Only one of my roommates was home, he was unloading his car and setting up his furniture in his room. I jumped in to help and Rex did too. Rex UUMPPH Lifted four big boxes loaded with the guy’s heavy text books and effortlessly carried them up to the condo. My roommate Doug was impressed by, and maybe a bit suspicious of, Rex’s strength and huge body.

Rex and I went to my room for a little talk and left Doug to finish his unpacking.

“You won’t need him,” Rex stated. “I’ll be living here, protecting you, and taking care of everything you need, as long as you help us identify other dudes that make you tingle and help us with Ron. Are we agreed?”

“Ahh, sure, yes, yes,” I replied. I was still it total shock over this whole day. Now I was going to have to kick out one of my roommates to make room for Rex, my huge muscular guardian.

Rex’s arms reached down to his waist and he smiled at me as he slowly pulled his t-shirt up over his head and tossed it into my face as I lay in my bed. His scent was all over it and I smiled as he pumped his pecs for my amusement before he left the room.

I remained on my bed, sniffing the shirt and thinking about the whole situation.

Rex startled Doug as he entered his room unannounced.

“Oh, hey,” Doug stopped shelving books as he greeted Rex. He couldn’t help starring at Rex’s hot, stone carved abs, mammoth, hairless pectorals, and magnificent upper arms. Shit, this guy must live in a gym, his broad upper torso filled the whole doorway.

Rex’s gaze fixed on Doug and his mammoth pecs began to glow green and swell.

“I’m sorry about this man, but this is the best way to handle this,” Rex stated coolly.

Doug, with his doorway blocked by Rex, threw the hardcover textbook he was shelving at Rex. THWRAP! Rex caught the 6lb text book and, not missing a beat, SHRIIPP! Tore it in half. Doug, who was a pretty athletic and muscled guy, charged Rex in an attempt to knock Rex out of the doorway so he could escape his room and Rex’s strange glowing pectorals. THWUDD! Doug slammed into Rex with all his might, but “all his might” was not enough to make Rex even flinch, let alone move. Rex’s dense musculature simply absorbed the force of the impact, rather than having it redirected back at Doug. Doug, stunned by the collision, was sprawled against Rex’s powerfully muscular upper torso like a sparrow which flew into a clean glass window of a home.

Amused by the scene, Rex bounced his pecs in unison and THOOMP! The two powerful, smooth muscle masses leapt up on his chest, slamming into Doug’s upper chest and face SWOOSH! Launching Doug back across the room and KERACSK! Embedding him 4 inches deep into the plaster wall and 3 feet from the floor.

Doug was now paralyzed by dread and overcome by the throbbing pain shooting through his nervous system. A cloud of plaster dust floated in the room as Rex marched toward Doug. Rex WHOOO! Inhaled the dust cloud and FSOOSH! Puffed it out the open window, so it wouldn’t get the condo all dusty.

“What the fuck are you man?” Doug hollered, after witnessing Rex’s super breath display.

Rex just kept stepping closer to his target, when he was about a foot away, Doug swung his foot upward to kick Rex, Rex reacted swiftly, tucking his index finger behind his thumb and flicking Doug with his index finger in the shin, unleashing tremendous power with a simple act. KRAACKK! Doug cried out as his tibia was reduced to splintered bone fragments by the unstoppable power of Rex’s super strength and he THUDD! Tumbled from the wall onto the floor.

WOOSH! Rex’s arm shot forward and KRIK! His hand wrapped around Doug’s neck. Rex lifted Doug a few inches off the floor, his grip choking Doug as Doug swung his fists and feet into Rex in vain.

Rex held Doug at arm’s length, tensed his pecs and SHHSSSS! His two slabs of hot pec muscle unleashed a broad ray of green light that illuminated poor, helpless Doug. Doug’s muscles tensed up involuntarily as Rex’s low intensity energy ray powered into him and began charging him up. Rex carefully reined in his power so as to not damage the room or anything within it. Rex let his power eat through Doug slowly as he held him off the ground by his throat. “ACCK—“ Doug gasped as his body glowed brighter as Rex’s energies charged him up. Doug stared into Rex’s face in horror as Rex’s power continued to rush into him, slowly and deliberately. Rex met Doug’s gaze and smiled back at him, until Doug’s eyes rolled back into his head. Rex knew it wouldn’t be long now, he enjoyed doing this the slow way. Doug’s mouth opened and he began to let out a dull moan. SHHHSSSS! Rex’s pec energies did not let up, slowly Rex’s power traveled through the defenseless Doug transmuting his flesh bit by bit into nourishing vapor. Rex felt Doug’s body weight lighten as more of his body was turned to white vapor. FSSSSSH! Wisps of white vapor escaped from Doug’s mouth and ears, as his insides were consumed by Rex’s power. After a few more seconds, FOOMPH! Doug’s body exploded in a bright flash of white light as Rex savored the feeling of Doug’s neck flesh turning to vapor beneath his fingers. WOOOOOO! Rex opened his mouth and gulped down the vapor cloud. Rex left the room with a tight smile on his face.

