Superhero

© 1997, Mark E. Becker

I'd had my eye on Julia since the beginning of the semester. Unfortunately, so had everybody else. She was the "new kid", having just transferred in to our school in the middle of the eleventh grade, and she was a knockout, so was instantly popular -- especially with the guys. I'd always been rather shy, though, so I just sat back and watched as she deftly deflected advances by preps, jocks, and even some of the burnouts. I had been able to interact with her a few times -- she was in my Chemistry class, and we were in the same lab group, but she never seemed to really notice me.

Sometime near the end of the school year, as the Junior Prom was approaching, I finally built up the courage to ask her out, and ambushed her near the bicycle rack after school one day.

"Hi there," I said, and jumped off the wall to the patio outside the Office wing.

"Oh, hi, Danny," she replied, apparently not surprised in the least by my entrance.

I decided to get right to the point, before my courage gave up on me.

"I was wonder..." I started, but before I could get any farther, a wave of dizziness hit me, as a really strange image popped into my mind from nowhere (that I could figure out at the time).

I must have started to wobble, because Julia suddenly grabbed my arm.

"Are you all right?" she asked, concerned.

I shook my head a few times, and after a minute it cleared. I could still remember the image vividly; it was of a small device exploding in my hands. Somehow I knew that the vision was a memory of something I had experienced once, but as far as I knew, no device like that existed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, "now. The weirdest feeling came over me for a minute. I have no idea what it could have been."

"Has anything like this ever happened to you before?" she asked, with a curious-yet-concerned tone of voice.

"Not that I can remember," I replied, but suddenly a feeling of deja vu came over me, as if I had, but just couldn't remember it.

She noticed that, too, and suddenly started pulling me toward the side of the building.

"Come on," she said as she dragged me out of the sight of anybody else.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

She didn't answer, but when we were behind the building, where nobody could see us, she pulled something out of her purse and pressed a button on it. It looked like a watch, but it was more sophisticated than any I had ever seen before. Then she spoke into it.

"Computer, teleport me and my friend directly into the base, please," she said, to which something on the other end replied, "Certainly."

Suddenly, the world blurred out, and I found myself somewhere else! Julia was there, but that was all that was familiar about it. It seemed to have originally been some sort of cave, but floors, cabinets, desks, and other amenities had been installed, and some sort of large computer terminal dominated the middle of the room. It was hexagonal, and was comprised of a desk-like workstation component with (what I could only guess was) the CPU hanging from the ceiling over it, like something out of a science-fiction movie.

"Uh, where are we?" I asked.

Julia had already gone over to one of the computer workstations, and seemed to be accessing the system.

"You don't want to ask that, for the moment," she replied, turning to me for a moment.

Then she stood up and -- addressing the computer -- said, "Horatio, scan my friend here. Is he a Mutant?"

I felt something go over me, but I couldn't tell what. Then the computer spoke, but it hardly sounded like a computerized voice.

"No, he isn't a mutant," it said. Then after a moment's pause, added, "but I have detected an abnormality in his psyche."

"What?" I asked, feeling like my head was spinning out of control.

"What sort of abnormality?" Julia asked it.

The computer, which was behaving more like a person than a normal computer, seemed to pause to think for a moment, then answered.

"As far as I can tell, there seem to be repressed memories imprinted in his psyche. I can't, however, determine the source. They don't seem to be artificially induced, though. Shall I activate them?"

"Oops," she said, then answered. "Um, it looks like I made a mistake bringing you here," she said to me. "I'm going to have to have the computer wipe your memory of this, so that you can go back to your normal life."

"What?" I declared again, this time horrified by what I had just heard.

Julia looked at the computer, and told it to begin.

I felt it in my mind again, this time poking around. Suddenly, I felt something snap, and a floodgate of memories opened, and completely overwhelmed me. I dropped to the floor, writhing, trying to sort out all of the images.

After a period of time that I later learned was ten minutes, I came to. I was laying on a bunk, with Julia sitting beside me looking worried. I, however, felt like a new person. What the computer had discovered were memories from previous incarnations, which usually come back to me one by one over the course of adolescence. It had started a little late this time, but through Julia's and her computer's interference, came back in a rush. Luckily, some of the memories were themselves memories of how to deal with the memories, so I was able to sort things out fairly easily.

When she noticed that I had come to, Julia was noticeably relieved.

"Oh, Danny!" she cried. "I'm so sorry! Are you all right? We were just trying to wipe your memory of the cave, when the computer must have done something wrong, and you collapsed. We weren't trying to hurt you, honest!"

