Stories by @johnsmith25

Hercule Poirot's Christmas

When multi-millionaire Simeon Lee unexpectedly invites his family to gather at his home for Christmas, the gesture is met with suspicion by many of the guests. Simeon is not given to family sentiment, and not all of the family are on good terms with one another. To make things worse, he has invited the black sheep of the family, Harry, and Simeon’s granddaughter, Pilar, whom none of them has ever met before. Simeon is intent on playing a sadistic game with his family's emotions. An unexpected guest – Stephen Farr, son of Simeon Lee's former partner in the diamond mines – means that the house is full of potential suspects when the game turns deadly.

Superman

Superman's origins, including his childhood as Kal-El of Krypton and his youth years in the rural town of Smallville until his golden years as Earth's greatest superhero. Disguised as reporter Clark Kent, he adopts a humble and foolish behavior in Metropolis and nurtures a romance with Lois Lane, while fighting some villains, such as Lex Luthor.

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

A sixteen-year-old teenager named Magnus Chase discovers that he is the son of the Norse God, Frey, and his quest to delay Ragnarök.

The Kane Chronicles

The siblings Carter and Sadie Kane are powerful magicians descended from the two pharaohs Narmer and Ramses the Great. They and their friends are forced to contend with Egyptian gods and goddesses who still interact with the modern world.

Justice Society

The Justice Society of America was a war-time group of super-heroes. Decades after the war, they reformed, happily taking the back seat to teams like the Justice League and Teen Titans, and focusing instead of maintaining and nurturing superhero legacy.

Inhumans

At the beginning of the Kree-Skrull War, millions of years ago in Earth time, the alien Kree established a station on the planet Uranus, a strategic position between the Kree and Skrull empires. Through their work at this station, they discovered that sentient life on nearby Earth had genetic potential invested in it by the alien Celestials. Intrigued, the Kree began to experiment on Earth's then-primitive race Homo sapiens to produce the genetically advanced Inhuman race. Their goal was apparently twofold—to investigate possible ways of circumventing their own evolutionary stagnation, and to create a powerful mutant race of soldiers for use against the Skrulls. Although their experiments were successful in creating a strain of humanity with extraordinary abilities, the Kree abandoned their experiment because a genetic prophecy had predicted that the experiments would eventually lead to an anomaly who would destroy the Kree Supreme Intelligence.

Justice League Dark

The team consists of the more supernatural members of the DC Universe, handling situations deemed outside the scope of the traditional Justice League.

Alpha Flight

Inspired by the debut of the Fantastic Four, James Hudson refined the purpose of Department H to find and develop Canada's superheroes.

Young Justice

The series follows the lives of teenage superheroes and sidekicks, who are members of a covert operation group referred to simply as 'The Team'.

The Chronicles of Narnia

Children from the real world are magically transported to Narnia, where they are sometimes called upon by the lion Aslan to protect Narnia from evil.

Excalibur

Led by the omniversal champion Captain Britannia and working in collaboration with MI13 Agent Pete Wisdom, the London-based Excabilur team represents a sign of hope for England, always ready to face any threat to the UK.

X-Men

The X-Men are a paramilitary group of mutants that fights for peace and equality between normal humans and mutants. They are led by Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X, a powerful telepath. Professor X runs a school for mutant children out of his mansion in Westchester, New York, which secretly is also the headquarters of the X-Men. The X-Men's archenemy is Magneto, a mutant with magnetic abilities who leads a mutant supremacist group known as the Brotherhood of Mutants.

Hogwarts: A History

The history of Hogwats School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, narreted by Bathilda Bagshot.

Sherlock Holmes

Referring to himself as a "consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science, and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard.

The Mysterious Island

During the American Civil War, five Northern prisoners of war escape during the Siege of Richmond, Virginia, by hijacking a hydrogen-filled observation balloon. The escapees are Cyrus Smith, a railroad engineer in the Union army (named Cyrus Harding in Kingston's version); his ex-slave and loyal follower Neb (short for Nebuchadnezzar); Bonadventure Pencroff, a sailor (who is addressed only by his surname; in Kingston's translation, he is named Pencroft); his protégé and adopted son Harbert Brown (called Herbert in some translations); and the journalist Gedéon Spilett (Gideon Spilett in English versions). The company is completed by Cyrus' dog "Top". After flying in a great storm for several days, the group crash-lands on a cliff-bound, volcanic, unknown island, described as being located at 34°57′S 150°30′W (Southern Pacific Ocean/Asian:Oceanian side), about 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) east of New Zealand. They name it "Lincoln Island" in honor of Abraham Lincoln. With the knowledge of the brilliant engineer Smith, the five are able to sustain themselves on the island, producing fire, pottery, bricks, nitroglycerin, iron, a simple electric telegraph, a cave home inside a stony cliff called "Granite House", and even a seaworthy ship, which they name the "Bonadventure".

The Batman

Batman explores the corruption that plagues Gotham City and how it may tie to his own family.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

During the year 1866, ships of various nationalities sight a mysterious sea monster, which, it is later suggested, might be a gigantic narwhal. The U.S. government assembles an expedition in New York City to find and destroy the monster. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and the story's narrator, is in town at the time and receives a last-minute invitation to join the expedition; he accepts. Canadian whaler and master harpooner Ned Land and Aronnax's faithful manservant Conseil are also among the participants. The expedition leaves Brooklyn aboard the United States Navy frigate Abraham Lincoln, then travels south around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. After a five-month search ending off Japan, the frigate locates and attacks the monster, which damages the ship's rudder. Aronnax and Land are hurled into the sea, and Conseil jumps into the water after them. They survive by climbing onto the "monster," which, they are startled to find, is a futuristic submarine. They wait on the deck of the vessel until morning, when they are captured, hauled inside, and introduced to the submarine's mysterious constructor and commander, Captain Nemo.

Harry Potter

Harry becomes a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a wizarding academy in Scotland, and it is here where most of the events in the series take place. As Harry develops through his adolescence, he learns to overcome the problems that face him: magical, social, and emotional, including ordinary teenage challenges such as friendships, infatuation, romantic relationships, schoolwork and exams, anxiety, depression, stress, and the greater test of preparing himself for the confrontation that lies ahead in wizarding Britain's increasingly-violent second wizarding war.