Hearing the racket, I ran from my room and THUMP! Ran smack into Rex’s swollen pecs.

“What the hell---“ I screamed.

“Shhh,” Rex responded as he held me and pulled me into his chest, “It’s ok, you didn’t need him anymore. You have me. I am all you need.”

Wisps of smoke rose from Rex’s large pecs, I stared at them transfixed by the power I knew they contained. I’ll felt their warmth on the side of my face. This wasn’t right though, he killed Doug like it was nothing. Silently and without warning a thick, cool white fog floated down over my face. I looked up at Rex, his mouth was formed into an elliptical shape and spewing forth the heavy white fog. I wanted to ask what he was doing, I wanted to know what this vapor was that I breathed in, but I didn’t care anymore, I just wanted what Rex wanted, Rex was right.

Rex sort of carried me back to my room and suggested I rest up after my adventurous day. It sounded like a great idea.

I got into bed. Outside my window was a teen playing basketball in the late afternoon.

“I can’t sleep with that going on,” I complained.

Rex stood up near my windscreen.

“No, he’s only some teenager,” I weakly objected.

Rex smiled at me and stared back out the window.

VZZZZ! His eyes glowed pink and the POOMP! There was a loud popping sound and a scream as Rex’s microwave vision caused the ball to explode, injuring the teenager, who ran into his house.

“Now, go to sleep,” Rex told me.

As I slept, Rex made himself at home in my condo by turning Doug’s room into his own.

I awoke in my bed a few hours later to the sound of the TV. I went downstairs to find Rex sitting on one couch and my remaining roommate Bob sitting on the other. They had had a few beers between them, empty bottles lay about.

Rex noticed me, “Hey, you want to watch?”

I knew he didn’t mean the TV, Bob was about to get blasted.

Bob was a little chunky and kind of lazy, in the week since he moved in he probably had said 50 words to me total. He was kind of in his own world, he now he was just staring at the TV.

I whispered under my breath, “Make it good, I’ll watch”

Rex’s eyes lit up and he smiled, he was happily surprised that I was relying on his super hearing to pick up my low volume whisper.

“I’ll put on a good show, dude,” Rex responded.

Rex reached his hand over and got a grip on the arm of the couch Bob was slouched in. OOOSHH! Rex easily lifted it into the air, about four feet off of the ground, about level with Rex’s abs. RUMMP! RUMMP! Rex shook the couch and Bob bounced around.

“What the fuck, dude,” Bob exclaimed. “You on something? Shit!” Rex let go of the couch and SWOOOSH! Grasped Bob around the neck while the couch was still on its way back to the floor.

“ACKK—“ Bob gurgled as Rex’s powerful hand compressed his windpipe and held him a foot off the floor.

Then THWOOSH! I ducked just in time as Rex threw Bob across the family room and WHAAMM! Thirty feet away into the dining room table with a casual flick of his wrist.

“ARGGH!” Bob cried out in pain, blood flowed from his mouth and my table wasn’t looking too great either.

Rex SWOOSH! Blew past me and stood over Bob, who was sprawled over the wooden table which had been knocked onto its side.

“Just finish him, that’s enough, really,” I exclaimed.

“You sure,” Rex questioned me.

I nodded.

Bob tried to get up, when PHINK! Rex flicked his index finger and it struck Bob in the temple. Bob slumped back to the floor, one little flick from Rex’s finger was enough to knock anybody out for a while. Rex didn’t use anywhere near his full strength, if he had Bob’s head would’ve been torn from his neck.

“Well, I don’t think so,” Rex stated as he stared right at me with his eyes glowing red, puffed out his cheeks and HOOOOSH! Released an elongated cloud of blue vapor from between his lips and, at the same time, VREEEZ! A burst of his heat vision blasted through the center of the cloud, sort of hollowing it out as it burned away the freezing vapors. In moments, the cloud quickly KRRAKKT! Solidified into a hollow tube of ice like matter that was 3 feet in diameter and 6 feet long. The ice itself was about seven inches thick all the way around and it didn’t break when it THUUNK! Hit the floor.

Rex grabbed Bob and UUMPH! Shoved him into the ice tube. Then Rex FOOOSH! Carefully sealed the top and FOOSH! The bottom of the tube with his icy super breath.

Rex then UMPHH! Lifted the tube and carried it out onto the deck off the back of my condo. The sky was darkening, a huge thunderhead cloud hovered in the sky. It was rumbling with thunder and flashing with lightening, although the rain had not started yet. The thunderstorms that appeared over the entire nation about every three months were returning again. This odd weather pattern had been occurring for about four years now and no one seemed to know why.

