Now we take our journey back a decade into outer space, to pry on some grandfather granddaughter bonding time.
"Look Gramps! Look!"
The little blonde does a flip, it's zero gravity...but hey...how are they able to talk in space?
"Ultraxines don't obey the laws of the universe like other life forms do, they can emit their own soundwaves."
That sounds made up. That's because it is. Ultraxines are lifeforms built around belief. The stronger their willpower, the stronger their belief, the stronger they reject the laws of the universe.
However they do have a weakness.
"Uh...Gramps...HELP!"
They still think like humans. Sometimes they underestimate themselves too much.
"You got this kiddo."
The little girl drifts into space. Helpless & alone. She looks as the earth & moon are getting smaller & smaller. Her hope of returning back drifting away with her belief in her powers, as long as it made sense in their self-identity it was true, however she still didn't know she was strong enough yet.
"HOW DO I GET BACK?!"
"BELIEVE KIDDO! BELIEVE YOU CAN!"
"I'M BELIEVING THE BEST I CAN!"
She was in fact not believing, and only concentrating on the fact that everything was slowly becoming empty space, even her voice began to shrivel away as if she were human. She began to freeze up, her body slowly turning to ice. She was hopeless and alone, her tears turning into icicles.
Then in the darkness she saw a light, it was the sun! She could feel its rays hit her as it shone past the earth's edge. She began to feel her limbs through the numbness. The ice began to melt. She was believing the sun was warming her up. But indeed she was warming herself up with this lie of the mind.
You see the brain cannot tell the difference between reality & the mind, and for Ultraxines, their very existence cannot tell the difference, they walk on the edge of godhood & manhood. They were only limited to their own narrative of the universe. Truly the species for the making of the worlds greatest heroes.
"I...believe...I BELIEVE!"
She shot herself back to her grandfathers arms, in tears. Punching & kicking him.
"I HATE YOU! You old baldie! Idiot! Moron! Mouth breather!"
"Oh Verity...you're okay! See you made it just like I sai-"
Before he could finish, Verity charges up a punch, Ultraxines can change the density of their body & effectively strengthen it with, you guessed it, sheer willpower & belief, by manipulating her power into her fist, compacting its atoms & shrinking the space between her fist's molecules, increasing mass per unit volume, making her fists infinitely heavier without growing in size.
A human fist weighs ~1kg. Compressed to lets say uranium density, it would weigh ~20kg.
Compressed to neutron star density, it would weigh billions of tons — while still being the same size.
A punch from that? Apocalyptic. But if Verity so willed it & believed she could, her Ultraxine might would allow it to be.
Ultragramps goes flying. His eyes bulging out and his dentures flying out. Looks like Ultraxines can't escape old age though.
"Oh no! GRAMPS!"
Luckily he crashes on the moon. She zips towards him leaving behind her first sonic boom. She might've destroyed a few satellites.
"Cool! -Wait! Not cool! GRAMPS!"
"Verity! I'm...cough cough okay. For the most part."
He was in fact not okay. His age was deteriorating his mind, which means his powers were dwindling too, but that isn't why he was sent flying, Verity overshot her strength with a surge of mixed anger & new found belief in herself.
"I'm so sorry gramps! I didn't know what I was doing! What if I hurt someone too hard by accident like today?! I could accidently kill a villain when I'm just trying to stop him! What if I accidently destroy an orphanage or hospital when trying to punch a villain?! What if-"
"You have a bad habit of overthinking kiddo. Look at the view & forget about your worries."
Ultragramps turns her head towards the earth, in all its glory from the view on the moon. Quite possibly the greatest thing she has ever seen.
"This is quite possibly the greatest thing I have ever seen. Other then myself of course."
"Oh are you sure it isn't me."
Ultragramps smiles realizing he's lost his dentures. Ultragirl zips and fetches it.
"Eww gross! How are you the greatest hero in the world & you can't even keep your teeth on straight?!"
"You know, I think you might be faster then your mother when she was your age."
"Really?! They say she was the fastest hero to ever live period! I want to be just like her when I'm already!"
"You're already just like her kiddo, now you just gotta grow up and shine even brighter!"
