A Once Crowded Sky (7 page)

“But that wasn’t Ultimate’s attitude at all, was it? He wasn’t all human. But he didn’t let that stop him from embracing what was best in us, in all of us. I don’t know. Maybe as an outsider he could see it better. Maybe because he wasn’t all too sure how he fit in, he went a little harder.

“I bring that up now—and I know I’ve been talking for some time, and y’all certainly got better things to do than listen to an old, broken man jaw on and on—but I think it’s important to bring that up, because it does remind me of the people here. You all here today.

“We all, we’re all strangers, ain’t we? Our abilities—they set us apart. Made it tough to relate to normal life, to just go about our goings about like others do. We don’t like to say that, I know, but that’s the truth of it. We’ve been through stuff, seen stuff, that normal folk can’t relate to really. We come from a place that divides us from them. Ain’t no two ways about it, so we might as well own up to it.

“After The Blue, we all are being put back in our place. The part of us that was special, that made us different, it was all ripped out. The call came. The world was ending. And you showed up, and you made that sacrifice, let them powers go, beat The Blue. Well, yeah, that’s something, ain’t it? And it’s something not entirely good all the time. Lord knows, I know that; I know y’all know that.

“But what I’m trying to say is that we got—we should take Ultimate as an example, I figure. He was set apart too. But he didn’t let that bother him. He did what he could, and instead of falling beneath, he rose above. The Man With The Metal Face showed us . . . well, he showed us all.

“So as we all come back from where we been, and we all feel like strangers, I think we got to take that in mind. Take him in mind. He didn’t want to lead us, but, hell, he couldn’t help it, could he? Now he’s got to lead us from the grave is all. He’s got to show us a way to deal with what we’ve lost.

“Yeah, that coffin up there, it ain’t got nothing in it. We all know that. It’s empty. So let’s . . . let’s stop feeling sorry for what’s happened and try to get on. Because he ain’t in it. And neither are we. Neither are we. We got to remember that. We got to put some emphasis on it. It’s what a great man would want us to do. And he gave his life for us. And we owe him that. We got to keep going on, follow his example, and not fall below, but rise up. We owe him that.

“And I think we can do it. I was there. I saw him before he left, and I saw in him the potential for all of us to be great, to end, to end great, I mean. I saw that in that metal face. I ain’t never going to forget it.

“Well, that’s about it. That’s all this old man’s got to say. I appreciate your patience. I appreciate your kindness, your coming here. And I appreciate all you did for all that time. I thank you for it. But now, I’m just about dying to get at that spread Star-Knight’s put together. Looks just about like heaven.

“Before I go though, I just . . . well, I don’t know if I said it yet or not. I can’t remember. But I probably should end by just saying I lost a friend that day, a good friend. Don’t want to lose sight of that. No, I don’t.”

2

The Blue Aftermath: The Funeral, #2 of 2
Ultimate, The man With The Metal Face

“I’ve got something prepared. I’m just going to read it.

“Hello. I’m here today to talk about Ultimate, The Man With The Metal Face. Ultimate was a great man. A great hero.

“I first met him when I was ten and my parents died. It was in a fight between him and a villain, and I was injured. Ultimate used his own metal to fix me. When I woke up, I had these powers. They were from his metal.

“He took me in. He trained me. He made me into his sidekick. Without what he did, I don’t know what would have happened. He saved me. I was with him for a long time. He was the greatest hero I ever saw. He was my hero. He was . . . was everyone’s hero. Obviously.

“We fought a lot of people together. When you . . . when you were with him, you knew you . . . you were going to win. He was never scared or nervous. He always saw what . . . what to do, and then he, y’know, he did that. And that’s how . . . how . . .

“Jesus, this is crap. I’m sorry, this is just—I wrote this, and it’s just a bunch of bullshit. I’m sorry . . . I . . . shit.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t even want to do this. And I know you don’t want me up here. I mean, really, what does the fucking coward know about Ultimate?

“It’s his fault, you know. He said I had to do it, put it in the will. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. This crap I wrote. What does this mean?

“I mean, I’m sure he just wanted me to humanize him or something. To make him human. So you could hear what he was like when he wasn’t flying. He never wanted to be thought of as above us. He’d say that a lot. He was just another one of us, another guy doing his best, he’d say. So he probably wanted me to show you that.

“I tried to write stuff like that, but I just couldn’t. There’re so many stories. But they’re all the same. You’ve heard all of them before. They’re just like Soldier’s really. In the end, right? He’s the hero of every story.

“I don’t see how I’m supposed to humanize the guy. I can’t make him human. He wasn’t human to me. Not for one second.

“Even now, he’s still saving people. You know he left everything to charity? Metal Room. Metal mansion. Metal plane. All of it’s going. Star-Knight’s handling it, selling everything. So it can help people. Everything Ultimate did, he built, all of it’s going to be taken down, just to help people.

“In the whole will all he left anyone was a cat. He left me a cat. A metal cat, The Cat With The Metal Face. That’s what he wrote. Everything goes except the cat.

“Not that I mind or anything. I don’t want anything. And I liked the cat.

“It’s actually not bad looking. It shines just like him. Reflects everything. And it’s not so big, you know, it’s about cat size. Like this. Normal cat size. Head, tail, ears. Even little wired whiskers that used to glow.

“It would look good somewhere. It could be a nice statue.

“I remember him making it. It was a hell of an adventure. There was some dimensional something that happened, and like this Anti-Ultimate was attacking Arcadia. He was just like Ultimate, same powers, same metal, except, y’know, evil, and he was just blowing the whole city apart. And he had a dog. A metal dog that was running wild. I don’t know why
he had the dog. It was like his partner. Like Ultimate had me, and Anti-Ultimate had a dog.

