The trickle of electricity arcing from the cable became a torrent.
“High-altitude launch test number one,” Colonel Williams said on his bullhorn. “In three… two… one… launch!”
The closer we got, the more powerful our exchange of energy. As we held each other, the electricity arced from the cable to her hand and from her body to mine. At the same time, the yellow neutronic energy arced from my body to hers.
It was intense, and it was intimate, and we were being observed and filmed at the same time.
It was odd. It was strange.
“Ready?” I asked her, gazing down at her face, which came up to my chest.
She leaned her head up and smiled and said, “Let’s do this.” She was fully in her electrical form, but even so her smile was clear and dazzling.
I pulled her closer and took off. I had never flown with anyone before. Actually, I never expected to fly with anyone at all. I didn’t expect to find someone who could handle the fully neutronic me.
I flew us up at a moderate pace. Too fast and I probably would have lost control; too slow would have been even worse. It was a clear day, and I watched, fascinated, as the large white oval of Groom Lake became smaller and smaller. The brown of the desert was nestled around it, a landing strip ran through it, and the small military base hung off the southwest corner.
I kept breathing so I could better gauge our altitude, and when it became difficult I stopped, hovering us some tens of thousands of feet above the Earth.
“You okay?” I asked, knowing she didn’t like to fly.
She nodded, clearly nervous, gripping my neck tighter as she gazed down below us. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.” Her voice was a gasp; there wasn’t much air up here.
“Okay, so I’m going to take us up farther, real slow. Soon we won’t be able to breathe or talk, so tap me on the back twice if you get into trouble,” I needed more practice flying with her, and she needed to see how it felt not breathing.
She nodded and I ended up taking us up to about 40,000 feet. It went well. On the way down, I stopped when we were still a ways up, and the air was cold but breathable.
“Can we talk?” I asked. The energy was still coursing between us, distracting me, but I had to take my chances where I could find them.
“You know they’re filming us,” she said, looking down at the ground below us, “they probably can hear.”
“Oh…” I really did want to talk to her, hovering above the Earth was… well, it was kind of romantic.
“We’ll talk later,” she said, “after they are done with us. I promise.”
I nodded my head and flew us back down to the ground.
~~~
We were all tired. We had started training at sunup and it was nearing 10:00 p.m. We huddled around a long conference room table taking stabs at our food and making attempts at conversation.
The room was the “war room” for us here at Area 51. On the wall was a large flat-panel display that showed the path of the meteor and the time to impact: 42h 22m 15s.
Colonel Williams looked at us, assessing our condition. Williams is a compact, athletic man with an angular face and a salt-and-pepper brush cut. He said, “I’m calling it, people. Everyone get some rest; we will resume at 0600.”
Jennifer, some techs, and a bunch of military personnel got up and shuffled out of the room. Colonel Williams still sat, transfixed by the ticking down “time to impact” display.
“Colonel?” Licia asked.
Williams looked up, his face locked in a deep frown. “Hmm?”
“Do you think General Markus can really ensure thunder clouds for us?”
He grunted a yes, his eyes not moving from the display.
“How is he going to do that?”
Williams’s eyes reluctantly moved from the display to Licia. “Above my clearance, but if he says he can do it, he can do it.” He slowly pushed himself to a standing position, turned, and left the room.
Licia and I sat there in silence. There were things I wanted to say, things I wanted to ask, but I was just so tired. “I think there is another one of us,” I finally said.
“What?”
“Another one of us, that got caught by the cosmic radiation. We know there are more.” She still looked puzzled. I was tired. I wasn’t making much sense. I swallowed and tried again. “They are going to use someone like us to control the weather. It’s fall, thunderstorms are rare. That is why General Markus is so sure.”
Licia nodded. “I bet you are right.”
We were silent again for a while. It wasn’t an awkward silence, just silence. I kind of liked it, and I wouldn’t have interrupted it but I felt myself starting to doze off.
“I am sorry about our date,” I said.
She turned, meeting my eyes and smiled weakly. “Oh… I don’t know. I’ve learned more about you today than in a dozen first dates combined.”
I nodded. “Yeah… but—”
She rose from her chair, her hand briefly lying on top of my hand as her eyes caught mine. I felt the energy course between us, all thoughts of sleep gone. “We’ll get to it, Nik. First, we save the world, then we have a real date.” She yawned, her hand leaving mine and rubbing her face. “Good night,” she said as she left the room.
Chapter 10
A First Date
Fall 2004, Area 51, Nevada
It had taken some doing: getting up predawn (not a big loss; I woke up very early and couldn’t go back to sleep, too much on my mind); tracking down Colonel Williams and getting his permission; going to the kitchen and getting their help. But it was worth it.
I was standing by the door to Licia’s room when she opened it, sleepy eyed and yawning. We were both staying in the same building which had nice, hotel-style rooms. I think they used it for visiting officers.
“Good morning,” I began. “Colonel Williams has assigned you to me until 0700.”
She smiled, “Really?”
“Yes,” I said smiling back, “Really. If you will come with me, my lady.” I extended my arm to her and she took it, a quizzical look dancing on her round face.
