All the Power in the World Chapter 4

Thom flew up and over the edge of the well and crashed to the ground. He sat up and brushed debris off of himself. He looked around to find everything seemed different then they had only hours ago. Much of the brush had somehow been cleared away. He saw no sign of Iron, the surviving soldiers, or the dragon’s victims.

Thom’s eyes went wide as he realized something else was missing. Thom scrambled around the well, inside and out, but he could find no sign of the Signet Stone.

But its power he could still feel. His muscles ripped with energy. He had been strong before, but he suspected he was far, far stronger now.

Thom heard a rattling of unintelligible words coming from behind him. He turned around just as the three Cambodian soldiers opened fire with their assault rifles. Thom flew backwards as bullet after bullet struck his chest.

I’m dead, he thought. They’ve killed me!

Thom sat up. He winced at the bruises across his chest, but otherwise he wasn’t hurt. Thom climbed to his feet and charged towards the three surprised Cambodian troopers. They opened fire again. Thom closed his eyes and ran faster.

He smashed in to the tightly packed trio of soldiers at full-tilt. They dropped to the ground like a set of bowling pins. Thom stumbled down on top of them.

He opened his eyes now and pulled one of the soldiers to his feet.

“My men,” Thom said. “What the hell have you stupid chinks down my men?”

The soldier franticly shook his head. “I not know! I not know!”

“Why are you here then?”

“We watch stones. Keep people away.”

“Why?”

The soldier shook his head. “We told by colonel.”

“Fine, then. Take me to see this colonel of yours.” Thom dropped the soldier. The soldier backed away a few steps before waving Thom after him.

*****

It took Thom only five minutes with the colonel and his translator to get a grasp on the extent of his situation.

“The standing stones were closed down fifteen years ago,” the translator said. “An illegal American expedition were massacred and the young investor at their lead vanished. The colonel questions how you passed his men to gain entrance to the stones.”

“I didn’t,” Thom said. “I came out of the well.”

The colonel’s eyes went wide as he listened to the translator. He spat out his next few words and the translator scrambled to get it all out.

“That is just not possible. The well’s been sealed. No one can get open it except from the—”

The translator turned to the colonel and the two conferred in their language for nearly a minute. The translator turned back to Thom. “Are you the American boy? Thorington?”

Thom nodded.

The colonel shook his head. “It isn’t possible,” the translator said for his commander. “You would be well in your thirties by now.”

Thom smiled. “It’s more than strange. It’s down right disconcerting. I spent no more than twenty minutes inside the well, but years have passed here. It’s what, 1994, now?”

“1995. February 23,” the translator said.

“Well then,” Thom said. “I think it’s past time for me to b on my way back home.”

The colonel and his translator conferred again. “We must fill out a few forms and you must pass a series of security and medical clearances, Mr. Thorington. But the colonel insures you that the sovereign nation of Cambodia, in the interest of the ongoing peace between us and the United States of America, will do everything in their power to get you home.”

*****

Thom returned to the United States on April 16, jut under two months after his reappearance. He already had a meeting planned with Reginald McMahon, still the CEO of Thorington Industries. Unfortunately, Thom knew he had an uphill legal battle ahead of him. McMahon had him declared legally dead nearly five years ago.

McMahon’s secretary, a gorgeous redhead that Thom suspected was chosen more for her bust size then for her skill, smiled as he entered.

“May I help you, sir,” she said.

“I’m Thom Thorington. I have a meeting with Reggie.”

She flipped through an appointment book on the desk in front of her. “I’m sorry, Mr. Thorington, but I have no record of your appointment. If you’d like I could see if I can schedule you another meeting for a later date.”

“Thank you, but no, Miss—”

“Francis,” she said. “Marlena Francis.” She gave him a smile and leaned towards him as she spoke.

Thom smiled back at her. “Thank you so much, Marlena, but I do believe I’ll see Mr. McMahon right now.”

“But Mr. Thorington—”

Thom ignored anything else Marlena said as he pushed through the double doors to McMahon’s office. Across the room, McMahon’s eyes shot up from the notes on his desk.

“Hello, Reggie.”

“T-Thom. What are you doing here?”

“In case you forgot, Reggie, we have a meeting today. You didn’t forget did you?” Thom stalked across the room towards McMahon’s desk.

“N-no. I, uh, just didn’t think it was today.” McMahon stood up and backed away from his desk as Thom approached.

Thom reached across the desk and grabbed Reggie by his tie. He yanked the CEO towards him.

“Now then,” Thom said. “What do I have to do to get my company back?”

“You can’t. Even if you overturn your death notice, the takeover was one hundred percent legal. The board owns this company now, not you.”

“With you as the top shareholder, I’m sure.”

McMahon nodded.

Thom dropped the man back in to his chair. “That’s fine, Reggie. You want my father’s company, so I’ll let you have it. But I swear I’ll destroy it rather than see you at its head. It might take me years, but I will do it. And I will make sure you and everyone on the board suffer in the process.”

