The Hero Falcon’s most well-known power is unaided flight at very high speeds. His top recorded speed-in-flight is close to 100 miles-per-hour (161 kph), comparable to a fastball thrown by a major-league pitcher. His top possible speed is a matter of some speculation, although there have been infrequent reports of Falcon traveling much faster.
Some experts differentiate Falcon’s power of flight as different from an additional power of speed, contending that he is capable of displaying superhuman feats of speed on the ground, wholly independent from his power of flight. If this argument is accepted, Falcon would be considered to have the classification of speedster in addition to flyer.
It is debated he may have other powers as well, most notably enhanced strength, although this is as-of-yet unproven.
I paused in my reading, my eyebrows raised, remembering how the super-fast lady had bounced off him like a pool noodle. I think I could definitively say that, yes, Falcon had enhanced strength.
...Or something. Maybe he was just…really, really heavy. I supposed I hadn’t actually seen him lift or move anything; just stand still and not be moved by something else. What if he weighed, like, five hundred pounds? Was that a thing? Did that count as a superpower?
Now that would be odd - a super-heavy flying superhero.
“Hey, Em!”
I started, shooting a look to my side. It was third period English. Sophomore year at Prowley High School. My friend Mai sat at the desk next to mine.
“What you looking at?” she whispered.
(I tilted the phone to be sure she couldn’t see what I was reading.)
“Uh,” I said. “...the news?”
Mai gave me a look that made it clear how much she believed that answer. “Really? The news?”
I nodded, not wanting to speak. We were in the middle of class. Really, Mai?
Mai scowled at me. “Dude, we’re in HiGh ScHoOl. We don’t read the news.”
“Sure we do,” I whispered back.
Mai slowly shook her head as if she couldn’t believe me. Finally, she said, “Okay, what’s on...the news?” She widened her eyes and tilted her head on the last bit, as if to say ‘this better be good.’
I shifted in my seat and glanced at Mr. Barry up front. Um…
“Uh, the mayor’s doing some big commemoration at Forber Square tomorrow. I guess it’s the twentieth anniversary of…"
I trailed off. Mai was frowning and holding up a hand.
“You know what? I don’t think I actually want to know.”
Oh, good. Problem averted. I gave her a smile, jerked my head significantly towards the teacher (‘stop talking during class, you’re gonna get me caught!’), and turned back to my phone to continue reading.
‘-It is speculated he may have other powers as well, most notably enhanced strength, although this is as-of-yet unproven. His actions during the Blue Bridge Park incident in particular demonstrated notable physical prowess: Falcon simultaneously engaged with two suspects in hand-to-hand combat and defeated them. Furthermore, it is worth noting that Falcon often carries someone with him while in-flight, such as during rescue operations. Reports of the heaviest person Falcon has-’
Possibly useful, but not quite what I was looking for. I scrolled down, flicking to the end of the article. ...Ah...this looked interesting.
‘As far as Falcon’s age is concerned, he is clearly very young; however, no official age is listed on The Guardians’ official website, so we are left to deliberate. During his performance in the Hero Tryouts, he made mention that he was working on homework between events, so-’
Mai’s whisper interrupted me again.
“Are you really reading the news? Because it’s pretty difficult to imagine the mayor’s commemoration being that RiVeTiNg.”
I looked up. Again. Mai was staring dubiously at my phone. Maybe I ought to put it away before she actually got a good look. Not that reading about the Falcon online was an especially incriminating activity; I just didn’t want to explain to Mai why I was trying to learn about the Falcon.
“No, you’re right,” I hissed. “It’s actually pretty BoRiNg.”
“Hum,” Mai said, completely missing my tone. “I guess more power to you…”
“Yeah…”
I stared at her. She stared back. I flicked my phone, as if to say ‘Do you mind?’ Mai spread her arms (as grandly as she could while still trying to be inconspicuous) as if to say ‘By all means, my good lady.’
I raised an eyebrow. She raised one of her own.
My phone buzzed.
My eyes glanced down to check the notification, but-
“Ember and Mai.”
We jumped in our seats, spinning to face the instructor at the front of the room.
Mr. Barry looked us over. “Come on, guys. Class is almost over. Stick with us, please, I’m explaining the assignment.”
“Sure thing,” said Mai.
Mr. Barry closed his eyes and raised his eyebrows at the same time. “Sure thing.”
He turned back to the class. "Don't forget your three-page essays are due at the end of the week. Three pages, double-spaced, about a hero on one of the three teams of your choice - anyone from The Guardians, Dragon Shield, or Quantum Edge. I want to know why they're your favorite, I want to know their biography, and I want to know what it takes, in your opinion, to make a good superhero."
