Nuklear Age (85 page)

“This guy, eh?” Nuklear Man asked.

“Yeah. I don’t know him. We’ve never faced him before. And the weirdest part is he’s got an N on his chest like yours.”

“Of
course!
It all makes sense now.”

“What? Does that mean something to you?”

“This guy is the ringleader. He must’ve started ripping off my
very
copyrighted N-symbol and now he’s going around town bullying my friends so I’ll be too scared to sue.”

“Nuke, for once will you just listen? He
killed
Rachel!”

“No time for that now. I’ve got business to attend to. Where is this jerky?”

Norman sighed. “He was at the Mall when I left. At the Food Court Junction. Angus was supposed to be stalling him. You’ve got to hurry.”

Nuklear Man nod. “Ya damn right I gotta hurry. It’s about an hour past time to drop the hammer on this mo-fo.”

Nuklear Man took off before Norman could respond. He could only watch as the Golden Guardian streaked through the air toward the Mall. “He has no idea what he’s in for.”

He looked down at Shiro. “I’m going in for back up. Something tells me he’ll need it.” He demagnetized and Shiro dropped to the ground.

“Going the where the danger place of hazarding. Shiro-kun the co-ordinates from battling!”

“Shiro. I know you want to help, but me and Nuke have been doing this together for years now. We’re a good team.”

Shiro scowled. “Getting there where there pointing at there.”

“Look. We don’t have time to talk about this. I’m going. The truth is, I don’t know if I’ll be coming back. I don’t know if
any
of us going against this guy will. But the world will still need heroes, Shiro. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Shiro took a deep breath. He bowed sharply. “Hai.”

Norman bowed in response.

“Going at now. Time for!”

Blue threads of magnetism extended from MMMM’s tungsten body and the Earth propelled him skyward.

Shiro watched him disappear into the distance. “Heroes from tomorrow are then today!” he resolved. “Must to have to found machinations devices of mechanicalness.” He scampered off to begin his search.

__________

Nihel’s face invaded Atomik Lad’s vision. “I am teaching you eternal truths and you’re locked in your own little world! Which, had you been listening, is part of the whole problem! You cowards lock yourselves away, unwilling to accept that which has been given you.” Atomik Lad’s eyes were still focused beyond Nihel’s grim visage. It enraged the monster even further.
“What!”
he demanded. He followed Atomik Lad’s gaze of self-pity to Rachel’s corpse. “That? That is what is holding your focus? That? What, why?”

“I love her,” he whimpered.

“Do you think that
matters!
Was that supposed to make her immortal?”

“I never really told her.”

“And
now
you regret it? Typical. No matter how long you things live, it’s never long enough, is it. Don’t mourn for her death, don’t mourn for your inaction. You chose not to tell her. And now she’s dead. You chose! What else matters!”

“I killed her.”

“So that’s it. You think that was your doing? You think you chose for her to die?”

“I loved her, I brought her here.”

“And you believe that was the cause? Your weak little ties have that much power, do they? Well, no. No, you did not do that. I did. It’s bad enough that I must defer final credit to Fate, but I will not let your angst-driven self-loathing take the action
itself
from me.”

Atomik Lad, lost in his grief, shook his head.

“I can see this shall prove to be too much of a distraction if your lessons are to continue. Allow me to free your conscience. You believe yourself responsible for her demise? Then I shall kill exactly half of the people on this planet.”

“What!”

“Chances are, if she were currently alive, this action would kill her independent of any relations you may have had with her. Therefore, you may rest knowing that you had nothing to do with her death.”

“No!
You can’t!” Atomik Lad screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice rasping.
“Stop!”

“How many times must I tell you? I cannot.”

Seven of the thirteen prisoners collapsed. The other six cried out in agony tinged with the ecstasy of still living.

“No!” Atomik Lad cried. “Why are you doing this!”

“I’m doing this to teach you something, boy.”

“No!
Kill me! Stop hurting them, just kill me! Stop this!”

__________

Nameless felt a tightening in his stomach wash over him. He slammed on the brakes as the entire flow of traffic ahead of him crashed into itself. The Inconspicuous: Van was hit from behind and became another link in the chain of wrecks. It was a citywide gridlock.

