Ms. Infinity (Book 1): Earth's Greatest Hero

by Kirschner, Andrew

  “You know what?” shouted a man towards the middle of the line, “If your supervisor isn’t around, then I’m complaining to the store manager! Which way to him?”

  “Her name is Yvonne,” said Lisa, “I don’t know if you could get her attention, but she’s in the back, past the bicycles.”

  He stormed off shouting, “Who’s with me?” Nobody went with him, but he continued. For a moment, Lisa was slightly relieved that she would not have to use the paging system again to call Denny. She hated hearing her voice on that thing. Then it occurred to her that she had likely just gotten herself in trouble. A complaint over her supervisor’s head would almost certainly boomerang on her. Denny was known by one and all to be a vengeful and unforgiving manager. Her eyes were closed in an expression of dread.

  “Your friend is some worker!” said another customer, “You should really tell her off!”

  “Thank you,” replied Lisa, “But I assure you Bonnie’s actually an extremely responsible person. She can work like anything…”

  “So where is she?” shouted another man.

  “You know what?” said Lisa, “Never mind!”

  Lisa didn’t look like someone tough enough to handle an endless line of irate New Yorkers. She was short and thin, with Asian features that some took for “delicate,” and an expression that often seemed to convey contrition. Yet her slight exterior contained a young woman with a tremendous will and endless endurance. Even with a flood of angry customers, she could be counted on to stay assertive, and keep her cool at the same time.

  “Why don’t you take me first?” called another customer, “I’m only returning a jacket and paying off my store card.”

  “I’m sorry,” answered Lisa, “Nobody cuts. Store rule.”

  The man mumbled something rude under his breath. Meanwhile the woman she was serving was babbling incoherently. She was a frequent customer, and a very frustrating one. It was very unclear whether she was just returning her clothes, or meant to exchange some of them, or if she was complaining about a price, or all of the above. It didn’t help that she was obviously drunk. Lisa handled her with her usual patience, but frustration was mounting. The line behind her was growing more impatient by the second.

  “Isn’t there any way someone can just take care of her somewhere else?” shouted another woman.

  “I’m sorry,” said Lisa, “This is the only customer service. I promise I will get to you as soon as possible.”

  Lisa felt tension in her back and shoulders and a persistent headache, but as always continued stoically. “Look, I’m sorry about everything. I’m sure my friend will be back any second, and this line will pick up.”

  From some distance down the line, someone shouted out, “Where did your friend go? The moon?”

  Lisa shouted back, “We will get to you as soon as possible. I promise.”

  “Although,” she thought to herself, “I’m wondering that myself...”

  Bonnie was not on the moon. She was several million miles past it. And maybe her customers might have forgiven her if they knew why. Only minutes ago her super senses had picked up an ominous noise coming from space. She then transformed into her alter ego and flew in its direction.

  As the Earth and moon receded into the distance behind her, the awesome Ms. Infinity flew on with vigor. Tall and powerful, her dark hair flowed perfectly behind her, even in space. Like a burning sun, she glowed powerfully against the darkness. All else forgotten, she looked with determination upon her mission.

  “Well,” she wondered to herself, “Let’s have a little look at my little challenge for the day. Anything fun?”

  For a moment, Ms. Infinity wasn’t sure. At first glance, everything seemed the same as always. Space looked like space, with no obvious aberrations. She wanted to believe that everything was okay. There was a part of her that desired to fly back to Earth, change back into Bonnie Boring, and carry on as if nothing had happened.

  But in her heart, she knew she could not. The sound she had heard from Earth was anything but okay. To return home now was to accept a far more dangerous reality later, for herself and for others. She had no acceptable choice but to answer the call of duty, to find the cause of the disturbance, and to handle it immediately, now matter how great the danger to herself.

  Ms. Infinity stared upon the vast expanse of space. She scrutinized the view in front of her, straining to make sense of the information. Harder and harder she scanned in every direction, comparing it with her exhaustive knowledge of the galaxy and beyond. After a few moments, she was sure. Something was very wrong.