In the seat next to me Mai let out a soft groan. Mr. Barry heard it.
"Oh, come on," he said, drawing out the words in a way that sounded cajoling rather than totally annoyed, "this is not that bad. I heard Mrs. Turner down the hall gives ten-page papers."
The class rumbled with disgust and sympathy. Mr. Barry gave a little ‘hmph’ of satisfaction.
"You've got two days, okay?" Mr. Barry said. "You can do it. Just knock it out in one night and then you don't have to worry about it."
He glanced at the clock above the door. "Ehh… what the heck. I'll let you out a couple minutes early. See you on Wednesday!"
With whoops of approval, the assembled students began filing out to lunch. I pulled out my phone to check the notification I’d gotten as Mai gathered her things. I saw the notification icon...and scowled.
It was yet another notification from the superhero tracking app. I sighed heavily and put my phone back in my pocket without even checking the details. I wasn’t in the mood.
"You know," Mai said as we waited for the crowd around the door to clear, "for an English teacher, Mr. Barry's not too bad."
"I heard that," Mr. Barry absently called from his desk at the front.
Mai scowled. "You were supposed to!" she called back. But I wasn’t sure about that.
The teacher was already putting his feet up, his nose in a book. "We'll see what you think of me after I finally finish grading your midterms."
Mai just gave me a look as we left the room. The halls were just beginning to turn noisy, most other students still in class for another moment or two until the bell rang.
"I've got homework for pre-calc, European history, and now this essay," Mai said conversationally as we walked to lunch.
"Yeah," I said automatically. I wanted to take my phone out and keep reading about the Falcon, but I couldn’t with Mai right there. “‘During his performance in the Hero Tryouts, he made mention that he was working on homework between events…” Homework. Was Falcon a freakin’ high school student?
"I mean, sure, a three-pager is…okay," Mai continued, "but the last thing you want to do after working through an hour of math problems is pull out another piece of paper and do a whole 'nother assignment."
I nodded, barely registering her words. I looked around at the kids we passed in the hall. A group of boys chilled around their lockers, talking and joking about the day. I glanced at their faces before quickly looking away.
"Although…I suppose it's okay that the paper is on heroes." Mai paused in her rant, looking up thoughtfully.
It could have been on bird feathers, like the last one.
We passed a boy heading the other direction. He was pretty tall. I risked a peek up as we passed. ...Nope, not him.
...What was I looking for? Was I seriously wondering (hoping?) that I’d just run into Falcon in the hall? That THE FALCON was a kid at my high school?
Ludicrous.
But then...why had he seemed so familiar? Could it be that I’d seen him somewhere else before? Out of costume? And...if such was the case, then what place would be more logical for that to have happened than at school?
Mai finally noticed I wasn't paying attention. "Hey what's up?"
"Oh, nothing," I said. "Um…yeah. I hate essays."
Mai snorted. "Yeah, Em?”
I gave her a half-smile/half-scowl as we entered the cafeteria.
“Sorry, Mai,” I said. “Just thinking about something.”
“Right,” she said dubiously, but she was already craning her neck to see over the heads of other students to search for empty seats and didn’t seem too intent on asking more questions.
The bell rang.
“Hey, do you think Ken and Jack will be at lunch?” she asked, leading me along to our regular spot.
“I doubt it,” I said. “Jack got his driver’s license, remember? They’re probably eating fast food without us right now.”
“Oh,” Mai said in disappointment. “Oh, well.” She pulled a sandwich out of a paper bag, her expression just a tad forlorn. “Hamburgers sound nice.”
I nodded ascent and took out my own lunch. Trying to ignore all the kids around us. Trying not to check every single face of every single boy that passed nearby.
The lunchroom of Prowley High School was already busy and noisy. We were only a month into the school year and already it felt like we’d been there forever. Students trickled into the lunchroom from class and milled around the lunch line, waiting for food. Just another normal day.
Suddenly Mai brightened. “Hey - did you see the new trailer?"
“What trailer?”
She paused in unlocking her phone to whip her head around and stare at me.
“Are you serious? Keep up, Em! Divergent Powers! The sequel is coming out! The trailer dropped this morning.”
I blinked, half-annoyed, half-amused. I’d been...busy this morning.
“Uh, yeah, let’s watch it.”
“Yaaas!” She jabbed her finger into the play button on her phone like she was launching a nuke.
In my opinion, Mai was like a cute little puppy in the best possible way.
Her emotional-state had two distinct features. First: it had very little inertia. She could go from fine to frustrated to freakin’ ecstatic within a few seconds. What would make me pleasantly surprised would make her scream and jump for joy, while what would cause me mild disappointment would cause her to feel devastated.
