Superheroes in Prose Volume Seven: I, Galaxy

by Sevan Paris

  Wait, why destroy the building? It’s got the Dark Lighter which … holy crap. He took it. And the finger bone.”

  Most likely. But where would he take it?

  “ ‘The world’s stage’ … I can think of one place.”

  ***

  The Moon … Liberty was the first person to set foot there back in 1941.

  Neil Armstrong stepped onto its surface twenty-eight years later, right next to Liberty’s famous boot-print. The accomplishment was celebrated the world over. Technology had placed the achievement of The World’s Greatest Hero within reach. If mankind could accomplish this “giant leap,” what other kind of awesome waited for them? Was there anything they couldn’t do? Armstrong found out fifteen minutes later, when he rounded the next hill and saw a twenty story metal spire stretching into space.

  The Lunar Lair of Major Mayhem.

  According to herowiki, Mayhem then took Armstrong and his fellow astronauts hostage, demanding an outrageous ransom for those that had “trespassed on his sovereignty.”

  Liberty, Texas Twister, Amazon, and Sequoyah were at the Lunar Lair’s metal doors less than an hour later. They pounded, blew, cut, and blasted their way through automated laser turrets, robot guards, and Supervillains that Mayhem had managed to recruit (Perilous, Human Heat, and Crises). Sequoyah reached the inner most part of the Lair before the others, right where Mayhem was. Sequoyah let loose with an energy blast, which bounced harmlessly off Mayhem and then pierced the side of the base’s nuclear reactor. The lower levels contained most of the explosion, but enough awfullness escaped to kill everyone there except Liberty, Amazon, and Major Mayhem himself.

  When the news reported the incident, they said Sequoyah and the others died saving humanity on a “world’s stage.”

  Mayhem escaped from custody eleven times since then. Each time, he tried to recapture the Lunar Lair. And each time, Superheroes stopped him. The U.S., plus a few other nations, kept a constant rotation of Superheroes there, waiting for attempt number thirteen. Because Mayhem was a level nine threat, and because his powers included ridiculously slow aging, it had looked like nobody except Superpowered government types would be setting foot on the Moon anytime ever.

  Then Thatcher happened.

  According to the janky security footage that somebody leaked to the Internet days later, Thatcher broke into the Lair and took out all five Superheroes in under two minutes. Russian Red received an energy blast to the face. Rising Sun, same thing. Diamant managed to change into her diamond form right before Thatcher’s blast shattered her (the most horrible part about that one is that she is still alive). Jumpstarter ran to the comm system, but Thatcher blew him in half before he could get a signal to Earth. Blunderbuss almost hurt Thatcher with that exploding fist power thing, but Thatcher blasted away a nearby panel, exposing the room to space. I guess Blunderbuss is still out there, cartwheeling through the solar system somewhere.

  After wiping off what was left of Jumpstarter from the comm system, Thatcher sent his transmission to Earth. He was smoking one of Blunderbuss’ cigars when another console nearby started flashing, telling him that I was almost there.

  ***

  Gabe, here he comes. The incident in the lab has obviously made the man psychotic. I’m not sure baiting him out like this is a good idea. We should have just attacked, utilizing the element of surprise.

  A small dot moved my way from the Moon, slowly growing in size. “If he’s moved that Dark Lighter thingy into Mayhem’s old base, surprise won’t mean jack. As soon as we’re near it, everything will go berserk again.”

  Somehow, I have a feeling our effects upon the general outcome of today’s events will mean ‘jack’ regardless. I’m picking up a massive amount of interference from Thatcher, probably having something to do with his new powers.

  “Ya think? Look, just don’t worry about him. As soon as he clears the Moon, start scanning it. When you find the Dark Lighter, let me know. We’ll just blast the stupid thing.”

  Very well, but from this distance, it may take a great deal of time for me to find it. You’ll need to distract him somehow.

  I sighed. “Of course I will.”

  On the plus side, you’ll gain another opportunity to engage in that Superhero/Supervillain banter you seem so fond of.

