Lord 13: Writing Part 3

I’m often asked where I come up with my creative ideas.

Many times it’s from dreams.  I’ll wake up after a wild dream and quickly write down the vision I just woke up from.

Such is the case of Mercurian, The Demon-Dog Who Eats Children’s Souls.  On July 2, 2014 at 7:22 am I awoke and wrote a note to myself on my phone.  It says the following:

Mercurian - demon dog that can change form and preys on children to kidnap them and then ransom them to their parents for jewelry

Now, if you’ve read The Kon’s Wrath Saga you know that Mercurian is a recurring character.  You’ll also note that Mercurian isn’t exactly like what I must have dreamt about.  However, I promised myself 7 years before Yuri And The Dragon Key was published that I would not forget Mercurian.  If I remember correctly, I actually promised Mercurian himself that if he allowed me to wake up from the nightmare I was in that I would make sure to deify him so that he was never forgotten.  I lived up to that promise.  Hopefully he will spare me my soul, or S.O.U.L.

Let’s go back in time again.

Shall we?

The year is 2003.

I’m writing sci-fi short stories and sending them to magazines for publication.  Unfortunately none of them were picked up and published.  Whatever.  That’s not the point.  Years later in approximately 2019, my step-daughter Kate asked if I had ever written stories before.  Well, as I am quite the pack rat and save a whole bunch of stuff that should probably have been thrown away, I found my old short stories.  Kate read them all.  Then she asked why I quit writing.  Here we are now.

So, if you’ve read anything I’ve written you know that everything I write always has some kind of heavy metal reference.  No, I had not yet discovered Power Metal back then (see The Glorious Burden: Power Metal Part 1 in my blog if you want that story) and had not even conceived of PowerPunk.  However, my stories were very much rooted in the metal music I was listening to at the time.

At the time that I wrote the short story “Lord 13”, I was very much into Monster Magnet.  I couldn’t get enough of Dave Wyndorf’s lyrics.  I even read Edgar Rice Burrough’s A Princess Of Mars simply because I loved the song Tarzan King Of Mars and thought that Dave Wyndorf had used it for inspiration.

Monster Magnet's Tab

Anyway, I had been listening to Monster Magnet’s Tab album when I ran into the song “Lord 13.”  And when I looked at the album cover my mind started racing.  I invented a story in my mind where there was this Space Lord (yeah, I know, another Monster Magnet reference…) that had to battle other “Lords” in a gladiatorial battle.  I think at the time that I had a bigger story in mind with revenge and all kinds of cool stuff, but I never got around to writing it.

When I re-read my short stories years later per Kate’s request I got this funny idea to harvest my favorite characters and include them in the book I was writing.  Now, this Lord 13 is nowhere near the same Lord 13 that appears in The Kon’s Wrath Saga.  Lord 13 of the Macho-Junkies is much cooler, much more badass.  But at least you can now see the inception of one of my favorite characters…

Lord 13

Laz and Claire watched the fluorescent lights illuminate the rectangular field

from the cheap seats while both teams walked onto the field. A mixture of concrete and

stone, the seats weren’t the best, but that was to be expected with the Spacelord in an

arena on Earth. And since his brother wouldn’t be on the field to salute Laz with his

special salute after victory, the bad seats didn’t matter.

The speakers around the ancient arena introduced both teams before the final

match of the 13 Lord Tour got under way. Spacelord Sebastian Bach had chosen to come to Earth to raise morale of Terran Solar Citizens. Thirteen battles in rebuilt-metros

around the world was sure to gain support by everyone on Earth, especially considering

the Spacelord’s popularity. And with the first time that the Professional League had ever

ventured to Earth, attendance at the local arenas had been at an all-time high with

accelerated ratings on TUBE among all of the other colonized worlds. It would be the

first chance for many to actually see where the great game had originated.

The lights went down, Laz and Claire awaiting Spacelord Bach’s arrival with

everyone else. Everyone with eyes set to admire the great figure. All except Lord

AstroRuff, Bach’s nemesis on the opposing side.

Clad in bright red metal armor with metal horns on each side of his helmet,

AstroRuff stood a head higher than all the defenders and runners on the field. Everyone

in the arena had heard his derisive comments of the Spacelord in the previous week.

Laz knew him too well. It was the very reason he had come. A chance to see the

mighty AstroRuff suffer humiliation as he lost in the first period like all the other lords

before him. The Spacelord was more than a champion; he was a hero. And hero’s never lose, especially when they are matched against roques. No one viewing TUBE in other reaches of the Solar System would know AstroRuff’s treachery, but to Laz and Claire, it was a memory that haunted them daily.

The lights came back on, highlighting a figure dressed in blue with the ever

popular crown-helmet. The crowd drained out the announcer’s introduction of the

Spacelord.

Laz reached into his pocket to bring out his binoculars. There were no mega-

screens in this arena as on other worlds. He put them to his eyes just as Bach met

AstroRuff in the middle of the diamond and watched as the customary salute of a

handshake took place.

