Super

by Matthew Cody

“Then what?” asked Louisa.

  “Yeah, then what?” echoed Rose, but she looked just as confused as Daniel when she asked it.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” said Louisa, looking Daniel straight in the eyes for the first time, “say you find the Shroud. Say you find it’s Herman, who’s really still alive, or it’s Theo following in his granduncle’s footsteps. Or somebody else entirely—then what are you going to do?”

  “Well,” said Daniel, “I’ll figure that out when the time comes, I guess.…”

  “No, you won’t,” said Louisa. “You and Eric, Rohan, even Mollie, you all think you are this bunch of … superheroes! Like you can have some big fistfight at the end of all this and haul the bad guy away. But what are you going to do, really? Are you going to hit Herman Plunkett until he promises to stop being the Shroud?”

  “Well, no.…”

  “So are you going to turn whoever it is over to the police?”

  “They’d never believe us,” said Daniel. “And if they did, we’d be in danger of our secret getting out.”

  Louisa put her hand on Daniel’s arm. “Are you going to kill him?”

  “Of course not, Louisa!”

  “Good. But then what are you going to do?”

  Daniel opened his mouth to protest, but she was right. They had no plan to make Plunkett stop hurting them, not really. They were a bunch of kids. Even Eric, with everything he could do, was powerless to stop the Shroud.

  “I’ve been thinking about this a lot, Daniel. Ever since what happened to me … happened. We got lucky last time with the Shroud. When he came after you and Eric, we didn’t have time to think. We just knew we needed to get you both back. That was a rescue mission. But now the idea of hunting him down … We’re in over our heads, Daniel. We always have been.”

  Poor Rose’s face was scrunched up in concentration. She’d lost the thread of the conversation long ago. But Daniel hadn’t. Louisa was right: as long as the Supers needed to stay a secret, the Shroud had them. They couldn’t expose him without putting themselves in danger. So how would it ever end?

  “Daniel,” Rose said, “are you going to fix my sister or not?”

  Louisa smiled and patted Rose on the arm. “I’m not his responsibility, Rose. This isn’t Daniel’s fault, and it’s not Daniel’s job to fix it. Even if he thinks it is.”

  Rose pulled her arm away from Louisa’s touch. “But you have to get better! We all have to be okay.”

  “We will be, Rose,” said Louisa.

  “I don’t want him to get me!” Rose shouted, tears suddenly welling up in her eyes. “Daniel, I don’t want the Shroud to get me too!”

  And then she was gone. Rose disappeared and they could hear the sounds of her crying fade into the distance.

  “I’d better go and calm her down,” said Louisa. “Whatever you decide to do, just be careful, Daniel. I have a feeling things are about to get worse. Much, much worse.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Halloween

  It was Eric’s decision to declare mandatory trick-or-treating. There had been far too much moping and feeling sorry for themselves for his taste, especially by Eric himself, and therefore the Supers would go trick-or-treating together this Halloween, en masse. Shroud or no Shroud. No excuses. No passes.

  As the weeks went by and Halloween approached, the trees around Mount Noble turned deep orange, like a swath of rust spreading across the mountainside. Mollie said they were getting too old for trick-or-treating, but Eric had his mind set on it. Most of the Supers had picked out their costumes already—Rohan would be a bug-eyed alien (which left him open to any number of Mollie’s jokes) and Eric would be, unsurprisingly, a superhero.

  Daniel was torn. There was still no sign of Theo. He didn’t go to their school but instead attended a private academy over an hour away. The best Daniel could get out of Theo’s mom was that her husband and son were involved in some kind of business project together that was eating up all their time. Whether that was the truth or a convenient way for Theo to keep avoiding Daniel, it didn’t really matter.

  After the disaster with Clay and Bud, Daniel dared not go back to the Old Quarry alone, but he didn’t want to put his friends in any more danger by asking them to accompany him. He was stuck. The trail had grown cold and he’d run out of clues.

