Below is a snippet from a short story that is quickly turning into a novella called Super - Fluous.
Enjoy;
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We open with a paradox.
The paradox is this.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing so spirit sappingly mundane than being Captain Amazing.
There is not a single person amongst the living populace whose vocation is less admirable, whose company is less sought after.
If lifts were still necessary to travel directly upwards at speed then most would rather die a slow and terrible death from eating drawing pins in a sulphuric acid coulis than share this small cramped transport vestibule with anyone whose existence is so tragically mundane.
Captain Amazing is a superhero.
But then again who isn’t these days?
I’ll tell you who isn’t. Absolutely no one!
There was a time when the ability to leap into the stratosphere, break the sound barrier at will and shoot beams of pure photon energy through the nostrils carried an air of prestige. Today it’s like walking into a busy barber’s shop wearing an enormous orange toupee.
Superheroes were once Demigod-like figures that walked amongst men. Revered, adored and regarded with hushed awe. People would point up in the sky and scramble amongst themselves to catch a glimpse of the benevolent and majestic figures clad in colourful tights as they soared above them.
But as time passes, genitals collide and genealogy weaves its slow but inevitable patterns amongst the populace the superhuman population rises, then spirals and finally encompasses every man, woman and child on the planet.
Remember that thing about power and responsibility?
Well there comes a time when that stops being a nice little mantra and becomes a piece of iron-clad legislation.
A time when those who wield superhuman powers are legally obliged to behave with heroism that is directly proportionate to their abilities.
The result?
A world so secure, safe and utterly reassuring that everyone is a legally deputised protector with no one but those with the most feeble powers (the power to retain the normal colour of their urine after eating asparagus, for example) to protect.
A world where skulduggery, vice and avarice are so rare their very manufacture is the only black market.
A world where the exceptionally gifted are bound to highly unrealistic government enforced quotas for acts of heroism and opportunities to protect and rescue are so infrequent that the superhero on the street can do the most unscrupulous things in their pursuit.
This is the world inhabited by Captain Amazing.
