First Superhero 1: The Second Super (7 page)

Richter put down his bags, waited for a moment to seemingly collect his thoughts, and then in a split second, appeared next to one of the police officers at the front of the police barricade. He grabbed him by the throat, and threw him straight into the air. He picked up the police officer’s car, and crumpled it up a bit in the back to make it easier to hold. When the police officer he threw moments ago started coming back down, Richter flew up a few feet to meet him. He swung the officer’s car like a bat, hitting the officer with tremendous force. The man exploded, showering the crowd of officers with blood.

Richter threw the car down into another group of officers, before he himself flew into another officer and threw him through a building. He continued his rampage until all the officers were dead.

He walked calmly back to the sacks of money he’d placed down earlier, and picked them up. He was about to fly away, whenever he caught a glimpse of the person who was hiding underneath a table outside a restaurant, who’d been recording the whole thing. His glowing blue eyes looked into the camera. In a blur, Richter appeared in front of the man in a split second. The man let out a yell, startled. Richter threw the table aside, and the man dropped his camera. It was impossible to see how since everything went black, but you could hear the man screaming, and then silence as he was presumably killed.

Richter picked the cell phone up off the ground, and pointed it at himself. At first you couldn’t see anything because his glowing blue eyes were blowing out the camera. Once the exposure adjusted though, you could see his black hair was matted red with blood, and his face was stained brown and red. “My name is Richter,” he said; his voice was that of a young adult and carried no remorse. “That is the only name that matters.”

There was a crushing sound and the video stopped, Richter having presumably destroyed the phone.

I felt nauseous and my head spun. While pretty much everybody on the planet had watched that video millions of time, I’d never been able to watch the whole unedited thing. Just the safe-for-TV version they played on the news. Seeing the officers being killed, and the ease with which Richter did so, terrified me. I had no idea how I was going to be able to go up against him.

I was the only person on Earth who’d ever been able to do damage to Richter. It was up to me to stop him. And I was absolutely terrified. All I wanted to do was to run or fly away and hide.

“So,” Dad began. He crossed one hand across his body, and with his other he held up his chin. “Thoughts?”

“Ummm…how about ‘what the hell’?” I asked.

“Well, I hope you got more from it than that,” Dad said with a chuckle.

I sat back into the couch and looked up at the ceiling. “I was a little distracted by Richter killing all those officers. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

I could see Dad nod from the corner of my eye. “Well, we’re going to watch it again.”

I sat up. “Watch it aga—” I began to protest but Dad stopped me.

“Yes, watch it again. You need to be learning from this. It’s up to you to stop the deadliest man on the planet, Kane. You need to study him, learn from him, do whatever you can to stop him. I know it’s not a fun video to watch, but it needs to be done.” Dad turned and looked out the windows. The ones he’d just had to replace, thanks to Richter. “You’re my son, Kane. I don’t want you going out there at all, but I know you have to. And if you’re going to, I want to knowing that you’re as prepared as you can possibly be. That I did what I could.”

I had to look away from Dad. I couldn’t bear it. I knew this had to be so difficult on him, seeing me go through everything. I knew I had to give it my all, for him. “Okay, Dad,” I said.

Dad turned to look at me, his eyes glistening.

I nodded my head. “Let’s watch it again.”

12

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

I
SET
down the tractor as easily as I could, trying my best not to damage anything.

“Anything else?” I asked.

Dad looked at me with his mouth slightly opened, totally dumbfounded. He shook his head. “N-no. That’s the heaviest thing I can think of.”

I wiped the grease off on my jeans and then walked over next to Dad. We were both behind the barn where Mom couldn’t see us, testing the limits of my powers. So far there was nothing I couldn’t handle. I lifted everything in the barn like it weighed nothing. I could fly and run from one end of our hundred-and-fifty-acre barn in just a few seconds, too. We didn’t dare run or fly past our property, since we were afraid of attracting any unwanted attention. Plus, I knew the property like the back of my hand, so I didn’t have to worry about watching where I was going as much. All I had to focus on was speed.

