Windsurfer

Windsurfer



Max Surfer was an ordinary teenager. He was not the best athlete, or the best student. He wasn’t the president of any clubs or the captain of any teams. He tried hard in school but then again there was always room to try harder. He was always one of those people who just went through life, never expecting much. However, these were all things he was. He isn’t these things anymore. Nowhere close.

The day was like any other day. He woke up five minutes before his bus came, and he hurriedly dressed. He rushed to his bus only to go through another uneventful day of school. He came home directly after school and stayed home, socializing on his computer and playing video games. He ate his dinner, took a shower, and went to sleep.

As midnight stretched across the world, max found himself awake in his bed. Nothing he tried worked to help him sleep. He was just sitting there, defeated, when his whole house began to shake. Picture frames fell from his nightstand and books fell from his shelves. Drawers opened and things crashed down from the closet. He didn’t know what it was; earthquakes were unheard of on Long Island. He could only look around frantically for an explanation.

Suddenly, there was a vacuum over his head and his ceiling ripped off in an instant, pulling everything in the room out through the ceiling. He landed in his backyard, his body mangled. Next to him was a shallow crater. A stone rested in the deepest part of it. He could see it, faintly glowing, embers scattered around it. He cursed the stone, anger festering inside him. He felt like he was going to die, yet he was shocked he was even still alive.

What happened next, Max would not be able to explain. The glow of the stone grew more intense, and in a moment, the stone lifted from the crater and moved over him. The glow became so bright that it consumed everything except for the space between it and Max. It started breaking into smaller pieces and each piece moved to Max and entered his body, seemingly by some sort of magic.

His body lifted into the air. His bones snapped back into place, painfully. He felt his arms and legs moving. There was a burning sensation all over his body. The stone erupted in a flash of light and Max was returned to the ground.

However, now he was able to move. The pain in his body had left. He stood up. There were faint sirens in the distance; Max didn’t even notice that his house was on fire. He stood in his yard and just stared at the crater. He didn’t know the extent of its powers or what exactly it had done to him.

The first of the changes were obvious. All the fat on his body had vanished. He could see new muscles rippling all over his body. His pecks were large and his abs were defined. His arms bulged and his legs were sleek. He felt incredibly alive.

The rest of the changes did not come immediately. However, because of his sudden fitness and what others found to be attractiveness, he became an outcast. The only people who would speak to him were his parents, his neighbor, and his teachers. His father assured him that in a year or so, people would forget about it. There would be new friends and new girls. He didn’t dare tell anyone how he got his new figure.

His father seemed wrong. As time passed, other people just started getting more aggressively toward him. Sometimes they pushed him around, sometimes they chased him. During sports practices, they would be extra rough with him. The coaches couldn’t even protect him. He wouldn’t retaliate; he may have been being mistreated but he would not turn into them.

The next important day in Max Surfer’s life was another day that seemed to start unremarkably. His normal daily schedule followed by a run home. Sometimes he was harassed by the people he passed but it was never this bad. Today, they chased him through the streets, and to loose them, he headed down an alley. Most were not able to run like him, and gave up fast, but one found pride in his ability to keep up. Then Max reached a wall.

“Well, trapped like a rat, aren’t you, Freak?”

“Don’t call me a freak!” Max demanded.

“I’ll just cut the talk and see how much that fake body of yours can take!” The bully picked up piece of wood that was on the ground. There was a lot of junk in the alley. People had tossed garbage down there for years.

“Stop!” Max called. The bully didn’t listen. He swung the wood and it slammed across Max’s face. Max fell to the ground. He lifted his hands up to cover his face. The only thing he could think of was finding a nearby piece of wood or metal to block the blows. The second blow came, but instead of hitting like he thought, the pain was spread completely across his forearms. He looked up. A piece of wood was blocking the bully from striking him.

The bully stood there, his face frozen in bewilderment. “You really are a freak!” he added after a moment. He began to run down the alley. “Wait until the guys hear this!”