I sat up, and put my hand on her shoulder.

"I'm fine, really," I told her. "In fact, I feel better than ever. I remember everything!" I told her, and began grinning widely. Her expression was still concerned, however.

"It usually doesn't come back all at once like that," I explained, hoping to ease her mind. "It usually comes back a little at a time, so it was a lot to deal with all at once. But I'm fine now, really."

She took a deep breath, then spoke.

"I'm glad to hear that," she said. "I still have to figure out what to do with you, though. People aren't supposed to know about this place, so we were going to wipe your short-term memory. But those other memories got in the way somehow, so the computer do anything."

"Don't worry, I know how to keep a secret," I said. Then, after a calculated pause, "Would you like to know mine? About the memories and all? It might help ease your mind," I added, and smiled. She smiled back.

"I have to admit, I am curious," she said, then thought for a moment. "I guess an exchange of secrets would be fair. That way, we each have an incentive to keep the other's."

"Yeah," I agreed. "And then you can tell me all about what's going on here!" I added with a chuckle. She giggled back, and agreed.

"But you go first," she said.

So I told her how I was created as a robot; built for a specific mission, and after it was accomplished, had nothing to do. I told her about how I was taken away by one of my 'brothers' to a magical world, but wasn't allowed to dabble in magic myself, "... because he was already a wizard, and they didn't need another." I told her how I made my way into yet another universe, and was accidentally transferred into a human clone body. I briefly described my adventures as a road warrior, and how that really wasn't any more fulfilling than my previous lifestyles.

I told her about the vacation I took, during which I was brought into yet another magical world, and how this time I was able to become a wizard myself, ". . . since I was the one in charge now." I told her about the quest, and how I completed it. She giggled when I described my theories about why the magics that brought me to that world made such a mistake when they tried to return me to where they found me.

"Since my mind, or soul if you will, wasn't native to where they found me, the magics simply got confused, and dropped me on the closest world they could find. It turned out to be similar, but not quite the same."

I told her about living in London, in this new world, which was significantly safer, but a lot more boring. I told her how I flagged down a flying saucer one night, and hitched a ride, launching myself into a brand new life of adventure and excitement and sleeping in dirty spaceports. She giggled again at that part.

I told her about my first death, and how the probability-altering device that had exploded on me -- that first vision -- mixed with the residual magics and propelled my spirit into a new world. I told her about my first birth -- I can actually remember a little bit about it, though the details are a bit sketchy -- and how I grew up for the first time as a human being.

I skimmed over the details about the sport I got involved with on that world. It was nasty and brutal and barbaric -- believe it or not, even more so than the game of football on this world, which is closely resembles. I did tell her how much trouble I had the first time I had to deal with memories from previous lives and, when I finally knew who and what I was, the lengths to which I went to enable my reincarnating to occur automatically.

"Well you see, at the time, it was either give up, since the project was going to take a lot longer than the lifespan of a human on that world, or become Undead, so that I would have the time to complete it. And I'd never failed in a mission yet, so I was prepared to use any means necessary to finish my research. I admit now that it was pretty creepy, but it really isn't that bad, once you get used to it." She wasn't convinced though.

I told her about the first 'automatic' reincarnation, and described that lifetime briefly. I told her about being the captain of a Starship, and some of the adventures that I had, but was careful not to mention the romantic fiasco that also occurred in that lifetime.

I also told her how nervous I was when I died that time, but also how necessary it was to sacrifice myself to stop the invading aliens. "And, unfortunately, I still don't know if we actually did anything by ramming into them like that. I can only hope that we at least weakened them enough for somebody else to stop them."

I briefly described some of my lives thereafter, but since there have been so many since then, I only mentioned in order the last few prior to the present.

"My absolute favorite lives have been when I've been able to use magic, or at least something similar. Unfortunately, in this world, I seem to be hopelessly normal," I finished, with a hint of disgust in my voice.

"Oh, believe me," she said, "you're lucky to be normal! Being a superhuman has plenty of problems of it's own."

"You say that as if you know," I commented, trying to prompt her for an explanation. Luckily, she accepted the invitation.

"I do," she said, stood up, and took a few steps away from the chair she had been sitting in. She then closed her eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. Then, suddenly, she crystallized. She stood before me looking like a statue made of diamond -- but she could still move. Suddenly, something clicked in my still-clearing memory.

"Hey, aren't there a couple of Super Heroes around who can do that?" I asked.

