You’re all probably going to hate me now, considering that I have yet to post to anything, yet here I am, producing more stuff for this silly little cartoon world again, and probably about to write a ton for it. I realize these are getting really long, but as the story develops more in my mind, there’s more background to write about. And episodes. I realize this is long because it has an episode and a half embedded into it. Well, everyone can hate me later—let’s get this started.
Well, I think everyone but Rojo has seen this, considering that I drew it an Pan’s house while a bunch of us were gathered there. This mosquito look-a-like is Dr. Leeder, the father of Xander Leeder. This is actually only take one of him, since upon completion, I felt highly dissatisfied with the outcome. So once I returned to m empty home devoid of noise and bustling people, bouncing back and forth, I decided to give him a second try.
He seems to have developed very bad posture since then. I’m still displeased with it to a certain extent; much like the first picture, the head is still disproportionately large to his body—even for cartoon standards—but maybe I’ll just leave it, so it can become a joke, or I’ll just say he really does have a very big head (more room for brains, right?) Time for bio!
Dr. Leeder is a sort of sympathetic villain. He lives in an octagonal, rotating house with many pets/test-subjects (questionable ethics...), one of which arguably is his son, Xander, who he often refers to as a “failed experiment.” Dr. Leeder is a brilliant scientist (who then used all of his savvy and cunning to start a business and earn a fortune), but a bitter [old] man with no wife or records of ever being married despite having a son. This apparent lack of a mother is the reason why Xander is so terrified that he doesn’t actually
have one and that he is in fact a clone of his father (and considering his father’s looks, Xander is praying that he does have a mom so he can at least have someone else’s genes to offset’s his father’s). Xander would have never gotten the idea that he’s a clone into his head himself, except he started being teased about it in elementary school, and when he went to his father for reassurance, Dr. Leeder—in his regular disinterest and unintentional cruelty—was vague and cryptic enough in a way that suggested that those schoolyard bullies might have been right. Then again, Dr. Leeder seems to have a pastime of messing with his poor, “dimwitted” son’s head.
Whatever the case, all of these years, he’s never said anything about Xander having a mom, leaving Xander somewhat petrified all the while. As you might be able to tell, Xander and his father have a sort of faltering relationship in that Xander wants a normal, regular father, and Dr. Leeder—who generally thinks of the general population as miles beneath him—doesn’t really know how to approach his son, even when he’s trying to be a good and less cynical, and—being a recluse himself—cannot understand why his son holds so much importance on the taunting majority’s opinions and the desire for regularity. One of their rifts is that Xander is neither academically strong nor does he seem to be very sharp, and at this point, it sometimes Dr. Leeder appears to have given up his efforts in trying to foster anything intellectual in Xander and has moved onto his other “experiments.” The other rift is that Dr. Leeder is cold, detached and never provided the affection to Xander that a living thing needs.
Dr. Leeder is otherwise a fairly respectable man (even for being so misanthropic), and returns respect where he sees it due. Though, like with all genius, he can be difficult to work with and can get irate with other people’s lack of efficiency, he’s actually collaborative rather than competitive when it comes to other scientists, and interested in helping foster the sciences along when he sees the potential. He actually knows how to stunt his mean-streak to be well-mannered and polite. He actually had no problems with Dr. Mendel initially, as the latter did. But things went truly sour at a conference where Dr. Leeder saw Dr. Mendel presenting his work, and through curiosity and logic asked all of the questions the pointed to the failings in Dr. Mendel’s work. Though Dr. Leeder’s intention was not to cause the competitive Dr. Mendel any humiliation, but only to prevent misinformation from spreading, Dr. Mendel took it as a personal attack, and started to do all of the emotional, petty name-calling type things that Dr. Leeder had grown up with, despised, and figured he left behind in high school, igniting the irate man’s full disdain. And since Dr. Mendel has failed to create anything with any great success, Dr. Leeder has no issue in rightfully calling Dr. Mendel a grade-A moron.
