“That’s awesome!” said Bonnie, spooning Lisa, “Lisa’s always like that. You can count on her to step in whenever there’s a problem. I’m lucky to have her!”
As Bonnie walked back to her register, Lisa smiled dimly.
“Your friend’s right,” said Helen, “I can’t thank you enough. I just have to wonder something.”
“What’s that?”
“Well not to pry, but if you’re a pre-med, then what are you doing here?”
“Well, that’s kind of a sore spot.”
“Okay. I’m sorry. It’s just that you can do so much better. Last night at the hospital we were watching that Ms. Infinity. You saw that, right?”
“Um, well…?”
“That is totally you! You are Ms. Infinity!”
Lisa tried her best to smile. “Thanks Helen. Really. Thanks.”
Bonnie returned to her register, her creeping nerves now tempered by thoughts of admiration.
“Hi Bonnie!” said a pleasant voice. Bonnie’s eyes lit up as Hal loaded a few small items onto the conveyer belt.
“Well hello Hal!” said Bonnie warmly.
“So, what are you up to?” said Hal.
“Oh, you know, mostly this. I mean, what else have I got, right?”
“Well I don’t know. So, you’re not working on anything else?
Bonnie suddenly became nervous, “Like…what else? I mean, what else could I be doing?”
“You know,” said Hal, “Like do you go to college or anything? I mean, not to pry…”
“Oh!” said Bonnie, “That’s alright. I have my Associates. I think about maybe going back one day. I don’t know. I’m kind of thinking about a lot of things right now?”
“I wonder if it’s right to ask…are you in a relationship?”
Bonnie saw Hal’s nervous face and smiled. “I don’t have a boyfriend. No. I’ve been working on myself.”
“Well I’m sure you have to work a lot of hours. It’s expensive living here.”
“Actually, I live with my mom.”
“Oh. Sorry,” said Hal. “I guess I was being presumptuous. I actually live with my parents too.”
“It’s okay,” said Bonnie.
“I mean, I want to get out once I get good work. I have a degree in…”
“My mom’s always bugging me!” interrupted Bonnie, “I know how it is! Believe me! I just don’t have much of a direction.”
“I guess I understand,” said Hal smiling, “For me it’s not that. You see, I’m looking for…”
“She never lets up either! Even where I am active, all my projects, she has something to say about. I mean, damn, is there anything she doesn’t criticize?”
“Oh,” said Hal, “Anything in particular?”
Bonnie paused. “Well, it’s complicated.”
“I wish I had something complicated,” said Hal, “I’m trying. You see, my goal…”
“Just whatever I do, my mom just thinks I can’t take care of myself! I mean, believe me! I CAN take care of myself.”
“You know something?” said Hal, “I believe you!”
“Well thank you!” said Bonnie.
They looked at each other for a moment. Then Bonnie turned away and closed the sale. Hal collected himself. “Well, nice talking to you, Bonnie.”
“You too, Hal.”
Bonnie watched Hal leave longingly. She was thinking about him more and more. She wondered if he liked her as much as she liked him.
In a small classroom at City College, Professor Betty Boring began her freshman class with Amy, her T.A. Amy assisted in managing the large group. Together with Betty, she collected their homework, and corralled them to their seats. Amy then commanded silence.
“Everyone,” said Betty, “I understand that with summer classes, things move a little fast. I also understand that physics can be overwhelming for many. If you have any questions, this is an excellent time. So, our last lesson was about acceleration…”
“Professor Boring,” said Ernesto, “What is mean by per second per second? I mean, why do you say that twice? Do you really like saying ‘per second?’”
“Well, not that much, dear. I’m glad you brought that up, though. That’s what’s meant by acceleration. It’s a change in movement. For instance, if something is speeding up, then the first ‘per second’ is how much speed it’s gaining, and the second per second is each second that it gains.”
Betty took to the dry erase board and began to draw a diagram. “Okay, so take gravity. Things that fall gain 9.8 meters per second per second. An object starts at nothing, but each second, it gains another 9.8 meters per second. Does that make sense?”
“Professor Boring?” asked Denise, “I have a question. Since you bring up gravity, how is Ms. Infinity able to fly? Does gravity not work on her?”
Betty looked uncomfortably at Amy, then turned to the class, “Well, I don’t know if…”
“Actually,” said April, “My mother has been saying that she’s the devil. It makes sense, right?”
“What?” said Betty with a start, “Why is that?”
“Well, I mean, doesn’t it?”
Betty’s face went flush. She sat down on her desk, finding it difficult to keep her composure.
“Hey!” said Deanna, “Don’t say that! I think she’s awesome! She’s totally my hero!”
“She’s evil!” said April.
“She saved a school bus. How is that evil?”
“Read the Bible!”
“Listen all,” said Amy, “Everyone has a right to their religious beliefs. However, even many religious people are also scientists. We use scientific method. We make theories. We test them. We come to conclusions. We do this so we don’t make rash assumptions that can lead to dangerous actions. I think Professor Boring could say more about that.”
Betty picked up her head right on cue. “Uh yes! So please, let’s not jump to conclusions about what we don’t know.”
