Adam Mason

I holed up in an abandoned warehouse for the rest of the day, waiting for things to cool over—waiting for myself to cool over. I needed time to think, time to process. And so I settled in a forgotten part of the city. The old building was exposed, much of the roof had fallen in. The windows were either broken or so grimy that you couldn’t see through them.

At one point, this place must’ve been busy, full of boxes and shelves and workers. Now it was an empty space filled with tired rubble. But that’s the thing, it wasn’t tired for me. Everything was so new. I hefted a rusted forklift above my head like a toddler picking up a rock to see what was underneath it. I dug with my hands and scooped a giant hole just to see what was there. Hell, I already won the lottery. Maybe I’d find buried treasure too! I tore a long piece of rebar from the concrete, and I swung it around like I had just pulled fuckin Excalibur from the stone. Crack! I slammed it into a girder, and it practically disintegrated in my hands.

Honestly, I lost track of the time. I was having too much fun punching holes in walls and testing out my new powers. I still hadn’t discovered a limit to how long I could hold my breath. For all I knew, I didn’t even have to breathe anymore. I gotta tell you, even by the time I realized night fell, I was still giggling like a maniac.

It was then I realized I wasn’t hungry.

I dunno. It was like every normal human limitation had been dialed back or turned off. The weirdest thing was that I had to force myself to notice that they were gone. It all just felt so normal. Of course I didn’t need to eat or drink or sleep! That was who I was now—the guy on top. But it was still crazy to me that some people had felt like this all their lives.

They were lucky ones. They got to be gods while the rest of us barely scrapped together a living. I don’t think the divide ever really cemented itself in my mind before now. I knew people were rich and famous and powerful, but it never really sank in just how much they lived better. I’m not talking about all the creature comforts, though those came with their own benefits. I’m talking about freedom. I’m talking about the ability to do whatever you want whenever you want to whoever you want.

Don’t ever kid yourself in things like public servants or philanthropists or whatever bullshit they feed you on the Democracy Channel. Take it from a guy who’s seen the other side. They don’t give a damn because they don’t need to. You work for them so they can lead the lives you always wanted, the life I always wanted. I giggled again. Now I was one of the lucky ones, and now I could do whatever I wanted.

And just to let you know, I’m not an idiot. I can put two and two together when the occasion arises. I figured out what the Ghost had injected me with. I mean, it’s not exactly a state secret that they siphon the blood of supers from to inject into normals. Temporary super soldiers and all that.

But what my memory was frustratingly unclear on was how long those lucky normals lasted. I remember hearing on the news that they said years. But I also vaguely recalled that the Ghost told me that I was on the clock.

Eh, I honestly didn’t believe him. I felt fine. I felt better than fine. I mean, look what I could do! I could fuckin take bullets to the face! If that doesn’t scream a picture of good health, I don’t what does. Sure, some people probably keeled over quicker than others and whatnot. But hell, I didn’t see what the fuss was about.

I didn’t see in what world I wasn’t an exception to whatever the Ghost was saying.

Glancing up in that night sky, I just felt… open. Every day, I used to worry about food. Now I’m not sure I could starve. I used to worry about clean water. Now I can fuckin take strolls at the bottom of the East River.

I used to worry about my job. Now…

You know what? When I was a kid, I used to make a list of all the shit I wanted to do with my life. It was filled with all the usual childish stuff that you slowly forget over time. Heh, it’s funny. I remember wanting to be an astronaut. Do you know what those even are? I wouldn’t blame ya if you didn’t. Well, apparently the Democratic Union—America—used to send people into space.

Apparently we even had people walking on the moon.

Now I don’t believe that for a fucking second, but point is, I had that sort of crazy list. And while some modifications may have been made over the years, it was time to start crossing some shit off.

I looked down at my hands, clenching them with enough power to crush concrete to dust. A wicked grin spread on my lips as an idea came to me.

Oh yeah, I knew exactly what I was going to do first.

…

In a little under an hour, I was standing in front of that same grimy fast-food restaurant where this whole adventure began.

You’d be surprised how easily I walked in the open streets. Well, to be fair it was dark and there wasn’t much traffic, but still. I realized everyone expects the insane super hobo to be flying through the air, not the vagrant strolling down the sidewalk. Even with my face all over the billboards, which itself was a strange sensation, no one looked up or raised the alarm.

But anyways, man, I was downright cackling as I entered the door of the restaurant. There was a short line at this late into the night, but I went straight to the front. The robot had just placed an order on the counter. I swiped it before the man could pick up his meal.

“Hey!”

