple costume. She was even taller and more beautiful in person. Close by was the petite Spinnerette who was nearly 14 inches shorter than Impact. But that wasn't a true indication of her agility and strength. In reality, Spinnerette was a little dynamo of action.

Blizzard was spotted next. He wore a blue and white costume with a wintry theme to it. Blizzard was a fairly muscular man and a tad taller than Spectrum. Beside Blizzard was the Empress who practically oozed sensuality. She wore a skimpy golden orange body suit, legless, that accented her figure with red accessories.

The gray-costumed Sabre was next. He was another physically impressive man who stood a solid six-foot in height. Next to him was an equally impressive woman that Impact had never seen before. She was only around 5'6" in height but seemed physically powerful. She was dressed in an outfit that reminded Impact of a viking warrioress. There was a wicked looking weapon tucked into her belt. She even had a upturned horned Viking helmet. Long blond braided hair tumbled down her back. Later, she would be introduced to Impact as Satara, Sabre's younger sister.

Rounding out the group was a trio of heroes, only one of which Impact was familiar with. That was the golden and silver armored Shockwave. On one side of her was a woman in a gray and white costume with black boots and gloves. A slate blue carapace sat on her shoulders and she wore a golden harness. The woman had long black hair and wasn't bad looking. Turns out that she was the newest member of X-Factor: the Mockingbird.

Last, but not least was the mysterious Vindicator. Vindicator stood out in this crowd by virtue of being the tallest present, a whopping six and a half feet in height. He wore dark gray trunks, gloves, and shin-high boots. Everything else was done in dark blue, including a full length hooded cloak.

"Hi gang," Spectrum casually stated as he entered the room. "I brought Impact with me. How goes the planning?"

"I think we're just about finished," Morning Star reported as she glanced towards the new arrivals. "Just dividing up our forces into smaller strike force units."

Everyone else turned to check out the new arrivals. A few snickers and chuckles greeted their entrance. "Whoa, dude! You call that a costume?", Satara teased between giggles.

"What's wrong with it?", Impact stated defensively. He sort of liked his pseudo-NFL uniform. It was the basic Los Angeles Ram uniform with some minor modifications.

"What's right with it?" the Empress laughed. "Looks like a bad kiddie Halloween outfit."

"Yeah, really, Impact," Blizzard added. "You want to play with the big boys, you've got to dress the part." Spectrum actually wanted this guy to represent Heroes for Hire in that half-baked uniform?

"I refuse to work with someone dressed like that!" The strong objection came from Spinnerette, who came forth to inspect this monstrosity up close. It wasn't getting any better the closer she got. "No fashion sense whatsoever."

"Oh, I suppose you could do better?", Impact angrily challenged.

"Blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back," Spinnerette shot back. Turning towards Spectrum she added, "Don't worry about it, furball. Auntie Spinnerette will get him all spiffied up and ready for heroics. Let me make a phone call, and then we'll get the jock some real duds. With my help he'll be all ready for primetime."

Impact wasn't sure what to make of Spinnerette s proposal. "What do you think?", he asked of his older brother.

"I, for one, wouldn't argue with the lady." Fortunately, Spectrum's fullface mask helped concealed his amused look.

And that was that. A quick call to the local Super Starz and Spinnerette procured an hour of privacy in which to outfit the fledgling hero. Morning Star drove Spinnerette to the shop while the Sculley brothers flew there. While Spinnerette and Impact were busy trying out clothes, Spectrum and Morning Star took a seat outside the dressing room, going over notes for their upcoming assault to pass the time.

"There's eleven of us, so were going to break down in to smaller units. Sabre will teleport everyone inside and we're going to strike simultaneously from multiple locations once our preparations are complete. Hopefully, it'll all be over with before they even realize what is going on."

"Sounds good," Spectrum added. "Now all we have to do is deal with whatever surprises VIPER comes up with and hope that our information is accurate and up to date."

"There is still a great deal of risk involved."

"Ahem," Spinnerette cleared her throat to get the attention of Spectrum and Morning Star. "Lady and gentleman, I present the new and improved Impact!" Spin dramatically pulled the dressing curtain aside and Bryan came out.

"I'm impressed," Morning Star mouthed in surprise. She couldn't have imagined such a dramatic improvement.

"Yet another fashion triumph from yours truly," Spinnerette humbly stated. "Can I dress'm or what?"

"It's not what I expected, but it works," Spectrum reported in an impressed tone. "A lot more imposing than the Rams uniform."

Impact stepped forward and turned once to allow the outfit to be viewed from all sides. "I got to admit, spider-lady did a fantastic job."

"Darn' tootin'!"

The costume started out with a red body suit with golden trunks. Over this, Impact wore dark gray metallic accessories. These included boots with built in knee guards and gauntlets that went almost to his elbows. Impact wore a matching helmet that left only his mouth exposed. The helmet was also in dark gray and had a golden, seven pointed star burst pattern centered around the eyes.

On his shoulders, impact wore a variation of shoulder pads in the same dark gray metallic. These pads completely covered his shoulders, chest and partway went down his back. On the breastplate was another starburst pattern. A four point one in gold, laid over another four point starburst in white. Matching, but smaller, patterns were on the knee guards of the boots. Rounding out the costume was a dark gray belt with a golden letter 'I' on the buckle.

"I look good in this," Bryan concluded. "Bring those snakes on!"