(no subject)
A little note:
The science/physics at the end of this chapter are probably a bit dubious. Please remember, I am writing for speed, not accuracy. I will check all these things this spring when I edit this bad boy.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Chase got hit with a lightpole. Adam caught him across the chest and sent him reeling across the street. It hurt like hell, but there was a tiny part of Chase that couldn’t believe how awesome it was that he had just been hit with a lightpole. For a moment, he hoped that there was a dumpster he would be able to pick up and throw at Adam Hulk-style. He thought about how cool and old-school ‘lamp post vs. dumpster’ fight would be. Then, he was jarred back to reality.
He slammed into the brick façade of the building across the street, leaving an inch deep Chase-shaped depression in the wall. He pushed himself out of the hole and back onto his feet, shaking bits of stone from his hair and clothes.
Adam rushed him, lightpole up over his head like a samurai sword. As cool as it had been in theory, Chase wasn’t sure he could take another hit. He strode forward several feet and planted himself. He concentrated on Adam’s rushing form and, once again, everything began to slow down. Chase stayed completely still, hoping that if he didn’t move, Adam wouldn’t notice he was using Super-Speed.
Chase watched as Adam crept his way closer and closer. Once Adam was within a few feet, to close to increase his speed to match Chase’s, Chase took one large step to his left and raised both fists above his head, ready to give an old fashioned hammer drop to the back of Adam’s head.
Adam inched past Chase, just starting to turn his head to look at where Chase had stepped. Chase brought both his arms down as hard as he could. He connected solidly with the back of Adam’s skull. Everything rushed back to full-speed as Chase slowed down to view his handiwork.
Adam’s forward momentum had stopped exactly where Chase had clocked him. He was planted, face first, two or three inches into the sidewalk. Chase put two fingers to Adam’s neck and checked for a pulse. He found one and let out a relieved sigh. He yanked Adam’s out of the concrete and laid him on his back. He looked at a girl watching from the store in front of which he had put Adam down and shouted, “Call an ambulance, please.” The startled girl just watched him. He stepped up to the window and shouted again, “Please, call an ambulance.”
The girl’s eyes went wide with fright. Chase put his hands up and said, “I’m not the bad guy. I’m not going to hurt you.” The girl nodded slowly, then pointed over Chase’s shoulder. Chase looked at the reflection of the street in the window just in time to see Adam rearing back for one hell of a haymaker.
“Aw, fu…” was all Chase managed before Adam’s fist smashed into the small of his back, sending him head first through the store’s plate glass window. He blacked out from the pain but not before he grabbed the shopgirl and tried to shield her from the shards of glass.
Chase woke up to a rough, painful choking. He was one his back. Adam was above him, both hands wrapped around Chase’s throat. In his peripheral vision, he could see the shopgirl, bloodied but breathing, lying just next to him. He knew he had to put an end to this fight before anyone else got hurt. He tried to speed up again to give himself some sort of advantage.
Nothing happened outside of a yawning hunger springing up in his stomach. He grabbed at Adam’s wrists and tried to pry his hands away. He didn’t feel as if he were running out of air, so he wasn’t sure he was in danger of asphixiating, but the pain was mounting and he was pretty sure that, if push came to shove, Adam was strong enough to snap his neck.
Adam’s grip was too solid for Chase to break, so he switched tactics. He focused on the weightless feeling he had gotten in his stomach when he had flown. It was hard for him to focus with the grinding pain in his neck, but he started to feel the strange upward pull after a moment. He gave into it completely and he and Adam fell straight up, through the ceiling of the shop and into the air above the city.
The view as they rocketed skyward was incredible. Off to the east was the expanse of Lake Michigan. From their altitude, Chase could clearly see the Michigan coastline. Or he could, until Adam’s cape began flapping in his face. He realized that Adam’s grip on his throat had loosened completely. He concentrated on spinning over so he was carrying Adam from above. He twirled gracefully. He continued upward, now dragging Adam’s unconscious body with him.
After a minute, Chase’s breath began to crystallize as soon as he exhaled. The sky was starting to blacken around the edges. He figured he was far enough from civilization to risk waking Adam up. He shook Adam’s entire body. After a couple vigorous shakes, Adam slowly regained consciousness.
