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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.
Previously: A three-armed, blue-skinned man has revealed himself to be an alien visitor representing an advanced race. And he’s got some notes for earthlings.
Part 2
Many eyes were watching Miranda and the alien. Many ears were listening. She and Benevos hovered face to face just above the stopped traffic as crowds thickened along the sidewalks. An extraterrestrial had revealed himself, and on this historic occasion, the alien publicly judged Ultra Woman’s performance as wanting.
Don’t be the aggressor, Miranda told herself. “Let’s go somewhere and talk. You can pick the rooftop. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like you’re hiding something.”
All three of his hands seized Miranda and shoved her into grass and dirt before she could react, much less fight back.
As Benevos released, she looked up at an obsidian obelisk—the memorial honoring those who had died at the hands of supervillains, monsters, or other previously impossible threats. It listed fifteen names. Fifteen people Ultra Woman failed to save.
Condescension dripped from Benevos’s tongue. “You were one of the first super-powered beings on this planet. You had a tremendous advantage. Ultimately, what condemned these poor souls was not villains or monsters—it was your failure of imagination.” He extended his lowest arm toward the sidewalk. “Don’t let these people share their fate.”
Miranda observed the crowd. She spotted Charlotte among them, as well as other familiar faces—fixtures of the neighborhood, people she had seen in passing, lives she had saved. They weren’t fleeing in terror. Benevos’s sunny disposition may have forestalled a full-on panic, but they also trusted Ultra Woman. If Benevos posed any threat, surely she would deal with him.
“How long have you been on Earth?” Miranda asked.
“Long enough to assess the state of affairs.”
“Okay, so if you’ve been here a while, with all this power you possess, don’t you also share the blame?”
The smile strained for just a second. “This is your world, not mine. I had truly hoped our interference would prove unnecessary. But you’ve shown it is.” He turned to the crowd and projected his voice. “Environment. Education. Productivity. Peace. My people will help your species on all these fronts. We will make your world better, and you will never need to add another name to this monument. Under our guidance, such dangers will soon be unthinkable.”
Someone shouted from the crowd, “What if we don’t agree with your people?”
Benevos scanned the sidewalk until he spotted the speaker, a sturdy old man wearing an Army cap. Miranda watched the alien’s antennae, ready to spring into action if they heated up.
“Hey, man, I agree,” said a large guy with a ponytail. “Give the aliens a chance.”
Another speaker backed up the ponytail guy. Someone else rhetorically questioned their sanity, only to be told to shut up by yet another person. The debate spread from there, and Benevos’s smile widened.
“Look at this squabbling,” he said, turning to Miranda, “this lack of harmony. They require a strong hand. They need the discipline you have failed to instill in them.”
“That’s not what I do.”
“Clearly.”
Benevos rose back into the air and gazed down upon the arguing humanity.
“This is not up for debate!” His sheer volume silenced the crowd. “My people are on their way. This is happening. Environment. Education. Productivity. Peace. We will begin with the environment.”
The antennae brightened as he eyed the vehicles.
Oh, God …
Miranda shot up to attack. The third arm snapped out, and a thick hand clamped around her neck. While she choked, the antennae discharged.
A hot scarlet beam enveloped a minivan parked along the curb. The tires melted swiftly as the body liquified. The engine caught fire, but Benevos extinguished the flame like he was blowing out a candle. By that point, the van was a total loss.
People rushed out of their cars. Many fled the scene. But not all. Some remained. Some cheered. They cheered again when Benevos melted an SUV.
Miranda wriggled in his grasp, attempting to pry his fingers off her neck. When that failed, she kicked him, stomping her boot against his side, eliciting nothing more than an annoyed grunt.
“Among my people,” he told her, “I’m what you’d call a weakling.”
Benevos punched Miranda across the face. His knuckles were like iron, and the force seemed to send her brain spinning. He followed up with a few more hits and so thoroughly disoriented her that she hardly noticed the change in altitude.
The wind intensified as Benevos accelerated toward the clouds, dragging Miranda along for the ride. She struggled to remain conscious and break free, but then a second hand seized her and a third smacked her. She peeled one hand off, only for another to tighten its grip.
