Hero- #79
Chapter 1 – The Attack Begins
Our story opens all with the birth of a child. A young baby boy with blue eyes and black hair is held in a blanket being held in his mother's arms. She is exhausted, to say the least, from the birth of her new son.
"Hun… he's got your eyes!" The father says as he leans over into his wife's hospital bed. His wife's face shines with sweat as he makeup drips down her face.
"He's got your hair." The husband chuckles back to his black haired green-eyed wife. The two kiss each other gently. "Welcome to the world, Benedict." The mother says as she smiles at her newborn son in her arms. The chubby faced baby looked all around the new world he was in with his wide blue eyes, unsure of his new surroundings.
Years pass. A baby becomes a toddler, a toddler becomes a child, a child becomes a teenager, and a teenager becomes a man, at least in terms of time.
"Hey Ben! Come on, Ben, it's your twenty-first birthday! Think we're gonna let something like you being a stick in the mud ruin it for you?" A person says to Ben through an open dorrway with light shining. This was his best friend, Alan. Alan was a bit of a heavier set guy, but he was nowhere close to being obese. Regardless however, he could stand to lose a few pounds. He had curly brown hair and brown eyes that lit up. Being Ben's best friend, he was a jolly fellow with plenty of joy in him, and he always tried to play it off onto other people. Happiness breeds happiness.
"Dude, it's four in the morning…" Ben says as he throws a pillow at his roommate, hoping he would shut the door and leave him alone.
"Oh hell no." He walks over to Ben's bed and begins to shake him. "Come on now, you know you want to get up and begin the celebration!"
"If by celebrate you mean… sleep until a reasonable hour, then yes." Ben rolls over on his bed, pulling the covers with him and facing away from Alan.
"No way dude, you're getting your ass out of bed, now." He goes over to the other side of the bed. He places his hands on the covers and wraps them all around Ben's body, followed by dragging his long time friend off of the bed and onto the floor with a thump.
"Ungh… all right, all right. I'll get up. Dammit…" He looks over at the blinds of his window in his room. "You're kidding me, the sun isn't even up yet, what the hell…" He looks back at his friend who had vanished into the rest of the apartment. "God, what has he planned for me this year?" He looks out his doorway through half open eyes. "BLUARRK!" He belches out loud. "Oof…" He puts his hand on his chest. "Had too much to drink last night… whatev. At least I don't have a hangover…" He says to himself as he stands up and walks into his bathroom with the blankets still wrapped around him. Shortly after, he walks out wearing jeans and a green t-shirt with comic book font on it saying 'Bang!' "Okay, what's the big surprise…?" Ben says as he enters the eating area of his apartment. It was a quaint little place to live. There were two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room and kitchen. It was basic, but as a delivery truck loader, it was all he and Alan could afford.
"Since it's your birthday, I invited a certain someone over to start your day off. Please welcome," He turns to look at the entrance of the apartment. "You're lovely girlfriend, Amy!" He points at the doorway that flies open, showing before them a beautiful girl with long blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes. She wears a blue jean skirt and a yellow top that showed off a little extra cleavage. It was his birthday and he deserved it.
"Good morning, sunshine." Amy says to him with a wink. In her hands, she holds a large stack of pancakes on a plate with butter and syrup on them. "It's your favorite." She holds them out with a sexy smile on her face. Ben just chuckles at the act, walks over to her and kisses her on the lips. They sit down to eat, and so begins another morning, but it will end a totally different day.
Because it was Ben's twenty-first birthday, work was kind enough to give him the day off. So he and his friends roamed the streets of the small city they lived in later in the day. With a population of just under three hundred thousand, it was big enough to have fun, but small enough where it wasn't chaotic. The weather was a mild 75 degrees with a small breeze brushing through the skyscrapers. The three of them are immersed in a casual conversation as they walk the streets, passing a tall building under construction. Within ten seconds, they will receive a shock to the senses.
"Oh SHIT! LOOK OUT!!" A construction worker yells. The siren blares out as chaos erupts on the site.
