Heroes Wear Capes

“I . . . I just found out about my powers and you expect me to be a sidekick? Don’t you think I’m a bit underqualified?”

~ Aden Dashner (Kratos)

John had to know that something was off about his best friend that Monday. He wasn’t talking nonstop about the latest superhero activity and he wasn’t even staring longingly at Mera Deauxma like usual. But, John attributed it to the fact that Trevor’s father had just died. John may have hated that man, but Xander was still friends with Trevor and probably felt horrible for him.

But, in fact, Xander wasn’t only just preoccupied with that thought. He was a super. Apparently he became a super because of messing around in that warehouse, watching whatever Trevor was up to. He was the one who panicked the man in the suit who then, in turn, shot Paul Rossi. Even if he didn’t mean to, his powers were the reason that Paul was in the hospital, and he probably wouldn’t have had that heart attack or whatever it was if he hadn’t been sent to the hospital in the first place.

But, even if his powers were cursed, the point was that he had them. He could become a superhero, like the ones he read about in the news all the time. He could defeat villains like Artic Frost and Black Knight. Maybe he could even get his own arch nemesis.

“So,” John started, “Did you hear the rumor about Mera?”

Of course he would try and get his friend talking by mentioning one of his favorite subjects. Luckily for John, Xander would always be willing to abandon his train of thought to talk about the girl he’d been in love with since she first moved to their school.

“What rumor?”

John smiled and twirled his pencil in his hand. “Rumor is that Mera is dating a guy from Kingdom Hills High.”

Xander scrunched up his nose. “No way. I mean – didn’t she just break up with Todd?”

“Yep,” John nodded.

Xander groaned. “The one chance I had with her and now it’s gone.”

“Dude, you’ve never even talked to her before.”

Xander narrowed his eyes, “Hey, I was randomly partnered with her for a history project a week ago. She was very nice to me.”

John scoffed. “Nice doesn’t equal affection.”

Xander pouted. “You don’t have to crush my dreams, man.”

They were currently in their psychology class, where the sub had given up and put in headphones to block out the noise of all the students yelling and screaming. They hadn’t had a real assignment in weeks. The class was a blow off.

John sighed and looked down at his phone. “Well, it’s only a rumor.”

He was right, but that still wasn’t great for Xander. He didn’t even know why he was so in love with a girl he barely spoke to. Maybe it was because Mera was exactly what any guy could want in a girl. She was a dream, and she definitely didn’t disappoint. She was nice despite her popular status and no one was mean to her because of it. The only person who she was never nice to was her ex-BFF, who she coldly ignored in the halls. No one knew why they stopped talking, but it was enough of a reason for the rest of the student body to ignore her as well. Taylor Hale hadn’t actually done anything to the students at Oakland, but she was exactly trying to fight her reputation either.

She used to be popular until the fallout. Now she was a loner who hung at the edge of the crowd. She quit cheerleading and quit speaking to anyone really. Taylor Hale was a curious person, but Xander was never going to ask what had happened between the two girls. Maybe it would damage his chances if he spoke to a girl his crush hated.

Suddenly the bell rang. Students rejoiced as they ran to the door. It was the last period of the day, and everyone was aching to get home.

“Xander, you want to hang out today?” John offered. “I just got the new COD game and I heard it’s even better than the last version.”

It was an enticing offer, but Xander couldn’t accept. He really wanted to play the new video game, but he also had previous plans that he couldn’t skip out on.

“Sorry, dude. My mom’s making me watch Heroes Versus Villains with her tonight. You know how she loves those soap operas.”

“That’s a shame,” commented John, “My mom is even cooking your favorite for dinner tonight.”

Xander bit his lip. It was like his best friend knew he was lying about his plans. He had the new Call of Duty game and his mother’s special fried chicken? It was the jackpot, something that might never happen again.

But Xander also couldn’t miss his plans. He knew that if he didn’t do it tonight, he’d chicken out forever. He needed to know that he could do this.

Xander shook his head. “I’m sorry, man. She’ll kill me. You know Latina moms and their short tempers.”

John laughed and slapped his friend in the back. “Please, your mom has nothing on my mom. Pit them against each other any day and we’ll see who wins. Have fun with your soap opera.”

Xander and John had to walk separate ways to their apartments, since they were in different complexes. Xander’s was a bit farther from the school, closer to the Kingdom Hills area than he would’ve liked. Looking out his apartment window and seeing all of those nice houses really didn’t make a guy feel great about the situation they were in.

But it also meant their complex usually had working power year round, even in the cold months. Sometimes during thunderstorms and the occasional snowstorm the power went out in the Oakland area to conserve backup power for the Kingdom Hills area, but Xander’s complex was usually safe being so close to the middle. Of course, this wasn’t the official reason for the power being shut off, but it was pretty suspicious how it was only ever Oakland’s power being cut out during storms and never Kingdom Hills, even though the city was supposed to provide equal power to everywhere.

Then again, the city could defend that since most of the political leaders and powerhouses than ran this city lived there and they needed more protection. That was the defense White Knight used at least.

When Xander got home, he immediately ran to his room. On Sunday he worked all day to make this outfit out of the old stuff in his closet. It wasn’t much compared to the designer spandex outfits most all of the supers wore, but it was what Xander was able to put together from the closet of a teenage boy.

A red zip up jacket over a blue shirt paired with his favorite pair of blue jeans. He figured a mask would be a good idea, so he found a red Marvel mask he wore for Halloween one year. Surprisingly, the mask still fit.

Since he had the small problem of his favorite converse smoking after the trip to the hospital, Xander figured he needed something more durable. In the back of his closet he had a pair of designer Sonic running shoes. The brand was, as you could tell by the name, sponsored by the famed superhero with the same name. The shoes were supposedly made of heat and abrasive resistant material that could withstand moving at high-velocity speeds, which was proved when Sonic ran a couple of laps around the warehouse that made them with the shoes on.

