CHAPTER FIVE

“Guys?” Robert dropped his coffee as he rushed toward the two unconscious young men. “Jesus, guys? Guys?” He lightly slapped Chase’s face. Nothing happened, so he tried a little harder. Still no effect. He pulled his hand back to give it the old college try, but stopped short, cocking his head. He shifted his body over a few feet, toward Adam.

He hauled off and cracked Adam a good one agianst his right cheek.

Nothing happened. He rubbed his hand as he dropped back onto his haunches. “What the hell happened?”

“I’m not really sure,” came a weak voice from behind him. He practically threw himself at Chase, who was rubbing his head gingerly. “Okay, okay, I’m fine.”

Robert backed off, getting to his feet. “What’s wrong with your head?”

Chase stopped rubbing his head and shrugged. “I guess I probably smacked it when I fell.” He looked at Adam. “Why’s there a handprint on Adam’s face?”

Robert followed Chase’s gaze. He winced when he saw the mark he had left on Adam’s face. He looked Chase right in the eyes and said, “I don’t know.” He offered his hand, helping Chase to his feet.

“Unnnhhh,” Adam groaned, shifting slightly.

“What happened after I left?” Robert picked up his coffee and put the cup on the table. He pulled a few paper towels from the roll hanging above the sink and set to work cleaning up the spill.

Chase shook his head gently, clearing some of the cobwebs. “I decided to heat upi my coffee, so I headed back here. Adam followedme in here and apologized. Then he followed that up with something terrible about my parents, so I flipped out and unloaded on him. Then, I’ve got this headache and you’re slapping Adam.” Robert flinched at being called out. “Don’t worry,” Chase said, “I’m not going to say anything.”

Robert sniffed the air. “You smell that?”

Chase took in a lungful. “Yeah. You know, I smelled that when I first showed up today. Adam was back here screwing with something.”

“The Super-Serum,” Robert breathed.

Chase cocked his head at him. “Not again,” he sighed.

Robert leaned in toward the microwave, waving his arms to disperse the thinck, black smoke coming out from the back. “Yeah. At least he didn’t drink it this time.” Robert reared back and gagged. He looked at Chase, who just shrugged and looked at Adam. Adam was still lying on the floor, unconscious. Robert pulled the neck of his tee-shirt up over the bridge of his nose and dove back into the microwave. He rummaged around for a moment then leaned back. He stood, his right hand held out to Chase. The tips of his index and middle fingers were covered in a grimy green-brown foam.

Chase reached out to run touch the remnants of the Super-Serum. He realized, as he reached for it, that it was hardening as it cooled, taking on the appearance of some sort of horrific merangue. Just as he was about to make contact, the pain in his head flared to blinding and he stumbled back, landing in one of the hard plastic chairs.

“Whoa, you okay there, Chase?” Robert shok the Supr-Serum off his hand and stepped toward Chase.

“Yeah. Just a headache. I must have really banged my head when I fell,” Chase said, pressing one hand to his forehead and the other to the back of his skull. “A little dizzy, too…”

“It worked!” Adam bolted upright. “It…urh…oh…” He leaed to his right and threw up on the floor. “It worked!”

Robert kneeled down next to Adam on the side opposite the puke. “Adam! You okay, buddy?”

“Ok? Ok, Robert? I am magnificent! First, Lydia professes her love for me and now, now – my Super-Serum has worked!” Adam swatted Robert’s hand away and trundled to his feet under his own power. “I am Adamantium, the Ultimate Man.”

“First, Aztek was the Ultimate Man. Second, you can’t name yourself after an imaginary metal – no one will get it.” Chase dropped his hands from his head. “And third, you didn’t give yourself super-powers. Cancer, maybe. A bad suntan. But no super-powers.”

“You were caught in the blast, as well,” Adam said, ignoring the ridicule. “My co-worker, my friend,” Adam stepped to Chase and grasped his forearm, pulling him to his feet. “my brother!”

Chase shook his arm free of Adam’s grip. “Adam, seriously, we should go to the hospital or something. Man, what were you thinking, screwing with the microwave like that? Come on, let’s grab a cab and head to Northwestern, get checked out.”

“There is no need for that, chum,” Adam said, placing his fists firmly on his hips. “No doctor can cure us…of being awesome!”

“Maybe he’s having an episode or something,” Robert whispered to Chase.

“I am having no such thing,” Adam replied indifferently. “I am, for the first time in my life, truly alive!”

