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A PATH ONCE CHOSEN
By The Dimensional Man

"You heading home Fred?" Ben Bruin asked his long time amigo. Fred took off his cap and ran his hand over his long ears. "The boss had me work a double shift last night," the rabbit replied, "He said I could take a half shift tonight. I would rather stay for the overtime; but I am seriously REM deprived."
"I hear you," Ben said, "Drive carefully."
"In my sleep, no chance," said Fred.
The sun had just dipped below the horizon as Fred walked out the front door of the Bullseye Department Store. The sky had turned a twilight hue and the moon was just now rising. The wily rabbit started to hum "Moon River," softly to himself with an occasional chuckle. As he made his way to the employee's section of the parking lot, Fred suddenly got the sensation that he was being watched. It didn?t feel malicious, no; the scar on his chest would begin to itch if it were to happen again. This felt familiar.
As Fred got to his truck, the bulb in the streetlight above him picked that particular time to burn out; the sudden flash made Fred drop his keys. As he kneeled down to pick up the keys, Fred heard a soft thump as something landed on the hood of the pick-up. He closed his eyes and hoped that he didn't have to pull the .38 in his ankle holster, but Fred lifted the cuff of his pant leg just to be sure. He then looked up.
Silhouetted in the moonlight were the long ears of a rabbit; the figure was slender, but with a bit more muscle than Fred had. He was dressed in a simple white tunic with three hearts running down diagonally to the right, like a playing card that was printed off kilter. His right eye was "patched" with a heart tattoo. In his hands was what appeared to be a simple staff. Slowly, the staff's two ends began to glow with a warm orange light to reveal the stranger's face.
"So he conned you into taking it?" Fred said with a smile.
"Someone had to," the strangely clad rabbit replied.
"So what are you calling yourself?" Fred asked.
"Heartbreaker," was the reply.
"It suits you. You always were a handsome rascal."
Heartbreaker smiled in the moonlight.
"So what brings you to this neck of the woods?" asked Fred.
"You," Heartbreaker replied, "I came to see you. I wanted to show you... And I missed you.?
"Dude, I was the one always picking on you," Fred snickered, "And you missed me. I thought you couldn?t wait to get rid of me."
"It"s been two years since I saw you last," Heartbreaker replied, "You had just finished high school. Then two weeks after you got out of the hospital you were just up and gone." Fred's scar started to itch.
"You leaving surprised every one," Heartbreaker continued, "But what surprised me even further was when you left this behind." He held out the staff for Fred's inspection. Fred closed his eyes and nodded a little sadly. "You didn?t even ask?"
"I didn't have to ask," Fred interrupted, half-shouting, "He brought it to me the night after I was admitted to the hospital. He came to the window that night, held it out to me, and said 'It's yours when you want it.' Only I couldn?t want it anymore."
"Couldn?t?"
"To bear that staff you need three things," said Fred; "You need to be of age, these days eighteen."
"Right," answered Heartbreaker.
"You need to be of reasonably pure of heart," Fred continued.
"But you're" Heartbreaker started.
"And you need to be a little wide eyed," Fred finished, "And a little innocent. I can still be wide eyed, after seeing and hearing some of my friend Ben's 'exploits' I?d have to be. But after what happened that night I can never be innocent again."
"And that's why you left?"
"It was a lot of things," Fred replied, "But I never really 'meant' to leave, not permanently. It started as just a road trip, something so I could clear my head and get away from the city. When I was passing through here my truck broke down, and I didn?t have enough money to get it fixed. So I took a temporary job here. By the time I got the repairs paid off, I'd rented a house, made some new friends, had some good times? When I got ready to go home, it didn't...feel... like I was going home."
Heartbreaker closed his eyes and lowered his head. "It is good seeing you again," he said. Heartbreaker stood up on the hood of the truck. From underneath the tunic Heartbreaker spread a pair of huge white wings and kneeled to take to the air. "I remember the reason you wanted the staff," he said, "You just wanted to fly." Fred nodded and then unlocked the door to his truck. "Dad wants to know if you want to come home for dinner next week," Heartbreaker asked.
"Only if he lets Mom do the cooking," Fred replied. With a leap, Heartbreaker soared into the air with a great flap of his wings and in a moment he was out of sight in the darkness. Fred slipped into the seat of his truck, started the engine, and put the truck into gear.
Maybe it was time to go home, Fred thought, at least for a little visit. Tell them all about Ben and Lily. Maybe even bring them along and introduce them. Yes, it was definitely time to go home.

