Poem: "A Response to Extreme Events"
Nov. 18th, 2021 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the October 6, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from lone_cat, siliconshaman, technoshaman, and mama_kestrel. It also fills the "No, it's really not that complicated. He's a bad person." square in my 10-1-21 card for the Fall Festival Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Antimatter and Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
WARNING: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes canon-atypical violence, a nutjob waving a disintegration beam around downtown Omaha, ruins, smoke and fire, teens (and lots of other people) in danger, cape combat, arguments about risk and strategy, improvised prisoner restraint, leveling up, emotional upheaval, planned family conversation on fraught topics, and other mayhem. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"A Response to Extreme Events"
[Monday, May 18, 2015]
Antimatter and Stalwart Stan
took advantage of the nice day
to patrol the Gene Leahy Mall.
It was after the final exams but
before graduation, so they were
done with high school classes
but not officially finished yet.
The grass was spring-green
and dotted with dandelions.
Bluebells bloomed under
a clump of dogwoods lifting
their own white flowers.
Antimatter and Stalwart Stan
were feeding the geese, tossing
handfuls of the floating pellets
to them as they squabbled.
Suddenly every hair on
Antimatter's body stood up.
"Something's wrong," he said.
"What, where?" Stalwart Stan
spun in place to look around.
Just then a line of red light
sizzled overhead, slicing into
the red brick apartment building.
With a ponderous groan,
the whole corner fell off
to land in the water feature
and the plaza that stood
in front of the tall building.
They saw a figure dressed
in army green waving
some sort of beam rifle.
"This day just got
way more complicated
than I'm equipped for,"
Antimatter muttered.
"No, it's really not
that complicated,"
said Stalwart Stan.
"He's a bad person.
I'm going to stop him."
"With what? A glare and
a pack of goose food?"
Antimatter shot back.
"I'll think of something,"
Stalwart Stan said, already
heading toward trouble.
"Stan, wait a second,"
said Antimatter. "That --
whatever it is -- it's on
the far side of the lagoon
from where we are now."
As they watched, the beam
licked out again and lashed
across several roofs where
a cluster of small businesses
crowded along Farnam street.
"We need to cross the water,"
said Stalwart Stan. "I could
probably jump it from here --"
"I can't," Antimatter said grimly.
"We need a real bridge, Stan."
They looked at the chaos and
dust that covered 10th Street.
"Head east," said Stalwart Stan.
"The footbridge there is clear."
They ran as fast as they could.
Stalwart Stan had played football,
and Antimatter had been trying
to keep up with him for years,
so they made good speed.
As they thundered across
the footbridge, they watched
the beam curl over the roof
of the building that held
Orangetheory Fitness.
"He's heading east
along Farnam Street,"
said Antimatter. "If we cut
toward South 14th Street,
we can get ahead of him."
They darted out of the Mall
and through traffic that was
piling into a jam as people tried
and failed to avoid the trouble.
"This way," Antimatter said,
pulling Stalwart Stan down
South 14th Street. "There's
a fire escape, we can get
some height to see what
the hell is happening here."
Behind them they heard
a vast, tinkling crash.
They scrambled up
the Paxton's fire escape
and looked over the area.
Part of the Landmark Building
had fallen into South 13th Street.
Sure enough, the supervillain
was waving his gun again.
Stalwart Stan quickly pulled
a rock out of his pocket and
threw it with bullet-force.
He hit the supervillain, but
the man had moved, so it
smashed his left shoulder
instead of the gun side.
"Dangit, I almost had him,"
Stalwart Stan muttered.
The supervillain looked up
and began to move again.
"Shit, he's made us --
get gone!" Antimatter
shoved Stalwart Stan
down the fire escape.
The sizzling red beam
lanced high overhead,
fortunately hitting nothing.
They ducked and dodged
between cars and buildings.
Now and then, they caught
a glimpse of the supervillain.
With an awful grinding noise,
the beam cut diagonally through
the Nebraska State Office Building.
"We have to do something,"
said Stalwart Stan. "He's
tearing the city apart!"
"I know, but that guy has
a fucking disintegrator beam,"
Antimatter said, trying not
to panic. "If he ever draws
a bead on us, we're dead."
