Jason D. Karl

Well, obviously, I left some seeds for a potential sequel. However, at this time I'm wanting to move on to other stories.

You're welcome. It's the longest and most complex thing I've ever written. I felt the most uncertain about mirroring real life by setting up characters who might have helped the protagonist in major ways but didn't. Sometimes there are betrayals; other times, it's just the realities of life getting in the way, and the help just doesn't come. There was a scene that I had to delete because it just didn't fit, but I wish I could have kept it. In it, Jessy/Tyler and Shawn/Reece, just after killing for the first time, go to see Jessy's parents and realize they have to cut them out of their lives because of the parents' bigotry. There is no big showdown, no arguments; there's just a realization they can't go home again. It was, of course, an allegory for what LGBT+ folk sometimes have to do with their parents.

I took stock. Reece wasn't exactly dressed for travel; apparently he hadn't "earned the privilege" of wearing real clothes but was stuck with the "basic needs" hospital-style linen garments and booties. Our assets were pretty limited. Reece's powers had been blocked by some blend of drugs called inhibitors. That left us with just mine. I doubted we had even an hour to escape, not just from the chamber but from the whole compound. I was pretty sure AHOLE had thought of every physical su

Sometime very late that night, Owen came back to my cell and escorted me to Level B3. On the way there, I checked for possible routes of escape. Of course, I would have to wait for the opportune moment to act because I would get, at most, one shot. That much I was certain of. Level B3 turned out to be deep underground, though brightly lit. Even here there were the ubiquitous telescreens with nonstop praise for AHOLE. At the moment there was a supposed documentary about how happy Aberrants w

You will read about her again—though in what capacity, you'll just have to find out. I don't want to spoil the ending. All I can say at this point is that Jessy/Tyler is the narrator, so he obviously lives long enough to tell the tale.

"Welcome to your new home at the Southwestern Aberrant Reservation #4. At the Integration Center, your happiness and adjustment to living among your fellow Aberrants are our top priorities. Here you will find the kindness, acceptance, and unconditional love that only your true family can give. This is a place of love. This is home. Lay down your burdens and begin your journey of healing." I opened my eyes to find myself alone in a small, spartan room. Once I was awake enough to get my beari

It is already written; I just need to polish it a bit. It will probably be one chapter a week.

That will be revealed in Chapter 19.

Reece and I said goodbye to the two Daddies who'd fucked us the night before (and again in the morning) and let them out the door. They'd been pretty damn good in bed. Unfortunately, they were normies, and this had been our second time with them, so we couldn't let it continue. We had some leftovers for a late breakfast and watched a news report from the previous day because Butch was on it—though they were still calling him The Skunk. It was about a video that Butch had supposedly posted h

There are four chapters remaining, so, yeah, things are getting tense.

Reece and I decided that, since Emily's enhancements to our telepathic link allowed us to use it without touching or tiring, we'd speak to each other with telepathy only—except for keeping up appearances around others. Gone were the days of talking in code or driving to the middle of nowhere to speak freely. Also, we'd learned that Elijah had accidentally made Reece's luck-shifting power start giving us warnings instead of just nudges. It was now telling us to stay away from Arizona and Cal

Thanks @Darryl62. There are 20 chapters in all. I'm currently editing and proofreading the rest of them.

We tried asking more questions, but Quantum Sentinel had apparently terminated whatever means it was he'd been using to talk to us. And Reece was back in control of the van. I said, "He let something slip that I don't think he meant to." "What?" "Well, when he told us that he wanted to keep her away from AHOLE, it wasn't just in general. What he said was that he didn't want AHOLE to get her into one of its labs." "Hmm, I guess he did. And I doubt he routinely saves kids from

I'm not saying one way or the other just yet, but that answer will be revealed.

Maurice offered Cassidy a seat and asked, "What's wrong?" "Butch found one of the new rebel squads and joined. He just kept insisting Crescendo is our only hope, so we have to rally to his call. We broke up over it." His shoulders shook. "Fourteen years—I thought we'd be together for life." Elijah offered him some tissues. "So you don't trust Crescendo either?" Cassidy wiped his eyes. "Not one fucking bit. I've seen one too many Team Crescendo videos to trust that motherfucker."

"Well, fuck." It was Mrs. K. who said that. "I thought he was dead." Without a word, Reece ran into the bathroom. I went after him and soon saw the reason for his abrupt departure: for only the second time since I'd known him, his eyes were glowing blue. Shit! There was a normie in the house. I locked the door behind us. Reece grabbed my hand. «We need to get to Flagstaff as fast as possible.» I didn't ask any questions because I knew his power wouldn't have explained itself. So w

Cassidy teleported us to the same basement as before, and Reece let loose his TK buildup. Debris blasted outward from the four of us, and the walls shook. "Jesus Christ, Reece! What the fuck's going on?" Butch shouted. "We killed that man! We didn't film it! And it sure as fuck wasn't in front of his kids!" Reece shouted. It was taking all that I had not to just lash out at something—anything. "The whole fucking city applauded! I want out of this goddamn country!" Cassidy ask

This story began in my head by wondering how people would actually react if people with superpowers actually existed. I concluded that they would treat them like they have historically treated minorities: they wouldn't mind having a few of them around for entertainment purposes, so long as they knew "their place," but the vast majority of them would be feared, hated, and oppressed.

A few days before we were supposed to leave for Reginald Davidson's charity poker tournament, the police called us just after 5 AM to inform us that Mrs. Kirkland had been arrested. They wanted to know if we would be willing to pick her up, since she didn't have any family in the area. We arrived at the station only to find her looking rather pleased with herself. An officer handed us a bag containing her belongings, including a handmade card that read "Director of Pornography." Reece

Middle-of-nowhere places tend to have some sort of reason why one might drive past them. Not Hell for Certain. It turned out that one could only go *to* Hell for Certain, Kentucky: there was no going through it on the way to someplace else. It was basically a creek, weeds, trees, mud (lots of mud), and a barely-there "road" that had been partially washed out in places. In short, it was aptly named. But that was where we were meeting Butch and Cassidy, the only other gay supervillain couple we'd

Once our offer on a house in Denver had been accepted, Reece used his power to make it likely we'd find someone who would be safe to hire as a house sitter. And we did need one because we planned on being gone for long stretches of time. But finding just the right person was a tall order. I mean, with faking our own deaths after committing murder and with just generally being supervillains, we did have rather a lot to hide. This time, however, instead of sending us to a vending machine on the ot

I will only say that every chapter contains something that relates to the finale of the story. Sometimes it is the main thrust of the chapter; other times it is a hidden clue.

The replicas were never alive, just made to look recently dead.

If GPS were to be believed, the trek from Duluth to the tiny pueblo in New Mexico where we were to meet this "pretty in pink" individual would take 22 hours. Sure, like there'd never be rush hour traffic or road construction or anything else along the route. We drove nonstop, other than to switch drivers, from St. Paul to Lawrence, Kansas. We didn't discuss why we'd stopped there. There really was only one reason for doing so, wasn't there? Yes, we used our powers to buy new phones under ou

I can't really answer that without spoilers. I can only say that Jessy believes himself to be a murderer. (I wrote the rough drafts of every chapter in the story before posting the first chapter, though I still have to do rewrites and editing.)