Super Shorts

What Maketh the Man

Lester sat on his couch. Staring dead eyed at the tv as the newscasters droned on about something. He vaguely registered one of the hosts mention people exhibiting strange powers. It gave him the energy to focus on what was being said.

"If you see anyone exhibit strange powers or say they know anyone who has. Please, do not hesitate to call the Super hotline and help will be there right away." She took a deep breath and droned on about an Olympic something or other. Lester's mind strayed thinking about how odd that sounded. Not that these people had asked for the abilities they were given, but what was wrong enough to report them. It's not like they had willfully hurt someone.

All of a sudden a prickly feeling felt like it was ripping away at the space just under his skin. His first natural reaction was to scratch it. Lester itched quite vigorously but it didn't help. Then an idea occurred so he closed his eyes and tried to push it out of his skin in his hand. He opened his eyes and looked at his now itch free hand, but he could still Feel it. It was instead just hovering right above his skin.

He moved to pick up his now empty beer bottle on the end table beside him. The tingling hovering above his skin met the glass and most of the glass bottle instantly vaporized. All that remained was a smooth edged bottle bottom. After that shocking revelation the tingling started feeling comforting. Then a thought struck him. He stood and concentrated on expanding it around his entire body, except the feet, like an invisible suit. After a minute of nothing but the tv spouting non-sense, he approached the wall to his kitchen.

Reaching out a hand, he watched the wall dissolve like it was sugar in water. What happened to the material he destroyed, Lester had no clue, but he could certainly use this power for anything. He could rob a bank completely anonymously. He could finally get the key to the shed he dropped into a storm drain. Lester stepped through his kitchen wall, leaving a Lester shaped hole. All of a sudden Lester felt simultaneously hungry and tired. He stopped his protective field and the fatigue mostly faded, but the hunger stayed. He ate some leftovers and decided it was better he simply went to bed. He had work early after all.

That night Lester slept the best he had in weeks. When he awoke to the pleasant sounds of his alarm, he dressed and went to work. Pushing his maintenance cart through the concrete, tiled, and glass structure that was a Multinational Corporate headquarters; Lester whistled a tune he wasn't sure where he had heard it before, but it just made sense. As he completed his second round for the day, he parked his cart and sat in the small windowless basement maintenance offices, and started his lunch break.

Somewhere close by Lester heard the elevator ding, that would happen every so often. He paid it no attention and kept eating. That's when approaching footsteps made him sit up in alarm. Very few people came through here at this time, if any. That could only mean one thing.

"Lester!" His immediate supervisor's harsh tone rang through the concrete corridor, dread building up in him as the awful man approached. "Where the F*** have you been?" The tiny man stepped into the doorway, carrying himself as if he were six feet tall and casting a twelve foot shadow wherever he went. He was barely five feet and looked more like a beach ball grew legs and found out how to shout cohesive words through a coconut perched precariously on top of it. A coconut with squinting beady little eyes. How he had been hired for his position instead of Lester was beyond him, but it irked him to his core.

"Someone spilled a hazardous chemical in a lab and we need you do a full cleanup. Don your suit and get up there." He stood there waiting for Lester to comply. Lester looked him in his tiny little eyes and said.

"I'm on my break. I'll get to it when I finish. Or you could have someone not on break handle it."

The beachball huffed and hiked up its trousers, that had started to slip for the fortieth time in five minutes. "It has to be you. I want you to do it and you're the senior maintenance man here. You're easily the best person to do it right." He waited again for a solid minute while Lester sat there and took another bite.

"I'm on my break." Was all he said, through a slight mouthful.

The beachball started jiggling like it was amused. "Ok. You're fired."

"Excuse me?" Lester stood and towered over the bloated sorry excuse for a human. "I'm. Fired? I'm afraid you're mistaken." A furious rush of anger flooded Lester's face and he could feel the food giving him energy. The pricking sensation intensified again, as if in anticipation of his anger. 

The beachball backed up a bit while started to sweat and shake nervously. "I said. You're. Fired."

"No. You are." He balled up his fist and let the anger project the protective field around his fist like a reflex. The coconut disappeared from on top of the beach ball and his limp form fell to the floor, gushing blood from his now severed neck.

Lester nearly fell back in shock. He'd just killed his super. That's when it occurred to him. He picked up his walkie and summoned two of the other maintenance men to the elevator, careful not to let them see the body of their former supervisor.

He told them to evacuate everyone they knew deserved to live, making it very clear something bad was about to happen. He was going to make a difference and sometimes that required getting blood on your hands, Lester thought grimly. Otherwise why would god order the death of billions if he weren't a righteous god. Lester thought to himself if this would make him a god. Maybe in one way, and in others he would be a villain, but sometimes bad guys make the best good guys, and that was a risk Lester was willing to take.

He walked up to one of the buildings basement supports and activated what he decided in the moment to call his aura. not sure what his power used to work but it probably had something to do with sugar, having felt super hungry after extreme use and this would be extreme. Lester stepped through the column after he heard the walkies click three times, meaning the building was free of innocents. The room shook in a delayed reaction as the ceiling cracked. all he needed was one more. He ran through another column and beelined for the stairwell. With a boom, the world behind him imploded. Everything went dark as the building came down on top of him.