by J L Ender
“You— uh—” I stuttered. I wanted to ask what in the world he was doing in my math classroom. I shrugged. Why not? “What are you doing in my math classroom?”
“I’m taking math! I love math. One plus one equals two. Classic!” Iron Wraith beamed and stomped his feet in sudden excitement.
Tony and I just stared.
“Ok, ok.” He leaned in close. “I heard about you.” He spoke so quietly I had to strain to hear. “I heard you didn’t fall asleep like the rest of us.”
So the news had spread. I felt goosebumps all down my arms. How many people had seen my face?
“Come on, I need to know why.” The smile vanished from his face as sudden as it had appeared. “That turkey sniffer Sandman has been robbing jewelry stores all over the city.” In his eagerness he failed to whisper. “I want him stopped,” he finished in a low growl, smacking a hand into his fist.
“Turkey what?” I also forgot to whisper.
“Sandman?” Tony latched onto that word, but I already had a guess what it meant.
A few more kids started to shuffle in. One of them pointed at Iron Wraith. The superhero never wore a mask, so it wasn’t hard to recognize him.
“How did you know where to find us?” I asked.
“I didn’t.” He shrugged. “Checked every room in the nearest schools till I found you.”
“School hasn’t even started yet, how’d you—” Tony gaped at the Wraith.
“That would explain why so many rooms were dark and empty. Um, I should go,” he said. “Here’s my address. Meet me in an hour.” His hand blurred as he wrote on a scrap of paper and handed it to me.
“We have school all day.” I tucked the paper into a pocket on the side of my backpack.
“Oh. Well meet me after school. Bye.” And he was gone, making every loose paper, poster, and curl of hair fly once again.
Tony just stared at me. I swallowed and turned forward, trying to focus on the marker board behind the teacher. I needed a moment to gather my thoughts.
“You know Iron Wraith?” he whispered, a little too loud. Our math teacher was standing up from his cluttered desk, getting ready to greet the class. He didn’t seem to hear. I didn’t think he’d even noticed the Wraith. I suppose if my desk were that messy, I wouldn't notice my papers getting windblown either.
“That’s what I was going to tell you!” I whispered back, not turning to look at him.
“And you’re going to hang out with him after school?”
“I guess so.” I said the words with a faint tinge of amazement. Hanging out with a superhero?
A pause. “Can I come?”
- - -
Iron Wraith lived in a big mansion on the far side of town. It was too far to bike there, so Tony and I had to take a train. I told my mom we were visiting a friend. She would be working late again. It was early fall, the nights still warm enough that we didn’t need jackets. Everything would have been great, except for one catch.
I had to bring my little sister Katrina.
Normally I wouldn’t have minded. Having a nine-year-old in tow didn’t bother me the way it might other kids. I liked my little sister, it’s just… she didn’t know I’d been going out at night, and I didn’t want her or Mom to worry about me. I definitely didn’t want either of them to know I’d foiled a robbery.
“Is that really your friend’s house?” Katrina asked as we approached a wrought-iron gate that enclosed the Wraith’s giant yard. She’d just come from karate practice and she was wearing her white robe. She was a green belt.
I could see why she might be wondering. Ivy tangled its way up the walls on either side, wrapping tentatively around the poles of the gate. The house itself loomed like something from a ghost story, big and creaky and old-fashioned.
I pushed on the gate, and it gave, opening up onto a sparse lawn that looked like it needed a good watering. We walked up the drive. Tony had been quiet the whole way. He was biting his nails. Tony was nervous a lot, so I didn’t mention it.
There was no bell next to the mansion’s huge door, so I reached up to knock. The paint was red, faded, and peeling. I began to rethink my mental image of the Wraith as a wealthy rock star sort of superhero. His house told me something different.
The door swung open before I could pull my hand back. Iron Wraith greeted us with a broad smile. “Come in come in! I see you brought, um… sidekicks?”
“Something like that. This is my friend, Tony,” I said. “And my kid sister, Katrina.”
“I see. I think you were supposed to come alone. Pretty sure that’s what I was expecting. But that’s ok! Come in!”
We stepped into a big foyer with a spiral staircase in the distance. The rug in the middle of the room was worn and faded. There were nice paintings in gilded frames on the walls, but they were a little dusty.
“Alright, um, come in! Wait, I said that, and you came in.” He closed the door and disappeared, moving by us so fast it whipped our clothes.
He reappeared a moment later, with a tray bearing a pitcher of lemonade and a plate of cookies. “We can take this upstairs,” he said. Iron Wraith glanced at my little sister. “I’ve got a little sister too. Maybe you can meet her and play with her and stuff.”
Phew. I had been wondering how we would talk with my little sister around. I didn’t mind about Tony. He already knew I was going out at night. He agreed with me that someone needed to keep an eye on the superheroes, but he didn’t agree it should be me. He always bit his lip and frowned when I told him stories about the times I’d slipped out.