The air thinned and darkened as they streaked into the troposphere. Miranda, in addition to fighting off three arms and a proliferation of dark spots, now fought her own burgeoning panic. Outer space, and all the unpleasant memories it dredged up, was only getting closer. Space was death.
No!
Miranda thrashed every which way, her fists striking like jackhammers, forceful and persistent enough to knock Benevos off course. She slipped free for an entire second. But then he punched back harder and faster. His fist smashed against her temple, and everything became a directionless blur.
Air … need air …
Benevos shot into the exosphere, where he funneled his momentum into a spin. He swung Miranda around, aimed her at the sun, and released.
She tumbled through space. The nourishing atmosphere of Earth drifted ever further away as the void enveloped her and darkness swallowed everything.
*****
Alyssa rode Ken’s telekinesis across the city. They had turned on the news the instant she overheard the cacophony of alarmed thoughts, and they saw the amateur footage of an inhuman figure who was claiming to be not of this Earth. It was not a situation they were willing to sit out.
When they arrived above Seventh Avenue, they saw neither Miranda nor the alleged alien, just two oddly melted vehicles and a scattered crowd watching the sky. Ken landed on an apartment rooftop next to the memorial park.
“You hear her anywhere?” he asked.
Alyssa reached out, listening. Lots of minds around. Many noisy thoughts. Plenty of strong and vibrant feelings about this so-called Benevos. Nothing from Miranda.
“No,” she said. “But there is a lot of interference.”
Alyssa spotted a bag of clothes stashed in the far corner, undisturbed. Miranda’s clothes, she presumed.
I’ll need to grab that if— Alyssa hated herself for the thought. She’ll be back.
The crowd’s attention spiked and fingers shot skyward as a figure descended from the clouds. Only one. The alien slowed his descent and extended his three arms in a warm greeting.
“I apologize for that display,” he called down to the crowd, his smile spreading. “Some people, regrettably, choose to resist change even when it’s in their own best interests. I know many of you are smarter than that.”
Ken leapt off the roof and floated toward the alien. “Where’s Ultra Woman?”
Benevos met him in the middle, addressing Ken as though he were a cherished colleague. “Mr. Amazing. You always seemed like a sharp young human. I trust you’ll be more open-minded than your partner.”
“Where is she?”
Alyssa peered into Benevos’s mind for a more direct answer. Curious what an alien brain sounded like, she braced herself for a maze of extraterrestrial thoughts. But the mental terrain disappointed. The alien brain felt surprisingly ordinary.
“Where?” Ken pressed.
Benevos flattened his smile in a show of remorse. “She was not cooperating, so I had to throw her at the sun.”
“You … what?”
Alyssa heard the confusion and anger racing through her friend’s mind. Ken wanted to believe the alien was lying or at least embellishing. Miranda was tough and resourceful, but this guy … Ken had no idea what this guy could do. Benevos might have been powerful enough to hurt her. Maybe worse. Ken’s thoughts, much like Alyssa’s, went red.
Telekinesis tugged at the antennae while also squeezing the alien’s throat. Benevos sank to the street, then threw a sedan at Ken. It didn’t reach him—the vehicle stopped in midair, then boomeranged back to its thrower.
It didn’t hit Benevos either. The sedan crashed onto an abandoned truck, and the alien was now behind Ken, wrapping one arm around his torso and another around his neck while gripping the top of his head.
“I could have snapped your neck already,” Benevos said.
Alyssa knew he would. He possessed some scruples, enough to hesitate, but he was quickly rationalizing the deed. Alyssa was just close enough to put a stop to that. She locked onto his brain and unleashed her strongest mental blast.
Benevos winced and wriggled. He dropped Ken onto the windshield of a compact car, then floated toward Alyssa, his eyes and antennae twitching under the continued assault. He smoothed his expression into an irritated smile as his scruples faded.
“You are not welcome in my head.”
Alyssa wished she still had her teleporting watch and could disappear to the far side of the city, because Benevos had no intention of letting her live if there was any chance she had learned his secret.
... You have made Benevos... very hateable! 😱😆
Calling it now: he's actually just another super, not an alien, and he's using his strange appearance and abilities to try to intimidate people into going along with him.