Falling Stars

CLYCIA: Satellite Launching Station, September 19, 12:03 GST

General K’wal’Ebb of the Clycan High Command observed the firing mechanism. Satisfied, he turned to the gunner. “How soon can we launch?”
The gunner checked a readout on his control panel. “We can fire at any time in the next quarter rotation.”
K’wal’Ebb turned up the corners of his reptilian mouth. “Excellent. Do it.”
The gunner punched a button and a streak of light flashed from the barrel in to space. As the light arced through the void, a dark figure observed it from an asteroid orbiting Clycia. As the light passed the belt, the figure launched itself in pursuit.
* * *
TERRA FIRMA: Bayview, New York, September 19, 12:04 EST

“Mr. Ferrara? Mr. Ferrara?” Macy Darkholm sighed in exasperation. She took a yardstick from the chalkboard and banged it on her desk, causing Vincent Ferrara to jump out of his half-dozing state. “Mr. Ferrara, are we interrupting your beauty sleep?”
Vinnie gulped. “No, Ms. D. I was just, uh, thinking. Really hard about, uh…” He grinned sheepishly. “…whatever it was that you just said?”
Ms. Darkholm gave a cruel little smile. “Well, I’m glad you find the topic of essay due dates so thought-provoking.” The class burst into laughter. “Perhaps we could discuss it in more detail after school.”
Vinnie nodded glumly. The bell rang, and the entire class got up as a whole and squished through the door. Vinnie made a beeline for his locker. He dropped off one set of books and grabbed another. Before he could slam the locker shut, he was greeted by the smiling faces of his stepbrother Manny and his best friend Scott.
“Dude!” Scott beamed. “The guys are all going to the lake after school. You in?”
Vinnie shook his head. “Sorry, man. I got detention.”
Manny shrugged. “Your loss, bro. You bring the Impala or the Cruiser today?”
“Cruiser.” Vinnie tossed his keys into Manny’s waiting hands. “Just send someone to pick me up when I’m done.”
Manny and Scott turned and walked to their last classes. A light tap on Vinnie’s shoulder prompted him to turn around. His girlfriend, Lea, gave him a big smile and kissed him. “Hey.” She wrapped her arms around him. “You doing anything after school?”
“Yeah, detention for Darkholm,” Vinnie lamented.
“Well,” Lea smiled mischievously, “maybe we could do something afterwards.”
“Maybe,” Vinnie smiled back. “I gotta go.” He gave her a quick kiss. “I’ll call you later.” Lea turned and walked away.
Vinnie slammed his locker shut and turned to run to his trig class when he heard a loud RIP! He looked down to see that his jacket had gotten caught in the locker and a large tear now ran up the back. Cursing under his breath, he pulled the jacket out and ran.
* * *
“I hate my life.” Vinnie kicked a can out into the street. He had waited a good hour outside the school and no one had shown up. Now he had to walk the mile and a half home in the failing light, not to mention Lea was probably pissed. It was enough to make a guy see stars.
Then he did see a star, out of the corner of his eye. A star falling through the dusky sky, right onto the deserted street. Vinnie covered his eyes, shielding them from the light of impact. The light soon faded away, and Vinnie’s curiosity drove him to find out what had happened.
The “star” was, in reality, a two-foot long, oval-shaped meteor. Its surface was remarkably smooth and almost completely intact. Vinnie warily reached out to touch it, confirm it was real. As soon as his fingers brushed the rock, something akin to an electric shock ran through him. He fell on his back, unconscious.
After a few minutes, Vinnie’s eyes fluttered open. He groaned softly as he sat up. His head felt like an anvil had been dropped on it. He gingerly rubbed his temple and tried to blink the spots out of his eyes. The meteor had crumbled, leaving only a small pile of dust behind. Vinnie carefully stood up and staggered towards home.