Second: her emotional-state seemed to be imbued with a natural buoyancy - that is to say, her mood’s natural tendency was to trend positive. So even if she were to learn that a concert featuring her favorite band had been canceled, yes, she may burst into tears, but after twenty minutes tops she would have somehow forgotten all about it and become excited about something else. (That anecdote was based on personal experience.)
She was my best friend.
“Cool!” I said after the video had finished. “We should go see it in theaters. When does it come out?”
“Next month,” said Mai, somehow both excited and sad at the same time. With an incredible groan, she threw her hands in the air and lay her head on the table. “It’s so far away…”
I took a bite of my sandwich, letting Mai mourn, feeling distracted. The special effects in the trailer had been cool, I supposed, but I kept thinking about what I’d seen and heard earlier that morning. Explosions from behind the buildings that I could feel in my bones; the super-fast lady sprinting along the Cross-town; the flash of Celestial’s arrow...compared to that, visual effects on a phone screen seemed pretty...fake? That wasn’t quite the right word. More like...contrived. Touched-up. Pretty.
I turned back to Mai slumped on the table top, searching for a topic of conversation. "So, uh, who are you going to write your essay about?"
Mai looked up and glared at me, her head still on the table.
"It's lunch. I don't do school during lunch. Come back next period."
Fair enough.
I took a bite of my sandwich, gazing aimlessly around the room...and settled on the TV over by the double-doors. My chewing slowed as I realized what I was watching.
A few years ago the school had gotten some money from a government grant, and among other school improvements, they’d installed a flatscreen TV in the lunchroom. All the kids had gone crazy for a bit, but the novelty had kind of worn off after people realized that all it did was show the news 24/7. No sound, picture only. Today, nobody even glanced at the screen. Except me, apparently.
A reporter was speaking on-location, standing in front of a line of yellow police tape. The buildings looked familiar: she was at Peregrine Middleway - where I’d been that morning.
“Hey, what you looking at?” said Mai, deigning to lift her head up. “Oh. I should have known. The news…”
Her voice trailed off as she read the headline: ‘Guardians aid police in skirmish with gang, SPIs involved.’
“No way.”
I guess there’s one more thing I forgot to mention about Mai: She was a superhero maniac.
“Please tell me they have footage,” she said, her voice low. The movie trailer was completely forgotten; this new object of her attention was enough to oust anything else from her mind.
“Uh...I haven’t seen any,” I said cautiously.
I hadn’t thought of that. I did not want to show up on the news. There wouldn’t be any footage, right? The whole thing had been so fast...by the time I’d gotten there, the whole thing was over, and I’d left almost immediately. I hadn’t seen any cameras or news vans or anything. I was in the clear, right?
Geez, I freakin’ hoped so.
“Hey!”
We both looked up and saw Hailey hurrying towards us.
“Hailey!” Mai called enthusiastically, jumping up from her chair. “Where have you been!?”
Hailey slung off her backpack and sat in the seat next to us. “Hey Guys. What’s up?
“Check out the TV,” said Mai, turning back towards the screen.
Hailey read the headline. “Oh. Interesting.” Although she didn’t sound too intrigued.
“Right?” said Mai happily.
“What happened?”
“Trying to figure it out,” Mai squinted to read the captions from where we sat.
Reporter: Commuters on the Cross-town Express this morning may have heard some unusual sounds as they passed near the South Downs. Around 7:38, police responded to a 9-1-1 call that reported rogue super-powered individuals were fighting in the street - on Peregrine Middleway. Captain Mendez was on the scene.
The captions followed a few seconds behind the picture, so the camera had already cut by the time we finished reading. An officer standing somewhere indoors was speaking cooly to a cluster of microphones.
Captain Mendez: When law enforcement officers arrived on the scene, we attempted to deescalate the situation, but neither of the two factions responded to our efforts at negotiation.
The camera cut to still shots of Peregrine Middleway, all roughed up from the incident, and the reporter started speaking again, giving a summary of what had happened. They showed the tire marks on the grass divider where the police had driven their cars. They showed a few scorch marks on the street and a few more on the walls where some super-powered force had left marks. They showed the police tape again.
They didn’t show anything that looked remotely like the movie trailer Mai had shown me.
Hailey finally stated the unfortunate truth: “If they had live footage, they’d be showing it right now.”
“Lame.”
Mai’s face was displeased, like the patron of a fancy restaurant turning her nose up at the dish of the day: peanut butter and crackers.
Hailey looked at her hesitantly. “I suppose it happened too quickly for any news crews to arrive,” she said gently, like a mother trying to comfort a child who didn’t get the present they wanted on Christmas morning.