Of course, they were probably made just to make little kids feel special and fast, they didn’t actually think a speedster would someday need to use them.

He was just glad that he had won them at the local fair a year ago. He never thought he’d use them, but there comes a day for everything.

Xander was just glad Sonic’s shoes came in a dark blue instead of her staple white and bright red. That would’ve made him stand out during his stakeout tonight.

Kingdom City may have already had three perfectly good heroes, but there was always crime to stop, and Xander was ready and willing to take up the mantel.

His mom was taking the late shift tonight, so he’d have the freedom to stay out as late as he needed to.

Xander was going to become a superhero.

Okay, maybe being a superhero was harder than Xander thought.

Finding crime was not as easy as they made it seem in the TV shows and movies. Somehow there seemed to be no crooks out, even though it was a bad neighborhood. Xander had a fleeting thought that maybe Silver Streak had caught all the criminals in the nearest vicinity and he should check elsewhere when he spotted a group of guys walking suspiciously down the street.

Okay, so they weren’t really being suspicious, but Xander was bored of roaming the sidewalks and he wanted to believe that the men were doing something wrong. So far though, the only bad thing they looked like they were doing was getting a little bit too hammered.

(But, geez, it was only a Monday night, why were they getting so drunk in the first place?)

“Nice ass!”

If only Xander could get the guys for being assholes to innocent girls.

“Hey! We were speaking to you!” Another one yelled.

Xander was interested now. The group of guys were laughing and pointing at the girl, who was on the other side of the street, bundled up in a coat. She was walking with her head down, obviously trying to ignore the drunkards who were harassing her, but they weren’t letting her go so easily. Xander watching as they walked across the street and followed the girl into an alleyway.

Okay, now their behavior was suspicious enough to warrant superhero action.

Xander sped across the street and peered around the corner. The men were cornering the girl, who seemed extremely petrified. She was short with jet black hair, and there was no way she could take on the drunk idiots who thought since they were big and strong that they could harass her without getting in trouble. If anything they thought their daddy’s law firm would get them out of anything.

(Yeah, the guys looked like that kind of bunch of frat boys.)

“I . . . I don’t have any money.” The girl whimpered.

One of the guys chuckled and played with a piece of her hair. She flinched. “Honey, we want something a little more valuable than money, right boys?”

“Well, you aren’t going to get it.”

Oh, god. That sounded way cooler in his head.

“Who are you, kid? Get lost.” One of the guys sneered, glancing over Xander and his not as impressive stance.

“I’m your worst nightmare.”

Why couldn’t Xander sound cool like White Knight or Wild Fire?

The guys laughed and scoffed at Xander. He didn’t look like he could take all five of them anyways.

“Yeah, to an ant.” They all laughed at the joke. “Now, how about little miss Latina over here?”

They turned back to the girl, totally ignoring Xander now. He sighed and smiled a bit. He may not look like much, but these dudes didn’t know who they had messed with yet.

Xander wasn’t perhaps a master at karate or anything, but even with the wrong form, a fast punch could really wind a person, especially if the punch was to the stomach. He suspected that the fast kicks to the place where the sun don’t shine didn’t fare well with the guys either.

They never had a fighting chance. Xander sped around the guys like lightning, aiming with pinpoint coordination. He had the time to make sure every punch hurt with his newfound speed.

In seconds the guys were all knocked out on the ground. Xander was smiling broadly. He was so proud of himself. It was his first save and nothing had gone wrong. It felt amazing.

“I was going to have it covered, Speedy.”

Xander turned and looked on the rooftop. There stood the Silver Streak in all of her glory. Her silver hair (it must’ve been a wig, of course) was blowing in the wind and her expression was fierce. He never imagined he’d ever see a real superhero tonight, especially the one his best friend had been crushing on since she first appeared a year ago.

“Yeah, but how much longer would that have taken?” Xander answered, using more bravado than he felt.

Silver Streak scoffed. “Just because you think you’re fast doesn’t mean you know how to be a hero.”

“How would you know?”

She smirked. “If you were such a great hero, you’d know where your damsel in distress ran off to.”

Silver Streak was right. While they’d been talking the girl he had saved had run off. Apparently she wasn’t in awe of the new superhero that saved her.

Xander would be lying if that didn’t insult him.

“I already saved her, she’s safe now.” Xander argued,

She shrugged. “You never know. What if when she turns the next corner there’ll be another group of thugs like these waiting for her? You only saved her for now.”

Xander frowned, “That’s an awfully bleak way to look at things for a superhero.”

“I’m no super.”

And that’s when Xander got it. The news had never been able to get a clear shot of Silver Streak, and they were never able to figure out her superpowers. Maybe that was because she was a vigilante with no superpowers. It wasn’t unheard of, Blue Archer of Empire City had been slinging arrows for many years and Talan of Washington DC had been using his karate skills to fight alongside Kratos for over a year now. Vigilantes weren’t unheard of, but they were rare. Why try and save the day when there were actual super powered people out there to do it for you?

“But you’re a hero still.”

She tilted her head. “In a sense of the word.” She bent her legs and jumped off of the roof and onto the lid of a trash bin, and then onto the ground. She was now at ground level with Xander, though he found out he was quite taller than her. He wondered for a moment how she was able to take down huge guys like the ones he just took down at her height.

“There are some people I know who are out to look for you.” She said suddenly, looking at Xander closely.

Xander took a step back. “Who?”

Xander had only been out and about for a couple of hours and this was his first save. How could Silver Streak’s friends already know about him?

She shrugged. “No one special. Do you want to meet them?”