The guy was young, maybe in his early twenties. He wore the same rags as everyone else who would go to this joint, but his face ticked me off. It was all beady and squintish like. It reminded me of that weasel of an interrogator. Could’ve been his son for all I knew.

I picked him up by his neck. His anger quickly turned to horror as he realized just who I was.

“Ask yourself this.” I grinned. “Do you really want to mess with me?”

He choked out a noise and shook his head rapidly.

I threw him to the floor. Not hard enough to hurt him, I wasn’t a monster after all. Everyone else gasped, horrified, and they all started running for the exit. The man yelled and scrambled away with them. Holding my meal in my hands, I turned to the tin can with the crooked mustache.

“Alert. Alert. You have been recorded causing a public disturbance. Please wait until the police arrive.”

“You always were a stupid robot. You know that?” I asked it.

“Alert. Alert. You have—”

Stolen story; please report.

I reached over the counter and snapped off the mustache. The piece of iron was like putty in my hands. I tossed the scrap of metal behind me. “Tell me, did they program you to run? Or are you just as disposable as the rest of this garbage dump?”

“Alert. Alert—”

I pulled out its microphone mouth and crushed it in my hands. “I’m a nice man. You have three seconds to prove me wrong. One…” I held out my finger to flick it in the forehead. The tin can rumbled, monotonously trying to say the same thing as it always did. “Two…” The robot still blankly looked at me, never understanding the danger. “Three.”

Flicking my finger, the oversized tin-can went crashing through the wall and into the kitchen behind it. The automated restaurant exploded with grease and debris and machine parts. An alarm sounded, and I heard the doors lock behind me. I ripped them off their hinges and chucked them in the back as well. A fire caught up and soon the whole place was burning.

Looking both ways, I heard sirens in the distance. Though with my super hearing, I could tell they were nowhere near my location.

I was still smiling ear from fuckin ear when I took off into the night, flying around to shop for places to eat. I found this really nice penthouse on the top floor of a skyscraper. All the windows were broken, and the place was thoroughly looted—honestly, it now looked like a concrete hovel, but it had a nice view of the city. I grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the edge. Sitting down, I opened up my meal.

Surprise! Surprise! Inside was a cheeseburger and a bag of fries. I regretted not swiping a drink when I had the chance, but it didn’t matter now. I bit into my cheeseburger and tore a piece off. As I overlooked the dark city, I wondered just which cheeseburger had tasted more delicious. Was it the one that cost me everything, or was it the one that cost me nothing?

Sitting on top of the world, I’m not going to lie; it felt pretty great. But as I continued chewing, the burger didn’t fill me up like it had before. I suppose it couldn’t anymore. I mean, the flavor was all there, don’t get me wrong. All that wonderful, greasy slob that made the tastebuds go crazy was still there. But there was also something visceral that was missing. When I swallowed, I didn’t get any pleasure from it. My stomach wasn’t satiated. It didn’t feel much of anything. Halfway through, I got bored with the burger and tossed it away. I kicked the rest of the bag off the skyscraper.

I leaned back in my chair and took in the view. It was nice up here. Quiet, but nice. You never got a lot of that in City 57. There was always someone chattering louder than they should or some distant gunfire or some drug addict muttering in the corner. And if it was quiet, it meant you were in a really bad part of town. And that meant you needed to get out of there fast.

This quiet felt more… peaceful, if you know what I mean. For the first time in my life, I think I realized what that word meant. I was always going from work to dumpster diving to work. And when I wasn’t doing any of those things, I was sleeping with one eye open. I never had the time to stop and think about things.

But looking on the shadowy skyscrapers of City 57, I just felt sad and alone. I don’t know. I look back on my life, and I don’t even understand what I could’ve done differently. But I still feel like I somehow wasted it. I don’t know how or why, but deep down, there was something I missed all those times when I was begging for my next meal. There was something more to things than surviving, even when you were starving. And just as the sun was beginning to rise over City 57, that feeling awoke me.

It wasn’t that bullshit you still see on advertisements about “living your life to the fullest”. I don’t know who still believed in that these days. A pretty woman got to lounge on a beach, trying to sell you shampoo, meanwhile you’re considering whether the toilet water is safe to drink. A man’s got to have a reason to stick around—a good reason. I just didn’t know I needed one until now.

I relaxed back in my chair and closed my eyes. Look at Adam Mason! Having a religious epiphany! What will he do next!? Start up a charity for all the good little boys and girls in Gen Pop!?

I chuckled to myself. Nah, but I’m going to be honest. I didn’t know what to do with this feeling. I wanted something, but I didn’t know what it was or how to get it. When I got my super powers, all I thought about was what I was going to take first. But now, I just wished I had someone to talk to.

