This was written in response to Power-Up Prompt #21 from The Writer's Journey.
The prompts were:
Setting: The Walled Metropolis
Character: The Recruit
Conflict:The Pursuit of Vengeance
I’d dreamed of getting the Procedure for as long as I could remember. What kind of power would I get? What kind of superhero would I be? I knew I’d be a good one, because I was determined to save people from the hordes beyond the wall. But my secret dream was to get a power like Captain Commando or Lady Laser — the kind of power that would make a real difference.
I had nothing but respect for the heroes with the less flashy powers, like the Administrator, who organized and managed all the various work groups within the walls. Or the Mole, who shored up our walls and ensured the safety of everyone inside. And Dynamo was awesome — he powered the entire electric grid just by plugging himself in once a day.
But they weren’t the heroes we all dreamt of becoming.
Captain Commando was the strongest man ever. He could battle the mutant hordes for days without sleep and never take a scratch. Lady Laser could shoot them down from a mile away, keeping them far from the city.
There were others, of course, but those two were my personal favorites. They were everyone’s favorites.
I knew my chances of getting that kind of ability weren’t great, but I longed for it. So once the Procedure was over, I rushed into testing. Sadly, I didn’t bowl anyone over with my super speed getting there.
They ran me through test after test after test. I couldn’t shoot anything from my eyes. I wasn’t super strong or super fast. My senses weren’t heightened. I didn’t produce electricity or toxic gas or darkness from my pores. I was starting to panic. What if I didn’t have a power at all — it happened sometimes, but usually they could tell right away.
If the Procedure didn’t work, it was a death sentence.
They said my DNA had changed, so they were certain I had some power. But no one knew what it was until I shook hands with the Chuckster — he could make people laugh just by being near them. They occasionally used him to distract the hordes beyond the wall by making them laugh uncontrollably so the rest of the heroes could get into position.
But not once he shook my hand. Once he shook my hand, he couldn’t make anyone laugh anymore. Turned out the Chuckster’s jokes were pretty bad — it was definitely his power that made people laugh, not his sense of humor.
The Medicine Man was the one who figured out what my power might mean — mutants and superheroes underwent similar genetic changes, just with very different results. The Procedure was effectively a ‘guided’ mutation, after all.
“It’s entirely possible ya could totally remove the mutations from the muties beyond the wall,” said the Medicine Man, half his attention on me and half on the old movie playing on the wall screen. He tossed back a handful of popped synth-corn and commented, “Could be the solution ta the mutie problem if ya could do it in large ‘nuff numbers.”
My eyes widened. “What? You mean, I could cure the muties? I could make them… normal again?” I whirled and began pacing along the side of the room — half exam room, half altar to pre-collider culture. “Maybe I could make it so we could live outside the walls again!”
I could imagine the possibilities. I could be the savior of the city!
“Thank you!” I tossed out at the distracted hero and headed for the door. I couldn’t wait to tell my family, and then get started — do some testing. Try and save some mutants.
I rushed so quickly that I was two blocks away before I realized I’d left my wallet behind. I grumbled, but headed back. As I jogged up the front steps of the old brownstone, I heard yelling coming from inside.
In my absence, Lady Laser had arrived. Excited to meet one of my idols, I hurried up the steps, only to come to an abrupt stop as I really heard the words that were being screamed.
“Why didn’t you stop him, you idiot!” Her melodic voice was unmistakable. “You were supposed to keep him here. We need to deal with this before anyone more important than the fucking Chuckster is impacted.”
I listened carefully, suddenly uneasy. She didn’t sound excited about the possibilities of my ability. I didn’t understand why exactly, but her concern was clear. Did she think I’d removed Chuckster’s power on purpose? It had been an accident — I hadn’t known what would happen when we touched.
“We don’t need another goddamn Jetpack disaster,” she spat angrily.
Medicine Man’s voice was more alert than I’d heard it since we started testing. He sounded… scared. “That newbie who ganked Jetpack was different than this one. That one didn’t even require touch. Just don’t let this one touch ya, and ya’ll be fine. ” His tone turned cajoling, “Come on, baby. Let’s have a little fun time. I set aside some good shrooms for our next playdate.”
The next sound was a loud crash, followed by Medicine Man’s voice yelling in pain. “Fuck, Laser! Ya didn’t have ta do that.”
