Blast: The Teenage Hero

14. Dress For Success

It was a calm Tuesday morning at Peachwood High, Alex and Tommy sat at a bench to read superhero comics together. In the superhero comic they were reading, a group of thieves try to rob a bank, when all of a sudden, the hero of the comic, Giga Man, makes a big entrance, startling the robbers. One of the panels of the comic has the superhero standing in a heroic pose, wearing his iconic superhero suit, with the cape waving in the wind.

The superhero Giga Man soon defeats the band of thieves with his super powers, just in time for the police to take the criminals to jail.

Alex and Tommy finish reading the superhero comic, and both seem really excited. "Giga Man is awesome! Do you see that style, that cool pose? He's amazing!" Alex said with a grin. "I learned my heroic poses from him!" he added, as he flew up into the air and struck a heroic pose like the one Giga Man had in the comic.

Tommy laughs a bit. "Yeah, it's really cool!" he added. "You're almost like the heroes from the comics, it's a shame you don't look like a real superhero." he told Alex.

This caught Alex's attention, as he flew down and landed on the ground, looking at Tommy with an inquisitive glance. "What do you mean? I'm a real superhero now!" Alex told Tommy. "I even fight against the forces of evil!" he replied.

Tommy shook his head. "No no, you really are a superhero! You just don't look like one, that's all." Tommy responded.

Alex tilted his head to the side a bit. "What do you mean I don't look like one? I have great heroic poses!" he told Tommy.

"You do... but the heroic poses would look even cooler if you had a superhero suit like the one Giga Man has." Tommy told his friend. "I mean, look at Giga Man!" he added, showing him the page of the comic where Giga Man has the heroic pose. "That suit and the cape, it makes him look the part!" Tommy told him, pointing at the image in the comic.

Alex brought a hand to his chin, looking closely at the image in the comic book. "You know, I never thought about that." Alex replied. "I never really thought of it because you know, a lot of heroes use costumes to hide their identity. You know, like Giga Man is a news reporter, Bee Man is a high school student like me, Owl Man is... what is his job? I think he's just super rich." Alex said, thinking about it. "Anyway, everyone already knows who I am, so it's not like I have an identity to hide." he explained.

"Yeah, that's true..." Tommy replied, but then he smiled again. "But it'd be cool though!"

Alex nodded. "Yeah, it would be." he agreed with a smile. "But getting a superhero suit sounds kind of expensive..." he said.

Tommy sighed. "How's the cookie selling business going?" he asked.

Alex shrugged. "I mean, it's going well, but I just spent my money on that Giga Man action figure I got last week." he admitted with a shy smile.

"Oh right, the action figure!" Tommy said with a smile. However his smile then disappeared for a bit. "Too bad... it really would be cool if you had a superhero outfit. Then you'd really have the whole superhero look for real!" he said.

Alex sighed slightly. "Yeah..." he agreed. He hadn't thought much about it before, but now he actually wanted a superhero outfit, thinking how cool it would look. "But besides, if I had a superhero outfit I'd need it to be made specially for me. I can't just buy any superhero outfit. It'd need to be made for me. I don't really know anyone who could design an outfit like that." he said, shrugging.

However, just as he said that, he caught the attention of someone that had just been passing by, a fellow classmate, Julia! She stopped walking, and turned towards him, seeming interested in what he had just said.