Today's #flashfiction #TheSuperOneManArmy

“You may have me mistaken for someone else.”

Rich Little* #quote

       Today I got a game informer magazine. It talked about an AI a guy programmed to learn to play games. When it played tetris and was about to lose it would pause the game and never unpause because it learned that's a way to not lose. I guess computers are supposed to be “logical”. And apparently sore losers.  Anyway onto the flash fiction!

The Super One Man Army

       “Are you a joke?” A voice over a loudspeaker said. It came from a fleet of a tanks. Possibly. Captain Ultimatum at least assumed it had to have been broadcast somewhere from the army. The army that emerged through the portal opened in the Grand Canyon. A spectacle of tanks and ships. Advanced one with weapons and armor much more powerful than anything invented other worlds they had conquered. The technology also surpassed the technology of the world of Captain Ultimatum. “A man in a silly yellow costume and green cape with a U on it? Does the government of this parallel universe dress their diplomats in superhero costumes?”

        “I am no diplomat. My name is Captain Ultimatum.” The hero walked up to the tanks, his muscular frame as sharp as the edges of the tank. He used his superpowers to observe the tanks with his special vision to tell the exact composition. They looked like the tanks of his world but their inner workings were very different. Inside less parts were needed so not only could they pack guns but large packs of armed soldiers with powerful weapons. The army of that world made their tanks look like the ones of his world to look like they had much less soldiers than they did. Each tank packed ten soldiers. The cannons were probably energy weapons and were only made to look like they fired shells. He looked up at the ships. What looked like his world transport ships were packed with bombs of a foreign technological design. His superpower vision could only barely tell him this truth by detected the ambient energy from it that he could hardly detect. “And I have come here to tell you this. Turn back your army now or I will kill every one of you.”

        “Kill us?” The voice laughed. “I'm the commander of this army and I have never lost. And you are but a single man. Or are you a commander yourself? Do you mean your army is going to come get us? We've scanned your world and you don't have the power sources to create the technology we have.”

        “Our heroes have been to other worlds and heard about you. I am the most powerful hero on this world and I know that the only message that you would understand is a total loss if you don't surrender now. I am a superhero in every definition. The most powerful. And I can take you all on. And I will do it alone so that your deaths are on no one else's conscience.”

        The voice took a few seconds of thought to respond. “I've been to worlds with wizards. This place could very well have superheroes. Though you are very arrogant. Men, kill him and hold nothing back.”

The first thing Captain Ultimatum did was use his super speed combined with his super flight to grab all the bombing ships and pull them into space in a few seconds. Captain Ultimatum could somehow survive in space. It turned out to be one of his more unexplainable powers. He came back down and used his lighting vision to tear apart all the tanks in a fraction of a section and kill all the soldiers inside. The battle lasted under a minute. Five hundred soldiers had been brought through the portal that day with a massive army ready to advance behind them. And in a moment Captain Ultimatum flew through the portal and killed the waiting army in another ten minutes to ensure that that universe would never invade anyone else again. At least for a long time. After he left their world they quickly closed the portal out of fear he would come back and kill more than soldiers.

      After that Captain Ultimatum flew away and landed on the edge of the Grand Canyon and said to himself, “And once again the day is saved.” He then got an alert on his superhero transponder. “Oh it seems Mrs. Wiggins cat is stuck in a tree. Off I go!”