First Superhero 1: The Second Super (15 page)

After admiring the view and being alone with my thoughts for a few more moments, I decided it was time to return back to the ground. The feeling of not breathing was an uneasy one, one I doubted I would get used to, and I was beginning to feel weak. I began to fly toward the ground, eager to be breathing fresh air once again.

I admired the amazing view that surrounded me as I began to fly back home at a much slower pace than I had taken on my way up. It was all so beautiful. I know the word
beautiful
is thrown around so much that to most people, the meaning behind it is lost. Same thing goes for the word
awesome.
But the flight down was literally awe inspiring, and filled with beauty.

I looked north, and could see Indianapolis in the distance. It was about a hundred miles away from Ebon, but from my height with my eyesight, I could see it as clear as day.

Something flying above the city caught my eye. I began to slow my descent, and that’s when I realized that the object above the city wasn’t flying, it was hovering.

I recognized the glowing eyes and evil grin. It was Richter, and he was staring right at me. Even though he was a hundred miles away, I knew he was watching me, and he knew I was watching him. I stared at him for a few moments, waiting for him to do something.

After a minute, he moved. He flew straight down, into the streets of Indianapolis.

As soon as he moved, so did I, directly for him.

It was time for me to put an end to Richter once and for all.

27

RICHTER’S GAME

I
FLEW
toward Indianapolis and reached the city limits in a matter of seconds. I flew to where I saw Richter last, above some of the skyscrapers in downtown. I flew down to the street level, and was struck with how eerily quiet things were.

Most people had fled the city, and were in shelters in various parts of the state, like the one in Ebon High School. It was a weird disconnect, being in such a large city that’s usually bustling with activity, yet it was completely silent, save for the wind blowing around some papers and other garbage across the ground.

My eyes scanned the surroundings, searching for Richter. There was no sign of him anywhere.

“How are you today,
Tempest
.” His mocking voice echoed loud around the empty city street.

It sounded louder to my right, however, and I ran over there in a split second, hoping I’d be able to catch him before he moved.

I was too late, however, as evidenced by the next round of insults seemingly coming from the other end of the street.

“Too slow,
Tempest
.” Every time he said my name, it was like an insult. As if the words were poison in his mouth, and he had to spit them up before it killed him. “Too
inferior.
”

I ran to the other side of the street as fast as I could, hoping to prove him wrong. I was still too slow, though, as once I reached the other side, I saw a blur disappear through the broken window of one of the nearby skyscrapers.

I launched into the air and flew through the window. I found myself inside a dark office building. Cubicles lined the room as far as the eye could see.

Richter flew past me in a blur, hitting me hard to the floor as he flew out the broken window the two of us had just came through.

I pushed myself up off the ground with a grunt. I looked out of the building, and could see Richter in the building across the street, standing behind an unbroken window, waving at me. A sly, mocking smile crept across his face.

I felt rage and frustration boil from within me. I launched out the building, and flew across the street as fast as I could. I didn’t slow down as I reached the window, but right before I burst through it, Richter disappeared in a blur.

The window shattered, and I landed on the floor, glass raining down around me. I tried my best not to yell in frustration, not wanting to show Richter any signs that he was winning, even though he most definitely already knew he was. I wasn’t giving up, though. Not when the U.S. Government wanted to experiment on me to figure out how to defeat him.

I turned and jumped out the building, falling several stories. I landed on the ground with a hard thud. “Why don’t you come out here and stop running like a child!” I shouted, my voice carrying throughout the empty street. It was so loud, I even surprised myself.

“Oh, Tempest. Everyone says when they’re older that they wish they could be a kid again! I may be acting like a child, but children have
fun
. And you’ve gotta admit,” Richter paused. The next words weren’t an echo in the street, but a whisper in my ears. “
This is fun.
”

Richter struck me in my back, sending me flying into a nearby car. The metal crushed beneath the force of my momentum. I pushed myself up off the car as fast as I could, and landed on my feet, ready for a fight.

