Tag: superheroes

Flash fiction: Form of a lizard

A couple weeks ago I did another Flash Fiction Challenge at Indies Unlimited. Here’s the prompt and my story follows. Enjoy!

Form of a Lizard

Lizard Man took a deep breath. This was going to be their year. They’d finally win the superhero competition and the grand prize—a fully outfitted secret hideout. All of the A-listers had one. He and Turtle Boy still shared basement space in his parents’ house. It was humiliating.

“I won’t let you down, Turtle Boy.” He transformed and scuttled underneath the door. Once inside, the Crystal was easy to spot. It sat on a lighted dais in the center of the room. Lizard Man did his happy dance. All he needed to do was shrink the crystal with his shrink ray (last year’s fourth place prize), slip back under the door, and then he and Turtle Boy would return to the judging room victorious.

“Let’s see who likes second place this year, Scorpion King!” he shouted, thinking of his arch nemesis who was always faster, smarter, deadlier, and well, had a snazzier costume. “And that goes for you, too, Rat Girl and Super Rabbit! Me and Turtle Boy, we’re moving up this time!”

A sound caught his attention. Was that…? “No, it can’t be! How did you get in here?”

Calico Cat smoothed her whiskers and purred triumphantly. “You’re not the only one who can get into tight spaces. You’re a joke, Lizard Man. And that spandex is so dated.”

Her cat boomerang pinned him to the wall. Maybe we’ll redecorate the basement, Lizard Man thought dejectedly. But next year they’d win for sure.

We need superheroes

I’m heartsick over the mass shooting at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight in Aurora, Colorado. Sadly this kind of thing has taken on an all too familiar brand of horror. But in some ways this one hits a little closer to home. Even though I wasn’t a student when the Columbine or Virginia Tech shootings occurred, I could still identify with the students. It hasn’t been that long since I’ve been out of school. But opening fire at a Batman movie strikes at the heart of those of us who are self-professed geeks. I have friends who are huge superhero/comic book fans. I imagine the people in that theater were people like me and my friends. We’re not as bad as Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, but we can all identify with that kind of intense love of all things comic book. It’s great to hear people say they went to the movie over the weekend not only to see a great film (I haven’t seen it yet so I can’t attest to its greatness personally, although friends have given it the thumbs up) but also to prove we will not be afraid and we will not back down in the face of this senseless violence.

Even more so than ever, we are looking for an escape from this grim reality. Entertainment, such as books and movies, provides that. Superheroes can provide that. When things look bleakest, it’s nice to imagine that Superman or Batman or the Avengers will be there to save the day.

It’s a nice fantasy to retreat into now and then. And when a real tragedy occurs, we realize there aren’t superheroes to save the day, but real heroes who are no different from us, just people put into an extraordinary circumstance who find it in themselves to do the right thing. There were quite a few people like that in the movie theater in Aurora last week.

I don’t have an answer for how to prevent something like this from occurring again. I’m not sure anyone does. But my heart goes out to everyone who has been affected.