“I’ve got to go find him now, you asshole, and do the job you should’ve done,” she hissed. I heard the hard clop of her heels hitting the floor, and I leapt the railing of the stairs and faded back into the alley on the side of the building as she stormed by.
I listened to her steps fading down the street and realized I had no idea what to do now.
But I also remembered Jetpack. He could fly — one of only a few supers who could. They said the mutants killed him.
Finally, I gathered my courage and checked the street for any sign of Lady Laser. Seeing nothing, I crept up the stairs and back into Medicine Man’s exam room. He was staring blankly at the video playing on the screen. He didn’t even seem to notice when I shut the door behind me. There was a large bruise on one cheek, and a new dent in the wall that hadn’t been there when I’d left.
I snuck up next to him, staying as quiet as I could. And when I was within touching distance, I said, “Hey, Medicine Man. I have a few questions.”
The way he jumped was almost comical, but the way his eyes widened in fear as he saw how close I stood hurt my heart just a little. Why were they so scared of me? Didn’t they know I only wanted to help?
“H… hey, man,” he finally said, scooched back as far from me as he could get on the sofa. I just stood there with my arms at my sides — I wasn’t being threatening, but he acted like I was. “You’re back. Didja forget something?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I came back for my wallet, and I heard you arguing with Lady Laser.”
He winced, and then shrugged, “Yeah, man. She’s a little worried about yer power. I mean, you could make her… normal.” He huffed a little chuckle that had no humor in it.
“I would never do that!” I insisted vehemently. “I want to help the supers. I want to see if I can cure the mutants, so we don’t have to live behind these walls!”
As my voice rose, Medicine Man inched even further back into the padding of the couch. “Sure, man. I get it. But ya can’t blame people for being a little freaked.”
I paused. Maybe he was right. Maybe a little caution on their part was understandable. But…
“Didn’t she say there was someone else with a power like mine before, though?” I asked. “Where is he now? What happened to him?”
The hero in the tie-dyed mask grimaced. “Well, yeah. He had…” There was a long pause, and I could almost smell the man’s brain cooking as he tried to think through the fog of drugs he’d taken. “He had an accident.”
“What kind of accident?”
“Uh… well… he…” his voice trailed into silence as he stared at me. Then he shrugged and muttered, “I dunno.”
That sense of danger I’d had earlier as Lady Laser raged came back stronger than ever. But there was still a piece of information I really needed. “Did his power work on the mutants?”
Medicine Man sighed and shrugged, “I toldja. I dunno, dude. He never made it outside the walls to test it.”
“Wait, you mean he had an accident inside the walls?” I asked, my fear rising like a wave of bile in my stomach. “Must’ve been right after he got his power if he never made it outside, right?”
There was a silence that seemed to last an interminably long time but was probably only a few seconds before Medicine Man sighed again. “Look, man. I dunno what happened, and I don’t wanna know. I just know the big leaguers don’t like threats.”
“If I could get rid of the mutants,” I insisted. “That’d be good for everyone!”
“Would it?” he asked, and his big brown eyes were sad behind the multi-colored mask.
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I didn’t understand. Or maybe I just didn’t want to. I snatched my wallet and left without another look at Medicine Man. I’d admired him just an hour earlier…
I started toward home, then stopped at the corner. That’s the first place they’d look for me — Lady Laser might already be there. I couldn’t go home. I couldn’t go anywhere they might look for me, at least not until I figured out my next steps.
There was an old shed near the walls I’d played in as a child, but I hadn’t been there in years. It was the only place where no one would think to check for me. So I headed there, fighting the urge to rush — I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself.
The ramshackle hut was even more rundown than I remembered, but it was deserted. And it backed up to the wall. I glanced around and seeing no one, I crept inside and sat in the back corner with my eyes on the door.
I sat there for hours until afternoon light changed to dusk and then to dark. This close to the wall, it was almost black outside, and I could hear faint noises from the other side of the wall. The moans and scrabbling from the wall had been thrilling as a child listening in broad daylight surrounded by friends. In the darkness, alone and hunted, the sounds hit differently.
I huddled in the dark and tried to think this through. The only solution I saw involved publicly proving I could cure a mutant. Then the people would never let the supers hurt me. But I didn’t even know for sure if my power would do that.
I was gonna have to try — I couldn’t see any other way forward.
I waited until sounds from within the wall were nearly gone. There wasn’t much nightlife anywhere in the city, but basically none this close to the walls. Maybe everyone found those noises from the other side disturbing in the darkness.
