Authors: Jackie Kessler
Black and White
BLACK MEETS WHITE
Down the numberless alleyways that crossed Wreck City like burst capillaries, Iridium stopped walking and turned around. “You can come out, you know. That Shadow-walking trick hasn’t fooled me since we were fourteen years old.”
Still the bricks behind her stayed quiet and empty.
“Jet, get your ass out here. I read
The Art of War
in the same unit you did. This is not dampening my morale, or whatever it is you’re hoping to accomplish with the Big Scary Shadow Puppet routine.”
“You cheated in that unit,” Jet said, finally letting herself separate from the shadow of a computerized Dumpster that bore the grinning face of Green Thumb, super-shill for Chicago Consolidated Hauling. The fact that a plant controller was posing for a major polluter made Iridium smile.
“Honey, I cheated at a lot of things. Sun Tzu doesn’t actually have a problem with cheating.”
Jet flexed her hands. “I do.”
“Is that some elective I missed out on?” Iridium muttered. “How to Sound Like a Cheesy Action Vid?”
“I didn’t come here to talk.”
Iridium felt a pang in the air, like a stray draft of cold wind had come off Lake Michigan. Just a moment before they wrapped around her ankles, she saw the shadows running off Jet’s form, crawling toward her feet. Creepers, manifestations of Jet’s power. Alive.
“Imagine that,” said Iridium, creating a strobe that hung in the air above the pair, arcing and spitting. Jet hissed as her goggles irised from the sudden burst of light. With her black cowl, skinsuit, and leather belt and gauntlets, she looked more like a nightmare than anything Iridium saw when she shut her eyes.
Seeing the shadows crawl back to their mistress, Iridium pushed the strobe closer.
“Any other day, I’d love to stay and continue our witty repartee, but right now I’ve got places to go and corporate slimewads to rob, so I’ll be jetting. No pun intended …”
The authors dedicate this book to the incredible comic book writers and artists who gave us superheroes … and who took them the next step and made them human.
JACKIE SAYS …
A standing ovation to Miriam Kriss, the best damn literary agent in the world, and to Anne Groell, editor extraordinaire—thank you! To Caitlin, who constantly amazes me—and hey, who knew this would be so much fun? To Margo Lipschultz, who made this all possible. Hats off to Backspace! To Neil Gaiman, who gave me the dream of writing. As always, to Heather Brewer, the most awesome crit partner ever, and to Renee Barr, who believed from the start. To my mom and dad, who gave me
X-Men
#94-100 in mint condition for my bat mitzvah present. To my boys, Ryan and Mason—I can’t wait until you’re old enough to read comics with me! And to my husband, Brett, forever and always.
CAITLIN SAYS …
As always, thanks to my dedicated and infinitely patient literary agent, Rachel Vater, and to Anne Groell, our editor, for taking a chance on superheroes. To Jackie, my funny and fearless coauthor, and to everyone who helped make
Black and White
possible: Richelle, Mark, Cherie, Kat, Warren Ellis for making me want to write a new and disturbing twist on superpowered families, and most of all my parents, Pam and Hal, who never thought it was strange that I kept three thousand comic books in my closet as a kid.
Propaganda
[Fragment, recovered from Icarus Fertility Clinic fire, Newark, New Jersey]
New York Times
, December 12, 1991
LAWSUITS, VANDALISM PLAGUE “MIRACLE” FERTILITY SPECIALIST
Dr. Matthew Icarus announced today that he would be suspending operations at his Newark, NJ, clinic indefinitely. Icarus first came to prominence as the pioneer of the Icarus Method, an experiment designed to stimulate fertility in women and allow them to conceive naturally. After a fire at his clinic last month and numerous lawsuits from parents of babies conceived with the Icarus Method (a disproportionate number of whom were born with birth defects suspected to be the result of Icarus’s gene therapy), the doctor is attending court today in New Jersey under a cloud of suspicion and dissension from both the pro-life and pro-choice sectors. New Jersey State Police spokesmen stated that they expect a large number of protesters and family members of the affected babies to be present. Icarus Biological was bought last year by Corp-Co and has been trading at
[article truncated]
Internal memo, Los Angeles Police Department
[report becomes illegible]
Stockholder’s report for Corp-Co, Fourth Quarter 2018
As our fiscal year draws to a close it gives me great pleasure to announce our dissolution of Icarus Biologicals. The properties Icarus formerly controlled now fall directly under the umbrella of Corp-Co’s biological sciences division.
These assets include:
Neuroscience and patented behavior therapies
Living biological assets (as stated under the Human Scientific Carrier Asset Act of 2010)
Experimental therapeutic drug treatments
Our new human assets will be present at the Corp-Co stockholder’s meeting in one week’s time. We extend the invitation to every one of our shareholders to be introduced to these “extra” humans, and hear Corp-Co’s CEO, Sebastian Lister, outline our plans for Corp-Co’s future.
Memorabilia poster, found in antique shop, Knoxville, Tennessee
CHAPTER 1IRIDIUM
The thing people seem all too happy to forget is that where there be superheroes, there also be supervillans. It makes one wonder: If the heroes went away, would the villains follow?
Lynda Kidder, “Origins, Part Five,”
New Chicago Tribune,
April 23, 2112
H
eroes always need someone to play the villain. Iridium saw the truth in this when a hero tried to slip up and coldcock her on the back of the head.
She spun around and blasted him with a strobe—nothing crippling, strictly visible spectrum, but the hero landed on his ass and started yelling. Probably “Ahhh, my eyes, my eyes!” That one was the most common.
“That was sloppy,” Iridium tsked. “Where’s your mentor? Did he go get a latte and leave you all alone?”
By her feet, a bank guard whimpered under his gag. “Shut it,” said Iridium. “It’s not like you won’t get a fat settlement in the lawsuit that you’re going to file against the bank for hazardous working conditions. Right?”
The guard considered this for a minute, shrugged as
much as he could with Iridium’s disposable handcuffs around his wrists, and nodded.
Iridium turned her attention back to the vault, watching the hero stagger to his feet out of the corner of her eye. He was wearing a purple-and-black skinsuit—that alone pegged him as an amateur. No one in their right minds stuck with the skinsuits after they graduated from the Academy.
Well, except one, and
her
picture was splashed on every piece of extrahuman propaganda in Wreck City—or, if you had to get official and euphemistic about it,
Reclaimed Grid 16, for the City of New Chicago—so
the junior hero could be forgiven for thinking that skinsuits were the thing.