This is where i got the idea for the Heartbreaker character in my story.

<img src=http://home.ntelos.net/~blue27a/images/hrtbrkr.jpg>

It's a picture from Ralph's gallery so he's sorta related to Fred

I find the "Heartbreaker" character interesting enough that I'd read a sequel if you wrote it. Kudos for taking the initiative. I've wanted to write stories before, but I'm always either too busy or too lazy

I have to admit, I've wondered at times when looking at the art in Ralph's gallery if they represented just artistic ideas or developed characters. There's one picture of a futuristic "furry" character running in fear while a billboard sized video screen features a creepy looking guy smiling next to the words "Think Happy". It'd be interesting to see some more interpretations of Ralph's art in story form, with his permission of course.

It's a well-written opening scene, leaving a great deal to conjecture and therefore making it interesting. No irritating pop-anime-like symptoms of omnipotence seem to be lurking anywhere.
Knowing nothing about you as an author, I'd guess you could make a pretty good story out of this. Working out the exact powers and limitations of Heartbreaker's staff should be fun.

Ironically, the Heartbreaker picture was intended as a "spinoff" idea from the Under the Lemon Tree series. I wanted to tinker around with the idea of a Superhero version of the Under the Lemon Tree idea...

Yup. Heartbreaker was supposed to be the superhero version of Velvet.

Or rather a young teen imbued with Velvet's archetypical powers...

The idea was to be that a select group of young men and women were to be selected as avatars for various spiritual archetypes. Heartbreaker was what happened when a teenage ballet dancer (a rabbit) was imbued with the "eros" archetype-- love, innocence, hope, beauty and (for an odd twist) erotic sensuality. He radiates innocence and trust, and can basically make even the most hostile person "bliss out" with a blast channeled through his staff, and can manifest white doves to do his mental bidding.

The "Morty" archetype went to a goth kid (a raven). when imbued he transforms into a midnight blue raven with glowing red eyes, tattered jeans and leather straps around his torso. Fear, Guilt, and other "negative" emotions are his power... he can project them to those around him, something akin to Ghost Rider's "penance stare." He can glide and levitate, and his wings end in black talons that can slice through steel.

"Slick" was to be a twentysomething college athlete (tiger)-- who had been crippled in a sporting accident. He now has to walk with legbraces and crutches, and barely has control of his own body. Which makes it all the more ironic that when he transforms, he becomes the embodiment of perfect control-- a martial artist with inhuman agility, dexterity, skill and marksmanship. He makes the guys in the Matrix look like circus clowns. In his transformed state, he wears a black trenchcoat and carries two silver guns that never run out of ammunition. And he never misses.

"Sheldon" went to a terrapin-- a slow and mild-mannered bookish college student. He can now become the embodiment of intellect. In his transformed state he nearly doubles in size, and his shell becomes virtually invulnerable-- a living sherman tank. Along with heightening his already impressive IQ to astronomical levels, he gains the ability to access, store, and transmit any form of data from any source to any receiver.... even from mind to mind. Which is mighty disconcerting to any criminal who suddenly gets the contents of the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica rammed into his forebrain....

"Zoot" went to a coyote, a nondescript class clown, who now discovers he can transform into the embodiment of the legendary Trickster. He is gifted with impressive acrobatic skill, the ability to cast disconcerting illusions, and the more disconcerting ability to alter luck itself...

"Gunther" went to a 14-year-old doberman from an abusive family, despised by his father as a 98 pound weakling. Now that 98 pound weakling can metamorphose at will into a 300 pound, musclebound rottweiler with the ability to transform his bottled-up rage... and the rage of anyone else nearby as well... into any hand-to-hand weapon of his choice-- chains, axes, clubs, morningstars....


It was an interesting mental exercise, at the least.

