7-Jun-2019
Who knew bubbles could be so dangerous?
The Man of Diamond leaned forward on the stainless steel table, his glittering arms digging into the surface. He looked at me with the same expression adults gave children who tried to show off their jumping skills. “Did you say that your power is blowing bubbles out of your nose?”
Next to him, Lady Lyrical’s eyebrows shot up into the bangs of her red hair, and she hid a smirk with her hand.
I smiled. “That’s right. Bubbles out of my nose. I can do any color.” I demonstrated by making pink bubbles come out of my left nostril and green out of my right.
That tingly about-to-sneeze feeling tickled the inside of my nose all the way back to my sinuses.
Lady Lyrical coughed to keep from laughing. Man of Diamond pressed his lips together and nodded slowly.
The bubbles reached my lips before I sent the command to levitate. Most were between the size of a pin head and a pea. They floated off my skin, leaving a thin layer of moisture behind.
Lady Lyrical turned away.
Man of Diamond laced his sparkling fingers together and looked down at the screen inlaid into the table. “So, uh, Bubbles, how do you see your power helping in the fight against evil?”
I straightened in my chair. “There are many applications. First, distraction.”
Lady Lyrical spoke for the first time, her voice making me feel like I was high on the best drugs money could buy. “It is distracting.”
Man of Diamond shot her a glare.
White bubbles poured from my nose and quickly filled the air around me. When I had enough, I made them into two spears and shot them at the heroes.
She dodged. He held up a hand and the bubbles crashed against it.
I spoke. “If I were part of a team, they could have used the distraction to gain some advantage.” I went on before either of them could speak. “My bubbles can also be used to discombobulate cameras.” I repeated my earlier performance, only using black. They gathered around the camera in the corner and hovered. “If you look at the recording, it’s black.”
“Fascinating,” Lady Lyrical said with a mock expression of awe on her face.
I gave her another dazzling smile.
Man of Diamond shifted in his chair. “Bubbles, I’m sorry, but I’m not sure that your powers are going to be a good fit for our new team.”
I turned to him. “But you haven’t seen all of my tricks.”
Lady Lyrical stood. “You should go.”
More bubbles poured from my nose. “Did I mention that I can make the bubbles out of any substance in my body?”
A stream so small they couldn’t be seen drifted into the air and headed toward Lady Lyrical.
She opened her mouth too speak and her eyes went wide.
“For instance, a combination of stomach acid and feces.”
She gagged.
Man of Diamond rose to his feet in all of the righteous indignation he could muster. “Get out!”
I twisted my hand and the bubbles I had guided into Man of Diamond’s body expanded. His exterior was impenetrable, but on the inside he was still human, and filling his body with excess gas was the nicest way I could think of to kill the man who had killed my wife. He slumped forward on the table, screaming.
Lady Lyrical went to her knees, clutching at her throat. Acid smile rose from her open mouth.
I looked between them. “I’m afraid that the two of you only have seconds to live, which is more than you gave all of those people in the lake bottoms before you tore the place apart.
Man of Diamond managed to get his head up. His eyes bulged from their sockets. “Who—who are you?”
“Just a man doing his duty to keep the world safe.”
“But you’re a monster,” Man of Diamond said.
I leaned down to look into his now bleeding eyes. “No, you and your gang of super heroes are the monsters. When I’m finished, there will be neither super villains or heroes. Only people.” I turned my sneer on Lady Lyrical. “The monsters will be extinct.”
Both of the heroes watched me in horror. I let them. I wanted them to understand what it felt like to be paralyzed by fear in your last moments before death.
More bubbles came from my nose. They gathered on my skin and transformed me into Man of Diamond. He tried to speak, but it turned out to be his death rattle. I adopted his smile and moved to open the door. It wouldn’t take long to finish off the others here at headquarters. Then I could move on to the rest.
Once that was finished, I would be able to rest.
***
The other day I wondered what the worst super power would be.
This is what I came up with!
