Chapter 8 - Nova & Atlas
Part I Fire... a wonderful and scary thing.
What if you were fire? If it was barely contained within you? If you knew that becoming angry, or even too happy, could cause the flames within you to burst out?
Would you like my power?
I am Nova.
Ever since the Meta change hit me I have learned a new kind of calm. Even before Psyche found me I was withdrawing from normal human contact. You have heard about that day right? I freaked... things burned... it really was a nice building.
Had kinda hoped that the weird job offer I was hearing about might be something out in the middle of nowhere. Antarctica would have been nice.
I almost turned Speed into a cinder. Felt really bad about that. Total accident. Everybody says it was not my fault.
My power is what we of Olympus call an Anti-Social. If I were playing for any of the other sides of the game I would be a Destructor. When I fight the landscape suffers.
I envy people like Geo, Apollo, or even Speed who can control their powers so precisely. Point a gun a Speed and he will take it away from you, disassemble it and lay it neatly at your feet.
If you point a gun at me I have two choices. I can burn your hand off or I can intensify my shield enough to stop the bullet. When I do the latter anything flammable within fifty feet will burst into flame... including people.
I have a reputation. I am sure, mostly sure anyway, that the majority of my rep is because of how my powers work. I do not play well with others and that is a fact. The truth, I have caused a massive amount of destruction during my time in the field. But I believe that what I did saved lives so I am content.
Some of my rep though is because of something else. I have to control my emotions you see. Anything beyond a monotone existence is not acceptable. I do not have sex. The Tech guys and girls are working on it but I am not hopeful.
I can project fire from any part of my body. Think about it.
Since I have this constant flow of power within me I find I have to let a little of it out. So most of the time my eyebrows are on fire. I do not even notice it anymore but it does freak people out. I do like that part. I admit it freely.
But.
Since I have to control my feelings I have to live like a freaking monk most of the time. When I have to fight I cut loose. I laugh, I scream, I allow myself to enjoy my life and my fire.
I light up the sky. I burn and I kill and I love every moment of it.
I know... I freaking know ok that I am doing terrible things. I am killing, ok I said it, I know it. It is my only release and I take complete advantage of every single moment.
This life picked me, this power picked me, I am just trying to live with it. Don't judge me because you cannot understand what it means to be me.
When I am allowed to be by people I consider the good guys, I am a Destructor. I destroy to do good and I like it. Does that make me a boy?
Part II It is hard to be taken seriously as a SuperHero when the whole world has seen you naked.
The first time my power activated I was in downtown Santa Barbara, CA. I grew to 40 feet in height. My clothes did not grow with me.
I panicked. What would you do?
I ran. Well sort of stepped carefully would be more accurate. Accidents happened all around me, my fault of course, but I did not step on anything, or anybody. Each building I passed brought a new chorus of screams. I guess seeing a huge head outside their window was a bit much for some people.
Feeling scared and a little dizzy I made it out of the center of town. I was getting close to the eastern forest when the chopper found me. A news crew with a camera and a spotlight.
The fact that I was naked dawned on me finally and I looked for some way to cover up. A rather large U.S. flag caught my eye and it was soon wrapped around me like a towel. The people in the copter were shouting questions at me the whole time. I guess I could have talked to them, but I just wanted to get away.
Again I ran and this time I mean ran. The earth shook but I covered a lot of distance in a very short amount of time. I have since learned at that size I can do better than 70 mph.
The forest loomed before me. Trees which had always seemed huge looked like models. I mean there were plenty that were taller than me, but still, the scale was just wrong. It was going to be tough to hide, even in there.
I need to get back to my normal size, I have to. I thought that to myself rather intently and it worked. Not smoothly, first down to 20, then 12, then what I thought was my normal 6'. Again, later I learned my normal height was now 6' 2".
Into the forest I ran, the flag left in a puddle behind me. Felt bad about that, you are not supposed to let that flag hit the ground. I heard they did not burn it, it went to a lab somewhere and still exists. I should buy it.
I kept moving for a couple of hours, afraid they would be searching for me. I found some old tee-shirts and managed to cover myself a little. Around 3 am I made my way home. Despite my paranoid fears there was no one watching my apartment.
Home, Shower, Clothes, oh yes.
I packed a couple of bags never really thought about doing anything but running. I read science fiction when weird things happen people get turned into lab rats. A note to my landlord requesting that he have my utilities turned off and I was gone.