For the same reasons, Dr. Leeder immediately recognizes Alex “Zander’s” potential and quickly grows fond of her. He helps fund “him” in particular, giving Alex the chance to be his assistant and provides her with the funds and resources for most everything she builds in the series. Alex, sharing none of her father’s disdain, but rather considers Dr. Leeder a demi-god, is of course ecstatic. At this point, you’re probably wondering why Dr. Leeder is a “villain” at all. It’s simple.
Dr. Leeder, lured by the notion that there was a whole world of things that he couldn’t even begin to fathom much less study, makes a Faustian deal with a shadow creature which is the cause of all the magical stuff springing up in their world. The price? Dr. Leeder, though he can’t say for sure either way in the existence of a soul was smart enough to not gamble with his. Instead, the shadow creature assures him that he will take one of his works in exchange—something that is old and unimportant, so unessential, he won’t even notice it’s gone, and if he does, he can even have it back. And in a moment of selfishness, he agrees.
After the deal is made, Dr. Leeder scours his lab, all of his notes, taking inventory of everything important and dangerous, anything that could hurt anyone—and finds nothing. Finally, he shrugs it off as not being very important at all, and feels pleased with himself. He then calls out to Xander, and getting no response, he immediately becomes irate and wonders what act of stupidity his son is up to now. For the rest of the series, Dr. Leeder is sort of the accomplice to this one shadow creature while he acts to capture the other magical creatures for study.
I also decided to try and update Xander/X’s appearance as well, which was actually a bit smoother having Dr. Leeder down. I tried to give him his father’s same gaunt look rather than a rounded face, and his eyes went from circular to elliptical to match his father’s as well. I don’t know who caused whose bad posture, but they both seem to have it in any case. He also looks significantly more skittish in this picture, I think, and I think that works for Xander. I can imagine him being slightly neurotic both from his father and even more so after being changed. And yes, he was the “thing” traded in his father’s deal. I decided his “rebirth” would be the rather horrific sight of watching his body as it was slowly devoured from the feet up by a swarm of shadowy locust. After that, he is stuck in his shadow form, which actually is his true form from then on. Desperate to regain some semblance of humanity, he finds the same creature his father just made a deal with, who promises to help him. S.C. gives X a pair of silver bangles (as seen in the previous X picture), which is meant to help him amplify and concentrate his new, haywire power, which allows him to “change back” (his bangles are only apparent in shadow form), and also allows him to learn magic faster (also enabling him to eventually keep a more human form in shadow rather than just being a puddle of shadow on the floor). Unknowingly, Xander
also traded himself to this creature, so that both he and his father gave up their right to him.
I actually drew Prof. Irwin Radley way before Dr. Leeder and the new X—back on May 7th, to be precise—but I didn’t have the chance to upload him before, and I had a few others I wanted to draw either way before giving his story.
That story is a story I came up with sort of as homage to the misfortune that befalls way too many great cartoon shows: abrupt cancellation. I wasn’t even serious about it at first, but then it sort of stuck...in any case, I’ll get to
it in a second.
Irwin is already one of my favorite characters. He’s exactly the sort of chill, wacky, fun-loving teacher that everyone hopes for in high school. He’s also all levels of nerdy geek (he still plays with action figures—only a small collection of which is visible in his office), though no one seems to notice as much when you’re the teacher rather than the student. It’s easy to compare him to Dr. Leeder because they’re so dissimilar. Irwin is always optimistic and kind and cheerful and sees the best in people—and is good at it. Out of everyone, he really was Alex’s first and still strong best friend (despite the age difference), and having known her since she was 5, her father figure—in a way, she takes most after him, and they tend to share the same naïve, optimistic, and goofy attributes. He was the one who encouraged her to keep pursuing science if it’s really what she loved, and gave her the idea to apply to Premier High, and when Alex is upset, she goes to him. Out of everyone, when X and the other magical creatures showed up, he was the only one who was compassionate and thought of them as more than just creatures. During the first arc, he’s the one always encouraging Alex to think again about X, even as Dr. Leeder is encouraging her to go trigger happy and capture the creature. Irwin really does fill the sort of wise mentor role that people would go to...except maybe Eve. He is—again—Eve’s uncle, and the reason why the two met. Eve tends to be the most blunt, calling her uncle out when he’s being a dork to the point that sometimes it’s hard to remember that he’s actually an adult.
