Blog of a Teenage Superhero

Chapter Six: Heroism

I know what I'm doing. 

Sort of.

Each superhero on Red's team has his or her own unique backstory, but if you dig deep enough you find patterns. The base package of superpowers. Super-speed, super-strength, flight-abilities. You have your outliers, your modifiers, sure. Black Ice crafts snowball out of the water in the air. Yellow Star can throw fire. But the others? They've got your aforementioned triple threat.

And if I can crush a camera in my fist, then surely I've got the other powers. I just need to try. I work up my superhero-line-repertoire to help. "You messed with the wrong school and the wrong kid!" I shout.

Kai whimpers, sputters, and squeals. "Owie, owie, ow! Dude, what is your problem?" With every step, cracks race across the tile under my feet. Faster, I push myself, all the blood rushing up into my head. Sweat flies off my skin. So the hoodie was a poor choice. Noted. 

I take big leaps, awkward attempts at flight. The floor cracks into hundreds of little shatters when I land. Crack. Crack. Crack. I don't mean to cause so much property damage, even to my hated school, and every little crunch makes me shudder on the inside. But this is Kai in danger. 

I hear him struggling. The sound of nails scraping metal, kicking and thrashing limbs beating the floor and walls, Kai's choky little cry. "Hey, hey, no, please—"

"What?" Masquerade laughs, throaty and deep. "Not so scary now, are you, without your friend?"

I peek out behind a hall corner. The long, spindly shadows of the two boys clash on the school floor. And it goes about as well as you'd expect. Masquerade slams Kai against the wall by the collar of his shirt. My friend flails. I crouch low, my mind racing for a plan. Something. Anything. 

"What do you want?" Kai's teeth flash, his lip curled up in an angry little snarl, but his eyes are still wide and his muscly little body is still shaking.

"Aww, are you scared?" Masquerade clicks his tongue. "I'm debating whether I should let you go and take the fake superhero instead."

"Oh." Kai shrugs, squirming his shoulders against the crushed drywall. "Okay."

He lifts Kai even higher, who has stopped screaming and is now singing under his breath, trying on a goofy smile. "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen," Kai starts. "Nobody knows the sorrow—"

I clear my throat and step into the hall, my body thrumming with nervous energy. "Hey, Masquerade, why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

"Below the belt!" cries Kai. Masquerade faces me blankly, then he snorts. He's still filming on his phone. He turns his back to me, peels Kai off the wall, and sashays down the hall. Kai kicks.

"Hey!" I race after him. More tile smashes. It's a funny feeling, the electricity pumping in my veins, the way the school blurs around me like a hollow, white comet. Masquerade throws Kai to the ground. I wince at his little cry.

"Ow, ow, ow—"

Masquerade spins the dial on a yellow locker. By the time Kai's shambled to his feet, Masquerade has him by the collar of his shirt again. I barrel into the villain, slamming him into the next locker pod. Metal shrieks and crumples in. He laughs, up to his feet in half a second flat. I'm frozen, tracking his blur of motion. Kai is shaking, and with a half-hearted kick, the supervillain sends my friend flying. 

Kai yelps and tumbles into the open locker. I race for him, but Masquerade cuts me off with a poke on the chest that sends me stumbling backward on the broken floor. Kai has gone stiff, face a doe-eyed vision of horror. And yeah, I don't blame him. It's one thing to be stuffed in a locker as a middle schooler, another as a high school senior. Another kick and the door is slammed shut. Kai screams.