Nuklear Age (88 page)

__________

Nuklear Man danced like a prizefighter.

Who had just been knocked down about five times in the first round.

Nihel stalked around him like a mountain lion toying with its prey. He punched Nuklear Man in the back of the head with enough force to split steel. “This is quite fitting.” Another punch. “In its way.”

Nuklear Man flung himself from the ground into something resembling a stand and took a wild swing. Nihel barely had to move to dodge it. He countered with a thunderous elbow to Nuklear Man’s nose just because he could. The Hero feel to his knees.

__________

Driving through town. It’s the end of the lunch hour so traffic is clearing up. The windows are down and there’s the “vawoosh” noise of cars going by in other lanes. The sun is warm on my skin and I almost think myself as somehow being closer to nature. In a car. Driving down city streets surrounded by concrete and steel. And here I am picturing myself in tune with nature because I’m driving with the windows down instead of using the AC? I laugh at myself. I turn to Rachel. Her eyes are closed, her black hair shines with a reddish tinge from the sunlight. Good Lord, what is a brilliant, beautiful, amazing person like this doing with a slob like me?

Hm, we’ll be coming up on Main pretty soon. It’ll take too long to go that way. I’m in a bit of a hurry to get home you understand. I’ll turn on to Ellis at the Überdyne building. I’ve got a lot of history there (cold, alone, tests, red flames destroy everything—). That’s where Mom and Dad met. They still work there today. Dad said he couldn’t think straight for a week after he saw her. He finally managed to go to lunch with her. They went to this little sandwich shop across the street. They’ve gone there for lunch every working day since.

__________

“Your fate was to
defy
Fate.” Another punch. “But we never thought you’d take it
this
far.” And another. “We don’t have to do this, you know.” And another. “You are Arel.” Another punch, they were horribly constant, like the ticking of a clock. “If you will only accept that, then all the power of the universe will be yours!” He leaned in close. “Don’t make me destroy you for the sake of my freedom.” A final punch.

__________

I take the turn onto Ellis. I’m on autopilot. I’ve driven this way hundreds of times. I’m ogling Rachel as she half naps beside me. There’s a flicker of motion in the corner of my eye. Before I even know it’s there, like some kind of traffic sixth sense, I know it’s too late. The whole car is jolted as a blur of white motion tumbles onto the hood and up the windshield with a horrible crunching sound. I’ve already locked up the breaks and Rachel’s screaming. I’m horrified and revolted as I hear thick, meaty things rolling across the roof.

The car almost spins out. All I can do is push harder on the brakes and hold the wheel tighter. Our front end slides into the on coming lane. A car swerves away. Rachel is yelling at me. There’s blood smeared all over the cracked windshield (cracked like spider’s web spun from refracted light—).

__________

Nuklear Man looked up at Nihel from the floor. The Hero’s head wobbled slightly from the severe beating he’d taken. His eyes were dull, lazily focusing on objects a few seconds after locking onto them. “It’s time….” he said while struggling up.

“Yes?”

Two Nuklear Fists collided with Nihel’s chin. “To drop!” Nihel stumbled back from the blow and Nuklear Man closed in. “The hammer!” Nuklear Man locked his hands together and brought them down on the monster like lightning. Only stronger.

Nihel recovered and his cape draped itself over his shoulders. “I have waited too long for this! Loki insisted on waiting for the right time. On waiting for when the gods would be blind to his machinations as they prepared for their Ragnarok. He wanted to bring them down at their peak. He wanted revenge. I don’t give a
damn
about his revenge,” Nihel hissed. “All I want is to be free of Fate’s shackles.
Now!
To hell with Loki’s rantings. To hell with your amnesia! Your power is the key to my freedom. Give it to me!”

Nihel back-fisted Nuklear Man through the ruined Food Court Junction entrance. He tumbled to a halt on the ground and lay face first on the cracked tile floor. He felt like he’d been run over by, well,
everything
. “And in a way, I have been,” he muttered to himself. “Nihel is powered by the very existence of reality itself. Wait, how do I know that?” his voice slurred the words through a fog of pain.

__________

Rachel is yelling. Another car swerves out of the way.