Still, a hundred and fifty acres isn’t that much room to get up to speed. I was eager to get out in the open to see what I could really do. Dad and I both agreed that it wasn’t a good idea, though. If anybody got any videos of me and posted them on the Web, you can be sure Richter would be watching it on a loop trying to figure out what he was up against, just like we were doing to him.

“You ready to call it a night?” Dad asked.

“Yep. You know anything as far as dinner?” I asked Dad as we began walking back into the house.

“I think your mom grabbed some pizza.”

“Yes! Pizza sounds so good right now. Did she get it from the grocery store, or did she get some from Yorkshire Pizza?”

Dad smiled and laughed. “She didn’t get any shitty frozen pizza, she got some from Yorkshire!”

I tried to say something in response, but I was speechless. My father had just casually cursed in front of me. That was something he only did if he was angry, or if it was part of a joke he was telling, or some sort of special occasion like that. Him dropping an s-bomb casually in a conversation like that was definitely breaking new ground, and it made me
very
happy. I still didn’t have the guts to say it back, but it made me feel good knowing my father was looking at me as more of a grownup. I guess a day of bonding over testing out your son’s superpowers does that to a father.

“
T
HIS IS
some nice digs you got going on here. You should get thrown off a roof by a supervillain more often. Better yet, let him throw
me
off one!” Drew exclaimed as we stepped in to Macy and her sister’s new apartment.

Macy rolled her eyes as she gave Drew a hug.

“You’re an idiot, Drew,” Michael said as he walked in behind him and handed Macy some flowers. “These are from all of us.”

Macy took a look at them and smiled. They were what the florist described as a “summer assortment,” made up of sunflowers, and some purple and yellow and white other flowers. But sunflowers were the only ones I recognized.

“I love them!” she all but shrieked. “Thank you guys so much.”

She turned to me and gave me a big hug. I took in a deep breath, inhaling the wonderful smell of her perfume. She let go of our embrace all too soon and closed the door behind me.

“Thank you all so much,” she said again. “I really don’t know what I’d do without you three as my friends.”

“Aww, shucks, Macy,” Drew said. “You’re not bad yourself.”

“I thank what he’s trying to say is thank
you,
Macy. You’re a wonderful member of our crew,” Michael said.

“And I think what
he’s
trying to say is thank
you
for being such a great friend yourself,” I said.

All four of us burst out laughing. Macy walked over to the kitchen and pulled a vase out of a cabinet, filled it with water, and put the flowers inside. “There,” she said as she placed the vase in the middle of the counter. “They look perfect.”

I smiled. They did look perfect. And so did Macy. She wore a green T-shirt that made her green eyes explode with color, and black yoga pants that made her just look flat-out
hot
. God, I was so in love with her. She really was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.

“Where’s the big sis?” Drew asked.

“She’s out with some friends,” Macy said as she walked out of the kitchen and back toward the entryway where we were all standing. “Come into the living room, guys,” she said.

The three of us walked into the living room, and sat down on the leather couches that were in an L-formation. A giant TV sat in the corner on top of a glass television stand.

“Nice TV,” I said.

Macy smiled. “Oh, thanks. Like most everything in here, it was donated.”

“Hey, if you’ve got any extras, you can send them my way,” Drew said.

“Didn’t you just get a new TV?” Michael asked, slightly perturbed.

“That’s not the point.”

Macy laughed and shook her head. “Sorry, but anything extra I donated to the Richter Relief Fund.”

The RRF was not just a fund, but it was a charity that helped people get their lives back together after their homes and/or families were destroyed by Richter. At least, that’s what they did in theory. Since Richter was currently going full throttle, there wasn’t really a chance for recovery or “relief” just yet.

Yet another reminder that I was the only one who was going to be able to bring about said “relief” and “recovery.”

“What’s the plan for tomorrow?” Michael asked.

“We haven’t even gotten to the plan for tonight,” Drew said.

Michael rolled his eyes. “I know that, it was a little bit rhetorical, but also I like to be really organized, okay? You know that!”

