Lightweight 10: Graduation

By Nicholas Ahlhelm

The age old struggle between the Morlocks and the Eloi becomes a full scale war in the heart of the city with Lightweight and Howl trapped in the middle! In a battle fought over two dark futures for him, Lightweight must find his own path, but with the threat of Black Death still looming, he might not survive to see it!

The grand finale of Lightweight's first year comes in "Graduation" by Nicholas Ahlhelm (Living Legends: Old Soldiers, Epsilon)!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Metahuman
• Release date: Dec 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311589545

Nicholas Ahlhelm

Nicholas Ahlhelm produces new super powered fiction, often in a serialized format like you see here with Lightweight. He lives in Eastern Iowa where he wishes the winters were just a bit less wintery. Learn more about his work at superpoweredfiction.com. To directly back his writing and get new serialized stories months before everyone else, support him at Patreon.com/ahlhelm.

Book preview

Lightweight 10

Graduation

By Nicholas Ahlhelm

Lightweight 10: Graduation Smashwords Edition, Lightweight and all related characters are copyright © 2014 Nicholas Ahlhelm.

Edited by Lisa Matthews Collins.

Cover illustration by Brent Sprecher.

Lightweight logo designed by Cynthia Celeste Miller. Lightweight costume and insignia design by Brent Sprecher.

Some fonts used in production of this book were created by Blambot and are used under their Free Font License Agreement. © Nate Piekos. Blambot.com.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Graduation

Afterword

Letters

Backers

About the Author

The End

Graduation

I was in the midst of a war and this time I knew it wasn’t a dream. But somehow, the world wasn’t quite real. This wasn’t the Eloi’s hidden base. I wasn’t buried somewhere in the middle of King’s Keep. Instead, I stood in a field of clouds, the open world beneath me. Again, I was in the dreamscape of night after night. But this wasn’t the quiet sterile world of those dreams. It was a fury of violence as black and white figures battled all around me with no end in sight.

I didn’t understand it. Somehow I was divorced from reality. I flew into a battle already under way, but something was unreal about it. This appeared to be the dreamscape, but I knew that couldn’t be. It had to be something else.

Or someone else.

I turned my attention to the Eloi. Most wore masks, but their short frumpy leader wore only a grin. I charged towards Bertram Finklestein and let every ounce of power I could bring forth yank his uniform into the air. He slammed hard into a ceiling I could not see.

And abruptly the real world returned.

***

Lightweight stood atop his boogie board in the midst of the same blank white room where he first learned of the Eloi’s plans. His body ached and his head hurt, but the carnage around him reinforced the need for his presence here.

Gray-suited Eloi battled with pistol and blade against creatures straight out of nightmares. While the Eloi all had a strange uniformity, the Morlocks channeled their powers through transformation. Dogs and cats, foxes and horses, even a rhino and a hyena rampaged through the room. The Eloi seemed to outnumber Howl’s brethren, but the Morlocks made up for it in sheer ferocity.

People are dying, Lightweight thought. They want to annihilate each other and they will succeed if I don’t stop them. Is it even possible to stop a holy war? One group wants me to destroy the world and the other wants their enemies dead?

An Eloi grabbed Lightweight by the arm and pulled him away from the field. He kept his weapon down as he yelled, Come on! You shouldn’t be here!

Andy’s voice. Lightweight knew the man