As she shifted back to her fully-human form, she responded.

"Yes, they go by the names Boulder and Pumice," she said. "Two of the few superheroes to survive the Parahumans War," she added, referring to a conflict a decade ago that wiped out most of the super heroes -- and villains -- on the planet.

"Yeah, they were members of the SuperKids team, and were on another world at the time, weren't they?" I asked

"Good memory," she said, and sat back down again. "They're my parents."

"That explains a lot," I commented, and actually surprised myself by how unsurprised I was. "Like how you know so much about this kind of thing, and how you have access to this place. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is one of the old SuperKids' bases of operations, right?"

The SuperKids had been one of the major Super Hero organizations, before the war, and the members who had survived still enjoyed the benefits of its resources.

"Right," she said. "The cave, the communications system, and even the telepathic computer, developed by one of the original founders. And I'm one of the heirs to the whole mess."

A crazy idea struck me at that very moment.

"Hey, we could form a new team! You and me! With all of this at your disposal, we could do a lot of good," I proclaimed.

"There's just one problem," she countered. "As you yourself said, you're a normal," she explained, using the common -- and slightly derogatory -- term for a normal, non-super-powered, human being.

"Hey, at least I don't have to worry about dying," I pointed out. "Besides, I might be able to come up with something. Not all heroes have innate powers. I might be able to design some equipment or something."

"True," she admitted. "There were even some techno-heroes in the SuperKids, but it's not even my decision to make. My parents have made it clear that I'm supposed to finish High School before even thinking about being a Super Hero. 'The world has enough to get by with for the moment,' my dad says."

"But after that, you're free to start," I pointed out, "and you're going to at least need a partner. So who better than someone who already knows who you are?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Maybe, if you can come up with something useful, which I doubt; you're no Circuit Breaker;" she said, referring to one of the old SuperKids who had been technological genius.

"Hey, remember, I've learned technologies in some of my previous lifetimes that haven't even been imagined yet here. Plus, I've been a wizard more than once, so I have a few more tricks up my sleeve than your average whiz kid."

"By the way, what time is it?" I asked, suddenly remembering my current life's requirements. "I have to be home for dinner, or my mom will freak out," I explained, abruptly shifting back into this lifetime's persona. The way my memories had suddenly returned this time had left me with a bit of a personality split, and it ended up taking me a while to fully integrate my identities together.

She told me it was still a while before dinner time; it had been right after school that all this had started, but our storytelling had taken the rest of the afternoon.

She took me back to the main room, and had the computer teleport me home, so that I wouldn't be late for dinner.

* * * * *

That night, after I finished my homework, I started work on my super equipment. (The homework was a piece of cake all of a sudden, since I had learned a lot of it already, and could remember it now.) First, I had to decide what sort of powers I wanted. There were so many possibilities to choose from. But I also had to decide what kind of hero persona I wanted to use. (Every good Super Hero has to have a Secret Identity, after all.) I quickly decided that I wanted to tie my 'true' name, Kickback, into this hero identity; that is, use it as what I call myself when doing super hero stuff. But then, I thought, there should be some outward reason why I'm called that, 'cause nobody else knows about the previous incarnations. So I should try to tie my powers somehow to the name, which could be a trick.

Okay, I told myself, what kinds of meanings can I wring out of the word "Kickback"? Well, originally, I turned into a grasshopper, and could use my legs to 'kick' things. Should I make a Grasshopper-Man suit? No, that's dumb.

And that's how my idea for the Slugthrower was born.

It took almost three months to build the first model, and then it still took another month of field testing to get all the bugs worked out. I used materials available from hardware stores, adapting it to use technologies that I only half-remembered from other lifetimes, and even managed to augment some of it's functioning with some simple enchantments.

It consisted of a backpack, which carried raw material for the ammo and the power source. Tubes ran from either side of the backpack to the wrist-mounted launchers. A small keypad on the inside of the palm contained the controls for firing and for choosing what type of projectile to launch. Based on the projectile choice, the material would come down the tube, be assembled molecularly in the launcher, and then fired. Aiming was easy, since the arm lines up nicely with the eyes, especially if you hold your arm out to the side. Admittedly, it took me a lot of practice to actually be able to hit anything, but I eventually became a virtual marksman.