Yeah, maybe I would’ve liked a friend. Wish I had one.

My ears picked up a humming noise that rose above the general hubbub of the city. As I said before, my senses had been dialed up—but it was in a very convenient way. It wasn’t that my hearing had increased, loud noises remained the same as they always did. It was that I could just pick apart sounds a lot more. The humming grew louder and louder until it suddenly turned into a roar—a roar that was heading right for me.

I opened my eyes just in time to see a missile aimed square at my face.

“Oh shi—”

I didn’t feel the impact or the explosion. All I registered was utter chaos in my senses—noise and light and a vague stinging sensation as I was flung backward and the world turned to fire around me. I vaguely recall landing on my side and rolling until I slammed against some rubble. I groaned, not out of pain, but out of reflex. I regained my senses, and I got up on one knee.

After all that, I would say I was mildly miffed.

I had to take a moment to process what had just happened. My heart was still pounding in my chest. That was the part of me that still hadn’t adjusted to the new Adam Mason. I still thought I could die. I still thought I could be hurt. I picked myself up and dusted myself off, looking through the burning remains of the penthouse as it collapsed around me. It was then I realized I was now completely naked. My clothes had been vaporized in the blast.

There were not a lot of ways to piss me off anymore. That was one of them.

I clenched my fists. “Oh, you son of a bitch.”

I exploded out from the building, flying towards the drone that had fired the missile. The remote operator didn’t have a chance to react as I flew through the drone, splitting it in two. Metal sheared apart, the machine exploded and fell to the ground. And now I was naked and flying over the city skyline. At least it would be difficult to see my junk from up so far.

Glancing around, I saw dozens of other drones converging on my position. They weren’t around around me—like a good many of them were several miles off. But it was still a fucking lot. The night sky was peppered with them like giant flocks of birds. I gritted my teeth. Fighting City 57’s entire defense network naked hadn’t been on my to-do list, but they were the ones who picked this fight.

Well, to call it a fight wouldn’t do it justice. All their fancy equipment couldn’t keep up with me. I zipped through drones quickly and easily as one pops bubblewrap. Many opened fire with anti-vehicle rounds that bounced off me harmlessly. More missiles were fired, though I evaded these ones. The people controlling these things must’ve been shitting their pants because the drones started to run away.

Again, I was faster. And as the sky was thinning, I decided to get creative before the night was up. I took one drone and held it as a baseball bat. Another one launched another missile at me. All right. I took a deep breath. Batter! Batter! Swing!

Unfortunately, I was terrible at baseball and the drone was a worse bat. It snapped in half, and the missile hit me square in the face again. I was covered in black soot, but the hit didn’t even faze me.

Looking down on the city, I could see hundreds of little fires from the wreckage. The morning sky had seen its crimson rain, and I wasn’t even getting tired.

I noticed two drones flying higher than the rest. They had this invisible cloak surrounding them, but my eyes could pick them up easily. They seemed awfully expensive, and more than that, more fun dummies for target practice. I didn’t have a great swing, but my throwing arm had just gotten several thousand times stronger. I flew down and picked up two molten chunks of metal, and soon, two more very expensive piles of debris were added to the rest.

Touching down on the roof of a nearby skyscraper, I relaxed and enjoyed the show, watching all the smoke rising in the air. Hopefully that would get them off my back for the time being. And if it didn’t, then maybe I would send them a louder message.

I did remember the Ghost’s words right after he jabbed me, but I honestly didn’t feel like fighting, especially killing anyone else for that matter. I just wanted to be left alone.

It occurred to me that might be wishful thinking. I was now one of the biggest threats in the nation. Hell, I just destroyed billions of credits in equipment without so much as breaking a sweat. They would be forced to come after me until they took me down—which wasn’t ever going to happen.

I realized that this exact scenario is what they were so terrified of. I was the walking reason why the ASA and Gen Pop existed. There was now someone they couldn’t control. Someone was outside the system, and they were all shitting their pants because of it. Everything they had done—everything they built—could fall apart in an instant if someone with the strength and will came around to blow their little house of cards away.

And maybe the thought that terrified them most was that maybe someone should tear it all down. They had their chance at running things, and they had blown it. If I wanted to set myself up as king of this festering country, who was going to stop me?

Almost in answer to that question, I heard someone approaching—flying. I waited a few minutes, and a pair of boots landed behind me. There was a strange popping noise, and I sensed three others appeared as well. The only thought that ran through my head was this:

Ah damn, I wish I had a pair of clothes.