Literature / Skye Emery: Bluebird

Skye Emery: Bluebird - consisting of Singularity and Blue Skye Rising - is a series of superhero web novels written by Marc Quill. First published in 2016, the series centers on the superhuman Skye Emery and her struggles to expose a conspiracy that's targeted her for mysterious reasons.

Singularity begins Skye's story as she's found herself on the streets of Toronto with no memories of her past and a set of superpowers that she has no idea of how she got them. Soon, she encounters Finch "Finn" Finwick, a gay youth who immediately decides to help Skye in discovering an expansive conspiracy that may also hold the key to her past. Along the way, they encounter a young superhuman named Ava Lorenz, who quickly joins in on the search for the truth.

Blue Skye Rising, the sequel to Singularity, continues Skye, Ava, and Finn's story as they not only have to contend with a brand new conspiracy that's got its eye on global domination, but the fame that comes with being Toronto's newest superheroes.

You can read both stories here.

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Skye Emery: Bluebird provides examples of:

• Action Girl: The Bluebird is the definitive example in the series, though her adopted younger sister Ava Lorenz is no slouch in this category herself.
• Adaptation Expansion: Both stories can be technically considered this, on the basis of Skye Emery originally starting out as Ramona Skye, a generic punkish-looking created wrestler that Quill made in WWE 2K16. A lot of the elements seen in Singularity & Blue Skye Rising were added to expand upon an originally-generic character concept.
• Alphabet News Network: The TriDyne-owned USNN in Blue Skye Rising, which presumably stands for "United States News Network".
• All There in the Manual: The official site for the novels also feature additional profiles, a timeline of events, and even a map — all of which further detail certain events not covered by Singularity or Blue Skye Rising.
• Alliterative Name: Skye's friend Finch "Finn" Finwick, as well as Toronto Mayor Miguel Morales, and Dr. Elizabeth Emery.
• Armored Villains, Unarmored Heroes: Most of SDI's soldiers all wear combat armor, whereas Skye and her friends are completely unarmored.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: The first chapter of Singularity #8 ("Undaunted") largely takes place inside the mind of a near-death and comatose Skye. While she encounters manifestations of her younger self and Dr. Elizabeth Emery, Skye ends up having to fight a version of herself that represents SDI's vision for her as a Project Singularity super-soldier. Skye wins this showdown by ultimately admitting that while she can't change what she is, she can always work to become the best of who she is.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Given the nature of Skye's healing abilities, this is averted on several occasions, as it's shown that Skye can suffer injuries that will just be healed up.
• Big Bad:
  • Gerald Selfridge, the CEO of SDI Genomics, serves as this in Singularity.
  • For Blue Skye Rising, Jacqueline Quincannon and The Conglomerate fill this role.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Oscar Hellinger and Roland Rycroft from "Credibility Gap" seem to think that they're criminal masterminds after apparently succeeding in turning the city of Toronto against Skye with their plan to use a neo-Nazi impostor to frame her. Once Skye gets wind of their activities and stops them, everything quickly falls apart for Hellinger and Rycroft. By the end of the story, the former's arrested for his crimes and the latter is killed by the Conglomerate for his failures.
• Blue Is Heroic: By the beginning of the appropriately-named Blue Skye Rising, blue becomes a colour synonymous with Skye, representing her kindhearted nature. She starts wearing an intricately-designed superhero costume that's mostly blue (save for the Chest Insignia, which is a red maple leaf), as well as adopting "Bluebird" as her superhero name.
• The Cape: Skye gradually grows into this role through the course of discovering her past, ultimately fully embracing it by the start of Blue Skye Rising.
• Casual Danger Dialog:
  • "Unbreakable", the penultimate issue of Singularity has Skye literally giving romantic advice to Finn while beating down scores of SDI mooks.
• City of Adventure: The action takes place almost entirely in Toronto, with the exception of the final two issues of Singularity, which take place inside SDI's Base Alpha near Georgian Bay.
• Cool Bike: Skye's Bluestorm motorcycle, originally hijacked from a mercenary she stopped.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Villainous characters Gerald Selfridge & Jacqueline Quincannon, though it's more overt with the latter.
