Today, for the first time in years, I thought about an old superhero idea of mine. I'm not sure if he had a name at the time, but I'm positive that if he did, it was 'Conduit'. I enjoyed creating battles for him for a solid year or two, but eventually, he suffered from protagonist syndrome.
By which, I mean...at the start, he had a power so weak that he by all rights should be a sidekick. He fought creatively, on his own, but gathered up some nakama because he knew he was gonna lose a lot of fights, so would need friends to help him.
See, his power started off simple enough. He could, through the power of his hands, take the electrical charge from one object he was touching, and transfer it through to whatever his other hand was touching. Basically, a very limited way of creating a lightning bolt of weak power.
Various points forced him to experiment. For instance, by touching himself, and his opponent, he could basically force a draw: knock himself out (because he's not immune to his own power), but take his opponent down with him. He learned eventually that he could channel energy through objects, so if, for instance, he was touching the ground and a wall, he could channel the energy from the ground through the wall, and through the wall, it could shock anyone touching the wall.
It was still a very limited power, though, until he figured out that he didn't actually need to directly touch his intended target: the thing about energy is that it's fairly good at traveling, especially over a short distance, so he could touch something for an energy source, and then shoot out over a short distance a lightning bolt: still not a strong power, but a much more versatile one.
There were two starts to his transition from average fighter into literal god, though.
The first was applying the principle above, in reverse: he doesn't, strictly speaking, need to be touching something to draw energy from it. That's just what comes easiest. So, instead, he can, say, draw energy from the air around him, and from that, discharge it.
Strong.
...The second realization was that he could store energy: rather than drawing it in from one hand to immediately release it from the other, and rather than an immediate equivalent exchange, he could turn himself into a battery, removing his limitation of having his surroundings dictate his battle power.
Suddenly, very strong.
It got worse though. Because somewhere along the line, he gained the ability to tap into dark energy, and also gained a limited ability to transfer matter to energy and vice-versa. Between these two, he became basically a god, since that allowed him to do almost anything. His mastery of the skills were limited, so it's not like he was able to, say, create a human being from scratch, or raise the dead. But something like regenerate an arm? Easy.
He even helped develop technology to tap into these forces, effectively giving the world unlimited energy and allowing for a world of superheroes to suddenly become a world of superheroes in a sci-fi setting, essentially, effectively meaning that he helped pioneer the future of humanity.
...So it was around that point, I got a little bored with the character. He lasted a bit longer, when he decided to immigrate to a new planet in which his power was mitigated, but even there, he grew strong enough that at that point, I kinda stopped thinking about him.
Until today, where I remembered some of these details.
I don't know why so many of my stories end with the main character becoming gods. Just a habit, I suppose.
By which, I mean...at the start, he had a power so weak that he by all rights should be a sidekick. He fought creatively, on his own, but gathered up some nakama because he knew he was gonna lose a lot of fights, so would need friends to help him.
See, his power started off simple enough. He could, through the power of his hands, take the electrical charge from one object he was touching, and transfer it through to whatever his other hand was touching. Basically, a very limited way of creating a lightning bolt of weak power.
Various points forced him to experiment. For instance, by touching himself, and his opponent, he could basically force a draw: knock himself out (because he's not immune to his own power), but take his opponent down with him. He learned eventually that he could channel energy through objects, so if, for instance, he was touching the ground and a wall, he could channel the energy from the ground through the wall, and through the wall, it could shock anyone touching the wall.
It was still a very limited power, though, until he figured out that he didn't actually need to directly touch his intended target: the thing about energy is that it's fairly good at traveling, especially over a short distance, so he could touch something for an energy source, and then shoot out over a short distance a lightning bolt: still not a strong power, but a much more versatile one.
There were two starts to his transition from average fighter into literal god, though.
The first was applying the principle above, in reverse: he doesn't, strictly speaking, need to be touching something to draw energy from it. That's just what comes easiest. So, instead, he can, say, draw energy from the air around him, and from that, discharge it.
Strong.
...The second realization was that he could store energy: rather than drawing it in from one hand to immediately release it from the other, and rather than an immediate equivalent exchange, he could turn himself into a battery, removing his limitation of having his surroundings dictate his battle power.
Suddenly, very strong.
It got worse though. Because somewhere along the line, he gained the ability to tap into dark energy, and also gained a limited ability to transfer matter to energy and vice-versa. Between these two, he became basically a god, since that allowed him to do almost anything. His mastery of the skills were limited, so it's not like he was able to, say, create a human being from scratch, or raise the dead. But something like regenerate an arm? Easy.
He even helped develop technology to tap into these forces, effectively giving the world unlimited energy and allowing for a world of superheroes to suddenly become a world of superheroes in a sci-fi setting, essentially, effectively meaning that he helped pioneer the future of humanity.
...So it was around that point, I got a little bored with the character. He lasted a bit longer, when he decided to immigrate to a new planet in which his power was mitigated, but even there, he grew strong enough that at that point, I kinda stopped thinking about him.
Until today, where I remembered some of these details.
I don't know why so many of my stories end with the main character becoming gods. Just a habit, I suppose.
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