- 5 -

- With Great Power -

"What the hell is happening to me…?"

Three days had passed since Cal's body had rebelled against him and somehow thrown him across the entire width of the country and then tried to drown him. Although, he had soon discovered that he couldn't drown even when he had tried to do it deliberately. The reason he knew this, was because for the last three days he had been experimenting with his new body, with the things it could and couldn't do.

He was currently sitting on the edge of a sheer cliff edge with his legs dangling off the edge freely. Below him was the biggest drop he had attempted yet. During the last couple of hours, all he had been doing was dropping himself off of high places after finding out that his body refused to be damaged in any way. He had tried stabbing himself, dropping heavy rocks on his legs in an attempt to break them, and other such feats in an attempt to damage himself; so far, nothing had been able to. So his final test, in his mind, consisted of simply dropping himself off of various cliff edges in an attempt to break something.

If someone at this point were to ask him what he would do if he did manage to injure himself, perhaps badly, then he would have shrugged his shoulders. When Louise had told him his entire family was dead, his mind had stretched very thin, which is why he needed to leave the hospital, but when he had reacted outside the hospital, his mind had been thrown into chaos. His mind was not yet broken, but now it was twisted into a position it should not sit in.

Cal exhaled deeply and then lurched forward, sending his body cascading down the cliff head first. For the first couple of seconds he was free-falling, the wind rushed passed his face and his hair was blown flat on top of his head. Then an outcrop of rock caught him in the shoulder and spun him violently while at the same time breaking off. Cal span a number of times before his head crashed into the face of the cliff, leaving no mark on him but knocking chippings out of the rock, which halted his spinning motion and sent him on a vertical dive to the rocks below.

The first layers of rocks, made up of smaller, movable ones, were obliterated as he crashed into them; his solid body sending them flying in all kinds of directions. When his body slammed into a much bigger boulder, he came to a halt, leaving cracks splintering along the surface. Cal lay there for a minute or two before sitting up and checking his body. Once again, there was no sign of any damage at all; he was perfectly fine after falling off a high cliff and smashing into the rocks below.

Cal slowly stood up and stretched off the muscles in his shoulders and arms, despite it having no benefit to his new body. He then looked up and took a second to gauge the distance back to the top of the cliff. Something else he had figured out was that he had strength beyond anything he had seen before, with one exception, and he had worked out that he could use that strength to leap massive distances into the air. Cal had to gauge the distance, because he had yet to find an upper limit to his leaps and didn't want to end up too high over his mark.

So with the distance gauged, he bent his legs slightly and with the apparent effort of hopping a couple of inches off the floor, he shot into the air, straight up towards the edge of the cliff he had just fallen off. He had misjudged the height slightly and overshot by 10 feet, but as he arced forward, he touched down gently on the edge, the grass softening his landing somewhat.

He flattened his ruffled clothing and swept a hand over his hair, ruffling it as he went to resume it to its previous standing. As he did so, something in the clouded sky caught his attention, so he shielded his eyes with a cupped hand to get a better look. Usually, it wouldn't have gotten his attention; the only reason it had this time was because it seemed to be heading towards him. As Cal stared at the object while it drew closer, a loud roaring sound echoed across the top of cliff and washing over where Cal was standing.

Suddenly, the object changed course and dropped near-vertical to the floor, crashing into the ground and digging into the dirt deep enough that it supported the large cylindrical-type object. Cal used his just-controlled super speed to dash across to it and stopped in front of it.

On closer inspection, it wasn't as smooth as Cal had initially thought; it was covered in small ribs and a number of large gaps running along its length. It was a tall thing, standing close to 100 feet to its tip, and it made looking at it from such a close distance a problem if one wanted to see the whole thing. Taking this into account, Cal hopped backwards to get a better view; which turned out to be a surprisingly good decision.

As Cal landed a couple of feet from where he had been, the ground exploded in front of him and a quick glance up told him that the shot had come from the cylinder. Even before Cal could start to wonder what the hell was going on the gaps along the object became larger and a mechanical sound rung out around the area. Parts started spinning and moving, unlocking and locking in a different location, until it was no longer a simple cylinder but stood as some kind of humanoid mechanical robot.

"What the…" Cal started to say before the robot, as that is the only thing it could be called, raised an arm and with the sounds of mechanical movement, it changed into what could only be described as the barrel of a gun.

Even Cal's newly acquired high-speed movement was still too slow to allow Cal to dodge the beam of yellow energy the erupted from the end of the gun. He cursed himself as he bent his knees to move, but by that time the beam slammed into his chest and completely surrounded his upper body.

Cal cried out and raised his arms in an attempt to protect his body, by the energy seemed to ignore him and passed through his arms to slam into his chest. The beam was continuous for a number of seconds before lessening and stopping completely, leaving a stunned Cal stood, smoking from where the attack had hit him.

As Cal slowly lowered his arms, he noticed that despite the fact his top was shredded to pieces, he seemed to have sustained no actual injures. Taking it as good luck his body could withstand whatever the robot had thrown at him, Cal dashed forward with his super-speed and leapt up to the robots chest, a fist drawn back with intent to punch it in the chest.

