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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.
None of that has happened yet.
Part 1
A few years ago …
Dane promised himself he would never again venture into Triton’s Trident, and yet here he was, entering the dimly lit establishment late on a Thursday evening.
Despite the name, there was nothing supernatural about the place. There was nothing supernatural or paranormal about any place. Nevertheless, Triton’s Trident promised an escape from mundane, unchanging reality, if only temporarily. The next morning, the fugitive often awoke with the distinct impression that a giant fishhook had pierced his brain and yanked him back into the real world and all its attendant dreariness.
The aroma of cheaply abundant beer welcomed Dane and invited him to stay a while. He hoped to make this quick, and hoped he wouldn’t encounter any of his patients at the bar.
He scanned the tables and booths, finding a mix of groups, couples, and loners. A good crowd, and the music was low enough to permit conversation. Dane had always appreciated the ambience here. The cleanliness too. Unlike other bars he had tried, his shoes never stuck to this floor.
At a small table in the back corner sat a spindly man with a pronounced widow’s peak. He nursed a glass of whiskey. Or perhaps just stared at it.
“Warner,” Dane said. “I seem to recall you having some rather choice words for alcohol.”
Warner Pinkney tilted his gaze up at the tall, fit, no doubt unwanted presence standing beside his table. “Please tell me she didn’t shanghai you into checking on me.”
“Cadee’s concerned about you.” Concerned enough to call for the first time in years. Dane was so pleased to hear her voice again, a beacon cutting through the fresh ruins of his marriage. A marriage he had never truly wanted.
But Cadee Luna hadn’t called about that.
“She needn’t have troubled you,” Warner said. “The law permits a man to take a drink every now and then.”
“Yes, and you’re also allowed to consume it.” Dane took the seat across from him, eliciting an offended scowl from his old friend. “She tells me you’ve been struggling.”
“That’s between me and her.”
Dane eyed the untouched glass. “You’re wondering if that will give you a fresh perspective. What do you think is wrong with your current perspective?”
“Psychology is not your forte. Stick to teeth.”
“Correct, I don’t know psychology. But I know something about how your mind works.”
“You knew my mind. You don’t get to walk back in all these years later and pronounce judgment.”
That was also correct. Dane sighed, understanding Warner’s resentment. This was a bad idea, and Dane should have told Cadee that. But Cadee was always smarter than they were. Which was part of Warner’s problem.
“Have you ever tasted it?” Dane asked, his eyes again drifting to the glass. “Or do you just enjoy it for its aesthetic value?”
“The aroma is distinctive. It suggests possibilities, the spark of an idea, something that doesn’t lead to a dead end.”
“Tell me about these dead ends. Maybe there’s a way to cut through them.”
Warner glowered at him. “If there is, you wouldn’t be able to spot it. I’m guessing all those fillings have prevented you from keeping current.”
Work wasn’t all that interfered. “I can give you an outsider’s perspective.”
“I don’t need an outsider’s perspective. I need a fellow expert. I need you from college, before you let your brain rot.”
“I’ve hardly done that. You try performing surgery in someone’s mouth.”
Warner scowled. “How is the family, by the way?”
The question triggered many thoughts and memories, none of which Dane wanted to share. “My daughter is fifteen now.”
“What an interesting statistic, one I could have calculated myself. Was it worth it?”
Dane’s eyes fell toward the whiskey. “I have a responsibility.”
“Again, you’re not answering the specific question I’ve posed.”
The question had no specific answer. “My wife left me a few months ago, and my daughter hates me.”
A contemptuous snort escaped Warner. “And for this, you abandon our dream.”
“From what I’ve heard, the dream is proceeding just fine. Cadee’s research is stellar. I have no doubt she’ll achieve an important breakthrough that paves the way for viable alternative energy sources.”
“Yes. She very likely will.”
“And you’re making it possible. You provide the support that keeps Hephaestus Enterprises up and running. She couldn’t do it without you.”
The contempt turned inward. “I’m supposed to be a scientist, not an administrator.”
“You’re still serving science.”
“We could have been advancing science. But you had to be responsible.” Warner side-eyed his glass as though the whiskey might pounce on him. “I’m wondering if this would prove an adequate substitute for you.”
“I’m sorry that it can’t.”
“I might as well try. My mind clearly isn’t enough on its own.”
“You’re an adult. It’s your call. But I suspect you’d only be repeating my own error.”
Warner’s gaze shot up and studied Dane a moment. “They drove you to drinking.”
“I drove myself to it. I was something of a regular here.” Dane glanced at this bar that he had spent so many hours in, and his memory failed to summon any distinct event. “I never drank during the day, never while on the job. I could always get through that, but afterward … I wanted to stop being that person. Neither Penelope nor Natalie desired my company anyway, so it was easy to justify. It helped at first, but then each morning grew progressively worse.”
“How long did you come here?”
“Long enough that it was difficult to come back tonight.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“No, but Cadee did.”
Warner’s frown curled into the faintest smirk. “Does she know you’re an alcoholic?”
“That did not come up, no.”
“All that time, all that good you could have achieved, and you squandered it in a place like this.” Warner tapped the table, staring at the glass. “So, I’ll ask again: Was it worth it?”
“There’s plenty I’d do differently, including never stepping foot in here. But Natalie is growing into an intelligent and decent young woman, so yes, it was all worth it.”
“You could have improved the whole world.”
“I did improve the world. It’s far better off for having Natalie in it.”