“Double lame,” Mai said.
She picked up her sandwich and continued eating in a huff. Hailey and I exchanged a glance and shrugged. She’d...she’d be fine.
Hailey took out her lunch. “Well, that was fun.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Hailey, how have you been?” I said, ignoring Mai.
“Actually, I was going to ask you that,” Hailey said. “I didn’t see you in first period.”
Oh.
“Uh...I just...slept in. Stayed up too late. You know.” I was a bad liar. I was a really bad liar. I was such a-
“Oh.” She shrugged. “Well, you missed the assignment. I’ll get it for you.”
“Oh, thanks...”
“No worries!” She flashed a smile as she opened up her bag.
“Is it bad?” asked Mai grumpily. She hadn’t had History yet.
“Just reading and a few questions. Nothing crazy.”
“Hmph.”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “How was English?”
“We got another stinkin’ essay.”
“Awww…” Hailey scowled.
“It’s about superheroes.”
Hailey’s expression changed to thoughtful. “Not as bad…”
“That’s what I thought.” Mai perked up a bit, like she couldn’t help herself. “I mean, it could have been about bird feathers, like the last one,” (we all grunted assent) “but for this one we get to choose a superhero to write about, and then we just get to say how cool they are and stuff.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Yeah,” said Hailey, getting into it. “Like, we could write about UltraViolet or Titanium…”
“Oh-” Mai held a finger up. “Uh, he said it has to be a superhero from Jarvis Port. One of the three teams.”
“Oh. Okay.” Hailey shrugged. “Well then, um...yeah, maybe Feral or Ares? Maybe Lich?”
“Yeah! Or - ooh, Celestial would be cool.”
“Yeah!”
They both turned to me.
“Uh…”
I tried to think of some other superhero, but my mind froze and only one came to mind.
“Um...maybe Falcon?”
“Ooh, yeah, Falcon’s cool!” said Mai, her eyes shining. Then she suddenly looked worried.
“What’s wrong?” said Hailey.
“I just had a thought that maybe deciding which hero to write about might take more time than writing the actual essay.”
“Just pick one,” I said. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Are you kidding me?”
She looked outraged. I decided not to tell her that, no, I wasn’t kidding her.
Mai shook her head dismissively. “That’s the most important part. Deciding who to write about.”
Hailey laughed. “You know who I want to write about? The guy from the Divergent Powers movie.”
Mai whipped her head around so fast I jumped in my seat.
“Ohmygoodnesshaveyouseenthetrailer?”
Hailey gasped. “There’s a trailer? A new one?”
“Yaaas!”
Mai pulled it up on her phone again and they both bent over it to watch.
“Come on, Em!”
“I just saw it,” I said. “I’m good.”
Mai shrugged and pressed play.
I sighed and pulled out my own phone. The article about Falcon was still pulled up. I glanced at Mai and Hailey watching the video. I might be able to get in a bit of research while they were occupied.
But...it was time to try a new angle. I closed the article about Falcon and opened a new browser window. I tapped in a search for a different superhero - Aura, who served in Atlanta. She had appeared for the first time in the last few months and had instantly become one of the most talked-about heroes online.
'Aura's powers specialize in healing others. Just touching another person is enough for her to be able to instigate incredibly fast restoration. During the Barrios Paper Factory fire, she assisted smoke-inhalation and burn victims as firefighters and other superheroes worked to contain the blaze and rescue others trapped inside. Many of those that Aura touched were discharged from hospitals within minutes, with doctors saying they were in good health and had no need of medical attention.'
I scrolled down to a few pictures. Most of Aura's face was covered (of course) by some sort of metallic mesh - sort of like a fencing helmet that only covered the nose and up. Only her mouth and chin were visible. She looked young, but there was no way to tell from just that.
I went back to the phone's search function and simply typed 'how old is Aura?'.
A list of sites popped up. None of them looked too official; just a bunch of forums. I pulled up the first one and started reading. Of course, nobody really knew. No facts; just speculation. But there was a reference to a news clip that the sharer claimed contained a sample of Aura's voice.
I glanced up at Mai and Hailey. The trailer was still going. Might as well...
I eagerly accessed the video and pulled out my ear buds. The clip showed a reporter in front of what must have been the Barrios Paper Factory. Fires burned at every window and a huge mass of awful black smoke roiled above.
The reporter spoke to the camera, providing information on the current state of the inferno, and began walking along a police line. As the camera followed her, a bunch of ambulances and people dressed in medical attire came into view. The triage unit was busily tending to a dozen people covered in various amounts of soot and ash. In the middle of all this, a small figure wearing a metal-mesh helm bent over one of the victims. Aura in costume.