It was slow going. The headache was making him dizzy, and the spots in his eyes were making it hard to see. He had safely walked about fifty feet before he tripped. As he fell to the ground, his arms flailed out, one accidently punching through the brick wall on his right.
A few seconds later, Vinnie got to his knees and stared at the hole, trying to figure out if he really had made it or if he was more out of it than he thought. His disorientation was slowly vanishing and he decided to try it again. He lashed out and punched another hole in the wall. Laughing in disbelief, he stood up and started walking again, staring at his hands.
He reached the alley next to the building and saw a half-full dumpster sitting against one of the walls. An idea burst into his head and he squatted down and gripped its underside. With a grunt, he heaved the dumpster up, intending to pick it up over his head. Instead, it soared a good thirty feet into the air. Vinnie stared in awe at the flying mass of metal.
He was snapped violently out of his trance when the dumpster began to fall on the building in front of him. In a desperate attempt to save the building, he leaped into the air and caught it. He closed his eyes, preparing for a very painful collision with Terra Firma. Then he realized he wasn’t falling. He opened his eyes and saw that he was hovering over the alley, holding the dumpster over his head. He started to float down to the street and gingerly replaced the dumpster. He stared at his hands again. “What the hell is happening to me?”
* * *
Vinnie cracked open his eyes the next morning. After his experience in the alley, he had all but ran home, and as soon as he arrived, had buried himself in his bed. The entire ordeal had tired him out a lot, and he needed to recharge. Now he yawned and stretched out, wondering when his bed had gotten so hard.
“V?” A sleepy voice came from a corner of the room. “What the hell are you doing in my room?” Manny pulled his head out of the covers of his bed.
Vinnie looked around and realized he was in Manny’s basement bedroom. But how had he gotten down here, when he had gone to bed two floors up? His head hurt from the strangeness of the situation.
“What’d you do, fall through the ceiling?” Manny said as he rolled to the side.
Vinnie froze with his hand on the doorknob. Had he? If that meteor had given him superstrength and flight, was it really that big a leap to intangibility? “Maybe I did,” he said in a light-hearted tone. “Maybe I did.”
* * *
Vinnie slumped into his seat and waited for the bell to ring. After the intangibility incident, he just wanted to do nothing, but school demanded otherwise. He gave Scott a high-five as he scrambled into the seat next to him seconds before the bell rang.
“All right, class,” Mr. Kaller droned from the front of the classroom. “I hope you remembered to do your lab reports, because…”
Kaller’s voice, along with everything else, began to shrink away. Vinnie felt like he was seeing the world through a tunnel. He rubbed his eyes to try and correct his vision, but as soon as he pulled his hands away, a sudden pain sliced through his brain. He cried out and fell to the floor.
“Dude, you all right?” Scott jumped out of his desk and helped his groggy friend to his feet. “Maybe we should go to the nurse.”
Vinnie groaned. “No. Just take me to the hospital.”
* * *
“I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Dr. Stephanie Morgan took a second look at the results in her hand. Vinnie and Scott were sitting in a hospital room facing the good doctor. Vinnie’s disorientation had faded, but his worry over his condition had only increased.
“Your brain is covered with these tiny black spots.” Dr. Morgan continued. “They’re too small and widespread to be tumors, and I don’t know what else they could be.”
Vinnie gulped. “Are there any other sort of tests you can do to find out?”
Dr. Morgan shook her head. “This is way above my pay grade.” She paused and nodded, as if she were remembering something important. “There is someone you could try.” She pulled a notepad and pen out of her coat and started jotting something down. “Doctor Nathaniel Street. He was our chief neurologist until last year. He might be able to help you.” She ripped off the piece of paper. “Here’s his address.”
Scott took the paper with a trembling hand. “Thanks, Doc. Really.” They stood up and walked out the door. As they reached the outside, Scott gestured to the paper. “You up for a road trip?”
* * *
The two friends stared at the old, dilapidated warehouse in front of them. Scott double-checked the address to make sure they were in the right place. The warehouse was one of many relics taking up this stretch of the Hudson River.