• Corrupt Politician: Senator Joseph Rosenthal, a politician under the employ of the Conglomerate. It's implied that there's more in the United States Congress who are a part of the organization.
• Criminal Amnesiac: After having her memories wiped clean, Skye is manipulated by Gerald Selfridge to believe that she's under SDI's control as Subject SK-591. Luckily, she's able to regain her memories through sheer willpower.
• Deuteragonist: Finch "Finn" Finwick, Skye's best friend and most trusted confidante.
• Downer Ending: Vol. 2 of Singularity ("Profectus in Virtute") doesn't shy around having things not ending well for our heroes, with Issues #5 and #7 having this kind of ending:
  • Issue #5 ("Falling Upwards") ends with Finn arrested after being framed for killing Isaac Ellerton, as well as Skye having her memories completely overwritten and now being reprogrammed to serve SDI.
  • Issue #7 ("Unbreakable") ends with Skye dead and Selfridge sending his Genetic Extractors to take her corpse to complete Project Singularity.
• Driving Question: What is Project Singularity and what does it have to do with Skye? As it turns out, everything. The Project was a failed SDI-financed initiative designed to create so-called "perfect" humans with the intent of having them cure life-threatening illnesses. It failed due to SDI CEO Gerald Selfridge corrupting it for his own means, and the Canadian government shutting it down due to illegal activities. So how does Skye figure into this? She's actually the first and only true success of Project Singularity, liberated from SDI by Dr. Elizabeth Emery in 1995.
• Elevator Action Sequence: "Unbreakable" has Skye, Ava, and Finn laying the smackdown on an elevator filled with SDI thugs.
• Epunymous Title: Blue Skye Rising, the sequel to Singularity starring Skye Emery.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Skye Emery
    • Singularity #1 opens with Skye surviving a truck colliding with her head-on, no-selling the truck driver punching her in the face, then even helping said driver.
  • Finch "Finn" Finwick
    • Even when outmatched by a more physically-stronger opponent attacking his best friend Leo, Finn's response to them? "That all you got?" That moment shows Finn's fearlessness and desire to stand up for his friends, no matter what the odds may be.
• Evil Knockoff: The Canadian Freedom Militia's fake Skye (in actuality, disgraced Toronto Police constable Renata Brooks), who they created in order to destroy the real Skye's reputation.
• Expansion Pack Past: The large gaps in the events of Skye's life from her creation in 1995 to her arrival in Toronto in 2016 allow for quite a few interesting events to have happened between those two points. The fact that it's largely shrouded in fractured memories due to amnesia caused by incomplete Project Singularity conditioning certainly helps, too.
• Fighting from the Inside: In "Unraveling", Skye's memories of her friends is enough for her to gradually break free of Selfridge's programming, even as she's been deeply reprogrammed as Subject SK-591.
• Friendship Moment: Singularity #4 has a moment where Skye tells Finn how much she appreciates his presence in her life, even after about a week or so of knowing him.
• Genre Shift: Blue Skye Rising adds in more superheroic elements on top of the conspiracy-based plots of Singularity.
• Good Feels Good: Seems to be Skye's motivation for being a hero for the city of Toronto on top of trying to live up to her surrogate mother's legacy. She even explicitly says as much in "Credibility Gap" when talking about protecting the innocent against evil forces.
• Heroic BSoD: Skye is understandably suffering mentally after she nearly kills Finn while unknowingly under her latent Project Singularity programming.
• The Hero Dies: Singularity #7 ends with Skye sacrificing her own life to save Ava from a massive SDI super-weapon. In the next issue, she recovers from these fatal wounds and is back fighting.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Singularity #7 ends with the massive Super-Soldier Omega apparently killing Skye by stabbing her through the chest with a bifurcated blade. She gets better.
• Karmic Death: In Singularity #8, Gerald Selfridge, who has been plotting to resurrect Project Singularity by trying to hunt Skye down, dies while crushed by the Singularity super-soldier chambers.
• Light 'em Up: Ava's superpowers, which usually activate whenever her friends are in danger.
• Mental World: The final issue of Singularity gives us a glimpse of Skye's mind as she recovers from being killed by Super-Soldier Omega. It largely is comprised of whatever memories she has of her past and her hopes and fears made manifest.
