The Affected -- This is the story that started it all.

[mnn2300]

Lets try another one: I'm far enough along on this one to start posting.
As usual, comments not only welcome but encouraged.


The Affected - Chapter 1

It was a dark and stormy afternoon - really it was, that's not just a line, well ok it is a line, but it really was dark and stormy that afternoon, at least below the clouds, above the clouds, flying at 37,000 feet it was sunny when 'IT' happened. Ah, so by now you know all about 'IT' or 'The Event' as it’s sometimes called, I mean it's been over 7 years now as I write this, but back then we had no idea, it really didn't become apparent until a couple days after it happened. The stories started breaking, mainly online at first, and then the main-stream media got a hold of the various stories, even then it was just about the really big names at first, and really many of the powers are kind of lame when you think about it.


Many professional writers and even scientists (using ghost writers) have written about it, but so far at least, the people who actually experienced it have mostly stayed quiet, so I'm kind of stepping out on a limb here, I'm not a writer, I was a computer geek, but now I'm rich and retired, well from a 9-5 job at least. I checked, the statute of limitations has run out and it's kind of a gray area anyway, but I waited to write this just to be sure. Besides, when it first happened I had no idea what was going on and now even the Supreme Court has weighed in on the Super Powers Act, part of which states that we can keep anything of monetary value we receive so long as it was not from committing a crime. Did I really commit a crime? I don't believe so, but I didn't want to go to jail on a technicality which is why, as I said above, I waited until the Statute of Limitations ran out - just in case.


But I'm getting ahead of myself; you're reading this because you wanted to know what it was like to be one of 'The Affected' as some people refer to us as. So if you're one of those people who have been off grid for the last 7 years or just got in from Outer Mongolia or someplace with no access to TV, Radio or the Internet I'll give you the basics as I tell you my story.

Most of you have heard by now of the interstellar dust cloud that the Earth passed through. Although it was a big deal to the astronomers at the time it only made a small impression to your average person globally; mainly online, mostly in the weird news category, and if the local news show needed a filler - something to add 20-30 seconds to their broadcast if their normal stories didn't quite fill out the entire broadcast time they might have mentioned it. What was it? Besides being a large dust cloud in space nobody really knows, our planet was through it in 2 days and The Event didn't happen until we were almost out of it and by the time we started showing the effects of The Event it was way out of range for anyone to send a spaceship to collect samples even if they had one ready to launch, which they didn't.


But, and you've no doubt heard this before, while we were in the tail end of the dust cloud the Sun put out a large solar flare, a burst of high energy, really it lasted less than 30 seconds from what the astronomers said, nothing the sun doesn't do regularly, but, and this is a really big 'but', when combined with whatever was in that interstellar dust, for those of us on airplanes in the air at the time, it changed us, affected us in some way that even to this day the doctors and scientists cannot point a finger at, sure you've all read that it changed the very cells in our bodies, our DNA, but for every one of us its slightly different and so far at least they can't duplicate it, many say it's not possible, though a few are still trying, those with government contracts or the mega corporations.


So why did it affect only those of us at high altitude, in airplanes? Something about the density of the air from what they tell us, that and the amount of the interstellar dust at that altitude. OK so they figure that out of about 7 Billion people on the planet, there are about a half million people in airplanes at any one time, its higher in the early morning and late afternoon and lower at night however only half the planet faces the sun at a time, I took off from DFW flying to Las Vegas at 12:05 PM, the event as you've heard many times over in the last almost decade happened about at 12:47 PM Central Daylight time.


So 12:47 in the Central time zone means it was 11:47 AM -- almost noon in the Mountain time zone in the US (which by that time the plane had already crossed into the Mountain Time zone), only those 6 hours ahead and 6 hours behind were in daylight, however it only affected people who were more dead on to the effects of the solar flare, meaning that only those within about 3 hours of each side the center, meaning all of the U.S. except for Alaska and Hawaii on the west over to the western half of Brazil on the east. Also the latitude affected was from about 55 degrees north - which includes most of southern Canada to 55 degrees south, meaning all but the southernmost tip of South America was affected. Sorry Europe, Africa and Asia, unless your citizens were on planes in the affected areas, you lose out on having any of The Affected, ok to be fair, most countries did have people in the air in the affected zone, but the vast majority were people from North and South America.


