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  MASTERMIND

  Part 1 of the Mastermind’s Mutants Special Trilogy

  Written By

  Luke Derricks

  Published by

  Transformation Paradise

  www.transformationparadise.com

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. For sales, licensing, joint ventures, creative collaborations and cross-over events, fan mail, and more, please email [email protected].

  THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION

  Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

  This story may include mature content and is intended for adults only. The views, opinions, values, morals, ethics, behaviors, themes, ideas, events, attitudes, and consequences (or lack thereof) expressed in this story are for dramatic effect and entertainment purposes only, and do not necessarily reflect those of either the author or the publisher. This is for fantasy entertainment only.

  DISCLAIMERS

  For additional legal disclaimers and information, please visit https://www.transformationparadise.com/disclaimer

  THANKS FOR BEING A FAN

  Thank you for purchasing this book and being a fan. You’re awesome!

  For more great sci-fi, fantasy, and transformation stories, check out TransformationParadise.com.

  Chapter One

  Time Traveler

  Luke Powers, a kinda-handsome-but-somewhat-nerdy 26-year-old, sat on the edge of his couch, cramming a fist full of popcorn into his mouth. Beside him was a video projector. Connected to that video projector, a DVD player. And in that DVD player, one of the greatest movies of all time: Back to the Future.

  If you’re going to watch a big movie, you gotta see it on the big screen. Or at least, in Luke’s case, projected up onto his living room wall.

  Luke smiled. He loved this movie. One of his favorites. No, the favorite. There was something about this movie. Something that made it rise above all the rest. Even, in his opinion, better than all of the Star Wars or Star Trek movies. Better than Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Even better than Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles.

  This was a movie about time travel.

  And Luke loved the idea of being able to travel through time.

  But who wouldn’t? With time travel, you could go back and change a major regret. You could find out tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers. Make a few choice stock picks. See your parents or grandparents when they were your age. Maybe even meet a historical figure or two.

  Sure, sure. All that was cool. But for Luke, it was something else.

  You could say, at heart, Luke was an explorer. And time travel was about “exploring” the world—the universe—in a whole new way. He loved shows like Star Trek and Stargate SG-1. Those were about exploring space and other worlds. He played his fair share of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and not just because she had big boobs. There was an adventurer living in his heart. And he longed to be one.

  Unfortunately, the real world had other priorities. He had rent to pay. Credit card bills. Student loans to pay off. Sure, of course he’d rather be off on some adventure exploring through time and space – but he also needed to eat.

  He had a roommate. Ray Cartwright. An African-American, business-oriented, charming, self-confident, best friend kind of guy. Luke met Ray in college in an intro-level psychology class. Luke was an art major; Ray was in finance. The only reason either of them took the psych class was because it fulfilled some general education requirement and it seemed like it’d be an easy “A”. They met, hit it off, and became best friends ever since.

  Now they were roommates. Ray was still in school, finishing up his MBA. Actually going somewhere with his life. Luke, on the other hand, felt like his life was somehow stuck on “pause.” Everything just seemed to be perpetually on hold.

  Always waiting. Always looking toward “someday” when things got better. Always hoping that somehow, magically, something would pull him out of this dull, mediocre, financially-struggling life – and help him find his real purpose, his higher calling, what he was really meant to do with his life.

  In the meantime, he worked at a retail store part-time. It barely covered the bills. Just barely. If he didn’t go out to eat much. Stayed home to watch a movie rather than spend $12 on a ticket at the local theater. Try not to drive his car too far or too often, to try to save money on ever-increasing gas prices.

  He was definitely treading water. Always just barely getting by. Eking out a humble existence. Never making enough to break free – and experience more of what he knew, deep in his soul, life had to offer.

  Maybe that’s why he liked his movies and comic books so much. They were a chance to escape, a chance to go somewhere, do something meaningful, even though he never actually went anywhere, and only vicariously enjoyed the great heroics of the characters he so loved.

  Luke watched the movie play on the wall, projected in front of him. How he wished he could live an adventure like Marty or Doc Brown. If only time travel were possible. If only ordinary people like him went on real-life adventures. His job sucked. He hadn’t been on a date – never mind had sex – in what felt like forever.

  And well, besides all that, something else was bothering him. Something he couldn’t deal with. A terrible, unfathomable loss that he’d just rather not think about right now. If he could time travel for real, he’d definitely go back to change that.

  But this was real life. He lived in Burbank, not Hill Valley. He drove an old Camry, not a DeLorean. And it was 2011, not 1985.

  Come to think of it, it was almost 30 years later since that movie was made. In the sequel, Marty traveled to the year 2015. There were flying cars and hover boards. 3-D movies and voice-activated house lights.

  Some of the movie’s predictions came true. 3-D movies were becoming more and more popular. But that could just be because studios were trying to give people a reason to go see movies in the theater, and not illegally download it onto their computers. Somehow the writer of Back to the Future failed to predict Internet piracy, cell phones, and reality TV shows.

