The Powers That Be: A Superhero Collection

by Swardstrom, Will

  Around here, I guess everyone was hiding away or perhaps were protected by security or police like back in the train station. I glanced in the window to my left and saw people huddled in the back of Hank’s Pharmacy.

  A big commotion took my attention away from the people in the back of the store. I looked left and peeked around the pharmacy north up Yellowtail. There were bubbles everywhere, some as small as Easter Eggs, and some large enough I could fit easily inside one of them—going everywhere the next street over. A green blur was speeding through the maze of bubbles. Apparently, he must’ve found his way out of the train station.

  I didn’t like the idea of leaving the safety of the corner, but the closest El train stop was one more block after this one and a couple of blocks over. Hopefully I could make it. I really wanted to. I made my mind up. I was going.

  I darted across the street and made it to the wall. I glanced behind me and saw nothing. I hugged the wall and started walking east toward Benjamin Avenue when I saw a large shadow float over my head and to the right. I was only mildly surprised when I noticed a city bus gliding overhead. The flutter of a purple cape dangled over the back end of the bus, meaning the bus wasn’t flying on fossil fuels.

  I started running. There was an entrance for tours of the upper floors of Eagle Point Tower—also known as Skyvision—just ahead and I bolted for it. The sound of what could only be a bus ramming into the glass and metal side of the tower came from above. The door was in reach and I quickly ran inside. Outside, glass and other debris rained to the ground.

  Someone called out from behind a counter, “We’re closed!”

  I called back, “It’s okay, I’m just trying to get out of the rain.”

  A face peeked around the desk. The young lady wore a blue Richards Tower Skyvision polo with khakis. She squinted my way for a second, but seemed to recognize I wasn’t a threat. “Right,” she said. “You could wait it out over here with me, if you like.”

  I took a tentative step forward, then stopped. I’m not sure why I hesitated, but I’m glad I did because a moment later, the ceiling collapsed right on the girl’s desk. I must’ve heard the noise subconsciously and started moving before it registered. The bus I’d seen outside was suddenly peeking through the ceiling panels, screeching and grinding as it plunged through the steel-braced roof. I dove to the right as debris scattered everywhere.

  I waited a few seconds as the dust cleared and my hearing came back. When my senses returned, I looked back to where I’d been standing and was shocked to find the front fender of a city bus suspended a few feet from the floor. The steel beams kept the bus from slamming into the floor, but not before it trapped the Skyvision Girl behind her desk. A scream startled me and I jumped to my feet.

  “Help!” I heard the young woman cry from behind her desk.

  I ran back to where the desk was. “Was” being the key term, as it was now in splinters. The girl was stuck between the tires of the bus, a rolling office chair, and the remains of the desk. The bus continued to creak. There was no guarantee this situation was going to remain stable. If you could even call this “stable.”

  I gave a quick look in the windows of the bus, relieved it was unoccupied. Thankfully, I only had to worry about Skyvision Girl.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I…I think so. My ankle hurts, but I can’t tell if it’s just pinned, or broken,” she said.

  “Okay. Let me see what I can do.”

  I walked around the desk a few times before I lay down on the floor and kicked at the office chair until it gave way from whatever it was stuck on. I grabbed the girl’s hands and pulled. At first, the girl was in no position to help, but as soon as I pulled her forward a bit she was able to help wiggle the rest of the way out.

  We shared a quick hug as dust continued to fall from the rafters. Thankfully the bus didn’t shift forward anymore along with that dust. I pulled away from Skyvision Girl and she said breathlessly, “Thank you. That was amazing.”

  “Umm, you’re welcome,” I managed to say while looking around the building to check on the situation. The building was a glass atrium so I could see everything going on outside on three sides.

  “What’s your name?” she asked. “I want to remember the name of the person who saved me. I’m Candie, by the way.”