My phone buzzed as we walked down the hall. The display read MOM in bold letters. Feeling a little guilty, I silenced it and shoved it back in my pocket.
“My dad is at work,” Iron Wraith said as he led us up the spiral staircase. “My mom is out shopping.”
A girl about Katrina’s age was waiting at the top of the stairs.
“Are you a supervillain?” she asked, setting big, brown eyes on me.
“What did I tell you about asking my friends that, Jane?” Iron Wraith crossed his arms and frowned.
“What about you?” she asked Tony, ignoring her brother.
“I may have invited a supervillain over to play video games once,” Iron Wraith admitted. “I didn’t know he would try to test a shrink ray on me!”
“You got shrunk?” Tony was wringing his hands now.
“Ha! No, he missed. Ruined my favorite sofa.” Iron Wraith’s glare vanished like fog burned away by the sun. We reached the top of the stairs. An echoing hallway stretched to either side.
“I put it in my dollhouse,” Jane said.
“Jane, this is Katrina. Why don’t you show her that dollhouse?”
I could see the look in Katrina’s eyes. She had a million questions for Iron Wraith. But she let herself be dragged away by his sister, unable to resist the call of playtime with a girl her age.
Finally. “Alright, let’s talk,” I said.
Iron Wraith grinned. “I have just the topic in mind.” He put the platter down on a little wooden table near the top of the stairs. There was a blur and all but one of the cookies was gone. “But not up here. We’re going to the basement. I want to show you my secret lair.”
Chapter 4
The door to Iron Wraith’s basement was labeled:
IRON WRAITH’S SECRET LAIR.
KEEP OUT!!
The sign was written in glittery gold on plain, white printer paper.
“My sis made it.” Iron Wraith grinned. He didn’t seem at all embarrassed. The door creaked as he pushed it open and we descended into darkness. It had the familiar, musty scent of basements everywhere.
“You don’t keep your identity a secret,” I said, taking a small, thoughtful bite of my cookie. “Why?”
“Cat’s been out of the bag a long time. I messed up early on.” He stopped on the stairs to turn back to me. “Kinda like you did.”
That was true. Wraith, the Bluejay, and the Sandman—and m
aybe a few bystanders—had all seen my face. How many others would find out, sooner or later? How much trouble would that put me in? And my family… I had to do better. Maybe it wasn’t too late. I couldn’t risk my mom or my sister getting hurt because of me. I would have to be much more careful from now on to hide my face.
Iron Wraith reached up and pulled a chain. A lightbulb hanging from a cord lit up…
A basement.
It was just a basement. There was a washer and dryer against one wall. The dryer was rumbling quietly. A rack of tools was arrayed above a workbench on another wall. The third wall was busy with a sofa and television setup. A shiny, black Nintendo gleamed under the television.
“This is your hideout?” Tony asked.
“Yeah man, it’s perfect for playing video games. Do you guys like Minecraft? I’m not allowed to play Call of Duty yet.”
I didn’t actually own any video game systems. My family was too poor.
“This is just your basement,” I said. “Don’t you have costumes and equipment to keep somewhere?” I asked. I was trying not to be disappointed that Iron Wraith was so… normal.
“I don’t wear a costume,” he said. “Whatever I’m wearing or holding turns to metal when I run, just like I do. Otherwise I’d be burning through a pair of shoes every day! Oh, hey, I think I want a pop. Do you want a pop?” He was gone before either of us could answer.
“Well.” Tony pushed a strand of hair out of his face. “He seems—”
“Back!” Iron Wraith slid to a sudden stop carrying three sodas, all cherry cola. He handed them out and was moving to crack his own open when Tony flinched, stepping back.
“You just going to… open that?” he asked, looking at Iron Wraith as if he came from the moon. “Won’t it explode?” The same thought had occurred to me. I made no move to open my soda, certain it would burst all over me.
“Um, yeah I’m going to open it,” he said, giving Tony a strange look.
He snapped it open and Tony and I both flinched this time, but nothing happened. Iron Wraith took a long slurp of cherry cola. Seeing that the pop did not explode in Iron Wraith’s face, I cracked mine open and took a sip. Pop is bad for you, so I don’t drink it very often, but cherry was my favorite and I couldn’t resist having a little.
Tony didn’t open his until I drank some of mine without getting drenched. He must have turned the pop to metal when he ran, I thought. Incredible.
“Anyway.” Iron Wraith set down his pop on an end table. “I did have something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Ok,” I said. That was what we were here for, right? Though Minecraft sounded fun, too.
“Not to be rude, but are you sure about him?” Iron Wraith nodded at Tony.
I glanced at Tony, who crossed his skinny arms and frowned, then turned back to the superhero and nodded. “Yep. We’ve been friends since the second grade.”