  As for spending Halloween with the Supers, he’d been put on Georgie duty for the evening, and his parents expected him to take the three-year-old out trick-or-treating anyway, but Daniel wasn’t sure if he was comfortable around all his friends at the same time. It would be the largest gathering of Supers since Louisa’s attack, and that made Daniel nervous. But in the end Eric was just too stubbornly persuasive, and the idea of spending the evening alone with Georgie (who was going dressed as a pink bunny, by the way) was too much for Daniel.

  So he set about getting materials for his costume, and for the first time in months he stopped worrying every minute of the day about Shrouds and powers and nightmares and focused on something fun. He scoured the town for the perfect touches—the green deerstalker cap from the local thrift store, the garage-sale brown overcoat—and, of course, there was the long bowl-shaped pipe Daniel already had. For a couple of weeks he was able to be a kid again.

  All he was missing was Sherlock’s trademark nose. Holmes’s nose was thin and hawklike, while Daniel’s was short and sort of button-shaped. But there was no changing that, and he thought he otherwise made a pretty impressive master detective, if a bit young for the role. He even worked up a few catchphrases in his best British accent. He’d tried to convince his mom to dress up Georgie as Watson—just stick a fake mustache on him and call it done—but she refused to glue facial hair of any kind on her younger child. Daniel would have to settle for “Elementary, my dear pink bunny!”

  When Halloween finally arrived, they assembled outside Daniel’s house, all the Supers together at last: Rohan in his alien costume, which made him look more like a grasshopper than an extraterrestrial; Rose as a cowgirl; Louisa as some pop star Daniel had never heard of; and Mollie as Mollie. She had agreed to come along but announced that she was done with dressing up. Rohan commented that if she tried being in a good mood for once, she wouldn’t need a costume—she’d be totally unrecognizable.

  Eric was the last to arrive. He was wearing a red shirt and black domino mask and black pants. He had the letters KN stitched across the front of the shirt. He looked pretty superhero-ish except for the dirty white sneakers.

  “Which superhero are you supposed to be?” asked Daniel.

  “Kid Noble,” answered Eric.

  “Kid Noble?” said Rohan. “He related to Johnny? I don’t remember him from the comics.”

  “That’s because he wasn’t in them,” said Eric. “Johnny Noble was a letdown. I’m going to show him how it’s really done.”

  Daniel gave his friend a pat on the back. After they’d learned the truth about Plunkett’s Rules, Eric had lost faith in the idea of Johnny Noble—the comic-book hero he had practically worshipped since the day he’d discovered his powers. He said that if Johnny was real, then he was to blame for letting the Shroud prey on them for all those years. Daniel was glad to see that giving up on Johnny didn’t mean that Eric was giving up on being a hero himself.

  “Nice shoes,” said Daniel, pointing to Eric’s out-of-place sneakers.

  “Can’t fight crime in loafers,” Eric answered. “And what are you supposed to be, anyway? Middle-aged Man?”

  “Smoking’s bad for you!” said Rose, pointing at Daniel’s pipe.

  “So are guns,” answered Mollie, looking at the bright-orange squirt guns holstered at Rose’s side.

  “These only squirt water!” Rose said.

  “It’s okay, Rose,” said Louisa. “Mollie’s only teasing. And Daniel’s not smoking his pipe. It’s just part of his costume.” She smiled at Daniel. “I think he looks great. He makes a very handsome Sherlock Holmes.”

  “Oh, brother,�
� said Mollie, and Eric snorted. Daniel really wished Louisa wouldn’t say those things out loud.

  “Tricks or treats!” shouted Georgie, waving his empty candy bag around. “I want candy!”

  “Well said, Georgie,” said Rohan. “Since we’re all here, we should get a move on. We’ll start on Elm Lane, and then we’ll hit the houses on Maple. I’m anticipating quite a haul this year, so we’ll need to do this in phases. Collect, then return to drop off. Then collect again.”

  “We should go to Cedar!” said Rose. “There are big houses there!”

  “Those big houses are always stingy with their candy, Rose,” said Daniel quickly. Cedar Lane was the Plunketts’ street, and they wanted to stay as far away as possible.

  “Good point, Daniel,” said Rohan. “We’ll steer clear of Cedar and surrounding streets.”

  Daniel nodded appreciatively at Rohan. Better safe than sorry.

