Member
Master EffeX
Half Pint
Lemons
Sep
Eviledd1984
AlteredTundra
Master Bruce
Izurich
Simple Unicycle
Damycles
SEASON ONE Sensation & Wonder
SUPERBOY #12 Multiversal Mayhem: TIE-IN
Brooklyn ♦ New York City
Superboy was all too aware of the effect his words had on Silk. A spike of adrenaline caused a temporary rise in her blood pressure. Seratonin and dopamine levels shift in her brain, most notably around the amygdalas. Her face twitches in an unconscious biopsychosocial reaction. For Superboy, those microexpressions- far too quick to be perceived by the human eye- go on for minutes. He has all the time in the world to analyze, compare, and theorize about each particular movement, every minute change, every possible variable. It was agonizing in moments like these when he already knew how badly he'd screwed up. His mind forced him to dwell on the guilt roiling in his chest.
"Thanks," he grinned. "I'll see ya around."
The asphalt cracked under his feet as he took off. Pushing himself faster and faster he shot through the sky. Superboy opened himself up to new sensations. Wind roared 'round his ears, joined by the chorus of battle that consumed much of New York City. There was the thudding of an anti-materiel rifle in Manhattan. The roar of a jet's engines as it came in for landing at JFK. Panicked screams in an alien tongue reverberated through the disabled Dominator skull-ship. The crackle of an Avengers communicator as Spider-Man explained that he'd found the source of the rifts. Hovering in the open sky, Superboy drowned himself in information, taking comfort in the chaos.
Solace proved fleeting, however, as a familiar voice crept inside his skull.
"Why do you let the feelings of these people trouble you?" Paul Westfield spoke through the radio receiver embedded in Superboy's cochlea. His voice was a cocktail of morose callousness and bored arrogance. The good doctor hadn't contacted Superboy since their encounter in the The Complex beneath Cadmus Tower, and the sharp, nasally sound made Superboy's skin crawl. It was like the devil had perched behind him, leaning in to whisper in his ear, and he was terrified what would be asked of him-
-Because now he knew he couldn't refuse.
"For a guy so concerned about humanity you don't seem to like 'em very much." He replied after swallowing the frog in his throat. Though Westfield was surely dozens of miles away all Superboy had to do was speak into the open air: the sensors Cadmus had implanted into his nervous system fed each of his five senses back to them in real time. Everything he saw, heard and felt was being monitored in real time. That was one of the less
"When you measure your success in generations the individuals begin to...fade. You'll become accustomed to it, in time."
Superboy scoffed. "Fat chance of that, asshole."
"A century from now that girl down there will be a withered husk trapped underground in a wooden box, and you'll still be in your prime. What do you think the world will look like then? What about five hundred years in the future, or a millennium?"
A few seconds ticked by without answer, so Westfield pressed on, an almost fanatic fervor rising in him. "Your mind is so confined to the present that you couldn't even begin to imagine so distant a future! Now imagine witnessing all that progress two hundred fold and you may get an inkling of why I don't concern myself with the low self-esteem of idiot teenagers."
A silence followed that revelation, hanging heavy like fog from the sea. Perceiving reality on a scale incomprehensible to normal people was something Superboy was all to familiar with. Even still, Westfield's claims were outlandish. Even if he was a clone of Superman- with all his extraordinary abilities and alien physiology- there was no way he'd live so long. Right?
"Why are you telling me this now?" He muttered, more uncomfortable with the continuing quiet than he was with Westfield's breath on his neck. "The world's gone to hell. I oughta be down there."
Now it was Westfield's turn to scoff. "This lesson is more important than anything you could be doing 'down there.' You ought to take it to heart even moreso, in fact: you paid for it in blood."
A chill ran down the boy's spine.
"But I didn't call just to lecture. I have need of you. The technology necessary to open Interdimensional gates of this kind could prove useful to the company. Either acquire the device itself or the individual behind it and bring it back to the Complex."
"Every superhero this side of the solar system is looking for that. How am I s'posed to get it before all of them? Before SHIELD?"
There was no response.
"Thanks," he grinned. "I'll see ya around."
The asphalt cracked under his feet as he took off. Pushing himself faster and faster he shot through the sky. Superboy opened himself up to new sensations. Wind roared 'round his ears, joined by the chorus of battle that consumed much of New York City. There was the thudding of an anti-materiel rifle in Manhattan. The roar of a jet's engines as it came in for landing at JFK. Panicked screams in an alien tongue reverberated through the disabled Dominator skull-ship. The crackle of an Avengers communicator as Spider-Man explained that he'd found the source of the rifts. Hovering in the open sky, Superboy drowned himself in information, taking comfort in the chaos.
Solace proved fleeting, however, as a familiar voice crept inside his skull.
"Why do you let the feelings of these people trouble you?" Paul Westfield spoke through the radio receiver embedded in Superboy's cochlea. His voice was a cocktail of morose callousness and bored arrogance. The good doctor hadn't contacted Superboy since their encounter in the The Complex beneath Cadmus Tower, and the sharp, nasally sound made Superboy's skin crawl. It was like the devil had perched behind him, leaning in to whisper in his ear, and he was terrified what would be asked of him-
-Because now he knew he couldn't refuse.
"For a guy so concerned about humanity you don't seem to like 'em very much." He replied after swallowing the frog in his throat. Though Westfield was surely dozens of miles away all Superboy had to do was speak into the open air: the sensors Cadmus had implanted into his nervous system fed each of his five senses back to them in real time. Everything he saw, heard and felt was being monitored in real time. That was one of the less
"When you measure your success in generations the individuals begin to...fade. You'll become accustomed to it, in time."
Superboy scoffed. "Fat chance of that, asshole."
"A century from now that girl down there will be a withered husk trapped underground in a wooden box, and you'll still be in your prime. What do you think the world will look like then? What about five hundred years in the future, or a millennium?"
A few seconds ticked by without answer, so Westfield pressed on, an almost fanatic fervor rising in him. "Your mind is so confined to the present that you couldn't even begin to imagine so distant a future! Now imagine witnessing all that progress two hundred fold and you may get an inkling of why I don't concern myself with the low self-esteem of idiot teenagers."
A silence followed that revelation, hanging heavy like fog from the sea. Perceiving reality on a scale incomprehensible to normal people was something Superboy was all to familiar with. Even still, Westfield's claims were outlandish. Even if he was a clone of Superman- with all his extraordinary abilities and alien physiology- there was no way he'd live so long. Right?
"Why are you telling me this now?" He muttered, more uncomfortable with the continuing quiet than he was with Westfield's breath on his neck. "The world's gone to hell. I oughta be down there."
Now it was Westfield's turn to scoff. "This lesson is more important than anything you could be doing 'down there.' You ought to take it to heart even moreso, in fact: you paid for it in blood."
A chill ran down the boy's spine.
"But I didn't call just to lecture. I have need of you. The technology necessary to open Interdimensional gates of this kind could prove useful to the company. Either acquire the device itself or the individual behind it and bring it back to the Complex."
"Every superhero this side of the solar system is looking for that. How am I s'posed to get it before all of them? Before SHIELD?"
There was no response.
