Chapter 3!

Chapter 3

All that Topher saw when he opened his eyes was the brightest light he has ever seen before. He knew it wasn't the light to heaven, because dead people can't smell, and he smelled a freshly laid dog poo about six inches from where he landed.  Well not really landed more like jumped off a roof in an attempt to fly and belly flopped to his almost demise.  Topher didn't even have one second of flight, instead he somehow flipped in the air and  landed on his back directly under the sun and opened his eyes directly into it.  Butters Topher's golden labrador came up to his owner and gave him a kiss.  A kiss that if dogs could talk would probaly be followed, You jumped off the roof, I don't know, but I'm a dog, and I still love you.  At least that is what Topher thought the dogs kiss meant.  Topher also didn't know how we would of explained to his wife if she came out and found his body on the ground either dead, well if he was dead there would be no needed explanation really, or completely paralyzed.  He thought he can lift heavy stuff, run fast, the most logical thing that would he be able to do also would be fly.  Super-dude does it.  So why can't Super Topher.  He then scratches that name at how absurd and egotistical it sounded.  He got up with not a scratch on him, just a little soreness from the fall.  Looked down and saw his body imprint on the lawn.  He had no idea how he was going to explain that to Anne, but when the time came to he would of think something fast, or just blame it on the kids.  The second option usually works.
Topher went into the house with a tiny limp to think of costume options or possible names, because he thought that would be the most logical thing to do after finding out you have super powers.  First test them to see what you have, your limitations, and the powers you don't have would be the most logical 3 steps of part 1.  Part 2 would be think of a name that would strike fear in criminals minds, but at the same time instill hope in the people who need saving. Part 3 would be make an awesome costume, Topher was thinking something in orange because that was his favorite color, and possibly sleveless to show off his massive arms he has now.  And finally part 3 would be of course go fight crime and make a name for yourself.  But make sure to not step in the line of bullets until he was sure it wouldn't kill him.  He didn't want to hold the record for world's first superhero, and also the one who has the shortest career because he didn't know he could stop bullets.
Topher went and got some printer paper and his kids crayons.  He was pretty sure this isn't how most superheroes designed their costume but you have to start somewhere.  Topher was not the best artist, in fact he wasn't a good artist, to be honest he could barely draw a straight stick figure.  But he did what he always does and just tried.  He first drew a basic body and added massive arms to it, in fact it reminded of an anorexic person who had massive arms because he was on steroids.  He drew a cape on his hero looking person and a little mask to barely cover his identity.  Topher thought to himself that will work for now.  His next step would be figuring out a name for himself.  He was thinking maybe Captain Awesome but thought that might sound way egotistical.  Then he remembered the time when he called himself Leviathan but then remembered the beating he was handed last time he called himself that, and even let a little tear come out when he was haunted of those painful memories.  He then remembered why he wanted to become a hero in the first place, to be a voice for the voiceless, be able to stand up for those who were afraid to stand up for themselves, and to always defend the little guy and who ever else needed.  That's when the name came to him out of the blue, Defender.  Defender he thought to himself has a heroic tone to it, and also a hint of danger to strike fear into evil.  He smiled because he came up with the perfect name.  He wrote the name Defender under his stick figure person, and underlined it for good measure.  He colored his cape a dark orange, and wrote a big block lettered D on his chest, after he added a triangular chest to his drawing.  He was so in tune to what he was designing he didn't hear his come down the stairs.
"Were you on the roof?  I could of swore I heard something pacing on the roof a little bit ago?", Anne asked her husband.  Topher was not prepared to have to answer this question so soon.  In fact he was hoping the grass would grow over the body indent he just made in the lawn so there would be no questions asked, because Topher sucked at lying.  And his wife always saw through his lies, and that's why he always just told the truth instead.  He ponderded whether to make his usual smart ass remarks which might make his wife even more upset, or act like she was crazy and say he didn't hear anything since he was down here with his headphones in for a little bit trying to drown out the dogs barking while he was drawing.  But at that thought he looked down at his drawing and realized that was a drawing to be proud of, and his kids could whip out a better looking one in less time and in full color as well.  He opted for a plan A, being a smart ass.
