The Mysterious Minute-Men: Ready for the Future

By Mike Aragona

The Mysterious Minute-Men are back! Discover what the defenders of truth, liberty, and donuts have been doing since their Omnibus! Learn of Minute-Man's first adventure, the creation of the team, and the shocking secret that almost destroyed them! The Mysterious Minute-Men come face to face with who they are, were, and are destined to be. Plus, Frozzie returns and Eclipse bursts on the scene!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Aragona
• Release date: Nov 19, 2010
• ISBN: 9780978492328

Mike Aragona

A lifetime of Comic Book, Science Fiction, New Age, and Fantasy reading with a healthy dose of English courses and a love of movies have all collided and conspired to bring Mike Aragona into the world of letters and sentences. With a cast of crazy characters constantly jostling for brain energy who want to be written about, Comedy and Superheroes vy for attention with Relationships, Committment, and "What's on the Other side".

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The Mysterious Minute-Men: Ready for the Future

By Mike Aragona

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s warped imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

The Mysterious Minute-Men Ready for the Future copyright 2010 by Mike Aragona.

Artwork copyright Gabriel Morrissette except where noted

Front Cover by Gabriel Morrissette

Back Cover image by Theresa Tschetter

Cover Producton assistance by Von Allan

All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal use and enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Digital Smashwords Edition: ISBN 978-0-9784923-2-8

Published by Savage Enterprises Publishing at Smashwords

http://www.savageland.com

For Chantale, my love and inspiration, and our family of little heroes: James, Melyssa, Kyle-Ethan, Charlize-Makenzie, and Casey the Wonder Pooch.

We can be heroes, forever and ever.

Chapter 01 – A Brief Introduction to the Universe of Wonder and Might:

Super-Heroing was never easy. The going might have been smoother in the early days as one is starting out, but once your name is made and people start to recognize you on the streets, things get a little more complicated. No longer can you slip between the cracks of the criminal element and attempt to break them up from the inside. No longer can you patrol the streets, happy to be hidden in the shadows. With great power does come great responsibility, but with great fame comes loss of anonymity. No one knows this better than Metro City’s greatest, most recognized, and most-beloved hero: The Mysterious Minute-Man.

It didn’t take long after his first appearance before the city accepted Minute-Man into their collective hearts. With the criminal element reaching their most daring and bold-faced level in the history of crime, plus the stirring of The Diabolical Chef Jacques’ Bakery of Evil, it was no wonder that Minute-Man was needed. His obsessive desire to clean-up Metro City not only had the rats scurrying back into their holes, but other powerful and civic-minded individuals began to step forth and take action as well. Minute-Man, by sheer force of will and presence, had inspired a new generation of heroes to make a stand.

If a Superhero measures success by the amount of good he does, would it not stand to reason that if more of them would come together, their achievements would be even greater? And thus it was that as Minute-Man encountered Metro City’s newer heroes, he would invariably offer them a position on his team after they had proven themselves in battle. Although many jumped at the opportunity to band together and serve the city as The Mysterious Minute-Men, there were some heroes who, having other commitments, preferred to stay on as Reserve Members instead.

Minute-Man’s first and most loyal partner, was non other than the man with what he himself referred to as super-powered Monkey breath. Battling crime as Orion, he was almost the polar opposite of Minute-Man. Where Minute-Man was wiry, white and thin, Orion was big, black, and bulky. Where Minute-Man was serious and determined, his long flowing hair often hiding the furrowed brow on his grim face, Orion was happy and joyful, a big smile on his face helping to make his bald head shine like the sun. He always had fun goofing around with Minute-Man, taking things lightly where Minute-Man could only see the darkness. Minute-Man, on the other hand, let Orion have his fun since he knew Orion used those moments, as well as his carefree nature, as a means of coping with the constant strain of fighting crime and coming face-to-face with the results of evil deeds. Orion’s conviction, determination, and loyalty, was readily apparent every time they jumped into a new fray. Minute-Man would always be able to count on Orion. He bet his life on it, every day.

It’s true that The Mysterious Minute-Men suffered through some tragic defeats, just as they celebrated many glorious victories. Along the way, their ranks grew or were diminished and yet the Team kept on protecting the citizens of Metro City to whom they were legends. They might sometimes feel they let themselves down, but they would do all in their power to keep Metro City safe.

The city celebrated along with the Team when new heroes such as Powerhouse, Frozzie, and The Bow-Minator joined their ranks. And just as they cheered when the Team grew, they all mourned together when tragedy struck. Such was the case when Frozzie’s time with the Team was cut short by his tragic death at the hands of the evil Shade. And though no tears were shed when The Diabolical Chef Jacques blew up the Shade, the city did hold its collective breath when Powerhouse was brainwashed by Peppermint Paul into joining Chef Jacques crew as The Black Stallion. They definitely blew a sigh of relief, though, when Miss Fury finally rescued him and he decided to take a sabbatical from The Minute-Men to explore his feelings and possible future with her.

