“Oh,” I said, my face falling as I finally understood. We had never talked about what happened that day. Between the pace of upcoming events and the trauma of that day, we just never got to it.
“I am so sorry,” she said. “Can you forgive me?”
I sighed heavily and looked down, furrowing my brow. “I… Well…”
“Please, Nik. I feel like such a fool. I’ll do anything… anything.”
And in truth the realization did hurt. That we could have avoided a lot of heartache with a little communication was hard to swallow. But it was also twenty years ago and a minor bump in the very long road of our relationship. “Anything?” I asked, my head still down, but I couldn’t keep the smile from forming on my lips.
“Oh, hell,” she said, catching the smile on my face. “You’re gonna milk this for all it’s worth.”
“That I am,” I said, raising my head.
She crossed her arms and said, “Okay, what is it that you want?”
I looked up into the sky, the sun shining on my face. “First, I want to go up more often. A lot more often.”
“Then Peters will be here a lot more often.”
I shrugged. “We need to start training them. They need to understand we aren’t their pet superheroes.”
“Okay. What else?”
I shook my head, blinking back tears. I was remembering that day, not far from here, when she had broken my heart. I have perspective on those events now. Toxicwasteman, the aliens, Yellowstone, realizing my love for Licia and her rejecting me. It was the forge, the fire, that made me. It was painful and difficult, but with what came after it, I now see it as necessary.
I’m not one to regret the past. I have had an incredible life, and many parts of it were difficult and traumatic, but they made me who I am.
“Nothing,” I said. “You don’t have to feel bad or be sorry. We were all going through so much.”
She nodded and took my hand. “Let’s go for walk.”
We took the trail to our launching pad, to the power lines, and she began following them to the north. I knew where she was taking me.
I didn’t speak, and neither did she. There wasn’t really anything to say. It took about forty minutes and we were on the spot.
There was an area of ground that was different. The rock was a cracked mass of lava, where I had paced. There were scarred areas on the ground where I had blasted forth with my emotional outburst. Seeing it all, the scars I had left on the land, I felt embarrassed.
She guided me to the center of the lava area. “I am sorry, Nik. Really I am. It breaks my heart to think I caused you such pain. I wish I had done things differently. I need you to hear me.”
I smiled awkwardly. “This writing, is going to do this, you know.” She nodded. “It’s going to drag us through our past. The things you are sorry for, the things I am sorry for, the things we wish we could have done better. It’s—” I couldn’t continue.
“Tell me again. Why are you doing this?” she asked. “Why are you taking us back through all of this?” Her hand swept the ground below us, pointing out the scars that my emotions had left.
“Because of this,” I said, looking at the ground. “So we can heal. So we can move on.”
Her eyebrows pinched together as she nodded. “Can you forgive me for this?” she asked quietly.
I drew her close and said, “Yes. I forgive you.”
Our hands clasped, we started walking back towards Casita de Soledad.
After a time, she asked, “What do you mean by ‘move on’?”
I laughed, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I let go of her hand and started running. “Last one home does the dishes.”
I heard a sizzle and a crack and saw a ball of electricity run down the power line towards our home. I stopped and looked back at the charred remains of her clothing smoldering on the ground.
I chuckled, it looked like I would be doing the dishes.
Acknowledgements
This one has been a long time coming. I love these superhero/love stories. I love the characters. I love the quirky mix of action and romance with a few laughs here and there, a bit serious now and then. But it takes an effort, a big one, to finish one of these and push it out to the world.
It’s a good effort. A satisfying effort. Like running a race or climbing a mountain. But just like Nik Nichols, I’m not alone, I need help. It takes a lot of support to write a book.
So, many thanks to my fabulous team of beta writers: John Bifano, Roni Hornstein, Chris Kalinich, Michele Lytle, Susanne One Love, and Aleia N. O’Reilly.
Great work, as always, by Diana Cox, my proofreader (www.novelproofreading.com).
An additional call out to my wife, Aleia. She supports me and listens to my stories, listens to me prattling on endlessly about writing and publishing, and always, always loves me. I can’t imagine my life without her!
And thanks to you for reading. Stay tuned, more of the adventures of Neutrinoman and Lightningirl coming soon.
Protocol X
Neutrinoman and Lightningirl: A Love Story, Episode 3
For all those who believe love is the greatest superpower!
Chapter 1
One Foot in Front of the Other
Late Winter 2005, Superstition Mountains, Arizona
My feet thudded on the dirt trail below me, dry and dusty. I was trail running in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix, but the Sonoran Desert surroundings were pretty much lost to me. I was focusing on one foot at a time, one breath at a time, and had attention for little else.
Endurance training. Actually my life since the “Incident at Yellowstone” (as it was commonly called) had become one big training session. A crashed alien spaceship, corpses of aliens, and working alien energy weapons had changed things.
And Licia, she had changed things too.
One foot in front of the other, one breath at a time.
Even as tired as my body was, even as focused as I had to be, I couldn’t keep the thoughts of Licia out of my mind. I hadn’t seen her in six weeks. Colonel Williams had decided to train us separately for a while. I had to wonder if that wasn’t by her request, because it certainly wasn’t what I wanted. I figured I was being paranoid, but given what I had experienced in the last few months I was becoming a staunch believer in paranoia—in fact, I think as a q-morph it is a job requirement.
