Death Makes Me Stronger: A Superhero Story -- Chapter 1

I'm doing something a bit different with this series: It will not be sold on Amazon. It's going to be sold exclusively on my site, and you can read it with the Bookfunnel app on your phone, or you can use the app to send it to your Kindle library. 

A few weeks ago, Amazon started showing how many followers each author has. I was surprised to see that I had nearly 50,000 followers, especially given that I only sell a few hundred books with each release and have a pretty small KU readership. I started asking around, and it's apparent that Amazon just isn't sending out follow emails to my fans anymore. It was quite discouraging, since I've worked every single damn week for the last 5 years to give you guys a book every week (and bring Amazon a profit), but they can't do their part and let you all know my books are out.

I'm hoping you guys buy the book directly from me, and let other fans know.

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“This is why you live in the city, John,” I muttered. “And why game nights with the guys should be on the weekends only.”

The skyscrapers and apartments of New Liberty were so close that I could practically touch them. Sunlight glistened off of the mirrored glass walls of my office about three miles from the bridge where my car was currently parked in wall to wall traffic with me inside, and there was no hope that my tiny little sedan would get through, especially as everyone inched forward every chance they got. The city would just have to wait for a little while longer before it greeted me again.

At least the view of the river was beautiful, and the spring weather had chased away some of the cold as the heat fought to take control. I rolled down my windows to let the salty breeze drift through the car and watched the water sparkle like diamonds as the sun rose higher in the sky. There were definitely worse views, like the inside of my cubicle, and I’d already texted my boss to let him know there was a delay, so I took a deep breath and relaxed for a little while

The smell of my breakfast sandwich wafted up from the seat next to me. My buddy’s wife had made us each one of the cheesy egg and bacon sandwiches before we headed out for the morning, and her cooking was definitely one of the reasons that he put a ring on her finger. Steam rose out of the packaging as I carefully unwrapped it, and I made a mental note to ask for the recipe later, because the mixture of melty cheese, garlic, and egg yolk was divine.

I wondered if she actually had a superpower that involved being able to cook anything to perfection. Come to think of it, there had never been a meal that wasn’t so good that it was practically obscene, even when we were in college and bought practically free stuff from the local guy with the hookup for slightly expired foods. I knew that she wanted to open a restaurant at some point, but Mike said that there were some legal issues, which I  assumed meant the health board.

Government agencies of every kind had always been crazy when it came to dealing with supers. It made sense since there’s so many that go bad, but Ina was on the up-and-up, and if anyone deserved a restaurant, then it was her. The health board probably just needed to flex its muscles a little, and Mike was the kind of guy that would save up for any ridiculous licenses. So really, it was just a matter of time before Ina saw her dream become reality.

I took a swig from the nutmeg and vanilla coffee that Ina had brewed and watched a fishing boat come back into port. The sails were unfurled so that the engine didn’t have to overwork in the still icy areas around the docks, and there was already somebody waiting for the rope to tie it off. I’d daydreamed about working on one of those ships more than once, usually on bad days at the office when the monotony of answering calls was about to drive me crazy, but the stench of seafood tended to cling to the guys like plastic wrap, so I usually woke from that fantasy really quick.

“Hey,” a young guy on a moped said. “Do you know what’s going on? Why is everyone stopped?”

“Probably another hero and villain fight,” I shrugged and then polished off the last of my breakfast. “Are you from around here?”

The kid was dressed in long pants and what looked like three layers of sweaters, hoodies, and a thick winter jacket despite the spring-like temperatures. The shell helmet he had strapped onto his head wouldn’t do much if he fell, but at least it was better than nothing, and it wasn’t like the moped would get up to high enough speeds to do any serious damage. He didn’t seem old enough to have to shave the scraggly hairs on his chin, nonetheless live in the big city by himself.

“Not really,” the kid confessed. “I’m staying with a friend in the suburbs. But I’m hoping to move to New Liberty by the end of next year. Is the traffic always this bad?”

