Two more newly created heroes make their appearances. Read their backstories

Winter. By Maggie Finson.

Okay, what had just happened to me?

I knew, intellectually, but viscerally it really hadn't sunk in yet.

It all started a week earlier, after the flap the being that called itself The Observer had revealed itself to the people of Earth. Saying that it was going to choose people to save us all from some kind of cataclysm that could destroy us.

“Albert Lewis Higgins.” A voice said from behind me, and I knew there wasn't anyone who had entered my rather shabby apartment. Which was all I could afford with the disability payments I was getting. Oh, I had money saved, but that had to last me for as long as I might manage to live and the medication, and oxygen I needed weren't cheap.

I jumped up, immediately regretting that because my breath started coming short gasps from the sudden activity. COPD is not fun, or really pretty and I had a pretty nasty case of it.

“What? Who...” I trailed off at that because I recognized who, or what was with me. The Observer.

“What do you want with me?” I asked, knowing from the broadcast earlier but not believing I had been one of the people chosen.

“You know, Al.” The being gently told me. “Someone has to try and save this world. I am not allowed to do that so must use others.”

“I can't save the world.” I shook my head.

“You have the potential to do just that.” The Observer answered. “All I ask of you right now is to think about it. I will return in a week for your answer. Think of the abilities you would use to help save this world. Think carefully, because if you accept, those will be yours. I will return in a week for your answer, and remember, time is short.”

Then it was gone. Just like that. One second I was looking at it, then next it was as if the visit had never happened. But it had, and I had some thinking to do.

What would I do if I accepted the offer, or job? I thought long and hard about that one, and if I was someone who could be trusted with that kind of power.

The idea thrilled me in one way. I'd always cared about people, and for them. Which led to be becoming a nurse so I could get more hands on with that kind of thing.

A lifetime of smoking, then a case of viral pneumonia had ended that. Now I couldn't walk across the room with getting out of breath and had been feeling very useless lately. Useless enough to think, off and on, of just ending it period. But I was stubborn and never really considered suicide as an acceptable option.

“But what would I be like if was handed that kind of power?” I wondered to myself. “Would I stop caring about people and things?”

To me, that would have been worse than dying.

Yet it also held out the chance to be useful again, to do something really worth doing.

Yes, I had a lot of thinking to do.

* * * *

I'd researched the 'end of the world' prophecies quite thoroughly, I mean I had plenty of time to do it.

Here I was, 59 years old and convinced that my life was over, but with a chance to actually do something important again.

My choice was made on the second day.

* * * *

“You have decided.” The observer was back, just as abruptly and startling as the first time.

I want to do something, but how do I do that” I asked.

“I am not permitted to tell you that, Al.” The being answered. “Tell me. Is it yes or no? If you weren't capable of the act, I would not have chosen you.”

The moment of truth was at hand. Was I really wanting to help people, or was I just being selfish and wanting my health back?

I made my decision and nodded. “Yes.”

I didn't even feel it. The transformation, and The Observer didn't even ask what I'd picked out for powers.

Once it was finished, the creature was gone. But I could breathe!

I gloried in that for a few moments then noticed my chest as I was just enjoying the ability to breathe without a struggle again and not feeling tired as I had for the past year or so.

Oh, shit.

I was a woman.

I hadn't expected that.

----------------------------------------------------------

Aura. By Erin Halfelven

I'd heard the announcement from The Meddler, like I guess everyone else had, but somehow I never expected to get a personal visit.

It was in the early morning hours while I was making my rounds of the bakeries where I could sometimes pick up a hot, fresh muffin or even a loaf of bread from some kind soul. The loaf might be day-old or older but it would still be good enough for me and my friends in the Jungle.

That's what we call the small patch of bushes under the freeway overpass where my friends and I hang out. It keeps us hidden and as long as no one sees us, no one complains and we get to stay there. Los Angeles has a few busybody cops who would come in and hassle us if they knew we were there but the Jungle doesn't look as big as it really is.

So I was on my way back home with a paper bag full of bakery and a plastic one where I had salvaged some fruit juice boxes one of the fast food places had tossed out when The Meddler appeared right in front of me. I was taking the short way down, next to the bridge upright, which doesn't even look like a path. It's steep and you need to pay attention to where you put your feet since there are roots to tangle your feet, soft places you can sink into and loose places where you can slide.

"Tommy Golden," said the alien.

"Gah!" I said and threw the bag of juice boxes at it. They missed somehow and landed in the bushes below me.

"Do not be frightened," it said.

"All right for you to say," I complained. "No one who looks like an eight-foot frankenstein cockroach in a day-glo green tuxedo just ambushed you!"

"Do not be frightened because you have been chosen to become one of the Earth's Protectors."