“What did you have in mind, Michael?” Macy asked before Drew could jump back in.

“I was thinking we’d go back down to high school and volunteer there some more. I just want to still go down there, you know, even though Macy and Madeline aren’t there anymore.”

I smiled and nodded my head. “Of course, Michael.”

“Yeah, Michael, of course,” Macy agreed.

Drew rolled his eyes. “And Big Mike wins the hearts of millions once again.”

I chuckled, and Michael let out a smile.

“Let’s get to the dinner and shitty television movies, shall we?” Drew said as he stood and clapped his hands together.

We each grabbed a hamburger that Macy had gotten from the Burger Shack, along with a soda from the fridge. When we turned the TV on, however, my appetite instantly went away.

The channel was on a news station, and on it was an aerial view of an abandoned Manhattan. Richter had taken some buildings and arranged them to spell
REMEMBER MY FAMILY
in the rubble.

“We’re not sure whom the message from Richter is for,” the news lady said. “But speculation is rampant, and it’s obvious that we aren’t going to get a statement from Richter himself.”

I knew exactly whom the message was for, though. It was meant for me.

Richter was trying to tell me to remember what happened to his parents, but little did he know that it was something I was unable to forget. The public killing his family was something that was always in the back of my mind. The fact that the public would most likely do the same thing to my parents if they knew who they were was one of my greatest fears. And Richter just reminded me of it using the rubble of Manhattan. He was trying to paint the general population as the bad people, and himself as the victim. While it did make me feel sorry for his family, it didn’t make me feel sorry for Richter. He’d killed thousands, and deserved none of my or anybody else’s sympathy.

The fact that he was trying to communicate with me terrified me, however. This was all real. It was happening.

And it was all about to kick off sooner than I thought.

13

SUITING UP

I
PRACTICALLY KICKED
the door to my house down as I charged into our living room. “Mom?! Dad?!” I shouted.

“In here!” I heard them shout from the kitchen.

I passed the living room to my left, and entered the large den area. I almost used my super speed to run to the kitchen, but I showed some restraint. I entered the kitchen and gave Mom and Dad a big hug. Once we were done, I turned to the TV that was mounted underneath the cabinet and clicked to the news channel.

“It’s everywhere, honey,” Mom said.

“I know,” I said. “He’s calling me out.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked, her voice shaking.

I turned and looked at Dad, who seemed to be just as clueless as I was.

I stood there for a moment, thinking. “I’m not going to play his mind games,” I said finally. “He can send all the messages he wants. But until I see him out there…just…being Richter, I’m not going out there. I have to train as much as I can before I face him.”

Dad nodded. “You’re going to let him come to you, not you go to him,” he said, summing up what I was trying to say in a way that makes sense.

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Wait here,” Mom said abruptly. She walked out of the kitchen and disappeared around the hallway and into her and Dad’s bedroom.

I looked at Dad, confused. Dad just shrugged his shoulders, acting as if he had no idea what Mom was talking about. I could tell by the smug look on his face, though, that he knew.

Mom came back into the kitchen holding a white cardboard box, the kind you put clothes in before you wrap them up and give them as a gift.

“What’s this?” I asked as she handed it to me.

“Just open it!” she said with a smile.

I pushed aside some mail that sat on the kitchen counter and set the box down. I slid my fingers underneath the sides and lifted the top of the box off.

Sitting folded neatly underneath the top lid of the box was a navy-blue suit with scarlet-red stitching. I let out a small gasp as I pulled the suit from the box. I unfolded it and marveled at its beauty.

The chest, shoulders, and part of the back were a thick, rough navy leather and had a scarlet stitching outline. The pants part of the suit was leather as well, but unlike the roughness of the leather on the chest, was surprisingly smooth to the touch. The rest of the suit was made up of an extremely thin and light material that didn't hinder my dexterity or range of motion. There was a head piece as well, which covered my entire skull except for my eyes, and from my chin up to a hardened nose piece. Also in the box were a pair of navy blue sneakers—with scarlet-red shoelaces of course—and a pair of leather gloves.