Her hand is squeezing mine. Too tight with urgency (what? What’s wrong? Talk to me, tell me!) She’s pushing my hand, moving the gearshift and yelling.

I’m looking at her and its like the first time. Only more so. I can’t believe how hyperaware I am. I even have time to reflect on the fact that I’m reflecting. I’m seeing her with new eyes. Time is nothing. This moment is everything. This moment is clarity.

__________

Nuklear Man could feel something cool against his hand. He looked at it groggily. It was, “Norman?” The Tungsten Titan was a pile of metal melting at room temperature. Only his upper torso and head retained any semblance of form. His sightless eyes drooped, his face was a grotesque perversion of its former self. He was a bad acid trip. “Norman. P…pull yourself…pull yourself together man!” Nuklear Man ordered. “Pull yourself
together!”
he said again, this time with a slight edge of hysteria creeping into his voice. Nuklear Man pushed himself up. His mighty arms quaked from the effort. His strength had left him several punches ago, but he had to get away from the mockery of Norman.

Norman…my best friend and partner for as long as I can remember. It was your idea Norman, do you remember? Your idea for us to work with Überdyne to help make the world a better place. Your idea for me to take in Sparky, to teach him how to be a Hero. You always deferred to me as the leader, but it was always you, you were the backbone of our team…Pull yourself together.

“Why do you oppose me?” Nihel asked. He punctuated his question with a sharp kick to Nuklear Man’s ribs that sent him into the air. He landed in front of the Yogurt Junction. “We were so good together. We were the scourge of the Galactic Territories for a thousand years! Even the gods themselves feared us. But now? Now, you leave me with no alternative. I have to destroy you and take your fire.”

“No,” Nuklear Man moaned.

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice,” Nihel sneered. “How does that make you feel? Angry? Betrayed?” The air in front of Nihel shimmered like sunlight glinting off the surface of a lake. “Now imagine being that angry since the beginning of time!”

Shapes solidified in the air. Slowly at first, but faster with each successive piece. It was like some kind of three dimensional puzzle forming itself in midair. “A friend of yours showed this to me. Dr. Menace, she calls herself. Charming woman, really. Quite brilliant and ambitious too. Oh, and she hates you above all else, hence her idea upon which I am improving at this very moment. It’s almost a shame that she must die in what is to come.” He shrugged as his version of the Nega Cannon built itself from the inside out. “Perhaps she will take some pleasure knowing that it was her weapon that finally destroyed you even if she was denied the act of pulling the trigger herself.”

__________

The next car is an SUV. It swerves, but hits us anyway. Everything is chaos. Heaven and Earth recombine. Gravity pulls in every direction. The car is facing the wrong way, sliding down the street on my door. Metal screams. The windshield is knocked out. I’m watching the road scrape past my open window. The car finally slows to a stop and I hear something slide against the over turned hood. Instinctively, I look.

And there he is.

Dad pressed up against the hood. His face staring out blindly, his body contorted. I know he’s dead. Mom is flung over him, though she is no less twisted for his attempted protection.

Splotches of red stain their white lab coats.

__________

A giant silvery cannon had formed from thin air and landed itself right in Nihel’s grasp. It was perfectly smooth and reflected the world like a funhouse mirror. He hefted it onto his shoulder and willed it into operation. The cannon began to hum internally as it charged. Nuklear Man was idly reminded of the sound bees make when they’re at work around their nest.

Nihel pointed the cannon at Nuklear Man. “She called it a ‘Nega Cannon.’ Its original purpose was to defeat you once and for all.” He gloated with a smile. “With my modifications, it will. The very substance of your physical form will be erased from reality leaving your immense powers for the taking!” The humming grew louder and Nihel’s demeanor wavered slightly.

Nuklear Man was half unconscious and half hallucinating. The bees were swarming. They were getting closer, getting louder. He couldn’t move.

__________

I’m too horrified to do anything. Seconds pass before I become aware of myself, of a warm dripping against my face. I look up. Rachel is a mangled mess of beauty and metal. Her blood has stained the whole of her clothes. Red.

__________

“Goodbye, Arel.” Nihel was pale with strain, his eyes bloodshot. Maintaining the weapon’s power was taking its toll on his constitution. “It is a pity we could not be free together.” He pulled the trigger.

