CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

Brave New World, Part 1

“Excuse me!” Sam Shepard apologized as he slipped his way into the back of the crowd. “Media coming through!”

‘Media’ was a stretch nowadays as Sam hadn’t written an article for New York’s number one newspaper since he left the city to go on a road trip across North America with Thunder and Farsight.

In the near distance, the thunderous boom of metal crashing on metal rang in his ears, drowning out the police sirens and terrified screams around him.

Sam sighed. “This isn’t how I thought my first day in Philly would go.”

What, you thought we were rolling into town and nothing bad would happen? Chiron’s disembodied voice asked sarcastically. When were you ever that lucky?

Sam squeezed his way into the very front of the crowd which was pressed together like a packet of sausages. Although the days of him freaking out over every terrible sight were over, Sam couldn’t help feeling chilled to the bone from the image of such jaw-dropping destruction before him.

“I, uh, found the bus Farsight dreamed about… She never said it was a runaway.”

Coming up from the south side of North 20th Street was an out-of-control bus that was speeding on the road and ramming past other vehicles as if there was no one behind the wheel.

“Master, how do I—”

A terrified scream shook Sam to his core. No, it wasn’t another horror’s roar. It was the scream of a woman in distress, one that sent memories of his past sprawling into the forefront of his mind.

“Mindy, no!” yelled the woman only a few feet to the right of Sam. “Go back, Mindy!”

Mindy; it was the name of the little girl who had just wiggled out of her dad’s arms outside of the Horticultural Society building. She ran toward her mother on the other side of the street and was about to become a bug on the windshield of the runaway bus.

Sam had reached for the mask hidden inside his jacket out of reflex. He’d jumped out in front of the crowd out of impulse, too. But, unlike that time when he’d run toward Thunder’s cry for help, there wasn’t an ounce of hesitation in his movements now.

When your moment comes, the master had once said to him, don’t be afraid to leap!

Sam reached Mindy’s side in the short time it took for him to slap his mask onto his face. Unfortunately, the runaway bus was just as fast. It was about to ram into them—threatening to turn both Sam and Mindy into road-kill—when he picked the little girl up and rolled out of the danger zone in just the nick of time. In fact, it had been such a close call that Sam had felt the wind of the bus’s passage on his back.

“Special delivery.” Sam dropped Mindy into her dad’s arms. “Don’t let her go anymore.”

Then he was off and chasing after the runaway bus that was speeding away like a bat out of hell.

You’ll never catch up to it at your regular pace, kid, Chiron said.

“I’m open to...suggestions,” Sam huffed.

At level twenty, Sam’s Dexterity was up to [44] now, but even that didn’t make him fast enough to catch a bus speeding at over ninety miles an hour.

Sam watched the bus get further and further away, ramming through idle cars and causing chaos along the wide street without slowing down at all.

“This reminds me...of that old movie...Speed,” Sam puffed. “The Keanu Reeves one.”

I like that one, Chiron chuckled. Then he added, you should activate Herculean if you want to catch that bus before it hits Logan Square.

Logan Square was one of Philadelphia’s most popular attractions partly because it was right next to the Franklin Institute, which, regrettably, was almost always full of people around this time of the day.

“Right...it’s Herculean time,” Sam sighed.

Sam wasn’t a fan of activating this power when there was a large crowd gathered on both sides of the street because he didn’t want to feed the rumors of the vigilante ‘Herculean’ that Farsight leaked to the Herald. But now was not the time to feel self-conscious, he knew. So, after sighing deeply, Sam roared, “Herculean!” into the sky.

To clarify, he wasn’t showing off. None of his new powers worked without saying them out loud. Something he suspected Chiron—or more likely, Apollo, the god of braggarts—was responsible for.

[Herculean (Δ)] is now active. Your current strength is temporarily tripled based on probability and threat assessment calculations [171]. WARNING! Your body is still learning to adapt to this power. You will accumulate damage while it is active.

Although the same warning had come out like usual, there was less pain now than before. Not just because Herculean had grown, but because Sam was so used to the surge of energy suddenly coursing through his veins that he no longer minded that spine-tingling sensation of heat exploding throughout his body.