Vinnie walked up to the service door in the side and tested the knob to see if it was locked. It was, but a quick jerk of superstrength rectified that problem. He motioned for Scott to follow him.
The interior was just of dingy and dilapidated as the exterior. The only light came from holes in the walls and roof, which cast a weird shadow over the place.
Suddenly, light streamed out of the center of the room. A short, middle-aged man stepped away from the light switch and advanced on the pair. “What are you two doing here?”
Vinnie drew himself up to his full height. “Dr. Morgan said you might be able to help me, Dr. Street.”
The doctor paused. “Stephanie sent you?” Vinnie nodded and Dr. Street sighed. “Come with me.”

Vinnie sat in a metal chair, wires attached to his forehead. Dr. Street and Scott sat at a computer, viewing a scan of Vinnie’s brain.
“This is most unusual,” Street said. He zoomed in on one of the tiny black spots registering on the scan. “It’s like no disease I’ve ever seen.” He looked at Vinnie and said, “Have you had any other symptoms?”
Vinnie opened his mouth to speak, the stopped. “Yeah,” he said tentatively, “if you can call superstrength and flight “symptoms”.”
Street and Scott looked at Vinnie skeptically. “The hell are you talking about?” asked Scott.
Vinnie told the story of his encounter with the meteor and the subsequent superpowered escapades. Scott’s eyes grew wider and wider with each word.
“Dude!” he yelled indignantly. “You got superpowers and you didn’t even tell me? You suck!”
Street stroked his chin. “Well, at least now we have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.” He turned back to the monitor. “These spots could be some sort of alien virus.”
That’s all I need,” Vinnie groaned. “I’m gonna break out with the Martian measles.”
Street clicked the mouse and magnified the black spot even farther. “If I can get a sample, I can examine this more closely.” He pressed a button and a hypodermic needle drew blood from Vinnie’s arm. “I’ll let you know when I find something.”
Vinnie ripped the wires off his forehead and stood up. “Thanks, Doc.” He and Scott walked out of the warehouse into the pre-autumn air. “So,” said Scott, “what are we gonna do in the meantime?”
Vinnie smiled. “What do you think?”
* * *
“Give it up, blues! You got no chance of stopping the Black Boomerang!”
Two police officers shared a quizzical look. The loony in the black coat had broken into a bank in broad daylight, but what made him think he could take on six of New York City’s finest?
Boomerang strode down the steps of the 21st National Bank. A policeman spoke through a megaphone. “Put your hands above your head! If you continue to advance, we will shoot you!”
A loud laugh sprang from Boomerang’s lips. “You can try, but I think you’ll be too busy being unconscious to shoot me.”
With that, a black energy-boomerang appeared in his right hand. A flick of the wrist sent the boomerang flying into the lead police car, which exploded with amazing force. The policemen who weren’t knocked out were running for their radios, calling for backup.
Boomerang let out another barking laugh. “What did I tell you? No one can beat the Black Boomerang!”
As soon as he said that, an impact shook the steps. Boomerang whirled around to see a large cloud of dust billowing from a crater in the steps.
Vinnie rose up from the crater and stepped out of the dust. A long green trench coat swished around his ankles. He clenched his fists, feeling his fingerless gloves stretch. His eyes narrowed behind the black double-V lenses that made up his mask. He cracked a smile as he advanced on Boomerang. “I’m pretty sure you’ve overdrawn your account.”
Boomerang’s face screwed up in confusion. Vinnie sighed. “Bank humor. Never mind.”
“Who are you?” asked Boomerang. Vinnie paused, flitting through his brain for a name. “Vertigo.” He blurted out the first thing that entered his head. “The name’s Vertigo.”
“All right, Mister Hero Man,” Boomerang dropped the bag of cash he’d been holding and conjured up two boomerangs. “I think it’s time for the charming young villain to make his escape.” He hurled the boomerangs at Vertigo’s chest.
