Hyperman rolled his eyes at that wretched old cliché. The UFO was snatching people up like in all those old movies! Now he of course had to go play hero. Sighing, he flew up and got a grip on the saucer before hurling it out over the ocean far away from the city, as he’d have done if this were all for real.
The saucer spun around and rifled back at him out over the thrashing waves. He flew up and tore one of its hatch off to climb on inside. Mismatched dials, buttons, and levers of all sizes, shapes, and colors filled up the circular walls. Beyond a blinking force field, people lay strapped down as metallic tentacles looped down from the ceiling and snapped open with laser-scalpels. Stripped of her clothing, Lindsey fidgeted and struggled against her straps as the conveyor belt slid her down next in line for surgery.
“
Ahhhhh, Hyperman!” a genteel, German-sounding voice said. “Excellent to see you!”
The awkward alien-human hybrid Centizoid stalked forward. Long, lopsided centipede-legs stabbed out of his sides with gleaming sharp pinchers at their ends. Two sets of bulky metal arms with claws also extended out of his rotund, ill-proportioned, hard plastic torso. He wore a helmet with big, obnoxious-looking goggles that masked most of his ugly, blackish-green face. His teeth chattered together into a menacing smile.
“
As you well know,” he said, “my Cierilan and human genetics experience difficulty accepting one another as I age. Thus, my organs fail me more and more every year. I have no choice but to replace them, and I demand only the best! The best, of course, being your magnificent biologics! However, you have not been forthcoming in donating to me. Therefore, I’ve had to make do with what you see before you. Though I could give you a chance to reconsider and volunteer to take these poor souls’ place in front of my scalpels?”
His pinchers snapped excitedly together and he nodded toward Lindsey and the other specimens. Squinting his eyes, Hyperman saw the different kinds of swirling energy particles layering everything around them, whether it was the ship, the specimens, Lindsey, and even the Centizoid.
“
Magic and hard light holograms,” Hyperman said and smirked. “This is all an illusion. A mind game. I’m not really anywhere near New Daedalus, am I?”
“
What are you rambling on about, man?” the Centizoid asked.
“
This!”
Hyperman smashed his fist into the creature’s hideous face, and the Centizoid exploded into a mass of multicolored zeroes and chaotic lights before vanishing completely.
“
The Answer and his tricks,” Hyperman muttered. He erupted out of the saucer and let it crash down below to the patchy, orange-brown soil in a fiery wreck off in the distance. Landing and wiping ash from off of his shoulder, he watched the fire blink away into nothingness.
He studied his surroundings. A faint blue colored the sky. Ponderous blackish-brown mountains ranged across the horizon with a thin yellow sun creeping above. Craggy rocks and dirty desert swept all across the landscape. He recognized where he was. He had been here many times before. “Mars,” Hyperman murmured. He even spotted the Quarry sitting on the other side of the planet. His hyper-vision showed the complex to be completely empty, without a single prisoner or guard anywhere in sight.
He realized he was breathing. Here on Mars, he was breathing. He didn’t have to breathe, but he normally liked to and finding that he could here was quite the shock. His hyper-vision showed Dynamo-Man’s virus-sized robots pumping oxygen into the air. His skin prickled when it felt Liandra Dark’s magic wash over the landscape in magnetic, wavy bursts, affecting the air and atmosphere. He felt energy crackling and burning nearby. He saw electrons lining up and bursting. So he wasn’t shocked when a scratchy hologram of Nightshadow blinked into existence before him.
“
There’s still time, Cal,” Nightshadow said. “We don’t have to do this.”
“
You and your allies attacked me,” Hyperman replied. “You’ve made my choice for me.”
“
You’re forcing my hand here. Look at your recent actions. You’re not thinking straight!”
“
I’m thinking more clearly than ever. What I’m doing is for everyone, Night! Even you! Especially you! I know how your knees and back hurt. I know you hate looking in the mirror every morning. But you’ll never have to worry about any of that again when I’m done.”