Again, back to how many people were in the air in that area at that exact time, well they pulled the airline records, there were 161,376 people in the air inside the affected zone at exactly that time. 161,376 of us in the air and you've maybe heard of 200 - 300 of us? That doesn't make any sense, does it? Well, now you have to add in that age had something to do with it, it didn't affect those who had not yet reached puberty, why? They're still trying to figure that out, it also didn't affect those past menopause age, interestingly enough for both female or male, why? Again, no one knows although they have theories. So roughly those aged 13 or so through somewhere around 50 years old or so were the only ones affected, so the question is how many of those were there? Again airline records give us that number which is 118,242 but again that’s at least 118,000 more than most people have heard of, why?

Because most of the powers we got are lame. I mean what kind of super power is it to be able to know exactly what direction you're facing at all times, or the ability to fall asleep when you want and not need an alarm to wake you up, just the desire to get up precisely at 6 AM or whenever, or to be able to go without shaving --- ever, or to grow a full beard in less than 5 minutes. I mean I would be really pissed off if that was my super power, wouldn't you? For any of you with those types of abilities that may be reading this, sorry!


My editor says I am rambling and making her yawn and she's taken her little red marker and cut almost 5 pages so far, and said I need to stay more on topic, that everyone already knows about the Event so to try to explain it is redundant. Well I told you I wasn't really a writer, but I'll try harder to give you the inside scoop.

[mnn2300]

The Affected - Chapter 2

You know me as Lucky, my real name is David Randolph, and no, I was never into the whole secret identity thing like some people are. I'm a member of The Guardians and not one of the high profile ones like: Hercules, Jumper, The Speedster, Extreme, Nova, or Inferno. OK why the somewhat lame names? Well copyright ownership is the reason, you all heard of the lawsuit that happened when The Speedster called himself The Flash© and when the news organizations first called the hero we now know as Hercules, Superman©. I mean really, what do you call a guy that flies, can't be hurt, and has super strength, well legally you cannot call him Superman© because DC Comics© owns the rights to the name Superman©, and to the Flash©, Aquaman© and others, likewise Marvel Comics© owns Spiderman© Mr. Fantastic© Hulk© and other really cool names. Heck I even have to use all those little annoying copyright symbols by all the names.


Both Marvel and DC have relaxed that a tiny bit since The Guardians sold the comic book rights to DC to produce Guardian Comics. Then The West Coast League sold their comic book rights to Marvel, both companies now allow us to use names they no longer consider their main characters, thus Power Girl, Jaguar, Shazam, The Rose, etc all originally comic book character names are in use by real hero's now, even if their super powers don't quite match the original comic book characters powers.


OK, my editor told me again to get back to my story or she'd get her little red marker out again. So as I said, it was raining when we took off from DFW airport. I was on my way to Vegas, to do some gambling, do some drinking, maybe a show, maybe -- well what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? Let's just say I was a single male in my late 20's who works very hard and likes to play very hard and leave it at that.


We got above the clouds within the first couple minutes and it was a bright sunny afternoon at 37,000 feet. Shortly after the Captain turned off the seat belt sign the flight attendants came around with drinks, while I hate paying airline prices for weak airline drinks I ordered one anyway, I was on vacation after all. Shortly after that, at 12:47 they tell us but at the time I wasn't looking at a watch, I got this really tingly feeling, and I wasn't the only one, a few people gasped, some shook, a few even moaned, it was all over in about 30 seconds, something had happened and it wasn't just me. I was in one of the front rows, just a bit behind first class. I had a window seat and next to me in the middle and aisle seat was a retired couple, they were outside the now known age limits and didn't show any signs of anything happening.


