Sunday, April 09, 2017

Supercomics #3


Senator Derrick King was the junior senator from Ohio. He lived in Columbus and had served for going on 14 years. Senator King was instrumental in getting the program that created Robert Harris started as well. Harris had discovered a failed early experiment. Mason Tillerson was a young Army recruit who signed up for an early super soldier program. Initially, the government used a serum. The serum worked but turned Tillerson into a grotesque monster with yellow skin and a big, bulky body. Harris took Tillerson from a government facility and thought he would be useful as dumb muscle.

At Senator King’s house just outside of Columbus, Tillerson was throwing the dead bodies of the Senator and his wife down into the basement. Harris had crushed King’s neck as soon as he opened the door. His wife, coming to see who was at the door, got a piercing eye-laser beam through the heart.

“What do we do now?” Tillerson asked.

“We can stay here for awhile but people will notice the Senator isn’t around. We’ll stay here a couple days until we figure out what to do and where to go next,” Harris said.

“The feds are sending that superhero team they have after us,” Tillerson said.

“There is no one on that team who can stop me. Most could barely defeat you. Which gives me an idea. We need to take out the military.”




In a facility in Maryland, Dmitri Sylvester was watching Agent: Spider swing his way through lasers and giant metal spiky things. Agent: Spider, alias Miguel Stoll, began developing spider-like powers when he hit puberty. He got stronger, quicker, could stick to walls, got better eyesight. The government built Miguel gauntlets that would be kind of like webbing to go with his spider powers.

Alix, in a new leather-looking uniform, was standing next to another young man, just slightly older than her in a brown and yellow uniform. “Why Agent: Spider?” she asked.

“He thought that he would be an agent for the FBI or CIA, not for a secret covert superhero team. He just never changed the name,” the young man replied.

“And what name did you choose for yourself?” Alix asked.

“Geo-Whiz. Before you laugh, I chose it for a reason. ‘Geo’ because I can manipulate the earth and ‘Whiz’ because I am very smart. When I chose the name two years ago, I thought it was a really good name. Coming up with a good superhero name is really hard. Have you chosen your name yet?”

“Yeah. Superkitten,” Alix answered.

“Mm. That’s much better than Geo-Whiz,” he smiled.

“My dad used to call me ‘Kitten’ so it’s kind of in honor of him.”

“You can call me Brandon.”

“Alix,” she introduced. “It’s nice having someone close to my own age here. How old are you?”

“17. I graduated from high school at 15. Shortly after graduation, Dmitri approached me to join the team and they would pay for my college. I’d be stupid not to take that offer, right?”

“What’s her deal?” Alix pointed to another girl. This girl was pale-colored smoke, floating just a little bit over the floor. “She looks really young.”

“That’s Vanessa, or Smoke. She’s Dmitri’s daughter. She’s 13-years-old. When she hit puberty, she began turning into...that. Dmitri is trying to find a way to at least be able to have her be a solid entity again. Meanwhile, she’s learning how to be a hero.”

Alix watched as Smoke passed through a thick steel wall. She then noticed a tall man standing against the other wall. He was dressed in a gaudy star-spangled uniform but what really intrigued her were his muscles. “Who’s that?”

“Matt, or America,” Brandon said. “He thinks he’s too good to be here. Dmitri says that he needs discipline. He’s kind of a jackass but he might be the most powerful member we have.”

“We’ll see,” Alix smiled and began walking over to America.

“What are you doing?” Brandon tried to stop her but she continued walking.

Alix came up to the side of America, who either didn’t notice her or was ignoring her. Alix thought about how she hurt Diego and held out her arms to America. Within seconds, America was on the floor and sliding across to the other side. Everyone stopped what they were doing in shock.

America got back up and looked at Alix. “You really think so, Little Girl?” he growled but seemed to have a playful lilt in his voice. He began running to Alix who braced herself.

“The name is Superkitten,” she said and was directly hit by America. They tumbled onto the floor and rolled for a bit before America kicked Superkitten off of him. She caught herself in midair and fell back down to the floor, landing on her feet. “That was pretty good,” she smiled at him.

America threw a punch at Superkitten but she dodged him. She was able to land a couple of blows on him. They didn’t really do anything but they might leave a bruise later. After several attempts, America landed a blow on Superkitten who was knocked back a couple feet and fell to her knees. America lept up, ready to give her a downward punch to the face.

Superkitten quickly raised her hands and used to powers to shield her. America’s fist slammed into the invisible barrier she had created. She then stood up, using the same shield to run America over and knock him down.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Dmitri interrupted. “It’s good to know that you have such control over your powers for being a beginner. And it’s good to know that we now have someone who can go toe-to-toe with America.”

“That was amazing,” Brandon said as they all went back to their personal quarters. “I wish I could’ve recorded that.”

“The security cameras should’ve gotten it. Maybe Dmitri will let us make copies of that,” Miguel laughed.

“He probably just wasn’t expecting a little girl to be a match for him,” Alix said. She looked behind her and saw America going into his room. “Hey, Matt,” she ran over to him.

“What is it, Little...Superkitten?”

“Alix. You should give me some pointers,” she smiled at him. “I mean, I thought I was pretty good out there but I could always use a bit more help.”

“Sure. Tomorrow during training we can have a one-on-one session,” he answered.

“I was thinking more along the lines of a private session,” Alix looked directly at him.

“We can do that, too. Come on in,” Matt invited.

Brandon looked back and it felt as if his heart fell into his stomach as he watched Alix disappear behind Matt’s bedroom door.

“That’s illegal,” Miguel said. “Do you want to tell Dmitri?”

“No, why bother? Besides, it looked like she knows exactly what she’s doing.”