Disclaimer: I don't own the show Heroes in all of it's wonderfulness and that's a crying shame.
I guess this would be rated T for some coarse language.
So this is my first coherent attempt at writing a fanfic. Any critiquing is welcome, I've lurked around here allot and you guys are some of the best at what you do. Without further delay:
Heroes: Playground of the Gods
Chapter 1: One Giant Leap
The Midwest is a flat, featureless place. Mid-sized cities dot the landscape every so often, and there is an over abundance of corn. A simple place really, with simple people. But looks can be deceiving; sometimes the extraordinary can happen to the most average of people in the most average of places. Indiana is such a place, small and mid-sized cities and corn, lots and lots of corn.
Jeff Anderson lives in Indiana, specifically Indianapolis. At five-foot ten, 190 pounds he is as average as you can get, from his short brown hair to his brown eyes and the short scruff of hair on his chin. One of 'those' faces that you can forget as soon as you pass the person by.
Jeff leaned back against the counter reading a magazine, a comic called 9th Wonders! It was another slow day in a long string of slow days. Customers just weren't coming to the strip mall to shop anymore. As a consequence his paychecks were starting to suffer, and this did not make Jeff a happy boy. Another page turned another minute passed. Jeff looked up towards the door as two nondescript men in heavy clothing entered his store. 'Shoplifters, this should be fun.' he thought to himself.
"How're you guys doing today?" Jeff asked, making conversation to ease his boredom and to announce his presence to the two shoppers. The two men split up on opposite sides of the store seemingly ignoring Jeff, much to his consternation. Picking up a sales flyer, Jeff made his way over to one of the guys toward the back of the shop where most of the high-ticket items were kept.
"So what brings you in today?" Handing out the flyers was a tedious task, but what the bosses tossed down the line, Jeff had to follow. "Nothin' man I was just lookin' around. My mans over there looks like he needs help though". The guy seemed a bit edgy to Jeff, working in retail for so long you tend to develop the ability to read a persons intentions. Of course, the time that he should have followed his intuition, he didn't. As Jeff turned away toward the shopper friend he was clubbed on the back of the head. A fist, a club, a gun... it all feels the same when someone hits you unexpectedly from behind.
Things tend to slow down when you've taken head trauma. Struggling to get up, Jeff could see the other man (which looked like two at the moment) locking the door. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Jeff got to his knees and was firmly seized by his shirt collar.
"This is how it's gonna go down." the larger of the two thugs said as he pushed what felt like the barrel of a pistol to the nape of Jeff's neck. "You're gonna walk me to the register, you're gonna open it up and bag the money. Then, you're gonna go to the safe, open it and bag all that money." the cold barrel pushed a little deeper. "After that, if you're lucky, Tookie and me just might let you live to go home." Tookie, the other man snickered like he had been let in on a little joke.
Tookie and his accomplice dragged Jeff to his feet and shoved him toward the cashier’s alcove. Had this been a larger, more important store, there would have been cameras and more importantly customers coming and going; no such luck today. Jeff stumbled to the register; he rubbed his head and felt the warm sticky feeling of his own blood. He rightly assumed, through no formal medical training that he had at least a mild concussion, He could tell because his vision was still swimming.
"Ay Jaron, tell Opie to open that shit up, we ain't got all day." the one called Tookie said from his spot close to the door, he was presumably watching for anyone that might come by. His job was easy this day.
"You heard him, open it up." the one now known as Jaron instructed, the whole time holding the pistol to the back of Jeff's head pushing it in every so often to reinforce who was in charge of the situation. As a side note, when under pressure, Jeff was known to become a bit of a smart-ass; it was a defense mechanism of sorts.
"Let me just tell you how screwed up your day is" Jeff said as he started poking at the keys. "You've walked into a small store in a dead-end strip mall hoping to get large amounts of cash."
Pressing the floating keys to open the register drawer was a bit of a chore for Jeff, but he managed to get it open. With a bling of the bell and a pop of the release mechanism, the drawer popped open... to show 85 dollars and some loose change. Jeff was jerked away as Jaron grabbed the cash tray to look underneath for any cash drops.
"The fuck is this white-boy? Eighty bucks and some bullshit change?" Jaron poked his pistol into Jeff's head on almost every syllable to make sure Jeff knew he was displeased. "Where's the rest of the money at, huh? I know you got to have more than this!" Jaron backed away to let Jeff explain himself, as if low sales and the small amounts of cash were his fault.
Jeff looked at his captor, his vision was getting better. "This is all I've got, there haven't been many customers today I told you that."