"It might of been Santa practicing for the winter on peoples houses.  I heard he chooses random house where he knows kids are in school so they won't see him in the daylight to practice his rooftop walking.  You remember that movie the Santa Clause, well I heard that was based on a true story, so now the elves make Santa practice three times a week on random houses through out the year to make sure he doesn't fall down again", Topher said to his triumphantly on the spot.  Trying to hide his smirk he just wanted to let out and his sudden moment of sarcasm and intelligence.  Topher had no idea how his wife would respond to this absurd comment.  He waited for fury to be unveiled, or a laughter of how insane it sounded.
Anne just looked at Topher dumbfounded at what her husband just spurted out of his mouth, and responds out of sheer anger and amazement of how stupid her husband just sounded.  She hits him really hard on the shoulder and says, " You are so full of shit!"  She shakes her hand and realizes it feels like she just punched a wall, and then said, "You also need to stop going to the gym so I can punch you, and not be the one in pain."  The pain and the ridiculous answer her husband made her forget about what she asked in the first place and just changed the subject entirely instead.  "Let's go pick up the kid's now so I can get an iced tea because I'm thirsty, and a little snacky, maybe some fries too."
Topher completely amazed how easy it was to get out of that one smiles and grabs the keys to his wife's car and heads out the door with her behind him.  They sit in silence for most of the car ride there, except for when they had to order the teas and fries.  When you have children in the car ninety percent of the time the most two common things happen one you get a headache from hearing the kids scream and yell at the top of the lungs of who's touching who or they are in the sun.  The other side is yelling at them to be quiet, or attempting the many failed attempts at starting the quiet game which barely lasts ten seconds before a child says something.  So Topher and Anne were enjoying each others company in the silence why there still remained some in the car, before it was replaced with chaos and screaming.  Also the fact Anne's running on maybe four hours of sleep, and when she doesn't get any sleep she's grumpy, and Topher doesn't like grumpy Anne, so he just drives letting his mind wander due to the lack of conversation.
They pick up the kids and there's the sudden flurry of information though out the day.  Only a child can cover eight hours of a day in an incomprehensible five minutes or so, and will get mad if you one don't understand what they are saying, or two answer the way they didn't want you too.  The second Parker shot out of his classroom he instantly started telling his dad about his day, "Dad guess what!  Today for snack we had something I didn't like so I didn't eat it.  It was chocolate.  I go out of control with chocolate don't I dad.  And then at first recess I fell down on the slide because James pushed me, but I'm ok. And at second recess I was running around and tripped and scraped my knee.  At lunch Damian hit me because we were sitting next to each other, but I'm not sure why because we aren't supposed to sit next to each other we were supposed to sit with our class, but there were no seats left.  And at art we painted a picture for you, its you wearing a cape riding a skateboard, I called you Skateboard Dad.  Is that cool Dad! It's cool huh. And then we went home!"  The only thing Topher could do was nod while trying to digest what his son just said.  He knew if he said the wrong answer Parker would get mad at tell on him to mom that he wasn't listening.  He gave his daughter a hug after the giant explanation which gave him a few more seconds to pick and choose the right words to tell his son about his day.
Topher decided to tackle on each event his son told him one by one so he could gauge how he was reacting to each of his very carefully chosen words. " I'm sorry you didn't like your chocolate snack, but I'm glad you were a good brother and gave it to your sister instead."  Topher than offered a high five to his son which he happily gave. "Did James say he was sorry for pushing you? It was an accident wasn't it."  Parker nodded both times.  Two for two Topher was on a roll.  Topher than kissed Parker's knee to address the skinned knee. because that's what Topher thought was all that was needed.  Now the tough one involving Damian. "Now Parker being a big kid requires you to be able to sit other aged kids and behave as well.  I'm pretty sure Damian just didn't hit you for no reason, and I will talk to him about it when he gets out of class."  Parker just nodded his head knowing he just tattled on himself during the process of ratting out his brother. Topher knew he had to bring it home with the art picture.  This was the make or break moment of the whole entire conversation.  "That is awesome bud!  I would totally have a skateboard like that!  And that cape is rad!"  Topher sat back waiting for the aftermath of his attempt at having the right answers for the day.  Topher thought he had a victory in this column, but the only true judge of that would be Parker, his son.
