First Superhero 1: The Second Super (10 page)

Charlie let out a string of words in Spanish, which I guessed were not very nice.

I stopped listening, and began to process what I’d just heard. Beta and Charlie were obviously code names, taken from the phonetic alphabet. Beta definitely seemed to be in control of the situation. My guess was that Charlie and his gang used to work for Beta and his people, but Beta just left Charlie high and dry.

I didn’t really care to know much more about the situation. All I knew is that there were hostages that needed saving, and I could really care less about Charlie and his gang problems.

I stood up tall, and began floating up toward the broken window at the top of the warehouse; it was about two stories up the air. I snuck my head up from the bottom slowly, trying to stay hidden.

The warehouse was large and wide open. There wasn’t any equipment since it was abandoned. It was wide open save for rows of rust support beams going up to the ceiling spread out across the entire warehouse, and clusters of office buildings. There were enclosed offices by the front door, some toward the back, and a break room/office combo toward the middle. I could see through the windows of the break room that the lights were on, and lots of people were piled in. Most of them were on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs, while the rest stood over them with machine guns in their hands, ready to fire. Outside the office, four more gang members stood guard. I looked across the warehouse, and two stood by the front door, looking out through cracks in the wall at the sea of police and SWAT officers, giving updates into walkie-talkies that sat on their shoulders. The news crews were now set up, ready to record any action that might happen from a safe distance away.

I sunk down and floated just underneath the broken window, out of sight. I needed to think of my game plan. And judging by the way Charlie was acting while on the phone with Beta, I needed to think fast.

Basically my two options came down to whether I wanted to take all the guards’ guns, then fight them, or carry the hostages out, then fight off the gang members. Whichever option I choose, I just knew that it had to involve me fighting the gang members. Not only did I need to fight them to practice my fighting and tactical abilities, but I really, really,
really,
wanted to have a victory. I wanted to be a hero, because so far, I’d just been a super-punching-bag, and I wanted people to know that I meant business.

I decided that the safest thing to do would be a combination of the two main plans I’d come up with so far. I hovered up, and flew through the window as quietly as I could. I floated down as quietly as I could. Once my feet touched the ground, though, I took off running as fast as I could.

It was time for me to show the world what I could do.

18

PERFORMANCE ANXEITY

I
TORE
through the door to the room, and went straight for the guns. I yanked them out of the gang members’ hands as they stood their frozen. It would be a few seconds for them before they realized that their guns just disappeared, but by the time the did that, I’d already be almost done moving the hostages to safety.

I threw each gun toward the door as soon as they were in my hands. Once they left my hand, they barely moved through the air. Not frozen, but moving slow, like they were moving through a sea of syrup. They’d fly out the door at full speed once I was no longer moving so quickly, though, so I wasn’t worried.

Once the guns were out of the way, I grabbed the first hostage. I ran across the warehouse, threw open the front door, and set the hostage down by a group of police officers. The hostage was a young girl, about seven years old. Her face was frozen with fear, and tears flowed from her eyes in slow motion.

But they began to speed up.

Oh shit.

I ran back in as fast as I could, but I was beginning to lose my concentration. I wasn’t running as fast anymore, so time began to speed up around me. It still moved very slowly, but at about half normal speed, instead of a tenth of it.

I grabbed another hostage and brought them back to safety. I did my best to focus on being as fast as I could, but I couldn’t help but think I was digging myself into a huge hole. I began to wonder if I should’ve even involved myself at all.

I began to grab the hostages two by two; the gang members began to realize they were disappearing, as their faces turned from being stone-cold to dazed and confused. One of them reached for something inside their coat, and I realized that some of them had to have had pistols hidden on their persons. I didn’t have time to get it away from them, however. I had to focus on getting the hostages out of there. I just wasn’t going to be fast enough to do it all.

I took a few more out, and came back for the last hostage. A low rumbling sound reached my ears, followed by a loud, deep pop. I looked at the source of the sound, and watched as an explosion slowly erupted from the barrel of a gun, aimed directly at the final hostage, a young Hispanic woman in her early twenties. My concentration faltered, and the time began to speed up even more. I was moving slower, and the bullet began to pick up speed. It flew spinning out of the barrel of the gun, moving at a quick speed.

I ran toward the bullet, but I was all the way on the other side of the room from it. In a last ditch effort, I dove. It was only fifteen feet from the woman’s head, and moving fast. I let out a yell, as I came closer and closer, the bullet just inches away from entering the woman. I reached out my hand as the bullet reached the woman’s neck. It began to dig itself into her skin, but I was able to pull it out as I flew over, before it could do any real damage. I threw the bullet to my left, and everything became full speed as I crashed into the gang member who fired the gun, the both of us flying into the wall and falling into a heap on the ground.

I looked up, and saw all the gang members’ faces looking at me, bewildered. To them, only about ten seconds had passed since I began disarming them to now. My head pounded, and I felt confused as what to do next.

The screams of the final hostage shook me out of my haze. She lay curled up on the ground, her hands wrapped around her neck. Her screams were screams of pain, confusion, and fear, all mixed into one.

I jumped up from the ground, flew to her, wrapped my arms around her, and got her out of there. I flew outside, and set her down with the rest of the former hostages. The police officers looked at the group of people that had just appeared, with faces just as confused as those of the now freed people.

I turned to the officer, and lowered my voice. “This one is injured,” I said. My voice sounded stupid and ridiculous. I was definitely going to have to think of a better solution.

The officers didn’t respond, instead they all raised their guns at me and began yelling at me. “Get on the ground!” they screamed.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m on your side,” I said. I was trying to say as little as possible, since whatever came out just sounded dumb. I didn’t want to use my real voice, though; I didn’t want anybody to be able to figure out my identity.