Even as the reporter began commenting on the scene, one of the EMS guys came over to head her off. The reporter persisted, however, and even walked into the middle of the group and began to ask one of the victims questions.
But as she neared where Aura was working, the young superhero straightened and turned to block the reporter from getting any nearer. As short as she was, the sight of a real-life superhuman seemed to give the reporter pause.
She stopped in her tracks and, blustering and fumbling all over her words, said, "And what do you know about this fire? Do you have any idea what started it?"
It seemed unlikely that someone working with the paramedics would know a lot about the cause of the fire, but I guessed people expect superheroes to know everything.
Aura looked the reporter in the eye (she had to look up at her to do it) and firmly said, "Please leave the triage area."
That was all. The reporter's shotgun mic picked up her voice fairly well amid the chaos of the scene, so it was a pretty clear sound clip. And… yes, it sounded young, but again… there was no way to say for certain just how young.
I returned to the forums and kept reading. Most people guessed she was probably in high school.
Just guesses.
I sighed and changed my approach. I went back to my search engine and typed in the question, "how young is the youngest superhero?"
More forums. My eyes flicked up. Mai and Hailey were animatedly discussing the trailer. Looked like I still had time. I dove in and started reading.
There were plenty of superhumans to check out here. Plasmagma (tier three) in Denver was confirmed to be twenty years old. He could transform himself into a mass of hot, molten lava and move really fast in that form. He could also cause things to heat up so much that they caught fire just by touching them.
Tightrope (tier two) in New York had incredible balance and stamina. Her trademark was free-running and parcouring over rooftops and stuff, effortlessly leaping passed obstacles, leaving accompanying law-enforcement in the dust. An anonymous source claimed she was nineteen.
There was also Frostbite (tier four), who kind of did and kind of didn't count. He had enhanced strength and could create ice out of thin air in whatever form he chose (such as shards and spikes as sharp as knives, for instance), and then throw them around by controlling them with his thoughts. “Cryokinesis,” or whatever. He also exuded a chilly aura around himself that dropped the temperature to below-freezing levels. Everyone knew he was seventeen-years-old, but…. well, he wasn't a superhero; he was a supervillain. Not quite what I was looking for.
I sighed and put my phone away. Why was this so hard to figure out?
“And then,” Mai was saying, “the part where they show the new characters coming in?”
“Yeah, that looked sick,” said Hailey. “I wonder what all their powers are.”
“Yeah, they didn’t show a lot of that.”
“I think the one girl had some sort of energy beam or something.”
“Yeah…”
“Hey guys?”
They looked over. “What’s up?”
“Um…so I’ve been wondering about this. How young are some of these superheroes? In Jarvis Port. Not in Divergent Powers.”
Mai gave me a weird look. “That’s random.”
“Yeah, well, I guess I got thinking about it. Like, some of them are...practically kids, you know?”
Hailey shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. Did you have anyone in mind in particular?”
“Uh, yeah, so like, there’s Aura, or there’s Tightrope in New York I think-”
“Oh, yeah, Tightrope is so cool!” said Mai.
“-and there’s also Falcon. They all seem...really young.”
“Wait, how young are we talking here?” asked Mai. “Like...our age?”
I shrugged. “Well, yeah, basically.”
“Well, geez…”
“Yeah, those heroes do seem young,” said Hailey thoughtfully. “But I mean...they wear masks, so it’s hard to tell.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, superpowers just happen, right? They don’t wait for you to grow up or be able to vote.”
“Yeah, I guess not...although, I mean, it’s not like I know at what age people generally develop superpowers. Maybe it happens in your twenties.”
“Probably...probably younger than that,” I said, trying to sound conversational rather than argumentative.
“...but it’s hard to tell any hero’s age for certain because they don’t disclose birthdates and stuff to preserve their identities,” Hailey finished.
Exactly.
“...Yeah.”
Mai perked up. “Hey, I saw this interview with Merq once, and he said he was fifty-two.”
“Well, sure, but that’s because…” I paused. “Wait, really? Fifty-two?”
Hailey laughed. “I guess he’s been around for a while. But, hey, there’s a superhero whose age we know, right?”
I shook my head. “Well, that’s because he’s...um, old. I think they get a lot more protective with the younger ones.”
“Well, Em, I think that’s kind of the problem,” said Hailey. “They keep it secret, you know? I don’t know if we’d be able to pin down any hero’s age.”
“That'd be so crazy if there was a superhero at our high school,” said Mai excitedly, causing me to flinch.