“Sentiment makes you shortsighted.” Warner slid the glass across the table, then stood up. “Don’t come after me again. Find another way to impress Cadee.”
As his old friend started walking away, Dane lobbed some parting advice. “Try exercise. I find it helps free the mind.”
Ignoring him, Warner marched out of Triton’s Trident, leaving Dane to contemplate the scent of whiskey. It was only a single shot. It could prove a pleasant treat. And besides, no one needed him until the morning.
His fingers reached toward the glass, and he pushed it away. He needed to call Cadee. No, he needed to see her. And he needed to see the lab.
*****
Dane pulled into the parking lot of Hephaestus Enterprises. Closing the door of his compact sedan, he gazed at the hangar facility situated along the plateau’s edge. On the outside, the structure appeared ordinary, functional. But exceptional work was happening inside, performed by the best person he had ever known, whom he hadn’t seen in far too long.
Cadee greeted him in the lobby. Her beauty proved timeless, and her eyes exuded sheer intelligence. Her apologetic smile was so endearing.
“I’m so sorry to drag you into this,” she said.
“Nonsense.” A grin threatened to overtake his face, but Dane suppressed it. “I’m always happy to make time for you. Both of you.”
Her arms rose tentatively. Once they ascended past the point of no return, she hugged him.
“It’s good to see you, Dane.”
“Likewise.”
Cadee smelled of perfume and chemicals, a tantalizing combination. She lingered in the embrace for an extra couple of seconds, and Dane already considered the trip worthwhile.
“You’ve really gotten yourself in shape,” Cadee observed.
He hadn’t been exactly toned in college, or even a few years ago. “A good gym beats any drug.”
“That is correct, chemically speaking.”
Their smiles synced up, as did their eyes, until Cadee abruptly turned and gestured at the lobby and its minimalist furnishings.
“So, welcome to Hephaestus Enterprises,” she said. “It should not have taken you this long to get here. You were welcome anytime.”
Dane believed Cadee would have indeed welcomed his visit. Penelope would have forbidden it, and rightly so.
Cadee stiffened, and Dane worried that an awkward facial expression had betrayed him.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you’ve been busy.”
He debated telling her about the separation. The words wouldn’t leave his mouth. Some strange internal force seized his tongue and firmed its grip.
“The office is closed,” he finally managed. “Natalie is with her mother. I’m all yours.”
“How is she? Your daughter, I mean.” Cadee quickly added, “Well, both of them.”
Dane supplied the automatic answer. “They’re doing fine. But I’d love to see how things are going here.”
“Happy to give a tour, but fair warning, the work might look a little boring.”
“Impossible.”
“You’ll see. Sorry in advance.”
Cadee led him into the main lab, which sprawled out before them. Equipment was strewn everywhere, without any regard for tidiness. Splendid chaos on the fringes, but care and precision in the center, where a thick black tarp was neatly laid out over much of the floor.
She explained how they were testing new solar panel designs. Her team had left them out in the sun all day, then measured the wattage of each and compared them against a control group of the current leading brand. Tomorrow, the process would repeat.
“Still so certain it can’t be boring?” Cadee’s smirk challenged him and deprecated herself.
“I performed an unconscionable number of dental fillings today, so yes.”
This all could have been his. He could have spent his days here, with Cadee, instead of at Apollo Family Dentistry examining the teeth of a revolving door of strangers and doing it all for no greater purpose than a paycheck.
And for Natalie. He reminded himself that the work was all for Natalie. The paychecks serve her.
“I can’t show you the solar panels themselves,” Cadee said. “The light could taint the data. Sorry it’s underwhelming.”
“You keep apologizing, but I assure you it’s not necessary.”
Her eyes suggested that apologies were, in fact, necessary.
“You’re not …” Dane almost stopped himself, but he needed to know. “Do you pity me?”
“What? No, of course not.”
“You do. Is that why you asked me to help Warner? Were you trying to help me feel useful?” A note of anger entered his voice.
Hers as well, and it came with a sharper bite. “I called you because Warner needed a friend. He doesn’t have any, other than me. But I’m not exactly working wonders for his self-esteem these days. And I thought you’d be happy to help a friend, or were you just happy to help me?”
“You’re a friend too.”
“Friend. Right. And you’re married.”
“Not for much longer.”
There. He said it. He saw no point in masquerading as a happily married man, so he blurted it out.
Cadee needed a moment to process this new data. “I’m sorry,” she finally said.
“Stop apologizing. Stop feeling sorry for me. It’s a relief. That marriage was a sacrifice, and I’ve done my time in it. I’m ready to be free.”
The pity resurfaced. “Wasn’t any of it good?”
Dane thought about it. He reached back through the years until he could stand to look at himself.
“A little,” he answered. “At the beginning. Or perhaps I tricked myself into believing it was. But it was never about me.”
“Natalie is lucky to have you as a father.”
No, she’s really not.
He wished he could see under that tarp, study the intricacies of those solar panels, listen to Cadee expound upon the process in tedious detail. In another life, he would have reveled in it all.
As he stared, he noticed the tarp was glowing, just a small part of it. A circle of light shone through the black. A perfect circle, about the size of a flashlight. It brightened as the circumference slowly expanded.
“Should that be happening?” Dane asked.
Cadee was even more alarmed than he was.
“No,” she said. “That’s impossible.”
Oooh, intriguing start so far!
Is this the meta-origin of the Terrific word? 😱