The Mask Effect (EDITING)

Chapter 2- Headlines In All-Caps

Dedicated to @joecool123 for the very first superhero

Noah's POV

The Force crouched in the bushes behind his house, puffy eyed and miserable. The faint sound of sobbing had led me to him- or I might've continued on to school, never knowing.

"What is it?" I asked. I didn't have to. His face, plastered across every gossip network and news channel worth its money, made it pretty obvious.

Brian wiped off tears, keeping his face out of sight. "Go away. You can't do anything, Lazero. It's over."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "It's not over, you know. You could find a new name. A new life."

"Yes, but how many times? How many times can I change who I am without forgetting myself?" Brian looked at his shoes. "I can't do that to my family, Noah. You understand."

"Then accept yourself as the Force. Wear the title like a badge." Hollow words, and he knew it.

"Then why don't you?" Without another word, the wet patches on his t-shirt began spreading. "Why am I being punished for being myself?"

I looked at his prone form for a while, unable to speak. Then I walked away, my hands shoved deep enough into the pockets to make my hands go numb. Almost invisible to the rest of the school- but Maddy. Before I knew it, she'd barricaded me against the wall of the corridor, hands on hips. The rest of the students flowed around our little blockade. "Is everything okay?"

"No," I murmured. "It's not."

"Brian?" She stopped to wave at a passing classmate. "Or Madeline?"

"I'd forgotten about her," I said. All I could think about is what happened to Brian. What someone did to Brian. "It wasn't right."

"I know." I could barely let myself say it, to even let my little sister hear how afraid I was. I wanted to be invulnerable. To let myself believe that forever.

But I said it anyway.

"And the thing is... it could happen again. To any of us." To me.

"I know that, too." Maddy threw back a last sentence before heading away. "We all want to forget it."

It was as if Brian was everywhere. The mystery. Awe and fear for the superhero they didn't know sat in their own classroom.

If they found out I was Lazero, though, there'd probably be a small moment of silence and an 'oh'- but that was it. Understandable, considering the Force was #5 on the List, while Lazero was at #63. Since telekinesis was much more powerful than concentrated beams of light and heat, I couldn't argue. Even on the not-official lists (the ones fans made in their spare time with the Hot/Not columns) he'd always figured pretty high.

All through the first class, he didn't show up. He was still missing in the second.

Didn't even turn up at lunch.

The talk about Brain- everywhere- made me sick, and by science, I almost asked Mr. Anders for a bathroom pass. But those bathroom passes belonged to the ultimate hoarder, Brian.

I, like the others, couldn't keep my eyes off the desk two to my left, right in front of Cheddar- Madeline's seat. Empty.

Brian should've been turning around to crack a joke with the closest person. Getting at least three more bathroom passes than a person could normally need- and fanning himself with them dramatically.