Saturday, June 16, 2007

Amazing Boy #1, Beginnings


Bonnyville, Utah had always been a quiet community. It was November 2003, and practically the entire town had come out for the Winter Festival. Various rides were set up for the townspeople’s enjoyment.
Eight year old Adam Taylor had just finished riding the Spinning Tops for the fifth time. His best friend, Tommy Dewstorm, was starting to turn green.
“No more, Adam. Let’s try something else.”
Adam laughed. “Alright. You never could do a sixer.”
“It’s not my fault I have a weak stomach. Let’s try some of the carnival games. My dad gave me some money. Let’s see if we can win something.”
“Alright.”
The boys walked over to the darts booth. A brutish looking seventeen-year-old boy was put in charge of the booth. His bored girlfriend was leaning against the booth. She seemed really upset at him.
“Hey, can we have some darts?” Tommy asked.
“B ut Jill, you’re wrong. I can change. Just give me a chance.”
“I’ve had it with you, Barney. You go around, bullying kids and laughing at it. I caught you flirting with Mary Fiffertree this morning. Enough is enough!”
“Aw, Mary just wanted to pop some balloons!”
“You kept staring at her ‘balloons’!”
Barney handed the boys three darts each and then continued to plea for his relationship. “I was not! Look, there’s something special about me. I can show you!”
Adam felt his stomach turn slightly upside-down.
“Are you ok?” His friend asked
“Yeah, I don’t know what’s wrong. I’ve never felt this way before. Let’s just play.” He threw his first dart but it seemed to hit the clear air and then fall to the ground.
“You gotta throw it harder, kid.” Barney turned to Mary and said, “Watch the space in front of the balloons. Watch!”
Adam tried his other two darts but each one did the same as the last.
“Haw! Next time throw ‘em harder.”
“I did throw them hard!”
“Here, it’s my turn.” Tommy pulled back his arm and tried but his first dart also seemed to bounce off thin air.
“See? It’s a trick, huh?”
“Naw. You’re just a couple of weaklings.”
Mary sniffed and turned to walk away. Barney called to her. “No! Wait! Didn’t you see?”
“All I saw was you teasing those boys!”
“No. I . . . well, ok. I was teasing them, but look!”
She continued to walk a step further. Then she stopped abruptly as her face hit an unseen wall. “What is this?” she asked as she felt the solid air. When she turned around her eyes flew open with horror.
Barney was concentrating on the invisible wall. His face turned up to an evil smile. “See? I’m doing it! See how cool I am? I can create force fields! Now you’ll keep going out with me.”
Mary screamed. Several people looked over. “You’re a freak! Stay away! HELP! HE’S A FREAK AND HE’S GOING TO KILL ME!”
“No! Mary, I just wanted to . . .”
Adam grabbed Tommy’s hand and started to pull him away. He pulled them towards the Fun House.
Enraged, Barney started to point at various things. His invisible force fields pushed things around while at the same time, he held the screaming Mary in a tight invisible grip. “No! You will love me! I’ll show you! I’ll take apart the whole festival with my abilities!”
Wind whipped up the fairgrounds. Adam and Tommy had continued to make a bee-line for the fun house when something started to push them down.
“Look! It’s the Lair Legion!” The wind had been caused by a Lair Jet. The archer Trickshot hopped out and started to fire a volley of arrows.
“Come on, kid. Stand down.”
“No!” Each arrow was blocked.
When two more Legionaries hopped out of the Jet, Adam felt excited to see more of his heroes coming to the rescue. At the same time he felt a little sick.
“Lucky we were flying over.” Goldeneyed said to his teammates.
Tommy announced them to Adam. “Ziles! Goldeneyed! Now you’re in trouble! Adam? What?”
Adam had begun to pull Tommy into the fun house. “We’ve got to get cover!”
When Adam looked into the fun house (and away from Tommy whom was looking back even as he was getting pulled), Adam’s eyes glowed yellow. He was not even aware of it. All he knew was that they were a foot or so closer to the fun house entrance.
As soon as they had gotten inside, Adam turned around. Goldeneyed has teleported a roller coaster car above Barney, but the boy pushed it randomly away. It was heading towards the entrance of the fun house. Instinctively Adam held up his arms. An invisible force field blocked the car.
“Whoa! We’re lucky it fell short!” Tommy said. Adam was not so sure.
“Come on. Let’s go deeper in.”
As Adam led his best friend inside he looked at the crazy mirrors. He concentrated hard and an invisible force field pushed the mirror over. It shattered, causing both boys to jump.
“Maybe it’s contagious?”
“What?” Tommy asked.
“Oh, nothing. I was talking about the mirror. Maybe the battle outside caused it to top over?”
Suddenly, several mirrors joined the other one as the fun house shook. It lifted up into the air. The boys fell to the wooded floor. Barney’s voice could be heard outside. “LEVE ME ALONE OR I’LL DROP IT ON THE CROWD!”
“Jeeze! Calm down, kid!”
“Ziles, anyone inside the fun house?”
“I’ll check, Bry.”
Adam moaned. A headache filled his brain as the sound of stereo feedback filled his thoughts. Outside, Ziles could be heard giving off a soft moan.
“Everything all right?”
“Yes. There are two boys inside. Here. I’ll get them.” Adam could see it in his mind. Ziles had run to the Ferris wheel, leapt onto the seats and continued to make her way up. She then leapt to the hovering fun house and went inside. He was shocked when she had entered the curtain flap. Adam wondered how he could have seen it in his mind.
Stereo feedback filled his mind, but he could hear Ziles in his head. She was looking at him as she knelt down to where the boys were hiding. Her lips were not moving. “I’m a telepath, child. So are you. You can hear people’s thoughts if you concentrate on them.”
She said aloud, “Come, boys. Follow me and Goldeneyed will teleport us safely to the ground.”
As the boys followed her, Adam thought to Ziles, “Please don’t tell anyone the things I can do.”
She looked deep into his eyes. “Alright. It’ll be our secret.”
When she held the boys at the edge of the fun house opening, Goldeneyed looked up. His eyes flashed yellow and then they found that they where safe on the ground.
“Oh sweet earth!” Tommy knelt down and started to kiss the ground.
Barney collapsed as a arrow zipped around him. It was giving out a strange gas.
“Sleep-Gas Arrow does it every time.”




