When Lightning Strikes! by Lynceus All around the world, metahumans appear, some with frightening powers. In the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, Japan, two of these powers are about to clash!

A Tale of the Comics Retcon Universe, and a first look at other parts of it's world.

My name is Ayumi Reizei, and this is my story. Except that my story doesn't start with me. Instead, it starts with a young Otaku and would-be manga-ka named Kyou Haimura. You see, I used to be him.

Sort of.

It's kind of complicated, so I'll start at the beginning. Kyou was, as I said, an Otaku. Unlike the typical stereotype of the overweight salariman, Kyou was handsome. Too handsome, really. His mother had been an idol singer, who gave up her career when she became pregnant. The identity of Kyou's father was never revealed, but she did eventually marry her manager.

Kyou had inherited his mother's delicate features, dark eyes, and long lashes, giving him a somewhat feminine appearance. He got teased about it a lot, but Kyou was a gentle boy, very kind, and so he was popular. Especially with the girls, who called him “Bishonen”. Basically, it's Japanese for “pretty boy”.

Now Kyou had some real talent as an artist, and he drew his own manga (Japanese comics), but he had a fascination for Western manga as well. He would often order older American comics online. I think it all really started when he discovered The Legion of Superheroes. He'd ordered a mixed collection of comics that were missing their covers, thus making them practically worthless, and it was in these he discovered The Legion.

I won't go into too much detail, suffice to say that the series had been around for a long while. It featured a lot of different characters, with the main heroes being teenagers living in an advanced, futuristic society, each blessed with a different super-ability.

I couldn't tell you what caused Kyou to latch onto Ayla Ranzz. The younger sister of one of the Legion's founding members, Ayla was originally known as Lightning Lass, wielding the power to generate electricity.

Then, later in her career, her powers were changed to a form of density control, and she became Light Lass. Later versions would alternate between powers of electrokinesis and gravity control. Pay attention, this will be important later!

Kyou soon began to design his own heroine, a sort of Japanese Lightning Lass. Of course, Ayla Ranzz isn't a Japanese name, so he settled on Ayumi Reizei. Yeah, you can see where this is going. Ayumi was only half-Japanese, however. Like a lot of manga characters, he wanted to give her a vaguely Western look, with auburn hair and light brown eyes. And of course, she was pretty. Like a lot of new authors, he basically created her to be a surrogate of himself in his stories. As much as I hate to admit it, she was what American writers would call a 'Mary Sue'. She was pretty, smart, athletic, mature for her age, and pretty much perfect in every way. And she had superpowers, able to control and generate electricity, warp gravity around her..and she was super-strong, to boot.

You'd think someone who could make an object weigh next to nothing wouldn't need to be really strong, but Kyou had a fascination with strong females. Of course, being Little Miss Perfect, Ayumi's feminine grace wasn't marred by noticeable muscles.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my body, and my powers. It's just that I literally began life as a two-dimensional character. And people really do get put off a bit by someone who seems flawless in every way.

I mean, nowhere on my body is there a single blemish or imperfection, I was literally created to be a fantasy girl, who has no real business living in the real world. Every time I look at myself in the mirror, I'm reminded of my origins. Unlike Kyou's fantasy girl, I do have flaws, you just can't see them.

My biggest, I think, is that I don't feel real. Like at any time, I could simply cease to exist, and no one would ever remember me. It's a frightening thing for me, but even if that is my fate, I try to live as much as I can, with the time I have.

So how did I come to be?

-

A noted Japanese scientist came to this conclusion about metahumans. “The Meta-human is like a butterfly. They begin as a larva, a human just like you or I. But in response to their environment, they metamorphose into a new form. What form they take can vary wildly, but it is my belief that they are inspired by their environment.”

You have to understand that the existence of metahumans has had a tremendous impact on the Japanese psyche. Traditional values are strong in our society, but at the same time, there is a counterculture that embraces Western values and new ideas. Traditionally held views of how one should live their life are constantly challenged by the youth of our country.

Even our concepts of gender identity are under attack, as some embrace androgyny or same-sex relationships. Like in all things, it was the authors who saw this coming, and you can see the indicators in manga, for example, going back decades.

But there's still a sharp divide. Now add to this smoldering fire the idea that some people can develop great powers, change their appearance, and even their gender, all due to something we can barely predict, nor can we stop. There's a reason I'm both famous and infamous in my own country.

Remember what I said about metahumans being inspired by their environment?

