Heroes Wear Capes

“At some point in our lives, we all wanted to be a superhero.”

~ Dave Lisewski (Kickass)

Xander Mendez is pretty sure that everyone in existence has wanted to be a superhero at one point or another in their lives.

(Yes, even the crazy old cat lady on the corner house who owns one too many creepy porcelain dolls.)

In Xander’s mind, Superheroes were awesome. They got to save the day and they never even took credit most of the time. Superheroes were normal everyday people who dressed up in awesome spandex costumes in their spare time to help out their fellow citizen. And the public never even got to know who was doing the real saving!

Well, that is if the superhero’s identity isn’t revealed.

(The entirety of the League of Legends got their identities revealed a couple of years ago by the wife of a reporter. Though they still save the people in their respective cities as their superhero personas without expecting special recognition in their everyday lives.)

(Xander would imagine that it’d be hard to go grocery shopping if everyone in the store knew you were a superhero in your spare time.)

Superheroes like The Marvel and White Lightning saved the day with their extraordinary superpowers (telekinesis and the control of lightning respectively) and sought no fame in return. They did it because it was the right thing to do, and that was more admirable than anything else in the world.

Of course, they had to have gotten their extraordinary superpowers from somewhere. Some supers (the term for people with extraordinary abilities) claim to have swam in rivers affected by toxic waste (Golden Eagle), or to have had a laboratory accident (The Marvel and White Knight), or to have been experimented on when they were young (Calico and Black Hawk), or to have been affected by a pharmaceuticals company’s drugs (Delinquent and Kratos), but there was no way to tell for sure if that was what really gave them powers or if they were even telling the truth. There was no way to know for sure why some people were struck dead by lightning and some would end up getting superpowers from it, like White Lightning did. There was no way to know for sure why some experimental serums worked on turning some people into superheroes and others turned out to be quite deadly.

Xander guessed that the general public would always just be in the dark about these things.

Some supers decided to go on the opposite side of the spectrum, though. Not every super wanted to be a hero. For one reason or another, other supers decided that robbing banks and trying to destroy the world was worth more of their time than trying to actually help people. Super villains included people like Andromeda, Inferno, Nemesis, Black Knight, Midnight, Artic Frost, and more. They usually chose their path because they felt wronged by superheroes or by society in general. Not to mention that it would be hard to be a superhero with powers over shadows or poison or something like that. Those people were kind of destined to be villains.

But there was a third group of supers out there as well. People who had powers who decided to live in hiding. People who chose not to use their powers for good or for evil, who’d rather act like a normal person than save the day or destroy the world. Xander never saw the reasoning of those people, because he knew if he had super awesome super powers, he would definitely use them. Like, who wouldn’t?

(Well, obviously those people don’t use their powers wouldn’t, but you knew what he meant. What sane person wouldn’t use their powers if they had them?)

Kingdom City had a long history of super related activity. Though Empire City laid claim to the first superhero, The Avenger, Kingdom City could lay claim to the most superheroes in its history. One of the most famous was Captain Fantastic. He was a classic superhero who could fly and lift cars over his head. Though his powers were considered generic nowadays, he was an instant star back then. He retired about a decade ago, much to the despair of the citizens in Kingdom City. Though, shortly after his retirement, White Knight showed up to take his place. There had been a gray area of time between the two supers’ exchange of legendary power when a villain had control of the city, but no one liked to talk about that time. White Knight was another generic super, but he played it good. He got so many endorsement deals and sponsorships in town that his legacy would never die. He also had his very own damsel, April Watson. She must’ve had the best time in the world, always being saved by the city’s best hero. Xander didn’t like guys, but, like, who wouldn’t want to be saved by that hunk of a man?

But White Knight wasn’t Kingdom City’s only current superhero.

Silver Streak was a vigilante hero who had never made a public appearance on record. If someone caught a picture of her, the news networks in the city went wild for a day. She was more of the staying in the shadows type of savior, not taking credit for her saves as Silver Streak at all. From what can be made out from the pictures of her circling around the web, Silver Streak had an all-black spandex leather suit with a utility belt and a black mask. Her hair was shining silver, which gave her the name. Without the hair she’d probably blend in to the dark perfectly, her ebony skin matching her skintight suit. Silver Streak and White Knight were kind of opposites.

