The Dummies Guide for Superheroes: Introduction
Chapter 1

On the crest of a street in San Francisco, stood six people –Luke, Sabra, Harley, Anna Lucia, and Leverett – wearing masks and streetclothes. They looked more like bank robbers than the superheroes they were, alook which had earned them the moniker The Dissents – despite their fight toprotect the people from the peccant and deleterious QED Corporation.

The four superheroes faced off against an army of frighteningnumbers, each soldier with superhuman powers of their own. These men and womenwere trained to fight and die for their country, and had been lead to believethat these six were vigilante outlaws who were trying to destroy humanity.Behind them was a line of soldiers in nearly impenetrable mech suits, andoverhead helicopters swarmed. It was like six David’s facing off Goliath, hiswife, children, relatives, in-laws, closest friends, and neighbors – the oddsappeared off balanced.

“So… This whole knowing we were walking into a trap and beingokay with that…” Anna Lucia began.

“Shut up, Anna,” Luke growled.

“All I’m saying is we could have thought this through some,” sheinsisted. “You know, maybe—”

“Is this really the time?” Sabra hotly interrupted. “She told usthis was going to happen, no matter what we did.”

“Yeah. And one of us dies. I refuse to let that be me.”

“I second that,” Harley said.

Luke smiled. “We can all agree on that, so let’s go hand themtheir asses and call it a day. Sound like a good plan?”

With only a gust of wind to prove they had been there, Luke andhis team rushed headlong into battle. The steamrolled into the army waiting forthem, throwing soldiers left and right – and keeping with one rule on theirshort superhero rule list, doing everything they could to keep any of thesoldiers from dying.

The fight ripped apart buildings, cars left on the street, holeswere left in the asphalt and cement, and trees were crushed.

Despite the soldiers having superpowers and in mech suits, andthe sheer number they had come into battle with, it quickly became apparentthey were no match against The Dissents. The team had been using their powersof two years, they knew each other’s moves, and they communicated without aspoken word. The soldiers had been trained to work in combat as a team, but itdidn’t make up for their lack of experience using their superpowers. The tideof the battle seemed unable to be turned and again Q.E.D. was losing to theragtag team.

Luke heard someone scream his name and turned. Through thefighting and destruction he saw the face of a friend turned traitor.

“Asshole!” Luke snarled at the man before speeding toward him.

He was about to hit, prepared to knock him ten blocks away, whenhis bête noire yanked a teenage girl in front of him like a shield and cowardbehind her. That didn’t stop Luke. He knew he could pull her safely away andstill attack his adversary.

Luke reached for her and grabbed her arms to pull her close –and felt sudden, intense pain burn into his chest. Her eyes instantly widenedfrom pain and she tried to scream, but it came out as gurgling noise. Lukestumbled to a stop, falling against the wall of an apartment building with herand crushing her left leg and arm in the impact. He slowly sank to his knees,still holding her. Luke looked down, staring at the piece of metal that heldthem together. His enemy knew his weakness, the weakness all six of them had.Despite their powers, despite their speed and seemingly endless strength, theyall bore the same weakness. If something was slow enough, but still had enoughforce behind it, it could easily penetrate their skin, and in this case, killthem for a second time in their lives.

Luke looked into the dying girl’s face. But he killed this childin Luke’s arms to murder Luke – if he’d had the strength, if he couldn’t feelhis life slipping away so fast, Luke would have that man. He would have put anend to him betraying the team and now killing an innocent child.

“I’m sorry,” Luke whispered to her.

She tried to say something, but never had the chance. Somehow heknew his death wasn’t much further behind the girl’s.

He saw something burning fly overhead and crash into the house.It broke through a window and something inside burst into flames. The fireinside seemed to move at a crawl, inch by inch consuming anything that would feedits hunger.

Someone put their hand on his shoulder. “Hang on. Hold on,Luke,” Leverett quietly said.

In the distance, a car alarm started going off. Even in death itwas an annoying sound.