  “Also, um,” continued Rohan, “let’s all remember that there’s no rush. There’s plenty of time to hit plenty of houses, so there’s no need to, ah, exert ourselves.”

  At first Daniel didn’t understand this last bit, but then it dawned on him. Rohan was talking about powers. With Georgie along, they needed to be careful not to take any superpowered shortcuts. Daniel’s little brother was only three, but he was old enough to know that kids couldn’t fly. Or at least he knew enough to know they shouldn’t be able to.

  As the streetlights blinked on, Noble’s Green began to swarm with all manner of costumed beings. Werewolves, vampires, and axe-wielding maniacs walked side by side with princesses and fairies. Mollie might not be wearing a costume, but that didn’t stop her from going up to each and every door with her bag open. While Daniel believed that trick-or-treating without a costume was a hanging offense, most of the people handing out candy didn’t seem to mind. The few who did question her laughed when she told them she was dressed up as herself. Then those same people scolded Daniel for carrying around a pipe. Life wasn’t fair.

  Georgie, being a three-year-old pink bunny, made out like a bandit. Pretty soon Daniel was carrying Georgie’s bag for him in addition to his own. By the weight alone, Daniel estimated that his brother had at least twice his haul. He’d have to even out their candy a bit before they got home.

  As the night wore on, the Supers began to drift apart, splitting into twos or threes to cover more ground. And eventually it became a kind of race to see who could get the most. Since Daniel was still responsible for Georgie, he found himself lagging behind the others, but since Georgie the bunny was a candy-attracting machine, they were still in the lead loot-wise. Eric and Mollie were hitting the most houses, but Daniel suspected they were using their powers to cheat when no one else was around, so that didn’t count in his book.

  Eric had just shown up to check in with Daniel when the first shadow appeared.

  They’d come to a lonely stretch of street on the outskirts of Briarwood, where Eric lived. This was the border between the two major neighborhoods, so the houses here were more spread out, and that meant traffic was sparse. Daniel and Georgie plopped down on an empty patch of grass just to get a breather. Georgie’s little bunny legs were tired from all the walking, and he wanted to be carried the rest of the way, something Daniel was not about to do.

  “Looks like we’ve got the street practically to ourselves,” said Eric, waving at the two of them. “But most of the houses here don’t even have a porch light on. I think it’s a bust.”

  “Just as well,” answered Daniel. “Georgie’s wiped out and I can’t carry another candy bar. I think we’re going to head back.”

  “Yeah, since we’re almost to my house, I think I’ll call it a night.… Wait, did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?” Daniel listened for a moment. Then he heard it too. Someone was calling Daniel’s name, and they sounded frightened.

  Daniel scooped up Georgie, and the three of them ran toward the sound of the voice. They hadn’t gotten far before they found Louisa holding a shaken and crying Rose in her arms. Mollie, of course, was already there, and she was wiping tears from Rose’s face.

  Louisa was trying to quiet her sister.

  “What happened?” asked Eric.

  “Rose just saw her own shadow, and it spooked her,” answered Louisa.

  “It wasn’t my shadow!” said Rose between sobs. She threw her arms around Daniel. “I saw the Shroud, Daniel! I saw him!”

  At the mention of the Shroud, Daniel looked at Mollie, but she just shrugged. She obviously hadn’t seen anything.

  Daniel patted Rose on the back, trying to comfort her, as Eric scanned the dark trees around them.

  “Tell me what you saw, Rose,” said Daniel. “Be specific and take your time.”

  “I was walking behind Louisa and … and I saw a black thing come out of the dark. It stopped between me and Louisa, and then I disappeared!”

  “And she started screaming,” said Louisa. “That’s the only way I could find her.”

  “And you didn’t see anything?” asked Daniel.

  “No,” said Louisa.

  “He went back into the dark!” said Rose. “He … faded away.”

  “Maybe it was just another kid trick-or-treating,” said Mollie. “Maybe he was dressed up.”

  “He just faded away!” said Rose. “Like a ghost!”

  Georgie grabbed hold of Daniel’s hand. He didn’t understand what was going on, but he could sense that something was wrong. “I wanna go home now, Daniel.”