"The beam is unstabilized,
he can barely aim it at all,"
Stalwart Stan argued.
"That's not actually helpful,"
Antimatter said, grimacing.
"Besides, I'm Invulnerable,"
Stalwart Stan said. "It
might not even affect me."
"Or it could cut you in half,"
Antimatter said, poking him
hard over the old scar that
lay hidden near his navel.
"Not even Invulnerability
can stop everything."
"I may be the only person
with a chance of getting
close enough to stop him,"
Stalwart Stan said, lifting
a hand to his fetish.
Fuck. Fuck. He really
wasn't going to stop trying,
crazy superhero that he was.
"We need a plan," Antimatter said.
"Think chess, not fucking football!"
"Fried Liver Attack," said Stalwart Stan.
"We need to set up a booby trap."
"Yeah, that sounds promising,"
said Antimatter. He leaned out,
hoping to find another view.
"Can you freeze him in place, or
shut off his air?" said Stalwart Stan.
Antimatter shook his head. "Not
from this far away, and I don't dare
get any closer to that nutjob."
"Agreed," said Stalwart Stan.
"What about wrecking the gun?
He probably can't hurt us then."
"I don't know, maybe -- it's hard,
but experimental weapons tend
to be delicate," said Antimatter.
"If you could take out the gun,
then I can flatten that guy easily,"
said Stalwart Stan. "It's an idea."
The next glimpse gave Antimatter
a precious piece of information.
"There's a timer," he said.
"What kind of timer?"
Stalwart Stan said,
ducking behind a truck.
"The beam rifle has a lever,"
Antimatter said. "It can only fire
for a few seconds, then it shuts off.
The lever pops up, and he has
to push it down before he can
fire the beam rifle again."
"Why not just have a trigger?"
Stalwart Stan wondered.
"Probably so that it doesn't
melt or blow his hands off,"
said Antimatter. "Beam rifles
build up a lot of energy. That's
why a hex cannon has to rotate,
to give each barrel time to refresh."
"How long does his beam rifle take
between shots?" said Stalwart Stan.
"About ten seconds," said Antimatter.
"Not long enough," Stalwart Stan said,
shaking his head. "I really need you
to disable that darn gun somehow."
"I'm not sure I can," said Antimatter.
"I mean, I could, if it was on a lab table,
but he's moving fast and waving it around."
"I know that!" snapped Stalwart Stan.
"That's why we have to stop him."
"Well, we don't want the damn thing
to explode and make a bigger disaster,"
Antimatter retorted. "We have to plan
so we can disable the weapon safely."
Stalwart Stan drummed his fingers.
"Ten seconds might be enough
if I could ambush him somehow.
What would you need in order
to take out his beam rifle?"
"I'd need him standing still
for at least a second or two,
so I can jam it," said Antimatter.
"All right, we need cover --"
"The disintegration beam
can cut through anything,"
Antimatter pointed out.
"Sorry, my mistake. We
need concealment, so he can't
see us," said Stalwart Stan. "If
I jump out and yell at him, then
he should pause to look for me."
"Tell me you'll duck away as soon
as you yell," said Antimatter.
"As soon as he spots me, so
I know which way to dodge,"
said Stalwart Stan. "Once you
put the gun out of commission,
then I can pounce on that guy
from behind -- well, something."
"We're all gonna die," Antimatter said.
"Everyone dies sometime of something,"
said Stalwart Stan. "I don't want to die
regretting the things that I didn't do."
"Superheroes," Antimatter said,
shaking his head. "You're all nuts."
"I see an opening," said Stalwart Stan.
"I'm going to take it. Get the gun."
He darted into the open and yelled.
The supervillain stopped and
turned to look for him.
Antimatter flung out
his superpower just as
Stalwart Stan sprang away.
He didn't know exactly
how the gun worked, but
he understood energy
well enough to encourage
it to fry the casing around it.
Hopefully that would disable
the firing mechanism instead
of letting the thing blow up
like breaking the case could.
Just then, Stalwart Stan bounded
over the Paxton building and
crashed onto the supervillain.