And if I never saw her, how was I going to get her back? This training was taking up nearly all my time. They had even dispensed with the pretense of me working as a janitor at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. I was busy with them all day, every day. I had tried calling her and texting her that first week after she had broken it off. But she didn’t answer, and she didn’t return my messages.
One foot in front of the other, one breath at a time.
The military had decided that I needed to do endurance training. I ran cross-country for a few years in high school, so running it was. The trail running had been my idea. I wasn’t going to run circles on some damn military base. I wanted to get out into the desert. Let nature do its work, let it take some of this tension away.
Well, tension isn’t the right word. Trauma is. And they had me seeing a therapist for that. I really preferred running and sweating in the beauty of the Arizona desert to sitting in a room with my torturer—err, therapist—talking about how I felt about killing the aliens. Did they think that I wasn’t supposed to be traumatized? Did they think I could go through all that and come away with a laugh and a smile?
It’s just not that simple.
These thoughts, Licia, trauma, and the aliens, kept floating up in my mind. And the running and breathing chased them out. My runs were getting longer and longer, and I was finding them to be the only time my mind shut up. You might think sleeping would be good, but I kept dreaming about that blond-haired alien with the hole in his chest.
One foot in front of the other, one breath at a time.
~~~
He had shockingly red and
white skin strewn with freckles. Nestled in his oval face were playful green eyes and he was wearing a big smile when I saw him.
I was on mile twelve of my run, my body worn and past the point where it longed to stop and rest. I rounded a corner and there he was sitting on a rock. The trailhead, and my car, were about a mile farther. It was late afternoon on a Wednesday and I hadn’t seen anyone on the trail at all.
He was dressed to run, but he didn’t look like much of a runner. Too short, too happy. As I rounded a corner, he waved at me. I gave him a brief nod and kept running. I knew who he was, but I wasn’t going to say anything.
I heard his feet behind me, the rhythm of his feet faster than mine because of his shorter stature.
“Hey, fella,” he began. “How’s it goin’?” His voice was high with the distinct lilt of an Irish accent.
I was too far into the run to want to talk. I was at that point when the world closed in around me, and all I could see was the trail in front of me. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to interact. I just wanted to keep running.
“Fine,” I answered.
“Nice form there, friend. Ya been runnin’ long?” He spoke in short, rushed sentences, the words exploding from his mouth.
I ignored him. I thought about increasing my pace, but I didn’t really have enough energy left for that. I took a drink from the tube that led to the water bladder in the little pack on my back. Dehydration was something I had to avoid. I needed to be ready to change to Neutrinoman at any moment, and starting out dehydrated wasn’t smart.
“You know,” he continued, “I heard ya were a rather decent fella. Kind to strangers. Ready to rescue cats out of trees for little old ladies at the drop of a hat. A real Boy Scout. But I guess not. Too busy running to talk to one of your own.”
I was mad. This was my time. This was what I needed to do for me. Now, I understand why he approached me here, it was one of the only times I wasn’t surrounded by military. And I had been expecting this. Williams had briefed me to expect a recruitment pitch. But still I was angry and I really didn’t have a problem letting it show.
“What do you want?” I asked as I kept my pace up.
“Ya know. Just a few minutes of your time, Mr. Nichols.”
“What for, Mr. Lucky?” I said. I knew he didn’t like being called that.
“Hey!” he yelled. I got why he didn’t like that name—after seeing him with his red hair perched on the boulder it was obvious. Dress him in a little green suit and shiny black shoes and you’d have yourself a leprechaun. Not that I thought the name Chaosboy was any more dignified.
I looked down and saw that one of my shoes was untied. I grumbled and came to a slow stop, putting my foot on a rock and slowly tying it.
“Lucky break, that,” Chaosboy said as he stopped next to me, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He really wasn’t a runner.
“You did this?” I asked as I finished tying it.
He shrugged. “I just need a few minutes.”
I started walking and took a big drink. I had to cool my body off. After a run that long it wouldn’t do to just stop. “So start talking,” I said with a sigh. My legs were jelly and it did feel good to be just walking. I was wearing shorts and the little backpack, no shirt, letting my body soak up as much sun as possible. I was in the reactor every day or so at this point, but I always loved the little boost the Arizona sun gave me. My skin was pale, despite all the sun. Radiation and me, we have a unique relationship.
“Toxic, he wants to talk to ya,” Chaosboy began. “He’s impressed by ya. He thinks you would be just the addition we need at LoVE.”
“Love?” I asked.
“Yeah. League of Villains, Extraordinaire. L-O-V-E.”
I groaned in response.
“It was you’re idea, ya know. Toxic said ya gave him the idea when you asked him if we were ‘a league of villains, or something.’”
I groaned again.
“Come on. It’s a great name. Ya know, who can argue against love?”
“I’m sorry, what was the point? I got lost in all that blabbering.” I felt bad when I said it. Actually, I felt more embarrassed than anything. It was the kind of thing Toxicwasteman would say.