Hailey laughed. “I guess it’s possible.”
“Who knows,” I said.
I picked up my sandwich again, thinking. Hailey was probably right. I wasn’t going to be able to somehow find out Falcon’s secret identity or something based off of the few words I’d overheard at the bridge over the Cross-town Express. All I knew was that he had ‘school.’ That was nothing. What school? Where in the city? I mean...he might even be in college, not high school. It might have been code for something else, because why would superheroes discuss their personal lives while in costume?
I sighed, feeling myself droop. It was silly. Why did I even care?
“Whoah.”
I looked over. Mai was staring at the TV screen again. The story about the Guardians incident at Peregrine Middleway had ended. A new headline sat at the bottom of the image.
“Breaking News: Dragon Shield in standoff in hostage situation.”
“Another superhero incident?” Hailey asked.
“Looks like it,” said Mai. “And they have footage!”
The video showed a bunch of police cars with flashing lights parked outside a grocery store. A huge number of busy-looking uniformed officers stood behind the perimeter.
“Is this live?” I asked.
Mai nodded vigorously.
“Is that Peaksville?”
“Uh…”
“Looks like it,” Hailey said. “I think I’ve been past that place a few times.”
“That’s close.”
I nodded. Ten blocks north of us.
The camera panned right, showing a couple of figures in costume standing apart from all the uniforms.
“Viper!” Mai exclaimed, pointing to one of them, who wore a dark green costume with a tactical vest adding some bulk to his figure.
“And there’s Silk with him,” Hailey said, indicating a woman wearing a white costume with red accents.
Two superheroes on the scene. From Dragon Shield, one of the two privately-owned teams in the city. Dragon Shield had been around for awhile; it had been formed just a few years after the very first superpowers had been discovered, something like thirty years ago. They had a big rep from stuff they did in earlier years, so even though The Guardians were state-sponsored and may have had the stronger superheroes overall, Dragon Shield still had a lot of cred and respect.
On the screen the two heroes, Silk and Viper, seemed to be conversing about something.After having seen Celestial and Archangel that morning, I had to admit that these guys just didn’t have the same aura and pizzazz. They didn’t fly and their costumes didn’t glow. Still, the police officers gave them a bit of space.
“When did this start?” I asked.
“About half-an-hour ago," said Mai. “They just said.”
"So what's going on? Is there someone in that store that’s...what, got a gun or something?"
We all squinted to read the captions, but Mai quickly gave up. She ran over to the TV and clicked the buttons on the back until the volume went up and a male reporter’s voice became audible. Students sitting at nearby tables looked over at the noise, and slowly the lunchroom started to notice that there was something going on on the TV.
Mai jogged back to her seat at our table, and we all listened quietly, our conversation stalled for the moment.
“Around eleven-twenty this morning, approximately thirty minutes ago, the suspect walked into the Peaksville branch of the BJP Bank.”
“A bank?” Mai asked. “Why are we looking at a grocery store?”
The video cut to the reporter standing seriously with the group of police officers in the background. He pointed to someplace beyond the edge of the frame, and the camera panned to follow, showing a BJP building nearby.
“Witnesses say the suspect passed a note to the teller asking for money, and that he had a gun, although he never showed one. The teller complied with the suspect’s demands and withdrew an unknown amount of cash for him. The suspect then left the building and was walking back to the car he arrived in...when police arrived on the scene.”
The camera panned part-way back to the grocery store and settled on a beat-up sedan parked on the street.
“The suspect appears to have panicked. He abandoned his vehicle and fled down the street, eventually entering the grocery store here behind me. That was when he pulled out a handgun, fired several shots into the ceiling, took at least three hostages, and forced them all into a back room at gunpoint.”
“Oh,” said Mai.
“Geez,” I said.
“Yeah,” said Hailey.
The video cut back to the first camera, showing the grocery store, the police, and the two superheroes standing in their midst. Silk walked over and began talking to one of the uniformed police officers, the long strips of decorative cloth trailing from her wrists streaming behind her in a slight breeze. Viper stood a little off to the side, surveilling the store entrance.
“Has anyone been hurt?” I asked.
“No,” answered Hailey, but then said, “I don’t think so.” She furrowed her brow, staring at the display. “I hope not.”
“Come on,” said Mai excitedly. “I want to see the heroes get in there and kick the guy’s butt!”
“Neither of them are bullet-proof,” I said skeptically. “At least...neither of them have any invulnerability rating listed as one of their powers.”
Hailey nodded. “Yeah. They can’t just waltz in there.”
But Silk seemed to want to prove us wrong, because on the screen, she stepped away from speaking with the police officer...then started walking briskly towards the store front.
