Chapter Twelve: Haunting

The Super rushed forward, the wind in his face, screaming in his ears, yanking on his cape. He saw his target coming closer, and he slowed to avoid collision. His feet touched the ground and he stood in front of The Blue Octo.

His first nemesis, his first success, his first headline. He put this bad guy in jail years ago, and had moved on, expecting him to stay there. But that stupid dragon... wait, where was that dragon? Or any of the other convicts? Last month's bust, Biter; or the guy he'd caught ages ago, the star guy... what was his name? Never mind that, what about the sorcerer boy?

"Where's everyone else? What are you doing here?" he demanded.

He looked down at The Blue Octo. Wait, down..? The Blue Octo was lying on the ground, and he wasn't looking too hot. "Wa-teerrr..." he croaked. The desert air had finally caught up with him.

"What are you doing out here? Why aren't you with the others?" demanded the Super. He stared right into Octo's eyes, trying so hard to read the criminal's mind. It was the one power he didn't have. He could fly, shoot lasers, open portals to other dimensions. He could light things on fire at will, understand anything said in any language, and even survive in space. He had a magic map that could take him anywhere he wanted, and he was so strong he hadn't found a limit to what he could carry yet.

But he couldn't read minds. And it made him so frustrated. He was constantly finding new abilities. At least, he used to. Ever since he became a big hero, famous across the galaxy, he'd stopped learning new things. The people in charge of keeping him "under control," an organization he never quite learned the name of and never claimed to be part of the government, told him that he was "above petty crime" and should "focus on the big stuff." In other words, no more stopping crime wherever it could be found; he had to spend his days waiting for them to call him for an assignment. They might not sound legitimate, but when he was faced with either "slight restrictions" or being sent to jail yourself, he decided to follow their orders.

Being a big-shot superhero wanted all over the galaxy seemed nice at times, but The Super missed the old days. Once you get high enough you can't get back down without falling.

He grabbed The Blue Octo by the neck, yanking the limp figure up so they were close to eye level. "Come, on, say something!" demanded The Super. The Octo looked up into The Super's eyes, and he could tell that this enemy had lost all respect for him. The days of witty banter were long gone. Battles fought might as well have never happened; it was as if The Blue Octo were searching for something to tell him who this person was, a look of curiosity combined with caution, and just a hint of skepticism.

The Blue Octo looked into the eyes of The Super as he had done the first time they met: as a stranger.

This terrified The Super so much he dropped Octo, and the creature dropped to the ground with a grunt. Had he really changed that much? Had he become a stranger to himself? It had only been a few years... Years that The Super had lost count of. How long had it been, again? Ten years? He was slipping, and he'd known it for some time, but that didn't stop him from acting as the hero he thought he should be. He didn't want to give up. Not yet. There was always hope; at least, that's what he used to tell himself to keep going, back before he became a big-shot hero, back when he struggled with even the simplest of crimes. Life seemed so simple back then, even with the setbacks. If something needed doing back then, he could do it without having to clear it first. That seemed so far away... like a dream he couldn't quite remember all of. He remembered how it used to feel, becoming a new hero; but not much of what he'd done. Gosh darn it, he really was slipping.

The Super crouched down to look at Octo. His eyes were closed, and for one terrifying second The Super thought he was dead. Then he saw the octopus' chest slowly rise and sink, and he relaxed. The Blue Octo was still alive. The next step: re-hydration.

The Super reached down and looped his arms around The Blue Octo's torso, and slowly took flight, ascending carefully as he thought. He had become a stranger to himself, and it didn't feel good. It felt... hollow. Something was missing, something he'd missed because he hadn't been thinking about it. But now that he focused... there was definitely a hole there. He wondered what used to go there...

The Super sped forward, reaching the top of the plateau in record time. He touched down to the ground, and Rose and Cassandra turned. "Who's that?" asked Rose, looking at the limp figure of The Blue Octo. "Oh, my God! Is he hurt?" She stood up from the rock she'd been sitting on and hurried over to The Blue Octo's side.

Cassandra glared at The Super. "Why's he here?" she asked pointedly.

"Wait," said The Super, "you know who this is?"

"Yeah," said Cassandra. "The blue octopus guy. The one you're always fighting."

"Didn't you say you were from another dimension?" asked The Super.

"Yeah."

"So how do you know who this is? Even if your data is a little off, I mean, his face hasn't even seen daylight in years, and he hasn't fought me for twice as long – but still, not even Rose or Alfonso knows this stuff. No one does. So how can you, a person who's never even seen me before yesterday, know so much about my past?" concluded The Super.

Cassandra stared at her feet, her face turning red.

"To be fair, I'm from another dimension, too," interjected Rose, who was somewhere behind The Super reviving the dehydrated octopus.

Cassandra looked up for half a second, then her eyes darted back down. Wait, was that...? It was! She'd just looked at Rose for collaboration! The Super turned to look at Rose kneeling by The Blue Octo behind him, just as she turned back to her work. Hm... something fishy was going on here.

"I dunno why," Cassandra finally said.

The Super scrunched up his face for a second, debating whether or not to address this secret they were so obviously keeping. He'd worked so hard to hide his past. In the kind of hero business he had somehow gotten into, anything from your past could destroy your future. He couldn't take that chance, because even if he didn't plan to stay like this forever, the past shouldn't determine the future. The Super chose to have no past, so that to figure out his future, they'd have to look at the hero standing in front of them, not the one who rescued damsels in distress fifteen years ago.

The Super decided to let it slide; his career was already falling apart at the seams, and they had bigger problems to address. The Blue Octo was waking up.

"Now," said The Super, "Tell us why you're here."





Hey, guys. Sorry it's been so long. It's just that... stuff happened. I don't really want to talk about it. Basically it took me almost two weeks to write this, and I hate having it drag out for so long. I'll do my best to prevent it from now on, I promise.

This post went really long, and I didn't get to write the stuff I wanted to. But I had to cut it short or else it would be another week before you guys got anything. So I'll write it in the next post. You'll get it sometime during the week of the fifth.

Random note: The movie, The Boxtrolls? Really, really, cool. I recommend it.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm really tired. See you in the next post.

                  ~PolarFarina

P.S. Try to guess why this chapter's called "Haunting." I'll do something special if you do, maybe even draw up a new Randomness of it All comic...    *wink wink*  Seriously, though, you guys are awesome. Thanks for just being here.