Luke felt like he was falling. He blinked. A sharp rockyshoreline was rushing toward him. He didn’t scream. Instead he threw a hand outto break his fall, while his other hand balled into a fist as if clenchingsomething precious. And then…

JUNE 1, 2030

Luke Peterfeso jerked awake. One hand slammed against themattress to break his fall, while the other curled into a tight fist to holdonto that precious item.

Several minutes passed while his confused mind struggled toseparate his nightmare from reality. As it did, Luke tried to recount the lasttime he’d had this same nightmare – it was last week, he remembered, but thisnightmare had recurred many, many times before that. He’d been having it sincehe was eight, right after he’d suffered an unusually resilient case of ScarlettFever. The strangest part of the fever wasn’t that it didn’t respond toantibiotics for two weeks and he was in Intensive Care from it, but that thedoctors had no idea how he’d gotten it. He hadn’t had strep throat or testedpositive for it prior to or during his illness, as far as they knew he hadn’tbeen in contact with anyone else who had the bacteria that caused it – by allaccounts, it seemed to have manifested from nothing. With it came thisnightmare every time he fell asleep, and after that, it recurred when he wasstressed or depressed. Unfortunately, his adult life seemed rife with bothstress and depression, so the nightmare occurred most nights.

Luke looked over at the alarm clock next to him, realizing itwas the car alarm he’d heard in his nightmare. He sat up on the edge of his bedand stared at his reflection in the full length cheval mirror. He really hatedthat mirror but his ex-wife had insisted on having it and he hadn’t gottenaround to selling it, giving it away, or better yet, breaking the damned thinguntil it was slivers of wood and glass. The stupid thing only made him feelworse about himself for all he saw looking back at him was a pathetic, tall,dumb looking man, and that was exactly how his ex-wife often described him.

They were both wrong.

With bright blue eyes, chestnut hair, and clean shaven, Luke wasdistinctly handsome. Sports, or much more than walking didn’t interest him, butthat didn’t keep him from being tall, sinewy, and strong (despite his lack ofactivity). Junk foods didn’t appeal to him because his father and older brotherloved them so much, and he never wanted to be anything like either of them; hisdesire to be nothing like either also drove his healthy eating habits and howrarely he would drink a beer. Luke was anything but dumb, and if he’d evergotten around to taking an Intelligent Quotient test, his score would haveplaced him among geniuses. But he was smart beyond that. He had common senseand street smart intelligence, both limited only by his self-esteem and a lifethat so far had left scars. Even he couldn’t acknowledge he was a passionatevisionary, but this drove his technology breakthroughs and constant craving topush the limits.

With a sigh, Luke realized his pity trip wasn’t getting him towork on time. He smacked the reset button on his alarm clock and staggered intohis bathroom for a hot shower.

Luke was recruited by Q.E.D. at twenty-three, just as he beganhis Ph.D., and for the five years Luke had shared a lab with the same person:Mark Trundle.

Mark was a long term employee, having put in twelve years. Hewas always complaining about how little he was paid, although Luke had doubtshe was being paid less than Luke. Q.E.D. gave raises to most employees everyyear, so he had to be making four or five times more than Luke by now. Perhapsit had something to do with the wife he hated, the teenage daughter he neversaid no to, or the high class mistress he kept on the side. For five years theywere all Luke had heard about, along with any sport that involved balls.Usually Luke had to tune him out with headphones just to get his work done, buttoday Mark hadn’t said much. That was very unusual, but Luke was so caught upin the nightmare that he didn’t notice the unusual silence form the other sideof the lab.

His concentration did break when he heard a Q.E.D. advertisementstart and get closer to him. He smiled, watching Brundon Doughtry walk into thelab and up to him. He held up his iPad so Luke could see the advertisement.