__________

Somewhere leaking gasoline catches fire. I am surrounded in flames. They are destroying everything I love. The flames, tinted red like blood, like anger, eating everything I’ve known, destroying my perfect world, my humanity. The fire did it. Not me.

Not me.

Blame the fire.

It’s too hot.

Don’t touch the fire.

Don’t touch me.

I scream.

__________

The cube around Atomik Lad pulsed from some unseen eruption. Crimson glowing cracks exploded across its entire surface. Great stone shards were simultaneously blast away and shattered into powder by lashing fangs of blood red hate. Atomik Lad rushed to Nuklear Man on crimson wings at the speed of light. He rammed his mentor across the Food Court Junction. Nihel’s cannon fired and Atomik Lad was frozen in a beam of purple-black light where Nuklear Man had been.

Nuklear Man opened his eyes. He could make out Atomik Lad’s silhouette as a darkened splotch in the massive purple-black ray.

And then it was gone.

The beam disappeared and Nihel dropped to his knees as the cannon fell to his side and broke like a porcelain vase. The pieces faded as they skittered across the tiled floor.

Nuklear Man blinked away persistent Plazma tears. “John?”

There was a blackened scorch mark where Atomik Lad had been standing.

“John!” he said louder this time, standing up without the strength to do so.
“John!”
His Plazma Aura flared like the sun, the sky blue of his eyes had turned to gold. Fluid-like spheres of light enveloped his fists, his cape thrashed in a hurricane of force. The ground churned under him like water as he flew at Nihel as the searing light of Revenge.

The two titans collided the way only gods can. The Earth wept. The sky belched fire. And the oceans rose.

Their battle raged into the parking lot. They struck the ground like meteors and shattered the earth under each step. No planet was meant to harbor this much force. Not for long at any rate. The melee was over in a flash. Nuklear Man was beyond his reserves. Every second that passed was another second away from the singular anger of the moment. Another second of weakness. Nihel did not delay. He launched a flurry of strikes against the Hero.

Nuklear Man fell.

Nihel loomed over him, panting heavily, his cape torn and ragged. “Why…?” he said between breaths. “Why. Won’t. You. Just
die!”
He waited for a response that did not come. He kicked Nuklear Man in the side. The Hero winced slightly. “All this. And still. You
live!”
Nihel laughed an hysterical laugh. “All I have done…all for freedom. And you, you who were to be the catalyst of that freedom, you stand in my way even in your defeat.”

He leaned down and picked up Nuklear Man by the collar. His limbs, head, and cape hung back limply. “They did this to you. They infected you with their insipid little lives. Changed you. I won’t let them do this to me.” Nihel threw his head back and yelled to the heavens, “I won’t!”

He let his face warm in the rays of the sun for a moment. Eyes closed, an almost content smile crept over him. He brought his dread gaze back to Nuklear Man. His cold gray eyes shifted. Nuklear Man. The sun. Nuklear Man. Sun. His shoulders shook and a deep, sinister, throaty laugh escaped his lips. “It’s rather crude for my tastes, but given the circumstances, it shall have to do.”

Nihel leaped into the air with Nuklear Man in his grasp and they were beyond the atmosphere in seconds. He spoke in the language of the gods, a language of Words and not sound. “I don’t need you, Arel. I know you can hear me. I don’t need you any more. I’ll destroy the galaxy
myself
. One. Planet. At. A time. And I believe I’ll start with this one.” He shook Nuklear Man’s limp body. “You’ve outlived your usefulness to me, Arel. Give my regards to Hel.”

Nihel hurled Nuklear Man toward the sun at impossible speeds.

__________

Issue 57 – Everything Falls Apart

A few minutes ago…

The doctors watched.

With their plan ruined, it was all they could do.

Dr. Genius directed her orbital KI sensors to focus on the Mall. She patched the information through several image filtration programs and a television screen. She could watch the action below in a fairly primitive polygonal virtual reality style display. The footage was then relayed to Dr. Menace as well.

The doctors watched as the fate of their world was decided by two strangers. Each woman had always assumed she would be the arbiter of Earth’s fortune. This was, to put it lightly, an alien situation. They watched in silence as the angular representations of Nuklear Man and Nihel played out the drama.