Just a little fun with the main character of my soon to be published book: The Serpent CultTOMCAT Verses...I take a deep breath, fill my lungs deep, and feel my tense pectorals stretch over my ribs. Then I let it out slow, pushing it through clenched teeth, and let my shoulders settled back into place. It helps, my mind is quiet and I begin to focus. Focus is of the utmost importance. Otherwise I lose and Rock City falls.The rotten floor boards push up against my feet. I can feel the give in the wood as I shift my weight. My laces are too tight, I was anxious when I tied my sneakers up. There’s a vein running across the top of each arch that pulses in rhythm, pushing blood under the taught laces. The bandages wrapped around each ankle expand ever so slightly in tune with the pulsing blood. It’s a good rhythm, it helps me focus.Focus is the key. Visualization… actualization.A warm Mountairy Rock breeze blows easily in through the broken windows on the west side of the building. It slides around my bare calves, pushes against my black denim shorts, and tickles the tips of my dangling fingers. My long field jacket is tied around my waist and it flutters and waves, pulling at me,forcing me to shift my weight slightly,pushing my toes against the soft wooden floor boards,that give just a little.Focus. Inhale again.I draw in another good breath and hold it for a moment.With focus I can visualize…Tension eases out of my neck as I exhale. I shift my weight and push against the floor. My calves flex, the muscles going solid and tight, and rise to tip toe. Then my thighs tighten and my heels come back down onto the wood, giving me my foundation; like the bottom of a mountain, unmovable.Visualize… a mountain… a billion tons of weight baring down… a billion tons of rock… of power… Focus. Need to focus.I’m only going to get one shot at a good first impression.The billion tons of power sits in my legs all the way down to my toes. I stack more on top; my butt clenches, my abs tightens, and I focus.Stack the power, tighten up my chest.I feel the billion tons of rock pushing against my lungs, making it hard to breath.I stack more on, my mountain gets bigger.My shoulders tighten, then my arms, and the billion tons pull at my neck but I still stack it on.I have to. Almost time.Focus…My hands clench into rock hard fists. A billion tons of rock pull down on them. The floor creaks beneath me.Hard to breath.My neck tightens, then my jaw sets hard. My lips draw into a sneer as tight cheek muscles pull on them. My nostrils flare, my eyes draw to slits, and my brow furrows; rock stacked on top of rock. My lungs can no longer draw breath. Almost time.Visualize.A billion tons of rock, stacked, pushing down… power. I use that power to draw breath…My lungs ARE rock, but they still draw breath.My muscles ARE rock… I draw my left fist up… the floor creaks as I shift my weight.Focus… visualize… actualize…I remember what she told me: “Nothing… nothing is beyond your power. If you can see it, you can do it. Focus is the key.”I can feel the power, and none too late. He’s here. I hear the cape first, fluttering as he pushes through the breeze at the window behind me. Then his feet come down onto the tenement floor...… Softly, he has a lot of grace for a being of such power. His breathing is even. Why should it be otherwise? He has nothing to worry about.He projects his voice well. It’s full of confidence, not arrogance, and that’s to be expected. The man has always won in the end. He does have the power of a mythic god.“I’m going to have to ask you to come with me sir.”“Sir”? He betrays himself, showing a little condescension with that. He’s here to imprison me, to help turn my city into a pit full of refugees and he wants to call me “sir”?I convert some power and turn my head 90 degrees to look over my right shoulder. He’s big, might be an inch taller than me. And he’s been flying for over a couple of hundred miles and his hair looks perfect…well, it looks done… what’s with that “S” curl?“Sir please”I don’t answer. Mostly because I don’t think I can even open my mouth right now, but it’s not like he deserves an answer anyway. I told him what I would do if he came here. He’s about to find out.Focus… don’t lose it now.He begins to stride forward in those ridiculous red boots. I never REALLY looked at this outfit before. Are those red “hot pants” over a blue leotard?“I’ve been asked by the President of the United States to apprehend you. You’ve been warned Sir that your actions are too…” I don’t get the rest of what he’s saying… I’ve got to focus. Get it right.A billion tons of rock. A mountain. A pressing great weight. An unbelievable amount of power. FOCUS.“… you’re coming with me to answer.,.”The rock that’s stacked, presses down, but it’s a simple matter to get it to press where I want it to. I convert rock to power and it rides from toe to ankle, from ankle to knees, from knees to hips, to shoulders, to arms, to fist.I turn and a mountain moves. Floor boards rip and splinter as my sneakers turn, digging into them. One arm… my right, drops and the other raises, with a fist sitting on its end.I’m bringing the mountain to Mohammed.He’s fast, no doubt, but overconfident. He simply raises a hand to catch mine. Hell, he’ll probably even give a little so as not to break my arm. Good of him to be as sporting as he attempts to make me a fellow slave.But the man’s not expecting a billion tons of rock to be sitting behind this fist. His palm catches my fist dead in its center, and is promptly snapped nearly in half as a billion tons of rock barrel through. The pain must the worst he’s ever felt. Not that he hasn’t been hurt before, but when something new happens to you it always seems to be a worse pain.But the hand was not my target and the billion tons of rock plow on until meeting him right in the middle of his face. Since he “knew” he was going to catch my punch, he never bothered to move or duck.I don’t get to see the damage. A billion tons of rock is a lot of force… I watch as he’s blown back out of the tenement and far into the night sky. I scream after him…“TAKE YOUR PUNK AS BACK TO METROPOLIS!”That had to shake him! But I doubt he’s done for any good amount of time. So now I move the mountain.Gotta make him earn it, keep him off balance. Must be perfect… FOCUS…Thighs made of a billion tons of rock shift and move, a billion pounds of