“Wha…where…” Adam groggily looked around. He reflexively grabbed Chase’s arms when he realized just where they were. He squealed in terror briefly, then caught himself. He let go of Chase’s arms and started struggling to get free.
“Let it go, Adam,” Chase said. “I was stronger than you before these powers. Our strength still seems to be relative, so I’m stronger than you now.”
“I will not be deafeated by you, villain,” Adam shouted as he continued to struggle.
“I am not your villain, Adam,” Chase hollered. “And there’s no one else up here to hear your bravado, so just knock it off.”
Adam ceased struggling. “Fine,” he said, dejectedly, “just get it over with, then. Hurl me into the sun or beat me to death with your own hands, whatever, just do it.”
“I’m not going to hurl you into the sun,” Chase said, incredulous. Then he added, “Do you think I could do that?” He shook his head and focused on Adam. “Look, I just wanted to get you away from innocent bystanders and calm you down.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt anyone other than you,” Adam said, sulkily.
“Oh, really,” Chase replied. “What about the cab driver?”
“I pulled him from the car AS IT WAS CRASHING, Chase. I saved him a split-second before he even needed to be saved. The gash on his head was from his own flailing once I had him safe.”
“He wouldn’t have been in danger of…being in danger…whatever, if it hadn’t been for you in the first place. And the girl, in the shop, when you knocked me through that window.”
“She was fine. Unconscious, but fine.” Adam looked up at Chase, “She was pretty. Why can’t you go after her?”
“This isn’t about dating, Adam. This is about you blowing things up. Knocking things over. Destroying things. This is about you being dangerous.” Chase took a deep breath, and finished, “And I like Lydia.”
“She’s mine,” Adam pouted. He crossed his arms as Chase held him, dangling, by his armpits. “These powers are all for her.”
“Adam, man, look. I am not trying to steal Lydia,” Chase said.
“Liar,” Adam said through gritted teeth. “I heard you talking to Robert. She kissed you. She probably thinks you saved her from that white-suited buffoon.”
“How’d you hear us…wait, do we have Super-Hearing?”
“Yes, you imbecile. And X-Ray Vision, Telescopic Vision, Micro Vision, Super-Olfactory, and a crude Radarsense. Not even as good as the special effects in DAREDEVIL, but useful, notheless.” Adam looked up at Chase, “Didn’t you spend any time figuring out what you could do?”
“I’ve been a little busy,” Chase said.
“Stealing my girlfriend,” Adam countered, pointedly.
“She isn’t your girlfriend, Adam. And she isn’t mine.”
“You can let me go now, Chase,”Adam said. “I’m willing to talk.”
Chase looked Adam in the eye. It was no use - Chase never had been able to tell when Adam was lying. He doubted even Adam knew when Adam was lying. He lied all the time. He lied about things he had done, things he knew, things he owned. He was a liar to his core, but in a sad, hurt way as opposed to an evil genius sort of way. Chase thought about all of this and let Adam go.
Adam dropped a few feet but quickly began bobbing in the air. He rose up to eye level with Chase. “She isn’t my girlfriend yet, Chase,” he said.
“Okay, okay, point conceded,” Chase said, putting his hands up. “but, you have to accept that she is going to like who she is going to like. You can’t change that.”
“Did you know that I think our flight power is actually a focused gravity manipulation power,” Adam non-sequitored. “I think that what we actually do is alter the strength and warp the direction of gravity in a very localized area. It allows us to ‘fall’ upward or forward at a controlled rate.” Adam dropped down a few feet, as if to illustrate his point.
“Yeah, okay, makes sense, I guess,” Chase shrugged.
“The thing is, the weakness, if you will, is that it would seem we need a fairly powerful source of gravity nearby in order to gain momentum of any sort.” Adam quickly thrust upward with his whole body, swinging a fist into Chase’s midsection with all his strength.
Chase, wind knocked out of him, hurtled upward, out of the atmosphere and into the inky blackness of space. He felt heat on his back as he reached escape velocity. Adam had punched him hard. His midsection throbbed with pain.
As the sound of rushing wind began to die away, there being no wind to rush through, he heard, faintly, Adam’s voice from somewhere below him. “She can’t want someone who’s disappeared after being outed as a terrorist, Chase. Oh, how distraught she’ll be when she hears what a bad, bad man you really were.”