We walked out of the building, around a large warehouse, and out towards the stark white expanse of Groom Lake.
The sun was not quite up, and the desert was bathed in a warm predawn glow. Out on the lake they had constructed a circle of six metal towers, about sixty feet tall.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Not to worry, all will soon be revealed.”
It didn’t take long; soon she saw it and I heard her breath catch. It was a small table, draped with a white cloth, and two chairs. Behind it was the bulk of the dry lake bed, and behind that the gentle folds of the desert rising up into small mountains.
I took her to her chair, the one that faced the mountains, disengaged from her arm, and pulled out her chair.
“What… How…” she stammered.
I smiled, the surprise on her face was reward enough for my efforts. “Nutrition, my lady. I made a good case for nutrition.” I started pulling off the metal lids from the plates one at a time. “Eggs, scrambled; fruit, fresh; English muffins with jelly; and, of course, cheese—Swiss, Monterey Jack, and Muenster.”
She smiled, her hands clapping three times, as she took her napkin and put it on her lap.
“May I?” I asked, referring to the food. She nodded her head, and I prepared her a plate before preparing my own plate and sitting down across from her.
As she was eating, she said, “Seriously, how did you get the colonel to go for this?”
I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I told him if there is not time for a real date then I don’t think the world is worth saving. I appealed to his latent romantic sensibilities.”
She stopped eating, mid-bite, her eyebrows arched. “You didn’t?”
“No, actually I didn’t. I used a much more logical argument.”
“What?”
“Like I said, nutritio
n. I don’t know about you, but when I go all neutrino, my body uses anything that is not the essential me as fuel for the reaction.” I gestured at the eggs and the cheese, which my plate was piled high with. “I need the densest foods I can get.”
“It’s not like that for me,” Licia said as she spread strawberry jam on her English muffin, “I draw energy from power lines, my surroundings, or storms. I am not a barely controlled nuclear reaction.”
“Barely… Barely! I take offense.”
She bowed her head briefly, a smile playing on her lips. “Please accept my humble apology. I meant no offense.”
“Apology accepted, m’lady; your mere presence is a balm for any slight, real or imagined.”
She nodded, laughing. “So if you need dense foods, where is the bacon and the sausage?”
I paused, I wasn’t sure if I had calculated correctly. “Well… I saw the way you pushed the pot roast around your plate the other night. I was guessing you don’t eat meat.”
She nodded, her lips pursing and her head cocking slightly to the right. I know what that look means now, but I didn’t know then. That look is a mixture of mild surprise and delight, resulting in a moment of appraisal or reevaluation. It was a good sign, but I didn’t know that.
“Besides,” I added, trying to hide how nervous that look made me feel, “I really prefer cheese.”
She really noticed my plate then. It was about one-third eggs and about two-thirds cheese. “You’re not kidding.”
“I blame it on the rat.”
“The rat?”
“Yeah, you know, cosmic rays, combined with radiation and the rat’s bite made me… Neutrinoman.”
“Seriously?”
“Well… I will admit to a fondness for cheese before the accident, but after… I am just crazy about it.” With that I stabbed a square of cheese and popped it into my mouth.
~~~
“So…” Jennifer asked, a look of mischief in her eyes. We were sitting together awaiting another briefing.
“So?” I asked, trying to sound innocent.
“So… How was your romantic desert sunrise breakfast?” I must have blushed, because Jennifer laughed. “Oh come on, everyone knows about it. It is not like a thing like that is going to be kept secret in a place like this. So…”
I shrugged my shoulders. “It was pleasant.”
“Pleasant!? Come on, dish.”
“And there was cheese,” I added with a smile.
“I am sure it went fine,” she said, nodding her head.
“Why?”
“First,” she began, holding up a finger, “there was interest before the whole superhero thing was known. Second,” she added another finger, “you’re Neutrinoman, for God’s sake. You can get whomever you want. Third—”
“Excuse me,” I interrupted. “I can get whomever I want?”
“Well yeah, provided they are available and know who you are. You’re actually a nice guy, Nik.” She smiled, her brown eyes dancing. I am sure I blushed deeply. “May I continue?” she asked. I nodded. “Third, that was a big, fat, romantic gesture; not many men do that these days. Conclusion: it went well.”
I wanted to talk more about this, but Colonel Williams clearing his throat to start the briefing prevented that.
Interlude 2
What is Romantic?
Spring 2025, Casita de Soledad, Central Arizona
“Jennifer got it wrong,” Licia said. She was reading over what I had written so far. She held a printout of it in her hand as we lounged on our deck, the rolling high desert of Arizona laid out before us as the sun set over it.
“What?” I asked.
“She got it wrong. It wasn’t the big romantic gesture that really got my attention, although that was quite nice.”
“What was it?” I asked.
“A small thing, really.” She lowered the papers holding them to her chest as she watched the light play along the bottom of the few clouds in our view.
“What?” I was dying to know. I knew that breakfast had had an impact, but I just had to know what it was specifically. You know, in case I needed such data in the future.
“Well, you offered me your arm. So old fashioned and gentlemanly. That was a perfect start.”