Parker just looked at his dad with a quizzical face and says, "What does rad mean?"
Topher counted this one as a win because the only thing Parker got from that whole spiel was, what does rad mean?  "Rad is just another word for awesome buddy", Topher tells his son triumphantly.  Parker then tells his dad he's going to go play on the playground while they wait for his brother to come down.  Since second grade is one of the bigger classes they are always out for some reason.  And like everyday Damian is the last kid out.  The reason is because Damian stays behind to make sure the chairs are tucked in, the wipeboard cleaned off, the floor swept,  and all around the classroom is clean before he can leave.  The funny thing about that is Damian at home could care less about that kind of stuff.  It's true what they say your child is different at home, then he is in school.  Almost every parent is told that their child is so well behaved, polite, and so caring, and then you look at them like they are crazy and say simply he's faking.  All the kids pile into the car and the chaos begins once again.
"He has my book." "He won't give me a chip."  "She hit me!"  "His head is on my shoulder"  Are the constant things Topher and his wife heard being yelled from the back seat.  All the voices meld into one when there is that many things being screamed at once.
Anne turns around and gives the kids her angry look, the one that even scares Topher some times and says, "Not a word from either of your mouths, or if I hear one peep coming from anyone of you I will throw all your toys away!  I mean it!  I want quiet!  Mom has a headache and didn't get much sleep, and you are just making my headache turn into a migraine.  So be quiet or else!"   Short and to the point Topher thought.  The silence than began, but Topher knew it wouldn't last long, seeing they were his kids and they don't know how to be quiet for anything over thirty seconds.  The silence lasted for about fourty five seconds, and then there was a tiny peep from the back seat.  The typical car ride in Topher's mind.
When bed time rolled around it was time for the nightly ritual in Topher's house.  The bed time battle as he called it.  The constant bickering of who didn't want to brush their teeth first, what pajamas they were allowed to wear, who was going to get a bath first and a whole other batch of useless things that didn't matter to the average adult mind.  But when you are a kid it makes a huge difference.  Topher tucks his kids into bed after reading them a story, using silly voices of course.  Also attempting to try to change the names of the characters to his kids names, but they had none of that and complained about it.  Loudly.  He lays in bed and not a second goes by before Parker comes bursting into the bedroom. "I have to go poopy!", Parker says with a smile.
Topher looks at his son, "Well you know where the bathroom is."  Topher then points his finger out the room motioning for his son to get out of his room and head to the bathroom instead.  Topher hears his son making the normal sounds one makes while going to the bathroom and is in the bathroom wipe ready after he hears the all to familiar plop, before his son can yell from the bathroom "I poopied!".  You can tell Topher has done this a few times.  Topher sends Parker back to bed.  Goes downstairs and brings up little cups of water to hand out to the kids, so they can't pull the old classic "I'm thirsty!".  Topher and Anne were pros when it came to parenting.  About thirty minutes go by and all the kids are asleep.  Topher kisses his wife on the forehead and heads to the gym.  Topher gets to the gym and checks in.  Some people get upset about his gym check ins but he sees it as a way if I have time to work out, you can make time too, and the ones who are upset are the ones who can't commit to the a workout.  He goes to the weights because he's afraid to hit the treadmill in fear he will run through the window with his new found speed abilities.  He goes to the bench press bench and grabs all the weights in the gym and loads both sides so they are even.  He is not sure how much weight there is, he just notices the bars on the bench are bending a little bit from all the weight.  He starts to think this might not be a good idea.