“Nah,” a middle-aged woman said as she climbed out of her sedan to stretch. “It’s usually worth the price tag to live in the suburbs and commute. But sometimes the villains start their bullshit early in the morning. At least my kids aren’t in the car this time. My five-year-old was with me the last time, and she watched Inferno incinerate half a city block. Winter was a bitch that year because she freaked out every time that we lit the fireplace.”

“Yeah, we didn’t have a lot of attacks where I grew up,” I shrugged. “The suburbs are never that big of a draw for the villains, no matter what city you’re around. Probably because it takes too long for the news cameras to show up.”

“For real?” the kid asked and gaped at the city.

The sound of distant helicopters had grown louder like the fight was on its way to us, and I turned just in time to see one of the heroes fly around my work building. I swear that the conceited bastard actually paused to fix his cape before he went after the villain, who looked a lot like Iceara. She would definitely draw the attention of the news stations, and not just because her powers would freeze half a city block.

Her silver hair flowed behind her like a cloud, and the villain’s skintight outfit showed off every perfect curve even from far away. The news stations would want to have pictures of the evil woman’s body for the morning broadcast, and I made a mental note to look them up later. Iceara was definitely a pain in the ass, and she’d killed a few people, but there was just something about the way her ice blue eyes pierced through the screen like icicles that made her ten times sexier than even the hottest of supermodels.

“Yeah,” I said and motioned to the helicopters hovering near the fighting duo. “Some of the heroes like to get a lot of facetime, and the villains want notoriety, too. Not sure why, since they don’t get paid by the government like the heroes do.”

“I don’t know,” the kid said and adjusted his helmet. “I saw on the net that there’s rumors that they actually pay some villains to cause havoc so that the heroes stay necessary. And that some of the heroes were created by government experiments.”

“I wouldn’t put too much stock in those websites,” I chuckled and then climbed out of my car.

The fight had moved close enough that the morning light reflected off of the hero's bright blue cape and Iceara’s silvery hair. It would definitely give the news helicopters some awesome footage, and some part of me wondered if the rumors the kid had heard were actually true. Either way, the battle could be dangerous for civilians that got caught in the way, but Iceara didn’t usually fight over the river.

“At least we have front row seats,” the middle aged woman said and climbed onto the hood of her car.

“And an excuse to be late to work,” I laughed.

Iceara blasted a freeze ray towards Admiral Freedom, but the superhero spun out of the way with a flip of his long blue cape. The guy was definitely powerful with super strength and flight, but every interview made me want to punch him in the face. Freedom was one of the guys that got superpowers later in life, rumors said from government experiments, and I was sure that the only reason he actually became a hero was for the fanbase and not an actual interest in saving people.

“I wish it was a different hero,” I muttered and grabbed my coffee. “We’ll have to hear about Freedom’s greatness for another week.”

“For real,” the young man laughed. “I swear that every interview is just a podcast about how amazing he is. It’s like that story of the guy who first saw himself in front of a mirror and then starved to death because he couldn’t stop staring.”

“It’s a good face to stare at,” the woman smirked. “And Iceara’s not too bad to look at, either. If I were into women, then she’d be the one that I wanted. Her ass just doesn’t quit. I wonder if it’s natural, or if it’s just something that supers have naturally.”

“It’s all the squats she does every morning so that she can do more evil,” a younger woman joined our conversation.

The whir of helicopter blades had faded a little as the two twirled around each other and the skyscrapers. Iceara used the freeze ray to blast away Freedom’s cape, and I grinned as the shards fell to the ground. The supers would be battling it out for a while, and it was a little too dangerous to try and get through on foot, so the only thing to do was sit and watch the show.

I hopped up onto the hood of my old sedan and settled against the warm seat as the engine purred. It was a good old car that had lasted me since my college days, though that wasn’t too long ago. I hoped to keep it for at least a few more years, especially since it was so much easier to find a parking spot with the smaller vehicle.