  There, still a great distance away, was the threat. To an untrained human eye, it would have looked like a star, and no different from any other. Yet if one watched it for some time, it would gradually become apparent that it was growing. At first that that growth might have been subtle, but after a time, the apparent growth became obvious even to the most casual observer. Soon it did not look at all like a distant star. More and more it began to look like a second moon.

  But this was neither star, nor moon, nor indeed a planet. No. This was no celestial body, holding its natural place in space. This was an asteroid, and a tremendous one at that. And this asteroid was traveling at a breakneck speed, on a collision course with Earth, only minutes away from its target.

  Now Ms. Infinity could see its advance clearly. Its flight against the vastness of space was like a baseball’s rush across the field, yet indefinitely it seemed to hold its momentum, as if perpetually freshly slammed by a powerful bat. It was immense, growing ominously in size as it drew near.

  And now Ms. Infinity was the only thing standing between it and earth.

  Seeing the tremendous power of the asteroid’s advance, Ms. Infinity began to feel a rush of nerves. Thoughts raced through her head. She thought nervously about the limits of her own strength. There was always something bigger she had not yet tried, another opportunity that had not come up. Ideally this would have meant pushing herself by bits. Yet such opportunities were not available to someone of her powers. She had certainly not hoped to test herself on something this much beyond her experience. This thing was enormous. It was nothing like anything she had ever seen. Was this threat beyond her?

  She thought of her mother. The right she now exercised—being Ms. Infinity, using her powers in public—was hard won. It had come only after many years of learning, love and conflict. That freedom was something she treasured. But now, hard as it was to admit it, she was scared. But she also knew that this job was hers.

  She summoned her courage and held forth, standing resolutely between the asteroid and its target. She remembered the faith her mother had in her. Then she gathered all of her strength and vigor, and flew. She shot forward like a rocket, much faster than a rocket. In her super speed she disappeared into an unseen but immeasurable force.

  Like a wasp flying into a truck she might have seemed. Indeed the difference in size was vastly greater than that. Anyone watching might have been forgiven for betting on the asteroid. Yet the sight must have been strange to behold. For it was with the force of one tremendously powerful collision with this so-called wasp that suddenly the asteroid bounced back, stopped in its tracks like a giant truck crashing against the side of a mountain.

  “Look at that!” she thought to herself, “I’m an even bigger freak than I thought. Even from my own kind, nobody could dream of pulling a stunt like that. It’s as crazy at it looks! But I did it and it didn’t even hurt. It barely even tickled.”

  She marveled for a moment. Indeed as hard as she had hit, it seemed as if the force of her impact was double her effort, if not more. That was a phenomenon she wondered about. It seemed that sometimes in great emergencies, her strength was much greater than her effort. Sometimes her powers were mysterious even to herself. But then another, more ominous thought occurred to her.

  “This is strange, though. How did nobody know about this? Earth’s scientists are constant watch for these things. I mean, th
ey don’t have my powers, but…”

  She looked at the stars in front of her, and realized the direction she was facing. She immediately felt a sense of apprehension. She had been this way once before.

  She collected her thoughts, and then turned her gaze deeper into space. With her super senses, she could see small objects many millions of miles away when she chose to. And so she scanned with her telescopic sight. Farther and farther out to space she looked. She viewed tremendous swaths of space, finding nothing, but resolutely scanning through an increasingly vast distance. Then finally at a great length, she caught what she was looking for. Then she gasped.

  “Misery!”

  Ms. Infinity shuddered from her revelation. There in a remote corner of the solar system, only a few million miles away, was a face from a distant memory. Misery was a loathed and dreaded name from another lifetime, a malevolent figure belonging to a world she had never dreamed of knowing again. The thought that she might be threatening now was strange, and extremely disquieting. What this could mean, she could not be sure. But for now, she would take a quick, retaliatory action.

