Take Your Best Shot

Spot Shot strode confidently into Paul's Piano Bar in the heart of Star City, his entourage in tow. An arrogant aura surrounded him, he believed he was on his way to be congratulated for the heroic deed he did as a favor for Detective Falcona. Favor might be putting it generously, he did it so she didn't leak the private video she had of him on twitter. His designer urban fatigues were dripping, his golden aviator shades framed his handsome face, long blond hair flowed behind him.

His entourage pushed the crowd apart, Spot Shot signed a few autographs. Took a few selfies with some of the nicer looking women in the joint. His revelry was cut short by Detective Falcona dragging him by his ear to the back booth, glass of scotch and a martini already on it. She forcefully shoved him into the booth. She scanned his entourage, pointing at Spot Shot's bodyguard. Mountain of a man, easily two eighty, looked like he could crash through a brick wall with ease. "Take the rest of your little playgroup outside and wait. This shouldn't take long." She growled. Spot Shot's entourage left without protest.

Falcona plopped down on the opposite side of the booth. She sneered at the man across from her. Fire raged behind ice blue eyes. Spot flashed his winning smile, his social awareness needed work, hard for him to read a room. He picked up the martini glass in front of him.

"This is top shelf right?" He asked snootily. Falcona gently put her hand on top of his glass, placing it back down on the table, a hard slap across Shot's face followed.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Stuart?" Falcona asked, she never used the real name of a super or schmuck unless she was real pissed.

Stuart rubbed his cheek, popping his jaw back into place. "That fucking hurt! Thought I was going to get a reward for helping you out. If that's your idea of a reward I would hate to see how you punish people. Probably do worse than me." He groaned out.

"I don't reward idiocy! I asked you to babysit Mason Maniacal for two days so I could see who Queen Bee went to for help locating him. I didn't have the full picture on her criminal network, now I do. What I didn't need was Mason coming back with severe psychological damage!" Falcona gulped down her scotch, still staring a hole through Stu.

"Coming from someone who's a master of the dramatic monologue, you're being a little over the top with that. Mason Maniacal is an evil man, I found out a lot about him. He was already crazy, I didn't do anything that bad to him." Stuart sipped his martini, chuckling to himself about how weak Maniacal's squad of goons was. He planned on poaching them, adding them to the crew, turn them to his unique brand of superheroism.

Another slap to Stuarts other cheek snapped him back to the conversation. Falcona's hands were shaking. "You made him play Russian roulette on the hour, every hour of his captivity! Ain't you ever seen 'The Deer Hunter' that does shit to a person's mind!" She yelled angrily.

Stuart shook the slap off. "I don't watch old movies, only tik tok vids nowadays. The gun wasn't real, he wasn't in any danger. It was hilarious watching him squirm. He even pissed his pants a few times."

Falcona restrained herself from choking him right then and there. She took a deep breathe. "Don't matter if it was real or not, he believed it was. Mind over matter, all that shit. He's paranoid now.....real paranoid. Hard to keep a person like that in line, they tend to not listen to reason. Word on the street is he's gathering up a bunch of meat shields, use up all the bullets on them, since you never miss a shot, hopes you'll run out of ammo first."

Stuart puffed his chest out. "Let him. I need the target practice."

A sly smile crossed Falcona's thin lips. "I'm glad you said that, maybe we are on the same page." A sinister laugh swirled with the smoke in the air.

Stuart cocked his head. "I don't follow."

Falcona winked at him. "Mason now knows your real name, and where you live, and where your hideout is, and where your backup hideout is."

Stuart's eyes widened. "How does he know that?"

"I called him right before you walked in the door. I can't afford any more screwups from you Stu. You're a loose cannon. Seems to me like you ain't got too many friends in the super community, even if you did they would still throw you to the schmucks to cover their own asses. Least I gave you a head start."

Stuart looked around nervously, his breathing heavy. "You bitch, you can't do this to me! I won't let you get away with this."

Falcona waved her cellphone at him. "I also took the liberty of posting that video I got my hands on. You're into some weird stuff kid, might want to speak with a professional about that. In my professional opinion, I'd suggest running. Don't ever let me see you around Star City ever again."

Stuart shot up out of the booth. He gave Falcona the finger guns. "You'll rue the day you crossed me."

"Kiddo that ain't even the first time I've heard that today. The longer you stand there the more time you're wasting. Hit the bricks." Falcona shot a finger pistol back at Stu. He left in a huff, didn't pay for his drink. Cheapskate.

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Superman is probably the portrait of an ubermensch, and yet he accepts control and authority over his power (and every time he breaks his controls, it turns into a dystopian elseworld). But even Superman can't save the world--it's up to Clark Kent to spread the word, and to inspire everybody else to do the right thing when it's needed.

Was the rhyme intentional?

You all hated me as a kid and still do! You're only nice now cause I'm useful to you.

the Kent homestead is somewhere in Kansas, last I checked.

Funnily enough, back in the original runs, Superman was actually pro-worker!

