《Inheritance - Superhero Anthology》


 01 - The Healer

    In a dark bedroom, a scrawny teenager on the edge of his bed made his hands glow green. Cracking his knuckles, Rick observed the light green hue that shone from his skin like a glow stick. Tiny tendrils of green electricity traveled across the palm of his hand, darting here and there and disappearing as fast as they appeared. He didn''t know how they worked, but he knew what they did. All he needed was a single touch, and his power would bring someone to their optimal condition. Bones fractured straightened up, chronic disorders removed, missing limbs reconstructed, lives saved...


    Who am I?He thought.What''s all this for?


    The idealists called him a gift, the fanatical even called him the second coming. Most knew him as Elixir, the prodigious healer. Even when he looked at the mirror all he thought of was how strange he looked without his costume.


    It was ten in the evening. If he slept now, he would be able to get enough sleep. Tomorrow was a busy day, like every other day. Not a single day, hour, minute, or damnsecondto waste if he wanted to help as much people as he possibly could.


    Unease slipped into his mind, a kind he was too familiar with now, urging him to move, to help someone. He willed his power off, though he knew it wouldn''t do much. Nowadays, he couldn''t tell if the anxiety belonged to him or to someone else out there.


    North-east from here, 3 kilometers?Someone would be having a breakdown there.


    He ignored this. He knew if he went there and helped, he''d have less energy the following day to go out and help more people. Instead, his attention turned to a wooden guitar in one corner of the room, dusty from disuse. Off the side of his bed, he shambled towards it, lifting it up and pulling at the strings.


    If he could go back to normalcy, if he knew full well that he couldn''t do anything anymore, then maybe then people would stop expecting so much of him, stop looking at him with those eyes that asked him,begged him,to do more than he already was doing. His blessing, they called it, but he kept fantasizing what it would be like if one day his powers disappeared.


    He bit his lips, pushing the thoughts away.Then the world would be worse.


    It wasn''t a passing thought - he understood it well. He felt it, no, heknewit. It was like, it was like numbers darting in and out of his brain. Every time something good happened he felt the numbers go up. Every time someone suffered - anytime, anywhere - he saw the numbers go down. These last few years the numbers have just been going downhill non-stop.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    He didn''t know why exactly, but as someone who could see these numbers and do something about it, then it must have been his mission to make them go as high as he possibly could, to be one of the defenders of humanity.


    Someone knocked on the door, interrupting his thoughts. It would be his mother, asking him to sleep. Rick felt resentment bubbling up to the surface. Damn woman never paid attention to him until he got his powers, and now she was, what, tucking him in?


    "Rick-" she started.


    "I''ll sleep soon," he said. Soon enough, soft footsteps marked his mother''s departure. There would be no point in telling her off, no point in airing his grievances if it would only make the numbers go down. Reluctantly, he laid on his back and stared at the ceiling. For the greater good, he willed himself to sleep.


    Faces of familiar people darted around his dreams. Here, a hospital in a war-torn country, with soldiers and civilians with missing limbs and bullet holes. There, a woman''s face with a knife wound tracing from her right ear to the left side of her neck.


    Death was a familiar thing, but it was his duty to make sure it wouldn''t happen to people as much as he possibly could. Those times where he remembered he couldn''t help everyone were among the most terrifying. One time in this battlefield, while peering out the window of a small, unpainted building, he watched a soldier get gunned down by his opposition. Rick knew his place, he wasn''t immune to bullets. Knowing that his mission could lead to his death any day now was nightmare-inducing, but he felt like he handled it better than most people possibly could.


    His dreams were short-lived, interrupted by a bout of restlessness where he woke up with tears in his eyes. Blinking, aching, with an anxiety so heavy it was almost as though his chest was pushing in in itself, like he almost couldn''t breathe but the narrowest straw through his throat kept giving him air.