  “Alright!” she said to herself, “No more self-conscious Suzie. Time to go full freak!”

  Smiling wryly to herself, she wondered, “Does she like snowball fights? Not when I’m done with her!” Gathering her inner strength, she blew on the asteroid with a great force from her vast respiratory reserve. A great, frigid cyclone she blew, colder and more powerful than Earth has ever known. The great rock was soon covered in ice, a layer that would become so thick it increased the body’s size by nearly one and a half times.

  Now it was time to return it. She knew she must send it back to Misery much faster, much harder than it had come. A simple collision would not do it. She had to create a massive force.

  Calling once again on her super breath, she blew a great wind. But she did not let it stop there. She followed up by twirling herself around at an unimaginable speed. Within seconds, she had created a great cyclone, a unique and bizarre sight in outer space.

  She focused her storm just so, that it would hit the asteroid with the maximum impact. And impact she did. So great was the force that the asteroid became an immense and unstoppable object, shooting across the great void at a rate that light could not even approach. Were the solar system a ballpark, then the asteroid’s flight was now not like a baseball but a bullet.

  She watched as the great frozen asteroid overtook her foe. Misery has not a second to react before she was overwhelmed by the great object, swept into its momentum and shot away. Within seconds she had been thrown far into space, in a massive trajectory leading past the end of the solar system.

  “Wicked!!!” thought Ms. Infinity, “That should take care of her for a while. Still…”

  A feeling of dread began to come upon her. Misery had come a vast distance, and she had obviously not come just to play. She had fully intended to do great harm, and she would not let a setback like this stop her for long.

  This would certainly have to be kept secret. It would be wrong to bring panic to her adopted planet. As with so many parts of her life, it would stay between herself and Mom.

  And now it was coming to her that Bonnie Boring had left her job waiting. So now it was time to return and face another unpleasant reality.

  Responsibility was one of the first truly difficult lessons that Betty had to teach Bonnie. This may be difficult for all adolescents, but the luckier teens at least are given a foundation of this learning as children. Bonnie had never had the structure of a normal life; she had always been forced to live on the outside. And then after all, the world they came from could only teach very flawed lessons. The society had collapsed into a severe dictatorship very early into her life.

  Betty thus had compelling reasons why she held Bonnie’s abilities back. Without the proper lessons, Bonnie could prove very dangerous to the people around her. Betty also felt a need to watch her daughter carefully, a habit that would prove very hard to break.

  At any rate, Betty had her work cut out for her. Even the very basic concept of following rules took some learning. Bonnie was even reluctant about such simple things as crossing with the traffic light. Fortunately, this being New York City, “jaywalking” was not a behavior that exactly stood out.

  Even harder to her was the idea of following a daily schedule for sleep, meals, and school. Bonnie was not averse to the idea so much as she was confused by it. It seemed at first to be giving up a measure the freedom she had strived for. It would take her time to understand responsibility as the price of freedom. It also took her a long time to get used to being responsible for daily assignments. Yet when it came to issues with education, this was but the tip of the iceberg.

  Bonnie would ultimately embrace her responsibility very strongly. Her sense of duty would become central to her life, the core meaning of her existence. Her mother was an important reason for her success. If one learns best by example, then one could not have had a better example than Betty Boring, a solid citizen if there ever was one. Then too it was fortunate that Bonnie’s best friend was Lisa Lin, for she was as fine an example as a peer could be. Lisa was ever solid and dependable in just about all areas of life, their friendship not least. She was ever tolerant and understanding, but also lovingly honest, and quite perceptive.

  But then the lessons of responsibility are not always simple and concrete. One complex lesson is that sometimes we have more than one commitment, and that commitments can conflict.

