She kicked me lightly in the shin. “Boy! What you think I am, some kind of criminal? A grave robber at that? First of all, that shit will get you sent straight to hell. Second, how Imma be a criminal when my best friend is a superhero?”
My name is Shacorey Watts. I am a B student at Washington High. I’m a short, fat, bookworm, and yes, technically speaking, I am also a superhero. My origin story is short and sweet. Super powers run in my family. I was born with a gift, but it is the lamest superpower known to man. The end.
“Hello! Earth to Corey! You need some hearing aids now to go with those Coke bottle glasses?” Starkeisha had her other hand on her slender hip. She tapped her foot impatiently.
“I’m still waiting to hear where you got these things. I’m not going to help you until I know.”
Starkeisha rolled her eyes. “I got em from the dumpster behind the flower shop. Somebody threw they lunch on top of it so the wrapping paper is nasty. I can throw that part away though if you can make the flowers look nice again.”
I’ve heard people joke about the superhero who can talk to fish. “That’s the worst power in the world,” they say. That’s because they haven’t met me.
My superpower is gardening. That’s right, I have a Super Green Thumb. Needless to say, cool costumes and crime fighting are not in my future. Giving my friend’s mom a happy birthday surprise was definitely doable. “Yeah, I think I can fix em. Let’s go across the street to the empty lot. The weeds are getting pretty tall over there anyway.”
We picked our way through the empty cans and broken bottles until we reached the middle of the lot and then I took the dying flowers from her. I stretched out my hand and felt the life force of the weeds surrounding us. Weeds get a bad rep. They are survivors and they thrive in the most unlikely places. They provide food and shelter for all kinds of wildlife. Some of them are actually quite pretty. I kind of hated to take their lives, especially here in an empty lot where they weren’t doing anybody any harm, but I looked into the expectant eyes of my friend. I’d known her mom all my life and she was going through a rough time. I knew how much Mrs. Berry liked flowers, and I wanted to give her a good birthday. I pushed down my reservations and channeled the life energy from the weeds, through my body, and into the pretty, useless bouquet, bringing it back to life.
Starkeisha took the bundle from my hand and inhaled the fresh floral perfume. A wide grin parted her full, perfect lips and she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. Her athletic body pressed against mine as she leaned in and I felt my face heat up. I was glad my skin was dark enough to hide the color I knew was rising in my cheeks. “Tell me again why you ain’t using your power for something good like ending world hunger?”
I pointed to the wide circle of dead plant life surrounding us. “Because, I can’t give life to one plant without taking it from another. I don’t even want to think about what would have to die in order for me to give life to one acre of farmland. Face it, my power is practically useless.”
She cradled the beautiful, multicolored bouquet in her arms. “My moms won’t think your power is so useless. She loves flowers more than anything.” I heard the break in her voice.
Starkeisha’s mom was sick. Doctors were doing everything they could, but she didn’t seem to be getting any better. “I hope they’ll make her happy,” I said, touching my friend’s arm. The weeds would grow back because survival was in their nature and their temporary sacrifice would not be in vain.
We delivered the flowers together. Mrs. Berry smiled wide, despite the dark circles under her eyes. We made her tea because she said she wasn’t really hungry for cake or anything else. I kissed her on the forehead and we left her to rest because the small celebration had worn her out. “She lookin’ much better today, ain’t she?” Starkeisha smiled weakly as she spoke.
“Yeah, she sure is.” She wasn’t looking better and we both knew it. I wished I could use my powers to give life to Mrs. Berry the way I had given it to the flowers, but I couldn’t. My powers only worked on plants. I felt helpless and useless, knowing there was nothing I could do for the people I cared about the most.