“Rex, just vaporize him, man,” I begged. Poor Bob had awoken and was freaking out that he was trapped in a giant hamster tube and in serious danger.

“Relax, roomie,” Rex remarked with a broad smile.

Suddenly Rex’s muscles tensed up and RIIIIPPOOM! His tight t-shirt exploded into white cotton confetti bits. I gasped and Rex chuckled. His monstrous muscular torso was now completely exposed. Bob even stopped moaning for a moment and gasped.

Rex turned the “tube” so Bob was in an upright position, then Rex’s pecs began to heave up and down on his chest. SRHUMM! His half-dollar sized nipples began to glow with a pale blue light and then FIIZZK! FIZZK! Two little rings of pale blue energy sparked from each of his nipples, impacted the ice tube’s surface and ZZZZZ! SSSZZZ! Expanded around it. The tube began to glow with a faint pale blue light and then HURMMMM! Rex lifted it by its bottom end six feet off the ground, let it go, and it stayed there, hovering in the air.

I watched in astonishment, Bob totally freaked out.

“It’s a little taste of my anti-gravity power, the same energy I use to fly, I can project into other things,” Rex explained as Bob hovered in the air, enclosed within the ice tube, that would not break, no matter how hard Bob punched it. “Just enough energy to keep him floating where I place him. So, let’s have some fun.”

With that Rex FWOOOOSH! Puffed out his cheeks and buffeted the ice tube with a gust of his super breath. OOOOSHH! Bob sailed helplessly into the sky, like a kite that has broken its string being swiftly carried away by the wind. FWOOOSH! Rex blew Bob higher and higher into the sky.

“HA! HA!” Rex chuckled, he was very amused it seemed.

I couldn’t see anything because Rex had blown Bob into and through the huge thundercloud.

“Look at him up there, freaking out,” Rex mocked. Then Rex noticed that I was just staring at his awesome body and realized I couldn’t see.

“Oh, you don’t have super vision,” Rex remarked. “I could use a drink anyway.”

With that WOOOOSH! Rex flew upwards into the sky and I lost sight of him in the clouds. The thunder and lightening picked up a bit and it started to rain. Then, over the sound of the storm, I heard a terrible unnatural, roar of wind WROOOOOR! I peered into the sky and noticed the thunderhead cloud was moving away, no, it was shrinking away.

Up in the sky to my right, Rex came into view, as more of the thunderhead cloud shrank away. The thunder cloud was being sucked away into Rex, drawn in between his lips by his powerful lungs. WROOOOR! It was an amazing sight, watching him devour a thunderstorm by simply drawing a breath. I watched as the last few wisps of the cloud vanished into Rex’s mouth and helpless Bob, a speck in the sky, came into view.

“Better?” Rex called down to me.

“Much,” I answered as I smiled back.

Rex looked up at Bob and WROOOOSH! Toyed with his victim by using his super lungs to create a suction force and yank Bob back toward the Earth at a fast rate of speed. Then, FWOOOSH! Rex blew out, sending Bob flying across the sky. Then WROOOSH! He drew Bob back toward him and FWOOOOSH! Blew him away again. This cycle repeated about 15 times as Rex turned Bob into a human yo-yo for his amusement. I marveled at Rex’s precise control and awesome breath powers. I couldn’t believe the feats he could perform, inhaling a thunderhead, that was insane.

Suddenly, Bob started falling from the sky like a stone, Rex SWOOOSH! Raced away and THUMP! Caught him and flew Bob high into the sky. FIIIZKKK! Rex recharged Bob with his anti-gravity energies from his nipples and looked his whimpering, bruised victim in the eyes one final time before he positioned the ice tube on a 45 degree angle with the Earth. Bob’s right side was facing the ground, while his left side was pointing towards outer space. Bob’s feet were closer to the ground than his head. Rex smirked as he THUMPP! Brought his fist down on the ice tube near Bob’s head and WOOOOSH! Sent Bob spinning head over heels toward the Earth. I watched with a combination of amazement and horror as Bob tumbled down from the sky like an airplane, rolling over and over again uncontrollably. Finally, after a 30 second descent, KOOOOMP! Bob’s landed in the street in front of me, the ice tube burst into a hail of ice chips and Bob’s corpulent body was pressed into the street and soon surrounded by a pool of blood.

Rex SWOOOSH! Appeared and VREEEET! Unleashed his heat vision upon the corpse POOOFM! And VREEEET! Upon a curious neighbor woman who lived next door and had stepped out on her patio to see what the noise was all about. The woman attempted to cry out and stared at me in horror before PHOOMP! She was reduced to ashes.