You know, Ralph, I like those characters better the way you ended up creating them. As ancilliaries to Ben Bruin's own character. It makes them more believable, somehow. It adds a nice bit of humor too, which I enjoy.
Here's hoping your housing problems are shaping up nicely.

[...unWARP!!!]

Good evening.

Now that's something I'd love to see completed!

Until next time, remember:

I AM THE J.A.M.

Good evening.

[WARP!!!]

RHJunior wrote:Ironically, the Heartbreaker picture was intended as a "spinoff" idea from the Under the Lemon Tree series. I wanted to tinker around with the idea of a Superhero version of the Under the Lemon Tree idea...

Yup. Heartbreaker was supposed to be the superhero version of Velvet.

Or rather a young teen imbued with Velvet's archetypical powers...

The idea was to be that a select group of young men and women were to be selected as avatars for various spiritual archetypes. Heartbreaker was what happened when a teenage ballet dancer (a rabbit) was imbued with the "eros" archetype-- love, innocence, hope, beauty and (for an odd twist) erotic sensuality. He radiates innocence and trust, and can basically make even the most hostile person "bliss out" with a blast channeled through his staff, and can manifest white doves to do his mental bidding.

The "Morty" archetype went to a goth kid (a raven). when imbued he transforms into a midnight blue raven with glowing red eyes, tattered jeans and leather straps around his torso. Fear, Guilt, and other "negative" emotions are his power... he can project them to those around him, something akin to Ghost Rider's "penance stare." He can glide and levitate, and his wings end in black talons that can slice through steel.

"Slick" was to be a twentysomething college athlete (tiger)-- who had been crippled in a sporting accident. He now has to walk with legbraces and crutches, and barely has control of his own body. Which makes it all the more ironic that when he transforms, he becomes the embodiment of perfect control-- a martial artist with inhuman agility, dexterity, skill and marksmanship. He makes the guys in the Matrix look like circus clowns. In his transformed state, he wears a black trenchcoat and carries two silver guns that never run out of ammunition. And he never misses.

"Sheldon" went to a terrapin-- a slow and mild-mannered bookish college student. He can now become the embodiment of intellect. In his transformed state he nearly doubles in size, and his shell becomes virtually invulnerable-- a living sherman tank. Along with heightening his already impressive IQ to astronomical levels, he gains the ability to access, store, and transmit any form of data from any source to any receiver.... even from mind to mind. Which is mighty disconcerting to any criminal who suddenly gets the contents of the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica rammed into his forebrain....

"Zoot" went to a coyote, a nondescript class clown, who now discovers he can transform into the embodiment of the legendary Trickster. He is gifted with impressive acrobatic skill, the ability to cast disconcerting illusions, and the more disconcerting ability to alter luck itself...

"Gunther" went to a 14-year-old doberman from an abusive family, despised by his father as a 98 pound weakling. Now that 98 pound weakling can metamorphose at will into a 300 pound, musclebound rottweiler with the ability to transform his bottled-up rage... and the rage of anyone else nearby as well... into any hand-to-hand weapon of his choice-- chains, axes, clubs, morningstars....


It was an interesting mental exercise, at the least.

Well, leat to say i wouldn't be opposed to you using parts of my fan fic in your story. I think it's time there was a storyline based on Fred anyway, I mean just how much so we know about our lapine amigo

UncleMonty wrote:You know, Ralph, I like those characters better the way you ended up creating them. As ancilliaries to Ben Bruin's own character. It makes them more believable, somehow. It adds a nice bit of humor too, which I enjoy.
Here's hoping your housing problems are shaping up nicely.

Well, that was the thing I forgot to add.

The idea was that they each recieved a portion of a singular archetypical power, based off the profile from a single person, a 'destined one' known as the Avatar... and that in times of extreme crisis they could imbue the Avatar with their power, transforming him into an incredibly powerful superhero.
Yup. Ben.
Except in the comic version, Ben was to be a 12 year old kid. Basically they're the guardians of the Avatar and sort of "chaperoning" his powers till he's an adult-- and old enough to manage his own powers and fend for himself.

Amazing the amount of thought I put into a project that'll never even be started, isn't it.