Powerless: In a world of superpowers, what happens when you have none?

by Niall McCreanor

  Philip took Lee and Tom to the local fair and as they strolled along the stalls looking at all the various games and rides, Lee freed his hand from his father’s. Philip did not notice this as his eyes were gazing up to the big wheel. Excited at the prospect of taking his kids on the ride he turned and said, “What do you think boys? Are you game?” But when he looked down only Tom was standing there looking at him. Philip exclaimed, “Where’s Lee!”

  Tom quickly looked around, not seeing his brother he simply shrugged his shoulders. Philip grabbed Tom’s hand and ran back the way they came. If Tom hadn’t had the same ability as Philip he may have broken his arm, but with Tom’s strength it just felt like Philip was gripping him a little firmer than usual.

  Philip didn’t have to go too far to find Lee; he came upon a dark stall with the small solitary figure of Lee standing in front of it; the only person giving it any attention. Philip was relieved to see his son safe and became aware of the pressure he was putting on Tom’s hand. He loosened his grip and fell to his knee to make sure he hadn’t hurt Tom. After a quick examination he knew Tom was fine.

  Philip approached Lee, saying sternly “Lee!”

  But Lee did not turn.

  Philip said again “Lee?” this time placing his hand on the young boy’s shoulder. The boy moved his head but did not break his eyes away from what his gaze was fixated upon.

  Lee simply said, “Ten thousand, one hundred and eighty seven.” Philip did not understand what his son was saying until he looked into the stand and saw a giant glass container full of jellybeans with a sign over it saying ‘Guess the amount, Win the Prize’.

  “Ten thousand, one hundred and eighty seven,” Lee repeated again.

  Philip’s heart skipped as he reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out some money so Lee could register his guess and handed it to the woman in the stall.

  “How much do you think is in it?” the woman asked Lee.

  Once again Lee said, “Ten thousand, one hundred and eighty seven.”

  The woman’s face was overcome with surprise. “Aren’t you a clever boy!” She reached for a giant teddy and she handed it to Lee.

  Philip took the boys up the big wheel and while the landscape stretched before him, captivating his boys, he could not enjoy the view. He didn’t gaze at the stars as his wide-eyed sons did. Instead he was fixated on ten thousand, one hundred and eighty seven and hoped to himself that he had finally discovered his son’s ability.

  Packing the boys into the car, he watched in amazement as his little son dragged the teddy bear that was twice his size into the back seat with him and carefully fastened the spare seatbelt around the bear, while Tom hopped into the front.

  They were heading home when Philip pulled the car into a gas station to buy some things. The boys thought they were in for a treat when their Dad arrived back with seven large boxes of cereal, something he would never ordinarily allow them to have. When they arrived home Philip sent the boys into the house. Staying behind in the garage, they could hear him tearing the boxes open and pouring the cereal out.

  The boys waited by the door and their curiosity spiked. Philip called out, “Lee,” and the two boys entered. Philip looked up at them coming in the door.

  “Now Lee, have a look at this…” revealing a large glass vase full to the top with a mixture of the different cereals. “Lee, how much is in the vase?”

  He automatically looked to Tom for his input, but before his eyes met Tom’s, Philip interrupted him.

  “Lee, take your time and tell me what you think.”

  He stared at the container and after a moment he stated, “Eight thousand, six hundred and twelve.”

  Philip’s mouth curved with a smile. “Right, now boys, time for bed.” They did as their father asked and they left the room. Philip waited for them to go and then set about counting the contents of the container.

  Lee and Tom lay in their beds chatting about what had happened. Lee was hopeful, asking Tom, “What do you think? Do you think I was right?”

  “I don’t know, Lee,” Tom replied. “I suppose we will find out tomorrow.”

  After all the excitement of the day the boys soon fell asleep. When they awoke they both ran downstairs to find a very tired Philip at the kitchen table sitting over a coffee. Looking at their father without saying anything he could read the question in Lee’s eyes and all he said was, “Not even close.” He laughed to himself at the ludicrousness of the test he had just performed.

  Lee’s heart broke as he felt pulled back out of a world he wanted to be accepted into. Sadness set in as he sat thinking he would never have an answer to the question. Philip was surprised by this, seeing the sadness in his little son and decided enough was enough. He could not subtly test him anymore, as his son was becoming aware that he was different. He could no longer waste time taking him to the hospital where he worked and running a barrage of tests to determine if there was anything wrong with his son. All the tests had come back normal. He was a normal happy twelve year old boy, but with one big difference. In a world where the norm is to be different, being less than normal was too hard for a boy of his age to comprehend and deal with.

  Philip determined that it would be best for Lee and Tom if no one found out that Lee was different, all the while hoping that Lee was just a late developer. Philip was afraid that if anyone found out that Lee had no ability he would be taken away from him and barbaric experiments would be performed on him. The same experiments that the governments of the past were guilty of. Afraid that his son would be hailed as a missing link from this time to a world that had long passed, he decided to protect his boys. He would have to put a plan into action.

