The Golden Age: We Used To Fly
(Prologue to The Golden Age)
By
Christopher O’Kennon
The Golden Age: We Used to Fly
Christopher O’Kennon
Copyright 2006 by Christopher O’Kennon
The people, events, and places in this book are a work of fiction or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to persons, events, or places living or dead is purely coincidental. This book may not be copied or distributed without permission.
Note to the Reader:
The Golden Age is a serialized novel, so please let me know if you enjoy it, or if you have any suggestions to make it better. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy it.
Christopher O’Kennon
[email protected] 12/2/2013
Prologue
My son says the same thing every night as I put him to bed. It’s our little mantra before sleep comes to claim us both.
“I wish people had super powers.”
I smile the same smile, as always, and lean over and kiss his forehead. “Like what?”
“Like super strength, or flying, or a magic ring.”
My son is eight years old, and even though his world has changed a lot since his mother died, it is still composed of pretty basic constructs. There’s good, and there’s evil. Right and wrong. Strong and weak.
Normally I follow up with, “I’m afraid the world isn’t like that.” He pouts a bit, not really serious, and goes to sleep.
Tonight, though, I surprised myself by asking, “Why?”
“So good people can win.”
“So good people can win…” I repeated. Good people. I could feel my shoulders slump and the energy start to drain from me like lukewarm syrup. Instead of tucking my son into bed and leaving to begin work on a new bottle of Jim Bean, I pulled up one of his small chairs and sat close to his bed. He perched up on one elbow, watching me.
“Some people did have super powers,” I said, and watched his eyes grow wide.
“Really?” he asked with that complete acceptance that only children can pull off. He was prepared to believe or not believe based solely on what I said next.
“Yes. Not a lot of people, but some.”
“Did they do wonderful things?”
“Some did. Some didn’t.” I rubbed my eyes. Might as well go all the way, I thought. He wouldn’t sleep until I did, and something inside me cried to tell the tale.
“Let me tell you a story. You just lay back and listen. Okay?”
He nodded rapidly.
“Once, not that long ago, there were people with special gifts. They were rare, like a four-leaf clover or maybe a perfect soufflé. Some had super strength, some had the ability to fly, and some could do other amazing things. At first they were shy about revealing themselves. They did good deeds only when they felt they could do so without being seen. Then they created secret identities so they could help people without worrying about being traced back to their homes. It was the golden age of civilized man. We had never been so safe.
“But not all of the supers were good. As with any group of people, there were just some that turned out to be bad apples. There was one bad super who was worse than all the others. He called himself Statesman, although I have no idea why. Maybe it was his idea of irony. No one was exactly sure what his power was. Some said it was the ability to persuade people. Some said it was his super intellect. I think it was both. He knew he couldn’t compete in a physical fight with the good guys. They would have mopped up the street with him.
“So he came up with a plan. It was really a pretty good plan, as such things go. He ran for public office.”
“Daddy, what’s a ‘public office?’”
I thought for a bit. Sometimes it’s not easy to explain things to a child. They simply lack the experience or frame of reference. “Well, sweetie, there was a time when people voted for other people to help them run things. They got together and picked someone whom they thought would be able to make decisions in their place. When someone wanted one of those positions, it was called ‘running for public office.’ But there was really no running involved, it was just one person trying to convince everyone that he was better at the job than anyone else.” I wasn’t sure if he understood, but I went on anyway. “We don’t do it that way anymore. We have a much more…efficient method now.”
I adjusted my position in the small chair. “Statesman was one smooth operator. He managed to act like he agreed with everyone’s position, even when they were completely opposite from each other, and went on to win the election and become a Congressman – that’s one of the names they gave people in ‘public office.’ Once he was a Congressman, he could pretend everything he did was perfectly legal and in the public’s interest. He hired some expensive people to help him get his message out, and that message was that people with super powers were dangerous. That they caused more problems than they solved. That they needed to be regulated. That they should stop hiding behind masks and step forward into the light.
“Some people agreed with him. Many didn’t. Then came the Battle of Washington.”
“Oh, I learned about that in school!”
“Really? What did you learn?”
“That was when the British Terrorist cell attacked Washington with their robots to take control from the Emperor.”
“Yes, well if that’s what they teach you in school, who am I to say otherwise? But according to the way I heard it, it wasn’t the British. And the Emperor was still a Congressman at the time. It was Statesman’s robots that attacked, along with several of the other bad supers that he had recruited. I don’t know what they thought their goal was, or what Statesman told them their goal was, but I think Statesman’s plan was to start a huge fight among supers. And that’s what happened. The League of Protectors were the first to respond when those giant robots started stomping through downtown DC, destroying everything in their path. The Golden Guardian led them. He had a suit that was created from magical gold, and he had all sorts of powers. Lady Red, the Silver Cyclone, Shadow Woman, and the Emerald Avenger were behind him as they rained down on the robots and the bad supers. Dark Justice and Flame joined soon after. It was incredible. A true battle between good and evil. It lasted two days.
“And when it was all over, Washington was a smoking pit. When it finally became clear to the bad supers that they were going to lose, they had the remaining giant robots self-destruct. I think Statesman had always planned for the robots to explode, which is why they did as much damage as they did. Each one was a walking nuclear bomb. Flame lost his life in the blast, and Silver Cyclone was severely injured, and never fully recovered. It was horrible.”
I could still see the devastation. Blackened and crushed piles that had once been buildings, streets torn apart like they had been made of paper, and the remains of bodies everywhere. Everywhere. Nothing survived. What the robots hadn’t torn apart, the explosions did.
“Statesman blamed super powers for the devastation, and people were so shocked by grief, that they listened to him. After all, both the good guys and the bad guys had super powers. The robots, they figured, were only there because the supers were there, instead of the other way around. So the people and the government backed Congressman Statesman when he passed bill after bill designed to keep us safe. A bill making vigilantism a terrorist act, enforced by Homeland Security. A bill allowing the government to spy on its own people in order to track down supers. Hiding
your identity in any way was a crime. Losing a few freedoms was a small price to pay for safety, and once the ‘super menace’ was taken care of, those freedoms would certainly be returned. How quickly people forget the lessons of the past. Once lost, rights are rarely returned.
“Things went downhill fast from there. Lady Red was furious. She went underground and began hunting the remaining bad supers. I guess she hoped that if she could bring the real villains to justice, it would redeem the good guy. But her methods became vicious and extreme, and the trail of bodies she left did nothing to help her cause. The Emerald Avenger left earth in disgust. Can’t say I blame him. Shadow Woman was killed resisting arrest. The Golden Guardian turned himself in, and was deputized by the government to help track down the remaining supers.”
“Did he really help find the other supers?” My son could hardly believe it. It made me sick to my stomach to hear the horror in his voice. To think that a good guy would help the bad guys. It reminded me again how naïve a child could be. To think there could still be “good guys.”
“I don’t think he had much choice. The government had discovered his identity, and found out he had a family. They threatened to arrest them all if he didn’t help. That was the weakness Statesman was able to exploit. The good guys often had families, friends, and loved ones. When you love someone it can