THE GENIE

It was a time of peace and harmony among neighbors, amongst different races and countries. It was in this time that David Cooper was born. Just as the children of his age, he had encountered superhero movies and television series and had quite a lot of favorites. Superheroes had such an impact on David that he wished to have a super power of his own and save the damsel in distress.

Fast forwarding a few years, when David turned ten, his world was about to change drastically. On the day of his birthday, like any normal family they were going on a picnic to a superhero park. It was rumored that ‘Super-Human’ was going to be in attendance. The last three years had seen a rise of superheroes in the world. These were not self-proclaimed superheroes like the modern day politicians, they were the actual super heroes – super humans with extraordinary abilities. David was ‘super’ excited to meet his idol ‘Super-Human’. If there was one super power that he would have liked to have would be the super-strength of ‘Super-Human’.

They had arrived at ‘Hero Universe’ and David ran towards the queue waiting to meet ‘Super-Human’. As was expected from the superhero, he was on time and had started clicking photos and signing autographs for his fans. David’s parents went to get a few snacks for David and themselves leaving David standing alone in the queue. As David jumped to peek at his idol over the people standing in front of him, there was a sudden turn of events. There was a couple interacting with Super-Human at that time. The man took out his camera to click a photo of the three of them. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light and in that moment, the woman drew a small greenish blade from her clutch and stabbed Super-Human on his side just below his abdomen. Blinded by the flash and the sudden excruciating pain of the blade made Super-Human instinctively triggered his Laser eyes. Unfortunately, the responsible couple was not in his eyeline but other innocent bystanders were annihilated with the intensity of the laser. At least twelve people were injured by the laser. As soon as Super-Human regained visibility, he saw what he had done and flew away immediately leaving the attackers as is. David had witnessed all of this and was excited to go back to his friends and brag about his birthday experience. Once Super-Human flew away, he looked towards the direction in which his parents had gone trying to find them and share the excitement of what they had all witnessed. He couldn’t see them. He left the queue running towards the falafel stall hoping to find his parents. He did find them and from that point on there was nothing ordinary about David. 

Another decade passed by and the once happy and loved David descended into depression and anger and ultimately into darkness. His aunt took him in and tried to comfort David by caring for him and nurturing him but as is said that there is no hope for the damned. David thought of himself as cursed – cursed with spending a lifetime in sadness and alone. He blamed himself for his parent’s death and was never able to indemnify himself of the accusation.

It was at one of his regular psychiatric sessions that he found a way to overcome his grief. He was thirteen at the time. His psychiatrist showed him a video of an individual meditating and focusing on his inner self to attain a peaceful mind. David started meditating regularly. Initially he found it hard to focus on his thoughts which always led him towards depression but soon he gained a power over them, thus he was able to organise and compartmentalize them. He then moved on to recover his mind through the power of meditation training his mind to make sense of the things around him and quickening his brain’s response time.

A month before his twentieth birthday, it was announced that ‘Super-Human’ was receiving a Nobel prize for his numerous instances of valor and bravery and it was said as I quote, ‘He is a living and breathing proof of why God loves his children’ and ‘Angels do exist’. This incident had an unexpected effect on David. After achieving self-actualisation, one would have thought he was over such things, yet there was a part of him which hungered for vengeance against Super-Human. He contracted into himself meditating again trying to soothe his soul trying to rid himself of the negative emotions. At this point, something happened that in all scenarios considered shouldn’t have happened.

It is an old Indian myth that yogis could sense the intermingling of natural forces, could manipulate these natural forces and have total control over the nature. As is referred in the sacred texts, they were able to open their third eye. Third eye symbolically refers to opening of their minds (or mind eye) to such an extent that they become masters of their surroundings. With no knowledge of this, David experienced the same sensation that these yogis had experienced thousands and thousands years ago. Driven by his need to avenge his parent’s death and weaponised with his new found talents, David planned to destroy ‘Super-Human’.

A month of stalking his nemesis and observing his habits closely had provided David with a whole lot of ideas he could use to bring down ‘Super-Human’. He did not realize it then but he was only the third person in the world apart from ‘Super-Human’ to know that Mark Gent was his real identity. David found out much more about Mark Gent, his family, his love. He bribed a lot of people about information about Mark Gent, although most of them did not have anything much to add. After a year of thorough research and meticulous planning, finally David had formulated his master plan to seek his revenge.