Another blow came from my left, sending me flying down the street and skidding across the asphalt. I felt my Tempest suit tear from the friction, and my skin burned as it began to rub away. I pushed my hands down to stop myself, and stood up. I felt a coolness on my hands and back as the flesh and skin began to quickly heal itself.

Richter’s next move was a mistake, as he began to get cocky. He thought he could run directly at me, and was going to try and get in a punch to my face.

I saw his blur coming though and ducked down just in time, extending out my arm, clotheslining him. He let out a grunt in pain and fright, and went tumbling through two cars before coming to a stop on a third.

My arm healed itself as I ran to where he was lying on the car. This time, he was too slow, as I picked him up by his blue and white striped shirt and threw him through the skyscraper to my right.

Richter went flying through the wall, and I was close behind. I flew through the holes he created in the building, before he began to fall to the ground, sliding across it, breaking it up into a deep trench. He finally came to a stop in the street on the other side of the building.

I was on top of him as soon as he stopped, and punched him a few more times in the face, letting out all my rage and frustration, while at the same time feeling euphoric at the fact that I was winning.

Except I wasn’t.

He grabbed my fist before I could punch him again, and knocked it away, causing my fist to embed in the ground next to his head. He let out a yell as he punched my trapped arm, causing it to break clean in half.

I yelled in pain as the bone and flesh began to quickly stitch itself back together. Even though it only took a few seconds before I was fine again, that was more than enough time for Richter.

He jumped on top of me, taking me to the ground. He hit me a couple of times in the face so hard, it sent shockwaves through the street. “You’re going to pay for that!” he yelled as loud as he could. So loud that windows in the buildings around us shattered as glass began to rain down on us.

Richter grabbed me and picked me up. He launched into the air, and before I could even react, he’d flown a hundred miles away.

He changed his course, and suddenly, the two of us were flying straight down. I turned my head just in time to see that we were flying straight toward the roof of Ebon High School, with no sign of slowing down.

We exploded through the roof of the gymnasium, rubble flying everywhere. The terrified screams of innocent people reached my ears. Richter and I crashed into the ground, causing a large crater to appear. The screams of terror turned to the sickening screams of pain as rubble from the roof fell on top of them.

Richter pushed himself off me and hovered above my body. I couldn’t move. Once again, my spine had been severed, and I was paralyzed. I could feel it cracking and moving as my body worked to reattach itself. Even if I had the ability to move, though, I wouldn’t have been able to. I would have been paralyzed by shock.

Because, laying just a few feet away from me was a dead body. He had been crushed by a large piece of the gymnasium roof. His eyes were open and they stared at me, filled with shock.

I felt my fingers move. I had control of my body again. I didn’t turn to attack Richter, however. I continued to lie there. I let out a scream, as tears began to fall from my eyes.

Because it wasn’t just any body who’d just died and was lying just inches away from me.

It was Michael.

I got up. I had to help him. I had to get him to a hospital, even though a little voice in my head told me it was too late.

I was pushed back to the ground. Richter had his hand on my head, and was forcing me to look into Michael’s dead eyes.

“Look at him,
Tempest,
” he said. “Look at him!” he shouted.

I thought I was going to throw up. “Michael, no. No, Michael, no,” I whispered to myself.

“He’s dead because of you.”

“No,” I said.

“Yes,
Tempest.
”

“NO!” I shouted. I tried to fight against Richter, but his grip was too tight, and growing tighter by the second.

“YES! This is what happens when you don’t play along. This is what happens when you’re out of your league.” Tempest got down next to my face. “How does it feel, Tempest? How does it feel to be the bad guy?”

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t.

Richter let go of me. “Think about it, Tempest. Then let’s see how well you play next time.” With that, he flew up and out through the hole we’d created in the ceiling.

I got up from the ground, and picked up the rubble that was on top of Michael. I threw it into the air, out the hole in the ceiling. I picked up Michael’s lifeless body in my hands, and ran out of the school as fast as I could.

