Heroes Wear Capes

“The Luthors are pretty good actors. Or, well, sociopaths. Either way they know how to fool people.”

~ Winn Scott

Xander found that being a superhero didn’t exactly come with all of the perks he had hoped for. It wasn’t like he all of a sudden became a household name. He didn’t have a real super suit or any real idea how to save a city yet, so he hadn’t got much press besides the local blogs talking about a possible new hero in Kingdom City. It also probably didn’t help that Xander resided in a city that already had three heroes, one of which was so commercialized that he was rumored to be getting his own TV show (White Knight, obviously). A fourth hero in Kingdom City didn’t exactly break headlines.

For instance, Xander showed up yesterday to stop a bank robbery. He hadn’t really figured out how to acquire one of those cool spandex outfits all the other supers had yet, and he forgot to ask Wild Fire or Silver Streak in the moment, so he was wearing the same old red hoodie, blue jeans, Sonic shoes, and cloth mask costume he’d had since the beginning of the week. Let’s just say that the robbers didn’t take the new super Momentum very seriously at all. When he showed up, the two crooks just laughed and kept taking money out of the vault. It was really a hurtful blow to Xander’s ego.

Xander, in retribution, sped around the guys, captured all of their stolen money, and placed it back in the vault, closing it for good measure. They obviously weren’t happy with Xander, so one of the brutes decided to bang Xander on the side of the head with their gun. It, frankly, did not feel good at all. When the brute tried to hit him again, he quickly took the gun away and threw them across the room. Xander then preceded to kick both brutes in the balls, which must’ve really hurt with the full strength of his super speed going into the blows. When they were heaped up on the floor, rolling around and groaning, the police showed up to take them away.

But, still, even the hostages didn’t look like they wanted to take him seriously. They were used to the likes of White Knight saving them, not some kid in baggy jeans and a ratty sweatshirt.

Not to mention his normal life hadn’t changed much at all. For some reason he expected these superpowers to make him popular and charming, but so far he hadn’t had any luck. When he wasn’t trying to save the day, he was just boring old Xander Mendez.

Though, he did find that he could wake up late in the morning and still arrive to school on time due to his speed. It also helped to finish homework in seconds and make his bed right before his mom walked in.

Okay, so it was awesome to have super speed when he was alone, but as soon as he was out in public, he couldn’t use it and therefor was just the same stupid kid that he was before.

And since he figured it was wise not to burst his superpower secret to everyone he met, no one treated him any differently. Xander even kept the news from John, surprisingly. It just never felt like a good time to bring it up. Or maybe that’s just what Xander was telling himself.

John would be surprised to learn that his best friend had met his longtime crush, Silver Streak and found out she was the school loner, Taylor Hale. In fact, Xander can’t remember ever talking to her until she, as Silver Streak, brought him to Wild Fire’s hideout. John liked to think Silver Streak was one of the waitresses at their normal coffee shop, and Xander didn’t want to break the news that his fan theory was just a tiny bit off.

Xander found he remembered little of the person Taylor was before she and Mera fell apart. High school drama did that to you. You didn’t remember who people were before they were ostracized, only who they were afterwards. He vaguely remembered Taylor and Mera in middle school giving a presentation in his history class. Taylor had sounded so much more preppy back then when she was a popular cheerleader. When she had spoken in rebuttal to Mera and Wild Fire on Tuesday her voice and been harsh and unforgiving, far from a bubblehead pom-pom girl.

Of course, seeing Mera out of her environment was shocking as well. Mera had always seemed like a goddess to him. She was someone revered and worshipped, but you found that your expectations didn’t always meet the caricature you made of them in your head. Xander would never had guessed that Mera worked with Wild Fire on her nights out.

Xander was a little upset to find out that Wild Fire didn’t go to his school like Silver Streak did. It was unrealistic for every super in the city to go to the same school as him, but after finding out about the double lives of both Taylor and Mera, you kind of expected the third person in the room to be someone you thought you knew as well.

(The most shocking reveal for Wild Fire would’ve been something like finding out he was someone like John, despite the fact that John’s skin was way too dark to ever be the tan white skin of Kingdom City’s second favorite hero.)

(Actually, if they had to narrow it down to only the athletic white guys at Oakland he could’ve been, they’d only had been left with one or two viable options.)

(It made a lot more sense that he went to Kingdom Hills High.)

“I heard Momentum made another appearance last night.” John mentioned out of the blue in class. “He apparently stopped an armed robbery at a jewelry parlor on Fourth Street.”

Xander nodded absentmindedly. “Yeah, cool.”

John snapped his fingers in front of his friend’s face. “Hey, where’s the Xander Mendez I know? Because I know there’s no way my best friend wouldn’t freak out over a superhero in Kingdom City.”

“What?” Xander asked, still distracted by his own thoughts.

John sighed and crossed his arms. “You’ve been acting strangely this week, don’t think I haven’t noticed. I would’ve thought if anything you’d be elated that Mera and Todd were still broken up, even after he tried to win her back with flowers and jewelry in front of the whole school on Wednesday. Doesn’t that make you think that you have a fighting chance?” he teased, like he always did.

But Xander already knew there was no chance at Mera ever liking him after she found out he was Momentum. When he got his powers a part of him was elated that he could have the chance to impress Mera with his super abilities, but seeing as she was already besties with a fire wielding badass, that plan was no good anymore. Not to mention that when she found out he was Momentum, there was no awe involved. Mera didn’t seem like she’d ever be impressed by him.

Xander shrugged in a nonchalant attitude.

“Okay, something is seriously up with you, dude.”

Oh, and Trevor, one of his longest friends, was apparently out for his head. And he hired a psycho Elsa to bring him in by any means necessary, maybe even to kill him.