On the eve of Britain Day, Sophie Crane, a special investigations reporter with the broadcasting channel, UK and the World (UKW) had just received an anonymous tip that a huge shipment of weapons had docked at the port of London and that there was a terrorist attack imminent in the city of London on their patriotic day. She called Mark on his mobile but he didn’t answer. She did leave him a voicemail telling him only she will be late for dinner and that she was on the way to accomplish a heroic act of her own. Just as Sophie reached the docks, she saw four men walking towards a small warehouse right next to the dock. She started to follow them. She saw them enter the warehouse and after waiting an appropriate number of seconds, she followed them in. She had only taken a couple of steps, when the door closed behind her. She turned and it suddenly dawned to her that she had walked into a trap. She immediately pulled out her phone and dialed Mark, but there was no signal and she couldn’t reach out.

At the same time in the small hamlet of Dungeness in Kent, the widow, Mrs. Gent was visited by a few men telling her that there was a cyclone warning and that they were clearing the entire populace and shifting them to a secure location. She looked outside her house and saw the neighbors also hurriedly leaving their houses. “There was nothing on the news”, she said. To that one of the men replied, “Ma’am, the news doesn’t have time for people like us. All they are busy covering are the likes of Super-Human.” She ignored that comment but sensing the situation, she frantically moved out of her house. She had taken her phone with her but decided to inform her son Mark once she reached the safe place. After all, the entire hamlet was being vacated. She was in no danger, she thought.

Mark was prepping to interview the famous cricketer Bo Groot for his sports column when he got a call informing him that his mother and his girlfriend had been taken hostage. As soon as the call got over, Mark crushed his phone and rushed out.

After frantically leaving from the studio, Mark had called up Sophie – unable to get a connection - he flew to her office and then home but couldn’t find her. He only had Sophie’s voicemail but that too was not useful .Mark then immediately flew to his hometown and found it completely deserted. He tried her mom’s cell but there too he was not able to connect. It was as if everyone had just vanished. Mark could do only the most highly connected people in the government can – he approached the bureau. The bureau tried tracing the number which Mark had dialed but in vain and for those who are wondering – yes that is all bureaus do.

All ‘Super-Human’ could now do is wait patiently for the perpetrators to reach back to him. As if God had heard him, he got a call on his superhero phone. Another recorded message, though this time he had the instructions on what was to be done to save his loved ones.

Britain Day was not the most popular holiday but had its own charms, especially after the ascent of superheroes. Every year a colossal parade was held at the heart of London celebrating the famous triumphs of superheroes. To top it all off, all the superheroes used to grace their fans with an appearance and a motivational address to the people usually revolving around the humdrum themes of goodness and godliness.

As was the norm, the superheroes gathered on stage to be felicitated by the Queen. This year, there were seven superheroes being felicitated for their bravery and their contribution to humanity. ‘Super-Human’ was of course among the ones being awarded. Along with him, Owl-Woman, Mr. Breeze, Smash, Webber Boy, Miss Mighty and Inferno were also present on the stage.

In order to save his mother and girlfriend, Super-Human had been instructed to kill these superheroes. The lives of his loved ones were in his hands, as the kidnapper had said. Super-Human knew he was stronger than anyone else here but he couldn’t possibly harm another superhero. All of them had saved countless lives and sacrificed their comfortable lives to fight crime and risk their lives for the greater good. He was not going to destroy this platform that these superheroes had built for his own, however compelling reasons.

As the Queen was making finishing up with her astute and politically accurate speech, the crowd started shouting hysterically.

 Inferno had just attacked Mr. Breeze with his flame bomb and he was going towards Webber Boy next when Mr. Breeze stepped in and trapped Inferno in a windstorm. At the same time, Smash attacked Owl-Woman and had her in an unbreakable grasp sucking the air out of her. Miss Mighty helped Webber Boy get away from the fight ensuing between Mr. Breeze and Inferno. Just as Webber Boy was about to thank her, Miss Mighty got a hold of Webber Boy’s head and twisted it a complete 180 degrees thus killing him instantly. Inferno had turned Mr. Breeze’s windstorm into a blazing cyclone in his struggle to break free. Mr. Breeze was not able to handle a fiery rebuttal from Inferno and lost control of his windstorm thus directing it to the innocent audience – think normal people. Scores of people just turned to ashes. While Mr. Breeze was trying to get a handle on the situation and Inferno trying to get his bearings together sucking gulps of air, Miss Mighty, fresh from killing Webber Boy approached Mr. Breeze from behind, held his head in her hands and crushed him like cardboard box. Super-Human finally got into the action. He flew towards Miss Mighty at lightning speed, got hold of a chair and just smashed her head as hard as he could. Miss Mighty was instantly rendered unconscious most probably dead. At the other end, Smash had successfully smashed the life out of Owl-Woman and was rushing towards Super-Human. Smash had to get close to Super-Human in order to attack him. Unfortunately, he never got the chance. While he was planning his line of attack, two parallel beams of laser detached Smash’s head from the rest of his body. Instantly in the next moment, Inferno had just sent two blasts of searing fire towards Super-Human. Although, Super-Human was fireproof, he instinctively moved away to avoid the attack. It was unfortunate that the crown prince was standing right behind Super-Human frantically calling out to his bodyguards to save him. And just like that the crown price was burnt to the ground. The last time a crown prince had died the world had witnessed a World War. Unperturbed with the prince’s death, Super-Human flew towards Inferno and flew straight through him thus decimating him to pieces. 

