Lifetimes of color. Lifetimes of smells and tastes. Lifetimes of the warmest feelings that may have ever been felt.
Lifetimes of silence.
That was the fate of Kalea, one of the Demi-Gods of Hawaii. Found in an active volcano when she was just a babe by Lianna of the Lava and Heat, Kalea had been raised by the Demi of Hawaii to be one of their own. Blessed with incredible powers of super strength, durability, flight, an incredible resistance to heat, the ability to heal others and never truly die, she stood tall with the other Demi.
Her one hindrance was she was born without the ability to hear. She learned to deal with being deaf early in her life, Akamu of the Forest taught her how to speak sign language and then how to lip read and control and use her voice. By the age of a hundred, she was able to speak and listen by watching the most subtle motions in a person’s face.
So when her boss, Ben Thorn, screamed in her face, she was able to interpret every angry word without having her eardrums blasted into oblivion. It was one advantage to not being able to hear.
His rage tinged spittle still covered her face, and as she pushed her fake glasses up to try and shield her eyes she thought back to her training with Kepi of the Mountain and Stone and Lei of the Mist and Storm. Kepi had taught her to stay as calm as the mountain in the most furious storm, and Lei had taught her to go with the flow of the wind.
So as Ben screamed and hollered that no one had yet put up the light at marker six yet, she simply nodded and smiled.
“Yes sir, right away sir,” Kalea responded.
“Get on it, Whisper! Now!” Ben shouted.
Having taken the civilian name of Whisper, Kalea nodded again.
Ben shook his head and turned away. Kalea could tell Ben thought she hadn’t heard him, based on her happy-go-lucky demeanor. She was used to being classified by her disability in the workplace, but Kalea managed to catch him saying,
“Freaking diversity hires…”
That made her blood boil a bit, but she thought back to her training and kept herself calm. With the physical appearance of Hawaiian descent and being clinically deaf, it wasn’t hard for Kalea to land a civilian day job on a movie set in L.A. when she made the move to the mainland. Realizing how many threats super villains posed to people outside of Hawaii and knowing that the Demi had the islands protected, she decided to move to become a superhero. Still wanting some privacy and needing an income to afford to live, she found work in Hollywood, having always been a fan of movies since their inception.
However, being identified only for what made her different by her boss would never cease to irritate her. She wasn’t born like the Demi, forged by the elements of the islands so she would always stand out among them, being Hawaiian descent in the mainland meant she was always a minority, and being deaf really made her feel alone in a world that was dependent on sound. She couldn’t enjoy a concert, she didn’t know what people sounded like, and she couldn’t appreciate the chirping of the birds.
Kalea sometimes felt most at home amongst other superheroes, but even then she felt like she was elevating herself above the people she tried to protect, or that at least those people saw her that way. In spite of her amazing powers, her weaknesses, and the things that made her different, Kalea always felt one thing in particular. She always felt human.
That meant she wasn’t above cutting a corner in her job. As soon as Ben was out of view and there were no other workers around, she picked up the massive light and flew it up into position. Pulling a wrench and screwdriver out of her pocket, she quickly fastened it into place. She almost fastened it too tight, as she felt the bolts click under pressure.
She flew back down to the ground and grimaced as she looked around, nervous someone had seen her. While Akamu had trained her to be adaptable, she had less awareness of her surroundings than she liked. Fortunately, no one had approached her at that time, and her secret remained safe.
Later, Kalea was on her lunch break. She often sat by herself on her lunch break, most of the workers grabbing seats away from her. While it always bothered her a little, there were always a few people on the crew with kind souls who’d elect to sit next to her and strike up a conversation. Not on the one she was currently in, however, so she sat and ate the fish lunch the cafeteria had provided.
Taking a bite, Kalea coughed it up and scratched it off her tongue. It was bitter and stale tasting. Kalea was used to the best fresh fish you could have in Hawaii, and even fish this close to the coast in L.A. tasted bland in comparison to her. She slumped her shoulders and looked up at the television screen to see footage of the award show that was held the night prior. No one thought to turn on subtitles, leaving her to extrapolate the events from the images.