Topher lies back on the bench and actually looks at all the weight he has on the bars, and hears the sound of metal and steel bending.  Topher not knowing his own boundaries, wraps his hands around the bar.  Takes a deep breath and pushes up.  Lifts the bar.  The bench thanks him for taking the weight off of the hinges.  He pumps it up and down with no problem.  In fact he holds the bar and sits up.  Then stands up.  Lifts the enormous weight over his head for good measure.  Not even sweating.  The only thing Topher can think is, cool.  He puts the weight on the ground and the bench once again silently thanks him for not putting all that back on it's hooks, out of fear of breaking them.  Unloads the weight and puts them all back where they should be, because one of Topher's gym's pet peeves is when people leave a loaded weight on a bar, or just place the weights in the most random places.  Once he found a twenty five pound weight in the bathroom.  He had no idea what the weight was doing in there, and he didn't want to find out either.  He stepped outside and realized his normal workout wouldn't work anymore with his new abilities.  Then he had a brilliant idea.
Topher left his car at the gym and started running, and ran all the way downtown in a few seconds.  Topher was going to start his crime fighting career tonight.  He decided to worry about the costume later, since he wasn't really well know through out the state.  It's not as if he was a billionaire playboy, or a famous reporter.  He was a manager at Prehistoric Pizza and only had 275 friends on facebook.  Not really the definition of the popular guy.  But still Topher stayed in the shadows just in case.  He spend the whole entire night out looking for crime and didn't find a single thing.  Not even a purse napping.  He then remembered that most superhero stories take place in big cities.  Not Boise. He then had an idea that would have to wait for another day since it was near midnight, and he left for the gym two hours ago.  Plus he has to go back to work in the morning.

Most people are excited for Thursday, because Thursday means Friday and the weekend is right around the corner.  For Topher Thursday is his Monday and he dreads Thursday.  He stopped and got coffee at DB on the way to work, and thinks to himself he should really buy stock in them, and soon so he at least gets some of his money back.  His cup says "You taste good".  And Topher is unsure how to respond to that.  He drives up to Prehistoric Pizza and just takes in the beautiful building that he once thought it was when he was a kid.  The fake palm trees around the building, the giant tyrannosaurus rex head up on top that moves from side to side, or it used to he works at a pretty old and dated Prehistoric Pizza, but when he was a kid that head moved.   Notices the trash all over the parking lot and wishes people would pick up after themselves, he sees everything from soda cups, beer bottles, dirty diapers, and even soiled underwear.  Is it that hard to throw away trash Topher thinks to himself.  He makes a mental note to do a lot check before they open in two hours.  He goes inside dreading the start of his week.
Topher walks in the door and notices some trash on the floor instantly, and thought that the game room closer probably no called no showed once again, and makes another mental note to leave him off the schedule so he might get the hint and quit.  Topher's fingers were crossed on that one.  He had to be careful this morning because he could use his new found powers and get the whole store set up in under thirty seconds, but he didn't want to raise any red flags that something has happened out of the ordinary.  He heads to the office after doing a quick walkthrough and silently cursing himself he couldn't clean up the store super quick.  It would take less than sixty seconds, but he decides against it.  He checks the email and sees a bunch of emails demanding the impossible to happen.  Have bigger sales and use less people doing it.  And still provide the same magical service.  The impossible is what the corporate side of Prehistoric Pizza demand, and to be perfectly honest we rarely hit it.  Being the fact it's Idaho, and we are two years behind everyone.  Some people in the world still think Idaho might be a city in Iowa, but if you say the word's Boise, people automatically think smurf turf, thank you Bronco's.
Topher heads to the ice bins to start filling the salad bar for the day and decides he could cheat a little here.  He fills up the ice buckets as fast as he can and carries what he usually would, walking only slightly faster, to show a little more hustle than usual, to the cameras it would look like he was working extra hard, and that is exactly the result Topher was looking for.  He iced and set up the salad bar in fifteen minutes and headed to go do prep.  This is where he was going to truly test himself due to the fact there are no cameras around the prep area, and also no one would be there for another thirty minutes.  He went into the walk-in and grabbed all the prep he had to do and just started going at it.  Topher cut peppers, cucumbers, onions, oranges, both salad mixes, and filled all the dressings in under five minutes.  Topher could get used to this.  Topher decided to slow down a little bit and started to cut the cantaloupe just a slight faster than usual.  The knife slipped and knicked his knuckle.  Which would usually cause a cut and blood, and an instant white face on Topher due to the fact he hates the sight of blood, there was nothing.  Not even a tiny mark where the knife hit the skin. Instead Topher looked at the knife and after analyzing realized that one of the teeth broke off and was sitting on the cutting board, where there should of been blood.  Topher 1, Knife 0.  This gave Topher another idea which might result in two revelations one he might be invincible, or two he's about to have only nine fingers.