“No!” Max stood up. “Wait! Stop!” Max raised his arms. He reached out at nothing, thinking he could stop the bully from getting away. He jumped at what he saw. The bully was completely frozen in place.

“What are you doing to me? Let me go!”

“I’m sorry!” Max lowered his hands and the bully fell to the ground. He jumped up and ran away.

Max slept more uneasily than usual that night. He was more concerned with how the wood had protected him than with sleep. He moved over it with his mind, and each time he thought back to the rock that crashed into his yard. It had to be what was causing it. There was no other explanation.

He had finally found sleep when his mother started screaming from the living room. He heard windows break and when he woke fully he heard sirens. Something heavy but nimble hurried down the hallway and his bedroom door swung open. Police officers with riot shields hurried into his room and moved over to him.

“Get away from me!” He forcefully pushed his hands forward and immediately the officers were thrown back into the wall. He jumped out of his bed and ran over the officers and into his living room. His parents were being restrained by police.

“Stop him! Get him!” officers shouted as he ran around.

“Run, Max! Run!” his father demanded.

Max obeyed and he hurried out the door. An officer tackled him. He managed to push him off. The other officers shot at him with tasers, but his hands moved fast enough to stop them before they hit. He headed for the woods.

The police were following him soon after. He ran through the woods, along the path for a minute before he heard someone. “Max! Max! Come here!”

Max stopped. It sounded like his neighbor, his friend. “Jamie?”

“Over here! Hurry!” his friend, Jamie, called.

Max saw him and hurried to his side. Jamie pulled him down to the ground. They were hidden by the brush. Jamie signaled for him to be quiet and he held his hands out toward the path. The sticks and leaves on the ground began to move and they gathered together to form the shape of a person. The human foliage then began to move down the path, moving just like a running person would.

The two boys sat there for a minute, waiting for the police to pass by and follow the fake Max. Max turned to his friend. “You can do it, too? How?”

“The night the rock hit your house. I went outside to check it out and it did to me what it did to you.” Jamie said.

“You practiced a lot more than I have. I just got it today.” Max said, the stick-man still fresh in him mind.

“Don’t worry, you get used to it.” Jamie said, clearly focusing on his creation.

“Let’s go somewhere safe.” Max urged.

“My house should be safe.” Jamie suggested.

“It’s too close to mine. The cops will probably be there all the time.”

“I can get rid of them for you.” Jamie said, turning his attention to Max’s house.

“What? No! Don’t hurt them!” Max pushed him slightly to break his concentration.

“Oops…” Jimmy sighed.

“What did you do?” Max said, his voice straining.

“The stick man may have done some damage,” Jamie said.

“Jamie! Why did you do that? We have to get out of here right now!” Max jumped up and urged Jamie to follow.

“No! You have to get out of here right now. You’re the one they know about!” Jamie smirked. He got up and ran toward his house. “I don’t need to do anything.”

“Jamie!” Max reached out for him.

“Run, Max Surfer! Run forever! I won’t ever tell anyone of your secret if you jut keep running!” Jamie said while running away.

“Damn you Jamie Stone!” Max called out as he ran the opposite direction.



He felt like he had been running forever. He ran west toward Manhattan. He got far and began walking. He felt like a fugitive on the run with nowhere safe to go. He wandered for hours, days, even. But soon he stumbled into a scrap yard. There, he used his powers to create a home for himself beneath the rubble. He thought he was concealed well. He was wrong.

In his solitude, he practiced his power. He quickly mastered its properties, although he assumed there was much more potential in this power than he gave it credit for. He thought of things he could do, but most were much too large and obvious for his taste. The farthest he would go was using scraps of metal to create some sort of harness so he could fly. The ideology behind it was simple. He couldn’t lift his own body, but he could lift anything else. Whatever he wanted the object to do, it would do. He could even do as much as separate individual atoms. He wanted to try fission and fusion, but he didn’t dare attempt something so dangerous. In his junkyard world, those things weren’t needed.

