Tag Archives: Superheroes

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The shifter, edited, in a downloadable format, with partial audio

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Original post:[The Shifter](http://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/2wb322/wp_a_shapeshifter_deals_with_an_existential/)

PDF download(free): [The Shifter](https://samgalimore.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/the-shifter.pdf)

Amazon link(if you’re feeling generous): [The Shifter](http://www.amazon.com/Shifter-Sam-Galimore-ebook/dp/B00UA6KFO0/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425592610&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=the+shape+shifter+sam+galimore)

First bit of the audiobook: [The shifter audio](https://clyp.it/iru4c20s)

Another /r/writingprompt book/novelette finished. This one was completely unplanned. I kept trying to end it as quickly as possible but the story just kept on running. It was so much fun talking with all of you as the thing came out part by part, and I am looking forward to the next time :).

If you read this the first time around, this new version is more polished, having gone through a couple drafts to remove errors. It also has a few sentences and paragraphs added in to smooth out character arcs, but the biggest change is the ending. There’s a page or two right at the climax that are entirely new, and I think will provide much better closure for the reader.

Shameless plug time! If you liked this one, there are two more(not in this series), that you might like. [Letters to my father](https://samgalimore.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/letters-to-my-father.pdf), about a daughter who leaves her father a series of letters in a desperate attempt to fix his future. And [Unhooked](https://samgalimore.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/unhooked.pdf), about a dystopian society where almost everyone spends their lives in lucid dreams, and one man decides to wake up.

That’s all for now, if you guys like the audio version I may run with that, but right now I’m just happy that this is all polished up and ready to go. Thanks again guys!

Until the next journey,

*S.D.G*

Short Stories

A retired super villain is caught in the middle of a bank heist with his 6 year old daughter

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“Duck Sarah.” I told her, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her under one of the tables.

“Daddy.” She said, looking at the red cape gang as they surged through the crowd waving guns and grabbing bank employees by the collar. “Daddy you told me you were done with this.” She said. Looking at me, and then looking at the villains.

“I am done Sarah.” I try to tell her, but she’s not thinking clearly. She thinks I’m in on this. That I helped them out somehow.

“Daddy you said the men with capes wouldn’t come after you anymore since you helped them safe the city.” She accused me, and started to slowly slide away.

“W-what?” I asked, confused now. She thought that the red cape gang was here for me? Did she think they were the heroes. I’m so baffled by her misinterpretation of the events that I don’t stop her when she leaps up from under the table and runs to commander cape whose talking to captain cape about the silent alarm.

“Don’t hurt him!” She says. “He’s hiding over under that table, please don’t hurt him.” She begs.

There’s something special about daughters, especially young ones. They can know that you’re one of the scummiest most rotten people on the planet, and still believe in you. They can even try and protect you from the people they think are heroes. Sarah would sit up late at night watching the old news footage of the superheroes battling it out with the supervillains, and she always cheered for the superheroes, even when I was one of the villains. Now that I find out when it really came down to it. She chose her own father over her personal heroes.

It was a bit unfortunate that the people she had chosen as heroes were actually just villains in misleading costumes, but she didn’t figure that out until commander cape put a gun to her head and captain cape trained his gun on me.

“We see you old friend.” Commander cape called out. He used to be my sidekick. “Come out with your hands up.”

I come out with my hands up, but only after I’ve thrown the table I’m sitting under at them. They both duck and my daughter hits the ground and covers her head with her hands.

Captain cape gets winged by the table and goes down. Commander cape rolls and recovers, but I’m already on top of him when he brings his gun up. I kick it out of his hands and knock him unconscious with a single punch.

Sergeant cape and private cape coming bursting out of a backroom, but they’re no match for me and I quickly lay them both out with lighting speed and agility.

Just before private cape loses consciousness he asks. “We should’ve known your superpowers were too strong.”

“Didn’t commander cape ever tell you? I don’t have any superpowers. I just did what any father would have done when their child was in danger.”

Short Stories

Diary of a Superhero

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January 1st- Lost eagle woman yesterday. It figures, we just had our first date, and some supervillain just had to take her out. I should’ve known. It was a new year, and things were looking good. Things always turn absolutely horrible just when stuff is sorting itself out. I don’t know if it just got too quiet and the human fly got bored, or if he knew somehow, maybe he had our secret identities pegged. All I know is she’s not here anymore. Happy new year.

February 14th- Fourth villain back in jail today! Felt like letting of some steam so I called in sick to work and spent the whole day fighting crime. I didn’t feel like talking to coworkers today so it’s for the best, and I got so much done! The commissioner tells me that I might crime fight my way out of a job if I keep this up. It’s just good to keep my mind off things. There’s a lot I don’t want to think about today.

March 17th- Ultraman came into town today and said he’d cover for me. Apparently the league of heroes has noticed I’ve been burning the candle at both and ends and thinks I need a break. Let’s see if my new all-purpose anti-toxin works on alcohol!

March 18th- New all-purpose anti-toxin does not work on alcohol.

