Chapter Two

Hero's Call: Chapter Two

When Captain Amazing’s father, The Atomic Minuteman, died, the Earth lost a great Hero. He was cast down in a great battle against an evil foe, Dr. Deranged. The Doctor used his gravity ray to call down a meteor shower.  The Atomic Minuteman fought valiantly, destroying many of the meteors with his own powers. But there were too many, and he was cast down. Captain Amazing was five at the time.

The Atomic Minuteman had accomplished thousands of achievements to his name prior to that day. He brought down some of the biggest Villains of his age. Revenger, Mind Bender, even Zero G fell by his hands. Probably the most notable of his achievements was the role he played in the Civil War.

The most evil Villain of the day was the aptly named Slave Driver. He was responsible for the advocacy of the continued slave trade in the South. He rallied the armies of the South to rise up against the North. Little did they know that The Slave Driver wasn’t just using slaves, but the very armies themselves were under his control. He spread fear and terror across the plains and mountains of the South, using his armies for his own devices, but never showing his face. The armies of the North had rallied under the Atomic Minuteman’s command.

At the battle of Antietam the two foes met in an epic battle. Many men died in the struggle. It was considered the bloodiest battle of the war. The Atomic Minuteman used every vestige of his power to cast down The Slave Driver. In the end, though, The Slave Driver did fall, but not before he cast one last enchantment over his minions. An enchantment so powerful it took nearly three years to break. The war carried on, and many lives were lost. Finally, once the spell wore, General Lee realized defeat and surrendered.

For his contribution, The Atomic Minuteman was awarded the first ever Congressional Medal of Honor from President Lincoln. There was a very large press conference to celebrate the occasion, along with an equally large dinner at the White House. During the dinner, a reporter asked President Lincoln about how he felt with the Heroes involvement in the war.

To which the President replied, “I deeply appreciate The Atomic Minuteman and all the Heroes that have put their lives on the line in service of this country. They will be forever remembered in history as the true champions of this despicable war. If it hadn’t been for them, I’m not sure any of us would have survived.” Then he added jokingly, “Besides, it has given me plenty of spare time to see a few good plays. I highly recommend Our American Cousin should you get the chance to see it. It was quite enjoyable.”

After the war, The Atomic Minuteman settled down for what he was hoping would be a quiet life.

“Son,” he said to his son one day while they were skipping stones playfully across a brook, “I put in my fair time in that God forsaken war. I think it’s time we live a quiet life. A life free of Evil distractions.”

That was a great day for his son who had always hoped that his father would give up the fight against Evil to spend more time with him and his mother. They continued skipping stones and fishing in the brook for the rest of the afternoon. To son or father, it was the best day of their lives, but that was before tragedy struck.

Just as the sun was falling below the horizon, a comet fell from the sky, and a great explosion tore through the night.

“Stay here,” The Minuteman commanded his son. He tore his normal clothes off in a flash to reveal his uniform. The son had seen him in it several times, but each time he marveled. He wasn’t sure what material it was made of. It looked to be a cross between leather and steel. It was tinted a brilliant shade of blood red. His boots, belt and gloves were yellow like the sun. A bright yellow X shot across his chest, and in middle of it was a metallic symbol of an atom. His cape was also yellow, and when he flew it looked like a streak of sunlight shooting across the sky even in broad daylight. He slipped a red mask over his eyes. He clenched his fists, and, at once, his body began to glow like a radioactive material.

The Atomic Minuteman shot into the air, and bolted towards the nearby town. His son, never very good at listening, shot across the fields after him. When he got there, half the town was destroyed. There was an Evil looking man hovering above the town wearing garb of the deepest black. So black that he stood out against the black sky. Hundred of points of light shone on him like stars in the night. The Atomic Minuteman was hovering opposite him a hundred feet away.

“I am The Cosmic Menace,” the Villain shouted. His booming voice filled the sky.

“I don’t care who you are,” The Minuteman called back. “You will leave this town, and wreak no more of your Evil.”

A great booming laugh cut through the night. The Cosmic Menace did not reply. He simply raised both of his hands into the air. Far above him, hundreds of light blazed bright. Within seconds, comets of various sizes came burning through the atmosphere. The Atomic Minuteman darted up, firing beam after beam from his hands. Comets crumbled under his power, but The Cosmic Menace would not stop. The Atomic Minuteman grew weary and the comets grew in number. He was struck by one of the comets, and then another, and he went spinning through the night. A final comet struck him in the chest and drove him to the ground.