The one called Tookie came to the cashier alcove and looked in the drawer, then at Jaron and then settled his eyes on Jeff. "Get this bitch to open the safe; there's gotta be somethin' in there." Tookie came around the corner, gun in hand, to box Jeff in between him and his buddy effectively letting Jeff know just what and how dire he situation was.
"You heard the man, open the safe and be quick about it.' Jaron pointed his gun towards the safe under the counter.
Jeff bent down to open the safe; the code was easy it was his birthday; a beep from the lock and clank and the small door of the safe popped open. Inside there were multiple envelopes and notices, the kinda thing you could find in any small retail store. But the one thing that the two robbers wanted wasn't there. Jeff looked up at the two men expectantly. Sadly, Jeff figured out what the score was as soon as the two robbers let their names get out and their faces seen. Jeff wasn't going home; they had no intention of letting him go. But Jeff had no intention of going out without a fight.
"Eighty bucks and some change... ain't this some shit. Tookie, ain't this a shame?" Jaron asked his partner as he nabbed Jeff's collar.
"That's a damned cryin' shame dawg. All this work for nothin" he looked down at Jeff "And we were so nice to you Opie... mm mm." Tookie sighed condescendingly as he backed out of the way as Jaron hauled Jeff up. "Looks like you ain't going' home after all snowflake."
As he came half way up to full height, Jeff launched a punch at Tookies’ ribs hoping to catch him off guard; hoping to find a way out. Jeff had always wanted to study martial arts, or boxing but he never got around to it and it showed as his punch did nothing but make the larger Tookie stumble a bit as he backed away. His moment of physical resistance at an end, Jeff was rewarded with punch to the jaw.
"And I though we were gettin' to be good friends." Tookie laughed as he and Jaron pulled Jeff towards the back-room, presumably where no one would hear what would happen next.
In the back-room, Tookie hit Jeff in his head with his pistol. Jeff fell to his knees with a groan. Many soldiers or anyone who has been hit in the head or hit with a concussive blast will tell you that time itself seems to slow to a crawl. Jeff experienced what seemed like the last few moments of his uneventful life over the course of minutes. Of course time came speeding back as he saw the pistol pointed at him, that's when something wholly unexpected and extraordinary began to occur.
Realizing that his time was at an end, Jeff began to rise to his knees determined to at least die with some dignity. All of the stress of the last 10 minutes began to overload his consciousness. Anger that had been pent up during the ordeal began to rise and adrenaline began to course through Jeff’s veins, he felt heat... incredible heat.
'Not like this' he said in his mind. He breathing became ragged coming is gasps, the inane chatter of his captors drifted away and time slowed again. This time however Jeff was clear headed. The two robbers seemed to be moving in slow motion, the gun ever so slowly moving towards him.
Jeff’s knees buckled, the heat that he felt became more intense, instead of just feeling heat like someone would on a hot day, the heat became focused, focused around Jeff. 'Not like this...' His eyes still on his captors, Jeff noticed with some detachment that his vision was going white. 'Is this the end?' he wondered.
Tookie raised his gun; Jaron had popped the last merchant they robbed. They weren't sociopaths per se; they just didn't see a point in leaving witnesses. "Smoke this fool" Jaron said looking down and the heaving mass of Jeff Anderson. He noticed that it seemed a little warmer in the room but thought nothing of it.
"Not... Like... This..." Jeff managed to get out through gritted teeth. The gun fired.
Authorities from several major governmental agencies couldn't figure out just what happened to make almost two city blocks disappear in a massive, admittedly non-nuclear explosion. No gas leaks were reported before hand and any power outages or surges that could have occurred were not enough to cause this level of destruction. Despite the rad count being normal the immediate area was evacuated and the technicians and authorities on the scene were wearing Haz-mat suits.
Nearly half a mile from the explosion an average looking male stumbled forward and passed out in front of a house as it was being evacuated. Paramedics took the man, who was covered in soot, cuts and bruises and appeared to be suffering from massive exhaustion, to a nearby hospital with the rest of the injured people from the area. Having rescued several people in nearly this state and the fact that they were in a rush to evacuate, the medics thought nothing of it.
The explosion and deaths of at least 70 people in March of 2007 would remain a mystery for some time. In the most average of places, the most extraordinary of things can happen.
So, there it is. Really any advice to clean it up or add to it will be greatly appreciated.
Heroes: Playground of the Gods (working title)
Moderator: LadyTevar
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ElPintoGrande
- Youngling
- Posts: 65
- Joined: 2006-02-21 08:57pm
- Location: Gods Oily Rectum
Heroes: Playground of the Gods (working title)
Yay! Midget Toss!
