I paused. I knew I needed to go. The robbery would be discovered soon and I would probably be implicated. I took a moment and looked out over the brown grasses of the high desert. It was desolate land but beautiful. I heard the approaching thump-thump of a helicopter, I smelled the exhaust of the train, I heard the whoosh of a…
I looked around trying to locate the whooshing noise and spotted a round silvery surface.
Time seemed to slow down. I could hear my heart beating, feel my breath move in and out of my chest. It was an alien ship, much smaller than the one I saw in Wyoming. It was about as big as a helicopter and had that classic “flying saucer” shape.
I smelled smoke and realized that my clothing was burning as my body changed to its neutrino form. Gone was the sound of my heart beating and the in and out of my breathing. I felt a rage deep in me. Forgotten was my revulsion at the death I had caused at Yellowstone.
The three other q-morphs were pointing at the flying craft and then running. The helicopter Tom Tyree was flying came into view. It was one of the helicopters used to fly tourists over the Grand Canyon and had the colorful logo of the tour company emblazoned on it. The saucer oriented itself towards the helicopter and the front section of it began to glow. It was past the train now and I was behind it.
My transformation complete, I found myself flying towards the craft, letting my neutrino reaction burn hot. Things still seemed to move so slowly. The spinning rotors of the helicopter were visible, the fleeing q-morph’s movements were comically slow, and my progress was an agonizing creep.
A bolt of white energy leapt from the front of the saucer and stabbed out at the helicopter. Tom must have anticipated the move. The helicopter jogged to the right and the bolt only scraped some of the paint off the side.
I accelerated as hard as I could and right as I came up on the craft it moved suddenly down. Even in this strange slowed-down experience, the move was fast, but not quite fast enough. I adjusted my trajectory as best I could and felt my neutrino form impact the top of the craft. The impact was jarring and painful. I increased my neutrino output in reaction, glowing even brighter.
Time sped back up and I found myself tumbling and falling, glimpsing the burning silver craft as I fell. I impacted the ground and got to my feet as soon as I could. The saucer was twenty yards away, twisted and smoking. I started moving towards it when it exploded, the shock wave knocking me off of my feet.
Interview, Part 3
Late Winter 2005, WNN Studios, Los Angeles
“Earlier today,” Diane Madison said to the camera, “Nik was kind enough to take us for a tour of his home base, the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. It is here that his act of selfless courage saved Palo Verde from a nuclear meltdown, it is here that he first became Neutrinoman, and it is here that he absorbs the radiation he needs to become Neutrinoman.” She paused with a big smile on her face that she held for so long, it made me very uncomfortable.
“And we’re clear,” a voice said out in the darkness of the studio.
The footage they were playing showed me giving a tour of Palo Verde. Showing the coolant valve I had released to prevent the meltdown. I wore a suit and looked quite uncomfortable in it. The monitor on the desk played the video with no audio. It was strange to watch myself like that. The cameraman that was in the reactor with me had on a yellow radiation suit, complete with gloves, mask, and respirator, and I was running around in a business suit. I pulled up my leg and pointed to the place the neutrino mutated rat had bit me. There is a visible scar there. Even after all my transformations to my neutrino form, that scar doesn’t go away.
“You’re doing great,” Diane said. Al, her makeup guy, was touching up her makeup, while Midge worked on mine.
“Oh… Yeah, thanks,” I said, my eyes still on the video.
“Just act natural,” she said. “Forget the camera and just talk to me. Like we’re two friends chatting over a cup of tea.”
It was a nice thought. Just two friends, not millions of people around the world watching me. Not being asked questions by one of my least favorite people. Not to worry if I will get the answers right and stay within the bounds of the information the military spent a week drilling into me. This wasn’t a simple interview. This was—
“Oh, I love this part,” Midge said. I followed her gaze to the monitor. We had come to the point where I was going to transform. This whole thing had been orchestrated by some big PR firm the military had hired. Like the fact that I had a suit on and product in my brown hair. They had made me practice this until I got it right.
I watched the monitor as the transformation occurred. It started in the middle of my chest, the suit smoking, flames licking the edges of the yellow circle that emerged from beneath it. This was what the PR guys had wanted, for the transformation to start in the middle of my chest and spread from there. It had to take twenty seconds, no more, no less. They wanted people to be able to see it, but not get bored.
And why did it have to start in the middle of the chest, you might ask? Well, if you saw it, you probably already know. It looked an awful lot like Clark Kent ripping open his suit to reveal his Superman costume beneath. They were trying to invoke that image, to imprint that heroic mythology on me.
As I watched it happen on the monitor, as I heard Midge and Al gasp in awe, even though they had seen it before, I wanted to run away. I didn’t want to be that hero, and I hated how hard everyone had to work to try to create that illusion.
Because to me, it felt like an illusion. I wasn’t a hero, much less a superhero. I just happened to have these powers and was trying my hardest to do right by them. I didn’t want to be a spokesman. I didn’t want to be the public face of the q-morphs and the war against the aliens. In fact, right then and there, I just wanted to throw up.