That night found Adam in the bathroom, brushing his teeth. He was lost in thought as he looked in the mirror.
“I created a see-through thing, just like that kid they took away. It knocked over that mirror. I also read that hero lady’s thoughts. I don’t know how I did either but somehow I did.”
Something brought Adam out of his thoughts. His reflection started to disappear. Before he realized what had happened, his reflection was gone. All that remained was his toothbrush, hanging in the air. He looked down to see that his own body was invisible.
“GAHH!”
He fell backwards onto the floor.
“Adam?” called his mother from downstairs. “Are you all right?”
His body was visible again. “Yeah, mom. I’m ok.”
As thoughts of what he had just done passed through his mind, he remembered Barney and Mary. He pictured how scared she was of him.
“Whatever I just did, I hope it doesn’t happen again. I don’t want everyone thinking I’m a freak, too.”




Welcome to my newest character, Adam Taylor. We’re going to cover his story slowly. I’ve got lots of other stories to get finished, too.
For this story, I’m going to try and write it better than the usual PV story. The parts will be short, but I’ll work harder on them. There still won’t be a lot of editing. What I mean is, the first draft is what you’ll see, so it’s not perfect.
But it’s fresh.
Anyway, more to come as we see Adam’s story unfold through the years until we see him nowadays.



Footnotes:


This story takes place sometime around #129: Untold Tales of the Lair Legion: Aftermath, or Sixteen Sub-Plots Looking For a Home



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