“Cool. Imma be straight with you: we could die. I’ve got a lot of enemies.”
“Seems to come with the territory,” I said. While it wasn't going to stop me, I had to at least consider the dangers that came with getting involved.
“Did you say we could die?” Tony asked, biting his lip.
“I need your help.” Iron Wraith's perpetual grin vanished as he studied me. “The Sandman has been robbing banks and jewelry stores all over the city, and no one has been able to stop him… until last night.”
“I didn’t really… do anything last night.” At least I couldn’t point to anything I’d done that had protected me.
“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter, bro.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “You might be immune to his sleepy voodoo. If that’s true, you can help me catch him.”
“But I don’t have any powers,” I said.
“He doesn’t,” Tony confirmed. “If you take him out at night, he could get hurt.”
Iron Wraith nodded and grinned. “Yeah, I thought about that. I actually have a solution.”
He walked back toward the stairs and opened a closet door underneath. We crowded around him to look inside. Three suits of gleaming, bronze armor stood in a neat row, filling the cramped space. The armor looked like something from a sci-fi movie, sleek and futuristic. It was all built for a kid about Iron Wraith’s height, though each was slightly different. From left to right they got a little bigger. The one on the right was eight inches taller than the one on the left.
“What is this?” I leaned in for a better view.
“Battle suits!” Iron Wraith cried, pointing with both hands at the armor. “They can protect you from harm, and they have a few weapons built in. Lasers and teeny little rockets. Even better, get this, they have jet boots!”
“Wasn’t that expensive?” Tony asked. Apparently, he had noticed Iron Wraith’s house was a little run down too. His family didn’t seem that much richer than Tony’s or mine.
“No, I had Stuffmaker build them for me. He owed me a few favors.”
“Stuffmaker?” I almost spewed my pop across the concrete floor. I cleared my throat to keep from laughing.
“He can build things like this, out of scrap metal.”
“That is a terrible codename,” Tony said.
“He’s only seven years old,” Iron Wraith said. “Give him a break.”
“It’s still a terrible codename.” Tony hadn’t taken his eyes off the armor.
I had to admit, I liked the idea of being safer at night, both in chasing the Sandman and in my insomniac wanderings. The adults might not be dangerous anymore, but there were a lot of superheroes and supervillains walking the city streets, more every day. The abilities showing up were getting weirder as time went on, too, as evidenced by “Stuffmaker” and his powers. More and more, I felt in danger of being left behind by this wave of change sweeping through the world. This could be my chance to catch up a little.
“Are you going to wear one?” Tony asked Iron Wraith.
“No. I tried once. Hated it!”
“A little redundant anyway,” I said.
“Read a what?” Iron Wraith scratched the back of his head.
“Redundant,” I said. “It means not necessary, basically.”
“Because I can turn into metal!” Iron Wraith said. “Right-o.”
“And you’ll give me one of these?” I felt almost dizzy at the thought.
“Let’s call it a loaner for now,” Iron Wraith said.
“Can I borrow one, too?” Tony asked.
“I don’t see why not. They’re only worth about a billion dollars apiece.”
“Awesome,” I said, glad Tony could come too. I couldn’t tell if Iron Wraith was serious about the cost. He didn’t seem like he took numbers quite as seriously as I did.
Iron Wraith clapped one of the power suits on the shoulder, then turned to us. “You guys got plans tonight?”
Chapter 5
Night.
I flexed my arm, then twisted my wrist. Heavy, but not unbearably so. Even after an hour, I was still getting used to the armor. Iron Wraith’s power suit encased my entire body, including my face. Closed to street traffic, the brick lane was lined with shops and small houses. Ordinarily busy, there was hardly anyone around because it was so late.
“You ready for this?” Iron Wraith asked.
I stifled a yawn and nodded. The movement felt strange in the armor, like I could almost tip over just moving my head too much.
Iron Wraith stared at me for a long minute, seeming to search my face. “Man, that is creepy.”
There was no face on the helmet, just a smooth, blank surface. A tiny camera fed to a screen inside the helmet. That was how I saw. I breathed through tiny holes in the chin.
“This feels… weird,” Tony said, stepping up next to me. He was wearing the smallest of the three suits. Being taller, I had taken the next one up.
“Where to?” I asked. Fun as this was, I was tired and eager to get down to what we were here for: catching a bad guy.
“Just up Broadway,�
� Wraith said. “Follow me.” He disappeared as soon as the words were out of his mouth.
I huffed out a sigh.
“Really?” Tony crossed his arms.
“How are we supposed to follow you when you whoosh off?” I called after Iron Wraith's vanishing blur.
Another yawn. I didn’t try to fight this one. I’d taken Katrina home, then made her and my mom dinner. I’d tried to sleep for a few hours, but I’d been too excited. That made two days with almost no sleep. Hopefully crime would take tomorrow night off.
