Slingers #1: "So Whose Idea Was This Anyway?"

by Joseph Harris and ChrisCross

Our story starts at the scene of a crime.  Ambulance, police cars, the whole bit.  It doesn't look pretty.  Someone is photographing the entire thing, but we don't see who yet.  Two cops are looking at what appears to be a black-suited body on the ground, and commenting on its face.  They don't like the body's face very much, and make the chalk outline around it, then leave.  Our mystery photographer turns out to be Spider-Man, who is understandably freaked at seeing Dusk's body.

Back at Ricochet's house, he and Hornet are on the phone.  Eddie/Hornet is freaking out about Dusk's death, while Johnny/Ricochet tells him to relax, it wasn't their fault.  Eddie still blames himself.  Going by the narration, we find out that Johnny's mother is dead, but she told him he was special.  He's not so sure, and doesn't get along incredibly well with his father.  Heading on over to the other end of the phone line, we see Eddie at Empire State University, presumably in a dorm room, because superheroics just aren't something that you talk about from a pay phone.  Eddie and Johnny talk about meeting later.  Johnny tries to reassure Eddie again, and they hang up.

Later, Hornet - in costume - is flying over the streets of New York, upset about being late.  He stops on the roof of a building, and ponders just what's happening, mostly about Dusk's death.  Ricochet shows up, and the two of them talk.  Naturally, they're both very upset about all of this, and Ricochet says that he doesn't think Dusk was ready for this at all.  Suddenly, Prodigy shows up, serious as always.  Wonderful.  He's already upset at them for not taking this whole hero thing seriously.  Ricochet yells at him.  In return, Prodigy comments on Dusk's death, hinting that it's Hornet's fault.  Needless to say, neither of the others are too happy at this insinuation.  As Prodigy gets more upset, Ricochet leaps - extremely high, up to the top of a billboard that's on the building's roof.  He then whips a disk at Prodigy, who neatly catches it and throws it back at him.  He's never getting that disk back.  Hornet yells at the two of them, saying that none of this helps them.  Prodigy says that Dusk was weak and would have failed them eventually, then flies off.  Hornet and Ricochet are left there, to ponder things and wonder what's going to happen.

Later, back at ESU, Johnny and Eddie are making their way out of a midterm for a class that they have together.  Apparently, it wasn't pleasant.  Elsewhere on campus, Ritchie is in a wrestling match.  He loses, but pinches the other guy on the back of the neck so hard that it keeps hurting.  Jerk.  He says that they'll learn to love him...yea, it's really working already.  Back with Eddie and Johnny, they're talking about - guess who - Ritchie.  Eddie thinks he can talk some sense into him.  As they walk, someone bumps into Eddie, making him drop his books and hurting his handicapped arm.  As he picks up his books, Ritchie shows up, telling them it's time to be heroes again.  As they run away, we see a "Missing" poster for Dusk.......I like the nosering.

To set the scene for superheroics, a train station is shown.  There's a guy on the tracks.  He works there.  Something is seriously wrong with him, and he can't tell anyone.  So he's going to kill himself by making a train run him over.  Hey, if you gotta go....

....each of the Slingers finds their own way of saving the day......see the summary for each character to see how.......

That night, Prodigy is flying - or jumping - across the George Washington bridge, commenting to himself about how no one is going to mess up his job.  An old film studio is shown, with commentary on how it used to be big, but that was before talking movies came about.  There's only one person there, watching TV without any sound, and drawing a picture of Prodigy, Hornet, and Ricochet.  Whoever this guy is, he's none to happy to see Dusk's death on the news.  He sees Prodigy standing in the doorway, and tells him to come in.  The old man comments on how he taught Prodigy...the hero's way.  A newspaper clipping on the back wall relates to the Black Marvel - which, judging by the costume hanging elsewhere, is who this guy is.

Elsewhere that night, Hornet is back on the building where the Slingers meet, when Ricochet shows up.  Ricochet says that they need a new meeting place, because he can't fly.  Hornet comments on how Ricochet can jump extremely high.  Ricochet confides that he believes that he's a mutant.  Hornet is pondering all of this - the hero bit is great, but when someone dies....  Ricochet tells Hornet that he's the only one he can trust, and the two agree to no more secrets.  Something eerie and black flies overhead...it's Dusk, but neither of them realize that, or even see her.  The two of them agree to get going, as Dusk watches without a word.  The story ends with Ricochet and Hornet flying off - Ricochet is holding onto Hornet, as he can't fly - with Prodigy streaking off above them, and Dusk watching from the top of the billboard.
 