Since no one was at the restaurant still Topher laid his hand on the cutting board, and  stuck out his left pointer finger.  Picked up the wonder knife which is one of the sharpest knifes in the store, one that has cut Topher many times on different occasions and took a deep breath.  He lifted his right hand up about six inches from his left hand and took a deep breath.  After five breathes and trying psyche himself up to cut his finger to see if he would bleed he went through on the fifth breath.  The sound that was the result was the same sound of metal scratching on metal.  But for once in Topher's life he felt no pain when he cut his finger.  Which meant one of two results, one he completely cut his finger off and the pain hasn't reached his brain yet, or two nothing happened.  Topher opened up his eyes half expectantly too see a pool of blood starting, a finger, and a nub but didn't see anything.  Instead he saw a knife, well what remained of a knife.  The knife shattered with the combination of Topher's brute strength he now possessed  and his newly acquired body of steel was the best way to put it Topher thought.  Topher let out a giant WHOOHOO!  And threw away the broken knife so there wouldn't be any questions, or evidence.  The downside is he just broke a thirty dollar knife, the plus side he found out knifes and falls from roof tops won't hurt him.  He thought to himself that is a fair trade off.
The rest of the day was pretty ordinary filled with kids coming up to Topher saying games were broken when all they weren't doing were hitting the start button.  It was a kind of busy day due to the lack of people the company will allow you have to work, but Topher has learned to adapt to doing the job of three or more people, one of his super powers he self developed.  Topher's coworkers call him the Prehistoric Pizza super hero, because he always finds a way to save the day, even if Topher is tired of doing it day in and day out.  And since the Prehistoric Pizza super hero is kind of mouthful to say they tried shortening it to the PP hero, but Topher nipped that one in the butt immediately.  Then came the time that other workers dread but Topher thought was the best part of the job, putting on the Timmy the T-rex costume to go give hugs and high fives to kids.  If Topher is having a bad day he just throws on that suit, in which he holds the record of getting dressed in the fastest in less than twenty seconds, and goes out to make kids smile, laugh, and sometimes scream in fear.
Topher always wondered why Prehistoric Pizza decided on using one of the most vicious dinosaurs of all time for their mascot for their establishment.  He always wondered that about Barney also.  In all honesty, a tyrannosaurus rex would just walk up to a small child, lick its lips, and devour the child whole.  Also Topher once asked the companies trainers a question that has still be answered.  How can a T-rex hug a child with such small arms and a big head?  It is physically impossible, in fact T-rex's can't do a lot of things which explains why they are always so angry and eating other dinosaurs.  They can't do pullups or pushups. T-rex's can't do the bench press or wear a hat.  And female T-rex's can't paint their toe claws if they wanted to.  When Topher brought all that up to his trainer in California his trainer  just looked at Topher with a face that screamed "Okay smartass!" and handed him the huge head of Timmy and told him to go dance.  And ever since that day Topher has danced and hugged his poor misunderstood dinosaur to many layers of sweat from being in such a hot suit.  And he has loved every minute of it and wouldn't change it for the world.
He walks around the store giving high fives to kids, knuckle bumps, and hugs to every child that will take them.  In fact Topher grabs a few tokens from up front and plays air hockey with a few of the kids, because in all honesty if you ever beat a giant tyrannosaurus rex at a game of air hockey that is a moment in your life you will never forget, even in if the tyrannosaurus rex took it easy on you and let you win, but Timmy wouldn't let you know that, he'd make it close enough so you both can be proud of the game.  Topher walked around taking pictures with kids, giving parents bunny ears, putting hats on his head, even though Topher still wonders to this day how is that possible, and sees every child in the building at least three times before heading back to his cave for his nap until the next hour that corporate demands for him to be out.  Which in truth only happens a few times a day to the people issue.