I designed several different types of ammo for it. At first, I only had two: explosive, which was simply a nitroglycerine-like formula (inert until the components were assembled in the launcher), and what I called sleep darts, which utilized a simple magical spell to put any living thing touched by the projectile to sleep for a time. (The darts were otherwise harmless.) During the first month of field testing, I also managed to develop an entangler projectile, which turned into a sticky net upon impact; useful for catching fleeing criminals.

When I showed the device to Julia, she was fairly impressed, despite her initial skepticism. She agreed to form a team as soon as we graduated, so we had one more year of High School left to suffer through.

* * * * *

"Well, Julia, we made it," I said, as we walked down the sidewalk from the bus stop, toward her parents' house. The official commencement ceremony wouldn't take place until the coming Saturday, but we had just finished our last Final Exams, and the Senior Prom was tomorrow night. So it was all over except for the screaming.

We had spent a lot of time together over the past year, experimenting with my Slugthrower and making our plans for the superhero team we would assemble, and we actually found that we just liked being with each other. In all of the excitement, however, I had completely forgotten that I had originally wanted to ask her out. After I had finished assimilating my identities together, I had remembered how much I was attracted to her, but by that point we were more like good friends, so I wasn't comfortable saying anything about it.

I had noticed, however, that her attitude toward me had changed considerably in the past year. It had started shortly after my memories came back. I think that she hadn't thought much of me at first. Shy, self-conscious, reserved, and a bit reclusive. However, after I remembered, I became considerably more confident, outgoing, sociable, and even daring. And I think she found the new me significantly more appealing than she had the old one.

"Yeah, we sure did," she agreed, watching her feet. Suddenly, I had a different kind of revelation. I realized that, while she may not have been interested in me at first, not only did she find my new bearing more becoming, but she might actually find me attractive now.

So I slowly reached out, and took her hand. She looked up at me, but I just smiled. She smiled back, and I knew I had guessed right.

* * * * *

We had already been planning to go to the Prom together, but until that point it was because neither of us had found anyone else to go with. All of a sudden, it took on a whole new meaning. The next day seemed to go on forever, until evening finally arrived, and we made it to the Prom. That evening was the best time I have ever had in a period of four hours.

When I dropped her off at home afterward, she told me to come in for a minute.

"I have a graduation present for you," she said, with an embarrassed blush. I entered, mutely, not knowing exactly what to expect.

I waited in the living room, while she retrieved something from downstairs. As she came back up, I remembered that they kept all their superhero equipment down there, and I suddenly had an idea what this present was. (Nothing like some of the thoughts that were crisscrossing through my head up until that point, though.)

She presented me with a watch, identical to the one she had used to arrange transport that first day when I remembered.

"I've actually been planning this for a month," she admitted with a sheepish grin on her face. "It seems kind-of inadequate now, though" she said, took my hands, and started pulling me toward the kitchen. "But I've got another idea; quick, before my parents notice the silence," she whispered, with a wry smile.

As soon as we were in the kitchen - and therefore out of sight of the staircase, where any observers might be - we kissed, and that brief moment overshadowed any other single event that I had ever experienced in any lifetime.

* * * * *

By unspoken agreement, the only interaction we had the day of graduation was a wink we traded as we passed each other, walking into the auditorium. We had decided to discuss our plans for the future on Sunday, and we both wanted to clear our heads for it. So I spent the evening after graduation watching the stars from the hill in our backyard, and remembering.

I remembered the flings I had in my third lifetime, shortly after becoming human for the first time. I didn't understand people, much less relationships, at the time, so that was pretty much just experimentation.

I remembered the first true friendships I formed with my companions in the magical world I was whisked away to thereafter. There were a few women in the group, but we were far too busy to even consider intimate relationships, even if any of us were tempted. Besides, I was trying to become the Avatar of Virtue -- which would not necessarily have prohibited a relationship, as long as it was done virtuously -- and as soon as the quest was over, I would be leaving the world. But those were the first people I ever actually, truly cared about, to any degree. Well, aside from my Duplabot Insecticon brothers, but that was different.

I remembered my first romantic fiasco, which involved the first person I actually had a relationship with, and the first person I actually loved -- which were not the same person, therefore the fiasco. That was when I really learned what love was about, though it was a lesson learned very painfully.

I remembered the relationships here and there throughout my lifetimes since then. Most of them were pretty casual, and none ever got really serious. It was partially, I realized that night, that I was afraid of repeating the fiasco with Sarah and Yroli E -- I was amazed at how strongly those two names were still stuck in my memory -- but it was also at least partially because I just hadn't met anyone appropriate. Either my lifestyle didn't allow it (or made it difficult), or I just wasn't lucky enough to meet anyone that I felt that way about.