Vinnie smiled in relief as the boomerangs passed through him and exploded against the stairs. “My turn.” He pushed off the stairs and landed a flying punch on Boomerang’s jaw that sent him flying into a police car. Vertigo smiled and yelled, “Consider your assets frozen.”
With a laugh, he launched himself into the air and started the flight home. In his jean’s pocket, he felt his cell phone vibrate. “Yo,” he answered.
“Vincent, I need to see you right away.” Dr. Street’s voice sounded panicky. “I’ve found something I think you should see.”
* * *
“What?!” Vinnie cried out in shock.
“I said the virus that is giving you your powers will also eventually kill you.”
Vinnie ran his fingers through his hair and took a few deep breaths. “Do you know when?”
Dr. Street looked at his monitor. “According to my analysis, the virus has been genetically engineered to kill the host when they’re in their physical prime, then reanimate them.”
Vinnie did a double take. “Wait, what? Not only am I gonna die, but I’m gonna turn into a ZOMBIE?!”
Scott winced. “I know you have no life, V, but that’s a little extreme.”
Vinnie shot Scott a death glare and turned to the monitor. He quickly glanced over the data and groaned. He could not only understand all of Dr. Street’s analysis, but he could understand what was going to happen to him. After the virus reanimated him, it would become airborne, infecting the entire planet, wiping out humanity and leaving behind a new race of mindless monstrosities. Vinnie fell to his knees, the weight of the world pressing on his shoulders.
“I have two pieces of good news.” Dr. Street opened another screen. “First, you won’t reach your physical prime until you turn eighteen, so we have some time to come up with a solution.”
Vinnie let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “And the second piece?”
“Second, you can use your powers without accelerating the virus.”
“That is good news,” said Scott. “I’ve always wanted a friend who’s a superhero.” His laugh was interrupted by Vinnie’s hand connecting with the back of his head. “Watch the superstrength, dude. I like having my head attached to my body.”
* * *
Vinnie ducked under a massive armored fist and landed a punch on his opponent’s chest. “What is it with you super-villain guys and robbing banks in the middle of the day?” he quipped. “You got a million witnesses and someone always ends up calling the cops.” He flew over a second punch and landed behind the armored behemoth. It stood a good ten feet tall, not counting the horns on the helmet, and was superstrong. Vertigo conjured a sphere of energy and hurled it at the titan’s back. “Have you ever considered just knocking over a hot dog cart or something? Maybe not as big a score, but at least it attracts less attention.”
Vinnie silently gave thanks for his new powers. He was now able to absorb energy into his body and use it for himself. That and his newfound intellect were proving to be invaluable against the bad guys.
The juggernaut turned around and screamed in rage. “This prototype took me weeks to build! I just needed a little more money to complete the final project! You’ll pay for standing in the way of progress!” He pointed his left arm at Vertigo. With a roar of rocket engines, the fist shot off the arm and punched through the air.
“If I were you, I’d go back to the drawing board, Tin Man.” Vertigo grabbed the fist and slingshot it back at his foe. “See? The hand broke right off.”
Instead of knocking him down as Vertigo had hoped, the fist simply flipped and reattached to the arm. “The name is Vulcan!”
“Yeah, whatever, Tin Man. Time for you to go beddy-bye.” Vertigo dived down at an insane speed and smashed into Vulcan’s helmet, knocking him down and out. The police that had been watching the fight swarmed the unconscious titan and began struggling to remove the armor.
Vertigo hovered above the scene, speaking into his phone. “What’s up, doc?”
“I think I’ve found a solution,” Street said breathlessly. “Come by as soon as you can.”
“Awesome.” Vinnie pumped his fist in exhilaration. “I’ll be right over.”
Before he could fly away, a military helicopter descended in front of him. A harsh voice issued from a speaker in the nose. “Vertigo, this is Captain Roberts of the United States Air Force. I have orders to detain you for questioning. Please land now.”