Thom left the room without another word. He stopped at Marlena’s desk. He threw a book of post-it notes in front of her. She looked up and he asked her for her phone number. She smiled and scribbled it down just as security arrived. Thom left without another word.

*****

After an evening on the town with the lovely Marlena Francis and an even longer night with her in his hotel suite, Thom awoke the next morning a whole new man.

He may not have his company, but he did still have enough money in his Swiss accounts to serve his purposes.

It seemed most of the world’s metahuman heroes had vanished in some kind of huge disaster years ago, in battle with some insane metahuman who thought himself a god. Since that time, metahuman activity was frowned upon by both the local and federal government. But at the same time, Federation’s crime levels had skyrocketed, and the heightened state of fear in the world had forced the Dow Jones ever downward.

What the world needed were heroes. It was strange as most of the so-called “meta-heroes” of his youth were little more than pompous wind bags who cared more about their continued celebrity than any problems on the street. Nevertheless, the world responded to them. Sometimes negatively, but if history taught him anything, the people wanted their heroes.

He would be their hero.

*****

It took a few weeks for Thom to find a designer willing to experiment with the high density polymers he wanted in his costume. It took the designer another two weeks to finish it.

In the mean time, he started a search for a consulting and advertising firm. It would do him no good to become a metahuman crime fighter if no one knew who he was or what he was about. He settled on a small firm located on the seventh story of the World Corp Tower. They were new and hungry, but still had the connections to take him far.

The third step involved Marlena and a pair of her lady friends. Reginald McMahon’s former secretarial pool now worked for him and they set up shop in a small office downtown. Outside of their more lascivious activities, they started working on a name for Federation’s newest hero. The initial suggestion was Thor, playing off the Norse god of thunder and Thom’s own last name. They went with it for most of the first week, until one of Thom’s consultants nixed the idea. He explained the name was public domain, and hence not copyrightable.

So the ladies and Thom went back to the drawing board. They went from Strongman to Hitmaker to Super-Power, but none struck Thom as the right name. It was Marlena who came up with Powerhouse. Thom took an immediate liking to it, and the lawyers secured the rights to the name quickly.

Exactly twenty-six days after returning to Federation, everything was now ready. Powerhouse hit the streets for the first time.

The first night, Thom learned that this metahero thing wasn’t as easy as he thought. Hours of waiting finally led to Powerhouse going on a random patrol. After two hours of wandering around downtown, he finally found his first crime.

It was a simple mugging, two blocks from the Miyamoto Symphony Hall. A woman’s scream alerted him to the crime. He sprinted down the block just as the woman emerged from the alley. Her attacker stepped out a moment later. He held a knife in hand and charged after the woman. Powerhouse plowed in to him from the side. The mugger flew back fifteen feet and crashed in to an unmoving heap.

The woman’s eyes went wide and she rushed off. Powerhouse let her go as he pulled his beeper from his pocket. He keyed in the preset code for mugging and sent the page off to Marlena in their new office. She would alert the police to the nature of the crime and allow them to get in contact with Powerhouse at a later time for any reports. Eventually it would help as he became more familiar with the police and hopefully stopped more crime. But for tonight, he figured it was time to pack it in. With luck, tomorrow would be a better night.

*****

It didn’t happen the next day or the day after, but within two weeks, Powerhouse began to be recognized by the police and the news. His agents worked full force to get him as much media attention as possible, but it took a bank heist on his thirteenth day of operation to bring bout his first true public acclaim. Marlena stumbled upon a radio message a nearby bandwidth discussing a planned robbery at the massive Bank of the East branch in downtown Federation.

It took three hours of staking out the building, but the robbers arrived shortly after midnight. The four men were only a few steps in to the building when Powerhouse dropped from his rooftop perch and swept in to the building. It took a little less than a minute for Powerhouse to take out the four baseline thugs. Less than two minutes later, just moments after he’d finished securing the criminals, police cruisers and the first news van pulled up.

The questioning and interview would take most of the night, but by morning, the name on everyone’s lips was Powerhouse.

*****

Powerhouse knew the metahero game was ripe for the taking, but he never expected the reception he received from the public; a public with a voracious hunger for a new hero.

Within a month, the mayor was handing him the key to the city. Within three he was in Washington, where he received the Tremaine Award for Metahuman Valor from the President.

Meanwhile, Hammer Holdings, Inc. was already a multi-million dollar company with plans to expand past its role as a simple licensing firm. Already Marlena worked on securing the company its first two acquisitions: a propulsion laboratory and a genetic research facility. Powerhouse planned on keeping ahead in the metahero game and both companies would help him achieve that.

Thom couldn’t help but smile as the police chief stepped in to his office only days after receiving the Tremaine Award.

“How may I help you, Commissioner Reso?”

“I’ve got a proposition for you, Thorington. A proposition that will guarantee the mayor’s and my own re-election and help you to cement your place as the greatest hero in the world.”

“I’m listening.”

“Tell me, have you ever heard of Mister X?”