I know the truth, we all know the truth. Ever since the day the princess went berserk and slaughtered her prince and dozens more. She waits here wondering where her prince has gone. Mysteriously, the king was murdered months before this incident. Which many believed to have fueled the princess behavior.

I can still remember the fire in her eyes as she ordered her guards to hold innocent peasants down while she cut them open to watch them leak. Something is wrong with the princess, she isn't who she used to be. We come here everyday, while the princess stares at the lake of longing. Seemingly clueless to the events that lead up to this despair.

We are headed back to the castle now.

Move along now- is your mind wondering says the princess.

Her words pass me by without a second thought as I am consumed with confusion. She was the sweetest most honorable princess in all the land, now the entire kingdom lives in fear of her.

As we enter the kingdom the princess wants to visit the local shopkeeper. The princess likes to bring a gift everyday to the lake of longing and proclaims she needs something special for tomorrow.

How may I help you? in a timid tone - the shopkeeper.

The princess says I want something beautiful and something shiny and something dead.

The shopkeepers face fills with confusion as he says we have nothing dead in this shop princess.

The princess says okay just give me something shiny, and beautiful.

She shopkeeper lays his most beautiful pendant on the table and the shiniest dagger in all the land.

I help the princess by holding the pendant as we leave the shop.

My curiosity encourages me to inquire about why the princess wants something dead.

As I begin to ask "Why did you need something de-

I stop.

I look down and realize the princess has plunged the dagger deep into my back.

As I fall to the ground and time slows. I recall the princess buying another pendant and dagger days before the king was murdered.

The emote actually nails it!

Like the 15th time this has been posted

The best Superman stories are the ones where he can't just use his powers to automatically win. He has to figure out how to use his powers, when to not use his powers, and make choices about who he saves and who doesn't get saved as a result.

That's the distinction for me, Supes is boring. Whatever power he needs he's got, immortal, etc.

Kent is interesting as hell. Trying to be a reporter and live a life while hiding what is essentially God hood.

Immediately thought of the comic where the Joker is about to (he thinks) cave Kents head in with a giant mallet and Kent is having a minor panic attack trying to figure out how to make him surviving the attack seem realistic.

Thanks. Im undecided if they're their real names or not. I tried to low-key make their characteristics match the real Bush and Clinton.

High praise though, thank you kindly my dude

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I didn't need to cry at work, I did NOT need to cry at work.

That was so lovely and well written. Thoughtfully tied together with innocuous details that others would likely forget to add but gave it such charm. Please continue writing.

Yes love this.

As soon as you said "almond" milk, i knew how this would end. Brilliant attention to detail.

Ive been wondering why my formatting has been shit when i comment on stuff. Thank you.

This woman scares me. She killed him! He came back form the war, the was waged in her name and honour and laid his heart out to her. He asked her to marry him, and loved her dearly - I could see it in his eyes. He looked at her like Marla from the kitchens looks at that horrendous stable boy of hers. And she drowned him. I understand her not wanting her father, the King, knowing about her… proclivities, and to turn down a noble knight of her father’s court would be foolish. Moreso, an insult, after he fought for her in this war. Still to kill him is... She’d not be the first woman to enter her marital bed impure. It’d only need some cock’s blood and discretion to fake the evidence. And now, visiting his watery grave everyday?! This macabre practice of her’s shakes me to my core. He’d die for her, fighting a war started by her- who on Mindu tries to sleep with a foreign man, a neighbouring king, and then whines when he rejects her? He was fool to call the princess a whore, in the middle of her father’s hall, no less, but still. Sometimes I think the only reason she drags me along is to remind me. Scare me to silence. Gain some perverse joy form my terror too, perhaps. But most importantly, to let me know that this could become my grave too, one day. I can no longer tell in my hands tremble from the winter’s cold, or mine own fear.

“ Let’s go back to to your chambers, my princess. It wouldn’t be wise to risk catching a cold in this weather.”

With a speculative last glance at the lake, the princess turns to leave, towards the castle. I glance once more at the watery depths. Woe, thy name is love. Death, thy angel, pretty. Arthur, thy grave a lake.

~fin~

A little spin/fanfic on Arthurian legend, but i guess all Arthurian legend we know today is fanfic/ vids of the oh Arthurian legend, so idk. At first I wanted to go with either Gwenyvere or Morgana, but in Le mort d’Arthur Morgana is his aunt, and while Gwen is indeed an acolyte for the destruction of Camelot (in Le mort that is) because of her affair with Lancelot, I decided against giving the princess a name. If if it was a prince I’d go with Mordred, but it kind of destroys the premise of “visible purity on the matrimonial bed”. I think I like imagining her name’s Niniane/Nimue and thus putting in perspective that her giving Arthur the sword/ bestowing him with the promise to fulfil a quest she sets, and kind of a mirroring of how she was killed at his court bu Ser Balin, but idk. Any criticism, ideas or advice are welcome, please!

In a comic book, I saw him eating while someone shot at him. The bullets fell into his soup, and he ate the bullets to avoid arousing suspicion.

The important difference between your reply and the comment I replied to is that you recognize it happens on both sides.

Which segment?

I'm pretty sure this is like an actual comic story lol