“It’s not me that I’m worried about. What if I accidently hurt you?” I asked.
Andy laughed. “Don’t worry, as long as I stay clear of your hands, everything is going to be okay.” He paused, but I said nothing, so he continued. “Listen, let’s go out there and you can see how it feels. If you start to get nervous at any point, then we can stop. I just want to help you out. You already told me you’re going after The Darkness. What could a little more practice hurt?”
He had a point. I needed to get my powers under control if I was going to go up against that crazy woman. “All right. But the first time something goes wrong, we’re done. Got it?”
He was practically bouncing up and down in excitement as he grabbed the jetpack and looked around the garage before disappearing through a back door.
“Won’t your parents wonder where you are?” I asked.
Andy shook his head. “Naw. They have guard posts all over the property border. As long as we stay on their land, then they won’t come looking. They haven’t really taken an interest in my life for the past five years, since they realized Buzz was the kid with skills.”
“You built a freaking jetpack. How is that not a skill better than lacrosse?” I asked.
Andy shrugged. “They like having a son who’s as sports crazy as they are. The whole reason I got stuck in that school was because of Buzz. I don’t care about that anymore. I have my own life going on, and I don’t really mind the bodyguard. Travis is pretty cool and hooks me up with the seedy underworld when I need it.”
“That sentence right there tells me just how disconnected you are from the real world, pal. The ‘seedy underworld’? You realize we aren’t in a vampire movie, right?”
“Yeah,” Andy said with his easy and contagious smile. “But wouldn’t it be cool if we were? Think about it, two flying badasses against all the dark vampires. Killing and conquering, and of course, getting the girls in the end.”
“Ha!” I blurted out. “I like the way you think!”
I followed next to him as we walked along a well-lit trail. The night was in full bloom but all around us was dark. The further from the main house we went, the dimmer the lights became until finally, there were none left to light our path. Eventually, the brick path turned to gravel before it disappeared from sight altogether and we were walking along a dirt trail. It was obvious that Andy was the only one to ever venture out that far. The rest of his family seemed more worried about their image than nature.
“So, your parents own all of this?”
“Yup,” he said in the darkness. “They like to own the land but not do anything with it. I can’t complain, though. It’s more space for me to stretch my wings, literally.”
“If that jetpack has wings,” I said, “I’ll buy you a Coke.”
“Ha!” he laughed. “Naw, it doesn’t, but how cool would that be? Maybe that will be my next modification to it. Then I can be Hawk Boy or something.”
I grinned. “Sounds like you’ve been thinking about that a little bit.”
Andy shrugged. I could see his shoulders move in the dark though it was getting hard to make out anything. I could see a dim light far off in the distance, and it wasn’t long before I realized it was one of the guard towers Andy had mentioned before. It seemed extreme. I knew that his family had money, but to have guards posted all the time to keep out intruders was a bit over the top.
“So, are your parents like mafia or something?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
“What?” he asked, a little amused. “Of course not! At least I don’t think they are. I’ve never had any Capone moments that I remember.”
“It just seems like a lot of security,” I muttered. “Like, who are they trying to keep out?”
Andy laughed. “Benji, it’s not who they’re trying to keep out but what they’re trying to keep in. The guard towers were put up at my request. To be honest, most of them are unmanned. We just stick mannequins in them to deter people.”
“Why?” I asked, wondering how much I really knew about my friend.
“Because you aren’t the only one who thinks my work is neat. We’ve had a couple of different people try to break in or send drones over and steal my technology.”
Silence filled the air. I didn’t know what to say.
Andy sighed. “I promise I’m not crazy, okay? You can ask Travis about it the next time we see him. He caught one of the guys—beat him to a pulp too. My parents had to shell out a good bit of money to keep it away from the press, but in the end, it was the guy’s fault for trespassing.”
I sighed a little in relief. “Sorry, man, this is just all so new to me. How far are we going, anyway?”
He pointed in the darkness to a clearing not far from us. In a few minutes, we were in the center of it but I still couldn’t see anything. Andy jogged over to a bush that looked like all the others until he pressed his hand deep into it. A keypad lit up, and instantly, floodlights turned on and the area was lit up at once.
“Whoa,” I muttered. “This is pretty cool.”
“Thanks, I had to have a place to test out my jetpack without my brother getting in the way. My parents okayed my setting this up so I wouldn’t be hanging around the house and risking everything blowing up.”
“Is it safe?” I asked.
He nodded as he strapped himself into the jetpack. “All right, you go first. I already know how to run all of my controls. I have eight hours of continuous flight before my battery will start to fail. It only takes me point two seconds to get airborne too.”
“That’s impressive. Maybe you should just build another one of those for me instead of having me try to fly again.”
“Would if I could, friend, but after the US government found out I could build one, they stopped all sales of the gredonite I use to propel myself. Greedy bastards.”
“Got it. I take it that’s not something we can easily pick up on the black market?”
“Nope. Unless I agree to work for the government, this baby is one of a kind. So, what do you say?”
I swallowed hard, my arm starting to ache as I thought about plunging to the ground again. “I don’t know, man.”