• Mirror Match:
  • Singularity #8 features Skye fighting a warped, demonic copy inside her head.
  • "Credibility Gap" has Skye taking on a duplicate version of herself recruited by a neo-Nazi terrorist group to destroy her credibility in their name. Unlike most examples, Skye easily defeats her doppelganger and exposes her lies in short order.
• Mugged for Disguise: After escaping SDI captivity, Skye does this in "Unbreakable" as she takes out a SDI guard and pretends to be them in order to rescue Ava & Finn.
• Mythology Gag: In "Missing Persons Case", Skye adopts "Ramona Stevens" as a fake name to disguise herself as a Health Canada inspector. She originally was a created wrestler in WWE 2K16 by the name of "Ramona Skye" before having everything changed about her.
• Nebulous Evil Organisation: The appropriately-named Conglomerate from Blue Skye Rising, a secret cabal of several influential figures both from industry and politics with their eye on manipulating global events in their favor.
• New Old Flame: "Credibility Gap" & "Flight of the Bluebird" introduce Zaida Khan, a young Muslim girl who Skye had a crush on way back in 2009. She subsequently rekindles this relationship with Skye in these two stories, joining the supporting cast.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Selfridge deciding to reveal what he's doing to Finn to a captive and subservient Skye, outlining his plans for the reborn Project Singularity. Just the sight of seeing her friend in grave danger is enough for Skye to break free of SDI's programming and rebel against them.
• Noodle Incident: A lot of Skye's activities prior to "Singularity" are mentioned on an official timeline, but aren't told in greater detail.
• Official Couple: Finn & Stephen O'Day. Their impending wedding even becomes the secondary plot in Blue Skye Rising. There's also Skye and her girlfriend Zaida Khan.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Initially, it's never made clear if "Skye" is her real name. It's not helped by the fact that she's got little-to-no memories of her past. Ultimately, it does turn out to be the closest thing she's got to a legal name, thanks to Dr. Emery giving Skye her name when she was a baby.
• Orwellian Retcon: There have been several edits to past issues of Singularity, mainly to tone down the language to make it less R-Rated and more PG-13.
• Parental Abandonment: Dr. Elizabeth Emery, Skye's mother-slash-creator, apparently disappeared without a trace when she was six years old for an unknown reason.
• Pedestrian Crushes Car: Singularity #1's first scene opens with Skye surviving a truck running into her. While she's unharmed, the truck ends up getting dismantled into a wreck.
• Pompous Political Pundit: USNN host Tom O'Callahan, the host of the eponymous "The O'Callahan Briefing", who we're introduced to in Blue Skye Rising #2. He's said to be a hardline version of this who frequently rails on whoever he feels is "destroying America", as well as someone who's very preferential towards TriDyne CEO Jacqueline Quincannon.
• Powered Armor: Gerald Selfridge wears one in Singularity #8 to fight Skye, Ava, and Finn.
• Protagonist Title: Blue Skye Rising, named for main character Skye Emery.
• Psycho Electro: Patient A-001 from "Missing Persons Case", who uses electric-based attacks as his primary form of offense.
• Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: The story begins as a tense conspiracy thriller set in a world of superpowers, before gradually becoming more of a superhero story by the start of Blue Skye Rising (while still keeping some conspiracy elements). This fittingly coincides with Skye's transformation into a full-blown superhero.
• Secret Public Identity: Skye is simply just publicly known by her given name, though she's adopted "Bluebird" as a personal codename between her and her friends.
• Sequel Hook: Singularity concludes with TriDyne CEO Jacqueline Quincannon discussing something about a "Conglomerate" to help pick up where SDI left off with Project Singularity. Meanwhile, Skye and her newly-adopted sister Ava begin to figure out what happens now — especially with Skye apparently becoming Toronto's superheroine thanks to the Singularity debacle.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • Skye cuts off the superpowered Patient A-001 in the middle of a villain speech in "Missing Persons Case" by literally ripping away at her foe's metallic armor bit by bit.
  • In "Undaunted", even as she's recovering from a near-fatal stab through the chest, Skye manages to do this in her mind, this time stomping on a disembodied head that took on her face to taunt her.