  2. Hero Behind the Counter

  After a quick decent and a quiet transformation, Bonnie Boring slipped in through the back of The Big Box. She looked much the same as the teenage girl who had landed on the beach more than a decade earlier, now grown into a young adult. She was petite and slender, with her dark hair in a ponytail. Her face was pleasant, with large brown eyes and an expression that generally wanted to smile. She wore dark rimmed glasses and khaki pants together with her blue and yellow Big Box shirt.

  She filtered through the crowd, doing her best to be inconspicuous. As she approached the front, she failed to take notice of the loiterers scurrying out of her view as she passed. Noticing Lisa, she waved, There behind a somewhat more quiet customer service counter was her friend, eyes rolling, looking impatient, barely containing her frustration.

  “Lis Baby” called Bonnie

  “Bonnie,” answered Lisa, “Still working here I see.”

  “Yeah. Kinda got into something there…”

  “Uh, yeah, Bonnie. There’s something I wanted to say. Can we talk a moment?”

  “Sure, Lisa. It isn’t my deodorant, is it? Oh no! It is! I knew it! I’m stinking up the whole store with my B.O.! Good thing I have a friend like you who tells me the truth.”

  “Cute. No. Bonnie, please. Can you please listen a moment?”

  Lisa took Bonnie by the hand and brought her closer. “Bonnie. I love you. You know I do. It’s been great having you here. You’re cool and funny, and I like working with you a lot…”

  “Oh. Thank you,” interrupted Bonnie, “You’re all that and more but…”

  “The thing is, I’d really like to be working with you a lot more…”

  “So what you’re trying to say…”

  “I’m sick of you disappearing on me in the middle of the shift!”

  “Oh.”

  “Bonnie, I just had to handle a huge rush all by myself. My head is still reeling from all the complaints I was getting. All the creeps were out too. I had the smelly guy who holds up the line, the guy who’s always trying to con us by talking non-stop, and the drunk chick who’s always yelling. She was bad today too. I think she must have started drinking early. I really could have used you. Where you go I don’t know, but it’s not fair. I’m exhausted and I have a ton of homework tonight for nursing school. Please! Please! I need help here.”

  Bonnie smiled, but inside she felt a regret growing. Times like these were especially hard, having to apologize while knowing she coul
d not be certain of mending her wrongs. Nonetheless she spoke with a stoic humor. “I’m sorry Lisa,” she replied, “I’ll make it up to you.”

  Lisa looked at the tension in her friend’s eyes. Then she paused for a moment, shook her head and gave her friend a warm look. She smiled at Bonnie and giggled apologetically.

  “Alright. I’m sorry too. Look at me. It’s not like I do this so great. I feel like the slowest worker at The Big Box.”

  “Nah,” smiled Bonnie, “You’re fine.”

  “I have another problem. I think I got myself in trouble with Denny. A customer complained and asked for the manager. When he didn’t come he went to Yvonne.”

  “Oh! Yeah,” said Bonnie, “If he gets in trouble, he might take it out on you…Oh Lisa I’m sorry!”

  “It’s alright.”

  “I really am sorry. You know, Lisa. Anything I can do, please just ask!”

  “I know. It’s not your fault.”

  “Really. Anything at all!”

  “By the way Bonnie you do have B.O.”

  “Yeah, you’re just smelling your own farts!”

  “No way! This stink has you all over it!”

  As customers began to appear again, Bonnie saw an opportunity to make things up to Lisa. “Got this!” she exclaimed. A moment later, she was behind the counter, attending to the line. She was instantly efficient, seeming to handle each return, exchange, and complaint better and faster than just about anyone.

  “Thank you!” said Bonnie to a man after he signed a return receipt. By the time he was done signing his name, Bonnie was already well into the next transaction, adjusting a price for a coupon a customer had forgotten to use. She was sometimes dizzying to watch. She also was quick to acknowledge each customer in line as they waited. Sometimes she would even give them preliminary advice to help them move their transactions along when they came up. Whatever her particular strategies, the line moved very well when she was there. It was clear that she loved to work.