Super Avenged: Only Human

No one really remembered when the abandoned industrial park on the east side of New York City had been thriving. It appeared as though the place had always been cold and abandoned, a dead branch on the surviving tree that was New York City. I’d heard of several different plans for companies to buy out the old warehouses and factories and breathe life back into them, but none of the plans were ever carried out. So, the industrial park remained a hideout for criminals and crooked cops.

I walked up to the large gates leading into the park. A henchman dressed in the usual black emerged from the shadows. He didn’t wear a ski mask, but he wore humongous sunglasses so that I couldn’t see his eyes. He wore a sock hat over his hair, too. He quickly searched me for bugs or any police gadget things. I’d listened to Miya’s kidnapper, though. I hadn’t told the police; I hadn’t even told my friends. I didn’t want to risk Miya’s safety.

Once the henchman seemed satisfied that I came alone, he turned and pushed open the tall steel gate leading into the industrial park. The industrial park consisted of several small roads with nothing but warehouses and factories lining them. Smokestacks from several of the factories ascended high into the sky; smoke hadn’t flowed from their columns for many, many decades, however. The henchman and I stepped into the park, and he shoved the gate closed behind us. Then, he led the way towards the heart of the industrial park.

We walked for several minutes through the shadows thrown from the buildings towering on either side of the street. Silver beams of light from the moon lit our way to a warehouse in the very center of the park. The henchman kicked open a backdoor into the building and led the way into its dark interior. He clicked on a flashlight to illuminate our way and walked towards a staircase leading to the higher levels.

We climbed several flights of stairs before coming to a ladder leading upwards to a closed trapdoor. The henchman motioned for me to climb the ladder, and I unquestioningly obeyed. I shoved open the trapdoor at the top and climbed up onto the flat concrete roof of the humongous five-story warehouse. The henchman climbed up behind me and slammed the trapdoor closed again. He and another henchman stood in front of the trapdoor, blocking its access.

About seven other henchmen stood in various positions on the roof. Two of them stood on either side of me, obviously to keep me in check, like they actually could. The only reason I hadn’t already taken them all out was because I only wanted Miya to be safe. I’m sure that taking out all the henchmen wouldn’t be the way to go to achieve that, either. I scanned the roof for any sign of Miya, but I couldn’t find any.

“Hello, Mr. Sullivan,” the mastermind said. I hadn’t even noticed him standing among the henchman. He held a little black device in one hand, while the other one adjusted the sunglasses obscuring his eyes. All of the henchmen wore sunglasses and sock hats on their heads. I wondered how they could even see.

“It’s useless to look for Miya on the roof,” he continued, noticing how I looked in vain for Miya. “She isn’t on the roof. But don’t worry...she’s just hanging around.”

He turned and looked towards the street. I followed his gaze, and a crane was brought to my attention. Something had been attached to the end of the crane. I gasped and took an involuntary step forward, which prompted one of the henchmen flanking me to push a gun barrel into my ribcage. Miya hung upside down from the something attached to the crane. Her hands were bound with duct tape and gravity pulled them towards the ground, along with her chestnut hair. She appeared to be unconscious.

“I have Miya’s feet secured to a quick release mechanism,” Mastermind explained, sounding quite proud of himself. “Whenever I push this button,” he motioned towards the device in his hand, “it’ll release Miya from the crane, where she will fall to a very untimely death. However, she may remain alive as long as you cooperate with me. You must not use your power, you must not advance towards me further than you already have, and if I learn that you have contacted police about this rendezvous, I will not hesitate to let your wife fall. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I answered. A flash of lightning and a boom of thunder resonated in the distance, momentarily lighting up the sky.

“So, tell me, Mr. Sullivan,” Mastermind said conversationally, pacing back and forth across the width of the warehouse, “how broken are you? It’s humbling, isn’t it, realizing that you aren’t invincible? You are as vulnerable to human emotions as I am, or he is, or she is.” He pointed at a random henchman, and then to Miya. “I just had to find a way to get to your heart, and it’s surprising how easy a target your wife turned out to be.”

“Why did you want to prove that I am human?” I demanded. It tore at my heart to see Miya so close, yet so far away. How could I save her without cooperating with this psychopath? Where’s Johnny when I need him, so he could devise a plan for me?

