From Newsgroup: rec.arts.comics.creative

On 4/6/25 4:56 PM, Arthur Spitzer wrote:
<snip>> And it's the next part of The Wrath of The Administrator.

Part Sixteen is by Tara "LJC" Lynn O'Shea.
Part Seventeen is by Andre "The Question" Condon.

More like Andrew "The Question Is When Kid Chivalry: Crossed Swords Will
Come Out" Condon!

(...I'm kidding, of course, *god* I hope he didn't obsess over it like I
do. X>)

-a -a"LJ, listen, it's Charles.-a There is some weird stuff in your account. I got hit with a snowball.

heeheehee

Anyway, it looks like someone has been in
your account.-a They, whoever it was, went through your entire alias
file.-a I found a dead.letter file, it seems one of the messages bounced. Someone is calling all the NTB in your name.-a They are getting together there the 17th.-a In some bar called Buckets.-a I gotta go, got class.
Just thought I'd let you know."

-a The apartment was ominously silent after the final beep, and the grating sound of the tape rewinding.-a LJ removed her trenchcoat, dropping it on the floor next to the hatstand, and fished a bottle of cider out the fridge.
She had to think.-a Someone had been looking for her.-a She had assumed it had been the other one.-a The Scouse.-a But what if it hadn't been?-a What
if it had been Withnail, or Ambrose, or even worse, what if Primer had taken to following her again?

So wait, has someone stolen her identity or are these her own shenanigans?

-a She checked the address, but it was not one she recognised.-a It was no university she had ever heard of, that was for sure.-a She was going to phone Charles when Kit came stumbling through the door.
-a "What happened to you?" -aShe turned off the monitor and leapt to her feet
-a "One of your *acquaintences* left a message with me, then dropped me
in a cornfeild in Urbana.-a Had to hitchhike back with some kids.-a You?"

Heeheehee

-a -aLJ -aslammed the phone back into it's cradle with a crash. -a"Chuck
has disappeared.-a His roommate said he went into the computer lab and never came out." -aHer expression was so dark, Kit took an involuntary step back.
-a "Someone is messing with me and mine, and they are going to pay." -aShe whispered feircely. -a"Kit, where the hell is 'Buckets' anyway?"

YEAH! I LOVE THAT! :D

-a -a -a -a The cramped quarters of Donaghue's Books stank of rancid blood.-a The
body of the proprietor sprawled back in his swivel-back chair.-a A huge mastiff
pushed its black nose into the staved-out ribs.

Dang, okay, we're pivoting to _that_ kind of Vertigo.

"He's been dead not more than twenty
minutes,"
mused the Question. -a"I hope I can still find out what's going on."

I know the NTB does a lot of straightforward lifts of copyrighted
characters, but I assume this isn't the faceless Ditko guy.

The Question knelt next to the body, pulling out a scalpel as he did.
In short order, he had lain its bowels open and was studying them for insight.
"All I can read in here is something about a slaughterhouse which is a city, and more deaths to come...

Damn. *Definitely* not the Ditko guy.

With that, he pulled a pair of ivory
marbles
out of a black leather satchel and pushed them into the corpse's eyes.-a The eyes closed over them and reopened several minutes later.-a When they
did, the
Question plucked the marbles back out and crushed them beneath his heel.-a He crouched over them and added a drop of his own blood to the powder.-a It slowly
started to congeal.-a He waited patiently for the answers he sought...

<snip>

The enormous dog
shuddered and shook like a dog shaking off water, only it shook off mass
in the
form of solid shadows until it was the size and rough shape of a small
dog, its
ears standing up perkily and its tail bobbed for effect.

DAMN. Andre Condon needed to write more stories like this! :o

Almost as an afterthought, he reached into the centre drawer of
Donaghue's desk and pulled out the jade dagger, the one that Donaghue had always said he could have over his dead body.

hehehehe

He walked out, Obsidian stalking alongside
him as
menacingly as a Scottish terrier can stalk, and Nightshard whipping in the nonexistent wind...

Yeah dang, good shit??

Drew "pastiche!" Nilium
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