I decided that I was really lucky this time, and went inside.

* * * * *

I went over to her house Sunday afternoon, and her parents joined our discussion. It made sense, since they did have some experience in this sort of thing, but I had been hoping to have some time alone with her. I just told myself to have some patience -- Time, I told myself, is one thing that a reincarnate really doesn't have to worry about, which is at least partially true, but time with her wasn't unlimited, and I realized that with a bit of a shock. But we were about to start, so I filed that idea for later consideration.

"So this is what we have to work with," Julia began. "Daddy has convinced the remaining SuperKid alumni to let us use the cave -- the one I took you to, Danny," she said, referring to the incident that started this whole mess.

"Hey, that's great," I added. "So we get that neat telepathic computer and all too, yes?"

"That's right," her dad, Don, said. I had gotten to know both her parents fairly well during the past year, and we were on a first-name basis. "And we think we've found you another team member too," he added, putting his hand on his wife's knee.

I raised my eyebrows.

"Who?" Julia asked.

"He's the son of another one of the old SuperKids," he replied. "I've told you about him once or twice. It's James Avery Becker, son of Mark & Michelle Becker, who went by the hero names of Chirold and Sorceress. He's become, from what I hear, a fairly powerful Elementalist, and when I told his dad that you two were planning a team, he told me that he'd be interested, and would be coming out... What's wrong, Daniel?"

He interrupted himself like that because I was staring at him bug-eyed.

"Did you say his name was 'Becker'?" I asked, wanting to be sure I had heard him correctly.

"Yes," he replied, puzzled.

"That's what I thought you said," I commented, then shook my head to clear it.

"That was my name, in a previous lifetime," I added, by way of explanation. I had told them a little about my origins, so they knew at least in general what I was talking about.

"My, what a coincidence," Janet -- Julia's mom -- commented.

"I don't know," I said. "I don't really trust coincidences anymore. I've seen way too many supposed coincidences that turned out not to be purely coincidental."

"I wish I could remember more of my genealogy from that life," I added, after a moment's thought.

Julia decided to get the conversation back on track.

"Well, anyway," she said, "you said that James wants to join us? That's great."

Her parents nodded.

"Where does he live?" she asked.

"Michigan," her dad answered. "But they said he'd come out here in a couple of days. He just finished his Sophomore year of college at the University of Michigan, and hasn't really been liking it. But he needed a few days to get his affairs in order before coming down."

"You made it sound like he's dying," I commented playfully.

"Well, maybe," he admitted, grinning, "but it wasn't intentional."

We loved to spar like that, verbally. Janet wasn't very keen on word play though -- she thought it was a bit obnoxious to intentionally misinterpret someone, even playfully, but then she was a bit up tight in general. But Julia and her dad, like me, loved it.

"I think I've found somebody too, actually," Julia commented, noticing the scowl starting to form on her mother's face. We all looked at her questioningly.

"He's in my... well, he was in my English class," she began, and suddenly I knew who she was talking about. She had told me all about this a few months ago.

"His name is Ricky Bransma, and I caught a glimpse of him shapeshifting once a couple of months ago," she continued. "We were going to ask him to join up," she said, and then addressed me directly, "but he just asked me if he could join us yesterday, when we were cleaning up after the graduation ceremony. It turns out he's telepathic too," she added, which explained everything.

"Great," I commented. "So we'll have a heavy hitter, you; a long-range shooter, me; a magician, Jim; and a mental-morph, Rick. Not a bad start, I'd say."

"Plus a base of operations and a computer and communications system," Julia added.

Her mom opened her mouth for a second, but then turned to Don.

"Wait, isn't the Autoboy program still running from that computer system?" she asked.

"Yeah, he is," he replied.

I had heard of Autoboy. After my memories came back, I had studied as much of the history of Super Heroes as I could get my hands on. My History teacher was impressed, if nothing else. Autoboy had been a computer-generated, solid hologram of a 15-year old boy, who could project himself anywhere, and fought crime with the SuperKids. He reminded me a lot of the Holodeck we had had in my Starfleet incarnation.

"But he hasn't been seen since the SuperKids shut down, shortly after the war," I commented, hoping they weren't still touchy about that.

"True," Don replied, "but he's still active. When the Rogues shot down the SuperKids Satellite, their main holoprojector was destroyed, so he was limited to the surviving bases, which had built-in holoprojectors. So he kind-of volunteered to act as the curator."