Rex then went to Bob and Doug’s bedrooms and had me pick out any of their stuff that I wanted for myself. I snatched their CDs, a sweater I liked, and a few good books.

Everything else Rex carried into the garage, including their furniture. The two and a half car garage, held only Bob’s car, mine was still parked at the gym and Doug’s was parked out on the driveway.

When everyone of their possessions that I did not want was in the garage, Rex VREEEET! Unleashed his heat vision at full intensity at the huge pile. FOOOOSH! The junk exploded in a bright flash and was reduced to a huge gray smoke cloud.

Next, VRREEEET! Rex KAPOOOPMPH! Completely vaporized Bob’s car.

I opened the garage doors and FWOOOOSH! Rex blew the remains out into the sky.

Then he VREEET! Took aim at Doug’s car in the drive way and FOOPHM! It was almost instantly incinerated as well.

“Presto,” Rex exclaimed and he gave me a big smile.

“So,” Rex asked, “Are you rested up enough after your nap for a little night on the town?”

“Sure,” I remarked, as I anticipated all the fun we would have.

“Well, first, I need you to put a call in to your buddy Ron, invite him over to see your new place and I’ll take care of the rest,” Rex stated.

I was a little hesitant, I knew that I was betraying Ron, we had been friends since high school. Of course, since college I had only seen him about one or twice a year, but we did call each other every few months or so.

Rex handed me my cell phone, and POOFF! A wisp of that cool white mist wafted from between his lips and encircled my head. What Rex wanted, I wanted. I placed the call to Ron and invited him over on Saturday. He said tomorrow was great and I ended the call after a short chat.

DING! DONG! My doorbell rang and I opened the door to see an athletic dude standing before me.

“Hey, is Doug around? I’m his friend Chuck,” Chuck stated.

“Sure, come on in,” I said as I gestured for Chuck to enter.

Chuck walked past me into the condo and I noticed their was a compact car in my driveway with two other dudes in it. I waved to them and wondered how this was going to get resolved when VREEEET! Two bright red streams of intense heat energy slammed into the vehicle. I looked to the side and saw Rex firing his heat vision through my kitchen window. The car was glowing red hot and started giving off white smoke, the dudes cried out, just before PHOOOMPH! They were vaporized along with the vehicle. The whole attack lasted less than 5 seconds.

I darted back inside the house after Chuck, who hadn’t made it out of the foyer and apparently didn’t hear the sound of the car being vaporized. I caught up to Chuck and walked him into the kitchen. Rex was there holding my upright vacuum cleaner which he had plugged into the wall.

“Hey, du—,”Chuck didn’t have time to even get his words out before THWUMMP! Rex drove his fist into Chuck’s solar plexus KRACKK! Which pulverized his rib cage.

“GAAA!” Chuck cried as he collapsed to his knees at Rex’s feet. Rex flipped on the vacuum cleaner and handed me the hose. Then he wrapped his huge, muscular arms around Chuck’s head. His arms were giant anacondas, preparing to crush their prey. Rex placed his hands on each side of Chuck’s hollering head and HURRRKK! Wrenched Chuck’s head sharply to one side, SSNAPP! Popping his brain stem free of his spinal column, severing all the tissues in his neck with one smooth motion.

Rex stared into the young man’s eyes as the life flickered out of them and VREEEET! Burned them away with his heat vision. Smoke wafted from the empty pits in the dead man’s skull. Rex was like a machine, cold and calculating.

Rex VREEEE! Unleashed a final broad, less intense ray of heat vision that surrounded the body in it’s pinkish glow and slowly burned it to ashes. After which, I vacuumed up the mess and was delighted that the floor was not damaged.

“OK, now that that is taken care of,” Rex smiled at me. “It’s time to go.”

WOOOSH! Before I knew it, I was cradled in Rex’s arms high above the city, as he flew us through the sky.

“HA! HA! HA,” Rex laughed as I tried to get my bearings after my surprise ascent into the night sky. “Gotcha! OK, I need to stop off for some cash.”

FLIMPP! We landed in a strip mall it was about 9:30 P.M. and all the stores were closed. There was an ATM built in to the outside wall near a bank. A thirty-something athletic dude had pulled up to the ATM on his mountain bike. He was all decked out, like fucking Lance Armstrong. He had the helmet, a solid navy blue short sleeved spandex looking shirt and black spandex biking shorts. He didn’t take too much notice of Rex and I landing about ten feet behind him from the sky, as he was busy entering his pin number.

I remained quiet and watched Rex work. VSSSSSS! Two fine, transparent beams of his heat vision shot from his eyes and into the camera built into the ATM. FSSSIH! The clear plastic sheeting protecting the camera and the lens of the camera were warped by the heat. The camera was instantly rendered useless. The biker didn’t even notice the beams of heat that passed just over his right shoulder.