  The bus began creaking louder on the rafters. It didn’t seem very stable. I started pulling her away from the potential drop zone. “My name is Janie,” I said distractedly. “I’m very glad you didn’t get crushed today.”

  Candie giggled a bit and returned a somewhat awkward knowing smile. “Me too,” she said, looking toward the bus. “I think I’m going to wait this out in the sub-basement. Do you want to come?”

  I looked up through the hole in the roof. Magne-something was swinging a light pole toward a large man in red and blue. I couldn’t remember his moniker either. Megasomething? Supra…? It soon didn’t matter. The man in red grabbed the swinging light pole and hurled it along with the purple man attached to it over his shoulder. I couldn’t see where he would end up from this angle, but it would surely be several blocks away. The man in red turned and seemed to blast off after him.

  Perhaps this was a break in the action. I thanked Candie for her offer and ran for the exit. I crunched over some glass as I reached the curb and looked all around. It seemed as if the action was happening several blocks west, back on the other side of the train station.

  Turning away from Eagle Point Tower, I ran the other way towards the El, just a block away. The El, which someone at some point in time had shortened from Elevated Train, was a different train system than the one that brought me into the city. The El train served only the downtown of Galeburgh while the commuter train I came back to the city on ran to the suburbs each day. My hope was to catch one of the north-south El routes.

  That’s where I was headed now. While the El itself was just a block away from Eagle Point, the problem was that the closest station was two blocks to the north by Murphy Street. By the time I reached the El, I could see some action taking place near the entrance. Again with the green blur and the bubbles. I want to say Green Flashy Pants Man and Bubble Wonder Magic? Whatever. I really didn’t care what they called themselves.

  I was at Fargo Avenue and I was forced to choose left or right. Right in front of me sat a jackknifed city bus, blocking any forward progress on Jackson. What is it with city buses today?

  I turned towards Murphy and started jogging, all the while checking every alley, window, and car for anything amiss. I pulled up when I realized the danger wasn’t beside me, but in front of me. Cars, trucks, and yes…more buses were littering the street. It was typical rush hour, bumper to bumper, but every vehicle was vacant. They all must’ve left their vehicles quickly.

  If they left them willingly. None of the doors to the vehicles were open.

  Crap. I remember somebody at work talking about some new “super-villain” who could vaporize people inside their cars. Vapo-man or something like that.

  What had I just walked into?

  There had been no confirmed sightings of this supposed “Vapo-man” or whatever he was called. After all, if someone had seen him, they would probably be vaporized the next instant. He’d only been around a few months and each time he struck it was only one highly localized event. Still, I was in no mood to test that theory.

  I stumbled back, now afraid to continue on my current path. I remembered another El stop a few blocks in the other direction, so I slowly turned around, watching the sky every step of the way.

  It was time to re-evaluate my journey home.

  At this point I figured my best bet was to follow Fargo south to Martin Avenue. From there the station was about two blocks over to the left, east on Martin. Things were deserted here too, but it was not nearly so messy. My mind began to wander and I found myself freaking out just a little bit. Before I knew it, I was huddled in a random doorway, clutching my knees and hyperventilating.

&n
bsp; Keep it together, Janie, I told myself. You just need to keep your eyes on the prize. Just get home.

  It took a few minutes, but I regulated my breathing and stepped back onto the sidewalk. The lack of cars—and those ubiquitous city buses—on Fargo meant I could move a little quicker and I began to jog down the street.

  Being on the street under the El train felt a bit like being in a tunnel. There were buildings on each side, the street and sidewalks below and the elevated track above. The track itself wasn’t a solid platform, so daylight seeped through the girders and track sections and on each side, but darkness took over under the El. It was tough to see more than half a block ahead from the street level when other vehicles were on the road.

  After crossing back over Jackson on Fargo, one massive building took up the entire block on the left. On the right, I passed a deserted Jamba Juice, a Panda Express and then a parking garage that took up most of the remaining block. I’m not sure what’s after that because I didn’t make it that far.