    He didn''t want this life anymore, he didn''t want this responsibility. But to give up this blessing because of selfishness, to make other people suffer because you couldn''t be bothered?


    Green electricity sparked around him, but to no avail. In a sort of crushing irony, he was completely immune to his own powers.


    He went back to sleep for a few more hours, and when the sun rose up into the sky, he could already feel the numbers going down like they usually did. It was the reality of things, with suffering being far more manageable when the population kept their eyes closed in the midst of the night. Asleep, everyone defaulted to an equilibrium. It was only in the morning when people realized how much they were in pain.


    His routine was quick and tested - tasteless porridge eaten alone, and a hot shower in a pristine, tiled bathroom. As he finished, he scratched his engraving, a fleshy symbol resembling an olive on his right thigh. Drying himself off, he got into his costume, a green, surgeon''s lab coat with a cape bearing a large, red cross symbol. A blue light flickered in front of him, a holographic image of a man''s face materializing.


    Transporter spoke, "Are you ready?"


    There was a short pause.


    "Where are we going today?" Elixir replied.


    The blue image distorted, showing an image of a neighborhood ravaged by what appeared to be a golem.


    In a few seconds, Elixir flickered blue and vanished.

 02 - The Will

    In the pitch-black night of the field, a man with a scar on his face watched men in suits and women in dresses gather in rows, their cheeks wrinkled and their eyes filled with tears. Under their steps lie mud and gravel, with the sky free of any stars or distractions of any kind.


    The man stood on the end of the aisle waiting, nervously gripping the ring that wrapped around his finger. Patiently, he waited, watching fireflies buzz around the damp ground, listening to the crickets roaring their cacophony over the entire gathering.


    At long last she came, pushing her way through the tall grass. Clad in a pristine white gown that clung tightly to her skin, she shambled towards him. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes she was there beside him.


    "I''ve been waiting," said the man.


    "For how long?" she replied.


    He smiled, blinking away the tears. "It felt like ages."


    She looked around, shaking her head. One of the guest waved at her.


    "Who are these people?" she asked.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "Our friends," he answered, pointing at them one by one. "There, Percy. There, Luisa."


    There was silence, observed even by the insects that seemed to take a break from their responsibilities. The croaking of a frog marked the end of the pause, nature resuming its discord.


    "I... don''t remember them, love."


    "What do you remember then?" he said, holding her hands in his. Cold. So cold.


    "I was alone, and I, I was missing you so much." she swallowed, pulling her hands back. On her right wrist lay a deep slash, with the inner flesh exposed and blood pouring out. The man brushed his fingers along the wound, the bleeding ending and the skin reconstructing anew.


    "I made a mistake. Where am I?"


    He couldn''t reply.


    "The fields, this place. Why did you have to bring me here?"


    Around them were gravestones, and they both noted the one that belonged to him.


    "It was the first thing that came to mind, love. I''m sorry."


    She flickered, like a candlestick against a soft breeze.


    "What''s happening to me?"


    "I''ll be the guardian over you, watching you, protecting you. So, go."


    He wrapped her in an embrace, pulling away long enough to give her a kiss. So warm now, warmer than anything in this world yet. When he opened his eyes, she was gone, back to her reality.


    Elation escaped him faster than water out of a bucket with holes. He should have been happy, but how could he be? When his love would be away from him for so much longer?


    He crumpled to the ground, the crowd of skeletons crumbling away to dust. Alone, in pure silence. Waiting once more. Between the time and the solitude, who knew how long he could keep his sanity.

 03 - The Void

    "Entry 1: Thank god I found you! God knows how long I would have lasted in this place without having a way to write down my thoughts. I forget easily, my peers would tell you. To be honest I would have wanted something better, like my voice recorder, but I just kept praying that I could at least have something. And there you were, a few inches away from the rubble of a broken building, a notebook in perfect condition!


    "I''ve just been wandering around this place. It looks like I''m completely alone. Just need to wait. Not sure for what, but need to stay here, be patient.