Kingdom City became crowded when you realized there was yet another hero to watch out for. Wild Fire was, to say in the least, a sort of middle ground between the two heroes mentioned above. He wasn’t as commercial as White Knight, but not as discrete as Silver Streak. But, as per his name, Wild Fire was a bit more reckless than the two. With the power over fire, you weren’t exactly going to be stable. He was famous for his budding rivalry with Artic Frost, a villainous girl who had probably tried to rob every establishment in Kingdom City by this point. They were more famous than White Knight and his longtime arch nemesis, Black Knight, because they had opposite powers, whereas the two Knights had the same basic powers. Not to mention Wild Fire and Artic Frost were much more vicious in their fights.

Xander was pretty sure he knew everything there was to know about the supers. He wasn’t a conspiracy theorist, he was just obsessed with learning more about his saviors.

Even with the excitement that heroes brought to life, school still existed to ruin it. Especially considering his school was not the best school available in a city like his.

When you lived in the bad part of town, notably in the southeast part of Kingdom City, otherwise known as Oakland, you were basically screwed. If you weren’t particularly gifted or dedicated to riding the bus at five in the morning, you had a limited choice of schools to go to. And, to put it short, they weren’t exactly A-list establishments. Oakland High School was made up of three thousand students, though technically there should be more because a good majority of the students drop out to get a job to support themselves and their families. A lot of kids just didn’t care about school because it wasn’t going to get them out of Oakland anyways. With rich kid schools like Kingdom Hills High in the mix, the kids in Oakland were never going to break out. The kids in Kingdom Hills could afford tutors and trainers, so Oakland would always fall behind in academics and sports no matter what. If you lived there, in that part of town, you could pretty much guarantee you wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.

The school wasn’t pretty at first sight either. The district didn’t see any apparent point in making the school look nicer, or in fixing the many broken systems at the school, so it only got worse. The graffiti surrounding the outsides and insides of the school only got more crowded by the day, and you were bound to pass a crude drawing on a locker on your way to gym class. The PA system was so bad that you could barely make out the words the principle was saying, and some of the classes actually didn’t have teachers because no one wanted to work there. The year-long substitutes would just put on headphones and ignore the kids as the class dissolved into chaos.

So, you could probably tell how bad Xander’s life was by now.

Now, it’s not like you’re supposed to feel sorry for him. Those were just the facts Xander had known his whole life. Maybe that was why he looked up to the superheroes so much. If Xander was a hero, maybe he could be the figure for a little kid to look up to. The guy who tells them that life gets better than a rundown high school in the bad part of town.

But, even with all the bad, there was one good thing about school that Xander could look forward to everyday without a doubt.

“Dude, can you stop staring at Mera Deauxma for one second?”

Xander sighed. “John, can’t you let me indulge for one second?”

Xander’s friend gave him a harsh look. Xander got this look often from his friend. “What’s the point if you know she’s never going to notice you anyways?”

“There’s always a chance. You know, she broke with Todd yesterday.”

John scoffed, “And?”

“And that means I had more of a chance than I did before.” Xander argued.

“Sure you do, buddy. And I have a chance with the Silver Streak. Like, come on. There is no version of this reality where Mera Deauxma wants to go out with Xander Mendez.”

Xander sighed again. John was telling the truth for the most part. Rationally speaking, Mera would never notice a video game geek like him. She was a cheerleader, so the stereotype stands. She was also a literal goddess on earth, with her soft chocolate eyes and cheekbones that could cut diamonds. Mera was every guy’s dream girl. Not to mention, she was very smart. Almost too smart to be going to Oakland High. If she had wanted to, she probably could’ve gone to a place like Kingdom Hills High School and actually survive. Xander had even heard that she originally went to Kingdom Hills high, and even lived in that area, before she moved to Oakland High School.

“I can always dream, though.”

John shrugged. “And I can always dream about dating the Silver Streak, but we both know that ain’t happening.”