-
ElPintoGrande
- Youngling
- Posts: 65
- Joined: 2006-02-21 08:57pm
- Location: Gods Oily Rectum
Okay so I could use some help with the title of this story. Somehow 'Playground of the Gods' doesn't quite fit, it just popped into my head.
I'm playing around with a flashback, lemme know how it works.
Anyway here's chapter 2! Thanks to those who have left feedback.
Chapter 2: Strange Days
Beep… Beep… Beep…Beep… Beep…
It’s strange the first thing you notice when you come out of a deep sleep. Or in this case a light coma. The strong smell of disinfectant hits your olfactory senses like a slap to the face, and as you start to open your eyes for a moment your imagination makes you want to see a large black man welcoming you to the real world.
Jeff slowly opened his eyes to see large halogen lights shining down on him like some sort of beatific techno-god. ‘Heaven?’ Jeff thought to himself. The opening stages of waking up gave way to memories, memories of light, of sound… of heat; heat that a Southern Baptist could easily equate with the fires of hell itself. It all came flooding back in a violent deluge of sights and sounds. Jeff bolted into an upright sitting position with a scream, eyes wide and wild.
He looked around his chest heaving, was he hyperventilating? Jeff could hear he heart pounding. Suddenly as young woman appeared in front of him pushing him back down into the bed by his shoulders.
“It’s okay; you’re going to be fine. You took a nasty blow to the head during the explosion and got hit by some debris it looks like” the nurse said soothingly. The last thing she needed was another maddened survivor of massive explosion that took out a neighborhood and an unknown number of people. Rescue workers and the FBI were combing over the large area of devastated land looking for survivors and more importantly clues as to just what the hell happened.
As the nurse reached for a hypodermic needle with a sedative in it to calm the John Doe down he reached for her.
“What explosion? What are you talking about?”
The nurse looked down at him quizzically “You really don’t remember anything do you?” The nurse pulled a stool over to fill him in and hopefully to get some information as to whom he was. “An entire east-side neighborhood no longer exists; there was a huge explosion that leveled everything. Neither the police nor the Feds have any idea what caused it. The area was evacuated for fear that it was a nuclear explosion because of the devastation.” The nurse took a breath recalling what she could from the scant information she was given prior to the influx of the wounded. “You, if I remember correctly were found by paramedics. They said you were stumbling around naked and that you were pretty bruised and had a nasty bump on your head; which would explain why we couldn’t get an ID on you and why you couldn’t tell the medics your name in the ambulance.”
Jeff looked up at the nurse, a pretty girl if a bit frazzled. “I don’t remember much after I went to bed last night. I must have been at or on the way to work when whatever happened… happened.”
The nurse picked up his chart and took a pen from her scrubs. “Can you tell me your name?”
“Jeffery Anderson, Jeff Anderson. And your name is Elizabeth Branham.”
The nurse, Elizabeth looked at him oddly. “How did you know that?”
Jeff smiled a bit and pointed to a small square attached to her scrub top “Nametag”.
The nurse looked down slightly embarrassed fingering the nametag as she brushed some red hair out of the way “Oh… right. Well Jeff, as I said you took a pretty good beating it looks like. Aside from the bruising and the cuts you’re okay. The doctors want to keep you under observation just to make sure that head wound isn’t anything more than a mild concussion.” The nurse got up to leave, pushing the stool back to its place.
“One more thing, before you go” Jeff called.
Elizabeth turned back. He was kind of cute she had to admit, in that wounded puppy dog way. “Yes?”
Jeff rubbed the bridge of his nose trying to think, trying to remember. “I feel like I’ve been sleeping forever, how long was I out?”
Elizabeth came back to his chart and looked through it. “This says you were out for the better part of three days.” She raised an eyebrow in thought. “Your admitting doctor also says you were suffering from extreme exhaustion. A little odd if you ask me.” She put the chart back down. “Well all that matters is that you’re here now and full of fluids and soon some yummy, yummy hospital food! Now get some rest, the doctor will be in soon to check on your head.” She turned to walk away to resume her duties.
Jeff smiled a bit “Hey… if you get the urge to check up on me, I’ll be right here waiting for a sponge bath or whatever it is people do sitting in hospitals.”
Elizabeth smiled at Jeff “Maybe I will.” She then turned and left the room.
