The Idol, Part 2
Welcome to Olympus City, where super-powers, physics-defying tech, and unearthly creatures are all possible now. Human nature, however, remains unchanged.
No one is born a perfect superhero, but a few strive to live up to the ideal anyway.
Previously: Miranda used to idolize the actor Tuck Lewis. Then he trapped her in outer space while he sought to discredit the Terrific Trio. After that failed, he left the universe, but now he’s back and has turned a mountain resort into a refuge for super-powered people.
Part 2
Ripples spread from the fishing hook. Tuck set the rod down in his boat and steadied his hands.
“My offer is serious,” he said. “When it gets to be too much, come here. It truly is the least I can do.”
“I had something else in mind.” Miranda crossed her arms as she hovered over the water, ready to fly away if Tuck came any closer. “Dame Disaster’s ship. We need it.”
He narrowed his gaze on her as he scratched his beard. “It can’t track down people across dimensions.”
Miranda had hoped it would be that easy. “Okay, but if we figure out where to go, it can get us there, right?”
“It could.”
“Can we have it?”
Tuck watched the water for a long moment. “No.”
The anger returned. Fists squeezed. Chest tightened. Jaw clenched. Miranda thought about all the ways she might coerce him.
“You can have it.” Remnants of his old cockiness surfaced. “No one else.”
Tuck rowed the boat closer. Miranda did not fly away.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I can transfer command to you,” he explained. “I could transfer it to anyone, but I’ll only transfer it to you. And I’m trusting that you won’t transfer it to anyone else. That wouldn’t turn out well for the world. People can’t handle an interdimensional super-vessel, just like they can’t handle super-powers.”
“I wouldn’t know how to operate it.”
“The ship does all the work. That’s part of the problem.”
The johnboat sailed across the water, drawing ever closer to Miranda. She stopped herself when she noticed she was drifting backward.
Tuck summoned an easy smile, reminding her of the teen idol he used to be. “My offer stands,” he said. “Leave Ultra Woman behind. Leave acting behind too. Success is overrated anyway. Let go of the endless chase. Just enjoy the quiet moments. There are good people here.”
“Like you would even know.”
Tuck nodded as if to concede the point, and he rowed to the dock, ending the fishing expedition without a single catch. He climbed out, secured the boat, then pulled a small device out of his pocket and pressed a button.
Shimmering light and a familiar hum filled the air above the grass field. Soon, it materialized. The vessel smooshed a patch of grass as it settled.
Sibyl stood inside the vessel, stiff and wary as she surveyed the changed view out the shattered window. The hatch popped open.
“You should be careful what you board,” Tuck told her, wearing a good-natured smile as he approached. “It could have gone much farther.”
Sibyl disembarked, her curious eyes probing him. “I’ve seen you before.”
“Probably.” He shook her hand. “Tuck Lewis.”
“Yes, the actor. And you have control over an alien vessel?”
“Sort of alien. It was made on Earth, just not this Earth.”
Sibyl was standing too close to Tuck. Miranda wanted to warn her. But Tuck wasn’t doing anything, just chatting her up.
“Do you normally take an interest in interdimensional vessels?” he asked.
“This would be the first time I’ve had the opportunity.” Sibyl adjusted her glasses. “I take it you, too, possess a power of some kind?”
“Two, actually.” He waved a finger at a passing dragonfly, and it changed course to buzz in Sibyl’s face. The insect seemed to nod its head, then flew a figure-eight and departed.
Tuck explained that he could control the movements of any living organism. When Sibyl asked, he confirmed that he could control people too. But she did not withdraw from him. Not the slightest recoil.
“And your second power?”
“I can detect other people with powers.”
“I see.” Sibyl tilted her head, studying this new subject. “Do you detect anything in me?”
Tuck smirked. “Clean bill of health. You’re refreshingly normal—your interest in interdimensional vessels notwithstanding.”
“Would you be willing to loan me this vessel?”
“No.” Tuck pointed across the lake at Miranda. “I’ve already made an offer to someone else.”
