The City Superhero (Book 1): Rise Of The Super Strike

by Maxwell Blake

  “Fixed?” I asked.

  He nodded. “You know, back to normal. If science can make them monsters like that, then it can put them back to normal too.”

  I looked up at my grandma and she shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t see the harm if they aren’t trying to hurt others.”

  “You don’t see the harm, Mave?” he scolded. “Really? What happens when they start to think they’re above the law? If they start trespassing or thinking they should decide who is guilty and who isn’t? That’s when the problems will start.”

  “But there have to be good people out there with powers too. It can’t all be bad,” I interjected.

  He snorted. “I guess I know whose side you’re taking.”

  “I don’t want to take sides. I just don’t think it’s fair to lump one group of people together because of the actions of one.”

  “Oh?” he said. “Will you be so quick to defend the mutants when they attack one of us? All this hype about superpowers. You know this wouldn’t happen if kids would get their heads out of the comic books and back into school.”

  “Are you really blaming comics for this? Maybe some doctor just wanted to help the world and made the serum for soldiers or something.”

  “That boy who came in there trying to freeze people to death didn’t look like a hero. He looked more like a poor kid who needed money. We should just be lucky he wasn’t robbing the place.”

  “He went to the hospital, not the bank. I think he probably just wanted some help.”

  “Well, you think what you want, but I tell you what. If anyone like that ever comes near this family, I’m calling the cops. I’ll let them sort the good ones out from the bad ones. It’s not my job.”

  “Wow,” I said.

  “He’s had a long day. He’s old and cranky. You know that, right?” My grandma whispered.

  “He seems pretty sure of what he’s saying to me.”

  “Just give him a few days and I’m sure everything will be okay. This fellow was probably just a fluke.”

  “What happens, though, if something like that happens to me or a friend of mine?”

  Her eyes grew wide as she shook her head. “Don’t say something like that!”

  My grandfather grunted but went back to watching television. I carefully stood up and started heading for my room again. He didn’t think that superpowers were a good thing. How could I ever tell him about mine now? And my grandmother, God bless her. She would support him in anything he decided to do, including turning me over. I could never let them know what I was. She grabbed my arm and smiled.

  “Don’t let his tales worry you, honey. It was just one man with powers. The police will take care of him, okay? This is still a safe city.”

  “Yeah,” I said dryly. “I’m not worried about it. I just think he needs to take a breather or something. That’s an awful lot of stress for him.”

  She nodded. “You’re right. We should change the subject. Go get some sleep and I’ll try and calm him down.”

  “All right,” I muttered.

  I paused for a second as my grandfather started to complain about the weather. How could I really think that they would accept me? Who was I kidding, anyway? I was a freak just like the others that I now knew were running around the city. I slipped into my room, locking the door behind me and climbing over my bed to the open window. It slid up the rest of the way silently, and I looked down.

  The ground was a hundred feet away, at the very least. I wouldn’t have much time to get my flight under control if I jumped out of it. Thankfully, that wasn’t a skill I needed to master right away. Tomorrow, I could go back to the park and get a little more control over things. Now that I knew how my grandfather felt about people with powers, I couldn’t risk using them here. I didn’t think for one second that tomorrow would change anything.

  He would still feel like people with powers were evil and I would still be one of them. Monday, I could go to the clinic and see if they could reverse them, but even knowing how my grandfather felt about them, I didn’t know if that’s what I wanted to do. No matter what he thought, I knew that I could do good in the world. I just needed to prove it to myself before I showed him just what was going on.

  Perching myself on the ledge of the window, I held out my hand and watched the small purple bolt as it danced in my palm. What would my mother do if she were in this position? I grinned. She was never great at handling my grandfather. He wanted her to be a housewife or maybe a secretary, but when she’d left home to start modeling, it was a huge uproar.

  He’d banned her from the house, but as she told the story, it was Mave who stepped in and put him in his place. She would tell me that it was one of the few times that her mother ever stood up to her father. Would this time be different? If I could get Mave on my side, could I share my secret without the fear of having to leave the only home I had? Only time would tell, and for now, I just wanted to make it through the night and get back to training in the morning. I heard a couple of men talking to each other down below and let my mind drift.

  I couldn’t get a good look at their features in the darkness, but one of them was considerably heavier than the other one. Both were wearing baggy clothing and had multiple tattoos up and down their arms. Right away, my mind flickered to the news of a local gang picking up women and selling them into foreign slave trades. That was the sort of thing that happened here, but back home, it would have shocked and brought the entire town to its knees.

  Silently, I begged myself to be wrong as I focused on what they were saying, which was a challenge. I didn’t have super hearing, after all.

  “I’m telling you,” one muttered. “This girl is up for anything. She lives in that building and leaves every night at ten for work. She was practically begging for me to follow her home.”

  “Dude, I don’t care. I need to get my own shit taken care of, so let’s just snatch the broad, bring her to Billy, and be done with it.”

  “A man after my own heart,” joked the other one.

  “Shh,” the first man whispered. “I bet you this is her. We’re gonna get good money for this one, Pedro.”

