Progress Report: The Burning of Hugo

"Ken, come on now." Hugo said, his hands up in supplication, "We don't need another incident."

Ken glanced about him, marking the mob closing in, and then locked his glare at Hugo.

"Oh no, my friend." Ken smirked, and Hugo's eyes went wide. "That's exactly what we need."

The others, writing like a pack of rats looking to swarm, did not see Ken draw his Hi-Power before he shot three of them dead.

"Dead or alive, Hugo, you're coming with me."

The revision has Hugo being more of an active character, a foil trapped by his own psychology, and deep in enemy territory. This exchange, which sets off the climax, comes at the end of a confrontation where Ken infiltrates the cult retreat compound and attempts to convinced Hugo to leave. The Legion of Evil knows that Ken will fail, so they allow Ken to attempt it anyway; when Ken starts fighting his way out, that's the signal for the Legion to assault the compound, much as in climaxes like You Only Live Twice. Ken's smirk is his self-acknowledgement that The Dark Lord was right, and just cut to the chase--"failing faster"--rather than waste time on a dead end.

Which reveals another aspect of Ken's character: as soon as he noticed that he's failed, he cuts his losses and moves on- in this case, to Plan B ("Kill Everything Between Me and the Objective").

I now hope to have the manuscript ready by the Spring for beta readers, and then do the final polish necessary to publish by the Summer. I will need to figure out a cover by then, but I'm working on learning how to handle that (and other business side issues) as best I can with what I've got.