Supermen (1)

Stanley paused and fingered the ancient, crumbling concrete thoughtfully. The faint aroma of burnt bone wafted up from far below, and he peered over the decrepit parapet, staring five hundred feet down at the broken road bed. 

He nodded and clambered precariously up on the wall, and teetered for a moment. A gull screamed overhead, he peered up at it, smiled, thought - why not -  and extended his arms, flapping, then leapt into the void. Pivoting in the air, he aimed his head down at the road, watching it suddenly leaping into close focus with a small smile.

*  *  *  *  *

Wen Xo watched as the body plunged down, hitting the fractured asphalt with a fluid smack, the head shattering like any canteloupe and spraying its contents around. He picked his way across the ancient lanes to the body, watching his footing carefully in the jagged fragments of road, and toed the body speculatively.

'Stanley, Stanley, you'll never learn, I swear, You must be the stubbornest man alive'.

The mashed face he stared at took on a faint air of annoyed disappointment, then one eye opened and glared up at Xo. 'Bloody, bloody machines. Still failed'