    "First off, where do I begin? It''s hard to keep track of how long I''ve been here. One second the sun goes up and down like it usually does and when I''m not looking it starts slowing down or speeding up. I gave up some time ago. Did I forget to tell you that everything''s gray here? When nighttime comes, which sometimes takes as long as an hour and sometimes like half a day, the landscape isn''t that dark. There are no stars at night, nothing shooting light down here after what looks like the Sun has passed over the horizon. Just looks like the shade of grey turns darker. I can see everything completely fine, but I know in my head that daytime''s over.


    "The few trees I see appear to be like pines, but completely static in posture. There''s no breeze to move the leaves, no squirrels or birds to make the place feel alive. Goes without saying that the entire place feels dead, aside from me. It feels so wrong here, I feel like I''m going to get sick.


    "Looks like I''ve been dropped in the middle of this boulevard, with skyscraper buildings dotted around randomly with not much sense, most of them missing pieces or just straight up collapsed and broken. The streets start and end randomly, machines aren''t working at all, and there''s a blur covering up everything some distance away in every direction. Looks like a fog, but when I walk towards it it looks like it keeps staying at the distance. Something else, then.


    "It''s too quiet. I feel like my ears are gonna blow up. There''s no sound, there''s nothing. Have I gone deaf? I was clapping my hands a couple of days ago, clapped again a bit earlier, stomped as hard as I could on the ground. There''s nothing, there''s really nothing. At least I can still feel, can smell, can see. Can taste? Let me try.


    "Something was roaring over there. Look''s like a mountain? Back to silence right after. Note to self, don''t go there.


    "Entry 2: Christ I need to get my thoughts in order before I forget. How the hell did I get here? There I was, with my team, I think. Lucy, Grant, Rum. Mission was to take down this Sign they called Destroyer. Uhh... we had her cornered, was gonna blow her head up. Easy, just like that, no problem. She started crying, started talking about her wanting to hold back or something, about never attacking other people. I, uh, we started laughing at her, taunting her. In hindsight, god awful idea, not one of my brightest moments. She shot us with her lasers, and we thought we were safe. Record logs show that she never hurt any living thing before, that her lasers could only wipe out non-living things from existence. I remember backing up, watching if the ceiling was gonna fall down, when I caught Rum with his torso missing, and Lucy gone from head to shin.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    "I''ve seen lots of shit before, but it hits different when it''s someone you''ve worked with. That being said, where the hell am I? A pocket dimension? A different world? A nightmare?


    "Entry 3 : Wonder how Mom and Dad are. Wonder how my friend''s are doing while I''m gone.


    "Entry 4: You know what really pisses me off? How everyone''s always looking up to me. It''s fucking god damn annoying. I see them, saying shit like, ''That''s my captain, so beautiful, so smart.'' I don''t have the answers! I''m a stupid chicken, only good for killing and nothing else (though turns out I''m not that good in that too.)


    "Entry 5: I miss everyone so much. But I got to be strong! There''s a way out of this, I''m sure of it. You got this Amanda.


    "Entry 6: I think I saw something earlier. I''m not sure if I was hallucinating but it felt pretty vivid. There I was sleeping on a hammock when out of the corner of my head I saw this thing dancing around, a little white rooster twisting, kicking one foot into the air then kicking with the other. The moment I looked at him the bastard blew up, popped like a balloon with if it hit a cactus or something. All the time I kept thinking, was that real?


    "I''m so hungry. I miss fried chicken. Miss that crunch, dip it in gravy, yum.


    "I''m going to lose my mind. How long have I been here already? There''s no sound, there''s no nothing. This city makes no sense, nothing makes any sense!


    "Entry 7: Is this where everything Destroyer blows up goes to? That would explain the chicken! Maybe there''s someone else here. I need to find out. I''m walking in the opposite direction of where the roaring came from. There''s nothing left here anyways..