  Given Philip’s background he was in a position where he could impart onto his sons the skills and lessons his father taught him all those years ago. So from the time Lee was twelve his father trained him; having super strength was a bonus. He started Lee on a fitness routine that he would stick with for the majority of his life, involving daily runs of five miles, two hundred press ups each morning and night, accompanied by the very healthy diet he had always instilled, being a doctor. He trained him to become a skilful fighter through many ancient arts of combat. Most importantly, he instilled the values of what he felt it meant to be a man; the values of honour, discipline, dignity, selflessness and self-reliance.

  His brother Tom developed strength just like his father, so physically he didn’t need the routine that his brother did, but they would often spar together as kids, Lee learning how to use his brother's momentum and strength against him. Philip decided to educate both his boys, teaching them about the world, about the past and the present, teaching them right from wrong, and giving them the tools to develop terrific minds.

  He taught the young boys how to solve equations, puzzles and all about the outdoors; how to track and hunt, how to read the land around them so that they could look at the stars and know exactly where they were and where they had to go. No matter how lost Lee and Tom would be, they would always know which direction to turn, just as Philip’s father had taught him.

  Philip was at work one day when he got a call from the boys’ school asking him to come in, that there had been an incident involving his sons. Automatically Philip assumed that Lee’s secret had been found out. Alarmed by this, he grabbed his coat and darted straight out the door. Philip didn’t mind running out on his patients for his boys as they were his main priority in life; however the patient that Philip was in the middle of giving a hernia examination to wasn’t as amused by the situation, being left behind in the examination room with only his gown to cover his embarrassment.

  Making haste, he got to the school and went straight to the office. Sitting outside he found his two sons, each of whom saw him come in, but neither were brave enough to look him in the eye. Philip automatically knew the boys were guilty of something. He entered the principal’s office and sat down. The principal, Mr. Pine, greeted Philip at the door with a firm handshake.
/>   “Thanks for coming so soon, Mr. Sapota. Please have a seat.”

  Sitting down, Philip’s fears that Lee had been found out ran through his mind in double time, but he was smart enough to let the principle speak first.

  “Mr. Sapota, there are certain things we as teachers can observe. Over time these observations lend themselves to conclusions. For example, having Tom in the school these past few years, it is fairly easy to tell within reason what his ability is.”

  Philip stood up as anxiety hit. Mr Pine continued. “Don’t worry Mr Sapota; this is the same for all the kids who pass through these corridors. In fact there are very few students who pass these halls that I don’t get an indication of their gift.” Hearing this Philip relaxed and sat back in his chair allowing him to continue.

  “Lee is one of those students, for whatever reason his gift has never been…”

  Philip interrupted the principal, growing impatient. “Mr Pine. Enough of this circling the issue. Can you tell me why I’m here?”

  Standing up and walking to the window, Mr Pine spoke. “Mr Sapota, today at break a bunch of older kids started picking on Tom. Name-calling, the usual kind of thing. But don’t worry, I will be speaking to their parents as well.”

  Philip was now paying full attention to the principal, heeding his words more intently than before, knowing Tom to be more than capable of physically looking after himself.

  “Now the problem wasn’t Tom or what was being said to him. In fact, Tom was highly restrained, given my past observations. The reason I called you in, is Lee and how he reacted.”

  Without realizing it, Philip slipped forward in his seat becoming engrossed in the words the principle was speaking. “Lee saw what was happening to his brother and he did not show the same restraint that Tom did.”

  Mr Pine hesitated as if to consider the best way to tell Philip what had happened. “Basically Mr Sapota, Lee beat up three students. Not only three students, but they are three of the biggest kids in the school, and two of them are powerful, very powerful. Lee managed to do this without revealing his own ability. I saw this with my own eyes. Now Mr Sapota, I have seen kids pass through these doors for years and I have never seen a child move with this mixture of physical self-awareness and rage. It’s clear that your son has been trained physically. Emotionally, I am not so sure!”

  Philip took heed of what Mr Pine said, reassuring him that it would not happen again before motioning to leave his office. “If it’s okay with you I’d like to take the boys home. I need to have a talk with them.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Philip thought that maybe the reason Lee was so angry and apart from the world was because he didn’t understand it. He wanted Lee and Tom to know where they came from. He wanted them to know the history of the world and how it came to be today. Sitting them down he instilled the knowledge of the world as best he could, hoping not to show any personal bias so the boys could come to their own conclusion on the state of the world.

  He began with the leap itself, taking a deep breath as he started on the voyage of discovery with his two boys, biting back the pain that stabbed at his heart, at the thought of his beautiful Josephine missing the experience.

  “Now boys, I am going to throw a lot of information at you and if you are finding it hard to understand please make sure you let me know, as it is important for you to understand this.

