DarkLight Redemption: Post-Human Universe - Book One

Chapter Thirteen

I'm ten years old and watching TV in my parents' living room. My sister is six years old, and she's sitting on the floor next to me. The superheroes are fighting the bad guys again.

MasterBlaster and The Paradigm are teaming up, and it's always so friggin' cool when they do. Eight supervillains are taken down by two heroes in minutes. Only the greatest superheroes in the world could beat those odds.

But there's one more: Dominator. He's a bad dude, and he's laying into the heroes. An old warehouse is leveled when The Paradigm is slammed into it. MasterBlaster just got punched out of camera range.

Man, if I were a superhero, I'd jump in right now and save the day. Then they'd invite me to join in their next team-up. Maybe one of them would even make me his partner. What an awesome life that would be.

"Maybe it's just a job to them," says a little red-haired girl who is older than my sister but younger than me.

I'm not sure how she managed to squeeze in between us on the floor, but she clearly doesn't know squat.

"Maybe they're just trying to support their families," the girl continues.

"It's not just a job!" I correct her. "When you've got super powers, every day is an adventure."

"They don't go out and fight every day," she says with some certainty.

"How would you know?"

"Because my dad's home plenty of times," the girl replies.

"Your dad is a superhero?"

"Not exactly."

"What does that mean?" I ask this girl, who seems to think she knows more about superpeople than I do.

"Wait," I say as it finally dawns on me. "Is he a supervillain?"

I look past the girl and see my sister lying on the floor. She looks sick; her skin is pale and slick with sweat.

"Maggie?" I lean over the red-haired girl, and nudge my sister. "Hey, are you okay?"

"No," she says in a creaky voice. "I think I might be dead."

My head is filled with flashing lights, and my jaw hurts. I get back to my feet, realizing that I'm all grown up now, and see PowerPlayer walking away from me. He always could throw a right hook that buckled my knees even with my force field up.

Next up is Rush, who punches me about a hundred times in two seconds. I know I should defend myself, but I just don't want to.

I'm still wondering why that is when FlashBurn hits me with her heat waves and drenches me in sweat in no time.

It's okay, though -- I just remembered that I deserve this. Elastica steps up, wraps her legs around me like she sometimes did when we were together. She kisses me deeply on the lips, and I feel her arms wrap around me a couple of times.

Her face stretches outward and engulfs my head. Her arms and legs tighten until I can't breathe. There are ways I can get out of this, but instead I just drop my shields. Her body is warm as it plunges me into darkness and suffocates me.

I am about to lose consciousness and slip into sweet oblivion when she releases me. She walks away as if it, and I, meant nothing to her. I want to follow her but know I cannot.

When I look up, I see MasterBlaster standing next to another me in my LightBlast attire. I see so much promise and enthusiasm in my eyes. Someday I will take up the mantle of MasterBlaster and carry on the legacy.