6.13.2012
What the hell was I thinking? Media and Modern Culture? I just wanted to learn more about modern news and the Internet. I’d heard there was an engineering task force commissioned the year before I “disappeared”, but who could have seen it grow into this? It’s a freaking electronic warehouse for porn, shopping and celebrity tabloids.

I’m all for freedom of speech, but … I’m not sure this is what grandpa was fighting for in World War Two. Madonna was pretty wild and Geraldo was a bit nutty but compared to today … I just don’t know, I guess I just need time to get use to things. Time. It always seems to be coming back to that. Never enough time to catch up on all that has happened.

You know what they say about clouds and silver linings. I asked for a tutor to help me get better acquainted with all the modern references, and is she cute or what. Sarah Dunham. She says her dad is head of the city’s Emergency Management Office. I think we sat at Fast Eddy's for three hours just surfin the internet and talking current events. It was nice.

***********Also Not a Part of the Journal*********
Sigh ... it wasn't a date. She's just his tutor. 

Let's just say I'm probably as well read up on the Empire storyline as anyone. So if I shot myself it wasn't without knowing it could happen.   

What Dom decides to do with the NPC is totally his call. Far be it from me to give a GM some rope to hang me with. Oh well there was that time I ... 
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6.22.2012
Had the same dream again last night. That's the third time this week. One second I'm bathed in blue and red flames, the pain so intense it feels like my flesh is being seared from my bones . . . the next, I'm freezing, looking into a black sky the stars so bright it hurts my eyes . . . and then . . . I wake up drenched in sweat.

Think I might go take a look at where they found me today.  It might help to get things settled straight in my head.

7.03.2012
The captain said a rep from Quantum Tech  called. Asked  if I'd be willing to field test an experimental undersuit they're working on for the next generation of Guardian armor. 4th of July weekend? Sure why not. It's not like I have a family cookout to go to or anything.

So I get the address from their Rep and fly on down to the R&D lab.  The place has security coming out the wahzoo. I must have had to pass through half a dozen checkpoints ... and that was with the rep walking me to the lab. You think after quarter century of "progress" things would become simpler. Not the other way around. 

Test went well enough I guess. They didn't ask me to push my limits or anything. Just wanted to see how well it responded to vacuum and underwater environments. Crazy thing fit like a glove. You'd think something that molded to your body like that would bunch up or something. I think they said they're calling it "Smartskin".  Rep said the BSI asked them to set me up with a prototype for further testing. Well ... that's something I didn't think I'd ever have again ...  a new uniform. 

LOL! Should we all do this instead of waiting for a game to spin up?

Play by post would still be nice in this venue... Avatar and I are VERY familiar with such gaming...

7.18.2012
I flew down to the “Skunkworks” Friday. Captain said they had a ‘present’ for me. Real funny guy the captain, said the R&D guys had finished altering the prototype of the new Guardian under-suit and the eggheads wanted to give me a run down on all its properties. I may ever get to fly a Falcon again but, God I do love flying. I’ll have to give a ‘special’ thanks the son of a bitch who’s responsible for sending me through that Gate, right before I drop him in the Pit.

Even with the drought we’re having this summer, there is some beautiful countryside in the D.C. area. Air traffic can be a pain though. I wonder if I can talk to the gadget guys into helping me put together some kind of comm-system in the visor? They may be the nine to fivers, but without these guys, the rest of us wouldn’t be half as good at our job. “Skunkworks” … seriously, how do they come up with these names? Security beats the hell out of what the QT guys had though.

You wouldn’t believe what they put together Doc. There’s no way those eggheads came up with this thing. Someone in the agency must be a frustrated fashion designer. The thing is about two stitches short of wearing ‘Old Glory’. I have to give them credit though. Whoever they are, they knew I was an Air Force pilot … regular military, before this whole ‘hero’ gig came along. If I have to play this role, at least I can do it in a uniform that respects the past and how I got here.

Doc, you know I’d rather be flying F-16s, this whole ‘hero’ thing … it wasn’t my choice. Capes, costumes, untrained civilians running around in tights or homemade body armor … it’s just so damn unprofessional. Still . . . they have extraordinaire courage, willing to put their lives on the line for others for no other reason than they have the ability, the power to make a difference. Responsibility like that is accepted by precious few. The Guardians were the perfect example of what can be accomplishes when everyone works together.

9.9.2012
I had a late dinner with Sarah at Fat Boyz last night after the tutoring session. Who knew the girl could down a double cheeseburger like that? Doc, I know I still have a lot to learn about this new millenia, and I was never a lady's man to begin with, but I love her down to earth attitude.

I can see where her old man tried to raise her tomboy. She has his no-nonsense personality but thank God I haven't seen any of his anger toward metas. I don't know why yet, but her dad seems to be on a one-man mission to tear down anyone wearing a cape. I just wonder if he was like this before the Guardians disappeared?

9.2.2013
Well, I meet the squints on the space station and I have to give respect to a group of men with nothing but thin sheets of metal and a prayer to God for protection from the rigors of the vacuum of space. Luckily I don't have that problem ... it only cost me twenty five years of my life.