“Random, what the hell happened?” He craned his neck around to look into the van’s innards. Random was limply hanging by the seatbelt in his chair. On the Scientific: Screen a massive wave of KI distortions washed over the city and beyond.

__________

Dr. Menace was slaving away within the dark recesses of her Evil: Lair. Sparks flew as she went about the practice of Science. The Defusionizer Cannon turned Nega Cannon was in the middle of its final metamorphosis into a Nega Bomb, the most powerful and dangerous item developed by human hands to date. If her or Dr. Genius’ calculations were even slightly off, the entire world could be stripped of its very reality. As Dr. Menace toiled, she felt her heart tighten like a wave of nausea. She paused and looked around. Nothing seemed to be amiss. “No time for diztractionz.” She made a few finishing touches. The Nega Cannon looked like it had developed technology cancer. Electromagnets, converters, oscillators, and something not unlike a camshaft were scattered along its surface like a haphazard patchwork of devices. Purple light pulsed from its core. “Done.” Menace had no time to congratulate herself. She went to her Evil: Computer to hail Ima before setting up the deployment equipment on the roof.

__________

Across the globe every other human being dropped dead. Chaos followed. Roads were clogged with miles and miles of wrecks. Planes fell. Basic services of communication, left unmanned, were inoperable. Hospitals were over run and suddenly under staffed. All of humanity panicked as dead littered the streets. Riots would follow.

Billions of deaths in under a second.

The leaders of the world’s nations panicked. A relatively tiny one that made up in paranoia what it may have lacked in size knew what was happening. Their people were mysteriously dying in the streets. Clearly, their enemies had just deployed some secret new weapon against them. To let such a heinous act go unpunished would be immoral. They attacked first, they attacked without provocation, they attacked like cowards.

They deserved retribution.

The nation’s nuclear silos opened and belched their poison into the stratosphere. They would only be the first.

Thousands of silos would open across the globe in blind response.

Billions dead.

They would only be the beginning.

__________

Shiro’s Tetsu: Boots crashed against the street as his tiny legs pumped madly. He was a Dwarven Warrior with purpose. He felt sick to his stomach for a second, but it passed as soon as it had come. He attributed it to having run so much and thought nothing of it. He screeched to a halt and it tossed up a quick shower of sparks from his heels.

“Ah-so” he said, looking upon the object of his quest: a Hando car dealership chock full of stocked vehicles. He rubbed his ironclad hands together as he approached one of the faster models. A sleek, silver, and aerodynamically curved little two door with enough horsepower to go to the Moon caught his eye. He checked to make sure no one was looking. There were several salesmen outside, but there was no way they could see beyond the nicotine haze that engulfed them. They seemed to be distracted by something inside the dealership anyway. He flipped open the fuel door and poured in a whole bottle of homemade Whisakey. He placed his palm on the lock to the driver’s side door. A second later it clicked open and Shiro climbed inside. The car started up as if Shiro’s mere presence was the ignition key.

He activated his Alteration of Normal Ideas of Matter Engine. It was the ultimate ability of his Tetsu: Samurai Armor. “Unchained the meaning of secrets. When ultimate power combination locked up. The time of now is then!” His little fingers drummed on the gearshift. He pulled it down from Park to Reverse to Neutral down to Drive. He paused there, jiggled the stick, and pushed it over to the right to reveal the previously unknown and nonexistent Assault Mode.

The car hovered. Its wheels retracted. Its geometry rearranged itself. Small wings extended from the side paneling and booster jets opened up in the rear. Several gun-looking implements made themselves known as well as a compliment of missile racks. Inside, the Pilot’s Seat moved into a central position as levers and buttons pertaining to weapons systems and flight controls aligned themselves for Shiro’s ease of access. “Nowing the time of being the time of heavy actions!” The little ship blasted off into the stratosphere, its autopilot set for the Mall.

__________

So much death. So much meaningless death.

And it’s my fault. I stood up. I killed Rachel and now I’ve killed everyone. I couldn’t stop him. I’m nothing. I’m powerless. Senseless killing. So much death.

So much blood. Red.

Blood red. Red blood.

Locked in screams, silent.

Drown in her, in everything she is.