Xander was pretty sure his life had never sucked so badly. He thought having superpowers would give him everything, but all they had done so far was make his life miserable.

“Hey, Xander, right?”

He was immediately snapped out of his trance. Mera Deauxma was standing next to him, smiling brightly and tucking a hair behind her ear. Xander could’ve sworn the light coming in from the window was making her glow like an angel.

“Um, yeah.”

John was confused too. He never realistically though in his wildest dreams that Mera knew Xander’s name, let alone would seek him out for something.

Mera shifted the books in her left arm to the right side, “I need to borrow you for a second. John won’t mind, would he?”

And the ever popular Mera Deauxma knew John’s name too. He didn’t know how else to respond other than to shake his head, letting Mera use her now free left arm to reach out for Xander and drag him out into the hallway.

Mera looked around the halls, making sure no one was around before trading her valley girl smile for a serious dreadful expression. There was only one thing Xander could think of that could make her look like this.

“How did Wild Fire die?”

Mera was struck with confusion and shock. “What? Ross didn’t die. Why would you think that?”

Xander felt stupid. “Um, you looked kind of really sad.”

She shook it off and got back to the business she had dragged him out in the hallway for in the first place. “Artic Frost just sent an ultimatum to the Wild Fire headquarters. She wants to trade a very expensive necklace she recently stole from the Schow Corporation for your capture.”

“You aren’t seriously considering this, are you?” Xander asked incredulously.

Mera shrugged. “We could use this to our advantage.”

“How?” he exclaimed. “If Artic Frost takes me the first person she’ll take me to is Trevor, who still thinks a speedster, me, killed his dad. I’d be dead meat. How can you spin that around into a good thing? Surely you don’t want me dead just to reclaim some rich millionaire’s necklace that they could probably replace with the snap of a finger.”

“I don’t want you dead,” Mera defended herself.

Xander exhaled overdramatically. “Phew. I’m glad that’s all cleared right up. You forget the part where Artic Frost is a super villain and Trevor thinks I killed his dad. There’s no way I get out of this without a shiny knew headstone with my name on it. ‘Xander Mendez, the boy who was stupid enough to tempt fate.’”

Mera frowned at his antics. “Wild Fire is perfectly capable of defending you against Artic Frost. We’d make sure you wouldn’t die.”

“Yeah, and how exactly would you do that? Artic Frost is enough for Wild Fire to take on a normal basis, but add an inexperienced hero to his crew and Artic is guaranteed to come out on top.”

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “We wouldn’t be going in without a plan. Besides, maybe we’ll be able to convince Artic that you’re innocent.”

Xander laughed out loud. “I know I’m knew to this hero stuff, but even I know villains are inherently stubborn and single-minded. Besides, even if we convince her I’m not guilty, she’s not the one calling the shots. Trevor hired her, so all she’s in it for is the money, right?”

Mera shook her head. “You haven’t seen Ross at his best. You’ll be fine.”

Xander sighed. Mera’s eyes were so huge and pleading that he knew he’d never be able to fully say no to her.

“When would this be going down?”

“Tonight. You’d have to meet us at Wild Fire headquarters.”

He nodded. Besides, Wild Fire and Mera had been saving people for years, they had to know what they were doing, right?

“Great!” She grinned. “I’ll see you then.”

The bell rang for lunch and she disappeared into the crowd. Xander wondered for the first time if Mera’s real mask was who she was at school. Maybe he was one of the only people at Oakland High who had seen who Mera Deauxma was up close.

That succeeded in lifting up his mood.

“Hey, dude,” John greeted, “what was that all about?”

Xander shrugged. “Oh, you know, we have homework in psychics and she wanted to know if I got the same answers as her.”

John narrowed his eyes. “We’re in the same psychics class, Xander. We didn’t have homework.”

Xander blanched. He was a horrible liar. “Um, did I say psychics? I meant to say math.”

“We were just in math. We had a sub.”

Great. How was Xander ever supposed to keep his identity secret from an entire city when he couldn’t even successfully lie about superhero activities to his best friend? At this rate Trevor would know he was Momentum by the end of the day and come at him with everything he had.

“Did I say math? I meant to say –”

John stopped him before he could utter another unbelievable excuse. “You are the worst liar that I know, possibly even in the world.”

Xander was nervous now, shifting his weight between his feet and tapping his fingers on his thighs. Worried that he may start vibrating them at super speed, Xander put his hands in his pockets.

“I know what secret you’ve been trying to hide, dude. It’s so obvious seeing the way you’ve been acting weird this week. I get it. You could’ve just told me.”

Was he really that transparent? No wonder the public didn’t think he was a worthy hero. Xander couldn’t even keep a secret.

“Was she asking you to go hang out?” John teased, completely shocking Xander. “Like, on a date? You should’ve told me you finally made a move on Mera. I’m so proud of you!”

Xander opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. “Um . . . yeah, totally.”

John patted his best friend on the back and cracked a smile. “You were trying to keep it on the down low until you knew it was true, but you can’t keep a secret from me if your life depended on it.”

“Yeah, that’s what was going on.”

John looked so pleased with himself for figuring out the reason behind Xander’s weird behavior that he didn’t even notice how sheepish Xander looked. How was he supposed to keep this jig up? Mera obviously didn’t like him. If he hadn’t heard her teasing Wild Fire about the girl he liked, he would’ve assumed she liked Wild Fire. There’s no way she’d go for him.

But, it didn’t seem to matter in the grand scheme of things seeing as he might end up in Trevor’s hands by the end of the day if they couldn’t find a way to trick Artic Frost.

Xander just loved being a superhero.