“But how does she fly?” asked Yaakov.
“She doesn’t fly,” said Amy.
“It sure looked like she was flying!” said Mahmood.
“It has to be some kind of illusion,” said Amy, “Sooner or later she is going to be exposed.”
Betty was nearly frozen. It seemed like any moment she might be cornered by questions that she had no choice but to answer dishonestly. For the time being, she flashed her safest, most polite smile, hoping it looked natural enough to avoid detection.
“So, you think she faked the whole thing?” asked Denise.
“I’m sure of it,” said Amy, “You’d be surprised how easily our eyes can be fooled. I’m sure Professor Boring would agree. If superpowers were actually possible, then I’m sure she would be flying to work every day. But she can’t fly, and neither can anyone, even the young woman who is calling herself Ms. Infinity, whoever she is, right professor?”
Betty tried desperately to keep her expression from revealing what was, by now, a deep discomfort. She answered demurely, “I also don’t have a fancy costume.”
The class laughed, several whispering to each other about the thought of their petite professor flying in a superhero costume. Amy laughed along with them.
“In the meantime,” said Betty, “This is freshman class. I do think we have to get back to studying the basics.”
With some difficulty, Betty and Amy managed to redirect their class to the material. When the class finally left, Amy debriefed with Betty.
“Wow!” said Amy, “It’s funny. Only a couple of weeks ago, I was taking your daughter to Comic Con. I never thought we’d be talking about this kind of thing in class. I wonder what Bonnie would have to say.”
Betty drew a deep breath. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
8. This Time from Space
The next day, Bonnie sat with her mother in her bedroom, discussing her next move.
“You see,” said Bonnie, “all I’ve done so far is react to an accident. Of course, I don’t regret sa
ving lives, but I’ve got much more to do here. So far, I have done nothing about Johnny Gunn.”
“But what exactly do you expect to do? I hope you’re not looking at him and thinking “supervillain.” He’s a citizen, protected by the law, just like you and me. And honey, you certainly should not break the law.”
“No. I won’t. Damn, this game is a lot easier for the bad guys. Gunn obviously doesn’t care. His security checkpoints tear right through the constitution.”
“Bonnie, this is all making me very nervous. Whatever you do, please watch out for yourself. Really, I’m starting to worry about you.”
“Aw Mom, what do you really think is going to happen?”
“Don’t you see the danger? You have people who hate you.”
“Mom, I really don’t think it’s so bad.”
Betty looked at Bonnie gravely. Bonnie tried to stare her down, but she could not help but flinch at the same time, betraying a growing case of the nerves. They might have launched into an argument, but they were interrupted by a breaking story on the TV news.
Bonnie watched intently. The first manned test of the Space Launch rocket was in distress in reentry. It had entered at a wrong angle, and was suffering from poor shields. The ship was now about to burn up. It seemed certain that all seven astronauts on board would die.
“Got this!” declared Bonnie. She put her hands on her hips and called out, “Infinite Power!” An instant later, there was a puff of smoke, and she changed into Ms. Infinity.
“Off I go!” she announced as she made for her closet and escape hatch.
Betty watched in concern. “’Got this,’ she says. Sure. She’s got this. But once again, she leaves the worrying up to me.”
Ms. Infinity flew out far into the heavens. Though she had to dodge many planes, and later much space junk, she did so at a dizzying speed, and her flash across the sky made short work of the depth of Earth’s atmosphere. A brief moment later, she was orbiting in the Thermosphere, hundreds of miles above Earth. The air at this level was very thin, the density so slight, that one could scarcely feel that the temperatures were thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. There was absolute silence as she shot across the darkness.
She scanned the vastness of space with her super senses, seeking the ship amidst much debris. Soon she saw the distressed spacecraft. At first glance, it seemed almost like a meteorite. Desperate it seemed, a fiery mess, collapsing a great distance toward its certain grave.
On board, the astronauts scrambled. As their predicament rapidly worsened, they did their best to cope with their fading hopes.
“We’ve lost radio contact!” shouted Miguel Cielo.
“I think there’s no way around it,” said Ben Himmell, “We’re going down.”
Lily Pride turned away from the radio to join her colleagues at the controls. “Anything else we could do?”
“Nothing I can think of. Looks like our only hope is a miracle,” said Ben.
“My dear colleagues,” said the captain, “You have all been extremely brave, and wonderful astronauts in every way. I have been honored to have you as my crew. Just know that if I never say anything else. That, and I pray that Megan remembers that I love her.”
“What are we doing about that miracle?” insisted Lily.
“You are stubborn!” said the captain, “Well I respect that. I just don’t know what we could…”
“Am I seeing things?” cried John Siel as he looked at the radar, “Is there somebody coming?”
“What do you mean?” said the captain, “We’re all in here…where is anyone coming from?”
“I don’t know who. I don’t how. I’d just say that somehow, there’s someone out there!” said John, “Look! On the radar! Getting closer too!”
“I can’t imagine!” said Lily, “But I’ll take whatever hope there is left.”
“If I’m delirious,” said John, “Then the worst thing I can say is that I’ll go down delirious.”
