Brent Cosmos: A Hero's Quest

Chapter 2: Newsflash

    Whenever I’m not fighting evil somewhere on Fury, you can usually find me on Cosmos Island. Cosmos Island is the sacred home of all Cosmoses. It’s a beautiful island that floats high above the clouds. It’s completely protected from all evil. In fact, no villains can even find Cosmos Island. The only ones who can find Cosmos Island are the Cosmoses themselves, and the only ones who can even be on the island are the ones that they allow. Cosmos Island is a place of pure goodness and beauty. Every Cosmos, including me, has been born on this island. It’s where we live, it’s where we train, and it’s where we watch for evil to fight. It’s our home.
    Now that my father was gone, that made me the new keeper of the island, seeing as I was that last living Cosmos. That meant I had to look after the island and move it if necessary. You see, while it is true that Cosmos Island is protected from evil and villains, there’s always a small chance that a villain could find it somehow, so the Cosmos who is the keeper of the island has the ability to move the island through the sky to different locations, thus making it harder to find. I usually just let the island drift through the sky leisurely, after all moving an entire island is hard work, even with superpowers.
    Even though I live on an awesome floating island, that doesn’t mean I just sleep outside like a hobo. For on Cosmos Island lies Cosmos Castle, an amazing fortress that contains all of the greatest Cosmos artifacts left behind by my superhero ancestors. That’s where I live. Cosmos Castle is pretty big. It has so many rooms and hallways, I even got lost in them once. Still this place was my home and I loved it. It’s big , it’s quiet…it’s really quiet…actually, sometimes it’s disturbingly quiet, not that I’m lonely or anything. I mean, I’ve been living all alone in this big castle for six years since my dad died and I’ve been just fine…really.
    Today started out like any other day for me. I was sitting in the throne room of Cosmos Castle eating chips and watching my giant flat screen TV. What? Hey, just because I’m a superhero doesn’t mean I’m not entitled to a little relaxation during my off time. Anyway, as I was flipping through channels I eventually came across the news.
    “Today’s top story,” the newswoman said. “Yesterday at the Neon Plaza, the notorious crime syndicate known as “The Giants”, along with their leader, Big Time, were brought to justice by thanks to the efforts of the infamous superhero, Brent Cosmos.”
    “Whoa,” I said surprised. “I made the news. And it was for something good this time!” I was incredibly pleased. It’s not often I get credit for the good that I do. At least not the kind of credit I’d prefer.
    “Here we have the exclusive footage,” the newswoman said is she cut to footage of the Neon Plaza. The Neon Plaza is a very popular party spot on Fury. It was all wall-to-wall bars, casinos, and clubs. Everywhere you looked you could see big, flashy neon signs, thus the name Neon Plaza. As the footage rolled, soon a big black limo made a sharp, screeching turn around the corner, speeding down the road like a bullet train. And flying through the sky following it was yours truly.
    “Yeah! Go get’em me!” I yelled at the screen. I never truly appreciate how awesome I am until I can see it for myself. Just then on the TV, one of the windows of the limo rolled down and a man in a suit and a fedora holding a machine gun stuck his head out of the window. He then pointed his gun upward and started firing it rapidly at me.
    “Steel Shell!” I exclaimed. Then, my body turned into shiny, bullet proof metal and as the bullets hit me, they just bounced right off of my body not hurting me in the slightest. Steel Shell is a technique that utilizes my shape shifting power and makes my body extremely hard, making me impervious to virtually all attacks.
    “Awesome!” I yelled as I took a handful of chips and shoved them in my mouth. Just then, the me on TV’s arms grew to enormous sizes and they dug into the road. Then I pulled up the road and whipped it. I whipped it good! This made the limo fly into the air and flip upside down right before smashing onto the ground. I landed right behind it with a big smug grin in my face.
    “All right Giants,” I said as heroically as possible. “Come on out and put’em up!” Just then a bunch of gangsters in suits came out of the upside down car. Looks of both anger and fear were on all of their faces.