Two more days passed without incident. Doctors came and went, Elizabeth came and went. Satisfied that Jeff’s condition was getting better the doctors decided to free up bed space for people that needed it more. Jeff was interviewed twice, once by local police and then by two Federal agents. The law enforcement agents were trying to build a picture of what had happened by getting all of the bits and pieces that they could get together from survivors.
Jeff Anderson walked out of the hospital, it was a beautiful spring day in Indianapolis, clear skies and a cool breeze walking a few blocks to the nearest bus stop, Jeff stopped to look at the local paper in a trash bin. ‘Terrorists? Gas Leak? Fluke? Local and Federal agents baffled by explosion.’
Jeff skimmed through the list hoping to find out more about what had happened. One of the things that Jeff had never been able to control was absentmindedly moving while he read. So focused was he on the story that he didn’t notice that he had stepped off of the street and into the path of an oncoming pickup truck.
The driver of the truck was distracted when he dropped his cigarette onto his lap. He didn’t see the youngish looking man reading a paper step into his path. When the driver finally got things under control he was close enough only to blow the horn, utter a curse and hope to god he didn’t kill anyone.
The blare of the horn broke Jeff out of his reverie. The truck was almost close enough to touch now, all Jeff could do was put his hands out in a vain effort to stunt the blow to come.
The driver hit his brakes, the vehicle came down from 45mph to 30mph rather quickly but it was still too fast to avoid seriously injuring the person in front of him. Just as the driver started to squeeze his eyes shut he saw a light as bright as the sun reaching toward his vehicle.
The integrity of any material when it is subjected to a massive jump in temperature will fail eventually. From the strongest of alloys to the weakest of paper, enough heat and something will burn, shatter, explode, or seemingly disintegrate. The forces stressed against the front of the pickup were enough to burn the paint and chrome away from the front of the vehicle blow the tires out and fuse all of the wiring and tubing up to the firewall. It was hardly the heat that did the most damage to the suddenly stopped truck.
A concussive wave buckled in the engine compartment shoving what was left of the engine block, the transmission and the steering column into the cab area impacting the hapless driver crushing his abdomen and killing him instantly. The vehicle was pushed back and up onto its back wheels and then onto it’s roof. It took all of five seconds.
Jeff stared in disbelief at what had just occurred. The blackened smoking, slowly spinning truck sat 15-feet away. Jeff just stood and stared “Fuck”. Moving quickly to the upside down truck, Jeff bent down to see if anyone inside was alive. The amount of blood and gore and the fact that what was left of the persons head was resting right side up on the roof confirmed he wasn’t. Hearing sirens in the distance Jeff, who was completely freaked out by recent events… ran.
How far and for how long, he didn’t know. When Jeff finally stopped it was in front of a small electronics store showcasing the newest TVs in the front window. The televisions were all turned to a local station and being late in the afternoon, the local news was on. Small speakers set into the awning allowed people to hear what was on the screen.
A middle-age blonde with immaculately quaffed hair was sitting behind the desk in conservative business clothing. She had the air of importance about her that only someone who had won a local Emmy could have. ‘…In other news tonight, an auto accident near Methodist Hospital has left one man dead and police baffled. 38 year-old Frank Emerson was killed when his truck, which was heading northbound on Illinois street, exploded killing him instantly. Police and forensics have been searching the immediate area and looking for witnesses to find out just what happened. A local dealership was contacted to see if any other pickups had been brought in or reported to have a fire problem. The manager of the dealership declined to comment.’
The camera pulled back to show both the female reporter and her male co-anchor. The man had dark hair, incredibly white teeth framed around badly tanned skin; he just screamed ‘douche’. ‘Sounds like someone is on the hot seat tonight Diane! And now onto…’ Jeff turned away from the screen finding himself deep in thought. Miles from home and without his vehicle, Jeff did the only thing he could think of. Walking to the nearest gas station, Jeff took some of the spare change he had found and called the one person who could help him calm down and give him a place to think, his mother.
Dialing the number he knew by heart, Jeff realized that his mother had no idea if he were alive or dead. Not having heard from him in almost a week she must be a wreck. The phone rang several times before being picked.
‘Hello’ said a tired voice on the other end of the line.
“Mom, it’s Jeff.”
The phone line was silent for almost ten seconds while Jeff’s mother digested the news that her child was alive after all. ‘My god Jeff you’re alive! Where have you been? I haven’t heard anything from the police, I called so many times.’
Jeff did his best to calm his mother down “It’s alright Mom, I was hit with some flying debris and I passed out. Medics took me to the hospital were I’ve been for the last five days. Listen I need to come to your place to think for a while. My car was lost in the explosion and I have no way to get back to my apartment.”