The science/physics at the end of this chapter are probably a bit dubious. Please remember, I am writing for speed, not accuracy. I will check all these things this spring when I edit this bad boy.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Chase got hit with a lightpole. Adam caught him across the chest and sent him reeling across the street. It hurt like hell, but there was a tiny part of Chase that couldn’t believe how awesome it was that he had just been hit with a lightpole. For a moment, he hoped that there was a dumpster he would be able to pick up and throw at Adam Hulk-style. He thought about how cool and old-school ‘lamp post vs. dumpster’ fight would be. Then, he was jarred back to reality.
He slammed into the brick façade of the building across the street, leaving an inch deep Chase-shaped depression in the wall. He pushed himself out of the hole and back onto his feet, shaking bits of stone from his hair and clothes.
Adam rushed him, lightpole up over his head like a samurai sword. As cool as it had been in theory, Chase wasn’t sure he could take another hit. He strode forward several feet and planted himself. He concentrated on Adam’s rushing form and, once again, everything began to slow down. Chase stayed completely still, hoping that if he didn’t move, Adam wouldn’t notice he was using Super-Speed.
Chase watched as Adam crept his way closer and closer. Once Adam was within a few feet, to close to increase his speed to match Chase’s, Chase took one large step to his left and raised both fists above his head, ready to give an old fashioned hammer drop to the back of Adam’s head.
Adam inched past Chase, just starting to turn his head to look at where Chase had stepped. Chase brought both his arms down as hard as he could. He connected solidly with the back of Adam’s skull. Everything rushed back to full-speed as Chase slowed down to view his handiwork.
Adam’s forward momentum had stopped exactly where Chase had clocked him. He was planted, face first, two or three inches into the sidewalk. Chase put two fingers to Adam’s neck and checked for a pulse. He found one and let out a relieved sigh. He yanked Adam’s out of the concrete and laid him on his back. He looked at a girl watching from the store in front of which he had put Adam down and shouted, “Call an ambulance, please.” The startled girl just watched him. He stepped up to the window and shouted again, “Please, call an ambulance.”
The girl’s eyes went wide with fright. Chase put his hands up and said, “I’m not the bad guy. I’m not going to hurt you.” The girl nodded slowly, then pointed over Chase’s shoulder. Chase looked at the reflection of the street in the window just in time to see Adam rearing back for one hell of a haymaker.
“Aw, fu…” was all Chase managed before Adam’s fist smashed into the small of his back, sending him head first through the store’s plate glass window. He blacked out from the pain but not before he grabbed the shopgirl and tried to shield her from the shards of glass.
Chase woke up to a rough, painful choking. He was one his back. Adam was above him, both hands wrapped around Chase’s throat. In his peripheral vision, he could see the shopgirl, bloodied but breathing, lying just next to him. He knew he had to put an end to this fight before anyone else got hurt. He tried to speed up again to give himself some sort of advantage.
Nothing happened outside of a yawning hunger springing up in his stomach. He grabbed at Adam’s wrists and tried to pry his hands away. He didn’t feel as if he were running out of air, so he wasn’t sure he was in danger of asphixiating, but the pain was mounting and he was pretty sure that, if push came to shove, Adam was strong enough to snap his neck.
Adam’s grip was too solid for Chase to break, so he switched tactics. He focused on the weightless feeling he had gotten in his stomach when he had flown. It was hard for him to focus with the grinding pain in his neck, but he started to feel the strange upward pull after a moment. He gave into it completely and he and Adam fell straight up, through the ceiling of the shop and into the air above the city.
The view as they rocketed skyward was incredible. Off to the east was the expanse of Lake Michigan. From their altitude, Chase could clearly see the Michigan coastline. Or he could, until Adam’s cape began flapping in his face. He realized that Adam’s grip on his throat had loosened completely. He concentrated on spinning over so he was carrying Adam from above. He twirled gracefully. He continued upward, now dragging Adam’s unconscious body with him.
After a minute, Chase’s breath began to crystallize as soon as he exhaled. The sky was starting to blacken around the edges. He figured he was far enough from civilization to risk waking Adam up. He shook Adam’s entire body. After a couple vigorous shakes, Adam slowly regained consciousness.