Luckily I didn’t have much time to dwell on it before a thickly muscled arm slammed into my soft, midsection and knocked the air out of my lungs. I was lifted off my feet and suddenly the world was moving by me in a blur. The only words I heard were “Dammit, Starkeisha! Let go of my cape! You’re strangling me!” I didn’t hear her respond, but I couldn’t draw a breath so if she was along for the ride, I doubted she had the wind to respond either. We stopped just as I thought my lungs would explode. I dropped to my knees, coughing and spluttering and staring down at my own living room carpet. I finally caught my breath and looked up. Then I looked up some more, past a giant, spandex covered wall of muscle and into the masked face of this state’s greatest superhero. He smiled down at me. “Hello, cousin.” His voice was low and gravelly and completely unnatural. It was all I could do to stop myself from rolling my eyes at him.
“Cut the action hero speak, Kevin. You sound ridiculous.”
In my generation, two of us inherited super powers. There’s me and there’s my older cousin. He got the super strength and super speed plus the rock hard body and chiseled good looks of a real superhero. The world knows him as Super Soartastic. I know him as the big cousin who always sat on my head and farted at family gatherings. Nowadays he fights for truth and justice. Back then he fought to get enough fiber in his diet. We’re cool now, I guess. He’s a few years older than me and living on his own, conquering evil in the big city. I’m still stuck in the burbs just trying to conquer eleventh grade.
“What in the hell is wrong with you??” Starkeisha punched him in the arm, hard enough to make my super cousin flinch. “How you gon’ come up and grab somebody like that? Did you ever hear of asking? You don’t gotta suffocate nobody, going super speed just to carry us three blocks. We coulda just walked like normal human beings.”
Kevin looked around the room like he thought it might be bugged. “I didn’t want anyone to see me in the neighborhood. I’m here on superhero business.” He looked at her, rubbing his shoulder in the spot where she’d hit him. “Besides, I didn’t even grab you. You took it upon yourself to latch onto my cape and come along for the ride. How did your reflexes get to be so quick?”
“Twelve years of mixed martial arts training, but that’s beside the point. I saw something jump my friend. What you think I was gon’ do in that situation?”
“Is that my baby Kevin, I mean, Mr. Super Soartastic I hear in there?” My mother’s voice sounded from the kitchen just moments before she walked through the door. A wide grin split her face as soon as she saw him. “Aw! Don’t you look handsome in your super suit! Come here and give your Auntie Rita a big hug!”
“Hey, Auntie Rita.” He spoke using his natural voice and gave her a warm hug.
“Does your momma know you in town, baby? You want me to call her, tell her to come over?”
“Oh no, Auntie. I can’t stay long. I just need to talk to Corey but I will call Momma later, I promise.”
“Well, she will be so sorry that she missed you. But you two superheroes go on and have your talk.” She turned and walked out of the room.
I knew the minute she left the room my mother would be on the phone to her sister. I’m sure Kevin knew it too. He was going to see his mother before he left and there would be baked goods involved. That was more than fine by me. My cousin grabbed me by the arm and looked into my eyes. “The mayor needs to talk to you. Where can we go for a private talk?”
“You’ve been in this family longer than I have, Kevin. You know there’s no such thing as a private talk around here.” No doors were ever locked in this house and anyone could barge in at any moment. He didn’t respond, he just stood there staring down at me with those gray eyes, looking a bit desperate. I shrugged. “I guess my room is as good a place as any.”
Starkeisha moved to follow us and he turned his masked face and
fixed her with a stern look. “I said I needed a private conversation.”
Starkeisha was one of those people who could speak volumes without ever saying a word. Her normally uneven gaze went straight and steady as she stared at my cousin. Her look won the argument he’d been gearing up to have before he could even draw breath to start making his case. He backed down and turned to follow me up the stairs. She brought up the rear. He pulled the blinds and then the curtains as soon as we were alone in my room. Then he pulled off the mask and rubbed his gloved hands over his face. It was the first time I noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He looked tired. Sometimes I forgot that he wasn’t that much older than me. Most guys his age were still in college, getting drunk and posting embarrassing selfies on social media. “You alright, Cuz?”
He looked up at me as if he was surprised at the question. I’m guessing not many people ever stop to ask superheroes how they’re feeling. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’ve just been,” he paused as if searching for the words, “dealing with some things.” He looked as if he wanted to say more, but a buzzing sound suddenly filled the silence in my room. He replaced his mask so fast I barely saw him move, then reached behind himself, underneath his cape and pulled out a cell phone, I didn’t think I wanted to know from where. “Hello, Mr. Mayor. I have him here.”