"Hey, holographic janitor," I quipped, eliciting a giggle out of Julia. "I'll just have to make sure not to call him that when he's around, though," I added, and grinned from ear to ear.

Julia then hit me with a pillow, and her parents traded a knowing look. Though I was a little distracted at that particular moment, I could tell that they knew exactly what was going on between us, and -- thank heavens -- approved.

We hammered out a few more details, including the news of a very generous offer from the estate of one of the original founding SuperKids -- the original leader, Shroud, no less -- to subsidize us, which meant that we didn't have to worry that much about how to support ourselves.

"It won't be enough to really live by," Don said, "but you shouldn't have to worry about maintaining a full-time job." Which would be a great help, considering that saving the Earth doesn't always need doing just on Evenings, Weekends and Holidays.

Then, having covered that portion of the rest of our lives, we turned to the other main concern.

"Mr. and Mrs. Graff," I suddenly found myself saying, addressing them in an unusually formal fashion, "I want to marry your daughter." I had originally been planning to bring this up in a somewhat more subtle fashion, but I was so nervous that I completely forgot the speech I had rehearsed earlier.

Julia just sat there looking at me. She told me later that at that moment, she was in shock; she had been thinking along similar lines lately, but hadn't been expecting me to just blurt it out to her parents like that. But she was also touched that I felt that strongly about it, and so she didn't make any objections.

Her parents, however, didn't seem all that surprised. Sure, they were taken a bit off balance by my presentation but, as I noted above, they had kind-of seen it coming.

"That's an awfully big step to take," her father began. "Especially at the beginning of something like this."

"I know," I replied, "But all I know is, I want to spend the rest of my life with her." I reached out to her, and she took my hand.

Her father grinned.

"I'm glad to see that your commitment to her is that strong," he said. "But there are other factors that might... well, complicate things," he added, then Janet took over.

"The Superhero lifestyle doesn't make it easy to do things like settling down and raising a family," she said. "We've made it work, but it was a struggle, and involved largely giving up the superhero business."

"Well, just because you get married," I countered, "doesn't mean you have to settle down like that."

"True," Don conceded. "But there are other problems. Trust us, we know." True enough.

"Some time ago; shortly after you were born, actually," he said, nodding to Julia, "someone that I was working for seemed to be figuring out that I was Boulder, the super hero. And since Boulder and Pumice were such a closely knit pair, if he had figured out who I was, he wouldn't have had a hard time figuring out who she was either."

"It might not be so bad for you two," Janet added at that point, "because you're going to be part of a larger team; and you're not exactly carbon copies of each other, like we were; but there's still that kind of danger. All of the other married heroes that we've known have had similar problems. Some have developed into serious risks, others haven't."

"And the risk is less when both are supers," Don continued, "since you both can take care of yourselves, but the danger is still there."

"Plus, there's the possibility of exposure if one were to die under mysterious circumstances, and the other had to explain to the authorities what happened to his or her spouse," Janet added, with a note of sorrow in her voice. "One of the old SuperKids had to face that once. When Arachnia fell in the war, Photon chose to disappear herself, instead of revealing who they were to the world," she explained.

At this point, I was starting to reconsider. It was beginning to sound a little too dangerous. But almost as if he could read my thoughts, Don added a disclaimer.

"We don't necessarily want to talk you out of it," he said. "We just wanted to make sure you're aware of the dangers. And there are all always alternatives."

"Alternatives?" I asked, puzzled.

"Well," Janet began, "even if you don't have an official wedding, you can still marry, in your hearts."

"We know both of you well enough," Don added, "to know that if you make that kind of commitment to each other, you don't need it formalized legally. We've always seen that part as just a . . . technicality. If you're married in your minds, then having it recognized by the government just allows you to file joint tax returns," he said with a grin. He turned his grin on Janet, and she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss.

I turned to Julia, and asked, simply, "Will you?" To which she replied, equally simply, "Yes."

"Right, then," Don said. "That works for us. The only question now is, what will your mom think?" He directed that last bit specifically at me, since I was the only representative of my family present.

"I don't think she'll have much of a problem with it," I said. "She may have a little trouble getting used to the idea at first, but she's pretty good about these things. Of course, I'm going to have to bring her up to speed on things; all of it, that is."

"Bring her over here," Janet offered. "We'll help her adjust. And then we can have our own little ceremony, to seal you two's commitment."

That sounded good to us, so we arranged to meet there the next weekend for our little mini-wedding, and for me to bring my mother to see them sometime during the week.

