TEXAS, 1948

The wind was picking up, rattling the aging weathervane on top of Winnie’s little house. The hens were spooked something awful as the dust whipped across the land, stinging Winnie’s eyes every time she opened them. It was making her cry a little. That was why she was crying, she told herself.
Such a crazy year, she thought to herself, shutting her eyes and holding Johnny tight. A year ago she hadn’t even believed in crazy nonsense like monsters and magic and all that hooey. Only it wasn’t hooey, turned out. It was real, scary real, and thank to Timmy Ferguson, a little boy with not enough love and too much imagination, she was smack dab in the middle of it. It had nearly made her nuts, she thought, and it had taken the life of her darling husband Roy. She missed him so much, and it made her feel terrible that it didn’t hurt more, but Johnny holding her like he was just made it better somehow. Even here at the end of the world.
Of course he’d go and ruin th’moment by talking. But that’s what he did.
“I’ve failed, Winnie.”
Winnie squinted her eyes open and looked at Johnny, staring off into the heart of the storm. Didn’t seem to bother HIS eyes none. But then, it wouldn’t. Not him.
“If only I’d fought harder...smarter, something. If only I had my old pal Doc Parker here. He was always the smartest man I ever knew. HE’D know how to lick this crazy storm.”
“He ain’t here, Johnny,” Winnie reminded him, having to speak up to be heard over the increasing gale, “...he never existed. I’m sorry.”
Johnny nodded gravely. “I know. There’s only me...Johnny ‘Sparkplug’ Watson, superhero in a world without superheroes. A man who shouldn’t exist.”
Winnie thought of Timmy Ferguson, and the outlandish yarn he’d come telling her about, that incredible day all those months ago. Yelling and carrying on about some comic hero he’d created, whilin’ away the hours while his parents were off doing God knows what. ‘Johnny Electron’, he’d called him, and Winnie told him that was a fine darn name for a superhero.
Except Timmy kept saying he’d met some strange girl with dark hair, and how when he’d wished to her that his make-believe fella would be for real, she turned into some kinda monster, and...poof, there was his superhero, in the ever-lovin’ flesh. Winnie thought he’d lost his nut.
Until she saw Johnny, skimming over the cornfields on a blanket of electric light. She’d nearly fainted dead away at the sight. And her life had never been the same.
“I thought I could help this strange world,” Johnny continued, “...no matter if it was mine or not.”
“You did help, Johnny. You did good, you truly did!”
Johnny smiled, his cape flapping violently now, covering Winnie like a blanket. “WE did, Winnie. I couldn’t have done any of it without your stalwart help. We defeated the vampire cabal of Denek Doom...thwarted the mad mystics of Mirage county, and the wheat-parasites of Vash Spurio...shut down the sinister, beautiful Angela DuMal...”
“Let’s not talk about her,” Winnie suddenly started, giving Johnny a quick sideways look. “You really thought she was beautiful?”
Sparks rolled through Johnny’s dirty blond hair as he laughed. “For a villain maybe...but she couldn’t compare to you. My wonderful Winnie.”
Johnny leaned forward and kissed Winnie’s forehead, and she could feel the tingle through her skin, right down to her toes. Just like the first time.
The moment didn’t last however, and the howl of the furious wind rose. “If only I’d been able to stop my nemesis sooner...the terrible Warlock King himself.”
Winnie’s nose crinkled. “Lousy, spoiled Yankee brat. He got what he deserved.”
“Maybe...but in the past I’ve always been able to stop his wicked machinations in time. The dust-demon plague, the Atlantis scrolls...his shame golems were pretty rough customers, I’ll admit. But this time...”
“God, Johnny, would y’stop narrating everything? I was there, remember?”
Johnny hugged Winnie tighter, frowning at himself. He knew she hated it when he talked like that...like a comic book hero. “Sorry. Habit.”
Winnie smiled, pressing her face into the mesh of Johnny’s tunic. She felt the metal of his containment symbol jab into her hip, but didn’t seem to mind.
“But I couldn’t stop him from unleashing it,” Johnny finally continued, staring off at the growing whirlwind on the horizon. It was already huge.
“Ha’tawa...the Cyclone that will wipe away the whole world.”
A tear ran down Winnie’s face. “Once it starts...it never stops. Just gets bigger’n bigger, forever. I never thought he’d really do it.”
“I have to stop it,” Johnny said solemnly, before a helpless look crossed his young face. “But...I don’t know how.”
“You did th’best you could, Johnny. I’m so proud of you.”
He shook his head. “If only Doc Parker were here. He’d know...”
Suddenly, Winnie felt Johnny pulling away from her. He had a faraway look in his eye. It gave her butterflies.
“Johnny?”
“That’s it...”
Johnny turned to Winnie, inspiration in his eyes. “My containment symbol! That’s it!”