  “Wanna bet on it?” the other joked before falling silent.

  Just then, the door in the apartment building next to ours opened and a petite blonde-haired woman walked out, her nose buried in her phone. She didn’t see the men walking close behind her, but I did. The streets weren’t well-lit, and no one on the main walkway would even know that she was there yet. My mouth felt dry as the men inched closer to her. Maybe it was just a game and they were all friends, I thought wishfully. When he reached out and grabbed her arm, I knew that I was wrong.

  Chapter 12

  I couldn’t think about jumping anymore. I had to make a move. My heart was racing, the adrenaline coursing through my veins making it impossible for me to use levitation. There wasn’t anywhere that I could land without getting hurt. I aimed for the space behind the dumpster and used my charge powers to make the landing slightly less painful. On my way down, I did manage to clip one of the bad guys, but that just seemed to irritate them more.

  Groaning, I rubbed my shoulder. If I was going to keep this up, I would need to figure out something that was a little more protective than cotton. So far, I hadn’t posed much of a threat to the two men. They’d gone back to totally ignoring my presence to harass the woman. I felt like a failure. They were still talking about what they planned on doing with the poor girl instead of just grabbing her and running. I had literally no impact on their conversation whatsoever.

  I pulled the hood of my jacket up over my head, shielding my identity from the streetlights. It wouldn’t work if my hood got knocked off, but it was a start. Gritting my teeth, I stepped around the dumpster and cleared my throat. “Hey, why don’t you leave her alone?”

  The two men turned around, the heavy one laughing when he saw me. “Boy, you’d better get your ass home before someone comes and kicks it for you.”

  My hea
rt raced. “I told you to leave her alone.”

  They both became quiet, taking a slow step toward me as the woman backed away from them. Well, even if I was going to die, I could go knowing that I gave her a fighting head start. My hands were shaking. Could I really attack a man? Even if it was self-defense? I swallowed hard and fought to control my powers. There wouldn’t be anything left of me unless I made a move. I had spent the entire day training, and now it was finally my chance to prove that not everyone with superpowers was bad.

  “Hey, you think you’re something special?” The skinny one spat. “What do you think? That our buyers wouldn’t want a pretty little boy just as much?”

  The fat one shrugged. “Man, you’re just dollar signs to us. So I suggest that you get the hell out of here before we drag your scrawny ass in with hers. Our beef isn’t with you.”

  I shook my head, the courage inside me making a rare appearance. “I don’t think so. You’re going to walk away from here or you’re going to regret it. Don’t make me hurt you.”

  “Look at this punk,” called the fat one. “Man, I don’t have time for this.” He pulled out a gun and pointed it at me. “This is the last chance I’m giving you. Beat it or die like a little street bitch.”

  He pulled back the hammer on the gun and I held up my hands in surrender. “Hey, man,” I said shakily. “I didn’t want any trouble. I just don’t think that lady wants to go with you. Do you really want my death on your hands? I’m unarmed and there are cameras all over this street. You’ll go down for murder. Can’t a guy have a chance to defend himself?”

  The skinny one laughed and I saw the gold plates on his teeth. His beady eyes were hollow. How long could I stall before one of them finally shot me?

  He spoke. “Fine, junior, pull out your piece and we’ll have a good old-fashioned gunfight.”

  I looked down, taking one final calming breath before my hands turned black and I looked back at the men. A smile creased my lips. “I’ll admit, it’s not entirely fair of me to bring a power to a gunfight. So, you’ll have to forgive me for coming a little unprepared.”

  They both laughed until the fat one looked down at my hand. I saw his face go pale as he furiously tugged on the thin man’s shirt. His friend shrugged him off but I wasn’t paying attention to them any longer. I lifted my hand out to the side and let the ball of light grow a little bit more before flicking it away with my finger. It bounded away from me, striking the wall to my right. Both men jumped, the woman behind them yipping out a little squeal of fright as she watched everything unfold.

  The grin never left my lips as the two men looked from the smoking wall and back to me. I took a step closer to them, the purple bolt dancing from the tips of my fingers but not going anywhere. I still didn’t want to hurt either of them. I just wanted them to leave the woman alone. I cleared my throat to try again, but there was no point. By the time I started to talk, the two men had turned away from me and run down the road, sprinting as fast as possible away from me and the woman they’d planned to abduct.

  “Are you okay?” I asked the woman.

  She was pale, her mouth hanging open as she leaned against the wall. “Umm . . .” she said. “Yeah, I think so. Thanks to you. How did you do that?”

  I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it, okay? Is that your car over there?”

  She turned around and looked out at the main road. Most of the shops in the area, and now even the bars, were closed for the night. If she was new to the apartment building, as I heard most targets were, then she wouldn’t have an assigned parking place in the garage yet. I’d had a bit of free time at night before the clinical trial, so I read the rulebook for the apartment building.

  It was amusing to see the lengths that people would go to just to live in New York. Back home, people just didn’t care about petty things. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the odds were pretty good. The girl nodded her head but said nothing else, though I could see the multitude of questions brewing just beneath the surface.

