Chapter Sixteen: The Super-Hero Club
Brande Industries, the holding company of Brande Planetforming, incorporated its non-profit philanthropic subsidiary, The Super-Hero Club, on Weber’s World itself. It was technically chartered under U.P. law as a “friendship society”, under the right of free association. This allowed complete freedom in determining membership, while retaining tax-free status.
There were few in attendance at the time: Brande was not yet quite as attuned to the values of positive publicity unrelated to his core businesses as he would be in his later years. There were representatives of the Capitol itself, R.J. Brande and his executive assistant, Manden Apo of Korugar; the family of Leeta-87, and Nimbok’s parents. Few Vasmiri ever left their homeworld, so Mog Yagor and Hate-Face were alone together.
R.J. had had a “Super-Hero Clubhouse” constructed by renovating an existing building, and the Mission Monitor Board was installed in the Common Room.
Under the double yellow sun of Weber’s World, Nimbok’s powers were greatly increased. He could fly in space unaided, was invulnerable to nearly any attack, his strength and speed grew to nearly immeasurable levels. He developed further enhanced senses, as well as lightning vision, flame breath, flash vision and psychoglaciation abilities as well.
Hate-Face was another surprise. First, it must be said that to untrained eyes, his appearance was similar to any other Draxletian. He had the same scarlet complexion, bat-like ears, glowing red eyes, the same horn-like spines on the forehead and chin, the same acne-riddled complexion. To Draxletians, he was an abomination; to us aliens, he was merely a curiosity. It may have something to do with the so-called “uncanny valley” hypothesis.
There is another hypothesis that Hate-Face absorbed emotional energy, and somehow metabolized it into kinetic energy, and that the anger, hatred and revulsion of his own people was a reaction to his powers. But as a member of the Super-Hero Club, isolated from Draxler, his powers only increased. The strange, gelatin-like red energy became more solid; he began to be able to produce sharp-edged and long-lasting energy-constructs. He found it easier to move objects through space, and had finer control.
As we grew to know him, we found Dvesha an engaging personality. He was humble, kind-hearted, and empathetic. I know of only a single instance of his becoming angry, and that was in the midst of a great tragedy. He was always reasonable, yet had strong personal moral code, from which he would not depart. Because he had spent a great deal of his time alone, he was well-read in the literature of many worlds. He was especially interested in philosophy. For example, he had great respect for the Terran concepts of Satyagraha and Ubuntu.
The Clubhouse- soon to be known as SHCHQ- had two dozen dormitories. Brande expected expansion. There was a special water-filled dorm for Mog Yagor, with a corridor that led to a wall-aquarium in the common room.
Although able to survive in an atmosphere, and, indeed, in deep space, Mog always felt more at home underwater when off-duty. Still, it was unnerving to see him use his psychic abilities to phase through the transparent wall of the aquarium and float into the common room.
Brande had provided the Club with space-faring vessels, both large ships and runabouts. However, as Nimbok, Hate-Face and Mog Yagor were capable of independent space-flight themselves, and Leeta-87 had her own ship, these were seldom used. The same is true of the Ranagarian flight-belts. For distant interplanetary travel, we had access to the Ranagarian Zeta-Beam technology.
There was an interesting mix of ages. Leeta-87 and Hate-Face were young adults, no more than ten years younger than myself. Mog Yagor was of the same level of maturity, but Nimbok was barely into his teens. He tended to be rash and over-enthusiastic, and more than once I was grateful for his near-invulnerability.
Leeta was both impressive, and, sometimes, frightening. She had a personal storage tessaract in which she kept three thousand years’ worth of crime-fighting technology, including some formidable weapons. When the SHC faced off against the Callisto Eight, Leeta took down both Daximus and the Cybernaut (who together might have had enough power to break her force shields) with a single blast from a weapon about the size of a communicator she called the Hypermagnetic Pulse, instantly shutting down both their nervous systems. She didn’t even need to aim the thing.
She was unquestionably brilliant, and her intellect was both broad and deep. She was equally at home discussing tactics, technology, poetry, philosophy, or gastronomy. I admit to having something of a crush initially, but being intimidated by her as well.