The Cosmic Menace disappeared with a laugh. The son ran through the burning town in search of his father. He found him lying broken by a crumbled library. He was still alive, but barely so. His radioactive aura was blinking in and out. The son pulled him up into his arms. His deep blue eyes looked into his son’s.

“Take care of your mother, son,” he said. They were his last words.

The son dragged him home on his own. It took hours. He was far heavier a load than a five year old should ever have to bear. When he got home, a trip of about five miles, he dropped him onto the front lawn of their house, and collapsed next to him. The boy’s mother came running out of the house. She broke down in tears at the sight of her husband’s body. She thought the boy was dead too, but he had just enough strength to reassure her otherwise before he lost consciousness.

The Hero Gene becomes active at different times for everyone. For some people, the Gene simply activates over time. For others, it activates under extreme stress or physical activity. There are a million different things that can trigger the Hero Gene in an individual. The boy had had powers since he was five, and had to drag his father, who was more than twice his size, five miles on his own.

The boy took up his father’s mantle after that. Not immediately, of course. He was only five, after all. But his powers were there. He was incredibly strong. All Heroes are stronger than mortal men, no matter what other powers they have. Super strength is a unifying trait in all Heroes. But the boy was much stronger than any normal man, or even any Hero for that matter, and he was only five. When the boy was seven, he realized he could fly. A fun day for him. He had wished for the ability to fly even since he was able to comprehend the world around him.

Over the years the boys hid himself from knowledge. He wasn’t quite old enough to take on any kind of Villain just yet, but he was far overmatched to any of the petty criminals that came along. He stopped bank robberies mostly. There wasn’t a whole lot of criminal activity going on in the area he was in. It was easy for the boy. It gave him plenty of practice and the time to refine his costume.

It was of his own design. A material no one had ever seen before. It was extremely lightweight, almost as if you were wearing nothing. It looked too small off, but stretched perfectly to fit over the boy’s muscley body. He had invented Spandex and he didn’t even know it at the time. It was a gray blue, with a red cape, boots, and over leggings. He left out an emblem. He could never think of anything appropriate, and by the time he did, it was too late. He was known as the Hero that bore no mark. They said it was a sign of modesty. He said it was just a lack of good ideas. Either way, Captain Amazing was born.

When he turned eighteen, his powers were at a pinnacle. Normal men were no match for him, not even close. It became boring and commonplace to foil a bank robbery or stop a kidnapping. He grew weary of the everyday scum of the Earth. They were no longer worth the boy’s time. He decided to seek out his first Villain, and he could think of no better target than the man that killed his father.

The boy had heard rumors here and there about The Cosmic Menace wreaking havoc up and down the eastern seaboard. He went from town to town completely wiping their existence off the Earth. He seemed not to care whether he gained anything from what he was doing or not. He was the worst kind of Villain, the kind that does evil things for fun instead of personal gain. Completely and utterly insane.

Captain Amazing had found his target somewhere along the coast of North Carolina. The exact location is long forgotten to time. The Cosmic Menace was coasting along looking for another city to terrorize. He came to a slow, eventual stop seeing Captain Amazing in his path. He had a twisted smile on his face.

“What can I do for you, my sweet Hero?” he asked almost laughing.

“I’m here to put an end to you, Menace,” Captain Amazing replied, using his best Hero voice.

He laughed out loud. An evil sound. He looked Captain Amazing up and down with an amused look.

“You don’t even have an emblem. Not smart enough to think of one, or just not important enough?”

Captain Amazing didn’t respond. He charged with all the speed he could muster. He put his right fist into The Cosmic Menace’s left cheek. He flipped head over heels for about twenty feet. When he finally stopped there was a look of shock and confusion on The Cosmic Menace’s face. He wasn’t expecting a straight forward assault right off the bat. The confusion turned to anger in an instant. He rose his hands up and brought an asteroid the size of a small car out of nowhere without a second’s notice. He put in a burst of speed with his fists in front of him, and shattered the rock into dust. Captain Amazing didn’t stop, and was on top of The Cosmic Menace before he could bring anything out of the heavens to stop him.