Vertigo shook his head. “Sorry, Captain. I have a pressing appointment somewhere else.” He flew straight up and started a wide circle around the city to throw them off his trail.
Captain Roberts spoke into his helmet mike. “He’s on the move. Put him down easy.” With that, a pair of fighter jets streaked over the city after Vertigo.
Vertigo took advantage of his greater maneuverability and led the two jets on a merry chase through the Manhattan skies. After about five minutes of weaving around skyscrapers and tracking Vertigo through buildings, one of the pilots decided to stop playing with kid gloves. He fired a missile at the fleeing hero… and watched in shocked amazement as it passed straight through him. His wingman yelled through the radio about excessive force, when he realized that the missile was going to hit a building.
Vertigo soared up underneath the missile and shoved it up, guiding it into the sky. He fell away from the missile as it streaked into the sky above Manhattan and exploded. Under cover of the falling debris, Vertigo phased through the street and began making his way home.
* * *
Vinnie’s eyes snapped open at the sound of a loud CLANG! He rose off the crate he had been sleeping on for the past five hours. He was in the cargo bay of a space shuttle that, from the sound of it, had just docked at the International Space Station.
He phased his body through the shuttle hull and into the void of space. Before the temperature or lack of pressure could affect him, he had passed through into the station. As soon as he became solid again, he turned on the communicator in his ear. “I’m in.”
Back on Terra Firma, Dr. Street sighed in relief. “Excellent. I’ve uploaded the schematics of the ISS into your new mask. The cargo bay containing the formula we need is marked off.” He paused. “Good luck, Vincent.”
“Let’s just hope I won’t need it, Doc.” Vertigo brought the schematics up on his mask and superimposed them over his field of vision. A bright red line showed the way to the formula that would save his life and the world.
Taking advantage of the zero-gravity conditions, he flew through the labyrinthine hallways, following the red line. After about five minutes of navigating and trying to keep out of sight, he arrived at the door of a cargo bay. He phased through the door to find himself in a huge room with stacks of crates strapped to the ground. The red line pointed out a smaller crate toward the back of the room.
Vinnie felt relief wash over him. Salvation was only a few feet away. He reached out, but before he could grab the crate, a voice with a thick Russian accent boomed from behind him. “And just what do you think you’re doing her, little boy?”
Vertigo whirled around and was faced with four burly Russian cosmonauts. On Earth, they probably would’ve looked threatening, but it’s hard to look intimidating when you’re floating in zero-gravity.
“Look, guys,” Vertigo held up his hands in a gesture of non-aggression. “I just need to borrow that little crate there. Believe me, the world is gonna end if I don’t-“
He was cut off by one of the cosmonauts taking a swing at him. He dodged the blow easily enough, and the assailant simply hung in the air.
The lead Russian hissed in anger. “Abandon your hosts,” he barked. “We need to stop him now.”
With that, four translucent reptilian forms ripped away from the cosmonauts, who simply floated around, unconscious. The reptiles leapt into the air, slashing with their talons. “You will not escape us, human,” the lead one hissed. “And you will not get that formula!”
Vertigo turned intangible just before the lizard made contact, sending him careening into the bulkhead. The next two had a real meeting of the minds when Vertigo slammed their heads together. The final one cowered away as Vertigo descended. “Please,” he begged, “have mercy.”
Vertigo raised his hand. “Say goodnight, lizard breath.”
“I can tell you about your father!”
Vinnie’s eyes widened behind his mask. “What do you know about my father?” Energy crackled from his hand. “Talk before I blast you to atoms!”
Before the lizard could speak again, something ripped through the hull of the station and slammed into Vertigo, sending him flying through the station. He ground to a halt in some sort of control room. He picked himself up, and almost instantly fell down again. The station was falling, which explained all the alarms that were going off.