I heard him stop, so I stopped, turned, and faced him. His arms were crossed and he was looking me up and down.
“What?” I asked.
“Toxic, he was right. He said the Battle at Yellowstone and losing your girl would change ya. He said there was a good chance ya would come in. I didn’t believe him. But I kinda do now.”
I shrugged, turned my back on him, and kept walking. The grumpy tact was proving effective so I decided to keep it up. Besides, I had a lot to be grumpy about.
“So ya gonna come in? Ya gonna hear what he has to say?”
“Why should I?” I kept walking and he trotted up and was now walking besides me.
“Survival, lad. The military has its head so far up their own arses they can’t even breathe. Gotta be nimble with this. Military is anything but. We want the same thing. We want those alien bastards dead and gone. Our goals are your goals.”
Chapter 2
Recruitment
Late Winter 2005, Superstition Mountains, Arizona
We walked down the trail in silence for a bit, past tall saguaro cactus, mesquite trees, and stunted sagebrush. It was the kind of location you might film some miners and their donkeys heading out for gold in the 1800s. The sun was warm and I was enjoying the quiet.
“It’s Chaos, ya know,” the redheaded youth said, breaking the silence.
“What?” I asked, stopping and looking at him.
“I am not a boy. I turned twenty-one this year. It’s ‘Chaos.’”
I rolled my eyes and shrugged. I wasn’t at all interested in what he wanted to be called. “What is it that you wanted? Aren’t we a little off track here?”
“This war with the Arcturian Alliance. It’s no conventional war. The stakes are mighty high. The military can’t innovate quickly enough. Hell, they need a written order just to take a shite. What this world needs is a small agile group of powerful, dedicated individuals.”
“That may be true, but you guys are a league of villains. I am not a villain. I am not an ends justifies the means kind of guy.”
“So, theoretically speaking, what would ya do if ya were confronted with a choice? The stakes are the entire world. You can save it, but one innocent person will die.”
“This is ridiculous,” I said. “It’s never like that. It is never that clear-cut.”
“Say it was.”
I shrugged. “Well, yeah. I would do it.”
“Okay, now say it is a thousand people. No, make it a million. Would ya do it knowing a million people would die?”
“No, of course not. I would find another way.”
“There is no other way. Ya can save the world, but a million people die.”
“This is ridiculous,” I said and started walking away.
Chaosboy ran ahead of me and got in my way. “It’s not. One million out of six billion—that’s like one tenth of one percent. That kind of loss is not acceptable to ya?”
“No.”
“We are talking about saving everyone on the planet.”
“I’d find another way.”
“Ya really are a Boy Scout. No, I take that back. You’re a do-gooder nun. No, that’s not good enough. You’re Mother freaking Teresa.”
“Then I see no reason to come talk to Toxicwasteman.”
“It’s Toxic, now. We’re all going by shorter names. Like, you’d be Neutrino. Nice ring to it, eh?”
I picked him up and put him down on the side of the trail and continued walking.
“I’ll make it worth your while,” he said from behind me. I could hear him scrambling to catch up. I just kept walking. “I have some information that ya need. I guarantee ya it will be worth it.”
He was really starting to annoy me. “What is it?”
“I need yo
ur word first.”
“Oh…” I began as I stopped and faced him. “Now you want this Boy Scout’s word. Now you care about integrity? When it means you’ll get what you want it counts.”
He nodded and smiled.
“You have my word that if the information you have is valuable to me I will come and talk to Toxicwasteman.”
“And… and ya won’t reveal the location of our secret base.” He seemed to be warming up to this.
I just stood there with my arms crossed.
He waved his hands in a placating gesture. “Okay. Okay. Ya gave your word, that’s good. That’s good. I only need one more thing.”
~~~
He wanted proof. The little guy wanted proof that I was Neutrinoman. It seemed ridiculous to me—he had spent the last twenty minutes pestering me.
I had changed my finger for him until it glowed yellow, but that hadn’t been enough. He wanted a full body change. I grumbled but in the end I agreed to do it.
I took us off the trail a bit until I found a large boulder that would afford me some privacy. I had a suspicion that he had other motives for this.
“Satisfied?” I asked him as I stepped around the boulder fully in my neutrino form.
He nodded. “That is impressive.”
“So tell me the truth now, why did you have me do this. You knew who I was.”
He looked a little sheepish. “Our simulations showed there was an 80 to 90 percent chance ya had a subcutaneous tracking device.”
I shook my head. “Why didn’t you just ask me?”
He shrugged.
I went back behind the rock still shaking my head. Not out of annoyance at his antics, but because he had been right. I did have a tracking device—at least until I had changed—the military had been expecting this offer.
~~~
Seeing Chaosboy behind the wheel of the Hummer H2 was kind of funny. He really was short, maybe five foot, and the vehicle just overwhelmed him. We had just left the parking area, headed towards Phoenix.
“So,” I began. “What’s this valuable information?”
He turned and smiled at me. “You’re gonna love this.” He then told me my full name, the full name of both my parents, the names of Licia and her parents, and the address where we all lived.
Neutrinoman & Lightningirl: A Love Story, Season 1 (Episodes 1 - 3) Page 17