April 1st- Mer-woman set me up on a date with her sister the dolphin whisperer. Ocean heroes are a little bit underpowered, but man is dolphin whisperer a catch! On second thought it’s probably really offensive to call someone who works with aquatic life ‘a catch’. I’ll have to think of some other compliment between now and then.

April 2nd- All of my intelligence and prep work, and I failed to notice they set me up on April. They thought I knew it was a joke, they all knew I wasn’t ready for a relationship, why would they set me up for real? It had been a cooperative mission to some underwater something or other. I don’t know who that villain was, but he probably won’t be swimming or walking anywhere for a while. I may have vented a bit.

May 10th- All the college and university students are home for the summer. Swinging by the usual nerd hangouts to see if any of the recent graduates are side kick material. Eagle boy moved on to a new city, and I could use an understudy to help out with the summer rush of villains.

June 6th-Alien invasion! Woohoo! Haven’t got to bust out this much gear since the mind control device put half the league under the control of the disembodied brain. I have been dying to put my new remote control stealth fighter squadron to the test, and I even just got my knockout gas optimized for this particular species. Good day!

July 4th-Bloody Americans, that’s all I have to say. Bloody, bloody, Americans.

August 29th-Summer’s over and no apprentice, got a couple contacts who are heading into graduate school. One of them is working in high energy theoretical physics, that’s always promising. I’ve looked into his work, and they have just the right mix of brilliant and reckless that causes super powering lab accidents. Very promising.

September 10th- Absolutely nothing happened this week, not so much as a liquor store hold up. September is such a chill month. Got some time to think on things, and had a couple lunches with ultraman. He’s worried about me putting so much time into my superhero career. Got deep, shared some stuff, made some revelations. He knows the dating scene is frustrating me, and says I’m just holding back hoping something resurrects eagle woman. I disagreed, but he pointed out I have remote operated stealth jets. If I have the time, money, energy, and intelligence to do that, I should be able to figure out dating. He might be right

October 31st- I love Halloween! It’s like superhero appreciation day. Went into a club that was entirely dressed like me! It was like a fan convention. Had some really long talks with fans. All of them were very complimentary on my super realistic costume and in-depth knowledge of my own exploits. One woman in particular seemed fascinated. Got her number, but I’m not sure it’s right to date a fan.

November 26th- Been hanging out with the girl from the club, and have reflected on this year. It’s been some ups and downs for sure, but in the end I’m just grateful that I’ve got people around me to support me. There’s ultraman, my fans, my ex-sidekicks, the commissioner, and even the ocean superheroes had been real friendly, even if they were kind of jerks. All in all, it’s been a good year.

December 25th- No supervillain holiday attacks this year! Been doing this a decade and that’s a first! Commissioner seems to think it’s because I’ve got them all in prison. Whatever the reason it’s been nice to spend some time with old sidekicks. I don’t have any family, except for these brave young men, and it was thoughtful of them to come back and do some good old fashioned superhero bonding through training drills. Still just talking to my one special fan from the club. I think I’ve got a new year’s resolution for her.

January 1st- I did it! First time going on a date in over a year, and she seemed just as excited to me. She even wants me to wear the costume. I think I will, and she just might find out how realistic it is.

Thanks for reading guys! This is the last one for the week, taking the opportunity this weekend to edit up the two book projects, and get some work done on the novel. See you guys Monday!

–Sam

Short Stories

Part time heroes

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Superheroes and villains are paid hourly

“Captain flying brick you will never catch me!” The indestructible man shouted as he raced down an alley.

“Think again indestructible man!” Our hero retorts as he flies into the alley, readying his laser vision to trap the indestructible man.

To our hero’ surprise the indestructible man has dropped the bags of money he stole and is pointing fiercely at his watch. Our hero quickly checks his own. It’s 5:00, shift is up.

Our hero looks around and points to a storm drain. The indestructible man flashes him the OK symbol, and the two silently lift the man hole cover and drop through..

As the sound of sirens gets closer the captain shouts as loud as he can. “Oh no, not through the apartment complex, you dastardly fiend!” And then quickly covers the man hole behind him.

“Phew.” Indestructible man says as soon as the captain drops in behind him. “I thought we were going to have to have a climactic battle or something. I’m still sore from the last one.

“Indestructible indeed, you know I take that name as a challenge right?” The captain asked.

“Oh it was in the contract, don’t give me gripe.” Both were swapping out their costumes for street clothes that had been stored in some cached duffle bags. The city’s maintenance personnel were told to keep all storm drains stocked with them for the heroes. They didn’t know the villains used them too.

“You want to grab some wings?” The villain asked.

“Sure, I’ll pick up a paper so we can take a look at the crime rates while we’re at it.” The captain said.

“Great.” Indestructible replied. “I think my gang is up to about 120 people, so when you find my secret hideout and round them up we should see a couple percent drop.”

“You don’t think your henchmen will suspect something?” The captain asked.

“Nah, I’ll just have some incompetent people on guard duty. I’m sure they’ll start a fight or something that we can use as the excuse for you finding me.”