The dumpy, balding man twice Luke’s age he was pretty much theonly friend Luke had, and Luke seemed to be his only friend. Luke had gotten toknow the man since they started having lunch together every day, four years ago,and he pitied the man. Brundon was kind and generous, but no one at Q.E.D.liked him. Not just this office in Santa Clara, but the entire companyworld-wide. Anytime Luke heard anyone talk about Brundon it was full ofruthless rumors, unfounded gossip, all fueled by jealousy and misunderstanding.Brundon was the only NOC for the technology that had made Q.E.D. the superpowerit was – a computer known as BRINDA. Calling it a computer was a simplisticterm but there wasn’t any known term that really encompassed the breadth ofwhat the system really was. And Brundon was only a handful of people who wereever allowed into the Core where the main components were housed – aptly calledsince it was a room at the center of the building and rumored to be able towithstand a 10.0 earthquake, atomic bomb blast, and an EMP pulse. He was alsonicknamed Monica’s lap dog – she was the company’s CEO and a complete cunt.Luke felt that if people really knew how he felt about her that nicknamewouldn’t last long, but Brundon knew better than to express his opinions abouthis supervisor. Her wraith was fast and had effectively killed people’s careerprospects in hours of pissing her off. Between her naturally abusive nature andbeing ostracized by everyone, Brundon was a ball of anxious nerves. Luke alwayswondered why Brundon trusted him but he was just grateful to have a friend,even if it was only a work friend, so he didn’t ask and risk rocking thefriendship boat.

Mark was among the many people who hated Brundon. He glanced upat Brundon but only to glare at him before turning his attention back to hisown work.

“Can you believe this?” Brundon shoved asked. “They’re marketingthe new computers already. Look at this. They ripped off another company’sdesign! Again!”

Luke did believe it. In his five years with the company, he’dseen a lot of stolen technology on many of the products the company sold. Itwas rumored that Q.E.D. paid the board members of the victim companies millionsto keep quiet about the theft and halt lawsuits.

“No right minded person would buy these. Not when they replace outtheir computer is linked up to BRINDA, whether they have an Internet or not.Q.E.D. can see everything! I see a lot of RIAA lawsuits against a lot ofteenagers in the near future. Talk about 1984!”

Luke lifted his eyebrows. “They’ll link to BRINDA without theInternet? How?”

Brundon looked at him with a shocked expression. Clearly thatwasn’t something he was supposed to be telling anyone. Luke smiled.

“Letting cats out of the bag’ll get you scratched, Brun. Shouldwatch that. The vampire of Q.E.D. could be lurking anywhere.”

“The bitch that sucks your life for pure entertainment,” Markmuttered.

Brundon chuckled at the joke. Mark glared, killing the chuckle.

Brundon turned back to Luke. “Lunch. Where should we go?”

“You’re asking me at eight o’clock in the morning?”

“Yeah. So I can plan.”

“That’s five hours away. Text me in four hours. Then I’lldecide.”

“Brundon!” a female voice snapped.

The vampire, cunt of Q.E.D. had found him!

All three men turned toward the voice.

CEO of the Santa Clara, California Q.E.D. office, the vampireherself, Monica Stokes, blocked the door as if she thought one of them mightescape before she had unleashed her unbridled wraith on them. She was astunning woman with strawberry-blonde hair, unusual blue eyes, porcelain skin,and the perfect figure that was shown off by her tailored outfits – of whichshe never wore the same twice. Beauty and perfection that did nothing to take theedge off her thorny underside or temper that could make the strongest man orwoman cower and whimper.

“Did I send you in here to chat?”

“N-No.”

“Get back to The Core!”

Brundon left without a word.