That whole adventure had Metro City worried as Minute-Man had been altered into becoming The Gonad after The Ice Queen managed to scramble his brain cells by altering how his body chemistry reacted to The Sacred Soda that powered the Team. She had somehow managed to lace Minute-Man’s lips with a special kind of glossy, untraceable, lubricant during an earlier confrontation. The effect of the gloss was to transform the Sacred Soda that passed his lips into the wildly unpredictable Fruit Punch flavor, causing a reaction in him similar to how Red Kryptonite affects Superman.

In other words, Minute-Man began to undergo a massive change of character until his persona was replaced by The Gonad. Strangely enough, the gloss was impossible to remove with any normal method. The only way to remove it was with beer! It was an ingenious plan as beer is the one substance Minute-Man would never drink! Gonad has not been seen since, but it sometimes seems as parts of him still remain in Minute-Man. That would be normal, after all, as the gloss did not create a new persona, is simply brought forth much of his aggravation and pent-up frustrations.

The Minute-Men went up against numerous villains in their careers, but Chef Jacques could almost be counted on to be at the root of all the evil in Metro City. Just as The Batman had The Joker, and Superman had Lex Luthor, so too, did Minute-Man have an arch nemesis. The criminal genius constantly tangling Minute-Man up in his web of lies and super-powered attempts to rule the city was The Diabolical Chef Jacques.

Metro City saw the likes of Little Louie, The Sons and Daughters of Die T. Cola, and The Man of the Multiverse battle for control of the city, but in one way or another, Chef Jacques was either connected with those groups or secretly the one controlling the whole operation. Chef Jacques always ensured that he and his Bakery of Evil had their fingers in all the pies and plots running around the criminal underworld. Unlike The Joker or Lex Luthor however, Chef Jacques’ diabolical schemings were such that quite often the criminal overlords he served had no clue he was really the one running the show.

The way Chef Jacques looked at it, he always had a scapegoat he could pin the rap on should things go wrong. Plus, regardless of where he was, Chef Jacques always surrounded himself with his most trusted subordinates: Burning Love and The Ice Queen. Although he also called upon some other, less powerful criminals, such as Peppermint Paul or Madame Toka-Mi, he preferred those who had joined him and agreed to follow him first. Either way, he could easily control them all. Those who attempted to stray from his orders, be they direct or indirect, paid the penalty with their lives. Such was the case with Shade. Chef Jacques lost little sleep in blowing him up, especially as it proved once again, to everyone, that when The Diabolical Chef Jacques gives an order, you hop to it. Ignoring an order could result in an explosive confrontation, usually your own. Thus, as Minute-Man led his team through inspiration, faith, and trust, Chef Jacques controlled his team through intimidation, fear, and suspicion.

The Mysterious Minute-Men faced off against Chef Jacques and his crew quite often, even taking the battle into their criminal lairs on two occasions. The first was when Chef Jacques’ original Bakery of Evil was destroyed by Orion during the time Minute-Man saved his life when Chef Jacques had gotten the better of him. The second involved Shade’s hideout, The Killme Klubhouse, which was destroyed by Chef Jacques in the battle between Shade and the brain-muddled Minute-Man in his guise as The Gonad.

And yet, despite The Mysterious Minute-Men’s not-so-secret lair, the Minute-Cave, being public knowledge, it suffered no physical attacks. Everyone knew that deep under the earth of Stan’s Donut Shoppe was nestled the home of The Minute-Men. And, outside of one cyber-attack on the computers in the cave, and an inter-dimensional brawl through Stan’s by two creatures known as Dog Savage and Hagreux, no attack had ever been launched on the Team’s home turf.

The Minute-Men used all manner of surveillance and early-detection monitoring to protect themselves. From hydraulic to physical to electronic to meta-physical to gaseous, a counter-attack measure was in place. Even though they knew that no one and nothing could ever be one hundred percent safe, they still felt that nothing had been left to chance. The Minute-Cave was almost sentient in the way it protected itself.

Unfortunately for them, if there was ever anyone who could find and exploit a weakness, it was The Diabolical Chef Jacques. The lesson he would teach them would leave the entire Minute-Men Corps, active and reserve members included, scarred for many years to come. It had the potential to be the ultimate caper in Chef Jacques’ diabolical career as the target was the head, heart, and soul of the Team. Luckily for the Minute-Men, The Fates had other plans for them.