There was a woman in the row ahead of us on the other side of the aisle, I saw her get the shakes about the same time I got the tingle, someone in the row ahead gasped, my point is, it wasn't the same for any of us, and it was all over in about 30 second. Most people had forgotten about it by the time we got off the plane. I chalked it up to a change in cabin pressure or something.



I have a habit when I arrive in Vegas, you might even call it a ritual, you see even the airport has slot machines in it and I always put some money in the first slot machine that was available near my gate. The practice came from the first time I flew into Vegas with a couple of friends a few years back, that time I put a buck in and on the first spin I won $300. Every since then, on my once a year trips I do the same thing, usually I'm out a buck, or sometimes I win a little bit while waiting for my luggage. This trip I put my money in the first slot machine I saw and won $2500. Alright! That paid for the vacation, I decided to upgrade the car I was renting from a mid-sized to a luxury.
What a great vacation! I collected my luggage, got my rental, now a Lincoln instead of a Ford and headed for my hotel.


I usually stay off the Strip and gamble off the Strip too, I find the slots off Strip more relaxed than the On Strip ones and the people friendlier. That’s my perception at least and after all I am the one paying for it. I pulled into my hotel and got checked in, unpacked, looked at the advertisements in the hotel welcome pack to see what new and exciting may be going on in town or what deals there were to be had, and then a bit later headed across the street to a gambling establishment I liked.


I looked around the casino and then fed a Twenty into a slot machine and hit the button for the maximum bet and won, it wasn't that much, just a few bucks, so I hit the button again, another winner' this time $20. I hit the button again and won $2 which was the amount of my bet, over the next 15 minutes I never lost, I mean never - not once. I didn't win big on any one spin, but my original $20 had increased to $250. I never had a bad spin, I always at least made my bet back every time I hit the button.


The little old lady at the machine next to me said "Looks like I chose the wrong machine."
"I'm usually not this lucky." I said, "Here maybe some of my luck will rub off on you." I said running my hand down the side of her machine just for the heck of it and also to make a woman my Grandmothers age feel good. She hit the button. The electronic reels spin and she wins $600.
"Thank you! Thank you young man!" She says as I cash out of my machine and walk away shaking my head. "Wow that was really weird." I mumbled heading for the Black Jack tables.


I looked at the tables with openings and spotted the one I wanted and I sat down next to a good looking blond who was next to a good looking brunette, yeah OK, they were the reason I wanted this table. I buy $250 worth of chips since I had won it in the slots anyway, and put $50 down on the table, the dealer lays out the cards. Dealer shows a 6 up, while brunette got 18 and stays, blond got 17 and also stays, I got 20 and of course stayed, dealer turns up a face card - 16 and he must hit, then turns up a 7 and busts, the three of us double our money.

They're both playing $10 a time and pull the $10 they won back. Hoping to impress them I let the full $100 ride, next hand I got a Black Jack since this was a 3-2 casino I win $150. That made $250, I let it ride again, the brunette busted, the blond stayed on an 18 and I stayed on a 17, the dealer busted, meaning I had $500 now, that was the table limit, I let it ride again and won again, my pot now had $1000 in it and I had to pull back half due to the table limit. "Luck is with you tonight" the blond said.
“I certainly hope so." I said smiling at her and I won two more hands, $500 each time.

I see the pit boss taking an interest in our table about the same time that I felt the blonds leg press against mine, the brunette was looking interested too, I bet the $500 table max two more times and won again, both ladies won also; the blond got a Black Jack and the brunette doubles down with two aces and came up with a 20 and a 21, me I only had a 16 but decide what the heck, and took a hit, a 5 came up giving me 21, the dealer turns his down card and comes up with a 17, meaning I now had $3500.
"Ladies, I just flew in from Dallas and haven't eaten since this morning, would you allow me to buy you both dinner?" I asked, hoping my luck would keep up, it did, they accepted.