She walked up to Luke, stopping when her breasts brushed hisarm. He held her gaze. Luke wasn’t afraid of her like everyone else around himwas, and the reason was illogical. He could not get her to fire him! Hedesperately wanted to leave Q.E.D., but he’d signed a ten year contract when hebegan working here, and the only two ways he could get out of it withoutbecoming homeless was to be fired for minor infractions or die. He had triedeverything that fell under the minor infractions – not filing reports, filingpoorly written paperwork, missing dates or meetings, even coming in late,things which he’d seen other employees be fired for almost immediately. Shewouldn’t fire him and he couldn’t figure out what it was. So one day heexploded at her and instead of immediately having him escorted off theproperty, she was her usual coy self, threw some insults his way, and walkedaway. Luke was now convinced his life was the embodiment of hell, and she wasthere to make sure it only got worse – and he no longer feared her.

“You’re working on a miniature storage device.” She stated it asif Luke didn’t know about his own project.

“Yeah?”

“I want all the devices you have, every prototype, now. Then youwill forward all documentation and reports to me.”

“It’s not finished, Missus Stokes.”

“Did I ask if they were finished?”

Luke didn’t answer.

“Now, Mister Peterfeso.”

“No.” Secretly Luke hoped this would be the final straw and wasbegging this would finally piss her off and finally he would be fired.

She almost smiled. “Excuse me?”

“I’m finishing the project this time. You aren’t taking it awayfrom me until I’ve completed it.”

She leaned in, pressing her body against him. He held hisground, glaring into her cool smile.

“Are you refusing to comply, Mr. Peterfeso?”

Luke thought about it. “Yes. I guess you’ll have to fire me.”

She chuckled a little. “I can appreciate your brash behavior,Mister Peterfeso, for a few minutes. And no, I won’t fire you. I’ll change yourjob duties. Do you enjoy cleaning toilets? There’s an opening on our janitorialstaff. Your pay grade will be scaled to match the position. That might make ita little hard to take care of dad, won’t it?”

Luke was burning to argue with her, to accept the challenge –but she was right. He needed his paycheck to pay for the nursing home.

Wait…

How the hell did she know about his father’s health? Or that hecould barely afford to pay for his care on his current pay check? With hisbackfired plan, Luke caved.

“I was close to getting it to work, Monica,” he growled. Luketurned, saying, “Mark, give me a hand?”

Mark followed him into the small storage room at the back of thelab. Luke glanced back. Monica had one hand against the door frame and drummedher fingers impatiently. Luke grabbed a box and walked to a small, clear frontcooler. He yanked open the door.

“Hold this, will ya?” Luke asked Mark, holding the containerwhere he wanted Mark to stand.

Mark took it and Luke grabbed the first tray. Inside werethree-dozen two-centimeter amber colored spheres. Luke poured them into thecontainer. He grabbed a second tray, brushing his hand along the edge so hecould swipe three before emptying the tray into the container. He looked up,seeing Mark’s surprised expression. He had seen the swipe. Would he tell her?

Luke put the tray back and turned his back on Mark and Monica.He put the spheres in a shirt pocket and then pulled out a tray from anothercooler. The tray had a dozen prototypes of various composition and color – all theones that had failed. He dumped those in the container, slammed the coolerdoors shut and stopped at a filing cabinet to yank out a folder and deposit itin the box. As he walked past Monica, he let the box go. Not expecting it,Monica flailed her arms, trying to keep the box from falling. Mark walked awaywithout offering to help.

“Is that all?” She turned, replaceing Luke at the lab door, holdingthe door open for her.

“Yes,” Luke answered.

She smirked as she walked past. Luke slammed the door behindher. She stopped in the hall and slowly turned. Through the glass door, heglared at her. She turned and walked away.

“You’re ballsy, Luke,” Mark commented.

“She’s not pissed. She doesn’t even care.” Luke went back to hiscomputer.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Luke looked at him. He glanced at the pocket Luke had put thespheres.

“Meet me at Hawkins Point for a beer tonight. Around six. Bringthose pens.” He patted Luke’s pocket.

“I don’t—”

“Great. See you there.” Mark left the lab.

Luke decided not to argue. Hedidn’t really want Mark’s help, but his lab partner had just kept his secret.So he decided he’d have a beer or two with him. Besides, he could use a partnerif he wanted to get the spheres working before Monica could.