Even with my skills and powers finding faulty electronic equipment in an asteroid belt would be like looking for a needle in one of grandpa's haystacks. The tech boys set me up with a electronic locator and navigation aid to guide me to their early warning system. I didn't expect nothing more than normal wear and tear, with the boring task of dragging the thing back for repairs ... still experience and training kick in and gramps didn't raise no dummy.

The flight out was . . . the greatest experience of my life. I thought hitting super-sonic over the Atlantic was something. I took off from the space station and focused on my flight path as I accelerated out past the moon and suddenly a ... I can only call it a hole opened in front of me and I started accelerating at a hyper-luminal speed. I was startled the first time I immediately dropped back into normal space. What I saw in front of me was the fullest moon I could ever had imagined possible I was as close to the moon as I had been to Earth moments ago. I see what the astronauts were reaching for now. I had a mission though and site-seeing wasn't on the agenda. I recalibrated my flight path and adjusted for hyper-luminal based on time and distance to the moon. No need pushing this new ability until I got more use to it.

About a tenth of an AU from the asteroid belt I dropped out of hyper-flight and took readings on the EWS homecoming beacon. The vastness of space is astounding. I can guarantee you though, it is anything but empty. It took me three days traveling back and forth but I eventually found the squint's equipment. It wasn't broke, it had been destroyed. During the search I had received message from C.O R.E. three more of their EWS's had went off line during my search. Apparently I am not alone out here tonight.

The squints plotted me a path to the next EWS in the chain I took to hyper-luminal in an attempt to recon who or what might be taking out our early warning systems. What I ran into a couple old villains in the Guardian files, Radion and Sun Warrior. My aerial combat abilities and armor saved me for some time and was lucky enough to get close enough hand to hand I was able to rip chunks out of each villains armored containment suits. My adaptive ability allowed me to survive in space, not so much luck for them. Each time I thought I had one the disappeared in a beam of light, like some damn Star Trek show.

Taking energy blast at close range from both villains had stripped me had deeply penetrated my armored skin. I was in deep hurt. I wasn't sure what going hyper-luminal was going to do to me in my condition but my communication equipment was destroyed in the fight and C.O.R.E. needed to know what had happened. I over shot Earth almost all the way to Venus on the way home but eventually made it back to the space station.

I was unconscious the next three days and at one point shuttled down to a BSI hospital. Agent Woo dropped by yesterday. She said the C.O.R.E. boys appreciated everything I did and hoped I was healing from my injuries well. It seemed so. The docs were already having problem taking blood test without special equipment and with my adaptive abilities most special equipment doesn't work on me.

Woot, near invulnerability, got to love it.

Indeed got to hand it to ya fella... good writing! 

Been pondering doing the same thing for Thunderbolt... but not a current log of his activities... more of a 'Batman: Year 1" kinda record of how TB mastered his powers and stepped into the costumed vigilante persona when he started out.

But I didn't want to copy-cat or steal your spot-light.

01.23.2014
The past couple months have been rough Doc. The squints in the BSI medical division have been of little help understanding why I've been so tired. Everything I do seems to tire me three times faster than ever since my "return" through time. The scans and blood test have been inconclusive. Their best guess so far is a unique form of ... of cancer.

They theorize that my approximately twenty-five year trip through time has resulted in a chronological side effect that is causing a deterration of the source of my powers. Apparently my battles at the end of last year with three radiation based criminals boosted the chrono-event so it's effects have become noticeable. Unfortunately my ability to adapt to surviving in hostile environments is making a more accurate analysis impossible.

I've tried to follow their instructions as best as possible. I took a couple months doing as little as possible, no flying, no use of meta-abilities at all. The hope is my adaptation ability can metabolize the radiation I absorbed and hopefully kick the chrono-cancerous effects into remission. It sounded like the biggest bunch of WAG I've ever heard but it beat losing the five pounds each week I was losing in November.

The time off has given my the opportunity to think about what I'm doing with my life. Why was I spared from death back in 87' and so many of my squadron were not. I've decided one thing. I promise to find who the meta-terrorist was that faced us in the Tartarus Valley that morning. I'll find him and those who sponsored that terrorist cell and make bring then to justice. It's the least my men deserve.

05.19.2014
Good God Doc. I can't tell you how good I feel today. I just finished my third test flight of the X-37 yesterday. The brass says if my test results are everything they seem to be I might get a shot at the Air Force's X-49 aerospace fighter when she's ready to go. The tactical abilities of these sixth generation fighters are amazing Doc. ADVENT engine technology, integrated human-cyber capabilities, and direct energy weapons. It's like I died and woke up in an episode of Star Trek Doc. It doesn't compare to self flight but having that baby underneath me ... I felt alive again, doing what I was born for.

I had lunch with Skyhawk again last week. He's been great to stay in contact since I seem to have lost my powers. I told him I suggested to Cappy on the STOP team we invite Hawk in to take my place in the Op-For training. We could work on Skyhawk's aerial combat techniques, and it would give the BSI a meta to work their team tactics against. He's worked with the boys on the periphery before but this might gain him some contacts in the BSI that could help him with that personal issue of his. I'm pretty sure Cappy can get his bosses okay if Hawk's up for it. He said he'd let me know later this week and we're suppose to have burgers at Joe's in a couple days. So we will see then.