rock lifts off of creaking bending floor one foot at a time and then slam back down in hammering succession. The old tenement groans in agony as I run for the west window and leap…A warm blast of Great Lake air greets me as I vault through the air between abandoned buildings. It’s so fresh, so clean, it reminds me of how much I love this place, of how much is on the line.Focus… convert…The window on the next building, an old warehouse, is still intact. A billion tons of rock cannot be stopped by glass and wood. There’s a wonderful explosion of shimmering, moonlight filled, triangle shaped blades of “used to be window.” Through a field of floating spinning mirrored reflections of myself I spy the floor rushing up.A billion tons of rock lands on hard tiled floor but only the falling glass makes a sound. Like the last burst of falling rain the window remnants settled onto the floor around me. As the room quiets I close my eyes and listen. It shouldn’t be too long now.I don’t hear it first, I feel it. My body is bathed in a sick kind of heat. The room is flooded with it. Word is that this guy can see through walls, this must be how. Somehow he irradiates an area, then “reads” the feedback. Like an X-ray…I wonder how low my sperm count just got.The “rays” cool off and I know he’s got my position. He’ll come at me now, but how? Probably have only a second to figure it out.Did I really nail him? Is he hurt? How much?He’s been beat on before, I’ve heard. He’s been pushed… but again; how hard?Was my sucker punch really in HIS league? Or am I just kidding myself?He comes from behind me. That means I did hurt him. Otherwise he would just confront me again, but he’s being careful.It’s sudden, right through the wall with a sound I would imagine a speeding locomotive might make cashing through a tall building. Debris flies all around me but none actually hits me. I guess he’s been doing this kind of thing for awhile now. The only thing flying at me is his fist.He’s pulling the punch, I can tell, it is way too easy to dodge. Still I take the gift and dive toward him instead of away. Timing and balance are important now, gotta keep him off balance. I see a blurry snapshot of his face and the blood splatter under his nose is bright and apparent. Got him good with that first punch.Focus, Visualize, Actualize…His steel fist rockets past my face at a speed that makes me reconsider his “pulling” of this punch. My hips swivel, my shoulders rotate, and I snap my right hand shut into a fist. FOCUS…Power isn’t what’s needed here… aim is. I bring that billion tons of rock around and swing it into the base of his jaw. There’s a loud “pop” and the man of steel crumbles in mid flight, and spins out of control into and through the far wall.Got to stay on him now, so I jump through the hole after him to find him on the floor holding his jaw with his good hand. Yeah… he’s almost beat. Still there’s work to be done.I didn’t break his jaw, and I didn’t really expect to. The broken nose and snapped hand I gave him were big wins but not ones that were likely to be repeated so soon. No, it didn’t break, but what happened was much worse. Funny thing about the way the jaw is made, it’s tough, hard, and in the case of a man of steel, virtually unbreakable. But with a enough leverage, or a blow to the right spot, that same jaw will pop right off its hinge.Supes is panicking right now, holding his loose, out of place, jaw wondering how the hell someone like me was able to do that. As much as he’s probably been through I bet he’s never had that happen. It shows… he’s all about his jaw right now. Not like it’s the worst pain someone could feel, to the contrary, a dislocated jaw doesn’t hurt as much as a severe headache, but it’s the strangest sensation for someone who’s never had it happen to them. It can feel like half your face is gone and every facial muscle that twitches seems to pull on it. Right now he’s all about the jaw.Now for my real problem; if I can finish it. I running so hot right now that I doubt I could get my focus back. So more than likely anything I try to do to him right now would only tell him that I’m not in his class. I don’t want that. So instead I try to psyche him out.I don’t threaten him. That would challenge him.I don’t boast. He may reflect and realize that he’s not that hurt.Instead I tell him about himself. I tell him about Mt. Airy. And I tell him why we don’t want him here.I tell him his body sucks the sunlight right out of the Rockwoods. Not true but he does absorb a good amount of Solar radiation, it makes him stand out against the warm summer background. Standing here next to him is like standing in a cold spot. I tell him his “alien” scent is disrupting the wildlife here. Maybe in a city like Metropolis nothing changes but the animals here in Mt. Airy are in a stir.His eyes flicker at that. Looks like I hit a nerve. Despite his predicament I can see that he’s considering what I’m saying. I wonder how much time he’s spent in rural areas. Maybe he never really paid attention to what was going on around him but he’s thinking about it now.He stands up, holding his out of place jaw with one hand. His bright blue and red outfit is covered in the dirt, filth, and concrete debris from the tenement. He stares at me and I know he wants to say something. Something about how I have to answer to the Government. How Mt. Airy Rock has to bend.I look him dead in his eye and tell him that whatever might happen, it will happen without him. I tell him not to come back. I tell him that he does not want to make this fight about him and I. Because I’m defending my home and that means next time he won’t get the free pass I gave him today.That last part wasn’t a threat to scare him, it was truth. Before this fight I got a couple of offers from others here in this city to help take him down. Another protector knew of a substance that he was vulnerable to. It was my hope that I could end this without grave consequences.Still a huge risk though he really is much too powerful to just let walk out of here. He could still come back. But I believe his intentions are good even if his actions would lead to the destruction of my home. So I let him go, knowing full well that if I see him again, somebody’s going to die. If he comes back here I will have no choice but to kill SUPERMAN.
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