The Casino we were at was known for its great Steak house, so I passed a generous tip to the dealer and held out my arms and each girl put their arm in mine and we went to the dining room. I chose an expensive bottle of wine to get us started and before the meal was over a second one. I found out they were from L.A. and in town to have some fun. About halfway through the second bottle, near the end of dinner the conversation leads to some of the shows in town, I asked them if they had ever seen the sexy vampire show 'Bite', neither had. I asked them to excuse me for a minute and went to the concierge, placed a hundred on his desk and asked if he could score me three really good tickets to the show this evening. He was on the phone for a few minutes then he asked whomever he was talking to, to hold and turned to me and told me what it would cost, I peeled the money off the stack of bills in my pocket, the show started in an hour, he asked if I would like a limo. "That sounds great." I said
"It will be outside this door in 15 minutes." He said pointing to the exit near his desk.
I handed him the payment for the round trip limo and went to collect my dates.


To make a long story short, let's just say that the show was Hot, and the two girls were Hotter, the limo dropped the three of us off back at my hotel and the girls spent the night, and yes, my luck was really holding up.

[mnn2300]

The Affected - Chapter 3

The previous day I had won $6,000 and spent about $2,000 on dinner, drinks, the show and limo and tips, meaning I was still up $4,000. About noon I took the ladies back to their hotel to shower, change and pick up their stuff, they had a flight out the following day and I talked them into checking out of their hotel and spending the rest of their time with me. After having a good lunch we hung out at the hotel pool for most of the afternoon and then, well again not to be too graphic, my luck held out that night too. The following day I got their numbers and gave them mine as I took them to the airport to catch their flight back to L.A.


I parked and walked them in to get their boarding passes and to the security checkpoint, kissed them both passionately which I am sure turned a few heads and promised I would call them. I watched them turn the corner to the scanners, waved and left as they moved out of sight.


I decided that with my luck being the way it was, I'd test it out on the Strip. I parked at one end and worked my way from Casino to Casino, I didn't always win big, but I never lost, and I do mean never. I wasn't drawing attention to myself at any one place, but by the time I left the 5th casino I had a bit over $10,000 in my pocket in new winnings and I knew something was going on, this wasn't real. I tried an experiment after remembering the little old lady yesterday winning after I touched her machine. I pretended to be studying the payouts on a slot machine while leaning my hand against the machine next to me where a middle aged woman was playing, she won, I glanced at the payout; it was $60. Turning my head back to the machine I was pretending to study with my hand still on her machine I heard her hit the button to spin again, suddenly bells and lights started flashing, she had won the jackpot. I didn't stay to see what the payout was, but I turned and left, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I tried it 3 more times at different casinos on the way back to my car and each time the person playing the slot I was leaning against won and won big. I sat in my rental car and shook, trying to figure out what was going on. Finally I put it in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. I was up $14,000 and I had never lost whatever I was playing, not once, every single spin I at least won my bet back, merely touching a machine seemed to pass my luck to the person playing it. What was going on?


I decided since my bank was part of a national chain with offices in town I would deposit some of my winnings, I was not feeling good about carrying $14,000 in cash. I went back to the hotel and grabbed a deposit slip from my checkbook, decided to stay under the $10,000 deposit limit that makes you fill out the federal paperwork and deposited $9,000, keeping $5,000 for myself.
I went back to the hotel, ordered room service and lay down trying to figure out what the heck had happened to me. My meal arrived and I could hardly eat any of it.


How far did my luck hold? Slots? Check. Black Jack? Check. Love Life? Well, as much as I'd like to think it was my sparking personality and general sexiness I would have to say yeah, I think so.