Back it the 80's, a noted manga-ka created a look at a dystopian future world, dominated by new Gods, given powers by secret government experiments. It eventually became a landmark anime, that, despite it's byzantine, confusing plotline, featured incredible animation and imagery.

This actually became the trend for anime exported to the West for many years. Eye candy with plotlines so complex that no two people, not even the creators, really agreed on what was going on. But damn, did it look cool!

Why is this important? Because one day, while on a class trip to Shinjuku, I saw the impossible.

A young man with wild black hair, wearing a red cloak, hovering over the city. The resemblance to Tetsuo Shima was uncanny. Who is Tetsuo? Well, in Akira, he's a young delinquent who has immense, but uncontrollable power bestowed upon him. He basically declares himself God, and goes on a rampage.

No one ever found out who he (or she) really was. The metahuman, that is, not the manga character. I can only imagine the kind of torment that would cause someone to evolve into a psychopathic deity. He called himself 'Shin'. That's probably a clue, unfortunately, the name can be written in several different ways, and he never bothered to write it down for us.

Did he name himself for belief? Progress? I'll never know. Shin was my first victory. My triumph. And my failure.

-

I wasn't myself then, not yet. I was still Kyou. I saw glass shatter, raining down from the sky like daggers from Heaven. I saw buildings topple, and the Civil Defense Force rendered helpless by one young man.

But Kyou died a hero, I can guarantee that. He saw a young girl about to be struck by falling debris, and without a second thought, he shoved her out of the way. Only to be impaled in the back, his spine broken in two.

And as his sight grew dim, a piece of paper drifted down and landed in front of him. His drawing of Ayumi.

-

They say the skies darkened, and a bolt of lightning struck the ground. I yelled out my birth cry, and then...I was. I was confused for a few moments, because I had two sets of memories. The memories of my adventures in Kyou's stories...and the memories of his life. Which was I?

Looking down at my body, I was definitely Ayum, right down to my school uniform, which Kyou had designed himself. I raised my hand, and watched as sparks played along my fingers. There was nothing left of Kyou.

Somehow, he had turned himself...into me.

My confusion was quickly dispelled, however. There was still a madman flying overhead. And I realized, I was the only one who could stop him.

I know what you're going to say. “Wait, what about Jade?”

This was in the early days after her famous broadcast. She'd only discovered a few others like her, and it's a big planet, with a lot of problems. Volcanoes, Norse Gods, Feminist Revolutionaries, it's hard work being a hero!

So right then, it really was, just me. I took flight for the first time, a wave of gravity-displaced air visible beneath me. It's a strange feeling. I knew how to fly, taking to the air as it born to it. But I'd never flown before, and I knew it!

Shin didn't notice me at first; my flight doesn't make the same sound as aircraft. It's sort of a rumbling noise, like distant thunder. I'm incredibly fast, but I have to be careful; I really can't change direction in mid-flight. I have to stop (thankfully, I can stop on a dime, and hover in place) and pick a new direction to fly in.

“Hey, spikey-hair!” (I'm going to just translate our conversation for you, it's easier that way, I think. It's funny, Kyou didn't know much English, but I was 'born' fully fluent in the language).

He turned and I swear his eyes bugged out. “Who the hell are you? I'm the only God on this Earth!”

“Good thing we're above Earth then, huh?” I know, cute, huh? Blame Kyou, he made me this way!

“Insufferable girl!” He swept his arm in a wide arc, and suddenly I felt like I'd been rammed by a speeding truck, and I went flying backwards!

I couldn't halt my momentum at first, not until I was a good distance away from him. And then, it was as if his power faded like a mist. Right, he has a maximum range. I'll have to be careful!

I rocketed past him, confident that he couldn't use his telekinesis on me in mid-flight. As he whirled to face me, I charged up and blasted him with my lightning! My muscles, you see, can generate electricity like some eels do. Although I can also draw electricity out from my surroundings.

To my amazement, the lighting was deflected by some kind of invisible sphere. He could generate a force field!

“Not bad, what do they call you?” He grabbed me with his will, and sent me flying into a building.

That's when I discovered his other limitation; once I couldn't see him anymore, I could halt my flight once again. Line of sight!

I fired a blast of electricity at him from out a window, quickly ducking out of view. “I..am The Lightning!”

I thought I was pretty slick, but he simply ripped away the wall with his telekinesis, and then sent the debris at me in a wave of rubble!

“That's a stupid name! You can call me Shin, before you die!”