Once it was quiet, I slid out and crept up to the wall. There were ladders every few hundred feet — I could just walk along the concrete until I reached one. It didn’t take long to find it. Climbing it was harder. The rungs were faintly slippery beneath my fingers and just a little too far apart to be comfortable. It was almost like they weren’t really designed to be climbed — no one ever wanted to look down at the mutant horde, so I supposed that made some sense.
When I reached the last rung, I crawled onto the top of the wall and just lay there waiting for my heart rate to slow. It didn’t. The sounds from the other side of the wall were louder now, with nothing between me and them but air.
I swallowed my fear like a lump of chalk in my throat and pulled myself to the edge. Peering over took more courage than I’d have ever believed I had. I knew what to expect. I’d seen the videos on TV just like everyone else — gangs of deformed mutants raging and pounding at the wall, trying to reach us and kill us all.
But as my eyes peeked over the edge, that’s not what I saw.
There were mutants — gangs of them, I suppose — but they were huddled around campfires with lean-tos and patchy-looking tents. They didn’t look like me or anyone I knew, but they weren’t scary. Just… broken.
They looked more like families than gangs. Some had extra limbs or missing limbs. There were some with malformed heads or extra eyes. One family unit had no noses — just holes in the middle of their faces. Some had strange growths sprouting from their bodies at different points.
One man looked like his arm ended in a spike or a sharpened bone — he was the only one who looked at all threatening. But he was using the spike to shift wood in a bonfire, surrounded by others.
And there were children among them. Some of the children didn’t look mutated at all.
For the first time I considered what might’ve really happened to me if the Procedure had failed. I might’ve still been me — just with a mutation.
But that’s what happened when the Procedure succeeded, too.
I watched for a while, but there wasn’t anything to see. The noises I’d feared were just families talking and laughing. Children playing. People in pain.
I spotted a more sturdy-looking structure leaned against the wall. I made my way quietly to just above it, then carefully lowered myself down. Of course, the drop was enough that I wasn’t able to land silently, the shoddy wood-and-cloth structure collapsing beneath me.
As I dug free of the debris, I found a group of people surrounding me, armed with carved branches and stone axes. And the man with the bone-spear for a hand stood at their head with the sharp tip of his weapon pointed at my face.
I held up my hands quickly and tried to look helpless — not hard under the circumstances. “I don’t mean you any harm,” I said quickly. “Please don’t hurt me.”
My helpless act may have been even more believable than I thought, because they backed away a few steps and let me rise.
I climbed from the wreckage of the lean-to and stood with my hands raised.
“Vut you doin’ heah, kid?” the man with the spear said. His words were heavily accented, and I struggled to understand him, but I finally figured it out.
“I came to try and help,” I said, though I bristled a bit at the word ‘kid.’ I was eighteen — old enough for the Procedure!
He raised a single eyebrow skeptically. “And how yoo do dat, eh?”
My shoulders sagged a little. I didn’t know for sure if I could help. But I’d try…
“I had the Procedure,” I explained quietly. “I think my power might help you.” As I spoke the last words, I reached out toward one of the women standing behind him, holding a child in her arms. The child didn’t show any mutation at all, but the woman had grotesque growths sprouting from the side of her half-bald head.
“Please… let me try.” I continued reaching toward her, taking a slow step in her direction.
The man watched silently, then slowly nodded at the woman. She set her child down and took two large steps toward me — stopping only when she was well within reach of my hand.
I touched her face, and as we all watched, the growths began to shrink back into her skin — her head regaining a more normal shape. She gasped with relief — I can only think that the pressure from the liquid inside the growths must’ve been horribly painful.
She collapsed to her knees as the last of the mutations disappeared. And I collapsed right next to her — more tired than I’d ever been in my life.
They all stared silently, then the man reached for me with his human-shaped hand and helped me to my feet.
“Vilcom, kid. Tank yoo.” He led me to his fire, and we all sat.
As the wall loomed above us, bright with the city’s lights on the other side, I realized I might never stand behind it again — and that maybe it had never really protected me at all.
—
‼️ If you liked this, you may want to check out some of my other fiction.
Does the man keep you down, too? Buy me a cup of existential dread and help me keep fighting those damn supers!
This was great. I’d read a whole novel in this world, there are so many interesting parts to explore!
Definitely could be a whole serial.