My apartment was a few miles away from my work building and closer to the dump near the north edge of the city. The distance wasn’t too bad of a jog on days when I actually had the energy, but mornings were rough, and then I’d have to run all the way back home after the long day, so the car was a necessity. The main problem was the stench during the summer, but thankfully the old renovated factory where I lived had thick windows that could block some of it out, and I always had a ton of scented candles, just in case.

“What are her superpowers?” the kid asked and walked his moped closer to my car.

“Ice,” I grinned and shook my head. “I’ve read some rumors that she was this amazing scientist or something, and that’s why she has the freeze ray guns. Some people say that she uses them to channel her abilities.”

“She’ll be running out of steam before too long,” the middle aged woman said from her car. “They’ve been fighting for like twenty minutes.”

“Hopefully, it’ll be over soon,” I sighed with a glance at my watch.

I was only ten minutes late for work, but that was still time that I’d have to stay late. This was the main reason that I still paid the higher rent for a tiny apartment in the city, even with the stench from the dumpsite. It was easier to get to work on time, and I wouldn’t get stuck on the bridge waiting for them to clear up the damage from the battle.

There were shards of glass and ice all over the road near the exits, and some of the cars up front had skidded to a halt so that they wouldn’t get in the way. Cop cars had already arrived with clean-up crews, but Freedom and Iceara were still in the middle of their fight, and that meant more damage was on its way. It would probably take another hour for them to actually let us through.

“Personally, I hope this drags on a little longer,” the middle aged woman laughed. “So I can officially miss my hot yoga class. Guess I’ll just have to go to the Smoothie Haven.”

“That place is amazing,” the other woman said and clapped her hands. “Oh my gosh. We should go together.”

“What’s Smoothie Haven?” the kid asked.

“One of the most amazing places in the city,” I laughed. “I might have to go with you guys. I’m already going to be late to work. Might as well get a smoothie for my trouble.”

Iceara swooped around the top of one of the nearby skyscrapers and almost ran straight into the news helicopters. The pilots that flew those were some of the best in the country because New Liberty was known for its superheroes and its villains, and anyone who wanted to fly in and out of the airports and heliports had to receive additional training. The pilot we were watching didn’t disappoint as he managed to pull back before colliding into the silver haired villain, and she swerved towards the building to give the workers inside a better view of her spandex covered body.

At least the villains only attacked the city one at a time, probably because they couldn’t work together, but that was a lot better than a coordinated attack. I’d written a paper in college about the cost and effect of that very possibility, but it was clear that the egos didn’t allow for that. The supervillains were especially problematic, though most of them had high intelligence, but they all thought that they were the best and refused to admit that there might be benefits to teaming up.

Actually, it was amazing how closely related the superheroes and supervillains were to each other. It was like they were different sides of the same coin, and the heroes were only one really bad day from becoming evil themselves. Of course, the government paid them well enough to remain on the right side of the law, and a few of them actually cared more about the people they saved than the media coverage.

“I always wanted to be a hero,” the kid broke the silence that had fallen on all of us as we watched. “But no one in my family has superpowers. And they don’t let you become a hero without them.”

“True,” I said and took another swig of my coffee. “I was thinking about becoming a cop at one point.”

“Really?” the middle aged woman laughed and shook her head. “They’re practically overpaid babysitters. Iceara is supposed to be in lock up right now, but they couldn’t even get that right.”

I shrugged and gulped down the now cold coffee. It wasn’t like the cops had much help from the government since the superheroes all came out of the woodwork. I remember the local sheriff’s department going through major cutbacks as everyone paid money into a hero fund instead of the local police department.

My parents had still contributed to the police fund, and my father had insisted that the country had done just fine without superheroes for a hundred years and that the supers would all kill each other off anyway, and we’d need the police again when that happened. I’d only been five at the time and hadn’t understood the huge shift that was reshaping our government. But now that I was an adult, I could see that my dad’s prediction had been wrong and we were stuck with the supers. A more cynical person might point out that the heroes also didn’t take out the villains permanently unless they absolutely had to, which probably had more to do with job security than any real wish to keep people alive.