“I can’t believe…I’m getting used to this.”

Sam bent his knees, and with Herculean’s energy, launched himself forward so that two wide leaps were all it took to catch up to the back of the runaway bus. Then he reached out and grabbed onto its underside with both hands.

Pull, kid!

Sam dug his feet in, slamming them so hard onto the road that the asphalt cracked underneath him. He pulled against the bus’ momentum, but the rear bumper came apart in his hands, causing him to fall back on his butt, hard.

“Styx!”

Get up, lame-brain, Chiron snapped. Or that thing’s going to hit more than just parked cars!

Sam leaped to his feet. “I’m up, I’m up...”

Run, kid, Chiron ordered. Run!

Sam was no Flash, but he ran so fast that his surroundings had become a blur. He quickly overtook the bus and got a few feet ahead of it, which was when he turned around to face it.

What in Hades are you doing?

“Remember that old Superman movie?”

Depends…which actor are we talking about — Henry Cavill or Christopher Reeve?

“Neither...” Sam raised both arms forward. “The Brandon Routh one...there’s a scene in it where he saves a plane falling from the sky!”

Sam managed to say all of that in the seconds just before his hands caught the bus that rammed into him with the force of a wrecking ball.

You’re not as strong as a fictional Superman, kid!

The front of the bus’ metal surface cracked around Sam’s hands as its engine pushed and bucked against him.

“Argh~~h!” Sam screamed.

Despite planting his feet to the ground, he was pushed back by the runaway bus’ momentum, dragging him along the street without slowing down at all. It was quite the familiar sensation, one he had the first time he and the cannibal boar crossed paths.

“Godsdammit!”

Pieces of asphalt broke off against his feet. Sparks flew out of the wheels.

Lesson number two, kid! Chiron reminded him. No matter the pain, no matter the struggle—

“—a true hero never stops to answer the call when it’s given!” Sam finished.

He called on the excess life force coursing through his body and willed it into the muscles of his arms and legs, reinforcing them so that they could handle the strain of what he was attempting to achieve.

“I can”—Sam heaved—“do this!”

He lifted the front half of the bus up to cut off its speed—and it actually worked. The bus slowed. Then it slowed some more until it finally skidded to a stop right in front of the Franklin Institute and the crowd waiting by its entrance.

Hephaestus’ flaming beard, you did it! Chiron said in a surprised tone.

“Nothing...to it...” Sam leaned his back against the front of the bus. Just a short breather from what was a pretty intense strength challenge. “I can do this...all day...”

That’s when Sam heard something he’d never heard before—cheers. It was the excited cheering of civilian spectators around Logan Square who’d just witnessed his first official save since Farsight outed his moniker in the papers.

“Seriously...they’re cheering for me?” Sam asked, bewildered.

Don’t let it get to your head, lame-brain.

“I’d never—”

His reply was cut short by a familiar high-pitched shriek. One that often starred in his worst nightmares.

“Oh, no...” Sam repressed a shudder. “Don’t tell me...”

Something big and monstrous was thrashing inside the bus.

Now we know what caused this thing to run wild, Chiron noted. You might want to bring your new hammer out for this one, kid.

“What about the civilians inside?” Sam asked.

They aren’t moving, Chiron answered.

Sam’s brow furrowed. “Was I... too late?”

We’ll figure the situation out later... Right now, you’ve got to focus.

Sam’s eyes darted toward the bus’ windshield, but there it had sustained far too many cracks that it was hard to make out anything inside.

“Tell me I’m not about to face another one?”

You want me to lie to you?

“Somehow, that would be preferable...”

The horror that jumped out of the broken door had a tall, wiry frame and deathly pale face that was so similar to the monster that haunted Sam’s dreams. Luckily for him, the energy this banshee gave off was nowhere near that of the terror he’d encountered when he and Thunder first met more than a month ago.

It’s a gamma-level, Chiron confirmed. You can take it.

It was true; Sam probably could have taken on the banshee if he was up for it, but he wouldn’t get the first crack at this horror. For no sooner had this creature escaped from the bus when it got drop-kicked in the side of its head.

“What the—”

“It’s alright now, citizen,” said the hero who’d just arrived. “I’m here to save the day!”