Smiling, Johnny reached down to the metallic lightning bolt affixed to his belt buckle. Winnie seemed confused.
“Ah don’t get it...what about it?”
“Don’t you remember? My secret origin! Doc Parker had to save the day when Kaiser Stormhausen turned the weather all topsy-turvy, and threatened to destroy the world with lightning storms. Old Doc Parker whipped up a gizmo that channeled all that lightning into a human vessel...me, Sparkplug Watson!”
Winnie half smiled. Johnny always got so worked up when he told his origin story. That Timmy Ferguson sure had an active imagination on him. “I remember.”
“The army 4-f’ed me on account of my polio,” Johnny said softly, recalling a history that never happened, “...if only they knew that six months later I’d be Johnny Electron, the Elemental Ace. Fighting against science-villains and nazi japoteurs with my hyperelectric shock rays.”
Winnie shook her head, hair flying wildly in the wind now. “You’re so silly sometimes.” A sad look passed over her. “So different than Roy.”
Watching her intently, Johnny stroked Winnie’s head. “You know I’m sorry about what happened...about everything. Don’t you?”
Winnie stared back, putting her hands on Johnny’s cheeks. “I know...I am too! But it weren’t your fault. It’s just the way things happened. It’s all over now.”
“No. Not yet it isn’t.”
Shaking her head, Winnie shouted to be heard against the wind now. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t you see?? Doc Parker gave me this containment symbol to hold all that storm-energy inside me, so I could channel it into my super-abilities. But if I take it off...”
Turning, Johnny stared into the heart of Ha’tawa. “...I’ll become pure electrical storm-power. I could tackle that whirlwind on it’s own turf...set up a counter-storm that would tear it to shreds!”
“What?? That’s crazy! That don’t make any sense!”
“It doesn’t have to! You told me once yourself, Winnie...I’m a comic book hero. I follow comic-book logic, not the laws of physics.”
“Johnny...” Winnie blushed, looking a little ashamed. “...I was insulting you!”
The hero just smiled back. “It doesn’t matter...you were right. This isn’t my world. I don’t have to play by it’s rules. I finally get that.”
“Johnny, no! If you lose containment...”
“I know. There’ll be no coming back. I know.”
“You CAN’T!” Winnie wrapped her slender arms around Johnny, holding him tight. “I won’t let you!”
“I have to Winnie! It’s the only...”
“This ain’t your world, you said so yourself!” Winnie stared up at Johnny, tears running off her cheeks and blowing into the gusting winds, losing themselves in the raindrops. “You don’t have to die for it! Please...”
“Watch out for Timmy,” Johnny said, swallowing hard. “He won’t understand.”
“Oh God, Johnny, please, don’t do this. I can’t lose you both, not like this!”
“You CAN. You’re the strongest person I ever knew. Stronger than me.”
Winnie sobbed, and Johnny looked away at the growing storm. Winnie followed his gaze for a moment. It really looked beautiful, cast against the sunset like it was. Beautiful and terrible. Just like everything, since she’d met him.
Turning back, Johnny and Winnie stared at one another before embracing, kissing a long, passionate kiss. Winnie felt the hairs all over her body standing up, and wished this would never stop. Just let it stay this way, just let it stay...
But it didn’t last. And when they broke away, she looked up at Johnny, and knew it was for the last time. It was, she thought, the most terrible moment of her life.
Beautiful, too.
“I love you, Winifred Hopper.”
And then Johnny smiled that comic-book hero smile of his, stepping back. She knew what happened next.
Slipping on his domino mask, which Winnie thought was just about the most useless thing ever since it didn’t hide nearly any of his face, but that he insisted upon wearing on missions anyways, Johnny gave Winnie one last wink before turning to face his final opponent. The air crackled around him, his cape flapping almost perfectly horizontally now.
“From the Earth, to the sky...”
Johnny crouched, electrical power bursting all around him, and he started to slowly rise off the ground. Winnie felt heat like the summer sun on her face.
“...WITH THE POWER OF LIGHTNING...FLY!!”
There was an explosion as Johnny took off, hurtling into the sky in a blaze of blue light that nearly knocked Winnie off her feet.
‘With the power of lightning...’ God, she hated when he said stuff like that. But she hated that she’d never hear it again even worse. And as she watched her silly, sweet Johnny, flying away on wings of pure power, she remembered that night, the one they both tried so hard not to talk about ever since it happened. When they’d been under the thrall of Angela DuMal’s lust charm. And then she thought about what Doctor Jenkins had told her two days ago.
She stood her ground and stared straight into the biggest storm to ever exist, tears flying straight off her cheeks into the wind. Her words were carried away with them.
“Johnny...I’m pregnant...”