That guy went down hard,
and he didn't get up when
Stalwart Stan got to his feet.
Antimatter dashed over to them.
The beam rifle lay on the ground,
not far from the culprit's limp hand.
Dribbles of energy leaked out,
but they simply dissipated
instead of damaging anything.
Carefully Antimatter examined it,
then disabled the gun completely.
So much trouble had come from
that half-melted hunk of metal.
"I think I broke some of his bones,"
Stalwart Stan said, sounding worried.
"Do you see an ambulance around?"
There were sirens everywhere
behind the dust and smoke.
Antimatter had zero fucks
to give the supervillain, though.
"I think they're all busy with
people who actually matter,"
he said sourly. "Anything vital?"
"Well, he's starting to stir a bit,
so maybe not," said Stalwart Stan.
He found a piece of steel somewhere
and bent it around the man's arms.
The supervillain wasn't getting out
of that without someone using
bolt cutters or a metal saw.
It wasn't a paramedic who
reached them first, but a cop.
Antimatter stepped back
before he remembered that
he was, technically, acting as
one of the good guys today.
"I'm Officer Rutger Jensen,"
said the cop. "Is this man
the supervillain who attacked
the city with an unknown weapon?"
"Yeah, that's him," said Stalwart Stan,
then pointed. "There is whatever's
left of the beam rifle that he used."
"It's disabled, but you should have
a zetetic specialist take charge
of it, just in case," said Antimatter.
Wonder of wonders, Officer Jensen
grabbed his radio and requested
not only a medic but also a zeteticist.
Antimatter still wasn't used to people
actually listening to him like that.
"What a mess," said Stalwart Stan.
"I wish I could've been faster."
Faster? The whole thing
had happened in a blur.
Now that things had
slowed down a bit, though,
Antimatter realized something.
"Stan, you jumped over a building,"
he said. "What the actual fuck?"
"Well, it wasn't much of one,
the others are all way taller,"
Stalwart Stan protested.
"Yes, it really is a building
and I saw you jump over it,"
Antimatter said. "How did --
wait. Your fetish changed."
"What?" said Stalwart Stan,
looking down at his fetish.
"There's like a feather thing
on it now," said Antimatter.
"Huh," said Stalwart Stan.
He lifted it away from his neck
enough to see it better. "Yeah."
"Did it ever do that before?
Gain pieces?" said Antimatter.
"I don't know," Stalwart Stan said.
"I can't remember it doing that,
but I might not have noticed."
"How could you not notice
that?" said Antimatter.
"Before you started
teasing me with it, I
almost never took it off,"
said Stalwart Stan. "I can
barely see it when it's on."
He usually kept it under
his shirt, so he wouldn't
even see it in a mirror.
"I guess we'll find out
if this means anything,"
said Antimatter. "I just
hope it's not a problem."
"I think it'll be okay,"
said Stalwart Stan.
"It hasn't let me down,
I don't think it'll start now."
"Hey, are you two okay?"
Officer Jensen asked them.
"I'm fine, I'm Invulnerable,"
Stalwart Stan explained.
"I never got near that guy,"
Antimatter said. "I'm okay,
other than my partner almost
giving me a heart attack."
Officer Jensen nodded to him.
"Well, heroism often results as
a response to extreme events,"
he said. "If you're not familiar with
heroes, that can come as a shock."
"I'm used to neighborhood patrols,"
Antimatter said, "not some nutjob
trying to shoot everything in sight."
"Son, nobody ever gets used
to things like this," the cop said.
That was probably for the best.
Looking at the culprit, and
the mess, Antimatter felt
kind of ashamed about
being a supervillain.
At least he'd never
been a nutjob like
this one, though.
"Come on, we should
clear out to make room
for the medics to work,"
Stalwart Stan said. "I don't
know about you, but I'm
too beat to keep going."
"Same here," Antimatter said.
"We can ... head farther east,
I guess, to circle around
the traffic jams and stuff."
The streets were packed solid
with vehicles, some just stuck
in the traffic, but others had
crashed into each other or
been crushed by debris.
