SUPERWORLD

Prologue

Nothing was going to stop Richard Swan from being the world's very first superhero. Sure, weirdos in costumes had dressed up and stopped purse snatchers before, but that's all they had been, weirdos in costumes. Most died without ever having their accomplishments acknowledged, others ended up in jail after the Anti-Vigilante Act was passed, and none of them, not a single one, had any kind of superpowers, and that's where Rich had them beat.

He could fly, shoot lasers from his eyes, and he was strong enough to bench press a Buick by his thirteenth birthday. Rich had started training the instant he discovered, at the age of ten, the gifts he possessed.

It had been a lovely Summer's day at his family's lake house in Cape Cod, a light breeze came off the water and the high noon sun sprinkled diamonds across the deep blue. Melissa, Rich's little sister had broken the perfection of that day by running up to Rich, tears pouring down her face.

"Mr. Bubbles is stuck up a tree!" She wailed.

Rich sprung into action, he had never been one to sit by and watch others suffer. He followed his sister to an ancient tree near the lake house. It stood over thirty feet high, a huge white oak with branches so far out it looked like the world's tallest bush. Around the twenty-foot mark, Rich saw an orange fuzz ball nestled amongst the green.

"Don't worry Mel, I'll get him for you." Rich assured his weeping sister, using his best impression of the only vigilante he'd ever had respect for, The Golden Eagle, America's Hero.

The Eagle fought in Vietnam and gained fame through his flashy costume and the commercials he did in support of the war effort. His strong jaw, deep voice, and commitment to justice won him the hearts of the American people and made him a legend to boys for generations, even several decades later, all the way down to Rich.

The boy had started climbing the tree, nothing new to him, with a rapid pace, scaling halfway to the cat in just a minute. He looked down and saw his sister below, cheering him on, giving him the heart to push onward and upward. He quickly made it to the same thick branch as the cat, and latched on to the troublesome beast, not bothering to try and coax it out.

Always act first and talk later, that's the Eagle's Way.

But, cat in hand, Rich saw a problem: how on earth was he to climb down with the cat in his hands? The cat seemed to sense the boy's panic and hesitation, and it started to try and escape his grasp. Rich fought to hold on, letting go of the branch to use his hands in his effort to restrain Mr. Bubbles.

He fell.

Cat clutched to his chest, the boy fell from the tree. He shut his eyes firmly, bracing for impact. An impact that never came. It was a few seconds before Rich realized the sensation of falling had stopped, replaced by a new, strange feeling. The boy opened his eyes. Ten feet from the ground he floated, not moving up or down, and perfectly safe. Rich decided to lower himself gently to the ground, and so he did, making a soft landing in no time.

"Richie! You can fly?! Since when can you fly?!" Mel cried. Rich just handed her the cat. Mel made an insistent effort to inform their parents of Rich's new talent but only received:

"That's lovely, dear." In reply.

But it didn't matter, they knew, and together they trained and honed his abilities. They found out about the super strength when Rich started weight training the month after saving the cat, nothing felt heavy enough, so they decided to use the Buick the family had as a third car to train. 

The laser vision was discovered after Rich was rejected by Wendy James in junior high. He went into a field near their house and screamed so loud that red beams shot from his eyes. All these wonderful powers filled Rich with pride, but he wasn't stupid, and neither was Mel. They didn't tell anyone and Rich never participated in sports or athletic contests, it wouldn't have been fair. Besides, who needs martial arts training when you can throw boulders around like basketballs?