High over the Texas plains, Johnny Electron strained to hold his position in the air as he brushed the edge of Ha’tawa’s fury. His cape tore off in the gale, lost in a flash. He would hardly need it.
“Come on, you big dustball...”
The words were inaudible against the maelstrom as he fumbled quickly with his belt, flipping a secret switch and releasing his containment symbol. It flew away, and Johnny felt the fantastic energy of a thousand storms, angry for release, surging forward.
“...let’s see you pick on someone your OWN size!”
Uncountable gigawatts of pure energy surged outward, and the physical form of Johnny ‘Sparkplug’ Watson was incinerated in a second. In it’s place, a mountainous mass of supercharged electrons swirled and tore at Ha’tawa, setting up a counterspin that threatened to split the Heavens. Clouds above boiled away as the battle of the storms was waged. Ha’tawa bellowed in gusts of pure fury, ageless anger give a voice of wind and magic.
But another voice could be heard over Ha’tawa’s raging, a voice that once was human, a voice that never should have been heard in this world. And never would be again.
“FROM THE EARTH, TO THE SKY...WITH THE POWER OF LIGHTNING...”
A moment of silence covered nearly half the state then, as the storms matched one another , opposites of unimaginable power. The sky shook, and a great vacuum tore air in from miles around. And then...
“...FLY!!!”
The air seemed to ignite, and both storms erupted outward. One last, monstrous gale tore across the land, and Winnie, among others, was knocked far back in it’s wake. The echo from the event didn’t subside for a few minutes, when the winds finally started to die down as well. It was all over.
It was pure chance, she supposed, that she caught sight of it then, fluttering helplessly in the calming breeze. She ran hard, despite her exhaustion, to catch up to it as it drifted to the ground, nearly losing it completely in her neighbours cornfield.
But she found it. Just a silly accessory, she supposed, not good for nothing anymore, if it ever was. But it was all she had left.
No, she corrected herself, not all. Definitely not all.
Holding tight to the tattered, blue and yellow cape, Winifred Hopper dropped to her knees, and cried for a long, long time, and promised never to forget how the world was saved by a man who should never have existed at all. A man who died for people who would never, ever know his name.
She wouldn’t forget the tragic death of Johnny Electron. She’d remember for the whole world.

Winnie and Timmy buried Johnny’s cape in a small, unmarked grave near his favourite spot, on the edge of town. And the following year Winnie gave birth to a baby daughter, Trish. Trish never knew about the Elemental Ace, knowing only that her father, a man named Roy, died before she was born.
Despite remarrying years later, Winifred Hopper always had a sadness about her, one her daughter often noticed, but seldom spoke of. Though it certainly cheered her when Trish and her husband had a daughter of their own, naming her after Trish’s mother.
Even after Winnie’s death in 1985, Trish would often catch herself looking at her daughter over the dinner table, and seeing something of her mother in those eyes. None of the sadness, she thanked goodness. But another quality. Something unnameable.
A certain...spark.

THE END

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