“What triggers it?” he asked patiently.
“Umm, peace? I guess. Tranquility? I have to think of something that makes me happy,” I said. I didn’t want to tell him that was Hen.
“Okay, well whatever you’ve been thinking of obviously isn’t strong enough. If I had to guess, I would say a certain woman? I think you’re thinking of the wrong one though.”
“What do you mean? She’s the only one I like.”
He shook his head. “No, she isn’t. She’s the one you like right now. I want you to go back further. Think of the very first memory you have of your mother.”
“Um,” I said softly. “Okay.”
I closed my eyes and let my mind travel back in time. I had tons of good memories of my mother, but the very first one was of her in an empty field. I couldn’t remember going to the lily plantation, but she’d told me about it dozens of times. I was maybe five when we went. It was just the two of us. The sweet smell of the flowers coupled with her smiling face instantly brought me peace. I felt my feet start to lift off the ground. Suddenly, Andy started to shake me and I dropped the few inches back onto my feet.
“What the hell?” I said.
“Would you rather I shook you now or when you’re fifty feet in the air?”
“Good point. So, that worked, but I still lost my focus.”
“So, you know how we only use part of our brain?” he said as I nodded. “Well, I think that when you got your powers, it unlocked more sections. You’ve already figured out that you can control the electricity, right?”
“Yeah, that part was easy. It’s linked to my anxiety.”
“Or so you think. What if the two are linked together? I want you to think of your mother again, but this time, try and let your electricity flow too.”
I cleared my throat. “U
m, okay?”
He took a step back and watched me. I did the only thing that I knew how to do and closed my eyes. I thought of my mother, the peace that she brought me, but I also tried to send the tingling sensation down through my fingers. It was hard, like breaking through an invisible barrier in my mind. The two emotions didn’t want to connect. They were positive and negative magnets fighting for space.
I kept pushing through, feeling the power grow inside me as I tried to force them together. I could see the wall in my mind, the cracks forming around the edges as I applied pressure. My head started to ache but I didn’t stop. I wanted to keep going. I had to keep pushing. One crack grew, slitting the glowing glass in my mind into two separate pieces until I screamed out in frustration and shattered the barrier altogether.
The results were stunning. I had suddenly gained so much more than the ability to fly. I now understood the emotional charge. It was pushing me toward this all along. I was just too stubborn to figure it out. Instead, the anxiety inside me was a dull vibration, sitting next to the peace I’d found for flight. Together, I was able to control them both separately, with different parts of my brain. Everything that I’d struggled to do so far now seemed so foolish.
I opened my eyes, and Andy was watching me, a knowing smile on his face as he flipped a switch on his jetpack and took to the air. I laughed and followed behind him, feeling the surge of peace as my feet left the ground and I flew gracefully behind him. The world seemed so much clearer now. I wasn’t worried about falling to the ground. My mind wouldn’t let me. It was beautiful to be in the air without fear of the unknown.
“What did I tell you?” asked Andy over the low hum of his jetpack.
“How did you know to do all of that?” I said as we flew higher. “That was some serious genius shit.”
“Thanks.” He laughed. “As soon as I saw the news report of a kid with electric powers, I started toying around with the idea. When I heard that you flew down, I knew that the two had to be connected. The only other thing it could have been was a temporary side effect from the clinical trials, but tonight, when you tried to save me from Buzz, I knew that it wasn’t a fleeting thing.”
“I don’t know anyone else who could put those two things together,” I said. “You really are something, you know that?”
He shook his head. “I’m not something. You are. But now, at least you have a grip on your powers, and with me flying by your side, maybe we can really do some good together.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “I like the sound of that. But maybe for tonight, we can just have a little bit of fun.”
“I was thinking the same thing. I’ve got eight hours here. What do you want to do?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know how long I can fly, but I’m game to push it and find out. Travis can pick us up wherever we go, right?”
“I already let him know to be ready. Have you ever seen the ocean? I hear it’s amazing this late at night.”
I laughed and took off in the general direction of the ocean but smiled as I looked back at my friend. “I have a better idea. Have you ever seen the Statue of Liberty at night?”
“Damn,” he muttered. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
We flew toward the statue, and for the first time since I’d gotten my powers, I felt at peace. The fear of the unknown was gone now. Even if something happened and the mental wall tried to rebuild itself, I had Andy at my side to bail me out. The idea of his putting his life on the line was still hard for me to swallow though. He’d been such a good friend that getting him hurt or even killed weighed heavily on my mind. There was no way that I could tell him he couldn’t come now, though.
He was the reason we were flying together at all. I glanced over at him and saw the smile stretching across his face. I wouldn’t ever let him know just how much I feared for his life. He deserved this just as much, if not more than I did. Being trapped in a life without parents and a brother like Buzz hadn’t brought his spirits down. No, we would fly together and fight crime together for as long as we could. Sure, he needed me. But I needed him just as much. In a few short weeks, Andy the genius had become my best friend.
