Chapter 18

Michael

"Isn’t it crazy to think that you could have made it to school by now if you had run?”

I glanced at Sarah who was sitting in the passenger seat of the car. We had been driving to school in silence until now. She wore comfy sport pants, her soccer team’s tee shirt, and her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail. A deep part of her always screamed tomboy, but her makeup, pretty face, and slender body said otherwise. It was strange to witness my little sister slowly turn into a young woman, and funny to watch her try and fight it.

“Yeah, it’s crazy,” I answered her. “My whole life is crazy now.”

She slowly nodded her head. “Yup. You’re absolutely nuts, Michael.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Bonkers? Mad? Daft? Mental? Loco? Off your rocker? A few screws loose upstairs? A few cards shy of a full deck? I’m running out of synonyms here!”

I just chuckled. “You missed loopy—”

“Loopy!”

I turned into the high school parking lot, the morning sun giving it a soft glow. “Sometimes I wish I were just crazy… that this is just one bad dream that I still need to wake up from.”

Sarah pinched my arm and I flinched. “Yep,” she said. “Sorry to break it to you, but you’re not dreaming.”

“Hey!” I said. “Warn me next time so I can turn on my superpowers beforehand.”

“Has the last week really been that bad?” she asked as I parked the car. We slid on our backpacks and got out of the car. “I know it’s been crazy, but—I mean, you’ve got superpowers! You lifted a car above your head!”

“Yeah, I won’t lie, it’s pretty awesome. But at the same time, I’m just so worried about being recognized as a freak, and then never getting to live a normal life.”

“You’re far too paranoid, Michael.”

“Totally! I am paranoid! You saw what happened to Ray, didn’t you?”

We both hushed just as none other than good ol’ Ray Simmons walked by us. The x-quarterback didn’t have his normal group of friends with him; he walked alone. Everyone stared at him as he passed, whispering accusations and suspicions with each other. He kept his head down as he walked, but then glanced at me. He gave me a scowl and then looked away.

“I did see what happened to Ray,” Sarah whispered. “I saw him being careless. You just need to be more careful.”

I looked back at her. “Hence the paranoia.”

“This should make things easier,” said a voice behind me. Sarah and I turned to see Zack approaching as we walked through the school plaza, a black motorcycle helmet in his hand “It was my dad’s,” Zack continued. “He gave me this one after he got a new one.”

He handed it to me and I inspected it. It had several scratches on it, but it seemed to be in good condition. The visor was tinted which was perfect for identity concealment. “Thanks Zack. This will definitely help, though I hope I won’t need to use it often or at all.”

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“Why’s that?” Zack furrowed his eyebrows and folded his arms. I think he was trying to stand tall and look intimidating, but it just didn’t work with his short frame and skinny limbs.

“Well,” I said. “I was planning on using my powers in public only if there is a catastrophe of some kind. You know, like a terrorist shooting, a huge car accident, or a natural disaster—like a tsunami or something.”

“A tsunami?” Sarah scoffed. “Michael, we live in Arizona! No beaches nearby!”

“I know, I know. But, tsunamis are just… scary. Have you seen the videos of them? Freaky.”

Zack shook his head and ran a freckled hand through his curly red hair. “Michael.” He stopped walking. “You are suffering from the Superman Syndrome.”

Sarah and I also stopped on the corner of the school plaza, out of earshot from passersby. “The what?” I asked.

He hushed, waiting for a few girls to walk by, and then he continued. “The Superman Syndrome is where you simply wait for bad things to happen instead of preventing bad things from ever happening. That’s what Superman did; he didn’t put on his cape until there was ‘some catastrophe’—as you put it. In real life, a lot of people would hate Superman because he showed up only after the initial destruction was already over. Yes, he would save ten thousand people inside the crumbling skyscraper, but he wouldn’t be there to save the first one thousand people when the bomb initially went off.

“And Superman is fake. You’re real. Don’t wait for catastrophes to happen. You should be more proactive. Stop the bad guys before they get the chance to blow up a building, instead of just catching the building after it falls.”

Sarah put a hand on my shoulder. “That’s kinda like what dad said after you got in a fight with Ray. ‘Start the fight and finish the fight. This world needs more people who fight for what’s right before the wrong thing happens.’”

I was surprised she remembered and heard that, she was just arriving at the table when Dad had said that. I nodded slowly, taking it all in. They made a good point. The whole superhero idea sounded like fun, but a big part of me was just… scared. I’ll admit it. I was scared: scared of jumping into danger, scared of someone identifying me as a superhuman, and scared of being responsible for other people’s lives. It all seemed so overwhelming.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I like the idea of being proactive, but I still don’t want to be a vigilante: be the judge, jury, and executioner all in one. Who am I to decide whether someone is a bad guy or not?”

“I thought you would bring that up again,” Zack said as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a paper with a picture on it. “Have you seen this picture around town?”

I had. It was a picture of a missing person: a dark-haired girl named Mary Sanchez, 16 years old, big brown eyes, five foot seven inches, went missing a few days ago. I didn’t know her, but she probably went to Sahuaro High School. I thought I remembered her from my math class. There was a $5000 reward.

“Would it be against the law if you used your superpowers to find her?”

I thought about it. “I don’t think so. But finding her is the trick. Even with superpowers, I don’t know if I could.”

“You don’t need superpowers,” Zack responded as he pulled out his phone, showing us a blog article. “You just need determination… and a search engine. It’s about a gang right here in Tucson called the Scorpions. The author of this blog claimed to see a black-haired, teenage girl with the Scorpions. And this was posted just yesterday.”

“So, you’re saying that if I can find the Scorpions, I’ll find this missing girl?”

He nodded. “And I already know where you can find them. I was told by a reliable source that they hang out at the Trotting Park.”

“Never heard of it.”

“Oh, isn’t that the abandoned horse racing track near I-10?” Sarah chimed in. “Mom pointed it out to me once when we drove by it. It’s pretty big.”

“That’s it,” Zack confirmed. “Michael, you should go check it out tonight.”

“Tonight?” I started to feel nervous. “I don’t know…”

“That girl is missing!” Sarah said. “If the Scorpions have her, then who knows what horrible things they’ve done to her! She needs someone like you to find her and save her!”

I stewed over it for a while. Sarah and Zack watched me with anticipation. I couldn’t help but feel impressed with how much work Zack had put into convincing me to be a superhero. Maybe they were right. Maybe I could have it all: be a superhero, maintain the law, keep my identity a secret, and still become a doctor one day. I glanced at Mary Sanchez’s picture again. “Okay, okay,” I said. “You win. I’ll go check it out tonight.”

Zack did a fist pump. “Yes! Finally!” Sarah was beaming.

“Alright,” Zack said, getting down to business. “Let’s meet at my house tonight at seven.”