Gravitational Catalyst
A crash of concrete, steel and glass crackled through the air. The sign of the EuroTrust Bank in Bratislava, Slovakia, soared through the sky before colliding with a random building within the city. The sign flew past Azura’s office window, which alerted her to report to the nearest H.E.R.O. member.
“Machspeed, are you receiving?” she said through her radio. “There is currently a robbery at the EuroTrust Bank near you. I would like you to report there ASAP, thank you.”
Machspeed, or Remont Kaminski, was one of the five founding heroes of H.E.R.O., whose main ability was to move at supernatural speeds, along with resistance to large pressure changes, superhuman reactions and incredible perception speeds. He lived as a physicist and often ran as a hobby before getting his powers. He was 174 cm tall with a toned build, light skin and was of Polish descent, but lived in Slovakia to study at Comenius University Bratislava.
“Roger that, I’m going there now,” Machspeed replied swiftly. “Any info on the guy?”
“We have run his face through all of our systems. We got nothing in return. I assume this is his first offence,” Azura confirmed. “Additionally, we are not sure of his powers, although they can make moderate sections of a building collapse without physical contact.”
It took Machspeed nearly 10 minutes to go from the centre of Bratislava to EuroTrust Bank, approximately 200 km East of where he was. When he got to the bank, the mysterious perpetrator stood in front of a pile of rubble as if he were waiting for this moment. Hundreds of people were trying to flee the area, thousands were injured, and a trail of destruction followed where the villain had been.
“Yes, one of the five founders of H.E.R.O. came, just for me. Just as I hoped,” the villain said with a maniacal tone. “You’ll be the perfect person for me to test my new abilities on.”
Machspeed raced towards the villain at 30 km/h, gaining this speed within a tenth of a second. He hoped to stop the villain without inflicting lethal damage. A cloud of dust and debris filled the air as he ran, covering everything that happened in the moment until the villain revealed himself. Hovering over the dust cloud, he laughed like a maniac, filled with joy by his accomplishment of dodging Machspeed.
“You’re not fast enough, Machspeed,” the villain mocked rudely.
“How rude of me, I don’t even know your name, yet you know mine,” Remont replied, trying to buy a couple of seconds to think of a plan.
“Not that it will matter in a few moments, as you won’t have the pleasure of seeing me again, but you can call me Null-Mass. I shall recreate this world in my vision, and my unstoppable power shall help me achieve this.”
Machspeed then dashed at Null-Mass at 150 km/h, scaling a tall building, then launched off of it, attempting to strike Null-Mass in the neck to incapacitate him. Machspeed felt a sudden weight added to his own, making him feel ten times heavier than usual, and he crashed into the ground. He narrowly grasped Null-Mass’ leg, which made him also hit the ground. Null-Mass lost his focus for a few moments, and Machspeed felt the weight lift. Within just four seconds, Machspeed reached the speed of sound, and he struck Null-Mass multiple times, dashing in every direction to avoid being caught once again. As Null-Mass began to become disoriented while losing consciousness, every bit of debris, every car, every person and everything not strongly attached to the ground within a kilometre radius rapidly gravitated towards Null-Mass. As soon as everything had collided, everything was expelled away from Null-Mass at twice the speed, launching cars up to three kilometres away. Machspeed had lost consciousness for nearly thirty minutes after an abrupt landing. He woke to sirens as paramedics from H.E.R.O., along with Azura, came to make sure Mackspeed was safe.
In the hope of determining Machspeed’s current memory, a paramedic began to question, “Hello, I am Paramedic Pavlik. Do you know your name, where you are and what happened in the last hour?”
“I am Remont Kaminski, I assume I am still in Bratislava, although I can not be sure,” he began to reply. “I was fighting a villain who called himself Null-Mass, he seemed to have the power to manipulate gravity. I believe I am in mostly good condition currently, after how far I was thrown through the air.”
“He appears not to have suffered any form of brain damage, although we should still bring him to the medical wing for further tests,” Ms Pavlik informed the other paramedics before driving him to the H.E.R.O. headquarters.
The attack was reported as a villain attack against the city, with the initial attack and fight against Machspeed, till just before Null-Mass losing consciousness, causing 193 deaths, the sudden attraction and launch of all the debris once Null-Mass lost consciousness, causing nearly 4,000 deaths, and the debris that had been launched, causing an additional 1,000 death. Approximately 2,500 people were left seriously injured, and an estimated £35,000,000 in damages was caused by Null-Mass. An hour later, Remont was let out of the medical wing as he was cleared of any major issues and went to Azura’s office to find out what happened to Null-Mass.
“Ms Antos. Were you able to apprehend Null-Mass?” Remont urged, worried about Null-Mass’ immense potential.
“No, he was gone by the time the paramedics arrived,” Azura replied. “Although, on the bright side, we realised that his amazing feat of affecting gravity in a kilometre radius with such incredible potency was an accident, and he shouldn’t be able to do it again. It appeared to be a subconscious response to your barrage of blows.”
