Years passed, and while I wasn’t always loyal to comic books, they were always loyal to me, available whenever I needed to escape from the rigors of this world. Then one fateful day I found myself surrounded by mountains of white boxes full of comic books, and knew I had to stop, so I went cold turkey for eight years. Sadly, I had to eliminate a large part my collection, and while not an easy thing to do, my family needed room to breathe.
But like a supervillain who gets locked up and keeps breaking out of prison, the allure of comic books is too tempting to resist. Once again, I’m buying comic books. I’m choosier, mostly purchasing back issues to help complete runs of the comics I loved so much as a kid. Along with that, I also read a lot of digital comics on my tablet. There are both economic and storage advantages to going digital, and I’ve been enjoying it very much.
These days, I share my love of comics through a weekly blog I post on my website called “Cool Comics in My Collection.” You can find it at www.edgosney.com. While visiting, consider signing up for my newsletter so that you don’t miss out on freebies and updates on my fiction. You can also find all my books and stories on Amazon, and feel free to reach out to me via email at [email protected].
REDEMPTION
BY IAN GARNER
REDEMPTION
BY IAN GARNER
October 5, 2083
Alcatraz Island
Marty Garrett, formerly known as the supervillain, Graviton, floated in silence in his anti-gravity chamber deep beneath the island. Fifteen years he’d been here. No human contact, no music, nothing. His food was sent down from a retractable tile in the roof, and a vacuum port served as a toilet. There was no bed. He simply closed his eyes and floated until the demons ceased long enough to let him drift to sleep.
How does a man spend fifteen years in silence with only his thoughts to keep him company? How does he justify his actions in his mind and fight the demons of his past?
He doesn’t.
For fifteen years, Marty Garrett had thought back on the carnage he unleashed in his youth. In 2068, his crusade of arrogance met its end. The hero, Dark Matter flew to San Francisco to put an end to Graviton’s reign of terror. After a grueling battle on the Golden Gate Bridge, Dark Matter neutralized Graviton’s gravity manipulation and forced him into submission. The government ensured that Graviton would spend the rest of his life in complete isolation without the use of his powers.
Over the years, Marty had come to grips with his actions. I won’t say that he found religion, or even that he had a change of heart, but the demons inside had tortured him for so long that he decided they had a point: He was a wicked man, and he had earned the hell he was living in. When he closed his eyes at night, he saw their faces. Everyone who’d lost their life when he tried to build his empire on the West Coast. The old man in Cupertino. The widow from San Andreas. The little girl from Mendocino County. There were hundreds more, and he had memorized every detail of their faces before they died. They haunted him with every passing day, and he convinced himself that if he had to do it over, he would have taken a different path.
The wall to Marty’s right suddenly opened to reveal a long hallway. A ramp stretched out of the darkness and into the chamber, with a team of six men in metal suits on the ramp armed with energy weapons. The leader stepped forward and addressed the prisoner.
“Martin James Garrett. I am General Arthur Smith of the New American Marine Corps. By order of the President, you are to be released from your cell to pursue a threat to national security. Failure to comply will result in your immediate execution by the firing squad gathered behind me. Should you succeed in your mission, you will be granted your freedom and an estate on the Mars colony. Do you understand?”
Marty floated a moment before breaking his silence. “I’m assuming this threat is too big for the military to handle?”
“A super-powered menace by the name of Luxor has been carving a path to Las Vegas. All attempts to subdue him have failed.”
“You are aware that I’m a supervillain, right? I leveled most of San Francisco. Why don’t you call one of the Nobles, like Dark Matter?”
“Dark Matter was defeated on Mercury in a confrontation with the Sun Warriors ten years ago. The Nobles have disbanded and now the common man must resist.”
Marty smirked.
“You’re afraid, aren’t you? Why else would your president order my freedom? What does Luxor have that scares you all so much?”
“The United States of New America does not fear terrorists.”
“Yet you come to me for help? Surely you all must realize how this could backfire. You fear me, General, even in this cell that strips me of my power. You know what I am capable of. You dreaded coming here the moment the President gave his order. That’s why you come here with your armed guards. You are afraid, yes, but you are desperate. That’s the only reason why you’re here.”
General Smith did not respond. His heart skipped a beat for a second, only a second, and Marty watched the blood drain from his face.
“I ask again, what does this Luxor have over you that frightens you so?”
“Absolute power over light and energy. He’s taken half of the West Coast already. Everything from Seattle to San Francisco is completely dark. If he crosses the Rockies, the rest of the country will surely follow.”
“Thank you. Explain his powers to me.”
“His power set seems to rely upon a cloak he wears. This cloak appears to be made of the light he steals from any energy source he finds. Street lamps, headlights, even cell phone flashlights fuel his power. He has complete control over the light his cloak gathers, manipulating light waves in ways we have never seen before. The cloak allows him to fly, blind his enemies, and unleash devastating heat attacks.”
“Do we know his weaknesses?”
“As of now, it would appear he has none. When we shoot bullets, he melts them. When we fire fission blasts, he absorbs them. We’ve thrown everything we know how to throw at him, and he just laughs in our faces.”