  • Later, in that same issue, Team Blue Skye collectively shut Selfridge up as he's taunting Skye about having Ava help her in fights.
  • When faced with a doppelganger hired by a neo-Nazi terrorist organization in "Credibility Gap", Skye simply shuts her down at every turn, culminating in the following:
  Skye: You've failed to impersonate me and you'll fail to beat me... so just get this over with, and we can skip to the part where I haul your racist ass to jail.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Both stories have their feet firmly planted on the "idealistic" side of the scale, with a strong emphasis on heroes (for all their faults and quirks) doing the right thing and the importance of trust and friendship. All of this also happens to take place in the midst of plots usually revolving exposing expansive evil conspiracies.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Selfridge attempts to invoke this on Skye after she's beaten him and stopped his plans to resurrect Project Singularity. Skye decides not to oblige him, believing that it's not what Dr. Emery would've wanted for her to do.
• Super-Soldier: Skye is explicitly identified as one many times throughout Singularity & Blue Skye Rising. Unsurprising, given that she was essentially designed to be one by SDI before Dr. Emery liberated her.
• Super Window Jump: "Singular Focus" features a somewhat tragic version with Skye and Finn attempting to escape SDI soldiers chasing them by leaping from the second floor of Robarts Library. Unfortunately, due to being hit by gunfire, Finn ends up taking the worst of it, even with Skye using herself as a cushion for their fall.
• Superhuman Transfusion: In order to save Finn's life in "Singular Focus", Skye decides to give some of her blood to her friend, which heals Finn gradually. Word of God states that the healing abilities are temporary, disappearing once someone exposed to Skye's blood is fully healed. Also, they don't give the person undergoing the transfusion any permanent superpowers.
• Token Trio: The heroic trio of Skye (white lesbian female), Finn (Jamaican-Canadian gay male), and Ava (Portuguese teenage girl).
• Title In: Used frequently to denote scenery changes.
• True Companions: By the end of Singularity Skye, Ava, & Finn grow to become this. It's noted numerous times how the trio have become a makeshift family, able to weather any storm no matter what.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Blue Skye Rising features Skye & Ava on the trail of the Conglomerate's conspiracy as the A-Plot, while Finn planning for his wedding with Stephen while cheering him on in the AHL Playoffs forms the B-Plot.
• The Unmasqued World: Before the events of Singularity, having a literal superhuman roaming around is literally treated as an urban legend for most people. By the time Blue Skye Rising begins, Skye's existence (and very public displays of her superpowers) have turned her into a local icon in Toronto.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Gerald Selfridge absolutely snaps after Skye repeatedly overcomes everything he throws at her, culminating in him using a suit of powered armor to take on Skye and her friends after they defeat his squadron of Genetic Extractors.
  • The fake neo-Nazi Skye from "Credibility Gap" increasingly loses her composure after her ruse is exposed by the real Skye and Torontonians. Actual!Skye even lampshades the idea of bad guys breaking down after taking her on.
  Skye: That tends to happen a lot to villains who think they can win against me.
• Villain with Good Publicity: TriDyne CEO Jacqueline Quincannon is viewed by most Americans as a proud patriot serving her country. In reality, she's one of the heads of a secretive cabal that wants to rule America by force.
• We Need a Distraction: In Blue Skye Rising #1 ("Politics for Fun & Profit"), Skye uses a well-timed distraction by way of playing music by Drake on her cellphone to save a Secret Service agent from being killed by Conglomerate agents.
• Whole Episode Flashback: "Unraveling" almost extensively explores the backstory behind Dr. Elizabeth Emery and how she played a role in Skye's creation back in 1995, though there are also scenes set in the present.
• Worf Had the Flu: Selfridge's Genetic Extractors are only able to defeat Skye whenever she has her powers removed. When Skye has her powers fully restored, though? It doesn't end well for the Extractors.
• You Are Number 6: Skye is originally designated as Project Singularity Subject SK-591.
• You Have Failed Me: The Conglomerate's preferred way to dismiss its operatives that don't succeed in their missions? Kill them via a chip implanted in their necks upon their recruitment that burns at them from the inside.