Starboy #1 - Whoopings

I'm not quite sure where people got the idea that I grew up in a farm. 

It's not... completely false. I did, in fact, turn eighteen on a farm by people I considered my parents. 

But, to tell the truth, I'm a bit sickened by an interpretation of my character I've seen going around. That with all of my power, had my spacecraft crash landed with the wrong family, I would've been a megalomaniacal dictator. That I would've destroyed the planet. 

And that it's my loving family which we have to thank for making me the hero that I grew into...

I don't really like that analysis. I'm a good person because I chose to be. Humans are not clay. They're not shaped by the people around us, at least not completely. Any failure I've made, and believe me, I've failed a number of times at a number of things, has been my fault and my fault alone. 

When I landed, as an infant, in Kent City, Louisiana, I did not have the beauty that I have now. I was a thin, long creature, pale as the moon. With horns that shot out of the sides of my head, and beady red eyes. So scary! 

My mother and father were just returning from the hospital to my grandfather's farm, my baby brother, Adam, in my mother's arms. When the meteor shower began, I quite literally crashed into their front lawn. 

My mother saw through my ghoulish exterior and pleaded with my father to let them take me in. My father didn't even want the son he had, much less some ghoul from space. It took the pleading of both his wife, and his own parents, to give me a home. 

After a year, my parents discovered my first superpower: My super strength. Any time I'd play with Adam, I'd nearly tackle him, something my mother would often tease me for. They'd call me their little Hercules. The next power I'd discover, proved to be far more helpful. 

I could shapeshift. 

This is one of the few powers I never shared with anyone. Shapeshifting always felt particularly evil, you know? Even in my adult years, it left me feeling like I was wearing a body that wasn't mine. Whose body, though? 

My brother's. By the time I was ready for grade school, my parents were able to falsify some story that we were twin brothers. Adam and Vincent.

I... Never quite excelled in school. Sure, I was a phenomenal writer, and I was quick to discover that I excelled at any instrument I was handed, but mathematics? Science? The stuff they valued?

Forget about it. On the other hand, my brother was a genius. He was the one who was going to go to college, who was going to be our family's ticket to millions. 

Speaking of which, at some point in primary school, my family moved out of our grandparent's house, and we lived out of a sandwich shop that my father had opened. That I worked at, while my brother was given free reign to study away. Still, during the few hours I spent off, and he spent without his head in a book, we'd be running through the streets of Louisiana, getting into as much trouble as possible. Our aunt also lived with us. I forget about that, a lot. 

One time, we summoned a demon just to shoot her with BB guns for a half hour. Got the whoopings of our lives after that one. Sorry, Miss Harmonia.

By the time we got to High School, I was scared. All I ever knew was Kent City! Now, you're telling me I have to go off to college? Or... worse. America was getting mixed up in 'Nam, and... Things were not looking good. 

And with the Jewish quotas a lot of schools had? And with my GPA? Well, we didn't have many years left. 

One night, Adam woke me up. "Vincent! Vincent! You... You have to see this." I groaned. 

"Adam... Can it wait?" Adam shook his head. He had that wild, crazy look to him, that I had grown incredibly familiar with. I sat up a little quicker; whatever he had too show me was either really gross, or really cool. Probably both. 

In his hand, he held a syringe, a glowing, red hot liquid within. From it "Behold," he said, with a grin, "Last time we were at grandma's house, do you remember when we took a look at your old ship?" 

I nodded. 

"And do you remember those rocks?" 

"The- The ones that made me throw up and then pass out?" 

"Yeah, those. So, I decided to steal a few-" 

"Of course you did." 

"-And I've been fidgeting with them in my free time, and... you're not going to believe what I discovered! I have to show you something that will blow your mind!" 

I chuckled, "If it's anything crazier than that foot long roach you showed me, I'll give you a nickel." 

He laughed at my ignorance, "You'll want to give a dollar, Vincent." 

He led me outside of the sandwich shop, to the alley way beside us, resting on a trash can. Adam had taped the trash can shut, leaving whatever was clearly inside of it to shake it around. 

"I melted down the rocks, Vincent. They secreted this... tantalizing pheromone! It's not like anything you've ever seen! Naturally, I wanted to see how it reacted with other liquids. So, I played around. Mixed it with some chemicals under the sink,  some in the science lab at school, even my own blood, Vincent!" 

Adam was beginning to frighten me. I had a tendency to sneak out of the room we shared at night, going out to drink with my friends or to see some sort of outdoor movie. I never gave much thought to what trouble Adam would get into without me there. 

"I asked Grandpa if he could take me hunting last summer, it was the most... ethical way to get the blood I needed. We killed a deer. I mixed it blood with the melted mineral and," he smiled. "It began to fizz. Like soda pop, Vincent! I- I knew I was on the cusp of something, but-- But what, Vincent?" 

Adam beat on the trash can as if it were a drum, "Whatever planet you come from, wherever your powers come from, they're ideas, Vin! And get this! I injected this- this- this deer extract I had concocted into the creature I could find!" 

I tensed up. What had Adam gotten himself into? What had he become? 

He began to remove the duct tape from the trash can's lid. I wasn't afraid that whatever horrible creature Adam had concocted could hurt me, no. I was terrified of what it meant. 

My brother had created a species. 

The moment he removed the last piece of tape, the creature knocked the trash can over, and slowly stepped out. 

A rat. 

A rat with antlers. 

"I named her Katy Beth."