Marty closed his eyes. The young girl from Andersville zipped across his mind. Alright, alright. I’ll go. “Why me?”
Smith stood a little straighter, as if regaining his courage. “If it were up to me, you’d stay down here. I’d put our nation’s safety in the hands of capable, honorable men. Unfortunately, Luxor has far more power than New America’s military might, and every Super on the planet is gone. All but Luxor and you.”
The blood in Marty’s veins ran ice cold. “All of them? I…how?”
“Once Dark Matter died, the Nobles disbanded. Those that didn’t die in various skirmishes around the planet took the fight to the Sun Warriors. During the Mercury War, every Super alive, even the ones with criminal records, sacrificed themselves to annihilate Mercury and drive back the Sun Warriors. Earth dodged a bullet, but an entire superhuman race was lost.”
A moment of silence passed. “So it really is just me then.”
“I’m afraid so.”
Marty thought back to his youth, back to the days when he and his allies ruled California with an iron grip. Shockwave, Lightbeam, Thundercrack, all of them. Gone. And what was their legacy? Who would remember them? The demons, maybe. “I’ll do it. I’ll take this kid down. But you and your superiors need to understand that I’m doing this so I can sleep at night. That’s it.”
“To be honest, I don’t care why you do it. I just want to see this punk brought down. Besides, he specifically asked to fight you.”
“He what?”
Smith took a tablet out of the suit’s shell and turned it on. “This video was sent to the Pentagon two days ago following an assault on a diner in Mendocino County. One more reason the President ordered your release.”
Marty hovered down to the ramp and took the tablet. On screen was a young man, freckled, dressed in a cheap white outfit. “Good lord, he really is just a kid.”
“Just watch the video.”
Marty hit the play button. The
video was low quality, but clear enough to show the utter devastation the young man had caused.
“Citizens of New America: I am your God, Luxor! Too long have you lived in darkness. As your savior, I will usher you all into a time of enlightenment and warmth as my Children of Light. But before this happens, the False God must die. I call upon you to release the heretic, Graviton. Have him meet me in Las Vegas, where I shall end him and wipe away his legacy. Once I have dealt with him, I will conquer all of New America and lead you, my children, into a new era of prosperity. You have three days to bring him to me, or I fly to Washington and raze your capital. Do not keep me waiting.” The video ended as a heat wave rippled through the small town, incinerating the diner and other nearby buildings.
Marty handed the tablet back to the general. “Alright. Let’s go to Vegas.”
• • •
October 3, 2083
Mendocino County, California
Terry’s Diner in the quiet town of Andersville was exceptionally busy on October 5. The football team, The Andersville Aardvarks, were well on their way to state playoffs, and Terry Gibson was scrambling to keep plates filled and bellies full on that bright Friday afternoon.
“Hey Terry, fix me up one of your jalapeño omelets and a side of hash browns,” Bill Harris grumbled as he tried to fit his girth on the stool at the counter.
“No problem, Bill.” Terry was a patient man, well into his fifties, if not more. A picture of his granddaughter hung above the grill where all the magic happened for the hungry folks of Andersville.
Bill unfolded his newspaper as the waitress filled his coffee and hustled around the diner to serve the other customers. “Can’t believe they still got him.”
“What’s that?” Terry asked, flipping the omelet.
“The gravity freak. Fifteen years they’ve had him. Must be a record for these superfreaks.”
Terry slid Bill his omelet, then looked at the headline.
FIFTEEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF GRAVITON CAPTURE
Terry shook his head and poured himself a water. “I remember that day. Nearly leveled San Francisco until Dark Matter came in and held him in that vacuum bubble.”
“Two hundred dead, another hundred injured. Millions in damages, and half of that’s thanks to that hotshot coming in to ‘neutralize’ him.”
“I don’t think Dark Matter meant harm. Just doin’ what he had to do. Shame he went and got himself killed.”
“If you ask me, the world’s better without the whole lot of ’em. Back when I was a kid, you had normal folks and that was it. You had a grudge with somebody, you took them behind the gym and then shook hands. No lasers from the face or stretchy-arm nonsense. No, we had to go and drop A-bombs on the Middle East and play God like there wouldn’t be any consequence. Aw, don’t look at me like that, you know as well as I do that we did this to ourselves.”
Terry shrugged. It was true that the increase of superhuman activity over the past fifty years was linked to atomic warfare between the U.S. and the Middle East. While most of the Eastern Seaboard had suffered heavy losses, the Middle East had suffered far worse. Those who didn’t die in the blasts were exposed to long-term radiation. Most died soon after, but those who didn’t started showing strange symptoms. The first case was reported out of New Manhattan, ten years after New York was nuked. A woman was running down an alley, trying to escape a group of muggers. She came to a chain link fence at the end of the alley and jumped. The only problem was that she didn’t land until she was three miles away. She landed down in a city park and stunned those gathered into silence, then reverence. The world was never the same.
“They’re not all bad.” Terry said.
“How can you say that? After what you’ve lost, I should think you’d be more bitter.”