First by making Mark feel helpless by kidnapping Sophie Crane and Mrs. Gent and then by orchestrating the mayhem at Britain’s Day parade, David had tarnished the image of all superheroes maybe even permanently. All his pieces were fitting perfectly and now it was time to initiate the climax of his plan. He took out his phone and sent out a message. “My parents would finally be avenged,” he thought aloud.

Super-Human was floating high above in the atmosphere trying to make sense of what had happened. It was just then he got a call. He was congratulated on his successful completion of the task and given the locations to rescue his mother and his girlfriend. He immediately flew towards Kent, to save his mother first. The entire hamlet had been gathered below the Dungeness Nuclear Power Station in a lead-lined room. After flying his mother back to her house, Super-Human now flew towards the ‘Isle of Man’ to rescue Sophie. As soon as he reached there he saw a small, skinny boy standing there all alone on the beach. There was no one around

David saw Super-Human descending right infront of him. He had imagined this situation and had replayed it time and again in his head. He had the perfect opening line ready for this situation but all he could muster than was “Hi!” and that too in a shrilly fan-girl voice. ‘Where is Sophie?’ Super-Human asked. “You do not waste any time, do you? Don’t you want to know who I am?” David replied. “Just a puppet doing his master’s bidding, I suppose. I do not have any quarrel with you. Just tell me where my Sophie is.” Mark asked now getting impatient. ‘Where are my parents?” shouted David, “You killed them, you destroyed me and destroyed my life. I was a happy boy with ordinary parents and an ordinary life, but you destroyed that. You made me into a revenge seeking, scheming and a volatile person.” He paused. “And you have brought this upon yourself,” he finished.

 “Where is Sophie?” Super-Human asked again with a hint of fear in his voice, not a fear that would encourage his opponents but a fear which should have haunted most. Yet David calmly replied, “You will never see her again.” Just as he said that, in that specific moment a shrapnel flew through Super-Human puncturing his skin and his heart. It flew towards David and he caught it. With his dying breath, Super-Human saw the greenish hue of the object. David took out his phone, and threw it towards Super-Human. Mark caught hold of the phone and saw Sophie lying on their bed, in their house sleeping soundly. Mark drew his last breath with this and the world had lost its greatest hero.

David had realized that similar to all humans, even superheroes have weaknesses. Like Sophie and Mrs. Gent, or a prior on child molestation in the case of Inferno, or a history of drug abuse and domestic violence in case of Miss Mighty and finally a son in case of Smash. All David had done was used this information to bring down the reign and name of superheroes. The fact that he himself was evolved now and could control matter hardly mattered if you exclude the final death wound delivered to Super-Human with a flying piece of ‘Ensiferum’ which is found in abundance in the depths of the ocean near the Isle of Man. Surprisingly, the Isle of Man is the place where a Man brought down a God – ideal name, wouldn’t you say!

There was a world of people wronged by so called superheroes just as David was and they were most willing to bring down these superheroes. MP Lloyd, erstwhile detective, who had lost his partner to one of Super-Human’s stunt had helped him out with untraceable phone messages and information on Sophie and Mrs. Gent. He had also helped him get authority to clear out the entire hamlet of Dungeness. Ivan Krospovic, a trading magnate had lost tone of money because of the adventures of Mr. Breeze and Inferno which had destroyed his fleet of ships. He had helped out David in kidnapping Sophie. David himself had chosen the location of the final encounter. He had tracked down the couple who had attacked Super-Human years back in the amusement park and had discovered the secret of Ensiferum. All of them had wished death on those who had hurt them and David had made their wishes come true.

In a way, David felt this was his calling. ‘To make wishes come true’. This way he would be able to help out people and make them happy.

If he was going to go ahead with this, he would ultimately need a stage name, a name which he would be recognized by, which would help him spread smiles and happiness everywhere. Keeping with the theme of this story, and with the unimaginativeness of our characters – David is no different – he decided to be called ‘THE GENIE’.