Chapter 6

Bryant DeWitt peddled on his bike and tried to not feel like his skin was going to peel off out of sheer impatience. Had it always taken so long to get places before he had superpowers? Now that he had superpowers, every single inch he had to peddle felt like someone was scraping fingers across chalkboard. He felt the intense temptation to crack a portal open and peddle through it to get to the Sok house immediately ... but, instead, he thought back to what his father had told him this morning.

Bryant had walked up to him, planning to lay out the confrontation he had in his head. He had looked at his father, in his normal human form, with his cane propped up against the wall and his newspaper in his hand, and ... and...

Why is confronting people so hard!?

Bryant scowled at himself as he continued to peddle, remembering how Dad had smiled at him, then folded the paper in half and asked him what he was going to do – and so, Bry had mumbled something about visiting Melissa by teleporting out there.

Son, this is your first real day off. You’ve done really well so far. But this is the hardest part ... you need to learn how to be normal too – you need to be able to be a person, not just a cape and a mask. That means you need your time off, without your powers. I’m going to trust you on this one, kiddo.

Bryant was glad that he was going to take today off. He was! He just wished ... well, he was a bit better at actually confronting his father. But what if he said the wrong thing? Or, worse ... what if Dad, like, did something that made things worse? Right now, they were in a weird kind of equilibrium: Dad banged Melissa, but, also, so did Bryant – in his Nova form, at least. Both were banging Melissa! And Melissa had said that she did love him, and that KOTF was bad at cuddling. So, like, Dad was banging her, but as a side piece, while she loved him ... but ... that didn’t matter, if she was sleeping with Dad, right? Or-

Bryant hit the brakes and closed his eyes, groaning in irritation. “Auuugh fuck my liiife!”

His voice echoed off the surrounding suburban homes and he blanched, realizing that an old lady with a dog was looking at him. She smiled at him.

“Whatever it is, honey, it can’t be that bad,” she said, in a lightly accented voice, then continued on. “Put it into perspective. Is it end of the world? No.” She shook her head, heading around the corner.

Bryant frowned.

Say he confronted Dad. Say he got mad. Say he and Dad got a fight. Mom would have to rush in and choose who to side with, him or Dad. What if their powers got out of control and he hit Dad with something like that gamma ray laser he could emit at will? Boom! No Dad! He didn’t want to kill his Dad! Heck, he didn’t even want to hurt his Dad! End of the world! It was actually, literally, the end of the world!

Or at least, end of his family.

“This would be easier if I wasn’t so tired,” Bryant muttered, then started to peddle.

Yesterday, after waking up at the crack of dawn, he had been run ragged by his family’s helpful ideas on how to train his powers. Teleporting trials in the danger room, studying physics text books to learn how to use his powers more creatively, trying his hand at hand to hand combat with his father and some simulations...

That had been pretty intense. Dad had taken his King of the Forest form, cracked his knuckles, and said: “Okay, honey, try and punch me.”

Nova Nine, his eyes locked up into the heavens above his father’s antlers, managed to say; “D-Dad, pants?”

“No, son,” Dad said, seriously. “There are quite a few villains who use their bodies to distract and horrify – some of them are deadly serious. You do not want to get anxious about a swinging dick when going toe to toe with Heracles.” He punched his knuckles against his palm, his large head bobbing in a serious nod. “He’s still cursed with madness, after all.”

Nova gulped. “Right.”

“Now, a thing to know about powers is they can be shockingly flexible,” Dad said, his hooves scuffing. “I’ve got the might and power of the forest itself thrumming through my body. My raw strength covers for some basic techniques that I lack – though, I have been training to cover for that. You can also do the same thing by enhancing your strength with your power. Try reinforcing your muscles and boosting your sinews with your molecular mastery.” He grinned. “Don’t worry, the room has a dampening field on – you can’t hurt me.”

Nova nodded, then blushed. “S-Should I be naked too? Just ... to make it fair?”

“Son, while you are an exceptional twink, I don’t particularly need to see you naked right now,” Dad said, his voice tolerantly snarky.

Nova’s face flushed. “Right. Okay.” He focused and felt the powers he had buzzing through his skin. There was no obvious change – just a subtle sense that he was suddenly vastly stronger. But while he was strong he realized he couldn’t do anything else but be strong. And there was an uncontrolled, raw force to his newfound physicality. He stepped forward, nervously – and blurred out with a punch so fast that it slipped past Dad’s blocking arm and slammed directly into his chest. The resounding crunch-crack that exploded from the impact site sent a ripple of displaced air whipping out ... but Dad didn’t so much as budge. Instead, the danger room that surrounded them flashed up several glowing read outs, holographic screens that scrolled past text.

