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  Just Cause

  Revised and Expanded Edition

  A Just Cause Universe Novel by

  Ian Thomas Healy

  Copyright 2012 Ian Thomas Healy

  Just Cause: A Just Cause Universe Novel

  Published by Local Hero Press, LLC

  https://localheropress.ianthealy.com

  All rights reserved worldwide

  Copyright © 2012 Ian Thomas Healy

  https://www.ianthealy.com

  ISBN: 9781476050324

  Cover art by Jeff Hebert

  Book design by Ian Thomas Healy

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  This book, its contents, and its characters are the sole property of Ian Thomas Healy. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without written, express permission from the author. To do so without permission is punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Books by Ian Thomas Healy

  The Just Cause Universe Novels

  Just Cause – Revised & Expanded Edition

  The Archmage

  Day of the Destroyer

  Deep Six

  Jackrabbit

  Herald (Fall 2014)

  Other Novels

  Blood on the Ice

  Hope and Undead Elvis

  Making the Cut

  Pariah’s Moon

  Rooftops

  Starf*cker

  The Guitarist

  The Milkman: SuperSekrit Extra Cheesy Edition

  Troubleshooters: The Longest Joke Ever told

  Collections

  Tales of the Weird Wild West, Vol. 1

  The Bulletproof Badge

  Just Cause Universe Omnibus, Vol. 1

  Short Stories

  Just Cause Universe series

  Graceful Blur

  The Steel Soldier’s Gambit

  Other Short Stories

  1001001

  Dental Plan

  Footprints in the Butter

  In His Majesty’s Postal Service

  Last Year’s Hero

  The Mighty Peculiar Incident at Muddy Creek

  Plague Ship

  Pressure

  Rookie Sensation

  Tuesday Night at Powerman's

  Upon A Midnight Clear

  Nonfiction

  Action! Writing Better Action Using Cinematic Techniques

  All titles and more available wherever books and ebooks are sold.

  Acknowledgements

  This edition of this book would not have been possible without the assistance of several people. I have the utmost gratitude to Allison M. Dickson for her constant efforts to improve my work; to Jeff Hebert for his wonderful illustration of Mustang Sally; to Kate Jenkins for her help in a difficult situation; to my family for their unwavering support; and to my fans, who keep clamoring for more tales from the Just Cause Universe. Thanks and much love to you all.

  Foreword

  They’re all a little messed up, aren’t they? Superheroes, I mean. One of the truest lines from the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, and in this particular case Batman Begins, is when Bruce Wayne says to a table of dinner guests, “A guy who dresses like a bat clearly has issues.” And of course, anyone who is familiar with Batman’s origin story (orphan of murdered parents turned lonely billionaire seeks closure and justice from beneath a cowl and cape) knows that Mr. Wayne, well, he does have issues, and he’d be the first to admit it. Alan Moore seemed to delve deepest into this particular topic with his iconic graphic novel, Watchmen. Many of those so-called superheroes weren’t particularly heroic. Their deeds seemed to come off more as compulsions to act out in a world that was well beyond saving itself. Look at the canon of Marvel and DC and everything in between, and you will see similar tropes played out time and again. Only the costumes and the names have changed.

  I’m not an expert on comic books or super heroes. I leave that stuff up to the experts, like Mr. Healy here. But I can say that his Just Cause Universe stories seem, well, different somehow. Maybe it’s because the heroes don’t have “secret identities.” Granted, he’s not the first person to do this. Iron Man is the first character to come to mind, and I guess the rest of the Avengers, but doesn’t that still seem refreshing in a way? A hero who is completely “out of the closet,” as it were. A hero who can live out in the open world without all the loneliness and deception that comes from leading a double life is, well, invigorating. They are who they are, and everyone knows it. The heroes in Just Cause are, like The Avengers, an elite special force, but they’re more regulated and organized. People love them. They’re like celebrities or Olympic athletes. Of course, this doesn’t mean our heroes don’t struggle. A story isn’t a story without conflict, both internal and external, and just because you can wear your costume and use your real name in public doesn’t mean you don’t have problems finding a place in the world, as we see Mustang Sally face in this first tale in the Just Cause Universe.

  No, I think Just Cause is different because in an era that struggles to justify even a modicum of money on investments that could move humanity forward or could perhaps save us from the increasingly oppressive climate of our own hubris, these stories portray a society that embraces justice and progress and understands that it’s worth the cost. It doesn’t force its would-be heroes to live in secrecy and become vigilantes because our government, our law enforcement, our society as a whole either can’t or is just too corrupt to care. The cynicism that underlies other comic book stories greatly reduced here, leaving in its place a sense of optimism about people and our potential to still do good things.

  Just Cause believes in a world that, while imperfect and filled with danger, still gives a damn about saving itself. I think our world needs that more than ever.

  —Allison M. Dickson

  August, 2012

  Introduction to the Revised & Expanded Edition

  “HEY DAWG, I HEARD YOU LIKE SUPERHEROES . . .”

  I do like superheroes. Reading about them, writing about them, and even at one time drawing them—that is, before I learned that I have no facility with a pencil, unless it’s to put words down on the page. This book represents close to a decade of my writing life, and I’m very proud of this final version. I promise not to re-revise it in a few years, like certain directors have done with their movies set in a galaxy far, far away. What you are reading is the definitive Just Cause. It has gone through several iterations over the years, from a bloated 106,000-word opus to a post-liposuction 60,000 word novella to the tome you hold today. It’s gone through name changes, three agents, two publishers, and several burro-loads of Colombian coffee.

  “. . . SO I PUT MORE SUPERHEROES IN YOUR SUPERHEROES . . .”

  The original draft of Just Cause was very different, with chapters alternating between Mustang Sally’s story and the backstory of some sixty years of history, spread across her parents’ and grandparents’ generations. All that backstory was part of the forty-thousand words I cut out in one glorious orgy of excision. I saved it, of course, because one should never waste the words one writes. Some of those stories have since transformed themselves into novels in their own right, and you’ll be able to read them someday soon. Others simply languished unattended until this edition, where I have included three of those stories at the end of the book. I call
them, collectively, Those Who Came Before, and they, like the short stories available all over the internet, add more depth to the illustrious history of Just Cause.

  “. . . SO YOU CAN HAVE SUPERHEROES WHILE YOU HAVE SUPERHEROES.”

  I had great fun putting all this together for you, and I hope you enjoy the heck out of it.

  —Ian Thomas Healy

  August, 2012