Chapter 19
The view was breathtaking from the top of the statue. I couldn’t believe how much easier it was to land with the fear of falling virtually eliminated. We edged ourselves down onto her torch. It was so late that there wasn’t a soul around, and since the torch had long ago been closed off to the general public, the guards didn’t bother to check it anymore. I took in a breath of the pure air. The pollution of the city had yet to reach our height.
“This is amazing,” I said quietly.
“You aren’t wrong.” Andy said. “Can you imagine bringing a girl up here? I bet you’d get anything you wanted if Hen knew you were Electric Boy.”
I groaned. “Ugh. That name has got to go. Plus, I can’t tell Hen, ever. No one besides you can ever know. It’s too dangerous. What happens if The Darkness found out I had people I cared about? I doubt she would be so willing to chat.”
“Are you really going after her the next time she strikes?”
“I don’t see how I have any other choice. The police aren’t able to stop her. It’s insane to think that I might be the city’s last hope.”
“Do you think the others are on team hero or zero?”
“Others?”
“Yeah, you and The Darkness aren’t the only game in town. I wonder who they are and what powers they have.”
“There is no way of knowing unless they come forward, but I don’t blame them for hiding. The reception to our powers hasn’t really been warm.”
“It will take a little time for people to adjust, but I bet once they do and once they see that you’re a good guy, things will change for the better.”
We sat in silence a little longer, taking in the view and appreciating that we were the only ones on the planet who could do something like that. It was mind-blowing as the sun started to rise and kiss the ocean below us. When a foghorn sounded and broke the spell, I looked around and knew that it was time to get going.
“We don’t want to be here when planes start flying overhead or people on the ferry arrive. I don’t think breaking the laws and trespassing will earn me any goodwill.”
“All right,” he muttered. “But we’ve got to come back here at some point. This is so cool. I totally forgot that you have school too!”
“It’s okay,” I told him. “I used to pull all-nighters all the time. It’s nothing new, but I’ll admit that it’s a good thing I’m already passing everything. Today might be one of those days where I sleep through most classes.”
“If that’s the case, why don’t you just skip it altogether? I have a little handheld device that can mimic voices. Your grandmother could call in and say you got the flu.”
I laughed. “Naw, I don’t mind going.”
He grinned at me knowingly. “You mean you don’t mind seeing Hen and the rest is just tolerable.”
“Something like that,” I muttered. “Are we gonna get this show on the road or wait for the cops to show up and kick us out of here?”
“Yeah, good call,” he said as he flipped the switch on his jetpack.
We leapt off the statue and started for his house, once again flying below the radar of any incoming or outgoing signals. Landing was so much easier as we approached his house and touched down in the clearing just as the sun was coming up. It was almost eight. I had to be at school in less than an hour, and stopping at home wasn’t going to happen. My phone was just about dead, but I managed to shoot my grandmother a message seconds before it died.
“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”
I gave him a confused look and he rolled his eyes. “I have clothes that will fit you. Unless you want to wear the mud-covered clothing you wore to school yesterday?”
I chuckled. “Not really. Thanks, Andy, for everything.”
“No problem,” he said as we approached the house. “That’s
what friends are for.”
Neither of us saw him coming between the house and the garage. It wasn’t until Buzz and two of his friends were feet away from us that we saw them waiting with handfuls of eggs. I jumped to the side quickly out of instinct. He wasn’t my first bully. Andy wasn’t as fast. The eggs collided with every part of his body, cracking and spewing their contents all over him. The entire thing only took seconds, but Buzz wasn’t done. As his friends cheered him on, he doused his brother in flour.
“Nerd,” he said as he and the others ran to their waiting car and sped away. “There’s plenty more where that came from!” he yelled as they left.
I was at Andy’s side in a second. “Shit, man, are you okay? Why didn’t you get out of the way?”
Andy shrugged, taking off his glasses and futilely trying to get them cleaned. “If I would have moved, he could have hit the jetpack. I can take a shower, but it can’t.”
“Damn,” I whispered as I held open the garage door. “I guess you need to get cleaned up now too.”
“Naw, go grab yourself a shower. I can use the one down here. It’s a hazmat one so it will get everything off and leave half the mess for housekeeping. Can you find your way around?”
“Yeah. Hey, I’m sorry your brother is such an asshole. One of these days, he will get what’s coming to him.”
“Easy now, that sounds more like a vigilante than a superhero. Don’t worry. I know that he won’t always be the big guy on campus. For now, I just have to take it in stride. Anyway, there’s probably an outfit already laid out on the bed. My housekeeper still thinks I’m five, so yeah. Feel free to take that one. I’ve got a stash of clothing down here.”
“Well, you’re a lot calmer than I would be in that situation. I’ll see you in a few.”
He nodded, and I jogged up the steps as he got ready for his shower. If I had been impressed by the downstairs, the upstairs was even more shocking. Hardwood floors ran throughout the length of the open concept apartment. The door let right into the kitchen with stainless steel appliances. A large leather sectional surrounded a very expensive looking television and sound system. As I walked around, amazed, I saw a pool table in the far corner that was flanked by pinball machines.
The City Superhero (Book 1): Rise Of The Super Strike Page 14
