When I woke up, I immediately remembered that it was Saturday – and Saturday was weigh-day, the day I weighed myself each week to chart how my diet was progressing. I’d started this diet at over 270, but after losing one to two pounds per week through caloric intake control, I was down to last week’s 243.8 – and falling. I’d had a few setbacks along the way – most notably my birthday, with cake and pizza! – but overall I was making good progress toward my ultimate goal of 180.
So I got up, headed to the bathroom, and stepped on the scale, hoping to see a number below 243. Honestly, with all this meteor weirdness, I hadn’t been that great about watching what I ate over the past seven days, and I would have been really happy just to not have gained weight.
The digital scale read 216.8 pounds.
I rubbed my eyes, stepped back, and tried again.
216.8 pounds.
I yawned, went to the sink and splashed my eyes and face with cold water, trying to make sure my eyes were clear and the last remnants of fog had left my brain. I went back and weighed myself a third time.
I got the same number again.
I went into the living room puzzled, sat down at my computer, and verified what my weight had been last week – 243.8 pounds.
I lost 27 pounds in one week? I looked down at my belly, and now that I was looking, it was significantly less, though it still had more shrinking to do.
For the briefest fraction of a second I was frustrated with my situation, thinking “Can’t one thing make sense?!” – but then I reminded myself that I was immortal and should probably stop complaining.
If. If this weight loss wasn’t some sort of downside to my power. After all, I had been using my new abilities pretty hardcore for most of the week, from astralling all across the universe to mass murdering an entire Miami crime family, not to mention the infinity swarm of sparrow-wisps I had summoned last night.
Maybe chill out on the power use a little, I thought. Even as I thought that, I considered it unlikely that life would cooperate with me doing so.
I shrugged and went about my morning routine, trying not to obsess over the missing weight. I was only partly successful.
As I grabbed a bowl of cereal – no point in continued caloric self-denial until my weight stopped going down – I plunked down on the couch to see how the world had changed overnight. I soon as I tuned into the news, it came back to me: I was the one who had changed it.
The news reports were full of stories about a new empowered person, about how he arrived in Miami and rescued a young woman named Gabriela Gonzalez, a friend of Glory’s, from being interrogated. According to the reporter, the kid watched members of the Halloran crime family empty their weapons into the masked man, without hurting him. Then when they turned to attack her, he zipped her out somehow, went back to deal with the kidnappers, and then came back to make sure she was alright.
Oh, and he told her his name was “the Arbiter of Life and Death.”
But wait, the newscast was just getting good: apparently around the same time over a hundred and fifty members of this crime family dropped dead, although no exact cause of death could be found. This included members throughout Miami and Florida, and well as several dozen confirmed all over the US, Mexico, and a few in South America. All who died, as near as anyone could tell, at exactly the same time. Again, with no apparent cause of death found.
The world was flipping its collective lid over this – even more than I had thought they might. I guess it’s one thing to see someone like Glory, who not only seems to be everything a superhero should be, but whose powers are limited to affecting things in her vicinity.
But someone with a power that instantly strikes dead a whole lot of people all over the world at once – and to see that the owner of said powers seemingly wasn’t afraid to use them en masse – well, let’s say that people were concerned, to put it mildly.
As I flipped around the stations, one report caught my interest. They had done a deep dive on the Halloran crime family, and found that there were actually several hundred people in the organization at the various levels. And while 153 were no longer with us, plenty of the lower level members were.
But none that were known to have harmed others – only those whose offenses were minor were still breathing. Just the violent and abusive ones were dead.
I thought back to that moment of fury. I remembered lashing out at all of Frank’s people – all his people who had undeservedly hurt someone!
I’d only killed the deplorables.
I took a deep breath – what a relief!! I had been in shock that I had killed all of the Miami mob, no matter how good or bad they were, from top to bottom – but even in the middle of my fury, I had instinctively been selective about my targets.
And my sparrow-wisps had heard, and understood. After all, they were made of me.
Cool.
I felt better.
I tuned back into what the reporter was saying about me.
“…let’s not minimize this, the Arbiter killed over 150 people with no due process – he became their judge, jury, and executioner. And his reach looks to be global. I myself am feeling a little fear right now – what if he’s watching, and finds this report not to his liking – could I be next, with no warning, no appeal, just here one second and dead the next?
“We have to hope that the fact he spared so many other members of the Halloran mob is some evidence of his capacity for mercy. But if the Arbiter is as unkillable as Ms. Gonzalez suggests, their may be little law enforcement can do to stop him, especially if he can simply will death to anyone, anywhere, without even leaving his home, wherever that may be.
The reporter continued, “Glory’s comment on the Arbiter was also interesting, as much for what she didn’t say as what she did. When asked if she had any connection to this man or knew who he was, she replied by saying that she would never embrace or approve of such vigilante actions of summary justice, that she intends to work within the law and use her powers to serve the law as best as she could – not exactly an answer to the question, but still a firm denouncement of the Arbiter’s actions.
“For what it’s worth, the Halloran family members he spared seemed to get the Arbiter’s message, and are each embracing turning over a very new leaf. It remains to be seen what impact the Arbiter will have on the rest of the world.”
I shook my head, thinking “you’re telling me!”
I channel surfed some more, halting suddenly on the Global News Network, GNN.
The chiron on the lower third promised that coming up next was a professor of quantum physics who could explain the meteor powers.
I have never hated commercials more than the fourteen that followed.
And then the interview with the professor began.