Irwin Radley is only something like 28 years old, and was a bit of a prodigy for while as he grew and earning a PH.D so young. Though he lacks the shrewd cleverness, ability to read people, and general smarts that Dr. Leeder has, Irwin is arguably the most ingenious and book-smart character the series has to offer. This is often forgotten because of his chosen career as an educator rather than a research scientist, a choice that baffled all his colleagues a decade ago, even preferring to be called “Professor” over “Doctor.” Even Eve is baffled by his choice in a career as a teacher. Irwin simply claims that as much as he loved the sciences—particularly engineering, which he still pursues on his own time—he wanted to help inspire the next generation of students. He says that he himself learned so much during high school and that they were sort of his “glory years,” that he still misses even to this day. Though Alex would immediately eat this up, Eve would just give him this highly skeptical look, pointing out immediately that nobody liked him in high school, that he was the biggest nerd, and was picked on everyday. Irwin would smile sheepishly, chuckle nervously, and quickly ignore that. Only later on, in an episode, “High School Reunion” do we find out that reason behind that.
Episode: High School Reunion
The episode would begin with it being “official high school reunion month,” one of the few non-scientific things that brings Dr. Leeder to tears of joy (the jaded doctor having no pastime he favors more than gloating about all of his riches and hiring super model escorts to join him when facing all the people who once picked on him growing up), and hearing Xander sigh about it sadly, Eve and Alex decide to go visit Irwin to see if he’s going to go to his reunion since he apparently was so “inspired” by his “glory years.” As Eve predicted there being something fishy about her uncle, there is no way that Irwin wants to go back to his old high school. Alex pressures him by being all innocent and curious, and finally he gives in, and there’s a bit of exposition. Flashbacks to all the clichés of being nerdy and picked on. And in one of the memories, one of the prettiest girls in school , the red-headed siren Hannah, standing up for him and thus stopping some bullies from taking it any farther in one particular event.
(Here, we see her both as a teen to the right, and as an adult at the reunion to the left.)
From there on out, it was love for Irwin. However, despite Irwin’s most humble and affectionate attempts to be sweet and—at
least—befriend her, every time he saw her after that she became colder and more distant and ignored him more, which was returned by Irwin only trying harder to have a chance, and only to earn more scorn. He’d explain he was just so damned sure if she gave him a chance, she’d find that she’d actually like him for who he was. But, sadly, high school came and went with all of his efforts unrewarded. He says—oddly—that he was always so sure that they’d end up together, that it was meant to be, and to some extent, he thinks he still is in love with her (hence not ever finding someone else). Still, he’s given up, and doesn’t want to go since he knows that Hannah goes every year without fail.
Alex would be compassionate and sympathetic, saying the reassuring things about not needing someone so shallow, she doesn’t know what she missed, etc., but inwardly confused why Irwin seemed to be so in love with her, even now, and innately feels that part of the story is missing. Eve would half-groan, half-laugh that—duh—you were totally being a creepy stalker, and for the first time, Irwin would turn slightly bitter and say something along the lines of, “You’re a creep and a stalker when you’re an ugly and dorky, but you’re passionate and in love when you’re good looking and popular.” Shortly after, both girls would be chased out of his office, leaving them both baffled. Inside, Irwin would hit a button which unveils a secret closet/room and looks at something the audience can’t see.
Meanwhile, a dissatisfied Alex would go to do some of her own research about Irwin’s high school years, and finds shocking results. The school seemed to be the center of extreme amounts of paranormal activity as documented by the students, though nothing was ever noted officially and adults remained skeptical. Either way, it seems suspiciously like the current day situation. As she digs further, Alex finds that the school had one much loved savior, a teen superhero dubbed “Rad-man.” (“That’s a stupid name,” Eve would later agree with Alex when the latter shows the former the article.) Only one picture of Radman was ever recovered, and it just so happens to be with Hannah.