“Nice bike,” Rex called out as he stepped up to the man, who spun around quickly and was instantly intimidated by Rex’s huge, exposed upper torso, as so many men were.

“Oh, uh, thanks,” The biker replied meekly. Rex placed his hands on the bike’s frame and felt it up.

“That’s a $3,000 frame. It rides great,” The biker offered, his confidence slowly returning.

“Cool, it seems pretty strong for how light it feels,” Rex responded as he pressed the break handles and continued to examine the bike closely.

Then Rex looked up and just smirked at the guy, not moving a muscle. The biker looked at Rex and muttered, “Hey dude….” Rex just kept staring at the guy. The biker looked at me with this fearful, pleading look on his face, I just watched.

The biker reached for his bike, but before he could touch it, Rex snatched it away.

“$3,000 huh?” Rex sneered as he lifted the bike with both hands, holding it at opposite ends of the metal frame, “$3,000 is no match for my huge pipes, bitch!”

RENNKTT! The metal screamed as Rex’s huge guns went to work, bending and twisting the frame and WRINKK! Ultimately, pulling the bike into two halves.

The biker to stunned to move, he looked as if his dog had just died.

Rex didn’t let up, he SHRIPP! SHRIPP! Tore the bike’s tires from the damaged frame and RENNKTT! SRRNAPP! Used his awesome muscle power to shape the bike into a unrecognizable, compressed ball of twisted metal wreckage.

PLINKK! Rex dropped the “bike” to the ground and flexed his huge, swollen pipes. “BOOM!” Rex exclaimed as the giant peaks of his flexed biceps exploded from his arms like mountains.

Rex stepped over the wreckage and up to the biker who leaned against the wall for support, still trying to comprehend what had just occurred.

Rex shot a glance at the ATM screen, “$400 in savings and $50 in checking?” Rex exclaimed as he read the numbers, “You poor fuck. Well, I hope you have some cash under the mattress at home.” Rex pressed a few buttons and the ATM spit out $450.

Rex turned back toward the now terrified biker, who had pissed his shorts.

“You sick fuck,” Rex admonished as a stream of urine ran down the biker’s leg.

Rex tucked his index finger behind his thumb, and THWICK! Flicked the biker’s plastic helmet. KRACOOSH! The helmet exploded into little plastic and foam bits under the power of Rex’s super strength. The concussive force of the impact knocked the biker out.

Rex carefully removed the dude’s navy spandex shirt and pulled it down over his own powerfully huge upper torso. The shirt left the lower half of Rex’s massive pecs, all of his abs, and both of his arms exposed. It was tight enough that it left nothing to the imagination and went well with his grey gym shorts. Shit, anything looked great on Rex I thought.

“There, I got my club clothes on and some cash,” Rex chuckled as I watched the fabric strain to contain his massive physique. “Oh wait, I guess you need some cash too, Frank.”

With that, Rex formed his hand into a fist and cocked his canon of a right arm back SWOOSH! There was a rush of air as Rex’s fist rocketed toward the ATM and CHWOOM! Connected. His powerful, huge arm muscles delivered a blow of such awesome magnitude that the face of the ATM machine RKENT-BOOOM! Exploded outward in a hail of metal and plastic pieces. The machine CLICK! CLICK! CLK! Made several clicking sounds as it sputtered before it went silent.

Rex’s fist drove deep into the heart of the machine, he could feel the cash. I saw a huge, jagged hole had been ripped through the four inch steel hull of the machine, a few wisps of smoke were billowing from it and curling around Rex’s massive bicep. Rex withdrew his fist, grasped the edges of the hole he made with both hands and WRENNKT! RENKKT! Peeled the four inch steel exterior of the machine back as easily as a person peels the shell off a shrimp tail, enlarging the hole to the point that almost the whole face of the machine was bent outward, exposing its internal mechanisms and its hoard of $20 bills.

“Here” Rex turned back toward me, “Reach in there and grab what you need for tonight, while I finish this guy up. We can always get more cash later, so don’t get greedy on me.”

“You know,” I spoke up. “Those machines have internal alarms. The cops will be here soon, I bet.”

“I certainly hope so,” Rex replied as he flashed me a grin before turning back to the biker who had begun to mumble.

Rex pursed his lips and PFFTSSSH! Blew out a fine stream of his freeze breath. The biker’s eyes popped open as the shock of having his piss soaked crotch chilled to 50 degrees below zero, a mere sample of Rex’s true freeze breath potential, was enough to wake a man from a coma. The thin fabric of his shorts was no protection against the freezing vapors that Rex’s lungs expelled, the fact that the biker was riding commando style didn’t help him either. The biker looked down at his shorts and saw a patch of bluish frost over his crotch. He felt his dick encased in a think layer of frozen urine, before he lost all sensation from that area due to the extreme cold.