"I'm going to talk to her a bit myself tonight," I added, "but she'll probably still need some convincing by you folks."

I then gave her parents each a big hug goodbye, and Julia a quick kiss, and made my retreat.

* * * * *

My mother actually took the news rather well. She didn't believe most of what I told her at first -- about us becoming super heroes or about my previous lives -- but after her session with Julia's parents, she was much more open-minded. She actually took our non-formal marriage idea the best of all of it. She's always been fairly liberal and understanding, and considering what she'd gone through with bad marriages, she doesn't have that much to say for the institution anymore. (My dad had died before I really knew him, and then she'd gotten involved with a couple of real creeps since then. It wasn't her fault though. They seemed good enough at first, but then chickened out once they felt bound.)

All in all, the week went by in a flash. Julia and I had a pair of medallions made, instead of rings, since we were doing this our way. I commented to her at one point that giving her a diamond would just be redundant anyway, considering that she can turn into a big one herself. That just got me a mocked slap on the wrist.

Jim Becker, our Elementalist, arrived that Wednesday, and we put him up at our house, for the time being. We invited him, as well as Ricky Bransma, our mental-morph, to come to the ceremony, since we were all going to be working together, and so that we'd have some witnesses.

We all then assembled at Julia's house the next Saturday. My mom brought me in, and Julia's dad brought her in. They then "gave us away", and sat down. Julia and I exchanged some hastily-prepared vows, and put the amulets on each other. We shared a long, passionate kiss, and that was that.

* * * * *

We spent that night like most newlyweds, but at one point as we were discussing just what it was we had gotten ourselves into, I had a somewhat disturbing thought.

"Jewel," I said (I had begun calling her that just that afternoon, and it would become my standard pet name for her from that moment onward), "there's something I just thought about, that we probably should have talked about some time ago."

She looked at me, puzzled, and a little concerned.

"What?"

"Well, we were talking about how we vowed to be together from now on..." I began.

"Yeah, that's why we had this 'wedding' thing, Danny," she interrupted.

"Duh," I retorted, intelligently. "But there's a problem. My incarnation-hopping. Even if we live to be a hundred, and even if we both die at the same time, I'm going to be reborn in a new world. That kind-of throws a complication into it for me."

"Oh," she replied, sobered. "But that's just what you are."

"Yeah, but I'm not sure I want to, without you," I said. "It's not like I can turn it off or anything. I designed it to be perpetual; it just happens automatically when I die. There isn't anything I can do about it."

"And I wouldn't want you to," she retorted. "Knowing that even if I lose you, you'll still be somewhere is a big comfort."

"But I don't have any sort of reassurance like that," I countered.

She didn't say anything for a moment. It looked like she was thinking that one over. But then her face suddenly brightened, as if she had just solved everything.

"Well, then," she said, cheerfully, "I'll just have to find some way to come with you next time."

"Impossible," I said. "It was designed to just work on me."

"I'm sure we can find a way," she replied. "Stranger things have happened, after all." And I really couldn't argue with that, especially on this world. We didn't talk about it again for a some time, though.

* * * * *

Over the course of the next week, we got our new base of operations in shape. It turned out that the cave was actually only a little ways out of town, so we wouldn't have far to go, even without the teleportation system.

The place was in fairly good condition; Autoboy had, after all, been taking care of it over the years. Some of the technology was a bit out of date, but that was easy enough to update, from the local computer and electronics stores. However, most of it was still decades ahead of anything that the rest of the world had ever seen.

"That's the advantage of having technological geniuses in your organization," Autoboy commented. "Plus time travelers, extraterrestrials, and people from alternate dimensions. You tend to collect technology."

I couldn't argue with that.

We found Jim an apartment, and we all started looking for 'day jobs'. While crime fighting and saving the world can keep you busy at times, it isn't exactly a week-after-week kind of busy, so we decided we should each have something for the 'down times'.

* * * * *

Things started happening almost immediately thereafter. It seems like whenever new superheroes pop up, new super villains also materialize to give them something to do. In fact, shortly thereafter we traveled to another world. This was a place that Julia's father had once visited, and it reminded me greatly of the world where my robotic brother hadn't let me try out magic - the first alternate universe I ever traveled to after my creation.

It seems that when her father, as Boulder, had been there several decades ago, he had acquired a special magical sword. He and the people he was with at the time had simply found it amongst the treasure they discovered during their adventures, and hadn't even realized that it was special. Well, they knew it was special -- it was magically enchanted -- but at the time they didn't know just how special.