What else would it do? How far would it extend? Any kind of gambling? Anything else?
Well one way to find out. I walked over to the casino again, went to the Roulette table and plunked $500 down, again the table limit, and put it all on number 15. Roulette pays, on a single number bet, 35 to 1, meaning for every $1 you bet you win $35. The wheel and the ball start spinning, a couple seconds later it drops into……number 15. I had just won $17,500 on one spin. The pit boss was watching, different guy from the other day thankfully. I tipped the Croupier, collected my winnings in cash rather than a cashier's check as they suggested since I wanted to test my luck at some other casinos. Actually I almost never made it anywhere, seems people notice when someone wins big, the wrong people sometimes.


This casino was across the street from my hotel, as I walked through the parking lot to the crosswalk someone opened a car door blocking my way and a man stepped behind me and I felt something hard and cold in the small of my back.
"Easy there winner, nobody needs to get hurt here, just ease your money out of your pocket and hand it back to me." A gravelly voice said.
"You can have it, it's just money. No need to do anything drastic." I said almost pissing my pants.


Just then I heard a whooshing sound, then a groan and what sounded like a bone breaking, and then the gun is no longer against my back, I couldn't help myself, I turned around just in time to see the guy who had been holding a gun to my back go flying through the air to land 4 rows away on top of a car whose alarm went off. The car whose door opened to block my path speed away, standing there was a woman maybe 30 to 35 years old with a really shocked look on her face. She looked at me, mouth open, eyes wide open like she was in shock, and then she turned and was gone. I heard the whooshing sound again, as she moved away, I don't mean she walked or ran away, she was just gone, like at hyper speed - one second she was there and the next she could have been blocks away or may even miles away.
WTF was going on?

I ran back to my hotel.

[freebirde]

I bet we are in for a good story. Fortunately we are here to read your work every chance we get.

[mnn2300]

The Affected - Chapter 4

I'm not even sure how I got across the street and into my room at the hotel, I remember a horn blowing and someone shouting, I remember going into the lobby and riding the elevator up to my floor, when I got into my room I kicked off my shoes and lay down on the bed. What the hell was going on? I lay there staring at the ceiling, at some point I must have fallen asleep because I woke up, still dressed and the clock said it was 3:30. I took my clothes off and lay back down, I had a flight out this afternoon, after all the weirdness it would be nice to get home, maybe I could make sense on it over the weekend. I still had Friday and the weekend before I had to go back to work. I woke up again about 7:30 and flipped the TV on to one of the morning shows and caught a story already in progress.


"This is the video of the NASCAR race last night in Charlotte; we warn you it’s very graphic but the amazing part as you'll see is that the driver walked away from it." The newscaster said.

A video came up of a NASCAR race car spinning out in a turn, a wheel apparently came off and the car flipped 4 or 5 times. The car was totaled, no way could anyone survive that, you could hear the crowd gasping, then you saw an arm appear out of the driver's side window, then you saw the drivers head and shoulders poke through and finally the driver climbed out and stood waving as the crowd cheered.

"Paramedics checked the driver, Tom Anderson, out at the track and he didn't have any apparent injuries, the race officials made him go to the hospital for a further checkout. Four hours later he walked out the front door of the hospital to a waiting group of reporters." The reporter said.
"Tom, how are you feeling?" one of the waiting reporters ask.
"I'm feeling great, no injuries whatsoever. A bit shook up, but physically fine." Anderson replied.
"Tom, your car was totaled, we all thought you would be severely injured or maybe even dead, what happened?" another reported asked.

"Well I spun out on that last turn and lost control, they tell me a wheel came off. I don't know what happened all I can do is thank God for watching out for me." Tom Anderson replied.
A racing team spokesman then said "Mr. Anderson needs to get some rest after the emotional evening he's had, thank you." And with that he was put into a car and whisked away.

The news casters voice came back and said "What a lucky man he was, to walk away from that."
The co-anchor added "His Guardian Angel must have been working overtime, that's for sure. Now a look at weather…." I tuned out the rest and got in the shower.

[idahobob]

O.K. Good start

Now we needs MOAR!

Bob
III

[papaof2]

I like it!!

Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using proboards

[kaijafon]

Ok, I'm hooked and ready for moar!

[mnn2300]

Thank you all for the comments.

The Affected - Chapter 5

I called the airline and upgraded my flight to First Class - hey what good is money if you don't spend it, right?


So I still had $5,000 from my previous winnings after my last deposit of $9,000 and then I won an additional $17,500 so I was now carrying over $22,000 in cash. I figured, what the heck, and went to the local branch of my bank and deposited $20,000, yeah, I had to fill out the federal form for depositing over $10,000 in one day, my bank account had increased by $29,000 from this trip, plus I still had $2,000 in my pocket.


Well, doing some quick figuring with that deposit I could finally pay off the last of my student loans and also my car and leave me almost enough for a Combo meal at McDonald's. I still had a couple hours until I had to be at the airport, why not up the bank account some more? I went to one of the expensive casinos on the Strip and found a Roulette table with a $1000 limit and put it down on…let's see, how about number 10 this time.


The croupier called out that there was a max bet, which they usually do so the pit boss can hear it. There were other people playing also, just before the croupier started the game a really large man probably in his 40's put a $100 chip down on number 10 also and the croupier spun the wheel and the ball and landed in......number 14!? What? I lost? How is that possible? The fat man scowled and walked away. I took a step back. WTF? I have never lost this trip, not once, what the heck just happened?


Do I take a chance on the last $1000 in my pocket? I'm still up $29,000 on this trip, did someone jinx me? Was it the fat guy with the scowl on his face? I looked around not playing but observing for 2 more spins. I then plunked down the last $1000 on 23 this time, the wheel and the ball spin, it slows down starts its bounce and lands in ………

[kaijafon]

oh that was just MEAN!!!!!!


lol!

[papaof2]

Logical extension:
- some people get good luck, others get bad luck.
- good luck can be shared, then so can bad.

Just have to watch out for the unhappy people who want to share that too...

Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using proboards

[freebirde]

Sounds like the 2003 movie "The Cooler" videoeta.com/movie/61323/the-cooler/. An unlucky man hired by the casino to break winning streaks.

[kaijafon]

ok, you've been hanging us out on this cliff long enough.... we need some MOAR!!!

[mnn2300]

OK, here you go Don't forget y'all taught me the art of the cliff hanger.

The Affected - Chapter 6

And lands in….. number 23, I just won $35,000. Whew! I tipped the croupier and took my chips to the payout window and took a cashier's check this time for all of it except some spending money and drove to the airport. What the heck happened there? Did something or someone cancel my luck out temporarily on that first roll? Well if so its back with me again.


Once back in Dallas I took the shuttle to my car and drove home to my apartment. The next day I went online and checked my bank account, since I had deposited cash in Vegas it was all available immediately, I opened my browser and went to my bills and paid off the last of my Student Loans - finally! And then paid off my car. That felt good, a big weight off my shoulders. Hey, my parents taught me to stay out of debt and I mostly listened to them - for a change - about that at least. Later that day I went and deposited the Cashier's Check from the casino, again filling out that federal form for excess deposits.


My editor just told me that people don't care about these details, but I think it's important; it tells you, the readers, what kind of person I am. Sheesh maybe I should just self publish!


I stopped off to get gas on the way home and saw the Power Ball was at $290 Million for the cash option. Should I? Do I dare push my luck that far? I got 5 Quick Picks. This was Friday, the Power Ball drawing wasn't until Saturday night.


Saturday morning I decided to go shopping, I could use some new clothes and by the time the credit card bill came in the $35,000 casino check will have cleared. After getting ready, I hop in my car and head to the mall. I’m pulling down the lane nearest the door I want to go in and just then the very first spot near the door opens up. That’s lucky I thought to myself, then I realized what I said, was it coincidence or was it part of the luck I had been having? No real way to know.