The cops in the city weren’t in any better shape than the suburbs, and were probably even worse off because of the concentration of heroes. They still did their part to guard floats in parades, and they helped sometimes with petty crimes, but mostly they were in charge of clean-up. The officers at the end of the bridge were in the middle of eating a box of donuts as they told the teams where to get started, and I thanked my younger self again for not joining the force.

When the dream of becoming a cop had faded, the guys and I had talked about joining the military in hopes of being given the formula that Admiral Freedom had been given. But that was just a rumor, and I was pretty sure that it was all bullshit. There were too many stories about mutant genes that gave people superpowers for the government conspiracy theories to be real. Most of my friends from high school had just given up and stayed in our small suburban town, but Mike and I had moved into the city to follow our dreams.

“It’s not like they’re equipped to handle villains,” the kid said and brought me back from my memories.

“It’s true,” I nodded. “They do their best, but all the money goes to superheroes. And those old facilities are a complete joke. Since the government started putting all its money into heroes, there’s nothing left to upgrade the old police stations. There’s no way a few iron bars are going to hold the villains for long.”

“I heard that they purposefully let villains out sometimes,” the younger woman said as she tucked hair behind her ear. “Like, they actually just open up the doors.”

“Or they have accidental power surges,” the kid said in an excited tone. “I bet it’s true. There’s no way that Iceara could’ve gotten out without help.”

“She probably seduced a guard,” the middle aged woman said with a hint of jealousy. “She’s so gorgeous that anyone would be idiotic to turn her down.”

“I don’t know about that,” I chuckled. “She’s pretty, but she’s dangerous. Like a glacier. Do you remember that snowstorm she created last summer? Some people almost froze to death.”

“They thawed out,” the middle aged woman shrugged. “And none of them pressed charges. And it helped with the stench from the dump. I can smell it clear across the river during the summer. You’d think that they’d pay Inferno to burn it all up. An honest paycheck might keep him busy for a little while.”

I shook my head and glanced out towards the docks and the ship that had come in. I saw that the workers from the other shops had hurried over to help unload all of the fish before Iceara could come any closer. I was happy to see the fishermen’s solidarity, especially after the frost villain hit one of the smaller buoys and it turned into a solid chunk of ice.

“I’ve never seen Inferno,” the kid said. “Is he as scary as everyone says?”

“He’s hot,” the younger woman said. “Not like Admiral Freedom, and not just because of his powers. He’s practically magnetic. I saw him once when he was about to start a battle. My friends and I were on this rooftop garden, and we couldn’t get the fire pit started. He lit it up for us and then took off. Pretty sure that’s the night that he blew up that power station, but like… nobody died… and it was really awesome to see him that close. His eyes are actually like amber and they practically glow.”

“I’ve heard that,” I said as I turned back to the conversation. “If you ever see him that close, and his eyes start to glow, then he’s about to burst into flames. You’re lucky that he didn’t kill you. He’s worse than Iceara. Pretty much a full-blown psychopath instead of just a menace to society.”

“I don’t know,” the young woman said. “He’s only killed a couple of people.”

“Iceara hasn’t killed any,” the middle aged lady pointed out. “Well, like three people. But I’m pretty sure that was an accident. Usually everyone comes back after they heat up.”

“People aren’t dead unless they’re warm and dead,” the kid quoted and shifted on his moped.

I tuned out the conversation as it drifted a little too close to apologetics for my liking. It was my job to know where the line between villains and supervillains lay, but it wasn’t something that I wanted to talk about on a bridge in the cool morning air. I also had no intention of sharing my profession with a bunch of strangers, because some of them would think that I was worse than Inferno.

The glittering building where my cubicle waited was hit by one of Iceara’s freeze rays, but the gun was almost empty, and it barely managed to produce one of the giant snowflakes that were her signature. It would melt before the fight was over, and the glass on the skyscraper was designed to handle direct hits from ice, fire, and sonic waves. They were practically invincible, but then again, even heroes and villains hated insurance companies sometimes.

