It started off as an ordinary day for Chuck Chisholm… most days did anymore, it seemed… Stagger out of bed, pour himself a cup of ambition, clean up his roommates’ mess in the sink. Sip the coffee, read a bit (today it was from the Advanced Reader’s Copy he’d scored of Neil Gaiman’s latest book, on Norse mythology), get ready for work… In other words, run his wheels in the same, well-worn rut. He’d turned 30 a week earlier, and it had made him realize that, just maybe, his life was going nowhere…
As he’d been doing for the last seven days, he punched the thought in the gut and shoved it back down the stairs into the dark.
As the caffeine began to bring his brain alive Chuck slowly realized that today was actually a bit different than many recent ones – instead of the gray rains of a Pacific Northwest spring, the sun was actually shining! The weather dude on Channel 5 had predicted warmer-than-usual weather last night, but this is like summer! Which bodes well for our ice cream sales today. And is it sad that that was my first thought?
He flipped on the radio as he headed into the bathroom, tuning it to KOAC for NPR and turning up the volume maybe just a tad louder than he needed to… if his deadbeat roommates couldn’t be bothered to clean up their own messes, he couldn’t be bothered to worry about their sleep. Showered and shaved, as he was getting dressed Chuck’s attention was suddenly caught by something on the radio. Was that a mention about Scion? Oh, nope… just something about the car. Sheesh, Toyota oughta be forced to change the name of their stupid vehicle, now that the word has a greater, and much cooler, significance… at least in this city.
He thought about leaving the radio on and turning it up, but with a sigh he flipped it off on his way out the door… Chad and Tracy might be assholes, but that didn’t mean he had to be one too. >sigh< Grabbing his bike on the landing outside the apartment, he hefted it to his shoulder and trudged down the three flights of stairs to the lobby. On the street he popped his earbuds in, selected his classic rock playlist, and secured his helmet before pushing off up Acer Street.
Gotta listen to the good stuff now, there’ll be nothing but Top 40 crap once the kids get in to work, he thought as the audience roar grew in his ears and a familiar song began… “Play it pretty for Atlanta!” Freebird was a true classic, one the teen-age mopes he worked with certainly weren’t capable of appreciating… well, maybe Tori… and this one song would take him all the way in to work.
It was a glorious morning, and for the first time in months he wished his commute was longer. But, as he’d predicted, the final applause (he could almost see the lighters) was just fading as he pulled up to the Salt & Straw on Eastline Street. Securing his bike in the rack around back, he unlocked the service door and stepped into the shop. He stowed his gear in the small locker with his name on it, then began his morning pre-opening routine…
Open the front blinds – so bright! – get a fresh register drawer from the safe… turn on the small radio, sliding the dial from KRKZ over to the local AM news station… Portland – Seattle – Portland – Seattle… you’d think nothing ever happened in Astoria… well, to be fair, not much really did… we need another derailment, just so Scion can save the day again and get us some airplay… well, no, not really… I wouldn’t wish that on anyone… besides, with my luck next time I took the train it’d probably happen to me… although maybe then I’d get to meet Scion, which would be very cool… assuming I didn’t die, of course…
With the faucets on, all the scoops in place, napkin holders filled, and the fresh whipped cream made, Chuck was tempted to do a whippet, just for old-time’s sake. But they might need the nitrous later – there hadn’t been a delivery in a while, he’d need to check the records on that. Running a bit ahead of schedule, Chuck decided to do an informal inventory before the kids started to arrive for work. Much as he sometimes bitched about them, they were a pretty good crew… just so damn young! And when did you start to feel like such an old man, Chucky, eh?
Grabbing a pad and pencil, he pulled open the heavy door to the walk-in freezer in back. He usually had the kids pull all the flavors to stock the counter coolers for the day, but maybe he’d do it himself this morning since he was already here… he reached for the parka that hung just outside the freezer and shrugged it on as he stepped through the doorway…
… and the world suddenly exploded in a flash of white and blue. He barely had time to register it before something slammed him in the back and he was hurled forward into the freezer. He hit the racks on the far wall hard enough to bring them crashing down on top of himself as he collapsed to the floor… Was that lightning?! His last thought before unconsciousness took him…
He awoke slowly from the strangest dream… he’d been in a vast open hall of pale green crystal… no, it had been ice, he somehow knew… a great ice palace… there’d been an enormous man on a throne of ice… a giant… a blue giant… and the cold had seemed to radiate from him… although Chuck hadn’t felt cold himself… he had felt very, very small but, strangely, not afraid… the giant had spoken, his voice so deep and loud it boomed, echoing off the crystalline walls and reverberating in Chuck’s body… not an angry voice, but insistent… what were the words? They were important… but he couldn’t remember… just the echoing sound and bone-shaking feel of them… then the giant had reached down and touched an enormous finger to his forehead… a burning pain and then…
Chuck was awake now, he was pretty sure, but it was pitch black. And cold… he was chilled down to his bones… strange, it hadn’t been cold in his dream, despite all the ice, and the sense of cold coming off the big blue guy… damn, it hurt to move… but he had to, had to get warm… he shoved up against the freezing metal that lay atop him… the shelves he’d hit, he remembered that… he managed to get free of them and, fumblingly, with fingers that barely worked they were so numb with the cold, he zipped up the parka. It didn’t help much…
Sooo c-c-c-cold. Su-su-su-sudio. Something was in the air tonight for sure!
