The Invincibles (3 page)

Nightshadow struggled up and wobbled about on his feet. He spared a quick look back at the children, who sat in horrified, gaping silence. They seemed to be mostly all right though. He then stared numbly down at the Reaper’s body. The blue fire charred and blackened it into only a mockery of a man.

PART ONE: POWERS

Chapter 1: HYPER-LIFE

While Hyperman had stopped visibly aging decades ago, he’d only noticed this past year he was actually becoming more and more powerful over time too. He was now stronger, faster, and better than ever. For example, Diatomite-x, a glittering, ultra-hot alien substance, had once weakened or poisoned him in various ways, or even stole his powers, depending on what color it was. Nowadays, it did nothing to him. Not that this new El Dorado noticed.

Having obviously soaked himself in a golden Diatomite-x chemical bath, he shimmered and radiated vast swathes of toxic heat. Fierce liquid metal sloppily covered him, turning him into a blobby, steaming radioactive mess. All morning, Hyperman had been repairing the damage Comet Master had done to the International Space Station. His hyper-hearing picked up the distress down in New Daedalus as El Dorado melted through a bank and set all the money on fire.

“
Tell me I’m a deadbeat now!” El Dorado yelled, sloshing golden fire and burning toxic slop everywhere. “Tell me I don’t qualify for a loan! Tell El Dorado his mortgage payment is late!”

Hyperman swooped down and carried off the bank’s employees, customers, and passersby to the safety of a park a mile away before anyone got seriously hurt, before sweeping back out of the sky toward the bank.

The day had turned chilly. Trees fluttered in the sharp, sickle-like wind. A white sun hazed down. Due to El Dorado, the air smelled of burning body fat. Traffic had jammed and stopped due to the attack.

El Dorado stalked out of the charred, black-scorched bank storefront with shattered glass, melted slop, and little fires surrounding him. His footprints burned through the sidewalk.

“
BURN, FREAK!” he screamed. Thick, nova-hot radiation poured out of his fists into Hyperman and the booming blast was actually enough to knock him over. The force of the impact sent a few trees crashing through the storefront windows. Cars flipped over onto the sidewalk and bashed into townhouses. A stop sign went screeching down the pavement, and a few street poles broke and twirled through the air.

Most bystanders fled, scrambling out of their cars or stumble-sprinting away, yelping and crying. At a distance, a crowd formed to watch the spectacle. Eyes peered past window curtains in the nearby buildings. People held up their phones to photograph and record what was happening.

El Dorado’s radioactive muck was splashing everywhere and melting through the sidewalks, trees, cars, and mailboxes. Even at a distance, someone could get hurt or sick from exposure to the Diatomite-x, and everyone around stood a good chance of becoming collateral damage due to the fight.

Hyperman knew he couldn’t screw around. He needed to end this fast before someone got burned. That meant getting a little sneaky. So he feigned weakness and struggled back against El Dorado’s onslaught. He even collapsed theatrically down to one knee.

“
Yeah, fuck you!” El Dorado shouted. “You think you’re God, asshole? You’re nothing! NOTHING!”

Hyperman rolled his eyes. Had this guy ever even considered using his abilities to help people and save lives? To change the world for the better? He could generate enough power for entire countries to run on! That’d make him far, far richer than knocking over some bank! He was a horrible, horrible waste of potential and power.

After gulping up a huge, consuming breath, Hyperman blew it out. The storm of air blitzed into El Dorado and encased him in ice. The glob of radioactive energy he’d been attempting to throw also froze and stuck out from him like an awkward, overly long arm. He now resembled an uneven, blocky ice sculpture that glittered gold as beams of prismatic light ricocheted off him.

Another quick puff from Hyperman put out all the little fires prancing about the scene. Like a hurricane, he swept around the block, scooping up and eating all the radioactive material. He barely tasted it and knew his hyper-stomach acids would dissolve it all down to nothing. Still, it made him burp.

He cleaned up the bank and restored its front entrance along with the other shops and apartment buildings that got hit during the fight. Next, he repaired the craters and cracks in the street and sidewalk, remembering also to replace all the street signs, lampposts, and trees. He even fixed up the damaged cars and made it so they’d run better than ever. In no time, the whole street looked good as new.

Sirens blared, and the New Daedalus Police’s Special Science Squad came chugging up the road in their ultra-expensive, budget-breaking hovercraft. Hyperman had heard them coming from blocks off. They’d handle things from here, making the arrest and transporting El Dorado safely away.

Congratulating himself on a job well done, Hyperman made to fly off, but paused as a crowd gathered around him. Doors flew open. Cars screeched to a stop and the drivers stumbled out. People came out of their shops and homes or emerged from wherever they were hiding, all smiling and staring at Hyperman almost worshipfully. Gawking at the frozen El Dorado, they slowly and shyly approached Hyperman, hailing him as a savior.

“
Thank you, Hyperman!”

“
That was badass, dude!”

“
Marry me! I want to have your child!”

The crowd converged on him, wanting to hug him and pat him on the back. A couple of teenagers held out pens for autographs and others had their phones ready for pictures.

Hyperman’s invulnerable skin crawled. He disliked such adoration. He was only trying to do his job, and they all wanted to fall down to their knees and pray to him. Keeping everyone safe was reward enough for him. He didn’t need people wanting to build him statues and temples. He didn’t deserve it.

“
Make room!” he said. “Please! I…I have to go!”

Still, they pressed in on him, slapping him on the back and throwing their loopy, pleading smiles in his face.

