Deviation Actions
Description
ericlinquist.deviantart.com/ar…
Anyone remember the last MOCC-2 Challenge hosted by Rod Williams and his Original Character, Vector, along with his Vindicators team? There were many talented entrants and I was lucky to be included among them. I intended to create about 12 pages but it somehow expanded to 21 basically flatted pages of creative action. I’d hoped to lay in a few standout twists that I thought viewers would find “awesome.” It initially got very favorable feedback but when my friend Rod read my submission, let’s just put it mildly by saying he was not pleased. Really not pleased. At all. If I understood correctly, in Rod’s estimation, my portrayal of all of his characters was unflattering and ridiculous. Furthermore, bringing in a guest appearance of half of my ANGELCORPS team, something I thought would be received as cool, flagrantly violated the premise of his challenge by selfishly bringing in my team. In other words, my work was way out bounds, meaning I botched the whole thing. To me, that’s about as disqualifying as it gets. Since I regrettably pissed off a friend pretty badly, I quickly deleted each page one-by-one, withdrew from the challenge, and spoke of it no more. I got a couple of notes from others asking where my stuff went, but I never got into the details. It was a bail-out which probably ? left a gap in the story, but MOCC-2 never missed a beat, thankfully. I know one of the other entrants did not come through with a submission at all, so not sure what that did. Well, I hated that day. I wish I could have it all back. I get pretty much zero interaction from Rod and at least one of his supporters ever since that day. But that’s on me. Not whining. That’s just how things unfolded and remain.
The contest is over. Whoever won, won. It was still an epic cross-over event! Go check it out on Rod’s DA site. Anyway, I came across the pages and figured – what the heck at this point – and assembled the unauthorized, withdrawn pages for posting. The only thing these pages can be considered now is some shaky alternative timeline that carry no validity.
My original character I-Force, leader of ANGELCORPS was paired up on a team with characters Blue Star and L’Epex, both of whom I love. I’d been in a previous cross-over event with Blue Star and adding L’Epex was just a wild turn given his unconventional presence. I was drooling over the possibilities. Blue Star was to take on Keiser. L’Epex was to square off with Force Majeure, leaving the electrifying Thunder Axe for I-Force. I read up on everything I could find on Thunder Axe and, while he was a formidable adversary by any measure, I objectively thought I-Force’s power set was way more than a match for him, the same way Vector could outmuscle, say, Lightning Lad (who’s clearly less powerful than Thunder Axe but you get my point). The boom at the beginning of the story is a humorous poke at Gilead squaring off with Herod somewhere nearby, a muscular battle likely to rock even a sturdy ship like the Vindicators’ Domus-1. The Vindicators are long-time friends with the hulking Gilead and are well aware of the possibilities of damage when he’s around and engaged in a fight.
Anyone following the story along could deduce that Vector seemed to lie at the heart of all of the raw emotions, heightened tension, and adversarial attitudes. In my head, it made more sense for I-Force to cut through the one-on-one battles and find Vector, so he was looking for a way to avoid Thunder Axe, Keiser and Force Majeure and get on with the task of finding the man who would be most likely to have all the answers. I thought outside the one-on-one battle and thought it would be regarded as a creative approach. Force Majeure wasn’t having it, being a loyal Vindicator, and attacked. Thinking that Thunder Axe’s weapon might be able to penetrate his shields, I-Force was trying to think of a way to immobilize the trio so he could search for Vector. I-Force is used to sparring with Charger, ANGELCORPS’ resident lightning wielder power battery who uses bio-plasmic electrical energy, but he deduces that Thunder Axe’s electrical charges won’t be able to penetrate his shields. Maybe given time, Thunder Axe would figure out a way to get them to do so but his first assault does not get through. There’s usually no water in space unless you’re on a ship that must provide it for the passengers. Using his vision powers to locate the hydroponics facility, I-Forced projected his shields through several decks into the large water tanks and brought a totally unexpected mini-Tsunami into the chamber that bowled the three Vindicators over while controlling its pathway of destruction with his projected shields. Ensuring they were positioned with heads out of water, I-Force used his freeze vision to imprison the surprised trio in a massive block of ice, a way to just temporarily immobilize them so he could exit to find Vector.
Meanwhile back on Earth, Warpath is ANGELCORPS’ space and dimension teleporter, the Master of the Nexus Field which controls the barriers between dimensions, so I-Force and the entire team can communicate and join up no matter what dimension he enters. They’re a team, after all. It was a simple matter to prearrange for the rest of the team to be summoned in for support. Sure enough, the Vindicator trio broke free quickly just as six more members of ANGELCORPS warped in. By that time I-Force has escaped the area on a search for Vector. A melee of 8 against 3 was clearly inadvisable (not that the Vindicators wouldn’t consider it anyway and perhaps prevail) and the two ladies reach a temporary stand-down proposal, each with their own reasons for doing so.
On I-Force’s path to Vector, he encounters Herod who has just been punched up through about four decks to crash through right in front of I-Force. According to Rod, Herod has the power of Superman, however Gilead has just beaten the crap out of him. That was Gilead’s bout for the story. I worked out with Gary to have his character punch Herod up through the floors just so he could encounter I-Force. Herod would be considering an opportunity for escape but I-Force would do just enough to return him into Gilead’s waiting arms. But I needed Herod in the kind of weakened non-Superman state that I thought he would be in after a thrashing by uber-powerful Gilead. I-Force versus Herod would make a good bout, for sure, but Herod has been through the mill, Gilead’s mill! He’s coughing and can barely stand, much less fly due to Gilead’s attacks. I-Force cannot afford to be delayed further. With Herod not recovered yet, it was easy for I-Force to use a concussive optic blast to nudge Herod back through the hole he crashed through into Gilead’s waiting arms. Whew. Would NOT want to be Herod at that moment.
I-Force proceeds and comes up on the fake Vector in mid-battle with Blue Jaye and appearing to be getting the worse of the exchange. Unlike the real cool-headed Vector in any fight, the fake Vector is angry and frustrated at Blue Jaye’s successful opposition. I-Force and Vector met once before and I-Force already knows his energy signature. This Vector’s signature is “off” so I-Force knows something is up at first glance. Furthermore, the fake Vector looks greatly weakened by Blue Jaye’s relentless assault. Since Blue Jaye seems to be doing fine against Vector and seems to even have him on the ropes, I-Force takes advantage of the doppelganger’s weakened state to throw Vector back in front of Blue Jaye to finish the fight. Blue Jaye and I-Force fought together once before and Blue Jaye recognizes I-Forces trademark shield projections and realizes he has an ally, if needed. But beyond that, I-Force trusts Blue Jaye to do his thing. Beyond that, it’s just I-Force trying to get a grasp on what is happening. It’s his multiverse too and he’s very concerned.
So, this was my thinking. I was horrified to learn that the host of the challenge objected to my entire submission when I had worked on it so hard with the best of intentions. I have incredible respect for Rod’s work and never imagined how far off the rails my submission would be perceived. I must have let my excitement blind my common sense while lapsing in showing concern for keeping the integrity of Rod’s storyline. I do apologize for such short-sightedness to this day.
Eric