The girls confront Irwin again for withholding such information, and Irwin returns to his nervous laughter, saying that all of the paranormal stuff was fake and exaggerated and unimportant, and he never said anything since they’d have just laughed at such ridiculous stories. Neither are convinced (rather, more skeptical), and after some chasing around, slapstick and convenient timing, the room opens and the catatonic “body” of the still teen Radman is revealed. After some shock, Alex soon figured out what some hundred students never did: that Radman was an extremely realistic android.
More exposition: Irwin fesses to the fact that he created Radman (though he didn’t name him). He had never meant for it to go the way it did—the body was created for the extremely immature reason of wanting to impress Hannah. Before Radman, she always politely brushed him off, apparently not wanting to lose her status by being associated with a geek, and usually, a few seconds later, he’d be pounded by Hannah’s other dumb jock suitors for having the gall to try after the girl they all wanted. He knew he was awkward and clumsy, and couldn’t so much as walk straight feeling so nervous around her, so an android was thrown together (either in an attempt to make him a prick to say, “look, other guys are douches! You should like me instead!” or to give himself a chance at dating her before a reveal—which, I’m not sure yet), and he gave it what he considered a few self-defense attributes in the case he was discovered and things went awry (as they did in all his other plans). Things did go wrong, just not in the way he expected them to; shortly after approaching Hannah, all the paranormal stuff started up, and without thinking, when danger appeared, he jumped in to defense and acted as savior. The robotic defenses seemed to be inhuman in the superhero fashion, and soon everyone was sure they had a superhero in their number. (The origin of the name came from one of Irwin’s bullies, who, after the crisis is averted, calls out, “You’re totally RAD!” Irwin, his last name being Radley, immediately freaks out, thinking they’ve figured him out, only to realize he’s being complimented, and is soon after dubbed Radman.)
((Here we have both a teen Irwin and his alter ego ‘Radman.’ And yes, Radman is supposed to look a bit like a douche, just as much as Irwin is supposed to look like a greasy cliché geek. Here’s the individual shots.))
“Radman” could be controlled both from inside he machine (Irwin having been quite small for his age) or via remote control outside. Either way, he could put to use his incredible gaming skills to good use for controlling the android—and he would continue on with his alter ego as more occult attacks against students continued. Despite what their dislike of Irwin Radley, he couldn’t just abandon them, and as he made more appearances in costume, their love of Radman grew. Even with his double life, he couldn’t help but feel he was more happy than ever, and he continued to refine Radman’s technical abilities, making him a better hero. Sure, it was sort of bitter sweet. Hannah and Radman grew close, which is all he had ever wanted (“There’s always a bit of a cycle to these things: I save Hannah, she likes me more, we get close, baddies see that we’re close and kidnap her, I rescue her, she likes me more, and you know, so on.”) , but as they grew closer, Hannah seemed to grow more and more disdainful of Irwin, going from politely dismissive to outright hateful toward him. It also made Irwin bitter as he realized that, if he did something romantic as Irwin, it would be seen a creep, but if it was Radman, it was darling and sweet. It bothered him to no end that Hannah and the whole school could be so swept away by Radman’s antics when they were always the same as Irwin’s. (“Some days, I felt so lousy about the whole thing, I thought about programming Radman to be autonomous so he could go on being fabulous and I could continue as a nobody nerd. I might have, had I not been so wisely schooled in 327 volumes of Cyborgoti c Commander—man,
everyone knows when you pull a stunt like that, your creation immediately turns evil on you, and then you’re stuck trying to take it down.”)
It was the worse sort of tease. He knew that they were compatible—if she liked his personality and his goofiness as Radman, she should like him as Irwin, right? That thought was half the reason he tried so hard. The other half was that he couldn’t avoid her in his superheroing business. He might have been able to forget her if they hadn’t so consistently been together, giving him time and experience and adventures enough for his initial, simple crush to bloom into stronger feelings—feelings she returned.
((Now, for some chronologically placed quotations.))
“And then, in our last year, as tensions seemed to be running highest, as the attacks became more frequent and desperate, as my secret was getting harder and harder to keep hold of, and I felt the final confrontation seemed to be on its way, it just....
ended. Without warning. Without cause. It was like my life was like my life was a super hero cartoon show. Then it was like the show’s budget ran dry and the show was cancelled, leaving a plethora of unresolved plot points and an abrupt ending with a highly unsatisfying conclusion.