“And…” I knew her well enough to know there was more.
“And…” her look got faraway, the warm sunset light making her face even more beautiful. “And you noticed that I didn’t eat your mom’s pot roast.”
I laughed, but only briefly, until it became clear she was serious. “Really?”
She nodded, “Really. It was the nicest thing a man had ever done for me.”
“To notice you didn’t eat meat?”
“No… No… Not that specifically. But to notice something about me that wasn’t obvious. To notice something besides my ass and breasts on first meeting me. To see beyond the physical, that many men don’t ever get past, to seeing the woman.”
“Oh…” I didn’t know what to say.
“You proved yourself to be… to be special. You saw me.”
Her brown eyes were moist as they took me in. I was struck nearly dumb, only able to mumble an “I love you” as I got out of my chair, knelt in front of her, and took her hand.
She placed her palm to my cheek, a few tears rolling down her face. She then smiled playfully and asked, “I’m hungry, how about some cheese?”
Chapter 11
The Earth Below
Fall 2004, Area 51, Nevada
I almost forgot to mention this. Right after that breakfast on Groom Lake, our first date, Licia did something that just felled me. I guess I am learning it is the little things, really, that make the biggest difference.
I was standing, waiting for Licia to get up so we could head back for our morning briefing. I didn’t offer my arm, but she came up beside me and took it anyway. Her hand, warm and pulsing with electricity, wrapped itself around my arm, she leaned close and whispered quietly, as smooth as silk, “Thank you.”
We walked wordlessly to our briefing like that.
And really, if I had to point to one moment where my heart was completely lost to her, that was it. That quiet simple moment of intimacy and gratitude and hope.
It sustained me through the rest of all of this.
~~~
There was one more pleasant surprise that morning before the hard work began. After the briefing, we were taken back out onto Groom Lake, to where the six metal towers had been built overnight.
They were each about sixty feet tall and had large cables running to them. Licia grinned when she saw them; I, however, would soon grow to hate them.
The pleasant part was the partition that had been set up for us away from the circle a bit. It was our changing room. Nothing more than a thin metal frame with black cloth over it. But it was a bit of privacy for us to go all q-morph in without having to disrobe in front of the many personnel there.
I am sure it was mostly about Licia, and I was glad they did it for her, but I appreciated it too.
This was our last full day before impact, and we worked hard.
After we had both used the “changing room” and were in our q-morph forms, the procedures began. They were a combination of experimentation and practice. To see what we were capable of.
Unlike in the comics, we weren’t just suddenly proficient with our powers, it took time and effort and practice, and lots of failures.
Lightningirl looked at me and asked, “Ready?”
I took a deep breath and nodded my head.
Her form quickly changed to something not at all human—more of a human-ish shaped collection of energy—and with a loud clap, she wasn’t there anymore. A lightning bolt, that is it, she became a lightning bolt. I had heard, I knew what she was going to do, but seeing it was stunning. She could become pure electricity. It was awesome.
I looked up and saw her, back in a mostly humanoid form, hovering between the six towers, bolts of electricity flowing from all o
f them into her.
This was her first test. Hovering.
She did it numerous times with the scientists taking tons of readings, but each time it was the same, and each time it was impressive.
Her next test was charging me. I was pretty tapped out from yesterday. We knew that she was capable of charging me, but we didn’t know to what extent.
So, with her hovering amongst the towers, she started charging me as I stood in the center of the towers below. First it was a tiny, but steady, tendril of electricity. It was sharp and insistent, but somewhat pleasant. I felt myself slowly getting stronger.
The tests ramped up until the tendril went to a bolt as thick as my arm, and the electricity she was sending ripped through me with a searing pain. The noise was deafening, almost like a continuous thunderclap.
It hurt, but it worked. After about an hour of this I was up to my normal charge level. So, they had her expand the bolt so it was bigger than my leg and continued the process for another hour.
My neutrino form could handle it, it could absorb the energy, but it went from pain to agony. I understood why we were doing it, but it was difficult. It was also a strange counterpoint to my morning and my feelings about Licia. She went from being the object of my affection to my torturer.
After the second hour was over, I was bristling with energy. I paced in a small circle over the dry lake bed. My feet turning the salt into something akin to glass because I had so much energy radiating off of me. I felt aggressive and trapped, like a hungry lion in a cage. The energy coursing through me demanded action.
After Lightningirl flashed down to the ground, I looked to Colonel Williams. He, and all the personnel, were a ways back behind thick clear barriers to protect them, and their equipment, from the radiation. I had this yellow nimbus around me, and I am sure it wasn’t safe for flesh and blood to be close. Colonel Williams gave the thumbs-up.
I let out a feral grunt in relief. I double-checked that Lightningirl had moved back outside of the circle of towers. I then took off.
This flight wasn’t like before; my flying up until then paled in comparison. I took all that energy that was pent up in me and let it rip. I shot into the air exceeding the speed of sound several times (I didn’t know this at the time. I was too caught up in it, but instruments revealed it later).
Neutrinoman & Lightningirl: A Love Story, Season 1 (Episodes 1 - 3) Page 5