Last month there had been an attack by some bird hero that had tried to become part of the Hero Society. The Society required full coverage from top-tier insurance companies since some collateral victims tried to sue the heroes personally for property damage. But one of our guys had turned down the bird man’s application. Apparently, the avian super caused a lot more damage than he was worth to the government, which was an acceptable reason to refuse coverage. The potential super hero hadn’t taken it well, though, and he’d had a bunch of birds slam into the glass walls to try and break in.

It wasn’t the first time that we’d been attacked, and it wouldn’t be the last. I worked up in the call center, with occasional side trips outside the city when the boss was feeling generous, and I’d certainly been a first-hand witness to angry attacks. But the bird hero had gone after the guys in actuary that day, with little to show for it. The folks in that department were the kind of people that weren’t even fazed when one of the villains came by to intimidate them into giving him a break on some kind of lair that they wanted, so a few hundred birds smashing into the windows hadn’t even drawn their attention.

Most of the regular villains didn’t bother with insurance, something about evil not needing it, but the supervillains all knew better. Of course, they didn’t actually file it under their personas, so it didn’t usually raise red flags, but some of the newer guys were too dumb to realize that. I’d had one call in once and threaten to kill my dog, which I didn’t have, so it fell on deaf ears, and I denied the claim.

At least I was on track to be promoted to the actuary team by the end of year, and then the call center would be nothing but a terrible memory. The death threats would probably lessen a little since most people threatened the guy on the phone rather than the one that crunched the numbers for their policies. I was also really good at my job, and it turned out I had a talent for finding solutions that made the company and the client happy.

My daydreams of becoming an actuary were interrupted as Admiral Freedom slammed into a window and sent pieces of glass into the air. The damage that Iceara and Admiral Freedom had already done would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair, and people would start to file their claims as soon as the actual battle was over. That meant the phones would be busy once I finally arrived at the office, so the trip to Smoothie Haven would probably have to wait until I went on my lunch break.

“What do you think?” the kid asked and leaned forward on his moped. “Dude! Are you here? Or did you zone out?”

The kid reached out to nudge my shoulder, and I came back from the long list of tasks that waited for me in the office. My pocket vibrated with a text from my boss to tell me that the lines had already started to blow up and that he needed his best agent as soon as possible. I shoved the phone back into my pocket and turned my attention to the kid and the two women.

“I zoned out,” I shrugged. “What were you talking about?”

“Do you think that you could pick a super out if they walked by you on the street?” the kid asked.

“Yeah,” the younger woman said. “Like, I think that I’d be able to pick out Inferno in a crowd, but like, there’s no way to know if someone has powers. Not unless they have different anatomy. There’s that one guy in Larans that supposedly has wings!”

“That’s across the ocean,” the middle aged woman said. “And I’m pretty sure it’s nothing but bullshit. Larans is one of the most developed countries on that continent, so if there was some hero running around with wings, then we’d see him all the time. He’d be more famous than Admiral Freedom. And I bet he’d pose just as much too. There’s no way that people wouldn’t stop him on the street when they see his wings.”

“It would be hard to blend in,” I agreed. “I don’t know. I might be able to pick out Iceara in a crowd. Unless she was wearing a wig. That might make it harder. And she could wear contacts. Honestly, as long as they’re not causing havoc, then I don’t care what the villains are doing.”

“True that,” the kid said. “I’d even date one. At least, one of the ones that doesn’t kill people. Maybe that one chick that likes to shut off street lights and scare people in the middle of the night. That’s actually kind of funny.”

“Until you’re stuck under one with some thugs,” I pointed out. “Nightshade doesn’t protect the people that get caught in her little rolling blackouts.”

The ladies nodded in agreement while the kid stared off into the distance as if he was thinking over his entire life. The conversation wasn’t a new one, and my coworkers had it on a regular basis. Everyone wanted to know what the supers did when they weren’t in uniform, though some of them stayed in their getups the entire day so that they could be seen on social media at any time, day or night.

