Soon I Will Be Invincible
Page 29
Powers: strength, flight, armor
Source of Powers: armor of extraterrestrial origin
Notes: former mercenary; possible psychological deterioration
Laserator—“Professor of Peril”
Bio: Thwarted in his bid for tenure, a bitter astronomy lecturer turns his talents to evil.
Powers: energy manipulation, gravity beam
Source of Powers: focusing/reflecting device
Notes: subsequently reformed as legitimate scientist
Nick Napalm—“The Human Flamethrower”
Bio: A disturbed lawyer manifests a mutant ability to project flame, and finds a new purpose in life.
Powers: pyrokinetic flame projection, flame shield
Source of Powers: mutation
Notes: exhibits delusions of a religious nature; tentative diagnosis of schizophrenia
The Pharaoh (2)—“Ramses Returned”
Bio: When a young boy discovers a secret in the woods behind his housing development, he learns his life is connected to that of an ancient sovereign.
Powers: hand-to-hand weapon (Hammer of Ra), invincibility
Source of Powers: artifact (provenance unknown)
Notes: missing, presumed inactive; not to be confused with Pharaoh (1), former Super Squadron member
Phathom 5—“Secrets of the Deep”
Bio: A computer designed by a mad genius to further his schemes, develops a mind of its own.
Powers: weather and tidal prediction, molecular manipulation, limited prescience
Source of Powers: cybernetic construction
Notes: supercomputer developed by Doctor Impossible
Psychic Prime—“Man of the Future”
Bio: A man of unique talents is drafted by a far-future academy for psychics, only to flunk out and be returned to the present.
Powers: range of telepathic abilities
Source of Powers: psychic training academy
Notes: incipient alcoholic
Terrapin—“Connection Man”
Bio: A small-town stoner is gifted with strange abilities.
Powers: psychoactive projection, pharmacological arsenal
Source of Powers: unknown
Notes: exhibits kleptomania; possible supplier of ordnance to larger-scale operators
A SELECTIVE TIME LINE OF SUPERHUMAN HISTORY
140,000,000 B.C.
Baron Ether spends six years in the Cretaceous due to time-traveling accident.
147 B.C.
The Champions and Doctor Impossible intervene in Third Punic War.
A.D. 1674
Elphin is excluded from mass fairy emigration. 1907 First recorded appearance of Baron Ether.
1937
U.S. military begins secret super-soldier testing program.
1945
U.S. government founds the Department of Metahuman Affairs.
1946
Super Squadron founded—world’s first superteam.
1948
The Delinquent Five appear, world’s first supervillain team-up.
1968
Mentiac is constructed, escapes into sewer system.
1979
Super Squadron announce their retirement.
1979
Baron Ether retires, following arrest in the Senate building.
1984
Doctor Impossible creates his first Doomsday Device Mark I, the Termination Machine.
1984
The Champions are founded by Blackwolf, Damsel, and CoreFire.
1985
Galatea, Mister Mystic, Elphin, and Feral join the Champions.
1986
Doctor Impossible unleashes Antitron (Doomsday Device Mark II).
1989
Blackwolf and Damsel marry.
1990
Doctor Impossible concocts the Fungal Menace (Doomsday Device Mark III).
1992
Doctor Impossible decants the Gray Goo (Doomsday Device Mark IV).
1996
Champions defend Earth in the Titan incident; death of Galatea.
1997
The Champions disband.
1998
Blackwolf and Damsel file for divorce.
2004
Doctor Impossible releases the insidious Meta-Metavirus (Doomsday Device Mark V).
2004
Doctor Impossible experiences his twelfth defeat and incarceration.
2006
CoreFire disappears.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Marty Asher, Zachary Wagman, and the team at Pantheon and Vintage.
I’m indebted to Julie Barer; Jami Bartlett, evil genius; Tina Bennett; Lev Grossman; Talissa Ford; Judith Grossman; Jennifer Jackson; Luke Janklow; Don Korycansky, who really did figure out how to move the Earth; Rowland White. Also thanks to Tom Farber, Bharati Mukherjee, and Jim Shepard for their wonderful fiction workshops. And to Marka Knight, for innumerable corrections and improvements—from nit-picking style points to basic premises of plot and character—and rescuing the entire project on at least two occasions.
And friends and family for support and encouragement throughout.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Austin Grossman is a video-game design consultant and a doctoral candidate in English Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where he specializes in Romantic and Victorian literature. He lives in Berkeley.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2007 by Austin Grossman
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grossman, Austin, [date]
Soon I will be invincible / Austin Grossman.
p. cm.
1. Heroes—Fiction. 2. Good and evil—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3607.R666S66 2007 813'.6—dc22 2006033296
www.pantheonbooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-375-42520-2
v3.0