  Thatcher slowly flew into view: His body was a silhouette, like mine. But inside, he was white instead of black. And covered by slowly moving black globs, always combing and separating with one another. The colors shifted every few seconds, white became black, black became white.

  A basketball shaped metal object quickly hummed up beside us. I was about to blast it into a million pieces when I recognize it as one of Major Mayhem’s broadcast pods. They allow people to communicate in a vacuum.

  Thatcher straightened from his flight, so that we were both hovering there, miles above the Earth, looking eye-to-eye.

  “Welcome …” He turned his head slightly sideways. “I never got your name last time?”

  “Galaxy.” I poured as much confidence into the word as I could.

  A black glob rolled over the inside of Thatcher’s shoulder, disappearing to his back. “A bit on the nose, isn’t it?”

  Go ahead and try Unfettered Might on him, Gabe. See how that one does.

  “What have you done with the Superheroes in Mayhem’s base?” I said.

  “Them? Oh they’re dead.”

  See? Told you: Psychopath.

  He chuckled, lightly. “Does that bother you?”

  “You need help,” I said.

  “I was about to say the same of you. That’s why I invited you here, you see. I’m going to guide humanity to the shores of knowledge. Yet, much like Coleridge’s Albatross, they attack, trying to stop me from doing what’s right. It’s as if they think they’re the heroes in this equation.”

  “They are the heroes! Or at least they were until you killed them! Their sacrifices—”

  “Mean nothing! It is easy for a person to sacrifice himself for something he believes in, like when I thrusted myself into the path of your beam days ago. Demanding the lives of others with total commitment—that’s true courage, true selflessness.”

  Gabe, I have a fix on the location.

  “So what say you?” Thatcher extended his right hand, the other he kept closed at his side. “Will you accept my generous offer? To become a true hero?”

  M readied a Grav Blast in each hand.

  “I see,” Thatcher said. “Is there nothing I can say that will convince you to see the way of things?”

  “Let me put it this way—” I fired a massive Grav Blast into the Moon.

  It was the biggest, scariest blast that I’d ever fired up until that point, or since. Easily as big as a house. And could probably have torn apart Major Mayhem himself. However Thatcher, calmly but quickly, flew in the way and blocked it with the closed fist. The Grav Blast winked out of existence.

  What the what?

  It happened so fast—so unexpectedly—that it took me a moment to process. I laughed, trying to cover up my surprise. “D-Don’t you remember what happened last time, Thatcher? Don’t you ever learn?”

  “My dear boy,” he said, a little short on breath. “I’ve done nothing but learn my entire life.” He opened his fist, showing the small object resting in his palm: Sequoyah’s finger bone. “And Thatcher is dead. I’m Dark Light now.”

  And then it all clicked. “You don’t have the Dark Lighter in Mayhem’s base, do you?”

  “Pieces of it are, the ones that I use to record data. As for the rest of the machine … well, I AM the rest of the machine.”

  “I just opened it up for you,” I said. “With my Grav Blast and your powers and that thing in your hand, I just—”

  There was a massive humming from all around me. Blue clusters popped into existence, slowly moving toward one another.

  Dark Light’s cheeks rose into a grin. “Recreated the experiment.”

  Oh crap.

  T
he vibrating circles of light pulled at me like an undertow.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me—” Dark Light held up the bone between thumb and forefinger. “I have knowledge to spread to the masses.”

  The bone …

  I raised my hand, queuing M for a Grav Beam. He captured Sequoyah’s finger and jerked it to my waiting palm. “Yoink!”

  “What?” Dark Light yelled. The illuminated dark matter surrounding us disappeared. “No—!”

  Flames whooshed around my forcefield as I dove, reentering the Earth’s atmosphere.

  …. Gabe, this is a tactically unwise decision.

  “Is he right on us?”

  A massive, yellow burst of energy sizzled past my right side, burning away the clouds in front of me.

  That answer your question?