He got to his feet again and saw what had hit him. An eight-foot tall giant was digging itself out of a pile of rubble. Its body was jet black and muscular, its face white and featureless. In its right hand it held a giant axe with glowing blades. “It brings me no joy to slay a creature while it is oblivious to the reason.” It/He said in a deep voice. “Know, then, that your death will serve to spare your entire world from an eternity of servitude under the Clycans.”
The axe swung down in a wide arc, only to be stopped by Vertigo’s hand. “First up, buddy, who are the Clycans?” he inquired. “And for that matter, who are you?”
The alien withdrew his axe. “I am known as the Pursuer, the greatest huntsman in the Mutabraxian empire. The Clycans are our eternal enemies. They are the ones who created the virus that now resides inside you, the one that will grant them an army of undead superpowered soldiers. If you wish to save your planet, then surrender yourself to me.” With that, the Pursuer landed a smashing blow to Vertigo’s midsection.
Vinnie slammed into a wall and clutched his stomach. He couldn’t black out now. If he did, he’d never wake up. The Pursuer advanced, brandishing his axe. Out of the corner of his eye, Vertigo got a glimpse of an exposed power cable. An idea popped into his head. He grabbed the cable in his right hand and pointed his left hand at the Pursuer.
“This may sting a little,” he smiled. A huge blast of electricity nailed the Pursuer straight in the chest and knocked him back out into space. Vertigo slumped to the floor, breathless. He looked up to see an exterior view on a monitor. The station was entering the atmosphere and starting to break up.
* * *
TERRA FIRMA: Dr. Street’s warehouse, September 22, 15:26 EST
“…and as of right now, no casualties have been reported. According to several eyewitnesses, the ISS was saved by New York’s very own superhero, Vertigo, who left the scene moments after he landed…”
“Well, that’s some good news,” said Scott.
Vinnie nodded. He was sitting in the metal chair again, his mask and jacket laying on a table in front of him. Dr. Street’s son Daniel was filling a syringe with the formula that Vertigo had “borrowed”. The doctor himself had passed away last night, sometime after Vertigo has saved the station. Danny had read his father’s notes and was confident the formula would prevent the virus from killing Vinnie, but there was no guarantee that he would keep his powers.
Danny tapped the side of the syringe and walked over to Vinnie. “Ok, you ready?”
Vinnie hesitated. The truth was, he wasn’t ready. He wanted to keep his amazing new abilities. He remembered soaring through the sky, taking on bad guys. It had been the greatest experience of his life. To think that he would never be able to do that again was heartbreaking.
But was it really worth putting the entire planet in danger just so he could have some fun? It wasn’t but he knew he had no choice.
“Do it.”
* * *
“Freeze!”
Cryo raised his arm and shot a beam of cold energy at the officer who had spoken. The officer was instantly encased in ice. Cryo laughed. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“You seem like a cool dude,” said a voice from over his head, “so take off the weapons and surrender and I won’t make things too hot for you.”
Cryo whirled around to see Vertigo hovering behind him. The hero cracked a smile. “Give it up, snowflake. No one can beat Vertigo!”
* * *
MUTABRAXIA: High Throne Room, September 22, 21:30 GST

The Pursuer knelt down in the middle of the throne room. “My sincerest apologies, Lord Galrok. I have failed in my mission.”
Lord Galrok, a huge figure covered in ornate armor sitting atop an enormous throne, nodded once. “Rise, Pursuer. You may have failed in killing the human, but that does not mean we have lost.”
He snapped his fingers and Dr. Street entered the room. “I dispatched another agent to Terra Firma as a contingency.”
Street bowed. “It was nothing, my lord. Once the boy came to the good doctor…” Dr. Street’s body dissolved into a mass of writhing obsidian tendrils. “…I decided to make a house call.”
Galrok nodded again. “An excellent move, planting the cure in space. Even if the Terran failed to be cured, he would have perished at the blade of the Pursuer.”
A screen popped up in front of the throne showing Vertigo fighting Cryo. “I shall keep an eye on this human. He may give us the edge we need.”