Super leg

The intercom crackled and a girls voice broke the silence in the room.

“He is here” said the girls’ voice.

“Give me a minute” said the doctor. He got up and walked around the room, this patient needed all of this concentration. Narcissistic, self-centered, egotistical. It is very important that the doctor keeps control of the situation. It was bad enough that the patient had demanded to have this meeting outside their regular schedule if he let the patient get control it could disintegrate their whole doctor patient relationship. He sat back at his desk and pressed the intercom.

“Send him in.” said the doctor.

The patient walked in and sat on the couch.

“Thank you for seeing me doctor.” the patient said.

“Of course” said the doctor “I’m here whenever you need me. Tell me what happened.”

The patient was obviously distressed he was pacing around the room and seemed to be trying to gather his thoughts.

“Please, sit down” the doctor said firmly, this pacing was very distracting.

“I was fighting Lex Luther.” the patient said with out pausing.

“SIT DOWN” the doctor said raising his voice slightly. This patient was always a challenge but today he seemed to be very worked up.

The patient sat but still looked like he was struggling with his thoughts.

“Ok said the doctor “start from the beginning”

“I was fighting Lex Luther.” the patient repeated.

“Again with Lex. We have talked about this you have to move away from your relationship with Lex. It is a self-destructive relationship which you need to move past. You understand that don’t you?” said the doctor in a calming tone, which some of his patients had wrongly described as condescending.

The patient was looking at the floor and seemed not to want to meet the doctors eyes

“That’s not going to be a problem anymore.” he said.

“Why not?”

“I...... I kicked his head off”

“You kicked his head off? As in you kicked him in the head?”

“Well yes I kicked him in the head and his head came off.”

The doctor took a sharp intake of breath, this was pushing the doctor patient confidentiality but beyond that it was something he needed the patient to under stand was wrong.

“We have spoken about this before. You cannot go around killing people. You are an illegal alien in this country. In fact you are an illegal alien on this planet. You cannot kill people. It will not be tolerated.” said the doctor. If the patient was arrested it could come out that he was in therapy and who his therapist was.

“Well what could I do? I told you he was building a battle suit and you told me I was being paranoid. I told you he was stockpiling kryptonite and you told me not everything was about me. But he was building the suit and it was run on kryptonite so I guess you were wrong.”

“We have spoken about this before.” said the doctor slightly annoyed at the accusation in his patients tone. “Just because you are paranoid about being followed does not mean you can never be followed. This was one of those situations where no one could have known this would happen.”

“Well I think I could and I could have stopped all of this. I could have killed Lex when I first found out what he was. All it would have taken was a flick of my finger. Just one little tap to the forehead and Lex would have been no more.”

“We have been over this the ends don’t justify the means. You are not allowed to sit in judgment of who lives and who dies. Even you have to be accountable.”

“Accountable like Lex was when he killed thousands of people just to see if radiation had any effect on me? Would you tell the children he orphaned that he shouldn’t be killed? What about when he took control of the orphanage and turned those same children into monsters and sent them to attack metropolis. Who did the government call to stop the monsters, who did they ask to kill those children so metropolis would be safe. Oh but I mustn’t kill Lex that would be wrong.”

“We have discussed this, your action against the monsters was forgivable, you didn’t know they were children, you saved lives you have to stop blaming yourself. The government sent you to me to help you deal with what happened that day.”

“I have tried,” The patient said looking at his hands as if he could still see blood on them, “but that is not why I am here.”

“Ok why are you here” said the doctor

“Well we were engaged in this battle for 3 hours. Lex in his battle Armour and me in a skin tight lycra blue one piece with my red underwear on the outside.”

“Yes we have discussed your choice of clothing. That is a popular topic on your regular session, you don’t have to wear it, you know you choose to wear it don’t you?”

“Yes well that’s true but not the point I’m currently trying to make. The point is we fought for three hours, Trading blow for blow the battle turned one way and then the other. and it looked like I had lost. Lex stood above me and went to crush my skull. Somehow I mustered my strength and I moved out of the way. Lex swung and missed, off balance he fell to the ground. I knew this was my last chance, I stood up and put the last of my strength into one final kick and I kicked his head clean off. I think it may have gone into orbit.”

“Really, this is not a time for boasting.” the doctor tutted ad shook his head.

“Sorry, so I kicked his head off and my leg was covered in his blood but when I breached the battle suit it seems Lex has set it up so that liquid Kryptonite would spray on anyone within a few meters of the suit. So I was sprayed head to toe.”

“But surly that would have killed you?”

“No it seems the liquid Kriptonite just removes my powers.”

“So you have lost your power.”

“All except my leg.”

“Your leg?”

“Yes the leg which was covered in Lexs blood it is the only part of me which still has power.”

“So how does that work? Can you still fly, fight, are you still invulnerable?”

“Everything except my leg is now human. I can still fly but that is part of why I’m here. I used to be a legend, flying into battle with my arms in front of me or cruising in flying standing upright able to take stock of the situation and plan for what I needed to do. Not any more though.”

“Can you fly at all now?” the doctor asked fascinated.

“Now only one of my legs can fly so I essentially dangle off the back of the leg which means I fly into situations backwards and upside-down. I’m a laughing stock. By the time I get into the area everyone is laughing. I can’t tell who the criminal was and who the victim was.”

The doctor struggled to make sense of what he was hearing he needed to put a positive spin on what had happened to the patient. It is always important for the patient to feel you have empathy but also that you have answers which he couldn’t come up with on there own.

“But that means you are still doing what you want, you are stopping crime just in a different way of getting the result.” The doctor said.

“But I used to enforce the law now I’m just a joke.”

“We have been over this in your previous sessions, you are not defined by you powers you are your own person. You are a good person not just a set of abilities. You have more to offer this world than your powers.”

”So you don’t think this makes me less of a man?” The patient said finally looking into the doctors eyes.

”You know what we have always said you are and will always be the same person something like this is tough but you are still a good person. People will not start treating you different.”

The patient looked down at the ground again but sat there thinking about this for a moment. Then he smiled and looked at the doctor.

“You are right of course. Thank you again for seeing me at such short notice. I’m sorry about any inconvenience.”

“I’m here whenever you need me.” The doctor said getting up and shaking his patients hand. He put a little more force in the grip than usual.

The patient got up and walked out. The doctor walked into reception with him and the patient walked out the door.

“I am always so star struck when I see superman.” said the receptionist.

“Not Superman,” said the doctor, “not anymore, now he is just Superleg.”