H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall Read Online Free PDF Page A

lighten the body.”  I concentrated on myself, and felt the change.  A tap down of my foot brought me up a foot, and I fell much slower than normal.
    Nick said, “That looks right, try a tiny jump first, just in case.”
    “Right.”  I stood behind my line and tried a half-hearted jump.  I tripled my previous jumps.
    As I walked back Nick said, “That’s kick ass – you almost look like you are moon walking.  Now try a real one.”
    I put real effort behind the next jump, and easily jumped fifty feet.  I believe a running jump took me about three hundred feet.  It was pretty cool seeing the ground slowly move away from me, and then slowly come back toward me as I jumped.
    When I leapt back Nick asked, “Is that your limit?”
    “At this, well … gravity.    I just need to fine-tune how low I go on gravity and I’ll be able to jump a lot further.”
    “Can I try?”
    “Sure.  Take it easy at first though.”  I concentrated on Nick and dialed him down on gravity effects.
    His leaps were about a quarter of mine in distance, but he didn’t have many problems landing.
    He said, “You must be stronger than I am.”
    “Yeah, they said all supers are pretty strong.  Let’s find some rocks, see if I can get a ratio.”
    We wandered around testing rocks until Nick had problems lifting one – we figured it must weigh eighty pounds.  It felt light to me, however.
    I said, “I should get a one-day gym membership to test this out, it would be a lot more precise.”
    “Not a problem, wait until then.  What’s next to test?  Can you alter the general gravity of a region, or sphere around you?”
    “Let me try.  I’ll make it weightless first if I can just to prevent crushing everything.  Stand back away though....”
    Nick walked about fifty feet away, but followed me at that distance as I moved into an area with some trees and brush.  I concentrated on spreading a field of low gravity.  Seconds later the brush, tree limbs and grass lifted upward slightly.  It appeared to be a field about thirty feet in diameter.
    Nick slowly closed our distance until he was a short distance outside my range, picked up a rock, and tossed the rock into the field.  I'd have expected it to move perhaps six or ten feet from the throw, but it glided through the field nearly to the other side before it touched the ground.
    I put more effort into the field and called out, "Again!"
    He picked up another rock, gently tossed it and this time it didn't even change its direction until it had gone through the entire field.  He got brave and bounce-stepped into the field.
    Nick slowly flew through the air from my left to my right.  His feet stayed a foot or so above the ground until he passed through the edge of the field on the far side.  As with the rocks, he quickly fell down to the ground under normal gravity.
    He looked back at me and said, "That was pretty awesome.  How about I move further away and you crank it the other direction?"
    "Got it.  Dropping this field."  I stopped concentrating on it and the field immediately dropped.  I felt the change in the local gravity of the area.  After taking a few deep breaths I tried increasing the normal gravity in the local area as much as possible.
    In seconds everything bent down low to the ground, tree limbs hung at sharp angles, and leaves drooped directly down toward the earth.  It almost appeared as though a giant foot had stepped on all the grass.
    Nick said, "Wow, your eyes are really glowing now."
    I dropped the field and a lot of the plants sprung back to their normal position - but many appeared damaged and didn't come off the ground at all.
    He asked, "How quickly can you drop that?"
    "It was immediate - as soon as I stopped concentrating the gravity went back to normal."
    "Let's try again over there, but this time see if you can increase gravity slowly."
    "Sure."  We walked over to another area.
    He said, "I'm going to stay in your field, if I fall to the