    "Entry 8: This place makes no sense geographically, at least that''s for sure. It took a while to reach the edge of this city, but I can see now that there''s a clear line where the city ends and the next block of land begins. I can see the exact area where the cement ends and the forest grass starts to begin.


    "It''s so damn quiet! I started singing to myself, but it feels like I''m singing in a completely open area. My voice feels so small and so distant.


    "I''m going to walk through the forest now. If nothing else, I''ve started mapping the place already. Maybe it could be useful for somebody else who''s unlucky enough to get blasted to this god forsaken area. Truth be told, I really need this. It''s so hard here. I wanna go back home. Or any place but here.


    "Entry 9: I''m not getting out of here, am I?


    "Entry 10: I hope someone kills Destroyer soon. I''m sure that would be the end of it! That that''s all it takes! Can''t wait. Can''t wait. Can''t wait to go back home!"

 04 - The Calculator

    In a massive, steel-domed laboratory overlooking the Charity Bay, two of the most powerful Signs were in the beginning of a conversation: one a tall, pale woman with long, graying hair, and the other a chubby teenager with dark skin and glasses. Fixing her lab coat, the Calculator spoke to the Genius.


    "I have heard about you," she said, taking a sip of her hot chocolate, white wisps of steam escaping into the cold air. He looked around and admired the mechanics of the floor below them, which morphed to become a raised platform on the center of the room.


    "What''ve you heard?" he replied. In front of him, his cup laid untouched.


    "Nemesis," she replied, "It''s dangerous business, frankly speaking. It''ll be terror."


    He laughed, "Yeps. I''ve heard that before. That''s why I need your help to get it right, oh wise one."


    Over them illuminated a steel chandelier, giving a fanciness to the otherwise clinical setting. As she smiled, she softly placed her cup on its coaster.


    "That is an intelligent decision," she said, "And yet, coming from you, I''m flattered."


    "What''s your take on it about Nemesis? What do you have to say?" he asked, "You know what, everything, give me everything. Let''s start with you."


    Her attention was transfixed on something behind him. Yet when Lewis turned around he could safely say that there was nothing of note.


    "As you know, I visualize numbers. Like streams of knowledge, rising into view from underneath the surface of everything. And, if I''m not mistaken, understand them beyond what most people can," she said.


    "I''ve heard," he replied.


    "At the beginning the numbers were seemingly nonsensical, changing to and fro with no form or order. Of course, I hope you''d understand that when I was only a youth such a change was terrifying. To be the next Calculator was a nightmare, when the last one had been such a monstrosity and the one before an absolute angel."


    She continued, "As I grew acquainted with my new abilities, I swiftly understood what each number meant. That this one would mean that the humidity was rising, that this one a typhoon was in formation. It appears to be the central point of my existence, what gives me my purpose and what makes me an asset. I dealt with factual information, perfectly handle the things that would take others an impossibly long time to handle. "


    He rolled his eyes, but she didn''t seem to notice.


    She pressed her thumb and pointer together, leaving a small gap, "So you must imagine my frustration when one stream, one very small nearly invisible stream, kept changing back and forth without me understanding why. It was a consistent number, ranging in the trillions, occasionally popping up and down, though the trend showed that the number was steadily in decline."


    "The Lifeline?" he asked.


    "The Lifeline of humanity," she confirmed, "Numbers corresponding to the overall happiness of the human race. It was rapidly changing, but for some reason I had a hunch. It was hard to prove a correlation that this one person''s death corresponded to this set reduction of happiness. Hard on my own, admittedly, but confirmed with the set of events that took place in the island of Zamban."


    He nodded, recalling the now quarantined region where The Virus or the Plague King ran his half a year campaign of terror.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    "Do you know what my immediate realization was? What question immediately came to mind the moment I understood what the numbers meant?"


    "That you could make a living out of this and live your life in total luxury?" he shrugged.


