Thursday, June 5, 2008
Mature theme, parental discretion is advised.

“Oh, Jack!”

Jack Simon, known as the hero Powerhouse Jack, woke up sweating, his sheets now stained. “What the hell…” He hadn’t had a dream like that in years. Now this Elaine, and some other women, awoke such power and passion in him again that he felt like a giddy schoolkid on his first date all over again.

One good thing about Lodestar: Jack hardly knew he was there. Lodestar hardly ever talked, except to guide him into being silent or sounding profound. Sometimes Lodestar spoke for him, but that was when he was nervous – like when he proposed to his wife or had to sometimes make a speech in front of people.

He got up out of his spacious queen sized bed and looked around the darkened room. He didn’t want to tell Elaine the truth, how he had prostituted himself anywhere and everywhere for the Hero Corps, so that he wasn’t only a simple stevedore, but a super-powered stopper-of-trains or carrier-of-heavy-equipment. He had retired after the first Rikti war, after seeing the animosity of many new heroes and the near eternal back-biting of some Peacebringers. Lodestar was known for being neutral – sometimes his host was known for being undiplomatic.

Eighty-one years, he thought, even though he looked much younger. Once Lodestar left him, he’d turn into the ancient old man that he was, and all his systems would fail. He would die.

He wanted one more time out in the world, to help citizens, to fight crime, to bring honor and glory back to heroing. No more listening to the politics of the Kheldians; he would do what he did best, beat things, lift, carry, and support.

But first, he had to change the sheets.

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