Miranda floated over, her boots skimming across the clean water. If an ordinary scientist wasn’t afraid to stand near Tuck, Ultra Woman shouldn’t be either. She touched down on the grass, keeping him at several times arm’s length.
“It’s okay,” Tuck said, holding his hands up. “I’m not going to bite.”
Miranda felt her skin crawl, though it was only phantom itching. She remained in full control of herself.
“How does this work?” she asked.
Tuck stepped aboard. “First, you need to come inside.”
Miranda inhaled a long breath and released it slowly, far too slowly for the world’s swiftest woman. Sibyl was watching and almost certainly noticing.
Miranda boarded the ship, the first time she ever did so voluntarily. Standing in the same cabin where she first donned her proper Ultra Woman costume, she looked out the shattered window and remembered the vast gulf between her and the Earth, a distance that nearly proved too much.
“Sorry about the mess,” Tuck said. “Well, not the windshield. That’s on you.”
The computer screens brightened as he tapped them, and he set his palm on one.
“Computer: I’m relinquishing full command of this vessel and turning it over to …” He glanced outside, where Sibyl stood within earshot. “… Ultra Woman. You answer to her and her alone now.”
A cold, androgynous, disturbingly familiar voice answered, “Done.”
The computer hadn’t spoken last time Miranda was on board. It sounded like Dame Disaster’s robot—the same chilling, inhuman tone.
Tuck scooped up a handful of clothes and dumped them onto the grass. “I’ll get this junk out of your way. I never touched your stuff, though.” He pointed. “Your clothes are right over there. I probably should have at least hung them.”
Miranda picked up her old outfit and remembered the immature girl who had worn it, who had ignored her Terrific Trio duties so she could meet with a famous actor and advance her own career. These clothes weren’t all that old, she realized.
Tuck drew closer. Miranda flinched, which amplified his shame and her own.
“Do not go to that other universe,” he said, utterly serious. “Dame Disaster’s Earth—just don’t.”
That only increased her curiosity. “Why not? What happened to you there?”
Looking away, Tuck compressed his lips. “Most people in that world are either purely good or purely evil. People from here, people like us, well … we turn evil. Full-on, mustache-twirling, black-cape-wearing evil. And it felt great, absolutely intoxicating. Evil is doomed to fail in that world, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to care. I was free from all guilt and regret. I barely found my way back.”
Miranda couldn’t tell whether he feared the sensation or missed it.
“Stay away,” he said. “Do not delude yourself into thinking you’re strong enough to resist it.” As an afterthought, he added, “Oh, and there is another possibility. Some people there are neither good nor evil—they’re complete nonentities. And that would be the worst fate of all for you, wouldn’t it?”
A broad grin sprouted, and Tuck flapped his arms once.
“Well. Have fun with this thing. And when you finally realize it’s impossible to be Ultra Woman, we’ll have a place for you here.”
Tuck disembarked. If he had lingered another moment, Miranda couldn’t swear she would have restrained herself from pitching him through what remained of the windshield. And that made her loathe him all the more.
*****
Miranda flew the interdimensional rocket ship back to Olympus City. She flew it manually.
Sibyl sat within the darkened cabin while Miranda carried the vessel on her back, her fingers pressing into the already-dented hull for additional support. It was awkward. Thankfully, the New Mount Olympus resort was located in the Rockies, it turned out, so the trip could have been far worse—especially if Miranda had allowed the ship to transport them anywhere. She trusted her own hands far more than a computer built by another universe’s supervillain.
Once back at Hephaestus Enterprises, Sibyl opened the hangar and Miranda lugged the vessel inside. Miranda asked the computer how to restore a person who had been transformed into a jigsaw puzzle. It spewed out a relentless font of information as Sibyl took notes, barely keeping up.
“You think that’s enough?” Miranda asked when the computer finally exhausted its thoughts on the matter.
Sibyl reviewed her notebook and nodded. “It’s too much, if anything. But I can work with this.”
“Then I’ll get out of your way.”
Miranda grabbed her old clothes and tossed them in a landfill on the way home. She would have preferred an incinerator.
Next: Meadowville