    She grunted, "Please. Perhaps another person, but I am an academic, money is meaningless to me. What came to mind, was something far greater. The question, that if I knew how happy everyone was, what was I supposed to do?.


    "That was what I needed to know. Armed with the knowledge of humanity''s happiness like many other Signs, I was unique in that I could fully comprehend them better, understand that a small spike was directly caused by a certain event. The other Signs have a more primitive understanding, a connection to the Lifeline that is an afterthought to their primary capabilities rather than their main ability.


    "These people made their initial assumptions of what to do, given their relationship with their powers. The destructive ones had a need to get the number down, while the heroic felt it their duty to make the number go up. I assume that the former Calculators also at some point had to make a decision, but I also assume that it did not take them very long at all to reach a conclusion."


    He nodded, wrapping his hands around his cup.


    "I took my time. I wanted to know what I had to do. But, I also wanted to know why I needed to do it. The existence of humanity''s happiness laid out before me so clearly, it was so tempting to gravitate to either side and make a decision. I am not a mongrel, or a brute; it is doubtful I would have been someone who would seek out suffering. Though I imagine it would have only taken me one awful moment, one breaking point to convince me that this world was beyond saving. Not very much at all.


    "So, I looked for other Signs, specifically those who appeared to have a connection to the Lifeline. You would be surprised, Lewis. Many of them have a genuine understanding of what the numbers mean as well."


    He smiled. "Look''s like you''re not that special then."


    "I suppose you could arrive to that conclusion, but I was more optimistic. I thought of it as a great day, a proof that I was not alone. In hindsight it was obvious, but it was still great. Once I introduced myself as a neutral party, many of them were willing to entertain my existence, even actively converse with me and talk about my experiences. Dictators, heroes, monsters, vigilantes. People of all kind, people who wanted to know the same thing that I wanted to know. People whose ideologies were challenged by someone who was like them yet resisted to make a decision. It is very interesting how these people diverge. All with the same ability, yet each reaching a conclusion and methodology so different from everyone else.


    "It is possible that I missed some of the apolitical ones, I do realize. Perhaps many others like me who stayed neutral hid in the shadows away from public attention. It is a shame but how would I know?"


    "Hmmm," he said, "You''re powerful, you know. More powerful than many of them, probably better at their jobs if you put your mind to it like you put a mind to this."


    "I know. Many times I was nearly convinced, even threatened and occasionally attacked by fools who taught me as someone they could make subservient to their causes. A glorified secretary or pawn, pfft."


    "The price of neutrality," he remarked, "Though that''s going to a question that was in my head earlier, actually. So all this time, in effect, even with all this soul-searching and all that, you''ve done nothing."


    "I suppose."


    "You see, that bothers me a lot more than I''d care to admit. It''s selfish, it''s frustrating, and it''s..." he paused. "But I digress. It''s not my place to say these things."


    She smiled, "I understand how you feel. You had to work towards reaching the Lifeline, yes? And how selfish of me to reach it so soon after I got my powers but stand by as injustice grew more and more?"


    "Yes."


    "I never intended to die without choosing a side. All this research was me working towards one conclusion, to concretize my reasoning for choosing it, and sticking to it hard. Tell me, what is your mission again?


    "Absolutely eliminate any and every entity that could made people suffer," he replied without missing a beat.


    "Tsst, tsst, tsst. So ambitious, yet so naive. It is impossible, child. You miss the nuances, and a heavy handed approach will only mark you as a villain in the eyes of many heroes. Many have tried what you did, yet many have failed to make a dent on the world around them."


    "Hmm."


    "But, those people never had the fortune of having me as their colleague in their undertakings. I''ve read you up, I''ve seen what you could do. Your machines are powerful, if relatively boring. You will not make it far on your own."


    His eyebrows raised.


    "I have seen enough, and I have understood enough. Genius, I am all in. Project Nemesis may very well be a reality not far from now."