‘Of course you can come! Where are you? Do you need me to come get you? How is your head?’ When Jeff’s mother got worked up it was hard to bring her down. This was one of the times when it was hard to bring her down.
Jeff smiled a bit. This was the person that had got him to where he was in life so he indulged her overcompensation for the moment. “I’m just south of Downtown, not too far away. You remember where the highway joins into Harding? That’s where I am. I’ll be waiting.”
‘Okay, okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just stay where you are. Are you hungry? When is the last time you ate?’ She just kept going.
Jeff decided to cut the call short, while it was spring it was still a little cool this time of night and all he had on was a pair of scrubs that his nurse, Elizabeth had managed to get to him. “Love ya mom, see you soon.”
Several hours later, after copious amounts of food and likewise copious amounts of reassurances as to the state of his physical wellbeing, Jeff sat alone in the room that he had as a child. Now converted to a guest room, there weren’t the shelves with of legions of action figures and starships. Jeff had always been a closet geek, he didn’t exactly look the part but he could tell you about the synopsis about every episode of every series of Star Trek just from watching the opening scene before the credits, a useless talent to be sure but one he kept sharp, he never knew when he would have to use his power for the good of Trekkies everywhere.
Sitting on his old bed in the light of a small lamp, Jeff began to take his shoes, which were also ‘donated’ by Elizabeth. By ‘donate’ she had taken them from a not so kind to nurses’ doctor who kept several pairs on hand. Jeff had some spare clothing here so tomorrow wouldn’t be a problem. Standing up and taking his shirt off, Jeff got a good look at his upper torso. Large bruises covered part of his left pectoral and abs; he even noticed some bruising on his left rear shoulder.
Over the last two years Jeff had taken painstaking amounts of time lifting weights and working out in as much free-time that he wasn’t using to play games or working. Seeing so much visual damage on what he deemed to be the most important of models he had ever built mad Jeff a little sad, but he knew that bruises would heal. Walking back over to the bed, Jeff laid back and turned off the small lamp. Jeff laid in the dark, the utter dark; Jeff had always kept the room as dark as possible, he just couldn’t sleep if even the smallest crack of light made it into the room. Surprisingly as Jeff drifted off to sleep he didn’t notice the slight glow the seemed to emanate from his body.
Sleep came quickly to Jeff that night. But with the sleep, came dreams.
Heat; intense heat. A scream no… almost a roar. Blinding light; an eclipse. Jeff found himself back at work but things seemed… off. The edges of his vision were hazy and he felt stuck. A flash. Two bigger men were laughing; Jeff knew he was in the back-room of his store ‘What the hell is this?’ Jeff asked in a far off voice.
One of the men he noticed had a gun; it was pointed to someone on the floor. ‘Not like this’ It was around the time he heard the person on the floor speak that he noticed he felt disembodied. He was looking down on… himself. ‘Shit, what the hell is going on here?’ Panic started to kick in as the disembodied Jeff watched in horror was the gun was raised at… well… HIM!
‘Get out! Run! Do… Something!’ Yelling seemed rather pointless as the scene played itself out as though he wasn’t there. Jeff watched himself on his knees , chest heaving like he was hyperventilating. Looking closer Jeff saw that the eyes of his other self were glowing and his hands, which were clenched into fists seemed to be glowing as well.
‘Not… Like… This…’
The air around Jeff became warmer, noticeably warmer. What looked like very small, golden fireflies congregated around his fists the lights appeared farther out from his hands every second. Looking up at his captors he noticed an increasing whiteout creeping in on his vision. The gun fired, the barrel recoiling in a blast of smoke and fire. The casing flipped out of the chamber and the bullet spiraled forward like the most perfect of football passes. The bullet flattened itself against an invisible and expanding barrier. Tookie and Jaron only lived long enough to be flash blinded as the expanding barrier of plasma akin to a coronal mass ejection (albeit on a much smaller scale) impacted their bodies reducing them to their component molecules in less than a tenth of a second.
The wave rushed outwards, uncontrolled and seemingly unstoppable. Everything in the immediate path of the charged plasma wave was destroyed. Over the next six seconds the wave dissipated in power and lethality. In eight seconds all that was left of the surrounding neighborhood was kindling and scrap metal on the outer edges of the blast zone. The epicenter of the blast was completely different, nothing survived save one naked man collapsed in a heap on a well preserved area of linoleum tile and below that a small bit of concrete foundation. Everything else in the immediate tenth of a mile was the finest dust.