  Two things happened when I was jogging towards Martin Avenue. The first thing was that I congratulated myself on remembering my athletic shoes this morning and switching them for my pumps on the commuter train that had pulled into Westinghouse Station just minutes earlier. The second thing was that I thought I was going to die as I passed the parking garage on my right.

  Suddenly, as if a tornado had struck the parking structure, there was a deafening noise. I ducked behind an abandoned beer truck as massive plumes of dust and smoke erupted from the side of the garage. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but when I looked to the other side of the concrete structure, it appeared to have collapsed.

  All I know is that it got a lot darker and dirtier all of a sudden. I stayed crouched where I was for a bit to let things settle around me. I was about to get up and keep going when I heard a very loud crunching sound ahead of me. This noise was more immediate and terrifying. I was afraid another bus was heading for my cranium and I dove for cover behind the beer truck again.

  After a few moments I peeked around the side of the truck and squinted to look. The dust in the air was still quite thick but the only thing I could think that it could be was one of the two massive antennas from the top of Eagle Point Tower. I crept forward a bit to look closer when the other large antenna dropped with a crash beside the first.

  I yelped. Or screamed, or something. It wasn’t very ladylike. I scrambled back to the beer truck for the limited cover it provided. I don’t think anyone noticed. There was no one around. About that time the second antenna rose up, and then dropped. And rose up again and…slammed into the sides of the buildings on Martin. The gigantic white antenna started jerking in every direction in a quick, unpredictable motion. I had to admit to myself I couldn’t go any further; I’d get blended into a Janie shake. All I would need was some whipped cream and a cherry on top.

  The dust eventually cleared enough for me to spy a figure in red and blue tights. He appeared to be holding on to the antenna for dear life as it thrashed him around like a bucking horse. The other antenna was levitated off the ground by an unknown force and it tried to pin Red and Blue Tights Man against the other antenna like a bug between chopsticks. As far as I could tell through the dust and debris, the man in red was able to evade or bat off those attempts.

  It was obvious I had to make another decision. As long as this struggle was happening, that way was blocked for someone like me. I had to go back. Shaking my head, I turned away from the action and went back the way I’d come.

  About halfway back towards Jackson Street a large bubble with a man inside rounded the corner. Bubbles appeared to spew out from his central bubble in every direction. I stopped and watched his bubble bounce up to the deck where the El trains would pass. Sure. He can get up there, but I can’t.

  A bright green blur appeared from around the corner and zipped up a staircase. I looked up through the cracks and watched the green blur zip over my head and then hesitate. Abruptly bubbles came cascading off the deck above and behind me. The sound of popping bubbles was accompanied by occasional glimpses of the green blur zipping left and right above my head and behind me.

  The two superpowered guys must have really been going after each other. I couldn’t see much of the action, but I was seeing the bubbles bounce down from the track above. I turned towards Jackson and Murphy and began to make my way through the maze of vehicles in front of me.

  The sounds of whooshing air and popping bubbles seemed to be increasing in volume behind me. I don’t know what those guys were doing, but it was making quite a racket. I attempted to run faster. At this point my plans of escaping this mess by train were gone; I simply hoped to survive. I pulled the strap of my briefcase over my head and cursed myself inwardly for being so foolish as to try to continue to get home through this…this…fiasco.

  I made it back to the corner of Fargo and Jackson. I felt like I hadn’t made any progress at all. I could just turn and go back to the train station and wait it out. Would I turn back that direction? As I peeked around the corner I saw what looked like a war zone. A cement truck which hadn’t been there just minutes before blocked the way back to the train station. At least it wasn’t a bus this time.

  I decided that there was no action for me to take on Jackson. I crossed the street in a hurry and made a break for Murphy.