Was he getting delirious? He had to hold on, help would be coming soon, it had to be… Stupid kids are always late… unless… had it been an earthquake? But no, there’d been that searing light… Jesus, had Astoria been nuked… from orbit… only way to be sure… sure as I’ll ever be… be all you can be… be there or be square… square off in the squared circle… spin the black circle…
Chuck shook his head, trying to pull his thoughts together… he couldn’t afford to drift off into la-la land… he was in serious danger of freezing to death… but why was the freezer still running? Oh, it must be the emergency generator… great, a feature designed to protect the damn ice cream was going to kill him…
Did he black out again? He had a sense that time had passed… but he couldn’t be sure… it was so hard to move now…
Where’s Scion? Where’s anyone? Why aren’t there more damn superheroes in this city? Must get out… Marines, we are leaving! So black… it’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none, none more black… Brr-r-r-r-roll with the changes… keep on rolling… rock and rolling… I don’t wanna work, I just wanna bang on the drum all day… bang a gong… Big Ben always counted you out… ding dong the witch is dead…
Blackness again… for how long? There was a sense of urgency, something he had to do if he wanted to live… he couldn’t move at all now…
Am I dead? Dead duck… dead as a doornail… Sooo cold… cold as ice… ice slick… slick as shit and I ain’t lyin’… flying… fly the friendly skies… five by five…
Were those sirens? Sirens wailing but I can barely hear them… tie my self up to the mast… listen up, I want this to go smooth and by the numbers… my number’s up… and it’s one, two, three, what’re we fighting for? Fight for your right to party… it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to…
Did I leave the stove on?
Deep inside, Chuck could feel a flicker of cold so intense it was like heat… a tiny, shiny button of… power? In a last moment of clarity, he realized he had to press that button or die… but his body wouldn’t move… didn’t matter, it was all in his mind… he pressed the button…
There was a green flash in his mind, and suddenly Chuck wasn’t cold anymore. In fact, he felt fine… no pain, no cold, not even fear… still couldn’t see a damn thing, though… they said you got feeling warm before you froze to death… but he didn’t feel warm, exactly, just… not cold… and if he still couldn’t see, he could at least hear…
As if from a great distance a voice was calling. “Chuck? Chuck? Can you hear me?” The voice seemed to be getting closer…so familiar…yet not… I know that voice… but I also know it’s never spoken directly to me before… but I trust this voice… I want to… Scion!
At the realization that help really was at hand, Chuck also realized that he could move again… he stood up and moved slowly forward to where he thought the freezer door should be… arms outstretched, his fingers brushed the metal, and was surprised at how warm it felt… maybe the emergency generator had failed, which was why he was still alive? But it would take a long time for the insulated room to get as warm as it felt right now…
He fumbled for the latch, and pulled down, pushing the door open… but it didn’t move. Was something blocking it from the outside? He leaned into the door and pushed… there was a grinding noise, and some slight resistance, then the door moved slowly outward… masonry, drywall, steel and glass all fell away as he shoved the door open, and blinding light poured in…
Shielding his eyes from the sudden glare, Chuck looked up at a blurry shape that slowly resolved into Scion, hovering in the air above him, rain dripping off his famous armor, a huge chunk of brick and rebar in his hands. The hero quickly tossed the debris aside and held a hand out toward him. “Chuck? Chuck Chisholm?” the famous voice asked, sounding strangely uncertainly.
“Yeah, that’s me. Thanks for –” Chuck stopped, shocked at the sound of his own voice. He sounded strange, a deep, rumbling bass completely unlike his normal voice… like two icebergs grinding together. And then he finally focused on the arm he was holding up to block the light… it wasn’t his arm! It was massive, translucent, and apparently made of green-white ice!
“What the fuck?!” he roared in sudden panic, looking down at his body… it, too, looked like it was made of ice. He looked up in confusion at the hovering hero. “What’s happened to me? Why am I – what– ?”
“It’s OK, Chuck,” Scion said soothingly, landing in the small cleared area around the freezer door. He seems a lot shorter in person was the only semi-coherent thought that managed to pierce the chaotic roil that was Chuck’s mind just then.