"The hell…?" Ben says as he looks up above his head. In what was slow motion to him, a huge steel I-beam plummets to the ground. Its chains clang together, rattling against one another as they wrap and twist around the five-ton piece of steel plummeting towards them. "We have to MOVE!" He grabs both of his friends and a blur, leaps out of the way. The beam slams into the ground, setting out a huge sound wave that made people's bones shake on the inside. Ben looks back at the impact area. It wouldn't have been pretty had they stayed there.
"Ben… how did you jump this far?" Amy asks him as she looks at his boyfriend in astonishment.
"Huh? Wh-what?" He looks back at the beam and sees the distance he's moved, at least fifty feet. "What in the…?"
"I don't care how you did it, but you did! You saved our lives, Ben!" Alan replies back, patting his best friend on the back.
"But… how?" He questions himself. "Huh… weird. I guess it was the adrenaline from it all." He says as he shrugs. Just as they begin to walk away from the scene, the next disaster strikes. All around, it grows quiet. No longer are there the noises of machinery, cars, subways, or any of the sort. Alone now, there was just the sound of humans trying to comprehend what was going on. The traffic lights were off all over, as if it mattered since the carts didn't work. The world was without power.
"Ben… I'm scared." Amy says as she closes the distance between her and her lover.
"It… must have been the reason the crane lost the I-beam." He states as he looks back at the twisted metal on the ground. He then hears the loud whistle of something. It wasn't a bomb. It wasn't a missile. It was something different. Up in the sky, there appear to be multiple yellow points of light screaming down towards the planet. "Oh god, we've got to get underground!" He grabs his friends once more and rushes towards a subway station underground. As they rush into the station, the area above ground explodes with tremendous force, caving in the entrance to the subway and locking them all below the ground. They were not the only ones. There were several other people in the subway that joined them. But Ben puzzled them. He looked like a blur, yet again. As the rocks continue to pile into the room, a medium sized rock bounces down and lands directly on Ben's head. "Uhn!" He stumbles forward, releasing the hold on his friends.
"Ben! Are you okay?" Alan asks him as he and Amy rush to his side. Their voices sound fuzzy to him. He looks at them with half of his right eye open.
"Nuh…" He stands up straight and shakes his head. "Y-yeah… I should be fine." He says as he shakes his head trying get rid of the stars he saw before his eyes.
"Had us worried there. That… rock should have killed you though." Amy looks back at the rock, unsure of what just happened.
"Well, Ben always has had a thick head, eh?" Alan says as he helps his friend to his feet. "Does anyone know what's going on up there?" Alan looks back at the people in the subway. Few even move, but there is one person who speaks up.
"I saw it. There were these strange yellow… blasts that just rained down from the sky! It was like they were small Suns… it's the strangest thing I've ever seen." The man says as he looks back up at the ceiling. Fortunately, there were emergency lights that lit up the station. Above ground however, the rain of the energy blasts continued. From below the surface, all that could be heard was the screams of hundreds of people running around in terror, companied by the loud booming noises, similar to a grenade exploding, occurring all over from the energy rain. Dust falls from the ceiling with each explosion.
Ben looks over his head as some of the dust falls into his black messy hair. He sees a crack from where the dust fell. "MOVE AGAIN!" He pushes both of his friends out of the way. As soon as his friends hit the ground, they turn back to watch a few slabs of concrete land on top of him. "Guh!" He throws his arms up and catches the slabs. The weight easily pushes him down. His body shakes with stress as it slowly lowers itself onto the ground from the weight.
"What in the hell…?!" Amy says as she watches Ben struggle for his life with the weight.
"Hrn… RYAHHHH!!" He screams out in pain. Veins pop out the side of his temple. The people could not help him with the weight. If it were too much to bear, the weight would just crash on top of them, bringing along just more victims. "HYAHHHH!" His body stops lowering itself. The people stare at him in awe. A strange blue light begins to flow around his body. As a few more seconds pass by, the glow turns into a full light blue flaming aura around his body. "Hrrr-RHN!" His body seems to thin out and then he vanishes, only to appear directly next to the pile of rubble that crashed down, avoiding danger for everyone. He drops to his knees and looks at his hands and body, seeing the blue flame glow around his body. "What's… happening to me?!" He asks with wide eyes.