“Excellent, have you debriefed him?”
Starkeisha looked at me, wide-eyed. The voice on the other end of the line was the actual mayor of Onyx City! “No, sir. I haven’t had the chance yet.” My cousin’s voice was deep and gravelly again.
“Well let me talk to him. This city needs him.”
My mouth dropped open as my cousin beckoned me to sit beside him. My head barely reached his shoulder, so he had to hold the phone out at arm’s length in order to fit us both in the frame. Surprise, followed by disappointment, registered on the mayor’s face when he saw me. He cleared his throat and shuffled some papers while he regained his composure. “So, uh, I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name, son.”
“Shacorey, sir. Shacorey Watts.”
“I see, and you don’t have a super alias or anything like that?”
I shrugged, feeling a bit embarrassed. “My friends call me Corey if that helps.” I figured at least it sounded a bit less girly.
The mayor cleared his throat. “Right, well, Super uh Corey, this city needs your help.”
“Me? What can I do?” I began imagining some sort of citywide shrubbery crisis.
“I’m sure you’ve been hearing about the latest drug craze on the news.”
“Yeah, fungi are a hobby of mine, even though my mom won’t let me grow them in the house.” I snorted indignantly. “Like a couple of trays of compost in my bedroom closet could hurt anything. Honestly, you can hardly smell it.” I pouted at the injustice of it.
Starkeisha gave me a firm “shut up Corey” pinch on my arm, which helped me get back to the point.
“They’re calling it psychocybin or Psycho Silly. It’s a type of mushroom, related to psilocybin or Magic Mushrooms, but it’s way more dangerous. This was created in a lab through genetic engineering. They say it was an accident. Scientists were looking to create a more nutritious and pest resistant food source when they came up with this.”
I paused and looked around. Over the years I’ve learned that not everyone is as fascinated by my hobbies as I am. I try to remember to monitor the interest level of my audience. No one looked ready to nod off, so I continued. “It can be eaten, snorted or smoked. It can even be absorbed through the skin. The mushroom itself is much too potent to consume in its purest form. It has to be cut and mixed with inert chemicals before it can be safely handled and distributed. I heard some people have OD’d just standing in the same room and breathing in the spores of the growing fungi. They say it produces the purest, most exquisite high imaginable.”
Kevin grimaced. “That’s all true. Unfortunately, I’m way more familiar with the effects of the stuff than I’d like.”
The mayor interrupted before I could question my cousin. “This drug is destroying lives and killing our citizens at an alarming rate. New addicts seem to be cropping up every day. Crime is on the rise and our police force is quickly becoming overwhelmed. This menace must be stopped.”
I nodded. “It makes me wonder where and how they’re growing and packaging the stuff without killing their workforce and wiping out whole city blocks.”
The mayor continued. “We have some intel on that. We don’t know who controls the sale and distribution, but we do know where the mushrooms are being grown. There’s a small island just off the coast with a large cave right in the center. We believe the people in charge have invented some sort of pill or vaccine that gives workers temporary immunity against the mushroom’s effects. They work in short shifts throughout the day, but at night, the whole area around the caves is deserted. Sure, there are armed guards along the island coastlines, but no one further inland. No need to post guards since the mushrooms themselves will kill anyone who gets close.
“Not even I can get close and I’ve spent the last six months trying.” Kevin’s gravelly superhero voice had gotten quiet. “I tried special suits and helmets and gas masks and nothing filters out those spores. I can’t get within more than fifty feet of the place before I’m on my knees, tripping balls.” He sighed and shook his head. “The worst part is, lately all I can think about is going back there again and the last thing on my mind is fighting crime. That’s why I can’t go back to the cave. I might lose myself.” I put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. He was a jerk when we were younger, but he was still my family and I didn’t like to see him hurting.