“From the first time you and your group of moronic buddies appeared in the spotlight, I despised you. Everyone worshipped you like you were something special. They thought you were invincible and invulnerable to anything and everything. It sickened me. Does saving people’s lives even matter to you? Was it all just a guise to get famous, to get women, to grow rich and content? You barely do anything at all. Just throw a few punches, and any human is down for the count. But yet, everyone made it out to be so damn heroic. I didn’t see anything heroic about it. You weren’t heroes; you were celebrities, and that’s all you were. That’s all you’ll ever be,” Mastermind answered scathingly. My attention was diverted from him to Miya as I saw her shift in my peripheral vision.

She raised her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes groggily. She hadn’t even realized that she dangled above nothing but open air where the only thing to stop her fall was cold, hard concrete. She ran her hands down her face before looking down. She made an odd squeaking noise and slapped both hands over her mouth to keep from screaming. Slowly, she looked up to see the quick release mechanism keeping her from falling to her death, and then looked towards the roof.

“Jimmy?” she called upon seeing me. Even from the distance, I saw tears form in her eyes. I nodded, and several tears slipped from the corners of her eyes and slid into her hair.

“This is between you and me. Leave Miya out of this,” I demanded, glaring at the mastermind. He just laughed mirthlessly.

“Mr. Sullivan, your over excessive use of clichés is simply overwhelming,” he snapped. “But I cannot leave Miya out of this. She is the medium through which I could get to you. Without her, none of this could’ve ever happened. And don’t pretend that nothing has happened. You have broken, Mr. Sullivan, and everyone can tell. You have stopped fighting crime with your friends; you stay locked up in your apartment all day and all night; when you do come out into public, you look unhappy and depressed. I have broken you, Mr. Sullivan, and you know it.”

I did know it. He’d broken me much more efficiently than any sort of physical torment ever could. He had not broken any of my bones; he never laid one finger on me. But yet, he broke everything inside of me. He broke my heart, and even my soul teetered on the edge of oblivion. And what he said before was true. Any random citizen would not bring this response from me; he had to get someone whom I loved very much, someone I couldn’t survive without. Somehow, I’d survived without Miya, but not without harm.

Something like defeat must’ve shown on my face, because Mastermind suddenly looked extremely triumphant. He turned around to speak to Miya.

“Do you see that, Miya?” he demanded, pointing around at me. “He is completely broken! He is a shattered man. I am the victor, and he is the loser. Look at the defeat on his face! Even he knows that it is true.”

“No!” Miya exclaimed. She looked pleadingly at me. “Jimmy, stop! I am alive! Look! I’m here, breathing and my heart is still beating! You haven’t given up! You said you wouldn’t give up!”

I had given up. What else could I do? Miya was as good as dead. No matter what I did, Miya would be dead. Mastermind would push that button, and she would fall to her death, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. In a moment of epiphany, I realized that Mastermind didn’t bring me here so I could save Miya: he brought me here so I could watch her die. Then, my soul would shatter and Mastermind would have his triumph.

“Jimmy!” Miya exclaimed, seeing the defeat on my face. Her pain didn’t seem to matter to her anymore; my pain dominated over hers. “Don’t let him win! You’re letting him win! Stop letting him win! He doesn’t control you, Jimmy! You can control your own emotions!”

But I couldn’t. All I felt was despair; that was all I’d felt since Miya had been kidnapped. I was already broken. The only way I would heal would be if Miya was in my arms again. And we both knew that would never happen, not unless a miracle dropped from the sky.

Jimmy, don’t freak out.

I instantly recognized Zacky’s voice in my head. It didn’t scare me much, but I just felt curiosity.

Am I imagining this, or can you suddenly put thoughts into my head? I asked tentatively.

I’ve always been able to put thoughts into people’s heads. I just never did it to you.

Oh, well, why are you doing it now?

It’s the only way to communicate with you. Listen, the guys and I know where you are. And I know you didn’t let us know, but I’ll explain later how we know. We’re in the industrial park now. Don’t fret yourself too much: we can save Miya. You still want that, right?