In what seemed to be some kind of after-party for the Oscar’s, an actor was shown from what looked like camera footage to be throwing a massive temper tantrum. Kalea squinted her eyes, trying to make out who was in the footage, and his brown flowing hair and soft but angular face revealed to her it was Ryan Flow. Kalea had actually seen a number of his earlier movies when he was starring in more blockbuster fare, but in recent years he had started starring in indie films with character roles in bids to try and win the Academy Award for best actor.
The onscreen rage fit made Kalea guess it was the fourth year in a row that Ryan felt he was snubbed. The footage cut away to a talking head, and Kalea was finally able to lip read and see what the fuss was all about.
“...it was reported that Ryan had spent six months living in a nunnery in preparation for the role, which didn’t seem to help his chances. After losing to Bill Hole for his role as the creator of Velcro in Stick with It, Ryan had the meltdown of epic proportions. There is already chatter of Ryan being expelled from the committee…”
The talking head segued to another piece of footage of Hollywood executives seemingly discussing the incident. Kalea just rolled her eyes and shook her head. She had elected not to watch the Oscars the night prior, choosing to dedicate her efforts to patrolling around the city. There was never any shortage of crime in the L.A. area.
Just then, people began rushing past her out of the break room. She stared around in confusion, unsure of what was happening. Someone remembered Kalea was deaf and grabbed her by the shoulder, pointing her to the fire alarm. It was vibrating rapidly, and Kalea realized there was an emergency. Standing up with the worker who alerted her, she rushed out the door. While everyone else ran to the exit, however, Kalea dipped into an unoccupied side hallway.
Only moments later she emerged in her superhero costume. Clad in yellow, red and green, she had taken off the large glasses and pushed her wavy hair back, revealing a much stronger figure than that of Whisper. Her cape proudly wore the symbol of the Hawaiian flag and her stature was a testament to the pride of Hawaii. Flying up towards the ceiling, she rushed in the opposite direction of where people were running to.
Kalea could fly as fast as a jet at top speed, making traversing the workplace in this distance a snap. It took only a few seconds until Kalea found herself on set, green screens surrounding what seemed to be some kind of alien terrain. There was a giant tear in the green screen and fire licked at the tears, as parts of the set also sat in disrepair. Standing emerged from the tear was a tall man adorned entirely in gold, sparkling spandex. It covered him from head to toe, completely covering his face making his features completely indistinguishable.
Kalea furrowed her brow in confusion. If she didn’t know better, this guy was dressed up as an Academy Award. It was only made harder to discern what his deal was as Kalea couldn’t get any hint as to what the man said as he postulated and made sweeping motions with his arms. Common sense and reading his body language told Kalea enough, he was a bad guy and he was monologuing about his motivations.
She descended down towards the ground, and the man in gold finally noticed her. He recoiled in shock at the site of a superhero and then began to point and say something in her direction. Kalea landed just in front of Ben, who was shaking and hidden behind a camera. Realizing that if Ben had enough awareness to see that Kalea couldn’t hear it would blow her cover, Kalea wasted no more time and charged toward the man in gold.
The sudden rush of a superhero flying towards him made him shudder and bring up his arms in defense. Kalea reached past his arms and grabbed him by the chest of his suit. She lifted him up into the air and then tore off his mask. Underneath, was Ryan Flow.
“Um, excuse me?” Kalea asked with a raised eyebrow. “Is this for a part or a gig or something I’m missing?”
“No, you fool! I am Ryan Flow no more! I am what the academy has denied me! I am...The Oscar!” he shouted back at her.
Kalea stared at him for a moment. Then with a roll of her eyes, she dropped Ryan to the ground. Ryan landed hard on his butt, and Kalea landed in front of him.
“You were definitely not worth suiting up for,” Kalea commented.
Ryan’s look of anger switched to a smug one, and then scooching back a few paces on his butt he stood up.
“Well then, it’s a good thing I brought my stunt double!” he shouted.
For a few moments nothing happened, and Kalea looked around expectantly.
“Is this the part where a bigger guy pops in dramatically? I’ve seen enough movies to know-” Kalea was suddenly interrupted as to her right as a large form ripped through the green screen. Kalea turned and caught a massive golden fist as it swung in at her. The amount of force was unexpected and almost caught Kalea off guard.