In his room, Jeff was torn out of his sleep by a scream. The scream was his own; sitting up he realized he was drenched in sweat. Getting up, Jeff went to the bathroom. He turned on the light and looked at the haunted person staring back at him.
“What’s happening to me?”
I'm playing around with a flashback, lemme know how it works.
Anyway here's chapter 2! Thanks to those who have left feedback.
Chapter 2: Strange Days
Beep… Beep… Beep…Beep… Beep…
It’s strange the first thing you notice when you come out of a deep sleep. Or in this case a light coma. The strong smell of disinfectant hits your olfactory senses like a slap to the face, and as you start to open your eyes for a moment your imagination makes you want to see a large black man welcoming you to the real world.
Jeff slowly opened his eyes to see large halogen lights shining down on him like some sort of beatific techno-god. ‘Heaven?’ Jeff thought to himself. The opening stages of waking up gave way to memories, memories of light, of sound… of heat; heat that a Southern Baptist could easily equate with the fires of hell itself. It all came flooding back in a violent deluge of sights and sounds. Jeff bolted into an upright sitting position with a scream, eyes wide and wild.
He looked around his chest heaving, was he hyperventilating? Jeff could hear he heart pounding. Suddenly as young woman appeared in front of him pushing him back down into the bed by his shoulders.
“It’s okay; you’re going to be fine. You took a nasty blow to the head during the explosion and got hit by some debris it looks like” the nurse said soothingly. The last thing she needed was another maddened survivor of massive explosion that took out a neighborhood and an unknown number of people. Rescue workers and the FBI were combing over the large area of devastated land looking for survivors and more importantly clues as to just what the hell happened.
As the nurse reached for a hypodermic needle with a sedative in it to calm the John Doe down he reached for her.
“What explosion? What are you talking about?”
The nurse looked down at him quizzically “You really don’t remember anything do you?” The nurse pulled a stool over to fill him in and hopefully to get some information as to whom he was. “An entire east-side neighborhood no longer exists; there was a huge explosion that leveled everything. Neither the police nor the Feds have any idea what caused it. The area was evacuated for fear that it was a nuclear explosion because of the devastation.” The nurse took a breath recalling what she could from the scant information she was given prior to the influx of the wounded. “You, if I remember correctly were found by paramedics. They said you were stumbling around naked and that you were pretty bruised and had a nasty bump on your head; which would explain why we couldn’t get an ID on you and why you couldn’t tell the medics your name in the ambulance.”
Jeff looked up at the nurse, a pretty girl if a bit frazzled. “I don’t remember much after I went to bed last night. I must have been at or on the way to work when whatever happened… happened.”
The nurse picked up his chart and took a pen from her scrubs. “Can you tell me your name?”
“Jeffery Anderson, Jeff Anderson. And your name is Elizabeth Branham.”
The nurse, Elizabeth looked at him oddly. “How did you know that?”
Jeff smiled a bit and pointed to a small square attached to her scrub top “Nametag”.
The nurse looked down slightly embarrassed fingering the nametag as she brushed some red hair out of the way “Oh… right. Well Jeff, as I said you took a pretty good beating it looks like. Aside from the bruising and the cuts you’re okay. The doctors want to keep you under observation just to make sure that head wound isn’t anything more than a mild concussion.” The nurse got up to leave, pushing the stool back to its place.
“One more thing, before you go” Jeff called.
Elizabeth turned back. He was kind of cute she had to admit, in that wounded puppy dog way. “Yes?”
Jeff rubbed the bridge of his nose trying to think, trying to remember. “I feel like I’ve been sleeping forever, how long was I out?”
Elizabeth came back to his chart and looked through it. “This says you were out for the better part of three days.” She raised an eyebrow in thought. “Your admitting doctor also says you were suffering from extreme exhaustion. A little odd if you ask me.” She put the chart back down. “Well all that matters is that you’re here now and full of fluids and soon some yummy, yummy hospital food! Now get some rest, the doctor will be in soon to check on your head.” She turned to walk away to resume her duties.
Jeff smiled a bit “Hey… if you get the urge to check up on me, I’ll be right here waiting for a sponge bath or whatever it is people do sitting in hospitals.”
Elizabeth smiled at Jeff “Maybe I will.” She then turned and left the room.
Two more days passed without incident. Doctors came and went, Elizabeth came and went. Satisfied that Jeff’s condition was getting better the doctors decided to free up bed space for people that needed it more. Jeff was interviewed twice, once by local police and then by two Federal agents. The law enforcement agents were trying to build a picture of what had happened by getting all of the bits and pieces that they could get together from survivors.