  Bubbles began to drop off each side of the El track and through the gaps in the track platform above and around me, and soon I faced another obstacle. The bubbles stuck to anything they touched, weighing them down and restricting their movement. Trying to stay as close to the middle as I could since most of the bubbles were to the side, I found myself navigating the wreckage much more slowly, picking my way over vehicles and trying to evade stray bubbles whenever they came my way.

  It wasn’t very far to the next street over: Princeton, I think. If I could get there perhaps I could find a way out of this trap. The vehicles here were clearly abandoned. The car doors were open and some of them were even idling as the car sat in park. I breathed a sigh of relief about that. Maybe there was no Vapo-man threat after all. I climbed up onto the car in front of me and discovered the reason all the cars were left in the middle of the street. Right in front of me was a large crater half the width of the road.

  My heart sank. What was I going to do? Bubbles were now descending everywhere around me from both sides of the track above. I chanced a glance backwards in time to see the cement truck minus the mixer skidding into the road behind me. The way back was now entirely blocked.

  There was nothing else to do but go forward. I began to climb down into the crater to get to the other side. Again, I said a quick thank you to whatever deity helped remind me to put on the athletic shoes earlier. I couldn’t imagine trying to do this in my dress shoes. As it was, this outfit was probably a loss.

  I reached the bottom of the crater just in time. Everything around me began to shake. What now? I wondered.

  All of the glass in nearby panes began to crack. The scaffolding on one of the nearby buildings caused an awful racket and bricks on another one of the buildings were falling off.

  I didn’t want to know what was going to happen next. I scrambled up the other slope as fast as I could. The dirt and crumbled asphalt made the task difficult, but I reached the top just as the side of the building burst in a localized explosion about fifteen feet behind me.

  I was flung to the ground by the force of the blast. I was dazed for a second but shook the cobwebs out quickly. I did a quick mental inventory of my limbs… Everything seemed to still be attached. I might feel that one in the morning, however.

  Lying there, I saw a man step out from the hole in the building. It was Earthquake—dang! How could I remember this guy and none of the others? It didn’t matter. This psychopath wasn’t to be trifled with. It was widely publicized that this guy left a path of death and destruction everywhere he went.

  I didn’t think he’d seen me yet so I lay absolutely still, camouflaged
by the debris all around me and the coating of dust I had received from not just one, but two explosions.

  Earthquake was looking around as if he expected to find someone specific. He stepped down off the ledge and walked out into the street, behind the crater and the taxi I had climbed over. I thought about making a break for it, but waited to see if he would look away. My best chance would be if he wasn’t paying attention to me.

  All of a sudden the taxi lifted off the ground and slammed into him. Out of the ground where the taxi had been burst a giant furry man, perhaps eight or nine feet tall, with scoop-shaped claw hands. His back was to me and it looked like Earthquake was otherwise occupied with a taxi on top of him.

  I didn’t waste a minute and pulled myself up before maneuvering down the street. The earth everywhere began to shake. Earthquake must have been making a last-ditch effort to escape.

  The bubbles were getting nearly impossible to evade as well. Several stuck to my legs and it was getting so hard to move that I needed to stop behind a paneled delivery van to forcefully remove a few of them.

  Bam! The train deck made a very loud noise above. Bam! Boom! Bam! There it was again, followed by three very large dents in the girder right above me. I could see something moving up there, but I couldn’t tell what it was until the mixer from the cement truck rolled over the side and fell on the sidewalk beside me.

  Oh no.

  I had a sinking feeling. All three fights were converging on the same location. I felt like a little mouse caught in a very large, very dangerous trap.

  I took mental stock of the situation. Above me or behind me were six very powerful individuals who had already destroyed a good chunk of the city. I momentarily wondered how much money it would cost to repair the damage already incurred. Probably in the hundreds of millions, if not more.

  It wouldn’t be my money, of course, but I was almost willing to pay it to get out of there. Those six super-powered vigilantes and villains had very nearly taken me out at least four times already. True, it was mostly through the side effects of the actions they were taking against their opponents, but it was dangerous nonetheless.