Shattered ribs, heart impaled, spine snapped, death instantaneous.

Dad rubbed at his chest – even with the danger room’s field, he still winced. “All right! It looks like if you make yourself strong, you’re really strong. You can still pull your strength, but you will never not be car-flipping strong. Building juggling, even. That means, you need to be really careful. Even tough bastards like me would go down. Probably not immediate death – willpower has a way of keeping us intact in ways that computers can’t simulate. But still, I’d be in trouble.”

“Gah!” Nova sprang back, then focused – he shifted his strength away, feeling his powers leaving his musculature. The worst thing was? The difference between being super-strong and regular strong was... really thin. He’d have to keep an eye on that.

Dad held up his hands. “Now, now, don’t freak out. Just take a tiny part of that power, and try and form it, okay?”

Nova bit his lip. He closed his eyes. There was one big chunk of power that he could shape and control and throw around. But there were ... yes. There. He gently teased off a tiny shard of that power – and well, he couldn’t make himself stronger. That was too totalizing an effect, requiring too much of his energies. So, if he couldn’t be stronger ... could he be better at fighting? He realized that there was a brain full of the sweet science right there – the mental patterns, the biorhythms, all of it was lurking underneath Dad’s skull and antlers. He tried to model that pattern of molecules and subtle energy signatures – and there was no resistance to it, so, he supposed either Dad didn’t know, or didn’t bother stopping him.

When he was done, he blinked.

“I know how to throw a van at someone’s head,” he said, in wonder.

“Ah, the old van trick, the important thing is to look for people who have those ‘chuck me’ bumper stickers, that means they have it covered by the insurance,” Dad said, nodding to him. “Though, I note, you’re just ... using your powers as they are. You can push these things, when you’re flexible.”

“Right...” Nova said, hesitantly. “Can you push your powers?”

“Eh, not as much as you can,” Dad said. “When the chips are down, anyone can push as hard as they can. But you have a lot of potential energy that needs to be configured and prepared – you can respond to any issue, so long as you’re creative and have time to prepare. Me? I’ve got a fairly stable set of powers. I’m basically a brick who can shapeshift. The shapeshifting is useful, but it’s not my main forte, which is being really strong and moderately tough.” He chuckled. “And, well, even that is harder to quantify than you might think. Notice how you slipped past my guard?”

Nova nodded.

“You’re faster, but you probably can’t lift several million tons, like me,” Dad said, grinning cockily. “At least, not without a lot of preparation and effort. It’s easy for me.”

Nova frowned. “Isn’t being strong, but not, like, super tough really scary?”

Dad leaned in, grinning. “When I get into a real scrape, I shift myself into a moose. Right now, I’ve got the agility of a deer – but if I channel the toughness of a moose, I don’t think your punch would even get through.”

“Ahhhhhh!” Nova said, slowly.

“Now! A trick you variable effect types need to learn, which I learned by working alongside The Servitor for a few months, is that you can make things easier to deal with if you limit them slightly.” Dad paused. “How did he put it? The human mind can better conceptualize the impossible when it’s given a rational?”

“ ... uh ... huh...” Nova’s brow furrowed, his ears drooping. “Not sure how that works?”

“Well, okay,” Dad said. “Your powers are set up to model brawling, right now.”

“About a ... I want to say about a fifth of it,” Nova said, his ears twitching up.

“Right!” Dad said. “Imagine, instead of just the vague power of boxing, you had a glowing gauntlet of energy that made you stronger and faster. Easier to see, easier to communicate, easier to imagine!” He grinned. “Try it.”

Nova frowned, then focused. A glowing gauntlet of force snapped onto his palm, flaring to life and buzzing with energy. He felt not just more able to throw a punch, but also faster and better at it. He grinned and tried doing a quick double punch – one two, both blows snapping out faster than he expected and more smoothly too. He weaved left and right as he did so, laughing. “Wow, this is amazing!”

Dad nodded.

Then he snapped his hand out with shocking speed, closed it around the glove, and crushed it. The energy field exploded apart through his fingers. The sparkles crackled and buzzed against the ground and Nova felt all that talent and power vanishing.