Chapter 02 – Enter The Man of Mysterious Might:

In the beginning, no heroes roamed the streets, skylines, or back alleys of Metro City. The Mysterious Minute-Man would go down in the annals of history as the first costumed crime fighter of the city. And yet, with volumes of books written about him, compiled from reams of data gathered through numerous years, no one knows who he is under his menacing orange-and-black cat-mask, nor how he came to be. His first recorded sighting was in the heart of Metro City, in the main branch of the Central Bank. Many speculate that he was a client of the Central Bank and happened to actually be at the branch when The Fish Head Gang burst in, all wearing rubber masks of various fish and brandishing shotguns. Others say that Minute-Man just happened to be passing by in his civilian identity when the gang tried to hold up the bank. There is also new speculation that the bank had employed him as a Security Guard and that he had given up that role when he became Minute-Man. After all, this new group states, a man like Minute-Man could not have come from nowhere. They believe that a desire for security and upholding the law had to have been a part of his makeup. At any rate, most had to agree as to what had happened since it was all caught on tape on the bank’s cameras. That footage has been used for more documentaries and movies than any other piece of news in existence. The most complete recreation of the events of that day details the following:

Four masked men had run into the bank and three of them took up positions by the windows and entrance while the fourth ran to the tellers.

Every body get down on the floor! Now! Now! shouted the fourth man, his Great White Shark mask giving the perfect menacing quality to his demands.

He grabbed the man at the closest teller and threw him down to the floor. That similar scene played out around the branch as his henchmen did the same to the clients who were moving too slow for their tastes.

You! yelled Great White to the teller who had not moved and stood facing him, frozen in fear. What’s your name? he asked, ignoring her name tag.

Juh… Juh… Julia! she blurted and quickly covered her mouth with her hands, eyes bulging out of her head.

All right, Julia. You work for me now. Fill these up, and not from the bottom of your stacks! he warned her.

He threw a couple of bowling bags at her and she practically jumped out of her skin in fear. As she juggled the bags in the air, trying to stop them from falling, he put his shotgun across the ledge and rested it against her temple, causing her to drop them. She closed her eyes tightly, tears streaming down her face as she tried to control her shaking.

Am I making myself perfectly clear? he growled at her.

Y… yee… yessir! she finally squeezed out.

Good! he screamed again, startling her into letting out a yelp. Now move it! he commanded. Go! Go! GO!

As Julia rushed to comply, practically throwing herself on the floor to recover the bags, Great White took this moment to finally look around him and see how the gang’s efforts at getting everyone else under control was going. Hammerhead was kicking the bank guard to keep him from getting any ideas. Killer Whale had herded the clients into a corner and Blue Whale had gone into the offices, pulling and pushing the employees out into the open.

Yo! Great White! called out Blue Whale, making his way towards his leader while pushing a trembling Ebenezer Scrooge-like man towards him. Here’s the manager, he finished, giving the little man a last push into Great White who immediately knocked him to the floor. Found him cowering under his desk, Blue laughed. I don’t think he’s interested in protecting the big, bad, bank’s money over his life.

Is that right, Mister Bank Manager? asked Great White as he bent down a little to peer at the frightened man. Your life is more important than this lousy bank? Is this what you’re trying to tell us? he asked.

The question was filled with a mixture of sarcasm and real venom that no amount of rubber could hide. The Bank Manager could feel Great White’s hatred and he desperately wanted to maintain his dignity, but his fear was so great it was all he could do to prevent his hands from knocking his glasses off his face as he attempted to straighten them. Wuh… we… we’re not resisting you, he stammered. Just take what you want and go. We won’t try to stop you, he said weakly.

You CAN’T stop us! shouted Great White exploding in anger. You can’t order us around, or tell us what to do! In THIS hierarchy, you’re lower than dirt! You got that?! I’m up here, and you’re down there, and there’s a reason for that! You’re lucky enough to kiss my boot! He let fly a kick which practically spun the Bank Manager’s head off when it connected. Now answer my question. Is your life worth more than this lousy bank?

This time, after the question was asked, Great White cocked his shotgun and pointed it at the Bank Manager’s head. Everyone in the bank stood frozen as they watched this tableau unfold. Even the rest of the Fish Head Gang held their breath as they watched their leader. He had never threatened anyone like that in any of their previous heists. In fact, they had never seen him filled with so much rage before. They all realized that, this time, somehow, for some reason, it was personal. Whether it was the particular bank or Bank Manager, something was wrong with the hold up. The bank employees understood that a line had been crossed somewhere. The Bank Manager understood that as well.

Yes, he finally managed to croak. Yes, my life is worth more than this lousy bank, he finished weakly, slumping against the wall like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

A huge sigh of relief swept through the bank as they all watched Great White slowly stand up. The tension

Reviews for The Mysterious Minute-Men

[lesleydawn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the strangest books that I have ever read. It is full of eccentric superheroes and diabolical, bumbling villains who are obsessed with Orange soda and donuts. When I first started reading it, it was light and fun and overall very relaxing, but I'm not sure that it is intended to be read straight through like you would a normal novel, because by the time I got to the end I was I little burnt out on all of the reoccurring themes. The stories all seemed to blend together, as did the characters. Over all, I enjoyed it, and will recommend it to my friends. But I will give them a warning not to read it all at once. Just like with donuts or soda, too much of a good thing isn't good for you.