"Watch out world! Calling all VILLAINS! You will face my wrath one day! You will remember the name for all of time! ULTRAGIRL! mimics crowd ULTRAGIRL! ULTRAGIRL!"
"Just don't forget this is your home kiddo. Never forget that, these are your people, you must protect everyone, even villains."
"Why villains? They are the ones who put everyone in danger!"
"Everyone deserves a second chance, or else it would be such a cruel world!"
"Pfft. I think forgiving villains are the reason they never stop coming! We should throw them all into space!"
"Then we are just as bad as them, we are taking mother earth's children away from her. Even if they are harming her, no mother wants their children to be taken away from them."
"But villains took away MY mother! So I'll take them away from theres!"
"Revenge isn't the answer kiddo. Love is. Learn to love all, and you will never need to worry about anything again."
"Love? LOVE?! I could never love a villain. YUCK! Never in a million trillion QUADRILLION years!"
…
Fast forward a decade to the present, after Ignitro funeral. Ultragirl & her team of young heroes are walking from the funeral, Volter (The Red Electric Speedster Boy) his spikey red hair drooping in the rain, his covered in his static emitting tears , Ignitro was his idol, he was his biggest fan, he became a hero to one day become his sidekick.
"Damn these villains! I'll kill them all. They will pay for this."
Esper the purple bob cut psychic girl, Verity's best friend, and sarcastic queen.
"Oh you poor thing. Yes let's go bust into their base & kill them all right now!"
"YES! Let's go! Bionic you in bro?"
Bionic was literally an A.I in a humanoid robot body pretending to be a human, he believed the others could not tell due to his human like face but his behaviour was way too obvious & despite his many massive neural network he still missed the characteristic flaws that make up a human personality.
"Apologies, Volter bro. The SUCCESSORS youth hero squad hero rankings are below the D grading in comparison to pro scale. Killing all VILE Villains' incompatible with our current parameters, this would require we utilize at least 257% of our current ability, the only one with any chance really is Ultragirl."
"Look guys, we need to train before we go hunt the guys who did this, plus the Villain King is dead too, they're going to prepare for a war just as we will. We need to be better than them."
A man in a suit takes one sip from his flask as he waltzes in with his duck tie & drunken funeral attire, he has braids & a sensei like smirk as if he were proud of his students burst of motivation.
"That's the spirit! The 2nd Generation Successors have never been stronger! GO GENZ!"
Everyone is dumb struck staring at their drunken sensei.
Alder Adams, otherwise known as the Cptn. of the (Hero States Superhero Dept.), HSSDs Youth Division.
Cptn. Wasted to many. He isn't just a drunk, he has 42 PHDs, a doctorate & masters in almost every subject due to his photographic memory & extremely high IQ. He believes leading the youth is leading the future but really this is the only job where he can stack off with the least consequence, that's why his parole officer Octogirl, the sidekick of the rank #4 aquatics hero Leviathan (currently MIA) is currently keeping a second eye on the young team.
"Okay Alder you've drank enough today, I get you & Ignitro were close but this is too much."
"YOU KNEW IGNITRO?!"
"I helped him bust the VK on a number of occasions, I was his brain of operations, and now I will lend it to the NEXT GENERATION! Successors FIGHT ON! *Whimpering*"
He suddenly bursts into tears. The Successors all take flight, leaving Octogirl to deal with the mess.
"I love teenagers."
…
"Did Ignitro have a kid Bionic?"
Volter bugs Bionic on the flight to USSD HQ.
"I am unaware of the existence of any offspring however it is highly likely that there was atleast one, there are a number of buried investigations that point to this evidence."
"You guys should really not be prying into his personal life you know…"
Esper says with a groan, it's a headache for her to use her telekinesis to fly, but an even bigger headache to listen to these two.
"How old would the kid be? Would he have his powers? We gotta find this kid before the villains do."
"I think we gotta worry about the normal civilians first, they no longer have Ignitro to protect them."
Ultragirl with her superhearing notices villains have begun to cause havoc amongst the tragic loss of their mortal enemy, they no longer have anything to fear, Ignitro despite his flaws did keep peace & order with a flaming fist.
"Let's go check this out."
…
That's it for Issue #3, there's some action coming up in the next one so stay tuned.