  “M, can we just destroy this bone thing-a-ma-jig?! Blast it or whatever?!”

  No. It has too much energy coursing through it. As destructive as Dark Light will be with it—

  Another beam heated up the sky to my left.

  —the power that may be released upon destroying the phalanx may be just as destructive … or worse.

  “What?! He never said anything about that!”

  In case you haven’t noticed, Gabe, he doesn’t exactly consider all the variables.

  The clouds opened up—the blue of the Atlantic Ocean stretched in all directions. Another blast sizzled past, hitting the water and mushrooming it into the air.

  “Can we hide it?”

  Assuming he can’t simply detect its presence, yes.

  I jerked right, barely missing another blast. Dark Light yelled from somewhere behind me.

  “Fine, let’s do that then! Where can we put it?”

  Right in front of you. There is the chance that the pressure may release its energy, but at least the ocean will minimize the effects.

  I shook my head. “No way. I”m not going to be the person pissing off the Queen of Atlantis again, risking another invasion. What if—”

  One of Dark Light’s blasts hit me.

  I went to the water, skipping hard across its surface. Once, twice—on the third bounce, the world slowed … I cartwheeled, flinging the bone out of my hand, bounced again and reached up … I was almost at it—I swear I touched it with the tip of my middle finger—

  Dark Light palmed it away from me and streaked into the distance, sending up a trench of water in his wake.

  I rushed out of the water and stopped to a hover, inches from the ocean’s surface. “Which way?”

  Left.

  I turned right.

  Your other left.

  I turned left. And saw a trail of blue blobs leading into the horizon. They vibrated and started clinging to one another.

  I took off, giving it as much speed as I had. “Is there anyway we can put some of yourself in that-that phalanx? Permanently?”

  Why in The Void would you ask me that?

  The shores of Florida blur underneath.

  “Just answer the question!”

  …. No.

  M’s hesitation told me there was more to it. But I decided to just put a pin in it, hoping the hiding-the-thing plan would still work. “Can you tell why Dark Light’s generating so much interference?”

  Somehow, the accident granted his body the ability to create and harness the energy produced from matter and antimatter collisions.

  “Like the Dark Lighter?”

  Somewhat. The energy is what’s fueling his power, causing the interference and—I imagine—broken his already feeble, human mind.

  The lights of Atlanta streaked under me. Man, the guy can haul.

  “This matter/antimatter stuff. Is that anything that we can use?”

  Not unless we find a way to counter his body’s regulation of it. Which I DO NOT recommend, by the way.

  I caught up with Dark Light over Rixson, a suburb just a few miles past the North Shore of Prose. He turned, looking at me.

  And then I tackled him in mid-air, head on.

  We plowed through the roof of Northplace Mall—tumbling and slamming through two floors of metal, concrete and drywall. The crash into the bottom floor of a toy store separated us, and sent me skidding through five rows of metal shelving.

  …. I just lied there for a moment, against a pile of stuffed animals, chest heaving. It wasn’t from the impact, and by that I mean I wasn’t hurt or anything. It was from the idea of the impact. The idea of flying over the Atlantic just moments ago. The idea of fighting someone in space moments before that. The idea that the whole world may be depending on me not to screw up … for some reason, it all hit me like an anvil right then, and I had a really hard time pulling myself back together.

  Gabe? Are we just going to lie hear until the crazy person kills us?

  I stood, letting chunks of ceiling slide off my back. “Where—” I coughed, trying to find my voice—“where is it?”

  The phalanx is several feet to your right, directly underneath that pile of promiscuous dolls.

  Underneath the flickering lights, a pile of Barbie dolls laid beside me. I stepped towards them, reached out—

  And Dark Light’s energy beam slammed into me.

  I doubled over—went straight through the store’s display window and smashed into a water fountain at the mall’s center hallway.

  I kicked a piece of the fountain out of my way and stood, nearly slipping in the ankle deep water. Most of the fifty or so people around us were smart enough to run; other idiots held up camera phones.