The footage was soon over, Midge and Al were gone, and the grip, or whatever he was, gave us the countdown and we were back on the air.
“That…” Diane began, the look of awe on her face appearing to be genuine. “Well… I…” she continued to stammer, looking at me and then at the camera. “Ladies and gentlemen, I need a moment, let’s take a commercial break. We’ll be back in a flash with Neutrinoman.”
After the man yelled “clear,” Diane’s face became controlled again, the emotion that appeared to be so genuine gone in an instant.
“When we come back,” she said, “we will be starting the interview. Are you ready?”
I stared at her. How could she turn moods on and off as easily as I turned into Neutrinoman? Was it all a show? What were her real motives? Seeing her like that just fanned the anger I had. The fear of what was happening had quelled it, but seeing her blatant manipulation of everything, I no longer had compassion for her and all that was left was my anger. “No,” I said with a smile.
Her smooth forehead creased briefly in puzzlement, before smoothing back out, a smile playing on her lips. “Come now. You’ve saved the world. Surely a little interview can’t be that bad.”
“Wanna bet?” I asked. I kept my face as placid as I could. True, I was messing with her, but seeing how she was messing with the whole world, I felt quite justified.
The smile she gave me was full and wide as she slowly shook her head. “You want to play?” she asked, her right eyebrow arching. “Well, let’s play.”
“In five… four… three…” the man said as we were going live again.
Chapter 11
Farewell to LoVE
Late Winter 2005, East of Flagstaff, Arizona
“That was well done,” Tom said. He was in his biological form about ten yards away. I was still in my neutrino form. I considered dropping it, but decided not to. I didn’t trust him, didn’t trust that there wasn’t another ship close by.
I stood up and looked at the smoldering wreckage. Chaosboy was kicking at a piece of twisted silver metal, Dr. Cheese stood back a safe distance, and Byte came up next to Tom and took his arm.
“What the hell were they doing
here?” I asked, looking at the ship.
Tom shrugged and looked to Byte. She got this faraway look before saying, “After the diamonds too, I suspect.”
“Diamonds?” I asked. “Why?”
She nodded. “Some of the Nordic-looking ones have infiltrated our society. They’ve been here for years. They need funding, just like we do.” She looked at Tom and added, “What now, love?”
“Get everyone loaded,” he said to her. “I need to have a few words with our friend before we go.” It sounded like they didn’t want me to go with them and that suited me fine.
She walked off and talked to Chaosboy and then Dr. Cheese before heading towards the helicopter. I was standing about one hundred yards off. Dr. Cheese went with her towards the helicopter but Chaosboy ambled closer, a twisted piece of silver metal in his hand.
He saw me looking at it. “Souvenir,” he said by way of explanation. I just nodded, my arms folded. “Ya know,” he continued, “we made a great team. It’s a shame ya won’t join us.”
I didn’t say anything. I just stood there staring at him. Actually, that’s not quite the truth. I stood there staring at him and considered killing him. He was close enough that he would not be able to survive the blast if I chose to explode. He couldn’t bend probability that far.
And in truth, I was beginning to consider him the most dangerous member of LoVE. The way he could make the improbable happen and leave chaos in his wake was disturbing. That combined with his “who cares about collateral damage” attitude added up to something terrible. But I didn’t do it—it wasn’t in me.
“It’s been a pleasure, Neutrino,” he said with a wave of the piece of metal as he turned and headed towards the helicopter.
“It’s Neutrinoman,” I shouted after him. He turned and gave me a grin and a nod before continuing on. I realized something important right then. Something important about names. Most of these villains wanted to go by these short names: Toxic, Byte, Chaos. It had really begun to bug me and I finally realized why. Having “man” on the end of my superhero name reminded me of my humanity, my connection with the rest of the beings on this planet. No one called Superman “Super,” or Spider-Man, “Spider,” or Wonder Woman, “Wonder.” There was humanity to their names and humanity in their actions.
These villains wanting to discard the “man” or the “boy” seemed symbolic of them wanting to discard their humanity. That they didn’t want to be reminded where they came from. In that moment, standing there, it occurred to me that that is what made them villains. And it is why I refused to call them by their abbreviated names. I was hoping to see that humanity in them.
I came out of my reverie to find Tom studying me. His eyes widened and he got one of those crazy grins on his face. Gone was the logical and reasonable Tom Tyree that had been trying to recruit me, and back was the crazy face of the Toxicwasteman that I had first met. “This was fun, wasn’t it?” he asked looking around at the wreckage.
“No,” I answered.
He nodded. “But you’ve been a good sport, thanks for playing along. Tell him what he’s won, Johnny.” His voice changed timber and became like some sleazy radio announcer. “He’s won his very own superhero base that he doesn’t need to tell the military about. It’s stocked with rations and a supply of uranium ore he can use to charge himself in case he ever gets tired of the short leash his military masters have him on.”
“I have to tell them something,” I said.