I park and go into the store and I see the store has some sales racks and find four really nice shirts all marked 40% off. I head over to the accessories area because I really need some new socks and find they’re having a buy one get one free on the type of socks I like. OK, did I just hit a big sale or is it my luck again?


I ask the sales girl “Are you having a sale this weekend?”
“Not really, we had some overstock and the department manager put a number of items on sale this morning trying to reduce the inventory.” She said.
“Lucky me.” I said smiling as I handed her my credit card.

[kaijafon]

LOL! excellent! (but too short, lol) I know, I'm greedy for MOAR. I'll try to be patient. hahaha!

thank you so much!

[biggkidd]

I Like I Like MORE Please

Larry

[mnn2300]

The Affected - Chapter 7

Sunday morning dawned bright and I purposely did not check the Power Ball numbers right away. OK, I was kind of afraid to, I don’t know if I was more afraid of winning or not winning, so I headed to the local IHOP and had breakfast, then stopped off and got gas, which had dropped 3 cents over night, more luck or just supply and demand? I was second guessing everything now. I needed to pick up a few groceries so I stopped off at the store on my way home. Getting home I put the groceries away and decided it was time.


I sat down at the computer and pulled up the Texas Lottery webpage. I glance at the front and saw that someone had won the Jackpot. Ignoring the numbers I looked below them where its lists what state the winner was from, alright, the winner was from Texas. I get this really nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach, do I really want to win this? Well I wouldn't play if I didn’t want to win, yet...... I pull out my ticket and compare the numbers.


3? Check
7? Check
14? Check
15? Check
22? Check
And the power ball is 41. Oh sh*t!

[kaijafon]

LOL! I need this guy to come to my town for a bit.... Gas prices have gone up almost 40 cents a gallon!!! whew!

He still would get a nice chunk of change if he got all but the power ball number. I think that happened last week and it was $3million payout.

Thank you! I really do like this story! I can't wait to see more characters with "powers" and how he interacts with them.

[mnn2300]

You have 1 or 2 chapters before we get to other characters.

Gas went up here 20 cents overnight. The oil companies use every little excuse to raise it, but it never lowers.

[patience]

My old boss told me that he'd rather be lucky than good at something. I agree and this tale proves it. Lots of fun and a really good read. Can't wait for the next part.

[mnn2300]

The Affected - Chapter 8

And the power ball is 41. Oh sh*t!
I just won $290 million!!!! I yelled, starting to hyper-ventilate.
"Oh my gosh, I may be sick." I said to myself since no one else was there, my stomach felt like it was doing flips. I start taking deep breaths to try to calm down a bit.


“What are the taxes on that?” I again asked out loud. “What’s the maximum tax rate? 36% or so?” I stopped and Googled it, it’s actually 39.6%
“Wow, that sucks!” I exclaimed, then pulled up the calculator on my laptop, let’s see, Uncle Sam is taking 39.6 % which leaves me 60.4%. Let’s see $290 million times .604 means I'll get $175.16 million. Luckily there’s no personal income tax in Texas.

“Sucks that they will take so much, but I think I can live on $175 million and change.” I said again out loud.


I knew I had to go to Austin to pick it up, so I looked up the address on the lottery website and then printed a map. Looks like it’ll take about 3 hours to drive there. I suppose I could fly but by the time I drove to the airport, got through security and flew to Austin, rented a car – it would be over the 3 hours it would take to drive, so I packed a suitcase and got in my car, sat there in the parking lot of my apartment with the windows closed, my heart still beating fast from the excitement and yelled “I WON!”

[patience]

What could possibly go wrong for a guy this lucky? Oh, yeah. That OTHER not-so-lucky character could show up somewhere. But the lottery money is in the bag, right?

Wonder how lucky he'll be with love and other things?

Great story! Keep it comin'!

[mnn2300]

Mar 20, 2014 10:20:16 GMT -6 patience said:

What could possibly go wrong for a guy this lucky?

