Without Fear

Art by Garbriel Hardman – Colours by Bettie Breitweiser

SECRET AVENGERS #22

RESPONSE

The electrical hum made the fight feel like it was taking place in outer space, on a distant planet, somewhere my family would never find my unmarked grave.

But below the crackling energy, there was another noise. And this noise scared me. But it was also why I kept fighting.

The people screamed with every movement of the lumbering creature they were forced to form. These innocent people had no idea what was happening, but they knew I was their only hope.

If only I had any idea what to do.

The bolt slammed me and a moment later I heard the crack of the energy. He was faster than sound, how could I battle that?

The wall turned to dust around me and as it cleared from my facemask I looked up to see an observer. Someone who had always believed in me, the very lady who wielded her sword and granted me this position.

She didn’t move or say a word. She didn’t have to. Her presence was enough to intonate meaning and her face conveys a thousand words. She believed in me.

I was scared, of course I was, I’m no fool. But I had to show those people that even scared people can fight back.

I heard it described once as the ‘fight or flight’ response. I don’t know who said that but I guarantee they didn’t factor me in because I might be scared but that’s what makes me fly into the fight.

And I’ll keep doing it until this guy has no flight or fight left in him.

—

Comic Rewriting is a task where I take a single page of comics, usually without any words on it, and I rewrite it as prose. I’m mostly using it in my classroom – where I join in – but it’s also a good fun warm up activity to get words flowing and to look at the smaller intent on the page, the character level stuff behind the bombast. I find the best way to do it is in five minutes, it’s flash fiction, and you don’t overthink it. Well, no more than a writer overthinks anything in their whole life 😐

It’s a tonne of fun and I explain its classroom use in more detail here [LINK]