I sent a wave of intense gravity forward, which struck the steel and glass hurtling towards me. Our powers collided, and the wreckage slowed. But it didn't halt; Shin could move immense weight with his powers!

“Why are you doing this?!” I took advantage of the situation to fly out of the building.

“Why? Why not? This world hates me! Everyone does! So why not destroy it all?!”

“It doesn't have to be this way! I don't hate you, I just want you to stop hurting people!”

He looked at me, and I'll remember that sad expression on his face for as long as I live. “It's too late for that.” Like some kind of cosmic vortex, anything that wasn't tied down began to float towards him, forming an immense sphere of matter. “I'm going to destroy this city, and you can't stop it!”

He flew upwards then, and I realized what he was planning to do. He would rain down death from above, subjecting the city to the equivalent of a meteor shower! I flew after him, but I need to breathe, while his force field would let him keep some air. Long enough to do what he had to.

We flew high up into the sky, above the clouds, the cold air freezing against my skin. Yeah, school uniform with a short skirt. Lets me show off my legs, but it's not very practical. But there's a lot of energy up here, and I pulled it to me. Soon lightning danced all around my body, and I was no longer cold.

I wanted to beg him to stop, but there was no way he could hear me. It was getting hard to breathe; if I wanted to save the city, I had to stop him now. “Forgive me.”

They say the flash was visible for a thousand miles. I sent everything I had at Shin. And then I blacked out from lack of oxygen.

-

I fell from the sky and landed in Tokyo Bay. A fall like that should have killed me, even though I'm much tougher than a human girl. Perhaps some kami took pity on me, or maybe I somehow activated my gravity powers to slow my descent.

Sometimes, in my dreams, I imagine Shin used his powers to save me. Even as I killed him. I always wake up covered in cold sweat after those dreams.

They pulled me out of the harbor, and I was declared a national hero. I had saved the city. But the cost was high. Many were dead, or injured. The names of the deceased were aired on national television.

And on that list was Kyou Haimura.

-

I don't know if you can really grasp my position at that moment. The Japanese government had declared me a hero, and wanted to obtain my services to defend the country. The person who had created me, given birth to me with his powers, was dead. I had no family. My own mother wouldn't know me. Kyou's mother, that is.

The memories of my life as Ayumi were complete fiction. My brothers, my best friend (and lover) Saya, didn't even exist. She'd just been a character Kyou had created, based on Salu, the Shrinking Violet.

I was truly alone. A girl without a past or a place to go. I told the government officials I'd be in contact with them. And I flew away, tears in my eyes. Why did I exist? What purpose did I have?

In his fantasy, Kyou had made me a hero. But heroes don't kill. I found an isolated speck of land, far from civilization, and I landed there. I wept for a long time, not knowing who I was, or where to go.

And then I saw a green light in the sky. I looked up, and I saw Jade for the first time.

-

I'm sorry. I can't talk about that right now. What happened between us was...personal. I wasn't ready to hear all the things Jade had to say. And when she made me the offer to become one of Earth's heroes, I had to decline. I needed to do something first.

The government gave me a new identity, and I vowed to do what I could to protect the nation. I was an instant celebrity, hailed as “Japan's superhero!”. Of course, that meant it was impossible for me to go anywhere without being noticed.

As a media sensation, everyone wanted to cash in on my image. And, well, I needed the money. Sure, I could have become a full-time government employee, but I didn't want to end up being some kind of soldier. I preferred having an agreement with my government.

So I sold myself. God, that makes me sound like a prostitute. And maybe I am, in a way. Soon I was everywhere. I had my own manga (the irony did not escape me) and they're talking about an anime series. Completely fabricated, of course.

My memories may be false, but they're all I have.

One of the advantages of my new identity is that I'm legally considered an adult. Not bad for someone who was only born a short time ago! So I was able to use the money from my deals to purchase my own home. Of course, I had to deal with the problems of popularity; photographers and my 'fans' are constantly hanging around outside.

I really needed one of those secret identity things. But somehow, I doubted changing my hairstyle and putting on glasses would work for me as well as it does for Superman. Maybe I should have taken Jade's offer. But I can't, not until I really do feel like a hero.

Like a real person, and not some dream girl.

I purchased a grave, and had it marked with the kanji for “Shin”. Like I said, I don't know how he spelled his name, but I know how I spell it. Every day I go to his grave and light incense, hoping that the next time I have to fight, I can save everyone.

To me, Shin means “Humility”.