“
Please!” he added, putting up his hands, trying to ward them off and make a little room. Still, they came at him, not even hearing him.

“
Go, Hyperman! Get after those dirty politicians next and show ’em what’s up!”

“
Can you find my son? He’s been missing for days!”

“
Hey, can…can you cure cancer?”

Hyperman clapped his hands together and created an ear-blasting shockwave that rung their ears and backed them all off. Now with enough room not to hurt anyone when he took off, he launched up into the sky away from their praise and expectations.

He couldn’t do everything for them. Not even he could solve all the world’s problems. He did what he could, same as anyone else. It hurt him to think he could do more and was failing, even with all his miraculous powers. If that were true, he couldn’t go on. So he tried his hardest every day to help however he could, though even he had his limits. He couldn’t be everywhere at once, doing everything, much as it shamed him. He just saved who and what he could and hoped it was enough.

***

That afternoon saw Hyperman clearing the Cyber-Yakuza with their laser swords out of Neo-Tokyo. Next, he chased down the Neon Skull in a stolen experimental warplane over the Indian Ocean. In Glimmerick City, he clamped a hand around the Broken Banshee’s mouth before she could wail and curse the entire town.

Taking a break, he sped back across multiple continents to his New Daedalus high-rise apartment and flew in through the balcony. In less than a nanosecond, he vibrated the molecules of his superhero outfit and changed them into a faded black t-shirt and lazy gray sweat pants. Now Cal Linkson with his lanky blonde hair flopping down onto his face, he kicked back on his lumpy living room sofa. He snatched his laptop off his round glass coffee table and flipped it open to check his email.

Messages filled up his inbox with clients checking in on the various projects his freelance web design company was handling. “Shit,” he muttered. Due to being busy as Hyperman, he’d fallen behind on multiple projects, and now the deadlines were fast approaching.

He grimaced, hating having to use his hyper-powers on his web design work. It felt like cheating since no other web designers could work so quickly and efficiently. Plus, the mundane challenge of trying to go at a pace ordinary people did pushed his creativity in ways punching mountains couldn’t. However, these clients paid all of Cal’s bills, and he lacked the time to go about all the work in an utterly human, painstakingly slow, and careful way. These clients expected him to meet their deadlines though, or they’d drop him as a designer.

Sometimes, he wondered why he bothered. He didn’t need an apartment, groceries, or even a sleek, expensive gadget phone. While he was growing up, everyone in Whisper, Oregon, had called him Cal. He had used that first name in every civilian identity he’d concocted over the years, but he now thought of himself as Hyperman. Cal had become a mask he wore to get away from saving the world and experience real life. Too often, however, he found real life tedious and disappointing. Why was he playing this game and pretending to be human when he could be soaring off across the universe?

He sighed. He couldn’t lose perspective. He had to stay down to Earth and grounded. Therefore, he needed to understand people and how things worked. Being Cal helped him with that. After all, Hyperman couldn’t have ordinary friends and clients like Cal did. Having those kinds of people around helped keep his head on straight. Also, he’d made a deal with his clients, and it had come time to fulfill his end. Luckily, he was more than able to do so.

After purchasing his laptop computer, he’d personally upgraded it to Hyperman standards, using microchips and circuitry he’d borrowed from the Invincibles and S.I.L.E.N.T (The Stealth Intelligence Liaison Espionage Network Team). The laptop now possessed unearthly computing and storage capabilities that allowed him to work at hyper-speeds if needed.

His fingers blurred over the keyboard and mouse pad, typing and clicking, typing and clicking. Information and images flashed across the screen at speeds only he could understand. Minutes later, the computer heated up and smoked, but he’d already finished, saved, and sent off all of his work. He shut off his computer to let it cool and sat back on his couch.

His ears perked up at the sound of familiar fingers tapping against a phone’s keypad and dialing a certain number halfway across the city. He sped into his bedroom to grab his phone and had it in hand before it even rang.

“
Goooooooooodddddddd afternoon!” he answered once it did.

“
Hi Cal!” Lindsey’s chirpy, cherub-like voice replied. “I found this new Chinese diner near the skating rink I thought we could check out!”

“
I suppose you’ll want to go ice skating too then?”

“
Of course! You can put on some sexy tights and have your own little ice-capade! You’ll break everyone’s hearts with a few jumps and twirls and become the first diva of ice skating!”

“
Can I wear rabbit ears too?”

“
Only if you’re good.”

***

Lindsey worked as a freelance writer. Whether press releases, copywriting, case studies, or magazine articles, she did it all. She and Cal had met while teaming up on a website redesign project for a medical supplier a few months ago and had been edging toward a relationship ever since. However, they’d been taking things slow since she’d recently gotten out of a serious relationship, and they were both busy all the time.

Though she would age, get sick, and die while he’d always stay young, he found her irresistible. He’d had several fulfilling relationships with regular girls that he had genuinely cared about and learned a lot from. Just because they could only have a few brief years together before they noticed that he wasn’t aging and had to vanish on them didn’t make it a waste of time.

Plus, regular girls were less maintenance than super-powered ones, and they at least couldn’t bother him day and night, even when he was off superheroing. Worst of all, when superwomen wanted a commitment, they wanted an eternal one, and that scared even the mighty Hyperman.

Besides, Lindsey was special. Her wit and looks actually had Hyperman wishing they could have decades together. However, he realized that was just his infatuation talking and that they still had a ways to go in getting to know each other. They’d have to take things one day at a time and figure out their relationship as it developed. In the meantime, Hyperman simply enjoyed spending time with her.