Jeff Anderson walked out of the hospital, it was a beautiful spring day in Indianapolis, clear skies and a cool breeze walking a few blocks to the nearest bus stop, Jeff stopped to look at the local paper in a trash bin. ‘Terrorists? Gas Leak? Fluke? Local and Federal agents baffled by explosion.’
Jeff skimmed through the list hoping to find out more about what had happened. One of the things that Jeff had never been able to control was absentmindedly moving while he read. So focused was he on the story that he didn’t notice that he had stepped off of the street and into the path of an oncoming pickup truck.
The driver of the truck was distracted when he dropped his cigarette onto his lap. He didn’t see the youngish looking man reading a paper step into his path. When the driver finally got things under control he was close enough only to blow the horn, utter a curse and hope to god he didn’t kill anyone.
The blare of the horn broke Jeff out of his reverie. The truck was almost close enough to touch now, all Jeff could do was put his hands out in a vain effort to stunt the blow to come.
The driver hit his brakes, the vehicle came down from 45mph to 30mph rather quickly but it was still too fast to avoid seriously injuring the person in front of him. Just as the driver started to squeeze his eyes shut he saw a light as bright as the sun reaching toward his vehicle.
The integrity of any material when it is subjected to a massive jump in temperature will fail eventually. From the strongest of alloys to the weakest of paper, enough heat and something will burn, shatter, explode, or seemingly disintegrate. The forces stressed against the front of the pickup were enough to burn the paint and chrome away from the front of the vehicle blow the tires out and fuse all of the wiring and tubing up to the firewall. It was hardly the heat that did the most damage to the suddenly stopped truck.
A concussive wave buckled in the engine compartment shoving what was left of the engine block, the transmission and the steering column into the cab area impacting the hapless driver crushing his abdomen and killing him instantly. The vehicle was pushed back and up onto its back wheels and then onto it’s roof. It took all of five seconds.
Jeff stared in disbelief at what had just occurred. The blackened smoking, slowly spinning truck sat 15-feet away. Jeff just stood and stared “Fuck”. Moving quickly to the upside down truck, Jeff bent down to see if anyone inside was alive. The amount of blood and gore and the fact that what was left of the persons head was resting right side up on the roof confirmed he wasn’t. Hearing sirens in the distance Jeff, who was completely freaked out by recent events… ran.
How far and for how long, he didn’t know. When Jeff finally stopped it was in front of a small electronics store showcasing the newest TVs in the front window. The televisions were all turned to a local station and being late in the afternoon, the local news was on. Small speakers set into the awning allowed people to hear what was on the screen.
A middle-age blonde with immaculately quaffed hair was sitting behind the desk in conservative business clothing. She had the air of importance about her that only someone who had won a local Emmy could have. ‘…In other news tonight, an auto accident near Methodist Hospital has left one man dead and police baffled. 38 year-old Frank Emerson was killed when his truck, which was heading northbound on Illinois street, exploded killing him instantly. Police and forensics have been searching the immediate area and looking for witnesses to find out just what happened. A local dealership was contacted to see if any other pickups had been brought in or reported to have a fire problem. The manager of the dealership declined to comment.’
The camera pulled back to show both the female reporter and her male co-anchor. The man had dark hair, incredibly white teeth framed around badly tanned skin; he just screamed ‘douche’. ‘Sounds like someone is on the hot seat tonight Diane! And now onto…’ Jeff turned away from the screen finding himself deep in thought. Miles from home and without his vehicle, Jeff did the only thing he could think of. Walking to the nearest gas station, Jeff took some of the spare change he had found and called the one person who could help him calm down and give him a place to think, his mother.
Dialing the number he knew by heart, Jeff realized that his mother had no idea if he were alive or dead. Not having heard from him in almost a week she must be a wreck. The phone rang several times before being picked.
‘Hello’ said a tired voice on the other end of the line.
“Mom, it’s Jeff.”
The phone line was silent for almost ten seconds while Jeff’s mother digested the news that her child was alive after all. ‘My god Jeff you’re alive! Where have you been? I haven’t heard anything from the police, I called so many times.’
Jeff did his best to calm his mother down “It’s alright Mom, I was hit with some flying debris and I passed out. Medics took me to the hospital were I’ve been for the last five days. Listen I need to come to your place to think for a while. My car was lost in the explosion and I have no way to get back to my apartment.”
‘Of course you can come! Where are you? Do you need me to come get you? How is your head?’ When Jeff’s mother got worked up it was hard to bring her down. This was one of the times when it was hard to bring her down.