I flew into the air, and headed back for the warehouse, hoping the officers got the message to leave me alone. I headed toward the office that the gang was now scrambling inside, trying to get their guns ready, while at the same time trying to figure out what was going on.

My feet hit the ground, and I skidded to a halt directly in the middle of room.

The men looked at me, their faces filled with confusion. I began to look each one of them in the eye, slowing turning as I did so. I tried to look tough and instill fear into them. I guess it worked, because some of them ran out of the room, yelling things in Spanish.

In the end, only four remained, including Charlie.

“So this is it?” I asked.

“It’s either you or deportation to the worst Mexican prison,” Charlie said. “I choose you.”

I smirked. “Why not both?”

With that, I ran to him in a split second, my speed having returned. I punched him in the face hard, but not
super-strength
hard. I was holding back, only hitting him with the power of a normal human.

Charlie stumbled, but quickly regained his composure. He swung at me, but I didn’t dodge in time. The punch connected, and I felt an explosion of pain for a split second, before my powers began to heal me, taking away all the pain. I punched him back harder this time, angry that he got one in on me, but also angry at myself for freezing and not dodging in time.

Charlie landed in a heap on the ground, my punch having knocked him out. I reminded myself to tone it down a bit. I could easily take all these guys out in the matter of seconds, but not only was the point of this all to practice my fighting on real targets, but I would most likely kill them if I had my powers turned up to eleven.

I turned around, ready to take on the other three, and also making a mental note to make sure I didn’t actually hurt Charlie too badly later.

I was met with a fist slamming into the center of my face, sending me faltering back a few steps.

“Move!” one of the men shouted at the guy who just got the surprise attack in on me.

He did, and I found myself staring down the barrel of a pistol. The man on the other side of the room fired, and the bullet came flying toward me. I threw my hand up and caught it, just inches from my face. I redirected it toward the leg of the man who’d punched me, and quit moving fast, causing time to return to its normal speed.

The man screamed in pain as the bullet tore through his leg. He fell to the ground, out of commission for the rest of the fight.

The other guy with the gun emptied his gun, but I simply just stepped to the right. All the bullets harmlessly flew past me, and the man stared at me, frozen in shock and fear.

The other one in the room was not frozen, however. He began to make to run to the door, having figured out that he wasn’t going to be able to defeat me, and that I was just toying with them.

I ran to the door as fast as I could, blocking the man from exiting. He let out a yelp of fear. I could tell he was wracking his brain, trying to figure out how I had suddenly appeared in front of him.

He turned and began running toward one of the window, but I blocked his path again. This time I’d scared him so bad he fell to the ground. He scrambled away from me on his hands in knees backwards, not breaking eye contact with me.

I began to feel a bit guilty for scaring them so badly, but then I remembered what these men had done. Not only that day, but all the days before it. The countless number of people they had probably killed.

I head a scream, and looked up just in time to see the man who was shooting at me earlier come at me swinging the butt of his pistol straight at my face. Again, I’d gotten distracted, and again, I’d taken an unsuspecting blow directly to my nose. This time I felt the bones shatter, and fell to the ground. They began to heal themselves almost as soon as they were broken, but still, I could feel the pain for a few agonizing seconds. The blow knocked me to the ground, and before I could get up, the man began kicking me in my sides.

He got in two good kicks before I grabbed his foot, and slammed him to the ground. His head hit the ground with a sickeningly soft thud. The man began shaking violently, his whole body seizing. Foam and saliva shot from his mouth.

My entire body tensed, and I thought I was going to throw up. I began to panic, not knowing what to do. I was still lying on the ground, and was eye to eye with the man who was having a seizure because of me. I was paralyzed with fear.

“Please,” I heard someone say. I looked up, and saw the man who I had nearly frightened to death looking at me on his knees, next to his seizing friend. “Please, I am sorry.” His eyes were big, and tears began to fall from them. I realized how young he looked. He couldn’t have been much older than myself. “Do not let my friend die. We will surrender. Please. Do something.”

I realized that I couldn’t just leave the man there, and that I had to do something. Even though they were evil people, I’m the one who caused him to be in this situation, I had to try and help sort it out.

I picked the man up in my arms, and ran outside as fast as I could. I placed him on the ground next to some paramedics who were checking out some of the hostage victims.

Everybody jumped back and let out a gasp. “Help him!” I shouted.

The paramedics rushed to the man’s side, and I bolted toward the command center that was set up in the back of a van. Everybody jumped and gasped, just like the paramedics had moments earlier. I rolled my eyes, but it was a reaction that I was just going to have to get used to.

“I’m finished,” I said. “They’re all yours.”

With that, I launched myself high into the air, flying away as fast as I could, trying to figure out whether or not I’d just made a huge mistake.

19

ENEMY OF THE STATE

I
WALKED
through the back door of my house, and headed straight for the living room. Mom gasped as I walked in. She and Dad were watching my escapade on the news as I collapsed in a heap on the cool leather couch. I felt so tired and drained, I felt as if I could sleep for days.

Mom rushed to my side, and began checking me for any wounds.

“I’m fine, Mom,” I said as I pushed myself up to a sitting position. “Just really worn out.”

“You did good, Kane,” Dad said, standing with his arms crossed while wearing a big smile.

“Really?” I said, rubbing my eyes. “Because it felt like I did pretty crappy.”

Dad shrugged. “Well, I said you did good, not that you did
well
.”

I let out a moan, and laid back down on the couch. “I don’t feel as if I’m any better now than I was when I left.” I wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, just thinking out loud.

“What were you expecting, to come back and be better than Richter?” Dad asked as he walked to the recliner next to the couch, and sat down in it. He leaned forward in his chair. “You gotta take something from this. Surely there’s
something
you can learn.”