  But how could he? No one could’ve imagined that just a few decades later, everyone would have cell phones – to check their e-mail, update their status on Facebook, and play Angry Birds while they were at work.

  If only he could time travel for real. But that would never happen. It was just a fantasy.

  So he had to live his dream vicariously. Watching life-size movies projected onto his living room wall. Reading comic books. Imagining up his own stories and adventures. He wasn’t much of a writer. He tried. It was kinda fun.

  But his real talent was in drawing. When he was about five years old, he discovered a love and talent for it. He’s been doodling, drawing, sketching, and illustrating ever since.

  And what did he love drawing most? Super heroes, of course. Monsters and aliens. Killer attack robots and cyborgs. Magical creatures and fantasy dragons. Aside from being a time traveler and deep space explorer, his other – and more realistic – dream was to be a comic book artist.

  But that dream had to be put on hold too. Artists were a dime a dozen. Comic books weren’t as big as they used to be. Less jobs, lower pay, more competition. He made a point to attend every comic book convention within an eight-hour drive, and he always brought sample work to show exhibitors and publishers. His art was good. Just not quite good enough.

  Now he worked in an independent bookstore, some local mom-and-pop shop that always seemed to be on the verge of going out of business. The owners were nice people. A husband and wife team that loved b
ooks – all books. They loved how books could magically transport them anywhere, any time, and introduce them to all kinds of memorable characters and interesting creatures. But, being a smaller store with a limited budget, it was tough to compete with the larger chain stores.

  Still, they managed to stave off bankruptcy for one more month, every month so far – and although it didn’t pay much, at least Luke had a job.

  Yup. His life was going nowhere. Not out of apathy or laziness. He was trying. It’s just that no matter what he did, he could never seem to get ahead.

  He submitted resumes to better-paying jobs. Showed his artwork to publishers. Even tried self-publishing. But the more he tried to change his life, the more things stayed the same.

  But little did he know that everything was about to change. While he sat alone in his apartment, watching his favorite movie, dreaming of another life – events had already been set in motion that would forever change not only his life, but the lives of so many others.

  It was a secret that had been withheld from him for too long. But soon – he’d know more than he ever dreamed he would.

  Oh, if only he could time travel for real. If only it were possible. If only he had a flux capacitor.

  Whatever that was. Technically, time travel was in fact possible – Luke was sort of an amateur hobby time travel theorist. There were ways to actually travel through time.

  If you had a fast enough space ship, you could travel near the speed of light, slowing down your own time, effectively sending you into the future.

  Circling really fast around a black hole (without getting sucked in, of course) was another option. You could also “somehow”, in theory, create a stable wormhole that took you to another point in time and space. And a handful of other remote possibilities.

  But out of all the theories Luke had learned about, none of them were technologically possible. At least not yet.

  Maybe, someday in the distant future, the technology would exist. And people could travel through time. And maybe, somehow, one of them would go back in time to Luke’s present, and – for some reason – give him access to that time machine.

  Yeah. Maybe. He wished. He dreamed.

  He was always dreaming…

  Then there was a knock at the door.

  He looked over. He wasn’t expecting anybody.

  Who could that be?

  Chapter Two

  The Audition

  Burbank, if you’re not familiar, is part of the greater Los Angeles area. There’s a lot of movie studios there, big and small. So while Luke was at home watching his all-time favorite movie, his roommate Ray was just a few miles down the street, auditioning people for a new upcoming film.

  The room was full of anxious, hopeful, aspiring actors and actresses, all waiting to be called, waiting for their chance, waiting for that big break that might someday come. Most had headshots and demo reels in hand. No one talked to each other. They were all nervous. But it was more than that. They were each other’s competition.

  They were all young adults, around ages 20 to 25. They were all good-looking. And at least half of them were cute blonde girls. And perhaps of those, one or two were actually natural blondes.

  One of those natural blondes was a girl with a friendly face named Dawn Stein. Yep, she’s Jewish, just like half the actors in this town. But she wasn’t like most wannabe actress blondes in Hollywood. She was more of the girl-next-door type.

  She had her own beauty that shined from the inside out. She was pretty, yes, and cute in her own way. But gentle, too. Sincere, honest, down to Earth, friendly, approachable. She seemed to have a fair degree of self-confidence. Maybe because she wasn’t caught up in all this Hollywood stuff. She acted because she loved it – not for the fame or money.

  She’d been involved in community theatre since she was fourteen. And appeared in a couple local commercials in recent years. And now, today, was auditioning for a “big” movie.

  Well, “big” was a bit of an exaggeration. The vision was big. The story was big. The budget and crew size – very small. In fact, it wasn’t even a feature-length movie. It was a 20-minute short. If they were lucky, it’d get into some film festivals. So, needless to say, it was an unpaid acting opportunity.