“It’s OK Chuck,” the hero repeated. “You’ve been exposed to… something we don’t understand yet. A lot of people have, you’re not alone. Like many other people, you’ve gained meta-human powers… are you cool Chuck?” He immediately seemed to regret his choice of words, though it was hard to be sure beneath his helmet. But in fact the unintentional pun brought the turmoil in Chuck’s head to a sudden stop. He laughed.
“Yeah, I guess you could say I’m cool,” he replied, once the rumbling laughter had died down. “I’m confused as hell, and a little freaked out maybe, but I’m not dead, so hey, that’s a plus…”
Scion visibly relaxed, and nodded his head. “You have every right to be both confused and freaked out. But like I said, you’re not alone, and one way or another, we’ll help you get through this. My friend there has recently been where you are right now, so if you have any immediate questions…”
Chuck turned his head to look where Scion was pointing… a man wreathed in blue flames… no, made of blue flames, hovered in the air above and behind him. The glowing apparition waved and grinned.
“Hey, I’m Jo- er, the Blue Flame,” he said, and Chuck could hear the excitement in his voice. Hell, he sounded like one of Chuck’s teen-age crew. “Welcome to the club!”
“Um, thanks. I guess. So, does this mean I’m a superhero now?” he asked turning back to Scion. Holy crap, that’s really a possibility, isn’t it?! The actual hero shrugged.
“That’s entirely up to you. But before you make any major life decisions we need to get you checked out, see what exactly your powers are, see if this change is permanent, fill you in on what’s been going on the last couple of days…”
That stopped Chuck’s giddy speculation about teaming up with Scion to fight crime… he’d been suppressing the question of whether or not he was stuck in this ice form, and he determinedly did so again by focusing on that last statement.
“Days? How long was I trapped in there?”
“A little over 48 hours,” Scion replied, sounding almost apologetic. “It’s been so chaotic, there was so much damage around the city… it took us awhile to realize someone might still be alive in there.
“In fact, it was one of your employees, a Tori Andreas, who was finally able to get my attention this morning… she and her co-workers have been trying to dig through the rubble almost since the Incident, but the apartment building behind it partially collapsed onto your shop, so it was slow going. Then the authorities stopped them from digging, since there was a real possibility of further collapse.
“I think most people figured you were dead, but Tori was certain you weren’t. Once I got here and realized the emergency generator was still going under all that, I figured she might just be right.”
“Wow,” Chuck said, amazed. “That was so… Tori always was… um, but… “Incident?” I thought maybe the city was nuked…”
“No, not that, thankfully. But it was bad enough… look, we’ll explain it all to you, but I think we need to get you back to my lab so we can –”
“Chuck!” the hero was interrupted by several Salt & Straw employees climbing over the rubble toward them, led by a determined-looking Tori. “I knew you weren’t – ” she stopped in mid-scramble and stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open, the others piling up behind her, equally agog.
“Hey Tori,” Chuck said, suddenly very self-conscious. “Um, I was just hearing how you, um, didn’t give up on me… thanks!” Well jeez, that was lame. ‘Thanks?’
“Ch-Chuck? Is that really you? What –” but before the young woman could finish the obvious question there was a sharp crack behind him, followed by a deep rumble… he whirled to see half the remaining apartment building sliding down towards them.
“Shit!” cried the Blue Flame, and pulses of plasma arced out to incinerate some of the rubble. But it wasn’t going to be enough, tons of brick and steel were going to crush them all… Chuck threw up his arms, and the air shimmered in front of his hands… a wall of green ice began to form, and in an instant it had created a curved shield halfway around the group, arcing over their heads.
The collapsing structure hit the ice wall with a deafening sound, and cracks appeared in several places… but the barrier held, as tons of debris slid down to either side, leaving the group around Chuck untouched. He lowered his arms and stared at his creation with as much confusion and wonder as the others.
“Wow Chuck!” Tori said at last, and this time her gaze on him was impressed, rather than shocked. “That was amazing! You’ve got freakin’ super powers! Are you going to join the Vanguard?”
“The Vanguard?” Chuck asked, puzzled. “What’s the–”
“One of the many questions we’ll be answering, soon, I promise,” Scion assured him. “But I think we need to vacate the area – the authorities were right about the danger here.” He herded Tori and the others back over the rubble to the safety of the street beyond, with promises that their friend would be well cared for and would contact them as soon as he was able.
A minute later Chuck was flying over the city in a tight wrist-lock with Scion, the Blue Flame beside them. It was a gray, rainy day, but it was sure as hell not like any other… Scion was right, there was a lot to sort out, a lot of questions to be answered, but there was not a hint of doubt in Chuck’s mind about the most important thing – no question, he was gonna be a freakin’ SUPERHERO!
And he even thought he knew what code name he’d adopt – yeah, this was definitely gonna be the Age of Chilz!
Right after he called his mom, that is…