"You've got to be kidding me!" I said. "Get out of my way." I started down, intending to walk right into or through the thing. I thought it was probably just a mental image anyway; how else could it have appeared to everyone all at once and not be caught on any cell phone cameras?

Somehow, I got past the ghastly thing without getting any slime on me or even feeling like I had touched it. I wasn't sure how that had worked, it hadn't seemed to move or get out of the path but there I was below it and getting my bag of juice boxes back.

"Tommy Golden," it said again.

"Okay, okay. I heard you the first time. You know my name and I am one of the chosen. Big whoop! If any of these juice boxes are broken, I'll have the Gorch breathe on you, huh? How would you like that? If you know my name, you know who the Gorch is, too. He's a sixty-year-old vet with rotten teeth and a bad digestion and his breath is so nasty it will take the grafitti right off a railroad car. Why didn't you pick him to be an Avenger or Legionnaire, huh? He's already got a super power."

The Meddler from Outer Space didn't seem to be paying attention. It repeated itself. "You have been chosen to become one of Earth's Protectors but you have to choose to do so."

"Yeah?" I said, checking each of the juice boxes. I wasn't kidding about the Gorch's breath; it was Godzilla class. "What does this job pay?"

The big bug ignored me again, I guess it knew with its mental powers that I was just yanking its chain.

"If you have serious questions, I can answer only a few. I can give you enough power to save your world from destruction, there is less than a full year of your time to do this in. During that time, you must learn to use your power and connect up with the others who have been chosen, but I cannot tell you who they are or what they can do. You will have to find out on your own."

"Mmph. Red tape operation obviously," I said. "Okay, assuming I accept this job, just what will I be able to do to prevent the Earth from being toast?"

"You must decide which abilities you think are needed, then ask. If your request is within the parameters that I can grant, I will do so."

My jaw almost dropped. That had kind of been implied in the earlier message everyone got but this was like something out of a comic book, for sure. "Shazam!" I said.

"I know who you speak of, and while I could not grant quite that level of power, I could come close."

I shook my head. Somebody else made this offer would already have picked The Big Red Cheese or the Blue Boy Scout; if that kind of power would help, it would be available. This whole thing reminded me of someone else, too.

I stalled while I thought about things. "Why me? I'm just a street kid, an orphan boy. I don't even know if my name is really Tommy Golden. I won't even be a teenager for another six weeks. My mom died when I was nine and I never knew my father. Why pick me?"

"There are reasons. Not the least of which is that you have already willingly become provider and protector for others even though you are still a child."

I snorted. "And how am I going to be accepted in this team you are building? Huh? Are all the others going to be kids, too?"

"I can't tell you much about them, you will have to find that out. But no, not all of them will be children." The big --thing!-- didn't really have a face I could read and while the voice I heard wasn't mechanical or anything, it didn't carry any emotion I could grab onto either.

For some reason, I started to cry. It waited me out. When I stopped crying, I wiped my eyes. "Do you know how my mom died?" I asked. The alien may have nodded.

I went on anyway. "She was a stripper. And sometimes she had dates and sometimes those dates paid her to be nice. It's how she made the rent money and kept us fed and clothes to wear and books to read. But one of those dates she went on with a girlfriend -- the guys took her and her friend someplace where other people did things to them.

The cops found her. Her friend was dead with her throat cut. There were two dead men, too. One of them with his belly cut, and one had his throat stomped on and Mom had a bullet in her back. She'd been shot and left to bleed to death!"

I cried again. "The cops took her to the hospital. They charged her with murder! She died without ever waking up. I think she died a hero. And if she could do it, so can I!"

I wasn't crying anymore, I was mad. "I want to be a grown-up like my mom! I want to be able to protect myself and other people, too. I'll take your job, you damned big cricket or whatever you are!"

I had more to say and when I finished, the bugman from outta nowhere simply disappeared.

I hadn't expected that and I looked around like crazy to see where it had gone. I would have kept looking but my clothes suddenly felt wrong, too tight across the chest and butt. They weren't much but they were the only clothes I owned at the moment. I felt the seat of the jeans ripping just as I looked down and realized; the Meddler had taken me literally when I said I wanted to be just like my mom -- 34G tits and all!

"Oh, man!" I whined. My voice didn't sound too much different, a little deeper maybe. "You should never trust an alien genie!"

There's still more to come! Don't miss even one exciting episode, as rookie Heroes try to save the whole world! Pressure much?

From Catherine Linda Michel: To the readers. Comments are the only payment the writers here get for their hard work. Please, please, PLEASE... comment. There are 6 writers contributing their talents and hard work to this epic adventure. Let them all know what you think of their efforts. Thank you.