“So we fought them. Ultimate going after his double and me going after the dog. Ultimate fought real well; it was something to see: the two metal men flying into each other, tangling, big bang of noise, and then coming apart, and flying right back into each other. Back and forth. The whole city was shaking.
Bam!
Every time they collided.

“And I had the dog. While they were fighting, the stupid dog was still going, still trying to kill everything, and I had to stop him.

“So I chased that damn thing down. Right as it was about to bite into this woman, I jumped on its back, got hold of its neck, and it howled hard and just took off. Real fast. With me holding on, riding it like a fucking horse. It ran right into a wall, through a building, cracking my head against something. But I didn’t let go. I rode it for a long time. Trying to keep it from doing any more harm. And it was biting at me. The dog kept turning and chewing on me, taking out parts of me.

“But I didn’t let go. Ultimate wouldn’t have let me let go. I was bleeding and pretty beat-up. But I didn’t let go.

“And Ultimate was there. He came flying in, grabbed me off the dog. I was only half-conscious by then. I had wires coming out of me. Wires everywhere. And he carried me up into the sky.

“I didn’t notice until we were almost home that he was about as hurt as me, wires hanging off him, sparks coming out of him, dents in all his metal. And in his other hand was Anti-Ultimate, hanging lifeless. Defeated.

“We went back to the Metal Room, our headquarters or whatever, and he put me down, put me on the metal floor. I was barely conscious then. He wasn’t doing much better, but he didn’t lie down. He didn’t rest or anything.

“He took Anti-Ultimate’s body and tore it up. Even though Ultimate was hurting, he just started to build the next thing. Swinging his fist into the metal, sparks going everywhere. I think he knew he was too hurt to stop the dog. He didn’t have enough to stop this thing that was killing everyone. But he didn’t give up. He built a cat.

“I can remember looking over at the cat standing there, molded by his hands. And Ultimate reaching into the metal on the floor, pulling out Anti-Ultimate’s metal heart, putting it into the cat. And the thing just
started to move. Meowing and purring. He made a cat. Out of nothing. Then he fell to the floor, and the cat started to fly.

“I don’t know how the fight went down between the cat and the dog. I’m sure it was pretty fucking silly. Like a cartoon or something. Ultimate and I stayed behind. In the Metal Room. I passed out. When I woke up, he was next to me, holding me. He had crawled over, and he had lifted me, pulled me onto his chest. I turned my head into him, put my nose against him. He was so cold. All of him was cold.

“I healed. It hurt like fuck, but I healed. While he held me, we healed together. All that metal doing what it did. By the time we got it all back, the cat was there. He won. He destroyed the dog, flung him into the sun or something. And there he was, rubbing his head against my leg. Purring a little.

“I can’t remember if we used him again. Mostly he was just around. Underfoot. A fun pet to play with. After I quit, I never went back to the Metal Room. I didn’t think I’d ever see the cat again.

“When The Blue came, I guess the cat showed up. Gave up his powers like everyone else. And his heart stopped. And that was the end of The Cat With The Metal Face.

“Can you believe that? While I was just sitting at home. Even the cat showed. The fucking cat.

“Fuck. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

“I thought he’d come back. I thought everyone would come back. I thought it was just another adventure.

“Nothing can kill Ultimate. Nothing keeps him down. I saw him die a thousand times. And I always saw him come back. I didn’t think this was special. I would have done it differently. I would have come to say good-bye.

“I don’t want powers. I quit. I was always scared of these things. I just wanted to go home. Be with my wife. I don’t want any fucking powers.

“If I could give them to you, I would. All this metal. You can have it. I would’ve gone in a second and given it all up. I would’ve been there with him. I would’ve said good-bye. After all he did. He deserved that.

“But I thought it was just another adventure with him. I thought everyone would be back in a month and we’d all be doing it again. And I didn’t want to do it again. I quit. I left. I didn’t want to come back.

“You’ve got to draw the line somewhere. I mean, don’t you? If something goes forever, you’ve got to draw it somewhere. I know this was supposed to be the last one, to be the big one, but how many last ones have there been? You have to draw a line. I just think I drew it in the wrong fucking place.

“I thought I’d see him again. I thought he’d be there. It’s been so long, and he’s always been there. Ultimate comes back. He comes back. He always comes back.

“I try not to look at the sky. I always think he’s coming through it.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to talk about me. I should talk about him. Obviously. Soldier’s right, he’s not here. He’s just gone. And he’s not coming back.

“And all he left was a cat.

“You know I really don’t get it. Honestly. I don’t know why he gave me the damn thing, what I’m supposed to do with it.

“I don’t know, maybe it was a clue, like a puzzle. He was trying to tell me something, like what it all meant. Another mystery to be solved. That’s what heroes do. They find solutions. They save the day. They figure out the cat.

“I took it home. I looked at it for a long time. It’s just a statue. It’s hollow, and it’s nothing. I used to pet it. But I don’t know what it was for. I can’t tell you what it’s supposed to mean. It’s a cat. It fought a dog. It saved the world. What the hell does that mean?

“I gave the cat back, to Star-Knight. I told him to sell it with the rest of it. Maybe it could help someone.

“So I don’t know what I’m supposed to say about Ultimate. I mean really. I couldn’t even figure out the cat.”

3

Star-Knight, Ultimate, and The Soldier of Freedom Super Team Special
The Blue, #12 of 12

A man with a metal face stands at the precipice. A light burns blue beneath him and around him, killing his world. Thousands of people are nearby. Some of them are crying, pleading with him. Others stand silent, their heads bent down.

The Man With The Metal Face wears a magical belt, and from this belt comes a magical flame that winds around the crowd, pulling them together, lifting them up. Their bodies held tight, they scream and scream as it’s all taken away. The flame comes back, touches The Man With The Metal Face, and he swells with power.