More than anything, I answered gratefully. So, a miracle hadn’t fallen out of the sky, but it was close enough. Another thunderclap blasted from the sky, and I saw Miya flinch away from the sound. At the same time, I felt a droplet of water splash onto my forehead.

What I want you to do is stretch and grab the henchman’s foot next to you...the one with the gun, I mean. That’ll cause Jerk Man to set off the quick release, and Miya will fall. But don’t worry: I won’t let her die. And then the guys and I will come up and help you take them out, okay? Zacky reeled off the plan to me.

Yes, of course. I understand.

Okay...when I saw now...3....2....1....NOW, JIMMY!

Without hesitation, I stretched out my right arm and grabbed the henchman’s ankle with the gun. I wrenched him right off of his feet. He dropped the gun, and I snatched it up and threw it off of the roof before anyone else could grab it.

“You bring your own demise,” Mastermind said smugly, pushing the button on his device. Miya’s eyes widened into the saucer range as she felt the quick release let go of her. She disappeared beneath the roof, screaming the entire way. Seconds later, the screaming stopped abruptly, and Mastermind turned back towards me.

“You really haven’t got a clue, do you?” I asked, shaking my head as I turned and slammed a fist into a henchman’s jaw. He staggered back, and I wrapped an arm tightly around his torso before turning and slinging him towards a group of henchmen. The domino effect went into effect, and the whole group went down. Several of them scrambled back to their feet and rushed towards me under the command of their leader.

And out of nowhere, Matt, Brian, Johnny, and Zacky burst out of the trapdoor. The two henchmen guarding the trapdoor staggered back before Johnny stepped forward, grabbed each of their heads, and knocked their heads together hard, hard enough to knock them out. They crumpled at his feet, and we launched ourselves into battle.

I felt more alive than I’d felt for three weeks. I let all my frustration and pain out upon the men who caused it. And as cruel and ruthless as it sounds: it felt great. As the five of us fought, the sky opened up and dumped buckets of water down onto us. Zacky forced one henchman to knock out one of his buddies before knocking himself out, leaving just us and the mastermind. We bore down on him, and he staggered quickly backwards.

“What is wrong with you?” he demanded, looking fearfully from one glaring face to the next. “I just killed Miya, and none of you seem at all affected!”

“Look down there, moron,” Matt snapped, nodding towards the street. “Do you see any remains down there?”

Slowly, Mastermind looked over the edge of the building. He paled considerably upon seeing that Miya was nowhere to be found. He looked back around at us, taking another step backwards.

“So, what do you say, guys?” I asked as we advanced forwards a step. “Should we leave him in a coma, or should we leave him in a vegetable state?”

“I think scared shitless will be good enough for me,” Brian answered over the pounding of the rain.

“I agree, Syn,” Matt called back. “Would you like to do the honors, Rev?”

“Yeah, sure,” I replied. I reached forward and shoved Mastermind’s chest, hard. He stumbled back and fell off of the edge of the warehouse, screaming like a sissy girl. Seriously, his scream was more high-pitched than Miya’s. We all looked over the edge. Zacky used his telekinesis to stop him seconds before he splattered all over the street. Zacky brought him slowly back up. Mastermind had been reduced to a sobbing pansy.

Zacky set him back on the roof. Mastermind instantly sank to the ground,
wrapping his arms tightly around himself and rocking back and forth, tears pouring down his cheeks.

“We’ll take care of these guys,” Matt told me. He paused as a thunderclap boomed from the dark sky. The rain began to lessen slightly. “You can go see your wife. She should be down by the backdoor.”

“Thanks,” I replied, hurrying towards the trap door. I rushed through the warehouse, which seemed to drag on forever, before bursting out of the backdoor.

Miya anxiously paced back and forth in the rain. Her tie-dye shirt molded to her skin from the rain, and her chestnut hair had been plastered to her face. She turned as I burst out of the door. We stood there for several seconds just staring at each other before she shrieked and sprinted at me. She leaped at me, wrapping her arms and legs tightly around me. I coiled my arms tightly back around her, peppering kisses all over her face. She began to sob and buried her face into my neck, her arms and legs not loosening their hold.

My heart sealed back together the instant I had Miya back in my arms, and my soul was not far behind.