"Yeah, there's no way we
can catch a bus home
from anywhere nearby,"
Stalwart Stan agreed.
"We'll have to walk it all."
"Well, at least the worst of it
is over," Antimatter sighed.
"Uh, no," said Stalwart Stan.
"The worst is yet to come."
Antimatter stared at him.
"Several buildings are in ruins,
at least one is actively on fire,
and a nutjob nearly killed us
before you knocked him down,"
he said. "Just exactly how is
this day going to get worse?"
"Now I have to go home and
tell my father that we almost died
in the line of duty," said Stalwart Stan.
"Why in the world would you do that?"
Antimatter said. "He will freak."
"Because I promised to tell him
back when I first started working
as a superhero," said Stalwart Stan.
Antimatter dragged a hand over his face.
Heroes. Just when you thought things
couldn't get any crazier, they came up with
a whole new complication for the day.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its character, location, and content notes will appear separately.
lone_cat, siliconshaman, technoshaman, and mama_kestrel. It also fills the "No, it's really not that complicated. He's a bad person." square in my 10-1-21 card for the Fall Festival Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Antimatter and Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.WARNING: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes canon-atypical violence, a nutjob waving a disintegration beam around downtown Omaha, ruins, smoke and fire, teens (and lots of other people) in danger, cape combat, arguments about risk and strategy, improvised prisoner restraint, leveling up, emotional upheaval, planned family conversation on fraught topics, and other mayhem. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"A Response to Extreme Events"
[Monday, May 18, 2015]
Antimatter and Stalwart Stan
took advantage of the nice day
to patrol the Gene Leahy Mall.
It was after the final exams but
before graduation, so they were
done with high school classes
but not officially finished yet.
The grass was spring-green
and dotted with dandelions.
Bluebells bloomed under
a clump of dogwoods lifting
their own white flowers.
Antimatter and Stalwart Stan
were feeding the geese, tossing
handfuls of the floating pellets
to them as they squabbled.
Suddenly every hair on
Antimatter's body stood up.
"Something's wrong," he said.
"What, where?" Stalwart Stan
spun in place to look around.
Just then a line of red light
sizzled overhead, slicing into
the red brick apartment building.
With a ponderous groan,
the whole corner fell off
to land in the water feature
and the plaza that stood
in front of the tall building.
They saw a figure dressed
in army green waving
some sort of beam rifle.
"This day just got
way more complicated
than I'm equipped for,"
Antimatter muttered.
"No, it's really not
that complicated,"
said Stalwart Stan.
"He's a bad person.
I'm going to stop him."
"With what? A glare and
a pack of goose food?"
Antimatter shot back.
"I'll think of something,"
Stalwart Stan said, already
heading toward trouble.
"Stan, wait a second,"
said Antimatter. "That --
whatever it is -- it's on
the far side of the lagoon
from where we are now."
As they watched, the beam
licked out again and lashed
across several roofs where
a cluster of small businesses
crowded along Farnam street.
"We need to cross the water,"
said Stalwart Stan. "I could
probably jump it from here --"
"I can't," Antimatter said grimly.
"We need a real bridge, Stan."
They looked at the chaos and
dust that covered 10th Street.
"Head east," said Stalwart Stan.
"The footbridge there is clear."
They ran as fast as they could.
Stalwart Stan had played football,
and Antimatter had been trying
to keep up with him for years,
so they made good speed.
As they thundered across
the footbridge, they watched
the beam curl over the roof
of the building that held
Orangetheory Fitness.
"He's heading east
along Farnam Street,"
said Antimatter. "If we cut
toward South 14th Street,
we can get ahead of him."
They darted out of the Mall
and through traffic that was
piling into a jam as people tried
and failed to avoid the trouble.
"This way," Antimatter said,
pulling Stalwart Stan down
South 14th Street. "There's
a fire escape, we can get
some height to see what
the hell is happening here."
Behind them they heard
a vast, tinkling crash.
They scrambled up
the Paxton's fire escape
and looked over the area.
Part of the Landmark Building
had fallen into South 13th Street.
Sure enough, the supervillain
was waving his gun again.
Stalwart Stan quickly pulled
a rock out of his pocket and
threw it with bullet-force.