With a massive downward swing from Captain Amazing, The Cosmic Menace slammed onto the ground. Sand sprayed twenty feet into the air, but it didn’t stop Captain Amazing. Before The Cosmic Menace could get to his feet, Captain Amazing hammered both feet onto his chest, slamming him back to the ground. His fists were a fury as he rained blows down upon The Cosmic Menace’s face and chest. Blood started to fly as each blow landed. It’s not typical for a Hero to kill their quarry, but something inside Captain Amazing wouldn’t allow him to stop. He did hold off for one second. He could tell The Cosmic Menace was still alive, but just barely. Captain Amazing pulled him close and lifted his mask to look him dead in the eyes.

“You killed the Atomic Minuteman. He was my father,” he growled. He was full of a rage he had never known before. “This is for him.”

Captain Amazing raised his fist and felt it quiver as he gathered all the strength he could muster. When it landed his head whipped to the side so hard Captain Amazing could actually hear his neck break. The Cosmic Menace was dead. Captain Amazing was half elated, and half ashamed. To his knowledge, his father had never killed an enemy. He picked The Cosmic Menace’s lifeless body up by his feet, spun around a few times, and let his body soar into the ocean. He wasn’t sure anyone had ever found him, nor did they care as to why he was no longer terrorizing them.

It was the first time he’d killed a man, and he wasn’t looking to relive the experience any time soon. When the Great War broke out, Captain Amazing stepped away from the spotlight. He did his part here and there, but never brought any unnecessary attention onto himself. He wanted to lay low until he knew he could control himself.

 

After World War I, Czar Destructo came to power. No one knew where he came from, nor did Captain Amazing really give a damn. Everyone has an origin story, but he never bothered to learn Czar Destructo’s. Captain Amazing always thought Destructo took offense to that, which was fair.

Captain Amazing was in Germany at the time. He had a tip that Destructo was working on some sort of Doomsday device in one of his castles up in the mountains. He had chased the lead all the way to some dingy German burlesque club in a shady corner of some town he couldn’t pronounce the name of.

Inside it was poorly lit, like Captain Amazing was walking into some one’s basement that was lit with only a single light swinging on a flimsy cord. A myriad of tables were scattered around a single stage that jut out into the room like a great wooden finger. When he walked in a girl was just finishing her routine. She wasn’t wearing much, but what could he expect, it was a burlesque club. God knew Germans loved their burlesques.

Captain Amazing was in civilian clothes. He figured a man walking into a German strip club wearing a Hero costume might draw a few eyes, and apparently this place had a staggering drawing power for Villains. He could see why. There was a door leading to an unseen room that more than one working girl had led a patron into. It was an anything goes type of place. He didn’t mind, Captain Amazing wasn’t there for pleasure anyway.

He sat down at the bar and ordered a beer. A thick German stout that he practically had to chew.

“That one’s on me,” a voice with a thick German accent said to Captain Amazing’s right. He looked over and received quite a fright. Adolf Hitler was sitting next to him draining a tall stein of beer. He gave Captain Amazing a smile and raised his stein in cheers.

“Thanks, buddy,” Captain Amazing replied and raised his stein in the same fashion as Hitler. He didn’t know what he was capable of at the time, and, to be honest, Hitler was actually a pretty good guy. Captain Amazing could see why he was voted Times Man of the Year…twice.

They chatted for a bit. He could tell Captain Amazing was American from the second he walked through the door. Hitler didn’t appear to bear him any ill feelings. In fact, quite the opposite. Captain Amazing almost got drunk off of his Deutsche Mark. He mentioned that he was in country to do a bit of hiking in the mountains, but he’d heard that there were some shady things going on. Captain Amazing asked if there was any part of the mountains he should avoid. Hitler shrugged his shoulders and said there were rumors of weird goings on in the northern mountain range. Captain Amazing thanked him, and bid him farewell. He walked outside and slipped into an alley to change clothes. He had a general idea as to where to go, and it wasn’t hard to find what he was looking for.