Dead. Never breathe again.

My fault.

My fault.

Kill me.

Kill me so this will stop.

All my fault.

I want to run away. I want to go where there is no pain, where there is nothing bad.

Where no one ever dies.

__________

So dark and warm. The inner recesses of the soul. Of dreams and waking, nightmare images: self made hells. All fleeting.

“Time to wake up, John.”

“Can’t be. Too tired.”

“We go through this every morning,” Mom’s voice lilts through the morning fog of my mind.

“I hate waking up.”

“And yet you have to do it every day.”

“God is Satan.”

“The comedian or the philosopher this morning?”

“Need sleepy.”

“No, need wakey.” She opens the blinds to my window. Mid-morning sun rapes my eyes, destroys the fruitful core of my retinas with its violence. Leaves them for dead in the alley of my face. “Rachel will be here any minute to pick you up. Honestly, I don’t know why she bothers with you sometimes. You always make her late to class.”

With my eyes shut tight against the morning hell, I can hear Mom moving around my room. She’s picking up clothes, straightening pictures, moving game controllers from the middle of the floor. I can smell her shampoo, the same she’s used all my life. In my half awakened state I remember when I was a small boy I learned what it meat to be alone. She had driven me to school and dropped me off. When I (lost) left her, that shampoo-perfume smell disappeared. I wanted to cry. Waking up invokes the same urge.

“C’mon, hon. Your breakfast will get cold.”

I open my eyes just as she leaves, turns a corner beyond my door and beyond my sight. Just a flash of her red hair bouncing away. I can feel my pupils dilating into themselves as I scan my room. Video games, comics, furniture, a poster of Solar Man battling Dr. Mayhem. Everything with its own official Überdyne Warning label. Dad’s way of bringing his work home with him, he’d say. Warning: Waste of Time on the video game systems. Warning: World on the window. Warning: Slacker on my door. Dad’s sense of humor is weird.

__________

“Good gravy,” Nuklear Man commented as he approached the Mall. The greenhouse dining area was a silent battlefield strewn with the shards of glass soldiers. The parking lot surrounded a crater over a hundred feet wide. Dozens of vehicles were scattered across it. “Will these darn shoppers
never
learn a little self-restraint? It’s only a sale, people. It’ll be okay.” He zoomed straight down in front of the broken Food Court Junction exit.

“Yo,” the Hero said. His confident commanding voice resounded through the mostly empty Food Court Junction.

Nihel turned around slowly. “Arel,” his voice was a mixture of awe and elation. He approached the Hero like a long lost brother and embraced him like salvation itself. “Arel, I’ve found you at last.”

“Whoa there, big dog,” Nuklear Man said while pushing away. He fixed his spandex. “Let’s get one thing straight—and I do mean
straight.”

Nihel’s brow furrowed. “Arel?”

“Stop with this whole ‘Arel’ schtick. It’s wearing thin. I’m here to give you the warning you don’t deserve. Cease and desist your use of my trademark symbol. If you resist said desistance, then I’ll just have to lay the ‘smackdown’ as the kids are wont to say these days.”

Nihel looked him up and down. “Yes, I should’ve known. You’re still suffering from your amnesia. You don’t carry yourself like the son of a god.”

“Well, Dad wasn’t really a god, he was a giant who was—” Nuklear Man held onto his head like it was trying to take off. “Oh, geez, stupid headache.”

“So if you have not accepted your true identity,” Nihel mused aloud, “then where are the others?”

“Others?” Nuklear Man asked with one eye cracked open. It shut again. “Oh, you mean Wussy, Weakling, Spanky, Dorky, Stupid, and Thhbbpt? Yeah I kicked their asses but good. We won’t be seeing them any time soon.”

“I see,” Nihel responded sharply. “It took us
centuries
to perfect those peons.” He took a deep breath. “No matter. You are here now. Our destiny awaits.”

“Destiny?” The mind-piercing headache had subsided. “Look, buddy. I don’t think we’re on the same page here. You’re illegally using my patented Nuklear N-symbol. If you don’t stop…” Nuklear Man cracked his knuckles threateningly. “Ouch. Er, is what
you’ll
be saying after I hit you. In the face.”