What he didn’t know was that he was being watched. Since the morning he arrived, the junkyard manager had been watching him. He saw him use his power, and he saw him mold the junkyard to his will. He wanted to see what would become of Max, so he watched. What he didn’t expect was his daughter to go strolling through the junkyard.

She met Max as he left to find food. He explained that he was lost, and she believed him. They met more and more often, and his excuse no longer passed. She began to watch him, as her father did and she too learned of his power. She revealed herself to Max as he trained one day. He tried to run, but she promised that she wouldn’t tell, and that she would keep her father from demolishing his home. Her name was Sarah Jordan, and she and max quickly became friends. She spent her free time helping him train to learn new things and perfect his harness.



This went on for three years, and Sarah was making her final preparations for college. Max felt completely safe in his junkyard realm, which he began to call his Fortress. Sarah’s father never mentioned that he knew why Sara wanted to keep him away from the back corner of the junkyard. He bought extra food when he went shopping so Max would be fed. Max didn’t realize it, but he had a pretty good life and was well taken care of. He had completely forgotten about Jamie Stone.



“Max! Max! Max!” Sarah ran into the Fortress completely frantic one day.

“What?” Max asked, confused.

“Is there anyone else with your power?” Sarah asked.

Max suddenly remembered Jamie Stone. “Why?”

“Somebody is attacking the White House, and he has the same powers as you. They can’t shoot him with bullets, or tanks, and he pushes grenades away. He’s destroying buildings and streets and everything. They can’t stop him and he can destroy everything.” Sarah explained.

“I guess that means you want me to stop him?” Max asked.

“Could you, please? Just don’t use that harness because it’s not ready yet.”

“Then what do I do? I can’t get there fast on foot!”

“Why don’t you make some sort of surfboard? Your name’s Surfer, after all!”

“Alright,” Max said, lifting his hand. A long piece of metal came out from his junk walls and landed in front of him. He stepped onto it. Four more pieces of metal came from the junk walls and they changed shape. They attached to the metal board and wrapped around Max’s feet and legs. The board lifted into the air. Max smiled at Sarah.

“Get him!” she said. Max flew out of the fortress and into the sky, soon vanishing out of sight.



Washington D.C. was in smoke. Max could see the carnage. Dead bodies littered the streets and shattered stones were all that remained of buildings. The line of destruction headed directly for the Pentagon. He could hear gunfire in the distance. He could see army cavalry getting tossed around.

He flew toward the front of the line. Jamie stone stood in the center of the carnage. The bullets and tank shells stopped harmlessly before him. Some he threw back at the soldiers while others he let drop. Max noticed that there was a gas station nearby and an oil truck was parked in the center. He figured it was there to deliver gasoline, but Jamie’s invasion caused the driver to flee.

Max saw the truck lift up off the ground and launch toward the defending soldiers. A line of fire followed. Jamie had managed to use his power to take fire from a gunshot and move it behind the truck. Max reached out for the truck, all the while moving closer on his surfboard.

The truck stopped just before it struck the line of soldiers and it launched toward Jamie with the trail of fire still following behind. Jamie was shocked and managed to stop the truck inches from his face. In his confusion he forgot about the fire and the truck exploded. The blast was massive and glorious. The soldiers who were not pushed by the shockwave rejoiced.

The fireball dwindled revealing Jamie unharmed within the center. His gaze immediately moved to the sky. The reason for Jamie’s attack was now here. All of his attention turned to Max, his primary target. He raised his hands and the tanks around him lifted from the ground. He started to throw them at Max.

Max grabbed the tanks as they blasted toward him. He lowered them safely to the ground and moved himself closer to the ground. Jamie turned to a nearby building and it rose from the ground. It blasted suddenly toward Max. Max couldn’t stop it in time. He had to break it up into pieces to avoid it. He only hoped there was nobody in that building.

Max hovered a few feet over the ground. “Jamie! What are you doing?”

“I’ve been looking for you, Max! I figured this would be the fastest way of finding you,” Jamie smirked. “I was right.”

“You need to stop!”

