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An Introduction to the Fabulous Flying Fox
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3a
Episode 4a
Episode 4b |
Episode 4b: "Flashback"On the heels of Steven Lord's discovery that back in 1941 there was another Raven Gold who was virtually identical in appearance to our Raven Gold, we learn that our modern-day Raven is still having peculiar dreams. On this evening, she has a dream about herself as a young woman growing up in Honolulu in the years before World War II. As a fifteen-year-old, the earlier Raven Gold was a gawky, bookish girl who wore braces on her teeth and was very shy around boys. But at the age of sixteen, the braces came off and she blossomed into an extraordinary beauty. Suddenly, boys started paying attention to her, and she was so overwhelmed by it that her personality changed. She dumped all her old friends, including a boy who'd always been in love with her, took up with a completely different crowd, and became a typically self-obsessed cheerleader. Suffice it to say that the new Raven made a few very bad boyfriend choices, one of which ended up getting her raped. That was where Sylph came in. At the time, Sylph had taken the identity of a teacher at Honolulu High School, and had been keeping a close eye on Raven Gold. When the right moment came, Sylph offered Raven the power to exact vengeance on the boy who'd misused her, in exchange for which Raven would agree to become Sylph's servant. Out of anger and humiliation, the deal was struck. Raven was imbued with the essence of a demonic succubus, and was overjoyed to learn that she now had a supernatural ability to attract the attention of men. She also learned that she had the ability to enhance her own strength and vigor by reducing men like the boy who'd raped her to pale, listless shadows of their former selves. Furthermore, she was told by Sylph that if she used that ability once every month or so she would remain eternally young and beautiful. A portion of the psychic energy Raven accumulated would have to be passed along to Sylph, and she might occasionally be called upon to use her power against specific victims, but otherwise she would be entirely on her own. After receiving a large influx of psychic energy from an initial rush of victims that included a teacher Raven didn't like, several obnoxious boys, and Raven's own father, Sylph left Hawaii to tend to other concerns. Thereafter, young Raven settled down to a much less frenetic pace, and followed Sylph's advice by using her soul-draining abilities only occasionally. She started hitting her schoolbooks again, her grades shot back up, and after graduating from high school she attended the University of Hawaii. It was during her junior year that Raven got a job singing at the Diamondhead Lounge. She had a wonderful voice, an incredible stage presence, and became an overnight sensation. Part of her success, she knew, had to do with the supernatural aspect of the power she had over men, which is why she insisted that her picture never be published, but she also knew that it had a lot to do with her. During the past few years, in large measure because she was no longer entirely human, Raven hadn't had many good relationships with men. So when one came along, she wasn't entirely certain how to handle it. Thus, she fell head over heels in love with an abrasive private investigator who didn't treat her with the same kind of awe that other men invariably did. What she didn't know was that the reason this fellow wasn't immediately taken in by her beauty was because he knew exactly what Raven was. He was an occult detective who was using Raven to try to get a handle on the whereabouts of his real target: Sylph. Ironically, precisely because Raven had fallen for him, she found herself incapable of using her powers to persuade him to return her affection, and it was her genuine emotion that eventually won his heart. During the early autumn of 1941, the two of them shared a few blissful weeks. Then Sylph returned. Sylph was pleased to learn that Raven's instincts had led her to take the appropriate action against this enemy. Now that Raven was sharing this fellow's bed, he was as good as dead. Sylph was not pleased to learn that Raven had no intention of killing him, that indeed she had fallen in love with him and fully intended to marry him. Sylph pointed out that if Raven made the mistake of putting herself through a Christian sacrament, she would lose her powers. Raven declared that this would be a small price to pay for happiness, and that she would no longer do Sylph's bidding. Not much longer after that, Raven Gold was found dead under the circumstances described in Episode 4a. A few nights later, the distraught occult detective had an evening visitor. It looked like Raven, it sounded like Raven, and it acted like Raven, but it wasn't Raven. It was a demon who had assumed Raven's form. The detective knew it was Sylph's power and curse to be able to take on the appearance and personality of anyone she'd ever killed. If he'd had any suspicion that Sylph had been responsible for Raven's death, this confirmed it. But why had she come here? Why put herself at risk? It took the detective a few minutes to realize it was Raven's love for him that was driving Sylph to behave irrationally. For a brief moment, Sylph actually seemed to become Raven, and made him a promise that not even death would stop her from returning to him. Somehow, someday, she would find a way. But that moment passed, Sylph's appearance altered, and as herself she began to mock him, telling him that his efforts to stop what she and the Inner Circle were planning would prove fruitless. Already, under cover of Hitler's Third Reich, the occult artifacts had been gathered. The War in Europe had already begun. Now all that remained was to provoke Germany or Japan into overreaching and thereby bring the United States into the conflict. On the day that happened, she laughed, vanishing before the detective could bring his pistol to bear on her, the old world would be destroyed and the destiny of mankind would be sealed. With that, the dream ends, and the present-day Raven awakens in a cold sweat. She sits up, looks around, and is startled to find herself in a bedroom she doesn't recognize. She's even more startled to find that that the man sleeping next to her isn't Jackson Andrews. It's Steven Lord! And she's absolutely flabbergasted to realize, as she moves onto him and lovingly caresses his face, that her darling Steven looks exactly like the occult detective she saw in her dream. |