excerpt from "Twice Through The Lines"
Edited By Paracelsus
In his time, Captain America had come across many femme fatales (such as the Asgardian goddess known as The Enchantress or his fellow Avengers like The Wasp or The Black Widow, or even the various distaff members of the criminal combine known as The Serpent Society such as Diamondback, Black Mamba or the Asp), but he had to admit to himself that he'd NEVER met anybody quite like Seraph. Despite his years of self discipline, he had to make a conscious effort to concentrate on flying the Quinjet and keep his eyes away from the gently heaving pink sheathed alabaster bosom of the albino seated next to him. According to the Beast( a skilled chemist in his own right) and Reed Richards's theory, it's an involuntary and maybe even unconscious by-product of her ability to psionically stimulate the brain's pleasure centre's thus producing intense ecstasy- her body's pheromones go into overdrive from time to time, so get used to it!
As if sensing his thoughts, Seraph opened her eyes and yawned delicately. "Where's Airstrike?"
"He said he had some loose ends to tie up. Just go back to sleep ."
"I think I'm due an early night tonight anyway, after having a whole bag of Doritos, a cup of cocoa and watching my favourite DVD?"
"What is your favourite DVD, by the way?"
The albino laughed, a soft silvery tone. " Pretty In Pink- what else?" Suddenly her manner turned from flippant to serious. "Captain, I must apologise for my outburst last week; it was quite nekulturny!"
" I notice that you use that phrase quite a lot-what precisely does it mean in Russian?"
" Nekulturny- oh, it translates into English as "uncultured" "boorish" "unsophisticated"- I am a Leningrader by birth and upbringing and we pride ourselves as being more sophisticated and cultured than say Muscovites- and have done so even before the Revolution of 1917. My mother's family lived through the siege of Leningrad, did you know that-just as Airstrike's father fought at Stalingrad?"
"No I didn't-tell me more!"
That's why Harrison Salisbury's "The 900 Days" seemed to interest her so much.
" That was why he-Airstrike that is- says that Americans don't know war the way Russians do. he says that they - you I mean-have had a few pinpricks whilst our country has shed oceans of blood during the Great Patriotic War ."
The Avenger scowled. "I would hardly call the War of Independence, The Civil War, World War II, Korea and Vietnam, Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq sideshows!"
"Don't shoot the messenger- I am only reporting what he says!" Seraph's smile robbed her words of any offence. "I myself have seen war films although in good conscience I find the genre off-putting- such as The Battle of the Bulge, The Dirty Dozen, The Battle of Midway, Saving Private Ryan , Platoon, Full Metal Jacket."
For the first time, the Sentinel of Liberty smiled back. "So do I- in a way you could never understand as I have lived through events depicted in those films!"
The albino laughed, then her manner turned serious yet again. "Did you know that I and my fellow parishioners prayed for the victims of 9/11?"
"No, i didn't-but thanks anyway. By the way, I understand Airstrike in a sense- I too know what it is like to feel a stranger in my own country!"
"How so?"
"After the Avengers found me , I had to resign myself to the fact that like Rip Van WInkle, time(in this case twenty years) had passed me by- America had changed in ways I could barely fathom- from the era of Big Band jazz to The Beatles, from the New Deal to Civil Rights!"
"It sounds as though you , myself and Airstrike all have things in common-life has passed us by-" her voice broke and a pleading tone entered it-"will you be our friend?"
"Nothing would please me more!"
Is this something from near the beginning of the book, half way? Are Seraph and Airstrike characters you created for the book? I like it from what I can tell, I just hope that Cap seems so excited because of Seraph's power and takes a more serious tone throughout the book when he has to. Also, I'm a big fan of twists, so I hope it has some of those as well.
No, they're "real" Marvel characters- type their names into Comic Vine's Search engine! This excerpt is meant to be half way through the book, and if you like twists, then you won't be disappointed!
Terry
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