Chase sat back down in the plastic chair. “Doesn’t your head hurt,” he asked, going back to rubbing his own head. “There’s just this pounding in my head.”

Adam stopped his preening for a second. A look of deep concentration passed over his face, and then, “No. There is no pain anywhere in my body. Perhaps I am no longer capable of feeling pain.”

Chase sighed loudly. As he shifted in his seat, something poked hard into the small of his back. He craned around and looked down. He saw that there was a large chuck of the dry, hardened Super-Serum clinging to the bottom of the back of his tee-shirt. He pulled it off and tossed it toward the garbage can. He overshot it and the chunk hit the wall where it broke into several smaller pieces.

“Concentrate, Chase,” Adam said when Chase turned back around. His face was inches from Chase’s. “Think about fixing your headache. Make it disappear with the regenerative powers of the earthworm!”

Chase just shook his head. “Robert, any chance I can go home early? I could use the rest and I’m sure Adamant here can handle both our jobs.”

Robert waved Chase off. “Of course. Go home. You, too, Adam.”

“I will do no such thing, sir. I will remain here and assist you in the store. It is my duty and my honor.” Robert, too, shook his head at Adam. He turned back to Chase and said, “Get going. And if it runs out you can burst into flames or stretch across the room or something, call in and let me know you won’t be in tomorrow.”

“Sure thing,” Chase said and got to his feet. When he stood up, the headache started to lessen. “Hey, Adam,” Chase called, putting his fist out.

Adam smiled and looked at him quizically. Chase shook his fist a little. Adam laughed a little but was still clueless. Chase raised his eyebrows and shook his fist again. “What,” Adam asked, the giddy tone just barely holding in his voice.

“Hold out your fist,” Chase said. Adam tentatively raised his fist equal with Chase’s. Chase playfully bumped his knuckles int Adam’s. “Form of a bucket of water.”

Adam dropped his hand, the smile disappearing from his face. Chase looked him in the eye. “Too bad, I guess it didn’t work. Unless you want to try to take the form of a giant eagle.” Robert laughed a little, and Adam turned to glare at him, Chase put his hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Seriously, Adam – go to the doctor this afternoon. Get checked out. Better safe than sorry.” He patted Adam’s shoulder and pushed through the door into the front of the store.

Adam and Robert stood in silence until they heard the door bing, indicating Chase had left. “Adam,” Robert said, “are you sure you’re okay?”

“Right as rain, Robert,” Adam said, fists on his hips again.

“We’ll have to figure out how you’ll pay for the microwave.” The smile on Adam’s face didn’t waver an inch. Robert set about trying to clean the oven out now that the smoke had stopped.

“I’m a super-hero,” Adam said after a long pause.

Robert looked over his shoulder at Adam. “Adam, it was an accident. Your Super-Serum, whatever it was, probably caught fire and that blew out the microwave. That’s all. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. You could have been hurt.”

“It worked, Robert,” Adam said, matter of factly. “I am now a super-hero. And I have a sidekick, which is perfect, because I think that Chase could really use a positive influence in his life right now. Perhaps Lydia and I can take him in as our ward.”

Robert stopped cleaning and looked up at Adam. “You haven’t done one super thing since you woke up, Adam, so how in the world would you know if you were super or not?”

“Easy,” Adam replied. “Pick up that chunk of Super-Serum there,” he said, pointing to a largish chunk on the floor near the oven. Robert shrugged and picked it up.

“Now what?”

“Throw it at the wall, as hard as you can,” Adam said. Robert cocked an eyebrow at him. “Humor me, Robert.”

Robert pulled back his arm and hurled the piece at the far wall. It bounced off and landed halfway between Robert and the wall, unharmed. Robert looked at it and then at Adam. “Okay, so?”

Adam took a step forward and picked up the chunk. “The substance is hard, correct? You are a strong man, and it didn’t break when you threw it?”

Robert nodded, “Yes, it didn’t break.”

“And I,” Adam continued, “am far weaker than you, from past experience, am I not?”

“Yes, you are,” Robert agreed.
“Then how, dear sir, do you explain this,” Adam asked and, without waiting for an answer, tossed the chunk at the wall.

It exploded into a million little pieces.

Robert looked from the spot on the wall where the rock had struck to Adam’s smiling face and back. Adam stood, chest puffed out, smiling. Then, suddenly, the color drained from his face and he fell to the floor.