• .The Supermodel Vs. Superblonde... (CCC #38/ CCCEC #2)

"...It’s been five years since the first fight between these two titans! The fight where we all learned about the Hyper-Parasites - The Superbugs! The bugs that have been powering some of the world’s most well known heroes and villains, right under our noses… for years! The fight where we learned to call those heroes and villains… The Dragon Men!”

***

"It was the moment the world went silent! All eyes trained on Superblonde at that instant, and all ears tuned in on her fury as she screamed to Supermodel and the world the truth of the existence of the Superbugs! Alien creatures that invade the human body through any opening it can, giving them super powers in the process! One way in particular being so embarrassing to many that it spawned story after story about how they claimed to have gained their powers!"

***

"...teams that have hunted down infestations of these surprisingly fragile creatures, they have wiped out entire colonies of these Superbugs, keeping the world safe from a dangerous destabilization of world power!”

• .The Modern Day Virgin Queen. (CCC #50/ CCCEC #3)

...revealing to the world what they have in common- the Hyper-Parasistes. More commonly known as the Superbugs, the world has since learned that these truly alien lifeforms are actually symbiotic in nature.

***

"Once the Superbugs became public knowledge, the scientific community quickly realized that the creatures were worldwide, spread mainly through meteor strikes that have peppered the globe over time..."

• .Alien Life As We Know It (S1:E1). (CCC #88/ CCCEC #5)

SUPERBUGS

"We first became aware of the Superbugs when Superblonde, the daughter of Osmosis, attacked Supermodel at the Richmond Rotunda, and revealed them to the world. With this revelation, other information soon came to light."

A clip of the U.S. President addressing the United Nations plays.

"The governments of the world have been aware of the existence of Superbugs for decades, and have worked actively to not only keep them a secret, but to wipe them out wherever they find them. They are considered a threat to public safety. They are attracted to fecal matter, and are easily destroyed if they're not bonded to a host. We have had measures in place to trap and destroy them since the Eighteen Nineties. As evidenced by Supermodel, Superblonde, and others like them, these measures are not one hundred percent foolproof."

"Not only are they 'not foolproof,'" continues the show's narrator, "but some are not sure that they can be wiped out, because it's believed that every meteor crater on the planet is a potential spawning ground for the Superbugs. Going all the way back to the oldest crater on Earth: the Vredefort Dome, created in South Africa some two-point-oh-two-billion years ago.

"However long ago they really appeared on Earth, our introduction to them was through Superblonde. We soon realized that many of the world's superpowered people were bonded with Superbugs. Through these people, Superbugs have irrevocably changed our lives- our very way of living. They're super strong... virtually impervious to harm... and they breathe fire. It's this last trait, and one of their most famous, that has gained them their best known moniker." [The Dragon Men]

***

Hyper-Parasites got their name from him once their existence had been revealed, as Hyperman had arguably been the most famous of the Superbug-powered people before the Day of the Dragon Men.

***

[Ankara] used Superbugs in her possession to transform the Black Sultan's former harem into The Harama.

• Heavyweight (Champion of the World)
• Hyperman (Super-American [II])
• Lord Protector (I)
• Lord Protector (II)
• Super-American [I]
• Superblonde (Blonde Bombshell, The; American Beauty)
• Supermodel

• Dobief, Sy (Cameraman)
• Guevera, Renaldo (Newsman)

• Black Sultan, The (Turkeyman)
• Idol
• Osmosis
• Supremacist (True American; Grand Dragon, The)

• Ankara (Odalisque; Sweet Sultan, The)

• Antarmada
• Aquila
• Cassiopeia
• Centaurus
• Corvus
• Draco
• Lupus

• unnamed women in the harem of the Black Sultan

• .Heironymous.

• .Alien Life As We Know It.
• Day of the Dragon Men, The
• .The Modern Day Virgin Queen.
• .The Supermodel Vs. Superblonde...

• Fire Monkeys
• Klepto
• Swingy-Dingy

• Chicxulub crater
• Turkey
• Vredefort Dome
• Yucatan Peninsula

• The Accord
• The Accord Refugees
• The Dragon Men
• The Harama

The Superbugs came about for a couple of reasons: 1) I was highly enjoying Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at the time, and really liked The Trill. 2) I wanted to answer one of the sillier questions fans ask when they start overanalyzing the comics medium: "How come they never have to go to the bathroom during fights in those one-piece spandex costumes?"

My silly answer to that was: The Superbugs. I scan the dictionary for name ideas sometimes, and Hyper-Parasite, Parasitoid, and Superbug are all in there. So, I made them the name of my Trill-like alien bugs. The reason this relates to that silly question is that Superbugs eat fecal matter.

They'll eat it anywhere they find it, but if they can find a host that produces it regularly, they'll bond with it. I'll save their description for a story, but they have a way of incapacitating a body long enough to crawl into it. They can crawl in through any orifice that's large enough, but most often they take the one that's the most direct route to the feces. Once inside, they make their way to the feces area, and have a constant feast. The byproduct put off by the Superbug's waste is what makes the host invulnerable, strong, able to fly, and able to breathe flames. If you're expecting me to explain the science behind that, don't hold your breath. This is the point where you suspend your disbelief. lol

Unlike the Trill, hosts do not share a telepathic bond with their Superbugs. I've considered it... I mean really considered it. There's a really cool threat I could create if that telepathic bond was there. It just seems too close to The Trill though. Honestly, I still consider it at times- I could establish a telepathic rapport that allows the bugs and hosts to understand each other's instincts, maybe? And it's possible that the Accord's hive-minded nature didn't come from Cassiopeia, but from some kind of Queen Superbug inside of her? I'll have to think on it.

Something else they can possibly do which I haven't revealed in a story yet is eat cancers. I'm hoping this will feature in a future story. (January 3, 2022)

• .Flaming Angel: Xibalban Avatar on Earth. (CCC #68/ CCCEC #4)

...Hyper-Parasites that seem to have appeared at just about every major meteor crater on Earth. The ones that bonded with these monkeys are thought to have come from the Chicxulub crater, underneath the Yucatan Peninsula.

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