“Everything was gone, just like that. One day, there were no more monsters to fight. At first, I thought I had been given a much welcomed break. I started to feel a bit triumphant after that: I had single-handedly protected our school and all those lives and chased whatever those things were back to their abyss with their tails between their legs. Then I started to get paranoid.
Why hadn’t they come back? Surely it was an ambush, waiting to catch me off guard. I started to
expect them. Man, I became jumpy around school for that faze. But they never did come, and graduation was quickly approaching. And I started to realize they weren’t coming back, and I realized there was no more place for a Radman. “
“I guess...somehow, I always thought that something major would happen. I knew I could never be so selfish or reckless as to just reveal my identity so I could have the praise that was given to Radman...yet somehow, I always figured that something would happen, you know, one of those types of things, where I’d be forced to choose between saving someone’s life or keeping my identity a secret. If my years as a dweeb ever taught me one thing, it was that, despite my best efforts, eventually I was going to be found out—probably at the final battle—and I would be badly hurt, but still fighting, and everyone at my school would be aghast with shock, to shocked to do or say anything...but then
she’d step forward, having put everything together now, and realizing she still did feel for me, and I’d have the strength again, and I’d defeat that shadow monster once and for all, and then everyone else would snap out of their dumbfounded state and we’d celebrate, and, and.... *sighs* I thought at least
she would find out and accept me. But this is real life. No place for dramatic final battles of good vs evil of epic proportions. Such thoughts are silly. I should just be happy I got through my reckless high school years alive. *lightens slightly* Even so, while that time lasted, even with all the struggles and heartaches, looking back at it, it really was some of the best times of my life. ”
Irwin would explain the following years: hurrying through college in the case that something did come back for him, meeting and befriending Dr. Mendel, working as scientist, reflecting on his time in high school (“It was always sort of hard to put behind me, but I could always think of those days fondly.”), and finally, realizing he had learned some really important things during those years, even if it hadn’t turned out the way he had hoped it would, and that he has no reason to feel bitter over it (“You shouldn’t ever feel bitter because you had such an incredible adventure, even if you can no longer have now that it’s past.”) Admittance about being startled when everything magic started popping up and temptation to resume his life as Radman. (“Even so, I think that my time has passed for such antics. Radman is an old bag now—the world needs new heroes. You kids don’t need an old guy like me anymore.” “Isn’t that reckless? Like, REALLY reckless and possibly endangering our lives reckless?” a skeptical Eve asks. Both Alex and Irwin stares at her like she’s crazy.)
Alex would glance down at the high school reunion invite, smile and say, “Well Prof. Radley, the show’s not over yet! You still have plenty of life left in you! You still have the chance to set one thing like it should be!” Cue Irwin turning sheepish and nervous again, saying he’s not ready to face Hannah again, claiming that he clams up when he confronts her face to face and sputters and would make a fool of himself. That he can’t talk to her when he’s not Radman, and Radman is gone. Cue very bad and cliché idea of using headsets to guide him through the night when he needs their help, and Alex and [an unwilling] Eve being there for him in the rafts.
The episode would continue with the three going to the high school reunion, only for everything to be as lousy as it had for Irwin back the first time around. A few old bullies manage to taunt him again, the rest try to pointedly avoid him. Meanwhile, Hannah has been talking to her old friend, telling of her latest unsuccessful relationship. Though she’s had a successful career (she’s become a cop) and has fine friends, she can’t help but feel a bit unhappy—it always happens around that time of the year when she’s reminded of high school, and
him. Whenever she comes back, part of her can’t help but hope that he’ll show up again. (“It’s hard when the best guy you’ve met, you met when you were 15.”) At this point, Irwin sees Hannah, who looks stunning, and he’s lost all over again. Hannah, on the other hand, immediately winces, recognizing him as the creep from her high school days. He tries to approach her, and she and her friend immediately try to shut him down. Alex and Eve immediately start pouring in with the bad advice, and Irwin only screws up worse as a result, and things go worse when the jerks catch back up with Irwin to interrupt, and things finally come to a halt when Hannah finally—and brutally—speaks her mind to Irwin, and in anger, creates a bit of a scene by telling him that what she’s thought all their high school years: that he annoys her, creeps her out, and she wants nothing to do with him.