    “You’ve done it now kid,” one of them said. “Now you’re gonna have to deal with da boss.” I held my breath. He was talking about the leader The Giants, Big Time. He had caused so much trouble throughout Neon Plaza and other cities on Fury as well, but rumor had it that no one outside of his gang had ever seen him. Still I couldn’t falter now, I had been putting Giants away all week long and if I was gonna stop them for good, I had to deal with their boss. Suddenly, the back door of the limo opened and, to my surprise, a very, very short, stocky man came out. He waddled forward until he was right in front of me.
    “Yeah, get’em boss!” another one of the gangsters said. I was confused. I just stood there and stared at the little man in front of me who only came up to my kneecaps. Then once I finally understood, I busted out laughing.
    “Seriously?” I said. “You’re Big Time?” I just couldn’t help but stand there and laugh at the guy.
    “I would wouldn’t be laughing if I were you,” I said (the me that was watching myself on TV that is). As the me on TV chuckled hysterically, something happened to the little man. He began to grow and grow and grow. His arms and muscles became ginormous. His chest and abs became humungous. His legs and calves became gigantic. In other words, he got big. As I watched this happen before my eyes, my hardy laughter turned became weaker and weaker until it turned into a moan of distress.
    “Uh-oh,” I said.
    “That’s right you little punk,” said one of the gangsters from before. “Now you’re gonna see what happens when you mess with the Giants.” Big Time’s arm then came down in a vicious arc and tried to crush me where I stood. Still with my super speed it was easy enough for me to get out of the way. But Big Time wasn’t letting up. He started bringing down a barrage of punches trying to hit me with all of his might. Every punch he threw I was able to dodge… barely. It looked pretty bad for me but then… it got worse. Big Time hit me with a severe upper cut that knocked me backwards and sent me flying through the air until I landed on my back. The gangsters then began to laugh at my pain. Now there are many things I don’t tolerate: villains and criminals, people who cut in line, and jerks that laugh at me.
    “Big mistake,” I growled. My eyes then turned a piercing red. Then my body was surrounded by a terrifying red aura. I let out an shout that seemed to make the entire planet shake. As I yelled, I began to grow. I grew even larger than Big Time…and then some. I finally stopped when I reached the height of the buildings around me. The faces of Big Time and his gang had turned to looks of pure terror. I then grew the fist of my (already gigantic) monster arm to an even larger size and raised it above my head so that it seemed to touch the sky. “Giants? Please!” I said in a commanding voice. “You all look like a bunch of ants to me!”
    With that, a bolt of lightning came down form the sky and struck my hand and I slammed it down on top of Big Time, his gang, and the remains of his limo just for the heck of it. As I lifted my arm up I began to shrink myself back down to my normal size. I looked at the enemies that I had defeated. Big Time and his crew were alive. They were crushed, electrocuted, and almost all of their bones had been broken, but they were alive.
    “Hey, no fatalities,” I said pleased. “Good thing I actually held back this time.” Suddenly, just as I was about to subdue the Giants a huge flying battleship appeared in the sky. I knew that ship all too well. “Aw crud,” I said. “It’s the Enforcers. I better get out of here.” I then flew off into the sky. I didn’t really want to get into it with the enforcers. The Enforcers are the main police force for practically all of Fury. Whenever someone on Fury had a problem, the Enforcers handled it. The Enforcers are pretty good at handling villains too, but their power pales in comparison to that of a Cosmos. They knew this and were very happy to have the Cosmoses helping them out when they needed it, until I came along that is.
    “After Brent Cosmos’s defeat of the Giants,” the newswoman continued. “the Enforcers arrived on the scene to take them into custody. When we questioned him, Commander Stryker had this to say.” The newswoman then cut to a clip of Commander Stryker, a high-ranking Enforcer decked out in golden armor.
    “I’ll admit Brent Cosmos did defeat the Giants soundly,” he said begrudgingly. “But his methods were completely reckless and over-the-top. He went completely too far as always. He may be a Cosmos but he’s nothing like his father. If you ask me, he takes more after his villainous mother. He definitely seems to be more evil than good.”
    As I watched this on my throne, my face turned into a sinister scowl. His words cut me like a knife. I then threw my bag of chips at his face on the screen.
    “Yeah! Well I’d like to see you do better!” I yelled. I then turned of the TV, let out a sigh, and hung my head.