“
No, Cal, you don’t decide what my life is for me or for anyone else.
“
You don’t know what you’re turning down!”
“
It doesn’t matter. I don’t want anything that you’d offer. I’ve seen where it leads.”
“
What are you talking about?”
Nightshadow paused and looked away briefly, as if talking to someone. “When was the last time you checked in on El Dorado or Mutagen, Cal?” he asked.
Hyperman frowned. “Why…why would I need to?”
“
They’re both dying. El Dorado developed two brain tumors almost overnight, and Mutagen has three different kinds of cancer.”
“
No! Impossible! I didn’t…I didn’t see anything like that in their systems!”
“
Their conditions only recently worsened. They both have days to live.”
“
I…I can fix them! I can figure out a way!”
Nightshadow vanished and another hologram shimmered into existence. This one took Hyperman aback. Stephanie, his beautiful young worshipper who’d faked being a ritual sacrifice, fidgeted nervously before him. Creases marred her still mostly youthful face, and sleepless black smudged the edges of her eyes. Her almost divine luster had faded, and she looked small, ordinary, and plain.
“
Stephanie!” Hyperman said. “Don’t worry! I’ll come for you! I’ll find you wherever they took you. I won’t let them hurt you.”
“
No!” she said. “Please! Don’t! They’ve all been super nice to me! They saved me, and they’ve been protecting me. The Hypermanians went on the warpath and were shooting up all the other groups. They tried raiding my hospital, but the Answer got me out, and they’ve been keeping me somewhere safe. They…they’ve told me about some of the things you’ve been doing. It doesn’t sound like you. Are you really working with Alexander Mors? I know people who know him! He’s a bad guy!”
“
Let me explain!” Hyperman said, reaching for her without thinking. However, his hand brushed off her shirt collar. But how could that happen? Wasn’t she a hologram?
Rainbow-hued zeroes flashed and flared across her clothes and skin. The Answer now stood in her place, and he crossed his arms sternly on his chest. “The Hypermanians found her safe house and shot it up with MorsWorld-designed vortex guns that they had purchased on the black market,” he solemnly said. “I took all my dialogue from the diary entries she was writing before she died. I think it made my performance more authentic, don’t you?”
Hyperman’s face tightened and darkened.
“
You’re making it all up!” he snapped. “You’re making up everything about her and Mutagen and El Dorado! You’re trying to screw with my head!”
“
No,” the Answer said. “Look at my heart rate. Read my pulse and body language. I’m telling the truth.”
Hyperman did, but grimaced. He snatched the Answer up by the throat.
“
YOU’RE LYING!” he snarled. “YOU ALWAYS FIND A WAY TO LIE!”
His hand twitched and the Answer’s neck audibly snapped.
“
NO!” Hyperman gasped.
He scanned the body he held limply in his hand, hoping that it was another trick. The real Answer had to be hiding somewhere nearby, chuckling at his own cleverness. However, Hyperman saw the organs and blood and even read the Answer’s DNA. It was him. There was no doubt about it. He had killed the Answer.
Or had he? How could anyone ever truly know with the Answer’s illusion powers? It could be another part of this whole mind trip! The Answer was probably fine. He’d faked his death hundreds of times before. This was no different. It was just another part of Night’s plan. It had to be.
Hyperman tossed the body aside, but from out of nowhere, a mountainous fist blasted him across the face and sent him hurtling across the dusty desert. He crashed down and bloody-red lightning lanced repeatedly down into him from out of a clear sky. Gritting his teeth, he struggled back up and gazed around. He laughed. Somehow, a planet-sized army had appeared and now surrounded him. Liandra Dark hovered above them all, sitting Indian-style, making strange gestures, and playing with red lighting, flames, and mists. Standing amongst the troops, Gilgamesh shook out his hand and drew his spear. Next to him, Sea Devil loaded his trident-rifle. Dynamo-Man and a S.I.L.E.N.T. fleet crowded across the sky. The Spider-Specter web-slung from jump-jet to jump-jet. At the head of the army, Paul Wrath, decked out in massive robotic armor, gimped up. Nightshadow accompanied him, brandishing a massive, double-barreled laser rifle with a shiny, space-age design.