*****

Powerhouse devoted his limited patrol time over the next year to focus on known havens of organized crime. His goal: to track down and discover the identity of the elusive crime boss known as Mister X. No one knew the criminal’s identity and only a select few had ever seen his masked visage. Even his known associates, super-tough criminals like Bruiser, Crusher, and Smasher seemed untouchable. The police could barely get anything to stick on any of the thugs. Only Smasher had ever been convicted, and Powerhouse strongly suspected a set up by the super criminal’s own boss. And despite his jail time, the metahuman thug refused to open his mouth about his former boss.

Which left Powerhouse with a lot of questions and not nearly enough answers. No matter how much of his money he threw at his informants, they couldn’t provide him with information they didn’t know.

Until Phantasy called.

Powerhouse was familiar with the psychic from her late night infomercial. He hadn’t thought much of them, and they struck him as no different than the Psychic Friends or that Cleo woman, despite the cult like following her new age ministry attracted. Perhaps, Phantasy was a bit pricier, but Thom doubted her results would be much better.

But the message she left while he was out on a late night patrol caught his attention. “Hello, Mr. Thorington,” it said. “My name is Teresa Barewell, but you know me better as Phantasy from my ministry’s ads. I believe I have some new for you. New that will lead you closer to the treasure you have searched out for nearly twenty years.”

She left her office number and hung up. Could she seriously know something about the Signet Stone, Thom wondered. He snatched up the phone and dialed her number. Despite it being nearly three a.m., a secretary answered. She set up a meeting for the next morning at 8 o’clock sharp.

*****

“Mister Thorington! I’m glad you decide to take a meeting with me.” Phantasy smiled at Powerhouse as she reached out one coffee-colored hand. Powerhouse quickly shook it and sat down.

“You can help me find the Signet Stone?”

Phantasy laughed and clapped her hands. “Straight to the point I see, Mister Thorington.”

“I always am focused on my goals.”

“Good,” Phantasy said. “It is best in this world to always be aware of where you have been and where you plan to go.” She sat down at her desk and locked eyes with Thom. “I cannot hand you the Signet Stone, but I can start you on a path to finding it. It may take you years yet to recover it, but your quest will bring you wealth and success like you have never seen before.”

Powerhouse sighed. He had heard her kind of spiel before. “And how am I going to do that? Buy your book? Call your hotline? Invest in your ministry? No thanks, lady.”

The room seemed to melt away around them as Thom spoke. The plain cream walls faded in to a city street. A non-descript building with the words “Cyber Direct” rose up several stories before him, just behind the psychic, where only a plate glass window had been before.

“You need not buy anything from me, Thom. I do what I do for my own reasons. You must only go in search of a man whom you already seek. A man called Mister X. You will find your destiny when you find him.”

The cityscape started to pan around in a circle around them. “Do you recognize this place?” Phantasy said.

Powerhouse nodded. “It’s just off the Bowery. I’ve busted one of X’s counterfeit rings only a few blocks away.”

“Good,” Phantasy said with a grin. “You will find Mister X, and your destiny, there.”

*****

“Wait,” Mister X said. “Listen to me before you come any closer.”

“If you’re going to talk X, then talk.”

“You’ve got me dead to rights, Powerhouse,” X said through the synthesizer on his mask. “But even so, I’d prefer to have this conversation free of any outside interference.”

X reached to the dial of the strange watch he wore over his left glove. He twisted it slightly and a low hum filled the room.

“That’s better,” X said. “Now we won’t have to worry about anyone listening in when they shouldn’t be.”

Powerhouse grabbed Mister X by his collar and hefted him up to eye level. “You’ve got a minute to talk before I cave your damn skull in.”

X held up his hands in front of him and pushed away from Powerhouse. His collar ripped as he fell back to the floor. “Though you may find me to be a bit tougher than you might think, I hope violence will prove unnecessary in our situation.

“We are both smart men, Thom, and we both want the same thing. Power. Power to make and break the common fools on the street. I have that power. My question for you Thom, is do you want it too?” Mister X reached up to the side of his mask and pressed an unseen button. The mask separated at the seam. X lifted it up and off his face.

Powerhouse’s eyes went wide as he recognized the face of the richest man in Federation and the ninth richest man in the world. Demetrius Tough grinned broadly at Powerhouse’s shock.

“Now you know my secret. With that knowledge, this meeting can end in one of two ways. You can try to arrest me which will surely lead to one of us suffering an early demise. I wouldn’t bet against myself, but I see the odds to be more in your favor than mine. Or you can join me. You can take my empire. You know exactly how far it reaches in this city. It can be yours. You can be the new Mister X.

“So which will it be, Thom? Will you take the fleeting glory my arrest would bring or will you join me and build an empire, both legal and otherwise. Seize the power that you’ve yearned for all this time. Become a true Powerhouse in more than just name.

Powerhouse stood slack jawed as he listened to the offer. Of all he might have expected, this never had crossed his mind. The Signet Stone, the glory of his capture of the city’s most notorious criminal, but never this.

He reached out his hand towards Tough.

Tough shook it.

Thom Thorington smiled. His path to glory had truly begun.