He hit the supervillain, but
the man had moved, so it
smashed his left shoulder
instead of the gun side.
"Dangit, I almost had him,"
Stalwart Stan muttered.
The supervillain looked up
and began to move again.
"Shit, he's made us --
get gone!" Antimatter
shoved Stalwart Stan
down the fire escape.
The sizzling red beam
lanced high overhead,
fortunately hitting nothing.
They ducked and dodged
between cars and buildings.
Now and then, they caught
a glimpse of the supervillain.
With an awful grinding noise,
the beam cut diagonally through
the Nebraska State Office Building.
"We have to do something,"
said Stalwart Stan. "He's
tearing the city apart!"
"I know, but that guy has
a fucking disintegrator beam,"
Antimatter said, trying not
to panic. "If he ever draws
a bead on us, we're dead."
"The beam is unstabilized,
he can barely aim it at all,"
Stalwart Stan argued.
"That's not actually helpful,"
Antimatter said, grimacing.
"Besides, I'm Invulnerable,"
Stalwart Stan said. "It
might not even affect me."
"Or it could cut you in half,"
Antimatter said, poking him
hard over the old scar that
lay hidden near his navel.
"Not even Invulnerability
can stop everything."
"I may be the only person
with a chance of getting
close enough to stop him,"
Stalwart Stan said, lifting
a hand to his fetish.
Fuck. Fuck. He really
wasn't going to stop trying,
crazy superhero that he was.
"We need a plan," Antimatter said.
"Think chess, not fucking football!"
"Fried Liver Attack," said Stalwart Stan.
"We need to set up a booby trap."
"Yeah, that sounds promising,"
said Antimatter. He leaned out,
hoping to find another view.
"Can you freeze him in place, or
shut off his air?" said Stalwart Stan.
Antimatter shook his head. "Not
from this far away, and I don't dare
get any closer to that nutjob."
"Agreed," said Stalwart Stan.
"What about wrecking the gun?
He probably can't hurt us then."
"I don't know, maybe -- it's hard,
but experimental weapons tend
to be delicate," said Antimatter.
"If you could take out the gun,
then I can flatten that guy easily,"
said Stalwart Stan. "It's an idea."
The next glimpse gave Antimatter
a precious piece of information.
"There's a timer," he said.
"What kind of timer?"
Stalwart Stan said,
ducking behind a truck.
"The beam rifle has a lever,"
Antimatter said. "It can only fire
for a few seconds, then it shuts off.
The lever pops up, and he has
to push it down before he can
fire the beam rifle again."
"Why not just have a trigger?"
Stalwart Stan wondered.
"Probably so that it doesn't
melt or blow his hands off,"
said Antimatter. "Beam rifles
build up a lot of energy. That's
why a hex cannon has to rotate,
to give each barrel time to refresh."
"How long does his beam rifle take
between shots?" said Stalwart Stan.
"About ten seconds," said Antimatter.
"Not long enough," Stalwart Stan said,
shaking his head. "I really need you
to disable that darn gun somehow."
"I'm not sure I can," said Antimatter.
"I mean, I could, if it was on a lab table,
but he's moving fast and waving it around."
"I know that!" snapped Stalwart Stan.
"That's why we have to stop him."
"Well, we don't want the damn thing
to explode and make a bigger disaster,"
Antimatter retorted. "We have to plan
so we can disable the weapon safely."
Stalwart Stan drummed his fingers.
"Ten seconds might be enough
if I could ambush him somehow.
What would you need in order
to take out his beam rifle?"
"I'd need him standing still
for at least a second or two,
so I can jam it," said Antimatter.
"All right, we need cover --"
"The disintegration beam
can cut through anything,"
Antimatter pointed out.
"Sorry, my mistake. We
need concealment, so he can't
see us," said Stalwart Stan. "If
I jump out and yell at him, then
he should pause to look for me."
"Tell me you'll duck away as soon
as you yell," said Antimatter.
"As soon as he spots me, so
I know which way to dodge,"
said Stalwart Stan. "Once you
put the gun out of commission,
then I can pounce on that guy
from behind -- well, something."