  Dark Light slowly hovered out of the toy store’s window, white and black colors of his body quickly shifting back and forth. “Where is it?” He said in a cool, dangerous voice.

  “Anybody directly behind him?” I say to M, under my breath. “Like, for like a long way?”

  What difference does it make?

  “We don’t want to hurt anybody!” I say.

  No, the coast is as clear as a human mind.

  Yellow balls of hissing and popping energy surrounded Dark Light’s hands. He stabbed a finger at me. “Then let me have it!”

  I let him have it.

  Two Grav Blasts struck Dark Light’s chest, sending his arms and legs flailing in front of him. He smashed through the toy store, through Hot Topic, through Aeropostale, through the Verizon store, and landed in Zales.

  I waited—as people ran from the entrance of each store, cutting paths through the smoke-filled mall … debris falling, glass clinking on the ground—I waited to see if it would be enough. Waited to see if Dark Light was out of the fight. Waited to see if I could finally deal with this dark matter thing, permanently.

  And then there he was, making my heart sink and shoulders slump. Dark Light hovered out—on the other side of the thick smoke—and looked at me with horrible, glowing yellow eyes. The few people still left around me, even the ones with the camera phones, backed up. Way up.

  Dark Light flew straight at me, swirling the smoke around him.

  The air around me shimmered as M cranked up the juice to the force field.

  Dark Light fired two beams from each hand. One splintered a wooden kiosk at my right. The other three fizzled off my force field, pushing me back a little.

  I fired back with a steady rhythm of Grav Blasts, like they were coming out of a machine gun. Every blast flashed into nothing before touching Dark Light.

  Apparently, we can add force fields to his list of powers. What now?

  “We try the direct approach.”

  I flew straight at him, fists in front of me.

  And then we smashed into each other.

  Our force fields bowed inward as they touched and—just when my fist was inches from his face—the fields popped out, throwing us in opposite directions. I bounced back into the toy store and rolled into the pile of “promiscuous” dolls.

  I shoved the last of them off me as Dark Light flew into the toy store. He pointed his glowing yellow fist at me. “Where is it?”

  “Where’
s what?”

  Smooth.

  He screamed, and the energy leapt from his fist, punching me in the chest. That energy—it was different than the others. My force field still absorbed it … but I felt it. And it hurt.

  “What …?” I said.

  “Oh, that? That was my finally being serious. Taking off the kid gloves, so to speak.”

  The signature of his energy blasts has changed, Gabe. I may be able to adjust our force field accordingly, but it will take time.

  “Perfect.” I stood, slowly.

  Of course, we’ll probably be dead by then …

  “Where?” Dark Light said, “Is. It?”

  “Don’t know, dude. Look around? I’ve been, like, kind of busy.”

  He hit me with another blast, slamming me through the pile of dolls and into a support column in the middle of the store.

  I fell to my knees, trying to find my breath. M’s right. I couldn’t take much more.

  Dark Light hovered closer, yellow energy crackling from each hand. “I know you can sense objects, the data recorded from the Dark Lighter machine told me that much. So I know you can probably sense the phalanx, wherever it may be.”

  “Newsflash, pal: You’re body throws off all kinds of interference.” I leaned against the column. “I can’t sense shit when I’m near you.”

  “Perhaps.” Another bolt slammed into me, knocking me through the column and into the back wall. “Perhaps not.”

  I pulled myself out of the shallow hole and collapsed to the ground.

  “I think that it is far more likely that you’re simply stalling for other Superheroes to show up.”

  Well there went that idea.

  “So, let’s expedite things, shall we?” Dark Light flew into the hall. A man wearing a red flannel shirt and a blue ball cap backed away. Dark Light was on him in a flash, clutching the man by the throat. He hovered back into the toy store, dragging the man behind him. The ball cap slid to the floor.

  “Now,” Dark Light’s hand sizzled, “I’m not going to say it again.” The man screamed. I heard Brent and Noel scream with him.