Continued from Part Two

Dave stared at the hollow cylinder filling his computer screen. This was like something out of a Steven Spielberg movie. He looked at the Styrofoam cup with the bottom punched out.

“This means some-” Dave cupped his hand over his mouth. “No, I’m not going to be sued for the contents of my own life!”

He pulled up a search engine and did a search for “Terrorist, Albuquerque.”

Hits came up from so-called legitimate news sources claiming terrorists had planted bombs to blow up buildings. Dave shook his head. Fox, CNN, and the rest of the mainstream press lied all the time. He needed a reliable source of news.

Dave smiled. “Superhero fan forum!”

He stared at the abandoned thread from two months ago, started by Crazy Al in New Mexico. Crazy Al’s name, and his avatar’s three chipmunks morphing into beautiful blondes, hadn’t been too impressive at the time, but with what Dave overheard from the suits, Crazy Al seemed far more credible:

The media is spreading so much bowl. Those lamers aren’t reporting the truth. There’s a terrorist blowing up the buildings, but he’s not using bombs. I saw him downtown, and I nearly wet my pants. The guy is superhuman, they have the entire National Gourd out. He’s a freakin’ real life super villain.

Man, where’s Spider-Man when you need him?

Dave read his own response. “Well, I wouldn’t put much stock in someone who can’t even spell ‘bull’ right. Besides, a guy like that would beat Spider-Man. You dork, Spider-Man’s in New York. He’d be useless with all the cactus in New Mexico. What skyscrapers do you have out there? It’s like adobe houses. The Flash could do the job, maybe with help from Iron Man.”

The next 350 comments were a debate over who would be the best superhero to fight in New Mexico.

“Crazy Al was right.” Dave paused. “Well, not totally, the Flash would’ve done much better than Spider-man.”

Dave returned to his graphic. The cylinder was the source of the terrorist’s power. What if it had made the guy a terrorist? What if it hadn’t? What if it was neutral?

Only one way to find out. He could tell Agent Polk, but Polk wouldn’t believe him. Besides, Polk was too weak. Only Dave had read enough comic books to know how to defeat an evil symbiot.

But it’d be so cool if it wasn’t evil.

Continued…next Tuesday

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