1956-

Bobby Benson smiled as he took a seat at the glass table on the patio in the backyard

of Will Williams’s place. He had saved Will’s life during the war, and granted him

some of Cain’s power to help fight the enemy.

Bobby had empowered several people in this way so that he had help to make the

world a better place. And they had done wonders as far as he was concerned.

Will had asked him to come by his place for some kind of talk. He didn’t like the

sound of it, but he had nothing better to do. His excuses sounded unfeasible to his

own mind when he tried to think of one.

“I wanted you to know this was Ann’s idea.” Will brought out two glasses of tea and

put them on the table. “She said you wouldn’t mind.”

“Mind what, Will?” Bobby took his glass and sipped at it. Ann Baker was another of

his helpers. She was an orphan like him. He had helped her find a home with a family

while enlisting her aid.

Will smiled as Ann came out of the house. She wore a simple dress and shoes in

shades of green. Green pins held her long, red hair back from her face.

Will wore the simple shirt and pants that seemed to be his only outfit. Every time

Bobby could remember meeting with him, that was what his friend wore. If it was a

special occasion, he would add a jacket and tie.

“We wanted to ask you to be the best man at our wedding.” Ann smiled. “You’re the

only real choice.”

“You’re getting married?” Bobby couldn’t believe his ears. “When?”

“In a few months.” Will laughed at his friend’s expression. “We have most of it

worked out, and we’re seeing how much it will cost.”

“Congratulations.” Bobby smiled. “I’m happy for you both.”

“So you’ll be the best man?,” Will asked. “You’ll have to hold the ring for us, and do

some things around the service.”

“I would love to be the best man.” Bobby couldn’t stop grinning. “I never thought

about marriage before. This is a whole new view of things.”

Will, Ann, and the table exploded in a beam of fire. Bobby fell to the ground, arm

covered in flames. He rolled in the grass in pain. He couldn’t feel it as he tried to get

his brain to work again.

“I knew this would be the way to do things.” The familiar voice drifted to Bobby’s

ears from a million miles away. A hand grabbed his neck and picked him up off the

ground. “Time for you to die.”

Bobby took a breath and changed. The source of his power, the green spark, was also

the source of his enemy’s ability. Barbarossa changed also as his green spark flowed

into his intended victim. His light blue tunic, stained with darker patches of red,

became rags. His dark hair tied back in a knot became gray and brittle. Lines of time

ran down his face with liver spots keeping pace.

Bobby had replaced his initial tunic with a light blue shirt and pants. A pin shaped

like a twelve pointed star rode on his right breast. He glared at the man holding his

neck. Then the man fell to the ground with a hole through his skull.

Bobby turned his attention on his other enemies and walked toward them. He had

spared their lives because he had felt that it would be bad to just kill when you didn’t

have to do that. As he advanced on them, he thought maybe he had made a mistake

adhering to that philosophy.

Bad guys always thought they were more ruthless than good guys because they were

willing to take what they wanted. Sometimes they ran into a good guy who decided

that was enough. Then they found out someone was more ruthless than they were on

a personal level.

Then it was too late for them to rethink what their plan should have been.

Bobby took in the scene in a second. Four of his most dangerous enemies, five if you

counted the dead Barbarossa, had driven to a house down the block from Will’s place.

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They had exited the van they had used. Then they had killed Will and Ann with a heat

ray.

He had let them live for so long. He should have known better. His rage burned hot

as he closed with his enemies. They would regret what they had done for the few

seconds it would take to deal with them.

Dr. Rainey Sybil had lost most of his hair over the years, a few inches in height, and

accidentally inflicted several scars to his person from experiments that didn’t work

as well as he thought they should have. He stood behind the two bruisers he was

using for muscle with the heat ray smoking in his gloved hands.

The Butterfly perched on Sybil’s shoulder. This alien insect possessed mental abilities

that allowed it to control people, and a knowledge that allowed it to create machines

that surpassed anything on earth. Wings of gold glittered in the sun as it turned its

mental abilities against the oncoming enemy.