“Rise and shine, piss boy,” Rex sneered. “By the way, thanks for the shirt. Looks much better on me, don’t you think?”

A few books of self-adhesive postage stamps from the ATM, which also sold postage stamps, blew by Rex’s feet. Conveniently, 15 feet away was a large blue metal U.S. postage service mail depository box. It was about four feet deep and two feet wide, with a domed lid that had a small door to deposit mail. This gave Rex an idea, as he waited around for the cops to show up.

Rex opened a book of stamps and stuck a few on the whimpering biker’s forehead.

“There you go, all ready to be mailed somewhere fun,” Rex chuckled as he turned and VREEET! Sliced the lid off of the mailbox with a precisely targeted blast of heat vision. Next, Rex’s snatched the dude by his throat and lifted him from the pavement. Rex lifted the mailbox lid off the mail box with his free hand and then shoved the whimpering biker into the box ass first, so the dude’s head and legs extended upward along the sides of the box. Next, Rex placed the lid back on the mail box and VSSSSS! Welded it back in place with his heat vision.

Rex then cupped his hand over his right nipple and tensed his right pec. HUMMMM! His right pec began to glow with green energy. ZZZFFFFF! Rex moved his hand a few inches from his pec and I saw a stream of green energy flowing from his right nipple into his palm.

“That should do it,” Rex remarked as he relaxed his right pec, stopping the flow of energy, and closed his fist. After a few seconds he opened his hand and an orb of energy about the size of a billiard ball floated just above his palm. “Fuck, too much,” Rex said as he acted to correct the problem by poking the index finger of his other hand into the orb and drawing some of the orb’s green energy back into his body. VZZZZ! I watched as tendrils of green energy traveled up Rex’s hand and up his muscular arms and into his body. Soon the crackling energy orb was about an inch in diameter and it was ready.

Rex opened the door of the mailbox and FRAZZKT! Released his energy ball. Rex quickly removed his hand from the box and held the door closed. I heard a muffled scream and then FROOOPH! The mailbox jumped a few inches in the air as the metal strained to contained the explosion. Rex opened the door and FSSSSSSH! A cloud of white vapor escaped from the mailbox, Rex pressed his face over the opening and SNIIFFT! Snorted the nourishing white vapor up his nostrils and into his powerful body.

WOOO! WEEEO! Rex’s super hearing picked up the sirens of the approaching police car. Just as an oblivious 400 lb fat man in a full sized van pulled up to the curb in front of the ATM, while munching on a Big Mac. The passenger side of the van was closest to the ATM.

The fat man exited his van and slowly wobbled around the front end of his car and up to the curb. That’s when the fat man noticed the condition the ATM was in and saw the huge, powerful figure of Rex standing on the passenger side of his van. At that moment, a police car sped into the lot, sirens blaring. The fat man turned toward the police just as THWIMP! Rex’s hand grabbed him by one of his fat arms and SWOOSH! Forcibly yanked him over to the other side of the van.

The police car stopped in the middle of the parking lot 50 yards in front of the ATM. The cops got out of their car and drew their guns, using their car doors for cover. The cops heard the yelping of the fat man as he cried out to them for help, realizing that the criminals had a hostage, the cops radioed for back-up, which was exactly what Rex wanted.

Within a few seconds a second cop car pulled up to the same spot, while a third entered the parking lot from behind the strip mall and the two cops in that car planned to sneak around the side of the building to “surprise” Rex. Rex, of course, with his super senses, was aware of all of this.

The cops shouted something about Rex giving up. Rex was loving this shit. He placed his hands on the fat man’s head and turned it so the right side faced him, then VREET! Rex’s eyes flashed with red heat and VSSSH! Two small beams of his heat vision struck the fat man in the right temple and burrowed slowly into the man’s skull. The fat man gurgled, but ceased all struggling just before the two beams emerged from his left temple, after working their way through his skull and brain. Wisps of smoke floated from the small, neat holes in his head. The body went limp and Rex propped it against the exterior wall of the bank.

Rex gave me a huge grin and turned back to the fat man’s corpse, which stunk of sweat. VREEEE! Rex’s eyes emitted a wide, but thin, ray of heat vision that baked the fat man’s ankles first. Slowly Rex inched the beams up the fat man’s body, using them to bake the man at about 300 degrees. The man’s skin reddened and blistered under the heat beams. Rex baked both the front and the back of the fat man head to toe. The lard ball gave off the greasy stench of a fast food restaurant at lunch time. Smoke rose from his body as the fat under his skin was liquefied by the intense heat.