"What is she doing!?" Mai said, her hands going to her mouth. “She’s going to get herself shot!”
“I thought you wanted a showdown,” said Hailey, but she was just as tense as Mai was.
The reporter’s voice remained calm as he narrated what was happening.
"...hold on, hold on…I'm now being told that the hero Silk is going to go in and attempt to negotiate with the suspect one-on-one. Silk is now entering the building alone."
"That's insane," Mai squeaked. Hailey shook his head in bewilderment. My eyes were riveted on the screen.
Silk walked right up to the store entrance and went inside, disappearing from the camera's view.
"What on earth," I whispered.
“Silk is fast, sure, but...” Hailey trailed off, her face all tight with worry.
“...but no one’s faster than a bullet,” I finished for her. Not even that speedster lady I’d seen.
Hailey nodded, her mouth thin.
"Now what?" asked Mai. "How long will she be in there?" I shook my head wordlessly.
The news channel had audio for the reporter on the scene, but not for anything else. He continued speaking, but he didn’t have much to add, so we kind of just sat there wordlessly, watching the store entrance, waiting for something to happen.
All of a sudden the gathered police forces tensed. Hands went to holsters as they all crouched lower behind barricades and squad cars.
"What's going on?" I said.
One of the grocery store’s sliding doors suddenly shattered, glass showering out into the parking lot. Hit by a bullet?
"Shots fired," Hailey breathed. The lunchroom had gone silent. Everyone was watching the screen. This was way more riveting than superheroes in movies; this was real.
"Silk is still in there!" Mai said.
"Oh, no," I said. This could end badly. I looked to where Viper stood. Was he gonna do anything?
“...Where’s Viper?”
“Huh? Is he gone?” Mai squinted at the screen.
“Hey!”
"Where did he go?"
"No idea."
We all refocused on the blurry image of the grocery store entrance, waiting, hardly breathing.
“Come on,” I said.
Then Silk came out through the mangled sliding doors, ambling easily towards the police line, not a scratch on her.
"No. Way." said Mai in a completely dumbfounded voice. All the other students in the room let out a collective gasp and all started talking at once. The news announcer came back on, and he sounded just as shocked as we did.
"Silk has re-emerged from the store apparently unharmed! After entering alone and apparently being targeted by the suspect and coming under fire, she has returned to the group of law-enforcement on-site and is now engaged in conversation with police.”
I sat back in my seat. "What on earth, man."
"How did she do that?" asked Mai.
“Where’s Viper?” Hailey said.
The news reporter’s voice came back. “Hang on - is that - are those the hostages?”
The camera swung around to show the far end of the grocery store. There, walking around the corner, was Viper...leading a man in handcuffs as well as three people that must have been the rescued hostages.
“What the heck, he saved them!” screamed Mai.
“No way!” Hailey cried, leaning forward.
“Wait, Silk was a distraction?” I said.
“I guess?”
“Did he go in the back door or something? Is there a back door?”
“I think so?”
“It appears Viper has apprehended the suspect and liberated the hostages without any casualties,” the reporter said belatedly.
We (the three of us and the rest of the students in the room) watched the video stream for a bit longer. The reporter talked with the anchor back at the news studio, but they didn’t have much new information to share. The strange unity that had gripped the lunchroom as all the students watched the altercation slowly dissipated as we all went back to what we’d been doing before - namely, talking and eating lunch. The hubbub of conversation rose and drowned out the volume on the TV.
“Gee whiz,” said Hailey. “Well...I guess that’s it, huh?”
“Yeah,” said Mai. “Wow, that was awesome! I freakin’ love superheroes!”
Then she paused and gave a tiny little sigh. “Except...I wish we could have seen some of it. It all happened in the store or whatever so we didn’t get to see anything.”
“Yeah,” Hailey said.
“I mean - it’s still freakin’ awesome. I just wanted to see it.”
I nodded sympathetically for her benefit.
Mai cocked her head. “Wait a minute - I thought you guys said Silk couldn’t take a bullet.”
“Well, she’s not known to have any sort of invulnerability,” Hailey said.
“So then how did she just do that?”
"No one's exactly sure how her powers work," I said, picking up the remnants of my sandwich. "She does stuff like this all the time. Sneaks into and out of impossible situations. 'Smooth as silk' and all that. She just never gets hit."
"I've never heard of her dodging gunfire, though," said Hailey thoughtfully.
"True," I conceded.
"Dude, superheroes are on another level," Mai said. She held out her hands. "Like, there's us over here…and then there's them way over here."
“Yeah…” said Hailey.
I nodded slowly.
For a few moments we sat there, eating lunch for once, thinking our own thoughts.