  But Dawn didn’t care. Acting was a magical experience for her. She loved the idea of being a different character, a different person, every time. The right costume, a bit of makeup, and some special effects – and she could be anybody, or anything, on camera. And ever since she was a little girl, she loved going on adventures. She’d often go camping with her dad. She went on a cross-country road trip with her best friend after their freshman year in college. Had plans to backpack across Europe when she had a little more money saved up.

  Life was meant to be lived, she felt. Unfortunately, real life only had so many adventures available. That was another thing she loved about acting. She could go anywhere – fantastic journeys, other worlds, mysterious places – vicariously, yes, but it was better than nothing.

  Suddenly a young college kid popped his head out the door. “Next,” he said, somewhat nasally.

  That meant her. It was Dawn’s turn.

  She gathered her headshot and resume. And just as she stood up, the previous actress left the audition room. Some Beverly Hills type girl, fake hair, fake boobs, overpriced outfit, high heels. The snotty girl gave Dawn a look of disgust as she passed by. “Good luck,” she said, but she didn’t mean it.

  Whatever. Dawn wasn’t going to let this bother her. Of course, she happened to glance back at everyone else still in the waiting room. At least a dozen other five-foot-something blondes just like her. Dawn sighed. This was not very promising. But she took a deep breath, prepared herself to give her best audition possible, and put a cheerful smile on her face as she entered the next room.

  There were three guys in there: the nasal-sounding college kid that called her in, who probably still lived with his parents; the director – a slightly older, but still college-aged dude wearing an artsy hat; and Ray, Luke’s roommate, sitting beside the director. Ray had some kind of official-looking schedule or budget in front of him. They were all guys in their early-to-mid-20s.

  This was, in fact, a student film.

  The director was in UCLA’s film program, so that gave this project a little more credibility and professionalism than, say, some random guy on Craigslist. Of course Dawn dreamed of being a movie star on a real movie – something big budget, something with distribution, something that her cousin in Iowa would see. But those auditions were hard to come by, and even though she had managed to get in a few, no one had called her back yet.

  “State your name and look into the camera, please,” said the director.

  They were recording.

  “Hi, I’m Dawn Stein,” she said, “and I’m auditioning for the part of Power Girl.” She then listed her contact info and tried to smile all happy and pretty.

  “Thank you,” said the director.

  The nasal kid handed her a script.

  “Take it from the top of page two, please,” said the director.

  Ray leaned back in his chair and watched her.

  Dawn held her script, got into character, and began reading.

  “You won’t get away with this, Doctor Destruction!” she said. “As soon as my powers recharge, I’ll summon the archangel Michael and he’ll send you back to the alternate dimension where you came from! Evil never wins.”

  Wow. Who wrote this? She didn’t get a chance to see the script ahead of time. She just saw the open call for auditions posted on Facebook. It was a super hero movie. That’s pretty much all she knew. It sounded like fun. But… wow.

  The director read Doctor Destruction’s lines. “Ha. Ha. Ha. You are too late, Power Girl. All I have to do is push this button and the Ragnarok bomb will explode, destroying planet Earth and turning it into a zillion pieces of astro dust!”

  Dawn tried not to laugh at how bad this dialog was. She was auditio
ning, live, and on camera. She played along.

  “But wait, aren’t you forgetting something?” she read.

  “And what is that?”

  “My powers have already recharged. Archangel Michael, attack!!!”

  “No, no! Stay away! Ahh, the light, it burns!!!”

  Oh God. What was this movie?

  “Ha-ha! See, Doctor Destruction, I told you evil never wins! Victory goes to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Hooray!”

  She somehow delivered that line with energy and enthusiasm.

  “Thank you,” said the director.

  What had she gotten herself into?

  “And now,” said the director, “could you please read Power Girl’s lines on page five?”

  “Okay,” she said. She flipped to that page. It was some kind of interior bedroom scene. The opening action line was “Power Girl moans loudly.” Okay…

  She tried moaning loudly, like she was in pain.

  “No, no,” said the director. “This is a love scene.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Okay.” She moaned again, this time a little more… erotic? It still sounded a little painful, but it was better.

  The director decided to move on and continue with the scene.

  Dawn read her first line. “Jack, you’re so strong and handsome. I can’t believe you’re inside me right—” She stopped.

  “There a problem?” asked the director.

  “I’m sorry. No. Let me try that again.” She moaned. “Oh Jack, you’re so strong and handsome… I can’t believe you’re inside me right now. And with my… telepathic powers… I can tell you’re only thinking about me…”

  The director read, “Oh Power Girl, you’re the only girl for me. I’ve loved you since I first laid eyes on you…”

  “Me too,” said Dawn, reading her lines. “Me too…”

  “Promise me, Power Girl, promise me you’ll never leave.”

  God this was an awful story. But Dawn was committed. At least to finishing the audition. God, she hoped she didn’t get this part. “Jack, I promise! I promise I’ll never leave you! Not even Doctor Destruction and his army of minion zombie robots can keep us apart for long. We’re soulmates!”