  “I think that’s a good idea for everyone,” said Eric. “We’ve done pretty well anyway, and it’s getting late.”

  “Hey, where’s Rohan?” asked Louisa.

  “Oh, he was with me,” said Mollie. “When I heard Rose calling, I flew as fast as I could, but he should have been right behind me. We were only a few houses away.…”

  No one said anything for a second, and then, faster than anyone could blink, Mollie was gone.

  A moment later they heard her shouting for help. They ran again, all of them this time, toward the sound of Mollie’s voice. Eric could’ve gotten there sooner, but Daniel guessed that his friend must be staying close to the group to protect them.

  Soon Mollie became visible beneath the glow of a streetlamp. She was kneeling over Rohan, who was lying on the ground unmoving.

  “Help me!” she cried.

  Daniel had just begun to run toward them when Eric put his hand on Daniel’s chest.

  “Look,” he said, pointing at the streetlamp.

  The shadows around the lamp moved. They peeled off from the darkness like a spreading ink stain and formed into a manlike shape. A shadow as tall as Mollie, and it was reaching out for her.

  But Mollie was faster than an eyeblink as she veered away from the creature. The shadow brought itself up to its full height and stalked toward Rohan, claiming its prize.

  “No!” shouted Mollie. “You can’t have him!” Then Mollie was fighting back—flying and punching at super-speed. She was a blur, and the shadow fell back away from her blows.

  Only Daniel knew what this creature was capable of. He knew what she was up against. Not even Mollie Lee could hold out for long against it. They had to get her and Rohan away.

  But then another shadow formed out of the darkness. There were two of them now.

  “Mollie! Get out of there!”

  “Daniel!” Louisa was shouting his name. “Daniel!”

  He turned and saw what Louisa was pointing at. Behind them was a new figure all in black. Another man of shadow. Another Shroud, and it was coming for them.

  “Eric, do something!” said Daniel. He could feel the panic rising up in him, could hear his own heart beating in his ears. “Rose, disappear!”

  “I can’t!” shouted Rose, crying and hysterical. “I’m trying but I can’t!”

  “What do you mean?” asked Daniel.

  “She can’t use her powers,” said Eric. “And neither can I.”

  Daniel stared at his
friend, at first not comprehending. Then his heart broke inside him as he understood.

  “Oh no, Eric!” Daniel said, his voice a whisper.

  “No time!” said Eric. “You know what you have to do!”

  Daniel nodded. He did know.

  “Then go! I’ll get Georgie and the girls out of here!”

  “Daniel?” Georgie was crying as Daniel put his little brother into Eric’s arms.

  “It’ll be all right, Georgie,” Daniel said, then turned to Eric. “Head for the first house with a light on. Don’t stop and don’t look back. No matter what!”

  The four of them—Eric with Georgie, and Louisa with Rose—ran into the dark. A shadow drifted toward them like it was going to follow, but Daniel got there first, putting himself between it and his retreating friends.

  The thing turned its eyeless head toward Daniel but said nothing. For a moment it quivered, seemed to stretch and expand, until it tore in two and another was standing next to it.

  Daniel stood his ground, took a deep breath, and balled his hands up into fists.

  Four. There were four Shrouds.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Night Battle

  The powers came to him just like before—he didn’t feel any different at first. If anything, he felt worse, sick and weak at the knees, but that was from sheer terror. Yet as Daniel reached within himself, he found something just below that fear, something powerful. It was his if he focused on it. Strength. Flight. Eric’s powers, now Daniel’s own.

  He’d stolen them from Eric again without meaning to, without even knowing how he did it. But there wasn’t time to feel guilty now. He was facing down four of these shadow creatures, and his friends were in trouble.

  The last attempt at flight had nearly ended in disaster, so this time he resolved to keep his feet firmly planted on the ground. With his friends depending on him, he couldn’t afford to get lost in the clouds.

  Mollie was managing to keep just out of reach of her pair of creatures, weaving and ducking their attacks while keeping them from the unconscious Rohan. These things were slower than the Shroud. Slower and smaller, but still dangerous, like shadows of the old villain. Shades. In his mind, that was the name he gave them.