NOTE: This story appears exactly as originally written by Frank Tona (the man whose memory this site is dedicated to), down to the last character.

Hero Worship
by Kat Pryde

My sister’s cup size is not the only thing I’ll never be able to fill. I got to see her in action last night and she is everything I have heard about and more. I recently discovered that “American Pryde”, the leader of the super-hero (or is it meta-hero?) group Team Liberty, is my older sister. Recently after being exposed to “dimensional radiation” during a science fair mishap I have been spending a lot of time with the team as well.

I can shift out of phase with the rest of the world and walk through walls as if they did not exist – a pretty nifty ability but I am discovering that it is not very useful in a fight against super baddies. My sister, whose abilities are no where near as flashy as mine (or her own teammates’ for that matter), definitely lives up to her moniker. I was so scared when she dove in to shield Xtreme from the grenade that the Blue Banshee tossed at her. I instinctively (yeah right! Just had this power for a few months…) “phased” but the bomb went off right in front of her shield and they came up without a scratch!

I was able to help out a bit – but I think in retrospect I didn’t help much. When we first hit the scene there was activity in two buildings. My sis and Hardware went to check out some activity on top of a warehouse while Xtreme and I went to check out a hole in the side of the Dupree Building. It was then we met the Spider, he was fighting with this real big guy swinging a shovel! I’ve read about the Spider of course – the Bugle writes these awful stories about him and how he is responsible for this incident, and that crime, but they don’t mention that the bad guys are all trussed up in that web goop he swings around town on when the police arrive. Anyway when he saw me he pulled a Sir Lancelot and insisted on getting me to safety – before I could act he scooped me up and swung out to “safety” leaving Xtreme to face the big shovel-guy alone.

I was miffed. Here I am on my “virgin” (as Xtreme put it) outing with the team, trying to look good to my big sister and this chivalrous arachnid pulls me out of the action…sheesh! I wanted to show this guy that I wasn’t some helpless little kitten so I turned on my power. I didn’t think it through because when we phased (I can take people with me), I realized we had a great deal of momentum and might end up deep in an abandoned subway under Manhattan by the time we stopped. Luckily for me he was very acrobatic and dealt very well with phasing through the top two floors of the building he tried to land on. I brought us out of phase and we landed without incident. I remember that he said “cute trick, Kitty” and jumped out of the window. As I watched him swing up and into the Dupree Building I realized that he must know me… I hate being called

I climbed back to the roof and saw that Hardware and my sis were fighting with American Gladiator (not the real one – he’s still in a coma. This guy is some kind of copy-cat). From the chatter I’d been hearing on our comm-dots he apparently thinks that the mysterious Bat and his partner Blackwing were responsible for this mess. I think that the Bat is a good guy so we were on his side. I wanted to help but I was pretty much stuck up here watching. Remembering the comm-dots I called for some backup, Cobblestone has a real rivalry for this American Gladiator.

As Cobbie showed up our side knocked the American Gladiator knockoff out ?? but good news – he brought me a pair of flying discs. We neuro-cuffed him and regrouped on the warehouse roof. Bat and Blackwing told us that three baddies were in the Dupree Building, they were following them when they were “detained”. At that point we launched into the building to help Xtreme and Spider.

I remember that the place was a shambles: some sort of lab with a vault. The roof was collapsed in the area and the big guy with the shovel was standing over Spider – who was unconscious at his feet! Acting quickly I dove onto him – phasing us through the floor. It was dark but the loud crash above us let me know I did the right thing. I worked on waking Spider up. When he finally woke he must have been delirious, he started calling me by name again and proclaiming that I was the cutest girl around – I thought he started to say school but he didn’t.

We got back up there just in time to see the grenade – I grabbed Spider and phased – my sis, American Pryde, dove in to protect Xtreme. When the smoke cleared – it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen! The shovel guy was down and the others were trapped in the vault – I phased Spider through the wall and he and the team made short work of Kraken and Blue Banshee. Before we could mop up this huge barbarian guy with a hammer appeared shouting in some foreign language. Shovel-guy was up again and as the hammer-guy “Tor” wasn’t doing anything I said slam him into the vault and we could seal the door. I could phase anybody still inside out if needed. The team coordinated their attacks to maximize the damage and Shovel was out – again. At this time the Bat yelled “incoming guys” and said a giant slug was working itself up the wall. Cobbie trotted over to the edge and hurled the vault door down on the slug, SPLAT! Big barbarian “Tor” appeared to wield a great deal of power and seemed to be a threat. The team hit him, hard and unfortunately he didn’t get up…sad. American Gladiator (somehow he got out of the neuro-cuffs!) witnessed the event and accused us of being murderers – the Bugle is going to have a field day! He then flew off.

Mopping up we said our goodbyes and Spider did his “cutest girl” routine and I swear he was acting like he wanted a kiss goodnight! He swung off as the police started coming in.
Nice butt! ??

Kat