Suddenly, POP! KAWPOP! Two officers had appeared to our left at the end of the strip mall and were shooting at us. I was closest to the cops and Rex sprang into action. SWOOOSH! Using his super speed to catch six bullets. One of which he caught inches from my face by pinching it between his thumb and forefinger and crushing it into a small metal disk. POP! POW! POP! The shots continued, Rex got between me and the cops and let the bullets SPHRING! SPLING! Bounce harmlessly off his thick pecs.

Annoyed that he had allowed himself to be distracted, Rex grabbed one of the bike wheels and SHRING! Whipped it like a Frisbee with all of his strength at one of the cops. SWOOOSH! It rocketed through the air and SHRIIIIPPPP! Sliced one of the cops in half at the waist with an explosion of gore and kept flying. The two halves of the cop fell to the ground with a dull thud. His horrified partner made a run for it back along the side of the building. Rex SWOOOSH! Ran CHOOOM! KAERASSH! Straight for the cop, right through the shopping center itself. His powerful body racing through brick walls, glass, office furniture, and several other objects until SHHHCHOOOOM! He burst outside again in a hail of bricks in the path of the cop.

The cop yelped just before Rex’s heel KROOSH!! Drove through his ribcage and out his back, as Rex blasted him with a brutal super strength kick. Rex swiftly withdrew his foot from the cop’s chest cavity and THUMP! The dying cop slumped onto the asphalt parking lot, blood rushing from his gaping wound. Rex’s foot swung back and then forward into the cop’s side and WOOOSH! The power of Rex’s huge leg muscles punted the dying cop like a football into the sky at 80 miles per hour. Satisfied, SWOOOSH! Rex used his super speed to quickly return to the ATM.

Meanwhile, while Rex was dispatching the cops, a mile away a full-size white van pulls into a parking lot and deploys two men.

A third man riding in the van radios, “Commencing Vertech Armor beta test.”

And the two men fly off in their armor towards the ATM.

Meanwhile, Rex hoisted the super heated body of the fat man up over his head and stepped out from behind the fat man’s vehicle. KAPOW! POP! RATAKAAK! The cops, who had not yet grasped what had just happed to their fellow officers, took several futile shots at Rex. PPSSSLIMP! Some blasted through the blistered, steaming corpse of the fat man.

Rex swung his huge arms back and OOOOSH! Flung the bubbling fat man toward the cops. KABOOOOSH! The 400 pound corpse exploded between the two squad cars like a giant water balloon, except instead of water, the cops were covered with super heated human fat. The four cops screamed in horrible pain, since they were drenched in the steaming yellow ooze. They clawed at the gobs of fat that stuck to their bodies and burned their skin, they tore of their fat soaked uniforms as fast as they could. One of them passed out from the extreme pain and went into convulsions.

Rex stepped forward to finish the cops, when what sounded like a jet engine roared overhead. VIZZZSHHOOM! VIIZZSHOOOM! Four golden beams of energy slammed into Rex’s powerful chest and OOOOSH! Sent him flying backward KERASSSHHH! Into the fat man’s van.

I quickly ducked into the store front as two figures wearing armor battle suits that looked like something out of the pages of Iron Man, flew into view. Their shiny armor was navy blue and silver, instead of red and yellow though. Their arms were outstretched with their palms facing outward. In the center of each palm was a glowing circle from which, apparently, they launched their energy attacks.

I watched as the glowing circles changed from yellow to red and SHOOM! SHOOOM! SHOOOM! SHOOOM! Streams of red energy bursts shot from their hands and slammed into Rex. In moments Rex and the van began to glow red and then KAAABOSHHH! The van exploded unleashing an awesome wave of concussive force.

I ran, following the path Rex had taken earlier through the walls of the strip mall to eliminate the cop, as the building shook and its walls cracked.

Rex lay on the pavement, still glowing red as SHOOM! SHOOOM! The armored men continued their assault, charging his supreme body up with their red energy bursts until KERRRRBOOOOM! An explosion accompanied by an awesome flash ripped through the strip mall and lit up the sky as if it was noon, instead of after sun down.

Rex stood slightly dazed but upright at the origin of the explosion. His body had released all the energy these two goons had pumped into him involuntarily. The energy pulses from the armor didn’t really agree with Rex. The force of the explosion had destroyed most of the strip, obliterated the cops, and knocked the two armored dudes about 50 yards up into the sky. Through the huge cloud of dust and debris, Rex noticed that one of the armored men was just hovering helplessly in the air, unable to move. The other one, pressed on with another attack.

SHOOOM! SHOOOM! The armored dude flew towards Rex and unleashed another salvo of red energy pulses, that were less powerful than the first assault. FRAZZK! FRAZZK! The pulses slammed into Rex’s thick, hairless pectorals and simply fizzled away. Rex had somehow adapted to them or they weren’t powerful enough to affect him.