Yes, John Washington’s infatuation with the hero was a common topic of theirs. He was obsessed with her, which made sense since she was a bad ass that was impossible not to like. Though, realistically speaking, even though Xander still had no chance with Mera, John had less of a chance with a vigilante who he had no idea what she looked like. The media couldn’t even get a clear masked picture of her.

The two were currently hanging out by their lockers during their free period. Xander’s locker was bent in the middle from one fight or another that had happened in the halls, while John’s had a crudely drawn picture of an inappropriate activity on his. It was the way of the school. Perhaps the only perfect locker was Mera’s, which graffiti artists avoided. No one wanted Mera Deauxma, a literal angel, to hate them.

Perhaps that was why it was so weird when Mera and her best friend Taylor Hale had a falling out years ago. Taylor quit the cheer team and the underfunded math team after the incident. Everyone got along with Mera, so for someone to have a fight with her was unheard of. That was why Taylor was such an outcast now, or at least that was Xander’s line of thinking. Mera hated her, so there must’ve been a good reason.

It was a lesson to the common students of Oakland High. No one fought with Mera and survived in the social ladder.

“Did you see the story on Carlton Laboratories and Rossi Corp having deal meetings?” Xander asked changing the topic of conversation.

John looked him straight in the eye. “Why would Blue Archer want to be associated with the Rossi Corporation? They aren’t exactly known for their superhero friendly activities.”

Xander pouted. “C’mon. Blue Archer isn’t even the CEO of Carlton Laboratories anymore.”

“Yeah, well putting his wife in as the new CEO doesn’t exactly mean it’s under new leadership. He just dropped out because of the conflict of interest of being a vigilante and the head of a major company. There’s no way he’s still not pulling the strings in that place.”

Xander sighed. Sometimes John wasn’t on the same side of the supers as he was.

“Okay, well even if that’s the truth, Rossi Corp is not that bad.”

John narrowed his eyes. “You just say that because you’re best buddies with the heir to the Rossi Corp throne.”

Xander opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water.

“See, you can’t even defend that kid.”

John was upset, and reasonably so. Xander knew that John’s parents were laid off by Rossi Corp a couple of years ago, but that was no excuse to be incredibly rude to the CEO’s son. Trevor had never personally done anything to hurt John.

It was why Xander usually avoided talking about his other friend in front of John. He just couldn’t understand why Xander would be good friends with a Rossi. He was being super biased about the whole situation, but there was nothing Xander could do to convince John. Xander wouldn’t have brought up Rossi Corp today if he hadn’t been dying to talk about the possibility of the legendary Blue Archer being involved with someone he knew.

(That’s like only a couple of degrees of separation from Xander. Only a couple steps away from actually meeting a superhero.)

(Well, he wasn’t exactly a super though. He was a bow and arrow slinging vigilante apart of the League of Legends. When it was revealed that he was also a billionaire CEO of a major company, his board thought it would be best to go under new leadership, which happened to be his ex-reporter wife who was best friends with the superhero Sonic, also a part of the League.)

“Trevor is not his father.”

John shrugged.

Xander groaned out loud and hit his head against his locker dramatically. “C’mon, dude. Can’t you just be excited at the prospect of people who know Blue Archer visiting Rossi Corp, which is in Kingdom City? Like, he’s one of the most famous vigilantes ever! You can at least appreciate that with your obsession of Silver Streak.”

John let a small smile cross his lips. “Yeah, I guess he is pretty cool. Blue Archer is a part of the League of Legends, and they are pretty famous.”

“See!” Xander exclaimed, bumping John’s shoulder, “who knows how many degrees of separation you could be from knowing supers like The Marvel!”

John was full on grinning now. “Okay, fine. Maybe Carlton Laboratories visiting town isn’t such a bad thing, are you happy?” He asked.

Xander nodded, “Yes, I am very happy now.”

It was how the relationship between the two friends normally went. Xander could always get John to laugh, and John could usually never keep himself mad at Xander for long. They’d been friends since long before they could remember.

And nothing could tear that apart.