Completely broken hearted, Irwin turns to leave the reunion, sorry he ever came back. Alex and Eve also leave to catch up with Irwin to offer what comfort they can, but soon after they exit, disaster strikes the high school again for the first time in a decade, with all the former students trapped inside. Despite the humiliation he just faced, they can’t just leave all those people trapped inside. Sum up: Irwin takes up his old guise again to stop his old nemesis—this time with Alex and Eve in quickly thrown together disguises (Alex being overly excited and lively, Eve being nonchalant and super bored sounding) as his new sidekicks (the immediate reaction from the old Radman fanclub being, “Oh no! He has kids—did he get hitched?”).
The oddity, of course, is that Radman doesn’t appear any older, which immediately catches Hannah’s and the old villain’s attention. Meanwhile, Irwin is struggling inside his old suit, which is now way too small for him. On the outside, it seems that Radman’s power are extremely stunted. Still, the manage to seemingly defeat the villain in a risky move that leaves some of Radman’s internal components damaged—but it doesn’t matter, as the day is saved, right? But as Hannah goes to approach Radman, just like before, the villain proves to be just fine as he ambushes his old rival. The villain tightly constricts Radman with a bone crunching sound, leaving him in a broken pile on the floor. The android’s systems are overheating, and since the older Irwin is much larger and pressed right up against the suit, it’s not only steaming him, but searing him. Alex and Eve rush over and they start pleading with Irwin that he has to “get out, now!” Despite the scorching pain, seeing all of his former classmates watching, Irwin is reluctant to, until Alex repeats back to him what he always thought his conclusion would be. (“And right now, the person you have to save is you!”) For Irwin, however, he finally feels ready to put the past behind him: his insecurities, trying to live the life of someone who wasn’t, and trying to win people that didn’t like him—and knows he has to keep going for the people who do, Alex and Eve. With new determination, he leaves the Radman suit and faces the old villain as himself, shocking everyone in the room. As his former classmates simply gawk, the villain laughs, saying, “All this time you were nothing but a weak little nerd. Tell me, if ‘Radman’ couldn’t beat me, what thinks that a person like you can? You don’t have you’re little controllers and robosuits to protect you now”
Irwin proves the villain horribly wrong by showing just how grossly he’d been underestimated again. “It’s true, I came into the business not knowing a thing about defending and protecting, but do you really think I never improved after all those years?” Irwin reveals that though he initially started via controllers, he learned instinct and gained muscle memory, and for the majority of his super-heroing career, operated under
manual. Using some of Alex’s weapons and his own superb skill, he single handedly wins.
As everyone goes to cheer, this time, Irwin is upset and speaks his mind before the whole school on how they wronged him, and how he no longer needs “this,” and how it doesn’t really matter that his identity was outed anyways since he never has to see them again and no one else believed in Radman and the strange events surrounding the school but them anyways, and storms off for the school roof, leaving the crowd in stunned silence. Alex and Eve also stare, and then quickly leave the scene.
Soon after, despite her better instincts, Hannah goes up to the roof, and finds Irwin in the spot where she remembers she once shared her first kiss with Radman what felt like a lifetime ago. What follows goes something like this: Irwin is quietly brooding and angry and still rather scuffed up, Hannah is trying to remain calm and not freak after the revelation, and trying to be a more open minded/accepting/understanding/etc, but this time, Irwin is not willing to give her the time of day. The two start arguing, until Hannah says:
“Look, I know you must think I’m really shallow, but would you look at this from my point of view for a moment?” It shuts him up long enough for her to continue. “Back then... Maybe I had some of my priorities in the wrong places; I know that back then I cared too much about what certain people thought of me, but I always tried to do my best to do what was right, and it’s not the reason why I hurt you all those times. I was a young, fairly attractive teen girl; you don’t know what it was like. What it was like for every dumb boy to see nothing in me except a pretty girl with a nice haircut and to care nothing about me and who
I was. It seemed like
everyone liked me...but nobody
knew me at all. Oh Irwin, all of that time you were trying to win me, I mean, you seemed to have fallen for me so quickly, I felt I knew it couldn’t be real—that you just like what everyone
else liked about me, because we didn’t know each other, and so you couldn’t have liked me for anything but my looks at all.”