“Wha…where…” Adam groggily looked around. He reflexively grabbed Chase’s arms when he realized just where they were. He squealed in terror briefly, then caught himself. He let go of Chase’s arms and started struggling to get free.
“Let it go, Adam,” Chase said. “I was stronger than you before these powers. Our strength still seems to be relative, so I’m stronger than you now.”
“I will not be deafeated by you, villain,” Adam shouted as he continued to struggle.
“I am not your villain, Adam,” Chase hollered. “And there’s no one else up here to hear your bravado, so just knock it off.”
Adam ceased struggling. “Fine,” he said, dejectedly, “just get it over with, then. Hurl me into the sun or beat me to death with your own hands, whatever, just do it.”
“I’m not going to hurl you into the sun,” Chase said, incredulous. Then he added, “Do you think I could do that?” He shook his head and focused on Adam. “Look, I just wanted to get you away from innocent bystanders and calm you down.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt anyone other than you,” Adam said, sulkily.
“Oh, really,” Chase replied. “What about the cab driver?”
“I pulled him from the car AS IT WAS CRASHING, Chase. I saved him a split-second before he even needed to be saved. The gash on his head was from his own flailing once I had him safe.”
“He wouldn’t have been in danger of…being in danger…whatever, if it hadn’t been for you in the first place. And the girl, in the shop, when you knocked me through that window.”
“She was fine. Unconscious, but fine.” Adam looked up at Chase, “She was pretty. Why can’t you go after her?”
“This isn’t about dating, Adam. This is about you blowing things up. Knocking things over. Destroying things. This is about you being dangerous.” Chase took a deep breath, and finished, “And I like Lydia.”
“She’s mine,” Adam pouted. He crossed his arms as Chase held him, dangling, by his armpits. “These powers are all for her.”
“Adam, man, look. I am not trying to steal Lydia,” Chase said.
“Liar,” Adam said through gritted teeth. “I heard you talking to Robert. She kissed you. She probably thinks you saved her from that white-suited buffoon.”
“How’d you hear us…wait, do we have Super-Hearing?”
“Yes, you imbecile. And X-Ray Vision, Telescopic Vision, Micro Vision, Super-Olfactory, and a crude Radarsense. Not even as good as the special effects in DAREDEVIL, but useful, notheless.” Adam looked up at Chase, “Didn’t you spend any time figuring out what you could do?”
“I’ve been a little busy,” Chase said.
“Stealing my girlfriend,” Adam countered, pointedly.
“She isn’t your girlfriend, Adam. And she isn’t mine.”
“You can let me go now, Chase,”Adam said. “I’m willing to talk.”
Chase looked Adam in the eye. It was no use - Chase never had been able to tell when Adam was lying. He doubted even Adam knew when Adam was lying. He lied all the time. He lied about things he had done, things he knew, things he owned. He was a liar to his core, but in a sad, hurt way as opposed to an evil genius sort of way. Chase thought about all of this and let Adam go.
Adam dropped a few feet but quickly began bobbing in the air. He rose up to eye level with Chase. “She isn’t my girlfriend yet, Chase,” he said.
“Okay, okay, point conceded,” Chase said, putting his hands up. “but, you have to accept that she is going to like who she is going to like. You can’t change that.”
“Did you know that I think our flight power is actually a focused gravity manipulation power,” Adam non-sequitored. “I think that what we actually do is alter the strength and warp the direction of gravity in a very localized area. It allows us to ‘fall’ upward or forward at a controlled rate.” Adam dropped down a few feet, as if to illustrate his point.
“Yeah, okay, makes sense, I guess,” Chase shrugged.
“The thing is, the weakness, if you will, is that it would seem we need a fairly powerful source of gravity nearby in order to gain momentum of any sort.” Adam quickly thrust upward with his whole body, swinging a fist into Chase’s midsection with all his strength.
Chase, wind knocked out of him, hurtled upward, out of the atmosphere and into the inky blackness of space. He felt heat on his back as he reached escape velocity. Adam had punched him hard. His midsection throbbed with pain.
As the sound of rushing wind began to die away, there being no wind to rush through, he heard, faintly, Adam’s voice from somewhere below him. “She can’t want someone who’s disappeared after being outed as a terrorist, Chase. Oh, how distraught she’ll be when she hears what a bad, bad man you really were.”