 

  After Johnny hangs up with Eddie, he hands the phone back to his father, and then slams the door in his face.  Apparently, the white hair thing runs in the family.  He waits for his dad to leave, narrating about how he can't trust anyone these days, except Eddie and Ritchie.  He digs under his bed and pulls out the Ricochet costume.  That thing looks really weird off of him.  The phone rings downstairs, it's Johnny's girlfriend, Kathy.  His dad goes upstairs with the phone, and finds Johnny's room empty, with the window left open.  Didn't they teach these guys not to leave such obvious traces?

In the city and in full costume, Ricochet makes an awesome leap and lands on top of a bus.  As he rides it, he thinks about how people think of him, say he's a great kid.  No, he doesn't have a bit of an ego.  The bus passes Kathy with two of her friends, talking to Ricochet's dad.  Ricochet notices her, but knows there's nothing he can do.  After Kathy's friends leave her, she gets jumped by this big ugly guy with a knife.  Ricochet leaps into action, blaming himself for her getting into trouble because he stood her up, and flings a disc at the guy which nails him in the face, then bounces around the alley, and finally hits him in the hand.  The ugly guy runs.  Ricochet makes sure Kathy's all right, and gets paranoid that she knows it's him.  He jumps onto a bus as it passes, and leaves her wondering...and saying that she's going to find out just who he is.  Nice going, Rico.

....Here he comes to save the day!  At the train station, Ricochet hides in an alley to suit up - commenting that he needs to wash his outfit - and does a couple nifty building jumps to get himself closer.  He knows that Hornet's wondering how he can do everything he can, but decides not to worry about that now.  At a switch box, he tries to stop the oncoming trains, but only succeeds in screwing them up worse.  So, what does he do?  He whips one of his discs at the control booth, hoping that it will hit something important enough to stop everything.  He gets lucky, and switches something that causes the train to change tracks, making it go directly into....well, the station.  The train ends up teetering on its side above other people, and Ricochet jumps up to it to help everyone get out.  Of course, he manages to save everyone.  Cool.
 

  The Dusk part of the issue starts off with wonderful images of a morgue.  Someone is commenting that it's dark, and cold.  One mortician there is telling jokes to the other one, who doesn't seem to care much.  We see the Dusk costume laying in what appears to be a trash can.  Thanks, guys.  As the two morticians are about to leave, we see Cassie laid out on the block, looking remarkably well made up for a dead goth.  One of the morticians asks the other if she wasn't more beat up earlier, but they don't comment beyond that.  They lock her in, and leave.

In the quiet morgue, the narrating voice says, "alone," and we get closer and closer to her, until we zoom in on her face...with her eyes open.  She has purple eyes.  Cool.  She remembers, faintly, being at the edge of the roof with the other Slingers, as well as her home, which looks quite fancy.  Her parents talk about her going out again that night, and her father goes up to talk to her.  Books of witchcraft and magik are seen on her shelf, as well as a burning candle.  Cassie stands in front of the mirror, not looking very happy.  She remembers being afraid of jumping, and she seems to remember hearing the others after she hit the ground.  She can't remember who she was, though.  The door she was behind opens, and we see her slab pulled out.  She's not on it.  Outside, some punk kids are going to tag some church, but Dusk swoops down by them, freaking them out.  This is followed by an awesome shot of her perched atop a church tower with the sunset behind her.

...As the other Slingers change to their hero costumes at the train station, Dusk is there, hiding in the sewers for some reason.  She says that the shadows are warm.  Okay....  From on top of a building, she sees the others, and they seem familiar....  She remembers their names, Hornet most of all, but can't remember her own.  Fighting back her fear, she jumps into the fray, trying to help.  However, she was too late.  The others don't even notice her.  As Dusk watches what's going on, though, she sees a young boy trying to get a gun from the end of a precariously balanced steel girder.  Now, doesn't that just scream trouble for many reasons?  Anyway, she has a brief flashback of being at the edge of a building, and she teleports in and saves the boy just as he falls.  She teleports him next to an ambulance, then disappears.