Son of Shadow Hero of Light

by C. Louis S.

While doing morning chores, Leon received a message on his phone from Randall. It said they should meet in the park later that day. Leon sent a message to Mother in the other room.

  Mother: What are you two going to be doing?

  Leon: Just riding our bikes around the park.

  Mother: Okay. Just don’t be out too late.

  Leon: Thanks Mom :)

  Mother: Honey, I know you’re disappointed about your color, but that doesn’t change who you are.

  Mother: If you ever want to talk, I’m here for you.

  Leon put the sponge down. It doesn’t change who I am? Who am I except a lantern? Being green is the worst. What good would talking about it do? I need to learn to use dark energy so I can get the other powers, not talk about how “it’s okay to be green.”

  Leon picked up the sponge and finished his chores. After lunch he grabbed his bike and took off down the street. I wish I didn’t need a bike. If I could fly or apparate wherever I wanted to, I wouldn’t need this bike. I could go anywhere. Stupid bike. Stupid being a lantern.

  Down the street, around the corner, around another corner, and three doors down was Leon’s target. Randall’s house was smaller than Leon’s. The grass was a jungle and paint was missing from the crooked shutters.

  Leon knocked on the door and the door opened almost instantly by Randall’s mother. She was dressed in a flower-print blouse with her brown hair down at her shoulders. She smiled warmly and ran up the stairs so fast that Leon almost didn’t see her go. She returned just moments later to say that Randall would be right there.

  When Randall appeared he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt that caught Leon’s attention. It was worn and black and had a cool yellow and black symbol on the front.

  “Batman?” Leon asked. “I thought only old people liked that.”

  “Yeah, I used to watch it with my grandpa. It’s cool. Ready to go?”

  They tore down the street in their bikes with the mountains behind them and just a few wisps of clouds in the sky. At the edge of the park they hopped the curb and raced down the sidewalk. Leon could hardly wait for them to reach their favorite tree. A speeder raced past them going the opposite direction and the strong wind left in the runner’s wake blew Leon’s hair in his face and forced him to pedal harder to maintain his speed.

  The speeder’s wake had also scared a young boy off his bike just ahead of them. Randall stopped just short of the kid and got off his bike. Leon continued forward, staring incredulously at Randall. What is he doing? The kid’s fine. We’ve got important things to do today.

  Slowing down to wait for Randall, Leon watched as Randall picked up the boy and his bike. Leon waved Randall on to hurry him up, but Randall ignored him and made sure the boy was okay. Not only did Randall pick the little boy up, but he also wiped the rocks from the scrape on the boy’s knee. He smiled and said something that sounded encouraging before the boy got back on his bike and rode off.

  “What, you’re a hero like The Avalon now?”

  “Trying,” said Randall. He smiled playfully before picking up his own bike and hopping on again. They were almost at the tree. An aeronaut streaked overhead just above the trees causing the leaves to rustle loudly. Leon put his hands up to pretend to grab at the person and Randall followed.

  “I wanna fly!” Leon shouted at the flying girl that was now too far away to hear.

  Their tree was so big at the base that they could duck behind it and not bee seen from the sidewalk. It made a perfect place to talk. They ditched their bikes at the sidewalk and ran behind the tree.

  “Last night I got so close. I could feel it. There was so much dark in me. It was … it was unbelievable. I thought I was gonna burst.”

  Randall puffed out his chest and stood up. “Oh yeah? Watch this.”

  He found a leaf and a twig from the ground and placed them in the palm of his hand which he held out to his side. He closed his eyes for a moment and then watched the astonishment grow on Leon’s face as he lifted the leaf and twig ever so slightly off his palm with only a thought.

  They only hovered there for a moment before dropping back into Randall’s palm. Sweat had beaded at his temples and he was breathing heavily, but the smile on his face couldn’t get any wider.

  “You’re a mindbender!” yelled Leon.

  Leon and Randall pumped their arms and jumped up and down triumphantly. They shouted to the mountains and the trees. They gave each other high fives. Leon begged for more.

  “I can’t yet. It’s hard work, you know? I hear it’s like a muscle. You have to use it more and more to get it stronger. But here, let me play a little on my phone and recharge.”

  Randall pulled out his phone and began playing a game in order to win precious seconds of basking in blue light.

  “How did you do it?”

  “I don’t know. Just the same things as you. You know when you get all that darkness in you, and it really starts feeling heavy?” Randall asked, not looking up from his phone.

  “Yeah. What do you do then?”

  “I just start thinking about mindbending. I just think about the twig floating off my hand.”

  Leon thought for a moment. “Well that’s what I do. I just start thinking about all the powers I want. I want to fly and teleport and have telekinesis.”

  “Maybe that’s the difference, Leon. I just think about telekinesis. It’s like I imagine the twig floating.”

  “Just that? You only want to mindbend? I thought you wanted all the others.” Leon looked confused and disappointed.

  “No, dude, I do. But just one at a time. You know?”

  “I guess. Man, I wish I could try during the day. Right now. I wish I could just suck in all the darkness everywhere and be like fssshh.” He lifted his hands and strained his back as if he were lifting something heavy.

  “Yeah. That would be awesome. I’ve tried it, but I don’t get anywhere with all this light. It’s gotta be after sunset.”

  “I know! Me too.”

  They flopped back onto the dirt.

  “Man, so now you have two. You’re a bubble, but you can mindbend.”

  “Well I’m just starting with telekinesis and force shields aren’t that cool.”

  “But it works. Now we know you can get more than one power. My brother was so wrong.”

  Leon pulled out his phone and began playing a game where you have to fly a bird through obstacles to get points. When he earned enough points for basking, he chose blue light this time. After the time was up, he was disappointed to not feel any reserve of blue light within him. He had a reserve of green light from the games this morning, but the blue light didn’t make him feel anything different inside.

  Hours later, Leon got a message from Mother that he meant to read and respond to, but soon it was out of his mind and he kept making Randall show him the floating twig trick dozens of times. He had to recharge with the blue light in between each time, but he seemed to get better at it every time. He tried heavier and heavier objects, but after a while he got weaker and weaker until he could barely lift the twig even after resting for half an hour.

  “Hey, we should totally have a sleep over tonight so we can practice together after dark,” said Leon. Leon sent a message to Mother.

  “Awesome. My house this time. Let me ask my mom.” Randall typed on his phone.

  “I’ll invite Carter, too.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t,” said Randall.

  “Why not?”

  “When we were studying about dark energy at your house he didn’t even read with us. He was totally bored.”

  “Yeah, maybe not.”

  Randall’s phone buzzed. “My mom says it’s okay at my house.”

  Leon’s phone buzzed. “My mom wants me to come home to talk to her.”

  “Do you think she’ll let you?”

  “I bet she will. I’ll message you when she says yes. Dude, we’re going to be playing shadowball with the seniors by like Saturday!”

  chapter
4

  The Firebolts