Jeff smiled a bit. This was the person that had got him to where he was in life so he indulged her overcompensation for the moment. “I’m just south of Downtown, not too far away. You remember where the highway joins into Harding? That’s where I am. I’ll be waiting.”
‘Okay, okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just stay where you are. Are you hungry? When is the last time you ate?’ She just kept going.
Jeff decided to cut the call short, while it was spring it was still a little cool this time of night and all he had on was a pair of scrubs that his nurse, Elizabeth had managed to get to him. “Love ya mom, see you soon.”
Several hours later, after copious amounts of food and likewise copious amounts of reassurances as to the state of his physical wellbeing, Jeff sat alone in the room that he had as a child. Now converted to a guest room, there weren’t the shelves with of legions of action figures and starships. Jeff had always been a closet geek, he didn’t exactly look the part but he could tell you about the synopsis about every episode of every series of Star Trek just from watching the opening scene before the credits, a useless talent to be sure but one he kept sharp, he never knew when he would have to use his power for the good of Trekkies everywhere.
Sitting on his old bed in the light of a small lamp, Jeff began to take his shoes, which were also ‘donated’ by Elizabeth. By ‘donate’ she had taken them from a not so kind to nurses’ doctor who kept several pairs on hand. Jeff had some spare clothing here so tomorrow wouldn’t be a problem. Standing up and taking his shirt off, Jeff got a good look at his upper torso. Large bruises covered part of his left pectoral and abs; he even noticed some bruising on his left rear shoulder.
Over the last two years Jeff had taken painstaking amounts of time lifting weights and working out in as much free-time that he wasn’t using to play games or working. Seeing so much visual damage on what he deemed to be the most important of models he had ever built mad Jeff a little sad, but he knew that bruises would heal. Walking back over to the bed, Jeff laid back and turned off the small lamp. Jeff laid in the dark, the utter dark; Jeff had always kept the room as dark as possible, he just couldn’t sleep if even the smallest crack of light made it into the room. Surprisingly as Jeff drifted off to sleep he didn’t notice the slight glow the seemed to emanate from his body.
Sleep came quickly to Jeff that night. But with the sleep, came dreams.
Heat; intense heat. A scream no… almost a roar. Blinding light; an eclipse. Jeff found himself back at work but things seemed… off. The edges of his vision were hazy and he felt stuck. A flash. Two bigger men were laughing; Jeff knew he was in the back-room of his store ‘What the hell is this?’ Jeff asked in a far off voice.
One of the men he noticed had a gun; it was pointed to someone on the floor. ‘Not like this’ It was around the time he heard the person on the floor speak that he noticed he felt disembodied. He was looking down on… himself. ‘Shit, what the hell is going on here?’ Panic started to kick in as the disembodied Jeff watched in horror was the gun was raised at… well… HIM!
‘Get out! Run! Do… Something!’ Yelling seemed rather pointless as the scene played itself out as though he wasn’t there. Jeff watched himself on his knees , chest heaving like he was hyperventilating. Looking closer Jeff saw that the eyes of his other self were glowing and his hands, which were clenched into fists seemed to be glowing as well.
‘Not… Like… This…’
The air around Jeff became warmer, noticeably warmer. What looked like very small, golden fireflies congregated around his fists the lights appeared farther out from his hands every second. Looking up at his captors he noticed an increasing whiteout creeping in on his vision. The gun fired, the barrel recoiling in a blast of smoke and fire. The casing flipped out of the chamber and the bullet spiraled forward like the most perfect of football passes. The bullet flattened itself against an invisible and expanding barrier. Tookie and Jaron only lived long enough to be flash blinded as the expanding barrier of plasma akin to a coronal mass ejection (albeit on a much smaller scale) impacted their bodies reducing them to their component molecules in less than a tenth of a second.
The wave rushed outwards, uncontrolled and seemingly unstoppable. Everything in the immediate path of the charged plasma wave was destroyed. Over the next six seconds the wave dissipated in power and lethality. In eight seconds all that was left of the surrounding neighborhood was kindling and scrap metal on the outer edges of the blast zone. The epicenter of the blast was completely different, nothing survived save one naked man collapsed in a heap on a well preserved area of linoleum tile and below that a small bit of concrete foundation. Everything else in the immediate tenth of a mile was the finest dust.
In his room, Jeff was torn out of his sleep by a scream. The scream was his own; sitting up he realized he was drenched in sweat. Getting up, Jeff went to the bathroom. He turned on the light and looked at the haunted person staring back at him.
“What’s happening to me?”
Yay! Midget Toss!