  “Maybe you should go to the police or a friend’s house and give them a call? I don’t know if those guys are going to come back, and I can’t wait around here all night, okay?”

  “Who are you?” she blurted out.

  “That doesn’t matter. Are you gonna go, or do you want me to? I promise it’s safer this way.”

  “How do I know that you aren’t going to jump me as soon as I head that way?”

  I choked back a laugh. This woman was really paranoid, but given what had just happened, I didn’t know if I could blame her. “Lady, why would I save you then jump you? Is everyone in this city so mistrusting?”

  She shrugged. “Pretty much. You aren’t from around here then? You aren’t one of those other freaks running around?”

  “What other freaks?” I asked her. Had word about the hospital traveled so quickly?

  The woman shook her head. “Listen, I don’t want any part of this. I’m just going to go. I’m thankful for what you did and all, but I’ve gotta get out of here.”

  She glanced back at her car and nodded before quickly jogging over to it. Before getting in, she stopped and looked back at me. “Thanks for everything. You saved my ass.”

  “Anytime, ma’am,” I said as she got into her car.

  I waited for her to safely pull away before gathering all of my self-control and quickly floating back up to my bedroom window. The cameras, thankfully, all pointed down toward the street, and after I passed them, there was no way of telling that I didn’t fly away at all. I just floated carefully into my bedroom and collapsed on my bed. Thankfully, this time, the sound was quiet and I didn’t disturb my grandparents.

  I was too excited to sleep. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. My heart was racing faster than ever before. The tips of my fingers buzzed and vibrated, but for the first time since this entire ordeal had started, I felt like I really had control over what was going to happen. Suddenly, everything seemed like it was going to work out for the best. I felt tired for the first time in months, like a huge weight had been removed from my chest. There was something about the powers that completed me.

  Resting my head against the pillow, I knew that everything was going to be okay. I was given the powers for a reason, to make my mother and father proud of me. I would show my grandfather that not everyone who was different was bad. Maybe along the way, I could tell Hen who I was. Didn’t the hero always get the girl in the end anyway? I heard them before I saw anything. The police had come. She must have called them.

  It was too hard to resist. With the bedroom light shut off, I poked my head up out of the window and looked down into the alley. There had to be a dozen cop cars all parked in the alley. They were milling around and looking at both apartment buildings. As long as I wasn’t wrong about the cameras, I had nothing to worry about. The woman had come back and was now shaking her head. She hadn’t pointed in the direction of my building, so I could tell that she hadn’t circled back. Still, they would want to talk to anyone who saw anything.

  When a news van pulled up outside our building, my heart started to race. A couple of the officers went into the opposing building while a few jogged into the lobby of mine. I jerked back against my bed, the blood coursing through my body at crippling speeds. What if I was wrong? What if they were coming right to my apartment to arrest me? God, my grandparents would be heartbroken. I would never get to see my grandfather again.

  It was like watching my own trial as someone pounded on our apartment door and I heard my grandmother answer it. As she spoke, I fought the urge to jump out of the window and try to flee. I could always turn myself in, too. Maybe the few seconds of honesty would get me thrown in juvenile hall instead of prison. I wasn’t cut out to go to jail. This city would chew me up like a ragdoll and spit me back out with nothing left. Jumping from the bed, I jerked open my door, ready to confess.

  My grandmother looked at me as she closed the front door again, looking startled. “Oh, B
enji, did the commotion wake you up?”

  I shook my head, my whole body feeling like it was on pins and needles. “No, I just heard the knock. What commotion? What’s going on? There are cops down there.”

  She took a ragged breath. “Apparently, some superhero stopped a woman from getting kidnapped. The police were just wondering if we saw anything since we live on this side. I tell you what, with people flying around New York, you really should keep your window locked.”

  “Grandma, the guy sounds like a hero, not someone who is going to break into an apartment complex.”

  “Either way, we don’t know if these people are safe. That makes two now, you know? The one at the hospital and now this. I wonder if your grandfather was right. Maybe we should be more worried about how many of them are out there.”

  “Grandma, I don’t think that everyone is evil,” I said weakly.

  She shook her head. “I think that this world is changing and we need to worry about it. But we don’t have to worry about it tonight.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Whatever you say.”

  “You’ll always have opinions that don’t line up with others’. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong. It just means they aren’t popular.”

  “I just don’t understand where Grandpa is coming from. Has he always been so pessimistic about everything? How do you live with that?”

  She smiled. “Oh, honey, he’s a good man. He’s just had a rough go of things. You know he loves you, right?”

  “Yeah,” I whispered.

  I couldn’t say anything to her without looking like I was going against my grandfather. The last thing I wanted was another fight with her. Things had been going smoothly. Hopefully, the news would shed some positive light on what had happened, and maybe then, I could tell her what was really going on. Until that happened, I was a sitting duck. I stretched out my arms and yawned.

  “Well, I think I’m going to go back to bed since everything is okay.”