One of the muscle was Koal, an immortal caveman. He had tried to destroy

civilization to force it back to a society without technology. He carried his club in

both hands so he could swing it like a bat.

The other muscle was Paul Poindexter. He was known as the Spine. He was almost

as strong and durable as Bobby, and as smart as a rock. He was the perfect minion if

you could deal with his inability to carry out orders. The only thing he was good at

was the application of violence.

Bobby headed right at them at full speed.

Koal swung his club at Bobby’s head. It looked like freeze framed pictures to the

hero. He grabbed the club, smashed the caveman in the face with it, watched as the

face started healing, hit him with the club so hard the wood shattered into splinters.

Bobby grabbed his enemy by the neck and flung him straight up as hard as he could.

It would take a while for the caveman to fall back down. By that time, the fight would

be over.

The Spine leaped at Bobby. His fist moved almost as fast as Bobby. The hero let it

slip by. Another punch sliced the air in the hopes of knocking the hero out of the way.

Bobby grabbed Poindexter by the neck. He slammed him into the ground. He punched

the man in the face hundreds of times in a second. The villain’s invulnerability

prevented him from being hurt, but not from having his head drilled into the ground

and trapped there like debris in ice.

Bobby turned his attention to his last two foes. Sybil pointed the heat ray at him as

the Butterfly perched on the scientist’s shoulder. One trigger pull unleashed a beam

at their intended victim.

Bobby held out his hand and directed the beam into the Spine. The ray baked him into

the ground even more, turning some of it into glass on top of him as the beam heated

everything up.

Sybil cut the beam as Bobby rushed at him. The hero missed his grab. He paused as

his enemy tried to catch him with a different weapon from his belt. Ice formed from

the projector’s light. It covered Benson’s arm as he blocked the beam.

That was a mistake for the doctor.

Bobby dodged around the beam, and slammed into a shield Sybil had set up to protect

him and the Butterfly from harm. Benson froze against the wall as all of his force was

transmitted into the protective barrier.

“You’ll never get through that, Mark.” Sybil laughed in his high-pitched voice. “It

takes kinetic energy and makes the barrier stronger.”

Bobby grabbed the ground at the edge of the bubble and tore it up. That threw the

bubble into the air. He flew under it and headed into space.

He would deal with the Spine when he was done with his more dangerous enemies.

Bobby found Koal floating in orbit. He needed to put the caveman somewhere he

wouldn’t hurt anyone else.

He sent Sybil’s bubble heading toward Mars. The mad scientist probably had some

kind of flying device to prevent any ground entanglement. He was fine to use it in the

few seconds he would have before he was once again under scrutiny.

Bobby only planned to take that long with Koal because he didn’t want him falling

back to Earth and becoming a threat again. Sometimes it was best to make sure.

He grabbed the caveman by the back of the neck. He flung the frozen body at the Sun.

Let him spend the rest of his life in the gravity well of the Sun.

Bobby watched his projectile hit the outer shell of the sun. He firmed up his face, glad

that some of the anger was fading. He still had to deal with Sybil and the Butterfly.

He flew to where he had dropped the scientist and insect in the dust. He knew they

would try to think of some way back to Earth from their red crash site. He didn’t plan

to give them time for that.

Bobby spotted Sybil standing on the ground in a cloud of red dust. He had a gas mask

over his face to give him oxygen while he tinkered with his arsenal. The enraged hero

picked up the biggest piece of rock he could rip from the ground and dropped it on

his enemy. His shield would take the kinetic hit, but the mass of the thing would push

on the force field until it collapsed.

Psychic pain washed over him as he waited for the two villains to dig their way out.

He knew then they never would.

Bobby flew back to Earth. He found the Spine where he had left him. The man had

not been able to free himself from his cocoon in the short amount of time he had been

given.

Bobby grabbed him by the neck and ripped him free. The green spark made him

stronger by degrees than the other empowered superman. He held the man over his

head.

“I want you to say I have no spine.” Bobby didn’t recognize his own voice.

“I’ll never say I have no spine!” Poindexter froze as he reverted to normal in a dusting

of particles drifting to the ground.

Bobby closed his hand.