“It was a long time ago, Bill. I’ve done my grieving, hating, and crying. Holding a grudge won’t bring Mel back. I won’t die with bitterness in my heart.”
Bill sipped his coffee and shrugged. “I reckon you’re a better man than I am.” Terry nodded, then went back to scrubbing the grill.
The flash of light burst into the diner through the glass window, blinding everyone sitting near it. Bill, old and frail, fell from his stool. Customers screamed and panicked while Terry tried to make sense of the confusion. Another light wave came, then another, and another. A massive strobe light, brighter than the sun, poured through the window. Terry hid his face with his hand, praying for it to stop.
The lights stopped. The diner went quiet with fear and shock, and Terry stood from behind the bar, searching for the source of the danger.
A young man, freckled, with a white domino mask and leather outfit stood in the doorway. A yellow cloak surrounded him, as if the light itself clothed him.
“People of Andersville, I have just one thing to say. You people really need to lighten up.” The young man swaggered into the diner, past the half blind patrons who were now cowering in their booths. He walked to the counter where Bill’s newspaper sat undisturbed. Terry slowly reached for the gun under the counter.
“Listen here,” Terry said. “I don’t want any trouble. You want money? Here, you can have it. I’ll open the register for you. It’s not much, but you can take it.”
The young man in white looked down at the now unconscious Bill and took his chair. He glanced down at the headline, then up at Terry. “I’m not here for your money. I’m on a quest for enlightenment.”
“Enlightenment?”
“In a very literal sense, yes.” The man in white snapped his fingers and the lights in the diner shut down. The cloak began to glow much brighter now, as if it was feeding off the diner’s energy supply. “I’ve come a long way to seek my fortune, friend. But you see, I’m lacking a certain…I dunno, challenge, I guess. I left Seattle three days ago and drained every last Podunk town of its power. Sure, the local cops shot at me and of course, I laughed when I torched them. It’s all too easy.”
Terry slowly cocked the 10 millimeter. “I’m sorry to hear that. But I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ask you to leave. Bad for business, you see.”
The young man grinned and looked his senior in the eye. “Right. Well, what if I don’t feel like leaving?”
Terry whipped the gun up and fired at the young man, thunder cracking in the hollow diner walls.
In a split second, the glowing cape engulfed the bullet between the barrel and its master’s face. The bullet glowed red-hot, then melted in place. The gun did the same thing, and Terry howled in pain as his right hand turned to ash up to his elbow. “You shouldn’t have done that, friend. I told you to lighten up, didn’t I?”
The diner’s remaining patrons bolted through the door as the man in white used his cape to throw Terry through the window into the street. The young man strode through the door to stand over his target. “My name is Luxor, and I am the God of Light. You will hear my demand and you will comply.”
Terry, now scraped and bloody, rolled over and stared his attacker in the eye. “What do you want, kid?”
“Tell Graviton to meet me in Las Vegas. I want to see the light leave his eyes when he realizes his power over New America has ended. I will end him, and I will build a brighter future for all who would worship me, my Children of Light!”
Terry stood to his feet and looked down at the super-powered menace in front of him. He couldn’t be more than twenty years old. “And what if I don’t feel like delivering your message?”
Luxor’s eyes changed from blue to red as his temper boiled over. His cape whipped up and across to Terry, smothering him in light and heat. Within seconds, all that remained of the kind old fry cook was a pile of ash. Luxor reached in his pocket and pulled out a phone.
“I told him to lighten up.”
• • •
Graviton stepped out of the holding cell that held him captive for nearly two decades. The warm California sun beamed down on him as he breathed in the salt air. It was a beautiful day.
“I’ve been a
uthorized to give you back your old suit. I’m sure it’s preferable to prison orange,” Smith said, walking to the Apache on the landing pad.
“I won’t argue with that.” Marty felt the familiar buzz of energy around his hands as his powers slowly returned. A flash of pain arced through his head as his dormant powers awoke.
Smith stepped into the chopper and pulled out a metal case. He opened it, pulled out a black and silver jumpsuit with gauntlets and boots. “Here you go. You can suit up in the chopper.”
Marty gritted his teeth and took deep breaths until the pain subsided. He stretched out his right hand and the air hummed with power. The suit rose from the case and hovered over to Marty’s outstretched hand. “I’d forgotten how good that feels.”
“Must be nice,” Smith said, unamused.
Marty stepped in the chopper and began to remove the orange jumpsuit. “It has its perks, I suppose.” A minute later, Graviton stepped out of the chopper in his full regalia. “Mostly, it just makes me angry.”
“Why, because you can’t lasso the moon or shoot lasers from your eyes?”
“Because my life has been robbed from me. I’ve spent nearly two decades powerless in a white room.”
“You made the choices that put you there.”
“And I have to live with that. If I hadn’t been born like this, I wouldn’t have to fight these demons.”
“We all have demons. Yours are just different from mine.”
Graviton looked the general in the eye for a long while. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For giving me this chance to die in peace.”
“What do you mean?”
“Goodbye, General.” The ground rumbled and loose gravel hovered above the ground as Graviton’s boots left the earth. “I’ve got a light to dim.”
• • •
World Domination Page 15