Every superhero on Earth also lined up with the thousands of armored S.I.L.E.N.T. troops bearing their enormous guns, shields, and laser-swords. The Briar Bowman, Ghosteyes, Sol Flame, Mountain Man, Amon, Tiger Strike, Redemption, the Golden One, Watcher Wiseman, the Titan Brigade, the Silver Swords, and the Pact; Night and Wrath had left nobody out.
Force fields shimmered. Hover-tanks noisily thumped up. Many of the guns, blades, and armor pieces gleamed with some shade of Diatomite-x. The black variety coated Nightshadow’s wing-suit from head to foot. He shone darkly even in the dull Martian daylight.
Hot, sick sweat dripped down Hyperman’s face and his neck burned anxiously. A migraine headache blasted away inside his head. Chest pains racked him. His stomach twisted painfully in on itself. He sniffled, coughed, and twitched. This massive amount of Diatomite-x together in one place was actually affecting him. There had to be heaps and heaps of it in everyone’s weapons and armor. There was probably more Diatomite-x collected here and now than there had ever been anywhere else.
No wonder he felt horrible!
The very idea made Hyperman chuckle, and in that moment, his old allies and friends attacked.
***
Ray guns and missiles exploded into him. Hammers, swords, shields, lasers, knives, and fists punched, sliced, jabbed, and bludgeoned. Lightning and flames erupted. Grenades and cannons went off. Force fields slammed against him. He even felt telepaths prying into his mind with psychic razors, cutting into his memories and thoughts. With enough concentration, he steeled his mind and forced them all out, despite standing at the center of a maelstrom of never-ending attackers and fire.
His nose broke and bled. His vision blurred and dimmed at its edges. Strange heat lashed at him and actually burned his skin. Cuts raked across his weakening, blackening, and once completely invulnerable flesh. Burning gas seeped into his nostrils and mouth down into his lungs. Sickness clenched his bowels and stomach. Agony swathed over him. Pain filled him up.
He let out a shaking, universe-piercing scream and stopped thinking or feeling. He simply raged. He became a storm unto himself, darting everywhere at once, hissing out ice breaths, blasting eye-beams, and reaping and ripping through his enemies with his bare hands. Bodies piled up in pieces. Jump-jets and hover-tanks heaped up in smoldering wrecks. Fire and smoke warped the sky. Blood and guts stained the Martian dirt.
Hyperman blacked out here and there, coming back to himself still in the midst of battle, smashing a hover-tank down into a regiment of soldiers or eye-blasting a jump-jet squadron. After one blackout, he awoke to find his hands wrapped around Nightshadow’s throat. He frothed at the mouth and tasted his own blood. Nightshadow’s armor had been stripped away to burning shreds. Hyperman tore off Night’s mask to reveal the bruised and bloodied face beneath.
“
YOU WANTED THIS!” Hyperman screamed as fire and lasers slammed into him to no effect. “YOU WANTED IT!”
Before Hyperman could bash in his old friend’s skull, Gilgamesh tackled him off Nightshadow and down to the ground. He jammed his spear into Hyperman’s gut to hold him in place and mounted him. He started rocking him with deity-killing, knockout blows.
“
YOU’RE MAD!” he shouted. “YOU’VE GONE MAD!”
Hyperman’s eyes erupted with nova-blue fire, which scorched Gilgamesh’s face. The demigod screamed and his hands went to his face, which gave Hyperman the chance to jerk out the spear and plunge it straight through Gilgamesh’s heart. He then shoved Gilgamesh into some hover-tank wreckage.