In Brightest Day, In Darkest Night
by Gary D. Snyder
Part 10:
Over the next week Dyno Lad began to be a familiar sight in, around, and over Retroville. His appearances, though frequent, were also quite brief and he never remained longer than necessary to perform the super-task at hand, ensure that everyone involved was all right, and give a smile and wave to the crowd that gathered. Consequently he remained something of a mystery, which made him a source of great admiration to many of the Retroville boys and even greater fascination to many of the girls in Retroville. Chief among Dyno Lad's admirers were Cindy Vortex and Libby Folfax. Although they had met the young superhero only once during the encounter with Professor Calamitous, they nevertheless considered themselves experts on Dyno Lad. In comparison to their female friends and acquaintances, who had never met him at all, they were. Consequently anything that they had to say about Dyno Lad was considered incontrovertible and the pair was universally regarded with both envy and respect.
"He is so dreamy," Cindy sighed, pausing from sipping her chocolate milkshake. She and Libby had decided to stop in at the Candy Bar for a treat and had immediately been surrounded by other young customers anxious for any information about Dyno Lad.
"Even more than Hansen in Kidz 2 Guyz?" asked Nissa with bated breath.
"Oh, no comparison, girl," answered Libby between bites of her banana split. "Hansen might as well change his name to Hasbeen." This drew a laugh from the onlookers.
"And absolutely charming," Cindy went on.
"Ooh, I'll bet," said Sam, the owner of the Candy Bar.
"And don't be forgetting those muscles," Libby added. "Oh, yeah."
"As if," remarked Betty Quinlan dreamily.
"If my life were ever in mortal danger again…" Cindy paused and repeated the phrase for greater emphasis, "…mortal danger…I'd gladly face it to find myself in those arms of steel." She had not meant to imply that she had ever actually been in Dyno Lads arms, but her audience breathed a collective sigh at the thought.
Cindy and her friends were not the only ones taking an inordinate interest in Retroville's newest celebrity. Jimmy in particular carefully scrutinized the media for all mentions of Dyno Lad, searching carefully for any hints that anything might be wrong with the young superhero. Each new report put him on tenterhooks, and the absence of any bad news in each filled him with cautious hope. Perhaps, he admitted to himself, he had been wrong and his calculations were in fact in error. There was always an element of doubt to science and there might have been some factor in the radiation that had escaped his analysis. He wished that he could speak with Ernest about it, but Dyno Lad had become much more furtive in his comings and goings and there were always other people around when Jimmy saw Ernest. For the time being he watched and remained hopeful.
Had Jimmy been able to find an opportunity to discuss the matter his hope would have long since evaported. Almost from the start Ernest had noticed that his heart rate would accelerate whenever he used his powers. At first he put this phenomenon down to the exertion and the exhilaration of performing his super-feats, but as the days passed he gradually became aware that it took longer and longer for his thundering heart rate to slow and subside. Then one night he was awakened by his bed shuddering and shaking and for several seconds he thought that he was experiencing an earthquake. It was then that he realized that his heart was hammering so violently that it was shaking his whole body. He took deep, rhythmic breaths, willing himself to relax, and after about half an hour his pulse and blood pressure had dropped back down to normal. Before dropping off again, he told himself that he would talk with Jimmy the next day. As fate would have it, however, he hit "the wall" the next day, both literally and figuratively, before he could speak with Jimmy.
He awoke early that morning to a news flash on his clock radio reporting that a truck had overturned while making a turn in downtown Retroville, hopelessly blocking a busy intersection. Postponing his planned meeting with Jimmy, Ernest quickly donned his Dyno Lad costume and sped from this bedroom window at a speed almost too fast for the human eye to follow. In moments he was at the scene of the accident, and amid the cheers of the early morning commuters he righted the truck and pushed it out of the intersection. As always he made sure that no one was hurt, smiled and waved, and took off. He hadn't gone far when another emergency arose.
Although by now most citizens in Retroville were accustomed to having a superhero around that didn't stop many of them from rubbernecking. The driver of another delivery truck turned to watch Dyno Lad fly away and so failed to notice that the signals in the cleared intersection had changed. Another large truck, approaching on a side street and moving too fast to stop, sped towards a collision with the first truck. The sound of its blaring horn and shrieking brakes immediately attracted Ernest's attention. In response he sped down to avert the impending disaster, uncomfortably aware of a powerful thudding in his chest. By now an experienced superhero he positioned himself in front to the speeding truck and exerted enough force, as he judged, to stop it.
It wasn't enough. The truck slowed, but kept going.
Realizing that his efforts were not enough Ernest now summoned all his strength and pushed mightily towards one side, desperately attempting to divert the truck to one side. Tires squealed in protest, but the truck changed direction. It missed the truck passing through the intersection by inches, continued over the curb on the far corner of the intersection, and came to a stop with Ernest pinned between it and the wall of a building. With a massive effort he pushed the truck back far enough to extricate himself.
"Gee, Dyno Lad, I'm sorry," the driver told him as he exited his cab. "You cut it awful close there. I guess you didn't want to hurt me by slamming my truck to a stop, huh?"
Ernest summoned a weak smile, although he felt as though his chest would explode. "Yes. Didn't want…to hurt anyone. Are you…all right?"
The driver nodded gratefully. "Sure am, Dyno Boy. Thanks. Thanks a lot."
"No problem. Take…care…" With that Ernest rose into the sky with a grimace of pain that he hoped the cheering onlookers would mistake for a smile. Unsteadily he headed towards his neighborhood, tryng to will his heart to quiet and slow as he moved through the air. Aware that now something was unmistakably wrong he kept his eye out for a particular house. Jimmy, he thought dully. Got to find Jimmy. As he flew along, considerably slower than he was accustomed to do, he was filled with dread that he wouldn't be able to make it all the way back.
He very nearly did not. Spotting Jimmy's house from several blocks away he began to descend so that he could land near Jimmy's clubhouse in the back yard. He ended up falling with a loud thud from about 8 feet up. Stunned from the fall and too weak to move he lay there for some minutes, gasping for air. "Jimmy…" he called weakly at last, knowing that his cry was too faint for Jimmy to possibly hear. He struggled to get to the back door of the Neutron house, but after his many amazing feats as Dyno Lad he found that the effort of crawling or even sitting up was too great for him. After several feeble and completely futile attempts he lost the fight to even remain conscious, and darkness swallowed him.
End of Part 10.
Authors' Notes:
Some astute readers may have noticed that I've changed the rating of this story from 'G' to 'PG' (as well as those on my other stories). This is because there is now a zero-tolerance policy on stories rated lower than the content requires. While I personally feel that my stories are all 'G' and suitable for all ages it is possible that others may not agree and feel that the violence and life-and-death situations go beyond acceptable levels. Rather than risk being barred from the site I've re-rated everything up a grade, just in case.