Author: Solaronn
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I descend from the heavens like some modern day Icarus. my fists stretched out before me, my entire body aimed down towards the group of thugs below me with the frightened young woman surrounded by them and at their so called mercy.
Just about anyone else would be afraid to engage these thugs, especially someone who didn’t have super powers, these devil worshipers, these Hellions. But as my fists connect with the lead thugs jaw, a moron who proudly proclaims himself one of the ‘Damned’, I simply smile with satisfaction. I stomp my foot down with a fury that shakes the buildings around me like a level five earthquake, sending the street punks scattering. They begin to fire guns at me, whose bullets merely bounce off my chest. Once again I smile as I watch the young woman regain her composure enough to scamper away to relative safety. Then I swing my arms wide, like I was about to grab all of Perez Park between them. But instead I slam then together so powerfully that all the remaining Hellions are blown away like leaves before a hurricane.
That takes out most of the punks, they lie there unconscious, save for a few of the stronger ones. The ones who have sold their souls as if it were no more then a pair of socks to some dark hell god. The damned. They surround me and spit fire, trying to immolate me like I was a pig on a spit. I laugh. I don’t even feel their flames. Sure, a few years ago I might have been given pause by their actions, but that was before all my powers finally blossomed within me to their full potential.
You see, back then, I was learning the ropes. My powers were growing inside of me, and it took about eight months before I realized my full potential. Before I was proclaimed a ‘Hero of the City’ by Statesman and his ilk in the Freedom Phalanx. I even became a reserve member, of that fabled organization. But my heart lies with ‘Hyperforce’ and the heroes there.
None of that matters right now as I rear back and uncork a devastating knockout blow to the last remaining Damned on his feet, launching him seventy feet into the air, to have him land like a sack of wheat on the ground with a sound like wet bacon hitting the frying pan.
And just like that, it’s all over. The young woman runs over to me, thanking me profusely. She begs me for my name as I give her a jaunty wave and begin rocketing skywards. I replay “My name is
Captain Power”
And this is my story!
This all began for me about three years ago. I wasn’t known as ‘Captain Power’ back then. Nope I was simply Thomas Jackson, college Junior, on my way back to my rented dorm after a day of classes. I was basically alone on the street, which to this day strikes me as rather odd, when a golden bolt of lightning struck me from the sky. Now talking about rather odd, that was the oddest of all, so you would think at least right? Except it gets one step beyond odd, because I should have died, and I didn’t.
I awoke about ten minutes later, at least according to my old wind up watch my father had given me, which was somehow still working after all that. But the funny thing was the metal stretch band had snapped. Like I was somehow bigger then I had been. Now Tom Jackson was no big guy at all. I stood about five feet, eight inches tall, and weighed a hundred sixty five pounds soaking wet. But I didn’t feel that way at the moment. I picked up the watch and as I go to place it into my pants pocket I notice they’re shredded around my legs. All I’m thinking about is how much I’m hurting from the lightning strike and right about then that was all that mattered. I stumble out of the alleyway I had been tossed into by the lightning, and no sooner do I get two feet out of there then a gang of punks appears out of nowhere and shoves me back in. Now remember I’m all disoriented at this point, and still in a heckuva lot of pain. Four of these dirt bags are trying to rob me, thinking I’m some bum with a stash of bills hidden on me somewhere. Their mistake.
“Hey freak, give us yer cash.” The first one orders, as he pokes me in the chest with a knife, with just enough force to make me know it’s there. Two of his boys hold my arms back against the brick wall while the remaining thug watches for anyone who might stumble upon us. “I said give us your cash , you drunken bum, I don’t care how big you are, ain’t no way you can fight us off bein’ as soused as you are.”
‘How big I am?’ I think to my self, ‘What’s he talking about?’
And then it hits me. I’m looking down on them. My mind is clearing and I realize I’m looking down on them, like I was at least a head taller then these guys. ‘What IS going on here?’ I ask myself .
“You had your chance, goliath, now we’ll take the cash from yer dead body.” He grumbles like a bad ass tough guy as he fearlessly plunges his knife into my chest. But a funny thing happens right then and there, the knife snaps in two. Like it was a dried old twig in the late fall.
Now at this point I know something crazy is happening here, but I also know I have to guard my life and get out of there while I can, so my first instinct is to break away from the guys holding me. I begin to struggle, only it’s not a struggle it’s a shrug, and they go flying, crashing into the wall on the opposite side of the alley, like they weighed nothing! The guy with the broken knife handle looks at me in shock and fear, but I grab his hand and break all his fingers holding the knife as I peel it from his grip. He wails incessantly as he holds his shattered hand, his last partner has long since fled, and he’s all alone.
“I’m outta here! lemme alone!” He cries as he stumbles out of the alleyway.
“No way.” I say aloud as I head towards him. “You just tried to kill the wrong guy!” Not thinking about the knife in my hand I close my grip around it, grinding it into powder and dust. I’m as surprised by this as anyone and I pause to look at the remnants of the knife as it falls away from my hand.
This punk runs like hell then, scared out of his wits. But this is not over. He tried to murder me, and he’s not going to get away with it. I run after him, catching him easily, not like I’m super fast or anything, but just quicker then normal, when I do, I rear back and smash him across the face with a powerful punch that knocks him ten feet away. He drops to the ground with a silly look on his unconscious face as his now broken nose drips blood all over his leather jacket. Funny part about that punch was that I remembered to hold back. If I hadn’t, I’d probably have decapitated him.
I make my way home, and finally get a look at myself in the mirror. Tom Jackson was a short haired average looking guy, the man who faced me was anything but. I was now about seven and a half feet tall and built like a modern day Hercules!
But then I suddenly doubled over In a spasm of pain, as white hot daggers seemingly played over my skin. When I looked up, covered in sweat, I saw plain old Tom Jackson staring me back in the mirror.
It wasn’t until later that I realized I needed to absorb matter to keep up my super strength and durability. I had another power, a disintegrating touch, that really wasn’t disintegration, it was absorption. I absorbed mass through my hands, and about two tons of it brought me up to my ultimate strength level.
Now the only question that remained was what was the golden lightning all about and where’d it come from? I did find all that out, but the thought of me being an experimental test subject for some little green men who were in orbit above our green mud ball from a dozen light years away is all another story for another day. Suffice to say, they got what they deserved !
Maybe someday I’ll let you all in on that one too, if you ask nicely enough that is!
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