It turned out that this sword was the only thing that could vanquish a terrible evil creature that rampaged the land every hundred years or so on this other world. And each time it did so, it would be -- through seeming coincidence -- lost, and would have to be retrieved by a hero on an epic quest.

This time, this hero turned out to be a lad named Drusal, and he was an Elf. No, not one of Santa's minuscule factory workers; more Tolkien-esque. About five feet tall, slender of build, finely chiseled features, and pointed ears. It turned out that the monster was rampaging his homeland, a mystical island which was the home of the Elves on his world, and he had been chosen to find the sword and vanquish the monster.

Drusal had used his own magical powers to track the sword to our world, and discovered where Boulder was storing it -- in their basement, with all the rest of their superhero junk. Drusal at first tried to sneak into the house and take it quietly, but their security system foiled that plan. Then he tried to force his way in, but Pumice was home, and managed to keep him at bay. When he finally overcame her using magic, the rest of us had arrived by that time, and we captured him. Once we heard his story, however, we decided to help him after all, and he was visibly embarrassed for having assumed that we would be hostile.

We (our team, that is: me, Solitaire, Morph, and Druid) came with Drusal, back to his world, and helped him defeat the beast. When that was done, however, we didn't just come back home. We thought that we might be able to get rid of the thing once and for all, so that the Elves wouldn't have to go through this whole thing again in another hundred years. (Which, to their extended lifespans, was not a lot of time.)

So we enlisted Drusal's aid this time, and set out to destroy the monster at its source. In the process, we ended up traveling to the very home of the Elven deities, and meeting some of their gods. Very friendly, especially since we had done their people a major favor. In fact, the Elven deities were so grateful, they offered to do us one favor.

"Well, we really didn't expect to be paid for this," Julia began diplomatically. She has always been good at talking to people. "We just wanted to help."

"But," Druid (that's what Jim the Elementalist was using as a hero name) added, "if you really want to do something for us, you could send us home."

"Of course we were already planning to do so," said Solonor, the deity who had met us when we returned after finishing our task. If I remember correctly, he was a lower-echelon god, who dealt with the integrity of the land. Since that beast was causing a lot of destruction, it's easy to see why he would be interested in us.

"Your altruism is very noble and quite refreshing to see, especially in a group of humans," he continued, "but a service of this magnitude cannot go unrewarded. Are you sure there is nothing that any of you wish?"

We all just looked around at each other. A boon from a god was not something any of us had been expecting, not to mention that we were all pretty happy with our lives as they were. But then Julia came up with something that I hadn't thought about in quite some time.

"Actually, there is one thing you might be able to help us with," she said, as she put her arm around me. "The man I love is a reincarnate, and I want to go with him."

"Easily done," Solonor replied smoothly, seemingly not surprised in the least. Considering that they are deities, I guess that's to be expected.

He took us to one of the other Elven gods, one named Sehanine, who is in charge of life and death. We explained our situation to him, and he replied simply, "It will be taken care of."

They then immediately shuffled us off back to our own world, and didn't give any more explanation about the reincarnation business. But now, at least we don't have to worry about losing each other at the end of this lifetime! A considerable weight off my shoulders.

Unfortunately, we don't know exactly how it's going to work. First, do we have to die at the same time? If one of us dies, will the other instantly keel over too? Or will the one simply go on without the other? And if that happens, when the other dies, will he/she 'catch up' and be born at the same time, or will there be an age difference? For that matter, even if we do go at the same time, will we be born again at the same time or spaced apart? And in addition, will we be born again in the same area, or could it be miles away? Actually, if that is the case, it would kind-of defeat the purpose of being together forever, but you never know with deities like this. They may decide to throw in some sort of complication like that, just make things interesting.

I had the feeling that they honestly wanted to help us, though, so I don't think that's very likely. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

* * * * *

It's been about ten years since then, and we've had a number of adventures. We've gained new companions, and I've made many advancements to my Slugthrower system. Things have slowed down a bit recently, though. New technologies in crime control and safety enhancements in scientific work have cut down on the super villain population, so we have a fair amount of time on our hands. Julia and I have been considering settling down and having a family, but we haven't made any decisions yet. I've decided to set a lot of this down in writing in case we do decide to have children, to help them understand what's up with their parents. How we met, what's happened to us since then, and what's in store for us in the future -- in our next lives. Because you never know if we'll be around to tell them ourselves.