"We're all gonna die," Antimatter said.
"Everyone dies sometime of something,"
said Stalwart Stan. "I don't want to die
regretting the things that I didn't do."
"Superheroes," Antimatter said,
shaking his head. "You're all nuts."
"I see an opening," said Stalwart Stan.
"I'm going to take it. Get the gun."
He darted into the open and yelled.
The supervillain stopped and
turned to look for him.
Antimatter flung out
his superpower just as
Stalwart Stan sprang away.
He didn't know exactly
how the gun worked, but
he understood energy
well enough to encourage
it to fry the casing around it.
Hopefully that would disable
the firing mechanism instead
of letting the thing blow up
like breaking the case could.
Just then, Stalwart Stan bounded
over the Paxton building and
crashed onto the supervillain.
That guy went down hard,
and he didn't get up when
Stalwart Stan got to his feet.
Antimatter dashed over to them.
The beam rifle lay on the ground,
not far from the culprit's limp hand.
Dribbles of energy leaked out,
but they simply dissipated
instead of damaging anything.
Carefully Antimatter examined it,
then disabled the gun completely.
So much trouble had come from
that half-melted hunk of metal.
"I think I broke some of his bones,"
Stalwart Stan said, sounding worried.
"Do you see an ambulance around?"
There were sirens everywhere
behind the dust and smoke.
Antimatter had zero fucks
to give the supervillain, though.
"I think they're all busy with
people who actually matter,"
he said sourly. "Anything vital?"
"Well, he's starting to stir a bit,
so maybe not," said Stalwart Stan.
He found a piece of steel somewhere
and bent it around the man's arms.
The supervillain wasn't getting out
of that without someone using
bolt cutters or a metal saw.
It wasn't a paramedic who
reached them first, but a cop.
Antimatter stepped back
before he remembered that
he was, technically, acting as
one of the good guys today.
"I'm Officer Rutger Jensen,"
said the cop. "Is this man
the supervillain who attacked
the city with an unknown weapon?"
"Yeah, that's him," said Stalwart Stan,
then pointed. "There is whatever's
left of the beam rifle that he used."
"It's disabled, but you should have
a zetetic specialist take charge
of it, just in case," said Antimatter.
Wonder of wonders, Officer Jensen
grabbed his radio and requested
not only a medic but also a zeteticist.
Antimatter still wasn't used to people
actually listening to him like that.
"What a mess," said Stalwart Stan.
"I wish I could've been faster."
Faster? The whole thing
had happened in a blur.
Now that things had
slowed down a bit, though,
Antimatter realized something.
"Stan, you jumped over a building,"
he said. "What the actual fuck?"
"Well, it wasn't much of one,
the others are all way taller,"
Stalwart Stan protested.
"Yes, it really is a building
and I saw you jump over it,"
Antimatter said. "How did --
wait. Your fetish changed."
"What?" said Stalwart Stan,
looking down at his fetish.
"There's like a feather thing
on it now," said Antimatter.
"Huh," said Stalwart Stan.
He lifted it away from his neck
enough to see it better. "Yeah."
"Did it ever do that before?
Gain pieces?" said Antimatter.
"I don't know," Stalwart Stan said.
"I can't remember it doing that,
but I might not have noticed."
"How could you not notice
that?" said Antimatter.
"Before you started
teasing me with it, I
almost never took it off,"
said Stalwart Stan. "I can
barely see it when it's on."
He usually kept it under
his shirt, so he wouldn't
even see it in a mirror.
"I guess we'll find out
if this means anything,"
said Antimatter. "I just
hope it's not a problem."
"I think it'll be okay,"
said Stalwart Stan.
"It hasn't let me down,
I don't think it'll start now."
"Hey, are you two okay?"
Officer Jensen asked them.
"I'm fine, I'm Invulnerable,"
Stalwart Stan explained.
"I never got near that guy,"
Antimatter said. "I'm okay,
other than my partner almost
giving me a heart attack."
Officer Jensen nodded to him.
"Well, heroism often results as
a response to extreme events,"
he said. "If you're not familiar with
heroes, that can come as a shock."