With both lords back on their sides of the diamond, the flame whips were brought

to them. Doused in oil to keep them lit through the entire period, the flame whips lit up

the two lords. They were not the electro-whips of the professional leagues, but everyone

had seen the Spacelord quickly adapt.

Now, play began.

AstroRuff quickly made the first move by sending all three of his runners across

the diamond from the right side. Clearly decided before the match. But Bach had seen

this effort many a time. Only the runners remained in the diamond.

Tactics would change now as Bach couldn’t attack until they entered his territory.

Usually runners sprinted into the diamond together, separating into three directions so

that a lord could only pursue one.

Waiting for them to disperse, Bach signaled one of his own runners, who made a

dash through the diamond and on toward the safety ring. The only location safe from

defenders on the opposing side.

Laz knew the strategy. Send a runner to the ring. And while the lord is in pursuit,

the other two runners speed all the way from the diamond to the goal. Confusion many

times will win.

Bach watched his runner slide into the safety ring, but AstroRuff made no blunder

following. Laz waited for the change of tactics that would send the other two in, with the

runner in the ring dashing in to end the match.

But as Bach turned to order the command, he noticed AstroRuff’s three runners

making a break for it. If they continued to stay together, this was going to be another

short match.

AstroRuff, having carefully pre-calculated his move by using an old strategy that

Bach would view typical of Terran strategy, caught Bach off guard. Luck also was a

factor as Bach had already turned to chase down the runners and didn’t hear the jet boots descending behind him.

AstroRuff’s whip slung around Bach’s knees, pulling him to the ground. Back on

his feet and with his legs still aflame, Bach turned to gaze at AstroRuff, but Laz’s

binoculars couldn’t catch the expression beneath his helmet.

Bach then spun around and darted, using his jet boots to close the 50 yards

between him and the runners in one leap. He landed on the runner closest the safety ring, squashing his chest. In a blink of an eye, his whip wrapped around the neck of another runner, jerking him to the ground. The crowd watched in awe as the Spacelord left the runner, his face afire. His embarrassment from AstroRuff displayed in these untypical brutal beatings.

The third runner never made it to the safety ring as Bach surged to sling him to

the ground. The crowd cheered as the Spacelord twisted his neck and threw down his

whip to set the corpse aflame. The true hero had the crowd’s attention.

Laz quickly turned to see that Bach only had one of his own runners left on the

other side. The two defenders had managed to take down both of the other ones.

Trapped in the safety ring, Bach’s last runner awaited some sort of distraction.

But the crowd still focused on Bach as he received the applause. That was when

Laz struggled to scream. A gesture silenced by the crowd’s uproar.

Realizing that no one was watching, AstroRuff flung out his whip so fast that

Bach’s final runner never felt the jerk of the whip. His head jumped backwards as his

body fell forward in the dirt.

It should have cost AstroRuff a penalty, but instead only Laz saw, and with all six

runners lifeless, the period ended.

Murmurs in the crowd escaped as they gradually understood what had happened.

AstroRuff was the first lord of the tour to survive an entire period against the

Spacelord.

While six new runners advanced onto the field, both lords made their way back to

the appropriate points of the diamond to receive the next weapon.

The spear-blades were handed to each of the lords. Half spear, half sword. Like

the rest of the audience, Laz was curious to see how Bach would handle his first

opportunity to wield the spear-blade. He had always been worthy of the shocksticks of

the pro league, but a spear-blade was very different.

As Laz watched both lords position their runners, he recognized AstroRuff’s

scheme. It was the same one that visited all of his nightmares. The dream where his

brother found him in the crowd and waved his traditional salute to Laz, before falling to

the ground. Coming back to the moment at hand, Laz remembered how his brother had

not been able to wave after the wound. He had simply fallen to his knees. The only flaw

of his dream.

But revenge would indeed be great, even with Bach delivering it.

Laz brought out his binoculars again and saw that it would be a short period.

With all three runners in motion, Bach was in the air jetting toward AstroRuff

with the blade edge of his weapon ready to swing downward. It was like a slow motion

scene from an ancient kung-fu movie that played at some of the screen-showings.

His runners hadn’t even made it out of the diamond when he landed. The crowd

roared as AstroRuff’s right arm flew to the ground, blood pouring out of his shoulder.

But Laz had been prepared.

Bach still knelt on ground in the same position in which he delivered the blow.

Laz knew that the period would be short, but what he didn’t expect was the mock that

follwed. His brother’s wave. AstroRuff knew Laz was there.

And with the crowd still awaiting Bach to stand and deliver the fatal blow to

AstroRuff, Laz grabbed Claire by the arm and made his way out of the arena as

AstroRuff strutted over to retrieve his weapon from Bach’s back.

ds

May 5, 2025 (Revenge Of The Fifth)