Beneath the burning spacecraft, suddenly there was not merely hope but salvation. The young superhero arrived in seconds, her awesome powers on hand to save the day.
The ship was falling at hypersonic speed, approaching twenty thousand miles per hour, yet this alone posed little challenge for a mighty heroine who could travel faster than the speed of light. She whisked after the plummeting conveyance like a flash of lightening. Then, with a dramatic motion, she hooked under the hull of the ship above her, placed herself on the nose, and held forth. Between her awesome will and her titanic strength, she quickly slowed the vessel down to its normal approach speed.
She now had to stop it from burning. Since the fire was too great for her freeze breath to counter, there was only one other alternative. She had to use her body to absorb the heat.
But she had not considered everything, and she soon discovered another consequence of planting herself beneath the hull. Not only was the vessel’s scorching frame directly above her, but she was also in the midst of the superheated plasma created by the ship’s reentry. Slowly the realization came to her of what she had gotten herself into. She was now in a climate of more than 20,000 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature extreme even for her alien constitution.
This was perhaps the first time since her first landing on Earth that she was tested physically to this limit. It now became clear to her that her own life might well be at risk. As her body absorbed the intense heat, increasingly she was feeling scalded all over, and she could do little to forget the constant torment upon her body.
A part of her wanted to fly away. The physical strain became worse by the second. Her body seemed to beg her endlessly for a mercy that would never come. Yet she held ever to her sense of duty. After what seemed like an eternity of agony on her mind, body and spirit, the ship was finally no longer aflame, and she let go. But even as she finally floated some distance away, she was on fire herself.
Her very survival was uncertain. Not only was she enduring the extreme temperature, but her large reserve of oxygen—her lifeline for surviving in space—was being burned off. She could not keep this up much longer.
Aboard the ship, confusion reigned.
“Uh, yes I am delirious,” said John.
“Be careful what you say,” said the captain, “Any words could be your last.”
“Maybe, but we’ve just stabilized again. I can’t imagine how! It’s almost as if something picked us up, or someone!”
“You were right,” said Lily, “You are delirious.”
“Actually, he’s right,” said Ben, “We have stabilized. The fire is also out.”
“Don’t get too excited,” said Miguel, “We’re still as good as dead if that hull isn’t fixed.”
Ms. Infinity now had to recall experiences deep in her past, from her life on her old world, when she was threatened by people who could harm her. Surviving meant not only staying calm, but also focusing; she had to be aware of all that was happening, inside and out.
She considered her task carefully. She needed to endure the heat for a few moments more. It would hurt, for sure. But if she held steady, she would survive.
The pain grew ever more unbearable, until she finally felt a culmination inside. To her horror, she realized she was exploding. Everything inside her was combusting, and it was not clear if there was anything she could do to survive. But in a flash, it occurred to her what she needed to do to save herself. She had to change. With just the right concentration, she could use her shapeshifting to discharge the explosive energy, then repair the damage to her body.
She concentrated hard against the unnerving pain, shifting every particle of herself against the force of the heat. Her body seemed to light up momentarily like a sun, then change shape and color in numerous different ways. She seemed bathed in an explosion of energy, but when it finally peaked, it blew out completely, and there she was again, back to herself. She took a second to collect herself. Fortunately for her, the sparse atmosphere was just enough for her alien metabolism.
> Flying back to the vessel, she looked carefully for the damage caused by the fire. There was a breach in the hull, and it would burn up again if it were not treated. She then blew on the breach with her freeze breath. Within a few seconds, it was covered with a layer of ice.
Clearly that would not hold for long. She had to use another of her talents to make a more sustainable fix, the power to transform objects. She concentrated hard on the ice wall that she had made, and changed it into metal.
The art of transforming objects was a highly complex skill that had taken her many years to develop. Hardly the simple action of a magic spell or a wish, the effort required tremendous discipline. She had to consider every single particle, making millions of miniscule decisions within the space of seconds.
Inside the ship, the astronauts were amazed and confused.
“So about that hull…” said John.
“I can’t believe it myself,” said the captain, “But we may just have been delivered the miracle we needed.”
“Are you alright?” said a voice over the radio.
“The radio works now?” marveled Lily, “How? I’m still not seeing a level.”
“Everyone is safe,” answered the captain, “Who are you?”
“Pleased to meet you,” said the voice, “I am Ms. Infinity.”
“Captain Glen Spacey. Wait, where are you?”
“Right outside,” said Ms. Infinity, “So is that really your name?”
“Yes, but…come again?”
“I just saved the ship. So, your name is Spacey and you’re an astronaut?”
“Uh…yes. So, what exactly happened here? How is our radio working now?”
“I love that you’re an astronaut with the name Spacey. So growing up, did everyone ask you if you were going to be an astronaut?”
“Wait! Wait! Do you have a transmitter out there?”
“Um…no. So, if you could tell everyone there that this may take a while. I don’t want to rush the landing…”
“I just…how are you talking to me without a transmitter?”
“Wait!” interrupted John, “That’s the only thing that’s confusing you?”
“It’s a gift,” said Ms. Infinity, “I don’t think I could explain it to this group. Nothing personal.”
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