Vertigo: No Way Up

Vertigo is the main character in this story, plus the Marauders, Mr. Sinister,
and a surprise guest star. Threnody and Nate Grey are also mentioned.

-- Chance by Savatage

Why? Well, because. Because I wanted to write about someone no one has ever bothered to write about before. I think I succeeded. How GOOD it is, I don't know...but it's different, I hope. I got to wondering about these particular characters' "blank slate" lives, and when I did some digging and found out that the slate wasn't as blank as I thought, well, I got to thinking... (That, and I can't stomach the assumption that our government would be so utterly clueless as to NOT know about these bastiches.) Blinded by the glamorous glare of spandex and superpowers, we tend to forget that even the most unredeemably evil have at least SOME humanity...we underestimate the abilities of the non-superpowered branches of law...and we overlook the fact that most SPBs can be taken down by a bullet or a speeding car as quickly as any ordinary human.

I can be reached at kielle@aol.com -- drop me a note! I want to hear your opinion, good or bad or deranged. I worked on this baby for MONTHS, so I'm not choosy.

Note: There's a dash of "bad" language and there may be some gore, but other than that it should be acceptable for most readers. Some of the early parts take place around the events of X-Man #13 (which I only picked up because it had Madelyne Pryor AND the Marauders in it, woo-hoo!) and there's some mention of ye olde Mutant Massacre, but other than that don't worry y'self about continuity, I've got it all covered.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to Laersyn and Kitarra for their patient plot assists; to my dear husband, who put up with my constant brainstorming and random "listen to this!" attacks; to Chris Kallemeyn to his first-hand dock-worker experience; to Tapestry, who agonized through my teasers, and Asparagirl, who firmly believes that I can write ANYTHING; to whoever it was who said "Hey Kielle, why haven't YOU written an epic?"; to my wonderful beta readers: Kristina Sennvik, Laurent, Link, and anyone else I missed, because I lost my dratted notes; and to Savatage, who provided some awesome "mood music" during the writing of this and other pieces. And most of all to Chris Moore, who knows exactly why.

Boy, doesn't Kielle like to hear the sound of her own voice? ;) Let's get on with this, shall we?

Vertigo: No Way Up