However, the robot was quicker then it looked as it twisted its entire body until Cal was face-to-face with its cannon again. "Damn…" he said before the beam fired instantly again and slammed into his body. Since he was in mid-air, this time he was sent somersaulting backwards before crashing into the floor and creating a small crater in the process. Cal gritted his teeth, but once again he seemed to be uninjured. His clothes on the other hand weren't as lucky, leaving him in the tattered remains of his jeans.

"I don't know who the hell you are, or what the hell that attack is meant to be, but it's not working, so buzz off!" he called, standing up and brushing dirt from his arms. "Before I'm forced to do something ugly."

"Solar Energy." A voice said, and Cal spun around to see a suited man walking up to him from behind.

"What?" Cal replied, crossing his arms and keeping a wary eye on the robot which now stood completely still.

"That's what it was firing at you; Solar Energy. It's the reason you're still in one piece, in fact it's more than that." The man replied. "I'm Director Amar Watson, I run S.T.A.R.T. Labs."

"S.T.A.R.T." Cal exclaimed, recognising the name. "That's where…"

"Yes, that's where your parents worked, and they did some incredible work as well to be honest. In fact, the reason you're now able to do all the things you can do is all down to them." Amar said, placing his arms behind his back and clasping one wrist in his hand. "Although I'm not sure they would agree with what you plan to do with them."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a fairly old individual, Cal, so it's safe to say I've gained quite a bit in terms of life experience. It also means that I can tell a person's goal simply by gazing into their eyes, and you Cal, you're aiming for revenge." Amar shrugged slightly and turned his back to Cal, gazing out across the sea. "But far be it from me to prevent you getting what you want, just hear me out for a second."

"Why were you firing Solar Energy at me?" Cal asked, trying to change the subject.

"Because that's what you run on now." Amar spun around with a smile on his face. "It's a piece of genius technology developed by your parents. Your body is now a battery with the ability to store an immeasurable amount of solar energy, this energy in turn powers your new abilities. It is a spectacular device and…one of a kind. Your parents died before they could share the secrets to this."

"Killed, Mr Watson, my parents were killed."

"Killed then, Cal, but back to my proposition in regards to your revenge driven plans. As I said before, I'm not here to stop you getting revenge; I just want to give you the best possible chance in taking down the one who killed your family."

Cal narrowed his eyes. "What do you propose, Mr Watson?"

"Join my team!" Amar replied, spreading his arms wide. "Join my team and lead them into battle against our enemies."

"No." Cal said without hesitation. "This isn't a 'team' activity, Mr Watson. If that is all you have to say, you can leave now." Cal turned to walk away but stopped as Amar cleared his throat.

"Now, now, Cal, let's not be hasty. That's simply my polite way of saying that I can't let you wander about unmonitored; you are S.T.A.R.T. labs property after all."

"What?" Cal said with a low growl, turning slowly to face the stern business man.

"Or rather, I should say the technology that now runs you is property of S.T.A.R.T. labs, and as such I'll need to take you back to the lab. Why not do it on your terms and lead a team of other unique individuals?"

"Others?" Cal's anger had subsided slightly.

"You are quite clearly the most unique Cal, but you are not the only one. The technology your parents created was the ultimate form of a program we have been working on for years."

"Enough Mr Watson, I'm not joining your team so you can get lost now."

"I cannot accept 'no' for an answer, I'm afraid Cal. You're going to have to come with me." Amar's voice had become sinister and Cal switching his gaze across to the robot which had started to move again, the other arm transforming into a barrel this time. "This time, it won't be Solar Energy I'm firing at you."

A green light started to emit from the darkness of the barrel, but Cal wasn't about to wait and find out what it was Amar had in store for him. So instead, he leaped the short distance to the robot, landing on its chest and digging his fingers into the metal to retain his balance, before grabbing the new weapon with his free hand. Then with the effort of tearing a piece of paper in half, Cal twisted his body and pulled the arm free of the body.

The arm weapon came away from the torso with no resistance, easily breaking under Cal's strength as he ripped it free. A trail of wires snaked out, tearing and snapping under the pressure as small stars of electricity jumped from the new hole in the robots side. Cal didn't stop there though, as he dropped the arm to the ground and spun his whole body around catching his foot on the side of the robots head and jerking it to the side. Once again, the robot couldn't stand up to the force and its whole body was thrown sideways before crashing into the ground with Cal standing on its head.

Cal placed one foot on the ground and stamped the other one down, directly onto the side of the robots head, reducing it to crumbs and debris. "That's what happens to anyone who gets in my way, Mr Watson. I suggest you don't interfere with me any longer."

Throughout Cal's assault on the robot, Amar had stood stock still with not a flicker of emotion on his face. Now, a large smile was spread across it as he nodded to Cal's threat. "Impressive Cal, I'll listen to your demands for now but don't think I'll leave you alone forever."

"Whatever." Cal said and turned to walk away. He stopped and bent his legs slightly to leap away, only to stop once more at Amar's cough.

"I'd start in Metropolis." Amar said, his wily grin still present. "If I were you, of course."

Cal didn't reply to that and exploded into a massive leap, quickly disappearing from view as Amar burst out laughing and pulled a mobile phone from his pocket.