A Guide to Being Super

Rule #20

Rule #20: Make some kind of impressive choice when faced with peril. No one cares if you make good/impressive choices when you're training or alone, all that matters is what you do when it's important.

So where were we? Right, Ike had been kidnapped by my psychotic classmate. So I was standing in his living room, Lena had just teleported away, figuring out the fuck I was going to do. Part of me, maybe the smart one, wanted to fly away right then and save Ike (especially since I was dealing with the fact that if I had flown over instead of walked I could have gotten there in time) but another part of me, maybe the nice one?, knew I should wait until Ike's family woke up to make sure that they were okay.

Naturally, by the time I had waited ten minutes for them to wake up I was freaking out and was considering just leaving anyway because I hadn't even told Dan and the superheroes yet. Telling them seemed like a thing I should do.

But finally, after about maybe twenty minutes, his family started to come to. It was his dad who woke up first, which made me feel a little better. I may have had the powers but having a sane, responsible adult around was something I had been completely lacking the past couple of months.

"Matt?" he asked, as soon as he got his bearings. "What are you doing here? What did you do?"

In hindsight, I should have realized how bad it looked for me. I was standing in their house, the door was open, and the family was passed out around me. It wasn't a pretty picture.

"No! It's not what it looks like," I said, throwing my hands in front of me. "I can explain."

Luckily, Ike's dad was too groggy to argue just yet and he was focused on waking up his wife and children. I walked over and gently shook the shoulder of Ike's youngest brother, trying to seem helpful so Ike's dad wouldn't tackle me when he could focus on me again.

"So explain," he said, deciding, like I had, to wait for the family to wake up naturally. He had relaxed a little, he didn't seem like he was going to try to fight me yet, but his arms were crossed over his chest so I wasn't completely out of the woods yet.

"It's kind of hard to."

"Try."

This wasn't an easy situation. On one hand, I could lie and tell him that I had seen a supervillain flee when I got to the house and the family was just like this. That, at least, was sort of true. But I also had the urge to tell him everything, it seemed wrong for him to never know that this was all my fault. Sure, I hadn't kidnapped Ike or drugged his family but they had been targeted because of me. I knew I could trust Ike's dad (I'm sorry, he does have a name but I just don't know it, it seems wrong to call him Mr. Ramjattan in this situation), but I wasn't sure if he would even believe me or if he could handle it.

Then again, I had avoided telling Ike and look where that had gotten me. If Ike could handle it, his dad could do. His dad had raised him, after all, it was unfair to assume that an adult couldn't handle the truth. I had to tell him.

"Okay, I will. But I need you to stay calm and wait until I'm completely done," I said.

He sighed. "Fine."

"A few month ago, I was shot by a bolt of Daring Dan's electricity."

"I know. You were supposed to meet Ike for a movie but he had to babysit and was late. He felt awful."

"He didn't need to be, it wasn't his fault. Anyway, afterwards things began to change. Like things inside me."

"Inside you?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Not like creepy weird things. Like weird sci-fi things. My little sister did some experiments and we discovered that I had, well, gotten super powers."