A sound like breaking ice rippled across the bridge, and we all turned at the same time to see one of the cop cars roll towards the river. It was completely empty, and the officers were safe on the sidewalk, but their ride was totalled. Admiral Freedom waved apologetically at the men and then turned back to Iceara.

The showboat seemed to move a little slower, like his flight ability wasn’t as powerful without the ridiculous cape. Their fight was so close to us now that the air dropped a few degrees as Iceara tossed one of her ice grenades at the superhero. Admiral Freedom dodged and started to laugh like he hadn’t barely managed to move out of the way in time.

“They’re really close,” the younger woman said in a worried tone. “Like, really close. We should probably get out of here.”

The people a few cars up seemed to have the same idea as the young woman, because they all took off running in different directions. Most of them came towards us like they planned to go back across the bridge, but a few of them risked it and went along the edges in hopes of sneaking into the city. That was probably the best bet because the fight looked like it was about to spill over onto the river, and then Iceara would have the upper hand as she used the water to freeze everyone and everything.

“Which way are you going?” the kid asked as I hopped off the hood of my car.

“Into the city,” I said and climbed into my car.

There were huge lanes on either side of the bridge that people could park on just in case there was a fight like this, and I inched my old beater into one so that it wouldn’t block traffic. The last thing that I needed was to have my car towed, and I could always come back and get it later. It was a pain in the ass, but it was just another one of the thrills of living in a world with supers, and it would give me a reason to take an extra long lunch break that my company couldn’t take out of my paycheck.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” the kid asked and followed me over into the emergency lane. “I mean…look at them. They’re practically on top of us.”

I locked up my car, slung my bag over my shoulder, and then watched the battle. Iceara had the upper hand now that she’d finally made it closer to the river, but Admiral Freedom was annoyingly good at what he did. I had no doubt that he’d figure out a way to knock her out, and then the fight would be over.

“Just stick to the sidelines,” I said and pointed to the thin sidewalk that others had started to use. “You’ll have to leave the moped. It’s just a hair too wide.”

“Right,” he said and put it in park.

“Stick close to me,” I said and started off at a trot.

It had become evident after my first few months in the city that being able to run would come in handy, just like weightlifting would become an asset. I hadn’t become a cop, or a superhero, but I’d been able to help some people when they were blocked in a building because someone had dropped a car in the way. The workouts that my gym had on the wall were all designed to teach regular people how to perform amazing feats of strength with minimal effort, and part of that was a good cardio routine, though it seemed like the kid hadn’t gotten that memo yet.

“How are you running in those business shoes?” he huffed from right behind me.

“Practice,” I smirked. “You’ll get used to it.”

Admiral Freedom and Iceara were flying a little too low to the ground for my comfort, so I shifted over as close to the railing as possible. The road opened up just a few feet ahead of us, and the cops were in the middle of directing everyone to the right so that no one would get hit by flying debris. The superhero had a habit of tossing whatever was closest, though usually it missed civilians.

“Holy shit,” the kid whispered and stopped in his tracks. “They’re right there.”

“Yep,” I said as I turned to grab his arm. “And they’re in the middle of a fight, kid. You need to keep moving. If you’re going to survive in this city, then you need to know how to get the hell out of the way.”

“Oh no,” he said and went as pale as a sheet.

I turned to see Admiral Freedom had picked up a manhole cover to use like a shield. He’d pushed Iceara back so far that the duo now blocked our only exit. I swore under my breath and searched for another way for us to go, but the other side of the bridge was blocked by frozen cars that would definitely still be active enough that we’d turn to ice if we touched them, and there was no way we’d make it underneath them.

“Okay,” I took a deep breath and flashed a reassuring smile. “It’s totally fine. Just stay calm, get behind that car and then--”

“Oh shit!” the kid shouted and pointed at something behind me.

I turned around just in time to see Iceara grab the manhole cover from Admirable Freedom and throw it in our direction. The hero wouldn’t make it in time to save us, and the kid was about to be hit. I didn’t even think as I shoved him out of the way.

And then the world went black.