“You mean...all this time, you refused me because you thought
I was the shallow one?” *Nods.*
The conversation would continue sort of like:
“I guess I wasn’t perfect either. I know I didn’t give you enough of a chance to get to know me in the first place.”
“You gave
Radman a chance…” *bitter*
*laughs* “Oh god. When ‘he’ first walked up to me…you looked like such a complete…*ehem*
oddity.”
“An oddity!”
“That’s the polite way of saying it. You always were certainly something
special.”
“Hm.” *frown*
“But then he—you—saved us. This incredible, eccentric boy who gave so much asked for nothing in return. You were always so kind, Irwin; even with the mask, it was you’re kindness that always shone through. I’m sorry I forgot that for so long. I guess what I’m trying to say is that, it was easy to fall for you.”
“No. But you never liked
me. You liked
Radman.”
“Why are you making this difficult? You are Radman! We shared something!” *sighs* “Here, listen to me. ‘Radman’ could have had any girl, yet for some reason, you liked me. And I liked you. Not just for the antics and the heroing. I was grateful for that, but there were all those times we talked, all those secrets we shared, those times we faced danger head on together—even without me knowing who your secret identity, we shared something. You got to know me, and I got to know you, and we shared something. Don’t think I’m not angry, that I’m not hurt that you just…took off on me! Without so much as a good bye. You don’t know how used I felt.
“I’m sorry I became colder to you when you were…yourself, but I felt like I’d have been cheating on-erm-
youat that point if I went out with another guy. And then…you didn’t give up though. You know, that I think about it, everything makes sense now.”
“What makes sense?”
“Everything. How you suddenly started to “know” things about me—things that I liked and I things that I dreamed, and things I only shared with my closest friends, things I had
told Radman.” *pointed stare*
“Erm…yes.” *awkward smile*
“I started to wonder how you
knew all of that. Maybe you thought you were being romantic knowing it…but I started to feel weirded out by it. And then…then when I realized some of your habits and lines were the same that Radman used on me—“
“—Wait, you actually
noticed that?”
“Um, yeah? Why?”
“Well, no one else seemed to catch on…” *mumbled*
“Well, I don’t know about other people, but I noticed. That’s when…well I had seen you and Radman together, so I
knew you weren’t the same person. At that point, I felt you were trying to mimic him in order to get me to like you. I get now that wasn’t the case, but at the time, I was—“
“Creeped out, feeling stalked and generally disgusted.”
*Awkward smile* “That’s a bit strong…”
*melancholic smile* “I guess that was pretty dumb. It’s just that…it’s as you said, I guess. I liked you, but I wanted to like the
real me. I didn’t want to think you liked me just because of muscles and powers and witty one-liners I stole from comic books. Out of everyone, I wanted to tell you the truth, but I wanted you to know that you really liked
me first. *humorless chuckle* I guess I screwed things up pretty badly?”
There would be some happy reconciliation on behalf of all parties. By the time he’d come down, the schoolmates would all apologize and say thanks, promising not to tell his old secret. He and Hannah would decide to put the past behind them and start over fresh with no more secrets or prejudice, and go real slow, and Irwin finally got his “series’ conclusion.” Hannah would only show up sparingly throughout the rest of the series, but each time, she and Irwin would be a bit more affectionate than the last, much to Eve’s disgust (“Get a room!”), eventually become Irwin’s fiancé and the two would be hitched by the end of the series. Irwin would probably provide some more heroing help in the series, but mainly would help to train X later on once X and girl-Alex join forces. On another side note, I thought it would be fun to do nostalgia episodes for “Radman and Irwin!” which would be a couple of a humorous 11 minute shorts with a yellow/sepia tint filtered over showing a couple of exploits from the prior decade.
And, that’s a wrap!
