Night. An empty gravel carpark in a crime-prone industrial precinct. A breeze kicks the litter around, picks up a damp front page of a discarded newspaper and throws it against a chain-link fence. The headline: The Information Super Highway — Fad or Future?

Date: October 8, 1997.

A blast of blinding white brightness and the crackle, shriek, and buzz of electricity. The cold and quiet night returns. There is a red-edged circular gap in the fence that wasn’t there a moment ago. Squatting in a small, smoldering crater, is a naked man.

His skin steams and his muscular form heaves under heavy, steady breaths. The time-traveler stumbles from his time-push dismount crater and falls onto the gravel. He made it. It damn near killed him, but those crazy big-brained bastards did it.

* * *

A few hours had passed. The Time-Traveler had gathered up some clothes from kind strangers and charity bins. Khakis, a Pinky and the Brain T-shirt, a pair of miss-matched new balance sneakers, and a small denim jacket with Tweety Bird of Looney Tunes fame on the back.

Right. He wasn’t going to die of exposure, he was fairly inconspicuous, and he’d managed to get a bit of water and something called a cliff bar. Now all that was left was the mission: prevent the rise of superheroes and thus save the future from the inevitably world destroying escalation of super villains.

It was about now that the first Secret Heroes popped up and— “Crap,” Thought Captain Wonder Soldier “It’s me. I’m the first one and it snowballs from here.”

He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small credit card size wad of plastic. A Data Biscuit, something he had brought with him when he Time-Shifted through rather...personal means of storage.

The Hero bent the card and it snapped and revealed itabcontents. Within was a sheet of paper with classified info to be accessed once he was in the past and working on the mission.

“No. It’s not you.” Read the first line.

“Oh. Good!” Said Captain Wonder Soldier.

“However,” It continued.

“Nothing good comes after however.”

“You inadvertently inspired the first heroes by stopping that bus from hitting that guy.”

“Huh?”

A bus whizzed by and the hero heard a wet thud. The bus powered on.

“Anyways, we accounted for that this time with the card you brought with you in your mouth. From this point on? Just live your life and don’t use your powers. (Also we gave you a laser vasectomy during the physical, can’t go letting you have super babies). Be sure to write a report and leave it at the designated drop point. Hopefully this version solved the problem. Catch ya! Love, Brainicles.”

The now retired, apparently sterile hero lowered his mission card.

“Damn it! In my mouth? Should have thought of that.”

“So, Ultiman, Mr Ultiman? I’m sorry, I’ve never interviewed a superhero before.” James kept a measured tone, an inquisitive look, and a steady hand as he flipped open his notepad with a practised flick and readied his pen accordingly. He wasn’t about to blow this opportunity.

“No one has,” the hero said with a reassuring smile, “just call me Ultiman.”

“All right Ultiman, I’ll start off with a softball, would you mind sharing with our readers your secret identity?”

Ultiman took a fraction of a second to notice the glint in James’ eye, but when he did he gave a chuckle and said, “James Barrow, reporter. I’ll let you decide whether to print that.”

James echoed his chuckle, “Well, levity aside, here’s the softball, do you have a family?”

“I do yes, wife and children, my greatest gift in this life.”

“That’s wonderful, and if you don’t mind, who are you? Not your identity, but your drives. Why do you do what you do?”

Ultiman took a moment to consider. “Where I come from it’s all I’ve ever known. Superheroes fighting evil, standing up for what’s right because we can, when I got here, I saw no reason to change that.”

“Are you an alien then? A visitor from another world?”

“Not exactly.” Another moment passed as the superhero weighed his words. “I come from the future. Heroes are abundant a millennium from now.”

“Really?”

“100%”

“So how did you end up back in our time?”

“A science experiment gone wrong I think. Though how it happened, I’m not sure.”

“What kind of experiment?”

“There was, or will be, a crisis that called for a superhero to trump all others. I was chosen. The experiment should have infused me with the abilities of the greatest heroes on earth. I was going to be the supreme protector of the planet, but once the infusion was completed I felt a surge of power within my body. Like all the powers just burst out at once. And the next thing I knew, I woke up in this time. Left with only my original powers to speak of.”

“What was this crisis?”

“Difficult to explain, like trying to explain radio waves to a peasant in the dark ages.”

Utterly curious, James just gestured for him to go on anyway.

Ultiman didn’t budge, “You simply wouldn’t have any reference for what I’d be talking about. This’d turn from an interview to a university course.”

“Alright, well, what I can put together is that perhaps you are the reason superheroes are so abundant in the future then? If there is even a trace of those powers left in you, and you have a life and family here, it seems possible, don’t you think?”

“I suppose it does…”

​

(Author's Note: I took a slight liberty with the reasons for the time travel, but this idea was too good not to articulate.)

Athena, a hero sent back in time with one mission, to save the world. In her point of origin in the timeline, she was forced to watch hopelessly as those she loved were ruthlessly killed by a single man, a man who seemed to have accumulated so much power that the galaxy itself had become subject to his imperialistic rule.

As she walked along the hot streets of Los Angeles, she noticed a calendar and made her way over to it, taking a look at the date.

"July 16th, 2003."

Almost immediately, her eyebrows furrowed. If she knew about her history correctly, the invasion of the Reca's, which dawned the arise of superheroes, was supposed to take place in 7 years.

This means that the time machine worked, and she was indeed, the only superhero on earth and in history itself. Her mother was alive, however, she has yet to receive her abilities.

As these thoughts ran through her head, Athena made her way through LA, not only enjoying the sight but looking for one man.

"David Lymon."

Athena could recognize that face, even as a child he still had that sinister look of the one in the future. His pupils were skinny like a snake and his laughter acted in her head as mockery instead of signs of joy.

Athena wasted no time, engulfing her hand in energy as she jumped into the air. Her eyes began to glow a luminous white as the energy in her hand formed into a tennis-sized ball. People began to watch curiously while others ran away in fear, Lymon's parents doing the same.

"For my mother, and everyone else you'd killed."

She threw the ball of energy, watching as it brilliantly dodged the others and raced through the crowd before connecting with the back of Lymon's mother, who was holding him and exploding on impact.

Everyone began to run and scream frantically as she just watched, a smile on her face.

She saved the future, but was she truly a hero?

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