“On the contrary, Max, I need to keep going. You need to stop!” Jamie barked in rage. He lifted his hand and the ground beneath Max ripped upward, slamming into the bottom of Max’s board. Max was tossed into the air and landed on the outside of the circle the army had formed around Jamie. He was helped up by what seemed to be a high ranking soldier.

“I’m General Cattone, boy. Can you stop him?” the General said.

“I think,” Max said.

“Can you stop him?” the General asked again, in a firm tone.

“Yes!” Max said. He got back on his board and flew over to Jamie. “I won’t go down that easily!”

“I thought so. So I devised a plan to force you to! I remember when you refused to hurt the police the night they came for you, so I thought you wouldn’t risk the lives of other people at all.” Jamie turned toward the Pentagon, which was within sight. He raised his hands and the ground started to shake. The earth around the Pentagon cracked and began to rise. “Make a choice, Max! Your life, or the Pentagon and everyone in it.”

“Alright! Alright! Stop!” Max said. He jumped from his board and moved to Jamie.

“Get on the ground,” Jamie demanded. “With you out of the way, I will take over the world!”

Max was surrounded by a dozen metal poles with very jagged, sharp tips. They revolved around him as Jamie spoke. They seemed to move closer with every moment. “Now, Max! Don’t feel bad! Just be thankful that you won’t be around to see what I have planned for my world! I hope there’s no unfinished business you have!”

As Jamie said the last word, a pole, almost like the ones that surrounded Max, but with a smoother, less jagged, broken point, ripped through his body. Jamie was frozen in pain and shock. Max thought that Jamie’s powers weren’t as strong as his, and they kept Jamie from moving as much mass as he could. Since Jamie’s mind was concentrated on the poles circulating Max, and with his plan for world domination, he did not sense the pole that Max was fashioned.

Jamie fell to the ground and his poles fell with him. Max moved over to the body. “We could have been great together!” Jamie managed to say. “But you had to choose the role of protector. I knew that from that night. You would never live up to your full potential!” He spat up blood and coughed. “Curse you, Max Surfer.” He said before he lost consciousness. General Cattone ordered his men to collect the body, and Jamie was quickly gathered up. Max didn’t want to stay, so he mounted his surfboard and began to fly off.

“Wait!” a civilian watching had called out. “Who are you?”

“Me?” Max asked. “I’m just a Surfer.” He flew off.



“They’re calling you the Windsurfer in the newspapers,” Sarah explained.

“Are they?” Max asked. Sarah was dressing his wounds.

“Hey, Windsurfer!” Sara’s father called from outside the Fortress. “Why don’t you come inside for dinner today? It’s about time I finally met you.”

“You told your dad about me?” Max asked.

“No! I swear!” Sarah replied.

“I’ve known all along, Surfer. Now hurry up and come eat!”

“Alright, dad!” Sarah called back. “Well, at least you don’t have to hide from everyone.”

“Yea,” Max smiled. “But something worries me.”

“What?”

“Jamie. General Cattone took his body. What can he be planning to do with it?”

“Hopefully destroy it.”

“Yea, hopefully.”



“Let me go!” Jamie stone cried. He was bound to a metal prison. His powers would not work. General Cattone stood face to face with him.

“Why would I let such a powerful weapon go? You aren’t the only person who had higher aspirations in life, my boy. Once you are fully healed, you can go.” Cattone said.

“What do you want from me?” Jamie asked, still struggling.

“Until I find a way to take your powers from you, I want you. And you will do what I command.” Cattone informed him.

“I will not!” Jamie screamed.

“Oh, I believe you will.” Cattone showed Jamie a needle. He laughed as he stuck the needle into his neck and injected the liquid. “Now, will you obey me?”

“Yes, General. What is it you command?” Jamie said, robotically.

“Rest now. Soon, my friend, we shall have the world.” Cattone smiled at Jamie and left the room. It wasn’t a friendly smile, however. It was the kind of smile that nightmares are made of. A smile that signified a dark being. The smile of evil. The lights died and the room was completely dark. Jamie screamed.