“What’s that, Johnny?” he said tilting his head and putting his finger to his ear. “There’s more?” His voice changed back to the announcer voice. “That’s right! There’s another abandoned mine close by that he can take the military to. It’s an actual former hideout of LoVE complete with tantalizing remnants the military will salivate over.” Tom moved closer and showed me his phone. On it were two sets of GPS coordinates, one for the base I had been at, and one for the old base. “Remember these,” he said in his normal voice.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“Really?” he began. “Are you that slow? Isn’t that obvious by now?” He pointed at the wreckage of the alien craft. “They are afraid of you, with good reason. This world needs you to defeat them. And whether you like it or not, this world needs me and my crew to defeat them too. And you need a source of power not connected to the military. They are going to do something stupid—it’s only a matter of time. And when that happens, it can’t take you out of the game.”
He turned and walked several paces towards the helicopter. “Oh,” he said, turning around. “I owe you the secret to your lady-love’s heart.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to know.” I was a bit surprised at the words, but as I thought about it, it made sense. It wasn’t me. “I don’t want to know what you learned about her in her psych profile. I don’t want you to teach me how to manipulate her. I love her and I will never give up. That is enough. That has to be enough.”
He slowly shook his head and sighed. “Very well.” He again turned to go and then stopped himself. “But, you might want to know of the results of our latest sim. This is in regards to our enemy.” He pointed at the wreckage. “We told you they are resource constrained.” I nodded. “You also know there are aliens that can pass for us.” I nodded again. “We anticipate one more attempt on your life in the near future. One from these embedded aliens.”
“Where? When?” I asked.
“We don’t know,” he answered. “But it will be soon, it will be vicious, and it will be a direct attack on you.”
I just shook my head.
“The good news, though,” he began cheerfully, “is that after that attack, provided you survive, we expect a long break while they get more resources to our planet.”
“Any more good news?” I asked. He smiled and nodded, he seemed to be taking my sarcasm seriously. Maybe he thought this was all good news.
“WNN wants Diane Madison to interview you,” he said. “The military brass has decided it’s a good idea to do now that your secret is out.”
I just stood there shaking my head. It was the last thing I wanted to do. And my anger at being outed was directed at Diane Madison, so she’s the last person I would want interviewing me.
“Personally,” Tom continued, “I think you ought to do it. If you don’t take control of your personal brand, the media will do as they please with it, and that just won’t be pretty.” He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and placed it on the ground. “I’d appreciate you giving us a few minutes head start before calling in the troops.” He nodded towards the wreckage. “They are going to want to lock the scene down and recover what they can from that.”
With that, Tom Tyree turned and trotted to the helicopter. Before he got in, he turned back to me and waved enthusiastically like some six-year-old saying good-bye to Grandma and Grandpa.
Chapter 12
Rescue
Late Winter 2005, East of Flagstaff, Arizona
After they left I reverted back to my biological form and stood there shivering. I grabbed the phone, sent a text to Licia telling her I was about to call and asking her to pick up. I then called her.
“Hi,” she said when she answered the phone.
“Hi,” I replied back. I was pacing back and forth trying to keep warm. “Umm… I just wanted to see if you were okay after last night’s… you know.”
“Did you see it?” she asked.
“No. Couldn’t watch it. Did they reveal your identity?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said, “and Tom Tyree too. It’s all over the Internet, how did you miss it?”
“I’ve been… away. It’s pretty complicated actually. I only have a minute. I wanted to make sure you’re okay. Did you get your parents out of town?”
“I did. Thanks for the warning,” she said
“Sure,” I replied. I cringed, this wasn’t going the way I wanted it to. It sounded like I was talking with someone I met once, not someone I wanted to be with.
“Wait,” I said, increasing my pacing, rubbing my chest with my free arm. “I… I…” I stammered.
“What is it, Nik? Are you okay? Your voice sounds strange.”
“Well, I’m freezing, but that’s not it. There’s something I need to say.”
“Umm… Nik, really. I don’t think there is anything to say.” She sounded a little scared.
“But there is. And I will hate myself if I don’t say this. I… I…” I trailed off again like a stammering idiot. There was silence on the other end of the line. I was coming to the conclusion that I didn’t really like talking to her on the phone. She was generally all business, and this was definitely not business.
“Nik, I’ve got to go,” she said after a long pause.
“I’m not going to give up,” I blurted.
“What?” she asked.
The words, now that they were started, came tumbling out. “I’m not going to give up on you, on us. I will never give up. If there were ever two people in this insane world that were meant to be together it’s you and me—”
“Please. Don’t,” she said.
“I know, I know, you think it makes us vulnerable, you think it makes us weak, you think it interferes with our ability to do what we need to do, to make the hard decisions. But I don’t agree. You make me stronger. You give me a reason to fight, a reason to live, a reason to keep going.
“Who else could understand what you are going through today with our identities being revealed, besides me? Who else can truly relate to what we have to go through with these powers, with what we can do, when things go wrong.
“But more than that, I love you, Licia Lopez. More than I thought myself capable, I love you. And you can tell me no today and tomorrow and for every day for the rest of my life, but I will not stop. I will not give up. I will not.”
Neutrinoman & Lightningirl: A Love Story, Season 1 (Episodes 1 - 3) Page 22