The castle was blinking with light, tucked away in a small valley. He set down inside the castle’s courtyard. There were no guards. He expected Czar Destructo didn’t think anyone would find him all the way up here. He was wrong. It was easy enough to get inside. He left the door unlocked. It was actually a pretty nice place. He had a massive tapestry in the entrance hall of himself on top of the world. Clear delusions of grandeur.

Captain Amazing found Czar Destructo tucked away in a dimly lit cellar. He was hunched over some circuits with a soldering gun. In front of him was a massive globe of metal and electricity. He didn’t even seem to notice the fact that someone had walked in.

“Pretty science project you’ve get here,” Captain Amazing said after a minute or two of watching.

“It’s a gravitational generator, if you must know,” he corrected off-handedly, like he knew the Hero was there and had been the whole time, asking questions. Captain Amazing couldn’t be sure whether Destructo saw him coming, or just knew someone was going to be coming eventually. “It can pull the moon out of orbit and into the atmosphere with the press of a button. The world will bow to me when they learn of its existence.”

Destructo got up and walked to a small desk on the left side of the room. Captain Amazing took the opportunity to step up and examine the generator a bit more closely. It was polished to a sheen and he could see his reflection. The generator hummed dully. Captain Amazing pulled back a fist, and went to plunge it into the device, but his hand stopped inches short.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Destructo said with a sly smile. He was holding a very strange pistol-like device. “This is a little thing of my own invention. I call it the Stop Ray. It renders anything I point it at completely motionless.”

He was right. Captain Amazing couldn’t move a muscle. He was inches away from saving the world from being crushed by its own moon, and he couldn’t do a thing t stop it.

“I haven’t worked out all the kinks just yet,” he said examining the weapon. “If I let go of the trigger the effects wear off. I’m close to correcting that though, so no worries.”

He crossed the room and started collecting the circuit boards he was working on when Captain Amazing had first came in. He fumbled with the circuits and used a spare finger to pop open a hatch on the side of the generator. He slid the circuits into various places inside and clicked the hatch shut.

“I have to admit,” he said crossing the room to a control panel, “I’m glad to see you here. I was afraid my threats to the leaders of the world would go unheeded. Sending a Hero means I’ve gotten through to them. What’s your name anyway? I admit I haven’t seen a lot of Heroes, as I’m new to this whole Villain thing. I don’t see an emblem. You’re a bit small time then, eh?”

Captain Amazing couldn’t answer.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said when he noticed that his foe couldn’t move his lips. He let go of the trigger of his Stop Ray, and Captain Amazing felt his body relax.

“Captain Amazing,” he replied, and drove his fist through the hull of the generator, pulling out as many circuits and wires as he could get his hands on. The dull hum of the generator slowly died away, the lights fading into nothingness.

“You idi…” Czar Destructo started to say, but before he could finish or grab the Stop Ray, Captain Amazing crossed the room and gave him a vicious right hook. He slumped unconscious to the floor. Captain Amazing picked him up and threw him over his shoulder. As an afterthought, he smashed the Stop Ray to bits. It was actually an interesting device, and Captain Amazing felt a tinge of regret he had to destroy it, but God knows what Destructo could have accomplished once he’d worked out the kinks.

Captain Amazing stepped out into the night air with an evil genius over his shoulder. It was crisp and refreshing, and Captain Amazing felt alive. He could feel the blood pumping through his veins. He felt even more unstoppable than he actually was. Like he could actually take over the world. Of course, he would do it for a good purpose. But that was not his fate. He wasn’t here to rule the world, just keep it safe. And he had saved it for the first time of many.

 

On the day his great-grandson was due for a visit after getting Devon Macledowny in school suspension, he was over a century old, sitting in a wheel chair watching old reruns of Leave it to Beaver. His skin was wrinkly. His hair was thinning and white. His bones ached and cracked nonstop. He hadn’t saved the world, or anyone for that matter, from anything in almost fifty years.

Captain Amazing sat by himself all day reminiscing about the old days of saving the innocent and crushing the wicked. He would play checkers with a guy down the hall. The other guy never won. Probably had something to do with the fact that he had Alzheimer’s and can’t remember what he’s doing halfway through the game. At night, he would fall asleep praying he didn’t piss himself in the middle of the night.

The only shining light at the end of the dismal, dreary tunnel was his weekly visit from his great-grandson who was due to arrive any second.