I reached the hospital in less than a second. I found myself standing in the Emergency Room screaming. “SOMEBODY HELP ME!”

Doctors and nurses came running to see what was going on. They all froze in fear when they saw that it was me who was standing there.

So instead, I ran to them. They all let out a gasp as I suddenly appeared in front of one of the doctors, a tall lady with graying hair.

“Please,” I pleaded as I handed Michael over to her. “Please.”

But deep down, I knew that I was already too late.

28

CROSSROADS

I
LANDED
hard in the clearing that I’d found deep within the woods. I pulled back my mask, letting it hang behind me like the hood portion of a hoodie. I fell to my knees, and let out a frustrated scream. I screamed so loud, I felt my throat begin to tear and repair itself. Birds flew away and other wildlife ran in fear.

I fell to the ground. My whole body felt numb, and my mind lethargic. I couldn’t think about anything. All I could do was feel. Angry, frustrated, sad, hate. Those emotions coursed through me. They were paralyzing.

I couldn’t believe it. Richter had defeated me yet again, and at the cost of the life of my best friend. Precious Michael. Such a sweet person. Always overshadowed in our circle of friends by Drew, yet always appreciated. I felt the tears begin to form in my eyes. I lay on the ground, the grass pressing against my face. The tears fell and watered the grass with their salty poison.

But the longer I lay there, the more my attention turned to one emotion in particular: rage. My body began to shake, the ferocity of the emotion coursing through my body like a roaring river.

I jumped up from the ground, and with a yell, charged into a tree at the edge of the clearing’s tree line. The tree thundered and splintered with a loud crack. It fell to the ground with a satisfying thud, and somehow, I felt a little bit better.

I wound up for another swing and hit the tree to my left as hard as I could. It, too, fell to the ground, relieving some of my frustration as it fell.

I was about to take another tree out, as my frustration and rage began to turn to glee, but something made me stop. A feeling in my gut that I couldn’t quite ignore. A feeling that told me what I was doing was wrong.

I fell back to the ground and looked at the two trees I’d just killed. I don’t know why, but I felt guilty. Not exactly because I’d just knocked down two trees, but because I felt as if I’d succumbed to Richter’s level. Richter was the one who went down the path of destruction, not me. I couldn’t bring myself down to his level.

Still, even though I didn’t agree with him, even though I despised what he did, and knew it was wrong, I understood why. And that terrified me.

If I felt the way I was feeling after Michael’s death, I could only imagine how it must’ve felt for Richter after his entire family was slaughtered. Suddenly, things began to make a lot more sense.

I found myself at a crossroads. The same crossroads I was sure that Richter found himself on.

That day, in that clearing, is what I chose the path I would go down. I wouldn’t go down the one Richter chose. His family died because he was a destructive homicidal maniac, and once they were dead, Richter just got even worse. He killed and destroyed even more. His family died in vain.

I promised myself that Michael’s death wouldn’t have been in vain. I wasn’t going to cause any more pain or destruction. I stood up and took in a deep breath. I remembered what Michael had spoken to me about just a few days ago as I drove him home from the party. He’d said that he wished he could be Tempest—that he could be
me
. That he would do a better job, and he’d get things done. I promised myself that I would be the person that Michael wanted to be. The
hero
he wanted to be.

But just because I resolved to
be
a hero didn’t mean I was one yet. I had a long ways to go. But that day in the clearing, I chose my path on the crossroads.

I chose Michael’s path.

I chose the path of the hero.

29

A NEW RESOLVE

M
ICHAEL’S FUNERAL
was a few days later. I sat in the third row of pews at the funeral home, staring at the closed casket. I imagined Michael lying inside of it, his eyes closed in an eternal sleep. I wished it would have been an open casket funeral, though. I would’ve loved to have seen Michael’s face one last time, so my last memory of him was him looking peaceful. Now for the rest of my life, my last memory of him would be how terrified he looked as the debris crushed him. Debris that was there because I couldn’t defeat Richter.