Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12
Chapter 4: Obligatory Super Suit Episode
“Mel, have you been drawing superhero comics?” I asked as I got home that night. Turns out that a lightning sword versus a cardboard dinosaur wasn’t a fair fight.
“Not until tonight. I have to document this.” She looked up from her drawing computer and gave me a dirty look, “Give me more credit Sam. If I drew a monster for you to fight it would have more tentacles.” She illustrated, pun intended, the point by drawing something with an obscene amount of appendages and then erased it. “This was more like cheap theatre. Kinda like the godzilla Frank built for a school play.”
I laughed and said, “How he expected to add a cardboard Godzilla to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I could never figure out.”
That night marked the one year anniversary of Frank’s death and our return to the world. We celebrated by staying in our apartment and drinking until we forgot. It was juvenile but we were only twenty-one and we’d lost three of those years to an alien abduction.
The cardboard dinosaur was followed a few days later by a paper maché robot army. Still over-dramatic and demanding gold. I easily defeated them again but it took more of my energy and I had trouble keeping my glow.
“Is this going to be a regular thing?” James asked, soaking in his tub while we all ate pizza.
Simultaneously Mel and I spoke. I said, “I hope not,” while she said, “I hope so.”
“What?” asked Jane. “We can’t fight a supervillain. Sam’s the only one with offensive power.”
“Bullshit. All our powers can be used for combat,” Mel countered.
Looking sceptical with one eyebrow raised James asked, “What am I going to do? Breath water at him?”
“Well if you’d just try to talk to fish…” Mel drifted off mid sentence before continuing, “The Puppeteer is going to come back and we can all help. I’ve designed you costumes.” She pulled out four sketches from her sketchbook.
“I’m not wearing something under my regular clothes,” I warned.
“You don’t have to.” Mel gestured for me to stand up. I did and she pinched the costume on the page and it looked like she tossed it at me. As easy as that, I was in superhero spandex. The suit was comfortable and a great cross between the modern dark aesthetic and the bright colours of the golden age. My suit looked like it was a black skin-tight suit with holographic full plate armour outlined in golden yellow around me. The helmet covered my eyes but also gave me a readout of things around me.
Jane’s suit was made for stealth, it was pale blue and skin-tight. She made Mel get rid of the boob-window. The suit could become translucent, making it hard to see Jane when she teleported.
Mel’s suit was another skin-tight outfit, but it ended in a revealing corset. It was a massive pastiche of superhero and other comic illustrations. It was bright and gaudy and she refused to make it more conservative. “If I’m going to be a superhero I might as well show off my curves.”
The last suit was the most impressive in my mind. The suit itself made James look like the Swamp Thing or Creature from the Black Lagoon; I always get them mixed up. But then it created a bubble of water that let him swim around in the air like he did underwater. It was like a flying bouncing hamsterball.
As we all stood there I felt equal parts ridiculous, sexy, and awesome. Jane was the first to say something after we were all suited-up, “We look great, but we don’t look like a team.” She blushed and added, “What? I read comics too.”
“What if we add a logo of some sort?” James suggested.
Mel looked down at her drawing computer and started to draw. What she came up with was a five point green star, with wavy points, where one of the points was, nearly, completely faded out. The symbolism was perfect.
It wasn’t long before the Puppeteer returned and this time he brought creepy human shaped and featureless sand-filled purple-fabric puppets. They made a sickening scream when they were hit and crumpled like a bad interpretation of the wicked witch of the west.
We should have been able to take them easily but we sucked at working together. We each tried to take out the enemies as if we were discount versions of Gimli and Legolas. I was swinging wildly, Jane was jumping around doing almost nothing, and they were literally cleaning the streets with James.
I was getting worried when I saw James get swarmed but Mel’s voice boomed in our ears. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” she had decided to sit on top of a tall building and direct us. We’d ignored her and she was pissed. “Jane get James.” When she’d gotten the three of us together she said, “James get them as wet as you can.” She giggled at her innuendo. “Jane get Sam up here.”
From above it was impressive to see James throwing water balls at the puppets. “Okay they’re wet enough. Jane get James.”
“Okay fearless leader… we now have mud puppets. What next?”
“Do you know what happens to mud when it’s struck by lightning?” Mel asked.
I understood and charged as much power as I could into a lightning blast. The arc of power struck the foot deep of water and dispersed, coursing through the water into the puppets. When I was done there were no more puppets but there were fantastic fulgurite statues. I replied to Mel with, “We kicked it’s glass.”
Jane and James groaned.
Read Chapter 5
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