Standing on the stage, microphone in hand, he freezes. He’s looked over all these faces before, but right now, at this second, he freezes. The crowd, still screaming, knows his name. His face. They know him. But all he sees is nothingness. The faces aren’t real.Nothing is real.He looks behind him to the backing band. Their faces are the same. He wipes his brow and rubs his eyes, and then, immediately, he vanishes.“Whoa,” Sam says, “what was that?”Sam wakes quickly. He looks around the room. Nothing is out of place. The walls are silver and blank. He sits up from his bed and rubs his face again. As he does, his wrist comm. beeps.“Sam? You awake?” the wrist communicator beeps to him.Groggily, Sam stirs and stands, his back popping.“Sure, what do you need?” Sam yawns and covers his mouth as he stretches out, visibly wincing in pain.Sam throws a shirt over his shoulder as he steps toward the door which slowly slides open. He covers his mouth as he yawns again, a flash of light strikes his face and he moves directly into the hustle and bustle of the lobby of Olympus Corp.Berkley, standing near the front entrance, turns as Sam walks toward her. He smiles and she looks down at her clipboard, as if to show that she wasn’t staring at Sam.“What can I do for you?” Sam asks.Berkley shakes her head and points behind her. Standing there, Alex, smiles as he walks with his hands out to Sam. Sam becomes uneasy as he puts his shirt on quickly.“Come with me Sam,” Alex states.Sam follows behind, uneasily, as he walks two steps behind Alex toward the elevators. He looks back at Berkley and smiles at her.“Don’t even think about it,” Alex says.The elevator doors pop open and a young man walks past the two, carrying two large hunks of metal in his hands and wearing a giant helmet over his face.“Hugo, need any help?” Alex asks.Hugo, the young boy, shakes his head as he walks past, not looking at the two men. “Too busy, sorry, gotta run.”Alex and Sam step into the elevator and go straight to the roof. Sam still looks confused by all of these events.“Who was that boy?”“You’ll find out soon enough. I want to show you something first.”The elevator doors open on the roof. Sam and Alex walk out together as Sam’s face grows bright.“What is all this?”Alex smiles and points to a massive space transport ship sitting before them, the Pegasus, a large metallic transporter. It shimmers in the morning sun and Alex smiles, wide. He is very proud of the ship.“Take a look.”Sam, completely awestruck by this, puts his hand on the ship as he steps to it.“What is all this stuff?” Sam asks.Around the roof, scattered, are a number of transport ships, large crates filled with weaponry, and another open crate that shows 5 costumes, hanging from a rail above it. Alex again is pleased.“How long have you been here, Sam?”“A few months,” he answers.Alex grabs his arm and walks him toward the edge of the roof. He points out to the city underneath. A full, bustling Metropolis, skyscrapers line the horizon below. Sam’s smile grows wider as he looks beneath.“They all look like ants,” he says, staring down at the people running below. The streets, full of people, seem to be dots.Alex shakes his head.“So you’ve been here a few months, and yet, no real progress,” Alex states as he paces around the roof. “Why is that, do you think?”Sam turns to face Alex and looks confused by the question. “I’m not following.”“I think it’s because you haven’t really been pushed. You know?”“Still not following you,” Sam says.“I know.”Alex steps back toward the elevator and closes the door behind him.“That’s why I’m going to give you that push,” Alex says.The doors close and Alex vanishes. As he does, the floor beneath Sam erupts, a giant fist punches through. He is thrown backward toward the edge of the roof, and nearly falls.He catches himself and holds on tight as a giant robot, 10 feet tall with metallic tentacle arms, bursts through the ground. It shoots a bolt of lightning toward Sam, electrifying his left hand.He loosens his grip on the roof’s edge, pulling himself up. He looks straight up at the robot, it’s menacing face staring daggers at him, and looks behind him. Nowhere to go but down.“This is insane.”The robot launches into the air, fire blasting out of it’s back, and fires another blast of lightning at Sam. He rolls to his left to avoid, and some of his hair is singed away. The robot opens it’s mouth and fires a rocket directly at him.Sam freezes as he looks to the robot. All he can think of is failure.Like his singing career.His acting career.His modeling career.A number of past girlfriends.Everything he’s ever done he’s failed at. Sam’s eyes close and he moves his arms together as the rocket closes in on him. It explodes.The robot stands back and laughs. The explosion rocks the roof and the roof cracks and starts to fall away toward the ground below.The robot whips it’s tentacle arms toward the sky, claiming it’s victory, as the smoke clears.Sam stands still, his clothes and hair slightly darkened by soot. His mouth closed and his eyes pointed directly at the robot.“Hey, you!”The robot turns and faces Sam. It’s eyes grow red and blast red lava directly at Sam, who dodges them. The lava strikes the edge of the roof and peels it away.Sam shoots a bolt of lightning which strikes the robot in the chest, knocking it backward. It slowly tilts and starts to fall backward, but it throws one of it’s arms behind it, keeping it upright.Sam races straight at the robot, lightning crackling from his hands. He fires off a few bolts directly at the robot, knocking it’s arm out from underneath. The robot strikes the ground near Sam’s feet.He smiles and the lightning wraps around him. It strikes the robot again as it lays, silently, on the ground at his feet. Sam turns and walks toward the edge of the roof. He looks over to the people below and notices the same dots moving in the same directions as before.“What’s going on?”The robot stands quickly and smashes it’s fist against Sam, knocking him quickly against a newly seen wall. The metallic wall of the training area appears, and the robot punches at Sam again. The fist is stopped by Sam’s lightning, which wraps through the fist and blasts out of the robot’s back.The robot is stopped by the lightning and falls backward. Sam falls to the ground, sweating and panting, and looks around the room.“Are you serious? Another training session?”The door to the training room opens and Alex appears. “So Sam, what did you learn?”Sam shakes his head as he looks around the room. He smiles up at Alex as lightning crackles from his eyes. They glow white.“Control of the lightning bolts,” Sam says.“Really?”“Let me show you,” Sam says, smiling.The end.
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