Stay tuned

[kaijafon]

yahooo!! but me thinks that other guy may just show up.... lol! too much "good" luck is gonna draw some attention esp now.

I can't wait to see what happens!

[mnn2300]

The Affected - Chapter 9

I pulled into Austin about 4 PM and found a nice hotel near the lottery office, a really nice hotel. Got directions to a good restaurant and after eating I spent a couple hours in a local watering hole listening to the band.


I wanted company but I didn't, I know that sounds strange. I guess I wanted to be around people but didn't want to have a conversation with anyone. I ended up back at the hotel about 11PM and tried to sleep. It didn't come easy.


The next day I was at the lottery office at 9 AM
"Hi, I just won the Power Ball" I said to the woman at the front desk, trying to make it sound like an everyday occurrence.
"I'll get the Director." She said smiling at me.


A couple minutes later a man comes out and says "I hear you're our lucky winner?"
I nod my head pulling the ticket out.
"Have you signed that yet?" he asked.
"Umm no." I reply.
He pulls out a pen and says "Please sign the back before we do anything else."
I do so and he says, “Please follow me Mister…..?"
"Randolph, David Randolph." I said.
"Pleased to meet you Mr. Randolph, please come this way." He replied.
He took me into an office with two other people in it, they each took a few minutes to examine the ticket, looking at it through a magnifying glass, running it through a lottery machine to verify it was indeed the winning ticket.
"I see you took the cash option Mr. Randolph. Congratulations, the final winning amount on the cash option was 292.3 Million Dollars." He told me.
I let that sink in for a moment. "So what now?" I asked.

- - -

'What now' is that my slimy editor told me I'm putting people to sleep with all "my babbling" that’s what she called it- 'Babbling' -- can you believe that? I had 3 more chapters after this one done already telling you how; I collected my money, found a financial advisor and then an auditing firm to watch the financial advisor, my vacations, my new house and cars, but my editor didn't just take her little red marker to them, she actually took the pages and ripped them into tiny pieces!! Is that fair? She says that you readers don't really care about all that and that you would buy the book because you wanted to hear about the powers and how The Guardians came together, and some of the adventures we have had - sheese I was getting to it.

- - -

OK, so I've already told you a little bit about the miracle race driver Tom Anderson, he's been missing for quite a while now; ever since the next two events came to light. You may not have known about the first incident involving him, they kept it quiet for a long time, but as one of the Guardians I have access to a bit more information than most people do. You see, about two weeks after the crash that he miraculously came though without a scratch, he and his pit crew was working on a car, getting it ready for an upcoming race, one of the crew was under it when one of the jack stands tipped, dropping the car on the guy. The story goes that Tom not only lifted the car, he actually threw it up against the wall of the shop they were in. The guy under the car turned out ok, he just cracked a couple ribs. Tom made everyone in his crew promise to keep it quiet and they did until the day he was in a bar when a fight broke out that involved his crew and just about everyone else at the bar. To be fair, they all were a bit drunk, even Tom, however six of the other side ended up in critical condition after being tossed about like rag dolls, he's lucky none of them died. Tom and his crew ended up in jail and later were sued for damages.


Tom disappeared after that, there were tales of a vigilante, one that wrapped up criminals and left them for the police to find, other reports have him joining the New York Sentinels super hero group, another account calls him the super villain Trojan, another says he's a bouncer in an Atlanta Strip Club. I don't know, he did disappear, but with the costumes and masks some of the heroes and villains use to hide their real identity it's hard to tell. He does kind of look like Mars of the New York Sentinels and also kind of like the super villain Trojan, but unless either take off their mask we probably won't know for sure.


The next big event that was first broken by a You Tube© video taken on someone's cell phone.
Chuck Schaffer aka Flash© aka The Speedster. His story, along with his real name broke kind of early. It started as all these stories do on a plane, but Chuck was a student, on his way home to North Carolina for summer break from college. Chuck was also on the track team at college, he was a long distance runner, but I'll let Chuck tell you his own story.