Mai, predictably, was the first to find something to say. "You know, I'm totally choosing Silk for my essay."
I blinked, coming out of my thoughts. “What, for English?”
“Yeah. Mr. Barry said they’re due Friday, so maybe we should actually start on it."
"Oh. Yeah…"
Hailey looked up. “Friday?”
I nodded apologetically.
"Silk has got to be one of the coolest superheroes in the city,” Mai continued. “I mean...she just dodged a bullet. Beat that, right?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“You know, Viper’s pretty young for a superhero, too,” said Hailey thoughtfully.
“He is?” I said. “I guess he showed up pretty recently, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know,” said Mai doubtfully. “I always figured he was, like, thirty or something.”
“You know,” said Hailey “There’s a way to know the minimum age a superhero can be.”
I paused. “There is?”
“Just look at the entrance requirements for superhero tryouts. See what the age requirement is.”
I chewed slowly, processing what she’d said.
“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.”
----------------------------------------
After lunch I had Pre-calculus with Hailey. It was taught in a room right next to the lunchroom, so we didn’t have to walk far. Seating wasn’t assigned, but everyone always sat in the same place anyways. We slid our bags under our chairs on the third row and sat down, waiting for things to begin.
Mrs. Foster was already handing out the quiz, setting a question sheet face-down on each desk. “Don’t turn your papers over until I start the timer,” she called. Students sighed and groaned, but soon everyone was seated and ready to start, pencils out.
“You have forty minutes,” Mrs. Foster said with an oblivious smile, as if there was nothing more pleasant to do on a fine Monday afternoon than taking a math quiz. She held up a tomato timer. “Ready? Set…”
At the last moment, one last student hurried into the classroom and quickly found a seat on the front row at the only available remaining desk. I glanced up at his arrival.
My breath caught.
I recognized him. I mean, he was the guy - the guy from this morning. Just like that.
“James!” exclaimed Mrs. Foster. “I’m so glad you could make it!”
“Sorry I’m late,” James Clyde said, trying to take off his backpack and pull out a pencil at the same time.
His voice. I was getting more and more sure that I was right. It was the same voice that had said ‘Sam will understand. He would have wanted me to.’ A different mood, perhaps, but...I was so sure it was the same one.
“That’s quite alright,” said Mrs. Foster. “...anyways...ready to start, everyone?”
The Falcon is in my math class. The Falcon is in my math class.
She clicked the timer with a flourish. “You may turn over your papers and begin the quiz.”
The whole room rustled as everyone turned their question sheets over. I did the same, handling my paper with numb fingers. My eyes traveled down the page. How was I supposed to take a quiz now? My mental state was completely shot.
The Falcon is in my freakin’ math class...
I looked at the first math problem, trying to focus…
...My eyes traveled up to where James Clyde sat on the front row…
I couldn’t do this.
I raised my hand.
“Yes, Ember?” said Mrs. Foster sweetly.
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
“The quiz just started,” she said apologetically. “Couldn’t you have gone during lunch?”
“Sorry,” I said. “I’ll be quick.”
Mrs. Foster, ever a victim of her own kindness, caved quickly. “Well...alright. Leave your things here. And do be quick; this comes out of your time to take the quiz!”
“Thank you!”
I popped up and made for the door.
I passed the front row (don’t look at him, don’t look at him, don’t look at him) and hurried out into the hallway.
I sequestered myself in a stall in the nearest bathroom, trying not to freak out, and finally whispered it aloud.
“The Falcon...is in my math class.”
I was dumbfounded. I was ecstatic. I was...completely flummoxed. What should I do? I had no intention of spilling the secret (geez, if only -- Mai would flip), but...as earth-shattering as it was, I really didn’t know what to do with this information. I tried to imagine coming to school each day, passing him in the halls, working on group assignments together, never saying anything, just knowing, just freakin’ knowing that James Clyde was a stinkin’ superhero…
...who served with The Guardians…
I sat very still. An idea came to my mind.
I pulled out my phone and unlocked it. All my internet searches were still up. I closed out of all of them and accessed the hidden folder. The icon for the Superhero tracker app appeared. I pressed and held, and a menu popped up. Move App, Create New Shortcut...
...Uninstall
My finger hovered over the button for an instant, and my heart thumped a little harder in my chest.
It was time to stop chasing down superhero incidents. That...wasn’t working. And it probably wasn’t ever going to work. If I was ever going to get close to Archangel, I needed a new angle. And...I thought I might have one.
I took a deep breath, then pressed the button.
The app has been uninstalled.
The Falcon was in my freakin’ math class.
And I wanted to talk to him.