[Maelstrom - Chapter 05] Samuel Oslo

No one man should have so much power. I had been trying to piece together as much detail as I could find about Maelstrom. I first saw him on the news when he was called Ironbot. He had stopped a speeding car with his hands. It was unbelievable, seeing a living breathing superhero on the TV screen. It was something straight out of a fantasy.

I was not interested in the suite per se. I was interested in the man. The second time he came on screen was four weeks later, when he saved a plane from crashing. His suit was different, it had been redesigned, and now he could fly. What sort of genius could devise something so incredible? Was it one man, or a team of men? It could very well be a government project. I hoped it was not.

The internet was a massive orgy of discussions on Ironbot Maelstrom. As is the case with most such things, he was being called divine by some and evil by others. Some even called him an extra-terrestrial. But the more I studied the suit and it’s motions, the more it became apparant that he was only human. And I became convinced that I could build a similar suit. Such an endeavor would require resources and time.

I made elaborate design sketches. And it became evident to me that I was quite close to building my own Maelstrom suit. It had taken me only a day to design the suit completely. Maelstrom was on the news almost on a daily basis. He’d brought down the crime rate in the city. This was something I intended to rectify. For every hero, there must be a villain. I couldn’t imagine my city of sin turning into some sort of a cub scout camp full of do-gooders.

It was during the crafts hour the next day that I got my hands on the various materials that would be used to build the suit’s main structure. The cardboard was thick enough. It couldn’t stop bullets like Maelstrom’s armor, but it would have to do for now. I traced out the design on the cardboard and cut the various pieces. I glued them together and marveled at my own ingenuity.

While the other inmates were drooling and working on various silly crafts projects, I was on the way to become a super-villain. As I put on the suit, I could feel myself change. The suit transformed me into the super-villain that I always knew myself to be. The nurse smiled at me. I walked over to her.

“Why are you not afraid woman?” I asked her. She burst out laughing. “Why should I be Samuel?”

Insolence!!! “Because I can hurt you my love,” I said and grabbed her. The guards and male nurses rushed over. But I was unstoppable. I jumped at them with blind fury. The suit prevented the needles of the tranquilizers from reaching my skin. I grabbed the baton from one of the guards, and charged down the hallway, swinging the baton hard on anyone in my way.

***

“These are live images from Clearbrook Asylum, where moments earlier, 16 inmates escaped led by Samuel Oslo. Oslo was arrested 2 years ago for bombing the 23rd Street precint station. Authorities have launched a massive manhunt to capture the escaped criminally-insane inmates. But so far, there has been no…”