Through out the day Topher just stares at the clock to see if another found power is being able to control time to make work go by faster.  Sadly he does not have that power and staring at the clock just seems to make time go by even slower.  He makes another mental note for not to try that again.  By the time five o'clock hits Topher is ready to go home and see his wife and kids, and be bombared at the door by either screaming children, or faster than the speed of light conversations about how their day was at school.  During the drive home Topher realizes how slow it is driving in the car due to the fact that he could run home and be home in an instant now.  A power he was determined to try out tonight when the kids go to bed.  If he couldn't find any crime in Boise to stop, he would go else where to stop it.  He steps in the door and hears silence as soon as he gets home which wasn't always a good thing.  He walks into the kitchen and kisses Anne on the forehead, "How was your day hon? he asks her.
"Fine until I had to pick up the kids.  Then the migraine began again.", Anne told Topher.  An answer he was sadly used to hearing.  An answer which meant some massive damage control and some time for mom to get stuff done without being bothered by a thousand questions and the all to popular "Guess What!" which is now Parker's favorite way to start any sentence.  Topher heads upstairs and changes into a DB coffee shirt and some shorts and goes out to talk to the kids.
"Daddy!!!". Taylor says to Topher while give her dad a hug.  The best part about coming home from work Topher thought.  Sure he hugs kids all day in a giant dinosaur costume, but it's not quite as special when it comes from your own kids.  Taylor then gets a sad look on her face, "Daddy, Parker was mean to me in school today. He kept taking my crayons and told me I was coloring wrong.  He wasn't being nice.  He made me cry", Taylor says while tears start to appear while telling her dad the tragic event of the day once again.
Topher hugs Taylor tightly and asks, "Did you tell your teacher?" Taylor nods her head.  "Did Parker tell you sorry?" Taylor nods her head again.  "There then problem solved", Topher said to his daughter than asks her if she wants to play his kids favorite game, Destroy Daddy.  Which basically is Topher running around the backyard acting like any kind of supervillian he can think of, while his kids play fight, throw balls, or in his daughters case scream that's my daddy don't hurt him, for around twenty minutes or until someone gets hurt.  Even then sometimes when someone gets hurt they all get up and walk it off and go back to playing.  The quickest way to forget how much pain your in when your dad throws a ball at you and knocks you down, is to get right back up and charge at your dad hopefully tackling him.  And if he's a good dad like Topher feels he is he will go down like a freight train just him, and in some cases like Parker tackling him it feels like it.
"Dinner is ready clean up the yard, and wash your hand's and come eat", Anne tells the family from the door.  Anne looks at her husband and sees he on the ground which means some different things, either he hit Parker hard with the ball and let him tackle him, or he was napping on the lawn, and since she heard her son crying a few minutes ago she knew it was the first one.  "You need to watch your strength", she tells Topher.  Topher his head down nods and goes picks up toys in the yard.  Even though he could pick his wife up and down with one arm now, and run circles around her he knows who's the real boss.  Topher's dad gave him great advice on his wedding day, she's always right, and if she is wrong don't tell her.  That is  how they have lasted ten years of marriage, well that and rarely seeing each other.  
Topher and Anne got the kids off to bed with not as many battles due to the fact Anne threatened them they would wake up with no toys tomorrow if they didn't go to bed nice.  In about ten minutes all the kids were asleep, which meant Topher could go do what he waiting for all day while at work.  Topher kissed his wife on the forehead and left her watching the tv, and heads off to his car to drive the few minutes to the gym.  He parks his car and checks into the gym to cover his tracks.  He decides since Boise is quiet at night crime wise he might as well hit Seattle to see if there any action that needs to be stopped.  He starts running as fast as he can in minutes he is in Seattle about to start a new life as a state crossing superhero.  Topher smiles to himself and says "Let's do this!"