“That’s what’s worrying me! He may train to control that ability and cause irreparable damage soon! Remember, he said something about how he just wanted to use me as a way to test his ‘new’ ability.”
“We must stay calm, Remont. We will research as much as we can”
“But isn’t it weird he called his power new. Powers have been around for a year now! We don’t know what he’s capable of!”
“We still don’t know if he was bluffing or trying to get a reaction out of us. We must think logically.”
Remont left, ready to go to visit his father, who was visiting Bratislava for a month. Remont’s stomach was still in knots, worried for the safety of the city.
“Hey champ!” Mr Kaminski began, glad his son was safe. “I heard that villain at the bank was quite dangerous, but I see you recovered well. I’m glad.”
“So am I,” he replied, with a clear worry in his voice. “It would have gone a lot worse.”
“How come you seem so down?”
“It’s just I feel I should have done more to help.”
“No, it’s not only that. I’ve known you since you were born. I can tell when you feel regretful rather than guilty.”
“I just had a slight disagreement with my boss at work today.”
“Okay, bud, if you say so.”
Remont went to his room at his dad’s holiday home to calm himself down and think about what happened.
“Was I really that weak? Thousands died because I didn’t get rid of Null-Mass quickly enough. Yet I had the audacity to question Azura on my she didn’t catch Null-Mass, when truly it was my fault. I was too confident, not used to losing. Azura was right, I need to think logically and try to predict what Null-Mass will do next, rather than blowing up on everyone else for him not being captured.”
He went through some of his old things that his dad brought, knowing it would help Remont relax after stressful days. He went through childhood school photos and videos, looked through his diary from his first year of college before he discovered his old MP3 player and listened to his old playlist, then fell asleep an hour later.
There was a meeting the next day at the H.E.R.O. building regarding Null-Mass, between Azura, Remont and the other founding heroes of H.E.R.O. to devise a plan.
“We’ve learnt that Null-Mass specifically wants to target you, founders of H.E.R.O.,” informed Azura to the five founders and Oscar. “That means we may be able to bait him out of hiding. We’ll begin to broadcast recent villain attacks soon after they have been resolved.”
“Wouldn’t they reveal our tactics of dealing with villains and allow him to make countermeasures? Remont questioned. “Doesn’t that give him an unnecessary advantage?”
“It would be reasonable to assume Null-Mass already knows how we do our job. That would explain why he was so confident in his victory, instantly knew who you were during your battle and was also aware of you being one of the five founders of the team, despite that not being commonly discussed in public,” Azura contradicted. “Therefore, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to believe he knows most tactics we use to take down villains.”
“After a certain amount of time broadcasting our victories on local channels, Null-Mass should hopefully get interested in the channels involved,” Sargent Major Oscar Kelly added. “Eventually, we should call out Null-Mass directly on all local channels. We would prefer if Machspeed were the one to appear on TV, as Null-Mass was confident he wouldn’t make it after their fight. This should inspire Null-Mass to take action for two reasons: one being to eliminate Machspeed, it is clear Null-Mass has a large ego, and wouldn’t want living evidence of his shortcomings, and two being a way for him to test his training, which he will probably partake in after his battle with Machspeed. Is everyone fine with this part of the plan?”
“Yes, that’s perfectly fine with me,” Remont agreed, along with everyone else. “I’ll be sure to win this time.”
“After being provoked on television, Null-Mass will most likely try another attack, once again, to get a response from us,” Azura continued. “Although Oscar and I believe Null-Mass may realise Machspeed isn’t going in alone, and therefore, there is no guarantee he will choose to go alone either. We have no way of knowing how many allies he may have or gain, if any at all.”
“Assuming Machspeed will be the last person to have their victory against a villain to be broadcast on TV, will our other victories be broadcast in any particular order? Hemohex, one of the five founders, began to question as if he had something to prove. “If not, I am more than willing to go first. We need to make sure Null-Mass knows exactly who he’s up against.”
“There’s no objection from me,” Azura confirmed, with everyone else agreeing with her. “This meeting is over, everyone may leave now.”
Hemohex, or Juan Leon Vera, was one of the founders of H.E.R.O., but before that, he worked as a haematologist and one of the greatest in Slovakia and Ecuador, where he was born, being the one to find a cure for certain cancers of the blood. After his powers manifested, they helped greatly with his research, helping him win even more awards than ever before. Eventually, he was forced to quit his job as a lead researcher at SAS, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, due to him being judged for his power. This was due to research showing that powers were based on the personality and experiences of the person, causing people to assume Juan was a violent person. After this, Juan dedicated his life to helping people in other ways; he became a vigilante. He took on the name Hemohex, representing his supernatural control over blood, and over time, he became recognised by the public, then eventually by Azura as she was creating H.E.R.O., hoping he would help her create a team of heroes to stop villains in Slovakia. He wished to be the first to have his victory broadcast on TV to prove to everyone, despite his hardships, despite his powers and despite how he was treated by others, he could also help people.