  There is no real point in going too far before the leap as that history is now irrelevant, so to speak and is seen as ancient, so we will begin with the leap. It was my grandparents’ generation who were the first to feel the full effects of this leap in evolution. Before that, only about forty percent of the population was affected. This leap in evolution came about when children started taking longer to develop in the womb; it began to take an additional 3 months for a child to develop.

  It is said that in the last three months of pregnancy a child would develop their abilities. Initial testing on babies who took longer to be born was inconclusive, as the abilities the children held only manifested in early adolescence. It was only a few years later that people began to understand there was something very different about these children. Stories began to leak out about children with exceptional abilities performing extraordinary feats. The people performing these feats became known as the Gifted Generation.

  Panic ensued; many of the children were taken from their parents for experimentation, but all these experiments proved to be fruitless. These youngsters were biologically identical to kids with no special abilities; Governments experimented on the kids to test the boundaries of their abilities. Exhausting their abilities then performing invasive tests, both physically and psychologically.”

  Hearing this Lee broke the spell that held him and Tom and spoke up. “What kind of tests?”

  “Most of the testing was done in secret facilities far away from the eyes of society. I don’t really know exactly what they did but the few people who managed to escape these facilities spoke of human rights atrocities.”

  Philip knew exactly what tests were performed but didn’t want to cause his son distress. As he feared that if found out those same tests would be performed on him. So he steered the conversation away from the past atrocities perpetrated by previous barbaric governments. This is where the soothing words of his beloved Josephine would really have helped. He longed for her reassuring touch on his shoulder as he continued on with the lesson.

  “Many parents who had children of the gifted generation taught their children never to reveal their dynamism as they might be taken away from them, experimented on and they would not be able to protect them.

  Initially, the children romanticised their abilities and considered themselves super heroes, living selflessly. Dressing up in costumes to hide their identity, they tried to make the world a better place, a safer place. As they matured into adults, however, many of them had their view of the world they lived in twisted by things they saw.

  It was not only the testing done on the fellow members of the gifted generation, but what people in positions of authority had done to get their power and maintain it. Like the misappropriation of wealth, the corruption in the banking system, the lack of humanity shown to the poorer people in the world. It was these injustices that led a lot of the gifted generation to become highly self-aware. They were of the opinion that if a group of people as a collective can't look out for each other, then why should an individual be expected to.

  A few among the gifted generation began to justify breaking the law for their own financial gain. They would rationalise robbing a bank with the comment that ‘the bank has robbed us for long enough.’ Crime levels escalated; criminals always justifying their actions and their own flawed moral standpoint. Even as the number of gifted individuals grew, the governments of the time began to recruit these individuals, firstly to protect their own lands, later to ward off attacks from other governments and inevitably to launch such attacks themselves, all the while smugly justifying their actions and claiming they were ‘to protect the sovereignty’ of their respective nations. It wasn't long until such acts escalated and almost the entire world became embroiled in war.

  As you know, my Dad, your granddad was a soldier, but not by choice. He wasn’t conscripted or anything but rather he felt duty bound.”

  The two boys began to listen more intently as they rarely heard Philip talk about their granddad’s role in the war.

  “Your granddad specialised in sabotage missions. This meant that rather than killing people in the war he in actuality risked his life to save those around him. He would sneak behind enemy lines and sabotage the heavy artillery that would cause so much havoc, often undertaking missions that others would refuse as they were seen as suicidal. Actually on one occasion a squadron was pinned down and surrounded in a large wooded area. It was the depths of winter and they were running out of supplies and on the verge of starvation. Your granddad was under strict orders not to attempt a rescue, but feeling duty bound to the men, h
e did exactly the opposite. In one night my Dad, your granddad went behind enemy lines and using the cover of night he sabotaged four heavy artillery guns, two tanks and…” choosing his words carefully so that he didn’t scare the boys he continued “…neutralised countless infantry. He did all this virtually unarmed and undetected. Making his way to the troops that were pinned down.” Philip’s face started to show pride as he told the boys the outcome. “In one night he saved forty-eight soldiers. Taking no credit for his actions he swore each one of them to silence, so as not to make his presence known to his superiors. Each man he saved won the medal of valour for their bravery in the face of an insurmountable force and were allowed go home. If not for my Dad they all would have been going home anyway but each would have been draped in a flag and to the tune of a lonely fife player.”

  Philip walked over to the cabinet by the fireplace and reaching his hand into the back of the top shelf he pulled out an old tin tobacco box that was rusty around the side. It rattled in his hand as he took it down as if it was full of coins. Handing it to Tom he opened it and looked inside. “After the war this was sent to your granddad and he kept it. Each offering a testament to his bravery.”

  Tom opened the box and Lee stood over his shoulder and peered into it. The rusty box opened and the boys could see heaped together covered in fine dust, forty eight medals, each a token representing a life saved. They looked up into each other’s eyes at the same moment, each boy speechless as the weight of this reality rested in their hands.

  “Your Granddad often wondered what became of the men after the war, but was content with knowing that because of him they survived it and each of them knew why.”