Knowing his comrade was still having mobility problems, the armored dude assumed the prone position with his arms outstretched and rocketed toward Rex for a physical attack at 150 miles per hour. WHOOOSH! Although this speed was fast for a human, for a power dude, reacting to this required no effort at all. However, Rex wanted to be a good sport. THWAHMMERSH! The armored dude’s fists slammed into Rex with the impact force of a semi-truck. Rex didn’t move an inch. His assailants however was forced to deal with the full force of the impact being redirected back upon him. WRENKTT! His armor bent and buckled and then FRAZZZKT! Was surrounded in a storm yellow and red energy tendrils, as the impact caused major damage to the suit’s power source.

The soldier moaned in pain within the suit as he lay crumpled and unable to move at Rex’s feet.

That is when BOOOMM! A small explosive on the side of the armor suit went off and blew the suit and its occupant to bits. Rex was unharmed but SWOOOSH! He quickly raced to the other armored man and RERNKKT! Tore the small, but powerful explosive from within the back of the suit. Rex clutched the small radio detonated bomb in his fist until BSSSHH! It exploded harmlessly within his grasp. His fist easily contained the force of the explosion.

Rex then quickly used his super senses to locate the transmission point and quickly zeroed in on a van that was speeding away.

Within the van, one man was driving, while another transmitted data from the field test via a small satellite dish on the van’s roof. Rex swooped in over the van, his enhanced intelligence aided him in quickly ascertaining exactly what was going on. Rex knew time was not on his side here and he used his super speed to his advantage.

Rex’s first move is to VREEET! Unleash his heat vision upon the dish SSIIISSH! Which turns it to molten slag almost instantly.

The man at the computers in the van, immediately is alerted to the transmission error and begins deleting the data that has been collected.

His work is interrupted when SKEECH-CHANG! Rex’s feet, followed by the rest of his huge physique, rip through the roof of the van like it is made of tissue paper. Using his super speed, Rex’s thoughts turn to actions almost instantaneously. SWOOSH! Rex is an imperceptible blur as he removes the hard drives from the three computers in the van, saving them from being deleted before the two men even have time to react to his powerful presence.

The computer operator reaches for a large silver gun, but Rex’s hand closes around his entire neck and lifts him out of his chair just before he can grab the weapon KRISSSH! Rex crushes his spine along with every bone in his neck to powder with one effortless squeeze. Rex releases the corpse and the body THUMP! Falls to the floor of the van.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Rex hears a series of beeps, secures the hard drives, and WOOSH—RENKKT! Flies out the side of the van just as KAAA-BOOOOOM! It explodes in a huge mushroom cloud of fire that lit up the evening sky as it consumed everything within a quarter mile radius. Despite making the ultimate sacrifice, the driver is unsuccessful in using the self-destruct mechanism to kill Rex and destroy the data. Rex, surveyed the damage from the bomb in the van, which destroyed several cars and buildings, and flew bank to the remains strip mall.

OOOOSH! UUUFFFF! The rubble above me was being peeled away. The concrete and bricks, were pulled away and soon the desk I had ducked under was clear of debris. I poked my head of to see Rex, my hero, standing above me holding what must have been at least a 500 lb chuck of concrete above his head. OOOSH! He threw it off into the parking lot and reached his hand down to me. I took it and he pulled me up into his massive chest and held me in his powerful arms.

“Are you ok?,” Rex asked in his most sincere tone. “I’m very sorry about this.”

I just nodded, to shaken up by the ordeal to speak. I was afraid that there were powers in this world that Rex could not protect me from.

Rex pulled a circular metallic disk out of his shorts and placed it against the center of his forehead. It gave off a bluish glow and I caught snippets of Rex’s side of a conversation. He was somehow using that disk to talk to someone else.

I gazed at the man in the armor, trapped in a chunk of ice at Rex’s feet. His eyes darted about, but he was helpless to escape.

Rex tapped me on the shoulder and announced, “I’m sorry, our fun night on the town has been cut short for now. Hop on my back and wrap your arms around my neck. You’re strong enough to hold on, right? It’s a short flight.”

I nodded and did as I was told, Rex wasn’t being playful this time, he was serious.

Rex KRUCNK!! Smashed his hand into the ice chunk containing the frozen armored guy and drove it in deep, so he could hold it firmly. In his other hand he held some computer parts.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I wrapped my arms around Rex’s tree trunk of a neck and locked my hands together.

“The big boss, Torque, wants to see us. We have quite a catch here, it seems,” Rex stated. “Things are definitely heating up, Frank, and your turn is coming up soon.”

WOOOOOSH! We were a mile in the sky seconds later and on our way. I thought about what Rex meant about “my turn” and feared that my dream life was going to soon become a nightmare……. •