“Don’t worry. As unlikely as it seems, this actually does sound like a job for me.”
“Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but what can this kid do that our strongest hero cannot.” The mayor’s voice dripped with skepticism.
His doubt was probably justified, but it still ticked me off. I gave him my steeliest gaze, then walked to my desk and got the bonsai tree I’d been working on earlier. I held it close to the phone’s camera and put my hand over the branches. The leaves shriveled and browned as I drained the life energy from the tree, my eyes never leaving the mayor’s face. “I can take care of your little mushroom problem, sir.” He stared at the dead tree wide-eyed. I got up again and returned it to my desk, quickly pouring the life energy back into it. I’d worked too damn hard on that thing to just let it die.
“Forgive my skepticism, son. There are a lot of lives riding on this and I just wanted to be sure you had the right stuff.” I nodded, my ego satisfied. The mayor continued. “Now, how do you plan to get close to the lair without feeling the effects of the drug?”
“Oh, I’m immune to all plant based poisons and drugs.”
The mayor raised a skeptical eyebrow but Soartastic stepped in. “No, trust me, he is.” We looked at each other but didn’t elaborate. I’d first discovered my peculiar immunity at cousin Kevin’s house. He was babysitting me and I found his stash of very special brownies while I was snooping around his bedroom. I ate three before he caught me. They had absolutely no effect on me, but I did get to keep his Playstation for a whole month for promising not to tell our moms about the incident. I’d done plenty of experiments since then and found absolutely no plant or fungus that could send me to heaven or hell.
“We’ll just have to take your word for it.” The mayor’s face grew serious. “Super Corey, the plan is to strike tonight. The city’s resources are at your disposal. We are counting on you to help us end this menace. I’ll let Super Soartastic brief you on the layout of the lair.” He hung up the phone and we sat in silence for a few moments.
Starkeisha’s voice broke the spell. “I just gotta axe one thing. Is you crazy? Y’all both done lost yo damn minds right?” She got right up in my cousin’s masked face and pointed in my direction. “He is a child! He ain’t never even thrown a punch in his life and you want to send him after a drug lord with guards and guns and s
ecurity cameras?”
“I’m pretty good with a knife.” I had a lot of practice with a knife because I happen to be an excellent cook. I could julienne a carrot like a pro, but I wasn’t sure the skill was transferrable.
She turned her glare on me. “You not chopping scallions! We’re talking about fighting for your life with no training and no preparation.”
Soartastic spoke quietly. “I was younger than him when I did my first mission.”
Starkeisha snorted. “Yeah, and you also had super strength and super speed. He got a pocketful of daisies to protect hisself.”
“He’s also our only hope.”
In movies, when someone tells the hero that he’s the only hope, it fills him with resolve. The phrase just filled me with pants-crapping terror. Starkeisha was right. I was no hero. The only fighting I’d ever done was the video game variety. I didn’t even like violence in real life and I was expected to take on an entire compound of evil henchmen in a few short hours. I started to feel genuinely ill. I sank heavily onto the side of my bed and put my head in my hands. Kevin knelt down in front of me and took my hands in his. “Look, man. I would never send you in there on a suicide mission. I’ve been to this place. I know it like the back of my hand. I will go with you as far as I can. I can take out the armed guards. The rest is up to you. You can do this.”
I took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s work out a plan.”
“Yeah, and I’m going with him.” Starkeisha looked determined. “He need someone by his side who knows how to throw a damn punch at least.”
“Starkeisha, you just said yourself. This is dangerous and you are a child. You can’t come along this time. You don’t have any superpowers.” My cousin was using his very best superhero voice, but he had never come up against a force with as much will as my friend Starkeisha.
“I was fast enough to catch your cape when you whizzed by earlier today and strong enough to hold on. I may not have any superpowers, but neither do those men on that island. I am just as qualified as him for this mission, probably more, since I have formal combat training. I will not let my friend go alone so get used to it. I will get as close as I can without killin’ myself or becoming a junkie and you are wasting your time trying to argue with me.”
Black Power- The Superhero Anthology Page 36