Sequential visits to different ATMs cleared out my bank account and I headed south. There are places in the Baja where you can loose yourself and I intended to do just that. Dye my hair blond, let my whiskers grow, find some time to think.
What the f--- had happened to me?
Maybe I am crazy. You will never know how frightened that thought made me when it hit. I mean come on, I 'grew' to 40 feet tall and ran around Santa Barbara with my johnson hanging out?
Delusional. oh god. That makes sense. Are you supposed to know you are crazy?
I was 6 hours away from home and a motel was handy. I stopped, got a room under a fake name and plopped down on the bed.
Now I want to pause here just so you understand. I had convinced myself that I was ill. It made sense, it explained why no one had found me... no one was looking. I was still freaked out but I had accepted my illness and was determined to go home and get help.
Then I turned on the TV and saw myself.
40' tall and running towards the forest.
oh. my. god.
That flag had not covered me nearly as well as I thought it had.
I grew.
Through the roof, it hurt, I kept growing until I was again 40 feet tall.
"Damn!" I swore out loud. This was the first time I had spoken at my full size and the sound of it was impressive. Deep, strong, me but I had never sounded that powerful before.
Before I decided I was crazy I had prepared for this event. I had to rip the bags apart because I could not work the zippers but the tarps did the job. Along with some rope I had at least a basic set of shorts.
Ah, yeah, there were about twenty people staring up at me when I was finished. They just looked. I reached down and gathered all my gear in one hand and stepped out of the ruin of a room.
"Sorry about that.” I rumbled as I walked away.
"No problem man." was the rather shaky reply.
I got clear again and managed to force myself to shrink.
Now I know what you are thinking. Why did I not just calm down and shrink back at the motel. I could have driven away. Remember what I paused to tell you? Going from thinking you are crazy to knowing you are some superpowered freak is bound to play havoc with your thinking processes. It sure as hell did with mine.
My first thought when I hit full size was... damn I'm hanging out again. So I did what I had to do to deal with that.
After that I managed to avoid major shocks to my system until I could learn to control my changes. Today I can attain any height from my now normal 6' 2" up to 40 feet. My strength increases more than you would expect to compensate for my weight. When I am full sized I am every bit as strong as Thor. Ok maybe not quite but close.
I really did not have much choice but to head to Olympus. The authorities were looking for me they just reacted very slowly. Olympus is a cool place and I hope you can visit some day. My only problem: I never wanted to be a Hero.
A little training was ok. There are some people here who helped me get my control locked down. After that I told them I did not know what I wanted to do. I was surprised when they said that was fine.
Nice place to live and a little money. Wonder if I am supposed to talk about that or not? Well if not they can edit it out. Just for living at Olympus and not killing innocent people MetaHumans get a yearly salary of $100,000. That is on top of a free place to live. I have a special house with an extra-large wing.
If you join a combat team, or PsiInt, or do anything like that, you make more. I thought 100 grand and an apartment was pretty cool. The house came later.
But the bad stuff started to happen. Philadelphia. What can I say, I mourn along with everyone else. Tens of thousands died, so much of American history lost.
I signed up. Whatever they wanted me to do I was ready.
Some more training -- drill instructors sheesh.
Assignment to a combat team was fairly quick. And that is when the jokes began. Don't get me wrong there is a bond between myself and my teammates that is stronger than blood.
They called me 'swinger' from day one and nobody would tell me why. They were the most awesome, I mean freaking awesome, group of men and women I had ever met. They lived in a world I did not even know about. I thought I did but I was so wrong.
Power controlled and laser accurate. Eight people, coordinated, tight, it is a joy to be with them. We save lives and we kick ass -- it does not suck.
But they kept calling me swinger.
One day it just hit me wrong, I did not care if it was a test, I did not care why they would not tell me. I grew to 40' and slammed both fists down on either side of one of my teammates.
"Tell me why the f--- you guys call me that!" I roared.
My friend was shaken, smiling, nothing wipes that grin off his face, but shaken.
"Because my tall friend... in all the history of the world... no one has ever swung as big a pair as you."
I laughed, I shrunk down and laughed until I cried.
The name Atlas was chosen for me but I like it. I am no god but I do my best.
Nova & Atlas MetaWar Chapter Nine MetaWar Chapter Five MetaWar Chapter Six MetaWar Chapter Seven