Kalea had been trained in combat by Alika the Reef Lord and Lianna of the Lava and Heat, however, and even with no hearing, her combat senses were finely tuned. She managed to lock the elbow of the man who tried to punch her by twisting his arm. His whole giant form lurched, and she rushed in and kicked him the chest, sending him stuttering backward.
The giant man, the Stunt Double, regained his sense, and Kalea got her first good look. He must have been at least seven feet tall and was well over twice the size of Kalea. He was in an identical get up to Ryan, and Kalea understood the visual pun in their naming scheme.
“This is incredibly lame,” Kalea commented to herself.
Stunt Double barreled towards her again, and she returned the charge. Getting in just under his arm as he swung at her, Kalea went with her signature move. Punch. Her fist connected with Stunt Double’s chin, and he staggered backward. Kalea then threw her left fist into Stunt Double’s chest, making him slide backward. Preparing to complete the combo Kalea flew in and reeled her leg back to kick Stunt Double in the chin.
To her surprise, Stunt Double grabbed her foot mid kick and then threw her into the set. She went down hard, not expecting her momentum to be used against her, and the set shattered around her. It didn’t hurt much, but as she regained her senses she looked up to see Stunt Double preparing to slam in with both fists. That would hurt, so Kalea quickly flew out of the way, creating some distance between herself and her foe as he pummeled the ground where she was.
She stared at Stunt Double and tried to devise a quick strategy, but Kalea found herself bracing as Stunt Double ripped off a piece of the set and threw it at her. It exploded around her, and as the dust cleared she saw Stunt Double lunging with a fist. Biding her time, Kalea waited for the hit to connect.
Just as the fist impacted her arms, Kalea shot her arms both outwards, deflecting the force of Stunt Double’s punch. Stunt Double almost fell backward leaning back on one foot in recoil. Kalea took the opportunity to charge in, tackling Stunt Double and barreling him into the ground. He landed on his back, and Kalea began to pummel and lay into the large man with her fists.
Landing hits on chest and face, she sought to incapacitate the large man as soon as she could. After only a few hits he stopped resisting, and Kalea grabbed his mask, tearing it off. She prepared one more punch just to finish him off but caught herself. Underneath the mask was the face of a normal man, however, Kalea knew the look in his eyes to know this was a man with a severe learning disability.
Shocked and outraged, Kalea turned towards Ryan who could be seen staring wide-eyed at the fight. He suddenly turned angry and yelled, “Get up you simple oaf! Do your job!”
In the blink of an eye, she was upon Ryan and punched him just hard enough to knock him out and ruin his jawline. Her clenched fists trembled, and she turned back to see the Stunt Double who was still lying on the ground. She debated her next actions for only a moment, but she knew what she had to do.
A short time later, the man known as Stunt Double was sitting on a nearby park bench overlooking the Hollywood sign, changed into civilian clothes. He was still a goliath of a human, taking up almost the entire bench. Kalea knew no one else saw his face and helped him escape before anyone did. It may have hurt her status as a crime fighter in the eyes of some in L.A., but to her, it didn’t matter.
What mattered is when the police arrived on scene they’d find Ryan Flow hanging from camera marker six.
She flew in beside him, grabbing a seat next to him. In both hands she held ice cream cones with chocolate ice cream, passing one off to him. He smiled softly and muttered a small thank you, to which Kalea nodded and began to lick her ice cream.
“Tell me about yourself,” Kalea asked. “What’s your name?”
“Peter,” the now gentle giant said.
“Hi, Peter. I’m Kalea,” Kalea responded. “What do you like to do Peter?”
“I like watching movies,” Peter slowly answered. “And working in them. I don’t like being a stunt double. It hurts.”
“Yeah I think that’s fair,” Kalea replied. “You know what though, a big guy like yourself must be good at moving heavy things around. Why don’t we find you some work as a set hand?”
Peter smiled and nodded. Kalea grinned in return.
“Tell me some more things, Peter. Do you have a family? Friends?”
The night went on like that, Kalea chatting with Peter and getting to know the large man. If there was one thing Kalea knew, just because she couldn’t hear it didn’t mean she couldn’t listen. She believed more than anything that a person was not defined by one part of who they were.
Kalea the Mighty would always work to prove that.