"I'm used to neighborhood patrols,"
Antimatter said, "not some nutjob
trying to shoot everything in sight."
"Son, nobody ever gets used
to things like this," the cop said.
That was probably for the best.
Looking at the culprit, and
the mess, Antimatter felt
kind of ashamed about
being a supervillain.
At least he'd never
been a nutjob like
this one, though.
"Come on, we should
clear out to make room
for the medics to work,"
Stalwart Stan said. "I don't
know about you, but I'm
too beat to keep going."
"Same here," Antimatter said.
"We can ... head farther east,
I guess, to circle around
the traffic jams and stuff."
The streets were packed solid
with vehicles, some just stuck
in the traffic, but others had
crashed into each other or
been crushed by debris.
"Yeah, there's no way we
can catch a bus home
from anywhere nearby,"
Stalwart Stan agreed.
"We'll have to walk it all."
"Well, at least the worst of it
is over," Antimatter sighed.
"Uh, no," said Stalwart Stan.
"The worst is yet to come."
Antimatter stared at him.
"Several buildings are in ruins,
at least one is actively on fire,
and a nutjob nearly killed us
before you knocked him down,"
he said. "Just exactly how is
this day going to get worse?"
"Now I have to go home and
tell my father that we almost died
in the line of duty," said Stalwart Stan.
"Why in the world would you do that?"
Antimatter said. "He will freak."
"Because I promised to tell him
back when I first started working
as a superhero," said Stalwart Stan.
Antimatter dragged a hand over his face.
Heroes. Just when you thought things
couldn't get any crazier, they came up with
a whole new complication for the day.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its character, location, and content notes will appear separately.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-11-19 03:09 am (UTC)Ya know.. one of these days Stan is going to come up with a crazy ass plan like that, and Antimatter will just sit on him until he sees sense. (ok, that might need him to do something hinky to gravity, but still.)
That, and he really needs to be a bit more concerned that his fetish is evolving. I mean, at the very least it'll affect the power cost or something..
Thoughts
Date: 2021-11-19 03:16 am (UTC)LOL yes. But at least Stan tends to listen when Antimatter points out flaws or the need for an actual plan more sophisticated than "run up and hit it."
>> That, and he really needs to be a bit more concerned that his fetish is evolving. I mean, at the very least it'll affect the power cost or something.. <<
It's actually the same, he just has access to more of it. The fetish is designed to respond to the bearer's needs and qualifying actions.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-11-19 04:40 am (UTC)Healthy relationship, that.
Plus, humans are a weak super organism. Once we bond into a network, we have access to multiple people's experience / abilities / skillsets ... which can be very useful for everything from mediating cross cultural disputes to fixing cars to triaging a crisis. Even ordinary things, like loaning bus fare or book recommendations.
>>It's actually the same, he just has access to more of it. The fetish is designed to respond to the bearer's needs and qualifying actions.<<
In video game terms, he leveled up and unlocked some bonuses.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-11-19 04:47 am (UTC)They're working toward it, at least. They had a bit of a rough start, but it's pretty functional now.
>> Plus, humans are a weak super organism. Once we bond into a network, we have access to multiple people's experience / abilities / skillsets ... which can be very useful for everything from mediating cross cultural disputes to fixing cars to triaging a crisis. Even ordinary things, like loaning bus fare or book recommendations.<<
Teamwork is good.
>> In video game terms, he leveled up and unlocked some bonuses. <<
I'm using the Truth & Justice roleplaying format, so Jump is now listed on the things he can do while wearing the fetish.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-11-19 06:59 am (UTC)I'm mostly familiar with video game terminology via cultural osmosis. (Not interested in most video games.)
Roleplaying games, I can sometimes recognize the odd term but not more than that.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-11-19 07:05 am (UTC)http://www.atomicsockmonkey.com/products/tj.asp
(no subject)
Date: 2021-11-19 07:17 pm (UTC)"We're all gonna die," Antimatter said.
"Everyone dies sometime of something,"
said Stalwart Stan. "I don't want to die
regretting the things that I didn't do."
"Superheroes," Antimatter said,
shaking his head. "You're all nuts."